Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 1 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

THE MOONLIT MAGICAL GIRL

La Pucelle’s death meant no one was cut that week. No one really questioned the cause of death, either. If someone dies, I’m not cut. If I kill someone, I’m not cut. If I want to live, I should kill. That was the best mind-set, and eventually everyone would come to realize that.

“You think it’ll be that easy?”

“It will, it will. The medium to gather people this time is a mobile game aimed at a younger demographic, pon. That’s drawn in lots of them, and they’re all young. Their youth makes them particularly emotional, so all we need to do is add a little fuel to the fire, pon.”

Fav was the one who had suggested using a mobile game as the medium. Meaning he probably wanted to claim the success as his own. Cranberry had first met Fav some time ago, but this part of him still rubbed her the wrong way. Most likely, Fav also found Cranberry to be a pain as well. That was how work relationships should be.

Cranberry rolled onto the bed and tapped her magical phone. A new header had been added to the start screen for Magical Girl Raising Project, entitled GET ITEMS.

Four-Dimensional Bag: Can hold items of any size or weight that can be carried by one person. Its fourth dimension gives it unlimited storage.

Invisibility Cloak: Makes the wearer invisible to others. Also erases smell, so dogs can’t find you.

Weapon: A weapon you can add to your costume. Can stand up to the abuse of superpowered combat. You may choose your weapon from the list. Give it a cool name!

Energy Pills: Medicine that makes you really pumped! This doesn’t heal wounds, so don’t make that mistake. Some side effects may occur from overuse. Ten pills per container.

Rabbit’s Foot: Brings good luck when you’re in big trouble. Whether that saves you or not still depends on you, so don’t rely on it too much.

In total, there were five downloadable items, and all of them were everyday tools from the Magical Kingdom. However, they each came with a price in order to use them. Fav, of course, had proudly announced that these items with irreversible effects would up the intensity of the fighting and cut off any means of escape for the girls.

Cranberry spoke into the device.

“Fav.”

“Yes, yes, master? What is your request, pon?”

The black-and-white sphere with butterfly wings faded in from a corner of the screen.

“Are you sure adding these items won’t ruin our goal of cultivating the strong? Some of these might allow the weaker ones to overcome the stronger ones.”

“If that’s all it takes to kill them, then they weren’t really that strong to begin with, pon.”

Fav did a flip in the air, scattering scales.

“Magical girls aren’t just users of magic, pon. The ones who pass that shallow selection test from the Magical Kingdom aren’t true magical girls at all, pon. They must be heroines, pon. If they die some silly death just because items were added to the game, they’re failures. Just consider them side characters that were supposed to die, pon.”

Inside the screen, Fav’s mouth twisted ever so slightly into what looked like a truly ominous smile.

“Hey, master! Fighting tough opponents is enough for you, right? And you hate a selection test that doesn’t choose the strongest survivors, right? So this is just fine! This sets up the true magical girls to brutally crush the ones who scheme and suck up to survive.”

After finishing his spiel, Fav did another flip and returned to his usual expressionless demeanor.

“That’s about it, pon.”

“I see.”

“Fav is trying to grant your wish to fight at full power, so the least you can do is grant Fav’s wish for a super intense spectacle, pon. That’s our contract, pon.”

“Am I part of this spectacle as well?”

“Maybe.”

Fav smiled, his expression unchanging.

“Are these items… free?”

“Magical Girl Raising Project is always free to play. You will never be charged money, pon.”

“But there are numbers under the names. The bag has a ten, the cloak has a twenty-five, the weapon’s five, the medicine’s three, the rabbit’s foot’s six…”

“You won’t pay money, but Fav never said there wouldn’t be a price, pon.”

“So I do have to pay something?”

“Part of your life, pon. The weapon takes five years, the bag ten. The cloak takes twenty-five years. The stronger a magical item, the greater the price you have to pay to create it. But for girls like you with magic that isn’t suited for fighting, this is a bailout, pon. You’re supposed to use these items to close the gap between you and the others, pon. When things are this dangerous, what’s a bit of your life that you don’t even know you have?”

Snow White leaned against the concrete-block wall and slid down. Maybe it was the dirty alley, devoid of even drunkards and stray dogs, but she felt alone in the world. She’d sought out a place to spend some time by herself, but the solitude was torture. She wiped her sticky, sweaty cheek with the back of her hand. Her skin was pale as a ghost’s, too.

