Chapter 18: A Warrior’s Instinct, a Magical Girl’s Duty

A familiar sound echoed in Si-yool’s ears – the sickening crunch of bone and flesh, the splatter of blood and brains. The sound of death, a sound he’d heard countless times during his ten years in the other world.

“Damn,” he muttered.

But it wasn’t his death. It was the kaijin’s. Its head had exploded.

The two magical girls who’d warned him reacted differently.

“Darkie, are you okay?” Ray asked, her voice filled with genuine concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Si-yool replied.

“Good,” Ray said, relieved.

“Sunbae! Are you crazy?!” Sora yelled, her voice laced with disbelief.

“I’m perfectly sane,” Si-yool retorted.

“You have no shame, do you?” Sora asked, exasperated.

Si-yool suddenly remembered something important. “Sora, come here,” he said.

“I’m not finished lecturing you!” Sora protested.

“This is more important. Please,” Si-yool said.

Sora sighed and approached him reluctantly.

“Let me borrow your clothes,” Si-yool said.

“You pervert!” Sora shrieked.

He needed something to wipe the kaijin guts off of himself.

Sora’s magical girl costume, despite its skimpy design, was now mostly covered in blood and gore. She glared at him, her eyes blazing.

“That’s your important message?!”

Si-yool shrugged. “I’m covered in guts. And your costume will regenerate when you transform again.”

“Transforming takes time! I can’t transform in the middle of a battle!” Sora exclaimed.

Si-yool hadn’t known that. He felt a twinge of sympathy, though it wasn’t his problem. His problem was that he only had two sets of clothes, and now, one of them was ruined.

“Don’t come too close. You’re messy,” he said to Sora.

“You… you… argh!” Sora sputtered, fuming.

“Aka,” Ray said, looking at the blood.

“Darkie, I know this one! Murasaki!”

“Both of you, shut up!” Sora yelled. She seemed to have calmed down slightly. Her eyes, however, were still dead.

“Sunbae,” she said, her voice flat. Unlike Ray, who seemed to have moved on, Sora was still fixated on his earlier actions. “Are you seriously insane? Who charges towards a kaijin like that?”

“Me,” Si-yool replied.

“That’s not what I’m asking!” Sora exclaimed, exasperated. She was definitely a little crazy. Only a crazy person would react this strongly to a single sentence.

Si-yool, however, understood her reaction. It was a crazy thing to do. Who would have thought of shoving a magic wand down a kaijin’s throat?

“I’m alive, aren’t I?” he said. He hadn’t thought about it. He’d just reacted instinctively, his body moving before his mind could process the situation. It was a tactic he’d used countless times in the other world, a way to inflict critical damage on creatures immune to external attacks. No one could train their internal organs to withstand that kind of assault.

“You’re lucky the kaijin impaled itself on your wand. Otherwise, you would have lost an arm. Or your life,” Sora said.

“Probably,” Si-yool agreed, shrugging. He was used to it.

Sora sighed. “Why are you so nonchalant about this?”

Si-yool chuckled. How could he not be nonchalant? He’d lost and regrown limbs countless times.

“Wow, darkie! That was amazing!” Ray exclaimed, oblivious to the tension.

She truly lived up to her magical girl name, Golden Retriever. Either that, or she was just clueless. Still, she was better than Sora. At least she wasn’t scheming or annoying. Dogs were man’s best friend. Maybe he and Ray could become friends.

Sora continued to glare at him. “Seriously, what were you thinking?”

“I thought the wand was sturdy. You said it was sturdy, even if it was a standard issue one. And you were right,” Si-yool replied.

“Wow, magic wand! Amazing!” Ray exclaimed, admiring her own wand.

Sora pressed further. “But that’s it? No other reason?”

“Isekai experience, I guess,” Si-yool replied.

“Isekai? Don’t f*ck with me,” Ray said, her cheerful demeanor vanishing.

“What? Why aren’t you saying it’s amazing?” Si-yool asked, annoyed.

“There’s no such thing as another world,” Ray said flatly.

Si-yool wanted to argue, but he held back. It was pointless. She wouldn’t believe him, or she simply wouldn’t understand. He sighed. He had to be the understanding one.

“You didn’t know? You’re even dumber than I thought,” he said, unable to resist a jab.

“You want to go, asshole?” Ray snarled.

Si-yool glared at her. How dare she call me dumb?

“Everyone, focus! The kaijin are coming!” Sora yelled, interrupting their argument.

