Chapter 6. False Accusation (1)
When I opened my eyes, I was somewhere I had never seen before.
A hospital?
No, I didn't even need to ask — it was obviously a hospital. A private room, at that, and one that looked expensive. The pristine white atmosphere of the single-occupancy room marked it, at a glance, as a place where money would drain away fast.
I jolted upright in alarm — and a scream tore out of me. My body hurt all over.
At the treatment center I usually visited, even a broken bone mended within a few hours. Truthfully, that "few hours" benchmark was for the times I'd been hurt catastrophically; injuries on the scale of a rib or two going out usually recovered in under an hour.
Was some part of me still unhealed? Had I been rushed straight to the hospital, and so never made it to the treatment center at all?
"Jieun!"
Before I could even take stock of my own body, a voice called out to me. One I knew well.
"Jihye......"
"Yeah, I'm right here!"
Saying that, Jihye took my hand — and I had to clench my teeth to hold the pain down.
"Ah, sorry."
Seeing my face twist, she must have realized how much I hurt, because she quickly let go. That helped, a little.
"What... happened?"
"There was an accident while you were on your field trip. Noir Corporation and the magical girls fight all the time, right? Apparently the magical girls had some business there that day. They were fighting, and then... there was an explosion. Nobody knows what caused it."
"...I see."
Was there no mention of me? I hadn't been with the students back then. I'd been in my combat suit, fighting the magical girls. And — covered in that black substance, fighting like I'd turned into some kind of kaijin, until my identity was exposed...
I stopped the thought there.
"You got caught up in it."
"The cause of the explosion is still unknown?"
"Yeah. It's been all over the news for nearly a week. People from the Galaxy Federation and people from Noir went on as panelists and tore into each other."
"What about the magical girls?"
Hayun.
The moment Hayun's face surfaced in my mind, I felt the blood drain from my head.
Hayun had seen my face that day.
Jihye, meanwhile, apparently still didn't know I was a combatant. If she had, she would have led with that.
...Not that combatants had a particularly good image to begin with.
"Officially, they still haven't said anything. So far it's only been spokespeople from the Federation side. Someone high up, apparently — I don't know the name. They're not even an Earthling, to begin with."
"I see."
I let out a breath.
"How many days... have I been like this?"
Maybe that was why my body ached all over. They'd probably shifted my position now and then to keep bedsores from forming while I lay in a room like this, but my body still felt like it had stiffened up and was being forced to move again.
"A week."
"...A week."
I lowered the head I'd raised to look at Jihye back onto the pillow.
"It's okay. The school probably won't give you any trouble. Those people came up on the news, after all."
"On the news?"
"Yeah. You're the only student who got hurt, so..."
Whether it was a problem with the teacher's supervision, or the company's failure of crisis management — for whatever reason, it seemed the powers that be had decided to ask me nothing at all.
"..."
Truthfully, even after hearing all of that, I couldn't begin to guess how things were actually unfolding.
"And... that Hayun girl came too."
"Hayun did?"
I jerked my head up again, then frowned.
"Yeah. She always comes before me and just sits there for a while before leaving. You're... friends with her, aren't you? She must be worried sick."
"Don't tell me other people came too?"
"Yeah. Other magical girls, and someone from the company. A foreigner in a suit."
Probably James.
After hearing Hayun's name, my head had sunk even lower instead.
I had no idea exactly why Hayun had come looking for me. She'd probably come because she had questions. Sure, it was a get-well visit too, no doubt — but there was a mountain of things I owed her answers for.
Would Hayun understand?
Even after knowing each other that long, I couldn't picture her reaction. Maybe that was partly why I'd gone oddly calm instead. Worrying wouldn't change anything, after all.
Of course, the moment I actually saw her, my thinking would change completely.
"Um... Jieun?"
"Hm?"
Jihye called my name carefully, and I turned my gaze back to her. She wore the look of someone turning something over in her mind.
"Um, back then—"
But before Jihye could get the words out — knock, knock, knock. Someone was rapping on the door.
"Ah — yes, come in!"
Instead of finishing her sentence, Jihye turned toward the door as she said it.
The door opened.
The person who entered was that 'foreigner in a suit.'
James.
"You are awake?"
James spoke with an expression entirely devoid of surprise, even meeting my eyes.
Before I knew it, I was scanning the hospital room. Was there some kind of camera in here? But look as I might, there was nothing. Well, fair enough — installing something like that in a patient's room would raise human-rights issues.
"Forgive me, but might I have a word with Ms. Jeong Jieun? There is something important I need to discuss."
"Huh? Ah, sure."
Jihye rose to her feet, looking a little bewildered.
"I'll be waiting outside."
Jihye said it while looking at me. When I nodded, she stepped out and carefully pulled the door shut.
James settled into the chair Jihye had just vacated. He crossed his legs, laced his fingers atop his knee, and studied me in silence for a few seconds before speaking.
"Are your mind and memory sound?"
"...They're fine."
"You remember everything that happened that day as well?"
"..."
"Well, it needn't be everything. The point is that there is something you remember."
Then James rolled his eyes this way and that for a moment, as if arranging his thoughts.
