Chapter 165 : Epilogue 2 [Colorless Magical Girls] (2)

Sato Noa, a promising student in the Magical Girl Academy’s junior division, had been looking forward to the field training.

To be honest, she was most excited about being able to experience the field with her sister who was always praised by outsiders.

The most shining magical girl.

The kindest witch.

When naming the most brilliant girl since magic appeared. It was hard to even imagine how sparkling and shining the dispatch scenes of the great sister, always mentioned within the top three fingers, would be filled with.

–Kitty! It must be a situation where over 100 S-class Mines appear!

-No, if that many appear, that country would be ruined…

Though it would surely be less than 1% of what her sister does, just imagining it made her heart pound.

-Sis will appear saying ‘I appear like a meteor! In the name of friendship and swiftness! I won’t forgive you!’ and sweep away all the Mines!

-Isn’t everything except ‘like a meteor’ just your imagination…

On the day the field experience learning was decided like that.

Sato Noa came running in one breath with an excited heart, thinking of surprising her sister, even hiding the fact from her parents…

“…It’s plain.”

Somehow… somehow unlike her imagination, Sato Hana’s patrol was extremely plain.

Of course, she moved at a speed befitting the Witch of Swift, protecting Noa and Asuka with yellow starlight. But there were no numerous Mines threatening the nation, no critical crisis enough to terrify people.

What existed were small daily lives and gratitude.

“Oh my, thank you.”

“It’s nothing! Helping people like this is my job.”

Carrying luggage for people with difficulty walking.

“Thank you, Sato-san.”

“As expected, only Sato-san comes for things like this now among witches.”

“Hehe, what do you mean such things! There’s no unimportant work.”

Mediation and resolution of small physical fights between ordinary people.

“Aaaack!!”

“Now now, if you just close your eyes and open them, you’ll be at the police station.”

Cleaning up C-class or lower Mines that high school division magical girls at the Academy could exterminate.

After thwarting the conspiracy to establish a maritime kingdom plotted by 7 seafood Mines that suddenly appeared in the city center. Sato Hana looked at Noa and Asuka while laughing in her unique refreshing voice.

“How was it?”

Even though she had become an adult, when Hana was in a good mood, her long hair swayed like a dog’s tail. Along with her active appearance wearing sportswear and shorts, it gave a vibrant and intense impression full of vitality.

Hana proudly exclaimed to her sister and junior.

“Isn’t it really fun? Protecting people’s smiles.”

Hoping her sister could share a deep impression from protecting this daily life.

“Hehe! This is what magical girls in charge of ordinary Mine patrols usually do.”

“…It’s plain.”

“It’s plain.”

“Uh, yes?”

Strange.

The reaction is more withered than expected.

Noa had clearly said her dream was to work with her while dreaming of becoming a magical girl.

Hana broke out in a slight cold sweat and observed Noa’s expression. Thanks to raising her sister who was over 10 years younger by carrying her on her back, she could roughly tell what emotions she had just by looking at her eyes.

Disappointment

Boredom

In her sister’s eyes, the only positive emotion left was familiarity from being with her sister. There was no admiration or satisfaction for helping people.

‘Oh.’

Looking closely, boredom was also seeping out of the girl named Asuka’s face. The excitement that was felt even beyond the horse mask had disappeared, and she was playing while fiddling with a doll.

‘Did I do something wrong?’

Hana looked back on today’s work wondering if she had missed something.

She helped people and received gratitude from people.

There were problems, but not enough to ruin people’s daily lives.

Not as desperate as the time of trials, not as gloomy as the magical girl acquisition war…

“Ah.”

Hana scratched her cheek and seemed to understand why these children were bored.

This scenery obtained through fierce battles and sacrifices of friends for Hana was a natural scenery for the two girls. Rather, what they want is probably the appearance from that time when Hana was fiercely fighting.

‘What should I do.’

Hana pondered how to make these children realize the preciousness of ‘protecting daily life’. She thought it was too early to show them the horrific scenes of crimes committed by S-class Mines in the past, or the numerous vested interests and adult circumstances entangled in the <Witches’ Duel> program.

That is an outrage that will only plant cynicism in young children who can’t even perceive the beauty of reality.

It’s a scenery they can see even when they seriously try to overcome reality.

What these children need is to realize the ‘preciousness of now’.

What Dad had told her on the day meteors fell once.

‘Now I have to tell them that.’

Hana approached her two juniors and held their hands.

Warmly and gently like her friend once did to her younger self. But unlike her who was calm like the silver moon, she must tell them with sparkle like a meteor.

“Noa, Asuka.”

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

Looking at Hana who suddenly took their hands, Noa and Asuka opened their eyes wide.

