Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume SS - Chapter 1

Shufflin Learns to Dance 

This story takes place long before Magical Girl Raising Project: ACES 
 
People get nervous when they’re called by their boss. Even if they’re boss is known as a good sport, they still get nervous. 
  
Hammer’s currently feeling nervous as she knocked on the black door in front of her. 
  
“Come in.” 
  
Hammer opened the door. Inside was a room with a dark gray carpet. On the sides were bookshelves, also dark grey. On the desk in the back of the room, there was a classical table clock. 
  
Then there was the man seated by that desk. The lord of this room. He wore a gray suit, a nice business suit that contrasted with Hammer’s appearance. 
  
He looked like a salaryman who was just bored of life. 
  
Everything about his suit was plain, even the color was also plain. Dark gray, just like the color scheme of his room. 
  
A laptop was placed at the center of the desk. 
  
The monitor shone a light that highlighted the boss’ expressionless face. He looked over to Hammer. 
  
“Hammer. Just who I was looking for. I want you to take a look at this.” 
  
The boss urged Hammer to move next to him. On the screen of the computer were several words and pictures. 
  
Favorites 
  
Top Ranked 
  
Live Broadcast 
  
Submit a Post 
  
MahoMaho News 
  
Trending Now 
  
Magical Girl Festival 
  
They were all written with a fancy font, and an animated Magical Girl picture was drawn in the corner. 
  
A playful site, yet the boss was browsing it all with a serious expression. Because of that, Hammer looked at the site with the same expression as her boss. 
  
Her boss clicked on a video. That video had a Magical Girl standing on a stage in what seems to be a crowded room. 
  
An idol? 
  
She was young, like a kid. She had wavy golden hair, as well as a pure angelic smile. When she began singing, Hammer recognized it as a song from the 2000’s. 
  
She danced and sing, her movements were fast and graceful. 
  
There was also this sense of divinity to her. Hammer couldn’t place it, but it was there. 
  
Hammer felt so much calmer watching the video, this beautiful girl seems so cute and nice. It’d be nice to meet her in real life someday. 
  
The video was paused. 
  
“This was posted by the Puck Faction not a couple days ago.” 
  
Puck Faction? 
  
That’s when Hammer realized the video’s title. 
  
Puk Puck’s Favorite Pastime! 
  
The Magical Girl in the video was Puk Puck. Leader of the Puck Faction, and one of the Three Sages. 
  
The video seems to have her magic in it, or at least weak traces of her magic. Hammer remembered what her actual magic felt like, when she met her a long time ago. 
  
However, it looks like if you constantly watch the video, the effect of her magic may strengthen. 
  
“It’s gotten viral since then,” sad the boss. 
  
“How viral?” asked Hammer. 
  
“Top of the videos in Daily. Every day for the past few days.” 
  
“Well… Good for them? What does that mean for us?” 
  
“The higher-ups don’t like it. They want us to make a video of our own, and I’m entrusting you to direct it.” 
  
“Excuse me!?” 
  
“You’re a good general, you’re good at logistics, and you’re good at giving orders. You have the qualities of becoming a director, so I’m appointing you to the job.” 
  
“W-With all due respect, sir… What exactly am I supposed to do?” 
  
“Ever since Grim Heart was in charge, everyone’s opinion of the Osk Faction has declined rapidly. I myself don’t like this change, and would rather prefer that the Osk Faction be seen as clean and nice. A friendly video should convince them.” 
  
Hammer couldn’t exactly say no to her superior. 
  
The Osk Faction works on a strict hierarchical system. A superior orders their underling, and they obey. This creates order within the Faction. 
  
Still, this was… a rather strange order to give to Hammer. Hammer was a tactical strategist, not a viral video director. 
  
“So… Just as a question, how far has this plan gone?” asked Hammer. 
  
“We have Shufflins at your disposal.” 
  
“Shufflins…” 
  
“Yes. Shufflins. Use them well, Hammer. This will reflect highly upon your evaluation!” 
  
  
  
This is stupid. 
  
A tactical genius fit for negotiations and military tactics reduced to directing a viral video for the internet. 
  
Of course, the cause was just. Osk Faction Image Enhancing Campaign. Still, couldn’t they have found a more savvy director? 
  
The one thing that Shufflins gave Hammer is the benefit of numbers. There are 52 Shufflins in all, enough to make a large-scale production with 52 actors. 
  
Yet, Hammer didn’t know the first thing about popular or viral videos. 
  
The first thing she did was check out the video sites in question and sort by  Top Rated . 
  
She looked at the videos with over millions of views. Saved it all to her  My List  section, and watched each one of them. 
  
After all, the first thing you should do is get a lay of the land, right? 
  
Maybe there’s some trick to making videos viral. Maybe if she can harness them all, she can use it to make the best viral video for the Osk Faction. 
  
This may be a stupid assignment, but it’s an assignment nonetheless. That means a chance for promotion. That means Hammer can rise up the ranks if she can just get past this one job. 
  
After sorting through the videos, Hammer categorized the ones she’s seen. 
  
Let’s Plays 

  
Animal Videos 
  
MAD and AMVs 
  
There’s no way that Shufflins can do any of those. What about the other types of videos that went viral? 
  
