Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 16 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

MAY I JOIN IN?

  Class 2-F

“There’s a leftover jelly!”

Everyone in the classroom looked toward the girl who’d just yelled. She wore glasses and had her hair in a braid: The leader of Group Two, Mephis Pheles, was covering the plastic container with her body to protect it.

“Hey, hey.” A girl with a ponytail, Ranyi, stopped her. “Why’re you hunching over like that? Planning to take the leftover jelly for yourself?”

“If I was, then I’d just keep my mouth shut and eat it. I’m protecting a commodity. The last time there was a dessert left over, someone went and gobbled it down without asking.”

All eyes yet again moved at once. The girl with long black hair who so elegantly held a spork—Princess Lightning, the leader of Group Three—blinked as if trying to show off her long eyelashes, then pointed to her face with its beautiful, perfect jawline. “Did I do something?”

“Don’t give me that shit. The last time there was some frozen mandarin oranges left over, you’re the one who just took them and ate them.”

“At the time, there were no rules established as to how anyone would acquire the leftover desserts, were there? In other words, what I did was not against the rules.”

“Oh-ho, I see. That makes sense.” Ranyi seemed to be the only one completely convinced by this. She nodded a few times, but the other students were basically looking at her coldly.

Mephis was particularly enraged, and she slammed the table with a fist. “Even if no rules have been established, you stuck to the rules of being human!”

“It wasn’t an issue by my personal rules. I hadn’t heard anything about your rules, so I didn’t know. Are we done now? We’re just going to keep talking in circles.”

At this point, everyone in the class imagined that Mephis would become enraged at Lightning’s provocative statements—though Lightning herself probably didn’t mean any of it to be provocative—but then someone stepped in to help instead. The blue-eyed and blond-haired girl who came to stand beside Mephis, Thunder-General Adelheid, put her hand out in front of the enraged Group Two leader to stop her.

“Hey now, calm down. Talkin’ ’bout the past now ain’t gettin’ us nowhere. We gotta talk about right now. Today, Miss Calkoro was called out of the class and ain’t here for lunch, and there’s one extra jelly. There’s no way we can all split it among ourselves, so someone’s gonna get it—and now we’re talkin’ ’bout who that’ll be.”

The small dark-skinned girl, Arc Arlie, raised her hand. “Rock-paper-scissors!”

Drill Dory, who looked exactly the same as Arlie, followed up with, “Battle!”

A girl with a black bob—the student representative and leader of Group One, Tetty Goodgripp—had Arlie and Dory sit down, and then next, a girl with evenly cut short hair and light brown skin, Kumi-Kumi, said, “There’s…too many people here for rock-paper-scissors…and we can’t…fight now…,” weightily stating the obvious.

“Then let’s find some other… Ah, okay.”

Classical Lillian, a girl with pale skin and long, messy black hair, started to say something, but when she noticed everyone was looking at her, she winced and drew back.

As if taking over from the statement she’d given up on partway, a girl with a medium bob dyed a slightly dark color, Sally Raven, raised her hand. “Then I have a suggestion, yeahhh. It’d take time for everyone to compete at once, so we should just have the leaders act as representatives, and then the victor’s group can split it or decide a final winner.”

Sally didn’t touch on the presence of the girl sitting beside her. Pshuke Prains’s wavy hair swayed as she kept on muttering.

“Then as for what game…,” Sally began. “I think musical chairs would be good, yeahhh.”

Sally’s sudden and baffling suggestion brought a doubtful look to Mephis’s face. Then she suddenly looked up at the very striking-looking girl who was behind Sally with her arms folded—Diko Narakunoin, complete with a Mohawk and a facial tattoo of a Nue.

She had a strong physique and good athletic reflexes. At a glance, playing musical chairs was a crazy way to compete, but Group Three clearly thought that they were at the advantage with someone strong like Diko on their side.

Mephis snorted. “So sure you’re gonna win, huh? Fine, I accept. You guys better not have forgotten.”

“Yes, I can’t have you forgetting me.” Kana, the only one who remained in magical-girl form, smacked her chest.

But Mephis told her off quietly, “Not you. Are you trying to get someone killed?” and she drew back as if nothing had happened. Kana could be too proactive sometimes, but she was also obedient.

“I can agree to a competition of physique. And being the tallest in the class basically means she’s gonna be best at musical chairs.” Mephis slapped Adelheid’s back beside her, and Adelheid puffed out her chest confidently. She was over five feet tall—so if you didn’t add in the Mohawk, then even Diko couldn’t match her. She was like an adult mixed in among children.

“Hey, hey, don’t go forgetting Group One.”

Rappy Taype, with her brightly colored hair inappropriate for middle school and her even more inappropriate heavy makeup, stood. “Since in our group, we’ve got someone who’s better at musical chairs than anyone else. We’re counting on you, Miss Ril.”

A plump girl, Miss Ril, got to her feet. She wasn’t as tall as Adelheid or Diko, but she had them beat in weight and volume.

“If you’re shoving at each other, that comes down to a competition of weight.”

