Ch.20Chapter 4. Restraint (5)

I’m sick of everything.

The school full of rotten kids, the company that keeps sending combatants into battle knowing they’ll lose – I hate it all.

I even hate those magical girls who always show up to ruin things just when something might go right.

But most of all, I hate myself.

I hate that I keep doing dishonorable work while making all kinds of self-justifications, unable to quit.

I want to throw it all away. I just want to quit everything and run far away. But I don’t even know how to do that properly. The company I work for is a galactic-scale corporation that holds my acquaintances as leverage against me.

And I’m the one who handed them that leverage in the first place.

“What—”

“Iris, dodge! It’s dangerous!”

Rose shouted as she saw something rushing toward Iris. Iris quickly aimed her gun and pulled the trigger.

There was pain.

But it was bearable. No, that might not be the right way to describe it.

It felt like being hit in a dream. A strange, hazy feeling, as if the pain wasn’t registering where it should.

I must be so lost in my thoughts that I can’t even feel pain properly. I wonder what’s happened to my brain.

3 percent.

When I shook my hand downward, whatever was falling hardened. I tried to form it into a blade, but it wasn’t working well.

If making a blade feels like adjusting the flame on a gas stove, this was like trying to freeze water droplets falling from my body in real time.

The freezing happened automatically, but shaping it was another matter entirely.

What ended up attached to my arm was just a hardened lump.

“…!”

Iris pulled her face back when she saw that lump being swung toward her face. My fist barely grazed past her.

I tried to hit Iris’s abdomen with my right hand, but she wasn’t going to make it easy.

Crack!

She blocked my fist with her rifle. Small cracks appeared on the surface of the rifle that had been maintaining its form even while firing beams. Iris didn’t seem to notice.

I kneed the rifle upward from below, causing Iris’s hands to jerk upward.

That makes sense. Iris isn’t as good at fighting as Rose.

She threw herself toward the ground as if trying to roll away, but I caught her fluttering skirt.

As I pulled the airborne Iris toward me, I simultaneously swung my fist.

Thwack!

Again, my fist collided with the rifle, and the cracks grew larger.

I heard the sound of wind cutting near my ear and pulled back my extended fist. But I was a bit late, and my field of vision tilted sideways.

Did I get hit in the temple? I wondered with a slightly dazed mind.

Oh, this might make me pass out if I’m not careful.

4 percent.

The helmet was still blaring warnings enough to give me a neurosis. What exactly was the danger? Well, the circuit had been crackling for a while, so that might be the issue. The company is always extremely sensitive about their assets getting damaged.

Just before falling sideways, I managed to roll my foot to maintain my balance, avoiding a complete fall.

Then I threw a punch toward where a fist had come flying at me.

I heard something like an explosion.

Since I had swung my right hand, it wasn’t that strange unidentified thing attached to my left wrist that had exploded.

Ah, I see.

Rose must be using the Hope Circuit. She probably concentrated that power and swung it at me.

The area with the most energy was my left wrist where the circuit was, but energy was already overflowing from the suit, leaking from various places. It was seeping from the parts that had been torn and burst open from the earlier beam. It almost looked like blood flowing.

“…Kaijin…?”

Rose muttered.

Our fists were touching each other.

We had both swung at the same time, and our fists met. Was some strange reaction occurring from the collision of opposing energies?

The hope emanating from Rose’s body is a bright light. The Galactic Federation said it was energy that could serve as a beacon, shining from far away.

But because of that, its absolute quantity is small.

Hope isn’t something that’s abundantly available in the world.

The energy rising from my body was now reversing direction, shooting upward from my body into the sky.

The single beam of light shining through the darkness extending from my fist seemed to represent the magical girls themselves.

Like the irresponsible and cruel decision to entrust the world’s development to just five people.

“…What exactly are you?”

Rose asked with a blank expression.

Good question.

I don’t understand this situation either.

I clenched my left hand.

And swung it toward Iris’s right arm.

As if cutting off the light of hope from the side.

“Eek?!”

Even with her tough personality, that’s how she screams.

Compared to the cracks in Iris’s rifle, it was just a scratch-level crack, but one appeared on Rose’s gauntlet too. In exchange, the black substance I had hardened also shattered.

Bang!

At the same time, my left hand moved in an odd direction. Part of the circuit had exploded, throwing off my posture with the recoil.

Fortunately, Rose had backed away, clutching her right arm, so she couldn’t attack me.

3 percent.

2 percent.

The circuit’s readings were slowly dropping. Warning sounds kept drilling into my ears, and even some red text was appearing in the corner.

It was all in an alien language, so I couldn’t read it.

Iris aimed her gun at me.

Her face was serious.

Click.

A longer fuse than usual was loaded into the gun,

And she pulled the trigger without giving me time to dodge.

Bang!

But what exploded wasn’t me, but Iris’s side.

