Protecting Neff (?)
The sky was dyed orange with sunset.
A squad of workers arrived in front of the wrecked Rexon Games headquarters.
"Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Hold that rebar straight, nyaang!"
"You're too slow plastering the cement, nyaang! Move it, faster, nyaang!"
They were mascots from the Magical Castle Life Management Bureau.
Their main job was restoring cities shattered after magical girls' fierce battles with monsters.
Using Prima's mana as their base, rebuilding a building like this was child's play for them.
If they put their minds to it, they could reconstruct an entire city in a week even if it got blown away. A half-collapsed building? Pfft.
Site commander Nikki, a cat beastman mascot, stood with arms crossed, twitching her whiskers.
'Heard nine A-ranks showed up, nyaang.'
For a clash like that, the damage was miraculously light.
'At this rate, we'll wrap it up in three hours, nyaang.'
Nikki nodded in satisfaction and swung her baton.
"Alright, enough chit-chat! Get moving, nyaang! We gotta clock out before sundown—no overtime, got it, nyaang?!"
"No way, nyaang!"
"We're leaving on time, nyaang!"
Watching her mascots bustle about, Nikki's gaze suddenly lingered on one corner.
A fluffy white ball sitting dazed on a pile of crumbled flowerbed bricks.
'...Neff, nyaang.'
The hot topic rookie shaking up the magical girl scene. Even a field worker like Nikki knew her, of course.
But.
'Why's her expression like that, nyaang? So heavy.'
Her unfocused, dead eyes staring into space didn't look right at all. Nikki flicked her tail and approached Neff.
"Magical girl ma'am, greetings, nyaang. Great job out there, nyaang. I'm Nikki from Life Management, nyaang."
Neff looked up at her blankly.
The moment their eyes met, Nikki's tail fur bristled involuntarily.
'Ugh.'
Eyes she'd seen a few times before.
Twenty years as a mascot, weathered every storm—Nikki sniffed it out instantly.
That was the classic face magical girls made when they couldn't prevent casualties due to their own mistakes, crushed by the weight of lives lost.
'But that's weird, nyaang?'
The Magical Castle prioritized casualty counts above all.
If anyone had died or been seriously hurt, alarms would've blared the second they arrived, chaos ensuing.
But according to this incident report...
Deaths: 0
Injured: Minor injuries 12 (abrasions and bruises)
With eight magical girls on site, it was expected, but they hadn't missed any blind spots.
Especially.
'Pluto, the top in rescue ops, was there, nyaang.'
Pluto's mana was sticky and viscous, like a swamp.
Normally a corrosive darkness bog, but she could adjust its properties at will.
In other words, it could act like an airbag absorbing impacts.
Just lay it down, and you could fall from the 63 Building without breaking a bone.
Cross-verified with Pluto: zero casualties in this incident. A total miracle.
Obviously, Neff on site would've heard. So why the lost-soul face?
'Still in shock, nyaang.'
Remembering Neff was just an eight-year-old kid, Nikki figured that was it.
She sat beside her. Leaving her like this, she'd dig a hole and spiral into a mental pit. Time for some veteran wisdom.
"What's wrong, nyaang? Why the long face, nyaang."
"……"
"This big sis'll listen, so spill it, nyaang. Gotta vent to lighten the load, nyaang."
By the time Nikki's soft pink paw pad nudged Neff's cheek a few times.
"……I let her go."
"Huh? Let what go, nyaang?"
"With my own hands... I chose. To save many, I let go of one kid's hand..."
Neff stared at her palm.
"With my own hands, I pushed that kid into the darkness."
'...Honestly, no clue what she's on about, nyaang.'
Probably shock-induced hallucination or delusion.
But in these cases, unconditional empathy trumped facts. Time for twenty-year mascot experience to shine.
"Mm, yeah yeah. Must've been tough, nyaang. But don't sweat it, nyaang. Weird stuff happens on the field all the time, nyaang."
"……Don't sweat it?"
Neff looked up sharply.
"How can I not? Someone died! Because of me, I chose... It's my fault! I killed her!"
"Whoa! Easy now, nyaang!"
As Neff revved up yelling, Nikki smacked her mouth shut with her tail.
"Magical girl ma'am. Don't get it twisted, nyaang. A magical girl's duty isn't saving humans, nyaang."
"……Huh?"
"Well, precisely—ya don't gotta hang yourself up on duty and responsibility like that, nyaang."
"What are you even saying? You wouldn't get it 'cause you're just a mascot who never sees the front lines...!"
"Wouldn't get it? I've cleaned up truckloads of corpses, nyaang!"
Neff shut her mouth at Nikki's intensity.
"Listen up, nyaang. Sequence matters, nyaang. Monsters first, magical girls second, nyaang."
"What... do you mean?"
"In the beginning, monsters appeared first, then Prima showed up and crushed 'em. Get what that means, nyaang?"
Nikki extended one front paw toe.
"Magical girls exist because monsters do—not the other way around, nyaang. Prima never once said to throw your life away for civilians, nyaang."
Her voice heated up.
"Why call magical girls volunteers? 'Cause that's what they are—pure goodwill, no obligation, no force."
"……"
"Even if a magical girl drops out from exhaustion, can't be helped, nyaang. So we try minimizing casualties out of courtesy to humans—not duty, nyaang."
Neff swallowed hard.
"Risk your life saving lives? Don't make me laugh, nyaang. You die, it's game over—what meaning's in that, nyaang."
"But..."
"Magical girl failed to save a life? Someone got hurt 'cause of a mistake? Sorry, irrelevant, nyaang."
