Like Family (3)
Like Family (3)
A quest aimed not at exterminating a monster, but at protecting one. I had no desire to carry it out, and I couldn’t have anyway.
The instant I went berserk, my axe would take Virgo’s head. The lightning meant only to kill monsters would mercilessly strike that frail body.
“Long time no see. You been well? How long’s it been... little over three years?”
Virgo kept saying things I still couldn’t make sense of. But I couldn’t ignore them outright. I was certain Virgo and I shared some kind of bond.
“What brings you here? You miss me? Or did you just come back for something you left behind? Wow, you got flashier! Nice! I love sparkly stuff like that!”
The quest presentation principle was simple: solely to achieve the objective.
For me, having gained a powerful sense of purpose in exchange for escaping death, it was a leash given to me and a brutal whip driving me forward.
An order issued purely and stubbornly to fulfill the objective, with no thought to ethics or norms.
I could apply the same reasoning to the incomprehensible quest that had just appeared.
“Huh? But wait... you are Jae-jung, right? Why are you standing around looking like that? Huh? How do I know you’re you? D-did I maybe mistake you for someone else?! Aaah! So embarrassing!”
It meant that saving her now would bring me closer to my objective: protecting the Guardians.
“If you’re not Jae-jung, then who are you...? W-why won’t you say anything...? If I’ve mistaken you, I’d appreciate it if you’d just say so...”
Crunch. Virgo put more strength into the leg trampling the corpse, and the head beneath it burst like a smashed watermelon.
The face, crushed beyond recognition, obliterated a life so completely I couldn’t even tell what expression he’d worn as he died.
“S-scary... Why won’t you say anything...? I’m starting to get a little...”
What stood before me was no longer a magical girl. It was a monster who killed without a shred of hesitation.
The quest wouldn’t have judged her a magical girl I needed to protect, either. Otherwise, during the several times I’d fought her to the death before, a quest would’ve appeared to restrain me.
So, this was a gamble.
I didn’t know what connection Virgo and I had. The only reason to save her, for now, was the single compulsion of the quest. And my opponent was a monster in the grip of madness.
“Really, really scary... Why won’t you say anything... H-hic! Wh-what’s that axe...? Are you planning to attack me with that...? I-if you are, I won’t just stand here... I-I’ll fight back! Really painfully, too!”
I let out a heavy sigh and put my hand on the Belt.
This was the only way not to kill her right now.
“Stop.”
Droplets of light scattered from my body like water being shaken off, and the lightning that had encroached upon me flashed once in the natural order of things and vanished. I gradually regained my human appearance.
Power Down.
It was insane to disarm in front of a monster, but there was no other reasonable option to try.
Virgo could flip at any moment and try to kill me. If that happened, I’d probably die without even being able to resist.
The picture of offering up my own neck to save an enemy.
That’s why it was a gamble.
“If you hit me once, I’d just die.”
This was a conversation I’d have had to have at some point anyway. It would nag at me if I killed her without knowing how we were tangled up together or why she’d become corrupted.
They say ignorance is medicine, but choosing ignorance when you could know is a sin.
“Huh? What! It really is Jae-jung!”
“You seem to know me pretty well.”
“So you don’t know me? What’s wrong with you, you’re hurting my feelings!”
Virgo grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. I thought it was fractured. Seems she doesn’t know how to control her strength.
“I heard you were a middle-school dropout, can’t you remember faces either? Oh, wait, are you not a dropout anymore? You took the equivalency test, right? Wow, Jae-jung, so I guess you’re a high-school grad now~ I’m jealous. I’m only an elementary-school grad. Ah, sorry, sorry. Did I kill the mood too much? Seeing as we haven’t met in so long.”
That intimate attitude was nothing but bewildering to me. Just what kind of relationship did we have for her to be this friendly with me? Even during our last reunion until now, she’d been more hostile than this.
Come to think of it, her speech and tone often shifted dramatically.
A tone consumed by madness that just laughed and sneered the whole time, and a tone that seemed full of self-deprecation and loneliness. Though the tone she was using now was neither of those...
Since it was naturally difficult to understand a crazy person anyway, I just let it slide.
“Hmm~ Ah! Then don’t you remember this? When I was crying here, that’s exactly when I ran into you. Over in that shadowy spot! You were getting away from a monster, your face was all pale, and you were catching your breath over there when we locked eyes. We both froze in surprise... Huhu, I’m remembering it now.”
