Chapter 14: Confusion (7)
To sum up the situation: those bastards had dug the same trap here as last time. And to make certain we died, they'd stashed away a secret weapon of their own devising—weapons that appeared to have been made using Earthlings... whether "used" was the right word, I couldn't say, but they had certainly been built in that fashion.
It had been five years since the Federation made contact with Earth. Even if development had begun the moment contact was made, no ordinary growth rate could have raised a person to that stage. Not unless they'd used technology that was never supposed to be used on people—technology that had been expressly ruled out for human application.
"Were they planning to extract combat data or something?"
"More likely they simply meant to clean up the mess for good. That Chairman isn't capable of thinking anything so complicated."
"And now that I can't use my power properly, that plan has gone off the rails."
"They can't peer into your emotions, you see. Which means that robot, and those artificial kaijin as well, can't be pushed to a hundred percent of their potential. The human who was piloting the robot in his place probably never anticipated this situation either. That's why he was stalling for time with all that nonsense."
"...So you did anticipate that we might die."
"To be precise, I anticipated it would not explode. And in reality, it's perfectly safe, isn't it?"
I could, in a way, understand them putting me in danger. Not that I forgave it. I merely told myself there might be nothing I could do about it, if it proved necessary.
But Hayun being in danger—I hated that. I hated anyone else getting caught up in it too, but Hayun most of all.
Yes, I knew it was a contradiction. I was the one who'd wanted to fight Hayun and win, after all.
Which was exactly why I felt so foul.
Hamster exterior aside, James was still James. That rotten personality and vile taste from the old days, fully intact.
Yeah, I really couldn't just leave him be.
Re-education, starvation, whatever it took—I had to drag his way of thinking back to normal. At the very least, that manner of speaking had to go. If he'd only fix the speech pattern that existed for no reason other than to piss people off, he'd be a far more likable character.
"Ha, haha!"
Mohican laughed.
"Which means you're all just rats in a trap! Even without the bombs going off, as long as the kaijin are here— Gwack!?"
Before Mohican could spout any more nonsense, I swung my hammer at his head.
The hammer hadn't even touched the floor, but Mohican shut his mouth and went quiet at once, his face drained white.
"The sheer gall of opening your mouth even while at a disadvantage—that audacity deserves respect—"
"You shut up too."
I said to James, who was still muttering away.
"Keep irritating me and you'll get the hammer next."
James had the good sense to fall silent.
"...So."
I said, my insides boiling.
My circuit was running again, but it couldn't generate energy the way it had before. Unfortunately, it seemed I simply didn't have the mindset of a hero. Even looking at the 'victims' right in front of me, all I could think about was how to escape.
Let's just turn back, even now. If I moved wrong and set off a bomb, then everything might truly end in death.
That was the bomb that had knocked Hayun—'Blossom'—out cold for a good while. If it went off right beneath our feet—
"...We can't just leave those people behind."
Hayun said.
"That's... too..."
She couldn't finish the sentence, but I understood clearly that she meant it.
I looked around at the other girls.
Their faces were stiff with tension, but none of them had any thought of running. Hayun, and all of them—they were magical girls, every one. Whatever their backstories, whatever 'realistic high school girl' settings the Author had tacked on as a gag, even if those settings came with political baggage—
Before those they believed to be in the wrong, they did not retreat.
They weren't purely righteous, but they always kept their eyes on justice and pressed forward—girls who would never let go of that one thread of hope.
That, perhaps, was the difference between them and me.
"...Fine."
At my answer, James looked my way, flustered.
He'd probably recorded this entire scene with those drones. All he'd have to do was walk out and spread it around. That was likely why the enemy had planted so many bombs here, too. The surest way to keep us from telling anyone their secret was, after all, to erase us without a trace.
"But there's no telling how long things will stay safe. I can't promise anything."
"Can you break the wall?"
Rose asked.
"Delphinium... probably has her hands full. Dealing with them comes first for now."
"I'll give it a try."
"I'll help."
Dahlia said.
"I can't make giant explosions like Delphinium, but I can definitely help with smashing things."
I pressed my lips shut again.
What did I actually want to do right now? I still couldn't tell. Did I want to help the magical girls and become a hero? Or was I just being shoved along, swept up by the situation into making this decision?
But one thing I knew for certain: at the very least, this choice wouldn't be flat-out wrong.
Hayun's circuit—and the other girls' circuits too.
They shone white.
Everyone looked down at their own circuits, a little startled.
"Then let's begin."
When I murmured it, the girls forgot their surprise and moved at once.
And the enemy began to move as well.
Ignoring everyone else, I sprinted full tilt for the wall.
Perhaps they'd judged me the greater threat—the robot's arm swung toward me.
Yeah, that figured. They must have thought it would be catastrophic if what was in here got exposed to the outside.
I heard several missiles tear through the air, but none of them reached me.
Boom! Boom-boom!
They couldn't tear through my body, but the missiles exploded with a roar that felt like it would split my eardrums—shot down mid-flight by magic bullets that had streaked toward them.
Dahlia, right on my heels, hurled magic at the missiles and blew every last one out of the air.
