Chapter 31: The Ever-Positive Angel Is in Charge of the Magical Girl's Mental Care

Hatching

The explosion caused by Cyclamen brought the entire building down on us.

‘Getting out might be a little tricky…’

I could escape alone at any time.

Just using my phasing ability to pass through walls would be enough.

But…

“Ugh, nngh…”

If I escaped alone, Han Soyu would be crushed to death under this debris.

No matter if she’s a magical girl—if she’s buried under this much rubble without transforming, there’s no way she’d survive.

It’s exactly what I once told Myoa.

Magical girl is a human before being a magical girl.

Crack—crunch—…

Thunk…

I forced my body up amidst the collapsed wreckage.

It felt like my body might shatter, but despite the pain, I wasn’t injured.

At first, I wondered what kind of absurd ability this was…

But now, I was just relieved I wasn’t hurt.

“Guh…”

If rebar had pierced through my stomach or wings, if the building debris had crushed my body completely—

I wouldn’t have been able to protect Han Soyu.

After groaning through the terrible pain, I took a deep breath to gather myself and looked down at Han Soyu lying unconscious beneath me.

“Soyu-ssi, Soyu-ssi?”

She didn’t respond no matter how much I called her, likely having fainted from the shock of the explosion just now.

‘This is bad…’

The collapse itself wasn’t the real issue.

As long as I stayed here and kept steady, Han Soyu wouldn’t be crushed to death by the debris.

But the real problem was this:

While Han Soyu was unconscious, who knew what Cyclamen might try?

If Cyclamen had attacked Han Soyu directly, it would’ve been simpler, since I could’ve blocked it.

But instead, she didn’t even glance at Han Soyu and simply disappeared.

No, judging by how she triggered that explosion knowing full well Han Soyu would get caught in it…

‘Was she planning to kill her from the start…?’

In case of Yoo Seo-ah’s mascot, Myoa was corrupted by a monster’s scheme.

I can understand that, but why did Cyclamen…?

“Huh huhk…! Cough, k-kuuhk…!”

“Soyu-ssi!?”

A sudden coughing fit startled me.

I feared internal injury, but thankfully she wasn’t coughing up blood.

She was wheezing and gasping for air, so it seemed she just inhaled too much dust.

“Haah…”

I let out a sigh of relief and lowered my head.

Han Soyu, who had been unconscious, opened her eyes.

“You… again…?”

Her dazed eyes blinked slowly, then widened in shock as something came to her.

“Cyclamen…! Cyclamen…!”

“Soyu-ssi.”

“Eek—!? Ah… y-you’re….”

Han Soyu, staring at my face, began patting herself down and whipping her head around, frantically scanning her surroundings.

“What… what happened? Where’s Cyclamen… Ah. No—before that—w-where are we…?”

“Cyclamen blew up the building and disappeared. And right now, we’re under the rubble of that building.”

I answered honestly.

Hearing that, Han Soyu covered her face with both hands and started trembling.

“Are you okay?”

“…Do I look okay to you…?”

She bit her lip so hard it drew blood as she threw the question back at me.

Of course she’s not okay. How could she be?

She had longed so deeply for her lost mascot that she even gave its name to a robot she built.

And that same mascot she thought was dead had been deceiving her for 6 years.

That alone would be enough to shake someone to the core.

But worse, it had gone so far as to try and kill her.

Anyone who said “I’m fine” in that situation would be the one acting strangely.

“Why…? I—I just wanted Cyclamen to come back, that’s all… Why did she do this to me? What did I do wrong…?”

Her voice trembled as her body did, whispering like a child lost in a storm.

She started panting heavily and clawing at her hair, almost like trying to rip her thoughts out with it.

“Was it because I didn’t listen…? Because I didn’t do as I was told…? Is that why she left me…? Why… why did she lie to me…? Why…? Wh-what was I supposed to do, then…?”

Her pain reached me like waves crashing into my chest.

A pain that felt like my heart was being torn into a thousand pieces.

That unbearable heartbreak of being betrayed by someone you trusted completely.

‘If I had just done better… If only I’d realized it sooner… It’s my failt again…’

And yet, even in the midst of that, she never once blamed her mascot.

Instead, she ripped into her own wounded heart trying to dig up the answers, even as it bled anew.

She peeled open barely healed wounds, gnawed at her own soul, carving space within herself to bear the weight of emotions that didn’t even belong to her.

She didn’t run away because she feared pain.

She was simply someone with too much love, too much yearning.

‘If I had just been better. If I’d worked harder. If I’d been stronger. If I—'

A child with a very kind and fragile heart.

A child whose greed for others, not for herself, was too great.

She tried not to let anyone down.

And in trying to meet everyone’s expectations, she ended up losing herself.

However, what broke wasn’t her heart.

