Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 14 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

EVERYTHING IS A QUAGMIRE

  Miss Marguerite

There was no time for indecision. She didn’t have the time to stop and think. With Tepsekemei gone, the breadth of her strategy was suddenly narrower. Holding the enemy back with a continuous fire of projectiles, circling around in the area for a pincer attack, sending a message to the others about the danger—any other such options were lost, and now Marguerite was running with no plan in mind, avoiding attacks. The enemy was chasing her at ten yards. And the goddess wasn’t just in pursuit. Even from this distance, she was constantly attacking.

The goddess was swinging her axes as she ran. These were not threats or an expression of frustration. Her slices ripped open the rock face of the ground, blasting away broken rock that fired like bullets toward Marguerite. If they hit, they would break the bones and crush the flesh of even a magical girl.

Marguerite threw herself to the ground to avoid the rock shrapnel, continuing to run without slowing. She drew herself up very gradually out of her super-low crouch, drawing the stone shards that came flying out once more toward her—this time the shrapnel came at a low trajectory—and she summoned her rapier in her palm. The rapier was part of her costume, so she could reuse it. While running, she turned back and swiped her rapier, clasped in her left hand, in every direction to redirect the shards, sharply repelling some of them to fly back toward the goddess. The goddess ignored the flying rocks, unflinchingly charging forward whether they hit her shoulders or forehead. They didn’t leave any wounds on her—they didn’t leave a single mark.

Even while running backward, Marguerite never slowed down. She would have liked to brag that this was the fruit of her training, but she already understood that it was dangerous to show off repeatedly to this enemy. The goddess was digging into the rock with both her axes, sending it flying into the air as she ran, but Marguerite hadn’t managed to put much distance between the two of them. She’d just turned ten yards into thirteen. And the way the goddess ran was different from her earlier, awkward steps. She was running like Marguerite, shifting her body weight over and over to keep Marguerite from getting farther away. Marguerite fluttered her cape, concealing herself from the enemy for an instant to pull out two-inch-long metal skewers from the inner lining of her cape. She bent the metal skewers with her magic, processing them into hooks.

The goddess’s right arm drew back.

It’s coming.

Her ax shattered a rock, sending shards flying. Marguerite alternated between knocking them away with her rapier and evading them, and she repelled a few back at her opponent. She used that as cover to hold her rapier in her mouth and bend it as far as possible, hooking the bent metal skewers over the tip to flick them and send them flying. She was using it like an old-fashioned catapult. This move was born from the pain of a magical girl who had no long-range weapons—it was basically a party trick to someone who did have powerful projectiles. But even a move like a party trick could be useful. She flicked the metal hook so it flew right behind the last rock shard she’d shot back and, by shooting it faster than the rock shard, made it so they would hit at almost the same instant. The hook coming right behind the shard made it hard to see, and it was aiming right for the enemy’s eyeball.

The goddess didn’t dodge the rock fragments. She let them hit her, taking the impact on skin and bone. A few of the rocks shattered, the last one hitting her forehead, and then when the metal skewer made to penetrate her eyeball not even an instant later, it was swiped aside by the swinging of her golden hair, its wind alone blowing the hook away.

She avoided it, huh.

Marguerite wouldn’t go so far as to say she’d already taken that into account, but considering the monster reflexes of her pursuer, it wasn’t like it had been unforeseen. If she could avoid it, then it wasn’t as if that evasion offered no benefit to Marguerite. It was better for the goddess to focus on distractions rather than running straight after her. This would help her get farther away.

The distance between the two of them grew to fifty feet. Marguerite gradually curved the direction of her flight to the right. To the left was the ocean, while on the right was the expanse of forest. Her plan to fight in the open rocky area had failed hopelessly, and she was at an impasse. Her enemy was a goddess of the spring who had come out from the water, so if they fought in the ocean, it was sure to be checkmate this time. It was preferable to run into the forest. Now that she’d lost Tepsekemei, the situation was worse than when they’d been running around the forest before, but there was also the plus of having experienced what the opponent was capable of and what they did. She had also learned that it would be difficult to alert others of their presence via sound. So going into the forest would leave more evidence of their fight, which would call more attention to them.

This logic was nothing but making excuses and lying to herself, but that which is magical girl, Marguerite knew, had to be positive, or everything would fall apart.

The goddess’s ax shone red. Trying to end this battle before Marguerite could run into the forest was one of the possible strategies Marguerite had anticipated, but she wasn’t happy her prediction was correct.

The ax propellant and the high temperature combined to make an explosion. The blast made the goddess fly along at a horizontal, jetting toward her in one burst. Marguerite thrust the rapier in her left hand into the rock.

Dodging the explosion-accelerated slash once she saw the goddess swinging would be largely a gamble. The goddess’s attack range was beyond Marguerite’s ability to visually estimate, her movements had hardly any tells at all, and most of all, she was insanely fast. But if Marguerite drew her sword to try to block, she would be completely crushed, blade and all. If she wasn’t going to dodge or block, there was nothing for it but to move before the attack came.

Stepping up onto the rapier she’d thrust into the ground, as it bent, she jumped to the side. The ax cut through nothing and dug into the ground, making shards of rock dance in the air. Inertia pushed the goddess ten yards ahead, where she thrust her ax into the ground to bring herself to a stop. Marguerite turned away from the goddess’s path at a ninety-degree angle and jumped, setting her foot at the edge of the forest. When the goddess turned back to her again, she had that same vacant smile on her face with no signs of distress, and neither could you sense any irritation about failing to capture her prey.

Marguerite fled straight into the forest, and the whole time, she never let the goddess out of her view.

After Marguerite had opened twenty yards between them, the goddess came into the forest. Marguerite kicked off a particularly large tree beside her and leaped, and the tree she’d kicked swayed wildly, making droplets of water spill out and flick everywhere from its spreading branches. The goddess paused for a moment, and Marguerite managed to get farther away.

Marguerite raced, and the goddess followed—Marguerite jumped off trees, and the goddess mowed them down. It looked as if she was just going wild, but she had no openings at all. Marguerite sidestepped a thick trunk that was flung toward her and twined her cape around a tree branch to leap upward. From there, she bounced off a branch to the ground. It felt soft under her feet. The air was filled with moisture. This was a wetland. The farther she got, the more moisture there was in the earth.

Can I use this?

Something like splashing mud in the enemy’s face to get away was done to block vision. There was no point to using that move on an enemy who really didn’t seem like she relied purely on sight in a battle. Marguerite could let her fall into the bog and then, when she was distracted by the poor footing, turn back to fight her at close range. But that probably wouldn’t go well even one out of ten times.

