Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 8 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

A HANDSHAKE WITH ME AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK

  Sorami Nakano

—We’ve been attacked by the Osk Faction.

Sorami was putting on a strong front, but her heart was hammering hard. Her tongue felt stuck inside her mouth. If she lost focus, her legs would shake. Uluru’s magic had worked perfectly, earning them a bloodless victory. But if not for that, they would have had to fight head-to-head. The enemy had spears. They’d use them to thrust and stab. If Sorami got stabbed, she’d bleed, and depending on where she was stabbed, she’d die.

Sorami hugged her body. She was getting belated chills.

Though she knew she’d heard before that the Osk Faction were after them, it hadn’t seemed real until she’d witnessed it firsthand. It had been like a fairy tale happening somewhere else. Until just now, Sorami would have reacted with a snort to the idea that they really would wind up fighting, like, “You’re thinking too much about it.”

“Hurry! Let’s get going and move on!”

Uluru was more irritable than usual. Her cheeks were red, probably more out of excitement than fear. She was proud of the results of this fight, that she had beaten the opponent with her magic. It was impressive that she could act even haughtier than usual after fighting enemies who’d seriously tried to hurt them.

As Sorami had figured, Snow White and Uluru had good magical compatibility. Snow White would quickly pick up on Uluru’s lies no matter how she framed them. And since she’d realize Uluru was lying, the effect of Uluru’s magic would wear off. Snow White would be the ultimate opponent against Uluru. But with Snow White as her ally, Uluru wouldn’t have to worry about her allies getting tricked. Sorami was used to her magic, so she was different, but for a magical girl they’d joined up with in the last day or two, it was a major advantage to not have to hold back.

With the two of them leading the fight from here on out, things were sure to work out.

Making a conscious effort to deepen her shallow breathing, Sorami slowed her heart and calmed her mind. If she only ever thought about herself, they would surely fail. She’d known of this enemy, the Osk Faction, before, and now that vague entity had a clear form and was attacking together with this fear. And not just Sorami and Uluru—the one who would be taking the brunt of this would actually be Sachiko.

Exactly how self-aware was Sachiko? Sorami thought Sachiko was lacking in that area compared with herself. If she’d been self-aware, wouldn’t she have stayed holed up in the estate, no matter how great the pressure was of taking on the critical role in this ceremony? It was better than being chased around by an armed group that would swing weapons at their opponents without mercy.

Thinking about Sachiko instead of herself was calming. Sorami had come out to save Sachiko. Sorami could protect herself, and she had Uluru, Snow White, and Fal. Sachiko was all alone somewhere. She had to be trembling.

According to Snow White, the enemy who had just attacked them was only one part of a big group, and there were still nearly fifty more left. Because that many magical girls may have been deployed in the city, Sorami felt they had to find Sachiko as fast as possible.

Uluru went ahead at a trot, and Snow White and Sorami followed after her. Each building Sorami passed, she touched to check what was inside. Earlier, she had narrowed her target to Sachiko only, but now she made sure to investigate for the presence of any enemies, as well. Fal’s radar and Snow White’s mind-reading magic couldn’t tell you what had happened in the past. Checking for traces of magical girls in the buildings as they went along, Sorami finally found something.

“It looks like sis went through here,” she said.

“When?”

“This morning, around when the stores were just opening.”

It was a department store. Sachiko wasn’t actually in there at the moment. She’d gone from the large department store entrance to the back exit, heading outside.

Sorami remembered all the places they had visited with Sachiko. Once Sachiko exited the back entrance of this department store, then where would she go? The senbei factory they’d visited for that one field trip? The retail shop beside it? The wholesale supermarket they’d gone to on an errand for Puk Puck? The city hall branch office?

“I don’t think she’d go any place that’s too much of a hassle, you know?” said Sorami.

When Sachiko was feeling upset, or when something scary or unpleasant happened, she would often run away from home. She always went places she’d gone before. Once, she’d gone to hide in the wilderness where they’d gone on a field trip; in another instance, she’d idled away time in a mall where they often went shopping. Wherever she went, it would be based on her experience, and she’d avoid anywhere unfamiliar to her. You could call this cowardly, but it could also be a cowardly sort of wisdom. Ask Uluru, and she’d say that somewhere in Sachiko’s heart, she wanted to be found, so she always ran to places she knew.

Sachiko, Uluru, and Sorami had no opportunities for excursions unless under orders from Puk Puck because they’d been brought to the estate in order to serve her. When Puk Puck left the city, they would accompany her, but fundamentally, their sphere of activity was limited to W City.

“What do you think, sis?” asked Sorami. “Where would she go from the back entrance of the department store?”

Uluru raised her hanging head. “If she’s gone that direction, then the amusement park, probably.”

“The amusement park?”

“Former amusement park, or more precisely, what’s left of it. Uluru thinks it went out of business last year.”

“Oh right, now that you mention it, I do remember.”

It had been called an amusement park, but it hadn’t been anything fancy enough to lure in tourists from other prefectures. There had just been a monkey enclosure, an adventure playground, a monkey train with a monkey driver, and some shops. Sorami was impressed they’d kept going until the year before in this economy.

She thought back to their childhood.

They had played at the amusement park once when Sachiko was six years old, once when she was seven, and once when she was ten. At six, Sachiko had cried because she was scared of the monkeys, but Puk Puck had given her a soft-serve ice cream bought from the shop, and Sachiko had seemingly forgotten all about the monkeys, ecstatically chomping into it, winding up covered in ice cream all around her mouth and down her neck. At seven, Sachiko wasn’t scared of monkeys anymore, so they finally got to ride on the monkey train, but it seemed she hadn’t been entirely over her fear, as she’d tried to get off the train partway and caused a fuss, and Puk Puck had rushed to go buy her an ice cream. At ten, Sachiko was too old for the monkey train, so they’d played on the adventure playground, where Uluru had started a fight with another kid, and Puk Puck had bought everyone ice cream to smooth things over, and then the children who’d been watching the fight from a distance wanted ice cream, too, so Puk Puck had bought even more. Even now, Sorami vividly remembered the bizarre sight of all the children who’d been playing on the playground licking ice cream. There’d even been some bad kids double-fisting ice cream cones.

Thinking back on it like this puzzled Sorami.

“You think Sachiko’d go to the amusement park?” she asked Uluru.

“Why do you think she wouldn’t?”

“I mean, she doesn’t have any decent memories of the place, does she?”

Sachiko was either crying or getting ice cream all over her face or all in a panic when that fight had started. None of those seemed like good memories.

“That’s not true.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I do.” Uluru started walking off, confident for some reason, heading through the automatic doors of the department store to go inside. Sorami and Snow White followed behind.

There were two instances when Uluru looked confident: times when she was actually confident, and times when she was forced to fake it because she’d otherwise look bad. In the former instance, Sorami knew that even if the basis for her confidence was feeble, she would actually succeed.

I’d like it to be the former, if possible, Sorami thought as she swiftly followed after her.

  Uluru

Uluru remembered one thing: That one time, Sachiko hadn’t been scared of monkeys, which meant this had to have taken place when she was ten. It had been boiling hot out. Uluru also seemed to recall having an ice cream cone in hand, too.

Sachiko and Uluru had been side by side peering into the monkey enclosure. Uluru had been thinking something like That monkey looks like Sachiko when she cries. Sachiko had pointed to the back of the monkey enclosure, asking, “What’s going on over there?” and Uluru had told her, “That leads to the monkey house.” Sachiko had been impressed, saying, “So the monkeys can just hide in there if they get hot, huh?”

Her remark of “They can just hide” had stuck with Uluru.

Coming out the back entrance of the department store, she hailed a taxi and told them their destination: “The site of the old amusement park.” Three young girls taking a taxi to an abandoned amusement park in the middle of the day on a weekday would probably be cause for some alarm, but they had to catch Sachiko before the Osk Faction found her. But still, they couldn’t be racing around at full speed in the middle of the day, so a taxi was much better.

“Who’s gonna pay?” asked Sorami.

“No complaints,” Uluru snapped back. “We can get them to issue a receipt.”

The front entrance of the amusement park was cordoned off by a thick chain and a sign that read NO TRESPASSING in large letters. To magical girls, something like that may as well not be there. The taxi left, and they made sure there was no one around. The trio crossed over the wall in one bound and entered the amusement park.

It was desolate and crumbling. The shop sign was coming off and tilted at a diagonal. A yellow rope was strung around the adventure playground, along with a sign reading DO NOT USE. The garbage scattered around the parking lot had to have come from homeless people or motorcycle gangs using it as their hideout. Uluru had heard that abandoned facilities were in fashion. Apparently, there were even people who’d pay money to buy photo collections of abandoned buildings. Just what was so fun about the scenery at a place like this? It brought memories to the forefront of Uluru’s mind and made her feel lonely.

The three of them checked their position on the map near the entrance, then headed for the monkey enclosure.

“Magical girl detected. Just one, pon,” Fal called out.

Sorami shrugged. “Looks like we got a hit.”

“Don’t let your guard down. We don’t know for sure it’s Sachiko,” Uluru cautioned, even though she also thought it was probably her. It would be a little strange for one enemy to come alone all the way to the amusement park to wait for them. Crossing over missing steps and the cracks in the promenade, they headed toward the ping on Fal’s radar.

“I can hear her,” said Snow White. “She’s thinking she doesn’t want to be found.”

