Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 14 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

ON SATABORN’S ISLAND

  Pastel Mary

Pastel Mary removed the stones that dotted the path along the coast, and by the time she’d completed the first stage of work on the west side, the sun was shining high in the sky. No matter how optimistically you looked at it, she wasn’t done clearing the path in time for the guests to comfortably walk to the main building. She had to finish before the guests arrived, but they would be there the next day. She’d gotten a clearly annoyed message from her boss about it. That fact put Mary in a glum mood. She had to go offer the depressing report that “I wasn’t able to finish in half a day” right now, but her boss was in a bad mood before he even heard it.

This island was just too big. No matter how much she walked, she didn’t reach one end of the island from the other. She figured that if she wanted to cover the main building in the middle, the annex built surrounding it, and the gates that dotted the island, she’d need more than four hours even with help from her sheep. So she’d begun the task during the dim hours of predawn, but in the end, she hadn’t even finished the west side after working more than six hours, and the task was carried over into the afternoon.

Under the brilliance of the powerful dark-orange sun, she rapped twice with the knocker of the main building, and then when the large, hinged doors opened automatically, she slid on through. When she’d first started working here, the main building had overwhelmed her. It was like an old castle, with a thousand-square-foot footprint and four stories all in stone. Mary had been moved, trembling at the thought of coming to work at such an incredible place, but now that a week had passed since her hiring, she was irritated at how pointlessly large it was.

Mary went up one flight, two flights of stairs, then went down through the hall on the third floor toward the adjoining building. All the doors ahead looked similar, and she still wasn’t quite sure which room was which. She stopped in front of a star-shaped nameplate with Shepherdspie written on it in pretentious cursive. This was the room of Mary’s employer, the mage John Shepherdspie.

The estate was big, and only having just been hired, Mary simply couldn’t remember the layout. After she made the same mistake over and over and failed to learn, the boss had nailed this to the door for her while grumbling, “It hurts the aesthetic.” His sense of taste meant he wanted to pick a shape for it at least, and so he’d selected a star-shaped plate. This way, even Mary wouldn’t make a mistake, and it was very easy to understand.

So she opened the door to report—

“Yeeeek!”

“S-sorry!” Startled by the loud shriek, Mary hurriedly closed the door. Then, after closing the door, she once again digested the scene she’d just witnessed.

…Why is there a naked woman there?

Mary checked the star-shaped nameplate again. It had Shepherdspie written on it. That was the name of her boss. It was an odd and also delicious-sounding name, so even Mary wouldn’t get it wrong or forget it. In other words, that meant this was her boss’s room. But then, for some reason, there was a strange woman in here. And she was completely naked.

Mary pondered the situation. Maybe her eyes had fooled her or something. Like it was possible there had been an obscene doll left there, or an indecent poster put up, or something like that. And then the wind had blown in when she’d opened the door, and it had sounded like the shriek of a woman. That could happen.

Had that been real, or was she mistaken? She had to make sure. Taking care not to make noise, Mary turned the knob and quietly pulled the door open a crack to peek in. There was a face right in front of her.

“Oorp!”

“Hyeeps!” With a muffled shriek, Mary landed on her bottom. On the other side of the door, she heard a sound like a frog being stepped on, and after that, all was quiet. It was completely different from the sexy shriek before, but it was basically a woman’s voice.

She had not been seeing things, and it had been no mistake. Someone was there.

Desperately quelling her racing heart, Mary put her hand on the doorknob again and then remembered, Oh yeah, I didn’t knock, and when she knocked three times on the door, a shrill voice came back at her, saying, “W-wait! Hold on!” Now she couldn’t run away.

About thirty seconds after Mary had steeled herself, by her internal clock, there was a call from inside the room. “Okay, okay, okay, I’m dressed now. Come in.”

“Pardon me…”

“Ahhh, yeah. Hi.” The woman wasn’t completely naked. She was in a bathrobe. It was too big for her, with the cuffs rolled up. It looked like she had thrown on a men’s robe in a hurry. Her cheeks were flushed, steam was rising from her hair, and her skin was white, but she had no makeup on. Combined with the pale aqua bathrobe she wore, all elements were indicating that she had just come out of the bath, but her eyelashes had an impressive, natural curl.

Who is this? The one thing Mary understood was that she’d never seen this person before. She didn’t understand anything else, no matter how much she racked her brain. And on top of that, sand was scattered around the room, along with half-eaten snack wrappers, manga magazines, and handheld game consoles. None of it made sense.

Seeing Mary look around the room, the unfamiliar woman realized her blunder had been exposed. “Ahhh, was this a problem after all…?”

“Huh? A problem?” Mary echoed.

“Well, you know… I thought maybe I was a little too messy.”

“Oh, no, that’s not it at all. Yes, I’m sorry for being so rude and staring. I really am sorry. I just came to report that the west is done…”

“Huh? The west is done?”

“Huh? No, um.”

“You mean…in a global affairs sense?”

“N-no, that’s not what I mean… I’m sorry, actually the west isn’t even done… It’s taking more time than I expected.”

“Like in a ‘the Cold War isn’t over yet’…kind of sense?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Mary didn’t get what she meant. The woman seemed just as confused as she tilted her head.

“Um…I came to notify…,” Mary began again.

“Notify me? Huh? About what? About, like, your wedding?”

“No, I’m not married. But it’s not that.”

“Oh, I’m not married, either,” the woman said, answering a question Mary hadn’t asked. “Wait, hold on. Let’s sort this out.”

“Um, okay.”

“What did you come here for?”

“I came to notify you,” Mary repeated, “of the maintenance of the western side. I’m still working on it.”

“Marriage has nothing to do with it.”

“Nothing at all, and again, I’m not getting married.”

“What about a boyfriend?”

“That…um, how should I put it, faded out.”

“If you had a boyfriend, then isn’t it all good? My mother’s always pestering me about that, saying if I’m not going to get a job, then I should at least get married. I think that’s a mean thing to say… I’m sorry, that’s not what this is about.”

“Yes, I thought this conversation wasn’t quite right.”

“Let’s sort this out again. You came here just to say that the maintenance of the western side isn’t done.”

“Yes.”

“You haven’t come here to get mad about the room being a mess?”

“No.”

“Phew…well, I didn’t think anyone should get mad at me for making a mess in my own room, though.”

“Huh?”

“Huh? What?”

“Your own room?”

“Yeah, my own room.”

This was Shepherdspie’s room. So then that would mean this person, who claimed this room was her own, was Shepherdspie. But she was completely different from the Shepherdspie Mary knew.

No, wait. This means that…

Mary tried thinking back on all the facts. Shepherdspie was single. From the way he looked and acted, it seemed like romance wasn’t a part of his life. And he was unemployed. Mary remembered he’d said a little proudly that he didn’t have to work, with his status. Having a son like that would probably make a mother worried. On top of that, this woman was saying this was her own room. Though Mary had thought she was way too different from Shepherdspie, now that Mary actually thought properly about it, the only difference was her appearance.

“Transformation…?” Mary wondered.

“Transformation?” the woman repeated. “Ahhh, transformation, huh. I always get kinda worked up when I transform, you know.”

“Well…that can happen sometimes.”

