Step 1, first stir-fry the ham and eggs.
Step 2, don’t microwave the rice for too long; stir-frying it while it’s still slightly hard will usually give you fluffy fried rice.
That day wrapped up with me teaching the theory behind making fluffy fried rice.
The next day, right on the doorstep of the Seollal holiday.
Leaving Siyeon, who had headed to the academy, I rustled a sanitary bag in my room, taking out the devices and tossing them into a black garbage bag.
Unlike the clear bag that revealed unidentified alien devices, the black garbage bag hid its contents from view.
Tightly knotted at the opening, it looked like a casual collection of trash or food waste at first glance.
“Will they come tonight?”
Feeling a bit off, I was the one who started retrieving the devices first.
But, in collusion with the monster.
When I calmed down, I thought that keeping that relationship going sometimes meant knowing when to compromise.
By the time I had already taken down the monster that came out to chat, it was far too late, but…
With a bit of regret, I continued fiddling with the bag.
Maybe it was the incessant crinkling of the bag that caught Gomteng’s attention while he was munching on snacks on the cushion.
“Um, are you really going to give them back?”
“Well, for now…”
Holding the bag containing the devices in one hand and weighing it uncertainly, I replied a little hesitantly.
The devices were of similar size to a slightly elongated walkie-talkie.
The light clattering sound of plastic hitting each other scratched at my ears just as lightly as their weightlessness felt.
Given that I had snatched away a two-digit number of devices, it felt somewhat heavy.
The surface of the bag was bulging in various places, protesting that at least it wasn’t food waste.
Though wrapped tightly in a black bag, the camouflage was unsatisfactory.
“Hm…”
After letting out a dissatisfied grunt, I began to think about how to stealthily get them to the monsters without drawing attention.
Suddenly, something caught my eye…
My backpack, which had become lean after a trip to the comic convention.
It clung to the wall like someone who had lost all hope after hitting a -99% return on stocks.
That’s it, that’s the answer.
With a spark of inspiration, I grabbed it with my fingertips and pulled it over, then pinched the tightly closed zipper handle and pushed it in one direction.
With a zipping sound, the bag opened, and the crunching of snacks could be heard.
“I’m suddenly curious…”
He paused his munching, wondering what had piqued his curiosity.
Not wanting to catch his attention with another pointless question, I focused on what I was doing without meeting his gaze.
Inside the empty space of the backpack, I had already opened it wide to make it easier to stuff in.
As I reached out and grabbed the tied opening of the bag containing the devices, a question reached my ears.
“Did you choose the magical girl names Sun and Moon yourself?”
“Well, there’s a certain amount of categorization according to the country, you know.”
Each country’s magical girl organization has set up rules that aren’t limited to just one nation for convenience.
In America, the magical girls are Tiara, Jewel, Beauty.
They mostly use objects or abstract concepts that symbolize women’s aspirations as their activity names.
In Japan, the magical girls go by Pink, Yellow, Green.
They mostly use color-related words converted to English for their activity names.
In Korea, our magical girls are Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Venus.
They typically use the English names of stars for their activity names.
“There are all sorts of unheard-of names, but there was no Sun or Moon… so…”
While talking, I was momentarily under the impression that the room height had changed as my gaze dropped.
I paused, thinking about what I had just said.
There’s no Sun or Moon.
Right.
By unconsciously rolling the word “Sun” off my tongue, I seemed to have transformed.
When I come home, I can sometimes lose my tension and not notice ‘that word’ slipping into my speech.
“Ah, damn…”
A mutter mixed with annoyance.
I keep thinking I need to be careful every time, but it’s easier said than done.
I can’t leisurely answer while sifting “Sun, Sun” through my head every time I talk to someone, nor can I just shut up like I’m on a vow of silence.
It’s better that these mistakes happen only at home, but when I nearly said “Sunglasses” at school, my heart skipped a beat.
I barely managed to swallow the mispronunciation before my tongue slipped.
In that moment, I almost transformed right in the middle of the classroom, showing off my frilly outfit.
