Enemies in the Same Boat (7)
The antenna rose about as high as a ten-story building, but that didn't mean it was without weaknesses.
For one thing, it wasn't nearly as heavy as its size suggested. A single person carrying it was, of course, out of the question—it had been assembled in place from parts brought in from outside, and above all, as a structure perched in the middle of a fifty-odd-story building, it had been built under strict weight limits. Apparently the plan had been to protect the antenna simply by making the building concealing it as sturdy as possible.
Which meant the antenna's outer shell was thin enough for even my blade to cut through.
Its shape was something like a horseshoe. A U-shaped magnet would have worked as a description too, or a tuning fork—though honestly, with its narrow gap and prongs stretching upward, the tuning fork fit best. The reason I'd first taken it for one long skewer was that, from the entrance to this floor, the two pointed tips overlapped so perfectly they looked like a single blade.
According to James, the antenna had two major weak points. One was the section where the device connected to the building itself. The other was the section vital to the device actually functioning.
Finding the connection point wasn't all that hard. Machines break down eventually, so naturally there was a panel that opened for maintenance—and that openable panel, at least, wasn't armored like the rest of the building's walls.
Smashing things was the whole point of being here, so I didn't exactly swing with restraint. When I drove my blade into the floor—more precisely, into what served as the maintenance hatch's lock—sparks sprayed out. Even knowing they couldn't hurt me, I flinched a little.
For the record, James was hanging off my back at the time. He must have known the sparks were coming.
Planning to keep that from me, were you?
Pondering, once again, what rat meat might taste like, I ripped the maintenance hatch clean off. I tore it loose with such force that the hinge anchoring the steel plate to the floor burst apart and went flying backward.
Inside, thick and thin wires alike had been arranged with surprising tidiness. They were color-coded in bright primaries, too, so I could see exactly what connected to what.
"Cut them out as messily as you can. That alone should melt the copper and the rubber, shouldn't it?"
Just as he said, I swung both blades like a woman possessed. Sparks flew again, but this time I didn't so much as flinch—I'd confirmed moments ago that they couldn't touch me.
Wires got hacked apart left and right, and just as James promised, some of them fused and slumped where they'd been cut. Somewhere in the chaos a short circuit kicked in, and the whole mess started crackling and spitting sparks all on its own.
The power died on several of the computers arranged in a ring around the antenna. A few of them were server-style machines, at that.
"While you're at it, I'd recommend cutting every last cable on those servers as well. That should deepen the confusion for any troops trying to fight their way up here."
The building's walls are thick. Naturally, wireless signals don't work in an environment like this.
There's nothing special about this building, though. Even brand-new high-rise apartments and office blocks often have terrible reception inside; until a separate receiver is installed, getting a phone to work properly indoors is a struggle. And there's a fact I know without James telling me—something I picked up as a combatant myself.
Every one of the Company's services runs on the intranet of the Company's own servers. A security measure.
Of course, the server in front of me probably isn't the one commanding all of that, but—
"It's also what relays communications between the inside and the world beyond these walls. That single antenna can handle all of it."
In other words, once the servers, the wiring, and the LAN cables were all severed, this place would drop clean out of contact. Satellites or no satellites—radio waves have to reach you before any of it means a thing.
I grabbed the server rack with both hands and heaved. With a tremendous crash it toppled forward, computers spilling out of it, and then I seized every neatly seated cable at the back and ripped them all out in one fistful. The locking clips on the LAN cables snapped a few of the heads clean off. I couldn't have cared less.
“......”
"What?"
"Nothing. You're doing splendidly."
James had gone oddly quiet, so I asked; he answered with perfect composure.
I shrugged and moved on to demolishing the rest, one machine at a time. Drove a blade in and slashed diagonally, kicked them over, caved them in with my fists, scooped up whatever was on the tables and hurled it. I picked up a laptop, bent it backward until it snapped, then slammed it down on the desk a few times until the keycaps scattered—and honestly, it felt pretty great.
