episode_0003

Activity Name, Blackberry, became a Magical Girl at the age of 9.

Considering that Magical Girls usually awaken only after puberty, this is abnormally outstanding talent.

Following the rule that if one awakens at a young age, the growth potential of that Magical Girl’s capabilities strengthens.

Blackberry single-handedly subdued seventy-five ‘Titans’ when she was just 15 years old.

But perhaps because her talent shone too brightly? A group that was jealous of her appeared.

‘Thinking back on it, the Magical Girl Association was frustratingly abnormal.’

At first, it was minor bullying.

Like not buying only Blackberry’s coffee… or spilling water on her clothes pretending it was a mistake.

It was the kind of bullying that spiteful high school and middle school students would do.

Despite this, Blackberry continued to display her talent without showing it.

No matter how much a duck quacked, like a swan is noble. Her overwhelming talent was simply not stained black.

Perhaps that’s why? The Magical Girls who were bullying Blackberry became even more malicious.

‘If those thoughtless bitches had stopped their useless antics… Blackberry would still be an active Magical Girl.’

I heard that when Magical Girls awaken, certain hormones are secreted much more than in ordinary people.

That’s why they do things that ordinary people can’t easily do.

Indeed, such an ability would surely be necessary to charge at giant monsters hundreds of meters tall.

Of course, those hormones must have stimulated their jealousy. Uncontrollable emotions surged without rest.

Because of that, they committed the worst mistake in Magical Girl history.

A normal person wouldn’t hurl insults at the face of a woman who can break the waist of a 10m giant monster with her fist.

They wouldn’t have revealed where her family lived either.

Nor would they have laughed at the death of a comrade’s family member, stabbed by a drugged robber.

“Huu…”

Someone speculates that Blackberry’s corruption was due to PTSD.

That’s partially correct. No matter how much hormones are overly secreted allowing for brave acts, a Magical Girl’s mind is still just that of a young girl.

They say even adult men find it hard to overcome war PTSD. How much more so for a young girl?

She’s no different from a bomb that could explode at any moment.

‘Her past is pitiful, but…’

That doesn’t become a reason to excuse her.

On the day of the mission. Blackberry is the monster who tore and killed all the Magical Girls she belonged to, meaning the teammates who bullied her.

Besides, I heard she appears every few years and commits localized terror attacks?

Thanks to this woman, I heard many Magical Girls were influenced and corrupted.

You could say it’s a representative mistake of the Association. Anyway, those inhumane bastards.

[Urgent Situation! Magical Girl Team 4, please gather immediately!]

It’s only been 30 minutes since the message was sent. Suddenly, the alarm rang.

‘They must have realized I was right, huh? Even the stuck-up higher-ups are moving unusually fast now that the fire’s on their heels.’

Normally, they would have dawdled for hours.

The reason they are moving so quickly is because the corrupted Blackberry later targeted Association members for her terror attacks.

They probably didn’t want to be the next target. It’s completely obvious. Obvious.

‘Now there’s nothing for me to do…’

From now on, it’s the time of monsters beyond common sense. There’s no room for me, a civilian, to jump in.

Just as I was thinking that, another dazzling flash of light erupted. At the same time, a strange voice flowed into my head.

[40BP has been added.]

40BP? What is this…?

[BP is an acronym for BuntanPoint.]

“Bun, Bun… What?”

[Read as Buntan Point.]

Wait, you’re saying I’m a troublemaker? Why! I just found and reported the villains who harm lives!

[I will inform you of the BP acquisition criteria.]

[Stalking a registered user +10]

[Finding out a registered user’s place of residence +10]

[Finding out the place of residence and informing someone of it +20]

Okay, looking at it like this, I guess I have nothing to say. But my intention wasn’t impure like that.

I just informed them for the safety of the Magical Girls I needed to look after. There’s no meaning more or less than that.

“No, first of all, who are you?”

[I am a program created to nurture you. Please feel free to call me anything you like!]

It felt like someone invisible was talking to me.

As I just stood there foolishly, this program spoke to me again.

[You can transform by consuming BP.]

Transform? Does this mean I can handle powerful strength like a Magical Girl?

For some reason, this made my heart pound.

[You can unlock the Titan, ‘Behemoth’, by consuming 40BP.]

