Magical Girl (2)
"A cult, huh."
Park Jong-cheol, the deputy, gave me a slightly skeptical look after hearing my words. This was the Foundation's base camp. It used to be a PC bang, but the Foundation had temporarily taken it over. All sorts of electronic equipment was scattered around, and Foundation staff came and went constantly. In the middle of this chaotic atmosphere, I was chatting with Park Jong-cheol.
"Resolver, are you sure it's really cult members?"
"Y-yeah, probably... I think so...."
"It's true the cult had a presence in Suwon, so the timeline fits, but how did you know, Resolver?"
"That's a trade secret...."
I couldn't exactly say, You know that fox that eats nightmares I took down last time? She's on my side now! She told me! So I had to brush it off vaguely. Park Jong-cheol didn't drop his suspicious gaze, but he nodded.
"Understood. I'll assign a few people to check it out for now."
Results built authority. Come to think of it, how many incidents had I resolved so far? The One Person Factory Manager was before I became a resolver, but Park Jong-cheol probably knew about it. Kunekune, Fox Possession, the evil spirit that showed up at Nao's house, and Hotel the Lamento were all publicly credited to me. The unreported ones were Palcheok Ghost and Assimilation, but he knew about those too. With seven incidents under my belt, he couldn't just dismiss my words lightly.
"If it's really cult members, it could be dangerous. Why don't you monitor with us here, Resolver?"
"Yeah, sure.... I'll do that. By the way, something that's been bugging me—where's Harin?"
"We didn't bring Ryu Harin. It's too risky to throw a newbie into a Rank 5 threat."
Fair enough. If Ryu Harin had been here, she'd have been the first to die. Better that she wasn't. I settled in to watch the monitors. Foundation staff had set up cameras and started tailing the man Yeoul mentioned, discreetly. The man on camera headed into increasingly deserted areas. And what we saw—
Was cultists melting down.
[Oh, stay back! Just kill me already! Aaaah!]
Screams echoed nonstop from the camera feed. Did turning into slime make them lose their minds? We glimpsed slimes—former fellow cultists—attacking one. A cultist tripped while fleeing. Slimes piled onto his head, shoulders, arms, legs, chest, crushing him. With a final scream, he melted into thick black goo, merging with the slimes.
Ugh....
"That's gross...."
For some people, this was worse than a snuff film.
Magical girl stories. Originally aimed at little girls, but as subculture expanded, they started targeting guys too. Then a dark, heavy one became a massive hit. When one work succeeds big, knockoffs flood the market. That's how we got a wave of brutal magical girl tales—death games, grimdark breakdowns, murder mysteries, you name it. Lately, the gore had toned down, but it hadn't vanished.
So Magical Girl's Birth was a freak anomaly blending classic magical girl tropes with hardcore horror. Maybe the monster game devs ripped off Reverse Company for it.
"Assemble all staff! We can't let this spread to civilians!"
Park Jong-cheol bellowed beside me. The already hectic base camp grew louder. Radios crackled everywhere as staff scrambled. For a second, I thought I should step up, but I shook my head.
Only magical girls can harm kaijin spawned by Magical Girl's Birth.
When a kaijin is sighted, a magical girl always appears at that location.
Me going to the scene wouldn't help much. The Foundation could handle crowd control fine on their own, and no one here could take down a kaijin anyway. Plus, a magical girl would show up soon enough.
[That's far enough!]
And quicker than I'd expected, the magical girl appeared. Frilly skirt swishing. Flashy gem tiara on her head, magic wand in hand. She looked like she was cosplaying as she soared through the sky.
[Suwon's guardian magical girl, Prism Lumina, has arrived! In the name of justice, I shall judge you!]
The magical girl landed with flair. Slimes charged from all sides. She swung her magic stick like a baseball bat.
[Magical Strike!]
Whoosh! Indescribable colors exploded, shattering slimes on contact. The slime kaijin groaned low.
──Don't interfere.
Its arm stretched like taffy, whipping at her like a lash. The magical girl dodged flawlessly, dipping low, then closed the gap in a flash. She raised her magic stick high, slamming it down like a hammer.
[Finisher! Magical Slaaaash!]
Whoosh! More bizarre colors burst out. The kaijin's head exploded, fragments flying everywhere. The impact cratered the asphalt below. Seeing the dead kaijin's remains, the magical girl clicked her tongue, realizing something.
[Cops already? Time to bail!]
Mistaking the approaching Foundation and Special Task Force for police, she crouched to leap.
Whoosh!
