Ch.139Chapter 23. Line (2)

First, I should briefly explain what happened before we arrived at the Federation’s Magical Girl Headquarters.

I have no reason to say nice things about the Federation, but they are “for now” the organization that commands the entire galaxy. Even the most powerful nations commit major blunders for absurdly trivial reasons, but without knowing the full context, it’s difficult to understand why such things happen.

As Ju-a mentioned, heroes from other countries took action.

They didn’t attack the Federation directly, but they protested in their own ways. Like us, other countries didn’t have many heroes either, but considering their role as “generators,” even that small number of heroes was too valuable to give up.

So it was inevitable that the Federation’s attention would temporarily shift elsewhere.

Though the Federation is divided in many ways, it’s still fundamentally one organization.

The Federation agencies in each country aren’t closely connected, but they generally share the same primary objectives.

So seeing the heroes acting up, the Federation apparently decided they should “lay low for a while.”

“…I didn’t expect this, though.”

Hayun nodded at my muttering.

“I know. I guess we’ve been looking at the situation too much from our own perspective.”

In front of the Federation’s Magical Girl Headquarters, a crowd of people had gathered.

Every one of them was holding picket signs and protesting. From what we could see, the protests were related to Noir Corporation.

Noir Corporation is currently without its head. The former chairman hasn’t returned yet. James did go back to the company, but there’s been almost no contact since then, so we don’t know exactly what he’s doing.

While people were largely unaware of James’s existence, the fact that there was no chairman had already been widely reported in news and newspaper articles, so everyone knew about it.

So protesting in front of the company building wouldn’t accomplish anything. In a way, it makes sense that they gathered here instead.

“Won’t this just strengthen security? Even though the protest seems peaceful…”

“We need to be careful about this.”

Rose nodded as she answered.

After discussing the situation, we concluded that it would be better to proceed with our original plan.

We’d have to confront them eventually anyway.

“Alright, let’s go.”

I said, and the other girls nodded.

“Then—”

Before I could properly act, Hayun and Jihye pulled at my arms.

“Huh?”

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, I stumbled forward, bending at the waist, and both Hayun and Jihye planted kisses on my cheeks with an audible smack.

“…I keep telling you, we don’t need to do that anymore when using magic.”

But even as I said this, a white light was slowly forming behind my head.

Finally sighing deeply, I warped to the building with the girls.

Just before being enveloped in light, I caught Ju-a’s eyes, and she looked extremely indignant.

*

After picking the lock to the roof door, we walked confidently toward the lower floors without bothering to hide.

Contrary to our expectation of strengthened security, there weren’t that many people in the corridors. No, it wasn’t just that there weren’t many people…

“Were there always this many empty spaces?”

Rose asked, tilting her head.

“No.”

Dalia immediately shook her head in denial.

“It wasn’t like this originally. There were some areas with fewer people before, but…”

The upper floors being almost entirely vacant offices certainly seemed problematic in many ways.

We walked for a while longer before finally encountering someone.

“Oh!”

Just an ordinary-looking female civil servant in a suit. She looked startled to see us.

Before any of us could speak, she quickly ran over to us and grabbed Hayun’s hand.

“You’ve returned!”

She said with an expression that looked like she might burst into tears, leaving us momentarily dumbfounded.

Well, this is unexpected.

I thought we’d be kicked out as soon as we were spotted.

Since we couldn’t exactly say, “No, we just came to steal the circuits,” we decided to keep quiet and follow the woman.

“After you all disappeared, there was a lot of discussion about what to do with this organization.”

She volunteered an explanation without us even asking.

“We could have recruited new magical girls, or changed the name and recruited more people like other countries did, but it seems the higher-ups had different ideas.”

I looked toward Hayun. Catching my glance, she asked on my behalf.

“What do you mean by different ideas?”

“They probably think that even if we spend more time creating another organization, it would eventually be disbanded anyway. They might think it’s better to just withdraw completely.”

