Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Shining
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“Hurk! Hwaaaaahk!!”
Honestly, I've wanted to ride Ruffy ever since a while back. But wanting to ride it didn't mean I wanted to dangle from its mouth, you know?
Anyway, right now I was being hauled through the skies over Yeouido like a piece of luggage clamped in Ruffy's jaws.
Before I knew it, the people below looked like tiny dots. Can't Magical Girls fly? Yeah, we can fly!
But my mana reserves are still too low, so I can't stay airborne for long. And flying on my own terms is totally different from being forced to fly like this!
After dragging me around like luggage for a good while, scaling the side of the broadcasting station, Ruffy finally spat me out in front of a certain waiting room door.
“...I'm alive.”
My butt was throbbing. And my skirt hem was soaked with the Magical Beast's saliva to boot. I wonder if the dry cleaners could even handle this...
I straightened out my clothes and looked up.
Just as I figured. It was Shining's waiting room.
Creeeak.
As I pushed the door open, a playful voice drifted from inside.
“The delivery arrived faster than I expected?”
Delivery my foot.
I huffed and puffed my way inside, where a girl with dazzling blonde hair and a flashy stage outfit sat with her legs crossed. Shining was right there.
“Are you mad by any chance?”
“...A little! No, a lot!”
“Heh heh heh. Sorry, sorry. I should've come to greet you myself, but I was stuck with rehearsal. I told Ruffy to bring you politely instead.”
She reached out her hand, and the house-sized tiger shrank down like a cat before nuzzling its cheek against her palm.
I wanted to debate just where the “polite” part was in all that, but Shining nodded and cut me off first.
“But you're super light, huh? Ruffy said it felt like it was carrying a feather.”
“I-Is that so...”
Then you could've just let me ride on its back nicely. Why carry me in its mouth the whole way?
“You gotta eat lots with the money I gave you and grow big and strong, right?”
She giggled mischievously.
The charismatic leader image from TV was nowhere to be seen—just a smile full of playful mischief.
Her broadcast concept was supposed to be sleek, aloof cool beauty. But for some reason, around me she was a total little devil.
Is this Shining's true face?
Is this her red pill? Of course, I'd have to peel back another layer to know for sure.
Though if we're comparing, my red pill's even worse.
Who am I to judge whom?
I decided to drop my musings on red pills. Keeping each other's trade secrets is just good business etiquette.
Looking around, the waiting room was empty. She'd probably cleared everyone out to talk to me alone.
Right. We were basically strangers, weren't we? She was treating me so casually I almost thought we were friends.
I timidly offered a greeting.
“Um! Thanks for the IP you gave me last time, and... for helping me out this time too!”
I'd asked the other veterans, and apparently when I headed to Magic Castle over my labor exploitation issue, she was at the forefront. She helped shove that 150 million IP my way.
I bowed deeply in a navel-bender of a greeting, but Shining waved it off.
“Hee hee. No need for formalities. IP's something I have in spades, so don't worry about it. I don't even have a use for it anyway.”
“Oh! And thanks for the advice on the Magical Beast egg too. I was surprised when you told me to come all the way here.”
“When a junior's in trouble, it's the senior's job to help. Right?”
She pulled an orange juice bottle from the nearby mini-fridge and handed it to me.
The label showed it was organic cold-pressed juice from the department store food hall. Figures an idol would drink something this pricey.
Gulp gulp.
Wow, this is delicious.
I'd never tasted orange juice this rich and ripe before.
As I beamed with satisfaction, she approached with an intrigued look on her face.
Pinch.
“Eeeeng.”
“Oh my, look at this skin. Just like glutinous rice cake.”
“Hweeze...”
She stretched my cheek looong.
It felt just like turning into a slime. Didn't hurt, but it was a weird sensation.
Shining kneaded my cheek like modeling clay to her heart's content before finally letting go.
“Ah, get a hold of yourself. That's not why I called you here, is it?”
“Eeeee...”
“It's in there, right? Wanna take it out and show me?”
I rubbed my stinging cheek and pulled the incubator out of the shopping bag, setting it on the table.
“Whoa, an incubator! It's been ages since I've seen one. You made this at school?”
“Y-Yes.”
“You know what 'crude' means, right?”
“...”
I know I suck at making them.
I'm good at drawing but hopeless at carving and cutting. My hands shrank too, so even Bronze beat me at it.
“Anyway, it's fascinating. Back when I first contracted, I put my egg in an incubator too.”
“Really?”
“I stopped once I realized it was useless.”
“...I see.”
So putting it in the incubator was pointless after all. Was she deliberately beating around the bush to tease me?
Shining examined the egg from every angle, then looked up at me with a strange expression.
“Neph. Did any other seniors give you an artifact to speed up hatching?”
“...No?”
All the artifacts I got were just for self-defense. If I'd had something like that, I'd have used it ages ago.
“Really? Hmm...”
The corner of Shining's mouth curved up slyly. Like she'd figured something out.
“Someone applied saliva to it, huh?”
“Saliva?”
“Ahaha! Nothing for you to worry about, Neph. Just a figure of speech.”
They say there are two ways to piss someone off. The first is trailing off mid-sentence, and the second is...
“Anyway, you were right. It'll hatch soon.”
“How soon?”
Honestly, the egg had been twitching so much in the taxi that I was on edge thinking it might hatch right there. Guess that wasn't the case after all.
I should've raised a Magical Beast before to know.
