Names and Forms of Address
She'd fired a Nyang-Nyang Beam.
The name alone was so cute I had to bite back a laugh. How was a skill even called Nyang-Nyang Beam?
Still, ending up here meant it hadn't gone over well with society at large. So I swallowed the laugh and followed Yegyeong to a chair in the lobby, keeping a little distance from the pink-haired cat girl who'd supposedly fired one.
What even was a Nyang-Nyang Beam, anyway? Did a cat-shaped ray shoot out? Did it turn you into a cat? Or did cats swarm you the moment you got hit? My imagination wasn't exactly dazzling, so that was about as far as I got. Either way, I could guess that if a civilian took one, their life from that point on would look nothing like the one they'd been living. If it was a dangerous beam, they might even die from it. And even if it wasn't, the fact that firing it had landed her here meant it was something hazardous… right?
Ah, but calling it purely dangerous might not be fair. I myself had only turned people into cute girls because I wanted humans to be happy, and the people of this world couldn't accept that, so I'd been packed off to learn how to adapt to modern civilization. I ought to hear her side of it first.
"Hello. Are you here to take classes so you can adapt to this world, too? It's nice to meet you. We just started today ourselves."
So I went ahead and spoke up. Helena didn't look the least bit interested in a cat cute-girl, but anyone sitting here had a high chance of ending up in class with us. In a strange world like this, even a single point of contact made it that much more likely you'd become friends, didn't it? Blood ties were a congenital bond you couldn't easily cut, sure—but people didn't bring up hometowns and school ties for nothing. If we got along here, it would be nice to hang around together later on. Even after I was gone. That was why I'd said hello. A little reconnaissance on the side, too. If we got a normal reaction, she'd pass as a friend for Helena. If she came back crooked or rotten? Well, then we shouldn't have anything to do with her.
"Oh, nice to meet you, nyang! I'm Nyangnyangbeam, nyang. Magical girl Nyangnyangbeam, nyang! Drop the nyang at the end, nyang. The unnie in the suit behind you must be from the Association, nyang. Where are the sister and the cowboy unnie from, nyang?"
Fortunately, the cat cute-girl who looked like she might become our first friend whipped around and beamed at us the instant she did. Her pink hair swayed, light and fresh, and her eyes had a faintly sharp cast, but that smiling face made her look like nothing so much as a people-person. A lively temperament like that seemed likely to rub off on Helena in a good way, too. Bonus points.
A magical girl? Hearing someone claim that in real life did make me pause for a second. But she wasn't wearing some frilly dress—just a sleeveless hoodie, hot pants, and sneakers, an easygoing outfit. She might already be more or less adapted to this world's culture. Which meant she might be exactly the kind of person Helena needed even more. Of course Yegyeong was a great help too, but that was a professional relationship, held together by a paycheck. An equal footing was always more comfortable when you wanted to get close fast. So I kept the conversation going. For Helena's sake.
"Well, I'm not sure how to describe that world. It was a place where humans hated one another, killed and stole—and also loved, shared, and gave."
"What's that supposed to mean, nyang. Was it a world with advanced machine civilization, or a world where gods did everything for you, or a world completely underwater, something like that, nyang. Did they use magic too, nyang?"
Ah. So that was what she was asking. But that other world hadn't had much in the way of distinctive flavor. Cyberpunk? Apocalypse? It was neither. Machine civilization had developed to a point, but nowhere near the modern era. There had been magic and shamanism, too, but even those had been fading, buried under guns. The only reason they'd managed to keep a thread of lineage at all was that they'd stood against demons, I supposed. That was probably why even the religious orders had tried to graft magic onto firearms. You simply couldn't not have a lever-action rifle with infinite auto-reload.
"Magic? There were some mages, but they couldn't call up storms or turn people into frogs the way they do in fairy tales. Helena's pistols and things like steam engines were fairly cutting-edge over there, but apparently those were invented here hundreds of years ago?"
So if I had to pin it down, by this world's standards it would have been something like a Western, or the years when the Industrial Revolution was just getting started. Except demons actually existed, and because of that, religion had shouldered a little more power and authority—and a little more duty and responsibility.
"Aha, so that's the world you came from, nyang. Got it, nyang. I came back from a world of magical girls, nyang. So what's the nun-nyang's name, nyang?"
And Nyangnyangbeam was telling a rather interesting story. Magical girls—did she mean those cartoon movies children watched? So that was how a person could turn out this bright and pure. I liked her even more for it. I was giving Helena plenty of affection, but looked at objectively, Helena was a very dark, worn-down person. If I stuck someone as recklessly sunny as Nyangnyangbeam next to her, wouldn't some of that rub off? In all sorts of ways, she was a very welcome figure for Helena.
"Ah, I'm Yeonmin. I didn't have a name in that other world. Helena gave me one after we came here."
"Ah, that's why the vibe of the name felt so different, nyang. You got named here, nyang? Pretty name, nyang!"
