Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 1 - Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

FAREWELL TO THE HINDRANCE

Swim Swim’s magical phone rang. Tama fell silent, and even Yunael and Minael stopped chatting to listen to her conversation with Fav. After exchanging a few words, she slipped the phone between her breasts.

“What’s the matter? Did something happen?”

“Sister Nana sent a message. She wants to meet.”

“Seriously?” “Winterprison is scary.” “What do we do?” “What?”

“Above all, deal with strong enemies swiftly.”

If they couldn’t win in a fair fight, then they would just have to fight dirty. Swim Swim gave the angels her instructions.

Atop the desk sat a lone ball of fluffy white fur. The plethora of plush animals in the room wasn’t unusual for a girl to have, but this item was not like the others.

“What is this?”

“The rabbit’s foot listed in the game, pon. Something lucky will happen when you’re in trouble, pon.”

“Why do I have it?”

“Maybe you picked it up after someone dropped it?”

“Who is ‘someone’?”

“Logically speaking, probably Hardgore Alice, pon.”

“Hardgore Alice?”

“The girl who looks like an all-black version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland.”

So it really had happened. Visions of the shambling headless corpse resurfaced. Bile rose in her throat, but she suppressed it. Her heart had never been at peace since La Pucelle died. Every time she remembered her death, the urge to throw up and cry overtook her.

“You won’t lose your sanity at least, so don’t worry, pon. Business depends on our magical girls remaining healthy in body and mind, pon.”

As if he had read her mind, Fav cut off all escape. Anger bloomed in her. She wanted to scream, smash the magical phone, and stamp on the pieces. But she wasn’t brave enough to hang up on the only one she could still converse with.

Hardgore Alice had been decapitated and walked away. Such a scene you’d only see in nightmares—yet it had all been real. Her death hadn’t been reported in chat, so she was still alive. If the rabbit’s foot belonged to her, then what did she think now that Snow White had it? She doubted she would get away with a friendly explanation that she’d picked it up by accident.

“Can’t you give this back to her for me?”

“You’d have to do that in person, pon. Fav can contact her for you though, pon.”

She’d asked precisely because she didn’t want to meet in person, but he didn’t seem to understand. Or maybe he did, and he was saying this on purpose. Was it malice she sensed from the black-and-white sphere floating daintily in the air? Or was it indifference?

Snow White collapsed on the desk and cried. Five minutes of sobbing later, she raised her head, a little recovered. She thought about how much easier it would be to just let her mind go.

From the floor below, her mother called, “Koyuki! Dinnertime!”

“Coming!” She stood from her chair. She reached out to turn off the magical phone, but just before she could, Fav piped up, half an octave higher than normal.

“Oh, I have a message, pon.”

“Message?”

“Sister Nana wishes to meet you, pon. What do you say, pon?”

Magical girls didn’t get many opportunities to meet others like them in person. Of course, if two girls paired up, like Snow White and La Pucelle, Sister Nana and Winterprison, or Top Speed and Ripple, they would naturally see each other. But outside of the mentor system, there weren’t any reasons to meet. No major accidents or events that required them to join forces had occurred since they became active in N City. Plus, some girls were more territorial than others, and they were strong enough to maintain their own areas, so there was no real reason for anyone to set foot in another’s neighborhood.

Sister Nana had visited other territories—except the late Ruler’s—with friendly intentions before, but after Calamity Mary nearly killed her, she had adopted a firm policy of noninvolvement and nonintervention. That is, until this game to reduce the number of magical girls to eight.

Personally, Snow White had only ever met Sister Nana and Winterprison in real life once, before Sister Nana stopped leaving her house.

Snow White arrived early, but Sister Nana and Winterprison were already there. Every time she saw Winterprison, she marveled at how cool she looked. She was more like a prince than a magical girl. As for Sister Nana, she exuded kindness. The solemn abandoned supermarket serving as their meeting place reminded her of a run-down chapel.

“It is good to see you again, Snow White.”

“Hey.”

