Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 15 - Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

NOW AS HUMANS

  Miss Marguerite

Exhaustion, hunger, sweating, heart palpitations, shortness of breath—even moving just a little brought all these troubles to her at once. Wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, she looked up at the glaring sun and scowled, but it didn’t look like the brutal rays would ease even slightly. They were burning her skin as the heat was muggy in her hair, making her feel even more exhausted and hungry, and most of all stressed. On top of that, fear was a major presence. Being in a situation where encountering the enemy meant death would most certainly torment anyone’s spirit.

They did have a clear plan. They would look for the others who’d gotten separated, as well as trees where the grayfruit grew, all while moving stealthily around the island to keep the goddess from finding them. So basically, that made them a search party with the goal of rallying forces and replenishing supplies, but in actuality, they just meandered in a painfully difficult way, not even knowing if the allies they were searching for were alive, seeking grayfruit that could be anywhere, praying that those they had to protect were safe, all while frightened of the enemy. They could never even take a moment to rest.

They stayed hunched over, though Marguerite had doubts about how useful this was, hiding in the grasses to traverse a way with no path. They kept an eye on their surroundings as they walked through the forest, and when they discovered signs of fruit having been plucked, Marguerite clicked her tongue. Suddenly hearing the cry of a little bird, they trembled and threw themselves to the ground.

When it turned out it wasn’t the goddess, Marguerite sighed, set her hands on her knees, and got up. The girl with her was already standing, short spear raised in one hand as she stayed alert.

Her rough and primitive spear was just a long branch with a pointed end, and her uniform was torn in places, with the dots of red sprayed on it giving her a more apparent air of violence. You might call her the wild bookworm type—her appearance was beyond contrastive and nigh surreal.

She was mostly expressionless, and just as silent in human form as she had been when transformed. But the girl didn’t have a tail that moved with her emotions. That made it more difficult to see inside her than when she was Clantail, and she came off even more intensely, like an eerie person who could be thinking anything.

Marguerite felt eyes on her and looked up to see the girl looking down at her. Marguerite had sat down, so maybe the girl thought she was tired. Embarrassed, she hurriedly got to her feet, and some stick-shaped object was held out to her. It was store-bought preserved food that hadn’t been unwrapped yet.

“What’s this?” Marguerite asked.

“It was in my pocket.”

The girl said nothing more. It seemed she thought that would get the message across well enough. She gave a little nod to prompt Marguerite and didn’t say anything further.

Marguerite was actually hungry. The last time she’d eaten had been at the main building, and she’d hardly refueled at all since then. She accepted the bar and opened it up, then broke it in half and handed half back.

She had the feeling that if she asked why the girl had brought such a thing, the girl would answer, “Just in case.” The more of a veteran a magical girl was, the less she would prepare for when she was not transformed. 7753 had wound up humiliated in her at-home wear when her transformation had come undone, but Marguerite couldn’t laugh at her. That was the laziness characteristic of a veteran magical girl, and Marguerite had been more than just close to embarrassing herself in the same way.

Even the training plan at the Inspection Department just about never touched on battle techniques for human form. If your transformation was undone in front of the enemy, you’d die helplessly. There was no point in preparing for it. Besides, plenty of people wouldn’t even be able to handle human training pretransformation: pampered girls who’d never exercised in their lives, middle-aged women with flab in the gut, preschoolers who would fall over if they ran, old women who would stagger just from walking—it was unreasonable to gather up such people for combat training. That was why the Inspection Department never did it. You started with momentarily forgetting how you used your body as a human so you could learn to use the body of a magical girl freely.

But this time only, she could praise someone for being prepared. When Marguerite bit into the bone-dry preserved food, struggling to eat it without water, a plastic bottle was held out to her. The bottle label said OOLONG TEA, but the fluid inside was clear. Had the girl filled this at the river?

“Thanks.” Marguerite accepted it and moistened her throat with a gulp. The lukewarm water slid down. Thinking that at this rate, she’d wind up drinking until it was gone, she kept herself to just three sips and tried to give the bottle back, but the girl raised her palm and shook her head. A different bottle was sticking out from a pocket in her uniform.

The girl put the preserved food in the pocket on the opposite side and stuck something like a piece of meat in her mouth and slowly moved her jaws up and down. It seemed like it wasn’t raw meat, but Marguerite didn’t know what she’d done to it. Clearly, this girl was ahead of her when it came to the outdoors, so it would be nonsense to advise her not to put something dubious in her mouth. Marguerite turned the oolong tea bottle upside down and stuck it in her butt pocket, holding it in place with her belt.

