Chapter 38: Living Under The Same Roof (7) Part-2

My whole body was soaked, and I could feel my body temperature dropping.

It wasn’t dangerous yet, but—

“James?”

I carefully called out to him, who had been completely silent since I grabbed him.

James was hanging limply in my hand, eyes open.

Did he die?

No way… Did I squeeze him too hard—?

“Cough!”

But before I could panic, James coughed up water and took a huge gulp of air.

“I nearly died!”

As soon as he opened his eyes, he started complaining at me.

“So, what do we do next?”

Just as James often ignored my questions, I ignored his complaints and asked my own.

He gritted his teeth.

“We’re in the middle now. Don’t worry about electromagnetic waves. I already cut everything that needed cutting down there.”

I glanced down, but at the sound of gunfire, I quickly pulled my head back.

Right, so as long as I was sticking out, they had no problem shooting at me?

The soldiers gathered below were starting to scatter.

The antenna was about ten stories high, so maybe they were trying to find a place where they could be at eye level with me.

I moved quickly.

As James said, in the exact center of the tuning fork-shaped antenna, there was a round hatch.

“I just have to break this, right?”

“…No, let’s not do that.”

“What?”

What was he saying now?

I stared at James in disbelief.

His face was twisted with hesitation.

No matter how much a hamster scrunches up its face, how fierce can it really look? It was like a small dog baring its teeth and showing its gums.

No, even that seemed more intimidating.

After all, it was just a hamster.

It might be able to bite and draw blood, but there was no way it could tear out my throat.

And more than anything, that expression wasn’t one of hostility toward me.

The way James bared his teeth was similar to when he had shouted at me to transform earlier, but there was one crucial difference—

The corners of his mouth were slightly upturned.

“The thing inside here—let’s take it with us. I believe you’re more than capable of handling it.”

As James looked up at me and spoke—

His expression almost looked like a smile.

Bang!

Even if they couldn’t absorb Hayoon’s energy, that didn’t mean magical girls would lose to the soldiers.

At the very least, they had the strength to break down a door.

Of course, they weren’t strong enough to punch holes through walls.

In fact, they had already tried.

But the walls here weren’t just weak partitions or simple drywall.

They weren’t even standard reinforced concrete.

Inside, the steel reinforcement was so dense it was practically impenetrable.

Cutting through all of that would require much more magic power.

On a normal day, it might have been possible—

No one blamed Blossom.

The team wasn’t exactly known for being in perfect sync, but every member had a friendly relationship with Blossom.

That was why she felt even more guilt.

Thud!

The reason Blossom’s attacks were weak wasn’t just because her circuits weren’t running properly.

She couldn’t bring herself to strike as hard as usual.

Because every time she hit, the feeling of it reminded her of Jieun’s face.

It wasn’t as if she had never seen the back of Jieun’s helmet before.

Every time they captured her, they had made sure to heal her properly before letting her go.

So she had thought it was fine.

But Jieun—

She had to stay hidden.

Even while working for the orphanage, she couldn’t afford to be discovered by Hayoon.

She must have escaped countless times just to ease Hayoon’s guilt, even if only a little.

Dragging along her injured body.

“Ugh!?”

Hayoon grabbed the soldier’s arm, twisted it back, and infused her magic into the circuit.

Since their energy sources were different, she couldn’t completely disable it.

But at the very least, she could physically sever the connection between the suit and the circuit.

If only she had done this from the start.

If only she hadn’t thought of her opponent as just an enemy.

Then Hayoon wouldn’t have beaten Jieun to near death.

Jieun hadn’t even had a choice.

The publicly available records showed that she had been a soldier for three years already.

Meanwhile, Hayoon had only been a magical girl for two.

In reality, Jieun had probably been the one caught off guard by their encounters.

And so, Hayoon ran with all her strength.

One by one, she incapacitated the soldiers.

She sliced through guns, destroyed as much equipment as possible.

Some of them still got up and tried to hold her back, but without the power from their circuits, they were just ordinary people.

No matter how well-trained their bodies were, they couldn’t resist the power of a magical girl.

Navigating through the maze-like paths, she finally found the right way and smashed through the last door.

“This place…?”

A space so vast it was overwhelming spread out before them.

The first thing Hayoon saw was something sharp and pointed, like the tip of a spear.

Two of them, standing side by side.

Below, chaos erupted.

“Move! Faster! This is urgent!”

Shouts echoed from below.

And from a vantage point overlooking that space, someone was aiming a gun downward.

Hayoon instinctively knew who their target was.

“Blossom!”

Why did she rush forward?

Even if Jieun was shot, she wouldn’t die or suffer serious injuries.

…Ah.

That’s right.

She wouldn’t die.

She wouldn’t even get seriously hurt.

At most, she could be injured, but not to a life-threatening extent.

But—

It would hurt.

A lot.

Hayoon was certain Jieun was down there.

Not just because she had appeared here and disappeared into a black hole, but because—

Something was definitely happening inside.

That was why the soldiers who had been fighting on the rooftop suddenly turned around and rushed inside.

This place was critical.

Jieun had come here, so they had to stop her.

They had come to retrieve the most crucial part of the device that allowed them to track magical girls.

But at that moment, Hayoon was acting purely on instinct.

She saw Jieun’s body being struck by a hail of bullets.

At first, Jieun held her ground.

But then, as live rounds hit, she staggered and screamed.

Hayoon grabbed the shoulder of the one aiming the gun.

The person turned to look at her, their face hidden behind a helmet, but their hesitation was clear in their movements.

Around them, the other soldiers turned their guns toward Hayoon.

But none of them fired recklessly.

While magical girls could withstand bullets, they weren’t certain whether the soldiers themselves could.

Still, they couldn’t afford to let their guard down.

The soldier gripped their gun tightly with both hands.

“Give it to me…!”

Hayoon yanked at the gun.

She didn’t even understand why she was doing this.

Taking away one person’s gun wouldn’t change everything.

Maybe she just wanted to prove something.

That the reason she had beaten Jieun so severely was simply because she hadn’t known it was her.

That even now, she had no intention of attacking Jieun.

Even in this situation.

Even when she didn’t fully understand why Jieun was here.

As Hayoon called out to Blossom, the other magical girls rushed forward.

Chaos erupted instantly.

There were soldiers near Blossom, but they couldn’t aim at her because of the melee.

However, they could still fire at the approaching magical girls.

The gunfire was deafening.

More soldiers turned their attention toward them.

Blossom finally succeeded in wrenching the gun away.

But the soldier had been holding on with all their strength as well.

It was an accident.

Under normal circumstances, the soldier wouldn’t have fallen over the railing.

But amidst the brawl, once gunfire started, bullets ricocheted everywhere.

The walls were designed to break on impact, but that didn’t mean there was no smoke or flying debris.

Some soldiers were wrestling with the magical girls, engaging in close combat.

And the soldier who had been overexerting themselves, channeling all their strength into their circuits, lost control.

Was that why?

As soon as the soldier’s back hit the railing, they tumbled over.

Hayoon didn’t just stand there.

She immediately threw the gun aside and lunged toward the falling soldier.

Somehow, she managed to grab them, leaving them both dangling in midair.

“…Ah.”

She locked eyes with Jieun.

Jieun stood there, gripping some sort of complex mechanical device, staring at Hayoon in shock.

Her eyes—wider than usual.