Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 16 - Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

THE WAYS OF PEOPLE, THE WAYS OF THE BATTLEFIELD

  Lapis Lazuline the Third

Lazuline had never met Pythie Frederica in person, but even just knowing her history, she could tell that she was absolutely mad. She had attacked the magical-girl class, making to strike knowing that the First would aim for the opening when her forces were all out on the attack, with no consideration for the trouble she would cause to others—because she was crazy.

Lazuline the First was not mad. She was wily and collected. Even if she seemed as if she was taking Frederica up on her pastime-like invitation, she’d have worked in some kind of cheat—something that made it so that even if she lost the battle, she wouldn’t lose the war. Lazuline hadn’t been told specifically what she was doing, so she didn’t know, but for better or for worse, she did trust that her master would never fail to work in something. It wouldn’t even be strange if nothing of what her master had told her were true. Even if she did have to go along with Frederica’s pastimes in order to catch her by the tail, the First wasn’t about to honestly challenge her in a direct fight.

Directions flew from her headset. The commander on the scene was one of the candidates. Her voice was calm. Lazuline was impressed that she would be appointed immediately after the attack on the magical-girl class.

A blue energy ball was thrown in, and the front entranceway exploded. The thick, tall pillars on either side fell over, the eaves they’d been supporting crumbled down, and the Gothic-style building became a mountain of rubble in seconds.

At the same time, there was an explosion at the rear entrance as well, and the team that went in from the sewers into the kitchen, plus the team that knocked down a wall to attack from the side, started their attacks from either direction at once. There were ten of them, elites selected from Lazuline candidates, potentials, and former Lazuline candidates, with an eye to fighting ability. Lazuline didn’t know where the First had placed herself. Lost among blue magical girls, she wouldn’t be found so quickly.

Though it was right in the middle of a quiet residential area, in order to get through the invisible spell that was activated at all times, you needed to walk and move your fingers a certain way, so no matter how much noise was made, for everyone aside from the visitors and residents, it would remain quiet, the whole area in a separate space. Nobody would get in the way.

Some girls who were wearing fancy and impractical matching maid uniforms shrieked as they leaped out the front door, holding their heads as they ran off. Even if they were noncombatants, they couldn’t be let go. One of the blue magical girls kicked at a maid, but it was blocked. The maid outfit was swept aside, and underneath was the costume of what looked like a card soldier.

It was a Shufflin series. That had to mean that under the pretext of hiring maids, they had borrowed fighting forces from some unwise individual in the Osk Faction. Judging from how that information hadn’t even reached Lazuline, they had probably gone through a dummy employment agency or perhaps through multiple other companies.

Her master would not underestimate Frederica. She would use everything she had to try to beat her down. So then Frederica would also do this much, at least. But none of this was beyond what they’d expected.

Covering their blue allies, magical girls with the common feature of tiaras with gems in them came out in front of the Shufflins. There were greater numbers invested than the number of Lazuline candidates. But it wasn’t as if they were of low quality. Her master had spoken of Princess Lightning as if she were the definitive edition of the Princess Series, but many Princesses had been created before her. Even normal people with no aptitude for being a magical girl were able to transform.

The Princess’s morale was high for three reasons: Old Blue’s skill at getting a hold on the human heart, the girls’ gratitude for having been pulled up from low standing, and the fact that they were functionally owned. Since the support of the R&D Department was vital for their tune-ups and supply of energy, if their master lost, they were functionally dead as magical girls. They were fighting with their backs against the water. They stood up against the Shufflins with no fear, not even looking to the sacrifices of their allies as they leaped on the Ace of Spades. Even if there were a lot of Shufflins, there were also a lot of Princesses. Of course—since there was no need to select candidates based on whether they had magical aptitude or not.

Lazuline ran to join the group of blue magical girls. Gate guards, mercenaries who had rushed over, girls from the Caspar Faction, and members of the Elite Guard all mingled together as pillars of fire rose, the ceiling fell, a whirlwind kicked up, and acidic mist was sprayed out—but Lazuline slipped through every obstacle, getting away from the group and aiming to get inside.

If she assassinated Frederica, then it was over. The enemy fighters that Lazuline passed by on the way couldn’t touch her—rather, by her touching them, she stole away candies of their memories. She saw through all the physical and magic traps, and did not get caught in them—as was expected for a Lazuline.

She never slowed down as she raced through the hallway—but then she came to a sudden stop. She leaned her weight back and dug into the carpet with her heels as she struck the floor with her hands and leaped up, evading an attack and backing to the rear.

Expelling an easy breath, Lazuline gradually lowered her stance, both hands in front of her. Ahead of her was a four-way intersection, and in the middle stood a single magical girl. She had stopped Lazuline, when thus far, none had even been able to slow her progress.

Her costume of a red newsboy cap with white polka dots, functional-looking glasses, suspenders, and shorts made her look like a boy detective with the wrong hat, but she was a magical girl. Her simple silhouette lacked magical-girl-like decorations such as frills and gems, indicating that she was probably from the older generation. Hers was the generation before the archetypal magical-girl image had been circulated through anime and such.

