REAPER SCANS

Mr. Magical Girl

[Translator – Kuro]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 37: 23:59:47 (1)

“The surgery is finished.”

“That took a while.”

“It’s because your mana circuits are too thick. It took some time to link them.”

Oxymoron restored my missing left arm by culturing and incubating a new limb in vitro and attaching it to my shoulder. I had heard of the treatment method before, but that was my first time experiencing it.

I hopped off the operating table and inspected my left shoulder. Other than the sutures, it looked totally normal.

“Shouldn’t the skin be lighter since it’s never seen the sun?” I asked.

“Maybe your skin doesn’t tan and forever stays smooth like a newborn’s. Crimson★Hammer is an eternal magical girl, after all.”

I stared at Oxymoron, unamused by her joke. 

She giggled on her own. “Hehe. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen you transform back to your original form since the founding of the Hero Association.”

“You’re right. I can’t turn back at all. This body doesn’t grow taller or get fatter either. I’m starting to doubt whether this is a human body at all.”

“Well, you’re still a human genetically. I tested your DNA while growing the arm.”

“Is that so?”

Truth be told, I was uncomfortable talking about my physical appearance in general. I was active as a hero for 30 years and spent the previous 15 years permanently in that form, yet I still wasn’t used to how I looked.

I quickly cut off the conversation before she could ask anything else on the subject.

Having finished inspecting my arm, I pulled down my sleeve and grabbed my hammer with the new hand, gently swinging it without much power to test how it felt.

The hammer drew a clean arc through the air without any issues.

‘Now a spin.’ I spun it in my fingers, and the hammer rotated 180 degrees around my hand.

‘Transform.’

Clink clank—

After drawing a perfect semicircle, the hammer changed as my mana seeped into it.

‘Burst.’

Fwoooosh—

The jet engine afterburner on the back of the hammerhead ignited and rapidly spun around my left hand.

‘Now… whatever comes naturally.’

A full rotation, grabbing it near the head, an upward swing, holding it steady in a stance, thrusting… I kept linking move after move in whatever felt natural to me as I tested my new hand.

Although it was to check for any defects in the new limb, I hadn’t practiced my combat forms in a while and ended up practicing for longer than needed, enjoying the nostalgic feeling.

“You’re as good as usual. Not many martial artists can become one with their weapons and wield them as extensions of themselves like you do.”

“I didn’t have much else to do in the past. It was the one thing I could train to survive.”

Back in the day, I was classed as an F-Rank Awakener for not having any particular abilities. My only path to survival was training with my strangely sturdy hammer with multiple functions. My entire training regiment was simply swinging the hammer to master it so that I could save as many people as possible.

“I remember hearing Grandpa Sword God mistook you for a martial artist at first because of how good you were with the hammer.”

“It’s thanks to Heavenly Demon Sword God’s misunderstanding that I’m still alive today. He taught me how to cultivate my surplus of mana, after all.”

I was a magical girl who couldn’t even reinforce himself physically and had to learn the mana cultivation technique from a martial artist to do it manually. I bet even Unho hadn’t expected me to be so pathetic.

My original powers only enhanced my body very minimally, and I had to figure everything out myself afterwards.

There was no other hero who had it as bad as me. Anyway, enough about the past.

My new left hand was pretty good.

Despite being unaccustomed to the brand-new limb, it moved perfectly according to my will, as if it had been with me since birth. My mana circulated properly, and I could control it down to the tiniest motions with no mistakes.

There was still a sense of incongruity, nonetheless, but it was minimal enough that it didn’t hinder me. I couldn’t even tell if the incongruity was my body’s reaction to the new arm or if it was just my body acting weird after not using my left arm for a long period of time.

“Doesn’t feel like I’ll have any problems, even if I enter combat right away,” I finally said.

“Still, try to use your right hand more than your left for now. The stitches can’t handle too much mana and will snap if overused.”

“Got it.” Having finished my left arm’s inspection, I put away the hammer.

Clack—

The door to the operation room swung open, and someone walked in.

“Is Hero Haram Lee here?” asked Hyunseok Park.

“Aren’t you a bit too busy to be visiting me?”

“Don’t worry about it. I finished all the urgent work before coming here.” As always, he took my joke too seriously.

Despite the country being at war, there was no stress anywhere in his demeanor. He made me doubt whether the past couple of days were just a dream or not.

“Oxymoron’s here too? Perfect timing. I’ve got a message from Macbeth.”

A message from our commander? It was probably about where we were getting dispatched.

“Read it for me.”

