Chapter 4. Keeping in Check (4)
First things first: I trussed up that bitch with the broken ribs and hauled her down to the first floor.
She'd fought me pretty hard at the start, but the moment she laid eyes on the combatants swarming across the ground floor, she went rigid. She'd grasped, clearly and completely, that whether she lived or died here was entirely up to us. Not that I had any real intention of killing her.
The squad leader flinched at the sight of what I'd brought back and froze mid-motion.
……
This was the same man who'd spent all of five minutes ago keeping me carefully in check, but he plainly understood that something about this situation had gone sideways.
We stared at each other in silence until I shrugged first. He pointed a finger at the woman with the ruined ribs, then spread his palm and lifted it. I shrugged again. If that meant anything, it meant he didn't know either.
With no faces to read, I couldn't be sure whether he was acting. Let's just assume he wasn't in on it. After all, if he wasn't, I wouldn't be the only one going down for this.
We held our silence a moment longer, then both nodded. The squad leader pointed at me, then jerked his thumb over his own shoulder — stick behind him, it meant. Then he pointed at Jigupa and one other combatant, and pointed at the girl. Stay here and guard her, that one meant.
It was a little funny, watching her eyes dart back and forth, tracking our fingers. And so we divided ourselves up.
A detail would stand watch outside the first-floor room in case the lady of the house woke. They'd keep an eye on the housekeeper, too — if she popped out suddenly like the daughter had, they'd pounce, bind her tight, and dump her somewhere out of the way. We could have simply tied her up from the start, but strangling the possibility at the source was the cleaner option.
We picked guards for the girl as well. Even through a gag, she could make noise, so we decided to keep our distance. Fortunately, the only estate nearby with a clear view over this mansion was the one we'd first driven into.
With the teams settled, the rest of us would descend into the underground facility. And true to fortune, the squad leader had found the way in. It wasn't hidden anywhere clever — a room that looked, at a glance, like a boiler room, with a sheet of plywood laid over a spot in the inner floor. Careless as that seemed, considering how few people would ever make it this far, it hardly mattered.
They'd never counted on anyone coming this far.
……
Thinking that, I felt a chill creep in, this late in the game. Because this was a crime, wasn't it? However liberally the government chose to look the other way, we had bound a minor. Anyone who believed this wouldn't come back to bite us was the one with the real problem.
……88 percent.
The circuit holding steady at that number was probably down to thoughts like those. Let's just get it over with — whatever "over" turned out to mean.
Once the plywood was cleared away, I understood why the squad leader had called for me. The entrance was... a vault. A dial set in the center, the kind that opens when you turn it to the right combination — at a glance, anyone would take it for a private safe. But around the vault door were scorch marks, and patches where the outer surface had half-melted. Spent grenades lay scattered beside it. In other words: they couldn't open it. So there was a reason they wanted my help.
There were other combatants in suits like mine attached to different teams, but here, right now, I was the only one. I had no idea why. Could this operation have something to do with me? The thought flickered through my mind, and I shook it off at once. Focus. I wanted this rotten job finished as fast as possible so I could bolt. Honestly, it would've been a blessing if a magical girl burst in right this second — then I'd have my excuse to run.
But with my power holding at a staggering 88 percent, this vault was no obstacle at all. If they'd built all this equipment and still couldn't win, just how strong were magical girls?
I heaved a long sigh and stepped inside. Unlike the grimy, dust-caked boiler room, the interior was remarkably clean. Well — it was a lab, after all. How to put it... the place had the atmosphere of that video game series with all the zombies. Whatever they were researching here, it probably wasn't zombies — more likely something along the lines of the Hope Circuit.
I pulled out the grenade-shaped device I'd brought along and yanked the pin. I rolled the faintly smoking canister across the floor, but there were no lasers here. Perhaps because it was a research facility — anyone who belonged inside needed to be able to move through it freely, after all.
The squad leader followed me in and rapped me twice on the back, then pointed in the direction opposite to where I'd been looking. What kind of expression was he wearing under there? Displeasure at having been made to bring me along? The hollow resignation of a man out of options? Whichever it was, it couldn't be a pleasant one. And that was exactly why I counted it a mercy — with the helmets hiding our faces completely, there was no reason for us to ever come to blows.
