Transformation or Death

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – 

The Appearance of the Villain, 0 Death.

Blue Sirius has an underlying illness. 

If the mental illness caused by her work counts as an underlying illness, then that was one, but there was another illness even older than that.

It was none other than heart disease.

Born with a weak heart, she had developed a habit of going to the hospital after engaging in intense battles like this.

While her condition had improved considerably thanks to the starlight from her magical girl activities, the anxiety of what if, never left her side.

There was someone who was always with her, alongside that anxiety. 

Paradoxically, the person who was always with anxiety also always chased it away.

As days went by repeating this pattern, at some point, she came to love even her illness and anxiety.

By loving every moment she spent with him, she came to embrace even the suffering that gnawed at her.

Knowing that nothing lasts forever, she still presumed it would last eternally. 

She didn’t know, didn’t want to believe, that there would be an end to the always.

It has been several years since the end of that time of love.

“Damn it, what the hell… Shit. Senior, I heard the villain really hated you yesterday, what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was them rejecting me unprovoked. Not like we were going to be friends anyway, so whatever.”

“You looked like you ran into an ex on the street? I have to say, I laughed when you told me not to talk to them.”

“…Deneb. Could you refrain from jokes about that side a little bit?”

Now that person is gone, and instead, her junior has taken their place. She is an adult now, too.

She can go alone, but Pink Deneb didn’t leave her alone.

“Is it okay if I call you Deneb out here on the street? Senior.”

“Geez… Ah-yoon. Don’t joke like that.”

Joo Ah-yoon.

Hearing her real name, Pink Deneb dropped the playful demeanor and gripped Blue Sirius’s hand with a concerned look.

“Why, can’t you forget them still? You should try seeing other people…”

“Ah-yoon, I keep telling you.” 

Blue Sirius answered more seriously than ever before. “That was my first love, and my last love. I can’t forget it, I’ll never forget it for my whole life.”

“…Senior. It wasn’t your fault, you know? Nobody did anything wrong.”

“Ah-yoon. Could you say that in front of Jae-jung?”

Mentioning that name caused a brief silence. Deneb too had indelible memories tied to that name, and her forced cheerfulness washed away.

“Could I say that to him, who suffered so much because he dated me?” Blue Sirius shook her head vigorously, as if recalling something dreadful.

Even years after their breakup, Blue Sirius was suffering every day as if they had just parted yesterday.

“No, let’s end this conversation here.”

Just before entering the hospital, Blue Sirius tightly gripped the hand held out to comfort her and spoke. Though she was the one who decided to end the conversation, she couldn’t shake the words from her tongue.

“…I wonder if he’s doing well now.”

“Senior, with the money you sent him, he could probably open up a small shop somewhere and live a quiet life without any trouble. Try to think positively.”

“Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. That’s probably it. That’s how it should be…”

After shoving the anxiously trembling Blue Sirius into the examination room, Pink Deneb decided to kill time in the waiting area.

During that time, she casually struck up a conversation with someone nearby who looked to be in poor condition.

He seemed to have a handsome face, but his appearance was quite disheveled. His hair was unsightly long, and he hadn’t shaved in a while, with a full beard. Any familiar impression was obscured by his unkempt state.

It was impossible to think he was the same person. Perhaps it was even harder to believe because she had wished for his happiness.

So when addressing him, Pink Deneb chose to call him ‘Mr’, a general term for an older man. In terms of the number of characters, it was the same as how she used to call that person.

The test results showed no other issues for Blue Sirius, and Pink Deneb went to meet her with relief.

As the two met up, they heard someone’s voice.

-Han Jae-jung.

It was a name that made her eyes open wide. 

Could it be just a person with the same name?

No, it wasn’t.

The haggard-looking man approaching at that call still had clear traces of the past etched on his face.

*** 

Ippotranslation

***

“Jae-jung…?”

Closing my eyes tightly, wasting my parents’ insurance premiums, I met someone I least wanted to meet and heard a voice I least wanted to hear. 

Fortunately, the latter now gave me an excuse to avoid the former, so it sounded a little relieving this time.

