Ch.293IF Side Story. From the Beginning (61)

Pang Pang had expected things to turn out this way.

After all, there was no way she could win against a Magical Girl.

She had never won before. To be more precise, she had never even landed an effective hit.

But she didn’t feel too bad about it.

Because she liked Magical Girls.

Because her opponent was her friend. So, she thought it didn’t really matter if she lost.

In fact, Pang Pang didn’t particularly want Noir Corporation to win.

But today, everything finally fell apart.

She had tried not to get caught. The reason she had planned to escape was because she didn’t want her identity as a Combatant to be discovered.

Pang Pang thought she should have just told Jieun everything from the start.

Jieun might have understood. After all, she had been winning all this time. Though Noir Corporation was seriously working on some unknown plan, it hadn’t been going smoothly. Since they had never properly won before, maybe Jieun wouldn’t have taken it too seriously.

Until that incident last time.

The incident where they sent a fake mother to Jieun. Even though Jieun said they weren’t really trying to deceive her, it was natural that she couldn’t forgive Noir Corporation for orchestrating it from behind.

And today…

They had tried to steal what Jieun was protecting while her home and family were under attack.

And in the process, she got caught.

Now she finally understood. Why James had appeared only now. Why he had set those conditions. …In fact, the conditions probably didn’t matter. After all, Pang Pang couldn’t win anyway.

If only, if only.

Really, at the last moment, she should have just confessed everything. What if she had gotten on her knees and begged?

…

But even that wasn’t what Pang Pang wanted.

Pang Pang—she just wanted to remain friends. Someone who, despite not having much, could have pleasant conversations when they met.

…It must have been greed.

After all, Pang Pang was someone who didn’t quit even when she could have, saying she wanted to earn even a bit more money. The fact that things had gotten so complicated was ultimately her own fault.

She was out of breath. She was probably running faster than she ever had in her life.

Where should she escape to? She couldn’t face Jieun right now. Maybe she should spend more time away before meeting her again?

Really.

If only she could activate her circuit right now, it would probably be spinning vigorously.

*

Is it because of me?

I anxiously wondered.

Until just recently, everything was fine. Even though I was a Magical Girl, even though I was the protagonist.

After all, everyone around me liked me. We hung out when we had time, had parties on special occasions. Sometimes we even played games or had friendly competitions.

I thought fighting Noir Corporation was just a matter of fighting as much as we could.

After all, the original work was just a gag webtoon where each episode ended as a standalone story, and even in the more serious official serialization, it progressed without a clear main storyline.

I know that in reality, stories don’t progress with time frozen like that. But that’s why I thought it wasn’t so bad. If I just lived through each repeating day, life would take care of itself.

Earn a lot of money, go to university, become properly independent, and maybe switch to a more stable job if possible…

That’s how I wanted to live.

But whoever put me here doesn’t seem to agree with that idea.

Are they trying to say that living like that is wrong? By making everyone around me, the protagonist, become unhappy one by one.

Jihye is anxious. Because an incident happened in her otherwise peaceful life because of me. Moreover, the person who appeared as “my” mother somehow even had a similar atmosphere to Jihye. If that person were really Jihye’s mother… how would Jihye react? It wasn’t easy to imagine.

Pang Pang was like that too.

If it weren’t for me, couldn’t she have just lived normally on Earth? The only difference Pang Pang gained from knowing me was being acquainted with a Magical Girl.

Rather, she ended up in this situation because she took my side.

So—is it my fault?

Down below, I could see Pang Pang’s retreating figure growing distant. As if she had nothing left, Pang Pang kept running away.

This was a side of Pang Pang I had never seen before.

…I see.

So that’s why she always stayed until the end.

Because it was a match with us—

“Jieun!”

Hayun called out from behind me.

“…”

But she couldn’t say anything more.

What should we do now?

Should we catch Pang Pang as she runs away?

And if we catch her, what would we say?

