Memory Recovery (7)
Memory Recovery (7)
There is always a bigger fish.
A vast gulf separates those who can move freely through the sky from those who cannot.
Fortunately, the Crimson-Winged Crows were there this time, letting me use them as springboards from one to the next—but the limits were clear.
Virgo instantly scattered the flock that had been embroidering the sky, erased every foothold. A creature bound to the ground could only descend.
The lapse cost me sight of Virgo, if only for a moment. It was a critical failure.
[Quest appeared. Save Pink Deneb.]
It didn’t need a quest to spell it out. It was obviously what I had to do.
I quickened my pace. Starlight still registered cleanly. Virgo’s location was unmistakable.
Even as I pursued, I compressed starlight at the tip of my foot, preparing the Seven-Star Step Kick.
Coldly speaking, Watcher’s techniques aren’t mere imitations of the originals the Belt provides. The Belt observes the path where starlight can be employed most effectively, and I walk that path.
But that alone is insufficient.
Every technique I first received is based on the seven stars.
Their significance lies in focusing solely on those seven and using them to maximum effect.
I had already shot well past seven steps. Yet green starlight, like fireflies, kept gathering at my toes, swelling its halo.
I knew by instinct that I had transcended the established technique.
Crrrk! The ground fractured beneath every footfall, unable to withstand the pressure.
My beginning is the Big Dipper, but that does not mean it is my ending. It is only my beginning. Only the starting line of the road that guides me.
Now, I had at last stepped off that line.
The stars I had gathered, the experience I had accumulated, the power and proficiency I had gained—all of it meshed organically to produce a single change.
Transcendence of limits.
The start of a journey toward a new constellation.
My eyes caught a magical girl and something that had been a magical girl.
Pink Deneb was covered in wounds. A surge of heat rose inside me. Even in Watcher’s body, there was no helping the rage I felt at the sight of a friend injured.
The past resurfaced.
A girl I’d first known as Seol-hwa’s junior. When we met, I hadn’t noticed, but under her clothes there had been plenty of bruises.
I remembered the scar marks left all over a body even smaller than her current one.
And yet I felt no fury. My head was calm. I simply did in silence what had to be done.
Virgo fired a beam from her fingertip. The violet line bloomed faint as a dying sunset and destroyed everything in its trajectory.
A line unmistakably aimed at Pink Deneb. I kicked the ground harder.
The whole world seemed to slow. Sound trailed behind my movement. Whether it was the starlight gathered in my legs or the power of Ursa Major, I didn’t know, but right now it worked in my favor.
It was speed I had never before experienced. Speed that overtook the wind and competed with light. Megrez form’s velocity had been surpassed utterly. The motion resembled a thunderbolt. Like lightning bridging sky to earth in a flash, a single stride sufficed to reach my target.
The movement was nothing like finesse. A rough, wild motion, like lightning scribbling jagged afterimages across the sky.
Yet I did not miss the target.
I reached Pink Deneb before the beam did, wrapped her in my arms. Reducing my speed just enough, I set her down beside the spot where the beam would land.
Her dazed expression as she looked at me was remarkably striking.
“Y-you...”
“I’ll hear your complaints later.”
I turned my head at once and moved again.
Luckily, the Crimson-Winged Crows still clung to Virgo’s back.
Perfect footholds.
It cannot be denied that she suffered as a magical girl.
But all those circumstances do not grant her absolution.
The atrocities Virgo had just committed were unmistakably evil. As someone who must protect magical girls, I cannot stand by and watch.
I felt no pity.
“Chasing people like you is troublesome after all. You vanish from sight in an instant.”
A pillar of light revealed itself eerily in the darkened sky.
It glowed intensely, like heat-laden glass. It looked precarious, as if it might melt at any moment—and yet beautiful.
Dreamlike radiance. The firefly-green light had, before I knew it, begun to gleam like a jewel.
That light converged on my leg.
Virgo’s expression as she looked at me was full of consternation.
Our eyes met. No special emotion welled up.
Toward someone who had done things deserving of fury, I held no fury. Could feel no killing intent.
And yet my body moved. To do what had to be done.
It resembled the mechanical act of walking a road.
“Thanks to that, I shot well past the seven steps.”
I drove the Seven-Star Step Kick toward Virgo’s head. The transcendent kicking force descended on her.
Kwaaaaaang!
[Seven-Star Step Kick replication successful. Replication Rate 101%.]
Virgo fell like a comet. Not a descent—an unambiguous plummet. A massive explosion erupted from the place where she landed.
