How to Kill
How to Kill
Once word spread that Libra had been taken down, the other monsters withdrew one after another. They had only stalled for time out of loyalty—he had paid them. With the man himself down, there was no further need to stall.
Except for one. Contradiction, who had acted out of interest rather than money, did not.
“Excellent.”
Nothing but bitter cold pressed in from every side. A city that hadn’t even seen a cold snap yet, let alone winter, lay frozen pale white and blue. The change was staggering for a battle fought by only two.
“You’re growing stronger in real time. Proficiency gained through combat experience... is hardly a sufficient explanation. Your power itself has genuinely increased.”
Contradiction clenched and unclenched his fist to gauge the copied power. The strength was increasing steadily, albeit in small increments. A satisfying result.
“You people truly are mysterious. To grow stronger simply by resolving to. It’s most amusing.”
Sirius crossed the ice field in silence. The swift, sharp movement seized Contradiction’s attention. A double appeared behind him—an outline traced in blue. The clone swung its rapier several times.
A sword-wind laced with cold surged at Contradiction like a blizzard. The radius was so wide he abandoned evasion and chose to meet it head-on. Cold gathered along the shield-shaped spear he held.
He swept it sideways, unleashing a slash mixed with ice shards. The two waves of cold collided in the center, producing vapor like dry ice.
Again, Contradiction’s back was wide open. Blue Sirius’s rapier flared. At the tip of the fully extended blade, absolute-zero magical power of an entirely different order was compressed.
Snow-Blossom Path.
Her eyes flashed, and a single path was carved. A straight line no one else could cross or fight through.
KWA-GWAGWANG!
It was like a dam of snow bursting open. An overwhelming mass of ice rushed at Contradiction. Any ordinary monster caught in it would normally be torn to shreds and broken apart.
Contradiction, however, was no ordinary monster. Having copied a magical girl’s power, he was capable of flight. A solitary figure rose high through the onrushing ice storm. His condition was not unscathed, though. Part of his upper-body armor was heavily damaged, and his lower body was in far worse shape.
“Haha, that one actually hurt.”
Copying power and ability did not grant him a body that could perfectly withstand that same power and ability. Just as a gun shot by another gun will be destroyed, he could emit identical power but could also be broken by it.
The fatal weakness of the copy ability.
He did, however, possess one means of overcoming it.
“But the strongest spear must, by rights, be accompanied by a sturdiness commensurate with its sharpness.”
Blue grains of light appeared over the wounds. They swirled, enveloping the marks, and then every injury that had just been inflicted healed over entirely.
“This cheating has to have limits....”
“There. Fully repaired. A weapon always requires maintenance. My body is also, strictly speaking, a weapon—so repairing it properly is only natural, is it not? Ah... that does distance the concept somewhat from ‘sturdiness,’ I admit. Still, the result of keeping me operational is the same, so please don’t quibble.”
Apparently he considered that a joke; Contradiction chuckled to himself after saying it. Blue Sirius found him merely loathsome.
“So this is what it feels like to fly. I do see now why you tend to descend to the ground to fight. Controlling direction and balance is difficult, and the energy cost is considerable.”
“You talk an awful lot.”
“Ought not intelligent beings always converse? Besides, I normally meet so few people, and I’ve only just now awakened—I may be a little excited. I ask your indulgence.”
Contradiction then fixed his gaze on one corner of the sky and continued.
“With the appearance of S-rank monsters, the magical girls’ starlight has grown stronger overall... Does facing a great crisis make the preservation of peace all the more urgent, and thus they become stronger? They say heroes arise in troubled times, and this is exactly that.”
He was looking toward the Crimson-Winged Crows, dispatched to grasp the magical girls’ combat situations and provide swift support—crows with pink wings.
“I’ve now learned everything I wished to know. As I thought, you are too precious to kill right now. Had I killed you when I was trying to earlier, I would have regretted it deeply. I’ll have to thank him.”
Behind Contradiction, feathers identical in color to the Crimson-Winged Crows scattered. From one or two, the feathers multiplied into dozens, hundreds, thousands. Carried on the fierce snow-wind, they gradually began to assume a fixed form. A bird. Identical in every respect to the bird Blue Sirius had so often relied on for help.
He had copied the ability. The absurdity of it made Blue Sirius laugh hollowly.
“...You can do it even without the person herself present?”
“Yes, of course. Did you not know? This power copies the power of someone I perceive as an enemy. Distance, or whether the person is present, is irrelevant. If I set my mind to it....”
