Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 15 - Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

WE WON’T GIVE UP

  Pastel Mary

As soon as she reached the main building, she was dragged into a fight.

Pastel Mary didn’t like kicking, punching, hitting, throwing, shooting, jabbing, or anything like that, and she wasn’t good at those things. But even from where she stood, it clearly looked like Clarissa was attacking Rareko in front of a big hole. The air of violence made the sheep wail and bleat, and Mary froze up, and Chelsea, standing beside her, was fuming.

Chelsea yelled, “Stop it!” to try to put a halt to it—this was Chelsea, so she probably meant to use force, but by the time she reached out, Rareko had already run away. She jetted off so fast there was no time to call after her. Chelsea’s extended hand wouldn’t reach. Left behind were the confused Mary, the angry Chelsea, Clarissa smiling shyly, Ragi, still unconscious, and lots of sheep.

“No, no, don’t get the wrong idea.” Clarissa’s ears were stuck up sharply as she waved open palms at them. Aside from her long and sharp claws, her hands looked the same as a human’s.

Chelsea put her hands on her hips, stepping up to Clarissa like a mother scolding her children, and Clarissa stepped quickly backward, keeping the space between them at fifteen feet, neither widening nor narrowing. Clarissa nimbly backing up was apparently not what Chelsea had been looking for, as her cute nose crinkled.

Seeing that, Clarissa waved her hands even more aggressively. “Like Clarissa said, you’ve got the wrong idea.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you think about our positions then, it might have looked like Clarissa was attacking Rareko.”

“That’s exactly what you did.”

“No, no, that’s not what was going on. It wound up like that, look, since cute li’l Clarissa was stronger, so it got to the point where I was trying to take her down by strangling her, but that doesn’t mean Clarissa was the one who attacked first, right? When you see a police officer trying to restrain a criminal, will anyone think the police was the one to attack—that he’s a bad cop? I don’t think so, absolutely not.” Clarissa battered her with these questions, and she sounded kind of convincing.

Chelsea scowled and brought her hands from her waist to fold in front of her chest, tilting her head to the right. “Aren’t you just trying to make yourself look good now, since the person you were fighting is gone?”

“No, no, that’s exactly what proves Clarissa’s legitimacy. Look, if you’re right, then you don’t have to run away. You should just run straight to the people who came to save you and be like, ‘Oh, this person is so awful!’ You run if you’ve done something nasty. Is Clarissa wrong here?”

That sounded reasonable. Mary recalled how Rareko had madly dashed off. She’d looked panicked, and also as if she was frightened of something. Clarissa’s hands were in constant motion as she talked on and on in a way that sounded like making excuses but also explaining, and her gestures were so funny and giggle-worthy, they were too silly to come from a bad person.

The harsh look on Chelsea’s face seemed to have eased a little. She put her hand to her brow to massage away the wrinkle as her other hand pointed to Clarissa’s feet. There was a hole there—or more like an entrance. You could see a ladder. A square was cut out in the earth, making a hole where you couldn’t see the bottom. It looked like either the kind of secret passage to an underground room that would appear in a horror movie or the entrance to a dungeon in a computer RPG.

“And hey,” Chelsea said, “what’s that hole? That wasn’t there before, was it?”

“Who knows?” Clarissa replied. “I wonder about that myself. Not that I actually know. I wonder what it was. How strange. Maybe Rareko knows, but she ran away.”

“You’re just trying to shove everything off on someone who isn’t here, aren’t you?”

“She’s not just absent, she ran away. It might seem similar, but it’s subtly different, since she left of her own accord. Clarissa just said before that you wouldn’t run without a reason.”

Mary noticed that she was starting to be won over, but she was really shockingly unsure about her own powers of judgment. What do I do? she thought, unable to give instructions to her sheep, who were looking at her from every direction. At times like this, you should look to the judgment of someone who had powers of judgment. That was always the right thing in life, and in magical-girl activities.

She was very much reluctant to call Dreamy Chelsea a magical girl with powers of judgment, but at the very least, when it came to areas that smelled of violence, she had more experience than Mary.

“What do we do, Chelsea?” Mary asked her.

