Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 6 - Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

THE MAGICAL GIRL WITHIN YOU

  Weddin (Time remaining: three hours, forty minutes)

“Even if it’s impossible, I just have to do it.”

7753 took Mana’s hand. “I’ll stay, too.”

“I thought I told you not to get in my way again.” Mana immediately shook her off.

“I won’t get in the way.”

“You’ll get in the way just by being here.” Mana was serious. She was entirely sincere in her intention to finish this all by herself.

Weddin’s thoughts and feelings swirled around in an endless vortex. Just a moment ago, she’d been wailing pathetically, blaming the Magical Kingdom, 7753, and Mana.

But even venting all her rage had not cleared the hesitation she still felt. And Weddin knew all of it would just come back to her. If a magical girl wasn’t something worth aspiring to, then she had to make herself the model of one—because she was a magical girl, too.

“So then… Please, let us help, at least.” The words escaped Weddin’s mouth. She was being entirely sincere, but even so, saying it out loud made her break into a cold sweat.

Mana shook her head. “You’re all newbies with almost zero experience. No matter how many of you we scrape together, you’ll just be a burden.”

“Don’t belittle me.”

“I’m not belittling you. I’m only giving you the truth.”

The town would be destroyed. The ten-odd years of her life would all disappear.

The classmates who’d helped her with school, the homeroom teacher who’d held Mine in high esteem, the kids who had called her a suck-up behind her back, the school—all of it would be gone. The old lady in the neighborhood who had given her the same compliment ever since preschool: “It’s so nice how you always say hello so cheerfully”; the kids’ park with the monkey bars where she’d once hit her head when she was little and had wailed on about it; the library with the cubicles she’d used when she wanted to be alone; her house. It would all be gone.

Knowing what should be done, what she was capable of, and running anyway, was not the act of a leader and not something the magical girls Mine had always admired would do. Even now that she was in middle school, she’d never stopped watching anime—because of the magical girls. And there were still magical girls, now—right here.

Weddin turned around.

Funny Trick’s shoulders were shaking with sobs. Kuru-Kuru Hime merely stood there, struck dumb. Weddin could give them orders. She could tell them, “Follow me! Let’s fight together! We magical girls are the only ones who can save this town!” But that was the same as telling them to die with her, wasn’t it? That was just like telling them to follow her to hell.

Death. Dying. Killing. Being killed.

Weddin lifted her head, and her eyes connected with Tepsekemei’s. Tepsekemei was the only one there who was expressionless, as she always was, arms and legs folded as she floated in the air. “Weddin.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“No orders yet?”

They were all looking at her, listening for what she would say. She pressed her hand against her chest. It hurt. She wanted to tear it out.

What should a leader do? She didn’t want to die. She was scared. She didn’t want the town to be destroyed, and she really didn’t want to lose the people and things she cared about. I’m scared. Help.

Emotions, both strong and weak, rose within her, then disappeared. She felt as if something were pressing the back of her throat. What did she have to do to be released from this pain? She opened her mouth. “First, cool your heads, please. Not physically but mentally. If we lose our calm, we won’t be able to come up with any good ideas. And then please decide for yourselves—I won’t give you any orders.” She looked at Kuru-Kuru Hime, Funny Trick, and Tepsekemei in turn. “I’ve—made up my mind. No matter how you may oppose it, Mana, I will stay here and fight.”

  Funny Trick (Time remaining: three hours, thirty-two minutes)

Kayo was all alone, crying in impenetrable darkness. Nobody would save her. Nobody would call out to her. She was sad and hurting and didn’t want to do anything. If she just plugged her ears and closed her eyes and cried, it had to all pass, like a storm. That talk about the town disappearing was a lie.

She didn’t want to hear anything. She didn’t want to see anything. She’d never even wanted to be a magical girl in the first place. The others had celebrated it, and she’d just been dragged into it. She could never believe in magical girls. They shouldn’t exist. That talk about a weapon of mass destruction was a pack of lies.

As she rejected everything, held her head in her hands, and trembled, inside her, Umi Shibahara was yelling.

“How stupid are you? There’s no time to hesitate.”

Kayo grew angry at Umi’s brash remark. She argued back.

“You always say stuff like that, Umi. But things are actually horrible right now.”

“So what if it’s horrible?”

“You’re reckless!”

“There’s no such thing as reckless when you’re a magical girl—only excitement!”

“Excitement?” Honestly, this isn’t some…”

“Listen, don’t go acting like just ’cause you found a good moment to escape means that was enough, okay? Just don’t.”

“Umi…”

“Don’t you wanna beat me? If you beat someone I couldn’t, that means you beat me.”

Kayo, who had always walked behind Umi. Beating Umi.

“But…”

“No buts! Pull yourself together!” She spoke bluntly, giving Funny Trick a good kick in the rear.

When Funny Trick opened her eyes, she saw Weddin there.

Still holding her head, Funny Trick muttered, “I want to fight, too.”

She got the feeling that somewhere, someone was grumbling, “You could try to act a little more badass about it.”

  Kuru-Kuru Hime (Time remaining: three hours, thirty-two minutes)

She no longer wanted to think about anything. Problems just kept bubbling up one after another, and before one was solved, the next one appeared. Her pride as a teacher or whatever was long gone. If nobody could fix things, there was no way a teacher could fix things, either.

Her father was gone. She had no one. The home she could return to would soon be destroyed. All their homes would be: the neighbor who struggled with a baby that cried so much at night; the house across the street where that husband lived, the one who’d been looking for a job since the factory where he’d worked had closed; and Nozomi’s own house, now without her father.

There would be no struggling. She would just wait until it had passed. As a teacher, she’d failed to take care of her students; as a daughter, she hadn’t been able to take care of her father; and as a magical girl, she hadn’t managed to take care of the town. She hadn’t been able to do anything. And she wouldn’t be able to do anything, either. There was no longer any point.

Did she have to do something? Kuru-Kuru Hime, not anyone else. What for? She had no family anymore. She’d lost the desire to be a teacher. And no way did she want to be a magical girl.

For some reason, she recalled her father—that time when she had gone to pick him up at the station, an umbrella in hand, she’d been able to find him so quickly in the crowd. His face wasn’t the sort that stood out, and he wore only the sort of ordinary suit you saw on any office worker, but she’d found him quickly, like, “Oh, he’s over there.” It was then that Nozomi realized she’d gotten her baby face from him. She’d giggled over this old man with a childlike face, and her father had given her a baffled look.

