LIGHTNOVELSTORY When you hear “Magical Girl Animation,” what usually comes to mind?
A glittering heart-shaped magic wand?
A pink burst of light that kicks off with the name of magic?
A cute mascot that looks like it could be a keychain decoration?
A cute outfit with abundant frills?
Well, none of those thoughts are entirely wrong.
Anyway, a story revolving around girls fighting monsters, emphasizing their friendship.
If you’re suddenly wondering why I’m thinking like this…
Ah, wait a second.
Let me lament my fate.
“Ugh, damn it…”
Why am I feeling this way?
Because this is my current situation.
To explain how I ended up in this mess, I need to take a little jaunt down memory lane.
Normally, I enjoyed watching comics and animations.
In that genre, it’s a story that’s almost painfully cliché.
You died by accident, oh dear.
Someone will grant you some special ability, blah blah.
Those words never felt particularly relatable.
It’s not something an ordinary person can simply brush off coolly like the protagonists in comics.
I just let their lengthy explanations drift past one ear and out the other.
“I swear, in your world, you absolutely won’t die! You’ll be called the strongest!”
“Ah… sure, sure, do as you please.”
The god who appeared in the form of a child.
From what I’ve gathered, the world tends to reflect the appearance and personality of the god residing within it.
And it was indeed that way.
I shouldn’t have let those words slip in front of a god in the guise of an immature child during that situation.
And now, back to the present.
From being an adult man, I suddenly transformed into a parentless girl alongside magical settings.
My name is Kim Mari, which is perfect for dipping in tteokbokki.
“Ugh, Mom…”
“Sun! You shouldn’t say bad words!”
This girl, scolding me by calling me Sun, is Siyeon.
“Sun” is the name we call each other when we become magical girls.
Since the citizens are all afflicted by face blindness, I can just brush it off.
Isn’t “Mom” prohibited? What else could I say?
“Dad…”
“That’s not allowed either!”
I pondered with a thundering shout ringing in my ears.
Is that also off-limits?
Why, though?
Ah, is it because of that?
Upon guessing the splendid reason, I proudly voiced it.
“Since we don’t have a mom or dad anyway, it’s okay, right?”
“No way—!”
Siyeon, the girl with silver hair, let out a short roar that filled the little apartment.
In this ridiculous world, there’s no coherence to be found.
A couple of elementary school kids are living in an apartment together, for crying out loud.
Even if it’s something that defies common sense, monsters suddenly appearing in the middle of a city, and kids barely out of elementary school transforming with unknown powers to fight them, what kind of world is this?
The citizens, prone to face blindness, can’t recognize even the person right in front of them if a single dot is added to their cheek.
And yet, the magical girls seem to care about it somehow.
“Magical Girls must always be cute! You shouldn’t say bad words!”
Siyeon struck a pose before me.
That girl too is an unfortunate soul forced into labor as a magical girl.
Her magical girl name is Moon, just a translation of “moon” into English.
“By the way, Sun would be nice to keep that in mind too!”
“Hey, didn’t I tell you how to speak?”
“Sorry. It’s just how I naturally talk, not like I did it intentionally.”
This flying bear cub is the surveillance mascot who always sticks to the magical girl to give advice.
After being hit a few times the first few times it spoke in that horrible tone, it’s somewhat improved, but sometimes when others are around, it returns to its native speech for correction.
It should’ve just had its neck twisted and ripped off the first time we met.
“Such a pity…”
“Yeah…”
While Siyeon and that mascot looked at the bear cub with pity, this kind of ridiculous speech clearly needs correction.
That other mascot speaks perfectly normally without odd add-ons.
Of all the bear cubs assigned to me, this one activates the growth cells inherited from male cells every time it talks.
“Such a pity. Child labor exploitation is indeed a crime, those criminal bastards.”
“Labor, exploitation…?”
Siyeon, not completely grasping the complex terminology of this side, questioned back.
With a serious expression, I solemnly said as if it was too early to declare such a thing.
“You don’t need to understand that right now, young girl.”
“But isn’t Sun the same age…?”
I lightly dismissed the trivial jab.
Regardless, defeating the monsters that appear is the girl’s job.
Even if the contract is held by this bear cub, if she outright declares ‘I won’t do it!’, there’s no solution for these guys.
We’re both the boss and the leased.
