The Beast's Tail (4)
The Beast’s Tail (4)
“Retirement... I don’t think the time has come yet.”
That was Yoon Seol-hwa’s purpose in calling Jo Ah-yoon today.
To refuse the consideration offered by a cherished junior, she had needed to lean on alcohol.
Agonizing that much over a casually tossed-out suggestion—Jo Ah-yoon thought she really was too good a person.
She felt ashamed of herself for fretting over how to tell her about meeting Han Jae-jung, how much to say, and how much to keep hidden.
No matter how many years passed, a person’s fundamentals never changed.
She had felt it from the very first day she became a magical girl. She could never be like the others.
Helping people did give her satisfaction, but that emotion alone wasn’t enough to stake her life on.
Money? Of course money was good. But it wasn’t good enough to outweigh the public scrutiny that came with it.
Day by day, she simply grew more sick of magical girl work.
The name Pink Deneb—she wanted to erase it as soon as possible.
Like the meaning of the name Deneb—a life like a tail.
A life at the trailing edge.
A life of never achieving anything noteworthy, only following someone around like a tail, focused on support.
A life of scribbling records at the very end while others penned one joyful victory report after another.
Compared to other magical girls who were like dragon heads—not even a serpent’s tail, just the stub of a bird’s tail.
Before she knew it, Jo Ah-yoon realized she had become the tail of the beast.
She had wanted to quit at any moment. Her starlight’s growth had stopped long ago. Add to that Dilemma’s activities.
It was the perfect time to retire. More magical girls were being born now—a position like hers would vanish in no time.
But vanishing alone like that would be lonely, so she had hoped for a comrade. Even at the very end, she didn’t want to be cut off and discarded like someone’s tail.
On top of those feelings, she never wanted to go through losing family again.
When she woke in the hospital after being struck down by the Scutum Monster, she had felt relief not at the fact that she was alive, but that Yoon Seol-hwa beside her was alive.
At the same time, terror struck her. From now on, she would have to fight S-rank monsters like that again and again.
What guarantee was there that future defeats would end with merely being carted off to the hospital?
Thinking about magical girls’ deaths, which cropped up several times a year, made her tremble even harder.
This is insane.
She had to quit right now. And she had to make her quit too.
Earning a living, throwing yourself into work, hating someone—none of that matters unless you’re alive to think about it, does it?
The older sister who had become like family. This was why she had urged Blue Sirius to retire.
Setting aside how strong she was or whatever lofty position she held, to Jo Ah-yoon she was simply one person.
But at the same time, Jo Ah-yoon hadn’t really expected her to retire.
Unlike herself, she had both the ability and the will to bring down monsters. What could she possibly lack that would make her retire?
Blue Sirius wouldn’t retire. Happy news for the public, maybe, but for Jo Ah-yoon it wasn’t very good news at all.
She knew that request was nothing more than childish clinging.
The past flickered by like a panorama.
“Ahahaha! The sky’s so clear! Right?”
The wind, too, howled past fiercely.
Jo Ah-yoon belatedly grasped the fact that she was currently flying through the sky with Virgo in her arms.
Her body had moved before she could think.
The thing cradled in her embrace was a threat beyond any time bomb. A chill shot down Pink Deneb’s back.
[Guardian! What are you doing?! Put her down this instant! Get some distance! It’s dangerous!]
An urgent order came from the mascot, the gem set into her ribbon.
Jo Ah-yoon hastily released Virgo from her arms. Virgo dropped a short way, then began flying through the sky again.
“Too bad!”
Fwoosh. A violet beam brutally carved through the night sky and vanished.
Heat radiated even though it hadn’t touched her skin. Startled, Pink Deneb widened the distance further.
“Thanks, Parrot.”
[It’s Swan, not Parrot! And no need to thank me. It isn’t over yet... Here it comes again!]
Like flowing lava, like a sunset—streams of light streaked across the night sky time after time.