The cracks in the gun couldn’t withstand the energy. From the beginning, that rifle couldn’t fully handle Iris’s energy, which is why she used fuses. If there were microscopic cracks in the gun, it was natural that it couldn’t hold up.

White light from the Hope Circuit spread sideways. It looked beautiful, like wings sprouting. But Iris didn’t seem very happy about it.

Rather, a flash of fear crossed her face.

The gun burst to the right, and Iris staggered in the opposite direction from the recoil, but she wasn’t seriously injured.

But her weapon had vanished in an instant.

She must be shocked since this had never happened before.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and rushed toward Iris.

Iris fired her pistol. But again, the thin beam of light from her pistol couldn’t penetrate the light of despair flowing from my combat suit.

Maybe the suit being torn in places actually prevented the worst-case scenario? At least it didn’t explode all at once.

As I got closer, Iris tried to hit me by swinging her pistol, but my left hand blocked it.

The fear etched on her face was more visible now.

There were slight tears in her eyes. Her expression was deeply furrowed, and her face had turned pale.

Just as my energy decreases the more hope I have, Iris’s energy would surely waver the more hope she loses.

Crack—!

I swung my head and smashed my forehead into Iris’s forehead.

There was no time to check her expression. I left Iris on the ground and quickly turned around, running with all my might.

“Wait, stop—!”

Rose shouted in an angry voice, reaching out toward me.

I was heading toward the house. That’s where two civilians were.

I’m not sure if a family that supports a Galactic Federation research site and installs appropriate security measures can be classified as civilians, but well, by magical girl standards, they probably are.

But just before reaching those civilians, I stopped, grabbed the collapsed Earthaboo, and slung her over my shoulder.

Then I turned around again and ran toward Rose with all my might.

I clenched my fist and swung hard at Rose as she approached me. Rose was a bit surprised and blocked her face with both arms.

But I didn’t bother swinging my fist.

Instead, I kept running and picked up the researcher I had put down while fighting earlier.

With no room left on my shoulders, I ran straight ahead.

As expected, the ziplines were all cut.

The supervisor didn’t come.

I had some suspicions, but it would be better to talk about them after the situation was over.

I ran with all my might and jumped from the rooftop.

“Mmph!?”

The researcher screamed.

I hadn’t jumped down, but jumped to land on the opposite rooftop.

This was possible purely due to luck. The circuit was still running like crazy. It had gone back down to 0 percent, but that was just because it had reached 100 percent and overflowed.

And it was also lucky that the part supplying energy to my legs hadn’t been completely destroyed.

99 percent.

It was absurd how the reading suddenly changed from 0 percent to 99 percent.

Crackle, crackle.

As soon as I landed on the rooftop, the circuit started making those sounds again, as if it had reached its limit.

I ran vigorously toward the parking lot.

Bang!

And I opened a parked car’s door so forcefully that it almost tore off. The door didn’t come off completely, but the handle flew off. The repair costs will probably be enormous.

“Wh-what!?”

And James, who had been dozing off in the car, was startled.

I threw the Earthaboo and the researcher into the car and got in. It wasn’t a big problem since it was a spacious van.

By the way, it’s ridiculous that the supervisor is sitting in the driver’s seat. Is he actually not that important?

“Drive.”

“What?”

“Drive, I said drive!”

When I hit the back of the driver’s seat and shouted, James was startled and began driving.

The parking lot gate was already open. If magical girls were coming, it wouldn’t matter whether the gate was open or not. They could fly in from the sky. Opening the gate would actually be more useful for escape.

Bang!

The circuit finally exploded. Fortunately, it wasn’t a big explosion. James’s hand moved, almost causing the car to spin around.

The tattered door was still open. Of course it was, since the lock was broken.

I held the Earthaboo and the researcher tightly. After the circuit exploded, my strength was slowly draining away. I somehow braced with my feet to avoid being thrown out.

Flashes of light poured down from above. It seemed Iris had regained consciousness and was firing.

“Drive faster!”

“I’m already driving as fast as I can!”

Why are the roads in this rich neighborhood so winding?

We forcibly descended through the twisting alleys and finally managed to reach the main road.

The magical girls didn’t follow any further.

Iris must not have been in good condition. Otherwise, she would have somehow pursued us through a warp point.

Or maybe she didn’t think it was good to show herself fighting in the middle of the road.

“…Haah.”

I exhaled deeply and looked at my left wrist.

There was a circuit with black smoke rising from it. Ah, it’s probably beyond repair.

“…”

For a while, we didn’t say a word.

James was the first to speak.

“So… is that the researcher?”

“Yes.”

The researcher was slumped over. The color around his pants, specifically the crotch area, had changed. I pushed the researcher as far away from me as possible. And I fastened his seatbelt. This way, even if the door rattles, he won’t be thrown out.

A moment ago, I had shouted at James to drive faster, which meant I had spoken informally to a supervisor.

But the fact that he’s not telling me to get out of the car right now suggests he’s not terribly angry.

