It Seems the Cheat Original Work Protagonist Doesn’t Have to be Perfect
Actually, She’s a First Love Hunter of Little Kids
(author: This secret was the deciding factor in using the exchange ticket for Ricky, so the movie arc begins)
(tl note: there’s probably a wordplay on the first line of the title, but it’s not worth looking into; second line is a reference to Copano Rickey, who, in umamusume (jp), has a secret of “she’s a first love hunter of little kids,” indicating how charming she is)
The golden, shining full moon colored the autumn night sky that had gradually become a little chilly.
The time was nine in the middle of the night, when children had finished dinner and bathing and only needed to prepare for tomorrow.
On that day, a first-grade elementary school boy living on an upper floor of a high-rise apartment was watching anime alone while facing the tablet placed in his bedroom.
It was a phantom thief-themed anime that was currently popular among children of his age, and its content was a story of poetic justice, where the chivalrous thief girl “Acht” punishes villainous authority figures who fill their own pocket with property defrauded from good citizens, and takes their treasures.
The story, neatly organized in a one-episode format with introduction, development, turn, and conclusion, was supported by an extensive age range from children to grown-up fans, and the protagonist’s visual, said to be modeled after the real-existing Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief, also boasted high popularity in the streets.
The boy was also a fan of that anime, and on this night he was absorbed in the latest episode that had been broadcast before getting into bed. It was a slight staying up late for a first-grade elementary schooler.
“Hideto~, go to sleep already.”
“Okaaay.”
Noticing that the room light was still on even at the time he would usually be asleep, his mother urged the boy to go to bed. Since it was just after the anime playback had ended, the boy’s response was unexpectedly obedient.
As for the content of that anime… this time as well, the phantom thief girl protagonist defeated the bad guys and brilliantly saved the people suffering under misgovernance.
In response to the guest heroine who called out, “Please don’t go, Acht-sama! Please stay in this town…!”, the phantom thief girl hid a smile behind the underside of the silk hat she put back on, lightly waved her hand, and turned on her heel.
《Thank you, young lady. But I am an inhabitant of the world of darkness… I am a being that must not remain in this town that has finally regained its light》
《That’s not…》
《But there are still many towns in this world that need someone like me. Taking the sorrow from such towns is my role. Adios, may blessings be upon you all》
With the protagonist Acht’s signature line at the end, the story of the episode came to a end, finishing with the “pleasant ending theme that plays together with the stop-and-pull direction*,” which was this anime’s stylistic beauty. (tl note: a technique where the scene deliberately pauses at a key moment, then pulls away without resolving it, leaving the emotional work/interpretations to the audience)
The protagonist’s power is always used to save someone, but she herself does not call her existence an ally of justice.
While calling herself an inhabitant of the world of darkness who cannot live in the world of light, she cannot leave people suffering in the darkness alone──that was her charm.
Though she appears to assume the role of a villain, she cannot hide her innate kindness. That heroine and hero girl was the charm of the chivalrous thief girl Acht, the protagonist of this anime.
“Today was fun too…”
The boy, who had once again been watching the protagonist’s exploits with sparkling eyes, turned off the tablet while letting out his impression of the anime with satisfaction.
Tomorrow, he planned to thoroughly talk about the anime he had just watched with his classmates.
However, for now, it was time for good children to sleep. As the boy turned off the lights and was about to head to bed, he noticed that a faint light still remained in the room.
The light of the full moon floating in the clear night sky was overflowing from beyond the window.
The curtains were still half-open.
The supernatural ability the boy possessed, like the protagonist of the anime he just watched, manipulated darkness. Therefore, when he slept, he always made the room completely dark without even using a nightlight. That somehow made him feel at ease.
The boy headed toward the window to properly close the curtains he had forgotten to shut──and saw.
Beyond the window──on the balcony connected to the room, the figure of a single woman who lightly descended.
The outline illuminated by the moonlight moved, and a pair of eyes with two colors gazed at the boy through the window.
A right eye of green like emerald, and a left eye of gold more transparent than pure gold.
Beautiful… the boy was involuntarily captivated.
“Onee-san, are you a phantom thief…?”
