Awakening
With a laugh that shook the air itself, Grimoire waved her arms and leaped back into the darkness, vanishing from sight.
What remained was nothing but shattered concrete rubble and twisted rebar. Scattered broken furniture and sharp glass shards jutting from the ground like thorns. And standing atop the mountain of destruction, two magical girls facing each other— one of them a former magical girl, and both of them former Demon King Army executives.
“Harin…?”
Two friends locked in mutual desperation and despair.
“…No way. That can’t be. Wh-what is this…”
Yoo Seoyeon stared at Lee Harin with wide, trembling eyes. Then she cautiously took one step forward. She couldn’t believe her eyes up close. Not yet.
A certain day.
A friend who disappeared from school suddenly reappeared— and was ruined.
She had thought it possible.
She had seen enough to know how one accident could upend a person’s entire life.
A certain day.
A Demon King Army executive had slaughtered people.
She hadn’t believed it at first. But she had seen it face-to-face. It hadn’t harmed her. And every time they met afterward, the executive would deliberately avoid or dodge her.
So Yoo Seoyeon had changed her mind. Of course, she never thought the executive was sympathizing with the Demon King Army or glorifying its past. If it ever decided to go back to slaughtering people, she would report it to the Association immediately.
A certain day.
One magical girl vanished.
She had thought it possible.
They were all fighting on a hopeless battlefield, risking their lives.
And because a magical girl’s identity stayed secret until they chose to reveal it, there was no way to confirm the news or rumors she heard. She could only pray— and hope they were still alive— after hearing about disappearances, deaths, or retirements.
But why hadn’t she realized it until now?
A magical girl disappeared. Her friend vanished. A Demon King Army executive who didn’t harm people appeared. The missing friend returned— and was completely twisted in personality.
“Stay back.”
Lee Harin warned in a sharp voice.
With a wet, squelching sound, chunks of concrete fell from the body of the staggering figure that rose. Grasping her wounds, Harin lifted her head and looked at Seoyeon.
For a moment, Seoyeon thought: Is this really reality, not a dream?
Then she steeled herself and aimed the tip of her magic wand carefully at Harin.
“Stop!!!”
With both arms spread wide, Jung Siwoo blocked the way. Seoyeon froze, her expression twisting in shock.
“Siwoo-ya…! Why are you stopping me from… from that Demon King Army executive…!”
“No, it’s not like that…!”
Siwoo tried to reason with her, but Seoyeon kept her wand pointed at Harin.
“Say something! Say something, too…!”
“Hmph.”
Even after Siwoo’s words, Harin clicked her tongue in irritation and looked away toward the distant horizon.
“You… you must have been brainwashed by that executive, right, Siwoo-ya?!”
“No, it’s not like that at all…!”
“Tch. That’s why idealistic magical girls like you…!”
“Just stay calm for a second…!”
Short, fragmented words sliced through the air in an instant.
And the long, oppressive silence that followed.
The one who shattered that silence was Yoo Seoyeon’s clear voice, spoken carefully.
“…Harin. Are you really… you?”
She still couldn’t believe it.
Rather, she feared that her own mind had been tampered with and she was trapped in a nightmare.
So she scanned her mind and soul, wrapped mana around her body, and purified herself.
Only now did the unbelievable truth she had been facing directly become clear.
Harin had been a Demon King Army executive.
At the same time, she was her friend, Siwoo’s friend, and a former magical girl.
“…Yeah. It’s me.”
“W-why…?”
Even when asked why, Harin shouted in a nervous voice.
“…I didn’t want this either.”
The answer that followed was a horrifying lump of resignation and despair.
“I was captured and brainwashed. And I became an executive… I didn’t want this either…!”
“Then… right now…?”
“T-the moment I saw Siwoo… the brainwashing came undone… I don’t know why…”
Every word made Harin’s voice tremble more.
Every word made a knife twist in Seoyeon’s chest.
“Ah…”
She understood.
Why Harin had disappeared.
Why Harin had become so twisted.
Why the executive who slaughtered civilians had spared only Siwoo, then changed her attitude afterward.
Why the executive who appeared on the third floor of the school had been wearing Harin’s windbreaker.
Why Harin was living with Siwoo.
Every piece of the puzzle had clicked into place.
While I was living my ordinary life without knowing anything, Harin had been alone, enduring all this hell.
If I had realized it even a little sooner… how much weight she must have been carrying on those small shoulders.
That regret surged like a wave, and without realizing it, she let out one word.
“If only you’d told me…”
If you had, I could have helped sooner.
