NOVEL NEXT As the new victim of the monsters was being decided.
At the center of that concern was Mari.
She was losing her vitality noticeably as she sat through the elementary school lower grade class, a class she never wanted to hear again.
Meaningless time.
In a way, it was undoubtedly more tiring than the monsters for the magical girls.
“Alright, let’s pass it back one at a time?”
The pile of parent notices held by the students in the front row.
They took one and passed the rest to the back.
Once, twice, three times.
Why are there so many parent notices for elementary school students?
Anyway, when I get home, I’m the only one who will read them.
There are various densely packed letters, but most are just useless noise.
After reading everything thoroughly and opening my bag, the parent notices that I hadn’t pulled out the day before wafted out the unique musty smell of old paper.
‘Everything’s trash, it’s all trash.’
The textbooks that were already tucked under the desk and in the locker.
All that’s in my bag are the parent notices, a notebook, and a pencil case.
Come to think of it, I remembered I hadn’t done the recycling over the weekend.
The more they pile up, the harder it gets to throw them away with this body.
Once the distribution of the parent notices and the closing ceremony was over, it was time to head home.
Even now, the time to escape from the building known as school is the best feeling.
‘Siyeon said she’d play with a friend.’
Thinking of Siyeon’s words I’d heard during recess, I returned home without needing to wait.
With nothing more to do on my smartphone, I turned on the computer first.
I didn’t really have anything to do, but I checked YouTube to see if there was something interesting.
Filling the screen was the bright atmosphere of children’s animation.
Among them was a magical girl anime that didn’t seem to be one Siyeon had seen.
The power of the algorithm.
‘Watched quite a lot.’
Rolling the mouse wheel down, I browsed through the video list and eventually headed to the search bar without finding anything worth watching.
My fingers headed for the correct positions on the keyboard and started typing out my magical girl name—‘Sun.’
At the top of the video list, there was a video about me.
The upload time of the video marked one hour ago, uploaded by a news outlet.
[Magical Girls Gathered! Sun’s Face Hidden by a Mask!]
No matter how much they zoomed in for the main screen, my features still weren’t distinct.
Curious about what the news outlet had to say, I finally pressed the text to watch the video.
“This photo, leaked from a magical girl-related community, shows a woman who appears to be the silhouette of a magical girl and a monster with a wolf face.”
“The shooter captured this scene while playing a game despite an evacuation alert and uploaded the post, saying it was ‘during the magical girl gathering’ near where the werewolf monster appeared.”
[Magical Girl Community User Choi XX (23)]
“I was really surprised; I thought I had to quickly take a shot regardless of the game.”
With a pixelated face and a distorted voice.
The interviewee’s appearance ended quickly with those few short words.
“The face of magical girl Sun, who always wears a mask, is being revealed for the first time and is attracting a lot of attention.”
“However, typical portrait rights violations may result in a damage claim under Civil Law Articles 750 and 751. This has been reporter Lee XX.”
Ending the video was the conversation between two reporters.
But why is there talk of portrait rights?
‘Are they telling me to sue right away or what?’
In any case, since the transformed magical girl appearance is also like a mask, it doesn’t truly matter to me whether it gets filmed or not.
It feels like the news outlet might want that.
I mean, a magical girl suing an ordinary person? That would definitely grab attention for a headline.
‘Who would fall for that?’
Letting out a sarcastic snort, I pulled out the parent notices from my bag.
I started looking for mentions of money to be paid within the parent notice scraps I had skimmed through.
No surprise, among the things I had flipped through, there was one discussing the milk supply.
Teachers get sensitive when it comes to money talk, so to avoid trouble if I say I won’t pay, I circled the agreed parts.
Ten thousand won plus six hundred won per person.
‘If Siyeon and I are counted….’
Considering the two of us, that would be twelve hundred won.
I lamented the blood-like money flowing away to trivial milk packages as I felt dizzy at the thought of depositing it at the bank soon.
Since there was no registered parent account from which money would automatically be withdrawn, I had to deposit it myself.
To put it bluntly, it’s a real hassle every time money needs to be withdrawn.
‘Milk supply, huh….’
Let’s stop by the bank; the instant I think of milk supply, something immediately comes to mind.
Chocolate, strawberry, banana flavored powdered sticks.
I promptly stood up and switched off the computer with my mouse.
Being unable to participate in online games due to account issues, I really had nothing to do sitting at the computer for long.
After walking with short strides to the distant bank to finish the deposit into the school account.
It seemed like convenience stores don’t sell them at every branch, so I took a long way to buy a pack containing twenty sticks of each flavor from a big mart.
