At that moment, back on Earth.
Despite inflated confidence, the squid was easily subdued.
Whatever it was, it couldn’t fall for the same trick as last time again.
That desperate squirming caused the frozen tentacles connected to its face to move.
“Ah, there’s a dilemma.”
The pressure of the foot made the squid’s body press down, rendering its desperate thrashing meaningless.
Even to the monster’s eyes, the familiar voice of a girl wearing a suspicious mask was no different than a predator wandering the cosmos.
Through the holes in the mask, faintly visible orange eyes.
Those eyes, akin to the surface of the Sun, and the volume and shape of her hair that couldn’t be concealed by the mask.
The magical girl who had turned it into rags with a single blow last time.
It only reinforced the faint but certain realization that she was the same person.
Feeling a chill that could make one faint, the self-proclaimed Baron Squid believed in the words of its fellow monsters more than the situation right before its eyes and lamented.
“T-That girl! I don’t know what you did to me last time…!”
“Yeah, it seems like it.”
Sun casually rotated the joint of her cane.
Click, click.
An ominous sound of something meshing together came from the cane.
Every time that sound came through, the shape of the cane drastically changed.
Once to the left.
A sharp saw blade, too foreign to be attached to the cane, protruded from the heart-shaped ornament’s edge.
Once more to the left, click.
The saw blade retracted back inside the ornament, and a round, cylindrical shape that resembled a miniaturized cannon of a spaceship popped out.
That thing, which looked more accurately described as a muzzle, slowly revealed itself from deep within the disparities of the heart-shaped ornament.
‘Is that really a cane?’
The countless potential uses of that cane left the squid in shock.
Just how many weapons are hidden in that cane?
Is that even possible?
Now, would flames and projectiles shoot out of that muzzle and pierce its head?
…However, expectations took an even darker turn.
If only death would arrive at the end of a fleeting flame and flash, how happy it would have been.
A gust of rough wind echoed from what it thought was the muzzle.
The scent of gas, reminiscent of what one could occasionally catch from a spaceship.
“Do you know what a torch is?”
“To…?”
Whether the monster knew what a torch was or not was no longer important to Sun.
If it knew, it would despair with fear and hopelessness.
If it didn’t, it would slowly become familiar with the sensation of its flesh burning away.
A red flame signaling an unforgettable despair for the squid now.
That light was emitted.
“Khrooo!”
“Oh? I can definitely smell the squid cooking.”
The 108 Torture Magical Girl’s cane, the form of the torch.
Using the tentacles that sprouted like the squid monster’s whiskers, the torch made contact, curling inwards while starting to emit a delicious aroma.
From the bottom of the squid’s curling tentacles, ink began to ooze out.
With a noticeably different reaction from when it had been paralyzed, a smile formed involuntarily.
The writhing body of the monster, the pain and anguish that could be indirectly confirmed from the continuously oozing ink.
As the intense smell of the squid cooking filled the air, Shiyeon sniffed and perked up her nose.
“It smells so good!”
“Right? Let’s order some squid stir-fry when we get back.”
“Okay!”
No longer planning to stop her, we smiled as we discussed what food to eat on our way home.
The surface of the beautifully grilled squid monster sought respite for a brief moment.
But do not be reassured.
It was merely a fleeting pause for even greater pain.
“Kuhuh, kuhak… huff.”
The creature, unable to move, only heaved labored breaths and oozed ink.
Even moving leisurely, it could no longer escape.
The joint of the cane rotated left twice, then right four times.
The sound of gears meshing together resounded four times in succession.
The cane transformed into the form of a branding iron among the shapes of the 108 tortures.
Its appearance was no different from usual, yet the heart-shaped ornament at the end was heating up significantly!
What would it do with the heated ornament?
Normally, it would merely leave a heart-shaped brand in a suitable visible spot.
However, it was a commemorative second visitor.
It wouldn’t be right to send it back lightly like first-time guests.
Determined not to disappoint, she suitably settled down on the squid monster’s chest.
“You’ll have to enjoy the re-visit bonus a lot, right?”
Bringing the handle of the torture cane close to its face, she smiled brightly.
The pitch-black ink dampening the floor.
The squid monster’s mouth, from which ink still oozed out little by little.
The legs stuck to its face curled towards the torch, revealing a beautiful hole.
