Ch.134134. Marina Battle (1)

“…”

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The Dangerous Villain Sealing Facility, Marina.

The only entrance to this place is a small island.

This place is under strict surveillance, guarded by military forces, and protected by periodically dispatched magical girls.

Moreover, magical girls that everyone has heard of at least once were gathered there.

“Sis.”

“Seohyun.”

“Is today the right time?”

“A widespread high-density magical energy point has been detected.”

“…Did you find their headquarters?”

“Three likely locations.”

“We couldn’t strike first, could we…?”

“…Unfortunately, no. What’s the point of going after detection? It’s right to defend Marina first.”

“I guess… They might deliberately create a diversion and then attack this place…”

“Yes, that’s right. And this is the best way to deal with Eden. If they’re targeting something, we should focus on that.”

“…All the personnel who dealt with Eden before…”

“They’ve either retired or been replaced.”

“Well… they were veterans who were around when I debuted…”

“…This might be the first generation to face Eden without experience.”

“…And we haven’t even properly gathered those 20 people.”

“…Sigh. I know. We can’t ask retired sisters to work as magical girls again. What can we do? We just have to do our best with what we have.”

“…But we need to safely extract Vine from there too, right?”

“…I’m a bit worried about Elise. How did she break the magic binding the soul? I wonder if she’s maintaining that state by risking her own life.”

“…If that’s the case.”

“It’s dangerous. We need to properly protect two lives while preventing the remnants from extracting their boss, and we could be ambushed at any time.”

“…Time is…”

“I don’t know… Sigh. How much longer do we have to wait here.”

“You should get some rest…”

“No. You sleep first. You can even release your transformation. It’s okay.”

“…Sis.”

“Yes?”

“…Don’t worry too much. Everything will work out…”

“Yeah… Go in first.”

“Okay.”

* * *

“Eli, are you ready to enter?”

“…Vine, are you really prepared?”

“I’m fully prepared.”

After that, Eli rarely came to the training ground.

Well. And I don’t think I’ve seen her face much.

At most, I only see her during meetings.

That’s not particularly important anyway.

What’s important now is rescuing the boss.

“No matter how I think about it, Vine, you’re pushing yourself too hard… in this mission… if by chance…”

“Failure? Are you talking about failure now? We don’t fail. We only fail if we’re annihilated and can’t rescue the boss. Under no circumstances. In the simulations the doctor ran, I’ve never seen a result where we’re annihilated and simultaneously fail to rescue the boss. Based on all the data the doctor has gathered…”

“…Vine. Stop.”

“Eli…?”

“What is this… what are you doing…”

“Eli, why…?”

“This doesn’t make sense…! Overworking our strongest force with so-called training, and now sending them on the most important mission without any testing or standards, just recklessly deploying them without proper recovery, and what recovery there is comes from the doctor’s nonsensical recovery capsule for at most 5 minutes. Don’t you honestly think this makes no sense?”

“What doesn’t make sense.”

I don’t understand what Eli is saying.

My body is still fine.

At least, I’m not at my limit to the point where I can’t be deployed.

Plus, the elite training of combat troops has progressed to some extent.

The coordinates of the monsters that will cause chaos have all been set.

Reporting every single detailed position to the doctor…

Reporting… to the doctor.

Yes, I need to get confirmation, right?

Report, and.

Yes. After reporting, now I need to make sure the villains can respond from the right positions, recalibrate response methods for specific situations, and think about coordination with other captains and lieutenants besides Hela and Voltorn, matching more combinations and harmonizing while recalling old memories.

“…Vine.”

“What is it, Eli?”

“First of all, I’ll deploy with you. For your sake, and for the boss’s sake.”

“Of course you should… Were you not going to? We need to respond with full force. More than anything, more precious than my life is the rescue of the boss.”

“…Vine.”

“If only the boss, if only the boss would rule over us again, if we all follow their ideals and realize their dreams, a world where everyone is happy will come. For such a world, it’s only natural to give this one life.”

“Even if such a world comes, it’s meaningless if you’re not there… Vine…”

“Don’t worry. The doctor’s plan will never fail.”

“…That damn doctor. Really…”

“Don’t insult the doctor. Do you know how much the doctor thinks about the boss? Do you know that?”

“…Vine, I… I will definitely, when the boss returns, somehow restore you to your original self… even if I have to cut off that doctor bastard’s head…!”

“…What are you saying? The doctor is such a great help in realizing our ideals. Killing the doctor is not right. The doctor values the connection with the boss and will never betray the boss, rather, the doctor is someone who assists the boss and looks beyond with them, a person you shouldn’t carelessly kill.”

“…You’ve completely lost it. Yes. I will… I will definitely bring you back…”

“…?”

I don’t understand what Eli keeps saying.

But the time for deployment approaches.

Boss, I’ll come to rescue you soon.

* * *

In a temporary situation room inside the military base.

I kept looking at the situation board there.

In fact, there was too much to do just looking at the situation board.