That 99 percent certainty became 100 percent. No other magical girl in W City would be hiding alone, thinking something like that. They were at the caretaker entrance at the back side of the monkey enclosure.

Uluru squared her shoulders and strode on ahead to kick open the entrance door. “Sachikooo! Heeey!”

She heard a tiny yelp from within. She waited about ten seconds. No reaction. Nothing came out. Uluru stomped her foot loudly. The concrete cracked, and they heard another little yeep.

“Sachiko! If you won’t come out, then Uluru is coming over there!”

“Hey.” Sorami came to stand beside Uluru, positioning herself a little ahead of her. “Hey, Sachiko. Sis. Why don’t you just come out? You get that we’ve found you, right? If Uluru tries to do anything, then I’ll stop her for you, ’kay?”

Sorami’s expression was exasperated, her tone mediating. Snow White was staying a half a step behind them, perhaps indicating they should solve things among themselves. Uluru also wanted to avoid airing any more dirty laundry. She didn’t want to make a big scene in front of Snow White, in particular. If she looked on Uluru and her sisters with scorn, that was also scorn toward Puk Puck. And if Puk Puck was humiliated because of Uluru and her sisters, then they’d be far past the point of no-snack punishments.

Uluru breathed in deep, exhaled, then cleared her throat. “You can’t be thinking you can keep running now, can you? Come out already.”

There was the thunk of a chair falling. A face timidly emerged from the other side of the table. Her lightly waved golden hair was reminiscent of Puk Puck’s, something Uluru had once been jealous of.

“Will you really not be mad…?”

Sachiko didn’t apologize or explain herself; she just looked like she was on the verge of tears and worried about her sisters getting mad at her. Uluru’s pulse had been calming down, but now it boiled up all at once, and before she knew it, Sorami was holding her hands behind her back.

“See! You’re getting mad after all!” wailed Sachiko.

“Uluru!” said Sorami. “Calm down! There’s seriously no point in getting angry now, sis!”

“Sachiko, you absolute idiot!” Uluru yelled. “How can you cause us this much stress and still be worrying about whether Uluru’s going to get mad at you?! You really are a hopeless idiot! Uluru’s gonna sock you one good! Maybe a hit will set your stupid head straight!”

The signboard that said NO ENTRANCE was knocked over, sending dust billowing up. Cardboard boxes, scrap wood, thick rope for the adventure playground, pulleys, and iron pipes were stacked up, blocking the way.

This place was small. Five steps forward would cover the whole thing, and Uluru’s yelling, Sachiko’s wailing, and Sorami’s cries rang through it. Uluru kicked at air, Sachiko ran around trying to escape, and Sorami held Uluru’s arms behind her back.

What stopped the big fuss was the shrill voice of the digital fairy. “Magical girls detected! Lots of them, pon!”

Snow White passed by Uluru’s side, entering with flowing movements. Without giving them the time to be surprised, she thrust the butt of her naginata into Sachiko’s stomach, and when she let out a muffled shriek and crumpled, Snow White tossed her into the bag at her waist.

“Let’s go.” With that one remark, Snow White raced outside, Uluru and Sorami rushing after her.

  CQ Angel Hamuel

Trying to overturn through violence something that had been decided by majority rule was not to Hamuel’s tastes. But if this was what her master wanted, Hamuel was obligated to grant that wish. That was an underling’s job.

The key figure in the ceremony was to be Puk Puck’s protégé, Premium Sachiko. Puk Puck needed to have Sachiko at hand or she couldn’t hold the ceremony in the first place. A hidden spy had brought them the incredibly valuable information that Sachiko had run away, following which the Osk Faction had acted quickly. If they were to try laying a hand on Sachiko while she was in Puk Puck’s estate, then that was war. But if they were to make friends with a magical girl who had fled the estate, that was just personal business. If there was some violence in the process, well, that was common enough among magical girls. Such acts could be justified through expressions such as “They were close enough to fight” or “A friendship forged in fire.”

Hamuel was already finished analyzing their combat abilities. There was the Magical-Girl Hunter Snow White, plus two of Puk Puck’s subordinates. The Magical-Girl Hunter used powerful mind-reading magic, and the girl with the gun would make you believe whatever she said. The other one had been touching buildings on their way along and making reports to the other members. She probably used a sort of detection magic. So then it would be quite doable for Shufflin and Hamuel to suppress them.

With Snow White in the lead, the three magical girls left the hut. They were heading to the east side of the amusement park, trying to leave. Premium Sachiko was not with them. Judging from all the commotion, they’d probably discovered Sachiko inside the hut and brought her along; they wouldn’t have left her there. Hamuel zoomed in with the telescope she’d had the diamond Shufflins make for her. Aside from her costume, Snow White was equipped with a naginata and a bag hanging from her waist. It was probably a magical item—it was fairly obvious she had put Sachiko inside the bag.

Hamuel sent a message through her wireless radio. “B Team, please circle westward, following C Team. Focus your forces in the vicinity of the rear entrance. Monitor the area, too. Do not let the enemy leave the amusement park. E Team, switch your Taser guns for birdlime guns. Make range your priority. Avoid friendly fire. All clubs, lift your invisibility spells. The enemy has superior abilities in midrange enemy detection.”

Hamuel could use her magic to compensate for Shufflin’s weakness: Individual units couldn’t share information among themselves. None of these enemies were capable of attacking a target at high altitudes. If Hamuel observed the battlefield from up high with a telescope when giving orders, they wouldn’t be able to touch her. Furthermore, she’d had the diamonds make various weapons and also had them put stab-proof plates into the Shufflins’ costumes. With the technical prowess of the diamonds, you could produce weapons and armor that could withstand use by magical girls. Arming the diamonds, who were fundamentally noncombat personnel, greatly enhanced the combat capabilities of the overall whole.

“C Team, go straight to joining up with the Ace. Generally, the Ace of Spades should be the only one fighting the Magical-Girl Hunter. All others will back her up while also attacking the other magical girls. E Team, please take up position on the roofs. That way, you’ll have control over the area below. Use the birdlime guns now. Even if the enemy moves, stay where you are.”

Both sides made contact, and the battle began. Only Hamuel’s side could attend to tactics with a grasp of the whole map of the battlefield. That advantage was not something that could be overcome by a few strong individuals. The enemy shied away from the birdlime on the eastern side that the Shufflins fired from, and they tried to head west instead, but that end had been firmly secured by the clubs. When the enemy tried going north, they were met with sweeping fire from the roof of the adventure playground facility, while from the south, the elite squad spearheaded by the Ace of Spades approached.

Snow White smoothly dodged, and a faint-yellow adhesive lump missed its target and hit the ground. Three more shots came to block off the sidewalk, then three more. Snow White nimbly evaded every shot.

But however many she evaded, it wouldn’t pose a problem for Hamuel. This magical birdlime had been specially made by Shufflin, and even if it missed, it would stay in place to act as a fixed trap. Even a magical girl would get stuck in place if she stepped on one. Although Snow White could read the minds of her attackers, if she lost any places to dodge to, she would have no choice but to get hit.

It looked like the magical girl with the gun was yelling something, but it was no use. Hamuel had made all the Shufflins plug their ears. Since Hamuel’s directions echoed directly in their minds, there was no need for them to hear any outside noise.

“Units going for close-range combat, you can be ready to run—just run. Your greatest priority should be to avoid getting killed. Make sure to guard your vitals. Please focus only on acting as a wall. There’s no need for you to finish them off. You simply have to take them out of the fight, either with the birdlime or the Taser guns is fine.”

Snow White spun and thrust her naginata, driving the Shufflins back, but the stab-proof plates kept her from killing them in one strike. When she opened up holes in the formation by pushing Shufflins back, they were instantly filled by more Shufflins.

Hamuel gradually had the Shufflins close in on the enemy. Now, once she took one or two of the opponents out of the fight using the birdlime, nets, or Taser guns, all she had to do was advise them to surrender.

Victory seemed to be within arm’s reach when there was a sudden whoosh of wind. Hamuel twisted around but failed to dodge, and blood spurted from her arm.

—An ambush!

Eerie black creatures were circling around her. These were the magical life-forms they called “homunculi”—or also “demons.” Even right here, there were six in total. Looking down below, the Shufflins were under attack, too. The diamonds lacked any close-range combat abilities, so they were cut down, and the spades, who had headed for cover, were being swarmed—and not just by homunculi. A magical girl with a trident was attacking the Shufflins, her face twisted into a demonic expression. The speed with which she wielded her weapon would rival the upper-numbered spades. She might appear frantic, but her movements were those of a trained soldier, and she acted rationally. Her footwork and agility were also exceptional. Throwing noncombat-type Shufflins at an opponent like her would only be a waste. And taking the enemy’s magic into consideration, you’d need a large number of combat-type Shufflins. But the black shadows were throwing a wrench in Hamuel’s manpower; the formation grew disordered, and the Shufflins were getting destroyed at a steady rate.

Hamuel clicked her tongue. Bitter feelings welled up from deep in her throat. Were these enemy reinforcements, or had Snow White’s party been a decoy to begin with? It was even possible she had received a false tip, and that Sachiko’s running away from home had been staged. The situation was about as bad as it could get. In order to nudge this disaster even a little closer to something positive, she would cut losses. If she didn’t lose Shufflins here, she could still recover.

“Mission failed. Prioritize withdrawal.”