A dignified strength could be felt from her calm smile. She was normally quiet and reserved, but she was also good at playing along.

The teacher Calkoro wasn’t there to stop them. Under Tetty’s instruction, they all worked together to move the desks and chairs, making a space in the center of the room where they placed a single chair, and the three girls surrounded the chair. Then the rest of the class surrounded the girls, some raising fists, others putting hands to their mouths to cheer on their group members.

Sally’s magical phone began playing the opening theme of the first Cutie Healer series. The three girls started walking around the single chair. The game of musical chairs over fruit jelly had begun.

  Koyuki Himekawa

It was after school. She used the gate to jump from the school to the Inspection Department, and from there she used another gate to jump to a spot close to her house. Even saying it was close, it was still two stations away, so she took the train to head home. In the mornings, she did all this the other way. This was Snow White’s—Koyuki Himekawa’s—commute to school.

While swaying on the train, Koyuki thought back on the events of that day.

During lunch break, they enjoyed a game of musical chairs between the groups over some jelly. Her classmates had gotten very excited about it. Even the normally quiet Lillian and the serious group leader Tetty had loudly cheered on their group members. Only Pshuke had muttered insults about the other members, but that was also another form of cheering.

Koyuki had been the one person with a cool head. She’d pretended like she was enjoying herself so she wouldn’t stick out, but deep down, she had been cold as ice. The others were a dazzling sight to her, and she was envious.

She’d been sent in by the Inspection Department to investigate this dubious magical-girl class, so investigation was number one, and she had no intention of enjoying her life at school. But before she knew it, Koyuki Himekawa was having friendly chats with her classmates, and she even believed her smiles felt sincere. When that happened, she would hastily get herself focused again.

It had been proposed that she be appointed as the teacher, but she would feel bad for Miss Calkoro, so she had decided to transfer in as a student. But now, she felt that if she had been the teacher, maybe she would have been able to draw a line between herself and the students.

There were a lot of different magical girls in the class. Diko and Adelheid prioritized their missions over everything else. But they enjoyed themselves when it was time for fun and worked when it was time to work. They were able to compartmentalize. Kumi-Kumi did worry about Frederica, but she spent every day doing whatever she could to find a conclusion. While Ranyi couldn’t abandon her admiration for Lazuline, even with the vague awareness that it was beyond her, she pretended not to notice and was doing her best—both of them were always working as hard as they could. Tetty and Miss Ril were sincerely diligent as students.

What they had in common was their hope for the future.

As a fake student, when Snow White compared herself with these youthful and straightforward girls, she felt like she was twenty or thirty years older. But even then, she didn’t let it show on her face, mediating between Arlie and Dory, laughing at Rappy’s jokes as she watched the others.

She heard the mixed fear and respect for her nickname of Magical-Girl Hunter. This all came from thoughts, so Snow White couldn’t stop herself from hearing it. She understood better than anyone that she wasn’t that kind of person, but the voices wouldn’t stop.

This wasn’t limited to just the magical-girl class. Princess Deluge had been the same way. Fighting in the cave that she’d occupied with the Puk Faction, Snow White had almost killed Deluge—and of all things, using the weapon of Princess Inferno, who had been Deluge’s friend, and also a childhood friend of Snow White. Deluge had only avoided death thanks to her vitality and luck.

Revenge had led Deluge to wield her strength violently, but loss had broadened her view. She’d come to have a type of respect for Snow White, who had defeated her, and Snow White had come to hear Deluge’s thoughts holding her in esteem. Even when she wavered, she was facing front.

Snow White wanted to hold her head and scream. She couldn’t help but remember the time when she had been controlled by Puk Puck. Even if her responsibility hadn’t been questioned because she’d been controlled by magic, many had died. And each one of the voices of their hearts continued to echo inside Snow White. In the underground laboratory, she had heard the voices of the magical girls who had been about to be killed, but she had ignored them. Snow White had been doing that constantly, that whole time.

And then she had been entrusted with Inferno’s memories. In N City, Snow White had sworn to Hardgore Alice that she would continue being a magical girl who she could be proud of. She would never forget how she had felt when La Pucelle had lost her life. So long as she was holding the baton that those girls had handed her, Snow White had to clench her teeth and move onward.

And then there was Ripple. And Fal, too. They needed Snow White. She had to save them. Even if she was so ashamed she wanted to scream, even if she remembered things she didn’t want to remember, she had to keep going.

The train PA system announced that they were nearing their destination. Koyuki’s eyes idly turned to the distant scenery. It was definitely an unfamiliar sight. Which reminded her, when she was transformed into Snow White at school, she never heard any voices at all from the courtyard, but if she was to ask about that, who should she go to…? And then before you knew it, she was back to her mission.

  Pythie Frederica

Someone outside the class was up to no good. She had to deal with that eventually, of course, but for now, Asmona could take care of it. Frederica had multiple things to do; she couldn’t be preoccupied with that cheerful bunch even if they were being attacked.