“Hello, Sister Nana! Hello, Winterprison!”

“I heard about La Pucelle. It is… truly regrettable…” She clasped Show White’s hands and dropped her head.

Tears stung Snow White’s eyes. Was she happy that others missed La Pucelle, too, or did remembering La Pucelle’s death make her sad? She couldn’t rightly say.

Sister Nana raised her head.

“We cannot allow such tragedy to continue. This is the time for us to band together! We can pool our knowledge and find a solution!”

The tears welling in her eyes spilled over. Sister Nana’s hands were warm and secure around hers. Everyone she’d met since the start of the game had been hostile, save for La Pucelle. None of them had spared a kind word or needed her. To them, she was no more than prey.

Snow White nodded.

“I want to help… Please, let me help!”

“Oh, thank you, Snow White! Let us work hard together.”

Great tears continued pouring from Snow White’s eyes, and through her blurred vision she could see Sister Nana smiling. Maybe it was the tears, but her smile looked crooked somehow. Still, it was reassuring. Sister Nana looked away and spoke to someone behind Snow White.

“What do you say? You left before we could hear your answer the other day.”

Had she invited another magical girl? Snow White turned around toward whoever Sister Nana was talking to—and there was Hardgore Alice, a dark parody of her namesake, peeking out from the entrance to the supermarket. Snow White bit back a scream and jumped to hide behind Winterprison. Her hands were still firmly held by Sister Nana’s, so she nearly fell over trying to change places with the nun, but nonetheless she moved extraordinarily fast.

“Um… Do you two know each other?”

“Yes, we do.”

Hardgore Alice answered before Snow White could tell her about the attack. All the girl in white could do was quiver in fear behind Winterprison. Suspicion darkened the prince-like girl’s expression, but Sister Nana continued without concern for Snow White’s reaction.

“Um, well then… Will you help us, Hardgore Alice?”

“Yes. I understand. I will help.”

Hardgore Alice spoke blankly, like she was reading off a script. Her inelegant speech sounded like a translation of her response from a foreign language.

“Oh, today is such a wonderful day! Thank you so much!”

Apparently Sister Nana didn’t doubt her sincerity. She ran over to Hardgore Alice, clasped her hands, and shook them vigorously, just like she had with Snow White.

The last thing Snow White wanted was to end up alone with Hardgore Alice by accident. But Sister Nana’s constant delighted exclamations (“We four are united in purpose!”) left her no opportunity to tell them the truth.

“I have other meetings with magical girls planned for today. Perhaps our ranks will yet increase,” Sister Nana mused happily.

Unable to think of a reason to stop her, Snow White ended up in the one situation she wanted to avoid—alone with Hardgore Alice. She tried to mutter a good-bye and extricate herself, but when she turned she discovered Hardgore Alice following her. Awkwardly, she smiled and bowed, then set off quickly, rounded a corner, and looked back. She was still there. A shiver went up her spine.

Maybe she’d only been playing nice earlier because Sister Nana and Winterprison were there. But with them gone, she probably felt free to attack. Snow White put up her guard, but Hardgore Alice just stared, unmoving, as if her eyes had been glued there.

Oh, right.

Remembering, Snow White reached into her pocket. Her fingers touched soft fur, and she pulled out the rabbit’s foot. She held it out to Hardgore Alice.

“Is this yours? Um, I didn’t steal it. It was just there when I woke up, honest.”

That was the truth, but it seemed like a flimsy excuse. Snow White backed up, still holding out the rabbit’s foot.

“No.”

“Huh? Am I wrong?”

“That belongs to you.”

“N-no, I’ve never owned something like this.”

“I gave it to you. To Snow White. So it’s yours.”

“Huh? Why? Why would you give it to me?”

Hardgore Alice suddenly cocked her head, startling Snow White. She almost expected her head to fall off again. What exactly had happened the night Magicaloid 44 beheaded her? On closer inspection, there were no scars or bandages on her neck. A natural assumption would be that her magic was responsible, but the power to survive decapitation was too much to believe.