[Would you like to do this now? YES or NO.]

I’m so confused. It’s because too much information was crammed into my brain.

And a Titan? This is…

“If I unlock it…”

[Unlocked!]

“No! I wanted to think about it a bit more—”

[To transform into Behemoth, please say ‘Transform’!]

What in the world is this power? How did I end up with something like this?

[First, to test your strength, forced teleportation will begin! I wish you good luck.]

[Tutorial Start: Subdue Blackberry]

Amidst the confusion, I felt my body twitching along with a feeling of nausea.

This is… teleportation. A means of transportation mainly used by Magical Girls to move.

When a dispatch order is given, specific Magical Girls are forcibly transported. Just like fighter jets.

‘Ah. Seriously…’

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have bought it.

***

BOOOOM!

Beneath the ash-colored sky, with a deafening roar, red flames and black smoke billowed up like a giant mushroom cloud.

In the middle of downtown, the solid asphalt ground was bent like taffy, and the surrounding buildings were leaning precariously, their frames exposed bare.

The heat of the explosion heated the surrounding air with a pungent smell, and a powerful shockwave shook the entire city.

“Push on!”

Goldrose, clad in golden armor and holding twin handguns, shouted in a tearing voice.

Magical Girl Team 4. Like veterans who had single-handedly exterminated Titans before, their movements were well-coordinated amidst the chaos. Their teamwork was like a sharply honed blade.

“Don’t even give them a chance to counterattack! That monstrous bitch, pour all the firepower you have and blow her away without a trace!”

BOOOOM—!

With a roar that could tear one’s eardrums, a flash of light erupted.

Anti-aircraft guns, originally made to shoot down steel birds flying in the sky, spat fire without cease towards the hideously destroyed ground.

‘Personal firearms’ modified specifically for Magical Girls had destructive power equal to that of a small missile with every shot.

The enormous firepower concentrated on just one person was enough to turn even a steel fortress into ashes in an instant.

“Goldrose…! Magazine is almost empty!”

Bluesky, the Magical Girl with blue hair, shouted urgently. The Gatling gun in her hands was glowing red hot, spewing fierce flames.

“Contact Team 7 kids to bring everything remaining!”

“They were all scattered evacuating civilians earlier!”

Goldrose’s face instantly hardened.

“Damn it! Fall back while providing cover fire in the order that bullets run out! Maintain formation!”

After the start of the battle, a breathtaking 23 minutes. The area where thousands of special rounds had poured down had turned into ruins with only huge craters and melted debris remaining.

But even amidst that terrible barrage, they could not be certain of the black shadow’s death. Deep anxiety lingered.

“Now—!”

As the bullets began to run out, the fierce firepower noticeably reduced.

Not missing that opening, the counterattack finally began.

“Do juniors nowadays greet their seniors by first embedding bullets?”

A gentle voice, tickling the ears, echoed eerily.

SWOOOSH—!

As if a giant vacuum cleaner were working, the dust that covered the city vanished as if by magic.

All of this happened simply because someone willed it, and it was just a response to that will.

“Blackberry…”

A name like a groan barely escaped Goldrose’s lips.

“Oh my? Calling your senior’s name so casually. How very presumptuous. What’s your name?”

The girl in a jet black dress with frill decorations, Blackberry, smiled lightly and approached.

Her white skin shone even more palely in the darkness, forming an eerie contrast with her red lips.

Every time her high heels stepped on pieces of broken concrete, a sharp sound further heightened the tension.

Is that monster really unharmed? After enduring that enormous firepower poured onto her whole body? Perhaps the attitude she’s showing now is just a bluff.

But Goldrose instinctively sensed that she hadn’t taken any damage at all.

“Goldrose.”

Blackberry’s eyes shone coldly.

“Ah… I’ve heard of it. Your mother was my peer back then.”

“You know my mother?”

Goldrose’s eyes shook violently.

“Yeah. Of course, we only knew each other by face, but. She was one of the few peers of mine who survived that day. Didn’t your mother tell you? What I did back then.”

Blackberry’s voice was soft, but its content recalled a cruel past.

More than anyone else present here, Goldrose knew deep in her bones how terrible a being this black witch standing before her was. As if the nightmares of the past were reviving, the hair on her whole body stood on end.

“I’ll pour bullets into that mouth.”

