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First, let me briefly explain what happened before we arrived at the Federation’s Magical Girl Headquarters.

There’s honestly no good reason to say nice things about the Federation, but still, at least for now, it’s an organization that commands the entire universe. No matter how powerful a nation is, it often commits incredibly ridiculous and absurd mishaps, but without knowing the full context, it’s hard to understand why such things happen.

So, just as Jua mentioned, heroes from other countries started to move.

They didn’t attack the Federation or anything, but the heroes protested in their own ways. Other nations, just like ours, don’t have an overwhelming number of heroes, but when it comes to “Generators,” those few heroes became indispensable.

Naturally, the Federation’s attention had to shift elsewhere for a while.

Though the Federation is divided in various ways, it is still one organization at its core.

The agencies of each country in the Federation aren’t tightly interconnected, but they do share the same main goals.

So, upon witnessing the heroes rampaging, it seems the Federation decided that they should “take things slow for a while.”

“…I didn’t see this coming, though.”

Ha-yoon next to me nodded her head.

“Right? It seems we were thinking about the situation too narrowly.”

In front of the Federation’s Magical Girl Headquarters, a large crowd had gathered.

Everyone was holding up placards and protesting. From where we stood, it was clear that the protest was related to Noir Corporation.

Noir Corporation is currently headless. The former chairman hasn’t returned yet. James did go back to the company, but since then, there’s been virtually no contact, so we have no idea what’s actually happening.

While people are unaware of James’ existence, the fact that there’s no chairman has already been widely reported in news outlets and articles, so everyone knows.

Therefore, protesting in front of the office building is unlikely to bear any fruit. In a way, it can be seen as a natural occurrence.

“Isn’t the security going to tighten instead? The protests seem peaceful, but…”

“We need to be cautious about this.”

Rose nodded in agreement.

We discussed the situation back and forth, but ultimately concluded that it was best to execute our original plan.

After all, a clash was inevitable in the end.

“Alright, then let’s go.”

As I said that, the other kids nodded their heads.

“Then—”

Before I could take any proper action, Ha-yoon and Ji-hye pulled my arm.

“Whoa?”

The sudden ambush left me swaying forward, and before I could react, Ha-yoon and Ji-hye pecked my cheeks making small sounds.

“…No, we don’t need to do that when using magic anymore.”

But even while I said that, a white light was slowly appearing behind my head.

With a deep sigh, I warped the kids toward the building.

Before I was engulfed by the light, I caught a glimpse of Jua, who wore a very disgruntled expression.

*

We entered through the rooftop door and boldly walked down to the lower floors, avoiding hiding anywhere.

Contrary to my expectation of heightened security, the corridor was surprisingly not crowded at all. No, it wasn’t just that there weren’t many people…

“Were there this many empty places?”

Rose tilted her head as she spoke.

“No.”

Dalia immediately shook her head in denial.

“This shouldn’t be the norm. Sure, there are still areas where people haven’t come in, but…”

The fact that the upper floors of the building were practically vacant seemed problematic in various ways.

We walked for a while longer before finally encountering someone.

“Ah.”

Not particularly impressive—a plain-looking female officer in a suit. She looked quite surprised to see us.

Before any of us could say anything, she hurriedly ran over and grabbed Ha-yoon’s hand.

“You’re back!”

Seeing her with a look as if she might burst into tears, we momentarily went blank.

What the heck?

I expected her to kick us out on sight.

Given the circumstances, I couldn’t very well say, “No, we’re just here to steal some circuits,” so we decided to silently follow her.

“After you all vanished, discussions started about what to do with this organization.”

Without us even asking, she began to ramble on with explanations.

“We could recruit new Magical Girls, or change our name and gather more people like other nations did, but it seems the higher-ups have different thoughts.”

I looked over at Ha-yoon. Receiving my gaze, she asked the question on my behalf.

“What do you mean by different thoughts from the higher-ups?”

“By prolonging the situation and forming another organization, they think it would only lead to dissolution. So they might just consider it better to withdraw altogether.”

