As the monsters began to solidify their wavering beliefs once more…
The source of their concerns, Sun.
After completing all her annoying vacation homework…
She was savoring the coolness afforded to her as an air conditioner owner, lounging comfortably indoors.
It was 1 PM, the hottest hour of a summer day.
Under normal circumstances, it would be a time to lay around in her room without a thought.
Yet, for some unknown reason, Mari was preparing to leave the house, tending to Siyeon and the mascots.
Switching off the air conditioner, the bright lights in the room extinguished.
Even though the lights were out, sunlight streaming through the veranda window seemed to highlight just how hot it was outside.
Finally, before heading out, Mari checked to see if Siyeon had left anything behind.
“Bus card?”
“Got it!”
A strap stretching from her left shoulder to her right hip.
Siyeon proudly displayed her light pink handbag attached to her right hip.
Stylish, fulfilling, and oh-so-cute.
Even on a hot summer day, the magical girls’ assembly was ready to kick off.
Conveniently, the students were on break, and it was prime vacation time for workers.
There couldn’t have been a better reason to gather.
Without further ado, everyone met at the usual place, the Star Café, where they always congregated for their meetings.
After taking the bus for several stops, they reached the street.
Holding hands with Siyeon, they walked toward the Star Café, its curtains drawn as if the place were closed.
While it appeared shut, it was still open. They knocked on the locked door and slipped in through the gap.
Inside the café, a warm and comforting voice greeted them.
“Welcome, is that Sun and Moon?”
After making sure the door was properly closed and locked, they uttered the transformation phrases and offered polite greetings.
“Sun. Yes, hello.”
“Moon Power! Hello!”
Bowing to the owner at the entrance, they stepped into the brightly lit interior, which was surprisingly warm compared to the outside.
The mascots were let out from their pockets so they could chat among themselves, and they approached the available seats.
The other patrons who had been seated beforehand noticed their transformed selves and promptly pulled out chairs for them to sit down.
“Sun and Moon! Welcome!”
As they each shared their recent happenings while transformed, the time for just the girls flowed by.
In a room filled with girls like this, it felt like I was the only one drifting away.
Of course, it made sense since there were no cases of someone being a man who had turned into a woman among them.
No, in fact, there probably wasn’t anyone even living a second life here.
“Phew, phew.”
As hot chocolate arrived at the table, Siyeon grabbed the cup with both hands and blew gently on the surface, trying to cool it down.
It was too early for us to be sipping coffee.
As expected, two cups of hot chocolate were placed before them.
A warm cup of hot chocolate in an air-conditioned, freezing room.
That dissonance was oddly comforting.
It felt like being under the covers while the air conditioner was blasted.
“How have you two been lately?”
“Since it’s vacation, we’re playing!”
Mars, the magical girl with impressive pink twin-tails matching Siyeon’s handbag, asked that question.
Siyeon responded with a straightforward simplicity.
To add a bit more detail to her explanation, I chimed in.
“Other than school, it’s the same as usual—dispatching monsters and doing… vacation homework.”
“If you’re in elementary school, isn’t it five periods? I’m so jealous.”
Suddenly mentioning age, Mars rested her chin in her hand while sipping coffee.
If she were envious about how many periods were in school, it seemed she was still a student herself.
This year marked her third year as a magical girl.
At this point, I didn’t know her actual age when she started as a magical girl, but she was probably around middle school age.
This gathering had adults mixed in.
These days, middle schoolers could easily resemble high schoolers as they grew.
Whether they transformed back to their original forms while leaving or during brief separations, it was hard to tell who was who.
While we didn’t particularly hide our real ages, we also didn’t flaunt them.
Amidst her envy about the brief fifth-period life, she seemed to come up with another question, her chin lifting as she prodded further.
“By the way, something big happened recently, right? Are you both okay?”
“Four?”
Recent big event.
Siyeon tilted her head at that comment, but given I was the one involved that day, I immediately understood what incident she referred to.
It was undoubtedly about the massive monster outbreak that had occurred not long ago.
Just recalling that day was wearing me out more than I realized.