For Noa, her sister’s hand she held more often than her mother’s when she was in kindergarten.

For Asuka, an unfamiliar hand extended by an admired person who often appears on TV and the internet.

Though they were hands extended by the same person, the emotions the two felt when grasping those hands were different. But the direction those hands led towards was the same place.

Hana led them towards a sparkling daily life.

“Shall we go on a week-long picnic together?”

* * *

[…So we traveled around various places and saw many people smiling.]

Thud

Noa put a period on her activity log and put it back in her bag.

After finishing the field experience activity, one of the graduation exams, if she gets her sister’s signature and submits it before going to the Academy tomorrow. Now Noa will graduate from the junior division and become an intermediate division magical girl.

‘I wonder if it’s okay, since we just played for a week.’

A dreamlike time passed.

Noa and Asuka were sitting on folding chairs under the night sky.

“The night sky is really pretty.”

“Yeah.”

Because they always only came to the Magical Girl Academy during the day, the unfamiliar night sky of Elysion was full of stars. It felt like a mysterious scenery not visible in Tokyo where Noa and Asuka’s homes were.

Under the sky full of countless stars, the two girls started talking about the topic of the Magical Girl Academy far beyond the open field.

“I heard you stay in the Academy dormitory when you go up to the intermediate division. It would be nice if I could be in the same room as Asuka then.”

“Right? I’ll introduce you to a lot of kids I’ve been close with since the junior division.”

“Hmph, I think I know more than Asuka.”

“Then let’s all wear pajamas and introduce each other all night.”

“I heard the practice teacher is also the dormitory supervisor… I think we’ll get hit if we don’t sleep.”

“That teacher is a bit stupid, so she probably won’t know if we just turn off the lights.”

“What if the golden sisters fly around watching?”

“Let’s talk with blankets covering our heads.”

The two girls chattered for a long time about the intermediate division dormitory life that had suddenly come right before them.

Teachers

Friends

After-school activities

Surely the intermediate division life will have much more diverse activities than the junior division. And in Noa and Asuka’s eyes, the intermediate division uniform with various patterns and decorations added seemed much cuter than the mostly white junior division uniform.

“Noa, want to drink hot chocolate?”

“Yeah, thanks Asuka!”

Asuka, who had become close with Noa during the week though they were in different classes at first, took off her horse mask and was heating milk over a bonfire while looking at the night sky. Behind them, a tent Hana had brought from home in a flash was already set up.

“I’ve never been camping before.”

“Really? Our family likes going out with sis and parents, so we went often.”

“No wonder you two completed the tent so quickly.”

“I was surprised that Asuka knows so much about dolls.”

“My mom makes dolls.”

Things they know well.

Things they don’t know well.

Scenery they haven’t seen.

As they get to know each other, their worlds gradually expand, and they learn about numerous daily lives and emotions hidden under scenery they thought was natural.

During the week, the two girls saw various things while chasing after sparkling meteors.

“We really went to many places.”

“Yeah, we went to so many.”

They played together with children their age who were hospitalized, sharing dolls at a hospital where aid groups were working.

They performed clumsy and awkward dances and songs at a talent show at a senior welfare center where the guard corps was patrolling.

They visited stores and workshops run by numerous magical girls and chatted.

They saw magical girl autonomous organizations operating in different ways from Japan while looking at foreign cities.

News taken for granted, scenery taken for granted.

They faced people living and breathing within them and their dreams.

“…”

“…”

“…I thought I would naturally be able to do amazing things like sis when I became a magical girl.”

“Yeah.”

“But it seems that’s not it, magical girls… it seems that’s not it.”

“Yeah.”

Were ordinary people’s dreams and happiness really more shabby than magical girls’ starlight?

Were magical girls just lights shining alone falling in the dark night sky?

They weren’t.

Children their age they met at the hospital, who couldn’t become magical girls but lived happy lives.

Elderly people they met at the event, whose lives were already fading but cherished magical girls.

Numerous people they met abroad, advancing on their own paths with different thoughts.

No life was natural, and the starlight shining within them wasn’t given from the beginning.

Where, who, when. These things weren’t important.

The important thing was what they wanted to become.

‘What kind of magical girls do we want to become.’

The two girls realized that through their week-long adventure.

“I… want to become someone who makes people happy though plain, like sis did on the first day.”

“I want to become someone who makes dolls that make all people happy to see.”

Under the dark night sky where only the bonfire was shining, two colors of starlight descended along with quiet resolutions.

A girl who started running looking at the darkness where meteors began.

A girl who resolved to make dolls modeled after everyone’s hope.

The glass stars of the two girls were no longer colorless, but became brilliant gold and silver.

