Chapter 12: The Demands (1)

For what it's worth, I had come.

But honestly? I didn't want to do anything anymore.

Barely days ago, thoughts of revenge and whatnot had circled my head without pause, and even now that much hadn't changed—

and yet.

What was the point of going on doing things the high and mighty would applaud? Better to smash everything in sight to rubble and then tell them to hand over the Chairman's neck.

……Not that I'd ever see something like that through, knowing my own temperament.

So — here I was.

"It's strange, really."

I murmured it, looking down from the rooftop.

"Did they actually think we'd come?"

The police were locked in a standoff with a kaijin yet again. At this point, this much was a foregone conclusion. Stall for time until the magical girls arrived and took the thing down — why step in and fight when all it earned you was death?

If it had been that lobster-like kaijin, it would have crushed them under its pincers or parted their upper bodies from their lower halves; charge the wrong way at the acid-spitting one and even if you survived, something unspeakable would happen to you. Just imagining part of your body melting away was horrifying enough.

Truthfully, I did find it strange.

Whatever powers they'd been granted, weren't the magical girls all minors?

Federation politics aside, was it really right for minors to step in and do the work that belonged to the police and the military? Really right? Not that the people of this world seemed to spare it so much as a thought.

"Do they think we'll come again, and fight their battles for them?"

"Jieun……"

At my murmur, Hayun called out to me. I didn't turn around.

Yes, I knew. In the end, it was simply that the best outcome came from the only ones capable of matching a kaijin going to fight it — that was all.

A police officer's life was a life; a soldier's life was a life. And outside of a magical girl, it was hard to find anyone who could take a kaijin's blows without dropping dead and subdue the thing without killing it.

The Federation knew that, and so exploited the existence of magical girls to the hilt; the government knew that, and so never seriously restrained whatever the girls did.

And the reason the Company had been free to move about and needle the magical girls just so was, in turn, that a government which didn't want the girls running too wild had chosen to look away.

"Aren't you curious? What happens to those people if we don't step in?"

"……"

At my words, the girls fell silent. Every gaze turned to me.

We'd torn open a black hole to get this far, but we hadn't rushed in. Still, I'd handed the circuits back out, so before long they would at least realize that magical girls had arrived on a nearby rooftop. Or perhaps they already knew?

There were no press helicopters wheeling through the air. Not even the ever-present drones. Denied permits, perhaps.

I leaned on the rooftop railing and looked down. Quite the spectacle.

Black heads packed a fairly wide street from edge to edge. Obviously I didn't mean hair color — in this world, defining race by hair color meant nothing.

I meant the helmets the police wore.

Officers in black combat gear from crown to boot stood encircling the kaijin once again.

They seemed to have mounted some attacks of their own this time, too. Ambulances sat outside the human wall ringing the kaijin, as if someone had been hurt.

A few citizens were visible. As time passed, their numbers crept slowly upward. Apparently there hadn't been quite enough time to evacuate every building in the heart of Seoul, because this street wasn't as empty as Chungmuro had been.

In the buildings across the way, people had opened their windows and were peering down.

"What should we do?"

I asked it in a listless voice, watching those people.

"Do we have to go down and fight? Do we really have to prove how righteous we are?"

"That's—"

Iris opened her mouth, caught my gaze, and hastily went quiet.

"What? If you've started a sentence, finish it."

I'd been in a foul mood to begin with…… no, none of that was Iris's fault, but the bad mood wouldn't lift, and my voice came out edged with irritation.

Isn't that a bit much? a corner of my mind asked. Frankly, I couldn't be bothered to care.

"It's not as if anyone's paying you a salary. You're all deserters as it is. Show yourselves now, and the Federation might just step in and drag you back."

At my question, Iris pondered for a long moment before answering.

"Even so, in a situation where people could die, we can't simply not act……"

Then her eyes met mine, and she shut her mouth again.

Why?

However well she understood the circumstances, that seemed a bit much. Right up until now, hers had been the side that fought without cutting anyone any slack.

Then again, better not to assume combatants would go easy on a magical girl just because the magical girl went easy on them. Those people were desperate in their own way, after all.

The fact that a wand wasn't swinging at you didn't stop you from swinging your fists at a magical girl.

I was the same age as the magical girls, or younger, so it wasn't a great problem for me — but just as I questioned the girls being deployed at all, those underage magical girls trading blows with grown adult combatants wasn't exactly free of moral problems either.

Normally…… this sort of thing resolves itself by making the villains simply, plainly evil. The problem with this world was that peel back the shell on either side, and you found ordinary human beings.

"Well. Fine."

I decided not to think any deeper.

"Let's fight, for starters."

At my words, the magical girls put on slightly uneasy expressions.

Why? Did they distrust me? Or was there some other reason?

Didn't seem like the sort of thing to agonize over after coming this far.

"In exchange— don't rush in until I'm done talking."

"Okay."

