Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

HELLO, DAISY

  Pechka

During her work as a magical girl, she’d been spotted a few times. The rule of thumb was to keep hidden and act in secret, but if a very young child—someone who wouldn’t see them as an oddity—happened to catch a glimpse, there was an unspoken understanding that there was nothing much to be done about it, though it was frowned upon.

Summer was at its peak. In the early afternoon at the park, the asphalt was practically softening in the heat. Cicadas hummed hoarsely, and mothers buzzed merrily with the latest gossip.

A girl of about kindergarten age, possibly waiting for her mother, was squatting in the shade, out of the harsh sunlight. In her right hand, she held a thin white string connected to a floating red balloon with a drugstore logo imprinted on it. The light filtering through the trees produced a mottled pattern on the rubber as it bobbed lazily in the air.

Suddenly, the wind picked up. The girl covered her eyes with her right hand—the one holding her balloon. The gust jerked the string from her grip, and with an “Oh!” she looked up to see her prize rising straight into the blue sky. The girl’s look of surprise disappeared, replaced by welling tears.

Then, as if from nowhere, a magical girl dashed forward, leaped high into the air, and snatched the lost balloon. She handed it to the little girl with a smile and a “Here you go.” The magical girl would have been more careful had she been helping an adult, but she figured it was fine to give a child an extra smile.

“Thank you!” the child shouted excitedly, a big smile on her face. “Miss…you’re so pretty.” She was entranced.

The magical girl, Pechka, responded with a sloppy grin and then quickly hid herself to make sure none of the mothers nearby spotted her. A magical girl’s outfit stuck out like a sore thumb, making it especially harrowing to work while the sun was up. “Swift and nimble” was the creed in daytime.

Yes, for Chika Tatehara, the ability to transform into a beautiful girl was more important than any added magic or physical prowess. It was fair to say that her appearance accounted for 70 percent of the reason she was in this business.

Chika was not a fan of her natural looks. She had moles all over, and she was certain her nose pointed too far upward. Her right and left breasts didn’t match in size or shape. Her fingertips were thick and round. She was so bowlegged that her legs never touched. No matter how much milk she drank, she was still short. And her eyes could stand to be bigger. No one had ever called her ugly, but neither could she recall ever hearing the words “cute” or “pretty” applied to her. She had a feeling that people purposefully avoided talking about her appearance. Perhaps that was something of a victim complex on her part, but maybe it wasn’t just her imagination after all.

In middle school, Chika had avoided anything that drew attention, trying to be as average as possible. Even if no one ever praised her, at least no one ever put her down, either. She’d spent her whole life thus far maneuvering in this way.

She’d never considered it a bad thing. Relative obscurity had its own joys, after all. She could play games and use the cute photo booths at the arcades that school rules forbade students from visiting, or she could read and share naughty books with a book club. Sure, it wasn’t what those girls with gobs of mascara did, but she could still get up to no good.

But there were some things Chika couldn’t do.

Ninomiya, number four on the baseball team, was outstandingly talented—their star player and cleanup batter, who had pro scouts all over him and a career in the major leagues all but in the bag. He had a calm and carefree personality, and he enjoyed baseball, eating, and sleeping. On first glance, his height and weight would suggest he was much older than middle school, and most people found him frightening upon first meeting, but he was pleasant and all smiles in conversation. His quick grins and talent for baseball attracted girls not just from his own school but from nearby middle schools, high schools, and even universities. They all came running to cheer him on not only for games but even for practices.

As a huge fan of Ninomiya, Chika was no exception. She often made excuses about it, telling herself that she was different from those other superficial fans. She just loved baseball and watching him play. His slider pitches in particular were on another level, like magic.

After matches and practice, girls would rush over carrying offerings for him: towels, candied lemons, kettles of cold water, and so on. Due to an unspoken rule, the girls would line up in order of attractiveness. If Chika were to push others aside on the approach, the next day, they’d be talking behind her back and spreading rumors to make her an outcast. It would have painted the rest of her middle school days black.

But what would life be like if she were pretty? What if she were as beautiful as a pop idol or a model? Then no one would object. No one would be able to object. She wished so badly to get close to Ninomiya, for him to eat a homemade lunch she’d put her heart into, that she wanted to become someone else. The offer of magical girlhood was a godsend for someone with such a desperate desire to be beautiful. She did her damnedest to pass the selection test and become the magical girl Pechka.

And now, looking at herself in the mirror, Chika breathed a sigh. Not her usual sigh, though. Her nose was high bridged, and her complexion was smooth and free of the moles she was so self-conscious about. Her eyes were big and her irises strong. The curve of her eyebrows was beautiful, without so much as a hair out of place. Her fingers were thin, the tips narrow and shapely. No longer were her breasts uneven; in size, shape, and bounce, they were close to the ideal Chika had envisioned, and her crooked legs were straight and slender now, too. She smiled, spun, and struck a pose. Every move she made was angelic.

