If you make that hammering sound again, I’ll turn it into a 10-hour video.
…So much so that everything I thought vanished into thin air, the day after the lady came down to our floor, the sounds noticeably diminished.
The subwoofer I had bought with great determination.
Gratefully for its performance, I carefully moved it next to the monitor so it could be used as intended.
The two pairs of earplugs I had painstakingly bought also became unnecessary…
So what? It doesn’t matter either way.
Thinking about how uncomfortable that brazen face made me feel, I experienced a refreshing sensation as the food I had been choking on went straight down to my stomach.
“How am I supposed to search for it?”
“You write the title you want to find here, and push this big button…”
As the noise-terrorizing computer suddenly found itself with nothing to do, it settled in the corner of our apartment and was put back to its original purpose.
What I was doing now was searching for the animation that Shiyeon enjoyed watching on YouTube.
Her awkward attempt to find letters and peck them out with her index finger reminded me of the time I first learned about computers with Shiyeon.
Thinking back, this is about the time I first got to know computers.
‘A magical girl searching for magical girl animations…’
I watched Shiyeon struggling with the keyboard and absentmindedly thought that way.
Is it because there are more scenes of magical girls than actual magical girls?
“Oh, here it is!”
“Now move the mouse and click the left button.”
As the screens awash in pastel pink flashed by, the magical girl animation began.
Since the computer came into existence, the television had certainly become an afterthought.
Even though the empty apartment room was filled with positive sounds from childish animations, I didn’t feel particularly inclined to turn it on.
After all, isn’t it just that bad news is all that comes up when you turn on the TV?
Even if the content is childish, while I was lying sideways on the floor and staring at the animation for quite a while…
“Shiyeon?”
“Mary?”
The mascots called us almost simultaneously.
The fact that they called out first left no room for guessing—it had to be the same one.
Anticipating the inevitable task, I grabbed a black mask from the closet with one hand and asked just in case.
“Is it a monster?”
“Yes.”
A resolute answer that didn’t even think of straying a whit from my expectation.
Sometimes I wished that this prediction would be wrong.
“What can we do, Shiyeon?”
“…”
“Shiyeon?”
After the unanswered call, I called her once more.
It seemed my voice got drowned out by the sound of the video playing.
When I raised my voice for the second time, I finally heard her reply.
“Oh, yeah!”
“If you click on the screen, it will pause like this, so hurry up and handle it and come back to watch more.”
As Shiyeon left the house, her eyes wandered to the computer for a moment.
It’s not a pleasant feeling to suddenly be interrupted while concentrating on something.
Understanding that feeling well, I deliberately hurried my steps ahead.
“Mun Power, Transform!”
“Sun.”
In the shadows of deserted buildings without human sight, I spoke the transformation incantation and flew up.
While flying toward the designated point where the mascots were looking, which seemed to act as monster navigation.
A question suddenly flew from Shiyeon, who tilted her head in wonder.
“Sun, why do monsters have so many minions in cartoons?”
“Minions? Ah…”
Unsure of what she was saying, when I thought about it, I realized it was true.
The minions looking as if their eyes were completely obscured by full-body tights.
It’s those ones who can’t even speak, right?
“Um…”
Listening to her question made me consider the opposite question as well.
While in the air, I groaned softly and crossed my arms in the sky.
The existence of the minions, huh.
In terms of the story setting, maybe it’s to exhaust the magical girl’s powers, or there’s some kind of allocation system for useless minions for every monster.
But realistically speaking…
“It’s just for padding.”
“P-padding…?”
A look of complete incomprehension.
Maybe I had explained it in a way that was hard for an early elementary school student to understand, so I decided to clarify a bit.
Since the monster alert in our areas, which Sun and Mun are in charge of, the average handling time for a monster is around 5 minutes.
“Why, monsters are… weaker than you’d think, right?”
If they were adapted directly into animation, it would be nothing more than a short animation.
If things went on in such a one-pattern manner, the kids would lose interest quickly.
In reality, handling monsters is best done as quickly as possible.
“Is that so…?”
“You can’t fight all day, so you need those who can fill in time until the end of the cartoon.”
“Grateful…”
Shiyeon appeared to have complicated feelings.
Those minions, which she had always thought of as the villains who sabotage the magical girls, actually play such a big role in maintaining the story.