The blast wave chasing the explosions made me stagger, but the hammer I carried had a large thruster mounted on it. All those pointless fights hadn't been for nothing. Adjusting the hammer's position with care, I found my balance again.
The ceiling opened and missile warheads poked out, but Dahlia—having seen this trick once already—swung her wand again. Her magic bullets weren't large, but they split into fine fragments that slipped neatly through the gap and detonated the spare missiles inside. At least those hit the underside of the ceiling, and no shrapnel came flying our way.
The ceiling didn't break. Either the missiles were anti-personnel and simply lacked the punch, or the ceiling was abnormally reinforced. Well, of course—the last thing they needed was their own missiles blowing up their own building and exposing what was inside. The designer, at least, had been smart.
Weathering explosions from every direction, I reached the wall.
Thankfully, this was the floor with the hangar housing that robot, and long corridors ran along both sides of it. Which meant that at the far ends, instead of walls dividing room from room, there were walls dividing the lab from the outside world.
BAM!
I struck the wall with the hammer's thrusters at maximum output.
And immediately ran into the obvious crisis.
My blows didn't budge the wall one bit. At best, the outer concrete chipped a little and the rebar beneath showed through.
The moment I struck and pulled back, Dahlia fired the biggest magic bullet she could manage, but the wall refused to give—all that came off was a puff of powder. The rebar especially wouldn't bend so much as a hair inward. Just how densely was the stuff packed in there?
The reason came to me quickly. It wasn't only about protecting the secrets inside. From the moment this place was designed as a shopping mall, it had been built to bear weight. To hold up the weight of teeming crowds, it had to be that strong.
Not that I meant no equipment could ever punch through it, of course—
"H-hey."
As I backed up and heaved the hammer high above my head, Dahlia called out to me, somewhat alarmed.
Paying her no mind, I swung the hammer down with everything I had.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
And—
"Ha."
Just as I thought.
The floor wasn't as thick as the walls. A shopping mall, by its nature, has enormous empty space between floor and ceiling. It has to, in order to display all manner of goods for people to browse.
So even if you slipped in a false floor below, no one would notice. Especially if that space was too cramped for even a single person to stand in.
...Earlier, I'd watched kaijin that looked like modified Earthlings rise up out of the floor. Even for beings enhanced by circuits, punching completely through walls this thick would be impossible. Which meant the right answer was that they'd built one more level below, hidden where we'd never think to look.
This lab had been serving that purpose from the moment the current Chairman swallowed it up.
A lab built to store soldiers in secret—and to crush and dispose of them the moment it became necessary.
Bam! Bam!
Even now I could hear those sounds from where the girls were fighting—the kaijin forcing their way up through the floor.
And where I stood—
Found it.
"What the—!?"
Seeing what I'd pulled out as I brushed off the dust, Dahlia recoiled in horror.
In my hand was a 'circuit,' whirring away with an ominous glow. It looked extremely unstable. It was smaller than the one I'd seen at the Chairman's house last time—not the meter-wide monster I'd seen there, but no trinket either. Thirty centimeters across, maybe?
A meter-wide circuit would have been overkill for burying us, they must have figured. So they'd lined this space with these instead. Even now, I could see the edges of a few more beneath the floor I'd smashed open.
"Give me a hand here."
"What are you going to do?"
Dahlia asked, face pale.
"One of these won't break the wall."
Obvious, really. Bury us, yes—but the situation inside must not leak out. The Federation could see and lodge complaints all it liked, but what the company it had been courting had actually done could never get out. It would turn the people of Earth against them.
"...You're going to detonate them?"
Dahlia grasped the situation at once.
"Yep."
I said, eyes blazing.
"With these, I'm going to blast a giant hole right over there."
Well, it might be dangerous. But then, when had being a magical girl ever been safe? Especially for me.
I flung the circuit carelessly against the wall.
"They won't go off just from being thrown! They're safe until I detonate them, so just pile them up however!"
Right after saying that, I batted away a missile flying straight at us with my hammer. Struck in the flank, it veered sharply, flew into the hangar, and detonated on impact.
Inside were—oddly motionless—other robots. No doubt those had all been meant to move as well. If I tried to set off the bombs, who knew—those things might go berserk too.
I glanced back.
The magical girls were still holding their own. The kaijin were strong, and even when wounds opened up, they healed in moments. On top of that, they at least wore the shape of 'Earthlings,' and seemed to be operating their circuits directly. The truth was, my energy alone couldn't produce that kind of output.
The plan turning over in my head was simple: I had no intention of fighting all of them in here. Break the wall, get outside, and make them chase us out. At least out there, both sides could fight at full power.
Pale as death, Dahlia was still following my orders—deflecting incoming attacks with magic, and hurling the circuits surfacing from the broken floor toward the wall to pile them up.
"H-how many do we have to stack!?"
"Beats me."
By the time I said that and looked at the wall, more than ten were already heaped there. Perhaps because they'd been tossed together so haphazardly, their instability stood out all the more.
"...This should do."
Next came despair.
What, exactly, would make me despair? How could my despair grow bigger than the hope that was Hayun?