To Goldrose’s shout, mixed with anger and anxiety, Blackberry shrugged her shoulders.

“…Shouldn’t be doing this, right? My juniors. I don’t really want to fight you guys.”

Taking Goldrose’s flash-like movement of pulling out two handguns elaborately painted with gold as a signal, Magical Girl Team 4 once again poured out attacks all at once.

Colorful magic energy poured down towards Blackberry. Flames, ice, even lightning.

The Magical Girls, like their names, utilized diverse magic abilities to try to annihilate the enemy.

Starting from the ability to simply manipulate elements, sometimes even the ability to miraculously heal dying comrades. Their magic was humanity’s last hope.

“I really don’t want to do this.”

And that hope was shattered into pieces.

Blackberry sighed lightly and extended her hand forward. Her response to that was very simple.

Just blow away the annoying things.

A gust of wind raged, swallowing everything around it.

Broken glass shards, pieces of broken concrete, even huge chunks of rebar were swept away by the whirlwind and soared into the sky.

“We’re screwed…”

Bluesky, the blue-haired girl, muttered in a desperate voice.

Blackberry’s magic is ‘Wind’.

It wasn’t just simple wind. It was a destructive force, completely mastering the air currents in the atmosphere and able to change even the weather at will.

The powerful gust of wind she created easily bent the trajectories of all the magic energy the Magical Girls fired.

The colorful magic beams scattered weakly in the air, and about 42 Magical Girls were dismayed at the fact that their ultimate attacks were helplessly nullified.

“It seems they don’t intend to retreat gracefully from here. My words are correct, aren’t they? Then that won’t do. As an example, one must die.”

Blackberry’s eyes shone eerily.

“Shut up!”

Goldrose clenched her teeth and fired wildly with her twin handguns.

Her golden magic bullets flew towards Blackberry at furious speed, but were deflected weakly, blocked by an invisible barrier of wind.

Bitterly feeling that her attacks weren’t working, she couldn’t stop. Because if they tucked their tails and ran away from here, only the reality of annihilation would remain.

“Because I know your mother, my heart aches greatly, but.”

SWISH!

A sharp wind cut at Goldrose’s white cheek like a razor blade. Red blood instantly flowed down.

The ability to freely control the speed of air currents meant it meant being able to create countless invisible blades at will.

Every time Blackberry made a gesture, countless wind blades mercilessly clawed at Goldrose’s entire body.

Even sturdy magic barriers were uselessly torn apart, and red blood poured out without cease from the body of a strong Magical Girl.

“I must kill her here…”

Just as she was really about to cut off Goldrose’s life, Blackberry felt a familiar yet ominous presence rapidly approaching from behind her.

Huge footsteps that seemed to shake the ground, a suffocatingly overwhelming presence.

“This is…. Did it have to appear at this timing?”

The Magical Girl’s nemesis and a being of terror that once drove humanity to the brink of destruction, a Titan. Why is that here?

“This has become really troublesome. But I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Blackberry watched the situation unfold with a cold smile.

Titans instinctively attack the weakest beings first.

Herself, who had routinely hunted such monsters since childhood, and the Magical Girls trembling in fear, unable to properly fight.

Moreover, for them, not even proper personal firearms remain. Facing a Titan bare-handed would be close to impossible…

After thinking that, Blackberry manipulated the surrounding air currents with a single gesture, causing her body to slowly, very lightly, rise.

“I hope we meet again. Though whether you’ll survive is questionable.”

Saying that, Blackberry tried to soar into the sky at a speed no one could follow.

“Huh?”

But an unbelievable sight unfolded before her eyes. A huge shadow rushing towards her at tremendous speed with a roar.

Why is that hideous monster… coming towards me?! At that speed, in just a few seconds….

“Why is that coming at me? No, more importantly, it seems a bit smaller….”

BOOOOM!

With a suffocating roar, closing the distance in an instant, the huge monster’s fist struck Blackberry directly in the face.

It was an incredibly fast and powerful blow, giving her no time to even manipulate the air currents.

‘I didn’t expect this.’

Along with the dull and unfamiliar sensation felt in the fist, Hyunseong, bewildered by the unexpected situation, felt a bitter sense of guilt from within the black shadow.

The power contained in his fist was not something he had ever wanted.