Chapter 64 : The Great Chaotic Christmas Operation

December 24th

“Merry Christmas!”

“Cheers!”

Glasses filled with cola or orange juice clinked together, making a refreshing sound.

We managed to squeeze 15 girls into the small room, but eating was too much, so we just did a toast.

“Heheh, it’s been a really long time since I’ve been here.”

“Busujima-san! I heard you’re attending an art academy these days? What are you learning?”

“This place is still as cold as ever~”

“Wow, was this apartment always this small?”

“Hn, it’s because there are more people than back then.”

“Kyoko-chan… I didn’t notice in the summer, but your clothing taste is a bit…”

“Aren’t you cold dressed like that, Kyoko-chan?”

“Leave me alone! This is the cutest for me!”

The sound of 15 girls chattering all at once had an intensity closer to a roar than mere noise. I thought I was used to such noise from housewarming parties or debutantes, but.

‘During the debutante preparation, the atmosphere was subdued due to shock, and at the housewarming, not everyone was gathered, I guess.’

For Christmas, we managed to gather everyone by breaking through the queue of magical girls crowding the warp gate wanting to go far away. The girls who achieved this miraculous success were in high spirits, and consequently, their voice volumes had risen tremendously.

Clang clang

Ichika tapped a frying pan with a spoon and said:

“Alright, alright! Attention! I know the mood is high, but! It’s impossible for 15 people to eat here!”

“We’ll split into groups of 7 or 8 and eat in the Leader’s room and here!”

“How should we divide?”

“Those who want to go to the Leader’s room, raise your hands!”

Swish

I naturally wanted to eat in my room, so I raised my hand.

As soon as they saw that, Hana and Yuki raised their hands high.

Haruko saw that and belatedly raised her hand.

“Sato-san, remember us? Let’s eat together!”

“It’s been a while, sisters!”

“Ah, are you betraying us?”

“We’ve been here last time, so now you should play with Ichika-chan~”

“Oh, then it’s decided! Let’s set up now!”

The four who had participated in the housewarming party joined my room. Along with me, Hana, Yuki, and Haruko, a total of 8 people gathered.

“Sato-san! We brought the wool dolls we made this time too.”

“Wow, a blue seal! It’s cute!”

“It was unexpected that Kyoko-chan is so good at cooking.”

“And it was unexpected that her winter clothes sense is so bad…”

“Ah~ This place really hasn’t changed.”

At Haruko’s wistful words, I made some excuses.

“I’ve been busy these past few months too, I just paid the rent in advance and left it empty.”

Hearing that, the group replied with sparkling eyes:

“Oh right. Shirogane-san has been amazing these past few months!”

“The legend of the magical girl of [Beginning] traveling around the world…!”

“It really feels like a dream… even though we didn’t participate like Ichika or Kyoko.”

“I really didn’t tell anyone. I wanted to keep it to myself…”

“Well, even if we said we know [Beginning], no one would believe us anyway.”

“Ahahahaha!”

Hearing that, Hana and Yuki joined in too.

“Yeah! It’s amazing! Hikari-chan has always been shining!”

“That’s right. Hikari is… really an amazing person.”

What’s this?

What’s wrong with you guys.

Why are you suddenly praising me.

“To think we’re having a Christmas party with the magical girl of [Beginning]… when will we ever have such an opportunity again.”

“I never dreamed I’d get to know such an incredibly famous person like this!”

“Yeah! Yeah! Hikari-chan is really amazing and cool!”

“Sato-san…! It’s really just as you say.”

“Heheh! I’m working on a manga called <The Legend of the Magical Girl of Light>! It’s truly legendary!”

Yuki and Hana held hands and started exchanging my wonderful points one by one. It was enough to make my head spin if I listened to each one.

‘Haruko, what on earth are you creating?’

I tried to make excuses to escape this scene of madness.

“I, I’ll go out for a bit and get food from Ichika.”

