Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Girl Talk is Done with Fists☆
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I parted my lips slightly and began to steady my ragged breathing.
Hee— hoo—
With every inhale and exhale, a clear, lovely voice echoed in my ears.
“…”
The diction, like that of a voice actor pouring their soul into a performance, spilling out as everyday speech; the first-person view of a beautifully sculpted body and a weighty chest rising and falling—I was used to it all by now.
A year had already passed.
Since I started living as a character in a game.
And since I began growing stronger by sparring with the most powerful character of all.
-Another draw.
-Next time, I’ll be the one to win.
Today, we had promised to settle the score in the fighting tournament, where every student in the academy was participating.
The arena was built from a sturdy, state-of-the-art alloy.
Until recently, it had looked like a sacred temple.
Now, it was filled with unsightly craters and gashes dozens of meters wide.
The marks of my battle with her, of course.
The final match of the fighting festival.
The cheers that had erupted from the tens of thousands of spectators gathered here were gone. A silence, as if time had stopped. The students were simply holding their breath, quietly witnessing the conclusion of this fight.
Sweat dripped from their tightly clenched fists.
The desserts they had brought to share with friends remained untouched.
They could only watch, trembling with excitement.
There was one question that countless female students in the academy city had asked until now.
[Who is the strongest student in the history of Academy City Yggd?]
It was a debate that had started with profound reasoning, devolved into emotional squabbles, and eventually led to brawls in dessert shops and cafes. A trivial topic with no answer.
Perhaps, in this very moment.
They thought they might be witnessing the answer to that debate.
The aura emanating from the fists of the two combatants in the center of the arena, the power contained within, was more than enough to contend for the title of the strongest in the academy city's history.
‘Well, actually, I’m the only one with clenched fists.’
During the lull in the fight as we caught our breath,
I shook the fleeting, casual thought from my mind.
“Hoo, hoo…”
“Huu, hup…”
My opponent was just as hesitant to attack, thinking this might be the final exchange. We watched each other's movements, waiting for the moment the other’s breathing faltered.
You get one shot.
I get one shot.
The crucial point, then, was who would land that one shot.
I felt my opponent's breathing stabilizing rapidly and marveled at it.
‘As expected of the strongest. She’s already recovered her breath.’
[The Azure-White Lightning Spear] Brynhildr.
A first-year student at Aesir Girls' High School.
Her appearance two years before she shows up in the game's story.
The girl who, for the past year, had fought and grown stronger with me as a peer of the same age.
‘According to the original lore, she was supposed to be unrivaled until her third year, the time of the main story. Having fought me and grown stronger, she might be even closer to that version of herself now.’
Brynhildr.
The strongest character in the mobile game I used to play.
A sharp glint in her eyes, she was steadying her breathing.
Her silver-white hair and slender figure seemed impossibly delicate, yet the aura radiating from the lance in her hand was menacing.
“…”
The silver-haired girl, called 'Hilde' for short by her friends, spoke to me—a rare occurrence in the middle of a fight.
“…Lara.”
“Oh my, what a surprise☆”
“…”
“Hilde, making small talk mid-battle… Did you suddenly feel like having some girl talk?”
I had clearly thought, ‘Hilde, what’s up?’ but ever since I woke up as this damn pink-haired ‘Clara,’ the pretty filter in my head has been manipulating my lines on its own.
But I figured it was fine.
Isn’t conversation something that happens heart-to-heart?
I firmly believed that true girl talk was forged in blood and sweat.
‘She seems to be in a good mood today.’
A hint of the sky’s azure had seeped into Hilde’s silver-white eyes, giving them the vitality of blue roses.
The brightest light I had seen in her eyes over the past year.
Except for ‘the final moment of the game’s main story’…
this was the first time I had seen her smile so vibrantly.
Hilde spoke with that vibrant smile.
“Thank you, Lara. For not breaking and staying with me this past year.”
“Hehe. Don’t mention it. And they were all draws, weren’t they—☆”
“In all my years, those who crossed lances with me either fell into despair or ended up worshiping me.”
“Well, that’s because you’re a wonderful girl everyone would look up to, Hilde—☆”
I had tried to say, ‘You’re barely a teenager, what’s with all this talk of “all your years”?’ but, as expected, the pretty filter kicked in and twisted my words.
“Those were lonely days. I even lamented my talent, which left me without a worthy opponent, seeing it as a curse from the gods.”