The two of them started walking again. Marguerite explained as best she could how strong and terrifying the goddess was. She thought she was getting across to the girl, who hadn’t actually encountered her. At the very least, as she listened, her expression gradually stiffened up. If they ran into the goddess, they’d die—and to keep from running into her, they would find the others. With the goddess wandering about as she pleased, and the others hiding from her as they traveled the island, this would be very difficult to do as humans instead of magical girls. But regardless, they had to do it.

The girl stopped occasionally, closing her eyes, cupping her hands around her ears, and sniffing repeatedly. Marguerite thought it was weird, but now that she thought about it, she noticed belatedly that the girl had lost her glasses. Was she trying to make up for her poor vision with smell and hearing? She was also quite knowledgeable about plants and animals. As for Marguerite, she found a tree that bore grayfruit—though she couldn’t even tell it apart from the other trees—and then, seeing the signs the fruit had already been plucked, she sighed.

She didn’t feel like she could count on the girl so much as she felt creeped out.

Training yourself for activity as a human was going too far, for a magical girl. And preparing for if you lost your glasses was going beyond too far and entering the territory of madness.

Marguerite walked in the lead, and when they went over a rise in the ground, she turned back and held out her hand. The hand in her grasp was a little sweaty. She wasn’t sure whose sweat it was. The girl’s body felt hot. Her hand was soft, but there was a sort of callus that caught on Marguerite’s middle, index, and ring fingers below the second joint. She was surprisingly light, and Marguerite was able to pull her up with just a gentle tug.

The words “Cranberry’s children” reverberated in her chest. The Musician of the Forest was the one to blame for that, not the victims who had been dragged into it. They were like child soldiers, born on the battlefield with no choice but to take up a gun. But even though she knew that, the echoes wouldn’t disappear from her heart. Every time the girl displayed her abilities, her survival skills, her preparation for every situation, something unsettling crept over Marguerite.

As they were walking along the river to keep from leaving any traces, Marguerite went to stand on top of a big, flat rock, then pulled the girl up. The girl came to a stop there, putting her hands to her ears and closing her eyes, sniffed, and froze. Marguerite couldn’t interfere or say anything to interrupt; she could only watch. The girl sniffed over and over, her face rising higher each time. She wound up standing on her tiptoes, and by the time Marguerite was wondering if she should say something and was reaching out, suddenly her face came down again and she went down flat against the rock.

Marguerite’s brow furrowed. The girl was scrunching up her face, too. The girl looked up and back at her, and when Marguerite started saying something, the girl stuck her index finger up in front of her lips. Marguerite didn’t see how the girl reacted after that. Rather, it was no time to be looking at her. A magical girl with a goddess motif was lumbering along on the other side of the river.

It was over thirty yards away, on the opposite side. She appeared suddenly. That was too close. If they had been transformed into magical girls, the encounter would not have been so sudden. They would have noticed before she got so close. Marguerite’s heart made an aggressive leap in her chest, and all the blood in her body roiled up before withdrawing like the tide. Her knees felt like they would buckle, but she desperately held them up. She still hadn’t let out her breath, and she couldn’t breathe right. A goddess with a gray ax in her right hand and a red ax in her left was running—no, she was walking. Maybe a magical girl would call it walking, but seen from a human perspective, she was moving so fast it could only seem like running. Twenty yards. Fifteen yards. Their eyes met. The goddess stopped. They were dealing with a magical girl. But they couldn’t transform. They were helpless. Marguerite immediately averted her eyes. The goddess turned her head around and pulled a little plastic case from her pocket, shaking it out to drop a bead into her hand. Marguerite had seen this before. Wasn’t that a pill? It was difficult to tell from ten yards away, with human eyes. When she tried to look closer, her ears grew warm and started distracting her. The goddess leisurely put a pill in her mouth as if there were nobody there and swallowed.

Marguerite didn’t inhale or exhale. The goddess turned her head around. She wasn’t looking at them.

Our eyes met…but she isn’t reacting at all…?

There was no way she hadn’t seen. This close, it wouldn’t be strange for her to have even picked up on the beating of their hearts. The goddess leaped high in the air like she was doing classical ballet, then spun around like a figure skater, swinging the axes in her hands around to match as she ran off. The hands holding her axes were making peace signs. Little pebbles scattered on the opposite shore to make ripples on the surface of the river, and then, a beat later, a spray fell like drizzling rain.