“Though I don’t mind that. But when you want to relax, that’s something else.”

“Um…can you transform?”

“Of course I can.”

“Yes, of course. Sorry for the strange question.”

It’s him! It’s Mr. Shepherdspie! He’s transformed with magic!

Thinking of it that way, it all made sense. Shepherdspie was a mage, so he’d be able to shape-shift. It wasn’t like Mary couldn’t understand the desire to transform into a young woman. Even getting around seemed tough if you were that fat, so she could get wanting to change things up.

When Mary was convinced—I see, so that’s what’s going on—there was a creak in the hallway, followed by footsteps.

She turned back, and after a short wait, Shepherdspie appeared, big belly swaying. “I heard…a shriek… Huff, huff… What is it…? Are you…okay?”

“Huh? Why?! There’s two?!” Mary exclaimed.

“What are…you…so…surprised about?”

Mary stared at him. The thinning blond hair, the dubious mustache, the black robes, the plain wooden wand at his waist, and the way he was panting—it didn’t seem to be anyone but Shepherdspie. “Which is the real one…?” she murmured.

“Seriously…what are you talking about?” After catching his breath, the male Shepherdspie wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his robe, looked at Mary and the female Shepherdspie in turn, then, with his eyebrows in an upside-down V, tilted his head. “There are a few things I’d like to ask—do you mind?”

“Huh? Uh, um.”

“What is it?” The female Shepherdspie was completely calm in this abnormal situation.

The male Shepherdspie nodded with an “mm-hmm” and a deep sigh, then turned to the female Shepherdspie. “Why are you wearing my bathrobe?”

“Because someone opened the door without knocking when I was naked.”

“I really do apologize for that…,” said Mary.

“No, no. No need to worry,” the female Shepherdspie told her.

“Don’t go off on a tangent. I’m not talking about that,” said the male Shepherdspie.

“And wait, isn’t this bathrobe for me?” said the female one. “It was left in this room.”

“This isn’t your room. It’s my room.”

“Huh? Is it…really? Oh, um, sorry. It said Dreamy Chelsea on the nameplate, so I thought for sure this was my room.”

“It doesn’t say that. It says Shepherdspie.”

“Huh? Really? But there was a star mark on the nameplate…” The woman muttered excuses under her breath. “And che and she look similar…”

“Even if you did mistake it for your own room, how could you make a mess this shamelessly?”

“It said at-home work environment… I figured it was okay to treat this like my own home.”

“You shouldn’t take that seriously… No, never mind. That part was my fault. More importantly, why aren’t you in magical-girl form?”

“Huh? Do I have to be in magical-girl form?” Mary inched backward in an attempt to be even slightly less stuck in between the two people talking. This made her strike the back of her head on the wall, but the other two were heedless and kept conversing.

“Do you have to be in magical-girl form? Listen. I hired you as a magical girl. I didn’t hire you as a human.”

The woman looked like she really didn’t want to do it. “I always get kinda worked up when I’m a magical girl, so…,” she muttered.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“But it’s more fun to laze around as a human…”

“Did you say something?”

“Ah, no, that’s just me talking to myself. Um, well, it’s just like, you know. I—I think it’s weird.”

“What’s weird about it?”

It seemed Mary had misunderstood completely. This wasn’t a conversation between two of the same person. Rubbing the back of her head, she watched, gulping.

“Um, I’m saying it’s weird for a magical girl to be transformed on a regular basis,” the woman replied.

The boss was visibly confused by this opinion, looking at Mary as if seeking some input, but Mary quietly looked down. The master responded with an “ahhh” or “uhhh” noise between a listening sound and a groan, then gave a little sigh at the end. “So what does that mean, in other words?”

“Look, um, you know. A magical girl ultimately lives as a normal human. She isn’t going to be transformed into a magical girl on a regular basis. Being in human form while lazing around… Wait, no, I mean that’s all purely about convenience, isn’t it? How can you call yourself a magical girl when you’re using your powers for yourself? You transform when other people are in trouble…yes, in order to handle some kind of accident. Pushed to it by misfortune, a little girl strikes back with magical powers and solves problems and brings smiles. That’s the sort of underdog story that warms the viewers’ hearts. It makes them think, Wow, I admire that; I’d like to become a magical girl, too. Am I wrong?”

Mary timidly looked up, and her eyes met with those of her boss. This time, she couldn’t look away. “Do something,” he seemed to be telling her, but Mary shook her head.

Her boss sighed, raised his right hand, and rubbed his pinkie and ring fingers to produce a pathetic little sound. A small saucepan suddenly came flying down the hallway and smacked right into the wall, clanging loud enough to make you want to plug your ears and then roll around on the carpet. “Ah, no. Wrong item. Not this one.” With great effort, the boss picked up the small pot and threw it back, and when he rubbed his middle and pinkie fingers this time, he managed a somewhat better snap than before. When a glass bottle came flying from the hall, he caught it with a little sketchy juggling. Twisting the lid off, he tossed the contents back to drink a quarter of the bottle in one go, then let out a deep sigh and threw back the bottle, making his mustache whoosh. Just this mild exertion made sweat bead on his forehead.

“Agh…maybe you do have a point,” said Shepherdspie.

“Mm-hmm,” said the woman.

“I agree that relying completely on magic on a daily basis isn’t ideal.”

“Right.”

“But I don’t know if I can allow that.”

“Huhhh?! I think it’s no big deal, though.”

The boss brought his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. “You fail to understand something.”

The woman paused a moment, and then her expression slowly darkened. “Me? What? What am I not understanding?”

“We’re already in an emergency situation right now. Magical girls are necessary at this juncture.” The boss continued. “Soon, we’ll have a bunch of mages who will require delicate treatment all gathering on this island: a mistress’s daughter, a famously obstinate character, a resident of the ivory tower, a cop, and a sheltered rich girl. I will be welcoming them and satisfying them with fine cooking, but that won’t be the end of it. Even after they’ve been fed, the upper classes will demand more, naturally. This isn’t a matter I can somehow manage on my own. The cooperation of you magical girls will be vital. If this isn’t an emergency, then what would you call an emergency? I won’t let you say you don’t need your magical-girl powers.”

The woman put on another aggrieved look. She wasn’t even trying to hide that she meant to arm herself with any logic to argue him down and avoid trouble.

But the boss leveled her with an unusually confident expression, and the woman clicked her tongue with an expression of resignation before nodding reluctantly. “I’m sorry… I can be in magical-girl form…”

“You seem quite unhappy about it.”

“No, that’s not… Well, I am, but.”

“You are?”

“I am, but, well, I’ll suck it up.”

“Thanks. Then if you could transform right away.”

“Oh, it’s a major problem as a magical girl to transform in front of others, so isn’t there someplace I could hide to transform?”

“Ah, yes. You can use the room next door.”

The woman strode out of the room, slamming the door loudly.

The boss wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, then produced a weak snap with his index and middle fingers. A chair slid over to him, pulling wrinkles over the carpet as it came, and the boss sat down. The chair creaked but didn’t break. “What a hassle… This is the problem with magical girls.”

“Well, some people are like that…,” Mary said.

“You’re quite a lot yourself, you know.”

“Huh? What? A-am I…really?”

“You’re constantly falling over.”

