I Became a Magical Girl Who Draws Attention (4)
"Hey..."
I didn't answer. I cut across the night sky, flying toward the harbor visible in the far distance. Ren hung from my shoulder and tried to get a few words in, but quickly shut his mouth. Before long, I landed on the rooftop of a tall building in the heart of downtown.
"Hah. Thanks to you, I just wasted an entire day."
"Ahem."
A cool wind rolling in off the sea washed over me, as if to bleed the heat from my body. That was when Ren, who'd been watching my face, inched closer.
"Since things have already gone this far, I'll just say it."
"Say what."
"We're fucked."
No sugarcoating, no beating around the bush — Ren really put it that way. The break from his usual tone told me he meant every word.
"How do you figure."
"I... won't blame you. That bitch Retina was right. This is my fault. First, let me lay out the reality of the situation. You're a loose cannon, but you're not an idiot. Right?"
His voice was grave from start to finish. My expression hardened, and I dropped to the floor. Ren nearly had a stroke at the sight of me in a short skirt, sitting cross-legged with my legs splayed wide. I didn't care.
"Go on. I'm listening."
"The mascot you attacked, Retina, and the magical girl Keyni — they belong to Candy Storm Co., Ltd."
What a name. I snorted and nodded.
"Candy Storm is our competitor here in Korea and across East Asia — rivals of Lana Land. Though 'competitor' is putting it mildly. They're a bigger mid-sized company than we are."
"So?"
"There might be retaliation. Company-level retaliation is forbidden, of course, but you're a different story."
"That was my personal action. I don't particularly need the company's help."
I drove the point home with finality. Taking help from these people would only hand them more of my weaknesses.
"But they're an organization. You can't beat them alone!"
"...Ren. And here I thought you knew me better than anyone."
I flashed a grin at Ren as he shouted in a panic. Even though he was a plush mascot, I could practically see the look on his face.
"You think I can't win? Me?"
My crimson eyes flashed. He shook his head before he even realized he was doing it.
"Just who... are you?"
"How disappointing, mascot. I'm just a magical girl."
I snorted at the trembling murmur. The wind was growing colder. I unfastened the uniform from my shoulders and pulled it over myself. Looks like I was sleeping here tonight.
"A magical girl, sleeping on the street. Give me a break."
I'd have to think of another way to get a place to live.
"So. What are you planning to do now?"
"What do you think! First, I'm cleaning up the trash that dared lay a hand on this royal body of mine!"
The next morning, I woke to the building superintendent unlocking the rooftop door and screaming at the sight of me — and launched straight into the sky. Shadows spilled from my uniform and unfurled into enormous wings.
I ignored everything else and tore through the clouds like a bullet, locked on my destination: the orphanage run by the lunatics who had taken me, a poor lost child, and sold me off to a foreign trafficking ring.
The crime of daring to deceive the Demon King, to insult her, to attempt to defile her. As the representative and sovereign of the Demon Realm, I could not let it stand.
"U-uwaaaagh!"
"It's a magical girl!!"
I slammed down onto the orphanage playground without a hint of deceleration, the impact booming across the grounds like a thunderclap. They had no shortage of guilty consciences. The moment they laid eyes on me, they panicked and started having fits.
"Wai—"
"I didn't do anyth—"
No questions. I had no patience to waste on trash. I took the heads of the two staff members who'd tried to run. The blood they sprayed glittered in the sunlight.
"Ahh. Long time no see, Ms. Park? What's it been, two days?"
"U-uwaaa..."
"Isn't that a shame? The walls and barbed wire you put up to keep the kids from running — they're locking you in now."
"P-please, spare me... I-I didn't do anything wrong!"
A woman yanked from among the fleeing staff by my shadows screamed and burst into tears. I hung Ms. Park upside down by the ankle a shadow tentacle had seized, bringing her to eye level. She had no idea what was happening. Tears and snot streaming, she grovelled until her hands might as well have been her feet.
"Didn't do anything wrong? I find that hard to believe."
I smirked, pulled off my uniform cap, and shoved my face right up to hers.
"Who stuck a needle in me, then?"
"Ah..?"
That was when she recognized me. Her eyes went round. And at the same instant, blood sprayed in a dark burst.
Blood.
Something so familiar. Something so delicious.
I seized both her ankles with my shadows, tore her clean in half, and tossed the corpse aside like so much garbage.
"Don't you think that's a bit much?!"
"Regulations."
That single word shut Ren up. In practice, a magical girl's "judgment" was entirely at their own discretion. Most of them were non-lethal — handing people over to the police or beating them up was as far as it went. Of course, I had the Demon Realm mindset drilled into me — leaving someone alive is just asking for trouble — so I made sure to finish the job thoroughly.
