While the new victim of the monsters is being selected.
At the center of that concern is Mary.
She was taking a class for younger elementary students that she never thought she would have to hear again, and was noticeably losing her vitality.
A meaningless time.
In a way, it was certainly more exhausting than the monsters themselves for a magical girl.
“Okay, let’s pass it back one by one?”
A bundle of home announcements in the hands of the students in the front row.
Taking one sheet and passing the rest back.
Once, twice, three times.
How can there be so many home announcements for elementary students?
In any case, the only person who will read them when I get home is me.
There’s a lot of text packed densely, but most of it is nonsense.
After completely reading it, I opened my bag, and the home announcements I hadn’t taken out yesterday were still there, exuding the unique musty smell of paper.
‘It’s all trash, all trash.’
The textbooks that were originally tucked away in my locker and under my desk.
What was in my bag were home announcements, a notebook, and a pencil case.
Come to think of it, I remembered I hadn’t done recycling over the weekend.
The more it piles up, the harder it becomes to throw away with this body.
Once the distribution of home announcements and the closing ceremony time end, it’s time to go home.
Both then and now, this moment of escaping the building called school feels the best.
“Shiyeon said she would play with her friend.”
Recalling Shiyeon’s words I heard during break, I returned home without needing to wait.
With nothing else to do on my smartphone, I turned on the computer first.
I didn’t particularly have anything to do, but I thought I would check YouTube to see if there was anything interesting.
On the screen, a brightly colored atmosphere of a children’s animation filled it.
Among them, there was a magical girl animation that I didn’t think Shiyeon had seen.
The power of algorithms.
‘I’ve watched a lot.’
Scrolling down the video list with the mouse wheel for a while, I couldn’t find anything worth watching and headed to the search bar.
The fingers aimed at the correct position on the keyboard wiggled for a while before starting to type ‘Sun,’ my magical girl name.
Videos of myself appeared at the very top of the list.
The time of the video uploaded one hour ago was from a news outlet.
[Magical girls gather! The face of Sun hidden behind the mask!]
Although the main image of the video was enlarged, the features were still not distinct.
Curious about what this news outlet was saying, I eventually clicked to watch.
“This is a photo that was leaked from a magical girl-related community. The photo shows the silhouette of a woman appearing to be a magical girl, and faintly depicts a monster with a wolf’s face.”
“The person filming said they captured this scene while playing a game, even though there was a evacuation alert, and uploaded it with the caption ‘During a magical girl meetup, a werewolf monster appeared near the residence.’”
[Magical girl community user Choi XX (23)]
“I was really surprised, I thought I had to capture it quickly, regardless of the game.”
With a mosaicked face and altered voice.
The contributor’s appearance ended with those few brief words.
“The face of magical girl Sun, who has always adorned a mask, is being revealed for the first time, drawing the attention of many people.”
“Meanwhile, a typical violation of portrait rights can be subject to compensation claims under Articles 750 and 751 of the Civil Act. This has been reporter Lee XX.”
With the end of the two reporters’ conversation, the video concluded.
More importantly, why is there a discussion about portrait rights?
‘Are they telling me to sue immediately or what?’
Anyway, since the transformed magical girl’s appearance is not much different from a mask, it doesn’t matter to me whether it gets captured or not.
It feels like the news outlet wants that.
After all, a magical girl suing a civilian? If that’s the headline, it would definitely grab attention.
‘Who would fall for that?’
After scoffing, I pulled out the home announcements from my bag.
I started searching through the home announcement scraps I briefly skimmed over to see if there’s anything about money.
Lo and behold, among the things I skimmed over, there was something written about the milk lunch program.
Since teachers get touchy when it comes to money matters, I figured it would be a hassle to say I wouldn’t pay, so I drew circles around the agreeing parts.
Ten thousand won and six hundred won per person.
‘If it’s just Shiyeon and me…’
Thinking of the two people, that would add up to one thousand two hundred won.
I found it hard to part with that much money just for a pale milk package while I was mentally preparing to deposit it at the bank soon.
Without a registered parent account that automatically withdraws the money, I had to deposit it manually.
To be frank, it’s terribly annoying whenever money has to be taken.
‘Milk lunch program…’
While I was thinking about going to the bank, something immediately came to mind.
The stick-type powders in chocolate, strawberry, and banana flavors.
I promptly stood up and clicked off my computer with the mouse.
Since I couldn’t even play online games due to account issues, there wasn’t much I could do by staying at the computer for too long.
After walking with short strides to the distant bank and completing the deposit into the school account.
