Ch.118Chapter 19. Longing (7)

I’m truly simple-minded.

Where in the world would there be a magical girl who transforms by getting kissed by people around her?

…Well, in this kind of world, I suppose there might be one somewhere. Especially in a country that creates heroes under the name of “Magical Girls.”

I think I heard that there are magical girls in Japan. Maybe one of them transforms when kissed? Or perhaps one who transforms when her boyfriend kisses her.

They’d probably use the Hope Circuit in other countries too.

I looked at Jihye, who was smiling.

For someone who had talked about “using” me, her smile seemed genuinely sincere. The Jihye in my memories wasn’t particularly good at acting.

Thinking too deeply about it would only complicate things, so I cut off my train of thought.

“Are you going to wait here?”

“Huh?”

Jihye seemed a bit taken aback by my question.

“Shouldn’t we go after—”

“Every time I turned my head, it quickly disappeared from sight. That’s not something a normal person can do. That’s why I suspected it might be an alien.”

I stared intently at Jihye as I spoke.

“If I leave you behind, I’ll be worried.”

Thinking about it again, I’m also uncomfortable with Jihye attending a different school. Even though the police are helping, I’m unfortunately not someone who trusts law enforcement or government agencies enough to feel reassured. If things go wrong, they might take Jihye hostage.

They’ve already tried once, haven’t they?

That would be difficult for both Jihye and me.

…Maybe I should consider other options.

Besides, while police might accompany her to and from school, right now we’re just out by ourselves with no police around. There might be plainclothes officers on standby, but I can’t see them.

“So, I think it’s better if we move together first.”

“W-wait, Jieun—!?”

As I jumped up with all my might, Jihye’s words were cut off. Her voice rose into something like a scream, though it wasn’t so much loud as it was like a metallic scraping sound.

The few people around us all looked up at us.

Jihye was wearing a skirt. Not her school uniform, but a skirt that came down to just above her knees—short enough to be called short. She wore a shirt with a flowy cardigan on top.

I moved the hand that had been tightly holding her waist slightly lower. With my other hand, I wrapped around the outside of Jihye’s right leg, holding her skirt from the lower part of her thigh.

The position was a bit awkward. Rather than a princess carry, it looked more like I was kidnapping Jihye, but in this situation, a princess carry would have exposed everything under her skirt, so it couldn’t be helped.

Even if the position was a bit strange, it might look somewhat romantic to others.

Jihye pulled my neck tight, unable to look down. Seeing how she buried her face in my shoulder, she probably had her eyes tightly shut.

She didn’t seem to care at all about how we looked.

It’s a bit mischievous of me, but honestly, Jihye looking like this seemed kind of cute. Though she might get angry when we land.

“Don’t worry. I won’t drop you, I promise.”

When I whispered in her ear, Jihye made a sound like a whimpering puppy and nodded.

Well, if she just keeps her eyes closed, she won’t feel like she’s up high.

Thinking that, I lowered my gaze to look down again.

I could see people pointing smartphones at us.

Whether they’d read the article or not, the fact that I kiss girls and walk around with them is probably impossible to hide now.

I think I understand what Rose meant. Worrying too much about what others think will only tire me out.

So, yes.

I’m going to catch the alien following me.

Taking secret photos to sell to newspapers or broadcasters? Not a penny comes back to us, and I have no desire to fatten others’ wallets.

The shutter sound came from the side of where we were standing.

After going up, I couldn’t hear the shutter sound anymore, but I could still spot someone in that direction.

There was a camera pointed at me. The sunlight reflected off the camera lens, making it flash a bit in our direction.

Perhaps realizing our eyes had met through the camera, the man quickly lowered it and began to move hurriedly.

His clothing wasn’t particularly distinctive.

But the camera in his hand was just an ordinary camera. At least he hadn’t modified his body for the camera.

The fact that there was a shutter sound means the camera was just normally manufactured on Earth— well, I’ll figure that out after I catch him.

Looking at this, I can understand how he managed to stay out of my sight. His movements are nimble. From here, he appeared to have an Earth-like appearance, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

However, I had a much greater advantage than someone who had to run and dodge obstacles. I was flying through the air. And at this low altitude, there weren’t obstacles like airplanes.

“Eek!?”

…Eek?

When I started flying toward the moving alien, Jihye made that strange sound. It seems feeling the wind made her much more aware that we were flying.

Even with her eyes closed, she could still feel the air and notice that all sounds were coming from below.

She might actually scream when we go down.

Sorry, but I need her to bear with it for now.

Just holding her like this, I can feel power flowing from my body. Didn’t Jihye herself say to use whatever resources are available?

“Hic!?”

When I moved downward, Jihye made that sound again and tightly hugged my neck. As my face was pulled forward, my nose touched her hair.

It smelled nice. Well, she did spend quite a while washing up this morning.

