Hagakure Sakura Does Not Lament - Chapter 4: That Which Is Called Hagakure (Patreon)

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

――Even if I stop here, I'll only get caught up in the fight and die.

I braced a hand against a battered wall and walked in search of a place even a little farther from the damage. Because my vision was blurry, I couldn't even make out the obstacles at my feet.

The intense pain racing through my whole body gradually changed into a dull ache. My senses must have been starting to go numb.

Tsugumi kept walking desperately.

When the sounds of battle had faded slightly into the distance, he rolled into a back alley so as not to be found by the enemy.

"...Haha, I can't stop shaking."

He laughed as if mocking himself.

"...I can't move another step."

But he had managed to get farther from the center of the battle than before. He had no choice but to crouch here and wait for the fight to end.

It was a poor matchup for a contest of endurance, but even so, he had no choice but to endure.

――But no matter how much he tried to rouse himself, the calm part deep in his heart understood.

This body wouldn't last much longer.

Little by little, the depths of his vision were stained red.

For some reason, the area around his heart was terribly hot.

He coughed up blood with a "geh" and closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids, red light danced and fluttered.

Somehow, if he let his guard down, he felt like he would fall asleep just like that.

"...It's frustrating, huh."

He muttered that in a voice that was almost a breath.

He strongly thought that he didn't want to die. But he didn't know what more he could do.

Only in manga do wounds heal through guts alone. If willpower could heal injuries, doctors wouldn't exist in this world.

He opened his eyes vaguely.

The blood trailing down his limbs looked like red cords.

If there were a death god with good taste here, they might solemnly tell him, "The fate of death is entwined around you."

He had the leeway to make such a joke in his mind, but he no longer had the energy to actually say it aloud.

Even moving a single finger was a bother.

――If he wanted to change this fate of death, there was nothing else but to wish for a miracle.

Yes, a miracle like one a god would bring about――a miracle like that.

After thinking that far, Tsugumi gave a dry smile.

――Miracles don't happen so easily.

If he were a special person full of talent, maybe, but Tsugumi was an ordinary human. There was no way a god would go out of their way to save such an insignificant existence.

The only one who would reach out a hand to someone this close to death was probably a devil who preyed on weakness.

...But honestly, even a devil would have been fine.

If it meant he could survive here and now, he didn't care whose hand he took. Tsugumi had certainly thought that.

So this encounter... probably couldn't be called a miracle.

But――it must have been fate.

"――Brat. Do you want to be saved?"

Suddenly, a voice fell into his ear.

A black shadow fell before his eyes.

When Tsugumi slowly raised his face, there was a black cat.

Peering into Tsugumi with golden eyes, the black cat asked again.

"Do you want to survive? Or to just die like this?"

"――Depending on your answer, it's not like I won't save you."

The black cat said that while laughing.

That voice had an irresistible charm.

It was a strange sound, combining a holiness that made him want to cling to it and a repulsion that made him want to turn away.

And yet, there was something about it that drew him in.

――This was surely a "devil's bargain."

Tsugumi understood that this black cat was not a normal being.

Even Amaterasu Omikami's Barrier was not omnipotent. Tsugumi's current state was proof of that. Sometimes evil things would slip through.

――But so what?

Even if the being before him was a devil, what problem was there in that?

If it ended with only him suffering under an unreasonable contract, then that was fine.

That felt far better than dying here without anyone knowing.

With a hand stained with dark blood, he grabbed the black cat's forepaw.

He could no longer even speak properly.

――So Tsugumi simply nodded. As if to clearly show his affirmation.

Seeing that, the black cat laughed.

The movement of raising the corners of their mouth in a grin was impossible with a cat's skeleton.

The black cat brought their face close to Tsugumi's ear and whispered delightedly.

"I see. ――Then I'll infest you...."

――And then the black cat sank their fangs into Tsugumi's throat.

◆◆◆

"Tsugumi!! Is your cold gone!?"

"Whoa!"

At the sudden loud voice ringing by his ear, Tsugumi reflexively screamed. From the abrupt awakening, his heart pounded as if thrashing.

Tsugumi looked around with a start.

...No, forget rubble, even the wounds all over his body were gone. He patted his side and legs, but found nothing abnormal.

――Could that have been a dream? That thought filled his chest.

