What Is a Magical Girl, Really? (4)
The story about the crowbar ends there. Now, how about you, Mijeong?”
“Y-you mean the crowbar…?”
“No, not the weapon. I’m asking what kind of magical girl you want to become.”
I must have changed the subject too abruptly. At some point the children had become more fixated on unique weapons than on their dreams of becoming magical girls. Since kids tend to latch onto the interesting side dishes rather than the dry main course, it’s common for the original purpose of a lesson to get lost like this.
Fortunately, the little chicks—including the runt—snap back to attention the moment I call them out.
“Um… well, you see…”
Unlike the class president, Mijeong’s friend took her time, hesitating. Since pressing her wouldn’t yield a good answer, I waited patiently for the child to speak.
Whether the silence helped or not, Mijeong’s friend eventually began talking, little by little.
“A-at first… it was just because they were pretty… so I wanted to become a m-magical girl. I don’t remember it well since I was so little, but I do remember how they… sparkled.”
That was the reason most children dreamed of becoming magical girls. The first spark wasn’t anything special. In the middle of thick dust and the metallic stench of blood, amid utter chaos, there was a single shining figure. Whether that figure protected them or saved someone else, the sight was so cool that it planted the seed of a dream in young hearts.
The more hopeless reality became, the more blinding that light called a magical girl appeared, drawing inevitable admiration. The children wanted to become that kind of person too. They wanted to be cool, beautiful, radiant beings. So they dreamed of becoming magical girls.
“…It’s not a very special story, is it?”
That’s right. It wasn’t a story different from anyone else’s. Not the class president’s, not Mijeong’s friend’s. At least, not from what they’d told me.
Even though I’d heard the answer, staying silent felt awkward, so I gently stroked Mijeong’s friend’s head and moved on.
“It’s fine. That’s perfectly normal. You don’t need some grand reason to become a magical girl.”
“Y-yeah!”
Her soft black hair felt pleasant against my palm.
“Then is it my turn now?”
“Oh, the runt.”
The kid jumped in the instant Mijeong’s friend finished. She was incredibly bold. Her expression overflowed with confidence, as if to say her answer would be completely different from the ones before. I found myself genuinely curious about what she would say.
“I became a magical girl so I could let everyone know that I’m the strongest magical girl!”
“Oh…”
“Y-Your confidence is so cool, Yuri…”
Oho.
“My goal is to become the greatest magical girl in history—one who will eventually surpass even Jihye unnie.”
“Not bad at all.”
I really liked the runt’s spirit. She boldly laid out her vision without the slightest hesitation. Among the three, hers was the purest, most primal, and most honest goal.
“Right?”
“Yeah. You’ll probably reach your Root easily.”
“…Root?”
“I’ll explain that now.”
What I was about to talk about concerned a magical girl’s talent. I had touched on it once with the chick senior, but this time I planned to go further. If they couldn’t understand this properly, surviving as magical girls in the future might become very difficult.
“Thank you, everyone. I know those weren’t easy answers to give on the spot. Now here’s the question. Why do you think I just asked what kind of magical girl you want to become?”
“Um… to ask about our future resolve… or something like that?”
“T-to help us remember our original intentions…?”
“Hmm…”
If even the runt couldn’t grasp it, it seemed Salbyeol hadn’t taught them this far. When I glanced sideways, the chubby bird was puffing out his chest with a proud look on his face. Sigh. You and I are going to have a talk later.
“…Haaam. Since it looks like you’re not getting it, I’ll ask differently. How can a magical girl use magic?”
When I changed the question, the runt seemed to know the answer this time and shouted confidently.
“The magical girl draws a magic circle that the Kernel can understand, the Kernel interprets it and sends it to the Core, and then the Core manifests the magic. What do you take us for? That was way too easy, unnie.”
“That’s correct based on what I’ve taught you so far. But haven’t you ever thought it was strange?”
“What was?”
“How exactly the Kernel understands magic. A magic circle is ultimately just a drawing. It uses points, lines, planes, and at most three-dimensional shapes, but it’s still just a picture. How can something as simple as a drawing or symbol possibly express magic?”
It was a question any magical girl might have wondered about at least once.
“Isn’t it like the circuits on an electronic board?”
The one who answered wasn’t the runt, but the class president.
“In class we learn what each line or shape drawn in a magic circle means. It’s just like a complex circuit. What Jihye teaches us isn’t all that different…”
The class president was right. In the academy, students were indeed taught to treat magic circles like electronic circuits, and they had to be taught that way. You couldn’t just scribble randomly and expect a fireball to fly out. To construct a fireball, you needed the correct strokes and circles. Teaching the meaning of each stroke wasn’t all that different from explaining how an electronic circuit works. Even now, I was teaching the children in exactly that manner, but…
“What the class president said is correct, but when you delve deeper into the Kernel, the meaning shifts a little. For now, let’s look at the most basic Magic Missile circle.”
Since my mana was too low and I might collapse if I tried it myself, I asked the mana-rich runt to construct it. A Magic Missile circle was drawn in the air, stopping right before activation. The fact that every motion was perfectly efficient showed just how hard Salbyeol and the runt had been working.
I pointed at part of the runt’s magic circle and asked.
“What does this stroke mean?”
