Ch.288IF Side Story: From the Beginning (56)

Okay. For now, let’s just forget everything.

I don’t want to open my mouth and hurt anyone unnecessarily. The resemblance might just be in my head, and there’s no other evidence to support it.

If I carelessly suggested something like “Could she be your mother?” and it turned out not to be true, that would be far worse. That would be truly cruel.

Everything was returning to normal.

My circuit was starting to function properly again. It wasn’t running at full power like before, giving me incredible strength, but it was enough to transform, swing my hammer, intimidate Combatants, and knock down Kaijin.

That was sufficient.

Most magical girl stories end with the complete elimination of the villain. Either banishing them from Earth or annihilating them completely. This is similar to special effects shows.

It makes sense when you think about it. These are cartoons for children, after all. It’s better if villains are simple and there’s clear justification for defeating them.

The problem was that the webtoon I read was a satire of reality.

It placed magical girls in a real-world context. It portrayed the enemy as a massive corporation and grounded that corporation in reality.

The magical girls struggled with their studies, daily lives, and relationships with children. They reacted sometimes comically, sometimes bitterly, adding entertainment value to the work.

The corporation was portrayed similarly. The common Combatants showed the struggles of ordinary office workers in strangely emotional ways, making readers laugh at the absurdity.

The content became more serious when it was officially serialized, but the basic premise remained the same. It just had less humor.

So the conflict structure resembled reality.

When the government and a massive corporation clash, it’s difficult for one side to completely dominate the other. Of course, while a corporation couldn’t destroy the government, it wasn’t entirely impossible for a government to destroy a corporation… well.

Eliminating a company brought in from the galaxy for immediate profit is another story. Perhaps Noir Corporation might actually be larger than the territory of the Republic of Korea.

So, this lifestyle would likely continue for a long time.

I didn’t think that was a bad thing. It wasn’t that I wanted to be a magical girl for a long time, but rather… how should I put it? In a way, I had found a sustainable goal.

“Jieun.”

I was absentmindedly staring at the sky from the rooftop and didn’t notice Hayun approaching me.

“Yeah. The sky is just so beautiful.”

I answered before she could ask why I was sitting there.

“I see.”

Hayun sat down beside me.

I thought she might be sitting a bit too close, but I didn’t mind. Why would I dislike Hayun? If anything, my feelings leaned more toward liking her.

We’re childhood friends.

We haven’t known each other as long as I’ve known Jihye, but in terms of “friendship,” I’ve never met anyone in either life who I’ve known since such a young age.

More precisely, I’ve never maintained a relationship this long. I did attend elementary school in my past life.

It feels like we understand each other without saying anything, have similar desires and preferences. Above all, it’s most fun when we play together. Just as I think of Hayun that way, I’m sure Hayun thinks of me the same way.

That’s probably why she suggested we become magical girls together, and why we’ve been working together all this time.

I wanted to sit like that a little longer.

But the pager went off.

Hayun and I reflexively stood up and made eye contact.

Then, without either of us taking the lead, we nodded to each other and started running.

It’s strange.

When I was an adult, I hated work so much. But now, perhaps because I don’t need to think about other things while working, I actually find it comforting.

Is it like how students think studying is the worst thing? That kind of feeling?

…

No, I probably just want to escape.

At least when there’s work to do, I don’t have to dwell on my worries.

*

This time, our job was to “protect” again.

Protecting a researcher in the basement of some house.

It was far too large to be called “just a family home,” but still, it was fundamentally a place where people lived. I couldn’t understand why there was a research lab in the basement and why we needed to protect it.

Had the Federation made contracts with people like this too?

“…Come to think of it, we don’t get that much information.”

“Well, can’t be helped. They might call us magical girls, but we’re still high school students, right? If they tell us everything and it leaks while we’re laughing and chatting with other kids, what then?”

Yeonwoo, who was standing next to me, answered.

It sounded reasonable at first, but thinking about all the news stories from the world I used to live in, anyone could leak confidential information, not just high school girls.