“Uh, um…”
“Give it a shot.”
“A monster… has appeared.”
With the bear cub’s hesitant words trailing off, the alarms blared, screeching through the apartment room.
Beeeeep— the sound of menace filled the air.
A warning that a monster had suddenly appeared in the middle of the city.
With no notification or anything, just that wretched alarm wailing as it pleased.
“Damn it, I told you not to do this.”
Cursing, I had no choice but to grab my staff like a mid-summer emergency dispatch.
“It’s an automatic alarm, so there’s nothing we can do…”
“Figure something out, you damn bear plushie.”
It’s not that big of a deal during the day, but when this alarm goes off in the dead of night…
The annoyance is beyond description.
I opened the wardrobe drawer and pulled out a black mask with holes.
An essential item for a magical girl! A snazzy black mask to hide my identity!
When flipped inside out, it turns white!
“Ready to go.”
“Sun, do you really have to take that…?”
“Of course, Moon.”
With a solemn and serious expression, I stepped out of the apartment.
Even if such a loud alarm rings, no one around will complain.
Such is the absurdity of this fragile world.
When it comes to something involving magical girls, most things just get swept under the rug.
How amazing is that?
The collapsed streets and buildings get restored overnight without any workers!
Even if a monster suddenly appears, people will be finished with evacuating by the time they arrive for some reason!
The monsters seem to wait motionless, hoping only for the magical girl to show up!
Thanks to that, there’s no need to rush. I even have time to grab a snack from the fridge.
The dried squid I left over from yesterday is casually rolling around in the fridge, its seal broken.
Today, it’s this.
“Sun! We need to hurry!”
“Ah, it’ll be fine.”
Chewing on this, the proper saltiness and chewy texture danced in my mouth.
The mouths of children are refreshingly honest with bold stimuli.
Even if we walk leisurely from the apartment, I’m sure the monster is waiting for us, as always.
When we arrive, it’ll roar at us as if we just showed up out of nowhere.
“Stop right there!”
“Raaaah—! Look who’s here, the magical…”
In that instant, the monster doubted its own eyes, which had never questioned anything until now.
As it turned its head at the bold vocals, there stood one in a magical girl outfit, loudly proclaiming her arrival with solid power.
But then, another one…
Something that only resembled a magical girl was wearing a mask with holes, chewing something in its mouth.
“…You?”
“What the hell, cutie?”
The muffled pronunciation from the masked girl made it clear that she was indeed chewing something.
With a heart-shaped staff hitting the ground, she snapped bitterly.
At least she didn’t seem like an ordinary girl. That realization hit the monster.
Nevertheless, fury rose against someone daring to challenge it in such a state.
No matter how strong they are to exterminate beings like it, she too was a child.
Wasn’t she the magical girl who made it cower just from her roar? It just roared back.
“I’m going to swallow you whole, kiddo—!”
The monster’s momentum was no different from any other time.
At that moment, the magical girl named Moon might have been startled.
“Mu, Moon Power—!”
“What’s for lunch today? Drumroll please, meat meat, wolf meat—♪”
But within the eyes of that girl, of Sun, the pressure felt lesser than encountering a boar during a mountain hike.
With a chilling, cheerful song ringing out, and accompanied by a glimmering magic wand, the impromptu beatdown show commenced.
The power of the sun.
True to the name of the magical girl called Sun, the warm energy contained in her magical wand.
But alas, that warmth, which should have been used to help someone, had long been perverted into a torture method after cleaning up the mess.
The bipedal wolf-shaped monster lay beaten lifeless on the ground.
A girl, sitting cross-legged atop its back, was undoubtedly using that adorably looking staff inappropriately.
“Guh…”
“It’s hairy, so this isn’t working well.”
“N-no more….”
After struggling on the ground with a pained groan, the monster seemed to want to say something again, only to have her staff, just not her wand, removed temporarily.
“Hmm?”
That pleading gaze directed towards me resembled a gaze I’d seen before—a forlorn look of a dog I had, regretting its misstep on the bed.
Deciding to listen to its story, I spoke.
“I won’t come back here ever again! So please, have mercy…!”
“Kiddo, what kind of nonsense are you spewing?”
It had no chance of dying anyway, so let it play the martyr.
As if to listen to it for a moment, I brought the staff back against it.
“Raaaah—!”
“Sun…? Can we stop now…?”