It was his first time meeting another protagonist. The boy, who had wrecked the abandoned factory so badly that it could no longer even be called a factory, slumped down on the spot.
A protagonist from another genre who attacked from a thoroughly long range, to the point that it was impossible to tell whether he controlled air or not, and a girl who had tried to get on his nerves through shadows that did not vanish even in radiance.
The combination of the two was nothing short of a shock to Kim Haneul, who had believed that fighting alone was enough.
It was true that he had not used the power that belonged among his last resorts, but the other side, too, had pushed him while keeping their own last resorts hidden.
“As expected... do I need comrades?”
If no one took care of the girl—whether she was darkness, space, shadow, or something that encompassed all of those—then a one-on-one would never be established. Only by making it one-on-one would a path open for him to defeat the protagonist from the other genre.
Even though he had resolved countless incidents over the past year, Kim Haneul, who had handled direct matters alone, gained a great realization from this. The realization that he might not be able to see this world’s ending by himself.
“So, what will you do? The Association will be here soon to question us about what happened here.”
If they suppressed the ability users too much, ability users from other countries might invade, so aside from murder, the use of abilities was not particularly restricted.
But the Association was not such a benevolent organization that it would not question someone after an entire abandoned factory had been demolished.
Though he knew that, instead of immediately preparing to flee, the boy looked up at the student council president gazing down at him from above.
A temporary team he had drawn her into on the condition that he keep his promise. He needed someone truly on his side, not a woman like this. A real ally with whom he could even share the secret he was hiding.
‘I’ll kill you.’
Why was it that the girl who had been this student council president’s lover came to mind as such a true ally? Perhaps it was because she already knew his secret.
Thinking this and that, the boy looked up at the sky. The yellow moon, giving off a brilliant glow, looked not much different from the moon outside.
And yet, the wish to see the moon outside once more made the boy’s chest burn hot. Because there was something he absolutely had to do once he got out.
For the sake of that wish, even committing a beastly act like briefly separating two lovers was not particularly difficult.
The victim of what the boy had done in order to get outside, and the boy who harbored a small amount of guilt toward that victim, waited side by side for the Association personnel to arrive.
“What the hell, you guys were here?”
Though neither of them had expected Erika and Inna to come along with the people presumed to be Association personnel. Those who maintained an ambiguous relationship with one another.
Before an awkward mood could flow between them, one of the Association personnel clapped his hands. With everyone’s attention drawn to him at once, the man spoke curtly.
“First, let’s go to the Association building and talk there. Standing around here and talking will only be exhausting.”
It would not be too late to investigate the charges there. Before the night grew any later, the Association people led them toward Association headquarters.
...And the fact that they happened to run into the silver-haired woman there and, in less than ten seconds, were all cleared of suspicion and released was something close to coincidence.
*
“Master, how is your body?”
The boy who fought by transforming the radiance dwelling in his hand into any weapon. The boy named “Kim Haneul,” whom Master had long been wary of, was certainly strong. Especially to a girl with the ability known as Pitch-Black, he was like a natural enemy.
But rather than worrying about her own condition, the girl was more concerned about the master who had been injured while protecting her.
At the girl’s action of bringing over a medicine box, the woman did pat her head, but the woman’s body did not bear wounds as serious as the girl feared.
With the power of a protagonist close to “almighty,” who could lightly accomplish things even extraordinary adults could not for the sake of romance with a rich family’s daughter or with the young lady of a gang boss,
all it could do was leave a scratch or two on the body of a protagonist who could become the strongest in a world where a single mistake was connected to death.
Of course, even those scratches would not have appeared if she had not fought passively in order to protect the girl.
Their genres were different. There was no way he could dare defeat a woman who possessed unrivaled power when it came to combat.
After the previous abandoned factory had become known, the woman lay down in a new hideout, her eyes blankly recalling the girl she had seen today.
A fool who, though she usually seemed absentminded and stupid and appeared to be wary of others without trusting them, was actually smarter than anyone and deeply affectionate toward her own people.
