A Perfect Virgin
"It's because I became a magical girl. That's why my tastes changed."
"That's not what you said. You definitely said your tastes changed because you became a woman."
"You must've misheard."
Suspicion sat so thick on Eve's face it might as well have been painted there. A cold sweat slid down Yeonwoo's spine.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"You. Drop the transformation. Right now."
She's got a stubborn streak, this one. Had Eve always been like this? Not that Yeonwoo could remember. Maybe her personality had shifted a little.
"This already is me without the transformation. Stop talking nonsense. Boss, one bottle of soju over here!"
"We don't sell booze here."
Ah. Right. This was a tteokbokki place. Now what?
Then, as if heaven itself had taken pity on her, the phone went off at the most impeccable timing imaginable.
"Oh, it's Dusick. Eve, give me a second. I gotta take this."
"Unni, where are you right now?"
"I'm out with Eve for a bit. What's up?"
"Kabe's crying her eyes out saying she wants to sleep with Mom, but Unni isn't in the room."
Come to think of it, she could hear Kabe wailing through the receiver.
"Oh, uh, yeah? Got it. I'll be right there. Wait — Dusick. You like tteokbokki?"
"Tteokbokki? Of course I do. What kind of high school girl doesn't like tteokbokki?"
"Right. Got it."
Even so, she couldn't just walk out on a plate of tteokbokki she'd only managed to eat a single rice cake from.
"Eve, let's go. Kabe's crying."
"Fine..."
Yeonwoo had the leftovers packed in a flash, then grabbed Eve — who was still staring at her with those thoroughly unconvinced eyes — and dragged her back to the hotel.
Because I became a woman... was it?
Eve sat alone with her thoughts in the Association President's office, on the top floor of the Association building.
She had left the hotel with a quick goodbye, saying she was heading out while Mother put Kabe to bed — and then, instead of going home, she had come here.
It wasn't that anything in particular had been bothering her. But that one line of Mother's had snagged in her mind and refused to let go.
An ordinary person would have heard "because I became a magical girl," figured they'd misheard, and moved on. Eve, however, was a magical girl who transformed from a man into a woman. She knew better than anyone that a man "becoming" a woman was not some impossibility.
Dusick, for that matter, was a magical girl who transformed from a woman into a man. So no — this was not an impossible thing.
And if Mother was the same type... if, for some reason, she had "become" a woman from a man first, and only then become a magical girl...
Eve reached under the desk and pressed a button.
At the same instant, a light flared just beneath the lightning rod at the very peak of the Association building.
About ten minutes later, a knock sounded against the outward-facing window of the thirty-sixth floor.
Eve didn't even turn around.
"Come in."
A girl in a deep navy outfit that could have passed for a kunoichi's appeared before Eve's desk and dropped into a full prostration.
"You got here fast."
The girl lifted her head just enough to look at Eve.
"Speed of this caliber is a commonplace incid—"
Eve's face scrunched. The girl hastily corrected course.
"Speed of this caliber is quite ordinary. Immediate response to the Association President's summons is my sacred duty."
"Can you stop with that weird — I mean... that thing where you mix Japanese and English?"
Even Eve's irritated tone was not enough to make the girl yield on this particular point.
"However, Association President, such speech is the language engraved upon we ninjas' very souls. It is not something one can simply refrain from."
"You're Korean!"
A brief commotion followed. Eve clutched her throbbing head, then handed Yoran a file from the desk.
"This is...?"
"Someone named Yoo Yeonwoo. She registered her identity through our Association not long ago. So what I need you to do from here on is—"
Do I really need to go this far?
Eve hesitated. She watched Nanwha Yoran standing directly across from her, flipping through the file — and then she made up her mind.
"A background check. I want you to investigate that woman's identity. Leave nothing out."
"Yorokon... I mean, understood. However, an investigation of that thoroughness will be quite expensive."
"I don't care. Spend whatever it takes. Find out everything you can. Got it?"
"Results-oriented."
"Go."
Alone again in the emptied office, Eve sat with the question of whether she was doing the right thing — whether she was digging up something that would have been better left buried.
But she had already started. There was no taking it back.
"The press conference and the live broadcast — day after tomorrow work for you?"
"You're actually doing that?"
"It's about time we did."
Eve hadn't brought up the slip of the tongue again after that. A small mercy, except that in its place a mountain called a broadcast now stood squarely in Yeonwoo's path.
Isn't there any way to get out of this?
Showing her face was fine. It wasn't as if she was ugly — she was pretty. No reason to wrap herself up and hide. But her pronunciation in the last broadcast had left such a scar that just hearing the word "broadcast" made her want to run.