Nozomi never made barley tea, but the barley tea in the fridge never ran out. Whenever there wasn’t much left, her father would put a pack of it into the kettle and boil some. It wasn’t as if he’d been asked to do it. He just knew she liked it, so he’d always refilled it for her.

He was gone now. He’d been murdered, taken from her. She had averted her eyes from the absurdity of it, repeating “I’m helpless, I can’t do anything” as if chanting a mantra. Anger, like thick, oozing magma, threatened to well up from the pit of her stomach. Why did her father have to die? Why did the town have to be destroyed?

There was no longer anyone alive who would silently push her from behind. Kuru-Kuru Hime stood, with her own strength.

“I’ll do it, too. Please let me do it.”

  Mana (Time remaining: three hours, thirty-two minutes)

Weddin had made her announcement, Funny Trick agreed to it, and Kuru-Kuru Hime asked to be a part of it. Tepsekemei drifted around, the look on her face saying she would of course join in.

What should Mana do? She still felt she couldn’t take regular people to do this. “…You can’t. I can’t use brand-new magical girls to fight with me.”

7753 took Mana’s hand one more time. This time, Mana didn’t shake her off. “My boss said to me… ‘You’re Magical Girl Resources staff, not a fighter, or an inspector, or an assassin. You’re not combat personnel, so come back,’ she told me. But Magical Girl Resources can fight in a Magical Girl Resources way. Please give me one hour. In one hour, I can use my goggles to uncover all of everyone’s potential.”

“Potential?”

“From the moment you become a magical girl, you have a vague understanding of what your magic is. But ultimately, that’s just a vague understanding. Normally, you learn the restrictions, limits, and applications of your magic through practice. None of the magical girls here have that experience.”

“So…”

“I’ll use my goggles to analyze their magic and make them all veteran-level.”

Mana just couldn’t shake off 7753’s hand. Weddin, Kuru-Kuru Hime, Funny Trick, and Tepsekemei were not going to back down. Mana looked away from them all and kicked the dirt at her feet. “…I have a few items left. We’ll split those.”

Smoke bombs, her staff, and various other items rolled out of her bag.

Mana raised her head and pointed at Weddin. “You negotiate with Frederica. Use your magic…your promises, to manipulate her. Even trash like her is strong in a fight. Stronger than any of us.”

  Pythie Frederica (Time remaining: two hours, fifty-six minutes)

Those who refused will surely want to be your friend, too.

The suspicious voice who made a request to Frederica had told her that. Strangely, Frederica believed it. She thought it might be that person emphasizing their own usefulness. It was their own way of trying to appeal to Frederica, show her they would not only give her orders, but would also give her information.

Though the voice had been electronic, Frederica could surmise what intentions had lurked behind it. It hadn’t been trying to deceive Frederica, and neither had that been meant as a weak consolation.

Not long after Frederica fled the scene, the voice told her the results of her actions. Namely, the present situation: Pukin had won, Postarie and Toko had been killed, and Rain Pow was under Pukin’s control. This part was probably not an attempt to appeal to her but rather a reward for her cooperation. These results were within the scope of her own predictions, so she believed the voice was telling the truth.

The phone did not ring again.

Frederica waited patiently by the cell phone. She sat cross-legged in front of her plastic sheet, ignoring the passage of time, just focusing on waiting. The moment her cell phone vibrated, she took it in her hands.

It was from Kuru-Kuru Hime.

“Pythie Frederica speaking. Is this Kuru-Kuru Hime?”

“It’s Weddin.”

Oh-ho. “What might your business be?”

“Continuing our earlier conversation. You intend to cooperate, don’t you?”

“Well, well… Have the winds changed?”

“It’s no use making some bungling attempt to take advantage of this. We’ve heard news that if we fail to capture the criminal before the barrier is undone, the Department of Diplomacy will send a weapon of mass destruction into the barrier. If that happens, you won’t survive, either.”

The Department of Diplomacy? They’d use a weapon of mass destruction?

Was it possible? It was clearly ridiculous. But Frederica got no sense from Weddin’s voice that she was lying. Had there been some mistake, somewhere along the line? Were mistakes happening in the continuous tense, right that moment? Frederica had been cut off from outside information, so it was difficult for her to judge.

“I see… It seems we’re in quite the pickle, hmm? Thank you very much for sharing this valuable information with me.”

“I’m not particularly interested in thanks from you.”

“Well then, I’ll share something with you, too. Pukin and Rain Pow engaged in combat. Toko and Postarie were killed, and now it seems Rain Pow is Pukin’s puppet.”

She was met with silence on the other end. After about thirty seconds’ pause, Weddin spoke again. “How do you know that?”

“Because I happened to be present. I ran before I was discovered, though.” She was aware that was a suspicious statement to make. But Weddin would have no way to confirm her suspicions. “So there’s no reason for me to refuse your proposal to cooperate, since I’d be helpless against Rain Pow and Pukin together. If you could tell me where you all are right now, then I’ll immediately fly to you.”

“We can’t have you coming to us right away. First, you’re going to make some promises to me, please.”

“Promises?”

“We can’t trust you. And we don’t want to be stabbed in our backs once this battle is over, either. We’re returning a powerful weapon to you, so we must have you do this much for us.”

  7753 (Time remaining: two hours, thirty minutes)

Pythie Frederica arrived.

Her style was star-spangled, with a star-decorated veil, a star choker, stars painted on her face, and star-patterned stockings, with her long, long hair flowing over her long skirt. When she pointed that pleasant smile at you, it made one feel almost able to blindly trust her. But if she was the sort of person rumors said her to be, 7753 wouldn’t take that smile at face value.

A volatile air wafted in together with Frederica.

7753 could tell even without looking through her goggles that this impression she had was neither vague nor unfounded. All at once, everyone—Funny Trick, who had been her prisoner; Kuru-Kuru Hime, whose father had been killed; Mana, who’d watched Hana die; Weddin, who had been mind-controlled; and Tepsekemei, who was just joining in on the bandwagon—glared at Frederica as she put her hand to the back of her head and made up an excuse: “All these things were done either by Pukin herself or on her orders… But I do regret my actions.”

Regardless of whether or not Frederica seriously regretted everything, she was now no longer a fully harmful presence to their party. Among the promises she had made to Weddin, the three most pivotal ones were “don’t do anything antagonistic toward the magical girls or mage,” “don’t lie,” and “even after the barrier is undone, don’t make the magical girls or mage the target of your magic.”

