Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 5 - Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

SHOWDOWN

  Archfiend Pam (Time remaining: eighteen hours, fourteen minutes)

The enemy had let their guard down. They must have gotten cocky after driving away their pursuers once. Or had they judged their side was stronger, because of their numbers? Archfiend Pam hated people like that more than anything. Even when a fight felt easy, you had to give it your all. There was no such thing as certain victory.

The car drove along in the direction Mana’s staff pointed, while above, Archfiend Pam caught sight of the enemy in her observations of the area. What looked like a group of magical girls was on the roof of an old apartment building, talking to one another.

On the battlefield, the one who found their opponent first would have the advantage.

Archfiend Pam immediately informed the others of her discovery, and they built their strategy. 7753 and Mana would be on standby in a safe place, while Hana would attack from the apartment entrance, Ripple from the roof, and Archfiend Pam from the sky above.

Archfiend Pam’s magical phone rang. That was her cue to strike. She was looking down on the world below, deciding on the best moment to do it. Right when she was thinking, Okay, let’s go, the opponent struck first. Though Archfiend Pam’s attention had been focused elsewhere, she never let her guard down. She’d already been informed that one of their opponents could fly. She slipped out of the way of the enemy attack, which flew at her from below like the wind, and transformed one wing into the shape of a giant fist to punch them in a counterattack. She held back, so as not to kill her opponent.

But as the fist and her opponent crossed paths, the fist sank into her enemy’s face, and Archfiend Pam scowled. She had held back, but she’d never felt any sense of resistance in the first place. Her enemy’s crushed face regenerated before her eyes.

Her appearance was reminiscent of an Arabian-style dancing girl. However, her body was faintly transparent.

—She seems like a strong one.

Noticing how happy this made her, Archfiend Pam hurriedly shook those feelings off. This wasn’t the time.

The enemy threw something at her. Archfiend Pam changed one of her wings into a shield and tilted it to let the projectile slide off. It seemed what had flown at her was a ball of air, only middling in force. Even if it had hit, it probably wouldn’t have killed her. Maybe she’s going easy on me, Archfiend Pam thought as glee bubbled up within her once more.

The balls of air grew larger in number and intensity as they flew at her. Archfiend Pam responded by reinforcing her shield as she circled around the area. The enemy moved, too. She flew freely after Archfiend Pam with strange movements, elongating her torso, detaching her arms and such.

Archfiend Pam’s magic was to manipulate her four wings in any way she pleased. They weren’t just for flying. She could control every single thing about them at will: size, color, shape, speed, and hardness. She could also separate them from her body and have them act independently.

While Archfiend Pam was engaged with the enemy, she sent out two of her wings. One of them went to the apartment building below. She ordered it to storm in, back up her allies, and attack the enemy. Though it was only one, it was very good at continuous battle. It was slower and less accurate on its own than it was when Archfiend Pam was operating it directly, but it would beat down any normal magical girl, even a group of them. It would be able to support Ripple and Hana.

She turned the other wing into a giant winged eyeball and had it search the area for enemies. It could see as well as a telescope and observe the world below in detail. She ordered it to check on 7753 and Mana’s station wagon and to immediately meet and strike back against any attacking foe, while prioritizing the defense of their forces. She had considered leaving it by the station wagon from the beginning, but her wings weren’t that smart when they were acting independently. She didn’t know how the situation might change, either, so she wanted to keep her wings close as long as possible.

As Archfiend Pam sent off two of her wings on their own, the attack from her enemy continued. She tried turning her remaining two wings into blades to cut at the enemy, into whirling propellers, and even sticky traps. Although the enemy’s form might temporarily come apart, she would return to her original state immediately. It wasn’t working.

This enemy was strong. Archfiend Pam broke into a smile.

She enlarged her wings, making a sphere thirty feet in diameter to slam into her opponent.

She made them emit light in an attempt to blind her enemy.

It didn’t work. Her opponent slipped through every smashing blow. Meanwhile, the pellets of air the enemy was tossing at her were sharp like blades. Her movements were becoming more and more intense, and she was slipping among her own air blades, trying to get close enough to grab Pam.

Gradually, Archfiend Pam came to understand: The enemy was air itself. Pam could cut it or hit it, but none of that would work. Her foe flew freely and quickly through the sky like wind. She would be captured by no one.

The dancing girl’s expression never changed. She wasn’t enjoying this, and neither did she seem frightened. She took Pam’s strikes dispassionately and countered. Exactly the sort of attitude Archfiend Pam liked.

She was indeed strong. But not someone Pam couldn’t beat.

Archfiend Pam took the wing she’d been using as a shield and spread it to cover her whole body completely. She would look like a pitch-black human silhouette. She expanded her remaining wing in a wide disc above her head, covering an area of about one hundred and fifty square feet. She gave this wing no offensive abilities at all.

The enemy was attacking more fiercely now. With nothing blocking them anymore, the blades of air cut the wing suit covering Archfiend Pam to pieces. Pam took the hits, and by regenerating the suit continuously, managed to weather it. All she had to do was endure. This suit had two purposes: to buy her time by blocking attacks and insulate her. Inside the suit, Archfiend Pam muttered, “Cocytus.”

The enemy’s attacks started slowing down. Her blank expression was finally changing. She wasn’t yet at the point of pain, but she was gradually realizing that something was strange. She was flying more slowly, and her blades were growing duller. Once Pam’s wing suit was covered in dense frost, the enemy stopped attacking and suddenly shot up in the air.

—So she’s finally figured it out. But it’s too late.

Her enemy used air. So then all Pam had to do was make the air unusable. By reducing the density of one wing, spreading it out above herself, and vastly decreasing its surface temperature, she’d gradually been lowering the temperature of the whole area. A gas can’t stay a gas if you take its heat away.

Archfiend Pam flew up into the sky after the fleeing enemy.

  Toko (Time remaining: eighteen hours, thirteen minutes)

Toko figured it might end up like this. She spat on the ground.

