Chapter 3: 3

Creeping Shadow

Translated by LyraDhani

Edited by LyraDhani

As he left school and walked on a low-traffic road, Tsugumi tilted his head. This is because he was really worried about Suzune.

“–I don’t understand her, either.”

The woman named Nagisa Suzune was a bit unreliable as a teacher, but her personality as an adult was trustworthy. If you ask her for advice, she would be helpful and kind, and she never said anything unreasonable. Perhaps because of her good nature, she was strangely accepted by Tsugumi’s class, which was full of strange people.

–But there is still a sense of instability as if your feet are not on the ground. It’s like you’re looking at me, but you’re not looking at it… There are times when he felt that way.

—In addition, there were various rumors about the teacher named Nagisa Suzune. They all had something to do with occults.

There were variations of rumors such as a retired Magical Girl, a daughter of a famous shrine, and a psychic with great skill.

Recently, a story spread through the class that she could guess exactly who was going to die in an accident. Well, Yukitaka was the one who told this story for fun, so he didn’t take it seriously.

In fact, there had always been rumors of psychic activity at Saekami Saigami High School, which was the school that Tsugumi attended. Even now, stories of strange things being seen in the middle of the night were quite common.

Although Tsugumi himself had never encountered such a thing, his sister Chidori often said that she sensed strange things at school. Tsugumi thought there might be a misunderstanding, but he couldn’t say anything because he couldn’t prove that ghosts didn’t exist.

–Well, it’s best to be careful anyway.

Because of this thought, Tsugumi was walking toward the station to go straight home, but he felt like he had forgotten something important.

“… Oh, that’s right. I have to get a book.”

He suddenly remembered that. In fact, the owner of an antique dealer told him that the book he had ordered from a month ago arrived yesterday.

Chidori, Tsugumi’s older sister, enjoyed collecting foreign literature, especially minor children’s books, and often visits secondhand bookstores on her days off from school and club activities. She had been wanting this book for a long time, and now he had finally obtained it.

It was very difficult to find used foreign books nowadays, and it took a lot of effort to find a store that would stock them. Yukitaka was kind enough to help him find a store.

“Because Chidori’s birthday is the day after tomorrow. I have a plan with Yukitaka after school tomorrow, and if it’s true, it’s most convenient to go get it today…”

The day after tomorrow was Tsugumi’s and Chidori’s seventeenth birthday. Although there was no particular arrangement every year, it was customary to bring food and cakes and exchange gifts with each other.

–Since I get to go home early, I might as well take a little detour.

The devil whispered in his heart.

He was leaving early with permission from his homeroom teacher. A side trip would have been the last thing he wanted. He was going to go home… but the most convenient time to pick up the book was right now. Fortunately, the store itself was not far from the nearest station. It was just far enough to walk there. That shouldn’t be a problem.

“Well, I’m sure it’s okay.”

–Sorry, Suzune-sensei.

In his heart, Tsugumi lightly apologized to Suzune. Such excessive worry rarely occurred.

As a matter of fact, his physical condition was not particularly bad, and even if he encountered a Demonic Beast, he usually got an alarm so he could easily evacuate. In addition to mobile phones, he also had an alarm terminal, and it was unlikely that he would miss the alarm.

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When the monster appeared, an alarm would be issued at least 30 minutes before, and even if you missed it once, it would be easy to escape from the range of action of the beast. Tsugumi was so optimistic that he broke his words with Suzune and proceeded to the other side of the station.

-Without knowing that he would encounter events that would shake his life in the future because of his choice.

◆◆◆

–Press down on the side of the body and try to stop the bleeding. It’s just for comfort, but it is much better than not trying.

Hitting flying debris and dragging one leg that was no longer free, Tsugumi hid in the shadow of a building that had not collapsed. The pain was making him feel like he was going to lose consciousness.

“What is this …”

Tsugumi recalled what happened to him.

When he broke Suzune’s instructions and went to the antique dealer behind the station, he felt something strange.

As he was walking along, wondering inwardly if he had really caught a cold, the cause of the strange feeling became clear.

—-There is too little sign of people. ・・・・・?

