Chapter 97: O-Rank Participation Record - 『Terminal Plague』 (2)
Chapter 97: O-Rank Participation Record - 『Terminal Plague』 (2)
"What did you say your name was?"
"Al’liv... sir."
"You're an Awakened, aren't you?"
"Huh? Oh, no."
Hmm? Something’s off.
"You're not an Awakened?"
"...I'm not."
"Then you have absolutely nothing to do with the mess happening here, right?"
"...."
Silence was the only answer to my question, but it was obvious this girl was an Awakened. She had been in contact with the ash for this long without showing any symptoms of the disease.
Furthermore, seeing as she had temporarily stabilized the infected person earlier, she had to know the cure for this plague.
"If it's not your story, then how did you treat that person earlier?"
"They... they died anyway. I just... breathed strength into them...."
Maybe it was because I had hauled her here over my shoulder while she was trying to run away, but she was being strangely uncooperative.
Should I try a more aggressive approach?
"Right, so you have nothing to do with this?"
"Yes."
Steeling my heart, I turned my gaze toward Calavera.
"Calavera. Open the window."
"Hmm? Understood."
With the clack of a rusted latch opening, a significant amount of ash poured into the room. Amidst the swirling ash, I put a cigarette in my mouth, lit it, and continued.
"Do you know what a Magical Girl is?"
"A... Magical Girl?"
"It's a term for an Awakened like me. Usually, our appearance and clothes change, and we have partners and whatnot."
Flick.
The moment the cherry of my cigarette touched the surrounding ash, it sent off a small spark.
The frame of the chair I was sitting on groaned, struggling to support the suddenly increased weight. I looked down at the girl with a higher field of vision now that my transformation had been undone.
"The most important thing is that, strangely enough, a Magical Girl isn't treated as an Awakened before they transform."
Perhaps due to the influence of the transformation, I had a somewhat slender and androgynous appearance... well, that was an exaggeration; I was just a bit thin. My original form, which I usually never revealed for fear of being killed by a stray bullet, was now exposed.
"Look. Something's already showing up."
As the ash touched my skin, gray spots slowly began to spread.
The speed was significantly slower compared to others, but the spots themselves were a clear precursor to infection.
"What should I do? If there's no one to treat this, I'm going to die too."
"...Are you insane?"
'Insane,' huh?
"Well, if I'm insane, then this world is insane. A plague that spreads just by touching scraps of a corpse? It's ridiculous."
It might exist somewhere in the world, but at least it shouldn't be like this.
"I know you'll just transform and fix it. Earlier, when you transformed..."
"Oh, that? Once I deactivate it, I can't transform again for about a day."
That was a lie.
Calavera shifted his feet as if he were about to say something, but when I turned and gave him a sharp glare, he went back to the window and quietly crossed his arms.
"But looking at the progression, you should be able to hold out for a day..."
"I suddenly feel like going outside. Calavera, lend me your coat. Even if I can't transform, I can still gather information. I'll get covered in some ash, but what's the worst that could happen in one day?"
Perhaps because my tone was so blatantly theatrical, Calavera’s expression as he watched me from the window turned strange.
If I were to put it into words, it would be something like, 'Is this guy a total nutcase?'
"But... really? Are you... sure? But..."
Despite the artificiality of my words, the girl in front of me seemed shaken, as if my threat had actually worked.
Amidst her confusion, Calavera took off his coat and draped it over my shoulders. The moment I stood up, she suddenly stood up as well and grabbed my hand.
"To me..."
Her voice was a mix of pleading and begging.
"To you, what?"
"You won't... you won't do anything to me, right...?"
"Is there anyone who would do something to the person trying to treat them?"
Well, there might be some jerks like that, but I wasn't that kind of psycho.
"...Even if I'm the one who brought this plague?"
The moment I heard those words, the numerous scars etched into her body finally made sense.
A Story.
An Awakened.
Ostracization.
Whose fault.
I finally got a sense of this incident. This was a story that was common until not too long ago.
The hatred toward an Awakened from people who misunderstood them as the cause of the Story. And the subsequent failure of the initial response.
Furthermore, this girl was an Awakened who had awakened at a very young age, and her power was related to a devastating plague.