I dropped down after her. The landing was safe; I had no cause to lose balance. Watching the explosion, I realized it quietly.
This power that had transcended limits was unmistakably that of Ursa Major.
A fragment of power I did not yet possess. Power that would shake heaven and earth like a natural disaster.
Speed and force of a wholly different dimension from before.
The instant I grasped the authority of the power I sought, I also grasped its side effect.
“....”
This power brings me closer to being a monster.
The moment I transcended the limit, my emotions vanished.
Unable to feel fury at what should enrage me, unable to feel pity at what should move me, unable to feel killing intent toward one who deserved it.
And yet the work does not stop.
No—it tries to finish things more precisely, more definitively.
Just now, without any hesitation, I had kicked at her head and tried to tear the part from her body.
Even without knowing for certain what past Virgo and I had, I’d attempted to kill her without a flicker of doubt.
Throwing away every human value for the sake of purpose. That is exactly what a monster is.
“...A runaway rampage, then.”
Yes, it felt as though I had run wild into monsterhood chasing power.
It was fortunate the force I used this time was slight and brief. What would have happened if I’d fully awakened Ursa Major’s power? Even imagining it sent a chill through me.
I needed to acclimatize Ursa Major’s power slowly, bit by bit, rather than seize it all at once. Carefully and delicately, like taming a wild animal.
“Hey! You! Your goal is...!”
“Hold on.”
Even after Virgo struck the ground, the quest completion voice hadn’t sounded. The reason became clear soon enough.
“You’re damn persistent.”
I shielded Pink Deneb and threw us to the ground. A bright flash passed overhead.
A violet howl blazed from where the explosion had occurred. This was closer to a pillar than a beam in thickness.
If I hadn’t prepared in advance, it might have sliced straight through my waist and killed me. I was glad I’d gotten into the habit of never dropping my guard after Libra.
My back and waist had melted a little, but that’s the sort of injury that heals with a bit of ointment and a few nights’ sleep. It wasn’t a problem. Though it hurt like a fucking bastard.
“Right... so that’s it!”
Virgo staggered upright. Her mouth was full of laughter. Viscous blood ran from the corner of her lips, stretched wide in a grin.
She was covering her left eye with one hand. A flood of blood poured through the gaps between her fingers. Had she lost the eye to that last attack?
“You have someone to protect you? You owe that to me! Be grateful!”
With the finger of the hand not clutching her face, she pointed at Ah-yoon.
“I mean it—be grateful! Because today I won’t aim for world destruction! You ought to be grateful!”
Smiling with satisfaction, she draped the few remaining Crimson-Winged Crows across her back again. As Virgo rose gently into the air, blood pattered beneath her feet. A moment later, she shot into the sky. The flight was too fast for the eye to follow. Unmistakably the Heaven-Folding Art. A technique that folds the heavens to travel.
[Quest completed.]
I slowly got to my feet. Ah-yoon’s expression, from underneath me, was decidedly bad.
“That’s a relief. Nobody died.”
I tossed out the platitude to clear the air.
“What are you?”
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good reply.
“What’s your goal that you’d help me even while you’re getting hurt?! If you’re a monster, could you please just act like one? Why do you have to put me under some kind of spell...”
Her gaze was fixed near the right side of my waist. The tattered armor and the protruding shrapnel. The blood seeping through the slight cracks and the skin melted by heat.
“...Are you really Han Jae-jung? Are you my brother or not?! Stop hiding your face and driving people crazy! Stop talking in circles! Give me a proper explanation, damn it!”
After huffing furiously for a long moment, Ah-yoon swept her bangs back—a headache, maybe.
“I mean, thanks for helping me! But still! Say something! It’s driving me up the fucking wall!”
Seeing that she delivered her thanks clearly, I felt oddly proud. Even if her swearing had increased a bit, the kid hadn’t gone crooked.
“Are you prepared?”
“For what.”
“Prepared to know the truth.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“Why’s that my problem? The situation comes first. I can get ready when it’s time. Just talk!”
“Then you must not know me yet.”
Not yet.
It’s still too soon to reveal my identity. She can suspect me. She can even be hostile.
Ignorance is frightening, but at least it isn’t agonizing.
I know how earnest Ah-yoon is.
If she learns that someone she knows is a monster, she’ll agonize over whether to kill me. It will be deeply painful.
She’s not like Red Vega. She doesn’t possess the shamelessness to go mad for an ideal and ignore everything else. She’s endured far too many hardships to keep a heart that tender.
