Loss, Preparation (3)
Loss, Preparation (3)
“Oppa, what are you doing?! Hurry up!”
“I’m coming.”
Jo Ah-yoon walked lightly down the street, looking genuinely excited. The heavy makeup she’d so carefully applied had blended with her innocent demeanor to become an accessory that only accentuated her cuteness.
Han Jae-jung chuckled under his breath as he followed her.
“This is the place I scoped out yesterday. What do you think?”
“Uh... mm....”
“Look at it properly! This isn’t some part-time job you can just quit on a whim—it’s a long-term business. I’ll be at this for at least a few years, so you need to look at it right the first time.”
The place Jo Ah-yoon had brought him to was a modest detached house on a hillside street. For a house, the design was modern enough that a little remodeling would easily turn it into a workable café.
“I don’t like commercial districts. Too noisy. We’ll be running this place with a skeleton crew, and we wouldn’t survive that kind of brutal workload. What I want is something right around a residential area like this, or somewhere a little removed from the main strips.”
Her vision was more concrete than he’d expected. As she scrutinized the prospective café location with sharp eyes, she looked like a cool-headed young business prodigy. Her small frame actually made her charismatic intensity all the more striking.
“Oh, and I have baking and barista certifications already... but Oppa, you go get them too. We’re opening a café—we ought to know how to brew coffee.”
“Uh, sure....”
Han Jae-jung felt flustered by how naturally his own involvement in this venture was being taken for granted.
“Um... Ah-yoon? I’m not sure when this happened, but is it settled that I’m helping you with the café?”
“Huh? What are you saying at this point.”
Jo Ah-yoon shot back as if she couldn’t believe her ears.
“Do you have a job? Or, do you even have money?”
“No....”
“Right? I was the one who paid for the fried chicken we had before. What about a house—do you even have a house?”
“No....”
“Do you have any specs, any kind of vision for the future, any field you’re even interested in?”
“No....”
Han Jae-jung felt his self-esteem being whittled down with every answer. A textbook mid-twenties high-school graduate with no job. He had touched a little of his parents’ insurance payout and the money Seol-hwa had sent him, but that was practically debt. A karmic burden he’d have to repay one day.
Pride didn’t fill your stomach, but it was still worth protecting even if you had to starve. For him, it was guilt. He had a strong aversion to spending someone else’s money as if it were his own. He felt like he’d really devolve into garbage.
“Close your eyes, Oppa.”
“Okay.”
“What do you see?”
“It’s dark.”
“That’s your future if you keep living exactly as you are right now.”
“Ha, shit.”
Jo Ah-yoon gave a small smirk. Han Jae-jung had no grounds to refute her.
“In a situation where it’s hard to get a job, and you have no money and no house? You’re not unaware of how brutal modern society is, right? But it’s okay.”
She set her hands on her hips with a triumphant air and declared,
“I have all the answers. This charismatic, hip little sister of yours has finished planning how to put food on your table.”
“So I’m what, some kind of kept man....”
“That’s why I’m saying I’m going to give you a job.”
Jo Ah-yoon knew Han Jae-jung’s personality well. For a guy who looked like a skinny gigolo, he had a pointlessly sensitive heart and an intense aversion to relying on others or mooching off them.
“I’m not giving you a fish; I’m teaching you how to fish. True noblesse oblige.”
So what she was giving him wasn’t simply money—it was the opportunity to earn it.
“From now on, address me as Boss.”
“Understood, Madam.”
“Don’t call me Madam. It makes me sound old.”
“Understood, My Little Kitty.”
“You’re dead. I mean it.”
They traded barbs, laughing, then turned back down the street.
“You don’t like this place?”
“Hm... it’s nice. The location is a little lacking though. It’s uphill, so getting foot traffic will be tough. What do you think, Oppa?”
“Obviously, I must follow our princess’s opinion.”
“Pick a single form of address and stick to it. And don’t use nicknames like ‘princess’ or ‘baby kitten.’ Dead. I mean it. I’m short, so I’m really good at kicking shins.”
“Got it, Ah-yoon.”
“That’s right.”
Jo Ah-yoon nodded, satisfied, then opened her map app to find the route to the next candidate.
“Oh right, Oppa. Since we’re out, let’s look at clothes too.”
“Clothes?”
“Yeah. You don’t exactly give off the nicest first impression. We need to groom you so you don’t scare the customers.”
“That’s harsh. I definitely have a smiley face.”
“That’s because your smile is the kind that looks devious, like you’re hiding an agenda. Do you know you sometimes look at me with those scheming eyes?”
“...I do?”
“That’s—that’s how it feels, I’m saying! You can’t look at anyone else with eyes like that, got it?”
“I mean, how do I even....”
“That’s exactly why. So from now on, you’re going to suit up in a classy suit and wear glasses that hide your eyes. Create an intellectual image!”
Jo Ah-yoon’s voice was oddly charged with anticipation.
“Ah-yoon, you’re way too excited.”