Hayun answered. Whether they took that as a kind of answer from our representative, none of the other magical girls raised any objection.

Probably because no one knew what I'd come out with next. Fair enough — had I been in Hayun's or the others' shoes, I'd have been a little afraid too, wondering what on earth I'd say.

I leapt off the building.

The hammer's propulsion unit vented energy to bleed off my falling speed, leaving my body none the worse—

THUD!

—but there was no silencing the sound entirely.

Where I landed was not, strictly speaking, near the kaijin.

However packed the wide street was, it wasn't so dense that the police couldn't set foot anywhere at all. It was thickest around the kaijin, thinning toward the back until there was room for a person or two to stand.

Of course, dropping into one of those gaps — me, with a booster that could melt steel in real time — meant someone could get hurt.

So I came down on the roof of a police bus.

The spot where I landed dented inward a little, but it didn't crumple outright the way I'd left the rest of their equipment.

With every eye on the bus, I hopped down, and the police scrambled out of my way in a panic.

I had no intention of killing any of them, but from where they stood, they apparently saw it differently.

Fair enough — my conduct so far had been anything but friendly toward the police.

Who on earth had paged them, anyway?

You could put out a warning bulletin over the radio and the like. Reporters who spotted the police mobilizing might catch the scent and file stories. But a magical girl pager only went off when someone actually paged it.

Could it have been the magical girls' mascot? Cherry, was her name? She'd seemed like quite a kind soul in the webtoon, so maybe.

Into the space the police had cleared, the magical girls descended a beat later.

No particular reason for the delay — they'd have drifted down from the sky all aflutter, so of course they were slower.

I looked around.

Helmeted or not, faces hidden or in plain view, everyone who saw me panicked and tried to put as much distance between us as they could.

A few even had their guns trained this way.

I paid them no mind, scanning my surroundings until at last I found what I wanted.

"Hey. Hand that—"

The instant I crossed the distance and seized it, the officer let out a shriek, hastily shrugged the strap off his shoulder, flung it aside, and stumbled backward. Not that he got far — that way was just as packed with people.

"……"

I stared at him, dumbfounded, then heaved a deep sigh.

And raised the megaphone to my mouth.

"Ah. Ah."

I did know how to work a megaphone, at least.

Why burn energy bellowing yourself hoarse before the fight had even begun? I had no desire to.

Satisfied that my voice carried, I spoke.

"I take it the fighting has been rather difficult for you all."

Every word dripping with sarcasm.

"What's the matter? Bullets not getting through? Wire not quite doing the job?"

Both did work on some kaijin.

Back in the day — when the kaijin had only just begun appearing and magical girls didn't exist yet — the police had fought too. Taken their lumps, but dealt with the kaijin properly all the same.

Not anymore. Why bleed yourselves when someone else would fight in your place?

Heck, things were so dire that even the magical girls who'd run away had come back — here we all were, facing each other.

Even me.

Even I, who'd taken my lumps from the police before.

Right. Credit where credit was due.

This was a magical girl's job. If someone died because I hadn't shown up, my fragile psyche would murmur it's because of you on an endless loop.

Whether I counted as a real magical girl was beside the point — the reason there had been no magical girl there was, without question, me.

And yet, no matter what, I didn't want to simply do it for free.

"Well, fine. It is our specialty, after all."

Our.

Funny word to use only now. I'd said it up on the rooftop without even registering it.

Still — hadn't they agreed to follow my lead for the time being? Then calling us we couldn't be much of a problem for the moment.

"So we'll fight in your place! Nobody here wants to die. We can fight without dying — and we won't waste money on useless equipment, either. That's all taxpayer money, you know?"

Never mind that I'd personally blown up a good portion of the pricey equipment those taxes had bought. Anyway.

I started walking forward, and the police parted to either side.

"In return, one condition."

I said.

"Give us something, won't you? Anything at all. Oh — I wouldn't dream of asking for money."

It wasn't as if we'd have any use for it. We weren't about to stroll into the nearest convenience store with it.

And if we could have, we'd probably have been doing that long ago.

"Food would be fine. Clothes would be fine. Anything you like — set whatever price you think our fighting is worth. To be honest, all this running has left us a little short on food, and our clothes are wearing through."

Should I really be saying this? I debated for a second, then decided to just say it.

The moment I asked for anything, they'd piece together our situation anyway. If they wanted to exploit that, so be it. Let them try.

There was something a little funny about scheming like this after insisting I couldn't bear to watch people die — but when the time came, I'd simply look for another way.

Once people saw a magical girl looting a convenience store, they'd probably rethink a few things too.

The police opened to the sides, a path cleared, and we advanced until we stood face to face with the kaijin.

This kaijin was…… a rather curious sight.

Judging by looks alone, it seemed like it would be blindingly fast.

Most kaijin took their forms from animals. Among aliens I'd seen people whose bodies were made of stone, but whether because designing that kind of kaijin was complicated and difficult, the kaijin in the webtoon had almost all been bestial — seafood or land creatures alike.

