About Becoming a Magical Girl Chapter 28

"Get inside the car quickly. Efnir told me to make sure I kept an eye on you."

"Huh? Miss Efnir, she..."

Canary spread her hands and sighed helplessly.

"Unfortunately, I can't see it clearly."

"I see..."

Yukina lowered her head.

Canary repeatedly looked the girl before her up and down.

So this was Efnir's little sister.

She looked away, toward the distant sky.

"Come to think of it, little Yukina, your full name is 'Shiomi Yukina,' right?"

"Y-Yes... Miss Canary already knew?"

"Haha, I'd heard of you... Maybe we've even chatted on social media before."

"Huh? So that's how it is... Which one were you...?"

Yukina asked in surprise.

"That, huh..."

Canary pressed a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture and gave a sly smile.

"My ID is a secret for now!"

"Um... Miss Canary, what exactly is a 'Beacon'?"

"Eek? Why do you know about that?"

Canary seemed somewhat startled, while Yukina stood there hesitantly.

"I just heard Miss Efnir mention it before."

"I see..."

Canary frowned, looking at Yukina with some hesitation.

She knew about Efnir and Yukina's "sisterly" relationship. Among the agents in Xijing City, it wasn't exactly a secret.

But everyone also knew that Efnir had no intention of revealing her identity.

Therefore, in terms of status, Yukina was still an "ordinary civilian." Agents were not supposed to disclose any information to "ordinary civilians"; that was a rule within the Orderkeepers.

"Sorry, I can't explain something like that to you either."

Canary leaned closer to Yukina and spoke softly.

"But since Efnir mentioned it to you, you should probably ask her about it. I can't just explain it to you on my own."

"I see..."

Yukina nodded and fell silent.

Change

Ever since leaving the venue, Yukina had been recalling everything that had happened after she left the shelter to search for her brother at this sports venue: the Erosion Entity attack, and meeting Efnir again.

If, back then, she had lost her judgment under the pain of losing her brother and being abandoned by Efnir, then now... she had regained her composure, and the details she had failed to notice at the time immediately came flooding back.

But no matter how Yukina thought about it, she could not understand what had happened to her then.

That strange impulse had nearly robbed her of all ability to think.

Ever since Efnir left, an inexplicable feeling had risen in her heart... as though she had lost something. For no apparent reason, Yukina thought of that hairpin.

Ever since that hairpin had appeared in her pocket, it seemed to have carried a sense of wrongness she simply could not ignore.

"Fifina"—those letters were engraved on the hairpin. Efnir had mentioned them several times. Yukina could no longer clearly remember what Efnir had told her then, but she knew it was the codename of Efnir's partner, Fifina.

And when she had faced that enormous, viscous Erosion Entity, what had that white light been? How had the Erosion Entity disappeared? What had happened to her body then? And what had that longbow appearing in her hand been?

Questions upon questions troubled her.

That Butterfly Hairpin had taken her to a mysterious place. Later, she closed her eyes and tried several more times, but she could never feel that same change again.

When Yukina followed Efnir away, she no longer saw anything like that bow either, as if it had left together with the Butterfly Hairpin.

"Come to think of it, I wonder how Efnir is doing now. She suddenly went offline and there's been no word from her since."

Canary looked toward the end of the street, her voice soft and somewhat dejected.

"Though, I really want to go inside the venue and fight alongside Efnir. As long as I can be of some help..."

Yukina stood beside her, her gaze passing Canary to rest on the venue at the end of her sight.

The thoughts in her heart grew increasingly tangled amid one hesitation after another.

Yukina silently lowered her head and looked at her palm.

"But we agents are soldiers too. I have to obey orders. Acting on my own without receiving orders would mean distrusting the commander and being irresponsible toward my comrades. No matter what, I can't do something like that. So, little Yukina, my current mission is to protect you and support this temporary defense point. We'll wait here for Efnir and Ayse's triumphant return."

Canary continued talking.

Unlike Yukina, who truly was not good at talking to people, she was quite chatty. While carrying out her lookout duty, she would occasionally bring up a topic or two.

She glanced at Yukina and suddenly smiled.

"Well, anyway, little Yukina, you don't need to worry no matter what. And Efnir definitely won't lose either. Absolutely—definitely!"

Yukina remained silent.

Of course, Efnir was strong, but no matter how powerful someone was, there were things one person could not solve alone.

If only she could help her.

But as Canary had said, going over there rashly would only cause Efnir trouble, just like when she herself had carelessly run into the venue earlier.

"Little Yukina, look at this."

Canary suddenly clenched her fist with a swish and assumed a stance.

"—Hah!"

With a sudden shout, Canary stepped forward and threw a punch. Her fist sliced through the air with a faint whoosh, and the dead leaves on the ground were swept up in an instant.

Yukina was startled by the sudden gust as well.

