Azalea 1

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Ayame Part 1
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Hazuki: .........
Konoha: .....
Hazuki: ...Nn~...y'know
Konoha: What's wrong?
Hazuki: This means...it's started, hasn't it?
Konoha: ...True. It has begun.
Hazuki: ...Then~...what're we going to do? Ayame...hasn't showed up yet...?
Konoha: True... ....Nn....Looks like she's here.
Ayame: Thanks for waiting~! Where, where~?
Hazuki: Oh, you're right. She is here.
Ayame: Aah! There, there!! O-kay, let's go~!
Hazuki: Ah~, hey wait! Ayame!
Konoha: ...Seriously...
Ayame: Choaaa!

Witch: ....!
Hazuki: ...Not only did she show up late, but for her to just go into it head-on, geez...
Konoha: Well, it's okay, don't you think...? After all, this witch hunt... has already started a long time ago...!
Ayame: Hehe! Then it's decided~!
Hazuki: Ayame~ Wha~t in the world were you doing?
Ayame: When I chased after a familiar, I got separated from you guys! Sorry, sorry!
Hazuki: From a long time ago, you get lost right away...
Konoha: Furthermore, you always come back to us at some point.
Ayame: Right! So, that thing Konoha was talking about...u-hhh...
Konoha: Homing instinct
Ayame: That! Hmhm~m! Aren't I amazing?
Hazuki: Don't be so proud of the fact that you get lost a lot. God...
Konoha: ...You two. We should stop talking soon.
Hazuki: Oops, crap, crap...we've been ignoring it.
Witch: ....!!!!
Ayame: Just leave it! To me!
Konoha: No. Let's go at it like we usually do, with the three of us.
Ayame: ....Oka~y.
Konoha: ...Ayame can go first again, okay?
Ayame: Seriously!? Yaaaahoooooo~!
Hazuki: A~gain...Konoha, you spoil Ayame too much..
Konoha: It's fi-ne...Can the two of you handle this?
Ayame: Of course!
Hazuki: Whenever you're ready.
Konoha: Then, once again, we're going to start. ....Ahh, that's right, we still haven't introduced ourselves. Hello, Witch-san. ...And...farewell...!

The source of disasters in this world... "Witches"
The place where a large number of these witches are said to nest is in this city..."Kamihama City"
The "magical girls" who shoulder the duty of hunting these witches spend each and every day fighting, getting hurt, and extinguish their lives here.
...These three magical girls, whose hearts are connected by a strong bond that goes far deeper than blood...
Mikuri Ayame
Yusa Hazuki
And, Shizumi Konoha

These girls will also be led to their fate, guided by their karma.
Overcoming their past...
Walking in the direction of the present...
In order to survive  in the future...


Ayame: Wow~! There's a lot of room, a lot of room!
Hazuki: What do you think? It's a pretty good house, isn't it?
Konoha: You're usually good at looking for things, but I'm impressed that you were able to find this place.
Hazuki: Well, doing stuff like that is my job~
Ayame: Hey-- Hazuki! Where should I put this?
Hazuki: Hm? ...Ohh~, your treasure box? In that case... there's a storage space over there so you can put it in there.
Ayame: Aye-ye!
Konoha: ...Did you pick up something new again?
Ayame: Ah, yeah, I did.
Konoha: What...?
Ayame: Um...see! This!
Hazuki: ...Eh!? ...Isn't this...
Konoha: ...Yes... ...It's a...bicycle...bell...isn't it?...
Ayame: That's right, that's right! This was the only thing that was on the ground!
Konoha: Where did you...?
Ayame: On the riverbed. I picked it up when I was looking for the witch. It still rings, see? Ringring~!
Hazuki: You don't need to ring it! ...Geez~
Ayame: But isn't it amazing? It's just the bell! Just the bell! Wonder where it came floating down the river from~
Or did it just fall off on its own?
Konoha: ...Fufu. You look like you're having fun, Ayame.
Hazuki: But you know, don't you think that Ayame's habit of picking things up has escalated compared to before?
Konoha: I think it's an improvement that she's stopped picking up things like bug carcasses, don't you think?
Hazuki: Well~ yeah, but...
Konoha: See, if she picks up things like bicycle bells...how do I say this...Yeah. It's a modern artistic...act...kinda?
Hazuki: ...See? You spoil her by using optimistic thinking like that again~....
Konoha: ...Oh!
Hazuki: W, What, what? What's wrong?
Konoha: Her instincts are pretty sharp, right?
Hazuki: Hm... well, I guess you're right. We've been saved by that so many times...
Konoha: It's possible that things like that...are connected to her artistic sense somehow...?
Hazuki: ...... ...Ayame~ Try to cut back on how much you pick up, okay~
Konoha: Wait, Hazuki, where are you going? There's a connection, isn't there? What do you think?
Hazuki: I'm gonna go buy a bunch of stuff~
Konoha: Then, go buy some art supplies and...Ayame, do you want to draw something?
Ayame: Art? Me?
Konoha: That's right. How about it? Just give it a little try.
Ayame: ...Yeah! Fine by me--!