“I-I am not?! I’m being perfectly calm right now?!”
“Sure, let’s go with that, our young lady.”
“I told you to stick to one form of address.”
“Our Ah-yoon.”
“That ‘our’... it sounds kind of like we’re a couple. Drop the first part.”
Even as she said that, Jo Ah-yoon wasn’t in a bad mood. The faintly reddening tips of her ears hinted at her excitement.
A happy vision of the future unfolded in her head: Han Jae-jung, styled exactly to her tastes, greeting customers, the aroma of coffee wafting through the cozy café....
[Quest Appears.]
In the same moment as Jo Ah-yoon’s blissful daydream, Han Jae-jung’s expression hardened into a grim mask.
[Protect her.]
“...Oppa?”
“Clothes can wait until later.”
Han Jae-jung reached out and grasped the empty air. A metal sphere materialized there. It was similar to the sphere that orbited around Jo Ah-yoon. It unfurled in his hand, transforming into a belt buckle. The design featured a prominent lens, as if it had been modeled after a telescope. Jo Ah-yoon was already familiar with this transformation.
“It looks like now isn’t the time for that.”
With a bitter smile, Han Jae-jung clamped the buckle onto his waist. Shrrrrrk. A metal cable shot out from the right side of the buckle and wrapped itself around his waist.
The sky vibrated. Just as the earth shakes when soldiers march across it, the sky, too, trembled as if soldiers were marching through it.
An army was advancing towards them from afar. The army was not made of people, but birds. At first glance, their movement resembled that of migrating birds. Just as migratory birds form up and glide through the sky, they too advanced in formation.
The only difference: they were far too massive to be called birds. The sight of gigantic birds, each rivaling a small airplane in size, flying in formation was a spectacle - and at the same time, a disaster.
The advance of vast birds with steel wings. It was the advance of monsters.
Of course, no one was simply watching. Where there were monsters, there were magical girls to protect the citizens. A volley of spells was fired at the giant birds, and a few broke from the formation and plummeted downward.
But there were simply too many.
The numbers were almost obscene, and given the complete disregard for their own casualties, this was an advance meant for show.
At the center of it all was the monster—arrogant, greedy, and given to ostentation.
Han Jae-jung locked eyes with it.
“Henshin.”
Green particles welled up from the Belt.
[ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION.]
[■■■■■■■■■]
The original transformation call was swallowed by a grating noise that tore at the ears. After the ear-splitting mechanical sound, a new transformation phrase rang out.
[I obey my fate.]
The green starlight that had been dotting the air like fireflies illuminating a pond gradually bled into pure white.
The pure-white starlight raged like a blizzard on a snowy mountain, enveloping him and turning wilder and more ferocious. It grew more violent, as if something’s veins were bulging out, as if something was detonating.
[U■■A MA■■R.]
Finally, his body was completely dyed in pure white. Lightning wrapped one half of him, while the other half was sheathed in armor as coarse as a beast’s fur.
“It seems today’s outing ends here.”
He was quite literally lightning given human form. He looked like the heavens’ wrath made manifest upon the earth.
He stepped in front of Jo Ah-yoon, shielding her.
At that moment, one of the birds slammed into them. It had the shape of a bird, but it was effectively a cargo truck charging at them to ram them.
An axe appeared in Watcher’s right hand. An axe so thoroughly wrapped in lightning that you could barely discern its shape.
A single swing, with no particularly great technique behind it.
That was all it took.
The charging giant bird was split clean in two. No blood splattered. The blood burned away and evaporated before it could even spray.
The ground split open along the arc of his swing, exposing the bare earth beneath.
It was a brutal sight.
“Get in my arms.”
Watcher spread his left arm and spat the words out. Jo Ah-yoon hesitated a moment, then plunged straight into his embrace. In contrast to his curt words, he wrapped her in a gentle grip and launched into the sky.
“I intend to flee.”
Just as he prepared to flee with Jo Ah-yoon in his arms, an arrogant voice boomed down from above like thunder.
“That is mine!”
The sovereign who commanded these eagles.
“Leave her behind!”
The Aquila Monster: Aquila.
At the very center of the swarm, a single eagle adorned with brilliant diamonds stood out. From atop that eagle, looking down upon them, Aquila declared:
“That object is far too precious for a creature like you to possess! I shall personally acquire it, so remove your vulgar hands and withdraw! This is my final act of mercy! Hm? No, wait... I find you quite pleasing as well. Bah, I’m in a good mood!”
Aquila spread his arms wide. At the gesture, dozens of eagles traced circles in the sky. They were spreading out like a net.
“Rejoice! It is not merely the girl I shall acquire—you shall be mine as well.”
Watcher held Jo Ah-yoon tighter.
“Cancel the escape.”
Once Aquila had set his sights on something, escape was impossible. He would do whatever it took to make Jo Ah-yoon his possession.
Han Jae-jung knew this monster’s insatiable greed and possessiveness.
A temperament truly worthy of Aquila.