Singing and Dancing videos . 
  
Hammer tried to get the Shufflins to sing, but they all have the same voice, so there’s no balance nor contrast. 
  
The next best thing… 
  
…Dancing Shufflins. 
  
Yes, dancing Shufflins will go viral. 
  
  
  
“Just like we practiced! One! Two! Three! Four!” 
  
CQ Angel Hammer had a Magical Microphone. This microphone was able to speak into the heads of any individual she’s seen before. She just has to switch to their frequency. 
  
She had already drilled the Shufflins on individual dance moves, and choreographed it herself. 
  
Now was the test. 
  
“Alright Shufflins! I’m going to turn on the music. You know the drill, right? Here we go! One! Two! Three!” 
  
Hammer blared on the loudspeaker. The music was turned on. 
  
Magical Daisy  Second Season OP –  Daisy Carnival! 
  
It was upbeat, a hip-hop style Opening, and was the perfect rhythm to start dancing with. 
  
There were a lot of Magical Girl Anime, but none had as many AMVs and MADs as Magical Daisy. There was pretty much ten AMVs of the OP of Magical Daisy for every one AMV of other Magical Girl Anime. 
  
Whoever wrote that Daisy Opening was good with music, though the lyrics might need work. Oh well, it was a kid’s show anyway. At least the rhythm and beat was good. 
  
Cutie Healer  series and  Star Queen  series Openings were popular too, but  Magical Daisy  scores out on top. 
  
Shufflins are thought to be mindless drones by most of their generals, but Hammer understands that each Shufflin has their own personality. 
  
For example, the Hearts are mostly cowardly, but are the ones with the most emotions, and are very expressive when they do. 
  
The Clubs are super fast and sneaky. They’re able to perform the dance moves that require high speed. 
  
The Spades were all very good at moving their bodies, due to being primed for combat. As a result, they’re flexible, and are perfect for the more acrobatic moves. 
  
The Diamonds can’t dance. However, that doesn’t mean they’re useless! They edit and record the videos, and can replicate all the AMVs and MADs they watched in just an hour. They’re perfect for special effects and lighting. 
  
The dance training took about a month. Coordinating the Shufflins was hard, but possible. 
  
The Diamonds created a CGI background that was believable enough to pass as real. Hammer had them practice on that, because there was no reason to make someone like the Diamonds do dancing if they can’t dance. 
  
The set was a surreal forest, with an avant-garde style color. The Shufflins were being watched by a Cheshire Cat rendered fully in CGI, as well as a giant caterpillar. 
  
The music started, and the camera zoomed in to the faces of two Hearts Shufflins, who looked scared of being in the forest. 
  
Then, a quick beat, and the camera flipped towards an image of trees, with Clubs Shufflin jumping and dashing around them. 
  
Finally, the camera panned up, and a row of Hearts and Spades passed through each other in a 45 degree angle without touching each other. 
  
They created a line, where they then flipped 90 degrees, faced the camera, and began their dance routine. 
  
They jumped up, raised their hands, twirled, hi-5’s each other, walked in place with their legs, and backflipped. 
  
It was brilliant! 
  
After the shoot, Hammer wiped the sweat off her forehead and patted the backs of the two Hearts Shufflins. 
  
“You did good, you guys!” 
  
The Hearts Shufflins smiled, and all the Shufflins shook each others hands, smiling happily. 
  
  
  
The video was titled,  The Shufflins Dance . Posted at Friday night. The perfect time for people to be up at night. 
  
Hammer waited, refreshing the page every time. 
  
The  MahoMaho Video  site usually has to wait a few seconds after a video is uploaded before comments start rolling in. 
  
Finally, the comments began scrolling on the video screen. 
  
‘ Ace of Hearts is so cute! ’ 
  
‘ Jack of Spades is so cool! ’ 
  
People actually like it? At last! Hammer felt relieved. At least it was useful enough to get comments. 
  
Maybe it’ll even top Puk Puck’s video! That will certainly earn Hammer a big promotion. 
  
Hammer refreshed the page again. 
  
More comments, more barrages of comments filled the screen. 
  
‘ Ace of Hearts is so cute! ’ 
  
‘ Jack of Spades is so cool! ’ 
  
‘ 7 of Clubs is so fast!’ 
  
Refresh again. The same barrage of comments, multiplied by 10. 
  
…Huh? 
  
Hammer looked back behind her. A group of Shufflins were texting on Magical Phones. 
  
Hammer looked at the Magical Phone. 
  
‘ Ace of Hearts is so cute! ’ 
  
‘ Jack of Spades is so cool! ’ 
  
Oh… 
  
…Now that makes sense. 
  
Hammer facepalmed herself, groaned, and sat back in her chair. Is this video ever going to go viral? 
  
This was practically supposed to be a PV for Osk Faction. Will she get that chance promotion? 
  
She slumped her head on the table, and let out a long groaning noise. How was she going to explain to her boss now? 
  
On the screen, when Hammer wasn’t looking, a new comment appeared. 
  
‘ Whoa, these girls are Magi-Cool! ’