Souta Kishibe’s death had been explained as a traffic accident. Snow White had attended the wake and funeral as Koyuki Himekawa, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at his corpse because it was so mutilated. The car that hit him had been discovered in a parking garage, but it was a stolen vehicle. The police still hadn’t found the driver.

Snow White wiped her eyes. This time, her hand was covered in tears. She’d thought they all dried up after she sobbed her eyes out over La Pucelle’s death, but just remembering her friend made them well and overflow again.

“Sou…”

She remembered the first day they’d talked atop the steel tower. The day she saved her from the candy thieves. The day she swore to be the sword that protected her. The day they shared their magic with each other and pinkie promised to not tell the others. The day she risked her life to save a kid from an oncoming car and later said, embarrassedly, “My body just moved on its own.” The day they celebrated a web post that called her a knight who protected a child. The days of discourse over manga and anime. The days they sat together and watched anime as children.

She recalled how, as Souta, he had looked at her with such jealousy when she proclaimed she’d become a magical girl. How, as La Pucelle, she had proudly shown her that a boy could become a magical girl after all. How, as Souta, he walked to school kicking a soccer ball. How Souta’s mom bawled over losing her son who had just entered middle school…

His warmth as he held her. The heat blooming deep in her chest.

Time seemed to blur. Memory after memory floated through her mind and disappeared. She couldn’t go on like this. It wasn’t right. She knew this, but her heart was frozen in place. It wouldn’t let her move forward.

“Sou… Sou…”

“Cry all you like. No one’s going to pity you, pon.”

Her magical phone had fallen screen-side down, which muffled Fav’s voice more than usual. It sounded as if the creature was somewhere else.

“Do you think if you snivel and whine, someone will come save you, pon? Are you going to let La Pucelle’s sacrifice go to waste, pon?”

The word sacrifice weighed on her back like a cross. They still hadn’t captured the driver that ran over Souta. Was his killer actually a human, though? She knew it was a horrifying thing to consider, but she couldn’t get it out of her mind.

Could one of her fellows have killed Souta? Was there a magical girl in the city capable of killing others like her? If so, then if she got one of those new items…

“Cheer up—for La Pucelle’s sake, too, pon. Summon some courage and choose an item, pon.”

Snow White shakily reached out for her device and opened up the item selection screen. Listed were five items. Underneath them, the numbers.

“My life…”

Her heart pounded heavily, and her breathing roughened. She exhaled, then inhaled. The sounds of her ragged breaths echoed in the empty alley. The ground shook—or was that just her imagination? Snow White couldn’t tell. If she took an item, she’d lose part of her life. At the least, that would be three years; at the most, twenty-five. What would La Pucelle do? Her fingers shaking, she clicked PURCHASE. The invisibility cloak that took twenty-five years off her life—with that, she could escape any attacker… possibly.

SOLD OUT!

Sold out?

The words on the screen indicated the item was out of stock. No matter which one she clicked, the same message appeared.

“Aw, I told you, pon. The early bird gets the worm, so you should have bought it fast.”

She dropped the magical phone. It bounced and rolled into the steel trash cans behind a restaurant with a clank.

“It’s always first come, first served…”

Whatever Fav was saying, Snow White couldn’t hear it. She just stared dumbly at her empty right hand.

Weapon, invisibility cloak, energy pills.

Together, Swim Swim, Tama, and the Peaky Angels had three items. They’d tried to buy them all, but the rabbit’s foot and four-dimensional bag were already gone.

“We should have looked earlier.” “Don’t say that, sis.”

After hearing from the Peaky Angels about the download items being up for sale, the four had gathered at Ouketsuji. They got Fav to explain the prices of the items, and Swim Swim instantly decided they should purchase them. She instructed Tama to take the weapon and the Peaky Angels to get the energy pills. When the Peaky Angels complained that part of their life span was too expensive, she purchased the invisibility cloak herself.

When a leader takes the initiative and gives up twenty-five years of their life, who would make a fuss about shortening their own life by a few years? Through her actions, Swim Swim demonstrated how necessary this was and moved the other three to action. Yunael ended up paying for the medicine after losing a game of rock-paper-scissors.

They hadn’t quite believed Fav’s explanation that they’d lose years off their life, but as soon as they bought the items they knew it was true. The moment they clicked the PURCHASE button, a shuddering sensation ran up their spines, as if something had been taken from deep inside. In its place, only a chill remained.

