Anyway, after that, Na Han-na, who was under the Sky Demon Enchantment, kept nodding at my words…
“Han-na, I need your help. Would you, perhaps, help your sister?”
“…Yes.”
…She even said she would help me.
I couldn’t help but admire Na Han-na, who nodded with slightly widened eyes.
‘The effect of Sky Demon Enchantment is amazing…’
Normally, Na Han-na would never act like this…
“…Then let’s watch the music video together.”
“Yeah.”
Right now, she clung to my side and suggested watching the music video together.
I gained a lot from this.
First of all…, the usually uncooperative Na Han-na joined me.
Ziiing-.
All of our appearances were captured by a forgotten camera in the corner of the practice room.
‘This picture looks great…’
Initially, the girls couldn’t understand each other.
But after a fight, one girl confessed her trauma to another.
The other girl suggested a solution, and eventually, the two reconciled and moved forward with the same goal.
This story, reminiscent of a classic tale, indeed had elements of hypnosis mixed in, but the public wouldn’t know this…
They would only be in awe of this touching scene.
Of course…, there was still a big obstacle left.
‘If we can’t perform on stage, all of this will be for nothing.’
If I showed disappointing results on stage after having awakened, the narrative would lose all meaning.
For that reason alone, we needed to come up with good arrangement ideas here and now.
But…
“Umm…”
After finishing the music video, Na Han-na frowned and muttered.
She probably didn’t have any arrangement ideas pop up after watching the whole music video.
“Good ideas aren’t coming to you, huh?”
“…Umm.”
I thought so…
“…I do have one idea, though.”
“…What?”
“Well, actually, since we picked [Magical Love☆], I had an idea back then… I just didn’t say anything since it was high risk, high reward.”
“……”
That little rascal had the arrangement idea from the start but kept her mouth shut until now.
I glared at Na Han-na in betrayal, and she flinched and lowered her head.
“…I’m sorry.”
“…It’s fine. You told me now, so it’s all good. So…, what’s the idea?”
“……”
When I asked, Na Han-na, seemingly in thought, fell silent for a moment before finally speaking up hesitantly.
“Do you watch anime often?”
“Anime? Ah, cartoons? Well…, I don’t watch much anymore, but I watched a lot when I was young. I even sang a Digimon song during the ranking evaluation. I’m a huge fan of Digimon.”
“…No, not those vintage ones.”
…Is Digimon already considered vintage?
I felt a bit bitter and shook my head.
“No, then I haven’t seen it.”
“Hmm…, I see. I actually love watching anime. Magical girls are common themes in anime. But you know…”
Na Han-na searched for something on her tablet and showed it to me, saying,
“Magical girls don’t just have cheerful and bright stories.”
“…What?”
I was taken aback by Na Han-na’s words.
Magical girls not only have cheerful and bright stories?
Magical girls are supposed to be about a young girl secretly hiding her identity and winning against evil—albeit childish, but definitely a children’s genre, right?
That’s how I thought, but what Na Han-na showed on the tablet was…
“Hm…”
An image of a magical girl, covered in wounds and with vacant eyes.
“This is an extreme example. Look at some of the others.”
What Na Han-na showed continued to defy the typical image of magical girls…
Instead of the girly pink backgrounds, there were images filled with grim black backgrounds and dark expressions of magical girls.
Some wore eye patches…, others wielded whips instead of wands…
…And some were even smoking cigarettes.
I flipped through quite a number of images, slightly reminiscent of middle school syndrome, and asked Na Han-na,
“…Are all of these magical girls? This is a bit odd, isn’t it? They seem different from the magical girls I knew.”
“This is what you’d call the anti-thesis of magical girls. Think about it. If you suddenly became a magical girl after living a normal life, would it be all good?”
“……”
“You’d have to fight monsters every day and hide the fact that you’re a magical girl from everyone around you.”
“Hmm…”
“Even if you risk your life, the rewards are scant, and what you’re left with is just a sense of duty. You get hurt often, see horrific sights, and sometimes even lose close friends. But, no one around you recognizes that you’re struggling. How would you feel about that?”
“…Indeed.”
It wouldn’t be all fun and games.
No…, it might even be painful.
“If your heart breaks, there’s a possibility that you’d fall to evil or darken.”
“……!”
I flinched at the mention of darkening.
I suddenly recalled Yoo Seol’s trait, Darkening.
“If your heart changes, there’s a chance that a magical girl could join an evil organization.”
As she said this, Na Han-na showed me another image that clearly resembled an executive of an evil organization personified as a magical girl.
After flipping through a few more images, I slowly asked Na Han-na,
“So what you’re saying is…, let’s explore this dark side of magical girls, right?”
“…Yes, to be precise…”
Na Han-na grabbed paper and a pen from the table and started writing something.
[Magical Love☆]
“Here…”
Shush shush-.
Na Han-na colored in the empty star with her pen.
[Magical Love★]
“…Let’s change it to this.”
“……”
Then she cautiously looked at me and said softly,
“…Originally, [Magical Love☆] was a bright and hopeful song like the usual magical girls. We’ll give it a twist and make it dark.”