The thing in front of me now was not.

If anything, it looked like a swift human.

Among aliens there were some who looked just like Earthlings, give or take a few differences.

The being before me had no hair at all and a gray face. Its head, too, was a little…… flattened, for a human ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠skull.

It would have been an improvement if the head had simply been a fish's; instead it looked like someone had taken a human head and tried pressing it flat from side to side to make it fish-shaped. The body was a bit flat and thin, too.

I tilted my head back slightly. And raised the megaphone as well.

There were people up there.

Whether they'd failed to evacuate or simply hadn't been evacuated — to the people thrusting smartphones toward me, I shouted through the megaphone.

"You heard me, yes?"

No one called back, but I kept talking to the phones aimed my way.

"Compensation. Com-pen-sa-tion. Give us anything that might be of use to us. Starting now…… I'll give you thirty minutes or so."

My words seemed to fluster people, too. Murmurs rippled through the police ranks; even the people up on the buildings, phones still pointed this way, glanced at one another.

I set the hammer down. Clang — metal struck the asphalt with a rather loud ring.

Then I perched myself on top of it, roughly. Hardly a comfortable chair-like posture — more a delinquent's slouch, arms dumped carelessly over my knees — but I thought it suited the occasion perfectly.

"Got it!? Thirty minutes. Thirty! After that, well — sort it out however you please."

With that said, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠truly just let the hand holding the megaphone hang limp.

I had no intention of taking my eyes off the kaijin. If it moved, I moved.

And whatever else, I had zero desire to watch someone die right in front of me.

……Thirty minutes. Surely they could bring something in that time?

I lifted my head and looked at the magical girls. Every one of them wore a slightly bewildered expression.

Was it simply my words catching them off guard?

Magical girls gained things from being magical girls, too. Even if it wasn't financial gain, it would have been politically useful. If not the girls themselves…… well, their parents, say. There were plenty of cases like that, weren't there?

"……"

The kaijin went on staring straight at us, unmoving.

No letting my guard down. Not one thing had ever been learned about why kaijin moved the way they did.

Some, like the one that had taken Jihye hostage last time, flew into a rage without warning; others stood still for hours before suddenly moving.

One thing was certain: every kaijin, without fail, eventually moved and did harm — whether it looked deliberate or not.

A bomb beyond communication, guaranteed to go off someday.

That was what made a kaijin a kaijin — and why it always went on the extermination list.

Somewhere, I heard running footsteps. Had someone gotten orders, maybe?

Well. For now, I'd wait until they brought something, anything.

Going back on my word the moment I'd said it would make even me look spineless.

"Why……?"

Jihye murmured it as she made for the place where it was all happening.

Most public transit bound that way had been shunted onto temporary detours. A text alert said the subway would simply pass through without stopping.

But she could still get close. Near it, at least.

The bus wasn't very crowded. In truth, at some point the other passengers had vanished entirely.

Nobody wanted to ride toward a place where lives were thrown away. Even someone bent on suicide wanted to die in an instant — not to be caught by a kaijin and torn to shreds.

So there should have been no one near that place. And yet.

"……What is this?"

A video of the scene was streaming online.

Through her smartphone's ten-times zoom, Jieun and the magical girls appeared tiny — but she could still just barely make out their faces.

What was the point of acting deliberately silent all this time, only to start broadcasting footage the moment an incident broke out?

However foreign the streaming site might be, so long as it had a branch in Korea, cooperating with the Korean government was…… how it ought to be, surely.

Somehow, an ominous premonition crept over her.

Jihye knew nothing about that side of things.

She had lived beside Jieun all those years without even knowing that Jieun hurt every single day.

She had never once wondered what a combatant precisely did, or how badly they got hurt and ached.

She had watched magical girls fight and put ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠herself in a magical girl's shoes — never in those of a combatant knocked flat by a blow.

So she truly knew nothing. Even trying to imagine it, she couldn't picture it.

But—

still, it wasn't that she couldn't think at all.

Doing, all of a sudden, what had never been done before.

Filming and airing that footage the instant the magical girls moved — it could only mean someone intended something by it.

Did they think the magical girls would lose? Or did they want to tell the world that demanding things mid-battle was wrong?

"……"

The bus had all but arrived at the vicinity. No — strictly speaking, a fair distance remained. The cordon was wider than she'd imagined.

Under the driver's anxious gaze, Jihye hurried off the bus and ran.

It didn't make sense. With a zone that wide, how were there still people who hadn't taken shelter inside it?

Jieun's demands, of all things, deliberately put on broadcast for the whole world ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to see.

She had no proof of anything, but it felt like something was going terribly wrong.

Had Jieun, brooding over everything, finally gone out of her mind?

There was nothing she could do to help even if she went — and still, Jihye was headed there.

Whether she was going to help, or simply running because she wanted to see her face.

Jihye kept running. Even as the figures standing guard along the roadside came into view ahead.