Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 13 - Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

THE SWEET TRAP

  Kana

Kana wondered how Mephis would react—would she reject her again, or leave her behind, or evade her on the way back? And so she was cautious in her own way to stick close to Mephis, no matter what. But Mephis herself just started walking without a word, so for now, Kana followed.

They went through the gate in the gym equipment room, and then Mephis took her magical-girl form. She ran up a building, jumped off an iron pole, and dashed along a cable. Kana did the same thing as she went after her. Looking back on how she really had spent that day following other people around, since she wouldn’t always have someone to imitate, she quietly made up her mind that she would have to memorize how to do her work as well as the way back home. Upon self-evaluation, she thought this was a very fine decision to have made, and she privately praised herself. She really had grown as a magical girl, after all.

They went over the commercial area and its bright lights to head into the darkness. It wasn’t as if Kana wasn’t curious about the downtown area, but she knew from experience that it was dangerous not to keep your eyes ahead when you were running as fast as a magical girl. Depending on your speed, even a stumble might destroy an apartment or even a whole building.

So she couldn’t look to the sides, and she also recalled knowing from experience that it was dangerous to let your mind wander and let your feet move on auto when you were running after someone. So she decided to stop letting her mind wander while running (even for self-evaluations or thinking back on school) and focused on following Mephis’s back. When her feet came to a stop, she found herself on the roof of a structure of a tall, oblong shape made from concrete. The whole area was filled with dense stands of inorganic oblongs—to Kana’s eyes, they didn’t look like just similar shapes but exactly the same shapes.

“This is… Oh, I know, a high-rise area,” Kana said.

“It’s an apartment complex,” Mephis told her.

“An apartment complex, eh? I’ll remember that.”

Grumbling, “Why do you need to remember that?” Mephis pulled out a small metal object and dangled it in front of Kana’s eyes to show her. Kana knew this shape. It was a key.

“I sneaked this from the building manager. I made a spare, then returned it,” Mephis said, kind of like she was bragging. She used the key to open the protruding roof door, then beckoned Kana in and closed it again. It smelled moldy inside, and the ceiling and walls were a dirty black, as if they were covered in soot. The two of them went down one floor’s worth of stairs to stand in front of a different door. This one was similar in that it was metal and kind of cheap looking, but it looked a little thicker and sturdier than the door on the roof. Mephis opened this door with a different key from the earlier one, and Kana silently followed Mephis inside.

When Mephis closed the door, the smell of mold faded. The entrance way here seemed to be for leaving shoes, as Mephis took her shoes off there and went inside. Kana followed after her.

It was a short, narrow hallway. Go down it, and there was a room at the end. A cloth hung in the doorway there. There was some pattern drawn on the cloth, but Kana didn’t know what it meant. The cloth looked too shabby and old to be a decoration, and it was also too short to hide what was inside the room, and you could see inside. Perhaps it had some kind of religious meaning.

Passing under the cloth, Kana went into the room. There were many unfamiliar things inside. Even Kana could recognize the monitor, bed, bookshelf and books, but there were also things she had no idea as to their purpose. A bag that shone with a metallic luster was full to bursting. There was some kind of curio that was a little cylindrical metal, a square plastic case, and an iron disk connected with an iron pole, but no sooner had she wondered what it was as the next unidentified object caught her eye, and her brain couldn’t keep up with it all.

“Why’re you looking at all my stuff?” Mephis asked.

“Sorry. It’s all so new to me, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Are you a burglar or what?”

“I can’t rule that out.”

“…Oh yeah, you were in prison, right?”

The mistress of the house hit a switch on the wall to turn on the lights. She sat down on the bed facing Kana and tossed a cushion at her. Inferring that Mephis meant she should sit on it on the floor, Kana set the cushion under her bottom and hugged her knees to her chest. Mephis gave her an odd look, but since she made no comment, Kana took this as an okay.

The room was small, about three times Kana’s height squared, but not so small that there was nowhere to sit. However, her initial impression that there was “a lot of stuff” seemed to be correct. Large books overflowed from the bookshelves to pile up on the floor, the top of the pile higher than Kana’s sitting height. Was Mephis actually a reader, despite appearances? But if so, she didn’t take great care with her books. Some of them had folded pages.

“All right, so then instead of paying me rent, let’s have you talk,” Mephis said.

