What Is a Magical Girl, Really? (3)
“…Yeah, I think I get the situation now.”
Ever since the little kid showed up, the three of us had been stuck giving one long explanation after another. If we hadn’t, I would’ve instantly turned into some pervert with weird tastes.
“Anyway, you need to explain something to me.”
“What is it?”
“Why did you leave me out of the weekend outing?”
On top of that, we had to soothe the little kid’s sulky feelings. Seriously, why didn’t you think about her from the start? Class president. Mijung’s friend.
All I did was see the kids wanting to play and say, “Sure, go ahead.” I naturally assumed the little kid would come too. Therefore, I am innocent.
“Whatever. Since I’m here now, teach me too, sis. What were you doing today?”
The little kid’s anger seemed to have cooled off a bit compared to earlier, because she asked about today’s lesson.
“Today we covered various things about how magical girls transform. You already know most of it.”
After speaking, I glanced at Salbyeol, who was fluttering around the little kid. I wasn’t sure how far he’d taken her training, but he’d probably used my class as reference to figure out what parts she needed. Since I’d already talked about the Kernel of magical girls before, he must have gone into more detail on that. As a supplement to my explanation.
“Y-yes… we did go a little further ahead… yoyo.”
See? True to his subtle obsession with his partner’s growth, Salbyeol confessed that they’d already progressed beyond what I’d taught. In that case… hmm.
What did the kids and the little one need? If there was nothing specific, sparring was always the best option. It was about time for them to get a real feel for their own abilities. Of course, this was also partly because it was easier on me. Sparring consumed less energy than talking nonstop.
But today’s dream had been unusually intense, so I’d probably have to pass. My mood was bad, but my physical condition wasn’t, so I could still hold out a bit longer. Therefore, let’s not go the easy route for myself.
I gazed briefly at the rain falling outside the training hall.
“Huuam…”
While watching the merciless downpour and wondering what would be best for the three little chicks, the chick senior I’d met last week came to mind. It felt a little early for the second week of May, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. As someone had said, I had to take responsibility.
Okay. Let’s go with this.
“I have one question. What kind of magical girl do you all want to become? Class president, want to answer first?”
“Uh… huh? Suddenly? That question caught me off guard.”
The kids, not understanding my intention, looked slightly flustered at the question, but they still began thinking seriously one by one.
The class president pondered for a moment but answered right away, as if it was a topic she’d considered for a long time.
“Like I said before, I admire Lady Red Star… I did mistakenly think she was a close-combat fighter, but anyway, I wanted to become a magical girl who protects people. I wanted to have outstanding combat power if possible, but now I don’t really care what it is.”
“…Is that so? What about the lance you have now?”
“The lance…”
The class president’s current Unique Weapon, the lance. It was a very burdensome form for a beginner to wield. It looked about 170 centimeters long—thinner and lighter than most other magical girls’ lances—but it was still unmistakably a lance.
A lance, which excelled at thrusting, was literally specialized for a single piercing strike. No. Saying it was specialized wasn’t enough. A lance was created solely for that purpose from the beginning. Made to disrupt enemy formations with the momentum of a charging horse, a lance was undoubtedly more powerful than any other weapon when it came to thrusting.
However,
“It feels like the lance doesn’t match your current style, class president. Of course your skills have improved a lot since the beginning, and you’re doing fine now, but it seems like you’re forcing your body to fit the lance.”
“Is that how it looks?”
“Have you never felt like the various strategic ideas that pop into your head were blocked by the lance?”
“Yeah. Saying I haven’t would be a lie.”
A lance was useless except for thrusting. Even the act of thrusting required quite a few conditions to succeed. You needed enough distance to thrust first, and you had to pay attention so the target didn’t move out of the attack’s trajectory. Thrusting was a point attack, so compared to a slashing surface attack, the range for inflicting effective damage was inevitably smaller. It didn’t matter if the target didn’t move, but there was no way a monster would just stand there and take the hit.
Even if the attack failed, the risk was huge. The motion of thrusting a long spear hard required various muscles, so many openings were exposed after the attack. In other words, a lance was an extremely difficult weapon to use unless the situation was just right. It was a high-risk, high-return weapon.
That made it hard for beginners to use and even harder to master. Even skilled magical girls sometimes made mistakes with it, so a lance was something I couldn’t recommend unless it truly connected with one’s Root.
