Siren's Magical Girl Debut
A notice was posted on Siren's personal broadcast channel.
The show was a magical girl tokusatsu series called Bani Bani Run. Reactions poured in from every direction.
Most people didn't seem particularly curious about Bani Bani Run itself. They were simply waiting to see Siren on screen. After all, it was children's programming. It might offer a nice trip down memory lane, but expecting real entertainment from the story? Eh...
In that atmosphere, the tokusatsu series premiered.
— Die.
— I won't be broken!
The previous episode ended with the magical girl Vanilla captured by the villain, cutting to black. White text rose on screen as a deep, heavy narration began.
Vanilla is dead.
The Alien Heavenly King killed her the instant he captured her, giving her no chance to resist. Bold action. Cruel nature. A villain on an entirely different level from their previous enemies has appeared.
Will Earth fall into the Heavenly King's hands like this? Of course not! Just before Vanilla's soul could return to the cycle of all things, her desperate prayer reached another magical girl far away. Her name is Siren! She has arrived on Earth to defeat the Alien Heavenly King!
— Let's goooo.
— Siren hurry up and appear already!
The short plot unfolded through text and narration. The scene changed. The camera angle focused on bright yellow boots stepping forward.
“You. Wicked creature who stole Vanilla’s life.”
The camera rose, revealing the owner of the voice.
“I will tear your body apart. I will offer your blood to the starlight of the universe to soothe Vanilla’s soul that has returned to the galaxy.”
“Comfort her? Why don’t you do it yourself? I’ll send you to her side too.”
“You certainly speak like you look.”
The Alien Heavenly King raised his dark sword.
“I’ll even give you the first move.”
“How arrogant.”
Siren let out a small laugh. Yet her eyes were as deep as the ocean.
“Did you know? That’s something experts say to beginners.”
She pointed her magic wand at the Heavenly King.
“I’ll yield. Come at me.”
The Heavenly King approached quickly, dark sword dangling. Grrrrrrrk—! The sword scraped the ground, splitting it open. The cracks inside were pitch black, like miniature black holes.
“Dark Dragon!”
He braked with his front foot and swung the blade. The dark sword surged upward, unleashing its condensed power. The trail of cracks connected to the sword rose along its path, forming the shape of a dragon that swallowed Siren whole.
Kukukukung—! A cloud of dust erupted. There was no resistance.
“How boring.”
The moment the Heavenly King turned around, petals rode in on a sudden breeze. Those petals soon turned into flames and danced. From top to bottom, left to right, right to left. Fire burned like the wind, fell like rain, and then blazed like fire itself.
Hwaruk—! The dust cloud cleared. Siren appeared and spoke.
“That’s not what a dragon is.”
“You bastard!”
Dark clouds gathered. Dry, stuffy clouds without a single drop of moisture. Like a volcano exploding upside-down, the black clouds covered the world.
“This is how it’s done.”
Kurrrrung—! Lightning had symbolized divine punishment since ancient times. And these dark clouds resembling storm clouds could carry out that punishment. Their shape was that of a dragon.
“Divine Punishment: Demon Sweep.”
A massive fire dragon opened its jaws toward the Heavenly King.
“D-Dark Dragon!”
The dark dragon that stretched from his sword was smaller than the fire dragon’s claws. Every attack he made was useless.
“Die.”
The chat exploded. It made sense; they had perfectly recreated a scene from Dragon Horse War. But it didn’t end there.
After defeating the villain, Siren made a flustered face and caught the falling Heavenly King.
The Heavenly King’s mask came off. His face wasn’t visible to the viewers. Only the back of his head and Siren’s expression could be seen.
“O-Oppa… why are you here…”
“You’ve become so strong, Siren…”
It was the kind of trashy development where the villain turns out to be the lover. In a movie or drama that valued probability it would earn frowns, but in tokusatsu that prioritized romance and dopamine, it was perfectly acceptable.
“I’m glad I got to see you one last time.”
“N-No. Don’t do this. Please.”
“Lo……”
Thud— Without finishing his last words, the Heavenly King died.
Everyone knew what it meant, but no one said it out loud. No one wanted to confirm a love line with Siren. But the script had already been decided.
“I love you…”
The script played out exactly as written. Siren’s lips and the Heavenly King’s face weren’t shown, but Siren closed her eyes and their faces drew close.
The episode ended there. The community, of course, lost its mind.
“I really don’t get the reason.”
If they were going to frame the shot so that neither the face nor the actual kiss would be visible, why did I have to be the stand-in? And why was a kiss scene necessary in the first place? I wanted to ask the person who came up with the idea, but—
“Huuueeeng.”
“…Stop crying.”
“Lee Hyun died…! Huuueeeng.”
“Then who is this living person standing right next to you?”
Siren had been monitoring the reactions to Bani Bani Run when the emotions from Dragon Horse War came flooding back, causing her to cry buckets.
“Huaang!”
“Haha. This is awkward.”
Siren suddenly burrowed into my chest like a missile. Well, what could I do? I patted her back and looked around.