“…”
“I’m glad I met you.”
“Hehe.”
“Thanks to you, in this very moment…”
*Tch!*
Hilde, her breathing now perfectly steady, pushed off the ground lightly and shot forward like a bullet.
“I truly feel alive—!!!”
*Krrrrrrumble—!!*
With every footstep, the arena floor caved in by several meters. A menacing sound emanated from her entire body as she advanced at the speed of a lightning flash.
Beneath the hem of the approaching silver-haired girl's skirt.
The landscape unfolded into a wave of rock shattered by her power, a ceaseless storm of lightning raging around her.
The girl of azure and white, with a scene of destruction behind her, was approaching like a king of the storm.
Suddenly.
My vision began to move in slow motion.
A koan was cast into my mind.
Beyond my consciousness, a white light was flickering.
Beneath the hot sun, what is it that shines in this moment?
Is it the moment a young girl, living out her youth, shines like lightning?
Is it the good fortune of being given a chance to prove one's strength inside a game?
Or is it learning what is truly precious from an overwhelming love?
In this time forged from a collection of moments, all these things blended together, shining so brilliantly… I couldn’t tell for sure.
But.
One thing I did know was.
The thought that if I were to let this brilliance slip away.
I might regret it for the rest of my life.
‘In that case…’
I will welcome it with open arms.
Not as the game character ‘Clara.’
But as ‘Lara,’ who had grown for a year as Hilde’s rival.
In this miraculous moment that transcends past and present lives.
I will enjoy the battle already unfolding here.
As a gamer, I will accept this opportunity to become a game character, grow, and face the one I admired as an equal—I will accept it as fate.
I will simply fight.
And I will win.
With that resolve, I clenched my fists and shouted.
“Final Art…!”
Thrusting my fists forward, I unleashed the culmination of the skill I had trained for the past year.
[Pink Lemon Sherbet]
With my shout, pink ether roiled in the air, spreading out in the shape of hearts.
Pink hearts filled the surroundings like cherry blossom petals on a bright spring day.
Like the playful footsteps of innocent children, they approached not in straight lines but in irregular curves.
*Po-rong—*
With an anticlimactic sound, countless hearts gathered toward my fists.
In the ‘game,’ this was the remnant of a weak, gag skill that dealt minor damage over a wide area.
A skill created with playful intent for a meme character meant to be laughed off, like a joke.
The pink hearts gradually began to rotate, forming a massive vortex.
*Tzzzzzt—*
But if I could gather them all in one place,
converting the power meant to be scattered in all directions into a single current,
and turn it into a raging, pink spiral torrent flowing from my fists.
The joke could become a terror that transcended laughter.
The final art I created by pouring in everything I had, I who had hit a growth wall as the weakest gag character, ‘Clara.’
[Pink Lemon Sherbet]
Although the name was born from a pretty filter full of estrogen, I accepted it. I had acknowledged that this changed part was also a part of me.
*Kiiiiiiing—!!*
A giant spiral of pink hearts born from my fists. The wind it generated whipped up a violent storm hundreds of meters in radius.
Holding a pink natural disaster in my hands, I took a large step forward.
I, too, became a spiral storm,
a wave walking the earth.
In an instant.
The storm of azure-white lightning and the spiral of pink hearts collided.
Impact.
Where the two girls met, there was light.
*KWAAAAAAAANG—!!!!*
“Hraaaaaaah—!!”
“Haaaaaaat—!!”
A pillar of light extended hundreds of meters outward.
This place where azure-white and pink flashes met was a battlefield.
The pressure wave generated where the pink torrent and blue lightning strike met.
Where the two warriors on the battlefield clashed, a raging torrent swirled.
*Goooooooooh—!!!!*
In the center of the arena, larger than a soccer field.
I could feel everything within a radius of several kilometers trembling from the raging torrent of power.
At this moment, a typhoon was raging somewhere in Academy City Yggd.
*Crack!*
*Crack!*
Mere fragments of power exploding from the point of impact were enough to crack the sturdy alloy floor and send it flying. Debris several meters in size soared upward along the spiral of power, forming a waterspout.
“Kgh…!”
I woke up one day to find I’d become a beautiful girl in a mobile game.
I went through a year of academy life that wasn’t always pleasant.
I started as the weakest character and endured countless hardships.
