Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 10 - Chapter 7

Conditions for an Anime Adaptation

  Palette

Palette’s mornings started early. There was no need to get up so early when they were not assigned to a magical girl, but even now that they were in a new position, old habits die hard.

Palette would work late into the night, get the minimal amount of sleep, then start up again in the early morning. This wasn’t simply because they had a packed schedule. This was the way they had learned from senior staff through the induction course with the Magical Girl Resources Department, before being assigned to the Public Relations Department as an in-house mascot.

Magical girls were far stronger than regular humans. For those who had attached mascots, you might say their mascots were the proof of the Magical Kingdom’s favor. But magical girls weren’t born that way. They were born human and grew up human, and it was thanks to a little opportunity and fortune that they became magical girls. They were always just human to begin with. No matter how much potential one had as a magical girl, if she had even the slightest bit of malice in her heart, then she could get up to disastrous incidents, or cause accidents through her carelessness.

So a mascot had to live a regulated lifestyle in order to be a model for their magical girl. If a mascot revealed slovenly behavior, it would affect their magical girl and lead to incidents and accidents down the road. If the mascot had their head firmly on their shoulders, then the magical girl would follow suit and be focused on her activities, growing into a fine magical girl who would not cause accidents or incidents. If a magical girl with abundant talent grew up properly into a great magical girl, that would not only make her happy—her talent would bring smiles to a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand people, or even more.

The lessons from senior staff lived on inside Palette. It was precisely because Palette loved magical girls and lived for them that they did not have blind faith in them. Simple unconditional trust was not real trust—it was just carelessness. The relationship between mascot and magical girl was not a lazy one of complicity. They would push each other, teach each other, and improve each other—that was the kind of relationship Palette thought of as the ideal. Palette was no longer assigned to a magical girl, but they always had to be ready so that they could be assigned to another one at any time. That was why Palette got up early.

Palette crawled out from under the vending machine into the pale glow of the morning sun. To sleep outside in this season, you needed a heat source. This machine stayed running even when nobody was around, emitting heat at all times, and was perfect for a bed.

Standing up on their hind legs, Palette arched their back to stretch. When they’d come here the night before, this playground had looked fishy under a dingy, dying streetlamp, but under the morning light, it felt nostalgic—solemn, even.

With a sniff, Palette checked for scents. Small animal-type mascots weren’t as great as the popular digital fairies when it came to clerical skills, but they had the sharp senses of wild animals and excellent physical capabilities. Palette could check to make sure there were no people around with just a sniff.

Palette pulled a map out from their mini mascot-use backpack and unfurled it. At their current pace, they should arrive at their goal, N City, around that evening. You could get there in the blink of an eye if you used a magical teleportation device, and even without going that far, Palette could request a magical-girl porter and sit quietly inside a bag on public transportation. This time, though, Palette had to infiltrate N City solo. They weren’t traveling incognito or going in for a surprise attack or anything as dramatic as that, but if Palette were to make a grand declaration about going into N City, it would interfere with the magical-girl exams there.

Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, was the talented magical-girl scout of the Magical Girl Resources Department, who had discovered countless numbers of first-class magical girls. Among those she had recruited was Magical Daisy, whom Palette had once worked with as a mascot.

To Palette, Magical Daisy had been the glory days. Palette wanted to work with a magical girl like that again. Even after their anime had ended, Palette had continued to hold that desire hidden in their heart as they worked in the Public Relations Department, but Palette had never again met a magical girl as wonderful.

Ever since Palette had shifted to a more behind-the-scenes role, the Public Relations Department had stopped being about magical girls and was now about TV shows. Originally, magical girls got anime adaptations simply because they needed to be shown to the world at large, but that wasn’t enough to get an anime these days. There was a rampant reversal of priorities in how anime was made: The department wanted more fancy action scenes because they were popular with viewers, so they sought out magical girls whose magic was suited to those kinds of flashy fights. Even if Palette were to offer their frank advice about it, people would only think, They’re just an old mascot nostalgic for the old days.

What’s more, ever since the economic downturn, even scouting out new magical girls for new anime had become difficult. For starters, it took way more labor to get to the point of airing a new magical-girl anime. Then, once you got popular, the series would be drawn out forever, and then just when you thought a new show was starting up for once, it would turn out to be a knockoff of a popular show that brought nothing fresh to the table. After the first Star Queen series had aired, just how many shows about magical girls fighting invaders from another world with over-the-top action scenes had turned up?

