Chapter 07
Why Are You Here?
“Alright. Today’s review is done!”
The chair she had been sitting on spun around with a light squeak.
Closing her maths textbook, Gayeon flopped straight onto her bed.
As she buried her face in the pillow and kicked her legs in the air, Mung-Mung hopped onto her back.
“You’ve been pushing yourself too hard lately, haven’t you?”
“I’m fine.”
She answered almost instinctively, but the truth was…
She wasn’t fine at all.
For the past week, Gayeon had been working so hard that she wasn’t even getting enough sleep.
Between her regular school classes, her duties as a magical girl, and the new addition of studying every evening after coming home, she barely had any time to rest.
She even forced herself to stay awake during school instead of dozing off from exhaustion like she usually did.
“Next time, I’m never going to let him say something like that again.”
The reason was simple.
It all stemmed from the conversation she’d had with her homeroom teacher about a week ago.
“Apparently it’s becoming a problem these days.”
“…A problem?”
“Chuunibyou.”
“…”
“I know you’re at the age where you’re easily influenced by that sort of thing, but don’t overdo it. Unless you want to lie awake at night kicking your blanket in embarrassment years from now. Anyway, see you.”
“No, not that!”
Having unwillingly recalled that painfully embarrassing memory, Gayeon let out a shout.
“There’s no need to apologise. Teaching students who struggle is part of a teacher’s job, after all. Though… scoring thirteen points in maths was a bit much. Usually, even if you just guess randomly, you’d get at least twenty.”
“Right, that’s what I meant.”
…No, wait, that’s not right either!
Well… it was true, but still!
After taking two consecutive blows to her pride, Gayeon buried her face in her hands.
Groaning, she slumped over her desk.
Mung-Mung floated over beside her.
“I’m worried you’ll end up seriously hurt if you keep overworking yourself. There was that close call before because you let your guard down, remember?”
The memory immediately resurfaced.
As usual, Gayeon had transformed into the magical girl Unibel to defeat a newly appeared monster.
Her opponent had been a Meteor-class creature—something she was already accustomed to fighting.
Normally, defeating it wouldn’t have been difficult.
But thanks to her poor physical condition, the battle had become far more difficult than expected.
She had even suffered a shallow cut along her side.
Fortunately, the enemy had only been a Meteor-class.
If it had been another Comet-class monster like the one she’d encountered before, things could have turned out exactly as Mung-Mung feared.
“…But…”
Gayeon’s cheeks puffed out slightly.
It was an unconscious habit of hers whenever she was dissatisfied.
She couldn’t abandon her identity as the magical girl Unibel—not when people’s safety depended on her.
But at the same time…
She couldn’t simply give up living as an ordinary middle-school girl either.
“Ughhh…”
Her worries only grew heavier.
At times like this, she wished she had another body.
If she did, she wouldn’t have to struggle like this.
“Are there any other magical girls besides me?”
“There are.”
Mung-Mung answered so casually that Gayeon shot upright.
“There are? Then why didn’t you tell me?”
She grabbed Mung-Mung with both hands, glaring accusingly.
His face squished like a soft rice cake under her grip.
Normally, she would have found it adorable.
But that wasn’t important right now.
“Because if I told you, you’d start putting off fighting monsters. You’d think, ‘Someone else can handle it instead.'”
“W-Well…”
The strength left her hands.
She wanted to deny it immediately.
But she hesitated.
Because the moment she’d heard there were other magical girls…
She had, in fact, thought exactly that.
“The monsters are only going to become stronger. Before long, monsters like the Comet-class one we saw in the park will start appearing regularly. If you’re going to survive what’s coming, Unibel has to become much stronger than she is now.”
“…”
“Besides, now that you’ve gotten better at using magic, you’ve started letting your guard down more often. You are aware of that, aren’t you?”
And with that, another lecture began.
Before she knew it, their roles had completely reversed.
Somehow, Gayeon found herself kneeling on the floor while Mung-Mung scolded her.
…Wait.
This wasn’t how this conversation was supposed to go.
While inwardly making a miserable face as she endured Mung-Mung’s endless lecture, a familiar melody suddenly reached Unibel’s ears.
Instinctively, she turned toward her desk.
The pendant adorned with a pink jewel was shining brilliantly.
It was the signal she had seen countless times over the past month—
A monster had appeared.
“Mung-Mung!”
—About three kilometres west of here.
“Got it! Flaming Heart, Set Up!“
She rushed over, snatching the pendant into her hand.
Without hesitation, she recited the familiar incantation.
It was time to leave her ordinary life behind and step into the world of magic.
A full moon illuminated the city’s night sky.
A streak of pink light shot across the heavens.
“…My school?”
Following Mung-Mung’s guidance, Unibel arrived at the middle school she attended.
Her eyes went blank as she stared at the tightly locked front gate.
A monster… here?
—It’s inside that building.
“O-Okay!”
Answering energetically, Unibel immediately flew toward the school building.
The monster’s location was unexpected, but it didn’t change what she had to do.
“E-Excuse me…”
She slipped through an open window on one of the upper floors.
The moment she landed inside what looked like an ordinary classroom—
“Ah… AAH!”
A shrill scream escaped her before she even realized it.
The sensation beneath her shoes…
It was horribly sticky, as though she had stepped on a piece of chewed gum.
“W-What is this?”
She instinctively leapt back into the air and looked around in alarm.
At first glance, the dark classroom looked no different from how it had during the day.
But when she looked more closely, pale, wriggling shapes could be seen crawling everywhere.
Across the floor.
Along the ceiling.
Over every surface.
At first glance, they resembled slimes.
—Corruption.
“Corruption?”