Marguerite stepped on a thick root and leaped, taking care not to slip from the mud as she bounded from tree to tree, and then as she put her hand on another branch, her eyebrows furrowed. She had gotten away from the goddess—or rather, the goddess had stopped. She’d leaned her two battle-axes up against a tree and seemed to be taking a break.

Though Marguerite was confused by the enemy’s behavior, her feet didn’t stop. The goddess pulled out a little white box and shook out something small and round. It was too far away even for magical-girl vision, and Marguerite couldn’t tell quite what it was. The goddess popped the round something on her palm into her mouth, and then she was hidden by the trees and out of view. Marguerite had never looked away from the enemy once as she ran, but since she’d stopped, Marguerite had just pulled out of visual range.

The soil in the area had finally become mud, which would slow a magical girl’s running. Marguerite continued to maintain her speed by going along the trees. Though the goddess was out of sight, Marguerite replayed that scene in her brain. She had seen a gesture like that before.

A pill?

It had looked like a human pulling out some medicine and swallowing it. If she had to stop, even when nothing else had stopped her, in order to take something, it really did make the most sense for it to be medicine.

Information was firing off wildly in Marguerite’s head. She wasn’t organizing it or classifying it. She had drawn what seemed to click from the vast store of knowledge accumulated in her long career as a magical girl. She’d heard of a “magical girl who needs pills” described practically in those exact words before.

Prefacing it by saying that it was a rumor, one of the higher-ups of the Inspection Department had told her, “I hear there’s research trying to create a new type of magical girl.” They had mentioned that they would regularly require magic pills but that they were highly easy to produce. Then they’d finished off by joking, “If it goes well, then we’ll be out of our jobs,” but that story basically fit.

Kicking off a tree branch, Marguerite grabbed a vine to extend the distance of her leap.

A creature that had to be a magical girl, but it felt uncanny. Was it a magical girl?

A magical girl Sataborn created, making use of new technology?

Was it a watchman who had been stationed on the island going out of control? If not that—then had someone brought it there? Marguerite set her foot on a tree root and tensed, then slid down. She was confused. She couldn’t keep her balance. She windmilled at the air and pitched forward to plunge into the swamp. Sand and muddy water got into her mouth, and she choked. She brought her muddy palm to her face. This was not the hand of Miss Marguerite, which was like an art piece. It was the hand of a human woman, with the lines appropriate to her age.

Her transformation had come undone. The effects of the grayfruit had worn off. She was bewildered. It shouldn’t have run out yet. Had running continuously messed with her sense of time? She’d hit her whole body in the fall. She felt faint from the pain. Her arms had tried to come forward reflexively, but they had failed to move right. If she couldn’t run, then she would be killed easily.

The words I’m going to get killed weighed heavily on her. Her heart raced. Her whole body hurt. Her head felt numb. What should she do? The veteran magical girl who wouldn’t lose her cool, even with her death looming, was gone. She thought about what a frightened human should do.

I just have to get out of the mud, she thought, but her legs wouldn’t move. They were caught on something. When she strained to pull them up, she sank farther. The mud was deep. She couldn’t reach the bottom. Even when she tried to push herself up with her arms, she just sank more. She couldn’t get up.

Before she could even worry about whether the goddess was coming after her, at this rate, she would sink into the mud and die. Sliding and squelching, her whole body went into the mud. There was nothing now. She couldn’t even see her own body. Her chest gradually became more suffocated. She wanted to breathe, but she couldn’t raise her head.

Something was rattling. She felt intense vibrations passing over the ground above. The rattling approached, then immediately vanished. She didn’t have any way or basis to tell if that was the goddess or not.

Her body heat was seeping away. She wanted to breathe. She was scared. She didn’t want to die. Would she have been able to die a more dignified death if she’d died a magical girl? But she really didn’t know how much point there was in a dignified death. Death was death. It was the end. It wasn’t like she could see people commending her with her own eyes and feel satisfied.

If she was going to die anyway, she would have wanted to die as a magical girl. She thought of Annamarie, who had managed to die as a magical girl. Marguerite didn’t know if she had died satisfied. Dying as a magical girl for your own self-satisfaction was an immense burden for other people. But it still seemed somewhat better than being a human with no choice but to die trembling in fear.

  Love Me Ren-Ren

Chelsea and Mary didn’t come back. That in itself wasn’t strange. It was common for Ren-Ren’s magic to cause unpredictable accidents. It was possible that Mary had carelessly spoken about her love for Ren-Ren, and then Chelsea had heard it and didn’t like it, got mad, and they wound up in a fight. If that happened, they probably wouldn’t be able to come straight back.

But such optimistic predictions quickly evaporated. The forest was marred by a continuous path of destruction. Trees were mowed down, dirt was dug up, and rocks were smashed into scattered shards. It stretched on and on. Ren-Ren didn’t know how far it actually went, but she didn’t want to check to the end. If she reached that point, that would mean running into whoever had accomplished this much devastation.

Ren-Ren turned the other way and spread her wings. She went between the trees at low altitude. Right now, it was a bad idea to fly high over the island.

Was it the other magical girl who Navi Ru had brought? It seemed like it couldn’t be anyone else. The destruction that had been displayed near the main building had been basically something like this. It was similar behavior. But it wouldn’t make sense for this to be Navi’s companion. If what Agri said was correct, there was no need for any further violence from Navi’s companion. But there were ongoing signs that she had just gone wild. What was going on? Everything was so strange.

Chelsea and Mary not coming back might be related to that. If they’d run into Navi’s companion… Ren-Ren considered this, then shook her head. The wind blowing in her face played with her bangs, making them sway harder than her shake had.

Chelsea and Mary would be treated as Agri’s allies. If Navi’s companion was to hurt Agri’s allies, that would get caught by the contract. Navi wouldn’t allow that to happen. If Navi’s companion was doing that of her own accord, that would mean he was failing to control her. And Navi had been calm. That hadn’t seemed like acting.

So then was there something else that had kept Chelsea and Mary from coming back? What was this destruction about? She could be tearing down the forest on her own, but Ren-Ren didn’t get the point of that, and it didn’t make sense for her to be fighting anyone, either. There was far too much serious intent to kill here for a sudden quarrel.

Ren-Ren paused. Was Agri being deceived? Were there any holes somewhere? Something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t pin down what.

Ren-Ren wanted Agri to be happy. She didn’t want Agri to die. She couldn’t think of her as just an employer anymore. Ren-Ren cared for her. Agri was as dear to her as her own mother. She didn’t want her to die like her mother.

The fluttering of Ren-Ren’s wings weakened. She gradually slowed, lowering in the air, to finally land.

Ren-Ren looked up at the sky. She could see between the branches that it was bright. She could hear the cries of small birds. The brisk morning breeze was blowing. Ren-Ren clasped her head in her hands.

