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No one among us knows how to find the former chairman.

In the first place, we have never even seen this “former chairman.” We only encountered that red-faced guy once, and he just came to trade something with us before leaving.

I had a fleeting thought that there might be some hint in the device at the orphanage, but I quickly pushed that thought away.

After all, would someone who goes to such lengths to conceal their identity really leave a clue in the device? That line of reasoning was instantly dismantled.

Isn’t this the equipment that was briefly incapacitated during the fight with Pang-pang? If we were to consider the possibility of a hacking threat, I was convinced that such information would definitely not have been left in there.

“Still, you know one person.”

Cherry cautiously opened her mouth.

I had a feeling I knew who she was talking about.

“Pang-pang.”

Cherry nodded at my words.

“Pang-pang is the granddaughter of the former chairman of Noir Corporation, right?”

“I don’t think that girl would know anything about that.”

I couldn’t help but react a bit sharply.

It couldn’t be helped.

The fact that Pang-pang was the granddaughter of the chairman of Noir Corporation wasn’t particularly important information to me. What I remembered more was just that she had reached out to help me nonchalantly at my most dangerous moment.

I really didn’t want to get caught up in some weird… unusual ‘power struggle’ or anything like that.

“Think about it.”

But Cherry seemed to be trying to persuade me.

“If you don’t protect her, she might be in danger. The things Noir Corporation has done are inhumane acts, but they are clearly a legacy as well.”

“……”

Legacy.

People… reconfigured, produced, forced to turn circuits. And those people were used as if they were turbines to generate energy.

One of the chairmen wanted to sell such earthlings as if they were some sort of spaceship fuel rods, and another seemed to think that human research was an essential regime to advance to the ‘next stage’.

If that’s what a legacy is—

…Yeah, it wouldn’t be completely wrong. It’s a story that could completely change the concept of energy in this universe in any direction.

Therefore, it could be said that Pang-pang was in danger.

Whether the Federation made contact, the government made contact, or someone else from Noir Corporation made contact, Pang-pang would end up in a position of being ‘used.’

Though our contact wouldn’t change much either.

“Ji-eun.”

Cherry looked up at Ji-eun and said.

“……Okay.”

In the end, I nodded at Cherry’s words.

I thought everything was over.

Yet, still, still, nothing was over. The days of happily living a normal life were still far off.

A single drop of water falling on a lake continued to stir the ripples without fading, still trying to create the next wave.

*

“Me, from Noir Corporation?”

The next day.

When I visited Pang-pang and brought up the conversation I had with Cherry the previous day, Pang-pang reacted as if she was taken aback.

“I’m not suggesting we use you.”

Seeing Pang-pang’s expression already showing some resistance, I felt a pang of guilt.

It was the first time I had seen such an expression from her while listening to my story. It was clear that she didn’t want to be associated with her grandmother.

“I’m planning to completely disband that company.”

“Will that solve everything?”

To be honest, I didn’t know. I had no idea how far that legacy had spread. I had no clue how far this guy named Pang-pang had gotten his hands into things or to whom he had passed along information.

Pang-pang’s head had completely scrambled. I would like to say it was poetic justice, but in this situation, that’s rather unhelpful.

A five-year-old turned into a little kid, and there was hardly a chance of having a proper conversation, let alone that her memories might not even be intact.

“You’re the only one.”

That was all I could say.

“And this is the only way.”

At the very least, I had to firmly engrain in my mind that touching humanity wasn’t an easy thing to do.

The complete dissolution of Noir Corporation. A firm prohibition of access to that ‘legacy.’

…How far I can go, I don’t know, but I thought I would try as far as I could.

*

In the end, just three days after we said, “Let’s return to where we belong,” we found ourselves gathered back at the orphanage.

Strangely, the kids seemed to enjoy the fact, though I personally was not particularly thrilled about having more things to think about.

It would have been fine if we were just getting together as friends.

Every time we gathered, something was bound to happen, or else we’d only meet on the brink of something happening—one or the other.

After stepping out of that cramped room, wanting to wash away the stuffiness a bit, I sat on a swing in the playground of the orphanage.

The children cheered for the return of the magical girl.

“I think I might just live here.”

Rose had said that to me sincerely, as if truly fond of the little kids.

When I stood quietly, with a face that seemed to have chewed on something, I did close my mouth.

Was I still unable to adapt to the position of being a magical girl?

Or had their way of thinking become a bit twisted from being magical girls for so long? It was hard to tell.

Ha-yoon and Ji-hye were happily bickering, and I found their demeanor a bit more pleasing.

I was tired of the constant self-sacrifice as if it were just a given. Even though I was the one who caused all this mess, I still find it hard to look at Ha-yoon trying to fight as a magical girl on her own.

I wished things could just be resolved, I could fly through the sky on a date, and maybe… well, it would just be nice if I could live like that.

“Can I sit next to you for a bit?”

While I was absentmindedly looking up at the sky, someone approached and spoke.

The voice was familiar. It felt like I hadn’t heard it in ages.

“Sure.”

As I nodded, Pang-pang sat down on the empty swing.

I only felt sorry for Pang-pang. I’ve practically given her a hard time with my openly judgmental gaze and continuously made her feel burdened until now.

I had saved her, but… and technically, it wasn’t because Pang-pang had saved me that the incident occurred, but still, thinking back on that memory left an unpleasant feeling.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind.”

Pang-pang said while handing me something.