I could have turned that despair around faster.
The regret passed, and another word slipped out unintentionally.
“Why didn’t you tell me…?”
But once spoken, words cannot be unsaid.
And they were enough to unhinge Harin’s mind.
“If you had told me, it would have been different…? You were pointing that magic wand at me earlier, even thinking I was lying…!”
Her red eyes flashed. Mana surged through her body.
Harin flinched, clutching her head with both hands and shielding her face.
Don’t look.
Can you really understand my ugly self?
“I… I’m the same on the outside… pretending to understand while no one can…”
She muttered again and again.
Without pause, she poured out despair and whispered endless resentment.
“You’re all the same. You too.”
Harin’s red eyes suddenly shrank to tiny slits, and a faint, unrecognizing smile crept onto her lips.
And then—
“Break Up.”
—KWA-AAAANG!
The word whispered like a curse sent her body into another transformation.
She wore a dark purple suit, her purple eyes blazing, purple hair whipping in the wind.
But there was one difference from before: she had unzipped the windbreaker.
As if hiding it was pointless. As if she was saying, look at this horrifying form properly.
Despair had reached Seoyeon’s heart too.
“…”
—KWA-AAAAAK…
The hand gripping the magic wand tightened.
Seoyeon steeled herself and opened her mouth.
“Siwoo, step back.”
The moment the words left her lips, Harin slipped into even wilder madness, curling her body in laughter.
Like someone clutching their stomach and howling.
“Yeah, that’s right… You’ll never understand me… So that’s why you’re telling me to step back. Right?”
“…Harin.”
“K-kuk…! Yeah, that’s it. I’ve twisted everything. I can’t go back anymore.”
So.
Twisted and turned into something that could never return.
It’s better to let me be the only one miserable.
Rather, just give up everything.
And become free, right?
“…Yeah.”
The one who shattered that momentary thought was Seoyeon, nodding quietly and giving an affirmative answer.
“You’re twisted, Harin. I’m a magical girl, and you’re a Demon King Army executive. And I have the duty to protect people.”
“Yeah, I knew it. You all… you’re all the same…”
“But!”
Seoyeon shouted.
“That doesn’t mean I’m right!”
Harin tilted her head, unable to understand such words.
“I… I’m still immature too! I can’t understand your wounded self. Until just now I was avoiding reality… rationalizing myself. I even broke orders. I asked someone for favors for personal reasons.”
“…What?”
What was she even talking about?
She could have cut through such words with power alone.
“But that’s not really bad, is it!”
Seoyeon raised her voice again.
“People… everyone’s a little twisted! I make mistakes, I make selfish requests… No one can live perfectly!”
—PARK!
Pink lightning and flames flickered from her magic wand.
“So we live relying on each other. Sometimes we cry, sometimes we get angry, sometimes we regret. But the one thing that’s certain…”
—PARK-JIK!
“…Everyone laughs together when we laugh.”
Once more, pink lightning rose from the tip of the magic wand and vanished.
She needed strength.
A hand that could reach out courageously together with Harin.
A sword that could cut through the despair rooted deep inside Harin’s heart.
“By living somehow or other, we reveal each other’s twisted parts and keep moving in search of hope.”
“What nonsense…”
“So I—”
Seoyeon raised her magic wand.
But the tip was not pointed at Harin.
It was aimed at the sky.
Like a knight tightening his grip on his sword when he raises it in solemn salute.
And—
“I’ll accept your twisted self and my own twisted self!”
—PARK, PARK-JIK, JIK-JIK!
Pink electricity surged from the wand’s tip, wrapping her arm and spreading across her entire body.
Her magic wand, which had only ever protected others until now, was not enough to save a friend drowning in despair.
She needed new power— a power that could cut through the pitch-black darkness and willingly take her hand.
If she did that, surely…!
The electricity spreading through her right hand gradually took shape, then began to form a solid metal gauntlet.
At the same time—
—KIIIIING!
“…Sword?”
A silver blade of light erupted from the tip of the magic wand.
Sunlight filtering through clouds and dust bathed the gleaming blade and gauntlet.
A flower named hope, blooming in despair.
“Even if you truly fall and despair, wanting to end everything. Even if no one can be trusted anymore.”
A solemn vow cut through the air.
“I will stay by your side to the end and become your hope.”
—SLING.
Seoyeon straightened her posture.
“…Don’t give up, Harin. I’ll cry with you and regret with you from the side. …So.”
Holding the sword.
To save someone.
“Bite down hard.”