But in the end, I made it here.
“Haaat…!”
If the flame in my heart hasn't died,
if I can clench my fists and look to the sky,
if I can stand firm on the earth with both legs.
Then, like a man, I will steel my resolve.
I ran here, driven by my last shred of selfishness, to see the end of this match.
Even if I lose.
Isn't it enough that the heavens, the earth, and I myself have witnessed the efforts of these past years?
Empty it. Empty my mind of everything.
Amid the violent collision, I cleared my mind of the tens of thousands of spectators and hundreds of competitors in this arena. I focused solely on the opponent before me, on the silver-haired girl who was clashing with me with all her heart.
Her silver-white hair, shimmering as it swayed with the wind.
I focused only on defeating the girl who was enjoying this fight with all her might.
No sound.
No thought.
No self.
Unable to withstand the shock of the collision, blood surged up my throat.
I forced down the nauseating mix of bile and blood, and a sharp pain, like my throat was being scraped with sandpaper, washed over me.
‘Then I’ll erase the pain, too.’
By the time I had erased even the pain from my mind,
I no longer saw a battlefield before me, but only a white space.
A white space where everything had been erased, bleached, and vanished.
It was when I felt I was the only one left in that white space.
‘Ah…’
I could feel it.
You were there, too.
“…Hilde.”
Hilde, too, was looking at me from within this ultimate white space.
“…Lara.”
We faced each other in an ultimate cognitive space, unknown to anyone else gathered here.
A miraculous enlightenment that those living in this world might only reach once in a lifetime of training, if at all.
Apex.
The two girls who had reached that place faster than anyone else smiled with pure emotion.
In this moment.
We instinctively felt that we had reached the pinnacle of strength one could achieve in this world.
And we felt an unbearable joy that the person who had reached it with us was each other.
-Hehe.
-Phhh…
-Hahaha!
-Huhuhu!
The calm eye of the storm.
A white realm like eternity.
The thrilling laughter of two girls who had taken that first step.
We would never forget this moment.
You and I.
At this very moment.
Could dare to say it.
[I am the strongest.]
*KWAAAAAAAANG—!!!*
A blinding flash.
The moment that felt like an eternity passed.
The world’s colors returned, and I was sucked back into the clashing storm.
The verdict was finally decided.
What I saw before me was… my outstretched fist, having bypassed her lance, touching Hilde’s chest.
“…La…ra.”
“…Hilde.”
Hilde called my name one last time before fainting, still standing in the pose of her lance thrust.
[The winner!! The winner is Clara of Central Prism Academy!!]
[It is student Clara, [The Pink Spiral]!!]
[The one to defeat the strongest freshman and undefeated genius!! [The Azure-White Lightning Spear] Brynhildr of Aesir Girls' High School is!!]
[The representative of Central Prism Academy!! [The Pink Spiral] Clara!!! She has become the strongest student in the academy fighting festival!!]
-Waaaaaaaaaaaah—!!
-Waaaaaaaaaaaah—!!
-Waaaaaaaaaaaah—!!
-Waaaaaaaaaaaah—!!
The cheers of the crowd, so loud they felt like they would rupture the air, deafened me.
“…Hoo.”
I let out a sigh of relief and regret. Then I gently laid the unconscious Hilde down and said in a small voice, ‘It was a good fight.’
“…You were just adorable☆”
“…”
Of course, the pretty filter distorted my words to the very end.
I gently stroked the hair of the fallen and unconscious Hilde.
My rival.
My adversary.
I had finally defeated her.
“…”
“…”
But our battle ended here.
‘From now on, this isn’t just a story about the two of us.’
The story that will unfold two years from now… In the main story of the game, Clara of Central Prism Academy has to be the last foolish senior of a failing school. Only then will the story flow in a way that allows us to perfectly protect this academy city we love.
With that mix of regret and relief, I spoke to the unconscious Hilde.
“That was a really great final match☆ Thank you, Hilde. I’m glad I met you, too.”
“…”
‘Continue walking that path of the strongest… my eternal rival.’
Leaving the cheers of the crowd behind me.
I slowly quelled the fighting spirit in my heart and left the arena.
＊
“…Don’t go.”
＊
The state of Apex became a secret kept only by the two powerhouses.
When the legendary duel and the title [The Pink Spiral] had become a faint memory, recalled only by the third-years of the academy city.
The story began.