Chapter 48: Open Your Heart

“Mmm…”

Licking a lollipop, Soda Pop☆Ritalin looked down below.

A woman with black hair was walking out of a government office-like building several kilometers away, captured by her magical girl vision.

According to Jimmy, that was Sanguine Obsidia in her disguised form.

She wanted to attack that crazy witch right away, but this time she had to hold back, having received a strict order-slash-request from Jimmy to only deal with the monsters in exchange for a whole box of lollipops.

‘Sigh… No. It’ll be the same even if I’m there, so I’ll act alone this time.’

‘Do your best on your own, kiddo.’

The mocking voice of that damn pink-haired, one-eyed girl wouldn’t leave her ears.

“Ugh…!”

Crunch.

She bit down and shattered the candy so hard her teeth hurt.

“What did I do wrong!”

All she did was destroy a few buildings and not listen to a few words, and yet she was treated like that.

It was all part of being a magical girl, a frame-up of the highest order.

It was the first time she had seen Mary Jane shrug her shoulders and mock her like that.

No matter how much she nagged, it never bothered her, but to have her just grin without a single word of nagging was so infuriating.

From Soda Pop’s perspective, it was an unbelievable coincidence that Sanguine Obsidia was hiding in the very neighborhood she had visited to look for demons.

To have to endure not ambushing a hidden villain she had stumbled upon was a true test of her magical girl spirit.

But thinking about being teased even more severely by Mary Jane later, she really, absolutely had to endure it.

In the first place, it was Jimmy who had sent her here, and he had even told her what Sanguine Obsidia looked like when disguised as Lee Seoa as a light-hearted joke, but Soda Pop had no way of knowing.

“Eeeek… I’ll get my revenge…!”

Getting any closer would risk being detected by Sanguine Obsidia, so she had no choice but to stay in the sky above the rooftop of the building she was on.

“Wait.
“If I finish one of the tasks I was given, and then do one wrong thing, isn’t that plus-minus zero?”

A divine revelation-like inspiration descended upon her, who had been unable to do anything.

With her miraculous calculation, once she had dealt with one monster, she had pretty much finished her job, so it would be okay to attack Sanguine Obsidia after that, and Mary Jane would have nothing to say.

That was the conclusion she had reached.

“No, if I defeat her and drag her back, it’s a plus, isn’t it?

“What should I do, hmm…”

And as she was pondering, her magical girl radar picked up the energy of magical girls and a monster in a vacant lot several kilometers away in the opposite direction.

“I’ve decided!”

She precisely fired a magic bullet by lightly swinging the pitch-black staff that had appeared in the air, blowing a disgustingly-looking demon to bits.

Following a magical girl she admired, one who had long since fallen in battle, she flew at the speed of a meteor and landed.

“The magical girl of love and anger who flew in from the other side of the world, Soda Pop☆Ritalin, appears!”

Two young magical girls with panicked expressions.

And one blue magical girl who calmly tried to restrain Soda Pop with magic.

Glacia Azure, one of the magical girls who had pursued her and Mary Jane at the end when they had visited the Magical Girl Association for a conversation… no, for a bombing operation.

“Die!”

Filled with rage at the ill-mannered Glacia for not waiting for her entrance line, and as revenge for being grazed by an icicle that had flown through the smoke screen while she was escaping before, Soda Pop pierced through Glacia’s shoulder.

“Ugh…!”

Glacia clutched her shoulder and froze the wound to stop the bleeding.

Fortunately, it was the upper part of her shoulder that was pierced, and the major blood vessels and nerves in her armpit seemed to be unharmed.

An injury of this extent was considered minor.

It wasn’t as if her entire arm had been severed.

“Listen up, you two.

“That person is a terrorist who tried to blow up the Magical Girl Association.

“We have to capture her here.

“Can you do it?”

Glacia said that unlike the mock battles they had fought against Yu Ji-hye numerous times, they had to be prepared to actually injure their opponent.

Alisa and Materia nodded.

