Mr. Magical Girl

Chapter: 137. Collective (1)

I regained consciousness, but I couldn’t feel anything.

In a state of numbness where even my own existence was doubtful.

Slowly.

And even more slowly.

The branches of thought stretched out around me.

My last memories.

Two things.

The death of consciousness caused by being eaten by a corpse monster.

The other was meeting that Magical Girl again.

In a place where everything was fulfilled, I remembered what I had to do and departed from there.

So, where am I?

I briefly rolled over my non-existent self, but couldn’t find a clear answer.

Because I couldn’t feel anything.

Even when I stretched out, it felt like stretching wasn’t really happening, and even when I drew up my mana, there was no usual sense of exhilaration.

This feels like an experience I’ve had before…

Was it when I fought the red Hydra?

Back then, I also couldn’t feel anything.

However, something crucial seemed different.

While I had an instinctive feeling that my senses had been numbed then…

What I had now was complete emptiness.

It was an image where that very sensation did not exist.

Let me think…

I couldn’t even feel the flow of time and fell deep into my thoughts.

Where is the place I am currently in?

Why am I in this void?

What state is my body in?

Through the continuing pieces of thought and reasoning, one answer came to mind.

Isn’t my body gone?

It could have been chewed to bits, or it might have been digested.

Though I really don’t think that thing has a digestive system.

Either way, I’ve never seen my body shatter like this, so it’s just a prediction.

Still, I have to attempt it.

If my body is gone, then I just need to reconstruct it.

Just like when I patted the head of the oxymoron.

Reviving that experience, I began to build my body up again.

Clearing all other thoughts, I envisioned the form of the Magical Girl embedded in my mind.

Silver hair.

Crimson eyes.

A small girl.

Imbalanced two-side up.

A cute ribbon.

A long skirt dress without exposure.

Even though thirty years have passed, I can still vividly recall the sight of that Magical Girl.

Gradually, I began to feel the original form.

The first thing I felt was a gentle vibration.

Vision too.

Hearing.

Taste.

Smell.

In a situation where all other senses were absent, only touch began to come to me.

Something sticky inside, I was swaying up and down, trapped.

As I recognized that sensation, something that was locked away exploded outwards, and my awareness started to expand.

How much time has passed?

What is my current condition?

What’s lacking for recovery?

It hasn’t been that long of a time.

I think I counted up to about ten after recognizing touch.

Thud.

Finally, hearing was restored.

Maybe due to being wrapped in the sticky original form, the thump thump sounds resonated heavily throughout my body.

Empowered by that, I attempted to move forward continuously.

…But, I was low on mana.

From the very start, I was deficient in the absolute mana needed to build my body up.

Because my body wasn’t whole, my mana levels were exorbitantly low compared to usual, and the restoration of my body halted.

What should I do?

Finally grasping my thought patterns as they returned to normal, I began to feel around me slowly.

Black, sticky, viscous substance clinging to my body.

If I was inside a corpse, this viscous substance must have been the black sewage flowing throughout Nanjido.

If that’s the case, it’s not a complicated story.

The corpses moved based on this black viscous fluid.

I don’t know what the identity of this corpse monster is, but this black viscous fluid must be the source of their power.

I will devour it.

The moment I thought that.

A massive force and pain poured over me.

My body recovered.

My taste returned.

The taste of rotten flesh.

My sense of smell came back.

With my numb sense of smell restored, the nauseating reek of dead decay once again stimulated my being.

My vision recovered.

Regrettably, if it was truly the inside of a corpse, even after opening my eyes, all I could see was a sticky darkness.

The recovery of my five senses was a very welcoming piece of news, but I couldn’t possibly focus on that.

Was it Unho who said it?

The power of the Otherworld is altered by will.

If that’s the case, how much has this Otherworld’s power been altered.

“This is Nanjido, you idiot.”

My head shattered.

“Hahaha.”

The insanity induced by a drug.

Again, I jabbed a syringe into my arm.

“It’s unfortunate that things turned out like this, so you ought to pay your tribute while I’m being nice.”

A piercing sensation.

Blood flows.

My blood streams into the drain.

Gargle. Gak. Gak.

I can’t breathe.

Consciousness fades away.

“I’m hungry.”

That was my final words.

“Sorry about that.”

She hanged herself.

“Not very fun.”

He opened the door.

“Feeling wronged? Monsters have no human rights, you know?”

A thick knife swung down.

“All of you should be dead.”

That was the wish of the one discarded in the alley.

“Maybe it would have been better if everything just fell apart.”

That was the last wish of a corpse lying on the street, rotting away.

“What does it even mean.”

Words from an Awakener who participated in the Nanjido extermination battle and died in isolation.

“I don’t want to die.”

That was the last words of one who stood by the well and took their own life.

Hundreds. Thousands. Tens of thousands.

Perhaps hundreds of thousands.

The rubbish dump of Nanjido.

The finality of humanity buried beneath it.

Wraps around my consciousness.

And whispers to me.

[Let’s join together.]

In consciousness, a faceless existence reached out a hand toward me.

All the faces overlapped, moving only their mouths, tempting me with a vanished face.

(Let’s go up together.)

(To a place where light shines. Together.)

The non-existent face twisted as if smiling at me.

A calm and serene smiling face.

It seemed to wear a smile of understanding.

Yet it seemed to hope for my reaction, but I couldn’t voice a reply without a head.

Realizing its fault, it extended a hand toward me again.

(Don’t you have that wish too?)

Yeah.

A wish to destroy this garbage-like world, like those gathered here.

A burning desire.

In agreement with that.

I extended my hand.

The existence before me seemed pleased and reached out its hand toward me.

Not fully formed, translucent and rounded.

The two hands met.

What do they call this?

Right. A handshake. A sign of friendship.