The first one was obvious; the second was so that they wouldn’t be deceived in the realm of something else Frederica hadn’t promised to them; and the third was a preventative measure, so that after this incident was resolved, they would not be spied on.

They wanted to restrict her as much as possible, and Frederica wanted to avoid as many restrictions as possible, and so they discussed.

“If I’m forced to make such promises, it will affect my lifestyle even after this incident is over.”

“And we have no desire to cooperate with someone who poses a threat to us.”

Both parties came up with points of concession and compromise. They discussed “the order of priorities in emergency situations,” “threats to one’s right to life,” “for averting present danger,” and “a firm grasp on the system of orders,” and came to an agreement. Further, separate from that, Frederica also made promises with Mana.

“I’d rather not have you arrest me once this is over, so for that I would request a plea bargain. Essentially, extrajudicial measures.”

“You mean to let you go?”

“Well, simply reducing my crimes somewhat would still mean the Magical Kingdom would try to arrest me. Rather, it would make both you and I happier if you were to pretend you’ve never seen me. Come now, I won’t do any more evil deeds. I simply don’t want to go back to prison.”

Frederica was bound to continue to be a crook. But at this point, they needed her help to prevent a weapon of mass destruction from being launched in this town. And since she’d promised not to lie, then she shouldn’t do anything to betray or deceive them.

“Hmph… Then first, we’ll have you search for Pukin. This is you we’re talking about. You’ll have some of her hair, of course?”

“If I could just have my crystal ball back, I could do that immediately. However, I ask that you please not make me put my hand into it. If I were to stick my fingers in there, I’m sure I would quite literally be caught red-handed.”

They discussed how they would integrate Frederica into their strategy, and then 7753 returned to her own task. She examined the new magical girls, who were not yet completely using their magic to the fullest. Looking at them through her goggles, she checked their magic’s effect range, use criteria, speed, and accuracy—every heading available to research how they might be used in practice.

7753 had seen more than just a couple hundred magical girls in her time. Making use of all her experience in Magical Girl Resources, she considered what these girls were capable of. 7753’s job had been to search out negative traits and report them. This required her to get an accurate grasp of the target. She hadn’t been writing out reports, lately, but it wasn’t as if she’d lost that experience.

  Pukin (Time remaining: one hour, twenty-five minutes)

Pukin bit into the ham, devouring it. This is just like Sonia, she thought, laughing at herself, but remembering Sonia made her chest ache. No matter how she ate and ate, it still wasn’t enough. Was it that she lacked enough food? Or was it stimulation she was lacking? She’d just absorbed the ultimate nutrition, a fairy, so she should have no complaints regarding quality, at least. Taste and texture aside, fairies were more nutritious than just about anything.

“Bring us more. It’s still not enough.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rain Pow was obedient and easy to use. She obeyed anything, no matter what the order. Pukin had made her that way, but it was lacking in interest. She’d prioritized ease of use, so it made sense she would end up like this. Pukin could order her to do something interesting or say something interesting, but she doubted Rain Pow could entertain her. She would loyally attempt to carry out such orders, but it was sure to go poorly. Pukin considered summoning Frederica back, under the strict instruction to never slack off again, but she had no means with which to call her.

Both thinking about Sonia and thinking about Frederica felt unpleasant. She was just going on eating like this without any form of distraction because those she awaited weren’t coming. If the inspection team, which meant to capture Rain Pow, were to come, that would be entertainment enough for Pukin. She couldn’t understand why it was taking them so long to do their job.

Pukin had sliced up the walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture of the room in an attempt to vent her aggression. But despite how she let it out, there was still no target for her to attack. This led to her spinning her wheels fruitlessly, and the walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture were made sacrifices. It wasn’t interesting.

It wasn’t good that the inspection team was so incompetent. How dare they make Pukin wait this long? But if her opponents were incompetent, then she would have to accommodate that. Pukin was generous and tolerant. She treated not just her retainers but even her enemies with kindness.

When Rain Pow came back through the window with foodstuffs in her arms, Pukin ordered her, “Go outside and begin killing every human you encounter. Destroy buildings and vehicles, too—and not only that but set them on fire, too. Once there is rising smoke, they’ll be forced to take notice.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Before long, Pukin heard screams and sounds of destruction coming from outside. If she could hear the cries of children, the shrill sounds of women screaming, men yelling, and some begging for their lives, too, that would be perfect. A lump of ham in one hand, Pukin stood and gazed out from the veranda as she bit into the meat.

“Swine. Their squeals are unexpectedly pleasant.”

This made her dull meal a little more interesting. She should have ordered this earlier.

  Rain Pow (Time remaining: one hour, five minutes)

Pukin’s orders were absolute. Rain Pow had no choice. She did as she was told. She let fly her rainbows at the elderly couple sitting side by side on the bench at the bus stop, fired them at the incoming cars, and used more to cut down road signs and traffic lights. She raced through the middle of the commercial district, using her rainbows on shop after shop, splattering red liquid on the show windows from the insides until you could no longer see within.

She kicked up clouds of dust as she raced along the road, spurts of blood following her, dyeing her path red.

Rain Pow lacked any powers of judgment—no I wanna do this or I don’t wanna do that. And not only had she been ordered to kill and destroy, but to set fires, too.

She went into a miscellaneous goods store and fished around, but found no matches. She headed for a convenience store not too far away, and found an employee there, so she tried asking, “Where are the matches?” The employee just kept on screaming and didn’t make to answer, so she cut them up, then recalled a shop for Buddhist articles might have matches.

Running along the road, she used her rainbows to destroy everything in sight. She had to do just as Pukin had ordered. Making use of her many rainbows, she could accomplish that easily. She sliced open a police car, cut down an officer, cut up a dump truck, and slashed the giant Buddha statue on the roof of the Buddhist goods store into three pieces. The Buddha statue collapsed with a shudder, and it crushed the roof of the building it fell onto.

Rain Pow just carried out the orders she’d been given.

She took an economical ten-pack of matches from the Buddhist goods store. With this, she would be able to set as many fires as she wanted. Surely, this would satisfy Pukin.

“What are you doing?” she heard suddenly from behind, and with a leap backward, she turned around, sending out rainbows. Those seven rainbows total all soared true, hitting the source of the voice, but even so, the target did not fall.

“You’re an enemy, after all.”

Tepsekemei gathered together the pieces of her shredded form and looked down at Rain Pow. If Tepsekemei was here, that meant the others had to be here, too. The names rose in her mind one after another: Kuru-Kuru Hime, Weddin, and Funny Trick.