Her one complaint would be that her clothes were a bit garish. They were appropriate as a magical-girl costume, but everything about the attire was aggressively unique. Pechka’s body was no less distinctive in its impact, but the clothes left too strong an impression for day-to-day wear.

Chika transformed into Pechka and stripped off her clothes and accessories. Then she slipped into a white dress, worthy of a rich lady visiting a summer resort. She’d bought it because she wanted it, even though it didn’t suit her, but without the confidence to wear it, she’d left it to rot in her dresser.

Careful not to alert her family, she sneaked out of the house.

It had been a year and a half since she first became a magical girl back in her second year of middle school, but she was in her third year already. Her days of simply gazing at herself in the mirror were over. For so long she’d let helping people take up all her free time, always coming up with some excuse to postpone this day, but she couldn’t put it off any longer. Now was the time to act.

She’d had no time to make a nice boxed lunch by hand, so while she was out, she used Pechka’s magical ability to create a delicious meal. It appeared a bit boring but tasted delectable. She packed it into a lunch box and quickly wrapped it. With that, her gift was complete.

She walked onto the baseball field. For a year and a half, she’d worried that maybe Pechka wasn’t actually pretty, that she was just the same old Chika, and she would get snubbed. But the shock, envy, and jealousy from the other girls blew all her worries away. The whispering sea of fans parted before Pechka. Looks determined your place here, so Pechka took priority over those mascara-covered girls. She strode forward boldly. Somehow, she managed to walk like a model on the runway, something she never could have pulled off as her normal self.

Beyond the sea of fans was Ninomiya himself, chatting and laughing. His friends, upon spotting Pechka, began poking the boy’s arm and pointing at her in astonishment. Then he looked at her. She had no idea what his expression was—she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. Staring at the tips of his muddy spiked shoes, she quickly blurted, “I’m a big fan. Good luck out there,” and shoved the wrapped lunch at him. Ninomiya may have said something, but she didn’t hear it—right after throwing the gift at him, she ran away.

Just as they had done upon her arrival, the sea of fans parted, and Pechka headed home. She sneaked past her family to her room, dispelled her transformation, and flopped onto the bed. There she writhed, moaning and groaning unintelligibly.

Her magical phone chirped with the text-alert tune, but she was in no state to check it. One moment she fidgeted atop her bed, and in the next she suddenly hit the ground hard without warning, writhing not in love but in physical pain. Dirt and pebbles filled her mouth, and her nose and forehead stung like they’d been scraped across something. Her soft, clean bed had transformed into a hard and deadly weapon.

She flipped over to try to check what was going on, but a blinding light kept her from opening her eyes. The insides of her eyelids were a searing white. Slowly, she acclimated to the light, until she could finally take in her strange, abnormal surroundings.

The sun was intensely bright—blazing hot and radiant. Patches of weeds dotted a wasteland stretching into the horizon. She could see tall constructs that looked like skyscrapers, three in total, but they were all crumbled. This was when Chika realized something: Her vision had become much, much better than when she was human. Without even realizing it, she had transformed into Pechka.

She patted her hands, feet, upper body, and lower body, examining herself closely. She had definitely transformed into Pechka. As a test, she hopped a little and flew straight up ten feet, then stuck the landing. Yup, she’d definitely transformed—though that had never happened involuntarily before.

“Where am I? Why am I here?”

Where indeed? It didn’t resemble anywhere in Japan. She’d heard you could find vast stretches of land like this in Hokkaido, but she doubted they came with broken-down buildings. Maybe she was in some foreign country that was embroiled in civil war or had been invaded by another nation. That would explain the high-rise building, and this desolate landscape would match the blood-soaked circumstances. It would also explain why there were no people.

But why was she here? Pechka didn’t understand at all. She’d been on her bed moments earlier, squirming with joy. Maybe she’d just been too happy, so the bad stuff had come for her to balance it out. Or perhaps this was her punishment for using her powers for something other than good deeds.

Oh yeah. Pechka recalled that just before she’d been transferred here, her magical phone had rung. Maybe that had something to do with this.

She took out the little device. Besides the apps of a regular smartphone, it had an amazing portability function that enabled the user to materialize things out of thin air. It was also shaped like a heart—exactly the sort of style appropriate to a magical girl. But such an oddly shaped screen would be unpopular on a normal phone because it was impractical and hard to read.