If I had blurted out “Sunglasses” back then…
I wouldn’t even need to think twice; I’d have to untransform, smash a window, and escape to another world, right?
Or else, ditch school from that day on, no matter the compulsory education.
“Ugh, just thinking about it makes me really uncomfortable.”
Swallowing down that horrific thought that crossed my mind, I stuffed the bag deep into my backpack.
Subconsciously pressing down on it like it was just clothing, firmly.
Pushing down on the inflated plastic felt strange against my fingertips.
“Oh.”
The feeling of a button being pressed down made me think “oops.”
I let out a panicked exclamation, but it was already too late. A burst of light enveloped me.
The serene view of my room I was familiar with.
It instantly transformed into a strange, new wide room made of futuristic metal designs.
And I wasn’t alone in the room.
Monstrous-faced creatures sat in bizarre mechanical chairs.
They were gazing out the transparent windows at the blue planet below.
The sight of Earth captivated me.
Blues, whites, browns, greens blended harmoniously, looking like a beautiful marble set against a black background.
No, it’s not the time to admire the scenery.
Most of the objects connected to my body seemed to be dragged along, and the bag in my hand and its contents were getting pulled into the mix.
“How many transmission jobs are left?”
“23. They said to send them as close to the border as possible.”
The monsters in the room didn’t seem busy, chatting away without a care.
Clearing my throat, I spoke up to the two monsters closest to me.
“Ahem… uh, monster friends?”
The calamity, destined to be recorded in the ship’s operational log, began with such a youthful girl’s voice.
A magical girl enters the spaceship.
A simple, short sentence.
However, the destructive potential of that single short phrase.
Tagging it as an unprecedented event in the history between Earth and monsters, it was more than enough to throw the ship into chaos.
As merciless magic rods rained down on the monsters invading Earth, equally merciless fists would rain down on the magical girl invading the ship.
…That is, if the opponent were a typical, ordinary magical girl.
“Gahhh!!!”
“Abandon ship!”
The frantic screams drowned inside the ship.
I’d rather take care of external ship cleaning than actually fight Sun.
The replica looked that way; what’d happen when the real deal comes around?
If I were to meet Sun before any negotiations, I might as well just kill myself.
It sounds like a joke, but there was a heavy undercurrent of seriousness in the ship.
But there were also monsters who were so horrified by her mere appearance that panic ensued, and fear spread like an uncontrollable plague.
Fear stifled thoughts, and the uniform actions that seemed controlled allowed for no other thoughts.
Sun appeared. When the monster beside me ran away, I had to run too.
The path that the monsters emerged from the cabin towards the life boats was crowded.
Pitiably scrambling in the opposite direction of where Sun had shown up.
Smaller monsters got crushed to death in the chaos and ended up in the recovery room, creating an unfunny situation.
The end of the ship.
Convinced of that, the monsters fleeing in a daze held another certainty in their hearts.
The eternal demise of all monsters.
Her goal could only be that one thing.
…Surely, they could never think that the vicious magical girl Sun was merely here to accidentally press the transmission device’s button and return it.
Meanwhile, she—the cause and culprit of the grand incident.
Walking on the metal corridor that echoed with every step, Sun scratched the back of her head with her wand.
…In a ship that was far too wide, she shook the bag in her hand.
‘How do I get back?’
All that occupied her mind was the thought of needing to return.
From her perspective, the ship was almost eerily silent.
Whenever she encountered a monster, they’d either flee like crazy at just the sight of her or, if they tried to catch her, they’d be so out of sorts they couldn’t even think straight, drooling in a daze…
At least she could have a conversation with Medic Tentacle; she stepped forward, looking for a familiar monster in this strange ship.
‘I can’t even read the signs…’
Metal signs with languages that weren’t from Earth were written all over.
The final characters, looking like a common scribble, hinted that it could refer to something like ‘room xx’ on Earth.
Among all those rooms, the location of Medic Tentacle was the recovery room.
Indeed, whether she could reach the recovery room on her own was up in the air.
The fate of the giant ship rested on her fragile-looking two legs.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.