Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 16 - Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

MIDDAY PARTY

  Lapis Lazuline the Third

When Lazuline the First got a contact from the team that was monitoring Umemizaki Junior High with a report that “the Caspar Faction is making their move,” she gave instructions, just like originally planned. They would not be allotting additional forces to the magical-girl class—they would entrust it to Ranyi, Diko, and Princess Lightning, and the main force, an elite team of a few dozen composed largely of Lazuline candidates, would be a couple dozen miles away from Umemizaki, charging into the Caspar Faction headquarters, a mansion in a certain suburb. Their goal was the head of Frederica, who was staying behind there.

Around her, all the members of the team were busily working. Naturally—they were about to launch a raid. While everyone around them was scurrying about, teacher and student, Old Blue and Lazuline the Third, were sitting opposite each other in the department head office enjoying black tea and sweets.

“I feel bad taking it easy having teatime when everyone is so busy,” said Lazuline.

“We’ll be busy soon enough. We’re just taking it easy now because we’ve already prepared.”

Even though it was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and still a day until the Founding Festival, Frederica had set things in motion. Her master’s prediction that if they set up something as convenient as the Founding Festival, then Frederica would pick another time had been correct. But if they had informed the others and made it an order, then Frederica may have caught on and changed her course. So her master had figured they should not tell anyone else, even if things got into a bit of a flurry, while privately getting themselves ready.

“Worst case, I don’t mind if the relic is stolen from the ruins,” said Old Blue. “So long as Frederica is eliminated, even misuse of the relic has been planned for.”

“Shouldn’t we focus our forces on defending the magical-girl class?” Lazuline asked. That was essentially an indirect protest against making the class a decoy.

But her master shook her head with a smile. “If Frederica is left alive, in the end, we’ll end up right back where we started. My ultimate goal is to secede from the Magical Kingdom and destroy the magical-girl system… Frederica will absolutely try to prevent that.”

Her expression turned serious a moment before returning to a smile. “Besides, I don’t think what you’re imagining will happen.”

“What am I imagining?”

“You’re thinking the class is to be a decoy or left to die, aren’t you? I’m sure that won’t happen. You’re misjudging the strength of your friends who were sent to the magical-girl class. You’re underestimating them.”

“I’m not…”

Or maybe I am, she thought, and closed her mouth. But Frederica had sent in a lineup good enough to be in the magical-girl class, too. They were surely capable mercenaries. She wouldn’t say that Ranyi and Diko were weak, but compared with hardworking pros on the front lines—and the upper strata among those—they weren’t good enough yet.

Watching Lazuline, for some reason, her master nodded like she was amused. “Their strength is the real thing—especially Princess Lightning. Though it seems you can’t bring yourself to like her.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Not fond of her origins?”

“That’s not it at all.”

No magical girl under Lazuline’s banner was blessed in the area of family. It was on the better side if both their parents were dead—most of these magical girls had been kicked out or nearly killed or sold off before being taken in by the First.

Of these girls, Princess Lightning had a particularly tragic history. She had been a literal product. She was a designer child created by a mage with an addled sense of ethics—she was a human developed to be like a pet, made with the goal of being as beautiful as possible. Since she had been unfit as a product, she eventually wound up with her master.

Her background wasn’t the reason Lazuline didn’t like her. Lazuline didn’t feel sorry for her, but neither did she dislike her because her origins were different from others’.

Until now, Lazuline had felt the reason she didn’t like her was rather hard to put into words. But those remarks from her master enabled her to finally hit on it. What she didn’t like was her master’s stance toward her.

As for whether she knew how Lazuline felt—well, she probably did. She was that sort of girl.

Smile still on her face, her master continued. “The Princess Plan came to fruition with Lightning—combined with the essentials of artificial magical girls that were received from elsewhere. She’s different from earlier artificial magical girls… No, she is different from every magical girl, myself included. With them handling the school, we don’t need to worry.”

“Okay. Well, if you say so, then all I can say is, all right, then. But did you know that there’s something else that I’m far more worried about?”

“Oh? What are you worried about?”

“Master, there’s no need for you to go out along with us. It’s pointlessly dangerous, and I think it would be best if you quietly hid in the R&D Department or at some hideout.”

“I can’t do that.” With a gentle smile, Old Blue firmly shook her head. “It would actually be dangerous for me not to go.”

“You mean that you can’t leave it to your students, is that it?”