"I have come here every day for the past week. At precisely this hour. I had no wish to cross paths with a magical girl on my visits. Rather amusing, really — we are the ones footing the bill for this hospital stay, and yet it seems we have no say over who may come and go from this room. Anyone approved by the person standing in as your... guardian may walk right in."
"The orphanage teacher?"
"Well, yes."
James nodded.
"Had they come in their capacity as magical girls, there would have been an uproar — but when they visit here, they are simply students. I would say the position of 'magical girl' has proven quite useful in situations like this. Your friend, and even her friends, were all able to come and see you."
"You're in here too, though."
"I am also the party paying this hospital bill — and above all, that incident is tied to our company. How shall I put it... let us say we bear responsibility for the harm you suffered. I am here as that party's representative."
In other words — at least officially, this was not a visit made in the capacity of 'superior and subordinate.' That much was a small mercy.
"As I understand it, your identity was exposed to a magical girl."
James asked. His tone was not particularly careful.
"..."
"Well, no matter. That fact is hardly fatal. Being a combatant does not make one a spy."
It matters plenty to me, though.
"What truly matters is that data on your helmet. The footage stored there was... astonishing. Astonishing enough that it might prove the key to opening a new era of technology."
"So?"
The words came out sharper than I intended.
"Are you saying I've become some vital asset to the company?"
"I, for one, believe so."
"And the others don't?"
"That is correct."
James let out a long sigh. It sounded like a sincere one. Whether his appearance was genuine or fabricated, James wore an expression of real exhaustion and irritation.
"First, allow me to make one thing clear: the explosion was not my objective."
"If not you, then who?"
"Another executive from the faction opposed to me — or else a third party. What is certain is that the company has identified no one yet."
"It wasn't meant to be pinned on the magical girls?"
"That may well have been the aim. I would grant the possibility. But even granting it — not by me. There were genuine researchers present, you see."
I was momentarily unable to speak.
"Then—"
"Yes. They are dead. A few employees stationed there as watchers died as well."
I shut my mouth.
"The top of the company appears prepared to pin the whole thing on me. And if so, then shifting the entire cause onto you would be the most effective move of all."
"What?"
When I echoed back with a blank look, James explained slowly.
"You have spent the past three years as a combatant. But 'combatant' is not a profession whose experience counts for anything. Forgive me for putting it this way, but it is, in truth, simple labor — little different from a part-time job."
I couldn't find a single word of rebuttal.
He was right. The combatant position required no special skill. The battles weren't even on any regular schedule, and we received no real training to speak of — we simply strapped on a circuit and went out.
There might be some industry willing to recognize the experience, but that experience would hardly carry the air of a 'profession.'
"And yet I took notice of you and spared no support. I placed in your hands prototype equipment no one else had ever used — I even had it upgraded for you."
"So you're saying I'm the cause?"
"I do not consider you the cause. But allow me to note one thing: in a truly rare alignment, the Galaxy Federation and the company currently speak with one voice. The two are rivals competing to expand their influence over this planet, yet neither wishes to be driven out of it entirely."
"..."
"The Federation wishes to conceal the fact that a researcher under its wing was stolen away. The magical girls wish to preserve, without interruption, the impression that they are invincible. Unlike combatants, talent of the magical girl variety is every bit as scarce as you are."
James explained it all calmly, to me — who was wearing an expression of complete non-comprehension.
"The company, for its part, has no desire to admit that explosives were brought in through a failure of its own oversight. Yes, quite right — this is partly my failure as well. So please, do not make that face. The story is not yet finished."
Seeing my expression, James raised both hands as though to calm me.
"It is a flimsy story. Everyone in the know understands that — I think so too. But out there, out there among people who know none of it, what do you suppose they will think?"
I gritted my teeth.
Right. Completely pinning a thing that never happened on someone was by no means impossible. Making the first person to recognize and report a bombing into the bombing suspect — that was entirely doable.
But why did it have to be me, of all people?
"How exactly do they intend to fabricate it? I never so much as touched the bomb."
"They will not focus on the bomb. They will make use of the data from your helmet. They will claim that, after repeated rampages, you triggered a catastrophic accident. That energy, at the time, was far too great to simply ignore."
"..."
"Idiotic, isn't it?"
James muttered, as if incensed.
"However intelligent individuals may be, once those intelligent beings gather into an organization, they proceed to commit horrifically stupid acts. This is much the same. The company is satisfied with the 'circuits' of today. They can extract ample energy from individuals with no talent whatsoever — so they question the need for beings who produce unstable output while burning out their circuits every single time."
"So, you're saying I..."
"Truly, incurably stupid — offensively stupid beings, the whole lot of them. Would you not agree?"
The reason James was this angry probably wasn't really me.
He was most furious that the project he had been running had been wrecked outright — and above all, that his own position had been thrown into jeopardy.
"But, my ability..."
"Is a splendid ability. One that no one, to this day, has managed to replicate. I have even considered that it lies beyond the realm of effort alone — that some aptitude native to you as an individual simply fit. Much like the magical girls."
James let out a deep sigh, as though genuinely regretful.