Behind Contradiction, not only pink crows but a multitude of multicolored starlights shimmered. With both arms spread wide, Contradiction looked, for a moment, almost omniscient. These were the magical girls’ powers he had grasped while releasing the Crimson-Winged Crows.
“...I can even do something like this.”
Yet Contradiction’s voice, even while displaying such artistry, was far from pleased. He looked profoundly displeased. In an instant, the various starlights besides the Crimson-Winged Crows vanished. He withdrew the abilities.
“However, it is an act that feels as though I am ignoring the opponent before me... it’s unfair, and it lacks respect. Even I find it quite offensive. Mm, I’m in a foul mood. I must refrain from it in the future.”
He was beyond anything she had imagined. Blue Sirius felt even a fear born of helplessness. The sensation of facing an incomprehensibly powerful life form, born of ignorance.
Observing her expression, Contradiction continued calmly.
“There’s a saying I learned while reading once... ah.”
Above Contradiction was a flock of birds that blotted out the moonlight entirely. They were not the Crimson-Winged Crows he had created. The crows that had been drifting through the night sky all plunged downward at once. It resembled a rain of bullets or arrows in wartime. The crows rained down on Contradiction in dense formation.
“You crazy son of a bitch!!!!”
The original user of that ability.
Contradiction skillfully scattered his crows upward in a wide formation to cancel out the flock.
BOOM! BOOM!
The noise of mass meeting mass rang out quite loudly. Within that roar, even louder cursing could be heard.
“Those are MY Crimson-Winged Crows, you asshole!!!!”
“I am merely borrowing them. It’s not as if they wear out.”
Pink Deneb, who had formed wings from crows behind her, kicked Contradiction. He blocked with both arms, but against that overwhelming speed, Contradiction had no choice but to be slammed into the ground.
The Heaven-Folding Art. It was thanks to Pink Deneb’s distinctive overwhelming acceleration—the ability to run by folding heaven itself.
They had paired Blue Sirius—a talent capable of opposing Contradiction—against him one-on-one because of his ability replication. But if Contradiction had gone and copied her ability as well, there was no reason for her to stay out any longer.
As Contradiction crashed down, the accumulated ice piles shattered and the piled snow burst up in a slushy spray, forming a cloud of vapor.
“Haha... allow me to continue what I was saying.”
He rose calmly and resumed speaking.
Behind Contradiction, the crows multiplied with furious speed, and the Crimson-Winged Crows thus formed surrounded the two magical girls. Ice shards materialized on the wings of those Crimson-Winged Crows. The volume was greater and more overwhelming than Pink Deneb’s.
This was possible because his starlight surpassed that of the original user.
“It’s a saying I read in a book once. ‘That which does not kill me makes me stronger.’ Is that not a truly fascinating statement? A most hopeful maxim: that trials which can be overcome bestow greater power. I took inspiration from it. You are growing greatly, but you are still a little lacking. Libra was only the beginning; the S-rank monsters are about to become fully active. You need to grow a little stronger to match them.”
The violent motion of the Crimson-Winged Crows, the fierce snow-wind that rose with it, and the ice shards mixed within. He had combined the two abilities and used them together.
“So I entreat you. Please survive the pain that cannot kill you.”
Like a monster’s jaws closing, the storm of birds and ice surrounding the two magical girls contracted in an instant and swallowed them.
**
For the testimony regarding the Libra abduction case, he mixed lies in and gave expedient answers.
He was walking down the street and was struck unconscious by something.
He woke up partway through, but his eyes and ears were covered due to the abduction, so he could not properly see the process of being moved.
He seemed to have been freed when Scutum and the Big Dipper Monster burst in mid-abduction.
He was sorry. He couldn’t remember well. Perhaps from the shock—his memory was vague.
In any case, the truth of the lies could not be verified, and there were multiple witnesses aside from him. Golden Aldebaran recorded the testimony without making much of an issue of it.
And so the testimony concluded swiftly and smoothly. Han Jae-jung asked Golden Aldebaran as she was putting away the recorder and her note-taking laptop.
“Um... excuse me, Deneb and Sirius—the two of them.”
“Would you like to see them?”
Han Jae-jung nodded immediately.
“Then, please follow me.”
Golden Aldebaran stood, all her belongings tidied away. With a dazed look, Han Jae-jung rose as well.
“Just like that....”
“It is against protocol in principle, but are you not seeing them again after a long separation? I am capable of this much flexibility.”
So everyone who might know already knows. Han Jae-jung smiled bitterly.
“And please do not worry excessively about your relationship with Miss Blue Sirius. I only know a little because I became a magical girl just after the dating rumors and we became directly acquainted. Most others still do not know that Miss Blue Sirius remains attached. It is not particularly a fact to be publicized, either.”
