Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 18 - Chapter 3

The Beginning

Monday, September 13th

Making a new body for Nana was a monumental task and couldn’t be completed in a mere day or two. The girls went about their daily lives as they continued to work on it piecemeal. With the discussions about the combat systems over and done with, Koutarou had gone back to doing chores, and he was currently out buying ingredients for tonight’s dinner. Normally that was a job for Kiriha, Ruth, Harumi, Shizuka, or any combination thereof, but with everyone so busy, only Kiriha had been able to break away for the dinner shopping trip today. She was currently out with Koutarou, walking arm in arm with him as they moved through the shopping street.

“Hello, Kiriha-san.”

“Hello, Obaa-san.”

“Kiriha-san, we just stocked up on some new tea leaves. You’re more than welcome to take a few samples home with you if you tell me what you think of them next time.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Well hello there, Kiriha-chan. Out on a date with your boyfriend today?”

Kiriha had a good rapport with most of the shop owners in the area. Just walking down the street, almost everyone would stop and greet her, ask for advice, or make small talk. Seeing it for himself, Koutarou realized just how far along her invasion was.

Everything seems to be going smoothly. I’m glad.

Kiriha’s invasion was a peaceful one. She wanted to move her people to the surface, but in a way that they could live happily and respectfully alongside the surface dwellers. Koutarou still wasn’t really sure that could be called an invasion, but he was happy nonetheless that things were going well. He couldn’t help smiling to see Kiriha getting along so nicely with all the people in town.

“Yes, we’re on a date!”

“Wh-What?!”

However, Kiriha’s bold remark rattled Koutarou right out of his peaceful happiness. After talking with Kenji and his father about the girls of room 106, Koutarou had started to grow more self-aware of his relationships with them. And hearing Kiriha declare that they were on a date together came as quite a surprise.

“That’s an awfully normal-looking boy you picked for yourself, Kiriha-chan.”

“Normalcy is important. Besides, we share a special bond.”

“Well said... Aaah, must be nice to be young! Damn! Good for you, kid!”

“Th-Thank you?”

“What are you saying, dear?!”

“Oh, no, honey! I didn’t mean it that way!”

The grocer’s wife overheard his conversation with Koutarou and Kiriha, and gave him an earful. Koutarou and Kiriha took their leave, and went back to walking down the street together.

“Heehee, as I thought, being together like this does make it look like we’re on a date.”

Kiriha glanced back towards the grocer’s shop and smiled as she hugged Koutarou’s arm tightly. When she leaned in closer, the smell of flowers tickled Koutarou’s nose. It was probably either the scent of the shampoo or perfume that Kiriha used, but Koutarou couldn’t tell which. It was a faint aroma that wasn’t overwhelming, which only enhanced Kiriha’s mature and calming aura.

“We’re only out to buy stuff for dinner.”

“It’s still a splendid date. When a man and woman are in a relationship, or when they’re on their way to being in one, spending time together like this is called a date.”

Kiriha smiled as she spoke confidently and squeezed Koutarou’s arm. To her, any time she got to spend with Koutarou was like a date. But her confidence and smile quickly seemed to fade...

“Of course, it would be a different story if you didn’t have any romantic feelings for me.”

That was Kiriha’s one true fear.

“So much has happened between us. I’ve gotten to know you in and out, your good sides and your bad. We’ve been through thick and thin, supporting each other every time... After all that, there’s no way I wouldn’t feel anything for you.”

Kiriha looked so unsure of herself that Koutarou didn’t hesitate to tell her how he honestly felt. They’d been through one incredible thing after another with each other over the last year and a half, any number of which could have meant the start of a relationship between them. It would be a lie for him to pretend like he hadn’t thought about it or that he felt nothing for Kiriha.

“Then it’s accurate to call this a date.”

A smile returned to Kiriha’s lips as she looked up at Koutarou and leaned against him. She was so close that if she got up on her tiptoes, their lips would touch.

“Regardless of the mood... can you really call shopping for dinner a date?”

Koutarou was happy to see Kiriha smiling again, but he was too embarrassed to admit that they were on a date. His only defense was to make a wry comment.

“Then let’s just say I’m being mischievousness.”

Kiriha got in front of Koutarou and stopped to embrace him. In the end, she was always one step ahead of him. Even if he couldn’t accept being on a date, he would still accept having a little fun. Kiriha was somewhat puckish by nature, after all.

“I’m sorry for always troubling you.”

Kiriha looked up at Koutarou from point blank range. Koutarou could see his wavering reflection in her dewy eyes. Despite what she’d said, it was quite clear to him that she wasn’t just being mischievous right now.