Chelsea opened her mouth like she was about to reply, but then loud sounds came from the other side of the main building—the sounds of something crashing and something breaking—and Chelsea and Mary looked over there, and before they could even be surprised, Clarissa had slipped past Mary. By the time Mary looked back, Clarissa was already out of reach, disappearing right away into the woods.

When Mary panicked and turned back to Chelsea, she found she had already raced off, too. She didn’t give so much as a glance to Mary or Ragi, leaving them behind with a “Wait there!” as she spread both arms wide for a magnificent leap to lightly land on the star that zoomed out from her pocket, and then she crossed over the spire that decorated the top of the main building to vanish over to the other side. Mary had even less ability to stop her than to stop Clarissa.

Pastel Mary still couldn’t have any confidence in her own powers of judgment. But the only ones there were her, the sheep, and the unconscious Ragi, and the only one with powers of judgment was Mary.

The sound had come from the direction in which Rareko had run. If Rareko was a bad guy like Clarissa said, then she might have attacked someone. Maybe that wasn’t it, and Rareko had been the one attacked. Either way, Mary thought that Chelsea would try to go save her.

Mary looked at the hole. Her sheep were gathering around the edge of the hole and wiggling their noses. From how it was cut in a square and you could see the top of a ladder, it was clearly man-made, and it didn’t look like it had been made just now, either. If this had been set up in the main building to begin with, then Shepherdspie would also have known about it, but Mary hadn’t been told, and, from the looks of it, Chelsea hadn’t heard about it, either. Right before Ragi had passed out, he’d tried to guide them to the main building. Had the old man known about this hole?

Mary pushed aside the head of a big-horned sheep and shoved back the rear of a large sheep, gently addressing her flock as it continued to bleat shrilly, shooing off a sheep that was wearing goggles. While soothing the sheep, Mary desperately racked her brain. What would lead to the best outcome? Just standing out here with nothing around made her really anxious, and it was really dangerous. If she went into the hole and then put a lid on it so you couldn’t tell it was there from the outside, then even if that magical girl did come, Mary might be ignored.

Mary audibly swallowed. The one to make the judgment, the decision right here and now, in this place, was nobody else but Mary. She had to choose what to do.

  Ragi Zwe Nento

Even just opening his eyes was quite laborious. Ragi dug his nails into his palms and clenched his fists and confirmed that his body would move—at the very least somewhat. He opened his eyelids even wider, but the darkness didn’t change much. In the dim space, there was a cold, hard sensation on his head and back. As soon as he tried to inhale through his nose, something awfully irritating came up his throat to his nose to make him choke fiercely.

He coughed, suffered, and writhed. The coughing gradually subsided, either because he was used to the aroma or because it had faded, and he heard other sounds that had been drowned out by the coughing before. The shrill laugh of a girl would have been quite grating even if he hadn’t been in such a situation, and while he was coughing, Ragi’s anger rose to carefully simmer on a low flame. When the pungent smell and his coughing had both died away, he put his hands on his knees to push himself up and glared at the source of the laughter.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.

It was dark. There were no lights. It seemed like he was indoors. The cold, hard sensation under his bottom had to be stone. He hadn’t just been coughing, his eyes had been watering, too. Even without the darkness, he wouldn’t have been able to see straight. And with the smell receding, he finally noticed the pain with a throbbing heat to it that spread from his forehead to his nose.

“Oh, don’t misunderstand, I’m sorry, I didn’t laugh because it’s funny.” The voice sounded familiar.

“Pastel Mary?”

“Yes, it’s Mary. Or wait, can’t you tell from looking? Are your eyes all right?”

“Don’t assume I’m like you. You’re a magical girl. How am I supposed to see in the dark?”

He heard a surprised clap of the hands. “Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry, but I didn’t bring any lights.”

“Where am I?”

“It’s a secret underground room nearby the main building. Oh, by secret, I mean that I didn’t know about it, either, and I was surprised that when I came to the main building, there was a hole in the ground.”

“…How long was I unconscious?”

“I don’t think it was that long… I wasn’t looking at a clock, so I’m not sure exactly.”

“What happened to Chelsea?”

“Umm, well, Clarissa and Rareko were fighting. When Chelsea came and said, ‘Cut it out’ and stopped them, Rareko ran away, and Clarissa made excuses. And then we heard loud noises from the direction Rareko ran off in, so Chelsea went to look. And then, Gra…Mr. Ragi, I took you and took refuge in this hole.”

