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The Magical Girls have all gotten their circuits back. Naturally, all the kids could transform properly now.

I even managed to convince Pang-pang.

…Wait, no, calling it a success feels way too heartless. It’s not like I really convinced her; she just said she’d help us.

The reason Pueng-pueng kidnapped Pang-pang was because she thought Pang-pang would be some kind of key. Of course, we have no clue what exactly that ‘key’ means. In fact, it’s just a term I used; it’s not how the person directly expressed it.

We don’t know if Pang-pang’s bloodline is needed to maintain the company’s core, or if it’s to breach some kind of security made up of biological information. We can only presume, at the very least, that she might be of help in such a situation.

“So, how do we find the Chairman?”

This time, I boldly walked into the headquarters and asked Cherry like that.

The protesters hesitated a bit when they saw us openly entering. After all, we were being advertised as heroes fighting for Earth.

They might not even know who Pang-pang is.

With a lot of people missing, Cherry, who was sitting in what looked like a leader’s position, didn’t feel the need to stop us from entering.

“If that’s the case, I actually have a clue.”

“A clue?”

Cherry busily moved around on her desk.

This time it wasn’t just the monitor on the desk like last time; a large screen attached to the office wall lit up.

Scattered across that large monitor was—

“…Machine Language?”

Jua gasped in shock.

That’s right. On that big screen, a very small font of 0s and 1s was all over the place. Just like in some old movie series I had seen before.

Though, in that series, I think there were letters and Japanese characters mixed in; here, it was purely 0s and 1s. Fortunately, unlike that movie, it wasn’t all jumbled up; instead, it looked neatly organized as if it had been edited from a document.

“The sender is James.”

At that, we all looked at Cherry simultaneously.

“James has already returned to the company, right? No idea where he is or what he’s doing after that.”

Initially, what he said while leaving was, “I’ll take care of the remaining parts of the company.”

The Chairman had vanished, and whether the executives had fled or not, no one from the Earth had laid eyes on them. Most of those still around were practically just the staff, but they didn’t hold any significant influence over the company’s management.

Besides, we can’t just arrest all the combatants. They too were technically victims, or at least people who were close to being on that list.

So, it became clear that someone needed to step in and sort the situation out. James had once been an officer in the company, so he went to take on that role.

And since then, there had been no contact; I had no idea what James was doing or where he was.

But now, suddenly, this James contacted Cherry. And it was through a personal means of communication. Naturally, Cherry thought something serious was going on, which is why she had been caught up in translating that message for the past few days.

“But why in Machine Language?”

“To be precise, it wasn’t exactly Machine Language.”

At that, we looked back at Cherry.

“Maybe James thought there was a possibility of it being ‘discovered.’ So, that means… about the Chairman.”

“About the Chairman.”

I pondered over Cherry’s words.

James was, in a way, a zealot. Someone who wanted to flip entropy to rewrite the laws of the universe.

To recreate a ‘forever’ without the end of time or the destruction of this space, ensuring all civilizations within this universe could also be literally eternal.

Otherwise, he believed that new life should sprout again in civilizations that have perished, or in any place with organic matter.

Well, it sounds nice when you say it, but frankly, from our perspective, it’s a story we have no reason to care about.

Who in this world thinks about billions of years ahead while living their life?

Normally, you’d think a decent world is one where your life is fine for just a few decades.

Moreover, thinking of how many people would need to be sacrificed to create that concept of eternity, it’s just unavoidable to oppose it.

Because of that, I figured James’s mindset wouldn’t change. Beliefs are a nuisance for that reason; once set, they’re incredibly hard to alter.

“Are you saying James’s beliefs have changed?”

“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure.”

Cherry shook her head.

“However.”

As Cherry tapped on the keyboard, words appeared on the screen.

Honestly, it looked like nothing I could understand. At least, it didn’t seem like ‘just an ordinary letter.’

“The content specifies coordinates to some location in the galaxy, in a very complicated way—using various formulas to tie it all together. It’s not just neatly expressed in numbers or formulas; it has used our characters to tie it in once more, making it a pain to interpret.”

“In what way?”

“Well, first off, those 0s and 1s aren’t actually Machine Language; they were Morse code. They were disguised to look like mere noise at a glance.”

Cherry explained that 0s represented dots and 1s represented dashes.

And the actual content was Korean, but not just any Korean; it was Old Korean, converted into English sounds, and then mixed with anagrams by separating consonants and vowels. In reality, it was a really complicated formula, so it would easily look like ‘noise’ to anyone else.

“You interpreted it well.”

I could only say that upon hearing how she unraveled the message even though I hadn’t heard how she figured it out. Out of all of us, Jua, who’s best at that sort of thing, had an exasperated look on her face.

“Well, I had to figure out how to interpret it.”

Cherry said.

“This was a code that James and I had prepared just in case.”

“……”

For a moment, we stared resolutely at Cherry.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

Cherry narrowed her eyes at us, and we exchanged glances before I spoke up as the representative.

“Uh, I was just wondering if you two were on good terms more than I thought.”

I guess everyone had that thought in mind. From a distance, Cherry and James had looked pretty bad together.

As we looked around, everyone was nodding. Particularly, Ha-yoon’s eyes were shining strangely.

…For some reason, I recall wondering if they might have a romantic relationship. Back then, I was in a sensitive mood, but looking back, it feels a bit racist instead.

I can understand why Ha-yoon made a startled expression.

