REAPER SCANS

Mr. Magical Girl

[Translator –  Kuro]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 40:  Intermission — Abin Han’s Battle

I gathered mana in my hand; when I opened it, an arrow sat in my palm.

I still wasn’t used to my powers after having my mana amplified. It was like I was wearing clothes that didn’t fit me.

However, fighting on the battlefield forced me to get accustomed to them faster.

I slowly notched the arrow into my bow—which had changed from being colorless to having a reddish hue after the strange dream I couldn’t remember properly.

The tension on the bowstring was also several times heavier than before, but I could easily draw it with my newfound strength.

I pulled the string back to its limit, aimed at the gap in the enemy’s armor, and released the arrow.

It flew to its target, scattering pink mana dust in its path. 

While I generated the next arrow, my eyes continued following the one I had already shot.

Splitting my focus on two different things was inefficient, but I couldn’t help it. It helped ease my anxiety.

I wasn’t worried that my arrow would miss. Even back when I was much weaker, the number of times my arrows missed their targets could be counted on just one hand.

What concerned me was something else.

Thud—

The arrow sank between the cracked shell, and the enemy’s movement slowed down.

It wasn't enough to finish them off.

I ignored my dejection and notched the next arrow onto the string.

I knew my strength was still lacking, but I was dealing some damage, at least.

The enemies were C or B-Ranked. The old me wouldn’t be able to injure them at all, but the new me was piercing through their defenses.

The inferiority complex that had built within me over the years slowly vanished, replaced with pride and joy.

I poured my negative memories and emotions into the arrows and shot them away—the countless insults I endured over the years, all the people who called me a weakling behind my back, and civilians saying I was no stronger than them.

Thud—

I shook my trance away after an arrow bounced off an enemy’s gray shell.

It wasn’t that I was suddenly weaker. The enemy was simply way too close. It stood right before me, on the windowsill.

Having found its prey, my opponent swung its claw at me.

‘It’s fine. No need to panic.’

I calmly generated the next arrow and notched it onto the bowstring.

The claw was inches away from my head, but even in the face of death, my brain processed information completely unrelated to the situation.

The positioning of other heroes in the area, the last scene I remembered outside the window, the enemy I had to target next, the next rotation of personnel, my remaining mana, and the casualty rate of troops within our reach.

“Hyaaaah!”

A silver flash gleamed, and a white cloth fluttered before my eyes.

Crack—

The enemy shattered into fragments after its shell was destroyed, scattering into pieces before us.

The monster’s death didn’t feel real or tangible.

There was no red blood drenching the floor, nor were there pieces of flesh or internal organs staining the walls.

It was as though gray petals were filtering my view.

Despite my brain processing the death of the monster, I released the tensed bowstring.

The hammer-wielding girl blocked the view outside the window, but that was a non-issue. I had already predicted the enemy’s positioning.

Her fluttering white cloak dropped back down, providing a clear line of sight.

The pink arrow perfectly hit its mark, and I prepared a new one.

“The next wave is coming from the right, Sihyeon. They’ve got one man down. Please heal him.”

“Leave it to me!” The girl, a bright smile on her face, ran down the right corridor according to my instructions, her cloak flapping in the wind.

Even in the midst of battle, my friend hadn’t lost her positivity and energy.

I was grateful to her.

My life changed rapidly since I met her. My wish of gaining more power and saving more people came true.

The inferiority complex inside me, my peers who mocked me—none of it mattered before her brilliant smile.

At the start of the battle, Sihyeon felt bored as a melee fighter since there wasn’t much she could do besides throw her weapon at enemies outside the window.

Since combat was intensifying, she diligently followed my directions and ran up and down the corridors, showcasing her skills.

It had been 14 hours since the start of the war.

From the moment our second shift began, the defense line suddenly started to falter.

The fortification still stood, but the enemies were stronger than the ones during our first shift. They didn’t die to our allies’ relentless barrage of ranged attacks and steadily approached the wall.

The monsters used the bodies of their fallen comrades as stepping stones to climb and invade the wall. Thus began the chaotic brawl soon afterward.

To prevent them from taking the barricade, the melee fighters took positions at the front and blocked entry points while the soldiers guarding the points pulled back to form a defensive line around the heavy weaponry.

