"Tsk! Just how persistent can you be?"
Flames swirled across the floor.
Against two virtually unscathed Kaijin, the battered Magical Girl lay collapsed on the ground.
The wounds from yesterday had barely begun to heal when she threw herself into battle again to act as a decoy for the fleeing civilians. Now, she had finally reached her limit.
(I hope Senpai is okay...)
Her mana was nearly depleted. A searing pain radiated through her, making it impossible to move her limbs.
It was a battle she couldn't have won from the start. She had done what she could, and she had saved so many people. The sweet temptation to simply give up began to rear its head—surely she had done enough.
"It’s over for you, Hero."
"Not... yet...!"
The Kaijin were still standing. Since she was the only hero present, she had to stand too.
Her legs screamed that they were at their breaking point. So what? Her hands had already surrendered to the pain. So what?
With nothing but sheer willpower, she crushed her own weakness, her limits, her agony, and her despair. Pushing beyond what should have been possible, the girl stood against the Kaijin through nothing but the stubborn pride of a hero.
After all, the hero she had always admired never gave up until the very end.
"Die, Hero!!"
The two Kaijin unleashed a torrent of flames.
The girl met the onslaught with everything she had left. Even draining her remaining mana wasn't enough, so she burned her very life force, wringing out even the mana she would need for tomorrow to unleash one final strike.
It was a raw, concentrated blast of pure magical energy.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh—!!!!!!!"
Wring it out. Don't give up. Keep your eyes forward until the end.
That final shred of the girl's pride surged forth, narrowly overpowering the Kaijin's flames at the last second.
"What!?"
The blast shoved their own flames back at them, swallowing the Kaijin in a massive pink explosion.
(With this... it’s...)
Having spent every last drop of her strength, the girl's transformation dissolved. She felt herself falling toward the ground, as if gravity were finally reclaiming her.
As her consciousness slipped away, the last thing she heard was a voice.
"Nice fight, Hero."
A word of praise.
Instead of hitting the hard floor, her body was caught gently and lowered slowly to the ground.
That was where the story of the hero ended.
From here, it was the story of a Kaijin.
"You guys are pretty persistent too, aren't you?"
The smoke cleared to reveal two sets of footsteps.
The girl's desperate final strike hadn't been enough to actually defeat the Kaijin.
"Who the hell are you? You’re not even a hero, so stay out of our way."
True, I wasn't a hero.
If just one thing had gone differently, I might have been the one standing on their side of the line. Or perhaps, in truth, that's where I still belonged.
But right now, by my own choice, I was standing against them.
"As you can see, I'm just here on a part-time job. Doing a bit of rescue work."
"Don't mock us!!"
Two plumes of hellfire erupted simultaneously. Behind me lay the unconscious girl.
By some strange twist of fate, the situation was the exact opposite of yesterday.
"Factor Release: Gale Kaijin Tatsumaki!"
Yesterday and today, she was the one who protected me. Now, it was my turn to return the favor.
A fierce gale tore across the floor, completely repelling the approaching flames. Simultaneously, I wove a protective layer of wind around the girl, shielding her from the heat and smoke while ensuring she had oxygen.
"You're a nuisance!!!!"
To Kaijin who commanded fire, a whirlwind—even one carrying their own flames—was hardly an obstacle. They charged forward, tearing through the wind and fire with raw momentum.
"Fine. I’ll show you how I fight."
My opponents were two combatants from Dark Matter who had transformed into Kaijin. It had been a while since I'd faced anyone with this much bite, and there were no witnesses around to see what I was about to do.
"Factor Release: Flame Kaijin Hellflame x..."
Fire gathered in my right hand.
"...Freezing Kaijin Tundra."
Ice formed in my left.
"—Steam Burst."
I slammed the fire and ice together with equal intensity, instantly flash-boiling the air into a massive cloud of water vapor. A thick white veil expanded like a smokescreen, and the Kaijin, their vision completely obscured, lost my position entirely.
"Where did he go!?"
The Kaijin swung wildly, his fist cutting through nothing but mist.
"Factor Release: Superstrength Kaijin Muscular x Steel Kaijin Iron."
My empowered arms hardened into solid steel. A strike born from the combination of Herculean strength and iron plating was enough to shatter the very earth.
"Vajra Strike."
I erased my presence and circled behind them in the mist, driving my fist into a wide-open back. No matter how much defense their armor provided, an iron fist of equal strength would always find a way through.
"Guh!?"
Even if they were slow, seeing their comrade blown away was enough to give away my position. The second Kaijin spun around, swinging a heavy backhand, but I ducked under the clumsy strike and placed my left palm gently against his chest.
"Factor Release: Flame Kaijin Hellflame x Bomb Kaijin Dynamine."