“Jeez... This is why they call people like you temptresses.”

“Why?”

“Because you know you could get away with anything right now.”

Just a few months ago, Koutarou probably would have been troubled by Kiriha’s actions. But after becoming more aware of his own feelings after talking to his father and Kenji, he’d come to appreciate how precious the girls all were to him. And that realization helped him better understand how Kiriha herself felt.

“The truth is... I’m actually hoping you’ll counterattack.”

If Koutarou did anything right now, he could always say it was Kiriha’s fault for tempting him. She’d intentionally put him a position where he could blame her for whatever happened. So in other words, this wasn’t her usual mischievousness, but a free pass disguised as mischievousness.

“Behaving like that is only going to get you hurt.”

Even knowing that, Koutarou couldn’t do anything irresponsible. He placed his hands on Kiriha’s shoulders and gently pushed her away from him. He felt it was what he had to do precisely because she was precious to him. If he let himself get carried away in the heat of the moment, he would lose sight of what really mattered.

“Heehee... You haven’t realized, have you, Koutarou?”

Despite being rejected, Kiriha smiled happily like she’d gotten her way.

“Realized what?”

“That you treasure us more than a normal boyfriend would treasure his girlfriend.”

Although Koutarou hadn’t done what she’d hoped he would, he’d surpassed all her expectations. His actions told her that he wouldn’t make a move until he was ready to take responsibility. Moreover, Kiriha felt like him holding back and choosing not to do anything thoughtless with her despite the intimacy of the moment was the same as him saying he truly loved her.

“The only things you haven’t done are formally declare yourself to be our lover and take the initiative in expressing your love. Aside from that, you do everything. Even beyond what a normal lover would.”

“What...”

Each of the nine girls were important to Koutarou. That’s why he wanted all of them to be happy and he would do anything in his power to make that happen. He had reason enough to put his life on the line for them and he wouldn’t hesitate to do so. And the girls felt largely the same way about him. In other words, their love and trust was mutual. If any one of them was in danger, the others would come running without a second thought. The relationship between them had long surpassed that of average friends. If anything, they were closer to family now.

Becoming lovers with someone or marrying them was essentially a way to bring someone into your life as family, but Koutarou was already past that point with the girls. While he stuck to saying they weren’t lovers, they might actually be something closer than that. That’s what Kiriha believed.

“Your hands told me everything. Just why did you push me away? Was it because you hate me?”

“That’s...”

Koutarou couldn’t argue with what she was saying. If they had just been friends, he could have easily gone along with things. She’d intentionally given him an opportunity to do just that, after all. But it was precisely because she was so special to him that he couldn’t. He couldn’t let her do that to herself.

“That’s how I know I won’t get hurt, even if I behave this way. You’re too considerate as it is,” Kiriha declared with a smile.

A deep sense of love and trust gleamed in her eyes. She was convinced that she would find happiness as long as she was with Koutarou, no matter what.

“Jeez... I admit defeat, Kiriha-san...”

Koutarou raised the white flag. Listening to her words, he started feeling like he wanted to live up to her expectations and trust.

“Then do you accept that this is a date?”

“Yes, but not by choice.”

“Not by choice, huh? Teeheehee...”

Kiriha knew that Koutarou’s pride as a man forced him to say that, and didn’t press any further. She believed a good woman allowed her man to save face.

After that, Koutarou and Kiriha continued their trip around the shopping street to get what they needed to cook dinner. Kiriha had called it a date, and the two of them were certainly intimate enough to make everyone who saw them think just that.

“Say, Koutarou...”

“Hmm?”

“Do you prefer a more traditional apron, or the gown-like kappōgi?”

“Why would you ask that all of a sudden?”

“I wanted to know which one you think I should wear.”

“Wouldn’t that depend on what you’re making? Surely an apron for making Western food and a kappōgi for Japanese food.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. When you come home at the end of the day, which one would you like to see me welcome you in?”

“Hey...”

“Just tell me.”

“A... A regular apron, I guess...”

“Why?”

“It’s not so soft and feminine.”

“You mean you think of me as some kind of tomboy?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

The People of the Earth’s civil conflict had been resolved and their peaceful invasion of the surface was now well underway. As a result, the workload on Kiriha as a commander was decreasing by the day, giving her more free time and allowing her to live more like a normal girl. It was almost as if her inner self—Kii—had been set free. As a result, while Kiriha still remained calm and dignified most of the time, she would sometimes unleash surprise attacks of her cute and playful side.

“Heehee, you mean you’re thinking of Kii.”

“Th-That’s not really...”

“No?”

