Chapter 58 : The Light of Beginning, The Last Snow

The faint sound of people playing soccer can be heard through the library window.

Whoosh

The autumn wind has become almost unbearably cold, so I close the window I had opened for ventilation and sit down.

Rustle

I check the illustration drawn on the cover.

The protagonist Yuki is looking straight ahead with a determined expression while crying. Behind her, Alex is reaching out threateningly towards Yuki with a sinister smile.

I carefully remove the cover and start reading the light novel with its worn adhesive binding.

Rustle

“…They really drew Alex to be annoyingly good.”

I carefully appreciate the illustrations at the front, checking the appearances of the characters.

To feel the story they will create more vividly.

<Magical Girl HAZARD> Volume 5.

The group battle scenes with magical girls in the latter half of the story and the scene where she awakens [Resurrection] were good, but…

“Volume 5 is still the best.”

The scene where Yuki stands up for the first time not for her own survival, but to save someone else.

[Magical girls… exist to protect everyone!]

She tries to lure a huge airship to protect the village of survivors who fled to Russia from the Scavengers.

[Because I’m… a magical girl…!]

In the end, Yuki, lacking in power, is defeated by the overwhelming power of a fully bloomed 3-star magical girl and ends up fleeing to [Death]’s domain, which could be called a frustrating part, but…

The sight of her advancing towards a path where she could lose everything for someone else was too dazzling.

[We’ll surely become happy!]

A story of a girl overcoming past pains, present timidity, and future anxieties to speak of beauty and fight.

If you say it’s a story created by a bearded old man typing for money, there’s nothing to say, but…

‘What’s wrong with dreaming of a good story and cool characters.’

One page.

One page.

And so I follow Yuki’s life and cheer her on.

* * *

“Huff… huff…!”

How long have I been running?

The warp gate I hadn’t yet installed in Europe.

My whereabouts cut off after entering Korea according to my passport.

The unfinished work lingered in my mind, but now I was just running.

‘Sorry…!’

I hurriedly returned to Japan through an already installed gate.

Rena and Kohane, who were resting in the council office where the gate exit was, were startled to see me suddenly running in.

“Whoa?! [Beginning]?!”

“The installation is already complete…?!”

“Sorry!”

I jumped out the window, undid my transformation into civilian clothes, and ran towards Shinjuku.

Thump thump thump

My breath was running out and my heart felt like it would burst.

“Haa… haa…!”

I’ve sprinted at full speed many times since becoming a magical girl, but this was the first time I’d been so out of breath.

No.

The fact that she was waiting for me.

The fact that it was the her I knew.

I felt like my chest would burst.

We… all of us…

‘Will become happy.’

To the young and immature Sim Hyun-woo, that one line from Yuki was too gentle a comfort.

A few characters engraved in ink in the light novel seeped into my heart beyond the pages.

[We’ll all surely become happy.]

Yuki.

I can reach out to you who was crying beyond the pages.

I can reach out to you who knows the despairing future.

I had so many things I wanted to say to the scarred girl I met when I was 15.

You know, Yuki.

I’ve known you for a very long time.

I wanted to see you who truly shines, not the fake shining me.

“Hah!”

Tap!

“Whoa?! That’s dangerous!”

“A magical girl? Be careful!”

“You’ll get scolded by the security team!”

I leapt over the crowded pedestrian bridge stairs in one bound. Since it was common for magical girls to act like this when in a hurry, everyone complained but ignored it.

‘Yuki…!’

Because it was a world that had already changed.

Because it was a world I had changed to save people.

I didn’t look for you, thinking you’d be doing well.

I thought we’d meet naturally someday.

I left you alone, knowing the scarred future in this changed world.

-Find me.

I’m sorry. I was too indifferent.

-I need a place where it’s okay for me to exist.

I’ll become that for you.

“I…!”

* * *

“Will you… come find me?”

Yuki was sitting on a park bench.

In front of the [Alliance Shelter] that would be built in a future that doesn’t exist in the changed past.

She regretted the words she had blurted out in a momentary hope.

Thinking about it, it didn’t make sense.

No matter how much the past had changed, the basis for the words she had uttered was too flimsy.

Fujimoto was originally the ruler of Japan, and someone to fight against to protect magical girls.

It was natural to stop the Scavengers as they were heinous criminals who killed ordinary people and magical girls.

‘…Was it too delusional to think she would know the same future?’

