Ch.144Chapter 23. Line (7)

It’s okay.

Calm down.

Not yet.

It’s not the worst situation yet.

Of course, things aren’t good. We were deceived by James’s words and walked right into a trap, and of all things, we personally provided everything the enemy needed with our own hands.

If it were just the generator, that would be better. I could say it was just my mistake alone. It might end up bringing a bloodbath to the entire galaxy, but at least it would be just my mistake.

But bringing my friend Pang Pang into this dangerous situation…

…No. It’s still okay.

No one has pressed that button yet. Even though Pang Pang is clutching her head, that itself means she’s resisting the situation.

“…You.”

“We could call it a sacrifice for the future.”

The office worker spoke as if he knew what I was about to say.

“The lifespan of this universe will eventually end. Isn’t that too sad? If you aren’t terrified by the thought that in the distant future, every light in this vast universe will go out, and not even a single atom will remain intact as everything is torn apart, then what is there to fear?”

“…”

“History must continue. Although not everything that happens can be recorded in history, and even some things that are recorded will be lost, we will be remembered within those vast records. If an era isn’t forgotten but remembered, then the lives of all beings who made up that era won’t have been in vain.”

“Hey.”

I tried to interject while he was speaking, but he was so caught up in his own words that he even raised his arms slightly as he continued.

“You all have the most important role. You don’t necessarily have to sacrifice your lives. If you help make the universe eternal, that itself would be an achievement worthy of eternal remembrance. If you remain as representative names of this era and continue forever, those lives will surely be meaningful.”

That’s different from what James said.

James at least said that even if history were broken, as long as the universe existed, someone would continue living.

Compared to that story, this red-faced man’s words seem too trivial. If you’re going to cause all this just to be remembered in history, wouldn’t that mean every mass murderer in history lived a righteous life? Does that mean such lives become righteous once the universe’s eternity is assured?

I know. I know that’s an exaggeration.

He probably didn’t intend to imply that.

“What nonsense are you spouting, you extra who jumped in at the end?”

That’s just how bad my mood was.

“Pardon?”

The man responded to my words, seeming a bit flustered.

No matter how much everyone is the protagonist of their own life, when you think about it the other way around, isn’t that how it works?

If I’m the protagonist, the rest are supporting characters. There can be a female lead, major supporting roles, but conversely, it wouldn’t be strange to have bit parts or extras without any lines who just pass by.

And in my story so far, this man is an extra who barely appeared at the end, with only a few lines.

I raised my hammer.

And infused it with power.

“It’s useless.”

The man said.

“I mentioned we needed the generator. The energy you emit will only help us.”

Right.

That technology existed too. The resonance technology that uses my energy for their power.

If they’re planning to use hope as energy here, of course they would. It was probably planned from the beginning. After betting on despair energy and seeing me reverse the energy, they might have switched to Plan B.

“…Let’s go.”

Without responding to the man’s words, I shot forward with my glowing hammer.

Bang!

Even when I struck hard with the hammer, he withstood it.

He didn’t budge an inch, as if his feet were planted in the ground.

“…If I really can’t persuade you.”

The man said.

“We’ll have to act accordingly.”

And then, a white light exploded before my eyes.

I stepped back and looked ahead to see white light enveloping the man’s body. Crack, crack, his body was transforming into a monster.

That appearance was like seeing an Earth Kaijin. Ah, I see. That man was no different from an Earthling except for the antennae on his head and his red skin.

“It’s okay.”

I said to Pang Pang, placing my hand on her shoulder. Pang Pang looked up at me, kneeling on the floor.

Tears were streaming from her eyes, as if her head hurt that much.

“It’s okay. I’ll somehow make it right.”

At my words, Pang Pang nodded while trembling.

Pang Pang believed in me.

Yes. Then I should live up to that trust.

Because a magical girl is someone who lives up to people’s trust.

…I looked at the monster in front of me, emitting light from its entire body.

There’s a line in everything in the world. Even if it was Noir Corporation, even if they were plotting something else, if they didn’t cross a certain line, I wouldn’t have had a reason to fight them.

But the opponent had already crossed that line long ago.

Even at this moment, they were crossing it.

Then all I can do is push back with all my might to force them back across that line.

*

The opponent was also firmly resolved, so the fight was by no means easy.

At some point, other Kaijin began pouring out. The number of Kaijin flowing out here was far greater than I had imagined, as if the Kaijin they had sent to Earth, or the ones they were experimenting with there, were just a small fraction.

“Jieun!”

Clang!

Jihye runs to me and spreads a barrier to protect me.

I struck the Kaijin that Jihye blocked and sent them flying far away. Some seemed to have fainted from that, lying limp on the ground, but their numbers didn’t completely diminish.

“Tch.”

I clicked my tongue.

“At this rate, there’s no end to this!”

Rose shouted with rare tension in her voice. Hayun and Ju-a also had grim expressions, and Dalia and Delphinium were overwhelmed too.

I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them.

“This… can’t be helped.”

“…Huh?”

As I muttered that, Jihye’s face turned red.

