Chapter 7
"..."
When I woke up and opened my eyes, all I could see was darkness without a single trace of light.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary room in the dead of night, but considering the current time, it wasn't a particularly natural sight.
-Sliiide..
When I placed my hand over the screen of the phone I'd set aside on silent, it displayed the time as 5:30.
5:30 p.m.
It was absolutely not a time when an ordinary person would wake up after sleeping.
Unless it was a nap. Otherwise, they would have to be someone whose daily routine was thoroughly messed up.
"...I slept pretty well for once."
I must have gotten home yesterday, washed up, browsed the internet for a while, and fallen asleep around five or six in the morning.
I'd slept for nearly twelve hours, so it was fair to call it a good night's sleep.
…Ah. Not yesterday—today.
'I definitely feel like I sleep better after catching those Nightmares.'
According to Bunny, magical girls shouldn't be affected much by low-grade Nightmares, but for some reason, I always felt refreshed after cleaning them out.
This would probably happen again in a few days, with the insomnia and nightmares recurring periodically…
Well, if I'd slept well today, wasn't that all that mattered?
"Ugh..."
-Crack
After stretching my stiff body from sleeping so long, I lay back down, spaced out for a while, then picked up my phone.
The state of the world was enough to make me sigh, but even so, fun things occasionally happened.
[Title: How Revealing Are Magical Girls These Days.jpg]
[Author: Anonymous]
[(Image of a magical girl dressed as a doctor)Hi, I'm Doctor, researching the relationship between titles and view counts]
Anonymous(175.224): Fuck, didn't you say you retired? Why do you keep doing research?
ㄴAnonymous: I retired from being a magical girl, not from being a doctor!
"..."
Since magical girls were integrated into society, you could hear stories about them all the time, even on sites that had nothing to do with magical girls.
This was a world where, whenever anything happened, people were busy reposting it everywhere.
I'd only come to look up when the game I'd been waiting for would be released, so getting ambushed like this wasn't surprising anymore.
…For the record, don't think I clicked this because I had ulterior motives.
I was only curious about how the junior magical girls had been getting around these days.
Anyway... as always, the game I'd been waiting for had announced a delay, so I had no reason to stay on this site any longer.
After leaving a place where there was nothing to gain by lingering, I turned on the TV and began rummaging through the refrigerator.
In any case, I had to eat to live.
-Click
After rummaging through the refrigerator, I found that today's first meal, eaten at six in the evening, would consist of one leftover hot bar and a cup of instant noodles.
-Brrrrr..
-Ding!
While the water began to boil, the hot bar I'd put in the microwave first finished heating, so I took it out and waited for the noodles to finish...
[...Han Sejin! I'm really sorry, but..]
-Rip
-Chomp
Yeah. It's not like this only happened once or twice.
At least I could be grateful that it happened before I poured water into the noodles.
Otherwise, I would have had to throw away precious food.
-Munch munch
'Transform. Alice.'
-Flash!
The faster a magical girl deployed, the fewer casualties there would be.
Conversely, if a deployment was delayed, the magical girl had to bear all the damage caused during that delay, along with the resulting public backlash.
There had been more than a few magical girls who, after gaining some popularity and getting full of themselves, dawdled before deploying, were exposed, took a beating from public opinion, and quietly disappeared, so it was best to be careful.
-Tap tap
I twirled my newly lengthened snow-white hair around my finger, dusted myself off in case anything had gotten on my clothes, and surrendered myself to the familiar sensation of space twisting.
It was now somewhere between six and seven in the evening, when ordinary people were finishing their grueling days and heading home, so there would be a tremendous number of people on the streets.
'Mind control... Mind control...'
Before I dropped down in front of everyone, I had to switch masks—from a gloomy shut-in to Alice, the magical girl who devoted herself to everyone. Then I was ready to deploy.
-Flash!
"Aaaaaaaah!! Run!!"
"Everyone, please rest assured! With love in the starlight! Magical Girl Alice, arri...val!"
I almost choked on the hot bar I'd swallowed in a hurry and cut off my line, but I managed to finish it safely.
Once the teleportation was complete, I began quickly surveying the situation around me. The first things I had to identify were the Abyss One's location and traits, along with the positions and condition of the people nearby.
"No, Sua!!!"
"Waaaaah!!! Mom!!!"
"Grrrrr!!"
As expected, the Abyss One was already targeting the child who had been separated from their parents in the middle of the chaos.
I understood how the child felt, but reacting so openly in front of Abyss Ones skilled at detecting negative emotions gave the child a high chance of being singled out as a target... Still, it couldn't be helped.
