Chapter 103
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Magical Girl and Monster
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"A...?"
Light returned to Seiki's pitch-black world.
Not completely, but her vision was gradually coming back, bit by bit.
"Crazy..."
As soon as she came to her senses, Seiki spat out a curse. She still couldn't believe it.
It was the first time.
No, the second time.
The first time she'd completely lost consciousness from taking a magic hit.
'How am I doing right now...?'
Seiki quickly checked her own condition.
She couldn't feel the top-tier defensive spell she'd cast. It had probably oxidized completely after taking that hit just moments ago.
Her body wouldn't move an inch. With no sensation at all, it felt like it belonged to someone else.
Her brain had forcibly shut down her senses to cope with pain beyond her limits.
Well, it was only natural. It had been powerful enough to knock her out cold.
This wasn't an unfamiliar sensation, either. She'd experienced it once before during her Magical upset against the Magical Girl White Phoenix.
Based on her Magical biological clock, she hadn't been out for long. A few seconds at most.
She still couldn't move, but it wasn't all bad. Her vision was starting to clear, which meant she was recovering in her own way.
She could see the ceiling, so she must be lying down.
There was no depth perception, so it didn't feel real─
'Huh...?'
Why was there no depth perception?
It was weird. Her eyes were open, but the world that should have felt three-dimensional looked flat as a painting.
Even with no sensation at all, there was a subtle emptiness from the eye she couldn't see out of.
Cold sweat trickled down.
She couldn't understand it. Kim Siyul's magic had hit her body. It had never hit her eye even once─
'No, it had.'
─it hadn't.
The first blow from the Blood Moon.
She'd lost one eye back then.
Aside from her half-vision being completely red, she'd had no issues seeing at the time. It should have been the same now.
At that moment, Seiki recalled the final instant.
'Definitely back then...'
The lingering magic in her body had been dyed black.
Black without a single speck of light.
Combine that with the fact that she'd taken a magic hit to one eye, plus the subtle, unpleasant emptiness she felt from that eye now...
One conclusion emerged.
'N-no way.'
Disintegration.
The part hit by attribute magic had vanished.
With that final black moon as the focal point.
Which meant...
'No, no!!!'
The rest of her wasn't intact either.
No wonder Kim Siyul kept casting spells that seemed ineffective. It all made sense now.
'N-no, it can't be.'
Still, Seiki desperately denied the assumption.
She lied to herself that it was just the hit area turning black like paint.
She couldn't bear it otherwise.
"Hoo."
At that moment, Kim Siyul let out a sigh and shoved his face into Seiki's half-vision.
"Is it because it's not fully formed yet? Or because you don't have an arm? You're way tougher than I expected..."
His tone dripped with disappointment.
He even wore a frustrated expression.
'Ha?'
Seiki was dumbfounded.
She had the highest Magical physical durability of anyone. It wasn't an exaggeration to say she transcended the physical limits of Magical Girls.
And that was her top-tier spell. Cast in a state far stronger than usual.
Yet he'd pierced it, and now what?
This wasn't a full-power spell?
She was tougher than expected?
'What the hell kind of monster is this guy?!'
But Seiki didn't voice her inner shock. Instead, she spat something else.
"You retard, what do you think you're gonna accomplish by bitching?"
Mockery.
Pure, unadulterated mockery meant solely to piss him off.
Kim Siyul silently looked down at her.
With his intact eye, unlike before.
As if daring her to keep talking.
That gaze pissed her off. It was revolting, looking down at her like that. Seiki twisted her lips even more grotesquely than before.
"That bitch isn't going anywhere anyway!"
Seiki had never intended to admit defeat in the first place.
Not her hollow loss.
Not the Magical Ikusa Battle outcome.
"What you did is just Magical wasted effort!"
Truth be told, the fight itself wasn't fair.
Seiki beating Kim Siyul was a given, so taking all the spoils was Magical foregone conclusion.
But suppose, just suppose, Seiki actually lost to Kim Siyul?
So what?
Nothing changed.
"You think I'll cancel my vacation just because I lost? Why the hell would I? I already announced it!"
Seiki had no intention of canceling her vacation.
If she lost, she'd just stall things out and sneak off on vacation anyway.
What could they do about her grievances?
Seiki just needed to hold out a few days.
"If you're jealous, you should've taken your vacation sooner! What business is it of yours if I go on mine?!"
Others' mockery and criticism?
She never cared about that crap.
Devious and underhanded?
Just sore losers jealous of her smarts.
Not fair?
Why the hell should she fight fair?
Kim Siyul still gazed down at her impassively. As if to say, keep talking if you have more.
Seiki smirked at him.
"If you hand over your shares, I might consider canceling."
Of course, she'd only consider it. Seiki swallowed the rest and sneered.
She was curious. How would Kim Siyul react?
Would he yell and threaten? Offer shares to buy her off? Or whine to others about how unfair it was?
She looked forward to any of it.
She wouldn't cancel either way.
Perfect Magical shit-stirring.
"I've been thinking."
But Kim Siyul did neither. He just opened his mouth calmly, face expressionless.
"Vacation spots have a fixed number of slots, right?"
His intent was impossible to read.
But that changed nothing.
Seiki would go on vacation. Ray wouldn't.
"So? No matter what you do, that bastard isn't going!"
At that moment, Kim Siyul grinned.
"Why not?"
And he dropped to one knee beside her.
"We just need to free up one spot."
While stomping down on Seiki's throat with his other foot.
"Wha...?"
