The Puppet's First Trial
In front of the flying magical girl, roughly five or six burly men appeared. A group of men in tight black suits and sunglasses. They were the gangsters under Gem's command. Since Gem hadn't returned from heading out to fight what were presumed to be remnants of the demons, they must have come looking for her. Soon enough, they spotted Gem sprawled on the ground covered in blood and began pulling at the threads.
The sight left me and Fania staring at each other with wide, dumbfounded eyes. These guys... can't they see us? ...Ah, right. It's dark. Human eyesight probably can't make us out. We hadn't shone a flashlight on ourselves either. In any case, I had zero intention of letting these gangsters take Gem away. I still had a mountain of things to do with her.
I planted my foot on top of Gem's head.
At that moment, the gangsters who had been making a fuss froze all at once, and the beams of their flashlights swung toward me.
The men's faces flooded with terror the instant they realized their opponent was a magical girl. What idiots. They should have figured that out from the start. Who else but another magical girl could reduce Gem to this state?
And right on cue, Fania stepped up beside me. The one squatting in front of Gem looked up at the gangsters with a bright smile.
Her tone was gentle, but her voice dripped with overwhelming superiority. A heavy silence fell over the underpass. In the deep quiet, only the eerie sound of wind leaking in echoed through.
Now then. How would they react? Two magical girls—one was already a catastrophe, but now there were two. And their superior lay miserably defeated before them. The only one who could resolve this situation was the mayor, Serafina, but she was away on an inspection tour in another city, so even reporting it would be impossible. Come to think of it, even if Serafina had been in the city, it probably wouldn't have made much difference. Given her personality that prioritized authority above all, she wouldn't have set up a system where mere humans could report directly to her. The only one who could probably contact Serafina directly was Gem.
An endless, tense standoff. The one who broke the flow was Gem, who had regained consciousness midway through.
Wow, she'd recovered enough to speak already. What terrifying regenerative power.
I smacked Gem on the head. Even then, she thrashed and screamed.
Her desperation grew even more intense. From her perspective, she was probably grasping at straws, but I didn't like the sight one bit. Save you? Don't ask others for help—resist with your own will. That's what a magical girl is supposed to do.
I raised my palm and struck her head again. Yet, as if this were truly her last chance, Gem screamed at the top of her lungs like a pig being dragged to slaughter. Her shouts, laced with coercion and threats, gradually shifted toward persuasion and begging.
At that desperate voice, the gangsters began to stir. They knew in their heads that they had to save Gem, but there was no way any of them were crazy enough to charge two magical girls. In the end, it was Fania who put an end to their hesitation.
Fania sat on Gem's back, giggling as she crossed her legs. Unless they were complete idiots, no one would believe such nonsense. To anyone looking, it was blatantly obvious they weren't friends but enemies. Besides, the gangsters and I were already acquainted. Hadn't they all seen Fania get beaten down and collapsed by Gem during the poor people's protest? And I had made it clear when entering the city that I had no prior connection with Gem.
Gem's follow-up confirmation. But it was meaningless to the gangsters, who had already received their get-out-of-jail-free card in this situation. They bowed to us at a perfect ninety degrees.
You could even feel their desperation to get away from the scene as quickly as possible. And Gem wasn't foolish enough to miss it.
The gangsters ignored Gem's voice and turned their backs. Just as they were about to walk away from the scene and disappear into the darkness—
I looked back and forth between Gem and the gangsters. Something. Something was coming to me.
The trial I would inflict on Gem. At those words, the gangsters' backs flinched. Then their heads slowly turned toward me. Every single one of them had lips and chins trembling violently.
The gangsters swallowed their breath all at once. One clueless guy among them stammered, starting to speak.
Fortunately, a quick-witted one saved his life.
I slowly lowered the hand I had stretched forward.
The very spot where Gem had hung people under the pretext of security management and gleefully chopped them apart. That would be the stage for this trial.
"Just look at all these people swarming around! Don't they look exactly like a swarm of bugs? So what are you planning to do? Did you come up with something good?"
Fania twirled an axe in front of the gallows rope. She muttered while looking down at the crowd standing beneath the platform. No matter how frivolous a doctor might be, they had to turn serious during surgery. For that reason, I didn't answer her and instead scanned the crowd below the platform. Every single expression.
The first stage of the trial to be inflicted on a magical girl. And since it was an improvised stage, there would be plenty of rough edges. I'd have to handle the shortcomings flexibly on the fly.