The girls had said such reasonable-sounding things about how they needed to get ready, and they’d improve their coordination and whatnot, but in fact, they’d just been having a bit of fun. They’d been trying to get more enjoyment out of the overwhelming powers dropped in their laps, and after letting their enemy get away after a single battle, they’d decided they knew what all their enemies were capable of and let their guards down.

Toko had let her guard down, too. She’d learned that the enemy had lost their ability to search for them. And since no one approached in the few hours since the barrier had been erected, she’d felt as if perhaps staying quietly hidden away was better than doing anything. There was also a part of her that had been hesitant to incite the magical girls to act.

She could hear cries coming from the roof and fierce clashes from the lower floors. The enemy was attacking from both directions. In which case, she just had to escape through any avenue she could. This room was on the second floor of the three-story apartment building, and of course, it had windows, too. Putting her full body weight into it, Toko turned the crescent lock and slid the window open. It was rusty, but she managed somehow. She’d gauged the escape routes when she’d first come here.

As Toko leaned out the window, she thought for a moment.

Should she contact her partner? But since this was turning into such a big ruckus, her partner was sure to know they were being attacked. And would she even have the time to accept the call if Toko did make contact? If she had that kind of time, she should be doing something else. Toko felt uneasy about escaping on her own, but if she were to stay on the battlefield, worst case, she might hold her partner back. That would be a disaster. Her partner knew how to survive. If they made appropriate use of their pawns, things should work out somehow.

Toko made up her mind. She would not contact her partner. The barrier already had less than twenty hours left. First, Toko would concentrate everything she had on escaping. If she fled by wing, not many magical girls would be able to follow her.

Toko jumped out of the window, aiming for the sky above, when she made eye contact with a ninja jumping down from the apartment building roof.

Toko’s eyes widened as she looked at her opponent. The girl had one arm, and a scar ran down the left side of her face, sealing her eye shut. Her looks were striking. There was no way you’d forget that face once you saw it, but she wasn’t familiar to Toko. She hadn’t been present when they’d fought in the street. Was she their external backup?

In contrast with Toko’s expression, there was not a hint of surprise on the ninja’s face as she reached calmly out to Toko. Toko twisted to avoid her, but the ninja’s pinkie nail caught on the sash of her skirt, and the fairy lost her balance in midair. The ninja turned her wrist to get her fingers around Toko’s torso—but right before she tightened her grip, someone else came in from the side to snatch Toko away.

The rainbow atop the magical girl’s back glittered brilliantly even in the dark as she snatched up Toko and dashed off across another rainbow.

“Rain Pow!” Toko cried out.

  Rain Pow (Time remaining: eighteen hours, twelve minutes)

Just as her appearance suggested, Rain Pow’s magic was to create rainbows. But these were no ordinary rainbows. There’s hardly a soul who hasn’t seen a picture book or children’s show featuring a rainbow bridge for the characters to cross. What Rain Pow created was strong enough to walk on. Her power was especially magical.

In the starless and moonless night, the pale shine of the rainbow bridge contrasted with the wholesome beauty of its daytime counterpart. It had the beauty of the perilous, subtle and profound—fantastical. It was not flexible, but hard and firm. Even aggressive stomps from the strong legs of a magical girl wouldn’t make it budge. With its five feet or so of width, a magical girl could run across it at full speed, no matter how high she went.

B City could not at all be called a big city, and aside from the entertainment district, there were only a few scattered lights here and there. It wasn’t a particularly eye-catching view. The rainbow bridge stretched out across rows of houses with corrugated roofs, avoiding the radio station building.

Rain Pow made her rainbow bridge and raced toward the far end as it continued to grow.

Timidly, Postarie ran after her. There had been no need for Postarie to force herself to follow, but the two of them had been together when the attack had commenced, and since she was scared to leave her friend, Postarie ended up playing rear guard. Of course, the ninja was chasing after them. It was too late for Postarie to run in a different direction, so she kept going, desperation on her face.

“Rain Pow! You’re too slow! Go faster! Faster, faster!”

“You’re distracting me! Shut up, Toko!” Rain Pow stuffed Toko down her shirt. She could hear a pained-sounding moan from her chest area, perhaps because she had stuck the fairy in headfirst. But even if Toko was hurt a bit, it was best to leave her in there for now.

The ninja was hot on their heels, not falling back even an inch. In fact, she was gradually getting closer. There had been twenty yards between them before, but she’d already narrowed it down to fifteen. It was clear why: The ninja was fast—or rather, Postarie was slow. But it was impossible to tell Postarie to run faster. She was doing her best. Rain Pow could hear her panting hard behind her.

Right when Rain Pow’s attention was on Postarie, something flew at her from in front. Distracted, Rain Pow was taken by surprise, and she couldn’t dodge it. But she couldn’t slow down, either, so she just barely managed to kick down the thing flying at her. From the impact against her boots and the sound it made, whatever had been flung at her had been metal.

A second and then a third flew at her. Rain Pow understood what they were. These were ninja weapons: kunai. As the ninja chased them, she was throwing kunai that passed by both Postarie and Rain Pow, spinning in a big circle to fly at her from the front.

Rain Pow kicked away the second one in the same manner as the first and tried to avoid the third, but the weapon changed its trajectory at an acute angle to chase down Rain Pow’s leg, slicing open her flesh. Rain Pow staggered, but she couldn’t fall here or slow down. Clenching her teeth, she raced over the rainbow.

“A-are you okay?!”

“Don’t worry about it!”

Kunai were flying at her one after another. Unable to avoid them, Rain Pow had no choice but to knock them down. And since they were all coming for her legs, she couldn’t wave them aside with her hands; she was forced to kick every single one of them down. Every new kunai was now coming at her faster and harder.

All of them were aiming for Rain Pow. The enemy wasn’t trying to kill her—she was gauging Rain Pow’s strength and trying to disable her. This chase was so easy for the ninja that she could afford to.

Rain Pow glanced down at the ground and the evenly spaced streetlights. There were no other lights. The road below had two lanes on either side, but there weren’t many cars going by. It had to be about a hundred feet from the top of the rainbow down to the ground. With the physical capabilities of a magical girl, the fall wouldn’t kill her. The enemy had to be taking that into consideration, too.

