Hagakure Sakura Does Not Lament - Chapter 3: Creeping Shadow

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-

While walking along a quiet road after leaving school, Tsugumi tilted his head.

It was because Suzune's earlier behavior had stuck in his mind.

“――That person is hard to figure out too, huh.”

The woman named Suzune Nagisa was a little unreliable when viewed as a teacher. But as an adult, her character could be trusted.

If he consulted her, she listened with sincere sympathy and never said anything unreasonable. Perhaps thanks to that goodness, she was somehow accepted even in Tsugumi's class, which was full of eccentrics.

――But even so, there was an instability about her, as though she were not grounded.

She seemed to be looking at him, yet not seeing him.....

There were certainly moments when he felt that way.

Furthermore, strange rumors clung to the teacher Suzune Nagisa.

And they were all on the occult side.

They said she was a retired Magical Girl, the heiress of a famous shrine, a highly skilled psychic――

Recently, even a story spread that she had exactly predicted people who would die in accidents.

However, that story had spread because Yukitaka, who had heard it secondhand, had spread it around half for fun, so Tsugumi had not taken it seriously.

Still, at Saegami High School, which Tsugumi attended, ghostly rumors had never ceased since long ago.

Even now, he often heard stories of people seeing strange things at night.

Tsugumi himself had never encountered anything of that sort, but his older sister Chidori often said she felt strange presences at school.

Tsugumi thought it was a misunderstanding, but that did not prove ghosts did not exist.

――Well, in any case, it was better to be careful.

Against that background, Tsugumi had been heading straight for the station, but somehow he could not shake the feeling that he had forgotten something important.

“……Ah, that's right. I need to go pick up that book.”

Suddenly he remembered.

The secondhand dealer had contacted him to say that the book he had ordered a month ago had finally arrived yesterday.

Tsugumi's older sister, Chidori, had a hobby of collecting foreign literature――especially obscure children's books, and she was so enthusiastic that she would tour used bookstores on days off from school or club.

The book she had wanted for a long time had finally become available.

It was a foreign old book that was difficult to obtain now that the country was closed off, and he had struggled to find a shop that would stock it.

Thanks to Yukitaka kindly introducing him to a shop, he had finally gotten it.

The day after tomorrow was Tsugumi and Chidori's seventeenth birthday.

They did not make any particular arrangements each year, but on that day it was customary to bring food and cake and exchange presents with each other.

“I have plans with Yukitaka after school tomorrow, so if I'm being honest, today would be the most convenient time to pick it up, but……”

――I get to go home early, so wouldn't it be fine to make a little detour?

A devil whispered that in his heart.

But he was someone who had received permission from his homeroom teacher to leave early. Normally, a detour would be out of the question.

……But if he was going to pick up the book, now was the most convenient time.

The shop was about ten minutes on foot from the nearest station. That much should be fine.

“Well, I'm sure it'll be fine.”

Tsugumi offered Suzune a light apology in his heart.

By any common sense, a situation that warranted such excessive worry should not happen so easily.

In fact, he did not feel particularly unwell.

Even if he encountered a Demonic Beast, as long as the alarm sounded, evacuation would be easy.

Besides his cell phone, he also had an alarm device, so he would almost never miss hearing it.

The Demonic Beast appearance alarm sounded at least thirty minutes in advance. Even if he missed it once, ten minutes would be enough to escape from his area.

Thinking optimistically like that, Tsugumi broke Suzune's warning and turned his steps toward the opposite side of the station.

――Without knowing that choice would lead to events that would shake the rest of his life.

◆ ◆ ◆

――He pressed his side and tried to stop the bleeding.

It was only a comfort, but it was far better than doing nothing.

Having been struck by flying rubble and dragging one leg that would no longer move freely, Tsugumi hid in the shadow of a building that had not collapsed.

The pain made him feel as if his consciousness would fly away.

“Why did this happen……”

Tsugumi looked back on what had happened up to this point.

When he had broken Suzune's warning and headed for the secondhand dealer behind the station――there had been a strange.... sense of wrongness.

As he walked, anxious that he really might have caught a cold, the true nature of that wrongness became clear.

――There was far too little sign of people.....

It looked as if everyone had completely evacuated, but even so, it was far too strange. The alarm had not even sounded, and just a few minutes earlier there had been a scattering of people.

People suddenly vanishing?

This wasn't the Mary Celeste. There was no way such a thing could happen in reality.

――No, that's not it. The real problem isn't that.

――To begin with, where.... is this place?

To the secondhand dealer that was his destination, it was a straight path from the station through the shrine.

It was a road he had traveled many times.

There was no way he could mistake it.

And yet, he did not recognize the place where he now stood.

As he grew impatient and tried to go back the way he had come, at that moment――a roar like a bomb falling echoed from overhead.

Thinking it couldn't be, he looked up at the sky. There, Tsugumi saw something unbelievable.

A Magical Girl.... and a huge gargoyle-like Demonic Beast, fighting an aerial battle at dizzying speed. A battle with a Demonic Beast that he should never have seen with his own eyes.

“N-no way!? Why am I inside a Barrier!!”

Barrier――an isolated space Magical Girls create during combat.

By trapping Demonic Beasts inside it, Magical Girls prevent damage to buildings and people who failed to escape.

Magical Girl battles could be observed in the real world through special monitors installed throughout Japan.

