Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 1 - Chapter 1.1

CHAT #1

The goal of Magical Girl Raising Project’s chat function was to allow the players to communicate through their avatars. Thus, the weekly chats also made use of this function. The chat room, modeled after a conference room, opened its doors, and one after another, the little characters made their way inside.

  Cranberry has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Magicaloid 44 has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Swim Swim has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Top Speed has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Magicaloid 44: Greetings

Top Speed: Sup

Cranberry:  

  Snow White has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Tama has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Nemurin has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Snow White: Good evening! Nice to see you all!

Swim Swim: Yo

Tama: Arf!

  Ripple has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Top Speed: Wow, look who finally decided to show!

  La Pucelle has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Nemurin: Hi

Magicaloid 44: Greetings, rare character

  Ruler has entered the Magical Kingdom.

La Pucelle: Good evening, ladies

  Calamity Mary has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Ruler: Evening.

  Sister Nana has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Winterprison has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Sister Nana: Good evening, everyone. Blessings to you all.

Winterprison: Hey

  Minael has entered the Magical Kingdom.

  Yunael has entered the Magical Kingdom.

Calamity Mary: This message cannot be displayed due to bad language.

Yunael: Hiya!

Minael: Yay!

  Fav has entered the Magical Kingdom.

The chat room was crammed with avatars.

Musician of the Forest, Cranberry flopped back onto the bed she’d been sitting on, magical phone in hand, and rolled over the old sheets onto her stomach. Her hair, fixed with a flower-shaped clip, flipped up softly and brushed against her waist.

If the top of a tall building was the perfect resting spot for magical girls, then an abandoned cabin in the middle of the mountains was the perfect residence for them. Someone like Cranberry, who had no life in the human world, needed only solitude and a roof over her head. The resort hotel near the peak of Mount Takanami, abandoned halfway through construction, had fit her needs for over half a year. No one knew she was there.

Thanks to Fav’s insistence that there would be an important announcement, no one had attempted to skip out on that week’s chat. Some, like Ripple, were clearly there against their will and remained sullenly silent without even an attempt at a greeting, but still, every magical girl active in N City was accounted for. This had never happened once since the weekly chats had begun, and the small room was packed like a can of sardines.

Top Speed: Hey, weren’t we getting a new girl?

Fav: Oh, that’s next week, pon

Fav: Although, this conversation does involve her…

In total, there were fifteen magical girls active in N City, which meant adding a new one the following week would bring the total to sixteen. That was too much, even for a metropolis like N City. The mana that powered their magic depended on the land and was, consequently, a limited resource. The addition of another would drain mana from the land even faster and deplete it in no time.

After summing up the current situation, Fav eagerly made his big announcement.

Fav: And so, we’ll be cutting down on the number of magical girls, pon. Half—eight—is our goal, pon

The room was silent as the girls processed what Fav had just said. A moment later, a storm of criticism, a tide of complaints, and an endless stream of questions and concerns followed. The size of a rock is most understandable from the splash it makes. Speech bubbles from the avatars covered the screen, filled with everything from all caps to colored text, and it became nearly impossible to see anything in the already tiny chat room. Fav bowed and apologized over and over. He even seemed to be shedding fewer scales than normal.

Exactly what method would they use to cut down the numbers?

Fav: This magical girl chat is held once every week, pon

Fav: so once a week we will announce who has been cut here

Fav: for eight weeks until eight of you have been let go, pon

Fav: The one with the fewest magical candies

Fav: will be the one to go, pon

Cranberry was well aware that nobody was about to say, “Who do you think you are, pretending like nothing’s wrong when we’re in this thanks to your incompetence? If that’s how it is, I quit!” They had all joyously accepted their new status as magical girls. Tasting such great power and then losing it would upset anyone. The higher they rose, the harder they fell, and the deeper they despaired.

Fav: To repeat:

Fav: Once a week, the girl with the fewest magical candies will be cut, pon

Fav: So please work your hardest to gather lots of candies, pon

Fav: Fav is very, very sorry for the inconvenience, pon

Fav: Oh, and

Fav: there has been an update to your phones, so please be sure to check that out, pon

Fav: That’s all, pon

Fav: See you here in one week

Cranberry logged out from the chat, turned off her device, and threw it at her pillow.

In the week after the chat, magical-girl sightings spread like wildfire. The Internet was blowing up.

A princess chased away a scary dog.

Twin angels flew through the sky to recover a lost balloon.

A girl in a white school uniform helped push a car out of a ditch.

The farther they spread their activities, the more chances there were for them to be seen. They were desperate to gather as much magical candy as possible to increase their chances of ending up in the final eight, which drove up reckless exposure, traffic for news sites, and public awareness.

“Whatcha lookin’ at, Ripple?”

Ripple, sitting on the roof of an office building, heard a voice from above. She continued to stare at her magical phone, neither answering nor turning toward the sound.

