Framed (4)

It was all so absurd, really. If you had the strength to shove a car out of the way without heavy machinery, weren't you supposed to be happy about it? This was power I'd gained by coming to another world, no less.

If I could clear a police bus with a running leap. If my sprint was nearly the speed of a car. If incoming bullets curved away before they could ever touch me. Any one of those powers alone should have set a person's blood racing.

Spot a villain, smash them flat, and head straight for the happy ending — that was how it was supposed to go.

But all I felt was despair.

Had something in my head simply broken? Even as I ran, all that came was tears. The choices had been right there in front of me, and I'd gone and touched only the wrong ones. Every time I chose, I'd told myself it was something I needed to do — and looking back now, apparently it hadn't been.

I should have just left the world to turn however it pleased. Shouldn't have reached for pointless ambitions. Should have accepted I was a lost cause and lived like one, instead of sticking my neck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out for nothing. In possession stories, no matter how much the Author threw tantrums, the protagonist was supposed to ride an unbroken wave of victory — and I, of all people, had managed none of it.

I didn't even know where to go. My head insisted I had to get out of Seoul, yet I couldn't actually settle on a direction. Then again, I was in the heart of the city to begin with.

Maybe I should make for the Han River. I'd have to cross a bridge before I could run anywhere at all...

And yet, for all that, I was running toward home.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't a place I could simply call home — it was somewhere I'd have to leave someday. But in this world, that was about the only thing I could truly claim to have. No phone now, no wallet, nothing but a tattered hospital gown — and I hadn't even been able to put my underwear on properly beneath it.

Bang!

Another gunshot cracked somewhere ahead. Were they analyzing my route in advance and sending people to cut me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off? Impatience gnawed at me. At this rate, no matter where I fled, they would only keep catching up.

Something glinted—

"...!"

The blow to my shoulder stole even my scream. My pace faltered; my foot came down wrong and I staggered. More shots rang out in quick succession, and pain erupted all over my body — each blow like a massive hammer swung down at random.

Something glinting pattered to the ground around me. Bullets that had failed to pierce my body. Live rounds — lead slugs with their tips mashed flat, presumably from striking me.

Because they'd learned rubber bullets did nothing, perhaps. Or maybe the reason those rounds curved away instead of hitting me was simply that they lacked the kinetic energy — reduced propellant loads for riot suppression, or maybe just a different caliber. Then again, these new ones might have been packed with extra powder.

What mattered was this: they ignored even the mana around me and struck my flesh all the same.

Spotlights converged on me. The glare I'd barely escaped now swallowed my eyes — so bright my head ached. Did they simply not care whether I went blind?

"...It hurts."

I murmured it, voice choking. From my left arm, a black substance began slowly spreading over my body.

Ping. Ping.

Metal pinged away, deflected. But as though they couldn't hear it — as though this were their one perfect chance — people kept closing in on me. The ones at the front carried something shield-like before them, and their gear looked far heavier too; even the silhouettes I could barely make out seemed bulkier than ordinary people.

A duller report than the rest sounded, and a cluster of pellets struck me all at once. I nearly toppled backward, but just barely held. Some of the shot caught my head, and it rang like a struck bell.

It was as if the circuit were reading my mind. Wherever I hurt, a barrier formed there. It couldn't cancel the impact entirely, but even that much made the pain far more bearable.

Something like a net came flying from the group advancing on me. The net that dropped over me was far heavier than it looked — no fishing net, this; every strand was thick metal wire. And layer upon layer of it piled over my head.

Strength drained from one knee. The gunfire had stopped, but the sheer weight crushing down on me made escape harder than ever. More than anything, my body was spent. I couldn't feel the pain anymore, but my eyelids were so heavy that even my enhanced strength couldn't hold them open.

I curled myself up. The tightening wires pressed in from every side as if refusing to grant me any space to exist; only by hunching small did it seem my body might stay in one piece.

"I don't... want this anymore..."

I hate all of it. I just want it to stop.

"Somebody... please..."

As I murmured it, something black slowly closed over my sight.

It was exactly like that time — the time Hayun found out who I really was. Just before my vision was swallowed whole, someone seemed to call my name.

"No!"

How on earth had it come to this? Hayun was struggling to catch up with Jieun, who was running far faster than a magical girl flying through the sky. It wasn't simply that her ability fell short — it was as if their two powers had fallen into perfect inverse proportion.

