I couldn’t believe the words of the unbelievable Bear, so I grabbed my mask, kicked the front door, and ran out.
In a reality I couldn’t accept, the only target to vent my anger on was right nearby, and I irritably let out my frustration.
“Are you serious? Three or more?!”
“I’m telling you the truth! Have you seen me lie about this? Oh no, it’s increasing again?”
Even if I wanted to deny it, it was reality.
Sure enough, no matter how useless the Bear was, it never lied about monsters related matters—0 times.
In the current situation, not like last time when I was lost in gazing, there was nothing I could do but realize it was reality and move quickly.
“Damn! I thought things were quiet lately!”
“Four, five! Oh crap!”
As I rushed out into the shared entrance while cursing, Bear’s radar seemed to only exhibit its abilities at times like this, continuously increasing the detected numbers.
The guy couldn’t hold back either and cursed alongside me.
Usually so leisurely, even the transformation sites were hard to find today because there were adults cooling off in the playground pavilion.
“Sun!”
In the corner of the street filled with illegally parked cars.
By the time the Bear mentioned that six monsters had appeared, I was finally able to transform and take to the sky.
There was no time for leisurely torturing.
I didn’t care about the magical girls being talked about in news or articles anyway.
I just needed to finish this quickly as it was causing trouble to the people around.
“Hey, over there!”
“Get lost, you moron!”
Unable to accept the sudden changes in the situation, I became feral.
Enjoying that power to the fullest, I created a large crack on the ground as I descended, crushing the monster beneath me.
Whatever it looked like, no form was left of the monster.
Anyway, before that spread into magical powder, I immediately soared into the sky to ask the Bear about the next monster’s location.
“Where is it?!”
“It’s over there!”
As the numbers kept increasing, there were still seven monsters left, excluding the one I had dealt with.
It’s certain that I had to go down to take care of them one by one, but was I lacking time or strength?
“Damn it, I’m too lazy to go down! Beam!”
Starting from the third monster, I just dealt with them using precision beam bombardments from the sky.
Looking at the land turned into a pit, watching them disperse into magical powder, I repeated this process as I moved on to the next spot.
As a result, since the first monster appeared, a total of 16 minutes and 49 seconds had passed.
That was the time it took to deal with all eight monsters that appeared in our area.
Even though I had finished something, I didn’t feel like I had accomplished anything, so I sat down on the rooftop of a building and asked the Bear.
“Is there anything more?”
“Yes, not yet…”
“Crap, what a hell of a day….”
Hearing the Bear’s words ringing out as if confirming it, I leaned back and collapsed onto the rooftop of an apartment I didn’t even know the name of.
Did they all take drugs together? It’s been quiet lately, but what’s going on?
Lying down, I rolled my eyes and grabbed the Bear, bringing him in front of my face.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Uh, well… I’ve never seen anything like this before, I have no idea.”
“Am I the first again? Damn it….”
With the Bear’s genuinely confused expression, I released the hand I was holding and let my right arm drop to the floor.
Lying back against the apartment rooftop.
The smell of green waterproof paint, soaked under the sunlight, accentuated my pitiful situation even more.
Usually, being the first would make you feel good if it was for something good, but being the first for something bad left me feeling terrible.
Where should I pour my resentment that was buried in anger?
“It seems like they won’t be showing up anymore. Let’s head back.”
“Yeah, I guess so….”
Listening to the Bear’s cautious guess, I let out a short sigh and got up from where I was lying, heading home.
Surely, it won’t happen like this again next time.
As soon as I arrived at home, I quickly grabbed my smartphone and flopped onto the bed.
Before even entering the community page, the main search engine screen was filled with new news.
Naturally, there was no way there wouldn’t be any stories about the eight monsters that had just appeared.
[Is there no safe zone?! The city once regarded as a ‘safe city’…]
[‘Is this a good restaurant?’ This city where eight monsters appeared at once.]
[Zero damage even with eight monsters appearing, what about the magical girl in charge of that area?]
Various news organizations didn’t miss a beat, starting to gnaw at the news.
It felt like a piece of fresh meat thrown into a lake filled with piranhas.
“Mary, are you tired?”
“Uh… no, no, don’t worry about it.”
