Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Pluto (4)
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Magical girls can be perverts.
Magical girls can be shut-ins.
Magical girls can be crazy bitches who kidnap their juniors, dress them in weird outfits, and force them to watch gore.
'Huh? They can't?'
It's a matter of taste, so let's respect it.
But.
You can't ignore a monster showing up.
I won't tolerate dereliction of duty like that. The magical girls I admired weren't like that.
"Hnggg... So cuuute... That costume... Way better than the one I put on you..."
Pluto writhed her body, her face in ecstasy.
Does this woman not grasp the situation, or does she just not want to do it?
"I'll say it one more time. Pluto senior. Let's go take down the monster."
"......Nooo."
"Senior."
"Even if I go out... People hate me anyway. My magic is dull, scary, and gross... Even if I save them, they'll just curse me out, so why bother..."
"That's enough."
I raised my hand to cut her off.
I get it. She has her reasons. She has trauma. I can roughly guess the world has been harsh on her, twisting her up.
But not right now.
"Stop whining. If one more excuse comes out of that mouth from now on, I won't treat you like a senior anymore."
"......"
"Get out of the way."
I grabbed my bag and headed for the door.
Then a chill surged up behind me.
"What if... I stop Neph from going?"
Pluto's voice dropped low.
"Are you gonna fight me or something?"
Woooong.
Space warped.
Dark purple mana rose like a haze, filling the room. The high-density mana stung my skin and choked my breath.
On Bella's level. No, maybe even more in pure mana quantity. As expected, the veterans are in a different class.
Fight a monster like that? Puhaha!
'With mana like this, and you won't fight the monster?'
It only made me angrier. If it were me, I'd have beheaded the monster and grabbed some fried chicken by now.
But what mattered to me right now wasn't how strong Pluto was.
I didn't stop walking, grabbed the doorknob, and said without looking back.
"Why would I have to fight you, senior?"
"......Huh?"
"A magical girl's enemy isn't another magical girl. Nor is it a coward who shirks her duty as one and runs away. A magical girl's enemy is."
My enemy is.
"The monster outside."
So there's no reason to fight. Mana waste, time waste, emotional waste—triple crown.
"If you're gonna block me with force, senior, go ahead."
I turned the knob and threw out my last words.
Gaslighting with gaslighting.
Obsession with indifference.
The ultimate poison for this crazy bitch.
"But."
I only glanced back at Pluto.
"From now on, I'll never speak a word to you for the rest of my life."
"......?"
"I won't even make eye contact. If you're in front of me, I'll treat you like you're invisible. I'll return any gifts you send, and I won't watch anime, novels, or comics with you anymore."
In that instant, the mana filling the room vanished like a lie.
"......Huh?"
The bravado from moments ago was gone, leaving only the voice of a ditzy fool.
Pluto's pupils shook like there was an earthquake.
"In... invisible?"
"Yes. I'll treat you like you don't exist."
"N-not even talk to me?"
"Yes."
"Not even look at me?"
"Yes."
"A-anime too...?"
"Yes."
I turned the doorknob for the kill shot.
"Then, I'm off. Pluto."
"W-wait! Wait a sec!!"
Grab.
Pluto crawled across the floor and clung to my leg.
"Why are you doing this, Pluto?"
"I was wrong! I did wrong! Don't go! Don't ignore me!"
She clung, tears streaming like chicken shit.
"I'll do whatever you say! If you tell me to go out, I will! If you say fight, I'll fight! I won't order chicken if you say not to!"
No, we need the chicken.
"P-please, just don't treat me like I'm invisible!"
My hunch was right. For these love-starved types, indifference is scarier than hate.
Attention-seekers crave it even if it's negative, but erasing their existence entirely?
Especially from someone they like? Her glass mentality couldn't handle that.
I sighed deeply and looked down at her.
"Hng... Sniff."
To think this is the reality of the veteran magical girl I admired. The future of the magical girl industry is bleak.
'Compared to this, Bella and Frost seem like saints...'
She said she'd fight if told to. But Ha-rin was already disappointed in her.
The noble dark magical girl Pluto in my heart just died.
I held the funeral in my head, and now before me was just a crazy bitch suffering from affection deprivation.
Take someone like this to fight monsters? Bullshit.
"Just stay out of it. You're in the way."
Ha-rin is going. Pluto stays here.
"Move."
I headed straight for the front door but paused.
'Hold on.'
Crash!
I can't resist breaking a window.
Octopuses are incredibly intelligent creatures.
Their intelligence rivals that of dogs or cats; they can use tools and even solve problems.
In that sense, the C-rank monster, Octopus Prince, ranked quite high in intelligence among other C-rank monsters.
He perfectly understood the social meaning of the word "this sucks."
Yes. The order from his executive, Seika, was truly awful.
'Search for new magical girls around here and nearby.'
'......The radius is too wide, octopus?'
'Ah, so chatty. Just search if I tell you to. What good are eight octopus legs for? Split them east, west, south, north.'
She's clearly insane.
Telling him to search a 10km radius in vast Seoul?
And right now is special enforcement period. Because that mad dog Ulbr launched a small ball, magical girls are hunting monsters with fire in their eyes.
Wandering around in this climate? It's like advertising "please fry me to a crisp."
'Damn it, octopus.'
Once more, Octopus Prince was clever.
Clever means knowing how to cut corners.