“I can do that,” Kana replied. “I’ll tell you what I’m able. Like for example, as a way to make up with Tetty—”

“I didn’t ask that! Why do I have to make up with her?”

“Do you two have some history I’m unaware of?”

“That’s…well, stuff happened.”

“So then tell me.”

“We went to the same elementary school… Wait, no! You’re supposed to be telling me shit!”

“I’m Kana.”

“No more playing stupid, okay?” Mephis smacked the bed with her right hand, the bounce carrying her to her feet, and in a light, natural motion like down feathers drifting in the wind, she sat herself next to Kana and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Each of her long, graceful fingers stroked Kana’s chin in succession, while her sharp gray nails scraped Kana’s throat almost firmly enough to hurt. Her black hair curled around them, moving like a magical girl with a medusa motif, as she leaned close enough Kana could feel her breath with the motion of her pinkish-black lips. For some reason, the way her lips moved looked obscene, making her devil motif unquestionable.

“You knew the principal, huh?” Mephis asked.

“I only met her this morning.”

“What were you talking about just now?”

“I have no place to go back to. I was negotiating with her to see if I could stay at her house.”

Mephis thrust herself away from Kana to sit on the bed. The look she gave Kana was not one of anger or disdain. Kana thought perhaps it was something like distrust.

“That’s weird,” Mephis said. “Why would you ask someone you’ve only met this morning to let you stay at her house? And on top of that, they said at the entrance ceremony that she’s also the deputy chief of the Information Bureau, so she’s too busy to come here. I heard this from Adelheid, but the Information Bureau is a reeeal dangerous place, right? And the deputy chief is a seriously dangerous person. I mean, she had a crazy intense aura.”

“I wasn’t aware of her position until you informed me. Also, she’s not an elf, she’s a mage. Though this also depends on what you would consider an elf—”

“I’m not talking about the definition of an elf!”

“True enough.”

“You saw how she was acting, right? She was like, ‘I could destroy a puny little magical girl like you with just one finger.’ She thinks of us as trash to begin with. So how could a big-shot mage like that be seriously listening to you? Why is it that someone who rarely even shows her face is making accommodations for you? Tell me.” Mephis’s large, red-flecked dark eyes pressured her and seemed to be saying, “Tell me now,” and Kana realized that she’d been backed into a corner. Mephis’s words tortured her heart, and this was probably Mephis’s magic. Kana wanted to accede to her demands and talk so badly, but she had none of the information Mephis sought.

“I see,” Kana said.

“Whaddaya mean, I see?”

Kana understood the reason Mephis hadn’t put up much of a fight about bringing Kana home. She was suspicious about Halna’s kindness and so intended to take her home to get answers out of her, with her magic being the key here. Was she trying to remove a foreign element that disturbed the harmony of the class, or was this to gain information on the teacher and use it to make her time at school easier? With Kana’s freshly learned negotiation skills, she couldn’t determine that. What she did understand was that Mephis was convinced something was up, and that even if Kana were to deny or evade, Mephis was unlikely to buy it.

Kana seemed to recall that someone—probably some rotten villain—had once said that when lying, the most foolish thing to do was cover everything with falsehood. But still, should she be honestly telling Mephis, “I was ordered here by some woman I don’t really understand and told to be a good student and graduate?”

Kana agonized over it, though she didn’t show it on her face, and it led her to remember something important. “I was in a prison.”

“I know that.” Mephis’s right eye narrowed in suspicion. That must have piqued her curiosity. The fact that she showed interest in the prison rather than attacking Kana for her resistance proved that.

“Modern prisons value reformation and learning over discipline and retribution. It’s not at all rare to make use of a competent prisoner, as an asset.”

“Are you competent?”

“I would assume opinions are divided.”

Mephis set her right leg atop her left knee and her right hand under her chin and nodded. It looked like she was thinking. She slowly closed her eyes, and then they flared open again. “Hold up. Don’t you try to avoid the point, here. The prison has nothing to do with the principal.”

“Just as I’ve told you, providing personnel from the prison is a part of the school’s affairs. But of course the principal would be uneasy about a prisoner being among these students with bright futures, no matter how competent she is. They interviewed me beforehand, as well. That was when I met Halna.”

“You just keep talking, and it all sounds reasonable, huh.”

“I gave you an accurate explanation of my situation. Being recommended by the Bureau of Legal Affairs, you should know how important it is to be precise with your words.”

“…Hmm? Hey, hold up. Why the hell do you know about who recommended me?”