Rather, he seems extremely nonchalant about it.

I left the researcher as he was and checked the Earthaboo’s condition.

She was unconscious. There were some wounds on her face, but they probably wouldn’t be a big problem. If she received treatment at a medical center, there wouldn’t even be scars on her face.

There don’t seem to be any broken bones.

I sighed deeply, got up again, sat in the seat, and relaxed.

“…”

“…”

Wait, hold on a second.

I was startled and raised my body to look at the researcher.

The unconscious researcher was still slumped in the seat.

Right. The researcher.

I recalled the mission I had received.

It was to ‘extract the researcher.’

Of course, I left two out of the three people behind, but—

Wait.

“…Is this a success?”

I couldn’t help but ask James.

“…It seems so, but.”

James answered.

We fell into silence again.

Success? Success?

So, the mission was completed?

My face turned pale.

Is this the first time?

In operations I’ve participated in, there’s never been this level of success. There have been missions that partially succeeded, but never one that achieved the core objective.

This mission too, while the order was to extract the researcher, the actual goal was probably to force the research facility to be rebuilt elsewhere from scratch.

By periodically harassing them like this, they could interfere with the Galactic Federation.

But this was the first time I had achieved the core objective.

There were many flaws in the operation itself, and it seemed like there might be some other ulterior motive, but anyway, it was a success.

James’s face, visible in the rearview mirror, looked somewhat perplexed.

…What now?

In a slightly dazed state, I ended up going all the way to the company in the car driven by James.

*

Using a small number of troops that weren’t even elite, led by just one supervisor, deployed for the operation.

No matter how you look at it, it wasn’t a normal operation.

Either they didn’t think it would succeed in the first place, or it was an operation designed to fail.

This might be a bit self-centered, but I briefly thought on the way here that it might have been because of me.

I’ve had several one-on-one meetings with James.

James seemed to think I was a valuable asset.

I’ve been working here for several years now, and until recently, I was just a combatant, but lately they found out about my connection to magical girls.

Or maybe they knew all along and just didn’t say anything.

Were they trying to put a leash on me because I hit a civilian?

“…”

Normally, I would have gone into James’s office, but not this time.

I was just sitting blankly in the space outside his office, waiting.

I had taken off my helmet and placed it beside me. I was still wearing my combat suit.

The Earth woman sitting at the secretary’s desk in front of the office was looking at me with perplexity.

I wonder if that woman is also an alien like James, just appearing to be human?

While I was thinking about that blankly, the phone at the woman’s desk rang.

“Ah, yes, James.”

She calls him by his name?

Well, supervisors in magical girl shows and tokusatsu usually were addressed that way.

The secretary carefully put down the phone and looked at me.

“…He says to come in.”

I got up, picked up my helmet, and went inside.

As I entered, James, who had been looking out the window, turned toward me.

He was smiling broadly.

“Excellent!”

The guy who had been shocked by the fact of success just a little while ago was now smiling brightly.

It doesn’t seem like he’s lying, which makes it even more unpleasant.

“This is a remarkable achievement! To emerge victorious in a battle against magical girls! You’ve accomplished what no one else at Noir Corporation has been able to do!”

He came toward me and tried to put his hand on my shoulder, but I stepped back to avoid his hand.

With a slightly awkward expression, James withdrew his hand.

“There’s something I’d like to ask.”

I quickly interjected before James could continue.

“Did you deliberately hide information about the daughter who was there?”

“…”

James momentarily lost his words at my question.

“…Our side didn’t know about it either.”

My expression must have looked quite serious, as James quickly composed himself and said:

“She should have been in the hospital according to plan. I checked after coming here. That girl is still reported to be in the hospital.”

She’s probably not a fake.

And not a twin either. If she were, our side would have known.

“So, you’re saying she lied about being in the hospital and went home instead?”

When I spoke with an incredulous expression, James nodded.

“That’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

Huh.

I laughed in disbelief.

Even insurance fraudsters wait in the hospital after being admitted, but that girl didn’t.

Well, it wasn’t like insurance fraud, so maybe she was just being stubborn.

“…So?”

I etched that thought deep in my mind and asked James again.

“I succeeded, so is there any reward?”

“Ah, about that.”

James quickly answered my question.

“I’m really sorry, but since this is our only case of success. We’re still calculating how much we should give you.”

“…”

Just like a company.

“For now, we’ll double your previous sponsorship amount.”

James said.

“And you might even get a promotion.”

Is he going to make me a team leader or something?

I nodded.

“Then, I’d appreciate it if you let me know once the calculation is done.”

“Of course.”

“…It’s getting late, so can I go home now?”

“Of course! Would you like a ride? Or at least taxi fare?”

“…I’ll just take the bus.”

I answered with a voice mixed with a sigh.

To be honest, I’m reaching my limit, so a ride would be appreciated.

…But someone might see us on the way.