But the scene Tsugumi was seeing now――no matter how he thought about it, was not “through a screen”.

Naturally, ordinary humans could not enter that isolated space――in other words, the Barrier.

He had never once heard of ordinary people being caught up in a Magical Girl's Barrier.

There was no doubt that a clearly abnormal situation was happening to Tsugumi.

“You've got to be kidding! What am I supposed to do about this!?”

He had shouted without thinking, but in a situation like this, the one in the wrong would be anyone who wasn't confused.

……Suzune-sensei's assessment of a ‘bad feeling’ had, unfortunately, hit the mark exactly.

――For now, he had to get away from here. If he got caught up in the battle, he wouldn't stand a chance.

Just as Tsugumi tried to run, the Magical Girl fighting overhead was sent flying far away by the Demonic Beast's thick, rock-like arm.

A chill ran down his spine.

――Ah, this is bad.

By the time he thought that, it was already too late.

The Demonic Beast was looking at Tsugumi, who stood frozen....

……His memories from then until he fled into the back alley were extremely vague.

While trying to steady his rough breathing, he leaned against a concrete wall.

He could barely stand anymore.

He couldn't move any further, and above all, the bleeding was severe. If things went badly, he would lose consciousness and die just like that.

――I should have listened more carefully to Suzune-sensei's warning.

Regret would be too late.

He had never thought it would turn into this kind of situation.

If he could return alive, he wouldn't be satisfied until he demanded an explanation.

Yes, if he could return alive……

Tsugumi bit his lip hard. The worst possibility crossed his mind. He absolutely refused to die in vain in a place like this.

“――Damn it.”

He cursed, but there was nothing he could do. This place was cut off from every kind of outside world, inside a Magical Girl's Barrier. Unless this was undone, Tsugumi could not escape from the combat zone.

If only he hadn't been injured, he might have been able to move away from the center, but due to the shockwave of the Demonic Beast's attack, rubble had pierced his leg and side, leaving him in this state.

Strength gradually drained from his body, and he collapsed as if crawling flat against the ground. He could tell that the scenery before him was slowly blurring.

――Maybe I'm done for.

He thought that with a hazy mind.

It was not so unusual for a Magical Girl's rescue to be too late and for someone to be injured by a low-ranking Demonic Beast. If he put it another way, it was not much different from the number of cases involving serious injuries in traffic accidents.

Tsugumi's case was rare, but the result would be the same.

……Now that he thought about it, his life had been short but quite intense. Wanting to look back on his life like this――was that, in a sense, what they called your life flashing before your eyes?

Nanase Tsugumi had no memories from before he was seven.

His oldest memory was of his older sister, covered in black soot, pulling him by the hand as they ran through a sea of flames.

The Great Disaster caused by a Special A-Class Demonic Beast ten years ago.

Tsugumi and Chidori were among the few survivors of the disaster that destroyed an entire city.

Neither Tsugumi nor Chidori remembered anything about themselves, but they knew clearly only that they were family to each other. Where they were taken in, they were adopted by an elderly person, and in what was essentially a two-person household with his older sister, they had lived supporting each other until now.

――If he died, what would Chidori think?

Would she grieve?

Or would she be glad the burden was gone?

……She would surely cry, Tsugumi smiled wryly.

She was his precious other half. He could read most of her actions.

That was exactly why Tsugumi thought with conviction.

“――N-not yet. I can't die.”

――After all, if Tsugumi died, this time Chidori, his older sister, would truly be all alone. She would spend her days crying alone in their big house. That would be far too sad.

Besides, if Tsugumi died in such an incomprehensible way, Chidori would surely investigate the cause. Just thinking that she might aim to become a Magical Girl in the process sent a chill down his spine. Fighting absolutely did not suit that gentle older sister of his.

――What should he do?

How could he survive this worst possible situation?

The battle showed no sign of ending.

Before it was settled, his stamina would run out, or he would be caught in a building collapse.

He dug his nails in hard.

Helplessness made him nauseous.

But――he couldn't die yet. He must not die.

After all, he still hadn't――repaid his older sister for everything.

――Ten years ago, she had taken Tsugumi's hand as he cried and screamed in the burning city and ran desperately.

She must have been scared too, yet she didn't show a trace of it and smiled as if to encourage him.

Tsugumi treasured that strength and kindness above all.

In painful times and hard times, his older sister had always been by his side.

And yet he had still not been able to give anything back.

If he died like this, he would regret it forever even after death.

He didn't want that.

He really didn't.

Holding feelings that resembled such ego, Tsugumi said in a squeezed-out voice.

“I'm going to live.――Like hell I'll die in a place I don't even understand……!”

He forced his strengthless body up and stood on trembling legs.

His uniform, soaked heavily with blood, felt unbearably heavy.

The ground where Tsugumi stood was already covered in blood.

Even so――he was still alive.....

The situation was the worst.

He didn't know when the shockwaves of battle might come flying.

Even so, Tsugumi smiled.

There was certainly a resolve not to give up there.

――A black shadow was watching Tsugumi, covered in wounds, intently.

As if it had found something amusing, the black shadow swayed its glossy tail once and said.

“――This is why humans are foolish.”

But perhaps that, too, is part of the thrill.

With that, the black shadow slowly approached Tsugumi.

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-