Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 13 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

SCHOOL IN COMBAT

  Kana

The plans for the class had been changed.

“We’re having rec time in the gymnasium,” announced the magical girl with the large abacus who stood at the front of the class.

The devil-style magical girl with hair ends sharp like tails thrust a fist in the air with a cheer, while the armor and drill pair both shrieked with glee. The others seemed glad, too, even if they weren’t as obvious about it.

The magical girl with the abacus was Calkoro, the demon was Mephis, the armored girl was Arlie, and the girl with the drill was Dory. Kana mentally matched names and appearances, making sure she didn’t have it wrong. Then she went for a certain pickax bedaubed with accessories and stickers, approaching the magical girl who was just standing there and not looking happy about this.

Standing diagonally behind that girl, Kana called out, “Kumi-Kumi. About the rec time.”

Kumi-Kumi must not have been ready to be spoken to, as Kana caught a flinch in the way she twisted around to look at her. Kumi-Kumi immediately corrected her posture to face Kana, and after a look over at the other excited girls, she started talking. “It’s…sort of like gym class.”

“But they seem happy about it.”

“Compared to the running, marathons, or gym-class gymnastics, it’s more like a game or competition… Yeah, it’s almost like playtime.”

“If this is like a class, then doing well will be reflected in our assessments, right?”

“Do you…need to score well?”

“I don’t have a pencil, so I was forced to submit a blank paper for that earlier assignment,” Kana explained. “I’m sure I won’t be graded well for that, so that means I have to do better elsewhere to balance it out.”

Kumi-Kumi’s eyes narrowed slightly, then after a moment, she shook her head. “If you’d told me…I’d have lent you one.”

“Unlike a textbook, one pencil can’t be shared between two people.”

“I have…more than two.”

“Oh, really?”

“Next time…I’ll lend you one.”

It seemed less that Kumi-Kumi faltered as she spoke and more like she took time choosing her words. If she made an effort to choose the most accurate language, it was fair to say they were just that sincere.

“But she’s still not group leader,” Kana mused.

“Who…?”

“Pardon me, thinking aloud. Do we have these rec times often?”

Kumi-Kumi considered awhile, eyes looking somewhere far in the distance, then drew her jaw back in a nod. “Not really… There’s been, um, three times in April, and this is…the first in May.” Her hat, with its metallic sheen, shifted back and forth as her head moved, exposing a bit more of her forehead. “Unlike gym class…we do it with everyone transformed.”

“Oh-ho.”

“The groups…compete with one another.”

“Oh-ho-ho. So then you and I are on the same team.”

Kumi-Kumi seemed about to say something but then didn’t, falling silent with a nod. Lots of magical girls acted so completely different when transformed, you’d think they were different people, but Kumi-Kumi’s tendency to be taciturn hadn’t changed.

“Perhaps that’s just the quality appropriate for a subleader,” Kana said.

“Hey…what is?”

“Pardon me. Don’t worry about it.”

Kumi-Kumi did seem to still be curious, but she apparently assumed Kana wasn’t going to talk about it any further and instead went to warn Mephis, who had laid her hand on the military-styled Adelheid’s shoulder. “Careful not to get carried away,” she warned, while Mephis showed her irritation. But Kana thought that diligently advising the team leader, even if she didn’t like it, was how a subleader should be—though this time, she didn’t say so aloud.

Following Calkoro, the magical girls all walked down the hall, heading for the gym. But they were not marching in orderly lines like you might think. They all kept to little clumps, conversing among their own as they walked.

“Baaall!”

“When you transform, you don’t have to clean off your makeup; it’s so easy! Ha-haaa!” Rappy squealed.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be a school rule that makeup isn’t allowed…?” Tetty wondered.

“This school is pretty lax on that sort of thing,” said Miss Ril.

“I’m glad it is! Seriously!”

“Makeuuup!”

Group One all acted the same in human form, chatting in a carefree manner—Tetty, with her big mittens and characteristic waitress style; Miss Ril, looking like nothing other than a metal statue of a lady; Rappy, with a very revealing costume that used a lot of transparent material; Dory, with her giant drill on her shoulder; and Arlie in heavy armor. They all showed many things in common with how they were as ordinary girls. Miss Ril’s expression was static and unblinking, while the different thing about Arlie was that she didn’t talk when transformed, showing what she meant with body language only, but Miss Ril’s tone was still soft, and Arlie’s gestures were still silly.

“I’ll kick all their asses,” Mephis announced. Kumi-Kumi immediately chided her.

“Mephis… Don’t go too far…”

“Ah think it’s swell she’s rarin’ to go.”

“Let’s do our best while not getting hurt,” Classical Lillian said.

Group Two, on the other hand, had the aggressive Mephis in devil style; Kumi-Kumi, who had chided her, with her big pickax; and Adelheid in her military style being conciliatory. All of them were about the same as when in human form, but Classical Lillian had completely transformed. Before, she’d been timid, always glancing around at others to see what they thought. But now, her aloof attitude and faintly statuesque smile wafted a powerful ego and confidence. Someone who seemed like she’d cling to religion had turned into someone who seemed she’d start a religion. Many would gain confidence from the power of being a magical girl, so maybe that was how it was for her.

“Mephis is lookin’ over this way… Is she tryin’ to provoke us or what?” asked Ranyi.