Starlight Shower (Starlight Shower)
-Bam-bam!!
"Yelp!"
"Huh...?"
"Go back where you came from, yah!"
-BOOM!
Once the starlight explosion was over, all that remained was a trace of the Abyss One that had already vanished.
-Pat pat
"Are you all right? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"Y-Yes..."
"There, your mother is worried about you. Hurry and go."
"Sua!!!!!!!"
"M-Mom!"
-Squeeze!
It was a tearful mother-daughter reunion.
I'd seen this scene dozens of times over the past eight years as a magical girl, but in this insane world, such things happened often enough to make that possible.
It was a world where, just as people began forgetting how dangerous Abyss Ones were because magical girls handled everything, major incidents erupted one after another.
Many people were trying to find a way to eliminate Abyss Ones from this world entirely, or at least sever the connection between the Abyss and Earth... but according to the mascots, it wasn't easy.
Even the mascots had chosen to counter the Abyss by supporting other worlds under invasion so they wouldn't be easily overwhelmed, but how amazing a solution could Earth possibly find when it had only been at war with the Abyss for about ten years?
Comet Smash (Comet Smash)
-KABOOM!
Even as I was saying this, my wand continued to exterminate Abyss Ones without pause.
Of course, I didn't forget to wear the bright, cheerful expression that suited Alice.
If you asked whether smiling so brightly while fighting monsters was really something a magical girl would do, everyone might give a different answer, but at least for 'Alice,' it was absolutely right.
The concept of Magical Girl Alice was a beautiful girl who never frowned in any situation and always smiled brightly.
I won't entertain any questions about why the concept had been designed that way.
It's not as if I was doing this because I wanted to.
"I've taken care of all the monsters! Everyone, please rest assured!"
"A-Already...? Really...?"
"W-Wait, aren't there any left? How did you do it so fast...?"
Hah, seriously. If a professional said they'd taken care of them all, people should just believe them. Why were they being so suspicious?
"Alice never forgives the nasty monsters that torment everyone."
"But... why are you alone? Usually there are two or three magical girls at once..."
"Big sis!!! Thank you!!!!"
While the citizens struggled to accept what had happened, the little girl I'd rescued earlier waved at me from her mother's arms.
"When I grow up, I'll become an awesome magical girl just like you, Big Sis!!!!"
Hmm. Where should I even begin correcting that?
For one thing, I'm not her big sister, magical girls aren't cool, and this wasn't a profession you could choose just because you wanted to do it.
It was a complete disaster of a sentence, with not a single correct statement from beginning to end.
'Well... if she has the aptitude, a mascot will come find her... but it would be best if she didn't make a contract.'
[Shall we take a look? At first glance, she seems to have suitable aptitude.]
'Forget it. Why would you make her do something like that?'
I wouldn't stop her if she truly wanted to do it, but I really wouldn't recommend it.
And at that age, it was normal for dreams to change from one day to the next.
One day, she wanted to become a princess; the next, a scientist. Then she might dream of becoming president, switch career paths to that of an evil mastermind bent on ruling the world, and, as she gradually grew up and society's blade whittled away at her dreams, most people would tuck those dreams away in their hearts, get a job at a company, and become members of society, so there was no need to crush her dreams while she was still young.
"From now on, make sure you stay close to your parents!! Alice can't always protect you, you know!!!"
"Yes!!!"
"Then! Everyone, have a peaceful day! This has been your starlight, Alice!"
"W-Wait! Hold on! That autogr..."
-Flash!
It was another day when I safely returned while ignoring requests for autographs.
* * *
[Title: Do Magical Girls Normally Not Give Autographs?]
[Author: Anonymous]
Whenever I try to get an autograph, it feels like they all run away from me.
Anonymous(211.234): Should we look in a mirror first before talking?
Anonymous(203.236): If I were a magical girl, I'd be annoyed too if, after going through the trouble of taking down an Abyss One, some creep came shambling out of nowhere asking for an autograph. Doesn't that mean you didn't evacuate properly in the first place?
ㄴAnonymous: But if they're magical girls, can't they do at least that much? That's their job, isn't it?
ㄴㄴAnonymous(203.236): Anyone looking at you would think you pay their salaries.
ㄴㄴㄴAnonymous: They have magical girl subsidies. Doesn't that come from taxes?
ㄴㄴㄴㄴ:Anonymous(203.236): This guy thinks magical girls are civil servants lol. Magical girls are volunteers lol. He takes it for granted that they save him out of goodwill lololol. I hope you get crushed to death by an Abyss One somewhere.
Anonymous(59.11): Magical Girl Forum average lololol