The Last Magic Chapter 24

24: Sakurako 1

At that moment, my life changed.

A red car came speeding toward the crosswalk just as the light had changed, and the woman driver had a startled expression on her face with a cell phone in one hand. Rin rolled over the top of the car, fell with a thud behind it, and didn't move a muscle.

That scene appeared before my eyes like slow motion, but I couldn't do anything. There was nothing I could do with magic either. After all, it wasn't something that could be useful for anything to begin with.

But even though I had worked so hard to learn it, the fact that I couldn't do anything when it really mattered seemed incredibly unreasonable.

I don't remember well what happened after that. The woman who had been driving while distracted was properly arrested, but that didn't mean Rin would come back.

Rin's funeral also passed in a daze. My friends from elementary and middle school probably said encouraging things to me, but they just passed by like the wind.

I am powerless. Even though I can use magic, I can't do anything.

That's when I remembered the magic written at the end of the magic book. The sorcerer's last hope. A small miracle lasting only 10 seconds.

In 10 seconds, I could surely save Rin. Because I was the one who had been with her right up until that moment. If I had just reached out my hand a little, I should have been able to grab Rin's arm.

In order to learn the last magic as quickly as possible, I decided to dedicate everything to magic. I asked Grandmother about methods for magical training, and tried taking cold showers in the bathroom in the morning, or lighting the stove and chanting incantations in front of it, but it didn't work very well.

Maybe it wasn't harsh enough because it could all be done at home. Also, when I left the stove burner on, my mother scolded me.

No matter how much I searched online, there was little information about magic from a sorcerer's perspective, and the truly important things weren't just lying around on the internet.

Having no choice, I continued reading magic books and studying as a form of consolation just like I had in middle school, when a female classmate approached me.

"What's that? Are you imitating Kurosaki-senpai?"

"Kurosaki-senpai? Who's that?"

"You don't know? She's a beautiful senpai one year above us who looks like a model. She has this kind of mysterious aura, and about a third of the boys in school are crazy about her. There are rumors that she can use magic. Aren't you copying her, Nagumo-san?"

In high school, unlike in middle school, I hadn't revealed that I was aiming to become a sorcerer, so the fact that I came from a family of sorcerers wasn't widely known.

Besides, it was the first time there was someone else at the same school who was aiming to become a sorcerer.

"This is the first time I've heard of Kurosaki-senpai. By the way, if a third are crazy about her, what are the other two-thirds crazy about?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Who knows? Maybe they've given up before even trying?"

When I learned that Kurosaki-senpai belonged to the literature club, I immediately wrote up a membership application and took it to the club room after school. When I knocked lightly on the door, I heard a voice say "Come in."

What awaited me there was the figure of a female high school student with the kind of clean, pure image that men would idealize. Even without makeup, her skin and hair were beautiful like a well-made doll, and she wore glasses, so at first glance she looked plain, but if you looked closely, she had a beautiful face. Perhaps this was the type of person who seemed inconspicuous but particularly caught the eye.

The ideal female high school student looked at me and opened her mouth.

"What can I do for you?"

A polite and gentle tone. I thought she was perfect.

"I'd like to join the club."

"Are you interested in books?"

"No, in you, senpai. You're Kurosaki-senpai, right?"

When I said that, the ideal female high school student looked puzzled.

"Me? That's troubling. This is the literature club, so only people interested in books can join, you know?"

"I am interested in books."

I took out the black leather magic book from my bag. The book I had read over and over again countless times. It could be said to be a part of me.

Kurosaki-senpai seemed to understand what it was at a glance, and completely changed her atmosphere.

All lightness and gentleness disappeared, and she fixed me with heavy, dark eyes.

"What does a sorcerer want with me?"

"Would you like to train in magic together?"

"Ha."

Senpai laughed coldly through her nose. She was like a completely different person from before.

"Do you understand? sorcerers are fundamentally in a rival relationship. In the future, we'll have to compete for the few resources—customers—to survive. Master-disciple relationships are one thing, but we don't fraternize. Even sorcerers who appear to be in groups are actually only thinking about themselves. They won't easily teach their training methods."

"It's not that I want to live as a sorcerer. I just want to use the last magic."

I honestly told her my purpose.

"The last magic?"

Senpai made deep wrinkles between her eyebrows.