This generation—or more precisely, those from that generation who still continued as magical girls—were all, without exception, strong.

She showed not one whit of attention to the tumult that was rattling the whole estate, maintaining a composed stance. She crouched down, spread her palms slightly, bringing her left hand in front of her chest and her right hand in front of that. Her expression seemed vacant at a glance, as if she weren’t looking at anything in particular—she had to anticipate any attack from any direction.

Both of them came forward, and both of them thrust in and blocked.

Lazuline’s point-blank elbow strike was just a feint to kick at her left knee without even looking. The enemy blocked with her shin—Lazuline jabbed right, left, and squatted to evade, putting both hands on the floor to kick up and go into a jump—she did a half-rotation at the ceiling, and then the enemy reached the ceiling at the same time. They struck at each other as they raced along the ceiling, Lazuline kicking the lighting to try to strike the enemy with it—and when the enemy kicked it back, she evaded it with a shake of her head.

Lazuline ran diagonally to the wall, then leaped to the opposite wall. Both magical girls did everything at the same time, striking, blocking, stopping, sweeping. Lazuline did a scissor block, and when the enemy suddenly drew her hand back, Lazuline pressed close and used her left fist like a screen. She tossed off her shoe as she kicked, optimizing the flexibility of her various joints—groin, knee, ankle, toes—to skim her opponent’s cheek and swipe the memory candy. But her foe’s newsboy cap slid down the girl’s cheek and prevented Lazuline’s attempt.

The two of them tangled as they fell, but the enemy made use of her costume and props to prevent contact with her skin. Lazuline landed without activating her magic, slamming her back into her opponent to send them flying apart.

The enemy moved like she knew Lazuline’s magic. This was beyond guessing based on her actions. The enemy knew it clearly. In other words, that meant she’d been placed here to deal with Lazuline. Sending Lapis Lazuline in solo to make the assassination was a plan that couldn’t be called a plan, but still a very difficult strategy to prevent, even if Frederica had read it.

Lazuline exhaled a short breath and took a big step forward. She grabbed the rug with her bare toes, pulling it close to her. The long carpet that covered the hallway lay under the enemy’s feet as well. Lazuline figured the enemy would lose her balance or leap or brace herself or pull back instead—but the enemy threw her off by doing something abnormal: pulling the whole carpet toward her without shifting the axis of her balance at all.

Not only had her read been off, but there was also a spear-hand coming at her. Lazuline lowered on the spot to evade and rolled to the side to avoid a follow-up attack, and with her back on the floor she struck against the enemy’s leg, smacking the ground to aim for her groin, but the enemy dodged, and with a dizzying exchange of blocks and blows, the two magical girls struck at each other.

Lazuline narrowed her eyes. It wasn’t just the dust. There was something wafting in the air.

The hairs on the back of her head stood up. Her body and mind felt something slightly off, and she immediately removed a candy from her own body. Lazuline’s magic could remove feelings and memories, but not only that—it could remove the effects of magic from her as well. That was how she had nullified the magic of Puk Puck, the Sage incarnation.

She wasn’t only removing the abnormality of the magic—by throwing the candy at the enemy, she made it an attack as well. She fired a total of six candies, but the enemy dodged the first four, while the final two she caught between the index and middle fingers of her right hand and the index and middle fingers of her left hand.

Lazuline leaped back, and when something soft touched her heel, she stopped. A little mushroom was growing on the floor. The poisonous-looking red-and-white mushroom was a bizarrely impactful presence in such a cleanly swept mansion, but it didn’t rattle Lazuline—it sharpened her awareness. The floor and the ceiling were moving. It was mushrooms. Mushrooms were growing all over the place. The color of her candies was a dark pink—manipulation of the nerves. She was trying to cause abnormalities in the body through mushroom spores.

“The Great Adulteress Asmona,” Lazuline muttered.

The enemy muttered, “Ohhh,” with an expression of surprise. “You’re a diligent student to know the name of an oldster with only age and no fame.”

“No fame? You jest.”

Her pleasant and intellectual attire, orthodox school martial arts, the image of the name “Great Adulteress,” and the very unpleasant effects of her magic all felt mismatched, so it had taken Lazuline time to pin her down. She should have known from the newsboy cap with the motif of a poisonous mushroom.

I might have been more nervous than I realized.

Even as they bantered, candies were continuing to leak from Lazuline’s body. If she got hit with Asmona’s spores, she wouldn’t be able to fight properly.

I can’t believe it, Lazuline thought in exasperation. This was a tough enemy. Whether she won or lost would be up to luck. And their styles meshed too well. If she hurried this match too much, she would be the one getting hurt.

Not bad, Pythie Frederica. Lazuline was aware that she was starting to have fun. She pulled herself together—she wasn’t having this fight for the sake of personal pleasure. How far would Asmona’s magic spread? The more she moved, the more the spores spread out around her, and even more mushrooms would grow and spread from there. Depending on how great her maximum range was, even if Lazuline remained safe, it was possible all her allies could be wiped out. She couldn’t keep this fight going for much longer.