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but...”

“Heehee... I love you, Onii-chan.”

“H-Hey, there are people watching...”

“Who cares?”

Koutarou found himself attracted to this new Kiriha, or more accurately, the original Kiriha. He was glad to see her being herself. Just like how he hadn’t wanted to see Yurika as a magical girl, he didn’t want to see Kiriha as a commander.

“Now that I think about it, Kii-chan had strong likes and dislikes, but... have you outgrown that, Kiriha-san? Do you still hate green peppers?”

“Actually, I still don’t like them, but I endure and eat them anyway.”

“Always the mature adult... You don’t have to eat them when it’s just the two of us, you know?”

“Heh, how reassuring.”

The final stop on their shopping trip would be for produce. Since carrying vegetables enough for ten people was rather heavy, they always saved getting them for last. As they entered the greengrocer’s, the shopkeep greeted them energetically.

“Welcome! Thanks as always for your patronage, Kiriha-chan!”

“And thank you for always being so generous.”

Like most of the other shops along the shopping street, the owners of this particular store knew Kiriha. She much preferred picking up fruits and vegetables here than at the supermarket. She thought their produce was far superior in terms of both freshness and taste.

“So, what did you come in for today?”

“Green peppers, eggplants, and onions. I was thinking of making a stuffing for some meat, so I’ll also need some veggies to throw into a salad. Let me know if you have any recommendations.”

Kiriha explained to the shopkeep what she needed, and discreetly held Koutarou’s hand so he couldn’t see. Since Koutarou knew that she was continuing the topic that they had been on a moment ago, he smiled and squeezed her hand back.

“I got some good radish sprouts and lettuce in today.”

“Then I’ll take those.”

“Good, good. Green peppers, eggplants, onions, radish sprouts, and lettuce, coming right up!”

The shopkeep started to fill a plastic bag with the vegetables Kiriha requested, but came to a stop about halfway through.

“By the way, Kiriha-chan...”

“Yes?”

“If you see my daughter on your way back, would you let her know it’s time to come home?”

The owner of the produce market had a daughter Kiriha had gotten to know through her volunteer work and the hero show. Whenever she spotted Kiriha, she would run right over to her with a giant smile on her face. It was just that kind of energy that could be problematic in a girl her age, however, and she was still out playing even though the sun had already started to set.

“Of course. I’ll let her know if I happen to see her.”

“Thank you, Kiriha-chan.”

“I’m happy to help after all you’ve done for me.”

The shopkeep gave his thanks to Kiriha as he handed over the plastic bag. It was full of everything she’d asked for in addition to several other vegetables thrown in as a bonus. Kiriha gratefully accepted the bag and politely thanked the shopkeep in return before she and Koutarou departed.

Kiriha wasn’t the only one who disliked green peppers in room 106. Sanae and Yurika were on the same team.

“Koutarou, if you love me, then eat my green peppers for me!”

“Fine.”

Chomp!

“Aaah, no, not like that! Spit it out! The taste is transferring over! Nooooo!”

“Here, Satomi-san. Have mine too.”

“Y-Yurika, y-you...! Bleeech! I-In that case, you’re going down with me!”

“Huh?”

“Eat up, Koutarou!”

“Mm!”

“Kyaaah! All I can taste is green pepper! It’s taking over my mooouth!”

The moment they realized that today’s dinner was meat stuffed with green pepper, Sanae and Yurika had decided to pick them out and leave them to Koutarou. However, their plan backfired almost immediately when Koutarou agreed, but caught Sanae and made her taste them too by sharing spiritual energy. Unwilling to suffer alone, Sanae then grabbed Yurika and shared senses with her too.

“What are those two doing...?”

Baffled as to why Sanae and Yurika were writhing in agony, Theia happily ate her meat stuffed with green peppers. The Mastir territory that Theia hailed from was rich in agriculture and produced several pungent vegetables she disliked. Having gotten used to even those, green pepper was nothing to her.

“By the looks of it, Your Highness, if we pick out the green peppers, Master will catch us and force us to eat them.”

Ruth gleefully watched the scene unfolding across the tea table. Koutarou, Yurika, and Sanae’s tussling looked fun to her. She was actually a little envious.

“Veltlion will force-feed us if we pick out the green peppers, huh?”

Clan gazed down at the stuffed meat on her plate and began pondering if she should give it a try. Realizing what Clan was thinking, Harumi called out to her.

“Clan-san, why don’t we try picking out our green peppers as well?”

“I-I can’t do something as shameless as that! It would be a breach of table etiquette!”

