Hair Ablaze, Halo Awakening
■■■■. My hair is burning. I suppress the mana swelling like it's about to burst. The limbhus in my eyes tears apart as the sealed halo struggles to fully bloom.
ㅇ■, ■■ㅅ■ 언■■ 굳■ ■■■■. Who said that?
"Ryuhe-Calditye."
A parched incantation echoes out. The magic wand deploys in an instant, sheathing the long blade of emptiness. I slash.
The fake nun who was blabbering away has part of her body erased in a flash.
"Kkiiikya aaaah."
I grab the nun as she leaps back with a scream. I cast restoration. A monster like you dares try to die on its own terms?
The monster wears a dumbstruck expression. I'll paint you over with despair. It's my favorite thing.
I ram the blade into the monster's gut. A sizzling dimensional sound boils the blood inside, reverberating through.
The sweet scent of burning flesh mingles with the familiar screams, ringing out.
"Kkrruk, keheok, kkiyaaak—"
Soon her throat fills with red foam, and she can't even scream anymore. The sound of you drowning in boiling blood while gasping for air—it's sweet, so sweet, sweetly intoxicating.
I grab my rising lips and slice open her belly, yanking out the entrails. Glittering, colorful guts tangle around my hand and spill out.
Restore. Slice off the legs. Slice off the arms. Restore. Slice, stab, restore, restore.
… …
I shove the spear from her lower abdomen straight through to her throat.
Hahaha. What a ridiculous sight. What you believe in is fake.
I hoist the spear, showing the fake martyr to the delusion that led her astray.
The sizzling boils and stifled screams go on forever as I restore, restore, restore.
Ryu Ihyeon was finally enjoying some well-deserved time off-stream.
She'd been broadcasting a lot lately. With the end of the year and New Year's around the corner, it was an unavoidable schedule for any female streamer, even a VTuber. All she could do was cater to her rowdy viewers chanting for more streams.
Having lived as a magical girl since age twelve, Ryu Ihyeon had never really felt attracted to men. She thought it was weird, but figured she'd live like this forever anyway. She couldn't bear the thought of separating from Aster over marriage or kids.
A touch of burnout. She was young, but she'd been grinding in society for a solid ten years now. She didn't age, but still—ten years. Having worked since childhood, she couldn't help exuding the vibe of a slouched middle-aged salaryman on a day off.
"Aster, order us a pizza."
"Pizza makes you fat-ching!"
"It's fine, one pie won't hurt. Uh... make it garlic something-or-other."
"Uching, got it-ching."
Aster had been taking care of her since childhood—nanny, editing slave, manager, you name it—so her grumbling was just a form of affection. Aster could ingest organic matter to some degree anyway.
"Heehee, thanks!"
"Pout pout-ching, pout pout-ching."
"No mana fat! I'm slim!"
"Ching, I didn't say anything-ching."
Aster deftly activated the app on Ryu Ihyeon's phone with her translucent hands and placed the order. Pizza these days ran about 62,000 won a pie—slightly cheaper than chicken. Ryu Ihyeon insisted pizza was healthier than fried chicken since it wasn't deep-fried, and she ordered it pretty often.
Magical girls didn't excrete; they stored intake as mana. Gaining weight wasn't a big deal. It was a claim shared by her and countless other magical girls.
"Hmph, picky. Speaking of, that girl we saw last time—was she really a magical girl? Where's her mascon?"
"No response-ching. If real, independent type-ching."
"Huh. Any recent ones?"
"Records-ching end twenty years ago-ching."
"Whoa, ancient. Maybe some auntie who never retired."
Ryu Ihyeon wryly imagined her own future might end up similar, pondering elderly magical girls. At least their aging was slower than other Awakened ability users?
"Colors-ching were obscured, but seemed magical girl-ching. Though-ching maybe a weird phenomenon-ching mimicking one-ching…."
Aster was certain about the colors, but everything else was so off that she lacked confidence calling it a magical girl now.
"Ah, yeah, weird phenomena keep getting weirder. Could there be a magical girl weird phenomenon…?"