At this, we all couldn’t help but look at each other.

To be honest, I had thought that might happen. Well, I feel a bit sorry for the people who made their living working for the Federation, but frankly, I don’t really care either way. I’ve been through a lot of trouble because of my involvement with the Federation.

“But… that’s too hasty.”

“Hasty?”

I asked without thinking, and the civil servant flinched as if I might do something, then spoke again.

“Well…”

She paused, lost in thought.

“This is just a concern, but some people are starting to think that the Federation might leave Earth entirely, or… might stop recognizing countries that aren’t part of their Federation.”

“…”

We were momentarily silent.

I recalled the conversation between James and Cherry that I’d overheard before.

Didn’t they say that the Squeakeans weren’t treated as people for a while?

I don’t particularly like the Federation, and I’m not fond of their attempts to bring Earth under their influence.

But with Earth’s existence already known throughout the galaxy, the Federation’s withdrawal would be problematic in many ways.

Even if this only applies to countries not part of the Federation, there’s historical precedent of humans not treating other humans as human.

I won’t be optimistic enough to think that technologically advanced beings wouldn’t do such things.

It might be better if Earthlings were just useless creatures, just another life form…

“So, where are you taking us now?”

Since I was already asking questions, I decided to ask that too.

“To the highest-ranking person remaining here.”

The civil servant answered carefully, as if trying not to provoke me.

Hmm.

Meeting some high-ranking official out of the blue wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s someone you all know well.”

As if reading my expression, the civil servant said that to me.

*

“Cherry!”

As we entered the room, Hayun exclaimed happily and quickly ran to where the “high-ranking person” was.

Then she picked up Cherry with both hands.

James used to hate when people did that.

“Hayun!”

Cherry shouted with obvious delight. Hayun brought Cherry close to her face.

Cherry spread both arms wide and hugged Hayun’s cheek.

While I was seriously contemplating whether I should be jealous of this action, Hayun removed Cherry from her cheek and said:

“How did this happen…?”

“Well… things turned out this way. I guess what happened on Earth became known to the Federation, and being here became bad for their image. Above all, there’s talk about how they were completely unaware while such a major incident was occurring.”

That’s not entirely wrong, but I had enough tact not to say so here.

“I was actually going to contact you soon, but how did you end up coming here? I heard you came in through the roof, not the main entrance.”

“…”

The girls were momentarily at a loss for words.

“We came to get the children’s circuits back.”

Seeing that waiting would only make the atmosphere more awkward, I stepped forward and spoke.

“I see.”

Cherry nodded.

“To be honest, I can’t just give them back in the current situation… Strictly speaking, even Hayun’s circuit should be reclaimed by the Federation.”

“Do you plan to do that?”

“No.”

Cherry shook her head.

“The Federation is talking about withdrawing for now, but that’s not what’s important right now. Of course, they didn’t listen to me at all… Hayun, could you put me back on the desk for a moment?”

After Hayun placed Cherry back on the desk, Cherry busily scurried across it.

The desk had various monitors of different sizes, along with small keyboards perfectly sized for a Squeakean to operate.

As Cherry operated them one by one, different information appeared on the screens.

Among them were photos and videos.

In those photos—

“…Ah.”

A regretful sound escaped from Hayun’s lips.

Yes, most of those photos were of Earth’s Kaijin.

Kaijin are called such because they are “bizarrely transformed beings.” This applies to both Earth Kaijin and the alien Kaijin that existed before them.

And I’ve heard that alien Kaijin can usually be cured if they’re kept far away from Earth.

That suggests that Earth Kaijin might also be treatable to some extent if the cause of their transformation is removed.

Although it’s unclear how much these Kaijin could escape that influence since they’re Earthlings, from the photos, it seemed the Kaijin had somewhat broken free from that influence.

The notes indicated they were still larger than normal people, but their appearance was returning to that of ordinary Earthlings.

“That’s… good news.”