She was right. This wasn’t the time for bickering. A large group of kaijin was approaching.

“Sora, why are there so many? Didn’t the other magical girls take care of them?” Si-yool asked.

“They must have broken through the front lines! Just focus on what we’re going to do!” Sora exclaimed.

Ray drew her wand. It was a double-barreled shotgun.

“Stay back, darkie,” she said. “I’ll show you the power of an American Maho Shojo.”

She pulled the trigger twice.

“Twin Star!”

Bang! Bang!

Two shots, but more than two kaijin fell. A large chunk of the approaching horde was wiped out.

Ray then drew a revolver from her hip and fired at the closest kaijin.

“Fanning Star!”

Two shots to the chest, one to the head. Three holes, but it sounded like only one shot. It was a rapid-fire attack.

Si-yool was impressed. The racist b*tch actually had some skills. The revolver must have been a magic wand too. Ordinary weapons wouldn’t be effective against kaijin.

“Piece of cake,” Ray said, ejecting the spent cartridges and reloading. “That’s my Magical Superconductor,” she added, looking at Si-yool.

“That’s not magical, it’s tactical,” Si-yool corrected.

“If it kills kaijin, it’s magical,” Ray retorted. Nothing about this woman made sense. She was definitely crazy.

But her magic was impressive. Two spells, and she’d taken out a large number of kaijin. She was far more powerful than Green Blobfish, at least in terms of raw power.

But it wasn’t perfect. She was imbuing bullets with magical energy and firing them. Si-yool had used similar tactics in the other world. It meant she needed ammunition. And while it was fine for a secondary weapon, relying on it as her primary weapon meant long periods of vulnerability while reloading.

“Pay attention,” Si-yool said.

“What?” Ray asked, distracted.

A slender kaijin was approaching her while she was reloading. Its claws slashed towards her eyes.

“Sister! I told you to focus!” Sora yelled, quickly intervening.

“Fire Wishes Ashes!” she chanted, conjuring a blue flame that incinerated the kaijin.

“Why weren’t you paying attention?!” she scolded Ray.

“S-sorry,” Ray mumbled.

“Then do better!” Sora snapped.

While Sora caught her breath, Ray finished reloading and wiped out the remaining kaijin.

They complemented each other, covering each other’s weaknesses. Magical girl teamwork. It was impressive, and a little… enviable. Si-yool had always fought alone.

“Sunbae,” Sora said, approaching him with a smile. “What did you think?”

Her magical girl name, Blue Fox, was fitting. Her wand was a gohei, a ritual implement used by shrine maidens, and her magic was blue foxfire. She was a perfect fox-shrine maiden magical girl, her sly eyes adding to the effect.

She was a real magical girl, unlike Ray, who was more of a gunslinger than a mage.

Si-yool, however, didn’t compliment her.

“Oh, it’s black,” he said, looking under her skirt.

“No! Don’t look!” Sora shrieked, her face turning crimson as she frantically tried to cover herself.

“Just checking. It is black,” Si-yool confirmed.

“You pervert!” Sora yelled, her face burning.

Ray, who’d been watching them, grinned. “You can’t do that, can you, darkie?”

Si-yool glared at her, then sighed and nodded reluctantly. “No.”

“Don’t worry, sunbae! Men can’t do that! What you did earlier was… unusual!” Sora said, trying to reassure him.

Unusual? He would have been able to do it before.

“Damn it,” Si-yool muttered, feeling a pang of loss. He was so powerless now.

“If only I had my Moonlight Sword…” he whispered.

The Moonlight Sword, his only weapon as the Moon Warrior, a blade forged from moonlight, a weapon that could take any form.

“Sunbae? What are you talking about? Another world again?” Sora asked.

“It’s nothing. Forget it,” Si-yool replied, dismissing the thought. There was no point dwelling on it. The Moonlight Sword was gone, destroyed because of him.

Ray and Sora, unfamiliar with the term, reacted differently.

“Sunbae, are you mentally ill? That’s not good. The Magical Metropolitan Hospital can fix lost limbs, but mental illness is… tricky,” Sora said, feigning concern.

“You b*tch,” Si-yool muttered.

“Darkie, are you sick? Don’t worry, Korea has magical health insurance,” Ray said, genuinely concerned.

“You guys don’t have that?” Si-yool asked.

“We had Magical Care, but it was abolished,” Ray explained.

“Let’s go!” Sora yelled, interrupting them. Their brief respite was over.

They turned and faced the approaching horde of kaijin.