Chapter 15: The Ever-Positive Angel Is in Charge of the Magical Girl's Mental Care

What Yoo Seo-ah Wants

After closing the bathroom door, I turned on the water.

Cold water, not yet warmed, poured over my head.

My body trembled from the chill, but I endured it and quickly washed off the blood and dirt clinging to me.

I was used to washing with cold water anyway.

Once I’d rinsed off most of the mess, I turned to look at the angel.

She seemed fascinated by the mirror, still standing there, examining her body from different angles.

“….”

With her halo and wings gone, she looked less like an angel and more like an ordinary girl.

Her height barely reached my chest. Though she weighed a little more than expected for her frame, I figured about 30% of that must be from the six wings she had showed yesterday.

As proof, her ribs were slightly visible on her sides.

At least it wasn’t to the point where she looked like a malnourished refugee…

‘That would’ve made me keep her and force-feed her until she gained weight.’

Her waist-length hair was pure white and so beautiful, as if it had been spun from freshly drawn silk.

Her skin was porcelain-white, the kind you'd only see in cosmetic commercials, so flawless it made me wonder if it would break at a touch.

Soft, slightly drooping eyes with long eyelashes, and gentle golden irises.

A delicate nose and small mouth.

‘They say God personally sculpted an angel’s face.’

Her face was exactly what you'd expect from that phrase.

And…

‘…Let’s not cross the line.’

I squeezed my eyes shut, suppressing the emotions threatening to flare up as my gaze started to drift lower.

The angel was a benefactor who gave me a will to live when I was just waiting to die.

To harbor impure thoughts toward someone like that, someone whose body looked like nothing more than a child…

It was no different than trampling all over the respect and gratitude I had for her.

“Seo-ah? You’re not supposed to sleep in the bathroom, you know.”

Her worried voice made me chuckle a little as I opened my eyes.

Her golden eyes, clear and pure like the name angel itself, reflected my image.

“I’m not sleeping. Just had something on my mind for a second. Come on, I’ll wash your hair.”

“Oh, okay!”

Answering brightly, the angel skipped over and shoved her head directly under the shower stream.

Yup, I could tell it really was her first time taking a bath.

“You shouldn’t soak your hair like that right away. Come sit over here.”

“Huh? That’s not how it’s done?”

“Well… there’s nothing wrong with it per se, but there’s a more comfortable way. I’ll show you later. For now, you’ve got me, right? I’ll wash you, so just sit still.”

The way she nodded with her damp hair was so cute, I couldn’t help but smile.

I pulled out a stool to sit behind her, who was sitting on another bathroom stool, and slowly wet her hair.

I had planned to brush it first, but looking at it now… maybe I didn’t need to.

“How’s the water temperature?”

“Uwaaah… it’s warm… so nice…”

It wasn’t just polite small talk. The angel answered with a totally relaxed and dopey face, her mouth hanging open.

“By the way, your hair is so soft. You’re seriously saying you’ve never done anything special to care for it?”

"Yeees… this is my first time washing my hair…"

…There are people out there who use shampoo, conditioner, treatment packs, and even oil just to maintain this kind of hair quality.

And here she was, someone who’s never washed her hair in her life—yet it’s this soft and silky.

‘It’s kinda unfair…’

Well, I guess that’s just part of being an angel.

Even while I tried to rationalize it, I couldn’t help the small seed of envy that settled in my heart.

"I'm jealous. If I had hair like yours without needing to do anything, life would be so much easier."

"I… I like your hair, Seo-ah…"

The angel replied with a melted, content expression on her face, and I chuckled as I gently stroked her hair.

“Ahuhuhh…! Not my head…!”

The strange, unexpectedly sensual sound she made made me jerk my hand back in shock.

At the same time, the angel turned toward me, both hands pressing down on her head.

Whether it was because of the warm water or embarrassment—or perhaps something else entirely—her soft cheeks were flushed red.

“M-my head is… really sensitive, okay…?”

The desire inside me started to rise again, but I forced it back down once more.

“Sorry, I’ll be gentler.”

“Ooh… Okay…”

Her timidly hunched shoulders were adorable.

Every time my fingers brushed her body and she twitched in response—it was dangerously suggestive.

Her pure white skin, now slightly flushed, glowed with a soft pink hue.

My heart pounded in my chest, but I bottled it up tightly, suppressing every last stir of temptation, and squeezed out shampoo to wash her hair.

I massaged her scalp with gentle fingers.

"Ah… ooh… nngh~ hyaah…!"

…Just giving her a proper massage.

“S-Seo-ah… m-my head… is acting weird…”

I emptied my mind and silently kept washing her hair.

Originally, I was going to do the full routine—conditioner, treatment, even a hair oil finish like I usually did. But...

‘I won’t survive it…’

I wasn’t doing anything strange, just washing her hair.

But the way she reacted… I was barely holding it together.

No way I could take things any further without exploding.

When I finally finished washing her hair, both of us were completely drained.

I ended up washing my own hair the fastest, laziest way possible—just scrubbing like laundry—then twisted it up and wrapped it in a towel.

I did the same for the angel (thankfully, this time without any sensual noises), then we washed our bodies and slipped into the bathtub I’d filled earlier.

For the record, she washed her own body.

I only scrubbed her back.

If I’d washed anything else… well, that would’ve been a disaster waiting to happen, so I held back.

And so, the two of us sat together in the tub.

