Ch.129Chapter 21. What a Magical Girl Must Do (5)

The cause of aliens visiting Earth turning into kaijin remains unknown.

We only know that human emotions play some role in it.

It can’t be due to pure mana. Humans can’t use mana themselves, while aliens naturally use it.

Even people who can’t use magic themselves regularly use equipment that amplifies mana. The warp points installed throughout Earth and the spaceships aliens use to visit us all incorporate magical technology.

If alien kaijin appeared because of mana, it should have become a social problem long ago.

The fingers that emerged from the cracking white sphere were red and long.

But rather than being purely disgusting, they seemed somehow… unrealistic. They looked less like biological fingers and more like artificial ones made to resemble them.

A sound like eggshells cracking echoed, and I could see something pitch-black inside.

Only then did I understand why what we were looking at was called a “white sphere.”

Only the exterior was luminous. Unlike the black hole I had summoned, this creation was perfectly wrapped in white light on the outside.

Since I don’t know much about magic, I don’t understand why it’s like this. I’m not sure which is more powerful either.

However, I could tell that the entity over there was terrifyingly dangerous.

The red fingers against the white light were so vivid. The black cracks spreading across the white light were equally distinct.

“Everyone, stay alert!” I heard Rose shout.

We all straightened our postures. Though our feet weren’t touching the ground, there was still air inside, so we weren’t completely fixed in place, unable to move.

If we couldn’t fly through spaces like this with magic, we wouldn’t have been able to build spaceships that drift through space either.

I adjusted my body position and gripped my hammer.

The hammer was still outputting energy, but my body remained fixed in place, ignoring that output. Perhaps the energy from the hammer’s generator was helping me maintain my position.

Should I strike now?

I considered smashing the protruding fingers with my hammer. Wouldn’t it be best to attack now, before it fully emerges? Aren’t insects at their weakest right after emerging from their cocoons?

And I wasn’t the only one with this thought.

The first attack came as a purple beam. Ju-a fired her beam with all her might into the crack, but unfortunately, it didn’t have much effect.

No, rather…

“…The light…!”

It’s absorbing the light.

Just like when I created a black hole.

Just as when I created an impossibly large black hole in the sky out of utter despair, the black interior was absorbing light.

Even the beam Ju-a fired bent at its end and flowed into it.

Hehehe, I thought I heard laughter. A laugh so low that it was hard to tell if it was male or female.

“Don’t get close!” I shouted, being the next to notice the anomaly after Ju-a.

I had a bad feeling. Something terrible would happen if we went inside. Unlike my black hole, which simply sucked people in and spat them out elsewhere—

This wasn’t a certainty, but I sensed it.

We would become “its” food.

Hehehe.

The laughter sounded again, and a face emerged from inside.

It was a face that could hardly be considered human.

Yes, it looked like a deliberately crafted doll’s face. Like the bizarre monsters that often appear in Japanese children’s special effects shows.

But it seemed much more alive than a simple costume, making the red monster appear extremely unsettling.

There were wrinkles on its face. No, it wasn’t even something you could call a face. Layers of sagging flesh-like material piled up, making it look less like a human face and more like stacked rubber tires.

Is that a melted face?

And not just the face. Except for the red skin color, it looked as if its armor and body had melted and reformed.

It was like the armor and body had become one, forged into a bizarre and complex armored form.

The white lines that seemed to have melted into the predominantly red form made it look both grotesque and somehow divine.

Hehehe.

That laughter.

The laughter was coming from beyond the face. I thought it had gotten lower, but listening again, it sounded like a voice resonating through thick metal plates.

It seemed to be over 4 meters tall. No, strangely, it looked larger than this space itself. As if the sense of perspective was distorted.

Is it a psychological issue?

Behind its head, like an angel’s halo, floated a massive black hole.

“The space,” Hayun muttered.

Her voice was trembling slightly.

“The space is distorted. No, is it just the space?”

Except for Hayun and Jihye who were right beside me, the other girls had disappeared from my sight.

I wanted to call out to them, but at the same time, I couldn’t take my eyes off the monster.

Hehehe.

Or is it huhhuhu?

As the low, resonating laughter sounded—

“Hayun!”

I leaped toward Hayun. I blocked a blade that was approaching us unnaturally slowly with my hammer.

The force pushed my body back. It wasn’t just because I was floating in zero gravity.

It’s strong. Despite its apparent slow speed.

I flew backward as if shot. The distance between the monster and me widened instantly—to an impossible degree. Only after seeing myself move far beyond where I should have hit a wall did I realize what kind of magic this monster was using.

I was still in the generator room. A generator room without a generator. A space not yet completed because I had taken the generator.

Perhaps I hadn’t disappeared from this space because I was holding that generator.