So he wandered the streets in camouflage, just killing time until he could clock out.
Monsters can basically embody the habits of their motif creature.
Not on Ulbr's level, but camouflage makes them invisible to humans and gives some resistance to mana detection.
Of course, you can't attack in camouflage, so it's useless for ambushes.
As Octopus Prince slithered through Hongdae streets, something snagged his senses.
'......Huh?'
A very small, cute trace of mana.
These days, magical girl mana is so intense that anything below C-rank faints or gets ejected to the Backside World just being near it.
But this was different. Fresh and faint, like a newly sprouted bud.
Obvious at a glance.
'Rookie magical girl, octopus.'
Clever Octopus Prince's mind spun quickly.
Make a little ruckus here to lure out Neph, pretend to clash a bit, snap a proof shot, send to Seika, then flee.
'Good.'
He immediately dropped camouflage and materialized.
Boom!
He casually dented a parked car to announce his presence.
"Kyaaah!"
"Run! Octopus! Giant octopus!"
"M-monster! Call a magical girl!"
That instant.
Crash!
A building window shattered, and the awaited protagonist appeared.
'Bingo!'
Octopus Prince inwardly cheered. Just as planned. Now spit some threatening lines...
But at that moment, his body reacted before his will.
Instinctual fear etched deep in the monster's DNA. Hives broke out to his tentacle tips at the sight of a magical girl.
"Magical Girl Punch!"
Neph's fist slammed into Octopus Prince's face through the gap.
Thwack!
"Kyaak, octopus!"
Octopus Prince screamed and jerked his head back.
He'd seen it many times. Other monsters' upper bodies vanishing from one punch.
Now when he opens his eyes, he'll just be Prince...
'Huh?'
His neck was fine. Surprisingly.
'What? I can take it?'
Before he could question it, Neph landed and bellowed loud enough for everyone around to hear.
"Ma-gi-cal Gir-l Ne-ph is he-re!"
What was that desperate self-promo?
Neph stretched her hand into the air without catching her breath.
"Druruk!"
A heavy sewing machine dropped from empty air.
'Crazy.'
Magical girls have gone all the way now. A sewing machine as a weapon? Ah, screw it... we're done!
But the real terror came next.
"Dress Code! Type: Bella!"
Whoosh!
With flames enveloping Neph's body, a red dress appeared, turning Octopus Prince's face pale.
"Eek?! Bella?!"
That's Magical Girl Bella's costume. The mana pouring out matches Bella's exactly.
Previous gen octopus monsters, the one before, even the one before that—all burned to takoyaki by Bella. Damn, she killed so many.
Anyway, trauma switch flipped, Octopus Prince hesitated and backed away.
'She's gonna burn my hide!'
Octopus Prince squeezed his eyes shut.
"Fall!"
Druruk! Drurruk!
The sewing machine went berserk stitching. Flame-laced needles and thread rained like machine guns.
Boom boom! Boom!
Chain explosions erupted over Octopus Prince's body.
"Kyaak, octopus!"
Octopus Prince screamed and rolled on the ground.
This is it. I'll end as crispy takoyaki here.
But.
'......Huh?'
Octopus Prince cracked his eyes open.
Checking his smoking legs, they were just slightly singed. That was all.
'......Why doesn't it hurt?'
It stings. It's hot.
But that's it. No torn flesh, no broken bones, no charring.
He blankly looked up at Neph.
Neph looked equally baffled, glancing between her sewing machine and him.
Both with "Huh? This isn't right?" faces.
'Tch.'
Doable?
No, more than doable. This is...
'Cute?'
Not the appearance, of course. Monster and human aesthetics differ.
But the situation was cute. Like kids play-fighting, right?
No overwhelming fear, no desperate power gap—just bickering. How long since something like this?
In that moment, the cold monster blood in Octopus Prince's chest began to boil.
What is an octopus monster's identity?
Tentacles.
Back in the day, when magical girls and monsters were evenly matched, octopus monsters were terror itself to them.
Why? In magical girl genres, tentacles mean defeat flag and humiliation symbol.
Slippery slime, eerie movements, overwhelming genre superiority binding them helpless.
With that, they retired countless magical girls and shattered innocence—that's the glorious history of the octopus clan.
But the last decade-plus, tentacles were mere ornaments for octopus monsters. They couldn't extend them.
Extend, and Bella burns them, Sword slices them, Aurora zaps them—how could they bind anything?
But this rookie magical girl?
Swish!
One cautious tentacle wrapped around Neph's waist.
"......Huh?"
Neph looked down at her waist in confusion.
The tentacle neither sliced nor burned. Neph didn't even react properly.
A thrill ran through Octopus Prince's brain.
'It works?'
The legendary tales of his ancestors were recreating at his tentacle tips.
"Kuhahaha!"
Confidence surging, Octopus Prince fired his remaining seven legs.
Whoosh whoosh!
"Eek?!"
Neph swung her sewing machine in resistance, but it wasn't enough.
Flames flickered but only singed the surface, failing to pierce his tough hide.
In seconds, her arms were bound, legs tied, torso squeezed.
Neph's body floated into the air.
"L-let me go!"
Neph struggled.
But the more she did, the slimier tentacles delved stickier into her whole body.
'Ahh.'
Octopus Prince shuddered at the thrilling pleasure coursing through him.
This is what a monster is.