Embarrassed over being completely seen through, Clan hurriedly stuffed large bites of the dish into her mouth. Harumi suspected that was also a breach of table etiquette, but Clan was behaving too cutely for her to point that out.

“Aika-san, say, ‘aah!’”

“What is this?”

Maki was surprised when Shizuka suddenly thrust a forkful of stuffed meat in front of her. She had no idea what Shizuka was doing.

“I was getting a little jealous of Satomi-kun and the others, so I wanted to try out something similar.”

“Ah, so that’s what this is...”

With that, Maki finally understood what Shizuka was up to. She really just wanted to join in on the ridiculous fun.

“Yup. So come on! Say, ‘aah!’”

“Aah!”

Maki opened her mouth at Shizuka’s request, and Shizuka lovingly fed her a bite of dinner. Even though it was the same food she was eating before, Maki felt like it tasted better this way. It was her first lesson in how love enhanced the flavor of food.

“No fair, everyone, ho!”

“We have no likes or dislikes, ho!”

“I think they’d be more surprised that the two of you eat at all.”

“Nothing is impossible for haniwas, ho!”

“Heh, you’re right— Oh?”

Kiriha was chatting with the haniwas as she ate, but was interrupted by the buzz of her cellphone ringing. Kiriha pulled out her vibrating phone and saw the name of the shopkeep from the produce market displayed on the screen.

What could he want at this hour?

If she had forgotten something or left her change at the store, he would have either called right away or waited until the next day to give it to her. Discussing volunteer work shouldn’t be urgent enough for him to call during dinner, either. Wondering what this might be about, Kiriha got up from her seat and walked towards the kitchen to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Is that you, Kiriha-chan?!”

The shopkeep’s familiar voice came ringing through the speaker. He sounded like he was in a fluster, and Kiriha immediately got a bad feeling.

“Yes. Is something the matter?”

“My daughter still hasn’t come back! You haven’t seen her, have you?!”

“What?!”

It was now past 8PM, yet the greengrocer’s daughter who wasn’t even in grade school yet hadn’t come home. Kiriha’s heart sank as she feared the worst. It seemed her bad feeling wasn’t just a feeling.

The greengrocer’s daughter’s name was Youko. She was six years old and would be finishing kindergarten this year. As she was growing and learning things, she’d started going out to play on her own more and more often, especially with how busy her parents were running the shop.

Of course, her parents gave her the standard set of warnings appropriate for a child her age—be careful around cars, don’t talk to strangers, and come home before sunset. And before today, Youko had never once broken any of those promises. She was a clever girl and knew nothing good would come from misbehaving.

And that only made it all the more worrisome that she hadn’t come home today. That was why her father had called Kiriha in a panic. He and his wife felt guilty about leaving Youko to her own devices so often because they were busy with the store, and they were especially worried that something bad had happened to her because of it.

“...That’s what he said. I’m worried as well, so I’m going out to look for her.”

Once she got off the phone, Kiriha explained the situation to Koutarou and the others. Knowing that a little girl was out wandering the streets at night by herself, Kiriha intended to go look for her herself. She knew just how lonely that was.

“Me too.”

Hearing Kiriha’s plan, Koutarou hurriedly stood up and volunteered to go with her. He remembered Youko from the hero show, so he knew what she looked like and could help Kiriha search. Moreover, no matter how strong Kiriha was, he didn’t like the idea of her walking around the city alone at night.

“Count me in.”

Following Koutarou, Sanae stood up too. She was also worried, but mostly wanted to stick with Koutarou.

“Sanae, do you know what You-chan looks like?”

“I don’t, but I only need to find someone with an aura similar to the greengrocer’s, right?”

“How clever... We’ll be counting on you.”

“Leave it to me!”

With Sanae’s psychic powers, she was especially useful when it came to searching for people. Even if she didn’t know what Youko looked like, if she could track her down by aura, she stood a better chance of finding her than even Koutarou. As such, she was beaming with confidence and ready to go. Following suit, the other girls stood up one after another.

“Kiriha, Koutarou, I’ll come too!”

“I will also help.”

“Pardomshiha, we’re sending out unmanned scouts.”

“Yes, Clan-sama. Right away.”

Hearing that a little girl was missing, not a single one of them could just sit back and relax. They were all anxious to do what they could to find her.

“Thank you, everyone.”

Kiriha bowed politely to her friends. Unlike with Koutarou and Kiriha, Youko was a total stranger to the other girls. Nothing said that they had to help, making their offers of support especially welcome.

“Don’t mention it, Kiriha-san.”

“Yeah, Sakuraba-senpai is right! Isn’t she, Aika-san?”