No, rather than having too much to do, I couldn’t focus properly, unable to handle tasks I would normally manage, because I was still looking at the photo I took with Vine.

Because I couldn’t delete and kept staring at the photo taken with Vine and Elise at that shopping mall.

Leaving behind the phone, leaving behind that doll.

Even leaving behind all the things she cherished.

I still have two necklaces in my pocket.

Necklaces that lost their owners.

Necklaces that were restraining villains. Binding villains.

Every time I see these necklaces. Vine was a villain too. Yes, Vine was a villain.

But, no matter how much I think about it. No matter how much I rack my brain and suffer.

The Vine I saw.

The Vine I found.

The Vine I confirmed during that short time.

Was it all a lie?

No, if you live your entire time in falsehood, we call that a superhuman.

But the Vine I saw wasn’t like that at all.

The Vine I saw was just an ordinary child.

Even when she was conscious, even when she was sleep-talking.

I didn’t feel any sense of evil at all.

When she was sleeping, there was no dark energy at all, rather only white energy was felt, only bright energy.

Even when she was awake, there was definitely more white energy than when she was active in Eden.

That’s an energy that all magical girls can feel.

An energy you can feel if you just focus a little.

Vine was simply corrupted by Eden.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for her to regain so much whiteness.

…But, she went back to Eden.

Those bad remnants of Eden took that good child away.

Because of me.

If I had just treated her a little better.

If I had just paid a little more attention.

If I, if I…

If I had just thought a little more before acting.

Would the situation have been different?

Could I have dealt with it before those evil Eden remnants attached themselves?

Now I know a method to kill a villain of the boss’s caliber.

A method to completely destroy the core.

The explosive power is so intense that Gabriel tried to persuade me not to do it.

But isn’t it good to know such methods?

If it explodes in Marina… Japan, Chile, the United States.

Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand.

All countries adjacent to the Pacific Rim might be affected.

Even because it exists in the Mariana Trench, activating plate movements.

…I know such damage, but.

Why do I want to destroy that core so badly?

If only that boss hadn’t existed.

Would Vine have grown up to be a villain?

Would she have become a villain?

…Sigh.

Because such dizzy thoughts were messing up my head.

Wee-ing! Wee-ing! Wee-ing!

[Intrusion alert, intrusion alert. Unknown presence detected. Unknown presence detected. Unauthorized magical energy movement detected. Unauthorized magical energy detected. Intrusion alert. Intrusion alert.]

The siren blares loudly.

The sound of the siren waking me up.

Yes, I need to step up.

I need to save Vine with my own hands.

“Sis!”

“Yunseul!”

“Yunseul sis!”

“…”

“…How could I sleep when you told me to?”

“How could you sleep?”

Hyewon already answered me while looking around at her weapons.

“…You couldn’t sleep. None of you.”

“But I’m completely fine! Sis…! I, Vine… sis. Yes, I’m still scared to fight Vine sis… but if I can save Vine sis, I’ll be brave and fight…!”

“Yes… I’d like Arin to help support the combat troops or monsters. You’re still young… follow the other senior magical girl sisters.”

“…Then, can’t I see Vine sis…?”

“…Let’s go up to the front line. For now, you might have an effect on Vine mentally if you’re there.”

“Yes…!”

It’s a bit heartbreaking to bring Arin to the front line.

But if I don’t bring her, I don’t know what she’ll say later.

For now, it’s also important that Arin doesn’t get hurt.

If we can’t give Vine a mental shock… we’ll have no choice but to use force next.

I won’t lose this time either.

* * *

The wind blows.

Though it’s a warm wind in the middle of the Pacific, the wind blowing in my heart is only cold.

If I get distracted by the warm wind, it will interfere with rescuing our boss.

And at the entrance to Marina, as expected, magical girls are.

“…Well, the usual magical girls.”

Next to Blanc, a blue-haired magical girl tries to speak hesitantly.

Her height… seems about the same as mine.

“Vi-Vine sis…! Fu-further resistance is futile! Come back with us quickly…! Th-then the government and the association have agreed to let it pass without saying anything…!”

A rookie…

She can’t speak properly.

Is the association so desperate that they bring rookies to the front line?

“…Blanc. The association is quite pitiful.”

“…Pitiful?”

“The magical girl next to you, isn’t she a rookie? Seeing her reminds me of your younger days… Hmm. It must have been quite peaceful?”

“Vine…”

“Sis… Vi-Vine sis’s energy… her energy is strange…”

“Arin… I feel it too.”

I aim the gun I was holding.

And, fire.

Tang—!

“Kyaaak!”

The blue-haired magical girl stepped back in surprise.

“Tch. It was a good opportunity to take out about 5% of the force.”

Unfortunately, Blanc lightly deflected the attack with her rapier.

“…You, are you pretending not to know Arin?”

“Huh? Who?”

Well…

It’s so pitiful to see how she cherishes the rookie.

Then, you will definitely lose, Blanc.