I Became a New Magical Girl Priest

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Everything’s falling apart.

The school was filled with a bunch of rotten brats, and the company kept sending in combatants even though we always lost.

I also hated the Magical Girls who would pop up and interfere whenever things seemed to be going well.

But the one I detested the most was myself.

I hated that I was doing something I felt ashamed of, rationalizing it in every way possible, and unable to quit.

I just wanted to throw it all away. I wanted to abandon everything and run far, far away. But I didn’t even know how to do that. The company I worked for was a massive corporation the size of Eun-ha, and it had my acquaintances wrapped around its finger.

And that weakness was given by me.

“What the—”

“Iris, watch out! It’s dangerous!”

Seeing a threat charging towards Iris, Rose shouted. Iris quickly aimed her gun and pulled the trigger.

There was pain.

But it was tolerable. No, that expression might be inaccurate.

It felt like being hit in a dream. The kind of hazy feeling where pain seems to disappear from where it should be.

How did my brain get to the point where I couldn’t even feel pain while lost in thought?

3 percent.

I shook my hand down, and whatever was falling became hard and solid. I tried to take on a Blade form, but it didn’t go well.

Making a Blade felt like tweaking a gas stove’s flame, but right now, it felt like I had to freeze water dripping from my body in real-time.

I could manage the freezing, but shaping it was a whole different issue.

In the end, what clung to my arm was a hardened lump.

“…!”

I saw that lump swinging toward my face, and Iris pulled her face back. Her fist barely grazed past me.

I tried to strike Iris’s abdomen with my right hand, but it was clear she wasn’t going down easily.

Snap!

She blocked my fist with her rifle. Sparks flew as she shot a beam, and a small crack formed on the rifle’s surface. It didn’t seem like Iris noticed it.

As I kicked the rifle upward with my knee, Iris’s hand shot up.

Well, that makes sense. Iris wasn’t as good in a fight as Rose.

Was she trying to roll away or was she just launching herself at the ground? Either way, the hem of her skirt caught in my hand.

Pulling the airborne Iris towards me, I swung my fist.

Bam!

My fist collided with the rifle again, and the crack widened a bit further.

I heard a whoosh by my ear and pulled my extended fist back. But it was a split second too late, and my vision swerved sideways.

Did I just get hit on the temple? I pondered blearily.

Ah, great, I might just faint from this.

4 percent.

The Helmet was going off with warnings like a crazy person. What the hell was so dangerous? I mean, the circuits had been crackling for a while, so maybe that was the issue. The company got extremely sensitive about their assets getting damaged.

Right before I toppled sideways, I somehow rolled my feet to stabilize myself and avoided a full-on fall.

Then I aimed my fist where the punch had flown from.

I heard what sounded like some kind of explosion.

As I swung my right hand, something on my left wrist, which had been stuck there, burst apart.

Ah, I see.

Rose must be using the Hope Circuit. She probably concentrated that power and swung it at me.

The part with the most energy was my left wrist, but the suit was already brimming with energy, leaking out from various parts. The areas that had been torn and ruptured by earlier attacks were starting to leak as well, almost like blood flowing.

“…a monster…?”

Rose muttered.

Our fists were touching each other.

At the same moment, we both swung our fists, meeting in a collision. Was something weird happening due to the opposing energies clashing?

The hope pouring from Rose was a bright light. It was said in the Eun-ha Federation that it could be an energy that shines like a guidepost from a far-off place.

But because of that, the absolute amount was minimal.

Even if it was powerful, hope isn’t something that’s just lying around everywhere in the world.

The energy creeping up from my body now seemed like it was about to vaporize, shooting straight up towards the sky.

A shining thread of light extending from the fist felt like it expressed the essence of a Magical Girl herself.

It was like an irresponsible and cruel act of leaving the development of the world in the hands of just five people.

“…What the hell are you?”

Rose asked, her expression blank.

I mean, yeah.

I didn’t really understand what was going on either.

I clenched my left fist.

And I swung it toward Iris’s right arm.

As if cutting off the light of hope from the side.

“Eek!?”

Even with her feisty personality, she screamed like that.

Comparing it to the crack in Iris’s rifle, it was barely a scratch, but a similar crack appeared on Rose’s gauntlet. Meanwhile, the black substance I had hardened shattered.

Bang!

At the same time, my left hand moved in the wrong direction. Some part of the circuit exploded, causing the recoil to throw off my stance.

Luckily, Rose was backpedaling with her right arm clutching herself, so she couldn’t attack me.

3 percent.

2 percent.

The readings of the circuits were gradually dropping. The warning sounds kept drilling into my ears, and even something red was popping up on the corners of my vision.

It was all some alien language that I couldn’t comprehend.

Iris aimed her gun at me.

Her face was serious.

Click.

A longer fuse than usual was loaded into the gun, and she pulled the trigger before I could dodge.

Boom!

But the one who went off wasn’t me, it was Iris.