Virgo pointed somewhere, then curled her finger back.
“Huh? Wasn’t it over there? Ah, no, it wasn’t. Ha, hahaha, how embarrassing~ There are just so many similar-looking spots around here.”
“Hold on, where exactly is here, anyway?”
“What is seriously wrong with you... Stop joking like that. It’s not funny.”
Virgo frowned as if displeased.
“This is Dark Matter. Where I live. Didn’t you come to see me?”
A violet gleam gathered at Virgo’s fingertip. The momentum suggested that if I said the wrong thing, a beam would be shot straight through my heart.
I began a staring contest with that lump of light. I racked my brains trying to figure out what the right answer was.
Since understanding a crazy person was impossible, naturally, no answer came.
“Hahaha, why’re you all frozen and serious again? Smile, smile. You’ve got Red Spica right in front of you, the one who delivers everyone’s smiles, you know?”
Virgo laughed and waved her finger. Having extinguished the high-temperature beam as easily as playing with a candle flame, her laughter soon cut off.
“...Seems like you really don’t remember, huh? It’s okay! That can happen!”
Then she smiled again.
“I’m an idiot too, so I forget things all the time~ Actually, I don’t even know why I’m here. Hehe, guess we’re even, huh?”
“Then that dead person over there...”
“Don’t know! Do I need to?”
Normally, you do need to know. Murder is kind of a serious matter.
But unfortunately, there seemed to be a significant gap between her common sense and mine.
“...Hold on, you said Dark Matter? This is Dark Matter?”
That was a bit of a problem.
I’d secretly slipped away while riding the monsters commanded by White Dabih during the evacuation. If I didn’t get back by morning, I’d obviously come under all sorts of suspicion.
No matter how close Dark Matter was to my home, it wasn’t walking distance.
’...Though, I guess that was already shot the moment I decided to talk to Virgo.’
I’d have to come up with some excuses.
Anyway, the biggest problem right now was the woman in front of me.
“What? Are you scared? You’re funny, a guy who barged into Dark Matter with a full-blown case of misanthropy. It’s fine, it’s fine~!”
Virgo jumped and slung her arm over my shoulder.
“Because you’ve got the protector of love and peace~ former Red Spica, current Dilemma executive right here!”
I couldn’t smile at her words.
Red Spica. A person who’d been a magical girl since before starting elementary school, which was rare even among magical girls.
She’d once been reported killed in battle with a monster, but years later, in a monsterized state, she’d attacked a city and killed nearly a hundred civilians and two magical girls.
It was quite rare for a magical girl to be brainwashed by a monster and become a monster herself, but not entirely unprecedented. Virgo’s case, however, was rarer still.
She operated independently, without a single monster acting as her leader. In other words, she became a monster of her own will.
The problem was that nobody knew why.
They could only guess vaguely that her work as a magical girl had been so hard that she’d fallen into corruption as a monster.
“This is my territory. Nobody messes with me here! Well... other Dilemma guys might come and try to poach my land, but that’s got nothing to do with you, right?”
Virgo stared intently into my eyes, then asked with sudden concern.
“Oh my, Jae-jung, are you tired?”
It was the deep hours before dawn, when the sky could start brightening any moment. I hadn’t been able to sleep until this hour, so I couldn’t help but look exhausted.
“...All of a sudden?”
“No, Jae-jung. You have to get proper sleep. Otherwise you’ll damage yourself.”
“Got it.”
“Thanks for getting it. Okay then, Jae-jung. Sleep.”
“...What?”
In this state? Shoulder-to-shoulder with a monster?
“What’s wrong? I said sleep.”
“No, it’s just... sleeping with a person, even a monster, right there in front of me is a bit... let’s talk a little first, and later I’ll manage to...”
“Jae-jung!”
Virgo’s hand moved and seized my throat.
“You have to sleep... you have to sleep properly... what’s wrong with you, are you trying to go crazy? Do you want to become a zombie?! It ruins your health! Why won’t you listen to me? Are you ignoring me? After I tried so hard! After I made so much effort!”
“No, what on earth are you...”
Agony. My breathing was slowly being cut off, and my body’s movements were slowly stiffening.
