Step 1, sauté ham and eggs first.
Step 2, don’t microwave the rice for too long; just fry it until it’s slightly firm, and it should turn into fluffy fried rice.
That day ended by teaching how to make fluffy fried rice, even if it was just in theory.
The next day, just before the Seol holiday.
Leaving Shiyeon, who went to the academy, behind, I rustled through hygienic bags in my room and put the bag containing the devices directly into a black trash bag.
Unlike the transparent bag showing the unidentified alien devices, the black trash bag concealed its contents.
After tying it securely at the entrance, it looked like a bag of regular trash or food waste at a glance.
“Will it come back tonight?”
I was the one who started collecting the devices first because I felt bad.
However, dealing with monsters is a game of strategy.
When I calmed down, I realized that to maintain that relationship smoothly, I had to know how to yield at times.
By the time I had already taken down the monster that had come out to talk, it was too late, but…
With a bit of regret, I continued to fiddle with the plastic.
Maybe because the sound of rustling plastic was bothering me, Gomtaengi, who had been snacking on the cushion, asked.
“Um, are you really going to return it?”
“Well, for now….”
Lifting the bag containing the devices with one hand and feeling its weight, I answered hesitantly.
They were similar devices, about the size of a long walkie-talkie.
The light, clinking sound of the plastic hitting each other scratched my ears just as lightly as it looked.
Since the number of retrieved devices was in double digits, it felt quite heavy.
The lumpy surfaces of the bag pleaded that at least it wasn’t food waste.
Even though it was tightly wrapped in a black bag, the disguise was unsatisfactory.
“Hmm….”
After letting out a dissatisfied sound, I started to think about how to discreetly deliver it to where the monster was.
Then, suddenly, my eyes fell on…
The backpack that had slimmed down after returning from the convention.
Like someone who had lost all hope after hitting a stock profit of minus 99 percent, the bag was slumped against the wall.
That’s it, that’s the answer.
With a spark of inspiration, I dragged it over with my fingertips and pinched the tightly closed zipper handle with my thumb and index finger, pushing it in one direction.
With a zip, the sound of the zipper opening was accompanied by the crunch of snacks being chewed.
“I got curious all of a sudden…”
The creature paused its snacking and stopped its busy hands, curious about what I was thinking.
Maybe it was going to ask another useless question, so I avoided eye contact and focused on what I was doing.
Inside the empty space of the slim backpack.
I had already opened it wide to make it easy to put things in one go, securing space in advance.
As I reached out and grabbed the tied opening of the bag containing the devices, a question touched my ear.
“Did you choose the names ‘Sun’ and ‘Mun’ for the magical girl?”
“Well, there’s a certain categorization by country.”
The guidelines set by the magical girl organizations of each country to facilitate some sort of classification, rules not limited to just one nation.
In the United States, magical girls are Tiara, Jewel, Beauty.
They usually use items or abstract concepts that symbolize the aspirations of women as their activity names.
In contrast, the magical girls in Japan are Pink, Yellow, Green.
They typically use color-related words translated into English as their activity names.
And our Korean magical girls are Sun, Mun, Jupiter, Venus.
They often use the English names of stars as their activity names.
“There are all sorts of bizarre names, but there was no Sun and Moon… I mean, ‘Sun’ and Mun, so…”
While I was talking, I momentarily felt like the room had suddenly lowered in height.
After stopping to see what was happening, I reflected on what I had just said.
There was no Sun and Moon.
That was right.
‘Sun’ unconsciously left my lips, and I had transformed.
Once I got home, the tension released, and I often failed to realize ‘that word’ mixed in with my sentences.
“Ugh…”
A frustrated murmur.
I think every time I need to be careful, but saying that is easy.
Every time I talk to someone, I can’t go filtering through my head with ‘Sun’ and then respond leisurely, nor can I just shut my mouth like in a silent retreat.
I was fortunate that I only made a mistake at home; when I almost said ‘sunglasses’ at school, it sent a chill down my spine.
I was lucky to have caught myself swallowing the pronunciation.
I almost transformed in the middle of the classroom while showing off that tangled outfit.
If I had carelessly said ‘Sun’glasses at that moment…
Without a second thought, I would have to transform back, break the window, and escape to another world, right?