“Oh, is that the news? Everyone’s working so hard now, huh?”

Top Speed alighted next to her, and Ripple finally turned her head.

“Snow White’s really working her butt off. Geez, save some for the rest of us, right?”

Sightings of the white magical girl were leaps and bounds ahead of sightings of the others. She wasn’t even doing anything spectacular. Her assistance came in small, everyday actions like picking up dropped change, ferrying forgotten lunches, and reminding people to zip up their flies. Was helping with mundane difficulties a magical girl’s true purpose? Or was she simply not capable of undertaking greater issues? According to the Internet, at least, it appeared to be the former.

Snow White was the pure and righteous heroine little girls dreamed of becoming—the exact opposite of Ripple, who brushed off praise for her work by saying she was simply “in it for the candy.” It wasn’t that Ripple didn’t want to serve the community, but she was too embarrassed to say otherwise. However, maybe boldly declaring, “I want to help others!” and actually doing so was the correct way to be a magical girl, she mused.

“Ripple, you’re really focused on Snow White, ain’t ya? She your rival?”

Ripple clicked her tongue sharply. The voice felt like cold water jolting her out of her reverie.

“I thought you considered Calamity Mary your rival.”

Another disapproving click. And who exactly was responsible for that mess in the first place?

A few days after Ripple had first transformed, Calamity Mary had come knocking on the roof of the Seventh Sankou building, Ripple’s and Top Speed’s de facto meeting point. Light as a butterfly, she had leaped to them from a neighboring building. As she landed on the roof, Ripple noticed she looked exactly as the rumors stated: like a cowgirl. Not really magical girl–esque, she thought, though she didn’t have any room to judge.

Calamity Mary’s business with them was quite simple.

“You, little girl. Ripple, was it?”

She appeared to be in her second or third year of high school, and she was much more well-endowed than either Ripple or Top Speed. Her breasts and butt were huge. Ripple looked like she was in middle school, which made the “little girl” comment somewhat understandable, she reasoned. So, while it did irk her a bit, she kept her cool and give a small nod.

Calamity Mary flicked her cowboy hat.

“I told Fav I’d be mentoring the next newbie.”

“Oh, y’see, I made Fav promise me a long time ago that if a new girl was assigned to a neighborhood near me, I’d get to mentor her. Good neighbors and all that, right?”

Ripple had been assigned to Nakayado, the center of an area once famous as a castle town, while Top Speed’s area was the northern section of Kitayado. Naturally, they were next to each other.

“It was a really long time ago, so that must be why Fav came to me first. I had no idea you two had an agreement. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Oh?”

Calamity Mary continued to stare at Ripple, sparing no concern for Top Speed groveling with her hat in her hands. Ripple glared back. The uncivilized staring was upsetting enough without Top Speed kowtowing to someone who was ignoring her entirely.

In a flash, Calamity Mary’s gun left its holster and fired at Ripple, who whipped out the sword from the sheath on her back and deflected the incoming bullet. Not a tenth of a second had passed before it was over. Flustered, Top Speed raised her head.

“What’re you two doing?”

“Ain’t it obvious? Huh, little lady?”

Ripple glared hard at the pistol in Calamity Mary’s right hand. Red smoke rose from the long black barrel. It was clearly no ordinary gun. Magic, maybe? Her sword-wielding hand was still numb.

Top Speed inserted herself between the two and spread her hands to both sides.

“Please, sis! Peace! Newbies always need to be taught respect! I’ll scold her later, so please put down that gun. I’m begging ya!” she shouted in Mary’s direction, then whispered to Ripple, “And you, put that away. Someone could get hurt!”

Calamity Mary spun her pistol before dropping it into its holster, and Ripple returned her sword to her back. Top Speed gave a sigh of relief.

“Peace, girls. Peace. We’re all magical girls here, right? Comrades?”

Ripple didn’t know what Calamity Mary was thinking, but she doubted she’d holstered her gun because they were comrades like Top Speed had suggested. She didn’t consider Mary a comrade, and most likely the feeling was mutual.

“Well, all right. I’ll yell at Fav later.” And with that, Calamity Mary grabbed on to the guardrail and flipped over it with ease. At that moment, Ripple’s heart pounded again—in the other girl’s hand was a pistol, aimed at her. She’d totally missed the draw.

Multiple shots rang out. One bullet flew toward Top Speed while two flew toward her. Ripple grabbed her mentor by the collar and forced her down, simultaneously drawing her sword again and deflecting the bullets from a crouch. She came back up ready to retaliate with the throwing knives hidden in her sheath, but Calamity Mary was already gone.

“You two, I swear.”

Top Speed stood herself up, rubbing her nose and forehead like she’d hit them.

“Why’re ya so quick to pull the trigger? Have some damn restraint! Ever heard of it?”

“If someone picks a fight… you have to retaliate…”

“Well, learn to choose your battles! If you go starting shit every time she gets on your nerves, you won’t live long!”