Pink Deneb churned through the sky as if in an acrobatic flight, successfully evading every line.
Then Virgo closed in at a speed the eye couldn’t track.
“Ahahaha! My turn this time~!”
Unfurled behind her back were crimson-winged crows. She realized Virgo had just stolen her Heaven-Folding Art.
The scenery elongated into a single continuous line, and the clouds tore apart. This sensation of folding the heavens to race forward—there was no mistaking it.
“You bitch! Hey! Let go!”
“Don’t talk like that~ It hurts my feelings. Hmm?”
Bam! Bam! She hammered Virgo’s back with fists and elbows again and again, but it was useless. As if it didn’t even qualify as a massage, Virgo laughed it off lightly and kept running while holding onto her.
“You’re really something, you know. It doesn’t seem like you want to die, so what were you thinking kidnapping me all by yourself? Want me to punch a hole in this stomach of yours? I think it’d make a nice decoration!”
“You fuck... fuck!”
“Oh my, how ugly. Don’t swear~ It’s scary, you know. Don’t you know magical girls aren’t supposed to use bad words? And also....”
Virgo lifted the corners of her mouth into a bow and spat out words in a voice steeped in resentment.
“I can’t use my power for my own personal desires, but I’m supposed to donate it for the public good without a word. My time is always to be sacrificed, and other people’s time must be protected. Bad words must be endured, and I can’t retaliate. Other people’s lives must be saved, but if I put my own life first, that’s something no decent person would do, and I’m a piece of shit. Isn’t that right? You know it well too, don’t you?”
Cackling, Virgo peered downward with glinting eyes.
“Ah, I’ve decided where to take our date. Aren’t you excited?”
The line that had been traced horizontally became vertical. Wind gusted fiercely from below. Birds flying forward pitched their heads downward and beat their wings frantically.
Descent. A slanting plummet.
Her back grew intensely hot from frictional heat. It was on the verge of catching fire.
“Guh, aaaagh!!”
“Does it hurt? Hang in there just a little~ It’s fine! Go, junior, fighting! Hang in there!”
Tears welled in her eyes from pain for the first time in a long while. Once more, memories flickered by like a panorama.
The terror conveyed through sheer force was familiar to Jo Ah-yoon. The memory of her body being grabbed roughly and violated with violence was all too familiar.
She was short. She looked easy. The old memories of being bullied for reasons like that surfaced vividly once again.
They had used their numbers and superior physiques to steal her belongings, bind her freedom, and wield violence. That oppression came rushing back as she looked at Virgo.
The memories that rose like soap bubbles soon struck the ground, burst, and evaporated.
“Keuh, heuk... ugh... euh-heuk...!”
“Does it hurt? Does it hurt a lot? Hmm... pain alone wouldn’t make a face like that... Ah! I get it!”
Virgo looked down at Jo Ah-yoon, sprawled on the ground.
“You’re scared, aren’t you? I’m terrifying! That’s it, right?”
Virgo was ecstatic. Jo Ah-yoon moved her arm and felt around her face. Amid the traces of grime and blood, a small moisture met her touch.
Tears. A stream that had started from pain and culminated in fear.
“Ah....”
The monster’s words were the correct answer. Her trembling fingertips signified far more than a body pushed past its limits.
Her expression was that of someone seized by terror.
She realized acutely that she was afraid right now. There wasn’t even any need to put it into words.
Because instinct was freezing her body solid, parching her tongue, drawing tears from her eyes, pounding furiously in her heart, forcing her lungs to expel breath without end.
Virgo’s violet eyes cast a chill glow over Jo Ah-yoon. Reflected in them as if in a mirror, she was not a magical girl but simply a girl.
A pitiful figure with a thousand tails. Paradoxically, from that terror-stricken image, Jo Ah-yoon erased the terror.
In its place, she laughed emptily.
“Fuck, seriously....”
“Hm? Is it okay to swear here too? This place is... mm, what is it again? Anyway, there are a lot of people.”
A lot of people. At that remark, Jo Ah-yoon couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh. The corners of her mouth slowly sank downward.
“...What?”
She rose to her feet as slowly as the descent of her lips.
Behind Virgo, a shaft of fierce moonlight was falling. That moonlight was streaming in through a hole punched through the ceiling.
But the inside was filled with artificial light brighter than the moon, so its presence was diminished compared to outside.
The thick ceiling, pierced by some kind of searing heat ray, was melting.
Molten metal dripped like rain, grazing her cheek before cooling. Unaware of the heat, she dazedly looked around.
People, people, people. Everywhere she looked, a sea of people.
An evacuation center, an underground shelter.
A chill shot down her spine. Even the cold sweat that had been running down her moments before evaporated and vanished. Her body, chilled, brought her mind to sharper clarity.
Countless gazes were watching her alone, all of them holding their breath.
Scores of people gathered to sustain life after abandoning the grounds of their livelihoods. As if mocking their efforts, a monster had invaded.
“Hello, everyone~? I’ve appeared to set all of your hearts ablaze! Nice to meet you~”
Virgo laughed, waving her hand fluttering toward the crowd.
“The monster from just now....”
Someone murmured that. The hoarse voice spoke for everyone here who no longer had the strength even to scream.
As if a single droplet had fallen onto a calm water’s surface, that murmur sparked a spreading murmur.
Why is that monster here, then what was the point of our shelter, so shelters aren’t safe anymore, are we all going to die now, what were the magical girls even doing?
Look. She tried to stop her. It’s just that....
That kind of noise.
She remembered walking into a classroom and immediately hearing all sorts of whispering in the past.
Disappointed stares, terror-stricken stares, stares desperately searching for somewhere to run, and stares that revealed some kind of expectation and admiration.
And occasionally, stares that revealed pity and sympathy.
Buried under that wave of gazes, Jo Ah-yoon’s body locked up.
She knew she had to guide the evacuation immediately and deal with Virgo.
But was there even a way to pull that off?
A shelter considerably cramped compared to the streets—if this many people charged for the emergency exit at once, they’d be in an extremely dangerous situation. One beam fired by Virgo into that mass of people and hundreds would die in an instant.
Deploy the crimson-winged crows, keep Virgo in check, and move people toward the ceiling? There was no way that was possible.
Everything would be stolen by that detestable virgin in the end. She’d mock and trample it all.
[Guardian... I....]
The mascot forced out its voice with difficulty.
[I’ll respect whatever choice you make. I’ll root for you.]
It was speaking in metaphors. That there was nothing she could do here. That anything she did from now on would be a desperate flailing. And that it would be an extreme final choice.
Virgo shouted as if mocking her.
“Everyone! Don’t be too hard on this cute little junior! Everyone has things they’re scared of, right? This friend is just scared of monsters! Same as the rest of you!”
Fwoosh. She unleashed a beam into the sky. Once again, the thick ceiling split apart, letting moonlight pour inside.
The ceiling lights flickered, and soon even the artificial light died, swallowed by the darkness of night.
—Kyaaaak!
A scream finally erupted, and people began to flee in panic. Without distinction, everyone headed for the stairs—some shoving others, some clutching their loved ones’ hands as they moved their feet.
“It’s okay! Run! Run all you want! That’s it! If you’re scared, you run! No one in this world is invincible! It’s all over if you die! Run, run!”
Virgo’s words surely weren’t limited just to those citizens.
“I’m the tagger. Got it? I’ll give you one minute.”
Smiling blissfully, she raised a finger skyward. From the tip of that finger, a beam erupted. Like the glare of a deep underground nightclub, the searing light flickered repeatedly. With each flicker, the ceiling melted further.
Amid the dripping molten metal, her eyes met Virgo’s.
