Runaway Girl (2)
"Hmm. I'm not sensing any particularly great malice. Of course, even this much still counts as pretty decent-quality Merit."
"You've gotten spoiled."
I tossed the remark at Ren, who was muttering to himself in front of the building, and headed inside with Kim Su-jeong.
It was an ordinary private investigator's office, and there was nothing worth looking at. This was just one of their outposts; the real headquarters would be somewhere else. The problem was, I had no particular desire to dig that far.
"We got the goods. Now get lost."
The one who collected the drugs we'd brought was some young bald guy. That was really the end of the delivery. In a way, Kim Su-jeong hadn't been wrong when she'd said it was easy.
"Nothing to it, right?"
"Yeah. Let's head back."
I smirked and led her back the way we'd come. I memorized everything.
And tonight, they would all die by my hand.
"You're... not gonna sleep?!"
"I'll be in later. Go to sleep."
"If you come in late and wake me up, I'm gonna be mad!"
"That won't happen."
It was bedtime. I left a horrified Kim Su-jeong behind and stepped outside.
The wind was cold. Compared to the glittering skyscrapers far in the distance, the back alleys of this seedy, run-down neighborhood looked bleak and desolate.
"Not that it's any of my business."
I pressed the Connector.
Transformation Sequence
Magical Girl — Takilas
With a flutter of fabric, my outfit changed in an instant, and my hair grew long.
"Waaagh!"
I grabbed Ren by the scruff of the neck and shot into the sky. Facing the fierce wind actually felt a little better.
I locked onto my destination and flew there in one go. I found myself rubbing my right cheek. Superhuman regeneration had already healed it completely.
But remnants of the feeling still lingered in my heart. If I wanted to work this out of my system, it seemed I was going to have to play a little rough.
"Wait. Don't tell me you're keeping this speed and—HYAAAAAH!"
I dropped altitude and dove. Using Ren's scream as background music, I didn't slow down at all — I slammed straight in.
"Guh..."
"W-what the hell?!"
I didn't care who was in here. The bald guy from this afternoon. Kill him for certain, smash everything in this place, and I'd be done.
I smashed through the wall with the window and looked around at the people inside, all caught in the shockwave.
"A magical girl!!"
"Shit! Shoot!"
Bald guy: spotted. And these idiots, panicking, attacked first — handing me all the justification I needed.
"Hmm. I did rack up some Merit, but they were nothing but small fry. You really have to go after the main body for this kind of thing."
"...What a pain."
Police sirens were starting to wail outside, so it was about time I left. I crossed a floor soaked and pooling with sticky blood. Mangled corpses lay scattered in every direction. Ordinary gangsters, of course, had never stood a chance against my shadows.
"A safe? Now this is pretty nice."
"Wait, don't tell me you're—?!"
Something I'd been looking for just happened to be sitting right there. I slipped shadows into the lock, smashed the mechanism, and opened the door.
Inside: the drugs we'd delivered today, various documents, and bundles of cash, just as I'd expected...
"Ow, that stings."
"You idiot... How could a Magical Girl possibly steal?!"
The moment I touched the money, sparks flew. I could have ignored it if I'd wanted to, but that would have been a contract violation.
"What's the big deal about taking spoils? Murder's allowed, but this isn't?"
"Disposing of villains and a magical girl obtaining illicit gains are entirely different matters!"
"Don't make me laugh. You're just protecting your image."
I snorted and flew back out of the building. For now, I'd smashed one office belonging to the drug-trafficking gangsters.
Next up: time to deal with the insane Runaway Fam that dared to abuse children, and their drug mule.
I wasn't sure this was the kind of salvation anyone had been hoping for.
When the villa came into view, I smirked. Would Kim Su-jeong still be able to like me even after seeing the real me? Even I, who'd rolled through the Demon Realm, had taken a long time to get used to blood and death.
I poured out my shadows, wrapping the entire villa — then tore it open.
The target I'd chosen to rip off was, of course, the ceiling of our room on the top floor. Amid shrill, high-pitched screams, dirt and dust rained down from the tearing walls and ceiling.
"U-uwaah..."
"I heard there was a very bad villain here, so I came."
Holding the ceiling aloft with my shadows, I bared my teeth in a grin and approached the girls huddled together.
"I heard there was a stupid pig of a girl who couldn't even do her own job."
My red eyes gleamed. Thick killing intent — and the overwhelming terror it produced — crushed everyone present. The powerless weak had no way to escape that fear.
"N-no! P-please, spare me!"
I snagged the ankle of the pig girl who'd been hiding behind the others as a shield, and dragged her out with my shadows.
The stupid girl thrashed and wailed, making a complete scene. I hoisted her upside down in midair like a side of pork hanging in a butcher shop.
