Still, I Hope You Live
"Hey, Baek Yuri, if you keep making that rotten pollack face all the time, you gonna look like a magical girl? More like the neighborhood ajusshi."
"Well, yeah. I am an ajusshi, though..."
"Lies again. How can someone this cute talk like an ajusshi?"
"Eugh... don't pinch my cheeks."
"How can cheeks be this soft and squishy?"
My senior—Shin Arin—was always like this.
She'd bulldoze her opinions on you and never listen to a word anyone else said.
She even kept forcing me to call her "senior."
Not that I hated her for it, though.
If it weren't for her, I'd already be doll chow by now.
Of course, I had my grievances. We were just built different from the start.
Shin Arin was a proper magical girl who fought with a magic wand.
My weapon? Gauntlets. My ability? Support buffs.
How the hell was I supposed to fight with these?
Magical girls were all about flashy spells shooting from wands, right?
But me? I was just a weak little bishoujo fighter.
Even Keter, my mascot, insisted this was the ideal form.
I got totally scammed on this contract.
If I'd known it'd turn out like this, I never would've signed.
"Be honest... wouldn't even you feel cheated if you were in my shoes?"
"What, still hung up on the magic wand?"
"You snipe from range all day, so you don't get the struggles of us melee scrubs. Ow."
My scalp throbbed. Would it kill her to ease up on the chestnuts?
"Melee magical girls are the strongest by nature."
"Says who?"
"The anime I watched?"
Well, sure.
In anime, yeah, you had magical girls hurling concrete or inexplicably pulling off martial arts who were total powerhouses.
But this was reality.
My puny fists couldn't even scratch a doll. Water punches, basically.
"Maybe I should just hang back and buff."
The gauntlets were heavy as hell and useless besides.
If only they had some gimmick.
Nope. Just shiny gem-studded pretties.
"Hey now. No more defeatist talk. How do you plan to support from the back with gauntlets?"
"Then what? You want fire to shoot out of them or something?"
"Hmm... keep up the strength training like always, spar with some dolls, and you'll get strong eventually, right?"
"How's that a magical girl? Sounds like an MMA fighter."
I sighed.
No helping it, though.
Shin Arin kept pushing me way too hard.
To keep up, I had no choice but to train in ways that weren't exactly magical girl material.
"Hey. I said smile."
"Ugh..."
She forcibly tugged my lips upward.
"A magical girl's smile is her greatest weapon. How many times do I have to say it?"
"What's so great about grinning like an i—ack!"
"Gonna have to explain again. Listen up."
"I remember already, so stop."
"Then tell me. What's the First Principle?"
...
The magical girl's First Principle:
Never lose hope, no matter what.
The magical girl's Second Principle:
Always keep smiling while upholding the First.
Senior always drilled those two into me.
Maybe that's why I was still at it as a magical girl.
Never lose hope amid endless despair.
That's why I couldn't give up.
Not after senior left this world.
I didn't want to lose anyone precious again.
"..."
I forced my staggering body upright.
That direct hit to the gut? It stung like hell.
Should've kept up with workouts. My durability was shot.
I gripped my gauntlets tight again.
Yuri.
A voice echoed in my head then.
Not like the one from the nest.
Not mimicking senior's voice—just a girl's.
I knew who it belonged to.
Yujina's mascot and best friend, Hod.
Please send me to Jina.
'I want to, but look at her.'
She's still rampaging, raining light everywhere.
Han Seoyeon's struggling because of it.
Just form a temporary contract with me.
'A contract?'
'Is that even possible? I'm already contracted to Keter, and you're with Yujina.'
One contractor per mascot.
If it worked that way, every citizen would be a magical girl.
You—and the current me—can do it.
'Fine, say we contract. Can you purify her?'
Yes. More than enough. This is all because of me, after all.
Her voice brimmed with certainty.
If her own mascot said so, there had to be a reason.
No better options anyway.
I closed my eyes.
Something—not flames—began filling my gauntlets.
A resonance stirred in my heart.
"In the name of the elder Hod from beyond, I delegate authority to you."
"One. May this tongue bring you truth."
⟨ Authority Delegation ⟩
"Two. May this ritual bring you order."
"Three. May this glory bring you freedom."
Magic circles layered onto the gauntlets, one by one.