We split the combatants in two and began the search.
The secret facility built covertly beneath the house wasn't as spacious as I'd imagined. They couldn't tunnel into the neighboring property, and they couldn't exactly bore straight down through central Seoul without a second thought, either. So: two stories deep, with a footprint about the size of the mansion above.
We found the researchers inside without much trouble.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Bound exactly like the daughter we'd left upstairs, he went over my shoulder. This one didn't bother thrashing — one look had been enough for him to grasp how bad things were. A high school girl sprinting with a grown man slung across her shoulders... though to anyone watching, it wouldn't look like that at all, so perhaps it wasn't so strange after all.
We were nearing the door we'd used to first enter the place when running footsteps came pounding toward us from the opposite direction. Two more researchers on that side. The squad leader — who I could somehow picture grinning triumphantly inside his helmet — raised a finger in a grand, self-assured gesture and pointed up—
BANG!
A tremendous crash sounded from beyond.
……
We all froze, eyes pinned upward. No one had entered the boiler room yet, but—
"Urgh!"
...there rang the unmistakable, distorted voice of a combatant's helmet. We lowered our heads and looked at one another.
"Goddamn it," the squad leader muttered.
My sentiments exactly.
I'd known it would come to this. It wasn't an incident from the original story, but magical girls always somehow knew — they showed up nearly every single time we pulled something like this. I suppose that was only natural, given that we were the ones standing in for the Galaxy Federation's soldiers.
"Hey, you lot."
We scrambled back up into the building, and there she was — a red-haired girl planted defiantly in our path. Behind her, the girl still sat bound, staring up at Rose as if to ask why she hadn't been untied. And somehow, I understood. A hostage wandering every which way would only get in the way.
...And beside her stood a girl with a purple ponytail. The rest of them still on their way?
"Did you really think you could keep a secret facility like this running without so much as a scheduled report?"
said the red-haired magical girl — Happy Rose — in a tone that treated us like idiots. Combatants lay sprawled on the ground around her.
Bee-beep-beep!
Dread closed over me, and a chime sounded from my helmet.
91 percent.
Could I handle this? Could I actually pull it off? Iris's attacks hurt, sure — but at least getting hit by one meant the fight was guaranteed to be over. Rose was another matter entirely. Rose's attacks were pure, uncut martial arts. One clean hit, and it was arrest, no questions asked. I'd be released soon enough, so that part didn't scare me — but if that helmet came off, Hayun was bound to find out. And besides, I'd shown those two my face once before. Only once, but still.
93 percent.
I could feel cold sweat sliding around inside the helmet. In the corner of my vision, one of the combatants stirred. Jigupa? He was creeping along on his belly, inching toward Rose.
No way—?
"Mmph!"
The researcher on my shoulder squirmed. Did he think he saw a way out now?
...Fine. There was only one way out of this, anyway. There always had been only one.
"Go!"
The squad leader barked, and charged. Perhaps because of the researcher weighing down his shoulder, he was a touch slower than usual. A white beam flashed, and he hit the dirt rolling.
"I won't be making the same mistake as last time today."
He rolled away with a yell, but as the squad leader scrambled upright, Iris raised her rifle and spoke with icy courtesy.
No warp rounds today. This was a hostage rescue, after all.
Bee-beep-beep!
96 percent.
My heart was slamming against my ribs. I ran forward. A white streak came flying — split into a hair-thin line, as if to avoid striking the researcher. Thankfully, I could block something that thin even without a battery.
"Ghk!"
It still hurt.
"Oh no you don't!"
Rose lunged — and Jigupa clamped onto her ankle.
"What the—"
In the heartbeat that Rose faltered, I sprinted past her. Iris's beam came again; this time I blocked it clean with a battery — but I couldn't slot in a fresh one. Both hands were occupied. Besides the squad leader, one more combatant was running with a researcher in tow. Iris trained her rifle that way, and another streak tore out. The researcher dropped toward the ground, screaming through his gag — and midway down, his fall abruptly slowed. Iris's magic.
