Two days later, the promised time had come.
Two days and this set of circumstances.
A gap of 130 days stemming from differences in pronunciation and understanding.
Naturally, there was no visit from the Medic Tentacle on the even-numbered day, which was assigned to Mari.
Mari anticipated that her active negotiations with the monsters would proceed smoothly.
“Phew, is this all there is…?”
After a short sigh, she resolved to take on the monster extermination alone for the week.
From that day onward, the monsters embarked on a one-person protest that was impossible to ignore, almost like a threat.
Since receiving the notification, a total of four monsters were sent to the black area.
Of those, the number of returned monsters was zero.
As sudden irregularities began to arise, the recovery room monsters had no choice but to report to Medic Tentacle.
“What? Not a single one has returned?”
“We’ve already had four casualties; I can only imagine what terrible things are happening down there…”
Upon hearing the report, Medic Tentacle felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
What had once again irked her?
The unpredictable behavior of magical girls, even more so than the breeding female monsters.
In the face of this sudden disaster, Medic Tentacle spun her two brains into action.
Sending out enthusiastic newbie monsters to fill the transmission quota could only happen once or twice; there was no need to increase futile sacrifices without understanding the situation.
Medic Tentacle thought.
Was what she had heard through the voice organs of the combatants truly without a single miscommunication, as it was conveyed?
As it passed from sound to sound, wasn’t there a degree of distortion?
‘…! No way!’
Her swiftly rotating brains reached a conclusion.
What if her notification did not mean to come exactly two sets of days later, but instead allowed time up to two sets of days to come?
Realizing this different perspective, Medic Tentacle’s eyes widened.
Yes, if that’s the case, then her behavior made some degree of sense.
The image of Magical Girl Sun aboard the ship was of an enemy who derived pleasure from killing and torturing monsters, regardless of species.
Medic Tentacle… If you don’t come a little faster, I will take hostages among the monsters for every moment you delay.
She was subtly demonstrating this with her actions.
Good heavens, how could she be so cruel?
‘I have to go.’
Whether the conclusion reached in her mind was truth or falsehood, Medic Tentacle had to head toward that ominous black area.
After all, she was undoubtedly the target in question.
Before heading to the transmission room, Medic Tentacle unexpectedly made an appearance in the general passenger area.
Coincidentally, there sat monsters in the middle of the passenger area, breaking the food prohibition rule by snacking.
“Hey, back there.”
“Gah!”
What bad luck, they were seated in a spot most visible to Medic Tentacle who had barged in.
However, Medic Tentacle was not so rigid in her principles.
When intelligent beings play together, various things happen; it’s unrealistic to expect all rules to be perfectly obeyed.
Ultimately, since those upper-ups scribbled down the rules randomly, Medic Tentacle had no intention of enforcing them every single time.
Given the numerous rules she also broke, if she were to keep track of such things, there would be no monster on the ship who wouldn’t face punishment.
Rather than pointless rule-playing, what Medic Tentacle was looking for was different.
“Hey everyone… Do you have any leftover metal plates from last time’s ruckus?”
The monsters in the passenger area tilted their heads at the question.
While a higher-ranking individual using that for something was uncertain, he accepted a clean, unmarked metal plate from the monsters.
Not long after, Medic Tentacle huddled in a corner of the transmission room.
Regardless of how the other monsters in the transmission room looked at her strangely, she was scribbling something on the empty metal plate in a pitiful manner.
[I want 대화 원해요.]
It may be cliché, but that sentence had worked at least once.
With everything riding on that most successful sentence, Medic Tentacle couldn’t help but bet it all.
However, there were two things he had overlooked…
First, while Medic Tentacle had grasped the concept of Earth’s date system as ‘knowledge,’ her ‘understanding’ was somewhat lacking.
And second, what he wrote in black ink on the metal plate.
“Ah… Damn it, what is this, some mobile game attendance event….”
The very moment it reached midnight, she unwittingly found Earth.
If she forcibly woke him, no matter how kind-hearted a person might be, it would turn them into a mad dog.
That scene was akin to a seasoned soldier just waking up for night watch duty, around one a.m. and ten minutes.
With only her upper body raised from the bed and eyes tightly closed, middle school girl Mari could no longer suppress her frustration.
*Sigh.*
After a deep sigh in her mind, she flailed her arms and legs in the dark room, feeling around for something.
Morning, lunch, dinner, or dawn; regardless, the alarm was ringing.
In regions where monsters tend to appear more often at night, earplugs are being sold at regular intervals, and it’s said that earplugs are essential for a good night’s sleep.
“Yawn… Ah, haah.”
After letting out a long yawn, blinking her sleepy eyes, she eventually got out of bed and headed straight for the entrance.
Every day, she wore her tracksuit to be ready to leave as soon as the alarm went off.
Thinking back, on days when she had night watch, she would similarly sleep in a military uniform.
Shuffling outside in her slippers, all she needed to do was transform to be ready to deploy immediately.
