The Magical Girl Has Been Captured (2)
“Nyang...?”
The chains emitting an eerie glow bound Cookie, who suddenly lifted his head.
Noise echoed from above.
“Looks like a rat snuck in. Did you do something, Cookie?”
Alpha...?
“You’re all dead, nyang....”
“I don’t think so.”
The chicken-doll-shaped fairy spoke in a bored tone.
“We weren’t exactly unprepared either. Don’t get your hopes up for nothing~”
“What the hell, why are there so many of them?! Are they cockroaches?!”
After hearing the guide’s words, Alpha rushed outside and saw the hallway packed with men in black suits.
How could this many show up in the middle of the night?!
“The moment the alarm went off, all the guys on standby came running, you bitch.”
“Damn it... I should’ve beaten that guy up more...!”
She glanced toward the window. The suited men kept their distance, wary of the magical girl’s power.
This was a stealth costume to begin with. It wasn’t meant for open combat, only infiltration or ambushes. Even if they were modified humans rather than monsters....
‘If I escape through the window—’
The spy item Super-Strong Wire would keep her from falling freely.
Just as she thought that and scanned the area nervously—
Clatter-clatter-clatter— clatter— clatter—!
Metal blinds slammed down over the windows. They didn’t look like something she could smash through in one go.
“Shit, damn it...!”
A curse slipped out.
“There’s nowhere left to run. Just surrender quietly.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s have some fun~?”
Seeing Alpha’s obvious panic, the men in front relaxed and approached step by step, grabbing her shoulders from both sides.
“Touch me and you die.”
“What—”
Alpha crossed her arms, seized the wrists gripping her shoulders, and poured magic power into them.
““Gwaaaaaaaaah?!””
With a crackling zap, the men’s bodies convulsed violently before slumping to the floor.
“I was merciful enough not to kill you, idiots.”
“Magic?!”
“Y-you rebel and you’ll regret it! Look at the numbers!”
“A hundred or a thousand of you idiots won’t change a thing....”
A massive man charged at her in fury. Alpha stopped him with a black boot to the stomach, used her Wall Step skill to climb his torso, stomped on his chest, and kicked his chin upward.
“Guh...!?”
The body in the black suit traced a smooth arc backward and landed on the floor. At the same time, the brain-rattled man collapsed helplessly.
The surroundings fell silent.
“What? There’s only one of me. Come at me if you think numbers will help.”
“Th-this....”
“Scared, you idiots?!”
Alpha swept her arrogant golden eyes across the room.
Some of the gathered humans had grown superhumanly large from doping, others had extending arms, but none carried the same oppressive presence as the creature she’d seen on the third floor.
They were just ordinary people on drugs. Clearly, almost none of them had actual combat training.
‘Then this is doable.’
Alpha had some experience with judo and taekwondo. Amateur level, sure, but with a magical girl’s body that moved exactly as she imagined, these riffraff humans were more than manageable.
More than anything—
Having once been male, running away from a fight just wasn’t fun.
“A-attack! Everyone charge!”
“Fine, come at me, you bastards!”
With crackling hands thrust forward, Alpha charged straight into the swarm of men.
About ten minutes later.
“Hah, hah, hah...!”
Alpha leaned against the wall, catching her breath. She’d burned through far too much magic and stamina in such a short time. This costume didn’t even enhance her physical abilities efficiently to begin with.
In the dimly lit hallway, black-suited men lay sprawled in a long line.
Not only had some simply bulked up with muscle—there had been men whose skin turned slime-like, men who spewed fire, men who oozed sticky mucus—but now they all lay charred black.
‘Wow, there really were a disgusting number of them....’
Still, they were just uncontrolled riffraff. All it took was one touch from her and it was over. She’d finished off the ones paralyzed by electric shocks with throws or kicks.
“I made sure not to kill them... you star-selling trash.”
She ground her heel into the face of a nearby fallen man, then staggered onward.
Surprisingly, those grotesque creatures hadn’t appeared. If they had joined in, she wasn’t sure what would’ve happened.
‘Maybe they can’t be controlled? If so, then the ones who responded to the emergency alarm are all here?’
Looking at it that way, this might actually have worked out for the best. As long as she avoided those monsters, she could search for Cookie without worry....
Just then—
Clap-clap-clap-clap— applause rang out.
“Man, how did all these guys get wiped out~ Is that how a magical girl’s supposed to act? Beating people up like that? Huh?”
Beyond the fallen men, a figure sauntered down the hallway with a cocky gait.
He wore a black suit like the others, but his shirt was half-buttoned and his overall appearance screamed trouble. The jingling necklace, bleached hair, and tattoos running from his neck up to his face gave off a dangerous vibe. Tattoos peeked out at his ankles and wrists too, suggesting his entire body beneath the clothes was covered in ink.
Next to him stood a man with reggae hair.
Alpha swallowed hard, tension coiling in her gut.
——These guys were dangerous.
“...You the latecomers? The fight’s already over, so why show up now?”
“Nah, hanging around those stuffy guys made me wanna puke. I stepped out for a smoke and came back to this mess.”
The bleached-haired tattooed man walked straight toward Alpha. When one of the men Alpha had knocked down got in his way, he kicked him aside with an annoyed grunt.
“One of your own—!”
“Huh? What, you’re worried about the guy you beat up? Magical Girl’s real kind, huh? Hurts people then plays nurse?”
“Shut up.”
The two newcomers both looked dangerous. Pure instinct.