Swish.
Iris wheeled toward us with a rather showy flutter of her skirt. Suspended in midair, her movement flowed like a dance. I dove forward, curling myself around the researcher as best I could. Letting the hostage take the hit would have been... well. Bad. Somewhere in the middle I let him go, rolled a few more times, and came up standing.
THUD!
A fist had slammed into Jigupa's helmet — the one still latched onto Rose's leg. Part of the shell shattered, exposing his face beneath, and he crumpled where he knelt.
98 percent.
I extended my blade. This time I didn't fall back — I charged. Straight at Iris. As if she'd been expecting exactly that, she calmly took aim. A perfect line on me— and she fired.
"...Hk—!"
I jammed a battery into place mid-stride and barely caught it, but the impact still tore through. Ting! I saw the spent fuse eject from Iris's rifle. Not the usual shape. So that was how it worked. The whole reason she loaded fuses into that gun was to throttle the output — any stronger and the weapon couldn't take it, and one slip would make her a killer. She'd swapped hers out. For one that could put me down for certain. There wasn't a trace of a smile left on her face.
99 percent.
Bee-beep-beep-beep!
A shriek ripped through my ears. Something sliced the air beside me, and I twisted, swinging my blade in a panic—
"Whoops."
With a light hup and an impossibly effortless motion, Rose hoisted me into the air. Her eyes met mine — upside down.
WHAM!
She sprang clean out of my blade's arc, and her fist came rocketing at me. I wrenched myself backward just in time to blunt the worst of it, but my skull was still rattling.
BAM!
A heartbeat later, I burned a fresh battery and detonated my power — not a blade this time, but a blast like scattered buckshot.
"Ngh!?"
The shock had reached her, at least — the instant her feet touched down, Rose wobbled. I rolled across the ground. A laser slammed into the spot I'd just vacated, and with a BANG, part of the house blew apart.
"What in the...!"
Roused by the sounds of battle, the woman who'd tried to hit me at school came stumbling outside.
"Uh, ma'am, get back inside—"
Before the words were out, I burrowed into Rose's guard and swung my blade. She looked briefly rattled, but slipped aside with ease.
"Do be careful," Iris said. "Unlike the other combatants, this one charges in wild even on her own."
Click. Another fuse seated itself into her gun.
Ducking under Rose's fist, I turned it over in my head. Why had she loaded a fresh fuse? She hadn't fired anywhere near a full magazine — if it had been pre-loaded, five shots should have been comfortably available.
...Was the fuse some special shape? I couldn't tell at a glance. But what if it was just slightly the wrong length to fit the gun's internal magazine—
CRACK!
Impact slammed into my head — a blow fierce enough that, taken bare, it might have erased my head entirely. I was airborne. At the last instant before hitting the ground, I somehow landed, staggering to a halt.
I could take this. The new suit was performing beautifully.
"I will be capturing you today, you despicable combatant," Iris said, walking through the air. Clack. The muzzle swung my way. "That face behind that oh-so-proud helmet of yours — today, I will be sure to get a good look at it."
Keeeen. For the briefest moment came a sound like charging, and white light swallowed my vision. I flung myself sideways, but couldn't slip the thick beam entirely. The only reason I'd dodged even that much was what Iris had said right before. Fail to dodge, and I'd be caught for certain. And if I was caught, I'd have to show my face. That was why she wasn't using warp point technology at all today — purely to take me alive. A magical girl had me dead in her sights.
Bee-beep-beep-beep-beep!
100 percent.
My leg wasn't broken, I didn't think — but God, it hurt. The only reason I could stand at all was probably the suit; sturdy gear keeps your bones from snapping, after all. And the circuit was spinning like mad, pouring energy into me without pause. Iris's right hand went to the rifle's bolt. One shot, then reload, just as before. I ran forward — and Rose appeared in my path. At her incoming fist, I threw my own.
"Huh?"