“Because I felt like it.”

“Huh?”

“I felt like it, so I gave it to you.”

“But why—?”

Hardgore Alice cocked her head again and stared.

“Because I felt like it.”

Yesterday, Hardgore Alice had been a blood-covered monster that could move even after death, inspiring a self-explanatory fear. But this Hardgore Alice… this magical girl cocking her head at Snow White… blocked the way as an unfathomable object of terror.

Water gushed from the fountain in the center of the town square in a simple rhythm. The show of flashing lights and changing spray arcs was over. The fountain simply continued its work in a robotic manner—though it was in fact a machine—as if the lively waterworks of only a few minutes ago had never even taken place. The spectators drifted away one by one, abandoning the benches around the fountain, signaling the end of the light show.

Ripple tsked.

Every month on the fifteenth at ten PM, the fountain in N City’s central park square hosted a light show. The infrequency of the lovely display made it particularly special—the lights even changed depending on the season, flaring bright pink in April when the cherry blossoms were in bloom and replicating exploding fireworks in August—and ensured more people came to watch.

A bigger audience meant more problems, and more work for a magical girl. All the potential witnesses also lowered the risk of an attack.

Top Speed’s plan had seemed sound, so Ripple had agreed. They watched the entire affair from the roof of the park’s multipurpose auditorium, completed the previous summer, but not a single problem had cropped up. After enjoying the colorful display, the people quietly left. The only thing the girls had done was dispose of cans, empty convenience store food containers, and broken glass before people showed up.

Had this been Jounan, would there have been more of a disturbance? A fight or two might have broken out in Kubegahama and Kobiki, where fishermen and tradesmen still resided. But nothing of the sort happened in Nakayado. That was what made it Nakayado, after all, and while Ripple liked that aspect, right now what she wanted more than anything was a problem.

The ninja tsked again. Perhaps she should be happy about the peace, but there was no way for her to earn candy.

“Man, good thing nothing happened.”

“It’s not a good thing…”

“Hmm? Ya say something?”

“No…”

“Wasn’t that a pretty sight? The moon was out and everything, so we could see the lights all the way from over here. We shoulda brought some booze to watch it with.”

Ripple reached into a Tupperware container, picked out a mushroom with her fingers, and popped it into her mouth. Top Speed could be annoying, but her cooking was always good. The stewed vegetables were juicy with soup stock.

“I can’t drink alcohol…”

“Why not?”

“I’m underage…”

“Huh? You mean not just as a magical girl, but for real? In real life? Wow, I just can’t see it. Ripple, how old are you actually?”

“Seventeen…”

“Seriously? I’m nineteen.”

If Ripple wasn’t wrong, a nineteen-year-old was still a minor in their country. Naturally, that meant she shouldn’t be drinking. Ripple clicked her tongue.

“So, you’re younger than me, huh? I thought you were my age. Maybe older.”

She had thought she was older and still used that tone with her? Ripple made her signature sound of irritation and reached out for another stewed veggie. Potato this time. It was good.

“Is school fun?”

“It’s whatever…”

“You have friends?”

“No…”

“What about family?”

“No…”

“Man, you seem just like me when I was seventeen. I’m getting déjà vu here. Creepy.”

Not many could resist pointlessly acting older once they learned they were talking to someone younger—Ripple thought it was inane, but she didn’t tell Top Speed that.

“You’re super-honest, though. You answer any question I ask. When I was seventeen, I was more like a knife. Like, anyone who tried to get close got cut. I’m all dull now, though.”

Ripple clicked her tongue.

“Ripple, Ripple.”

A high-pitched synthetic voice came from her magical phone. Fav turned it on remotely and projected a hologram.

“Fav has a message for you, pon. Calamity Mary wants to meet. She’ll be waiting at the Hotel Priestess in Nakayado at eleven PM two days from now, pon.”

Ripple looked at Top Speed, and Top Speed looked at Ripple.

“C’mon, Ripple. No need to look so grumpy.”