"......You must have had quite a lot built up."
"No need to say it out loud."
When I answered between breaths, James fell silent for a moment.
BANG!
Once I'd wrecked the lower section of the antenna to a reasonable degree, the door I'd barricaded chose that exact moment to blow.
"Ah."
"There's no need to worry. As you saw earlier, the combatants are carrying live rounds. The place is already this badly damaged—surely there's no fool stupid enough to open fire on top of that?"
...Fair point.
"Besides, we have business above regardless. Can you get us up there?"
Honestly, I still had no idea how to fly. I'd floated earlier, before transforming, but that hadn't exactly been by choice. Still, that didn't mean there was no way up.
I backed off a few steps.
"Hold on tight."
With that, I sprinted forward, then kicked off the ground with everything I had.
THUNK!
I sank a blade into the antenna and hung there. With one blade anchored, I flexed my legs, drew my knees up, and planted my feet against the structure. From a distance, I'd have looked like a person crouching on the thing.
“......”
"What?"
"Nothing. It's nothing at all."
James had gone quiet again; when I pressed, he answered with something like exasperation.
What is it with him?
If something's bothering you, at least say so.
BANG!
"Are you insane!?"
Someone below had fired at me. Thankfully the round went wide, but another combatant—who looked to be some kind of squad leader—seized the shooter's gun and bellowed.
"If the antenna breaks because of you, are you going to take responsibility!?"
Just how thin is that steel plating, exactly?
Well—it was never built for military use in the first place, and with defenses this airtight, it didn't need to be physically indestructible. Besides, I'd started from the middle floors. Judging by how the magical girls still hadn't fought their way down here, that head start had to count for a lot.
"Here I go."
I said it, pulled my blade free, and ran straight up.
"Hah!"
No ordinary person could even imagine it—sprinting up a structure that rose sheer and vertical. But a body reinforced by magic made it possible.
I didn't make it all the way in one go, though.
Slip.
I'd climbed a good distance, but at the very end my foot lost its fight with gravity and slid. I stabbed a blade back in and hung on again.
CLANG!
Something came flying at me and smacked into the antenna. Unlike the bullet from before, it couldn't punch through—but if it had struck where my blade was anchored, the blade would have torn loose and sent me plummeting.
CLANG!THUD!
Whether the combatants below had decided it was a good idea or not, they started grabbing whatever was lying around and hurling it up at me. Both sides were moving dead seriously in our own ways, and yet, honestly, it was a little absurd. Well, they had no way of getting up here, so I suppose this was all they had—
And while I was mulling that over at my leisure, I very nearly dropped straight down.
SHHHH!
From head to toe, I was drenched in an instant. I tried to glance down, and the crushing water pressure shoved my face back up. Whoever's idea it was, someone below had hauled out a fire hose and was blasting it straight up at me.
James tumbled away with a frantic squeaking, and I shot a hand out to catch him.
"Squeeeak!"
I must have grabbed too hard, because that was the sound James made. His body was soft and warm, exactly as you'd expect from a hamster—though soaked through, so not exactly fluffy.
"What in the—squeak!?"
He tried to say something, but whether the translator had jostled against the water hammering up from below, his words dissolved into squeaks halfway through.
This won't do.
I conjured a blade on my left hand too—the one holding James.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
James made a noise of pure horror at the sight, but I paid it no mind. No—that's not quite true. I paid it some mind. It would have been a problem if I squeezed too hard and popped him.
THUNK!
Then, like reaching for a climbing hold, I stabbed upward and hauled my body along. The higher I went, the more the hose below seemed to be losing its reach.
The blade had no fixed shape of its own, yet it anchored to my arm just fine. Magic really is a bizarre thing—its physical force shifts depending on the wielder's intent. Sometimes it shears through thick steel without breaking a sweat, but if it behaved that way here, I couldn't have hung on at all.
Or maybe the antenna itself was crafted through some magical process, the same way a combatant suit, powered by its Circuit, turns aside a fair amount of punishment.