Saying just that into her wireless radio, she inhaled a lungful of air. Right before the homunculi were about to attack Hamuel from all six sides, she yelled into her wireless radio at the top of her lungs. Her target was not the Shufflins. It was the six homunculi about to attack her.

Shaken by the sudden loud sound in their heads, the homunculi swayed as if they were in pain, and Hamuel took advantage of that moment to get away from the shadows, flying away from the amusement park. She would always politely beg leave from any brawl. And to that extent, she was pretty confident in her ability to flee quickly.

  Sorami Nakano

Everyone was confused, even Sorami. They had been attacked by card soldiers, then came under fire from birdlime projectiles. As they ran and dodged the assault, the girls were gradually herded into a corner of the park, where they were ambushed. Uluru had yelled, “If you don’t close your eyes and get down, you’ll die!” which hadn’t worked at all. Finally, right when Sorami had thought they were goners, help had arrived. Black square-winged demons attacked the card soldiers, and in a stunning turn of events, the soldiers ran off to escape. Sorami and company had made a dash for an opening in the circle of enemies around them and headed for the back gate of the park.

“Your allies, Snow?” asked Sorami.

“We don’t know anything about this, pon.”

“So then maybe Lady Puk saved us?”

“She never said anything to us about that, either,” said Uluru.

This was completely different from when they’d captured the three card soldiers. Sorami didn’t even have the time to be anxious. If they stopped, they would die. She just kept running, using walls as cover and the playground as a shield, hiding in Snow White’s shadow—running, racing, flying, fleeing.

Training had been a boring hassle, and Sorami had wondered why they ever did something like that. She’d skip out whenever she could, which made Uluru get mad at her. Now that this was happening, for the first time, Sorami understood the point of marathons and sprinting. They had been training hard so they could do it right when it was time for the real thing.

She immediately understood what the demons were after—after all, they attacked not just the card soldiers, but Sorami’s group, too. Uluru blocked an attack with her gun stock while Sorami kicked, but the enemy dodged. Snow White sliced the black demon in two, and it fell to the ground.

“It seems they’re also after Sachiko,” said Snow White.

“For real? Goddamn,” Sorami replied casually, but privately she was about ready to cry. She felt like she wanted to claw at someone and demand to know why this was happening. She wanted to yell and weep, but the group had to keep moving.

This was just enemy force A and enemy force B clashing. Was there another force trying to interfere with the ceremony besides the Osk Faction, or was there a split within the Osk Faction? There was no way for those under attack to know. All they could do now was take advantage of the confusion and run away.

Fighting off the demons, the card soldiers bunched into groups, attempting to withdraw. The clusters of demons focused their attacks on the card soldiers, too. Following Fal’s radar and Snow White’s instructions, with their backs to a wall, the party moved to where there were no magical girls, then from where the wall ended, they ran at full speed.

“Two magical girls detected coming toward us from the east side, pon! Those are the only enemies detected, pon!”

“Hey, pon-pon bastard! Which side is the east side?!”

“Who are you calling a pon-pon bastard, pon?! Ahead, then right, pon! Toward the lost-child department!”

The two magical girls emerged kicking through the wall of the lost-child department, and they crashed straight into them, hard. They were not card soldiers. They also weren’t the black shadows. It was a magical girl with a hat like a scholar, wearing a white coat, and another one who was all in black. Sorami felt like she’d seen the black one somewhere before.

The right hand of the magical girl in black tangled up, bending its fingers in a complex way as if she had no joints, warping with flexibility. She raised her twisted-up right hand to the sunlight, and the shadow cast by her hand howled loudly over the concrete, attacking Uluru.

But it hadn’t turned three-dimensional. It still looked like a shadow projected onto a flat surface. Still, who knew what would happen if it attacked? You never knew what to expect when it came to a magical girl’s powers.

Uluru leaped backward to evade, and the shadow’s fangs bit into the concrete. Had she failed to dodge, her foot would have gotten crunched. Sorami trembled with secondhand terror.

Snow White swung her naginata, slicing at the all-black magical girl who ducked, then backed away as she made a shadow with her left hand. Just like with her right, she created a beast. The left-hand beast faced Snow White, and Snow White hopped to evade its snapping maw.

It seemed the shadow beasts could not emerge from the surfaces they were projected on, like floors and walls. It was possible to temporarily avoid them by jumping. But they moved incredibly fast, and you couldn’t stay airborne forever. The three of them wound up constantly facing attacks from below, and both evading and countering were difficult. Snow White and Uluru were both struggling.

The magical girl in black never looked away from Snow White as she instructed the one in the white coat, “Micchan, you handle her.”

“Roger.”

Unlike Snow White and Uluru, Sorami didn’t have a weapon of her own. She spread her palms and lowered her stance, readying herself to dodge whatever came. She tried to calm her breathing, but it wouldn’t settle.

The scholar-style magical girl had a stack of paper in her right hand—specifically, old newspapers. Sorami could see the lost-child department through the hole in the wall the magical-girl pair had opened. Inside were piles of cardboard boxes; the paper had probably been used as packing material or some kind of padding.

The magical girl swung down her scrunched-up newspaper at Sorami. “Choukan [morning newspaper] to chouken [longsword].”

Hair scattered all around. The elastic that had tied Sorami’s hair was cut, and Sorami’s long hair fanned out. She wasn’t bleeding. She wasn’t in pain, either. She’d managed to barely evade it—probably. Just like her training. She’d managed to move precisely like she’d been trained. Sorami had been practicing for the sake of a moment like this. She still couldn’t settle her breathing.

Suddenly, the scholar-style magical girl was holding a sword. It was a plain, single-edged sword. It wasn’t a newspaper. The moment she’d uttered the spell, the newspaper she’d been holding had transformed into a sword.

  Princess Deluge

The Demon Wings were Disrupters…demons that had been created to support artificial magical girls. They featured various options, such as remote control and sensory sharing. Deluge was instantly aware of any information gathered for her by the Demon Wings she’d released in W City.

The moment she had learned there were card soldiers present, Deluge acted without a thought. One who had been made to die in an accident was alive—and whoever was controlling Shufflin, they had to be from the Osk Faction. And if the Osk Faction was going all-out, odds were high that Premium Sachiko was there.

Up until her arrival, Deluge had been envisioning how she would fight, how she would act. Seeing those card soldiers had instantly blown all that away, filling up the inside of Deluge’s mind with something else. Even she didn’t know if it was anger or joy.

Deluge ordered the two Demon Wings that carried her through the air to drop her from fifty feet above ground level, and the moment she landed on the roof of the adventure playground, she hit one card soldier with her trident and swept the feet out from under another. While dancing around the gun barrels pointed toward her, she thrust over and over, stabbing at the Shufflin’s torso.

The sensation was off. It felt like some kind of hard, thick rubber was buried in her costume. Deluge poured magic power into the trident as she stabbed, freezing the diamond soldier from the inside before she flung her to the roof, smashing her to pieces. She fired arrows of ice at the first card soldier, who’d fallen off the roof, and the second, who’d been knocked down by Deluge’s sweep. It seemed they had something fitted around their torsos, so she aimed for their heads.

The card soldiers all around turned to Deluge, but they were too slow. Even accounting for Deluge’s enhanced reflexes from the new drug she’d stolen from the research facility, they weren’t quick enough to react. Only after three of their allied units were hit hard did they finally turn their attention to her. Deluge didn’t know why, but it seemed their hearing had been blocked.

The Demon Wings started attacking the card soldiers together. Deluge jumped down from the roof, and in passing, she sliced one spade’s neck, knocking it down with a roundhouse kick. At the same moment the spade collapsed, Deluge set her foot on her neck and broke it with a stomp. As she did, she pulled a tablet from a pocket and swallowed it.

“Luxury Mode: On.”

She instantly froze the adhesive masses that came flying in from all four directions, shattering them to pieces. Cutting through the fine, glittering beads of ice that sprinkled around her, Deluge ran. She cut down a club card soldier, bat and all, and with her ice arrows, she stabbed a diamond who’d been pointing a gun at her between the eyes, in the throat, and in the right eye.

The card soldiers gradually shifted their formation, and five intact soldiers came forward to fill the holes, trying to fight off the Demon Wings. Deluge went right for them.

One card soldier stopped her first strike, then forcefully knocked her second aside. A shock ran through Deluge’s arms. After nearly dropping her trident, she gripped it tighter. That card soldier had stepped ahead of the others. It was as if she were defending her allies. Her number was ace, and her suit was spade.

Deluge howled. She roared like a beast, from deep in her gut in an endless stream. The last time she’d confronted the Ace of Spades, she’d been afraid. But now, she felt joy and anger. She fired ice arrows from six different directions simultaneously to strike at the same time.

With one swing of its lance, the card soldier sliced away all six arrows of ice at once. Her eyes were locked on Deluge, and she didn’t even look at the arrows. Deluge thrust in with her trident, but it was struck aside with a hand once again, and she lost her balance.

Deluge had been holding her trident firmly with both hands, but the Ace of Spades had struck it aside with one hand. She could pull that off while simultaneously dealing with the ice arrows.

Deluge let her stagger take her down to one knee, inviting the Ace of Spades to attack. But the Ace of Spades made no move to strike. She was prioritizing buying time for her allies to get away safely.

—Defending allies? You? You would do such a thing?