“Attached... is that it.”
A bitter taste filled his mouth. Years had passed, yet she and he still harbored a feeling called guilt. The word “attachment” suited them both all too well.
Him, especially—without even his memories, yet with the loathsome feelings alone remaining. He was even more mired in attachment.
“I apologize. I’ve made you needlessly concerned. May I receive that guidance now?”
Golden Aldebaran nodded. Her expression remained as blank as ever.
Following her out of the sickroom, Han Jae-jung was fairly surprised. They had been hospitalized in a place far closer than he had imagined.
“This is the place.”
Only then did Han Jae-jung realize he had been staying in a rather excellent hospital room. He had sensed something unusual from the private room, but it was a high-grade room capable of providing magical-girl care. A place with strong security and a better environment than the other rooms.
To obtain such special treatment merely because he was an acquaintance of magical girls—Han Jae-jung grew uneasy again.
Those feelings vanished the moment he saw his acquaintances lying in their beds.
Jo Ah-yoon, who was always so spirited, was just breathing raggedly, speechless. Yoon Seol-hwa, whose eyes always held sadness, had her eyes closed, devoid of any emotion.
Had they felt this way when he had collapsed? Han Jae-jung’s brow furrowed deeply.
To have turned away from this danger simply because he was ill—he felt loathing toward himself.
He could have protected them, but he hadn’t. The thought refused to leave his mind.
“Their lives are not in danger. Though, combined with overwork, it seems it will take some time for them to wake.”
Letting Golden Aldebaran’s explanation go in one ear, Han Jae-jung took Seol-hwa’s hand as if entranced.
Back when she was not yet accustomed to magical-girl work, when she had collapsed suddenly from heart trouble while working, he had often done this, wishing her peace.
Though the present him did not know it, each of these familiar actions had time carved into it.
Holding her hand tightly like that, Han Jae-jung renewed his resolve.
He would protect them.
***
With matters at the hospital concluded and no further reason to stay, Han Jae-jung left the hospital.
Golden Aldebaran had said that, given the nature of his injuries, he should continue to stay, but when he replied that he hoped she would understand how burdensome it was to splurge on an ex-girlfriend’s money, she said nothing.
And so, at a time of day when everyone was busy with work and studies, he moved his feet as if pushed into a quiet street.
“Belt.”
[What is your business?]
“Identify the locations of monsters in the area and transmit them.”
[Considering your current physical condition, this would not be especially wise—]
“Quickly.”
[Understood.]
Dismissing the Belt’s concerns, Han Jae-jung arrived at a crosswalk with not a soul around. Perhaps because it was near a hospital, even the atmosphere felt desolate.
Beside him, a man in a suit sidled up quietly.
“Are the two of them doing all right? I may have misjudged the power adjustment. I do hope they haven’t suffered too severe an aftermath....”
“Combined with overwork, their sleep has simply grown longer. Their lives are otherwise in no jeopardy, I’m told.”
“That is a relief. With this face of mine, visiting them at the hospital would convey only the intention to fight.”
Han Jae-jung laughed hollowly and turned his head to the side.
“Does coming to me not convey the intention to fight?”
There was no human head there. Where eyes, nose, and mouth should have been stood a potted cactus atop the head. A cactus perfectly symmetrical from side to side.
The man who was a grotesque yet comical bonsai answered.
“No?”
The reply was nonchalant.
“I have come to fight, so there is no problem.”
At that, Han Jae-jung laughed.
“Right... you’re not wrong.”
Gripping the Belt, Han Jae-jung asked again.
“I still have no way to kill you. That puts me in a bind.”
“What? What do you... You do possess a way to kill me.”
Contradiction said it as if puzzled.
“A surprise attack. Approach in secret before I perceive you as an enemy, and drive in a single lethal blow. A blow strong enough that I cannot regenerate.”
Contradiction placed a hand on his shoulder, revealing a hint of familiarity.
“What do you think? Is that not a truly perfect method of murder?”
“You’re telling me to assassinate you?”
“Of course. Did you imagine that I, too, would be invincible?”
Han Jae-jung laughed again.
“Impossible right now, though, is it?”
“Naturally. Because I, too, have no desire to die.”
The two continued their standoff, eyes locked. It was Han Jae-jung who moved first.
He brushed Contradiction’s hand from his shoulder and fastened the Belt at his waist.
A shield materialized in Contradiction’s other hand.
Both murmured at the same moment.
“Transform.”
“Actualization.”
[ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION.]
[Reveal the truth.]