—It’s a phenomenon that occurs on rare occasions when a monster with special properties appears. The surrounding environment gradually assimilates to that monster’s nature. We call it ‘Corruption.’
“…Is it dangerous?”
—Yes. Only monsters at least Meteor-Class can cause Corruption. And among monsters that thrive in darkness… there’s only one.
Void.
The king of shadows.
A predator born from darkness itself.
That was how Mung-Mung described the monster.
—Unibel… forget what I said earlier. Leave this to another Magical Girl. We’re retreating. This isn’t like the wolf we fought before. Void is one of the strongest monsters even among the Meteor-Class.
For the first time ever…
Mung-Mung was telling her to run.
“B-But… when will another Magical Girl get here?”
Unibel tightened her grip on her staff.
This was her school.
Just this afternoon she had laughed and spent time here with her friends.
It was a precious place.
She couldn’t stand by and let some monster defile it.
—You’re really going to fight?
“Of course. I’m not planning to do anything reckless. I’ll just hold it off until another Magical Girl arrives.”
When she became a Magical Girl…
Unibel had made herself a promise.
No matter what battlefield she faced—
She would never run away.
No matter what happened—
She would fight with everything she had.
Descending to the floor, she surveyed the classroom with determined eyes.
The countless shadows filling the room were continuously crawling through the classroom door toward somewhere else.
Where are they going?
This new phenomenon called Corruption…
There was no guarantee it would stop with the school.
“Shadows should be weak against bright light.”
—Unibel! Wait, don’t—
“Flare Burst!“
Brilliant crimson flames erupted, flooding the pitch-black classroom with light.
And now—
Unibel and Mung-Mung were sprinting through a corridor overflowing with shadows.
“W-Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”
—Because you attacked before I could!
Swinging her staff to knock away the shadows raining down from the ceiling, Unibel shouted back.
She splashed through the sticky masses coating the floor, tears already welling in her eyes.
The reason was simple.
Her assumption that shadows hated light…
Had been correct.
The problem was that instead of avoiding the light…
They aggressively charged at it to erase it.
The blazing flames were swallowed almost instantly.
Shadows poured in from every direction.
It was pure terror.
By the time she regained her senses, it was already too late.
Even the window she’d entered through had been completely overrun by darkness.
Trapped on every side…
All she could do was run.
—Unibel! Don’t use magic again!
“I know!”
She had been about to fire another Flare Burst at the shadow blocking her path.
At Mung-Mung’s warning, she twisted her body away at the last instant.
A shadow shot through the space where she’d been like a cannonball.
From everything she’d observed…
The shadows had no eyes.
They hadn’t reacted when she passed right beside them.
They hadn’t attacked when she’d screamed upon entering the classroom.
The only time they became aggressive…
Was when light appeared.
“But there are too many…!”
She batted away another shadow falling from above.
The floor.
The walls.
The ceiling.
Even the windows.
Shadows existed everywhere.
There wasn’t a single safe place.
“Something’s wrong.”
Leaping over a shadow that burst from the floor, Unibel suddenly noticed something strange.
Ever since leaving the classroom…
The shadows had continued attacking her specifically.
How?
Back in the classroom, it made sense because she’d created flames.
But now she wasn’t producing any light.
If the shadows had neither eyes nor ears…
How could they possibly know where she was?
“…Ah.”
Looking around, Unibel suddenly realized what she’d overlooked.
It was…
Her Magical Girl outfit.
Her predominantly pink costume, decorated with ribbons and elaborate ornaments, stood out even in the darkness.
And in her hand…
Her staff held a glowing magic jewel.
As long as she remained transformed…
She would never lose their attention.
W-What do I do…?
She obviously couldn’t cancel her transformation while surrounded by enemies.
As she desperately searched for an answer…
Another question crossed her mind.
Then why hadn’t the shadows attacked her immediately back in the classroom?
She’d already been transformed then, too.
“…Moonlight.”
Tonight was a full moon.
The shadows hated light and instinctively sought to eliminate it.
But no matter how powerful they were…
They couldn’t erase the moon itself.
If she reached somewhere bathed in moonlight far brighter than the light she carried…
Perhaps the attacks would stop.
“…Light… where…”
Where in the school received the most moonlight?
The sports field?
If she could reach the sports field, she wouldn’t be in this situation.
The rooftop?
The stairwell leading there had already been completely occupied by shadows.
The science room.
The music room.
The audiovisual room.
As she frantically considered every possibility…
She remembered being called into the faculty office a few days earlier.
It had enormous windows.
“The faculty office… second floor. It’s not far.”
—Unibel! Over there!
After a desperate sprint…
They finally reached the faculty office.
An unusually dense mass of shadows writhed before its entrance.
They seemed to be trying to enter—
Yet something was preventing them.
Seeing that…
Unibel became certain her theory was right.
The moonlight flooding the faculty office was keeping the shadows out.
“Flare Burst!“
Without hesitation, she unleashed her magic.
“Excuse me!”
Blasting away the shadows blocking the doorway, Unibel boldly threw the door open.
She intended to catch her breath inside and rethink her plan.
“I figured there’d be all kinds of strange things in a world with monsters, but…”
…Huh?
The moment she stepped through the doorway…
That thought was completely shattered.
Because standing inside…
Was someone who absolutely shouldn’t have been there.
Beyond curtains fluttering in the night breeze—
Silhouetted against the brilliant full moon—
A lone figure leaned casually against the wall.
The instant Unibel recognized him…
Her thoughts froze.
…Sensei?
Why are you here?
“So… you’re really a Magical Girl.”
“I guess I wasn’t imagining things back then after all.”
Her homeroom teacher, Ujin, smiled wryly.