He went back over everything that had happened, one thing at a time. Based on the way Navi Ru had acted, Ragi had figured there was some kind of facility underground… Ragi let out a cry of “Ahh!” Wasn’t this very place where he and Mary were right now his goal? Ragi moved his fingertips to cast a spell and create a ball of light over his palm. It was just barely larger than a fly, but it was enough to light the area. They were in a little room, about ten feet square. Three sides of it were covered by metal shelves, while the remaining side had a wooden door. It was half-open. Glass bottles lined the shelves. It felt like this place was made of rock, unsurprisingly. The light illuminated Pastel Mary’s expression of surprise from below. The shadows were deep.

Ragi blew out a breath and let the hand that held the light fall to the floor. “Why…have I regained consciousness?”

“Yes, that was it. I was laughing because I was glad about that.” A smile came to Mary’s face, and she thrust one of the glass bottles she had in her hands at Ragi. The pungent, stimulating scent was what had irritated Ragi’s throat before and made him cough so hard. Ragi’s expression contorted distastefully, and he turned his face away, but Mary was unfazed, shoving the bottle in his face. He accepted it reluctantly, and when he looked down at the label, GARGLE MEDICINE was written in an ancient language beside a picture that showed a human shape drinking a bottle of medicine.

When he inferred what that meant, Ragi’s expression twitched in fear and anger. “It can’t be…you made me drink this?”

“I didn’t exactly—rather, when I was carrying you and wondering where to put you down, I staggered and just about fell. I crashed right into the shelf. And then bottles came spilling off the shelf, and the contents splashed right on your face.”

Mary laughed gladly, saying, “I had no clue what was written on it, and I was wondering if maybe this was something bad, but it looks like this was good medicine, and you were saved, huh?” An icy feeling came right from the very bottom of Ragi’s heart. That which was magical girl was truly incorrigible.

There were more than a few things he’d like to say to her, but for the moment he swallowed his complaints and stood. While it had just been an accident caused by Mary’s lack of attention, nevertheless, in the end, he’d regained consciousness. Even if this was medicine, it was unquestionably a magical drug, and so it must have granted him some magic power. It had acted like smelling salts or shock treatment—it really had been too powerful, but whatever the case, it had managed to revive Ragi. He couldn’t let this chance slip through his fingers.

Medicine and pharmacology were not his specialty, but he was still far more knowledgeable than Mary. And he could read the labels, at the very least. Ragi stretched and stood on tiptoe to peek at the rows of bottles. Illuminating the shelves, he selected a bunch of medicine bottles that seemed like they would be of use, then opened one to drink it down. It felt gentler going down his throat than the gargle medicine, drawing a sigh from him before he turned back to Mary.

“We’re going to search this place. This time, be extremely careful not to trip and fall, and help me out.”

  Navi Ru

Navi had thought Clarissa had contacted him from underground in the main building, but for some reason, she was now on the other side of the road, waving her hand. Navi narrowed his eyes and held up a hand to shade them from the sun, but Clarissa still didn’t disappear, waving as she ran up to him.

“Why are you here?” Navi demanded.

“Stuff happened.” She sounded tired. Her expression showed that she was sick of this, too. It even seemed there was disgust in the way she moved. She put out her right hand like she really didn’t want to and pointed to Mana on Navi’s back. “What about you, old man? Why do you have her on your back?” she asked, peeking behind him and twitching her ears.

With a big sigh, Navi replied, “I was thinking I should dig a hole and put her in, but you know. What with the fire and smoke coming close, that won’t work. Just tucking her in a hole while she’s unconscious is one thing, but taking all that extra annoying care with fire retardant and ventilation and all is too much for me. I don’t have the facility or equipment here.”

“It’d sound like you’re a really nice person if you just heard that part.”

“Shaddap. More importantly, talk. What do you mean, ‘stuff happened’?”