Because our hands touched, the immense power of the Otherworld flooded in, and finally, I was able to grow a head and open my mouth.

So, shall I say something?

“By the way.”

[Huh?]

“Everyone has those feelings.”

I swung the hammer clutched in my left hand.

With a sound that burst like a water balloon, the existence before my eyes exploded.

The black sewage splattered through the air, and the black dress cloaking my body absorbed it.

With each absorption came my pain and mental corruption, but it didn’t seem to care, greedily taking everything in.

Slowly, my body began to regain form.

My hands once again bore the color of skin.

The parts of my body that had originally been rounded began to take refined shape.

Once all senses returned, I looked around.

Amidst black sewage.

Countless black corpses opened their eyes and looked down upon me.

They rushed at me.

With limbs that weren’t theirs, they aimed to kill me, who had refused them.

I swung the hammer.

Maybe because they were immensely weakened from having their power absorbed by me. They shattered into pieces with a single strike from my hammer, scattering flesh and viscous fluid everywhere.

The fragments of corpses floated in mid-air before sinking into the black viscous substance at my feet.

The black viscous substance floating in the air was sucked up by my greedy dress.

Even so, it was still clothing, it couldn’t block the tiny droplets hitting my face.

The black viscous liquid smeared across my mouth.

I stuck my tongue out and licked it.

It was bitter yet nutty.

The beating of my heart awakened me.

The first greeting was an endless stench of corpses.

My nose, familiar with the stink, had become numb but was activated again, relaying that horrid smell to my brain.

Disgusting.

The odor was unbearable.

As I opened my eyes, a more serious situation came into view.

Due to compression, my skin here and there had ruptured, revealing the things inside, surrounding me with a pile of bodies.

Fortunately, it seemed that compression had stopped since swallowing me, and it didn’t rush toward me.

But the rotting, slimy flesh stuck to my body.

The corpses couldn’t maintain their original flesh and became a doughy texture, offering me strange sensations.

As if the flesh had melted in explosive chemicals after a failed tanning process, it looked smooth but carried an unimaginably horrific texture that spread its deadly scent to others.

I never thought I’d have to face this again.

The sensations of corpses rolling around in trenches during pitched battles.

I had to go through this amplified multitude.

Well then, shall we head out?

I swung the hammer in my left hand, carving through the insides of the bodies.

No, the guts?

Since it’s the insides of the corpse monster, it might not be a corpse, but guts.

Doesn’t really matter.

I used the hammer to detach the clumped corpses, gradually shifting my body.

Thud. Thud.

I continually felt the vibrating clash and swaying thud sounds, yet it didn’t fluster me.

There’s still time.

Thanks to communicating my thoughts with them, I could mostly grasp the current situation.

A colossal corpse monster, climbing up the walls of endless abyss, harboring the desire to destroy the Nanjido above.

It would aim to obliterate the world after destroying Nanjido.

“It’s going to be tough.”

This monster has received unimaginable power from somewhere in the Otherworld.

Most likely, the one who granted that power is the being at the end of the story.

A being that grants power too overwhelming for a human to bear, ruling over monsters.

Isn’t that precisely the explanation I had heard?

However, there is a problem.

The vessel of this monster is already cracked and twisted.

Having exceeded the limits of endurance as a monster, not to mention a human.

Hence, the power of the Otherworld turns into black viscous fluid, flowing off and causing its body to collapse.

Originally, I would have had enough lifespan left to destroy Nanjido with a single punch.

But I ended up devouring it all.

Because of that, this monster’s power plummeted dramatically.

Even so, for pure combat ability, it is still sufficient to qualify as 0-Rank.

Mhm. Almost there.

A light appeared in my sight as I organized the current situation.

A blue and red light.

These colors symbolize them.

I slammed the hammer into the last corpse, pushing it with all my strength.

The outside became visible.

A dark pupil.

That darkness.

“It feels like I’m about to live.”

Flush with the sense of relief that rushed in as I broke through all trials and hardships, I felt unparalleled refreshingness wash over me.

Due to the nature of the Otherworld, the wind was not blowing, but even the pressure and stench of the decaying corpses alleviating was already enough to fill me with liberation.

As I took a breath in, I sensed a strange feeling of alienation that I had not realized until now.

Though I had become accustomed to the stickiness and scent clinging to me, a more extreme sense of alienation was present.

As I looked down at the thighs where the alienation was sensed, I saw a strange line.

A black thread connecting the corpse monster and me.

“What is this again?”

Did it come from eating the power of the Otherworld?

I’ve already fully restored my body, so I could just rip it apart.

Mhm. I feel refreshed.

Well then, I need to find a place to fight.

Can’t fight in this void…

“Gagagagagagack.”

A terrifying grinding sound echoed, and the motionless corpses opened their eyes again, staring at me. Their eyes oozing with juice looked at me.

I was going to jump down, thinking they were going to attack me.

“Abuuaaaaak!”

A sound completely unexpected interrupted my actions, making me freeze.

What the monster attacked was the cliff it was climbing.

The corpse monster that shattered the shared wall crawled into the massive cave it created, and I obediently clung to it, moving along.

…Is this a battlefield?

This creature must also seek to see the end along with me.

Then I should respond to it accordingly.

Kicking aside corpses, I landed on the new ground.

Its face turned toward me.

A grotesque face with only a mouth.

Normally, it should express emotions through that mouth.

But it was shedding black tears in the place where eyes should be.

Amidst the corpses lying around, black viscous fluid oozed out.

As if mourning.

I know why it’s doing that.

Because I too witnessed their memories.

“I won’t deny your experiences.”

Crack crack

It grated its teeth.

“However, I’m in a position where I must stop you as well.”

Saying that, I charged toward my foes with a smile.

This is their farewell.

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