Palette clenched a tiny fist. In the modern world, even the fantastical, fairy-tale magical girls couldn’t escape capitalism. Palette wasn’t so arrogant as to believe that you could make an anime based on what you solely wanted. But hadn’t there once been more variety in magical-girl anime? It used to be you could find any conceivable type of magical-girl show (for better or for worse) on TV, and all of these shows had had their fans. There were a lot of fans who said things like that on the fan site that Palette frequented, too. It couldn’t be a bad thing to try making an anime people like them wanted to see.

Even the anime Palette had appeared in as a mascot character, Magical Daisy, had been bashed as heretical at the time. Its plot, which involved facing off against realistic criminal organizations, had even been singled out by parents’ organizations. But despite that, a lot of people had loved the Magical Daisy anime and the girl named Magical Daisy.

The exam run by Cranberry, Musician of the Forest, had discovered Magical Daisy, so there might be a future star out there. More accurately, this future star would still be a child who had yet to become a magical girl, and this exam was like a pro baseball scout looking for budding talent at high school games.

Palette tucked away their schedule book, shouldered their backpack, and dashed off. If possible, Palette wanted to arrive by afternoon to collect information. Without even realizing it, Palette had begun humming Hello   Daisy! the opening theme of Magical Daisy.

  Fav

Fav’s mornings started late.

Magical girls were creatures of sloth and indulgence, and as such would only start their work after sunset, so there was no need for the mascot characters who accompanied them to get up early in the morning. Digital fairies didn’t need sleep, but they did have a fixed recommendation for time in continuous operation. Rest was important. Lazily browsing the N City magical-girl aggregate site, trolling pure and innocent young fans on the message boards, wasting time on news sites and personal blogs that had absolutely nothing to do with magical girls, making fun of articles and readers in the comment section, Fav spent his time as he pleased in ease and leisure, for his own pleasure.

However, this was one day he couldn’t spend doing as he pleased.

“Cranberry! Bad news, pon!”

“What’s all this fuss?”

Something like static ran all through Fav’s hologram, and there was noise in his synthetic voice, too. It was quite unusual for this digital fairy, who enjoyed observing girls kill each other from a safe distance, to lose his cool. “Fav got contacted from a friend on the outside, pon. They’ve told me that right now, Palette, a mascot from the PR Department, is coming here to N City, pon.”

“The PR Department?” Cranberry’s shapely eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Not Inspection?”

“This is from a mascot get-together that happened a few days ago, pon.”

“Oho, I wasn’t aware there were such gatherings out there.”

“It’s just a boring sort of get-together where they chat about nothing much, pon. Fav’s source said that at the get-together, Palette got real worked up and went on a rant, pon.”

“Your source told you? You weren’t there, Fav?”

“What makes you think that Fav, who’s basically the representative for digital fairies, would be invited to a gathering with a bunch of useless types who complain to each other about how the digital fairy series took their jobs, pon?”

“Isn’t it because you’re the kind of character who would call them ‘useless types’ that you weren’t invited?”

“Whatever, pon. The problem is Palette, pon. At the get-together, Palette apparently announced they would use their vacation to go visit your exam venue, pon.”

“Huh? What for?”

“Apparently, Palette made this impassioned speech about just how much they don’t like magical-girl anime these days, pon. And then they were talking big about how since your exams had once produced Magical Daisy, then there was certain to be a future star here, pon.”

“But it would be impossible for a mascot from the PR Department to know where I’m holding the exam.”

“Palette’s had a long career, pon, and that means they know a lot of magical girls and mages, pon. If they make use of those connections to pull strings in Magical Girl Resources, they could find out that the exam’s being held in N City, pon. And then if Palette starts sniffing around where they shouldn’t…”

Cranberry’s eyebrows pulled tightly together. “What a nuisance, right when we’re finally about to begin…”

“You’ve got that right, pon. We’ve got a sixteenth girl, this coming up right when everything was ready and we just have to give the order… It’s a disaster, pon. All we want is to hold secret killing games without bothering anyone else, but that stupid animal had to butt in, pon.”

“We couldn’t eliminate them?”

