Chapter 8

This place is the training ground of the Mascot Headquarters.

It’s quite random, but I’m currently teaching the newbies how to deal with demons.

“…So, beast-type demons basically move like this. But since they’re demons, they might have unique abilities, so don’t let your guard down. For example, some might act like fixed turrets, shooting things relentlessly. Are you listening?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Beast-type demons are the most common, so don’t forget that. For me, it’s over with a few punches, but you guys aren’t like that, right?”

—

Whether it was that evening a few days ago that reignited my passion, I don’t know, but now I’m here at the Mascot Headquarters’ training ground, teaching the new magical girls.

It’s partly out of boredom, but teaching them how to deal with different types of demons lowers the casualty rate, so I do this whenever I visit the training ground.

The magical girls I’m training now are Magical Magnet, Magical Inrage, and Magical Lightning.

They’re the ones who bought time against an Earl-Class demon in Dongducheon before.

—

“That covers the general characteristics of demon types… Next, let’s see you use your abilities. It’s fine if you fight like me with just [Physical Enhancement], but first, you need to master your own talents to make demon subjugation easier.”

“How do we master our talents?”

“You need to study the characteristics and principles of your abilities. And sometimes, you need to force things a bit.”

“Study…?”

“Yes. A magical girl’s talent is about governing a single 「Concept」 based on personal aptitude. The more knowledge you have about it, the stronger and broader your abilities become.”

“…?”

“…Simply put, just understand why your power exists and how it manifests. Even if it’s a bit forced, as long as it makes sense, you can create that phenomenon. Ignoring realistic structures for specific phenomena.”

—

For someone like me, it’s simple, but for someone like Magical Magnet, some science knowledge is needed.

Well, I also need quite a bit of knowledge to use various derived techniques.

Anyway, if you don’t know how to use it properly, it’s meaningless.

If you can’t use it due to lack of knowledge, it’s better to just pour all your mana into [Physical Enhancement] and beat things up.

—

Shall we move on?

I need to see how they fight.

—

“Alright… All of you, come at me using your First Abilities. You’re only dealing with demons now, but later you’ll face humanoid monsters, so this will be good experience.”

“Huh?”

“Uh, um…”

“…Are you serious?”

“Yeah, come at me all at once. It’s not like your attacks will even scratch me.”

—

They’re still quite young, so their skills are probably terrible.

They’re just relying on their abilities to attack.

I don’t expect much from their movements.

What’s important is whether they’re using their abilities properly.

—

“……”

They all came at me as I told them to… Magical Magnet seems to have the best movement.

Using the power of magnets to hit and retreat quickly.

Even her weapon is a gauntlet, which looks cool.

Did she go to a boxing academy or something?

—

“Ah?!”

“Not bad for your age. If you expand your abilities a bit more, you’ll get really good. Keep up the good work. And make sure to train in martial arts properly.”

“…Yes.”

—

Next is Magical Inrage.

This one… transformed her staff into a giant axe and thinly coated the blade with an [Energy Blade].

And she’s mixing shockwaves created by [Rage Expansion] with the axe’s slashes…

Sometimes she attacks directly too… but it’s very clumsy.

Instead of just launching shockwaves, if she mixed the rage power directly into the Energy Blade, it would be powerful enough. Too bad.

Depending on her mana control, she could even launch those slashes as ranged attacks…

—

“You, your strongest attack is embedding rage into a direct axe strike, so try to stay close and attack. And mix the rage power into the Energy Blade too.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yeah. The impact itself will be different.”

—

Still, I get it.

She’s still a kid, so attacking demons up close must be scary.

The closer you get, the more attacks you’ll take.

But as a magical girl, you need the guts to face that fear.

—

“[Thunder Blade]…!”

—

Lastly, Magical Lightning.

Electricity is a simple yet powerful ability… but she doesn’t know how to handle it properly, and her attack patterns are too straightforward and simple.

Her talent is electricity, but all she uses is that [Thunder Blade]? Really?

—

“What are you doing with your ability?”

“Eek…?!”

“Using a sword is fine, but don’t overdo it with electricity. Just coat it with electricity and unleash lightning in various ways like a typical mage. Got it? Don’t just rely on one trick.”

