Although we didn’t get along in many ways, James has been quite helpful to me for the time being.
First of all, our top priorities were the same.
After all, we were gathered as much as possible and had no time to take sides or anything.
In fact, I was beginning to think that being here was getting dangerous.
The longer we stayed in one place, the higher the chance our location would be exposed.
At that time, we could just destroy everything and run away, but repeating that continuously was also a hassle.
“If we have to choose from the few available options, I think there’s only ‘going on the offensive.'”
James suggested that.
“Anyway, if either side doesn’t like us, it’s better to pull the priority of negotiation towards our side. And such priority is determined by ‘power.'”
“I understand what you’re trying to say.”
I crossed my arms and looked down at James with a frown.
“Can the two of us handle it?”
“I have thought about it several times while encountering the magical girls.”
James said that and pressed a device in front of him with his hand.
To my unpleasant surprise, it looked like an “eyeball.”
No, it wasn’t just that it looked like one; it really was an eyeball.
It was probably attached to James’s robot head.
When I saw it at that time, one side was completely broken and unusable, but this side seemed intact.
By separating it like this and disassembling the back, it still looked like a machine, so it wasn’t very creepy.
When James pressed the button, something like a projector screen appeared on the wall of the studio apartment.
What appeared on the screen was something similar to a video.
I call it “similar to a video” because it didn’t seem to be shot through a real camera.
If I had to be specific, it looked like an ultrasound image.
It was an awkward video form, like a 3D fetal ultrasound I saw on the internet before—no colors, just polygons.
Still, since the surfaces of each model were neatly refined, I could recognize who was who.
After seeing this, I think I understand why James was trying to stick with me somehow.
He probably wanted to analyze the situation this way.
And a situation cannot be perfectly understood just by post-analysis.
“If the circuit’s energy is sufficient, this is possible. It remembers the flow of energy at that time. It’s something impossible with the energy of a regular fighter.”
Perhaps that’s why only what could be presumed as ‘energy’ was visible in the video.
The magical girls and me.
A faintly visible monster.
And the black hole I had summoned.
“This is when you infiltrated the company.”
A video of Hayon holding a man and then falling down when she saw me, unable to do anything.
The man wasn’t visible, but I could infer from his movements.
“This is from when we fought near Chungmuro Station.”
When James pressed the button again, a video appeared of the time when I rushed at the monster to protect Hayon.
Immediately after, the pink light that appeared from Hayon’s ‘staff’ was clearly visible.
I wonder if James only colored that part?
“After watching these two videos, don’t you think of something?”
“…That I’m having some kind of influence on Hayoon?”
“Yes.”
James said this while sitting on the floor with his hips down and his arms crossed.
“It seems that Blossom isn’t just a friendly entity. It appears I may have underestimated them a bit.”
It’s some unpleasant evaluation.
I knew and felt that Hayoon was close to them, but I didn’t want James to evaluate that.
“She is clearly being influenced by them. And that influence is emotional. Considering the circuit on her wrist, she is reflecting ‘hope’ to you.”
I stared directly at James.
“Isn’t it interesting? That Blossom is both losing and gaining hope by looking at you. I thought that magical girls of that caliber would seek hope in something like ‘justice.'”
Actually, I felt the same way.
I thought that Hayoon would have hope in creating something more just or a beautiful world.
Because, in the webtoon, that’s how it was.
The webtoon basically twisted the clichés of magical girl stories, but it didn’t mean the protagonist wasn’t virtuous.
All the magical girls had their own realistic concerns, and most of them thought of their own interests first rather than justice, but Hayoon was different.
Hope.
Hayoon was hope itself in the comic.
Even if she couldn’t be a perfectly just person, she believed that fighting for what she believed in would gradually bring her closer to that hope.
Of course, in the original work, she didn’t think that the fighters she was beating up would be ordinary citizens.
The very aspect of magical girls being aware of that wasn’t shown.
Scenes where combatants engage in various conversations typically appear in comedic cuts that are somewhat separate from the main story.