It was the will to keep pretending she was okay.

Because all she had ever learned was how to carry the weight of others’ hearts on her back, and never learned how to care for her own heart.

After shaving herself down again and again, until barely a sliver of self remained…

Could she still call that remaining fragment “me”?

The crumbled, discarded pieces—aren’t they her, too?

Yes. They are.

Han Soyu just doesn’t know that yet.

That’s why she doesn’t know what she wants, why she can’t name her desires.

All her life, she’s lived by others’ expectations, doing what they wanted, becoming what they asked for.

And when someone else's heart, which had once defined her very self, suddenly left…

It shattered her.

Because she believed what others wanted was what she wanted too.

That’s why… before she’s a magical girl, she’s still a child.

“Soyu.”

I reached out and pulled Han Soyu into an embrace.

Her trembling seeped into my arms.

“It’s been hard, hasn’t it? There must have been so many times when you were in pain and just wanted to let it all go.”

“…Why… Why would you say something like that…? I—I don’t even deserve…”

“You don’t need permission to say it hurts. You don’t need to earn the right to feel sad. If the world demands qualifications just to admit pain, that world is far too cruel.”

The machine once scoffed at these as sweet nothings—empty and meaningless words.

But sometimes… it’s those very words that someone needs the most.

Because humans aren’t machines.

Their mental health can deteriorate.

And the endless grind of hardship wears down both body and soul.

“If it hurts too much, it’s okay to stop. If Soyu wants to let go of everything, to just rest, that’s okay too. You’ve done more than enough.”

Soyu said nothing. She just held me tighter.

“Even if you wanted to run away, far far away, no one has the right to shame you. You tried. You were scared and in pain, but you still tried for others.”

Her trembling began to settle.

That heart, once sunk beneath the sea of apathy, was slowly rising to the surface.

“If there’s something Soyu truly wants, I’ll help you make it real.”

Whatever it is, if it’s what you want, I’ll help you make it happen.

Because the reason I came to this world was for your happiness.

“Soyu… what is it that you want to do?”

I slowly loosened my arms and let her go.

For a long moment, she stayed in my embrace, then finally pulled away, her fists clenched tightly.

Her body still shook slightly, but I could feel it.

This trembling was not from fear as before.

“I—I…”

It was the tremble of someone finding the courage to take their first step forward, which had been stopped for a long time.

“I… I want to meet Cyclamen. I want to ask her… why. Why she did it. Why she lied to me. And then…”

“And then?”

Soyu drew in a breath.

“…I’m going to punch her in the face as punishment for deceiving me.”

Though it wasn’t a wish befitting a magical girl, the halo did not shine.

But—

“Perfect score.”

Because facing yourself honestly is the very first step to becoming a magical girl.

I smiled brightly and held Soyu’s hand.

“Well then, shall we get out of here?”

“But… I can’t do it alone. Even if I try to use magic, I’ll get buried before I can escape…”

Rumble—

Dust crumbled down in clouds.

As soon as she finished speaking, the ground around us began to tremble, and dirt began to rain from above.

“Ugh…! Don’t tell me—it’s already about to collapse!?”

“It’s okay. Believe in yourself.”

Soyu looked at me with trembling eyes, then nodded heavily.

She closed her eyes tightly and brought her hands to her chest.

Blue light began to gather around her.

“Transform…!”

Unlike her dull and fragile transformation before, a light so bright it was hard to look at burst forth from her.

When I opened my eyes again, Soyu was looking at me with eyes gleamed like the blue sky itself.

“Just hang on a little longer…! I’ll push it all away!”

“Yes. I believe in you.”

When I answered with a warm smile, Soyu, who looked surprised for a moment, returned a confident grin and stretched out her hand.

Gugugu—…

“Ugh…! Grrhhhaa…!!”

A tremendous burst of magical power surged from Soyu, who had clenched her teeth, beginning to lift away the rubble that weighed hundreds of tons.

But that was only for a moment, as the debris that had been scattered by the earlier explosion began to collapse again, crashing down on me.

“Ugh…!”

“I—I can’t do it alone…! This is…!”

“It’s okay…! She should be here… any second now…!”

I could feel a surge of powerful magic rushing toward us.

She was here.

―“There!! When I give the signal, close your eyes and push with everything you’ve got!!”

“This voice is…?”

Soyu was momentarily flustered, but she looked at me and…

―“Now!!”

“Ngh… Hhhaaahh!!”

With a cry, Soyu unleashed her power.

Kwaang―――!!

The wreckage and dust that had trapped us exploded outward, and the bright blue sky came into view.

And waiting there for us is…

“Good job. I told you, you could do it.”

“Seo-ah unnie…!”

“Sorry I’m late. I came to help.”

It was Magical Girl Black, Yoo Seo-ah.

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