Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 6 - Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

WITH THE ARCHFIEND AMID THE FLAMES

  Rain Pow (Time remaining: eleven hours, twenty minutes)

She shaded her eyes with her hand under a graying sky that had not yet fully reached dawn.

Archfiend Pam had transformed the coats she’d loaned to Postarie and Rain Pow back into black wings. Finally released from its tight restraints, Rain Pow was struck with the urge to roll her neck around, but she held back. Any more slaps and her cheeks would be cut open.

Archfiend shoved Postarie and Rain Pow between a building and a row of three vending machines, ordered them to not leave under any circumstances, and flew away.

The moment she didn’t have to worry about Archfiend Pam’s gaze on her, Toko popped her head out from Rain Pow’s shirt. “She said there was an accident, huh?”

“Sounds like it. I couldn’t hear it, so I think it happened pretty far away, though.”

“I guess she found it with one of those wings she sent flying off.”

“Those wings… It looked like she could really change them into just about anything, but could they do that, too?”

“Hey…,” Postarie interrupted Toko and Rain Pow. “What are we gonna do?”

“What do you mean, what’re we gonna do? About what?”

Postarie shot a glance at Toko, then dropped her tone a bit and continued. “Are we gonna tell Archfiend Pam…everything?”

“No way! You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Toko flailed her arms and legs, tickling Rain Pow and making her scrunch up her face, until Rain Pow gently restrained Toko from over her clothing.

“C’mon, Toko, stop flailing around when you’re in my shirt.”

“Do you get what’ll happen if we tell someone like her everything? The heck? Are you thinking about selling me out? Are you the sort of magical girl who bites the hand that feeds her, Postarie?”

“I’m not…biting the hand that feeds me… It’s just…” Postarie looked down, hesitated just a bit, and instead asked, “Is it true what Archfiend Pam said? That you did something bad, Toko, and they’re chasing you down for it?”

Toko’s eyebrows flew up, then down. With spread palms, elbows bent, she shrugged her shoulders. “That’s ’cause they’re bad people. They’re just trying to justify their actions while they talk nasty about me. You can’t take them seriously. She was slap-slap-slapping your cheeks like crazy, too, right, Postarie? She’s the sort of bad person who uses violence to try to keep you in line. But I’m a good fairy, so I don’t do that sort of thing.”

Still looking down, Postarie closed her mouth. Repeating that no way were they talking to Pam, Toko added, “What we should be thinking about now is not following her but running away posthaste. How long are we gonna have to hide out in a place like this?”

“But she told us not to run.”

“And why do we have to obey her like good little girls?! C’mon, ignore her. She and those wings of hers are gone, so this is our best shot, right? If we don’t escape now, then when will we?”

While Postarie seemed uncertain, for some reason, she didn’t back down. Toko opposed her stubbornly, saying that if Archfiend Pam were to find them, who knew what would happen to them.

“What should we do, Kaori?” Postarie asked, tugging on her friend’s sleeve.

Toko squirmed inside Rain Pow’s shirt, saying, “I’m not wrong here, right?”

With the two of them pressing her for an opinion, Rain Pow closed her eyes for about thirty seconds to contemplate, then offered her opinion.

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

Their plan to use the vehicle as bait did not go as they’d anticipated. This strategy had been conceived in semidesperation: When the enemy was chasing the vehicle, they would use that as their opportunity to launch a surprise attack from behind. But for some reason, since the enemy nonsensically used their vehicle to chase the other vehicle, the plan changed to using the remote control to make the car crash into the barrier, praying they’d get lucky and the enemy would crash into the barrier, too.

Ripple and the others would have escaped by now. Kuru-Kuru Hime had separated from them. They’d tried to convince her this was too dangerous and she shouldn’t go, but she’d ignored them, shaking them off to run by herself in the opposite direction.

Whose hair had Frederica used for her magic? Mana, 7753, and Ripple all said Frederica would have had no opportunity to steal their hair, and Ripple had said she’d confiscated Frederica’s original massive collection of magical-girl tresses. In other words, they could assume Frederica had acquired this hair while inside the barrier—so then the most likely one of them was Kuru-Kuru Hime.

So then how had Frederica stolen Kuru-Kuru Hime’s hair? Her description said she had a crystal ball, wore a veil with star decorations on it and a long skirt open boldly in the front, and long black hair that flowed down her back to her ankles. Kuru-Kuru Hime did not recall any such person. In other words, she should assume they had never met. So how did someone she had never met have her hair? She had a very bad feeling about this.

Tears in her eyes, Kuru-Kuru Hime had insisted she wanted to check what was going on at home and ended up separating from the others. If Kuru-Kuru Hime was the only one of them being watched by Frederica, if she separated from them, she would no longer burden the others. It was the clearest, most logical option.

Ripple, 7753, and Mana ought to understand. As long as Kuru-Kuru Hime was with them, Frederica would always be watching them. They just didn’t say this out of kindness. Even though it would be best for them to sacrifice Kuru-Kuru Hime, whom they’d only just met, they couldn’t suggest it. Besides, there was something Kuru-Kuru Hime wanted to do, even if it meant she’d end up alone.

She’d given them her civilian cell phone number. Ripple had advised her to watch her back. If Frederica’s hand were to kidnap her, that would be checkmate.

Kuru-Kuru Hime did as Ripple told, keeping an eye out as she rushed over to the Himeno residence. It wasn’t long before she arrived. Returning to human form, she pulled out her house key but immediately discovered she didn’t need it. The front door was open, the whole space around it blackened.

Nozomi yelled out something so incoherent even she herself couldn’t understand and opened the front door. Seeing red fluid flowing down the hallway to her feet, she let out a scream.

  Pythie Frederica (Time remaining: eleven hours, twenty minutes)

Frederica nearly cried out when she saw the magical girl in black who appeared in the sky above them.