Ryu Ihyeon sprawled on the sofa, shuddering as she pictured a grotesque magical girl. She shook it off by pulling up her fan cafe on her tablet, cycling through expressions.
Then, her phone rang under the name Grang Orca.
"Huh?"
Ryu Ihyeon jolted. She had every reason to. This was the dispatch tone.
The phone issued by the Awakened Ability User Association's Magical Girl Management Division under the alias "Grang Orca." A cognition hazard device that evaded laws slightly—not quite a phone, but phone enough. It rang when the Association called for deployment.
"Ah, the pizza."
The ringtone blew away her pizza and her holiday.
"Welcome, Grang Orca."
"Hello. Vice Director. Rubra sis."
"Heeey, you're here?"
Grang Orca hurried to the assembly point. Aster floated along behind her.
At the makeshift command post, she greeted the tassel-cut glasses woman in a suit and the redhead in a frilly long dress.
"Where's Rafe sis?"
"Ortentia Rafe is handling a Rank 2 gate in Busan. She'll arrive after cleanup."
Lee Ha-seon (33), vice director of the Magical Girl Management Division with heavy dark circles, replied. Rubra Camellia, the redhead—maybe interrupted from modeling, or just in a funk—lazily stroked her mascon, Leo.
"So, what's the situation?"
Grang Orca had glimpsed it flying in. A high-density mana barrier encircled the blockade line, packed with Awakened ability users and Association special forces controlling the perimeter. She'd guessed from the barrier, but seeing 1st Grade spatial ability user Choi Il-mun—usually only in emergencies—confirmed it. Min Tae-kyung's absence and Choi Il-mun's sidekick only heightened the unease.
At the center, excessive mana interference caused white diffraction. Inside crouched a blurry white girl. Her hair burned white, trailing rainbow afterimages, cradling a long spear of pure white light.
The problem: what was impaled on that spear's tip. No—a person.
Probably kept reviving by the Magical Girl Law—no killing humans. Yet violating the same law.
The woman still thrashed, desperately clinging to life. Her face twisted in inexpressible agony.
A clear irregular.
Grang Orca awaited Lee Ha-seon's explanation. The vice director exhaled, gathering her thoughts.
"Today, the 11th, 11:42 AM. Terrorism by an unidentified woman in this vacant lot. Take a look."
Lee Ha-seon set a slim tablet PC on the table. The screen showed footage from mana-detecting CCTV.
"From here."
Lee Ha-seon paused at a specific frame. Clear video captured a nun-robed woman handing white flowers to passersby.
Fundraising with flowers was common these days. The area drew weekend family outings.
Many skipped the flowers, but kids took them eagerly, bouncing to show parents. Some families donated.
"Fast-forwarding."
Heavy noise hit past a cloud backup point.
‘Aaah, sst—可怜的. 悲しい—奉納—.’
Even with anti-mana gear, excessive mana caused heat distortion. The voice wasn't crisp, but everyone present guessed the content.
"Suspected Pure Humanity Grace Society. Confirmed casualties: 91 dead, 252 injured. Fortunately, all on-site injured were rescued."
Lee Ha-seon paused the screen. Grang Orca and Rubra Camellia grimaced.
Even after ten years, scenes like this sucked. Grang Orca stroked Aster, letting a magical girl's patience cool her anger.
The stubborn Pure Humanity Grace Society, roots unuprooted. They despised Awakened ability users. Their MO: terrorism via unidentified proxies. Infrequent but not rare. Ever-changing tactics, mass victims. Hard to prevent, using their unique undetectable weirds or monsters.
Fatigue and nausea surged. Lee Ha-seon resumed playback.
"From here."
The screen flashed white. In that instant, half the nun-terrorist's body vanished. Something gripped the remains. Noise shredded the feed into a humanoid shape.
The noise—presumed magic wand or spear—brutally, meticulously pulverized the regenerating woman. Each swing whited out the recording.
Mana output so intense it erased anti-mana gear logs without incantations.
Grang Orca recalled the girl outside.
"Measurement: mana scale exceeds 1st Grade. Minimum 0th Grade mid-tier. Presumed magical girl."
Lee Ha-seon's voice trembled faintly as she reported the estimate.