Chapter 7 : Trying to Change the Genre of This Novel

“Hyeonwoo, you should live a good life.”

“What?”

It was a remark my father casually made while working at the repair shop he ran.

I was a middle school student helping my father with his work, organizing the warehouse. I had just returned from arranging new items and boxes brought from the factory when he suddenly started talking.

“If you live a good life, everything returns to you.”

“…”

I was a middle school student at the height of sensitivity… a foolish idiot steeped in paranoia.

So I blurted out words I shouldn’t have said to my father.

“Mr. Kim, who always gets special service because he’s a regular customer, totaled our car while drunk driving.”

…And mom too.

I couldn’t bring myself to say that last part, but perhaps my father knew.

“…”

My father’s face was complex for a moment.

And the next words he said still remain in my memory.

* * *

“…”

A smelly girl was crying loudly in front of me.

Originally, when human crying bursts out in a truly sorrowful and overwhelming situation, the throat gets blocked with snot and hiccups, the expression distorts, and truly animal-like sounds emerge.

This girl crying in front of me was letting out exemplary animal cries.

The three of us, who had come to a safe place after repeatedly teleporting and misleading the police with illusions, were catching our breath for a moment when she suddenly burst into tears.

“She looks like an ugly doll!”

“Hana-chan! Shh!”

I gently covered the mouth of Sato Hana, who was innocently spewing facts.

‘It’s good that I came along after hearing Sato-san’s request.’

The Sato couple’s worries had deepened because Hana had recently become interested in walks and was going further and further.

When Hana injured her nerves, they worked double jobs to earn money for surgery that could be sent to a famous doctor in Europe who had cured lower body paralysis patients. But when Hana’s condition improved, they redirected the saved surgery money to living expenses and school fees, giving them some leeway.

-Except for weekend walks with Hana-chan, we haven’t been able to spend much time with her, so I’m planning to wrap up work this time.

Hoho, Mrs. Sato laughed and asked me to look after Hana so she wouldn’t go too far when walking, saying she would finish up her job as soon as possible and come back.

…And the result was the ugly doll in front of me.

“Um, I think we need to start talking now.”

“Ugh! Hic! Y-Yes!”

An impression that there might be one such person in every class.

The petite female student in the back row, who looked like she might be reading manga, raised her grimy face.

“W-Well, what happened was…”

Listening to her circumstances, it turns out she became a magical girl simultaneously as the delinquent who had been bullying her. Haruko, who had harbored resentment towards her, was finally subdued by the delinquent who tried to take her star away.

Then, recalling the fact that ‘magical girls are sturdy’ that she had seen on the news, she hit her with a brick. When she saw the delinquent’s boyfriend trying to report it, she unconsciously used psychic powers to knock him down.

It’s truly an impressive display of action.

When I was her age, the maximum rebellion I could do was reading dark novels in the library, alienating myself from the world.

But Haruko went as far as to smash someone’s head.

“What about the other side? Did they die?”

“N-No, while I was running away, I secretly went to school and heard that both of them woke up after being unconscious for a day.”

Boldly, even while continuing to flee, she went as far as to gather information from a place where she could check the victims’ condition for situational awareness.

This person’s instinctive actions were all incredibly daring.

“Haah…”

After organizing my thoughts for a moment, I realized that this incident itself was actually relatively low-level compared to its impact.

Of course, hitting someone’s head with a blunt object is a violent crime that’s hard to defend in any situation.

However, the victim’s side was clearly aware that she was a magical girl and had first inflicted violence that violated bodily freedom.

Considering Haruko’s age of 13, it would be a juvenile crime case that would end up in family court.

Interviews with guardians and settlements would occur, but it’s not a matter serious enough for armed police to swarm in.

‘That means this violence incident itself is probably just a pretext… and the goal is to imprison this child in a research facility.’

Even in the original work, it was written that magical girls who hadn’t bloomed were imprisoned in state institutions under various pretexts before the plan started.

‘I was careless because there was a lot of time left until the [Protection] magical girl bloomed, but I didn’t expect to see such signs behind the scenes already…’

Traces of the original work approaching faster than imagined.

“W-What should I tell my mom?”

“You have a mother?”