The crack in her gun couldn’t contain the energy. That rifle was designed to use a fuse precisely because it couldn’t withstand Iris’s full energy. If there was even a slight crack, it was only natural that it’d break apart.

The white light emanating from the Hope Circuit stretched sideways. It looked beautiful, like wings sprouting. But Iris didn’t seem too pleased.

Rather, a flicker of fear crossed her face.

The firearm exploded to the right, and due to the recoil, Iris staggered to the opposite side but didn’t get seriously hurt.

However, in a split second, her weapon had vanished.

She had never experienced anything like that, so it was no wonder she was flustered.

I didn’t miss that chance and charged at Iris.

She fired her gun. But like before, the thin beam emerging from that gun couldn’t pierce through the light of despair flowing from my combat suit.

Could it be that the slight damage to the suit prevented a catastrophic situation? At least, it meant there wasn’t a simultaneous explosion.

As I approached, Iris swung her gun to try and hit me, but my left hand intercepted it.

The terror etched on her face became even more pronounced.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Her brows were furrowed, and her face was pale with fear.

The more I embraced hope, the less energy I had to use, just as I imagined Mireille would lose her energy the more hope she lost.

Smack—!

I swung my head and slammed my forehead into Iris’s.

I had no time to check her expression. I just dropped Iris to the ground and quickly turned back to run.

“Wait, hold on—!”

Rose shouted with an angry voice and reached out toward me.

I was heading toward home. That place had two civilians in it.

I wasn’t sure if classifying my family, who had supported the Eun-ha Federation’s research facilities with appropriate security measures, as civilians was correct, but well, it would be true by the standards of a Magical Girl.

But before I could reach those civilians, I hesitated, grabbed the Earth Buddy who had slumped on the ground, and threw him over my shoulder.

Then, I spun my body with all my strength and dashed toward Rose.

I clenched my fist and swung with all my might toward Rose, who was getting close.

Rose panicked and raised her arms to shield her face.

But I didn’t actually throw a punch.

Instead, I kept running and picked up the researcher I had set down during the fight earlier.

With no room on my shoulder, I dashed straight ahead.

It was obvious, but the zipline was cut.

The officer didn’t come.

I had my suspicions, but that was a conversation for after the situation was settled.

I ran with all my might and jumped off the roof.

“Ugh!?”

The researcher screamed.

I didn’t actually jump off; instead, I landed on the opposite building’s rooftop.

The only reason this was possible was sheer luck. The circuits were still blaring like crazy. They were showing 0 percent, but that was just an overflow after reaching 100 percent.

And it was fortunate that the part supplying energy to my legs hadn’t completely broken down.

99 percent.

It was ridiculous how the reading that had been at 0 percent suddenly jumped to 99 percent.

Crackle, crackle.

The moment I landed on the rooftop, the circuits seemed to hit their limit and began crackling again.

I raced toward the parking lot.

Bang!

I yanked the door of a parked car open as though tearing it off. The door didn’t come off completely, but the handle flew off. The repair cost was probably going to be astronomical.

“W-What!?”

James, who had been dozing off inside the car, jumped awake.

I tossed the Earth Buddy and the researcher into the car before getting in. It was a spacious van, so there wasn’t much of an issue.

By the way, it was ridiculous that an officer was in the driver’s seat. Was he really just some nobody?

“Step on it.”

“Uh?”

“Step on it, I said step on it!”

When I yelled while smacking James on the back of the head, he startled and began driving.

I had already opened the parking lot gate beforehand. If the Magical Girls showed up, it wouldn’t matter if it was open or closed. They could fly in pretty easily. Keeping it open actually made it more convenient for a quick escape.

Boom!

In the end, the circuits blew. Thankfully, the explosion wasn’t that massive. James’s hands almost made the car spin around, though.

The now crumpled door was still ajar. Of course, that was because the locking mechanism broke.

I held tightly onto the Earth Buddy and the researcher. After the circuits blew, my strength was slowly draining away. I did my best to hold on with my legs to prevent myself from being thrown out.

Flashes poured down from above. It seemed Iris had regained her senses and was about to shoot at us.

“Go faster!”

“I’m already stepping on it with all my might!”

This place had money to spare, so why were the roads like this?

Swerving through winding alleys, we finally managed to reach the main road.

The Magical Girls didn’t follow us further.

Iris’s condition seemed pretty bad. If it wasn’t, she would’ve found a way to chase us through a warp point.

Or it could be she didn’t want to show the fight in the middle of the road.

“…Ha.”

I let out a long sigh and looked at my left wrist.

There, the circuit was emitting black smoke. Ah, it surely was beyond repair now.

“….”

For a while, the three of us didn’t say a word.

The first one to break the silence was James.

“So… is that a researcher?”

“Yes.”

The researcher was slumped over. There was some discoloration around his pants, specifically by the groin area. I pushed him as far back as I could in the van. Then I buckled him in. That way, if the door rattled a bit, he wouldn’t get flung out.

A moment ago, I had shouted at him to step on it, but now that my thoughts had returned, it felt like I had talked back to an officer.