Why had the goddess ignored them? Marguerite remembered when she’d fought her in magical-girl form. She figured the goddess didn’t rely on her eyes, but perhaps made use of some other sensory organ. Could that be the reason she had overlooked them?

Marguerite kept her eyes wide open to observe the goddess’s every move. She moved differently from when they had fought before.

The goddess was going berserk and throwing all her absurd strength into this rampage. After some time, she had copied the way Miss Marguerite walked and done it herself, going from unsteady steps to an incredibly smooth pace. Now she was at a level even beyond that. She walked based on the style of the Inspection Department, with playfulness inserted at every opportunity, enchanting them with movements patterned off magical girls from anime. She performed martial arts blocks with a sideways peace sign, and also did eye gouges with a double peace sign. It was like the xing yi quan of Chinese kung fu, an idea that could be called a type of madness—and Marguerite had seen it before.

So she fought Chelsea.

Chelsea must have mastered that new concept for a fighting technique only from abundant talents and brutal efforts in training over a very long time, and her skills had probably been stolen easily in one fight. The odds were high that her life had been stolen at the same time. Marguerite could only pray that she’d managed to escape somehow, with the characteristic toughness of a veteran.

She let out a slow and gradual breath. The air that escaped her nose through her throat stung. The goddess left her field of view. Marguerite tried to move her head to watch her go, but her whole body was frozen. Her body trembling stiffly, she somehow managed to point her face that way, but the goddess was already gone. Marguerite’s head swayed and her legs wobbled, and the disorder of her body told her of her deep relief. She suddenly felt a heat at her stomach, and when she looked down, the girl’s head was there. She’d thought the girl had basically been on her belly, but now she was on her knees, head touching Marguerite’s stomach as she held her spear at the ready. When the girl swayed like she was about to fall over, Marguerite supported her, embracing her with her right arm to bring their faces together.

“Um…the magical girl with the axes…,” the girl began.

“That’s the enemy.”

The girl’s lips bent, and she blew air at her own nose. Her bangs wafted upward, then fell. A crease formed in her brow, and she closed her eyes, and by the time she opened them again, the strength had returned to her expression.

With an anxious look that Marguerite couldn’t interpret as anything other than one of concern for her, the girl asked, “Are you…okay?”

Marguerite couldn’t bring herself to say, “That’s what I should be asking.” The girl was soaked with sweat from her forehead to her jaw, there were tear tracks under her red eyes, but her expression was still extremely serious, with not even the trace of being open to joking or smiling. Though she looked nothing other than completely exhausted, you could see strength of will and robustness of spirit in the light in her eyes.

“I’m all right… What about you?”

“I’m good to go.”

Go for what, and how? The girl raised herself up and gazed in the direction the goddess had taken, which Marguerite considered to mean “I can go after her.”

Marguerite shook her head. “There’s such a thing as too reckless.”

“If we follow her…then we can intervene if someone is attacked.”

“That’s what I’m saying is reckless.”

“Why didn’t she react to us at all?”

Clantail hadn’t fought the goddess. She didn’t know that incomprehensible terror of a creature that they couldn’t even be sure was a magical girl. She didn’t know her physical abilities, her magic—thinking this far, Marguerite thought, No, rejecting that. The girl’s sweat-smeared face had even been stained with tears. It didn’t seem like she had failed to understand how terrifying it was for a human to face a magical girl. Even if her heart rejected that understanding, her body was forced to understand, whether she liked it or not.

“If she didn’t perceive us…there might be some way to do it.” Unaware of Marguerite’s thoughts, the girl wrung out a very clumsy attempt at persuasion. “I’ll go alone.”

“That’s even more reckless.”

“But…I think it will be dangerous…so…”

And then it clicked. Marguerite hadn’t understood the principles behind this girl’s behavior, but now she felt like she had it. This girl would try to prevent death, no matter what sacrifice it took. She didn’t try to prepare herself for any situation so she could survive any situation. It was because she wanted to keep others from dying in any situation. She would use up all her grayfruit for someone she’d only just met and had hardly spoken with, and stand between her and the enemy with her spear raised, even as she gushed sweat and tears. She was throwing a tantrum like a willful child, saying she didn’t want anyone to die—even though she should know whether that would work out.

Or maybe I’m wrong.