Should she dispel the rainbow and jump down? Unlike the rainbow, the ground path wouldn’t be a straight line, and there would be cover. It would be easier to evade…no, it wouldn’t. The enemy’s attacks were homing in on her. Worst case, the kunai would fly at her from a blind angle. And besides, there was her destination to take into consideration. She wanted to reach that location from the sky, if possible. The ground route would be the long way around, and it was bound to make her a target, as they’d catch her while she was going up the building. She just had to buy a bit more time.

“Tsuko! Do the thing!”

“R-r-roger!” Postarie did stutter on her acknowledgment, but she did everything she was supposed to do. She took off her hat, and hammers came falling out of it.

Postarie’s magic was postal delivery. When she took something in hand and cast her magic on it, it would grow a pair of wings. Those pure white wings were simple and beautiful, resembling those of a waterfowl, and brought to mind the angels of religious paintings. The size of the wings would be proportionate to the size of the object. They would rise up, flapping furiously, and fly off toward the object’s owner. When they arrived, the wings would scatter with a poof and disappear. Postarie could also adjust how fast the item flew. There were two options: regular or express post.

Regular post would bob lightly away through the air. It traveled at a speed that a human could catch up to at a run, and it could safely deliver fragile packages, bottles, and dangerous objects. The express post zoomed away. It went so fast that even a magical girl, to say nothing of a human, wouldn’t be able to catch up as the item was sent off to its owner at a steady and rapid pace. There were no late deliveries or postal errors. There was no weight limit, either. Neither was there any limit to the number of items that could be sent.

Each one of the hammers that fell from Postarie’s hat sprouted wings. Captain Grace had bought them at the hardware store and had let Postarie hold on to them. That meant once Postarie cast her magic on them, they would fly straight for their owner, Captain Grace. Since they’d run this far in a straight line along the rainbow, of course the hammers would fly straight behind Rain Pow. Postarie’s magic was not polite enough to dodge things in the middle of its path.

From behind, Rain Pow could hear the sound of metal colliding with metal. The ninja was striking back against the hammers flying at her. That meant the kunai stopped coming. From the sounds, Rain Pow could tell their pursuer had fallen back a little. If she was going to do it, it was now or never. Rain Pow turned back to scoop up Postarie in a bridal carry and then sprinted as fast as she could along the rainbow. This was much faster than keeping Postarie’s pace.

It was just a few hundred more yards to her goal. Running at full speed across her rainbow, the moment she arrived at the roof of her target building, she dispelled the bridge. Leisurely kicking down the final kunai the ninja threw at her as she fell, Rain Pow then ripped off the blue tarp that covered the roof in one pull.

This was the roof of an old, derelict building that hadn’t been used in a long time. The only ones who ever came here were maintenance staff and crows. It was a convenient place to hide things.

After their first battle, Rain Pow and Postarie had worked together to hide the station wagon their enemies had abandoned in their flight on the roof of this building. Now, if Postarie cast her magic on it, the vehicle would fly off to its owner.

It was a kind of gamble as to who the owner of the station wagon was. But the chances that the owner was a fighter, like the girl attacking them, were low. If they could just get away from the heat of the fight now, it didn’t matter what would happen. Best case, they might be able to catch the enemy off guard and launch a surprise attack.

Arms still around Postarie, Rain Pow tightly embraced the rear bumper of the station wagon. “Do it, Tsuko!”

“R-roger!” Postarie cast her magic on the station wagon. The half-ruined vehicle, with its broken windows and footprints on the roof, sprouted great wings on either side, and with a boom, it rose into the air.

  Kuru-Kuru Hime (Time remaining: eighteen hours, ten minutes)

Kuru-Kuru Hime shot out a ribbon, but Bunny Ears avoided it with a sharp spin in the air. Kuru-Kuru Hime sent out even more ribbons, but all of this was a diversion. She didn’t plan to have a straight fight. It seemed very unlikely to her that she could beat this enemy one-on-one, when before she had only barely managed to beat her by ganging up on her with a bunch of allies.

“Settle down! If you don’t resist, you won’t get kicked or punched!” The bunny girl’s oddly specific mention of kicking and punching made her orders sound more like a threat than an attempt to convince her. Kuru-Kuru Hime ran. If she could find some help, at least, then it would work out somehow. Maybe.

Wrapping a ribbon around a telephone pole, she kicked off the ground and pulled. From there, she wrapped another one around an emergency escape ladder installed at the back of the apartment building, and as she pulled that one, she kicked off the telephone pole. With the combined strength of her legs and her ribbons, she could move faster and more freely than normal, but…

“Running’s no use! Surrender!” Bunny Ears was keeping close behind her. She had better footwork and reflexes. This meant running wasn’t an option.

Kuru-Kuru Hime just had to meet up with someone, anyone. She moved from the emergency ladder to the telephone pole, the telephone pole to the wall of the apartment building, that wall to the roof of someone’s house, and from there to the roof of the apartment building. She tried to trip her opponent by stringing a thin ribbon between two telephone poles, but Bunny Ears spun in midair to avoid it easily.

The two of them confronted each other on the roof of the apartment building. The area was about sixty-five square feet. The total lack of maintenance meant it was in a sad state of disrepair, crumbling and cracking to pieces here and there, with weeds sprouting from the cracks.

Here was the ally she’d been looking for. But she was not in the state Kuru-Kuru Hime had hoped. Weddin was splayed out on her back with what looked like pegs stabbing through various places in her costume—sleeves, skirt, veil. She had been immobilized in the form of a crucifix.

“Kuru-Kuru Hime! I’m so glad to see you! I fought to the best of my ability, too! But that fucking ninja! What a clever trick, immobilizing me with her kunai! Please, save me first!”

Fortunately, she wasn’t hurt. However, she wouldn’t be of any help to Kuru-Kuru Hime. In fact, she’d slow her down. Bunny Ears glanced at Weddin, smiled pleasantly, and said, “I’ll save you, so surrender to me.”

