The Soft Underbelly
Do you know about the insect called the giant hornet?
The motorcycle of the mountains.
The drone of the city streets.
By any of its many nicknames, it is without a doubt the apex predator of the insect world.
Even a physical monster of the bug kingdom, however, is not without its weaknesses…
Namely, the fire and heat that will fry its body to a crisp.
In other words, my matchup against this monster was overwhelmingly in my favor.
"What happens when a Bug-type picks a fight with a Fire-type?"
"…Type?"
"There's a thing called that."
Leaving behind my pity for a creature that couldn't even grasp a refined joke, I twisted the hand gripping its horn and flipped the insect monster's entire body over while still floating in midair.
"Heave-ho."
"Gyaah!"
A short scream rang out. As a rule, beetle-like things have their legs set horizontally. On top of that, their body structure isn't built for rolling, so once flipped onto their backs, they struggle to right themselves again.
"Y-you bastard! What do you think you're doing?!"
And for the most part, insects like this…
have a soft underbelly as their weak point.
I almost called her by her real name, then shook my head and used her proper Magical Girl name instead, waving Moon over.
"Moon, mind freezing just its back like this?"
"O-okay."
Siyeon approached hesitantly, near the wriggling insect legs. To a girl, it did look pretty gross. To a boy, though? They might actually cheer. A monster that mashed together a rhinoceros beetle, a stag beetle, and a mantis? How could you not get hyped?
Anyway, Siyeon came up alongside the toppled monster, aimed her staff at the fluttering elytra, and said:
"Moon Shower—!"
"KRAAAAGH—!"
Its wings and carapace froze solid, fused cleanly to the ground. The creature let out a short scream as those body parts locked in ice.
That was all Siyeon needed to do. She'd been glued to her computer even when we'd left the house earlier. Since she had nothing left to do here, I waved her off.
"You're good. Head back first and watch your cartoons."
"Okay!"
Without a second of hesitation, Siyeon shot into the sky. She must have really wanted to get back to that anime.
"Kh… krrrgh!"
The monster's resistance wasn't over yet. Its desperate mantis-like hooked forelegs flailed wildly, but flipped over with its wings sealed, there was nothing it could actually do.
I held my palm near the heart ornament on my staff, which had gone bright red. A short ssss like meat hitting a hot pan rang out close enough to hear. By the standards of the strongest body around, it wasn't even hot — but yanking my hand back in a hurry was the perfect way to pile on the terror and despair.
"Whoa, hot."
"Y-you little shit, don't tell me you're going to…"
"Correct—!"
With the kind of delivery you hear all the time as a sound bite in videos, I sat down right on the insect's soft-looking segmented belly.
"S-stststop—!"
That voice, soaked in fear and despair, made me happy. Slowly, slowly enough that it could feel the heat of the heart ornament coming closer, I pressed the love-carved decoration against that soft belly.
Sizzle. The sound of meat hitting a high-heat grill rang out — the kind of sound that, if you only heard it, might actually make you hungry.
"KRAAAAAAGH!"
"Mm. Smell—"
It wasn't quite as good as pork on the grill, but the smell of something burning was almost savory. People used to eat fried grasshoppers a lot back in the day, supposedly — if it smelled this toasted and fragrant, I could almost see the appeal.
When the thrashing got more intense, I lifted the staff a little. A black, scorched heart shape stood out clearly against the pale belly.
"Mmm! Satisfying. Very satisfying."
"Haaah… haaah…"
The insect monster's abdomen and thorax inflated and deflated in rapid succession. Its mantis forelegs trembled — today was a day for learning just how much pain a single element called heat could bring to a bug. Even honeybees can take down giant hornets by swarming them and cooking them with body heat, after all. Case closed.
"If you fold after just one round, that's a little disappointing."
"P-please, stop…"
"I'll take my time roasting you. If you don't like it, just never come back here. Got it?"
I didn't stop for the monster's pleas. I gave the middle of the staff a few light twists, switching modes. After about three turns, a short jet of flame spat from the tip of the heart ornament like a flamethrower. In those hornet-killing videos, they finished them off with a torch the same way.
"HRAAAAAA—!"
A few minutes passed that must have felt like hours to the monster. Its legs had curled completely inward into a fetal crouch, and then it slowly began to scatter into glittering dust.
Incidentally, something about its earlier words had been bothering me.
"I've heard plenty about you from the others, especially!"
"Hmm…"
A short hum of curiosity as I watched until the monster had completely dissolved, then I took off into the sky.
Heard plenty from the others. Which meant these things did have some kind of gathering place.
The re-visit rate for monsters in our area was practically zero percent. I'd more or less figured as much based on terror-driven return rates, but hearing it firsthand turned guesswork into certainty.
So the monsters had somewhere to go back to… If I wiped that place out, would they stop showing up altogether?
Forget it. Why am I even thinking about this…
I let the thread of thought go before it could dig any deeper and waved it off. I'll say it again: this world's setting is half-baked.