Quake had sacrificed herself and been beheaded in order to protect Tempest. She had died without ever knowing that Tempest, who had cried and wailed while begging for mercy, would also have her head cut off. If Quake had known, what would she have said? What would she have thought?

The arrows of ice that circled around Deluge increased in number and accelerated as well, screeching as they spun around her.

—If you’ll defend your allies…

From her position on one knee on the concrete, she raised her trident. “I’ll kill you!”

The Ace dodged her rising attack and struck down her first arrow of ice. The second and third arrows veered away from their target and hit the ground, and Deluge moved around the Ace, circling to the right as she swung her trident, but the Ace evaded this, too, and kicked her in the gut. The possessions on her person scattering everywhere, Deluge was thrown back, firing off ice arrows as the Ace leaped after her, but all her arrows were knocked down.

Deluge licked the blood that spilled from the corners of her mouth. It tasted like metal.

From her position lying on the ground, using her right hand as a pivot, she rapid-fire kicked at the Ace’s ankles. The handle of the Ace’s spear blocked them heavily, and pain shot through her legs. Her bones creaked. Deluge clenched her teeth. She flung out her ice arrows; they were struck down. She attacked with her trident, it was knocked aside.

In a flash, three of the Demon Wings that came flying in from above were sliced open with the Ace’s spear. The Ace’s return swing cut three more and sent them flying—or more like blasted them to bits.

Deluge sent even more Demon Wings to attack while she took a handful of tablets in her hand, stuffed them in her mouth, and crunched them all up.

“Luxury Mode: Burst.”

It was as if overflowing power were pushing at her back. Her body moved forward on its own. Energy spilled out from her Princess Jewel as its sparkling blue light shone over the black-and-white spades.

A thrust.

Her strike was divinely fast, working in coordination with the Demon Wings’ attack, picking a moment that would absolutely not miss as she thrust forward to tear up the Ace—or so it seemed for a second. She had pierced the Ace’s costume but missed her body. No—she had been made to miss.

After that full-force thrust of her trident, before Deluge could move, the Ace kicked. Deluge guarded with her right arm, but she was thrown backward. She heard a nasty sound coming from her arm. It was broken.

While rolling over the concrete, she spurred on the Demon Wings and shot out ice arrows.

—Am I still not strong enough?

Deluge asked herself and answered that no, that was not true. Back then, other magical girls had been fighting with her: Snow White, Filru, Marika Fukuroi, Styler Mimi, and Princess Inferno. Now Deluge was the only magical girl here. But despite that, she could fight.

Deluge’s blade could now reach the Ace’s neck.

Deluge got up and backed away. The Ace, having destroyed five Demon Wings in the blink of an eye, came forward. The Ace’s toe bumped the magical phone Deluge had dropped a moment ago.

There was no fear, not like before. Neither did battle bring her elation, like Marika Fukuroi. All she felt was the deep urge to kill.

She raised her trident in her right hand, laying her left alongside its shaft. From this sniper-like stance, she did a one-handed thrust. Her stab at the Ace’s face was knocked down by the Ace’s spear, sending her trident to thunk into the mountain of possessions Deluge had dropped. Her magical phone bounced, its hanging cord cut off and flying away.

Deluge’s right hand was numb. She gripped her trident with the left hand laid against its side. The Ace ignored her trident, stepping forward. It must have looked like the Ace could stab Deluge with her spear faster than Deluge could raise her weapon into the attack position again—and that was probably correct.

Deluge focused her magic on the point of the trident, thrust it into her pile of things, and pulled it up. Stuck at the end of the magically frozen trident was a ring-shaped object—the magic handcuffs. With the magic handcuff stuck to the end of her trident, she caught the Ace’s leg as she was stepping forward and froze her in place.

Deluge had retrieved the magic handcuffs that had kept the armored magical girl—Armor Arlie—restrained. Tucked inside the pocket of the magical girl with the police motif had been a little key, and when Deluge had used it to open the cuffs, Armor Arlie had been able to move again. But until the key had opened those cuffs, Armor Arlie had been completely immobilized, and no matter if Deluge stabbed or froze the cuffs, they had not gotten a single scratch.

By hooking the Ace’s leg with the magic handcuffs that would bind whoever they captured, she’d stopped the Ace from moving. Deluge retracted the cold energy from her trident, releasing the handcuffs from its points. She pointed her weapon at the fallen Ace—

“Deluge!”

She suddenly looked up. Amid the card soldiers and Demon Wings scattered on the ground, there was Bluebell Candy, looking at her like she was on the verge of tears.

There were lots of things Deluge wanted to ask, like “Why did you come here?” or “Why are you looking at me like that?” But before any of those could emerge from her mouth as words, Princess Deluge let out a little laugh.

Deluge thrust at the Ace’s throat with full force and slammed all her ice arrows into her face.

  Bluebell Candy

Bluebell dodged the birdlime, evaded a club swung at her from behind, yelping and shrieking as she skittered around, getting away from the card soldiers, and at the end of her flight was the Ace of Clubs. She ducked the Club’s strike, rolled to avoid its follow-up attack, then fled as black wings came in to fill the spot she’d just occupied. Holding her hat down with her right hand as it started falling, she looked all around. The battle was chaos, a mess of enemies and allies jumbled together, and she had no idea where she was.

The Dark Cutie, Glassianne, and Micchan the Dictionary trio had gone off somewhere. Deluge had to be fighting, but Bluebell had no idea where she was.

The roller slide had collapsed, and the cloud of dust in its wake reached all the way to Bluebell. She put her hand over her mouth and coughed, then bent far backward to avoid the spear thrust at her.

“Deluge! Deluge!” she yelled loudly, but there was no reply. Bluebell kept calling as she ran, evading enemy attacks as she approached the central area of the amusement park. There, she found Deluge.

“Deluge!”

Their eyes met. Deluge grimaced, but it also looked like she was smiling.

Deluge drove her trident into the throat of a card soldier, filling her face with arrows of ice. Blood fountained up, making Bluebell feel faint, but she bit her lip. The pain helped her cling to consciousness. If she passed out now, she couldn’t protect Deluge.

Deluge’s hand slid off her trident, and the gem in her tiara gradually faded. Deluge crumpled to the ground, and the giant handcuffs clanked, bouncing off the concrete. Impaled in the throat, face showered with arrows, the card soldier shuddered, then slowly raised her spear.

Before that spear could swing down, Bluebell shoved her aside. Thrown to the ground by Bluebell’s running shove, the card soldier tried to stand up with stilted movements, like a broken machine, but halfway up she stopped, hands sliding, and her body pulsed. Starting from the site of the pulse, her body slowly crumbled away and vanished.

Bluebell picked up the trident and the handcuffs and heaved Deluge over her shoulder. This wasn’t the time for fear. She ran with everything she had.

“Protect Deluge!” she yelled back at the circling Demon Wings, then started running. The number of card soldiers was greatly diminished.

  Sorami Nakano

Sword still in her right hand, the enemy slowly opened her left, which was dirtied with mud. “Doro [mud] to dosu [dagger].”

The enemy produced a dagger from where the mud once was. She adopted a sideways stance with the dagger held in front. The one-handed sword held high in her right hand swayed.

From which angle would she attack? How would she attack?

The one-handed sword thrust forward with no warning, and Sorami barely managed to avoid it. If she hadn’t focused everything on dodging, she’d have gotten hit. Sorami tried stepping as the sword withdrew, but the dagger twitched, and Sorami hastily stepped back.

Scary. Scary. Scary. But she could move. She clenched her palms, then opened them. She let go of the breath she’d been holding all at once, then inhaled again. This was the same as training. This was training so that she could move the same way again.

Lowering her stance, she looked her opponent in the face.

Uluru had her hands full fighting the shadow beast. Snow White and the magical girl in black were holding position as they exchanged a storm of blows. Sorami heard metal clashing as sparks scattered.

The gate, parking lot, iron railing, public bathroom, map sign, streetlights, stairs, telephone booth, wilted grass, a hut that looked like a closet—checking everything around them in a single glance, Sorami evaded the sword with a backstep.

She could move. Her training was moving her.

She meant to drop attacking and focus entirely on evasion, but she was only barely dodging. The enemy was taking deeper steps in than she had anticipated. In other words, the enemy had made an accurate measure of her ability.

Rolling backward, Sorami tossed her magical phone, the controller-shaped backpack that was a part of her costume, just anything she had at hand, backing away and ready to run, continuing to evade any way she could.

“Ken [sword] to kon [club].”

The one-handed sword turned into a long wooden club that drove toward Sorami. She retreated in an attempt to evade; it had greater reach than the sword and struck her chest.

Though Sorami was able to reduce the impact a bit, since she was off-balance, she couldn’t stay on her feet. It knocked her back, sending her flying into the storage hut to smash through the window and land inside.

The cardboard boxes piled inside the hut softened the impact, flying everywhere. She ran her right hand along her chest. It felt hot. She probably had a crack in her breastbone, at the very least.

Sensing hostility, Sorami jerked her head to the right. A dagger passed through the spot where her head had been a fraction of a second earlier to thud into the wall before her eyes.

She heard feet crunching on the broken window glass behind her. Someone had come into the hut—the enemy. The enemy had entered through the window Sorami had smashed through. In the whirling dust, the silhouette took form, and the scholar-style magical girl emerged. This magical girl who looked like she’d act as a commentator on an educational show was now looking like a creature from a monster movie.