“Fights with her aren’t cheap, yeahhh. It’s not worth it,” said Sally Raven.

“I’ll leave it up to you whether we take her up on that, Diko,” said Princess Lightning.

And then there was Group Three. Three of them—Ranyi, who looked sort of like a goldfish; Sally Raven, with her crow motif; and Princess Lightning, with drums on her back like a certain Japanese deity—acted and talked the same. Pshuke Prains, who carried a water gun, wore a dark expression as she muttered curses. Couldn’t see any changes there, either. Diko Narakunoin’s hood hid most of her face so that only her mouth was visible, but she was smiling like she was enjoying herself. She wasn’t very expressive in human form, but it seemed she could at least show she was having fun with a smile as a magical girl. But the fact that she didn’t talk much hadn’t changed.

Satisfied that she had grasped all their names both when transformed and not, Kana nodded as she walked. It seemed that many of them had some changes of varying degrees, but since the groups always stuck together, it shouldn’t be an obstacle on a day-to-day basis.

When she started thinking about how the groups stuck together, suddenly, Kana noticed her own position. Aside from Calkoro, who was walking in front, her classmates were all with their groups. Kana had been so absorbed in observing the other girls, she’d forgotten she was the only one walking away from the others. Whatever she was going to be doing, she had to work with the others, or it might hinder her experience. Getting along with everyone also meant keeping in step with everyone else.

Kana sped up to move from the tail end of the class, passing Group One to follow Group Two.

The tail that came out from under the hair at the back of Mephis’s head twitched, and she turned back. Eyebrows crinkling, she looked at Kana. “Hey, transfer student. Don’t drag us down.”

“That’s an interesting place to have a tail,” Kana said.

“You listening to me?”

Adelheid slid in between them with a “C’mon now” as she clapped Mephis on the shoulder. “This ain’t something ya gotta be so fussed about winnin’.”

“I don’t wanna lose and have others looking down their nose at me,” Mephis snorted.

Lillian smiled broadly as if she hadn’t even seen that reaction. “No matter what the motive, tackling a competition wholeheartedly is a noble stance.”

It’s not just her face—she even sounds religious, Kana felt but did not say. Wondering what Mephis would say, she glanced over to see the group leader expressing no particular thoughts on the matter, glaring over at Group Three instead.

Seeing Mephis getting in a huff, Kumi-Kumi said to her quietly, “Mephis. Please…don’t break the rules.”

“I know! You don’t have to repeat yourself every time, okay.”

“Sticking to the rules makes it so we can all enjoy the game.”

Lillian really did sound gentle. Mephis was so belligerent, wouldn’t peacemaking remarks like that aggravate her? Kana looked over at Mephis, but she didn’t even touch on what Lillian had said, opening her mouth to say, “If they break the rules, then we can—” But before she could finish, all three of them stopped her.

“…Absolutely not.”

“No way.”

“Let’s not.”

Kana felt like the group’s method of internal regulation was working, and Mephis not arguing with Lillian was a part of that. Their activity as a group was the priority, so competitive events against other groups weren’t the time for internal conflict. From how Kana saw it as an outsider, their other classmates seemed to get along among their own groups, too. Would Kana eventually fit in with Group Two as well and be able to engage with them smoothly? She just couldn’t imagine herself like that but decided to keep in mind that it wasn’t a bad idea to make that a goal for now.

Meanwhile, they arrived at the gymnasium. Calkoro rattled the thick metal lock, and the large doors slid away to either side. Kana had been told that this was a place for cultivating the body, but she had no memory of the phrase.

The walls and floor were both wood paneled. There were exposed girders on the ceiling. You could fit about four classrooms in the space, which was a little small for magical girls to be running around. There were baskets of white balls marked with winding grooves and orange balls covered in fine protrusions. Rings with attached nets that seemed to be to put balls into were attached to boards supported by metal poles on the walls, while large patterns were drawn on the floor.

Kana squatted down, putting her hands on the floor to stroke the patterns. They were not familiar to her. “Are these newly developed inscription techniques?”

“Uh, what’re ya talkin’ ’bout?” Kana lifted her head to see Adelheid giving her a baffled look.

“So then what are these?” Kana asked.

“Court lines.”

“Court lines, huh? Never heard the term before.”

“Huh? Ya seriously never seen these before? Yer not waitin’ for a comeback, here? This ain’t a joke? Ya got basketball, volleyball, futsal, badminton, anythin’ and everythin’.”

Kana narrowed her eyes. She’d never heard of basketball, futsal, or badminton, but one term, volleyball, she did feel like she’d heard before. “Oh, beach volleyball.”

“Uh, there ain’t no beach here.”

Calkoro rattled her abacus to get everyone’s attention, ordering the students to gather. They all shuffled up, coming together in their groups to sit in front of the teacher. Kana sat down as well, behind Kumi-Kumi.

“We’ll be having a mock battle today,” said Calkoro. “It will be more like real combat than the one we had in April.”

And now, yet another event Kana had never experienced before was brought up. All the girls went quiet, then immediately burst into murmurs. It didn’t seem like a pleased reaction. In fact, they seemed confused.

“But it will be the first rec time for one of us,” Calkoro continued. A number of the girls looked at Kana, then right back at the teacher again.