Displayed on the screen in simple serif typeface were the words TUTORIAL MODE. Pechka cocked her head in confusion. She’d never seen this before. She tried to start her messaging app, but for some reason, the phone wouldn’t respond. The message started to scroll of its own accord.

In this tutorial mode, you will personally experience battle in Magical Girl Raising Project. Defeat your enemies to gain magical candy.

Magical Girl Raising Project? Battling? Enemies? Magical candy?

Then Pechka noticed the ground rumbling around her—but it wasn’t an earthquake. Only a specific section of the ground was moving, not the entire earth—rumbling, swelling, and bursting from within its depths to create a hole. A white arm reached out from it, followed by its owner. Teeth rattling, bones popping, it slowly rose up. Darkness obscured its eye sockets, hiding them from view. But even if she had seen them, there would surely be nothing inside. Altogether, there were five animated skeletons, reminiscent of gods of death. She was surrounded.

Five skeletons have appeared.

The message appeared on her phone’s screen. Pechka swallowed the scream rising in her throat and steeled her buckling legs. Gritting her teeth, she held her weapon, a spatula, at the ready. Still confused as to what was going on, she smacked away the skeletal hand reaching for her. She kicked the bony figure that rushed at her, then she drew back again, dodging the skeletons grabbing at her from either side. Then she froze. The first one, the one she’d kicked, was lying facedown on the ground and holding her leg.

The touch of the skeleton’s hand was cold and repulsive, bringing her to a halt. Her magical strength normally would have allowed her to easily brush it off and crush it underfoot. But Pechka was at her limits, emotionally speaking, and she was on the verge of panicking. For all her magical enhancements, Pechka’s special ability was just food preparation. When it came to fighting, her own body was all she could rely on. She had no other choice but to hit and be hit, kick and be kicked. This wasn’t something a middle school girl with an average, peaceful life could handle.

The four other skeletons closed in on her as if in slow motion. But just before they reached her, they were sliced in half from skull to pelvis, clattering to the floor.

“…Huh?!”

At her feet, the skeleton that had been holding her was now cut cleanly into three vertical slices. The deep gouges in the ground from the expert cuts were evidence of how much force had been behind each strike. Flustered, Pechka shook her leg, and the bony fingers clasping her fell off.

What happened? What happened? As far as she could tell, she hadn’t awoken to any new power or unlocked something sealed inside her. This wasn’t Pechka’s handiwork. Looking all around, she spotted a figure beyond the dust storm with her magically enhanced vision. It was too small to be an adult male…

It was a girl. In her right hand dangled a katana. She must have been her rescuer. Over a mile of distance separated the two, but ruined buildings and weeds were the only other things around, and compared with them, the girl seemed a more likely suspect.

That the girl had saved her meant she was friendly—she had to be. To Pechka, who had suddenly been thrown into a confusing landscape and forced to fight terrifying monsters, she was a savior. The rescued girl sprinted over, and in a flash she had covered the mile distance and was vigorously bowing her head. “Thank you very much!”

Pechka gently lifted her head to look at her protector, who really was a girl. She was garbed in samurai-like clothing, but it was dramatically stylized, as was her long ponytail, bound into a unique accessory that resembled a blooming flower at the end. Her garb looked less like a samurai’s attire and more like something else—like a magical girl’s costume. Not to mention that no one but Pechka’s fellows would be capable of attacking an enemy from over a mile away with a katana.

“Are you…a magical girl?” asked Pechka.

No response.

“Um, my name’s Pechka. I’m a magical girl, too.”

No response. The girl merely stared.

Sensing that this was a sign to hurry, Pechka went on. “I wonder where we are. Would you happen to know? I just randomly ended up here, and I really didn’t know what’s going on, and then I got scared when those skeletons appeared, and I’m really in a mess.”

“Must I do this again? Is it not over?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t like it. It’s…not right.” The girl’s eyes were focused on one point, yet she didn’t appear to be seeing anything. Her gaze was aimed at Pechka, but she was looking off somewhere else entirely. The girl reached out her hand and wrapped her fingers around Pechka’s throat.

Unable to move, Pechka didn’t resist, letting her do as she would. The girl’s fingers felt cold. Pechka swallowed audibly. The grip around her throat tightened. Muscle and flesh contracted. The katana in the girl’s right hand edged slowly closer to her captive’s throat. Something was chattering—Pechka’s own teeth.

“Is it not over?” the girl murmured. “Come on, Musician.”

“I—I don’t know anything,” stammered Pechka. “I—I don’t know what’s going on, either. I blinked, and then I was here.”

The samurai stared at her with those unseeing eyes. Her grip weakened, and her katana dropped to dangle at her side again. She let go of Pechka’s throat and pushed her away. Unable to stand her ground, Pechka fell on her bottom and peered up at the other girl. Her teeth were still chattering, hard.