Sorami would move like she had during her training. She could do it. That was what she told herself. It was okay to be scared. Even if she was frightened, terrified, she just had to move her body. That was what she’d trained for. She drew in a breath, then exhaled. Drew in a breath, then exhaled. It was dusty and smelled of mold. But still, she inhaled, exhaled, and then drew in a big breath.

The hut was small on the inside. It was stacked up with cardboard boxes even though it hadn’t been big to begin with. If you included on top of those boxes as part of the range they could move in, it was no more than thirty square feet at most. There were ten feet between her and the enemy, and behind Sorami was a wall. She had nowhere to run.

Concentrate, she ordered herself. If you don’t concentrate, you’ll die.

From a low stance, Sorami made a grab at the enemy. A tackle—or she made it look like one before sharply changing direction and heading for the window. The moment she moved, her head violently jerked back. The enemy had stepped on her long hair, which had trailed over the ground when she’d lowered her stance.

A heartbeat later, the floorboards cracked. The enemy’s right foot broke through the floor and she lost balance, and Sorami took advantage of that opportunity to use both hands to sweep the enemy’s right leg out from under her.

The enemy rolled and knocked over a bucket. The line-making powder inside it was tossed into the air, filling the inside of the little hut with white. The enemy was coughing. By the time the enemy fell, Sorami had already been holding her breath.

Sorami’s magic allowed her to know the contents of something before opening it. The moment she’d hit the window of the locked hut, she’d known all that was inside—where the floor was weak, what was in that bucket; and she’d acted based on her knowledge of all that information.

She’d also lowered her stance because she’d expected the enemy to attack low and stomp through the floor. Things had worked out as she’d planned.

The hut was not entirely enclosed. The window both of them had come in through was broken, and there had been light shining through the gaps in the door and the little holes in the walls to begin with. With Sorami’s magic, the more strictly her target was sealed, the more precise the information she would gain. Of course, even with a loose seal, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t see anything. Often enough, a vague understanding was enough. If she simply wanted to run away, this would be enough.

Right now, she could run away. But she wouldn’t.

Just getting out of here wouldn’t be hard. But after Sorami fled, this enemy would probably attack Uluru and Snow White. If that happened, that would put the both of them in danger.

Sorami would defeat this enemy. That was her job—she made that decision.

Sorami dumped everything out of the cardboard boxes inside the hut. Using the packing tape that had been sealing it, she stuck a cardboard box to the window, and in the moment where the enemy faltered, she packed shredded cardboard into the holes in the walls.

Now all at once, this hut was more tightly sealed. Even if Sorami was inside a space, it still counted as “closed.”

Her information was refreshed. Sorami learned of everything in the hut—things, places, the enemy, her condition, her movements, everything was communicated to Sorami in real time.

The enemy yanked her dagger out from the wall. Holding it in a reverse grip, she came at Sorami. She was shuffling her feet a little. She had to be thinking she’d go for a close-range fight because of the poor visibility, which was just what Sorami wanted.

Sorami grabbed the enemy’s right wrist in both her hands. It was the hand that held the dagger.

When Sorami caught her wrist, the enemy reflexively tried to pull out of her grip. The movements of the opponent’s muscles and her breathing were transmitted to Sorami clearly. Matching the enemy’s backward pull, Sorami pushed the enemy’s right wrist, putting her off-balance. To throw the enemy down, she spun the enemy around with her wrist at the center point, maintaining her grip on the wrist.

The enemy was thrown beautifully to the ground, then she tried to scramble to her feet again. Sorami went along with the enemy’s movements again, this time pulling on her wrist instead. The enemy lost her balance. Throw. Push, pull. Pull, twist, and throw again. When the enemy tried to stand up, Sorami twisted her wrist, pulled, and threw her, and when she tried to break her fall, Sorami flung her down.

The enemy yelled, “Yaiba [blade] to yaito [mugwort]!”

She realized what was happening. The dagger in the enemy’s hand transformed into a lump of mugwort. It was a strange magic, but that didn’t change what Sorami had to do. Everything in the hut was clear to her. She understood how the enemy moved. She threw her to the ground. She wasn’t slamming her to damage her. She was just putting her on the floor.

“Yaito [mugwort] to raito [light]!”

Sorami was reading every single twitch of the enemy’s body. Her concentration was refined to a level it had never reached before. It was unusual for her to get like this, not even once in twenty training sessions.

The enemy’s right hand got heavy. The enemy switched on a searchlight about thirty inches in diameter, too big for a handheld type, the beam pointing away from Sorami’s face. The enemy wrenched around her upper body to throw the light. The light broke through the cardboard boxes that covered the window and flew out of the hut.

It wasn’t bad as a method of ripping through the cardboard boxes in order to break the seal on the room, but it was too late. The motion had been too forced, and it had ruined her stance. Sorami turned over the enemy’s wrist, extended the elbow joint to lock it, and put her weight on it. She could feel the dull sound of bones breaking through her body.

When Sorami locked her shoulder, too, putting her weight into it, she could hear Snow White yelling something. By the time she noticed the hut creaking, it was all falling down.

The roof came down. The walls collapsed. The window glass was smashed, the cardboard boxes went flying, and the line-marking powder was blown in the wind. The information that had been filling Sorami all vanished. The wreckage of the hut rained down in pieces.

She tried to stand up but fell over. She looked down. Her right ankle was missing. Blood was spewing. Her concentration was fading. Maddening pain literally pierced through Sorami’s ankle.

The hut was no longer something that could be called a hut. The ceiling and walls had been destroyed, and all that remained was the floor. Sorami was confused. She didn’t understand what had happened. There was no information. She looked outside. A long, long shadow extended from the place where the magical girl in black was illuminated by the light—Ohhh, so that’s it. It made sense.

A shadow beast had destroyed the hut. The shadow that had been thrown by the light of the searchlight had grown and lengthened until its attack had reached Sorami, fighting farther away. The scholar-style magical girl kicked Sorami and dashed out from the ruins of the hut, and in less than the time it took to blink, the black beast had crushed Sorami in its jaws. The sound of shattering bones and crushing flesh followed, and Uluru’s scream capped it off at the end.

  Micchan the Dictionary

The enemy was stronger than she had thought. She moved well and was visually attentive; she never once lost her cool, even when cornered. Though their vision should have been clouded, whatever magic she used, she’d thrown and locked Micchan as she pleased. She wasn’t someone Micchan could hold back with, and Micchan couldn’t blame Dark Cutie for cleanly finishing her off. But still, even if she was an enemy, racking up casualties made Micchan slightly ill.

At first, Micchan thought she was a comparatively easy opponent, but that had been carelessness on Micchan’s part. She had sensed the girl wasn’t experienced, but there was no way a magical girl involved in a conflict among the Three Sages would be weak. Getting to her feet without using her left arm, Micchan checked on things.

While exchanging blows with Snow White, Dark Cutie had also restrained a second opponent as she’d used Micchan’s light to enlarge her shadow beast and devour the enemy. Micchan was impressed she could pull all that off alone and was sincerely glad they were on the same side.

It seemed there was no more work for Micchan to do. The giant beast that had been created by Micchan’s light and Dark Cutie’s shadow puppet spat out the body of the magical girl and opened its jaws wide to crunch its next opponent.

Then there was the thunk of some kind of impact, and the beast’s form wavered. The light faded and vanished.

Micchan looked toward the light.

“…A shuriken?”

A shuriken was buried in the light. It was now wrecked and useless.

“Kon [club] to kote [glove]! Kote [glove] to tate [shield]!” Micchan slid in to pick up the club, going through a gauntlet to make a big shield and hide in its shadow. The metal shield repelled the objects that came flying in. Looking at the objects lying there, she saw they were shuriken and kunai.

Micchan yelled into her communicator, “Anne! There’s someone throwing shuriken and kunai! Where are they coming from?!”

On the other end of the communicator, Glassianne was silent for a while before replying hastily and with irritation, “Looks like they’re super far away. It’s beyond the range of my glasses.” Basically, there was nothing they could do about it from their end.

As she exchanged blows with Snow White, Dark Cutie backed away. She tried to hide in the shadow of a pillar to tide out the shuriken, but Snow White sliced down the pillar with her naginata. Dark Cutie knocked down the shuriken and tried to evade Snow White’s attack, but the strike’s motion changed from parallel to perpendicular, cutting a light gash on her upper arm. When Snow White followed up with another attack, Dark Cutie created a beast shadow puppet to hold Snow White back and stall her advance while Dark Cutie put some distance between them. But the shuriken didn’t stop coming. Whether they tried to run or jump, the projectiles would follow their targets with unnatural trajectories.

Even with Dark Cutie and Micchan the Dictionary’s athletic abilities, it would be highly challenging to ignore these shuriken and attack.

Hiding behind her big shield, Micchan picked up a scrap of concrete and used both hands to grind it down and squeeze it round, making a little ball.

“Shoukyuu [globule] to Shoujuu [rifle].”

So she just had to have a way to attack from hiding behind this shield without entering in the rain of shuriken. Raising the Kalashnikov rifle she’d made with her magic, Micchan fixed her aim at Snow White. She was fully occupied with Dark Cutie. Even if she did notice Micchan, whether she could handle her was another matter. She put her finger on the trigger, but the moment she was about to squeeze, someone yelled out.

“You bastards!”