Irrelevant. That casual word stabbed Neff's chest.
"Suppose no magical girls? Monsters would've killed and hurt way more, nyaang. Whose fault then, nyaang? Government's? Helpless humans'?"
Nikki shrugged.
"Not our Magical Castle's, that's for sure, nyaang. All on the monsters, nyaang."
"……"
"So if ya wanna keep being a magical girl long-term, change your mindset, nyaang. What you couldn't save? Not your sin, nyaang. The monsters who created that situation? That's their sin, nyaang."
Nikki gazed at distant mountains, muttering.
"Compared to the old Great War, when civilians got mulched by the tens of thousands? This world's peaceful, nyaang."
Though no guarantees it'd stay that way.
"Um, Nikki ma'am."
"Yeah? What, nyaang."
"……How do we make monsters vanish from this world completely?"
Nikki twitched her whiskers. A tired newbie question.
"If we knew, Magical Castle would've done it ages ago, nyaang."
"……I see."
Neff drooped again.
'Oopsie. Empathy! Empathy!'
Now was the time for warm comfort, not facts. Nikki cleared her throat and pivoted.
"Don't be too down, nyaang! There's some theoretical hypotheticals that could work, nyaang!"
"……Huh?"
"First: We invade the Backworld ourselves and wipe out monsters on sight, nyaang."
Nikki clenched a fist.
"Sure, Backworld air's poison to us normals, can't stay long... but if possible? It'd work, nyaang."
Neff stared intently at Nikki.
"……Then we'd look like monsters to them."
"Yeah, invaders from their view, nyaang. But still irrelevant—they struck first, nyaang."
Neff nodded slowly. Fair point.
"Second: Cut off imagination flowing into the Backworld at the source, nyaang."
"How?"
"Beats me, nyaang. We haven't fully figured out imagination itself."
"I see..."
"And third."
Nikki wiggled three toes.
"Probably no humans, no monsters, nyaang."
"……Huh?"
Neff's eyes widened.
"Sure, studies say dogs, cats, higher animals imagine and dream too, nyaang. But their imagination rarely spawns monsters, nyaang."
Nikki continued seriously.
"Remember the sequence, nyaang. Monsters first, magical girls second. But humans came before monsters, nyaang. Probably millennia of human imagination piled up until—boom!—monsters popped out, nyaang."
So simply put.
"If the imagination source—humans—all died off... no more monsters, nyaang."
Of course, total role reversal nonsense. Extinguish monsters by wiping humans? Absurd.
"Not that we should ever! Nyahaha!"
Nikki clutched her belly laughing. Just a joke.
Then, mascots working afar called.
"Boss! Come here, nyaang! Cement ratio's off, nyaang!"
"Ugh, total incompetents. Can't even eat without me, nyaang."
Nikki stood, dusting her butt.
Before leaving, she patted Neff's head comfortingly.
"Anyway, don't overthink it, nyaang. You're doing great, have been, and will keep being, nyaang."
Nikki trotted off, tail swishing.
"……"
But Neff didn't respond, just staring blankly after her.
Then.
"Neff!!"
"Neffie!"
"Baby sis!"
Her seniors, done cleaning up, rushed toward her from afar.
＊＊＊
"Neff!!"
"Anywhere hurt?"
The seniors swarmed, surrounding me.
Frost cupped my cheeks, inspecting; Shining thumped my back proudly.
"You did amazing. Thanks to you calmly evacuating people."
"Yeah. Nine monsters, zero deaths? Miracle."
"Our lil' junior rocks!"
I forced a smile, nodding amid the praise.
"Enough—we all worked hard, let's party!"
"Yes! Neff picks the menu today! What ya craving? Sis got you!"
Bella declared boldly.
But before I spoke, Aurora flashed a gleaming black card.
"No need to pick."
"……Huh?"
"I'll treat my dears to the world's priciest."
Cheers erupted from the magical girls at Aurora's words.
In the suddenly festive mood, I beamed, bowing to each senior.
"Thank you, Aurora senior. Shining senior, Aqua senior... everyone coming to save me—truly grateful."
Sincere. Without them, I'd probably be monster chow now.
But behind my smile, a thorn lingered in my heart.
'Gold Luli...'
I knew, of course.
Pluto had told me earlier.
'Um, Neff... don't worry too much. Checked with my shadow sense—that kid's safe.''...Really?''Yeees. No death ping. No corpse means alive, right?'
She added she couldn't pinpoint location. No sign in the building or around.
Alive, but gone. Pluto could've missed—total mess there.
But ominous thoughts kept rising.
'Alive' might not mean whole.
No external injuries, but mental trauma?
What if monsters snatched the falling kid?
'Please, I beg.'
Hope Pluto goofed.
That haughty kid dusted off, grumbled, and walked home on her own.
I prayed desperately.
After cleanup, we hit a top-tier hanwoo spot for group dinner.
"Chaaarge!!"
Sizzle. Premium hanwoo seared deliciously on charcoal.
Sweet marinade scents and raucous laughter filled the room.
"Neff! Eat up! Builds blood and muscle!"
"Yeees, thank you."
I popped a perfectly cooked piece Bella plated into my mouth.
Mmm. Melts on the tongue.
Yet as luxurious hanwoo slid down smooth, the lump in my chest stayed put.
Nikki's words looped endlessly.
'No humans, no monsters.'
So what were magical girls protecting—humans, or monster seeds?
I gazed at the dark night sky outside. Seemed extra long tonight.