Was it less that she knew that, or rather that such knowledge had been forced on her, leading her to become like this? She knew she only had two small hands, she knew her desire to keep from letting go wasn’t enough, but even so, she had to believe that a magical girl could do it, or she wouldn’t be able to go on, was that it? How many times just that day had the words “Cranberry’s children” risen and fallen in Marguerite’s mind?

Marguerite bit her lip and took a breath, putting on a mature face to place a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You can’t go alone.”

“But—”

“I’ll go, too.”

The girl was surprised, her expression turning challenging, but before she could say anything, Marguerite told her based on her own experiences why she thought the enemy hadn’t perceived them. While talking, she moved her feet, and they headed in the direction in which the goddess had disappeared. The girl’s expression gradually turned serious.

Thinking that the girl had acknowledged her as not just someone to protect but also a partner she would at least allow to accompany her, Marguerite snorted as she acknowledged that she felt a little glad about that.

If heading into mortal peril was the life of a magical girl, then accompanying another to help them survive was also the life of a magical girl. So she thought with some cynicism, but the rough feeling in her heart had lessened more than she’d expected.

  Pastel Mary

Ragi had been talking about something that seemed incredibly important, and then, right when she had been thinking, I don’t really get it, so please explain things, he had passed out. Mary really did need some TV drama–esque plot twist, but not in this way. She wanted to cry, but this wasn’t the time for crying.

Before passing out, he’d had more energy than any old person Mary knew. He’d been like an old master from a kung fu movie, that sort of mentor figure. She’d felt she could count on him.

Right now, Ragi was just lying limply on his side. He made her think of her maternal grandfather, who had passed away the year before. Just rolling over had looked painful for him, which had turned into not even being able to roll over, and then he’d grown so thin you could see the shape of his skull, and before long, he’d passed away.

“What do we do?” Mary asked. “This is probably because of that thing, right? The grayfruit ran out, right? If we can make him eat grayfruit, I think he’ll wake up again.”

“All right, then let’s make him eat,” Chelsea replied.

Chelsea took a grayfruit in her hand and did it the rough way: putting her hands on Ragi’s upper and lower jaws and prizing them open by force. She crushed a fruit in her fist to dribble in the juice, then made him eat smushed remains of the fruit in an even rougher way: She just shoved it right into his mouth.

“W-will that be okay?” Mary stuttered. “It won’t, like, get stuck in his throat like mochi at New Year’s?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Look, he swallowed.”

It looked painful, but the fruit in his mouth did more or less disappear down his throat—but Ragi still didn’t get up.

Mary tilted her head. “Maybe…it’s not enough.”

“Then let’s try giving him more.”

“Hold on, Chelsea. How many should we feed him?”

“I don’t know…”

“It’d be bad if we gave him all our grayfruit, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true. If we make Grampa eat more grayfruit when we don’t even know how many he needs, then we might run out, and worst case, he might not even wake up even after they’re all used up. And then, if that happens, Chelmary’s transformations will come undone.”

Aside from that bizarre Chelsea/Mary ship name, Mary could get what she was trying to say. Ragi was passed out, but he was breathing for now. If his symptoms were the same as before, then they should have enough time that it’d be okay to leave him for the moment, and if something had happened to cause his magic power to run out like someone had said, even if he looked like he was going to die any minute, it shouldn’t be a matter of life and death. But if Chelsea and Mary’s transformations came undone, that would be a matter of life and death.

“Chelsea, how many grayfruit do you have left? I have four,” said Mary.

“I have…two.”

“So…isn’t this bad?”

“Yeah…this is bad, huh?”

Ragi had passed out saying something about how to get out of this situation. Chelsea had caught him and laid him down on the back of a sheep, where he was sleeping and wouldn’t wake up. If they used up the grayfruit to help Ragi regain his consciousness, then Mary’s and Chelsea’s transformations would be in trouble. Chelsea folded her arms with a troubled expression, but since she had both hands posed with her pinkie and index fingers out like Star Queen, it didn’t feel very dire.

“Well, anyway…,” Chelsea began, “Grampa was saying we should go to the main building, right?”

“Yeah, I think.”

“He was saying to dig around the main building…um, where the wall was destroyed, right?”

Ragi had been enthusing vigorously like in an election speech. Mary had been so overwhelmed by all his vigor, she hadn’t actually gotten what he was saying. She’d just been thinking, Well, I should just go along with whatever he says, and now they were in trouble. Pastel Mary bit into a grayfruit. The sweet juices didn’t make her happy now. The number of fruit she carried had decreased by one more.