No. Mom isn’t dead. She went away. She left me behind. She isn’t dead. Why would I think she’d died? I never saw her die. And of course I could never have killed her. I would never kill her. She’s my mom. I would never…

“I’d never!”

The little birds flew off, startled by her yelling. Ren-Ren drew in a big breath and blew another out, smacking herself twice in the cheeks. She was getting distracted. But she had to tell Agri as soon as possible about the strange situation going on. And that wasn’t even talking about how Navi was close to Agri. That was dangerous. There was no time for Ren-Ren to be getting distracted.

Pulling herself together, Ren-Ren spread her wings.

  Ragi Zwe Nento

Ragi was going to escape this island, but he needed his magic for that. He would make an extremely basic gate and get out on his own. He would seek help. And then he would come back with help from the outside. But even a basic gate would require a ceremony for its creation, so he would gather grayfruit as a substitute for magic gems, and he would also need a mage to work with him.

He attempted to simplify matters like this to explain to the ignorant magical girls, but Dreamy Chelsea and Pastel Mary weren’t listening to him at all.

“Mr. Pie!” Chelsea wailed. “Why?! This has to be some mistake!”

“I don’t understand; I don’t understand…but things I don’t understand are… What were they again? Um…” Pastel Mary trailed off.

“No matter what the danger,” Ragi tried to explain to them, “we need aid. Am I wrong?”

“This can’t be happening; it’s not right.”

“What I don’t understand… Oh yeah, that it’s dangerous. Things I don’t understand are dangerous. I mean, it’s basically always been like that. I have to go save Ren-Ren, or she—”

“Where are you going, May-May?! Who cares about Ren-Ren?!”

“We must work together to overcome this,” Ragi huffed. “This isn’t the time to be putting your efforts into selling grayfruit.”

“Wait, but—”

“You can’t go roaming around when things are so dangerous!”

“But, but, but—”

“It really is Ren-Ren after all, huh, May-May, you lo—”

“Listen, you fools! This isn’t the time to be fighting!” Ragi gritted his teeth. It was clear as day what was keeping them from listening at all. Both Dreamy Chelsea and Pastel Mary were being mind-controlled by magic. Though they were both pointed in different directions, neither was a very bright magical girl to begin with. Still, he could swear they hadn’t been this bad.

The shock of Shepherdspie’s death lasted only for a brief moment, and then they were going around in circles worrying about someone and being jealous. Even knowing the cause, Ragi couldn’t fix it. If he tried to cast a spell on a magical girl, he would suffer for it. The best he could hope for would be being restrained—if they punched or kicked him away, that could threaten his life. The two magical girls didn’t seem so villainous, but they were brainwashed. You never knew how rash they might be.

The night was already dawning. He could no longer hear the chirping of insects or see the moon. If he dawdled around, day would come. No, day might not come. Day would never come to John Shepherdspie. Ragi’s bitterness showed on his face, but he nevertheless called out to the two girls. “Calm down. First, calm down and listen.”

“What are you talking about?! Of course Chelsea can’t be calm!”

“Ah, aw geez, I have to hurry; I have to get back right now.”

“May-May! Calm down!”

They didn’t even realize that what came out of their mouths was incoherent. In legal terms, they were in a state of mental incompetence. Swallowing his anger toward whoever had made them like this, Ragi considered. The two girls had less capacity for thought than normal. They also weren’t properly able to shift from one idea to another. Seen from another angle, this was something he could use. There were means of deception he could use now, and they wouldn’t see through his attempts.

What should he do? What did he have to do to get them to listen and do what he wanted? As he brooded over this, the two girls were continuing their meaningless argument and yelling, and it was so grating, he’d have rather covered his ears. Ragi swung his staff up and thrust it into the ground. He said the few words of a spell, made the end of his staff glow, and pointed it at Shepherdspie’s body. The light left his staff to stroke over the gruesome wounds of the body to eventually fade and melt into it. The two magical girls put their argument on pause to watch, gulping. He’d succeeded in making them close their mouths and get their attention.

“I heard it!” Ragi cried.

The two magical girls looked at him as if to say, “Is that old man okay?” It was provoking, but this wasn’t the time for anger.

“You must have heard it! Didn’t you?!” he repeated.

“Heard it… Heard what?” Chelsea cocked her head.

“Shepherdspie’s voice. You had to have heard it. You couldn’t possibly say you weren’t able to hear it.”

“I think…maybe I heard it?” Pastel Mary said.

“Hmm…”

“You could hear it. You absolutely must have,” Ragi insisted.

“I dunno…”

“I can say with certainty you heard it! There’s no way you couldn’t have!”

“Now that you mention it…I kinda get the feeling that I did hear something…” Chelsea started to give in.

“H-hmm… I’m not sure, but like, kinda…”

“You heard it, didn’t you? Shepherdspie was in pain,” Ragi told them.

“Well, yeah. You would be.”

“Yeah, you would…”

“We must bury him. Are you going to leave Shepherdspie like this? Let us let him rest in peace at the very least.”

“Um, okay.”

“Yes, of course.”

While the two magical girls seemed restless, Ragi somehow got them to listen. Pastel Mary created some sheep that dug a hole, while Chelsea carried Shepherdspie’s mutilated body over to lay him down at the bottom of the hole. When Chelsea touched Shepherdspie, she looked terribly sorrowful as she murmured, “He’s so cold,” tears dripping from her cheeks. Seeing that made Ragi clench his teeth even more bitterly. Too many strange events were occurring. Shepherdspie’s body was brutalized as if he’d been crushed by a large mass. Blood soaked not only his clothing but also the earth and grass all around with red, clinging to Chelsea’s costume as well. Ragi blacked out his welling fear with anger and moved on to the next stage.

First, while they were working, he talked. He felt sorry for Shepherdspie, but the work itself wasn’t what was important. What was important was that while they were working, they were forced to listen to Ragi talk.

“Listen to me. You two have people you want to protect, don’t you? No, no. No arguing. Who those people are is not an issue. All that matters is that there are people who are dear to you. In order to protect those you care about, we need help. And for that, we need magic. Working hard on your own will not work. We need grayfruit and mages. Yes, we need to work together. I’ll tell you one more time. I wouldn’t normally like to repeat myself over and over, but listen well. There is an intruder on this island who is doing something very foolish. We must seek help from the outside. Do you understand? This isn’t the time to be selling grayfruit. You understand, don’t you?”

“Well, um.” Pastel Mary looked up, then immediately dropped her head again. “Then I’ll go tell Agri. Since they have grayfruit over there.”

Ragi could tell his sour expression was easing and nodded. “Very good of you to understand. Oh yes, I want you to tell her this: We must make haste.”

“Yes, right. I have to tell Ren-Ren, too…since I’m worried.”

There was a loud splash of mud. Ragi looked over to see Chelsea stomping. “You said Ren-Ren again!”