The situation had taken a bad turn. Mephis narrowed her eyes, her expression dangerous as she looked at Kana. There was a mix of suspicion and anger. This was not a look you would give to one of your own from your same class, same group.

“Who did you hear that from? Tell me,” Mephis demanded.

Halna had forbidden Kana to ever tell where she had gotten the information from. But not only that—if she were to honestly tell Mephis now what she’d learned from Halna, then that would just give rise to even more doubts about Kana, since Mephis was already suspicious about Halna and Kana’s relationship. Mephis tossed her right leg out, laying it on top of Kana’s knees. Leaning forward, she brought her face close to Kana’s, and close enough that Kana could feel her breath, she repeated, “Tell me.”

Kana’s heart ached. She wanted to be good and say it, and her mouth opened, but she couldn’t, so she swallowed her words. Backed into a corner, she just barely restrained herself, and when she somehow managed to hold back the words, Mephis softly murmured, “Who told you?” and Kana closed her eyes.

Speaking honestly would be an act of good faith to Mephis, while not revealing the source of the information would be an act of good faith to Halna. Right now, Kana was entirely stuck between a rock and a hard place. If she showed either of them good faith, she would wind up betraying the other.

If she could be as honest as possible, while also concealing the source of her information… Could that even be done? But Kana thought—making the impossible possible was just what magical girls were all about. Perhaps this was a trial as a magical girl. If asked, “Is acting good to both of them to continue to please everyone being a magical girl?” it would be difficult to offer an immediate answer, but that wasn’t the question she should be asking right now.

“I can’t reveal the source of my information,” said Kana. “I swore I wouldn’t tell.”

“And I’m telling you to ignore that and talk to me, got it?”

“My original motive in trying to find out everyone’s patrons was to use that to make friends with everyone. But if I told you now where that information came from, I would be unable to become friends with everyone. I’d call that losing sight of my priorities. So I can’t reveal the source of that information.”

“I see…to be friends with everyone, huh?”

“That’s right.”

Mephis clapped her hands three times and smiled. “Wow.”

“I didn’t expect I’d be commended for that.”

“This isn’t a compliment! I’m saying wow that you think a bullshit excuse like that’ll work, you piece of garbage!”

“It’s not an excuse. I want to make friends with you, too. And I want to make friends with Tetty. And I think it would be best if you two got along, too. About that fight you and Tetty had during the mock battle—”

“Drop dead!”

Mephis kicked her, and Kana rolled over to smack into the wall. The impact made the bookshelf fall over, and it caught on the chest of drawers, stuck leaning on an angle. Kana wound up flattened underneath the books that came down from the bookshelf in a flutter of paper.

  Lapis Lazuline

The pure-white walls and floor looked vaguely sooty—it was because of the dim lighting. The resin floor made no sounds, silencing even her footsteps. Apparently, some researchers had complained about running into people when turning corners. But Lazuline hadn’t heard of that leading to talk of fixing it.

She went straight through an intersection, then turned right at the next one to pass a few doors, offering a bow and a bit of an awkward, bashful smile to the mage in a lab coat who came walking up from ahead.

Not Lapis Lazuline’s smile—Bluebell Candy’s smile.

Though Bluebell Candy had a chair in the Department of Research and Development, there was no chair for Lapis Lazuline. And there was no point in changing her name now so she could stick to being the character named Lazuline. There wasn’t really any harm to acting as Bluebell Candy, aside from the side effect of a slightly sour mood, so when at R&D, Lapis Lazuline was still Bluebell Candy. Here, neither Lazuline’s memories nor her personality were worth anything.

Before the door that was three from the end of the hall, she did a right turn and came to a stop. The plate there read REFERENCE ROOM. She knocked twice, then waited two beats, and knocked again. The door slid to the right, Lazuline slipped inside, and the door shut right after her.

“Looks like Frederica’s made her move, master,” said Lazuline.

“What do you mean, looks like?” An older woman somewhere past middle age laid her pen on the table. Most would probably describe her as “sophisticated.”

Lazuline swept into the chair that was for visitors, sitting down without any hesitation and folding her legs, facing the First Lazuline across the desk. “I mean, this is Frederica, right? Ya can’t say for sure.”