“It seems you are not the Musician. That person is more…like…” The girl turned her back to Pechka and began to stagger unsteadily away, her dragging katana carving a trail as she went. She was muttering something under her breath, but Pechka couldn’t quite hear.

Still sitting on the ground, Pechka watched her go. After all that, she still didn’t know where she was or how she ended up there. But she had no urge to go after the other girl.

  Magical Daisy

The skeletons had proven surprisingly fragile—about as strong as human bones, perhaps. They broke from Magical Daisy’s kicks and shattered under her punches. This sort of violence stirred a visceral disgust within her, but she was what you’d call a veteran. She would have quit long ago if this were enough to break her.

“Daisy Punch!”

It was just a normal punch.

“Daisy Kick!”

It was just a regular kick.

Yet Magical Daisy felt that naming her moves made them stronger, so she’d named her ordinary punches and kicks as if they were special attacks. She believed that there had to be power, or something, in saying it out loud.

“Daisy Beam!”

It was just a normal beam—well, obviously not.

The Daisy Beam was her killer move—and not in the figurative sense. This move was literally guaranteed to kill. In addition to supernaturally enhanced physical strength, girls chosen by the Magical Kingdom were each given a unique magical ability. This was what made them “magical” girls. Daisy’s ability was the Daisy Beam. By pointing her finger, she could shoot a light ray around four inches in diameter. It instantly vaporized anything it touched, though she didn’t understand how it worked. Palette had explained that it disassembled the target on a molecular level, causing it to quickly disintegrate and disperse into the air. She could, of course, vary the beam. If she spread her hand wide, it would shoot a light ray about a foot and a half in diameter, a much wider attack area.

She had never used this move to kill anyone. It was for eliminating waste and obstacles. She’d once suggested to the Magical Kingdom that it might be helpful to the world to use her beam to clear industrial or atomic waste, but she’d received the notice that magical girls were not permitted to influence trade or industry in the human world. It felt like they’d warned her, Keep the showboating to a minimum! as if they’d seen a narcissism in her that she didn’t realize she had. This hadn’t done her self-esteem any favors.

On a personal level, Daisy considered using the beam on living things to be the deepest of taboos, and the Magical Kingdom and its mascots also heavily restricted its use. But when assaulted by monsters that were clearly not alive—and thanks to the video game–like message Five skeletons have appeared—she’d fired in the moment, without hesitation. One shot of her beam had blown the skeletons away, along with her pent-up stress. But at the same time, it gave her second thoughts. She’d gotten carried away.

“So, uh, where am I?” As usual, she was talking to herself, but she really meant it this time. She’d read that the game had begun, and a second later, she’d been transformed into her magical-girl form and transported into the middle of this wasteland, all alone. Then the skeletons had attacked her.

The land was flat in every direction as far as Magical Daisy could see. She’d never been to Mexico or Africa, but she imagined the sun here was just as hot. She’d probably be suffering some burns if not for her enhanced skin. The only other thing in her field of vision besides the sun and wasteland were some dilapidated buildings. Daisy checked her magical phone. She couldn’t access her profile page anymore, and there was a message on her screen. It read:

The tutorial has ended.

You earned 5 magical candies.

Magical candy. That reminded Daisy—the phone had said something about that, right before the skeletons had appeared. She also felt like she’d heard that phrase before somewhere. Where had it been?

Please head to town.

Town? She saw only wasteland around her. But maybe if she traveled higher, she might be able to see around a little more. Daisy dashed over to the high-rise buildings. Up close, she could see the full extent of their dilapidation, their walls stained brown from the dust clouds. The amount of chips, cracks, and general signs of erosion led her to believe that these buildings had been there for a long time, not just a few years. One building was leaning to the side, with everything above the tenth floor entirely crumpled. It was about as tall as the other buildings.

Taking care not to cause the whole thing to collapse, Daisy quickly scaled the building. With her magically enhanced strength, running up the wall was nothing. Upon reaching the top, she surveyed her surroundings. The wind gusted harder up here, so she held her skirt down. Even the sun seemed to be stronger here, possibly because she was closer to it. As she’d expected, though, the view was much clearer. Her left hand to her forehead to block out the light, she looked off into the distance. Her abnormally powerful eyes meant she could see farther than any other living creature.

“Hmm… Is that it?” In the distance, she could see a cluster of buildings. It was the only thing in view that could pass for anything like a town. The rest of the wasteland was dotted with more ruins like the one she was currently standing on. She examined everything around her, checking each and every one of the buildings. They were all exactly the same, right down to the angle of their tilt and the patterns of broken glass in the windows, just like in a video game. One building in particular caught her eye—atop it was a figure.