“No hurting your classmates. And no damage to the equipment or gymnasium. Anyone who takes a clean hit from a homunculus is also out. If you block or stop it, you’re safe. These rules are all the same as last time. Next, as for what’s different: Last time, each group sparred with homunculi, but this time, everyone will be fighting at once in the gym. Please do your best until five minutes have passed and I signal it’s over, or until all the homunculi are destroyed. We’ll add up all the homunculi defeated by each group, and the group that’s defeated the most wins. Anyone who breaks the rules will leave the fighting area and go up to the stage and watch until the mock battle is over. All right, let’s make sure to stick to the rules and have a good fight.”

Calkoro rattled her abacus, and with that as the signal, black figures filed out from behind the curtains on the stage.

  Tetty Goodgripp

“I thought it was gonna be softball or something! Nooo! I never thought it’d be a mock battle!” Rappy cried.

“We can assume you’ll be our point getter, Dory…,” said Tetty. “Oh, just be careful to avoid hitting other groups with your attacks.”

“Got it.”

“I think a clear division of roles would be better than all of us just attacking the homunculi,” Tetty continued. “Arlie and Miss Ril, focus on defense. Guard the homunculi, so the other groups don’t take them.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Miss Ril.

“Rappy, you’ll be on offense, and I’ll take the attacker role this time around, too. We really wouldn’t have enough attackers if we split two to three, and we wouldn’t be able to get points.”

They were given time to have a meeting with their groups before starting, and so Tetty earnestly explained their roles. There was something about the decision to hold a more realistic mock battle that bothered her. Once she started thinking that maybe this wasn’t just recreation but an important event that would affect their grades, she couldn’t stop, and the thought lingered in her mind.

Calkoro seemed to have explained in the same perfunctory manner as always, but Tetty picked up a hint of worry in her face and the way her words came out. It also bothered Tetty that they were doing this now, when the transfer student had only just come. Kana wasn’t used to things at school yet, so doing the usual things in the usual way would be easiest for her. But now they were having rec time, which was a special event, and what’s more, it was mock combat. Wasn’t it only natural to assume the teacher was trying to ascertain her abilities?

Tetty casually sneaked a glance at the teacher. Calkoro looked at Group One, then Group Two, then Group Three, then Group Two, and then after checking the clock, she eyed Group Two again. She watched them more than the others. There was something suspicious about the look in her eyes. That was the look of someone trying to make an evaluation. The housewife down the street, Mrs. Kinoshita, who was a sucker for gossip and had been called the neighborhood loudspeaker, had often watched other people like that.

She is worried about the transfer student, after all.

Mock battles were more straightforward than team sports. You would see someone’s physical capabilities very clearly and use magic very clearly. There wasn’t much room to sneak in any tricks.

“Wait, it looks like our group’s at a disadvantage!” cried Rappy. “This is gonna be harsh!”

“If we were playing a regular sport, Tetty could shine in just about any of them,” said Miss Ril.

“It’d be nice if we could do something interesting, though! You got any good ideas, Tetty?”

With the discussion suddenly turned to her, Tetty automatically coughed and adjusted the tone of her voice before turning back to Rappy. “Why…um, are you asking me something like that?”

“You were looking at the court, so I thought you’d come up with something!”

“No, no, I really haven’t… You know, I was just thinking that if we’re doing realistic mock combat, that means we were getting graded on it.”

“So then we’ve gotta do our best! Actually, I’ve got a bunch of ideas myself!”

“What kind of ideas?” Miss Ril asked.

“First, I use my wrap!” said Rappy. “And then like, well, lots of stuff!”

“Um, if we’re going to talk about strategy, we should be a little quieter…,” Tetty pointed out.

While laughing along with the others, out the corner of her eye, Tetty looked at Calkoro. She was eyeing Group Two again. Tetty shifted her gaze, capturing Group Two in her view. Mephis was talking, practically yelling. Tetty couldn’t really tell if Kana was listening or not. Things are tough for Mephis, too, Tetty thought sympathetically, though it wasn’t her problem.

  Ranyi

“Why a mock battle now?” Ranyi wondered aloud, and Lightning and Sally both looked at her—Lightning’s expression didn’t change at all, while Sally’s face was kind of pitying.

“I figure she’s trying to check the transfer student’s skills, yeahhh,” said Sally. “Since it’d involve everything physical, unlike ball sports.”

“Look, she’s watching the transfer student again. Calkoro is very focused on her,” said Lightning.

Seeing their reactions, Ranyi belatedly realized—they weren’t even wondering “Why a mock battle?” anymore. They both already got that this was happening so Calkoro could assess Kana’s fighting skills and had moved on. Ranyi was the only one who’d failed to figure it out and asked a dumb question, causing Sally to take pity on her. Ranyi figured Lightning just thought of her as a talking tree or a rock.

But if Ranyi got herself down about stuff like that every single time, then she really would wind up being pathetic, so she put on a deliberately cheery tone and said, “Oh yeah, of course,” with a clap of her hands.

“So what do we do?” asked Sally. “We wanna know the transfer student’s skills, too, yeahhh?”

“Giving Calkoro what she wants feels quite vexing, but I suppose we have no choice,” said Lightning.

Ranyi didn’t know what “vexing” meant, but she knew enough to ask a question here to keep from ending the conversation. “The transfer student’s been goin’ to the new school buildin’, too, hasn’t she?”

