Enhancing Someone Else's Gloves
I had successfully enhanced someone else's wand!
Something about what the Magical Girl Administration employee had said earlier still nagged at me, but she'd brushed it off as mere speculation, so I let it go.
I mean, they wouldn't run human experiments just because someone had an unusual ability, right? Every magical girl has her own unique power. There were bound to be some with an ability like mine.
With that thought, I headed to the clothing store I'd been directed to. Like they said, a person ought to dress the part.
“Welcome! Oh my… what a lovely young lady. Are you looking for clothes?”
The shop assistant greeted me warmly and held out a garment.
“You have such a slender figure, I think something like this would suit you beautifully.”
A white dress…
Hah… She wants me to wear something that frilly and feminine?
“Please give me the most androgynous thing you have.”
“…I'm sorry?”
After much back and forth, I put together a t-shirt and jeans and headed to work.
But all that effort was for nothing — within three days, I had no choice but to quit.
My coworkers and my supervisor started hitting on the strikingly beautiful silver-haired woman who'd appeared out of nowhere. My boss demanded I use my magical girl ability to fix office equipment. Then the PR team came along, insisting that since I'd become such a pretty woman, I should shoot commercials for the company.
There was no way a silver-haired woman could sit calmly in the seat of Choi Yeon-seok, a twenty-two-year-old man.
And so, hot on the heels of my gender, I lost my job as well.
In other words… I was unemployed.
Yeah, better to walk out of a black-company hellhole like that anyway.
So I spent the next few days rolling around at home, attempting an enhancement or two whenever the mood struck. When I enhanced my phone, the battery life more than doubled, so I had to charge it far less often. When I enhanced my frying pan, the coating stopped peeling off…
But the real prize was the noise between floors. The kids upstairs stomped around so relentlessly that even mid-game I couldn't concentrate.
“Aargh, would you keep it down up there!”
At first I only enhanced the ceiling, but the noise showed no sign of letting up.
When I looked into why, it turned out most inter-floor noise actually travels through the walls and support columns.
So I enhanced the walls too, and only then did the racket finally fall silent.
It felt as satisfying as having an aching tooth finally pulled. Turns out you really do need to understand your ability before you can use it properly.
Then one day, the craving for a cigarette got so bad that I stepped outside to smoke one.
I felt like I couldn't bear it otherwise.
Phew… just as I was thinking, this is the life, and flicked my lighter open—
“Kagh! Why is this so harsh!”
Oh, come on. My body changes and now I can't even smoke?
Haa… Yeah, I really shouldn't be smoking these things anyway.
No, before that, I shouldn't have turned into this body at all.
…Wait, though. If I enhanced the cigarettes, maybe the smoke wouldn't be so harsh…
Never mind. One bad enhancement and I'd probably just make them more toxic.
And if it isn't harsh, is it even a cigarette? I might as well suck on candy.
After mulling over such nonsense, I stubbed the cigarette out completely, buried the butt in the receptacle, and turned to my real problem.
Job hunting, community activities — I needed to do something, anything, to qualify for the youth subsidy.
But rejoining another company was unthinkable. It was obvious how a new workplace would look at this body.
Was there no other way? Was I really going to have to do what the other magical girls did — appear on broadcasts, transform, and beat down Anomalies?
Just as I was wrestling with that question, my phone chimed with a text.
Come to think of it, I had heard something about that.
I opened it without much expectation — until I read the last line and changed my mind.
That's right — they mentioned training pay, didn't they?
A training stipend… If I completed the mandatory magical girl training, it might even count as a public activity for the subsidy. And the stipend was at least three times what I'd received for last year's reservist drill.
“…Maybe I'll check it out.”
Yeah. Just to look around. Just to look.
I got dressed and went out for the first time in a while. Since I'd sooner die than put on feminine clothes like dresses or skirts, I settled on a white t-shirt and jeans — about as close as I could get to what I'd worn as a man.
The real problem was women's underwear.
At home I'd been getting by braless, but I couldn't do that in public. My chest was barely there, and yet it still showed through the t-shirt. How on earth did women put up with this their whole lives?
Damn it all. Twenty-two years as a man, and now a bra.
…Anyway, I threw on my clothes as best I could and headed for the place I'd registered at a few days earlier.
The White Trajectory Office? Who names something so childish?
The office building was shabbier than I'd expected. Was the agency struggling?
We lived in an era where magical girls were guardians protecting people from monsters, but at the same time celebrities who appeared on broadcasts and filmed commercials.
