Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 10 - Chapter 4

The Yakuza-Angel Business

The black leather seat was softer than her sofa at home, and nice to sit on. There was so little vibration and sound that if she didn’t look out the window, she’d forget she was in a car on the road. However—was she comfortable? The answer was no. The grim man with the shaved head sitting in the driver’s seat, the young man with crossed arms and blond swept-up hair in the passenger seat, and the man sitting beside her with a beard and an aggressive yakuza perm were all completely silent, never opening their mouths, not even glancing over at her.

An air of silence and heaviness filled the car, but she didn’t feel like starting any conversations. How had things wound up like this? How could she escape this predicament? Her thoughts ran around in circles; there was no glimmer of hope to be seen. But she couldn’t let them know she was freaking out, so she put on an act like she wasn’t thinking anything, leaning back in her seat as she gazed out at the scenery sweeping past.

“We’re here.” The guy with the shaved head finally spoke, only to give her information she didn’t want to hear. “Please do just as we discussed.”

There was no discussion! Yunael, transformed into Calamity Mary, cried inside her head.

  Yunael

The sisters Mina and Yuna Amasato were often treated as a two-in-one package deal, as one set.

They did things together because they had many overlapping interests. They wore similar clothes for fun and hung out together because it was fun, and each sort of knew what was on the other’s mind. With so many reasons for them to stay together, they didn’t live apart. They didn’t think much about being treated as a set, and the two of them were together wherever they went, to the point where even if one got a boyfriend, the other still wouldn’t go away, so their romantic relationships had never lasted long. Nevertheless, the two of them were satisfied with this state of affairs.

Mina and Yuna had also simultaneously become magical girls through Magical Girl Raising Project. They’d started the game because it was free to play, and they’d both gotten really into it, forgetting day and night as they became obsessed, until one day a holographic mascot character had said to them, “This is the first case where a pair of twins became magical girls, pon.”

With the introduction of their duo name of “Peaky Angels,” they were a set even as magical girls. And because they even shared an ID on their magical phones, their attempt at sockpuppeting on the message boards had been exposed. However, that blunder had only strengthened their bond, and thereafter, the twin angels grew even closer as magical girls. And there was one more reason they’d gotten closer: They now had a common enemy.

After finishing their magical-girl work, the Peaky Angels came straight back from Ouketsuji to the apartment where they lived. And straight back meant literally straight back—they took the shortest route possible, flying in a beeline above N City, returning through their seventh-floor window. Even once they got home, they stayed in their magical-girl forms and flitted around near the ceiling, chattering noisily.

It was always like this on days when Ruler chewed them out. The Peaky Angels would get angry, freak out, wail, and enthusiastically trash-talk Ruler. They’d whine and complain about her incessantly: “What a nasty woman,” or “I’d like to make her cry,” or “One day, I wanna give her a taste of her own medicine.”

Those days when Ruler yelled at them, the twins always had animated discussions talking smack about her, but then ultimately would come to the sad conclusion that they couldn’t oppose her, thus bringing their discussion to an end. But on this particular day, things were a bit different.

“Honestly, who the heck does she think she is?”

“She thinks she’s the Great Ruler, doesn’t she? That’s how you’d probably answer, if she asked.”

“For sure, she’s sooo arrogant.”

“It’s way past forgivable, right?”

“Ugh, it pisses me off!”

“It totally does!”

“It’d feel so good to sock her one.”

“But she’s real strong.”

When the twins had become magical girls, Ruler had been the one to take on the role of their mentor. Thinking back now, that had clearly just been unnecessary busybodying, and Yunael figured that if Sister Nana or whoever had been their mentor instead, then they’d have more freedom as magical girls. But unfortunately, newbies couldn’t choose their mentors. After going through the experience of having their bodily freedom robbed from them and being controlled—an experience they never wanted to repeat—the twins had stopped trying to openly defy her. They had been forced onto this team by authoritarian means (though if more democratic means had been used, the twins would have won by majority rule) and were ordered around, and whenever there was something Ruler didn’t like, she’d take it out on them, yelling and screaming at them over the littlest mistakes. There was nothing good about having Ruler as a mentor, but given how strong she was, rebellion wasn’t an option for the twins.

“Ruler’s a moron!”

“Ruler’s a dummy!”

“Ruler’s a ninny!”

“A dim bulb!”

“A dunderhead!”

“A lamebrain!”

It wasn’t as if they were incapable of seeing the futility of letting off steam by insulting her when she wasn’t around, but if they got defiant and did something in her presence, Ruler would fly into a rage. And if the twins bore the brunt of that anger, they didn’t think they could resist. Their own magic was a peaceful kind, compared to Ruler’s—nothing scary about it.

But still—still—couldn’t they somehow strike a blow in retaliation?

“Okay, then I guess it’s about time for this week’s observation report. Did you find out any weaknesses of hers?”

“How about making her eat lots of salt? She’s always so angry all the time, so like, if we give her high blood pressure, maybe her arteries’ll pop and she’ll collapse.”