  Weddin (Time remaining: fifty-eight minutes)

Weddin’s magic forced someone to keep the promises they’d made.

According to 7753’s analysis, she was unlimited in both her number of promises received and number of promises a single individual could make to her.

A contract could be overwritten. If contradicting promises were made to her, the newer promise would have stronger powers of compulsion.

She could compel a target to act but could not restrict their thoughts or feelings.

A contract could be made even without her meeting someone and speaking to them directly. This was also true for her communicating her desire to her target.

Also, the foundation of this ability was Weddin’s subjective view.

Reflected in Frederica’s crystal ball, Rain Pow’s expression was vacant as she engaged her destructive activities. She looked clearly as if she’d lost her mental equilibrium. It was clear she was being controlled by Pukin’s magic. You didn’t have to be Weddin, with her experience of having been under Pukin’s control, to be able to tell that.

The question was: Would Weddin’s magic work on someone who was under Pukin’s control? Rain Pow’s promise had been worded as “to obey the leader’s decisions.” Obviously, Rain Pow didn’t acknowledge Weddin as her leader at the moment, but 7753 had said that whether the magic worked depended on Weddin’s perception of Rain Pow. As long as Weddin believed that even if a person was brainwashed or had lost their memories or their personality had fallen apart, she still held the right as their leader, then her magic would work.

“What incredible carnage,” Frederica said cheerfully as she watched Tepsekemei in her crystal ball. No matter what a master of self-deception Frederica might be, as long as Weddin kept it together, Frederica would never be able to oppose her magic.

“She must be destroying things like that in order to show us where she is, to lure us to her.”

“Quiet, please. You’ll distract me.”

Rain Pow and Tepsekemei were about twenty yards apart, engaging in an ongoing long-range fight. Tepsekemei’s body had been sliced to ribbons by rainbow blades, while Tepsekemei’s attacks were blocked by walls of rainbows. I see, so that’s how she uses them. Rain Pow’s attention was focused on Tepsekemei, who was fulfilling her role as decoy.

“All right, then do it, please.”

“Yes, yes, understood.” Frederica grabbed Weddin by the collar and shoved her face into the crystal ball.

That hurts, Weddin thought, and an instant later, she was somewhere else. Rain Pow and Tepsekemei were fighting right close by. Weddin leaped out from cover and yelled, “Stop, Rain Pow! You’re not allowed to hurt anyone!”

Rain Pow turned around. Her expression was still vacant.

“I’m the leader! Rain Pow, don’t use your magic! No kicking or hitting! Don’t hurt any living things! Don’t break things! No evil deeds! You’re not allowed to do anything ba—”

A streak of light. By the time Weddin realized it was a rainbow, there was a yank on her collar and she was dragged back. Tepsekemei and Rain Pow both vanished, and there was Frederica beside her.

“How come it didn’t work?!”

“It seems her ears are plugged. From the way she’s moving, it seems she can’t hear anything.”

“Her ears are plugged… That’s it?”

Their strategy—wherein Tepsekemei would play decoy, and while she had Rain Pow distracted, they’d take her by surprise with Frederica’s magic—should have worked out. The sounds of destruction were gradually approaching. Weddin bit her lower lip hard.

  Rain Pow (Time remaining: fifty-five minutes)

She’d never let her guard down around Weddin’s magic, not from the moment they’d first become allies. One promise to Weddin alone was bound to bring it all crashing down. But still, one of the group refusing a promise would have made her look suspicious. So she’d come up with a way she could hide her presence in the group while also resisting Weddin’s magic. It was a very simple solution.

Tepsekemei dived toward Rain Pow with her mouth open. It looked like she was trying to say something, but Rain Pow couldn’t hear her right now. When they’d started fighting, she’d filled her ears with rainbows to shut out any sound. Neither Weddin’s orders nor Tepsekemei’s yelling would reach her.

She’d figured out a way to deal with Tepsekemei.

Rain Pow raised a wall of rainbows to block her, then put up more rainbows, which she plated with even more. She kept shooting out rainbows, manifesting them, making layer upon layer, burying rainbows with more rainbows. If Tepsekemei had been calm, she would’ve realized Rain Pow’s goal before she could accomplish it and would have managed it somehow. But she wasn’t trying to avoid the attacks, now. She was trying so hard to fulfill her role as decoy, she was making no effort to avoid anything, just taking it all. Rain Pow surrounded Tepsekemei with rainbows, and in the end, she had a rainbow sphere the size of a basketball with Tepsekemei inside it. Even Tepsekemei, made of wind as she was, couldn’t escape an airtight sphere. The multiple layers of rainbows were incredibly strong against brute force, and they were impossible to destroy unless you used some unique magic on it—which Tepsekemei would not have.

  Pukin (Time remaining: fifty minutes)

The sounds of screams and destruction gradually grew distant. Rain Pow must have been trying to further the commotion by keeping up the carnage as she moved. Her passion for the job was wonderful, but now that Pukin could no longer hear the background music, her dinner didn’t taste quite so good anymore.

She heard the sound of something falling with a clunk from the kitchen.

“Sonia? Frederica? Rain Pow?”

There was no reply. Pukin drew her rapier, making her way to the kitchen with silent footsteps, then somersaulted in the air to avoid the score of ribbons breaking through the window to fly at her.

“Ha-ha-ha! That’s a good diversion! Not a bad strategy!”

The ribbons made to run outside, so she followed them, jumping out the window. She confirmed the enemy’s position. The ribbon magical girl was making to rush down the wall. There were no others. She could sense no one else around.

Had the ribbon girl come to confront Pukin all alone? She was running too fast for that. Then she raced down the wall and set off in the opposite direction from where Rain Pow had headed. Pukin gave chase but didn’t catch up.

Pukin’s legs were faster, but the ribbon girl could use her ribbons to grab buildings and street signs, tugging at them to swing through the air. She would also use them to make wheel-like shapes, landing on them to maintain her forward momentum. Though she surely could move fast enough to leave Pukin behind if she felt like it, she maintained a speed where she would neither escape nor be caught.

Does she intend to lure us somewhere? If so, then she is underestimating us. Pukin snorted.

There were few pedestrians on the street as they ran down it, leaping over a cluster of police cars and jetting along a raised path between rice fields to come out to a mountain trail. Was the ribbon girl simply choosing a place with fewer people, or had she set up a trap here? They arrived in a clearing in the forest about fifty-odd yards wide. There was a wooden arrow direction sign. Pukin couldn’t read the characters, so she didn’t know what it said.