“I mean… I don’t know, it’s just…my frame and body ratio and everything are different compared to when I’m in human form…”

“But I can’t deny that you’re not as bad. Can I really leave cleaning and showing in the guests to her? I can’t help but get the feeling it won’t be all right.”

“Oh, of course. I was thinking from how that conversation was going that maybe that was what it was. So she’s a new person who’s come to work for you?”

“What did you think she was?”

“Well… No, it’s nothing. I think I was a little tired.”

“I’m tired, too…” After a heavy sigh, the boss wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Teach her whatever she doesn’t know and support her as much as possible. I don’t have the time to hire a new magical girl right now. I naively thought that people would come if I just posted a recruitment ad. When I think of how I might have gotten some better personnel if I’d just made the pay a little higher…” His expression was more serious than ever before.

Mary’s face grew serious, too, then stiffened, then twitched. Any new hire would naturally have more experience in the business of magical girls than her, so she’d been relieved to have a new person to rely on who could take the lead, but it turned out that was not at all the case.

“I’ll have her handle serving and setting the tables,” said the boss. “Best to avoid exposing her to the guests as much as possible.”

He was already treating her like an object.

“Um, but…,” Mary said, “I’ve told you this is my first time doing a job like this, haven’t I?”

“Uh-huh, yes. I’m aware.”

“This is a bad idea. Didn’t you just bring up things about an obstinate person and a sheltered young lady? In short, all the mages coming will be fussy people, right?”

“So then, you tell me. Would you have me put that before fussy people like them?”

“Uh, well, that’s a little— No.”

“It’ll be fine. They’re all coming in order to inherit a fortune. They obviously won’t want to start up any funny disputes. A serving magical girl tripping and falling won’t be enough to get them ma…” Shepherdspie stopped halfway, closed his mouth, put a hand on his chin, then gazed at the ceiling for a while before adding, “So long as you don’t trip and spill soup over their heads, they probably won’t get mad.”

Mary groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “When you put it like that, I get the feeling I’ll actually do it…”

“No, no, no, how does that follow? Just watch out. Be careful.”

“I’m always being careful. But for some reason, mysteriously—”

Mary was cut off by the sound of a door opening. She turned around to see a magical girl in a glaring color scheme posing with a stick at the ready. Her apparent age was somewhere between elementary and high school, with an appropriately small frame. Her height, body weight, the length of her limbs, and everything else was shrunk down compared to the woman from before, but she wasn’t clumsy like Mary.

Her little stick had a tiny star-shaped decoration daintily stuck on the end. For some reason, it was mended with clear tape.

“So super happy to meet you!” the girl gushed. “I’m the magical girl Dreamy Chelsea! That’s me!”

Mary backed up half a step, leaving the space between the boss and Dreamy Chelsea like she had before, and bowed at the waist. “Ah, hi. Thank you. For the polite introduction. My name is Pastel Mary.”

A beat later, the boss also heavily bowed his head. “Hello… I’m John Shepherdspie.”

“Nice to meet you, May-May!” Chelsea cried. “And Johnny Pie!”

“Ahhh, yes. I’m glad to meet you,” said Mary.

“Likewise… But please don’t call me Johnny Pie.”

“Then Mr. Pie!”

“That’s…well, it’s not unacceptable.”

Chelsea spun the stick in her right hand while doing the same with the thing she held in her left, then crossed both arms in front of her chin and stopped flat. The object she’d been spinning along with the stick was a magical phone. “Hey, my magical phone isn’t connecting to the Internet.”

“Keeping this place separated from the outside world was the wish of the deceased. He was an eccentric, after all. It’s inconvenient in many ways for me, too.”

“Awww, that’s boring. But the scenery’s so nice, I was thinking of posting pics on social media.”

“Please don’t do anything like that even if you do get Internet access.”

Chelsea grumbled things like “how boring” as she tucked her magical phone away in her pocket, but once she’d lifted her chin again, her displeasure was gone, an endlessly bright smile on her face instead. “Oh yeah, that thing just now!”

“Huh? What thing?” Shepherdspie asked.

“That thing where you snapped your fingers and something came flying! Were you using magic for that?”

“No, I wasn’t using magic. There’s a spell cast on the main building itself. It’s made so that you can do things like that by inputting special commands.”

“Wow! I wonder if I can do it, too.”

By the time the boss raised his right arm, Chelsea had already snap-snapped with both hands. As the master was about to call for her to stop, something was already flying toward Chelsea from behind. A magical girl moved too quickly for a mage who never got exercise to stop her.

Chelsea squatted down on the spot without looking behind her, and a red plastic gas container came flying, skimming over her head. It just about hit Mary, who avoided it in a flustered panic, then lost her balance, stumbled, and hit the boss on her way down, and the two of them wound up tangled up on the carpet.

With no one to catch it, the gas container hit the wall, contents spilling everywhere as it rolled on the floor. Clear fluid leaked out, and a sharp smell filled the room.

“Ah!” Chelsea cried, making Mary turn toward her, but the boss’s belly was in her way, and she couldn’t see. But she could see the lit torch flying toward them. With nobody to catch it, the torch flew along the same trajectory as the plastic container, hit the wall, bounced while scattering sparks, fell to the floor, and blazed up.

The boss screamed. Chelsea stepped on the carpet over and over in an attempt to beat out the flame, but the fire wouldn’t go away, and the carpet was roaring into a blaze. Chelsea stomped on the floor harder, the room shook, the floor creaked, the furniture fell over, and she could hear the sound of something cracking—the master yelled, and before Mary could even be surprised, part of the floor had crumbled, and Chelsea, the desk, chair, video game console, and everything else fell to the floor below.

With dust, black soot, and smoke clouding the air, it was difficult to even see two feet ahead, but Mary felt the heat, and she could also hear things burning. The fire had not stopped. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and sketched out a sheep with her pastels. The paper swelled, and a sheep leaped out from within.

“I’m going to fill some buckets with water, so help me out,” Mary told the sheep.

The sheep bleated and started running for the entrance to get outside, but when it tried to jump over the fire to get there, its fluffy sheep wool caught fire. The sheep cried out pitifully and flailed around, and doing that right near a big hole in the floor caused it to fall into the hole. The shrieks of one person and one sheep could be heard from below.

Pastel Mary hadn’t considered things properly. A sheep wasn’t cut out for a fire. There was nothing for it but to go alone. Making up her mind, Mary stood and raced off, but forcefully shoving aside the thing she was tangled up with meant she’d ripped a giant tear in the boss’s robe, and he staggered and fell down into the hole, too.

Now two people and one sheep could be heard shrieking from the bottom of the hole. But Mary didn’t have the time to save them. She had to put out the fire as soon as possible, or this little mishap could turn into the whole house ablaze. So Mary raced off but then immediately felt something slam into her forehead and staggered. Before she could understand that she’d hit the wall by the door because she’d tried to race off when she couldn’t really see, she’d landed on her bottom, and when she stuck out her hands to try to catch herself, there was nothing there, and she fell straight down into the hole.