Daisy jumped back as soon as she caught sight of the figure in the distance. A crack had appeared in the building’s roof right under where she’d been standing—and it was no natural fissure. Something extremely sharp had sliced through the concrete like butter. She looked at the faraway shape again. Did the attack come from over there?

They were holding some sort of pole. At this distance, it was too far for even Daisy’s superpowered eyes to make out exactly what it was.

Just then, the figure moved, seeming to raise the pole, and the sunlight glittered off it, sparkling. It was metal… A blade? Daisy flung herself to the ground. The edge of the roof fractured, slid, then fell to the ground and shook the earth. Even from way up high, Daisy could see the dust cloud that ensued.

There was no mistaking it: The damage had occurred right after the figure’s movement. She thought they might be hurling slices of wind at her, but there was zero delay between the figure’s actions and the destruction that followed. It wasn’t quite like a projectile.

Still on the ground, Magical Daisy stuck her arms out in front of her, facing the figure, and thought. Daisy had been hit yet had taken no damage. Could it have been a warning, or maybe a ruse? The move had caused her to jump back and drop down, but she wasn’t quite sure if she’d still have been unhurt if she hadn’t taken defensive action.

If the figure had missed deliberately—and even if it hadn’t—it seemed different from those lifeless and mindless skeletons. Regardless of how the figured had attacked, they seemed humanlike. And Magical Daisy couldn’t use her beam on a human…or any living creature, whatever it was.

After a moment’s hesitation, she looked at the giant split in the side of the building and decided she couldn’t ignore the enemy anymore. She aimed her outstretched arm a little lower and then shot her Daisy Beam. It scored a direct hit on the base of the building, causing the nearly toppled structure to lean even farther to the side. After one more shot, down came the building in a plume of smoke.

The figure jumped from the collapsing building and landed on the ground. Meanwhile, Daisy jumped from her own vantage point and rushed to close the distance between them. The stranger did the same. Still running, they slashed once, twice, swinging downward and striking upward.

Daisy dodged every attack. The effects were basically the same as if the figure were swinging a katana at close range. The cuts followed the blade’s trajectory, so as long as Magical Daisy moved herself out of the way, she could dodge. They were all highly telegraphed.

“Daisy Beam! Daisy Beam! Daisy…Beeeam!”

She unleashed shot after shot, never aiming directly at her opponent. She directed each attack toward the ground, vaporizing the dirt and kicking up dust to block her foe’s vision. Then she dashed forward into the thick clouds of dust that billowed in the air.

She could sense a presence. It was sticky and thick, not even trying to hide itself. A strike at her feet slithered along the ground. Back-stepping, she dodged and kicked low, but her attacker was pressed to the ground. Daisy meant to hit their temple with her toes, but instead, she scored a hit on their forehead—or rather, their forehead had blocked her kick. Her foot went numb. The figure then thrust a blade from below, aiming for her throat. Magical Daisy barely dodged, the blade cutting into her shoulder. She was too far away, and her opponent’s katana prevented her from getting close.

Daisy dropped down and slid ahead, trying to take out their legs. Once the opponent fell, the two became entangled. The katana was knocked aside as the pair grabbed at each other’s arms and legs, each grappling with an unseen enemy.

As she touched her opponent, she understood: This was a magical girl’s body, and a toned one, at that. It belonged to someone who, like Daisy, had punished herself in training so that she would be able to fight someone and win.

Daisy grabbed the girl’s sleeve and threw her. Just before the girl hit the ground, Daisy felt her legs being swept out from under her, and the pair collapsed in a heap.

“Ha-ha!” Her opponent barked out a laugh. Daisy bit one back.

Daisy struck with her elbows and fists and was paid back in kind with a strike to her knees. As her opponent’s arm snaked around her neck, she kicked away to distance herself. All right, what’s she going to do? And what’s my next move? Heat coursed through her entire body. Slowly, the dust cloud faded, and then a sudden gust blew in, wafting the rest of it away. When the debris settled, only Magical Daisy remained.

“…Huh?” Had her opponent run away? Well, if they had, that was the best outcome. But still, Daisy was upset—or maybe just let down. She couldn’t deny that she was unsatisfied. She’d enjoyed scuffling blind with a strange opponent, and she was sure they had as well.

“You’re not the Musician.”

Daisy spun around at a voice, but no one was there. She still had no clue what that fight was about. Most likely, she had faced another magical girl, but she couldn’t be sure.

As her body released the intense heat of the fight, her mind cooled as well. Remembering her original objective, she looked toward the town.

