The Light and Justice You Protect
The Samsung Police Station wasn't far from the hotel. A ten-minute run, give or take.
The moment I reached the main building on the first floor, I made the call. Before long, a man in plainclothes stepped out and scanned the area.
"Excuse me — are you Lee Gyuho?"
"Ah, Ms. Yoo Yeonwoo? Kwak Doosik's guardian..."
"That's right."
"This way, please."
I followed him down the noisy station corridor and into a room marked Juvenile Division. The space beyond was larger than I'd expected. And among everything in it, one thing seized my eyes at once.
"Doosik!"
At the very back, curled up inside a holding cell with her knees drawn to her chest and her face buried, was Doosik. That glittering hair of hers was impossible to miss anywhere — even now, when all the light had gone out of it.
She must have heard me calling. When she lifted her face from her knees, it was covered in wounds.
I stared at her, dazed, until a tapping at my collar made me turn. The man was frowning at me.
"Ms. Yoo? Can you hear me?"
"Why... why is Doosik in a holding cell?"
"I'll explain. Please, have a seat."
I sat in the chair he indicated. A short distance away, six kids sat in a row on a long wooden bench. Every last one of them looked as badly hurt as Doosik, if not worse.
"So, uh, let me start with the overview."
"Yes, yes..."
I was reeling, but I needed to know what had happened. A violent incident, sure — but Doosik and these kids were all minors. There wouldn't be any serious punishment.
"First, Ms. Yoo — what's your relationship to Kwak Doosik? Judging by the surnames, you're not biological sisters."
"Biological sisters..."
I nearly said yes, which would have been a disaster. Claiming Doosik's real surname was Yoo wouldn't work — slapping that family name in front of hers would sound completely ridiculous, now that I thought about it.
"...She's as good as family. We grew up in the same orphanage, and I'm the one looking after her now."
"Ah. Right. Understood."
The man scratched at his tightly cropped sports cut with a ballpoint pen. Something like white powder flaked off, and I discreetly shifted my chair back.
"Basically, Kwak Doosik assaulted those kids over there. Since she's the perpetrator, we've got her isolated. Now, up to that point, we could probably let it slide as a typical kids' fight... but there are two problems."
"What kind of problems?"
Whatever they were, I doubted they could blow past the Juvenile Act.
"First, Kwak Doosik is a magical girl. Second, she beat those kids while transformed."
There it is.
A magical girl is not supposed to hit people. Attacking someone while transformed is treated as an extraordinarily serious crime. Even among magical girls themselves, assaulting a civilian is the kind of offense the Association punishes with the full weight of its authority.
So Doosik transformed and beat those kids... wait. Hold on.
"Officer, I caught a glimpse earlier — Doosik's face is covered in wounds too. I find it hard to believe she started the fight."
"The other kids say they were just messing around a little, and Kwak Doosik got so angry she tripped over her own feet and tumbled down the stairs. All six of their statements match, so there's not much we can..."
Not much they can do? In this country of wall-to-wall CCTV?
"There are security cameras. Plenty of them. Officer, could you at least let Doosik out? Please?"
But I was the one who needed something here. I couldn't leave Doosik sitting in that cold iron cage. If I had to get down on my knees and beg, I would.
"The victims' parents will be here soon. I'll let her out once they arrive. We'll need to do a confrontation interview anyway."
Even as he spoke, my eyes kept sliding back to the holding cell. Doosik was standing at the bars now, looking at me.
"Then it's all right if I go over and at least see her face, isn't it? You wouldn't happen to have any ointment?"
"Hey, Detective Park. Bring her some ointment and alcohol swabs."
After a short wait, the man called Detective Park set a tube of scar ointment, a few bandages, and some alcohol swabs in my hand.
"Unni... I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what. Let me see your face."
Up close, Doosik's condition was far worse. Her school uniform was torn in places, blood seeping through the fabric, and her face was a lattice of scratches. Given a magical girl's famously fast healing, the original injuries had to have been even uglier.
This was from falling down the stairs?
Who did these little shits take me for. Anyone with eyes could see these were the marks of a gang beating.
"They hit you first, didn't they, Doosik."
"..."
"Doosik. Unni can tell just by looking. Be honest with me."
"Yes. They hit me first. A lot."
"Why?"
Doosik hesitated for a long time. Honestly, I already knew.
The idea that young children are innocent and kind is a truly stupid one. That only holds at around Kabe's age. By the time you hit the mid-to-late teens like Doosik, kids become something far more cunning — they know exactly what their shields are, and exactly how to use them. And among kids like that, how enormous a weakness is it to have no parent standing as your shield?
"Unni's been through it too. I know. They made fun of you for not having parents."
"Yes... they were worse than usual today..."
"Yeah. I figured."
It must have stung badly, but Doosik didn't make a single sound while I disinfected the wounds with the alcohol swabs, spread on the ointment, and pressed bandages into place. By the time I was done, bandages covered nearly half her face.
"Ms. Yoo?"
"Yes?"
I was stroking Doosik's hair through the bars when the detective in charge came over and called to me.
"The kids' parents are here. Kwak Doosik, come on out."
The lock clicked open, and Doosik hesitated before gathering her bag and stepping out. The bag was so thoroughly torn the zipper wouldn't even close. She stood there holding it in one hand, glancing at me uncertainly.
I held out my hand and took hers.
"It's okay. This isn't your fault. You've got a guardian too, you know. Me."
I might not look like much of one, but still.
I took Doosik's hand and walked back to where I'd been sitting. The people who looked to be the six kids' parents surged in all at once, a noisy crowd. Seven kids counting Doosik, thirteen guardians, and three detectives mixed in — the space was nowhere near big enough. Before long we relocated to an empty interrogation room.