“Alright…”

『 Haram Lee is assigned to the fortification wall to the east of Japan; Oxymoron is to be on standby in the rear. Civilian evacuation will be completed within 48 hours. A second barricade wall will be constructed from the Tsushima Line. 』

I had to maintain the first defense line for at least 48 hours, and East Asia’s final line of defense would start from Tsushima.

『 Currently, our predictions expect the boss-class enemy to make its way to Haram Lee’s dispatch area, so fight with your all. In the worst-case scenario, you may evacuate all remaining combatants and fight on your own. The commanding officer of the troops on site has been notified of this. You must defend the line for 48 hours, no matter what, through whatever means necessary. 』

He planned to take advantage of me, and I had no qualms about it. My role was clear and perfect for me.

“He also wrote the prophecy for this war at the bottom. Do you want to hear it?”

‘Mr. Macbeth’s prophecy?’ His prophecies always gave me headaches. They were written in the form of three sentences, each one referring to the past, present, and future.

The text in itself had no effect, but those who heard it would be magically bound to the prophecy. Nothing good would come from hearing it, but if Macbeth was asking if I wanted to hear it, it was unlikely that the contents were negative.

“Let’s hear it,” I said.

『 The gray army has turned the hands of the clock. 』

『 The nameless one walks a new path. 』

『 What is needed is a single strike at the right time; if one wishes to reach, do not hinder the timing of the two. 』

As I thought, I didn’t get it. The only part I understood was the sentence for the past. Even the sentence for the present was a bizarre line I couldn’t analyze. 

If I asked Macbeth what they meant, he’d also say he didn’t know.

‘‘A single strike’… Is it talking about my hammer?’ The future seemed to hint that I’d get a proper time to finish off my enemies.

What I didn’t understand was the part about ‘the two’…

“Do you understand it at all, Hyunseok?” I asked.

“You should conserve your power, Haram. We don’t know when the time is, so save enough strength to unleash your strongest attack when the time comes.”

It was such a standard answer that I couldn’t say much. We both seemed to agree on the part regarding a ‘single strike’, at the very least.

“Is that all you had to report to me?”

“Yes,” Hyunseok replied, still checking me up and down after having fulfilled his duty. His gaze mainly lingered on my left arm and right eye. His thoughts were pretty clear.

“Anything else to add?”

“No.” He sure couldn’t be honest with himself.

“Just say that you’re worried about your injured friend. What’s so hard about being honest?” I asked.

“Hehehe.” Oxymoron giggled at us, finding our conversation funny.

Her laugh lightened the mood, and Hyunseok’s stiff face softened into a faint smile. “How are you feeling? If you want, I can request that my superiors give you six more hours to rest before departing.”

“Sure, you can do that… If you want to see the defense line crumble to dust within two hours, that is.”

In the worst-case scenario, the enemies would immediately break through the defense line at the start of the battle, and I’d have to hold them off on my own for 48 hours.

He was suggesting I skip the first 6 hours of the fight? ‘Just say you want to eradicate all of East Asia instead.’

“I knew you’d refuse with a snarky reply.” Having finished his job, Hyunseok turned around to leave the room.

Clack—

I watched the retired hero as he opened the door—a retired hero who still worked hard for others.

“Stay alive, Haram Lee. Make sure to come back.” My friend’s last words echoed through the operating room.

“You bet. You think I’d die?”

* * *

Reaper Scans

Translator - Kuro

Proofreader - ilafy

Join our discord for updates on releases!!

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* * *

Tzzzzt— Tchhtzzz—

Sparks flew in the air.

As space distorted, so did our sense of balance.

“My fur is a mess because of the static, poyo!”

The first thing I felt was the sticky and salty air. I opened my eyes and gazed at the wide, unending sea.

The four of us were standing on the tall barricade wall constructed on the ocean. It was the first defense line built by the Association with Infinite Castellan’s help, meant to block the enemy’s invasion.

The great wall circled around the entire Pacific Ocean like a giant rampart fortification, but unlike your typical rampart that defended castles from outside invaders, the wall was a cage to siege the inhabitants, preventing them from escaping.

“Ugh… I’m so dizzy.”

“You’re dizzy? I don’t really feel… Ack!”

Experiencing teleportation magic for the first time ever, my two students tumbled disgracefully to the floor.

Abin’s face turned blue as she tightly pursed her lips, trying not to let anything out.

Sihyeon, on the other hand, felt fine at first but fell to the ground as soon as she took a step, yelping in surprise.

They both were nauseous, but Sihyeon wasn’t feeling it since she was reinforcing her five senses. Unfortunately, her sense of balance wasn’t one of them, so she tumbled down.

“That’s why I warned you to strengthen your senses to prevent nausea.”

“They still need more training, poyo.”

Good, at least Unho appeared to be fine.