Now a cloud of dust had whipped up in front of it. She could see silhouettes, and not just one or two. They moved furiously. There was a lone figure, surrounded by a hoard of white…skeletons. Someone was being forced to battle skeletons, just like Daisy. She reached out with her right hand and was just about to fire a killer Daisy Beam when she realized with a start what she was doing. Her target was quite far away. If she missed, it could be really bad.

“Augh! This sucks! Damn it!” she shouted, and she charged in.

  Pechka

The high-rise building was completely empty on the inside. Pechka could see no traces of it having been used as retail space or an office building, and no sign that it had been lived in as an apartment, either. There was truly nothing. There were only floors and rooms with broken glass windows that let the wind blow through.

She searched for clues as to where in the world she could be, but by the third building, she was disheartened. By the fifth building, she was distraught. And on the eighth building, she finally broke down. She was well aware of this, too. Pechka was not a strong-hearted girl. Clearing away the dust on the ground, she sat and leaned against a wall. All that would come out of her was a sigh.

She had no idea where she was. Monsters had attacked her, and the magical girl who had fought them off for her had almost killed her. And to top it off, her magical phone was totally broken. Her e-mail app wouldn’t open, and she couldn’t even make calls to notify the outside world of her distress.

Right now, the baffling message Magical candy: 0 was displayed on her screen. What was that? It certainly had a magical-girl ring to it. But she’d never heard the term before.

Pechka thought of Ninomiya. This was just an attempt to escape the real world. She couldn’t even be sure this was reality, anyway, so she’d rather be thinking about Ninomiya. Had he eaten the boxed lunch she had given him? The food she created with her magic was really delicious. But maybe it hadn’t been to his preference. Despite how reliably good her creations were, not everyone had the same sense of taste. And besides, he might have thrown it out without even trying it. Some people might think it would be dumb of him to eat a boxed lunch he received from some fan he’d never met before, not knowing what was inside. If Pechka were in Ninomiya’s shoes, she wouldn’t have wanted to eat it.

Oh, this is no use. Even thinking about Ninomiya caused her to spiral into negativity, even though he should have been her greatest source of happiness.

Pechka broke out into tears, sobbing soundlessly. She was worried that if she made any noise, those skeleton-like monsters might attack her again, so she allowed only her tears to come out. The droplets ran down her cheeks to her chin, where they splashed onto the arms that hugged her legs. When she wasn’t transformed, plain Chika was a crybaby, but Pechka had never cried once. Still, now she cried and cried and cried until she was exhausted enough to nod off to sleep—until a tremor against her back jolted her awake again.

She opened her eyes and immediately pressed her right ear against the wall. There were footsteps. And the sound of…hooves? And talking. More than one person. There were others in here. Pechka removed her ear from the wall and started to make her way toward the sounds’ origin, trying to keep as quiet as possible. Maybe this time she’d meet someone normal. Maybe they’d explain the situation and tell her what to do. Maybe they’d save her.

Of course, it was possible that wouldn’t be the case. In fact, it was more than likely. Since Pechka had been brought to this place, she had yet to encounter anyone she could even have a proper conversation with, never mind determine whether they were friendly or not. If these people seemed normal, she’d try to chat with them. Otherwise, she’d run away before they found her. With that in mind, she crept silently toward the source of the footsteps. After every step, she waited thirty seconds before taking another. Sweat ran down her chin now where the tears had been before.

“I told you, didn’t I?” That was Japanese. The intonation was a little weird in places, but Pechka could understand what the person was saying. At the very least, it seemed like someone she could communicate with. “I told you if we climbed a building, we could get a better view. Alors, Rionetta, you said—”

“Are you still cross I made that comment about twits and high places? Feeling miffed about that?”

“Oh, you think that made me angry? Non!”

“You two, stop fighting,” came a third voice.

Pechka carefully peered through the doorway. The room she observed was missing the ceiling, making it the de facto roof. In it stood three figures. Not three people—three figures. Pechka had decided to talk to them if they seemed normal, but she halted right outside.

“This isn’t a fight, non! It’s a legitimate objection!” The girl with the strange intonation seemed fairly ordinary. She was wearing a costume based on a shrine maiden’s outfit. Most likely, she was a magical girl just like Pechka. While her distinctly Japanese fashion didn’t match her manner of speech, at the very least, she didn’t look weird.

“This isn’t a fight at all. Fighting is the sort of behavior done among equals.”

That voice belonged to another individual, one who also appeared as a regular girl, though a little on the large side. Her Lolita fashion, with the bonnet and bloomers and all, might have passed for what a regular hobbyist would wear if it weren’t a magical girl’s costume. Her face was cute, but it seemed somehow fake. When Pechka noticed the girl’s exposed armpits and wrists, her breath caught in her throat. The girl’s skin was textured just like that of a human’s, but her joints were all ball joints. It wasn’t a human, but a doll. And it was talking.

