NOVEL NEXT Chapter 164
On a refreshing spring day,
the wide grassy field used for training at the Magical Girl Academy bustled with the sound of a woman.
“Alright, like this!”
Under the warm sun, a woman was demonstrating various movements in front of the girls. As she moved, her hair, tied up with a hairpin, and the ample fabric of her uniform fluttered, leaving afterimages.
With silver and green taeguk swirling, the woman unleashed a barrage of attacks like a living storm.
With every punch, the air exploded,
and with every kick, space tore apart.
It was a terrifying display of martial arts, but the girls watching weren’t surprised at all.
They had grown up observing the much more fearsome and mysterious magic of witches since they were little.
To them, the impending practice time behind this demonstration was just a hassle.
“I can’t split my legs like that…”
“I’m a summoner, do I really need to learn stuff like this?”
“Besides, can’t I just push them away with telekinesis?”
The girls clearly remembered the intense battles of witches showcased in the [Witch's Duel]. Yet, those who fought straightforwardly without magic like their practice teacher were rare.
“Nowadays, [Witch's Duel] is all about firepower…”
“Yeah, that new contestant was amazing, right?”
Even though at one time their practice teacher had achieved a record as an undefeated champion in [Witch's Duel], that was a long time ago, and still, they idolized magic far more than martial arts.
“Always just running and punching… That’s why PE classes at the Magical Girl Academy are so boring.”
“I wish we could start the magic practice time soon.”
The girls longed for witches who fought with magnificent and elegant powers, like Sato Hana, the Witch of Swiftness, or their principal.
The brilliance of the yellow starlight filling the sky,
the flaming lotus that even overshadowed the summoned fiends,
compared to the flashy and beautiful powerful magic of the witches, the demonstration by their practice teacher was merely brutish punching.
“This isn’t… the way a magical girl fights.”
“Exactly, a magical girl’s fight should be flashy and beautiful!”
Ignoring their complaints with one ear, the woman, who had been fiercely fighting against imaginary foes, shouted at the girls.
“Look, like this. If an enemy suddenly appears from behind, instead of targeting the head or legs, aim for the abdomen like this!”
BAM!
With the punch thrown without even turning around, the air was sliced with a massive explosion sound. The punch aimed at where an enemy was presumed to be approaching from behind the woman, a force of wind created by the punch extended over 100 meters.
The movement of the grass extending 100 meters outward with the shape of a punch was amazing, but that was all there was to it.
To the girls who didn’t actually have to fight the practice teacher, it was just a somewhat intriguing gust of air.
“Hmph, this is an achievement called ‘Hundred Steps Divine Fist.’ You could never keep up with it with mere clumsy punching, so just focus on hitting the enemies behind…”
“If I cast a blast magic, I can easily attack from 100 meters away.”
“……”
Stunned,
the 28-year-old woman, Ichika, who had been passionately demonstrating combat techniques to the new magical girls, couldn’t help but stop her demonstration. It wasn’t just that her ‘Hundred Steps Divine Fist’ was being dismissed as inferior to a magic cannon, but more so that they didn’t grasp the very essence of the lesson.
‘These kids…!! Do they not realize how precious this teaching is…!’
Ichika’s enlightenment, having spent most of her 28 years on the battlefield—fighting and overcoming everything from humans to magical girls, monsters, demons, and trials—had left her frustrated that these valuable understandings were seen as nothing but dull physical education.
‘These small brats might one day go out and fight. Is this soft approach even right?’
The training of magical girls Ichika recalled was the very essence of combat.
The splatter of blood,
the fervor that transcended pain,
the clashing of convictions.
The desperation of the Chinese magical girls who still dreamed of revenge against the Scavengers and the girls belonging to the White Wing Unit remained vivid in her mind, yet to have obtained the precious realizations from that chaos and be treated like this…
‘I’m worried… I’m really worried about you all.’
When Ichika had first been hired as a practice teacher, she had argued at the meetings that it would be far better to rush into the garden and engage in real fights together than follow this monotonous method. Yet, Yuki, feeling that their educational methods should not match those who were facing destruction at their doorstep, rejected it.
– It should happen by their own will.
Even our goddess only gives us the opportunity to rise on our own.
We must give our children a chance to stand on their own and watch over them.
Just as we wait for the children to grow into bigger trees with the new peace and time they’ve been given, patience must be shown.
With the urgency and yearning in Yuki’s eyes that resembled roaring white flames—something she hadn’t received—Ichika quietly withdrew her plan for combat-oriented training.
“…Sigh.”
Master.
‘Did you feel this way too, when you put aside the rough methods of old and taught me a new training approach?’
Ichika sighed and slumped down in front of the girl who had made the magic cannon remark.
“Hey girls, why do you think you need to learn how to fight?”
“Hmm… Demons?”
“Right, but usually the S-class demons that you should avoid are witches… Honestly, Sato Hana could pretty much handle all of them. What’s left are just the little ones; you could experience that in real combat.”
“Uuhm… [Witch's Duel]?”
“Is this a training camp for combatants?”
“But it’s a fact that the program has increased the number of magical girl candidates…”
“Ugh, I don’t understand what you’re saying!”
Ignoring the chattering girl, Ichika continued.
“The reason the teachers want you to know how to fight is that you never know when something might happen.”
“Eh?”
“To put it bluntly, suddenly, what if an enemy appears who our witches can’t defeat? What will you do then? Who would have predicted that we’d be powerless against the monsters just like the strong states and adults?”
“…The goddess?”
“Well, that’s true, but it’s way off from the gist of my point, so let’s skip that… Anyway.”
Ichika calmed her racing heart that had jumped at the mention of Hikari, looked at the sky for a moment, and gathered her thoughts.
Ah,
what exactly was I trying to say?