Conditions were perfect for hatred to bloom.
"Did you go around warning people that a plague was coming?"
"Yes... because if I didn't... people would die...."
The worst choice, the worst story, and an immature Awakened.
What kind of god-awful combination was this?
Who would believe the warning of a child who looked barely ten years old? But once the plague actually started and people began to die, the story would change.
At first, they might praise her. But if it happened more than once or twice, they would start to think she was the one bringing the plague. Add the fact that she was an Awakened to that, and a witch hunt would begin.
I slowly knelt down and met her eyes—eyes that were welling up, set in a distorted, trembling face.
"How many times... have you gone through this?"
"In this city... about five times."
'In this city,' she said.
Don't tell me she had been constantly ostracized and moved from place to place? At this age?
When I placed my hand on her face, I felt a slight scab. It was a mark of violence that had been hidden by her hair.
Feeling the thin threads, I realized she had probably stitched it herself.
Despite suffering through violence, she must have kept shouting.
That a plague was coming, that everyone would die if they didn't prepare.
She must have had many choices. She could have kept her mouth shut, or she could have just left a warning and moved on.
But she must have kept shouting. Even as she left her hometown and wandered, she kept going.
"Calavera. Has there been another case of an Otherworld-related plague like this?"
"Not that I know of."
Surely, this wasn't the first time this story had occurred. The one who had stopped it was the small child in front of me.
I pulled her into an embrace.
The Child struggled for a moment in surprise, but then she began to tremble quietly in my arms.
It wasn't that she truly hated it. An Awakened with the physical ability to shake off even Calavera couldn't possibly fail to push away my untransformed self.
The Child, twitching and stifling her breath in my arms, was surely crying, even if I couldn't see it. I was glad I had undone the transformation. I wouldn't have been able to hug her like this in that small body.
* * *
Once she stopped crying, she slowly placed her hand on my gray skin.
As her slightly high body temperature smoothed over my skin, the gray spots began to subside bit by bit.
"Is the treatment just having your hand touch me since you're an Awakened?"
"O-oh, no. This is just me pushing it away because Otherworld-related plagues can't get near me. The actual cure is different...."
A massive sense of foreboding washed over me. Even though I had already felt enough of the malice in this story, I had a feeling there was something more.
"Did other people not accept the cure?"
"Yes... even the doctor said that doing such a thing would only make the plague spread faster...."
If a doctor rejected the method, it meant it went against modern medicine. This was going to be beyond imagination.
"Can you tell me? I promise I won't laugh or anything."
She seemed to hesitate for a moment, her hand moving over my skin, before she finally spoke.
"Someone close to the infected person has to place their hand on their skin. As many people as possible."
Isn't that exactly how it spreads?
"They have to share each other's warmth like that, and the infected person has to keep thinking happy thoughts—that they will definitely get better. They have to have the mindset that they will never lose to this disease."
Was it just a matter of mindset?
I waited for more, but Al’liv just continued to stroke my skin to drive away the plague.
Don't tell me....
"Is that it?"
"Yes. Except for the fact that negative thoughts make it progress extremely fast, that's it. Oh, and don't worry about it spreading. Everyone who has their hand on the person when they're cured gets healed together."
This was absurd. That was it? Just believing you'll get better? What kind of....
"...Isn't that incredibly dangerous, child?"
While I was stunned by the simplicity of the cure, Calavera, who had been listening from behind, stepped in and spoke.
"You said negative thoughts make it progress faster. Then a sealed-off zone where people can't escape, a plague that could kill them at any moment, and their loved ones dying... isn't that the worst possible situation?"
So that was why the progression of the nearby residents was so fast. What kind of twisted logic was this?
"...Yes. That's why the plague and the situation have been so different until now...."
"How was it before?"
"Usually, it was things like drinking water and getting plenty of sleep, or drinking milk, or getting a shot from me, or being quarantined alone for 24 hours...."
Those were within the realm of what could be called medicine, even if they sounded a bit like folk remedies. If people actually got better, doctors would have no choice but to accept it.
But this time was different. One of the treatments involved an act that would normally cause infection, and it was a nonsensical method tied to one's mental state. On top of that, the girl's reputation itself was at rock bottom.
