Chapter 28

After Kisaragi told me where Saionji and the others were being held hostage, I immediately left the Magical Girl Training School and headed for the location.

This city’s reconstruction district.

Kisaragi said the hostages were there.

The reconstruction district is the area that suffered the most damage in the great disaster four years ago.

The city’s recovery has progressed little by little since then, but the scars from that disaster have yet to completely fade.

The monsters who took Saionji and the others must be lying in wait for me there.

“I’ll save you, I swear it. Saionji, Takanashi, Usami…”

I spoke the names of the abducted student council members as I flew through the sky.

Kisaragi told me it was a trap, but I intended to walk right into it.

There was no guarantee that Saionji and the others would stay alive for long.

If I, the monsters’ target, didn’t show up, they might decide the hostages were worthless and kill them.

If that happened, I’d be making the same mistake I made four years ago.

I’m not the same person I was then…

Four years ago, I was weak.

That’s why I couldn’t protect the people I cared about.

I couldn’t protect my parents or my little sister from the monsters.

But now it’s different.

With the magical power I gained back then, I’ve grown strong.

This time, I want to save the people precious to me.

Even if I end up dying as a result of this choice, I’ll have no regrets.

I’m here…

Flying through the air, I finally entered the reconstruction district.

I could see buildings that were still left in ruins.

Most were half- or completely destroyed, with greenery encroaching on them.

An uninhabited zone spread out below me.

Where are Saionji and the others…?

I scanned the area as I flew.

Somewhere in this forsaken place, the hostages had to be.

The monsters who attacked the Magical Girl Training School had to be waiting for me with them.

Hm? What’s that thing…

Heh heh heh heh heh heh.

A little ways off, a monster was flying.

It was a trivial, low-level monster.

It flew around the area, as if to show off its presence.

I was about to unleash a spell on it.

But then, the low-level monster moved.

Maintaining a constant speed, it began to travel in a certain direction.

Is it telling me to follow…?

Saionji and the other hostages might be at whatever destination that monster was leading me to.

I followed the low-level monster, flying through the sky.

This place is…

The location the low-level monster led me to was, just as I’d thought, an abandoned, ruined school.

The memories of four years ago flashed through my mind.

The middle school… I used to go to…

All sorts of memories came flooding back.

The fun days I spent with my friends.

All the different events and ceremonies.

The entrance ceremony, walking through the school gate full of nerves.

The first friend I ever made, the joy I felt at that moment.

All of it was now in the distant past.

The school was completely destroyed in the great disaster, and since most of the surrounding homes had burned down, it was shut down for good.

Of the three school buildings, only one remained.

I never saw my friends again after the disaster.

I don’t even know if they’re alive, or if they transferred to a different school somewhere.

As I was vaguely staring at the abandoned school building, I heard voices from below.

“Why did you come, Toujou?!”

“Reiya Toujou-kun! Run, now!!”

“Reiya Toujou-kun, this is a trap!! You have to get out of here!!!”

“You guys!!”

In a corner of the overgrown, ruined grounds, I saw the faces of the student council members.

Saionji, Usami, Takanashi, and more than ten other magical girls were tied up with rope, forced to their knees.

“Thank God, you’re alive!”

Relieved that they weren’t dead yet, I rushed to get closer.

“Stop!! Don’t come over here!!”

“You can’t come!”

“Reiya Toujou-kun, you can’t come this way!!”

As I tried to approach, the magical girls all warned me at once.

“Toujou! The monsters are hiding right near us!! Their goal is to kill you!! Get out of here right now!!”

“Run, Reiya Toujou-kun! Don’t worry about us!!!”

“They took us hostage just to kill you!! Leave this place immediately!”

“I refuse.”

“…!?”

“I’m not abandoning you all and running away. I’m going to get you out of here, I swear it. And I’m going to take down every last one of these monsters.”

“That’s insane… Even for you…”

The moment after Saionji said that.

Heh heh heh heh!! You fell for it, Reiya Toujou. Look, Lord Hades. As you commanded, I have brought you Reiya Toujou!!

Bwahahahaha!! So you’re Reiya Toujou!! We finally meet face-to-face!!

The low-level monster that led me here spoke to the empty air.

Then, as if parting the night’s darkness, a jet-black rift materialized.

From it, monsters began to appear one after another.

“So these are the ones…”

In an instant, I was surrounded by monsters.

The aura these monsters projected was overwhelmingly powerful and sinister, far more so than any monster I had fought before.

Every single one of them was probably much stronger than the monster Orochi.

Welcome… You are Reiya Toujou, correct?

“Yeah, that’s right. And who are you?”

A one-eyed monster that seemed to be their leader spoke to me.

Of all the monsters, its presence was the strongest.

I am Monster Hades!! The King of Monsters, able to create monsters despite being one myself!!

“Create monsters… So you’re the mastermind.”

I stood face-to-face with the monster calling himself Hades.

This one-eyed monster with the exceptionally strong aura was the one behind everything.

He was the source, the one creating and sending all the powerful monsters.

Indeed. I was the one who created the monsters you killed: Venom, Gotees, and Orochi. My goal is to create strong monsters and annihilate the magical girls. Without them, the surface world will belong to us monsters. But… you killed my creations. Because of you, magical girls who should have died are still breathing. So, I decided to kill you.

“You attacked the Magical Girl Training School just to lure me here?”

Precisely. From the very beginning, my one and only goal was to kill you.

A grin twisted Monster Hades’s lips.

I must say, I never thought you’d actually come alone, Reiya Toujou. I thought you were a smarter man… To fall for my trap a second time… Heh heh heh…

“Your target is me, right? I came here alone, just like you wanted. I didn’t call for reinforcements. So let the magical girls go now.”

I refuse.

“Why?”

Why should I listen to a man who is about to die? You are already a bird in a cage, a rat in a bag. You will not leave this place alive. You and those magical girls are all fated to die here.

“…”

It looks like there’s no way to save the hostages without taking all of these guys down.

I ignited the magic within my body, shifting into a battle stance.

“Don’t fight them, run, Toujou!!”

Saionji’s voice echoed like a scream.

But I had no intention of running.

I turned to her and smiled.

“It’s okay, Saionji. I’m not going to die. I’ll beat every last one of them and save you all, I promise.”

“Bwahahahaha!! Such bravado!! To still think you can win, even now!! But make no mistake, Reiya Toujou. You will most certainly die here. Because… the monsters standing before you now are the strongest monster unit I created for the sole purpose of defeating you!!”