‘It’s probably just a quest to run away anyway.’

I had no reason to refuse, and was even glad in a way. It was annoying that their attitude seemed to imply trying to get me involved again now that I had recovered a bit, but I decided to let it slide considering the timing.

After settling the bill, I turned away pretending not to have heard.

“Jae, Jae-jung. Wait a minute.” 

Then Blue Sirius grabbed my wrist. It was quite rude, but rather than being flustered, I was overwhelmed with longing first. This longing was more disconcerting than the grip on my hand.

[Sent location information to your brain.]

I shook off that hand. It was a flailing attempt to drive away a longing that wasn’t mine. Once I shook it off, the wrist under the tracksuit where the hand had touched felt hot.

In the midst of that, I heard the quest’s contents echoing in my ear. 

[Transform and endure at that location.]

“Seol… hwa….”

I was startled at uttering her real name so naturally.

“So… Jae-jung, it is you, right?”

“Ah, you must be Yoon Seol-hwa. I’ve seen you a lot on TV. What brings you to the hospital? Oh, Deneb. No, did you come with that person wearing the hat? Well, you meet all kinds of people in this world.”

That’s really true. All kinds of things happen. Damn it.

I looked around to see if we were drawing attention here. 

Fortunately, it seemed no one was particularly interested, treating us just as acquaintances who happened to run into each other. It was fortunate I used her real name.

After all, the only eccentric types who would know a magical girl’s real name are probably just those making passes on social media and such.

“Jae-jung…? Why are you acting like this? Why are you pretending not to know me? It’s me. Yoon Seol-hwa. You just said my name before. Why are you acting so coldly…”

“Huh? You know me?”  

I pretended not to know her. I wished she would also pretend not to know me.

“Jae-jung… Why are you doing this…”

“I’m sorry… Maybe you have the wrong person?”

Blue Sirius grabbed my hand. Her hand was trembling pitifully.

“I’m so sorry. But please don’t pretend not to know me. Please… Jae-jung…”

But what can I do, I’m not Han Jae-jung.  

I’m not the one she longs for. And I’m also not qualified to long for her. 

What arose were Han Jae-jung’s memories again. I saw her trembling violently, receiving curses too harsh even for adults and ugly stares.

Not wanting to see that was my sincere feeling, as well as Han Jae-jung’s heart.

“I’m sorry. No matter how hard I try to remember, I don’t think I know you. It must be a mistake.”

“Ah…”

I carefully pulled my hand away. For a moment, it seemed like she stopped breathing. Everything froze solid. It was a magical moment. 

It felt so long that her disappointment and fear were conveyed vividly, yet so short that only one breath could pass.

“…I hope you find the right person.”

That was all I could give her.  

Deneb, who had been watching from behind, let out a deep sigh. I wanted to do the same, but didn’t dare in case it deepened Blue Sirius’s wounds further.

Kwaaang–!

Then, the hospital wall was smashed.

Human screams rang out, and through the billowing smoke cloud, a bronze-bodied villain appeared. The copper gears on its chest and shoulders were spinning rapidly, and hot steam sprouted from the chimney on its back.

The condensing power of starlight was no joke. The brightness of the shining starlight beyond the steam was intense.

An A-grade villain created by Libra.

Using that as an excuse to pretend to flee, I slipped away.

“…! Senior!”

“W-wait. Wait just a minute. Jae-jung, it’s dangerous so don’t move arou – Ugh!”

The villain ripped out seats and hurled them around indiscriminately. The rampage also struck the area we had been in, preventing Blue Sirius from following me.

[Relaying the location one more time.]

“Okay, got it.”

It seemed Libra had begun operations. The Paradox statement wasn’t wrong.

“Where is that place?”  

So it wasn’t about defeating it, but going to that location and enduring – I could roughly guess what I had to do.

***

Ippotranslation

***  

[It’s not just the Catholic hospital now! The high school has been attacked too!]

[A-grade villain detected near a bank! It’s the same one that appeared at the hospital and high school!]  