Inside the squid’s mouth, sharp teeth reminiscent of a parrot’s beak.
As if the ink hauler had run out of ink, the teeth wriggling inside and outside looked utterly pathetic.
“Wow, there can’t be a more suitable hole than this.”
A hole existing solely for that heart ornament to fit into.
Looking at the mouth, which could only be considered of the right size, she could only let out pure admiration.
The hot heat of the heart ornament was felt just by holding it.
Now at the moment when it was about to enter its mouth, what was the monster thinking?
The chest of the seated monster began to heave more rapidly.
The heart ornament smoothly vanished into the darkness without a collision.
Stopped deep enough inside, the cane halted.
In the extreme tension the monster was feeling.
As if releasing the cane into the air, she gently pressed down on the bottom of its mouth.
“Kuhhh-!”
Like placing a strip of pork belly on a well-heated grill, a clear sizzling sound rang.
The ensuing scream of the monster mixed in, forming a magnificent finale.
The nightmarish scream that erupted did not last long, leaving only the sizzling sound lingered in that place.
The cane was pulled out from within the squid’s mouth, which began to turn to magical powder.
Though it carried a slight scent of seafood, it didn’t matter as it would vanish once the transformation was undone.
“Let’s go, release.”
After the completely powdered monster scattered into the sky, and since they were near home with no one around, she immediately undid the transformation.
Instead of undoing her transformation, Shiyeon immediately asked a question.
“But, why does Sun go this far?”
“Because doing so, the monsters that have come to visit once won’t come back.”
It was a question she had received shortly after starting her activities as a magical girl.
After answering that question again, she undid her transformation and headed home.
Recalling the items needed for the picnic, she took her smartphone out of her pocket and turned it on.
“Oh.”
The Gomtaengi, pretending to be an accessory, let out another flustered, short sound.
It was the same when she had taken the smartphone before leaving the house; something was off.
‘What’s up with this guy today?’
Still, not caring too much, she swiped to unlock the screen.
Then, the reason for the flustered sound immediately became clear.
The internet browser window, which Gomtaengi had not closed before getting the smartphone snatched away and had failed to press the home or back button.
A post that it was planning to write in the gallery caught her eye.
[OO] […………]
[Header: Issue]
[Did Sun’s unmasked face really get leaked?!!]
An eye-catching headline.
In the contents of the post, one massive photo was prominently displayed.
A photo of a toilet bowl.
A picture so dirty that it was indecent to even describe, she felt as if she had been hit on the head.
Her steps halted in disbelief, letting Shiyeon walk ahead.
The sudden turn of her head directed her gaze to the Gomtaengi, which was pretending to be a clothing accessory.
“Hey.”
As she spat out a short interrogation, she felt a brief vibration from its clothing.
It was a signal that Gomtaengi was trembling.
“The pain I suffered will be shared with all humans…!”
The Gomtaengi, glaring up at her with wide eyes from its hung clothing.
It seemed that it at least had minimal awareness of the mess it was making.
“What are your last words?”
Saying that, she gradually took it out from the clothing to bring it to her eyes.
Holding onto its neck and body before twisting its form to make it into two pieces.
“Go on, say something.”
She decided to listen to today’s last words.
It extracted one of its arms from the hand gripping it and brought it to its left chest, slapping it with a bang.
It made a solemn expression as if facing a noble sacrifice.
“In this life, I will have no regrets or shame….”
“Shut up, you crazy shit villain.”
With a crunch, she tossed the separated body and neck of the Gomtaengi into the community apartment’s general trash bin.
After throwing it away, she inadvertently spilled what she would have generally kept internal.
“Isn’t this completely nuts?”
Wondering why it was so flustered, she realized it had done a cyber-terrorism without knowing.
Inside her smartphone, she hurriedly began to purify the tainted gallery and dashed forward with short steps.
As they started climbing the apartment stairs, barely managing to match their steps.
Not realizing Shiyeon was ahead, she tilted her head in confusion.
“Eh? Where’s Gom?”
“Tossed it.”
“I see.”
Though she asked where the Gomtaengi had gone, upon hearing that it was tossed, Shiyeon no longer asked why.
It would probably return on its own by tomorrow.
“Hah… damn.”
Trying to erase the photo that deeply lingered in her mind along with the curse was not easy.
And she still hadn’t had dinner.