The heroes panicked initially, overwhelmed by the unfamiliar situation, but they quickly regained their composure, probably thanks to the seniors taking the lead.

* * *

Reaper Scans

Translator - Kuro

Proofreader - ilafy

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* * *

In the brief moment I took to notch another arrow, I glanced out the window.

I saw a small circle of blue in the gray sea. In the center stood a girl with silver hair, swinging around a hammer. It was Haram.

“Hold your positions! Their attacks aren’t very strong! Vanguard, block the enemies and hold them in place! Rearguard, support your allies and finish off the enemies with powerful magic spells and other ranged attacks!”

The girl's young and cute voice resonated over the battlefield, all the way to the back, heavily contrasting her message.

Haram fought at the very front, rallying everyone together.

He served as the first line of defense, holding back as many enemies as he could.

His voice—filled with hope—and his violent dance atop the gray sea maintained the fortification.

Sunbae’s efforts to improve our morale wouldn’t have been enough on its own.

The soldiers maintained the line of defense, likely thanks to excellent commanders rapidly relaying appropriate orders to the right people.

—1sr Floor, Zone 3. One hero injured. Medic on their way. Requesting reinforcements for a shift rotation.

—2nd Floor, Zone 4. Heroes exhausted. Troops deployed. Hold the line until reinforcements arrive.

Voices crackled from the walkie-talkie hanging on my belt.

Normally, it only relayed orders meant for me, but I had changed the settings to hear all the transmissions in the area.

I didn’t keep it on all the time at first, but as I continued listening, I started to get a grasp of the situation across the battlefield.

My mind pictured the overall structure of the barricade and the positions of the troops.

I could see where the defenses were weak and where they were strong; where to blockade to secure a zone.

Thus, I asked Sihyeon if she was willing to follow my instructions without hesitation, but I wasn’t confident in myself.

What was I thinking, asking her something like that?

I was just a mediocre hero with zero experience in leading others.

Our mission was simple: hold the zone and endure the fight until our replacements came in the next shift. We weren’t supposed to send support to other zones.

Furthermore, I doubted whether Sihyeon—a hero infinitely stronger than me—would even follow my instructions.

She may have been my friend, but perhaps she didn’t like taking orders from a weaker hero.

All my worries vanished with just one reply.

“Of course! You always see the bigger picture, Abin!” She sprinted around the battlefield, following my orders down to the letter. Once she completed one mission, she returned to get the next order from me and immediately departed again.

“How did you realize I had to help on the right? Their defense was about to collapse when I arrived.”

“Intuition, I guess…?” Honestly, I wasn’t so sure myself. Why did I think that zone would fall? 

I observed the flow of enemies outside the window—the very subtle yet present flow that showed a pattern in their movements.

The walkie-talkie’s relay regarding the rotation of personnel in that zone also informed me that the heroes were exhausted, playing a part in my prediction.

The overlapping information in my mind lead to an instinctive conclusion: that zone would soon collapse.

I correctly predicted that the giant monster—the gray army of crustaceans—would strike in that very zone, just like the time I predicted the monster would attack Sihyeon through the gap in her defenses in the underground laboratory.

Nevertheless, our battle continued without end.

How much time passed?

Pat pat—

Someone tapped on my back, breaking my concentration.

“Shift rotation!”

I turned around and saw Sihyeon, drenched in sweat. “Already?”

“Yeah. The order just came in. The soldiers will be here soon.”

Had it already been seven hours?

With that newfound realization, all the strength drained from my body. I was focused so intensely that I hadn’t even noticed my exhaustion.

“Abin, your hand is bleeding!”

“My hand?” I raised my hand in a daze and saw the bloodstained fingers. My bowstring had torn off my skin when I kept shooting enemies. “I’m fine, this is nothing.”

“Heal yourself. It might get infected.”

“I’m out of mana…” I still had a tiny bit of mana left, but I would certainly fall unconscious if I used more.

I didn’t want to sleep through our precious break time.

"I’ll heal it for you." 

"Don’t... You’ll heal it in some weird way again..." 

It was really shocking when Miss Oxymoron grew two right hands after Sihyeon healed her—so shocking that all my common sense vanished that day.

