Transformation or Death

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A Little Money and a Place to Live Tomorrow is Enough (9)

Early morning, the subway station was bustling with many people heading to work or school. A young man was also one of the many people leaving to find their way since morning.

He had to arrive at school by 9 AM today. For this, he absolutely had to catch the next subway. While resenting his home’s distance from school, he thought about whether he should get a room closer to campus. It was a daily thought, but impossible to realize due to lack of money.

Time was now running tight. The young man quickened his pace toward the platform, pushing through the incoming crowd.

In that moment, thud. His nose hit someone’s back.

“Ow… Tsk… I’m sorry.”

Rubbing his throbbing nose, the young man slowly lifted his head. It was someone with quite an impressive build. A tall person over 2 meters. How did he not notice such a large person until his nose collided? The young man thought he hadn’t observed his surroundings carefully due to being in a hurry.

“…Huh?”

But that wasn’t it. This giant had suddenly appeared. It was like a bolt from the blue. Everyone around focused their attention on the giant who had emerged out of nowhere. It wasn’t simply because he was larger than ordinary people.

Light was emanating from the giant. A strange light that people living in this era would have seen at least once. An eerie radiance like stars collected from their reflections on the night sea. It was the starlight of an anomaly.

The young man stepped back several paces. As his field of view widened and he could take in more details, he could see what he had bumped into.

An appearance like planks patched together from a shipwreck. No skin, body hair, head hair, or facial features could be found. At most, just eyes. The reddened eyes were creepy like a water ghost seen at night.

The giant slowly turned around. The young man’s eyes met those creepy eyes.

It was quiet. The platform that had been bustling just moments ago was dyed in silence. No one could utter a word.

The expressions of the countless people gathered for work, school, or meeting others became uniform.

[Next station is…]

Along with the announcement that the subway would soon arrive, the rattling sound of the train shook their brains. Even that couldn’t break this silence.

The subway raced past the platform leaving afterimages. Even as that rush slowly came to a stop, the vibrations didn’t cease. Those vibrations originated from somewhere even deeper than this underground. It was impossible to tell if the trembling legs were due to fear or these vibrations.

“Hu, young… pe

The giant opened its mouth. At that moment, the young man regained his senses.

“Ah shit…”

As it parted its lips again, the ground began to split. Water burst forth from those cracks.

The water, erupting like a volcano, tore the young man’s body to shreds. Thus, the young man’s last words were decided. A mumble that couldn’t even become a curse word was his final period.

The life of an ordinary student who had been considering moving closer to school due to the distance drowned along with the lives of 1,347 people gathered here.

***

On the third morning after Blue Sirius and Han Jae-jung’s disappearance, the Magical Girl Association kept Yoon Seol-hwa’s disappearance hidden and unannounced.

Due to frequent appearances of S-class villains, citizens’ anxiety was accelerating. News of a top-tier magical girl’s disappearance would only be adding fuel to the fire.

While some people found it strange that Blue Sirius, who used to deploy daily, hadn’t been seen for two consecutive days, it wasn’t yet a serious situation. If they claimed she was on vacation, people wouldn’t dig deeper.

The aftermath of Sagittarius’s bombardment had been somewhat cleaned up. At a time like this, there shouldn’t be major problems.

But this was just the media’s story.

The Unicorn at the Magical Girl Association headquarters was aging every minute and second. It looked too weak to be called an immortal mythical creature.

‘Where did you go….’

It seemed like its soul might leave its body at any moment.

“Yaaawn….”

[I told you to get some sleep.]

When Baek Ah-hee let out a small yawn, her mascot Ribbon started nagging. She had spent all night staring at her phone. It wasn’t because she was browsing adult sites.

It was because she was waiting for contact from Han Jae-jung. She hoped there would be something after that abruptly cut-off contact. But no matter how long she waited, there was no further contact from him.

She couldn’t understand it. His affection toward Baek Ah-hee was comparable to that of a real father. Whether due to guilt or admiration for her pledging to become a hero at such a young age, Han Jae-jung had infinitely indulged Baek Ah-hee’s childish behavior.

That’s why it was even more incomprehensible. To cut off contact with her so coldly.

Moreover, it hadn’t been long since they made their secret pledge about lifespan.

‘…Could it be that he doesn’t have much time left?’

He might have decided to disappear for that reason. Baek Ah-hee sat up abruptly in bed due to rising anxiety.

[Don’t think too deeply about it. At times like this, the reason could be simple. Like White Davi said, they might be spending time together as lovers…]

“He wouldn’t… Do that….”

[S-sorry, I misspoke.]

Ribbon fell silent at her increasingly sharp response. Like the dying Unicorn, Baek Ah-hee was becoming more sensitive with each passing minute.

At that moment, Ribbon’s eyes flashed brightly. This was the signal for contact from headquarters. It meant there was something to notify directly, not through electronic devices that risk hacking.

Usually used for anomaly deployment signals, but now Baek Ah-hee had one thing to hope for.

“Did you find Sister Seol-hwa?!”

When she asked, unable to hide her excitement, a voice different from usual came from Ribbon. The Unicorn had connected directly to transmit its own voice through Ribbon.

[Villains deployment! Villains deployment! Everyone get ready quickly! Sorry, but everyone including those on vacation today!]

The voice sounded quite urgent. Baek Ah-hee showed her disappointment without hiding it. She had gotten her hopes up, but it was just another such contact.

But the words that followed woke her up.

[Villains appeared at B-2! Emergency situation! Already over 3,000 people have been submerged!]

Baek Ah-hee jumped up immediately upon hearing the contact. Then she went to the veranda. From here, B-2 should be clearly visible.