The word was barely out of her mouth when fist met fist. Not that I'd gone in without a plan. I detonated the circuit's energy through my right hand once more. It didn't disable Rose or shatter her gauntlet, but it was enough to knock that arm back. Ducking low, I scrambled beneath it as it rebounded, and made straight for Iris. She slipped a hand up under her skirt and drew a pistol. I'd expected that much. I raised my arm — no barriers left to raise. Bang, bang, bang — the pistol cracked, and I felt rounds hammer into my arm. Strangely, the pain wasn't all that bad. Same with my leg. The circuit was still holding at 100 percent.
If I didn't put Iris down, I couldn't escape. Was it that desperation spinning the Despair Circuit? Watching me advance through the gunfire, Iris's composure slipped, just slightly. Far too close to bring the rifle to bear; the pistol wasn't useless, but it couldn't stop me outright. Then the reports came in an unbroken string. My body screamed, but I didn't stop. At this rate, will I even make it to school tomorrow? The thought drifted through. Fist clenched, straight for Iris—
THUD.
Rose's shin crashed into my back. I pitched forward, skidding face-first across the ground, the grass tearing up in a long furrow behind me and baring the dirt. From inside the house, someone screamed. I tried to rise.
100 percent.
But my arms wouldn't push. The circuit was still turning. A hopeless situation — probably the very reason it kept turning. But no matter how much auxiliary power you had, it meant nothing if the body it was meant to assist had nothing left to give.
Footsteps approached.
"That's what leaning on your gadgets gets you — you fall apart at the worst possible moment."
"I take it those gauntlets of yours don't count as a 'gadget'? I wouldn't be in this position either, if not for that freak."
My heart hammered. The pain arrived all at once, late, and tears pricked at my eyes. As I stretched my arms out and began to crawl, their conversation continued above me.
"Kind of sad to watch, honestly."
"Sad indeed. She's still an evil corporation's combatant, though."
100 percent.
"We finally meet face to face. No need to worry too much. You're skilled — once we've wrung the information out of you, we may even have a use for you on our side."
"Oh, she means that. We're shorthanded ourselves, in our own way."
...Did they really think my fate rested in their hands? Fair enough, though. In a few minutes, my identity would be laid bare for all to see. And Hayun — Hayun would surely—
100 percent.
Bee-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—
———.
Suddenly, the sound inside my helmet cut out. As if it had broken.
100 percent—
0 percent.
So it's over, now...
1 percent.
The circuit was heating up. At the sound of something whirring like mad, I looked down at my wrist — a compass needle was spinning there, wild and unrelenting. Turning counterclockwise, it looked as though it had abandoned its purpose entirely. Sparks were flying off it. However I looked at it, it seemed spectacularly dangerous.
I rose to my feet.
"...What?"
Rose made a small, flustered sound. I raised my left hand as it crackled and popped, and without warning, swung it at her. The blade was far longer than usual — long, and shaped like something burning. Rose took one look and apparently decided that blocking was too dangerous; she ducked—
—and my knee was already driving up toward that face.
Rose caught the knee strike with both hands, then sprang backward to open the distance. She stood there, hands raised, staring at them. And those hands were trembling, just slightly — whether from the shock of a moment ago, I couldn't say. Rose looked at me, thrown.
That's right. You've won every single time. Of course you wouldn't know. Not one magical girl had ever lived at the bottom of anything. Middle class at the very worst — one of them was a corporate chairman's granddaughter outright. Had any of them ever even taken a real hit?
White light bloomed behind me. Pain flared through my body. I turned. There stood Iris, her face frozen in disbelief. I had taken the beam head-on. Part of the suit had burst — no skin showing yet, but it was a dangerous state all the same. And still I stood there. That the helmet hadn't cracked was the one mercy.
2 percent.
Crackle. Crackle. The circuit was nearing its limit; soon it would shatter entirely and mean nothing at all. Something black and viscous was oozing slowly from around the circuit. What it was, I couldn't say — but judging by the way the grass was discoloring beneath it, it couldn't be anything good. Something tar-thick and clinging, as if dredged up from the very bottom of human emotion.
……
If Hayun saw me like this... what would she think?
Terrifying.
3 percent.
But still. Still—
If I didn't land at least one hit on these two, I didn't think I could bear it.