Pshuke momentarily put her cursing and glaring at the other groups on hold to turn to Lightning. “Die… She can go and die…sticking her nose in places; she’s looking into something.”

Lightning cupped a hand around her mouth and opened her lips without making a sound. That meant to discuss so that the other groups couldn’t hear. All the members of Group Three could lip-read.

“Let’s try getting a little serious about this,” Lightning mouthed, and Pshuke responded, “Why bother?” in irritation. “Since we want to see what the transfer student can do,” Lightning answered, “and I want to see the frustration on Mephis’s face,” she continued with a bewitching smile.

Despite feeling practically hypnotized by Lightning’s smile, Ranyi also put forth a number of ideas of her own, and Group Three talked strategy: how they’d defeat homunculi efficiently, and how they would get the best of the other groups. Eventually, Calkoro called everyone to gather, and Diko flashed a toothy grin.

  Calkoro

While watching as the students discussed with their groups, Calkoro thought back on what had happened that afternoon. She’d gone to the principal’s office to inform Halna as to how Kana was doing, but there, she’d learned about Kana’s shocking move instead. Going to the principal—the great deputy chief of the Information Bureau—to ask who had recommended all the students was not the act of a sane person.

What’s more, Halna said she’d just told Kana what she wanted to know. Both of these things were absolutely out of the ordinary. Kana was casually crossing whatever lines Calkoro could conceive of. When it came to Halna, Calkoro thought that being like that had to be the reason she’d been so unusually successful in her career, while she figured that Kana jumping into things like this had to be what had sent her on the route from arrest to imprisonment. Neither were the type Calkoro wanted in her life, but since she was now involved whether she liked it or not, she had no choice but to associate with them, while taking care to keep the damage from extending to herself.

Halna had said she’d done it to see what Kana would do with the information. She said she wanted to figure out why Kana had entered the school and how capable she was. And for the capabilities part, Halna had ordered Calkoro to hold rec time so she could determine her physical abilities and observe her.

Calkoro doubted it would really be that easy, but she couldn’t argue.

With the casual thought that a mock battle—and a more realistic one—might be better than team sports for judging basic athleticism, she’d settled on doing a mock battle. All she’d been thinking was Well, do your best, I suppose, but for some reason, Groups One and Three were discussing with unusual enthusiasm.

While Calkoro was very uneasy about this, she couldn’t take it back now. So she checked the security cameras installed in the gym so that she could least make a proper recording, if something happened.

  Kumi-Kumi

They never did get to talk about how they’d win the mock battle. Since one member of their group had never fought with homunculi before—more precisely, she had no memory of it—the rest of Group Two were all mobilized to make sure Kana memorized the basic rules and what training-use homunculi were. By the time she finally had everything, the battle was about to begin. Calkoro blew the whistle.

“We’re getting started now, so please gather round.”

Group One was to the right of the entrance, Group Two was to the left of the entrance, Group Three was in the center, in front of the stage, and the cluster of a few dozen homunculi were gathered in the middle of the gym in a circle with their backs to one another. The jet-black, featureless homunculi had no eyes, noses, or mouths. Aside from that, they were simply made: You could just barely identify their arms and legs. The units for practice were particularly simple in construction. Kumi-Kumi had heard before that it was so that destroying them didn’t cause mental strain. But when you actually tried fighting them, you had to wonder if it was a simple issue of budget.

Calkoro blew the starting whistle.

The homunculi split into groups and went into action, and the magical girls set into motion all at once. With Lightning in the lead, Group Three attacked the homunculi as a single arrow, while Arlie from Group One ran out at an angle to obstruct them. From Group Two, only Mephis headed toward Group Three, while the other members ran for the homunculi.

“Let’s go!”

Rappy and Tetty swung Dory, who was bundled up in a wrap, around and tossed her like a sling. Centrifugal force accelerated Dory to send her slamming into a cluster of homunculi. Her drill tip struck one, carving its torso away and spraying fluids around. Dory swung her drill with a wild shriek, the spinning tool making a grating din as she took down another. The homunculi responded quickly, reconstructing their circle formation, covering for one another as they backed away from the drill.

Kumi-Kumi knit her eyebrows. It was frustrating that Dory had stolen first blood, but she’d acknowledge Group One’s good teamwork. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was how the homunculi were behaving.

They hadn’t seemed at all intelligent in the mock battles before. They’d been nothing more than sandbags that obeyed Calkoro’s signal to attack, then got beaten down. But this time, they were responding to Dory’s actions and coordinating as a group in battle. And when they did things like punch or kick, they avoided obstructing the other homunculi and aimed for their enemies’ backs. If their functionality had been improved, then the girls couldn’t fight the same as they had before.

Kumi-Kumi swung down her pickax, striking at the herd of homunculi a beat behind the others. The homunculus backed away, and her swing hit air, but Lillian had strung a navy-blue thread on the pickax, which pulled her in a flying leap past Kumi-Kumi to kick at the enemy. Lillian struck the homunculus in the face with both feet, knocking it back. Intellect aside, it seemed their durability wasn’t much different from the last time.