She rocketed into the sky, leaving cracks in the pavement—some serious leg strength. A hidden Foundation agent spoke in a daze.
[Deputy, what now...?]
"Can you track her?"
[Not sure, but we'll try...]
Of course, that wasn't happening.
At first, the corner seemed to twitch faintly. So subtle I thought I'd imagined it. Fixing my gaze, I saw antennae wriggling.
Scritch-scratch.
Scritch-scratch.
It moved slowly with the sound. Two undulating antennae. Round, dark exoskeleton. Six legs unfolding. No doubt—a cockroach.
One cockroach emerged. Then a second, third, fourth. They spilled from the ceiling too, plopping to the floor. Piling into hills. The hills wriggled.
[Heh heh... Growing. Keep growing...]
Muttering amid the cockroaches was a bigger one—bipedal, unlike the rest. Cockroach kaijin, plain as day.
[In a week, I could cover this city in roaches. A month, the whole world. Heh heh... Earth is ours now...!]
[Think so?! Magical Strike!]
Boom!
The wall exploded as the magical girl burst in.
[A magical girl...! I was powering up, and you dare interrupt?!]
Cockroaches surged like a wave. She thrust her magic stick forward; light gathered at the tip, firing as a heat ray.
[Magical Beaaaam!]
Kaboom!
The destruction beam incinerated roaches and pierced the kaijin. Cockroach bits scattered like embers amid growing flames—and the footage cut there.
The staffer replaying the CCTV said, "That's where it ends."
"Got it. What happened after?"
"It nearly spread into a fire. Staff on scene contained it quick—aside from the collapsed wall and floor, no major damage."
And Suwon probably had even more roaches now, he added. From the citizens' perspective, that might be the real issue. Park Jong-cheol sighed deeply after hearing it all.
"And the magical girl chase failed. Again."
His eyes held irritation, but resignation to the inevitable. I stayed quiet too.
Since the slime kaijin incident, magical girls had popped up several times. More precisely, wherever kaijin appeared, so did a magical girl.
...And they always slipped away.
By the time Foundation staff arrived, she'd already beaten the kaijin and bounced. Even rare encounters ended with her escaping if she tried. We kept failing to track her.
"But unnie, why chase this magical girl anyway?"
Nao, watching CCTV with me, whispered.
"Kaijin get taken out by her every time, right? No one else can do it. Can't we just let her protect Suwon?"
"It's the other way around, Nao."
"Huh?"
"Kaijin aren't spawning first, making her show up. She's existing, so kaijin keep popping up."
"What?!"
Nao blinked. Park Jong-cheol, overhearing, nodded.
"Resolver's right. This anomaly has happened three times before, but it stopped once."
He pulled up files.
Japan's second magical girl, Pretty Princess, was revealed as a middle schooler. After two years of activity, she quit for high school entrance exams, and kaijin sightings ceased.
Like heroes in wartime, magical girls weren't needed in peace. So Magical Girl's Birth kept them going—as long as she wanted to play hero, it supplied kaijin.
"We'd love to leave it, but every kaijin causes some damage. No casualties beyond cultists yet, but it escalates. ...Eventually, giant kaiju show up."
Park Jong-cheol grimaced. Power creep was inevitable in any series. Sure enough, Magical Girl's Birth spawned stronger, riskier kaijin, hard to hide from civilians. A giant kaiju would mean mass memory wipes and info ops.
"Um... so the only way is to take out the magical girl? N-not kill her for real, just curious...."
"Assassination's impossible. It backfires."
"Backfires?"
"America's third magical girl—kill attempts failed. Then two giant kaiju appeared, turning the area to rubble in the fight."
Park Jong-cheol sighed at Nao's question. Even isolating her didn't work; magical power wrecked facilities. His helpless gaze turned to me.
"Any ideas, Resolver?"
"Hmm...."
I shrugged involuntarily. An anomaly sustaining her magical girl life. Killing her? Off the table. Chasing? Tough. Persuading her to quit was best, but she mistook staff for cops and bolted. Was there a way to resolve this?
I've watched for days, but no clue how to end it.
A Cute Girl Mod punch? Might work if she was the core, but not for cases like Baesena or Hotel the Lamento. Needed more clues. Maybe tackle side issues? ID her identity. Curb kaijin power creep. Prevent casualties upfront.
Hm...?
"Mayuri-nim? What's up?"
Lisa tilted her head as I stared.
"Lisa."
"Yes, Mayuri-nim."
"Wanna become a kaijin?"
"Pardon?"
Lisa blinked, confused. A few days later, I ended up in an evil mad scientist costume.