Her voluptuous body was covered only in the slightest scraps of cloth. Her long, black, thin tail was pointed like a spearhead at the tip and decorated with a red ribbon. A set of black horns adorned the girl’s head. She had crimson eyes, just like Hana Gekokujou, but this girl’s were a deeper red. To put it succinctly, they were the kind of eyes that sucked you right in.

And then there were her four black wings, although someone unfamiliar with this girl and her abilities might not see them as such. The four black squares were held in reserve at her back. They floated in the sky, their buoyancy making not just them but the girl float, as well.

It was Archfiend Pam. Her name was well-known even to those who were not magical-girl enthusiasts like Pythie Frederica. She had been master to Cranberry, Musician of the Forest, Frederica’s greatest magical-girl obsession, one she had investigated and researched the most. There had been many opportunities for Frederica to speak Pam’s name with awe, hate, jealousy, or worship.

Finally, Frederica took note of her hair. It was a dull blond pixie cut that didn’t quite reach her shoulders, and her bangs seemed to have a bit of a cowlick to them. Her style was plain, artless, and lacked any sense that she was particular about it.

Frederica heaved a deep sigh. How could such plain, simple, and short hair look so glossy, so vibrant, so sparkly? She wanted to pet it, stroke it, and rub her cheek against it. She wanted to put it in her mouth and taste it. She wanted to lick clean those horns that poked out of her hair.

“Master, you’re drooling.”

“Whoops, pardon me.” Frederica took the handkerchief decorated with the two-hundred-and-fifty-sixth-note pattern Tot Pop handed her and wiped the corner of her mouth. Archfiend Pam’s incredible power was overwhelmingly attractive to her.

Pukin had already drawn her sword, while Sonia stood before her, on guard. This was the first time since their escape from prison that Frederica had seen Pukin look serious. She wasn’t smirking, scoffing, or narrowing her eyes in displeasure. She examined Archfiend Pam with a cautious gaze.

Archfiend Pam’s expression was practically a mirror image of Pukin’s. They were evaluating each other, drawing conclusions about their opponent. They both recognized each other as powerful foes.

Without a sound, Archfiend Pam slowly alighted on the ground, her four wings guarding her body. In a low voice, Frederica prompted caution. She could sense that even though she spoke quietly, Pam could hear her, but she still couldn’t bring herself to be loud. “That’s Archfiend Pam. She’s with the Department of Diplomacy and is widely known as the most powerful magical girl.”

“Oh-ho. The most powerful, eh? Aside from ourselves.”

“She’s the most powerful magical girl of the present day—not of all time.”

Archfiend Pam was looking at them as if she could see straight through them. Frederica couldn’t believe she was imagining that. It felt like the temperature here had dropped by two or three degrees. Tot Pop shivered.

Archfiend Pam’s gaze shifted over to Hana, who lay at Sonia’s feet. She eyed her for a few seconds before quickly looking away again.

“Who are you?” Pam spoke in English. She’d heard them talking, after all. She spoke with impeccable pronunciation, and most of all, her voice carried well. Mysteriously, she reminded Frederica of Cranberry, though she was not at all similar in tone or expression. Maybe Frederica just wanted to think that.

Not at all overawed by Archfiend Pam, Pukin retorted boldly, “Is it not proper manners to introduce oneself before asking another’s name?”

“My name is Archfiend Pam. Are you the assassins?”

“Our name is Pukin. Assassin! How rude.”

The air between them was grating.

Tot Pop grabbed the end of the rope that bound Hana, attempting to drag her away toward the Fury’s wreckage and hide in the shadow of the car.

But the rope was cut, and Hana’s body rose in the air. Stuck holding the end of the rope, Tot Pop’s expression stiffened in shock as she looked up at Hana. One of the square wings had transformed into a human shape to scoop up the limp Hana, and it was now floating in the air. Pam had not only been fast—her trick of turning their attention to herself as she used her magic elsewhere was also magnificent.

“You don’t need a hostage.”

Pukin was not at all bothered by what Archfiend Pam had done…or, at the very least, not from what Frederica could see. The corners of Pukin’s lips twisted in disdain for her enemy as she brandished her sword at Pam. “How insolent, to steal our prisoner without paying ransom.”

“I don’t want to hear that from the sort of insolent character who would torture a prisoner.”

Pukin made to advance, but Sonia held her back, taking one step forward. With her right hand, Sonia pinched the fingertips of her left glove, sliding it off her hand to toss it at Archfiend Pam. Blown in the wind, the white glove flew toward Pam and landed softly at her feet.

Putting her hands to her waist in a bold pose, Sonia yelled, “Duel me proper, fair and square!”

They were in the numerically superior position with four people on their side. Frederica couldn’t understand why Sonia would abandon that advantage and deliberately propose a one-on-one duel. Baffled by the purpose of this sudden declaration, Frederica looked over at Pukin.

Pukin retreated half a step and whispered quietly, “When Sonia fights in earnest, she sees no friend or foe. She’s saying she means to duel this girl, so if you value your safety, then stand back. Sonia! We entrust this to you!”

It would be foolish to be caught in the cross fire of such a fight. So Frederica followed Pukin and backed away.

“It’s truly, truly been such a long time since a magical girl has challenged me to a one-on-one duel!” Archfiend Pam shouted back. Her expression was no longer calm as it had been. Her whole face, from the tip of her chin to her hairline, was twisted in joy, her expression one of elation. “Your name?”

“…Sonia Bean.”

The black human shape that held Hana grew great wings that beat in the air, flying away. Archfiend Pam looked down on Sonia, who was crouched in a low fighting stance. How can the act of looking down on someone be so picturesque? Frederica wondered privately, basking in delight.

