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Shiinamachi Senpai Volume 4 Last Episode Part B 6

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist     

【Last Episode: Curtain Call and the end Part B, 6】

『Kuhoh Nagi.』

It’s been so long since I started to call myself with that name.

Once the toast was over and everyone, including myself, proceeded to eat the delicious food which was prepared for us I had quite a lot of time to think.

Unlike Monjiro-senpai, I was not born in the family of assassins. I was made into one.

It might sound more than a little cliched, but I was born in the facility dedicated to raising and training professional killers. While being there, I have received the most elite treatment along with other kids who were either born there just like myself or brought there after being abandoned with nowhere else to go. That was the environment I’ve grew up in.

Unlike Monjiro-senpai, who was supposedly only trained as an assassin, I have also received infiltrator training. Most of you must be thinking that it was awful and inhuman, but honestly, it wasn’t all that bad. Each of us had its own room, three meals a day and we were also given the highest possible level of education.

What we didn’t have, however, were 「Names」.

My operational code name was 「Blade Zero」, signifying that I was raised to become an assassin from the age of zero, the very beginning of my life, and I was very good at handling all kinds of blades. From the early childhood, ever since I was able to firmly hold a knife in my hand I was being sent on various missions where I killed a lot of people. Ours was a facility that would take any kind of job, no matter how dirty it was as long as payment was high enough.

Maybe that was the reason why it was eventually destroyed by a joint cooperative effort between the government and another secret organization. They were saying they did that because we were an evil organization, but at that time I didn’t understand any of that. All that I understood, all that I cared about was that my teachers and friends were now dead and I was soon to follow them.

However, by some bizarre twist of fate, I was left as the only survivor.

It rained on that day, that much I remember clearly. The rain fell to the ground in a torrential downpour, almost as if the sky itself was crying to was the massacre that has befallen us away.
Collapsed buildings. Mountains of debris. And buried beneath all of that was I, grasping at every breath. Normally during such last moments people tend to think about things such as what are they going to do if they somehow manage to escape death, how they are going to praise life and not waste the second chance they were given, or lament how they wished to have a different, happier life. But not me.

I was at a total loss.

Now that I have lost the only place that gave meaning to my otherwise empty life, it has once again returned to the state of 「zero」.

「Oh wow, everything’s so messed up. And here I was, wanting to offer them a job.」

I wondered how long the pink-haired girl with an umbrella stood there and id she wasn’t just an illusion created by my weakening mind.

「Looks like you’re the only one left alive, huh? What’s your name?」

She asked that question with a smile that didn’t show any hidden intentions behind it. Also, even in my current condition the way she was speaking, as if she was talking to a child that got separated from its mother in the department store irritated me because it was so different from what I was used to, but at the same time there was a certain irresistible charm to it.

There are only ruins, dead bodies and rain around me, and she stood among all those things like a solitary flower blooming in the depths of hell, radiating the warm light of life.

「Blade…Zero. That is… what I usually went by.」

「Hm, so your name’s Blade Zero, huh? While it would be a good nickname for chuunibyo-struck middle-school boys, it’s not appropriate for a girl, especially one as cute as you. Okay, what to do, what to do… oh, I know! Let’s do it like that!」

She happily clapped her hands together.

「One of the people serving at one of my many hideouts is called Kuhoh-san and she’s a super-duper nice person, so I think she could take care of you if I asked her to do so and she probably won’t mind it if you use her surname from now on. As for the given name… blade is another name for sword, right? Never fancied those classic ones much, I myself am rather more fond of those curved ones placed on a polearm… what were they called again? Ugh, just let me think… almost got it… Naginata! Yes, that’s what they are called! Naginata… Naginata… Nagi… Nagi-chan! That is going to be your given name from now on!」

That was how I was given the name that I am currently using.

「Nice to meet you, Nagi-chan! You can call me Fujisato Yuika.」

And she reached her merciful hand towards me. Up until now I was nothing more than a tool that killed an unspeakable number of people just because the adults wished me to do so. And yet, for someone as despicable as me, all had to give was that gentle smile of hers.

I didn’t even realized when my body moved on its own to grasp the hand that reached out towards me.

「Starting from today you are mine. I will be your Lord and you will be my sworn Knight. I will give you a place where you can belong and a purpose in life and you will be charged with protecting me, spoiling me and fulfilling my every desire.」

That is the story of how I’ve become the 「Lord Killer’s」 Knight.

Since that day I have been adopted as a daughter of the Kuhoh family, which allowed me to live a comfortable, high-end life, all because apparently the person that was my Lord liked living in a rich, extravagant manner and chose only such people for her servants and such houses for her hideouts. Also, thanks to the house having its own kendo dojo, I was able to keep honing my skills with the blade as well as learn how to properly use 『Divine Gift Chronos』 which I have obtained from my Master soon after I finished getting used to my new lifestyle.

While we are on the subject of my Gift, when I first started using it, the sensation of stopping time, even if it was only for brief instances, was so suffocating that I thought I was going to lose my mind, but with enough practice I managed to slowly get a better grasp of it. Initially I was only able to stop time for about half a second, but now stopping it for a full second is as natural as breathing to me. I suspect that with further usage, the duration of the time stop could be increased even further (TL Note: See, so it really is like Dio’s The World!) and I knew that Master would soon ask me to utilize that power in battle to help her achieve her goal and I was fine with it. After all, that is why she saved me in the first place. Not out of the kindness of her heart, but because she wanted to have someone with my abilities by her side to be the accomplice of the 「Lord Killer」, her partner in crime. If doing so meant that I’ll be able to maintain that luxurious standard of living and continue to eat delicious food and have a warm bed to sleep in, then sure, why not? Besides, if I don’t go out and exercise my muscles for a bit, I’ll just start getting fat and I absolutely wasn’t having any of that.

With that at the back of my mind, I continued to stuff my face with all of the delicacies placed on the table in front of me as I continued to survey our surroundings, watching if there was anyone, Knight or Lord who would try to get suspiciously close to us. If I spot anyone like that, they are getting shivved in the heart without a second of hesitation. No matter what happens, protecting Master and Monjiro-senpai is my most important mission here.

「How is it, Nagi-chan? Enjoying the party so far?」

「Oh yes, especially the food. Heavens, this meat sauté is absolutely out of this world.」

Seeing me happily devour piece after piece of chicken sauté with a blissful expression, Master smiled in her usual, warm way.

「By the way, Master, may I ask why are you smiling in such a creepy way?」

「Oh my dear Nagi-chan, you know me so well.」

Uh-huh, I know that tone of voice, and I know that whenever she was using it, something exceptionally bad was about to happen.