Ch.103Chapter 17. Questions (6)

What emotion should I feel first when someone who helped me faces disadvantages because they know me?

Naturally, it would be “regret.”

Even just being helped while taking risks is already something to feel sorry about, but if they were caught up in violence because of me, it’s only normal to feel ashamed. I’m at least human enough to have those feelings.

However, I couldn’t say I was a person with an admirable character.

My next thought was, “I just want to run away.”

That’s how my emotions have been these past few months.

I’m placed on a tightrope with forces constantly pushing and pulling from both sides. As if they’re experimenting to see which way I’ll fall.

Why am I holding on? Wouldn’t it be easier to just give up? If I ran away to a place where I didn’t need to think about anything, wouldn’t all of this become irrelevant?

“…Huh.”

But I exhaled and shook my head. I slapped both my cheeks with my hands.

In the end, I was the one who stepped onto that tightrope.

If only, if only…

If I hadn’t been jealous of Hayun. If I hadn’t felt inferior and become the opposing Combatant, none of this would have happened in the first place.

I would have just lived my life as one of the faceless extras around Hayun. Without any particular ups and downs, just getting by.

I wouldn’t have needed to become famous or rise to the position of a Magical Girl. I wouldn’t have been noticed by others, but Hayun and Pang Pang could have just lived normally without any problems.

Whatever Noir Corporation did, wouldn’t the Magical Girls have resolved it anyway?

Yes, in the end, it was because of me.

All of it.

So I have to be the one to resolve it.

“J-Jieun…”

Hayun, who had been calling me Lily until just now, called my name. Her voice sounded a bit drained.

I looked down at my clothes.

Slowly, they were turning black.

The light of the circuit was gradually fading.

What drives a circuit is a person’s intense emotions.

In a good sense… well, almost never in a good sense, but I was apparently optimized for circuits because my emotions tended toward extremes in a bad way.

Both despair and hope are ultimately human emotions.

A circuit that only turns when you either despair or hope but never give up.

I’m not refusing to give up; I just can’t.

When will this situation end?

When will I be able to give up on everything and live?

“…”

No one was there to comfort me, telling me everything would be alright. Well, even if someone did offer such comfort now, I probably wouldn’t accept it properly. I’d likely respond sharply.

It’s not their fault anyway.

It seems foolish that I was feeling hope just moments ago.

I looked around the room again. It was amazing how thoroughly they had destroyed a place with so little to break.

Looking at the poster on the wall, I was again at a loss for words.

This country can’t be called peaceful. Somewhere right now, a murder might be happening, or a robbery or sexual assault.

This Earth can’t be called peaceful either. Globally speaking, there have been far more times when war was happening somewhere than times of complete peace.

They say that many problems were actually solved because aliens came.

They tried to bring peace by getting warring countries to join the Federation. Though they failed many times like others before them, they consistently maintained troops without withdrawal and genuinely treated member countries as equals, which seemed promising.

The environmental problems of this world began to improve the moment aliens arrived. Believing that humans were killing their own planet, the aliens came up with and implemented several methods to fully restore Earth’s environment.

With such “achievements,” the aliens proudly told us:

Join the Federation soon, they said. Become a proud member, they said.

“…”

Could they still say such things after seeing this?

The Federation might claim they knew nothing about it. That it was Noir Corporation’s doing.

They would probably say the same to us who witnessed them essentially playing with humans like dolls. No, perhaps they do have some minimal sense of shame. At least they haven’t shown any intention to contact us directly so far.

“James.”

I called out to the drone that had been silently flying around. James was obviously inside it.

“Were we discovered while we were here?”

“I don’t think so,” James answered immediately.

“If we had been, they would have raided this place before you ran away.”

“Then is it a coincidence? That they broke in here, turned everything into a mess, kidnapped Pang Pang, and even set traps? Did they just target Pang Pang to lure us?”

“First, I wasn’t particularly interested in your friendships. Company relationships are extremely personal matters, and while such things can be investigated, they don’t lead to significant results. Combatants have a very high turnover rate. Even if they work for several years, wages don’t increase much, so loyalty can’t be tested with just a few years.”

“But alien Combatants…”

“They might be even more desperate for money and would go somewhere more dangerous but better-paying. Besides, this Pang Pang woman was a special case. Her goal wasn’t to work for the company but simply to stay on Earth.”

“So she would have moved elsewhere if there was a better-paying job on Earth.”

“Or somewhere she could see Magical Girls more closely and safely. I didn’t investigate this when I was an executive. This is information I learned while staying with her. Anyway, my point is that working at the same company rarely creates such deep bonds. Who would risk their life and continue working just because a colleague was taken hostage?”

Now I understand why James didn’t bother using Pang Pang as a hostage to threaten me.