A world where girls in elementary-school bodies erase monsters with mysterious power that no existing science can explain. Even if common sense doesn't line up front to back, there's nothing much to say about it.
After the monsters vanish, maybe they go to a rally point, a training camp, a unit barracks — or maybe none of that exists and they just talk like it does. Overthinking it is a pure loss. Guaranteed loss.
"Release."
I landed near home, on the rooftop of a different apartment building from ours. Reciting the transformation-release chant like it was everyday routine, I rolled my shoulders.
A Magical Girl's residence has to stay unidentifiable to ordinary people, so we change our landing points like this every time. Magical Girls have rules like that among themselves — though honestly, I figure they might as well not exist.
"Ugh, stiff."
The fatigue hit all at once the moment the transformation dropped. With the same hand that had been rolling my shoulder, I grabbed it and worked my neck side to side. A cute little crack brought a brief spark of pleasure. As if an elementary-school body should make a sound like that…
Anyway, I took the elevator in this building down to the first floor and headed for ours.
"Mari, you're back? All done?"
"Yeah. Same as always."
"Shining, Magical Power—!"
An anime blared from the computer. The bright, youthful voice of a character overlapped with Siyeon's own. The voice actress who played that part was impressive. I couldn't pull that off even if someone ordered me to right now.
Well. Money talks. Not so different from being a Magical Girl, really — the only difference between a voice actress and a Magical Girl is whether you've got actual power or not. That was my take, anyway.
I climbed onto the bed, lay down, and turned on my phone. My fingers went straight to the food delivery app, of course. Magical Girls and voice actresses alike still need to eat to live.
"Siyeon, want anything?"
"Ummm…"
A short, simple question met a long, drawn-out hum of deliberation.
"Anything!"
And at the end of all that thinking: the non-answer of "anything." Surrendering the decision and dumping it on me. Even so, I couldn't exactly order something kids can't eat.
Anything, anything…
Too many options is its own kind of misery. A supposedly wide menu that is actually a narrow one-way road. Nothing too spicy, and nothing like raw fish that you only crave now and then — those drop off the list when Siyeon's eating with you. Why not just order two things? Because that precious delivery fee doubles, that's why!
Uggghhh…
Ten minutes in. Still no decision, thumb scrolling forever. Was food always this hard to pick when you had a kid to feed?
After a long struggle, I settled on something safe for all ages… well, maybe not quite, but safe enough: pork cutlet. The kind that comes with Western-style sauce in a separate packet — peak kid-taste territory. Order quantity: four. Why? Because we needed something for breakfast before school tomorrow.
I carefully set aside two of the delivery tonkatsu lunch boxes and cracked open the other two for dinner. After the meal, nine o'clock — bedtime for good children. Lying down without earplugs was a comfort beyond words.
"…!! —!"
"—!! —!!"
Agitated male and female voices carried through the curtains covering the balcony. It sounded like a fight. Wondering what was going on, I rubbed my eyes and sat up. First, though, I grabbed my phone and squinted one eye open to check the time.
Five in the morning. Too late to fall back asleep, too early to fully get up.
Careful not to let the noise reach Siyeon too loudly, I climbed down the bed ladder, slipped on kids' slippers, and cracked the curtains to step out onto the balcony. Summer was approaching, but the dawn wind blew cold. Once I was out there, the muffled argument beyond the curtains finally took clear shape as actual words.
"Is this your fucking front yard, you crazy bitch?! If you feel so sorry for the mangy strays, take them home and raise them yourself!"
"What's wrong with feeding cats?! Why does it bother you so much?!"
Seemed like the person who'd put up that warning notice a while back. The upstairs auntie and a man in a tank top and shorts were going at it in front of the apartment building. Just as expected — the drama had finally kicked off. And I got to watch this thrilling show with my own eyes.
Peak entertainment.
Suddenly, a five a.m. wake-up didn't feel wasted at all. The all-out, no-quarter war of words between the auntie and the uncle made my heart race. Obviously, I was rooting for the uncle.
"Oh yeah?! Then if any of these cars get scratched, I can just bill you for all of it, right? Where do you live, you lunatic?! Don't even try saying you don't live here — I saw you go into Building 105!"
"Why are people so heartless?!"
"Oh, so your heart is overflowing, which is why you dump food those cats won't even eat, breeding maggots and stinking up the place?! Is that how your mother raised you? Round up a bunch of cats you won't even adopt and screw over everyone around you?!"
"……"
His unbroken barrage left no room to squeeze a word in. The auntie went silent as a mute who'd swallowed honey. Guess she hadn't seen the mom insult coming? Seizing the opening of her sealed lips, the uncle drove harder, bellowing even louder.
"Tell me where you live, you fucking bitch!"
"Fine! I'm not giving you any more! Happy now?!"
And with that, the auntie fled, unable to contain her rage — end of round.
"Hah, damn…"
An involuntary vocalization of pure admiration slipped out. From my balcony vantage, I offered him a silent round of applause and a respect and praise I scarcely dared put into words.
A man who defeats the monsters Magical Girls can't touch — that is the true hero of our age.