REAPER SCANS
Mr. Magical Girl
[Translator – Kuro]
[Proofreader – ilafy]
Chapter 30: The Past
The artist’s swift flow came to an end, her final touch gracing the work of art with care, effort, and affection.
With a gentle caress, the statue’s face broke into a bright smile.
They say that, for an artwork to be considered a masterpiece, it needs the presence of something we cannot fully understand. If so, the sculpture would definitely fall within that category.
With that last touch, the sculpture wasn’t just a mere sculpture anymore—it was as if it came to life.
What at first felt like a replica of myself became an independent entity.
“It’s done!” Beaming with satisfaction, Linshua revealed her newest work.
Another me stood there, but that me had a bright smile of joy—it was a face I had never seen before.
That version of myself had found happiness in the mirror realm, a realm I could never access. What stood before me was a version of myself that could not exist.
Is that how my daughter saw me?
“It looks just like you, Dad!”
“Yeah.” I hid such thoughts deep within my heart and met my daughter’s gaze. What expression was I wearing? Was it the same as the sculpture?
I gently held the girl’s rough hands. Although they would heal, her hands were dry, cracked, and bleeding. Linshua fairly frequently received minor injuries on her hands since they were her sculpting tools, but that was my first time seeing them so badly hurt.
Her torn skin and nails were probably stuck somewhere inside the sculpture.
“You don’t always get this hurt, do you?”
“I worked extra hard since it was for you, Dad!”
“Good, you don’t always have to work so hard.”
The creator of monsters had poured her blood, flesh, and heart into adorning her artwork. Could we truly release the entity into the human world?
Would my stubbornness release another nightmare into the world?
Linshua created new life according to my expectations but ended up far exceeding them. Even though she had yet to breathe life into it, the sculpture’s aura was impressive.
Is that what Sihyeon Baek felt when she first saw me?
“Is it fully finished, Linshua?”
“Not yet! I need to create the personality, but since it’s you, Dad, you can do it!”
“And its genetic structure?” I asked.
“You mean its blood? We can do that while inserting the personality.”
My genes only seemed to matter for the final touch and not much more. The logic behind the creation of life didn’t follow the rules of biology.
It was too late to stop. I steeled myself and approached the statue. “How do I do it?”
“Put your right hand to its chest and think of the personality you want for it!”
My right hand to its chest? That reminded me of the time I made the magical girl contract. Back then, she also put her hand to my chest, and…
Fwoosh—
A breeze swirled in a circle before in a storm of mana.
I ended up finding myself alone with her again. We stood face to face. One was the me formed from Otherworldly powers and the other was the true, real me.
Thump—
I heard the thumping of a boot. The girl slowly approached me, a golden hammer in hand and white-blue clothes adorning her. It was me. At least, my magical girl form.
I didn’t know who she was, whether she was the essence of magical girls or whatnot, but that was our third encounter.
(TL/N: First two times were in chapters 1 & 5 for those who forgot.)
The first time, her face was emotionless; the second, there was a hint of emotions.
What would she be like the third time around?
Eventually, I voiced something I had never been able to ask before. “Who are you?”
“…”
Thirty years. That was how long I had witnessed countless magical girls.
I had conversed with plenty of them too, and they all agreed on one thing: they never saw a magical girl appear before them when making their contracts.
Some saw light; others saw the queen, and some made their contract with the mascot. Some even walked through a dark world and to grab their magic wands.
They may have seen some bizarre lifeforms, but no one saw their identical self appear.
My question was something I should’ve asked on our second encounter, but it was impossible to utter the question back then—it hadn’t felt like the right moment.
For some reason, I felt that I could finally ask.
‘Who are you?’
The girl didn’t show any reaction to my question. Instead, she merely turned her head to look at the sculpture. “So you’ve already come this far.”
She didn’t intend to answer me. The girl sat down on the floor. “I’ll be watching over you, so give it a try.”
“What are you on about?”