Still, he didn’t insist on getting me out of the van, which meant he didn’t seem that furious.

More like he felt it was utterly reasonable.

First, I checked on the Earth Buddy, who’d passed out.

He was unconscious, with some minor cuts on his face, but it didn’t seem too serious. If he got treated at the hospital, those wouldn’t leave any marks on his face.

It didn’t seem like there were any broken bones.

I exhaled a deep breath, then sat back in my seat and relaxed.

“….”

“….”

Wait, hold on a sec.

I jolted up in my chair and looked at the researcher who was slumped over.

That researcher was still sprawled in his seat.

Right. The mission I had received just now.

It was to ‘bring back the researcher.’

Of course, I left two out of the three people behind, but—

Huh?

“…Is this a success?”

I asked James without even realizing it.

“…It seems so, but.”

James answered.

Once again, we both fell into silence.

Success? Did we succeed?

So, we accomplished our mission?

I felt my face turn pale.

Isn’t this the first time?

In the operations I participated in before, we had never succeeded this much. Some missions had partial success, but we had never completed the core objective.

This mission was supposed to simply retrieve the researcher, but the real goal must have been to relocate the research facilities from the very start.

Even just periodically causing trouble would hinder the Eun-ha Federation.

But still accomplishing the core objective for the first time.

There were glaring weaknesses in the operation itself, and it felt like there was something else going on, but anyhow, it was success.

James’s face, reflected in the rearview mirror, looked somewhat flustered.

…Now what?

Somewhat dazed, I remained seated in the car that James was driving, eventually heading toward the company.

*

Sending a small force made up of nothing but some not-so-elite troops, with only one officer in charge of the operation, was clearly not a normal operation.

They either didn’t expect it to succeed, or it was a mission meant to fail.

That might be slightly paranoid thinking, but perhaps that was because of me, I reflected for a moment on the way here.

I had spoken to James a few times.

James seemed to think of me as a valuable resource.

I had been here for a few years now, and up until recently, I was just a combatant, but recently he learned that I was connected to the Magical Girls.

Unless he had known all along but chose to say nothing.

Did he want to put me on a leash because I took down a civilian?

“….”

Normally, I would have popped into James’s office, but right now, that wasn’t the case.

I simply sat outside that office space, waiting while spacing out.

I had set my helmet aside and was still in my combat suit.

The Earth female sitting at the secretary’s desk outside James’s office looked at me as if bewildered.

What if she, like James, was an alien who only looked like a human?

As I was spacing out with that thought, the phone on the secretary’s desk rang.

“Ah, yes, Mr. James.”

Wait, he called him by name?

Well, usually, it seemed that conspiratorial groups would refer to their leaders by name in Magical Girl series or Tokusatsu shows.

The secretary carefully placed the phone down and looked at me.

“…He says to come in.”

I got up, picked up my helmet, and walked inside.

As soon as I entered, James turned from looking out the window to face me.

He had a big smile on his face.

“Splendid!”

Just a moment ago, he had been stunned by the fact of our success, and now he was all smiles.

It’s not like it seemed particularly sincere, making me feel even worse.

“This is an outstanding achievement! To lead a victory against the Magical Girl! No one from Noir Corporation has managed this before!”

As he came over to put his hand on my shoulder, I stepped back and avoided it.

James withdrew his hand, looking somewhat awkward.

“Can I ask you something?”

I cut in before James could continue speaking.

“Was that girl there hiding information on purpose?”

“….”

My words caused James to momentarily lose his train of thought.

“…That was something we weren’t aware of either.”

Since my expression turned serious, James quickly composed himself.

“Under normal circumstances, she should have been in the hospital. I checked after coming here. They said the girl is still in the hospital.”

There was no way that girl could be a fake.

It wasn’t a twin either. If it were, they would know about it right away.

“So, are you saying she lied about being in the hospital and went home instead?”

When I said that with a baffled expression, James nodded.

“If that were the case, it wouldn’t make sense.”

Ha.

I let out a laugh, both incredulous and disbelieving.

Even patients who engage in fraudulent claims usually wait in the hospital. But this girl didn’t.

Well, I guess it wasn’t like she had been trying to pull off an insurance scam.

“…So?”

I branded that thought deep into my mind and returned to questioning James.

“Since I succeeded, will there be a reward?”

“Oh, um.”

James quickly responded to my question.

“I’m really sorry, but since this is just one successful case, we’re currently figuring out how much we can provide in terms of rewards.”

“….”

Well, what else could I expect from the company?

“We’ll make sure to double the sponsorship funds from last time.”

James said.

“And there’s a possibility of promotion as well.”

Are they considering making me a leader or something?

I nodded.

“Then, please let me know once the assessment is finished.”

“Of course.”

“…Since it’s late, is it okay if I head in now?”

“Of course! Should I give you a ride? Or how about a taxi fare?”

“…I’ll take the bus.”

I replied, my voice mixed with a sigh.

To be honest, I would have appreciated the ride because I was starting to hit my limit.

…Just in case someone might see me along the way.

 

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