Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 7 - Chapter 1.5

INTERLUDE

To 7753, her current superior, the magical girl Pfle, was rather difficult to understand.

There was no doubting she was a capable individual. Since she’d taken hold of the top seat of the Magical Girl Resources Department, useless formalities and pointless customs had been revised, efficiency and ability were more valued, and the paperwork required for everything had decreased by one-fifth.

Not only had Pfle accomplished a speedy career success and enacted reforms following that, which were working out well, it was under her directions that 7753 had made it through a crisis situation, so she also basically owed Pfle her life.

Yes, she was competent. But she was difficult to understand.

7753 was conscious of her own ordinariness. She was aware of the common opinion that it was difficult for the ordinary to understand geniuses, and she could be convinced that must be true. So if she was ordered to do a task, even when she felt a little dissatisfied about it, she would carry it out properly.

Right now, Magical Girl Resources was in chaos. Their boss, Pfle, had been attacked at her residence. Though Pfle herself had somehow kept out of harm’s way, there had been some damage to her house and furnishings, and most of all, the culprit had not been captured. Currently, the Inspection Department was looking into the matter, so they were unable to see Pfle, and all the magical girls who had been in positions of responsibility in Magical Girl Resources were under investigation and couldn’t do a thing. There hadn’t been this much of a fuss even when the Cranberry incident had come to light.

Something huge was happening. And while all this was going on, 7753 received a letter. The name of the sender wasn’t familiar to her, but she knew what this was. She had been instructed that whenever she received mail from this sender, this was what she should do.

She was to head out to a certain place, and there, she would meet a certain person to discuss. She hadn’t even been told who that person was. The magical girl who was always with her lately, Tepsekemei, had been strictly ordered not to come along, so she could be certain this was someone fairly important.

Tepsekemei’s freewheeling behavior wasn’t suited to speaking with people in high positions. She would be reading a book at 7753’s house about now.

Once, 7753 had been told that when a magical girl headed to the battlefield, she should always make sure to be transformed, and it had been made very clear to her that this was very good advice. The place she was headed this time was not a battlefield, but it was an immutable fact that right now, the Magical Girl Resources Department was in a state of emergency. So no matter where she was going, she couldn’t let her guard down.

7753 transformed into a magical girl, then put on a thin spring coat on top of her boys’ school uniform–inspired costume, and instead of her schoolboy cap, she covered her head with a knit hat.

In the winter, it was best to wear a winter coat. In the spring, there were spring coats. What should she do in the summer? She’d ask Mana next time. With these thoughts on her mind, 7753 transferred from the limited express to the bullet train, crossing four prefectural boundary lines. From a major station, she passed through a number of smaller stations before getting on a bus to continue her trip.

Though she was within a municipal area, it was still a remote town. Feeling rather surprised, like, “Oh, I didn’t know there were places like this,” 7753 went to visit an old inn. The outer walls were discolored to a deep brown, and you could see the marks of repair here and there on the roof tiles. Its history was palpable.

While shooting a bit of a suspicious glance at the young— perhaps even too young—customer who was visiting outside of tourist season, she said her thanks to the old woman who guided her to her room, and when she walked in, she found the other guest had arrived before her.

“Thank you very much for your assistance, before. It’s been quite some time.”

Time stopped. Or it felt as if it did—when the second hand of the sitting clock moved with a particularly loud tick, 7753 realized that was in her mind.

The guest who’d arrived first was a magical girl—one 7753 had met before.

7753 pulled her goggles out of her pocket and equipped them as she settled into a fighting stance, but when she took a step back, she hit the sliding screen, knocking it off the door. “What… what are you doing here?!”

“You see, my dear, I was invited.” The magical girl set down her cup on the tea table before her, and her star-shaped decorations made tinkling, light metallic sounds as they swayed.

Her long, floor-length hair spread over the tatami along with her skirt, and she looked incredibly relaxed as she knelt formally on a seat cushion. She stuck out so remarkably from the traditional-style decor, it ruined the aesthetic.

Pythie Frederica—a heinous criminal who had escaped from the magical-girl prison where she’d once been held. The violence enacted by her and her cohorts had damaged an entire town to a doubtless irreparable degree. Many had been wounded or killed—some 7753 even knew.

“Please, don’t look so on guard. If you make too much of a fuss, people will think something’s happened.” With a complete disregard for 7753’s tension, Frederica stood, walked right by her to fit the screen back into its frame, then sat down on her floor cushion again and extended her right hand, palm up. “Please. Take a seat.”

7753 opened her mouth wide and let out a breath. Now she understood why she’d been told not to bring Tepsekemei along. Causing a big scene in this little inn would have been a disaster.

“… Do you mind if I wear my goggles?”

“I certainly have no right to refuse.”

7753 tossed her tote bag onto the tatami, then dropped onto the floor cushion cross-legged across the low tea table from Frederica.

Never once breaking her broad smile, Frederica poured hot water from the kettle into the teapot. “Here you are,” she offered as she then poured tea into 7753’s cup.

This was someone 7753 absolutely could not let her guard down with. 7753 looked at the woman through her goggles and did not touch the teacup. The last time she had seen Frederica had been right before they’d carried out that plan. The idea had been for Weddin, Tepsekemei, and Frederica, who’d been forced to work with them, to capture the assassin Rain Pow.

What had actually transpired had been nothing so peaceful as the capture of a criminal. Rain Pow died together with Weddin, and the train they were on ran into the magic barrier, causing it to derail and flip—a great tragedy that had caused many casualties.

