Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 4 - Chapter 8

Meow-Meow @ N City

This story is set quite a while before Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart, just a little before the events of the first book, Magical Girl Raising Project.

“Whoa, magical girls! Awesomesauce!”

“It says you’re supposed to pick a name, huh? What’re you gonna choose?”

“All right, first up to bat is me, Himari Tanahashi! I will now close my eyes, and whatever letter I hit will go in my magical-girl naaame!”

“Oh man, Himari.”

“All right! Dooo eeet, dooo eeet! You could get ‘poop’ or ‘mosquito’!”

“Now then, let’s start the roulette! Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka…click!”

“Whadja get? Whadja get?”

“Um…@?”

“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Now you’ve done it! This girl has gone and done it!”

“Awesome as usual, Himari.”

“Then you go next, Micchii.”

“Uh…I’m passing it off to Masako.”

“Whoops, and Masako completely ignores the pass.”

“That’s dirty! Foul play! Why are you two forcing me to do all this? Come on!”

“I mean, that’s kinda your thing, eh, Himari?”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re doing this ’cause we don’t wanna take your thing from you, Himari.”

“Aiyaaa! No fair! You cheata!”

“A cheetah? If I were that fast, we’d all have our names decided by now!”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Cheetah? That one was lame, man. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Michiyo, Masako, and Himari were good friends, and all on the girls’ soccer team, so the class had titled them the “three stooges of the soccer club.” Each of them occupied different positions in the club—one was a reserve player, one had just barely made regular during the last tryouts, and one had been their ace attacker since first year. Still, they clicked when it came to getting excited and having a good time, regardless of their positions on the team or whether their plays were any good.

They had so much fun together, they would quite literally laugh over anything, slapping each others’ shoulders or holding their stomachs laughing. At school, club, or on weekends, they did everything as a group.

Himari, at least, had fun being with her two friends. It felt so fitting, like this was the way things should be. Even when their head coach yelled at her for missing a pass or when the heat made her unconsciously slow down while she was running laps and the coach scolded her for it, even when the teacher rebuked her for falling asleep in class, and even that one time in the first round of the national tournament when their opponents had made a comeback for a win, as long as the three of them were there, they could turn it into something to laugh about.

Perhaps the time they laughed the most was when all three were chosen as magical girls. They’d all acted so crazy and excited, you’d have thought they were drunk or high—Himari didn’t have experience with either sensation, but she figured it was probably something like that—as they picked out names for themselves. And then, the mood did a one-eighty from the name-choosing, and they solemnly swore to help one another as much as possible on their test that would decide who would be an official magical girl, to make sure one of them would be chosen.

In the exam, Himari was chosen as the official magical girl, @Meow-Meow, while Michiyo and Masako had all their memories of magic erased and were sent back to their old lives…and then, on the way home from the exam, they were both killed in a traffic accident. Himari, who had stayed behind at the exam site to receive a lecture as an official magical girl, had avoided misfortune and was now left behind, alone.

Her memories of the event were vague. That had to be because she didn’t want to remember any of it. Or perhaps she had been in a daze as it had all ended.

Himari passed the entrance exams to get into the school she’d been aiming for, too. She had friends. She had a decent enough relationship with her parents. She figured her life was going fine, more or less.

But still, when she remembered Michiko and Masako, something deep in her chest ached as if something were squeezing it. Whenever she kicked a soccer ball, whenever she made someone laugh, whenever she did magical-girl things, she couldn’t help remembering the two of them.

Himari quit soccer. She would still laugh at other people’s jokes, but she stopped trying to make them laugh herself. She stopped doing the voluntary part of her role as a magical girl, but the Magical Kingdom wasn’t so considerate of her feelings.

Himari—@Meow-Meow—could use her magic to seal things away inside paper talismans. She couldn’t do this to living things, but she could tuck any inanimate object into a slip of paper, regardless of its size. Her magic was ideal for transportation and delivery, so it was not unusual for the Magical Kingdom to summon her and command her to transport things for them.

Every time they contacted her for a job, she was afraid of remembering her dead friends and disappointed in herself for that fear.

It was around the time of year when New Year’s and winter vacation had just ended, and the world was winding up again. Himari concealed her status as a magical girl by wearing a long coat over top of her costume, covering up her tail as well.

