Chapter 27 : The Third Light

[Under the third light, I, the magical girl of [War], declare.]

[To those who live on the land where the goddess’s remains fell.]

[You insects who fight even while pulling infinity down to the finite.]

[Kill and fight eternally under the fate of eternal struggle and destruction.]

[Filthy desires and ugly feelings of conquest will become the virtues of this land.]

* * *

“I… don’t quite understand.”

“Yes, that’s possible too. Sumire.”

It was a voice so gentle and kind that anyone who had ever encountered Fujimoto Eiji or seen his actions would be astounded. One might say he was a madman speaking with blood on both hands in a warm whisper that he would only give to a young daughter asking why the sky is blue.

“I find it difficult to guess your intention, Father, as to why you want to nominate the magical girl of [Beginning] as the representative of all supernatural ability users.”

Could there be some meaning she didn’t know?

Sumire hesitated for a moment before carefully continuing her words.

“Unlike the Prime Minister or the Prosecutor General who move through power, that person alone possesses an unassailable strength.”

Could that person be someone who could be placed under Fujimoto’s shadow?

Eiji didn’t dismiss his daughter’s straightforward advice but just smiled faintly, silently urging her to say more as if to tell her to continue.

“I find it hard to guess your intention to bring close again the person you had already sent assassins after.”

“That person cannot kill me.”

Sumire was shocked by those words and flinched with her clasped hands but soon regained her composure.

Eiji did not scold his daughter for her momentary lapse, which belonged to the category of ‘naive’ rather than ‘broken’.

“Because that person is bound by benevolence and righteousness, bound by justification.”

“Justification… you say.”

“Sumire, isn’t it strange?”

This time Sumire quietly bowed her head, expressing an apology for not being able to give the answer her father wanted.

“Why did the one who first shared this power act so ambiguously, as if waiting for ignorance to make a mistake?”

“…”

“Why did a prophet appear to show the way when a blind man acted as if trying to check his path by throwing his own coin?”

“…”

“The one who shared this power seems to be waiting for mistakes, and [Beginning] seems to be opposing so that those mistakes don’t happen.”

When a new era comes, mistakes are always made in the process of pioneering an unprecedented path. That was the correct form of history flowing and the history of human development.

Mistakes are improved and developed.

History advanced through a path of blood.

“But what if what comes after that mistake is irreversible?”

“Are you saying [Beginning] appeared with that as justification?”

Eiji picked up his teacup and drank the tea.

It was the finest tea, bitter but with a deep aroma.

Properly appreciating the aroma of tea is also learned by drinking one properly brewed cup after hundreds of failures.

“If Fujimoto were not needed in the new era, that person would have appeared mysteriously and cut off my head with supernatural abilities.”

“…”

Tak

As he put down the teacup, Eiji’s eyes flashed.

“Supernatural abilities, magical girls, the red broadcast… There was a right path to follow in all these flows, and something becomes distorted if the old order is destroyed.”

“And.”

“That is the justification that person absolutely cannot give up.”

An era where the existing order is shaken but unable to believe in the new order.

“Keep that person close and bind them with justification, make them lose their benevolence if they refuse, and if they accept, bind them to the old order.”

In such an era of chaos, Fujimoto developed while gaining everything.

“Both evil deeds and good deeds, everything must be done under a single person, the master of Fujimoto. As long as the name Fujimoto remains, even mistakes become history.”

Eiji muttered while savoring the bitterness of the tea.

“That’s why I killed my brother who tried to divide Fujimoto and drove my father to the back room.”

“…”

The pain hidden deep in Sumire’s heart throbbed as it revived.

[Daughter of a murderer! I’ll kill you all! Die!!]

The scream of her cousin’s sister, who resented her.

The last moments of Branch Director Takahashi.

Kaede, whose entire body was crushed.

All these scenes flashed by, making Sumire’s chest throb.

Is this really right?

Is Fujimoto’s way something that cannot be changed, something absolute?

‘Both evil deeds and good deeds and mistakes, everything under the name of Fujimoto…’

[The power of dreams held by the stars is something you cannot possess…]

‘If that is something that cannot be possessed in the name of Fujimoto, what should I do?’

The girl who had learned only Fujimoto’s ways while watching her father all her life was a little afraid of that.

‘Perhaps if it were her…’

* * *

‘Fujimoto Eiji, that bastard.’

This damp, old-man-breath-smelling ploy was 100% Fujimoto Eiji’s doing. The Sumire described in the story was more of a soldier type than a politician.

‘Sumire stubbornly kept talking about her father until just before she was killed by [War] in the latter half of volume 1, leading people in place of her dead father.’