I couldn’t understand it. Just what switch had been pressed to provoke such a violent reaction? Had she become a monster from not being able to sleep? Did she have some kind of sleep disorder? Some kind of persecution complex?
Then just go to sleep yourself. Why are you taking it out on me.
My hand flailed, trying to grab the metal sphere. It was my means of resistance when words didn’t work.
“S-sorry. I’ll sleep, so... let go of me now...”
“Really? Thank you! See, I knew you were so nice!”
For someone saying thank you, the strength in her grip didn’t lessen one bit.
Virgo’s eyes were clearer than the morning sun about to rise, and the corners of her mouth were beaming. Without the slightest hesitation, she increased the force crushing my throat.
“Now nose! Nighty-night!”
No, this bitch, don’t tell me.
“I’ll put you to sleep!”
Like I thought, you don’t converse with a crazy person. It doesn’t work from the start.
The metal sphere was in my hand. I immediately tried to fasten the Belt.
“Huh? I said sleep.”
With her other hand, she swatted the Belt I was holding away. A human hand was far too frail to resist a monster, and as several fingers broke, the Belt went flying into the distance again.
Still, it was fine. The Belt had a function to attach itself to my waist on its own...
‘Ah, fuck.’
Before that, my consciousness went dim.
In my blurring vision, like opening my eyes underwater, Virgo was smiling brightly and crushing my throat.
At the last moment, a voice came from the Belt.
[Replaying memories.]
**
“Haha, this is really killing me.”
I’d come in here for nothing. Overcome with regret, I ran hard. I couldn’t rest for even a moment. If I slowed down now even a little, I’d be eaten by the monster behind me.
“If I die, they won’t even find my body now, right? That’s one good thing!”
A year of running away from home, one single year, had been more than enough to fully charge my misanthropy. Enough time to drive a person insane.
I’d decided to run away from running away. To be exact, to escape society. If I had to put a word to it, it was a society-exit.
At this rate I was about to get a life-exit instead, but that was also part of the plan.
I’d decided to go to a place nearby that wasn’t human society.
A monster-ruled zone. A restricted area. Commonly called Dark Matter.
There were no human rules or stares there, and I wouldn’t have to worry about rumors or pursuit.
The problem was that I hated monsters just as much as I hated humans. I wouldn’t be happy in Dark Matter either.
If I was going to hate it and want to die wherever I was, maybe I’d be better off just dying. I had a truly creative thought.
Inside Dark Matter, I could end my human life by killing monsters, so magical girls like Seol-hwa wouldn’t have to suffer as much. That wouldn’t be so bad.
That’s how I went to Dark Matter.
The problem was that I’d been on the verge of death within thirty minutes of arriving.
Since I’d wanted to kill at least one before I died, I fled desperately. After regrouping somewhere safe, I’d beat even a weak monster to death.
Fortunately, a suspiciously gloomy, shadowed area appeared ahead. It was perfect for hiding myself.
I threw myself into it and looked backward to watch the movements of the monster that had been chasing me.
“Uuuu... Mom... Mom...”
Thankfully, the bastard glanced around, apparently not knowing where I’d gone, and soon retreated.
“I hate this... I’m scared... Why has this happened to me...”
“Whew, is it gone.”
“Mom... Mom...”
I slumped down onto the ground in relief. And soon I became aware of someone who’d been here before me.
“Muh-muh... Kyaaaaaa!!”
“Aaaaagh! What the hell!”
A small girl, curled up and crying her eyes out, tears and snot streaming down her face.
My first meeting with Virgo, with Red Spica.
**
So it was true.
What Virgo had been spouting earlier was the truth.
“Ah shit...”
I raised my body the instant I awoke.
My head spun and ached from the resurfaced memories, my sleepy throat hurt too, and my broken fingers hurt. In fact, my whole body hurt.
“Oh my, did you sleep well?”
“Yeah, I slept fucking great, thanks to you.”
“Good! No need to thank me. Sleeping like that is good for your health.”
“Why would I thank you...”
Behind Virgo, who had the sun at her back, a mountain of monster corpses was piled up.
“...You did that?”
“Huh? Yep!”
When I pointed at it, Virgo nodded nonchalantly.
I recalled the memory again.
Virgo had been my bodyguard here in Dark Matter.
“What’s so surprising about it!”
Just like now.