  7753

After arriving through the Inspection Department’s gate, they looked at the map on the invitation as they walked for fifteen minutes along an animal trail. They climbed a path up a hill that was kind of like a promenade, which curved into a downward slope with rocks all over it, and now there were trees all around that blocked the ocean from view. The ground was quite uneven, and just walking in a straight line took more time than expected. They still hadn’t arrived at their destination, which was in the center of the island. They went along a deer trail surrounded by tall trees that blocked off the sunlight, making it dim even during the day. That made the temperature not as hot, which was something to be grateful for, but it was a hassle to keep an eye behind her while also brushing aside the branches that stuck out on either side.

Though 7753 did wish they would get there soon—Mana was struggling with teleportation sickness—it wasn’t like thinking or wishing it would make her get there sooner. Mana would probably feel better if 7753 lent her a shoulder or carried her on her back or in her arms, but offering that would probably make Mana mad. Her pride was too great.

7753 worked for the Magical Girl Resources Department. Her job was to observe magical girls through her goggles to check their abilities, principles, opinions, family members, work history, and more. It was possible for anyone to simply equip her magic goggles and see the data it displayed, but only 7753 was capable of the swift and minute adjustment of the status to be viewed.

No one else being able to change those options satisfied 7753’s ego somewhat, while also giving her more business trips. She’d gone on countless business trips to rural villages and remote locations, but she’d never been anywhere with so much nature—or such a vacation spot. Right now, they were coming from a cape over a beach into a forest, walking on and on over a deer trail. 7753 found the absolutely choking amount of green to be endlessly fascinating, thinking wow, wow as they walked along a path that had received only token maintenance.

For starters, things smelled different. The faint scent of the ocean lay in the air, along with the smell of young trees. The aroma of greenery was dense and thick enough to drive the aggressive salt odor into the corner. Blown in the wind, the branches swayed, and the leaves shivered. The wind pressed the short grass to the ground, while the high grass rustled and rasped against her ears. The trees and plants grew thick around the line of exposed earth. There were red and yellow flowers with a very southern feel, while beside them stood lines of trees with large hand-shaped leaves fanning out, and the trees opposite them were great coniferous trees that reminded 7753 of the pines that clustered around her neighborhood shrine. Trees that looked like sago palms rose to the heavens, while the massive ferns tall as adult men looked like those edible flowering ferns, with their heads rolled up like they were still sprouting. It wasn’t simply that there were lots of plants of many different kinds. The flora ranged from tropical to cold-weather species, growing side by side despite the habitat and climate they typically needed. They must have been altered somehow to match the temperature and humidity of the island. It didn’t appear as if the priority was aesthetics or the view, so they had probably been planted with the goal of being used for experiments or something. There was no such thing as natural or unnatural when it came to magic.

The cool wind stroked 7753’s cheeks. Tepsekemei was high overhead, circling in the sky. It seemed she was more or less obeying her order to not go anywhere 7753 couldn’t see, but the tall trees and the branches and leaves that unfurled from them did sometimes hide her from view anyway. Tepsekemei, who looked like a lamp genie, crossed over the sun, and 7753 shaded her eyes with her right hand, squinting. There was a rustling in the thicket ahead, and two brightly colored birds flew up from the direction of the sound. Spotting Tepsekemei shooting out in pursuit, 7753 called out to her, “No chasing birds!”

Tepsekemei turned back, and her form faded, then wavered. After about three seconds, when she returned to her original thickness and shape, she was tilting her head with a baffled expression. “Why not?”

“Wasn’t it written in the books you read that you can’t bully animals?”

“If you save the spider in the end, you’re forgiven for anything.”

“Making weird interpretations again… Um, listen, it doesn’t have to be a spider that you save. If you save a bird, it will save you from hell and take you to heaven. That’s safer than a spider’s thread.”

“Mei didn’t know about that system…”

Learning some basic kanji had broadened the range of books Tepsekemei read, including Akutagawa, apparently, and it had influenced her in weird ways. Perhaps reading had had some educational effects, but it had mostly just created more trouble for 7753.

Tepsekemei’s expression went from baffled to serious, and she slowly came down. Oh yeah, we were stopped, 7753 noticed, and she turned to Mana beside her to apologize and saw she wasn’t looking at 7753 but staring up at Tepsekemei.

7753 followed Mana’s gaze. Tepsekemei was holding a bunch of something in her right arm. They were a dull gray color, like black and white paints mixed together, shaped like ellipses four inches long. They were the fruit from some kind of plant. There were tooth marks on them—signs they’d been bitten into.

“Ahhh!” 7753 cried out. “You ate something here without asking?!”

“It was good,” Tepsekemei said. “Eating gives you energy. Mei will share them with Weddin and Funny Trick.”

“We don’t want it. Ah, you ate so much.”

Tepsekemei had bitten into two of them, and there were three with just peel left. Her cheeks were sticky with fresh juices, and chewing on the thing in her mouth made her talking a bit clumsy.

Still with her face turned up to Tepsekemei, 7753 quietly asked Mana, “Is this okay?”

“If they were important, they probably wouldn’t leave them to be stolen like this,” Mana said with a sigh. It seemed that rather than be exasperated at Tepsekemei’s behavior, she was so tired, she didn’t care about some minor crime. This was unusual for her—Mana was a rigid person who endeavored to act the inspector at all times. The saying of “the demon getting sunstroke” to describe someone who’s usually strong being unwell came to mind, but 7753 kept that remark to herself.

“Do you think it’s fine?” 7753 asked her. “They’re not going to get mad at us? The one who owns this island does magical research, right? Wouldn’t it be bad if this fruit was valuable?”

“It isn’t rare…and besides, the dead can’t get angry.”

7753 raised an eyebrow a tick and stared at Mana. She seemed like she wasn’t talking about her own business, and it wasn’t simply that she was in a bad mood or tired. There was a detachment in the way she talked.

Mana coughed like something was caught in her throat, breathed a lamenting sigh, and continued. “I haven’t actually met the deceased personally… It’s just that my father studied under him for a very short time.”

“Oh, really?” 7753 had been worried about whether she should pry about that, like maybe there was some interpersonal mage conflict going on, so she hadn’t been able to ask about Mana’s connection to the deceased. 7753 had been like that ever since she was a kid—waiting for the other person to say it themselves—and it had led 7753, Kotori Nanaya, to have a limited number of friends.

“Eating will give you energy,” Tepsekemei said.

“Sure, maybe eating food will give me energy, but…” 7753 trailed off.

“It’s the foundation of living things.”

“But I thought magical girls didn’t need to eat.”

“You must not forget the foundation of living things.” Tepsekemei’s serious expression never wavered as she held out a gray fruit to 7753. The Nanaya family home used to have a tree in their garden, which had fallen due to rot when Kotori had been very small. She felt like the fruit on that tree had looked similar. She seemed to recall they had been loquats.

7753 couldn’t tell Tepsekemei to put them back, but she also thought it was a bad idea to accept one. As she was waffling, an arm stretched over her shoulder, and a small hand took the gray fruit. It was Mana.

Mana pushed up her wide brim, supporting her large, pointed hat to examine the gray fruit. Then she leaned in, opened her mouth wide, and bit into it, skin and all. 7753 flapped her lips a few times, hands halfway raised. When she was finally at a total loss as to what to do, Mana nodded.

