Chapter 17. Question (7)
It didn't take long for the six of us to gather again. That I would be going to see Jihye had already been settled, and everyone knew where the orphanage was. The girls who had come to the orphanage after confirming there was little worth salvaging from the Company didn't look particularly rattled, either.
And no wonder — Hayun, Jua, and I had already gotten our stories straight.
"It's not as if we've never spoken with the government before. There was quite a bit of back-and-forth over the combatant issue," Rose said.
"Though this is the first time they've come to us with an actual demand."
I had assumed the Federation was simply deferring to the government. After all, they seemed to be respecting our side's refusal to join them.
Because they were an organization that kept the law in its own fashion, I'd figured our government had no choice but to go along — but as time passed and incidents kept breaking out, it looked more and more like the government was the one being dragged along by the Federation and the Company.
Honestly, judging purely by the situation as it stood, the Federation aside, the Company should by all rights have been shaken down by the government until not a speck of dust remained. No matter how well-connected they were to the powers above, the fact remained that they were openly leading an armed group and terrorizing the public.
Maybe the combatants alone weren't such a grave problem. Coups don't exactly happen just because a country has contract thugs on its payroll. Armed, sure — but not with guns, artillery, or bombs, so you couldn't exactly call those combatants an "army."
So even if you granted that they'd been left alone on the assumption it was "profitable," the story changes the moment they start researching Earthlings themselves to manufacture kaijin.
Even without anything definitively proven, the mere fact of running such experiments without authorization is more than enough to make them a target of investigation.
Well — in fact, today had been the first step of exactly that.
The problem was the result.
"Are you thinking of cooperating?"
...
At Dalia's question, I could only sink into thought for a while.
If only I knew where she was. If I could just pin down that location, I could launch a raid and bring Pangpang home myself — though in truth, I couldn't even say for certain whether Pangpang was safe right now.
And, unfortunately, we had no assets capable of uncovering that "location." With the government's help, wouldn't tracking her down be far easier than it was now?
Even if she had fled to alien space, she would need to buy supplies to survive. The government, even without joining the Federation, would have channels of some kind to those alien worlds — and if she was still somewhere in this country, they could find her that much more easily.
Though considering they had failed to find us for months on end, their record was somewhat hopeless in its own right.
"The Federation?"
At my question, the shoulders of the magical girls — Hayun included — flinched.
They traded brief glances, then turned their eyes toward me.
"What do you suppose the Federation's position would be?"
When I asked again, the girls deliberated a moment before answering.
"The Federation is, well, on the side that stands against Noir Corporation, so..." Hayun said, tilting her head.
"But it might be a little hard to actually get help from them. They've got plenty of sharp minds in the upper ranks, too," Rose finished.
I see.
Well, the Federation was a government organization in the broad sense. I'd heard it had an assembly, an executive branch, and a legislature. The nations beneath it simply existed as separate countries, which made it hard for them to cohere into one.
But put the other way around, the Federation's efforts to fold Earth's other nations into itself meant that the many nations on those alien planets saw drawing Earth to their side as a benefit — enough that they would try to join hands with Noir Corporation however they could, all while putting on a show of opposition.
...Could it be that the people at the very top of the Federation had known all along about the "usefulness" of Earthlings?
"More than that, I don't get why the Company is behaving this way," Iris said, her brow furrowed.
"The more openly they commit villainy like this, the harder it becomes for the government to take their side."
"If they intend to keep the Company alive by other means, it isn't impossible," James said.
James had set his drone down on Jihye's desk and mine and stepped out of it. The way people do when they're deep in thought, he was pacing back and forth across the desktop.
"You can keep the Company alive?"
"If you think of it as leaving this country, it is not impossible. If the ship is large enough, has facilities inside, and there is some reason to make a living there, the business can continue."
James stopped mid-step and looked at me.
"Well, it is still far more complicated and less stable than trading with a nation or the Federation — but then, things have become this tangled thanks to you."
"It didn't get tangled because of me. It got tangled because they got pointlessly greedy. If the Chairman had never staged that coup, the Company would still be running along just fine, stabbing this country in the back."
Come to think of it — had that coup actually been a good thing for me?
Everything had gone wrong, and my life along with it, but this was different from those days when the Company gripped my ankles like a swamp and dragged me down into its depths.
...Of course, even granting that, it was still incomparably worse than if I had never joined the Company at all.
"But is that even possible?" Jua asked James.
"Keeping a ship stationed in space is common practice by Federation standards, but ships have lifespans. The same goes for building a spaceport in place of a ship. And the energy required for that..."
"The energy can be secured," James said.
"Secured on a nearly permanent basis, wouldn't you say? You were all off fighting those very 'energy sources' again today."
...
Silence fell over the room.
"The same goes for those who would buy the goods. Of course, the Federation would not be fond of some warlord outfit springing up, but seeing what that warlord produces might change their minds. After all, 'artificial humans' are a technology unique to Noir Corporation. Beings capable of generating enormous profit — produced steadily, simply by gene-splicing and fabricating parts inside a ship."
