Let's Be Friends (3)
Let’s Be Friends (3)
I dragged my battered body home.
It had been a long time, but I didn’t particularly miss this place. The sticky yellow linoleum was peeling at the edges. On the walls, a housemate called mold was playing a game of territory, and the fluorescent light kept flickering, lending the place a red-light-district kind of ambience.
After a hospital that reeked of disinfectant, a room that smelled of mold inside and whitish blood outside the window—I really was living the life.
-Aaaaack!!! I’m screwed!!!
The next-door neighbor was screaming at the top of his lungs. The neighborhood has terrible public safety, so the neighbors are just as bad.
It’s not just that safety is bad—monsters appear here with considerable frequency. Anyone living in a place like this is either broke beyond all reason or insane.
If you’re broke enough, you go insane, so eventually the two become one.
This area is called G-34.
It’s awkward, but most place names in this world follow that format. An English letter or Hangul character paired with a number.
After the past era when monsters appeared and it was practically an apocalypse, all administrative districts were reorganized from scratch.
Most of the buildings had to be rebuilt anyway, and there was a need to classify monster-heavy zones separately from the standard administrative districts.
Some places were designated completely uninhabitable and off-limits. Essentially, land surrendered to the monsters.
The naming was carried out by stripping away symbolism, maximizing utility, and fragmenting everything as much as possible.
That’s how we ended up with names like G-34. To me, with memories of another world, the place names feel a little alienating.
Beyond the window, a monster was flying by, flapping insect-like wings. I’d have to clean that up someday.
-Kraaah!!! You worthless bastard!!! If you’ve got a head, use it to think!!! Should I rip your fingers off?!!
I’d like to clean that up too. The neighbor must have tried a desk-slam—commonly known as shotgunning—because I felt the vibration.
“Crazy neighborhood....”
I’ve heard that people who value their lives choose to live homeless in the safer urban centers rather than in a place like this.
This world is missing some screws beyond imagination. In a sense, it’s post-apocalyptic, so I suppose that’s only natural.
The problem is that soon, even those urban centers won’t be safe.
‘They said S-rank monsters are starting to move.’
If what Contradiction said is true, Dilemma is about to step onto the stage in earnest.
The natural disasters that used to occur only once or twice a year will now rage all year round.
‘And one of those disasters will be me....’
The corner of my mouth quirked up. I plan to maintain my stance of keeping my identity hidden going forward.
There’s the trauma issue, and the issue of the magical girls’ standing.
The male demographic that’s been thirsting for a male hero might needlessly turn Watcher into a symbol and weaponize him for gender issues as a tool of comparison and conflict, and conversely, others might resent the fact that a man has become something close to a magical girl.
The human psyche is truly complex. Enough that a word like “love-hate” openly exists. Emotions aren’t mutually exclusive, nor are they rational.
People can feel gratitude that these girls protect their lives while simultaneously envying the power they hold as some kind of privilege; they can admire them while excessively idolizing them and find any behavior that deviates from their own ideals intolerable.
Rationally speaking, it makes no sense. It’s like dismantling the fence that protects you from the beasts, or spitting on a work of art while hoping it never gets dirty.
Of course, the vast majority of ordinary people are well-disposed toward magical girls. But just as a stain on a white sheet of paper stands out more, malice splattered against the canvas of goodwill is all the more hideous.
What’s worse, it gradually spreads and can stain others, too.
That’s why I don’t need a title like “the monster who became a hero.”
Far from protecting the magical girls, it could endanger them. The public is honest. It won’t hide its desires but will pack them into public opinion and bite down hard.
All kinds of conflict are bound to erupt. Until a proper alternative emerges, I intend to remain a monster with an unusual modus operandi.
That doesn’t mean I plan to do nothing but protect magical girls, either. No matter how strong an individual is, they’re still an individual, and limits exist.
It’s unrealistic to step in every single time countless magical girls fall into trouble.
There’s nothing more hollow than justice without an alternative.
For a starving person, you don’t just give them a fish—you teach them how to catch one.
Beyond simply safeguarding magical girls, I have to guide their growth.
‘The problem is that I have to get stronger, too....’
If there’s a value as hollow as justice without an alternative, it’s none other than justice without power.
What could be more futile than a justice that is all talk and no action?
To achieve a great dream, greater power is necessary.
In realizing that ideal, I also realized how shabby my present state is.
The top priority—the safety and growth of the magical girls—remains unchanged, but so does the fact that I need to build my strength in order to carry it out.
Now, at the point when Dilemma is moving, completing Ursa Major has become urgent.
The completed power beyond the Big Dipper. I must claim it.
And that isn’t just out of a sense of duty—there’s a slightly more personal reason as well.
“Seol-hwa... how am I supposed to see you?”
It’s not merely about gaining the power to put ideals into practice; I need it to establish my relationship with other people.
“Hoo....”
A sigh escaped on its own. The path is clear, but the legs I have to walk it aren’t in good shape.
[Quest issued.]
But I can keep moving forward, and that alone is enough. I reined in my sigh and took the Belt in my hand.
[Assault Red Vega.]
“What the fuck?”
**
“Haaaaaah.......”
Baek A-hee let out a long sigh, her heart a tangled mess of complicated feelings.
The deep vibration in her chest aggravated her injuries. A sharp sting made her clutch her side.
“Urgh....”
When transformed, she’s Red Vega.
Right now, she’s powered down, an ordinary girl without magic. Without the tough durability of her transformed state, the aftereffects of battle had seeped cruelly into this soft, supple skin.
Not having died didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt. The consecutive battles against Libra and Watcher had left her body in a thoroughly tattered state.
