MistyTL

Chapter 21: The Ever-Positive Angel Is in Charge of the Magical Girl's Mental Care

Added 2025-05-24 07:23:39 +0000 UTC

The Angel Enters the City (Welcome Ceremony)

I left Yoo Seo-ah’s house and headed for City C.

You’re wondering if I even know where that is?

The navigation system on top of my head isn’t just for decoration.

What am I talking about?

Sparkle—... Sparkle—

“This way, huh.”

That means my halo is telling me where the magical girl I’m looking for is.

You might be thinking, “What kind of ridiculous ability is that? Does that even make sense?”

But it does.

That’s because I can receive any ability—so long as it’s for the sake of magical girls.

Of course, only abilities that don’t directly interfere with human affairs.

Then what about making gold, you ask?

Come on, give me a break.

I'm an angel, after all. I can’t just go around stealing things without paying.

‘I’ll pay with prayers!’

Now that I think about it, that’s kind of funny.

Anyway, thanks to that ability, I was able to arrive in City C without much trouble.

“Hmm…”

My first impression of City C was that it felt bleak, even in broad daylight.

How should I put it… It had the vibe of a dystopian world.

“I can see why people don’t like this place.”

The sky was crowded with drones so thick they blocked the sunlight, casting shadows all over the ground.

Despite flying so high up, the buzzing of their wings could still be heard faintly, which made it oddly unpleasant.

“To think all those things are surveillance drones…”

What’s worse, each of them could be equipped with enough weaponry to kill monsters.

Just imagining that gave me goosebumps.

Perhaps because of that, every building in the city, especially apartments and houses, had their windows completely covered with curtains.

In severe cases, some buildings didn’t even have windows at all.

And what about the people living in such a city?

Eight out of ten people walking down the street had their eyes glued to the ground.

The other two just stared straight ahead.

No one looked up at the sky.

They just kept their heads down like the living dead.

With the whole city like this, of course it feels bleak.

‘Just because it’s safe doesn’t mean it’s good.’

I let out a deep sigh as I looked down at the street from a rooftop where I wouldn't be seen.

“This one’s not going to be easy to warm up to…”

The magical girl I’m looking for has cut herself off from the outside world completely due to trauma from an incident 6 years ago, or maybe some other reason.

In other words, this time I can’t just walk in being unconditionally positive and smother her with affection and expect things to work out.

If I approach carelessly and accidentally trigger her trauma, it could end badly.

So this time, I’ll take it slow.

‘Where should I start...?’

Should I try making my presence known?

No, I’m already doing that.

‘…Maybe I should start by looking into what happened 6 years ago?’

As soon as I had that thought, I felt a jolt of inspiration!

‘Yes, that’s the way to go.’

While digging into that incident, I’ll probably get a better grasp of Han Soyou, whom I have to meet this time, and it’ll also help me avoid stepping on landmines while trying to offer positive reinforcement.

In Yoo Seo-ah’s case, it was possible because she had a very easygoing personality and was already a well-developed magical girl—so I got lucky.

But if I treat this next girl the same way…

Well-intentioned or not, it could lead to the worst possible outcome.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions for a reason.

“Alright. Let’s go—…”

Just as I was about to say that—

A buzzing sound coming from behind me, like bees flying around, made me shuddered.

Surely this isn't what I think it is, right?

Come on, no way… I just got into the city and immediately hid on a rooftop where no one’s around. How could they know…?

—All those things are surveillance cameras.

Oh. Right. The drones.

I even said it myself, but completely forgot.

When I was with Seo-ah, I didn’t pay much attention, and I figured if anything happened, I could just fly away.

‘Should I just run for it?’

Maybe fly off for a bit, hide my wings and halo, and sneak back in?

I glanced up at the sky while thinking that.

Hundreds of drones blanketing the sky all shifted in sync, making the sky looked like a huge living creature’s stomach lining.

This, no matter how I think about it, doesn't seem like it'll work.