The fact that she could make such an expression even in this situation was because we still had one last resort left.

The power that could cut down a being with such enormous energy.

But—would that really be the right choice?

All the beings attacking us now are moving as if resonating with the hope circuit. As if they had prepared for this the moment I thought I could use this energy.

No, perhaps this was a plan they had in case the despair circuit failed.

If so, we might actually have a chance.

I grabbed Jihye’s waist.

“…Mmm!”

Jihye responded to my action by immediately pressing her body against mine.

She doesn’t even get flustered anymore. As if it’s such a familiar action.

In some sense, my movements were the same.

Just by Jihye’s lips touching mine, the hammer’s firepower increases. White light bursting out from both sides forms something like a sword’s hilt.

Next is Hayun. Then Ju-a.

With each person’s lips overlapping, the sword’s form gradually takes shape. Not just a single white light, but a beautiful sword that seems to gather and bind all the lights of the magical girls.

And then, Rose, Dalia, and Delphinium also place their hands on it, adding their light to the sword.

“Oh, ohhhh…”

Only after seeing the form of the sword did the red Kaijin make such a sound.

Like someone witnessing something marvelous.

I swing the sword once. Pop, pop, the circuits attached to the Kaijin’s bodies burst as if overloaded. The impact sent Kaijin flying everywhere, falling and losing consciousness.

Just looking at that scene, one might call it spectacular. If I hadn’t been standing at the center of it, if I had seen this scene in a movie theater somewhere, I would have thought so too.

“Chairman, are you watching?”

The Kaijin said.

“The crystallization of energy you wanted—”

“You, be quiet.”

Before he could finish speaking, I brought the sword down on the Kaijin.

The sight of light flooding is difficult to express in words. Even a slight deviation in description would have made it seem tacky.

Crack.

The sword lodged in the Kaijin’s shoulder. Even though the red Kaijin had already grown much larger than a normal person—much larger than the Kaijin I usually saw—the sword lodged in its shoulder was even more massive.

Blood splattered. Although I deliberately chose a spot that wouldn’t be fatal, it seemed to be a critical hit for the Kaijin.

As if it hadn’t even thought to block, one of the Kaijin’s knees buckled.

“…”

With a blank expression, it looked up at me floating in the air.

An expression as if it couldn’t believe it—no, that wasn’t it.

Rather, it was smiling.

“Didn’t I tell you? That we needed this.”

With those final words, the Kaijin’s body slowly turned.

The Kaijin’s eyes were fixed on something behind me.

I quickly turned to look behind—

“Ugh!?”

—and was hit in the stomach, flying backward.

“…Pang Pang?”

Perhaps because I had mana wrapped around my body, the impact didn’t feel that severe.

But seeing the being standing in that direction, I could only mutter that blankly.

Pang Pang was slowly rising into the air.

And the terminal we had been protecting was already turned off.

As if someone had chosen it and there was no need for it to be on anymore.

Whirr—

The sound of machinery running. Lights begin to flicker on around us. So brilliantly that I wondered if there had always been so many lights in this space.

“Shouldn’t you have realized when your head hurt without doing anything?”

Pang Pang said to me.

No, that wasn’t Pang Pang.

The Chairman.

I thought it was the Chairman controlling Pang Pang’s body.

Below Pang Pang’s neck, near where a pendant would hang on a short necklace, a circuit-like thing was embedded.

And that circuit was spinning brightly, as if it had energy of its own.

“…You.”

Can I say I let my guard down?

Could I say we were too focused on fighting our best to pay attention?

I didn’t think Pang Pang would move directly to press it—

No, that’s just an excuse.

I failed to protect my friend. I—

“Ah.”

I lose my balance a little.

Staggering down to the floor, I gripped my hammer tightly.

But the hammer was slowly getting heavier.

“Yes. It’s already too late. From the moment we came here. From the moment that door opened. Shouldn’t you have thought something was strange when a ‘company chairman’ said he was entrusting everything to his granddaughter rather than himself?”

Pang Pang said while looking at her hand.

Slowly, the clothes Pang Pang was wearing changed.

Ironically, that appearance was like a magical girl’s transformation.

Pang Pang’s clothes were also white. Was it because she received my energy? The overwhelming energy produced as the generator ran.

Meanwhile, my clothes were gradually turning black. The design was slowly changing too. A little less flashy. Like that black outfit I used to wear.

I can no longer hold the hammer. Even though this was originally a hammer that ran on despair energy—

“The more knowledge people gain, the more their imagination becomes limited. Especially knowledge about magic. It often happens that a being who could casually change all sorts of things becomes unable to do anything after studying magic in more detail. Magic originally stems from imagination.”

“…I.”

I tried to forcibly hold the hammer and infuse it with despair energy, but—

“The more excited or desperate people are, the more they tend to imagine various things. And such imagination is endless. It’s common for someone fallen into the abyss of despair to think of even deeper despair, or for someone who has encountered good fortune to keep imagining only good things.”

Pang Pang’s body moved quickly.

“…!”

I felt like all the air had been expelled from my lungs. By the time I realized it, I was already flying backward.