Konoha and, Hazuki and, me...
We've been together ever since we were little!
The fun times and the happy times...
and the hard times, and the sad times...
We've al--ways, always shared them together.

And!
There's a place where we met...

The name of it...

It's called, "Tsuzuji's House"...!

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Hazuki Part 1
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Hazuki: My father and my mother died when I was little.
It happened while we were on vacation.... we went to a nearby hot spring, you see...

It was so much fun...
The hot spring was nice, but we did things like go bowling and, oh! We did stuff like go up a mountain in a cable car!
...But, on the way home
we got in an accident

Just as we were getting really close to our house
a car driven by a person who wasn't paying attention ran us over...
The only one who survived was me
...Seems like my parents protected me...

Hazuki: After that, I was passed around from relative to relative...in other words, I was "sent around".
This and that happened, and the place I arrived at was...

...Tsuzuji's House.
Tszuji's House was what you'd call an orphanage where
a lot of kids like me were gathered together
At first, deep down, I was scared...
But on the outside, I kept up a smile
That kind of stuff was what I got used to doing
while I was being passed around...
Even if they did or said things I didn't like to me, I kept smiling
to make it through somehow...
Well, it was a bad habit of mine or something...
But, with what happened with my parents, with the relatives
A lot of different things were pushing down on me
and it felt like my heart was going to be crushed...

Hazuki: That's why, in order to keep myself from breaking, I think I might've been forcing myself to smile
But, it seems like the Director saw that smile and understood with just one look...

Director: Hazuki-san...it's okay. You don't need to make a smile like that here. It's okay to smile from the bottom of your heart more.

Hazuki: When I heard those words, the tears came overflowing out at once...
I fell in love with the Director in one go!
And Tsuzuji's House became my favorite place.
My friends all had their own circumstances...
That's exactly why it became a place where we all understood each other...!
That person was always in the hearts of those friends...
Shizumi Konoha...
The one who looked after us in the way an older sister would...

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Konoha Part 1
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Konoha: My father was a businessman. The businesses he made deals with grew smoothly, and everything and anything went well.

"Until you were born"

I've heard those words from my father many times, over and over again.

The moment I was born, it seems the gears in his mind went crazy.
In a blink of an eye, his business performance hit a slump and my father shouldered a debt with large amounts of money...
And, around the time I realized what was happening, my father died of an illness he got due to all the anxiety.
Shortly after, my mother too...

Since I didn't even have any reliable relatives, the orphanage took me in
That was... "Tsuzuji's House"...

Director: So you're Shizumi Konoha-san! Welcome, to Tsuzuji's House!

When I arrived at Tsuzuji's House
My heart was completely frozen over...
All that I could see around me was an ashen color...
But, although it was gradual,
color began to return to my world.

Director: Come on, Konoha-san! Look at this! It looks like this azalea is about to bloom, doesn't it?
Konoha-san, I wonder what book you're reading today?
Konoha-san, now, come over here!
Konoha-san!

Konoha: Konoha-san... Konoha-san... The Director would always kindly, warmly call out to me...
Before I knew it, once I opened my heart up to Sensei[1]
I could even open up to my friends as well.

If the Director wasn't there
Around now, I think I still would be in an ashen world.
My beloved...beloved Director

...And that's how I was able to enter Tsuzuji's House in the true sense of the word.
Some time later, the one who came next was...Yusa Hozuki.
Hazuki was also saved by the Director, and her wounded heart was eventually healed.
And, since our ages were close,
we started to spend more time together.

...Though if you ask Hazuki...

Hazuki: Nnn~...
Well, how should I say this...she's the best Onee-chan out of all of us but...it just didn't feel like she'd leave me alone, you know~

Konoha: ...That's what she says anyway.
But...!
Actually, I do give in when I should give in...
...But, it is true that they saved me,
and even now that's the case but...
....
Anyway, ever since then, Hazuki and I have been together forever
And then, after Hazuki came,
the one we met after some more time passed was...

Mikuri Ayame.

Director: Come now, Konoha-san, Hazuki-san. This girl is Mikuri Ayame-san!
...She's still this small and yet...makes you wonder...why...
...Excuse me.
I'm so sorry, how could I...
Now, Ayame-san. Introduce yourself to your onee-sans, okay?

Konoha: It seems Ayame was found abandoned in a back alley downtown when they took her in.
In other words, Ayame was a child who was abandoned by her parents.
Hazuki and I both remember the faces of our parents
But, Ayame can't remember at all.

A big hand that was pulling my own
...Ayame said those was her final memories she had with those vague parents.
...Since Hazuki and I were in charge of looking after Ayame
We started to spend more a lot of time together.

Director was there...
Hazuki was there...
Ayame was there...
Everyone was there...

And, Tsuzuji's House was there...
That was, my entire world.

........
...Until that day...
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[1] = The Director, who's known as Director-sensei among the orphans. Konoha shortens it to Sensei here.