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I heard the sound of dirt being moved around with a trowel for a while.

“Is this all yours to take care of?”

“… well, kinda.”

As I stood blankly beside her, having moved all the pots, Dalia answered a bit reluctantly. Her expression seemed to question why I was even watching this.

The weather was starting to turn chilly, but waiting outside in the sun wasn’t a huge problem. Plus, I had just done a bit of work, so it didn’t feel that cold to me.

I considered helping with the repotting, but I had heard that plants could get shocked and die if their environment changed suddenly. After all, I wasn’t someone who had ever taken care of anything, so I didn’t want to mess around and accidentally kill a plant I was trying to grow.

“Hey, are you really thinking of waiting until I finish this?”

“If you finish and go home, we won’t get to duel today.”

“Is that really so important?”

“It matters to me.”

“…….”

Dalia paused and looked up at me intently.

Her expression didn’t carry the same hostility as before. Instead, it looked like she was trying to understand something bizarre and incomprehensible.

“Why?”

“Huh? Why do you ask?”

“Why does it matter so much to you to duel and win against me?”

“Well, I lost, didn’t I?”

At my words, Dalia’s expression went blank.

“If I lost, I need to win at least once. It would just make me feel better.”

Beside me, Ha-yoon smiled and looked at me. Yeah. Maybe the reason Ha-yoon called me a magical girl has to do with this. It’s just how I would respond to anyone I fought against.

“……So, what if I let you win once?”

“If I’m not convinced, we’ll have to duel again. If you purposely lose, I won’t know.”

“Ha.”

Dalia laughed as if it was absurd and started moving the plant with the trowel again.

“Do you even enjoy fighting?”

Hmm. Do I?

Actually, I’m not really sure.

I used to enjoy games. Ever since I went to the orphanage, though, I’d mostly only been able to play mobile games.

I do enjoy PVP games, but liking games and liking to fight are completely different things. Even if the gameplay is about fighting, it’s almost like racing with rules set in place.

Dueling or competing might not be that different, but the fact that you’re actually hitting your opponent does make it a bit distinct.

“I don’t like fighting all that much.”

Stumbling to a conclusion, I said.

It wouldn’t matter if I won without getting hit, but you can’t win every fight like that. Sometimes, I couldn’t avoid the punches thrown by other kids either.

“But still, do you really have to fight like that?”

“I don’t like fighting, but I do like winning.”

“Dopamine addict.”

Dalia said that while shooting me a glance.

“What about you?”

“I don’t like it.”

Dalia answered my question immediately.

Hmm.

It’s a bit different from what I see in cartoons. In those, the characters swing their wands cheerfully while knocking combatants out.

“Well, if I keep fighting, I might get used to it. Honestly, I kind of have. When I win a fight, it feels good. But going out to fight? Nah, I’d prefer to avoid fighting when I can.”

Maybe it’s still too recent—just a year ago.

After all, I’m guessing most people would feel reluctant if told to make a career out of fighting.

Could that be why I didn’t get along with Seo-hee?

Seo-hee, with her aggressive personality, and I didn’t really connect, and even after getting fully adjusted to being a magical girl, we still might not have grown that close.

That just means we ended up resembling each other in the end.

“Mm.”

I took a moment to gather my thoughts.

“But your magical skills are excellent, right?”

“… huh?”

Dalia turned to look at me as I suddenly said that. Her expression was one of confusion, like she was wondering what I was up to this time.

But this is sincere. I’m not trying to pull any strange tricks.

“It’s not something anyone can just pick up by being taught. You’ve been seriously working on magic, haven’t you?”

I knew that from experience, but it was also something I had seen in the cartoons.

Dalia uses magic that’s smaller in range than Delphinium’s, but more efficient. It was a fighting style designed to quickly and effectively subdue the enemy.

In the original manga, everyone had their reasons for fighting. It depicted magical girls as having an atmosphere similar to burned-out office workers, but I thought those kids fought for their own sense of justice.

