Chapter 23: The Ever-Positive Angel Is in Charge of the Magical Girl's Mental Care

Magical Girl Blue

A four-pyeong (approx 140 sq ft) room, sunk in deep darkness, is both my cradle and my grave.

A cradle because it's cozy and peaceful, and I don’t have to care about anything.

A grave because it's lonely and silent, and no one cares about me either.

That’s why I like my four-pyeong room.

Because in here, it’s okay to live like a child or to simply exist like the dead.

Because in here, I can avoid hurting anyone, and no one can hurt me.

[06:00 AM. Time to wake up.]

I opened my eyes to the familiar voice echoed from my bedside.

The gentle ambient lighting gradually brightened, revealing the sparse interior of the room.

There's no TV or computer, not even the common ones.

All there is are precise tools for assembling machinery, a worktable, a dining table, and a bed.

It’s an empty room, but it's okay.

Because this is comfortable for me.

“…”

I blinked a few times and turned my head.

There stood the android I had created: Cyclamen, smiling gently at me.

I don't know what I was thinking when I made her, but Cyclamen always wears that same soft smile.

I probably didn’t bother designing any other expression.

Why I can’t remember something I made myself?

I don’t know. I just don’t remember.

When I try to think about it, my head hurts, so I just accept it.

Still…

That lifeless face, smiling the same way no matter what happens, feels unsettling when seen up close.

I can’t bear to look at her for too long.

“What’s for breakfast today?”

[70g sourdough, 28g guacamole, 1 fried egg, 20g mixed nuts. Total calories: 400kcal.]

As soon as I wake up, I eat whatever Cyclamen prepares for me.

Sometimes I miss the spicy food I used to eat, but now… I don’t really care anymore.

Thinking about it doesn’t change anything.

All it does is wear me out.

I just have to eat what Cyclamen gives me. What else is there to worry about?

I don’t listen to music.

I don’t make conversation.

I simply consume the food prepared for me with mechanical regularity.

During the spare moments, I take a quick shower in the bathroom.

I can bathe myself, but my hair’s so long that Cyclamen has to help me wash it.

[I will wash your hair now.]

“Thanks.”

Hair I haven’t cut in 6 years takes 40 minutes to wash, even with Cyclamen’s help.

If I were doing it alone, it would probably take two or three hours.

...No, if that were the case, I would’ve just cut it off.

I hate dealing with hassle.

Once I’m done showering, Cyclamen dries my hair.

[I will dry your hair now.]

“Mm. Thanks.”

The warm air dries my hair.

For the first time, there’s noise in this house.

I doze off briefly, lulled by the gentle brushing and warmth.

Click. The noise cuts off, and I open my eyes.

[7:45 AM. It’s work time.]

After the morning passes like that, it’s time for a bit of work.

It’s always the same routine.

I recharge magic power into depleted batteries.

I discard or repair broken drones.

I craft weapons to kill monsters that have already been analyzed.

When work ends, it's 9:30 AM.

From now on, it’s free time.

Though it’s called "free time," there isn’t much to do.

Without a TV or computer, how much can you really do in a house like this?

Read books, maybe.

Or just do whatever I feel like doing.

Of course, the books are so worn from being read over and over that, realistically, there's only one choice left.

Assemble a rabbit robot that’s cute but utterly useless.

Make a weapon that looks cool but is garbage in terms of efficiency.

Design a humanoid robot that has no real purpose.

Or maybe program an AI algorithm modeled after Cyclamen…

Build and break, assemble and disassemble, design and dismantle.

A repetition of simple acts.

It’s complicated, but since it’s all I do, it becomes simple.

It’s difficult, but since I’ve always done it, it becomes easy.

Right now, in this moment, I don’t need to think about anything, and that’s why I like it.

My own little world unfolds atop the small worktable, a place where my imagination can fly freely.

Here, on this tiny table, everyone smiles. Everyone is happy.

Everyone must be happy. Everyone must smile.

Tick, tick, tick—

Just then, the very first rabbit robot I assembled broke down.

Maybe its left rear joint was damaged, it couldn’t stretch its leg properly compared to the right.

As a result, the toppled rabbit robot, with a blissfully innocent smile as if it knew nothing, kept spinning in one direction.