“This is a grayfruit.” Mana took another bite, let out a breath, looked back at 7753, then scowled. “No, the name of the fruit is grayfruit. I’m not just saying that it’s a fruit that’s gray.”

“Ohhh, that’s what you mean.”

“Just what do you take me for?”

Mana took several bites, dexterously making sure the dripping juices stayed inside her mouth, then sighed again. The color was returning to her pale face. Mana waved her right hand to shake off the juices stuck to it, extending her hand to Tepsekemei to accept another fruit and throw it at 7753. “Try it. This fruit absorbs magical power from the land and the earth, and each one contains a small amount… Still, it’s only a minute amount. Any mage with aspirations in pharmacy…even at the student level will know a couple hundred compounds that use it. They’ve been planted anyway, so if you don’t eat them, they’ll rot. They’ll go to waste.”

Mana took another from Tepsekemei, while Tepsekemei, for her part, double-fisted the remaining grayfruit and chomped them in alternation. 7753 looked at the fruit in her hands—the gray loquat—rolled it around, poked it with her fingers, and brought it to her nose and sniffed it. It was sweet. She had the feeling it smelled similar to a loquat, too. Imitating Mana, she bit into it without peeling it. Her first bite was timid and hesitant, while on her second, she put more in her mouth, and she opened her mouth wide for the third. It was as sweet and juicy as she’d expected—no, even more so. The skin didn’t get in the way of the fruit, with no poking hairs, but it was still soft. It was nice how it melted completely naturally in her mouth and slid to the back of her throat, and the sweet, refreshing scent that wafted from her mouth to her nose couldn’t be tasted anywhere else. It even felt like heat or a kind of energy was filling her from the core of her body. Tepsekemei hadn’t been lying when she’d said it would give you energy.

It made 7753 want another, but they were already gone. “This is…good.”

“They’re also sometimes processed and used as nutritional supplements. I’ve made those before, myself. It’s rare for them to taste this good, though. These might be a new type,” Mana said. She was no longer dragging her words when she spoke, her back was nice and straight, she looked somehow proud even though she wasn’t talking about herself, and most of all, there was color in her face. She was completely back to normal.

7753 was about to say, “So it works on teleportation sickness, too, huh,” but held her tongue. “Huh? Then doesn’t that make these valuable after all?”

“If it becomes a problem, we can just apologize. I could even have them reduce my share of the inheritance, since he’s a fairly wealthy individual. There’s quite the share for the unexpected daughter of a student. Supposedly.”

“Now that you mention it, I was a little curious about that. It’s not for his own student, but for that student’s daughter? Normally wouldn’t you choose someone with a closer relationship as an heir?”

“I asked my father, and he said the man was always rather odd. Though it’s true enough that researchers out there are all weird in some way to a greater or lesser extent.”

“Are we okay, then?”

“The man’s dead. You’re safe.”

“Well, ah…true.”

“Precisely because he was such an oddball, he might have left behind something interesting.”

“Something interesting? Doesn’t an estate mean money and land?”

“Art and artworks and also magical tools.”

“Ahhh, so he had things like that, too, huh.”

“There also may be things like unpublicized magical formulas, since he was a fairly famous researcher. I’d be glad if there were some new spells I could use for investigation. If there is, I’ll ask to see if they might give me priority for it.”

“Is who gets what going to be decided based on discussion?” 7753 asked.

“I figure they respect the will while also comparing with precedent, while keeping to common sense.” Pulling a white envelope from her pocket, Mana took the letter from inside and tugged it open. “Identical letters have been sent to all those with the right to inherit. It will be decided at that location who will inherit the estate of the deceased. Those who fail to respond to this invitation will lose the right to inherit. Each heir should bring a maximum of two magical girls to accompany them.”

“That letter makes it seem like only one person can inherit, though.”

“That’s the part that lacks sense. It’s extremely illogical to gather multiple people and then make it so only one can inherit. If you want only one heir, you should indicate them from the start. If they’re getting everyone together to decide, that will turn it into a common sort of negotiation. I highly doubt they’re thinking they’ll have the accompanying magical girls do ten-minute tournament matches or something.”

“Well, uh…um, so the discussion will just be done among the mages?”

“I don’t think we’re bringing magical girls to have them participate in a discussion.”

“Then what for?”

“I was wondering about that, too, and I thought about it, but…” Mana seemed thoughtful. “There might be animals kept free on this island, so I figured you’re bodyguards to protect from things like that.”

“Ahhh, I see.”

“In the first place, if they needed magical girls for discussion or whatnot, there’s a whole bunch of professionals in the Inspection Department.”

“Of course. There’s no need to bring your friends, huh,” 7753 said, and Mana’s lips stiffened slightly. 7753 wondered why and then repeated what she’d said in her head and realized, “Ah. Sorry for being rude, saying we’re friends.”

“No…well, yeah. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Rather, the thing you don’t have to worry about is the discussion being among mages. I mean that you don’t need to worry yourself over weird things… Um, I’m a sharp, experienced veteran from Inspection, too. Your worries are unnecessary; in fact, they’re rude,” Mana said with apparent confidence, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her hands and mouth.

And then with an “Okay, let’s go,” she moved to walk in the lead, then immediately turned back. She looked angry, plus she was jabbing her finger at 7753, which made 7753 automatically take half a step back. “I want you to keep a proper eye on Tepsekemei as much as possible. Since some of them are probably going to be cranky people.”

“I will. Sorry,” 7753 said.

Mana pointed her index finger diagonally behind her. “And, Tepsekemei. Don’t go flying off without permission. Stay close.”

“If Mei isn’t flying, Mei won’t know if enemy magical girls are approaching,” Tepsekemei replied.

“This looks like the middle of the wilderness, but it’s just a quick jump here by gate. We’re still a part of civilization. This is a place that’s protected under the law—in other words, there are no enemy magical girls,” Mana declared, then pushed aside the thicket and started lumbering along cutely.

Following after her, 7753 was relieved to see Mana recovered, but her being back to normal meant that she was as angry and bossy as usual. Praying that if she was going to cause quarrels, they wouldn’t be beyond 7753’s ability to patch up, 7753 followed after Mana’s small back.

Glancing behind, 7753 saw Tepsekemei making herself bigger and smaller as she followed them. She more or less did as told and didn’t fly up into the sky.

  Love Me Ren-Ren

Ren-Ren raised the map of the island to the sunlight. The lay of the land was just as the map said. It seemed they were going along the correct route. It had taken ten minutes to get this far, so then it should take them another ten minutes to arrive at the main building, their destination.

Nephilia’s hesitant speech was easier to understand now than when they had first met. But not because she was speaking louder or enunciating things better. She hadn’t become easier to hear; she had become easier to read.

Ren-Ren was good at guessing at people’s intentions based on their gestures and tone of voice. It was difficult with someone she had only just met, but it became more accurate through the course of many conversations and doing things together. To give a specific example, even with something like, “Un… Ight…,” which only sounded like bits of words, if you looked at her holding her palm against the sun and looking up in annoyance, you could figure out that she might be trying to say, “The sun is too bright.”

They had gone into an old, large building, using the elevator to go up and down a certain number of floors to emerge in a certain room on floor eight and a half, which shouldn’t exist, then gone through some paperwork with the Magical Kingdom staff posted there so they could finally use the gate—to Ren-Ren’s eyes, it had looked like a big, old wooden door—and using that, they’d come to this island.

