1. You Should Have Thought About the Consequences (1)
Peregrine Falcon. A peregrine falcon.
Officially, the fastest bird in the sky.
When I opened my eyes, I had become Peregrine, the Magical Girl who boasts the highest speed.
The fastest and most reliable Magical Girl the Association takes pride in, that is.
"Ah, well, strictly speaking, she's not a girl. The concept of age is different from humans."
"That's not what matters. Looking at this body right now...."
"By age alone, she's clearly an adult. It's just that, for the citizens' easy understanding, they call her a Magical Girl."
I was dumbfounded by the unfamiliar words.
"Anyway, if a Magical Girl doesn't periodically lay eggs, her body breaks down.... Are you listening?"
"Wait, my head can't keep up."
"You can look at me like that, but this is reality."
The woman who kept repeating those indifferent words to me as I sat there in shock was An Gi-yeon.
Without hesitation, she kept forcing reality on me while I struggled to process it.
Egg-Laying Season.
Magical Girls are like city idols who drink only dew and splendidly defeat Aberrations.
Magical Girls have nothing to do with laying eggs, right?
More than that, why is my body like this?
Is this something you can just deliver as a one-sided notice? What about the consent of the person involved?
"Do I look calm right now?!"
"Mr. Yu Seong-woo...."
"No, a perfectly fine adult man has now become a Magical Girl?!"
"If you insist on being precise, it's a Tactical Weapon...."
"That's not what I'm talking about!"
Bang—no, thump.
I slammed the desk with all my strength, but the sound that came out was cute to the point of being pathetic.
I struggled to suppress my emotions and seethed.
My smaller hand trembled on the desk. The voice I let out sounded frail, too.
At this rate, it's nothing more or less than yapping.
Once reason returned in the now-quiet private hospital room, I began to examine my body.
I flexed my delicate fingers open and shut. The room felt wide because I had gotten shorter.
Along with a somehow lighter body, the hair blocking my vision swayed.
A thin voice I'd never heard in my life and a much lower line of sight.
Everything had changed, down to the chest that rose softly and felt somehow alien.
There was no trace left anywhere of the adult man Yu Seong-woo.
The world was the same, but I alone had gotten smaller.
When I lifted my head, even the unfamiliar ceiling felt far away, so I collapsed back onto the bed.
This woman An Gi-yeon seemed to be trying to force her way through the current situation somehow.
"Don't make me laugh. Who said I'd do something like being a Magical Girl...."
Covering my face with my hands in bewilderment, I pressed firmly, firmly on my eyelids.
It was an emotion a little different from sadness or sorrow. Something like unfamiliarity and bewilderment.
When those emotions crossed the line, I nearly burst into tears.
"Your body is still recovering. So please calm down a little...."
"This isn't a situation where I can calm down. Put yourself in my shoes!"
"Even if you say that...."
The statement that followed the silence hit me in the gut.
"Didn't you personally consent and sign the contract, Mr. Yu Seong-woo?"
"I did?"
"I thought you might react like this, so I prepared a copy of the contract. Here."
"No, wait."
"It's your signature, isn't it? Grade 1 Association Partner, 27-year-old adult male Yu Seong-woo."
"I have no memory of signing a document like this...."
"I'll explain your own requests as well. This should help you understand a bit."
An Gi-yeon soon turned to the next page of the contract and drew a line across the copy.
One. Yu Seong-woo promises to take over for Peregrine, the Magical Girl he was in charge of.
Two. He consents to the erasure of memories concerning the previous Peregrine and Yu Seong-woo's contract details and activities, and any future contracts to be made.
I voluntarily agreed to become a Magical Girl?
And a Tactical Weapon that has to lay eggs, no—a Magical Girl?
"Did you threaten me or something? Why would I agree to a contract like this when I was getting along perfectly fine?"
"There was absolutely no threat."
"Then there's no reason to go looking for trouble."
"At the time, you said you wanted to atone to Peregrine, the Magical Girl you had been assigned to."
"...."
"First, I'll proceed with the paperwork. Is that all right...?"
That was the full story of how Yu Seong-woo became a Magical Girl.
Yu Seong-woo was a Partner affiliated with the Association, handling Magical Girls.
And as a Grade 1, he was doing quite well for himself, with a promising career ahead of him.
I could remember everything up to that point clearly.
But whenever I tried to remember my previous partner, Peregrine, my memories scattered like broken film.
Memory Erasure.
The last safety net for those who cannot endure post-traumatic stress disorder, so-called PTSD.
Something major happened to me before signing the contract, and because I couldn't handle it, I voluntarily requested Memory Erasure...
That was as far as I could piece things together in my head.
"And from this moment on, Yu Seong-woo's records will be placed under the Association's management."
"So what happens?"
"All disclosure and leakage of information related to Yu Seong-woo will be restricted."
"So you're saying that even telling me about myself is now a violation of regulations?"
[You've become a Magical Girl managed by the Association. Don't ask, don't argue, just follow along!]
[Because you personally agreed to it!]
You're telling me to just trust these words and follow?
If that's the case, I absolutely, absolutely cannot accept it.
So bewildered, I kept wiping my face.