“What are you muttering about?”

“Glacial Wall!”

Blocking the dozens of incoming magic bullets with a thick wall of ice, Glacia shouted to Alisa and Materia.

“Now!”

Following the movement of Materia’s green hair, which fluttered with scattered magic, the roots that had been passing deep through the cracks in the stone floor grew rapidly.

“Hyaat!”

More than ten large, brown roots, like giant tree trunks, writhed like living tentacles and rushed towards Soda Pop.

“This is…!”

A few of the roots were chopped to pieces by the blades of black magic fired from her staff, but her legs were firmly caught by two remaining roots.

From there, slender rootlets extended and covered her legs from the ankles down, preventing her from making even the slightest movement.

“Surrender now, Soda Pop Ritalin.

“I promise not to harm you and to treat you as a prisoner of war.”

Glacia had diligently demanded her surrender, but in this case, it only served to further enrage her opponent.

“Don’t leave out the ☆!!!”

“Kyaaaaak!!”

A shockwave of magic.

Rosa Alisa, who had been rushing in with her red scissors and acceleration magic, was sent flying, and Materia’s tree roots were shattered to pieces.

The ice wall that Glacia had erected was destroyed without a trace.

The only fortunate thing for her was that she had managed to summon a snowdrift in time to prevent Alisa and Materia from getting hurt.

The two, buried in the snowdrift, coughed repeatedly and teared up, but fortunately, they seemed to have only sustained minor injuries.

“This is…”

A menacing black aura enveloped the madwoman in the pink frilly dress.

The fake magical girl, cloaked in pitch-black magic that was visualized, distorting the air and the surrounding scenery, glared at Glacia with the form of fury.

Even though she was a dangerous individual who had come to fight the association with only one other person, she had misjudged.

She had underestimated her opponent.

Cold sweat began to form on Glacia Azure’s forehead and pour down.

This is too dangerous.

The nightmare of that night came back to her again.

The day she had misjudged, arrogantly attacked Sanguine Obsidia, and lost the life of a young magical girl.

Glacia’s vision wavered with the guilt that was like a thorn in her side, dizziness washed over her, and the ice of magic that had been gathering at the tip of her staff dissipated.

“Unni, Glacia unni!”

Glacia was awakened by the voice of Rosa Alisa, who had approached her at some point.

“Get a grip!”

What she heard in her ears was the groan of Materia, who was blocking the enemy’s magic cannon with a tightly woven wall of tree roots and stones.

‘That’s right.

‘I’m an older sister, a senior.

‘I promised to only show these kids my good side.’

She took a deep breath and looked at the enemy again.

She had been intimidated by the pitch-black, ominous magic, but her opponent, while powerful, was no match for Yu Ji-hye, or even Sanguine Obsidia.

Request backup from headquarters and hold on.

Protect the kids and, if possible, find a way to defeat her.

Recalling the most basic combat rules, Glacia raised her staff again.

Gathering magic at the tip of her staff, she deployed dozens of blue magic circles in the air.

“Thank you, Alisa.”

And she smiled.

“Step back.

“Today, I’ll show you my real magic.”

Alisa and Materia had already grown so reliable.

Then she would have to show them a bit of her senior side, wouldn’t she?

***

Bad feelings usually turn out to be right.

And bad things always seem to happen in succession.

After turning into the alley for a while, past the completely destroyed houses here and there, a giant wolf monster suddenly appeared.

Like this giant wolf monster.

Too big to be called a wolf, bigger than a passenger car, with a few pairs of human-like arms sticking out of its back, the bizarre monster appeared before us suddenly.

I instinctively stepped forward, as if to block Yujin’s path.

I should have turned back.

Instead of suggesting we change direction, I should have just said we should go home.

I thought it would be fine since nothing had happened so far.

I thought there would be no problem if I avoided clashing with the magical girls.

I thought that even if a few dozen demons were running rampant, since they were scattered throughout the metropolitan area, a monster wouldn’t suddenly appear in front of us again.

