Chapter 57: An attack on Venus is considered an attack on me. (Revised)

‘It wasn’t just a complete coincidence that we ran into each other.’

When I got home and looked it up, I found out that Victory’s pro team, Ascend, had its headquarters in Gangnam.

His team’s residence was inside the headquarters.

That meant our daily routes overlapped quite a bit.

‘Staying inside was definitely the right choice. The world outside the blanket is dangerous!’

This reaffirmed my long-held belief.

It turned out that running into him wasn’t some astronomical chance.

It was the premiere day of Magical Girls Chronicle’s theatrical release.

No true otaku would miss such an event.

He had simply gone to the theater near his team’s dorm.

And I? I had watched it four times in a row since dawn.

At that point, it was inevitable that we’d cross paths.

‘A little editing of the story, and he’ll never suspect a thing.’

Of course, not talking about my daily life on stream was the best way to keep my personal information and face hidden.

But telling an otaku not to resonate with something is like telling a human not to breathe.

Otaku die if they don’t share their passions.

How could I not talk about watching Magical Girls Chronicle’s movie premiere!?

“Venus is a goddess! And I pulled her photo card on my first try!”

The fact that I had watched it four times in a day, pulled Nox three times in a row for my photo card, argued with the staff about whether they had shuffled them properly, swapped my Venus card with Victory, and ended up sitting in the same row as him at the theater—

All of those interesting anecdotes had to be sealed away.

It was frustrating that I couldn’t prove my overwhelming devotion.

But I was still happy.

Why?

Because the movie was absolutely amazing!

A small lie to protect my identity—please understand.

<Victory spotted ᄃᄃ>

<I pulled Venus, is that good?>

<Venus is a goddess.>

<Did you know? In Greece, Aphrodite had the nickname ‘Lustful Aphrodite.’>

<LTITE>

<That’s too lewd.>

<That was definitely useful information, thank you.>

<Slut!>

<Yeah, Vi/nus>

“Any trolls spoiling the movie will be permanently banned. This is your final warning.”

I handed out a 30-minute timeout as a form of extended reflection.

The nickname Vi/nus was a reference to Venus losing her upper body to the monster Nox, leaving only her lower half.

A massive spoiler in itself.

I displayed a giant warning on the center of the screen: “SPOILERS = PERMA BAN.”

<A spoiler for a 10-year-old dead series, seriously?>

<Who doesn’t know that?>

<Damn, now I can’t watch it anymore since I got spoiled.>

“Shut up.”

<A nnnnv>

<Get down!>

<Wow, I’ve never seen the streamer this mad before.>

<That just proves how much she cares.>

<Why does she care so much about a dead anime?>

<How old is this person?>

<If she watched it as a kid, she’s probably just about an adult now ᄏᄏ>

<Your ‘anime of a lifetime’ is always the one you watch as a teenager.>

[ᄋᄋ has donated 1,000 won.]

“What do you like so much about Venus? Her big heart?”

“It’s not because she’s big. I liked her first, and then I realized she was big.”

<What is she saying?>

<ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ>

<Don’t girls usually hate big-breasted characters?>

<Venus is pretty!>

<She’s the goddess of beauty.>

Why do I like Venus?

It’s a little hard to explain on stream.

It’s complicated.

But if I had to put it into one sentence—

“Maybe because she reminds me of myself?”

<?>

<Legend, didn’t you say you were ugly?>

<Wait, is she finally admitting she’s a pretty girl?>

<Stop lying, we know you’re a tiny gremlin.>

<The goddess of beauty, Legendary Legend ᄃᄃ>

“I don’t mean physically. No, actually, not even ‘reminds me of’—it’s more like someone I want to be like? Someone I admire? Someone I look up to?”

<Ohhh, you want to grow bigger?>

<She wants to be big and bouncy! ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ>

<ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄀ>

<She’s the most fun when talking about anime. Let’s just do this all the time.>

<A woman suspiciously devoted to otaku culture.>

<Your pronunciation is so good. Did you practice to be a voice actress?>

<A former voice acting aspirant turned VTuber? She’s on the perfect career path.>

<Wait, does a jellyfish model even count as a VTuber?>

<She has motion capture and a virtual avatar. If that’s not a VTuber, what is?>

I wasn’t saying I wanted to look like her.

Ugh, forget it. No point explaining.

I just like Venus.

My older sister was always a stranger to me.

I barely saw her since I was always in the hospital.

Though, back then, I was still considered her older brother.

Since I was a child, I had severe health issues and barely survived multiple times.

I even thought to myself that it would be better to just die than to live in constant pain.

But life wasn’t so easily severed.

Even when I felt like I was on the brink of death, I somehow managed to keep hanging on.

If that was the case, why couldn’t I just be completely cured?

The world was so unfair.

My father and mother were always by my side whenever they weren’t working.

It was like playing Red Light, Green Light—if no one was watching me, they seemed to believe I would suddenly disappear, that my life would just end.

One day, a thought crossed my mind:

If my mom and dad are always here, then who is my older brother living with?