Even for a magical girl whose external injuries healed quickly, recovering from all of them in a single day was impossible.
She’d dragged that body to the hospital.
Not to heal her injuries.
“...You really came.”
“Yes! I’m here!”
She beamed brightly in front of Golden Aldebaran, whose expression was more than a little put off.
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to rest as well? Coming to visit someone in that condition is a little....”
A person wrapped in bandages had come to the hospital grinning, not for treatment, but to visit a patient. It was a course of action that defied Golden Aldebaran’s common sense no matter how she looked at it, and she pressed her fingers to her temple.
“It’s fine! I’m perfectly okay—Yow.”
When Golden Aldebaran poked her side with a finger, Baek A-hee wailed and slumped to the floor. Golden Aldebaran looked down at her and let out a deep sigh.
“I suppose I can’t tell you to go back now that you’re already here... Follow me.”
“Yep!”
Baek A-hee answered vigorously and sprang to her feet. Her fighting spirit was as strong as ever.
The recent S-rank monster incident was effectively judged as a victory for the monsters. Casualties were low, and they’d succeeded in rescuing the kidnapped person. But every magical girl had been defeated by a monster.
Of course, Red Vega had achieved victory over Watcher. But if you looked closely, there was the humiliating fact that he’d blatantly gone easy on her.
It was stinging proof that the guardians’ strength was inferior to that of the invaders. That night, when the bloodshed had been light, was a foretaste of the oceans of blood yet to spill.
Many people were trembling with anxiety.
Baek A-hee was one of them. The dark circles forming under her eyes weren’t caused only by the aftermath of battle—that anxiety was a contributing factor, too.
A time when you needed the resolve to truly put your life on the line.
Yet last night, Watcher’s words had been the complete opposite of a guardian’s duty.
‘Cherish your life, and be afraid....’
Did that mean that, as a weak person, she should cower as befits her meager strength? Red Vega was offended.
At the same time, Baek A-hee’s curiosity was piqued.
Those words from Watcher—they carried concern and consideration, not something you could simply dismiss as arrogance.
What had his intent been?
Baek A-hee wanted to know. That’s why she was heading to the person she trusted most.
Blue Sirius, a magical girl with a career long enough to be called a veteran senior.
She’d been terribly worried when she heard that Sirius had been defeated and lost consciousness, but she was relieved when word came less than 24 hours later that she’d woken up.
If she’s regained consciousness, then she can talk!
She could check on her while also discussing the concerns on her mind. That thought drove Baek A-hee to act. The wounds she’d gotten the day before hurt quite a lot, but her destination was a hospital anyway, wasn’t it?
‘If they get worse, I can just get treated here!’
It was truly a plan with no plan.
Taking the elevator, she arrived at the hospital room reserved for magical girls in no time. Golden Aldebaran knocked perfunctorily, more as a formality, then opened the door. Her presence was so faint that people sometimes failed to notice a knock.
At first, Baek A-hee had thought that was an exaggeration, but after seeing an automatic door fail to detect her, she’d decided to believe it.
Rumble. With the sound of the sliding door opening, the interior of the hospital room came into view. Pink Deneb, who was still asleep (they said she woke up briefly but was so sleepy she went right back to sleep), and an empty bed caught her eye.
Blue Sirius was not there.
“This is the room where the seniors are staying... Huh? Where did she go?”
“Maybe she went to the bathroom or something?”
“She might have, but... No way.”
As if something had flashed through her mind, Golden Aldebaran flinched and dashed out of the room. Baek A-hee followed her. She stopped in front of a nearby hospital room.
Golden Aldebaran knocked again. From inside, a tranquil-sounding, very soft and cool voice answered. Baek A-hee flinched in surprise. It was a voice she knew.
When the door opened, a woman came into view, running her hand over the bed rail of an empty bed in the chill hospital room. Long, slender limbs and a figure with pronounced curves, subtly melancholic eyes and blue-silver hair that fell softly over them.
It was Yoon Seol-hwa, Blue Sirius.
“Why are you in here... I told you, you’re supposed to be lying down.”
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to get a bit of fresh air.”
“How exactly are you going to get fresh air inside a hospital room?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“If I did understand, I’d be afraid of turning out like you, senior.”
“This is the kind of air you breathe with your heart.”
“You’re driving me crazy....”
Once again, Golden Aldebaran pressed a hand to her head and left the hospital room. Baek A-hee stayed behind and watched her. Her back looked despondent. Today, for some reason, that back looked especially small and fragile.
When their eyes met, Yoon Seol-hwa only smiled bitterly. Baek A-hee watched Sirius quietly and thought.
Is she thinking about the person who stayed here?
Seeing that traces of someone’s stay still remained, it seemed the patient here hadn’t been discharged long ago. The flowers in the vase were still fresh. The same with the fruit basket placed beside it.
Since he’d been staying on this floor, he must have been someone attacked by a monster.
That much, she could guess.
But she couldn’t guess the weight of the guilt those shoulders were carrying.
‘Clearly... her heart must be heavy, thinking about a civilian she couldn’t protect....’
Because that’s how it was for her, too.
Remembering the sense of duty a hero carries—the sense of duty that must have grown heavier and more solid over the years—made Baek A-hee’s own shoulders sink.
To think she was about to go grinning to someone feeling the weight of a hero’s responsibility and ask about a monster’s words.
Baek A-hee felt ashamed of herself.
Red Vega decided to stay in the room with her and think about the person who must have stayed here.
Surely he was an innocent victim attacked by a monster......
She would never let another victim like that happen again.
She made that firm resolution.