“Swim Swim, aren’t you scared of dying twenty-five years earlier?” Tama asked.

“Yes.”

“Really? Then why?”

“I’m the leader. It was important.”

Swim Swim looked the same as always. No burdens, fear, or hesitation. She was so unperturbed, you’d never guess she’d just lost twenty-five years of her life. It was appalling.

How would Ruler have responded? What would Ruler have done? Ruler had dominated Tama’s thoughts recently.

Their old leader had been full of confidence. She’d been smart. Strong. Confidence, brains, strength—Tama possessed none of these, but Ruler had.

She was also the one who’d taught Tama how to be a magical girl. Most who tried to teach her ended up throwing her out halfway through. Kindergarten, elementary school, middle school—the story was always the same. Her teachers either wrote her off as a lost cause, or she graduated before fully grasping the content.

But Ruler hadn’t abandoned her. She’d called her an idiot, hit her, and abused her, but still she’d allowed her to stay. Tama’s attempts to nuzzle her leg were met with kicks, but she hadn’t minded if it meant she wasn’t abandoned. The day she’d received her collar, she’d been so happy she ran around the temple grounds and got a scolding for being obnoxious.

She’d assumed Swim Swim thought the same of Ruler—until she suggested a betrayal.

At first, she’d thought it was a joke or something. Or maybe there was some deeper meaning she didn’t understand. She remained confused throughout the whole process, until eventually the coup d’état succeeded and Swim Swim became the new leader after Ruler’s death. Despite knowing the plan, she hadn’t understood it, so the news was a huge surprise to Tama. However, she was in no position to object, and unable to do anything, here she was at Ouketsuji.

“Ohhh, amazing!” “So magi-cool!” “It seems really sharp.” “I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of that.”

Swim Swim’s weapon resembled a naginata pole arm but lacked the distinctive curved blade. Instead, the steel resembled a giant knife. The handle was about a yard long, the blade maybe a foot. It certainly wasn’t worth all the praise the angels lavished upon it, and it looked unrefined and awkward. Were they just trying to suck up?

“Whatcha gonna name it?” “The instructions said to give it a cool name, right?”

Swim Swim bowed her head and thought for a while.

“Ruler,” she muttered. Unable to discern why she gave it the exact same name as their former leader, the Peaky Angels and Tama all stared at the weapon. It shone in the light of the angels’ halos.

Swim Swim had proposed they share the items among themselves. Ultimately, Tama ended up with the invisibility cloak, Swim Swim with the weapon, and the Peaky Angels with the energy pills. The reason Swim Swim wound up with the cheapest item despite paying the most was because she herself requested it. No one dissented.

“Don’t you want to use the best item?” Tama asked Swim Swim.

“This weapon goes with my magic. That cloak goes with yours,” she said. Then she added, “The Peaky Angels are holding the pills for safekeeping.”

Tama wondered what she meant by the cloak “going with” her magic, but couldn’t think of a reason. She sort of understood why a weapon suited Swim Swim—she looked best when wielding it, after all. Swim Swim reached out and patted her on the head, as if she thought Tama was troubled instead of attempting to think. Ruler most likely would have yelled at her and called her an idiot. She wasn’t sure which she preferred. Maybe one day she would be.

Everyone had to know—even Tama knew, and she was as slow as they come. La Pucelle’s accidental death that week meant no one was cut. Then the items had been added. Most of them seemed more appropriate for purposes other than helping people. Swim Swim and the Peaky Angels were raring to go. When she considered what for, Tama shivered.

High-quality furnishings decorated an elegant room: a shag carpet with a complex design, a small ebony desk, a black leather sofa, a gorgeous chandelier, simple watercolor paintings in lavish frames, a three-pronged coat rack, honey-colored candles in a dull-silver candelabra. There was even a pillar and solid wood flooring. This must be the club’s VIP room, she thought as she surveyed the place.

Calamity Mary inspired as many bad rumors as there were stars in the sky, one of which was that she had ties to a criminal gang. She’d entered the building via the back door and passed smoothly through to this room, ignoring the other guests and getting past the black suits without hassle. Given this, it was hard to deny the stories.