Chidori, peering anxiously at Tsugumi, softly spoke.

"Honestly, I got a message from Amari-kun, so I skipped club and came home. You were collapsed at the entrance, so I thought my heart would stop... Hey, are you really okay?"

"Eh, ah... sorry. I was kind of spacing out..."

"Did you catch a cold after all?"

Chidori gently brushed up Tsugumi's bangs and pressed her own forehead against his. Chidori's warmth gradually transmitted.

At his sister's well-formed face so close by, Tsugumi felt strangely restless.

Chidori, who had no way of knowing Tsugumi's complicated feelings, pulled her forehead away and let out a relieved breath.

"Thank goodness, it looks like you don't have a fever. You should rest today. If you get hungry, I'll make you some rice porridge."

"...Sorry for worrying you."

The moment he saw Chidori's smile, strength drained from Tsugumi's body.

――Ah, thank goodness.

She was smiling today too. That alone was enough.

"...Sorry, Chidori. I'm already sleepy today, so I don't need dinner. If I get hungry, I'll make something myself."

"Really? Tell me if anything happens. Honestly, Tsugumi, you always push yourself too hard."

Tsugumi laughed and said there was no need to worry, then returned to his own room.

With a slam, he closed the door, then slid down to sit there with his back against the wall. His head hurt terribly.

He somehow forced his dazed thoughts awake.

――No matter how he thought about it, it was too strange.

Looking at his school uniform with no tears or wounds, Tsugumi furrowed his brow.

He couldn't explain it well, but those injuries had definitely been real. So real that he had truly thought he would die. But when he lifted his clothes and looked at his side, there was not a single wound, and no pain either.

There were too many contradictions for it to be a dream.

To begin with, he had no memory of returning home from the station.

――From when was it a dream, and from where was it reality?

Perhaps this very moment was a hallucination at the point of death.

...Even thinking about it, I still don't understand. Once tomorrow comes, I'll get checked at a hospital once.

"...What in the world was that cat?"

He muttered that to himself.

It was too vivid and too raw an event to dismiss as a dream.

Carrying something he couldn't accept, Tsugumi stood up and threw himself onto the bed.

Surely, if it was a dream, it would be better to let it end as a dream.

He was alive like this with all his limbs intact. Only that fact mattered.

That was exactly why Tsugumi should say this.――Ah, thank goodness it was a dream.

When he closed his eyes in relief, a voice came from above his head.

"――What do you mean, a dream, you damn idiot?"

He reflexively shot his upper body up.

"Eh... ah, huh?"

"What kind of dumbfounded face are you making? Your master is showing themselves before you like this. You should prostrate yourself with your head rubbed against the ground."

There, a black cat with four thin wings like a dragonfly's growing from their back was floating softly in midair.

Perhaps unable to grasp the situation, Tsugumi stared at the strange creature with his mouth wide open in blank amazement.

"Hah...?"

"I said you're being insolent!!"

The black cat raised that angry shout, then flexed their forepaw with soft, plump paw pads and slapped Tsugumi hard.

"Gugh!?"

Despite their fancy appearance, the blow was merciless.

Tsugumi tumbled off the bed, and his cheek throbbed with a dull pain.

"Hmph, you dullard. Have you finally decided to lower your head?"

'――No, you knocked me down.'

He argued back only in his mind and did not say it aloud. It was a wise decision.

"You... no, what exactly are you?"

"What? You really don't remember? What an incompetent fool.――Or are you pretending to have forgotten?"

At the black cat's merciless words, Tsugumi fell silent. He couldn't think of what he should say back. ...No, perhaps he had vaguely understood.

His own dying figure remained faintly in his memory. Pain as if his body were being split apart.――And those words that had echoed like a savior's.

"Do you want to be saved?"

To those words, Tsugumi had certainly nodded. If so, then this black cat was――.

Tsugumi stared fixedly at the black cat and said quietly.

"Was it you who saved me?"

"Hah, so you finally remembered."

The black cat said that as if spitting it out, then plopped down on the bed and smiled cynically.

"I am God. I am King. I am your master.――Rejoice, servant. You have been splendidly chosen as my toy for killing time. Dance as much as you can without breaking."

"Toy? Dance? What exactly are you planning to make me do?"

