97 – Like Family (8)
A bird flies in and sits on her shoulder. She sings as if she is trying to recreate an old cartoon garden, but the singing sound is so terrible that the bird runs away.
As I was laughing at the sight, Virgo collected dirt and threw it nervously, as if picking up the laughter I had carelessly shed.
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“Woo… Don’t laugh!”
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Red Spica often sensitively accepts even the smallest laughter. I quickly shut her mouth and asked what song she was trying to sing.
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“Ugh… I forgot the song title! But I still remember the lyrics and melody! Listen carefully, you understand, right? So… When the forsythia is in full bloom~”
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I can no longer listen to the song, so I shake my head and tell it to stop.
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“…Chi, listen carefully outside later.”
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She often speaks outside. Of course, this means outside of Dark Matter.
But she doesn’t want to go outside.
Being able to fly in the sky and taking tens of thousands of steps across the sky like a shooting star.
They always just gloss over things by saying things like, ‘It’s a bit like that when I go out…’
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Now another excuse has been made.
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“Of course~ I’ll have to watch you catch the monster~”
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She laughs at me when she says that. Although I myself don’t like being laughed at, I laughed at this fair behavior that allowed me to laugh as much as I wanted.
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She has helped me ever since I first met her. Even though she ridiculed her absurd goal of killing monsters, her assistance did not stop.
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“I told you, right? Catching a monster is like picking a star from the sky. It’s not easy once you try it, right? People looked down on me a lot. If it were me, I wouldn’t have done something like that. At that time, I should have used magic to keep them in check and approached them cautiously. I mean, it’s easy. You idiots. ”
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It has already been more than a month since I started living with her. I guess I’m the only one who survived Dark Matter for such a long time as a civilian and not a slave to a monster.
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“But take it easy. Understand? Anyway, they are not people who can be easily caught even if someone tells them to catch them. Even when I was a magical girl… Ah, anyway, both my body and mind were damaged. Ah… You ruined both of them? “Pity me.”
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Red Spica sighs playfully.
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Whenever a magical girl-related topic comes up, she blatantly changes her words. She’s always been the type of person to talk back and quickly forget what she just said, but this was very intentional.
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She seems to have had quite a hard time when she was a magical girl. During the conversation, she reflects on the insults she received when she was a magical girl and talks about the hardships she faced while fighting monsters.
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I know that the strong must protect the weak, but why don’t the weak give up their values to protect? Is even this thought selfish?
In the first place, have you ever wanted the strong to be strong? If you have talent, do you have to use it?
My pain has suddenly become a deception.
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Every time I did that, I quietly shut her lips and tried to figure out in my mind why she had come here. Quietly, the reason why she is not a magical girl.
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Although we always talked about the outside, we never talked about what we experienced outside.
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So, I can only guess.
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A guess that is very close to the truth.
The quiet life of a girl who got tired of running forward and ended up taking a different path.
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Even though she didn’t express it in her words, I already know that she is not a magical girl. She knows that she knows that I know.
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But neither of us says anything. Even without having to ask, we know that it was difficult for both of us. Because I don’t want to make it concrete by putting it into language.
Even the fact that I worry that one day she will go crazy and kill me. We both know but we don’t say it.
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If we kept our mouths shut, everyone was happy.
Escape was a happy way. It doesn’t solve anything, but I’m happy right now. If you run backwards like that, and run again, and run again.
Before I knew it, it had become an endless road of hell where I just kept running endlessly.
Her legs still can’t rest.
The bird that was pecking at the corpse left. When and how Virgo came here, he smashed the skull, which may have passed away, with a single kick, and nervously scattered dust.
“Don’t laugh.”
With the left side of her vision cut off into the past, she, existing in reality on the right side, was looking at me just as she had at that time.
However, her eyes became sharper than before.
“No one here laughed at you.”
“No, I laughed!”
Another difference is that her finger, which was always pointed at the monster, was pointed at me.
“I had that feeling.”
What Seomseom Oksu’s slender fingers spewed out was a ray of light that could easily melt cast iron.
Some are straight, some are curved, and some are long and point towards the back.
Dozens and hundreds of different, delicate yet ferocious rays of light lined up and filled the sky, a sight that could be compared to the flowing milky way.
Of course, avoiding the beams of light coming from all directions with half of the field of view obscured was a very difficult task.
But Ursa Major does not only have the power of lightning. Precognition of the future that can be seen by utilizing the belt’s abilities to the limit.
The limit is a maximum of 3 seconds, but it can be effectively used on the battlefield where tens of thousands of movements are flowing even in a split second.
In the half of the field of vision where reality flows, the future overlaps and is screened in advance.
With so many rays coming to tear me apart, I can see which one I should deal with first.
I blocked all of Virgo’s attacks as if blocking a pre-planned attack.
“hehehehe, good job! Compliment? I’ll give you some.”
In the left field of vision, Red Spica, with a strangely arrogant tone of voice, pats my shoulder. It was a compliment to her for defeating the monster she had captured and made weak. Even though they were all dying monsters, they seemed to look magnificent.
Of course, reality is bleak.
“What are you doing!”
Virgo shouted in anger.
“If I block that, what will happen to me? I’ll get hit and fall down!”
“You’re asking too much.”
Her expression was the same even three seconds into the future.
Well, what can you do with 3 seconds?
It is possible to protect oneself, but it is not enough time to change others.
In a field of vision where the past, present, and future are twisted and mixed. Her expression, which was bright, angry, and displeased, gradually began to unify.
“Stop now Die!”
I had no idea where these words came from, the left or the right.