“…”

It wasn’t even like running in a wheel.

It was just breaking down and spinning in place, mistakenly thinking it was moving forward.

The other robots carried on with their tasks, as if they didn’t even see the rabbit robot.

I need to fix it, but I can’t.

What should I do? That thought keeps surfacing again and again.

Only the broken rabbit robot and the weapon that can’t move are left there, alone.

Tick, tick, tick.

In this room without even a clock, the rabbit robot’s futile movements sounded like a ticking second hand.

No, perhaps it sounded more like a heartbeat.

That figure looked just like me.

It felt like I was looking at myself.

Me, rotting away in the same place, clueless about everything.

My heart is pounding.

I hear ringing in my ears. The world around me starts to fade away.

—Die!!

“Eeek…!”

There’s clearly no one here, but I heard someone scream at me.

Startled, I shot up from my seat, but as expected, no one’s here.

—It’s your fault…! Because of you, the city…!!

—Why…? Why did you make something like this…?

—You damn bitch. Just die already.

I hear voices blaming me.

Voices cursing, saying it’s all my fault.

“No… No, no, no no no… I didn’t do that. It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

—It is your fault.

“Noooo!!”

Crack!

I slammed my fist down on the broken rabbit.

Again and again, until the piercing scream that made my ears ring finally disappeared.

Tick, tick, tick…

My hand hurt from striking the robot.

But the noise hadn’t gone away.

I kept hitting it, over and over, again and again, until the noise stopped.

Until the completely shattered rabbit robot stopped moving.

When I came to my senses, both my hand and the worktable were drenched in blood.

The rabbit robot—now unrecognizable, utterly destroyed—lay in a bloody heap.

The sight of it made me nauseous. It reminded me of that day.

Drip――

My vision spun, and a nosebleed began to drip down.

[Abnormal rise in blood pressure detected. Rapid increase in stress levels detected. Initiating stabilization protocol.]

Cyclamen’s hand came over my eyes.

Though covered in pure white gloves, her hand was cold and rigid, without a trace of softness or warmth.

They blocked my vision, and the world disappeared.

What I heard in my ear wasn’t unsettling silence, but a lullaby, meant to lull a child to sleep.

As if my suffocating chest had been released, I finally took a breath.

I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped breathing.

“Hoo… h-huff…”

Clinging to Cyclamen’s arm, I gasped for breath and trembled.

Her cold, solid arm made of steel somehow reassured me.

Bit by bit, my breathing returned to normal.

Soon, the strength returned to my legs that had lost their power.

“…It hurts.”

Why am I hurt?

As I stared at the blood dripping from my hand, I turned to Cyclamen.

Bright red handprints stained her pure white gloves.

“Your gloves got dirty.”

[I will now treat your hand.]

Our words didn’t align.

But that was only natural.

No matter how human she looked, no matter how much intelligence she had gathered through continuous learning, she was still just something I created—a fake.

“…Okay. Thanks.”

Don’t resist. Just accept it.

Thinking that, I held out my injured hand to Cyclamen.

Looking closely now, the wound on my hand was worse than I thought.

If I were just a normal person, it might’ve needed five stitches.

What the hell had I done to get my hand in this state?

I don’t know. I don’t remember.

Well, I’m a magical girl, after all—an injury like this should heal quickly.

…Though lately, my recovery power’s been a little weaker. It might take four days now.

But at least I don't have to get stitches, which was the least bit of comfort.

I can create things, but fixing things… that’s something I can’t do.

[Beginning disinfection.]

I clenched my teeth, trying to endure the pain that instinctively made me wince, but I couldn’t bear it.

I hate being in pain.

“Ssss… It stings…”

[If you move, your wound will reopen.]

At those words, I tightly shut my mouth and tried to endure it.

As Cyclamen disinfected the wound, she suddenly froze.

“Cyclamen?”

[…Intruder detected. They are heading straight toward this location.]

At first, I didn’t understand what she meant.

This place is my cradle and my grave, made by me, for me, and only for me.

No monster, not even the freak, had ever reached this place.

So how—?

“Damage?”

[Current structural damage rate: 0%.]