“Isn’t that a little too roundabout?”

“Okay, then, how about making her eat tons of sweet stuff instead? I hear diabetes has like, lots of complications and stuff; it’s super-scary.”

“That’s still roundabout.”

Even as the Peaky Angels complained and whined, they were also fumbling around looking for a way to knock the wind out of Ruler’s sails. They’d also considered getting help from the others, Swim Swim and Tama, but adding allies would make their secret that much easier to leak. They couldn’t even be sure they could call those two allies in the first place. Swim Swim was the biggest sycophant, and she didn’t seem to be at all dissatisfied with Ruler’s reign. Tama was too timid to be of any help; if Ruler tried to pry any information out of her, she probably wouldn’t be able to take it and would spill their whole rebellion plan.

The twins didn’t need any allies other than themselves. Their numbers were few, but they could trust each other more than anyone.

“So did you have a better scheme, sis?” Yunael asked her older twin.

“Well, actually…I do!”

“You do?! For real?! I thought you were just complaining because you had nothing to offer!”

“Hey, that’s what you thought? So mean!”

“Come on, come on, just tell me!”

“So like, at the beginning of the week, Fav called us, right? He was like, ‘A lot of you girls have low participation rates in the chat, so I want you to be more serious about joining in, pon.’”

“Oh, yeah, yeah. That verbal tic of his is sooo annoying.”

“And that time he was like, ‘Calamity Mary in particular has basically never participated, pon,’ right?”

“Yeah, he did say that.”

“So you caught that, too, huh, sis? And, like, Ruler got this reeeeeally nasty look on her face when she heard Calamity Mary’s name.”

“Ahh, so they don’t get along?”

“So then, like, I tried something out. Right before leaving that day, I said to Ruler: ‘Y’know, I saw someone today on the corner by Takino Buddhist Goods who looked like Calamity Mary. I wonder if that was her.’”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh. So then what?”

“Ruler was super-shocked. And then after that, she kept bugging me about it like crazy, too. Like, ‘Was it really Mary? What was she doing? What direction did she come from? What direction did she leave in?’”

“What the heck?! Is she scared of her?”

“You got it! Ruler is totally freaked out by Mary. We heard Mary is super-strong, right? Sister Nana also said something like that once. Ruler’s strong, too, but this means Mary is dangerous enough that even Ruler is scared of her.”

“This could be some real useful intel… But isn’t it dangerous to ask Mary for anything? Like, I heard that if you even get close to her territory, she’ll shoot. Though I also heard that from Sister Nana.”

“Yeah. It’d be totally insane to get tangled up with someone even more dangerous because we wanna get back at Ruler. But that’s why big sis here thought up a way to use Mary without ever coming into contact with her.”

“Ohh, for real? So what do we do?”

“You, Yuna, transform into Mary to freak out Ruler.”

“Ohh!”

“Let’s just make it so we give her a glimpse, so she doesn’t find out it was us who did it. Seeing how freaked she was before, even a brief look at Mary should be enough to knock her off her high horse. It’ll be like psychological warfare.”

“Wow! You’re so magi-cool, sis!” Yunael said. “But you don’t think Mary’ll find out?”

“Mary doesn’t know what our magic is, and besides, Ruler wouldn’t go contact Mary, right?”

“Oh, I get it, I get it. So then it’s the perfect plan!”

The two angels chattered excitedly as they bounced around near the ceiling, and then a wing hit the lampshade, scattering dust all around. That reminded them that they hadn’t cleaned lately, and the two of them took out a vacuum cleaner and duster and such out of the closet and started cleaning, and as they moved around, their mouths never stopped, either, discussing their plan to scare Ruler.

The elder sister, Minael, could transform into any object, while the younger sister, Yunael, could turn into any creature. Ultimately, they merely imitated the appearance—for example, if Yunael were to transform into Ruler, she couldn’t actually use Ruler’s magic. But for this plan, imitation alone would suffice.

But in order to do a proper imitation, they couldn’t skimp on preparation. And given who their subject was this time, even just investigating was super-dangerous. The pair watched a string of movies: famous ones about warring Italian Mafia families, Japanese direct-to-video yakuza flicks, kung fu action films about rival Chinese crime syndicates. Then, with firm determination in their hearts, they went into action.

The Peaky Angels confirmed Sister Nana’s information in the chat log, then went to stake out the front of the high-rise where Calamity Mary was frequently sighted. Since they’d be in big trouble if she found out they were in her territory, Yunael waited in the form of a crow on top of a power line, and Minael as a wrench they’d established had been forgotten on top of a telephone pole by a repairman.

The two of them lacked patience. And a stakeout required patience. Waiting and waiting for Mary when they didn’t even know when she would come was basically like a form of penance for them, but nevertheless, they restrained the urge to abandon the task and continued the stakeout. No matter how painful a struggle it was, the twins waited patiently for the sake of striking back at Ruler and scaring her. They got blasted by strong winds and fully drenched in a sudden downpour, but still they believed there would be relief at the end of their suffering. The twins encouraged each other as they continued their waiting game, and thirty minutes after they began their stakeout, finally, the person they’d been waiting for appeared.