She’d completed a certain amount of fishing around regarding the incarnations, but she would also have to meddle a little in the magical-girl class. A week had passed since Frederica heard from Adelheid that Snow White had transferred in, but Frederica had yet to get a grasp on how the situation had since changed.

She wanted to know a little bit more about the magical-girl class and about how Snow White was doing with them. Since Frederica hadn’t been able to use her magic on Snow White for a little while now, it was best to stay in contact with her classmate Kumi-Kumi. Frederica hadn’t met with her since before the homunculi incident.

Frederica peered into her crystal ball to leap to Kumi-Kumi’s location, but for some reason, it was completely dark, and she couldn’t see anything. This was unusual. Very odd. This was different from being unable to use her magic on Snow White—she’d activated her magic but could see only darkness. This might make sense if Kumi-Kumi was at school, but right now she should be at home. Something had happened to Kumi-Kumi.

In the Caspar Faction’s living room, Frederica bent all the way backward and buried herself in the sofa.

Experience told her there was just one answer. If her magic’s target was dead, her crystal ball would show only darkness. Had she been attacked like Kimiera and finished off?

Frederica rolled over on the sofa and buried her face in the cushions.

Now she turned on her magical phone and sent a message to Kumi-Kumi. Frederica already considered it about a 95 percent chance that Kumi-Kumi was dead, and this was just in case, to confirm that there would be no response—but contrary to her expectations, a message came back instantly.

Gazing at the text asking her what was going on, Frederica tilted her head. She was the one who wanted to ask what was going on.

Frederica got up off the couch and walked to the right side of the room toward the exit, and from there she spun back around to walk to the window—on the way, she started to kick aside a wriggling bag, then came to a stop.

It really was odd. Frederica’s lines of communication were everywhere. If something had happened to Kumi-Kumi, there was no way Frederica wouldn’t get a report. In other words, Kumi-Kumi was completely fine with nothing amiss, but Frederica’s magic hadn’t reached her. This was strange.

Frederica spent half a day after that checking the safety of the area around Kumi-Kumi’s house. She couldn’t find any particular problems. She lived in a quiet area with not many people passing by her apartment. No enemy forces had placed a watch there.

Frederica used the hair of a dispatched subordinate to leap to Kumi-Kumi’s neighborhood, and making sure the area was quite secure, she remained transformed as she rang the bell.

Ordinarily, this wasn’t a matter for Frederica to go deal with directly herself. The odds were fairly high that this was a trap, and it was the height of madness to try to confirm this personally. If Asmona found out about this, she would click her tongue with a bitter expression. But Frederica knew herself best of all. She was not the type who’d be able to put up with a situation like this. Forcing herself to put up with it was just too terrible for her health—it would take years off her life in the end.

Such was the excuse she made to herself, making the visit with a certain amount of preparedness for death, but Kumi-Kumi came out to the front door with a look on her face like this was nothing. Frederica had sent her a message beforehand this time, so Kumi-Kumi was expecting her visit. She didn’t seem surprised—Frederica just got the sense of, “I don’t want to get dragged into trouble,” wafting aggressively from her whole body.

It was Kumi-Kumi. It didn’t simply look like her—she reacted just like Kumi-Kumi had before, too. Frederica was shown into the house. She checked out the interior of her small apartment, but there wasn’t anything particularly strange about it. It was the same as before. So then why was it that Frederica’s magic had stopped working?

Feeling the thinness of the cushion placed atop her seat, Frederica sat down, wetting the inside of her mouth with the barley tea that was served to her. The taste was the same as before. It was the cheap but relaxing taste of home. Letting out a breath through her nose, she raised her chin.

What’s this…?

She smelled something off. Thinking it was the tea, she had another sip. Then she brought it to her nose to sniff it, but that wasn’t it. No. It was something else. Kumi-Kumi was looking at her with suspicion, but Frederica ignored her. Frederica sniffed three or four times, then placed the Japanese teacup with the tea in it on the table and sniffed a fifth and sixth time.

Standing up, she circled around the table clockwise, approaching Kumi-Kumi. Kumi-Kumi hastily tried to rise to her feet, but Frederica stopped her, saying “stay there.”

Frederica stood in front of Kumi-Kumi, who was looking up at her in apparent confusion. But Frederica was confused, too. She was trying to figure out the reason for this sense something was off, but she had no clue at all what was going on.

“Please undo your transformation.”

As ordered, Kumi-Kumi returned to human form. Frederica placed her hand on Kumi-Kumi’s head and petted her a little roughly and audibly. The reason she didn’t touch her hair gently was because she wanted to make sure to check the feel of her hair. The sensation of her hair in her hand told Frederica something certain.

Letting out a sigh, Frederica looked at Kumi-Kumi again, and Kumi-Kumi was staring up at her fearfully. Frederica noticed that her own face was stiffened into a severe look, and she released Kumi-Kumi’s head, looked the other way, and massaged between her eyes with the hand she’d been petting with. At the same time, she inhaled the smell of her hand, confirming the smell of the hair.

