Chapter 122 : Burning Love

Slap—

Stinging sensation felt on the cheek.

When Yuki’s head tilted to one side and slowly turned back to look at Lihua again, Lihua had a regretful look in her eyes.

“Come to your senses, Yuki.”

“…”

“Reality isn’t a game or a joke. You know that best yourself!”

“…But.”

“Even if you can be revived. If you choose death so easily…!!”

“…”

“Don’t you know how the people watching you feel?”

“There’s no other way.”

If only I die, it can be solved.

There’s no risk associated with death.

So then…

A voice interrupting the cruel and self-deprecating thoughts continued in Yuki’s mind.

“Yuki.”

A voice she had heard sometime before.

Natasha’s navy blue ship advancing through the cold sea.

Lihua of ‘that time’ reproached Yuki who was hugging her knees in the blowing winter wind.

Cold anger.

The kind Lihua of ‘this world’ was spewing out the same cold anger as then.

‘Ah… what did I… say.’

In the world Hikari created, a magical girl’s life was precious. That’s why they were able to come this far together.

What she had just said was the way of the ‘destroyed world’ that wasted magical girls’ lives.

Yuki’s sense of reality gradually returned at Lihua’s calmly settled voice.

-Yuki.

Lihua’s voice similar to that time.

But what was in it was worry, not cynicism.

Lihua asked Yuki, who was wandering in a dream, about the ‘now’.

“Where is Yuki now?”

“In the trial demon… “

“Who are you with?”

“Comrades.”

“What are Yuki’s most precious people doing?”

Dad is in a shelter near home.

Hikari is fighting [Plague].

“Do they want Yuki to die?”

“N-no.”

“Do you want to die now, Yuki?”

“…”

I wanted to live with them.

I love them.

‘I… love.’

Drop

When that thought came to mind.

It felt like the colors of this world were gradually returning.

Colors being engraved again on the black and white photo that was full of achromatic colors.

Precious emotions.

The small room in the old house.

The blanket that smells of mom.

The rabbit pajamas worn for a long time.

The earthy smell from dad’s rough hands.

Clumsily boiled miso soup and undercooked rice.

The girl who held my hand by the lake.

The warm grass smell and forest path of Elysion.

Memories of walking in the square wearing the same clothes.

A gentle world.

Yuki’s time had not disappeared.

It was endlessly being created anew and continuing.

This was a world for Yuki.

‘I am alive.’

For some reason, it felt like a long dream had finally ended. A certain dream that had followed from the throne of nothingness to Tokyo Station, from the moment she woke up after returning to the past until now.

Returning sense of reality.

Subsiding tinnitus.

Radio sounds clearly entered her ears.

[Response team!! Haven’t you struck the demon’s heart yet? The sea serpent is slowly trying to move!!]

-Team leader!! Answer!! The sea serpent is coming to its senses now!!

-Yuki?! Are you okay?? Can you tell us what the situation is?!

‘Ah…’

I am alive here now.

I am still fighting now.

I am no longer alone.

Yuki’s soul was still burning.

It was burning with love beyond survival instinct.

Heart pounder again.

‘This is where I live.’

She had become friends with the kind and upright Lihua, not the Lihua who hid her sense of justice in cynicism.

Thump thump thump

She had become comrades with Nayeon the rookie magical girl just starting to fight, not the Nayeon who had become strong through countless tragedies.

Thump thump thump

A reality where loved ones are still alive.

It was reality.

Yuki was still living fiercely in reality.

‘I love this place.’

Slap!!

Yuki slapped her own cheek hard enough to echo in the cave. Hard enough for her cheek to swell red, for her mind to clear and foolish thoughts to flee.

“Whew, I’m sorry. I had some strange thoughts for a moment.”

“Then let’s fight fiercely again from now on!!”

“Yes!!”

“Think briefly!! Feel intensely!!”

Because that’s how flames and lightning advance.

‘Because now there are people by my side who want me to live…!’

Yuki thought of the way of the new world, not the way of the previous world.

Whoosh!

What Yuki created in one hand with a huge flame was a scale of flames.

[Plague]’s scale

“This works exactly the same way as what the magical girls of [Plague] use. It absorbs and releases starlight.”

Yuki looked at the demon’s heart endlessly regenerating while spewing poison gas.

Demons are also remnants of starlight born from the wounds of stars.

If she absorbs starlight with the scale of greed and then bursts it, she can cause an explosion.

“An explosion stronger than the heart’s regeneration with that?”

“No. It’s not enough for such regenerative power.”

“Then what should we do?”

Yuki quietly looked up.

The dark ceiling.

No, the demon’s back skin.