The one who was Hayun's hope was being hunted by countless people right now — so many that the sirens wailing up from below made her head throb. And was that gunfire, far in the distance? Hearing it only tightened the dread coiling in her chest.

She might lose her friend. Might lose the friend she'd known since childhood, the one she had leaned on for so long. And the more that thought took hold, the weaker Hayun's power became.

"Hayun!"

Cherry's shout snapped her back to her senses.

No one knew exactly what force Noir Corporation's circuits ran on, but at the very least, the minimum needed to turn one over had to be far lower than what a magical girl required. After all, what made a magical girl a magical girl was being able to spin that circuit and generate that much energy. And yet — even weakened as she was, Hayun still had enough left to fight.

Which meant she had to go. Whatever it took, she could not lose Jieun.

...But how?

Persuade them with words? Subdue them by force? And after that? Hayun's parents held an important position between the Galaxy Federation and the Korean government; naturally they had to keep both sides happy, which meant there was no way Hayun could hide Jieun away in secret. Iris's warp technology could carry Jieun somewhere far away — but would Iris actually help? Worse, warp tech was exactly the kind of power that invited abuse the moment anyone began abusing it, and Iris's was already under Galaxy Federation surveillance. The instant Iris helped Jieun, Iris's own position would become dangerously precarious.

However she turned it over, there was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no way to save Jieun. Handing her over to those people was unthinkable — that was never going to be a simple arrest.

Even if it were just an arrest — why Jieun?

Magical girls were people who fought for justice. Even if the Galaxy Federation could never be perfectly just, magical girls, at least, had to be. No matter how broken a place the world had become, someone had to prove that one corner of it still ran fairly. Magical girls were meant to be that hope.

So where had it all gone wrong?

Hayun bit her lip, struggling to hold back her tears. Was this what the righteous path looked like? Was this really the first time something like this had happened? Was Jieun simply the first to be singled out — and Hayun merely unlucky enough to find out?

She spotted Jieun. No — she could barely see her. Jieun stood at the center of blinding floodlights; she should have been plainly visible. What she could see were the troops ringing the area. The roads had been sealed. Enormous trucks and buses had rolled in to blockade the main thoroughfare from every direction. It was night, but a few cars sat at the edge of the cordon, their occupants surely wondering what on earth was happening.

A helicopter hung overhead. From a cautious distance, a loud voice boomed from the helicopter.

But no "other magical girl" was anywhere in sight.

Kaijin.

The people aboard that helicopter were calling the Jieun down there a kaijin. Did they think Hayun wouldn't recognize her? She had — from the moment she arrived over the hospital.

For the first time in her life, Hayun ignored an order.

"Hold fire! Hold fire!"

She heard the shouts from below, and the sporadic gunfire fell silent. Glinting things littered the ground — scraps of metal with their tips mashed flat.

"..."

Bullets?

She'd seen them before. The weapons police used when less-lethal munitions weren't enough — usually just to hold the line until the magical girls arrived.

"...Jieun."

Jieun's condition was far worse than that. Blood had pooled on the ground. She didn't look killed by the live rounds — but she was fragile enough that her breathing could have failed her then and there without surprising anyone.

"Why?"

Jieun was almost invisible. Over her body — over her utterly shredded hospital gown — nets of steel wire lay stacked several layers deep. Only the faint shuddering of her form, glimpsed through the gaps in the wire, was proof that Jieun was still alive.

Hayun raised her wand. A blade of pink light sprang into being, and she swung it, slicing at the wires.

"Blossom!"

Someone shouted. Hayun didn't answer. Mercifully, no one approached her — perhaps they sensed how ugly the mood had turned.

"Hayun..."

Cherry murmured, gripping her shoulder hard. The wires didn't cut nearly so easily. Had they really believed magic would slice through? These were no ordinary steel wires — they were the heavy kind used in construction, the kind where a single strand flung across your head would mean instant death.

"Blossom!"

A somewhat burlier man among the troops worked up his courage and stepped toward her, calling out. "That's a subdued kaijin! It could be dangerous if you release it!"

"She is not a kaijin!" Blossom shouted. "Jieun is an Earthling!"

