Ch.261IF Side Story: From the Beginning (29)

“So, you’re saying you had some kind of connection with the villain?”

“Hmm.”

Sitting next to Jihye eating bread, I paused for a moment and fell into thought.

“Can we really just call them villains?”

Whether in tokusatsu shows or magical girl series, the settings for kaijin vary tremendously. While their roles might overlap slightly, when you dig into their backgrounds, they range from brainwashed humans to completely manufactured monsters.

In this case, they were hired employees.

Whether Earth people or aliens, they were literally corporate-hired thugs. To put it more elegantly, you could call them contractors. Like those contractors in movies who don’t hesitate to do illegal work.

But in the original work, the combatants were often portrayed sympathetically.

While their actions were villainous, they were frequently shown doing it not because they wanted to, but because they had families to feed, or simply to make a living.

The absurdity arising from that gap was what made the comic funny in the first place.

When it was serialized on a blog, comedy was more the focus, so these situations weren’t portrayed too seriously. But after it became officially published, strangely, negative portrayals of magical girls increased, and the story started leaning more in that direction.

Yet when it first began serialization, both sides were in complex, nuanced situations.

“They’re salaried employees, so…”

“…But they’re still working for a company knowing what kind of business it does.”

Hmm.

Honestly, I’m not sure either.

The other magical girls firmly believed we were justice, and most people probably think the same.

That Noir Corporation is evil and only built their headquarters in this country to avoid taxes.

But for something like that, the shopping mall below Noir Corporation Headquarters does extremely well. The story about it being the biggest company in this country isn’t just made up. It does generate that much revenue.

Some people think it’s because of their monopoly on technology.

In truth, if you dig deeper, there are many more unsavory aspects. No matter how much the official serialization increased its portrayal of the combatants’ hardships, the author still set them up as villains.

In that “darker version” of the official serialization, as the setting became more detailed, the reasons why the Federation and the company kept running their circuits were somewhat revealed.

For unlimited energy.

Well, it doesn’t sound bad at first. If they only accept volunteers, pay proper wages, and maintain a good work-life balance, it’s not necessarily a bad job from the workers’ perspective.

Of course, if it goes beyond that, the story changes.

We both ate our bread in silence for a while.

The weather has completely warmed up now. It’s spring. School has started again.

In the meantime, I’ve been through several more battles. My magical girl name, “Happy Lily,” has become famous among people.

Surprisingly, the news didn’t edit or blur my outfit. I think they probably treat it similar to dresses celebrities wear at award ceremonies.

“You know what?”

Perhaps thinking the atmosphere had become a bit awkward, Jihye asked me.

“People around me often ask about you.”

“Really?”

People around me don’t talk to me.

Come to think of it, maybe they’ve gained another reason to ostracize me. Perhaps because it’s a school where many students need to be mindful of “magical girls” or the “Federation,” they just don’t approach me easily. If it were a school with more ill-natured kids, some might pick fights about my outfit.

A magical girl can’t exactly go around hitting other people.

“Yeah. They often say you’re cool.”

“I see.”

Since everyone around me acts that way, the words didn’t fully resonate with me.

“How… are things lately?”

“Huh?”

“The magical girl work, I mean. Is it hard?”

“No, it’s not hard.”

The combatants were too easy to defeat. In fact, most of them run away as soon as they see me. It seems no one particularly wants to get hit by a hammer.

“But why?”

“Hmm?”

“You look like you need to think about something.”

“…”

Think, think.

I pondered for a moment while swinging back and forth on the swing where I sat. It’s not exactly a recliner, but the floating sensation isn’t bad. That’s probably why this place is often used by other kids for heart-to-heart talks with friends.

When I sit here, Jihye comes and sits beside me, and we chat about various things.

Talking about your worries to a friend rarely solves anything. They’re just kids around my age, and even if they offer solutions, they’re rarely effective.

But still, it feels refreshing after talking. Perhaps because they don’t have the power to solve problems, it’s actually more comfortable when it just ends with talking.

Adults always try to intervene and solve things, or arbitrarily end conversations and pretend nothing happened.

“There’s this one persistent combatant.”

When I spoke, Jihye listened attentively. It gets oddly serious when someone who usually talks a lot becomes quiet.

“Everyone else runs away as soon as they see me, but this one alone stands before me and refuses to fall.”

“Are you… saying you lose?”

“No, that’s not it. When we fight, I almost always win with one hit. It’s just… there’s someone like that.”

I paused briefly, then continued.

“But that persistence doesn’t seem like mere stubbornness. Nor does it seem like professional dedication.”

This was all just my speculation.

Whenever they stand before me, they clench their fists and take a stance. They might tremble a bit, but there’s no wavering.

That was somewhat different from simply persisting out of stubbornness. It was as if they were waiting to fight me.

“…Could they be a pervert? Like, someone who enjoys getting hit?”

“Come on, no way.”

“Hmm… or maybe they’re professionally a fighter?”

“Well, I’m not sure about that either.”

If you ask if they’re really good at fighting, that doesn’t seem to be the case either. I lack an objective assessment here. The power difference between us is too great.

Plus, they’re an alien who can’t even run a circuit. There’s quite a difference compared to a magical girl with a fully operational circuit.

“So, you don’t want to encounter them?”

“No.”

It’s rather the opposite, if anything.

Even though they’re an enemy, I feel some kind of connection.

I was once like that too.

No, maybe I still am.

“This is complicated.”

When I gave an ambiguous answer, Jihye didn’t press further and just smiled, saying that.

“Yeah, it’s complicated.”

I exhaled deeply, feeling somewhat ridiculous about my own feelings.

*

After spending a lot of time at the magical girl headquarters, I realized that sometimes it’s better to just rest at home.

Even magical girls occasionally don’t come to headquarters when there are no deployments, probably for the same reason.

I told headquarters I wanted to rest at home for about a week. Cherry said that was fine. Hayun understood too.

When I decided to take a break, Hayun seemed to do the same, as today she got off at the same bus stop as usual.

I still haven’t told Hayun where I live. In fact, as we spend more time together, it feels less and less necessary.

It was nice walking home from school together after so long, but I still didn’t want Hayun to come all the way to the orphanage where I stay.

We walked for a while until we reached the place where I usually see Hayun off.

Not many children live up there. It’s such a wealthy neighborhood. Even if they do live there, few people would think of climbing that high hill on foot.

“Well, this is it for today.”

Hayun said, sounding somewhat down.

I doubt it, but could she possibly be sad about parting with me?

“See you tomorrow—”

As Hayun was saying that,

“Blegh.”

We heard that sound from not too far away.

Both Hayun and I turned our heads immediately.

There was a girl whose entire body was painted blue—

No, her skin was just naturally blue.

Not just her skin, but she had two antenna-like things on her head. They weren’t gross or anything, just looked like parts of her hair standing up.

How to describe it… She looked like an alien heroine from an 80s cartoon.

“Ugh, I drank too much today.”

She looked about our age but said something that didn’t sound like our age at all.

“…”

Hayun and I looked at each other, then back at the alien.

For some reason, the alien suddenly took off her shoes at the edge of the sidewalk, went onto the road, and neatly arranged her shoes.

Then she lay down in the middle of the road as if it were her bedroom.

Even though it was spring, the weather was still a bit chilly.

No matter how few cars or people passed by, lying there was dangerous.

We looked at each other again, shook our heads, and approached the alien lying there.

As we both moved her to the sidewalk, I found it strange that she didn’t smell of alcohol.