“Yes. If we all search for her, we should be able to find her sooner.”

In the end, everyone in room 106 decided to help look for Youko. However, as they all headed towards the door, Koutarou remembered something important.

“Yurika.”

“Yhes, What ihs iht?”

When Koutarou called her name, she poked her head over the group. Her cheeks were still stuffed full of food.

“You stay behind.”

“Whaaat?!”

Hearing what Koutarou said, she quickly swallowed her last bite of dinner and began protesting.

“Why are you bullying me even at a time like thiiis?!”

She was on the verge of tears. She was just about to go to work in the name of love and courage, but Koutarou was cruelly shutting her down.

“No, it’s not like that.”

Realizing that she was about to start with the waterworks, Koutarou hurriedly shook his head.

“Then what is it like?”

Koutarou seemed to be saying he wasn’t telling her to stay behind to be mean, but Yurika wasn’t fully inclined to believe that. She beheld him suspiciously.

“Perhaps he’s not bullying you so much as he is politely saying you’ll be useless?” Theia held a finger up and suggested.

“Is that what it is?!”

“Theia, don’t make things worse!”

“Oh, that wasn’t it?”

“While she might be useless, there’s more to it this time.”

“So you really do think I’m useless!”

“Could you guys shut up and listen?!”

Koutarou loudly scolded them for getting carried away and explained himself.

“Yurika, you should stay with Nana. She hasn’t had dinner yet, and there’s other stuff you need to do, right?”

“Ah!”

Koutarou had told Yurika to stay behind because someone should stay aboard Blue Knight and take care of Nana. While her limbs were being worked on, she was currently bedridden and couldn’t do much on her own. She needed help with almost everything from changing her clothes to bathing. Yurika, as her best friend, simply seemed the best candidate for the job. That was all there was to it; it wasn’t like Koutarou had singled her out to be mean.

“Th-That’s right! I completely forgot about Nana-san!”

“How could you forget about your savior?”

“Heh... Eh heh heh...”

Yurika laughed awkwardly with an embarrassed smile plastered on her face. She had tunnel vision, and had completely put Nana out of her mind when she heard about the missing little girl. That could be considered cold, but compared to her savior who was on the path to recovery, the missing child was undoubtedly the much bigger and more immediate problem.

In the end, Koutarou and the eight girls—everyone minus Yurika—headed out to look for Youko. It was an issue that most of them didn’t know what she looked like, so Kiriha got the haniwas to display an image of her from their memories. Once that problem was solved, everyone split up. Since Yurika was staying behind to take care of Nana, she would also be playing the part of nerve center. If anyone found anything, they would report to Yurika who would then notify everyone else.

Koutarou had ended up in a group with Sanae and Harumi—neither of which could be out on their own, albeit for different reasons. They’d both chosen to go with Koutarou because he was the most reliable.

“Satomi-kun, I’ve drawn up how everyone’s spread out.”

While Harumi couldn’t go out on her own because of her weak constitution, she served as the brains of the group. She was calm and thoughtful, and made an excellent complement for the brash Koutarou and reckless Sanae.

“If the shopping street is the epicenter, Theia-san and Ruth-san are heading north, Kasagi-san and Aika-san are heading south, and Kiriha-san and Clan-san are heading west.”

Harumi had sketched a map in her notebook of the various locations and paths of the other groups. Names and portraits were penciled in the relevant places, giving Koutarou and Sanae an easy to understand plot of everyone’s positions.

“So we should go east?”

Koutarou smiled for a moment as he looked at Harumi’s adorable handwriting and sketches, but quickly pulled himself together to focus on the task at hand. He had a missing kindergartner to find, and no time to waste.

“I think having everyone that can use magic grouped to the east and south might be unwise, so perhaps we should start going eastbound, but circle up north.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

They were in enough of a hurry that they hadn’t put much thought into the formation of the groups, and it seemed there had been something of a bias in abilities. That was made quite clear by Harumi’s map, and Koutarou thought she had the right idea about how to proceed based on that.

“Ahaha, there’s no need to worry!”

Unlike Harumi, Sanae couldn’t be left on her own because of her personality. Since nobody knew what she’d do if left to her own devices, she was placed in Koutarou’s care for safety’s sake. Sanae just wanted to be with Koutarou, so she’d had no objection to this arrangement.

“I’ll find You-chan right away!”

“You sure sound confident.”

“Now’s the time for psychic beauty Sanae-chan to really shine!”

Since Sanae could track auras, locating people was one of her specialties. In fact, she was already scanning the area with her spirit sight. Despite the fact that she looked like she was just messing around, she was taking her job seriously.