“Huh? Who are you? Is someone else here? The enemy?”

“You too, ribbon girl. Just give in already. Neither of you wants to get hurt, right?”

Grace had insisted that approaching Bunny Ears had caused an unusual ache in her wound and sent her pain off the charts, but they still had yet to grasp what sort of magic Bunny Ears used, specifically. Could Kuru-Kuru Hime even win against an enemy like that on her own?

“You say we can surrender, but there would be conditions for that, wouldn’t there?” Weddin said, still pinned to the ground.

“You also have the option of unconditional surrender.”

“Would our lives be spared?”

“We’re not gonna kill you or anything.”

“Would we be able to remain as magical girls?”

“That’d depend on the person, I think.”

“I can’t surrender without more details on that point.”

“I’m impressed you can talk like that when you can’t even move, as far as I can tell.”

Weddin and Bunny Ears’s unproductive exchange seemed to go on forever. That was when Kuru-Kuru Hime realized. Weddin—Mine Musubiya—didn’t like idle chatter. She did have the otaku habit of rambling on and on about topics she liked or her personal opinions, but otherwise, she preferred brief conversations to lengthy dialogue.

“To what extent is my situation here related to our conditions of surrender? I may be incapacitated, but my allies are all safe.”

“Aren’t we talking about your conditions for surrender?”

“As their leader, I have the obligation and right to discuss the state of our allies as a whole.”

“The self-proclaimed leader.”

“How rude! I’m our official leader, chosen through a democratic process.”

Bunny Ears shrugged with apparent exasperation. Weddin’s voice rose with passion as she spoke. She was trying to drag out the conversation.

Sensing Weddin’s intention, Kuru-Kuru Hime set to work. Smoothly unraveling a thin ribbon hidden behind her back, she lengthened it by connecting several ribbons together. Taking special care to avoid the enemy’s attention, she snaked the elongated ribbon along the ground. The roof was falling apart, with cracks all over the place. She slid her ribbon into one of them, letting it slither underneath the roof’s surface toward Bunny Ears.

“So if I surrender, that means we all surrender. Please put a little more effort into your attempt to win me over. For instance, even if you do steal our right to be magical girls, if you show us other kindnesses, such as financial compensation, then we can feel good about surrendering, can’t we?”

“You’re not in a position to be receiving any financial compensation, though.”

“Then can’t you contact your superior officer now? Discussions to resolve something so important should be left to those in charge, right?”

“Um, but, well, y’know…”

“I’m sure we can reach a compromise that will satisfy both parties.”

The ribbon passed under the concrete to Bunny Ears’s feet, then sprang out of a crack to grab at her leg. Kuru-Kuru Hime couldn’t get a firm grasp on it, but Bunny Ears started to lose her balance. Kuru-Kuru Hime unleashed all her ribbons and shot toward Bunny Ears in one dash. Bunny Ears swept aside the first ribbon and dodged the second, but Kuru-Kuru Hime kept shooting them out one after another, a third and a fourth, tangling up an arm, taking a leg, taking her target’s freedom a bit at a time. As Kuru-Kuru Hime was burying Bunny Ears’s arms, legs, and torso in ribbons, Bunny Ears tugged back on them, hard. Kuru-Kuru Hime jerked in closer to her opponent.

Bunny Ears’ magic might be to amplify pain. So then if Kuru-Kuru Hime were to get even the slightest injury, she would lose. Of course, she wasn’t confident she could withstand unusual pain. She had to be sure to block the enemy’s attacks.

Kuru-Kuru Hime unraveled her costume. It may not have looked like it, but her entire costume was made up of ribbons. She undid her pointe shoes, her tutu, and even her crown.

Kuru-Kuru Hime shifted her ribbons around as she felt the chilly November wind against her bare skin. Maintaining the number of ribbons sent out to attack, she also arranged some more for defense. She built them into a wall between the enemy and herself. She also reached out to tie some more around the iron railing of the apartment building in an attempt to stabilize her position.

Ignoring the wall, Bunny Ears tugged again. A number of the strips wrapped around the iron railing were ripped away. Kuru-Kuru Hime braced her legs, but she couldn’t hold her ground. She inched closer to Bunny Ears, but the wall was still there. Rooted firmly in the roof, the wall resisted. Kuru-Kuru Hime was still being dragged in, but Bunny Ears couldn’t yank her in one pull.

Kuru-Kuru Hime deployed ribbon after ribbon even as Bunny Ears reeled her in, but right when she’d completely wrapped her opponent to restrain her, something strange happened. The smell of exhaust fumes rushed up her nostrils, and intense nausea welled up inside her. Her vision was off. Things receded and then approached again over and over, and she couldn’t get a proper sense of where anything was or what it was. Her eardrums shuddered with noise, the shock of it rattling her brain.

Kuru-Kuru Hime hit her knees, but even that impact was too much for her to take, and she let out a cry and collapsed. Her knees throbbed in pain. Agony shot through her all at once, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

“Too bad, you entered my area of effect…” were the words she heard right before she lost consciousness.

  Captain Grace (Time remaining: eighteen hours, ten minutes)

Commotion sounded from the roof and the first floor, and after that, she heard cries. Should she head up to the roof or downstairs? Captain Grace chose the first floor and rushed down the staircase. The sound of Funny Trick’s footsteps followed her.

She jumped down ten steps, heading for the building entrance, where she stopped. No one was there. “Hey, Kayo.”

“What?”

“Nobody’s here. What’s up with that?”

“How should I know?”

Grace spread her palms and cupped them against her ears. She focused her hearing. The sounds of struggle continued. “Okay, let’s go to the roof—,” she started to say, then looked up. Among the commotion, she could also faintly hear the beating of wings, like something was flapping toward them.

Focusing her eyes in the dark, Captain Grace discovered a strange creature flying their way at a relatively slow pace. Is this some new type of magical girl? she wondered, but it wasn’t. It was a sphere about three feet in diameter, black all over, seemingly made of a rubberlike material. It flapped two bat-like wings to stay in the air.

“…What’s that?”

“…I dunno.”

