Well, fine.
Whether or not to rob the convenience store can wait—first, we need to deal with what’s right in front of us.
Luckily, today, there aren’t any other humans trying to attack us.
The company-sent “robots,” monsters, and magical girls are all tangled up together.
If anyone tried to attack us now, it’d just make things messier.
Or perhaps they’ve been ordered not to attack us directly.
Who knows?
Last time, I broadcasted footage of police shooting at me while I was helping people.
Public opinion hasn’t entirely shifted in my favor, but it has caused some division.
People still aren’t entirely convinced whether I’m a terrorist or not.
And now, with magical girls on my side, the situation’s even murkier.
To reassure people, they need to believe the situation is under their complete control.
Convincing them that we’re the threat disrupting that safety is essential to sway public opinion against us.
So, what do we do in response?
Simple.
We show, repeatedly, that they have no real control over the situation.
With the hammer’s output turned to maximum, I surged forward with all my strength.
The sound of the hammer slicing through the air was sharp, and the roar of burning air behind me was intense, even to my ears.
“RAWR!”
The white robot, annoyed by my persistent interference, swung its arm at me.
Clang!
Metal clashed against metal.
“Oh,” I murmured, slightly impressed.
The previous robots would fall apart whenever I attacked them, their parts scattering easily.
Even a strike to their fingertips or feet would cause them to crumble.
But now, it seemed they’d reinforced their armor significantly, perhaps to emphasize that these weren’t mere monsters.
Interesting.
If their armor is reinforced, doesn’t that mean they’ll need more energy to function properly?
How do they plan to control it without me interfering?
Well, I suppose with enough combat units, obtaining energy isn’t entirely impossible.
Or maybe that’s their plan—to exhaust me.
Without me, the company and the government would struggle.
Perhaps they’re hoping I’ll catch on and withdraw.
After all, they could claim credit for capturing the monster and broadcast their success.
Adjusting the hammer’s head, I targeted the monster’s arm relentlessly.
Bang! Bang!
Every time my hammer swung toward it, the robot countered, sending it flying backward.
The energy transfer seemed to work as intended, pushing the hammer away.
Unfortunately for the robot, my hammer was powered by rocket propulsion, continuously pushing it forward again.
Even when pushed back, the propulsion ensured the hammer surged forward once more.
Naturally, the recoil didn’t affect me, leaving the robot at a disadvantage the longer the fight dragged on.
“RAWR!”
Perhaps realizing this, the robot eventually stopped deflecting my attacks and retreated.
It skidded backward, anchoring its clawed feet into the ground to halt its momentum.
Some of the alloyed claws shattered completely.
At least my strikes weren’t entirely in vain.
Thud!
With no target, my hammer crashed into the ground.
No big deal.
Before it gets back up, I can just adjust the angle and—
But before I could turn my body with the hammer’s propulsion, someone—or rather, two someones—stood in my way.
It was Rose and Hayoon.
Rose, clad in gauntlets and ready in a defensive stance.
Beside her, Hayoon stood poised, her blade aimed at the enemy.
While the robot hesitated at the sight of them, I rose to my feet and readied myself.
The sound of air splitting filled my ears once more.
This time, from my left.
Perhaps the monster saw me fighting the robot and decided I was the bigger threat.
It wasn’t about alliances—just instinct.
Eliminating the stronger and more dangerous target first, then dealing with the weakened one afterward, was simply more advantageous.
Even in its impaired state, the monster could grasp that much.
But once again, before I could even turn my head—
Pababak!
A peculiar sound rang out.
It was the sound of small, solid objects striking hard and fast—many of them at once.
“Got it!”
Hearing that, I glanced to the side and saw Dahlia firing magic that resembled shotgun pellets.
Unlike before, when she shot single, large projectiles at high speed, this time, she spread smaller ones over a wide area.
It wasn’t hard to guess where the idea came from.
Clink.
The sound of machinery echoed, followed by something dropping to the ground.
A shell.
In Iris’s hands was a shorter gun than the usual rifles she carried—a shotgun, it seemed. However, it wasn’t an entirely new weapon.
It looked as though she’d sawed off the barrel of her regular rifle, giving it the appearance of a compact version.
Or maybe it really was designed to be modular.
It wouldn’t be strange, given the need to adapt to different situations.
Iris aimed at the monster, which had paused briefly, and pulled the trigger again.
The monster staggered backward, its body struck by numerous small, spherical magical projectiles embedding themselves into it.
Clink.
The bolt slid back, ejecting another shell.
Had Iris developed this technique after fighting me?
Before the monster could rise again, a thin wall sprang up around us.