All the “stuff” Clarissa described was, across the board and without exception, bad news that brought down his mood. Absolutely none of it was good. Clarissa had tried to strangle Rareko, but then Dreamy Chelsea and Pastel Mary had suddenly shown up, and she’d gotten away. What’s more, the entrance to the underground facility had been left open, and they had seen it. Clarissa had taken advantage of a loud noise and gotten away, but if that loud sound was Francesca, then Rareko was no longer alive. Chelsea and Mary had been carrying Ragi, who’d seemed unconscious, and Francesca being close by meant that Ragi was in danger, too. If they would go in the hole for the time being, they could survive Francesca’s passing, but if that happened, of course that would mean they’d seen the underground facility.

“We also talked about doing in the boy Touta, right?” said Clarissa. “Right now, it looks like he’s at the river.”

“Never mind him now. This isn’t the time for that.”

It was best for Mana, Ragi, and Yol to stay alive. It was best for Touta to die. But there was a priority ranking there. The number one priority was Yol’s safety, with Ragi’s next, followed by Mana’s safety and then Touta’s elimination. Worst case, he could get rid of Touta after leaving the island. Mana would also be a real task, but since he had her on his back now, it was comparatively easier to secure her safety. And Ragi’s situation would depend on the two magical girls.

“What’s your view on Chelsea and Mary?” Navi asked Clarissa. “Strong or not?”

Clarissa’s face contorted like she wanted to deal with that even less, ears lowering flat to her head. “You’re telling Clarissa to fight them?”

“I don’t mean that. And judging from that reaction, I take it they’re trouble to handle.”

“If Clarissa’s allowed to use the secret weapon, it’s not like Clarissa couldn’t fight ’em for you, but still…”

“Like I said, I’m not telling you to fight ’em.”

“Mary can’t throw a punch, but Clarissa thinks her magic is pretty unique. You don’t see magical girls who can produce that many animals often, even at the Lab. Chelsea, on the other hand, is insanely powerful. She’s got a weird service spirit, and Clarissa has got a bit of a whiff of Pam, so maybe she’s an Archfiend Cram School graduate. Clarissa heard she had a fight with Francesca, but she’s still totally fine.”

“I see.” Maybe it could be an option to leave Ragi to those two troublesome magical girls. But there was no guarantee they’d win against Francesca. Navi turned back to look up at the sky. The amount of trailing smoke had increased—and it was coming closer. He had to do something about that, too.

“Hey, old man.” The tugging on his sleeve made him look at Clarissa. She was looking toward the forest with terribly serious eyes. Drawn over there, Navi’s eyes met those of a beat-up magical girl who was supporting herself on her scythe as if it were a cane.

  Nephilia

Some crazy magical girls out there would bluster about how “a magical girl shines brightest when she’s on the edge between life and death.” But Nephilia knew that what those types were in love with was being on the edge between life and death before carving out a new path at the end. Less than one in a hundred were real deals who would say with terrifying sincerity, “Man, that was fun” as they slid over the brink into destruction. (In this case, “real deals” did not have the positive nuance of “real magical girls” but indicated a more negative view: “real crazy in the head.”) Having heard the voices of the dead countless times, Nephilia could state this fact with confidence.

Was Nephilia the real thing, or was she a fake? Since fortunately she had never experienced destruction, she had yet to say either way. But right now, she was still enjoying the tightrope walk between life and death. Partly this was because she had to or she wouldn’t be able to go on, and also this was surprisingly not so bad.

“…Hey,” Navi greeted her.

“Long time…”

“Are you okay? Ah, it doesn’t look like you’re okay.”

“Actually…good…but…Agri…”

“Is that right? Sounds like rough luck for her.”

Nephilia was consciously trying to slow her speech. When she tried to speak as a magical girl, she would always rush it and wind up mumbling. Speaking slowly got her intentions across clearly, and this also made her speech a measuring instrument that showed if she was anxious or not.

Navi Ru was smirking. Maybe the way Nephilia felt was making it seem like he was smirking. Clarissa stood a half step in front of Navi, twitching her ears just like a cat. Her balanced stance was very much like those of the carnivorous beasts of the savanna. Her smile was highly aggressive, her gaze centered on Nephilia but alert to the whole area.

She was fifty feet away. If this turned into a fight, Nephilia, being injured, would be killed in an instant. She drew in a deep breath and let it out. Shallow breathing would only heighten the tension in her body and mind.