She was dressed in the style of a gunslinger out of a Western, but with a risqué bikini top, while on the bottom she wore a skirt that was about as short as it could get—her figure was beautifully full to the point that the term “magical girl” wasn’t really appropriate, with a healthy bounce to it.

From atop the telephone pole, Yunael fixed her eyes on Mary, who took bold strides, as if there was no need for her to feel reserved with anyone, her sheriff’s badge swaying along with her voluptuous breasts. Her expression was full of confidence, as if she were at her peak and on top of the world. Yunael firmly impressed in her mind Mary’s facial features, her hairstyle, her figure, her clothing, and even every single one of her accessories. She had to remember these things with complete accuracy in order to transform into a specific person. If Ruler found them out because one thing had been slightly off, they’d lose everything. Footsteps light, Mary entered the building, and Yunael the crow picked up the wrench in her mouth and slowly descended, detransforming behind a plastic bucket in an alley.

They were all ready. All that was left was to see if she could pull off the transformation well. Yunael had only ever turned into another magical girl once. She’d turned into Ruler and done all sorts of bad things as part of a plot to destroy her reputation, only to be quickly found out since “You’re the only one who could do that, Yunael.” Nevertheless, her failure had proved useful for building experience in transforming into a different magical girl.

She recalled Mary, whom she’d seen just a moment ago. She pictured the movements of her muscles and the flow of her hair. Yunael’s body glowed, then changed form, growing, taking shape, and she stood up. Now she ought to be a perfect replica of Calamity Mary. From what she could see of her limbs and torso, there was no problem there. What remained was the head. Yunael-Mary strode out of the back alley and looked left and right, searching for anything she could use to see herself in, and, noticing the glass door on a building, she headed over there.

She checked out her appearance in the glass—lifting her legs, rotating her arms, and striking a pose. A wink, a thrown kiss, a double peace sign. The glass door reflected a perfect Calamity Mary, not an inch different from what Yunael had seen earlier.

“Boss, you came all the way out here to wait for us?”

Hearing a man’s voice right up close, Yunael turned around wondering what was up to see a man with a violent aura: a loud red shirt, thick rings on his fingers, hair that defied gravity in an even louder color than his shirt. He was looking straight at her. Yunael glanced around, and, seeing there wasn’t anyone else around he could be talking to, she realized, Ohh, he thinks I’m Mary.

“Then we’ll be countin’ on you again today.”

“Ahh, um.”

The man squinted one eye. “Boss, your voice… You got a cold?”

“Oh, um, yeah.”

“Should I get you some medicine?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“All right, if you don’t need any. This way, then. I’ve brought the car over.”

This is bad, Yunael thought. But she couldn’t run away. If she ran off now and caused a commotion, then the real Calamity Mary, who had gone into the building, might come back out, and if that happened, there was an 80–90 percent chance Yunael would get killed. The other 10–20 percent was the chance of something worse than death. Calamity Mary was stronger than Ruler; she was someone even Ruler was scared of. It’d be best to get at least a little ways away from here before making her escape. With that in mind, Yunael left behind the wrench (who had missed her moment to detransform) and got into the black foreign car.

Before Yunael could even really figure out what was going on or seize an opportunity to get away, she was taken to the edge of town, where they arrived at a cement factory. When Yunael-Mary staggered out of the car, all the men bowed their heads.

“The usual, if you please, boss.”

It would have been so much easier if she could just ask them, What do you mean, the usual?

The men seemed to find it suspicious that she didn’t respond, as one timidly raised his head. “Umm…you don’t mind, right?”

Yunael considered how to answer, but couldn’t think of any good plan at all. As the silence continued, the confusion and bafflement on the men’s faces increased, and, seeing that, Yunael-Mary cleared her throat. Time for a snap decision.

“Um…boss?”

“You think I can’t do it unless you come ask me for it?”

The men stepped back as if they’d been repelled, then bowed their heads at an even greater angle than before. Yunael-Mary pressed her right hand to her chest. A dizziness came along with the feeling of her heart pounding.

The car was stopped in the factory parking lot, and, sandwiched in between the men, she went inside. There, some scary-looking men who didn’t seem much different from Mary’s men came out to meet her, and they began a discussion.

That said, it was less a discussion and more an exchange of threats. Criminal sorts of lingo like “turf” and “the goods” and “hustle” flew back and forth like it was nothing. The factory had been closed and all the machines removed, leaving only ruins. There was a room with sofas in it that looked like it had been an office or something—on the wall hung a calendar from a brothel, and there was a cardboard box packed with cell phones, plus a glossy black sideboard, a thick wooden table, and even a safe that seemed sturdy. It seemed they’d made this some kind of base, but she didn’t want to think about exactly what sort.