The royal blue mantle the woman wore and the hem of her long skirt like the night sky were gently swaying in the cool night breeze.
Before the fantastic and mysterious sight, before he realized it, the boy opened the window and asked the woman.
Don’t approach strangers. Don’t let strangers into the house──he had been firmly told this by his parents, but the woman’s appearance gave even the boy a strange sense of security that naturally relaxed his vigilance.
He felt toward her a familiarity like the protagonist of the anime he had just watched.
“Heh……”
With a smile on her face beneath the silk hat, she returned a smile to the boy’s question.
The answer was affirmation.
“That’s right… I am a phantom thief. From a world far away… much farther than the moon, I have come to take something precious from you──”
The woman in black clothes, who crouched down while neatly folding her skirt behind her knees, matched her eye level with the small boy.
Casually extending her hand, she placed her fingertips on the nape of the boy, who stood there absentmindedly having forgotten even to breathe, and spoke as if whispering into his ear.
“──I’m a bad big sister.”
“Ah…”
At that moment, being gazed at from a distance close enough for her breath to touch him with those clear eyes, the boy’s chest felt a mysterious pounding he had never experienced before.
And then.
A faint light wrapped around the boy’s body.
At the moment she touched him, a warm light spread as if flickering.
Dozing within the light that even felt gentle, the boy saw it. The fleeting yet sorrowful gaze she had within her smile.
And so, the boy’s consciousness fell into a dream.
The woman, who caught the boy’s body as it collapsed with a thud, held him as he was and entered the bedroom via the balcony, then gently laid him onto the bed without making a sound.
After placing a blanket over the boy, who breathed while sleeping*, she adjusted her silk hat and turned on her heel. (tl note: sounds weird, but it basically just means there’s a zzz above the boy)
“Sleep well… good night, boy.”
Murmuring as if cherishing him, she went out to the balcony again and closed the window. At the same time, when she snapped her fingers, the curtains closed on their own and the window was locked. Locking up by telekinesis was her own kind of aftercare for the victim as a phantom thief.
“Tonight as well… the moon is beautiful.”
Looking up at the night sky, she──T.P. Eight Olishua──murmured.
After gently holding her palm over the light of the full moon, she placed her foot on the balcony railing and jumped.
Holding down her silk hat from above her head so it would not be blown away by the wind, Eight ran freely through Akebono City at night.
Lightly, lightly, like a butterfly flapping its wings. Without hesitation, she leapt out from the top of a high-rise apartment, jumping from the rooftop of one high-rise building to another, each time covering a distance of what should have been tens of meters in a single step.
Her figure, illuminated by moonlight and street lights and then blurring, was so mysterious it did not seem to belong to this world.
Before long, she stopped at the top of the tallest structure in this town, and was also a landmark radio tower, “Akebono Tower.”
Landing on a restricted floor above the observation deck from which one was allowed an extensive view of the whole of Akebono City, she narrowed her eyes at the slightly chilly yet pleasant night wind and, looking down at the scenery spread below, said,
“The city at night is dazzling, like the light of stars.”
Beings of another world, “holy beasts [fairies].”Since beginning friendly interaction with them, Akebono City had been rapidly developing.
It was originally a lively town, but when viewed from above like this, that development could be felt even more throughout.
If she listened closely, she could hear even from here the bustle of people coming and going through the towns. Not only humans, but also the voices of holy beasts like elves and ogres. It did not seem to the extent that everyone got along completely, but it was clear that they were each spending their time as they wished in this town.
Thinking that people gather at each of those lights, the light of the street lamps that color the city at night might be something similar to the stars floating in the night sky. With a sentimental smile, Eight turned around behind her.
“Now the light of civilization is rivaling even the glimmer of that sky… it’s very romantic──and presumptuous, don’t you think? Akatsuki En.”
At the place she directed her question──a young man appeared.
Standing at the destination of the heterochromatic eyes bearing two colors, green and gold, was Akatsuki En, who had arrived at this place earlier than she had.
It had been since his wedding reception, which she had intruded upon the other day, that they had seen each other’s faces.
In these five years, Akatsuki En had passed twenty years old and had become a fine adult, both in body and in mind.