I hope I don’t smell bad?

While worrying about something rather irrelevant in this situation, I landed in front of the stalker.

There was a somewhat loud sound. Not as loud as when magical girls fall at full force from a high place onto a car, but louder than what a person would normally make when landing.

Jihye couldn’t even scream at that sound.

“Huh!?”

When I landed, that reporter—or perhaps more accurately, stalker—made such a sound and stopped.

He immediately turned to run away, so I ran after him with all my might—

Ah, I’m still holding Jihye.

With my hands and shoulders somewhat restricted, I quickly turned my body and bumped the man’s back with my own.

With a thud, the man rolled on the ground, and his camera was thrown down. If it had been a smartphone, the camera lens might not have been damaged, but I think it might be difficult to repair that camera now.

Well, I didn’t particularly feel sorry.

“What do you think you’re doing!?”

Having rolled on the ground and realizing he couldn’t escape anymore, the man shouted at us.

“Do you know how much that camera—”

“I don’t know. About five million won?”

I cut him off as I released Jihye.

I set her down carefully so she wouldn’t fall, and tried to smooth out the parts of her clothes that had been wrinkled from my embrace. Well, short of using an iron, there wasn’t much I could do about the creases.

“Are you okay?”

“I-I was scared.”

Seeing Jihye answer so honestly, I did my best to hold back my laughter.

If I didn’t, she might really get angry. But she was gradually returning to her old personality while staying with me.

“Five million won? With the lens and everything—”

“With everything what?”

As I cut him off mid-sentence and turned around, the reporter stopped speaking with a start.

Seeing my expression, he seemed to realize I wasn’t just angry.

“Is how much it costs really that important? In this situation?”

“…What did I do wrong?”

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, why were you running away?”

When I asked incredulously, the reporter growled and said:

“It happens often that people like you come charging at cameras. They’re not cheap, so I have to protect them.”

“Really?”

I tilted my head as I spoke.

“So you’re saying there’s nothing wrong with following two minors around and taking secret photos?”

“People have the right to know, and of course they need to know what kind of being this new magical girl is.”

“So you want to say I’m a jerk who goes around kissing three girls? Or that magical girls can generate more power by kissing? I mean, neither of those things really means anything, right? Rather than serving the ‘right to know,’ you’re just looking for articles that will sell well.”

I took a step toward the reporter as I spoke.

“If that’s what you were thinking, why not use that nice camera to look for the Noir Corporation chairman instead? No one knows whether he’s experimenting on Earth people or creating Earth people. The magical girls are risking their lives fighting against such a person, while you’re just taking their pictures and selling them. Isn’t that a bit much?”

I frowned as I spoke.

“How does what I do or who I’m with help anyone? Who benefits from photos of me kissing someone? Just you and the media, right? And when an evil corporation pays to take down an article, you’ll do it, won’t you?”

The reporter seemed very angry at my words and looked like he was about to argue back.

“Besides, you.”

I approached the reporter and grabbed him by the nape of his neck.

“What are you doing! This is violence—”

“That would be true if this were your skin.”

Saying that, I ripped off the nape of his neck.

“I’m not an expert, but I’ve seen artificial skin a few times.”

The Earth human robot that James was riding also had artificial skin. From a distance, it looks almost identical to a person, and before touching it with my hand, it’s hard to tell whether it’s real or fake.

But no matter what, artificial is artificial. James said they can make something almost identical to real skin using proteins, but that’s extremely difficult to maintain.

The texture of the nape feels somewhat like rubber. Not thick, though. It would need to be thin on the surface to look more real.

So it tears easily too. It might be difficult with normal human grip strength, but it’s enough for me, a magical girl, to tear off.

As a result, I was holding what looked like torn human skin in my hand. It was somewhat gross, but not terribly so. There was no blood or anything on it.

And the exposed skin underneath was yellow.

Not the kind of “turned yellow” people talk about, but a bright yellow skin that you’d never see on a human face.

It reminds me of Pang Pang for some reason. Of course, Pang Pang has blue skin. I wonder if this person is from the same place.

“Are you from Noir Corporation? Or were you just hiding like this because it’s convenient?”

“O-of course I’m hiding like this because it’s convenient!”

The man answered my question with alarm. At least he seems to have some sense of awareness.

“Really? Then shall we go straight to the police station?”

“T-that’s…”

“I’m sorry, but you have two options. Go to the police station for investigation and deportation, or have a separate interview with me. If you’re sent by Noir Corporation, I have a lot of questions.”

“…”

“A normal reporter wouldn’t need to hide the fact that they’re an alien. You could just walk around as an alien with an alien camera and be a common tourist. But the fact that you’ve put on artificial skin means you’re in a situation where you need to appear as an Earth person, right?”

I smiled as I spoke.