That was why she didn’t want to fight them at the same time.
‘So if I’m going to strike—now!’
“Oh?”
Using her Wall Step skill, Alpha kicked off the wall, then the ceiling, and lunged at the man.
‘Kinda risky to use on regular people.’
She dropped from the ceiling, grabbed the dazed man’s neck—
“Yaaaaaaaaah!”
“Oho?”
—flipped over his head, put all her weight into it, and slammed him headfirst into the floor.
BOOOOOOM!
The impact was far too loud for a simple head-meets-floor collision. Alpha immediately rolled away and sprang up.
If that connected properly, his brain should be rattled—he wouldn’t be moving anymore!
‘Next is that reggae guy...!’
Alpha tried to rush the still-motionless reggae-haired man before he could react.
“Ah?!”
But the moment she moved, something hooked her leg and she tumbled forward. The tattooed man, still on the ground, had tripped her.
“You bastard...!”
“Whoa, that actually hurt like hell. Felt kinda thrilling! How’d you know I like strong girls and come find me like this?”
“Creepy...! Disgusting piece of shit...!”
“Sun-jae, stay back. I’ll handle this.”
“Tch, trying to hog all the fun?”
“Can’t let this slide! She’s mine!”
The reggae-haired man called Sun-jae didn’t seem interested in interfering.
She’d hit him with Stun Glove during the throw, yet the tattooed man stood up with a grin as if nothing had happened.
Alpha took two quick steps back.
What the hell was his body made of?! She’d slammed him with everything she had!
“Tough for no reason... Let’s see if you can handle this, thug!”
Zap-zap-zap!
Visible electricity crackled across Alpha’s gloves. She erased the reggae-haired man from her mind for now and poured every drop of magic into a maximum-output electric blast.
Alpha’s eyes widened as she accelerated in one burst, diving straight into the tattooed man’s guard. If she could just grab him—
“I’m not like those idiots lying over there, y’know?”
Alpha’s outstretched hand, her electrified glove, sliced through empty air.
Moving like flowing water, the tattooed man sidestepped her strike, lightly placed a hand on her head, and swept her legs with his own long limb just as casually.
“Ah......!”
“We were modified specifically to deal with magical girls like you, missy.”
Helpless. She couldn’t do anything.
Alpha fell backward, her head cracking against the floor.
Thud!
At the same time, her consciousness cut out.
“Hey, are we seriously gonna escape with just the three of us?”
Danae’s Castle. A hallway somewhere inside.
The three of us who had resolved to escape together were now sneaking down the castle corridor.
Fortunately, one of the maps we’d gotten from the old man covered this floor, so we could see exactly where all the security cameras were placed.
Patrol times were even written down, so as long as we avoided those, there was zero chance of being spotted.
Was this seriously cheating?
It was the ultimate item.
“We can’t do it alone, which is why we came here like Er suggested. To find more escape partners.”
“Yes. Her ability is extremely useful. I’m not sure how well it’ll work with our magic sealed, though.”
The reason we were moving around in the middle of the night was because of Er’s words: “There’s a comrade worth persuading.”
She apparently wanted to escape and had decent abilities, but her timid, cautious personality meant she still hadn’t made a firm decision.
Even Er, who kept trying to convince her, was apparently suspected of being Danae’s spy.
That was why we were going together to persuade her. It was hard to move freely during the day, and we might get caught by Danae.
Danbi, with her wine-red hair, put on a nonchalant expression.
“Even if we do, our magic is sealed or whatever, so we’re all down to level 1... We need someone with a more reliable ability than this.”
“Like what?”
“Can’t we call for help from outside? Don’t you have any magical girl friends?”
Friends....
“One I can’t trust, one missing, and one who’s basically an enemy.”
“What’s wrong with your relationships...?”
“What can I do about it?”
“All my close friends got captured and brought here together....”
“Because of whatever pointless thing you two did, everyone got too scared to even think about escaping, right? Serves you right.”
“That’s true, but...!”
Danae had broadcasted exactly how she tortured me and Er in graphic video. Thanks to that, instead of thinking about escape, the other magical girls were now avoiding us wherever they went.
“Idiots.”
But hearing that still pissed me off, Danbi....
“Even that enemy of yours—wouldn’t she help if you asked? You can send messages through the Point Shop.”
“Hmm....”
I thought it over for a moment.
Yura was out since we didn’t know her current situation, Blue Sapphire would probably just get captured trying to help, and the only one with reliable firepower was that enemy (the bitch obsessed with Blue Moon), Alpha....
“That girl’s kind of a klutz and carries bad luck around with her.”
“Carries bad luck? What do you mean?”
“Like when you’re playing a board game and need to roll a 4 or higher to escape a desert island, but she always rolls 1~3 no matter what.”
“......I’m done.”
“Right now she’s probably been captured again and suffering some new misfortune.”
“I said I’m done!”
“Then what about you, Danbi? You said magical girls from A City are all in one big group.”
Danbi clicked her tongue in irritation and spoke with clear annoyance.
“That place is just one rice bowl everyone’s fighting over, so they’re all desperate to outdo their rivals. If they hear I got captured, they’re probably throwing a festival.”
What a mess.
The magical girl motto was supposed to be dreams and hope, yet all I saw was despair everywhere. The fairies were scammers from the very beginning.
“I wonder what Cookie’s up to... Probably lounging somewhere warm, munching on cookies....”
“Unnies, we’re here. This is the room.”
Er, the petite white-haired magical girl, knocked on the door.
