From that day on, peace settled in the apartment.
The loud noise from the upstairs was treated with the sound of a subwoofer.
The cat problem was solved by the heroic words of the shorts-wearing uncle of this era.
It was a leisurely afternoon when no monsters appeared.
Lying in bed, I had grown accustomed to swimming through the sea of the internet.
Even ordinary mobile games couldn’t be choices anymore.
Even trying to access the app market required logging in first; if under 14, please enter your parent’s information.
That’s where I got stuck.
So all I could do was browse the internet.
[Famous chicken franchise announces another rise in chicken prices, citizens enraged…]
[Mr. Seo caught for drunk driving claims he ate ‘taste of sea ice cream’….]
[Magical girls, let’s analyze their powers! – YouTube, Magical Girl Research Institute.]
[0% until the 149th time? It wasn’t a ceiling but a ‘floor system’.]
[Is frozen pizza the cause of delivery delays? Related businesses are ‘stirring’.]
Still, it wasn’t too boring.
Every day seemed to bring surprises I couldn’t have imagined.
In the midst of it all, there were constant updates about magical girls.
Aside from that, the world didn’t seem too different from before I died.
“Mary, look at this?”
“Yeah?”
Spinning around in her chair, Shiyeon showed me the computer screen.
While I was lost in my smartphone, she was engrossed with the computer.
Especially rewatching magical girl animations multiple times, she would call me over to show interesting parts.
“Magical, explosion!”
The voice of the seiyuu resonating from the video, full of enthusiasm.
Translating it directly means magical explosion.
Even a seemingly silly name sounds decent when translated into English.
But more importantly, why is she showing this?
“What do you think of this new technique?”
“What, my technique?”
“Yeah!”
Looking at Shiyeon with sparkling eyes, I momentarily turned my gaze to the video.
A scene of an explosion with red, black, orange, and yellow mixing in various colors.
It was a power that couldn’t be replicated with Shiyeon’s magic, and it meant it was my technique….
But seriously, what does that have to do with magic?
Real-life explosions are nothing like those cute sounds.
I’d like to request a more realistic portrayal, even if it’s animation.
After all, real magical girls might watch it and try to replicate it.
‘Explosion, explosion…?’
Setting the name aside, anyway, the city is already breaking and shattering, so a few explosions wouldn’t be surprising…?
If several monsters were to appear, wouldn’t it be quite efficient?
So far, that hasn’t happened, but it might not be a bad idea to prepare in advance.
“Hmm, I’ll think about it.”
“Ugh…”
Once I said I’d think about it, Shiyeon turned her head back to the screen.
The name of the technique… Sure, let’s name it “Explode to Die!”
With the news topics I had been looking at becoming repetitive, I began rifling through the internet tabs I had opened.
Magical Girl Gallery.
What nonsense is up today?
‘…Huh?’
[From today, I’m changing my favorite. Don’t stop me. (1)]
[I’m not a lolicon. (4)]
[Wow these bastards changed public opinion with one picture, seriously chilling. lol (3)]
[Are you even human? You bastards… (12)]
[Ah, please commit robbery in my heart. (2)]
[Magical Girl Appearance Ranking skyrocketing. lol (6)]
The atmosphere of the gallery seemed chaotic.
If it’s this busy even for a whole post, something must have stirred up.
[Why was someone with that face wearing a mask? Seriously don’t know.]
The topmost post couldn’t help but catch my eye.
There’s only one reason a mask would be mentioned in a magical girl gallery.
With a slight feeling of dread, I clicked on the concept post section.
Recent posts were all about this topic.
Among them was a post from someone who seemed to be the culprit of this situation.
[Sun’s face revealed?!? (268)]
The comment and recommendation counts obviously overwhelmed all other posts.
For some reason, I felt a bit afraid to click it. A revealed face?
Where was this taken? It can’t be near this apartment, right?
There was a magical girl who revealed her identity in this dumb world; could that be me?
Don’t say such nonsense for real.
[Since it’s out, post it. Shit!!!]
[Remember the werewolf monster that appeared a few days ago? Near that studio.]
[Regardless of the evacuation alarm, I just kept playing games, fuck it.]
[I was in a promotion match, and while the monsters were going crazy, wow, it seemed like a magical girl meetup? It really was a gathering. This day was legendary.]
[Shit, it was a game but I had to grab my smartphone and turn on the camera.]
The atmosphere of the post seemed like the author was high as if they had taken drugs.
A photo from a magical girl meetup recently showed many magical girls, including me and Shiyeon, in the background.
Anyway, it seemed like a photo of me without a mask next to Shiyeon, who was in a gathering of mostly magical girls.
‘Ah, it’s not like it captured me before transforming….’
I let out a short sigh of relief and looked back at the gallery as one does at zoo animals.