“Transform one more time.”

She had Kumi-Kumi transform and repeated the same process.

Frederica went the other way along the same route to return to her chair and sat down. She observed Kumi-Kumi from the same eye level. She was looking back at her without hiding her confusion and fear.

Frederica casually dropped the single hair of Kumi-Kumi’s that remained in her palm into her pocket, put a hand to her mouth, and coughed intentionally. “It’s been a long time.”

“Oh, yes.”

“I didn’t have any particular business today…but I came to see if you were doing well. By the way, has anything changed at school? I’ve heard that a new student has transferred in.”

While observing with a smile on her face as Kumi-Kumi spoke falteringly, Frederica thought. She didn’t look like anything but the real thing. If the issue hadn’t come to the surface in the class, that had to mean neither the teacher nor the students had noticed anything unusual about Kumi-Kumi.

Frederica didn’t have any special attachment to Kumi-Kumi—if anything, she was in the position of a bad adult trying to use her. But a magical girl being changed into something else made Frederica feel anger that was difficult to restrain.

  Kana

In the three days since Ranyi’s return, Kana had been observing her. She saw various sides of Ranyi: Ranyi asking Diko questions, Ranyi being overawed by Lightning, Ranyi checking on Pshuke, Ranyi looking at Sally with envy—and judging that she was now as energetic as she had been before going to the hospital, she was relieved. Dying meant you’d never come back, but Ranyi had just barely skirted the line of death and survived, and so had been able to return. That was a very happy thing.

Understanding that full well herself, on the day of Ranyi’s return, Kana rose to her feet to welcome her with applause. Ranyi seemed a little confused to come into the classroom and have everyone celebrate her. The class atmosphere had changed so much since she’d gone to the hospital, so Kana figured it was no wonder she would be taken aback. As for what specifically was different—before, Kana would have had a vague idea of it, but she hadn’t been able to verbalize it, and if she’d have spoken with someone about this thing she didn’t understand, she would have gotten a reaction like, “Why the heck doesn’t she get this?”

But Kana wasn’t anything like how she’d been before. Her daily studies had transformed her from a former prisoner of unknown origins into a student. She was certain something was different now.

At noon on the day that Kana observed Ranyi’s full recovery without talking about it to anyone, they all put their desks together to have lunch, and Kana, the one person in magical-girl form, finished eating first before she brought up something with her friends in Group Two.

“Well then, I’d like to talk about what we’re going to do.”

Everyone looked at Kana. Kumi-Kumi, who was having trouble sticking her straw into her carton of milk; Mephis and Adelheid, who had been talking about the latest chapter of a manga; and Lillian, who seemed like she was unsure about whether to reach out a hand to help Kumi-Kumi—they all had baffled looks.

“‘What we’re going to do…?’ Like what?” Mephis asked.

“This some kinda philosophical thing?” Adelheid added.

“You mean…what we should do…as magical girls…?”

“Ummm, I’m sorry, but you have to explain what it is you mean, or I don’t think I’ll quite get it… Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing over everything, Lillian,” Mephis shot back.

Kana realized her mistake. She had assumed that everyone would have noticed and so had skipped a lot before making that statement. She would modify it, adding a little more detail and making it more understandable. She should already have experienced that mutual understanding was grounded in an effort to be understood—she was bound to mess up everything if she skipped steps there.

Kana assembled in her mind everything that she had to talk about, hypothesizing a route that should work, and began to speak. Everyone had already finished eating, the issue of Kumi-Kumi’s straw not sticking into her carton of milk had been resolved, and they were patiently waiting for Kana to begin speaking.

“It was at the middle school… Yes, the other classes that aren’t ours, where the students aside from magical girls go.”

“Ahh, Umemizaki Junior High,” said Mephis.

“Huh? Something happen there?”

It seemed like Adelheid honestly didn’t know. Kana thought that showed a serious lack of attention, but maybe this was just how much Kana had grown, being able to keep an eye on things around her like this. If that was the case, then it was her job as a classmate to tell Adelheid what she had noticed.

“I saw when coming to school,” said Kana. “They were making big arch gates in the courtyard.”

“Ahh, that. The Commemoration of Foundin’ or whatnot,” said Adelheid.

“It’s the Founding Festival. Many of the manga I’ve borrowed from Mephis are set in school, and I have a general understanding of what a festival is for a school. Just in case, I questioned Calkoro to confirm that there were no discrepancies. For the Founding Festival, groups such as classes or clubs will each produce a stall, production, event, or research project.”

Mephis had been listening with an uncomprehending look, but now she muttered, “Ahh. So by what are we gonna do, you mean, like, you’re talking about if we’re going to participate in the Umemizaki Founding Festival.”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

Mephis put a finger to her glasses and scowled, Adelheid folded her arms and looked up at the ceiling, Kumi-Kumi muttered something under her breath, and Lillian looked down in deep thought. All their own modes of discomfiture.

Kana was visibly confused. “That’s an odd reaction,” she told them.