To her right there was a pile of logs; to her left, three figures: a girl in goggles, a girl wearing a pointed hat, and a stage magician. There was nothing particularly unusual about the ground below. They weren’t trying to pull something with a pit or land mines. So then why had they lured her here?

The town’s outskirts… Oh, the barrier, eh?

So they meant to use the barrier to knock her out? It wasn’t a bad plan—if they could actually pull it off.

Whatever their plan is, we merely need to crush it.

The magical girl in the goggles yelled, “Please, be careful! She’s more powerful than I thought! The number of her strength hearts is unusually high, compared to when she fought Hana… How are there so many?!”

Fairies were the greatest nutrients. They brought out magical girls’ strength. If only they had tasted good, Pukin would have no complaints.

  Weddin (Time remaining: forty-eight minutes)

Weddin’s magic didn’t work, and now that Tepsekemei was locked up in that rainbow ball, basically every part of their strategy had fallen apart. The exhaust duct of the fried chicken shop kept on going, rattling like it was on the edge of breaking, and Frederica and Weddin, who were hiding under the sheet they’d put up there, fell silent, gazing into the crystal ball.

Rain Pow jumped off a building with the shrunken rainbow sphere in her arms. Leaving the ruined town behind her, she raced atop the buildings along the road. The scene in the crystal ball was reflected using Tepsekemei’s hair, so it changed as her position moved.

“Where is she going…?”

“If she’s taking the sphere with her, then that must mean she intends to do something with Tepsekemei inside it. For example… Ah yes. Even Tepsekemei wouldn’t go unscathed if Rain Pow were to shove her at the barrier or something, now, would she?”

“No…! So then, please, hurry and steal that sphere from her!”

“Yes, yes, roger that.”

Frederica plunged her left hand into the crystal ball, and it came out behind Rain Pow as she ran. Frederica’s hand stopped just behind Rain Pow’s back, but the moment she was about to touch the sphere, a rainbow arced toward her fingers. Frederica instantly yanked back her hand. Blood spurted from the back of her hand, dripping a red stain onto her cheek.

“An assassin’s intuition is a frightening thing. Even with her ears plugged, this is what you get. You’re at quite a disadvantage when your opponent expects you. With things like this, even if I try to make contact with her through my crystal ball, she’ll only shoot me down.”

Rain Pow paused a moment and looked around before seemingly judging there wouldn’t be another attack, then dashed off again, hopping from building to building.

“Might I suggest something?” Frederica suggested with some reserve. Weddin couldn’t stand her courteous attitude.

“Rain Pow isn’t running at full speed. She’s telling us to pursue her, as if saying, ‘At this rate, Tepsekemei’s gonna die, so if you don’t like it, come at me.’”

Within the crystal ball, Rain Pow was running, occasionally stopping to look at thin air. She knew she was being observed through the crystal ball. Was she challenging them?

“What shall we do? Give chase? Or shall we remain here?”

Without a word, Weddin dashed off.

Skirts fluttering, Frederica followed after her. “You’re a little slow, Weddin. Couldn’t you perhaps run a little faster?”

“This is the second time today someone’s told me that.” Weddin would give everything she had to do this right. She was not going to have regrets about this. She would save Tepsekemei and the town. As the leader, she had to do that much.

  Kuru-Kuru Hime (Time remaining: forty-five minutes)

7753 gave her the lecture.

Kuru-Kuru Hime could control a maximum of two hundred and sixty ribbons. She could adjust the width of each individual ribbon within a range of the smallest fraction of an inch to twenty inches. The speed of her ribbons’ release was faster than Kuru-Kuru Hime could move her own body. 7753 had explained that she’d be able to block Pukin’s attacks if she focused purely on defense alone.

And right that very moment, a fierce thrust came toward her from behind, and just as she had been told, she turned it aside with her ribbons as her feet hit the ground. Pukin landed after her, a foul expression on her face. Was she displeased her attack had been avoided by someone she’d assumed she could take down in one strike, or was she suspicious?

Pukin did a full windup and attacked again, and this time, Kuru-Kuru Hime formed a shield of her ribbons to block it. She couldn’t manage to counter. Pukin moved frighteningly fast, and Kuru-Kuru Hime had her hands full just keeping up. She signaled to the girls behind her by touching her middle and pointer fingers together and bending them twice. If it seemed she could lock Pukin down by force, then she would request their cooperation. If not, she was to tell them to stay back. She had signaled the latter instruction. If the other girls were to come help, she wouldn’t be able to defend them. If Pukin were to attack them instead, they would get hit.

Kuru-Kuru Hime guarded with her shield, and even as Pukin strung her along with a series of feints, she managed to avoid the chain of attacks and leap backward. Pukin was stronger than 7753 had anticipated. Kuru-Kuru Hime caught, blocked, and turned aside her attacks, but Pukin was so strong, even blocking just one strike rattled her to her bones. This wasn’t going to work. Her ribbons were fast enough, but her body couldn’t keep up. Eventually, she would be outpushed.

Kuru-Kuru Hime undid some of her ribbons and sent them sliding all over her body. She thinned them out and pointed their tips, stabbing every part of her body with them.

A red droplet dripped from her hand. Blood flowed from some punctured vein. Her face was wet, too, and probably not with sweat. It was blood. Not because any of Pukin’s hits had connected. She knew that if she were to get hit even once, that would be game over.

Pukin leaped from a tree, kicking off the one with the thickest trunk to go for Kuru-Kuru Hime’s back. Kuru-Kuru Hime followed that movement. Now, instead of her muscles, she used her ribbons to move every part of her body. She smacked Pukin’s thrust with a whip of ribbons and blocked with her ribbon shield. The bones of her legs made an unpleasant creaking noise. They had not yet broken.

Pain racked her body. But still, she could keep up with Pukin now. She had to resist the pain. She absolutely couldn’t stop moving. She had to do this. There was no other magical girl in their group who could keep up with Pukin’s speed.

They’d confirmed the position of the barrier beforehand. In a normal fight, leading her toward it would be an option. But they couldn’t have a normal fight, not in this situation. All Kuru-Kuru Hime was doing was just barely managing to avoid being killed.

Her vision was tinged red. Had blood gotten in her eyes, or were her eyes bleeding? Her body didn’t have what it took to keep up with the speed. Pukin paused. Her eyebrows knit together as she stared at Kuru-Kuru Hime. Was she suspicious of her for wounding herself? She said something to Kuru-Kuru Hime in English, but it was too fast, and she couldn’t understand it.