“Huh? Ahahaha! Shirogane-san’s face has turned completely red!”

“Ahahahaha!”

“She’s cute!”

I hurriedly went out to the apartment corridor to escape the girls’ mad praise that was starting to spread again.

Phew.

The cold winter wind brushing my face cooled me down. A mental image of happiness flowed abundantly from the girls enjoying the party with sounds echoing all the way to the apartment corridor.

As I was moving to get food from Ichika, I saw a strange sight.

The rent envelope that hadn’t disappeared in front of the door.

“Hm? The rent envelope isn’t empty?”

I had forgotten about it because it’s an envelope that’s collected like clockwork on the 1st of every month…

I definitely met Ichika in the domain at the end of November and handed over the exact amount in cash.

It was the first time this had happened since I paid my first rent after starting part-time work at Master’s shop in the year I first fell into this world, so I was flustered.

Tick

Suddenly, something inside me snapped and I felt a sense of discomfort.

A sense of discomfort felt as soon as I saw the white envelope that hadn’t disappeared.

Huh.

‘Come to think of it, why did I take this for granted for 3 years?’

I had only been slightly suspicious but passed it off as natural.

The rent payment method where cash envelopes hung on the door disappear without any sign of presence. An apartment located in a place so quiet it’s strange to anyone.

‘In this world where supernatural abilities and transcendent beings exist, why did I just pass this by?’

Ichika and Kyoko had only been living here for 4 months, and I had been accepting it so calmly as the one living here first, so that’s understandable, but…

Something.

Something was rearranging in my mind as puzzle pieces surfaced. Like someone trapped in a maze unintentionally escaping and climbing a hill to grasp the structure.

Taking things I had accepted as natural as unnatural.

Connecting several things I had considered completely unrelated.

Even if it’s a delusion.

This world is the world that appears in <Magical Girl HAZARD>.

The time when the rent envelope didn’t disappear: Early December;

The last impressive event that happened: I met with Yuki;

Where the apartment is: Shibuya;

Original work protagonist: Shikishima Yuki;

Where Yuki originally lives: Ota in southern Tokyo.

Where Yuki appeared after January next year: Shinjuku in central Tokyo.

When Yuki ran away, she naturally went to central Tokyo areas rather than southern Tokyo areas.

Even when she came out to run away, she says she missed her father who came looking for her because their areas of movement were different.

The Yuki I’ve observed over the past month only travels familiar routes due to her personality.

‘Is it simply because she became familiar with the routes after running away for a few months?’

No.

Yuki has bad memories of the past in Shibuya even before becoming a magical girl.

Yuki and Shibuya have been connected since before she became a magical girl, and that’s probably…

“Huh? Leader, what are you doing? Standing blankly in the corridor.”

My train of thought was momentarily scattered. Ichika was moving plates of party food.

“Oh… nothing.”

…It’s just a hypothesis forcibly tying together what I guessed from Yuki’s story yesterday and how I would have ‘acted according to the given situation’ if I had come to this world, but it gave me slight chills.

“Ichika.”

“Hm?”

“Since when did they stop collecting the rent envelope?”

“Huh? Oh right. They didn’t collect December’s rent for our room either? But maybe they just forgot.”

Scratch

Ichika brushed it off as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Yeah… that could be it.”

Or it might not be.

* * *

After the meal time, the much-anticipated gift exchange took place.

“Ahahaha! What’s this! It really doesn’t suit me!”

Ichika put on sleep socks made of pink yarn. It was hard to say they suited Ichika, who usually wears mostly green, even as a white lie. But she seemed to like them more because of that.

“Wow! I wanted to read this manga!”

Hana received what was clearly a set of shonen manga volumes prepared by Haruko and started reading them one by one.

Everyone was enjoying receiving gifts according to the lots they drew.

And in my hand was…

Swish

As I shook the snow globe once, ‘snow’ fluttered inside the glass ball that was a miniature replica of Brussels’ square.