“You’re an illegal resident, aren’t you? You were originally affiliated with a Noir Corporation subsidiary, but now that company is about to go out of business, so your visa hasn’t been renewed, right?”

I know almost nothing about alien visas. I’m not an alien, after all. But I do know that if it’s a visa for “work,” the company needs to be in good standing.

In this country, aliens are objects of discrimination unless they’re tourists. The fact that they came all the way to Earth to make money suggests they’re either doing something illegal or they’re in a situation where they can no longer get a job in their own society.

Even Earth people who don’t care much about what’s beyond Earth know that much.

In that sense, Pang Pang was also in a somewhat dangerous situation, but in the current situation, the government knows what would happen if they just sent Pang Pang off-planet. They probably won’t let her leave easily. Even if she would wake up again.

Anyway, the reporter seemed quite flustered at my words.

“I know because I’ve been through this with someone like you before. It’s not like there weren’t people like you before.”

I’ve been chased by a stalker when I was with Hayun.

“So, I’ll say it again. You’re not in an advantageous position at all. Who cares if your camera is broken? Don’t you think an illegal resident following minors around and taking pictures of them kissing is much more dangerous?”

“…What do you want?”

“For you to leave Earth.”

“…And if I refuse?”

“Then I’ll take you somewhere else.”

“Even if I’m an illegal resident, torture is illegal in this country.”

“Who said anything about torture? I’ll hand you over to a legal investigative agency. You’ll probably end up in prison.”

Of course, I’m not certain about that.

Just as the current chairman of Noir Corporation doesn’t treat Earth people as humans, there are quite a few Earth people who don’t treat aliens as humans either.

…Even I didn’t treat James as a person for a while.

Torture? Of course it’s illegal. In a normal situation, touching an alien civilian would be no different from an unmodernized country during the imperial era torturing a citizen of an imperial power.

But the Federation isn’t stupid.

Once they’ve discovered that Earth people are very helpful to their Federation in some way, various discussions will erupt within the “modern society” of the Federation.

The current chairman of Noir Corporation seems to have tried to go out and join hands with parts of the Federation that might need his help, but other parts of the Federation probably don’t think the same way.

“But you know, if you have any information about Noir Corporation, the Federation might find that quite interesting, don’t you think?”

“…”

Just as every country on Earth can turn a blind eye to the death of an ordinary person, the Galactic Federation, a union of nations spanning the entire galaxy, would not hesitate to commit such acts.

“As far as I know, the Federation still wants this country to join them.”

That must be certain, given the lack of any statement to the contrary. Otherwise, they would have already been hostile and treated the entire country as terrorists.

“I’m not sure what this country or the Federation would think about seeing someone affiliated with Noir Corporation, which has severely worsened the situation.”

“…”

“So—”

“Are you planning to hand him over to the police?”

Ah, things were going well, and someone else interrupts.

Turning toward the voice, I saw a large man in a black coat standing there.

Judging by his attire alone, he looked like he belonged in a noir film set in the mid-to-late 20th century. Black trench coat with a suit underneath. Even salespeople these days don’t dress that stuffily.

However, he didn’t really give off the impression of a salesperson. Rather, he seemed like someone who didn’t know how to dress appropriately for the current era.

There was only one reason I thought so.

He wasn’t an Earth person either.

But unlike this person, he wasn’t wearing artificial skin. The person in front of me had reddish-black skin.

How should I put it—he looked like a “devil” character from a live-action movie.

The two antennae on his head looked extremely out of place.

“Who are you?”

Although I was seeing him for the first time, somehow, considering his demeanor and origin, he seemed like someone related to Pang Pang.

In response to my somewhat sharp voice, the man smiled and took out a piece of paper from his pocket, handing it to me.

It was… a business card.

“…”

This person’s name was even less suitable as a name than Pang Pang’s. At least not for someone with that build and appearance.

“I serve the chairman. He judged that a contact person was needed, so I’ve come here.”

I could immediately tell that by “chairman,” he wasn’t referring to the current chairman who’s on the run.

Well, the former chairman isn’t exactly not on the run either.

“…”

I silently looked at the man.

As I narrowed my eyes and stared at him, the man bowed politely.

“I went to where you’re staying first, but you weren’t there, so I had to find you separately like this.”

I wonder how he found his way here.

The situation didn’t allow for asking each and every question.

“Are you here because of Pang Pang?”

“That could be said, yes.”

“Is Pang Pang really…?”

“She’s the chairman’s granddaughter.”

The man raised his head again and looked at me as he spoke.

“Thanks to Jeong Jieun’s resolution of the situation, the chairman has been able to move again. He first asked me to convey his gratitude. Thank you.”

This seems like it’s going to get complicated.

I turned to look at Jihye.

Jihye was just staring at the current situation with wide eyes.

…Today’s plans are completely ruined.

I thought with a long sigh.