“How did you know?”
Makina asked with a look of genuine curiosity, but I merely lifted the corner of my mouth and played dumb.
“Know what?”
“What do you mean, what! That the Core Relics were about to go wild! Even I didn’t know the storage case latch was broken, so how did you know and wait there in advance?”
The way she shrieked made her look as insignificant as an angry, threatening crow-tit.
The sight was so funny I almost burst out laughing, but I put on a deliberately serious face—
“Why, why are you laughing?! And if you’re laughing, that means you really are a villain!”
Ahem. Looks like a smile had crept onto my face on its own.
Besides, hearing her call me a villain again made me bristle a little, but I carved the character for patience, endure (忍), into my heart and told myself not to react to every little thing a brat said.
“—Hoo. Listen carefully, Makina. What I know isn’t important.”
“Not important?! To me, it’s the most important thing in the world……”
“And that most important thing in the world—you nearly lost all of it just now.”
“Ugh……”
At my sharp rebuke, Makina clamped her mouth shut.
Core Relics. In Transformation Peerless, they were transformation devices that allowed the protagonist to transform and, just as the title suggested, overwhelm everyone in battle. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them the masterpiece at the heart of the novel.
This device, capable of letting even an ordinary civilian overpower most heroes or villains, was unique in that it possessed an ego.
Makina might have been put to sleep by the life-support device attached to the capsule, but did she really think things that had been shoved into a cramped space for ages while fully conscious would just stay still?
“If it hadn’t been for me, all of the Core Relics would have gotten out, and they would’ve ended up in the hands of some unknown bastard somewhere.”
“T-that might be true, but…… they could have been given to good people……”
“Do you really think all nine of them—not just one or two—would manage to meet people like that? And even if they did, what would you do if even one of them fell into a villain’s hands?”
“……”
Makina wanted to think positively somehow, but she couldn’t answer me.
It seemed she knew herself that what she’d said was far-fetched.
In the original work, the eight Core Relics, excluding the single one that resonated with the protagonist, scattered all across Japan, and contrary to Makina’s hopeful thinking, every last one of them ended up in the hands of villains.
Part 1 had been about stopping already vicious villains from becoming even stronger and running rampant, and because of that, there had been significant casualties.
“Makina. As you are now, you can’t properly protect the Core Relics. So hand them over to me.”
“Uuh……”
Makina instinctively stepped back, but she couldn’t retreat because the capsule was behind her.
Trapped with nowhere to go, she wrapped her trembling hands around her chest.
“The C-Core Relics…… can’t be used unless you’re the chosen one. Even if you have them, they’ll be completely useless! They’ll just be junk!”
Makina protested as her final resistance, but it was a rather meaningless one.
“You think I’m going to use them? Ha, don’t make me laugh!”
“What?”
“I have no intention of wearing some skintight suit like that! How am I supposed to wear something so embarrassing?”
“……Hey! Are you seriously saying that?! Apologize to every hero in the world right now!!”
Perhaps my words were so absurd that Makina, who had been trembling until a moment ago, instantly flew into a rage. But so what?
“That’s none of my business.”
“Eeeek……! Then why do you need the Core Relics if you’re not even going to use them? What, do you know who the chosen ones are this time too?”
This brat was sharper than I expected.
Of course, through the original, I knew exactly who the compatible users were and where they were, down to what they were doing.
“No, I don’t.”
As if I’d be crazy enough to tell her that.
Why do you think I went through all that trouble to pull you out of the sea? Like hell I’d do something that only benefits someone else.
“You look like you know something.”
Seriously, what a quick-witted brat.
“Hmph. Even if I did know, I have no intention of handing them over to anyone else.”
“So you do know!!”
As if she had ever been frightened, Makina huffed and puffed, then lowered her head.
“Just like you said, I can’t protect the Core Relics. If it weren’t for you, I would have lost them all.”
However, when Makina raised her head again, her eyes held a resolute will.
“Even so, I have a mission to deliver them to the chosen ones. Only the chosen ones……”
“You want to say they can defeat the Absolute Evil?”
“……Yes, that’s right.”
Looks like she didn’t even feel like arguing anymore.
Well, as long as she wasn’t yapping, it was quiet for me, so I didn’t mind.
“I don’t know how much you know, but the villain called Absolute Evil killed countless people and destroyed nations……”
“Ah, enough, enough. Listing facts I already know is just boring and pedantic.”
I cut off Makina, who was about to start babbling again, and first made this brat, who still hadn’t grasped the situation, face reality.
“More importantly, do you even know what year it is right now?”
“What?”
For a moment, Makina stared blankly, as if she hadn’t understood what I meant. Then she seemed to grasp it, hurriedly turned her head toward the capsule, and shouted, asking what year it was.
Then a dry mechanical voice rang out from inside the capsule, and the current date appeared on the front hologram screen.
Makina’s eyes shook violently as she read it.
“N-no way……! When did this much time pass?! How many years was I stuck in that capsule?!”