And the third girl was even more shocking than the doll. She was also lovely, her clothes mostly purple and adorned with feather-like decorations and a big ribbon to add some flair. But then there was her lower half: a horse. Not that she was riding a horse—oh, no. It was as if someone had taken a horse, removed its head, and replaced it with the upper body of a human girl, just like the mythical centaur, or whatever it was called.

Were these figures monsters like the skeletons, or were they magical girls? Pechka couldn’t decide, and that meant it was best to avoid them. Slowly, carefully, she began backing away. She had to leave before they noticed her. But after three steps back, their magical phones started ringing. The three girls took out their devices, which indicated to her that they were, in fact, magical girls, but at the same time, Pechka’s phone rang. Startled, all three girls turned to her.

Pechka took off without sparing so much as a glance behind her.

  Magical Daisy

The maid Daisy had saved introduced herself as Nokko. She was dressed like a traditional maid, her platinum-blond hair tied up on both sides with ribbons, and she even had a mop in hand, decorated with the same ribbon. Age-wise, she appeared about ten years old and stood a head shorter than Daisy.

According to her, she became the magical girl Nokko at age four. At the time, her judgment had been severely underdeveloped, so when creating her magical-girl name, she’d thought they were asking for her real name and so answered cheerfully, “Nokko!” And thus she’d ended up stuck with that name. She had later submitted thirty requests for a name change, but every one was rejected. The Magical Kingdom’s ruling was that, once decided, a magical girl’s name could not be changed, barring extreme circumstances—even if the name was created by a four-year-old barely capable of making a sound decision.

Nokko seemed embarrassed as she told Daisy the origin of her name. As she related her story, with a mix of self-deprecation and complaint, she repeatedly played with the ribbons in her hair as she spoke. It was adorably innocent.

Daisy asked her, “Do you know where we are? Why we were brought here?”

“I have no idea,” Nokko replied. “I was looking at my bank book, and then suddenly, I came here.”

Daisy was curious as to why she would be reviewing her transactions in the middle of the night, but that was probably irrelevant. Confirming the date with Nokko, they found they were on the same page time-wise. Each of their incidents had occurred at the same time on the same day.

“Um…,” Nokko began.

“Yes?”

“Are you the Magical Daisy?”

“Huh? Yeah, I am.”

“Wow! You’re just like on TV! Were the episodes based on real life?”

“Oh yeah. Some of it was exaggerated, though.”

Nokko seemed to be a fan of Magical Daisy…or rather, magical girls in general. As her excitement rose, she started squealing. The most common reason anyone joined the ranks of magical girls was that they loved the anime and manga. In that sense, Daisy was the same. Her love had led her to this path herself. So she didn’t find it surprising or suspicious that Nokko was a magical-girl fan.

But it made Daisy happy to meet a fan of the show in real life, and it made her even happier to see Nokko so overjoyed. Watching the young girl talk excitedly about what she remembered, the parts that had made her cry, her most hated villains, and the episodes she’d watched with sweaty hands clenched, she thought, I have to protect her.

“I was so excited for the reruns every week!” Nokko exclaimed.

“I was still in middle school during the original airing… Just how old was I when the rerun started?”

Was this how pop idols felt about their fans? Though Daisy was more like a retired pop idol now that the anime was over, but seeing Nokko’s enthusiasm tugged at her heartstrings and gave her strength.

The two of them chatted excitedly for a while about their memories of Magical Daisy until the sound of their magical phones ringing brought them back to reality. They were in a strange, unknown land with skeletal remains scattered all about. On the screen was the message:

Please head to town.

They just never let up! Daisy grumbled in her head, but it looked like they had no choice but to obey. So she told Nokko about the apparent town she’d spotted from atop the building and suggested they head there in hopes that it might shed some light on their situation.

“I’ll do my best to not get in the way,” Nokko replied, blushing. Seeing her flushed face lifted Daisy’s spirits.

It was quite a ways to the town, but with their magical-girl legs, it wasn’t too much effort. Based on that battle with the skeletons, Daisy assumed Nokko wasn’t much of a runner, or possibly not very confident in her physical abilities, so she refrained from going too fast, but even with that, they covered the twelve-odd miles to their destination in only about ten minutes.

The “town” was just what she’d seen from a distance: a town in name only, with none of the things necessary for an actual settlement. The buildings were in better shape than the dilapidated ones out in the wasteland, but the road showed no signs of maintenance. Clouds of dust floated through the empty streets. From their vantage point on the outside, there was no pedestrian traffic. After Daisy warned Nokko to stay close, they walked in together.