The battle jacket with a calm color scheme based on dark blue was the formal attire for adults worn by them, the Savers.
“T.P. Eight Olishua……”
Seeing the city lights made by artificial objects, En returned a serious gaze to Eight’s murmur that seemed more like an honest impression than sarcasm.
After a few beats, he declared in a voice as if squeezing it out.
“I came… to capture you”
Among active warriors, the man who was stronger than anyone and had defeated more supernatural ability criminals than anyone was the current Akatsuki En. With that power feared by all villains, he had saved numerous people.
He, with a pained expression tinged with unwillingness, stared at T.P. Eight Olishua.
“That’s a good thing”
Looking back with eyes that somewhat seemed slightly pleased, Eight spread ten wings on her back.
One side black, the other side white. That figure with wings of two opposing colors was her true form, possessing the powers of the two Primordial Archangels.
The true capability of the unique Primordial Archangel who surpassed even the Ten Archangels of Sefirot.
As the only existence capable of opposing her, En, who came to this place, concealed his hesitation and released that power.
──Infinity Burst.
Rainbow-colored flames, in an instant, dyed the night city into morning.
Armor of flames shining in red-hot colors covered his whole body, and in his right hand a crimson sword and in his left hand a blue flame sword were generated.
On his back were two rainbow-colored halos──dazzling wings drawing the shape of ∞ continued to emit brilliance like the sun.
Before that power whose precision had increased since five years ago, Eight spoke as if admiring.
“Impressive… even since then, you’ve been training all along”
Though En had spent these five years in extremely busy times in both work and private life, he had not slackened the training of his own power.
Feeling something like reassurance in her observing eye that had seen through that effort before even fighting, yet maintaining a poker face, En questioned her.
“Why target the children?”
“.….”
That was a question toward the fact that he had come to confront her like this.
The hero who once saved two worlds together with the Savers, T.P. Eight Olishua, began to act in the shadows again.
As she had five years ago, as the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief.
The victims, even only those confirmed, exceed 1000, children around the world.
All of the children were promising supernatural ability users who possessed powers related to “darkness.”
And what was different from five years ago was that the supernatural abilities stolen by her did not return.
With the recognition that the supernatural abilities stolen by T.P. Eight Olishua would revive after time passed fundamentally collapsing, her existence became a dangerous individual with unknown purpose whom no one could stop.
Because she herself was a charismatic existence with high popularity among the public, that fact was not widely announced for now in order to avoid confusion in the world.
Having the only power in this world capable of opposing her and being acquainted with her as a fellow hero, it was under such circumstances that a special mission order was given to Akatsuki En.
Toward her actions that had far too many suspicious points, En asked her purpose.
“I believe in you… so tell me the reason. Five years ago, you, who fought for the world more than anyone, wouldn’t do something like this without meaning. What’s the reason you need people’s power again now?”
It was understood that five years ago she was acting as the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief solely to regain her own power.
If that was the case, now that Eight had completely regained her power as a Primordial Archangel, there should not have been any need for that anymore.
The reason she stole the supernatural abilities of children──Eight answered with somewhat sorrowful eyes.
“……It has started to turn. The samsara of the world……”
“──!”
As she spoke, the sword of darkness that Eight swung down and En’s sword of fire that met it overlapped.
The waves of the two powers that struck against each other spread into the night sky of Akebono City, diffusing while drawing a 0 shape in the sea of stars.
The clash of the heightened sacred powers came to transmit its aftereffects even beyond the dimensional wall.
And then──far beyond the dimensions, a gray star that sensed it started to move.
As if being drawn by the powers of the two, the gray star swam forward through the sea of dimensions.
The shadow of an ancient one released from nothingness──no human yet knew of that existence.
【Fairy Savers ∞ Nightmare Reincarnation】
(tl note: I learned what these texts are in; It’s fake/pseudo-Georgian script. Fake because they resemble Georgian shapes but don’t actually form real words; It’s a stylistic choice in fantasy works.)
(Author: As this chapter seems like it will continue for more than 10 episodes, I’ll return to serialization for now
After it’s all finished, it will become Eight’s perspective, but for a while it will go with Side Mea)