Apparently her distaste showed in her expression. Well, she hated the idea. Hated it a lot. The fear of staring down a gun still hadn’t faded, even months later. Sometimes she had nightmares of her death at Calamity Mary’s hands.

“I’ll pass…”

“Whoa, you’ll pass? I know how you feel, but don’cha think something really bad could happen if ya don’t go? I’m getting serious bad vibes—my one tiny wish to live another six months might not come true because of this.”

“Would you stop that…?”

“Hmm?”

“Tell me why you keep saying six months already…”

“Oh…”

“Hey, Ripple! Ripple!”

From within the projected image, Fav flapped his wing vigorously. So many scales flew off that a yellow cloud seemed to cover the image, nearly blocking him out.

“Calamity Mary says it’s important.”

Ripple looked at Top Speed, and Top Speed looked at Ripple.

“Seriously, no need to look so grumpy.”

Ripple clicked her tongue.

Swim Swim wasn’t the only one who knew Ruler had been cautious of Calamity Mary—Tama and the Peaky Angels did, too. “Cautious” was a weak word to describe her attitude, though; perhaps “hated” was more fitting. She’d seen Calamity Mary as an enemy and something in her way.

But despite all this, she had never tried to start a fight with her. The first target she’d chosen to steal candy from was Snow White, not Calamity Mary. Ruler had hated and feared the gunslinger at the same time. Why this was, Swim Swim did not know. The two had become magical girls long before Swim Swim had, so while she could guess what might have happened, she doubted she’d ever truly know. For now, all she knew was that Calamity Mary was scary and nearly untouchable and that Winterprison, who’d gone toe-to-toe with her, was on the same level.

Every magical girl in the city knew how Winterprison had fought Calamity Mary to save Sister Nana. The nun had made sure to brag about Winterprison’s strength in chat after.

Ruler was Swim Swim’s idol, but also someone to surpass.

And Ruler had feared Calamity Mary above all.

The only one to fight on even terms with Calamity Mary was Winterprison—who would be arriving soon.

If she could beat Winterprison, could she beat Calamity Mary? Surely it wasn’t that simple. But possible victory was infinitely better than defeat. Ruler would have thought the same.

Both parties agreed to meet at Ouketsuji. If they didn’t manage to win on their home turf, they’d definitely lose their base. But regardless of the risks, she was set on Ouketsuji. It was easier to set up traps in a familiar place, and they had the land advantage if a battle broke out.

That didn’t mean they needed to do anything fancy, though. Ruler had never been a fan of complicated things and always insisted that plans be as simple as possible.

Swim Swim peered outside through the skylight. Filtered by the glass, the courtyard appeared faded. Something was moving—a bug? An endlessly chirping autumn insect, or a predatory insect eyeing it for a meal? Between Winterprison’s group and hers, which was the predator and which was the prey?

Suddenly the chirping stopped, signaling the arrival of Sister Nana and her companion. Two sets of footsteps creaked across the floorboards in the silent temple. The sound of a door opening followed the creaking, and the two faces appeared in the entrance. Swim Swim’s eyebrow rose slightly. Sister Nana was in front. She wasn’t supposed to be there.

“It is good to see you again, Swim Swim. Thank you for your candy donation before.”

Silently, Swim Swim stood up. She could sense tension from behind Sister Nana—or, more accurately, from the person behind her. Sister Nana was smiling pleasantly, not perturbed in the slightest.

“Snow White and Hardgore Alice just recently agreed to join us.”

Swim Swim took a step forward. Winterprison stayed still. Another step. And another. Finally, Winterprison moved protectively in front of Sister Nana. There. Perfect.

“Go.”

As Swim Swim gave the signal, Sister Nana screamed from behind Winterprison. Still wary of Swim Swim, Winterprison turned around, and her face froze in horror. Sister Nana shakily pointed at Sister Nana—there were two of them now. The other nun pushed past the first and clung to Winterprison. Dumbfounded and unable to process what was going on, Winterprison took her in her arms—and received a dagger to the chest.