“Uh, sure, maybe,” said Mephis. “But we’re not supposed to get too involved with Umemizaki, right? I doubt we’re gonna be participating in this festival.”

“Yeah, Ah think that’d be the typical assumption,” Adelheid agreed.

“This is news to me,” said Kana.

“Uh, sure, maybe, but…,” Mephis began.

“They’d probably…just tell us…not to…do anything uncalled for,” Kumi-Kumi pointed out.

“I don’t think it’s uncalled-for,” Kana insisted. “The student handbook acknowledges that we are borrowing Umemizaki Junior High’s property. Wouldn’t it be a problem to simply receive this benefit while not returning the favor?”

“Hey now, would that be returnin’ any favors? Ain’t that just pesterin’ them to join in ’cause we want ta be in the festival? It’d just cause them trouble to join in on the event with some self-servin’ interpretation of the rules.”

“Now that seems like a self-serving interpretation. Imagining what they might think and assuming we should abstain won’t benefit either party. We should ask whether it’s good or bad.”

“Just who should we ask, though?” asked Lillian.

“I’ve already learned that if you ask Calkoro, she just goes on about how she has no authority and such,” said Kana. “I have no intention of pointlessly troubling our teacher.”

“So then…who should we…ask…?”

“No, no.” A scowl on her face, Mephis closed her eyes and waved a hand. “You’re gonna take this to the principal, aren’t you? No way, I don’t want her watching me harder than she already does.”

“Oh yeah, Ah hear you’ve met the principal, Mephis.”

“Don’t say it like it’s some nepotistic connection. It’s the opposite.”

Kana thought that fundamentally speaking, being the group leader, Mephis should offer her opinion directly to the school principal. But if she just didn’t want to do it, then someone else would have to be the one.

“Has anyone aside from Mephis met the principal?” Kana asked. Adelheid, Kumi-Kumi, and Lillian all shook their heads, and Kana nodded. “Then there’s no choice but for me to go. For better or for worse, my magic is related to questions. I’ve refrained from use as much as possible, but when would I use it if not now?”

“Hey, don’t— Hold on.”

“Let’s be a little more cautious ’bout this.”

“That’s like…hitting a bomb…with a bomb.”

“Negotiations! Let’s have some more negotiations, please!”

They all stopped her at once.

  Tetty Goodgripp

Group Two made a lot of noise during lunchtime that day, and you didn’t need to use a magical girl’s heart to overhear what they were talking about. They were discussing whether to participate in Umemizaki’s Founding Festival, and when Kana reached the dangerous-sounding proposal of directly asking the principal, everyone stopped her.

“What a conversation they’re having, huh?” Rappy looked more amused than her remark sounded as she shrugged. Unlike Group Two, she kept her voice down so that others couldn’t hear. “I hope they’re not gonna do anything too reckless, though. Y’know, since Kana’s like—kinda, well, I wouldn’t say reckless, but it does seem like she doesn’t value herself much when taking action. Like the time with the homunculi, I hear things got bad when she defended Kumi-Kumi.”

Miss Ril giggled. “You defended me, too, Rappy.”

Rappy must have been embarrassed, as she blushed, for once, and waved a hand. “Nobody defended more people than you, Miss Ril.”

The two laughed, shoulders shaking, and Tetty, who had been one of the causes of defending and being defended, laughed along with them.

Arlie and Dory didn’t really understand about the Founding Festival. They launched questions at Snow White using words she didn’t quite understand, and Snow White then answered them in words neither sister could understand.

Tetty smiled as she reflected on things. It seemed Kana had met the principal before. Mephis said she’d seen her before, too, but it seemed she didn’t like her. Mephis aside, Kana meeting her had to have been because she’d entered the school through a different route from the other students. Maybe the principal had judged that she had to make sure what kind of character she was, or it would be rather dangerous to let a former prisoner transfer in.

But if that was why they’d met, Tetty figured they wouldn’t be close enough for Kana to be making requests. They’d only met because there had been an issue with Kana; a problematic character walking in with a new problem wouldn’t produce a friendly response from the principal.

Tetty had never met the principal. But she did know Satou, who would have met the principal.

For her elementary school cultural festivals, they had done things like making a map of old buildings of their hometown and putting it all together, or gathering old stories told in the region, writing them out, and making them into a book. She also seemed to recall they’d made udon and pounded mochi, using the money they’d gathered to get a new hutch for the school pets or things like that. She remembered having gotten excited about it with her friends and having fun.

She looked at Snow White, who was in between Arlie and Dory as they took turns talking to her, then at Miss Ril and Rappy, who were laughing as she prodded Miss Ril in the side. Tetty had yet to figure out Snow White, but maybe if they had some kind of event, they could make friends. And making something and doing something together was sure to be fun for the other members of the group.

Moving just her eyes, she looked at Group Two. Mephis was talking to Kana with a serious expression. Maybe she was trying to convince her to give up on this reckless idea.

Was it really reckless? It wouldn’t cost anything to just check, so shouldn’t Tetty, the student representative, be the one to try?

