Public Enemy (9)

Public Enemy (9)

“Ah…”

Aria’s body collapsed right there.

She instantly realized that a deadly poison was spreading through her body, but it was already too late. Her body, which had already started to lose strength, wouldn’t move as she intended.

“Ugh.”

Mammoth grabbed her hair and lifted her up. Her legs, now off the ground, trembled pitifully.

‘I expected I couldn’t win. I need to buy more time.’

She glared at Mammoth’s face as it approached her, even while grimacing in pain.

Her only goal was to buy time anyway. She wasn’t crazy enough to charge at an SS-rank monster alone. That would be suicide.

“Are you waiting for help?”

“If you’re so confident, keep waiting, you idiot…”

“Kuhehe.”

Mammoth had already figured out her intention and sneered.

Aria flinched at that sneer but tried hard to control her emotions.

Mammoth’s goal was chaos and slaughter itself. If she could just irritate him a little, he would waste time on his own.

“Today, I’ll have to be satisfied with you, Aria.”

“…What?”

“What!”

However, the mammoth’s reaction, starting to open its mouth wide, was completely different from what was expected.

Aria and Lulu, who was flying around urgently, were both startled.

The mammoth, as if it had a different purpose, tried to bite off Aria’s head in one go… but couldn’t.

“Ugh…”

She fell to the ground with a thud and squirmed.

With a shockwave, the mammoth flew through the air, bounced off the asphalt several times, and crashed into a city bus that had hit a streetlight.

Aria, who had fallen to the ground, squinted her eyes at the heat of the gas used as fuel that exploded with a bang due to the impact, and looked up.

“Shuri! Sena..!”

“Serves you right, kiddo.”

“Poison, if you don’t treat it quickly, you’ll have to cut off your leg.”

Two magical girls had rushed to the scene. Aria involuntarily shouted when she saw them, with whom she usually had a battle of nerves when they met.

The girls, who appeared to be in their late teens, were holding a spear and a bow respectively. Both were S-class like Aria, and were famous magical girls with over 10 years of experience.

“I can’t believe you showed up in Seoul. I used up all my energy flying from Jeju Island.”

“I need to take a day off tomorrow. By the way, there wasn’t even a trace to begin with, right? What’s going on?”

They blocked Aria’s path and glared at the mammoth rising from the burning bus.

Even though they were two S-class, they were not at all optimistic. No, they didn’t even think about winning from the start.

Like Aria, both Shuri and Sena were just planning to buy time.

“Try to hold on for a bit. ‘That person’ will probably make a move.”

“…If that woman doesn’t move, we can’t win on our own.”

There was someone they believed in. The person known as the strongest magical girl in this land, who could face an SS-class monster alone.

“Ah, no. Mammoth is now.”

Aria, having heard their strategy, cried out in shock.

But it was too late. Mammoth, who had adjusted his hat as if about to pounce, stomped the ground and disappeared from his spot in an instant.

“Oh n…! Huh?!”

“What! Why did he run away!”

Shuri and Sena looked around in confusion, but the monster Mammoth was nowhere to be seen.

All that remained was the chaotic street and people still running wild.

And the magical girls, including Aria, who had been subdued by Mammoth in one breath, were scattered here and there.

“No way. Mammoth running away?”

“Are you sure your eyes are open? Does that look like running away to you?!”

Shuri clicked her tongue and scolded her mascot for saying something stupid.

“He just played around. He has a different goal. I’m going crazy, I have to go to work tomorrow.”

Shuri sighed, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Until now, the known monster Mammoth was known to finish things on the spot once he appeared.

Only chaos that satisfied him could end his indiscriminate and violent actions.

But the Mammoth that appeared today literally just tested the waters and left.

The evil spirits he had released remained as they were.

There was no gain. Realizing this, Aria clenched her fist while lying motionless on the asphalt.

“…Well, are you satisfied?”

Even though it was past midnight, the entire city, no, the whole world was in an uproar. The sound of sirens could still be heard.

“It wasn’t, bad, certainly, there’s a need, to put in more, effort.”

The culprit behind all this spectacle, the monster Mammoth. He was now watching the scene from a building rooftop along with several people.

It was a sight that would shock fairies, mascots, and other magical girl-related entities if they saw it.

Mammoth, since coming to Earth, had been showing a completely different behavior from what he had displayed so far.