Ripple clicked her tongue. She was rattled and upset—first, with Top Speed for doing nothing the entire time. Second, with Calamity Mary and her bizarre willingness to fire at others without hesitation. And third, with herself for her terror at facing a gun, despite her tough act. She couldn’t stand, her heart raced, and her sweat flowed like rivers, but somehow she barely managed not to cry.

Her right hand tingled from the impact of deflecting the bullets. When she’d become a magical girl and realized how strong she’d become, she had been so sure she couldn’t be killed. Turns out she’d been wrong. Normal humans couldn’t kill her. Most likely not even a disease or traffic accident could. But no matter how sturdy and resilient she was, another one like her could injure her. All of this made her angry.

“You’re a sword with no sheath, like I used to be. Things could get bad if I left you alone. You could get up to some serious danger,” Top Speed said, exasperated. That know-it-all look, those crossed arms, the lecturing—Ripple angrily clicked her tongue again.

Every evening after five o’clock, students packed into the hamburger shop in front of the train station and filled it with a thousand different conversations. The air bubbled with excitement and laughter, but the everyday chaos always stayed under control. The employees and customers were all used to it. Amid the hustle and bustle, three middle school girls occupying the three window seats near the door carried on their conversation like normal. One of them gestured at her smartphone and talked excitedly.

“The sightings are pouring in like crazy! See? Magical girls just have to exist!”

“Sumi… are you still going on about this?”

“Not even you can deny it when there are so many witness reports, Yocchan! They totally exist! So totally exist!”

“Of course I’ll deny it. There’s no freaking way.”

“H-hey, Yocchan, why don’t you believe in them?”

“You tell her, Koyuki! You speak for all the dreamers out there!”

“I dunno how to explain it. It’s just plain embarrassing.”

“Why is it embarrassing?”

“Wow, Koyuki, why’re you so curious?”

“I just am!”

“Like, in anime and stuff, when a girl transforms there’s a second where she’s completely naked, right? It’s like, are you an exhibitionist or something?”

“That doesn’t happen! The media’s lying to you!”

“Calm down, now. We’re only talking about cartoons here, right?”

“Why are you two talking about anime, anyway? This stuff is happening in real life. There are eyewitnesses and everything.”

“There’s no way people can grow wings and fly or get hit by a dump truck and just walk it off.”

“C’mon, Yocchan, dream a little. If something may or may not be real, it’s just more fun to think it’s real.”

“Sumi, you need to come back to Earth. Reality is important.”

“I’m not delusional, okay? I just think it would be cool if they existed, even if I know how reality works. Yocchan, you’re missing out with that attitude. The Internet’s going nuts! There’s info on magical girls everywhere! My favorite’s this one, the one in white. She seems real down-to-earth. I’d be relieved if she came to my rescue. She’s, like, chicken soup for the soul.”

“Koyuki, why are you grinning?”

“I-I’m not! I’m not grinning at all!”

A week later—only seven days, and yet the anticipation had made them feel so long to Cranberry. A glance at any aggregate site revealed just how hard the other girls had been working. None of them wanted to be cut. Cranberry navigated to the chat on her magical phone and logged in.

Attendance was unusually high, similar to last time. Right away, Nemurin was unceremoniously named as the one among them with the least magical candy. She didn’t seem particularly tortured or regretful about the results, just a little embarrassed. While the vast majority of the girls wanted to wield the great power they’d been given, she preferred to listen to their tales of adventure. Cranberry couldn’t recall a week where Nemurin hadn’t been there, and she was always easy to talk to.

But through her perfect attendance, her relationships with the others ran deep. Unlike Cranberry, simply there to be there, she had never missed an opportunity to chat or listen. Everyone knew her. Snow White, Top Speed, and Sister Nana were the most torn up about saying good-bye.

“I’ll be watching you guys on the Internet. I’ll always be cheering for you!”

To which Fav responded, “Well, good-bye, pon.” And the pajama-wearing avatar was gone.

Then the top earner was also announced, which ended up being Snow White by a landslide.

“Everyone, try to emulate Snow White, pon,” Fav said, ending the chat. One by one the girls left, until it was just Fav and Cranberry. She had a question she wanted answered.

Cranberry: I have one question, if you don’t mind

Fav: What is it, pon?

Cranberry: What exactly happens when one loses the right to be a magical girl?

Fav: Girls who have been cut die, pon

Cranberry: Do you mean that figuratively? As in, they die as magical girls?

Fav: It’s a biological death, pon

A franker answer there wasn’t. Cranberry logged out without responding and tossed her magical phone at her pillow, just as she had a week ago. Chat logs were available even to those not present, which meant soon all the magical girls would learn what she and Fav had discussed. This would fundamentally change the implication of “getting the ax,” not to mention the meaning of the game they were playing. Cranberry crossed her hands behind her head and rolled onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling.