Ch.146Chapter 24. Love (2)
by fnovelpia
I hadn’t been unconscious for that long, I think.
One minute? Five minutes? Anyway, it must have been around that long.
I think my body was overloaded from using power that wasn’t originally mine while trying to endure it all with just my body.
As I groaned and tried to get up, Hayun quickly approached me. She was still wearing her Magical Girl outfit.
So was I. It seems the circuit kept running even while I was unconscious. Or maybe there was that much excess energy left?
“Jieun, are you okay? Can you walk?”
“Um… well… Ah, no. I’m fine. I can walk.”
As soon as I uttered the word “well,” Hayun immediately tried to put her hands under my knees to carry me, so I quickly shook my head.
I don’t mind carrying Hayun. I’m… well, me. I’m taller than her too.
But the opposite, Hayun carrying me, would be too embarrassing no matter how I think about it.
Though I was still groaning, I managed to get up and look around.
Well, as always happens after we fight, the place was a complete mess. The console that was originally there only had traces of its existence left, and the walls, floor, and ceiling showed noticeable cuts and broken parts.
The incubator wasn’t too damaged though. I was careful about that during the fight. I had no intention of killing the person inside.
And the opponent must have been thinking about it too. If they were using energy from this facility itself, destroying all the energy sources would have been problematic.
It’s fortunate the space was so large.
“Pang Pang, where’s Pang Pang?”
I said, quickly turning my head.
“I’m… right here…”
Pang Pang raised one hand slightly while speaking in a weak voice.
There were wounds all over her body. Some looked quite serious.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Seeing my expression, Pang Pang waved her hand and said.
“I’ll get better quickly after going to the medical center.”
“…”
Well, I suppose that’s true.
The most noticeable wound was on her chest where the circuit had been implanted. Blood was flowing from a deep puncture that looked like it had been made by something sharp, making it look quite gruesome.
Is this how Hayun felt when she realized she had hit me?
I did what I did knowing the opponent was inside Pang Pang’s body, but… anyway.
“What do we do now?”
“Since we’ve gained control of this facility, we’ll have to discuss what to do next,” Cherry chimed in.
“Control?”
“You took control through Pang Pang’s body earlier, remember?”
Ah.
The former chairman used Pang Pang’s body to operate the control panel. Since Pang Pang agreed to have all control transferred, this facility has completely fallen into Pang Pang’s hands.
“…”
In the end, Pang Pang ended up being involved this far.
I have mixed feelings about this.
Normally, people would be overjoyed to inherit the right to a major corporation, especially one on a galactic scale. Even if they don’t directly manage it, the amount of money generated would be enormous.
After all, people work to make a living, and if they could receive more money without working, hardly anyone would dislike that.
The problem is that this company is currently in a bad situation in many ways.
“Don’t worry too much,” Cherry said.
“Since we did this to prevent the worst-case scenario, people won’t view it entirely negatively. Besides…”
“Yeah, I don’t care what happens to this company anyway,” Pang Pang cut in firmly.
Still, after a moment, as my body felt better, I approached Pang Pang and extended my hand. Pang Pang took my hand and got up.
“…Alright then.”
I exhaled deeply and said.
“Then, shall we find the chairman first?”
The others all nodded at my words.
*
First, thinking that we needed to protect Jihye’s body, I returned the circuit I was using back to Jihye. Then I put my own circuit back on.
Thinking that we should make another circuit similar to Jihye’s later, we followed Cherry who was leading the way.
In a real big fight, unfortunately, there’s little Cherry can do. She might be able to see and alert us to things we can’t see, but at least participating in the fight to help is impossible.
But that doesn’t mean Cherry was just watching us without doing anything.
In here, Cherry had been tracking James’s location while staying far away from the fight. And it seems she succeeded in pinpointing his location.
Since that red man was still unconscious, we tied him up so he couldn’t move at all and followed Cherry to find James’s location.
Unlike the hall located almost at the top of the facility, the place where James was located was quite far below from here.
Wait, the existence of “upper floors” and “lower floors” in a zero-gravity space… well, I guess they solved this with their own magic too. Since I wouldn’t properly understand even if I looked into the details, I decided to just accept it. No point in questioning it now.
After going much further down, quite far from the “center” of the facility, we finally reached a small hospital room.
The door didn’t open right away.
Only after Cherry fiddled with a small keyboard attached to the drone for a while did the door open a few seconds later.
The smell that wafted out was literally a “hospital” smell. Clean disinfectant, a few medicine bottles… it’s hard to describe in words, but that vague smell that comes to mind when you think of a patient’s hospital room.
The room itself wasn’t very large. In fact, it felt a bit small for a place where the chairman of a company would be.
There was a bed there.
Not the kind commonly seen in Korean hospitals, but a large bed where about three people could lie side by side.
On it lay an elderly person with the same skin color as Pang Pang.
The face of the elderly person lying with the blanket covering up to below the chest was, naturally, similar to Pang Pang’s. However, having lived much longer, the face was deeply wrinkled, and the hair was white.
There was a heart rate monitor nearby, and next to that monitor—
“…James.”
James was there, waiting for us.
“It’s been a while.”
James, who usually spoke in an annoyingly confident tone, or with complete disinterest, or mockingly, now had quite a solemn voice.
A tone that could even be described as mournful.
“Were you waiting for us?”
“I suppose you could say that.”
“…”
Normally, I would have mocked James in return, but no matter what, it felt wrong to speak that way in front of someone who was dying.