Since it had been a long process, there had been plenty of opportunities to talk with Agri and Nephilia. They’d talked about things like how boring the movie she had seen with the free coupon she’d gotten the other day was, or how the castella from this one old Western bakery had been good, or that apparently a mascot from the Magical Kingdom had been in some local mascot contest, and other trivial matters.

Relationships were about learning what the other person wanted you to do and what they didn’t want you to do. The perception and observational skills to learn these things were necessary for Ren-Ren to do her job, whether she liked it or not. Her sometime examiner had told her before that learning out of necessity means that you have a talent for it, but even now, Ren-Ren wasn’t sure if that had been her honest opinion, or flattery, or perhaps an attempt to console her.

You could even come to know a person through casual chat. When you come to know a person, you will also learn what they want to talk about.

Agri had learned to pick up what Nephilia said somewhat, but she couldn’t understand her as well as Ren-Ren, and she occasionally needed interpretation. Agri was curious to know if there was some kind of trick to it, but Ren-Ren knew from experience that if she honestly said it came from observing people, that would just creep Agri out, so she avoided it somehow with a smile and an evasive remark.

The wind blew along the path between the trees, and Agri held down the hood she was using to keep sun off her face. Even if she had just pulled this hooded robe from the closet and patted the dust off it—with the remark unbefitting of a young woman that it was great that it was a cream color, since the dust wouldn’t stand out—wearing it made her look fairly mage-like.

There was another gust of wind, and Nephilia grimaced in the blast, pursing her lips, while Agri muttered “shit” at the blue sky, and then as if to erase those words, the wind blew through again.

When the wind blew, the trees rustled and the waves crashed in, bringing the roar of the sea to them. Even just walking, nature was filled with all sorts of sounds, more than Ren-Ren had expected: their steps on the earth, twigs snapping, leaves rustling on the branches she lifted up so they wouldn’t hit the ones following her. Birds cried, then flew into the air, and when there was a wavering motion in the thicket, suddenly an all-white sheep poked its nose out and cut right across ahead before disappearing into the brush.

“Maybe it’s a pet that lives free-range. That was too clean to be wild,” Agri said before adding, “Well, whatever,” and yawning in sincere disinterest.

Ren-Ren led the other two. Outdoor activities weren’t her specialty, but she couldn’t make Agri do it, and Nephilia didn’t seem like she could be counted on, either. Ren-Ren moved a spider’s nest to a different branch and pushed aside some tall grasses as she took the lead, making to spare the two behind her as much grief as possible. When she moved a fallen tree that was in the way off the path, she noticed a mark like an animal’s bite in it. From the size and shape of the bite, it looked like it was from a carnivore the same size as a human, and Ren-Ren made sure she was focused and ready. No matter what kind of wild animal attacked, it was no match for a magical girl, but this place was a so-called magical island managed by a mage. There might be more living here besides regular flora and fauna. Bodyguarding was as out of her field as outdoor activities were, but she had to do it anyway—that was what it meant to be a magical girl.

With even greater caution than before while also never slowing, Ren-Ren pushed forward, while Nephilia and Agri started playing the word game Shiritori out of boredom. Around the time Nephilia’s extremely persistent ru attack had reached its eighteenth round, the path opened up. The trees that had been shading them ran out, while instead the whole ground was covered with grass short enough to be crushed underfoot. Ren-Ren squinted in the bright light.

The smell of water tickled her nose. It didn’t smell like salt. It was just water.

Some gentle, grass-covered slopes followed, and between them could be seen a beautiful circular pond that Ren-Ren eyeballed at being a hundred yards in diameter. The water’s surface glared under the sunlight. Gradually, her eyes got used to the sun, and the full scene of the pond became clear. Trees grew around it, with gray things that looked like fruit hanging from the ends of their branches. Something at the water’s surface made a splash. There had to be some creature beneath, as it made waves. The waves were too big to be from small fish or insects.

Any thoughts of sitting down on the grass to have lunch here was blacked out in less than a second by the sole color of caution. Ren-Ren wasn’t used to being in nature, so it was best to stay away from things she didn’t know anything about. Not to mention how you couldn’t guarantee it was a normal creature, the island being what it was.

Right before Ren-Ren could suggest that they avoid the pond and move on, there was another splash on the water’s surface. It was ten to fifteen feet closer than before.

Ren-Ren nocked an arrow on her bow, while behind her, she heard Nephilia draw her scythe.

Whatever it was, an insect, or an animal, or a fish, it was too bi—

“Heya.”

The two magical girls, who had come forward to check things out, instantly turned away from the pond and leaped to positions where they could protect Agri. Ren-Ren dived low to the ground, while Nephilia drew back with her scythe held in front of her. Agri’s cry of surprise came a beat later.

The magical girl who had called out from behind the group looked surprised as she waved her right hand at them. “Whoa there, weapons? That’s dangerous.”

Even if they had been distracted by the pond, Ren-Ren hadn’t sensed her presence at all. The magical girl’s costume was like a fur pelt, faint black painted over a bluish-gray with a short tail on it. Large and pointed feline ears poked out from her head, and the canines that could be seen from her grinning mouth were large and sharp, like a carnivore or a vampire. Unlike Ren-Ren or Nephilia, she didn’t have a weapon. She fought with her bare hands.

The magical girl thrust her hands forward, probably showing off that she wasn’t carrying anything, then hop-hopped backward to give them about ten yards. “My bad for startling you. Sorry. Still, no need for weapons, right?” She was casual in tone and attitude. She didn’t seem to be hostile, but you couldn’t let your guard down.

Ren-Ren slowly straightened and leaned toward Agri to whisper without moving her lips too much, “Do you know her?”

“No.”

Ren-Ren’s lips bent, and a sigh leaked from the corner of her mouth. She wasn’t any good at conflict and hated violence. She thought that of course people should understand each other, and there was nobody she couldn’t get along with. Feeling her hand on her bow tremble, she squeezed it.

Ren-Ren considered how to continue from here. This wasn’t like a family quarrel. She didn’t know what this person’s goals were. Their goal was—to avoid a fight. Ren-Ren would let her know as peacefully as possible, but also quite firmly, that she didn’t want to fight. Without causing bad feelings, and without letting their party be underestimated, she would ask who this magical girl was affiliated with. She was probably accompanying a mage who had come to this island.

Before Ren-Ren could voice this conclusion, the fur-pelt magical girl laughed. The fangs poking out of her mouth glinted in the light, and Ren-Ren narrowed her eyes slightly. “You’re like, her, right? Agri-something-or-other? Am I wrong?”

Agri put her hand on Ren-Ren’s shoulder. That had to mean that she would talk. “You’re not wrong. But how do you know? I’m not famous or anything, am I?”

“You used the gate at the new lodging to get to this island, right? They told us about it.”

“Would they normally tell you that casually? They don’t have a duty to privacy or secrecy or anything?”

“I mean, it’s the Osk Faction that manages that place, right? They see human rights as about as important as eye snot or dental plaque.”

“Huh. So you’re with the Osks? That sounds really nasty.”