Her master did not reply, letting her fork sink into her mille-feuille. The cake was cleanly cut in half without any resistance, the round slice of lemon included. Stabbing her divided mille-feuille with a fork, she brought it to her mouth and ate it with relish. Seeing that drew Lazuline to eat her own mille-feuille as well.

“Frederica will have anticipated that I will attack the Caspar Faction headquarters when their protections are thin, with their forces sent to the magical-girl class. That might even be the reason for this sudden attack on the class—she’s thinking to lure out her sworn enemy Lapis Lazuline the First, and to that end deliberately leaving her headquarters bare to make herself seem weak there.”

Lazuline was about to say, If you understand all that, then isn’t that all the more reason you shouldn’t go? But the mille-feuille got in the way, and all she could do was mumble around the food. There was no way her master could have heard what she’d said, but she nodded regardless.

“Frederica is making herself a decoy in order to lure me out. And I am also a decoy. Though I would be slightly safer if I concealed myself, when Frederica realizes that, she might disappear, figuring there is no point in making herself a decoy.”

When it came down to it, her master was saying that she and Frederica were making each other hostages, collateral in a deadly fight. Lazuline snorted. I wish adults would act their age, she thought as she swallowed the mille-feuille she’d been chewing.

  Pythie Frederica

“And so this place will likely be attacked.”

Asmona, sitting on the other side of the table, made no comment and did not nod, just looking back at Frederica. She wasn’t trying to hide her sincere exasperation. She slowly shook her head, adjusted the position of her glasses, and sighed deeply. “Is that what an adult does?”

“It’s what a magical girl does.”

“It’s not as if magical girls are allowed to do anything they please.”

“I don’t believe at all that this is allowed.”

“You should consider the trouble you cause for others. I don’t even want to think about how many people will die.”

“Let’s both do our best not to be added to the register of the dead…besides.”

“Besides?”

“Mephis Pheles has been replaced. This is the third.”

Asmona’s nostrils flared as she exhaled. “…And Adelheid?”

“She’s still safe, but I don’t know for how long. I’ve judged that rather than standing idly by as my forces dwindle, I should cause trouble myself.”

“But…if that’s the case, then some more defense… I know, we can still put up a barrier now.”

“That wouldn’t make it in time. For a siege, the castle is always at the advantage. I have already set up some traps, and if they do anything boorish such as dropping bombs with bombers, for example, or sending in magical girls carrying bombs to blow it up from the inside—we have countermeasures for that, which should be enough. We are prepared so that there should be no problems for magical girls to have a large-scale battle.”

Asmona took off her glasses, placed them on the table, looked up at the ceiling, massaged the line in her brow, and sighed again. This sigh was bigger than the first.

She turned back to Frederica and thrust her index finger at her. It was a rude gesture for her, but it only gave Frederica a sense of satisfaction, and she responded with a smile.

“Was there something?” Frederica asked.

“You’re crazy.”

“That’s not true at all. They’re going to be thinking the same things as they come to attack.”

“What is with you people? It seems you understand each other quite a bit. It’s gross.”

“I believe that people of poor character will understand one another rather well.”

“If you get along that well, then shouldn’t you work together to go up against the Magical Kingdom?”

“Unfortunately, it’s such a relationship that does not allow both parties to live.”

“Ridiculous.”

“It is ridiculous indeed, but it is also a realistic threat.”

“Now I can finally understand why I was left behind here. I kept thinking for sure that you would have me go to the magical-girl class.”

Frederica did have a plan to send Asmona to the school since due to circumstances, she hadn’t been able to use Amy and Monako, who she’d originally been going to send. While the pair were lovably capricious, that was also the reason they were difficult to handle.

It was regrettable that she couldn’t use them anymore. But she couldn’t spend all her time on regrets.

A fight between magical girls with hopeful futures and that pair of brutes would certainly have been fun, but unfortunately, she had been forced to give up on it. And though she had considered the matter, she had come to think that using Asmona in place of Amy and Monako would be a bad idea. They had different roles, to begin with. If Amy and Monako were not there, then there was nothing for it but to make things work out without them. She had other aces up her sleeve, though said aces were rather dubious.

Frederica waved her hand in front of her face. “No, no, I can’t say you’ve fully understood it. I wouldn’t put you to waste by leaving you behind as a mere guard.”