“But I’m worried…”

“You fools are going back to talking about that again?!”

“I mean, she said Ren-Ren!”

“But I’m really worried…”

“Drop that subject! Cut this out, you fools!”

“But!”

“I mean…”

There was a rustling of leaves. The two magical girls turned toward the sound, and a beat later, Ragi looked that way, too. The thicket shook, then split open, and a magical girl emerged. Ragi narrowed his right eye. He didn’t know this one. She had long, flowing golden hair, and she was wearing a toga covered in filth like mud splatter and burn marks. With a vacant smile on her face, she held a large ax raised in each hand.

The magical girl with the axes cocked her head and asked, “Is the ax you dropped a golden ax? Or is it—?”

  7753

Tepsekemei stopped her flight through the air, and 7753 and Mana, following her, stopped as well.

“What’s wrong?” 7753 asked.

Tepsekemei shuddered. She was only one-sixth of her original form, but nothing else was changed about her, aside from the size. She wouldn’t stop for no reason.

Tepsekemei trembled twice more, then muttered, “Mei’s part died.”

7753 flared her nose and looked at Mana. Mana bit her lip and looked back. Her lips slowly parted, and then she turned back to Tepsekemei. “What happened to Marguerite?”

“Mei only knows that the part died.”

Tepsekemei had to merge with a “part” again to learn what it had seen and heard. Their senses weren’t constantly connected.

7753 examined Mana with a sidelong glance. Mana yanked her hat off her head and clasped it in both hands.

The three of them had all come to a stop. None of them suggested that they had to get going again, either. They had been running to get away from the goddess. And they hadn’t simply been fleeing. It had also been to keep from getting in Tepsekemei’s and Marguerite’s way. 7753 and Mana weren’t really fighters, and their presence would handicap Marguerite and Tepsekemei by forcing them to protect and help them. That would keep them from beating even an opponent they were capable of taking down. So the group had been actively fleeing to support the fight.

The news that Tepsekemei’s part had been killed hit hard enough to reconfirm such considerations had been purely self-deception. Even if it had only been one-third of her, it was impressive to have destroyed a part of Tepsekemei. Tepsekemei was made of wind and couldn’t be touched by a magical girl who only had physical attacks.

But the goddess had defeated Tepsekemei. That would mean that Marguerite was alone. 7753 and Mana didn’t even know if she was alive or not.

“Um, but…,” 7753 started, but Mana didn’t make to move. 7753 inhaled, exhaled, and smacked a fist against her knee. “Marguerite is strong, right?”

Mana lifted her chin. An angry expression was Mana’s default.

“She’s strong, so she’ll be okay, right?” 7753 said.

“…Of course. She was Hana’s teacher.” Mana smacked her hat to fix its shape, put it on her head, and let out a breath. “If you have some kind of plan, then say it.”

“Mei wants fruit,” Tepsekemei said.

“Here.” Mana handed over one of the grayfruit that they’d found while running. Watching Tepsekemei bite into it, the wrinkles carved in Mana’s brow faded just a little.

7753 put a hand to her forehead, and remembering that her goggles weren’t there, she wiped the spot with the back of her hand to cover the gesture. “I think we shouldn’t go back.” However Marguerite was doing, they wouldn’t be useful if they went back. “If Tepsekemei’s sacrifice enabled her to beat the goddess, that’s different, though.”

“We shouldn’t make decisions based on optimism.”

“But there’s no point in keeping going, though… It’s not like we have any goal, and we don’t have many grayfruit, either.”

“I suppose we could just hope we run into something.”

“Um…we might run into that thing, so…”

Mana drew the brim of her hat deeply over her eyes and looked around. It was nothing but trees, earth, and grass. With a little sigh, she looked up at Tepsekemei, who was still eating her grayfruit. “I have a request, Tepsekemei.”

“Mei will hear your request.”

“Go above the trees to look around, and tell me which way is toward the main building. Make sure not to fly too much.” Tepsekemei floated up above the branches.

7753 frowned. “We’re going back to the main building? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Just because that’s where we were first attacked doesn’t mean it’s still dangerous. Or rather, anywhere on this island is equally dangerous right now. It’s not really going to be safe no matter where we go.”

“But what’s the point in going there now…? Do you have an idea?”

“To be frank…it’s just barely better than wandering around aimlessly, but…” After that timid preface, Mana blew a breath out her nose and resumed her usual angry-looking expression. “The inheritance that was going to be distributed is at the main building.”

Now that she mentioned it, that was the reason they’d come to the island in the first place. The reason they’d come in the first place was long forgotten at this point.

“That should also include some tools with magical power. Since they’re the sort of thing that would be in an inheritance, I assume it’s items with high artistic value or academic implications, antiques or something easily resold or exceptionally rare items…basically things without much practical use. But we don’t know for sure they’d have no powers useful to get us out of this.”

If Mr. Shepherdspie were there, maybe he’d have gotten a look at the catalog, she added. Then after saying it, she bit her lip like she regretted it. When they’d been attacked by the goddess, 7753 had only had the presence of mind to scoop up Mana. More accurately, she hadn’t even had the presence of mind to scoop up Mana, but Mana had fortunately been in her field of view. At this point, all they could do was pray for his safety—for Shepherdspie, and for Marguerite, and all the other mages and magical girls.

Mana looked at 7753, who nodded, trying to be even slightly encouraging, and then Tepsekemei came down. Whether she’d been listening or not, she looked at the two of them and nodded, and at least superficially, the three of them were nodding at one another encouragingly.

  Clarissa Toothedge

The morning sun filtered through the leaves above to dapple the ground below. Clarissa honestly thought it was pretty. The morning air was cold, and the humidity wasn’t too aggressive. But she couldn’t say that everything felt good. A couple of dropped items were bringing her down, making it no time for a pleasant morning.

In a gloomy mood that didn’t suit such a brisk morning, she approached those things and picked one up. It was wet, probably from the morning dew dripping from the branches. She spun the pointed hat in a semicircle on her hand to shake off the water and found a little ding on the brim. Of course, she knew what this mark hidden in a wrinkle was. It was Clarissa’s bite mark, which she’d put there while Ragi had been unconscious.

She bent over to pick up a scrap of mud-smeared cloth with grass stuck to it. It was from Ragi’s cuff. This was also marked with Clarissa’s bite.

Clarissa knew the position of anything she had bitten. This magic was convenient in a lot of ways. But she knew only the relative positional information of bitten objects, and she wouldn’t know why Ragi had thrown away his hat and part of his clothes. Clarissa had rushed to Ragi because she’d thought he’d collapsed, but it had actually been his hat and a scrap of cloth lying there. You didn’t need to be Clarissa to understand this was not a good thing at all.