What was in her hand was a can of coffee. The kind with a good amount of caffeine in it, which was what she often chose when she wanted to drink something to relax.

I accepted it with a look of disbelief.

Click.

As both of us popped the can open at the same time, a cold sound came from within.

I swallowed a sip like it was coffee, while Pang-pang gulped down the contents of her can like she was drinking beer.

“Ah.”

Pang-pang exhaled. Truly, she looked like a model from a beer commercial.

“I really missed this taste.”

“Coffee taste?”

“Well, yeah, but just coffee can be bought anytime. After all, there’s no age restriction on buying coffee in this country.”

“…Did you put something in it?”

“No… this was a fresh can.”

When I looked at her suspiciously, Pang-pang shrugged her shoulders with an innocent look.

“What I mean is, I missed drinking coffee with a friend like this.”

Now it was my turn to shrug my shoulders.

“I’m not drunk at all.”

“Doesn’t it feel reassuring to have someone who can handle caffeine sitting next to you?”

What’s that? It sounds like a friend who gets tipsy off alcohol always leans on you when drinking, right?

…Well, in this case, I was definitely the one relying on her much more.

“When you reach the drinking age, we’ll really drink together. You can drink alcohol and I’ll stick to coffee. How about that?”

“Sure, why not.”

Even though I know very well how much I’ve relied on her, it’s hard to speak kindly to Pang-pang.

I wonder why that is.

Am I looking down on Pang-pang somehow?

Pang-pang’s face turned a bit red. It’s a bit interesting that her skin is blue, but her cheeks appear to turn red. If it were purple, I might find it a bit scary, but then again, living things don’t always evolve just beautifully.

For a while, we sipped our coffees in silence.

“You really look good in that.”

Pang-pang blurted out.

“What looks good?”

“Ah, that white dress.”

Pang-pang looked at me with a somewhat playful expression.

“It looks like a wedding dress. You should wear it when you get married. People would probably love it! The person marrying you, of course.”

I seriously pondered whether that was sexual harassment or not. Since I was tipsy—not from alcohol, but from caffeine—it wouldn’t be too strange to say something like that.

But before I could conclude whether I was guilty or innocent, Pang-pang moved on to speak again, breaking that thought.

“I thought you were a splendid magical girl. It’s not just about your white clothing. I thought that even when you wore black.”

“……”

Pang-pang took another sip of her coffee.

“Is it okay without any side dishes?”

“This is fine. It’s not café coffee anyway.”

That reminded Pang-pang of when she used to behave like a spoiled child in a café, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.

“You said despair is the driving force, right? And then hope comes next.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

As I fidgeted with the can, Pang-pang looked at me.

“Do you know? My love for magical girls isn’t just because I like them.”

Pang-pang spoke while looking straight at me.

“I wanted to become one too. A magical girl.”

“……”

For some reason, I feel like I can relate to that feeling.

I’m a being that can never become one.

But a being I yearn for so deeply, wanting to become even a little bit like it.

Having tried several times and ultimately failing turns that feeling into a sticky jealousy.

That’s the kind of emotion I felt while watching Ha-yoon.

At least I was fortunate to be an earthling, which allowed me to become a magical girl.

But for Pang-pang, it was impossible. She wasn’t an earthling. She couldn’t turn the circuits.

The combat suit Pang-pang wore was just a simple kind with weak power assist functions, different from the one I wore as an earthling.

……Did she feel such emotions while looking at me?

While moving the circuits even a little, being able to face a magical girl, even if just for a moment.

“Earthlings are romantic beings, aren’t they? Right? Of course, there were political reasons, but they proved they could send people to the moon without magic. They built a huge telescope to see the universe and placed it in orbit, and when it broke down, they sent people to fix it. Far away—just for the sake of wanting to see it, they created navigators for voyages.”

“……”

“Even without magic, they are still transforming in strange ways to fight evil forces.”

Pang-pang looked at the sky with her reddened face.

Her eyes gazing at the stars felt like they were seeking something distant.

“I wonder what thoughts earthlings had when they looked up at those stars. While containing messages and songs to beings they might never meet—beings they might have no chance of meeting—in a golden record, what were they thinking?”

Even I had never thought about that while hearing that famous story.

“Isn’t it fascinating? I wanted to become an astronaut. Not in the magical way that people from other planets do, but in the way earthlings have done it. After hearing that, it felt like a far more ‘adventure.’ Researching orbits and navigating by using the gravity of planets to travel further. It’s magnificent, isn’t it? Even if people treated it like some kind of foolishness.”

Pang-pang looked at me.

With the atmosphere and perhaps some effect of caffeine, her face was flushed.

But her eyes were sparkling.

So pure and straightforward, looking straight at what she wanted to see.

It was a kind of gaze I had never experienced.

“So, I want to help protect it too. I don’t want to see the potential of this earth end up as nothing but ‘fuel’ or ‘energy.’ I want to keep seeing that romance of ‘doing what you can to make it happen.'”

“……”

“So, me coming along isn’t because of your prompting.”

Pang-pang said with a smile.

“Although I can’t transform—nor can I become an astronaut—hmm. If it’s helping a magical girl, and going into space with an earthling, then it’s similar to that, right?”

There may be a possibility that we cannot stick together until the very end.

And it’s still uncertain whether we will go into space or not.

However, Pang-pang’s words somehow sounded reasonable.

Perhaps, I had also gotten a bit tipsy.

I’ve never heard of earthlings getting tipsy off caffeine, but there it is.

 

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