Lazuline kicked up the candies that were piling up at her feet at Asmona. After swinging up her leg, she swung it again, not wasting any of her strength as she stomped down. The floor dented in like a crater, breaking the walls, growing mushrooms and all, deep cracks running up to the ceiling as the remaining candies danced in the air, hitting the walls and floor to fire wildly like pinballs.

The two magical girls leaped at the same time. Kicking the candies in midair, she used the recoil to change the trajectory of her jumps one after another. Together with the countless candies, the two magical girls intersected in midair.

  Pshuke Prains

Even having kept in the corner of her mind that this sort of thing could happen at any time, when things actually did go down, seeing them pull it boldly right in the middle of the day was angering and irritating. There was a big difference between being prepared to have a lethal battle and wanting to have a lethal battle. Pshuke couldn’t understand those who liked fighting, and she didn’t want to, either.

For that reason, she already knew what her plan was. It was to run and hide.

When some idiot had set off an explosive in the classroom, since Pshuke’s first choice had always been to run, she was able to react faster than anyone. She did an about-face and changed direction; Sally was blocking her path, so she wrapped an arm around her waist and swept her away, leaping from the classroom window into the hallway and then leaping straight outside. With the blast wind buffeting her from behind, she got herself ready, trying to land on top of the roof of the outside walkway. But the roof was weaker than she’d thought; she went right through, breaking, bending, and smashing through corrugated sheet metal roof and pillars before crash-landing in the rubble.

Pshuke groaned. A human would have long been dead by now, but fortunately, she was a magical girl. Thanking her luck that she was alive, she figured she should count on further luck to escape this place. But if she moved right away, she might be attacked by the enemy. She should check around the area.

In her arms, there was nothing wrong with Sally’s breathing or heartbeat. Her heart was thumping a little fast, but there’d be something wrong with you if your heart wasn’t racing in this situation.

“Hey, Sally. I’ve got a request.”

Sally, who had been glaring at her magical phone, lifted her face. Being lit from below in the dark, even her beautiful face was a little scary. “I tried seeing if we could contact the outside, but it looks like a no-go, yeahhh.”

“Well duh, if someone’s gonna pull this, then they’ll prepare for it. More importantly, I have a request.”

“A request, in this situation?”

“I’m asking you because we’re in such a damn mess right now, damn it. What happened to your crow? Is it alive?”

“It’s not gonna disappear just from an explosion like that. It’s up above, flying to us right now.”

Pshuke responded with a sharp click of her tongue, and in her arms, Sally trembled.

“Huh? What, what’s wrong?”

“Something sparkly and attention-grabbing like that circling in the sky above us is basically like telling the enemy its master is here. Drop dead, honestly. Is there anyone dangerous nearby?”

“I can’t see anyone.”

“Then this is our chance.”

She pushed up the roof and moved the rubble aside. A shaft of sunlight poured into the small space where there had only been the light of the magical phone’s screen before. Pshuke kicked away a pillar and moved the rubble, wincing from the dust as she came outside and tossed Sally up on top of the rubble.

Ignoring Sally’s protests at being treated so roughly, Pshuke checked around the area. She could hear the intense clashing sounds from all around that she figured were from fights. The sound of something being repelled, an explosion, something bursting open—it was like the sounds were sporadically whirling everywhere around them.

But…there aren’t as many as I thought.

Pshuke had anticipated rather darkly that since they were attacking a magical-girl class packed with lots of the elite that were the future of the magical girl world, they would certainly surge in with massive swarms, but it seemed she was wrong. If this was how it was going to be, then there was room to escape.

“Whatever the case, we can’t be here.”

Pshuke followed that with, “Let’s get out of here,” while at the same time, Sally said, “Let’s go back to the class, yeahhh,” and the two of them looked at each other. Sally was looking at her with surprise. Pshuke was looking at Sally with a look that said rather more clearly, “What’re you talking about, you moron?”

“Why would you go to the classroom?” Pshuke demanded.

“If anyone else has stayed there, we’ll get more fighters.”

“Even if there is anyone still in the classroom, they’ll either be injured or dead.”

“If they’re dead…well, there’s nothing to be done about that, but if they’re injured, we’ve got to save them, yeahhh.”

“Is it the time to be doing that?”

Quiet footsteps mingled with the sounds of battle to approach them. Pshuke and Sally looked toward the footsteps at the same time, then dashed off.

Pshuke clicked her tongue. Sally was planning to fight back. It was completely opposite from Pshuke’s idea that it was best to run. She shouldn’t go with her. She knew that another petty argument would get them killed. But despite knowing that, she followed Sally.

There wasn’t even a shred of anything admirable about this decision, like this was her keeping the promise they’d made in the cafeteria before the homunculus incident to help each other, whatever happened. There was only one set of footsteps, so rather than them calling their friends, it was best to silence them while they had the advantage of two-on-one—three-on-one if you included the crow. Whether she was going to part ways from Sally or convince her, it would come after that.