“I accept, Sonia Bean! Have at me!”

Sonia raced toward her, and Archfiend Pam’s wings sliced through the air.

  Archfiend Pam (Time remaining: ten hours, fifty-three minutes)

She didn’t feel she could hold back. Her mission wasn’t to kill the assassin, and she was supposed to prevent others from killing her, too, so it was really not a good thing to have an opponent she couldn’t hold back with. But exhilaration was rising within her. She had to fight with the intent to kill, lest she be killed herself. Her opponent was just that strong.

Pam had all four of her wings in tow when she arrived on the scene, and there she had confirmed it was no car accident at all. The fencer and patches were stronger opponents than she’d ever encountered in her life. The one-on-one fight, the introduction, the fencer saying patches couldn’t distinguish enemy or ally, so it was best for her to fight alone—all of this excited Archfiend Pam.

Her professionalism had long since come undone. She’d saved Hana first not out of a desire to save an ally, but based on the calculation that it would be disadvantageous for her to be a hostage. Her brain was overwhelmed with the selfish desire to enjoy this battle.

Sonia scraped at the road with her toe, like a fighting bull, and Pam could sense in it her roiling urge to fight. The other three quickly took shelter. They hadn’t fled—they were watching from somewhere. Pam had to keep an eye on them, too, or she would be in danger.

As Sonia Bean raced toward her, Archfiend Pam muttered, “Hadraniel.” Using one of her wings as an enveloping wall, Pam unfurled it between herself and the enemy, while simultaneously—“Longinus.” She transformed her other two wings into spears to attack Sonia from either side.

In battles between magical girls, much depended on compatibility. It was always best to choose a strategy that sought to prevent the outcome from depending on compatibility. You read your enemy’s attacks. If you could react instantly to your opponent’s intent to strike, they would never be able to strike first and leave you in an awkward position. Archfiend Pam used the wall to block Sonia’s vision, and with that as her defense, she deployed two spears in her blind spots to skewer her.

Pam gave both the walls and the spears the power of sight. The advantage of being able to see her opponent while the enemy’s line of fire was obstructed was always useful. Right now, it was important to read the enemy’s intentions based on her eye movements and her slightest gestures. At this point in a fight, she would start getting a feeling when magical girls with a counter-style magic were planning something. In this case, it was best to see how things went, first, and not just directly stab her with the spears.

Sonia just kept running, running forward. She didn’t try to avoid the spears. It wasn’t that she couldn’t avoid them, but rather, it seemed she simply had no intention of doing so. Observing this, Pam figured she must have some kind of defensive magic. Either she would repel the spears, or it didn’t matter if she was stabbed. Her response was very similar to that of the Arabian dancing girl Pam had fought in the sky.

The aim of the two Longinus was true, striking Sonia’s body from either side, but their tips were erased as if they were as fragile as charcoal. Hadraniel, too, which was specialized for defense, was no hindrance to her, and Sonia simply tore a human-shaped hole in it. Sonia was energetically running for Archfiend Pam.

It seemed Sonia’s magic could scatter away whatever she touched. Pam’s prediction that hers was a defensive magic had only been half-correct—it was both offensive and defensive. Longinus was sharp enough to easily pierce through several layers of bedrock, and Hadraniel could resist a nuclear attack at close range. The moment Sonia had touched them, they had disappeared with no resistance at all. Her touch had ignored all their powers of attack and durability, scattering them like dregs, and that was it.

Sonia had broken through the three wings Pam had used, expending them. Her remaining wing was busy saving Hana. There was nothing to come between Sonia and Pam. Sonia’s movements were easily readable. She wasn’t just running toward Pam, trying to get close to her. She meant to slam right into her and tackle her. Pam could tell from the way her muscles moved.

Could Pam stop her? Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t bear down on Sonia from above, couldn’t counter in some way, like with a knee to the face. Archfiend Pam’s body was surely no exception to Sonia’s magic. The moment Sonia touched her, Pam would turn to dust and disappear.

So she just had to crush her before Sonia even made contact.

Archfiend Pam raised her right foot four inches and wound up to stomp down. The asphalt cracked out from the center point where Pam’s foot came down, shattering, caving in, and sharpening into a fine split. The sudden cave-in of the path before Sonia made her stumble, and her stance fell apart.

Archfiend Pam’s greatest strength in battle was using her transforming wings, but that didn’t mean the body those wings protected was fragile. Pam firmly believed that if pride in the power of her magic were to ever cause her to avoid direct hand-to-hand combat, then she would be over as a magical girl.

Archfiend Pam took a step back to gain some distance, then commanded her spears and wall to regenerate. It would be about five seconds until they reappeared. She would endure until then.

Sonia dashed right, then left, then barreled toward Pam. She wasn’t just charging straight at her—she weaved feints and steps into her movements. At ground level, Pam flew like an acrobat, jumping, leaping, and spinning to evade Sonia’s fingertips. The few strands of hair that her touch did catch turned black and crumbled away. Pam’s evasions still weren’t tight enough, so she kicked it up a notch.

In general, opponents whose magic required physical contact in order to work were comparatively easy to fight. If they didn’t have the ability to fly, then Archfiend Pam just had to get up in the air and fire shots at them endlessly. But they were in a bad location. Pam put some distance between herself and Sonia as she scanned the area. At a glance, the four-lane highway was wide, but it was too narrow for Pam to unleash her full power. With terrain like this, if Pam were to escape to the skies where the enemy couldn’t touch her, then they’d probably escape to the nearby city. And if that happened, giving chase would be difficult.

If Sonia were to rampage through the city, that would amplify the amount of needless damage. Archfiend Pam had not been sent here to get innocent civilians slaughtered.