The discussion continued. The men who’d brought her there were winning. The reason for that was Mary. They were threatening the other gang, with the absolute violence that was Calamity Mary backing them. The other guys hadn’t given up, and they were pushing through somehow, but their attention never left Mary. They kept glancing at her again and again, but then, when their eyes met, they’d panic and look away.

The man with the shaved head who had been the driver quietly approached Mary’s chair, leaning in to whisper, “These jackasses ain’t givin’ you proper respect, boss.”

The smell of tobacco on his breath made her grimace. More than anything, however, she was so frightened that she didn’t know what to say.

“Could you do that thing to shut ’em up for us?”

Yunael-Mary turned to the man. He had a nasty smile on his face, and his bald head shone dully.

That thing. What was “that thing”? She glanced to the side to see that the men over there were also eyeing her. On the other side, and behind her, and in front of her, all the men in the room were looking at her—the men who had brought her in with expressions of expectation, the men who had come to meet them with expressions of fear. They observed her closely from every direction, so as not to miss even a single muscle twitch.

She didn’t have time to think. Simply remembering the suspicious expressions on the men from before made her feel like her heart would burst. Yunael-Mary raised up her right leg, and all the men’s eyes focused there. Once enough gazes had gathered on her raised foot, her thigh, and the juncture directly above that, she swung it down to slam her heel into the table, cracking open the thick wood with a single strike. The eyes of both enemy and ally widened as they clung to their chairs. Any magical girl—not just Mary, but even Yunael, who was weaker than Tama or Swim Swim—had legs strong enough to do this much.

Crushing the remains of the table underfoot, Yunael-Mary stood. “You’re asking me to shut them up for you? In other words, you’re giving me orders?”

The bald guy shook his head violently, like a spasm.

Yunael-Mary spun back the other way, whipping her hair, and next, she asked the men sitting opposite her a question. “I heard you’re not giving me proper respect. That true?”

Some of the men looked down, some looked up at the ceiling, some looked out the window, but all averted their eyes from Yunael-Mary. Was that muttering under the breath a show of courage, or was someone making an excuse?

Though her heart was hammering way too hard, Yunael-Mary swept her glare slowly over the room from one corner to another so she would appear as arrogant as possible. “Mind if I go to the roof to get some air?”

“Uh… Boss, the discussion is just about over,” one man said.

That made the men on the other side start griping. “No it ain’t. You don’t get to decide that.”

“Shut up! If we say it’s over, then it’s over.”

“Don’t give me that shit! We’re still talking.”

The men seemed ready to start another dispute, and though Yunael-Mary was privately frightened, she didn’t show it on her face, shrugging with a look like she was fed up. “I’m getting some air. Be right back.”

Nobody tried to stop her.

Leaving behind the men cursing at each other, she closed the door behind her and did a tiny pump with her fist. She walked quietly until she was away from the room, and then once she was about thirty feet away she sped up, and once she was farther she ran up one, two, three, four flights of stairs, coming out to the roof. Finally she could get away. She looked around like, Nobody’s watching, right? And her eyes met those of another.

A man was there. He wasn’t the violent type, like those who had surrounded Yunael-Mary only moments ago. The collar of his thin T-shirt was stretched and loose, his cotton pants were worn at the cuffs, his hair and beard were wildly overgrown, and his cheeks were gaunt. His beat-up sneakers were absolutely waterlogged; he’d taken them off and placed them in front of the iron railing along with a white envelope that read last will and testament. The man himself was standing on the outside of the railing.

His lifeless eyes glanced at Yunael-Mary for a moment. He then sighed and leaned out over the edge of the roof—Yunael-Mary did a thirty-foot leap to grab his arm.

“What’re you doing?!”

“Let me go! Just let me die; it’s all hopeless.”

“Why?! Of all the times and places—why?!”

“Well, it’s partly out of spite. The bank won’t lend me a cent, and the factory boss and his whole family ran off in the night after they got fleeced by a high-interest loan from the yakuza, and after all my hard work at this factory, I lost my income, and now I’m living a life of debt. If I jump off here, then that criminal scum’ll get a nasty sight to see and it’ll make them feel something awful, and if I die, I can repay all my debt, while the rest of the insurance money will be sent to my parents in the country as my final act of filial piety…”

“Don’t do it, seriously, don’t. These guys are devils in human skin. They’re not gonna feel bad if you die. They’ll call you pathetic and laugh at you. And on top of that, listen, you dying on their turf’ll be a hassle for them, so they’ll bury your body in the woods or toss it in the ocean or something. And since there won’t be a body to find, you’ll be treated like a missing person, and it’ll take a bunch of time for the insurance payout. That’s what they do on TV, anyway. Seriously, I can’t recommend it.”

The man’s shoulders slumped, and he breathed a deep sigh. “So then I guess I’ll do it at the bank.”

“That’s your decision?! Just give up on this whole plan!”

“Shut up! Why’re you stopping me?!”

“’Cause if I sit here and let you die, I’ll feel terrible!”

