Picking Up the Abandoned Magical Girl
The rain came down in sheets…
“Damn, it’s actually raining.”
Looked like the weather agency really did just throw ten shoes in the air and base the precipitation chance on how many landed upside down.
Despite the forecast claiming the bright morning sun would hold clear skies all day, the rain poured down without mercy.
I hadn’t brought an umbrella, and it didn’t seem like any friends would be joining me either.
I’d only stepped outside to buy snacks and beer with the compensation money from my latest smartphone damage claim.
The sky was so dark with storm clouds that it felt like nighttime even though it was the middle of the day.
And in that weather, I spotted a lone silhouette sitting on a park bench.
After debating with myself dozens of times, I finally walked over and held the umbrella above her.
“Excuse me, are you lost? You’ll catch a cold like that.”
“… I can’t…”
The woman with red hair murmured softly without lifting her head.
It was only a few words, but her trembling voice carried everything in it.
The magical girl’s signature stick lay at her feet, caked in mud and filth.
“Sorry?”
“I… I can’t do anything. I should have caught that villain. It’s my fault the villain got away. My senior was right. I’m trash who doesn’t deserve to be a magical girl.”
Her voice dripped with thick self-loathing.
The woman had buried her face in her arms and was shaking violently.
“Please scold me.”
“What?”
“Hit me. Yell at me. It’s only what an incompetent failure like me deserves. My senior would hit me, curse me, and scold me every time I messed up… but now no one says anything. It feels like no one cares what I do anymore. Like I’ve become something less than dust…”
This was clearly not a normal situation.
“Please, please scold me for anything at all. Just say something to me…!”
I couldn’t even imagine what that senior had done to her.
She had come to see even receiving criticism from others as the only way to confirm her own existence.
I grabbed her arm—the one she was clawing at hard enough to draw blood.
I dropped the umbrella in the process and ended up soaked like a drowned rat myself, but I couldn’t just leave her like that.
“I’m not going to get angry. And I’m not going to hit you.”
“So I really don’t even have any value at all? No hope of redemption? Because I’m trash? Because I’m worth less than a pebble on the roadside? Not even worth anyone’s attention!?”
“Because you don’t deserve to be cursed at or hit.”
I forced her to her feet.
Her body was ice-cold from how long she’d been sitting there, and that chill seeped straight into my arms.
“Let’s treat those wounds first and warm you up. We can talk about whether you’re a failure or not after that.”
“……”
She looked up at me with hollow eyes, picked up her mud-covered stick, and followed me home.
“Just come in even if you’re wet.”
“… You’re not going to throw me away?”
Even after stepping inside, she stood at the entrance with her head bowed, completely still.
“I’m incompetent and stupid and nothing but mistakes and I’m trash and have no sense, but I’ll do anything you tell me to. I’ll do everything. You can hit me, curse at me, use me as an ashtray. Please… don’t throw me away.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lee Sia…”
“My name is Han Yujin. You’re not that kind of person, Sia. Why would I scold someone as beautiful and hardworking as you? If anything, I want to learn from you.”
“Hic…”
When it became clear she had no intention of moving further inside, I went to grab a towel.
In the meantime she had collapsed onto the floor at the entrance, trembling like an abandoned kitten.
Her thin, heartbreaking cries were those of a cat desperately waiting for an owner who had thrown her away and no longer even looked at her.
“Senior… I was wrong… Please, please…”
She looked so anxious that it felt like looking away for even a second might lead to a terrible choice.
In the end I wore sunglasses and went into the bathroom with her, simply pouring water over her to help her wash.
It was a relief that villain girl wasn’t here right now.
“Hic… thank you…”
How was it that every single one of these magical girls…
“Come here. I’ll dry your hair.”
I was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Um… about transforming…”
“This is how I look. I dyed it red to suit my senior’s preference…”
Vrrrrr~
“Feeling a little calmer now?”
“Yes… I’m sorry for acting out of line. It’s the first time anyone has ever treated me so warmly.”
I couldn’t hear her clearly over the hair dryer, but she was definitely crying quietly.
“Whenever I finished washing up and came out, my senior would always curse at me. Saying water dripped from my hair and dirtied the floor. That my long hair would clog the drain. So I didn’t want to inconvenience my senior and always kept my hair in a short bob.”
What a psychotic bastard.
“All done. Such pretty hair—it would be a shame to cut it.”
“……”
Lee Sia turned to look at me in silence.
And then.
“Excuse me?”
She shoved me backward, knocking me to the floor.
“The only thing someone as incompetent and useless as me can offer is this.”
“Wait wait wait wait wait just a second.”
I caught both of her hands as they grabbed my collar.
“I’m sorry. As expected, with my worthless body I won’t be able to satisfy you. I’ll only leave you with unpleasant memories.”
This was driving me insane. No matter what I said, she twisted it like that.
