“Goodbye-”
“Bye-”
A light farewell exchanged as I stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor.
It was only two hours of free time after school, yet the sky had darkened.
Entering the house after punching in the door lock code, which was simply the last digits of my phone number.
Of course, Siyeon should be home at this time.
Feeling relieved at the light seeping from the crack of the door, I headed for my room.
‘I’m not really that hungry…’
By the time I returned home, it was 7 PM.
Was it thanks to that bag of instant noodles I snagged from Sunhyuk in a one-on-one match at the PC bang?
It should be dinner time, but I didn’t feel particularly hungry.
I carelessly took off my socks and tossed them into the laundry basket before heading straight to the washing machine.
If I get it started now, I could hang them to dry before 9 PM.
In the kitchen, a small pot was left alone on the dish rack.
Did Siyeon at least boil some ramen?
I roughly wiped the still-wet pot with a paper towel and placed it back on the shelf with the other pots.
After a long gaming session at the PC bang, I wasn’t really in the mood to sit in front of the computer.
I hung my school uniform on a hanger, took off my underwear, and tossed it into the washing machine already running.
Bathing in a strange sense of liberation, I grabbed some fresh underwear and headed to the bathroom.
An evening shower that felt like the end of the day’s work.
After covering my body with body wash and shampoo that had an artificial floral scent, I felt as fresh as could be.
“Lady Mari.”
As soon as I strolled back into my room with my long hair only slightly dried, Gomteng piped up.
“What is it?”
It’s probably about the food at the PC bang, I thought.
I entered my room with a hairdryer and left a short exclamation.
Being the kind of character that always babbles on with nonsense, I expected the same this time—
“Today is an even day, and a monster has appeared.”
“What the hell.”
Sometimes, it really meant something.
Gomteng, pinpointing the exact date and mission that needed to be done, was way too straightforward.
And just when I finished showering and came in to dry my hair, he shows up?
Even though no one was around to hear, swearing just slipped out.
A green mask, perfect for warming my face in the winter.
At this point, showing my bare face makes it pointless, doesn’t it?
…though sometimes the magical girl fans chatter about it, without this, the monsters wouldn’t recognize me.
It seems new monsters have appeared while I wasn’t exterminating any.
“Let’s get dressed quickly and go.”
“Hey, don’t rush me.”
With Gomteng hurrying me, I shoved the mask into my tracksuit pocket and slid my bare feet into my slippers before dragging myself outside.
There was still some time left before it got completely dark for the office workers heading home.
I checked the side alleys between the apartments, confirming there were no signs of life before pulling out the mask.
After pulling the mask over my face, I awkwardly stuffed my long hair into it.
Long hair is so inconvenient at times like this.
Wait a minute, hair?
‘Oh right.’
Suddenly, an alarming memory flickered in my mind.
I was supposed to get my hair cut today.
Why does this always slip my mind as soon as school ends?
‘Ah, crap…’
I can’t help but get a demerit.
Scratching the clump of hair stuffed behind the mask, I mumbled the transformation incantation.
“Sun.”
Like a small bird flapping its wings, I rose smoothly into the sky, piercing through the clouds in an instant.
At a certain height, I retrieved Gomteng from my pocket, and without needing any instructions, he pointed clearly in one direction.
Kicking off from the air as if rebounding off the ground, my speed easily surpassed the speed of sound.
As soon as I felt Gomteng’s signal nudging my fingers, I came to a stop mid-air, braking.
“Is that it?”
“Probably.”
A suspicious figure burning brightly in the middle of a construction site in the dead of winter.
It can’t be that someone’s performing a ritual in the middle of a construction site…
It was definitely a monster, but I asked just to be sure.
When the ‘maybe’ signal was dropped, I gradually descended toward the ground.
As I kindly approached to get a good look, the monster seemed to sense the unusual air current and looked up.
“Hey.”
“I, I’m here! This wicked magical girl!”
“Huh?”
How dare they barge in and then accuse me of cruelty, that monster.
They looked awfully frightened, yet they were pointing those sharp body parts at me, still looking somewhat confident.
“I’ve heard you wield fire!”
“Uh?”
“On the planet where our Phy species lived, even your fire wouldn’t be able to harm us!”
“Oh…”
That monster was blabbering on, but all I could do was reply with interjections.
But isn’t it common to share such confident secrets like that?