I got in first and sat down. The angel then sat right in front of me, technically between my legs.

It felt like when we cuddled in bed, with me hugging her from behind.

At first, I was worried those inappropriate thoughts might come back again.

But once we were in the water, skin touching, all that lust vanished.

Instead of desire for pleasure, a completely different sense of fulfillment filled me.

It was closer to what I felt when I was with family.

Like a warmth slowly filling an empty space in my heart.

“…It’s warm,” she murmured.

“Yeah… really warm.”

Neither I nor the angel said much.

No, we didn’t exchange many words at all.

It was enough just to lean on each other—her resting her body against me, and me resting my heart against her.

As we sat there without saying anything, it suddenly occurred to me that this would all be over tomorrow.

“…So, tomorrow’s the last day, huh.”

At my words, the angel tried to turn around to face me, but I wrapped my arms around her from behind, holding her still.

I didn’t want her to see my expression right now—not when I wasn’t even sure what it looked like myself.

“Truth is… I was planning to die.”

I felt her body flinch in surprise. I smiled faintly and hugged her even tighter.

“It was just… really painful. I was so lonely. The guilt too… it was crushing.”

Every day, I thought about dying.

Just one more day, I’d tell myself. Just live one more day.

Again and again—one more, one more, one more. That was how I lived.

Because if I died, more people would get hurt.

If I died, others would suffer.

I didn’t want that. So I kept living, one more day at a time.

There were citizens I had to protect.

There were promises I had to keep.

“Eight years ago… when I was 13. I was so focused on fighting a humanoid monster that I failed to protect my family.”

“That’s the monster’s fault, not yours—”

“Heh… I appreciate the comfort, but what happened back then was my fault.”

I closed my eyes and leaned lightly against the angel.

“I couldn't break through its defenses with ordinary power, so I recklessly increased my output and fired a spell. But what I didn’t realize… was that just because a spell is blocked, doesn’t mean it disappears.”

If you try to block a stream of water with your hands, does the water disappear?

No, it just splashes everywhere.

“I thought it would work like always. I fired the spell, and it bounced off the monster’s outer shell, scattering in every direction. And part of it… hit where my mom and dad were. The monster died, but in killing one monster, I killed far more people.”

Could ordinary humans withstand a spell that could even kill monsters?

Would anything be left of a human body that had been hit by the extreme light that turned even steel into molten metal?

Of course not.

Nothing would be left.

Just a pitch-black scorch mark and two human-shaped silhouettes burned into the ground—

The only thing left to prove my parents had ever stood there.

I killed them with my own hands.

My friends. My friends’ parents. Innocent civilians.

A tragedy brought on by ignorance and recklessness.

“That’s why I stopped using magic since that day. Whenever I tried, the memory of that day would come back, and my body would freeze.”

Even when I was covered in blood and soaked in viscera.

Even when I couldn’t scrub the stench of blood off my body, even when I smoked every day just to mask the bloody scent and push the nightmare away—

I still didn’t use magic. I never used it again.

“I just didn’t want to relive that nightmare.”

So I trained. And trained.

Coughed up blood, broke bones, tore skin.

And even when my body oozed pus and bled again, I didn’t stop.

In the end, I earned the title of the strongest.

But the name I obtained only after losing everything—

It was nothing more than an empty cry.

There was no one left to call me by my real name, Yoo Seo-ah, instead of Magical Girl Black.

“I went through so much. It was hard, but I couldn’t show it, and that made it even harder. I was in pain and suffering, and I had to carry it all alone. I tried so hard to atone, but no matter how much I tried, the weight of my sins didn’t go away… So I thought maybe I should just die.”

I thought dying would be the only way to end the pain.

“That’s when you appeared.”

An angel who called out not to Magical Girl Black, but to Yoo Seo-ah.

The only one who looked at me, not the strongest magical girl, but the small and helpless me.

“You have no idea how grateful I was. Truly.”

That’s why I don’t want to let you go.

That’s why I want you to stay by my side.

It hurts my heart just imagining you smiling next to someone else who isn't me.

Now that I’ve finally learned how to stand on my own, I have to let you go?

Now that I finally know what I want to do, you won’t be by my side anymore?

…I hate it.

I really, really don't want it.

But more than that, I want you to be happy.

I don’t want you to suffer. I don’t want you to be hurt.

So—

“Thank you.”

Before I become obsessed with you… I’ll let you go.

So you won’t be trapped by my hands, so you won’t suffer because of me.

With a smile, I held the angel close.

And for some reason, maybe moved by a confession that was hardly anything special,

The angel trembled as she covered her mouth with both hands, as if overwhelmed with emotion.

That made me even more thankful, so I hugged her just a little tighter.

***

A hundred points, a hundred points, a hundred points, a hundred points, a hundred points…!

Ten, hundred, thousand, ten hundred thousand points…!!

Squeeze…!

Her warm heart is transmitting directly.

The angel, who’s meant to give love, is now receiving love.

‘Ugh—uuuuh…! Huhuhuaaah…!’

Flash flash flash flash flash flash—!

If her halo weren’t shining like a constellation, there’d probably have been at least a few hundred flashbangs exploding outside the bathroom by now.

Honestly, if you looked at the halo now, it’s not even a star cluster anymore—it’s like a spinning mass of supernovas.

‘So precious…! SO PURE!!’

Seo-ah-yaang… at this rate… I’m ascending to heaven…!

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