But even if she couldn’t understand it, she was grateful Pukin had spoken. It gave her a break. She gathered the ribbons on her left arm into a cone shape and made it spin at high speed. She could repel Pukin’s sword with this drill. She swung it at Pukin but then stumbled, and the drill bored into the ground.

Pukin let out a battle cry.

Kuru-Kuru Hime was on her knees with Pukin’s sword thrusting toward her. Using all her strength, Kuru-Kuru Hime yanked at the ribbon she’d tied to a tree behind her beforehand, leaping back to it to avoid the sword. But her stance was still a mess. Pukin readied her rapier for another strike, and Kuru-Kuru Hime tripled the size of her shield, swinging it hard.

Kuru-Kuru Hime wasn’t going to be the attacker here. She was the decoy and the assist.

Dug up by the drill and fanned by the giant shield, fine dirt billowed into the air.

  Pythie Frederica (Time remaining: forty-one minutes)

The moment Rain Pow noticed Frederica and Weddin, she stopped running, turned around, and headed in their direction. Frederica’s prediction that she’d been running in order to make them follow had not been wrong.

Atop a building, the three magical girls clashed.

Frederica evaded several rainbows, then stuffed Weddin into her crystal ball, yanked her out again, and tossed her in one more time—all to save her from the rainbows. Weddin’s presence was preventing Frederica from fighting.

With Weddin in her arms, Frederica leaped down from the building and kicked in a window to break inside. She cut past the stunned, silent residents, passing through the room to leap out the window on the other side and slip between the rainbows that arced toward her.

Frederica had witnessed Rain Pow’s attacks a number of times now, and she was gradually starting to figure out how she operated. She manifested rainbows, sending them running through the sky with speed and force. Since their use as weapons necessitated a time lag, Rain Pow couldn’t generate them for instant attacks, and that meant Frederica could evade them. The problem was that there were just so many of them, and since they came at her from every direction, it was quite the task just to avoid all of them. On top of that was the additional burden of holding on to Weddin, which forced Frederica into a situation from which there would be no escape.

If all she had to do was flee, she could manage that. But there was no way she could attack. She’d be killed if she did. If she wanted to fight with Rain Pow, she would need Ripple-level projectiles. Frederica could only ever use one hand since she always had her crystal ball in the other—she wouldn’t last even five seconds against Rain Pow.

“I’d like to ask you something, Weddin.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“Which is your greater priority: saving your life or defeating the enemy?”

“The enemy,” Weddin answered instantly.

This was the sort of answer Frederica liked to hear. Her cheeks relaxed into a smile. “In order to defeat her, I must lead you somewhere dangerous. Are you all right with that?”

“I am.”

“In order to defeat her, you must trust me. You must surely hate me by now, don’t you?”

“I hate you, but I’ll trust you.”

“How can you trust me? I’m not the sort of person you should trust. You’re sure to suffer for it. I will not endorse that decision at all.”

“You can’t lie to me, right? You promised,” Weddin replied, grinning boldly.

  Funny Trick (Time remaining: thirty-eight minutes)

For Funny Trick to activate her magic and move something, both objects had to be out of everyone’s line of sight, even if only for the slightest instant.

She had to know the positions of both items to be exchanged beforehand. I think it’s there or it should be there were not enough.

The range of her magic was about fifty yards. However, one of the items had to be close at hand, at a distance no greater than three feet.

Funny Trick had been watching the whole time. She wasn’t allowed to blink.

She followed the sword fight between Kuru-Kuru Hime and Pukin with her eyes, waiting for her cue. Underneath her cape, she hid a smoke bomb she’d received from Mana. She just had to use this at the right time. This idea for using her magic, which 7753 had instructed her on, was frankly horrific, but after having seen the destroyed town, the dead people, and Pukin looking so gleeful about it, that horror had dissipated.

Kuru-Kuru Hime was being pushed back. She couldn’t manage to counter any of Pukin’s blows. Plus, she was bleeding. She was spewing blood, even though she hadn’t taken a hit, and her ballerina costume was soiled red.

Both figures were moving so fast, it was the most Funny Trick could do just to keep up. She absolutely could not look away. Her eyes had to be fixed on Pukin’s face.

Pukin said something to Kuru-Kuru Hime, and Kuru-Kuru Hime made her ribbons into a pointed shape and spun them. She carved at the ground, and right when Pukin attacked, she used that moment to fan hard at the ground she’d dug up. Funny Trick was watching Pukin’s face. Pukin blinked reflexively to protect her eyes from the dust wafting up around her.

Now. The moment Pukin blinked, Funny Trick activated her magic.

She switched what was behind Pukin’s eyelid with the smoke bomb in her hands.

Funny Trick flipped up her cape, and Pukin’s eyeball rolled out from underneath it to the ground.

Pukin screamed and pressed her hand to her eye, and immediately, that spot on her face exploded. Smoke billowed up from her head. The white feather decoration fluttered down from Pukin’s hair, blown in the wind, and fell away.

It was just a smoke bomb, but it packed enough punch to blow off your fingers. If you were to set it off in a person’s eye socket… In other words, by the brain, it would be fatal, even for a magical girl. Even for Pukin.

“We did it… We did it!” Funny Trick cried out in exultation, and Kuru-Kuru Hime fell with a thump onto her rear, her shoulders heaving.

Arms dangling loosely at her sides, Pukin fell to her right knee—then immediately stood up, thrusting forward with her sword.

Kuru-Kuru Hime hadn’t been anticipating the attack. The rapier stabbed her in her undefended throat, and Funny Trick failed to dodge the dagger thrown at her, which ended up hitting her in the chest.

What happened? Blood—and something more important—was flowing out from where the dagger stuck in her. Pukin yanked her rapier out of Kuru-Kuru Hime’s throat, showering herself with the splatter. That was when Funny Trick saw it—Pukin’s face, the area around her right eye, was indeed blown away. It was completely gone.

—Why…? How…?!

Funny Trick grasped the dagger. The blood wouldn’t stop. She tottered on unsteady legs and, unable to regain her lost balance, fell back onto the ground.

Was this it? Would it end like this? No. It wasn’t over. Umi Shibahara would never give up. So then her partner never would, either. Clutching her chest, Funny Trick crawled along the ground.

  Rain Pow (Time remaining: thirty-seven minutes)

Carelessly, flippantly, Frederica dodged Rain Pow’s attacks. Or rather than saying she dodged the rainbows, it was more like she was using the structure of buildings and the terrain to prevent Rain Pow from merging them together to make effective use of them, cutting off her waves of attacks. She was doing quite well, carrying around the burdensome Weddin. She was hardly recognizable from the last time they had fought—the presence of her crystal ball aside.

