Like Family (1)
Like Family (1)
“Why are those bastards always like this...”
Yoon Seol-hwa muttered through gritted teeth. Creak. A chilling sound leaked from her mouth.
“...They never let me rest, do they.”
The happy new year was stained with terrible flames. The fire that lit the streets so brightly colored Yoon Seol-hwa’s heart cold and dark.
“Everyone, get ready to transform right now....”
Just as she turned to give orders to the magical girls, Yoon Seol-hwa’s eyes met Han Jae-jung’s.
This wasn’t a monster caution zone—it was a monster warning zone. The highest death rate, the lowest reporting rate. People were so used to dying to monsters that they didn’t even bother to report attacks, so every kind of illegal scum flocked here.
I’d heard that in this district, murders between people were often disguised as the work of monsters.
White Dabih, a magical girl, would be fine, but would Han Jae-jung, an ordinary person, be all right...?
Obviously, he wouldn’t be.
“...Jae-jung, let’s move in together soon. My place has plenty of empty rooms.”
“I’ll manage on my own.”
“White Dabih, you protect Ah-yoon and Jae-jung! Vega and I will engage!”
“Understood!”
“Hai!”
They answered vigorously.
“Now, ikimashou!”
Han Jae-jung looked uneasily at White Dabih as she slung an arm around his shoulder. She had been drinking and was in poor condition. Her face was flushed and her steps unsteady. Jo Ah-yoon, caught in her arm alongside Han Jae-jung, muttered nervously.
“Hey, you sure you’re okay? I’m trusting you here.”
“Uhe...? Of course! Leave it to me!”
“Wow, shit, absolutely zero confidence.”
“Ehehehe!”
A small wand appeared in the chuckling White Dabih’s hand. Baek A-hee and Yoon Seol-hwa had the same.
They shouted together.
“Doressu Appu!”
“Dress Up!”
“Dress Up.”
Three bright lights filled the room, and the three took on completely different appearances. Fluttering cute dresses, deeply colored hair shining like starlight. Three women adorned swiftly and splendidly, as if by magic.
They were magical girls.
“Now, here we go~!!”
With her enhanced strength, White Dabih grabbed the two around their waists and dashed off.
“Hey, hey! Where are you going!”
“I will evacuate you as far as possible! My sanshita will escort you!”
Her steps were light and fast as the wind, and accordingly Han Jae-jung and Jo Ah-yoon’s faces were mercilessly pummeled by the cold air.
“Ha-uup!”
A horn appeared in White Dabih’s wide-open mouth. A cute little horn with a ribbon tied around it in a super-deformed style. But its effect was anything but cute.
Pwoooooo!
The horn’s sound rose high, shaking the sky. The two nearby grimaced at the enormous noise.
The moment the sound moved the darkness, the ground shook as well. From the violently trembling earth, as if an earthquake had struck, something began to protrude bit by bit. Cracks formed where the ground swelled.
From the cracks emerged lifeforms of pure bone, without a scrap of flesh or organs. Armed skeletal soldiers revealed themselves upon the earth. They numbered close to a hundred.
Cracks also spread beneath the sprinting White Dabih.
Uwooooooh!!!!
A massive, beast-like thing rose up, covered in putrid wounds like a zombie. Without the slightest hesitation, Dabih leaped onto its back.
Then she set the two people she had been carrying down on it. White Dabih patted their shoulders lightly to reassure them.
“It’s okay! This sanshita has been magically disinfected, so it doesn’t smell and it’s clean! Senpai, you rode one before, so you know, right? It’s safe!”
“Uh... yeah....”
“Wow, never thought I’d ride one of these....”
With this much force, they could probably hold out for a while even if an S-rank monster appeared. White Dabih’s jewel sparkled, and she smiled confidently.
“I have carried out Blue-senpai’s orders perfectly! I will now safely evacuate the civilians who are useless in combat and return! What is your situation?”
It was a manner of speaking with no consideration whatsoever.
“Please understand. She’s always like this.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
She was like that often in the original, after all.
“Ah, I see. Minna-san! I shall return to battle! I hope you all get home safely!”
“But I’m far from my house now.”
“Sayonara, adiós, goodbye~!!”
Without the slightest hesitation, White Dabih turned around.
“In the name of the stars, a hammer of blood upon you! White Dabih, who will dye pure white red, is on her way~!!!!”
She summoned another beast zombie and rode off on it.
Jo Ah-yoon gave a hollow laugh.
“Crazy bitch, seriously....”
Her ears hurt not from the cold but from the noise. She turned her head to look at Han Jae-jung. Not many words were needed.
“What do you want to do?”
“What do you mean, what do I want to do.”
Displeased with the poor ride quality of the beast zombie, Han Jae-jung extended his hand. A cold metal sphere appeared in his previously empty palm.
“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I can hold out for a few minutes. And with my ability, well....”
Just like my current situation, getting far away from the battle site.
“Keeping them at a distance shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Good. I’ll help too. Ugh... starting the new year with intense exercise.”
A metal sphere had also appeared in Jo Ah-yoon’s palm. The sphere soon unfolded like a bird spreading its wings and became a belt buckle.
“Our situation’s always like this, I guess.”