Fire and explosion. The two powers fed into each other, amplifying the heat and force until a blinding light erupted from my palm.
"Mega Burst!"
"Gaaah!?"
Fire resistance? Steel plating? It didn't matter. I just had to hit them with enough raw power to crush them. Overwhelming force was the true essence of being a Kaijin.
"Fire, ice, wind, and superstrength... was that hardening just now? It's impossible! Just how many abilities do you have!?"
"Well, I wonder."
Owari Tokoyo was a Kaijin.
He was the final creation of the evil secret Syndicate, Dark Matter—and their strongest.
My design was fundamentally different from any other monster. This body served as a living archive, embedded with every single one of the hundred-plus Kaijin Factors Dark Matter had ever developed.
I possessed and could wield the powers of every Kaijin the Syndicate had ever produced. I was their culmination, their last remaining database. My very existence was the ultimate proof of Dark Matter's legacy.
And that was why I was the strongest.
"Let's wrap this up. Factor Release."
This building wouldn't last much longer, and the heroes were likely close.
"Flame Kaijin Hellflame x Bomb Kaijin Dynaman x Gale Kaijin Tatsumaki."
Ghoulish crimson and explosive fire. I used the wind to amplify the twin flames and give them direction.
"Giga Burst!"
So what if they were fire Kaijin? I just had to hit them with a level of destruction that far surpassed their own.
I unleashed a storm of annihilation. Fire and explosions merged into a spiraling gale, swallowing both Kaijin whole.
"Well, that's that."
The results spoke for themselves. Both Kaijin lay unconscious on the floor. I was the only one left standing.
"Ow, ow... Using three factors at once really takes its toll..."
I had pushed myself a bit too hard. The recoil of a triple activation was heavy for a human body to handle; I could feel my muscles screaming in protest. I hadn't strictly needed to use three, but...
"This should make the cover-up believable."
I picked up the girl and looked back at the fallen monsters. The unconscious Kaijin and the scale of the destruction weren't entirely different from the aftermath of the girl's final strike. If I played this right, I could make it look like she was the one who defeated them.
Leaving the defeated enemies behind, I carried the girl out of the building.
The crowd outside had grown since I'd gone back in. As soon as I emerged, a man came running toward me.
"Hey! Are you alright!?"
"Yeah. She managed to take down the Kaijin. Don't worry about me—take care of her."
"Medics! Over here, now!!!!"
I handed the girl over to the emergency team. With that, my job was officially done.
"Urakawa-kun! I need you to start firefighting immediately."
"What happened to the Kaijin?"
"It looks like Heart-kun defeated them. We're going to secure them while we fight the fire. Come with me."
"............Understood. Let's move."
The man called Urakawa was indeed the hero I'd seen on the news yesterday. He led the fire brigade as they charged into the building; it seemed he was the first of the heavy hitters to arrive.
"Alright, I'm out of here."
"Wait, hold on—"
"Great work today, everyone!"
I tossed out a casual goodbye and took off at a full sprint. I had stood out far too much already. Demanding a reward for my heroics would just lead to a mountain of questions that I didn't want to answer.
When in doubt, flight is the best policy.
I swung by the security office, changed back into my street clothes, grabbed my bag, and headed home as fast as I could.
Ugh, why did it turn out like this? The extra tip I’d been hoping for was gone, and the base pay for this shift definitely wasn't enough for the work I’d put in. This was all because of—
"Oh, you're back! So, how was the—gah!?"
"What part of that was a 'simple job', you old man!!!!"
I channeled all my resentment into my arm and beaned Shimogaki in the face with my balled-up jacket.
"Whoa, what’s gotten into you?"
"I'll tell you what’s gotten into me!"
I launched into a full-blown vent session, unloading every detail of today’s disaster onto Shimogaki.
"Huh? Bombs? And they used the Kaijin Genome? That shouldn't be possible."
"Possible or not, it happened."
No matter what he thought, I knew what I’d seen. I didn't know how deep the combatants' loyalty went, but they had definitely used the drug to transform.
"Tsk. What the hell is going on...?"
Shimogaki muttered to himself for a moment before pulling out his phone and typing furiously.
"I'll look into this on my end."
"You have a way to do that?"
"There's a community for former Syndicate members."
"Wait... so today's job was just you trying to capitalize on a rumor you heard there?"
"Hahaha! I don't know what you're talking about."
So he'd tried to get a free ride based on insider info. Instead of a free ride, I’d been stuck doing enough work for three people.
"Don't look at me like that. Fine, I get it. Let's go eat. I'll treat you to ramen."
"...I want an extra side of gyoza too."
"Fine, fine. Let's go."
Shimogaki ruffled my hair with his huge hand, and we stepped out of the apartment together.