‘Cookie and chocolate?’
Seeing the powder sticks I hadn’t seen in a while, there was something new besides strawberry, banana, and chocolate.
I bought it impulsively at the cash register.
After completing the payment, without needing to bag it myself, the aunty packed it into a bag and handed it to me.
Being a small girl sometimes comes in handy like this.
Because I’m so short, even if I hold my hand a little lower, the bag drags on the floor.
But such things are also quite inconvenient. I wish I would grow taller quickly.
“Mari….”
Gomteng, pretending to be a decoration stuck to the back case of my phone, tapped the back of my hand.
I really wanted to ignore it, but knowing how it would turn out, I pretended to be on the phone and held my smartphone to my ear.
“Is it a monster?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
I stood in the middle of the street, asking where and waiting for his answer.
If it’s farther than home, I might decide to drop by and leave something behind.
They say that a sad premonition is never wrong, and the creature, with its plusher arms, immediately dropped the answer I dreaded the most.
“…It’s closer than home.”
“Damn, I didn’t even bring my mask.”
Raising the hand holding the black bag, I scratched my head and got irritated, looking around for a secluded spot where I wouldn’t be seen by others.
The surrounding area was bustling with people since it was an area filled with big marts and convenience stores, and it was already late afternoon, so there wasn’t a quiet place anywhere.
Eventually, I had to venture all the way to the back of a large trash dump near the apartment’s guardhouse to take off into the sky.
The sunset turning red is beautiful, but….
“Ugh….”
For someone who wants to casually enjoy the scenery, it is an unwelcome beam of light.
After being bombarded with blinding rays, I began flying in the direction where the monster was.
Without a mask, the cold wind striking my face and hair felt especially rough.
My face feels cold.
“Ahahaha! Running away in a hurry-!”
A voice that sounded like it was submerged in water.
Before I landed, the clear triangular head and the rancid smell of the sea that filled the air tipped me off that it was a seafood type.
As I turned my direction towards the ground, a sudden thought arrived.
‘Oh no.’
I should have reduced my speed in the air first.
As the ground rushed toward me, I realized it was too late.
“Whoa, I’m done for.”
A short mutter of despair escaped my lips.
The speed I was flying at from 20 floors up and the acceleration I was experiencing now.
I slammed directly into the ground with that.
With a loud bang, I managed to make a huge crater.
“Gah?!”
A pitiful scream echoed from afar as the Squid Monster flew off in the distance.
An involuntary meteor strike.
As I approached the Squid Monster, blown away by the shock wave….
“Y-you….”
With a weak voice, it barely pointed its squid legs toward me.
Even if it was a mistake, I didn’t get to hear a single line.
Scratching the back of my head, I looked at the pitiful sight of the Squid Monster.
“Sorry about that.”
That sight somehow even looked miserable, so I found myself apologizing.
“Y-you cowardly girl!”
“You guys surprise attack too, so let’s call it even.”
I fidgeting with my wand to turn the monster into magical powder.
I felt bad for the apology, but work is work.
‘Squid… it’s a squid.’
I saw this in a video that dealt with seafood, but I had never had the chance to try it myself, so I thought I’d try it out this time.
Coincidentally, the video was related to squid.
They said if you poke the nerves of a squid, it suddenly turns white and shudders like that…
After twisting the magic wand about four times, the heart decoration split in half.
Then, it went inside the wand, and from the inside, a short blade popped out.
Even if it seemed clumsy, it was a form of a blade.
“What are you trying to do….”
“I’ve seen a bit from videos; you aren’t much different from a squid, right?”
Approaching the squid flailing on the ground, I touched the inside of its shell-like head and started poking between its eyes with my gloved hand.
“Ouch….”
“W-wait! I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but stop….”
The sharp tip of the wand pierced the skin of the Squid Monster and smoothly went in to the intended point.
“Green-?”!!
In an instant, the top part of the Squid Monster’s head turned white.
Followed closely by the monster’s bizarre scream.
“O-oh, it works, it works.”
I exclaimed in admiration, completely ignoring the monster’s wailing.
Isn’t it called nerve paralysis?
I heard it’s a method used to make squid a bit more chewy, and it seems the monster reacted as per its appearance.
They said you would have to do it again on the upper part and between the eyes for the legs to also become paralyzed.
Poking again between its eyes caused the legs to turn white as well.
“Wow, amazing.”
That which had laid on the street like some ingredient to be immediately turned into magical powder and scattered.
I felt a bit unsatisfied with the feeling in my hands and wondered if it would come back once more.