“We’re counting on you.”

“You won’t be disappointed! As thanks, give me lots of head pats later!”

“Sure, sure.”

“Satomi-san, would you do the same for me?”

“You too, Sakuraba-senpai?!”

“Don’t be a stingy jerk. Give Harumi some pats too.”

“Fine, sheesh...”

“Heehee... I’m looking forward to it.”

While it was alarming that Youko still hadn’t returned home, no one had any way of knowing how serious the situation really was. Chances were that she was just lost somewhere, so Koutarou and the girls would find her eventually if they kept searching. That was what they all believed. It was a sign of the confidence they’d built up through their many battles.

“Heya, I found something right off the bat!”

Not betraying their hope, Sanae found traces of what she suspected was Youko’s aura almost immediately. While she hadn’t met Youko before, she knew her parents from the produce market, so she used that as a basis to search for similar auras.

“Well done! Where is she?!”

“It looks like she was going for the park. There are traces of happiness headed that way.”

“Let’s go, you two!”

Having found a lead, Koutarou and his team went straight for the park with quickened steps. They wanted to find Youko as soon as possible and reunite her with her parents.

The park in question was more of a playground located in the middle of a residential area. It was small, less than ten meters across, but full of swings and slides. Sanae could detect traces of Yoko’s aura here.

“Hmm, it’s kind of going around in circles.”

“In circles?”

“Yeah, like this.”

Sanae began running around the park as she followed Youko’s aura. Seeing her reenactment, Koutarou quickly realized what Youko had been doing.

“It looks like she was playing tag or something.”

With her oh-so youthful appearance, Sanae herself looked like a child playing as she traced Youko’s steps. She looked just like she was trying to avoid getting tagged.

“But it looks like she stopped from time to time. Like here... or here.”

After running for a while, Sanae paused under the slide and the bushes by the edge of the park. It looked like she was hiding rather than running from someone.

“Satomi-kun, they might have been playing hide-and-seek.”

“Yeah, that might be it.”

If Youko had been playing hide-and-seek, the traces of her aura would make sense. She even seemed to move from spot to spot regularly, as if changing places at the start of every game.

“So maybe she found a good place to hide and just fell asleep there?”

“Well, after all that running around, it’s entirely possible.”

“Higashihongan-san, can you tell where Youko-chan was last?”

“Gimme a sec. Hrm...”

Sanae looked over the park. There had been several children all running around together, so the traces of their auras were intermingled for the most part. It wouldn’t be hard for her to pick out the most recent trace of Youko, it would just take her some time to find it.

“This one, I think.”

After looking around for a while, Sanae found what she thought was the freshest residual energy from Youko’s aura. It seemed she’d left the park and headed down the adjacent road alone.

“Did You-chan leave the park?”

“It doesn’t seem like they were playing hide-and-seek anymore...”

It was highly unlikely that Youko had left the park while playing, and Koutarou and Harumi were concerned about why she might have wandered off if she wasn’t going home.

“Whatever, let’s try following it.”

“Right.”

However, nothing would come from trying to puzzle it out. They took action instead, and followed Sanae who was already hot on the little girl’s trail.

“Huh?”

Not far out of the park, Sanae suddenly came to a stop. She then cocked her head to the side and looked around.

“What is it?” Koutarou asked.

“Hmm, well, the aura stops here.”

Sanae had stopped cold because the traces of Youko’s trail did too. It was like someone had drawn a line and erased every trace of her past this point.

“How’s that possible? What could do that?”

“Well, you could hide your spiritual energy within an even bigger source. It happens when setting foot on holy ground like at a shrine, too.”

Sanae was following Youko’s aura with her spiritual senses—different from smell, touch, and sight—and there were two primary ways someone could keep her from “seeing” traces of their spiritual energy. The first was to hide under cover of an even greater source of spiritual energy, and the second was to enter an area where it was impossible to leave traces at all.

“But there’s no sign of a bigger source of spiritual energy here...”

“Then is this some kind of sacred ground?”

“It shouldn’t be. So if that’s the case, it would have to be because there’s something temporary here like a portable shrine or hearse... That’s all I can think of.”

There weren’t many types of moving sacred objects that Sanae knew of. Portable shrines and hearses were first on the list, both being important tools used in sacred ceremonies. Since there hadn’t been any festivals recently, a hearse seemed like the most likely culprit in this scenario.

“I don’t see any hearses around... Did she get on some other kind of ceremonial object?”

“Maybe, but...”

The traces of Youko’s aura stopped cold like she’d climbed aboard something, but it was hard to imagine what kind of sacred object would have come to pick up a little girl. Sanae wasn’t convinced that was the right answer, and kept looking around for more clues. That was when Harumi spoke up.