“And what the hell is your deal here in the first place?! Go do your little cosplaying somewhere else!”

“You think I’d wear an outfit like this for kicks?!”

The both of them glared at each other, shoulders heaving. Yunael-Mary broke eye contact first, pulling out her magical phone. “C’mon, tell me your address.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll bring some money there.”

“What’re you talking about? As if you could actually do that.”

“Well…” Yunael looked over toward the Kounan district. There was a white object flying straight toward them. It was a largish paper airplane—like if you folded one from a newspaper, it’d be about that big. The paper airplane just about ran into a crow on the way, and it flapped its wings wide to intimidate the bird and drive it off before leisurely resuming its flight. This was clearly not the way a paper airplane would fly. And its movements were familiar to Yunael.

“Help’s here.”

Yunael took three deep breaths. With her right hand, she firmly gripped the handle of a guandao, whispering to herself, I can do it, I know I can do it, while with her left she twisted the knob in her grasp to open the door. The men inside were still exchanging threats with one another, but they looked shocked to see Yunael show up and began rising from their seats. Before they could stand, however, Yunael took action.

“Scum! I’ll kill you all!”

Randomly tossing in the Cantonese she’d just learned in her second foreign language class, she raved wildly, slicing around everywhere, walls and sofa included. They were under attack by an incredibly bizarre character: an eight-foot tall man, naked above the waist, bulging with muscles, sporting a Manchu hairstyle and with a rag wrapped around his waist, swinging a massive guandao around. The scene turned into a chaotic mess of enemy and ally all trying to escape. Yunael had focused on intimidation in the creation of this character, basing him on one from a kung fu flick she’d seen the other day. Either her reference base had been excellent, or her transformation and acting were just that good, as the character quickly broke her opponents’ morale. The men dropped all courage and pride, yelling things like “Call for the boss!” and “Don’t run off first!” and “Don’t step on my foot!” as they stumbled over themselves to escape. Yunael closed the door, and Minael changed from the guandao to her tiny angel form.

Yunael laid her hand atop the safe. It was so large that, with a little effort, Yunael could shove herself into it. It seemed fairly sturdy, too. With the twins’ strength, it’d take time to crack open. It wasn’t something to do here.

“Okay, then, let’s get this done,” said Yunael. “I’ll pretend to be Mary and fool the rest of the guys here somehow, so you take this safe, okay, sis? There’s a guy at this address who could die at any minute—give it to him.”

“What kinda mission is that?” Minael demanded.

“Come on, just do it… Wait, wait, hold on. Even if there’s cash inside, it’d be bad if the cops already have the serial numbers on it. Could you tell the guy that he’s not to use the cash until it’s been laundered?”

“Why’re you being so cautious? Is this like that movie Outrage or what?”

“We’ve gotta be cautious, or we’ll be in trouble!”

“I don’t wanna carry something this heavy while flying.”

“Just do it! Now! Before they come back—”

They heard the sound of a car engine from outside, followed by brake sounds, and then a call of, “Boss, what are you doing in there?!” Minael and Yunael exchanged glances and saw each other instantly blanch. This wasn’t the time to be standing around.

“Turn into a wrapping cloth, sis,” said Yunael.

“Huh? Why a wrapping cloth?”

Once Minael was transformed, Yunael wrapped the safe in the Minael cloth and slung it over her shoulder. She opened the window and made sure there was nobody around, and, with the safe over her shoulder, she leaped through it and escaped.

“Hey! So why a wrapping cloth?”

“If I took the safe as is, it’d totally stick out like a sore thumb, right?” Yunael pointed out. “We need to hide it while we run, and be sneaky about it.”

“But like, I made it an arabesque pattern. Now you just look like a stereotypical burglar.”

“It’s fine, burglars these days don’t use that pattern anymore.”

Yunael started running. She could feel the coldness of the safe on her shoulder through the cloth.

She ran. She just ran. Flying to get away would be a bad idea. If they were spotted returning to angel form to escape, that would be like telling everyone who the culprits were. Plus, if she turned into a giant bird or a pterodactyl or something and then Mary were to shoot at them from below while they were wobbling away through the air with the safe, it’d be a disaster.

With the safe on her shoulder, Yunael attempted to leap over the factory wall in a single bound, but didn’t make it. Throwing out one arm, she got her hand on the top of the wall, somehow pulling herself up. Yunael wasn’t suited for this kind of dramatic action. This was the sort of thing Winterprison should be made to do.

“There he is!”

Yunael smothered a scream. They’d already been found.

“That’s what happens when you pick such a conspicuous body,” said Minael.

“You’re right! I should’ve transformed into someone else to get away! If you’d realized that, sis, you should have told me!”

“You started running before I could, Yuna!”

They didn’t have the time to be stopping to bicker. They didn’t even have the time to detransform.

“Are you from Jin Bang Mei?!”

“Shit! Why do we gotta have our safe robbed over a fight with the Tetsuwa Organization?!”