“So this is your guess, in other words?” The woman wore a leisurely smile. She spoke in a polite manner, and she was gently affable. But those who knew her would at the very least straighten their posture when seeing her, knowing that mistakes were not permitted with her. Only Lazuline faced her with a relaxed posture. She hadn’t succeeded to the name of Lazuline for nothing. It wasn’t Bluebell Candy but Lapis Lazuline who knew what the First wanted from her. At the very least, it wasn’t enough to just not make mistakes.

“An agent of the Caspar Faction’s reachin’ out to people connected to the Archfiend Cram School,” Lazuline explained. “That’s what I mean by looks like. Frederica isn’t doin’ stuff directly, but well, it’s probably on her request, right? It’s some pretty major goings-on. They’re recruitin’ so many, it’s a bit out of the ordinary.”

“This all sounds expensive.”

“Yeah. Of course graduates of the Archfiend Cram School are, but even dropouts have quite a lotta brand clout, after all. But if they used their subordinate antiestablishment organization or Caspar Faction girls, it wouldn’t cost them—so this means they’re up to somethin’ that requires the extra trouble of external commission. That’s a big deal.” Lazuline refolded her legs, and the First laid her elbows on the armrests, turning her chair to the right.

Lazuline narrowed her right eye and pursed her lips slightly. “Rather than makin’ the Cram School our enemy, isn’t it better to have ’em on our side? I think even startin’ now, if we get a few good people with us, we can make it work out. And I’m sure some’ll switch sides for money.”

“If Archfiend Cram School girls were to compare what I’m trying to do with what Frederica is trying to do and make a choice, they will choose Frederica’s side.”

Frederica was trying to make more magical girls. The First thought magical girls should be no more. Even if they both wanted the forces to oppose the Magical Kingdom, their goals were incompatible. They’d both know that while working together anyway, but now that Frederica had taken over the Caspar Faction, the balance between them had crumbled. But even taking that into account, Lazuline thought they should get the Archfiend Cram School on their side.

The First, however, would not accept that idea. “It would require too much time and money to win over those members of the Cram School who are already working with Frederica. They have a strong sense of obligation. I don’t see the point in going that far.”

I knew it, Lazuline thought. The First would never say it out loud, but she loathed the Archfiend Cram School. Though more so than the school, it was that she loathed—despised—everything connected to Cranberry, Musician of the Forest. She wouldn’t work with the organization of which Cranberry had been a member.

“So we leave the Cram School to become our enemies while we got no plan?” Lazuline said. “Doesn’t that make us a little too defenseless?”

“No plan? No, that’s not at all the case.” The First leaned forward slightly, the wheels of her chair making a grating noise. “We have enough forces. What we need is something else. First, we need a map of the whole school. We have to figure out the place Frederica is after.”

The magical-girl class was an enterprise that had been kicked off by the Puk Faction. After seizing Puk Puck’s ruins, the Osk Faction had snatched said enterprise away from them. Since Lazuline’s people had been independently raising magical girls, they’d had no need to get involved, but then Frederica had begun proactively sending in students. So the First had reacted swiftly, and to catch up, she’d recommended apprentices or had them recommended.

“It looks like there’s a li’l somethin’ goin’ on there,” said Lazuline. “I’m sure Frederica is pullin’ lots of strings, too. Since Diko’s been put in Group Three.”

Having come in late, the First had milked her connections for all they were worth, then camouflaged her actions. Only one of hers had been recommended completely aboveboard from the R&D Department. For Diko Narakunoin, she’d gone through a third party and paid money to influential aristocrats of the Caspar Faction to buy a recommendation to the magical-girl class. For Ranyi, she’d called in a favor from the upper ranks of a public organization that wasn’t affiliated with any faction to get a recommendation slot.

She had meant to have recommended both of them through routes with no connection to the R&D Department. In particular, since Diko had been recommended by the Caspar Faction, she should have been assigned to Group Two, in compliance with the division between factions. But despite that, all three girls had in fact been assigned to Group Three. They’d been assigned to their original allegiance, the one that had not been made public. It was like a message that told them, “I know exactly what you guys are doing.”

“What about Snow White?” the First asked.

“She got together with Deluge.”

Lazuline was relieved that she’d been able to say Deluge’s name casually, as a natural part of the conversation, and she felt pathetic for having been relieved, and knowing the First would be able to tell how she felt, she sighed.

“Good. Well then, let’s have Lightning make her move.” The First cocked her right eyebrow just a tad.