Dalia was the same. If it were otherwise, it wouldn’t be so hard to be here doing this.

“You have some parts that don’t sit well with Noir Corporation, so you’ve been fighting hard, right?”

Hope.

Magical girls fight for hope. Ha-yoon does, Seo-hee does. Naturally, Dalia and I also do.

I fight with the hope that one day I might be able to stand beside Ha-yoon. Seo-hee fights with the hope that her abilities can help others.

Dalia must have her own reasons for fighting and her own hope.

“…….”

Without giving any particular response, Dalia went back to moving the pots. Maybe she didn’t want to answer?

Well, it didn’t matter.

I stayed right there next to Dalia until she finished her task.

In the end, after finishing the work, Dalia let out a big sigh.

“Okay.”

Dalia said as she stood up again.

“Then let’s go have a duel. If you win this time, you won’t have to follow me around today, right?”

At her words, Ha-yoon’s eyebrows twitched a little, but I just shrugged. Well, to be honest, I had been following her around a lot lately.

Ha-yoon glanced at me with a bit of a glare for some reason, but I had no clue why.

Surely it wasn’t jealousy.

*

Well, you know, after getting beaten up all the time, you start to see a few patterns.

Even if I followed those patterns, the odds of me winning were still way too low.

Charging in before the incantation and slamming down on the ground? Impossible. Dalia took about three seconds to chant.

I could get close, just barely reach the distance before it hit me, but that didn’t mean I could actually get there. Before that happened, I’d get knocked around by her magic.

That leaves me only one option: dodging that magic.

Fortunately, her magic doesn’t fly at you “like a bullet.” If you were to nitpick, it flies more like a soccer ball when kicked with full force.

However, it had a little bit of homing ability, and the more time you gave the opponent to chant, the bigger it would get.

At first, she could create a power sphere that size in just three seconds. That three-second limit had a purpose. That way, I could avoid it while being able to fly in just before it hit me.

That means if I could stand still when those three seconds are up, the next incoming sphere would be smaller.

If things go well, I might be able to get hit and still endure, right?

…… There were a few misconceptions here.

First off, the idea of dodging the balls wasn’t a total misconception. The trajectory is unpredictable, making it difficult to dodge if you’re just watching, but instead, you can dodge by just thinking of it like avoiding the attack patterns of a boss mob.

Since I was going to dodge anyway, I figured I might as well launch myself diagonally forward to save some time.

So, my first tactic seemed to go okay—

“Ha.”

Dalia let out a sigh, almost as if she had anticipated it, and swung the wand without chanting.

Magic without an incantation was like a tiny iron ball. It was so small you could hardly see it and way too close to dodge.

And Dalia scattered those tiny spheres everywhere.

The buckshot from a shotgun has low penetration power. Each of those little spheres’ power is, of course, going to be lower than that of a single bullet with a larger caliber.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt when they hit you. After all, it’s a bullet.

A single tiny sphere might struggle to take someone down completely, but spreading the same amount of energy over a wider area is just a recipe for disaster.

As I flew backwards, I thought to myself, isn’t this a bit unfair?

…… Well, it’s not actually unfair. It is her magic after all. It just feels frustrating losing.

“Ugh.”

I collapsed to the floor, my back polishing the wooden surface as I slid backward.

And there I lay, sprawled out.

“Ha.”

Sighing again because I lost, I noticed someone coming into my view.

Dalia was looking down at me.

“Here.”

Dalia pointed the tip of her wand towards me.

… Is she telling me to grab it?

When I took hold of it, Dalia pulled me up from the spot.

And then—

“Tomorrow’s going to be the same too, right?”

She asked me that.

“Well, yeah?”

As I answered as if it was a matter of course, Dalia nodded.

And whether she was resigned or what, Dalia said this.

“Well, do your best.”

“…….”

Dalia turned away coolly and left, while I heard Ha-yoon running toward me.

Um… so, does that mean I have her permission?

 

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