I couldn’t ask why she had been doing this all along. Pang Pang was struggling that much. She had to do whatever she could to earn money. In that sense, being a Combatant was actually a legal job.

“…Let’s go,” I said.

No.

I couldn’t just let her go like this. Somehow, I needed to go and clear up this misunderstanding.

Even though we hadn’t been friends for long, a friend is still a friend. At least, I could clearly feel that’s what Pang Pang thought.

Hayun followed my words and flew faster, dropping down toward Pang Pang who was running ahead—

But right after that.

Combatants sprang up all around us.

Were there always this many Combatants? We rarely faced more than twenty people at once in our usual encounters.

“Pang Pang!”

I shouted without thinking. And as I tried to run in that direction, something like a net flew over my head. It wasn’t a simple net. It was a net designed to capture Magical Girls, even if just for a moment—no, originally made to capture Kaijin alive.

Why?

Pang Pang was just one Combatant. She never acted as a team leader for the Combatants during our fights.

So why? Why did so many people spring out to save just one Pang Pang?

Momentarily confused, I swung my hammer. The hammer, surrounded by magical power, could easily melt through something like a net. Hayun, who had descended almost at the same time as me, swung her staff to clear away the net.

Pang Pang’s figure blended in among the Combatants. From a distance, it was hard to see the scratches on her helmet.

“…”

I heard gunshots from behind. Ju-a was shooting down the nets flying toward us. Yeonwoo, who had joined a bit later, also blew away the nets with her magic.

Chaeyeon and Seo-hee seemed to still be guarding that place.

“…So that’s how it is.”

I gripped my hammer and raised it up.

Then I struck the ground with force.

“Jieun!”

Hayun shouted.

But I couldn’t just stand still right now.

I wanted to talk. About why things had turned out this way. Why she was running away like that, and why the Combatants were helping Pang Pang like this.

Some people were already showing their backs as they fled. Several people on their side were also fleeing, breaking their formation.

But I still couldn’t easily distinguish Pang Pang. I couldn’t see her visor from behind.

I jumped up powerfully. And flew toward the front of that formation. A few more nets came flying, but this time I could avoid them since I already knew about them. In fact, several of the launching devices had already been broken by Ju-a and Yeonwoo’s magic.

…Is this okay?

Is it alright to go wild like this, so far from the operation zone, against Combatants trying to stop us? I wasn’t sure.

I just wanted to find Pang Pang.

But as more people fled, it became even harder to find her. She was getting mixed up among all the people. Thinking about it again, Pang Pang’s combat suit and helmet were all mass-produced items. If she had switched just her helmet for something different, I wouldn’t have been able to recognize her easily.

And, as I thought, I found a helmet rolling on the ground.

“…”

I trudged over to it, bent down, and picked up the helmet. It was heavier than I expected. Maybe even heavier than the ones used in the military. Perhaps because it protected the entire face?

One side of the helmet’s visor was broken. Someone, I don’t know who, had struck it hard with something solid, without mercy.

…

It was me.

Through that broken gap, Pang Pang’s eyes had been wide open. As if seeing something terrifying.

And there was a little blood visible inside too.

When I turned the helmet over, there was definitely blood on the inside.

“…Haa.”

I didn’t even have the strength to say anything.

The fatigue that had been building up all this time now seemed to rush in all at once, making my head spin.

Too many things had happened in just one day.

“Jieun.”

Hayun cautiously approached me, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the helmet I was holding.

“…Hayun,” I murmured softly.

“…What do we do now?”

Hayun just stared blankly at the helmet in my hand and then at my face, as if she had no idea what to do.

I don’t know.

My head isn’t working well anymore.

What kind of news articles will come out tomorrow, how the media will talk about what I did.

…And how Combatants will be portrayed.

It was too exhausting to think about.

Only two concerns kept surfacing: worries about Jihye and Pang Pang.

“…Let’s go back, Jieun.”

Only after Hayun said that was I finally able to nod.