Micchan shifted her aim. The magical girl in the coat holding a gun was trembling. Not in fear. You could tell, looking at her expression. She was trembling with rage.

Then that would make her easy to hit. Micchan pulled the tr—

“You bastards! Now Uluru’s gonna blow up and take you all down, too!”

A chill ran up Micchan’s spine, like the gentle touch of a corpse. She trembled with the certainty that she was going to die. The “unarmed assassin,” Micchan the Dictionary, who went to the battlefield with nothing and returned from the battlefield with nothing, was terrified like a cowardly child who’d just been told a ghost story.

At this rate, they were all going down. That magical girl planned to die in a big explosion so she could make Micchan and Dark Cutie die with her. Micchan abandoned her shield and fled. She prayed for her escape and that Dark Cute would get away, too.

  Snow White

They somehow managed to get away. It was lucky they’d even escaped at all.

She asked herself if she’d underestimated them and answered to herself that she had not.

The enemy was simply too skilled. Since they’d encountered the Shufflins in the park, it was natural to assume they were being watched. Even for a magical girl, tailing Snow White from outside the range of Fal’s radar would be extremely difficult. With magic, it wasn’t impossible, but Snow White thought most likely they were being watched from high in the sky. The Shufflins in the amusement park had moved as if unified, like a single creature. Though the Shufflins as a whole were a single magical girl, they couldn’t share information. Someone had been observing them all to give instructions.

And the Shufflins were not their only enemy. That one girl had been none other than the one and only Dark Cutie.

She was the magical-girl villain who had appeared in the anime Cutie Healer Galaxy. Born from dark matter that drifted through the universe, she was the vanguard of the Space Chaos, which planned the destruction of the universe, and the protagonists Cutie Altair and Cutie Vega had waged a fierce battle against her. At the end, she’d disappeared while swearing revenge against the heroines, an anomaly for villains in the Cutie Healer series, where villains were usually destroyed, or reformed, or reformed then destroyed. Reception to this ending was said to have been mixed.

That was who had attacked them.

Dark Cutie probably had flexible joints—the sort of flexibility where she could reverse the index finger of her right hand all the way to touch the back of the same hand with her fingertip, all without using her left hand. She would tangle up her hands and hold them up to the light of the sun to make shadow puppets. Her scissors made from shadow had severed an iron pillar, and her wolf made from shadow had crunched into concrete.

The beasts were the problem. The weapon-type of shadows weren’t as bad. Since Snow White could hear the voice of Dark Cutie’s heart, Snow White could deal with any weapons she wielded, but the beasts created from shadow had no inner voice. They didn’t feel or think anything, attacking Snow White as automatically operated battle machines.

Dark Cutie was clearly superior to Snow White when it came to physical abilities and battle technique. Even though the shadow beast wasn’t as strong as her, Snow White couldn’t hear their thoughts. Dark Cutie had kept out of Snow White’s range, making use of her reach with repeated slices, while she left the main offensive role to the beast. If she was fighting like this, then she knew all about Snow White’s magic. Snow White blocked the shadow scissors, avoided the beast’s fangs, blocked a kick, and dodged the beast’s claws, never with the space to attack. Dark Cutie was fighting in a way that would steadily wear her down.

At this rate, eventually, she was going to lose. The unexpected backup was what changed things. In the middle of the fight, projectiles suddenly started flying toward them, attacking the black beasts and Dark Cutie. The black beasts had wailed while Dark Cutie had faltered.

But it wasn’t as if Snow White could shift to attack now. When she saw what was flying toward them, she was terribly rattled. Coming for them were shuriken and kunai.

Those shuriken and kunai were familiar. They were the weapons used by the missing magical girl Snow White was looking for. She’d gone missing after getting involved in an incident in another city, and even after exploring every corner of that place, Snow White had never even been able to find a body.

If Snow White hadn’t been so preoccupied, she probably would have heard the thoughts of whatever magical girl Sorami had been fighting, anticipated what she would do, and warned Sorami. She would probably have noticed that these two enemy magical girls, unlike the Shufflins, didn’t have earplugs, and would have had Uluru tell a lie earlier. Rattled by the shuriken and swept along in the chaos, Snow White had been agitated during the fight, and as a result, though they’d managed to drive off the enemy, Sorami had lost her life.

They picked places you couldn’t see from the sky to travel through: back alleys, tunnels, culverts, arcades, underneath overpasses. Right now, they were hiding underneath a tiny bridge that swayed with every passing car. The girls huddled together in the tall grasses and held their breath.

Uluru set her tightly clenched fists on her knees as her shoulders trembled.

Sachiko had her arms folded over her lap, head laid on top, and she wasn’t moving.

Snow White tossed the kunai she’d been fiddling with into her bag.

In a battle between magical girls, the state of the heart was most important of all. But sometimes, you had to act, even if you were upset. Even if you were crying, even if you were angry, even if you were frightened and trembling, you had to act, or you wouldn’t resolve anything. Even if she were to feel responsible and think, Because of me, someone got hurt; because of my mistake, someone got killed and shut herself away, that wasn’t going to bring back the lives lost.

The sensation of the kunai remained in her hands. She opened her palms, clenched them, opened, clenched tight, and opened them again. She smacked her cheeks, and Uluru and Sachiko raised their heads.

“Uluru, please contact Lady Puk Puck,” said Snow White. “Could you send her a message saying something like, ‘We’ve found Premium Sachiko. We want to return to the estate, but we’re being targeted not only by the Osk Faction but by another force. Requesting backup.’”

“Yeah…Uluru can do that.”

“I…” Premium Sachiko had been crying this whole time, so her voice was hoarse. “I don’t want to go back.”

Uluru tried to stand up, but Snow White held her shoulders, restraining her. Sachiko’s head jerked up violently, and she shuffled on her bottom away from Uluru, but Uluru pushed Snow White aside and approached Sachiko, grabbing her by the collar. “You idiot, Sachiko! You big stupid idiot! You’re still talking like that?!”

“But, but…!”

“Both of you, please lower your voices.”

“Why run away?! How could you run?! You can be the hero, here!”

“But…!”

“Both of you, lower your voices.”

“Do you think you were gonna get sacrificed live in this ceremony?! Do you honestly think Lady Puk Puck would make you do something like that?! You’re not allowed to say you don’t understand just how kind she is!”

“I know! I know Lady Puk is kind!”

“Both of you, quiet.”

“So then don’t run away! Because of… Because of you…”

Snow White stood, quietly approached the two of them, and pulled the sleeve of Uluru’s coat. Uluru looked at Snow White with a startled expression, bit her lip, and yanked her sleeve away in annoyance.

Snow White knew what Uluru had been about to say. Uluru had been about to say, “Sorami died because of you.” At the very least, that wasn’t something she should say now. Uluru knew that, too. But still, sometimes words would just spill out.

Sachiko put her hand to her forehead and sighed. “I know Lady Puk is kind. She’s been kind to me, too.”

“That’s right.” Uluru nodded. “Lady Puk Puck is kind. So you don’t need to worry.”

“That’s not what I was worrying about.”

“Then why did you run away?!”

“I don’t want to kill anyone…”

“What?! Who do you think would make you kill someone?!”

“If my magic gets used in the ceremony, someone has to die. If I use my magic, someone is certain to die. You know that, too, sis.”

Uluru sighed deeply. She tried to rise, but Snow White pushed her shoulders down. So now instead, Uluru didn’t leap to her feet but switched places with Snow White to move beside Sachiko, sit down, and put her arms around her shoulders. Sachiko trembled, but Uluru didn’t pay that any mind and said, “You think Lady Puk Puck would completely ignore what you want and force you to kill someone in the ceremony…?” With a bright smile, Uluru looked at Sachiko, then Snow White, and then finally, she snorted Hmph. “Of course she’d never do that. Listen, part of Lady Puk Puck’s kindness to us is that she won’t make us do things like kill. And particularly not you, Sachiko. You’ve been spoiled. Do you know how many times Uluru has thought about giving you a whack for being so spoiled? Have some self-awareness, come on!”

“But…!”

“Both of you, enough.” Snow White cut between the two of them and tried to pull them apart, but they still wouldn’t separate, so Snow White used all the strength she had to gradually pry them apart. “We won’t be able to stay hidden at this rate. There are two different groups after you, Sachiko. We have to find someplace safe first.”

Uluru nodded as if to say, “You’re right.” “Uluru will request rescue from Lady Puk Puck. Though it’s embarrassing…well, there’s no helping it. Right, Sachiko? You get where the safest place to be right now is, right? For now, let’s just go back.”

  Princess Deluge

When Deluge opened her eyes, she was gazing up at a really cheap-looking ceiling that had bits of peeled-off wallpaper stuck all over it. Bluebell was peering at her face, and Deluge realized her head was pillowed in Bluebell’s lap.

She scrambled to try to get up but felt a spasm in her back and scowled.

“Don’t force yourself, Deluge,” said Bluebell. “You were passed out all this time, you know.”

Without replying, Deluge brushed off her hands and stood. Dark Cutie, Micchan the Dictionary, and Glassianne were all silent, mouths hanging open slightly as they looked over at her. Deluge raised her right hand, saying, “I’m all right,” and then as if a dam had broken, the trio started to discuss. It seemed they were talking about the battle in the amusement park and what would happen now.