James's gaze rose quietly to me.
"If the Federation made them directly, it would be engulfed in enormous controversy. Some packaging might be required. Bolt on assorted parts, steel plates, and ceramics, and sell them off as 'batteries.'"
"Then why would anyone bother buying such a thing..."
"Enormous energy allows you to build and maintain equally enormous facilities," James said.
"The Federation may look mighty, but in truth it is forever walking on thin ice. Countless planets have joined, and outwardly it professes to be 'one nation,' but in reality countless nations wrangle over interests beneath the Federation's name. A single planet holds anywhere from a handful of nations to several hundred. Even this Earth has an enormous number of countries."
So whichever side gained the upper hand within the Federation stood a better chance of claiming the interests on a planet's surface — or above and beneath its seas. Most nations are indifferent to the historical grievances and emotional feuds of countries far removed from them; that holds true even across opposite ends of Earth, so what of nations on other planets, where no such struggle would ever arise in the first place?
What is more, on planets other than Earth there exist resources used much as "oil" or "coal" are here. If a nation uniquely rich in such resources existed — an "oil state," so to speak — it would find itself at the center of every struggle for advantage.
"So... you're saying there will be places that want facilities like that?"
"Yes. Would you care to imagine it?" James resumed his ambling across the desktop as he went on.
"Consider nations that lost a war — spared any real damage as a state, but dealt a grievous wound to their pride. Or nations that, without facing collapse, lost regions overflowing with profit. What of nations seeking to swallow their neighbors in the name of historical or ideological justification?"
"Would the Federation allow that?"
"Those aiming to climb to the top of that very Federation could, of course, become customers for such goods as well. Some might even reach out, promising protection on the scale of entire nations or planets. Power, after all, can serve as a justification in its own right. What would people think, faced with an entity that had firmly secured both the source technology to produce that power and the 'materials' to make it?"
Watching us freeze over completely, James went on with an expression that was, for James, remarkably grave.
"Of course, technology can be developed. But for those who have never so much as conceived of 'that sort of application,' catching up takes a very long time. And now that they have recognized an entity on Earth that already tried to set such a thing in motion once, fierce debate will rage from here on — and securing the technology will not be easy."
Nuclear weapons technology was not so impossible that nations with a certain degree of technical capability could never acquire it. Quite the opposite — with enough technical groundwork, a determined nation could produce a usable nuclear weapon in under a year.
But those who built such weapons faced crushing sanctions from the international community. In the end, aside from the nations that had managed nuclear armament before a certain point in history, development was effectively sealed off by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. ...Which, conversely, meant that those who already possessed nuclear weapons could go on making use of them. Even if they never built another, they could keep their stockpiles as a countermeasure against their rivals.
"You're saying they mean to re-establish order within the Federation?"
"Precisely. Perhaps the reason the Federation shows no clear movement at present is that something is unfolding at its very center. They simply cannot spare any attention for this side — would they not?"
...
Hearing all that, I could sort of see it. Fighting among themselves over practical matters until the actual work lies abandoned, everyone absorbed in political strife... well, it was plausible enough.
But—
"So?"
I put the question to James point-blank.
For a while now, the conversation had felt strangely off-course.
What I wanted was to bring Pangpang home.
Well, it would be nice if, along the way, I could land one solid punch on the Chairman and hand him over to the police. And if I could expose the truth behind the 'Earthling kaijin' they employed, destroy the facilities, and make sure Earthlings could never be exploited that way again — that would be good too.
I was an Earthling myself, and I knew in my own way what was right and what wasn't. ...I just couldn't manage a level-headed judgment, that was all.
But look — I hadn't become a magical girl out of any yearning for justice in the first place.
All of that had been second priority to me. Right now, the most important thing to me was rescuing Pangpang, and after that, sticking it to the Chairman.
James's ideology, the political logic churning between the Company and the Federation — none of it mattered to me either way.
"What does any of that have to do with how we find Pangpang? Why is it so important?"
It might have mattered if it concerned me — but did I really need to know the Federation's thinking or the Company's circumstances?
"It is important."
Yet James answered with that brevity.
"Why?"
"Because that Pangpang may well be the Former Chairman's granddaughter."
...
For a moment, I failed to grasp what James had just said.
"Pangpang is... the granddaughter of Noir Corporation's Former Chairman?"
"That is correct. The likelihood is high."
"On what grounds?"
"Noir Corporation does not properly understand the relationship between you, me, and that girl."
"They could have found out."
"Even if they had, it would be difficult for them to imagine you flying into such a rage on that girl's behalf. Had they known, they would have searched the school you attended first."
I had had no friends at school apart from Hayun — but apparently that, too, was something the Company didn't know.
"Above all, there is that automated turret that came out of her house. That is far too dangerous an item for a private individual to possess. It was most likely handed to her by someone."