“We’ve…terrible…” Nephilia leaned against her scythe laboriously.

The index finger of Clarissa’s right hand moved slightly. Seeing the two of them thus far, Nephilia made an initial judgment. From their reactions, Clarissa was more likely to snap than Navi. She had fearsome boldness for her apparent age while human, but she obviously had less experience than he did. Also, being in the position where she had to be prepared to fight at any time, she would be more tense.

From their gestures, looks, expressions, tone of voice, breathing, and everything else, every element, Nephilia read the feelings they were trying to hide and their goals. She would say that they wanted to keep from being discarded as useless, but also to avoid being eliminated for being too dangerous. She’d make herself someone they would think wasn’t bad to associate with.

She could do it. She had to do it. Negotiations were Nephilia’s bread and butter. At the very least, she hadn’t been instantly killed on showing herself. She had passed the first stage. Nephilia inhaled a long breath and let it out. Not just all her joints, but her neck, chest, and stomach all hurt.

“Have…lots of grayfruit… Don’t you want…?”

“Oh-ho, that’d be great.”

“If you cooperate…then.”

Navi and Agri’s contract to organize their cooperation had made both their fortunes collateral. Even if Agri was dead, if Navi betrayed it, the magic would still activate. That held true even if the goddess magical girl who had killed Agri was Navi’s ally. But the contracts that Nephilia had tucked under her costume had not yet activated, and no punishment had been dealt to Navi.

Well, then, was Navi purely a victim? Nephilia didn’t think so. Before the goddess magical girl had shown herself, Agri had divulged her guess to him—that the goddess was rampaging under the belief that Navi’s allies were under attack—and Navi’s reaction to that had been suspicious. Though he’d said he didn’t know, that had not been the answer of someone who actually didn’t know. Wasn’t that exactly the reason Agri had gotten the wrong idea?

He knew some things and was keeping silent about what hadn’t been asked. When he’d rejected the possibility that Navi was a pure victim, this had also seemed likely. Also, the goddess magical girl was not affiliated with Navi’s camp. At most, Nephilia figured that he knew some method to deal with her.

Agri had died because she had misunderstood the relationship between the magical girl who was out of control and Navi. Nephilia wasn’t so cold that she could see it as Agri’s error or fault, and she also didn’t think that it wasn’t Navi’s fault because he hadn’t lied. It was hard to say Nephilia was a very loyal person, but even she hated him enough to think, I’d like to whack him one, step on his smirking face, and grind it in. Navi Ru and Clarissa were both nasty, but they weren’t nasties of the type that was worthwhile to Nephilia. They were different from Agri.

But she couldn’t tell them that she hated them. The wind blew, and the pungent burnt smell was wafting thick. Nephilia looked up and breathed a sigh. “The fire…strong.”

“That’s a problem. What idiot pulled that one?” Navi asked.

Nephilia had no obligation to tell him, “It was my idiot.” Looking at Clarissa’s ears, she saw they had stopped moving. It was fair to assume she already knew where Ren-Ren was hiding. But it was nevertheless worthwhile just to have her hiding and watching them. Being forced to protect Navi kept Clarissa from being calm and made it easier to see her reactions.

“As I…said…before…don’t you need…grayfruit?”

“Yeah, we want them.” Like always, Navi’s attitude was consistent. He didn’t waver. But now he was seeking to settle things with that one remark. He didn’t want a drawn-out conversation with Nephilia. Navi wasn’t as calm as he was putting on. It would be fine for him to be a little irritated. But Nephilia could not emphasize from her end that he was in just as much trouble as she was. There was no reason that she absolutely had to be on top here. Depending on their mood, she could be killed. It would make it easier if they thought of her as being like a child who was overreaching herself to try to be equal.

“The contract is…still valid…should…cooperate…”

She had learned about Navi Ru’s fortune when they’d made the contract. It was a fair sum. Agri had said jokingly, “If you betray me, then it’s all mine, huh?”