Or else, school would be cut right away from that day on due to compulsory education or whatever.
“Ugh, just imagining it makes me really sick.”
Swallowing the terrible thoughts that crossed my mind, I stuffed the bag inside my backpack.
Unconsciously pressing it down like clothes, firmly.
With a soft push…
The inflated plastic was pressed under pressure, and I felt a strange sensation in my finger joints.
“Oh.”
The sensation of the button being pressed unexpectedly made me think, ‘Oops.’
I blurted out a surprised exclamation, but it seemed like it was already too late. A beam of light enveloped my sight.
My mind calmed down, and the familiar scenery of my room appeared.
It transformed instantly into a strange, vast room made of metal with futuristic design.
Moreover, I was not alone in the room.
Beasts with animalistic faces were seated in bizarre mechanical chairs.
They were watching the view of the blue Earth outside the transparent window from that wide room.
Captivated by the breathtaking view of Earth.
The blue, white, brown, and green harmoniously mixed seemed like a very pretty bead placed on black paper.
No, this wasn’t the time to admire the scenery.
The objects connected to my body were mostly dragged along, including the bag in my hand and its contents.
“How many transmission jobs do we have left?”
“23. They say to send them as close to the border as possible.”
The monsters in the room seemed to be too busy with their work or chatting, showing no interest in looking around.
Clearing my throat, I addressed the closest two monsters.
“Ahem… um, monster friends?”
The disaster that would soon be recorded in the ship’s operational log began with the voice of that young girl.
A magical girl enters the spaceship.
It was a simple and short sentence.
However, the destructive power of that short sentence.
It was enough to create chaos in the spaceship, carrying the label of a major disaster unique in the history between Earth and monsters.
Like a merciless magic rod that struck the monsters invading Earth, a similar ruthless fist would soon be unleashed on the magical girl invading the spaceship.
…Assuming, of course, that the opponent was an ordinary magical girl.
“Gyaaaaa!!!”
“Abandon ship!”
The chaotic screams mixed within the spaceship.
I’d much rather take charge of cleaning the ship’s exterior than fight seriously with Sun.
If the replica was like that, what kind of disaster would the original cause?
Meeting Sun before negotiations would be better off committing suicide.
Although that statement was a joke, it held a certain twisted sincerity in the ship.
However, there were monsters who were seized by panic merely at her appearance, and fear spread like an uncontrollable plague.
Fear dulled thinking, and uniform movements that seemed controlled allowed no room for alternative thoughts.
Sun had appeared. No sooner had the adjoining monster fled than I felt compelled to run too.
The monsters exiting the cabin were heading for the small lifeboat, and the passageway was like a battlefield.
In a pathetic movement, they fled in the opposite direction of where Sun had appeared.
Small-sized monsters were mowed down and crushed amid the turmoil, creating comical situations where they were returned to the recovery room.
The end of the spaceship.
Those monsters, affirming that certainty while losing their minds and fleeing, held another certainty within.
The eternal death of all monsters.
They believed that her purpose was solely that.
…They never suspected that the vicious magical girl Sun had accidentally pressed the button of the transmission device in a moment of distraction to return the device.
Meanwhile, she, the source and cause of the incident.
Walking along the metallic corridor that echoed with hollow sounds, Sun scratched her head with the hand holding her cane, looking troubled.
…In such a vast spaceship, shaking the bag dangling from one hand.
“How do I get back?”
All she could think about was that she needed to return.
The spaceship was unnaturally quiet around her.
Even the monsters she occasionally encountered would run away madly upon seeing her face, or even those who attempted to catch her would be too flustered to ask anything, drooling in confusion.
The only monster she could converse with was Medik Tenkl, and so she took her steps forward, seeking the somewhat familiar monster in the strange spaceship.
“I can’t even read the letters….”
The metal signs written in languages that certainly weren’t from Earth.
The last letters were twisted in a common script, looking somewhat like a room number in Earth terms, such as xx room, xx hall, Sun hazily speculated.
Among those many rooms, the place where Medik Tenkl was located was the recovery room.
It was uncertain whether she could reach the recovery room on her own.
The fate of the vast spaceship rested upon her frail-looking two legs.