Starting early in the morning, she transferred from train to train to arrive at an ironworks in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

She had two jobs to complete that day. The first was to transport some materials from a factory in another prefecture. She was to ship magical machines and the parts for them, dangerous magical chemicals, magical heavy equipment, large magical containers, and other things that required time, money, and specialist expertise to transport.

“Oh, and sorry for adding extra work while you’re at it, but can I ask you for one more thing?”

After Himari had sealed all the goods into her talismans, her client had approached her, hands pressed together. He wore worn-out work clothes, a hard hat, worn work gloves, and muddy steel-toe boots. That, combined with his looks, his tone, and his gestures, made him look like just your typical blue-collar, middle-aged man. The residents and allies of the Magical Kingdom lived all over the place, pretending, like him, to be normal people.

“It’s this thing.”

The man jerked his gaze over to the cardboard box he carried in his right arm.

Himari was going to be carrying materials to a certain H City located on Japan’s coast. The man said he wanted her to deliver this cardboard box to N City, in the same prefecture.

“They’re holding a magical-girl exam right now over in N City. I hear it’s gonna be a little bit different than usual, so they’re introducing some experimental new magical phones. They’re saying they have some new functions, like the ability to download items and whatnot. So once you’ve delivered the materials, I’d like you to send this box to the examiner.”

“Well, I can…”

“Sorry. I owe you one.” The worker made a chagrined remark about how stingy the Magical Kingdom was, trying to skimp on shipping fees. Then he handed her a cardboard box full of dozens of magical phones and forced an envelope into her hands. “Get yourself a bite to eat.”

After parting ways with the worker, Himari discreetly checked the contents of the envelope to find two thousand-yen bills inside. She bought herself a to-go lunch at the station and worked her chopsticks as she watched the landscape outside the window flow by.

The great consolidation of four years earlier had made the port town of N City the largest municipality in the area. But though it may have been the largest, that was only on a regional level, so Himari’s impression as a visitor coming from the Tokyo suburbs on the limited express train was more like, Ah, this is the country.

Finishing up her delivery to H City, Himari sat rocking on the slow train to N City. Being on the train reminded her of field trips, and remembering field trips made her think of Michiyo and Masako, whether she wanted to or not. They’d gone to Kyushu for one of their school trips. They’d sneaked out of their hotel at night to change into their swimsuits and go in the ocean, even though it was already winter. Even now, Himari clearly remembered the beauty of the night sky above the sea as they floated in the water.

Before long, she arrived at N City. Checking the map that had been sent to her magical phone, she headed toward Takanami Mountain.

“Welcome, welcome! Good of you to come, pon.”

Near the summit of Takanami Mountain was a resort hotel that had seemingly been abandoned halfway through construction. A magical phone sat alone in the ruined lobby with a hologram projected above it. It was a sphere, divided into black on the right and white on the left, with butterfly-like wings growing from it.

Himari tilted her head. “I’ve met you somewhere before, haven’t I?”

“Oh, no… I think this is the first time we’ve met, pon.” The image claimed they’d never met. But Himari couldn’t help feeling as if she’d seen it somewhere before. “Fav is mass-produced. So maybe you’ve met another mascot of the same type, pon?”

“Oh…maybe that’s it.”

The mascot character, Fav, boasted about how the new magical phone was far cuter and more functional than the old one. It seemed quite excited, despite its lack of facial expressions, as if the project were its personal pride. “All right, I’ll tell you where all the magical girls are, so please handle distribution, pon.”

“Huh?”

“If the master were here, I’d have her do it, but unfortunately, she isn’t, pon. Fav can’t carry things, and this is just the kind of task a kind magical girl would do for us, right, pon? The Magical Kingdom will pay for your train fare anyway, pon.”

“Yeah…”

“Oh, and you can’t tell the others about the exam. It won’t be a surprise test if they know it’s coming. And if you’re gonna have an exam, you’ve really got to make it a pop quiz.”

“Yeah…”

Now she had more work.

So number one was on the roof of a love hotel, a magical girl who was literally a robot. Himari first thought the robot was a mascot character, but…

“I have heard about you. I am Magicaloid 44, magical girl. Greetings.” Apparently, she was a magical girl.