“Of all the worlds, I’ve been through, this one is the most stable, and full of prey.”

He flicked out his thick tongue, licking his teeth.

To a madman who desires chaos, the Earth he first set foot on, this country, was too stable. Too peaceful.

“That won’t, do.”

To Mammoth, that sight was like looking at a pure white canvas, or an untrodden snow field.

Isn’t it natural to soil such things? That was Mammoth’s common sense.

“A beautiful world, where people, spew out their emotions, as they are, remove hypocrisy, and act according to, their instincts and, true nature.”

“If you join us, you’ll surely be able to see it.”

A middle-aged man standing behind Mammoth grinned and bowed his head.

Mammoth didn’t kill this human. Rather, he was actively receiving his help to acquire information about this world and was moving strategically, spreading evil spirits.

“There are also, many strong, magical girls.”

Mammoth grinned while clumsily looking at a smartphone.

Then he licked his lips while watching videos and photos of famous magical girls.

“Estimated grade S or above, estimated ranking, 3rd… Code Red, Taquilas.”

Among them, there was one existence that particularly caught his attention.

A magical girl who, despite her title, brought as much chaos to the world as he did – a magical girl unlike any other magical girl.

*

“Nothing happened. That’s the best thing.”

At 3 AM, I returned to the facility in the car of the manager who was taking care of Park Tae-jun. There wasn’t any particular scolding.

Fortunately, I was told that no one had caused a disturbance inside the facility. Or perhaps Mammoth had only let the evil spirits run wild in that specific area.

“Haa…”

I sighed from the sudden mental fatigue as I opened the door to my room and entered.

Apart from everything else, calming down the trembling Park Tae-jun who was scared out of his wits was the most difficult part.

“What the…”

However, as I entered the room, I flinched in surprise for a moment. Kim Su-jung, who I thought would naturally be asleep, was standing by the window, turning away from the door.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Wait, doesn’t something seem off?”

This time, Ren noticed the anomaly before I did.

Only then did I, who had been slightly off guard, see it too. The traces of magical power now subtly writhing on Kim Su-jung’s body.

It couldn’t be anything else. That was clearly an evil spirit.

“Where on earth did you pick up something like that?”

“You’re the bad one.”

“…What?”

She slowly turned her body.

I clicked my tongue as I saw those clouded eyes. Those eyes were exactly the same as the possessed individuals who had lunged at the police officers in a burst of madness.

“You betrayed me and started hanging out with those bad kids.”

“…What are you going to do with that tool in your hand.”

My eyes turned to the wrench in her right hand, which I had no idea where she got it from.

“I’m going to knock you out… tie you up tight so you can never leave my side again. I, I don’t want to be abandoned anymore.”

She grinned while holding duct tape in her other hand.

I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. Those possessed by evil spirits all lost their inner control and revealed their amplified and distorted true nature.

It meant that the childish and ridiculous obsession Kim Su-jung was showing now was also her hidden true nature.

“Would you be happy keeping me by your side like that?”

“Don’t act like you’re better than me!”

Kim Su-jung, who had lost her reason, swung the wrench with an awkward posture.

I just took the hit as it was. With a thud, she grimaced and dropped the wrench to the floor.

She clutched her hand, seemingly in pain.

“Just go to sleep quietly for today.”

I frowned at my ringing head, then lightly struck her solar plexus as she staggered.

She gasped, her eyes wide open, then rolled back and collapsed, fainting.

“This is too late. There’s no way to extract it.”

“How interesting. There’s something even you can’t do… We’ll need to go to a medium for this.”

“This has really gotten messy.”

I put Kim Su-jung on the bed for now.

There was no way to extract the evil spirit from her body right here and now. The integration level was already too high, and trying to forcefully remove it could potentially harm her.

“Can’t even drink properly. Can’t even have fun. Just giving weird excuses… Ah, I really want a cigarette.”

I sat on the bed without even thinking of taking off my clothes that were covered in dust, scratching my head.

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t shake off the suspicion that the world was forcibly exposing me.

In a way, it seemed natural, given that the king of the Demon Realm was pretending to be a little girl.

“Sigh.”

In the end, that day, I couldn’t sleep a wink despite my mental fatigue.

The dawn began to break outside the window, accompanied by the oblivious chirping of sparrows.