“Who knows. I don’t know the details either, but there’s one thing I’m sure of.”
I held up three fingers and recited what would happen to this world from now on.
“Exactly three years from now. The Republic of Korea will be destroyed by that ‘Absolute Evil’ you mentioned. And unfortunately, the ‘chosen one’ you were trying to find right now will absolutely never be able to beat him.”
“H-how do you know that? Did you see the future or something?!”
“The future? No, just think about it logically. A kid who just became a middle schooler and is dozing off in class is totally going to be great at fighting, right?”
“H-he’s that young?”
Makina’s expression was a sight to behold. She probably hadn’t expected the compatible user to be that young.
But perhaps because she still couldn’t let go, she tried to persuade me in a trembling voice.
“S-still, there are three years…… We still have three years! If he trains thoroughly and prepares within that time, somehow……!”
“Ah, sorry, but I can’t entrust my country’s fate to such an uncertain plan.”
It wasn’t as if I was saying that out of patriotism.
It was just that what that damn Tanaka bastard wanted was for Korea to be destroyed, and I couldn’t just sit back and watch something that would please him.
Since I would rather die than see that bastard happy, I had no intention of watching Korea fall, no matter what.
“To begin with, plans or whatever aside, you couldn’t even input coordinates properly and wasted years under the sea. Then, after I finally pulled you out, you couldn’t even keep the Core Relics safe and almost lost them. And you’re going to carry out a mission? Hm?”
“……”
Makina’s face turned bright red, and she couldn’t say anything, only moving her lips.
Honestly, for a kid with the setting of being from the future, she had a lot of screws loose.
Well, if you got down to it, that was because Tanaka had set up her character like this, so what crime had she committed?
It was all that author bastard’s fault. Yep.
“Then……”
“What was that? Your voice is as small as your height, so I can’t hear you, brat.”
“Eeeek! Then do you have some great method?! I can’t give them to the chosen one, and you’re not going to use them either, so what am I supposed to do? If you just demand I hand over the Core Relics without explaining anything, what do you expect me to do?!”
Makina fiercely snapped back and glared at me.
Come to think of it, I’d gotten so caught up in teasing her that I’d missed the chance to explain my actual plan.
“You’re asking what I’m going to use them for?”
It felt a little late, but I tilted my head slightly and let Makina in on part of my plan.
“I’m going to create a new hero (protagonist).”
“A new what? What does that even……”
Rather than just talk, I raised my hand and opened my palm.
Immediately after, the pouch in Makina’s arms began to shake violently.
“Wh-what is it?! Why is this happening again……!”
Makina realized something was wrong with the pouch containing the Core Relics, but by the time she grasped the situation, the Core Relics, pouch and all, had already come into my hand.
“You, how! Why are the Core Relics reacting to you… Don’t tell me you’re the chosen……”
“As if.”
I cut off the brat, who was trying to jump to her own conclusion, and continued.
“My ability is Resonance. I can even handle speechless beasts, so a little tin can like this is nothing.”
Maybe it was because I called it a tin can.
The thing in my hand went wooong! wooong! and vibrated as if protesting.
“Resonance? Is something like that possible?”
“If it weren’t possible, would I be holding it?”
I declared, as if driving the final nail in, to Makina, who was staring at me in a daze.
“With this ability, I’m going to hand the Core Relics to the hero I choose. To my hero, who will be far more perfect than that half-baked compatible user you’re searching for.”
I knew full well just how absurd my actions were.
A fated opportunity that should have gone to the protagonist—giving it not to a main character or supporting character, nor even using it myself, but handing it to an extra villain who exits after a single chapter.
It was an act so insane that I’d have nothing to say even if someone called me crazy, but who cared?
Before the original work or anything else, my goal was only one thing: screw over Tanaka-kun.
And as part of that process, turn the extra villain Nova into the protagonist.
“Of course, she’s still very inexperienced, but unlike your uncertain and pathetic plan, if things go according to my plan, she won’t lose to Absolute Evil or any other damn villain.”
“Don’t call it pathetic!”
Seriously, this brat always reacted without fail to insults about herself.
My mouth itched to tease her again, but there was no need to ruin the atmosphere I’d gone to the trouble of building up.
“And for that plan, Makina, I need your help.”
“H-huh? My… help?”
“Yes. Without you, I can’t attempt it alone.”
Saying that, I held out my hand to Makina.
“So why don’t you help me and witness the birth of a new hero?”
Makina stared at my rough palm with trembling eyes, but before long, she slowly took my hand.
“……Fine. I’ll see with my own eyes just who this hero you’re talking about is. If I decide she’s pathetic, I’m going to stab you in the back, so be ready.”
“Kekeke, she’ll be worth looking forward to.”
Even so, Makina still looked displeased, her lips pouting, but now that we were comrades, shouldn’t she at least fix her expression?
“I’m Kang Jinu. I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
“You already know, but I’m Makina. I’ll be counting on you for the time being too.”
And so, together with the Core Relics, I recruited the engineering girl from the future as my comrade.