“They wouldn’t know she was hiding you, so naturally, it doesn’t make sense that ‘because of you,’ ‘she’ was kidnapped. If they wanted to attract attention and buy time, causing a terrorist attack would be more effective than targeting one specific person.”

“…”

I quietly stared at the destroyed turret.

“Why would they install something like this?”

“It seems unlikely they brought it with them from the beginning. A bomb could be carried in a bag, but a machine gun of this size would be difficult to conceal. Plus, there’s a drive unit underneath for automatically detecting and firing at enemies. It would have taken time to install. At the very least, it would have been difficult to set up between the explosion and our arrival.”

“So what, are you saying Pang Pang installed it? Before people came in from outside?”

Would Pang Pang have such abilities?

If James and I had been here, it might have been possible. I could have set it to run on my circuit, and James could have created something like a gun and mounted it.

But when we left this house, we cleaned up all traces of our presence. And those traces naturally included parts of that human-like robot James used to ride around in.

Even if Pang Pang had engineering skills… several months have passed, so if she wanted to prepare something, she could have, but…

“…Did she prepare knowing that being associated with me was dangerous?”

“No matter what, I can’t imagine a civilian acquiring such military weapons on their own.”

Ju-a, who had been listening, nodded at James’s words and said:

“It varies by country, but in countries like ours with gun regulations, energy-based weapons are also illegal.”

Despite saying that, Ju-a uses guns quite casually, and while not in gun form, the weapons of other Magical Girls all fall into the category of “energy-based weapons,” but let’s set that aside for now.

“I’ve heard of cases abroad where hobbyists caused problems by assembling parts at home. Did the person who was here have such a hobby?”

“No, probably not.”

Why would I call Pang Pang an Earthaboo?

There wasn’t much luggage in the room, but what was there was all Earth-related items.

From her usual conversations, I thought she was only interested in idols, movies, and Magical Girls, but there was evidence she had studied Earth quite seriously. While not at an expert level, she had several books considered classics from Earth and some general knowledge books.

I’ve heard of history enthusiasts becoming military otaku, but it’s hard to imagine Pang Pang becoming such a maniac that she’d make real guns.

If she had made one, she would have made it in the form of Earth guns. And it wouldn’t have been for such a “practical purpose.”

“Then there’s only one answer.”

“…Only one?”

“Someone provided it. For proper use. Thinking about it again, this Pang Pang woman might not have known how to use this weapon. After all, she was kidnapped, and the weapon only activated after we arrived.”

“Who on earth would do that?”

At James’s words, not only I, Ju-a, and Hayun, but even the police near the door perked up their ears.

A bit late, sirens could be heard outside as fire trucks and more police arrived.

“Probably… someone who foresaw this situation.”

“So who is it? Who would think of the relationship between Pang Pang and me that even the company couldn’t imagine and prepare in advance? From Pang Pang’s perspective?”

“…”

James fell silent.

Watching the drone move, it seemed he was concerned about the police.

“One thing is certain: this machine gun belongs to Noir Corporation. It’s not a bullet weapon but an energy weapon, and it runs on a circuit. Of course, not your circuit, but one powered by fuel imported from alien planets…”

There was definitely some liquid flowing from the destroyed machine gun turret.

Most mana comes from alien organisms. Apparently, there are cases where the remains of organisms that died containing mana have become something like petroleum.

Of course, it’s much more environmentally friendly than burning something like petroleum. It just uses existing mana. If someone had started a gasoline engine inside a house, people could have died from toxic gases.

“Can’t we tell from here who cooperated? Or…”

James’s drone turned toward me.

Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, I realized he wasn’t refusing to speak but couldn’t.

I couldn’t see James’s expression, but given how suddenly cooperative he had become, there must be something.

“What should we do?” Hayun asked with a serious expression.

That somewhat cheerful expression she had shown in front of the building was nowhere to be seen.

“We—”

“W-Wait a moment, please!”

Before I could answer, a loud voice called out to me from the entrance of the house.

Turning that way, I saw a woman in a suit catching her breath.

Without any particular evidence, I somehow felt that this person might be the “woman in a suit” Jihye had mentioned.

“Before you leave, please, listen to me first!”

“…”

I frowned.

“…Talk?”

The last conversation I had with a civil servant wasn’t particularly pleasant.

I felt even worse because they tried to use Jihye too. If this person was indeed the one Jihye mentioned, my already rock-bottom mood could sink even further underground.

But before I could express my refusal, the woman bent her waist at a 90-degree angle.

“I’m sorry!”

Seeing that action, the three of us momentarily had blank expressions.

We looked at each other, then back at the woman.

“What?”