From that moment on, my healing efficiency skyrocketed… The shocking sight of regrowing a second right hand was enough to convince me that healing arts could do anything… that my own healing could do anything.

“I can heal people’s skin. It’s been working fine!”

That was a fair point.

‘I suppose copying the surrounding skin to heal the injury wouldn’t be much of an issue’ I thought to myself.

Sihyeon told me halfway through our second shift that she could heal people as well. She seemed to have learned basic first aid through first-hand experience on the battlefield.

Her red mana wrapped around my fingers, and the fast-growing skin stopped the bleeding.

“Good work! Time for the rotation!”

The soldiers arrived right as she finished healing me. They would momentarily hold the line while waiting for the next shift of heroes to arrive to replace us.

They took their positions and started firing their guns through the window.

“Thank you for your help…”

“Don’t worry about us, take a good rest.” The soldier gave a respectful nod as he escorted me out. 

I returned the gesture with a deep bow. “Let’s go, Sihyeon.”

“Yeah!” She had some energy left in her. I, on the other hand, felt like collapsing and sleeping.

I knew she could continue fighting but was still taking a break out of concern for me.

Normally, she would be out in the sea of monsters, wildly swinging her hammer around like Sunbae without taking a break.

***

We entered the bustling cafeteria.

Everyone there was trying to fill their stomachs during their break, shoving a bunch of unappetizing food into their mouths.

I checked the array of food presented to us: burned fish, half-fried crab meat, and some mysterious red sauce.

My appetite instantly vanished.

The person behind the meal plan must've had a twisted personality.

How could I eat seafood when I had just witnessed countless crab and lobster-looking monsters getting crushed?

Sihyeon, on the other hand, stuffed the food into her mouth. She looked like she’d even devour the metal tray.

I took my time, slowly eating a bowl of rice and seaweed soup, before asking her, “Sunbae really is amazing, isn’t he?”

It had been 21 hours since the battle began, and Haram swung his hammer on the frontlines the entire time without a single break.

He was like an invincible hero, constantly raising the morale of his allies and facing his enemies without rest.

“Yeah. I’ve seen videos of him fighting before on the internet, but he’s so much more incredible in person!”

‘Videos, huh?’

For some reason, despite being an amazing hero, it was almost impossible to find information about Haram. It was as if it were being deliberately hidden from the public.

The only details we found were his name, hero name, and maybe some battle records.

Even the videos online were grainy and of low quality, and most of them were removed for violating the terms of service of the host websites due to violent and bloody content.

Therefore, a lot of videos were not on the popular sites but rather on shady ones hosted by people who liked collecting videos of gore, violence, and death.

There was even an incident where the footage of the Black Marauder was mistakenly uploaded with Haram’s name instead.

“And this battle… everything would’ve collapsed already if he weren’t here.”

I imagined a scenario without him—a scenario where he wasn’t blocking the enemies at the front.

If our opponent—the gigantic gray army—struck the wall with powerful blows, the situation would’ve been catastrophic, far worse than it was.

“Probably. There’s no way Master would let the defense line collapse. It’s just in his nature to not give up!”

‘His nature, huh?’ I realized how scary devoted fans could be.

Sihyeon had somehow dug up enough information about Sunbae to know his nature, despite the scarcity of information online. Her actions were driven purely by her love and devotion as a fan.

“How did you become such a big fan of his?”

“I’ve seen him fight in person before.”

Haram fighting in person? I was surprised she became a fan of his instead of getting traumatized by the blood and gore.

“Why? Are you interested too? Then let me show you this! It’s a photo I took secretly, and—”

“Ah, it’s fine. I already know how amazing he is.” If I let Sihyeon talk, I might have to listen to her praise Haram for the entire seven-hour break. I cut her off before she could get started and ate another spoonful of rice.

“Aren’t you having the fried crab?” she asked.

“You can have it. I’m not hungry.”

Swish—

Sihyeon swiftly snatched the fried seafood off my tray and stuffed it in her mouth.

‘Geez, she’s so carefree and relaxed.’

I enjoyed our brief rest while drinking the remaining, disgusting seaweed soup.

____

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