LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 64
December 24th
“Merry Christmas!”
“Cheers!”
Glasses filled with cola and orange juice clinked together, creating a refreshing clang.
We managed to cram 15 girls into the small room, but it was too crowded to eat, so we just raised our glasses.
“Hehe, it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”
“Busujima-san! I heard you’ve been going to art academy lately. What are you learning?”
“This place still feels so empty~”
“Wow, was this apartment always this small?”
“Eh, it’s just because there are more people now!”
“Kyoko-chan… I didn’t notice in summer, but your fashion sense…”
“Aren’t you cold dressing like that, Kyoko-chan?”
“Leave me alone! I think this is the cutest outfit!”
The collective chatter of 15 girls had a power that was closer to a roar than mere noise. I thought I was accustomed to such racket from housewarming parties and debutante events.
‘During the debutante preparation, the atmosphere was subdued due to the shock, and at the housewarming, everyone wasn’t gathered.’
To celebrate Christmas, I squeezed through the queue of magical girls at the warp gate wanting to go somewhere far away and gathered everyone like a miracle. The girls who achieved this success were now on cloud nine, and consequently, their voices grew louder.
Clang clang
Ichika tapped the frying pan with a spoon and spoke.
“Hey, hey! Attention! I know the mood is lively, but! It’s impossible for 15 people to eat here!”
“We should split into groups of 7 or 8 and eat in the leader’s room and here!”
“How should we divide?”
“Raise your hand if you want to go to the leader’s room!”
Swoosh
Of course, I wanted to eat in my room, so I raised my hand.
As soon as I did, Hana and Yuki raised theirs excitedly.
Haruko saw this and raised her hand late.
“Sato-chan, do you remember us? Let’s eat together!”
“It’s been a while, sisters!”
“Ah, are you betraying us?”
“We’ve been here before, now it’s your turn to play with Ichika-chan~”
“Oh, then it’s decided! Let’s set it up!”
The four who participated in the housewarming joined my room. So now a total of eight girls gathered: me, Hana, Yuki, and Haruko.
“Sato-chan! We brought the wool dolls we made again.”
“Wow, a blue seal! So cute!”
“I didn’t expect Kyoko-chan to be such a great cook.”
“And your sense in winter clothes was surprisingly horrible too…”
“Ah~ this place hasn’t changed at all.”
Haruko said it in a nostalgic tone, but I had my excuses ready.
“I’ve been hectic for the past few months; I just paid the rent in advance and left it empty.”
Upon hearing this, the group’s eyes sparkled as they responded.
“Oh right! Shirogane-chan was amazing for months!”
“The legend of Magical Girls of [Start] crossing the world…!”
“It feels like a dream… even though we didn’t participate like Ichika or Kyoko.”
“I didn’t tell anyone. I want to keep it to myself…”
“Well, even if we say we know [Start], no one would believe us.”
“Hahaha!”
Hana and Yuki joined in with laughter.
“Yeah! That’s amazing! Hikari-chan always shines!”
“That’s right. Hikari is… really amazing.”
What’s this?
Why are you guys acting like this?
Why the sudden praise for me?
“Having a Christmas party with the magical girls of [Start]… when will we ever get such an opportunity?”
“I never thought I’d get to know someone so incredibly famous like this!”
“Yeah! Yeah! Hikari-chan is really awesome and cool!”
“Sato-chan…! That’s exactly right.”
“Hehe! I’m actually working on a manga called [The Legend of the Magical Girl of Light]! It’s truly legendary!”
Yuki and Hana held hands and started sharing things about how great I was, one after the other. Listening to them was dizzying.
‘Haruko, what on earth are you making?’
I tried to make an excuse to escape out of this chaotic scene.
“I-I’ll just step out and grab food from Ichika.”
“Eh? Hahaha! Shirogane-chan, your face is completely red!”
“Hahaha!”
“So cute!”
I hurriedly fled into the apartment corridor to escape the enthusiastic praises filled with madness.
Hoo.
The cold winter wind brushed against my face, cooling my flushed cheeks. The sounds of the girls enjoying their party reverberated through the apartment hallway, radiating happiness.
As I walked to get food from Ichika, I saw something strange.
The rent envelope that hadn’t disappeared at the door.
“Huh? The rent envelope isn’t empty?”
It was a bag that got collected without fail on the first of every month, so I had forgotten about it…
I definitely met Ichika in the domain at the end of November and handed her cash precisely.
The first day I fell into this world. It was the first time I paid rent after starting a part-time job at the Master’s shop, so I was flustered.
Tick
Suddenly, something inside me snapped, and I felt uneasy.
Seeing the white envelope that hadn’t disappeared brought about this feeling of discomfort.
Oh.
‘Now that I think about it, why have I taken this for granted for three years?’
I just passed by with a slight suspicion.
Paying rent by dangling a cash envelope at the front door, where not a single presence could be felt. An apartment located in such an eerily quiet place.
‘In a world where supernatural abilities and transcendent beings exist, why did I overlook this?’
Ichika and Kyoko had only lived there for four months, and while I had long been accepting, perhaps it was…
Something.
Something was piecing together in my mind like a maze’s exit revealing a structure to someone who accidentally escaped.
Things I had taken for granted weren’t so ordinary.
Connecting a few things I thought had no relation.
Even if it’s a delusion.
This world is the world of [Magical Girl HAZARD].
The point in time when the rent envelope didn’t disappear: early December
The most impressive event just prior: meeting Yuki
The area where the apartment is located: Shibuya
Originating protagonist: Shikishima Yuki
Yuki originally lived in Ota, south of Tokyo.