“Ugh…”

“And if you’re going to use a sword, train more. With an axe, you can just swing it with weight, but with a sword, technique matters.”

—

The most problematic here is Lightning…

But she’s still a kid, so I can’t be too harsh. If this continues, she’ll fall behind.

Magnet instinctively uses her ability appropriately, and her family might be into martial arts since she has basic combat skills. Inrage’s ability and weapon are extremely simple, so she’ll manage once she gets the hang of combat.

But Lightning… she’s not utilizing electricity properly, so she’s not even using half of her simple yet powerful ability.

At this rate, she’ll only be able to subjugate Viscount-Class demons in a few years, but many veteran magical girls have retired.

So we can’t leave the newbies like this.

—

“For now, focus on freely emitting electricity from both your sword and one hand during combat. And read more manga featuring electricity-based characters. Your application of electricity is at rock bottom.”

“Yes…”

—

I don’t want to be too harsh on the kids, but if they can’t handle this much, they can’t be magical girls.

If they retire or die from something like this, they’ll either lose instantly or be too scared to fight when facing stronger demons.

I’ve seen many retire or die like that, so even if they’re young, I have to be strict.

Besides, there are still kids who get seriously hurt and cry in pain… We can’t let that happen anymore.

—

Sigh… I wish other regions would train their newbies like this.

Without direct feedback, it’s hard to grow quickly, so if they want to retire soon, they should invest more in training newbies.

Stop forming groups and arguing, or bullying each other.

Being a magical girl isn’t about that.

Please, just do that stuff at school, you idiots.

They really don’t listen.

—

“By the way… what’s Rampage-senpai’s ability?”

“Me? You really want to see?”

“Yes!”

“Me too…”

—

…Well, it’s fine.

Let’s see… My Second Ability, 「Physical Rampage」, doesn’t have anything visually impressive, so I’ll skip that. I’ll show my First Ability, 「Energy Rampage」.

But even this… [Energy Blast] is about all I can show.

[Nuclear Fission Bullet] isn’t for me right now, and [Gamma Ray Burst] is a bit dangerous for this place, so I’ll skip that.

And my Third Ability… the danger level is on a whole different scale, so absolutely not.

Forget 「Ether Blast」, just swinging my weapon would destroy the training ground.

—

“…Then, excluding the dangerous ones, I’ll show you one.”

—

An explosive energy attack, the explosive-type [Energy Blast].

Normally, I use it as a blade wave with a weapon, but without a weapon, it’s mainly an explosion.

When I used it, all the specially made dummies in front were blown to pieces.

—

“That’s it, right?”

—

If an enemy can take multiple hits of this with just my First Ability released… it would have to be at least Grand Duke-Class.

But I don’t welcome Grand Duke-Class enemies.

I don’t know how strong they are, and when they appear, I don’t know how much damage the world will suffer.

—

“My ability is 「Rampage」. In other words, it’s the ability to make everything go berserk and use it.”

“Th-those dummies… I’ve never even seen them get scratched, let alone destroyed…”

“Wow…”

“Th-this is… the power of 15 years…”

—

I even struck a pose and said it coolly, but they’re all just focused on the destroyed dummies…

…Whatever.

I’m not here to show off anyway.

—

“Well, I don’t expect you to reach this level. Just handle yourselves well and subjugate Earl-Class demons and monsters without trouble. That’s it for today. I don’t want to take up too much time.”

—

Maybe because it’s the first time, it ended quite simply.

I summarized the types of enemies I’ve seen and taught them how to deal with them, then gave feedback on immediate issues.

This alone should help them grow a lot in the beginning.

By the way…

—

“…I’ve never even seen them get scratched, let alone destroyed…”

—

Let’s see… grab an intact dummy and apply some force…

…It breaks easily.

—

“……”

—

I feel weird.

Like I’m some kind of absurd monster.

But… to prepare for any situation, I need this much power.

—

“Chubby. Open the [Gate].”

“Yes!”

—

Well, that’s not important right now.

The most urgent matter is… that group of idiots.

They’ll definitely try to brainwash magical girls and interfere with battles.