Even with a dagger embedded in her, Winterprison remained calm.

There were two Sister Nanas. One was screaming, the other grinning; one was crying, the other holding a bloody dagger. The Sister Nana with the weapon kicked Winterprison and backed off. Her body began warping. It bent, twisted, stretched, shrunk, and changed color, and after numerous transformations, the second Sister Nana became two angels. They smiled maliciously, not even trying to hide their excitment. That was when she understood how there had been two Sister Nanas, and how that tiny dagger had pierced her sturdy, muscular body.

Winterprison smiled back. Blood running from her mouth, she smiled. Her enemies were fools. Why had they changed back? If they had stayed as Sister Nana, she never could have attacked, even if she knew it was a fake.

One of them had transformed into the magic dagger that now pierced Winterprison’s heart. Blood gushed from her chest. She couldn’t breathe. Her consciousness dimmed. But she wouldn’t die for a few more seconds. She couldn’t die just yet.

“Run!” she shouted at Sister Nana, then activated her magic. Walls of earth shot up, breaking through the floorboards—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Stirring up clouds of dirt, the barriers struck the ceiling and trapped the angels. It was a prison.

Winterprison closed the gap in one stride. Balling her left fist hard, she drove her hand into the earthen walls and shattered them, crushing one little angel within.

One angel left: the one who had transformed into the dagger.

Winterprison chopped at her, attempting to rip through her neck with her bare right hand. Unfortunately, the blood spray from her first attack got in her eye, and as the blood loss reached a critical level, she just barely missed the timing. Her target inside the prison ducked, and Winterprison chopped through the upper half of the earthen walls. She tried to attack again, but a hole suddenly opened up beneath her and threw off her balance. Swim Swim attacked, chopping off her right arm.

Winterprison watched her limb arc through the air. She remembered how she’d stroked Sister Nana’s hair with that hand, those fingers.

She couldn’t sense Sister Nana nearby. Fortunately, she seemed to have escaped. Winterprison relaxed. Please, please be safe, she prayed, before dropping to her knees and lowering her head.

After Minael had transformed into a dagger, Yunael had held her and hid under the invisibility cloak. She waited until Sister Nana arrived, then shape-shifted into her. With the real thing right in front of her, her disguise was perfect. Then she’d thrown off the invisibility cloak and shown herself to Winterprison.

The events with Calamity Mary had suggested Winterprison would protect Sister Nana no matter what. But if she suddenly had two people to protect, and one even attacked her, surely Winterprison would be too confused to react.

And up until the stabbing, things had worked out perfectly. But then Yunael lost her life in the counterattack, and Sister Nana ran away so quickly, no one spotted her. It was hardly a success.

Minael wailed and clung to the body of a girl about university age. This was Yunael’s real form. Tama sobbed next to her, too.

“Yuna… Yuna saved me in the end, didn’t she?”

“Mm-hmm. Yeah.”

“Yuna… Yuna…”

“Mm…”

Swim Swim’s powerlessness weighed painfully on her shoulders. Ruler would have done better. Swim Swim still couldn’t measure up. She had to learn from this mistake for next time.

Alcohol didn’t serve as a cure-all for long. For one, it was expensive. Two, there were the hangovers. Three, her husband’s complaints. Thanks to that, alcohol never really became that magic medicine.

Eventually, her daughter became an outlet for her frustrations. Under the pretext of “discipline,” she kicked her, beat her, burned her with cigarettes, and starved her. When she was drunk, the abuse became a wonderful source of stress relief, until her worthless husband ran away with the victim.

She’d enjoyed bullying her daughter because of her own weakness. The weak could only bully the weaker, after all, and her daughter sufficed for that. But it was a stopgap for what she really wanted. Her true wish was to torment someone stronger. The desperate pleas of a swaggering gangster gratified her in a way her daughter never could have.

The strong, the self-important, the beautiful, the clever, the confident—the expressions of the esteemed when they fell to their knees at unstoppable violence! With pleasure like that, she’d never need to touch alcohol again.