Lazuline was aware she was the reason for that change of expression—since when Lightning’s name had come up, Lazuline had made an utterly aggrieved look. Or actually, she just disliked her. Lazuline couldn’t bring herself to like Princess Lightning, the magical girl who had been recommended from the R&D Department.

“What?” the First asked.

“Nothing.”

“Neither you nor I are able to enter such a firmly guarded school. So of course we’d make the request from Lightning, since she’s a student there.”

“Well, yeah,” Lazuline acknowledged. “But, like, I think we should at least tell Ranyi and Diko about our relationship with Lightning. They can’t contact her, right?”

“Lightning’s information is unnecessary to Ranyi and Diko’s mission.”

“Y’know, master, the way you’re doin’ this, it’s like you’re okay if the girls fail. Like you’re makin’ it so that even if they blow it when the time comes, the most important info won’t get out, I mean, like ya don’t trust ’em.”

“I don’t appreciate bringing personal preference into relationships.”

I don’t wanna hear that from you, Lazuline thought, and thinking that surely her master could tell what was on her mind, she mentally stuck out her tongue as cutely as she could.

  Thunder-General Adelheid

At night, the school was quiet, lonely, and creepy. The cheapness, crudeness, and lack of restraint that could be sensed during the daytime was turned on its face to seem like an entirely different kind of place… This was the uncharacteristically poetic feeling she’d nursed in her heart only up to the second time—or just barely the third at most. After coming this many times, she’d settled on the conclusion that the facility itself was the same night and day.

Jumping from the jumbo lights for night games to run over the nets, she went from the sports oval to the pinnacle of the big clock at the front entrance, from there leaping to the roof, going from railing to railing up to the water tank. She let her cape flutter in the wind for a while, glowing with self-satisfaction as she imagined how picturesque she looked.

From trespassing on the school at night many times, she’d gotten a feel for which spots would trip the alarm to contact the security company. For Umemizaki Junior High School, it was basically fine so long as she didn’t go inside. That just didn’t work on the side with the old building—in other words, the side for the magical-girl class.

Adelheid approached the entrance to the old school building, stopping a couple dozen feet away to pick up a pebble about the size of her pinky nail and toss it underhand. The rock bounced lightly and rolled to a stop. The old school building, which had been dead silent until she’d thrown that rock, filled with the sound of things squirming, then stopped the moment the pebble came to a halt.

That was the security homunculi. And no ordinary number of them. Adelheid could sense the iron determination to prevent approach from intruders, no matter what. In other words, there was something there they would go to those lengths in order to protect.

Adelheid had hardly any memories of elementary school. She’d barely ever attended, so she hadn’t had the opportunity to make any. Her mother was a graduate of the Archfiend Cram School, and as soon as she’d learned of her daughter’s talent, she’d taken her out of mandatory education and tossed her into the Archfiend Cram School. Adelheid would question a lot of things about her mother, but regardless, she was thankful she had gotten her into the Cram School.

Adelheid had learned everything there. Archfiend Pam, the senior magical girls, and her mother had taught her all sorts of things, from regular education to the systems of the Magical Kingdom to magical-girl combat methods. And one of the things she had been taught about was combat homunculi.

Homunculi evolved day by day, along with the technology. Even a graduate of the Archfiend Cram School—including the best of them—couldn’t let their guard down with homunculi. This magical-girl school had only just been established, so the odds were high they had the most cutting-edge homunculi installed there. They’d be so strong as to be incomparable with the training-use ones they had fought during the day. And judging from those sounds, there were a lot, too.

As was typical for graduates of the Archfiend Cram School, Adelheid knew she could hold her own in a fight. But even she wasn’t about to take another step closer to see what the homunculi looked like. People still often brought up that old story about how ten of their grads had attacked the Management Department, which had been guarded by homunculi. After an intense battle, the magical girls had all died. Adelheid didn’t think for a second that she could manage alone.

“Well, not happenin’,” she muttered, left hand on her waist, right hand on the hilt of her military saber as she looked up at the old school building. She was not talking to herself. “Ya think so, too, don’cha?” she said to the person who was trying to sneak up on her from behind.

The footsteps that had been trying to be stealthy stopped for a moment, then resumed their approach without reservation, crossing the dirt to stop five steps behind her. “You noticed?”

“Of course Ah did.” Cape sweeping along with her wide movement, Adelheid turned around. She made it look like she was cool and calm, but her hand never left the hilt of her sword. She tugged up the visor of her military cap to look at the other person.

