NOVEL NEXT Chapter 108
The sudden death of my uncle’s family came like a thief in the night.
Even the people smoking at the back of the funeral home sighed deeply, feeling the weight of the tragedy.
“Ugh… How did he get mixed up with a violent organization and end up dead like that? And they say the little lady is missing altogether.”
“…Hey, do you really believe that?”
“What? He died because of getting tangled up with a foreign gang over his pachinko business.”
“The little elder just got back from studying abroad, and he said he’d rather freeze to death than do pachinko!”
The bald man quickly stubbed out his cigarette and whispered.
“The little elder opposed the large-scale merger and acquisition by Fujimoto Group this time…!”
“Why? Fujimoto became completely invincible after their aggressive M&A, right? The government has already switched sides to Fujimoto.”
“You fool, then there wouldn’t be a place for other companies to stand! The little elder hoped that Japan would be a free country! Not a Fujimoto dictatorship!”
“I… I don’t really know much about politics or economics.”
“Ugh, the little elder had such a broad perspective.”
Little did they know that a small girl standing obliviously behind the smoking area was listening to everything.
“That’s right. I killed him.”
“W-Why, Father?!!”
“I did it because I wanted to divide Fujimoto. He was a traitor who secretly allied with those opposing Fujimoto.”
“Even so!”
“Sumire.”
“…….”
“Just listen to what I say.”
“…….”
Eiji spoke in deliberate pieces, placing a hand on Sumire’s shoulder.
It felt like blood seeping from that hand was staining Sumire.
Sumire felt like she was already drenched in that blood.
She could no longer say anything.
She simply believed that staying alive and protecting as many people as she could was her form of atonement.
Until she saw a girl’s broadcast.
“Anna!!”
“Sister!!”
Chae-ae-ae-ng——!!
The clash of two blades.
One shining with a lavender aura collided with another bleeding crimson, intertwining with a chilling sound.
The crimson blade, dripping with sticky energy, seemed like it could greedily swallow the lavender blade.
Anna approached with wide eyes, mixing red and brown in her gaze.
“Sister!!!”
Crack-d-d-d-d-
Slowly, Sumire was being pushed back.
Anna was licking her lips as she closed in.
The two sisters, shedding sticky energy between their blades, began to be swept into the river of blood.
Plop!
A river made of blood.
Anna’s black clothes and Sumire’s kimono were drenched in blood, sticking to their bodies.
“Sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister!!!”
“Ugh?!”
“Don’t worry!! Let’s go have fun in hell together!! Mom and Dad are waiting in hell too!! Because everyone under Fujimoto’s rule will now die!!!”
“That can’t be…! I won’t let it happen!”
Sumire wanted to strike down Anna and push her away, but as she tried to attack within the realm of the river of blood that had developed since earlier, her wounds only grew deeper.
She received one injury but dealt back two.
To attack Anna required her to bear double the damage.
By the time the girls rushed to save Sumire, they had already each sustained severe injuries.
But Lena still pulled out a machine gun, her hand full of holes like a beehive, and fired at Anna.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!
Phew
Phew
Phew
With each bullet hit, blood spattered from Lena’s other arm as if it had exploded.
Now unable to lift her arms due to the damage returned, Lena collapsed in shock.
“Ugh!!”
“Hahaha!! Keep shooting!! How about we bet on who dies first? Who do you think you are, getting involved in Fujimoto’s business? Hahaha!”
Anna laughed mockingly at Lena, her eyes wide and devoid of life.
‘At this rate, Anna will completely overwhelm us… more people might get dragged in.’
Sumire looked at the salon members who continued to hold the line despite their injuries and Kaede.
The moment even a single attack landed on Anna, she wrapped herself in a brown aura, healing instantly, while the attacker bore the full brunt of the damage.
[Boss!! It’s dangerous!!]
Boom—!!
When the armor spewed flames, the shockwaves returned, crumpling it.
“Boss!!”
Bam!!
When the bike, leading starlight, rolled in, it crumpled with the same shock.
“Lady!!”
Phew!
When the ninja sprinkled dark green energy, it embedded itself in his own body.