Chelsea maintained the Star Queen pose as she gazed at the grayfruit with a severe expression. Even Mary could predict that whatever she was thinking probably wasn’t anything useful. And that was because Mary wasn’t thinking anything useful.

Mary sighed and clapped a hand on Chelsea’s shoulder. Chelsea jumped, and she looked back at Mary with surprise, cheeks red as she hopped back. “What’re you doing?!”

“Aren’t you going to the main building?”

“Oh…yes.”

“Then let’s hurry.”

Ragi had won Chelsea over. There had probably been a lot of things she’d wanted to say, but when Ragi had preached to her about how a magical girl should be, she’d been convinced. And then Ragi had passed out. Chelsea could no longer argue back. She had no choice but to do as she’d been told, despite still feeling that actually she wanted to do something else. Even if she wanted to strike back at the goddess, even if she wanted to get revenge for Shepherdspie, she had no choice but to suck it up. From where Mary stood, the goddess magical girl and Chelsea were both so strong, they were ten levels beyond out of reach, with such incredible speed and power that Mary would say she’d never seen anyone else so strong. To her, it wasn’t even about who was stronger—they were both strong. Who would win or lose seemed like it was just based on the luck of that moment.

But Ragi had said that Chelsea was never going to win. And Chelsea, who was always filled with baseless confidence, hadn’t denied that. So that had to be true. Mary had experienced herself the phenomenon where someone with no practice in something would see a top-class amateur and a top-class pro as the same. But once you tried that activity yourself, you knew there was an unscalable wall. Those who enjoy art and draw whenever they have the spare time as well as art school students would all have found that wall to a greater or lesser extent.

Mary wanted Chelsea to fight. Mary wasn’t used to cursing, but she wanted to yell four or five different words at the goddess magical girl, and she wanted Chelsea to beat her black and blue. There was no reason for Shepherdspie to wind up like that—Mary knew best of all how he’d devised his menu and worked to show the guests a good time. And while Mary had flubbed a lot, she’d handed over the invitations, cleaned the main building, and ordered the foodstuffs. Now that was all ruined. It had all been messed up. Shepherdspie could no longer sigh, or put a hand to his forehead, or look up at the sky, or wipe his sweat with a handkerchief.

Mary’s head was swirling with doubts. But… Still…

It didn’t seem that bad to have Chelsea fight for her because she herself couldn’t fight. It’s the obvious thing to request a specialist for something you’re not good at rather than forcing yourself. But, but still, it was obviously better not to make Chelsea fight an enemy she couldn’t beat. Ragi had been saying the same thing. Chelsea would know better who the stronger magical girl was, and Ragi would know better than Chelsea, so that business about it being the obvious thing to request a specialist held true here, too.

Noticing her sheep were bleating up a storm, Mary looked up at the sky to see smoke trailing over the trees. It was far away. But the stripe of smoke was dark and thick. Words that gave her bad feelings, like violence, destruction, and unfairness, rose in her mind one after another.

Mary poked Chelsea’s upper arm, and Chelsea shrieked and leaped to her feet. “What’re you doing?!”

“Chelsea, look.”

When Chelsea saw where she pointed, her expression quickly grew concerned. “It’s her! She’s doing something bad again!”

“Hey, let’s hurry to the main building… Since, um, if we don’t make it in time…it’ll be bad.” Mary didn’t come up with any specifics on how it would be bad. It wasn’t that she couldn’t think of any. She just really didn’t want to confirm them by putting them into words.

  Navi Ru

This place had been made a waste disposal facility, but it was actually just a bunch of mud. It was just used for trash, since if you tossed in things you didn’t need, it would sink down in the swamp. Being a pursuer of the academic, Sataborn was uninterested in anything he didn’t need, leading to a crudeness in his waste disposal that would make even Navi grimace. Heedlessly creating a polluted area on the island where he lived himself was characteristically insensitive of the man, but even so, Navi could neither understand nor sympathize.

But this was the one time it was working out well for Navi. He had been giving the place a wide berth, thinking it was a bad idea to get close, but now he saw it as an unexpected fortune, bringing him such great results that he struggled to restrain his smirking.

“Ahhh! This place! Whoa!” 7753 cried out.

“Calm down! Don’t move around without thinking!” Navi called back.

Putting on an innocent act by panicking and showing sincere concern for another was his specialty. He clamored loudly, letting himself temporarily forget that he’d been the one to cast that spell on Mana from behind to knock her out. He was also used to the acting trick of giving loud instructions in a clear voice even while he was panicking.

