Chapter 101
June 6, 2012
It was a slightly hot early summer day.
The Shibuya scramble crossing in Tokyo was packed with girls wearing serious expressions.
The day of fate.
Countless magical girls gathered there.
[Activating the Thread of Fate Protocol!]
“We’re activating the Thread of Fate Protocol!”
A massive line unfurled like a spider web against the blue sky.
The threads of hope connected to the surface of the star that aimed to eliminate humanity.
The enormous thread spun by three apostles connected all the magical girls in the world, becoming both a shelter and a pathway.
Numerous footsteps moved around the scene.
Communications from administrative magical girls.
The voices of magical girls checking their abilities.
“Confirmation of connection to the council complete.”
“We can head into the Domain at any time.”
“Everyone in other regions, please report on the connection status.”
[Supernatural Ability Response Team connection confirmed!]
[Myungwol connection confirmed.]
[European Union connection confirmed.]
[Freedom Magical Girl Alliance connection confirmed!]
[Russian Rescue Union connection confirmed.]
[Southeast Asia Dispatch Team connection confirmed.]
[Middle East Dispatch Team connection confirmed.]
Endless connection confirmation reports were ongoing, and voice messages came from the silver ships floating in the skies worldwide to the Elysion Observatory.
[Sirius ready for standby!]
[Pollux ready for standby.]
[Vega… standby.]
[Castor standby complete!]
[Altair ready for standby.]
In the skies above Shinjuku, silver transport ships carried many combat magical girls.
Inside the transports, magical girls listened intently to the radio, fully prepared to be deployed at any moment.
“Do it right as trained. Don’t get nervous.”
“It seems like the squad leader is the most nervous saying that.”
“…If you recklessly throw yourself around because you can come back to life, you’ll die by my hands.”
“What will we do if civilians are in danger?”
“Then we throw ourselves in.”
The relay ships served as intermediary stations, ready to transmit magical girls at any moment connected to the Thread of Fate.
“The distance between Myungwol and the Southeast Asia team is too far. Please advance as far south as possible from Myungwol.”
[If we spread the personnel any further, we will not be able to maintain a minimum combat unit.]
“In that case, please endure while being aware of the activation range of the Thread of Fate from Myungwol.”
[Understood. We will fight while maintaining distance as much as possible.]
“I will set up to receive the activation range in real-time.”
One day.
There was a girl who had guided and saved the magical girls for the fight they prepared for that single day.
“Captain Himari! The combat team is ready!”
“How’s the guard team doing?”
“Tsugumi said she would take care of those who haven’t been able to evacuate yet.”
Once upon a time, a day came without any forewarning.
A day that could not be properly welcomed due to the curse of the three goddesses and human greed.
“Boss, we can go at any time.”
“I’ll follow. Milady.”
“Let’s head to Shinjuku for now.”
The day when all tragedies started.
A day that might have decided the fate of humanity.
“Captain! Just leave the rear to me!”
“You hide behind me, Kyoko.”
Countless miracles and deceptions barely formed the battlefield.
“Daphne! Sylph! Echo! We’re here to save those who couldn’t escape!”
“Yeah! Hana! Leave it to me! I’ll blow everything away with sound waves!”
“Ugh, I’m scared.”
“Foolish Sylph.”
Only after untangling many threads of fate did the girls finally gather together.
“Hikari.”
“Yuki.”
“Let’s definitely win.”
“Yeah.”
Two girls who rushed to see this moment from the past and the future.
In a place where one girl stood pitifully in the rain.
In a place where one girl lost everything due to a foolish runaway.
Our entire story began here.
The true beginning of [Magical Girl HAZARD].
A special landscape unlike any other.
At twelve o’clock sharp.
The sky turned red.
*
I waited for this day.
I just hoped this day would never come.
Conflicting emotions.
Three years ago, I woke up here as a weak girl who could only lean on others.
One year ago, I observed here as the weakest apostle, still unaware of my power.
And today.
To greet the strongest apostle, the Magical Girl of [War].
To witness the second Red Broadcast, the start of destruction.
To return for the world I loved.
To go back to my mother.
I returned to this place.