Throughout the hellish paperwork process, I couldn't concentrate on anything.
"Then, the immediately necessary procedures end here."
"Haaaah...."
"If you rest for a few days, the Association's temporary Partner will come find you."
"I'm not mentally ready to accept this yet."
"I understand it's awkward, but you have to accept it."
"It's reality."
At that one word from An Gi-yeon, I straightened my back.
Even when I tried to raise my voice, the thin voice only got a little louder.
Just as I was about to conclude that any resistance in this body was nothing but a pathetic act of defiance, An Gi-yeon stood up.
"Take care of yourself! And make sure to check the enclosed documents as well."
"Excuse me, An Gi-yeon. Wait a moment."
"You absolutely must check them. Magical Girls are more finicky than you'd think. You understand, right?"
"The documents aren't what's important right now. With a body like this... what, what am I supposed to do?"
"Well then, goodbye!"
Creeeak, thud.
The door closed, casually cutting off my questions and complaints.
I staggered to my feet from the hospital bed.
I roughly yanked out the IV needle attached to my arm and forced myself to walk.
"Hssss..., even walking feels weird. How am I supposed to adapt to a body like this..."
The mismatch between the stride my mind remembered and the one my body produced felt like trying to dance a foxtrot for the first time.
In the hospital room where only the irregular patter of my soles echoed, I barely managed to grab the door.
Of course, when I opened the door, An Gi-yeon was nowhere to be seen.
───
How many cases could there possibly be in life of being notified that you will become a Magical Girl?
The answer to that was provided by the stack of documents sitting alone on the hospital room desk.
"The moment I start accepting this, I'm giving up my dignity. The documents... whether it's the terms or whatever, there has to be a loophole."
There has to be a loophole in the terms document. There's bound to be at least one unfair condition.
I'm going to brand you all as a completely grotesque group. If necessary, I'll even take it public.
Do you think Yu Seong-woo is going to be scared by some clumsy threatening clause?
"...."
Suddenly, I lifted the document I was reading.
The legs and feet that made a light pattering sound instead of my old heavy tread felt endlessly unfamiliar.
When I wiggled my toes a couple of times and fidgeted, my calves swayed before my eyes.
My legs shone white in the light from beyond the window, and the bed creaked faintly with every movement.
The soft movement filled me with an instinctive physical revulsion.
It'll take time for my head to adapt to my body, so let's leave that for now and finish going through the documents.
Yu Seong-woo relinquishes his existing name and becomes the Tactical Weapon, hereinafter Magical Girl 'Peregrine'.
This confirms that it was done under your approval. Signature, Yu Seong-woo...
Table of contents. Magical Girl identity and regulations.
Form and external changes.
Regarding abilities and habits.
I carefully read through the table of contents, one item at a time.
If only out of a sense of injustice, I read with focus, not skipping a single thing.
That woman An Gi-yeon doesn't seem to have any intention of helping me anyway.
If it's come to this, I'll have to find my own way to survive.
Hierarchy between Partner and Magical Girl.
Rights of Partner and Magical Girl.
Egg-Laying Season.
Snap.
While reading the table of contents, I closed the document.
Ah, no....
Just now, I felt like I'd glimpsed into an abyss.
Like looking into a dark cave and meeting eyes with something inside it.
I must have misread it. If I close the document and look again, it'll be a perfectly normal word.
Egg-Laying Season.
Snap.
I closed the document again.
Let's flip it open one more time a little later.
I must have misread it because I'm confused....
[Please come back, Peregrine!]
[Peregrine, I miss you!]
[She was the best. Because she always flew faster than anyone!]
My gaze, tired from reading the documents, naturally drifted to the TV news that had been on for a while.
A special feature headline shone in huge letters and caught my eye.
[Grade 1 Partner Yu Seong-woo killed in the line of duty. His Partner, Magical Girl Peregrine, is currently unconscious.]
It was about me.
More precisely, it was about Peregrine, as described in the documents.
Peregrine flew up faster than anyone, then dove straight down to defeat Aberrations.
The citizens on the screen were longing for Peregrine, who had smiled brightly through every hardship.
A child who had clumsily drawn Peregrine on a sheet of paper was being interviewed through tears.
That the Magical Girl would definitely come back.
That Magical Girls never fall.
I watched Peregrine on the screen, shining just before the incident.
Then I looked again at the haggard Peregrine reflected in the mirror.
Even though it was the same body, the contrast was stark.
Even when I forced the corners of my mouth up, there was no bright vitality in the reflection.
If I say I can't do it.
If Peregrine disappears from the city like that.
What am I supposed to say to the people waiting desperately?
[You can overcome this, Peregrine!]
[Because you shine brighter than any other Magical Girl!]
As if.
The Peregrine you're looking for doesn't exist, and Yu Seong-woo is trapped in that body without knowing why.
There's no way a brightly shining Magical Girl can come back.
"...."
First, let's confront them when they come.
What exactly is going on. What I'm supposed to do.
Don't just suddenly say I'll be a Magical Girl.
First, start over from the beginning and assess the situation.
Is it because I've changed into this unfamiliar body?
I had barely worked myself up at all, yet drowsiness was already starting to wash over me.