---

I’m not sure if it’s a bit strange for me to say this, but honestly, I feel like I kind of understand Seo-hee’s feelings now.

In my past life, I wasn’t really into exercise, but to win, I started running and throwing punches, and I realized just how refreshing moving like that can be.

I’m out of breath, everything hurts, and my body is creaking.

But more than that, satisfaction surges when everything is over. The struggle meant I gave it my all.

According to Seo-hee, stepping is pretty important in boxing.

Of course, as someone who’s just starting to learn, I can’t perfectly follow those steps, and mixing the paint feels awkward, but it’s better than nothing. After all, my body is getting a magical boost.

Ha-yoon told me that Dalia is right-handed.

A wand is a tool for casting magic, so it seems like you wouldn’t need to aim, but she said it’s good to point the tip of the wand at the target to help focus your mind. Like counting something while pointing with your finger.

So, I jumped hard to the left of Dalia. Just to slow her rotation toward me even a little.

Under normal circumstances, that probably wouldn’t have been very effective.

There’s no reason for a trained person to turn slowly, right?

But on the flip side, I can at least increase my speed a little. That’s how I learned to use magic in my own way.

Plus, I’ve already picked up on the patterns of Dalia casting magic on me.

The closer I got, the smaller and more delicate they became. Maybe the issue lies with the magic itself being ‘scattered over a wide area.’ I need to get it into my line of sight and focus, but that’s not easy against a quickly moving opponent.

“…Kuh!”

A small magic pellet made of shotgun shell grazed my shoulder. But that was a part of it. It stung a bit, but at least I didn’t fall this time.

I spun further behind Dalia.

“Ah…!?”

Dalia attempted to turn around in a hurry, but completely reversing a 90-degree turn is a different matter. Besides, when a person panics, they can make irrational decisions for their next move.

If she’d turned more than 180 degrees, it might’ve been better to pivot the other way. That’s closer. Or maybe just turn her head and wand.

However, for some reason, keeping me in her sight seems to spur Dalia’s eyes to keep following me. As that movement continued, Dalia naturally began to twist her body in that direction, almost as if drawn by inertia.

It was my chance.

I had never launched a magic attack before. The most I’ve done is layer magic on my fist for a punch. But now I was racing alongside Dalia, making that tricky.

Hmm.

Should I grab it for now?

I’ve never done judo—

I grabbed Dalia’s arm, and though she screamed, I ignored it and hooked my other foot behind her ankle. Then, with all my might, I yanked her down to the floor.

Sure, I haven’t practiced judo, but I did wrestle a bit at school sports day.

It feels like a long time ago to call it a memory, but anyway, bringing that back resulted in tossing Dalia down.

Thud.

Dalia hit the floor hard.

Ah.

I felt a bit guilty. Seo-hee tended to hit me directly, so I didn’t feel too bad about hitting her.

But then again, thinking about it, wasn’t Dalia practically shooting magic pellets at me? So I really didn’t feel that bad.

“Haah.”

I let out a long breath.

Dalia made a pretty big noise when she fell and briefly made an expression of immense pain, but then she seemed to ponder what just happened, blinking for a moment.

After a long moment of thought, Dalia opened her mouth.

“Looks like I lost today.”

I reached out a hand to Dalia as she said that. With a deep sigh, she took my hand and got up.

“You’re really something.”

“I put my whole heart into it.”

For some reason, Dalia turned a bit red at my words.

I smiled with satisfaction and turned around, only to meet the gaze of Ha-yoon, puffing out her cheeks for some reason.

Uh…

Why was she mad?

But before I could say anything, Ha-yoon came by my side and linked her arm with mine.

“Are you hurt?”

“Um… it’s not that bad—”

“Come on, let’s hurry and apply some ointment.”

I thought it didn’t seem like a big deal.

But Ha-yoon had a strange insistence about her, so I ended up being led to the treatment room.

When I looked back, Dalia was observing us intently with her chin resting on her hand.

Her mouth was smiling.

It felt like tomorrow, instead of me, Dalia would be asking me for a sparring match.

Well, if that’s the case, I’d gladly accept.

It’s just a matter of winning multiple times.

*

“Lately, you seem happy.”

Once we were alone in the hallway, Ha-yoon said that.

“Yeah, well, you could say that?”

Having a solid goal in life, along with a path to achieve it, how could I not be happy?

Moreover, it’s nice that I can be here with Ha-yoon without being interrupted by anyone. If we were at school, there would always be people trying to interrupt us.

They even do silly things trying to tease us. Of course, Ha-yoon doesn’t believe anything they say about me. After all, she knows that we’re always together, so it’s impossible not to realize I don’t have many friends at school.

It’s strangely odd that when I said I was happy, Ha-yoon pouted. She seems upset for some reason.

“Why?”

“It’s nothing. Just forget it.”

…

What the heck?

Isn’t that what girls typically say when they’re upset?

But Ha-yoon isn’t even my girlfriend, so why is she saying things like that? Ah, of course Ha-yoon is nice. Pretty, kind, and a childhood friend.

But why then…?

Could it be she feels this way since I’ve been hanging around with other people recently?

I hope that’s not the case.

As I thought about it and smiled, Ha-yoon narrowed her eyes.

Ha-yoon started poking me in the side.

“Ow, hey!? Ha-yoon, wait!?”

I shouted like that and quickened my pace to run away. Naturally, Ha-yoon started chasing after me, as if it was expected, and attacked.

In the end, we ended up sprinting for a while until we got caught by Cherry, and we got scolded.

*

Thus, I became friends with these two other magical girls.

I’m not someone born a social butterfly. I wouldn’t even consider befriending someone completely opposite from me. I didn’t get close to bullies in the last life, and this life, I hardly formed friendships with the kids at the same school.

But what’s the use of making so many friends, anyway?

The number of friends isn’t really that important. I mean, it wouldn’t be bad to have a lot, but even having one really close friend means at least you have someone to share a meal with.

In that sense, I never intended to become close with every magical girl. I thought I’d keep some minimum level of amicability.

Not by choice. Just… I don’t know, for some reason, magical girls seem to get weirdly happy when I challenge them to fight.

Even Seo-hee, with whom I don’t have such a good relationship, and Yeon-woo began talking to me a little more.

…

But, isn’t this supposed to be Ha-yoon’s role?

I figured it wouldn’t matter. If Ha-yoon was on bad terms with other girls, that would be a different story, but I didn’t think she was much different from them.

However, given the current circumstances, there’s one girl I’m a bit concerned about.

That would be Delphinium.

Even when we were in the lounge talking and joking, Delphinium sat a little distance away, quietly reading a book.

It seemed like she was training in her own way, but it didn’t look like she had much in common with us.

Seo-hee and Yeon-woo never cared much about each other, so they probably didn’t think much about leaving Delphinium alone, but somehow it left a bad taste in my mouth, as if only Delphinium was excluded.

“Hmm.”

“Hmm? Why?”

“Um, it’s nothing.”

I’m typically not one to be an ‘insider.’ In other words, I’m not the type to go out of my way to talk to someone sitting alone in a corner of the classroom.

But somehow, looking at Delphinium reminded me of when I first met Ha-yoon.

Delphinium has a different vibe. While Ha-yoon was feeling down, Delphinium seemed confidently alone.

…But still.

“…”

Ha-yoon was watching me intently as I looked at Delphinium.

Why?

For some reason, recently Ha-yoon’s gaze feels a bit intrusive.

 

---