These settings began as comedic scenes where combatants commit various misdeeds while chatting about things like
“How old is whose child?” or
“Who’s getting married next month?” before being abruptly swept away by a magical girl’s attack.
Despite this, they always recover and reappear in subsequent battles, continuing their trivial talk, maintaining a comedic tone.
As the official serialization progressed, these settings became excessively highlighted, leading to the meme that magical girls are the villains.
Whether the author was aware of this or not, the story began to flow too seriously, resulting in the gradual disappearance of the initial “ironic laughter.”
“So, we’ve decided to change our thinking a bit. Please focus on Blossom.”
“You mean focus on Hayoon?”
“Literally. Each time a battle breaks out, we’ll treat her well.”
James looked up at me and said,
“If we do it well, we can induce a split among the magical girls, right?”
I frowned and remained silent, but James continued talking as if he hadn’t seen my expression.
“If we’re really lucky, all the magical girls can turn their backs on the Galaxy Federation. That’s how central Blossom is among them.”
Not only is Blossom simply friendly with all the magical girls, but Blossom’s “energy” also affects the circuits of the other magical girls.
When James pressed the button again, the screen changed as if it were taken by a thermal imaging camera.
“We measured the amount and range of energy in the circuits.”
My circuits were a deep blue, as if they had dropped below zero.
Actually, it was a color close to black.
That was swirling around the black hole I created and also swirling around where I was standing.
Energy from hope, conversely, seemed to correspond to “high temperature” in the thermal camera.
The central part in red was shining so brightly it was almost white.
Hayoon, that is, Blossom was almost white, and the energies of the surrounding magical girls were faintly connected to each other as if absorbing it.
Literally, Hayoon was the “center,” both in position and in energy.
“If we know about the center of this energy, we can make all the magical girls defect, right?”
“So? What do we do by making them defect?”
“What’s the big deal?”
James said with his teeth bared.
“Let’s just make everything a mess. If we just stay idle, it’ll only become a disaster on our side, right? If we show that when someone messes with us, we won’t remain idle, then on their side, they won’t be able to treat us recklessly either. If possible, having a close cooperative relationship with the magical girls… wouldn’t be bad.”
“You’re saying that so easily.”
“Easy or not, is there any other way? Given that my plans and their thoughts are all skewed, no other methods come to mind.”
Admittedly, that was a frustratingly true statement.
But I didn’t want to just accept it, so I chose to keep my mouth shut.
James slightly raised both hands as if he expected that, then turned his body to the other side.
It was the place where James’s human-shaped body had been.
Now, that body was almost only a quarter left.
The remaining part was the “skeleton” part.
Among the remaining parts, there was something that seemed to have been made by scraping together parts with advanced technology—a drone of the perfect size for a hamster to ride.
It’s like a cockpit, and even if there was something similar inside the robot, I don’t know how he made the rest of the drone.
Moreover, when you think of a drone, it usually has propellers, but this one doesn’t seem to have any.
“It’s flying by magic power. It’s similar in principle to the hammer you use as a weapon. …But that ‘principle’ was seriously distorted by your crude methods.”
He really seems like someone I can’t say a word to unless he follows my lead.
“If I have this, I can follow you while somewhat defying aerodynamics. Thanks to my ancestors from thousands of years ago, I can miraculously hang on your shoulder well, but honestly, I felt a bit of a threat to my life from the last battle.”
“That’s true.”
I couldn’t help but nod at that statement.
Probably, the reason James is following me is simply because I’m very suspicious.
Although there is also the aspect of analyzing battles to create more advantageous situations, the main reason is likely because when he’s separated from me and left alone, there’s a high chance he’d be in serious danger.
Mr. Jjikjjik is smart, but his body is extremely weak.
“You don’t need to worry about me flying around. I’ve included all the functions I can. If I can only receive your magic power around you, I’ll automatically dodge things like bullets. If there’s enough energy, I can even do more than that.”
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