Well, I don’t think I need to test whether it’s true or not.
If that is the case, I could be in big trouble if I inadvertently provided them with high-temperature flames, so I turned my gaze for something suitable nearby.
“Prepare yourself—!”
As the monster shouted, a sharp, fiery spear-like appendage brushed against the side of my head.
But instead of penetrating my body, the fire merely ignited the mask and the spear slid along my cheek as though it were scraping metal.
I was intentionally ignoring the attack, and beyond my vision, I spotted a good item.
“Oh.”
A wide rubber cement bucket carelessly left on the construction site.
The moment it caught my eye, I thought, “This is it.”
With a method of execution decided in my mind, I grabbed that spear-like part and dragged the monster toward the cement bucket.
“Ugh!”
I tossed the monster onto the ground near the cement bucket.
It seemed weak to impact, as the flames enveloping it flickered violently.
Scoop a mound of fluffy cement and splash it onto its body.
“…? What is this?”
The bewildered monster looked at me as I scooped another mound of cement and splashed it down again.
With each hefty scoop I poured on, the flames that covered the monster visibly diminished.
“What the…!”
The monster realized that the flames covering its body were rapidly dying down.
The terror of being buried alive.
Late to the game, the monster struggled to escape, but this stuff, once mixed with water, was heavier and stickier than it looked.
Moreover, I was firmly holding its center with my foot to ensure it couldn’t break free.
It must have begun to feel the weight of the cement piling onto it.
With the sound of sloshing and the sticky cement splattering around.
“Stop it—!”
At the moment when there was more cement covering the monster than flames, the monster finally screamed in terror.
‘It’s finally in a state where we can talk.’
With experience against numerous monsters, I knew that this was the most effective point for threats and persuasion.
What I had to deliver to this frightened entity was hope.
At the edge of death, standing atop the peak of fear.
When backed into a corner, they put everything into that glimmer of hope.
“Should I let you go—?”
With a teasing voice holding their life in my hands, I noticed the flames on the monster’s body flicker weakly.
“P-please…”
What escaped from its vocal apparatus was a desperate plea.
Even though the fire had spread to my mask and blurred my vision, I raised my right fist, showing just my index finger as I brought it to my lips.
“Then, one condition for sending you off without pain.”
“W-what…?”
Shaking in fear, the monster could barely pronounce the tremors in its voice.
This was the cornerstone of our second negotiation.
Even I thought, my smile curling at the edge of the flaming mask, must have looked devilish.
“In two days, at THIS time… you will summon the executive monster who visited ‘this area’ during the agreement.”
“…! I, I understand!”
“Good, you’re being clever.”
After concluding the conversation, the magical girl Sun took a deep breath for a ‘pain-free death.’
She lifted one leg to almost a vertical angle and prepared to slam it down.
It was a simple motion, just one solid stomp.
A lethal blow that would guarantee instant death.
While every death usually comes with pain, but the clean shock lasting not even a second sent the monster spiraling into oblivion, waking up in the recovery room.
“Oh, this one’s okay? Maybe the flame countermeasures worked a bit?”
In stark contrast to his response of shouting or maniacal laughter, one of the monsters in the recovery room murmured.
Observing the monster sent back for recovery, Medic Tentacle waved its tentacles in front of it, swinging them side to side.
“Now then, combat member, how many do you see?”
“Th-three?”
“Hmmm, linguistic functions normal… not seeing confusion or hallucinations either.”
Listening to the bewildered monster’s answers as it sat in the recovery device, Medic Tentacle continued to prepare the paperwork.
However, there was something more important than answering the executive’s questions at that moment.
Suppressing the shaking of its body in fear, the message from the one who had laughed more monster-like than the monster itself.
The monster had to relay it.
Otherwise, an even greater disaster was all but certain.
“T-this Trur…”
“Eh?”
“The magical girl said… to summon the executive monster who visited ‘the black area’ during the agreement in two series of days!”
“What?!”
Medic Tentacle couldn’t help but be flustered by the message received from magical girl Sun.
If it was an agreement with Earth, there was only one instance.
The agreement made with magical girl Sun.
He was supposed to visit the ‘black area’ in two series of days.
But there was one more problem with the transmission of this tale.
Who would have guessed that ‘in two days’ and ‘two series of days’ sounded similar?
The calamity that would visit the monsters three days later was something neither side could have anticipated.
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