The Magical Girl's Cry
A monotonous, high-pitched alarm filled the room.
I forced my exhausted body into motion—worn out from turning yesterday's events over and over in my head—and fumbled blindly across the desk until I finally killed the alarm. For a while I just lay there, face-down and dazed, before collapsing onto the bed all over again.
"...Ha."
I rubbed my brow, hoping it had all been a dream, but the images burned into my eyes refused to fade.
The monsters that had chased me yesterday—things that looked like they had no business existing in this world. How I'd run blindly, only to collide with the class president as she burst out from between the alleyways. And then, right in front of my eyes...
"Innocent Heart, Transform!"
That was what she'd cried, and in a burst of brilliant light she had become a magical girl. The pink beam that erupted from her wand, purifying everything it touched. And then the way she'd dropped the transformation, smiled like nothing had happened, blocked my escape, and asked me to keep her secret with that bright little grin.
All of it had been real.
I flicked my eyes toward the calendar hanging on the wall.
Friday
"..."
I still had to go to school.
I dragged myself out of bed, splashed some water on my face, poured milk over a bowl of cereal to fill my stomach, then pulled on my uniform.
Right. Yesterday was just a dream. I'd been so tired I'd started seeing things. That was what I had to believe.
I kept hypnotizing myself with that thought as I left my apartment and walked to school.
The street that had been torn apart by yesterday's Demon King's Army attack was already restored enough for people to pass through. Well—restored in the sense that the bigger chunks of debris had been cleared and you could walk without tripping. The rest... the Magical Girl Association, or whatever they were called, would probably handle it.
I was still turning that over when the school gate came into view. High school students whose faces and names I didn't even know streamed past in ones and twos. I slipped into the crowd like anyone else and stepped through the gate, praying that today, at least, would be ordinary.
But the moment I spotted the person standing just inside, that desperate little wish shattered into pieces.
"Hah..."
A familiar face, posted at the gate with a disciplinary committee badge on one arm, wiping the sweat from her brow with her sleeve.
Our class president. Yoo Seoyeon.
I tore my eyes away as best I could and started walking toward the main building. I kept going, pretending I hadn't seen her, until the urge to check got the better of me and I glanced back.
And then—
"Ah!"
The instant our eyes met, a bright smile bloomed across her face.
Damn. I'd been caught.
I felt my heart drop, but I did my best to look casual. I needed to sell the idea that nothing had happened yesterday, that I was just a little worn out from the Demon King's Army, and that whatever had passed between us had already slipped my mind. I raised a hand and tossed her a light greeting, as if none of it had ever happened.
"Ah, hey..."
"..."
The class president frowned at my awkward, trailing voice.
Fuck.
This wasn't "perfectly fine" at all. If anything, I was basically confessing with my own mouth that I remembered yesterday crystal clear. Once again—for the first time since my first year of middle school—I was reminded that I should never, ever try to act.
"Ah, Siwoo!"
She returned the greeting a beat late, then closed the distance in a single step, right up in front of me, and started talking with a bright little smile.
"Did you get home okay yesterday?"
"Ah, yeah... I got home fine."
On the surface, it sounded like nothing more than Did you make it home from school all right? But I knew better. Nested inside that ordinary greeting was a secret only the two of us shared.
"There was a Demon King's Army attack alert yesterday..."
My whole body flinched.
"Nothing... actually happened, right?"
To anyone listening, it was a warm, perfectly normal question: There was an alert—were you safe? So why did it reach my ears as Do you remember me transforming into Innocent Heart in front of you and evaporating those monsters in a single shot?
"Uh, uh. Yeah! N-nothing hap-happened at all! Yeah!"
What came out of my mouth was the furthest thing from fine.
"I-I should get going..."
I turned and started walking toward the classroom. My uniform was neat, and I hadn't dyed my hair, so she wouldn't have any reason to hold me. I could relax, at least for now, and—
"Wait, Siwoo!"
Ah, damn.
Her bright, ringing voice caught me from behind as she grabbed my uniform. I was completely screwed.
"I... I have something I need to talk to you about. From yesterday..."
I could feel the other students looking. They were clearly reading this as a completely different kind of conversation. Except it wasn't. This was so much worse...!
"Could you spare a little time after school?"
I glanced back over my shoulder.
"Please?"
She smiled, bright and warm.
First period ended, then second, then third. Fourth period blew past in a blink, and a peaceful lunch hour settled over the school.
Most of the students took one look at today's menu, swallowed hard, and headed for the cafeteria. I couldn't even get out of my seat. I couldn't remember a single thing from any of the morning's classes, either.
"Ugghhh..."
A groan slipped out before I could stop it.
After school. The class president had asked me to spare a little time after school.
What exactly was she going to do to me once I went to find her? Would men in black suits from some shadowy government agency show up, like in the movies, and shove a flashing pen in my face? And if not that—was she planning to rummage through my brain with magic and turn me into an idiot?