Right. We’d been fighting in the amusement park. Deluge shook. She’d fought and defeated the Ace of Spades. She stared at her right palm. It was like she could still feel it. Licking her lower lip, she bit it hard and was about to stand when Bluebell stopped her.

“Don’t be so reckless! You have to rest!”

Deluge didn’t reply, brushing Bluebell’s hand away. She understood this was reckless. But she had to do it anyway.

Deluge glanced over at the three in discussion. The name “Snow White” caught her ears.

“Snow White?” She reacted without thinking.

“Oh, so you know her, too, Miss Deluge?” said Micchan. “She’s famous, after all.”

Snow White was here.

One of the three magical girls Glassianne had described looked very much like Snow White. Glassianne also told her that Dark Cutie and Micchan the Dictionary had also acknowledged she was definitely the Magical-Girl Hunter they’d all heard rumors about.

As the trio discussed how they’d deal with the Magical-Girl Hunter, Deluge was thinking about something else.

Princess Deluge had never thought of the magical girl known as Snow White as her enemy.

Though they should have been enemies when they’d met, the first time Deluge had seen her, she hadn’t felt like Snow White was her foe. Unlike the others, Snow White had spoken to them to avoid fighting. Deluge figured she must have done it because with her magic to hear the thoughts of people in trouble, she’d discovered they didn’t have to fight the Pure Elements.

After that, when they had all fought with the Shufflins Grim Heart commanded, Snow White had been their most reliable ally. Her directions were precise, she’d come up with strategies, and she had boldly fought the Ace of Spades, an enemy that could practically break your spirit at a glance. Seeing that had won Deluge over, enabling her to fight to the end.

The other major thing may have been that, unlike the other new magical girls she’d met then, whose identities she had no clue about, Deluge had learned that Snow White was Inferno’s friend. Though Marika Fukuroi, for example, had stepped forward to fight more boldly—or violently, rather—than anyone else, and the fruit she’d given Deluge and Inferno had helped them a lot when their drugs had been about to run out, she wasn’t exactly someone Deluge had ever felt close to. Marika hadn’t really felt like someone she could count on. She’d more often just thought she was scary, or wondered, Um, is she okay?

Snow White had an identity, and Deluge had found out she was originally human. Deluge figured maybe she was prone to believe that any friend of Inferno’s was on the up-and-up because of who Inferno was as a person.

Besides, talking to a mascot about the problems you had to deal with fit with the idea of magical girls Deluge was familiar with. It was always the good magical girl who had a mascot and helped people in trouble. No matter if she was combat-focused or a mainly mundane sort of magical girl, if she had a mascot, that meant she was on the right side.

In one of the few magical-girl anime Nami Aoki had seen, Magical Daisy, the witty banter between the heroine, Daisy, and her mascot Palette had been a selling point. Nami hadn’t thought about that sort of thing at the time, just smiled as she watched and thought, They look like they’re having fun.

Even though that had only been a little over a month ago, it felt like a long-distant past.

Snow White was also known as the Magical-Girl Hunter. Deluge had heard she was called that because she went all over the place hunting bad magical girls. She remembered that Snow White herself hadn’t confirmed that fact and had looked a bit embarrassed about the title.

Deluge had been unable to be there for Inferno’s last moments, but upon asking Bluebell, she’d been able to see the data. Right before her death, Inferno had made a request of Snow White. Saying, “If you’re the Magical-Girl Hunter, then I want you to hunt those bad magical girls,” Inferno had died.

Was Snow White still hunting bad magical girls? Right now, “bad magical girls” meant those who were attacking Premium Sachiko: Shufflin of the Osk Faction as well as Dark Cutie, Micchan the Dictionary, Glassianne, and Princess Deluge.

Snow White was with her mascot. Right now, Princess Deluge was with a bunch of demons.

Deluge was aware she was past the point of no return, and she was prepared. She didn’t want to turn back now, and she would cut down anyone who tried to force her to turn back.

But still, when she thought of Snow White, it hurt. Her memories of Snow White always came in a set with Princess Inferno. Snow White had been a friend of Inferno’s from middle school, and they’d fought the Shufflins together with Inferno, and she was the one who had been witness to Inferno’s death and been entrusted with her dying wish.

Pressing a hand to her heart, Deluge smothered the impulse to scratch at it.

She pulled her medicine from its case and took one tablet. It still wasn’t enough. Her heart ached. It hurt.

“Bluebell…,” Deluge said, “please give me a candy.”

“It’s best not to have too many, Deluge.”

“Just give me one.”

Sucking on the candy lightened her heart a bit. It wasn’t that this made it okay, but by using it together with her drugs, she could probably reduce her consumption of the latter.

  Glassianne

By the time they reconvened at an apartment building in a newly developing residential area, thirty minutes had passed since their battle in the amusement park.

With Deluge and her flock of demons, they’d managed to beat back the card soldiers. That part had been according to plan. Great. What had not gone according to plan had been the events with Micchan the Dictionary and Dark Cutie. “The enemy was stronger than anticipated, so we failed to capture her” wouldn’t even be a good excuse for a little kid. This was not great.

Even without the ranged support from the shuriken, the three enemies had been strong. The long-haired magical girl had thrown Micchan and dislocated her left arm. With a single remark, the one with the gun had driven Micchan and Dark Cutie to retreat. The Magical-Girl Hunter Snow White had managed to withstand Dark Cutie’s attacks.

Glassianne, who’d been watching over the battle, had known one of the card soldiers was particularly powerful, but she had already been defeated by Deluge. It was a big deal to defeat that. Deluge was strong. Glassianne gained a bit of respect for her as a result.

There had been one magical girl who’d been giving orders to the card soldiers, but Deluge had also reported that she’d gotten away. That matter would require caution, but there was no point in being that wary over an opponent who would run away without even trying to fight.

So then the ones they had to worry about were Puk Puck’s protégés and the Magical-Girl Hunter Snow White. After leaving the field of battle, the three of them had avoided large roads entirely, going from a back alley into a culvert, and there, Glassianne had lost sight of them. With Glassianne’s magic, she could check any location she had been to before, but if it was someplace she had never seen, she’d either have to do a point-of-view shift or use her own legs to go there. The speed of a point-of-view shift was slower than using her legs, so it was difficult to chase a magical girl on the lam.

Though Micchan and Dark Cutie had managed to defeat one opponent with their teamwork, well, there was no doubting that the remaining two were also first-rate magical girls.

It hadn’t gone the best it could have. But still, some parts had gone well.

They’d discovered Deluge’s abilities were the real deal. They’d also discovered the winged demons could be used to counter the Osk Faction’s Shufflin, which had its strength in numbers. And they’d also finished off the magical girl who had dislocated Micchan’s elbow, shaving down the enemy forces by one.

Deluge and Bluebell were one room over, arguing again. And since all the sliding screens had been taken away, not only could their voices be heard, but their expressions and gestures were also visible. But the trio forced themselves to avert their eyes and discussed their earlier fight instead.

“There was something a little strange about the way the Shufflins moved, huh?” said Micchan.

“You think?” replied Glassianne.

“You can tell if you look at the recordings, but they reacted slow. Even assuming us three and Miss Deluge were reacting fast, they were still too slow. I think, maybe, they had their ears plugged or something. That’d make the most sense to me.”

“Their ears…?”

“That magical girl with the gun got us at the end, didn’t she?”

Thinking normally, the declaration by the magical girl with the gun that she was going to blow herself up would be nothing more than a childish bluff, a lie.

A magical girl like Micchan should not have taken a statement like that seriously, but she’d been so convinced she was going to die when the girl blew herself up, she had chosen to retreat. Thinking about it after the fact, she realized there was no way that girl could have done something like that, but at the time, for some reason, she’d lost her head and believed it, and Micchan’s flight had also made Dark Cutie decide that maintaining the line of battle was impossible, allowing the remaining two enemies to escape.

“Did you think she’d actually blow herself up, too, Leader?” asked Micchan.

“I did.”

“And you still didn’t immediately run away?”

“I thought if she was prepared to blow herself up to take the both of us down alone, that wouldn’t be a bad ending for a villain. But if you’re going to run, Micchan, then I will, too.”

“If I could think like you do, Leader, I wouldn’t have had to run, though…”

“If you were like our leader,” said Glassianne, “we’d have died a long time ago.”

“True.” Micchan nodded.

“Anyway,” Glassianne continued, “that’s not our problem right now. This means if you hear what she says, you’re made to believe her. So then we can assume that’s her magic, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s right.”

“So then doesn’t that sound like that’s connected to how the card soldiers were moving awkwardly?”

“Yep, yep,” Micchan agreed. “I can’t say for sure, but I think their slight delay in reaction might’ve been ’cause they couldn’t hear. Maybe they were wearing earplugs.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Wouldn’t it be because they knew about the magic to make you believe whatever she said? And then it’d make sense for them to wear earplugs to protect against that.”

“Ohhh.” Glassianne nodded. “Oh yeah, before we fought, didn’t they have a skirmish in the park? Maybe they found out about that magic then, or maybe they had information beforehand we didn’t, from documents or something. Actually, that’s really plausible.”

“Then we’ll get earplugs, too. That magic is something you kinda can’t ignore.”

“But if we plug our ears, we can’t use our communication devices anymore. And if I can’t communicate information to you anymore, then there’s no more point in my detecting enemies for you.”