Crushed armor.
A crumpled bike.
A fallen ninja.
Despite the bravado they displayed when running in.
Everyone, including Sumire, was losing to Anna in vain.
Sumire recalled the first moments with the salon members and Kaede, who had been with her for nearly a year.
Lena, Kohane, and Nanami, who had vomited their anger like children the moment they gained power.
Kaede, the one who first recognized her feeling of ‘jealousy.’
And the heir to Fujimoto, who could have ruined everything.
‘There really are no useful people.’
Those girls had helped others thanks to the girl who guided them.
As she walked a new path following that girl, she became entangled with numerous people and shared countless emotions.
Sumire had been picking up the pieces of incidents and issues she’d never imagined in her life.
The world Sumire lived in now was unimaginably wider than the one she had learned as a lady of Fujimoto.
The fate of [Guardian] was approaching not by Fujimoto’s way but by Sumire Fujimoto’s way.
A world where she exists with all the ordinary people, not as a ruler but as a guardian. There, Sumire was a magical girl just like all the other ordinary magical girls.
A world she had seen while her sister had not.
“Sister!!! Die!!!”
Anna was still trapped in Fujimoto’s world.
A girl engulfed by her thirst for revenge, gnashing her teeth in the sea of blood where her father had ruthlessly cut her down. Now, she was no longer satisfied with just herself and her father, trying to drag in innocent people as well.
If she didn’t stop the monument, soldiers would continue to pour out.
If she couldn’t kill the guardian of the monument, she couldn’t break it.
“……”
Then, as a sister and as a [Guardian], what she had to do was to show resolute will.
“Kohane!! I’ll stop Anna!! Please destroy the monument!!”
[Boss?! What the heck…?]
“Kaede!! Take care of everything!!”
“Lady?!”
If what she wanted was her death, she would willingly give it.
Even if her light of the lavender glass star was lost, never to rise again.
For the sake of the ordinary tomorrow of innocent people.
She sacrifices her ordinary life to save it.
Even if the blood of Fujimoto cannot continue, those who seek to protect the ordinary will continue to appear.
Sumire leaves behind the will of [Guardian], rather than the name of Fujimoto.
‘Even if it’s not me, it will definitely continue!’
Sumire hugged Anna tightly.
“Ugh?!”
“Then let’s go together, Anna!”
In that moment of surprise, as Anna was flustered, Sumire threw herself into the river of blood.
Splash!
‘Maybe this is for the best.’
Like a wisteria that kills creatures with poison.
Like a wisteria that cannot survive without walls.
Today, the wisteria flower that scattered lavender petals under its rule completely vanishes.
[Guardian]’s magical girl unique skill
Thousand Spears, Ten Thousand Swords
Swish swish swish swish!!
Countless lavender spears and swords pierced through the river, gradually sinking Sumire and Anna.
Phew!
Phew!
Phew!
For every injury Anna sustained, Sumire took two.
Despite that, the lavender swords and spears pouring like rain continued without stopping.
They would not pause until the two had completely turned to dust.
“………!!”
In the river of blood, the blood of Sumire and Anna swirled together chaotically.
-I’ll kill you!! Fujimoto Eiji!!
-I’ll destroy everything Fujimoto rules!!
-Sister, why are you still so happy?!!
-Daughter of a murderer!! Murderers!! I’ll kill you!!
-I’ll pay you back by becoming a murderer just like you!!
The river of blood, the domain of [Revenge] Magical Girl, was filled with Anna’s countless resentments and miseries.
In the distance, two huge skeletons approached, dressed in suits and elegant dresses.
‘Little uncle, little aunt…’
-Fujimoto Eiji!!
-Bring us back to life!! Wicked ruler!!
Phew!
Phew!
Phew!
Two enormous blades pierced through Sumire’s chest.
Her father’s sins came to her as wrath for revenge.
‘I’m sorry.’
Swish swish swish!!
Sumire clung to her fading consciousness, pouring forth countless lavender blades.
Anna, seeing this, repeatedly thrust daggers into her own chest.
But as she continued thrusting the daggers, the strength contained in each stroke waned.
Swish swish swish!!
