Chapter 6

1.

I started going for morning jogs. I was realizing just how awful my stamina was, and the extra endurance would come in handy when I enhanced my body.

Maybe because of the saying, "A sound mind in a sound body," I think it's a pretty good habit.

"Huff, huff…"

I'd kept running at a slow pace without stopping, so by the time I reached the goal I'd set for myself, I was winded and had to stop for a moment. My large breasts rose and fell with each breath.

I remembered how I'd gone out of my way to find a sports bra and try it on, only for it to turn to dust and disappear halfway through my first run. That had been a bit of a shock.

So exercising in my functional bra is really tough. I think I understand why women hate having to run without warning.

The glances from people around here were a nuisance, too. There were sports facilities nearby, so a few men were exercising, along with people just passing through.

Naturally, my looks caught their attention, and my enormous chest moving as I ran and caught my breath was pretty much the center of it.

Could you stop staring already…

Since I'd stopped, I casually stretched my arms and legs. As I stretched them out, a refreshing feeling spread through my whole body.

"Hi."

"Hello. Are you jogging too, Dojin?"

"The old Sword Saint told me to build up my stamina."

Dojin seemed to have decided to take a short break while we talked, so he stopped to do some simple stretches. Judging by the slight movement of his chest, he'd run quite a bit.

Dojin wasn't the athletic type, but he seemed to have been blessed with a good physique. And thanks to the old Sword Saint's nagging, he'd been working out, so he'd put on a bit of muscle.

"You'd look a lot cooler if you worked out a little more and built up your muscles…"

"Really?"

Uh, had I said that out loud?

I looked at Dojin in surprise. He had a faintly amused smile on his face.

"Is that what women like?"

"…Probably?"

I answered with an awkward smile.

I'd seen women say they didn't like men who were just mountains of muscle, but women who absolutely loved men with slightly defined, well-toned muscles. Of course, a person's face made all the difference, but Dojin was handsome, so he passed that test.

And I had to admit, I found men with sleek, leopard-like muscles sexier than macho types, too. Those macho guys were a little intimidating.

Well, there was nothing wrong with a man calling another man sexy.

Honestly, I could admire a body someone had worked hard to build!

"You don't look like you're just admiring it, though."

"…What?"

"You seem to really like a guy who's worked out."

"No, that's not what I mean…"

I didn't know why I needed to make excuses to Dojin, but I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, so I kept talking.

"I just think it's cool when someone has worked hard to shape their body."

"I'll take your word for it."

"I mean it."

"Sure. I'll believe you."

"…If you say it in that teasing tone, I'm going to get mad, too."

Without meaning to, I huffed and turned away. I looked just like a girl. No, even I knew I was only pretending to be mad.

I turned my back because I wanted his attention, but I kept sneaking glances at Dojin.

"So Lapis likes that kind of body."

Watching Dojin nod to himself as if he'd reached a conclusion, I wanted to smack him. But I also wanted to tease him just as much.

I decided to stop pretending to sulk.

"Then what kind of body do you like, Dojin?"

"Me?"

Dojin stopped stretching and struck a thoughtful pose. My ears perked up, but there wasn't a sound to be heard around us. I felt like I should listen only to his voice.

Dojin suddenly looked at my face, then said,

"You."

The embarrassment was all mine, so I turned red and smacked his arm over and over.

I shouldn't have tried to tease him.

2.

I was deep in thought in the large training room assigned to B-ranks.

How could I fight a crazy bitch like Iris? She was so fast that even reacting to her was difficult, and the magic power constantly pouring from her body meant that halfhearted attacks wouldn't work at all.

Peridot said her nickname was the Mana Tank. A tank made of magic power. I thought the name fit, since she had the overwhelming defense and attack power of a tank. And with her magic-enhanced body giving her mobility, she really was a high-performance tank.

"If I want to make my attacks more lethal…"

Water's lethality came from its mass. As a weapon, that meant it was more like a club than a sword or spear. It might be good enough to subdue someone weaker than me, but swinging a club at someone on Iris's level probably wouldn't mean much.

Ruby's fire, on the other hand, was like an instant-kill weapon. Fire could easily leave permanent scars. I thought I'd heard that even in this world, with its healing magic, burns were among the hardest injuries to heal.

Peridot had said her plant ability let her make all sorts of things, almost like carving them out of wood. As a weapon, it was an all-purpose ability that could become anything. I remembered how she'd been fired up to train after getting beaten one-sidedly without being able to do a thing this time, and I couldn't help giving a little laugh.

I couldn't think of anything beyond increasing the mass and landing an even bigger, more beautiful blow. Or maybe a high-pressure water cannon?

Come to think of it, I thought I'd seen something online about high-pressure water jets being used to cut diamonds. But that might be too powerful to be useful.

I figured Iris would see the water cannon coming and dodge it as soon as I fired.

"And defense is a problem, too…"

She'd shattered three layers of shields with a single kick, then spun around and used the momentum to strike with the other leg. Even blocking that one blow she'd used to take me down was a problem.

The thicker I made the water, the less I could make at once. Three layers were already thick enough.

"Why is my ability so awkward…"

Thinking about it, in manga and things like that, people who controlled water were either completely useless or incredibly powerful. The problem was that the powerful ones always controlled things other than water, too.

Maybe water was just really weak?