It was no one she knew. Though it was moving, it was doubtful if it was even a living thing. The black sphere stopped above them in midair, about fifteen feet up, and remained there. Grace observed the sphere’s movements. It was just hovering. Clearly something magical.

After some time suspended in the air, the sphere started to move. It was going up. Was it aiming for the roof? Grace was annoyed, feeling as if she’d been ignored.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me!” She scooped up a piece of concrete from the ground at her feet and flung it at the sphere. The sphere bobbed away to avoid it, like a balloon blown in the wind. Its light movements seemed in conflict with its sluggish appearance.

The concrete chunk rolled along the road. The sphere halted its ascent and changed shape. Funny Trick yelped, but excitement boiled in the depths of Captain Grace’s heart. An eye emerged from the sphere. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that its eyelid split open. A single, giant eyeball gazed down on them.

It was asking, Are you an enemy?

So then Captain Grace would reply. “Come on and attack me already!”

The sphere’s giant eye closed, and all traces of it melted away. Its black wings stopped beating, and it went into free fall. As it came down, the wings shrank, and by the time it landed, it had taken the shape of a human. And it hadn’t just changed shape. She could tell its mass had clearly increased. It was smooth all over, with no features to speak of.

Captain Grace drew her sword. The black silhouette ran toward her.

She swung the blade, slipping through her opponent’s guard to slice open its torso—no, that wasn’t right. She hadn’t cut it open. A large mouth opened up in it, with teeth on the top and bottom that clenched around her blade to bring it to a halt. She couldn’t push it in or pull it out. Its bite had more power than Captain Grace had muscle.

Releasing her sword, she was trying to back away when the enemy attacked. She attempted to block its low kick with her shin, but its leg bent like rubber, attempting to wrap around her shin. She panicked and shook it off. All of its attacks were transformative in nature. When its fist hit her, it bent like a whip to snap at her back, and the front kick she tried to block with her shoulder transformed into a blade that drew blood. Arms, legs, and tentacles like those of an octopus or squid emerged from its black body one after another to assail her.

She had no choice but to focus on evasion, and ultimately, evasion turned to flight. Just barely managing her enemy’s attacks, Grace dashed down the street.

Her plan had been to handle this thing quickly, then head over to where Bunny Ears was and take her down, too. But this opponent was too much for Captain Grace to handle.

Her plan weakly crumbled away.

Desperately, she dodged, blocked, knocked down, and swept aside the thing’s attacks, and when she was trying to knock down yet another strike, it changed its trajectory. Its tentacle dodged Grace’s sword and plunged toward her, and though she jerked around to avoid it, another strike followed it and injured the top of her foot.

Funny Trick was running for them with a stick raised in her hands, but Captain Grace stopped her with a yell. “Stay back! You’ve got a different job!”

The black human shape was focused on Grace alone. It was firing off a rapid barrage of attacks on her, completely ignoring Funny Trick. Grace could sense no emotion in its actions. She had the strong impression that it was attacking automatically. She couldn’t pick up on any chivalrous urge for a one-on-one fight, nor could she sense it was a rational being with a desire to take out the strongest first.

Grace figured that maybe this thing only saw those that attacked it as its enemies. So that meant Captain Grace was its enemy right now, but it had yet to count Funny Trick as hostile. Funny Trick was free to go where she wanted. While Grace was handling the enemy’s attacks, Funny Trick could carry out a task for her.

Funny Trick must have caught on, as she turned back and retreated into the apartment building. “Good,” Grace said to herself.

They were battling something strong. Among all the foes Captain Grace—Umi Shibahara—had ever fought, this was the strongest and fastest, with the most unreadable attacks and no weaknesses.

She dodged, blocked, and halted the enemy’s assaults but couldn’t quite defend herself, and she took more and more injuries. Her attacks were not effective at all. The quality and quantity of its methods of attack were far beyond her. She had to focus entirely on evasion or she wouldn’t be able to avoid them properly, but that meant she couldn’t attack, of course. The enemy was ruthless, overbearing, and on the offensive. It cut her right upper arm, and when she recoiled, a tentacle wrapped around her left calf. A needle with a barb like a fishing hook sprouted from the tentacle and dug into her leg.

Grace bit back a moan. Her leg was bleeding a lot, but she could still move around okay. That was the most she could do now. From this point on, she would have to fight with a bum leg.

A sensation she’d never experienced before oozed up from the pit of her stomach.

—Never experienced before?

No, she had experienced this before. It was just such an old memory, she’d forgotten the feeling. Grace’s brain searched all the way back when she had encountered a wild dog in the mountains at the age of three.

Yes, this was fear. Grace did not take this discovery as a humiliation; rather, she turned it to joy.

Grace was a champion to the bitter end. Bunny Ears had been a fast and stubborn prey, but ultimately, prey. One who had used her magic to successfully escape but was merely a challenger to a champion.

Her opponent now was not the challenger—Grace was. This feeling of fear, her first in ten years, became euphoria that coursed through her body. She drew her dagger.

Right now, she was smack-dab in the middle of danger. She could die at any moment.

The enemy’s strikes were fast, even faster than Bunny Ears’s. Captain Grace channeled all her strength, all her senses, all her nerves straight into the battle. She smacked down a casual thrust from the creature, read its movements and took a step in, and when it came closer to her in response, she answered with a head-butt. The silhouette creature twisted its neck, and her head struck its shoulder. She attempted to bite its throat, but the enemy didn’t like that and gave her a forceful shove. When the enemy struck her leg, she kicked aside with the heel of her shoe and swiped her dagger in its path, but one of its tentacles transformed into a flat blade and parried.

As their clash continued, Grace slowly came to understand her opponent. It was like a machine, but it wasn’t just reacting to what she did; it also predicted her attacks to a certain degree before it made its moves. In other words, she could fake to outwit it.

Grace’s eyes turned to the apartment building. The third window facing the road on the second floor opened, and Funny Trick appeared. Perfect timing.