And since she’d given Himari her name, Himari had to introduce herself, too. “Hi, I’m @Meow-Meow.”

“‘At’? That is a strange name.”

Himari had ended up with that name as the result of an in-joke gone too far, and it was embarrassing to introduce herself to people. Every single time, people would remark on its strangeness, and more than once, people had snapped at her, saying she should take such a decision more seriously. And each time, Himari had no choice but to dodge the issue with a laugh, and then once she went home, she’d gloomily remember her two friends.

“Magicaloid is a cool name.”

“A friend was the one to come up with it, though.”

Himari had once had friends, too. She could just be herself and talk about anything with them. Now they were gone.

“You will be going to deliver these to the other magical girls as well, right, Meow-Meow?”

“That’s right.”

“Then you do not have to go to each individual girl to deliver the phones. Many of them hang out in groups, so you can visit them all at once. I will write them down for you, so please use it as a reference.”

“Th-thank you.”

“I will distribute phones to those who live in this neighborhood. Top Speed is close by air, so I will take one to her. Also, Calamity Mary’s place can be rather dangerous, so I will take one to her as well. Nemurin is also a special case, so you can let me handle her.”

The mascot character had been quick to abuse her labor, but this magical girl was kind. Himari bowed her head again in thanks, and when she lifted her head, she saw an arm with a plastic-like feel extended before her.

“My fee is only one thousand yen. A bargain, right?”

After paying the thousand yen, Himari’s next stop was an abandoned temple. There were four magical girls there.

“Hmph. So these are the new magical phones.”

Though four were present, only one was actually talking. The other three seemed to be doing something outside. Ruler, the magical girl dressed like a princess, twisted her lips. “Why is the screen still heart-shaped? I thought I told Fav to make the design more functional.”

“Oh, but I’m told they’re higher grade. Like there’s new functions now.”

Though she wondered why she had to defend this phone when she was just the delivery girl, seeing Ruler’s ill-tempered smile made her panic and think she had to justify this stuff.

“That much is obvious. But that’s not the issue here.”

Then the door banged open and the faces of the twin angels popped through. “Bad news! Tama fell into her own hole!” “We can’t see the bottom, and we can’t hear her voice, either!”

Ruler yelled, “That idiot!” and stormed out. Left alone and unable to take any more complaints, Himari slipped away out the back gate.

Her next delivery was atop an iron tower.

“Thanks.”

“Thank you so much for coming all this way.”

The knight and schoolgirl pair expressed their appreciation. They made a much better impression than the other magical girls Himari had met so far.

The knight-themed heroine with a large sword slung over her shoulder offered Himari a can of something to drink. “I just bought it from the vending machine over there, but you can have it, if you like.”

“Thank you very much. I will.” Himari felt like this was the first kindness she’d been shown since she came to this town. Breathing a sigh, she sipped the hot black tea.

The magical girl in the school uniform took her new magical phone in hand with excitement. “Wow, it’s so cute! The new ones are white!”

“It’ll fit your color scheme, Snow White.”

“It looks like they’ve added a bunch of new things, but…I don’t really understand them all.”

“You just have to get used to it, and you’ll get over that, right?”

“But it’ll be hard until I’m used to it.”

“The chat’s tomorrow, so you could ask someone then.”

They were charming, somehow. “Thanks for the tea. I appreciate the sentiment,” Himari said, and she left the can there.

The next spot was an abandoned supermarket.

“Thank you very much for coming all this way.” A nun-themed magical girl, Sister Nana, bowed her head deeply. “These are such wonderful magical phones.”

“Oh, no, it was nothing.”

“Hey, Nana.” Weiss Winterprison, a magical girl in a long coat and scarf, scowled when she saw the screens. Her old data should have been transferred to her new device. So had something gone wrong? “What is this?”

“Is something the matter?” Sister Nana looked at the screen Winterprison was pushing toward her, and she broke into a smile. She was as glad as Winterprison wasn’t. Himari got the feeling that siding with either would worsen things, so she just gave an elusive smile.

“Yes, that photo of you sleeping is one I took last week.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Winterprison said, her tone stiff.

“You mean the outfit? I simply couldn’t resist the urge to see you in a skirt, just once. You seemed to be fast asleep, so I slipped it on.”

