Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 13 - Chapter Pr2

PROLOGUE

  Kana

A richly colored haze whirled around before gathering at a single point. As the colors grew thicker, the haze swelled, burst, and then scattered. Beneath the dregs fluttering down, there was a faint glow of red that brightened to yellow, and then when the glare was unbearable, she realized she was conscious.

She gradually became aware of her own body and mind, and before long, the girl came to her senses. Something large, flat, and hard was touching her back. It was cold. It seemed she was leaning against it. She felt the same thing on her bottom. She was probably sitting on the floor.

Neither rushing nor taking her time, at a rate she thought had to be about the usual, she opened her eyes. There was a smiling woman. Who was she? She was crouched down, looking at her. The girl turned her head to see that, behind the woman, a human-sized object was lying there, tied up in chains, with talismans stuck all over it.

She blinked, then took a breath. She swallowed her saliva.

She should have been able to do these things unconsciously, but everything felt off. It was as if her body were not her own. Why was that?

Naturally, she figured if she had questions, she should try asking them. Opening her mouth produced an “Ah.” Confirming she was able to make noise, she turned back to the smiling woman and asked, “Is this not my body?”

No. It was unquestionably hers.

“Was I not using it for a long time?”

She managed to understand why she felt strange. It had been so long since she’d moved her body that even the smallest motions felt not quite right.

Stifling that sensation, she stood and examined either side.

She was in a small room. The walls and floor were plain concrete and a little over six times her height in width and depth. The ceiling was about twice her height. She turned around to see she was standing at the center of the room in a pillar-shaped receptacle. In that case, she must have just been freed from it. The floor, walls, and receptacle were all a spotless white, of smooth and slightly soft material. Some sort of resin, maybe? The only way into the room was the sturdy-looking metal door behind the woman. Her features should have been ordinary, but her face was strangely striking, albeit plain enough that you would instantly forget it if you looked away. Her skirt, high heels, and glasses made her appear quite formal and stiff, although she had a mischievous smile on her face.

“…Where am I?”

The woman didn’t respond. But an answer rose in the girl’s mind: This was a prison.

The woman bowed her head deeply and quickly raised it again. “My name is Yoshioka. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Yoshioka.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Not great.”

“Yes, yes. I understand that quite well. Imprisonment via a magic seal has a negative impact on both mind and body. Though ostensibly it’s merely imprisonment, the reality is equivalent to torture. Quite inhumane indeed.” Yoshioka was polite in both speech and manner, but she came off more comical. She shook her head as she lamented, and the exaggerated gesture made her glasses start sliding off, so she pushed them up with the middle finger of her right hand. Heaving a sigh, she briskly fixed her mussed black hair and turned back to the girl. Yoshioka smiled once again.

“But the times have changed,” she said.

“The Magical Kingdom won’t change so easily.”

“Many things have happened—indeed, so many things. It all began with a bit of a tizzy over a jailbreak that brought to light the various crimes of related persons. It shook the faith in the facilities of magical-girl prisons and the institution itself. That forced changes to be made from the foundation up. Those dark days of cruel and unusual punishment are over. All of you have been given the right to a new life. Obey the authorities’ instructions and put in your best effort, and should they deem that you have been reborn as a good magical girl, you can earn greater freedoms.”

Yoshioka was cheerful, but the girl was not particularly impressed. She analyzed her own thoughts—I don’t seem very happy about this situation—and shook her head. Her mind still felt fuzzy. Perhaps the punishment Yoshioka had described as “equivalent to torture” had affected her brain.

“So they’re going to work me like a slave?” the girl asked.

“Think of it as public service. And the more you work, the better you will be treated.”

“My memories feel vague.”

“Records say that some of your memories have been erased.”

So this wasn’t a side effect of the seal, but that didn’t make her feel better. She stepped her right leg out of the receptacle, and once she saw Yoshioka step backward, she brought her left leg out as well. The floor was colder than the receptacle. She felt it keenly with her bare feet.

Yes—she was barefoot. Parting her hair to the sides, she looked down at herself. Not only was she barefoot, she was completely naked—sans underwear, even. She had no memory of taking off her costume herself or someone else taking it off for her.

“You were a magical girl called Kana,” said Yoshioka. “Do you remember?”

“Kana.” She swung her head from side to side, grabbing her hair when it started whipping back and forth. Now that Yoshioka mentioned it, she had been called that, or at least that was her gut feeling. The girl vaguely recalled a number of people calling her Kana, and she’d responded to the name, too. “That’s right. Kana. I was called Kana.”

“About your previous work—”

A name suddenly rose up in Kana’s mind, and without a second thought, she blurted out, “Caspar…”

“Correct! You worked for a group under the jurisdiction of the Caspar Faction… Could it be that your memories have returned?”

“No…I don’t think so. That just sort of came to me.”