She was dealing with a cunning veteran mage. Maybe he’d noticed her magic.

To excuse her magic being found out, she could just say she’d used her magic on him to secure his safety. But losing her grasp on Ragi’s position was a big flub of a bonehead play. Nobody would have had any problems if he’d stayed hidden like Clarissa had told him to—him moving around was causing her trouble on top of more trouble. Silently cursing at him for being such a pointlessly active old grandpa, she looked up at the light filtering through the trees for no particular reason and narrowed her eyes.

Clarissa was to operate according to Navi Ru’s wishes, while additionally being adaptable to the needs of the moment, moving free, unfettered, and with control and versatility. Put in the cool-sounding way, she was a commando unit. Now that she’d worked herself to the bone checking off the biggest hassle from her list of to-dos, Ragi’s safety was a pretty high-priority ranking. She would follow Ragi’s trail, find him the hard way without using magic, and secure him. She had to make sure he absolutely couldn’t escape, this time for sure. Should she dislocate his joints while saying, “I’m doing this for your sake”? She got the feeling the old man could even get out of that. So then what should she do?

Clarissa Toothedge had been working under Navi Ru for a long time. And she did very occasionally have dangerous jobs forced on her. She was enough of a professional that even while thinking, she kept her attention sharp, and she was ready for an attack coming from anywhere.

When she heard a branch break inside the forest, she leaped backward, holding the hat and cloth scrap in her right hand. The sound of footsteps followed. They weren’t human footsteps. They were also different from those of a magical girl. Clarissa’s pointed, feline ears moved minutely as they captured the movements of the target. The four-legged animal was close. It was close; that wasn’t what it was. They had noticed Clarissa’s presence. Clarissa could basically tell what the presence was, and seeing the form that peeked out from the forest, she confirmed that her ears had been right.

It was Clantail. Her lower body was no longer a horse, now become a large feline with black stripes over gold fur. There was nothing awkward about her appearance, combined like a collage to equip her with the supple grace of the original animal.

Clarissa wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. Clantail had been trying to walk silently. She was moving like she was apt to attack somebody. Her expression seemed somehow dark. Her lips were pressed together. She had a different air to her, compared to when they’d last seen each other. Had she already fought someone? Clarissa couldn’t see any wounds. She doubted she could be completely unharmed after fighting with Francesca, but maybe she’d just had some kind of squabble with Agri’s lackeys.

Clarissa put on a light expression and raised her arm in a funny way as she called out brightly, “Looks like you were safe, Clantail.”

Even when Clarissa tried to ease Clantail’s caution, the girl didn’t move. She stared right back, not even her cheeks or eyebrows twitching.

“What’s the matter? Right now we’re both cat-type magical girls, right? Let’s help each other out.”

She didn’t move. The branches swayed in the wind, the morning sun angling through them. Though the sunlight annoyed Clarissa, she kept her expression the same—partly because she wanted to keep it on to make Clantail less wary and also because she didn’t want to carelessly blink and offer a slight opening.

“Clarissa and Clantail, even our names sound like a good match, don’cha think?” Clarissa said.

Clantail raised her right arm and pointed ahead with her index finger. Clarissa automatically measured the distance between them. It was twenty-six feet to Clantail’s front legs and twenty-four to her index finger. Maybe a little more.

She should get closer so she could chummily clap her on the shoulder and be like hey, hey, but she wanted to maintain enough distance so she could run if she had to. To keep Clantail from noticing that they were too far apart for just a chat, she asked in a tone that was not too loud but carried well, “So like, what’s up?”

“That.” Clantail’s voice was low and quiet. Clarissa’s sharp hearing could pick it up easily, but the remark didn’t seem like a preface to conversation. “That hat.”

“Oh yeah, this? I just found it. This is a mage hat, huh. If it’s lying here, that means… Well, I doubt it got forgotten.” It was a fact that she’d just found it now. That part wasn’t a lie.

But Clantail’s expression didn’t relax—in fact, it tightened even more harshly. “You tried to hide it.”

“Pardon?”

“You kept me from seeing that side of the hat.”

Clarissa didn’t drop her smile. But inside, she cursed. Shit.

She’d turned the hat so Clantail wouldn’t be able to see the bite mark. Clarissa replayed the motion inside her mind. It wasn’t like she’d moved carelessly because she’d underestimated Clantail, figuring she would never notice such a small motion. Clarissa had managed to do it in a nonchalant manner, but Clantail had noticed anyway.

Clantail wasn’t only acting wary. She was observing with insight and attention. They hadn’t known each other for long, but Clarissa could tell she was clearly different now. Back when she’d raced off, saying she was going to go search for grayfruit, she’d been way more careless than right now. Had something awoken her caution? Had it made her a magical girl on the battlefield?

If someone had pulled something stupid, there were plenty of idiots who could plausibly be that someone. Seeing how there were no signs of battle on her, maybe someone had given her ideas. That was really uncalled-for.

“You think I was trying to hide it? No way,” said Clarissa.

The way Clantail was acting now, she’d probably figure some things out just by seeing the bite mark. If Clarissa revealed her magic honestly and explained that she’d bit it in order to know Ragi’s position, would that work? Clarissa was considering what she should say next, about to open her mouth, when the sound of something whooshing through the air made her ears vibrate. She dropped the hat and scrap of cloth held at her side on the spot, rushing forward before even looking back to dodge the log that came flying at her. The log bounced high, splattering up mud, then rolled into the forest, crushing the short vegetation underneath it.

It hadn’t flown at her like it had been aimed at her. There was no follow-up attack, either. Someone, somewhere, was fighting—seeing as how she hadn’t heard any noise, it was probably Francesca—and it was probably just the side effects of the battle reaching Clarissa. But that wasn’t what her problem was now. When she’d moved to avoid the log, she’d wound up coming closer to Clantail. There were six feet between her and Clantail, who stood with the forest at her back. They were close. Clantail raised up her front legs and glared at her. Those were the eyes of a magical girl who had killed before. Clarissa was penetrated from head to tail with the feeling that she was going to get killed. She let momentum take her forward and lifted her leg at the angle of a roundhouse kick. At the height where she’d kick, she dropped it in an attempt to swipe aside Clantail’s back kick, but Clantail nimbly evaded her.

This time, she couldn’t help cursing out loud. “Piece of shit.” She’d thought she hadn’t meant to attack. Her spinal cord had reacted on reflex to the look in Clantail’s eyes, and her body had moved, thinking she had to attack first. Her penetrating, murderous intent had forced Clarissa to move. Clantail sure wouldn’t listen to excuses now. Clarissa swiped like she was trying to hold Clantail off. Then right before Clantail blocked, she withdrew her hands and claws. The enemy had thicker and longer claws. What would happen if a Bengal tiger and a serval cat clashed head-on with no extra tricks? Even a child would know who would win.