“Hmm... about five days?”
“It takes that long? It was shaking like crazy though.”
Five days. Long if long, short if short.
But given how it had been fidgeting nonstop just moments ago, it seemed ready to crack open and cry out any second.
Shining answered my question with a wry smile.
“You know this, Neph? That animals and Magical Beasts alike mostly die during the hatching process.”
“They die...?”
“Mm. Too harsh? But that's just how it is. If the owner doesn't care for them diligently, they won't even be born.”
Shining's explanation went like this.
Unlike regular animals that grow from the mother's warmth and nutrients, Magical Beasts feed mainly on their owner's mana during hatching.
In that process, they memorize the owner's wavelength, imprint on it, and form a healthy body.
In short, you have to water the egg with mana regularly, like a potted plant.
“No food means starvation, whether it's an egg or a person.”
“Uh... I haven't given it any recently...”
“It's fine. That's part of why I called you here.”
Was the Magical Beast starving while I neglected it? I felt kinda bad. Poor thing, stuck with an ignorant owner.
“Here, give me your hand.”
Shining pulled a chair up in front of me and sat down.
“To make sure it hatches healthy, you need to pump it full of mana from now on. I'll teach you how to channel mana.”
I obediently held out both hands.
Shining clasped my small hands between hers and positioned the egg in the middle.
My hands at the bottom, egg on top, Shining's hands sandwiching it all.
“Close your eyes and focus on the sensation coming from my hands.”
I did as told and shut my eyes. Moments later, a warm, heavy energy flowed into the back of my hands.
Vrrr.
It felt like hot water running through my veins. The manifestation of mana.
The mana flowed from Shining's hands to mine, then seeped through my fingertips into the eggshell.
Oh.
Amazing. I could feel my mana being sucked into the egg like juice through a straw.
This was mana infusion, huh? Fancy name for it—really it was more like blood donation. This tiny egg was guzzling my precious mana.
But it didn't feel bad at all. In fact, every time mana drained out, the egg vibrated faintly, emitting pleasant waves.
Like a fussy baby finally quieting down with a bottle?
“Feel it? The mana flowing out.”
“Yes. It's kinda ticklish.”
“Remember that sensation. Feed mana to any other Magical Beasts the same way from now on.”
Shining slowly withdrew her hands.
Now, even without her help, I could control and channel mana to the egg on my own.
I finally opened my eyes and looked down at the egg.
The thing that wouldn't stop twitching just before was now quietly soaking up warmth in my palm.
“That's good enough. We're done for today.”
“Thank you! Can I take it now?”
“Yeah, take it. But...”
Shining narrowed her eyes as she added,
“You know this won't end with just once, right?”
“...Huh?”
“I said five days. Starting tomorrow, come to the broadcasting station every day until it hatches. I'll make time in my schedule whenever I can.”
“E-Every day?”
“Yup. Every day.”
She flashed a bright smile.
No room for refusal in those eyes.
So she wanted me dragged here daily by Ruffy's jaws? Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
“If it's too hard... I could take the egg back?”
“No! I'll come!”
Maybe because I'd pumped it full of mana once.
It felt like my own baby now. Abandon it at this point? No way.
“Good girl.”
“Eeee.”
Shining pinched my cheek again.
“Um... could you maybe not send Ruffy...? Or at least let me ride on its back...”
“Huh? Nah, Ruffy hates that.”
“Eek.”
Her eyes curved slyly again.
Surely she wasn't just tossing out whatever because she thought I couldn't understand Magical Beasts.
Just you wait.
In that contact with Shining just now, I'd read her mana wavelength. Meaning I could now wear her costume too.
Wearing her costume might let me understand Magical Beast language. If Ruffy says otherwise, it's game over for you.
That was when it happened.
Knock knock.
“Shining! Standby, five minutes! You need to put on your mic!”
A staffer's urgent voice came from outside the door.
Come to think of it, this was a broadcasting station, Shining was Korea's top idol, and Music Bank recording was about to start. Oops.
She stuck out her tongue.
“Oopsie. Time flew by.”
“Wh-What about me?”
“Hmm... Truth is, calling you here was supposed to be a secret. If my manager finds out, I'm in trouble.”
“?”
She called me whenever she wanted, but leaving is a secret? This woman was really toying with me.
“Can't go out the door. Staff's swarming outside.”
“Th-Then where do I go?”
I looked up at the air vent.
Might be able to squeeze through, but honestly, it didn't appeal.
“Over there.”
Shining's finger pointed to a massive floor-to-ceiling window on one side of the waiting room.
A high floor overlooking Yeouido at a glance. The glass looked thick, like bulletproof.
Gulp.
I can't resist breaking windows.
A weird habit since becoming a Magical Girl. Spot an intact window and I just wanna smash it and charge out.
But my dilemma didn't last. Shining reached into the air again.
Swoosh.
Blue haze rose, and house-sized Ruffy popped out again.
It wagged its tail, smacking its lips.
No way... again?
I instinctively backed away. But hunches like that always hit the mark.
Shining patted Ruffy's butt with an innocent smile.
“See you tomorrow, Neph.”
Ang.
Ruffy chomped down on my skirt hem without hesitation. That all-too-familiar grip.
Crash!!
Ruffy smashed straight through the window and launched into the sky. Amid the shower of glass shards like rain, my scream echoed over Yeouido.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!”
From the broken window frame, Shining's cheerful hum rode the wind.
“♪”