Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Hoping to Get Closer (1)
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Carmen.
She was called Carmen.
Originally, she wasn't a child raised by the Prophets. She was the kid that Saburo had brought along. And even Saburo hadn't brought her for any particular scheme. While on a mission and stopping briefly in some backwater foreign village, he had coincidentally run into a child who was performing the odd feat of turning scrap metal into handicrafts.
The child was being beaten and exploited by the local gang. Saburo couldn't understand why a kid with such powerful abilities was just taking the abuse.
"Why are you just letting them hit you? With your powers, you could kill all those bastards."
At that moment, Saburo angrily scolded the much smaller child—behavior that was out of character for him. The naive kid, still innocent to the ways of the world, shrank back trembling at even Saburo's simple threat and stammered,
"I have nowhere else to go. No one will take me in but them."
The traitor who had stabbed the Prophets in the back and fled was hiding out in a rural backwater in South America. In a remote village surrounded by jungle, Carmen didn't understand the value of her own abilities and was being used as a mere beggar by the handful of local gangsters.
Saburo couldn't figure out why they were using a metal-manipulating ability user just to make trinkets from scrap. He never bothered to ask. Maybe they thought her powers would become a threat if they grew too strong.
Or perhaps they were simply fascinated by the novelty of it, with no deeper thought. Either way, it didn't matter to Saburo. He wasn't curious.
Saburo was certain he could put Carmen to far better use himself.
"See? This is how easily people die. The ones who abused and exploited you were nothing."
After dealing with the traitor he'd tracked down in South America, Saburo still had time to spare. So he took the opportunity to wipe out the village gang that had been exploiting Carmen. The gangsters, who didn't even seem to grasp the concept of ability users, weren't even a light workout for him.
The villagers trembled in terror amid the corpses strewn everywhere, and Carmen blinked vacantly at the bodies. Saburo understood the emotion in her eyes.
Fear crumbles into emptiness the moment you grasp its true nature. When Saburo had first grabbed the director by the collar, the middle-aged man who had seemed utterly invincible turned out to be nothing more than a potbellied nobody—and in that realization, the thrill of revenge had given way first to hollowness for Saburo.
"...So what do I do now to survive?"
Perhaps back then, Saburo had a chance to show Carmen a better world. He could have pushed her into a good corporation or helped her land a solid job at a decent company back home. Her abilities were that rare and powerful, after all.
"Follow me. And look closely at these bodies. The world... it's full of trash like this."
But Saburo had never learned that way of doing things. Or maybe he was jealous that Carmen could have such an opportunity because of him.
"Why are you being nice to me? You said the world is full of trash."
"...I want to prove something."
That was Saburo's answer to Carmen's question back then.
He wanted to prove something.
[Prove what?]
Carmen swallowed the question rising to her lips. She didn't dare pry, afraid he'd abandon her. With nowhere else to go, Carmen followed Saburo across the sea.
"There's this kid I want to get close to, but it's really hard."
I whined while slurping my juice. Sally's dorm room, which she'd visited after a long time, was still refreshingly metallic-smelling. Having started decorating in earnest, Sally had plastered the walls with SF movie posters and lined up weird gadgets next to her work computer.
Most of them were wind-up mechanisms or power devices that moved in various ways. When Sally casually flipped a switch, they'd flash blue light and show off their intricate operations. As she polished the parts, Sally said,
"Serika, you're hard to get close to? I'm not great with social stuff like that...."
Sally was smiling as she spoke, but her face held a hint of bitterness. Still, her eyes glowed blue as they scanned the devices. I set down my juice and said,
"But you're an adult, sis. When I ask my friends for advice, it just turns into gossip fodder, so it's exhausting."
That was the main reason I'd come to Sally. She was the youngest adult I knew, and an elite college grad, so maybe she could help with interpersonal stuff. But facing my expectant gaze, Sally rolled her eyes with a troubled look, then mumbled while turning back to her machines.
"...Well, I've been obsessed with weird stuff since I was little, so I didn't have many friends.... Even the boys wouldn't play with me...."
I glanced around at her words. Sure enough, the SF movie posters caught my eye again. Many featured bizarre imagery: a man with a squished face holding a mop in front of the American flag; a nostril-faced human making a V-sign while aiming a gun straight ahead.
There were also posters of men and women screaming in front of a massive UFO, and one of a complex mechanical monster looming over a city under spotlights.
Hmm.
Her tastes were definitely hardcore.
I silently sipped my juice.
Growing awkward in the silence, Sally made a pouty face and said,
"...Um, say something? Just nodding makes my heart hurt more...."
"Your tastes are cool, sis."
"...Thanks."
When I gave her a thumbs-up, Sally smiled as if that alone comforted her. I was a little relieved she'd cheered up from my compliment. Tossing the empty juice carton in the trash, I said,
"This friend used to be kinda distant, but suddenly she's been really harsh with me. Have you ever had that, sis? Like, you didn't do anything, but someone just starts hating you out of nowhere."
Sally frowned briefly at my words and leaned back in her chair.
"Harsh how?"
Saying the punches have gotten harder would sound weird, right? I started to mime swinging a fist but dropped my arm and said instead,
"Kinda cold, I guess? She acts like she hates me. But I don't know why."
"Was there some trigger before that?"
I frowned at Sally's question. It wasn't like there were no suspicious incidents. She'd gotten colder right after we bumped into each other at the library.
"Dunno. I was just chatting with friends and we happened to run into each other, so I gave a quick nod. But after that, she was extra frosty. We weren't even that close to begin with."
Sally tilted her head, frowning. She stroked her face thoughtfully, then shook her head and said,
"Not sure if it's the same, but... back in school, there was this popular girl talking about a movie I liked. I really wanted to get close to her and chat, so I kept waiting for a chance.... Turns out she was just lying to seem quirky. So all that vague admiration and desire to befriend her turned into betrayal. I ended up hating her guts."
"What'd you do? Punch her? 'Traitor!' or something?"
"...She had fire-shooting eyes, so I just avoided her."
"Ah. Can't be helped then."
I'd steer clear too.
My hard-hitting punches can be tanked with durability, but if she sets my body on fire, my beautiful skin would burn up—and regeneration wouldn't help.
Seeing me nod, Sally smiled and asked,
"So, did that help at all?"
Sally's story made sense.
But it also sparked a doubt. Did I have anything about me that a girl like that would admire?
I knew nothing about Carmen.
[In the original story], her description was just that she became a psycho villain after a major accident during some operation.
I knew nothing of her life or her mental state.
If that girl had admired my looks only to be disappointed, what could I even do?
And even if that's it, how the hell do I bring it up?
["Carmen, I know everything. You're jealous of me, right? Jealous that I'm the daughter of a mid-sized company president, pretty, smart, athletic... That's why you're avoiding me? Ohohohoho!"]
Hmm.
Even I think that's too obnoxious.