“Yes. Really.”

Of course, there are still many unresolved issues. All these Earthlings were beings less than ten years old in terms of age. If we assume they were kidnapped and modified Earthlings… that would be an enormously serious problem in itself.

“Do you understand what this means?”

But to Hayun and me, who were somewhat relieved, Cherry asked with a very serious expression.

“What do you mean?”

“It means the condition of Earth Kaijin and other Kaijin is almost identical.”

“…That’s because Earth Kaijin were created based on the appearance of alien Kaijin, right?”

Cherry shook her head.

“No, even considering that, they’re too similar. It’s not like there hasn’t been research on Kaijin until now. This is a completely different new disease from what we’ve seen before. And based on that research, the process required for Kaijinization is too similar. And above all.”

Cherry looked up at us and said:

“The cause for Earth Kaijin seems even simpler. We’ve also captured the ‘production facility,’ right?”

I looked at the other magical girls.

“So… it’s not ‘different’?”

“Right. It’s not that they created Earth Kaijin after seeing ‘Kaijin from other planets visiting Earth,’ but rather it seems like they created Kaijin from other planets based on ‘Earth Kaijin.'”

Cherry said.

“Earthlings don’t have mana. There are ways to create mana, but it’s not an ability they’re born with. Without circuits, they can’t create mana. But conversely, if you have circuits, it’s simple to create ‘beings that can operate those circuits.'”

“So it’s not difficult?”

“…What about turning beings that actually have mana in their bodies into Kaijin? Assuming you don’t use separate circuits and create Kaijin with different appearances from different planets. And making that process uniform would necessarily be a much more difficult calibration than modifying just one species.”

“Wait, wait a minute.”

After hearing Cherry’s words, I put my finger to my forehead and waved my hand at Cherry.

“So what you’re trying to say is this? That they first created Earth Kaijin, and that wasn’t actually the goal, but there was a more advanced plan? That they were experimenting with modifying aliens, is that what you’re trying to say?”

“And that experiment affected people from other planets on Earth, causing them to start Kaijinizing. That’s as far as I’ve thought for now.”

Well, there were certainly alien Kaijin inside Noir Corporation.

And we did think there might be a process for ‘creating’ such Kaijin…

“But why? To create some kind of army? It would be better to pay high wages and equip people with exoskeletons to fight.”

Or use that money to make lots of tanks, or any number of ways to create a “powerful army.” It’s far more inefficient to think about releasing Kaijin who can barely think properly.

At least Earth Kaijin served as “bio-batteries,” so attempting to “mass-produce” them wasn’t completely nonsensical, but—

Ah.

“…What if the goal of the people creating these Earth Kaijin wasn’t simply to power generators with just Earthlings?”

Cherry asked.

Hayun’s face turned pale.

“In this galaxy, only Earthlings can currently operate circuits. No one from any other planet can operate circuits. That’s why humans come up with ideas like ‘selling Earthlings.'”

“…”

“But what if that wasn’t the original plan? What if creating Earthlings was strictly for backup and research purposes, and they were already thinking about the next generation?”

If everyone from other planets could use circuits. If “anyone” in this universe could operate generators perfectly like Earthlings.

Of course, they wouldn’t be able to move circuits unless they became Kaijin. After all, Earth Kaijin were created to forcibly operate circuits that not just anyone could operate.

So if someone had such thoughts, they were planning to turn even aliens into such beings to frantically operate circuits.

Why go that far?

Would that be so economically viable?

But that thought didn’t last long.

Because there was one person whose thinking had gone mad.

“…The former chairman of Noir Corporation.”

Right.

That person was talking about using circuits to overcome entropy and whatnot.

What if, like an ark, they kept only enough people to maintain civilization and turned everyone else into beings meant to operate circuits.

I don’t know how that would be possible, but…

“We need to find that former chairman. As quickly as possible.”

At my words, Cherry nodded, apparently having reached the same conclusion.