“…Pang Pang.”
When I spoke, Pang Pang stepped forward.
“Should we give you space?”
“No.”
Pang Pang shook her head at my question.
Hmm… well, if that’s what she wants, we won’t leave, but honestly, I’m not sure how much help we can be by being here.
Still, we stepped back a little.
“…Grandmother.”
Pang Pang moved forward, stood by the chairman’s side, and spoke softly.
There was no response for a while, then the chairman’s eyes slowly opened.
And looked at Pang Pang.
“…Pang Pang.”
“How did someone so full of energy end up like this?”
Pang Pang said with a voice tinged with a sigh.
“…Are you alright?”
The voice of the chairman, who had tried to change the universe’s lifespan even if it meant using all Earth’s people as fuel, was infinitely weak. So weak that if any of us spoke a little louder, it would be drowned out.
“I’m fine.”
Pang Pang said.
The chairman quietly looked up at Pang Pang.
I felt a bit tense. I didn’t know what she would say. Would she ask Pang Pang to take care of things after she’s gone? Since Pang Pang had gained control of this place, would she ask her to continue with the plan? She might also entrust the company to her.
But at the end of her life, what the chairman said wasn’t about any of that.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
“…”
“I thought… because of what I did… you might be in danger…”
She didn’t go as far as to say she regretted it.
Pang Pang had a thoughtful expression. She seemed to be choosing her words carefully, figuring out what to say and how to say it.
Pang Pang sat on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on top of the chairman’s hand.
“…A very long time ago, in my childhood, I had a thought while looking up at the universe.”
The chairman continued in a small voice.
“I thought that such a beautiful place might someday disappear without leaving anything behind, without remaining in anyone’s memory.”
“So that’s why you did this?”
Pang Pang said.
“Even with… so many sacrifices, even using an entire planet…”
Or even risking the lives of all other beings.
“Did you have to pursue that thought so desperately?”
“…”
The chairman didn’t answer Pang Pang’s question for a while.
Slowly, her eyes closed.
“I thought I was doing my best. I thought I could see the results before my life ended by doing everything I could. But now I see that wasn’t the case.”
“That’s right. It wasn’t.”
Pang Pang said.
“Grandmother’s plan is one that only someone like you could even begin to understand.”
“I see…”
The person she had placed as her closest confidant had rebelled. And the person she thought was her right hand had been under the leader of that rebellion from the beginning.
Though there were people like James.
Perhaps the chairman wanted to pass all authority to Pang Pang because she thought her granddaughter could continue her work.
“The greatness of the universe, the greatness that will continue forever, none of that matters. What’s important are the people living now. Even the emotions you tried to use are just what people feel as they live their lives.”
“…”
“I… would have preferred if grandmother had just been an ordinary grandmother.”
Pang Pang said.
“It would have been better if you weren’t the only one looking up at that universe.”
Pang Pang was sobbing a little.
“If only I had been there beside you.”
“…I see.”
The chairman’s voice was painful.
Not just a voice of physical pain, but one that seemed to have realized something at the end of life.
Maybe it’s just that the situation has made everyone a bit more emotional.
“…”
The conversation paused briefly.
The chairman remained silent with her eyes closed. I glanced at the monitor out of concern, but the heart rate displayed there was still being maintained reasonably well. I wasn’t sure if that was stable or what it meant.
“Let’s step outside for a bit,” I said.
Pang Pang had said we could stay, but this moment seemed too personal.
I approached Pang Pang and gently patted her shoulder a few times. After seeing Pang Pang nod—
“!!”
I grabbed James without permission and went outside.
Given the situation and the atmosphere, even James couldn’t openly complain to me.
We all went out into the corridor, and stood surrounding James, who was on my hand.
“Hey.”
“…”
“You’re female, right?”
“…Not female, but a woman. Would you feel good if someone called you a female?”
That’s true.
But I didn’t particularly apologize.
Well, I’ve confirmed that, so now for another important question.
“How much did you know? Did you know about the human Kaijin production, or the alien Kaijin plan, or things like that?”
“…”
James closed her mouth for a moment, lost in thought, then,
“…I didn’t know.”
That was her answer.
“Really, you didn’t know?”
“I think no one knew except the chairman and her inner circle.”
“But you’re part of the inner circle.”
“It’s a different ‘kind.’ At least I’m not connected by blood. I’m a high-performance engineer.”
“…”
That… was true.
“What are you going to do now? With the current situation, it seems like this company will be hard to maintain.”
“It was a company created with only one purpose from the beginning. Now that things have turned out this way, there’s no other option. Parts that can break away will become independent as smaller companies, and places that can’t will disappear.”
“You don’t plan to continue with the plan?”
“…”
James looked up at me.
Even though I look like this, I’ve known the Squeakeans for quite a while. By now, I could somewhat read their expressions.
But James’s expression was a bit too complex to immediately understand.
“…Even if I tried to continue it alone at this point, there would be too many problems.”
Hmm.
I had a feeling that the reason for not continuing might be because of us, but given that answer, I decided not to ask any more questions.
What will happen from now on?
I still have no idea. Other countries’ heroes were already actively protesting to the Federation, and we even stole a ship to come here and resolve the situation.
“Hmm…”
Yes, I really can’t predict anything, but there is one thing for certain.
I want to go back and lie down soon.
Without any worries—I just want to sleep deeply for a long, long time.
With my friends.
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