To control ordinary people in chaos, she grinds magical girls to bloom them and tramples on <FLAG>.

A supporting character who repeats only this simple principle of action and dies miserably to a 3-star magical girl.

‘Probably this time, too; she just stubbornly said what her father told her to say.’

A girl who has the desire to protect but doesn’t know how to protect.

Fujimoto Eiji’s move that Sumire pulled out instead was painful in its own way.

I was leaning against the apartment railing, shaking my legs to calm down due to anxiety.

To think these guys would pull a drowning man’s tactic.

‘If I accept, [Beginning]’s reputation becomes a pretty ornament for the alliance, and if I refuse, they’ll execute a legitimacy recovery centered on Sumire.’

[Beginning] is loved because she holds a cause for everyone.

If [Beginning] doesn’t sit on the prepared throne following what she herself said, that moral perfection is damaged.

‘What, so the magical girl of [Beginning] was just talk after all?’

This is the kind of thing I’ll hear.

While watching the alliance manipulate magical girls to suit companies’ tastes.

Saying what’s wrong with overworking a few magical girls from research facilities.

Completely forgetting about drug experiments that never even happened.

‘Should I just disappear somewhere like this?’

My heart was already aching that the camps I had prepared hard for over the past 2 years seemed to be becoming useless.

After experiencing Fujimoto’s drowning man tactic, even becoming a hermit didn’t seem so bad.

‘What nonsense.’

Even after removing adults’ greed toward magical girls, revealing their true power, and stopping magical girls who rose up with resentment towards society, the malice of this world stuck persistently.

‘Should I have ripped off Fujimoto Eiji’s head?’

Then a second and third villain would have appeared.

‘Should I have pretended not to see Haruko?’

Then there would have been more victims.

‘Should I not have saved Ichika in time?’

Then those kids who laughed and chatted together would have become invalids.

‘Should I have waited until the magical girl of [War] appeared?’

While watching Master and the Sato couple die.

“Haah…”

I couldn’t find an answer.

Actually, there was an answer, but I didn’t want to choose it.

If I choose that, it really can’t be undone.

“Why are you sighing so much in the middle of the night?”

Ichika, who had woken up, trudged down the apartment corridor where I had been pacing.

After all, we had listened to the evening news together in shock and concluded that no matter how much we thought about it, there was no answer, so we went to sleep.

“Just my mind is complicated.”

“That’s your problem, Leader, you always overthink.”

Shook shook

Ichika threw a few punches in the air and winked.

“That’s why you get beaten up by security guard nobodies before you can say ‘uh’.”

“That was ages ago.”

“It was just two months ago?”

“I won, you know!”

“With your specs, taking that long means you lost.”

Ichika’s calm assessment hurt my pride, but it wasn’t wrong, so I could only mumble excuses.

“I wasn’t used to fighting then.”

“Are you saying you’re used to it now?”

“That’s right.”

“Then what are you afraid of?”

“…”

Sometimes Ichika hits the nail on the head like this.

“Don’t think, Feel!”

“That’s a movie line.”

Ichika rubbed her nose with a look that said, ‘That’s right!’ and winked.

Even her usual speech smelled of rough dobok, and it seemed her movie taste was in that direction too.

Poof poof

Watching Ichika make ridiculous gestures and even imitate Drunken Fist made me laugh involuntarily.

“I was wondering what you were always looking at on your phone, turns out you were watching movies that came out before you were born.”

“Want to watch together, Leader? It’s fun!”

“Haha… I’ll pass.”

Exchanging silly words like this, I felt my head gradually clearing up.

“Ichika.”

“Yeah?”

“Do I look stupid to you?”

“Yeah, why do you still insist on living with newspapers and using an outdated phone?”

“…I mean, acting like I know something and causing trouble, but getting scared when it actually comes close.”

“Is that so? In the logistics warehouse, in Odaiba, in Kabukicho, you ultimately made the best choices.”

The best choices, huh.

I just struggled, hoping it would turn out better than the original work I knew.

“Ichika.”

“Why are you calling me.”

“If there’s a path that feels right deep down but is too difficult and hard to take… what would you do? …Even if another path leads to where you must go.”

“Yeah, Leader really is stupid.”

Ichika blurted out sharply and spoke with confidence, full of certainty.

“The Leader I know would have already chosen the former a long time ago, and this is the kind of question you’d only ask when whining. Besides, the other path probably isn’t easy either.”

“…”

“I’ll fight with you then.”

Ichika slightly raised her heels and put her arm around my shoulders.

“I’ve got your back.”

“…Thanks.”

At least now I wasn’t alone.