Ch.322IF Side Story: From the Beginning (90)

Kaijin, kaijin, kaijin.

Strangely transformed people poured out from everywhere.

The bridge didn’t seem to have a normal structure. One wall opened, and the beings that flooded in were those kaijin resembling Earth humans.

How on earth?

No, thinking about it might be foolish in itself.

In this country, the only people who can activate the Hope Circuit are the magical girls here right now. Perhaps there are many others like Jihye or me who haven’t been discovered yet. Considering how many people use the Hope Circuit not just in Korea but worldwide, if they started searching in earnest, they might find many more.

But they can’t just extract them recklessly like Noir Corporation does.

The government keeps the Federation in check. No matter how cordial they may appear on the surface, those in power despise new powers entering the country.

Noir Corporation, at least, doesn’t touch “politics.”

Besides, in modern society, despair is too common an emotion. If you grabbed random people off the street and fitted them with circuits, quite a few could probably immediately function as combatants.

That means it might be possible to “gather” negative emotions too.

It might not be as powerful as our energy. But through those steadily supplied emotions, they might have discovered a way to forcibly transform people into kaijin.

BANG!

And some of those kaijin—yes, they might be able to make them despair endlessly.

If something keeps hurting. If they’re afraid. People despair. Of course, some might give up entirely, but if they could deliberately create beings that don’t know the concept of giving up.

…With their technology, aliens can heal broken bones and torn wounds. They can even manipulate cells to regrow completely crushed limbs, missing organs, or burned skin.

Then, wouldn’t it be possible to “create” Earth humans too?

They might not be able to produce mana innately, but if they’re beings who despair greatly yet still rampage, that might be an emotion of “not giving up and trying to escape.” Unlike hope, it’s not entirely impossible to create.

“…”

None of us spoke throughout the battle.

They’re not much different from ordinary kaijin. They hadn’t prepared armor to wear, so except for the circuits on their chests, the kaijin barely covered parts of their bodies.

But that made them look even more grotesque.

Even these aren’t completed beings. Noir Corporation ultimately wanted to complete the generator. These kaijin are merely tools to perfect their technology by completing that generator.

“That’s right.”

I hear the sound of devices breaking under my hammer.

When dealing with too many opponents, we develop our own techniques. The best way to break a circuit is to strike it with a weapon that has much stronger mana than the circuit itself.

Once the circuit breaks, kaijin can’t use their power. After that, we just need to knock them out.

“Haa… haa…”

But it wasn’t easy.

Even if each kaijin was manageable, if there were so many that counting them became meaningless…

CRACK.

Hayun stabbed a pink blade into one kaijin’s chest. Seeing the kaijin stop moving, she dashed off again.

“…”

This seems endless.

The generator I carried on my back wasn’t running much yet. It was originally designed to use despair energy.

Perhaps the reason it doesn’t resonate with the kaijin is because Cherry modified it somewhat.

Or maybe James helped unexpectedly.

Despite everything, he probably wanted to stop whoever staged the coup.

“Jieun!”

While I was momentarily distracted, several kaijin targeted me.

Jihye slipped between them and pushed her shield forward. The kaijin’s attacks bounced off the shield, and Seohee’s fists crashed into them.

Yes, that’s right.

I’m not alone.

From the moment I became a magical girl, “isolation” was no longer an option for me.

My friends who care for me so much.

Thanks to these girls, we could be here.

Alright.

“Chaeyeon!”

“Yes.”

Unlike usual, Chaeyeon responded immediately to my call. There were no ellipses that typically followed her responses.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked at me.

Even in this situation, Chaeyeon hadn’t lost hope at all.

Would freezing all the kaijin cause serious harm to their lives?

“No.”

Chaeyeon answered firmly.

“We’ve already seen those kaijin. When we examined the unconscious ones, they weren’t much different from alien kaijin.”

“Really? I see.”

I nodded, then pointed ahead with my hammer.

“Then freeze that entire passage.”