Winterprison pressed her index finger to her forehead and practically moaned, “This is more than just a skirt… What kind of cosplay is this…?”

“I’ve been thinking for quite some time that it just had to look good on you. It’s Another Diuseia from Cutie Healer Excellent.”

Himari muttered, “I appreciate the sentiment” and began packing away her things by herself.

At last, she returned to the abandoned hotel on Takanami Mountain one more time.

“Thanks very much! Now we’ve got all the new magical phones distributed, pon.”

“Oh, it was no big deal.”

Fav spun around once, scattering golden powder. “Those new magical phones will bring the girls even closer together, pon.” The mascot seemed cheerful, as usual.

Right as Himari was leaving, she happened to look back. Watching the hologram, which even projected onto the dust in the air within the hotel, made her shiver for some reason. “But only one is chosen in the exam, right?”

“That’s right. What about it, pon?”

“Even if they get closer and become friends, all but one will lose their memories in the end, right?”

“That’s exactly what makes it meaningful, pon.”

Something was so close to welling up within her.

All of them had seemed close. Ruler’s group of four. Snow White and La Pucelle. Sister Nana and Weiss Winterprison. Those kids would be opposing one another.

They were just like Himari and her friends. Competing for the sole seat of magical-girl-hood, friends becoming foes… Foes? They would be rivals at most, right? Plus, she knew they’d sworn to each other that they’d cooperate—

Something wanted to spill out from inside her, but even as it writhed in search of an exit, there was none. Himari took a long, hard look at Fav, and Fav looked back at her.

Himari left N City and headed home. She didn’t buy a boxed lunch from the station for the train ride back. She just left the thousand-yen bill in the envelope and watched the scenery the whole time. All that flowed by were the dots of building lights and streetlights, and it wasn’t as interesting as the daytime view, but she still turned her gaze outside.

Even as her eyes chased the images, she couldn’t get the magical girls she’d met that day out of her head. They’d all been close. They’d been having fun, as far as she could tell. Seeing them had been like having a flashback of herself and her friends. Himari couldn’t go back to that time anymore. Her friends were gone, and she was certain she’d never have another relationship like that ever again.

The next day, Himari handed in her notice of retirement and quit being a magical girl.

How long has it been since I retired?

Magical Girl Raising Project made Himari remember that she had once been @Meow-Meow.

The lost memories came back to her from the other side: the feel of her smooth skin, her bones, the flexibility of her muscles, her cheongsam-themed costume, and even how she had to pull her tail aside before she sat down. She still felt like she was forgetting something, but for now, she would leave that aside.

She knew the reason she had lost her memories—she had retired. She’d requested of the Magical Kingdom that she be allowed to quit, and surprisingly, the request had been accepted fairly quickly. All her memories of magic had been erased, and she’d lived her life not as @Meow-Meow, but as plain old Himari Tanahashi.

She’d passed the entrance exams of her chosen school. She had friends. She had a decent enough relationship with her parents. She’d figured her life was going pretty all right.

But despite that, there had been times when she’d felt that something was missing. Sometimes, she would suddenly feel sad, like a hollow had opened up in her chest, and she hadn’t been able to figure out what it was about.

“So this was what it was, huh?” Losing her identity as a magical girl had made her feel that emptiness in her heart.

Himari had questions about why she was being forced to participate in a game for magical girls when she had already retired, but thinking about it, she recalled that the Magical Kingdom could just be unreasonable sometimes.

Apparently, she was inside of a game.

It appeared to be reality, but that must have been the “Magical Trace System controls that feel just like real life!” and the “Amazing, ultrarealistic graphics!” in action making it look real. She didn’t fully understand it, but she could get a vague grasp of it. Taking the laws of physics and twisting them, surpassing them, destroying them, mocking them, violating them: That was magic.

What she couldn’t understand was how a retiree, Himari Tanahashi…or rather, @Meow-Meow, was being forced to participate in this “mobile game for magical girls” or whatever.

She looked up at the sky.

The southern sky she’d seen on that field trip had been deep and thick with layer upon layer—when it was crisp, dry, sunny, and blue; at night, with the stars spilled across it; and even when it had been cloudy.

