Corpse March

Chapter 68 Stellar Stellar

A gargantuan scythe blade the size of a mountain manifests from the tip of Tsumugi’s staff while Gleam blazes pure white, light magic seeping out of her very being. With a ponderous sweep of her arm, Tsumugi brings the scythe down, its tip aimed right for the crowd. The Deathless start to disperse but there’s not enough time. Someone trips. She closes her eyes to brace for impact but the impact never comes. Instead, there’s a brutal grinding sound. 

Opening her eyes, instead of seeing the tip of the scythe bearing down on her, she sees Gleam’s back as she clashes against Tsumugi’s scythe. 

“RUN!” The girl scrambles to her feet and runs away. Now all Gleam has to worry about is the mountain of cursed energy bearing down on her. 

“GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!” Gleam lets out an unearthly cry as she wills herself to go faster, to break through Tsumugi’s attack, to turn the tides of this battle. 

“STELLAR!” The speed of light isn’t fast enough to move the scythe more than a few inches. It’s not enough. It’s not even close enough. To overcome Tsumugi, she needs to go much further, run much faster, fly much higher. 

“STELLAR STELLAR!!!” Just like the shooting star she has become. The script written in her heart, she will now act out. There were so many things that she wanted to say to Tsumugi. There were so many walls she wanted to climb together. But some things were just not meant to be. Maybe there was something she could have said. Something she could have done. Maybe there was another way. 

But that future is no longer within her grasp. And it hurts to know. That everything she had ever dreamed of was in her grasp, and it was all taken away. That hurt she sings it out, like curses onto the cruel day, tears scorching her eyes. But through it all, she shines brighter than ever before, hotter than ever before, more wicked than ever before.

It feels like trying to swim up the waterfall. So she does. It feels like trying to carry the sky on her shoulders. So she does. It feels like trying to fight a hurricane. So she does. 

But even so, it’s not enough. She feels the sheer weight of the scythe bearing down on her more and more with every passing second. She’s not going to make it. Her world begins to go black. Then, a miracle happens. She begins to push it back. She feels someone else’s hand on her sword handle. 

“Kuroko?!”

“Aye.” Kuroko stands defiantly to her side, lending her as much of her strength as possible to push back against the gargantuan scythe. But it’s still not enough. Little by little, Gleam’s strength begins to wane along with her magic. 

“Get out of here! Save yourself!”

“Sorry, Gleam. But just this once, I won’t listen to your orders.” Little tendrils of light begin to seep out of Kuroko and worm their way into Gleam.

“What are you–” She feels a sudden burst of her strength returning. The darkness at the edge of her vision is dispelled entirely. Kuroko’s fingers begin to tremble.

“A dream is something you accomplish no matter what, right?” Kuroko manages a smile. “You shared your dream with me. So let me share with you my strength, just one last time.” 

“But Kuroko… You’re…” 

“I know.” Kuroko stumbles, her life, her very being starting to fade. 

“My name is Kuroko Shindou, and I have a dream. Take the last of my strength and create a world where people like me don’t have to exist. Please, Gleam. Make that dream into reality.” Her eyelids begin to droop and the color leaves her face. 

“I–... I will.”

“Good.” Kuroko’s eyes close fully. “My dream… it will be safe with you.”

This world is very cruel. It is sad but it is true. This world is very strange, it is sad but it is true. 

“KUROKO!!!” 

The last spark of Kuroko’s life leaves her body. Her hand slips from the handle. And the person known as Kuroko Shindou is no more. She falls to the ground, a serene expression on her face. White hot tears begin to burn in Gleam’s eyes. 

“STELLAR STELLAR STELLAR STELLARSTELLARSTELLARSTELLARSTELLAR!!!” 

The immovable object meets the unstoppable force and the unstoppable force wins. The scythe shatters into inky black shards as numerous as the stars in the night sky. Smoky wisps trail off of their edges as they disintegrate into the wind. And swimming in the sea of black, is a single shooting star. The image lasts only for a moment, then the star’s spark burns out. 

She comes bearing down right on top of Tsumugi. And Tsumugi, too exhausted from her gambit to dodge, eats it. The two tumble into the ground, kicking up soil and grass in the process. They stay there, both of them unmoving. 

“Gh… That hurt… you… bastard.”

“That was for Jessica.” Gleam manages to prop herself on her elbows.

“Shut up.” Tsumugi stands up, groggily stumbles over to Gleam, and delivers a weak kick into her side. She grunts, not from the pain, but more because it feels appropriate to grunt. Tsumugi goes for another kick but Gleam’s ready for it this time. She catches her leg with one leg and drags her down with her. Tsumugi tries to get back up but Gleam plants her arm on her chest. 

“Get off me!” She isn’t sure why she said that while knowing full well it’s not going to make an inch of difference. Gleam clambers on top of her before battering her with a drunken flurry of punches. There’s no form or poise here, she’s just whaling on her with reckless abandon.

“THIS ONE’S FOR TOMOE!” She feels something fracture as she slams down on Tsumugi’s jaw. 

“AND THIS ONE’S FOR KUROKO!” She grabs her sword and is on the verge of plunging it into Tsumugi’s chest when suddenly, something erupts from her stomach. Blood flows freely from where the black ax blade juts out on her abdomen. It takes her a moment to even register that she’s been stabbed. 

“Wh–what?”

Gleam turns her head and is suddenly face-to-face with Haru. Her expression is one of absolute nonchalance, as though this was all just a normal day for her. She coughs up more blood before falling to the side. There’s no pain. Only an icy chill that spreads from the wound to the rest of her body. One by one, she feels her body shutting down.

“For…give me… Kuroko… Everyone…” 

Gleam doesn’t get an opportunity to close her eyes or face upwards. She simply dies, no different from an insect curling up right at the moment of death. 

“That was a close one.” 

“...” Tsumugi says nothing. Her eyes transfixed on Gleam’s corpse. Finally, she’s done it. No one can get in her way now. So why does her heart ache so much?

What she’s done, it can never be forgiven. Not by the citizens of Takakumo, and not by herself most of all. But this is the path that she chose. 

“Kuhahaha…” 

Now that she’s finally climbed to the top of the mountain, she sees everything for what it really is. Nothing more than one humongous joke in the end. The adrenaline in her veins begins to fade away and she slowly slips into unconsciousness.