This stage was the massive guillotine located in the center of Talos City. Gem had personally executed those she considered especially vile among the dissidents. For reference, her standard for "vile" was "anyone who even slightly protested the security forces' decisions." I'd seen the public execution shows a few times back when I was Porim. I also knew that thanks to cleverly angled magic, the severed heads were manipulated to land precisely in the middle of the crowd.
Ah, of course I had no intention of actually executing Gem. I just wanted to create a dramatic situation.
Fania kept chattering away, completely unaware of my intentions. I'd have to give her a warning. I approached Fania and whispered quietly in her ear.
Meanwhile, Gem was trembling all over beneath the blade, her neck locked in the stocks. Sweat poured from her like rain, her face deathly pale. From her slack lips came a constant stream of mumbled words.
I walked past the muttering Gem and stepped to the front of the platform. All eyes followed my movement. Meeting those gazes, I smiled softly. Tension? I didn't feel even a trace of it. The original Xena had been a magical girl lacking in both ability and character, but she possessed one unrivaled talent: a tongue as venomous as a viper. This was the first time I was truly reaping the benefits of Xena's mindset.
A villainous organization that opposed magical girls. This too was a standardized cliché in magical girl stories. I intended to play the role of that villainous group. I'd taken the organization's name from the name of the magical world I'd learned from my status window. I'd just borrowed it from Valton.
Countless eyes were looking up at me. I suppressed the slight surge of arrogance I felt at the sight and continued acting with polite demeanor.
Fania, standing behind me, pointed at me and sneered. I thought about snapping back, but since she was silently cooperating with my act, I decided to let it slide this time.
Meanwhile, the crowd began to stir in confusion. It seemed they had interpreted the current situation as some kind of power struggle between factions of magical girls. They probably hadn't expected Gem to lose that fight, though.
I carefully grasped the hem of my dress and gave a slight bow.
Return the city to them. At those shocking words, the crowd fell silent for a moment. No one spoke, but their gazes focused on me even more intently. An atmosphere mixed with anxiety and suspicion rose all the way up to the platform.
On the other hand, my eyes were fixed on Gem. How about it? A villain who's attacked the city is deceiving the people with lies! As a magical girl, are you just going to stand by and watch? Open your mouth! Spit out your signature lines! Enlighten the citizens, awaken them, and draw out new strength from their cheers!
At that moment, a voice bursting from the crowd completely flipped the atmosphere.
What...? Wait, hold on. Hold on a second. That guy... isn't he the food cart owner I bumped into on the way to the underpass?
This situation was not what I wanted. My role was the villain. The one who was supposed to draw out new power from the magical girl through the citizens' cheers was Gem!
I hurriedly looked down. The tteokbokki sauce stains caked onto the hem of my dress were lending credibility to the voice's claim.
The area beneath the platform was filled with the crowd's cheers. Don't cheer for me! You primitive trash...! You worthless extras who know nothing about magical girls...! What do I do? This isn't right. My plan. My stage...!!
At that moment, a sharp shriek pierced through the cheers. Gem, who had fallen into a panic. She thrashed wildly in the stocks, screaming at the top of her lungs. It looked like resignation or a final struggle before death, but that was fine. Words lead to action, and action leads to conviction. The fact that the girl who had only been trembling in fear until now had finally raised her voice could be called the first step of growth. Soon, her signature line would come. The true mindset of a magical girl that would awaken the ignorant masses!
Gem's words were cut off abruptly, as if sliced clean through. And it wasn't just her voice that had been severed. The crowd, me—everyone looked up.
A single head drawing a parabola through the air. A red rainbow followed behind it, leaving a vivid trail. In the center, two bloodshot eyes stared clearly at everyone, unblinking. From there, streams of blood burst out in all directions like fireworks. On the blue canvas, a dark crimson flower bloomed and fluttered open. But it was only for an instant. The petals scattered in the air gradually faded, then scattered meaninglessly on the wind.
The sky remained blue and clear, as if nothing had happened.
Thud.
The head that had been floating across the sky fell precisely into the middle of the crowd. At the same time, silence. And then the roar that followed.
Amid the cheers that shook the entire city, I could only open and close my mouth without making a sound. In the midst of it, my half-lidded eyes met another's.
Fania smiled brightly and waved the axe. Beside her lay the severed rope.