At the black cat's mocking tone, a chill crept slowly up his spine. He knew this sensation. Yes, it was just like when he got caught up in Yukitaka's scheming――a bad omen.

"I know it's not my place to say this after you saved my life, but I won't do things like committing crimes just because I'm told to. If it were only me, maybe, but I don't want to do anything that causes trouble for others. ...No, I know I'm saying something convenient. ...If you don't like that, I won't complain even if you turn my wounds back."

It was a life he had gone to the trouble of being saved, but if it meant harm coming to Chidori, losing it would be better. Even if an inexplicable death was unavoidable, it would be far healthier than being thought to have been caught up in a Magical Girl-related incident.

But the black cat――the god's reaction was completely different from what Tsugumi had imagined.

"Don't mock me, brat. Do you think I, of all beings, would commit evil using a human of your level, and only a single pawn at that? If I did such a thing, my former subordinates would laugh at me!"

――If I'm going to do it, it has to be on an army scale or it won't be respectable!

The god was directing their anger in a direction Tsugumi couldn't understand.

"Um... so, can I interpret that as you won't do cruel things to my family or force me to commit crimes?"

"Hmph, that would be it. I have no interest in your fellow humans."

"Then what exactly should I do?"

There were limits to what an ordinary human could do. Frankly, he couldn't possibly imagine being able to pull off a feat that would satisfy this god.

When Tsugumi asked that, the god narrowed their golden eyes and wore a smile containing delight. Then they announced something outrageous.

"In this playground country, toys are called 'Magical Girls,' right?――You will become my Magical Girl. Besides, it would be boorish not to participate in such an enjoyable event. Entertain me as much as you can."

"W-wait a minute. Magical Girl... I'm a guy, you know? I don't have the aptitude or the right. That's absurd!"

"Silence. You have no right to refuse. If I say do it, you do it. Nothing other than that is needed."

At the voice tinged with intimidation, Tsugumi unconsciously shut his mouth.

"――However, it is not my intention to be noticed by that sun goddess. You will act inconspicuously, strictly within the rules of this country. Well, I shall treat you as equivalent to an ordinary toy Magical Girl."

"But like I said earlier, I'm a guy. There's no precedent of a guy becoming a Magical Girl, and I'm not suited to be a vessel to accept a god's power, right? Besides, a male Magical Girl would definitely stand out."

"There's no need to worry. I will alter your appearance with my authority only during transformation, and I can adjust a vessel as much as needed.――Besides, I noticed after making the contract, but your Divine Power permeation rate is better than ordinary women. Were you perhaps training among shrine maidens?"

"I don't think... that's the case."

He wanted to say it was impossible, but since he had no memories of early childhood, he couldn't assert it. Because some family register data had been lost in the Great Disaster ten years ago, there was no longer any way to know his roots.

"Well, fine. Tomorrow, you will actually transform and fight a Demonic Beast. Then you'll understand even if you don't want to."

He wanted to raise an objection to such a carefree attitude, but Tsugumi was not granted the right to refuse. Tsugumi swallowed what he wanted to say and nodded quietly. But even so, it wasn't that he had nothing he wanted to ask.

"I truly am grateful that you saved me, and if it's something I can do, I won't say I'll gladly... but I'll do anything.――But why did you go out of your way to choose me, a man? You're probably a high-ranking being, right? You should have been able to choose any number of more excellent girls."

In this Japan, the chief deity is Amaterasu Omikami――in other words, a goddess, so those who serve at a god's side are basically women. That is precisely why the public perception that "gods prefer women" is deeply rooted. There was no need to go out of the way to choose Tsugumi, who was male.

But the black cat distorted their face at Tsugumi's question and said something outrageous.

"Unfortunately, unlike other god trash, I don't like women who sell flattery."

"Tr-trash... So, um, does that mean you hate women?"

Though bewildered by the sudden abusive language, Tsugumi asked back.

"I went to see the government's so-called selected candidates several times, but they were hopeless. They grovel and cling to gain their own advantage. And all while hiding their filthy true nature behind smiles.――That sight resembles religious figures serving those in power, and it makes me sick."

The god spat out "keh" and said it dismissively. ...Did they perhaps have some great trauma regarding religious figures?

