LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 73
Like a single flower blooming on a mountain path, I have lived freely.
When my strength was weak, I lived burning my heart while gazing at the distant place, even if I was blocked by those who stood in my way.
After I gained strength, I strained my simple mind as much as possible to distinguish what was right and what was not, so that only the right things would happen.
Seventeen years.
Short if one says so, long if one says it’s eternal life.
Today, for the first time, my life was about to extinguish under the decision of life and death to kill my opponent.
There were not a few who sincerely wanted to kill Ichika.
When I stopped the street punks who rob good-natured people, they would often pull out a pocket knife.
“Who are you? Sailor uniform? Which high school punk are you from?”
Horrible pranksters, having heard rumors of the green warrior, would throw bricks at her after asking for help as a joke.
“Anyway, you’re a magical girl, so you won’t die! How boring!”
BANG!
Even after getting hit by bricks, I was unscathed, and I promptly beat them up.
And then Kaede.
“I will defeat you!”
Having lost to Ichika even after blooming in a friendly match, she often challenged Ichika to duel afterwards. But the first fight was filled with malice under Fujimoto’s name.
I honestly didn’t remember Fujimoto’s cronies I met at the coastal warehouse, they were just too lame.
‘Well, the leader was so clumsy back then that it was quite troublesome.’
Now I realized my power and became strong enough that I couldn’t be matched by ten Ichikas, so it would be fine.
Leader.
Hikari Shirogane.
The benefactor who helped Ichika, who lived freely like a flower in the mountains, to soar like the wind without being broken by anyone.
‘Leader… I’m sorry. I lost.’
Sniff.
If it was her wish for me to save myself from the claws of Fujimoto, I could willingly fight with my life. I just regretted that I couldn’t fulfill that wish properly.
Thump
Thump
The [Sword] magical girl approached slowly with a blank expression.
The strange resentment emanating from each and every footstep gave me chills.
As if a hundred ghosts were clinging to her feet…
“Hey, why are you training to become a warrior?”
A question an old monk once asked me when I was younger.
“To soothe the souls of the warriors who suffered injustice here 40 years ago.”
Lee answered in a single breath as if it were obvious.
Ichika chuckled at that.
“… Are the hundred magical girls I killed to shine your starlight related to that?”
Lee answered as if it were natural.
“Revenge Without Mercy. I did it because it was necessary for revenge.”
“… Were there young children waiting in the hospital and parents waiting for their children related to that?”
Lee answered naturally.
“If I live under a concept of a nation that my masters wanted to take revenge on, then they are my enemies.”
“… …”
A slave.
In Ichika’s eyes, this girl seemed like a slave shackled by concepts and karma, losing the ability to ponder and think for herself. A slave who answers fixed responses without a thought.
Did she ever think whether it was correct when she killed those girls even once?
Did she ever ponder whether those patients were truly her revenge targets when she killed them even once?
“You… your revenge is not right. You have not established anything for yourself.”
“Is that your sense of justice?”
“No, it’s just common sense.”
Ichika glared at Lee with a blood-soaked face. Responding to her anger, green energy flared up.
“You have no conviction. You simply recite what someone told you and avoid responsibility.”
“… …”
“If you!! are a warrior!! At least you should have thought for yourself and acted when trying to kill someone!!”
“… …”
“You pathetic slave haunted by ghosts!! Are you just regurgitating bullshit someone fed you!!”
Freedom begins by denying bondage.
Ichika denied the countless burdens this girl bore before her.
‘You are wrong.’
Ichika defined Lee’s so-called revenge as an unreasonable restraint.
An utterly wrecked body.
A missing left arm.
I no longer cared about such things.
Sorry, leader.
Sorry, Kyoko.
Sorry, little Sato.
Sorry, Shikishima.
Sorry, everyone.
‘I really think I’m a fool.’
If I begged for my life here, I might escape that girl’s revenge.
But if I took even one step back here, it felt as if all of my seventeen years of life would be negated.
Ichika stood up.
What is martial arts?
‘Why are you training to become a warrior?’
What am I trying to contain within this fist?
“Freedom…!”
Ichika squeezed out a voice from her boiling throat and shouted.
“I contain my freedom within this fist!!”
Toward where my heart leads.