Fortunately, they were on the city’s outskirts. Only street signs, vending machines, grasslands, farmland, and guardrails filled this area. The only place where it seemed there might be people was a building that looked like some kind of museum or record office, which must have been empty since no one had shown up even after a car had crashed into one of its gateposts. Therefore, if she finished this battle before any ambulances and police cars came, she could avoid causing needless casualties.

Sonia was the only one in her view. From where were the other three watching their fight? Her wings finished regenerating, and she immediately directed them to attack. With this opponent, there was no point in defense.

“Gehenna.” Pam turned one wing to flame to engulf Sonia whole, and it scattered to pieces, starting with the corner that touched her. It didn’t leave a single burn on Sonia’s body.

“Logos.” She turned another wing into destructive sound waves vectored toward Sonia, but they, too, vanished, completely ineffective.

“Lucifer.” She focused light to try attacking with high temperature. But the formation of rays rotted soot-black in the places Sonia touched them. Even to Pam, who called herself Archfiend, the spectacle was hellish. Sonia ran around with energy, seemingly not even slightly blinded by the light.

“Minos.” Pam couldn’t blow her away with wind, either. Sonia’s spread hand shielded her from the blast, and the air turned into black dregs that scattered behind her.

“Echidna.” She didn’t even think this would work, but she created poisonous air anyway, and it had no effect, as expected.

“Cocytus.” If adding energy was pointless, then what about removing energy? Pam wondered. She attempted to freeze Sonia by lowering the air temperature, but this didn’t work at all, and when Sonia touched the air, it scattered.

And even as Pam tried one attack after another, Sonia’s assault never let up, so Pam was forced to keep dodging her—though it was less dodging and more fleeing. In this game of tag, Sonia was “it.” Pam would die if Sonia touched her.

With a limited arena for their fight, Archfiend Pam couldn’t run wherever she pleased. Fleeing somewhere unwise would only bring further damage. This four-lane highway was the only place she could move around in.

  7753 (Time remaining: ten hours, forty-eight minutes)

Hana was flying through the air.

Mana pointed and cried out, and Ripple ran after her, giving chase. Nothing but incomprehensible things had been happening, one after another. 7753 was constantly at the mercy of passing events, and it was the most she could do to keep up.

Before long, Ripple returned with Hana in her arms. Hana had been beaten all over, and half her ear had been cut off, too. She had undergone horrible torment. Mana wailed again.

Hana opened her eyes a crack, and her lips moved slightly. She was smiling. “I didn’t imagine…I’d live to see you again.”

“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard, Hana.”

“That wasn’t my intention… Oh, I really can’t believe I managed to get out of that alive.”

With her eyes and ears covered, Hana would have had no way of knowing who had saved her, but by process of elimination, she was able to narrow it down to one. “You’re all here… So that means… Um… Did Archfiend Pam save me?”

“A black sphere brought you back here… Then it turned into a square wing and went back. If my eyes weren’t mistaken, that was Archfiend Pam’s wing… I think.”

“Oh, then it was her, after all. She really did…save me.”

“Who did this to you? Was it Frederica’s crew?”

Ripple raced out in the direction Hana had flown in from. If her information was correct, there were multiple enemies. Ripple had to be going out to support Archfiend Pam. 7753 hesitated, wondering if she should follow. However, she figured she wouldn’t be of any use even if she were to accompany Ripple, so she stayed with Hana.

Instructions from her boss came in her goggles. Hana was incredibly battered. 7753’s boss said to choose a place out of sight where they could settle down, go there, and have Mana heal Hana.

This was a reasonable order. Hana was weakened. She needed to be healed someplace where they wouldn’t gather attention. So 7753 told Mana this and carried Hana through three alleyways into the shadow of a vending machine.

Her boss would have a map of the town. Her specific choice of going through three alleyways to hide in the shadow of a vending machine to rest was precise. 7753 was grateful for her specific direction.

Referencing a memo in one hand, Mana drew out a magic sigil, laid Hana down in its center, took up her staff, and began reciting the spell. She probably meant to use healing magic. Whether Hana was aware of this or not, she smiled faintly as she lay there. 7753 squeezed her hand.

  Archfiend Pam (Time remaining: ten hours, thirty-nine minutes)

Pam tried slicing her with blades, igniting gunpowder to make her explode, burying her in piles of sediment, and crushing her under a giant press, but nothing worked. Sonia’s eyes sparkled like those of a child with a new toy as she pressed closer to Archfiend Pam.

Ha-ha. So I’m the toy, huh?

This is a bit too bloody to be made into magical-girl merchandise. She laughed at herself, well aware that she, too, was like a child with a new toy.

Archfiend Pam continued to observe Sonia Bean as she ran from her. Everything that touched Sonia turned to black dregs and scattered away. Pam could continue for a hundred years, but normal attacks wouldn’t win this. She had to change the way she was thinking about this.

“Mastema.” She arranged three of her wings in a drill shape and propelled them over the road. She wasn’t aiming for Sonia but rather the road at Sonia’s feet. Rotating rapidly, the drill carved into the road, blowing up dust.

Pam wasn’t just trying to destroy the asphalt. She tore up the earth underneath the pavement, too, not only ripping it apart but shoveling down. Dust and concrete pieces billowed up. Sonia seemed confused by how the wings weren’t attacking her and came for Pam. Not yet. Pam kept digging.

Focusing only on carving away at the ground, Pam dug a hole. The ground under Sonia’s feet crumbled, and she tumbled down. Pam made the hole deep—very deep. If you were to look down on it from the sky, it would look like a circle gouged out of the earth. Pam transformed one black wing into the shape of a suit to cover her whole body, leaving nothing exposed. The dust here was thick, so she couldn’t go in without the suit.

Archfiend Pam went to stand at the bottom of the hole, and beyond the clouds of dust, she saw a form moving.