They’re the kind who once tried to brainwash kids with their ideology in the education system.

—

“Beer.”

“Yes!”

—

But there’s no justification yet.

I have to wait until they become more extreme…

Otherwise, I can’t take them down.

No matter what, I can’t just point a weapon at them when they haven’t done anything yet.

That’s not what a hero does.

Of course, the same goes for magical girls.

I can’t do something that goes against my own beliefs.

—

“Here’s your beer!”

“Thanks.”

—

…It’s raining when I get back.

It’s the rainy season, so it’s expected.

Thinking about it, magical girls have to fight even in heavy rain.

Really… when you think about it, that’s the toughest part.

—

“Ah! Rampage! An Earl-Class monster, emergency dispatch!”

“…Really?”

—

Ah, seriously… Why does every word I say become a flag?

And why are so many Earl-Class monsters appearing lately?

I wish they’d stop showing up.

—

“Where?”

“Eunpyeong District!”

—

Did a veteran magical girl retire there?

No, there should still be magical girls there who can handle Earl-Class…

—

“Wait, correction! Ability level increased! Changed to Marquis-Class!!”

“…What?”

—

Damn it! If I don’t hurry, they might all die!

—

“Hey, Chubby! What exactly caused it to upgrade to Marquis-Class?”

“Suddenly… it evolved during battle!!”

“Damn… the most annoying thing is when they evolve mid-battle…”

—

When enemies evolve mid-battle, the magical girls fighting them are instantly overwhelmed and likely to die.

They need to survive until I arrive…

—

“Over there.”

—

I flew here… They’re still alive, but they’ll die if I don’t save them now.

But since it’s a monster and not a demon, it’s posing instead of killing, so that’s lucky.

This time, it’s a stupid monster, so they survived.

—

“Well then… any last words before you die? Huh?”

“…Last words…?”

“Yeah! Your last words!”

“…Then, just one thing. Watch… your back…?”

“…What? Gah?!”

—

You bought time well, Blader.

Thanks to that, the civilian casualties are… no, there’s one.

By the way, what should I do with this idiot I smashed into the ground?

…Well, there’s only one thing to do.

—

“You, you are…”

“Shut up and die.”

—

I just stomped the monster’s head and crushed it.

It got messy with blood and flesh, but it’ll clean up when I untransform, so no problem.

—

“Are you okay, Blader?”

“Ah, yes… Thank you, senpai.”

“But why did you get caught? You could have escaped even from a Marquis-Class, right?”

“Well… that dead person ran up to me and grabbed me while saying something weird…”

—

That roasted corpse…?

Then that pig must be part of that idiot group.

They’re already doing this… They’re becoming extreme faster than I expected.

—

“They’re already acting out individually like this…”

“What do you mean?”

“You know those idiots who drag magical girls into gender issues and stuff.”

“Ah~ that stupid talk?”

“Yeah. That guy must be part of that group.”

“Eww… They were saying stuff like ‘magical girls shouldn’t do this or that’ and ‘women should do this or that’…”

—

Then I should start preparing.

They’ll definitely come as a group and cause trouble later, so I need to be ready to kill.

Interfering with a magical girl’s battle is the worst act, equivalent to massacring the people of that area.

I’ll definitely crush them completely.

—

“From now on, don’t worry about guys like that, whether they live or die. Focus on yourself first. Got it? You need to survive to protect people. Don’t forget that just because of one guy.”

“But, they’re still people…”

“No, they’re not. They’re lumps of meat who gave up being people. The worst kind, trying to kill not just you magical girls but the people of the area too. Understand?”

“Yes, yes…!”

“Good. And if you can’t subjugate them, veterans like me will come for emergency dispatch, so don’t overdo it.”

—

Phew… Thankfully, no magical girl died this time…

I should visit the Mascot Headquarters tomorrow to discuss this.

About how to handle that group.

So we can notify all magical girls and have them prepared.

I can’t unilaterally decide how to deal with a specific group, right?

—

“Then take care and rest well at home.”

“Okay~. Goodbye.”

“Alright. Let’s go, Chubby.”

“Yes!”

—

Sigh… Instead of getting easier, it’s getting busier…

But I have to keep going.

—