“Come.”
I am here.
In the center of a massive city where countless citizens should have been passing by, only magical girls stood along the streets, prepared to face their trials.
The sky that shouldn’t have been different than usual.
The blue sky that should have shone with the hot light of early summer was now tainted red, merged with the will of the star aiming to eliminate humanity and the curse of the three goddesses trying to plunge it into destruction.
A dark power surged and gathered in the sky, now turned red.
The malice of the goddess and the stars toward humanity twisted and formed shapes.
[…….]
Silence
The announcement from the goddess that should have begun as soon as the sky turned red did not sound, and only a chilling silence continued.
[…You deceived us.]
[…You tricked us.]
[…You played us for fools.]
The three goddesses no longer announced with mocking voices.
What I felt was rage.
[The Daughter of the World has deceived us.]
[The First Daughter has deceived us all.]
[You have deceived the fate of humanity.]
The deception prepared by the Goddess of [Start] was smaller, but it became a huge rebellion aimed at the goddesses through one human.
Even so.
I declared as the goddess.
I wanted to hand the miracle to the first magical girl.
“That’s right. You were deceived by the First Goddess. This was a ceremony for humanity to survive while holding onto their dreams.”
In response to my answer, I felt the immense presence gazing at me from the narrow dimensional rift that opened beyond the sky.
Though it was merely a passage that had yet to take proper shape, the weight of the curse pouring out from there was heavy.
Beings unable to understand the small and weak human when alone, recognizing only the sum of humanity.
Except for the will of the stars, beings that had previously shown no interest felt hostility toward me.
Because of me, the existence of humanity faced the trials against the once-goddesses.
At last, we recognized each other.
[…….]
[…….]
[…….]
A colossal presence that felt like pressure weighing down on my shoulders and numbing my limbs.
A presence so large that it seemed like a small human could be blown away like paper.
“Ugh?!”
Even Yuki, who stood beside me, faltered for a moment under that overwhelming presence, causing the ground beneath us to crack.
Rumble—
The ground I stood on began to crack from the curse.
Ignoring the pouring malice and curses, I took one step forward.
Passing by countless magical girls, I stepped forward more than anyone else.
So that no one would be hurt by the goddess’s curse.
“Eek?!”
“Ugh… I… I feel sick.”
“Is it an earthquake…? The ground is shaking.”
Even if they were beings forgotten for thousands of years, not as long as the Goddess of [Start] who had been exiled for ages, the malice and curses pouring out from them were enough to injure this transitory world.
But there’s no need to fear.
If humanity’s will strives to break free from the ancient gods, they cannot simply appear here.
Like weak humans, they only sit and curse their opponents.
I refuse to fear beings that are neither omniscient nor omnipotent just because they call themselves gods.
They, like me, manipulate their cowardly tricks from outside the laws of the world.
We are the same.
[I curse the Trial of the Rite.]
[I curse the remnants left by the First Daughter.]
[They will vanish by the will of the stars.]
——!
The world responded to the curse of the three goddesses with a tremendous resonance.
The overwhelming echo that every human living on this planet could feel.
The malice and trials unleashed by the wills of the stars roared loudly from beyond the door.
——!
A will that sought to completely erase humanity.
An enmity that had been carried from ancient times.
The unreasonable anger arising from the Transcendents and the will of the stars.
I felt the hundreds of magical girls gathered for the first battle grow uneasy and despairing.
“W-What? We have to fight beings like those?”
“Giant gates are appearing in the sky, getting bigger and bigger.”
“I-It really is the end, isn’t it?”
No.
That’s only the struggling of transcendents, who fear humanity and are erecting their spikes like hedgehogs.
Deceivers who deceive people with trifling tricks like myself.
Their struggles have already become something they cannot interfere with due to my promise with [War].
What truly matters already existed in the hearts of the magical girls.
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Ugh… but!”
“They’re only huge in size. They’re mere phantoms that can’t even interfere directly with this world.”
“They have such a tremendous presence?!”
“If they were genuinely omnipotent, they could erase us with just a flick of their finger.”
“Y-Yeah, but!”