I remember how the black hole would suck people in and spit them out elsewhere.

I can’t forget the power I used repeatedly to escape from problems right in front of me.

What about the others? Were they all caught by the black hole? Rose, Dalia, Delphinium?

Ju-a?

Jihye… and Hayun?

I’m not sure. Everything happened so quickly.

Are they all safe?

If the goal was simply to eliminate them, a black hole would be sufficient. Just throw them into outer space and be done with it.

None of them have the power to instantly teleport somewhere else. Ju-a could manage an emergency warp, but that would mean accepting injury and being randomly thrown to an arbitrary location.

That power is meaningless in a space far above the ground, where the boundary between sky and space has blurred.

Even if they haven’t completely left the atmosphere, it would be extremely hot. Mana can’t block all of that heat.

Even if they survived that, Earth is directly below.

Once they start falling, there’s no hope. Even in a space with almost no gravity, unless they’re precisely calculated satellites, they can’t overcome Earth’s mass.

As they fall, their bodies will create friction with the air, generating heat intense enough to burn up even house-sized asteroids.

…Such thoughts pile up, striking the deepest part of my mind.

Slowly, my white clothes begin to turn black.

Really? Is this really what’s happening?

After coming this far, have I lost everything I realized in just an instant?

So futilely.

I heard the low laughter.

The opponent, now a monster who probably couldn’t be called Chairman anymore, reached out toward me.

The infinitely expanding space suddenly contracted again.

The space between the monster and me distorted grotesquely, and suddenly its hand was firmly gripping my neck.

Long, red, cold hands. The hands of someone who had gone beyond and returned.

“Kuk…”

How strange.

Even in this situation, even as my clothes were turning black again, I still hadn’t given up. I was still breathing, still not letting go of the hammer in my hand.

What it means to lose hope.

Ironically, the power of despair becomes meaningless the moment the despairing person gives up. When there’s no emotion left to despair with, that’s the end.

In that sense—I still hadn’t given up.

Why?

The monster’s other hand moved onto my hammer. As if that had been its target from the beginning. The hammer that had been emitting white power was now spewing black light.

And that power seemed to mean nothing to the monster.

No, rather, as if it was exactly the power it needed, it pulled the hammer forcefully toward itself.

Ah, I see.

So this was a generator.

Even as I made choking sounds, a part of my mind had this thought.

It was “originally” a generator designed to use the power of despair, but it was only being used to chase after magical girls’ power.

Why was that?

Thinking about it now, that experiment was a failure too. No matter how many despairing humans they created, no matter how they tried to “squeeze” humans from the beginning in absurd ways, no matter how many custom-made Earthlings they produced with circuits implanted in their chests.

In the end, they couldn’t power the generator.

Why?

Probably because too many humans gave up when they despaired. When people are overwhelmed by fear, they run away.

Then why only now?

Why could it only be used in my hands, after I stole the generator?

That’s simple too.

Because I didn’t give up.

Why?

Because I wanted to defeat the magical girls.

And the reason for that thought was simple. I had been jealous of magical girls from the beginning. I had been jealous of Hayun for years, long before I became a combatant and wore the combat uniform.

Even before Hayun became “Blossom.”

“I see,” I twisted my lips into a smile.

Kigik, kigik, the monster twisted the hammer head violently as if trying to take my hammer.

James must have made this thing well, because it was impossible to detach just the head. The handle twisted violently in my hand.

But I didn’t let go of that handle.

“That’s what it was.”

Black power surrounded the hammer. The power that should have only emerged from about half of the back was now consuming even the monster’s hand.

As if intoxicated by that black power, the monster moved to steal my power.

But still, I didn’t let go.

“So that’s why I kept despairing but couldn’t give up.”

Because I know.

What kind of girl Hayun is.

Hayun is Blossom. Happy Blossom. The magical girl with the most powerful abilities. Perhaps the being with the most powerful abilities in this world. The center of this world.

The reason is simple. Because she’s the protagonist.

Because she was the protagonist of the webtoon I used to read. Because she’s a strong magical girl who never gives up and keeps fighting with her own hope.

…But that’s the information about “Blossom.”

The Hayun I know isn’t just that kind of Blossom.

Despite being born into a wealthy family, her parents only gave Hayun twisted love. Parents who thought only of their daughter reaching high places rarely took Hayun anywhere fun.

They only pressured her constantly.

Study, be number one. Play piano and enter competitions. And win first place. Never miss school, behave properly, be pretty, don’t get too fat—

It’s no wonder that the “Hayun” in the original work used that bouquet as her staff.

Because it was evidence. Evidence of “love” from her parents saying, “We love you, our daughter.”

That, and only that, was the “hope” of the original “Blossom.”

