Chapter 55

“I won’t do it again! P-please, spare me…! I pro…”

Lately, I’ve been cleaning up superhuman criminals.

Marquis-Class and above rarely show up, and the rest are being properly taken care of by the kids who’ve grown stronger, so my days are strangely peaceful.

Naturally, my work has shifted in this direction.

“Rampage! It seems the places you destroyed were the sources of the Medals! There are still some circulating, but the supply seems to have been cut off!”

“Really? That’s good.”

Is the Medal issue finally dying down?

But since there are still some left, problems will keep popping up…

I just hope nothing major happens.

“Is today the day to train Typhoon?”

“Yes, that’s right! You can head to the training ground in about an hour!”

“Got it.”

By the way, Pretty Heart and Typhoon’s growth lately has been impressive.

Seeing them grow day by day keeps motivating me.

“Ah, and Diamond Dust has miraculously regained some consciousness!”

“…Really?”

“Really!”

I thought there was no timeline, but she’s already waking up… She’s got some serious luck, that one.

I should scold her so she doesn’t do something like that again.

Honestly, everyone around me is such an idiot…

“But, is she only conscious?”

“Yep!”

“Can’t move yet?”

“She’s twitching a bit, but she still can’t fully control her body!”

“Really?”

Hearing the news, I immediately took the [Gate] to the Fairy Realm and headed to where Diamond Dust was.

Of course, Explosion was there, and in front of her was Diamond Dust, barely able to lift her head and turn it towards me.

Is her nervous system gradually recovering?

“…Senior.”

“Focus on recovering, idiot.”

“……”

The monster transformation is still lingering, huh?

Well, she’ll figure it out on her own.

“So, why did you do it? Did you think I was ignoring you? Really?”

“……”

“I like people who are sincere. So, naturally, my interest in others might wane. But even so, no matter the reason, you became a magical girl protecting the human world. Do you really think I’d completely ignore and cold-shoulder you?”

“Is that… so…?”

“…You’ve been ignored and treated poorly, haven’t you?”

“H-how did you…?”

“Just by the way you talk, I can tell. So, you fell into a victim complex and couldn’t communicate properly…”

Tsk tsk… So that’s why she went down that path.

What a pitiful kid, truly pitiful.

“Hey, poop cat.”

“Yesss~?!”

“From now on, praise her a lot. And always be ready to listen to her concerns. Got it? She’s already mentally exhausted, and if this goes wrong, it’ll be a disaster. Besides, taking care of her is your responsibility, you idiot.”

“Yes, yes~!”

Honestly, there’s no normal kid around.

…Ah, since we’re at it, it’d be good to get some detailed info on monsterized magical girls.

But her mental state isn’t great for extracting that kind of info right now.

“Ah, and… once you can move a bit, come to me. If you still want to continue being a magical girl despite all this.”

“……”

“You’ll have to live like that forever. You know what that means, right?”

“…I know…”

“Good, that’s all I needed. I’ll be at the training ground every evening, so come by then.”

“……Okay.”

Well then… should I try to extract some info from the others?

There’s one walking on the treadmill right now, so I’ll ask her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Ah, Rampage?”

“Yeah.”

“…What do you want to know?”

“After monsterizing, has anything changed? Any new abilities or anything?”

“Um…”

This kid seems really gentle at first glance.

Hmm… why did someone like her monsterize?

“…First, there’s the physical changes and… an increase in strength. Other than that… using magic has become easier… Oh, and I don’t feel like I’m being dragged to strange places and trapped like before treatment.”

“Got it. Anything else? Like new talents or something.”

“Not really. There are some minor changes, but… nothing major or important…”

“No, it’s important.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. And one last thing… why did you monsterize?”

“……”

I guess this question is hard to answer.

But I’ve already gotten a lot from the previous questions, so it’s fine if she doesn’t answer.

“…I was tricked.”

“Tricked?”

“They said magical girls and superhumans could easily become stronger with an item… something like a fairy persuaded me.”

“…Persuaded? Something like a fairy?”

“Yeah… it didn’t look like an animal but more like a human, so I’m not sure if it was a fairy, but… it was definitely… Elpis…”

“Elpis… okay, that’s good info. Here, take this. It’s a translator from the Global Zone. It only translates what you hear, so you can’t have a conversation unless both sides are wearing it.”

“Ah, thank you…”

…Elpis, huh… A fairy-like being who seems to have been fanning the flames of the Medal incident led by Pandora…

Probably Pandora’s Responsible Mascot.

It’s just a guess, but among the mascots working in the Fairy Realm, there are some with human forms, so it’s not entirely wrong.

By the way, a lot of kids were tricked.

This must have happened before the warning was spread.