“Ah, of course. Your memories have been tampered with via magical means, so you wouldn’t remember that easily. I’d be quite astounded if you said you remembered everything.”

Just as Kana herself had said, she sort of understood that her name was Kana, as well as that she had been a member of the Caspar Faction. She just couldn’t grasp what specific sort of work she’d been doing. She put a hand to her chin and stared at the ground.

Kana knew the basic gist of her past: She’d committed a crime and had therefore been imprisoned. It was fair to say her brain was operating adequately enough. It wasn’t really that her mind was fuzzy, but rather her memories had been intentionally erased. That more or less corroborated what Yoshioka told her.

“But…,” Kana started.

“But?”

“If the memories of the crime I committed were erased before my imprisonment, wouldn’t that keep me from reflecting on my actions?”

Yoshioka clutched her stomach in laughter, and the object beside her trembled along with her. It seemed there was something alive inside it.

Kana did not attempt to consider why the woman who had freed her was laughing but instead observed her gestures, countenance, and attire.

“Are you a magical girl?” Kana asked.

That was when it dawned on her that this woman could transform into a magical girl and that what was inside that object was already transformed.

Yoshioka’s expression soured, and she adjusted her glasses with a vague smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You may have realized, but that’s your magic. Asking a question always draws an answer from the person you’ve asked. It’s incredibly convenient magic, although I urge you not to abuse it.”

“Why shouldn’t I do that?”

Some answers are based on that person’s subjective view, thereby distorting the response if you ask someone who believes a lie is the truth. Sometimes you might learn things you shouldn’t know. I feel that you should get in the habit of thinking for yourself and using your head as much as possible. I don’t want to see my privacy invaded.

Further reasons rose in Kana’s mind at length. She must have learned Yoshioka’s answers through her magic.

“Was the reason I was imprisoned and had my memories erased because I learned—?” Kana was about to continue with, “something I shouldn’t know,” but then shut her mouth halfway. She doubted knowing that would benefit her, and Yoshioka had just said Kana shouldn’t overuse her magic, so she suspected Yoshioka would respond negatively to such questioning.

Yoshioka smiled with satisfaction and nodded twice, then gestured toward the exit. “Anyway, let’s walk as we chat.”

Kana followed Yoshioka out into a hallway. There was a rough iron fence that bordered the side all along it, with a wide atrium on the other side. The iron fence and hallway continued around the atrium, with sturdy-looking doors lined up at regular intervals. Prisoners like Kana had to be locked up one to a room. As they walked, Kana looked out into the atrium and saw other identical floors, as if they were carbon copies—one, two, three, four, five, six of them. This was the fourth of six levels; it was quite a large facility. If there was one prisoner per door, then the entire facility might hold more than one or two hundred people total.

With so many of the type of person who would be imprisoned here—the worst of the worst—security would naturally be strict, but aside from Yoshioka at the front and the bound-up magical girl wriggling alongside her, they didn’t encounter a soul as they walked down the hall. They went into a square hole in the floor to descend a set of stairs, walk some more, then go down more stairs. The whole time, not only were they never challenged, they didn’t even pass by anyone.

Kana tilted her head, puzzled. “Seems like there’s nobody here.”

“We’ve cleared everyone out.”

“I see.” Now she knew why not a single person had appeared aside from this strange human and strange magical girl. But a prison was a public facility, and the Caspar Faction Kana knew would not have exercised enough influence to be able to clear one out like this. The Caspar Faction in the depths of her hazy memories lacked the power or motivation for it and beat the other factions only in their trend to pessimism.

“Things are pretty different from what I’m used to,” said Kana.

“Are they?”

“Feels like I was sealed away for a long time.”

“Not at all. The Caspar Faction gained power only just recently. Or rather, they didn’t gain power so much as the Osk and Puk Factions caused issues that resulted in a decline of their influence… But in the end, power dynamics between factions are simply relative.” Yoshioka’s shoulders shook slightly. Kana couldn’t see her expression, but she must have been laughing. She seemed giddy overall, or like she was in a good mood. Maybe a member of the Caspar Faction being in a good mood was proof that they’d gained power.

The torso of the magical girl who crawled along at Yoshioka’s side bobbed along with Yoshioka’s laughter. Kana couldn’t tell if that one was in a good mood or not. The way she was tied up, you’d think it would be difficult for her to even move right if needed, but if they were bringing her to meet one of the worst of the worst, locked up in a jail, then that much would be necessary. She could surely fight, even tied up—what’s more, she would be powerful enough that she could easily subdue Kana.

“About your…tied-up magical girl,” said Kana.

“Pay it no mind. Treat it just like the air you breathe.”

The bound girl shook the part of her that probably corresponded to her head. Perhaps that was a greeting. Kana opened her right hand and raised it up to shoulder height, waving back. She didn’t know if the girl could see the gesture or not.