The dome-shaped barrier was semi-transparent, distorting the view beyond it to the point where it was hard to discern anything clearly.
Looking back,
I saw Delphinium, eyes closed, waving her staff as if conducting an orchestra.
Her movements were smooth, almost artistic, and in her other hand, she held an open, thick book.
The monster tried to rise and charge but recoiled upon touching the barrier.
A wall that damaged enemies on contact.
Of course, it wouldn’t be highly effective against magical girls or even monsters determined to break through.
But for the monster, facing magical girls for the first time, the nature of the wall was an unknown.
There was no time to analyze or strategize.
Most monsters didn’t seem to grasp the concept of retreat, anyway.
The monster’s stance shifted.
It turned away from Iris and Dahlia, now focusing on Delphinium behind them.
Even as Dahlia and Iris fired again, the monster twisted its body, weaving in a zigzag to evade their attacks.
Unlike Rose or Hayoon, neither of them had superhuman physical abilities.
If the monster moved faster than they could track, their aiming and shooting would naturally lag behind.
Some of the smaller projectiles appeared to hit, but their reduced size seemed to lack the stopping power to significantly hinder the monster.
Delphinium, meanwhile, had weaker stamina and reflexes than the other two.
She was fully absorbed in maintaining her magic, eyes closed in concentration—a posture I never saw during my battles.
That calmness stemmed from trust in her allies.
A kind of confidence I’d never had when fighting alone.
It wasn’t a sentiment I particularly welcomed, but for now, I was part of that dynamic.
We hadn’t fully reconciled or reached any kind of agreement.
It was more like my relationship with James—a temporary alliance born of necessity, not choice.
Even so, it didn’t matter right now.
I spun my hammer.
It couldn’t be helped.
And that’s why I could fight.
I leapt forward with all my strength.
As the monster charged, I rushed forward to intercept it, swinging my hammer with all my strength before it could reach me.
I’m not one to overestimate my abilities.
If the monster could dodge the bullets fired by Iris and Dahlia, it could certainly evade the swing of my hammer.
But I’m still a magical girl.
I don’t create hopeful things like growing plants or summoning light.
What I can do, however, is summon black holes when needed.
And, of course, the dark, sticky substance that envelops my body during transformations.
Not that I intended to create a black hole now, but the tar-like material?
This was the perfect time to use it.
I swung my hammer horizontally, simultaneously cutting its power.
Focusing my mind, I tried to recall the sensation of transforming.
It wasn’t as difficult as I expected—similar to how I eventually mastered floating in midair.
Unlike Dahlia or Delphinium, who conjured magic bullets, or Hayoon, who forged blades, my magic worked differently.
From the partially open back end of my hammer—normally used for propulsion—dark material gushed out.
It was as if the leftover energy from the generator had transformed into a tangible, sticky substance.
“Eek!?”
Dahlia shrieked at the sight of the tar-like substance, while Iris quickly ascended into the air.
Positioning Delphinium behind me, I spread the sticky material in front of us.
The charging monster stepped onto it.
“!?”
Squish.
At first, the monster didn’t stop. Its momentum allowed it to tear through the sticky black mass with its steps.
But the more it moved, the more energy it lost to the tar, and the slower it became.
Each step sank deeper, and the substance clung tighter.
Squish, squish.
Eventually, the monster’s feet stuck to the point where it could no longer move freely.
It only needed to trip once—that was enough.
The black magic enveloped its legs, thighs, stomach, and shoulders.
Click.
I closed the back of my hammer and approached the fallen monster, hammer in hand.
“……!?”
The monster raised its broad, grotesque face to look at me.
Its appearance was hideous, but I couldn’t help feeling a tinge of pity.
This wasn’t its choice.
The magic couldn’t hold me back—it was the same material that coated my body during transformations.
I didn’t know how much it affected me, but at the very least, my clothes were entirely composed of it.
Raising my hammer, I struck the monster’s head with the butt of the handle.
I controlled my strength—killing it wasn’t the goal.
The monster collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
It felt anticlimactic. If I’d fought it alone, it would’ve been a much harder battle.
But with allies to steer the monster’s direction, it became simple.
“RAWR!”
A monster resembling the robot roared in the distance.
Rose and Hayoon were holding their own against it.
Slice.
Hayoon’s magic was powerful.
The monster’s armor seemed coated with something to resist magic, but it wasn’t impenetrable.
If anything, her strikes were more effective pound-for-pound than my hammer.
Rose, wielding her gauntlets charged with magic, was also landing solid blows.
Still, it wasn’t enough to bring the monster down immediately.