“Nausea isn’t a strong enough word to describe this… Beurp.”

“Help me up, Abin…”

Thud—

Sihyeon leaned against the wall to help herself stand, but her feet tangled up again, and she rolled onto the floor.

‘I can’t believe these pathetic girls are my students. Thank goodness nobody I know is around to watch.’

I prepared to quickly leave the area so as not to be seen with them. “Get better soon, girls. Once you’re up, fight the monsters together, all right? Don’t die.”

“See you later, poyo!”

“Sunbae, help us before you…”

“Save me, Master!”

I turned away from my students while they squirmed on the ground and made my way up the stairs.

“You’ll recover in a few minutes. It’s just nausea.”

“How can nausea be so… Uurp.”

I just hoped they wouldn’t vomit in public.

The girls’ voices got quieter while I walked farther up the stairs.

I crossed some personnel from the Association on their way down. Those heroes with strong egos chattered with each other, bragging about how they would kill plenty of monsters to boost their reputations.

I continued walking past people and eventually made it all the way up to the top of the fortification.

The open blue sky met the azure sea on the horizon. One could call it a beautiful scene, but I couldn’t say the same with my enhanced vision.

A gray line had taken over the horizon, splitting the sky and sea as it thickened.

They were coming… The enemy of my story. They were swallowing the world, slowly taking it over.

I sat down on top of the wall, holding my hammer in one hand. The other hand took the metal stick from my pocket.

Crunch—

I bit down on the white metal stick.

Thump—

I steadied the hammer on my shoulder while Unho climbed on my head.

He had certainly gained weight. My head used to feel much lighter 10 years prior, but I sensed a heavier, flabby load weighing down on my neck.

“Are you doing your usual thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t worry too much. The bad guys are the ones invading us.”

“I wish it were so simple.” I closed my eyes and calmed my emotions. Slowly, my ears picked up on the countless voices around me. 

“Why did this have to happen right before my retirement?”

“You still have it better than me, Sergeant. I barely just enlisted.”

“We can’t let the Japanese and Chinese outperform us during this war, understand?”

“China is asking us why we didn’t deploy more troops, Sir. How should I reply?”

“Tell them we’d rather send in more heavy weaponry. What’s the point of having more soldiers?”

“Has the USA answered yet? Where’s our air support?”

“The USA says they’re already busy defending their side of the wall…”

“What about the reinforcements from the Association? When are they arriving?”

“They’re already here, Sir.”

“I looked up more about this common enemy, and apparently, it’s nothing too impressive. Humanity has defeated all its common enemies, after all. This one’s not going to be any different.”

“Isn’t this basically the same as any other mobilization order? The ones where we just shoot a bunch of magic from above?”

“I envy you guys with your ranged attacks. I’m just a melee fighter.”

“Still, this is our first large-scale battle in a while. Our reputations will improve when we win!”

“Why did I work for the Association for so long? Should’ve retired sooner.”

“It’ll be fine. According to the drill sergeants, we could even close our eyes and fire randomly to end it all.”

“Yeah, end it all. All our lives, I’d say.”

“Is it that dangerous? I’ve only participated in a couple extermination missions and never experienced any battle this big.”

“Once it’s all over, you’ll receive extra pay worth about one year of your salary.”

“That’s pretty big.”

Everyone’s distinct conversations, personalities, and voices… I wanted to remember it all… as many people as I could stuff in my brain.

Even if they were in the dark about the real dangers of the war, even if they were clowns unworthy of the title of heroes, those people were all fellow warriors fighting for humanity. They would put their lives on the line to save others.

‘How many will die? How many will survive?’

That was my usual ritual before war. I concentrated and hone my mind in meditation while memorizing every detail I could about the warriors who would soon vanish.

“Eat something, Sihyeon. You should fill your stomach before combat begins.”

“But won’t I feel lighter and fight better when it's half empty?”

“We might have to fight for 48 hours straight, according to Haram Sunbae. Can you go without eating for so long?”

“I can’t! Thank you for the food!”

My ears caught a conversation between my students. The two voices were bright and positive, unknowing of the horrors of war.

My lips couldn’t help but curl into a smile.

Pat pat—

Sensing the change in my mood, Unho tapped on my head. “Did something good happen? What’s got you excited?”

“Nothing much. I just feel like fighting more rigorously than usual.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better now.”

I opened my eyes and gazed at the horizon. The gray line was thickening.

The wind fluttered my clothes.

“Unho.”

“Yes?”

“Ready to get back in action after 10 years?”

“Who do you think I am? I’m Haram Lee’s mascot. I’m always ready!”

‘Lose some weight and exercise regularly, then.’

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