Even though monsters don’t care about things like probability or rules.

A sense of guilt, of sin, of anxiety washed over me.

My heart pounded.

The pain in my chest, like a knife stabbing my heart, which I had forgotten for a few days, crushed my entire body.

Her behind me, and the monster in front of me.

I remember the incident from last time.

The giant-like monster made of stitched-together corpses that had suddenly appeared before me and her.

At that time, the two magical girls, Glacia Azure and Rosa Alisa, had appeared in the nick of time, but I couldn’t expect such a coincidence now.

Because not only those two, but all the other magical girls would be somewhere else, hunting down demons.

“Seoa…”

A trembling voice came from behind me.

[Defeat the monster.
You know, don’t you.]

I hear the annoying voice of the ghost whispering in my ear.

Yes.

You’re right again this time.

I won’t hesitate like last time.

After all, she knows I’m a magical girl.

I never want to see her crying, hurt, suffering, and dying at the hands of a monster.

The lips that whisper love to me, that give me kisses, stained with blood.

The hands that convey warm heat, that carry a faint lavender scent, growing cold.

I shouldn’t even imagine it.

Pain, guilt flows down my spinal cord.

All she needs to find out is that I’m a magical girl.

If she finds out more than that, if she expresses hatred and disgust for the murderer Sanguine Obsidia,
my self, which is built on a thin layer of love, the false personality of Lee Seoa, me, floating on thin ice,

The belief that I won’t be abandoned by her, that I can live a normal life, a normal life, all of it will crumble in an instant.

So, it’s okay.

This thing only looks impressive on the outside.

It’s a monster whose neck can be easily wrung with just a little magic.

Using magic once, even in front of someone other than Yujin, probably won’t be a problem.

Probably.

“It’s okay.”

Back then, I was craving her affection.

Back then, I was afraid that my bare self would be exposed to her, that she would see my ugly true self.

That’s still the same now, but at least now, I can believe in one thing: that we love each other.

So,

“The monster, I’ll defeat it.”

In just one moment, with a single spell, the monster’s breath was cut short.

The creature, impaled by dozens of transparent chains that had shot up from the ground, was already turning into black magic dust and melting into the air.

“Seoa.”

When I turned around, her smiling face was there.

“Thank you.

“For believing in me.

“I thought magic was something super sparkly and cool, but seeing it in person, it’s not that big of a deal, hehe.”

Laughing a little awkwardly, she pulled me into a deep hug.

She said thank you for believing in me.

At least, she accepted me as a magical girl.

The warm heat, the same scent as always, the same smile as always.

With her, surely, my true self, my ugly side…

Grrrrr…

And then I heard it.

The sound of a second wolf.

“Ah?”

When I turned around with a terribly ominous premonition, there was a monster that looked exactly the same, but was a slightly lighter gray.

It turned and ran, no, it was trying to run towards prey in a different direction.

“That direction is…”

After turning into the alley for a while, an uninhabited place.

As always, the last destination of the day.

Towards the house of Grandma Sunbok, who would greet me with a warm bowl of gukbap, towards the house of the person who had treated me like family, the monster began to run.

Yujin had a disappointed, or perhaps bewildered, expression.

***

Why do bad feelings always come true?

This is the best moment.

It’s a monumental moment where Seoa actually used magic in front of me.

To be interrupted by another work of art.

I reached out to grab Seoa, but she was faster in her dash.

No one other than me should be perceived as someone to be protected.

It’s not what I want for you to act to save that old woman.

Was it the wrong choice to take you out of your small room in the first place?

I must have been too complacent.

For you, Ahn Yujin must be your neighbor, friend, relative, lover, family, and everything.

It’s being completed so well, but if another work of art becomes a closer, family-like relationship with you,
I won’t be able to say that I have 100% of you.

My hand instinctively searched my pocket for the revolver, but the gun, which had not yet fired a single shot, was still in a drawer in a corner of the house.

This is not good.