Magicaloid 44 was a robot magical girl. She wore backpack-shaped booster rockets on her back, a weapon rack around her waist, an antireflective hood over her main camera, and various smaller thrusters all over her body for minor adjustments during flight, and her body was made of magicalium alloy that felt like human skin but was harder than steel. If the other magical girls were humans in cosplay, then Magicaloid 44 was a robot made to look human. She was certainly different, that was for sure. Yet none of the staff shrieked in shock or pointed at her. Their expressions hardened, but that was all.

“Your teachings are sinking in, it seems.”

“Kissing my ass will get you nowhere.”

Calamity Mary chugged the amber liquid filling her Baccarat crystal glass. With her legs spread and her hips sunk into the sofa, she formed the very picture of a gunslinger out of a spaghetti Western.

Magicaloid 44 remembered the post that had made the rounds on the Internet at the beginning of the month about Calamity Mary’s assault on the apartment of a Triad gangster. Some reports said she’d acted alone, but the stories that called it a paid hit were more accurate. The compensation would be, say, permission to drink all the expensive alcohol in a high-class club and free rein to use it for her own personal reasons while the staff pretended not to notice anyone she brought with her.

Knowing her, it was quite possible. Their relationship was merely that of veteran and newbie, but even so, she understood that any comments about Calamity Mary’s behavior would cost you.

“The items are on sale now,” said Magicaloid 44.

“What did you buy?”

“Nothing. I value my life,” she answered honestly. No one lied to Calamity Mary.

“So boring. I bought the bag. It seems useful.”

“I envy you.”

How many times that day had Calamity Mary knocked back a glass of that amber liquid? While Magicaloid 44 remained expressionless on the outside, on the inside she sighed. Magical girls were immune to poison—their physical strength nullified its effects. So obviously they couldn’t get drunk off alcohol, yet still Calamity Mary continued to drink. Was it one of her human habits, or just a part of her magical-girl character?

“So, did you give any thought to my proposal?”

“What was it…? You wanted to team up with me?”

“Yes. That is what I said over the magical phone.”

La Pucelle’s death had meant no one was cut for one week. In other words, if anyone died, she would be the one cut, regardless of candy count. Some most likely considered this method quicker than simply earning candy. It was better to act than wait to be killed.

So far, there was Swim Swim’s band of four, Top Speed with Ripple, and Sister Nana with Winterprison. Magical girls were starting to team up more and more, and it was becoming far too dangerous to act alone. The ones still without a group were Snow White; the Magician of the Forest, Cranberry; Calamity Mary; and the new girl. Of those, Magicaloid 44 only had a connection to Calamity Mary, albeit a tenuous one. Mary was also the most reliable in combat.

“I do not mind if you think of me as an errand girl. The only way I survive is if I depend on your power.”

“I see.”

Calamity Mary stopped drinking and stared into Magicaloid 44’s eyes. She seemed to be appraising her, or searching for a hint of a lie. Or maybe she was just staring blankly with no thoughts behind her eyes at all. The room was soundproofed from the outside world, and without even a single ticking clock, it was truly silent. The ice in her glass cracked.

“Y’know, the good thing about you is you always seem ready to stab me in the back.”

“Betraying you is an unwinnable game.”

“I like how you keep me on my toes. If it’s not today, it’ll be tomorrow. Or the day after that.”

“Please.”

Magicaloid 44 laughed, trying to dodge her suspicion, but there was no telling if she actually had. In her head, she marveled.

Calamity Mary was absolutely correct.

Magicaloid’s magic changed daily. Each day, she could remove at random from her weapon rack one of 444,444,444 “useful futuristic gadgets” that became usable for that day only. If she could consistently obtain powerful gadgets, she’d never need to team up with anyone. She’d simply destroy all her enemies with ease. But some days she’d end up with items she could not for the life of her understand how to use, like the Fat Removal Manipulator or the Insect Breeding Appraiser. Those were hardly useful. For all her good days, she had equally bad ones, and that was no good.

Calamity Mary was a brutish, violent, irrational, and vulgar woman, but that was most likely the type of magical girl the management was looking for. Under the current rules, those were the only ones who could survive after the addition of the items. Thus, Magicaloid 44 had to follow suit.

“I’d rather die than partner with a fathead like Ruler or an idiot like Sister Nana. Winterprison and Cranberry I’d rather fight than serve. Snow White should just shut up and die.”