Sigh

Yuki sighed, hugging her knees on the bench.

“I should have just said I wanted to meet normally…”

She had always been like this.

Just without thinking, without any basis.

‘…That’s why no one believes me.’

Is it because she spent a long time without friends due to her burns?

‘…Honestly, it’s not even because of the burns anymore.’

Timidity.

Delusions of grandeur.

Fool.

-Are you still saying such things?

-There’s no such thing as hope in this world.

-We just live by devouring each other anyway.

-Please just shut up.

-You’re probably the only one who thinks that way.

-We’re all finished.

Destruction.

The end.

‘Why did someone like me end up remaining at the end?’

I know, it’s just that I luckily bloomed [Resurrection] so I couldn’t die even if I wanted to.

If someone amazing like [Beginning] had remained instead of shabby me, surely…

A loner sat on the throne of the destroyed world.

A loner sat on the bench in the quiet park.

That was the only difference.

‘Still… I want to meet her…’

-Magical girls bloom with dreams!

-…Magical girls are beings that give hope.

Yes. That’s right.

I… believe that too.

Thank you.

For telling everyone.

Thank you.

For changing my immature second beginning with your gentle hand.

“So… I want to meet you…”

Yuki murmured quietly, lowering her head.

In the quiet park, there was only silence…

Tap tap tap!

Flinch

Yuki tensed up with her face buried in her knees.

There had been no one in this park until now.

A presence.

If she raised her head, would [Beginning] be there?

‘No… it’s probably just someone jogging…’

If the person who came wasn’t [Beginning], she would go home alone dejectedly, eat dinner, and go to sleep.

Thump thump thump

And then she would laugh awkwardly and think, ah~ it was an impossible imagination after all…

Thump thump thump

…Surely that’s what would happen, but why was her heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst?

Yuki slowly raised her head.

Black pants.

Black hoodie.

Baseball cap.

Silver hair.

The silver-haired girl took off her baseball cap.

Her silver hair shimmered dazzlingly in the cold winter wind.

Her slender eyes were hidden by long eyelashes that looked like they were made of silver thread.

Snow.

She’s like snow.

Yuki thought that name Yuki (雪, snow) would suit that beautiful girl more than her clumsy self.

That girl had understood her words and come to find her.

She had discovered Yuki, transcending the painful future and changed past.

“…Yuki.”

“…[Beginning]?”

Ah.

She… knows me.

She knows… the changed past.

[Beginning] spoke with an expression like she was about to cry.

“My name is… Hikari.”

Red pupils were visible between her trembling eyelashes.

Light.

“…Hikari.”

“Hey, this might sound ridiculous, but… will you listen?”

“…Yes.”

It’s okay, I’m used to ridiculous things.

But Yuki couldn’t say those words because her throat was choked up.

Hikari took Yuki’s hand with trembling fingers.

Yuki started crying from the moment she grasped that hand in return because it was so warm.

She stood up slowly from the bench, tears flowing.

The girl who had been alone was no longer alone.

“I’ve… known you… for a very long time.”

“…Yes.”

It really was a ridiculous thing to say, but Yuki’s heart felt like it would burst.

Those ridiculous words entered Yuki’s heart and melted away past wounds.

Thump thump thump

“I believed in Yuki’s words. I believed in Yuki’s words more than the end of the destroyed world.”

“…Yes.”

“Thanks to Yuki’s words and the world Yuki lived in, selfish me was able to change.”

“…Yes.”

“Thank you. I gained so much strength from seeing Yuki fight.”

“…Yes.”

“For a very long time… I wanted to be your friend.”

“…Yes.”

Thump thump thump

Yuki felt that this park was as quiet as the destroyed world because of the heat from the two hands she was holding and the sound of her heart about to burst. It was surely a world full of hope and bustle, and she had intended to protect it, but.

At least for now.

…It felt like only the two of them were left in this world.

Thump thump thump

Hikari smiled brightly while crying.

“So we’ll surely…”

Yuki also smiled brightly while crying.

[We’ll surely become happy.]

A girl who came from the past 3 years ago and a girl who came from the future 2 years later.

The two shared memories of a future that no longer existed and met for the first time across the changed past.

Believing in the happiness that would surely come.

The pain that began on a hot summer day returned as a warm hand across the cold winter.

Yuki was so happy about it that she could only cry.

“We’ll surely become happy.”