Even if This World Becomes a Mess, the Police Still Work(9)

Given the current situation, restaurants also close when the sun sets.

It’s surprising to see hamburger places that claimed to be open 24 hours closing, but thankfully there were convenience stores still open, so I bought some ramen and boxed meals.

Mina, who had been quietly waiting at home while I went to the convenience store, didn’t say a word until I returned home and laid out the food.

Her arms were trembling, and she kept sniffling. The left sleeve of her uniform was torn off, and there were wounds on her left arm that looked like they were made by fingernails.

She looked like she had hysterically scrubbed her arm.

Well, that’s to be expected. I would have been surprised if she were in her right mind.

How could she be in her right mind after killing someone?

Mina didn’t even touch the convenience store dumplings and pizza I bought for her to eat. And she used to love eating such things.

I searched for words of comfort but couldn’t find any. Really, nothing comes to mind at all, damn it.

I pretended I was okay and said let’s eat, but I don’t know what to do next! Damn.

I’ve seen a police officer who accidentally killed someone while on duty.

He was one of the few honest and strong police officers in this world, but he accidentally killed a suspect, and even that strong-willed person suffered and struggled until he finally quit the police.

Even such a person, even an adult who can take care of themselves, suffered so much.

There’s no way a child like her could endure it. It must have taken great courage for Mina to come to me like this.

So I need to think. I need to find a way to comfort a high school girl who has fallen into extreme stress, anxiety, and nervousness.

They say waiting silently is also a form of consideration, but that’s not what a child like her needs right now.

But damn it. I don’t even know what’s needed in this situation.

As I was trying desperately to recall the contents of “Understanding Adolescent Psychology – For Guardians –” while watching Mina, who wasn’t doing anything at the table.

Mina sniffled, swallowed her mucus, and opened her mouth.

“You’re not asking me anything.”

“Uh…”

Rather than asking, I was looking for something to say…

As I was rolling my eyes, not knowing whether to take it as a good sign that Mina spoke first, Mina slowly opened her mouth.

“I, I was going to tell you about my identity someday… I wasn’t trying to hide it forever…”

“Yeah.”

Did she hide it? Had she been hiding it?

Looking at how she’s been acting all this time, it doesn’t seem like she was hiding it at all, but this wasn’t the time to argue about that, so I silently listened to Mina.

“I kept doing stupid things… that person… the smell of blood won’t leave my hands… I didn’t mean to. I was trying not to give up. I was going to keep fighting.”

“But now it’s become irreversible. What should I do, Detective? Can I be forgiven if I confess and receive punishment…?”

Mina started scratching her arm with her own fingernails while sniffling. It was a pitiful sight to see her trembling and crying.

Given the situation, I thought she couldn’t think rationally at all, but it seemed comfort might work, if only a little.

No, maybe it’s because she’s in such a state that she needs comfort even more.

So—um… the problem is how to offer comfort. Should I tell her she won’t have legal problems?

After pondering for a moment, since I had nothing else to say, I tried to stop her hands and opened my mouth—oh damn, she’s so strong.

“…Why is that murder? It’s suicide using you.”

“From what the kids at the scene said, you didn’t kill him intentionally; he forced you into that situation.”

“He took hostages and caused that mess, right? You had no choice to save the students at the school, and even then, you tried your best to choose the best option.”

“And in the end, he failed. Based on the combined testimonies, it’s clear. He made the mutants move and attack you. And that’s why it happened. It was just an accident.”

Yes, there were testimonies.

From what I’ve heard, Mina used her super strength to reverse the standoff, but Yagi created another stalemate by covering half the classroom with ice.

And in that situation, a mutant with a huge build escaped from the ice and attacked Mina from behind.

In response, Mina appeared to move reflexively. And she deliberately didn’t avoid the attack and got hit.

Of course, in a normal situation, she wouldn’t have moved or reacted to being attacked. But according to witnesses, Mina was in a bad state due to Yagi’s provocation.

I don’t know the exact content of the provocation as the students said they couldn’t hear it—but what’s certain is that Mina was pushed to the extreme.

Poor physical condition. A supervillain threatening to kill by putting even her own life on the scale. It was certainly not an exaggeration to call it an extreme situation.

She might have been in a state of panic. I’m not a judge or prosecutor, but [honestly, I don’t think this will even go to court] if Mina secures a proper lawyer, she could be found not guilty.

What worried me was the people who would make a fuss about this and the fact that Mina could break down because of it.