"We'll prepare the whole script on our end. A press conference is just fielding some questions from reporters, and if you get one you don't want to answer, tell them to get lost. You're the villain anyway. Even if they write a nasty article, what's it going to do to you?"
"You really do talk like it's someone else's problem. You know how annoying that is, right?"
This was only her second time inside the Magical Girl Association building. The first had been for a meeting. Today she was here because she and Eve had things to discuss.
They rode the Association President's private elevator straight to the top floor, and when the doors opened, the space beyond was so vast Yeonwoo wondered if someone had built a sports field up here.
It had to be magically treated. With every step she took, the scenery on either side shifted — an ocean, then a dense forest, then a valley, then a desert. It was the kind of display that existed solely to demonstrate just how far money could go.
"We're getting rid of all this."
"What?"
The things she'd been standing there admiring — they were tearing it all down? Wasn't that a waste?
"We need the space for you people to move in."
A twinge of guilt crept in. Maybe they were causing more trouble than she'd realized.
"It wasn't that expensive. Nothing to be sentimental about. Anyway, come on."
The Association President's office beyond that was even more impressive. If you took about three of the hotel family suites Yeonwoo was currently staying in and shoved them together, you might get something close to this. A desk sat in the center, and the entire wall behind it was a single pane of glass.
"Bet it gets hot in here."
"This is nothing. Want a drink?"
"Give me a cola."
She sat on the sofa, and a cola appeared in front of her. Nice and cold.
"Anyway, picking up from what we were saying in the elevator."
Eve sat down across from her and went on.
"Don't worry too much about the broadcast. We'll handle all the prep. Just think of it as showing your face."
Easier said than done. She was already feeling the pressure. Shouldn't an evil organization stay in the shadows and then strike all at once? Wouldn't that be cooler?
"Fine. I'll do it. It's not like I'd make the same mistake twice, right?"
"Yeah. And... the day after the broadcast. The twenty-eighth floor — you remember it?"
"That's the floor we had the meeting on."
"Yeah. Let's run a combat simulation there. You should get a feel for things beforehand. How many Mains do you have right now?"
"Twenty-four."
"A bit low. The production unit's getting installed late this month, so you can mass-produce them then. For this simulation, we'll work with the twenty-four. Have them all come here that day. There's a freight elevator — you can send them all up at once."
A freight elevator.
"Hey, those kids are like my own children. A freight elevator? That's a little much, don't you think?"
"Is it? Have you thought about what would happen if magical girls and Mains got in the same elevator?"
Oh. Right.
"Got it. So from now on, freight elevator is the default for my kids?"
"That's the idea. I'd appreciate it if you could live with that much inconvenience."
Eve had a point. She needed to make money and go independent, fast.
"And about the actual combat."
"Yeah."
"Frilly's taking command. She's grinding her teeth about how she absolutely won't lose this time."
She already lost once. Just accept it. The type who couldn't admit defeat, huh. Kind of pathetic, honestly.
"Doesn't matter to me."
"It does matter. You need to learn how to actually fight. How long do you think you can get by on Rocket Punch and nothing else?"
Eve was right about that too.
"Keru's more of a desk worker, so he's not really in a position to teach you this kind of thing. That's why I'm assigning Karin to you for a while."
Even after hearing the name, Yeonwoo couldn't remember who Karin was. She just sat there with a blank look on her face, and Eve let out a long sigh.
"My side — the heroes' guardian. He's with the Light Realm Administrative Bureau. He's a field agent, so he's got a ton of combat experience. I'll have him come to the hotel with you today so you can pick up some of the basics."
"Got it. Thanks."
"Karin, you can come out now. I know you've been there the whole time."
"Alright."
A pale blue portal opened behind Eve's back. And the creature that stepped out of it — presumably Karin — made Yeonwoo's jaw drop.
A horse.
A white horse.
A bit shorter than Kabe, and honestly looking far too small to actually ride. A gleaming golden mane. And a long, wickedly sharp golden horn sprouting from its forehead.
"...Is that a unicorn?"
"Let's see. So you're Moth— no. Good heavens. Good heavens, this can't be!"
The horse looked at her, and its eyes went perfectly round. Something even more astonishing than a cat making a facial expression was unfolding right in front of her.
The horse — Karin — suddenly charged over and started circling her. When a startled Yeonwoo half-stood from her seat, he came up close, sniffed her several times, and even started jabbing her in the rear with his horn.
"Karin, what are you doing?!"
A panicked Eve rushed in and tried to peel the unicorn off, but Karin stayed rooted to the spot, eyes locked on Yeonwoo, as if his hooves had been nailed to the floor.
"Good heavens. Good heavens, this can't be. In all my five thousand years as a unicorn..."
That's a long time to live. Are they a long-lived species? Wait — this thing was a real animal that actually existed?
This is a complete disaster. What the hell.