“But we’ve got some nice things to say now. My master says he wants to talk with you.”

“Um…well, fine.”

“Thanks.”

Muttering, “What a hassle,” Agri prodded Ren-Ren forward. “It’s in bad taste to yell at each other from a distance. Let’s get closer.”

“No, but…it could be dangerous,” Ren-Ren cautioned. “I wasn’t able to sense her presence at all.”

“Even this place is basically under the rule of law, so they’re not gonna do anything weird. If you’re worried, just keep your distance and get them with that arrow of yours if something happens. Nephy, you stay with me.” Agri briskly started walking, and Ren-Ren was forced to cede the way to her.

Nephilia passed by Ren-Ren after, giving her a glance, then a nod. Her look said, “We’ve both got it tough, huh,” but she didn’t look as anxious as Ren-Ren.

Ren-Ren walked about fifteen feet behind. She would have liked to be twice as far away, but doing that might make the other party wary. Quite unlike Ren-Ren, the fur-pelt magical girl showed no tension at all as she smiled in a relaxed manner.

Once they were about ten steps apart, the fur-pelt magical girl turned to the pond. Ren-Ren kept a cautious eye on the magical girl as she followed her gaze. The thicket rustled, making leaves fly off the trees, and something zoomed out. It was a carpet, with someone sitting on top of it. The flying carpet jetted straight toward them fast enough to make water spray up and then rain down a few seconds later, coming up behind the fur-pelt girl to spin around her like it was drifting to turn toward Agri, then stopped flat. The wind the carpet swept up flattened the grass to the ground and made Agri call out in surprise, while Nephilia snickered ksh-shh and the fur-pelt girl cried, “Mya!” and squatted down to avoid getting sprayed.

The man sitting atop the carpet raised up one hand with a “’Sup.” His voice was thick and low. The sleeve of his robe slid down, exposing a muscular upper arm. His wrist was marked in green with a complex figure of interlocking pentagrams and hexagrams. Ren-Ren had heard before that a lot of mages had tattoos. Of course, this was for their magical meaning and not for fashion. “I’m Navi Ru. I was a student of Sataborn’s, a ways back. This is Clarissa… Uh, what was your full name again?”

“Heeey, how can you forget it? It’s Toothedge, Clarissa Toothedge,” the magical girl—Clarissa—protested with a bow.

Hearing that, Agri nodded. “Agrielreymwaed Quarky. The daughter of Sataborn’s mistress. The magical girl with the scythe is Nephilia. The one with the bow is Love Me Ren-Ren.”

Nephilia stuck her jaw out, eyes fixed on the others as she bowed her head. It made her look like a mischievous child, but Navi didn’t seem bothered, nodding in an easygoing manner.

While bowing her head, Ren-Ren examined Navi and gulped.

He was too rough-looking to call a mage. His receding hairline, the thin hairs that remained at the front of his head, his protruding gut, the blatant pale spot from the shave of his thick facial hair. His expression, most perfectly described as a smirk, contrasted with Clarissa’s mysterious look. Before any considerations of his age, the first thing that struck Ren-Ren was how intimidating he was. Overall, he was squared, rugged, coarse, and thick.

What made Ren-Ren nervous wasn’t the dramatic features that comprised Navi but something else entirely—the movements of his eyes. Before looking at Ren-Ren, Nephilia, or Agri, his eyes zipped toward the pond, then went to Ren-Ren, Nephilia, and Agri in turn, then the pond again, before immediately returning to Agri; then he snorted and folded his arms.

His attention was on the pond, and he was trying to hide it. Was there something going on with the pond? Or was there someone there? If he was trying to hide that, it surely wouldn’t be anything good for Agri.

Putting on the appearance of being focused on Navi and Clarissa, Ren-Ren kept a watchful eye on the pond. Agri had a relaxed air as if talking to an uncle, while Nephilia in particular seemed beyond relaxed and even flaccid, zoning out listening to the two mages converse.

Navi remained seated on the carpet as he began. “The daughter of the mistress, huh? Nice, just the sort of thing I wanted.”

“What do you look so pleased for?” Agri replied.

“Yeah, sorry. Ahhh, my bad for stopping you when you’re in a rush, li’l miss.”

“I’m not really rushing. We’re not heading to some fun event anyway.”

“Yeah, that not-fun event is what I’m talking about. Though I’m also here to get an inheritance from the old man Sataborn.”

“Did you come here ahead of time and wait for me? Is this an ambush?”

“Nah, we must’ve come at about the same time. There’s a bunch of gates on this island. Personally speaking, I’ll take anyone I can cooperate with.”

“…Cooperate?”

“Basically, I want to talk about you and me, both of us getting something outta this.” Navi tapped on his broad forehead. “Meetings are the way of mages when deciding everything—from the Three Sages down to wood chips.”

“That sounds obnoxious.”

“So yeah, this part is kinda important. If we’re speaking of what’s gonna happen with this estate, there’s one person here who really can’t stand me. It’s an old man named Ragi. He hates me so much, you’d think I killed his own grandkids. He’d probably even hurt himself to spite me.”

The way he said it must have been funny to Agri, as her head shook with smothered laughter.

Raising one thick eyebrow, Navi looked at her, his thick lips twisting into a very fearsome smile. “It’s not like I personally hate him, though. The old fart has spirit. I really love how he talks like he’s a fine and important man of the upper echelons. But unfortunately, this isn’t something I can just let go as a personal issue. So I’d like an ally who’ll help me out. I don’t care how, so long as the old man doesn’t rage at me like he’s ready to go down together, that’s enough.”

“Well, that’s fine,” Agri said. “But if I help you out, that only increases your share. There’s no benefit to me, is there?”

“Ah, that’s the thing, li’l miss.”

“Could you stop calling me that?”

“How about lady?”

“Agri is fine.”

“So, Agri, I think we probably want different things. We should be able to work things so that we both benefit.”

“What do you want, old man?”

“Could you not call me that?”

“What about uncle?”

“Navi is fine.” Navi rapped his forehead, Agri’s shoulders shook, and Clarissa held her stomach as they all laughed together like it was so funny. But while they did, Navi’s eyes flicked over to the pond. Ren-Ren sensed fear more than curiosity in his look, and she lightly bit her lip, dry from nervousness, gently moistening it with saliva. Nephilia laughed late after the other three, and she kept snickering alone for about three more seconds after the others had gone quiet.

“I don’t need money, or stuff, or land.” Navi smirked.

Agri gave him a questioning look in return. “Then what did you come here for?”

“I want any tech the old man left behind.”

“Huh? His research wasn’t anything special, though.”

“Don’t underestimate him. He was a pretty talented mage. Some people did laugh at him, saying the old man would never commit to anything and dabbled in everything, but there were more who would call him by his important-sounding nickname of the Almighty Mage. And going by how many techniques were named after him in a variety of fields… Well, though maybe he was dubious in his personal life,” Navi added suddenly at the end, possibly in consideration for Agri, who didn’t think very well of Sataborn. There was an attempt at flattery in Navi’s smile, which Agri turned aside with a smile only in the corners of her lips. Probably no one else but Ren-Ren noticed that she was clenching her fist hard enough to make her thumbnail go white.

