Not long after that incident, rumors started to float around Incheon.
A certain high school in Incheon that had appeared in the news.
Was there a magical girl among the students of that school?
It was an absurdly misplaced assumption, completely unintended, but nevertheless, the chaos was being effectively diverted.
Moreover, the school’s neutral response only amplified the suspicions further.
“We do not have any student with such abilities; you must be mistaken.”
Despite the elderly teacher’s responses in interviews, the heated public opinion showed no signs of cooling down.
In fact, from the school’s perspective, it was more than a little unfair, as they themselves didn’t have a clue.
The fact that they even mentioned “abilities” in their interview responses showed they were completely oblivious to the notion of transformations altering appearances.
No matter how trendy things like malatang or tanghulu got, they were just living within the confines of their daily lives.
The Korean magical girl scene is notoriously closed off, but ironically, that very closed nature was drawing more unnecessary attention.
The true culprit, someone who dumped a truck in the mountains, was getting the news from a middle school in another neighborhood, making the whole situation amusing from someone who knew the truth.
Even though it was from a different neighborhood, it was a high school that was close enough to reach with a little bit of running.
“Did you hear? The old man who was by the school got caught. Did you see him?”
“Yeah, I heard he dumped a truck in the mountains?”
Just a few days ago, he was the talk of our school.
An infamous old man, known in a bad way, yet his antics were still drawing attention.
With the news that the magical girl had personally dealt with him and the fact that he had “really” been caught, the school buzzed with excitement.
The homeroom teacher even added to the mix by saying to immediately report any suspicious people, as this story softly slipped through the cracks.
However, several students who were keenly aware of this world were beginning to seriously speculate if there was a magical girl at that high school.
…And one of those students was a member of our little chatter group.
Dongha, that guy, was shaking with excitement, lightly banging his fist on the desk, eyes wide with a fixation that showed no signs of disappearing.
“There’s definitely one!”
“How can you be so sure?”
Sunhyuk, doubtful of that conviction, casually challenged Dongha.
In response, Dongha seemed almost on the verge of a meltdown, as if to say, how could Sunhyuk not get it?
“No, it’s obvious! When she didn’t get caught at our school, the moment she appeared at the neighboring high school, a magical girl showed up and dumped a truck in the mountains, right?”
In the realm of common sense, Dongha was tying together cause and effect.
The cause: the old man who appeared at our school showed up at the neighboring high school.
The effect: a magical girl appeared and dealt with him.
It was a one-dimensional analysis leading to a one-dimensional conclusion.
“I don’t know, idiot, is it really that simple?”
Even though it was a one-dimensional conclusion, to passionate Dongha, Sunhyuk said this with uninterested sarcasm.
To those who didn’t care about magical girls, it felt like this.
“Well, she just took care of him because she couldn’t take it anymore.”
I didn’t expect the fruits of my patience, which had been bottled up for so long, to return like this, but if they wanted to fantasize however they wished, fine by me; it made things easier for me.
More importantly, I was concerned about the absence of Taehyun, who was usually reliable and keeping track of the surroundings.
Not seeing Taehyun in the classroom at all, I asked the two who knew him best.
“Where did Taehyun go?”
“He went to the bathroom, probably doing his business.”
“Hmm.”
I huffed a sound of agreement mixed with a hint of understanding while returning to my seat as the class bell rang.
Taehyun came in a few minutes after the bell rang, entering through the back door and taking his seat.
As I glanced at him, our eyes met for a moment, but…
‘Oh wow.’
That was brief; Taehyun quickly averted his gaze.
Could it be that he felt self-conscious because Siyeon had said something unnecessary last time?
Whatever it was, if I didn’t show any particular reaction, he’d just give up and accept it.
As time flowed with such mundane thoughts, it was one of those days where I didn’t want to move an inch in the sweltering heat beneath the air conditioner.
With a gloomy sky and high humidity, there was one unavoidable fact:
“Hey, Mari, they say a typhoon is coming?”
“Yeah.”
I lazily tossed out that single word, sprawled on the floor.
A typhoon.
That natural phenomenon that causes Jeju to go into shock and Gangnam Station to faint every time it arrives.
This is the time of year when schools that close due to typhoons become a point of envy.