Rain Pow chased Frederica and attacked her. When she landed on the roof of a building, she found a grenade rolling toward her, pin out, and so she used a rainbow wall to shield herself, then sliced at the hand that manifested in the air to strike at her the moment the smoke grenade went off. These sorts of moves were what were keeping Rain Pow at a distance.

The two magical girls continued their chase from there to a department store, from the department store to the train station, darting past moving police cars and ambulances at a speed humans couldn’t even perceive visually.

—Two?

At some point, Weddin had vanished. Had Frederica left her behind somewhere, judging her to simply be a burden? With Frederica’s magic, she could send Weddin to escape someplace safe at any time. She was the type of person who would sacrifice Weddin to get away herself, but they had to have made some sort of contract on that point. It would have been too dangerous to make an ally of Frederica with no restrictions placed on her.

It was true that with Rain Pow’s ears plugged, Weddin would be nothing but a burden. However, even unburdened, Frederica wasn’t anything to worry about.

Rain Pow would press closer to her. She could do it slowly. Pukin’s orders were absolute. She would lead Frederica somewhere she couldn’t escape and then finish her off. Frederica went into the train station, jumping over the ticket gates, then slid through the train doors as they were closing.

Rain Pow didn’t hesitate. She would do whatever it took to fulfill Pukin’s orders. Following Frederica, she leaped into the train—and discovered it was a trap.

Weddin was on the train. Rain Pow had boarded an empty car, and Weddin alone was standing there imposingly, holding up a piece of paper about three feet wide. On it was written, Stop moving! Don’t hurt anyone! in large writing, and once Rain Pow saw that, she obeyed Weddin’s directions—her magic.

The train began to move. Rain Pow couldn’t get out. Frederica was gone. She had been lured here. Frederica had sent Weddin somewhere to go set things up, following which she had come to wait in this train, and then Frederica had run into the car to lead Rain Pow to Weddin.

Weddin tossed aside the piece of paper to reveal another. It read, Make it so you can hear and obey my orders. Rain Pow couldn’t oppose her. She dissipated the rainbows in her ears, and the sounds of the train resonated louder through her body.

“All right, so now you’re absolutely forbidden to defy me. Release Tepsekemei from that ball, and come with me out of the—” Before Weddin could finish her order, she fell. The disembodied hand that had tripped her vanished, and immediately, Weddin’s body smacked into something invisible, sending her flying. The next instant, Rain Pow hit the invisible thing, too. The impact shot through her, all the way to the crown of her head, but she couldn’t move, and she dropped the rainbow ball, then hit the invisible thing again. A heartbeat later, the rear door of the train approached them, and Rain Pow was unable to fulfill Pukin’s orders.

  Pythie Frederica (Time remaining: thirty-five minutes)

Even from so far away, she could feel the rumbling and tremors coming to her through the ground. The empty can lying at her feet rattled and clattered. The train would have derailed around the point where it left the city limits, and it wasn’t difficult to imagine just what sort of wreck it had turned into.

Someone was running to the station, yelling. Were they just a rubbernecker, or were they concerned about someone? My, Frederica thought, such energy, despite everything that has happened today alone.

Frederica got on top of the vending machine standing in the alleyway, and from there, she kicked off a window frame to climb up to the roof of the building. Black smoke was rising from the direction of the train station. All the dense clusters of rainbows around faded, then disappeared.

Weddin had ordered Frederica to prioritize eliminating the enemy, and as if clicking into place, that had switched away the promises worked into Frederica. She had obeyed Weddin’s commands. The best way to defeat Rain Pow with certainty in such a situation had been for Weddin to sacrifice her life.

She’d lured Rain Pow into the narrow confines of the train car, where she’d had her confront Weddin. Frederica had instructed Weddin to flee the car quickly after that, but if Rain Pow were to chase after her, that would have pushed them further from the goal of defeating Rain Pow. So Frederica had made Weddin fall, and the train had left the city. Weddin and Rain Pow had been crushed in between the barrier and the train, and the train had gone off the rails.

Frederica had seen so many magical girls die out of this sort of sense of their own mission, that they had to do it, they had to carry this out, no matter what, causing them to misjudge their own abilities.

This is why I said not to trust someone like me.

She had killed Rain Pow. Weddin, who had been her shackles, was dead, too. One more major task remained to Frederica. She couldn’t flee the city until she got ahold of that.

“…Hmm?”

When she focused her eyes, she could see a faint figure flying through the air.

“Rather impressive to survive a thing like that,” she said, somewhat astonished.

  7753 (Time remaining: thirty-three minutes)

Pukin was missing her face. Gray smoke spewed off from where the chunk had been blasted out of it. Even a magical girl couldn’t survive that. 7753 looked through her goggles at Pukin. There was something strange about her status. She was in an unusual state. Pukin had used her technique of deception on her own life.

There was a red line running across Pukin’s face. She’d cut herself with her own sword to cast her magic on herself the instant before the smoke bomb had exploded. She’d made herself believe she had taken no damage.

Her brain had to have been damaged. There was no way she could do this by the power of belief alone… No, this wasn’t just belief. In addition to the belief bestowed by her magic, Pukin’s parameters displayed unusual values. She simply had too many heart marks on her vitality.

“This is getting rather amusing! Right?!” Pukin swung her rapier, and dots of blood flicked off it. Kuru-Kuru Hime lay on the ground, her hand pressed to her throat. Funny Trick had been hit in the chest. Both of them were gushing blood through their fingers. 7753’s goggles indicated that both of them had been mortally wounded.

Even knowing it was useless, 7753 raised the staff that could shoot fire bullets and stepped forward. She wasn’t all that afraid. She felt she had to take responsibility.

Of course she wouldn’t be able to do that. She would be killed. But even so, she would fight until the end. Up until this point, she had constantly kept herself frozen with ad hoc lies. She wanted to be a proper magical girl at the end, at least.

7753 was about to take one more step forward when she was hit from behind and thrown to the ground.

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

“You’re in my way. Run. Now.” Mana smacked 7753 aside with the end of her staff. “Don’t start thinking you can take responsibility by fighting and dying here. You do the most important job you can right now—get out of here, on your own. I’ll fight. This is for Hana.”

There were three syringes stuck in the back of Mana’s neck, already emptied. Mana stuck another three syringes in, then trembled, spasming. “Come get me, you fucking fencer!”