But Nephilia thought that if necessary, this man would even throw away his “fair sum” of a fortune. Nephilia’s history as a magical girl was not short, and she’d seen a few people like that—mages and magical girls. Some had been drunk on self-sacrifice, and others had had personal desires that were difficult to understand. Navi was one of those types, although not entirely. From what she’d seen of his actions and behavior on this island, his goal didn’t seem to have anything to do with money. Agri might have assumed he and Navi shared the same values, operating within a profit-and-loss framework, but that was nowhere near the truth. Navi just wanted others to see him as materialistic. He wasn’t simply trying to make himself look bad—it was malicious, and he was giving people the wrong idea about his character to try to pull the rug out from under them.

That was why Nephilia would have him assume that she was still relying on the contract. Because that made things easier for Navi Ru to control. Even if Navi didn’t think much of his fortunes, she would use the contract as a shield.

“Fire…strong.”

“Yeah, we just heard.”

“Dangerous…”

“For sure.”

“Chelsea…and Mary…working together…”

Clarissa blinked. Chelsea and Mary had already escaped from under Ren-Ren’s control, but there was no need to tell them that. She should actually conceal that it was just Nephilia and Ren-Ren. It was best to have as many cards as possible.

“No…contact…saying…encountered…survivors…”

Clarissa’s face looked slightly stiff. There was no change in Navi, but when it came to him, you should assume he simply wasn’t showing his emotions.

“If you’re…not a magical girl…fire…very…dangerous…”

“Mages aren’t to be underestimated, though.”

Clarissa blinked twice. Navi’s sentence had gotten just a bit louder at the end.

Navi Ru hadn’t been ready for a fire. There was no way he’d have been able to predict Ren-Ren setting it. Navi was acting like the fire was nothing, which probably wasn’t just a bluff, but what about Yol? Even if Navi had done something to protect her from the goddess, she couldn’t escape a fire that way. Judging from Clarissa’s reaction, the protection Yol was under wasn’t perfect. Navi’s desire to protect Yol was clear in how he’d placed that restraint in the contract with Agri’s faction. There would be no point in incorporating not interfering with Yol into the contract as a bluff or to try to mislead them. Even if he planned to trick them down the line, there would be no point if Agri pulled one over on him before that. It would be a problem for Navi if Yol died, and while it wasn’t a great thing for Yol that her safety was uncertain now, it was a wonderful thing for Nephilia.

“Should…deal with…”

“Mm.”

“So…more…cooperation…”

“You mean putting out the fire?”

Nephilia slowly shook her head. “No…defeat…magical girl like a goddess…after…put out fire…”

She clearly said “goddess.” She was absolutely not going to make accusations like “Don’t you know her?” but she did make her existence explicit. Nephilia being as beaten up as she was made it look undeniably convincing that she had encountered the enemy magical girl. She’d made contact with the monster, and she’d only gotten badly hurt. She wasn’t pitifully ailing from her wounds, she actually looked strong, as if her injuries were badges of honor.

But Nephilia played pitiful and leaned on her scythe. She didn’t say anything out loud, but she communicated implicitly, “If I fought you I’d die. But I’ll do my best to hold on with just one arm. So let’s negotiate.” She’d let them figure it out. Navi, the rough-looking middle-aged and bald mage nailing her with his vicious and tenacious gaze, would surely figure it out.

Nephilia wasn’t saying anything wrong. Getting attacked in the middle of putting out a fire would just be dangerous. They should extinguish the fire after they’d dealt with the biggest danger.

Now Navi’s expression changed for the first time. He touched his left hand to his jaw and stroked his five-o’clock shadow. His expression looked pensive, eyes pointed at the various trails of smoke hanging in the sky. Clarissa’s eyes didn’t move from Nephilia. Her eyelashes were trembling slightly.

“…Sure.” Navi nodded and smacked Clarissa’s back.

Clarissa’s smile didn’t falter as she spread her hands and stepped up to Nephilia in an utterly casual manner. Navi was behind her. From the way they were both acting, Nephilia sensed that their tension had eased. If they were thinking it was kill or be killed, Navi never would have approached along with Clarissa.

Nephilia approached them as well, but she was still ready to die at any moment as she held out her right hand. When Navi’s palm reached out past Clarissa’s, Nephilia clasped it, relieved at the meaty and reliable-feeling palm, and then she laughed quietly at herself.