It looked as if people have already evacuated, but it was too strange. The alarm wasn’t ringing, and just a few minutes ago there were people here and there.

Suddenly there were no people? How could such things happen in real life?

–That’s not the real problem.

—Where is this in the first place?

The target antique dealer shop should have been a straight road from the station to the nearby shrine. He had visited the store several times and it was hard to imagine that he made a mistake. And yet, the place where he was standing now was a place he had never seen before.

Feeling impatient, Tsugumi hurried to turn back the way he came. He didn’t know why, but it felt bad to stay here.

–The moment he heard the sound of a bomb scattered from above. he thought no way and looked up at the sky. There, Tsugumi saw something incredible.

A Magical Girl… and a giant gargoyle-like Demonic Beast that engaged in aerial battles at a dizzying speed. A battle with Demonic Beasts that you would never see in life.

“Uh, this has to be a lie! Why am I in the barrier!?”

A barrier was an isolated space created when a Magical Girl fought. By trapping the Demonic Beast in it, the Magical Girls prevented damage to buildings and those who were late to escape.

-There is no point in fighting if you destroy the city every time you defeat the Demonic Beast. The first Magical Girl once appealed to Yatagarasu Kami-sama.

Demonic Beasts that suddenly began to appear thirty years ago-only a Magical Girl who had been blessed by the Gods could fight against them. However, it would be a complete disaster if the city and its inhabitants were to suffer damage every time the girls waged battle.

–Amaterasu, who received the report from Yatagarasu, added a system to create an isolated space inside the ward of “Amano-Iwato”. Since then, the Magical Girls have begun to create a barrier-a so-called instant “different world” before fighting the Demonic Beast.

With the help of the God contracted by the Magical Girl, the Demonic Beast moved to the actual mirror space. By doing so, they succeeded in reducing the damage in reality.

Since objects destroyed within the barrier were regenerated to their original state at the same time the Demonic Beast was defeated, the damage caused by the Demonic Beast could be reduced to almost zero.

-So no matter how flashy they fight in the barrier, no matter how much they destroy the city, it doesn’t matter.

However, the seemingly all-powerful barrier also had a fatal flaw.

The barrier created by the Magical Girl would not be released until either the Demonic Beast or the Magical Girl died.

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Moreover, if the Magical Girl, not the Demonic Beast, died first, the damage inflicted on the building within the barrier would be fed back as it was. An evacuation was recommended when a Demonic Beast appeared to avoid an accident.

-That is why Magical Girls are not allowed to lose their lives. Win or die. They can only choose one or the other.

However, there was an exception. During the slight time lag in which the collapse was reflected, if another Magical Girl re-established the barrier, the feedback of the collapse was postponed.

In the past, there were many cases where the Magical Girls who came to the aid of the city were not able to arrive in time, causing damage to the city, but in the last decade, the movement of Magical Girls had become much more organized, so there had not been much damage in recent years.

…It was explained for a long time, but the current situation of Tsugumi was another story.

The battle of Magical Girls could be seen in reality through special monitors all over Japan. But what exactly was the spectacle that he was seeing right now?

Naturally, no ordinary human being could enter the isolated space- the barrier.

He never heard of a case where an ordinary person was involved in the barrier of a Magical Girl. Clearly, something unusual was happening to him, that much was obvious.

“I’m not kidding! What should I do like this!?”

He screamed involuntarily, but it was not wrong to get confused in this situation.

…It seemed that the idea of “unpleasant premonition” that Suzune-sensei said was dead-on in the worst case.

–The first thing he needed to do was to get away from this place for the time being. If he got caught in a battle, he would be in deep trouble.

Then, when Tsugumi was about to escape, the Magical Girl who was fighting in the sky was blown away by the thick rock-like arm of the Demonic Beast. Cold sweat was flowing on his back.

–Oh, that’s bad. When he thought so, it was already too late.

—The Demonic Beast was watching Tsugumi standing on the road…

…The memory from then until he escaped to the back alley was terribly hazy.

Tsugumi put his weight on the concrete wall while adjusting his rough breathing. To be honest, he didn’t have the energy to stand normally anymore.