Looking the parents over, they all seemed to come from families of some standing. Their clothes, the handbags the mothers carried, the watches on the fathers' wrists — all high-end, every last piece. If you wore that kind of thing as everyday gear, you were definitely well-off.
"Oh, come on. Saying someone doesn't have parents — that's the kind of thing friends say to each other, isn't it?"
A mouth with the hinges torn off, I see. Words just came tumbling out of it, no filter, no brakes.
And of course, it started with those "friends."
Doosik didn't even need to speak. They admitted they'd started it themselves — just a little teasing, they said. And then Doosik had tripped over her own feet and tumbled down the stairs. And then, they claimed, she'd decided they'd tripped her on purpose, transformed into a magical girl, and beaten them indiscriminately.
"That's a lie!"
Doosik's voice came out sharp and fierce.
"You were the ones who started it! You called me a bitch who grew up with no parents — said some whore must've taken a GI's seed, popped me out, and dumped the filthy orphan—"
Wow. That was worse than I'd even imagined.
"Young lady, there's a line. Magical girl or not, you're supposed to protect people. You don't go around hitting them — hitting your friends."
"Mom, she's not even a magical girl. She's a traitor bitch who signed on with that Mogumogu-dan or whatever!"
"Oh my, is that so? Well, that explains it."
Ha ha, ho ho. Laughter bloomed through the interrogation room like flowers.
That was the moment I stopped believing words would get through to these people.
Maybe Doosik had done something wrong. Maybe Doosik had lied to me. But here's the thing.
"Doosik."
"Yes."
"You didn't lie to me, did you."
"I swear on the sky. I would never lie to you."
All right. Then I believe her. Doosik doesn't lie to me.
"Excuse me, parents. Even among friends, those aren't the kinds of things you say to someone."
"Oh, please. They're kids. You think they knew what they were saying? They were close, they were joking around, it just slipped out."
"Ah. It just slipped out. Slipped out."
"They're children. These things happen."
"No, ma'am. Even if we grant that kids will be kids — I don't think that's something a mother should be saying."
At that, the woman who looked like the most well-to-do of the bunch frowned.
"It's going to be a problem if the guardian keeps taking that kind of attitude. You'll need to settle this, won't you? I'm sorry, but Taesik's father here is a judge, and his grandfather is a retired High Court judge, so a smooth settlement is going to be difficul—"
"Shut your damn mouth. You're pissing me off. Answer when I talk to you — who said I came here to get shaken down like some mark?"
My sudden outburst shattered the atmosphere in an instant.
"Listen, lady."
"Wh-what? Lady? Lady? A brat this young, showing her uneducated—"
"God, you never shut up. I called a middle-aged woman a middle-aged woman. Throwing money at yourself doesn't turn an old lady into a girl."
I brought my fingers to my eyes and pulled the lids wide, making my pupils as visible as possible.
"Ever seen my eyes? Pretty distinctive, aren't they?"
"Vertical... vertical pupils...?"
"Guess you haven't. So you don't know."
That's right.
"If you don't know, you get hit."
I drove my fist into the face of the boy who'd been snickering beside her. There was a meaty crack, and the kid spun in place like his soul had left his body before crumpling to the floor.
"Taesik! Taesik! What on earth do you think you're doing?! Officer, are you just going to stand there?!"
"Stay put. I'll start with whoever moves."
I pressed my earring. In an instant, that sensation of the whole body cinching tight. Had this feeling ever been so welcome? I didn't think so.
"I saw this online once. They say civilized people are ruder than barbarians, because a civilized person can say the wrong thing and their skull doesn't get split open. Looking at you lot, I think that's exactly right."
I swept my coat open. Dark mana was already rising from the gloves on my hands.
"There. This entire mess was all me. Understood? I've just given you a vivid demonstration, right here, of what happens when you touch my subordinate. So don't. Understood?"
I raised as much hell as I wanted inside that police station. Looking back, it may have gotten a little out of hand — Doosik ended up trying to stop me — but if I wanted to stroll out of there at my leisure, I needed to flip the place so thoroughly that no one would even have the will to give chase.
Mogumogu-dan might look like a joke these days, getting mopped up by magical girls every other week — but in my memory, this was the organization that had come within a hair of conquering the world before the magical girls ever appeared. These were monsters that modern firearms couldn't even scratch, unless a magical girl was the one pulling the trigger. And the magical girls themselves were no different. On top of that, I had a body that didn't take any real damage even from them.
It had only been about ten years. I couldn't understand how people had forgotten so fast. But for me, transformed into the evil magical girl Mother, tearing through a single police station was nothing.
Which is why I would have walked out of that station at my leisure with Doosik — if Eve hadn't been standing in my way, apparently having come running on a request for backup.
"Mother. What do you think you're doing."
"Eve. Move. I have no intention of fighting today. Clear the path and I shall take Doosik and withdraw quietly. I didn't destroy the station building. Nobody died. Although — if you keep stalling like this, that last part might change."
"I don't know what happened here, but as a magical girl who protects light and justice, I cannot simply let you walk—"
"Don't give me that bullshit!"
My sudden shout silenced everything around us in an instant. I hadn't meant to go that far. But the moment I heard Eve start in about light and justice, something in my gut twisted.
The hand holding Doosik's tightened.
"Move, Eve. If you keep blocking me, I'm going to find out whether you can protect every last civilian in this building."
I walked forward in silence. Eve simply stood there and watched me go.
The moment our paths crossed, I spoke to her, quietly.
"Come to the hotel tomorrow afternoon."