The magical girl who came flying out from the other side of the covered walkway had a mask of Cutie Panda with a long tail like a monkey. Sally sounded irritated, saying, “What an incredible misinterpretation, for an outlaw to use the mask of the gentle strongwoman Cutie Panda,” with a click of her tongue, while Pshuke was significantly more irritated as she spat, “Goddamn nerd.”

The two magical girls split to the right and to the left and ran at the enemy. They had coordinated many times during rec time. They just had to include the crow and attack from three directions. Pshuke drew her water gun and pointed the muzzle at the enemy, and by that time the Panda mask was already so close, she was pushing up the muzzle of the gun with her shoulder.

She’s fast…!

With the enemy this close, her water gun wouldn’t be useful. She backstepped in an attempt to put some distance between them, but the enemy stuck close and wouldn’t back off, staying glued to her and grabbing Pshuke’s shoulders with both hands. Sally cried out. Her crow took a dive. The enemy’s chest swelled unnaturally, and she yelled as if she were spitting out all the air inside.

She couldn’t hear anything. Her consciousness was growing dim. In the corner of her eye, a crow was flying. Pshuke’s knees buckled, and with warm fluid dropping from her ears and eyes, she fell without being able to catch herself.

  Kana

There was unease all around. The sky had grown dim, and outside the school was hazy. There was probably a barrier up. If they actually tried touching it or something and confirmed that they could not get out, there would be more than just unease. It would become a panic. Kana tried to message back Yoshioka, but she couldn’t connect. Cutting off connections to the outside via every sort of method—radio wave, electricity, electromagnetic wave, and sound wave—was habitual practice for this type of barrier. So it was no wonder she couldn’t connect. The problem was that even if some students or teachers of Umemizaki noticed, it would just cause further panic.

She could hear sounds coming from the old school building. It was the sound of metal striking metal. There was fighting. Was this what Yoshioka’s message referred to when she’d said they were attacking the magical-girl class—to guide them in?

Yoshioka had been the one to free Kana from prison and send her into the magical-girl class. She was affiliated with the Caspar Faction, and she worked herself to the bone to expand the political powers of the faction. If Kana were to slack off, she was bound to be sent right back to prison.

But if she abetted blatantly illegal activity, wouldn’t that basically also mean being sent right back to prison? Just as much as she owed Yoshioka, she also had a debt and an obligation toward the magical-girl class.

She weighed the scales in her mind. When she imagined her classmates being harmed, with Mephis at the top of the list, the scales tilted all at once, and she didn’t seem like she could go back. She didn’t know what sort of great cause they had to attack the magical-girl class, but Yoshioka would just have to mourn her poor luck in having freed an ingrate.

Kana’s stance became clear. But that wasn’t her biggest problem. Even after deciding on a plan to save her friends, she couldn’t move from the spot. The Umemizaki students, Muraoka and Kouno, whom she had met when they were producing their art pieces, had concerned expressions as they said things like, “What happened?” Kuroda looked out the window and said thoughtlessly, “Isn’t it a prank or something?” while Sanada showed concern for her, saying, “Are you okay, Kana?”

If Yoshioka’s forces came here, these boys and girls would have no way of fighting. There were a lot of magical girls in the old school building. But here, in the new school side, Kana was the only magical girl. Whatever was going to happen, if it was a situation involving magical girls, they would need Kana.

It was incredibly frustrating that she couldn’t leave despite knowing her classmates were in danger. But when she thought of all her classmates, it seemed that even if they struggled a little, they probably wouldn’t lose. Similarly, when she tried picturing Yoshioka’s face, she couldn’t help but think that she would be more than just a little struggle. Kana’s expression remained the same as she gritted her teeth, and now Sanada was really worried about her.

Regardless, even if she was going to stay here, then she shouldn’t remain in this classroom. If Yoshioka’s forces came this way, then Kana would find a spot where she could intercept them as well as stop anyone foolish enough to go to the old school building. It was best to have someone in the classroom as support once the chaos reached a fever pitch, but Kana doubted she could fulfill that role.

First, she would leave the school—but then her thoughts didn’t get past that point. Suddenly, her mind became perfectly clear, and information surged into it all at once. Kana pressed her head with her right hand, while with her left hand she grabbed the side railing, supporting herself as she staggered.

What…is this? No. Are these…memories? Whose memories…? My memories?

“Kana! What’s wrong, Kana?”

The voice sounded far away. It took her time to realize that the one talking to her was herself. Saliva was dripping from the corner of her mouth without being wiped away. From deep in her throat, she could hear a groan that didn’t sound like her own voice. She crushed the railing in her hand. She heard frightened voices, and the hands that were supporting her shoulders came away.

These are my memories. The magical-girl prison…and before that, I was cut down. A blade…and brainwashing.

There was the bang of an explosion and the ground shook under her feet. Shrieks echoed. It felt like the events of some other world that was not here. Her memories of before mixed and melded into her memories of the magical-girl class. She remembered who she was and what she had been doing.