Thinking this and that, I climbed up, and up. By now almost nothing came flying my way. No one could show their face after shooting at me and wrecking the antenna, could they?
This is why black companies run so inefficiently. If you can't properly protect the people doing their jobs, nobody's going to risk their neck for you. And the people here were, comparatively speaking, decently paid, at that.
Did they figure catching a stray bullet was fine, so long as they stopped me from escaping?
"......Whew."
I barely hauled myself up to where the antenna forked. I was soaked through, and I could feel my body heat draining away—not to dangerous levels, but still—
"James?"
I called out carefully to James, who hadn't said a word since I'd caught him. He hung limp in my grip, eyes open.
......
Was he dead? Don't tell me I'd squeezed him too hard back there—
Khof.
But contrary to my fears, James spat a mouthful of water and sucked in a deep, ragged breath.
"I nearly died back there!"
And the instant his eyes opened, he snapped at me.
"So, what's next?"
Just as James had a habit of talking right over me, I barreled straight past his outburst—and at that, James gritted his teeth.
"......The middle of this structure. And don't concern yourself with electromagnetic interference. You severed everything that needed severing down below, after all."
I stole a glance downward—gunfire cracked, and I yanked my head back at once. Right. Now that I was sticking out up here, they could shoot all they liked.
The combatants clustered below began fanning out in every direction. The antenna stood roughly ten stories tall, so perhaps they were hunting for a vantage point where they could meet me at eye level.
I moved fast. Just as James said, at the precise middle of that tuning-fork antenna, there was something like a round hatch.
"So I just smash this open, right?"
"......No. I'd advise against that."
"What?"
You're saying that NOW?
When I stared at him in silence, James's face was twisted. How much distortion can a hamster's face manage, really? He looked like a small dog baring its teeth, showing its gums. No—he looked even more pathetic than that. He was a hamster, after all. He could bite me hard enough to draw blood, but tearing out my throat was beyond him.
And above all, that expression wasn't hostility aimed at me. The bared teeth resembled the face he'd made earlier, when he'd been screaming at me to transform—but somewhere, it was decisively different.
The corners of his mouth were turned up, just slightly.
"What's inside this thing—let's take it for ourselves. I believe you're more than equal to the task."
And the face James lifted toward me as he said it—
looked, for all the world, like something smiling.
BANG!
Just because they could no longer draw on Hayun's energy didn't mean the magical girls would lose to mere combatants. They had strength enough to break down a door. Punching a hole through a wall, though, was beyond them.
She had, in fact, already tried. But the walls here weren't the flimsy plaster of a floor merely sectioned off with partitions, nor even ordinary reinforced concrete. An obscene density of thick rebar ran through their cores. Cutting through all of that would demand more magic than she had left.
On any other day, perhaps she could have managed—
“......”
No one blamed Blossom. Hers was not a team that always saw eye to eye, but every one of its members was close with her. Which was precisely why the guilt pressed down on her all the harder.
THUD!
The reason Blossom's blows had lost their force was not simply a circuit turning sluggish. She couldn't hit the way she usually did. Because with every impact that shuddered up her arms, Jieun's face rose before her eyes.
It wasn't as if she'd never wondered what lay behind those helmets. Every time she captured one, she made certain they were properly treated before letting them go—so she had told herself it was fine.
But Jieun—
Jieun had needed to stay hidden. Working for the orphanage's sake, and yet unable to let Hayun find out. To shave even a sliver off Hayun's guilt, she must have run away, over and over.
Dragging that battered body behind her.
"Gwahk!?"
Hayun caught a combatant's arm, wrenched it back, and flooded mana into her Circuit. The energy they ran on was different, so a complete shutdown was impossible—but physically severing the junction where suit met Circuit, that much she could do.
If only she had fought like this from the beginning. If only she hadn't seen them as nothing more than enemies.
Then Hayun would never have beaten Jieun within an inch of her life.