Oh no, did I just touch the realm of childhood innocence?
“Kahaha! You’ve come, Magic Girl-?”
In that brief moment of deeper thought, a mysterious sound presumed to have come from below brushed softly against my ears.
“Oh, Mary! You passed it! You just passed it!”
“Shiyeon! Back, back!”
The urgent cries of the mascots saying we had just passed the monster echoed in my ears.
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
Realizing my mistake, I hastily braked mid-air and moved a few more meters before quickly spinning around to the direction of the sound.
This is why you shouldn’t talk nonsense while driving.
Anyhow, once I landed nearby, the monster, which had only appeared as a point before, now came into full view.
It had a head with three branched horns like a stag beetle and a kind of arm resembling a praying mantis, shaped for grabbing something.
It looked like the ultimate weapon of an insect.
As Shiyeon seemed like she would be a bit slower to descend since her flying skills were not as good as mine, I opened my mouth first.
“Um, what was it… I won’t forgive you or something like that.”
Scratching the back of my head, I tried to remember what a magical girl should say after a long time.
Even that was too much to recall, so I just filled it with “or something.”
“Kuh, these little brats! You passed by me, and one is wearing that weird mask! Are you insulting me?!”
The insect monster seemed offended and angrily pointed at me with an arm like a praying mantis.
“Well, it was a mistake, but isn’t that natural?”
“What…?”
I kindly explained to the monster that was swinging its cane as if to massage itself.
“After all, we’re going to fight, so why should we respect a nuisance like you, who’s only causing damage around?”
“Um, well…”
The moment I saw it floundering in confusion, I realized it was my chance.
As soon as it let out an “uh,” I pushed off the ground, channeling all my strength through my toes and leaped forward.
A magical girl fighting fairly in full condition from the front?
That kind of thing can only be found in TV cartoons.
This is a task, and reality.
I was only filled with the desire to finish it quickly and go back to rest.
“Kahaha! You’ve fallen for it!”
“What?!”
As my magical cane collided with the monster’s carapace, a sharp metallic sound echoed as if two blades clashed.
Soon, it mixed its tone and laughter as if it had expected it.
The horn on its head, resembling the pincers of a stag beetle, narrowed down exposing sharp thorns toward my waist.
Shiyeon’s surprised shout reached my ears.
“Sun!”
“I’ve heard enough about you from everyone else!”
The voice of the monster, confident in its victory, rang out merrily.
The escape route above was blocked by something like the horn of a stag beetle, and with the monster’s head pushing forward, it looked like I couldn’t escape below either.
No way out.
“The meaner and more monstrous you’re than any monster! This is the end of your legend!”
As the beetle’s pincers brutally tightened down toward my waist, soon…
Just like my cane struck down on its head, a sound sharper than before filled the surroundings.
Those pincers, like they were trying to cut my waist, rubbed against me as if they were a saw, yet only produced a clanking noise and spun uselessly.
“…Huh?”
The voice of the shocked monster, filled with confusion, flowed out right in front of me.
It was trapped inside the insides of those sharply spiked pincers.
Surely, there should be some sort of feeling, right? It must be thinking the same thing.
“Hey, are you done yet?”
“No, there’s no way… this can’t be happening…”
The pincers fell away from my waist in panic.
“Where do you think you’re going, you little brat?”
Looking at those thin legs that were trying to back away, I grabbed the horn that had just been blocking my escape route.
That long horn, which had just been preventing my route, had become the handle that would now block its own getaway.
Was that just my ultimate finishing blow…? Rather than boldly attacking, it looked more pitiful as it flapped its transparent wings that had popped out of its shell in an attempt to flee.
“Seems you’ve heard a lot about me, huh?”
“Wait, just a minute—!”
“Mean and more monstrous than a monster? Cruel, huh… Ah.”
Having realized it could not win, its flapping became increasingly frantic as it continued to speak.
The flapping sound unique to insects created a dust cloud around us.
“No, I wouldn’t dare to utter such words!”
“No, no, you don’t have to take it back…”
As I smiled faintly at the insect monster trying to retract its words, I dismissed its need to do so with a wavering tone.
The following words, however, might not have been welcomed by it.
“That’s probably all true…”
As the heart decoration on my heated cane glowed a deep shade of despair.