Han Jae-jung’s sphere also unfolded, becoming a buckle that resembled a telescope.
As they attached the buckles to their waists, metal chains appeared and wrapped around them. Starlight sparkled in the lenses of both buckles.
[ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION.]
[Deneb! Denebola! Deneb Kaitos! Deneb Algedi! Deneb Dulfim!]
[I obey my fate.]
[CONSTELLATION OBSERVATION!]
Bright light bloomed on their bodies. The man wrapped himself in murky white lightning, and the woman wrapped herself in a canopy that moved softly like a butterfly.
[Are You Ready?]
“Transform.”
“Transform!”
[URSA MAJ■R.]
[CASSIOPEIA!]
**
Blue Sirius looked at the monster before her.
Its appearance was as if it had smashed apart part of a sailing ship and grafted the wreckage onto its body. A monster with an irregular beauty. This was the one who had set the streets on fire at the start of the new year: September.
“A Carina monster....”
“That’s right. That’s the source of my power. You have quite good insight. Or maybe you just studied your constellations hard. Well, that’s not important right now.”
He extended his hand.
“Would you care to board my ship?”
“What kind of question is that.”
Blue Sirius moved her feet the moment she answered.
“Of course I wouldn’t.”
“I thought so.”
Her rapier flashed once, and a massive iceberg surged along its trajectory. September naturally moved his body, dodging the attack.
“Hahaha, how frightening. Quite the temper, aren’t you?”
“Shut up!”
She couldn’t cause too much damage to the city. Blue Sirius blocked his retreat with a few icebergs, then shot a blizzard in every remaining direction he could move. A powerful blizzard that would grind up anyone in its path like a blender.
It was her favorite technique: Snow-Blossom Path.
Shwarrr! As ice fragments surged with no way to escape, September smiled fishily and extended his hand. His right hand transformed, turning into a massive cannon.
“You’re fierce.”
Bang! With a massive explosion, the blizzard evaporated.
“Let me introduce you. This is our ship’s elder. Given name In, family name No. He’s an old man, No-in.”
A sticky flame gathered and began to dance inside the cannon. A warm-up for an explosion.
“Beating up a woman doesn’t sit right with me. I’ll make a proposal. You attack on one. I’ll attack on three. Now, here I go counting.”
Of course, Blue Sirius did not listen to the monster. Once again, fierce ice blades condensed at the tip of her rapier.
“Three! Two, one!”
Bang! The cannon’s explosion and the blizzard’s howling wind overlapped. The ice blades had the upper hand. A few ice fragments that the explosion couldn’t fully block lodged in his shoulder and chest.
Looking at the crystals embedded in him, September clicked his tongue.
“Ehei, I told you to attack on one.”
“So cowardly.”
“Well, a villain ought to be cowardly.”
Charging, September swung the cannon like a club.
“Did you want me to be fair?”
“No, of course not.”
Sliding across the ground and dodging the attack in a graceful posture, Blue Sirius moved her rapier again. Kkagagak. The spot where September stood froze over.
The cold that started at his toes soon spread throughout his entire body, successfully binding all his limbs in ice.
“So I’ll have to kill you.”
Blue Sirius aimed her rapier at him and looked around. It was strange. It had been a while since Red Vega had started evacuations. She should be coming to assist by now.
As if in answer to this unease, another monster revealed itself from a secluded alley.
“Release our big brother!”
He too looked as if he had torn off parts of a ship and patched them onto his body. An appearance similar to September. It was easy to tell they were connected.
“Little brother, would she listen if you made a request without anything in return? You shouldn’t negotiate like that.”
A different voice came from behind Blue Sirius. She immediately turned her head. A third monster with a similar appearance to those two appeared.
“Hey, magical girl, if you don’t want to lose your comrade, release our big brother.”
There was a whirlwind in the air, and inside it was someone Blue Sirius knew very well.
“Vega!”
“I’m sorry, Unnie! I got caught!”
Red Vega gritted her teeth in frustration. Blue Sirius furrowed her brows in distress.
“What are you doing!”
“My flames are being controlled by this wind! They keep coming back at me!”
“He’s the second-in-command of the Argo Gang, the second big brother, October. As you can see, his ability is manipulating wind! Bow before the power of Vela!”
“Shut up, little brother.”
The appellations of big brother and little brother suggested a fairly close relationship. Were these three monsters brothers? It was quite an unusual bond for monsters, who typically didn’t form human-like attachments.
“Anyway, you saw, right? If you don’t want to die, right now....”
“Vega.”
“Yes!”
Blue Sirius let out a sigh and said,
“Deal with it.”
“Yep!”
Kwaaaang! A line of flames shot straight through the whirlwind.
“What?!?”
“Thanks for gathering them up for me!”
And with that, she subdued the second.
“Die, monster!!!!!”
White Dabih, who suddenly burst out of the back alley, bound the third with skeletons.
“Yes, that’s what I thought.”
The first was already bound.
Around the time things were settling down like that,
two more monsters appeared.
“Now... it’s your turn? What business do you have on New Year’s?”
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
Han Jae-jung couldn’t hide his bewilderment at how much more easily the situation was resolved than he’d thought.
Then why did I even come?