“Hold on just a minute there, please.” Micchan pulled out a map of W City that she’d gotten from Pfle. “Mappu [map] to macchi [match]. Macchi [match] to pacchi [patch]. Pacchi [patch] to panchi [hole puncher]. Panchi [hole puncher] to panko [bread crumbs]. Panko [bread crumbs] to hanko [stamp].”

The map turned into a box of matches. She took one match out of the box of matches and turned that into some cloth. She turned the cloth into a hole punch, and the hole punch into bread crumbs, and then she turned the bread crumbs into a stamp with “Micchan” engraved on it in a cute font. She paused here to take in a long breath.

“Was it a good idea to make the map disappear?” asked Glassianne.

“I’ve memorized the whole thing.”

“Oh, impressive, as always.”

“Well then, to continue. Inkan [seal] to inkamu [mic].” In the end, she’d turned the map into a microphone headset. “I made it the style of headset that conducts through bones. These, we can use even with earplugs in. However—obviously—plugging your ears on the battlefield is dangerous. Keep your information transmission covert, Anne. Please let us know about any shuriken fire in particular.”

“Of course. But wow, your magic is so convenient, Micchan.”

Taking out matches one by one, she remade each of them. Glassianne glanced over to the room beside them. Deluge and Bluebell were arguing. Properly speaking, they should have Deluge put on a headset as well. But they’d proposed that already for the earlier attack, and she’d turned them down, saying, “I’ll be operating freely on my own.”

It seemed as though she wanted to avoid cooperating with them as much as possible. Glassianne didn’t know what her reason was, but she was being stubborn. Since it wasn’t unusual for people in high positions to be stubborn, Glassianne’s crew would put up the appearance of obeying, but they still decided to make a few extra headsets.

The headsets were one thing, but for the earplugs, they’d be in trouble if they didn’t get her to put some in. Since Micchan had been talking loud enough for the other two to hear as well, they’d managed to share that information—hopefully. They could probably hand them the earplugs later.

“Your magic is convenient, too, Anne.”

“Oh, no, my magic is really just… Whoa there.” Glassianne put a finger to the frame of her glasses. Scenes flipped through her lenses one after another. They went by so fast no one but Glassianne would be able to recognize each and every single one of the scenes as scenes. Her dynamic vision had been good to begin with, its affinity with her magic made it stronger, and she’d also strengthened it through training, enabling her to now check scenes while shuffling through them at high speed. Currently, she was focused on monitoring the area around Puk Puck’s estate.

Glassianne’s magic was her “mysterious glasses.” They had the power to show in her lenses what was currently happening at any scene she had seen before. There had been a change in front of Puk Puck’s estate. She set it to that image and zoomed in. A vehicle passed by the front of Puk Puck’s estate. It looked like a fancy foreign car.

“There’s this strange car,” said Glassianne.

“Is it a magical car?” asked Micchan.

“No, it looks like a normal one.” On the side of the car was the insignia of a bay laurel crown with waterfowl wings growing from it. The same design decorated the gates of Puk Puck’s estate.

“Micchan, do you know the emblem Puk Puck uses?”

“A bay laurel crown with waterfowl wings.”

“Okay, discovered a suspicious car that’s blatantly Puk Faction. Pursuit commenced!”

A magical car was one thing, but if it was a regular car, she could follow it more easily with her glasses than on foot. Those in the car wouldn’t be able to stop her from tracking it, and being inside a vehicle, it would be hard for them to evade sudden attacks. The fact that they were only sending a car when they were up against an enemy force in the city meant their opponent was unused to these sorts of situations. Even if they did have some experienced people, they could assume the ones who had gone out to search for Premium Sachiko had been all of them. It would only be attendants to more important people remaining in the estate.

“I think those magical girls from earlier may have requested backup,” said Glassianne. “It seems safe to assume they’ve already secured Premium Sachiko.”

“It’s gotta be that thing,” said Micchan. “The four-dimensional bag Snow White had hanging from her belt. This means Premium Sachiko was inside it. Then it was the right choice after all not to do any attacks that might flub and hit that, too.”

“So what do we do? Attack the car?”

“If the car is backup, then if we leave it alone, it’ll guide us to the enemy’s location.”

“You think that would actually work?”

“But they’re being a little blatant, so it could be a decoy. We can’t have all of us charging right in, so let’s have me go, plus a few demons borrowed from Miss Deluge.”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

When Glassianne turned to Deluge, their eyes met. She made no particular complaints, so Glassianne interpreted that as approval.

“If we let them meet up with the others, it’ll bolster their forces, and that won’t be good. So then the plan’s for them to say bye-bye partway.” Micchan pulled a coin purse from her pocket, and with a jingle, she dumped her small change out onto the tatami and picked up one coin. “Kinsen [coin] to minsen [Chinese coin]. Minsen [Chinese coin] to mimisen [earplugs].” She then created earplugs for all of them.

When Glassianne looked over at Deluge, she was already on her feet, looking over at them. It seemed she’d heard their conversation, after all. Micchan tossed earplugs to Deluge and Bluebell. Deluge caught hers in one hand, while Bluebell nearly dropped hers, but caught them somehow. Micchan tried tossing them the headpieces as well, assuming Deluge would reject it, but they took those, too.

“Okay, I’ll get going,” said Micchan. “Leader, you handle the monitoring of the estate area. Miss Deluge, you can go about the city as needed. Make things quick. Lots of cops have shown up at the amusement park. Everyone, make sure you’re not seen… There’s no one around right now, yes?”

Glassianne adjusted her glasses and switched her viewpoint so she was looking down on their current position from above. “It’s okay; there’s no one here. Now’s your chance.”

“Right then, let’s go.”

Without making a sound, Micchan opened up a window and went outside, and Dark Cutie, Deluge, and Bluebell followed. They had just been squatting on an empty house close to Puk’s estate. It would be a pain if any of the residents of the area were to spot them climbing in and out of windows, so Glassianne had to check her glasses to make sure there was no one around before they went in or out.

Glassianne shifted her glasses once more, then fixed her viewpoint on the vehicle that had come out of the estate. She checked ahead, behind, left, and right, then informed the others that the single driver was the only one inside, also adding that though she was wearing a suit, based on her appearance, she was probably a magical girl. Shifting to an aerial viewpoint, looking down on the vehicle from above, she followed after it.

  CQ Angel Hamuel

There were lots of tall buildings in W City; they made useful resting spots for magical girls to hide from the eyes of others.

Taking a seat at the edge of the highest spot on the roof of one of these skyscrapers, Hamuel considered what to do now. Her subordinate Shufflins were in hiding in various places around the city.

She’d suffered devastating losses: two hearts, four clubs, five diamonds, and even worse with the spades—in addition to the three face cards that had already been captured, she’d lost her strongest fighter, the Ace. Since the spades had taken the brunt of the violence in their retreat, she’d also lost seven others. Right now, only two of them were left: the numbers three and two.

If you were going to invest all your forces with the intention of making this your decisive battle, but then you got hit with a surprise attack and ran away with your tail between your legs, catastrophic damage was inevitable. Overall numbers aside, in terms of fighting capability, theirs was now reduced to less than half…or a third, a fourth, a fifth. Though the ice user who had defeated the Ace of Spades had fallen, Hamuel had received reports that a magical girl with a lily of the valley on her back had escaped carrying her. It would be too optimistic to assume she had died. Even if Hamuel had defeated a few homunculi, it hadn’t been worth it at all.

Her time was limited. The situation in W City was changing minute by minute. If Hamuel were left behind, she’d wind up as nothing more than a tourist who’d just come to waste Shufflins. What she had to think about was how to accomplish her goal, and if she couldn’t do that, then to what degree she could compromise.

She had three options.

The first was to retreat now.

Another would be to throw the forces she had left at the enemy to create an opportunity where she could abduct Premium Sachiko.

The last would be to make an offer of cooperation to the forces led by the magical girl who had defeated the Ace of Spades, wring out conditions that would advantage her even slightly, and build a common front.

The first option she wanted to avoid, if possible. If she were to leave now, she’d be stuck with the label of the incompetent commander who had used up Shufflins in vain without a single result to show for it. At best, she’d never see the light of day again, and worst case, she’d be sent to the lab or given an order that basically meant she was going to die in a fight and breathe her last somewhere—either of those would be a more realistic end.

The second option was all but a pipe dream. If there was no interference, there would be a chance of success, but things were like this now because of interference, and Shufflin II was hard put to it.

The third option was dicey and difficult, too. Her reconnaissance units had informed her of the fact that the group led by the magical girl who defeated the Ace of Spades was fighting with the Puk Faction, which was trying to retrieve Premium Sachiko to use her in the ceremony. Barring any absurd situation like a schism within the Puk Faction or a struggle for credit within the Osk Faction, this meant there was a third force here. Their initial contact had been awful, but depending on what the other party’s goal was, cooperation was a possibility. That was in the case that they wished for the ceremony to fail or intended to kidnap Premium Sachiko. The issue was that even if the conditions for cooperation were in place, they might not need Hamuel’s support. Hamuel couldn’t be acting to shift the balance of power if that third party was already plenty strong. An offer of cooperation from someone in a weaker position was asking to be taken advantage of, used up, and thrown away. Unless there was particular value in her cooperation, Hamuel would just be subordinated.

Hamuel could see nothing but negatives in all these options. She resumed her analysis of the powers at play in an attempt to squeeze out a fourth option. Her time for consideration was limited.