Because she resembled that foolish man, the woman had broken her vow not to speak, and words had slipped out unconsciously.
No matter what kind of person one had been in reality, here, they were trapped in a different body. Among all those countless people, there was absolutely no guarantee that someone connected to her had happened to enter.
“If you’re that curious, shall I look into it?”
The girl who handled Pitch-Black could even see what another person held unconsciously. In the case of ability users, they had resistance, so it was only possible if the other party let their guard down.
In other words, if she became close enough for the other party to lower their guard around her, she could determine whether that person was truly the one her master was curious about.
The woman was the strongest in combat. But when it came to finding out someone’s identity or inner thoughts, she could not help but be lacking. The one who could do that in her place was the girl who handled Pitch-Black.
She might be inferior to the “protagonist” when it came to combat, but a versatile girl could do even what the woman could not.
“I’m... counting on you.”
Even if she did not speak, the girl who could hear the woman’s heart would hear her request. But the fact that she voiced it was proof of just how much emotion she was pouring into this matter.
“Yes! I’ll find out everything about what that person is and come back! If something urgent happens, please let me know. I’ll drop everything and hurry back!”
Having heard her master’s request, the girl smiled brightly and prepared to leave for a while for another person. Before she had even approached, the target attending that school had already seen her face. For a perfect disguise, she would have to borrow a little of a fellow comrade’s power.
And so, the operation to infiltrate the school where Erika’s main scenario was taking place continued throughout the night.
*
“It... failed?”
In a dark room overflowing with trash, a girl watched the monitor and bit at her nails until they bled.
The plan was for one student to contact the student council, then brainwash that student, and have the people coveting the student’s ability clash with the student council members who came after receiving the mission. Of course, the student council would lose, but by losing, the Association behind the student council would end up fighting them.
It was so simple that it could barely be called a plan, but that also made it hard to fail. The reason that plan had failed was, of course, not because the opponent had responded well, but because an unexpected person had appeared and ruined the board.
“This failed? Why did this fail? Why did something that was supposed to succeed fail? I kept thinking hard about it and worked so hard on it. It’s not like I even asked for anything big! Why is it that every plan I make is the only thing that fails!!!”
The girl with long black hair, resembling a ghost, pulled her hand from her mouth and began tearing at her own hair.
Every time she yanked, another handful of hair came out, but no bald patches appeared on the girl’s head.
Hair was one element that made up appearance, so heroines never got bald patches no matter how much they tore at their hair... was not the reason.
It was the girl’s one and only supernatural ability. Instead of receiving benefits like systems or whatever else, as other protagonists did, the benefits attached to that ability simply made the hair that fell out grow back again.
Because she knew who had ruined the plan, the last protagonist could not recklessly say she would take revenge, and could only spew her anger this way and that.
The girl who had come instead of the student council. That girl was someone who had often helped her ever since the last protagonist first arrived in this world thirteen years ago.
She did not think of finding the true heroine in order to get outside. Therefore, she also had no intention of competing with the other protagonists to make the true heroine fall in love with her.
The goal the last protagonist held had been one thing from the start. To get rid of every woman and man by that girl’s side, and possess that girl herself.
Turning off the screen that only made her angrier the more she looked at it, the girl lay down on the blanket spread across the floor. The countless pieces of trash on top of the blanket were shoved aside as the girl moved a few times.
“Hehe, still, it was nice seeing her after so long. She was pretty. I want to see her a little more... For that to happen, the mission shouldn’t end, right?”
At the thought that suddenly came to her, the girl awkwardly typed out a text with hunt-and-peck typing, then lay back down. The smile on the girl’s face was surely in anticipation of what would happen because of that text.
One who had resolved to capture the true heroine and go outside.
One who, regardless of the true heroine, wanted to once more share love with someone from reality.
And finally, one who loved a heroine in this place.
As those with different goals, or perhaps the same goal, steeled their resolve to move even more earnestly for the sake of those goals,
the moon climbed to the highest point in the sky.