Don't Use Your Left Hand
The click of heels rang through the building. A girl in a pink frilly dress strode toward us as we stood frozen in place, her chest thrust out with pride.
Is that what happens when you stick your chest out...?
I tried thrusting my own chest out. Hmm. Yeah, that was just a difference in base size.
The girl's brow furrowed slightly. She'd caught my gaze landing on her chest, then watched me puff out my own.
"Hey, Keru."
"Uh, y-yeah..."
Keru, who'd been hiding behind me, fluttered forward looking thoroughly deflated.
Why is he so cowed? Come to think of it, this girl looked vaguely familiar.
Where have I seen her?
"Aren't you going to introduce us? I thought you were all dead, but I hear you found yourselves a new boss. Who is it? This one?"
Her gaze landed on me. There was something dismissive in those eyes that really rubbed me the wrong way. They swept over my chest, and she clicked her tongue.
"This is her transformation form?"
"Y-yeah. Say hello. This is Magical Girl Precu—"
Ah. Her name wasn't Precure. It was Precue.
"Hey, Keru. It's not just your fur that's pitch-black, is it? Your brain's the same color."
The girl smacked Keru across the back of the head. There was a sharp crack, and Keru, who'd been hovering in midair, lurched so hard I thought he was going to drop.
What the hell is this girl's problem? Is she insane? Who does she think she is, pulling this on someone else's home turf?
I was thoroughly pissed. The girl didn't so much as glance at my glare, jabbing her finger at Keru over and over.
"Since when does a superior introduce themselves first? You're supposed to introduce your boss first."
"W-well, yeah, but... she's the boss of Mogumogu-dan..."
"Ohhh, so you're feeling pretty comfortable now, is that it? Got something to lean on, do you?"
"No, no! It's not like that! I'm sorry. This is the new boss of Mogumogu-dan, Mother."
"What? Mother?"
The moment she heard my alias, the girl's cheeks puffed out with a snort, and then she doubled over clutching her stomach. What was so funny about the name Mother? Even so, laughing like that right in front of someone...
"I'm Mother. A pleasure."
"This is... like I said, Magical Girl Precue... She's with the Magical Girl Association, Gwangmyeong branch. Strike Team 2..."
"No, hang on, this is—"
Another sharp crack as Precue cracked Keru across the back of the head again. This time he actually hit the floor. There was a thud, then a groan, and Keru wobbled back into the air looking thoroughly pathetic.
"Hey, I've been captain of Strike Team 2 for how long now? You didn't even know that?"
"Sorry, I'm sorry!"
I'd been watching this quietly, but my blood was starting to boil. I might not know much, but I was the boss, and she was beating my mascot like he was hers to slap around. That did not sit well with me.
"Excuse me, Miss Precue?"
"What?"
"That's my mascot. Hitting him like that right in front of me doesn't seem very polite."
"What? Polite?"
Precue kicked me in the shin. There was a metallic clang, like she'd just booted a steel plate. I didn't feel a thing — but Precue's face went scarlet, and her lips started trembling.
"Hey, what the hell are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"That didn't hurt?"
It didn't. It really, truly didn't. There'd been a sensation of contact, nothing more. All I had covering my shin was a boot, and I still felt zero pain.
"Hey. I'm the captain of Strike Team 2, and I just kicked you like that, and you're saying it didn't hurt?"
"It didn't hurt, so I'm saying it didn't hurt."
"Hah. What even are you?"
"What about me?"
"Hey, Keru. What the hell is this girl?"
Precue's hand went for the back of Keru's head again. To my eyes, it looked catchable. It even looked slow, like a video playing in slow motion.
"Stop hitting him."
It was so obvious I barely had to try. I snatched her wrist out of the air.
"Hah, would you look at that. You caught it? So you actually think you're a boss, huh? I came by to size up the new boss, and it turns out you've got a little fight in you?"
Precue's face was flushing red and purple, broadcasting her anger for all to see. Like she was the only one who was pissed? I was pissed too.
"Keru is my mascot. I don't even hit him. Who are you to keep smacking him around?"
Precue let out a short, incredulous laugh and stepped right up into my face. Pale pink eyes stared up at me.
Even as a woman, I was pretty tall. About half a head taller than most girls, putting me around five-eight. The fact that I had to look down at her even a little meant Precue was on the short side.
Unfortunately for Precue, who'd clearly wanted to press in close and radiate some kind of intimidation, she couldn't take another step. My chest was in the way.