She looked to the window. The magical girl reflected in the mirror was looking at her. It was not Kana. The four dots of the holy seal had appeared on her forehead, emphasizing what she was so much it was offensive.

Frederica stole my memories, and those memories have returned now. In other words, the magic has come undone. Why now? What is Pythie Frederica trying to do? Attacking the magical-girl class… The ruins… That’s right. There’s an artifact enshrined in the underground ruins.

She blew out a breath from the depths of her lungs and pulled herself up from where she’d been falling over. That thing that had been the railing she’d crushed, she tossed on the ground. It made a high-pitched clanging sound, resounding in her ears as things still wouldn’t come together in her head.

“Kana…?”

Avoiding the warmth of the hand that attempted to get close to her once more, the girl called Kana leaped out the window.

  Snow White

Right before the apples were thrown in, Snow White’s brain operated at high speed. Miss Ril and Rappy could guard themselves with their magic, as could Arlie, and Dory, being close to Arlie, would use Dory as her shield—she’d seen out of the corner of her eye as Pshuke ran off first thing and swept away Sally with her, and she prayed that Calkoro and Tetty would somehow remain safe.

Snow White hit the wall of her classroom with her shoulder and leaped into the neighboring classroom, which wasn’t being used. Buffeted by the blast of wind blowing in, she was sent flying and caught herself on the blackboard. With chalk dust scattering around, now she smashed the window with a kick and leaped outside, racing along the eaves to circle around and aim for the classroom where she’d originally been.

She’d heard the voices of the heart before the apples had been thrown in, but she hadn’t managed any more than that. She hadn’t had the time to warn everyone, either. The enemies were all fast, and even with her magic and Snow White’s reflexes, she could only barely keep up.

Circling around, she leaped in from the broken window and attacked with her whole body and anger in it, slicing.

Snow White’s prediction that after the attack, the enemy would come in again was on the mark, but it seemed that they had also read Snow White’s movements, and her strike was easily blocked with a one-handed sword.

The interior of the classroom was half-destroyed by the explosion, and the floor was falling.

On their side was Rappy, with her magic wrap fluttering to turn the enemy attack aside; Arlie, who had been kicked by three enemies and was now getting punched; and Miss Ril, who had turned black and was probably holding a fragment of Arlie’s armor, as her broken part was squirming in an attempt to return to its original shape.

The enemies were the three who were attacking Arlie, two on Rappy, two on Miss Ril, then one who had struck back against Snow White. There were multiple mysterious objects floating in the air, metallic spheres shaped like eyeballs and a size smaller than a clenched fist.

It seemed Calkoro and Tetty had fallen down under the floor. She could hear the voices of their hearts from there, so they hadn’t passed out. Half of the little eyeballs were headed through a hole in the floor to below. They were trying to follow the two who had fallen.

Snow White confirmed what she should do and what she should have other people do.

She shoved against the enemy with the one-handed sword, pressing their blades together. Snow White was using both hands, and she had her body weight in it, but the enemy was easily blocking her with just her right hand. Her mask swayed. Snow White could hear smothered laughter. The laughter seemed to say, “So this is the Magical-Girl Hunter I’ve heard so much about?”

Snow White wasn’t strong enough. But even if she was lacking in strength, it didn’t mean she couldn’t win.

When the enemy moved to stab her in the side with the sword in her left hand, Snow White responded, blocking with the handle of her weapon as she stepped forward to put them close together. Being inferior in strength, martial arts, and experience, Snow White wouldn’t last a second in this position. The enemy knew that, which was why they were forcing her into it.

But she didn’t have to last a second—half a second was enough.

The hem of her skirt rose, and her scarf danced in the air. A whirlwind whipped up from underneath Snow White’s clothes, slid underneath the mask, and leaped into the mouth of the enemy, which was open in shock.

The enemy’s chest and stomach swelled—then she went back to normal, dropped her two swords, and coughed hard.

“Mei can make you explode at any time. The last one Mei blew up, Pukin, died from it. If you don’t like it, do as Mei says.”

The magical girl in the mask thrust a hand down her throat, but before she could cough up Tepsekemei, her chest and stomach swelled. The swelling went on for longer than before, then deflated, and she held her chest and stomach and writhed.

“Mei is patient, but not.”

In order to prevent Pythie Frederica peeping on her with her magic, Snow White had borrowed Tepsekemei. During a previous incident, in order to gain their trust, Frederica had entered a contract that she could not attack any of the magical girls present at the time or use her magic on them. Of those who had been there, three were currently still alive: Mana, 7753, and Tepsekemei, and if it were Tepsekemei, then Snow White could conceal her under her clothing to make it so she could block herself from Frederica’s magic at all times.

Though of course this was a hassle for them, this job was also very dangerous. Snow White had bowed her head to them, preparing to be refused, but Tepsekemei had readily given the okay, and though 7753 had been worried, she had not tried to stop her. Apparently, they wanted something done about Pythie Frederica, too.

