There's a Right Way to Enhance
There's such a thing as an appropriate method for enhancement!
…So, to sum up: Chae Jeong-ha was saying she just wanted to get stronger, plain and simple.
As if the how of it didn't matter at all.
…Danmuji No. 2 and her crew. Honestly, ten-year-old Jiyoon would make more sense.
"Haah… there are lots of different ways to get stronger, you know."
"What do you mean?"
"…Like durability getting tougher, or destructive power going up, or maybe conducting magic better. All kinds of things."
"Puha! If you just smash 'em hard enough to wreck the enemy, doesn't that make you strong? Why overthink it like this?"
Chae Jeong-ha burst into hearty laughter, and I found myself at a loss for words.
"…I think a dolphin would actually be smarter, Master."
Yeonji, for once in your existence, I agree with you completely.
I let out a short sigh, then turned to Chae Jeong-ha.
"…I can do an enhancement that raises destructive power. If that's really what you want."
"Of course I want it! Firepower is truth, isn't it?"
"But is that truly what you want? Honestly, right now you just came here because you're jealous that Seo-yoon and Soo-bin are strong. Aren't you?"
"Uh, well…."
Chae Jeong-ha flustered, turning her head away and letting her words trail off into a mumble.
"S-still, one hit and everything's done, right? You, one hit! Her, one hit!"
"…Doesn't that usually include you being taken out in one hit, too?"
"I hate being on the receiving end! Isn't that obvious? One-sided, unbalanced aggression is the best!"
Argh! Seriously! A perfectly Danmuji-No.-2 answer.
Enough to make all the research I'd been racking my brain over feel completely pointless.
"So should I just enhance your destructive power for now, then? Will that really be enough?"
"Of course!"
Still, I supposed I owed her a warning. I straightened my back and met Chae Jeong-ha's eyes.
"…One more warning, then. There's a limit to how many times something can be enhanced. If you go past that number, the enhancement's efficiency starts to drop."
"Hm? Why are you talking like that? All ominous all of a sudden."
"I don't know how many attempts a trainee's staff can take yet. But this could burn one of those chances. Are you still okay with that?"
"Yep, absolutely!"
Chae Jeong-ha nodded with breezy confidence.
"Being strong is what matters! If I'm strong, I can protect people properly! So take good care of it!"
And with that, she shoved her flail toward me, practically begging me to hurry up and get it done.
'Protect people properly,' huh… that phrase is bugging me a little.
But she's said this much — opposing her any further would feel wrong.
Fine. Maybe this worked out for the best.
Let's see just how satisfied she is with raw destructive power alone.
Okay then… focus.
Strong.
Strong enough to bring down a mountain in a single strike.
Strong enough to shatter any apparition's defenses.
Holding that image in my mind, I brought the hammer down on the flail. With a crisp metallic kaang, a brilliant gray light spread outward and wrapped the flail in a gentle warmth.
"Ughh~ what is iiiiit, you already staaarted?"
Woken by the light, Im Hyun-ji rose from her corner where she'd been dozing, stretching lazily. Then she fixed a long, thoughtful stare on the glowing flail, shifted her gaze to Chae Jeong-ha, and said with a sly grin,
"Hmmm, Jeong-ha-a. That's already pretty decent, isn't iit? An attack-type enhancement really does suit you after aall."
Chae Jeong-ha's eyes sparkled with excitement as she exclaimed in a high voice,
"Right?! So now I can take down a Main Villain-class like Seo-yoon does, can't I?"
"No."
Im Hyun-ji's voice dropped in an instant. None of her usual drawl, either.
"Seo-yoon only joined another office as support without my permission. I don't allow solo subjugations."
"But—!"
"If you really want to, I can dispatch you when another office runs a Main Villain-class raid. But solo subjugation is still a long way off. Don't rush it."
Wow, suddenly such a grave expression and tone.
Like someone chained to something.
"…It's been four years, though. Still not?"
"Yeah. Taking on a Main Villain-class — I will never allow it."
At Im Hyun-ji's firm answer, Chae Jeong-ha's face twisted with dissatisfaction, but she couldn't bring herself to argue back.
Perhaps because she'd gone quiet, Im Hyun-ji put her sly smile back on and pushed the flail — its light already faded — toward Chae Jeong-ha.
"Lecture's over now~. But stilll, your staff just got stronger — shouldn't you give it a test ruuun?"
"Yes!"
At that, Chae Jeong-ha — her lecture already forgotten — snatched up the flail and sprang to her feet, practically vibrating with excitement.
"Hey! Shrimp! Thanks a bunch! I'm taking this for a spin, okay?"
She ruffled my hair into a complete mess, then breezed out the door with a spring in her step.
…Shrimp? So what if I shrank to 160cm — a SHRIMP?
Me, who used to be 175cm tall? A shrimp?!
"Hey!!!"
I chased after her. She'd walked out without even checking how strong the enhancement turned out!
It is absolutely NOT because she called me a shrimp!
…And so I chased, and chased, but I never did manage to catch up with a physical-enhancement magical girl's blistering pace before she reached the training grounds.
Basement level one — the training grounds.
Dead center in the room, Chae Jeong-ha was whistling with glee. She'd even started swinging her flail around in big, whooshing arcs to warm up, like she couldn't wait another second.
She's really thrilled, huh. Getting stronger really made her day.
"Hmm…"
Im Hyun-ji, meanwhile, stood beside me with her arms crossed, watching Chae Jeong-ha with a knowing look in her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Jeong-ha is… y'know, I really do think Seo-yoon made her impatient. She's trying to wear clothes that don't fit heer."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That flail wasn't made just for attaacking, you know. Not when you think about Jeong-ha's unique abiliity."