The men came after them, cursing. There were no buildings around the factory where they could hide. No way Yunael could hide this massive build in the weedy open lot or in the dried-up rice fields. As she kept on running, she regretted having transformed into this enormous thing in order to threaten the men. Was that sound like gunpowder exploding she heard behind her gunfire? Was it the men shooting at her, or was Calamity Mary—?

Shaking off these ideas she didn’t want to have, Yunael cut across a field that lay fallow, trampled over a gravel path, and ran, just desperately ran, until she turned a corner, stopped, and flung herself to the side, barely dodging the black minivan that nearly hit her.

The minivan left black tire marks on the pavement as it came to a stop, the door opening in one smooth motion.

“Get in!” A man in the incredibly fishy combo of sunglasses and a surgical mask beckoned to her urgently.

“Huh? Uh, huh?”

“Hurry up! They’re comin’!” He grabbed her hand, pulling her massive body into the minivan, and the door closed. The man in the sunglasses raised his right hand, and, without understanding why, Yunael went along with it, offering her right hand as well, and the two of them high-fived.

Then the man in sunglasses raised his left hand, and the driver, who was also in sunglasses and a mask, twisted around to give him a high five, too, and the two of them whooped for joy.

“We did it!”

“Did you see those bastards’ faces? Pathetic.”

“That’s what happens when you try to team up with the Tetsuwa Org.”

Yunael couldn’t understand what was going on here, but these two—for now, at the very least—did not seem to be enemies. Through the tinted rear window, she could see the factory growing distant. It seemed they’d managed to escape their predicament for the time being.

“You work fast, too, huh?”

“Yeah, I’ll say. And you’re damn jacked, too.”

Yunael didn’t really get it, but she figured she’d agree vaguely with some grunts and “Uh-huh”s.

“Never thought I’d see someone charge in there solo.”

“I’m impressed. The Jin Bang Mei sent in a hell of a guy for backup.”

“Weren’t we sayin’ you’d be coming here a bit later, though? It went well this time, but let’s coordinate things a little better. It wouldn’t kill ya to at least give us a call. We were just plannin’ to keep watch here.”

“Ah, yeah, well, uh-huh,” said Yunael.

“You got a real high voice, man.”

“Yeah, you sound like a girl.”

“I get that a lot.”

The nearby buildings began increasing in number and height. The vehicle was cruising toward the city. Hunched over in this vehicle that was rather small for her, Yunael breathed a sigh of relief, but then tightened her lips. She couldn’t let her guard down yet. Though this was better than fighting Mary, now she had to deal with these guys somehow and escape to somewhere safe. She felt bad, after they’d saved her, but she figured once they were stopped at a light or something, she’d whack them gently enough that it wouldn’t kill them, and bail.

“Hey! Look up ahead!”

The wrapping cloth talked.

What the heck are you doing, talking in front of other people?! Yunael thought, and while aggressively clearing her throat in an attempt to at least cover that up, she glanced ahead to see a girl in a gunslinger costume, like she’d walked out of a Western, standing on the sidewalk. It was obviously Calamity Mary.

When Mary drew a gun from her holster and pointed it at them, Yunael screamed, “Ahh! Up in front! It’s her!”

The man in the seat beside her punched the headrest in front of him, while the driver spat curses.

“The goddamn Tetsuwa Org’s bodyguard! If we kill her, we get a bonus!”

“This ain’t no problem, just keep goin’ and run her down!”

“What are you thinking?!” Yunael cried. “That’ll be fatal!”

“Yeah, that’s the point!”

“No! That’s not what I mean!”

The driver floored the gas. Everyone in the car was slammed back in their seats as the minivan suddenly accelerated, and Mary grew larger in their field of view. Seeing a twisted smile appear on Mary’s face, an expression of her glee, Yunael made a decision. If she didn’t run, they were going to die.

Yunael kicked open the rear door and leaped out, taking the door with her. The men were yelling something, but she saw that as no reason to stop. Using the door to cushion her landing, she hit the ground, next using it as a stepping stone to leap, not slowing even a hair as she dashed off.

She heard a series of bangs behind her, followed by the sound of a massive object that had been running at high speed rolling and then sliding. Then came the sound of a cement block wall or something being destroyed, but she didn’t turn back. Ignoring the laundry hanging off a drying rod getting in her face, she leaped into a residence, went from the veranda to the living room and through the hallway and, coming into the kitchen, ran in front of a wide-eyed middle-aged woman in an apron, broke a window and rolled outside, then ran a bit farther, coming to a T intersection. A stone wall stood tall before her. This was a landmark—the only stone wall in N City was near the North Park. If she climbed to the top of this wall, she’d be in North Park. After that, Monzenmachi was just a short distance away.

Holding the safe under her left arm, Yunael started climbing the wall with only her legs and right arm. The wall was steep, but it wasn’t completely vertical. Magical girls could even run up the sides of buildings that stood perpendicular to the ground, so with her strength, it wasn’t like it was impossible for her to climb, even carrying a big safe under one arm. But Yunael usually focused only on flying skills, and she didn’t have many opportunities to run or jump, so it wasn’t easy for her. She somehow scrambled up, getting a hand on the fence to pull herself to the top, and sighed in relief.