Mephis placed a hand on Kana’s shoulder and shook her head. Seeing her swaying braids, Tetty made up her mind—she would try asking Satou, who had been concerned about her trouble with Mephis. If they worked together on something for a big event like that, maybe she could make up with Mephis.

  Sally Raven

Sally wouldn’t blame the group leader’s character for it, but Group Two was fundamentally lacking in reserve, and they would talk loudly during lunch, too. Even with Group One between them, Kana’s suggestion had been audible to Group Three. Sally thought, Huh, that’s an interesting conversation, but taking the initiative to touch on their conversation felt like eavesdropping, so she hesitated to say anything.

But while Sally was wondering what she should do, Princess Lightning, who wouldn’t worry herself thinking about such things, touched on Kana’s declaration. “The Founding Festival is coming up?”

“I think it’s in about two weeks, yeahhh.” You couldn’t expect a decent answer from Diko or Pshuke, and Ranyi had just gotten out of the hospital, so Sally answered. Once she’d put that into words, she immediately thought, Won’t it seem like I’m paying too much attention to things if I know the scheduled date for Umemizaki Junior High’s Founding Festival?

The changes around school, like the arch gates being made in the courtyard or the stage that was being put together, would just make most people think about how the festival was going to start. Sally knew the specific date because, of course, she had looked it up—in order words, she was thinking too much about it.

Lightning let out an apathetic Hmm and swallowed her bread roll in one bite. Or she ate it so fast it was like she was swallowing it.

“I’ve never participated in something like that,” she said.

“You mean…like a school festival?” asked Ranyi.

“Yes, that. Have you all had one before?”

“Ahhh, well, I haven’t really had the opportunity, yeahhh,” said Sally.

Diko nodded silently, and Pshuke muttered under her breath. It seemed that she was saying that it wasn’t like she’d never participated in one, but it hadn’t really been interesting or anything.

“I don’t remember ever being serious about one,” Sally replied as she reflected on her past.

All through elementary school, and in middle school before joining the magical-girl class, magical-girl activities had been Sally’s number one priority, so she hadn’t taken anything else seriously. It had been the most she could do to get enough time to study, learn, train, and polish herself as a magical girl—it had been no time for putting effort into a club or extracurricular activities or hanging out with her friends. She was aiming to be a Cutie Healer, the pinnacle of all magical girls, so she had to drop the unnecessary or she couldn’t manage. The desire to have fun with something immediately led to laziness and would cut off her path to becoming a Cutie Healer.

Sally wasn’t unique in this regard. All the Cutie Healer candidates in the PR Department were like that. If you tried to enjoy your school life, you’d just get left behind.

Sally had managed to stay at the top of the class in school, academically and athletically, and she’d had a decent number of friends with a broad but shallow association. For events like cultural festivals and choir concerts, she’d slacked off skillfully enough that others couldn’t tell while making it look like she’d been participating properly—so she thought.

So Sally hadn’t thought much of school life, but it wasn’t as if she’d had no desire to enjoy herself at all. Cutie Healer had depicted girls enjoying school and seasonal events many times, and that had the power to make a fan feel like she’d like to experience that, too. But a candidate couldn’t be like a fan, and Sally had been forced to give up on her school life.

It was probably for similar reasons that Diko, Lightning, and Ranyi had never participated in anything like a school festival. The kind of elites who would get into a magical-girl class would put being a magical girl first in their lives every day.

That Pshuke had been to one but hadn’t enjoyed it was possibly due to her own personality and character—but even taking that into account, Sally figured things would be different now. Pshuke had been accepted, including her incorrigible tendency to constantly mutter insults, and if she participated in this class, she’d probably enjoy herself along with the rest.

Thinking this far, Sally took a gulp of milk. She should settle down a bit. This really felt like she was leaning in the direction of participating already. This was too optimistic.

“Do you think it would be fun?” Lightning asked.

“I dunno. It does seem fun, yeahhh.”

“It wouldn’t be very interesting, anyway…”

“There you go again, Pshuke. You won’t know unless you try it.”

After saying that, Sally thought, Ahhh. She really was leaning toward participating. She just couldn’t let go of her yearning for the school festivals that generations of Cutie Healers had enjoyed.

“Mm. True, you won’t know unless you try,” Lightning muttered, not at anyone in particular. Sally thought that she was getting bad ideas again, but she stayed quiet and slurped her vegetable soup.

  Lapis Lazuline the Third

Lazuline was alone, hard at work cleaning the large bathing area that was a part of the Lazuline candidate training facility. No matter how she scrubbed and scrubbed, the limescale wouldn’t come off. Since it was about as large as a school pool, it would take some time, even for a magical girl. If she’d had a magic sponge, she could have finished this faster, but she had nothing like that. Even after being chosen as Lazuline, a Lazuline candidate couldn’t escape odd jobs. Their master was always strict.