“Mana! What’s happened, Mana?!” called 7753.

“I don’t know! I have no idea what just happened!” Navi called back.

Having a yelling exchange across a bog with a woman in her nightwear and a tortoise was objectively extremely silly. If Clarissa had been a witness, she might have rolled around holding her stomach. His ability to act seriously in situations like these gave his act a sense of veracity.

Navi tentatively tried stepping into the bog, and when it started sucking him in, he hastily backed up. “It’s no use! It doesn’t look like I can go over to you!”

“I’m sorry! I can’t, either!”

“Shit! What a disaster!” Hiding the joy in his heart, he plucked at his few remaining hairs and stomped in place with realistic acting.

The fruit Tepsekemei had eaten had not been a legitimate grayfruit. It was the same color, and had to smell the same, since a magical girl with a good nose had put it in her mouth without hesitation, but the stem area was shaped slightly differently. It had a curve that had been lacking in the original fruit. Had it changed from the pollution, or had Sataborn been developing a type that would grow well in polluted areas? Judging from how their transformations had come undone, it was no good. Navi was glad that 7753 had gone to that detached islet so thoughtlessly. If possible, it would have been even better if her transformation had come undone partway and she’d sunk into the bog, but you couldn’t expect too much.

Well…

“Me and the little lady’ll leave here for now!” Navi called.

“You can’t! Please don’t leave us behind!”

“Are you telling me to leave this unconscious lady lying here in a dangerous place?!” Given everything he had done, the lines, the acting, and what he was about to do, no words could be emptier, but 7753 hung her head apologetically.

“S-sorry…um, but I’d like you to save us, if possible!”

“Hold on there for a bit! I’ll come back with Clarissa!” He took Mana’s arm and raised her in his arms, then put her on his back, with her bags and all. She was light—but she was still almost one hundred pounds. She was carrying quite a lot, too. Just what had she packed in her backpack? The “seven tools of a detective” or whatever? Even a first-year preschooler would know you’re not supposed to bring things you don’t need on a field trip.

He went into the trees, and once he was out of 7753’s field of view, he peeled Mana’s backpack off and tossed it into the thicket. Now that was a little lighter. But an out-of-shape mage couldn’t go carrying this for a long time. A tree hollow or a natural cave would be fine, or, worst case, he could dig a hole and toss her in there. There were a number of magical locks on Francesca. One of those was that she couldn’t attack anyone inside a hole. A hole big enough to fit Mana’s frame would be enough.

“Then wait there! You got that? Don’t move from that!” Navi yelled the order at 7753, who was out of view, and started walking. He didn’t relax his expression. He had things to think about.

He wasn’t going to kill Mana or let her be killed. He wasn’t going to go further than knocking her out when she wasn’t expecting it. He wasn’t going to let her father interfere. So long as he let Mana return home alive, then he could use the name of the Lab and the Osk Faction as a shield to keep those chumps at the Inspection Department from meddling. The worst idea would be to make the man get desperate and not care about keeping his own skin safe. A cornered mouse would bite not just a cat, but even a tiger. And sometimes a tiger would catch an illness from that bite and die.

He would let Mana live. It could be difficult to calculate how the father would behave if he lost his daughter. But Navi also knew more than full well—at least double or triple that—just what a father with a daughter he treasured would not want done. While Mana could be a dangerous trigger, she was also his weakness. That’s why Navi would let her live. He didn’t really need to let anyone else live. He just wanted to keep Mana properly under control while she was on this island because she was a problem. And to that end, it was best to separate her from her fighters. With 7753, there was the issue of the goggles. Even if that was fine for now, it was bound to cause trouble later when she got them back. That was trouble that he could manage, given the current situation, but even so, trouble was trouble. It would obviously be best to get rid of them.

Navi walked along an animal trail for a while and came out to a more open area. The trees weren’t as dense, and the sky was open above. Seeing trailing black smoke in the western sky, Navi narrowed his eyes. It was Francesca. It was good that she was being so proactive, but the fire was a problem. There were supposed to be installations in preparation for fire, including forest fire, but he wasn’t sure how well they would be working in this situation. The initial fortune of Francesca and Maiya’s encounter had been followed by the inexplicable misfortune of the magic power running out, and now that he’d been blessed with luck in the waste disposal spot, maybe the pendulum would be swinging back the other way.

But…I didn’t expect a tortoise.