That constellation’s myth originates from Zeus transforming into an eagle to abduct the beautiful youth Ganymede.
Just like in that myth, Aquila possessed a breathtakingly arrogant greed.
He didn’t try to take things by paying a fair price. The very instant something caught his eye, he treated it as his own and sought to take it. He believed it was already his property, so any kind of payment was unnecessary.
Han Jae-jung also knew the final fate of any human possessed by Aquila.
Taxidermy. He humanely stuffed them, just like butterflies or animals.
Even among monsters, he was a particularly malicious breed.
And he fixated on his targets with pointless tenacity, dead-set on acquiring anything that had once caught his fancy.
The last kidnapping, he’d thought it was a minor whim, but hearing that now... Aquila was already deeply fixated. Running would only mean a war of attrition.
“Not running....”
And so, he chose not to run, but to repel. He would protect Jo Ah-yoon and defeat the monster. He had to succeed at all of this within a limited time.
Watcher’s lenses were slowly starting to blacken, and the lightning, too, was expanding its domain as if eating into his body.
It would be a formidable task.
“Filial piety sounds perfect right about now.”
But it wasn’t impossible.
“A being who holds the star of magic and the star of monsters simultaneously, and one capable of shifting between human and monster forms... You please me greatly! You there!”
Aquila gave a casual flick of his hand.
“Bring them before me!”
Dozens of giant birds hurtled toward them like a meteor shower, each carrying tremendous mass.
“Bite down hard again for this one.”
Watcher leaped, holding Jo Ah-yoon tight.
A single, straight white line was drawn rapidly through the air. That line sliced through the descending birds like tofu, burning and pulverizing them, and without a moment’s delay, it extended all the way to Aquila.
Aquila was arrogant. And he valued his authority above all.
As such, he was complacent.
He believed that using his full strength was a tawdry act that damaged his authority, so he underestimated every opponent he met for the first time. He was always letting his guard down.
For Watcher, that was a very good thing.
If he was given an opening, the task became easy.
“Who did you say was taking whose head?”
There were many monsters who survived until the ending of the original work. Aquila was one of them.
One reason was that after the magical girls awakened their divinity, the particular vulnerability born of his complacency had lessened.
But the Aquila right now was not that version. He looked down on Watcher, and he treated all magical girls with even deeper contempt. So he wouldn’t bother with active defense or offense.
Just like now.
Slice.
He could easily take his head.
Having rocketed up into the sky at lightning speed, Watcher beheaded Aquila along with the diamond-hued eagle. It was a remarkably simple task. It didn’t even take a second. A perfectly precise, mechanical decapitation stroke.
The orderly movements of the eagles dissolved into chaos, and Watcher fell from the sky, landing.
KWA-BOOM! The most intense sound of the entire sequence erupted from this landing. Touching down as if thunder itself had struck the earth, Watcher gently set down Jo Ah-yoon he had been carrying.
“U-urp... what the—is it over?”
“Yeah, it’s over.”
It had all happened in an instant, and she’d had her eyes squeezed firmly shut, so Jo Ah-yoon had no idea what had just occurred.
Thud. Something fell from the sky behind them.
“Look.”
“UWAAAH, HOLY SHIT!”
It was Aquila’s head. Jo Ah-yoon jumped back, horrified.
“Wha—what the! Oppa, is it really over? Can it end this easily?”
“Everything is better when it ends easily.”
“Well, that’s true, but....”
Watcher’s lenses had blackened over by more than half. It meant he had less than a minute left to maintain his sanity.
The moment he placed his hand on the Belt to power down, a scene played out inside his head.
The ability of Ursa Major, pushed to the Belt’s absolute limit.
The observation of a near-future possibility.
Watcher pushed Jo Ah-yoon away as if entranced.
“Kyah!”
Immediately after, lightning erupted. A dazzling, brilliant bolt of golden lightning. It didn’t fall—it surged up from below.
CRACK!
Jo Ah-yoon, who had scrambled across the ground, lifted her head at the ominous sound from above.
“...Oppa?”
A hole had been punched clean through him. A perfect circle through a person. The circle was so neat and precise it sent a shiver down the spine.
It was the mark of the lightning’s passage through Watcher’s chest. The wound looked less like a lightning strike and more like a spear had been thrust clean through him.
“...Congratulations.”
A voice emanated from the severed head.
“You have succeeded in angering me immensely.”
A cold, impossibly cold voice, suppressing every ounce of its fury.
“You have reduced me to this unsightly state! This is the second time you have done so!”
The decapitated monster was not dead. His voice was lightning. With every word he hissed, golden lightning welled up, tearing through Watcher.
“Therefore, I shall not possess you.”
Jo Ah-yoon had often administered first aid whenever Blue Sirius was injured, so she had some knowledge of the human body. That was how she knew where the hole now punched through Han Jae-jung was located.
His heart, his lungs, his liver.
All of them were among his vitals.
“Die as a worthy adversary.”
The severed head flew through the air, and Watcher’s lenses filled entirely with black.