Of course, considering the damage to the region, it’s not entirely a matter of pure envy…
By the time typhoons reach the metropolitan area, they’re usually pretty deflated, causing mostly downpour with no real issues, allowing school to continue as usual.
A few years ago, news outlets shouted about a historically great typhoon hitting, so I bought some bubble wrap to stick on the windows…
Historical, what? The windows didn’t break or get washed away; they just rattled a bit.
In the end, dealing with the aftermath of the typhoon was more of an issue.
Since then, even if the media keeps hyping a “historically great” or “maximum wind speed” typhoon, I usually ignore it.
Now, all I check regarding typhoons in the news is the forecast tracks.
Whether or not it’ll come to Korea often depends; usually, they abruptly veer toward Japan or China, so I consistently keep track of where it’s headed each day.
For now, the predicted path overlaps with our country.
I wondered what kind of stories were swirling around in the gallery, so I popped into the site.
Overall, not much interesting was being said, and my finger directed itself instinctively toward the popular concept article.
[Real-Time Update on the Monster in Jeju (71)]
Suddenly seeing a post about a monster update, my finger naturally directed my attention to the text.
After a brief flash of a blank screen, the photo displayed a gray sea heaving wildly against the backdrop of a gloomy sky…
In the middle of that gray sea was an oddly-shaped monster’s head just barely visible.
With a fish-like face that looked as if it had just been pulled up from a fishing line, it was, in a multitude of ways, dynamite.
And beneath that photo, the author’s short remarks.
[Being Swept Away]
“Damn, haha.”
The sudden surge of comedic relief caused a genuine burst of laughter.
Adding to the amusement were the comments lined up below.
[Insane lol]
[Where’s the guy headed?]
[How’d that happen?]
[Nature’s way of doing things]
[What could possibly have happened? lol]
[Wait, really? Has it ended like this?]
[Yeah, the monster apparently got swept away and an alert was lifted.]
[That’s crazy lol, legendary.]
[How did it even end up in the sea?]
[Maybe it really needed to swim.]
[The head’s fishy, but can’t it swim?]
[It’s becoming more mysterious.]
[That typhoon’s performance is legendary lol.]
[WTF lol]
[Seriously, that’s wild.]
“What’s so funny?”
As I continued chuckling on the bed, Siyeon, who had been filling up water from the dispenser, walked into my room and asked.
She leaned on my bed railing, showing me the smartphone screen.
“Look, a monster that appeared in Jeju.”
“Where’s the monster?”
Not finding the small monster face, Siyeon looked perplexed as she scrutinized the phone screen here and there.
Leaning down, she pointed to a certain spot on the screen.
“See, can’t you see that little fishy face in the sea?”
“Oh, it’s real! What is that, haha.”
I followed her pointing finger with my gaze.
After finally spotting the monster in the photo, Siyeon let out a soft smile.
Turns out, while it wasn’t an exact match, there had been similar cases abroad.
Stories about warnings for monsters appearing during tornadoes in America that disappeared within 15 minutes…
Or tales about a monster 20 km away from the tornado site getting its head smashed by a flying rock…
Despite being filled with quirky humor, the articles about monsters were indeed spine-chilling, especially when considering tornadoes from the Western world.
In the case of heavy rain brought by typhoons, the question was whether houses would even remain standing.
Wait, do monsters have their own alerts or warnings too?
[Monsters being swept away by waves, getting robbed by magical girls, and smashing their heads on rocks are quite endearing!]
The post that Mari was looking at.
Meanwhile, the higher-ups of the monster faction had that post displayed as reference material on their ship.
Just as the gallery discussed monsters, the monsters were also peeking into the gallery.
In line with the internet’s opinions, the command on the ship was gradually shifting from humane… no, towards a more villainous approach.
“So, um… this agenda discusses whether we should send transmission permissions to areas under tornado, hurricane, typhoon, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disaster warnings or not?”
“Shouldn’t we just do what we’ve always done?”
“Oh, that’s the thing, according to Galactic Reform 24.0, we’ve been instructed to establish flexible invasion countermeasures for interplanetary natural disasters, and we’re to operate under the commanders’ discretion autonomously…”
Of course, the detailed preparations regarding those changes were always left to the mid-level managers in charge.
Shield Lion placed his palm on his forehead in annoyance at the complicated discussion.
“Just designate it as a holiday.”
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