[A, a kindergarten! Th, those crazy bastards attacked a kindergarten…!]

[Villain appeared near an elementary school! Wh, what do we do…?]  

[Villain appeared near a nursing home! Requesting support!]

“How, how many are there?!!!”  

Red Vega mumbled with a pale face.

Magical girls can hear each other’s mascot voices under the control of the central unicorn mascot.

This coordination greatly assisted the rapid deployment of magical girls.

It wasn’t unusual for Red Vega to receive support requests through her mascot either.

But this case was rather peculiar.  

It was extremely rare for villains to be detected in such a widespread, simultaneous manner.

What’s more, the detected targets were A-grade villains, unlike the usual.

Those villains, which typically exerted strength ranging from a few to one star, were manageable for a single magical girl, but cooperative combat was preferable for safety.

However, in a situation like this, leisurely multiple simultaneous attacks were impossible.

Due to their excessively wide and even distribution, each magical girl had to gradually move to different locations, eventually leading to the entire magical girl force being deployed.

“Of course it’s only places like these…”

Red Vega gritted her teeth at the malicious choice of locations.  

The place she was dispatched to was the high school she had attended.

On paper she was still enrolled, but in reality it was pretty much a half-dropout.

She was too busy to attend classes. She cut class whenever a villain appeared.

A corner of her mind had already formed the possibility of dropping out and taking the GED exam instead.

“Like a red comet in your heart!” She shouted, catching a tree trunk the villain had thrown at the students.

“Red Vega is here! Are you all okay?” 

She checked on her former classmates’ safety while tossing the tree trunk aside.

The polite speech towards her once friends created a sense of distance.

“Ah, Ah-hee…”  

“Run to the evacuation shelter!”

“Thank you!”

The person she saved was extremely grateful and ran far away. Red Vega felt relieved seeing that.

Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any noticeable casualties yet.  

Murmurs came from behind.

-Why did it have to be her…

-Ah, that’s the magical girl who attends our school… Wasn’t she recently defeated?  

-Yeah, I heard that. Let’s get out of here for now.

Among the grateful voices and sighs of relief, blatant disappointment could be heard.

‘It’s okay.’

Red Vega encouraged herself.

‘I may endure such evaluations! So don’t be hurt!’  

Igniting passion and starlight, she wrapped her hands in flames.

“Alright! Come at me!”

[A villain has attacked a nearby university!]

Another urgent dispatch request came through.

[Not an A-grade, it’s an S-grade. The Libra villain!]

“…What?”  

[Are there any personnel available to dispatch?]

[Blue Sirius is engaged in battle.] 

[Pink Deneb is also fighting!]

[White Dabih i, i, is currently fighting too…?!]

More responses followed that other magical girls were engaged in combat.

‘So… No one can go?’

A sinking feeling set in her heart. This was surely the case not just for Red Vega, but the other magical girls too. 

The guilt that her own weakness prevented her from quickly defeating this villain and allowing someone to die weighed heavily on them.

‘Am I… Too weak…?’

She didn’t shift the blame onto anyone else. She simply accepted it as her own fault, helplessly.  

Suddenly, the words of the monster who handed her her first defeat came to mind.

-How pitiful.

She couldn’t forget the look in that villain’s eyes, looking down on her as if she was pathetically weak.

Gnash. Red Vega ground her teeth and intensified the flames around her fist.  

Stomping the ground, facing forward.

“No! I’ll quickly defeat this villain and rush over there!”   

As she was resolving that, another voice came to her ears.

[…Another villain has appeared at the university!]

[It’s one of the Big Dipper villains!]

It was even more despairing news, but for some reason, Red Vega felt relieved.  

The reason was based on that villain’s demonstrated behavior so far.

[The Big Dipper villain is blocking Libra in front of the evacuation shelter!]   

“What’s going on?”

[Current damage situation based on reports and CCTV footage.]  

“What’s really going on?!!!”

Baam! As her flaming fist pounded the bronze body of the villain, a voice rang out.

[12 injured, 0 dead.]