Ch.249IF Side Story: From the Beginning (17)

“About the staff concept.”

It seems that my plan to make a staff with Ju-a and Hayun has somehow spread everywhere.

Well, “everywhere” just means the government officials managing the facility, Cherry and some Federation people, and us magical girls. And when I say “rumors,” they only circulate either among us or among the officials. We don’t really interact that closely with each other anyway. The wall between teenagers and adults is higher than you might think.

…I suppose I’m not really in a position to talk, but anyway.

Seo-hee jumped into our conversation.

“How about gauntlets like mine? You throw punches normally too.”

That’s how Seo-hee appealed to me.

Was she hoping to find a comrade like herself?

Come to think of it, I’m not sure if Seo-hee’s “staff” can honestly be called a “staff.” It seems pretty far removed from what that word typically describes.

Since it’s a concept Seo-hee values, I can’t really criticize it.

“Hmm… certainly.”

I nodded with a serious expression.

Ju-a’s concept was decided to be firearms like in the original, but I don’t need that many types of weapons. Honestly, with my abilities, that would just be cumbersome.

“Jieun.”

But as I was nodding, Hayun interrupted.

Hayun smiled gently and said:

“How about a sword form instead?”

“A sword?”

“Yes. I use a sword, you know. It’s not that difficult to handle, and being long makes it good for confronting opponents. Plus, since the blade is made of magic, you don’t really need to worry about which direction the edge is facing.”

That makes some sense too.

As I was nodding, Seo-hee seemed indignant and jumped back into our conversation.

“But swords are harder to handle than you think. You’ve built up fighting skills until now, right? Wouldn’t it be a waste after all that training?”

Well, that’s also true.

To be honest, Hayun’s lightsaber-style sword was somewhat of a dream weapon.

We are magical girls after all.

Ah, I don’t mean those magic wands with hearts or stars at the end, but isn’t a sword more like something a magical girl would use than gauntlets? I think there was a manga like that. Though they also piloted robots.

Ju-a looked back and forth at this heated debate. Even to her, it probably didn’t seem like a particularly healthy discussion, as she looked a bit bewildered.

Indeed. Somehow, these two seemed to be trying to exert influence over me. Maybe I’m being too self-conscious, but still.

“…Wait.”

After watching for a while, I could see the debate was about to intensify, so I stepped in.

“I’ll think about it a bit more before deciding. I’ll consider what weapon would be appropriate for my position, so there’s no need to fight.”

“Ah, okay.”

Hayun immediately responded to my words.

“I showed an embarrassing side of myself.”

Seo-hee scratched her head.

“Is that okay with you?”

When I asked Ju-a, she nodded vigorously.

“Yes, of course!”

For some reason, Hayun and Seo-hee stared intently at Ju-a’s reaction.

*

After returning home and racking my brain, I finally decided on the form of my staff.

“How about a blunt weapon?”

Jihye seemed to have given this some thought while I was pondering the staff design, and asked me that.

“I read somewhere that training with blunt weapons is a bit faster! After all, you just need to swing hard and hit the right spot.”

I thought that was true for swords too, but thinking again, maybe not entirely. Hayun said she didn’t need to worry about the direction of her sword, but if I made a sword without as much magical power as Hayun, I’d definitely need to pay attention to the edge direction. Other parts wouldn’t be as sharp.

In the end, I decided on a weapon that’s good for swinging freely while having decent reach. After all, both swordsmanship and martial arts require their own techniques. For something I need to learn quickly, a “weapon you can just swing wildly” seemed appropriate.

Above all, I didn’t want to make Ju-a work too hard when she already had to research multiple firearms. Better to keep it simple and make something I can use effectively when needed.

In the end, I came up with a design that made both Hayun and Seo-hee nod, albeit with slightly pouty expressions.

“Hmm.”

But there was one more person who wanted to weigh in on my staff design.

“If you discharge it like that, I think you’ll just fly backward.”

