Ch.315IF Side Story: From the Beginning (83)

“Hey, Jihye.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Okay? I’m perfectly fine!”

Jihye straightened her shoulders and lifted her head as she spoke.

“Look, I’m both a weapon and a shield. …No, wait, if I’m a shield, does that mean I’m not a weapon? Anyway, that’s exactly why there was no reason for me to get hurt at all.”

“No, I know that.”

That’s a relief. My biggest worry was that Jihye, who I couldn’t evacuate from that situation, might get seriously injured.

Plus, it was comforting to know that going forward, I could worry a little less about that.

However, that wasn’t what I meant.

“You missed school today.”

Even if we left now… well, I suppose we could still make it.

We’d arrive after lunch, with more than half of the school day already gone, but still.

The other magical girls and I have already missed school several times like this.

When Noir Corporation and magical girls first started clashing, they would cause incidents at all hours without warning. It was only after accumulating public complaints and receiving thousands of grievances from hundreds of people that they finally started to show some consideration.

Besides the noise, there’s nothing more infuriating than finding your morning subway blocked or your bus stuck in traffic, unable to take a detour.

While the company’s combatants have somewhat adjusted their timing, the kaijin appearances haven’t.

And with kaijin, magical girls can’t just ignore the situation. There have been a few days when we had to leave school early or miss it entirely to respond to suddenly appearing kaijin.

However, we haven’t faced major penalties for this so far. While we don’t get perfect attendance, our absences are recorded as “excused,” and they’re counted as a form of community service, so in a way, we’re actually given preferential treatment.

This is only possible because Hayun, myself, and the other magical girls attend the same school. Our school has already mastered handling these situations.

But Jihye is different. She wasn’t a magical girl until now. I’m not sure if the news cameras caught Jihye becoming a magical girl, so the teachers and staff at her school might be completely unaware.

“Yeah, well… I guess one day won’t hurt?”

“I never thought I’d hear you say that.”

Jihye is a model student.

She cut her hair to a bob and was too lazy to maintain it regularly, leaving the ends looking somewhat uneven, but her grades are good. She studies hard and has never missed a day of school.

“I was surprised when you said you wanted to be a magical girl. You never seemed interested in that sort of thing.”

From the moment I learned about Noir Corporation, I knew Hayun would become a magical girl.

Of course, I was burning with jealousy inside. I was just doing my best to pretend I wasn’t on the outside.

“But now you’re fighting in the most daring outfit among all the magical girls.”

“…”

I’ve given up explaining that it wasn’t my intention. There’s no point when no one listens.

“Are you going to continue being a magical girl?”

I asked carefully.

“…Is that not okay?”

Jihye asked cautiously.

I looked at her expression.

I wondered if she might have been swept up in the situation and accepted something she didn’t want to do.

Anyone can admire magical girls. But that’s not the same as actually becoming one.

Today, Jihye saw not just combatants but a kaijin. And right after that, we went to a place where people were dying.

After seeing all that, would she still want to be a magical girl? Even I had never witnessed such scenes until today.

“If you want to do it, I can’t stop you.”

“So… you’re saying it can’t be helped?”

“No, that’s not it. To be honest, I’d be happy to have a friend working with me.”

That’s how I answered.

Yes.

Just as I see being a magical girl as my dream and hope, others might feel the same way.

Simply telling her not to do it based on my thoughts would be exactly like what my fake mother used to say—not considering my wishes and asking me not to do something because she was worried.

“…”

“Something on your mind?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

It suddenly occurred to me that that person might actually be Jihye’s mother.

I don’t know how Jihye would take that fact. Of course, Jihye is mentally much healthier than I am, so she might just accept it and move on.

…

No, that’s probably not the case.

I’ve spent my entire life in an orphanage.

Because of that, I know how much the children there wait for their parents.

It’s impossible for it not to affect her.

“The executive we captured.”

I changed the subject.

“I’m a bit worried about what to ask first when he wakes up.”

I thought Noir Corporation might have inquired about their executive by now, but there’s been no sign of that yet.

Either they’ve abandoned him, or they’re too preoccupied with their research complex exploding.

We’ll find out everything once he wakes up.

The most important thing I wanted to ask was where Pang Pang was and how she was doing.

*

“…”

“Are you going to keep saying nothing?”

I said to the black hamster in front of me.

I couldn’t torture him. Even if the Federation ordered me to, I wouldn’t want to do it. I wouldn’t want to make the others do it either.

Have I become too immersed in my position as a magical girl?

I wasn’t sure if this was a realistic or rational judgment, but well, there was no need to be so aggressive from the start.

In the worst case, I could just make something up and end it. They say information obtained through torture isn’t reliable anyway.

“From what I can see, your situation doesn’t look too good either.”

I wasn’t alone in the room with him.

Behind me stood other magical girls, and Cherry was sitting right next to the executive, glaring at him.

“What do you think your company will say when you go back? You were the highest-ranking person there, right? You caused such an accident. Do you think you can go back?”

Like rumors that circulate in all large corporations, there are ominous rumors about Noir Corporation.

That they bury those who oppose their company, or threaten them… Well, considering they’re the type to hire thugs to push people around, I wouldn’t be surprised if such things actually happened.

“…I was deceived.”

“Huh?”

“I said I was deceived.”

The hamster’s sudden statement caught me off guard, and I couldn’t understand what he meant for a moment.

Recognizing an alien’s facial expressions isn’t easy. For example, there are types like us who at least look like “living beings,” but there are also many aliens who look like walking piles of rocks. Even if such an alien made a “sad face,” it wouldn’t be easy to recognize.

Even with animals, you can somewhat tell their expressions… but even so, Cherry, who comes from the same planet as this Noir Corporation executive, is usually hard to read expression-wise.

I can only tell when emotions are strongly displayed.

But in this executive’s case, his face was overflowing with indignation. I was dumbfounded.

“Deceived about what?”

“It wasn’t supposed to go to the research complex.”

“…”

“Such a conspiracy…”

“You’re saying the company conspired? That they deliberately caused that explosion?”

“…”

“Speak clearly.”

Was the executive talking nonsense? It could be an act. The fact that I could read his expression meant it was that exaggerated.

I looked at Cherry, but she was just watching the executive with a serious expression.

“…What company would want to blow up a research complex built with astronomical costs?”

“But it did explode, didn’t it?”

Looking at the executive who was making inconsistent statements, I asked.

“It was another faction.”

“Another faction?”

“Yes. Clearly—!?”

I abruptly stood up and strode over to Cherry’s table.

Then I grabbed the executive in my hand.

“What are you—!?”

But his words stopped when I held him upside down. With his head pointing downward, I stared at the executive for a while.

“Jieun!?”

Cherry was shocked, but my eyes were fixed on the executive.

“From now on, I’ll give you a chance. That chance is to answer what we ask. So, to put it more clearly, it means answer ‘only’ what we ask. Got it?”

The executive just stared at me, frozen stiff.

“I’m actually holding back, you know? I don’t care about your story. I don’t care how Noir Corporation operates or whether your company will contact the Federation or not. If you came here thinking about those things, I’d prefer you put them aside.”

“…”

Sensing the strength gradually increasing in my hand, the executive hastily nodded.

“Good.”

I put the executive back on the table and returned to my seat.

“Then, I’ll ask this first.”

I crossed my legs.

“Where is Pang Pang?”