Like Family (6)
Like Family (6)
A vivid crimson light blazed like a comet, tracing a straight line. On the opposite side, a violet line carved its own path. Where the two lights met, a vision rose like a sunset kindling at dusk.
Sparks flickered into the haze, devouring my whole field of vision. I had no choice but to squint against the overwhelming brilliance.
A meeting between the former Red and the current Red. The past and the present crossed paths. Crimson flame and violet heat-ray began their standoff.
I scrambled outside the building. From the interior where I’d been moments before, detonations rang out as the two of them clashed.
“Hm. You’ve gotten stronger, haven’t you? A nuisance.”
“Why are you with Jae-jung?!”
“Why indeed?”
Red Vega looked considerably worn. She’d been exploring this Dark Matter all night; of course she’d spent her stamina. The situation was heavily skewed against her.
“Vega, don’t waste your magical power here right now!”
“Oh my? Whatever do you mean? You’ll hurt my feelings.”
Virgo immediately sealed my lips. The flame wreathing Red Vega’s fist shifted, coiling around my throat. Unmistakable intimidation. A clear threat that if I spoke out of turn even a little, these flames would sear my vocal cords away entirely.
“Stay quiet.”
Four Seasons, One Violet.
Her signature ability to steal a magical girl’s power was in full effect.
“What have you done to Jae-jung?!”
“What business is it of yours? Look at you trembling. How cute.”
Perhaps because her own magic had been stolen and I had been placed in danger, Red Vega seemed profoundly enraged.
“It is my business!”
A blazing crimson gathered around her legs. Red Vega launched into the sky, compressing even more magical power into her legs.
Moments later, her leg came crashing down upon Virgo, unleashing a thunderous burst of flame.
One Path. Flowing Flame-Blossom Radiance.
“Because I’m Jae-jung’s mentor!”
From the very start, she charged in without mercy, using her finishing move.
“Mentor? You?”
Virgo laughed her off lightly, cloaking her fist in the Red Vega flame she had stolen. She let the original owner feel its heat firsthand.
With a thin, sardonic smile, the two starlights converged. Through the crimson fire that traced grooves like the rifling of a barrel, a violet beam sliced across.
“What could you possibly have taught?”
BOOM!
The two starlights collided, and another powerful explosion erupted. The surrounding buildings, already fragile, crumbled in the aftermath. A cloud of dust billowed thickly.
Without a second’s delay, a violet beam swept through the dust cloud.
“What’s there to respect about bitches like you?”
Delivered with profound, deep contempt.
“Aren’t you just a bunch of useless fuckups who leech off tax money and can’t even protect people properly? Dressing up pretty and smiling for the cameras is the whole of your job. Just toys to let people who might drop dead any day now escape reality for a moment, and what? Mentor? What could you possibly teach? It’s hilarious, really.”
The words she was spitting out now were the most sincere of anything she’d said so far.
“You’re just like tissues. Pick one up, use it, toss it. Replacements, disposable goods overflowing by the dozen, junk! Please, don’t ever think you’ve become anything....”
She swept away the dust by firing beams wildly. Her instantaneous firepower was top-tier even among monsters, and with the power she had stolen from Red Vega on top of it, her strength looked inexhaustible.
Their figures emerged from the dust. Virgo seemed unruffled. In contrast, Red Vega appeared deeply fatigued. Scratches and cuts marked her all over.
“Because you’re revolting.”
The chance to win should have ended with that finishing move moments ago. Regrettably, the path to victory had now grown far more distant.
Red Vega looked at Virgo and smiled.
“All that nonsense just from a single remark about being a mentor... Did that hit a nerve, has-been senior?”
She spat roughly, clearing the sand and bloody phlegm from her mouth, then readied her stance.
“To think the former Red ended up like this... I’m truly disappointed. It’s a real pity, but you’re wrong.”
The anger from moments ago—anyone could see it was excessive relative to what had been said.
What had she gone through as a magical girl to provoke such hysterics? I felt a renewed sense of pity for Virgo’s life.
She’s always proclaiming she’s forgotten, bragging about her amnesia, but the traumatic wounds of her past, the things she should have forgotten most, she hasn’t managed to let go of a single one.
Red Vega glanced my way and grinned. Virgo’s displeased expression wasn’t in her field of view.
“Because I’m going to become someone great.”
Fire jetted from the tips of her feet. Lightly, she vaulted over Virgo, arriving before me in an instant, and pulled me close by the waist.
“And I can’t give up on the person who’s going to make me great. Thank you for your intriguing insights on magical girls.”
Red Vega held me tight and flew us into the sky.
“Personally, though, I don’t agree.”
“...Give....”
Virgo stared up at us, her eyes utterly chilling, and muttered.
“Whoa... terrifying.”
“If you think she’s scary, why provoke her?”