“Palette did declare openly with lots of people watching and listening that they were going to where your exam’s being held, pon. So if Palette disappeared, you’d be under suspicion, pon.”

“We’ve gathered even more talented magical girls than usual for this exam.” Cranberry smacked a hand on her knee and stood from the bed. Springs creaked and dust flew. “I will not allow Palette to obstruct things. I won’t call it off, either. And neither do I intend to show any leniency in this exam.”

“So then what do we do, pon?”

Relaxing the brows that had been knit, Cranberry smiled. “You think up something, Fav. This is the sort of thing you’re here for, isn’t it?”

  Palette

Using a cell phone game to gather candidates had never been done before. Even if Cranberry wasn’t as experienced as Palette, she was still a fair veteran. And even though she was a veteran, she still thought up new methods and made use of them. Palette could see flexibility and give there. Palette had heard her mascot was a digital fairy, so maybe that was where the proposal had come from.

By the time Palette crossed a bridge and saw the blue sign that read ENTERING N CITY, it was already evening. After that, in an empty back alley, Palette checked the N City magical-girl aggregate site. The big school clock showed 7:00 PM. Palette stepped out onto a major street where rumors said there were quite a lot of magical-girl sightings, and sneaked under a taxi parked there.

Palette had not only the physical abilities of an animal, but also an animal’s sense of smell. Also, since Palette’s scent was reminiscent of an animal, some had also turned up their noses at them for “stinking like a beast,” but that was irrelevant right now.

While Palette was sniffing underneath the car, searching for the scent of magical girls, they heard people talking.

“That cowgirl-looking lady just now—wasn’t she a magical girl?”

“The one in front of the karaoke place? Now that you mention it, weren’t people saying something like that on the aggregate site, too? But man, you don’t seriously think magical girls exist, do you? It’s cosplay, come on.”

What perfect timing.

Passing under the car from the rear to the front, then coming out onto the road to slip underneath driving cars, Palette turned a corner to arrive in front of the karaoke parlor. They sniffed, checking the area while keeping out of sight as they approached the source of a smell. Tiny heart thumping as the smell grew and grew, they felt excitement overflow in their body—

There she is!

It was a girl in a ten-gallon hat. She was in front of some parked black sedans with tinted windows, surrounded by men with clothes and hairstyles that did nothing to hide their affiliation with organized crime.

Her motif was that of a Wild West gunslinger, but it was also a provocative costume. Her pale-blond hair shone under the neon lighting. In this vulgar locale, she wore a coquettish expression, and she was surrounded by rough and boorish men in loud-colored shirts and gold chains, but despite that, she was beautiful.

Ohh, Palette thought. This looked like she was facing off against real-life criminal organizations—the very thing that had caused so much controversy with the Magical Daisy anime.

So there are still magical girls like that these days, Palette thought, impressed, gazing at her. Their thoughts going back in time, Palette’s heart began running off into a world of fantasy. She could be the second coming of Magical Daisy—couldn’t we depict battles with realistic violent organizations? And then Palette noticed. There was something off about the atmosphere.

No matter how much time passed, there was no sense that a battle was about to start. The various passersby just gave the crowd looks of fright as they went past. The men yelled and caused a ruckus, the very picture of outlaws with no care for how others saw them. The girl tapped the shoulder of the man beside her and said something, and the men around burst into laughter. The girl and the men were all laughing together.

She wasn’t fighting them, like Magical Daisy. She knew these people—they were her associates. But it wasn’t like they were purely friends. Palette sharpened the nose they were so proud of, picking up a scent of fear that brought pain along with it. It was the men packed around the magical girl who were afraid.

The girl in the ten-gallon hat accepted a hip flask from the rough hand that offered it and tossed back its contents. One of the men said something with a worried expression, but she snorted in response, raising her right hand, and when she did, the men around laughed in amusement. Though superficially they seemed to be laughing and enjoying themselves, a tension hung around them. It was as if these tough men who made violence their business were tossing around between them a bomb that could explode at any time, and they didn’t know what could set it off.

Those types of people had feared Magical Daisy, too, but this felt different. A shiver went down Palette’s spine all the way to the tip of their tail. This was far beyond inappropriate for a magical girl.

The group of criminals disappeared into a building, and Palette released the breath they had been holding. How could a magical girl as great as Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, merely let that be? Palette thought indignantly, but then remembered, Oh yeah, she’s still just a candidate, and was convinced that she would naturally fall out of the running.