Seiki was shocked for two reasons.
First.
A faint snap as flesh tore slightly.
Right from the nape of her neck.
Yes. Kim Siyul had driven his sword into the nape of her neck.
And second.
'No way...!'
She realized what he meant.
His action just now made it clear.
If the vacation roster was full, just remove one person to open a spot.
In other words, Kim Siyul planned to kill her.
'W-wait a second...!'
Thinking back, his actions so far had been off.
The win condition for Magical Ikusa Battle was destroying each other's Magical weapons.
But.
During the fight with Seiki, Kim Siyul never once targeted her supply-issue magic wand.
Any damage to it was just fallout from blocking his spells.
He'd been aiming for Seiki herself from the start.
'Y-you psycho!'
This was just an extension of that Magical intent.
Having realized the truth, Seiki desperately called out to him.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Wait a sec!"
But Kim Siyul ignored whatever she said. He just said what he wanted.
"A sickle's useless as a weapon, but damn if it isn't perfect for cutting throats."
Soon, Kim Siyul gripped the sword embedded in her nape and smiled.
"So I figured I'd improvise something similar."
It was a somewhat awkward sickle.
The blade dug into her nape, but it was shorter and thinner than a proper one.
The firmly gripped hilt was the shaft, but far too short compared to a real sickle.
But.
"Eh, this works fine."
It was perfectly suited.
For reaping Seiki's life.
'This lunatic is for real!'
Publicly executing a Magical Girl like seppuku wasn't normal, but Kim Siyul didn't care and moved to do it immediately.
Like drinking water when thirsty.
Like eating when hungry.
Like sleeping when tired.
As if it were the most natural thing.
"W-wait! Hear me out!"
Seiki freaked out and rapidly worked her mouth. Scared he'd actually go through with it.
You needed to be alive to take a vacation. Dying here made it all pointless.
So Seiki was desperate.
"Listen to me!!!"
But.
"I-if you kill me, how are you gonna handle the Magical fallout?! It won't end with Magical arrest! You'll go straight to Magical prison!"
"Sounds good. I've always wanted prison."
The Magical risk warning.
"A-and! Even without me, the total Magical personnel won't change, so that bitch still can't go on vacation! Don't you get it?!"
"Really? Guess I'll find out."
The cold reality check.
"Hey! Hey! Your parents didn't raise you to do this! Won't you be ashamed to face them?!"
"I don't have parents, retard."
The emotional appeal invoking family.
Nothing worked. The best she managed was buying a few extra seconds of life—her sole Magical achievement.
In the end, Seiki threw a Magical Hail Mary.
"Figures, no wonder you're such a piece of shit. No parents to raise you right."
Magical provocation.
Of course, if it made him slit her throat, it'd be the ultimate own-goal.
But if it enraged him enough to start beating her?
She could buy recovery time.
"Or maybe they ditched you 'cause you're such a hopeless retard? If I birthed trash like you, I'd toss you in the Magical landfill."
Fortunately, sensation was returning, even if just a tiny bit. From experience, it wouldn't take long to move again.
But.
"That's why I'm gonna do some filial duty now."
Kim Siyul just calmly brushed it off.
"They must be pretty bored. I'll send them a chat buddy."
As he pressed harder with the foot on her throat.
Pressure built in her neck. Like a Magical peanut butter allergy flaring up.
Soon, a sharp blade dug into the flesh on the opposite side of her crushed throat.
Even through the numbness.
Excruciatingly vivid.
Death was closing in.
"I'm sorry!!!"
Seiki frantically apologized.
"I was wrong!!! P-please stop!!! I'll cancel the vacation right now─!!!"
"Bye."
It didn't work, naturally.
Seiki wondered.
Where exactly had she gone wrong?
From challenging Kim Siyul to Magical Ikusa Battle? From the day she bumped Ray's vacation? Or from the first time she'd met him?
At that moment, a Magical training lesson flashed in her mind.
─ "Always stay cautious against Monsters to the end. Some individuals' eyes change grotesquely, and they get extremely strong then."
She didn't know why, but her thoughts were spinning unusually clear now. No, this was normal thinking. Earlier had been the weird part.
Anyway, what came next?
─ "It happens very rarely to Magical Girls too. Don't get your hopes up, though. There are hardly any Magical cases."
If her memory was right, then...
─ "Oh, and this Magical phenomenon is temporary. Same for both Monsters and Magical Girls. Anyway, when facing one like that, everyone buy time with a Magical combined assault."
Then, when someone asked a question...
─ "What if you're alone? Unless you're as strong as a general-rank Magical Girl, there's only one thing to do."
And the end was definitely...
─ "Run for it. Unless you want to die."
As soon as she recalled it, Kim Siyul before her eyes looked different.
A Monster.
Terrifying.
Frightening.
Like the first time she'd faced one.
At that instant, the Monster in human skin quietly declared to Seiki.
The death sentence of one Magical Girl.
"Tell our parents I said hi."
'N-no! I don't wanna!'
She didn't want to die.
Even if it made her look ugly and cowardly, she wanted to live.
Seiki pleaded for her life with her wrecked face.
"P-please spare me..."
Of course, it was pointless.
"Why are you so damn tough? This is harder than I thought."
Seiki's desperate cry vanished without echo, buried under Kim Siyul's complaint.
Kim Siyul didn't use magic this time.
Yet Seiki's world began dyeing black again, just like before.
Dyeing in the color of death.
At that moment.
"What the hell are you two doing?!"
──!!!
There was light.