I Became a New Magical Girl Priest

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James was quite a troublesome guy in various ways, but for now, he was helping me a lot.

At least, we had the same primary goal.

We were in such a mess that we didn’t have the luxury to pick sides. Honestly, I was starting to think it was getting dangerously risky just being here. The longer we stayed in one place, the greater the chance of our position being exposed.

If it came to that, we could just trash everything and escape, but continuously repeating that was tedious.

“If I had to choose from the few options we have, I think we only have ‘going on the offensive’ left,” James suggested.

“Since neither side likes us anyway, it’d be better to draw the bargaining power towards ourselves, right? And typically, that power is determined by ‘strength.’”

“I get what you’re saying,” I replied, crossing my arms and glaring down at James.

“Do you really think we can pull that off with just the two of us?”

“I’ve been thinking about it since encountering the Magical Girls,” James said, pressing a button on the device in front of him.

The thing looked uncomfortably like an ‘eyeball.’ No, it wasn’t just similar; it was a real eyeball. It must have been that part attached to James’s robot head.

Last time I saw it, one side was completely wrecked and unusable, but it seemed this part was still intact. Separating it out and disassembling the back made it look somewhat like a machine, so it wasn’t too gross.

After James pressed the button, a projector-like screen appeared on the wall of our tiny room.

What was on the screen looked like a video.

I say ‘like a video’ because it didn’t really seem to have been shot through an actual camera.

If I had to specify, it looked more like an ultrasound image. It resembled those 3D ultrasounds of fetuses I once saw on the internet—colorless and oddly formed, just made of polygons.

Still, the surface of each model was polished enough that I could tell who was who.

Seeing this made me understand why James had been so eager to cling to me. He probably wanted to analyze the situation this way. And situations couldn’t be perfectly grasped through mere post-analysis.

“If the energy of the circuits is sufficient, something like this is possible. It remembers the flow of energy from back then. It’s something impossible with an average combatant’s energy, however.”

It certainly showed only the ‘energy’ that could be inferred. The Magical Girls and me. The vaguely visible Alien. And the Black Hole I summoned.

“This is from when you infiltrated the company,” James said.

It was an image of Ha-yoon holding a man, who fell down helplessly as soon as he saw me. The man wasn’t visible, but I could infer from the movements.

“And this is from when we fought around Chungmuro Station,” he said.

When he pressed the button again, it showed the video of me charging at the Alien on behalf of Ha-yoon.

At that very moment, the pink glow from Ha-yoon’s ‘Wand’ became strikingly clear. Did James add color to just that part?

“Do you see anything when you look at these two videos?” James asked.

“… Are you saying I have some influence on Ha-yoon?”

“Exactly,” James said, sitting cross-legged on the floor with his arms crossed.

“It seems that you’re not just a friend to Blossom. I might have underestimated you a bit.”

“…”

That was an unpleasant evaluation.

I knew and felt that I was close to Ha-yoon, but I didn’t want to be evaluated by James on that.

“She is clearly influenced by you. And that influence is emotional. Considering the circuit on her wrist, it indicates that she’s reflecting ‘Hope’ onto you.”

I stared intently at James.

“Isn’t it interesting? That Blossom would lose or find hope depending on you. I thought a Magical Girl of that caliber would seek hope through ‘Justice’ or something similar.”

Honestly, I thought so too.

If it were Ha-yoon, she would likely have hope in creating a just or beautiful world.

Because that’s how it was in webtoons.

Webtoons typically twist the clichés of Magical Girl stories, but the protagonist was not malicious.

All the Magical Girls had their realistic concerns, and most thought of their own interests before justice, but Ha-yoon was different.

Hope.

Ha-yoon was hope itself in the comics. Even if she wasn’t a perfectly righteous person, she believed that if she kept fighting for what she believed in, she could gradually get closer to that hope.

… Of course, in the original work, she never considered that the combatants she was hitting would be ordinary citizens. The scene where a Magical Girl becomes aware of that never appeared.

Scenes of combatants having various conversations usually appeared in comedy cuts that were somewhat detached from the main story.

While the combatants were committing various misdeeds, they’d chat about who’s kid is how old, or who’s getting married next month, only to get swept away by a Magical Girl’s attack. And yet, they’d recover each time and return to banter in other battles, which began as a comedic setup.

As the regular serialization progressed, those setups became overly emphasized, and the meme of Magical Girls being the villains began to take off, leading the author to take it too seriously. Eventually, the initial ‘ironic humor’ dissipated significantly.

“So, I’ve decided to change my perspective a bit. You should focus on Blossom,” James said.

“Are you telling me to focus on Ha-yoon?”

“Literally. You’re nice to her every time a battle goes down.”

James looked up at me as he spoke.

“If you do it well, you might lead to a division among the Magical Girls.”