It was approaching the time of day when there would be more drunken people around downtown.

“There was a lady dressed like a nun, but there’s no churches around here, right?”

“That had to have been one of those magical girls everyone’s talking about.”

“No way.”

Overhearing such a conversation from passersby, Palette once again ran off.

Tracing the smell of a magical girl, Palette entered a supermarket that had been shut down. With a menacing look, they chased off the rats that showed up, then perked up their ears and sniffed, focusing all the nerves in their body into smell and hearing.

They could hear voices. The smells were getting stronger, too. It was the voice of a girl, the smell of a girl. And not just one. Two mingled together.

As silently as possible, Palette proceeded step by tiny step—

Found you!

There was a gentle, delicate-seeming nun with nevertheless a sense of sacrilegious allure. Then there was a short-haired girl in a coat. She was simple in appearance, looking almost like a regular person, but she radiated the kind of beauty unique to magical girls.

The two magical girls were whispering to one another. There was no way they could know about Palette secretly watching over them from the shadows as they giddily chatted away. Even just watching them talk, Palette could tell they were happy. It eased Palette’s heart, after they had gotten worked up by that gunslinger.

The tenderhearted holy lady and the friend who protected her. The friendship between two girls was so heartwarming, it would even come off a bit cheesy.

Hiyoko and Miyo, Riccabel and Teimi, Cutie Altair and Cutie Vega, Magical Daisy and Minako. Friendship was always a vital element of magical-girl anime.

At some point in the story, obstacles would come up that would cause cracks in their relationship, and then they would resolve the misunderstanding, and their bond of friendship would become even tighter, tying the two of them even more strongly together. Palette put together the plot in their head, the two magical girls whirling around in their imagination.

Five minutes later.

The two of them held hands, leaning together as they whispered to one another. Maybe it would be better to think of a slightly higher age bracket. They were a little too close for Sunday mornings. A soft yuri-esque friendship. This was it.

Ten minutes later.

The two girls were still pressed together. It didn’t seem like just not airing in the morning would be enough here. Maybe it’d be appropriate for it to be aimed at the older demographic. Late-night anime, let’s go with that.

Twenty minutes later.

Palette struck the nun-and-coat pair off the list along with the gunslinger.

These two are…a little…um, nope…

Palette had been watching, thinking it was wonderful they were so close, but observing how things were going, Palette understood their relationship was something more than that. Frankly, they were fooling around. Gestures such as bringing their lips close together or stroking each other’s cheek were not appropriate for good little magical girls. Sensing that things were about to go even further, Palette left the abandoned supermarket. Palette was not in charge of eighteen-plus OVAs.

Just as Palette was thinking, Okay, what’s next? they heard people’s voices.

“That robot downtown, was that a costume or something?”

“Wasn’t it a magical girl?”

“Magical girls and robots are different.”

A robot. Someone who was both a magical girl and a robot could be a fresh take on things. Palette headed downtown. They hid in the shadow of an abandoned bicycle, then headed down the dark nighttime street. Down the street, there was a tiny light source, and it was moving—

That’s it!

There she was. The street’s shops were shuttered for the night, and few people passed by, but she was there. And she really was a robot. Though Palette had seen a lot of magical girls who looked like monsters or animals, a magical girl who looked purely like a robot was unusual.

A magical-girl anime with a robot as the lead. It had never been done before, but if they pulled it off, maybe they could attract not only fans of conventional magical girls, but fans of robot shows, too, and exploit a new fanbase. Themes like a confrontation between magic and science and a fusion of magic and science were not uncommon, and it wasn’t like there were no magical girls who were cyborg-like and incorporated technological abilities, but there had never been a magical girl who was so exactly like a robot. To Palette, creating a new genre in the world of magical-girl anime was a worthy goal. Just imagining it made their heart leap.

The backpack-shaped boosters, the aircraft-style wings, the plastic feel to her—she looked like nothing other than a robot. And then her eyes flashed!

So bright…!

Shading their eyes with a forelimb, Palette watched the robot.

She was using the light that came from her eyes to shine under the vending machine. She squatted down, then made a gleeful cry in a voice that was mechanical, but vaguely human, too, pinching something metal in her fingers.