Curious, I asked my mother, and she told me that he was strong, that he would be fine on his own.

I didn’t believe that.

Dad was weak, Mom was weak, I was weak—this world was filled with nothing but weak people.

Anyone who spent time in a hospital could understand that.

I had seen it so many times that I was sick of it.

People in pain, people breaking down, people dying.

Everywhere, only fragile human beings.

I learned that lesson every single day.

Even though my mom and dad were always with me, I still felt lonely.

I was struggling.

There was no way someone alone could be okay.

No way at all.

So, I could tell that my mother was lying to me.

But I didn’t feel any guilt about monopolizing our parents’ attention.

I didn’t want to be sick.

I didn’t want to live in a hospital.

I didn’t even want to be alive.

None of this was my choice.

I barely even felt like I had a family.

It wasn’t just that we never did anything together—we barely ever talked.

Was it fate, then, that both of us turned into girls at nearly the same time?

Or was it just because we were siblings?

I had no trouble adjusting.

My body had always been drenched in illness and medication. Change and loss were things I was far too familiar with.

I had no friends since I lived in the hospital.

I never experienced what it meant to play a “male role” in society.

My body was already small to begin with, so the transformation didn’t feel like much of a difference.

Even though I’ve grown quite a lot now, my growth happened slowly, every single day, bit by bit.

When I had just changed, I was only slightly taller than my sister is now.

But she had a much harder time adjusting.

The school she had been attending, the relationships she had built—she had to cut them all away.

The role she was expected to play in society had completely changed.

The constant stares of desire she couldn’t escape.

Her beauty became overwhelming, her clumsy behavior made her a target for other women’s resentment.

She lost the ability to do things that were once natural to her, and she was thrown into situations she had never even imagined.

And then, the shooting happened.

Luckily, no one died.

But the gunshots, the smell of gunpowder, the blood spraying before her eyes, the smile of the perpetrator—

That was the final blow.

She shut herself away in her room.

See, Mom?

There’s no such thing as truly strong people.

All humans are weak.

I felt sorry for her.

But that was all.

The sympathy ended there.

Because, even then, she didn’t feel like family to me.

She was just another person.

Of course—wasn’t the world divided into yourself and others?

What did family even mean?

No one can fully understand another person.

No one can take on their pain for them.

So, she was just another person.

My sister, locked in her room, kept watching the same anime over and over again.

I didn’t feel particularly attached to her, but since we lived under the same roof, I was a little curious.

What was she watching so intently?

Curious, I decided to look it up and watch it myself.

And then—

I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a bitter chuckle.

What a pathetic person.

Magical Girl Venus. Amachi Ai was the older sister of Amachi Tsukuyo.

Tsukuyo was always sick, always in the hospital.

Their mother only paid attention to Tsukuyo.

It was such a familiar story.

I had to hold back laughter—it was almost comedic.

Ai was lured in by the promise that wishes could come true.

She became Magical Girl Venus and fought against monsters.

By defeating them, she could gather enough energy to have her wish granted—to finally receive her mother’s love.

But as the story progressed, her younger sister, Amachi Tsukuyo, also became a magical girl—Saturn.

Tsukuyo’s wish was simple: to be healthy.

After becoming a magical girl and finally experiencing the health she had always longed for, she became addicted to fighting.

She disregarded her timid sister.

But when Tsukuyo was truly on the brink of death—

It was her older sister who saved her.

Just as the audience was about to be touched by this unexpected display of familial love—Ai was killed off.

Her shocking final scene: her upper body devoured by a monster, only her lower half remaining.

What had my sister been thinking as she kept replaying that story over and over?

I wasn’t sure.

Maybe I could understand a little, or maybe not at all.

But if she had hated Venus, if she had disagreed with her choices—

She wouldn’t have become such a passionate fan.

So, my sister must have liked Venus.

And since my sister liked Venus—

How could I not like her too?

It was just too heartbreaking.

Too endearing.

I couldn’t help but want to cherish her.

My poor, poor sister.

Author’s Note

(Edit): Adjusted descriptions significantly as they seemed to be read differently than intended.

• Seol-yoon laughing at Seol-ah: She wasn’t looking down on her; she was feeling sympathy. Also, yes, she does have an edgy, nihilistic middle-schooler mindset.
• The shooting: No casualties.
• Timeline:
  • Seol-yoon (formerly Seol-young) was hospitalized from birth.
  • Seol-ah (formerly Seol-hoon) got into Magical Girls Chronicle and Magical Fight during middle and high school—she already identified with Venus at that time.
  • Both siblings experienced TS (Seol-ah at 19, Seol-yoon at 16).
  • Due to their father’s decision, their identities were erased, and they moved to the U.S.
  • Seol-ah’s life became a mess, leading to the shooting incident.
  • She became a shut-in and spent her days rewatching anime.
  • Three years later, they returned to Korea. Seol-ah moved out on her own.
  • The story begins.

Translator’s Note:

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