“…”

I frowned and fell silent, but James continued talking, pretending not to notice my expression.

“If we’re really lucky, all the Magical Girls can turn their backs on the Eun-ha Federation. Blossom is at the ‘center’ among them.”

Not only did she have good relations with all the Magical Girls, but Blossom’s ‘energy’ also influenced the circuits of other Magical Girls.

When James pressed the button again, the screen changed to look like it was shot with a thermal imaging camera.

“It measures the amount and range of energy in the circuits.”

My circuit was a deep blue, almost black, as if it had fallen below freezing. It swirled around the Black Hole I created, and it swirled from where I was standing, too.

Conversely, the energy from hope seemed to take on the role of ‘high temperature’ on the thermal camera.

The center of the red area nearly shone white.

Ha-yoon—Blossom—was nearly white, and the energy of the other Magical Girls connected softly as if they were accepting that.

In other words, Ha-yoon was the ‘center.’ In terms of position and energy.

“If you’re aware of the energy’s center, it might be possible to make all the Magical Girls defect.”

“… So? What are we supposed to do once they defect?”

“What’s it to you?” James grinned.

“Just turn it into a total mess. If we just sit back, it’ll be a disaster on our side, right? If we show that we aren’t just sitting still when someone pokes us, they won’t be able to do whatever they want. If possible, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a close cooperative relationship with the Magical Girls.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Easy? Is there any other way? Given my plan and your thoughts, I honestly can’t think of anything beyond that.”

It was frustrating, but he was right.

“…”

But I didn’t want to just surrender to that.

So I chose to hold my tongue.

James raised his hands slightly as if he expected that, then turned away to face the other side.

It was indeed where James’s humanoid body had been.

Now, that body was almost a quarter gone. The remaining part was just the ‘skeleton’ section.

And among the remaining parts, there was something that seemed to have been painstakingly gathered from high-tech components.

It was a ‘drone’ perfect for a hamster.

While there might have been something similar in the robot for a cockpit, I couldn’t figure out how the rest of the drone was made.

More importantly, it didn’t seem to have the usual propellers common in drones.

“It flies with magic power. It’s a principle similar to the hammer you use as a weapon. … Though that ‘principle’ has been seriously distorted by your ignorant methods.”

“…”

It seemed James couldn’t say a word without getting on my nerves.

“With this, even if there’s some disturbance in aerodynamics, it can follow you around. Thanks to my ancestors from thousands of years ago, I can miraculously stay on your shoulder, but after the last battle, I honestly felt a slight threat to my life.”

“Well, that’s true.”

I couldn’t help but nod at that.

James probably followed me out of sheer suspicion. While there was a desire to analyze the battles to create better situations, there was also a significant chance of facing serious risk if he left me and ended up alone.

The Squeaky Adult was smart, but his body was incredibly weak.

“You don’t have to worry about it flying around. I’ve equipped it with all the functions I could. As long as it can absorb your magic power, it’ll dodge bullets automatically. If there’s enough energy, it could pull off more than that.”

Maybe he modeled it after observing the circuits of the Magical Girls.

I shrugged at James.

I didn’t want to admit it in front of him, but I was honestly a bit relieved.

I didn’t want to be alone in the fighting field.

Having at least someone who could hurl insults at me would at least keep me from feeling lonely.

—

For Ha-yoon, her parents had said they could drive her around if needed.

Of course, that didn’t mean they would personally drive her. They didn’t have time to waste on that kind of stuff.

Many countries from countless planets were part of the Eun-ha Federation. Each planet had different hours of the day, and the countries on those planets had different times as well.

Having to constantly calculate the significantly more complex time differences than what multinational corporations face was an exhausting task.

The representatives of the Federation arriving on Earth had, of course, lost track of day and night. They generally matched the local time, but to maintain a good image, they’d prefer to adjust first.

As such, Ha-yoon almost always woke up alone at home.

There was a housekeeper and a driver, though.

“…”

She set the table, poured some cereal into a bowl, added some milk, and munched on it.

Yes. Those people were working, but Ha-yoon, for some reason, didn’t want help.

It had been a vague thought since childhood. Ji-eun would live like this.

If Ji-eun were to hear this, she’d probably scoff. Maybe she wouldn’t even resolve her breakfast like this with just cereal.

But still, watching Ji-eun made Ha-yoon want to be like her. She never seemed discouraged and always seemed to handle everything herself.

She liked walking together every morning. Sitting shoulder to shoulder on the bus too.

So today again, Ha-yoon chose to take the bus instead of a ride.

After riding it a few times, wouldn’t Ji-eun suddenly appear beside her?

Honestly, at this point, she thought all that was a nightmare. She thought, what would happen if she shared that idea, and Ji-eun would just laugh and ask what that was.

But time passed indifferent to her thoughts.

Winter had gone, and spring was approaching.