"Hey."
"It's not 'hey.' I have a name. Mother."
"Oh, you're really asking for it."
Precue's face was completely crumpled. Her finger jabbed into the center of my forehead, over and over. She was trying to shove me back. Honestly, even my patience had a limit.
"Hey."
"'Hey'? Who do you think you're talking to like that?"
"You started it."
How was I supposed to not be angry? Seriously? She barges in, smashes the door, slaps my mascot upside the head twice, openly disrespects the head of an organization, and now she's picking a fight.
"I kept telling myself it's our first meeting, just let it go, just let it go — but I can't. Hey, is this how a magical girl is supposed to act?"
"Hey, does Mogumogu-dan even deserve respect?"
"And you do?"
"Hah."
I was the one who wanted to laugh. She starts the fight, and now what? Was she kidding me?
"Hey, Mother or Mothball or whatever you are. Like you said, it's our first meeting, so I was trying to keep this verbal and civil. But you? You're done."
A sparkling piro-rong~ chimed through the air. I had no idea where it was coming from. Auto-play? Background music? Either way, a thoroughly magical-girl sound effect rang out, and a magic wand materialized in her hand.
The wand was... kind of long, though.
The moment Precue drew her weapon, Dusick and the rest of the crew around me pulled their own and formed a ring around me.
"Everyone, stand down."
"Mother, it's dangerous. Precue is famous even among the Strike Teams for her physical attack power."
"I said stand down, Dusick. I'm your boss."
I still didn't know how to do anything. But if I just hid behind my subordinates, I'd never live it down. I did have one thing going for me, though. That kick of hers earlier? I hadn't felt a thing.
"You think that little tap earlier means you've got a shot? Let's see how you feel after this!"
Magical Strength
Pale pink light bloomed from the wand in a thick cascade of effects. Did I have a weapon or something? No — I hadn't had anything since I transformed. Was this glove on my left hand supposed to be a weapon? I'm right-hande—
"Don't look away!"
⟨ Magical Smashing ⟩
The wand came flying at me. So this was what a physical-type magical girl looked like. The attack was fast enough to whistle through the air — but unfortunately for her, I saw all of it.
I sidestepped, just a little. If the glove was a weapon, this was going to be a brawl. I closed the distance, clenched my left fist, and—
⟨ Magical Reverse Smashing ⟩
What a cheesy name. I clenched my left fist and squeezed. My coat flared, and the left hand it'd been covering came into view.
Black energy was writhing off it in chaotic wisps.
"What the hell is that?!"
The bizarre sight of black energy rising off my hand like heat haze had me splitting my attention between staring at it and dodging attacks. I was losing my mind. I could see Keru shouting something off to the side, but none of it reached my ears. Trying to do three things at once was way beyond my multitasking ability — ah!
"Are you just going to keep dodging?!"
The wand stretched and shrank, chasing me as I weaved this way and that, swinging at me again and again. Just dodging wasn't going to cut it. Ah, screw it.
It was a staff, right? If I got in close, I'd get a chance to land a hit. I slipped in.
"You thought if you got in close, you'd get a chance to land a hit because my weapon's a staff?!"
How did she know that?!
The wand shortened down to the size of a baton and came rushing at me as I crouched. Fine, whatever — I'd just take the hit. I threw my left fist straight forward.
Something against my fist gave way with a snapping sensation. And the fist kept going. My eyes never left Precue. The punch sank in a little further, then brushed against something soft.
Precue folded nearly in half, almost a hundred and eighty degrees. Then she went flying backward, sailing through the smashed-open doorway with nothing left to stop her, and slammed into the ground outside in a thick cloud of dust.
A moment later, a clink — the broken magic wand hit the floor and rolled.
As for me, all I'd done was take one big step forward and throw a single punch. And even that had been a sloppy swing from someone who'd never hit another person in her life.
The whole thing was so far beyond anyone's expectations that I, Keru, Dusick, and the rest of the crew all just stood there in silence, staring at the dust billowing up.
"M-Mother. What... what did you just do?"
Keru was the first to move. I was still standing there like an idiot, staring at the crater Precue had made.
"No, I... I just gave her a little tap..."
I lifted my left hand and looked at it again. The black energy was already fading, slowly. It kept dwindling until, all at once, it slipped into the rivets set into the back of the glove and vanished.
"Mother."
"Yeah."
"Ah... got it..."