Once she left the apartment and walked a bit to the convenience store nearby, there was a blind spot without CCTV.
As she took off into the sky with her transformation spell in the dim alley, the Gomteng popped out of her pocket and took its place in her palm.
“But what do the monsters plan to do now that they’ve been caught?”
“Take hostages.”
“Will that be effective?”
Hearing the little guy’s remark, Mari’s gaze shifted toward the round, bead-like orb at her waist.
The mascot ball contained all four recently captured monsters.
Gomteng’s point was valid, but there was no means to contact the monsters separately.
Whether this kind of intimidation would work on the monsters was uncertain, but if it was the best one-person protest humans could manage against monsters, this was all that could be done.
“Let’s just hope it works.”
Fiddling with the empty mascot ball, she flew through the sky as if playing some monster collection game.
Near the destination Gomteng had indicated up in the sky.
As she looked down to the ground, a formless figure that could barely be called a person was waving something skyward in an old cement alley that reeked of nostalgia.
Strange metal plates reflected the dim moonlight that had landed on the ground.
Upon seeing the familiar black text written in ink on the metal plate, it finally dawned on her that it was indeed the creature she had seen once.
“Oh, that’s the guy from back then!”
“That sure worked.”
Slowly descending to the ground, she stepped on the unadorned cement surface.
It was shabby, haphazardly arranged buildings and narrow alleys.
Was there still a place like this that smelled of old days left?
Perhaps it was a redevelopment zone, as it seemed people had vacated.
As she surveyed the area, the octopus monster finally lowered the metal plate inscribed with the words ‘I want 대화 원해요’ that it had held high.
Its tone, cautious enough to alert anyone, turned toward her.
“Um, I heard you were looking for me…?”
“Yeah, I asked you to come in two days, but you didn’t, so I threw a bit of a tantrum.”
“Two… days? Not two sets of days?”
“Hmm?”
“Eh?”
At the moment their peculiar exclamations overlapped, both Mari and the monster seemed to realize something was wrong.
How could the expression “two days,” used in everyday life, be understood in their unit of sets?
After several rounds of dialogue, the brief misunderstanding was cleared, and the four monsters they had held hostage were released and brought before the high-ranking monster Medic Tentacle.
“Heehee, white…! It’s all white, heeheehee!”
“Whoa, that’s a lost cause.”
The one in the worst condition was the first monster caught.
The officer known as Medic Tentacle let out a deep sigh, manipulated a strange small device, and sent each monster back to where they came from.
Rather than burning, stabbing, or beating them to death, it was somewhat more humane, like a transmission device.
A teleportation device truly displayed impressive technology.
“You all did great.”
“And about what we need to discuss today…”
“Oh, right.”
Medic Tentacle, a high-ranking monster, was somehow also akin to a drill sergeant.
After talking for a while, I realized that this guy was like a subcontractor after all.
Whether a performance came or not, one was required to carry out the assigned tasks.
This seemed to be a perfect opportunity to present my original proposal, so I half-heartedly brought it up.
“Do you know about Earth’s dates?”
“I’ve studied a bit; the time it takes for one set of days is 66 changes of night and day.”
“Now, this is a calendar…”
I opened my smartphone to show them the calendar.
Dividing one day into hours, minutes, and seconds.
Dividing one month into the concept of weeks.
Dividing one year into the concept of months, gradually teaching it to them…
“…So, I’d like you to come a maximum of twice a week, after 6 PM and before 11 PM.”
A rather strange negotiation time had arrived.
First and foremost, it was to adjust the frequency and hours to avoid having to wake up in the middle of the night for dispatch.
It seemed that for these monsters, it was not a bad proposal either, as they amusingly pressed their appendages to their face and nodded in interest.
“Oh, if we show up at that time, you’ll accommodate us?”
“At least, it should prevent monsters from piling up in the intensive care unit.”
I heard that Magical Girl Sun… In other words, because of me, permanent power loss was almost guaranteed. Fixing that would be beneficial from their perspective.
Dipping ink into a shard of cement, Medic Tentacle began scribbling on the floor.
After a moment, she started writing some nonsensical characters and scratched her head with the cement piece before speaking.
“Ah, but… If it’s a maximum of twice a week, our quota might be a bit…”
“How much must it be filled?”
“Based on one set of days, we need to fill at least 22.”
“How much does one set of days correspond to in Earth time?”
“Uh, that… Ah, it’s 66 days.”
Hearing the creature’s words, I did some mental calculations.
Dividing that roughly in half gives about 33 days, almost a month’s duration.
If you round it to about 11 appearances in four weeks, that would mean two to three times a week would need to be scheduled to meet the quota.
“Well, it can’t be helped; let’s agree on two or three times a week.”
“Thank you for your consideration… We will be sure to meet your timing.”
At that moment, the two beings exchanged gratitude toward one another.
Thus, an unlikely and secret negotiation was going on between the monsters and a human.
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