And even said strict and capable teacher was forced into incredible labors for the success of the artificial magical-girl project. For starters, it was difficult to lead it to success with the R&D Department alone. They didn’t have enough of anything: funds, personnel, connections, technology, or time. Maybe her master had assumed that they would have help at the time when she had devised the plan.

It wasn’t enough just to have people with power and money on their side—they had to have the same goals to a degree. The existence of artificial magical girls would shake the Magical Kingdom’s current position of absolute supremacy.

Pfle had cleared all those various conditions. She had sought the power to be able to go up against the Magical Kingdom, had been the department chief of Magical Girl Resources, had possessed wealth, and had been so aggravatingly sharp. And maybe the fact that she’d been one of Cranberry’s children had been a major factor, too—though if Lazuline asked her master that, she would be sure to deny it.

Pfle had been the one collaborator who had fulfilled all necessary conditions, but she’d died in the Puk Puck incident. Her miraculous maneuvering to protect Shadow Gale had surprised Lazuline—but according to her master, that sort of sentimentality and placing emotions first had just led to her dying with her goals unfulfilled.

But Lazuline knew.

Pfle’s aspiration hadn’t been the artificial magical-girl project, nor had it been to overturn the Magical Kingdom’s position of supremacy. Her ultimate goal had only ever been to keep Shadow Gale safe, to separate her from all the dangers of the Magical Kingdom. The artificial magical-girl project, her position in Magical Girl Resources, everything had been there for the sake of one retainer. Lazuline had reluctantly extracted a candy from Pfle on her master’s orders—after sucking on it herself to confirm everything Pfle knew about the artificial magical-girl project, Lazuline now knew what she’d really been after.

That candy had been a massively complicated and annoying pain. She regretted that she hadn’t separated the memories and the emotions first.

Not long before then, during the facility attack by the Sage incarnation Grim Heart, the Lazuline Faction had captured an artificial magical girl. Combining the technology they’d acquired from that artificial magical girl with Pfle’s memories, they had completed the definitive edition of the Princess Series: Princess Lightning.

But not everything in the world would go well. After entering the magical-girl class, Princess Lightning, who was supposed to have been the definitive edition, had begun to do as she pleased. All they could do was pray that Diko and Ranyi, who had joined her, would be able to get a handle on her.

While scrubbing the bath with a brush, Lazuline considered. She didn’t worship her master like some of the Lazuline candidates did, but she didn’t hate her. She actually liked her. But a lot about her master’s recent behavior didn’t sit well with her. She wasn’t supposed to feel antipathy toward her master, but it was getting hard to look at it positively.

When she tried looking back to ask when it had been that she’d started looking at her differently, it really was after she’d sucked on Pfle’s memories and feelings. Lazuline had perfect control of her magic, and a candy she’d sucked on had never disturbed her mind or behavior before, but thinking back on Pfle’s quirks, she couldn’t help but think that she should take that idea seriously now.

For example, as she was thinking idle thoughts while cleaning right now, suddenly, Shadow Gale would pop into her mind. Thinking about how Shadow Gale was now with Deluge made something indescribably strange well up within her and brought a smile to her face.

These changes in her heart felt unsettling but also interesting. They seemed as if they’d been influenced by Pfle, and yet they were very Lazuline-like, too.

  Pythie Frederica

Kumi-Kumi was no longer Kumi-Kumi. Frederica’s sense of smell, sight, taste, touch—all her senses, sharpened to perceive magical girls, sensed that something was off, leading Frederica to believe that this was not the original Kumi-Kumi.

Frederica sneaked a single hair from this person who appeared to be Kumi-Kumi and returned to the Caspar Faction’s headquarters, then ordered a technician to investigate the hair. The results came back in two days.

At the very least, it wasn’t human; it probably wasn’t a magical girl, either. In order to come up with a more accurate conclusion, they would need the time, personnel, and facilities.

She had anticipated that answer. Sadly, the Caspar Faction was lacking in technology compared to the other two factions, and analysis would take time, as well. The Caspar Faction couldn’t even match the Lab, which was just one department the Osk Faction commanded.

She’d expected the hair analysis results to take time, so over those two days, she came up with a hypothesis. There had been something intermingling with the scent, the air of a magical girl. Over the course of two days, Frederica checked over everything—smell, atmosphere, presence, and sensation, from that which was familiar to herself and that which was not, and reached the conclusion that there was a homunculus mixed in it.

And not just any homunculus—an extremely high-tech homunculus. It wasn’t merely shaped like Kumi-Kumi; it transformed and used magic like her.

It was a far more high-end product, and it was far more high-functioning compared to the typical black-silhouette homunculus. It wasn’t just her appearance; it was what was inside. The workings of her mind manifested in her gestures and actions. This wasn’t simply an imitation. It was Kumi-Kumi herself.

Was it a reproduction of her as a homunculus? It was far too elaborate for a magic copy. Maybe it wasn’t a copy. If you used what was “inside” Kumi-Kumi as is, then of course it would appear to be nothing but Kumi-Kumi.