Grace yelled, “Funny Trick!” With her left hand, she pulled out the hook that hung from her waist and threw it at her opponent’s chest, then covered the dagger in her right hand with her cape and faced the enemy. It batted away the hook with its tentacle, and with its attention on the dagger, for a split second, it stopped in place.

The inside of Grace’s cape suddenly got heavier, and she took a firm step. The dagger in her right hand had transformed instantly into a mounted cannon. She could call this timing perfect. This was her trump card.

Her enemy was a champion. She was the challenger. So she would use everything she could, and that meant everything—including her partner Funny Trick and the equipment on her ship.

She was certain she felt her wordless enemy’s surprise. With the cape still over it, she fired her magic cannon. As the recoil blasted her backward, she pulled out another hook and dug it into the ground. It crunched and dragged through the asphalt, and when Grace’s heels hit the guardrail, she finally came to a halt.

Captain Grace’s magic vessel was a pirate ship. When she had summoned it for a test run on the school grounds, she’d checked what sort of equipment it had and taken out a number of potentially useful items. This cannon was one of them. She’d left it in one of the apartments, and Funny Trick had covered it up, then swapped it with the dagger hidden underneath Grace’s cape.

Being that it was a magic cannon, the kick was incredible, but Captain Grace’s eardrums remained intact, and she had no bruises or broken bones, either. Her right arm was a little numb, but if she was getting off this easy, then she was in great shape.

Smoke billowed up, and something appeared from within it, cutting through the smell of gunpowder that filled the area. The black humanoid shape, its upper body now gone, staggered as it tried to approach her. Even with half of its body blown away, it was still moving. The fragments were moving slowly, too, attempting to return to their original form.

Though she hadn’t experimented with it beforehand, Captain Grace had personally felt the force of that cannonball. Even a magical girl would be mincemeat if they got hit by that thing. The enemy before her could take a lot, but Grace had managed to deal some heavy damage.

But that hadn’t been enough to finish it off. The enemy’s ability to morph was rendering it immortal, and it was trying to regenerate. If it could recover completely, then Grace doubted she could win. If she was going to finish it off, it was now or never. She plunged her hook into the tentacle wrapped around her leg to rip it apart.

Kicking off the ground, she dashed over to the road sign fifteen feet away. Using this at close range would put herself in danger, too.

Captain Grace’s power was to manifest a magic ship that could speed across water. The full length of the ship was about thirty feet. It was shaped like a sailboat, but it didn’t actually require any wind power. Of course, in order to use it, she’d need a body of water of at least a certain size.

If you were going to use it the normal way, that is.

Captain Grace faced the enemy staggering toward her and summoned her ship. The overwhelming mass appeared suddenly, burying the enemy and everything around it all at once. It generated a shock and sound just like an explosion, and Grace held down her captain’s hat to keep it from flying off.

What would happen if she were to summon the ship in a location that was already occupied? She’d had no idea if it would end up inside the boat, be launched away, or be crushed under it. But now she knew. When she summoned her pirate ship in a place already occupied by something the size of a human, the boat would crush it.

She’d felt something. Though she was using a method less direct than stabbing with a blade or hitting with a fist, she could still feel that she’d defeated an enemy.

When she dismissed her ship, the black thing was no more.

  7753 (Time remaining: seventeen hours, fifty minutes)

7753 was standing beside the car parked on the road.

Spending time with a cranky person was always terribly awkward. And that awkwardness doubled when the person occupied a higher social position than you. 7753 had not once seen Mana in a good mood since they had met, but now her irritation was through the roof, even compared to how she’d been before. Sitting in the back seat of the car, she was bouncing her knees hard enough to shake the vehicle.

7753 had stepped out of the car on the pretext of keeping watch, but just being able to sense Mana’s intense fidgeting only made being outside even scarier.

Ripple, Hana, and Archfiend Pam had attacked from three different directions while the enemy was off guard. How closely had they followed Mana’s instructions to capture and not kill, and just how much time would they even have to listen? There had been no contact.

Mana had to be irritated, both out of concern as to whether they could catch the criminal and annoyance at 7753 for not fighting despite being a magical girl. 7753 felt like Mana was being way too harsh for this just to be 7753’s victim complex talking. Some magical girls were suited to combat, and some were not. 7753 was the latter. In terms of character, magic, and physical abilities, she couldn’t compete with combat-based magical girls. But still, she would do what work she could. Defending the camp when combat personnel were all deployed was an important job, too. It was something she could be proud of.

But any attempts to convince Mana of that would be interpreted as the excuses of a weakling, and the most that would get her would be some yelling, disparagement, and belittling. So 7753 said nothing, and still feeling awkward, she guarded Mana.

I hope this ends safely, she prayed as she looked up at the sky. The clouds were thick. Tomorrow would be cloudy, too, and it could rain, depending; worst case, it could even snow.

That was when a loud noise split the air and ripped apart the tranquility of the night, coming from the direction of the apartment building that was the enemy’s hideout. It sounded like an explosion.

Mana opened the car door and leaped out. “What was that sound?!”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Damn it… Was that someone’s magic?”

Ripple’s magic didn’t include anything explosive. Neither did Hana’s. If any of them had an ability like that, it would be Archfiend Pam. Or was this the enemy’s doing? The road where the car was now parked was pretty far from the apartment building. So it had to be quite a noise to reach this far. It was bound to awaken the people who lived in the neighborhood, and it was only a matter of time before the police and fire department showed up.

Mana looked toward the apartment building, and 7753 followed her gaze. A large bird was flying through the air. It was unbelievably huge. Was that just because of perspective? It looked even bigger than an ostrich.

“…Hmm? Huh?”

“What? Did something happen?”

Maybe it wasn’t a bird? But by the time that thought hit her, the winged station wagon was already right in front of them. 7753 scooped up Mana and leaped to the side, and the station wagon crashed into the spot where Mana had just been an instant before with a boom even louder than the one from earlier.

  Rain Pow (Time remaining: seventeen hours, forty-one minutes)

Rain Pow and Postarie, clinging to the rear of the station wagon, jumped off the moment before it crashed. It had been flying so fast, the force of the wind had smooshed and jiggled Rain Pow’s face. If a human were to jump off that, they would be worse than hurt. Even a normal magical girl would have ended up injured.