Kaijin were nothing but aliens that glowed in reaction to an energy of unknown origin — one that could only be sensed on Earth, especially near Earthlings. An Earthling couldn't be a kaijin in the first place. And yet these people — fellow Earthlings—

"Blossom."

When Hayun, wand gripped tight, refused to back down, the man edged closer again, speaking carefully. "She's a suspect in the bombing. People died."

"No."

Hayun glared at him. The harsh light made his face hard to read, but his bearing plainly showed how rattled he was. "It wasn't Jieun. Someone else planted the explosives... the other girls all know it, too."

"But a report came in. Once she's been named a suspect—"

"Where were you planning to take Jieun?" Hayun asked, low.

The man couldn't answer — not because the logic had cornered him, but because of the look on Hayun's face.

"Tell me." Hayun spoke, feeling Cherry's small hand clamping hard on her shoulder. "Were you really going to take her to a police station? Not transfer her to another hospital?"

"We were only ensuring she couldn't flee—"

"Flee how, exactly?"

She had, in fact, seen her flee. All the way here, she had watched Jieun run with strength no ordinary person could ever hope to stop. But she couldn't admit it. She couldn't make herself believe Jieun had done wrong — the Jieun she knew had never been that kind of girl. She threw herself into everything she did, paid little mind to how others saw her, and even found ways to cheer Hayun up whenever she was feeling low. Her face could seem a touch cold at first glance, but in truth she was warmer and more tender-hearted than anyone.

If a girl like that had been cornered into a situation like this — of course she would want to run. How could she not?

With a face on the verge of tears, Hayun turned on the crowd. "I'm sorry — could you repeat that? How exactly is a girl who spent an entire week in a coma and only just woke up supposed to 'flee'?"

"..."

No one dared say what they had all seen with their own eyes.

The blade of her wand shimmered. Her hope had not yet faded — not with Jieun this close. Her words were landing, at least. The man clearly understood none of it, but Blossom was still a magical girl. If the Galaxy Federation or Noir Corporation truly meant to take Jieun away, they could hardly ignore Hayun's standing as a magical girl.

"I'll... take Jieun with me. All that matters is that she doesn't run, right? If a magical girl is guarding her personally, no one has any objections — yes?"

"...Blossom."

But before the words had even left her mouth, a voice called out to Hayun. A voice she knew.

"That's enough. Dragging this out isn't going to do you any favors."

Pushing through the crowd came Rose. Behind her was Iris, whose face clouded into something complicated at the sight of Jieun lying collapsed. Hayun knew Iris had fought Jieun any number of times, but seeing her reduced to this left a feeling that couldn't be helped. Indeed, Rose too eyed the fallen Jieun with visible unease before glancing around.

"And you people — haven't you done enough? Who fires live rounds at an Earthling?"

A strange light, unlike the floodlights, drew every gaze. Delphinium stood there, grimoire in one hand, stirring her wand through an incantation. Beside her, Dahlia stood guard, holding her patched-up wand with a slightly awkward wariness.

"We'll take it from here. ...Escort the wounded, and lower your weapons. I don't know why you were so keen to move her in secret, but at this point I don't imagine there's anything left to hide."

At Rose's words, the surrounding troops exchanged glances and slowly lowered their muzzles. Hayun let out a small breath.

But the moment Rose moved a step toward Jieun, Hayun flinched sideways to block her path.

"I just want to check that she's okay."

Hayun shook her head. "Wh-what are you planning to do? Take her straight to the Galaxy Federation?"

"Of course. What other way is there?"

"No!"

"Blossom — no, Hayun." Rose exhaled softly. "You need to think this through calmly."

"Think calmly? Jieun didn't do any of it!"

Hayun shouted. Iris's eyes went round — she had never once seen Hayun wear such an expression. The other magical girls wore similar looks, each to a different degree.

"She only ever fought as a combatant! You always just let the rest of them go — so why come down on her now, of all times? You never once thought what they did was a crime that serious!"

It was true. She had fought believing it was justice. But she had never considered their deeds crimes worthy of death. In the end, henchmen were only henchmen. The reason she arrested them only to let them go, the reason she never protested how they were treated, was that she knew tormenting those people would yield nothing.

But it had never once occurred to Hayun that someone she knew might be mixed in among them. Least of all someone as kind as Jieun — she'd been sure nothing like this could happen to a girl like her.