Calamity Mary’s appraisal of the other girls seemed convincing, at least to Magicaloid 44. The gunslinger was hardly the intelligent or logical type, but she did have experience.

“Then what about me? Magicaloid 44?”

“I guess you could be a good underling. A good servant to your master. You get a passing grade.”

“So you will team up with me?”

“If you pass my test, I don’t mind letting you watch my back.”

“Test?”

“Go kill someone.” Joy spread across her face as she imagined something. “Don’t worry. If you die instead I’ll be sure to avenge you. I’ll host the grandest, most extravagant, most breathtakingly bloody massacre in your honor.”

Support pole, sign, concrete base—she tore them apart with the ease of a knife through butter. Ripple shredded the steel signs, then chucked the pieces into a basket, one after another. No matter how she threw the steel, it would morph unnaturally and land in the basket, as if it had been sucked in. Her magic, the accuracy of her shuriken, seemed to affect anything she threw with her hands. The rules were surprisingly lax in that regard.

Kitayado locals had been complaining for over a month that the three foreign road signs—complete with concrete around the base, as if they’d been ripped straight out of the ground—had been abandoned in an emergency fire lane. Apparently, there was some confusion about which department was in charge of such matters. Until they were disposed of, they’d just sit there wasting people’s time, fanning the flames of their anger, so that night the two magical girls worked to dispose of them.

All that was left to do was leave the pieces marked as unburnable trash at the dump, and their mission would be complete. Once morning came, someone would see it and take care of it. This would most likely net them each one hundred pieces of candy, a large amount in line with the effort required.

“Okay, all ready. Hop on.”

“The weight…”

“Hmm?”

“The weight… Will it be okay…?”

“Oh, is that what you’re worried about? Naw, no problemo!”

The cargo hung from Top Speed’s broomstick, Rapid Swallow. Thanks to the additional concrete, the signs might have weighed about the same as a person, though it was difficult to tell. Ripple worried whether the broomstick would still float, but Top Speed easily took flight with Ripple and the remains of the signs in tow.

“I can’t go as fast, though. Not because of the weight, but because of the air resistance and stuff. I don’t really understand it.”

Ripple clicked her tongue.

The broomstick was certainly slower than normal. But that wasn’t what irritated her. It was because she was so used to sitting in the back seat that she instantly recognized the slower speed.

They had utterly and unequivocally become a pair. Even the Internet was calling them the witch and ninja duo. Ripple tsked and tightened her grip around Top Speed’s waist.

“Don’t get so mad.”

“I’m not mad…”

“Sure, it sucks we couldn’t snag an item. But how many things are really worth paying for with your life span?”

By the time Ripple had learned the items were on sale, they were all sold out. Apparently, the same went for Top Speed. She’d called right away.

“The game’s hook was that it was free to play, anyway. This is nothing.”

If they were partners, fine. Ripple just wished she could trust her partner more. Top Speed simply wasn’t reliable. She kowtowed to Calamity Mary, even groveled, and she couldn’t even obtain a single item. Ripple found herself constantly wondering if a mere chauffeur was worth calling a partner.

“We could be killed without one…”

“By who?”

“Another magical girl…”

“Ha-ha! No way. We can always run away if it looks like we’re about to die. Who’s gonna catch me if I snatch you up and zoom off into the sky?”

“Some of them can fly… Like the angels in the video…”

“Sure, the Peaky Angels and Magicaloid 44 can fly. But there’s a huge difference between flying and flying faster than anyone, Ripple. No magical girl can catch me!”

Top Speed grabbed the brim of her hat and pulled it lower. It was impossible to tell her expression from behind, but her tone was terribly light.

“I’m not bluffing or blowing hot air, either. I’m doing this magical-girl thing because I can run away whenever I like. I can’t die for at least six more months.”

She was constantly going on about those six months, so Ripple constantly asked her what would happen. But she never got a satisfying answer. Maybe she’d find out in six months.

Underneath the moonlight, the broomstick carried its two passengers across the sky.

Snow White spun to look behind her in the empty alley. Fear coursed through her veins, and her ears strained to hear even the tiniest noise. She could have sworn she heard something drop on the asphalt. Maybe it was just her imagination. Practically every day since La Pucelle’s death, she’d felt someone nearby and called out, but received no response. Sometimes, she sensed something approaching and lay in wait, but no one ever showed.

Whenever she turned around, no one was there. She knew her nerves were running high, but she couldn’t relax. She was too afraid.