Hayun and the other magical girls were all fighting far too well. Not that I wanted to betray them. That would... inflict damage on me far too permanent to bear.
...All right.
Since when have I ever been the type to think things through? Same as always—I just had to move like the piece of trash I was.
"Wh-where are you going!?"
"To fight."
"What!?"
Was my answer too blunt? Dahlia shrieked in horror.
"Can't be helped. It's the fastest way to break that wall."
Besides, circuits were scattered all over the floor where the magical girls were fighting. Circuits that looked even less stable than before. Because of the shocks to the floor? Or because my despair circuit was spinning harder than before? I couldn't say for sure—but yes, those would help too.
Regripping my hammer, I charged at the enemy.
The battlefield was pandemonium beyond any comparison with where we'd been breaking the floor. Pulverized concrete flew everywhere, and with no ventilation, the whole scene was like something out of a war zone.
I charged in, snatched up a circuit from the floor, and hurled it toward the wall with all my might—
Thwack.
A kick from the side caught me and knocked me sprawling. It hurt. It wasn't even wearing anything like combat boots, but the impact made stars burst before my eyes. Don't tell me it had mana wrapped around itself.
I swung my hammer at the kaijin.
BAM!
The kaijin raised a hand and blocked my hammer. No—it caught it. Its hand trembled violently, its outer skin splitting open, but it was holding against my blow. No matter how hard I pushed the thrusters, I couldn't send the whole kaijin flying sideways—
Thud.
And a knee drove into my stomach. For an instant, I couldn't breathe. The pain folded me forward.
Ha, haha.
I'd been through this before. And I'd actually forgotten. So things had gotten a little better, and I'd forgotten this easily.
Had they, though? Hard to say. Honestly, my situation right now was bad enough that calling it a mixed bag would be flattering myself. The only good part was when I transformed as a magical girl.
With my body bent double, another circuit came into view. I grabbed it and threw it—and I was thrown sideways too.
I rolled across the floor. It hurt far more than I'd expected—
Vreee.
The circuit was running. Good. No—should I call that bad? The more I despaired, the stronger the kaijin grew. My power was feeding into circuits the kaijin had only been able to run weakly on their own. Truly useless. An ally who spends a fight like this powering up the enemy.
The circuit trembled harder.
The magical girls—Hayun especially—were panicking. Watching me take hits while fighting the kaijin, she tried desperately to reach me, but I'd plunged too deep into their midst for her to manage it.
Hayun's circuit light seemed a touch dimmer than it had been moments ago. Was it just my imagination?
Thwack.
It hurt. This time I blocked the attack, but my arm throbbed and shook.
The kaijin moved to kick me again, but mid-pivot, magic from the side staggered it and broke its stance.
Dahlia. And Iris's covering fire too. Judging by how its beam didn't send the kaijin flying, they really did have mana wrapped around their bodies.
BAM!
My hammer flew into the kaijin's broken stance and sent it flying. It skidded sideways with its shoulder plowing the floor, and thanks to that, a circuit came back into view. I threw it. Dahlia seemed to have figured out what I was doing too; she hurried over and hurled the circuit after it.
The kaijin's heads finally turned. And only then did they notice the circuits heaped on one side, thrashing violently.
What would they do? Would the kaijin head that way too? No. They didn't. Perhaps because they'd been made from Earthlings, their target was locked in: the magical girls, myself included. Not a single one so much as approached Mohican, crouched over there in the corner.
But that was all—maybe they couldn't process complex commands yet. They didn't seem to recognize that pile as 'danger.'
A kaijin's hand slammed into me. A different one from the beast that had sent me flying. I rolled along the floor, and when I came to, two circuits lay side by side before my eyes.
I threw those too. The circuits were far more unstable than before. They only worked after taking a hit. What kind of design was that, exactly?
"Jieun!"
Hayun cried out desperately.
The magical girls were still holding their own, but their weapons were unmistakably weaker than at the start. Was it because those girls' hope had faded a little? Or because my hope—
"Everyone, run!"
I called out. Now, it was possible.
A black hole bloomed in midair. At first it was only fist-sized, but it swelled as it drank in the light around it. And the circuits by the wall screamed in unison. As if dealing a final blow to circuits already teetering on the edge, the black hole began sucking in everything nearby. The kaijin held out—
Then two arms thrust up under my armpits.
"You think you're the only one getting out of here!?"
Scolding me, Dahlia bolted. While the kaijin were still recovering their stances, she flew with everything she had, shrieking—and just barely, right as the deafening roar began, she dove into the black hole.
I hit the ground hard and rolled. Well, at least this time I wasn't slammed into shattered concrete. It was asphalt instead.
Before I could even get back up—
A thunderous boom.
Screams rose around me, and I could hear police shouting something.
I raised my head.
A massive explosion was tearing through the top of the building. Above it already floated a black hole I had no memory of creating. Or—had I made two from the start? Honestly, I'd been too busy getting beaten senseless to remember.
But I'd done it. No shrapnel fell downward. It had probably been flung somewhere out over the sea.
A giant hole had been torn through the lab.
That much, I could see clearly.