Thinking about the existence of high-tech homunculi reminded her of the magical-girl class. The class originally had a firm defense of many homunculi, and Frederica had heard that during the accident, homunculi with the appearance and abilities of magical girls had poured out to cause a violent struggle.

The Information Bureau had been mainly in charge of cleaning up after the magical-girl class’s mess, but the Lab was cooperating with them, too. All the various attempts to reproduce an incarnation had yet to be successful, but if you were asking who was in the lead in the field, then that was the Lab. In other words, she could also imagine that they would have some ideas about the transferring of souls.

Rising from the sofa, Frederica stretched her back, tilting her face to look at the chandelier. Glasswork magical girls danced in it. Just looking at them was enough to soothe her.

She could only make guesses right now. And for that, she needed more material, too. Investigating Kumi-Kumi first would be highly dangerous—she couldn’t even establish what was going on with her.

Frederica closed her right eye and looked down again, kicking up the bag at her feet to drop it in a corner of the room. Ignoring the wriggling bag, she pulled out her magical phone.

She was aware she was rattled. Replacing a magical girl from the class with a homunculus was truly incendiary. It didn’t matter that this had happened to Kumi-Kumi specifically. Frederica was angry because she was a self-admitted magical-girl maniac who didn’t care what others thought and was more obsessed with magical girls than anyone else. This was like righteous indignation—that was why she judged herself to be not calm enough.

Frederica called Asmona on her magical phone. Though Asmona lacked the talent to come up with even one idea, she was far superior to Frederica when it came to business affairs, and she was capable of logical and rational judgment. If you wanted someone at your side for an opinion, Asmona was your girl.

Summoned over via a phone call, Asmona seemed to be in a very bad mood. A deep wrinkle was carved in her brow—not the kind of look you should show your employer. Her attitude softened a little when Frederica explained the situation, but then the wrinkle in her brow immediately returned to its original depth. She sighed and tugged the excessively garish newsboy cap on her head down over her face.

“Just to confirm,” Asmona said, “we can’t ask the magical-girl class directly?”

“It’s not completely impossible, but it would be extremely difficult to do.”

This had originally begun with the matter of her no longer being able to observe Snow White. Frederica had been glad about that at the time, thinking that surely Snow White must have done something interesting to counter her. Snow White entering the magical-girl class had made it difficult to keep an eye on things.

“No matter how difficult it is for you to spy on them, you need to have an eye on the class,” Asmona confirmed.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“So then it’s easy. You should approach one of the other infiltrators, aside from Kumi-Kumi. Kana…would be a little risky, but one of the Honor Guard would be fine, or Adelheid. That’s it—why not Adelheid? We’re still having her do regular reports, aren’t we? There was no need to use an amateur like Kumi-Kumi in the first place. I can guarantee Adelheid. She’s still young, but she’s a professional. She’s not just strong; she can adapt to the needs of the moment. She got that from her mother.”

Asmona had been a senior student to Adelheid’s mother in the Archfiend Cram School. In other words, she was doubly Adelheid’s senior. Frederica did understand the desire to support her much younger junior. Besides, even setting aside such emotional bonds of obligation, Adelheid was a fully-fledged professional. Mephis Pheles gave too much priority to emotion, and Kumi-Kumi was too timid. And Classical Lillian valued harmony so much, she tended to only go halfway on things.

“Hmm…you’re right. How about I contact each of them aside from Kumi-Kumi and Kana?”

“Aren’t you being too leisurely about this? The other magical girls are really busy, so you should be busy, too.”

Ignoring the prickle of nastiness there, Frederica nodded with a smile. “I want to ascertain if anyone has noticed anything about the change in Kumi-Kumi, and also if anyone aside from her has been swapped with homunculi. I doubt that swapping Kumi-Kumi would be the end of it. I should create multiple routes by which to share information so I can respond to the situation if someone is replaced at any point. And it’s true that I’m busy, but I’m loath to tell someone else to do this. It’s difficult to explain specifically how she has changed, and even taking a single hair requires proficient technique. It would be rather harsh to tell someone unused to it to do it every time.”

Asmona’s brow relaxed slightly. Frederica continued, secretly relieved. “I would like to retrieve all of Group Two if possible, but right now I cannot peek into the magical-girl class. If I don’t have cooperators on the inside, then I will lose the information war. I will not pass any important information to Kumi-Kumi, and I will warn them not to share information among the whole group. I will also periodically meet with them to check. I shall pray that they will not all have been swapped.”

“Why not withdraw only Kumi-Kumi?”

“It’s true that her presence might be dangerous, but I don’t want to make an oversensitive gesture that could alert them that we’ve noticed. And besides, she can at least fill out the group numbers… Look, just sitting all together in the room, it should be like a reenactment of a scene from a magical-girl anime where all the enemy leaders get together. Just like us right now,” Frederica joked, thinking all the while, Asmona will tell me off for saying something like this.

But unexpectedly, Asmona asked her with a serious look, “The enemy leaders getting together?”

“Yes.”

“You mean we’re the enemies?”

Frederica nodded twice with her best smile. “That’s right. We’re public enemies.”