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Let’s talk a bit more about fighting. Honestly, when I first heard that, I thought there was someone else training besides me.

But what Rose said didn’t seem to mean that.

“Everyone uses magic differently.”

As usual, she looked at me sprawled on the floor and said.

Iris hasn’t joined as a Magical Girl yet, but she blatantly uses a gun. Moreover, that gun wasn’t something she thought of as a precious item like other Magical Girls did; it was a tool she self-researched to project magic as efficiently as possible.

Dalia and Delphinium also use ranged magic the same way.

Dalia still seemed to fight with her Wand, but Delphinium literally fights by casting magic for a long time from a distance before projecting it.

So, there’s really no reason to fight Rose in hand-to-hand combat.

“…”

Wait a minute.

I frowned and sat up.

“Then isn’t there really any need for me to learn this?”

Rose stared at me blankly at my words.

“Huh?”

“I don’t even have a Wand yet. I have no idea how I’m going to fight. So, is there really a reason for me to do this training from now on?”

“…”

Rose’s eyes blinked.

It wasn’t that she was deceiving me, but rather that she seemed to not have expected I would say something like that suddenly.

“Uh… You don’t want to?”

Rose asked.

No, I naturally thought this was training everyone had to go through.

Also, wasn’t there a lot more Magical Girl candidates apart from Ha-yoon and me? I thought everyone had dropped out from Rose’s training.

“Of course—”

I was going to say I didn’t want to.

But when I saw Rose’s expression, I stopped.

Rose is one of the more confident ones among the Magical Girls. Of course. Before Ha-yoon became a real Magical Girl, Rose was the leader.

That relationship didn’t quite run smoothly. They fought almost every day until Ha-yoon came, and even after she joined, there was a subtle tension between them.

Ha-yoon doesn’t have a charismatic style that commands everyone; she’s just comfortably fitting in without sharp edges and somehow became the center of everyone. At least, that’s how it was in the comics.

Maybe it was because of Rose’s personality that it was like this? Anyone would be in a bad mood after getting thoroughly beaten.

Though my skills had been gradually improving, it still came to the point where I was able to occasionally spar with Rose.

“… I want to ask something, but have you trained like this with Ha-yoon?”

“Ah, we have.”

Rose answered.

“But her weapon is a Knife.”

“…”

Um, well…

I didn’t know what to respond to that, so I sat there for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.

“… Alright. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

“Really!?”

At my words, Rose broke into a big smile.

No, how could I possibly refuse when she was looking like a beaten puppy just a moment ago?

And I also understood that she wasn’t just being malicious about the training.

Rose genuinely enjoyed seeing my skills improve. And I could feel my own growth, too. Though Ha-yoon seemed to be a bit hurt about it, well.

… Wasn’t the fact that a non-protagonist ended up being a Magical Girl candidate itself enough reason?

One of the reasons I wanted to beat Ha-yoon was also because I wanted to be in the same position as her. Of course, I had to give my best.

Rose reached out her hand to me.

I looked at the hand for a moment before taking it. My exhausted body was lifted up.

I stood facing Rose, our eyes meeting.

… Seeing that expression, maybe she isn’t such a bad person after all.

Well, she is a Magical Girl.

*

Thus, my training continued for several weeks.

“Hah!”

Today, I fought while sweating profusely and ran so hard that my legs trembled.

With all my strength, I threw my last punch—

Wham!

Rose blocked it, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Feeling a pinch in her arm, Rose eased her guard and smiled at me.

I collapsed back onto the floor haphazardly again.

“Ah, I can’t take this anymore today. I surrender, surrender.”

As I raised my hand and waved it, Rose burst into laughter and casually sat down next to me.

My fighting skills were improving, but what was most important was that my ability to handle magic was rapidly increasing through such real-like fights.

At first, I struggled to understand it, but now it was becoming quite natural for me. I still didn’t know the finer points of how it worked, but it was like learning to ride a bike without training wheels; once I started, I wouldn’t fall over easily after that.