Toward where I believe is right.
The blow from the girl who had become a wreck.
An attack so slow that even the [Sword] magical girl could quietly raise her sword to respond, utterly insignificant.
But within the green line that her fist traced, the girl’s entire life was contained.
Born in the belly of a mother whose face she didn’t know, abandoned at the orphanage’s door, watching an old monk training at a dilapidated temple, growing with joy in everyday training, mourning her master who died cold during winter, getting kidnapped after her magical girl identity was discovered, falling into despair, and being saved by a mysterious girl to truly live freely.
Yamanaka Ichika’s life was as free as a single flower blooming in the mountains.
The green line drawn by the girl’s fist was a stem and bud just before a flower bloomed.
What was hung at the tip of the stem.
What the bud supports.
A world where a girl was born, lived, and helped many people while practicing the teachings of the ancient warriors.
A free world.
The girl’s life was truly a free life.
KWOOM!
When the mighty power began to gather in the slow and worthless punch, Lee started to be on guard.
Ichika’s world of freedom began to bloom.
Realizing the life-and-death confrontation before her, she found the answer to her life.
Ichika had always contained freedom in her fist.
To Ichika, martial arts (武) meant harboring freedom.
When Lee raised ten thousand swords in the midst of the green storm, behind Ichika stood a green giant with a thousand arms.
Thousand Bloom 3-Star [Freedom] Magical Girl
Ichika
The green storm enveloped Ichika, and the hearts of countless people that had fused into her life melted freely.
To break free from the restraints of all beings and conduct what she believed to be right resolutely.
The concept of martial arts merged with her world and truly bloomed.
Waving the silver armor symbolizing enlightenment instead of the sailor uniform symbolizing rebellion and struggle, her green glowing eyes and hair blazed brilliantly.
“… …”
“… …”
Both girls realized that the words they spat negated each other’s lives.
Ten thousand black swords and a thousand green arms pointed at each other.
Ichika had gathered her new left and right arms, formed from the gathered green energy, together in prayer. And when she extended her fist again, she hoped that the world full of erroneous restraints wouldn’t hurt others.
Lee drew up a dark gray energy, combining all the black swords into one. Mimicking the vicious form of a dragon. The ultimate technique created after the warriors’ resentment towards the whole world.
Arahan Divine Fist (阿羅漢神拳)
Black Dragon Breaking Heaven Sword (黑龍破天劍)
The energies created by the two worlds collided and exploded like dozens of bombs.
A flash so blinding it felt like my eyes would be burned out and a deafening roar echoed.
A violent shake as if it would completely mix the world occurred, entangling the green and dark gray energies into a threatening Tai Chi.
KWOOM!
The already damaged stone floor of the Forbidden City was completely uprooted and vanished due to the clash of the two energies.
A thick cloud of dust.
Devastating wreckage.
Even after the dust settled and passed through the chilling winter wind that blew from somewhere, the two girls still stood, looking at each other.
“… …”
“… Cough.”
Ichika had already placed her fist on Lee’s chest while her green hair flowed long.
The mark of her fist extending a hundred meters behind Lee began from her heart.
Hundred Steps Divine Fist (百步神拳)
“… Didn’t you have any regrets while taking revenge?”
Ichika asked Lee.
“Regrets, huh.”
Lee’s gaze was directed toward the clear sky visible through the gray smoke that had been completely displaced by the clash of the two girls.
“I don’t know what that is. Masters never told me.”
Thud!
Lee fell back, spitting blood.
The sky visible through her slowly closing eyes was painfully beautiful.
“… …”
With her death, the ten thousand black swords slowly fell silent.
For the first time since Lee was born, complete silence arrived.
Peace.
The world of black swords, where she was born to take revenge and spent her life only learning about revenge, came to an end.
Ichika quietly put her hands together in the manner her master had taught her just before dying.
Lina, who had woken up again from the sounds of battle, quietly approached Lee’s corpse to check her pulse.
“… …”
“… …”
One girl cried, thinking of her deceased friend.
Another girl remained silent, quietly with her hands together.
The revenge of a girl who had plunged Beijing into chaos while massacring countless people was simply blocked by a girl who thought that was wrong.
All that was left for the survivors was a heavy silence.