So I'd assumed most agencies would occupy enormous, glitzy buildings like entertainment companies.
This, however, was a cramped three-story structure, so worn down in every corner it looked ready for demolition and reconstruction.
Still, when I stepped into the basement-level assembly point, a surprisingly spacious area greeted me.
The high ceiling and the open space in the middle reminded me of my school gymnasium.
At its center, several women in a variety of outfits stood prepared, each holding what looked like their own wand.
The woman at the front wore boxing gloves and was bouncing on her feet, warming up. One girl hugged a teddy bear to her chest, glancing around with anxious eyes.
There was also a woman idly swinging a flail about, and another carrying an anti-materiel rifle… a rifle?
…A sniper rifle? That counts as a wand? It made my hammer look pathetic by comparison.
And before them all stood a white-haired woman in an oversized knit sweater.
A longbow slung across her back, her pale eyes slightly glazed. As I drew closer, a sticky, heavy smell drifted off her — that distinctive boozy stench you notice the morning after a company dinner.
Wait. This is supposed to be training, and she showed up drunk?
I was still chewing on that suspicion as I found a spot, when the woman at the front gave a little hiccup and began speaking in a long, drawling voice.
“Hraaam, now that everyone's here, let's get staaarted. Welcome to the first quarter mandatory training for magical girrrls.”
…Am I supposed to trust this?
“Since it's mandatory training, just learn what you can and leave once you can look after yourseeelves. Whether you work hard or slack off, what does it matter~? Just put in the minimum and gooo.”
…Wow. After hearing that, I don't think anyone would feel motivated to train hard.
A door opened on the far side, and out shuffled a woman with heavy dark circles under bloodshot eyes and a messy silver ponytail, mid-yawn. Her outfit, for the record, was a slapdash black tracksuit.
“The sooner we finish, the sooner we can rest, so let's not drag this out. Follow along and I'll get you through quickly — and pay you your stipend, too.”
Having said that, the instructor soon turned to the little girl clutching her teddy bear.
“The kid's exempt. You're still too young — you'll do one-on-one training with the director instead.”
“O-okay…”
The little girl withdrew and carefully made her way over to the director — the one who'd reeked of alcohol.
“Alright, let's do some light exercise with big sis, shall we~?”
For what it was worth, she seemed quite practiced at handling the child.
Meanwhile, the instructor's dry gaze swept over us once, and I felt a chill of foreboding.
The same dread I used to feel in the army, right before a live-combat drill.
And just as I predicted, our training turned out to be…
“One hundred mana orbs. Full power.”
I'm sorry, what?
“Fire them at the far wall.”
It was hell.
After the mana orb drill came what they called evasion training, which meant sprinting the gymnasium at full speed, followed by physical conditioning, which meant wailing on sandbags.
…Forget the stipend, forget everything. I want to go home. Magical girl, my ass.
I decided then and there: I must never, ever fight an Anomaly.
I'd rather suck up to management from the back lines than go through this hell again!
“You've done your common magic and fitness training this morning, so this afternoon is for your unique abilities.”
After lunch, we returned to the training hall, where the instructor yawned extravagantly and looked the magical girls over one by one.
“…The rest of you know the drill. Do what you've always done. And you two rookies.”
She pointed at the crimson-haired magical girl with the anti-materiel rifle, and at me.
“Tell me your unique abilities. I need to build your training regimen.”
At that, the crimson-haired girl beside me lifted her chin proudly.
“My ability is Clairvoyance. I can see targets kilometers away without even zooming in! And when an Anomaly shows itself, I can pierce it dead-center with a single mana bullet!”
Then she looked down at me with a rotten smile, as if sneering.
“Unlike that idiot over there who couldn't even manage the morning training. She's only got half a face going for her.”
Why do you keep picking fights out of nowhere?
…Also, isn't that just… good eyesight? Honestly, it doesn't look any better than my ability.
The instructor gave a small nod at her answer.
“Then Choi Soo-bin, you'll start with a drill identifying small letters from five kilometers out. Next.”
When my turn finally came, I held up my hammer and explained.
“My ability is enhancement. I awakened recently, so I'm not entirely sure of the details, but it seems I can enhance objects in whatever direction I want.”
The moment those words left my mouth, Choi Soo-bin — no, the bratty one — laughed at me outright.
“Pfft, enhancement? How is anyone supposed to fight with an ability like that?”
Again? Does she seriously not feel satisfied unless she's provoking me?
Just as the atmosphere turned ugly, the instructor furrowed her brow.