That meant nothing had been broken yet, and something—or someone—was flying directly toward this place.

It didn’t make sense.

Unless it was drilling straight down vertically from the surface, no, even then it should be impossible.

Hacking? Signal jamming? No… neither.

If it were hacking, Cyclamen wouldn’t be so calm.

If it were jamming, the system wouldn’t report 0% damage.

More importantly, if it was breached to this point, what’s happening on the surface?

“C-Cyclamen! The surface… wh-what about the surface!? It… It’s still safe, right!?”

[The city’s current damage rate: 0%. Civilians remain safe.]

Is it heading straight towards this place without touching the city?

Why? For what purpose?

Could it be… is it after my life?

An unknown enemy.

That thought terrified me.

“C-Cyclamen…”

[…Initiating extermination protocol. Engaging full-force hostile elimination.]

And the moment Cyclamen said that—

Thump—…

“Wahh…!”

A massive vibration shook the ground.

It was probably the shock caused by the barrage of thermal weapons poured out as the extermination protocol began.

[Current damage rate: 12%. Hostile organic detected. Extermination failed. Preparing for second offensive.]

Kuuung——!

Crack, crack…

“Uuuh…! C-Cyclamen…!”

I called out to her, panicked by the now much closer shockwave.

But she only looked at me with the same calm, ever-smiling expression.

[Determined ineffective firepower. Switching to sonic weaponry.]

I couldn’t hear it, but I could feel my entire body vibrating.

Yeah, this should be enough. It must have been suppressed.

Even that monstrous existence back then was blocked successfully.

So it'll be okay this time too.

I shut my eyes tightly and waited for the words that it was over.

[Current damage rate: 17%. Physical attacks ineffective. Switching to magic weaponry.]

The damage rate increased.

[Current damage rate: 25%.]

It increased again.

Please… Please don’t come any closer.

‘I don’t want to be in pain anymore…!’

I squeezed my eyes shut and kept praying. Again and again.

Please, just let nothing happen.

Please don’t try to pull me out from here. Please…

Maybe those prayers were heard, because the damage rate didn’t rise any further even after time passed.

Cyclamen wasn't saying anything anymore either.

So maybe… maybe it was over.

“I-Is it… over?”

There was still no answer.

But since the damage rate wasn’t increasing anymore, it really must’ve been over.

If the battle had still been going on, the damage rate would’ve continued to rise.

This was the first time the cradle had taken this much damage since that freak appeared back then.

Still—

It had been stopped. That was all that mattered.

Now… everything would be okay.

I let out a sigh of relief and took Cyclamen’s hand.

“…It’s over, right?”

But Cyclamen still didn’t respond.

Something felt wrong.

Something was off.

And at that very moment, a bright light began to shine through the wall.

“A beam…!?”

It was an impossible phenomenon with modern technology, but for magical girls and freaks, it was a plausible type of attack.

So it wasn’t over yet.

“Ugh…! T-Transform!”

How many years had it been since I last transformed? Four? Five? I didn’t know.

But even if I hated it now, I had no choice.

No matter how powerful a magical girl was, if she got hit by a beam like that without transforming, she’d be turned to ashes.

Gritting my teeth, I stepped in front of Cyclamen and prepared to block the beam with a barrier… or so I thought?

Sparkle, sparkle…

After transforming, I looked again and realized it wasn’t a beam at all.

The wall wasn’t melting from heat; it was just glowing.

The fact that the wall was glowing was strange enough, but at least it wasn’t an attack. That alone was a relief.

Still, I didn’t let my guard down and remained cautious.

It had been a long time since I fought, but I couldn’t afford to lose Cyclamen.

And then, what appeared from beyond the glowing wall was—

Sparkle, sparkle――

“Mmm…! Eighty points!”

A girl with pure white hair, softly glowing wings, and a radiant ring above her head.

What… eighty points?

No, that’s not the important part right now.

“…Who are you?”

I asked, keeping my guard up and ready to fire magic at any moment.

The girl beamed with a bright, energetic smile and opened her arms wide.

“Hello! I’m Sarah, your lovely angel, here just for you!”

…What the hell is this brain-melting lunatic?

And that was my first encounter with an angel.

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