Even if I escape now and come back later, they’ll probably catch me again.

After thinking it over, I folded my wings and quietly sat down on the rooftop.

If I hadn’t been seen, I might’ve just played it off and left, but since I’ve already been caught, there’s no choice.

This is exactly the kind of moment where you have to act confident.

I steeled myself, opened my eyes wide, and turned toward the source of the buzzing.

There, a large drone with a camera was staring straight at me.

After a deep breath, I smiled brightly and said.

“Hello! I came to share some good words, do you have a moment to talk?”

…Yeah. That sounded kind of weird.

I did come to share something good, but it made me sound like a door-to-door cultist.

“I’m not a bad person, I swear!”

To emphasize I wasn’t a monster or some shady cultist, I gently flapped my angel wings and gestured to my shining halo.

But no matter how long I waited, there was no response.

Now that I think about it, that was obvious.

Who in their right mind installs speakers on security drones?

‘Well, that was pointless.’

Still, at least they hadn’t attacked me first, right?

That’s something.

If they thought I was a monster, those drones would’ve swarmed and beaten me down already.

“Um… I’m going to stand up now, okay?”

I said that while watching the drone, then carefully stood up.

The drone kept its distance but continued watching me, making no other moves.

Only when I moved to go somewhere did it follow me slightly—waddling along in a way that was oddly cute thanks to its round shape.

“Can you hear me? If you can, could you move up and down a little?”

Once again, the drone didn’t respond.

…Well, that’s to be expected.

Just looking through this many cameras would be exhausting enough—imagine if they all had audio.

Or maybe no one’s actually watching me right now.

Then should I try some body language?

Okay. At least let me convey something like I’m heading over there now.

I pointed at myself, then at the camera, and mimed walking.

“I’m! Coming! Over!”

Just in case someone could read lips, I made sure to mouth the words clearly.

If they can’t lip-read, well… nothing I can do about that.

‘That should get the message across.’

I activated the magical girl locator and turned in the direction my halo indicated.

And there, hovering in the air, were hundreds of attack drones.

Ah… So that camera drone wasn’t watching me, it was just stalling for time~

It was buying time until those attack drones could gather~

‘At least they’re not attacking right away… that’s a relief, I guess.’

I sighed in relief inwardly and waited quietly. Soon, four of the largest drones approached me.

The first to move was the one with the large camera hovering right in front of my face.

[Face ID verification failed. Please present any means of proving your identity.]

“Uh, I’m an angel… so I don’t really have any form of ID…”

[No identification provided. Subject is presumed stateless or an illegal resident not registered in the country.]

[Mention of 'angel'—possibility of mental instability. Contacting the nearest psychiatric center.]

[Confirmed the existence of flight apparatus, not found in human body. Subject classified as monster or mutant.]

[Identity verification failed, mentally unstable, anomalous external features. Activating Response Code 000.]

Before I could even get another word in, they started talking amongst themselves.

And before long, hundreds of drones had surrounded me with their weapons aimed at me.

[Unidentified organic lifeform detected. Surrender immediately.]

“Hehe…”

Sure, I could beat all of them in a fight and walk away without a scratch—but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt, and I hate being in pain, so I surrendered for now.

You wouldn’t know just by looking, but each of those drones was about the size of a human torso.

And they were all equipped with weapons that looked suspiciously like guns.

Can you imagine hundreds of drones like that rushing at you?

‘Yeah… not ideal.’

I mean, I could win, but there’s nothing to gain from that.

Because the drones can be rebuilt. But I’m just one angel.

"I don’t like pain, so I’ll surrender…"

I did as instructed: folded my wings and raised both hands to the side of my head.

Maybe they were surprised that someone actually surrendered when told to, because the drones just floated there in silence for a while.

Eventually, the frontmost drone moved again.

[Surrender confirmed. Surrender confirmed. Code 000 deactivated after 30 seconds.]

[Surrender confirmed. The organic life form will now be transported to the isolation unit.]