“Quiet. There are plenty of rear-support magical girls. They contribute plenty in their own right, so shut your mouth.”
At her rebuke, the bratty one could do nothing but stick out her lip and back down.
Having issued her warning, the instructor looked at me with those dry eyes and nodded.
“Good. Choi Yeon-seok, we'll structure your training around trying a variety of enhancements. Now, everyone except you two — to your stations.”
The magical girls dispersed to their spots, and the instructor slid something across the desk toward me.
“Soo-bin, stand by. Yeon-seok, enhance this. Make it unbreakable.”
What she handed me was a lollipop.
When I stared at the candy in momentary confusion, the instructor added flatly:
“We have to test your limits. How far can you actually push an enhancement?”
Was I supposed to perform a juggling act with a piece of candy?
I'd already made a mechanical pencil tip unbreakable before, you know.
“Ha. Enhance a lollipop all you want — it's still just a lollipop.”
And on top of that, the bratty one snorted, scraping at my pride.
Well, after being taunted like that, I had every reason not to refuse.
I tapped the end of the lollipop lightly with my hammer, pouring in the wish: never, ever break.
A brief flash of light washed over the candy and faded, and the instructor began prodding the enhanced lollipop this way and that with a look of odd interest.
Then she cloaked her hand in a blue film of mana and squeezed.
“…? It's… not breaking?”
At the faint note of panic in the instructor's voice, the bratty one lost her composure too.
“Instructor, you're not going easy on it, are you?”
The instructor shook her head and muttered.
“…I could shatter it if I committed fully, but nothing short of that would do it. To think a piece of candy could be enhanced this far.”
See that? That's class, baby.
“Ha, what even is that…”
The bratty one narrowed her eyes, preparing to sneer again — when someone cut into the conversation.
“…You. Enhance my gloves too.”
It was the magical girl who'd been pounding a sandbag alone in the corner, boxing gloves on.
She peeled off the blue gloves she was wearing and held them out to me.
The bratty one scoffed at the sight and spat her venom.
“Hey, trash. Don't you care about your own wand at all? How can you hand your wand over to someone you've never even met?”
“I'm not trash. I'm Ahn Seo-yoon. And if you want to get stronger, this much is nothing.”
“Ha, so this is you flailing around because you're weaker than a girl who just debuted, huh?”
…Does that brat break out in hives unless she's spewing garbage?
Meanwhile, the instructor studied the woman called Ahn Seo-yoon and issued the same warning.
“Ahn Seo-yoon. This is an unverified unique ability. There could be side effects. Even so, you want to go through with it?”
But Ahn Seo-yoon nodded without a moment's hesitation.
“It doesn't matter. If I lack talent, then I have to seize it by any means necessary.”
There was iron resolve in those brown eyes, in that steady voice.
…Well, fine. If she's asking for an enhancement, I have no reason to refuse.
But before I started, there was one thing I wanted to ask.
“Why do you want to get stronger so badly?”
And the woman called Ahn Seo-yoon answered, matter-of-fact.
“Because I refuse to accept the claim that effort is worthless if you were born without talent. If anything can make up for what I lack, I'll do it — whatever it takes.”
Well then. Your wish — granted.
Unbreakably solid.
Heavy, like being clubbed with an iron plate.
Strong enough that no one would ever look down on you.
Pouring all of that hope into the swing, I brought my hammer down on the boxing gloves with everything I had.
And unlike any enhancement before it, the gloves began to glow blue — the very color of the leather itself — before erupting in brilliance so intense it blinded the eye.
“Nngh, what is this light—?!”
Everyone around us — even the others training across the hall — threw their hands over their eyes, while the bratty one gritted her teeth and fumed in open irritation.
A few moments later, the light subsided, and there, etched across the surface of the boxing gloves, was a pattern of blue flames no one had ever seen before.
The pattern even gave off a faint, smoldering glow, and it looked anything but ordinary. The instructor handed the gloves back to Ahn Seo-yoon.
“…Put them on and hit the sandbag again. Let's see how much has changed.”
Ahn Seo-yoon nodded silently and pulled the gloves on.
At once, unlike before, a low hum rose from them as if the gloves had come alive, and blue flames bloomed to life along their surface.
She walked to the sandbag she'd been working so hard on earlier and squared up.
Planting her feet, twisting her hips — for a moment, there was only silence.
Then, as if to signal she was ready, she threw her full weight into a straight punch, blue flames coiling around her glove.
And the instant her fist met the sandbag—
WHAM!
…The sandbag exploded. One punch. It took exactly one.
Holy crap. That is insane.