“Let’s watch a movie together instead.”
“Huh?”
“That’s fine, right?”
“Y-yes…”
I’d only said it to dodge the situation, but it seemed to work.
“……”
“……”
The two of us watched the movie in silence.
I was the first to speak.
“Why are you so fixated on, so attached to that senior of yours?”
Instead of popcorn, I peeled a tangerine and placed it in her hand.
Lee Sia didn’t eat it. She held it reverently like a holy knight receiving the Holy Grail, simply staring at the fruit.
“She was the one who made me a magical girl, protected me, and cheered me on. My senior was always right. My senior always shone, and whenever my senior got angry it was because I had done something wrong… It’s all my fault. My senior could never have been wrong. I’m the one who’s incompetent…”
“But you still tried your best, didn’t you?”
At my words, Sia’s shoulders twitched.
“I can’t speak for whether you’re truly bad at it or not. But you never gave up even once, right? On catching villains. On protecting citizens. Isn’t that enough? You’re someone who shines for others. At least to me you are.”
Sia began crying silently.
“My senior always said I should never have been born. That my efforts were useless. That my efforts would only betray everyone.”
“I’ll recognize it. Your passion that burns even more fiercely than your red hair—I’ll recognize your efforts. So stop saying you’re useless. Look at the protagonist of this movie. She was weak and lacking, but she saved everyone through sheer effort.”
“Hic… ugh… Waaaaah!!!”
Cough. Sob.
She hugged me with all her strength. For someone who called herself incompetent and useless, her grip was incredibly powerful.
“I… I really did try hard, right? Even if I’m incompetent and stupid, I wasn’t useless, right?”
“Of course not.”
“Please don’t throw me away…”
“I won’t. That senior who couldn’t recognize such a shining jewel was the foolish one.”
At that moment a chilling aura suddenly wrapped around me.
No—it wasn’t just an aura.
Real magical power, or something like it, bound my body completely.
Sia laid my restrained body on the floor and climbed on top of me.
“If… if Yujin-nim throws me away, I will really die then. If the last thread-like string snaps, I will truly…”
The precarious final line between attachment and obsession.
“I’ll ask just once. Can I… believe in you, Yujin-nim?”
The terror of abandonment had twisted Sia completely.
I opened my mouth, then stopped.
Because I knew what accepting her would mean.
Because I knew that simple pity could end up stabbing her heart with a knife.
I instinctively understood the enormous weight of the responsibility I might not be able to carry.
From a dictator of a senior to a savior named me.
But could I truly become her savior?
“I…”
Beep beep beep. Ring ring~
“Ah, shit, what the hell is with this rain! That old man has no sense, not even bringing an umbrella, geez…”
Thud.
“… What the hell.”
A voice full of murderous intent.
It was a sharp blade clearly aimed not only at Sia but at me as well.
“What is it this time? Childhood friend? Older sister? Or another half-sibling?”
“No, Chae-eun. This isn’t what it looks like…”
“What isn’t?”
“She was collapsed in the rain, so I brought her inside for a bit.”
Now that the binding had released, I grabbed the girl’s shoulder, but she roughly shook my hand off and glared at Sia.
Overwhelmed by the girl’s aura, Sia shrank back and hid behind me, clutching my clothes tightly.
“If someone collapses in the rain, do you just bring stray rats inside? Is this an abandoned cat shelter?”
“I told you, her condition wasn’t good.”
“If her condition wasn’t good, you should’ve taken her to a hospital or called the Magical Girl Management Bureau. Why are you two rolling around on the floor at home?”
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I should have died there… It would have been right for me to disappear, but I followed without reading the room…”
“It’s not like that. Calm down. She’s a teenager, so her mouth is harsh. I’m sorry.”
“You’re taking that woman’s side right in front of me…”
I gave the girl a pleading look to please calm down. She clicked her tongue and stormed into her room—which was actually my room.
“Whatever! Do what you want, old man!”
Bang!
“I’m sorry for ruining things between you two because of me. Because of me, because of me…”
“It’s not like that. Even without you here, Sia, she’s always like that. She’s really a girl with a bad personality.”
I sat the sniffling Sia on the sofa and placed a tangerine segment in her mouth.
It was kind of cute how she ate whatever I gave her even while crying.
The rain I had thought was just a passing shower was still fiercely pounding against the windows, and the air inside the house felt unbearably heavy.
“Yujin-nim…”
She hugged me from behind and whispered softly into my ear.
“Yujin-nim is different. You don’t hit me or curse at me. You cheer me on.”
“I’ll do anything. It’s not because I’ve given up on myself. For Yujin-nim, I can do anything.”
“Please let me.”
“Please become the only existence in this world for me.”
The flame of obsession burned intensely in her eyes.
After continuing to feed her tangerine segments for a long while, I finally opened my mouth.