Meanwhile, Lightning, Sally, and Pshuke from Group Three had broken past Arlie and Mephis to reach the homunculi. If Group Two didn’t get moving, Group Three would take all the points. Adelheid swiped at a homunculus, slicing it open, but it was a shallow wound. The other units immediately came to its aid, preventing Adelheid from finishing it off. But that also meant three homunculi were now gathered in one place. Lillian tossed a big ball of yarn in a light underhand, and Kumi-Kumi swung her pickax as hard as she could. The ball of yarn turned to small cubes to hit the homunculi like buckshot, and when they flinched, Adelheid stepped in like a thunderclap to slash thrice with frightening speed, slicing the black forms to shreds.

One unit tried to flee, despite being in shreds, but Kumi-Kumi blocked its escape, scooping upward with her pickax to plunge into the homunculus. The pickax disassembled inanimate objects into cubes, but her magic had no effect on living creatures, so it worked like a direct weapon instead.

She tossed the impaled homunculus off her weapon. It flew up almost to the ceiling, then fell to the floor with a splat. Black fluids scattered all over, hitting Kumi-Kumi as well, but it didn’t smell and wasn’t poisonous, and it disappeared immediately.

All right, next, she was thinking, readying her pickax, when Calkoro blew the whistle.

“Okay, stop. Everyone freeze and stay where you are, please.”

Looking over, Kumi-Kumi saw Princess Lightning with her hand up. As everyone was murmuring, “What happened?” Lightning approached Calkoro, and the two exchanged a few words; she accompanied the teacher to the spot where the homunculus had just fallen, pointing to the floor as she said something.

Calkoro flicked the beads of her abacus as she leaned close to the floor, then nodded. “I acknowledge Lightning’s observation. Kumi-Kumi, you’re out.”

“Huh…? Why me?”

“The impact of the homunculus’s fall dented the floor.”

Kumi-Kumi had overdone it. Now that she thought about it, it really hadn’t been necessary to throw it all the way to the ceiling. With Mephis’s jeers following her, Kumi-Kumi’s shoulders slumped, and she climbed up to the stage to sit there alone with her knees in front of her, watching.

“All right, resume.” Calkoro blew her whistle, then immediately started flicking the beads of her abacus. It seemed she was calculating each group’s points. Kumi-Kumi looked back down over the combat area. A little ways away from the cluster of homunculi, two magical girls were facing off. It was Mephis and Diko. Kumi-Kumi would rather Mephis try obstructing all of Group Three as opposed to just distracting Diko, but ask Mephis, and she was sure to say one-on-one was the best way to fight.

“C’mon and try a little harder, Diko.” Mephis bared a threatening grin at her, and Diko answered by raising the corners of her lips in a smile. The two magical girls continued to face off, glaring at each other. They were so close their shoulders just about bumped, but they didn’t touch. Everyone remembered Calkoro explaining that attacking classmates was against the rules. Mephis and Diko both broke into a run at almost the same instant. Mephis’s mouth moved, and Diko’s cheeks twisted up in a spasm. Mephis was whispering something to Diko.

The words of the demon would corrupt the soul. If Mephis whispered, “You don’t have to work that hard; this is just some dumb old rec time, right?” it would make Diko think, Yeah, that’s right, and convince herself it was true, and she’d find herself slacking off. To a magical girl who was aware of Mephis’s magic and had strong mental fortitude, it was nothing more than a mild hindrance, but when you were in the middle of focusing hard and reading each other, that hindrance got much nicer results.

Diko attempted to slip under Mephis’s arm like she was sliding to a base, but before she could, Mephis’s hand reached out. She threw her arm out in the most perfect way to not be seen as an attack. Diko grinned, and the medallion on her arm transformed, warping limply like a living creature, and a large eye opened in the center.

The moment her one-eyed medallion opened its eye, Diko vanished. Mephis clicked her tongue, running ahead. This was Diko’s magic. She could vanish at any time, though only for an instant. When they’d played hide-and-seek during rec time, she’d used this magic to dominate the game.

And Mephis had been angrier than any of them, then. This must have brought back that memory, as she was yelling as she chased after Diko. It really looked like Diko was the one playing her. Maybe having Diko deal with Mephis was Group Three’s plan.

Kumi-Kumi cupped both hands around her mouth like a megaphone, yelling from the stage, “Mephis! Never mind Diko! Go for the homunculi!”

“Fuck that!” Mephis yelled back, totally ignoring Kumi-Kumi’s instructions. She and Diko were running side by side at a fixed distance apart from each other, gradually moving away from where everyone else was. She was so obviously being played just like Diko wanted it, but Mephis was the only one who hadn’t noticed.

And over at the main scene of action, a thick fog blocked the field of view. That was Pshuke from Group Three’s magic. Kumi-Kumi focused on the fog to try to see what was going on inside, but she couldn’t see through it. Some hazy figures could be seen in there, but it wasn’t even clear if they were homunculi or magical girls. Wouldn’t that make it difficult even for Group Three to do anything? What were they trying to do? Kumi-Kumi could hear something moving and something clashing, but she still didn’t know what they were doing. The sound of abacus beads flicking nearby also gradually quieted. There wasn’t any way for a referee to count.

Then someone cried out from within the mist. “Ref!”

The mist cleared. All the magical girls and homunculi had stopped fighting, and one of them was glancing all around her. Dory’s gaze stopped on her fallen drill, which she happily scooped up.

Lightning pointed at Dory, then called out in a lovely, sonorous voice, “Dory damaged the floor when she dropped her drill.”