Drums at her back and a long sword with bolts crackling along it. It was Princess Lightning. She wore the same suggestive smile she did at school during the day, but now, it looked even more suggestive. “Not going in?” Lightning asked.

“Nah way. If ya wanna go in, Ah won’t stop ya.”

Lightning took a casual step forward, and Adelheid’s foot pulled back, drawing a line in the earth. Her posture was slightly forward-leaning, her hand staying open on her hilt so she could draw it at any time.

Lightning put the back of her hand to her mouth and smiled in delight. “What are you afraid of? As a graduate of the Archfiend Cram School, of all people.”

“…Ya know about that?”

“You all have the same sort of ridiculous added titles; you can’t help but notice. And Thunder-General? You don’t think that’s too similar to Princess Lightning?” She took another step forward. Her manner was entirely easy, and she showed no sign of stopping. Adelheid examined her face but only found a thin smile that revealed none of her thoughts. Adelheid couldn’t figure out what she was after. She approached the reach of Adelheid’s blade, then stepped into sword range. She should understand just as well as Adelheid did that it was a very bad idea to fight here.

“I don’t think we need two storm characters in the class,” said Lightning.

“Yeah, but still. Ah can’t go changin’ mah name now.”

“It works out if you just get lost, doesn’t it?”

“Can’t do that.”

Adelheid had visited the school to check on the security more than once or twice. She’d prepared excuses, like she was doing patrols to make sure no suspicious people came around at night, and she hadn’t really tried to hide her presence, either. She’d been that casual about this. She wasn’t prepared to make this a big thing.

Lightning took another step closer.

Adelheid smiled at her. “Let’s stop it here.”

“Why? I’m picking a fight with you. So then you have to accept, don’t you? A graduate of the Archfiend Cram School not taking a fight when it’s offered—Archfiend Pam would be rolling in her grave.”

“Cram School people don’t take cheap fights.”

“Does it seem to you such pretenses are necessary here? That’s not what I want to hear right now—”

A lightning strike flashed, shattering the darkness and tranquility. Adelheid leaped to the right, unsheathing her blade in midair. In a sideways stance, Lightning hid her blade behind her left side, coming in five yards in a single step to thrust. Her purple-lightning sword undulated and stretched, but right before it could reach its target, Adelheid cried out, “Kaiser Schlacht!”

Electricity ran round Adelheid’s whole body. Its intense energy pierced her from every direction, attempting to ravage her, but she caged it all inside her instead, sending it from there to her right arm and her sword to unleash it. Lightning didn’t even try to dodge, spreading both arms to accept the bolts, and her whole body, even her costume drum and sword, crackled with sparks. It wasn’t working. Adelheid had anticipated this could happen, but it actually looked as if Lightning was absorbing the energy.

The two magical girls leaped back as if repelled from each other, switching places. Adelheid was on the side of the sports oval, ready in a low stance, while Lightning had the old school building at her back.

Lightning’s long sword was already back at her waist. As if clapping along with the sound of the sparks, she applauded. “Wow, amazing. Archfiend Cram School people really do call out their move names, huh?”

“What in the darn heck are ya thinkin’?”

“What are you thinking? You have an opponent right in front of you saying ‘let’s fight,’ but you’re asking what I’m thinking? Is that the way the Archfiend Cram School does things? Even a regular magical girl would have a little more bite.”

Adelheid leaped toward the old school building. Lightning came right after her, repeatedly raining bolts down on her, charring the ground and burning the grass. At this rate, they’d attract attention soon, even if it was the middle of the night. Did Lightning know that, doing this? Had she gone crazy? Many thoughts crossed Adelheid’s mind, but one of the biggest was her desire to snap back against the humiliating jab that “Even an ordinary magical girl would have a little more bite.” Adelheid’s time in the Archfiend Cram School had been everything to her. Her anger as a graduate of the school was starting to overcome her composure as an employee of the Department of Diplomacy.

Adelheid made it seem like she was absorbing lightning and using it to counter, while she swept her cape to obscure Lightning’s vision. With a triple stab of her military saber, she sliced up the cape, and now she was the one pursuing Lightning, who was backing off as she gushed blood. Adelheid took advantage of the opening when Lightning was about to cast her own bolts, slashing her blade down and then away, and when Lightning lost her balance, Adelheid’s left hand shot out, hooking her pinky around the metal fitting of her drum to yank Lightning toward her. With a groan, Lightning released the drum, and it rolled away behind her. Adelheid threw her other drum away, making for a follow-up attack; Lightning, on her knees, raised her right palm at her.