He couldn’t move anymore, and more importantly, he was bleeding pretty badly. If he wasn’t careful, he’d probably lose consciousness and die.

–I regret that I didn’t listen to Suzune’s advice more seriously, but I never thought that I would end up in this situation. If I made it out alive, I would have to ask her what was going on. Yes, if I make it out alive…

He clenched his teeth. The worst possibility went astray. I’m really sorry to die in such a place.

Why didn’t the alarm sound in the first place? And where was this? …He felt like he was in a strange world.

“-Damn it.”

He cursed, but there was nothing he could do about it. This place was a Magical Girl’s boundary, separated from the outside world of all kinds. As long as the barrier was not lifted, Tsugumi would not be able to escape the combat zone.

If he hadn’t been injured, he could have escaped from the center of the battle, but he was unlucky enough to be attacked by a Demonic Beast, and in the aftermath, a piece of a broken building stuck in his leg and the side of his body, leaving him in this mess.

The body gradually loses its strength, and he crawled on the ground and collapsed. Little by little, he found that the scenery in front of him turned hazy.

–He wondered in a daze if he would ever make it.

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With dozens of random Demonic Beasts appearing in a day, it was not unusual for a Magical Girl that couldn’t be rescued in time to be injured by a low-grade Demonic Beast. Let’s put it this way, it’s not so different from the number of serious injuries that occur in traffic accidents.

In Tsugumi’s case, it may be a rare situation, but the result would not change.

…Now that I think about it, I think I’ve lived a short, but moderately spectacular life.

–Nanase Tsugumi had no memory of being older than seven years old. The oldest memory was the sight of his sister covered in black soot pulling his hand and running through the sea of flames.

A catastrophe caused by a special A-class Demonic Beast that occurred ten years ago. One of the few survivors of the disaster that destroyed one city was Tsugumi and his sister Chidori.

Neither Tsugumi nor Chidori remembered anything about themselves, but they knew clearly that they were a family. The two were taken over by an old man in a shelter, and they had lived together so far.

–What would Chidori think if he died?

Will she be sad? Or will she be happy that the troublesome younger brother is gone?… He laughed bitterly.

“-Well, I can’t die.”

–Because if Tsugumi died, Chidori would be alone this time. She’d spend her time crying alone in a large house. That would be too sad.

And if he died like this, Chidori would surely find out the cause. The thought of her becoming a Magical Girl sent a shiver down his spine. Fighting would never suit that kind sister of his.

–But what should I do? How can I survive in this worst situation?

From the sounds of battle coming from above, the battle between the Magical Girl and the Demonic Beast was far from over. Tsugumi would probably run out of energy before the battle was over, or got caught in the collapse of the surrounding buildings.

He crawled his way to the ground. He felt nauseous about his own helplessness.

But I still can’t die. I can’t die

Because I haven’t been able to repay my sister yet!

–Ten years ago, when Tsugumi was crying in the burning city, she pulled his hand and ran desperately. She should have been scared herself, but she smiled at him encouragingly without showing the slightest sign of being scared.

He thought that kind strength and kindness were more precious than anything else.

She had been there for him through the hardest times, through the most painful times. But he had yet to give anything back to Chidori. If he died like this, he would regret it forever. He didn’t want that.

With this ego-like feeling in his heart, he said in a voice that sounded as if he was trying to squeeze out a word.

I’m going to live. –I’m not going to die in this incomprehensible place.

He forced his weak body to sit up and tried to stand up on shaky legs. His uniform, which had absorbed blood strongly, was too heavy for him. The ground Tsugumi standing on was already covered in blood. But he still found himself alive ・・・・・.

The situation was bad enough, and he never knew when he might be caught in the aftermath of another battle. Even though it was like that, Tsugumi smiled. It was an expression that showed he would not give up at all.

-There was a black shadow staring at Tsugumi who started walking with the full-blown wound.

The black shadow shook his lustrous tail once, as if he had seen something interesting.

“–That’s why humans are stupid.”

But that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? With these words, the black shadow slowly began to move toward Tsugumi.

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