“Are you not creating a lifeform? I’ll be checking to make sure you don’t make any mistakes since it’s your first time.”
‘First time? A lifeform?’
“It’s a monster,” I pointed out.
“The same as you. Is there anything fundamentally different between you two?”
“Monsters aren’t human,” I argued.
“I’m sure you’d love to think that way.” The conversation was getting nowhere—she wasn’t giving me any answers.
“Why did you show up?”
“To watch over you. Get to work, I’m a busy one.” Her words suddenly turned sharp.
‘What’s with her?’
Her mysterious aura disappeared when she took out a cigarette from nowhere.
Cling clang—
The back of her golden hammer turned into an afterburner like a jet engine and lit the cigarette.
The girl blew a powerful wisp of smoke, which flew all the way to me with pinpoint accuracy despite the distance. “Phew… You’re free to keep stalling for time, but haven’t you already made up your mind?”
‘She’s right. No matter what she is, it doesn’t change things.’ I made up my mind to release a new monster into the world and placed my right hand on the sculpture’s chest.
I recalled that day, thirty years prior. I’m pretty sure that back then, the girl spun her hand clockwise in a circle.
“Slowly. With a constant speed. With all your heart,” she advised me.
Did she know what I was thinking? “Shut up.”
“Fine, figure it out yourself.”
Tch—
* * *
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Translator - KuroHaruto
Proofreader - ilafy
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She’d been much better with the mysterious aura. Despite my complaint, I followed her advice and slowly moved my hand.
May this entity be just, despite being a monster.
May it not know of our misery and pain.
May it spend time with my lonely daughter.
May it wield its weapon for the wretched weak.
May it hold a firm set of unchanging values.
May its heart not be dyed with burning ambitions.
May it not show mercy to its cruel enemies.
May it learn and take others’ beliefs to heart.
May it not demand rewards for its actions.
May it not consider its own life as noble.
May it continue challenging this unjust world.
May it protect the peace brought by the blood of heroes.
By the time my hand made a full circle…
“Aren’t those too complicated?” the girl asked. “Some of them even contradict each other.”
“Of course you can read my mind.”
What could she not do?
I didn’t know if the contract was made properly, but seeing that the girl behind me wasn’t intervening, it wasn’t likely to be too problematic.
“Is that the end?”
“Indeed.” The girl finished smoking and returned to her original posture—holding her hammer while in her flawless magical girl clothes.
She was unlike the sculpture. Despite resembling me, she exuded a sense of incongruity. If the sculpture were like a mirror of me, then she was a muddy reflection in water.
The rippling surface didn’t show a perfect reflection, and if I reached in and shook it around, I could distort it further.
I sensed the mana storm coming to an end and asked another question. “What are you?”
“I told you everything during our first encounter, and that’s all.” The mysterious girl shook her hammer. “Stay cautious. Time is moving.” She hoisted the hammer to her shoulder and briefly trembled before vanishing.
“Linshua…” I voiced.
“Yes?”
“What was I doing just now?”
“You put your hand on the statue and made a rotation!”
It was the same as usual. I was the only one who could see that girl, someone even Unho didn’t know of.
‘Is it just me? Another me?’
I couldn’t tell. I removed my hand from the statue.
Skrrrt—
A mild pain shot through me as the skin on my palm stayed stuck to the statue and tore, slowly being absorbed with my blood.
“Hey! You can’t do that!” Linshua smacked the statue on the back of its head, angry about my injury. Needless to say, the statue showed no reaction.
“A statue won’t understand your words.”
“It’s not a statue anymore. It’s alive now.”
“It’s alive? It still looks like a statue.”
“Its mind is awake now! It’ll start moving soon.”
Slap slap—
Linshua smacked the statue with her tiny hands. “You shouldn’t eat other people. Especially not my dad!”
It was quite odd to see her slap and speak to the statue, but it made sense. Linshua probably saw it as her friend.
