Between Despair and Hope 2
"What the hell is happening right now?"
The instant a blazing flash ignited, consuming her entire body in flames, my consciousness ground to a halt. Was it because I'd seen that brilliant blue light with my own eyes? Or because my prejudices shattered at the sight of a mere human radiating like a star? Taking in the azure glow unfolding before me felt as grueling as staring straight into the sun.
"Ugh…"
Only after the dazzling light faded could I gradually pry my eyes open.
"I am the magic girl Side."
Player 7 had shed her plain white T-shirt and donned a resplendent dress. Her starry eyes, like the night sky, and the star-shaped gem on her chest gleamed with radiant light.
"Magic… girl…?"
A real magic girl… who would've thought.
Just as I'd stripped off my leggings to reveal my futanari dick, Player 7 had disclosed her true identity. Magic girls on the side of justice? They were less than cigarette butts littering the streets—mere rumors. But now, faced with a sight straight out of urban legend, I couldn't deny it.
I can't see her clearly… What the hell? I can see her, but I can't picture her.
Those glowing eyes, that stern expression, the ornate dress. Yet I couldn't form a coherent image of the magic girl standing right in front of me in my mind.
The transformation didn't end with that explosive burst of light.
So that's why she asked if I was a magic girl—because she is one? But why ask at all?
Finally, a thread of the riddle unraveled. But the tangle remained.
"The mafia game is over. Your long night ends here."
Like a comet streaking in, the magic girl declared the game's finale.
"…Side, was it? What the hell is a magic girl doing in a shithole like this…"
I couldn't make out her face, but I could spit her name back at her just fine. That arrogant mouth, barging in and spouting whatever it pleased, grated on me as much as ever.
"To investigate Asmodeus. To uncover what they're doing by abducting outcasts."
Just as her outfit boldly exposed her waist and shoulders, the magic girl revealed her reason for infiltrating the arena without a hint of secrecy.
"So, any harvest by day five, magic girl, with just the one civilian left?"
"Yes. More than enough."
Even my barbed sarcasm got a crisp reply from Side. Her cool demeanor had sharpened further post-transformation.
"What Asmodeus wants is a vessel to harness our magic girls' power. And the vessel forged through this game is… Player 1. You."
Her finger, sealing her deduction, pierced straight through my chest.
"Asmodeus wants magic girl power? What does that have to do with a body like this and magic girls…"
A futanari dick, alleyway magic girls. It was all brand new to me. My brain couldn't keep up, like my first day at the office scrambling through training.
"I can see it. Flowing from within you. That ominous power growing with each passing night…"
Her eyes, probing my chest, grew keener. The clearer her gaze, the more her brows twisted in disgust.
"But even someone like you, and that sinister power, can differ based on how it's used. I'll place my hopes on that possibility."
She shifted her stance, extending a hand to me.
"What the hell are you playing at… You don't seriously want a handshake, do you?"
A citizen offering her hand to a mafia? It was beyond absurd now.
"Mind and Ppobopi could mend your corrupted mind. So come with me. We'll save everyone before this star falls into Asmodeus's grasp, Player 1."
The magic girl named Side tossed me a lifeline to rescue my wretched self.
"Hm…"
I eyed the hand she'd proffered. That palm, brimming only with goodwill, looked pale and pure.
Smack!
I whipped my hand like a lash, swatting away that useless pity.
"Why…?"
Rejected, Side glanced at her rebuffed palm, then at me.
"What do I get following you? Can you magic girls cough up prize money to cure my sister?"
"No, we don't have that kind of money."
I knew as a fellow office drone—magic girls didn't strike me as the diligent earning type.
"Then can you restore my body to normal?"
"Not unless you gain that sort of ability…"
"So you don't have it now. No power to cure any disease."
"Yes…"
Even if experts huddled around my sister's frozen heart from that long-ago evening, shining lights and wielding scalpels—what good would it do?
"Haha, you magic girl fans are something else. Who the hell are you gonna save with that level of power?"
