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I barely managed to get my body in order and crawled into the tent, and Pang-pang came in to lie down beside me.

Once I got into the sleeping bag, things felt a little better. The floor was still hard, but at least I had laid down an air mattress, and the sleeping bag itself provided some thickness.

James was still fiddling with the generator. So, it was just the two of us in the tent.

It was still a bit cramped in the tent. But maybe because we had been cooped up inside for so long, I had honestly started to get somewhat used to it.

Not to say I had fully adjusted, though.

“Should we run away?”

While I was shutting my eyes for a moment in the sleeping bag, Pang-pang suddenly asked that.

“We’re already running away.”

As I corrected that thought, I heard a bit of rustling, which was probably Pang-pang shaking her head.

“No, I mean, like, far away. Out of Earth.”

“Out of Earth?”

Was she talking about that camping story I mentioned earlier?

I chuckled slightly, a bit incredulous.

“How do you plan to run away?”

“That thing over there, the generator. If it can produce energy, can’t we make a spaceship?”

Her absurd idea surprised me a little.

Yeah, running away to space. That makes sense. Space is vast.

In this country, you have a resident registration number, and they even take fingerprints when you get an ID card.

Even in neighboring Japan, don’t they say people just disappear? So, it means it’s possible to run away far away without a trace. If it were a country like the U.S. that occupies half a continent, then disappearing into some corner would really mean no one would know.

Of course, as a criminal, that’s a far-fetched story, but that’s the gist of it.

Moreover, if within just one country it’s like that, how would it be out in space, like on a galactic level? If I could run far away, wouldn’t nobody notice?

I wonder if there are refugees in space, like on a ship.

“… No.”

But ultimately, the conclusion is still similar.

I might not know about the government here, but I’ve already drawn a lot of aggro from the Galactic Federation and Noir Corporation. In that situation, even if I run away, I’d be a fugitive for life.

I’d probably have to give up on living a laid-back life wandering around space.

… Not to mention whether we could even build a spaceship in the first place.

And above all,

“… Making energy isn’t an easy thing.”

Right.

This energy is born from despair. It’s a powerful force, but that’s about it.

I can’t just keep wallowing in despair while trying to run. If I manage to survive this conflict, I want to live a little more leisurely.

“Is that so….”

Pang-pang replied.

“Do you want to run away for life?”

I suddenly asked because I had that thought.

Pang-pang got swept up into a situation that has nothing to do with her and ended up here.

In that situation, I would think she wouldn’t want to live a life on the run forever.

“… Hmm, I don’t know.”

Pang-pang paused to think before speaking.

“I’ve done something like running away before.”

“I see.”

That makes sense.

She came all the way to Earth. What kind of parent would want their child to live like that?

… But, does Pang-pang even have parents? That’s the important part. Now that I think about it, she hasn’t talked much about her family.

And that’s the same for me. I haven’t talked about my family either. In this world, the only being I could call family… if I had to specify, there’s just about one.

Not talking about family means there’s a reason for it.

Let’s not dig too deep, I thought.

*

In the morning, I found James passed out in the backpack.

He must have been fiddling with the machine all night.

When I stepped outside the tent, there were wires scattered around the generator, and at the end of one of them was something that looked like a radio. The reason I identified it as a radio was that it had an antenna attached.

Since I had no reason to talk to anyone, it was obvious that it was picking up one-way signals.

When I turned the device on and fiddled with the frequency—

[… Please summarize what happened in yesterday’s terror incident…]

That’s what came out.

An announcer and an expert were analyzing the incident from yesterday.

It was a story about the black magical girl who hit the Noir Corporation building. They even went as far as trying to catch her, but she slipped away gracefully—

Gracefully, huh.

I couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief.

It was anything but ‘graceful’. I knocked around a lot. I ended up thrown to the ground while trying to protect the falling magical girl.

Thanks to the circuit’s power, I didn’t have any major wounds, but you can’t say it didn’t hurt at all.

Well, I guess it could appear like that from someone else’s perspective.

“….”

I switched frequencies and found a station broadcasting some lighthearted content. I’m not really one to listen to the radio, but sometimes there are hilarious stories read humorously on internet video sites that I wished such things existed.

While I was doing that, I heard some rustling behind me.

Pang-pang was preparing something outside the tent.

She took out a plate and opened a can, trying her best to present whatever was inside on the plate. Honestly, it didn’t look ‘appealing’ at all. No matter what she did.

But somehow, I understood why Pang-pang was doing this.

No matter the situation, she probably wanted to maintain a sense of normalcy in life. Maybe because of that mindset, she hadn’t cracked under the pressure to make it this far.

When Pang-pang dished up the food and handed it to me, I finally managed to find a frequency.

Even in this situation, there was a program reading absurdly funny stories.

To be honest, I couldn’t believe some of those stories. But hey, there are all kinds of people in the world.

Besides, what does it matter if it’s not true?

What’s important is that we could laugh together, even if just for a moment during breakfast.

Thanks to that, I could momentarily forget that we were running low on supplies.

*

“This is the same this time.”

I told Pang-pang before leaving.

“If I don’t come back, you must run away. Go to the nearest town.”

“Okay.”

Pang-pang nodded at my words, but I somehow felt like she wouldn’t easily run away.

I hoped that wouldn’t be the case—but yeah, Pang-pang is Pang-pang after all.

“… Can I trust you?”

As I asked that, I couldn’t really determine what I was actually trusting her with.

Do I trust that if I don’t come back she’ll run away?

Or do I trust that she would run for my sake?

I hoped it was the latter. After all, the former just feels too embarrassing.

Pang-pang nodded again.

As if she wanted to instill some faith in me.

So, without picking a side, I just decided to trust.

Yeah. At least, I can trust that Pang-pang wouldn’t betray me.

Right?

*

And so, I repeated that a few more times.

I fend off the aliens and return.

I go and show off my powers to people.

James used the generator to create my weapon, and that weapon was definitely not weak.

I returned as if I could crush the entire world all by myself.

When I got back, I flopped down and slept for hours.

When I woke up, Pang-pang was by my side.

And as I looked at her, I realized that I was, in fact, leaning towards the latter belief.

No matter where I went, I had a feeling that Pang-pang would always be there waiting for me.

“… Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you trying to stick by my side like that?”

“….”

One day, after finally waking up from sleep, I couldn’t hold back and asked.

Pang-pang paused for a moment at my question. Was she pondering how to answer?

“… Is it wrong?”

Pang-pang cautiously asked.

As if fearing my answer, she looked down and cautiously peeked at me.

I had never seen Pang-pang make that expression before.

She was always such a joyful kid. The fact that I called her “Earth Buddy” because she seemed so thrilled to be on Earth, just like an otaku who moved next to Akihabara, eating, drinking, and being thrilled to indulge in her passions.

Oh, right, that’s true.

Now she can’t even indulge in that ‘passion’. All the stuff she collected was left behind when she fled with me.

But still, that made me more curious, and it was hard to bear.

“….”

But seeing that look on Pang-pang’s face, I couldn’t pry any further.

I can’t say it doesn’t matter. Because, to begin with, Pang-pang following me here wasn’t supposed to happen at all.

It felt like if we talked too much here, it would spiral into a breakdown.

No matter how close you are, when you’re in a difficult situation alone together, you have to be extremely cautious. You never know which word might ignite a trigger in the other person.

“… It’s okay.”

Eventually, I said that.

“… It’s okay.”

Feeling a sense of frustration, as if the opportunity to get closer had disappeared.

 

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