Flames no longer—
something purer than anything poured from them.
My target: Yujina.
I unleashed every ounce of light within.
A colossal beam from the stacked circles engulfed the area.
And there was light.
The ashen world.
Yujina's self-chosen hell.
After that voice and contract,
Yujina's mind had overflowed with Hod's voice.
They could chat casually again, like old times.
Even knowing it was fake.
Yet those moments were bliss, so she didn't want to leave this hell.
She just moved as the voice commanded, reaching toward enemies blocking her and Hod.
Because the voice kept coming.
'...Light?'
Suddenly, light poured toward her from somewhere.
Not from her own hand.
Clear, beautiful light.
It didn't hurt. It was warm.
'Hod's voice... gone...'
But after the light enveloped her, Hod's voice vanished.
Her mind cleared.
'Hod, where are you...'
Even that, Yujina didn't want.
It was always like this.
Everyone did whatever, ignoring what she wanted.
Hod too.
Yujina never asked, but Hod sacrificed herself.
'Please... don't leave me.'
Yujina's life had been saved by Hod once.
On that rooftop, when she'd given up on everything.
Hod made her a magical girl against her will, gave her a reason to live.
"Long time no see."
A nostalgic voice rang out.
Yujina opened her eyes.
A cute girl stood there.
A stranger, yet Yujina knew instantly.
Her mascot. Her most precious being.
"...Hod?"
"Yeah. Came to see you."
Yujina dragged her heavy body over and approached the girl.
The girl silently embraced her.
So much to say.
But no words came from Yujina's lips.
Plip. Plop.
Just tears falling.
"Sorry. Must've been so lonely."
The girl gently stroked her.
"...You won't leave again?"
Yujina forced the words out.
Of all things, that's what she wanted to say most.
"I... can't."
The girl shook her head apologetically.
"I've already given everything to you, Jina. Gotta sleep for a while."
"Who asked for that? I just wanted to be together..."
"I know."
"Then why."
The girl spoke tenderly. "Told you from the start. Can't give up on life that easily."
"It's over now... Nothing left for me."
"What nothing? They're right there."
The girl pointed.
There was Baek Yuri, clutching her gauntlets.
Han Seoyeon, staring quietly at her sword.
"Weren't they your precious family?"
They were precious, sure.
During the great subjugation.
If not for their unity, they couldn't have stopped the doll hordes.
"But Hod's more precious."
"Heehee, hearing that feels nice."
The girl smiled.
To her, Yujina was her whole world.
Her first contractor. The hero who'd fought alongside a purify-only mascot like her.
So when Yujina suffered secondary corrosion,
She purified her, even at the cost of herself.
Too selfish? Yeah, it ended like this.
But now, she could fix it.
Luckily, a vessel for her appeared.
Luckily, Yujina still lived.
"Still, I hope you live."
The one line the girl couldn't say before.
What she'd always wanted to tell her precious one, who kept trying to throw her life away so easily.
"...You're too selfish."
"Guilty. Always have been."
From start to end.
Saved her selfishly, vanished selfishly.
"And when peace comes someday, I'll wake again. Let's hang out then."
"Promise?"
"Obviously."
The girl hooked her pinky.
Yujina didn't hesitate. Their tiny fingers intertwined.
"We gotta make pancakes together."
"Deal."
"And that picnic we promised."
"Yep."
"And..."
"I'll do anything. Don't worry."
The girl smiled.
All she could offer were promises like that.
If peace ever came.
If they could meet again, not as mascot and girl, but as humans.
Then she'd make up for everything.
Please.
Let that future come.
The girl—Hod—prayed.
The barrier began crumbling.
"Milady... this is becoming too much."
Keter panted heavily as he spoke.
It had dragged on longer than expected.
Though there were unexpected gains.
After firing the light, the sky cleared, and Yujina vanished.
"When's she coming back?"
As I wondered that, something dropped from the sky.
Yujina.
I leaped up and caught her mid-fall.
Thank god—she was breathing faintly.
That was enough.
"Huh?"
Her wounds, the corrosion marks—all gone.
Good. Hod pulled it off somehow.
A smile crept onto my face unbidden.
The barrier shattered completely.
Through the scattering shards, the night sky appeared.
And the light pouring from Yujina bathed everything in white.
In the heavens, the White Night unfurled.