It was a hundred-yen coin. Yes, the robot was using her searchlight to look for spare change.

Shoulders slumping in disappointment, Palette immediately did an about-face and left the downtown area.

The sort of people who could relate to someone so fussy were in the minority. If you had as the protagonist someone who made use of their blessed nature of being both a robot and a magical girl to pick up small change, it seemed doubtful such a hero would win the support of the kids.

The next day, Palette headed back downtown and pricked up their ears. It seemed that magical girls were the number one thing that came up in conversations in this town.

“Hey, did you know the rumor that magical girls gather at the abandoned temple on top of the hill? Wanna go there later? I dare you.”

“Uh, they’re not ghosts. Magical girls in a temple, though… Why?”

Racing up a hill and passing through a gate that seemed like it could fall apart any minute, Palette edged under the eaves to sneak in. It was true that this situation might well be more suitable to ghosts than magical girls. Heart pounding not only from the excitement of searching for magical girls but with a little bit of fear, too, Palette made their way through the sooty temple. There were footprints in the dust. Someone was here. There was a faint light from inside. When Palette took a peek—

Magical girls! And lots, too!

There were five in total.

The first one to catch Palette’s eye was one with large breasts and a white school swimsuit. In terms of visuals, she was too fetishistic, and not suited to the morning time slot. Also, she was kneeling on the floor for some reason, not even twitching, and it was eerie.

“Why are you so awful at learning things?!”

And the princess-style magical girl. She had too much of an attitude, and she was puffing out her flat chest, even though there was nothing there to show.

Hmm…

Palette circled around from behind a pillar to get a close look at her from the front. Narrowing their eyes further, Palette focused intently to see if they could glean anything from the faintest movements.

But as they were doing this, another magical girl’s head blocked the view. A magical girl with dog ears was bowing her head low and saying, “I’m sorry…”

After bowing, the dog-eared magical girl made herself small, head (and ears) hanging. When a magical girl transformed, even if she started as an ordinary person, she would become bolder—but the dog-eared girl was shrinking up so much, it was pitiful.

“I told you digging holes in the yard would be dangerous!” said the princess.

“But the yard has the best dirt for digging…”

“That’s not what I’m talking about here!”

Being too timid wasn’t a very good trait for a protagonist to have.

Palette circled around from behind the pillar to the shadow of a Buddha statue, and from the shoulder of the Buddha gazed down on the remaining pair of magical girls: two identical-looking angels. Now this was a valuable find.

From time immemorial, countless artists had made wonderful art with the motif of angels. The popularity of angels had never waned since they’d first come up in people’s stories in the ancient past. And this wasn’t just one angel—there were two. Twin angels, two for the price of one. You could create any kind of story around these girls.

Palette listened closely to the twins’ chatting.

“Nice, nice, I got a new account.”

“Okay, I’ll tweet on this one, so you follow me.”

Account? Follow?

“They won’t accuse us of sockpuppeting anymore. You’re so magi-cool, sis.”

No way, they can’t be…

“Let’s go with a heaping serving of twin angel sightings.”

That’s.…that’s…that’s not good…!

Palette left the ruined temple with their heart full of sadness and their nostrils full of smelly mold.

Social media could be a minefield for magical girls. If these two girls were misusing it and caused a big stink one day, hopefully they had already blown it—that would be the better outcome. If something problematic they’d posted came to light after the anime aired, then anyone involved in the show would get the ax. Palette included.

In the dead of night, Palette left the temple and dashed through the darkness. Once the light of some houses was within sight, they heard some people talking.

“I heard someone saw a magical girl at the factory.”

“Oh yeah?”

“The ruined factory in Kobiki.”

“Was that the place where the owner ran off in the night with his whole family?”

Pulling their magical phone out from their backpack, Palette checked where the Kobiki neighborhood was, then also checked the location of that factory and ran off again. This town was so considerate toward those searching for magical girls. The people here gossiped about them even this late at night.

Arriving at the factory, Palette picked up on a heavy magical-girl scent. With a determined sniff, they trailed it. Diving under the boards nailed in to seal off the place, Palette entered through a broken window to find a magical girl illuminated by the moonlight. Palette’s predecessor had once said the light of the moon suited magical girls, and it particularly suited the one here.