It was pretty rare for a non-mammalian animal to become a magical girl. It kind of stimulated what little remained of Navi’s curiosity as a researcher. He drew back his chin, thinking that if things went well, he’d let it live. That would fulfill his debt for the bread he’d gotten. But that was just if things went well. Bad things happened when he got too greedy.

His greed would never run out. The trick to a comfortable life was to know where to make compromises.

  7753

She immediately realized that she was no longer a magical girl.

She’d been 7753 until just a moment ago, but now Kotori Nanaya’s swaying body was too much to handle, though she kept a hold on the tortoise anyway and immediately clung to the nearby tree to prevent herself from falling into the bog. Her shoulders heaved, and her palm felt like it would slip from sweat as she set the arm that carried the tortoise over it to support herself, bringing her whole body toward the tree, leaning against the trunk that was only thick enough for her to encircle with both hands. She wound up knocking her shoulder against the tree, and though it hurt, she was beyond worrying about it. She desperately hugged the tree, grasping it with no intent of letting go, until finally she let out a breath and turned back to see Mana with her eyes closed, being held up by Navi.

7753 got in a panic and tried to go back, and then the soft and sticky sensation she felt under her feet made her remember where she was, and she somehow managed to stop herself. This was a bog. A human and a tortoise were alone in a bog. She looked all around, feeling disoriented by this desperate fact. Since the area wasn’t perfectly circular, some green was farther away and some was closer, but even the closer bits were too far to reach with a human jump. When she’d gotten here with 7753’s legs in the first place, she’d bounced off something else halfway and made a second jump to finally arrive. And Tepsekemei, who flew in the sky, was now a tortoise that crawled on the ground. She was the round type, her shell about four inches in diameter—it seemed like it would break if Kotori squeezed a little too hard, even with the thin arms of a woman. She couldn’t grab her too tightly.

After many exchanges, Navi put Mana over his shoulders and walked off. Kotori was left behind. She couldn’t even converse with Tepsekemei. Her shell was cold, and there was no emotion in her eyes. There was a lack of humanity in a different sense from the usual Tepsekemei, who would confuse people by saying glib things with a straight face.

What am I thinking about a tortoise? Kotori thought, hanging her head. Of course she was lacking in humanity. She wasn’t human. And when it came to becoming a different creature when you transformed, that was the same for all magical girls. Kotori Nanaya stayed 7753 as much as she could. Using the excuse that she could protect her heart if she had a magical girl’s strength, she had continuously shaved down on her time as a human.

She crouched, leaning against the slim tree. She couldn’t bring herself to sit on her bottom. She didn’t like the idea of sitting down on this island in the bog in her pajamas. The bottoms of her feet were filthy, but that was fine. The bottoms of your feet are there to get dirty.

Kotori held Mei to her chest and looked at her face. The tortoise moved her legs like she was struggling and pulled her neck all the way in. Kotori sensed intellect in those movements and sighed. Right now, Kotori was weak. But there was still someone she had to protect. Right now, Mei was weaker than Kotori. Tepsekemei had always protected her, and now Kotori had to take care of her. Feeling this was kind of funny, she looked up.

Navi had said to stay here. But if she stayed here, she would stand out, whether she liked it or not. Her pajamas had orange and white stripes with KICK! in pink fuzzy font, making her stand out abnormally, smack-dab in the middle of this blackish bog as she was. She had to hide, at least, or she’d be in danger. But even if she dug a hole with a tree branch or her hands, she wouldn’t be able to hide. Mana had carried off Mana’s secret tools. 7753 had been thinking to keep Mana from being abandoned empty-handed if they got separated, but now her consideration had worked against her. 7753 had come along as a luggage carrier, so she should have carried Mana’s luggage.

“Ah!”

Couldn’t Navi have tossed over just some of Mana’s things? Or wait, couldn’t Navi have used his magic to help somehow? Kotori had been panicking, so she hadn’t thought of it, and by the time she did, Navi was gone. Tears rose in her eyes, and Kotori looked up at the sky. The weather was pointlessly good. The sun was scorching her skin. No, wrong idea, she told herself. She’d just realized something that hadn’t hit her before, so didn’t that mean she’d calmed down a little? Then she could think. She might actually come up with a great way to get out of this situation.

First, she confirmed her situation. She was on an island in a bog. She had pajamas and a live tortoise. As for the rest, it was at most the elastic that tied her hair, the grass, and the earth. There had been grayfruit growing on the tree behind her, but they had been harvested by Tepsekemei and there were none left over. Those she hadn’t eaten were in Kotori’s pockets. Considering how Tepsekemei’s transformation had come undone after she ate them, it would be best not to eat them herself.