“Satomi-kun, there’s something I would like to try...”

“What is it?”

Koutarou turned to look at Harumi, and she timidly explained herself.

“I was wondering if it might be possible for magic to conceal spiritual energy...”

“Is there magic like that?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I was thinking of trying it to find out.”

Harumi was wondering if it was possible to essentially jam traces of spiritual energy with some kind of magical barrier. Since she could use ancient magic through Signaltin, she wanted to give it a try herself.

“Sure, go for it.”

“All right... Oh spirits who live among us and rule the material and the ethereal! Gather before me, hold hands, and become a shield to protect against evil! Appear, Great Shield of Spirits!”

As Harumi recited her incantation in Ancient Forthorthian, her hair began glowing silver. It grew stronger and stronger as mana gathered, gradually setting her whole body aglow. It then stretched out from her and covered Sanae and Koutarou in a thinly glowing veil too. It was a magical shield that disguised one’s soul.

“Now it should be impossible to see our spirits.”

Harumi wanted to find out if concealing the spirit was the same thing as concealing spiritual energy.

“Well, Sanae?”

“Huh? Well, I can still see your spiritual energy.”

“That’s because you’re inside the barrier too.”

“Oh yeah.”

Sanae then left the effective area of the spell and looked back at Harumi and Koutarou.

“Hey, wow! I can’t see your spiritual energy anymore!”

“Really?!”

“Yeah! I can see you two just fine, but I can’t see your auras!”

Harumi’s spell had concealed their auras, which meant that Sanae couldn’t see their spiritual energy from outside the barrier. Her intuition had been spot on.

“Now that I think about it, something like this happened when Aika-san showed up.”

“Did it?”

“Yeah.”

When Maki first fought Yurika, Sanae had lost sight of Yurika’s spiritual energy when trying to track her down. Maki had blanked out their memories of what went down that day after the fact, but she’d lifted the spell not long after joining up with them.

“Okay, then this means a magician is involved.”

“Wouldn’t it have to be Darkness Rainbow, Satomi-kun?”

“What?! Them again?!”

“Calm down. We still don’t know for certain.”

Rainbow Heart forbade the personal use of magic. If there wasn’t a fight going on, none of its members would use something like a stealth spell in the middle of town, and it wasn’t like there were any traces of a fight nearby. That being the case, all signs seemed to point to Darkness Rainbow. But they couldn’t just jump to conclusions. It was only a theory for now.

“Oh?”

It was about then that Koutarou’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen to see that he had had a message from Yurika.

Koutarou and the others had split up into four teams to look for Youko, but Yurika’s message had specifically been sent to Koutarou, Shizuka, and Theia’s teams. That meant the information had originated from Kiriha’s team, and Yurika was just passing it along to the rest of them.

The message read as follows, “I got a call from Kiriha-san. Apparently, greengrocer went to the police and found out that there have been several reports of missing children recently. The police took his report too, and are now supposedly considering launching a criminal investigation.”

It turned out that Youko wasn’t the only child who’d gone missing. A smattering of other children has disappeared over the past few days. The incidents were scattered across the city, so the police didn’t believe they were related at first. But with the reports piling up, it didn’t seem there was any way it could all be a coincidence. By the time Youko’s parents went to report her missing, the police were able to inform them of that much.

The kidnapped children were all huddled in the corner of a dark, abandoned building. They were all young, some not even in kindergarten yet, and rightfully terrified at what had happened to them. Being snatched away was any child’s nightmare.

“I’m glad you’re all keeping quiet. Babysitting isn’t my style.”

As Harumi had suspected, Darkness Rainbow was responsible for the missing children. While Green and Blue were finishing preparations for their ritual, Crimson had gone out to find the kids. Magic made it easy to kidnap them, and equally easy to cover her tracks.

“So you say, but the first thing you did was put the noisy children to sleep with magic.”

Green, who had recently started working together with Crimson more often, paused what she was doing and sighed. When Crimson returned with the children, many of them were screaming and crying. Crimson cast a spell on them to put them to sleep, which only terrified the other children more. They didn’t know they were sleeping; all they knew was that they’d suddenly stopped moving. After that, the other children didn’t dare do anything to anger the evil magical girls. They simply huddled together, trembling in terror as they awaited their fates.

“Really, you have that girl to thank, not your ‘babysitting’ or your spells,” said Blue as she pointed to the small magic circle the children were confined within.

Essentially, it was a cage made out of magic. Inside of it were ten children: four asleep and six awake. The oldest girl of the bunch was doing her best to keep the others encouraged.