A playground stood in the park square, and the middle school boys sitting there in their uniforms were staring at Yunael with their mouths hanging open. Five of the boys were sitting on the seesaws and swings and stuff, while one was on the ground. Looking closely, she saw he was naked above the waist, wearing only underwear below. His white dress shirt and uniform pants were lying on the ground. He was dirty all over, and his lip was broken and bleeding.

Yunael scowled and squared her shoulders as she approached the boys with loud stomps. She slammed the safe into the ground, making the earth shake. The cloth wrapped around the safe gave a tiny cry of “Ow!”

“It’s just bullshit from everyone today, huh?!”

The bullies, who already looked ready to run, all trembled and clung to the playground equipment.

Yunael grabbed one of them by the lapels and brought her face close to his. “Bullying the weak, huh. Is this kinda thing fun for you?”

The boy opened and closed his mouth a bunch of times, somehow managing to squeeze out, “We’re just playing around,” but Yunael slammed down the safe one more time, making his cheeks stiffen, and he closed his mouth.

The cloth was saying, “Hey, Yuna, cut it out,” but Yunael ignored her, contorting her face (which was pretty scary to begin with) into a bloodcurdling expression, glaring at the kid from close enough that he could feel her breath.

“Next time you pull something like this, I’m gonna come sock you one.”

The bully trembled and nodded, and when Yunael turned to look at the others, they all nodded just like him.

Finally she took the hand of the victim and pulled him up. “If they do this kind of thing again, ask for help on the message boards of the magical-girl aggregate site. A bunch of busybody types will get together to manage things for you somehow.”

The boy gave her a flustered nod, and Yunael heaved up the safe, which was about one-fifth buried in the ground. When she glanced over in the direction from which she’d come, she caught sight of a hand on the fence—someone coming into the park from the direction of the stone wall. Yunael turned around and zoomed off.

She’d lost her temper and helped that kid without thinking. It wasn’t the time to be doing something like that—what the heck was she doing? Slinging the safe she’d been carrying in both arms over her back, she made it her shield as she ran, though it wouldn’t do much except offer her peace of mind. The cloth let out a cry of protest, but Yunael pretended she hadn’t heard it.

There was the sound of gunfire, which she was already used to hearing by now, as the earth to her left burst, and screeches from the boys ripped through the park. Yunael’s own thick throat was trembling with a voiceless scream as she leaped into a lilac thicket. The safe went over the thicket, rolling along. She decided to let her big sister handle that, somehow. Right now, her own safety was her priority. Scattering leaves and breaking branches, she went deeper into the thicket, finding a place that seemed safe for the moment, and cowered there.

Yunael stayed still in the thicket and prayed. She prayed Mary would be possessed of enough intellect and rationality that she’d realize it was a bad idea to destroy the stolen safe, and that she would not fire wildly into the thicket or throw in a grenade. Thinking in a self-mocking manner that she really was an angel, with all this praying, Yunael wanted to cry, but she sucked it up.

A ray of sunlight shone in. Cutting her way through the thicket, Mary appeared. She looked down at the ground and muttered, “Got away, huh.” Then she saw Yunael, and when their eyes met, Yunael was deadly anxious, but she told herself that if she moved, she would die, and kept still, not even twitching. The sound of footsteps grew distant, and after patiently waiting until she could be sure this wasn’t a fake or a trap, Yunael sighed in relief, thinking, It’s okay now, and detransformed. Returning from an ant to her angel form, she next turned into a traditional old woman who appeared to be a farmer, somewhere between her late seventies and mideighties and with a bent back, and, moving cautiously and gingerly, she left the thicket. The middle school kids must have fled, as they were already gone, and the shirt and pants were gone, too, so the bullied kid must have put on his clothing and managed to get away.

When she circled around to the other side of the thicket, where the safe had been lying, she found two slides side by side. One was a solid concrete one, boldly stationed in place, while beside it daintily stood a slide a couple of sizes smaller.

“You don’t think it’s kinda implausible to have a slide next to another slide?” said Yunael.

The small slide twisted and transformed, exposing the safe hidden within, and Minael, who had been transformed into the slide, was sitting atop the safe as she sighed. “It’s fine. It’s like a mama slide and a baby slide.”

“Hey, sis, don’t turn back now. If someone caught sight of us, they might start a rumor that they saw an angel around here, and Mary would get suspicious.”

“We don’t want that… So then should I turn into a cloth for now?”

“Nah, even if we’re not going with the arabesque pattern, they just saw the cloth… So then let’s make it a basket, the kind an old lady peddler would carry. A big one that the safe’ll fit in.”

“Yeah, yeah, roger.”