“If I gave up just because I was scared, I wouldn’t be a magical girl! So I should just stay quiet after hearing insults like that?”
“Yes, you should just stay quiet....”
“Huh? Why are you taking her side? This is uncomfortable. You haven’t been bewitched because that monster’s pretty, right? When you have a lovely, cute true Red right here, the thought of looking elsewhere is....”
“Give him back....”
FWOOOSH!
A beam shot straight at us.
“Whoa?!”
“Careful! You’ll get hurt doing that!”
“It’s not me, it’s you who needs to be careful, Jae-jung! An unarmed civilian, what are you....”
No sooner had Red Vega dodged than another beam flew at us.
“Give him back─!!!”
Dozens of beams embroidered the sky. Thick as a downpour, the violet beams recreated the beauty of an evening sky, though it was still morning.
That wasn’t all.
“Ngh...?! M-my body....”
“What’s wrong? Hey!”
Red Vega had meant to fly away fast, but her flight wouldn’t respond as she intended. She’d consumed far too much magical power. The output wasn’t even a quarter of what she’d anticipated.
The cause was, of course, Virgo. The magical power Virgo had stolen ate away at Red Vega far beyond what she’d imagined, and Red Vega began to steadily plummet.
“Huh...? H-huh...?”
“Vega! Above you!”
Virgo gave no quarter. In an instant, she spread her wings and flew up above Red Vega, taking aim at her head with a finger.
The barrage of beams that had looked like random, wild firing was actually meant to corral us into a fixed position in the wide-open sky.
“Jae-jung, if I die, you absolutely have to cry at my funeral?! Holding onto my memorial portrait while you confess wouldn’t be bad either!”
“Don’t say such unsettling things, you idiot!”
Without a second’s hesitation, I fastened the belt around my waist. Virgo seized my shoulder and pulled upward, while Red Vega, as if refusing to hand me over, tightened her grip on my waist with all her strength.
“Give him back!”
“I won’t let you have him!”
“Ughk... ngh....”
I, of course, felt like I was dying. Beings who had transcended human strength were pulling me from both sides. The pain of my flesh tearing lanced through my nerves.
“Ah.”
Realizing this, Red Vega let go of my waist, and I fell into Virgo’s arms.
Virgo erupted with furious screams.
“Give him back! Don’t have him! Don’t you have him either!”
At the tips of her fingers, light gathered, flashing painfully bright.
“Don’t achieve, anything!”
I quickly grabbed her arm and forced it upward. The beam meant to hammer down on Red Vega reversed course, drawing one long line across the sky. A towering beam, impressive enough to stand out even in the ever-turbulent world of monsters.
Perhaps it would serve as a flare to gather the many people searching for someone.
Just as that thought flitted through my mind, Virgo stretched out her right leg. At the tip of her heel, light began to gather once more.
“Oh, this crazy....”
“Ahahahaha! Did you think I could only do it with my fingers?”
I had no way to block that. So, I had no choice.
“I’m good with my feet, too!”
The beam that bore down squarely on Red Vega smashed into her, hammering her all the way to the ground. BOOM! Accompanied by an earsplitting roar, the earth caved in, and dust surged up violently.
“Don’t do anything. Don’t gain anything.”
Within the thick smoke, Virgo dusted off her hands and chuckled.
“The world’s going to end anyway, so why live so hard?! World destruction! World destruction!!!”
Virgo, babbling about destruction as if reciting a prayer, then noticed the empty feeling against her arms and smiled vacantly.
“...What are you doing?”
“What’s it look like. Isn’t it obvious.”
Just the opposite of before, I was now the one holding Red Vega in my arms. Crackle, fizz-pop. The sound of lightning irritated my ears.
Red Vega appeared to have taken a bit of a hit from that beam earlier and was unconscious. Her soft breathing tickled my arm, so fortunately it seemed there was no serious harm to her life.
In the end, I’d unintentionally granted her wish not to know my identity for certain.
“A rescue operation.”
“You? Why? Saving people is those brats’ job. You’re like me.”
Virgo pointed at her chest as if baffled. The central ornament of her dress, now empty, with no gem remaining.
“You should be like me, on the side that destroys. You have to be. You have to be... but.”
She’d muttered it as if wronged, and then her mood flipped back to fury, and she unleashed her characteristic hysterics even at me.
“...Why isn’t it me.”
Her words weren’t a question.
“I was the one who protected you. I’m the one who empathized with you. So why... why....”
The answer was already complete within her.
“Because I turned you into a monster?”
“No.”
Regrettably, her guess was incorrect.
“It’s because you were evil.”
“...Aha.”
Virgo smiled again.
“So, in the end, you’re saying it’s my fault?”
Regrettably, this was correct.
“Really, this is too much. Back in my day, there weren’t any monsters that kind... I’m jealous.”