“Archfiend Cram School students really are excellent. It seems like this would be a little tough to do normally.” Her shoulders were heaving. She was bleeding, too. But she wasn’t balking at more fighting, and her expression didn’t say that, either.

The toe of Adelheid’s army boot sounded out as she took a step forward, and Lightning touched the large gem in her left hand to her forehead. The gem burst and disappeared, and a yellow color like lightning bolts made her whole tiara shine.

“Luxury Mode: On.”

Lightning’s blade met Adelheid’s slice. Her strike should have been a swing of desperation, but it felt abnormally heavy. Adelheid just about dropped her sword, but she supported the hilt in both hands to cut upward, slicing vertically in continuous succession toward the center line of her body. Lightning blocked every one with her own sword, and when Adelheid came with a final powerful blow from above, she crossed her dagger and sword to block it easily, then smoothly shifted into a kick. Right before that hit, Adelheid leaped backward and rolled, turning her back to the enemy to stand.

“Siegfried Linie!”

Lightning strikes rained down on her back. One strike, two, but Adelheid still didn’t fall. She stored up the energy inside herself and made her military saber shine. For just an instant, the bloodthirsty aura swelled. Lightning thrust her sword in, and Adelheid blocked even that with her back, repelling it. Whipping around, Adelheid leaped away—just a few inches apart, her eyes met with Lightning’s as she saw her expression twisted in shock.

Adelheid released the energy inside her as she accelerated her spin, striking the enemy’s temple with her saber hilt. They were too close, and she was in an unstable position in midair, and striking while tangled up like this wouldn’t normally have hit very hard, but Adelheid put the energy of her magic in it. Even if the lightning strikes wouldn’t work on her, the physical element would be effective.

Lightning was flung away, bouncing off the ground to be swallowed by the thicket on the edge of the sports oval, scattering leaves and branches and making the net sway. Adelheid dropped her hands to her knees and let out a deep breath.

If Lightning had kept her distance and stuck to electrical attacks, Adelheid would have reached her limit before long. Adelheid had only been able to win because Lightning had gotten impatient and come for a direct attack when Adelheid had shown her back.

“Wait…what in the heck was that?” Adelheid muttered.

Lightning had been using combat techniques she’d trained in, not just relying entirely on raw power. The way she’d suddenly grown stronger when she’d touched the gem to her forehead—was that some kind of enhancement magic? Adelheid didn’t even understand why Lightning had picked a fight with her in the first place. There was no benefit to it for either of them.

All right, she thought, patting her knees to straighten up. Her opponent was a magical girl and a pretty tough one, too. But still, Adelheid had struck a vital spot at full power. It was very possible she’d killed her. At the very least, she’d be passed out.

Thinking that she’d snatch Lightning away and beat a swift retreat before rubberneckers started showing up, Adelheid ran into the thicket—but then within three steps, she froze.

A figure stood in the thicket. “So you can absorb physical attacks, too, hmm?”

It was Lightning.

Adelheid just about backed away but then stopped, readying herself.

Lightning was smiling. Her drums were on her back. She wasn’t bleeding. Her temple was still clean. Even if Adelheid would, for the sake of argument, accept that she hadn’t passed out, how the heck had her wounds healed?

As Adelheid was hesitating, wondering whether she should attack or not, Lightning jumped away to stand atop one of the poles supporting the net. “Then see you tomorrow. At school.”

With that same old suggestive smile, she leaped off. She was swallowed by the darkness of night, then disappeared. Stunned, Adelheid watched her go. From start to finish, none of this had made any sense.

  Ranyi

Going from a cement block wall to a telephone pole, and then from the top of the telephone pole onto a roof, then from roof to roof, she raced along. She was heading for the school. Using a gate would leave a record with the management, so she used her feet instead. With a magical girl’s legs—and in particular Ranyi’s as a Lazuline candidate—she’d get there in half an hour.

Just purely when it came to long-distance running, Ranyi was slightly faster than Diko, who was running alongside her. But their two-man cell had been the standard since they’d started at this school, so she couldn’t race at her top speed and leave Diko behind.