“Jieun!”

Jihye somehow managed to catch and block me, thanks to which I was able to avoid serious injury.

But my hammer was already being lifted by Pang Pang—

No, that’s the Chairman.

“Wouldn’t they put a chip in the head while making a clone?”

Pang Pang said.

That tone of voice reminded me exactly of Pang Pang.

“This seems to be working.”

Pang Pang said.

“Ambiguous hope. Fatal to despair, right?”

Pang Pang struck the floor with the end of the hammer handle.

White light flows out from around it.

On Pang Pang’s upper chest, where the circuit was embedded, veins were slightly raised.

I thought that this must be the culmination of the technology the Chairman had been researching. The Chairman himself becoming a magical girl… no, a crystallization of energy that could handle energy, to extend the age of this universe, such a finished product.

The Chairman looked up at the light produced by the generator in ecstasy.

“Don’t worry. You’ve become the hope of the new era.”

The Chairman said.

“I’ll make sure you’re remembered as beings who came this far and cooperated.”

“Shut up!”

I shouted, springing to my feet.

“Jieun!”

Jihye called out.

But before she could catch me, I was already swinging my fist at the Chairman.

“What are you doing with Pang Pang’s body—”

The words didn’t finish.

My body was flying sideways again. This time, Ju-a and Jieun barely managed to block for me.

“You don’t have a staff, do you?”

Pang Pang said.

“Seems like you don’t have anything precious. Is it because you don’t have something precious given by someone?”

Other magical girls certainly have such cases. Ju-a uses a gun she created, and Jihye doesn’t have a staff either.

But I’m a bit different from that.

Because I’m a being who doesn’t have the power to create something, nor did I possess the desire to protect someone so desperately.

The most decisive factor in me becoming a magical girl was literally despair.

Jealousy and envy. The emotions I felt looking at Hayun, who is now holding me, were the source of me becoming a magical girl.

Even that disappeared, and in that situation, I despaired ambiguously. That’s my flaw.

Pang Pang turned toward me.

“I can send you back if you want.”

The Chairman chuckled as if he had returned to his younger days. No, perhaps that can’t even be called an existing personality. I’ve never heard of such technology.

The chip in Pang Pang’s head is controlling Pang Pang. In that way, the Chairman might have just wanted to create a puppet to fulfill his will.

Damn it, such hope keeps mixing in, making me a being that can’t be one thing or another.

A being that couldn’t be either this or that.

Me from the time when I both liked and disliked Hayun—

I charged again.

Still, I had to fight. I was the one who suggested coming here.

I was the one who put us all in this situation—

“Kuh, huk…!”

I felt hands grabbing my neck.

“…At a glance, you seem like the strongest being. But you’re not stable. There’s a reason I couldn’t trust you until the end.”

Pang Pang said.

“Because you’re an ambiguous being that’s neither here nor there—”

“Shut up!”

This time, it wasn’t me who shouted.

Hayun cuts off Pang Pang’s arm. Seeing blood spurt from that arm made my heart freeze.

I could have escaped, I could have fled into Hayun’s arms, but blood flowed from Pang Pang’s arm. Red blood like ours.

That’s so frightening—

“…Jieun.”

But Hayun’s hands cupped my face as I stared at it in fear.

“Don’t look there. We can win.”

How?

Before I could ask, Jieun spoke.

“Remember? The third energy I mentioned. We still… still haven’t quite honestly acknowledged it, but such power exists.”

“Hayun?”

I think I understand what Hayun is saying, but it seemed somewhat inappropriate for the situation—

But Hayun’s face was infinitely serious.

“Jihye’s power.”

Hayun said.

“You need to use that power.”

My transformation was undone.

“Huh?”

In this situation, I was surprised to see Jihye taking the circuit from my wrist.

Jihye’s appearance was also already untransformed.

“Hurry up and resolve this, you complicated couples.”

I heard Rose saying incredulously as she trudged forward.

“Seriously, it’s tough being single.”

I hear Dalia grumbling.

“…Three people seems a bit too much though.”

And Delphinium saying that incredulously too.

“…That circuit. The last person who worked on it was James, right?”

“That’s right. He was also the one who talked about the possibility of that energy.”

After Cherry confirmed and Ju-a answered, Jihye attached her circuit to my wrist.

“Hayun?”

Behind Hayun, I could see intense fighting. Red light, blue light, and yellow light.

The light of the children buying us time.

Hayun looked straight at me and said:

“…I like you, Jieun.”

Time stopped for me when I heard those words.

“I love you.”

And my heart stopped at the words that followed.

The words I had been desperately pushing back, again and again.

“There are still two more people left, so don’t get the wrong idea.”

Ju-a’s words almost made me snort with disbelief, but by then our lips were already overlapping.

The same kiss as always—

—no, this kiss is not like that.

Not simply overlapping lips to confirm possibilities.

A kiss after whispering love.

So this was a kiss that crossed the line we had been precariously avoiding.

The circuit shines again.

I am clothed again.

Neither despair nor hope.

A single emotion that could be both begins to dominate my heart.