A small compact rested on her ebony desk. The little mirror reflected a woman in her thirties, nearly forty. She was the definition of a middle-aged woman past her prime. A wide smile spread across her face.

She put her hands to her cheeks and shouted, “Calamity Miracle Kuru Kururin! Transform into the magical gunslinger, Calamity Mary!”

Gone was the tired woman in the mirror. Now she had a holster strapped to her left thigh, a sheriff’s badge on her breast, a tiny mole under her left eye, thick blond hair extending down to her hips from underneath her ten-gallon hat, voluptuous breasts barely covered by a bikini-style top, a miniskirt exposing practically everything, soft thighs, long legs, and spurred cowboy boots. Popping her shapely hips to one side, she struck a pose. In the mirror now was a beautiful creature.

There was no need to chant or pose while transforming, but in all the anime Calamity Mary had watched as a child, none of the girls could transform without it. Thus, she should do the same. There was no deeper meaning behind it.

Calamity Mary understood her role. She was happy with it. It meant she could shame magical girls, the strongest and most honorable creatures in existence, and crush them underfoot. To her gun belt she attached the four-dimensional bag, containing all kinds of important tools.

Ten minutes had passed since she left the club. She’d ordered Fav to send for Ripple, then made her way to Ripple’s designated neighborhood, Nakayado, to meet her. It was currently 10:45 PM. It was almost time.

Japan National Route X, which the locals called “High Road,” passed through Nakayado. Like its nickname indicated, the road stood thirty feet above the ground. Traffic law enforcement here was relatively lenient for a public highway, and this, combined with the sparse traffic outside of the New Year’s rush, meant that vehicles often raced by at speeds far above the speed limit.

From her perch atop the tallest hotel in the city, the Hotel Priestess, Calamity Mary watched the road. The cold wind whipped around her cheeks, threatening to blow away her ten-gallon hat, so she pulled it down tighter. Strong winds made sniping difficult, but with Calamity Mary’s magic, a regular weapon became an enchanted weapon. Its power, bullet speed, accuracy, and range were all optimal. No amount of wind would matter. The guns also became easier to handle and maintain. Calamity Mary withdrew one of them from her four-dimensional bag.

It was the Dragunov, a sniper rifle developed by Soviet Russia. While its slim design made it easier to transport, the extra kick made it more difficult to actually use. But none of this mattered to someone with her powers. Calamity Mary held the rifle lazily and squeezed the trigger. With semi-auto mode off, she fired bullet after bullet in rapid succession, but each one found its mark in a car. The Dragunov, designed for urban warfare, was sold for its ability for quick fire.

An explosion, then a fiery plume. One by one, she destroyed the cars on High Road. A flaming tire rolled across the road. When the vehicles erupted into flames, the ones behind them slammed into the blazing wreckage, and so did the ones behind them. The Dragunov picked off the vehicles lucky enough to escape the pileup. The night road was as bright as day.

One man managed to stop his car and jump out in a panic, and she shot him for sport. She thought his guts would explode all over the asphalt, but the truth was far harsher. He didn’t just explode—he was erased. Everything above the kneecaps gone without a trace.

A sniper rifle was too powerful as an antipersonnel weapon. It was no fun. Cars were better game than people.

And magical girls were even better.

If she took Ripple on directly, Top Speed would interfere. And if Top Speed fled at full speed, Mary would have no way to catch up. If she wanted to fight Ripple, she had to give her a reason. A noble do-gooder would show up to defeat the evil woman destroying her city and its innocent civilians.

Angering Ripple also made her happy. Two birds, one stone. And after she’d slaughtered Ripple, the town would be crawling with people looking for help—the perfect chance to earn candy. Calamity Mary pulled the trigger until the magazine was empty, destroying everything on the highway.

This was all because of one mistake. If Ripple had just bowed her head the first time they’d met, she would have killed her and that would have been the end of it. But she hadn’t, and now Calamity Mary was obsessed. It was all Ripple’s fault.

Calamity Mary could not abide those who did not fear her.