Chapter 7

I was tired and had slept late, but my eyes opened early in the morning.

Even so, I felt refreshed.

My body felt light, and my mood was fresh, as if I had slept deeply.

When I woke up, I was in my transformed form. The design, like a uniform, surprisingly had a charismatic look, and I really liked it.

Having lived as a man until recently, I don’t intend to live as a woman now.

So, if the transformed form had been a skirt, I would’ve been dissatisfied.

“Keru.”

“Yeah. You woke up early.”

Keru was still curled up on my mattress. There was no pillow, but sleeping on his belly wasn’t uncomfortable at all. It was warm and cozy.

“What am I doing today?”

“Don’t you need to hear an explanation?”

“Hmm, let’s do that in the morning, and I’d like to go shopping in the afternoon.”

I have casual clothes. I brought some tracksuits, and since it’s been a month since I became a woman, I’ve also bought underwear and such.

But I can’t just wear tracksuits all the time.

“True. You can’t just wear training clothes… Since you’re the boss now, you need to dress more appropriately.”

“Yeah. Well, it’s not far from Guro. There are plenty of malls, right?”

“Then let’s go in the afternoon.”

“You want me to go alone?”

“Go with Dusik.”

Wait, is the Dusik he’s talking about the same Dusik I’m thinking of? That Dusik who looks like a judo athlete? He’s coming shopping with me to buy clothes?

“Are you serious?”

Keru, who had been staring at my scrunched-up face, yawned widely. Then he grinned. A leopard smiling, huh?

“Come to think of it, I haven’t shown you yet. Wait a moment.”

Keru jumped down from the bed. Skillfully standing on his hind legs, he grabbed the doorknob, opened the door, and left.

What’s he going to show me…? As I waited, lost in thought, there was a knock.

“Mother-Body, I’m coming in.”

“Yeah.”

The door opened, and a bright, golden-haired girl hopped into the room.

“Mother-Body, sisssss!”

“Uh, who, who are you?”

Her golden hair was tied into twin tails. She looked about ten or eleven years old. The girl hopped over and clung to me, rubbing her cheeks against my chest.

“Sisssss!”

“Wait, hold on. Who are you? Who is this?”

Keru, who had sauntered in through the open door, yawned widely again and said,

“That’s Dusik.”

“So…”

“Yes! I’m Dusik! Kwak Dusik! This is my true form!”

The girl, sipping coffee, looked at me with sparkling eyes. Come to think of it, there was a thin silver bracelet on her wrist with a small button at the end. So…

“Is she also a Magical Girl?”

“Yeah, more accurately, an Evil Magical Girl.”

“This is her true form.”

“That’s right. Dusik, show her.”

“Yes!”

Dusik pressed the button on her bracelet. With a *pop*, the towering figure of Kwak Dusik, the one I had first met, appeared.

“Do you believe me now?”

Well, seeing the transformation right in front of me, I can’t really not believe it…

“Usually, does your way of speaking change when you transform…?”

“Normally, no. Just the hair color and clothes change? Even you, your appearance stays the same, only your clothes change.”

“Then why is Dusik like this?”

“There are different types, you know.”

“How am I supposed to know that?”

“Learn from now on. Anyway, the one earlier is Dusik, and this is also Dusik. Before and after transformation. Just the difference.”

Dusik, who was so tall I had to look up at him, with a build twice my size. That Dusik, when he untransforms, becomes the girl from earlier… Well, first things first.

“Dusik.”

“Yes, Mother-Body.”

“It’s a bit overwhelming, so let’s untransform.”

“Yes.”

With another *pop*, the sparkling golden hair caught my eye first. The girl, with a face full of smiles, beamed at me.

“Is my transformed form overwhelming?”

I couldn’t say no. I avoided her gaze, feeling even her smile was overwhelming. Honestly, such a beautiful girl’s gaze is just… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s not like I’m flustered…? No, I don’t know.

“Well, I heard from Keru. You’re going to the mall this afternoon, right?”