I waved my hand dismissively at the voice coming from the invisible bed on the first floor, telling her not to worry, while tearing my gaze away from my smartphone.
In reality, I felt like I was going to die from exhaustion….
But I still had to make sure Shiyeon didn’t worry.
As long as the monsters didn’t act up again, it would be fine.
As long as they don’t act up again….
‘But why are the monsters suddenly appearing like this?’
With that thought, I suddenly became curious about the simultaneous appearance of the monsters.
Should I have captured and asked the last of the eight monsters?
I couldn’t even grab that one that had already turned to powder and vanished to ask.
At that time, I was in such a rush to deal with them, thinking I didn’t know when the next monster would appear, that regret remained as just that.
‘It would be a real problem if this happened while I was at school….’
“Tsk.”
Thinking of a situation I hoped wouldn’t happen, I grimaced and clicked my tongue.
Although it was getting late, the season was still humid and sticky.
As I opened the balcony door to let in at least a bit of cool air.
‘Ah, seriously.’
The smell of nicotine crept in like a ghost, making me scrunch my nose.
I wondered if I was really driving away monsters for these sorts of people, and then I thought about it again; I was getting paid after all, so it wasn’t purely for humanity’s sake.
Money comes first.
Helping people on the side.
“Haaaaah.”
My body felt sleepier than usual after moving around a lot today.
Still, I thought I should eat dinner before sleeping and asked Shiyeon what she wanted to eat.
“Pizza!”
“Pizza? What flavor?”
“Anything!”
Having decided on the type of food but seeing Shiyeon randomly guess the flavor, I once again fell into deep thoughts.
Let’s just go with bulgogi and pepperoni pizza, something moderately visible.
Enough size for the Bear and the sea serpent, enough to last for the next morning.
After completing the order, I closed my eyes for a moment.
Just as I had closed them for a short time, my consciousness started to fade away as if I were falling into something.
‘This really shouldn’t be happening again….’
With that anxiety in mind, Mary decided to sleep just until the pizza arrived.
Despite those worries, inside the monsters’ spaceship, it was truly a festive atmosphere on Earth.
In a recovery room that should have been filled with the anguish and screams of monsters who usually visited the Black Zone or their insane laughter.
Waking up in the recovery devices, the monsters embraced each other, feeling friendship beyond species and gender, shouting with joy.
“Wooooo!! We did it—!”
“They died in an instant! They died in an instant!”
“This actually works! Who came up with this idea?”
“This isn’t the time! Let’s quickly inform the others!”
Watching the horde of monsters rush out of the recovery room, Medik Tentacle scratched his round head with his clustered tentacles.
Feeling gratitude and joy that they had died so quickly, he was feeling a bit complicated.
Not even starting data collection on the Sun, seeing them rush out, he crossed his arms and added a few words.
“Hmm, since when did we turn into a suicide squad?”
“It’s not surprising. It’s that ‘Black Zone.’”
In response to Medik Tentacle’s muttering, one of the monsters in the recovery room replied.
Merely feeling how large and terrifying the fear the Black Zone represented for monsters, even Medik Tentacle felt it again.
Still, he respected their noble efforts to try to overcome it, yet their requests for understanding were sometimes quite troublesome.
“Last time they wanted me to create self-destructing bombs, what the heck….”
“Rather than being taken down by that woman, it’s better if a bomb explodes from inside my body.”
After voicing one of those incomprehensible requests, one of the other monsters in the recovery room refuted it.
The ongoing back-and-forth.
“…Hey, if you’re a member of the recovery room, you should back me up, right?”
Looking back at that monster, Medik Tentacle asked him, slightly offended, as if perplexed.
Medik Tentacle, who was truly his immediate superior.
Instead of the expected apology, an unexpected question returned from his subordinate monster.
“Um. So, Tentacle, do you want to go out there unarmed?”
Suddenly turning to an unexpected topic, the question returned.
“….”
Medik Tentacle closed his mouth at the sudden question.
Do I want to go out there unarmed?
Even if I had hundreds of mouths, there wouldn’t be one that could easily answer ‘yes’ to that question.
‘Even if that’s the case… it’s not a self-destruct bomb, it’s a self-destruct weapon….’
Unable to answer the sudden question, timidly rebutting while kicking at the air with his tentacles, Medik Tentacle muttered inwardly.