"...Nah. She wouldn't, right?"
Magical girl or not, she wouldn't do that to a classmate. Maybe I needed to make it clear I didn't want to get involved with magical girls. Then she'd probably just wipe yesterday's memories and that would be the end of it... right?
"..."
I had no idea. I'd have to know something about magical girls in the first place to even guess. Until now I hadn't cared at all—so what was I supposed to do?
I'd kept searching things like "magical girl identity" and "what happens if you find out a magical girl's identity," and not a single result told me how any of it actually turned out. I was starting to wonder if the stress was going to make my hair fall out, sitting there filling my stomach with water from a plastic bottle, when—
A piercing, high-frequency wail tore through the school—the same ear-splitting tone I'd heard on the way home yesterday.
"Oh, hell...!"
I scrambled out of my chair and ran for the shelter inside the school. There were no insect-like things with ominously clacking mouths this time, and none of the ones with too many legs. I told myself that was a relief, rounded a corner into a long hallway, and was about to throw myself forward when—
"Kyahahahaha!!!"
Even from a distance, that booming laugh was clearly not human.
"Kyaaaa!!!"
Girls' screams echoed from the hallway that led to the cafeteria—students who'd run into the monster, collapsed on the floor. And standing in front of them with both arms spread, blocking the way, was—
"...Class president?"
Her face was set with resolve. She had planted herself in the path so the creature couldn't come any closer.
No—her transformation—
The thought snagged, and what she'd told me so earnestly yesterday rose up all at once.
"...Shit."
Too many eyes. That was the problem!
"Krhhh! Human!! Kill!!!"
"..."
The class president flinched at those words, but she held her ground. Then, with the monster still between us, her eyes found mine across the distance. She held the look for a moment, then jerked her chin toward the hallway on the far side—telling me to get to the shelter first.
I stared at her, and a deep, ugly indecision took hold.
I could run. Right now, I could. But the class president? Who was supposed to save her? Other magical girls who'd show up later? No. That would be too late. Anything could happen in the meantime.
"...Tch."
I clicked my tongue, stepped back, and grabbed a chalkboard eraser sitting on the windowsill.
And then—
Thwack!
"Ungh?"
"Hey, you son of a bitch!"
"S-Siwoo!?"
The monster turned, the back of its head caked in chalk dust. Green fluid kept dripping from the corners of its mouth, and looking at that, I finally understood why the girls had been screaming.
"Let's throw down!"
The words had barely left my mouth before the monster twitched its neck and took a step toward me. The instant I saw that, I spun around and sprinted down the hallway. Behind me, I could feel it—shrieking, crashing after me, closing in.
"Hah... hah...!"
How many minutes had I been running? I reached a far corner of the annex, well away from the main building, and leaned against the wall, dragging in ragged breaths.
It had chased me the whole way, but the annex was full of junk and fairly large. On top of that, I was hiding in a small storage room at the very end of the annex hallway—the farthest point from the entrance. There was no way it would find me in one—
KWAANG!
"Kyahahaha! There you are!!!"
The locked door exploded into splinters, and the monster came in with heavy, unhurried footsteps.
"You got on my nerves. As payment, I shall eat you very, very painfully!"
As it spoke, that disgusting green liquid spilled from its mouth all over again. Another step. Another. Until it was right in front of me, looking down, licking its lips.
Just when I thought this was the end—
"Stop right there!"
From far down the hallway, the class president's bright, ringing voice cut through the air.
"Ungh...?"
The monster turned.
"Class president...!"
"What? You wench! You planning to interrupt my mealtime?!"
"Thank you, Siwoo. You lured it all the way here on purpose, didn't you? Somewhere with no people."
She dipped her head in a small bow, then settled into the same stance as yesterday.
"...Here I go!"
So fast her uniform snapped in the air, she brought her clenched left fist up to her shoulder, her face set with resolve.
"Innocent Heart!"
⟨ Transform ⟩
She shouted her magical girl name loud enough to shake the hallway, and threw her right hand high.
Brilliant light flooded the corridor. A cold wind howled over the threshold and tore through the room. Pink particles gathered and wrapped themselves over her uniform, weaving a fluttering dress and ribbons into being. Her round glasses had vanished without a sound, and her eyes had turned a brilliant, keen pink.
"You... were a magical girl!!!"
"...Heart."
She aimed her wand at the monster at once, gathering motes of light in front of her the same way she had yesterday.
...Wait. This pattern. This was yesterday's—
Shining Buster
KRA-BOOOOM!
"GYAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
"GYAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
I screamed right along with the monster and hurled myself sideways. In the same instant, the creature standing before my eyes was swallowed by the beam and evaporated without a trace.
"Siwoo! Are you okay!?"
She had already dropped the transformation. She came to me, dropping to one knee beside where I'd collapsed.
...Class president. Was this what she'd wanted to do to me after school...?
Thud.
"Siwoo!!!"
This is why I can't stand magical girls...