“Hyeonwoo, you have to live kindly.”
“Uh?”
It was a casual remark thrown out as my father was working at the repair shop he ran.
As a middle school student, I was helping him organize the storage room. I returned after sorting out the new items and boxes received from the factory when he suddenly started speaking.
“If you live kindly, everything will come back to you.”
“……”
I was a sensitive middle schooler, trapped in paranoia… a foolish idiot.
So, I blurted out something I shouldn’t have to my father.
“But that Mr. Kim who gives us discounts all the time crashed our car while drunk driving.”
…And then, about my mother.
I couldn’t bring myself to say that, but my father might have known anyway.
“……”
For a moment, my father wore a complicated expression.
And the words he shared after that still linger in my memory.
＊
“……”
A smelly girl was crying in front of me.
When a person cries out of true sorrow and overwhelming emotion, it often leads to a stuffy nose, hiccups, a distorted face, and truly beast-like sounds.
The girl crying in front of me was unleashing the perfect model of a beastly cry.
Having evaded the police with teleportation and reached a safe place, the three of us had just caught our breath when suddenly she burst into tears.
“I look like a silly doll!”
“Hana-chan! Shh!”
I gently covered the mouth of Sato Hana, who innocently stated the facts.
‘I’m glad I followed Sato’s request.’
Since Sato Hana had taken a liking to going for walks lately, the worries of the working Sato couple deepened as she strayed farther away each time.
When Hana was injured, they had worked extra jobs to raise surgery funds to send her to a renowned doctor in Europe who treated paralyzed patients. But as Hana’s condition improved, they turned that saved surgery money into living and school expenses, so now they had a bit of leeway.
Except for weekends when they went out for walks, they couldn’t spend much time with Hana, so they tried to take care of her during her walks this time.
…And the result was the silly doll right in front of us.
“Well, I think we should start talking soon.”
“Ugh! Hic! Y-yes!”
That one impression that seems to always exist in every class.
A petite girl, who looked like she might be sitting in the back reading manga, lifted her dirty face.
“W-well, what happened was…”
She explained that a bully who had always picked on her had also become a Magical Girl, and that Haruko, who had harbored resentment against him, dealt him a blow with a brick upon realizing that “Magical Girls are tough,” from the news. Then, when the bully’s boyfriend was about to report her, she unconsciously used her psychic powers to knock him down.
What extraordinary decisiveness!
When I was that age, retreating into a world of dark novels in the library was my greatest rebellion.
But Haruko went and smacked that bully right on the head!
“What about the other party? Did they die?”
“N-no, I snuck back to school while they were unconscious, and they both said Haruko passed out and woke up.”
Quite boldly, even during her escape, she managed to gather information on the victims’ conditions.
Every action done instinctively had already shown remarkable guts.
“Haah…”
As I sorted through my thoughts, I realized that, despite the impact, the nature of the incident was considerably mild.
Of course, hitting someone with a blunt object is hard to justify under any circumstances as violent crime.
However, the victim was clearly aware that they were being violently deprived of their freedom of movement by another Magical Girl.
Considering 13-year-old Haruko’s age, this matter would probably be classified as juvenile crime, limited to family court.
While there would be discussions with guardians and a settlement, it wasn’t serious enough for a swarm of armed police to barge in.
‘That means this violent incident is probably just an excuse to detain this girl in the research facility…’
The original work mentioned how, even before the plans began, there were various justifications for locking up Magical Girls who couldn’t bloom in government institutions.
‘[Guardian] Magical Girls had more time until they bloomed, and while I let my guard down, these signs were already appearing…’
The traces of the original work approaching much faster than expected.
“Um, what should I tell my mom?”
“Your mother is around?”
“Don’t say bad things. Why have you two been acting like that since earlier…”
Just hearing the word “mother” instinctively pricked at my chest, and I reflexively asked.