The moment she opened the veranda door and faced that sight, Baek Ah-hee was shocked.

Water was raging between the tall buildings as if hit by a tsunami. There was no need to imagine how it would look up close when it was this visible from here. The roads must already be submerged.

This place is far from the sea. That’s no tsunami. Around the center of those surging waters, whitish lights could be seen shooting up into the sky. Starlight visible even from this far away in broad daylight. This was no ordinary opponent.

“Ribbon!”

[Yes!]

There was no time to hesitate. Baek Ah-hee immediately jumped off the veranda.

An act others would call crazy. However, a magic wand had already appeared in her hand. It was her mascot Ribbon transformed into a transformation tool. Feeling the wind of her fall across her whole body, she swung it.

“Dress up!”

[Dress up your star!]

A ribbon shining like a jewel burst forth from the tip of the magic wand. A long ribbon like one a gymnast would use. Those fabric strands wrapped around Baek Ah-hee’s body.

With a flash of light, the pajamas she had been wearing vanished and was replaced by an elaborate dress based on a school uniform design. Her messy hair was neatly arranged into pigtails, and her unwashed face became white and clean.

The body that was enjoying free fall until just now immediately floated up and raced through the sky as soon as it donned that dress.

“…Why now of all times!”

While still suffering from the aftermath of the bombing, Red Vega gritted her teeth and flew up to the scene.

Given the close distance, reaching the location itself was quick.

There, her seniors who had arrived first were in the midst of rescuing people.

“P-please save me!”

“Th-there. My younger sibling is there! They still haven’t escaped…”

“Me first! Save me first!”

The chaos she had always seen was there. People who lost their homes in an instant and those who lost both their homes and families. Everything they had built up until now was swept away and pushed along by this flood of water.

“I’ll help too!”

With that, Red Vega wrapped flames around her feet and struck downward. Her kick greatly split and evaporated the water. The vaporized steam obscured her vision. Moreover, the temperature was so high it affected even the surrounding water temperature.

Oh no. This isn’t helping with the rescue at all. This smoke blocks the vision of the seniors conducting rescue operations, and the elevated water temperature could cause burns if they’re not careful.

In her anxiety, she failed to properly assess her surroundings.

“Our rookie! Have you become useless because of the water?”

“I-I’m not useless?! And I’m not a rookie anymore!”

One of the seniors who arrived first joked around. Even in the busy situation, there was an attempt to maintain some cheerfulness. The corner of their mouth making the joke wasn’t raised at all.

“Seeing how you’re getting worked up, looks like I hit the nail on the head. Instead of sweating it out here, you go over there.”

The senior pointed their finger toward the center where the water was surging. Where the villain was.

Red Vega knows. It’s impossible to evacuate all these people with just the personnel here. For magical girls, saving people is more important than defeating villains.

Also, if it were up to their hearts, they too would have wanted to fight the villain. Most magical girls have a sense of justice no less strong than Red Vega’s. They probably wanted to deliver justice to the villain with their own hands.

But they also know. The fact that they are powerless. They might manage somehow with an A-class villain, but anything above that is difficult. Knowing this, they entrusted it to Red Vega.

“Hurry.”

Red Vega bowed her head slightly and flew up toward the villain.

A comet’s trail was drawn in the sky.

“Please somehow manage it…”

Hoping she could cut off this flood. They placed their faint hope in her.

Those who had lost much to this flood also made wishes while watching that comet’s trail.

Please, grant us a final grace. Please let what we’ve lost now be enough.

Please leave us at least some money and a place to sleep tomorrow.

***

Ippotranslation 

***

Joo Ah-yoon frowned deeply while watching the news.

The news was reporting casualties as they were tallied and showed the flooded city.

“This brother doesn’t show his face even when the world is in such chaos…”

He’s the type of person who would rush over at times like this, regardless of his identity. Though she had only seen him for three days, his face lingered in her mind.

For someone like her who doesn’t like fighting, she needed at least one excuse to fight. Han Jae-jung was the best excuse.

I fight because he fights. His enemies were always powerful. He seemed to need a helper or two.

But protecting Han Jae-jung wasn’t her only purpose. On the news, magical girls were doing their best to rescue people.

It looked somewhat inadequate. If my Hong-ik-o was here at this time…

[There’s something better now.]

“Shut up, you.”

Heaving a deep sigh, she looked at her belt. The parrot’s voice. Though it looked like a metal ball unlike before, what was inside was undoubtedly Ah-yoon’s partner. A reliable companion who always helps with her magic.

[Guardian, your phone is ringing.]

“I know.”

The phone had been ringing for a while now. The caller was Ara. Orange Altair. She had a rough idea of what she wanted to say.

Since Orange Altair had confirmed Joo Ah-yoon as Odette, the villain of the Cassiopeia constellation.

“That doesn’t look easy… Well, I guess I’ll just do what I did before.”

Let’s shoot it into space like last time. Joo Ah-yoon got up from her seat.

Soon, a ‘Closed’ sign was put up at the cafe.

***

Ippotranslation 

***

Yoon Seol-hwa stared at the empty air while sweating. To others it looked empty, but not to her. There was her mascot there.

A mascot that resembled a Husky.

Light kept flashing from that mascot’s eyes.

Usually, it would be a dispatch signal that flashed once and stopped. But today it had been flashing for several minutes without stopping. It meant there was a significant emergency.

There’s no TV or internet here. It was difficult to grasp exactly what the situation was. She could have turned a blind eye to it. Since she didn’t know the severity of the situation.

But she couldn’t turn her eyes away from it. An anxious streak of sweat ran down her back.

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