So which side was wrong, then? Could it be that the enemy had been nothing more than ordinary office workers all along? She'd heard "we never broke the law" more times than she could count, and each time she had ground her teeth, certain something was deeply wrong. But now...

Could faith in justice really crumble this easily?

"Hayun, calm down. We're just—"

Reaching out a hand to soothe her, Rose suddenly went wide-eyed — and lunged at Hayun.

The Hayun of any ordinary day wouldn't have panicked at something like this. She would have read the situation coolly and wondered first why Rose was acting that way. But right now, things were a little different from usual.

"...Ah!"

Flustered, her hand moved. Hayun's blade sank into Rose's arm.

Without a flicker of change in her expression, Rose pressed on through it and brought Hayun down to the ground.

"Seohee, wait—"

But before Hayun could get the words out, Rose was already back on her feet, hauling Hayun up with her.

"Delphinium!"

Rose bellowed, and Hayun's body was spun around. With Rose gripping the back of her neck, Hayun finally understood why Rose had lunged at her.

It was the black sphere she'd seen before — the one that had enveloped Jieun's body.

"Jieun!"

Hayun screamed, but Rose was already dragging her backward in a crushing hold from behind, Hayun's feet scraping along the ground. Her wand lay abandoned on the pavement.

"Jieun!"

No matter what Hayun shouted, the black sphere melted through every thick wire, snapped them all, and shot upward as if detonating.

"Delphinium!"

"No!"

Rose bellowed, and Delphinium swept her wand. A great white orb flew at the black sphere, which was far larger still.

But the white orb never reached it. Before the two could collide, a hand emerged from within the black sphere. A pale hand — covered in wounds. But Hayun knew it was Jieun's. The hand that had taken Hayun's and pulled her back onto her feet, time after time, whenever she felt she might crumple.

A thunderous boom. The white orb detonated in midair and was gone.

"Everyone, fall back!"

Rose shouted, and the troops below scrambled to turn tail, scattering in every direction.

"Delphinium!"

"...Still charging!"

"Dahlia!"

"On it!"

Dahlia loosed her magic, but it couldn't shatter the sphere. Iris added covering fire as well. Every one of the magical girls' attacks was aimed at Jieun.

"Stop... please, stop..."

Blossom murmured, held fast in Rose's grip.

Had the attacks worked? The black sphere was shrinking, bit by bit. The smaller it became, the faster it shrank, until at last it was only the size of a person. Then the black layer peeled away like the skin of a chrysalis. The wet, tearing sound carried all the way to them.

Rip.

Hands peeled back the shell, and a human body emerged. She twisted again and again, as if wrenching herself out of a skin that fit too tightly, her face contorted in pain. The light of hope could not touch that blackness.

When the figure first emerged, her whole body was drenched in black liquid. Like a butterfly leaving its chrysalis — head thrown back, spine arched like a drawn bow — her body slowly reclaimed its color.

"...Jieun."

Hayun breathed the name. The one standing there was Jieun. And she was—

She was dressed like a magical girl. A simple dress built around the color black. It lacked the flamboyance of the other magical girls' outfits — but everyone knew that didn't mean she was weak.

"What... what on earth..."

Even Rose murmured it.

Slowly, Jieun opened her eyes. Even after the last of the black liquid had dripped away and her clothes had dried, she was still covered head to toe in wounds. Those cold eyes looked down on Hayun and the magical girls.

No.

She wanted to say it that very instant — that she hadn't attacked, that she had only wanted to save her. But no voice would come.

Now, of all times?

Someone inside her head murmured it. After snapping her, tearing her apart, pounding her into the ground — over and over — now, of all times?

Hayun had no rebuttal.

For a long moment, Jieun simply floated there, gazing down at the magical girls. Then, without warning, a sphere opened behind her back — shaped just like the black hole she'd seen in movies.

Rose screamed something. Delphinium and Dahlia braced themselves; Iris fired. But Jieun unleashed nothing upon them. The space around the black hole warped and folded.

By the time Hayun came to her senses, Jieun was already gone. Everything had fallen silent, as if the sky had never held anything at all — as if nothing had ever happened.

"..."

Only then did the strength leave Rose's arms. Hayun sank to her knees.

And there she crumpled, and broke into sobs.