In an instant, the laughter vanished and a cold gaze fixed itself on Jo Ah-yoon. There was no scorn, no mad laughter. Only one thing—interest. She looked down at her with a cynical stare.
Since yesterday, Virgo had kept insisting on the similarity between Pink Deneb and herself.
Right now, she was anticipating what choice she would make, what action she would take.
She was expecting her to run. Expecting her to try to survive. Expecting her to prioritize herself.
That was accurate.
Pink Deneb—Jo Ah-yoon—wanted to do that right now.
She wanted to run. Wanted to abandon everything and survive.
What was the point without life? Wasn’t life the greatest value of all?
Weren’t duty, responsibility, mission, image, pride—ultimately matters that could only be preserved if you had a life? As long as you lived, you could recover someday. You could carry them out. But if you die, that’s the end. You can’t do anything.
Someone shook Jo Ah-yoon’s shoulder. Visible beyond the faint moonlight was a middle-aged woman.
“Miss, run. Quickly. If you stay collapsed like that, you’ll die.”
She gave that advice and fled. A short and distant goodwill, the kind small folks might leave. Yet unmistakable goodwill.
Had the darkness made her mistake who she was worried about? A hollow laugh slipped out.
“Hey, Parrot....”
Jo Ah-yoon didn’t have a heroic spirit. She didn’t even want to become some great being like that.
Nor did she have a sense of duty. She detested anything done under compulsion.
Her body and power were feeble. She was always compared to others and could never win a single proper victory.
“You know what I’m about to do?”
[Of course I do, you lunatic.]
Nevertheless, there was a reason she kept going with this grueling work and saving people.
[It’s been an honor to be with you all this time.]
Because she had power.
Feeble compared to others who had power, but this was unmistakably power.
Power came with responsibility. An old, worn-out saying by now. Yet there was a reason it still endured to this day.
“You’re right. My life is fucking precious to me.”
She had power, so she simply used it.
She acted because she could use her power to save right now, moved because she could move right now.
“But that doesn’t mean using my power is a waste.”
She snorted. It was absurd. A girl already recording the lowest win rate—what did she have to weigh circumstances over? What was so regrettable, what was so precious?
Right.
She was weak. Even A-rank monsters were hard to beat, and she had to focus her efforts on supporting other magical girls. Her public reputation was terrible too. Her loose mouth probably meant she had a lot of antis. Weak, and bereft of allies.
In that case, weak and wretched one.
Right now, do you have the luxury to look down?
“You gotta give what’s due.”
Jo Ah-yoon cast it all away.
To save lives, her public reputation, her worth, her pride, her respect—and lastly, now even her power.
A life that was always like a tail. A life dangling at the trailing edge.
Even that life—even that life like the tail of a beast—she cut off with her own hands.
Now she had become nothing.
Now she could hold no value whatsoever.
That was enough.
“You say run? Why would I do anything that suits you? Screwing over monster bastards like you is my greatest joy in life, you piece of shit.”
Pink Deneb rose. Her arms and legs trembled and she didn’t have a single heroic smile, but the fact that she had stood back up didn’t change. With her heavy makeup, her already fierce features crumpled even more fiercely. From the ribbon at the center of her chest, an explosive radiance erupted.
A single point of light bringing hope to the dark night.
A black dwarf.
A magical girl’s final resort.
The most powerful light a star emits just before it burns away and disappears.
Speech vanished from the mascot. Her vision gradually narrowed. Draping vast magical power she had never handled before around herself like a celestial maiden’s feathered robe, Pink Deneb rose gracefully. Moonlight and crimson light met and curved softly, adorning her with mystery.
Lifting the edge of the feathered robe with her fingers, she asked with quiet elegance:
“Have you ever danced beneath the stars?”
Her entrance line for what would likely be her final act as a magical girl. With a heart unburdened, Pink Deneb recited its end.
“If you haven’t, let’s dance together.”
Together beneath a single ray of light, before eternal darkness arrives.