Rain Pow made a rainbow bridge in the air and jumped down, still holding Postarie in one arm. With her other hand on the rainbow bridge, she slowed herself until she landed with a thud. The station wagon landed—crashed—at about the same moment. The mass, speed, and distance they’d covered were all numbers to be reckoned with, and the energy generated by the fall shook the area. The sound was possibly loud enough to make a fainthearted listener pass out. Dust and asphalt particles billowed up thick. It looked just like the scene of an explosion.

“Are you okay, Tsuko?”

“…Yeah.” She didn’t seem okay. Her eyes were unfocused, and her mouth was still half-open. She seemed less frightened and more dazed.

Postarie had never been a girl of strong character. In fact, she was on the timid side. Rain Pow had heard that becoming a magical girl would make you mentally stronger, but still, the pretransformation-level mental strength had to be involved. Toko’s declarations about “the courage to stand up and face any foe” had really been exaggerated. Maybe more like, “an ordinary person who had never even dreamed of fighting until yesterday wouldn’t be rendered totally useless by their anxiety.”

Getting attacked by enemies and chased down by a ninja, fleeing atop a rainbow, and riding a flying station wagon were enough scary experiences to equal ten scream machines.

Rain Pow was just thinking her first order of business was to pep up Postarie when a voice spoke to her from inside her shirt.

“Hey, hey.”

“Hmm? What?”

“Look at that.” Toko, her upper body poking out of Rain Pow’s neckline, pointed her finger. Figures in silhouette were moving within the thickly rising dust. Toko was pointing at two fallen figures getting up. One of them wrapped her arms around the other’s shoulders, flung her person over her back, and ran off.

“You can’t let them get away!”

Rain Pow was about to give chase, but she immediately stopped. Something was standing in her way. The dust gradually cleared, and soon she was able to see the figure clearly, but she still could only call it “something.” The object was all black with a round body, and it hovered in midair flapping its bat-like wings.

“…What is this? Is it a mascot like you, Toko?”

“Of course not! I’ve never heard of anything like this. It doesn’t look like a magical girl, though.”

“Is it alive?”

“I dunno.” Toko glared at the black sphere and cursed briefly. “Whatever it is, this means you have to beat that thing up, or you won’t be able to chase after those guys that ran away, right? If we can capture them, we can use them to help with negotiations. And as long as we can negotiate, we’re good.”

Rain Pow grabbed the bumper of the station wagon and ripped it off. She swung it at the black sphere, but unexpectedly, it swiftly dodged the bumper.

“Whoa, that thing’s fast. Hey, Toko. This isn’t really a magical girl, is it?”

“Absolutely not.”

The sphere changed shape, like some sort of protean creature. Rain Pow swung the bumper again, harder than before, forcing the enemy to dodge. Predicting its movement this time, she stabbed straight into it. The bumper pierced the black something—no, the black thing’s body morphed and held the bumper in its orifice. It gnashed and tightened around the bumper, crumpling it.

She had no idea what this thing was, but it was fast. Strong, too. Its body was abnormally pliant and could transform freely. Given that it was blocking the road to prevent her from chasing the pair, it had to be one of the enemy. This could be a real pain of an opponent.

“It’s not a magical girl or a mascot, so… Do you think it’s alive?”

“I can’t say anything, just looking at it. It might not be alive, but I’m certain that magic is involved in some form or another. Probably.” Upper body still sticking out, Toko sank back in again, up to her shoulders. She’d noticed its strength, too.

Slowly, Rain Pow looked back. She figured moving too fast would agitate the thing in front of her. Postarie was behind her. She looked frightened. That was an improvement. Apparently, she’d regained her powers of judgment.

“Tsuko, I’ve got a favor to ask. Is that okay?”

“Huh…? What?”

“Listen…”

Postarie indicated that she did not like Rain Pow’s request. She said over and over she was scared and she didn’t want to, cried, and begged, “Don’t make me do this,” but she eventually caved to Toko’s threats when the fairy said the thing would eventually kill them if she did nothing.

Slowly, hesitantly, she approached the black thing. Postarie looked absolutely miserable and was clearly crying. Rain Pow instructed her to touch it softly and gently, in a way that couldn’t possibly be interpreted as hostile, so with shaking hands, Postarie approached the black thing and touched it.

Instantly, white bird wings sprouted out from it and it flew off like a rocket, ignoring the resistance from the bat wings. It seemed it belonged to someone, after all.

Rain Pow blew a sigh of relief, and at her chest, she could feel Toko’s tension draining, too. Postarie turned back to them, wiping her tears with her sleeve. “Hey… I just wanna rest, for now.”

“All right. I kinda feel the same way.”

There was no objection from Toko. The pair had escaped, and Rain Pow and Postarie couldn’t chase them anymore.

  7753 (Time remaining: sixteen hours, twenty-five minutes)

With Mana on her back, 7753 somehow managed to escape. Simply dodging the station wagon had been like a miracle, and it was probably another that they had managed to escape. On an apartment building roof, 7753 breathed a sigh of relief.

But the one she’d saved was apparently not thankful at all. Mana was furious. In fact, it was fair to say she had lost it. 7753 had no idea how to tell a mage’s real age, but her apparent age was midteens, and since kids at that age were known for being unpredictable when they gave in to their emotions, it was quite frightening when she was this angry.

“What the hell do you think a magical girl’s strength is for?! Plus, aren’t you supposed to be my bodyguard?! Are you guarding me so that you can run away?! You dumbass! If I wanted to run, I could’ve done it alone! You should’ve attacked with the rest of the group!” Mana barked, yelled, and snapped in her tirade against 7753. She seemed like she might even physically lash out at her, too, but 7753 somehow managed to pacify her.

7753 told Mana that fleeing had been the best plan for that moment, and since they weren’t good fighters, even if they had stayed and engaged, they were bound to have ended up burdening everyone as hostages. What she couldn’t say was that her boss had told her, “It doesn’t matter if you have to force her, just take Mana and run as fast as you can.” And so, stuck between a rock and a hard place, she bowed her head, saying, “I apologize, I’m sorry, I had no choice, it was the best available option.”