I glanced at Delphinium, who was still maintaining the dome-like barrier.
“Could you drop the spell?” I asked.
“Huh?”
Startled, Delphinium opened her eyes, looking a bit flustered—not from the request itself, but from the fact that I had addressed her directly.
“We’ve captured the fast-moving one. It’d be more effective to focus on bombarding that one now.”
“Oh… alright.”
She’d fought monsters far more frequently than I had, so my advice was likely unnecessary.
But I had another motive for speaking up.
Iris reattached the barrel to her rifle—it was indeed modular.
Dahlia began casting toward the robot-like monster, her staff pointed and her lips moving silently.
The barrier gradually dissolved, revealing the battlefield.
I approached the robot-like monster, hammer in hand.
Its armor was cracked and broken in several places, though not enough to reveal who or what was inside.
Still, the exposed internal structure intrigued me.
“James,” I called out.
“Yes, what is it?”
His calm, peaceful voice carried down as he hovered in the air, doing nothing.
It annoyed me.
“Can you identify the control mechanisms on that armor?”
“Control mechanisms, you say?”
“Something like joints that could be restrained to immobilize it.”
“Ah, I see.”
From my words alone, James seemed to understand what I was planning.
I turned to Delphinium.
“Can you recreate that wall, but make it much thicker this time?”
“It’s possible, but… I won’t be able to block the entire area like before.”
“That’s fine.”
As long as it could cover critical areas in an emergency, it would suffice.
“Prepare to cast it again if civilians are in danger. Put it up immediately if the situation gets risky.”
“What?”
Without waiting for her reply, I rose into the air and activated my propulsion system.
“There appear to be joint mechanisms on the sides of its arms and legs. Hmm, perhaps that explains its slightly unnatural movements. It’s likely restricted by the paired joints on both sides, which limit its range of motion.”
“What about its spine?”
“The mechanisms are more concentrated around its sides than its back. Judging by the visible portions, it seems to be corset-like in design—though not tight enough to constrict its body.”
“So its waist is stiffened.”
“Precisely. There also appear to be mechanisms near its neck, but thanks to Iris’s attacks, that area is already heavily damaged. If you intend to proceed ‘as you’re thinking,’ you probably don’t need to worry about it too much.”
“Good.”
“What are you planning to do?” Iris asked.
As always, she hovered in the air, watching. It wasn’t surprising that she’d fly up to speak to me.
“You’re not thinking of setting that thing loose, are you?”
“Just letting them know that we could,” I replied.
Of course, I had no intention of committing mass slaughter. If I’d wanted that, I would’ve done it already.
“And if things get genuinely dangerous—”
“If things don’t get dangerous, do you think they’ll listen to us? It’s not like we’re asking for millions of dollars; we just asked for some basic supplies, and they didn’t even respond.”
I looked at Iris.
“They probably think that if we’re desperate and starving, we’ll surrender. That’s the logic they’re working with.”
But I didn’t want to.
Even if there was no guaranteed victory at the end, even if it all ended with me being captured, tried, and spending my life rotting in a prison labeled a terrorist—or worse, being subjected to some horrific experiment—I couldn’t accept it.
Giving up because of such despair only infuriated me further.
If the outcome was the same whether I surrendered or fought back, wouldn’t it be better to take as many of them down as possible?
Negotiation wasn’t just about pressure; it was also about showing the other side how advantageous cooperation could be.
The government’s refusal to change its stance wasn’t surprising.
They couldn’t afford to exonerate me.
If I were proven innocent, they’d be exposed as either complicit with those framing me as a terrorist or so incompetent that they tried to hand me over to external forces.
And if I stopped now, I’d only dig deeper, uncovering everything they’d done behind the scenes, exposing their plans for me.
From the start, this wasn’t a negotiation—it was a fight to win or lose decisively.
“Maybe I should smash the president’s head next,” I muttered.
“What!?” Iris exclaimed in shock, but I ignored her and leapt toward the monster that Hayoon and Rose were fighting.
Crash!
My strike landed on the monster’s shoulder as it blocked their attacks.
“RAWR!” it bellowed like a bear.
The shoulder absorbed some of the impact, but my hammer slid down its arm, scraping forcefully.
For a moment, the hammer caught on something at its shoulder and then its elbow, accompanied by the sound of cracking.
Just as James had predicted.
Bang!
My hammer hit the ground.
Freed from one arm’s restraint, the monster swung its claw at me with startling ease.
I barely rolled away in time to avoid it.
Hmm.
Maybe it’s better to keep at least one leg or arm restrained.
I paused briefly, considering whether I should revise my plan.
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