Hagakure Sakura Does Not Lament

Edited by LyraDhani

“–Hahaha! What’s wrong with the Demonic Beast! It’s moving too slowly!”

Mibu Yurie was avoiding the attacks from the beast with her light steps, and in between attacks, she was boldly cutting at the beast. However, the beast’s skin was hard and the cut was not very deep.

He was worried about how well Mibu would be able to move, partly because of her inability to use her powers as a Magical Girl, but it seemed that his fears were unfounded.

From the outside, Mibu seemed to have the upper hand. However, that was not the problem.

“…Even if you ask for my support, how am I supposed to barge in?”

While Mibu and the Demonic Beast were moving around at a dizzying pace, Tsugumi was stunned, holding a stone in his hand. In a situation like this, even if he threw a stone, it might just get dangerously in the way.

“That’s amazing… I do kendo too, but I could never move like that.”

Chidori, perhaps thinking the same thing as Tsugumi, gazed at Mibu’s battle with eyes filled with puzzlement and respect. As people who share the same path of swordsmanship, she must have felt something.

–“Rikka” is not a bad title, after all.

The name Rikka had been at the forefront of the Magical Girl world for four years. Tsugumi, who had only been active for half a year, also benefited from physical strengthening. There was no way that someone in Rikka’s class could be ordinary.

As he thought about this, Tsugumi threw a stone behind the Demonic Beast, aiming for the moment when Mibu would cut into it. The sound of the stone falling almost made the beast react, but it did not turn around. After that, he threw a few more stones, knocked over things to make noise, and did some other small obstructions, but that didn’t seem to have much of an effect.

…Was cooperation really necessary?

Seeing Mibu happily taking on the beast, he wondered if his help was needed.

Perhaps, although Mibu said they were cooperating in the battle, his real mission was to serve as a messenger to Suzushiro.

But that was as far as he could safely go.

The beast’s wounds were steadily increasing, but they were shallow and far from fatal. And without a chance to take the all-important poison, time was passing in vain. Tsugumi was not the only one feeling impatient.

“Kuh, I don’t think I have the strength to drag this on any longer.”

After saying this, Mibu took some distance from the beast and turned back to Tsugumi.

“Get ready to run! You remember where it is, right?”

“Yes! It’s the wooden three-dimensional maze to the west, right?

When Chidori replied, Mibu answered “Alright!” and held the kodachi in the opposite hand.

“I didn’t want to use it if possible, but I guess I can’t spare it.”

Mibu inserted kodachi directly into her chest and roughly cut her clothes from the chest to her feet. Her white, slender body was exposed to Tsugumi’s eyes.

“…Huh? Eh?!”

Tsugumi could not hide his shock and shouted loudly.

—Is, is this something I should take a closer look at? No, but I have to cover for support…

He glanced behind him and saw Chidori staring at him with terribly cold eyes.

In an instant, his excitement subsided and his head cooled down.

“…I’m sorry. I’ll concentrate properly.”

‘Very well. –I’m sure Mibu-san has her own ideas. Let us do our job.”

◆◆◆

–Mibu Yurie was an abnormal person with an urge to cut down things.

Yurie was born to an ordinary couple and led an ordinary life without any inconvenience. The turning point came in the spring of the year she turned ten. It was a warm day, with petals of cherry blossoms dancing in the air.

In the morning, Yurie was walking to school when she was attacked by a gangster with a knife. However, when the knife was pointed at her, she took it without fear and, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, twisted the weapon in the gangster’s stomach.

Afterward, Yurie answered the adults’ questions without any sense of fear: “Because that knife looked like it would cut well.”

From that day on, Yurie’s abnormality became apparent. Whenever she picked up anything with a blade, from scissors to cutters to kitchen knives, she could not suppress the urge to tear apart the object in front of her. In addition to this, for some reason, Yurie was unable to feel guilty about the act of cutting.

When Yurie held a knife in her hand, she had only two choices: “it cuts” or “it doesn’t cut”.

Each time Yurie’s parents tried to correct her impulses by scolding her, quieting her, and sometimes crying over her, but without success.

It was a kind of inevitability that Yurie decided to become a Magical Girl when she turned twelve.

-To be able to legally chop down various objects. How wonderful that is!

Yurie continued to cut up Demonic Beasts as her impulses dictated. The illustrious status of Rikka was only a byproduct of that. But now, she had a certain sense of duty as a member of Rikka, and the awareness that she should behave in a manner befitting of her position. Otherwise, she would never have thought of fighting a Demonic Beast in such a helpless state.

With the cooperation of the contract God, she was now able to suppress the impulses in her daily life, but it was a wonder what would happen when she retired from being a Magical Girl.

It might just be a matter of not carrying a knife, but there was still the possibility of “what if”.

Yurie herself had no desire to cause trouble for others. When she retired, it might be safe to live a slow life deep in the mountains, far away from people.

–But first, she would probably have to die.

“–Skill release, ‘Aerial Walking’.”