Rappy let go of her magic wrap. The wrap, which you’d expect to just flutter to the ground, was blown by a gust of wind to stick to an enemy’s weapon and to an enemy’s arm, and the piece that made to stick to a face was blocked by a staff, but while the enemy’s attention was on that, Rappy did a baseball slide between her legs and wrapped them up. With that, the enemy clumsily fell to the floor.

She had hidden Tepsekemei’s existence from her classmates except for Rappy. On returning to the Magical Girl Resources Department, she had told her about the situation, and after that, they had practiced coordinating attacks a bunch of times. Now, they were making use of that.

One of the enemies that had been facing Arlie turned to Rappy instead. But right after that, Arlie purged a part of her armor, and Dory, who’d been sheltering protected inside, leaped out and thrust with her drill. The enemy’s back was pierced by the drill, and she screamed.

  Ranyi

Right after heading to where Lightning was fighting, there was an announcement. There had never been an intercom announcement in this building before, but they had the equipment for a bell to ring, so broadcasting should be possible, too. When the announcement said to gather in the courtyard and obey the principal’s instructions, Ranyi thought, Is this the time for that? and made to keep running, but Diko stopped. Ranyi couldn’t just keep running alone, so reluctantly, she stopped as well and called out to Diko.

“Hey, what’re you doing? Let’s get going.”

Diko didn’t react. She was a taciturn person, but she had never ignored Ranyi before. Thinking maybe Diko hadn’t heard her, Ranyi circled in front of her, and seeing her face, she was startled. She wasn’t looking at Ranyi. She seemed mentally absent, looking off in the other direction, muttering something to herself as she raced off in completely the opposite direction of where they’d just been headed.

“Hey, Diko!”

Ranyi reached out, and her hand swiped through air. Diko used her magic to vanish to shake off Ranyi’s attempt to stop her, and before Ranyi could even be startled, she had kicked down the wall of the school building and leaped inside.

A Lazuline candidate would learn about all sorts of magic and their effects, and how to deal with them. Right now, Diko was under the effect of a spell. Someone had taken control of her mind and taken her somewhere. If Ranyi was to pin down a trigger, the school announcement was the most suspicious, but she’d been listening to it, too, and nothing had happened to her. She was holding on to her free will right now.

She asked herself what she should do. She had no idea what was going on. But still, it wasn’t like she should just stand here. She had to choose: either to chase after Diko or go to support Lightning.

Diko had most likely headed to the courtyard. But Ranyi wasn’t certain. So then should she go to Lightning? Ranyi knew basically where she was. She could see light and hear thunder coming from down the way on the first floor.

Ranyi started racing toward Lightning, but then yet again put on the breaks.

“There, there, that’s one, right there.”

“Crush it, crush it now!”

Three magical girls in masks were talking and pointing in her direction. There was no time for hesitation. Ranyi decided to turn around and run, but on the second step, she clumsily plunged into the ground headfirst. There was an arrow piercing her left leg. One of the masks was holding up a crossbow and cheering, “Got her, got her!” In order to survive, Ranyi desperately activated her magic. One place connected to another.

  Thunder-General Adelheid

Lillian disappeared. Adelheid had assumed she was hiding for some purpose, looking for her opportunity to strike…but even after creating that opportunity, she didn’t come out. It seemed she really was gone. That intercom announcement had said nothing, really, so it couldn’t be that she’d obeyed that—Adelheid didn’t get it. Her plan to make use of the advantage of two-on-one to quickly crush the enemy immediately fell apart, and she was forced into a one-on-one. Being that she wanted to clean this up right away, there was nothing desirable about this to Adelheid.

A flare of lightning overran the hallway, and the blackened ceiling fell. Adelheid kicked the wreckage of the ceiling at Lightning, releasing the energy that she’d been storing all this time in her leg.

“Blitzkrieg.”

Scattering pieces of the floor, she raced forward to slice downward from the front at Lightning as she repelled the fragments of ceiling—when Lightning blocked with her dagger, Adelheid pushed through it, getting a decent wound in her shoulder.

When the force slackened, Adelheid pushed further. Lightning must not have liked that, as she fell backward. With her back on the floor, Lightning threw a scattering of multiple daggers, and Adelheid knocked down a number of them with her military saber, while those that missed stuck pointlessly into the ceiling.

Lightning cried, “Thunder Break!”

Four of the daggers stuck in the ceiling made a crackling sound. Adelheid immediately made to back away, but Lightning had her legs tangled up, and Adelheid staggered, then was hit with two lightning strikes.

She absorbed the energy with her magic, avoiding a fatal blow. Lightning followed with a thrust to a sweep, which Adelheid rolled to avoid, jabbing her sword at the enemy from her knees. Lightning held her lightning sword in her right hand while in her left hand, she had large gems in between each of her fingers for a total of four.

“Luxury Mode: Burst.”

An incredible glow enveloped Lightning’s whole body. The wound in her shoulder healed before their eyes. Holding her saber overhead, Adelheid bit her lip. This was the form she hadn’t shown when they’d fought that night at the school, when they had been going around eliminating homunculi. So this was her hidden move?