And on top of that, there was Clantail’s magic. What had been a horse when they’d been on a plain had become a leopard when she’d gone into the forest, and now she was a tiger. Clarissa should assume she would transform to adapt to the situation. Her magic was probably to transform her lower body into animals.

Clarissa made small steps to the left and right, keeping her opponent on her toes. Feigning a sliding tackle, she did a forward roll instead, changing the direction of force right in front of Clantail to leap to the side.

Clarissa stripped off her shoes with that leap and abandoned them to expose the claws on her feet. Leaping headfirst into the forest, taking care not to destroy the trees with the strength of her magical-girl limbs, she climbed, leaped, jumped, and evaded the attacks from behind by a paper-thin margin. Some straggling hairs of hers danced in the air. When Clarissa turned back again, Clantail’s lower body was now a spotted feline. She had to be thinking that would give her all the strengths Clarissa had—feline spring, reflexes, and sharp claws.

Not so. If they were fighting in the trees, Clarissa had the advantage.

If Clantail was going to transform into a great cat, then Clarissa had to knock her down. The body weight and delicacy needed was different from when you were on the ground. If she was dealing with the lightweight to middleweight class, like a leopard or wildcat rather than a tiger, lion, or saber-toothed cat, then Clantail couldn’t block her attacks with just her flesh, pelt, and bones. Clarissa had an integrated cat motif, and way more time with it than Clantail, who was not always transformed into a cat’s lower half. If Clantail was to choose some other arboreal animal like a monkey or field mouse, that was fine, too. Clarissa was confident that a cat was the strongest in the trees.

Additionally, Clarissa had the advantage of her magic. This wasn’t the first time she’d entered this forest. It was the second. Clarissa hadn’t just been wandering around the island looking for grayfruit. If she marked a tree’s bark with her bite, she’d have a hold on its position. She’d already been in this forest, so she’d already bitten the trees. Clantail hadn’t realized it, but this was Clarissa’s territory.

Clarissa spun around a branch and pulled the knife tucked in her sleeve out at an angle Clantail couldn’t see. It didn’t matter if Clantail went out of sight. When Clantail moved from tree to tree, the contact would make the trees sway. When they swayed, no matter how slightly, it would shift the position of the tree and alert Clarissa to her position. Clantail leaped from one tree to another, then leaped again, stopping diagonally and to the right above Clarissa. Without even looking at her once, Clarissa knew every move she made.

The moment Clantail leaped, Clarissa spun around and threw the knife. Her front cat paw swiped it aside, but Clarissa had anticipated that. Clantail bounded toward her viciously fast, but Clarissa jumped, too. The two magical girls watched each other in midair. They were close enough to breathe on each other. Clarissa twisted around. She avoided a frontal collision and came around to Clantail’s flank. Power was one thing, but Clarissa was faster.

At zero distance, Clarissa thrust her knee into the cat torso, digging in between the ribs. Without checking to see if she’d done any damage, she drew up her shin and aimed for the upper body next. Clantail blocked Clarissa’s shin with her human upper arm and tried to wrap both arms around her, and Clarissa rotated her ankle to snatch the repelled knife in her toes. She tried to scratch at Clantail’s eyes with the knife blade, but it was blocked—not by her arm but by her leg.

It was like she didn’t have joints—it even seemed dubious if she was a solid body at all as she twisted her spine with the characteristic flexibility of a cat to slam down with her back leg. The knife caught in her claws was shredded to bits that bounced off branches and leaves as it fell.

Before Clarissa could even be surprised, the part that was not transformed, the human upper body, had grabbed her by the wrist. Clantail swung her up, then down. She bashed Clarissa’s spine into a tree trunk, blasting the trunk into splinters, keeping a firm grip on her wrist the whole time. Her grip alone had so much force, it felt like Clarissa’s bones would break. It wasn’t just her lower body that was powerful. Clarissa silently cursed, Crazy-strong bitch.

Clantail swung her up again, higher than before. Clarissa flung out her left arm, aiming for the highest point of the swing to try to scratch at Clantail’s wrist, but this time she was flung away, and her left hand swiped at the air in vain.

Even as she was breaking branches with her back, Clarissa dug her claws into tree trunks to slow her fall, then jumped downward. She crossed paths with Clantail, leaping upward, and they clashed claws. Clarissa’s claws creaked as she turned aside the attack, and she pushed at Clantail’s joints with her elbow to open up the inside of her front legs in an attempt to get a kick in. But before her kick could connect, Clantail fired a back kick to counter it at an absolutely absurd angle, which Clarissa evaded, and the two magical girls came apart.

Landing on a thick branch, this time Clarissa leaped upward. She tried to kick at Clantail while changing direction as well, but another back kick obstructed her. Grabbing a tree trunk with her claws, Clarissa switched to the right diagonal direction, passing by Clantail as she leaped downward, then grabbed a tree branch to come to a stop.

Clarissa looked down on the magical girl with the lower body of a spotted feline, staring up at Clarissa with frighteningly cold eyes.

Whoa…

Clantail was used to battle. She didn’t show a trace of fear, even after having a blade pulled on her to target her eyes. There was no weakness in her stance or in the motion of her eyes. Not only did she possess mastery over the body of a cat, her upper body was more than just a little powerful—she was stronger than Clarissa.

This was the same magical girl who, when Ragi had collapsed, had gotten into a panic, ignoring the voices calling her to stop to race off alone. Clarissa had assumed from that display that Clantail was amateurish. However, that underestimation would embarrass anyone at this point. She was a warrior who could fight flawlessly in a potentially lethal situation. And though she had to have seen Clarissa’s pretransformation form, it seemed like she wouldn’t let her guard down because she was young. Had she gotten hurt against a child before?

Still…though she’s giving me the eye, it doesn’t look like she’s planning to kill me. So is she going for a capture?

The fact that her opponent wasn’t even going for the kill made Clarissa shudder. This fight was easy enough for her to consider that she could capture without killing. Clantail could already tell that she was that much stronger.

Clarissa made a branch bend and used the rebound to jump. She raced through the treetops. She could tell from the sound and sense of her presence that Clantail was following her closely.

After various considerations, Clarissa came to a conclusion: Clantail was too much for her one-on-one. Clarissa wasn’t just tooth and fang. It wasn’t like she had no tricks up her sleeve, but she wasn’t going to use those against someone who was basically an outsider who she’d incidentally slid into fighting.

The trees gradually thinned out. The light shone through. The forest was coming to an end. Even in the forest that should have been Clarissa’s home base, they were equally matched at playing tag. If Clantail transformed into the appropriate lower body wherever they went, be it fields or rocks or hills or the ocean, then Clarissa couldn’t match her.

She’s a real piece of shit, huh.