The experiences of carving paths no one had told Ichika and her friends about.
Just what she wanted to say as a senior who had passed through first.
Wishing that just this once, they might go towards a path slightly better than she and her friends had.
“Um, what I mean is, we wish someone had told us about this.”
“……”
“About how to deal with a colossal magical girl fueled by resentment when she suddenly appears.”
“……”
“How to fight when enormous monsters and treacherous demons show up to threaten people, so no one gets hurt.”
“……”
“How to combat when companies aiming to monopolize magical girl powers suddenly attack while the goddess is absent.”
For some reason, Ichika condensed her lengthy remarks into a single line.
“I just wish someone had told us. So that you guys can know more things than us and get hurt less… that’s what I’m saying.”
“……”
Woosh!
The warm sea breeze filled with warmth breezed over in Elysion, sweeping over Ichika and the girls sitting quietly, each holding their thoughts.
Gathered in the expansive grassy field for PE class, they felt that breeze wash over them.
Ding—Dong—Ding—Dong!
The distant sound of a school bell chimed.
“Sorry, I suddenly brought up something serious from the start of the semester. Let’s call it a day for today’s class.”
Ichika plopped down onto the grass,
and the magical girls walked towards the academy, chattering about their next class or where they’d go hang out after school.
“Umm… Teacher.”
“Yeah?”
When Ichika turned to look, it was the girl who had made the magic cannon comment.
She seemed to be deeply pondering the words Ichika had shared earlier.
“Thinking about it, all demons are swift, and the adults trying to wield magical girl powers have terrifying guns.”
“Right.”
“So, it doesn’t seem like maintaining a 100-meter safety distance will happen very often…”
“…Yeah.”
The girl kicked the ground with a hint of regret, but eventually couldn’t finish her sentence and dashed off towards the academy.
She likely wanted to say she would pay more attention next time.
“Puhuh.”
Hearing that, Ichika felt a sense of pride well up within her.
Though awkward and clumsy, it seemed she had succeeded in giving at least one person a chance to reconsider.
‘Leader, I’ve finally reached a point where I might be able to teach someone… even if it’s just one person.’
Somewhere, a warm breeze seemed to blow from the moon high above.
With that pride, Ichika lay there for a while, until she suddenly realized there was a practical session from another class and dashed away in a frenzy.
＊＊＊
“Noah?”
“Sister! Hello!”
“…Hello.”
Today, as always, Sato Hana was flying around the world, tidying up threatening demons. She chuckled at the paper presented to her by two beginner class graduates.
[Beginner Class Graduation Exam: Engage in experiential activities with witches working on-site.]
“…The magical girls nowadays do things like this.”
Gasp!
Hana suddenly realized how much that muttering made her sound old.
As she was nearing her mid-twenties, she felt a chill as she saw witches who had once been her peers starting to shift into age groups ahead of her.
Indeed, she was now the same age as her parents when they had her.
On the day she realized that, Hana had taken a break from responding to calls and had walked along the beach, mumbling towards the moon.
‘Ah, not yet… I’m not even close to Ichika’s level.’
Though Hana still wore her long side tail, she found herself wondering if it was appropriate to maintain this hairstyle at her age. Yet, when she had let her hair down entirely one time, and a girl had looked so disappointed and asked why she had changed her hairstyle, she decided to keep it.
Reaching an age where even hairstyles attract notice.
At last, Hana had reached that age.
‘…But still, what’s fascinating remains fascinating.’
In Hana’s memories, magical girls were girls who fought by their own will, guided by the goddess, and the fact that such systematic education began after the academy’s establishment was just surprising to her.
These two girls had come through that education process.
Sato Noah and Yamashita Asuka.
“Hmm, so Noah, you decided to follow me?”
“Yeah! I want to fight with you, Sister!!”
“Did Yamashita also want to follow me?”
“Yes, and just call me Asuka.”
“Okay, got it, Asuka.”
A bouncing twin-tailed girl, happily jumping up and down since she met her sister outside, and a calm girl wearing a headgear mask among the two were entirely different in demeanor.
Between them, a reddish-brown cat flapped its cape, watching over them.
“The training period is one week. I look forward to your guidance, leader.”
“Puhuh, sure.”
Hana knew who the cultured speaking cat must have come from, but after hearing that life’s achievement is to realize one’s own identity, she withheld her words.
“I look forward to your guidance, sister… no, field trip teacher!”
“Thank you very much, teacher.”
“Okay! Yes!”
The word “teacher” felt ticklish to Hana.
‘Teacher, huh… So I’ve reached the age to hear that.’
Even at the same age when her parents had her, Hana still became a little magical girl in a yellow dress whenever she dropped by a café in Yokohama.
Ichika still laughed heartily while making silly jokes,
and Kyoko brought coffee wearing clothes with strange patterns.
The three troublemakers of Yokohama, now 12 years later, were still playing around in the café, enjoying their time.
‘Am I really an adult now?’
Sumire, who had become the president of the Witch Association, fiercely keeping many corporations in check from the shadows.
Yuki, as the principal of Magical Girl Academy, imparting compassionate teachings to countless magical girls.
And many other witches of similar age worked diligently in their positions, fulfilling their responsibilities.
And Hana’s friend Hikari too…
“Sister!”
“Yes?”
“Where are we going today?”
“I hope it’s a fierce battlefield. It would greatly help Noah’s training.”
“…With the Witch of Swiftness.”
Hearing that, Hana returned to reality.
To the reality that her friend had sacrificed herself to open up for her.
“…Hehe. So should we patrol together?”
“Sure!”
“Yes!”
The child who had given hope to the adult became an adult who gives hope to the child.
The fact Hana herself couldn’t fully trust was affirmed by the soft white light flickering from the moon.