Sonia ran. This space was limited, just a little over a hundred feet wide, so there wasn’t anywhere to escape. In this battlefield, the attacker would be at an advantage.

Archfiend Pam raised black films between herself and Sonia. These films, which could be described as gently moving, thin walls, stood as obstructions all over the hole. They weren’t there to prevent Sonia from getting around. No matter in existence could stop Sonia from going where she wanted to. These were for obstructing her vision.

Pam gave these membranes the ability to be her eyes, then circled back around the films and away from Sonia. At that exact moment, her fourth wing returned. It was the wing she’d used to send Hana to safety and free her from her restraints. Pam placed it over the hole, transformed it into a sticky, flammable liquid, and then scattered it inside.

“Gehenna.” She ignited the wing, making the entire hole go up in flames. Unlike her earlier Gehenna, the goal here was not to burn Sonia directly. Heat didn’t work on this enemy. Archfiend Pam set the wing alight as she continued to produce flammable liquid to keep the fire going, taking special care not to touch Sonia. And no matter how many of the films Sonia erased, Pam produced more, confusing Sonia with their maze.

Gradually, Sonia slowed down, and Pam along with her. She never let Sonia give up. She always made Sonia feel that she was there, maintaining a close enough distance to make Sonia feel she had almost reached her. As she made the flames blaze higher and higher, she also took care in where she placed them, making sure they would never come in direct contact with Sonia.

Sonia staggered, her steps unsteady, and she looked ready to fall at any moment. But she still never lost the hope, the sense that she could almost reach Archfiend Pam, coming for her. Sonia thrust through a film, tongue hanging from her mouth as she gasped in pain. Illuminated by the blazing flames, her face shone red.

Good.

It was working.

Sonia Bean possessed a power that would protect her from and allow her to attack external threats. No matter how Archfiend Pam attacked her from the outside, she would never be able to break through Sonia Bean’s magic. So then, she thought, what if, rather than attacking Sonia Bean herself, she were to steal an ally from her?

All magical girls breathed, unless they had some particular equipment or magic. Without oxygen, no matter how sturdy a magical girl was, she couldn’t do anything. Archfiend Pam had been continuously burning up the oxygen within the restricted space of this hole to hinder Sonia’s breathing. Even a magical girl’s superior lungs could not guarantee infinite activity. Of course, in anticipation of this, Pam had stored some air for herself inside her suit.

By the time Sonia realized she couldn’t breathe, it was already too late. She was too absorbed in the fight.

Sonia tried to yell something, but her voice wouldn’t come out.

She could use her magic to dig at the walls and ground to expand the hole. But Archfiend Pam would still continue to surround her with fire, sending it after her without ever letting it touch her.

Sonia was out of options. She tried to climb up the irregular spots in the wall in order to escape the hole, but Pam instantly erased all protrusions. A tentacle extended from one of her wings to destroy Sonia’s footholds, and Sonia pitched forward, tottering.

Archfiend Pam cleared away her films. Once Pam had revealed herself, Sonia spun around to glare at her. Sonia Bean, who had fought with such excitement and glee, was now pared down to only hatred.

Sonia fell to her knees, both hands hitting the ground, her rear rising in the air. She was not collapsing, however. By the time Pam realized that she was crouching to sprint, Sonia was already charging for her.

A magical girl’s fluctuations in emotion affected her strength. Sonia Bean was near her end, and this mad dash probably took everything she had left. Just as a candle blazed strongest right before it flickered out, a magical girl displayed her hidden strength when she was cornered.

Bursting through the flames, Sonia was instantly there, embracing Pam—having failed to notice what she held was a dummy. She pitched forward.

Archfiend Pam never let her guard down, even before an opponent on the brink of death. The wing that she’d been using as the films, she had transformed into a statue that resembled herself, placing it in front of Sonia for her to snap at with her dying gasp. Sonia, her consciousness dimming from lack of oxygen, had completely fallen for it. The wing statue of Pam destroyed, Sonia collapsed and fell still.

Pam pulled away from the wall and undid her suit. She now focused the flammable fluid and the flames with which she’d filled the hole around Sonia to finish her off completely as she transformed the suit to a shield at her arm to block the torrent of music notes firing at her from outside the hole.

Despite how this crew had placed specific emphasis on challenging her to a one-on-one duel, she had known they would interfere at some point. She wouldn’t curse them as cowardly or rude. This was simply what battle was.

Her suit had been protecting her from the heat, and undoing it meant she was immediately scorched all over. A magical girl could withstand it, but she didn’t want to stay here long.

Each and every one of the music notes hit hard enough to beat flesh and break bone. I can’t let them hit me, she thought, and that was when she sensed a menace behind her: the fencer and the fortune-teller.

She’d turned one of her wings into flammable liquid. One more was the flame. Sonia had destroyed the one she’d made to look like herself, and she wasn’t yet able to regenerate it. Her remaining wing had been her suit, and now it acted as a shield against the music notes. The enemy must have been calculating that Pam would have to rely on only her physical strength to deal with any further attacks, so two-on-one, they had to be able to kill her.

Of course, Archfiend Pam had taken all of this into consideration.

At most, Pam could control four wings with her magic—but she also had another two. They were her original two wings, essentially an extension of her costume and body, and she could neither separate them from herself nor turn them into something else. Normally, they were small, and she hid them from view. She only restored them when she truly needed them.

And now was one of those times.

Archfiend Pam spread the wings on her back wide, turning aside the sword thrusting toward her with one as she blocked the fortune-teller’s kick with the other. Surprised, her opponents were slow to react. The fortune-teller hesitated, but not the fencer. So then the fencer was the one to prioritize.