Tepsekemei had been there, but she’d been trapped inside Rain Pow’s rainbows, unable to tell what was going on outside, so even when they asked her afterward, she hadn’t any idea what had occurred. Since Frederica’s body hadn’t been found during the investigation, they’d figured she’d probably escaped, but in the end, it was still a mystery what had happened after they’d gone to pursue Rain Pow.

And now, the magical girl in question was sitting before 7753, sipping on cheap green tea.

“Personally speaking, you know. Being tossed out into the world without backing of any sort has been difficult to manage—rather, I might call it a difficult lifestyle.” Frederica audibly sipped at her tea. “The Diplomacy Department has such a deep grudge against me, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to place a bounty on my head. Though they requested I be let go, your team leader, Mana, made that decision without consulting her superiors. I highly doubt they would liaison with an escaped criminal. And originally, I was in the Magical Girl Resources Department, myself.”

“So Magical Girl Resources picked you up, was it?”

“It was less that they picked me up, and more that I promoted myself to them.”

“However…” Realizing that at some point, she’d started taking a more polite tone with Frederica, a flustered 7753 took a sip of her tea. Her throat felt dry. The ticking of the clock’s second hand grew increasingly deafening.

She’d come here under orders from her boss. Frederica herself was saying she’d been summoned here, so that had to be true. Frederica was being used by Magical Girl Resources. She wasn’t official personnel. There was no way they could be openly using an escaped prisoner. They were making her do work behind the scenes.

7753 thought her boss was an excellent magical girl. But still, she could feel nothing but resistance to the idea of using Frederica. “Depending on how you use it, even poison could blah, blah, blah” was not a stance magical girls should be taking. Wasn’t the correct way—the way things ought to be—that poison was poison, so you didn’t use it, no matter what the reason?

As she agonized over this, 7753 continued to examine Pythie Frederica through her goggles. The numbers she saw were no different from the ones she’d seen before. Next, she checked that there was no change in Frederica’s magic. The ensuing display made her catch her breath.

Pythie Frederica was under the influence of magic. That magic dictated she was not to take any hostile action against 7753, Mana, or Tepsekemei. She was also not to lie to or make any of the three of them the targets of her magic.

Weddin’s promise is still active.

In order to fight back against the magical girls Pukin and Rain Pow, 7753 and her allies had required Frederica’s assistance. Since Frederica had also required her crystal ball to use her magic, she had offered her cooperation to 7753’s party in order to have her stolen crystal ball returned to her.

But there would be no point in cooperating with Frederica if that led to them being stabbed in the back. It would have been up to Frederica as to whether she would betray them or not. They’d had no intention of counting on Frederica’s whims. And so with these thoughts in mind, they’d used Weddin’s magic, which compelled people to keep their sworn promises, to warn Frederica away from betraying them, and in exchange, they promised that once the situation was resolved, she would not be pursued as a criminal.

7753 sipped her tea. Remembering Weddin brought a sharp twinge to her chest. Weddin had taken action out of her desire to protect what was important to her and died as a result. After the incident, 7753 had been assaulted by the urge to hit and curse at the vanished Frederica, but she’d understood that desire was irrational. Because Frederica had made that promise, she would have been unable to bring harm to Weddin—or she should have been. Therefore, Weddin’s death was not Frederica’s fault.

7753 now understood why it was she had been sent here. Pfle was trying to use Weddin’s magic to put Frederica to use—she figured it was possible as long as she had the magical girl 7753, to whom Frederica could never lie, never attack, or even use her magic on.

Once again, 7753 thought about poison.

She had so arrogantly thought that using the dirty poison that was Frederica was improper for a magical girl. But 7753 had tried to use Frederica, too. Shackling her with that promise to Weddin, she’d had her work for them. At the time, they’d figured they had to get Frederica’s help, since they’d been in the critical position where a whole town could be wiped off the map.

She’d convinced herself that they had no choice, because it was an emergency, and so had used Frederica. So then what about now? Was now not an emergency? Wasn’t Pfle, wasn’t the Magical Girl Resources Department, in just that sort of serious situation? The boss had been attacked in her own house, and now, she had her hands tied.

When they had used Frederica before, they’d allowed her freedom after the fact. Who knew how much harm had been done all over because she was free? They’d been forced to make that choice, despite knowing it could well cause even greater tragedy than the events of that day.

Compared to that, Pfle’s tactic of trying to keep her on a short leash was the more decent option.

7753 raised her gaze from the tea table and looked at Frederica, who was still smiling beatifically.

“Have you calmed down now?” said Frederica.

“… Yes.”

“So then, business.”

7753 inhaled, then exhaled deeply a number of times. After a few breaths, her heartbeat returned to its usual rhythm. Magical girls were simple beings. 7753 had seen more magical girls than anyone, and she knew that well.

They would get a hold on Frederica, right now. They couldn’t just let her be. No matter how wicked a magical girl she was, it was better to keep her close at hand rather than let her run free.

7753 unfolded her legs and repositioned herself to kneeling, then pulled over her tote bag to draw a manila envelope from within. After blowing out a breath, she slid the envelope over the tea table toward Frederica. “We want you to do exactly as is written here.”

“So then, in its entirety.”

7753 didn’t know what was in that envelope. If she hadn’t been told, then it was best she not know.

Since they were using Frederica, it was probably dirty work—even just thinking about that made her feel grim. The Magical Girl Resources Department was so backed into a corner, they had to resort to this.

“Please promise me something.”

“Promise what, exactly?”

“That under no circumstances will you ever betray us.”

“But of course.”

“Promise that you won’t hurt any innocent people.”

“I will do my best not to.”

7753 breathed her deepest sigh yet and bowed her head. “… Then we’re counting on your efforts.”