Since January next year, Yuki appeared in the center of Tokyo, Shinjuku.
When Yuki ran away, she naturally moved toward the city center, not southern Tokyo.
When she ran away, she took a different route than her father, who came looking for her.
In the past month, I observed Yuki traipsing only familiar paths due to her personality.
‘Is she just accustomed to the paths after a few months of running away?’
No.
Yuki had negative memories of Shibuya even before becoming a magical girl.
Yuki and Shibuya had a connection before she became a magical girl, and that was probably…
“Eh? Leader, what are you doing standing blankly in the hallway?”
My train of thought shattered momentarily. Ichika was moving around with plates of party food.
“Oh… nothing.”
…Just a hypothesis I forced together from the story Yuki told me yesterday and how I acted according to ‘the given situation’ when I came to this world, but it sent shivers down my spine.
“Ichika.”
“Hmm?”
“When did they stop collecting the rent envelope?”
“Eh? Oh right. They didn’t collect our room’s rent for December? But maybe they just forgot about it.”
Scratch
Ichika brushed it off as if it was no big deal.
“Yeah… that could be it.”
Or it might not be.
*
After the meal, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived: the gift exchange.
“Hahaha! What’s this! It totally doesn’t suit me!”
Ichika put on a pair of pink fuzzy slippers. It was hard to say they suited Ichika, who usually dressed in green, even as a compliment. Yet she seemed to like them even more for that.
“Wow! I really wanted to see this manga!”
Hana received a complete set of boy’s manga from Haruko, each one excitedly pulled out and read.
Everyone was enjoying the gifts they picked according to the lottery.
And in my hand was…
Swoosh
When I shook the snow globe, ‘snow’ began to swirl inside the glass sphere crafted after a miniature of the Brussels square.
“Wow! H-Hikari really drew this…!”
Yuki seemed delighted as she watched me.
Just before the lottery, I had secretly pondered the possibility using inverse causality.
The world estimated that there was a 90% chance I would draw Yuki’s ticket…
“…”
“When I went to Belgium, I thought this would be nice, so I picked it. Hehe.”
“Hey, Yuki.”
“Yeah?”
“Did you go to [Shibuya East Girls Middle School]?”
“…?!”
Yuki’s eyes trembled fiercely.
Nodding
Yuki quietly affirmed while gripping the hem of her skirt.
Memories of bullying, the painful days.
The school I entered, taking a long detour to avoid nearby schools.
The anxiety that maybe I had discovered this.
Yuki’s anxious face revealed everything in her still unstable state.
“I see. I was just wondering if you went nearby.”
“…Huh? Y, yeah?”
Yuki’s visibly relieved expression.
“Shikishima-chan! Haven’t you opened the gift I gave you yet? Let’s open it together!”
“Ah, sure!”
Yuki slipped away from my side to join the others in opening gifts.
“…”
I quietly took out the student ID that had been in my pocket since the first day I arrived in this world.
[Shibuya East Girls Middle School]
[Shirogane Hikari]
If I hadn’t possessed Hyeonwoo’s memories and was truly Hikari, awakening for the first time in this world.
Would I have met Yuki in this school as Hikari?
Would I have moved to return to my mother and save the people?
The connection between Yuki and me, which felt oddly strong after just one connection.
A rail set up by someone for us to meet since the moment I woke up.
Due to Hyeonwoo’s choices, that rail twisted, and later, I met Yuki as Hyeonwoo in a different form.
‘Originally, I planned to go back five years, but I was shocked to end up two years back.’
I awakened three years before Yuki returned.
‘Should I consider this a coincidence?’
Swoosh
I shook the snow globe and watched the swirling snow in silence.
*
A peaceful space filled with starlight, where the night sky and ground were almost indistinguishable due to a gentle layer of water.
In that place, a girl in a white robe with a large hood dipped her white feet into the water, gazing up at the sky.
Swoosh
As the girl lowered her hood, glowing silver hair cascaded down.
According to the prophecy of the ancestral ‘Goddess Church,’ a girl born 16 years before the year of destruction was locked in a white room upon birth.
Born as a goddess filled with divine spirit, without any emotion or knowledge.
Those taught by the ‘Goddess Church’ who descended with humanity at the beginning revered her as ‘the agent of God.’
“…The one who inherits the first lie has completely unraveled the guide of causality and borders. Now nothing can be done.”
The goddess slowly ceased her power to manipulate the world.
“Originally, she stood entirely of her own will, but she certainly didn’t believe she would evade this fate…”
Unlike the possibilities of bringing humanity to destruction through [War], [Plague], and [Death], what was given to the goddess was merely a Divine command.
[When the one who inherits the first goddess’s lie awakens, she will be able to hear the entire trial’s outcome from the flame that returned from destruction.]
The only task given to the goddess was that.
Among the four goddesses presiding over the trials, the one believing in humanity’s success was the goddess of [Start].
The only goddess who believed in success, thus burned her own body to become a sacrificial offering for the trial.
Following the goddess’s words, the goddess wished to link [Deception] and [Flame] as strongly as the world would allow.
“…But [Deception] discarded everything and moved in its own way.”
The goddess herself was pioneering a destiny unknown even to her.
“Why?”
Possessing an emotionless, dull body, the goddess didn’t understand the human emotions and wills that couldn’t simply be divided by fate.
Thus, she could only quietly observe the story unfolding in ways she hadn’t intended.