It was probably Navi’s influence that brought these curses to mind at times like these. Thinking them meant that if she didn’t watch out, they would come out of her mouth, too. No matter how much obligation and goodwill she had toward Navi, she didn’t want to become like the old man, and she tried to restrain herself every time dirty words rose in her mind, but her self-restraint had never lasted very long.

Clarissa kicked off a tree with all her strength, splintering it from the impact—and scattering pieces of wood behind her, she leaped with the form of a competitive swimmer. Doing a roll, she stuck the landing and rose to her feet at a run. The sound of footsteps followed her from behind. They were not the sound of hooves. If it wasn’t a horse, then it was probably a cheetah or something. This was an all-cat showdown. She should assume that her opponent wanted to get this fight over quickly.

She didn’t really want to pull this move—because this wasn’t a move that would actually save her. But Clarissa couldn’t think of anything else. You couldn’t be picky in an emergency. Organizing the positional information her magic gave her, she headed in that direction.

Clarissa inhaled a lungful of air, then blasted it out in a yell. “Help! Rareko!”

The footsteps behind her slowed. A magical girl in a robe popped out from the long rocky stretch fifty yards ahead, staff in hand. She moved faster than expected. Clarissa was thankful.

Clarissa knew the positional information of anything she had bitten. And if they were a human or mage—or an unobservant magical girl like 7753 or Pastel Mary—then it was easy enough to leave a bite mark without being noticed. Aside from exceptions like Yol, who constantly had Rareko beside her, or Agri, who always had either Ren-Ren or Nephilia glued to her, Clarissa had sneakily bitten a spot on the clothing of all the mages on this island.

She knew where Touta was, and if she ran toward him, Rareko would obviously be there as well. Clarissa would have been able to request backup a little more easily if it had been Agri, but Touta was the closest, so she was okay with that. She wasn’t in a position to be picky.

“Go eat the grayfruit I shared with you! You’ll be in trouble if you detransform while fighting!” Clarissa yelled, more directed at Clantail than Rareko. If Clantail understood that Clarissa and Rareko had a relationship where they would lend each other grayfruit, that should narrow Clantail’s options. Though Clarissa had concluded that she couldn’t beat Clantail one-on-one, it was different if she had a reliable ally to fight with her. Clantail was aware of that, too. Clarissa believed in Clantail’s strength, since she’d evaluated Clarissa’s abilities in such a brief time. She’d make the right decision.

The footsteps behind her came to a stop, then raced off in the other direction. Clarissa cursed silently, Get lost already, shithead, as she breathed a sigh of relief.

  Touta Magaoka

After dashing out, Rareko came back. Clarissa was with her, too. Yol stood up and asked, “What was that?”

Touta followed. “What happened?”

Rareko looked at Clarissa as if she was suffering from the bottom of her heart.

Clarissa sighed in disappointment. “I got attacked—by Clantail.”

“Clantail?” Yol said. “You mean that magical girl who was half-animal? Why?”

“I don’t think it’s ’cause Clantail is a bad guy or that she’s scheming or something, mm-hmm.” Clarissa, who was telling them that she’d been attacked, was defending her attacker for some reason as she folded her arms and nodded. “Situations like these, like extreme circumstances, everyone gets on edge. Some people do wind up thinking they can use violence to make you do what they want.”

It was true there were sometimes characters like that in manga. But manga was manga. Did this come up in fiction a lot because it happened often in real life? Touta tried to remember about Clantail. He recalled what she’d looked like when she’d raced off before the main building had been attacked. That had been kinda cool, but he thought someone had said she wasn’t very cooperative. Would someone who was uncooperative attack others in an emergency?

“But that’s…very scary…isn’t it?” Yol said, sounding concerned.

“I mean, um,” said Clarissa, “I’m sure that means there are other dangerous characters out there besides the scary person who attacked us. When the grayfruit were already starting to run out, too.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. I’d forgotten about the grayfruit,” Touta said. That wasn’t something he should be forgetting about. Touta told Clarissa about how there were no more grayfruit and how the pace they used them seemed to be accelerating—and about how Nephilia was going around selling them.

Hearing that, Clarissa put her hand on her forehead. “No matter where you go, there are people who’ll cause trouble, huh.”

“It’s just, so, honestly… I thought we said we have to work together,” Yol said.

“Yeah, man, this is a pickle for real.” Clarissa nodded. “For now, I’ll leave the fruit I can share with you here. Sorry, but I can’t give you all the fruit I got, so that’ll mean leaving out the ones I need for myself, but forgive me. Do what you can to hold out with this.”

She dropped a total of five grayfruit into Yol’s palms. All five of them had loose skins, which had to mean some time had passed since they’d been picked. That wasn’t a lot, either, but they couldn’t complain. Even if they were starting to go bad, even if it was just one, it was a lot better than slowly nibbling away at the one fruit Touta had wrangled from Nephilia.

When Yol, Touta, and Rareko all said their thanks in turn, Clarissa waved her right hand back shyly. Her catlike ears swayed side to side along with her hand. “It’s fine, it’s fine; don’t thank me. Look, times like these, you’ve gotta help each other out, y’know; I just did the obvious thing.” Saying things like “aww” and “c’mon,” Clarissa walked off to the exit. At one step before the opening, she turned back to say, “Well then, I’ll be back later. Old Man Navi might come round, too, but, well, one of us’ll show up. Promise I won’t bring extra trouble next time. You all sit tight, ’kay? It’s dangerous outside, so you can’t go out.”

Yol cocked her head. The swaying of her rolled curls just about made her hat fall off. Touta supported the hat from the side sneakily so that it wouldn’t be noticed.

“Aren’t you staying here, too, Clarissa?” Yol asked.

“Nah, I’m heading out.”

“You can’t. It’s dangerous.”

“Alas, I must brave the danger to do what must be done.”

Yol reached out an arm, but Clarissa left before she could touch her. Clarissa raced into the morning light, and before long, her footsteps were out of earshot. Yol timidly retracted her extended arm and gave Touta a look that said, “Honestly, this is so troubling.” “But it really is…dangerous, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, um, I do think it’s dangerous,” Touta agreed.

“Yes, you’re quite right, miss.”

“Since we were only just attacked, weren’t we?” Yol said.

“Yeah, um, that’s true.”

“Yes, of course.”

After that, Yol continued to repeat, “I wonder if it will be all right.” Though she seemed worried the whole time, since they couldn’t go after Clarissa, and in the end, she gave up, saying, “I do hope she’ll be safe…,” sitting down in her original spot with an expression of sincere concern. Rareko said, “Yes, yes,” agreeing with Yol as she also went to sit back down in her old spot.

Only Touta didn’t sit down. Still standing with his back to the entrance, he turned to Rareko and Yol. “Hey.”