I heard that certain convenience stores don’t sell some products, so I intentionally took a detour and bought a pack with 20 sticks of various kinds at a large supermarket.
‘Cookie and chocolate?’
It was nice to see the powdered sticks again, and there was one extra flavor besides strawberry, banana, and chocolate.
I casually bought it as an impulse purchase.
After checking out, the lady handed me the bag without me needing to pack it myself.
Being a small girl sometimes brings convenience like this.
Since I was so short, even when I lowered my hands a little, the bag would graze the floor.
In that regard, being small is quite inconvenient. I wonder if my height will grow soon.
“Mary….”
The Gomtaengi, pretending to be an ornament on my phone case, tapped on the back of my hand.
I genuinely wanted to ignore it, but since it was obvious what it wanted, I pretended to be on the phone and muttered into my smartphone.
“Is it a monster?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Asking where, I stood still in the middle of the road, waiting for its answer.
If it was farther than home, I was intending to stop by and leave my things.
It’s said that a sad premonition is never wrong, and the creature with its fluffy arms attached to its head immediately spat out the answer I wanted to hear the least.
“…For now, it’s closer than home.”
“Ugh, I didn’t even bring my mask.”
Raising the hand that was holding a black bag and scratching the back of my head in irritation, I looked around for a secluded spot where people’s gazes wouldn’t reach.
The area was bustling with large supermarkets and convenience stores, so there wasn’t a single empty space at this hour.
Eventually, I had to fly into the sky, only finding a secluded spot behind a large waste bin by the security guard’s office near an apartment.
The sunset tinted red was beautiful, but…
“Ugh, damn…”
It was an unwelcome ray of light for someone who was in no mood to leisurely enjoy the view.
After being hit with dazzling lights, I turned and began flying towards the direction the monster was.
Without a mask, the wind slapping against my face and hair felt particularly harsh.
My face was cold.
“Kuhuhuh! You seem busy running away!”
An almost submerged voice.
Before landing, the clear triangular head and the fishy smell of the sea made me realize it was a type of seafood.
As I turned downwards, a thought came to mind.
‘Uh-oh.’
I should have reduced speed before coming down.
With that thought, the ground was already rushing towards me.
“Ah, I messed up.”
I muttered, a brief and futile whisper.
The speed I was flying at, which had come from twenty floors up, and the acceleration I was experiencing went straight down to the ground.
As I crashed down, it certainly left a loud noise and created a large pit.
“Kyah?!”
With an insignificant scream, I saw the squid monster flying off into the distance.
An unintended meteor strike.
As I approached the fleeing squid monster that had been hit by the shockwave…
“Y-You…”
With a weak voice, it pointed its tentacles from its head at me.
Even if it was a mistake, I ended up finishing it without hearing any lines.
Scratching the back of my head, I looked at the pitiful state of the squirming squid monster.
“Sorry about that, man.”
For some reason, I felt a twinge of pity and ended up apologizing.
“What a cowardly ambush!”
“You guys also emerged unexpectedly, so it’s even.”
I fiddled with my cane, ready to turn it into magical powder.
Feeling sorry is one thing, but work is work.
‘Squid…squid, huh.’
I had seen something regarding seafood in a video, but I hadn’t had the chance to try it myself, so I decided to give it a go.
Coincidentally, that video was also about squid.
They said if you poke the nerves of a squid, it turns white and starts to squirm.
After twisting my magical cane about four times, the heart decoration split in half.
Then, something short blades sprang out from inside the cane.
Though crude, it was a blade-like shape.
“What are you trying to do….”
“I’ve seen a bit in videos; you’re not that different from a squid, right?”
Approaching the squirming creature on the ground, I poked around its shell-like head while running my glove from its eyes to the space between them.
“Ouch…”
“Stop it! I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but stop….”
The sharp end of the cane pierced through the squid monster’s skin and went straight to the targeted point.
“Guhuhuh?!”
The upper part of the monster’s head turned completely white in an instant.
Following that, the monster’s strange screams burst out.
“Oh, it’s working, it’s working.”
I expressed my admiration and got excited, ignoring the monster’s cries.
So that’s what paralysis is, huh?
I heard it’s a method used to make squid more chewy, and it seemed the monster was responding in kind.
If I do it once more up here, they said the legs would also be paralyzed, right?
Sticking the cane in the space between its eyes one more time caused its legs to turn white in succession.
“Wow, this is fascinating.”
That which lay on the street, now having become an ingredient, immediately scattered into magical powder.
I felt something was lacking in the handwork and wondered if it would come again.