Venting her anger must have helped Mana regain some calm; even though she was still in a bad mood, she stopped yelling, screaming, and spraying spit, and instead looked down at the world below and spat, “Fucking boondocks.”

They had picked out this apartment building as an emergency meeting place if the need arose, and since it was one of the few tall buildings in the city, you could see just about everything in the town from its roof. For an apartment building covered in room-for-rent signs, it wasn’t a bad view.

However, sadly, she was forced to agree with Mana’s assertion that this place was the “fucking boondocks.” 7753’s arrival here, everything she’d been forced to do since, and the epitome of an economically depressed rural town made for a disheartening combination.

Mana glared at the town, took out her magical phone, and turned it on to use. “It won’t connect.”

“…What?”

“What the hell’s going on? I can’t reach Hana’s magical phone anymore.”

“Um… Maybe she can’t answer because she’s fighting right now.”

“Or she’s been captured by the enemy.” Mana glowered at 7753 as if to blame her retreat for this.

“But, well, Hana, of all people…”

“And just what the hell do you know about Hana?!”

Suspecting that any answer would get her yelled at, 7753 closed her mouth.

“Damn it… Hana, you idiot. Where the hell are you, and what are you doing…?” Mana started to pace back and forth on the roof. She wouldn’t settle down.

7753 tried phoning Ripple. Just like Hana, she wouldn’t answer. So she sent a text for the time being. She realized her fingers were trembling as she typed out her message saying they were waiting at the meetup point.

Neither Ripple nor Hana were answering their phones. 7753 tried calling Archfiend Pam, but that got her nothing, either. They weren’t coming to the meeting place, and they wouldn’t even send a single text. She felt an icy chill slowly make its way down her spine.

She sent her message to Ripple and hugged her magical phone.

Still no reply. Mana continued to pace back and forth. One lap, two laps, three; 7753 idly continued to count, and once the count was over a hundred, she gave up.

Mana continued pacing for a while after that, until ultimately, she stopped. “Why aren’t they coming?”

“Huh?”

“Why aren’t they coming? They aren’t contacting us. Why can’t we get in touch with them?!” Mana rushed up to 7753 and grabbed her by the collar. 7753 had the slightly larger physique, meaning Mana ended up pushing her up from below. 7753 was standing near the edge of the roof, and since there was no wall or fence or anything behind her, she panicked and dug in her heels. Mana was pushing her so hard that not only might she shove 7753 off the roof, it was as if Mana didn’t mind falling with her. 7753 grabbed Mana’s hands.

“Is she dead?!”

“Dead? They couldn’t be—”

“So why aren’t they coming back?! Why can’t we contact them?!”

“Maybe there’s been some kind of mistake—”

“What mistake?!”

Hana was a veteran magical girl with a history of combat experience. She was strong enough to have been assigned to catch the assassin on her own, even without Mana and other noncombat personnel.

“No, I mean—”

“You don’t mean shit!”

“But—” 7753 couldn’t argue any further, and Mana shoved her hard.

“But what?!”

Reflexively, 7753 shook her off. Even if she was a magical girl from Magical Girl Resources, 7753 was way stronger than Mana. Mana was thrown lightly backward, flying straight back over the roof and into the entrance door. The door dented into the shape of her back, but she quickly got up again.

“I-I’m sorry, you just kept pushing me, so I suddenly…”

“Damn you… Goddamn you!” Tears gathered at the corners of Mana’s eyes. Her lower eyelashes kept them in check for a bit, but eventually, the dam burst, and tears streaked from her eyes. Mana cried as she shouted unintelligible curses. 7753 couldn’t do anything. Mana wept, wailed, and pointed her finger at 7753. “Why are you crying?!”

7753 lifted her goggles up to her forehead and gently swiped under her eyes. They were wet.

“You’ve got no right to cry!” Mana ran up to her again, putting the momentum into a slap on 7753’s cheek, then hit the opposite cheek with the back of her hand in a double slap. 7753 reflexively slapped Mana in turn, and the events of moments ago repeated themselves as Mana was launched backward, her back hitting the door.

Yelling incoherently, Mana stood up. Before 7753 could even apologize, Mana rushed toward her, and this time, Mana hit her with a closed fist to the cheekbone and jaw, and 7753 knocked Mana down with a fist from above. This was more clearly a strike, unlike the first two times where her hands had just suddenly lashed out.

Mana trembled facedown on the ground, splayed like a frog being dissected. She moaned like a beast as she shook. 7753 checked on her through her goggles to make sure she wasn’t seriously hurt. It didn’t seem as if she’d fallen because 7753 had hit her in a bad spot, either.

7753 exhaled deeply, and as she did, the tears came.

Hana, Ripple, and Archfiend Pam weren’t coming back. There had been no communication. No matter how many times 7753 and Mana called, they couldn’t get through. Had they been captured? Or…had they been killed? Why? Why? she asked herself endlessly. When 7753 sniffled, Mana jerked her head up.

“I said, you’ve got no right to cry!” She got to her feet to kick and head-butt 7753, and when 7753 staggered, Mana punched her in the gut. The strength of her blows aside, she was attacking rather vulnerable targets. She was moving like a child having a tantrum, but she was weirdly good at this. 7753 wondered if she should maybe pin Mana down, but looking at Mana’s face, messed up with tears and a bleeding nose, she lost the urge. She just covered her head and patiently endured it until the attacks stopped.

Lowering her guard, 7753 lifted her face.

“…What are you doing?” came a sudden voice.

7753 turned around. Ripple was grabbing the iron fence to nimbly hop up onto the roof and land on the concrete. She made a face when she noticed the red rust on her palms.

Having found a new outlet for her anger, this time, Mana screamed at Ripple. “And where the hell have—?!” But before she could finish her sentence, she went silent. Timidly poking her face out from behind Ripple was a ballerina-style magical girl covered in ribbons.