It was Yeonwoo.

Getting Hayun and Seo-hee to agree wasn’t the end. Yeonwoo took issue with the “booster” I wanted to attach to the hammer.

“Even if your magical power isn’t as strong as Ju-a’s, discharging magic directly through a single nozzle like this would be too powerful. You’d probably fly backward. And this explosion is a bit much too.”

“Th-that’s right!”

Hayun quickly seized the opportunity.

“Let’s make the hammer head a bit smaller instead, and have that part maintained by magic!”

“Well… that would be reasonable enough.”

Yeonwoo responded to Hayun’s suggestion with an incredulous smile.

So, Hayun’s idea was to make the head of my hammer purely magical, just like the blade of her sword.

I thought about Hayun’s idea carefully, but having that part maintained purely by magic seemed a bit difficult for me. Rather than that, it seemed more appropriate to have a smaller head than originally planned and coat it with magic to reinforce it.

“…”

Seo-hee pouted seeing that none of her ideas were being incorporated.

“…Ju-a. Could you also make a pair of gloves for emergencies? With protruding knuckles.”

Not full gauntlets, but if someone gets too close while I’m holding the hammer, I might need to throw a punch.

Seo-hee smiled brightly when she heard what I said to Ju-a.

…It seems she thinks of me as her disciple or something like that. That’s why she looks dejected whenever I don’t follow her teachings.

Well, after training together all this time, she finally found someone to spar with, so she must be disappointed that I’m trying to escape.

I was planning to continue training steadily even after making the staff, but whether I’d actually use those skills in real combat was another matter entirely.

*

There’s truly a variety of equipment in the facility.

There was even something like a blacksmith’s forge, powered by magic. In emergencies, we could run the circuits ourselves, but normally it operated continuously using magic stones.

Alien technology becomes more amazing the more you see it. If you told someone that a mid-teens girl was making equipment in a forge, it would sound like something straight out of a fantasy story.

…

Oh right, this is a fantasy world.

A world where none of this existed just a few years ago.

But even though it’s only been a few years since meeting aliens, Earth’s environment was slowly returning to how it was before. Environmental issues haven’t been completely resolved, but scientists say it could recover within 10 years.

Thanks to that—if you can call it that—all the businesses that claimed to protect Earth’s environment are now on the verge of collapse. Trash can just be dumped into space, energy problems are being neatly solved, and so on.

Yet no utopia has arrived. Well, humans weren’t particularly good at peacefully governing even when the mountains, water, and air were all pristine.

“Jieun?”

“Yes?”

As I was lost in thought, Hayun called out to me.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

I wasn’t thinking about anything special.

“I was deeply contemplating Earth’s environmental issues.”

“…Really?”

I blinked at Hayun’s questioning tone.

Why?

Is it problematic to think about such things?

Ah, I did find it interesting to see Ju-a working hard and sweating. In manga or animation, it doesn’t seem strange when a small-bodied child hammers away at something. That’s how I felt in the webtoons I read.

But seeing Ju-a working hard and sweating gave me mixed feelings. I felt somewhat… guilty. Even though we’re the same age.

Is it because she speaks formally to me and treats me like a senior?

“Hmm.”

Hayun made a somewhat dangerous sound, so I tilted my head and then just placed my hand on her head.

As I stroked her head, Hayun’s face turned red.

“Th-that’s cheating.”

“Oh, is it?”

Is it? Is that something to be so embarrassed about? She looked like she was jealous, which I just found cute.

When I turned my attention back to Ju-a, I noticed her glancing at me.

She had an expectant expression.

…

Could she be hoping to have her head patted too? When I asked if she needed help, she said she wanted to handle the equipment herself first, so it doesn’t seem like she’s asking me to do anything now. Her hands were moving too naturally and easily for that.

Well, if she really wanted her head patted, I could certainly do that much in return.

I’m not sure how I ended up receiving so much attention.