“……”
Listening to Haruko, it turned out since the day of the incident, she had thrown away her personal phone to dodge tracking and hadn’t used her transit card, escaping exclusively on foot, so she couldn’t contact her parents.
What to do…
I could ignore this and faint her for a moment before handing her over to the police. But doing that would risk revealing information about me, a confirmed Magical Girl, from the detained Haruko.
In front of the police, my masked self.
‘Dang it, I came straight here in my waitress uniform just to check on Hana.’
Having taken off my café apron, there was no store name on my uniform.
Even so, comparing all the cafes in the area, finding a shop with a silver-haired girl wouldn’t be too difficult.
‘Even standing by, Hana could get caught in the arrest process.’
Sato Hana, seemingly tired of the conversation, had sat on the nearby bench, gazing vacantly at the sky.
“First… let’s go to my house.”
I told the Master I needed to leave early.
-Yeah. Go ahead.
Then I returned Hana home and brought Haruko with the Illusion Curtain to conceal her.
“……”
[b][Magical Girl Supernatural Ability Weaponization Plan][/b]
Due to this plan, the Magical Girls would split into factions and wage war over each other’s starlight.
Amidst the established conflict, the second Red Broadcast was heard.
[b][This is a choice made before the trial of human evolution.]
[Each Magical Girl should prevent the invasion of monsters through the path they chose.]
[The powers and starlight of the Magical Girls will grow stronger as the dreams of others.]
[Those who take the starlight from another Magical Girl shall tread the path of struggle, while those who fulfill their wishes shall head toward their dreams.]
From here onward, all characters in the original work realized that something had gone wrong.
The first broadcast clearly stated, [To contain more starlight and evolve.], but the methodology was explicitly defined as [Absorb the starlight of others.]
‘They just didn’t catch onto it, but they subtly inserted another meaning between the lines.’
It was almost a pun.
The paragraph saying, [The star holds the possibility of evolution] had to be interpreted as [You can evolve without fighting if you just meet the conditions alone], was truly malicious.
And the worst sentence was the final one, saying [Face your fate with caution.]
After the second Red Broadcast, the Magical Girls realized.
Those who had absorbed power from another Magical Girl at least once couldn’t gain more power in any other way after the second Red Broadcast.
The amount of power obtainable through fighting was far too little for all Magical Girls.
In order to survive the impending destruction, they stepped onto the path of survival of the fittest concerning survival resources.
It was a true reality contract that, if presented to a judge, would result in a head being smashed with a gavel, but this world itself was heading toward absurd misfortune and destiny.
A world caught up in a trashy fate.
As I was lost in thought, Haruko suddenly spoke up.
“Um, um, can I go to the bathroom?”
“There’s no need to ask for permission.”
“I, I just don’t know where it is…”
“Go outside and it’s to the left in the corridor.”
“I’ll… be right back.”
Nervously, Haruko scurried out and returned in about ten minutes, looking just as nervous.
“I-I’m back.”
“Why are you so tense?”
“I-If I see such a noble appearance… I get intimidated.”
“……”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Thinking about it, there was something else that was bafflingly explained in the Red Broadcast.
“Busujima-san. Give me some stars.”
“Eh?!”
“I’ll just be watching.”
Recalling the incident that led her to be chased, Haruko was trembling like a hamster but eventually took out the Glass Star. A light was twinkling within her earth-colored star.
“Ugh. That girl tried to grab mine indiscriminately.”
“If she succeeded, it would have been in vain, as the power you can obtain from absorption is relatively little.”
“Huh? H-how do you know that?”
“Eh.”
As I tapped my Glass Star while thinking of absorption, the energy from Haruko’s earth-colored star began to be absorbed.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
“Oh so that’s how it works.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”
And as I tapped my Glass Star again, my energy flowed back into my star, restoring everything.
“Eh?!”
[It is also possible to absorb another’s star to increase your own.]
There was never a statement saying ‘You can’t restore it.’
All these explanations were maliciously omitted in the Red Broadcast.
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