"We're screwed."
We finally found a clue, but for that clue to be practically impossible to implement... it was ridiculous.
"It's finished."
"Ah? Really?"
It hadn't taken long. Maybe ten minutes at most? It was probably because I had the firm belief that I would never die.
As I slowly focused my mind, particles of light gathered around me.
I lightly kicked off the ground and did a mid-air flip.
As the particles gathered and illuminated the surroundings, my form as an adult male vanished, and I landed on the ground once again transformed into a Magical Girl.
"...You said you couldn't transform earlier."
"Oh. That was a lie. I thought it would be the best way to gain your trust."
"...."
Al’liv's face froze in a strange expression, but hey, it worked out, so I guess it's fine.
"See? That's the kind of man he is. Usually, he tricks the soldiers in the form of a girl. His main lifestyle consists of shaking down rookie soldiers for cigarettes..."
Is Calavera out of his mind?
"Who are you saying shakes down rookie soldiers? Where else can you find a man as kind as me, who even shares his last stick?"
"Well, don't the soldiers usually offer cigarettes in front of your door, praying for survival? You don't seem to realize it, but the soldiers' perception of you has already reached the realm of faith."
"That's not my responsibility."
I didn't know about that. I beat them up telling them to stop, and the next day there'd be even more piled up. I don't know what's wrong with them.
"Are you misters really Awakened?"
Al’liv, who had been listening to our bizarre conversation, asked with a suspicious look.
"We are. There probably aren't many who've been doing this as long as us."
"Lee Ha-ram has been at it a few years longer, though."
"Shut up."
Regardless of our hostile atmosphere, Al’liv approached us, trying to resolve her doubts.
"But all the Awakened I've seen didn't look like they could joke around like that.... They either wore marks identifying them as Awakened... or they hid themselves."
The usual story of Awakened with no rights. I heard it's especially bad in the Soviet Union.
"Oh, that? We gave up on that."
"A gloomy life or a laughing life. Which is more worth living?"
"Pardon?"
She didn't seem to understand.
"I'm saying that if you're digging a hole because everything around you is gloomy, nothing will get done. We're constantly dying anyway; if you're depressed your whole life, you won't even live out your natural span."
"And we have to laugh a bit so the people around us will stand with us, don't we? As a result, the atmosphere around us has become one where Awakened are respected."
"Well, that's the story for the guys who smell like gunpowder in front of a gun barrel with us. The higher-ups are still the same."
"But those higher-ups have never been the people around us, have they?"
"I guess so. They're always stuffing their faces; I hope they die of a heart attack."
"...."
Finding it hard to understand our conversation, Al’liv stared at us with a blank expression.
She looked a bit dazed, as if she were wondering if this was all a dream.
"Let's move past our nonsense. Hey, kid."
"Yes?"
"If this is your story, then there's a way to solve it, right? I'm telling you now, but we came here to help you."
I reached out my hand to The Child, who was even smaller than me. To a child who was likely younger than any other Awakened.
"So, let's end this hell together, the two of us. You have a good way, right?"
"There are three of us."
"You're useless."
"You speak the truth. I didn't think there would be a place with absolutely no souls, so I should bring some corpses next time. To have to keep corpses on hand to increase the number of corpses... how ironic."
"You'd get hauled away at quarantine. Great thinking."
"...There is... a way."
"Then let's go do it. You can tell us the details on the way. People are dying even as we speak."
With those words, we took The Child's hand and led her. Two useless adults, pulling along the solution to this crisis. We slowly stepped out into the battlefield.
"Are you... really going to help me?"
"Huh? Why else would I come to such a gloomy city? Life is shitty enough as it is; Awakened should help each other."
"Each other... as Awakened...."
"Yeah. That lanky guy over there, this fake Magical Girl, and you. We're all Awakened protecting the world. So, let's speak our minds in front of each other."
'Protecting the world,' huh? That's a funny way to put it. There probably aren't many people who hate the world as much as we do.
However, those words seemed to be a great help to the small child.
"Yes!"
For the first time, she showed us a smile.
Well then. With that smile, let's go end this hell.