“You did well. You were able to land some hits on me after all.”

“Did well? What’s so great about that? I was blocked.”

“Even if blocked, it still hurts when hit. My arm can feel things, you know?”

“Do you really laugh when it hurts?”

I looked up at Rose with disbelief, and Rose shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, it’s not about the pain.”

“… What? If pain isn’t important, is winning and losing important?”

“I don’t think that’s very important either. Sure, it feels good to win, but you’re still not officially a Magical Girl.”

Saying that only pricked my pride unnecessarily.

“So why are you trying so hard then?”

“Um, well…”

Rose let out a small breath and glanced at the training facility.

“Why am I trying so hard? Honestly, I’m not sure, you know.”

“… You don’t know?”

“You know I wear a gauntlet, right?”

“I do. I doubt there’s anyone in our country who wouldn’t know.”

Magical Girls are so famous. They defeat enemies and fight for justice; they seem like beings right out of a fairytale.

Well, it’s not that people don’t doubt it. After all, they were affiliated with the Federation, related to the government. In fact, their opponent is a giant Company located in this country.

It wouldn’t have been strange if someone said, “Isn’t that illegal?”

“The gauntlet is made of magic. It echoes the image I have deep in my mind.”

That’s right.

Unless it’s a special case, Wands are originally like that. A precious item deep in one’s mind or a concept.

“What do you think I did?”

“… Umm.”

I thought for a moment and then answered.

“Did martial arts?”

“Well, I thought you might think that. You’re right. I practiced boxing.”

That’s… a bit surprising. She only has a year difference with me.

Though it’s not impossible to do martial arts at that age, famous athletes have all worked hard since childhood to become what they are.

“I wasn’t a professional athlete. That said, I wasn’t at the mere hobby level either, but I enjoyed it back then. Isn’t there something refreshing about it? You don’t have to worry about anything. You just think about how to hit your opponent as effectively as possible and how to dodge the punches they throw.”

“…”

“It felt honest in a way. That’s how I felt.”

Rose briefly fell into thought and then shrugged again.

“I’m not sure why I’m sharing this story with you, someone I just met, but you know, my parents didn’t like it. They had their own ‘decent’ line of work. Something related to the Federation.”

That sounds plausible.

It would be fine if it was just a hobby, but if she proclaimed she wanted to be a professional, they would oppose her.

Though it wouldn’t be unimaginable if her parents pushed her toward something either.

“So, well. In some way, I compromised to come this way, but honestly, I wasn’t that satisfied. A match and a fight are a bit different, right?”

Earlier, Rose said she liked it because it felt good to be honest with each other.

But a fight with a Combatant isn’t like that. There’s no such thing as a fair confrontation. It’s all about winning over each other at any cost.

“… Wait a minute.”

As the atmosphere was somehow becoming melancholic, a peculiar point suddenly popped into my mind, and I said:

“Is the gauntlet, I mean, is that a projection of your dream?”

“Isn’t it?”

“No, isn’t it more like boxing gloves?”

“Well, in a real fight, it’s difficult to land blows with gloves, you know?”

Still, isn’t that a bit extreme?

… Then again, Ha-yoon pulled out a beam sword made of magic from a bouquet of flowers. Maybe a gauntlet could be considered a weapon that wouldn’t threaten life.

“… No, still too extreme.”

No matter what, shouldn’t a gauntlet be at least compared to knuckles? It should be much stronger than knuckles.

“Well, don’t think too seriously about it. We still don’t quite understand how our magic works.”

“…”

I found it hard to refute Rose’s statement.

It’s true; it’s already out of the laws of physics. Well, scientists are still debating whether it’s really out of it or not.

“Still, thanks to you, I’ve been having quite a bit of fun lately.”

Rose said sincerely.

“I hope you stay as a Magical Girl for a long time.”

“… I’m not really going to stick around just to get beaten up like this, you know?”

Hearing my grumbling, Rose laughed heartily.

 

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