With a flap of her wings, Pam slammed the fortune-teller in the side. The fortune-teller guarded properly but couldn’t absorb the force of it entirely, and she was blown sideways about thirty feet to hit the wall of the hole.

Pam put some distance between herself and the fortune-teller to face her one-on-one. She wouldn’t let her opponents flee. She’d end this contest here. The wing she’d turned into flammable liquid, she now transformed into a humanoid shape and sent it toward the fortune-teller in order to buy some time. It could be on automatic control. The wing she’d turned to flame, she couldn’t yet undo. She would leave it as is until Sonia was completely dead.

Pam focused everything else on the fencer, sending two of her wings to strike from either side in an embracing attack. The fencer magnificently sidestepped the strike from the right and made to parry the left wing with her rapier. Archfiend Pam canceled the attack by shrinking the wing a bit, refusing to let the rapier touch it. The enemy seemed to be deliberately choosing to use a very thin rapier to block Pam’s strikes.

The fencer’s aim was strange. She moved as if all she needed to do was touch Pam. There was a good chance that rapier was a magic weapon, so Pam needed to avoid touching it carelessly.

The fencer thrust her rapier out. Pam leaped back from the first attack, and the second, a further stab, she twisted to avoid, while the third, she ducked under. Meanwhile, Archfiend Pam sent two of her wings crawling along the ground, using them to leap into the air and unleash a diversionary kick. She pulled back her leg before the fourth stab could touch her shin, and next, she swung out with her pivot leg, aiming to kick the fencer’s right arm, but was intercepted by an elbow that sent numbness running along the top of her foot.

Then the fifth attack. Archfiend Pam was in an awkward stance, making it difficult for her to evade—or so she made it seem. Using the two wings crawling along the ground, she lifted a giant slab of concrete at their feet and pushed it up the moment of the enemy’s attack. The rapier stuck into the concrete slab, and Archfiend Pam dashed around behind it.

Circling clockwise, she attacked the enemy from behind the concrete slab. The fencer abandoned her stuck rapier, swinging for Pam’s face with her fist, but Pam caught the punch in her left palm, stopping it. She squeezed, meaning to crush it, but the fencer’s fist was hard.

The fencer stomped on one of the wings Pam had used on the concrete slab, while Pam grabbed her wrist to stop her from attacking with her dagger. She tried to attack with her second wing, but the fencer had it pressed under the concrete slab with her foot.

The fencer’s feet held her wings in check. Their hands were locked in a grapple. Another foot, then, thought Pam, but right before she could release a kick, the fencer forced her back. The fencer’s left hand, holding the dagger, and her right fist both increased pressure, pushing toward her.

Gradually, Archfiend Pam was being pushed back. If she were to kick, she’d be bowled over. The fencer was stronger. Pam had assumed a rapier user would focus on technique and speed, but this one was also exceptionally strong.

Interesting!

The fencer pushed even harder, and right as she did, Pam swung her head down, smashing the fencer’s nose with her forehead, but even then, the fencer’s pushing didn’t let up. Instead, she smashed Pam’s chin with her forehead. Without even flinching, Pam head-butted her, crushing the fencer’s nose with the crown of her head. Blood spurted from the fencer’s nose, skin ripping, and that blood mixed with the blood from her nose as Pam head-butted her one more time, but the enemy intercepted the strike with her own forehead, and both their heads were flung away from each other.

The enemy would still not let up in her pushing. Pam could only inch her wings out, and the enemy’s hands were gradually nearing her. Head-butting wouldn’t get her anywhere. Should I bite at her neck? Pam thought and looked at the fencer—and noticed her expression. Her forehead was cut up and her nose was crushed, but that wasn’t the issue. It was the look on her face. She had a strange expression on her face, as if she were looking upon something incomprehensible—her gaze wasn’t on Archfiend Pam. She was looking past Pam’s face, at something behind her.

What’s she looking at?

The instant after the thought popped into Pam’s mind, something stabbed her from behind, straight through her abdomen, and she coughed up blood. Something sparkled under the shining red flames, splattered crimson with Archfiend Pam’s own blood. It was more distinct right here than it ever was in the sky after the rain: a multicolored rainbow. Pam hadn’t felt it coming. She’d felt no heat, no sound.

A rainbow? Why?

The rainbow that pierced Pam’s body pushed on through her to rip open the fencer’s stomach, too. The fencer lost her balance and pitched forward, diagonally, jerking out to grab her rapier, which was stuck in the concrete slab. But the sword couldn’t support her body weight, and the rapier ripped out of the slab. The fencer let go of Pam’s hands and rolled along the ground.

Archfiend Pam tried to pull herself off the rainbow, somehow, but her arms were too weak. She couldn’t give chase or turn around. The rainbow was supporting her body.

A second and third rainbow struck. She couldn’t evade them.

Sliced to shreds by the Technicolor rainbows, Archfiend Pam breathed her last.

  Pythie Frederica (Time remaining: ten hours, twenty minutes)

When Pukin had insisted they go save Sonia, Frederica had agreed—in form. She had no sincere desire to save Sonia. What she wanted to do was defeat Archfiend Pam. Frederica judged that in order to eliminate Archfiend Pam, the most powerful magical girl within the barrier and also the greatest obstacle in their current situation, it was best Sonia be their noble sacrifice. So Frederica should not butt in to save Sonia but rather aim for the moment when Pam was finishing Sonia off, when Pam’s attention would be most focused, to catch the Archfiend by surprise. If the three of them were to attack all at once, they’d have a chance at winning.

Leave the timing to me, Frederica had assured Pukin, and she’d deliberately held off the attack. Then, under the pretext of saving Sonia, she’d rushed in, knowing it was too late.

