The Nameless Benefactor
"Ju-a, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
It wasn't a dream. Just a very old memory—from when I was so young I could barely remember my own age.
And from not long after my sister had become a magical girl.
Looking at how young she appeared… this was definitely a memory I myself had nearly forgotten. She looked a little different from the sister I knew. The one I remembered had been a bit more mature. I watched with a warm, quiet fondness as my younger self and my young sister talked.
"When I grow up? Hmm… Unnie, I want to become someone like you! Someone who sparkles and shines, and is strong! And… someone who makes everyone smile!"
But how had I ended up seeing this? It didn't feel like sleep. There had definitely been something terribly urgent going on.
What was it? I couldn't remember.
"A hero, huh? That sounds wonderful! But… from where Unnie's standing, our Ju-a looks a little more like a princess than a hero."
Did I really need to force myself to remember? My sister was right in front of me. No matter how many duties a magical girl carried, I hoped the world would forgive me for savoring this brief memory. I had worked so hard for so long just to catch up to her. Surely people could be generous enough to let me rest for a moment.
My younger self was still whining that a hero suited me too, but the look on my sister's face as she watched me seemed faintly bitter.
She had never been particularly happy about me becoming a magical girl. She never told me not to outright, but she always made it abundantly clear that this one path, at least, she didn't want me to walk.
She must have been worried. That I would become a magical girl full of hope and expectation, only to be disappointed and broken. Her only remaining family walking the same thorn-choked road she already had—she must have tried to steer me away, hoping I wouldn't follow.
I hadn't understood when I was little. Now I thought I did.
Becoming a magical girl wasn't as beautiful or noble as I'd imagined. It wasn't as free as I'd thought, or as magnificent either. Sometimes people resented you even after you'd saved them. Sometimes you wondered why you had to save people like that at all.
But I never once wanted to quit over something so small. If I faltered at that, I could never become the hero I had so boldly sworn to my sister I would be.
Those hopelessly childish hero stories she used to read me. What I had admired was the hero in those stories—and my sister herself. She must have gone through similar things. But she never gave up until the end. So I, who had inherited her will, couldn't collapse over something this small either. If I did, I wouldn't be able to face the sister waiting for me.
Watching me keep whining, the sister in my memory finally held out both palms as if she couldn't win against my stubbornness, and murmured:
"Then I guess I'll just have to make a world where it's okay even if our crybaby Ju-a becomes a hero."
…Had my sister ever said something like that? Had I forgotten? While I was racking my brain over whether I'd ever heard those words before—
Suddenly her body began to tremble strangely, then twisted and grew in a bizarre, unnatural way. Horns and wings and a tail sprouted as she steadily lost her human form.
That shape…
…Ah. Right. Hemoregia. That strange monster who looked eerily like Seong Min-a. I had collapsed fighting it.
I remembered taking that final slash it hurled at me and flying all the way to the ground. So why was I still alive?
No—this wasn't the time to think about that. I had to get up and fight. There was no time to lie around leisurely.
"Even in the darkest night, I shall rise with unyielding strength… Dress— Ack!"
I came to my senses, tried to sit up and transform—and slammed my head hard into something. Stars exploded across my vision.
"Hit your head the second you woke up? You really do have rotten luck."
Even knowing this wasn't the time, I clutched my aching head—and a strange man's voice reached me.
…A man? Who? Someone working with the monster? Or a freelancing outlaw? I was pretty sure this was Incheon.
"W-who are you?!"
Figuring I needed to know the identity of the suspicious man in front of me first, I demanded it. He said he was nobody, and held something out toward me.
"…What is this?"
A can of tuna.
Receiving something so utterly ordinary from someone so thoroughly suspicious left me with no idea how to react. After all, this was Incheon—a place no ordinary citizen would ever come to, the most dangerous place in South Korea. I wasn't so naive as to happily gobble down food offered by a man I'd met somewhere like that.
"I already told you. I'm nobody. Hmm. Forgot the chopsticks. Here. Even a magical girl must be hungry after lying around for a full day."
Having said everything he meant to say, the man sat down on a chair that was little more than a skeleton frame and calmly started opening his own can. Watching him eat with such aggressive focus, as if he'd forgotten I was even there, I wondered whether I should really eat this.
"Um… you didn't do anything weird to the food or the chopsticks, did you?"
"If I'd wanted to do something to you, I would have done it while you were lying there. I know it's hard to believe, but I'd like you to trust me. I have no intention of harming you."
Looking into his eyes, he didn't seem to be lying. As he'd said, if he'd wanted to force something, he could have done it while I was asleep.
…And even if something felt off, I could always just transform.
"I… suppose so. I'm sorry for suspecting you."
"No need to apologize. A suspicious guy suddenly offering food—of course you'd be wary."
The man said that if it were him, he'd have stuck a gun in the other person's face first, reacting as if he understood me completely.
…Talking about sticking a gun in someone's face first made it sound like he really did live in Incheon. But for someone who did, he looked strangely normal. My seniors used to say that if there was a place where the absolute bottom of humanity showed itself, it was Incheon. Was that not entirely true?
Only after I'd finished eating the tuna can I normally wouldn't have given a second glance did I manage to ask what had happened during the time I'd been lying there.
"The detailed version? Or the summary?"
"…The detailed version, please. If I'm going to write a report later, it's better to know as much as possible."
Hearing the word "report," the man smiled faintly as if something amused him, then said there wasn't much to tell even if he went into detail—and explained what had happened after I'd collapsed.
"So that's what happened…?"
After hearing everything, I found it absurd on multiple levels. It was absurd that I'd fallen into his house and destroyed it—and it was equally absurd that this man had carried my unconscious self to a nearby hideout and taken care of me.
"…Why did you help me?"
He said what he called a house barely had any belongings to begin with—a place you could just about sleep in, nothing more. In other words, this man wasn't living a particularly abundant life either. Meaning he had nothing, he knew who I was, and yet he'd gone out of his way to bring me somewhere, care for me, and even feed me without asking for any compensation. I simply couldn't understand how someone that kind ended up living in a place like this.
"Does a person need a special reason to save another person?"
"What?"
To my question, the man answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"You happened to be within my reach, and I had room to spare—body and mind both. That's all."
Handing me drinking water as well, he said I didn't look seriously injured, so I should be able to leave soon. As he'd said, my body didn't feel particularly uncomfortable. My back ached a little from lying on a pile of rubble for so long, but that was it.
My heart, though, felt uncomfortable. Having to leave someone this kind behind in a place like this without even knowing his name.
"Um, excuse me! Before I go—could I at least hear my benefactor's name?"
"That I can't tell you. I've got my own circumstances."
So he really was here for some reason. I'd wondered why someone would live in a place like this, and I finally felt like I could guess a little of it. Even if you weren't a bad person, I'd heard there were people who got driven and driven until they ended up here.
"Whatever it is, if there's anything I can help with, I want to help. Is that not possible?"
Being a magical girl was a fairly restricted position and a fairly free one at the same time, so if it was something like debt, I wanted to show I was willing to help.
"You couldn't manage it. And I've already found my answer. So… I'll just take the thought."
He said even I couldn't help him—and that he'd already found his answer. A faint worry welled up. If even a magical girl couldn't help him, was the method he'd found really the right one?
But I didn't voice it. I didn't want unnecessary friction with him, and I could always come find him again later.
"I understand. I can't force you. Then… thank you, nameless benefactor. I'll definitely come back to repay this debt someday!"
I transformed, took flight, and left him with that farewell—vowing to find Seong Min-a, and this man as well.