The First Kick
The First Kick
This is uncomfortable.
I exhaled long and breathed in again. The helmet had no visible air holes, yet breathing was no problem at all. Visibility was good, and nothing about moving felt awkward.
Transforming had taken my body far from its original state, but it felt strangely comfortable.
The discomfort wasn’t physical. It was mental.
A magical girl. Of course I wanted to meet one. They were characters from a comic I’d once liked, even if it all went to hell with a stupid ending.
But why did it have to be now?
“Was it a fight between monsters...? At least it seems no civilians were caught up in it.”
She defined me as a monster without the slightest hesitation.
Which was only natural, if you think about it.
If you showed up at the scene of a reported terror attack with a bomb strapped to your chest, that’d be some kind of freedom of expression—avant-garde fashion or whatever.
With the way I looked, what exactly was she supposed to see that would make her classify me as a citizen in need of protection?
I clenched and unclenched my hands a few times from tension. Sweat wasn’t running, but I felt clammy anyway. Oh, right—not sweat, but blood. I’d just killed a monster.
‘I’m losing it.’
Light that had taken human form.
That was my first impression upon seeing a magical girl.
My next impression was far simpler and more primal.
Beautiful.
A white dress. Red ribbons accenting the fluttering frills. Twin ponytails that streamed as softly as the ribbons themselves.
You might think the whole thing would come off as childish, but her features and presence were so striking that even an outfit like that seemed perfectly suited to her.
“If there are no people here, that’s good news for me.”
Her name was Red Vega.
She hadn’t been a magical girl for long, but her remarkable potential had been racking up achievements one after another.
The rising star I’d seen in articles back at the PC bang.
The protagonist of Magical Girl Golden Age.
“Prepare yourself!”
She took a spirited combat stance, and an unseen fighting spirit radiated from her, along with magical power to match.
Red starlight. A ruby-hued aura, as if the flames of a soul had been translated into reality, surged around her like the sea.
It was exactly as I’d seen in the webtoon. A situation that warranted joy, yet I couldn’t feel the slightest bit of it.
Her spirit was on a different level from the monster I’d just faced.
Reason surpassing wild instinct.
A clear fighting spirit, honed to perfection.
My body felt crushed. Even in this transformed state, the threat registered viscerally. So this was a magical girl. I began to understand, a little, why monsters feared them.
I’d wanted to be on the civilian side of things.....
[Failure to initiate combat within 3 minutes will be considered noncompliance with the Quest.]
Ignoring my feelings as though they weighed nothing, the Belt’s voice emerged.
[The price will be exacted.]
Fine. I get it. I have to fight. I know.
Even so, on the off chance, I spoke to the magical girl.
“Hey.”
“?!”
She seemed startled that I’d spoken.
Surprised, huh? Yeah, I’ve had plenty of surprises today myself.
The first step to getting along with someone is establishing common ground. After building some inner rapport, I opened my mouth again.
The Belt had said “defeat,” not “kill.” If I just defeated her, wouldn’t the quest be complete and my life be safe even without a fight?
That train of thought led to persuasion.
What I proposed was simple: surrender.
“I earnestly implore you—would you mind surrendering? It’d be rather inconvenient for me otherwise....”
“...Language use confirmed.”
I’d spoken to clear up the misunderstanding.
Seems all I did was deepen it.
“Target assessed as S-rank monster.”
Shit.
Fwaang—!
She rushed at me without hesitation. A red line was drawn in the wake of Red Vega’s movement. A straight line.
Around her clenched fist, a red halo-like ring appeared.
One Path. Flame Roar.
A fist wound with magical power traced a line without the slightest deviation. If a flame could roar, it would look like that—the strike was that intense, that fast.
“I will do my utmost to deliver salvation!”
She drove her fist in at full power, without a trace of carelessness.
Kwaaaaang!!!
Amid a roar like an explosion, smoke from frictional heat rose into the air.
The blocked strike forced me back three steps, but unfortunately it failed to inflict any visible damage.
“Th-this is absurd....”
It was threatening, certainly. Enough to feel the terror of death in that instant.
But compared to the scale of the threat, it was unmistakably....
“Weak.”
“...!”
I felt an astonishing lack of pain. If I’d been accustomed to that kind of fighting spirit, I was certain I wouldn’t have felt the fear either.
Red Vega kicked my stomach and broke away, recovering her blocked hand. That, too, dealt no meaningful blow. My personal assessment was that it felt about like a friend shoving you as a joke.
Unreasonable.
That was what I thought as I blocked her strike.
The damage was strangely absent.
This was clearly because of the number of stars I possessed.
I had seven stars, and she had only one. Just Vega.
A newbie she might be, but she’d surely accumulated far more experience and effort than me, who’d only just transformed. And yet a mere difference in the number of stars produced this degree of disparity.
I even felt guilty.
But pity from the one holding the advantage is nothing but hypocrisy, I suppose.
As for clearing up the misunderstanding, we’d already crossed a river too wide for that.
To spare her at least a little humiliation.
I decided to defeat her as quickly as possible.
There was the selfish desire to escape this awkward situation as fast as I could, too, but weighed against the guilt, that was only a very small part. Probably.