It had all worked out perfectly—or it should have. With perfect timing, they had caught their opponent unawares and prevented Archfiend Pam from using all four wings to the fullest, so that even if she blocked the first attack, she would be short two wings—or in other words, she would have to physically evade their two attacks and succeed at it both times. All Frederica had to do was attack as a diversion, while Pukin’s strike only had to skim her to be fatal.

But Pam had been ahead of Frederica. Even with all Frederica’s vast knowledge, she had been unaware of Pam’s fifth and sixth wings. An ace in the hole for when the need arose, Frederica supposed.

Pam avoided Frederica’s and Pukin’s attacks with her hidden wings, then set the black humanoid on Frederica, which prevented her from helping Pukin. But even as the situation deteriorated into further desperation, Frederica was rapturous. This plan, conceived by a dirty magical girl like Frederica, which involved sacrificing an ally in order to take down an opponent, had been demolished. This was exactly what made Pam the Archfiend.

Even as she was thrown back by Pam’s wing and slammed into the wall of the hole, Frederica was intoxicated—and then she saw it: that suddenly appearing rainbow. For some reason, sharp, material rainbows were stabbing through Archfiend Pam.

Her intoxication evaporated, and she was yanked back to reality. Archfiend Pam’s body, arms, legs, head, and hair! All of them scattered with a massive gush of blood. The flames vanished, and Sonia was already less than ash. Pukin was gone, leaving traces of her blood behind. Frederica blinked. She had no time to be dazed.

Rushing up out of the hole, she emerged to find three girls there.

One was dressed in a manner reminiscent of a postal delivery girl and was holding her knees, trembling.

One, who carried a rainbow on her back, wore a smirk on her face.

The last one…was lying in a puddle of blood. Her transformation was undone, and her trademark brutish guitar was also gone.

Frederica figured out what had just happened. Her party had been clams. While all of them had been scrabbling around in the mud in the sandpiper’s bill, the fisherman had come. While the clams and the sandpiper were locked in struggle, the fisherman harvested all of them.

A tiny fairy flew out from the rainbow girl’s clothing. What should have been such a cute face was instead twisted into an ugly smirk, surprisingly similar to the one on the rainbow girl’s face.

“We did iiit! Archfiend Pam and some other girl are dead! I dunno who she was, but she must’ve been strong if she was fighting Archfiend Pam. That means we got rid of two strong girls! All right!”

“I’m not sure she’s actually dead. But at least I took out Archfiend Pam.”

“Yeah, yeah, you sure did! That was a super underdog victory. Now you’re number one in my mental ranking of magical girls I want to get hugs from, Rain Pow!”

“I’d rather not hug you, Toko.”

The two of them held their stomachs and cackled.

“Now there’s just that one who ran off. And one of Cranberry’s children was there, right?”

“Oh, I don’t think she’ll be much of a problem. I fought her a bit, and she wasn’t that strong.” The rainbow girl gave the postal delivery girl a rough shove with her foot. The postal girl fell over, looking up with frightened eyes. “I even managed to beat this dead weight all on my own.”

“I’d expect nothing less of you, Rain Pow! So there’s no problems, eh?”

“If anything’s a problem, I guess it’d be the one who ran away and this other one.”

The two of them looked over at Frederica, who was now out of allies. She had no crystal ball with which to use her magic, so she’d have to do things using her words. She had to escape this pinch, be it through negotiation or wheedling. “I have a suggestion.”

“And I won’t hear it.” The moment Frederica opened her mouth, she was shot down. “I’ll kill you. That’s all. I’ll get it done quick, then kill the one who ran, too.”

This was not someone who could be convinced. And judging by the situation, it seemed fleeing would be difficult, too. Without her crystal ball, the rainbow girl was too much for Frederica to handle. She was too spent to turn around and continuously avoid rainbows as she ran, and besides, she was fairly wounded.

Frederica looked at the girl who was collapsed in a puddle of blood. It was her student. She’d been Pythie Frederica’s number one student, someone who could make friends with anyone.

Realizing that Frederica was looking at the body, the rainbow girl’s smile got bigger. “It would’ve saved me some time if you’d been the one outside the hole. That was my bad.”

The fairy smiled in tandem. “I never would’ve thought I’d end up killing Pythie Frederica. Why’re you here? Weren’t you arrested? Hey, Rain Pow, this one’s pretty famous.”

Frederica observed herself objectively and was surprised. She was angry Tot Pop had been killed. Pythie Frederica would use anyone for the sake of her goals and her pleasure; ethics and compassion were less than trash to her, and at the end of it all, she’d been imprisoned for this but had still never changed her ways. She had freed two monsters, Pukin and Sonia, and basked in self-satisfaction over it, too.

Another, calmer part of her was watching her own anger and hatred from a distance. How surprising that even someone like me can feel anger, she coolly observed as she edged forward, her feet never leaving the ground.

The two opponents’ smiles vanished, and rainbows of various sizes, lots of them, floated all around the magical girl. They seemed to fill every space. Frederica already knew just how sharp they were.

The rainbow girl whistled. “Look, Toko. She’s gonna fight for serious.”

“That’s disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing how that escaped convict would beg for her life.”

“You’d think someone with a name like Pythie would be more pitiful, huh? She doesn’t seem to get the picture, does she?”

Frederica moved forward, having resigned herself to the fact that she couldn’t win this without her crystal ball.

The rainbow girl grabbed the postal girl by the collar and whispered in her ear, “Hey, Tsuko, you’re gonna be my hostage later. So I won’t kill you, for now. But if you try to run, I’ll kill you first thing—before I even take care of that old hag over there. You got that?” She wasn’t really trying to keep her voice down. She probably just wanted to threaten the girl. That even Frederica could hear her proved as much.

Face pale, the postal girl jerked her head up and down a few times. The rainbow girl smirked and tossed the postal girl back.