  Dreamy Chelsea

Her body moved before she could even think, and as she leaped over the spire of the building, she wondered to herself, Is Dreamy Chelsea managing to act calmly right now? She was surprised that she was thinking that. Dreamy Chelsea would never mope, and she never got fussed about any sort of troubles. She would act resolutely and without a thought, resolving things cleanly. That was Dreamy Chelsea. That was what a magical girl was. Smart people should handle things like thinking.

Pushing through the wind blowing in her face, Chelsea pointed her star downward.

But Chelsea didn’t consider it a failure that she’d just been thinking. She had to think. She needed to think, even if it meant going against the moves she should originally have been making. Because it wasn’t just about her. The warmth of Mary’s hand on her back. Ragi’s face, constantly angry like the face of an uncle of hers. There were other people on the island, too. Shepherdspie was gone. She was clenching her teeth. She couldn’t help but think that if she’d thought a little more, not just about herself, but even half about other people, maybe things would have wound up differently.

That’s why she would be calm. She had to be calm. Even if Chelsea acted without thinking, she would be okay. Because Dreamy Chelsea was a magical girl. But even if Chelsea would be okay, not everything and everyone would.

Was it true that Clarissa hadn’t meant to kill Rareko? If she was going to kill her, then it would have been way faster not to strangle her but to slice with her claws instead. But it was clear they had been fighting. Whenever there was a survival scenario in anime, manga, or novels, it was pretty common for allies to steal foodstuffs from each other, even when it had nothing to do with the main thread of the story. Not everyone could be like Deux Ans de Vacances. The world was always Lord of the Flies.

That was precisely why magical girls, why the cuteness of magical girls was needed.

Chelsea floated downward to hang there in the air. As the hem of her skirt slowly came fluttering down, Chelsea glared at the scene spread out before her. She’d had a feeling about this. She’d thought maybe things would wind up like this. But she hadn’t wanted them to.

Pieces of the ceiling were clunking down to hit the floor. There was also the tik, tik of red fluid dripping. It was dripping everywhere—from the ends of the axes, the branches of trees. The goddess magical girl was smiling like she was very happy. At her feet was a maid outfit, soaked in red. The head and neck were gone down to the middle of the chest, so you couldn’t tell who it was, but the outfit was familiar.

Chelsea took her star decoration in hand and spun it like a yo-yo, making it skim along the ground to snap back the other way, then caught it with her left hand. Her star was hot. There was heat in it.

The goddess swung her arms like a swan about to flap its wings, spinning as she approached Chelsea. She spread both arms with axes in hand, puffed out her chest, and looked up at Chelsea from where she was kneeling. Her white costume was dirty, but her movements were elegant enough to make up for it.

“Is the one you dropped the golden ax?”

On hearing that question, Chelsea put her arms together for a spin the opposite way, facing the goddess in a pose with her hands in a heart shape, her star decoration sandwiched between them. The two magical girls held their stances as they gazed upon each other with the greatest smiles. When the wind blew through, stirring up dust, Chelsea didn’t even blink.

The goddess had learned to move in a cutesy way. It was purely superficial copying, but you couldn’t look down on that. Everyone started with copying. It was admiration for her predecessors, like Miko-Chan, Riccabel, and Hiyoko-Chan that had made Dreamy Chelsea who she was now.

Chelsea couldn’t win in a competition of strength. She was even inferior in speed and the power of her magic. And in cuteness, the one area where she’d been winning, the goddess was rapidly catching up. Chelsea wanted to run away, but she didn’t like the kind of magical girl who would run away now. She spun her star and brought it overhead. At the same time, she brought the heart shape under her chin and to the right. The goddess rose, closing her opened arms to cross them, overlapping her axes. Just her face peeked out between her arms and axes as she watched Chelsea, sharp and alert.

“Or is it the silver ax?”

What Ragi had said was right. Magical girls weren’t made for this. That was exactly why Chelsea had to stop the goddess. Comparing their strength seemed like cause for despair. But she had to win. So then what would she do?

Chelsea lightly bit her lip and wetted it. “Prepare to be wowed by a cuteness you’ve never known.”

She only had one option. She dropped the heart shape and shifted to peace signs, then fired off a pose before crossing her arms as she pointed to the other girl and yelled, “Leave it to Dreamy Chelsea!”

Under the light of the sun, her star shone black. When the goddess jumped, Chelsea leaped into the air.