“Cheer up, everyone! Someone’s going to come save us!”

“But it’s been so long...”

“Yeah, nobody’s coming for us!”

The young girl trying to keep morale up was none other than Youko. She was the oldest of the children, and having grown up in a busy home, she could keep things together better than most kids her age. She too was scared, but she still did her best to try and keep the others from despairing.

“Harukazeman will come! I know it!”

“Harukazeman will?”

“Then why hasn’t he come yet?!”

“He’ll come right after beating up Baron Demon! So we all have to be smiling when he gets here, or else he’ll be sad!”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right.”

“Okay...”

Youko was a smart girl. She knew that Harukazeman was just a fictional character from the local hero show. But in this situation, she needed his strength. A hero of justice would come save them eventually... That was the kind of hope the children needed.

“I’m glad she’s just a child... A girl like her would make a troublesome enemy.”

Calmly observing the children, Blue thought Youko—though she didn’t know her name—was a remarkable specimen. Despite being in danger, she was still courageous, calm, and thoughtful. Blue kept an eye on her, worried she might even be clever enough to come up with an escape plan.

“She’s just a kid. She can’t do anything.”

Crimson shrugged as she glanced at the children. She believed power was everything, so the children looked especially helpless in her eyes.

“Crimson, what were you like ten years ago? Were you the kind of child that would just sit and wait quietly in a situation like this?”

“That’s...”

However, Crimson shut her mouth when Blue called her out. As a child, Crimson had only ever thought about how she could pull one over the adults. She’d craved power as long as she could remember, and she’d successfully outwitted adults who let their guard down more than a few times even as a kid. She had to make sure the tables didn’t get turned on her now.

“Let’s put up some more safeguards in addition to the barrier to make sure they can’t escape. That way it won’t matter how clever she is.”

Green loaned the humbled Crimson a helping hand. Even if there were several smart children in that group, there was no way they’d be able to break through multiple spells. According to Green’s divinations, the odds of it happening were next to none. And with that secured, they’d only have to worry about their ritual being interrupted.

“Knock yourself out. I have to go out now anyways.”

Crimson gratefully accepted Green’s assistance. And with that, she tried to take her leave and force an end to the discussion.

“Where? We should have enough sacrifices now.”

However, Blue stopped her. Crimson had been kidnapping children to use as sacrifices for their ritual, but ten of them should be perfectly sufficient. As such, Blue didn’t see any reason for Crimson to go back out.

“I’m going to save Maki. The only uncertain element of this plan is what’s going on with her right now, isn’t it?”

While Crimson wanted to escape any further conversation, she was also very serious about saving Maki. Whether or not Maki was their enemy had the potential to greatly affect the outcome of the upcoming fight.

“Crimson, I’ve already factored into the plan that Navy-san is being mind-controlled and will be fighting against us.”

Green, who had carefully designed this operation, had already chalked Maki up as an enemy. Machines, drugs, magic... There were all kinds of methods to control a human mind. It was foolish to assume that Maki was just being held prisoner. Or so she thought. Green had no idea that those were all things that Koutarou and the others would never actually do, but since Darkness Rainbow regularly employed such tactics, it was something she naturally felt she had to consider.

“That means that if Maki’s actually on our side, our chances of success increase even more, right?”

“Well, of course.”

Green shrugged. There was no need to even divine what Crimson was asking; it was obvious. If Maki turned out to be on their side, then things would be even easier than they’d anticipated.

“I don’t have anything better to do now that all the sacrifices have been gathered, so I might as well.”

“Well, it would be better than doing nothing.”

After hearing Crimson out, Blue relented.

According to their plan, Crimson was in charge of gathering the sacrifices, while Blue and Green were in charge of preparing the magic circle for the ritual. Crimson had just finished her job first. She could stay and help work on the magic circle, but Blue and Green had it under control as it was. It would only cost them time to stop what they were doing and explain it to her. Crimson wasn’t even particularly good at minding the children, so sending her after Maki seemed like the best use of her time. If she was successful and managed to bring Maki back, it would benefit everyone.

“Crimson, you just want Navy-san back, don’t you?”

“Ahaha! So you get me after all, Green! I’m gonna go get her, see to it that she gets stronger, and then fight her with all of my power!”

Crimson didn’t just want to save Maki for the sake of the mission. She wanted to help Maki because she saw her as her rival. By Crimson’s logic, Maki should keep getting stronger so they could fight one day. And if she brought her back to Darkness Rainbow now, she could learn scientific magic. With that, their fight in the future would be even grander.