Snow White ran.

She darted from alley to alley in the long shadows created by the moonlight. She tried her best to keep out of the light, but after three turns, she heard a noise behind her. Something was rhythmically tapping on concrete. When Snow White stopped, the noise stopped.

Footsteps?

Goose bumps ran up her skin. She turned around to find a pair of eyes staring right back at her. A magical girl she’d never seen before was hiding behind a wall. She had on an apron dress with puffy sleeves, socks, shoes, drawers, and a ribboned headband. She was the spitting image of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, but all her clothes were black. The only white thing on her was the creepy plush rabbit under her arm. Her hunched posture reminded Snow White of a predator about to pounce on its prey.

“Finally… I’ve found you.”

Joy shone from within her dull, iris-less eyes, and the corners of her lips twisted upward.

Snow White couldn’t move a muscle. One step, two steps, three—the girl slowly drew closer. On the fourth, she was about fifteen feet away. Snow White tried desperately to keep her knees from shaking. After that, the girl stopped.

The black Alice cocked her head. Slowly, ever so slowly, it continued to tilt until, with a pop, it fell off. Where her head had been, Snow White could clearly see her windpipe, her veins, and even her spine. The next second, a geyser of blood showered the small street.

The decapitated body sank to its knees and collapsed on top of its head. Snow White struggled to understand what had just happened. Covered in the black Alice’s blood, she stared wide-eyed and unblinking at the convulsing corpse.

“Well, it appears I ended up saving you.”

A robot appeared from behind the black Alice’s body and stepped over it, seemingly not worried if the blood stained her shoes. She splashed toward Snow White through the pool forming from the headless corpse.

“We have met in chat many times, have we not? I am Magicaloid 44.”

She looked exactly like a robot. Her skin was plasticky, her eyes red. Distinctive designs added a magical-girl touch to the mechanical bits on her back, legs, hips, and other places on her body. On her back, she wore a red backpack much like an elementary schooler’s.

“Hmm. You know, I imagined I might experience sickness, or uncontrollable shaking, or even ecstasy. Some kind of emotional response. But I only feel disgust, like I did when I was a child and we watched pigs being butchered on that school trip. An instinctual disgust, perhaps.”

Her face held no expression, but her tone suggested she was trying to joke.

“This is my first time killing a person… a magical girl, but it is not very interesting. I guess I will never understand why Calamity Mary loves killing so much.”

Magicaloid 44 extended her right hand, and Snow White recoiled.

“Can you see it? There are fine threads attached to my fingers. I guess you cannot. Boy, I am glad today’s mystery gadget turned out to be useful.”

Something glittered in the moonlight, but it was impossible to tell exactly what. Magicaloid 44 swiped her right hand to the side, and without a sound five cuts appeared in the concrete wall next to her. Snow White gasped.

“My plan was to just kill you.”

She kicked the head at her feet, sending it rolling over to the other girl. Snow White barely managed to remain standing—if it had landed face up, she surely would have sunk to the pavement. But the face was toward the ground.

“I was not planning to kill someone else. Though this is good-bye for you as well. There is no reason to keep you alive. Maybe Calamity Mary will be more pleased with two bodies instead of one. If murder repulsed me, I would be more careful. But it is no big deal. Well, good-bye.”

Magicaloid 44 raised her right hand, and a loud screech erupted, like metal being pierced. Her arm still in the air, the robot looked down to her chest. Something was protruding from it. Someone had impaled her through the chest with an arm. Unable to believe what she was seeing, Magicaloid 44 stared at the arm as it lifted her up and slammed her into the crimson puddle. Blood drenched Snow White and dyed her white clothes almost entirely red.

She’d held it in for a long time, but that was too much. A scream escaped from deep within her throat. Magicaloid 44’s impaler was none other than the decapitated black Alice, whose head still lay at Snow White’s feet.

Her own scream woke her up. She jumped out of bed, sweating profusely. Her pajamas were soaked and sticky and gross—and not just her pajamas, but her sheets, blanket, and pillow covers, too.

“Koyuki? What’s the matter?”

From downstairs, her mother called with worry.

“Nothing!” she answered.

A dream?

She hoped it was only a dream. But it had been too real. Though something like that could never happen in reality, it had. Koyuki glanced down at her right hand. In it she clutched a fluffy white rabbit’s foot.