The reactions in the comments were…
[Shitty quality, damn!]
[Orange with orange eyes, seriously arousing.]
[You mean, someone with that face was wearing a mask??????]
[Damn, is the quality from a flip phone?]
[Ugh, hey, you were there and took a picture like this? Damn it.]
[Wow.]
[A man knows that even if he knows he will lose, there are times he must fight.]
[Isn’t this the Power Rangers meme?]
[So what happened to the promotion match?]
[Since I didn’t participate, we won. (Author)]
[You should hide, you crazy fuck. lol]
[The magical girl saved even the team.]
[Why were they winning? lol]
[??? Why did this happen?]
[From today, I’ll call Sun a bank robber. If that leads to me being cursed, so be it.]
[Could you take a proper picture, you shithead?]
[Wow, but standing like that is really scary.]
[From the monster’s perspective, isn’t it really a disaster? lol]
[But seriously, there actually was a magical girl meetup? More than ten magical girls gathered around that loser, what’s going on?]
[Even beasts gather around like this for a woman, damn.]
[Why is this not a clickbait post?]
[But seriously, the quality is so bad, do you have tremors?]
Curses about the blurry quality, pity for the werewolf monster, looks critiques, and more.
Anyway, it seemed like the gallery users were shocked too.
Just showing my face without a mask drew this kind of reaction, what a fuss.
In truth, I didn’t care if the inside face of the mask was revealed.
‘As long as my real face doesn’t get exposed, that’s fine.’
If I leave it like this, after three days, this discussion will cool down anyway.
Soon enough, it will heat up with another magical girl topic.
…or so I thought.
[Sun’s face news in the gallery. lol (87)]
While looking for the concept post at school, I saw my blurry face featured in the 9 o’clock news.
‘Why on earth?’
9 o’clock news article title:
The face hidden beneath the magical girl’s mask revealed!
It felt odd to see adults having a serious discussion about what seemed like a secret that could last forever being unveiled.
Isn’t it true that many other magical girls walk around with their faces revealed?
‘Why is this even news?’
Curiosity bubbled up, and feeling compelled to know what was said in the news, I followed the link mentioned in the comments and watched the video.
It started with a scene of someone looking like a balding professor being interviewed by a reporter.
“Sun is a relatively newly emerged magical girl. If that’s the case, she shouldn’t be too old, yet she shows such violent tendencies, likely influenced by the violent games trending in today’s children…”
“Shut the fuck up.”
As soon as the expletive slipped out, the boy next to me looked over. What of it?
An old man, suddenly bringing up a game I don’t even play to criticize.
Why not just say my hobbies are violent golf and fishing?
When those two aren’t going well, I relieve my stress like this and provoke generational conflict?
“Sigh.”
Sighing to cool off pointless anger, I pressed the button on my smartphone and flipped it over on the desk.
Scraping the cover of the textbooks with a cutter knife, I started customizing it as I pleased.
Today’s customization was about turning the Korean language cover into something else.
As I concentrated on the sound of scraping the cover, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
‘By the way, it seems the monsters have been a bit scarce lately?’
While someone was scraping the textbook, deep in unspeakable anguish were those who couldn’t even imagine.
They were beings with bizarre forms, either a combination of human shape and sea creatures, or creatures from the forest.
Monsters, fiends, and beings; with various names and appearances.
However, the one commonality they shared was that their grim appearances were overshadowed by a singular concern.
One monster, resembling a muscular man with eight arms and no eyes, who had a higher rank, spoke, knowing well that nothing would begin if they just stood still.
“…What will you do? We must decide.”
“Hmm, can’t we just send those who can’t speak?”
In response to the urging question by a monstrous voice, the lion-faced creature with shield-like arms answered.
Indeed, they were currently deciding which monster or beast to send to fight the magical girl.
And now, the monster that would be sent was to be from the area that included Sun and Mun.
Even though they were sending a being incapable of speaking, it was practically being used as a sacrifice.
The nonchalant response of the lion-faced creature made the higher-ranked being point at a corner with the second arm from the right among its eight arms.
“…Can’t you see that?”
“Haaah-! Haaah-!”
Over there was a cat monster that Sun had struck down with a single blow not long ago, glaring with great hostility at the arm pointing at it.
The eerie tapping of its front paw against the solid floor echoed the space.
No matter how much of a mute beast it was, it still had some instinct to understand the intent of the pointing arm.
“……”
Even the lion monster with shield arms had nothing to say in response to the sight.
Even a mute beast is reluctant to return, driven by its instinct for survival.
With ferocious snarlings, silence ensued between the two.
“It seems we’ll have to send a newbie again.”
“Let’s not speak of that crazy girl.”
“Yes, let’s not.”
It was an unspoken rule among the monster executives to say nothing about Sun.
