## Chapter 136 – The Forgotten Past (2)
***
“H4301. And H4302.
You two have successfully endured the experiment to become heroes who protect the city.
From now on, you will be staying at another research facility, not here.
Even there, actively participate in the experiments to become heroes.”
The head administrator of the research facility treated the still young girls as something less than human.
With a dry expression, he praised H4301 and H4302, who had survived the experiment, and
informed them that they would be staying at another secret research facility from now on.
“Hello…? Please take care of me.”
Hair that resembled the clear blue sky and water, and eyes that shone like gold.
H4302 was the first to offer a kind greeting.
“…Yeah.”
Unlike H4301, who was greatly exhausted and had a gaunt expression due to the side effects of the experiment,
H4302 was smiling despite showing clear signs of fatigue.
‘I don’t understand. What’s so enjoyable about this?’
She must have been tormented by the experiment with her mind just as empty as mine.
This isn’t a good situation to be smiling so foolishly.
H4301 couldn’t understand her.
‘Whatever. She’ll probably die soon anyway.’
But either she wouldn’t be able to endure it and would die soon like the other test subjects,
or I would die first.
H4301 thought that the ending would ultimately be one of those two.
Having left the original large research facility and being transferred to another secret research facility,
the two test subjects began living together in a new place.
“Introduce yourselves. This is the new director of the research facility who will guide you on the path of heroes.”
The director of the secret research facility rushed to greet the new test subjects.
He didn’t look that old,
but his receding hairline and dark circles due to stress and overwork gave him a very haggard impression.
“Hello!”
“…Hello.”
H4302 greeted him with a bright smile, while H4301 frowned and grumbled.
“Are you… telling me to experiment on these young children?”
The director looked at the two young girls and shook his head, saying that these children couldn’t be used as test subjects,
and that this was something that shouldn’t be done.
“Am I to understand that as… a refusal of the Union’s orders?”
“Th-that’s…”
The head administrator retorted in an overbearing manner to the director’s refusal to experiment.
The director had said that he couldn’t use young children for experiments and refused,
but he knew what kind of aftermath would befall him.
Moreover, after entering the path of a researcher, he had wandered from place to place for decades without settling down,
and had only recently joined the Union’s secret project and obtained the position of director.
For that reason, the director couldn’t open his mouth any further.
“Well… I’ll come back in a month. With the hero.”
Giving them only a month and saying that he would come back with a hero next time was the final word.
It was the same as saying that if they didn’t produce satisfactory results, they wouldn’t be in good shape.
“Tch… What am I supposed to do with these green kids…?”
The explanation that they had no memory of their past due to the villain’s terrorist attack.
And the research report that they had highly valuable and potentially outstanding abilities.
The director felt sorry that the two girls, who were young enough to be his children, were considered test subjects without even a name,
with only a few lines of explanation added.
However, he knew that if he didn’t proceed with the experiment because of that fact, a greater disaster would come,
so he eventually chose to conduct cruel and dangerous experiments on the two girls.
Instead, the director suggested that they become ‘Hero Magical Girls’ rather than simple heroes,
in order to give the two girls a sense of meaning and will in their lives.
“H4301… Your eyes and hair color resemble the light of a seraphinite gemstone.
From now on, I’ll call you Seraphina…”
“Seraphina…”
“And I’ll give H4302 the name Aquamarine.
It’s the name of a gemstone that suits her clear sky and water-like hair color.”
“Aquamarine…!”
Seraphina and Aquamarine.
The gemstones that resembled the two girls’ hair colors became the girls’ names.
“How about this outfit? Isn’t it a really cute and pretty outfit?”
Not a suit exclusively for test subjects that looked like it was covered in white rubber,
nor a shabby white gown that could only be worn when not participating in experiments.
“Why… are you giving us this outfit…?”
“When you become adults… you will become heroes who protect the city and its citizens.
It’s a hero costume that best suits the names Seraphina and Aquamarine.”
Cute and fluttery dresses of various colors and magic wands became the two girls’ hero costumes.
“Hero Magical Girl. Isn’t it a really wonderful name?
You’ll have a special identity just for you… that others don’t have.”
The first meaning of life given to Seraphina and Aquamarine.
Having lived for several years as mere test subjects who would be used and discarded after losing all their memories,
the identity of ‘Hero Magical Girl’ was like a gift to them.
That identity became the reason for them to yearn for their future lives,
and it became the driving force that allowed them to endure harsh and arduous experiments.
Having endured many harsh experiments,
the two girls had become adults who could work as heroes.
“Hero Magical Girl Magical Seraphina!”
“Hero Magical Girl Magical Aquamarine!”
“In the name of hero and magical girl, two names of justice… we will punish you villains!”
Wearing the fluttery dress costumes that the director had made for them,
they began working as heroes, calling themselves ‘Hero Magical Girls’.
However, the world of heroes was as harsh as the arduous experiments they had experienced.
They had to rely solely on the power of their abilities created through the secret research facility’s experiments,
and they had never supported other heroes to gain practical experience, so they often didn’t work well together or made mistakes.
But the two girls didn’t give up.
Because they were not test subjects who would have died inside the research facility under the names H4301 and H4302,
but proper heroes with the names Seraphina and Aquamarine.
Because they were magical girls with shining names, symbols of hope, with a sense of mission and responsibility to protect the city and its citizens from villains.
They carved away at their flesh and blood to create their own combination,
and they never stopped the harsh training to perfectly execute that combination.
And finally, when they faced their fifth villain,
they succeeded in completely subduing the villain without a single scratch.
“Aquamarine… we finally did it with our own strength…!”
“Let’s work harder in the future… and become a wonderful Hero Magical Girl duo!”
The moment the two girls, whose success and failure had been determined by someone else,
felt a sense of accomplishment for finally doing something with their own efforts.
That thrilling and rewarding experience made the two girls move busily.
As the number of villains they defeated increased one by one,
they had to face villains with more overwhelming and powerful strength.
They were the culmination of the technology of the Hero Union’s secret research facility,
and the Union had high expectations for them.
The director had to ensure that the two magical girls’ achievements satisfied the higher-ups,
so he began to conduct increasingly harsh and dangerous experiments and procedures.
At first, he gave them drugs that temporarily exploded adrenaline to increase the output of their abilities.
Then, a week later, he injected special drugs into their autonomic nervous systems,
allowing them to have faster reflexes and judgment speeds than anyone else.
Then, a month later, he applied electric shock treatments to their central nervous systems and brains,
greatly increasing the output of their abilities and making them feel less pain.
And then another month, two months, and three months.
If you add up all the major and minor procedures and experiments they received in a year, it would amount to almost 10.
Seraphina and Aquamarine had to not collapse even while going through even more severe hardships
than when they were test subjects with the names H4301 and H4302.
But no matter how much they were strengthened through numerous enhancement procedures,
it was too much for the bodies of young girls to endure.
“Aquamarine…?! Are you okay?!”
Aquamarine suddenly started bleeding from her nose and collapsing without any warning signs,
“Seraphina…?! What’s wrong all of a sudden?! Grab my hand!”
Seraphina often staggered and fell during battles, or suddenly had difficulty breathing.
The fragile bodies of the young girls began to break down.
Meanwhile, the vicious villains were only getting stronger.
And the anxiety and pressure of having to continue to be driven to that scene.
The two magical girls, who were supposed to be the light of hope protecting the city and its citizens,
were fading like the dim embers of a dying light bulb.