“My answer hasn’t changed since last time. Han Jae-jung is not here.”
[ALKAID.]
Smoke billowed up around the Belt.
“...! That’s, that’s... because you lost your memory?”
She asked through the gaps in the smoke. I didn’t bother to answer. Instead, I gave an answer to a different question.
“And my goal will not change, even if tomorrow comes. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, whatever day arrives, whatever hardship I face, even if you disgrace me with that tongue of yours, even if you strangle my neck.”
In my fading field of vision, I gave my answer.
“I will always wish for you to live.”
**
After arriving home via Alkaid, I collapsed into sleep without a thought in my head.
I’d obtained memories and power, met a person connected to my past, and even encountered a monster who might be connected to my past. It was an environment that guaranteed a buildup of exhaustion.
Without bothering to treat the wounds on my waist and back or even wash up, and without spreading my bedding, I lay down on the damp yellow linoleum and sought sleep.
Thankfully, fatigue far outweighed physical pain, so I was able to sink into slumber without trouble.
What woke my body was a phone’s ringtone. It was the first time since activation that the thing had properly performed its original function.
“Uuughh... hello....”
I answered in a half-dreaming haze. I should have checked properly who was calling.
“Were you asleep?! That’s no good! Do you have any idea what time it is? You have to live a little more diligently! Physical indolence and poorly formed habits eventually carry over to the mind and lead to lethargy, and...”
“It’s Vega.”
“Ehem! You’re supposed to call me A-hee!”
Red Vega.
“What’s the matter, this early in the morning?”
“Eleven o’clock is not morning! Anyway, have you been well?”
I pushed myself up weakly and stared at the bloodstains on the floor. Avant-garde art created by yesterday’s injuries.
“Uh... no?”
“I knew it! Because you haven’t seen the person who’ll illuminate your heart like a comet! Why haven’t you been in touch?”
“Contacting a suicide counseling client... isn’t that rather a bad idea?”
“We’re friends who’ve gone beyond simple counselor and client! Friends who share secrets! Of course we can keep in touch!”
“A counselor and client having a private relationship... that’s awfully unhealthy. So, what business do you have?”
Through the receiver, I heard the sound of a swallowed breath. A clear sign of tension.
“W-well... Sorry about this, but there’s something you haven’t told me, right?”
“Didn’t we agree on that?”
“No, not that! You know, that old story. Ugh, I’ll just ask straight out.”
The girl’s confident voice rang in my ears.
“The reason you were cyberbullied.”
“Aha.”
I was caught off guard, but I didn’t show it. So that’s why Ah-yoon suddenly came looking for me. This girl was the cause.
“Did you search my name and see some controversy entry?”
“No, I heard it from a friend.”
“Is that so....”
I swallowed the sigh that wanted to burst out and ran a hand through my hair. Maybe it was because I’d just woken up. My head was hazy and dizzy.
“So, what are you trying to say?”
There was a bit of a barb in my answer. I was surprised at myself, even as I said it. I must have had more resistance to broaching this topic than I’d thought. Well, I’d just recovered the related memories only yesterday. I must be unconsciously sensitive.
I smoothed out my voice and explained.
“What... do you want to hear from me?”
“Yes, exactly! I learned from my older sisters that if there’s an incident, you’re supposed to hear both sides of the story! Those fucking—sorry, when shithead reporters whip people up!”
“Ah, yes....”
“So I came to hear yours, too!”
Knock, knock. I heard a knock at the door.
“...Vega. Don’t tell me.”
“There are some things you just can’t grasp over the phone.”
Knock, knock, knock. Bang, bang, bang! The knocking became increasingly violent. Simultaneously, the voice over the phone filled with noise.
“People ought to talk face to face, don’t you think?”
Come to think of it, that counseling questionnaire from before had a space to write your address.
My pounding heart, uneasy, overlaid the knocks, and I walked to the front door and yanked it open.
“What the hell are you doing, making a racket for the neighbors?”
“Heheh.”
Before me stood a grinning girl. She wore her glossy black hair long and flowing, with a tteokbokki coat fastened tightly. The coat was long enough to cover her skirt. Bare legs peeked out slightly between stockings and coat. It was winter already, and I wondered if she wasn’t cold.
I felt no particular urge to let her inside. She was getting on my nerves.
Poke.
The uninvited guest stretched out a finger and prodded my chest.
“Like a red comet into your heart... I have come... heh... heheh....”
The uninvited guest was a magical girl.