The sudden fatigue popping into my mind transformed into words and slipped out like a complaint.
“It was… a big deal…”
“How did you solve it? It might happen to us too, so let us know.”
As I mentioned how significant it was, I turned my gaze toward the curtains, and Mars continued firing off questions without letting me sip my hot chocolate.
To be honest, could I even call it a solution?
It felt too foolish to label it a solution.
“Well, we just wiped them all out. Probably didn’t think it was worth it to go back to normal…”
If I left out the torture, pain, desperate screams, and chase scenes, that was really all there was to it.
“Ugh, so we just have to endure…”
After hearing my answer, Mars rested her face on the table, completely deflated.
Her rich, voluminous pink hair sprawled across the table along with her.
Seeing her worried about situations that hadn’t even arrived yet, I thought this was someone who lived fretting about all the unnecessary stuff… and brushed it off lightly.
Even after that, “that incident” was brought up several times with more questions exchanged.
As I took my final sip of cooled-down hot chocolate, I heard it.
“Eh?! What do you mean by that!”
“…!”
A loud outburst suddenly erupted from a table nearby, startling me and causing the hot chocolate I drank to lodge in my throat.
“Cough, cough…”
As I repeatedly pounded my chest, letting out a series of short coughs.
Naturally, everyone’s attention in the café turned toward where the shout had come from.
After managing to regain some control over my coughing, I looked at the same direction as everyone else.
As the mix of voices quieted down, the sounds from that particular table started to become apparent.
“I just can’t seem to exert myself as I used to, so I’m thinking of retiring now.”
“That’s rather sudden…”
Retirement from being a magical girl.
It was an understandable concern as age took its toll, and some weren’t even thinking about it yet.
The average age of magical girls: 20s.
Considering that most of them were students, some could hold onto this profession into their 30s.
However, fighting monsters and protecting the city was a role that held a certain romanticism of youth.
Had anyone even thought about the perspective of those who reached their 30s or beyond in this role?
“Sorry, sorry. I feel like I’m going to keep worrying you all…”
Venus, with her youthful voice scratching at her short yellow hair, quickly apologized to Stella, who had just said it was too sudden.
Funding that couldn’t be pinpointed and a job that couldn’t be openly shared with others.
Friends of a similar age gradually laid down their titles as magical girls, one by one.
Generations changed, and she felt like she was the only one aging in that space.
That sensation must have intensified the more frequent their gatherings became, providing her with more solitary moments.
“I already have someone who might be my husband soon, and at this age, I can’t keep holding onto this girlhood feeling. I need a job I can speak of proudly.”
As her words piled on, the atmosphere around them turned solemn.
In the silence that followed, a quiet mood enveloped the room.
“…What about the memories?”
Stella’s word and question brought up the word “memories.”
It was questionable how that related to the previous discussion, yet it couldn’t be entirely unrelated either.
Retiring as a magical girl meant that an ordinary person knowing the truth about magical girls would enter society.
Here, the choices split into two paths.
First choice.
Like the owner of the Star Café, they could remember being a magical girl and choose to help them.
Second choice.
To replace all memories related to being a magical girl with ordinary ones and live just like an average person.
Venus seemed to have made up her mind about this already and opened her mouth.
“I want to erase them.”
“Why! Why…”
Stella shouted, her voice sinking as if she were drowning.
Venus had been active long before I became a magical girl.
Hadn’t it been over 10 years by now?
The decision to change more than a decade’s worth of memories wasn’t an easy one for her either.
“Though it feels a little mean to say this…”
She suddenly spoke a word of apology while holding her coffee cup.
This girl, looking no older than Siyeon, seemed to have a childlike appearance to her.
But her smile was much more mature and nostalgic than it appeared.
“Just… a little… I’ve found someone more precious.”
No one, not even Siyeon, who was a bit oblivious, dared to loudly shout at her not to retire.
Following her lead, we all took another sip of the hot chocolate, wrapped in the heavy atmosphere.
Following suit, I downed the now-cooled hot chocolate.
When considering its production process, it should have been sweet.
But maybe due to the somber mood?
A bitter taste among the sweetness felt more pronounced than usual.
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