“What is it?” Yol answered.

“I really do still think…”

“Yes?”

“I think I should go out.”

“Didn’t we just talk about how that was dangerous?”

“That’s right,” Rareko said, “we should keep hidden here for now.”

With the both of them against him, Touta closed his mouth for the moment. It wasn’t that he was withdrawing his argument about going outside. He felt that something strange had happened, and he was wondering if he should talk about it.

The other two seemed to assume that Touta going silent meant he’d given up on going outside. They started talking about what they should do when Nephilia came. He did think that was also important to think about, but he didn’t join in, working on his own thoughts instead.

There was something he’d felt was strange. And not just one thing.

The skins of the fruit they’d gotten from Clarissa were sagging. That meant that some time had passed since they’d been picked. Normally, wouldn’t you eat the old ones first? You wouldn’t keep the old ones when you didn’t know when they would go bad. But Clarissa had been holding on to fruit that had been harvested some time ago. When had she harvested them? If it had been before everyone had gotten split up, that was odd—since the fruit picked back then had been gathered in one place and then stolen. They’d said Pastel Mary had been the one to steal them, and there was no way Clarissa could have those fruit, but the fruit Clarissa had given them were old.

A few other things were odd, too. Clarissa had told them to wait there. But Clantail had to have pursued her until she was very close to this place—so wouldn’t that mean she also knew that Rareko had been around here? If someone who attacked others knew where they were, that would make it so they should at least move to a new spot.

If it were just that, then Touta could have talked about it normally. But one last weird thing kept him from bringing it up.

When Rareko had heard Clarissa’s call, she had zoomed off with incredible speed. Despite being so against going outside, she hadn’t even hesitated. She had abandoned her mistress, who should have been more important than anything else, and raced off so fast, you couldn’t even see her. Yol was the type to say, “If there’s someone in trouble, then we have to help them out,” so she wouldn’t tell Rareko off for that. But to Touta, watching it from the outside, it had felt very odd. It was strange.

Rareko had been insisting this whole time that they not go outside. Touta had assumed that was because she wanted to protect her mistress, and she was probably a coward, things like that. But when Rareko had heard Clarissa’s voice, she’d taken her weapon and boldly leaped out—abandoning her mistress.

Touta hated himself for doubting Rareko. He’d only just listened to them talking about how they had to help one another, and he was already thinking things like this. But the more he thought about it, the more nasty ideas kept sticking in his head and wouldn’t go away.

The one adult and magical girl who he should have been able to rely on, Rareko, he couldn’t trust. He couldn’t talk with Yol without Rareko there, either. Saying, “It’s dangerous to be here; let’s go outside,” wasn’t going to convince Rareko, but now he didn’t even know if she would listen if he tried to convince her with a proper reason.

What would Miss Marguerite do? he wondered but got no answers. It seemed that he had to think about not what Marguerite would do but what Touta would do.

  Rareko

Maiya had been killed. She was gone now. Rareko had kept thinking about that all day. She would surely continue to think about it and consider it in the future as well. It was a world-shaking disaster to her. Maiya was dead.

Clarissa and Navi Ru were both operating proactively. Were they just responding to the emergency, or had they anticipated this situation? With Navi Ru, either was possible. The scary thing about the man was that it wouldn’t be surprising for him to pull anything.

He was a scary man, even to Rareko. If Maiya had been there, she would have been the more frightening one, but Maiya being gone changed things. Navi Ru was more frightening right now than Yol, who was here with her.

Yol was naive. She was privileged. That kept her from recognizing the true nature of frightening people. Though there was no way Navi was just some gentle and jolly uncle. She didn’t get it.

Yol was the master Rareko should be serving now. Rareko had known her since she was a baby, so she was fairly attached to her. She did think she was cute. When Yol had given her a robe for her birthday, Rareko had been moved and cried, and then when she’d found out how much it cost, she’d wondered if she could somehow sell it to a pawnshop.

But even so, Rareko wouldn’t place Yol before herself.

Yol was worth protecting because she was connected to Rareko’s social position and because Navi Ru clearly needed her. Of course, he was counting on her power on this island. He would need her in the future. That was exactly why Maiya had despised Navi Ru like vermin, not letting him get close to the miss. Maiya’s plan had also been Rareko’s plan, but Maiya was gone. She had been killed.

So then what plan should Rareko follow? Yol or the family? The answer was neither. Rareko should only follow Rareko. She had to follow this path of thought.

There was something else that Maiya had said that Rareko liked: “Always be adaptable.” Maiya had used those words as justification to make unreasonable demands of Rareko, and when she hadn’t been able to meet those demands, Maiya had yelled at her and knocked her down. Even though that behavior was unreasonable, Rareko thought it was okay.

You could say of all the lessons Maiya had given her, the thing Rareko liked most was the one that was most convenient to her—of making the optimal choice in each given situation.

Never letting her expression of concern falter, Rareko looked at Yol.

Yol was weak enough that it looked like she would fall over from a push. It stirred up protective instincts. However, it was just enough protective instinct that Rareko would like to protect her if she had anything to spare, and she had none to spare anymore. She had her hands entirely full protecting herself. While she prioritized herself over everything, she had to pose for the moment like she was protecting Yol.

Touta, who had been talking with Yol, glanced over at Rareko, then immediately looked away. She didn’t care about that one. If not for Yol, she would’ve abandoned him long ago. It wasn’t even her responsibility to protect him in the first place. This was Marguerite’s fault for not being there, since she’d originally been his guard.

But though it was true she didn’t care whether he lived or died, it seemed like he wasn’t worth absolutely nothing, as someone to use. It wasn’t bad that he’d wrangled one grayfruit, instead of just bringing in the contract. Rareko hadn’t had that much good sense when she’d been around his age. Just going to inform the one in charge would’ve been the most she could have done.

Maiya had often been angry with her because she would panic when she was pressured, but now that she thought about it, Yeah, of course you wouldn’t like having someone around who does nothing but panic when pressured, huh? Touta not being just a burden made him useful, in more ways than one.

It did seem like if she was going to sacrifice this kid somewhere along the line, it would be a waste to have him die without doing anything. And he’d want to die a meaningful death, if he was going to die anyway.

But of course, Rareko wasn’t going to throw him to the wolves herself. Yol would stop her if she tried, and then she’d consider Rareko a nasty person who would try to sacrifice a child. She still intended to incidentally protect Touta for now despite having no formal responsibility to do so.

So that brought her back to the question of what to do. Maiya might have come up with some good idea and announced it arrogantly with an equally obnoxious expression on her face. She’d do it successfully and with insolence. But Maiya had been killed. Rareko had come back to this same point again. She would surely continue to think about Maiya’s death over and over, to digest it. Rareko adjusted her glasses with her index finger.