Ch.279IF Side Story: From the Beginning (47)

Pang Pang’s job didn’t seem particularly difficult.

Just like always, going somewhere to break things.

Usually, “Noir Corporation” was the legal side, so there wouldn’t be any major problems.

No, actually, today she felt much more at ease than usual.

Fighting with Jieun wasn’t a bad thing.

It sounds a bit strange, but she meant it. Being able to somehow confront a Magical Girl, and having someone who deliberately waits and accepts her challenges—for someone who considered herself a fan, it wasn’t an unpleasant thing.

But at the same time, she had concerns.

Well, the hammer isn’t exactly sturdy.

If she got hit in the head by mistake, her helmet might break.

Pang Pang was always anxious that Jieun might recognize her face if that happened.

If only they hadn’t become friends. If they hadn’t somehow met and become friends, it wouldn’t have bothered her at all.

Last time, when Jieun called her over and had her sit in a chair next to her, she was trembling inside.

In the end, Jieun got up and left without saying much.

“…Hey, isn’t something strange?”

But someone’s comment interrupted Pang Pang’s thoughts.

Magical Girls usually respond quickly. Even if what the Combatants were messing with wasn’t directly related to the Magical Girls or wasn’t a big deal, most Magical Girls would appear very quickly to interfere with the Combatants.

Noir Corporation always seemed angry about that, as if they didn’t like it. Especially the executives—in Pang Pang’s team, James would get extremely angry.

“…”

Could they have discovered that Pang Pang was friends with the Magical Girls?

It wasn’t like Jieun was always meeting with Pang Pang outside, but they did see each other’s faces quite often.

…Rather than surveillance of Magical Girls being lax, they probably just didn’t pay much attention to Combatants. If they had been paying attention, Pang Pang would have been in big trouble in a different way.

“Why aren’t the Magical Girls showing up?”

Another Combatant muttered, finding it strange.

BANG!

Pang Pang silently swung her hammer, destroying what Noir Corporation had ordered them to destroy.

She hadn’t destroyed everything yet. It was still in a state that could be better described as “safe.”

An antenna on top of a low mountain.

Not in Seoul, but in Gyeonggi-do. Judging by what was nearby, it seemed they wanted to observe Noir Corporation’s industrial complex somehow.

Though with the thick walls surrounding the complex, it wouldn’t be easy—

“No way! You guys were talking about them and now they’ve really appeared!”

Someone’s panicked voice was heard.

Pang Pang looked up at the sky following the sound.

What she saw there was the usual red light.

“…Hey, you guys.”

But judging by the low, guttural voice, the other party didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

Rose. And the Magical Girl beside her was Delphinium.

Not exactly a matching combination.

It was as if everyone else was unavoidably busy elsewhere, so these two had come here.

“We’re not in a great mood right now, you know? Our friend got hurt, and we were in the middle of something when you interrupted us.”

Crack.

Even though she was wearing gauntlets, Pang Pang couldn’t understand why that sound could be heard all the way from here.

Seeing magical energy begin to swirl around Delphinium, the Combatants let out terrified sounds.

Some Combatants had already turned around and started running.

“…”

Pang Pang could see the circuit on that Combatant’s wrist.

“…Ah, you. The one who always fights Jieun instead of running away.”

Was Pang Pang already quite famous among the Magical Girls?

Pang Pang looked up at Rose.

“If you run away now, I’ll let you go just because you’re friends with Jieun. It’ll only hurt if you fight anyway, right?”

But Pang Pang didn’t run.

She didn’t have a circuit. And she didn’t have any particular pride in this job.

But somehow, running away here felt like it would tarnish “Lily’s” reputation.

Even if no one else was watching.

At least in front of “Lily,” Pang Pang had never run away.

“…Ha.”

Seeing Pang Pang clench her fists, Rose spoke.

“So that’s how it is.”

Rose closed her eyes, then opened them.

“Then I’ll knock you out with one blow.”

Pang Pang gulped.

*

“Do you think it’s possible, Ju-a?”

“Hmm.”

At the hospital.

It wasn’t closing time yet, so Ju-a and Hayun were sitting in the park outside the hospital.

Both of them had hats pulled down over their heads. Hayun wore large glasses on her face, and Ju-a wore a mask.