* * *

I was anxious because of Yuki’s radio that wasn’t coming through.

‘What happened?’

Even now, the endlessly surging [Plague] were showing increasingly cunning movements as they died, trying to steal starlight from the cover team.

Individuals hiding under the white platforms and secretly stealing starlight.

“Uhahaha! I was stuck here invisibly like this!”

“Eek?! Since when?!”

Groups pushing all their starlight into one individual.

“Hey! We gathered it all!”

“Pour everything into this one!”

“Hehehe! They wouldn’t have known about this!”

The magical girls of [Plague] who stole starlight using various methods fired attacks with ominous black starlight flickering from their scales of greed.

Flash―!!

Black beams. Plague’s attack.

Where the attacks shining with black starlight hit, the curse of plague was scattered along with an ominous energy.

Limbs paralyzed, fever throughout the body, suffering extreme pain… the curse of black plague.

“Kyaaaah!!!”

“Ugh!! Uwaaah!!”

“Kugh! I-I’ve been hit by the attack…!”

[Fortress 3 has been neutralized!! F-fortress 5 was just hit by an attack too!!]

The half-formed magical girls of [Plague] born from rifts were gradually breaking down the cover team magical girls, causing enough pain with just the meager level of starlight stolen from other magical girls.

‘Damn it!’

I continued to eliminate the magical girls of [Plague] moving separately.

“Haha! I got you!!”

Baaaang!!

The cheering magical girl of [Plague] was engulfed by the white morning star I threw and disappeared.

No matter how many I dealt with.

[Plague] were endlessly flowing out.

-Hikari!!

Yuki’s radio came through.

“Yuki!! What’s going on?!”

-Steam will be visible on the sea serpent’s back from now on! Concentrate all attacks there!!

“Got it!!”

I kept intercepting the magical girls of [Plague] while watching the sea serpent’s back.

Hiss―!

Very faintly, very dimly. There was clearly a point on the sea serpent’s back that was heating up and emitting steam.

I felt Yuki and Lihua’s starlight.

The sea serpent’s weakness that couldn’t be known at all from the outside.

That spot was turning red and emitting steam.

-Hikari!! That’s it!! That’s the sea serpent’s weak point!!

“This is the magical girl of [Hope] announcing!! All interception teams!! Please fire simultaneously at the spot emitting steam!!”

[Understood!! Everyone commence simultaneous firing!!]

All magical girls with starlight remaining amidst [Plague]’s plunder attacked that spot.

The Galateas who had dealt with [Plague] also attacked that spot.

Starlight poured down like a meteor shower in attacks of various colors.

Boom-boom-boom―!!

The back skin that had heated up and evaporated poison gas due to attacks fired from the inside couldn’t repel the magical girls’ attacks. Through the sea serpent’s horribly opened back skin, Yuki and Lihua facing the heart could be seen.

■■■■■■―!!!

Miserable scream. Final struggle.

Everyone’s attacks hit through the sea serpent’s opened back skin as it twisted its body this way and that. Over the sea serpent’s heart almost disappearing from the simultaneous firing, a huge flame blazed up again.

Flame lotus

Fire of enlightenment

[The world I love is!! Here!! I am living here!!]

Yuki’s inner voice echoed in the divinity.

Yuki’s new fate was burning.

A new fate pioneered by herself, separated from the goddess.

The fate of the new world.

[Love]

‘Burning love…!’

When I heard that, for some reason my heart swelled.

‘Yuki…!’

The desperate voice of a girl always feeling intimidated, only remembering failures. It was like reading the true final page of <Magical Girl HAZARD>.

As if seeing the true ending of the novel I hadn’t seen.

As if seeing the protagonist’s true growth I hadn’t seen.

I blessed the girl’s new growth and protected them from [Plague]’s offensive.

“Everyone help!! Help Yuki!!”

[All magical girls!!! Please fire towards the flame flower!! This is the final moment!!]

“Uwaaaaa!!! Sea, split apaaaart!!!”

From all silver ships floating in the sky.

From all white platforms floating in the sky.

From magical girls racing across the sea.

From magical girls shooting lightning.

Countless starlights sent helping hands towards the flame lotus.

Sent helping hands to the girl who had struggled alone in a world heading towards destruction.

Yuki Shikishima was now loved by the world.

She was burning anew, facing a new world.

Fully Bloomed 3-star Magical Girl of [Love]

Yuki Shikishima

“Argh?!”

“This… can’t be!!”

The sea serpent’s heart disappeared in the burning flames, and the magical girls of [Plague] hid their forms into the disappearing rifts.

The second trial that began on the dark waves ended with the blooming of a red lotus.