"Hehe. Thank you."
"So nuns just didn't have names, then, nyang? That's too sad, nyang."
"Ah, it isn't like that. I obtained a physical body when I came to this world."
"Aha, so Min-nyang was a spirit, nyang!"
"Something like that."
"Then why are you all tied up like that, nyang? Gasp, nyang—were you an insanely strong spirit, nyang? So you're bound like that Xerath guy from League, nyang? If you break the restraint seal, it's lightning everywhere and rain and all that, nyang?"
"That kind of thing doesn't have much substance, so I don't really want to. I think they just tied me up because they don't know where I might bounce off to."
"Then you can do it, nyang! That's so cool, nyang! What kind of abilities does Helena-nyang have, nyang?"
"I just shoot pretty well, that's all."
"A sharpshooter, nyang!"
Maybe it was because we'd opened the floodgates in such a rush, but Helena, who'd been quiet until then, slipped into the conversation as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I didn't know whether Nyangnyangbeam had meant to do it or whether she'd simply drawn Helena in without trying, but I was grateful either way. After that we talked about who we were, too. About our handlers: Ji Yekyung, who looked strict but was a kind person. Cheon Suhyeon, who'd just become Nyangnyangbeam's new handler—she looked a bit airheaded, but she was good-hearted and took excellent care of her.
While we were introducing ourselves and chatting away like that, I felt another presence behind us. The footsteps were light, almost padding, but the sense of presence was strong. I stretched my senses a little farther and found a girl coming up the stairs, long blonde hair swaying all the way down to her hips.
Someone once said that if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. Of course, this child was a cute girl, so she wasn't an abyss—more like, the orange I was looking at was looking back at me. That would be closer. Anyway, she seemed to notice I was studying her. A little girl smiled as she looked straight at the thought-form I had extended.
There's another saying, too. In the martial world, they tell you not to pick fights with women, children, or the elderly. The truth is they wander around like that because they're supreme masters. The moment I saw this girl, I knew.
This kid was a munchkin.
Those bare feet gave it away at a glance. On top of that, she'd made an outfit of a single toga draped over her body, exactly like an ancient Greek. If she'd had wings, I'd have taken her for an angel. So I opened the way for her, toward the combined middle-and-high academy we'd come in through… no, toward the hall of education meant to adapt us to modern civilization. Meaning I just pushed the door open for her.
"Thank you, kind one. Well, everyone's here early. This cohort only has three people. And Nyangnyangbeam is back for lectures again. What did you do to get hauled in this time?"
I'd assumed the child had come from another world like us and was here to take the same classes. Unexpectedly, she seemed to be the instructor who would be teaching us. I felt a little cheated. But she was a cute girl, wasn't she? I could forgive anything. And if she hadn't been a cute girl? Hmm… would I have to turn her into one so that I could forgive her?
"Fuck, nyang. A building collapsed because of shoddy-construction fraud, nyang. I fired a Nyang-Nyang Beam at someone dying under the rubble to help them hold on, nyang, and they sued me for it, nyang. What's wrong with becoming a cat cute-girl, nyang!"
"You should have obtained their consent."
"How am I supposed to get consent when they're dying, nyang. You save them first, nyang."
"Well, I think you did the right thing. And rather than paying a settlement to someone trying to shake you down, or going to prison, isn't it better to just take a bit more education here? You can make new friends, too."
"That's true too, nyang."
While I was off having silly thoughts on my own, the little girl and Nyangnyangbeam—who already seemed to know each other—were happily talking among themselves. And from that conversation, I finally understood what a Nyang-Nyang Beam actually was. However you sliced it, it was a ray that could turn a human being it hit into a cat cute-girl!
I'd been delighted just thinking she'd make a good friend for Helena. I hadn't expected someone whose heart would line up with mine this well. And she'd done it to save people—turned them into cute girls? Not firing Nyang-Nyang Beams indiscriminately, but only ever firing them to carry out justice: that was Nyangnyangbeam. Hmm. It was a little mysterious that the ray and the person had the exact same name. Anyway, my interest in her couldn't help but shoot up.
Apparently Helena didn't care for how hard I was staring. She leaned in toward me and whispered, low.
"Min, is it. Have you already given her permission to use a nickname?"
A nickname, she said. From where I was sitting, Nyangnyangbeam had just treated Yeon as a surname and called me by the rest. But now that I'd heard it put that way, it felt like an opportunity. I smiled slyly at Helena.
"The pretty name you gave me got even easier to say, and cuter—isn't that nice? I think it would be fine if you called me Min, too, Helena."
To Nyangnyangbeam it was just an ordinary way of addressing me. To Helena, it would be a pet name. The thought of it made my chest go all ticklish. If it looked ordinary to everyone else and was special just between us, it would feel a little like a code of our own, wouldn't it? Whether she understood that or not, Helena hesitated, then turned her head aside and murmured,
"……Alright then, Min."