Dory wailed sharply. Sometimes you could make out the words “made meee” mixed in with her wailing. In other words, she was insisting that she hadn’t dropped it herself but that someone else had made her drop it. Lightning offered a sarcastic shrug. There was no proof since nobody had been able to see through the mist. If anyone had been able to get close, maybe they would have seen, and if what Dory insisted was true, then someone probably had come up to her and made her drop her weapon, but if nobody had seen it, then what she said wouldn’t count.

“Hold up!” Someone called for a stop. It was Rappy.

Rappy, at Dory’s side, squatted down on the spot, reaching to the floor to pick something up. She was peeling off some transparent wrap. The whole area had been covered by her magic wrap.

Calkoro approached and checked the floor, then made a big circle with her arms. “Safe! No damage!”

Group One cried out in joy, and Dory hugged Rappy.

Lightning turned away from Dory as if she’d lost interest, and next, she pointed at Adelheid. “Then over there, referee.”

“Wait, naw, hold yer horses! Someone smacked mah sword down!” Adelheid was holding her military saber in her arms, but it seemed she’d just picked it up after dropping it.

Group Three’s response to Adelheid’s assertion that there had been violence in the fog was flatly arguing that they had done no such thing, insisting that there was no video evidence. The fact was that since everything had been covered in the mist, nobody aside from those involved had caught any violence.

Calkoro’s arbitration was somewhat neutral and somewhat careless: She made it so that from now on, Pshuke was not to use her magic, while also recognizing that Adelheid had broken the rules. Looking at Mephis, Kumi-Kumi saw she was glaring with murder in her eyes at Group Three.

“Mephis! Keep cool!” Kumi-Kumi called.

“Ya can’t lose yer head! That’s just what they want!” Adelheid yelled along with her, and Kumi-Kumi shifted her gaze to Group One. Group Three was going beyond pushing the rules—they were breaking the rules, but Group One was playing a tight game, too. Rappy had fully anticipated Group Three’s trick to block the field of view to break the rules. Thinking about it, it seemed both Groups One and Three had managed to have a full strategy meeting in the time before the mock battle had started. Group Two had lost that time purely on explaining things to Kana; they never had time to come up with a plan.

Oh yeah, so then what’s Kana up to? Kumi-Kumi wondered and looked over to see her standing in front of a homunculus, not particularly in a fighting stance.

As for what she’d been doing, it became clear when Calkoro’s whistle blew. She was talking to the homunculus. Her magic was supposed to be to get answers from asking them questions or something like that. Was she trying to ask the homunculi questions to learn their weaknesses?

“Kana! Fight!” Kumi-Kumi cried.

“Ya can’t be standin’ around here!” added Adelheid.

Kana’s head turned toward them, and she opened her mouth to say something, but then got kicked in the side of the head by a homunculus and fell, her back hitting the floor to roll and slide away.

At the end of the day, the homunculi’s attack power was no joke. During the mock battle in April, Kumi-Kumi hadn’t been used to it yet, and she’d taken a few good whacks, too.

Mephis was playing tag with Diko. They were both making use of countless high-level techniques—with their feints, the magic they wove in, how they faked out with their eyes, their body movements, and footwork. But in the sense that they couldn’t be counted as an asset to their teams, they were no different from Kana.

A crow that shone the color of darkness rose up to skim the roof, then from there suddenly dropped toward the ground at Lillian’s feet. It was Sally Raven’s crow, controlled by her magic.

It wasn’t trying to slam into Lillian—it was just flapping its wings around her legs to get in her way, making Lillian’s footing unsteady. Being the lone attacker Group Two had left, she had to fight, but she couldn’t deal with homunculi when the crow was getting in her way.

“That thing of Sally’s is bogus,” complained Adelheid.

“It looks like…Calkoro…won’t blow the whistle,” said Kumi-Kumi.

“That were a right hassle when we were playin’ portball. So anythin’ goes when it’s a summon, is that it?”

Sally had her crow obstruct while she attacked the homunculi, defeating one in a pincer attack between herself and Lightning. She showed her back to invite the homunculi to attack, then blocked its field of view with her own body while she had Lightning attack over her shoulder to take down another, and when a unit came swaying toward her, she punched it down with a backfist, and the whistle blew.

“Sally Raven, rule violation.”

Ah, Kumi-Kumi thought and looked over to see that the homunculus Sally had punched was no homunculus. It was Miss Ril, who had made her whole body jet-black like a homunculus. Taking Tetty’s hand to come to her feet, she plucked the black fragment she’d been holding from her palm and handed it to Arlie. Arlie stuck the fragment into the spot in her shoulder armor where a chip had been missing.

Miss Ril could use any mineral she held in her hand to transform the material of her body. By clasping a fragment of Arlie’s armor, she’d turned her entire body black, then mingled among the attacking homunculi to approach Sally and take a hit. Thinking about it now, the texture of Arlie’s armor was a little like the homunculi’s bodies.

As Sally came up to the stage with a bashful expression, Adelheid smiled at her. “Ya done goofed, Sally.”

“Yeahhh, they got me. I wanted to score a few more points, though.”

“Y’all in Group Three are on fire today, huh? Ah thought it was just us goin’ hog wild fer this.”

