Chapter 76

As Arima rummaged through the city’s garbage dump to escape his permanent TS state…

Ayle, having lost in the battle for Eight’s affection, sought to relieve her gloomy feelings and stress through invasion.

So, that meant she led the world’s enemies to invade City H. The head of the Magical Girl Association sent a message, looking perplexed about the unplanned invasion.

─“Um, Chairwoman? I had mentioned that since it’s midterms, could you please refrain from invading…?”

“That’s got nothing to do with me! Why is a Magical Girl’s exam important? Just defend the city well.”

─“W-Well, it’s not that simple… I understand for now…”

Ayle, along with the world’s enemies that Eight had created, invaded City H. Instead of the terrifying monsters that deplete SAN just by looking at them, she had cute, adorable creatures that wouldn’t feel out of place in a children’s animation.

This was a mimicry of the evil organization she belonged to. It was different since the world’s enemies participated instead of the evil organization’s soldiers, but still…

While her summoned world enemies attacked the citizens of City H, a Magical Girl appeared from a distance.

“─You little piece of shit-!”

Spitting out curses as she appeared, the Magical Girl immediately unleashed flames toward Ayle without even a brief introduction. The Fire Magical Girl, Flame. She had become famous for her knack for annihilating enemies without caring a bit about fame herself.

The flames shot by Flame instantly incinerated the adorable world enemies, and as the citizens screamed in horror, Ayle couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the Magical Girl before her.

“Did you come this quickly? I’m quite surprised.”

“I could have come out even faster, but I was late because I was washing up. You little shit.”

“Oh my- Were you enjoying some lovely time with a boyfriend? If so, did I maybe interrupt…?”

“Shut up-. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Seems about right. Your personality is too fierce for that.”

While exchanging small talk with the Fire Magical Girl, Ayle quickly readied her staff to respond to Flame rushing toward her.

For Ayle, who single-handedly took down several Magical Girls, battling just one was a task she could manage with her eyes closed.

Easily parrying Flame’s attack with one hand, Ayle even attempted a mental attack.

“You know, other Magical Girls seem to be busy studying for their futures since they couldn’t come out? Seeing you come out right away, I guess you have no worries about the future, Flame?”

“Quit yapping with the enemy-! You damn bitch!”

“Or maybe— you just can’t study? I mean, just by looking at how cheap your talk is, it’s easy to tell how ignorant you are.”

“─Oh really, today I’ll make that ignorant bitch taste death.”

Flame approached. However, Ayle didn’t think much of it. It meant she treated the Magical Girl just like usual.

This was soon to be a lapse in judgment. There was a gap between them that could not be crossed by mere negligence, but negligence was negligence.

Magical Girls, at times, could perform miracles that normal logic couldn’t comprehend.

“Gah, huff—!”

“Uh, wait—?”

“I told you I’d beat you to a pulp…!”

On the ground, Ayle looked up at Flame who had mounted her and felt flustered. How did it come to this? Before she could even think that, the Magical Girl’s fist came crashing down on her.

The first defeat of the Evil Magical Girl, a consequence of forgetting the rule that she became stronger alone than when she was against many Magical Girls—a blunder caused by an otaku’s oversight.

* * *

Though I had become an Evil Scientist, honestly, sometimes I confused whether I was an Evil Scientist or an orphanage teacher.

Especially when I acted as a father figure to the orphaned Boss, taking her to school or helping runaways study to pass her GED exams.

Today was no different. As I headed to Ayle’s waiting room to review her homework, I found not Ayle diligently studying but rather a wriggling caterpillar wrapped in blankets on her bed.

“Ayle?”

“…….”

“What are you doing there instead of studying? Hurry up and….”

As I forcibly pulled the blanket back, I froze at the sight of Ayle’s face, which was overflowing with gloomy emotions. Her face was clean, but she looked like she had just gotten beaten up.

Seeing her expression, I hesitated and carefully opened my mouth while sitting on the edge of her bed.

“What happened?”

“……Nothing happened.”

“Really. Can you manage to study?”

“Yes… I can study….”

“If it’s too hard, you can take a break today.”

Ayle muttered that, weakly heading toward her desk. Seeing that, I realized even more that something was wrong with her.