This sky was flat and smooth, like a plank of wood. There was no depth. The sun had so little presence. And then there was that group of walking skeletons she’d just run into. They had been very gamelike. Plus, every single one of the messages on her magical phone had seemed like something from a game. The reward sums were unrealistic, too—were they really going to receive that? If they were, she had to admit she found that enticing. You always needed money in life.

Himari headed for the town, figuring that for now, she’d do what the messages in her phone said. Her situation was baffling, but there was no other course for her to follow. Making full use of her magical-girl stamina, she ran around the vast wasteland for a while until she caught sight of a cluster of buildings—probably the town—and turned in that direction.

The “town” was in actuality less a cluster of buildings and more an assortment of dilapidated structures. The houses here were only slightly better than the abandoned high-rises that dotted the wasteland, the streets were empty of people, and the road surfaces were unpaved. Cautiously, Himari made her way through the town, figuring a monster might jump out at her from the shadows. Then she came out in a town square, or something similar. In its center was a dried-up fountain, and someone was sitting on its edge.

“Ohhh! You’re a magical girl, too?” The girl wore a bodysuit, as though she’d jumped out of a special-effects show. She was very pretty, she had said “too,” and they were in a mobile game for magical girls, so she had to be a magical girl herself. Her attire wasn’t exactly fitting, though. “Oh man, this is the first time I’ve met another one here!” The girl held her hand out for a shake, so @Meow-Meow smiled back at her vaguely and shook it. She seemed friendly.

@Meow-Meow was about to introduce herself when, suddenly, she remembered. Oh yeah. She’d picked her name as part of an in-joke, and it made her embarrassed to introduce herself. The “Meow-Meow” part was fine. The problem was the @ symbol.

As @Meow-Meow was wondering just how she was going to introduce herself, the magical girl in the bodysuit jabbed her right thumb at herself and enthusiastically made her introduction. “My name is Genopsyko Yumenoshima!”

Genopsyko? Yumenoshima?

Himari had not misheard that. The girl had clearly said “Genopsyko Yumenoshima.” Apparently, Genopsyko was her given name and Yumenoshima her surname. While Himari would hesitate to say this, it was a crazy name. Himari didn’t get the feeling it had been forced on her. She’d said it cheerfully and eagerly when she’d introduced herself, not the slightest bit embarrassed or bashful. She seriously didn’t mind.

Why had she ended up with a name like that? Was it a story similar to @Meow-Meow’s? Or was it something completely different? Himari had so many questions.

Genopsyko grinned as she looked at @Meow-Meow. In that expression, Himari saw the two friends she’d once had. Would she be able to build the same kind of friendship she’d had with Michiyo and Masako with this girl? Could she decide such a thing so arbitrarily, based purely on the other girl’s taste in names? The thoughts kept spinning around and around in her head. She thought and thought and thought…

“I’ll leave the rest to you,” Michiyo muttered, facedown on the ground. She didn’t even have the strength to lift her head. “Beating her up…is more your kinda job than mine, anyway, Himari…”

Michiyo was losing so much blood. It was too much. There was no way to save her now. Himari howled. Why did this have to happen to Michiyo? And Masako had no reason to die.

“Come on.”

Someone was beckoning to Himari, a black, shadowlike silhouette, and she couldn’t see what they looked like.

“If you’d like revenge for your friends, then now is your chance.”

Suddenly, the scene before Himari’s eyes changed. She’d nearly fallen, somehow keeping herself upright by drawing her right leg back.

What had just happened? Had she just witnessed something from somewhere else?

It was unclear. Coming into the game, regaining her memories from before she retired…it was all so unclear.

Before her was another magical girl, smiling broadly. She’d said her name was Genopsyko Yumenoshima, hadn’t she? It took Himari a few more seconds to realize the other girl was waiting for her to introduce herself.

Some kind of memory had come back to her—and it had probably been about Michiyo and Masako. She figured it had to be about them because of the way Genopsyko’s bold grin was just like her friends’.

@Meow-Meow smiled. Maybe Genopsyko’s smile had brought it out of her. Or maybe she was smiling to keep herself from giving in. Maybe it was to cover up how she was ready to burst into tears. She didn’t really understand it herself, but she smiled anyway and pointed at her chest.

“My name…@Meow-Meow!”