"I did speak of a third party, but in truth, I suspect rather an inside job. Someone... who despises me intensely, most likely. Perhaps seeing the talent I had unearthed made them impatient."
"If someone like that exists, shouldn't they be catching that person?"
My anger boiled over.
"Why me...!"
"I say it once more: because intelligent beings, gathered together, tend to become a stupid organization."
James said it, looking me straight in the eye.
"When the fight at the top tips toward one side, those beneath are naturally carried along with it."
"..."
"One more thing you should know. Almost simultaneously with your accident, the Chairman of Noir Corporation went silent — out of contact entirely."
"Was he on your side?"
"He was. A man who intended to put the new discovery to magnificent use."
Though at best, his grandest aim had probably been reducing humanity to livestock.
"Our company is not a publicly traded corporation. It is a private enterprise, gripped and driven entirely by its owner. Which means—"
—if the Chairman vanishes, everyone below him is free to devour whatever they can grab.
Of course, in most cases that would be a stupid move. A leader under suspicion loses the trust of those beneath him by exactly that much. Especially when the incident in question is as conspicuous as this one.
"Persuasion and bribes."
James said.
"They are preparing to form factions and seize control."
"What about the government? People died. If they investigate properly—"
"I am telling you the outcome has already been decided. Naturally, the company will have handed something over in exchange. Most likely a crucial piece of interstellar navigation technology. Is that not the sort of technology even a government would covet? As I understand it, people have quite literally risked their lives infiltrating other nations to smuggle such things out."
I stared at James, mouth hanging open, my mind blank.
"Naturally, it is an enormous loss for our company as well."
As James had said again and again — stupid people don't care what becomes of everything else, so long as profit lands in their own hands.
...Just as I had been doing all along.
"But then, you..."
"Because it disgusts me."
James said.
"Letting this situation roll on as it stands makes me sick to my stomach. Sick enough that I want to throw some manner of wrench into their works, whatever it takes."
James rummaged in his pocket and set something down on my bed.
It was a small device that looked rather like a smartwatch.
"A circuit. One of the units we were researching."
James said it, looking at me with eyes that blazed.
"Wh-what am I supposed to do with this?"
"Run."
James said.
"Take this circuit and run. Under no circumstances are you to be taken into custody."
"Where, exactly..."
"Anywhere but Seoul. Flee to some other galactic-affiliated company with no ties to ours. Take a warp gate and get yourself off this planet."
"..."
"Who is to say? The situation may well resolve itself in the meantime. Then you need only return and settle what remains."
"B-but then what about Jihye? What about everyone at the orphanage..."
"They will be fine."
James said it with a scoff, as though it were absurd. Was my worrying really that ridiculous to him?
"Have they not already received a staggering sum in donations?"
"..."
"It will last them years. It is not as though the government subsidies have ceased, either. Ah, yes — all those threats I once made to you are worthless now as well. At present, there is nothing at all I can do to you."
James spat the words out. He looked genuinely displeased about it.
"What will you do? If you remain here and are taken as you are, I have nothing particular to say about it. I have merely presented one option among many."
"..."
I thought for a moment.
My heart kept pounding. Was what James said true? Was he trying to deceive me?
"...I can't trust you."
"Then don't."
James said it with what looked like a shrug.
"I did not say it in hopes of being believed. I am simply resentful — furiously, bitterly angry at this whole situation."
James rose from his seat and headed for the door.
"I will send your friend back in. Think it over carefully."
And James left without a moment's hesitation.
I was staring blankly at the closed door when it opened carefully once more, and Jihye slipped back in.
"Jieun?"
Seeing my expression, Jihye asked cautiously.
"What is it? Did you hear something bad?"
"No."
I shook my head.
And I tucked the watch beneath the blanket.
"No, nothing happened. I'm fine."
I said that, but Jihye didn't look especially reassured.
Probably because my face didn't look reassured in the least.
But I had absolutely no idea how to manage my expressions.
I lay back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
What am I supposed to do now?
Naturally, no clear answer presented itself in my head.
"Um, back then..."
Were you... wearing a combatant suit?
That was what Jihye had been about to ask.
The truth was, she'd caught fragments of the conversations the magical girls traded whenever they came by.
That Jieun worked for Noir Corporation.
And that the 'work' in question was being a combatant.
Once she'd heard it, some of what Jieun had shown her all this time began to make a strange kind of sense.
Jieun, coming in late at night wearing an utterly worn-out expression.
Every time, Jihye had teased her about it. She'd been so sure it was boyfriend trouble.
So then — had Jieun been at the scene of that incident too?
Because of the visitor who came afterward, they hadn't managed to talk it through properly.
Or maybe that had been for the best? Being at a scene like that meant she had witnessed something horrific.
Besides, Jieun... the person who had attacked Jieun was none other than...
Watching Jieun stare blankly at the ceiling, Jihye wondered.
Why had Jieun been doing that kind of work?
Was it... because of money?
"..."
Her chest felt tight. She had never known at all what kind of situation the girl she'd grown up alongside had been living in.
And yet, even so, she had no idea what she ought to say.
For a long while, the two of them couldn't manage to say anything at all.