Ohh…this is…

Her monochromatic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland costume was plain, yet dramatic. Her skin had a sickly pallor to it, and the dark circles under her eyes further emphasized how ill she looked. Maybe it was just her color scheme, but someone with this kind of punch was memorable.

The Alice in black held a knife in her right hand. Before Palette had time to think hard about the combination of Alice and a knife, she dragged the blade over her own palm. Palette nearly yelled out, smacking both paws over their mouth. Blood dribbled from Alice’s palm, but then immediately stopped. Alice scribbled down something in the notebook in her hand, then cut her wrist with the knife. She couldn’t quite break the skin, so she stabbed at it more aggressively. The knife broke as blood spurted out of her like a fountain, then immediately stopped, and Alice wrote down something else.

“So I’m still okay, even after this…,” she muttered quietly, and laid the broken knife down to the side. Standing up, she put both her hands on the wall and arched backward, then slammed her head hard against the wall. The whole factory shook. Another hit. Cracks ran along the wall, breaking it apart—debris went flying, and the steel girders creaked. At this rate, the place would collapse. Palette gave a yelp.

“Who’s there?” Alice demanded, spinning around. Blood gushed from the wound at her forehead, and an even thicker substance dribbled out, tracing a vertical line of filth down her ashen face.

Palette turned tail and ran.

  Fav

“The plan was a success, pon.”

“We did it.”

In the dilapidated house with dust dancing in the air, mascot and magical girl quietly celebrated their plan’s success.

Fav had temporarily hacked the aggregate site, shutting out information on magical girls like Snow White, La Pucelle, Ripple, and Top Speed. Further, he’d used his search function to make accurate predictions of where Palette would be, while Cranberry had used her magic to generate the sounds of regular people chatting about rumors to guide Palette, leading the mascot toward magical girls who were unsuitable for anime adaptations.

“You put together a fine ploy, Fav.”

“Mary and Nana were pretty alarming by themselves, but I think Palette was even more shocked by Alice, pon.”

“Alice still doesn’t seem to have a grasp on her magic, after all, so she’s testing all sorts of things.”

“Hmm. So we could put off the exam a bit longer, pon.”

“No, we have no guarantee there won’t be further interference. Let’s have Alice join in later and get it started right away.”

  Palette

Hitching a free ride in the back of a truck, Palette left N City.

Palette was physically and mentally exhausted, yet they had gained nothing for their efforts. Releasing all the tension that had built up, surrounded by vegetables, Palette dozed and had a dream of a magical girl.

“Magical girls, even in my dreams…I really am a workaholic.”

“Never mind that! Weren’t there any magical girls who made you think, Wow, she’d be great in an anime!?” a magical girl in pajamas pressed, her expression one of deep interest.

But Palette pushed her forehead away, expression tired. “Either they’re too niche, or not the right age demographic…”

“But there’s so many good girls, though.”

“You can’t get an anime just by having a good personality.”

“Strict standards, huh?”

“Yeah… But if I had to choose…”

“Choose?”

“No, never mind. Making an anime out of someone based on a hunch wouldn’t work out.”

“Whaaat? Who’d you choose? Tell me!”

Warding off the pestering pajama magical girl, Palette thought back on one magical girl they’d encountered in N City. The moment Palette laid eyes on her, their interest was piqued. Thinking back on it now, Palette realized she’d had a scent—the same scent shared by all the magical girls everyone talked about. “Maybe…”

“Maybe?”

“That girl might become a really big deal. A legendary magical girl who people will keep talking about, far into the future.”

“A legend! Wow, that’s amazing.”

But this was ultimately just Palette’s instinct. Even if Palette were to introduce her to others, saying, “This is only a hunch, but I think this girl will be a big success!” that wouldn’t make people be like, “Okay, then let’s make an anime out of her!”

“So? Which magical girl is it?” the girl in pajamas pressed. “The one in white? Or the ninja?”

“Well…I can’t say. I mean, it’s just a hunch.”

“Boo, that’s mean.”

“But you know. If…if she passes Cranberry’s exam, then I might come back to N City. Though, if possible, I would rather not come again…”

She had looked like an ordinary magical girl, with nothing particularly special about her. But the farther Palette got from her, the more she lingered in their mind. Palette even got the feeling they could envision a future where everyone extolled her great achievements.

Still thinking about the magical girl Ruler, Palette sank into a deeper sleep.