Forensic Examination
"Ah. Just grab one."
A woman in plainclothes picked out a canned coffee at the convenience store and headed for the counter. Her gaze darted momentarily to the refrigerated drinks, then withdrew.
"Checking out."
Having shed the transformation costume that declared her identity as a magical girl, she casually probed the clerk for information.
"I heard it got really loud around here last night?"
"Oh, that? I don't know what happened with the clock tower, but from what I could see, it looked like some kind of emergency repair... Though honestly, who runs construction in the middle of the night? And then, maybe there was an accident on top of it, because they cordoned off the whole area and kept telling people to take the long way around. And also—"
Jeong Sea had gotten the answer she needed ages ago, but since asking had apparently been a crime, she simply stood there and listened.
"You can throw away the receipt."
Smiling all the way out of the store, she was met by Hayeon outside.
"What did they say?"
Jeong Sea looked at her tank, hands jammed in her pockets, shivering from the cold.
"They're calling it construction."
"Ooooh. It worked like a charm."
"Of course it did. Who do you think I am?"
Magical Multi-Cognitive Correction — the wide-area spell cast by the genius Jeong Sea. Thanks to it, even though half the plaza had been blown away, the locals were complaining only about construction damage.
"Then this place is handled. Let's head over there."
Han Yuha led the way toward the plaza.
"Let's gooo! Time for some forensic science!"
"Ah! Hot, hot!"
Jeong Sea bounded after her and, riding her high, shoved the buy-one-get-one canned coffee into the tank's pocket.
"We're here to lay some gravel."
Two girls in hard hats and fluorescent vests.
"What's this? Here to patch some holes?"
At the foreman's words, Hayeon — pushing a cart loaded with cement bags — nodded along eagerly.
"C'mon now. Times are tough for everyone these days. Gotta share the work, right?"
Jeong Sea rolled up the money she'd set aside for meals and pressed it into the foreman's fingers.
"See? That's why you gotta use your head."
Assigned to a nice easy spot, the two of them moved into the interior of the plaza. Weaving between busy workers, they parked the cart they'd hauled over in one corner.
"Wow. Surviving this was a miracle."
The top of the clock tower had collapsed entirely, and the stone pavement was fractured in a radial pattern. While Hayeon stacked the cement bags neatly off to one side, Jeong Sea crouched down and murmured softly.
"Magical Search."
A lattice sphere spread outward from her. Once she'd finished collecting data, Jeong Sea extended her gloved hand forward. Slowly rotating it counterclockwise, the things around her began to move in reverse.
"See anything?"
Hayeon, work done, came over to Jeong Sea, who was sweating through it.
"The clock tower."
At that, Hayeon examined the clock tower's remains and snapped off a piece of steel framing.
"Evidence secured."
A twisted steel beam shaped by a hand. Jeong Sea fired off a magical light source and studied the five charred fingermarks closely.
"Powder."
At her word, Hayeon handed over fine magical dust and an examination brush with the practiced skill of a seasoned assistant.
"Good. There's not a single clean print left, but for a genius like me? That's nothing."
Jeong Sea pressed fingerprint transfer tape smoothly over the developed prints, then peeled it away.
"Done."
"Wow. Not even one air bubble."
"Obviously. Who do you think did it?"
Hayeon filled in the case number, collection time, and location on the fingerprint card, tucked it into her bag, then spoke up.
"Hey, could you replace my phone screen protector later?"
Jeong Sea rolled her eyes. Hayeon clasped her hands together and shot her big, pleading puppy-dog eyes. Jeong Sea finally relented.
"You moved the cement already?"
"Yes. All of it."
Jeong Sea nodded along at the foreman's words.
"Kids these days, quick at everything they do. Here — your materials fee."
A thick envelope changed hands.
"Yes, sir. Thank you!"
"Come back and see us."
The two girls gave a crisp bow. All they'd done was move things from over there to over here, yet they walked off having recouped dozens of times what they'd paid the foreman.
"Whoa. What did they carve this out with?"
Jeong Sea examined the cross-section closely. A hole the size of a fist had been punched clean through the wall. Someone with skill like that could have rounded up all the money in the world.
"Hearing you say it, same. That technique is kind of making me jealous."
"Hayeon. Come look at this."
"Hm?"
Jeong Sea was squinting at an outdoor air conditioning unit sitting on top of the recycling pile.
"Doesn't this seem weird?"
Hayeon looked up, and torn-away marks came into view. Judging by the fresh gashes, someone had grabbed at the thing, and the unit sitting on top of it had clearly fallen down to this spot. Thank goodness it had broken down in winter, or so it seemed.
After mulling it over for a long while, Jeong Sea turned to Hayeon as if searching for an answer.
"Do air conditioners count as recyclable?"
"......."
Hayeon was reminded that being a genius in one field didn't make you one in all of them. Flashbacks to the soggy-versus-crispy fried chicken debate, where she'd been trounced horrifically, surfaced in her mind — so she decided to just let it slide.
"If you say so, it must be right, right?"
Jeong Sea nodded along and went on.
"Some people read through academic papers before throwing away a single tiny piece of trash, and this person just dumped something this big right here."
"Not your average joe."
Hayeon nodded vaguely along.
"Right. These are the traces left by a Highest-Ranking Commander."
Hayeon nodded out of habit — then froze. Wait, what?
"Hold on. What kind of logic is that? Doesn't something seem to be missing in the middle? You know, a syllogism."