They walked, then went down some stairs, then walked some more. The hallways echoed with the sounds of Yoshioka’s heels clicking against the floor, the tied-up magical girl slithering along the ground, and Kana’s footsteps.

“I’m not going to ask you to do anything particularly difficult,” said Yoshioka.

“That’s good.”

“I would like you to be in a certain place and live a completely normal life there.”

“Pretty strange job.”

“A magical girl’s work is all about the mundane, you know.”

Yoshioka stopped in front of the big door at the end of the lowest floor, her back hiding the panel by the door as she struck it. The thick metallic door made a heavy sound and slid to the side; Yoshioka turned back to Kana, broke into that same smile, and said, “Go ahead, go ahead,” gesturing with an open palm to enter.

Unlike the rest of the prison facility Kana had seen thus far—including the hallway and stairs as well as her own cell—this room was highly decorated. It was the same size as the one she first found herself in but had navy-blue wallpaper, a low cabinet, a leather sofa, and a long table with a knit-lace tablecloth, with what seemed to be some folded-up clothing laid atop it. She stepped inside and felt something plush underfoot, making her reflexively look down. After a few steps on the lime-green carpet, she reached out to the table to pick up what had been laid there.

“That’s for you,” said Yoshioka. “Please try it on.”

Clothing—and underwear, too.

Kana put on everything and then spun around in a circle. Her semi-glossy silver hair swished back and forth, and her skirt fluttered in tandem. “This doesn’t look like a costume.”

“Indeed. It’s a uniform.”

It was like a sailor uniform. Between the navy-blue color and the modest design, it was too plain for a magical-girl costume. In other words, it didn’t seem like it would suit Kana. It was extremely lacking in terms of comfort and felt somewhat restrictive, like she was tied up.

“Doesn’t seem good for magical-girl activities.”

“Now, now, let’s not sell this outfit so short. It’s been magically reinforced, which means it won’t end up in tatters from a bit of intense activity. Think of it as camouflage for the place you’ll be infiltrating.”

“You still haven’t told me where that is.”

Yoshioka gestured for her to sit on the sofa and sat down opposite Kana. She swept back her hair and tucked it behind her ear, then smiled so brightly you could practically hear her teeth sparkle. The magical girl curled up beside the sofa stirred slightly, but Kana didn’t even look at her.

“It’s a school. I’m going to have you transfer into a class for magical girls.”

  Mariko Fukuroi

Mariko was the busiest she’d ever been.

She’d taken charge of the athletic committee for the lazy rationale that they didn’t seem to do much, but as the Spring Walkathon loomed closer, the committee suddenly burst into activity. The more enthusiastic students would stay at school until late at night diligently making pamphlets, which meant that Mariko, their supervisor, had to stay late, too.

She’d also become an adviser to the science club, since that field was more or less her specialty, and the annual science fair had kicked the whole club into high gear. Seeing the members dedicating their sweat and youth to research, Mariko couldn’t help being vividly reminded of her younger self, and then she couldn’t pretend like she didn’t care about the club. One of the projects, “Transpiration and Vertical Gardening with Non-Native Plants,” very much piqued her interest, as it seemed like it could offer her some interesting results if diverted to use for Marika’s magic. But focusing all her attention on that one project would be clear favoritism, so she helped the other teams equally, which just made her even busier.

Mariko had also been tasked with managing the student computers under the assumption that a young person like her would best understand the tasks involved. She took it in stride, figuring this wasn’t that big of an ask, and simply checked for viruses, trojans, and connections to dangerous sites, then submitted reports about her findings. Taking care of these tasks with ease led people to think she was “used to this stuff,” so she was assigned to manage the teachers’ computers as well under the pretext that it was also part of school administrative support. By the time she was wondering if all this had gone beyond the purview of a substitute teacher, Mariko had been entrusted with most of the student records. As could be expected from a school with two magical girls there—it was fair to say the school itself was rather adrift from common sense.

Mariko was charged with one class, since the original homeroom teacher was on maternity leave, and it was chaos there, too. Yamada, a girl who was forever a reserve on the softball club, was trying to get her mitts on the boyfriend of Suzuki, the club captain, and Suzuki and the rest of the softball club girls had attacked Yamada for it. Yamada ended up as Public Enemy Number One, kicked out of the class LINE group and isolated. The boys felt this drama was none of their business and looked the other way, and though some girls outside of the softball clique felt sorry for Yamada, none reached out to her. Thus, Yamada was once again paired up with the gym teacher for stretches. Even after she’d wound up all alone, she was unbending and committed in her assertion that she wasn’t at fault. As a magical girl, Mariko considered such mental fortitude tenacious, but who knew how long that could last. So in an effort to reach a resolution cautiously, but also as quickly as possible, Mariko listened to the students, lectured them, and admonished them many times over.