It wasn’t anything like her period. If I remembered correctly, her period wasn’t coming for a while, and she wasn’t the type to suffer from those issues.

There was definitely something she couldn’t tell me. As I pretended to keep an eye on her studies, I searched online to find out what was going on with her.

Before long, I learned she had gone as an Evil Magical Girl and lost to the Fire Magical Girl and had gotten thoroughly beaten in the process.

‘……Ah, I see, this is what happened.’

Only then did I understand why Ayle was so down. It was humiliating to have been thoroughly beaten by the Magical Girls she had considered to be beneath her.

Getting beaten up wasn’t even the main issue, though.

Her seemingly fine appearance was likely thanks to the barrier from the Evil Magical Girl suit I made and perhaps the red medicine she secretly consumed when returning to the headquarters… now, it meant she had been significantly hurt, both inside and out, even if it wasn’t visible.

“Um… Scientist?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“I don’t understand this problem…”

Look at that.

She had lost interest in studying, whined about not knowing why she was doing it, and even forgot the problems I taught her and got them wrong several times—all of a sudden, she was asking about something she didn’t understand?

Just this alone made it easy to realize how deep her wounds ran. Maybe she feels that being a Magical Girl doesn’t suit her and that she should focus on studying instead.

While it was great to see her show interest in studying like this, I couldn’t leave her in such a gloomy state forever. Considering that her only stress-relieving method was becoming a Magical Girl and having fun with others, it was even more pressing.

“─Ayle.”

“Yes, y-yes…? Ah, this problem. It was the one you told me last time, right…? I’m sorry… for asking about something like this again…”

“Shall we go on a date today?”

“……Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Get up. Let’s go.”

I stood Ayle up and left the headquarters with her. We wandered around various stores related to Magical Girls that she might enjoy to lift her spirits.

By the time I thought her mood had lifted, we started chatting about Magical Girls. More precisely, about the later generations of Magical Girls. The ones who got stronger alongside increasingly powerful foes.

“So, the first Lyrical introduced the rear-powered magic cannons…!”

“Hmm, I see.”

“It saves up magic in advance and uses it during critical moments to unleash double the power! There were also many changes in the suits—.”

As a Magical Girl enthusiast, Ayle knew a tremendous amount about Magical Girls. From things I could never imagine to who the strongest Magical Girl was and what she envisioned as the strongest.

While keeping all of that in mind, Ayle began to figure out how to modify the Evil Magical Girl suit.

‘So the Evil Magical Girl I created lost…’

What could be—.

If she was feeling down about losing to a Magical Girl…

All I had to do was modify her to make her stronger.

That was precisely the job of an Evil Scientist, something only an Evil Scientist could do.

* * *

“Nice job, Myung Myung! You’re definitely my partner!”

Inside an ordinary 21-pyeong apartment.

With bruises all over and a few broken bones in a cast, the Fire Magical Girl Flame, her face completely battered to the point she couldn’t even open her eyes, frowned at her spirit who was babbling nonsense.

“Nice job my ass… Just look at me. Ugh, I still can’t figure out how I won.”

─“Still, the Evil Magical Girl might be in trouble from this! Maybe she won’t even show her face again….”

“That would be nice.”

Flame thought so while turning on the TV. Her favorite live variety show was just starting. As she watched the opening, she was already about to laugh when someone rang the doorbell. Thinking it was a delivery, she carelessly opened the door and flinched at the sight of a mysterious, dark-skinned man standing in front of her.

The man in tight clothes, upon seeing Flame’s face, raised his hand and shouted loudly.

“Hail Evilus—!”

“W-What? Who the hell—?”

“This is a delivery from the Evil Magical Girl.”

“What? What does that mean—?”

“Yeeeee—!”

Handing Flame a random box, the man quickly vanished. Receiving the package, Flame cautiously began to unwrap it, fearing it might be a bomb or poison since she had transformed into a Magical Girl.

Inside was a vial of red medicine and a piece of letter paper.

Upon reading the letter, Flame burst into laughter.

“Ha, geez.”

A duel ground, huh?

Calling herself an Evil Magical Girl, this one sure has a lot of nerve.

Even including the medicine…

At this rate, who the hell is evil and who is justice?

Flame couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

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