At this, we all exchanged glances.

To be frank, I had already suspected that might happen. I felt a bit bad for the people who depended on the Federation for their livelihood, but honestly, I didn’t want to care too much about that. I had experienced a lot of troubles being involved in Federation matters.

“But… that’s too hasty.”

“Hasty?”

As I asked that without thinking, the officer seemed taken aback and shrugged her shoulders before speaking again.

“Well…”

She fell into a brief thought.

“This is probably just my overthinking, but some people think that the Federation may not treat countries that aren’t part of their federation as countries at all.”

“…”

We fell silent for a moment.

This reminded me of the conversation between James and Cherry I overheard before.

Squeaky Adults had mentioned that there were times they weren’t even treated as people.

The Federation clearly has its issues, and it doesn’t particularly like Earth, considering how it tries to impose its influence there.

But if the existence of Earth is already known throughout the universe, it would be problematic for the Federation to just abandon it in many ways.

Even if this is only a matter concerning countries outside the Federation, there’s still a history on Earth where humans didn’t treat each other as fellow humans.

I don’t expect that a more technologically advanced being would act any differently.

If anything, it might be better if Earthlings were seen as utterly useless creatures, simply biological organisms…

“So, where are you taking us now?”

Since I had the chance to ask, I went ahead and did so.

“To the highest-ranking person who remains here.”

The officer cautiously spoke, seemingly trying her best not to provoke my temper.

Hmm.

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to meeting someone in a high position all of a sudden.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s someone you all know well.”

As if reading my expression, the officer said that to me.

*

“Cherry!”

As we entered the room, Ha-yoon joyfully exclaimed and dashed over to the ‘high-ranking’ person’s spot.

And she lifted Cherry up with both hands.

James would have absolutely hated that.

“Ha-yoon!”

Cherry shouted, clearly delighted. Ha-yoon brought Cherry close to her face.

Cherry opened her arms wide to embrace Ha-yoon’s cheeks.

As I pondered whether I should feel jealous about this act, Ha-yoon soon set Cherry down.

“What on earth happened…?”

“Well… it turned out this way. Apparently, news of what happened on Earth reached the Federation, and being here has become a bad image for me. Besides, the narrative that they had no idea about such a huge incident emerged.”

While not entirely incorrect, she clearly had the sense enough not to say such things here.

“In fact, I was about to contact you soon, but somehow I ended up here. You didn’t come in through the main gate, but from the rooftop, right?”

“…”

For a moment, the kids were lost for words.

“I came back to retrieve the kids’ circuits.”

Not wanting to let the atmosphere grow unnecessarily awkward, I took a step forward and said.

“I see.”

Cherry nodded.

“But in the current situation, I can’t hand them over carelessly… Ha-yoon’s too, if I had to put it that way, they should be recovered by the Federation.”

“Is that really what you’re thinking?”

“No.”

Cherry shook her head.

“Right now, the Federation might step back and say something about it, but that’s not what’s important. Of course, I didn’t mention that to my ears, but… Ha-yoon, can you set me back on the desk for a moment?”

When Ha-yoon placed Cherry back on the desk, Cherry began to busily move around on it.

There were various monitors scattered across the desk, along with small keyboards that were perfectly sized for Squeaky Adults to operate.

As Cherry manipulated those one by one, various pieces of information appeared on the screen.

Among those were photos and videos.

In the pictures—

“…Ah.”

A sad sound slipped from Ha-yoon’s lips.

Right, those photos were mostly of Earthling monsters.

Monsters are so named because they are ‘strange transformed beings.’ This applies to Earthling monsters as well as aliens.

And usually, it is said that alien monsters can be cured if distanced from Earth.

This implies that Earthling monsters can also be treated to some extent if the cause of their transformation is removed.

While it’s uncertain how much the Earthlings can escape from the influences due to being Earthling, the photos suggested that they seemed somewhat free from the effects.

They still seemed taller than ordinary humans, but regarding appearances, they were returning to normal Earthling forms.