With both duty and passion attacking Mariko from every angle, no matter how much she worked, more tasks just kept piling up.

She usually found herself rushing through the school, hair in disarray and sweat streaking down her forehead as she scurried along.

Going up the steps two at a time, she came up in front of the science prep room. She pulled a ring of keys out from the pocket of her white coat and was about to unlock the door when someone called her name.

Mariko turned around and looked down: two girls, both of whom looked familiar. They weren’t from Mariko’s class; in fact, they were in a different year. Yoshiko Yoshinoura, standing in front, looked a bit sulky, but Mariko could sense a strong determination in her tightly pressed lips. Sari Kasuga, behind her, seemed worried—flustered, if anything. They were both Koyuki Himekawa’s friends.

Mariko smoothed her hair, adjusted her glasses, and faced the girls once more. “Yes?”

“It’s about Koyuki. You don’t know anything, do you?”

An answer nearly spilled out of Mariko’s mouth, and she instinctively snapped it shut. Koyuki Himekawa—the magical girl Snow White—had hardly ever shown her face at school since the start of her second year. Of course her friends would be worried. Mariko did want to tell them about everything, but she couldn’t.

“Ms. Fukuroi, you look like you just bit a lemon.”

“Urk.”

Snapping her mouth shut must have put an odd expression on her face. Yoshiko was eyeing her suspiciously, which only flustered Mariko even more. After clearing her throat a couple times, she finally calmed herself down.

With a serene expression that said everything was fine, Mariko told the girls, “She has canker sores.”

“Really?”

“Really and truly.”

Personally, Mariko—as the magical girl Marika Fukuroi—would have liked to join Snow White if at all possible. Even if she was just helping, it wasn’t often she got to have fun and get a big chance for some legal violence, but she was bound by both duty and passion, so there was nothing to be done. What a sad state for Marika Fukuroi, the most free-spirited of magical girls, of all people. But—but when I think of the students’ faces, I really can’t leave them, she thought, her feelings coming and going in waves.

Keeping her flurry of emotions from showing on her face, Mariko blinked once and slowly started, “Why ask me—?”

“Ms. Fukuroi, you knew Koyuki before you came to this school, right? She didn’t tell us what your connection was, but you know things about her that we don’t, right?”

Mariko blinked three more times, then stiffened her expression and said flatly, “I can’t tell you the pacifics.” She flubbed it.

White coat fluttering, she turned away from the two girls and continued, “And it’s not like we’re particularly close anyway.”

“So you do know her, after all!” Yoshiko yelled after her as Mariko unlocked the door to the prep room and went inside. When she tried to close the door behind herself, she got her thumb stuck in it. Smothering a cry, she stuck her right hand in her mouth.

There was no helping that she’d been pulled away from the fun due to her own circumstances. But being forced to make excuses for another person on top of that was a different story altogether. Whatever Snow White was doing, she ought to at least talk to her own friends. It didn’t make sense for her to toss it all off on Mariko, as if she’d manage things for her somehow.

Mariko pulled her magical phone out from the pocket of her white coat, turned it around in her hands to place it on the desk, and ran her finger across the screen to contact Koyuki Himekawa.

  Snow White

The new magical phone she’d hardly used vibrated in her costume. Whatever their business is, I can’t have any interruptions right now, she thought, sliding her hand over her clothes to turn off the phone.

Beyond the trees, she could faintly hear the voice of someone’s heart. She didn’t rush to approach it.

She made a circle with her thumb and index finger to signal to Uluru, who was running behind her. That meant to slow down. Snow White heard both Uluru’s sigh and the relief in her heart. She took Ruler, her weapon, and thrust it into the ground. “Let’s go,” Uluru said quietly, and Snow White started walking.

The sounds of steps on dry leaves and fallen branches echoed through the forest, then eventually came to a stop.

“Ah! It’s her! The one you beat in that cave…!” Uluru cried as she pointed to the blue magical girl Princess Deluge standing in front of a beech tree. But before she could finish her sentence, she started mumbling indistinctly under her breath.

Uluru had been about to bring up the time when Puk Puck had occupied the ruins, when Snow White and Deluge had fought, but she realized it’d be a bad idea. The old Uluru would have said all of that without hesitation, but she’d grown now. She was showing consideration for others and watching her tongue.

Snow White looked to Armor Arlie, Blade Brenda, and Cannon Catherine, who all stood surrounding Deluge.

Snow White had fought the three magical girls in black before, when they’d all been controlled by Puk Puck.

Arlie had never removed her helmet, whether it be in a briefing or a break or in Puk Puck’s presence, but now that she had her visor up, she looked exactly like Brenda and Catherine. She must have changed, too.

Snow White smiled at the trio as they cackled gleefully and brandished their weapons. A moment later, she deliberately dropped her grin as she turned to face Deluge.