Chick SS14
by Cristae14
Groo took Wooju’s hand and entered the elevator.
“Let’s go up first. We have to find Mommy.”
Groo pressed the button for the first floor and opened her bag. A tiny spy ladybug drone buzzed into the air.
“Do you think it can find her? We should tell Uncle Joorim first and ask for help…”
Groo shook her head.
“Groo, the watch isn’t working.”
“My phone doesn’t work either. Looks like they did something to all our devices.”
Ding—
Just then, the elevator doors opened.
Groo stepped out with Wooju and gave her instructions.
“Wooju, ask Baii and the other adults to call Daddy. Baii, protect Wooju.”
“Understood, Master.”
“…?”
Watching Bailach’s wide grin, Wooju rubbed his arms as goosebumps broke out.
“W-wait. If you’re with Bailach, Groo, then you…”
At that moment, a white hand waiting on the first floor grabbed Groo’s hand and tugged.
Snowy white hair, shedding downy feathers.
“Mepi and Perl are with me, so I’ll be fine.”
Mephisto gave Wooju a boastful smile.
Wooju bit his lip in frustration.
Lucifer, who had been sitting on Mephisto’s shoulder, slipped away from Wooju’s sharp gaze and moved to Groo’s shoulder.
“Then Groo will go find Mommy! Wooju, I’m counting on you to find Daddy!”
“O-okay.”
While Wooju nodded, Groo set off at a run down the hallway after the spy ladybug.
‘She definitely said Mommy is here somewhere.’
But then, as it flew, the ladybug began spinning in circles.
Suddenly, it plummeted to the floor.
“Huh?!”
Groo snatched up the fallen ladybug drone.
Zzzap—sputter!
It flipped over, emitting sparking noises, then stopped moving altogether.
“Broken?!”
Groo’s face crumpled, but Mephisto shook his head.
“It seems there’s a magic barrier around this building disrupting the flow of mana.”
“In that case…”
As Mephisto was about to suggest using force—
“Perl!”
“Kyu!”
At Groo’s call, Lucifer sprang up.
Immediately, a chilly energy began to well up from beneath Groo’s feet.
Her soft coral-colored eyes blazed fiercely.
“I’ll find all these villains and crush them.”
Mephisto grinned.
“Let’s do it.”
Standing on a miniature snowy field she had conjured, Groo huffed out puffs of white breath and packed a snowball.
The snowball, round and compact, transformed into the shape of a ladybug.
One by one, countless snow-ladybugs scattered and rose into the air.
“Let’s go find Mommy!”
A woman hid, breathing heavily behind a pillar.
Dangling on her chest was a press badge that read “Reporter Choi Dabin.”
She stole another glance at the scene before her.
In the empty hallway of the convention center, a tiny field of snow had been conjured.
And standing on the snow, a golden-haired child.
On Groo.
A five-year-old with an unforgettably beautiful face—someone even she, herself, recognized well.
This was the child so treasured by the On family after being adopted.
The child was only known to possess a skill called “Prickly Prickly,” and to be an F-rank Hunter.
Yet… she had conjured a snowy field in an instant and so easily created a living creature.
“Creation-type?”
It even looked omnipotent, just like On Ijo’s creation abilities…
The thought flashed through her mind and immediately prompted her to pick up her phone.
Chloe sat on a sofa, her arms bound behind her back.
The room seemed to be a waiting room near the press venue, where people who seemed to be from the same group as Gego bustled about, preparing for the upcoming press conference.
“CCTV 1 and 2 on the west side have gone dark.”
“7, 8, and 9 as well.”
“Damn it. What the hell is going on?”
One strange thing was their behavior—it looked as though they were monitoring someone.
Were they possibly watching Groo?
Chloe bit her lip hard.
She regretted her actions to the marrow of her bones, thinking it was all her fault.
To think she’d only wanted to give the child a surprise.
If she’d just let Joorim handle the introduction, none of this would have happened…
Chloe hung her head.
Trouble had come from her desire to have Groo to herself, without Joorim present.
Perhaps, deep inside, she’d even been feeling competitive with the main caregiver Joorim.
She let out a bitter sigh.
I brought this on myself. I should be the one to put it right.
“It’s bad. It’s almost 5:00.”
“Hah, we have to take care of this before then.”
The situation was bleak.
There were two men and one woman in the waiting room watching over her.
And she was tightly bound.
Yet—
Chloe relaxed her body and closed her eyes, settling into meditation.
A vivid sea, the cries of gulls, sand slipping between her toes—
Yes, sand.
The revived Chloe was made of sand.
So what if she returned to sand again?
If she could just turn to sand enough to slip out of her bonds—
In response to her will, grains of sand sifted down across the back of her hand. Her hands shrank slightly.
Freed from the cable ties, she soon regained the use of both arms.
But she kept her composure and pretended to still be bound.
She still didn’t have the strength to take down all three at once.
All she could do was…
Chloe fixed her gaze on the open window.
“How’s it going on your end?”
“The blackout is moving toward us.”
“So the test subject is heading this way?”
“That’s right.”
Silence fell in the waiting room.
Chloe became certain: it was Groo they were tracking.
“Then let’s use that to our advantage.”
At the woman’s suggestion, the two men turned to her.
“The test subject’s goal is to rescue Chloe Han. Our goal is to make sure people witness the test subject being forced to use her powers.”
“So?”
“We force her into a situation where she has no choice but to use them.”
The three exchanged gleaming looks.
Chloe’s thoughts churned bitterly.
She would not let that happen.
She and On Ijo could be dragged through the mud as much as needed—she had done enough to deserve it.
But she would not let the child be swept up in it all.
Her one and only hope was for her daughter to live her own life quietly and peacefully.
“Stop calling her a test subject. She’s not a subject—she’s my real daughter.”
As the three turned to look at Chloe, she was already sitting by the window.
“W-what are you doing? Don’t do anything stupid!”
“Damn it. How did you get out of the cable ties? This is the 5th floor—you’d die if you fell.”
The three, intent on keeping Chloe under control, panicked.
Chloe laughed with relief.
“Don’t worry. I won’t fall so easily.”
I’ll just turn to sand and disappear.
It hurts a little, that the last one I see would be the fake mother.
But maybe this is the one thing I can do to prove I’m no less of a mother than any other caregiver.
Chloe closed her eyes.
Recalling the sea, she imagined herself turning to sand.
She began to sense her fingertips crumbling away.
Her body was dissolving in the soft breeze.
“…!”
“Wh-what?!”
But then it happened.
A snow-white ladybug, as if sculpted from the frost, landed on her crumbling hand.
“…?”
At the same time, a biting chill swept through the room.
Her body, shifting to sand, was restored once more.
In the freezing air, Chloe felt something warm in her arms.
“M-mommy.”
A child clung to her, shivering pitifully.
“Please, Mommy, don’t go. Groo did something wrong.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
One sobbed apology after another spilled out, choked with tears.
“Don’t leave Groo alone, Mommy. It was my fault. I’m sorry.”
At that, Chloe’s heart plummeted.
“No, no. Groo, you did nothing wrong.”
Hearing Groo’s words, Chloe was overwhelmed with guilt.
She was the one who had been wrong all along.
Using protection as her excuse, she’d let go, and ended up teaching her daughter how to be hurt and alone.
This tendency to end things by self-sacrifice—this was the flawed love she had learned.
“I’m sorry, Mommy is so sorry.”
She should never have given up on her so easily…