“This is… a relief.”

“Yeah. For sure.”

Of course, there are still many unresolved matters. All those Earthlings in the photos were beings that couldn’t be any older than ten years in age. If it was true that they had been abducted and modified… that would present a whole other set of huge problems.

“Do you understand what this means?”

Yet Cherry asked seriously, looking at me and Ha-yoon.

“What do you mean?”

“It means that the states of Earthling monsters and those who aren’t essentially the same.”

“…Isn’t it because Earthling monsters were made by observing the alien monsters’ transformation?”

Cherry shook her head.

“No, considering that, they are too similar. There hasn’t been a lack of research on monsters up to this point. What we’re encountering is an entirely different new disease. And thinking based on that research, the procedures required for a monster transformation are far too similar. And most importantly…”

As Cherry looked up at us, she said.

“It seems the cause of Earthling monsters is rather simpler. We have the ‘production facilities,’ right?”

I turned to look at the other Magical Girls.

“So, it’s not ‘different,’ then?”

“Exactly. It’s not that they created ‘monsters from other planets visiting Earth,’ but rather that they made ‘Earthling monsters’ and then created monsters from other planets based on them.”

Cherry explained.

“Earthlings do not possess magic. There are methods to generate magic, but that isn’t a power present from birth. Without circuits, one cannot create magic. However, conversely, if we only have circuits, it means creating ‘being that turns those circuits’ can be simplified.”

“So they’re not difficult to handle?”

“If we were to make beings with real magical powers into monsters, what would happen? Instead of using the circuits, if we assume they created monsters with different appearances from different planets, then harmonizing that process to come up with a single race would be a lot more complicated than merely modifying one specific race.”

“Wait, wait a minute.”

Listening to Cherry’s words, I placed my finger on my forehead and waved my hand at her.

“So what you’re trying to say is that from the start, they created Earthling monsters first, and that wasn’t the objective; rather, they had a longer-term plan? So they were conducting experiments to modify aliens, right?”

“And that experiment caused an influence, leading Earthlings from other planets to start becoming monsters. For now, that’s as far as I’ve thought it through.”

While it’s true that there were alien monsters within Noir Corporation.

And we suspected that we might have a process of ‘creating’ such monsters…

“Then why? Was it to form some kind of army? It would be better to pay a decent salary and have them put on exoskeletons to fight.”

There are plenty of ways to create a ‘powerful army,’ like making tanks or whatnot. It’s way more inefficient to think of unleashing monsters that can’t even think properly.

Earthling monsters were somewhat akin to ‘bio-batteries,’ so it wasn’t entirely unreasonable to attempt mass production…

Ah.

“What if the objective of those who made these Earthling monsters was not simply to operate a generator with Earthlings?”

Cherry questioned.

The color drained from Ha-yoon’s face.

“Currently, the only beings that can operate circuits right now are Earthlings. No one else from different planets can handle them. That’s why someone might say, ‘Let’s sell Earthlings.'”

“…”

“But what if that wasn’t the case from the start? What if those who created Earthlings were purely for backup and research purposes, also thinking about the next generation?”

If all beings from different planets could use circuits. Then everyone in this universe could operate the generators perfectly, just like Earthlings.

Of course, as long as they don’t become monsters, they wouldn’t be able to operate the circuits. After all, Earthling monsters were specifically created as beings capable of manipulating circuits that no one else could.

So if someone had that kind of thinking, it meant they were making aliens into such beings while aiming to turn the circuits madly.

Why go to such lengths?

Was it really that economical?

But such thoughts didn’t last long.

There was someone whose mindset had already gone way past that.

“…The former chairman of Noir Corporation.”

Right.

That guy had been talking about turning the circuits to overcome entropy and such.

If he were to leave only those who could run civilization like an ark and turn everyone else into beings for operating circuits, then…

I don’t know how that’s possible…

“We have to find that former chairman. As quickly as possible.”

Upon my declaration, Cherry seemed to have the same thoughts and nodded.

 

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