If it happened after the warning… well, with enough smooth talk, it’d be easy to manipulate mentally exhausted kids into monsterizing.

They were probably running around trying to monsterize as many magical girls as possible to cause chaos.

What a bunch of scumbags.

Not killing the monsterized magical girls was the right move after all…

“The info is all the same…”

“Yeah!”

I asked all the kids who regained consciousness.

But they all had the same info, nothing new.

Sigh… So the Medals were just a cruel prank using countless lives…

Just for that reason, with no other purpose, they did all this?

…Is there really no other purpose?

“Ah! A call from an overseas magical girl came in!”

“A call? Didn’t I say to ignore those? What is it this time? Another one?”

“Yes! But this time, it’s someone called Magical Leviathan heading towards the Pacific!”

“The Pacific? Seriously?”

“She’s one of the kids who’s always been jealous of Rampage… so she’s probably looking for a fight again!”

“What a bunch of idiots…”

Lately, since I have some free time, I made it so I can be contacted, and now this.

I hope she’s not pulling the same stunt as Diamond Dust…

Honestly, I hope not, but if she is… I’ll have to consider killing her.

“…There’s a chance she might monsterize, so let’s go check it out.”

“Okay!”

Normally, I’d ignore it, but with the Medals still scattered around, I can’t just ignore it.

First, project the space to check, then open the [Gate].

Choosing the Pacific probably means she wants to minimize damage… but there are a lot of fishing boats in the Pacific too, you know?

Why are there so many clueless people…

“……”

“Is that you? Magical Leviathan.”

…Or maybe she wants to fight where she can fully utilize her power, like over the sea?

“…Hehe, you fell for such an obvious trap, Rampage.”

“What trap?”

“What, are you that confident? …Everyone, come out!”

“…Oh, so that’s the trap.”

With all that reaction, are they planning to gang up on me?

Leviathan and Titan from Southeast Asia, Gravity from the US, Venom from the UK, and Ignition from Brazil…

…But unlike Leviathan, the others don’t seem to have any malice. What’s going on?

Wait, why is Gravity even here?

“So, why did you call me?”

“Why did I call you? Are you seriously asking? You’re number one in both power and popularity!! And yet you act like you don’t care, not even doing interviews!! A brat like you needs to disappear!!”

……What? Seriously, just for that?

…Ah, I think I get it.

Well, girls can be like that sometimes.

Too jealous, not wanting to improve themselves, just wanting to drag others down to their level.

Of course, not all of them are like that, but there’s a tendency.

And someone this extreme… is just a twisted psycho.

It’s ridiculous that someone like this is a magical girl.

“Hmph, anyway, why show your face now?”

“Until now, I could ignore it. But with the Medals still around, there’s a chance idiots like you might monsterize. People like you tend to do that kind of thing.”

“What, like… we wouldn’t do something like that!!”

Hmm… this reaction smells fishy.

But there’s no evidence yet.

So, I’ll find out what they want and either ignore them or beat them up depending on the situation.

By the way, are they all capable of taking down Duke-Class enemies?

But I doubt they can handle Grand Duke-Class.

Of course, they’re much weaker than Senior before she awakened her Third Ability.

But still, they’re challenging me… what’s the point?

“So? Why did you call me? What do you want?”

“Obviously… to defeat you here!! And show the world that we’re the best!”

“Still a kid, huh…”

“What did you say?!”

“Even if you gang up on me, five against one, who would think you’re strong? They’d just think you’re cowardly.”

“It’s not cowardly at all?!”

“And even if all five of you attack at once, you still can’t win. Give up.”

“Stop bluffing!!”

Well, they’re still at an age where logic is lacking and they only think of themselves, so what can you do?

“First of all, trying to drag someone down just because they’re better than you is something only idiots do. You’re a total idiot right now. Does that raise your level? Do you gain anything real?”

“Shut up! Shut up! Whatever! We just don’t like you!! You got a ton of plastic surgery!! And you’re short, yet you whitewash yourself and take first place!! How does that feel?! You b*tch!!”

“Sigh… Leaving you aside, do the rest of you feel the same? …This is your last chance, so don’t stay silent and answer properly.”

“…I don’t agree, but I don’t like you either.”

“Ugh, don’t lump me in with this crazy girl! I just want to fight you!”

“No, that’s not it… I’m just curious.”

“…She said she’d buy me snacks if I followed her…”

“Are you guys treating me like an idiot?!”

What a bunch of weirdos…

…One of them seems a bit off, but the rest are surprisingly normal, which is a relief.

Sigh… And Gravity… stop following her just because she promised snacks…

“…Alright, I’ll teach you a proper lesson this time. Come at me all at once.”

The others are whatever, but Magical Leviathan… I need to keep an eye on her.

But first, I’ll take down all five.