“Don’t say bad things. Why have you both been…”

As soon as I heard the word mother, I instinctively felt a stabbing sensation inside my chest and reflexively asked.

“…”

Listening to Haruko’s words, it seems that since the day she committed the incident, she threw away her own phone in an alley to avoid tracking, didn’t use her transit card, and only fled on foot so that she couldn’t contact her parents.

What to do.

I could pretend not to know and knock her unconscious to hand her over to the police. But if that happens, the imprisoned Haruko might talk about my information, which is clearly that of a magical girl.

My appearance that I had hidden with illusions in front of the police.

‘Of all times, I came straight in my waitress uniform because I said I was going to look after Hana.’

I removed the cafe uniform apron, so the Master’s shop name doesn’t appear anywhere on the uniform.

Even so, if they compare all the cafes in this area, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find a shop where a silver-haired schoolgirl works.

‘Even if I had just observed, Hana could have been involved in the arrest process.’

Apparently bored with the story, Sato Hana sat on a bench in front, staring blankly at the sky.

“For now… let’s go to my house.”

I told the Master I was leaving early.

-Alright. Do that.

And after sending Hana home, I brought Haruko to my house, hiding her with an illusion curtain.

“…”

[Magical Girl Supernatural Ability Weaponization Plan]

Because of this plan, magical girls divide into factions, steal each other’s starlight, and cause wars.

Amidst such opposition, the second red broadcast was heard.

[This is your own choice made before the test for human evolution.]

[Each magical girl should prevent the invasion of demons through the path you have chosen for yourself.]

[The power and starlight of magical girls will grow stronger as others’ dreams.]

[Those who have taken the starlight of other magical girls will go on the path of struggle; those who have fulfilled the wish of starlight will go towards dreams.]

From here on, all the characters in the original work realize that things have gone wrong.

The first broadcast clearly said [Embrace more starlight to reach evolution.] But only one method was precisely specified: [Absorb the starlight of others.]

‘They just didn’t notice, but they subtly inserted different meanings between the sentences.’

In fact, this was close to wordplay.

The paragraph [Stars hold the possibility of evolution]. The fact that this should be interpreted as [You can evolve without necessarily fighting, just fulfill conditions on your own.] was really malicious.

And the worst sentence was the last paragraph that said [Face your fate with a cautious attitude].

After the second red broadcast, magical girls realize.

That those who had already absorbed power from other magical girls even once could no longer gain power by other means after the second red broadcast.

The amount of power that could be gained through fighting was too small for all magical girls.

They had entered the path of survival of the fittest surrounding survival resources to survive the impending doom.

If this were a real-world contract, it would be a matter for the judge to stand up and hit their head with a gavel, but this world itself was aiming for unreasonable misfortune and fate.

A world entangled in trashy fate.

While thinking this, Haruko suddenly opened her mouth.

“Um, can I go to the bathroom?”

“You don’t really need permission for that.”

“I-I don’t know where it is.”

“Go out, and it’s on the left outside the corridor.”

“I-I’ll be right back.”

Haruko, who had left awkwardly, came back awkwardly again 10 minutes later.

“I-I’m back.”

“Why are you so nervous?”

“W-When I see such a noble appearance… I have a personality that gets intimidated.”

“…”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Come to think of it, there was one more thing that was explained in a convoluted way in the red broadcast.

“Busujima-san. Let me see your star for a moment.”

“Eeh?!”

“I’ll just look at it.”

Haruko, who had been trembling like a hamster remembering the incident that led to her being chased, soon fumblingly took out her glass star. Inside her earth-colored star, one light was twinkling.

“Ugh. T-That girl also tried to take mine forcefully.”

“Even if she succeeded, it would have been in vain since the power you can gain through absorption is less than you think.”

“Huh? H-How do you know that?”

“Hup.”

Thinking about absorption, I lightly bumped my glass star, and energy flowed out of Haruko’s earth-colored star and was absorbed.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”

“Oh, so this is how it works.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”

And when I tapped the glass star again, energy flowed out of my star and returned to the earth-colored star, restoring it.

“Eeh?!”

[It’s also possible to increase by absorbing others’ stars.]

They never said, ‘it can’t be restored.’

This is how all explanations were maliciously omitted in the red broadcast.