“Don’t take it as an insult. It’s only natural.”
How is a rookie supposed to bridge a six-star gap? She’d have to be a god, not a rookie. In the world of combat, physical disparity is always merciless.
After offering those words of consolation to the still-panicked Red Vega, I took a stance.
To reproduce the strongest technique among those the Belt had sketched into my brain.
[SET. Seven-Star Step Kick.]
I kicked off the ground and charged. One step would have been enough to reach Red Vega, but I deliberately broke my approach into multiple steps.
Kwang—!
With each step, an explosion erupted.
Seven explosions in all.
With each explosion, a menacing green ring of light formed around my leg.
Seven rings in all.
Having swallowed seven steps and seven explosions, my leg shone as if it might burst at any moment.
I raised the leg, burning like brimstone.
Pwooeong—!
And drove it into Red Vega. This was no mere explosive sound—a real explosion occurred.
Seven-Star Step Kick.
Seven steps, seven stars.
A finishing technique that compresses the power of one star into each step, then detonates them all on the final one.
It was a finishing technique, but I had no intention of killing her. I didn’t have the nerve to begin with.
[Seven-Star Step Kick successfully manifested. Replication Rate 20%.]
When you say “kick,” it’s the signature move of transforming-hero stories.
And my first use of such a technique happened to be against a magical girl.
Thinking about it, there was no disaster quite like this disaster.
From Red Vega, who’d been launched skyward like a bird, small fragments of light like fireflies scattered. Her protective magical power was dispersing.
“Nngh.”
Plop.
Red Vega tumbled limply to the ground and let out a small groan.
“Hrrk... kuhk, keuhk....”
Amid a few coughs, she expelled the air that had filled her lungs, all the while continuing to bleed magical power from her body.
Power Down.
The transformation had released itself to spare the user further strain.
[You have successfully defeated the magical girl.]
The magical girl who’d lost her light was now just a girl. A rookie around twenty, her face still bearing traces of youth. That was the truth of the magical girl.
That a girl this age had to risk her life protecting others, really....
“Pitiful.”
Miserable.
Though this sort of unethical child labor was the core—and original sin—of boys’ comics, of course.
I tore my eyes from Red Vega as she slowly closed hers, and fled the scene.
Son of a bitch.
‘I survived!’
At least I’d survived tonight.
**
Survived, my ass.
[Monster defeated.]
It was only after I’d brought down three more monsters that the Belt quieted.
“Aaaaagh....”
Letting out a hollow roar like a zombie, I powered down.
Only then did the fresh air greet me. Morning air, carrying its distinctive scent of water.
That’s right. It was morning.
This insane Belt had worked me to the bone until sunrise. I hadn’t slept a wink.
“You crazy bastard... if you’re gonna work me like this, at least give me overtime pay....”
Once the transformation released, the Belt reverted to a metal ball. Even so, it didn’t fly off anywhere, continuing to hover around me.
“Sh-shove off! Get lost! I’m never transforming again! Just go!”
They’re not even paying me. Why should I do this?
[Impossible.]
Yet this Belt (I’d resolved to call it that even in metal-ball form) refused to leave.
[The Contract was executed by the Guardian’s will. Revocation is impossible.]
“So I keep telling you, that wasn’t me....”
Han Jae-jung, just what did you do before you died? Why did you get involved with a thing like this? You should’ve been careful about fraudulent contracts. Which is why I’m now being worked like a slave, isn’t it?
“What now....”
If I’d only killed monsters, there might’ve been a way out, but I’d gone and raised my hand against a magical girl. Now I was a criminal with no room for argument.
Luckily, no one had witnessed my transformation, but the moment I was discovered it was off to prison.
And if I were sent to prison, this Belt bastard would pull its “Please transform” nonsense and force me to break out if I didn’t want to die.
If there was one thing I’d learned through this night of suffering, it was that the moment this Belt detected a monster nearby, it would compel transformation without the slightest regard for my circumstances.
The future is pitch-black. Before worrying about this world’s future, I had to worry about my own safety.
Here I’d finally gotten the chance to meet my favorite characters....
“Is possession supposed to be like this...?”
This is weird. The web-novel protagonists I’d read about had the world bending to their will, didn’t they? They’d pick up every lucky break there was, make loads of money, build connections. So why not me?
“Still, I’m alive. That’s something....”
Then again, gaining the power to survive monsters like this—if you wanted to call that a lucky break, maybe it was. I let out a deep sigh and laughed.
I stopped grumbling and hauled myself up.
Circling around the city had brought me back near the motel where I’d started.
Cold, hungry, sleepy. Almost no money on hand. A beggar in the truest sense. I could kill monsters, but I couldn’t rebel against this capitalist society—a sense of futility about my situation settled in as I moved my feet.
First, I’d go back to the motel room where I’d slept. I still had the key. I didn’t know if thirty thousand won would cover a stay, but I could figure something out later, run a tab if I had to.
‘Just gonna sleep....’
When you’re hungry, staying still is the best move. Dragging my exhausted body, I returned to the place of origin.
And then.
“You are Han Jae-jung, correct?”
“Ah, come on. This is too much.”
The moment I stepped into the motel, I had the pleasure of a meeting with the police.
The hell.