"Are you sane? Once you cast that, you'll never be able to use magic again. It's true that we sorcerers aim to use the last magic, but that's more like a pretense—it's much more important to live without using it."

"I have something more important to me."

Kurosaki-senpai glared at me with stern eyes, but I continued without flinching.

"I think that by practicing magic with someone else, I'll be able to understand things I wouldn't notice on my own. Isn't it difficult to improve magic alone? Besides, sorcerers don't ultimately compete with each other—they reach heights alone."

"...What's your name?"

"Nagumo Sakurako."

After showing a thoughtful expression, senpai let out a deep sigh.

"A little while ago, there was a kid who was hit by a car on the road near the school. The friend of that kid had the same name, I believe..."

I know it well. Information gathering is fundamental for sorcerers. Not knowing about Kurosaki-senpai despite being at this school—maybe I really had been letting my guard down.

"That was me."

"You want to prevent that accident with the last magic?"

"Yes."

"Even if you can never use magic again?"

"Yes."

Senpai shook her head lightly.

"You're going to throw away your life for a friend? Friends from student days are just temporary things, you know? It takes decades of serious training to become able to use the last magic. Some people lack the talent and can never reach it even if they spend their whole lives trying. Stop such foolishness."

Senpai's heavy atmosphere became light again, and I could sense concern for me in her voice.

"I'm not planning to throw away my life. I'm sure my life would be more enjoyable if Rin were alive. Besides, with magic that's said to be useless, I can save someone's life, you know? Don't you think that's amazing?"

"...You're not suited to be a sorcerer. sorcerers are more selfish creatures. You could never be my rival with that attitude."

Senpai once again put on the appearance of the ideal female high school student.

"Well then..."

"Fine, I'll approve your membership. Anyway, this club is full of ghost members who are only here because of me and doesn't function properly, so shall we two bad sorcerers take it over?"

Senpai showed a mischievous smile on her honor student-like face.

"Call me Natsuki. I'll call you Sakurako too."

Looking back, I think Natsuki-senpai was my second teacher.

Senpai's training was quite different from Grandmother's, arranged in a modern style and incorporating scientific knowledge. I was impressed that she had researched this much all by herself.

"Let me say this first—I don't know if this really works. It's completely self-taught. But considering the purpose of previous sorcerers' training, the most important thing should be to increase concentration and immersion in magic. For that, maintaining physical and mental health is most important. Then there's giving magic persuasive power. Not just for yourself, but for others too. To have confidence in your own magic, what others think of you becomes important in the end. For that, you need to act like a sorcerer. If people think you're 'an amazing sorcerer,' you'll start to think you're 'an amazing sorcerer' too. Magic is ultimately a mental thing, and consciousness is crucial."

Senpai's attention to beauty was apparently also a means to make herself appear as a particularly special existence.

I had never paid much attention to such things, so it was very helpful.

From then on, I began living as regularly as an elementary school student.

When I first tried to go to bed at 8 PM, my parents were naturally surprised, but gradually I developed a lifestyle that wasn't too unreasonable for me.

Senpai repeatedly told me:

"Don't just swallow everything I say. Try various things yourself too. If you find a method you can be satisfied with, give me feedback. I want to use it as reference too."

So I also started looking up lifestyle habits of fashion models, which I had never been interested in before, on the internet and in magazines, and tried various things. Sometimes in the club room, senpai and I would look at fashion magazines together and discuss how this food that a model mentioned in a survey seemed good, or try yoga and Pilates that they had as hobbies. Of course, we made sure no one noticed on the surface.

I stopped eating much meat and changed to a diet centered on vegetables and fruits.

"It's like vegetarian cuisine. Regardless of the actual effects, I think the fact that we're living this kind of lifestyle itself leads to confidence."

Senpai laughed self-deprecatingly, but my physical condition certainly improved, and along with that, it felt like my magic was getting better too. That consciousness had an even better effect on magic, and gradually both senpai's and my magic improved.

After Natsuki-senpai graduated, I continued training alone in the literature club. I became the club president and conversed with the many club members. While talking with them, I observed their behavior, figuring out how to speak well, determining what they were thinking, and using it as reference for how to behave as a sorcerer. Thanks to this, the literature club room continued to be a perfect place for training.