Lightning’s right hand moved. Adelheid went on guard. Should she make the first move? That would be difficult. She would take the attack and attempt to counter. The problem was whether she would be okay taking that one attack. It was highly likely that she would surpass what Adelheid could take.

Lightning thrust her right hand out in front of her, palm at Adelheid. She took a step back. “Could you wait a moment?”

“…Uh, why? Wait for what?”

It seemed like she was at the advantage right now. She wasn’t the type to lose her nerve, either. So then just what did they need to wait for?

“I want to fight with you one-on-one.”

“Huh?”

“Working together in the homunculus battle with someone you lost to before…well, I don’t really feel like I lost, but someone you lost to, then having another one-on-one battle today and winning—don’t you think that’s like the manga that Mephis brings us? With me being the protagonist.”

Lightning took yet another step back.

Adelheid didn’t get the point of bringing up something like that now. But she’d never understood this girl to begin with. It was consistent. Adelheid somehow managed to swallow her sigh and prompted her with a jerk of her jaw.

“So what?”

“I don’t want to have any interference.”

Lightning’s eyes went behind Adelheid’s back. Adelheid’s attention went there, too. There were footsteps. Not of their classmates. Which meant there was just one answer.

“Hey, it’s Adelheid.”

“Whoa, she’s fighting a real tough one.”

One was a magical girl that looked like a lizard standing on its hind legs, just a little over six feet tall. Along with her was a baby-sized magical girl who was seated in the middle of a humanoid power suit that was almost six feet tall. They made the school hallway feel cramped. Both of them were pretty unique as magical girls went, but since they were carefully wearing the masks of anime magical girls, they stood out as even more bizarre. The baby one in particular was wearing two masks—one on its mechanical body and one on herself. If not for the situation, it would have been a laughable sight.

The two of them were Archfiend Cram School graduates and seniors to Adelheid. That they had masks on had to mean they were with the attackers.

Archfiend Cram School graduates were all, without exception, strong. Even if Lightning used her secret move, with these two fighters now in the mix, they might be able to overwhelm her.

But after this analysis of the forces present, Adelheid turned back to her two seniors and bowed her head. “Sorry, guys. Ah’d like to get a one-on-one fight ’ere.”

The baby’s voice sounded harsh. “Hey, hey, we’re on a job. If you’re a pro, you’ve got to act rationally.”

The lizard one folded her arms and nodded. “Well, they do worry about that sort of thing at that age. But sorry, we can’t be pandering to your obsessions.”

No matter how you thought about it, she was clearly in the right. Normally, Adelheid would have been the one insisting as much.

But nevertheless, Adelheid bowed her head. “Ah’m sorry. Just this once, please. She’s a classmate, but she’s got some serious respect for the Archfiend Cram School.”

“Huh, really?”

“And she’s even come up with original finishin’ moves.”

Lightning puffed out her chest, proudly nodding for some reason as she said, “Well, I suppose.”

“Ahh, I thought I just heard two people calling out their moves. So that was it?”

“So as a graduate of the Archfiend Cram School, Ah’ve got to go along with these School-isms…um, Ah mean Ah’d feel like Ah couldn’t excuse myself to the Archfiend.”

The baby groaned, and the lizard muttered, “What can you do?”

“If you bring up the Archfiend Cram School and the Archfiend, well, that’s a bigger priority than work.”

“Agh…get it over with quick. We’ll head for the courtyard first. There was that announcement, and the fighters are probably gathering there.”

Adelheid bowed her head repeatedly, and while the two senior magical girls grumbled, they walked off to the courtyard. They passed by Lightning on the way, and the both of them gave her rude glares.

“Why respect the Archfiend Cram School? That sort of thing isn’t in fashion these days.”

“Adelheid just seemed like she was having so much fun.”

“Huh, not bad, Adelheid. You’re spreading the word. Oh well, do your best.”

They were already acting like seniors to a younger student. Though it varied depending on the character of the individual, Archfiend Cram School graduates often wound up acting like this toward those with respect for the school.

After waiting for the two magical girls to leave, Adelheid slumped her shoulders, and she set her hands on her knees, somehow barely keeping herself from falling right over. “What the hell? That killed mah sense of tension.”

“Sorry.”

“If yer gonna be the main character, then Ah’m sure it ain’t gonna be a battle manga. It’ll be a comedy.”

“I’m all right with that.” Lightning grabbed her gems once more and held them over her forehead. The light, which had been fading, now grew. “After wasting time like that, now I need to get more.”

“How can ya be complainin’ about wastin’ time to me?”

Adelheid tucked her saber back in its sheath but kept it loose. Putting her left hand on her sheath and her right on the handle, she brought her right foot forward in a sideways stance.

Lightning clapped her hands gleefully. “That stance! I know that. It’s called iaijutsu, isn’t it?”

“If yer goin’ to bring out yer best move, then it’s just manners for me to use mine.”