“Um, so?” Agri said. “You want those…Sataborn-brand formulas, then?”

“I’m not interested in anything he’s done that’s already been released to the public. What I want is new tech that he kept secretly and told no one about.”

For the first time since Navi had appeared, Agri’s eyebrows came together, just slightly. “Whaaat? That smells fishy. You don’t even know if any exist.”

“Making bets like that is what a man’s life is all about.”

“Well, if that’s what you want to do, I won’t stop you, but I don’t want you telling me after, ‘There was no new tech; isn’t it unfair for you to be the only one going home with what you wanted?’”

“I’m not gonna be that stingy about it.”

“Mages will all become sticklers, when push comes to shove.”

“All I can say is trust me. I want the old man’s work, so I’ll arrange it so that you can get as much money and stuff to take home with you.”

“We’ve only just met; of course I can’t trust you,” Agri shot back. “If you absolutely insist, then I don’t want a verbal promise. I figure we might as well make it a Nariami-style contract. Then we could both be at ease.”

“Huh? Nariami-style? You want to cast a curse?”

“It’s not a curse. We just offer up something of corresponding worth in case of betrayal. Nothing happens if you don’t go against our deal. Or did you fully intend to go against it?”

“Of course not. But I didn’t bring any of the documents for a formal contract out here.”

“You have some, don’t you, Nephy?”

Having the conversation turn to her made Nephilia’s eyes snap open, then gradually close, and once she was back to her usual half-lidded expression, she nodded. Navi scratched his head and drew up one knee on his carpet. His robe flapped up, revealing a hairy shin. There was an old, deep scar about halfway up his shin, the one place with no hair.

Ren-Ren thought. This man’s whole body had a sense of violence to it.

“I’m not really happy about the idea of leaving physical evidence of our agreement, though,” Navi said.

“Ma…wor…new…template…”

“She says that she can fiddle with the template a bit to make it look at a glance like, oh, we just made some reasonable contract,” Agri explained. “She’ll make up the wording nicely so that if this contract gets pulled up later and people prod us and ask what it was about, there won’t be a problem.”

“What, you brought a specialist?” Navi was incredulous.

“I mean, this is that sort of gathering.”

“True enough.”

The two mages and Nephilia leaned close together, and with the contract sandwiched in a binder between them, they shot opinions back and forth, like, “Let’s do this here,” “No, I can’t compromise on that,” and “I want a little more,” while Clarissa stretched like she was bored and Ren-Ren was on her own, feeling on edge. Nephilia asked the two mages’ opinions while aggressively filling the contract with more words. The once-white paper now had more black than white; holding up this complete “black-looking paper” to the sun, Nephilia snickered ksh-shh. It looked like a small child’s crayon scrawl, but however it looked, she was a specialist in the area, so that had to be how they were done.

Navi skimmed the text once more. “Can’t you change this part a bit more?”

“That’s an issue of nuance,” Agri said.

“The nuance is what bothers me. My living depends on reputation and honor.”

“So he says, Nephy. Please do the honors for this venerable gentleman. Oh, watch out to make sure I’m not losing out here by mistake. You can’t let your guard down with a mage.”

“’Kay…”

Navi chuckled. “Heh-heh, my bad.”

“There’s nothing bad about it. It’s common enough to be concerned about those things. This is a Nariami-style contracting technique, after all. No matter if you try to burn it or bury it or rip it up—”

“You don’t gotta threaten me. I get it…” Navi stroked a smooth line from the top of his head to the end of his chin, putting on an overly serious expression in a deliberate sort of manner, then eyeballed the contract again. “Don’t forget—this goes both ways. If you break our deal, all your assets are mine.”

“That’s what a contract is. If you break it, then I’ll be the one taking the shirt off your back.”

“Well, I guess so. So then, let’s call this contract complete. Let’s do our best to make sure we both benefit.”

Nephilia went down on her knees, then raised up the paper, binder and all. Navi and Agri laid their hands one on top of the other over the black paper and chanted a spell. Their enumeration of incomprehensible syllables repeated, accelerating as Navi’s crisp chanting and Agri’s resonant chanting collided like a dialogue or a shouting match, and it was so tense that Ren-Ren lost her sense of time, and then it came to a sudden end. The two mages went quiet and withdrew their hands.

They split the piece of paper in two as if peeling a layer of skin off the page, and Navi and Agri each took one half in hand. Repeating, “Countin’ on you, then,” Navi left, swaying on his carpet, while Clarissa walked backward while waving her arms wide.

Watching both of them go, Ren-Ren stayed hidden behind the hill, and counting five minutes after they were out of sight, she stayed low as she approached the pond to look down diagonally at the water’s surface.

Little fish swam around, and a dragonfly was perched on a reed. Ren-Ren couldn’t see to the bottom, and there were no shadows of large creatures moving, either. Ren-Ren breathed a sigh of relief and mental exhaustion.

“You can’t be worrying so much over that old man’s bluff,” came a voice from behind her. Startled, Ren-Ren turned around to see Agri smiling and gesturing at the pond. “He made a show of letting you see his wrists, right? That was the mark of a mage from the Lab.”

“The Lab? What’s that?” Ren-Ren asked.

“A place that’s ninety-nine percent full of crooks. You don’t have to know any more about it, and I don’t want to talk about it, either. It’s nothing but rumors, and I don’t actually know that much.”

Ren-Ren furrowed her brow. Her concern must have registered, as Agri fluttered a hand in the air and snorted. “He was talking like us meeting was coincidence, but don’t believe that. I figure he looked into me, and he thought we could work together, so he actually was waiting for me. If he’s from the Lab, I’m sure he’d be able to look up pretty quick that Sataborn’s mistress had a child. Of course he’d imagine said daughter was thinking it would be nice to have a more comfortable lifestyle.”

Taking the hand extended to her, Ren-Ren stood up to be immediately drawn into Agri’s embrace. With the soft, swelling mounds she could feel even through her robe pressed against her cheek, Ren-Ren looked up. Agri was looking down at Ren-Ren with unusual seriousness. “Do you pity me?”

“No…why?”

“You look like it.”

“This…is the only expression I can make. I don’t pity you.” Ren-Ren knew Agri’s personal fortunes were not blessed. Ren-Ren also knew that Agri hated her father. She could also tell that her mother must have suffered, and it must have been a struggle for Agri. But Ren-Ren’s feelings didn’t seem like pity.

“Really?” Agri asked.

“Really. I don’t pity you…but I am concerned.”

The two of them gazed at each other for a while. Agri was the first to look away. She quietly muttered, “Good grief,” but her tone didn’t sound irritated. She turned back and beckoned to Nephilia, and bringing her in as well, she took the three of them into a tight huddle. “I don’t need pity or concern.”

“Right.” Ren-Ren nodded.

“Since this is a businesslike relationship, right? Well, just as long as you don’t betray me.”

“I would rather die than betray you.”

Agri laughed for a while, then noticed the earnest look on Ren-Ren’s face. Her expression turned serious, and she bit her lip as she averted her gaze. “Thanks,” she barely managed to mutter, her voice quiet and hoarse.

Ren-Ren nodded, accidentally knocking foreheads with Nephilia when she lifted her head at the same moment. It sounded like two rocks colliding.