“Sometimes I wonder if things would be different if I held a different weapon instead of a lance, but that’s really just an excuse, isn’t it? Instead of blaming the weapon, I should just work harder.”
“No. You can blame it.”
“Huh?”
Because my answer was the opposite of what she expected, the class president’s brown hair swayed. I continued.
“You don’t want to become a magical girl who’s good at using a lance, right?”
“Hmm… what I want to be is a strong and cool magical girl. A lance is cool and powerful, but…”
“There’s no need for it to be a lance?”
“Yeah. A sword would be fine, or even a thin spear. Switching to a pure magic type without a weapon at all seems okay too.”
“Then that settles it.”
“…You’re telling me to change my Unique Weapon?”
“Yes.”
Not only the class president but also Miju’s friend and the little kid all wore dumbfounded expressions. Changing a magical girl’s Unique Weapon wasn’t an easy thing, so their reaction was natural. Only Salbyeol landed on my shoulder and expressed approval. Of course, the kids except for the little one probably couldn’t see this chubby brown long-tailed tit.
“Well… if Jihye says it’s possible, then it must be. So what should I use? Would a plain sword be the safest? Like Lady Red Star?”
“O-or how about a hammer, Seyeol?”
“That sounds good. Smashing things with a big hammer, bang bang, would be nice too?”
“What about a crowbar, sis?”
“A crowbar…?”
As if she’d been waiting for that word the entire time, the little kid jumped into the conversation with an extremely excited voice.
“It’s kinda cool, right? Taking down monsters with a crowbar from a construction site.”
“Y-Yuri knows about crowbars too…. But a crowbar feels a bit scary…”
“Why? Swords and hammers are scary enough, so why not a crowbar?”
The little kid had a strange obsession with crowbars. Just what kind of weird magical girl had she seen? A magical girl who used a crowbar. Just imagining it was horrifying. Unless it was some middle-aged uncle, a crowbar was a bit… off, wasn’t it? No matter how open-minded I was from meeting all sorts of magical girls, a crowbar as a Unique Weapon was a no.
While the kids chattered among themselves, I quietly asked Salbyeol on my shoulder.
“What did you show the little kid?”
“Eh? I didn’t show her anything yoyo?”
Look at him turning his head clockwise while playing innocent.
“Look at that little kid passionately ranting. Look at her trying to convert the class president to crowbars. Huh? You really didn’t show her anything? With this much passion, you might as well change the little kid’s Unique Weapon to a crowbar. What have you been doing all this time?”
“Unique Weapons aren’t something I can just change because I want to yoyo. And I did show her one comic, but I never expected her to get this obsessed…”
“Comic? You don’t mean that one, do you?”
“Ah… hahaha. Tweet tweet.”
The comic that had been hugely popular in Magica, Magical Girl Crowbar Girl. I’d read it sometimes when I was bored too.
“That’s not for kids.”
“I suppose not yoyo?”
“How did you even show it to her in the first place? It’s not something from Earth.”
“The… spatial storage magic ended up using the same coordinates as when used in Magica yoyo? So I thought I’d kill some time reading comics on the weekends, but Lady Yuri caught me and…”
Tap.
Even with the very happy news that spatial storage magic worked on Earth with almost no difference from Magica, I couldn’t hold back the headache rushing in.
“How old is the little kid this year?”
“Fourteen yoyo.”
“How could you show something like that to a kid!”
“Then what about you, Lady Cosmo? You didn’t play with Lady Yuri on the weekends yoyo!”
Ugh.
Salbyeol began scolding me with even more intensity now that I was at a loss for words.
“It was time for our Yuri to rest, but because you didn’t take her, she ended up alone with me in the dorm just reading comics yoyo! Only comics yoyo!”
“Okay. It’s my fault.”
“Only comics yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyo!”
This damn bird. Why is he being such a pain today? Because he was perched on my shoulder, the pig-bird’s screeching went straight into my ear. Even with my dulled senses it was hard to endure, so I eventually tried to shoo the bird away with my hand. But the little guy showed no sign of leaving as he darted around my ear with flashy movements.
“J-Jihye… what are you doing?”
“Is she really not feeling well today…?”
“……”
To the kids it probably looked like I was waving my hands at thin air like someone possessed, but you’re not fooled, are you, little kid? Instead of just watching from over there, do something. He’s your mascot.
Tweet tweet tweet! Ah, so noisy.