Jieun hadn't even had a choice. By the public records, she had been a combatant for three years already. Hayun had been a magical girl for barely two—so in all likelihood, it was Jieun who had been thrown off balance when their paths first crossed on the job.
So she ran, flat out. She neutralized the swarming combatants one after another, slicing through guns, wrecking equipment at every turn. A few still dragged themselves up and grappled with her out of sheer stubbornness, but cut off from their Circuits, they were only human. No amount of conditioning let an ordinary body resist a magical girl's strength.
Barely threading the maze of tangled corridors, she found her way at last—and broke through the final door.
"This is......?"
A space so vast it bordered on bewildering opened up before her. The first thing she saw was the tip of something sharp as a spearpoint. Two of them, standing side by side.
Below, all was commotion. Move! Faster! Hurry! Voices like that drifted up to her.
And from a vantage point overlooking that vast space, someone was aiming a gun down into it. Almost on instinct, Hayun knew who that gun was pointed at.
"Blossom!"
Why had she stepped forward?
A bullet wouldn't kill Jieun. Wouldn't even injure her.
......Ah. Right. Of course.
She wouldn't die. She wouldn't be hurt. Even if harm were possible, it would never, obviously, threaten her life.
Only.
It would hurt. A great deal.
Her certainty that Jieun was down there rested on two facts alone: Jieun had appeared here, and Jieun had vanished through a black hole. Something was unquestionably happening inside—that was why the combatants fighting on the rooftop had abruptly wheeled around and poured back in. This place mattered immensely, and Jieun had come for it, so they had come to stop her.
The device that could track magical girls. The objective had been to turn the tables and carry off its most crucial component.
That was the plan—and yet, even as she reasoned it out, Hayun was already moving on instinct. She had watched slug after slug of lead hammer into Jieun's body. Jieun had held firm at first, but live rounds made her stagger, wrung cries out of her.
Hayun seized the shooter by the shoulder. The combatant's face, snapping back toward Jieun, was hidden behind a helmet—but every movement broadcast their panic.
The muzzles around them swung toward her. But no one dared fire rashly. A magical girl might walk through bullets; whether a combatant could fully stop one, nobody could say for certain. Even so, no one could afford to surrender their only means of protecting themselves.
The combatant locked the gun tight in both hands.
"Let go of it......!"
Hayun yanked the gun toward herself.
She couldn't begin to understand why she was doing this. Wrestling one gun from one person resolved nothing.
Perhaps she had wanted to prove something. That she had struck Jieun like that only because she hadn't known it was Jieun. That even now, she had no intention of attacking her.
Even in a moment like this. Even without the faintest grasp of why Jieun had come here at all.
The magical girls came sprinting, calling out to Blossom. In the blink of an eye, everything around her collapsed into pandemonium. Combatants stood close enough to Blossom that aiming at her risked their own allies, but the magical girls charging in from behind were fair game.
Gunfire shrieked like tearing eardrums. The gazes of combatants farther off swung toward her.
Blossom finally wrenched the gun free. But the combatant had been pouring their whole strength into that grip as well.
It was an accident. In a calm moment, the combatant would simply have caught themselves on the railing at their back. But a brawl was raging on every side—from the first shot onward, bullets had been ricocheting in all directions. The rounds seemed designed to shatter against walls, but that didn't mean there was no smoke, and shards of jacket flew too. Elsewhere, clusters of combatants had piled onto lone magical girls in grappling scrums.
And that combatant, Circuit roaring at full output, couldn't rein in their own strength. Maybe that was why. The instant their back kissed the railing, they tipped backward over it and were gone.
Hayun had not stood frozen. She flung the gun aside and hurled herself straight after the combatant. Somehow she caught them, and for a moment they hung there in open air—
"......Ah."
—and she met the eyes of Jieun, looking straight back at her.
Jieun stood with some intricately wrought mechanical device in her hand, staring at Hayun as if in a daze.
And those two eyes were wide open—wider than Hayun had ever seen them.