They thought they had hidden their identities well enough. At least, no one had paid any special attention to them so far.

On Ju-a’s lap was a laptop.

Normally, all the other Magical Girls should have been there too. But with bad timing, a call came from Gyeonggi-do rather than Seoul, leaving only three people here.

They couldn’t use the circuit.

If they used the Magical Girl circuit, everyone would know they were using such a circuit to hack into the hospital system.

What they were using was a laptop containing a magical circuit that Ju-a had created.

“…Accessing the hospital computer server won’t be easy.”

Yeonwoo, who was pacing near the bench, said.

“We’ll have to… we’ll have to try to know.”

Ju-a whispered softly as she tapped on the laptop again.

There must be more than just one or two computers, right? Yeonwoo thought so but didn’t bother to ask for more details.

“Hmm.”

“Ju-a?”

“It’s… a bit complicated.”

Ju-a answered.

“Actually, we don’t even know exactly what we’re looking for. If it’s just test results, then the paternity test results are already out, and if we’re trying to find test samples…”

“Right. It might be much easier to just search that woman’s house.”

Ju-a and Hayun looked up at Yeonwoo with shocked expressions.

Yeonwoo immediately put on an aggrieved expression.

“What? Isn’t trying to search through the hospital database even stranger?”

“…”

Hayun was silent for a moment at Yeonwoo’s words.

Rationally, Yeonwoo was right. They had actually tried to do that.

Or they could just grab the woman and take a hair sample.

However…

“The other party is probably extremely cautious,” Ju-a said.

“It’s Noir Corporation. If they’ve already manipulated the results once, there’s no reason they can’t do it two or three more times.”

“Even if we go to a different hospital?”

“Even if we go to a different hospital. They could delay the results or somehow shake Jieun’s confidence. We might be able to do something, but that would also take time.”

Yeonwoo had to nod at that.

“And…”

Hayun spoke up.

“What if, when we do that, that person really is her birth mother?”

“…”

“What if we just suspected her, and because we didn’t trust her, we just took a sample as if threatening her?”

Yeonwoo fell into thought for a moment, then closed her eyes.

She let out a deep sigh and tapped the ground with her toes.

Though no one showed it, Hayun knew. Everyone considered Jieun a special friend.

And Jieun, though she appeared strong and simple on the outside, actually had a very sensitive heart.

Just having someone who “might be her mother” nearby had shaken her so much.

Though they hadn’t heard all the details of her inner thoughts, those complicated feelings alone had hurt Jieun enough that she couldn’t activate her circuit.

So, if Hayun tried to harm her “birth mother”…

How would Jieun react?

That’s why everyone couldn’t bring themselves to use direct methods.

For fear of being hated by Jieun.

“Seriously, we’re hopeless,” Yeonwoo said, shaking her head in disbelief and sighing deeply.

“Ah.”

And right at that moment, Ju-a muttered.

Yeonwoo and Hayun’s gazes simultaneously turned to Ju-a.

“Did you find something?”

“Well…”

Ju-a muttered.

“I… did find something.”

“You found something but?”

“It’s been deleted. The sample was destroyed. This wasn’t as deeply hidden information as I thought.”

Ju-a said with a frown.

Hayun and Yeonwoo’s shoulders slumped.

“Then? Is there no way? Do we just have to go to that person and say, ‘We don’t trust you or your company, so please give us a genetic sample’?”

Yeonwoo asked, sounding frustrated.

“No, there is one more person we could ask.”

Ju-a looked up at Hayun and Yeonwoo.

“James.”

“James?”

Both of them repeated Ju-a’s words.

“This person named James came by after the sample arrived. It looked like he was giving some kind of instructions. After that, the sample disappeared.”

“How do you know that?”

Ju-a turned the laptop around to show them.

Unlike other laptops, this one, with a screen made of magical energy, showed something like CCTV footage.

“…How do you find things like this?”

When Yeonwoo asked, sounding appalled, Ju-a let out a long sigh.

“The password for the wirelessly connected CCTV was just the hospital name with an exclamation mark at the end.”

“…”

The two were speechless.

There was one person in the video.

A person with blonde hair, neatly parted 2:8 and combed over.

…It was the “executive” they occasionally saw.