"Sorry, but no. A magical girl's purpose is to punish evil."
"Ahh..."
Something must have pricked her conscience, because the pig girl's face flooded with despair. I wasn't making this up. The reason I could even lay a hand on her was that, one way or another, she harbored evil the fairy company had recognized.
"I don't even know anymore..."
Of course, as Ren's sigh suggested, this kid's petty malice apparently didn't even count as Merit. People harbor malice inside them to begin with — most of them. Of course they do. The struggle to survive, instinct, desire — this society brands all of it as evil through law and morality, and tries to keep it under control.
"Still, an eye for an eye. If you were going to pick a fight first, you should've been ready to die."
"FUUUCK!"
Finally pushed to the brink, the pig girl thrashed wildly and started spitting curses.
"What did I even do wrong?! I just taught those retarded bitches a lesson, so why the hell is everyone only coming after me—AAAAGH!"
"Don't call me petty. I'm not in a position where I can just take a hit and let it slide."
I coated my hand in a blade of shadow and first sliced off one of her thrashing, sturdy arms. Blood sprayed as she screamed, but I sealed the wound with shadow and brought the blade to bear again.
At last, terror crept into those eyes so full of grievance.
That's right. That's how it should be. Keep showing me that face.
"Hic... ngh..."
"Kh."
Jeon So-hyun clamped her hands over Kim Su-jeong's eyes and squeezed her own shut.
A magical girl was a hero — a warrior of light who granted dreams and hope. But what stood before their eyes now was a horrific, pitch-black abyss itself.
"Don't listen. Don't look."
Jeon So-hyun made Kim Su-jeong cover her ears as well. Because she was covering the girl's eyes, she had to hear every last one of those horrific sounds and screams herself. The hellish sound of a human being filleted alive. Screams that had now dwindled to hoarse, wheezing gasps.
"Stop this right now!"
"Takilas! You're surrounded!"
Sirens and shouts rang from every direction. She clutched Kim Su-jeong tight, hoping someone would come save them soon.
Gunshots rang out now and then, but nothing changed. Tear gas canisters that were thrown got snatched by shadow tentacles and hurled right back, leaving only the police coughing and choking.
That's a catastrophe.
You couldn't stop it. You couldn't run from it. Like a typhoon or an earthquake, all you could do was wait for it to pass.
"Ah, she's already dead."
With a wet splat, a hunk of meat that had once been a person dropped into a thick pool of blood.
Only then did Jeon So-hyun crack her eyes open a sliver.
"Takilas!"
"You insolent little brat..."
That was when several magical girls sliced through the air and arrived on the scene.
"Oh, seniors?"
She — Takilas — smiled at them. Strangely enough, not a single drop of blood stained her body or her clothes.
"Why are you here? Are you lot cooperating with this country too?"
"Shut up! We're here to punish you for tarnishing the image of all magical girls!"
"What is this, eighth-grader syndrome? You're a middle schooler, right?"
"Grr!"
Talk was useless. The magical girls drew their respective Armaments and aimed them at her. Their real purpose, of course, was to check a powerful Merit competitor who had appeared like a comet.
But at the same time, Takilas unleashed her shadows, firing dozens of slashing strikes at the magical girls.
"KYAAAAH!"
"Sorry, but I've still got one more animal left to behead."
Unable to fully block the onslaught of blades, the magical girls were instantly neutralized. She swept past them and soared into the air.
"Catch her!"
Police gunfire poured down, but it had never worked on her to begin with.
"This is insane, seriously! All-time greatest! This is the greatest ever!"
"Keep making that racket and I'm dumping you here."
Ren, clinging to her body, shouted in utter exasperation, but she didn't even pretend to listen.
Found you. You idiot. You should've been running as far as you could.
Now fully accustomed to a magical girl's senses, Takilas detected a familiar malice. Someone scrambling down an alley, running away. It was Kim Gwanghun, who'd been approaching the villa without a clue.
"Hyaaah!"
She landed in front of him as he fled. His escape route was already blocked by shadows. In the narrow alley, the two of them faced each other alone.
"You know perfectly well why you're going to die, don't you?"
"W-wait! I'll talk! I'll tell you everyth—"
"Sorry, but I'm not even a little curious."
She swept her hand and took his head off then and there. Of course, if she'd squeezed him, information worth Merit would have come pouring out — but she didn't even want to hear it.
"Hah."
She was a little tired, and more than anything, thoroughly bored.
I can't live like this anymore. How is this any different from the Demon Realm?
She shook her head roughly and dropped the transformation in an instant. Hands shoved into her pants pockets, she slowly made her way back to the villa.
The whole area was already a chaotic wreck of her own making.