"That's amazing..."

Yukina came back to her senses and stared in surprise at the fallen leaves that had been blown away.

"Mm-hm!"

Canary smiled proudly and lowered her stance.

"This is the move Efnir used just now—the one where she went 'Hah!' and punched that Apostle flying. But even though it's exactly the same move, it feels completely different when different people use it. Damn, it was insanely cool! I really want to learn it too... If only I could master hand-to-hand combat to that level someday..."

"Miss Canary is already incredibly strong... It's truly power that I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

Yukina praised her enviously.

There had once been a time when Yukina had wanted to become an agent too, but she did not have the "aptitude."

"But it's still nowhere near enough! My goal is Efnir, after all. Well... though in simulated battles, I can't even touch her..."

Canary's shoulders suddenly drooped, and she looked utterly dispirited.

Yukina quietly watched Canary, a barely suppressible flutter stirring in her heart.

Whenever she heard Efnir's name, it was like a feather lightly brushing against her heart. A soft, ticklish sensation spread through her body along her veins.

Unable to endure that impulse, Yukina cautiously spoke up.

"Is Miss Efnir really that strong...?"

"Yes. If I wanted to beat her..."

Canary considered it.

"No matter how I think about it, there's no hope at all. None whatsoever... Listen, don't let her usual soft, cute appearance fool you. When she trains people, she's like a demon. Probably the kind who makes the poor trainees lose their appetite for three days!"

"Miss Efnir... is an instructor?"

"That's what you focused on!!? Damn... Well, whatever... I guess you could say that... To a certain extent, that would be accurate..."

Canary imagined what it would be like if Efnir served as an instructor and inexplicably sighed.

"Because us agents can't use ordinary combat training programs. Setting aside how unpredictable the targets we face in battle are, each of us uses different weapons too. Group training always ends up overlooking or messing something up. There aren't many of us anyway, so we simply operate completely separately from the Special Operations Agency. Aside from the necessary training courses, what we do most often is practical combat practice... Basically, it's exhausting stuff..."

Yukina only half understood.

Information related to agents was classified. Even though many people in this city had come into contact with agents, much of the information concerning them was kept strictly confidential. Very little made its way onto the internet, and ordinary people knew even less.

So when Canary talked about these things, Yukina could not join the conversation at all.

Although she wanted to know more about Efnir, this was already the limit for someone who was completely terrible at chatting.

"Is... that so..."

Yukina gave a dry smile, her eyes lowered. She pressed her lips together, suddenly remembering many things.

Differences in warmth between people created distance.

"I... really don't know Miss Efnir very well..."

She murmured softly under her breath.

They were completely from two different worlds.

"Did little Yukina say something?"

"I want to know more—more about Miss Efnir..."

"Is that so?"

Canary looked at Yukina suspiciously.

Future

If it was a topic related to Efnir, it was only natural that Yukina would be interested.

Canary nodded and did not think much of it.

"I see!... Well, fine. No problem."

Canary put on an old-fashioned air and planted her hands on her hips with great seriousness.

"Anyway, talking with you makes me feel relaxed, little Yukina. If you don't mind, I'll just keep talking. So... you know about that, right?"

Once she started talking, she immediately became chatty. Counting on her fingers, she spoke thoughtfully.

"Agents sometimes form partnerships. Efnir's partner is Fifina. Among us agents, beginners team up with an experienced senior. We hunt isolated Erosion Entities Beyond the Boundary, deal with Erosion Disasters in the city, things like that. The rest of the time, we also practice combat between agents and combat against people. It's preparation for helping deal with terrorist incidents from time to time, though of course we usually aren't assigned to that kind of mission..."

Agents occasionally took action against human criminals, but that was limited to a few situations such as street brawls or chasing robbers. If they encountered criminals carrying firearms, it was usually still handled by the police and military.

After all, agents were at a disadvantage against soldiers armed with modern weapons. Aside from their lack of experience in fighting people and humanitarian concerns, the greater issue was the threat modern weapons posed to agents—ordinary handguns could not easily injure agents, but larger-caliber weapons could still give them a hard time.

Bullets were ineffective against Erosion Entities, but they could deal one hundred percent of their damage to agents. Even with handguns, if agents did not evade at all, taking several shots would injure them. When fighting armed criminals, agents were easily surrounded due to their numerical disadvantage. That was extremely dangerous for them.

Agents were valuable combat forces for dealing with Erosion Disasters. Losing them in battles involving modern weapons would undoubtedly be a huge loss, so the Orderkeepers had strict rules in that regard and did not allow agents to casually interfere in missions outside their duties.

"Anyway, these drills are also part of training our adaptability, sustained combat ability, and control over our strength. Erosion Entities are just too unpredictable, and we have no way of knowing what kind of enemy we'll face next. It would be bad if we died because we let our guard down for even a moment..."

"People can die..."