“Insolent cad.” Pukin acquiesced to Mana’s demand, about to step forward, but Mana made the rush first. Using her staff like a spear, she showered Pukin with stabs, taking Pukin by surprise. Pukin blocked with her rapier, no lesser in speed or strength. Rapier and twisted staff struggled for domination. Just how long would Mana’s doping last? Fifteen seconds, by the calculations 7753 read from her goggles. With that much time, 7753 might indeed be able to run. She understood that she couldn’t even afford to hesitate. She dashed off.

Martyring herself was a stupid idea. It seemed like a good one up until the moment Mana had smacked her aside. But Mana was right. Even if she did die, it wasn’t as if she would earn forgiveness from it.

7753 went to leap on Pukin’s left arm and held it down. Mana was putting everything she had into it, but that was just Pukin’s right arm vying against Mana’s whole body. So 7753 restrained Pukin’s left arm from its attempt to stab Mana in the side and was rewarded with her own arm getting slashed, blood spurting from it.

“I thought I told you to run! You’re naive if you think you can take responsibility with your death! I won’t let you do this!”

“I apologize! I’m sorry! You’re right that it’s naive to try taking responsibility through death! I’ll never consider something like it ever again! Never again, I swear!”

The slice on 7753’s arm ripped wider, spraying blood. She wasn’t strong enough to resist Pukin.

“Then run! You idiot! Dumbass! Stupid! The hell are you doing?! Come on!”

“I’m taking responsibility! We just have to beat her, right?!”

Pukin strained harder. She was trying to get out of 7753’s armlock. 7753 looked up at the sky, and spitting, she yelled, “Now!”

Faster than the spittle sprayed from 7753’s mouth fell, Kuru-Kuru Hime’s ribbon moved.

The light of Kuru-Kuru Hime’s life was starting to fade. She couldn’t have been able to twitch even a fingertip, never mind her arm. But she was still conscious. In the look she gave Pukin, you could see the roiling rage and resentment toward Pukin that simmered in her stomach, her grudge and tenacity holding her on the brink of death.

Kuru-Kuru Hime’s ribbons slithered along, reaching their maximum width of twenty inches to wrap around Pukin, who was locked in this pushing match. 7753 fell backward, pulling away, and at the same time, the ribbons limply fluttered down to the ground. From within the ribbons, a stone fell to the ground with a thump, rolled, hit the thick root of a tree, and stopped.

Kuru-Kuru Hime wasn’t the only one who had remained conscious. When Pukin was wrapped in ribbon and concealed from view, Funny Trick, who had been coming toward them at a crawl, leaving a trail of blood behind her, had used her magic on her.

Her doping worn off, Mana fell, and 7753 curled in on herself, holding her arm. She couldn’t believe she was still alive. Funny Trick and Kuru-Kuru Hime… The display in her goggles told her they were already dead. With that final move, with the most modest magics, they had overcome Pukin. Even with death before their eyes, fueled by pure determination, they had struggled, and even a master as great as Pukin had failed to finish them off. She had misjudged their lives’ strength, their spirits’ strength, the strength of their resentment toward the one who’d killed their parents, their friends.

7753 looked over at the pile of lumber leaking blood. This had really and truly been their final move.

They had left a rock inside that pile of lumber, about the size of a child’s head—just a very ordinary rock. There had been no magic cast on it. That was exactly why it had been able to touch the barrier. They had placed it on the boundary line of the barrier, half in, half out.

Kuru-Kuru Hime had hidden Pukin, while Funny Trick had switched the positions of Pukin and the rock. Pukin had been transferred to the location of the barrier, and as for what had happened to her as a result—that was clear from the volume of blood that flowed out from within the pile of lumber.

This plan could only be executed if they locked Pukin in place. 7753 breathed a sigh, thinking, I suppose I was a little useful. She grimaced from the pain in her arm and was about to stand up when the lumber tumbled down.

An arm stretched out from within the toppled pile of wood, and then something crawled out, dragging itself. 7753, who had been trying to get to her feet, fell again, landing on her rear.

“My, my… What a foolish little trick you’ve pulled.”

Pukin’s face was gone. Her whole body was dyed crimson with her own blood, and she was covered in wood chips. Only her upper body moved along, dragging, sliding, sloshing along the ground, while her lower body remained on the other side of the barrier. She had been cut clean in half. Pukin crawled out, unconcerned about the innards that trailed behind her. Even with her body in this state, she kept a firm grip on the rapier in her right hand, pointing it at 7753. Just how could Pukin be enjoying this? She was smiling.

“So you’re the last one, eh? So be it. We shall finish you off now.” With her one remaining eye, she glared at 7753, frozen in place. Her determination and will to fight had evaporated, and all that remained in her heart now was terror. She looked up at the sky.

“Ah…”

Tepsekemei was coming toward them. She’d thinned out her body in order to speed up, making her literally faster than the wind. But even so, she would not make it in time to prevent Pukin, who teetered on the brink of death, from swiping her sword one last time.

However, the moment Pukin was about to stab 7753 in the face with her rapier, suddenly, a hand appeared in empty space and made a fist to smack down on Pukin’s wrist from above. There was the crack of bones breaking, and Pukin dropped her rapier. Without missing a beat, she reached out for it again in an underhanded grip, but before she could, the hand picked up the rapier and disappeared. Pukin’s left hand cut through air and Tepsekemei floated down. Pukin was immobile. Tepsekemei’s form slithered into the great hole opened in Pukin’s face. Pukin’s expression stiffened, and after not even a second, her body ruptured from the inside. Her clothes were turned to scraps, her ruff flew into the bushes, and her organs decorated every inch of their surroundings.

Amid the rain of blood, 7753 thought, I have to thank her, at least. She looked up at Tepsekemei to see her crying. Her lips were in a tiny pout, and tears fell from her eyes that seemed to say she didn’t enjoy crying.

“Um… What about Rain Pow?”

“She’s dead. And Weddin is dead, too. Everyone’s dead.”

Everyone was dead. Rain Pow and Weddin and Kuru-Kuru Hime and Funny Trick. Pukin’s and Rain Pow’s deaths would have been communicated to her boss, who may have still been in that meeting. So now there was no longer any reason for the Department of Diplomacy to bring out that weapon of mass destruction.

Was this for the best? Was this really how things should end?

“Is Mei smiling now?”

“No… You’re crying.”

“Mei can cry without practicing. Why’s that?”

“I wonder…”