They could hear the sound of sirens on the wind. Had those middle school kids from before or some Good Samaritan called the cops like a busybody? Their sharp magical-girl ears picked up the sound of footsteps. They could hear voices saying, “I heard gunshots” and “Some kind of fight?” too.

They didn’t want to stick around long. The Yunael granny heaved the basket over her shoulder and hustled off, but when Minael advised her, “Aren’t you walking too steadily for your age?” Yunael adjusted her pace, leaving the area slowly and leisurely. If she was dumb and panicked and ran right now, she would draw attention. Even if she was in a hurry, she had to move like an old lady, slowly.

No matter how much of a flurry was going on around them, she couldn’t be hasty. She heard running footsteps all around, but she walked calmly, and even when she heard familiar deep voices, she told herself, There’s no way we’ll be found out. The voices got closer, and the basket over her shoulder trembled. Yunael automatically muttered, “You can’t move” to it.

If she got hasty, that would just make them suspicious. The Yunael granny glanced toward the voices and saw men pointing over at them. One held a square device with flashing red and yellow lights—they had a kind of radar or something. Hearing them say, “That size,” and “The position fits,” the Yunael granny bolted.

“Damn it!” Yunael cried. “They have a transmitter on the safe?!”

“It’s that old lady!” “After her!” “Stop her before the pigs get here!” “Call the boss!” the men all yelled as they came rushing after Yunael.

Yunael thought: It’s no use now. They should prioritize their own safety over the safe. If Mary were to show up, then it really would get deadly.

She ran around a corner, and with a nimble leap she burst into the yard of a residence, then ran some more from there.

“Damn it! Damn it!” Yunael cursed. “If it’s got a transmitter on it, then we’ve got no choice but to leave the safe behind.”

“Tsk, too bad,” said Minael.

“We should’ve done whatever we had to to break it and take out what’s inside.”

“Huh? Why would we have to break it? It’s not locked.”

“What?” The old woman lowered the basket from her back, bringing it in front of her in her arms, and, still running at full speed, she set her chin on top of the basket. “What the heck. Why didn’t you say that, sis?”

“Uh, I thought you knew. You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t!”

“For real. I thought for sure you needed the safe itself.”

“You idiot! You’re an idiot, sis!”

Crossing over a cement block wall, Yunael raced through an alley. If it were just the men she was running from, that’d be fine. The problem was Mary. Even if they opened up the safe here and now to take the contents, that wouldn’t make Mary give up. Even without the transmitter, would they be able to shake off Mary?

She didn’t have time to think. They had to decide now. The Yunael granny ran out onto the main avenue. The men were pointing at them and yelling, “It’s that old woman!”

“Sis, spit out the safe,” said Yunael.

“It’s okay?” Minael asked.

“When you spit it out, can you open the door and spray the contents everywhere?”

“Leave it to your big sis.” The basket twisted unnaturally, dropping the safe from inside. The door of the safe was open. Since it was falling out while open, of course the contents spilled out.

Seeing that, the men got angry, and the Yunael granny ran even faster, charging into a convenience store to slide into the washroom, where she transformed into a snake that was thin like a string. Minael turned into a tiny ring, which the snake hooked around its neck to slither through the bathroom ventilation fan to the outside.

When Mary found out the giant man and old woman had gotten away, she left like she didn’t care, and aside from the driver who’d brought Mary there, all the men went out to gather up the contents of the safe. When rubberneckers gathered around, the men threatened them all with their characteristic yells of “This ain’t a show!” and “Get lost! Scram!” as they gathered the various lists and documents, stock certificates, gold certificates, and cash. A whole bunch of men pitched in to carry the safe back. If the police were to see them and question them, it would be over. “Hurry, hurry!” the men yelled as they rushed along. One of them—a man at the very tail end—gradually fell away from the others. Once they reached a corner, he was the only one to turn right, and when he saw that no one else was watching, he detransformed.

“…Agh… After all that, this is all we get?” Yunael, in the form of a university girl, sighed.

Minael, who’d transformed into a handbag, consoled her. “It’s better than nothing. This is about a million yen, right?”

“But it sounded like that guy had some pretty bad debts. Won’t this be a drop in the bucket?”

“I guess…”

Enveloped in melancholy, the pair walked sullenly to the house of the suicidal man.

Contrary to their expectations, the suicidal man threw up his hands in joy and accepted the cash. Hearing the man say this was enough for him to pay off his debts in full, student-Yunael kicked him, saying, “Don’t try to kill yourself over that small a debt,” while Minael detransformed out of sight to also kick him from behind and knock him down. They beat him black and blue, then gave him an earnest lecture, making the crying man promise to never attempt suicide again, and then he and Yunael went to the neighborhood izakaya, had some drinks, and parted ways.

Handbag-Minael had complained, “I want to drink, too,” but Yunael ignored her, and before she’d left him, the formerly suicidal man whined, “Now that I’ve spent some on drinking, it’s not enough to pay it all back anymore,” so she kicked him one more time.

Yunael and Minael had both long since forgotten about Ruler.