“If we submit to these vain fears, we won’t be able to protect our precious ones.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I felt a tremendous wave of curses crashing in, causing even my hair to sway.
It was like an immature adult trying to pressure a child by grabbing their shoulders, a direct and childish wave of malice and curses.
Suddenly, visions of death overwhelmed everyone, turning us into rotting corpses.
Visions of fighting, splitting to attain huge power and resources.
Visions of eyes and noses being mangled, with overwhelming pain tearing through our bodies.
The primitive fears of humanity.
Such naive fears exhibited due to their long failure to understand humans.
“…This is not some visual terrorism.”
And that’s why I gradually started to feel refreshed.
Because it was something they could only show, being not truly divine.
Even though the overlapping thousands of curses could snuff out a life with just one, I pushed through with endless starlight.
The vibrant starlight continuously sparkled around me with the nunca ending healing.
“No god would confront us directly with childish phantoms and curses.”
“Hikari…!”
“Hikari-chan!”
“Leader…!”
“Leader!!”
“…Your Grace.”
I shouted loud enough for all the magical girls around me to hear.
We did not come running here to be annihilated by such insignificant transcendents.
“These beings are neither gods nor demons.”
“They’re just lucky beings with great power!”
“Don’t be scared!”
“We can all triumph!”
“We are magical girls who gained power to protect people!”
With every step I took forward, I felt the magical girls capturing their spirits and igniting their fighting spirit.
“My true alias is [Deception]!!”
The magical girls started to follow me, taking steps forward one by one.
Towards the presence of the transcendents and the incoming monsters. And towards the strongest apostle who came according to our promise.
“A magical girl who deceives those calling themselves god and twists the fate of humanity!”
A giant crack appeared in the sky, stretching kilometers.
Beyond that was darkness.
In that endlessly tumbling darkness, shining eyes were embedded like seeds of a lotus, sending us shivers with their chilling gaze.
From the slowly opening crack, black lions dripping black liquid began to descend.
They resembled black rain falling from the red sky, seeming utterly unreal.
The grotesque appearance formed from pure malice pouring from the wounds of the stars.
The sticky oil spewed forth while they howled.
“■■■■■!!!”
Grrr—
Five massive pillars descended from beyond the red sky and crashed down into the vacant city.
Each one was gigantic, measuring hundreds of meters in size.
The twisted surfaces bore carvings of all the fights and wars humans had ever engaged in, inscribed with the first script.
The massive pillars fell onto the city in an instant, causing enormous explosions as they dug into the ground.
Boom!
The earth flipped, buildings collapsed, and enormous dust clouds rose.
Countless black lions rained down from the sky.
Massive pillars marking the history of war.
[Supernatural Ability of the Magical Girl of War]
Fighting World 魂爭世界
In the heavens above, the Magical Girl of [War] floated behind a colossal sky palace.
Her russet hair fluttering in the wind.
Her russet pupils wide open with the excitement of battle.
Her russet cloak billowing.
Wearing a monotone black outfit.
And a blazing giant blade.
She resembled a modern female officer, a medieval knight, or an ancient empress.
“…….”
“…….”
This was the play between me and [War].
Under the will of the stars, she presided over the first trial.
Animus took out her russet glass star and shattered it.
“I, the Apostle of [War], shall abandon all rights of my apostle.”
“…….”
“I will become the first trial for humanity and test you to annihilate it.”
“…….”
“If you cannot surpass me… You will live within the struggle until not a single grain of humanity remains.”
“I will surpass you.”
“O humanity, strive! In the moment of the last trial when the remains of the goddesses remain, I will surely evolve you. I will ensure your preservation.”
“I don’t need that.”
“Then fight me and win.”
“I intend to do just that.”
I exchanged glances with Animus.
Her expression was cold and impassive.
But somehow, she looked a bit amused.
——!
The will of the stars bestowed the qualification of trial upon the Magical Girl of [War], who was sincerely staging a play to annihilate humanity.
The first trial we must surpass was not a mindless monster, but an apostle who once conceived extreme methods to preserve humanity.
The twisted original story begins here.
Four starlights rose behind Animus, illuminating her like a halo.
And thus the battle began.