“What?”

Jua’s eyes widened.

“But that might be the way we need to go!”

“Huh?”

“Since it’s guarded by the most kaijin.”

Yeonwoo supplemented Jua’s words.

Ah, is that so?

“…No.”

I shook my head.

“Right now, fighting like this will get us nowhere.”

There could be an end. We might be able to deal with all the kaijin one by one. We probably wouldn’t collapse.

But with opponents like that, they might have prepared some final counterattack.

If so, conserving our strength would be wise.

“Freeze everything. I’ll break through the path I need.”

“…”

The girls looked at me with slightly dazed expressions. Seohee almost got hit by a kaijin because of that momentary distraction.

“…Alright.”

Chaeyeon answered without hesitation after seeing that.

“If we can buy time, that alone would be a huge help to us.”

Chaeyeon said that and then stared at me.

“…What?”

“I need mana.”

“…Um… so?”

I knocked away an approaching kaijin with my hammer and said:

“I need hope. We need to activate our circuits.”

“Hope?”

This time, Hayun’s eyes flashed as she looked my way, almost getting hit by a kaijin. Of course, Hayun easily dodged it and stabbed her knife into it, breaking its circuit.

“Yes.”

Chaeyeon answered, her face reddening for some reason.

“So… here.”

Seeing her spread her arms, I had to think for a moment to interpret what she meant.

“Oh, wait, you want me to hug you?”

“Yes.”

Chaeyeon said, her face still red.

“…”

I stared at Chaeyeon for a moment, then just stopped thinking.

Oh well, whatever.

She says she needs it.

I quickly pulled Chaeyeon into a tight embrace.

She’s a bit smaller and thinner than the other girls. But she’s soft and warm. I could probably identify Chaeyeon with my eyes closed.

And probably the other girls too.

Somehow we ended up doing a lot of physical contact like hugging, and because of that, I’ve developed a sense for when the other girls hug me. Especially for some reason, the girls liked to suddenly hug me from behind when I was concentrating on something else at headquarters…

…

No, let’s put this story aside for now since we’re in a hurry. Thinking about it, it seems like it might be an important story, but if I delve deeper, I might reach some strange conclusions.

No matter what, it would be troublesome if I thought that way. Yes.

Chaeyeon clung to me, squeezing her arms tightly. Not painfully, but a gentle embrace that made me feel slightly constricted.

But just with that—

“Ah, it worked.”

Chaeyeon murmured.

I heard the loud sound of circuits activating. Not just my circuit, but also Chaeyeon’s as she hugged me.

Actually, doesn’t Chaeyeon really love hugging? And she probably enjoys hugging me the most. Probably because I’m tall. Since I’m tall and naturally have broader shoulders than Chaeyeon, it must be comfortable for her to fit inside my embrace.

“…”

It wasn’t just the circuits that were activating.

The generator on my back was slowly warming up too.

Something like wind blew around us. But I didn’t think it was actual wind.

A storm of mana.

Chaeyeon separated from me. She stepped back about two paces.

Her blue hair was glowing mysteriously. Mana with a subtle blue light was swirling around Chaeyeon.

“Good. This should be enough.”

Chaeyeon raised her hand. Somehow, a book and staff were already in her grasp.

Chaeyeon began to chant a spell.

“Alright then, everyone—”

As I turned around to encourage the girls—

WHACK!

For some reason, Jihye was violently swinging her shield, sending a kaijin flying far away.

It wasn’t just Jihye. Hayun was wildly swinging her staff, and Seohee, Jua, and Yeonwoo were all doing the same. The colors of magic being fired from all directions mixed together, making it look like a fireworks display.

…

Oh, right.

Yes.

Well, um.

It’s good that they’re giving it their all, yes.

Rather than a final sprint, they looked more like they were rampaging out of extreme anger, but thanks to that, the kaijin were getting knocked down.

So, well.

We definitely succeeded in protecting Chaeyeon until she could cast her spell.