Long ago, a ceramic bird broke and she spent the day crying—saying her friend had died. What she considered to be a lifeform was different.
Thinking of it then, that ceramic bird might’ve actually been alive after receiving Linshua’s power.
“How long until it starts moving?” I asked.
“Not too long, I think. It’s waking up pretty fast. Maybe because it resembles you, Dad?”
“Then let’s eat while we wait. Aren’t you hungry?” She had spent hours concentrating and making the statue, after all.
“I am!” Linshua strongly nodded with a gleeful smile.
“Is there a restaurant nearby?”
“There’s one not too far.”
I followed Linshua, who happily skipped out of the workshop.
Creak—
A bright, natural ray of light beamed on my face when she opened the door. I took a step outside and saw the open sky behind a large glass window. We appeared to be in a tall building.
“Isn’t it pretty? It’s prettiest when you look from here.”
“You’re right, it’s pretty.” I watched the blue sky dotted with soft clouds and a couple of familiar-looking twin towers.
‘…? Twin towers?’ Surprised by their presence, I ran closer to the window.
“Don’t run, Dad! I’ll get in trouble again if you break the window!”
I could control my strength, there was no need to worry about that. More importantly, those buildings… The two towers looked taller than what I remembered, but regardless, they were the same buildings as the ones in my memory.
There was a bunch of equipment installed outside and on top, giving them a larger appearance, but they were the same tall towers that overlooked the area.
I stuck closer to the fragile-looking glass and looked beneath us. Countless people and cars paraded under the bright sunlight, showing off the neighborhood’s economic importance.
I watched the familiar skyline and buildings before me. “Linshua, where are we?” I strongly wished for my prediction to be false. Hoping to hear that the monsters had worked together to build a replica city, I braced myself for the answer.
“The monster uncles said this is New York, in the USA.” Linshua replied with the worst possible answer.
“Then those twin towers must be the US branch of the Hero Association…” Had they been the World Trade Center before?
“Yeah, that’s why the uncles told me not to leave the building.”
‘Are they out of their goddamn minds?!’ I swiftly spun and grabbed the girl’s shoulders. She had outgrown me, so it looked like I was hanging off of her shoulders, but that didn’t matter to me.
“Linshua. Can you do me a favor?” I asked. “It’s really urgent.”
“Yeah!” Linshua nodded energetically.
“Call all those dumb fu— I mean, the Monster Society executives for an urgent meeting. Right now.”
Why would those dumb fucks build their headquarters there, of all places? Insults and curses were about to slip through my mouth, but I held back in front of Linshua.
“But what about food?”
“Let’s eat as soon as the meeting’s over. This is the priority right now.”
For the first time since our reunion, Linshua made a sullen expression. I’m sure she was excited to eat with me, but her safety was of utmost importance.
“I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to end it as fast as possible, so can you call the uncles?”
“Promise you’ll eat with me afterward?”
“I promise.”
We hooked our pinkies together when I suddenly remembered something—the day I left Linshua in the care of the Monster Society.
* * *
“You’ll come visit, Dad?”
“Of course, I’ll come see you as often as I can.”
I never intended to abandon Linshua, but since the monsters she created got stronger and gained egos, she couldn’t remain amongst humans.
Actually, no. If it were just her, I could’ve handled it and figured something out since Linshua’s monsters didn’t treat humans as their enemies, but the problem was that someone in the Hero Association started getting suspicious of me.
I needed to do something… For Linshua’s sake.
“Promise?” She raised her hand with a straight pinky.
“Yes, I promise.” My small pinky hooked with an even smaller pinky.
Tears glistened in the corner of her eyes, but the girl still wore a smile.
* * *
“…”
‘How selfishly have I lived so far?’
Our small pinkies hooked together one more time.
“I won’t break our promise this time,” I said.
“Hm? What promise?”
“It’s nothing.”
‘Now, onto those dumb fucks. Let’s hear why they locked Linshua up in this place.’
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