Chapter 180
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A familiar crimson blade cuts out a rectangular space in the air, creating a pitch-black void, and from there—
「Sena!」
My beloved girl appears.
She—Sena—looks around and notices me.
「Ichiro—」
For a moment, Sena wavers and starts to collapse to her knees—but before she can, I catch her! I hold her in my arms.
Sena shows no sign of resistance and lets herself lean against me.
───Ichiro, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Just… wait… a little bit…
The memory of her voice from that time echoes in my mind.
Back then, when she tried to leave Hidden Mountain, she apologized to me and suffered a severe decline in health. Sensei had hinted that the cause of her condition was psychological. The fact that Sena is here now means she must have endured all of that to get here.
「Ichiro, I’m so glad you’re alive…」
Her fingers touch my cheek, tracing near my left eye.
「This must have—hurt so much.」
Her fingers brush against my missing right ear, and her gaze falls on my patchwork body.
Sena’s tears begin to fall.
Despite her own condition being so poor she can barely stand, she cries thinking only of me.
「Yeah, it hurt. But now that you’re here—」
Before I can finish speaking,
「Go die quietly like a horse-kicked fool.」
As Ainika approaches with his greatsword, trying to interrupt our long-awaited reunion, I transform all eleven of my manifested light arms into hooves and accelerate them all to strike him. After confirming the nuisance is temporarily incapacitated, I clear my throat.
Then, continuing what I was saying before,
「Now that you’re here, I’m totally fine. Strange, isn’t it? I really am, honestly, completely fine now.」
Feeling her warmth, I truly believe this.
At my words, Sena blinks two or three times, then somehow manages to stand steady and reaches out to put her hands on my back.
「Ichiro, that… you idiot.」
Her hands, perfectly fitting in mine, grip tightly.
Not to be outdone, I hold her close as well.
「When this is over, there’s something I want to tell you.」
Death flag? Never heard of it.
I’ll raise as many as I want and break them all just as easily.
「Ichiro, what a coincidence. I have something I want to tell you too.」
I don’t wonder what we both want to say. Her feelings have already been conveyed to me through her voice, her words, her gestures, her appearance, the warmth of her touch—through everything that she is.
「In that case, wait here a bit. I’m going to go beat that guy up.」
Maybe it’s an illusion or something, but it’s strange.
Just having her beside me makes me feel like I can do anything.
「WHITE GIRL!! HAVEN’T YOU LEARNED YOUR LESSON!! DID YOU FORGET HOW MY DARK ARMS IMPALED YOU EARLIER!!」
The Ainika before us has finally recovered and is spouting threats, but—
「SHUT UP!! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO DID THIS TO ICHIRO!!」
Sena’s beautiful yet fierce dance of attacks.
Every single one of her punches hits vital points, causing smoke to burst dramatically from Ainika’s body.
「UGUOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!」
A strangled cry of agony erupts from Ainika’s throat. As he regenerates, the castle walls crumble and vanish into thin air.
「Hmm, I guess this is still a bit difficult for the current Ichiro.」
SHOCK! Apparently that feeling of omnipotence was just an illusion.
「Don’t make that face. Ichiro, it’s going to be okay.」
Sena touches my right hand, which has been replaced by Light Magic, as I’m on the verge of tears.
「Ichiro, you said you would fight. I believe in you. What I’m about to do is just a tiny bit of help.」
Something flows from her into me.
It’s a familiar power, similar to what I feel from Sena and Sensei.
「The current Ichiro, who can grasp ‘qi’ and manipulate nature as naturally as breathing, can now sense and use ‘Divine Qi.’」
What flowed from her to me was power of a different order than my and Mika’s light mana. My instincts could sense its divinity.
「This is that help.」
What I received wasn’t just power.
Her—Sena’s true feelings touched my heart.
「If you can’t win with that, Ichiro, I’ll face him myself.」
Though it must be painful for her, she manages to declare this with her head held high.
「But that definitely won’t happen.」
I didn’t ask why, but Sena continued.
「Because I know you better than anyone else.」
Her words, delivered straight to my face, make me blush.
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