With that declaration, Mibu ran through the air. Aerial Walk, as the name implied, was a skill to walk in the air. For Yurie, who had been a Magical Girl for a long time, it was an ability that she could use more easily than breathing.

If there was a problem, it was the side effect.

Yurie’s face was no longer as relaxed as it had earlier when she attacked by creating footholds up and down, left and right, and in the air, looking for the beast’s opening. Her lovely face was contorted in pain, and her white skin gradually turned red. Her body was gushing out a considerable amount of sweat.

“Ah! It’s hot!!”

–The side effect that appeared in Mibu Yurie was “fever”. Every time she used her ability as a Magical Girl, her body temperature would gradually rise. Even if she tried to adjust the temperature by turning off the skill, the raised body temperature did not go down easily. Even more so because of the strenuous exercise she did.

She had cut her clothes in order to release as much heat as possible. She was definitely not an exhibitionist.

Then, the moment the beast was knocked out of its stance by an attack from behind – Yurie activated her second skill. The divine power gathered in the kodachi and clothed it in a pale red color.

“Cut it down, Beast Slaying!”

With that declaration, Yurie swung down the kodachi.

–As the name suggested, the Beast Slaying was a skill to slay Demonic Beasts. To be more precise, it was a skill that put the necessary concepts into a sword. There was no need to explain in detail now.

It was so tricky that it required some taming, but as long as she had this skill, no matter how hard-armored the beasts were, she could cut them down with a single sword stroke. This was the last trump card Mibu Yurie had.

“…It still won’t work, after all!”

–But in a situation where the output of the skill was limited, it didn’t become a fatal hit.

The blade cut off the beast’s right arm, which was raised as if to protect it, and came close to its neck. However, the blade stopped when the tip of the blade dug in a few centimeters.

Yurie rushed to pull out the kodachi, but the beast’s remaining left hand gripped the kodachi, preventing her from moving.

“Gu, gaaaaaaaah!”

The Demonic Beast screamed in a mixture of pain and anger. The beast pulled the kodachi and tried to attack Yurie – not realizing that it was guided to do so.

“Ah, I was waiting for you to do that.”

Yurie smiled and let go of the kodachi. She then approached the staggered beast and took two bottles the size of golf balls, unsealed them, and threw them into the beast’s mouth. She kicked the Ogre in the mouth, forcing it to close its mouth, and made it swallow the entire bottle and the liquid inside. After watching the beast’s throat move, Yurie quickly stepped back.

“–I made it drink the poison!!!! Go!”

As Yurie shouted this, one of the siblings who had been asked to help – the older sister, Chidori – ran as if she had been shot. Looking at the sister’s figure with a sideways glance, Yurie sensed an approaching limit.

–Her vision was whirling.

At this point, Yurie’s body temperature was over 42 degrees celsius, and she could have lost consciousness at any moment. The fact that she was able to hold on was a result of her willpower and perseverance as Rikka.

But perhaps it was the slackness of having accomplished her mission to poison the beast, or the fact that she was on the verge of losing concentration, which she had been keeping just in time.

Through a blurred vision, the Ogre approached Yurie, moaning in agony. But Yurie couldn’t move.

–Well, I guess I did my best.

Yurie thought with a fluffy thought process. This way of death would at least save Rikka’s face. It was dumb that she was in her underwear, but that couldn’t be helped.

And just as Yurie was about to accept her death, something was thrown at the Ogre’s face.

“Gaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

The beast screamed loudly and held its face with the remaining left hand. The beast’s face was covered with a shocking pink liquid, and even from a short distance away, one could smell a strong odor wafting through the air.

As she watched the scene, she felt someone’s hands on her waist and the back of her knees.

“Hmm?”

Without the time to be confused, she was lifted up and held sideways. It was the so-called bridal carry. When Yurie looked up, she saw a man with an impatient look on his face – Nanase Tsugumi.

“What are you doing?! Don’t give up so easily!

“–Ah.”

“Let’s run away quickly. We’re going to lead that Ogre to the west, right? It’s going to be a little bumpy, but bear with me.”

Tsugumi, with its back to the Ogre and Yurie in his arms, tried to run off to the west. Yurie impatiently grabbed Tsugumi by the collar and forced him to stop, then pointed to the kodachi that had fallen nearby.

“Wait a minute. Can you pick that up for me?”

“That? …That’s right. It’s probably still needed.”

With minimal movement, he picked up the kodachi, wrapped the blade in the cloth that had fallen off, and handed it to Yurie.

“Look for the scabbard later. The Ogre seems to be weakened, but that doesn’t mean it won’t lash out while we’re looking for it.”

Yurie stared blankly at Tsugumi that had run off after saying that, buoyed by the heat. The angle from below gave a good view of the face under the sunglasses. It resembled the face often seen in the visual media these days.

–It’s just like the face of Sakura Hagakure.

Yurie slowly let go of her consciousness as she was rocked in Tsugumi’s arms. It was beyond her mental and physical limits to move any further.

The only remaining fortress was Suzushiro Ran, who was waiting for her in the three-dimensional maze. But Yurie was not worried.

–Because she was so much stronger than Yurie.