Despite having said that her tension had been killed, Adelheid was at peak tension. She had not forced a one-on-one with Lightning because she wanted to play out a comedy. Even if she had fought with those two seniors, she didn’t think she would have avoided getting hurt. Right now, Lightning was overflowing with energy, and you could get shocked just from approaching.

Adelheid couldn’t use this hidden move, the technique she had yet to show Lightning, in an open brawl. That was why she had avoided a battle with numbers. One-on-one was the way to go.

After thinking that far, a self-deprecating smile came to her face. At the end of the day, perhaps the biggest factor was Lightning’s influence, putting up a fuss like a child, saying she wanted to fight one-on-one.

“What are you smiling about?” asked Lightning.

“It’s a secret.”

Lightning stood facing Adelheid straight-on, her lightning sword pointed between Adelheid’s eyes. Adelheid would need to take ten broad steps to reach Lightning; she was too far away for a direct attack. But Lightning had something else in mind.

“Damn it…ya gone and done it.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“While we been talkin’, you’ve been gradually movin’ away. You were gettin’ some distance ta put yerself at the advantage. Nice job, while playin’ dumb the whole time.”

“Battlefield positioning is the basics.”

“Yeah, yeah. Yer right.”

Lightning smiled. The tip of her blade gradually lowered to point at Adelheid.

“Thor’s Hammer.”

A purple flash of lightning shot out. The thick energy became a torrent that overran the floor, windows, hallway, and ceiling without even half the time to blink, and at the same time as she fired it, Adelheid swallowed.

She absorbed the energy, but her limits came at the same moment as contact. Adelheid tried to emit from her feet at the same time, but it was an abnormal amount of energy. A moan leaked out of her. Her whole body was burning. Her costume blazed up, and even the individual hairs on her head got hot.

Adelheid stepped forward with her right foot. She couldn’t use everything. But it didn’t need to be everything. If she did just what she could do now, that was enough. Lightning drew back her right foot. She was measuring the distance of Adelheid’s iai.

Adelheid spoke to her in her mind.

Relax. Ya’ve figured it out. There’s no way my iai can reach from this far.

“Wilhelm Geschütz.”

She stored all the energy in her saber and released it. Her sheath was unable to withstand the force and warped, while her saber was fired out like a rocket to slam its pommel into Lightning’s gut. Adelheid could even hear bones breaking and flesh being crushed from where she stood. Lightning spat blood, collapsed to her knees, and fell to her side.

The technique was almost like a gag: treating her sheath as a cannon and using the energy she’d gained from the enemy’s attack to make her saber fly. By the nature of the attack, Adelheid would lose her weapon, and if it were avoided or blocked, it would be over for her. But when an enemy saw that stance and imagined she was going to do iai, they would be taken by surprise, and firing her greatest secret attack created a particularly big opening afterward for a carefully aimed strike at her chest, which took her down.

Lightning let out a big breath. There was black smoke in it. Kneeling, leaning her elbows on her knees, she somehow withstood it. It was strange that she was even alive.

She coughed a few times. Not Adelheid—the fallen Lightning was coughing. She was slowly trying to lever herself up, but it didn’t look like it was going well.

“Don’t be reckless. This fight’s over,” said Adelheid.

“Yes…I lost.”

Lightning coughed loudly. She must have given up on getting off the ground, as she threw herself down on her back, limbs splayed out. The saber and Lightning’s dagger clanked on the ground.

“I couldn’t be…something…special.”

“That’s cain’t be done so easy.”

“I wanted to… It’s frustrating…but perhaps…I feel rather…relieved.” She coughed, spitting out the blood in her mouth, then continued. “I don’t really remember…why I wanted to be…special…but I’m sure…some memory…”

“Stop talkin’. Ya got broken bones stabbin’ ya. Just lay right there and wait fer help.”

“I have…no attachments…to my memories…no…I thought I didn’t, but…”

“I told ya not ta talk.”

“But after all…I don’t want to die without ever knowing what I forgot.” Lightning pulled out something, but her grip was too weak. It fell out of her grasp and hit the hallway, rolling to clink into the wall. It was a blue sphere—it looked like candy. “Adelheid…take that.”

“Ya really are a hassle.”

Abused body crying out and resting in between movements, Adelheid moved forward, picked it up, and brought it to Lightning. She didn’t think it might be a trap. She had consistently found Lightning to be incomprehensible, but there was a part of her that she did understand by just a paper’s width.

“Put it in my mouth…,” said Lightning.

“You do it. Ya’ve actually got a little more in ya, don’cha?”

Lifting her up, Adelheid put the blue candy into her mouth. She didn’t even really understand herself anymore—why was she doing all this for the other girl?

Lightning muttered “Ahhh,” followed by “I see…” as she crunched on the candy. “Now I remember.”

“What?”

Suddenly, Adelheid noticed—she could hear footsteps coming from the direction opposite the courtyard. There were a lot of them.

Who is it? Haven’t heard those footsteps before…

No—wait.

Taking a firm step on her swaying legs, Adelheid stood up. These were familiar footsteps.