Hayeon asked for a more detailed explanation, but Jeong Sea just waved her off — good grief — and dodged the question.
"Sea. She's right."
Han Yuha appeared before them. The team leader, her left arm bandaged and bound all the way up to her shoulder, backed Sea's point.
"Unnie. You're up and moving already?"
"I'm fine. Lying around in a hospital bed only runs up the bill — it doesn't earn me a cent."
The hole in her shoulder had been closed by the healer overnight, but she'd said the mana circuits couldn't be reconnected yet.
"Look at this."
Yuha caressed the shape gouged into the alley wall as if someone had taken their frustrations out on it.
"The Highest-Ranking Commander targeted me — willing to throw away one of their own pawns to do it."
Two deep gouges were carved into the wall's surface.
"And even so, they didn't get what they wanted."
One slash diagonal. One slash horizontal.
"This is them venting their anger — and a warning aimed at us."
Hayeon hugged her arms around herself, shivering.
"Wh-what does it mean?"
"It means: if I wanted to, I could do this to you anytime. But I chose not to."
Jeong Sea grabbed her senior by the collar.
"Unnie. Can I sleep over with you tonight?"
"Unnie—!"
An excited voice rang out through the magical girl residence on the outskirts. It was Hyun Seorin, back from her dispatched duty.
"There you are, our Seorin."
Han Yuha raised her one good arm and pulled the boy straight into an embrace.
"I'm sorry."
"You didn't do a single thing wrong."
Han Yuha pulled him in tighter, until he could hardly breathe. Buried against her soft chest, Hyun Seorin nearly wanted to fall asleep right there, soothed by the lovely scent rising from her skin.
"Wow... Unnie. I told you, over and over, that I was scared."
Jeong Sea, changed into pajamas, glared at Hyun Seorin with a sulking expression.
"......."
"See? I told you this kid needs some serious coddling right now."
A magical girl's power was governed by her fluctuating emotions. The depth of feeling made a marked difference in that power's strength — and negative emotions, in particular, were the easiest way to feed it.
That was why quite a few magical girls had coveted that power, only to cross the threshold and become monsters in the end.
"I believe that you're the one who's going to lead us."
She whispered it to the boy in her arms, then gave his backside a firm smack.
"Now go wash up, chop chop!"
Having sent Hyun Seorin off, Han Yuha held out her hand.
"No way."
Jeong Sea had turned her head away, but her eyes still wouldn't let go of him.
"Oh!"
Seeing her chance, Paeng Hayeon bolted toward Han Yuha.
"Se—"
"Hold it right there! Get off me!"
In the end, Han Yuha was seized from both sides by the two of them. Jeong Sea muttered quietly from the sidelines.
"I mean, it IS favoritism."
"Totally! Seorin gets all the easy jobs, while me and Sea get worked to the bone!"
When night fell, the unnie had so much more to do. Instead of answering, Han Yuha gave both girls a light pat on the back.
"Oh, right."
Digging through his pocket to run the washing machine, Hyun Seorin pulled out a note.
Ugh. I meant to bring this up yesterday, but the moment I walked in, it slipped my mind.
Fair enough, maybe — but forgetting this completely? Still, there was a certain hey— kind of power in that thing that could turn a person into an idiot.
"Oh, Oppa, you can go in and rest."
Healer magical girl Yeon Ari. His junior, who'd joined a single day after him.
"No. I should do my share."
"Um, actually..."
"Hm? What is it?"
"This one, I'll wash separately."
Jeong Sea had sternly warned him that her laundry must never, under any circumstances, be mixed with Hyun Seorin's.
"Then finish up for me, okay? I'm going to go see Unnie for a bit."
Staring blankly after Hyun Seorin as he left, Yeon Ari decided she would wash the two of their underwear first.
"Look at this."
A thoroughly crumpled piece of paper. A receipt tossed away by a convenience store part-timer, with lines written down after he'd asked her for anything she had on hand.
Western Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sector 3. Kaijin appearance imminent. Time is—
"What is this?"
Jeong Sea, standing beside Han Yuha, shot back aggressively.
"Can't you read? It's vital intelligence."
"This? You're bringing THIS to our heavenly Unnie? You want a taste of my brain-to-mouth ratio, huh? Huh?!"
Once Han Yuha had calmed Jeong Sea down — biased as she was toward exactly one person — she asked, step by careful step.
"Where did this information come from?"
"Huh? I got it by chance during yesterday's operation. Um... how do I put it. It's a tip-off."
Jeong Sea, standing nearby, quietly chanted a detection spell over and over.
"Unnie, it's safe."
Han Yuha nodded and stared at the paper.
Written on it, in meticulous detail, were the location and time the kaijin would appear, their stats, their weaknesses, and more. It was close to a week's worth of precognition of the future.
"This is... impossible."
One day, an enemy would appear out of nowhere, harm people, and crumble society's infrastructure. Magical girls would receive the alert, rush to the scene, and deal with them.
—You could have done it faster!
—You could have stopped this sooner!
The government had steadily whittled away the rewards they were owed, citing one excuse after another. She'd known it was unreasonable, unfair — but the single fact that magical girls could become monsters outweighed all of it.
Every last bit of it, the magical girls had been forced to carry.
"Unnie, is this for real? Unnie?"
Even at Paeng Hayeon's repeated calls, Han Yuha couldn't easily pull herself out of her thoughts.
PRE-CURE SYSTEM.
The Pre-Cure System.
Because the ideal she had always dreamed of was flickering right there before her eyes.