“…You know? James is technically a woman like me.”

“……”

But that thought of mine was sent flying away by Cherry’s bombshell declaration.

“…What?”

I completely forgot about the crucial talk we were having about Machine Language and coordinates and unconsciously repeated the question.

“James is a woman. Well… if she’s not a Squeaky Adult, you wouldn’t really be able to tell for sure, so I can understand that reaction.”

“No, no, wait a minute.”

I pressed my fingers against my forehead.

The voice of the James I know is a baritone middle-aged man. Someone who wouldn’t sound out of place as a voice actor—then again, that’s not James’s actual voice; it’s just the sound from a translation device stuck in his throat unless he deliberately chose a bad voice.

“Why choose that voice?”

“Um….”

Cherry pondered for a moment.

“Maybe it’s just a preference?”

“Preference.”

“Earthlings tend to have noticeable differences between males and females, although initially, when you meet without knowing anything, voices are just made to be of a ‘type.’ I chose an example of my gender while James might not have.”

I couldn’t help but get a bit dazed by how casually she said that.

That’s… well, I suppose one could think that way.

Looking back, it was true that James had trouble reading my expressions. Even when I was visibly frowning in front of him, he just said whatever he wanted.

“Or he might have wanted to ‘disguise’ himself. Seems like it worked on you, huh?”

Cherry said with a little intrigue.

Not that, but…

I feel like I’ve been slightly betrayed. While it’s not like James has the reason to betray me, still.

“…Well, whatever.”

I sighed as I replied.

Yeah, such things don’t really matter. What’s important right now is whether we can find the former chairman or not.

“So? What’s the content of the message James sent?”

“Right. I calculated it….”

Cherry started typing again on the keyboard.

“It’s a place not too far from here.”

“Not too far? How far is that?”

“Jupiter.”

“Jupiter.”

I repeated Cherry’s words once more.

Not exactly ‘not too far’ is it?

What’s that; isn’t it said that it takes years for crewing spaceships to get to Mars?

Well, maybe in the standards of astronauts, it might feel like just around the corner. Those who found the Voyager flew much further away than that.

“So you’re saying we all have to go… near Jupiter?”

“Um… yeah, that seems likely.”

“……”

Well, yeah.

If it’s a Magical Girl series or a special effects show, aliens might have a base right near another planet outside of Earth.

…I guess there could be? I honestly have no clue; I never watched that intently.

*

There are a few ways to get from Earth to Jupiter.

First. Convince any country that has secured some level of aerospace technology to get a manned rocket that can carry people. We get on that, and launch it toward Jupiter.

It would take a long time to design and build such a rocket. Naturally, we can’t use the same technology used to just launch Voyager; we need a rocket capable of supporting human life.

It’s probably not impossible with the current technologies on Earth, but it would be too costly for just one country to handle. Just like when they built the International Space Station, every nation would have to come together and contribute their efforts.

It’s quite romantic. The only spaceship created by all of humanity coming together to stop entities seeking to consume lifeforms across the universe.

But we don’t have the time for that, nor the political strength.

Second. Just ask for help from the Galactic Federation.

The issue with this method is that the Galactic Federation is currently in extreme chaos.

We don’t know if there are any factions siding with the Chairman. We do know that there are entities that would want to use Earth’s residents as fuel.

Some civilizations that show little interest in the underdeveloped civilizations on the outer edge of the galaxy, and there might even be those who want to cut ties with Earth altogether.

In such a situation, would anyone be willing to lend us a spaceship when we hold a ‘generator’?

So, we decided once again to take a third option.

“Hey. About that spaceship. It’s actually in better shape than we thought.”

Rose said with a confident look on her face as she showed us the screen of her smartphone.

It’s the spaceship we invaded and caused a ruckus in before.

From the outside, it looked like a spaceship that roughly matched the Galactic Federation’s standards, but the contents were quite different.

“…Wasn’t that taken by the Federation?”

“That’s the thing; it seems there’s a dispute between the Federation and the national government.”

Rose explained.

“A dispute?”

“It was built on this country’s land, and those who built it, the Noir Corporation, were apparently set to be taken over by the country, so they claimed it belongs to the nation. On the other hand, the Federation argues it’s a product of international crime, so they need to investigate it themselves. So it’s basically immovable from there.”

“……”

“Why? Did you get a little knowledge because your parents work in that field?”

I never knew Rose’s parents worked in aerospace.

“But we don’t have fuel.”

I said.

“Didn’t they take all the aliens inside? You said they were undergoing treatment.”

“That’s right. The government is treating them on some level. They’re also checking their identities, just in case they were any abducted people.”

Cherry responded.

“…Not fuel…but.”

Ha-yoon opened her mouth.

“If that vessel has someone with the energy to move it, well…”

Then she looked straight at me.

“……”

I stared at Ha-yoon for a moment with a stern expression.

“Me?”

“Yeah. You have a generator after all.”

Well, that’s true.

“……”

No, it’s really just me available.

Is it just me, or does Ha-yoon’s gaze feel a little intense?

Following her gaze, I see Ji-hye also shifting her gaze, and Jua is blushing a bit.

“Now that’s a good idea!”

Cherry clapped her hands and said.

“With a generator, we can convert it into energy! It should be able to move even without the Despair Circuit!”

She said that like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but that energy…

Hmm.

I think I’ve seen something about polar bears before; it seems like it could make sense in this world too.

…Is it against eco-friendly energy?

Anyway.

 

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