  Hana Gekokujou (Time remaining: ten hours, fifteen minutes)

The pain in her body was easing up, albeit slowly. She understood that her wounds were healing faster than her natural recovery capabilities would have. She was gradually gaining more energy, too. Hana pushed herself into a sitting position and brought her hand up to her right bunny ear. It was quite splendidly cut in half.

“You should stay down.”

“No, I’m okay. And more to the point, lying down on concrete at this time of year is freezing cold. That’s enough to suck my energy all on its own.” She laughed a “ha-ha.” It felt like it had been a really long time since she’d last laughed out loud. She had been quite sincerely ready for death, privately thinking heroically grim thoughts of either dying in a way that wouldn’t cause problems or ending it herself if she was captured. If rescue from that situation was possible, then anything was.

Hana touched her right bunny ear again. It really was severed after all.

Will this grow back?

If it wasn’t coming back, that might make things a little difficult. A half cut-off ear had way too much punch. Making people wary of her on first meeting would limit her work, like it did with Ripple. Hana was sure Ripple was a pretty good person, but she looked intimidating, and it made for a pretty extreme impression. Well, pushing the contrast between her appearance and personality to the foreground could be an option. She’d have kind of liked to ask Ripple about that.

As Hana wondered what had happened with Ripple, she glanced in the direction she’d run off. The alley emerged into a big road, coming to a dead end at a clock shop with its shutters down. Hana couldn’t see anything beyond that. She still believed Archfiend Pam would resolve things by herself. She felt an absolute sense of security on that point, such as a fetus feels toward its mother. But what about Ripple? She hadn’t gotten involved in that attack, had she?

With her wounds healing, Hana was starting to feel good enough that she could worry about others. She sharpened her hearing, focused her attention on the direction Ripple had headed, and picked up on footsteps racing fast toward them. It wasn’t Ripple—her single-toothed geta made her footsteps sound unique.

By the time the thought hit her, she could already see the enemy. It was the fencer magical girl who had been with Frederica, the one she’d called “Your Excellency.” In her right hand, she held a naked rapier, and in her left, she held her stomach. She was bleeding horribly from the face, and her orange hair was dyed red. Her nose was crushed into ugliness, and her expression was that of a demon, her clenched teeth bared.

Hana stood and shoved Mana and 7753 to the ground.

Pukin looked surprised. It seemed she hadn’t expected to meet them here. From her expression and her wounds, Hana could tell she was fleeing something. Archfiend Pam? Or Ripple? In which case, they could corner her. Pukin was desperate. She didn’t have the spare energy to kill them, and running would be her number one priority. But if Hana were to just stand in front of her, she would be struck aside. Hana wasn’t fully prepared, either.

She thought about what she should do. A crisis lay before her. Could she make herself move? Though her wounds had healed a bit, she was still far from fully recovered. She still couldn’t put up a decent fight. So once Pukin entered her range, Hana would crank up her senses. With those wounds, if Hana were to sharpen Pukin’s sense of pain, she would collapse, incapacitated by the agony. Then Hana could let Archfiend Pam or Ripple finish her off.

Hana watched Pukin close in with a single motion. She shattered the concrete, leaving a clean footprint in her wake. Both her stab and her step were frighteningly fast. But if this was a contest of speed, then Hana was no lesser.

The very moment the enemy stepped into her area of effect, Hana activated her magic. One-on-one and against Pukin, there was no need or reason for her to hold back. She sharpened Pukin’s sense of pain to the limit—but Pukin’s thrust didn’t stop. Hana slipped under Pukin’s sword, taking a shallow slice to her rabbit ear, but somehow managed to avoid a direct hit.

She knew she’d activated her magic. But Pukin hadn’t reacted, just stabbing straight forward with her sword. Next, Pukin spun around with another thrust, and the unexpected attack sliced open Hana’s right shoulder, and she fell to her knees.

Pukin’s left hand reached out to her dagger in its sheath. When it was halfway drawn, Hana rose one step faster, smacking her enemy in the jaw with the heel of her palm. Pukin fought it, but Hana put her whole body’s weight behind it to slam the back of Pukin’s head into the wall.

Pukin gave a soft moan as she slid down the wall. Hana pressed the center of her own chest with a hand and warm blood gushed through her fingers. Pukin’s dagger was thrust hilt-deep into her.

Hana dropped her hand from her chest, and the blood poured out even more dramatically, dyeing her kimono red, dripping down inside her clothes all the way to her thighs. Tightening her fist, she brought it in front of her face. She glared at Pukin as if to say, “Now, it’s serious.” She couldn’t fall yet. Archfiend Pam or Ripple would come soon. She had to hold on somehow, until then.

Looking at Pukin’s face, she noticed the faint cut running across her cheek. Hana was fairly certain that a cut from Pukin’s sword would cause her magic to do something to that person. Considering how the wedding dress girl had been acting, it was probably brainwashing or subordination. Pukin had known what Hana’s magic was and so had cut herself with her own sword before charging in to give herself something that would resist it. She’d forced herself to believe the pain was something else. It had to be something like that.

Hana was beyond using her magic now, but she didn’t let it show on her face. With a composed expression that said, “This blood is nothing,” she took a step forward.

Pukin pointed her sword at Hana, but when she heard a sound like a crashing car coming from the direction she’d run, she grimaced. With a click of her tongue, Pukin left, cape fluttering behind her as she ran off. The entire event passed in only a few seconds of time.

Hana leaned back against the wall of the building in the alley. 7753 and Mana got up and clung to her, the two of them crying. The heat burning in her chest gradually faded. Cold spread through her whole body, infecting her thoughts, and her mind went hazy, too.

They had failed to corner Pukin. But if Mana and 7753 were safe, then she’d managed to fulfill her role as their guard, at least, and with this she was mildly satisfied as her consciousness faded.