A crying Siren. A troubled me. Aside from the two of us, the atmosphere at Magical Studio was fantastic. No, fantastic wasn’t enough. It was practically a festival.
“Whoa!”
“Hell yeah, we’re back!”
“Horololololololo!”
The children’s tokusatsu program had achieved an incredible 9% rating. The viewership that had plummeted once when magic appeared in reality and again when open-eye magic became half-practical had shot straight up like a rocket.
“Ughhhk. Huuuuk! Kkuk. Hehehe. Hyahahat!”
Over there was a man shedding tears for an entirely different reason than Siren. He was sobbing with snot and tears everywhere, occasionally bursting into laughter, which made it a little scary. And beside Kim Min-seok, patting his shoulder, stood a familiar man.
If Siren was the greatest contributor to Bani Bani Run’s explosive rise, the next was definitely him—Yu Gang-hyeok.
Korea is a country with strong public safety, but it also has quite strict regulations on awakeners. Naturally, using magic inside city limits is forbidden unless it’s inside a dungeon. If magic must be used for performances or filming, the type, time, reason, and location suitability must all be reviewed. The process takes a long time, and magic classified as outside specifications is denied regardless of reason.
Siren’s “Divine Punishment: Demon Sweep” had no records in the Magic Tower, so it wasn’t officially classified, but it was obviously a spell that would never receive approval. Yet Siren had used that very magic during filming. Although the breath itself was rendered with CG, the dark clouds and fire dragon had been completely real.
The reason it had been possible was Yu Gang-hyeok. The office in charge of those suitability reviews was the local district office and the regional branch of the Defense and Safety Department. The Defense and Safety Department was his territory, and the district office had been thoroughly pressured by his soaring influence lately, so the review had gone through without a hitch.
And it was still ongoing.
While the studio staff danced and celebrated, the man who had set up his own civil service desk in the corner was none other than Yu Gang-hyeok.
“Yes, yes. Just hand all the documents to me~”
“Ah, please give them here~ Yes~”
“Oh dear, you were worried about that? Shall I show you some magic? One phone call and it’s ma~gic~”
A mountain of documents piled up beside him. All of them were magic permit applications. Stamp on the seal, stamp on the document. Bang bang. Dozens of documents were processed in a single minute.
I was staring, thinking I’m pretty sure each of those normally takes a week… is this really okay? when our eyes met. He gave me a reassuring smile and nodded. I didn’t know why, but I nodded back.
Still, is it okay to leave the Association this empty?
“Is it really all right to work the Association President this hard…”
“I’m doing it because I want to! Please feel free to work me as much as you like!”
“Ah. Uh, yes, yes…”
Could he hear me? And why was he answering like a new hire with so much energy…
Of course, I was grateful. Thanks to his efforts we were able to move straight into the next shoot.
The following day. On set.
This episode featured the Alien Heavenly Emperor, enraged by the Heavenly King’s death, appearing to fight Siren.
“The kiss scene…”
“No. We’re not doing anything like that anymore.”
“Tch.”
I cleanly shot down Siren’s suggestion to follow the “Turns out he was her father” route after the “Turns out he was her lover” twist. Were we filming The King of Mask Singer? There’s a limit to how trashy a plot can get. What kind of scene is a wistful cheek kiss with your dad?
“Action!”
Filming began. From far beyond the horizon, the Alien Heavenly Emperor slowly revealed himself. However—
“Cut! Cut! Mr. Jae-jung! Aren’t you wearing the mask properly? I can see all your hair!”
Kim Min-seok shouted. The actor playing the Heavenly Emperor had such sloppy makeup that he couldn’t help but point it out. Hair was visible, the specially made exoskeleton parts weren’t properly attached, and above all…
“Hey… what is that? Props team!”
The sword in the Heavenly Emperor’s hand was real.
“Let’s take a break and fix it! Mr. Jae-jung? What’s wrong, can’t you hear me?”
Kim Min-seok shouted again. But the Heavenly Emperor did not stop. Instead, he started running.
“W-Wait, what the—!”
“Huh? That hair color…”
Only then did people realize something was wrong. Someone sharp noticed the red hair and the slightly smaller frame, but it was already too late. The Heavenly Emperor’s speed increased. Afterimages stretched behind him and light shone from his sword. He closed the distance in an instant. His target was…
“…?”
Me. The Heavenly Emperor reached out toward me.
And then—
Kwaaaaaang—!!
A massive gust of wind erupted and sent him flying into the distance. Siren had stepped to my side. The dust cloud soon cleared, revealing the Heavenly Emperor.
No. It wasn’t the Heavenly Emperor. The mask had come off, revealing the face hidden beneath.
“Huh?”
Just as I had instinctively recognized her during our first meeting, I recognized her immediately this time too.
“…Fianna?”
She looked at me. Then she looked at Siren and spoke, gripping her sword tightly.
“Hello.”
The wind blew.
“Siren unnie.”
She finished.
“And Lee Hyun.”