"……"
In the end, street-corner legends were just rotten ropes that couldn't overturn crushing reality.
"Besides, how do you plan to escape Asmodeus? Unlike you, whose name I don't even know, the host already knows everything about me."
A megacorp wouldn't just watch me ruin the game and flee with a magic girl. The first example? Obviously my bedridden sister, Yumirae.
"There's no escaping reality anyway. Even without Asmodeus, it's the same…"
I repeated the bitter truth I knew all too well. No amount of struggling could shake off the chains binding my body.
"So wouldn't chasing this shady game's prize money beat trusting some magic girl bullshit?"
A tiny hope glimpsed from rock bottom felt more rational than pipe dreams.
"You truly believe Asmodeus, who turned you into that?"
Side stared at my elongated pillar, long enough it seemed impractical for street wandering.
"Of course. I even won the last game. Got half the prize money."
I couldn't forget the weight of that first 50 million won clutched in my hand.
"Half that prize money's probably by my sister's side right now."
To magic girls, Asmodeus might be infamous, but to me, it was a trustworthy megacorp. I wanted to believe that.
"Even if I can't return to my pre-game body, as long as I cure my sister… what's the point of taking your hand?"
Others might see it as grotesque, but that was fine. My resolve to save my sister stayed ironclad, dick or no dick.
"Plus… you're the one breaking the rules and ending the game on a whim. Why should I trust you'd keep any promises?"
To me, a mafia, this magic girl standing before me looked like a brat throwing a tantrum to dodge punishment.
A megacorp boldly proclaiming its name versus a masked freak. Which to trust was obvious.
"You won't join us, then."
"If you satisfy me more than the executors, who knows."
With my mind set, my dick—fused as one with my body—hardened right up. As this game's futanari mafia, I resumed the interrupted match.
"Haa…"
Side sighed deeply at my rigid futanari dick and our endless parallel lines.
"I can't just hand you over to Asmodeus like this. If I must, I'll take you by force."
Her face hardened with resolve as she glared at me. That hostile fist. Her lowered stance.
Boxing? Doesn't feel like a magic girl's first scrap.
Her feral eyes clashed with her seductive outfit, but the fighting spirit was real.
It's not just this magnificent dick. I want her magic girl pussy. Power surges through me…♡
After raping four in a row every night, I felt a massive wave unlike any before. Hormones or whatever—I was in peak condition.
"I've never lost a brawl since coming here either. Bring it, magic girl."
I took my stance, turning the final night's stage into our arena.
"S-s-sssh, s-s-ss…"
"What the fuck are you babbling? Speak properly, Snatcher."
Bisect snapped at his colleague's mangled speech, like he'd taken a blow to the head.
"I got clubbed with a golf club as your bullet sponge, and now you're the retard?"
The patient, bruised from zealous shielding, resented his ugly overseer in the infirmary.
"W-we're fucked! Totally fucked, half-cripple!!"
"…What? Fucked?"
The words finally crawled out between breaths, startling him.
"Fucked…? No way Yumina awakened!? Our painstaking futanari finally succeeded…! Kuhuhu, shame she's not here to see it."
A champagne-worthy breakthrough bloomed a grin across his ironclad face.
"No! A magic girl! A magic girl's in the game!"
"Magic girl? Impossible! How could those bitches infiltrate that deep underground…? Even a porter couldn't. Unless she's not a participant…"
His mouth raced at the intruder alert.
"…Not a participant? Snatcher, don't tell me…"
"Yeah, disguised as a player and snuck in… B-but you told me to hurry it up…"
"You snack-munching skull…! You should've done basic checks!"
Bam!
"…Ugh!"
Bisect bellowed at his colleague who'd left the door open to pests.
"A-anyway, what now?"
"Protect the subject at all costs! Yumina's survival is priority one! Use everything we've got to exterminate her!"
"B-but… the intruder magic girl is Side."
"Side…"
Her name hit like the chill of that scythe bisecting him—again.
"Damn it…!"
Bisect bolted for the arena, treatment be damned.