“Ahhh yeahhh, that’s on Her Highness’s request. She’s been uncharacteristically enthusiastic about this for some reason.”

That meant Sally was working so hard for Princess Lightning. If Kumi-Kumi were to ask, “So then why does Lightning want that?” Sally probably wouldn’t answer.

With Sally out, she couldn’t intervene with her crows anymore, and there was now more space on the battlefield.

Group Three’s attackers were Lightning and Pshuke. But if Pshuke made one wrong shot with her water gun, it would do more than just hit homunculi, and she’d also been disallowed from obstructing the view with mist, so she had no choice but to fight hand-to-hand instead. With both Rappy and Miss Ril obstructing them, the former wielding her wrap for defense and the latter’s blinding figure sparkling every time she moved, trying to get hit if possible, they really seemed to be having a hard time.

Group One had Dory and Tetty on the offensive. Dory would dash in to scatter the homunculi, and when they ran away, Tetty grabbed them, plucking out the parts in her grip. When she took an arm, she ripped it off, and when she took a head, she crushed it—an utterly gruesome spectacle. For her own part, Tetty just did it dispassionately and mechanically. Ranyi was trying to obstruct Group One, but Arlie’s iron guard wouldn’t let her get close.

The only attacker Group Two had right now was Lillian. She made traps to catch ankles, tangled up enemies with a whip, and blocked attacks with a shield, only to instantly unravel the shield into a net for capture, toying with the homunculi with her rainbow-colored knitting, but she lacked enough attack power to take out a homunculus in one strike.

“Mephis! She needs you!” Kumi-Kumi cried.

“Mephiiiis! Just drop Diko!” Adelheid echoed her.

Mephis howled. She wasn’t even trying to hide her wrath. Diko, facing off against her, dodged to the right, evading Mephis’s charge. Mephis didn’t slow down, barreling into the crowd of homunculi. Kumi-Kumi personally would have preferred she work together with Lillian to fight, but if she yelled that now, who knew if Mephis would even hear it. She was so angry, her face and eyes were red.

A homunculus tried to block Mephis’s kick and was flung back—Lillian caught it with a shield, and Mephis ran up to it and fired two jabs, then a straight with all her back in it to crush its head.

Even if Mephis didn’t understand, Lillian would. If she could do a good job as support, even if they were unlikely to win, maybe they could wrangle second place.

Right as the light of hope that Kumi-Kumi hadn’t seen so much as a flicker of before was finally starting to shine, Miss Ril came around. Since now Group Two had more fighting force, well, it was logical that Group One would come to obstruct, but Mephis roared as if to say this was obviously her right, baring her teeth at Miss Ril like an animal threat.

“Mephis! Calm down! Don’t attack Miss Ril!” Kumi-Kumi cried.

“Two gals out is enough!” Adelheid joined in.

With a face like she was crushing her anger in her teeth, Mephis punched a homunculus. Since now she was being careful not to touch Miss Ril, she couldn’t beat them down as quickly as she had before.

Group Three’s attacker team had lost one obstructor, and they had Diko coming back, so they regained their momentum. Diko vanished and got behind a homunculus, and she, Lightning, and Pshuke pincered it from the front and rear. They went on taking out homunculi at a good tempo.

Things were still going smoothly for Group One, which had no obstructors. Tetty was death on contact, and Dory was incredibly good at throwing the homunculi into disarray, so with them as a team, the homunculi were nothing to them, no matter how many there were.

Miss Ril turned toward Group Three. Group Two didn’t seem like competition for first place, so it seemed rather than obstructing them, she considered it best to go back to obstructing Group Three. Group Two should be very thankful she thought that way, but knowing Mephis this long, Kumi-Kumi knew she would see it as an insult, basically, “You’re not worth paying attention to.”

Mephis howled. Panicking, Miss Ril started turning back to her.

Mephis stepped forward to the side, opposite the direction Miss Ril’s head had turned. Her initial velocity was incredible. With her second step, she left Miss Ril behind, and then with her third step, there was a streak of light.

An explosive crackling sound rang out, followed by an intense light that made it hard to keep your eyes open. Sally, who’d been watching the battle from the stage, cried out in pain, while Adelheid shouted, “What in tarnation?!” And if the light was that powerful seen from the stage, seeing it up close had to be unbearable. Kumi-Kumi’s narrowed eyes gradually opened, and she saw what was going on. Mephis was curled on the ground, pressing both her eyes. A homunculus approached from behind, swinging down its arm; Tetty leaped in from the side, thrust Mephis away, and grabbed the homunculus’s claws to crush them.

Calkoro blew the whistle. “Tetty Goodgripp, rule violation for attacking Mephis Pheles.”

Tetty just muttered “Ah,” shoulders dropping. She must have acted on the spur of the moment. Forgetting it was against the rules and defending Mephis really seemed like something Tetty would do. Mephis’s response was similarly predictable.

Mephis got up and placed her hands on Tetty’s shoulders. “You thought you were saving me?”

“Well, um, listen. It’s like my body just moved, you know?”

Mephis smashed the top of her head into the bridge of Tetty’s nose, and Kumi-Kumi rushed over to stop the fight.