Mixing blood,
Pouring blades,
Wielding spears.
Within that, the last two girls bearing the name Fujimoto raced towards their deaths.
Sumire thought this was fortunate.
Because Anna’s thirst for revenge focused solely on her, she didn’t even think about stopping the salon members she had left behind to halt the monument.
[Hypocrite!! How long will you keep pretending to be noble? Die!!]
Wielding knives
-Die, Fujimoto Eiji’s daughter!!
-So well you lived on our blood!!
Wielding swords
In the river of blood, with her completely severed left arm and leg, Sumire smiled as she swayed.
‘Thank goodness…’
No one else has to be hurt in the name of Fujimoto.
Her father died by his own sins; now it was Sumire’s turn.
From now on, she would bear the coming pain alone.
[Anna.]
Sumire embraced her sister, who incessantly stabbed her own heart, with her remaining arm.
Though they had just met, her sister could not control herself, harming the innocent.
Being a companion through their hellish journey together would be the minimum atonement.
[Die!! I’ll make them pay a hundred, a thousand times for every child who lived under the name of Fujimoto!!]
[Then those of the will of Guardian will save ten thousand, a hundred thousand.]
[…What?]
[Don’t drag others into your revenge anymore. I’ll take it all.]
Sumire gently stroked Anna’s face with her one remaining hand.
She had matured, but somehow it resembled the face she had seen that day in the wisteria garden.
Born under the wisteria flowers, the two girls would endlessly suffer in hell as they sought atonement.
[I’m sorry.]
[…Don’t.]
[I’m sorry for not realizing.]
[Don’t say that!!]
[Let’s die together.]
[……. ]
[I’ll gladly die with you.]
[……. ]
[You felt lonely.]
[……. ]
[I’m sorry.]
Before they knew it, they had sunk to the darkest depths of the river.
The two girls were battered and bruised, overlapping each other’s bodies, helpless against the scores of blades and spears above them.
Sumire slowly glimpsed a lavender flower through her closing eyes.
Violet.
Violet, the flower sharing her name.
Humility,
Diligence,
Ordinariness.
‘I wanted to become someone like a violet, not a wisteria.’
[Sister.]
[Huh?]
[Didn’t you know?]
[No, I knew. But I was too scared to do anything.]
[……. ]
Because she was afraid of her father,
Afraid of a world that wasn’t Fujimoto,
She just did as she was told.
[Are you no longer scared?]
[No, I am scared. The world I don’t know is terrifying.]
[I see.]
Had she lived under Fujimoto’s name, she would never have done this… It was an honest answer born from living as Sumire. Upon hearing this, Anna made one last stab and severed the arm Sumire was hugging her with.
Sumire, having become numb from countless pains, widened her eyes in shock at the act.
[Then this is my last revenge.]
[What… is this?]
Feeling helpless, floating towards the surface, with her limbs detached, Sumire trembled in fear.
[If it’s easier to die comfortably, then live your whole life that way.]
[What? What do you mean!]
[Look at me. Remember all those who died pitifully under Fujimoto’s name.]
Her burning crimson eyes were filled with hatred, fury, and despair. Among them, the faintest shine was that of love.
[While watching the world perish, live your entire life in fear of nightmares.]
Anna, with her last remaining arm, drew across her own neck.
From her lifeless form, a blood-red glass star rose.
Goodbye.
Beloved sister.
Daughter of the one she hated most.
May you live in everlasting pain.
As the world of the revenge-filled girl came to an end beneath the dark river,
At last, under the name of Fujimoto, no one remained to carry on.
In Sumire’s world, violets began to bloom.
One by one, the lavender violets sprouted.
She resolved to live eternally as “Sumire” instead of “Fujimoto”… as a Magical Girl of [Guardian].
Little uncle,
Little aunt,
Father,
Sister.
In a world where everyone had died and disappeared.
Now, only Sumire remained.
Amidst emptiness, the true fate of [Guardian] bloomed fully.
-Boss!! Take my hand!!
-Boss!!
-B-Boss!!!
-Lady!!
In the river of emptiness, Sumire could only rise helplessly, crying.