Ji-eun had yet to make her appearance again.

“Ha-yoon, hello.”

And there, new kids that Ha-yoon didn’t know appeared.

She never thought negatively about them. But she didn’t think positively either.

Kids who never showed up as long as Ji-eun was around suddenly appeared competitively as soon as Ji-eun was gone.

“… Hi.”

She forced herself to smile and said hello.

Blossom, who had sent so many regular kids to the hospital, couldn’t even get annoyed at her classmates’ comments.

Ji-eun had fallen several times from that punch.

She half-heartedly agreed to the conversations that were buzzing around her. Most of them were boring stories that Ha-yoon didn’t know much about.

“How’s your dad? How’s your mom? Why do they seem so eager to talk about their parents, I wonder?”

And of course, as she listened, those stories eventually ended up meeting with Ha-yoon’s parents.

“…”

She was trying to change her thoughts.

Thinking that her claims of ‘evil’ individuals included Ji-eun was an incredibly shallow thought she knew well.

But knowing that made her want to change.

After talking to Ji-hye, she found herself even more confused.

If the Company was evil, then the money that came from there should also be dirty money resulting from some evil deeds.

Then, how should one view acts of kindness done with that money?

If it was money laundering, that’s one story, but at least the money Ji-eun earned was used purely for operating the orphanage without any leaks.

Thanks to that money, the kids didn’t have to inherit clothes, wouldn’t be short on food, and could have plenty of snacks.

Whenever there was a broken part of the building, they could certainly fix it to provide the best possible living conditions for the orphanage kids in that environment.

No matter how much funding came from the government, there would inevitably be parts they had to give up. The subsidies from Noir Corporation prevented any part from being neglected.

If one denied all that, then all corporate donations would suddenly become unnecessary in the world.

For the sake of donations, Ji-eun’s efforts would turn meaningless—every activity where Ha-yoon had beaten her before would become meaningless.

Ji-hye resented Ha-yoon.

It was probably impossible not to resent her after learning all that.

“…”

Until now, she had escaped several times.

In fact, she might still be doing that at this very moment.

If she hadn’t gotten close to Ji-eun like this, would she have been able to think this way upon discovering that Ji-eun was mixed among the combatants?

No. It was likely she would never have even registered it.

She hadn’t even thought of acknowledging it.

Once she started investigating, everything she hadn’t considered would likely come pouring out.

“… Ha-yoon.”

“Yeah?”

“You need to get off here.”

Lost in thought, Ha-yoon almost missed her stop.

And only after getting off did she realize that the one who had spoken to her was Iris—Jua.

“Jua.”

“…”

Jua seemed about to say something to Ha-yoon.

“If you stay like that, you might be late.”

She said that.

But before speaking, she paused, and it seemed the thing she really wanted to ask was different.

Ha-yoon nodded and walked after Jua.

Once they entered the school, she realized she hadn’t greeted Jua.

And that it was the first time she saw Jua taking the bus to school.

But before she could ask anything, Jua had already gone into her classroom.

—

During lunchtime, the kids unhesitatingly approached Ha-yoon.

She wasn’t too fond of it.

No matter how well she pretended to get along in front of them, most of the kids talking to Ha-yoon had testified against Ji-eun.

Those kids seemed to think that the fake terrorist Ji-eun was completely opposed to them.

It was unavoidable.

There was no way to expose that fact to the outside world.

This was just the result of blind faith in the limited information they had.

Listening to all sorts of stories and just chiming in, suddenly, she heard a voice say,

“Isn’t she pretty shameless?”

Startled, Ha-yoon paused with her chopsticks.

When she lifted her gaze, she caught eyes with the one who spoke.

That kid completely misread Ha-yoon’s expression.

“I knew she’d be that kind of girl.”

“That kind of girl?”

With Ha-yoon’s calm voice, that kid seemed ecstatic.

It seemed they thought Ha-yoon had completely switched sides because she had been forcing a smile and chattering about trivial things in front of them for over a month.

“Why? Didn’t she always jump out to mess up whenever you tried to make friends? Didn’t that frustrate you? She probably thought it’d be advantageous for her to do that!”

Ha-yoon briefly considered and then slightly lifted the corner of her mouth.

It wasn’t that she wanted to agree.

She just wanted to hear that kid out to the end.

Why did they think like that?

Looking back now, it was strange. She knew Ji-eun had no intention of making more friends, but how could those kids have said the same thing after Ji-eun disappeared?

“Didn’t she give you hints?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Some kids nodded along with that line of thought.

And some others went pale.

As far as Ha-yoon was concerned, her forced smile had frozen.

“She gave hints, did she?”

After Ha-yoon asked, it seemed those kids realized they’d made a mistake.

“W-would you tell me more about that story?” Ha-yoon asked, not caring about their reactions.

 

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