MASTER SIDE #6
“That’s how I got the idea! If the Magical Kingdom is just gonna leave them be, then someone’s gotta do it! We’ve got to test them to see if they really are the right kind of magical girl. I don’t mind playing the villain here—someone’s got to do it!” The girl cried passionately, spraying spit and banging her fists on the table. The coffee cup and saucer bounced, sloshing the dark-brown liquid. “You get it, right, Snow White?”
The girl in white was still sitting there, unmoving. She didn’t nod, shake her head, or open her mouth—she just watched the café au lait vibrate in her cup. Her white magical-girl outfit looked out of place with the cheap folding chair and office desk.
“You get it, right, Snow White? You made it through your trial without killing anyone and buried her, plans and all.”
“The Magical Kingdom demands that you release the magical girls.” The visitor in white shifted her gaze from her café au lait to the girl across from her.
The girl beamed under that cold, hard stare. “I suppose I miiight comply, depending on your conditions.”
“What are your demands?”
“Radical reform of the selection process for magical girls. And the reforms must be retroactive. Go back to past exams, bring to light the problematic ones, and strip the girls who took them of their certification.”
“If this is the same thing you came to the Council before to advocate for—”
“And there will be no compromises or concessions. At all. I’m not changing my mind, and if you won’t go with that, then you’re giving me no reason at all to release the ‘children.’”
“We can’t negotiate if that’s the case.”
“Magical girls are chosen by the gods. We can’t have even a smidgen of any impurity among us.” She was smiling.
The magical girl in white intently examined that expression. For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Then, without a word, she stood, pushed the folding chair aside, and turned away from the other girl.
The magical phone lying on the table turned on. “Snow White! There’s no time, pon! Six of them are dead already, pon! Please hurry and—”
The mastermind slammed her right fist down onto the magical phone to turn it off, and the shrill synthetic voice coming from the device cut out. “I’ll say it one more time: You’ll understand.”
“We will continue negotiations.” Her back still turned, the white magical girl spoke quietly. “So don’t kill any more.”
“What?” With her pointer finger, the first girl adjusted her glasses as they slipped down her face, and her lips twisted. “I haven’t killed anyone, you know? That thing with Magical Daisy was, well…an unfortunate accident. But once I gathered them together to make them play the game, they just started going right ahead and killing one another. I never told them to, you know? In fact, the rules make it so that they can cooperate. I’ve given them proper hints about it, too. I’ve never cheated anywhere. I made this game so that a good, legitimate magical girl will be able to complete it. I’m a kind, kind game master for giving the children a chance for reexamination. I mean, they all became magical girls through the wrong method, and properly speaking, they should have been removed without question, riiight?”
The magical girl in white did not reply, putting her hand on the doorknob.
The other girl yelled after her, “You tried to read my mind, didn’t you? Did you think that I might have some weakness? Is that why you came here? I’m telling you: I have no weaknesses. Here, I’m invincible. I can do anything, and nothing you do will work. I’m just like a god. One of the other girls from your time was named Nemurin, right? My thing is similar to hers. As long as I’m in this world, nobody can touch me. I have no weaknesses. That’s why, even if you do read my mind, it won’t bother me at all.” It was neither a lie nor an exaggeration that she was invincible as long as she was in this world. If you killed her, she wouldn’t die, though you couldn’t even kill her in the first place. And she could do anything. “This is actually a private place just for me, but I invited you in specially, Snow White—because I want to make friends with you.”
The magical girl in white said nothing in reply to the other girl’s patronizing remarks, leaving the room and closing the door softly. The lines of light peering in from beyond the door narrowed bit by bit and finally disappeared.
The girl, though she was now alone, continued to babble on and on. “I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. I’m just saying what I believe is right and actualizing how I think things should be. That’s why I can let you read everything in my head. If you’ve seen what’s in there, then you must understand, right, Snow White? You and me, we can cooperate. We should cooperate, you know? After all, we’re both the right kind of magical girl.”
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