Upon entering the town, they encountered a wide-open area. It looked like the town square. In the center was an indentation carved out of stone with a mermaid statue sitting in it. It must have once been some kind of fountain, though the water was all dried up. In its place sat piles of sand, which spoke to the length of time it had gone without water. There were two people in the square.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” a strange voice shouted. One of the girls, her face red with excitement, pointed their way. “Are you for real? Are you the actual Magical Daisy?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess I am,” Daisy replied.

“Wow! You’re really the real deal? Cool!”

This had to be another magical girl. She was wearing quite the outlandish outfit: a helmet with a visor and a near-future-style full-body suit that clung to her frame. A gun sat in the holster at her waist, but it looked more like a toy ray gun than a real weapon. The entire costume screamed Defense force battling to protect Earth from monsters and aliens! Daisy had always loved to watch summer reruns of that stuff, and while she hadn’t grown up during the first airings of those types of shows, it was familiar enough to instill a sense of nostalgia in her.

“Oh, I may not look it,” said the girl, “but I’m sorta the nerdy otaku type. I watched Magical Daisy as it aired, and of course, I collected all the DVD sets, too. Oh, I’m so stoked! So pumped! I can’t believe Magical Daisy is real!”

“May not look it”? Please. Everything about her screams “obsessed,” thought Daisy. But that aside, it made her honestly happy to see a fan overjoyed.

“Meow-Meow! Meow-Meooow! Come here!” Apparently, the nerdy girl wasn’t just imitating a cat. She was calling someone’s name.

Cautiously, a girl in a costume resembling a cheongsam dress walked forward, her hair tied up in two buns. She looked like a Chinese stereotype, complete with an accent. “She you friend, Yumenoshima?” It was so cliché. But from her rear was growing a thick, monstrous, reptilian tail, giving her style an unbalanced sort of punch.

“Wait, Meow-Meow,” said the first girl, “you don’t know who Magical Daisy is? You must live under a rock.”

“Oh, she famous? Pardon me, then.”

“This isn’t something I can pardon you for! This is common knowledge!”

The defense army–esque girl introduced herself as Genopsyko Yumenoshima, and the girl in Chinese fashion as @Meow-Meow. Those are both crazy names, Daisy thought, but she kept that to herself so as not to be rude. But…

“Those names are pretty weird,” Nokko blurted.

“People say all the time,” @Meow-Meow said.

“I was going for a strong impression,” Genopsyko added. They both laughed, causing Daisy and Nokko to start giggling, too. Daisy considered scolding Nokko and telling her that it didn’t matter what their names were, but the urge dissipated with one look at the younger girl.

Next, Nokko introduced herself and the story behind her name, which only elicited more laughter. Maybe the origin of her name and how she’d tried to change it afterward was just a funny story she told everyone.

The four of them sat in a circle on the lip of the mermaid-statue fountain.

It turned out that Genopsyko and @Meow-Meow were not longtime friends but had met after arriving here, just like Daisy and Nokko. They had experienced much the same thing: They both received a text in the middle of the night, and then suddenly they were in a wasteland, skeletons closing in.

“Oh yeah, and we also meet other magical girls,” said @Meow-Meow. “Seems they in same boat.” She explained that a group of girls had already passed through town.

“Where did they go?” asked Daisy.

“They finish business here, then go.”

“They wouldn’t tell us what they were here for,” added Genopsyko. “Pretty shady. Magical girls play as dirty as you’d expect.”

“I said no good to be separated. But they have own plans, so they leave fast.”

According to @Meow-Meow, there had been four magical girls in total: one who looked like a doll, another like a shrine maiden, one with the lower body of a horse, and an unconscious fourth tied to her back with loops of clear string.

“Huh?” said Daisy. “Shouldn’t you have done something?”

Genopsyko explained, “They said she was tied up to prevent her from crying, going berserk, or running away and getting into trouble.”

“We talk to them, and they no seem like bad people.”

Daisy was in no position to worry about others, but this still concerned her. There was no guarantee their strange circumstances wouldn’t cause someone to panic and end up hurting another… She’d nearly done the same earlier.

“They said there more magical girls here,” said @Meow-Meow.

“Apparently, they also came here, finished their business, and left, but I have no idea what’s going on… Huh?” Before Genopsyko could finish her sentence, she froze, mouth still agape. She stared at the screen of the device in her right hand, the light reflecting off her visor. “We got a message! Everyone, hurry up and turn on your phones!”

The message that had been on the screen before, Please head to town, was gone. Now their phones read Support commands added.

“Support commands?” Daisy wondered. The word Support was clickable. She tapped it with her fingertip.