  Pythie Frederica

Glasswork magical girls danced atop the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The item had been made-to-order on the motif of a revolving lantern, and she’d also commissioned each one of the magical girls individually from first-rate craftsmen. Appearing and vanishing, there was a punk rocker strumming a guitar that sprayed magical notes, a girl in a white coat and glasses over a swimsuit, a schoolgirl holding a weapon like a spear or naginata, and a clown who juggled while balancing on a ball, as well as various other magical girls.

In contrast to the lavishly gold-encrusted chandelier, the interior of the room it illuminated was very simple. It had two sofas facing each other, a large table, and a check-patterned carpet.

On the smaller sofa was the fortune-teller-style magical girl Pythie Frederica, casually sitting with her legs folded to the side, while in the corner of the room crouched a magical girl bound with chains and talismans. She didn’t even twitch, and just looking at her, it was hard to tell if she was alive or dead.

Frederica pulled out a mount that was soft to the touch, placing it atop the table. She had been told it was an item of the highest quality, made of magically infused artisanal silk. She then set her crystal ball on the mount, which was exceptionally stable; it kept her crystal ball perfectly in place, and the quality of the cushion supported it properly. It was always so satisfying to personally select an item, regardless of expense.

Frederica stroked the crystal ball with her right hand. There was a different hair wrapped around each of her fingers.

An image popped up in her crystal ball. A magical girl with a small plate in her right hand was in front of a big pot, scowling. Her blue necktie was fluttering in the heat rising from the pot. It seemed Panas was working hard at her hobby again that day. Whatever sort of ramen would she come up with?

“The flavors aren’t coming together. I put in too many mushrooms; maybe that’s why it’s so all over the place.”

It seemed cooking her broth hadn’t gone well. Being unable to enjoy smell and taste of whatever she was viewing was one of the many flaws of Frederica’s magic. Not wanting to be tortured on and on by tasty-looking food dangled in front of her, she switched the image.

Magical girls were gathered at what looked to be behind a school. They were Caspar Faction girls—the Elite Guard who attended that school, plus Adelheid, and they seemed to be talking about something.

“You guys are so useless.”

“No…Mephis…you can’t…criticize others, this time…”

“What was that?”

“If yer talkin’ about who’s useless, then me and Kumi-Kumi were, too, for gettin’ booted out early. And Kana, well, she wasn’t useful. And you had Diko stringin’ ya along the whole time, Mephis, runnin’ off away from the game. ’Bout the only one who did a proper job this time was Lillian, don’cha think?”

“Diko’s the biggest gun in that game, and I was luring her away from the battlefield! Whaddaya mean, I wasn’t doing my job? That’s bullshit. I was busting my ass.”

“Even if ya were bustin’ yer rear over there, Ah think startin’ up a tussle with Tetty and gettin’ kicked off the field puts ya out.”

“That was Tetty’s fault! That little bitch!”

What a waste, having such a trivial quarrel when they had this great opportunity to be magical girls in middle school. Just watching it was depressing, so Frederica switched the image.

A mage and magical girl were facing each other in what looked like a reception room with sofas. The mage was an agent of the Caspar Faction, while the magical girl was a veteran from the Archfiend Cram School. Both of them were nasty schemers.

“I have need of some magical girls,” said the mage. He looked like he’d just sneaked out of a Halloween party, what with his navy-blue suit, gray necktie, and triangle hat. The magical girl, who was beyond relaxed on the sofa—basically lying down—straightened up to listen to him.

“I’d like you to introduce me to some available graduates of the Archfiend Cram School,” the mage continued.

“Again? I introduced you to Amy and Monako, didn’t I? And even Adelheid.”

“Oh no, I’m grateful for that. All the magical girls you’ve brought to us were quite wonderful. But nevertheless, we’ve wound up short on help again.”

“You sound like a convenience store that’s always hiring part-timers.”

“If you’re referring to the exploitative work environment… Well, my complaining won’t get us anywhere. Be that as it may, we just need some personnel.”

“If you’re gathering as many as you can, it’ll be a hell of a lot of girls. Trying to empty your cash vaults?”

“I’m told we may clear out the Caspar Faction’s coffers.”

The magical girl rose to her feet. “What’re you trying to do? Are you trying to stage a coup? I can’t advise that, okay?”

“Not to worry; it’s nothing quite as difficult as a coup.”

“Oooh!” The magical girl grinned. From her toothy smile, you could see into her nasty character. Frederica thought well of her.

The students who had been sent into the magical-girl class by the various political forces were not only professionals—among them were several good, honest students. Toss in a brute who was fond of bloodbaths, and you’d find yourself with a situation so awful and tragic it would make even Frederica balk. When Snow White came to try to stop it, what would she do? Or would she not stop it and just mourn her own powerlessness? Would she put herself on the line to face the both of them, fail to accomplish her goal, and fall? No. She was bound to easily surpass Frederica’s expectations. Frederica was sure of it. Just imagining it made Frederica grin from ear to ear.

Thinking about Snow White, she switched the image in her crystal ball.

Nothing showed up; it merely sat there. Frederica waited one minute, then two, but even after waiting three whole minutes, nothing happened, and Frederica canceled her magic.

Snow White had not appeared. The hair tied around Frederica’s ring finger definitely belonged to Snow White, so it was fair to assume she’d done something to block it. These days, she did have a mage working with her. Was she repelling Frederica’s crystal ball with magic or using some other method?

Frederica’s shoulders shook as she laughed, and the tied-up magical girl squirmed in discomfort.