“……”
“Of course, it will be divisive… But if we can do it well, the returns could be significant, what do you think?”
“……”
I stared intently at the title [Magical Love★] before finally speaking up,
“…It sounds worth a try.”
The risk is certainly substantial.
But…, I felt that it could be done.
“So you stayed up all night yesterday?”
“Yeah. I retooled the concept and made some adjustments to the choreography, and before I knew it, it was morning.”
When Park Yoo-jung and Lee Hye-jeong widened their eyes in the breakfast area, I nodded.
“…Wow, is that alright?”
“Well…, you know my stamina. I won’t be tired just from staying up one night.”
“No…, not you…”
“…Huh?”
Swish-.
Worried, Park Yoo-jung pointed at someone next to me, not me.
And next to me…
“Uwaaa…, huhuuu…”
…Was Na Han-na, flailing her body like a zombie.
She had stayed up all night with me as punishment for keeping her ideas to herself.
…And now she looked like this.
‘Still…, a path has opened.’
Thanks to staying up all night and polishing our ideas, light was beginning to shine on the stage, which had previously been hopeless.
Now all that remained was to unify the other team members and practice.
‘It was all due to the Sky Demon Enchantment.’
It was thanks to the Sky Demon Enchantment that I could get the uncooperative Na Han-na to spend all night with me.
‘I never thought it could be useful in daily life.’
Even though it was just a first-tier skill, the Sky Demon Enchantment seemed to have limitless potential.
“Ugh…, weegh…”
“Ah, noona. She’s got her face in the soybean paste soup!”
“Just fish her out.”
With that, I decided to focus on practicing during the remaining time and further explore the Sky Demon Enchantment.
In the four days leading up to the main competition, I immersed myself in practice and learned more about the Sky Demon Enchantment.
And I discovered several facts.
First, the cooldown time for the Sky Demon Enchantment doesn’t refresh every 24 hours; it can be used as soon as the day changes.
For example, if I used the Sky Demon Enchantment at 11:59 PM on April 25th, I could use it again at 12:01 AM on April 26th, just two minutes later.
Second, the effects of the Sky Demon Enchantment don’t last long.
For instance, Na Han-na, who worked with me all night under the Sky Demon Enchantment…
“…Huh? What did I do yesterday…?”
…She was greatly bewildered by the fact that she had talked about her older sisters and come up with arrangement ideas while working with me all night.
And she returned to her old self.
In addition, she seemed shy and avoided looking at me whenever we met, making things more complicated than before…
Well…, whatever. I had already gotten all the sweet juice out of her.
And the third characteristic of the Sky Demon Enchantment that I discovered.
I realized that the Sky Demon Enchantment could be applied in daily life and hurried to find Seo Yoo-jin as soon as the cooldown was up.
I wondered if the Sky Demon Enchantment could snap Seo Yoo-jin, who was in a critical situation, back to her senses.
“Yoo-jin.”
“…Huh? What is it?”
Seo Yoo-jin’s eyes had turned dark after not seeing her for several days.
Seeing the girl with poor stamina looking like she had been up all night made me feel sorry for her, so I immediately used the Sky Demon Enchantment.
And…
[Casting first-tier skill Sky Demon Enchantment!]
[Casting failed!]
“……!”
…It failed.
I acquired the third characteristic of the Sky Demon Enchantment here.
The Sky Demon Enchantment doesn’t work on everyone.
Perhaps it’s because of Seo Yoo-jin’s trait, Arrogance, that the Sky Demon Enchantment didn’t respond…
“Why did you call me here and stay silent?”
“Ah…”
As I was flustered because the Sky Demon Enchantment didn’t work, Seo Yoo-jin asked me irritably.
In a hurry, I blurted out anything to her.
“…So, how’s the stage preparation going?”
“……”
At my question, Seo Yoo-jin’s expression darkened significantly.
It seemed like things weren’t going well.
“……I don’t know. No matter how hard I try, it feels like I’m running in place…, even when I practice it just keeps….… Wait.”
Seo Yoo-jin trailed off her sorrowful words and…
“But unnie, we’re on opposing teams! What is this? Are you trying to spy on us with this question?!”
Now she realized I was on the first team, and her temper flared.
“No…, that’s not it…”
“Forget it! You’re trying to act nice and then stab me behind my back! There’s no one I can trust here!”
With that, she glared at me as usual, snorted once, and turned away.
“Geez…”
I didn’t mean to provoke her, but it had backfired.
I just watched Seo Yoo-jin’s back as she walked away.
She walked away, stomping in anger, and somehow looked pitiful.
‘What’s more…, they’re still struggling over there.’
I didn’t mean to spy on them, but I inadvertently got to know the situation of the second team.
Unlike our first team, which had escaped the sinking pit, it seemed the second team was still in trouble.
‘Yoo Seol…, is she still doing nothing…?’
If they mess up their stage, no matter how tough Yoo Seol is, there will be consequences.
I couldn’t believe that someone as tough as Yoo Seol would abandon her team even when they were struggling.
With that thought, I tilted my head and returned to the practice room.
And….
The time for the main competition swiftly approached.
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