"...So you're saying Pangpang... hid me because she's the Former Chairman's granddaughter?"
"That, again, cannot be known. Would you, for your part, imagine that the Chairman's granddaughter would be living in a semi-basement like that?"
...
"A granddaughter may exist on paper, but in practice the two of them may never have been close. It happens often enough — the heir of a wealthy family with little interest in the family business, who fights over it and runs away from home. Or, turning it around — what if she doesn't know she is the Chairman's granddaughter at all? We have no way of knowing her private affairs, but again, that is the sort of thing that can happen when a family's history is complicated."
"Then..."
"Extrapolating, that item was most likely dumped in her lap after we left that girl's side. I did not know the girl for long, but at least on the surface, she seemed to hold more affection for Earth than for the Federation. If so, even had such a thing been pressed into her hands, she would never have planned to use it in daily life."
There had been nowhere to hide a turret like that in the first place. And if she had stashed it outside the house, setting it up on the spot when they came would have been impossible as well.
So, stitching the situation together the way James laid it out:
After we left, the Former Chairman's side learned of Pangpang's whereabouts and sent someone. Pangpang refused their offer for some reason — a bitter falling-out with the Former Chairman, or perhaps because she hadn't even known she was his granddaughter.
But the defensive equipment had been left behind, foisted upon her, and Pangpang had kept it in her home. And today, the Current Chairman's people who came for Pangpang raided her house. Pangpang activated the turret in a desperate bid to stop them, but whether through misjudgment or simple misfortune, it was far too late — and in the end, she was taken.
...We had arrived at that scene right after it happened.
"What's the point of snatching the Former Chairman's granddaughter only now? Didn't the Company already have her in its grasp?"
"I cannot say for certain on that point," James said.
"I am in the position of one who follows the Former Chairman, but..."
He had been nothing more than an executive, after all.
However high-ranking, he was not of the Chairman's bloodline. He wouldn't have known every detail of the family's affairs.
I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a long, slow breath.
"...Well. Fine."
I looked at James.
James was staring steadily up at me. Was he hoping for my help, perhaps?
I didn't know how deeply loyal James had been to the Former Chairman. But loyalty born of conviction can, at times, run deeper than loyalty bought with money. Especially between people like James and the Former Chairman, who carried such peculiar creeds — you could almost say they shared one and the same religion.
"Whatever the case, Pangpang is my benefactor. And... yeah, one of the precious few friends I have, too."
The situation was a tangled mess, but I decided to sweep every last bit of that tangle aside and think simply.
Right. Energy to reverse the entropy of the universe, political struggles for dominance over the Federation — none of it meant a thing to me. What mattered to me were the people around me, nothing more.
And my own skin, too.
As long as I could properly protect all of that, I decided I wouldn't spare a thought for anything else.
So there was only one thing for me to do right now.
Rescue Pangpang, somehow or other. The aftermath could wait until after.
"So — I'm going to save her. I'll think about the rest afterward. ...What about you all?"
I said it, looking around at them.
It was Jihye's room and mine, but Jihye wasn't here. No other government people, either — I had asked for a space where just we could talk freely.
The girls' expressions were grave.
But somehow, I felt I already knew what they were going to say.
"Of course we're helping," Rose said.
"For the moment, at least, our goal seems to be the same one. Right?"
I shrugged at Rose, who smiled as she said it.
"So even if we can't know exactly why they took her, getting her back means sticking it to the Chairman, doesn't it? Of course I'm helping," Dalia said.
"...There's no other way, anyway," Delphinium said.
I looked toward Jua and Hayun.
"...I'll help," Jua said.
"If she's the one who kept what we did from turning into something even worse."
Was she talking about how I'd ended up on the run?
I didn't think any of that had been the magical girls' fault, but I doubted Jua would be persuaded just because I told her I was fine with it now.
Above all, the snarl of it all remained entirely unresolved.
...Once things were settled to some degree, I would have to find some way to untangle those long-festered feelings too.
"Of course I'm helping," Hayun said, nodding as our eyes met.
The smile she had worn a little while ago was gone. Perhaps because of the state I was in, she seemed to be minding the mood now.
But even so, her sincerity came through unmistakably in her voice.
"Because it's your fight, Jieun."
My fight.
Hearing Hayun say that made me a little happy.
Compared to everything I had felt through those past few years of entanglement, I had felt far more in the time I'd spent simply by Hayun's side. Hayun had her weak points, her emotional streaks — but of every girl I had ever watched, she was the most upright.
And in Hayun's eyes, saving a friend's benefactor was simply the obvious thing to do.
...
A girl unlike me — me, who tuned out whatever happened on Earth so long as my own affairs were in order.
That was probably why I had kept simmering with jealousy, kept feeling that ache of inferiority.
And that was why I had come to love her.
...The answer to the question of my feelings was, in the end, just that simple.