The two colors shining most brilliantly under countless stars blessed the start of the two girls who didn’t yet have even one starlight. People who knew the meaning of that sparkle were just quietly watching over their realization.

“Th-This is amazing.”

“…Yeah.”

Sato Hana was on top of the observation lighthouse that could watch over the entire island, to create time for the two girls to think. She was making an expression full of nostalgia and intense emotion while watching the starlight her juniors found at the end of their journey. Beside her, the reddish-brown cat was dozing off wrapped in its cloak.

“Pe-Perhaps a massive fate we don’t know has begun from those two.”

“But why is Hecate stuttering like that?”

“I-I haven’t talked to people for a week.”

“Haah, I wonder if it’s right to live just doing what you like while leaving everything to Iris.”

“It’s a li-life permitted by the go-goddesses.”

Hecate scratched her short hair she had cut off right above her neck saying it was annoying to manage. Over the past 12 years, she had gone from one game tournament to another, and finally realized that enjoying games through internet broadcasts got the best reaction. She was continuing a life of seclusion.

Hana looked at such a Hecate pathetically for a moment, then looked at the two sparkling starlights again.

Golden

The brilliant color of fate she may have once had.

Silver

A color only allowed to those who could love the world.

“…”

Watching the fate of magical girls beginning more purely and brilliantly than her own fate that the three goddesses had broken.

Hana quietly smiled.

‘I am like a meteor.’

A meteor burns itself in the atmosphere and greets numerous people on the ground.

But it’s just a moment of sparkle.

Though she is burning brilliantly in the current era, it will be forgotten someday.

‘The era of destruction and despair… the dark night needing heroes is ending.’

Then what direction will those two girls advance towards?

“Magical girls of comets.”

“…”

“They’ll become magical girls like comets more brilliant and advancing further than meteors living now.”

Hana earnestly hoped her sister would become a girl shining even in hope.

“Bu-But what feels close to those living on the ground is meteors.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t need to think of yourself so shabbily.”

“…”

“I will remember. As a recluse of the era.”

“…You’re still secluding yourself anyway.”

Hana and Hecate watched over the two girls’ realization while making silly remarks.

The two starlights were what shone most brightly under the dark night sky, but they couldn’t obscure the numerous starlights engraved behind them.

* * *

Ding

“Welcome~”

“I’m here.”

“Oh! Hana-chan! Welcome.”

Hana came to visit the third troublemaker of Yokohama she had known for 12 years.

A leisurely weekend afternoon

The latest pop and rock music was playing in a cafe in Yokohama.

“The usual today too?”

“You know me well.”

“It’s regular customer service.”

Wink

Kyoko winked and started preparing the drink right away.

Her straight black hair swayed.

Since officially becoming the owner, Kyoko’s hair that no longer dyed had become completely straight black. At first Kyoko’s appearance like that felt awkward, but now the time when she had orange hair felt more distant.

Swish

A hand naturally landing on Hana’s shoulder as she entered the store.

Dobok skirts wide enough to overflow below the shoulder.

Ichika touched Hana’s shoulder, which had now grown bigger than hers, with a playful smile.

It was an action she always showed before making silly jokes.

“Hey, is this the legendary Hana-chan who let field training go for a week of playing hooky?”

“Kuku… Ichika, that couldn’t be helped.”

“Thanks to that, there was a fuss at the teachers’ meeting about whether to acknowledge this or not.”

“What did Yuki say?”

“Huh? The principal said the glass star colors changed and the kids matured, so isn’t it good?”

Just then, Kyoko approached the table carrying the ade Hana often drank.

“Oh, did Noa-chan bloom one sword?”

“No, not blooming, just the color changed.”

There were many employees busily working in the store, so Kyoko who had become free joined Hana and Ichika’s chattering table.

“Come to think of it, Noa-chan is about to become intermediate division too… it feels like just yesterday Hana was flustered changing her diapers. It’s awkward that kids we’ve seen since they were babies are middle schoolers now.”

“That’s true.”

“Time really flies… to think we’re single late 20s in the blink of an eye.”

“…Momo-chan got engaged recently.”

“What?!”

Now only Ichika and Kyoko were single among the girls who escaped from the research facility.

“Haah.”

“Hooh.”

Hana chuckled listening to the two late 20s women’s complaints.

“Huh?! Don’t laugh Hana-chan!!”

“Hey, you’ll be there soon too.”

“I still have over 5 years left though?”

“This brat…!”

Rock music playing

Fragrant coffee aroma

Sounds of numerous people’s conversations

“Huhu.”

Hana’s life was shining brilliantly like a meteor.

It was still starlight greeting people face to face.

The meteor was still burning brilliantly.