“This stroke here transfers the mana inside the body to the magic circle.”
“Then what about this one?”
“Th-the large concentric circle drawn in the center… is n-needed to eject the mana forward…”
“And finally, the lines drawn toward the center?”
“They’re a device needed to lock the ejection direction forward. Unnie, you’ve been asking such obvious questions. We already mastered Magic Missile, you know.”
She was right. Having used Magic Missile over a thousand times by now, this level of knowledge was only natural.
“You’re both correct. There isn’t a single meaningless line or circle. But why does a concentric circle have the role of shooting mana forward? Couldn’t it be a different shape? Why specifically a concentric circle?”
“Because to make mana stretch forward, you naturally contain it in a circle and…”
“It’s a promise!”
Oh.
“A promise with whom?”
“W-with the Kernel…?”
“……One more praise sticker for Mijeong’s friend.”
“Y-yay!”
That makes three now? My memory’s a bit fuzzy. Mijeong’s friend definitely had a good sense for this kind of thing.
“Tch…”
“I can’t believe the question with the praise sticker was this one…”
It seemed neither the class president nor the runt had expected the sticker to go to Mijeong’s friend. That’s why I keep telling you to stay focused. …Though getting lots of stickers isn’t necessarily a good thing, if you want them that badly, you’ll have to sharpen your focus every time I ask a question.
“Just as Mijeong’s friend said, it’s a promise with the Kernel. On the Kernel’s side, it’s already decided what each line and pattern means. However, I didn’t bring this up just to say that.”
The basic principle of Unique Magic.
“What matters here is how that promise was made. Unlike physical laws, magic isn’t simply predetermined.”
It was the manifestation of will. More precisely, the expression of the mental image residing within a magical girl’s heart.
“A magical girl can change the meaning of a magic circle. It means it’s possible to set a different promise.”
“That’s possible?”
“I use magic that way myself. The magic circle I use for Magic Missile is quite different from yours.”
Unlike the children’s circles filled with complex lines and symbols, the Magic Missile circle I drew was extremely simple. A circumference and a single dot in the center. That was all.
“The reason you can change the meaning of a magic circle and go beyond that to build magic that no one else can imitate is this.”
Because you know your roots as a magical girl.
“The real reason you decided to become a magical girl. The goals, wishes, and dreams you want to achieve as one.”
People commonly bundle those things together and call them—
“The Root.”
The Root.
The mental foundation, the core psychological drive, desires, and dreams of a magical girl that defines her unique magic and weapon.
⟨ Root ⟩
✮✮✮
About a week had passed.
Since the day she suffered verbal violence disguised as “facts” from that arrogant freshman, every word that junior had spoken had dug deep into Lee Eunji’s chest and plunged her into deep thought.
—Senior, do you want to become a close-combat magical girl, or do you want to become an outstanding magical girl?
She had wanted to become an outstanding magical girl.
—Can you say with confidence that the answer you just gave is something you purely wanted, or did other factors force you into wanting it?
At first it had been that way. But as time passed, she had trapped herself inside the frame of “this is how it must be.”
Now she no longer knew what had made her dream of becoming a magical girl in the first place. She no longer knew what feelings she held while working as one now. She didn’t know anything anymore.
All because of just two questions.
Lee Eunji—a second-year student at the Magical Girl Academy, the one known as the Master of the Greatsword—had been in constant turmoil ever since that day.
There was nothing more confusing than doubting the path you had walked with absolute certainty. She no longer knew which way to go, where she currently stood, or even where she had started. It was as if she had lost every signpost.
In a swamp where the path was no longer a path, Lee Eunji could only thrash desperately so she wouldn’t sink.
“Can’t get your head together?”
It was the finals of the sparring exam. Even while lost in confusion, Lee Eunji had somehow clawed her way up through the losers’ bracket and once again faced her rival.
She swung her sword, but every strike was filled with hesitation. Her rival—the one called the Elementalist—Jang Hayeon, easily dodged them all and spoke.
“At this rate, it’s over.”
Magic of every attribute came flying. Fire, ice, earth… Lee Eunji endured by striking them all down. She hadn’t given up; she had simply lost her conviction. She kept cutting down, slicing apart, sometimes dodging, sometimes defending against every spell pouring toward her. She struggled with all her might to escape the swamp.
“It’s over now!”
With those words, a massive fireball flew toward her. It was her rival’s hidden ace, something she had never seen before. The scorching heat could be felt even from a distance; it was clearly an incredible strike. She had no means to counter it. No matter how she recalled every close-combat technique she knew or dug through all the magical knowledge she had learned, it was impossible.
This was the end.
—So think carefully about what your Root is. Once you figure it out, you’ll quickly awaken to your own talent as well.
The Root. That was what the junior had called it.
—Because a magical girl is the very embodiment of aspiration and dreams.
The dream she had passionately longed for. Her hopes and wishes. Her goal, the unchanging ideal and desire she had held since childhood. The true reason she had wanted to become a magical girl. It was…
“I finally feel like I’m being a little honest with myself.”
Lee Eunji spoke while recalling the finals. Rain poured down today. The noisy yet quiet sound of rain soaked into Lee Eunji’s heart. She had found her roots and escaped the swamp.