I opened my eyes.

It was a slightly strange feeling. Even though I could barely breathe, my neck was about to break, and my hand’s skin was being torn off, my mind became clear.

“I remember.”

I had been there too.

Hayun had been depressed once. It was when she graduated from middle school.

By then, Hayun’s parents were already busy. They were working for the Federation. This country was destined to be absorbed into the Federation someday, and everything else was just futile resistance. Well, being absorbed wouldn’t be all bad. The members of the European Federation aren’t all bad, are they?

The world would go on, and Hayun would never be mistreated thanks to her parents’ position and her status as a magical girl.

But Hayun wasn’t the type to be happy with just that by nature.

Rather, she was a normal girl who was more upset that her parents didn’t come to her school graduation ceremony.

She smiled in front of others. The children comforted Hayun, but she was only smiling on the outside.

My graduation ceremony, where the orphanage teachers, some children who came from there, and Jihye were all together, would have been much closer to the graduation ceremony Hayun wanted.

I made a mistake that day too. I didn’t want to tell Hayun that I lived in an orphanage, so Hayun had to be alone.

And feeling guilty about that day, I met Hayun a few days later with a bouquet of flowers.

Hayun was so happy she cried.

I don’t remember what that bouquet looked like.

“…That’s right.”

Somehow, I think it might have been a little different from the bouquet in the “original work.”

Yes. That’s why I knew.

That Hayun wasn’t just an invincible magical girl.

I already knew she was an ordinary girl who could be hurt by trivial things, had many worries she couldn’t tell others about, and sometimes hid in corners to cry quietly—because I had been her friend since we met by chance when we were very young.

“I was so weak too.”

That’s why I thought, “I want to win,” “I want to be equal.”

Yes. Even in that situation, I didn’t want to think of Hayun as “someone above me.”

Kigigik.

The hand trying to pull the hammer from my hand stopped.

The irritating laughter that had been constantly sounding also stopped. As if expressing some question, the monster’s head tilted to one side.

“…Dead? Don’t make me laugh.”

That’s impossible.

Hayun wouldn’t do that.

Just as I didn’t leave Hayun’s side and kept circling around her, Hayun wasn’t the type to just give up on me either.

Just as Hayun is “hope” for me, I am also “hope” for Hayun.

“You’re not even a finished product.”

I pulled the handle toward me.

Slowly, white light began to flow from my body again.

The monster seemed very confused.

Kigigik. The monster’s hand holding the hammer trembled. White light leaked through its fingers.

“—————!”

Making an irritating sound, the kaijin let go of the hammer.

I turned the hammer around. White light caused black smoke to rise from the monster’s arm, and it released the hand gripping my neck.

“So this was your goal from the beginning. The generator. A generator that moves despair. Right?”

I smiled.

“But obviously, I have no intention of handing it over even knowing that.”

I raised the hammer high.

I turned its head to create a huge blade on the open half.

An axe. An axe that looked like it could split anything.

“If you wanted to deceive me, you should have shown me their deaths.”

But that probably wouldn’t have worked.

Because I wouldn’t have believed it.

The world’s strongest magical girl, in a webtoon where magical girls ultimately win?

Logically, that doesn’t make sense.

I swung the axe.

Kwajik.

Once again, just like when I swung it at the Chairman earlier.

The space shattered.

If it was a being that could manipulate space from the beginning, well, I guess tricks like this would be possible too.

The monster swung its hand to block me, but I dodged. This is a zero-gravity space. I can dodge in any direction, can’t I?

Instead, the axe blade stuck in midair rotated and twisted, making the rift in space larger.

I heard the sound of glass breaking. The space in front of the monster shattered.

And I saw a bright pink color.

“Jieun!”

I could see Hayun holding on beyond the rift.

See, she’s right there.

“What a pathetic trick.”

I laughed incredulously, then ran toward Hayun.

Hayun was holding on too.

Her eyes were full of tears. Not just welling up, but as if she had already shed many.

What? Did she not trust me?

I snorted and ran straight to Hayun. Gliding through the void, I grabbed her waist, spun around, and my back hit the wall.

“Jieun, Jieun!”

Hayun cried out, touching my face.

Did she think I was dead too?

That’s a bit disappointing.

I almost thought so myself and nearly got into big trouble.

…Let’s say my useless stubbornness helped just this once.

“Yes. It’s me.”

It sounded cool when I was about to say it, but after saying it, it sounds too plain. Maybe a bit too pretentious.

Hmm.

Since it’s come to this, should I bury the memory?

Since I had completely forgotten about Hayun’s bouquet incident, I could do the same this time too.

I pressed my lips against Hayun’s.

This time properly, with my eyes closed, setting the mood.