“Yeah, I think so. I need to buy some clothes.”

“I guess so. You’ve just been wearing tracksuits, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Honestly, it doesn’t look great. You’re so pretty, you should care more about your clothes.”

“Really? Am I… pretty?”

“Huh?”

Dusik tilted her head, then smiled brightly.

“Of course, did you think you weren’t? Though I’m the prettiest, of course.”

She’s not exactly normal either.

The evil organization, Mogmog Group.

No one knows when it was founded.

It was said to have been created by the first boss, a Magical Girl called Cyclone, who was known as an Evil Magical Girl.

“Since then, they’ve been active under the motto of world domination.”

That made me curious.

“So, the first boss was an Evil Magical Girl. Couldn’t you just corrupt other Magical Girls to fight? Or create Minions who are Evil Magical Girls from the start?”

“Hmm, it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Magical Girls are strong. Even a single Magical Girl is powerful enough, but the Mogmog Group, lacking the means to consistently produce such strong Magical Girls, had to take a different approach.

To counter a single strong Magical Girl, they chose to produce many weaker ones.

This worked when the first boss, Cyclone, was around. They were almost able to dominate the world, but after Cyclone retired due to overusing her magic power to produce Minions…

“Wait, magic power doesn’t automatically recharge or recover?”

“It does, but if the consumption exceeds the recovery, there’s nothing you can do.”

In other words, while Magical Girls keep appearing, only the Mother-Body can produce Minions to counter them, leading to a situation where the consumption of magic power far exceeds the recovery rate, making it impossible to keep up with production.

“Couldn’t you just increase the number of producers, the Mother-Bodies?”

“We tried so hard to do that, but it didn’t work, so here we are.”

If it doesn’t work, there’s nothing to be done.

“So, the balance between good and evil is off?”

“Yeah. Good is leaning over 95%.”

I may not have attended classes, but I’m not dumb. I still remember what Keru said the first day we met.

The balance between good and evil must be maintained. He also said there are too many Magical Girls now.

“What happens if the balance is off?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

I was taken aback by Keru’s blunt answer.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know. But I do know something big, something huge, will happen.”

“So, I have to do bad things?”

“That’s right. Not like killing people or destroying buildings. We can’t even do that now. We just need to activate the Mogmog Group enough to form a balanced force against the Magical Girls.”

“So, build a counterforce?”

This is like a management simulation.

What is this huge, big thing?

Why did Magical Girls appear in the first place?

Did the Mogmog Group come first, or did Magical Girls?

The history of the Mogmog Group, according to Keru, goes back over a hundred years.

But they only started appearing in people’s consciousness a few decades ago. What were they doing in between? And were Magical Girls around back then?

I don’t know.

“Dusik…”

“Sis, Mother-Body sis, look at this!”

“Dusik…”

“Mother-Body sis, try this on too!”

“Dusik…”

“Mother-Body sis!”

“Du…”

I thought I’d gotten used to living as a woman after a month. But I realized that was too hasty a thought.

After going to a mall in Guro with Dusik, I had been suffering through shopping for three hours.

Like most malls, the first floor had beauty and cosmetics, and the second floor was the women’s clothing section. I had spent an hour on the first floor and two hours on the second, being tormented by Dusik.

The problem was, there was no sign of the shopping ending anytime soon.

“Dusik, want to get some ice cream?”

“Vanilla? Sure! I know an ice cream place on the 9th floor! Let’s go, sis!”

Being young is great. Even after shopping, she wasn’t tired. I was dragged like luggage up to the 9th floor on the escalator.

“There it is!”

Sure enough, where Dusik pointed, there was an ice cream shop sign.

Handing my card to Dusik and telling her to get the same ice cream as hers, I slumped into a chair at the food court, tilting my head back and letting out a long sigh. Let’s rest here for a bit…

“Oh, Kwak Dusik!”

“Ah… Prabel…!”

“Good timing!”

With Dusik’s high-pitched scream and the sound of something breaking, I muttered, “So much for resting…”