"There are children here!"
"I know. That's why I sealed everything so they can't see and can't come out."
"Guh..."
"S-stay back! If you come any closer, the kids— ghk..."
Even after I went inside, more trash kept crawling out of the woodwork. The ones who used the kids as an excuse, I gutted. The one who took a child hostage, I put a hole through his skull.
"Hey. Go inside. Wipe off the blood."
"U-uuh..."
I sent the child who'd been splattered with the fallen hostage-taker's blood into a room. The shock would be severe, but I'd spared them — they could handle the rest themselves.
My senses registered only one left. I smashed through a nearby window with my body and shot straight into the sky.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Eek!"
A roar, then a crash. I dropped from the sky and stopped the accelerating vehicle with my body. My feet slid back a fraction against the ground — and at the same instant, a fat sow of a woman came tumbling out through the crumpled windshield. I sent a shadow to snatch her from the air, fur coat and all.
"Director. The magnificent director who took in poor children and sold them."
"Please, please!"
"Why the frightened face? If you're going to gamble, you should've been ready to lose. Who ever promised you a smooth ride?"
"H-hwaaa..."
I bound her in shadows, brought that terrified face right up to mine, and grinned. The expression of a human whose mind had shattered under absolute terror. Maybe it was the hundred years I'd lived as a demon. I found that ruined face so very, very pleasing.
"Don't worry. I'll kill you quickly. In return, it'll hurt that much more. Every bone in your body, snapping one joint at a time."
"Ghk..."
Grinning, I smashed my fist into her face. Teeth rained down with the blood — a gold one among them.
"Gnnnngh!!"
Then I slowly tightened the shadows coiled around her and began crushing the bones in her body. It almost felt too humane a method of execution, but then, this one hadn't actually laid a hand on me.
"Stop! That's far enough, magical girl!"
But then police who'd raced over from a distance piled out of their cars and had me surrounded before I knew it.
"Release that person immediately and stand down! I don't know the reason, but surely you've already earned enough merit as it is!"
The one who looked like their ranking officer was roaring into a megaphone. The rest of the officers had their guns trained on me, every face drawn tight with tension.
"We are the police of the Republic of Korea, and the woman you are holding is a citizen of the Republic of Korea. Judgment belongs to the laws of this nation!! Take your hands off her, now!!!"
I furrowed my brow. Yelling their heads off, grating on my ears. Annoying as hell. But it was true that by regulation, a magical girl couldn't touch a civilian who wasn't guilty. And setting aside whether those cops themselves were truly "innocent," I didn't want this getting any bigger.
"If you have a grievance, negotiate with this country's government through official channels. Murder is not permitted, period. Do not ignore the law!"
The officer with the side-parted hair was shouting himself hoarse. Now that I looked, he seemed genuinely desperate. Was this fat sow really someone that valuable?
No. Absolutely not.
"Hey — why not just hand her over to them? You've already pulled all the merit you're going to get."
Ren tapped at my ankle, whispering.
"Please, let her go... You're still young. Don't stain your own hands with any more blood. Just don't kill. Please."
His appeal had turned raw, almost pleading. That was when I finally understood what he was after. Having someone worry about me with that kind of genuine feeling was pretty novel, and I was grateful, but—
"No!!!"
I crushed the director then and there, bursting her. Right before their eyes, I squeezed her tighter and tighter, wringing the blood out in streams, reduced her to a lump of meat past all recognition, and dropped her onto the ground with a wet thud.
"The law?"
I snorted.
Every horrified face turned toward me. I wasn't lying. Even now, wearing the shell of a magical girl, I was still the Demon King. A being who must not be weaker than anyone. If I lose, the Demon Realm loses.
"You're a real arrogant brat, aren't you?"
And that was when someone appeared behind me.
"Ah, Aria."
"You know her?"
Ren recognized her this time as well. I was a little surprised. The first reason was that she, whose personal color was a vivid crimson, already had a rather mature figure — well past adolescence.
"Mind if I have a word with you, senior?"
The second was the fact that she was considerably strong. The strongest opponent I had encountered since arriving here.
"I was just following regulations."
"I'm sure you were. But listen, kid — before we're magical girls, we're also members of this society."
She furrowed her brow and glared at me. Her vestment was no cute dress, no elegant gown — a tank top, short shorts, a sharply cut set of abs, and knuckled gloves on her hands. A fighter's outfit, through and through.
"Awfully sure of yourself, aren't you, senior. Well then — I do hope you manage not to piss yourself."
I smirked and stirred my power. I didn't particularly want to fight, but I don't walk away from a fight that comes to me.