“I apologize for what happened. It’s the police’s job to prevent such incidents…”

“…”

That’s true. It is related to public safety.

But it’s impossible for the police to prevent all potential crimes. Most cases are investigated after the fact, and criminals are caught after committing crimes. That’s how the law works. A crime isn’t a crime until it’s committed.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to fail to prevent bombs from exploding in the middle of Seoul or illegal organizations with dangerous weapons running wild.

For reference, the illegal organization I’m referring to is Noir Corporation. Strictly speaking, I’m also illegally wandering around.

“The person who was here was… important to you, right?”

James’s drone quickly turned toward me.

Seeing it staring at me, I could tell he had a lot to say but was being careful because of the police.

I don’t know how sensitive James’s idea is, but at least it’s not something the police should hear. It doesn’t seem good to force him to speak here.

“I won’t ask who that person is.”

The woman spoke as if she knew what I was going to say. She stretched both hands forward, seemingly afraid I might leave at any moment.

“We made a big mistake last time. That’s not how persuasion should be done.”

“If you can call that persuasion.”

When I answered, the woman nodded.

“Right. It was a threat. I’m sorry.”

“Are you saying that as a representative of the police or government? Or as an individual? If it’s as an individual, it’s not really necessary for me.”

The woman closed her mouth at my words.

That’s right.

A civil servant probably can’t apologize on behalf of the country. And it’s not easy to get an apology from the entire government. Apologizing isn’t easy either. Issues of justification and money are never easily resolved on a personal level.

There’s a reason for the saying about “cutting off the tail.”

“I—”

“Either apologize as I wish, or if you don’t intend to apologize, at least provide proper compensation. You didn’t really call me to apologize anyway. You have something you want and are trying to keep me here somehow.”

I don’t want money. Apologies are meaningless at this point.

I just want everything to return to its original place.

It’s a strange situation.

Things have become so tangled that it’s questionable whether even the government, with its full effort, could resolve it.

It’s strange.

Perhaps because my emotions have crossed a threshold, I was oddly calm. My mind was blank, yet my mouth kept moving.

Perhaps right now, I’m showing the most honest version of myself that I’ve ever shown.

“Of course.”

Is she just saying whatever comes to mind?

“…So why did you call me? Are you asking for cooperation again?”

“Yes, yes! That’s it initially, but please listen for a moment!”

“…”

“I understand you need certain assets right now. You’re fighting against Noir Corporation, right? We can cooperate with you.”

“Are you saying the government can protect us from the Federation?”

All the equipment I use is stolen from Noir Corporation, and all the equipment other Magical Girls use is stolen from the Federation.

In fact, there are more than enough legal grounds to arrest us. Everyone is just not arresting us for political and image reasons.

“Of course. If you want to continue activities as Magical Girls, having an official title would be much more convenient.”

“So, become ‘government-affiliated’?”

When I frowned and said that, the woman’s face turned pale.

“No, no! That’s not it! An employment relationship… no, even a business relationship would be fine!”

Why is the government trying so hard to hold onto us?

“It’s probably about energy,” Ju-a said quietly.

“Until now, the rights to circuits have been divided almost entirely between the Federation and the company. Two skilled alien technicians and six people who can use the Hope Circuit, plus one who can use unknown energy.”

“…”

And there are probably various political reasons attached to that. All sorts of dirty reasons from high-ranking officials that I can’t even imagine.

“We can cooperate with surveillance assets,” the woman said.

“Like CCTV cameras throughout Seoul…”

“Those are too easily deceived.”

Even James and I easily deceived them while moving around.

“But there’s more. Especially ‘manpower’ is not something you can easily obtain. We can also… protect your friends.”

The woman carefully said this so it wouldn’t sound like “we’ll take them hostage.”

“…”

I closed my mouth for a moment.

“We can also do our best to find out what happened here. After all, the government has a list of aliens who have officially entered this country.”

Should I keep refusing and stall for time? Or should I try to wrap this up quickly somehow?

Cooperating with the government might make it easier and faster to find Pang Pang. Though it might be meaningless if she’s already escaped to space.

Even if we find Pang Pang, the government might cling to me and hold me back.

Either way, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages for me.

But at the same time, I didn’t want to give up on Pang Pang’s life. If asked whether she’s the most precious person to me, I’d have nothing to say, but in this world… she’s my benefactor.

However—

“Let me think about it for a moment. It’s not something I can decide alone.”

That was all I could answer.

I’m not alone now.

Because I’ve become entangled in so many ways, I already have five collaborators around me. Plus two aliens.

I can’t decide everything on my own.

Thinking that, I looked at Hayun, who gave me a faint smile.

Somehow that smile seemed to suggest she would follow me whatever I did, and I didn’t know how to respond to that.