“Wow! H-Hikari really drew it…”

Yuki seemed pleased watching me.

Just before drawing the lot, I secretly used cause and effect reversal to gauge the possibilities.

The possibility of me drawing Yuki’s lot as judged by the world… 9 out of 10 times.

“…”

“When we went to Belgium, I just thought you might like it. Hehe.”

“Hey, Yuki.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you go to… [Shibuya East Girls’ Middle School]?”

“…?!”

Yuki’s eyes were shaking violently.

Nod

Yuki quietly nodded while grasping the hem of her skirt.

Memories of bullying, painful days.

The school she entered after going far out of her way to avoid schools near her home.

The anxiety that I might have found out about it.

Everything was revealed on Yuki’s face, which was still in an unstable state.

“I see. I just asked in case you happened to go to a school nearby.”

“…Huh? R-really?”

Yuki’s face visibly relaxed.

“Shikishima-san! Haven’t you opened the gift I gave you yet? Let’s open it together!”

“Ah, yes!”

Yuki left my side to go open gifts at the group’s call.

“…”

I quietly took out the student ID that had been in my hand on the first day I came to this world from my pocket.

[Shibuya East Girls’ Middle School]

[Shirogane Hikari]

If I had not had Sim Hyun-woo’s memories but had opened my eyes in this world for the first time as Hikari…

Would I have met Yuki at this school as Hikari?

Would I have moved to return to my mother and save people?

The fate of Yuki and me, strangely strongly attracted after connecting once.

A rail laid by someone from the moment I awoke to make me meet Yuki.

That rail was twisted by Sim Hyun-woo’s choice, and in a different form, I ended up facing Yuki as Sim Hyun-woo much later.

‘Originally I tried to go back in 5 years, but I was surprised to come 2 years before that…’

I awoke 3 years before the point Yuki returned to.

‘Should I consider this a coincidence?’

Swish

As I shook the snow globe and watched the snow flutter, I was silent for a moment.

* * *

A space so full of starlight that the night sky and ground were indistinguishable due to the water gently covering the floor.

There, a girl wearing clothes made of white cloth and a large hood was dipping her snow-white feet and looking at the sky.

Swish

As the girl lowered her hood, dazzlingly shining silver hair fell down.

According to the prophecy of the ‘Goddess Religion’ passed down for generations, one girl born 16 years before the year of destruction is confined in a white room from birth.

A divine maiden born with a spirit dwelling in a body that has learned nothing and has no emotions.

Those who receive the teachings of the ‘Goddess Religion’, which has been passed down since the beginning of humanity on a small island, respected her as the ‘representative of god’.

“…The one who continues the first lie has completely undone the guidance of causality and was wary. Now I can’t do anything.”

The divine maiden gradually stopped her power to manipulate the world.

“She was originally someone who stood on her own will, but to think she would avoid the given fate to this extent…”

Unlike [War], [Plague], and [Death] that dwell in girls with the potential to lead humanity to destruction, what was given to the divine maiden was the goddess’s command.

[When the one who continues the lie created by the first goddess awakens, ensure that the flame returned from destruction can hear all the details of the trials.]

That was the only task given to the divine maiden.

The goddess of [Beginning], the only one among the four goddesses overseeing the trial who believes in humanity’s success and wants to put them to the test.

The goddess who became the sacrifice for the trial by burning herself because she was the only one who believed in success.

Following that goddess’s words, the divine maiden tried to connect the fate for [Deception] and [Flame] to meet as strongly as possible within the limits allowed by the world.

“…But [Deception] shook all of that off and moved in her own way.”

Pioneering a fate unknown even to the divine maiden.

“Why?”

The divine maiden, who occupied the body of an emotionless idiot, did not know human emotions and will that could not be simply divided by fate.

Therefore, she could only quietly watch the story unfold in a different direction than she had intended.