Besides, there are only six magical girls. There’s no need to share information with more people, but something still felt off.

Moreover, there was something else about this place that bothered me.

I looked at Hayun in the distance.

Hayun had been trying to come over to me for a while, but for some reason, a girl who lived in this house kept talking to her.

A rich man’s daughter.

Seeing this, I could somewhat understand why they filled the magical girl positions with daughters from wealthy families.

…Perhaps if someone came from an ordinary family, they might feel intimidated when facing people like this. Or the other party might try some subtle power play.

That girl is from our school. I even recognize her face.

I maintained relatively decent relationships with other students, but that doesn’t mean I got along well with everyone. Some kids looked down on me. Probably because I was an orphan, even before becoming a magical girl.

That girl was one of them. Of all people.

“I wish she’d just get an autograph if she wants one and then leave us alone.”

As I sighed deeply, Yeonwoo gave a bitter smile.

“Yeah, well, can’t be helped. Rich people always try to network with others who have similar wealth when they meet them.”

“I’ve felt that since before.”

While we were talking, Ju-a, who had been floating high in the sky, descended gracefully.

But her expression wasn’t very pleased.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s no sign of any Combatants appearing…”

Ju-a said, tilting her head.

“Until now, we usually moved after the Combatants made the first move, right? With them attacking first and us defending. So even if we moved a little earlier, we should at least see some traces of Combatants moving.”

“Maybe they noticed us and gave up in advance?”

Seo-hee, who had approached us, asked.

“…No.”

Chaeyeon, who was sitting on a bench a little distance away from us, spoke up.

“…Noir Corporation has fought even in situations where victory seemed unlikely.”

Saying it like that makes them sound more like the protagonists, doesn’t it?

That was actually one of the things that bothered me about the comic.

If you want to present both sides equally, you usually portray both sides as either equally bad or having good aspects.

But in the official webtoon, they emphasized the negative and impulsive aspects of the magical girls while extensively detailing the sad stories of the Combatants. As if the magical girls were beating up people who should never be harmed.

…If that’s the case, they shouldn’t have shown such terribly negative aspects like kidnapping people, stealing things, or driving out people living peacefully for redevelopment… but anyway.

It’s meaningless to discuss this now. I’ve already entered that world.

“They fought even when victory seemed unlikely…”

I wasn’t the only one who found that statement a bit strange.

“All the Combatants ran away. Even the one who stayed hasn’t been seen lately.”

At Seo-hee’s words, Chaeyeon shook her head.

“…No. That’s not what I meant.”

She paused briefly before continuing.

“I meant investment as a company. The Combatants are just employees.”

“Oh, that kind of meaning.”

I couldn’t help but nod at Chaeyeon’s explanation.

It’s not like they’re the ones getting hurt.

They’re a wealthy company, and if they succeed, they gain enormous benefits, but failure doesn’t deal them a significant blow.

In fact, it might even be good to annoy us.

So they just send people out whenever they deem it necessary.

“…”

We were silent for a moment.

Hayun seemed to be wrapping up her conversation with the girl. She was probably giving her the cold shoulder. Even from here, I could see the girl’s smile becoming increasingly forced.

Then suddenly, something occurred to me.

“…Wait a minute.”

I looked at Chaeyeon again.

“But how did we know this place was going to be attacked?”

The Combatants hadn’t appeared in advance.

And Noir Corporation was a company that kept its secrets well. Last time, we had to literally beat up an executive before getting any information.

“…We saw Combatants lurking around here a few hours ago. Probably that person over there saw them.”

Ju-a pointed at the daughter who was talking with Hayun.

“It’s probably not a lie. We verified it with CCTV.”

Yeonwoo said.

“Then why aren’t they showing up now?”

“Maybe they’re waiting for us to leave before making their move.”

Yeonwoo suggested.

Is that so?

Indeed, they might take action as soon as we leave, thinking nothing’s wrong.

…But something feels strangely unsettling.

I thought this as I watched Hayun finally approaching us.