Frustrated, I let myself sink into a water bubble and bounced around the training room, riding it like an amusement-park attraction. The bubble should've been bouncing in every direction, but it carried me comfortably as it went.

"…?"

That's strange.

"How can water bounce?"

I stopped the bubble and let it float in midair, then fell back into thought. This bubble was definitely made with my ability. And yet it completely defied common sense.

It could bounce along the floor,

float in midair,

and even come to an abrupt stop in the middle of its flight, with all its momentum gone.

"Is this really water?"

These were all abilities I'd set for the bubble. As I sat blankly inside it, bobbing in the air, I imagined making a blob of sticky water right in front of me.

Bracing myself for an unpleasant sensation, I touched the water.

Just as I'd imagined, it felt like sticky jelly. I slowly lifted my hand, and even though it was transparent water, it clung tackily to my fingers.

Let's try something else.

I shaped water with cutting power into a blade and fired it. A gash appeared in the sturdy wall of the training room.

I made a spear with increased acceleration and launched it. The spear hit the wall at three times its previous speed, and the resulting spray of water scattered even farther.

I fired a lump of water with adhesive properties and stuck it to the ceiling, floor, and walls. Instead of running down, it clung fast as if it were glue, wobbling with a springy bounce.

I turned it all back into magic power and reclaimed it.

This is how my ability should be used.

I let myself drift inside the floating bubble again, floating around the training room. It was comfortable, like sitting on an inner tube floating on the water.

Now that I knew how to use my ability, the training room couldn't withstand it. The walls were cracked and slashed all over, but I was a Hero, too, so maybe they'd let it slide?

There was nothing I could do about what I couldn't control.

I was wondering how I could increase my magic power.

"There we go."

I dispelled the bubble and reclaimed all the magic power in the training room. Using it this way was efficient, but it felt like my total supply was low.

Whenever I came up with some incredible attack I wanted to try, the thought that I'd run out of magic power struck like a bolt of lightning and crushed the idea.

"I'm sorry."

The moment I left the training room, I went to find the attendant and apologize. It had been nearly wrecked, to the point where it was difficult to use.

The attendant looked around the room with me, then said,

"Uh, repairs might cost a bit…"

"…Ah."

So they'd charge me for repairs?

"It's just a small fee as a warning. We get people who smash up the training rooms as a hobby now and then."

"I guess it can't be helped. Here."

I held out my staff ID. It could be used to pay, just like a debit card. The infrastructure here was pretty decent, wasn't it?

"Huh? That's strange."

The attendant kept saying something was off and tried again several times.

About three minutes later, he turned around and said,

"It says you don't have enough funds."

"What?"

3.

As a magical girl in debt, I went through the Gate again today and worked hard to hunt monsters.

I hadn't been able to do anything about my lack of funds on the spot, so I'd put the repairs on my tab and left. That had been three days ago.

For three days now, I'd been going through Gates and slaughtering monsters, taking breaks only to sleep and eat.

"A-are you okay?"

"…Yes?"

"Your eyes look so… hollow."

If even the Gate staff were asking, wasn't it pretty bad? I didn't feel all that physically tired. Maybe the mental stress had really been getting to me.

I mean, being in debt! Of course that was stressful.

The biggest problem was that I had nothing to relieve my stress with. I had games and things like that, but for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to play.

"I'm fine. Is this another large-scale appearance?"

"Oh, yes. There should be a 'nest' somewhere, but… it's not our turn to deal with it yet…"

A nest was a place where monsters spawned. Sometimes it was a space that looked as if it had been torn open. Sometimes it was a hole in the ground like a tunnel. Other times, it was something like a heart rising up out of the earth.

Remembering that I'd learned all this from Peridot, I nodded.

"Please evacuate for now."

"Oh, yes! Please call us as soon as the situation is over!"

After giving me one more reminder, the Gate staff went into the bunker beside the Gate. It was a small bunker for the Gate staff and evacuees.

"Bubble."

A bubble appeared and surrounded me. I let myself sink into the floating bubble and headed toward the direction the monsters were coming from.

These past few days, I'd realized that unless I used magic to propel myself through the air, this was faster. My legs weren't especially short, but I was short, so my stride was small.

I rose higher and looked down from above. There were quite a lot of monsters in the group, with some large ones mixed in among them.

Wasn't it time to try that technique I'd thought of before? With any other approach, I'd have to attack them over and over. This way, I could slice them all up in one clean sweep.

I detonated water bombs above the monsters, spraying a huge amount of water over them.

"Blade Vortex."

I used the technique, whose image still wouldn't take shape unless I said it out loud. Honestly, it reeked of chuunibyou, so I probably wouldn't use it in front of other people.

The huge amount of water I'd sprayed out began to swirl. If it was just a simple whirlpool, the monsters probably wouldn't care and would just escape it.

But Blade Vortex was a whirlpool with cutting power added to it. The cutting force carried by the swirling current sliced through the monsters mercilessly.

I heard the sounds of blood and flesh bursting. The crunching, cracking sounds of their bodies breaking. Their cries were louder and more direct than human screams, more like the cries of beasts.

The noise was so loud I found myself covering my ears.

Rrrrrumble.

When the swirling current finally faded away, nothing remained but what looked like monster bones and mangled hides and chunks of flesh.

"…That was probably too much."

This is too powerful. I can't use it.