I really want to ask that bitch Sai if she’s eating well after pulling such a dirty trick on a high school student—but right now, I need to focus on Mina in front of me.

With those concerns, I looked at Mina, and she had a face like a cat that had been hit on the back of the head after hearing my words.

Would the cliché statement that this isn’t all Mina’s fault reach her now? It seems unlikely, but I should say this sincerely.

Since I came to the press conference, I’ve only had one thing I wanted to say to Mina.

“So… what I want to say is this. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help you. And actually, I knew your identity. But I kept pretending I didn’t. I know I don’t have the right to say this, but I’m really sorry.”

It’s embarrassing to say this only in this situation, but I felt I had to say it.

Rationally, regardless of whether she feels betrayed or whatever, we need Mina to stop Sai.

Emotionally, besides feeling sorry for pretending not to know until now, I don’t want this child to despair and give up.

For these complex and quite dirty reasons, I said this.

Even I think I’m a bastard, so as I was internally sighing with self-loathing, suddenly Mina rushed at me.

She didn’t rush at me with a fist to hit my face. She rushed to bury her head in my arms.

Of course, I was caught off guard and pushed back by Mina’s strength, so I fell to the floor.

In that state, Mina buried her face in my chest and strongly wrapped her arms around my body.

“I, I’m not hated by you, right…? For killing someone, you don’t hate me, right?”

“Yeah.”

This incident was led by Sai as usual, and the bad one is Sai. So why would I hate Mina?

“That woman said you were dead. I went blank at those words, I got scared. I couldn’t even remember whether I really killed that woman or not.”

“For a moment I even thought about really killing her, so I thought you would hate me.”

“I see.”

So she did this while surprised at the news of my death? Now I could fully understand what happened at the scene.

At my words, Mina buried her face more strongly in my chest, then looked up at me with a face that was both crying and smiling, and said:

“—Thank you. Sniff, for supporting me. I’m really happy to have met an adult like you, Detective. If you weren’t here… I really don’t know how I would have lived.”

“You would have done fine without me.”

Because that’s how it was in the original story.

Although the flow of events diverged from the original due to my involvement in the original events because of Sai, isn’t a fact still a fact?

The Mina of this world would surely have managed well without me. That’s what I thought as I looked at Mina.

But for some reason, Mina shook her head with a confident face, denying my words.

Her red eyes were straight with trust in me, and with such a burdensome gaze, Mina said:

“I couldn’t have. No, without you, Detective, I couldn’t have been this happy.”

Mina smiled cheerfully, incongruously with tears in her eyes. Like a red flower blooming at night.

“…Detective. Actually, once I catch that woman, once I catch the person who made this world like this, I have something I want to tell you too.”

“So… could you wait just until then?”

Suddenly Mina said that.

Something she wants to tell me. Well, I could see through what she usually thinks.

But in this situation, saying she has something to tell me—I couldn’t quite grasp what she might want to say.

Still, since her condition had improved, I looked at the ceiling as if joking and patted Mina’s back while holding her, saying:

“Well, if you’re planning to confess that you like me, come back after getting your ID card and graduating college.”

Of course, I wouldn’t accept even then. A casual joke recalling what happened with ‘Mina’. But contrary to my joke, Mina, who was nestled in my arms, suddenly stopped moving.

…What is this reaction? I forcibly bent my creaking neck joints down to look at Mina.

Mina was biting her lip with her face flushed red with embarrassment.

“…I, I actually have the biggest chest among my peers? It’ll get bi-bigger in the future too. And I have a good body. Better proportions than that woman, and I’m younger… Do you still dislike me…?”

“…Go like someone your own age.”

“I have no intention of giving up.”

What the hell?

My mind went blank at Mina’s words, and memories of ‘Mina’ making sexual jokes made me wonder if I should give this child sex education in this situation.

Please don’t do that. Do you want to see a police officer get arrested? At a time like this? You’re making this hard for me.

I was horrified and tried to push Mina away, but Mina seemed angered by my words and clung more strongly to my chest.

Wait a moment. She’s so damn strong. My ribs. There was just a sound from my ribs. My ribs, which already have cracks, now have an ominous—

I urgently tapped Mina’s shoulder and tried to tap out. Or rather, I wanted to. But my wish wasn’t granted.

Time passed like that. And we eventually finished off the dumplings I had heated, which had dried up and were rolling around on the table like my ribs.

With the mindset of “let’s think about tomorrow’s problems tomorrow,” we lay down and tried to sleep.