She’d never asked what Diko thought about that. If you just let Diko be, she’d never open her mouth, so Ranyi felt like she’d be losing if she spoke first. Neither of the magical girls talked as they ran onward, and before long, the school came into view. Trespassing onto the school grounds from the forested mountain in the rear, they wove between the trees to make their way. As they ran along barely serviced animal trails, Ranyi gradually slowed her pace, circling the outer circumference of the school grounds to head to the old school building and check up on it from the back entrance.

She keenly sensed something here. Being able to detect the presence of hidden things was the special skill of a Lazuline. And this wasn’t anything so casual as just ten or twenty. The security at night was even tighter than during the day. Circling clockwise from the back entrance, Ranyi headed for the front. The presence of homunculi never faded.

It seemed that all she was getting out of this was the confirmation stamp on her assumption that forcing her way in was impossible. And there was no point in making a diagram of just what could be seen here. She had to enter a place she couldn’t get into, but she couldn’t figure out how.

No, that’s not it, she thought, shaking her head. It wasn’t like she’d never be able to think of a way. It was just that she hadn’t come up with an idea yet. She’d wring an idea out somehow, even if she had to put a cement roller to her head. If there were no openings, then a way to pry it open.

There was a tap on the back of her hand, and Ranyi stopped. Diko must have come to her side without her realizing, as she had her right hand spread, blocking the way ahead. Their eyes met. The two magical girls both dropped to the ground, soundlessly moving from shadow to shadow, and once they were in a position to see the sports oval, they stopped.

From behind the school building, Ranyi and Diko observed the sports grounds. Two magical girls were in an intense fight. This was no sparring or mock battle. They were trying to kill each other.

Adelheid and Lightning—why were they fighting here? Ranyi couldn’t understand it. It was right in front of the school. They weren’t single-celled organisms like Mephis, who’d lose even her ability to calculate if something would benefit her at all. Was there some kind of bad blood between them, or had they agreed to a duel?

They were both strong. They didn’t move like amateurs. They’d been trained for lethal combat. Lightning struck Adelheid, and Ranyi clenched her fists.

“Siegfried Linie!”

Adelheid stopped the blow with her back. Feeling a hand grabbing her shoulder, Ranyi scowled and glared at Diko. Still expressionless, Diko shook her head, and Ranyi realized that she’d been about to run toward them.

Her eyes snapped back to the sports oval. Lightning was tossed away, scattering earth as she bounced, then plunged into the thicket. It looked like that strike might even have killed her. If Diko hadn’t been holding Ranyi back, maybe Ranyi could have stopped it. But she understood painfully well the reason Diko had kept her from doing so. Right now, exposure would only hurt them.

Adelheid approached the thicket she’d knocked Lightning into. Ranyi clenched the right side of her jaw. Diko’s arms were strong as a vise around Ranyi’s shoulders.

What to do. What should she do? She shouldn’t reveal herself. She knew that. But if she did nothing, Lightning would be finished off. The only reason to save her was just that they were “members of the same group,” and Ranyi was aware that was no good reason to save her. What would Lazuline do? Would she live for friendship and stop her, knowing it would be her loss, or would she coldly cast away her friend’s life to make the mission her greatest priority?

She couldn’t. She couldn’t abandon her. Ranyi was about to ignore Diko’s attempts to restrain her and take a step forward, when at that very moment, Lightning got up. With the branches and leaves of the thicket fluttering down around her and a calm and collected attitude, she said farewell to Adelheid and gallantly strode off. Adelheid stood there for a while, watching her go, then dashed off in the other direction.

With the sounds of people gathering and police sirens at their backs, Ranyi and Diko raced back down the way they’d come. Ranyi was confused but worked up, too. She could have sworn Lightning had been so badly injured you couldn’t even be sure if she’d survived, but then she’d gotten up afterward without a single wound. Had she used some external magical item, or had she used some trick Ranyi couldn’t even think of?

“I’ll let you handle the report,” Diko said, and Ranyi was drawn back to reality.

Diko dispassionately stated only what was necessary, blank-faced as usual. She offered no opinions about the miracle they’d witnessed. It was like she’d simply seen what was there. Ranyi kind of felt like she’d been doused with ice water, and she didn’t reply.

She didn’t need to be told. She’d submit a precise report. Lazuline wouldn’t get overexcited over a miracle or two. Even if she wanted to ask Lightning just what the hell had happened, and how and why, she could suck it up.

But seriously, what happened there? While running, Ranyi licked her lips.