Ah, I read her profile before we came. 'Stigma of Protection,' was it?
Yeonji settled onto my shoulder and supplied the explanation.
"As you may know, an enemy struck by Ms. Chae Jeong-ha's flail develops an aversion to showing hostility toward the allies she protects."
To put it simply: any enemy bearing the stigma ends up focusing all their attacks on Chae Jeong-ha herself.
With a unique ability built entirely around drawing aggro, it was only natural her raw firepower lagged behind — and maybe that had always been a bit of a sore spot for her.
Just then, a demonstration target rose up from the floor, and Chae Jeong-ha's eyes lit up as she shouted,
"Okay! Bring it on! The newly powered-up Lady Bastion is stepping up!"
With that cry, white light flared from the flail, and she swung it down in a mighty arc.
The instant target and flail met, the target was obliterated so completely that there wasn't even enough left of it to carry a stigma.
Chae Jeong-ha bounced up and down, cheering at the sight.
"Oh yeah! Now I can go on the offensive with real fire, too! It was such a pain never getting one-hit kills!"
Hmmm… something about this feels off.
I'm glad she's happy — I don't want to rain on her parade — but now that I understood her unique ability in more detail, a thought was forming.
Of course, in the short term it might be fine. She'd patched up her lacking attack power, and she probably felt like she'd become an all-rounder magical girl, excellent at offense and defense alike.
"In games, an 'all-rounder' character is usually one of two things."
I walked over and dropped this completely out of nowhere, and Chae Jeong-ha tilted her head at me.
"Either a broken monster who outclasses the specialists in every single field and gets nerfed into the ground… or a jack of all trades who can't beat a specialist at anything and goes straight into the coffin."
"What's a 'nerf'?"
Ah, right — gaming slang.
"It's when a character is so overpowered that the developers get complaints and cut their stats down. Reality doesn't have developers, though."
"Ha! So you're saying I'm that broken character? So broken everyone else prays for a nerf? Well, fair — I just got stronger at defense AND attack!"
I shook my head.
"You're not a magical girl specialized in destruction, Jeong-ha. Right now, it probably feels like you've patched your weakness. But you spent a limited enhancement opportunity imitating Seo-yoon or Soo-bin."
"Imitating?! I'm plenty capable of—!"
"Can you hit harder than Seo-yoon?"
"Right now? Possibly!"
Chae Jeong-ha shot back, clenching her fist.
"Sure. On the first hit, maybe. But what if Seo-yoon smashes the same spot two, three times to build up the force? Four hits makes it eight times stronger — can you still say you're stronger than her then?"
"……"
Chae Jeong-ha said nothing.
"Soo-bin can spot and snipe targets from far away. Do you want that?"
"No, I don't want that."
"Can Seo-yoon or Soo-bin place a stigma like you can?"
"That's… also no."
"That's the thing only you can do. I'm not saying raising your attack power is bad. I'm asking whether you should spend your limited enhancement chances chasing after other people."
"My own unique strength…"
As Chae Jeong-ha murmured to herself, Im Hyun-ji sidled up beside her with a sly grin of her own.
"Jeong-ha-a. Sooo, when exactly were you planning to place those stigmas?"
"Unni, why would I bother with stigmas? I smashed it already — no point, right?"
"If it's just one of them, suree. But what if there were ten of them?"
"Ugh, that's…"
"And what if there's someone behind them? A teammate, or a civiilian?"
"……"
Chae Jeong-ha couldn't argue back this time either. Im Hyun-ji rested a hand on her shoulder.
"You're not the one who smashes everythiing. You're the one who staaands in front so everyone else can smash things without worryiing."
Hearing that, Chae Jeong-ha deliberated for a moment, then spoke with a heavy air.
"But Unni, I'm not an idiot either. I know what kind of person I am."
"…Hmm?"
"But my attack power is so lacking that I struggle even when I'm clearing low-grade apparitions. It takes me forever just to kill an Extra-class."
The grievance finally spilled out of Chae Jeong-ha, and her flail drooped toward the floor.
"Seo-yoon and Soo-bin come back after taking down apparitions in two or three hits… but I have to swing this thing more than ten times. Every single day it's a slog."
"Jeong-ha, you…"
Im Hyun-ji's sly smile faded.
"Every time, I laughed it off — 'I'm fine, protection and defense are my specialties' — but watching those weaker girls struggle less than me made me feel ashamed. I'm the most senior trainee in this office. I'm supposed to be setting an example…"
So that was the real problem all along.
Of course, when they all faced a powerful apparition together, she would shine. A vanguard tank who protects the front line is a treasure at any time.
But the problem came when facing apparitions she could have handled alone. In those moments, there was no one to protect, so her greatest strength had no room to shine.
Every time that happened, she must have felt like her ability was simply falling behind. And with her juniors already surpassing her, the impatience must have been suffocating.
But enhancing attack power alone wouldn't create any synergy, just as I'd pointed out. It would make fighting weak apparitions easier — but for someone whose real value emerges against strong ones, it wouldn't help at all.
Which meant protection and offense couldn't be kept apart. They had to be made to lock together, each feeding the other.
"I know a way to make you stronger."
At my words, Chae Jeong-ha and Im Hyun-ji both turned to look at me at once.
"In exchange, I'll need to know more about you, Jeong-ha. How you fight — everything, and in a lot more detail."