The moon floating beyond the window illuminated me and Mina lying in the room.

---

Sai gritted her teeth.

The jealousy, hatred, anger, and pain boiling inside her chest created the illusion that all the protein meat chunks forming her body had turned into boiling lava.

Meat chunks scattered around, bright red blood splattered all over a woman’s body. A building that had lost its ceiling and turned completely into ruins.

All this tragedy resulted from her venting after feeling the emotion of jealousy.

The cause was the footage of today’s press conference playing on the television in front of Sai.

New Hope’s murder charge. This incident, fabricated while sacrificing a useful tool, unfolded exactly according to her plan until the end.

Making the police do their best to restore their honor, letting the world know that New Hope killed someone, and simultaneously exposing her identity.

Such a sudden incident inevitably draws people’s attention. The choice the police would make in this situation was clear.

In such a situation, old men who would do anything to keep their positions would shift all responsibility to the young vigilante, unwilling to take any responsibility themselves.

And in that situation, a young child who got blood on her hands for the first time would run away. Without properly explaining what happened.

And what follows is ants tearing apart a fallen, blood-stained hero.

The ants would be delighted. They would be happy in their dream of pulling down and trampling a being with god-like power.

Afterward, it didn’t matter whether New Hope remained trampled by the ants’ base acts or rose up and trampled the ants in return.

Now, as she was trying to bring down the world to be with her beloved, New Hope was just someone to torment and eventually trample.

Yes, she definitely thought so. And everything flowed according to her thoughts until the very end.

But what mocked her expectations was—that man, of course.

A man who always defied her expectations. A man she became interested in because of that, fell in love with because of that uniqueness, and became infatuated with to the point her heart fluttered.

Detective Lee Munsu appeared at the press conference.

Of course, Sai had also expected that Detective Lee Munsu would appear at a press conference or somewhere with his face due to the fame she had built for him.

But the problem was—what he said.

[ ‘Cut that nonsense. I’m saying this because I have something I want to say.’ ]

[ ‘Today, due to the schemes of a supervillain who uses superpowers to harm people, a high school student who hasn’t even become an adult yet got blood on her hands.’ ]

[ ‘Criminals pushed a child into an extreme situation and forced a terrible choice, and that’s how today’s incident occurred.’ ]

[ ‘It’s a damn shame. This is something that makes me too ashamed to walk outside with my head held high, whether as a police officer or as an adult.’ ]

[ ‘It doesn’t matter whether that child is a superpower user or whatever. The shameful thing is that a child who should be under the protection of adults was put in such a situation.’ ]

[ ‘Therefore, I will not forgive those who put human lives on a scale and forced someone to kill.’ ]

[ ‘The police will do what they need to do. Whether with superpowers or not, just as all police have fought until now, we will fulfill our duty as police. We will be in front of the child, not hiding behind her.’ ]

Why. Why didn’t that damn thing kill people like her?

So why is he saying such things? Why does he have such warm eyes, not eyes burning with the will to push away, hate, and ensure punishment as when he looks at her?

They both killed people. Why?

Sai felt wronged. She felt tears coming.

What is the difference between New Hope and herself? Is it the number of people killed? Or is it because New Hope is needed to catch her?

She doesn’t know. She can’t understand. What’s the difference between killing one ant and killing several?

Moreover, even if someone schemed to make New Hope have no choice but to kill someone, people don’t care about that.

She killed someone, so she’s bad. People only care about the sensational facts they can see. That’s instinct.

The journalist picking a fight with Detective Lee Munsu now, the people hiding on the internet and cursing New Hope—they don’t care about how she ended up killing.

After all, these people would gladly tear down and kill others given the opportunity.

Everyone looks at the result rather than the cause of the incident.

Why is only the man she loves different?

Although it makes sense considering why she fell in love with Detective Lee Munsu, his actions are so different from her thoughts that Sai swallowed her tears.

“I love him so much…”

The emotion of jealousy, perhaps because she had only recently realized it, felt very unfamiliar and painful.

Sai, who had sunk to the floor, covered her face with her hands. A strange situation where laughter comes out because it’s so painful while tears are flowing.

Her mouth corners lift up. Love and jealousy burning in her chest combine to create a bigger flame.

This won’t do. Not yet in this state. This world is still not in a state where she and he can be together.

So.

“Please wait.”

If she burns everything down and brings everyone to their knees, she can be in the same place as him. Sai muttered, crying and laughing.

Only the moon, floating alone in the dark night sky, illuminated her lonely figure.