“Why did you eat something funny, when your nose is so good?” she said to Mei with a sigh. The tortoise wiggled in her hands like she was uncomfortable and hung her head. Kotori didn’t know how much had gotten across to her, but she kind of felt like they understood each other, and she felt relieved.

Couldn’t she use the tree? It was a little over twice her height. If she climbed up to the top of the tree and jumped from there—she would get hurt and sink into the bog. No, maybe that depended on how deep the bog was. She should consider that maybe Navi had just been exaggerating. To test it, she tried putting her toe in, and then it felt like she’d be sucked in, so she panicked and drew it back. It would be no joke if she couldn’t get back after a trial run.

What do I do…?

She felt like there was nothing she could do. In the end, was there nothing for it but to sit here and wait like Navi said? There were cans and some antenna-like things sticking out of the bog. The place looked to Kotori like it was for garbage disposal. If this bog was used for sucking up things people didn’t need, then worst case, it was possible there was no bottom at all. This was a mage’s island, after all, so it didn’t have to obey the laws of physics.

But then, thinking about it the other way, because it was a mage’s island, what if some of the garbage had mysterious powers? She was about to put her right hand on her chin, and then she remembered she was holding Mei and put her left hand on her chin to consider.

Speaking of things on the island with mysterious power, for starters, there’s the grayfruit, she thought, rolling the fruit in her hand with a scowl. Judging from Tepsekemei’s current condition, these unfortunately weren’t grayfruit. So aside from these. Fortunately, there were things around her.

“Don’t move for a while,” she told Mei just in case, though she didn’t know if she’d understand. Then she got down on her knees on the green of the bog, grabbed some grass with her left hand, and reached out with her right. When her hand was just a few inches from a rusty can floating in the bog, the earth wobbled, and Kotori panicked and drew her hand back.

She wasn’t even given the time to think about what had happened. The goddess, seen between the trees, rapidly got bigger. She was approaching. Before Kotori could even be surprised, the goddess was already there across the bog. Her heart leaped in her chest, and she tried to back up, but her back hit the tree. She was too panicked to even feel the pain. The goddess never stopped walking, coming closer. Kotori squeezed Mei, who was tucked into her clothing. She couldn’t think. She had no mental space for anything. The goddess was drawing nearer. She was slower now. Even with her legs caught in the bog, she was forcing them through to walk.

Kotori noticed something strange. The goddess wasn’t looking at Kotori. She was just walking as if she hadn’t noticed her at all. Kotori timidly stood up and moved to the edge of the island. The goddess ignored Kotori’s movement, continuing to cut through the bog, and then put her foot on the island. Could she not see Kotori? Or maybe she thought of her as the same as the trees and rocks?

A big branch was riding on the goddess’s right shoulder. She’d just left it there and wasn’t sweeping it off. The goddess took one step onto the island, and that impact made the ground shake. With the resistance of the bog gone, she continued to step forcefully on the land, so that single step was abnormally powerful. Kotori staggered and put her hands on the tree to stay up. The goddess paid no mind to that either, taking one more step forward.

Now?

She didn’t even really get what “now” meant. She couldn’t put this off. She’d either do it or she wouldn’t—that was all. With a steady grasp on Mei, Kotori leaped onto the goddess’s shoulder, the one the branch was not on. She didn’t even know what her heart was doing anymore. She couldn’t breathe, either. All she knew was that she was just desperately doing it. Though she didn’t understand what she was doing, somewhere there was a voice saying that she had to do this, pushing her to move. The force of her leap started to knock her away, like maybe the way it would feel to body-blow a slow-driving vehicle. No way, I’m not letting myself get knocked off, she thought, reaching out, and her fingers caught the goddess’s clothing.

She might die doing this. Because she was in human form, even just casually being swept to the side could easily kill her. But that didn’t happen. Kotori put in all the strength of her body and soul and clung. If the goddess had been human, it would surely have hurt, but she ignored it. She crossed the bog like there was nothing on her shoulders, and when she got past the area in the ground that caused resistance, she sped up, and Kotori panicked and let go. She hardly caught herself and hit her back hard, winding up looking up at the sky and gasping.

The sensation of the impact she felt in her back gradually faded. She got up, and when she looked in the direction in which the goddess was going, there was already nobody there. It was just a line of muddy tracks. Kotori let out a deep sigh. The tears that had been building in the corners of her eyes flowed over her cheeks.