"Not all of them are like that, I'm sure... Even if not selected, there should have been girls all over Japan who wanted to become Magical Girls. I think there are pure girls among them too."

By that logic, someone like Chidori would easily reach the passing line. No, but I will absolutely stop Chidori from becoming a Magical Girl.

When Tsugumi said that, the black cat made a face as if they had bitten into a bitter bug.

"Unfortunately, I can only contract them as a Magical Girl pawn after they turn twelve... I considered compromising with those girls, but they simply lack innocence. So I decided to settle for a man who can handle some recklessness."

"...God, could it be that you're a loli fe―"

The moment he tried to continue with "fetish," the black cat's tail struck his face hard. It hurt in a subtle way.

"Don't say such disgusting things, you fool...!! I simply have a narrow acceptable range!!"

"...I-I see."

――Is that something to be proud of?

He thought so, but swallowed it. Silence is golden.

"That is why I compromised with a fellow like you. You should thank me while crying."

"...Yes, thank you very much."

In other words, this god had wanted to contract with a Magical Girl, but because women over twelve somehow didn't please them, they compromised with the dying Tsugumi――apparently that was the story. There was nothing but things to retort to.

...Either way, Tsugumi could not escape from the god. The contract had already been completed....... It was not logic but his heart that understood it. This black cat was unquestionably his master.

At the silent Tsugumi, the black cat grinned broadly.

"I'm looking forward to what comes next, hmm? Isn't that right, my miserable contractor and host?"

"Before that, can I ask one thing?"

"...I've been thinking since a while ago, but your manner of speaking is rude. Well, fine. I am magnanimous. We will be together for a long time, so I shall forgive some trivialities. So, what is it?"

"What should I call you?"

At that question from Tsugumi, the god opened their eyes wide and tilted their small head cutely.

"Hmm? Had I not said it yet? Let's see,――you may call me 'Bell.'"

"Bell..."

――Was there a god or devil with such a name?

At least, Tsugumi had no recollection of one.

"Add -sama, you dullard. You lack the manners of one who serves."

"Um, I do have a proper name, Tsugumi..."

"So what?――Ah, that reminds me, I forgot to mention it. When registering you as a Magical Girl, I took the liberty of using a false name. A stray not collared by the government has more flexibility, after all. As long as your transformed appearance isn't seen, no one will realize you're a Magical Girl."

At the bluntly returned words, he felt a little down. ...No, wait, he had just been told something he couldn't ignore. Thinking that, Tsugumi opened his mouth as if to ask.

"A false name? What kind of name is it?"

If it was a glittering name so embarrassing he couldn't even introduce himself, what should he do? A tension quietly ran through his heart.

"――Hagakure Sakura. Even I think it's a good name, no?"

To Bell, who said that while smiling proudly, Tsugumi nodded with strange conviction.

"'Bushido is found in death,' huh. So it was taken from the Hagakure Kikigaki. I did indeed die once, so it might be just right for me."

It is often misunderstood by the public, but the passage in the Hagakure Kikigaki, a guidebook of warrior conduct――"Bushido is found in death"――does not mean charging in with a death-defying resolve for a goal.

Its original meaning is the idea that judgment from the mindset of one who is already dead produces the best results.

He had not thought that Bell, likely a foreign god, would be so familiar with Japanese culture.

As Tsugumi was impressed like that, Bell tilted their head blankly.

"No, I just thought it sounded cool."

"............"

"Hey, say something."

"...No, it's just! I think it's the coolest name! As expected of a god, your sense is outstanding!"

He raised his voice as if to cover it up and forcibly ended the conversation. He was ashamed of himself for lecturing with a knowing face.

"Ah, of course! Praise me more!"

While offering praise to the god, who puffed out their chest with an "ehen," Tsugumi felt relieved. Apparently, this god was more careless than he had thought――no, perhaps they were a good-natured god.

"Bell-sama."

"What is it, servant?"

"――I look forward to working with you from now on."

"Mm. Do your best."

Their arrogant attitude was unchanged. But strangely, it didn't feel unpleasant.

――This was Tsugumi's encounter with the "Demon God"――Bell, and also the beginning of everything.

This is the story of a boy.... who was saved by a god.

And the story of a Magical Girl――Hagakure Sakura, who was infested by a devil.

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