I put my foot back. There is a corpse right in front of you. A miserable corpse with its head melting off. In front of it is Red Spica. It was clear that she was the culprit who created this body.
It is not a false bridge. Even if they don’t have a head, you can guess what kind of person they are by looking at their clothes.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that this corpse was the person I was talking to just a moment ago.
Even though it is Dark Matter, it is not uninhabited. The population of slaves held to raise the monster’s starlight alone must be quite large, and suicide applicants arrive every day. Of course, most people die within less than an hour. Just like I almost did.
If not, he is a gangster like a smuggler.
People who care about the future of humanity and just want to satisfy their own interests right now. They usually collude with monsters to sell people, buy drugs, or transport something dangerous overseas through Dark Matter.
Slaves, suicide seekers, gangsters. I don’t know which of the three this corpse was, but the fact that it was a human remains unchanged. No matter what the background is, killing someone is murder.
“I-I’m not bad!”
If you had told me that I didn’t kill you, I would have believed you without question.
This is Dark Matter, in the dark matter. A place where no one knows what is happening or what was there. Where anything happens at the same time and anything can happen.
Why is he immediately positive that he is the culprit? I smile bitterly at the excuse that was poor from the beginning.
“This guy cursed at me first! He called me a b*tch… It’s not my fault! This guy was the first…”
Red Spica continued to make excuses for a long time after that, and I remain silent.
It was obvious that it would have been one of these three: someone who was going to die anyway, someone who came to die, or someone who deserved to die.
What could be wrong with letting someone die?
I keep my mouth shut like that.
If I kept my mouth shut, everyone was happy. Of course, the dead man said nothing. He happily contributed to our happiness.
The problem also appeared the next day.
“I-I’m bad…”
Have I been lucky so far or have I been unlucky these past few days? We met people every day.
From as few as one wanderer to as many as dozens of organizations.
Red Spica committed massacre every time he met them.
And he always defends himself in front of me with an innocent expression.
“I was quiet, but on this side first…”
I do not speak.
“I tried to attack you… Uh, I couldn’t help it…”
Not listening.
“Ah, ahahahaha…. Nothing happened, nothing happened. Huh? Don’t make that face… Let’s go over there. There’s sure to be a monster there that you can kill. “
Do not look.
My senses were surrounded by a pitch black cloth.
It is a cloth woven with fear, compassion, and affection.
With this I cover my eyes, cover my mouth, and close my ears.
But you can’t forget everything in one moment.
Innumerable corpses are piled up with faceless faces, creating a scene like an innocent hell.
It was perhaps inevitable that I would move away from the girl named Red Spica.
About thirty and twenty days later, on a scorchingly hot summer day, I finally couldn’t stand her anymore and opened my mouth to her.
Why don’t you go out, don’t you miss her mother, what did you do to come here?
It is very passionate and conveyed very metaphorically and gently.
She answers
“All that is meaningless as the world’s destruction approaches!”
More than the excuses she gave after killing someone, and more than the soulless words she says at any time, these words are the best. It sounded like bullsh*t.
Boom!
A loud sound shook my ears.
“Kyahahahahaha! Is it all about running away? Is there nothing else to do? hahahaha~ I’m getting bored now~”
The rays of light emitted by Virgo shook the earth. Virgo’s instantaneous fire power is at the top among monsters.
It is difficult for anyone except a few monsters to survive the three minutes or so in which she gives her all.
A feast of rays so long that they change the color of the sky. It fell thickly and roughly like a rain shower.
“So I told you….”
The rays of light I had seen before today were almost shabby compared to now.
Maybe it’s because I’m moody, but the power of starlight varies depending on my mood.
I had no doubt that right now, at this moment, she was at her best.
“Catching a monster is like picking a star from the sky!”
A corpse falls in front of you once again. It does not belong to civilians. The flowing dress was soaked in blood, the bright ribbons were burnt, and the beautiful jewels were shattered. The girl falls to the ground, and her crumbly starlight scatters from her and flows into the sky.
She was a magical girl.
He’s probably a rookie since I don’t know his name well. No matter what brought her to Dark Matter, she ends her life here today. The life that was still flourishing is taken away here and trampled upon.
Red Spica speaks after lightly trampling on the magical girl’s clothes.
“Let’s go now.”
I couldn’t be silent.
I argue.
It is right for people in the same situation as you to do this.
Red Spica smiles.
“So, what?”
I am silent. Not because I have too much to say, but because I’m at a loss for words.
“You want me to get out of here alone? Hey, don’t do that~ You’ll die if you do that, you know?”
Red Spica strokes my cheek with her beautiful hands, her blood-soaked red hands.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Ah… Are you scared of me? Ha… I’m disappointed. I hoped you would be different from mom.”
Her hand slowly touches my eyes, blocking my vision.
“You know what? My mom followed you obediently at first, right? But one day, her attitude suddenly changed and she ran away. She reported me. So… After that, maybe… Well, I don’t know. I forgot. I remember scattering the bone powder in the sea. Did I melt it or did they melt it at the crematorium? Which do you think?”
An innocent voice shakes my ears.
“It’s a fun riddle, right?”
Soon her lips cover mine.
“You said it with your own mouth. You came here to kill the monster. Then, you can’t leave until you kill it.”
Your eyes, ears, and lips are blocked by someone else.
“I told you, killing monsters is as difficult as picking stars in the sky. Everyday life! Just pick stars from here and go. Okay?”
I am now opening my mouth.
“Thank you, Birgo. Thanks to you….”
The thunderbolt, compressed to its limit, roars from the tip of the axe.
Virgo’s baptism of light was a time when all grass was broken.
“Now I can catch stars from the sky.”
It was a white line in the purple sky.