Even now, she remembered in detail. Surely, she would not forget her whole life long the blue magical girl who had fought the enemies in front of the ruins Puk Puck occupied. Her polished martial arts, exceptional physicality, the magic that ended her opponents with a touch—she had reached the heights with a different approach from “strong magical girls,” such as the Sage incarnations or those of the Archfiend Cram School. Frederica had found out after the fact that she was the new Lazuline. That had more than made sense.

While part of Frederica had been like a young child watching a movie fight scene with sweat clenched in her hands, the dirty, adult part of her had been coolly evaluating her. If she went up against her in the future, then she had to come up with some counterstrategy, or she would most definitely get hurt. It would be a waste to deal with her before it turned into a fight. For a magical girl like that, her beauty was perfected by being dealt with in battle.

“Most likely, their best assassin will be sent to me, Pythie Frederica. Lapis Lazuline the Third. I just happened to run into her fighting, but she stole my eyes and my heart. Trying to take her with numbers will just lead to more pointless deaths. To do something against that, you need the same sort of monster. The Great Adulteress Asmona, the oldest student of Archfiend Pam, one of the most feared in the Archfiend Cram School, and one of the Seven Great Devils, will surely make it a good fight. And on top of her strength, she’s wonderfully devoted to the mission. She won’t run away even if she’s at a bit of a disadvantage.”

That could also be taken as “it’s great that you can use her as a sacrificial piece,” but that wasn’t what Frederica really meant, and Asmona would understand, too. What Frederica really meant was that she wanted to try making two really strong magical girls fight. Once she actually made them fight, she had no idea which would win. It wouldn’t be strange if they had a long fight that came out to a draw, and it also wouldn’t be strange if the match ended in an instant. That was what made it fun.

Asmona sighed again and put her glasses back on, set her hand on the brim of her newsboy cap, and pulled it down lower. Looking at Frederica with resentment from her upturned eyes, she groaned something.

Noticing that she was shy at having been praised, Frederica pinched the back of her right hand in order to restrain the smile inside her.

  Thunder-General Adelheid

When she received the message from Frederica, she thought for sure that it had to be a joke or something. Frederica could be nasty sometimes and enjoyed seeing other people panic. Adelheid didn’t imagine there was anyone who would say seriously, “We’re going to attack the magical-girl class in the middle of the day, so please back me up,” when there was a huge crowd of people at the Umemizaki main school as well.

Getting a ping on her magical phone, Adelheid left the classroom alone and went to sit down on the stairs of an empty landing, reading over the message she had been sent many times. While sitting on the step, she transformed into magical-girl form. She wanted to believe that it was a joke, but Pythie Frederica was mysterious and unfathomable, so she figured it wouldn’t be strange for her to do it.

She wanted to hold her head in her hands, but she saved her sigh and called out down the hall. “Do ya have business with me? Ah’m busy right now.”

The other also wasn’t trying to hide their footsteps. Adelheid could identify the footsteps of each and every girl in their class. It was just exactly who she’d expected: Classical Lillian, and she was already transformed when she popped her head out. “You ran out into the hallway pale-faced, so I followed you.”

She hadn’t meant to show it on her face. She’d thought she was controlling her feelings better than certain other classmates who wore their hearts on their sleeves, but apparently that had just been in her head. Embarrassed and trying not to change her expression or her attitude, she looked at Lillian. When Lillian was transformed, she was so calm, you wouldn’t imagine that she was normally so constantly jumpy.

“Ah cain’t have ya followin’ me.”

“Did something happen?”

“Huh? Did nothin’ happen with you?”

“Nothing in particular. So then what happened?”

It seemed like it would be difficult to hide it any further. With a grim look, Adelheid plucked her magical phone with her middle finger, index finger, and thumb, and held it out to Lillian.

Lillian looked at the screen for a while, squeezed her eyes shut, and slowly opened them again. “There has been no reaction from Mephis or Kumi-Kumi. It seems they haven’t been contacted. Judging from how things have been lately, it appears certain they were given similar instructions as us, but for some reason, now they’ve been left out… I haven’t gotten such a notification, either.”

“Ah don’t get it. Ah cain’t understand what’s goin’ on.”

She had no idea why she was the only one getting a message. She hadn’t even been instructed to do it without the three members of the Elite Guard. Just what was going on with the upper ranks?

“Ah don’t get it…but there’s no time. We’ve just got to do our job.”

“In that case, doing our job basically means that, doesn’t it?”

This meant backing up whoever had come to steal the relic hidden in the ruins. Whichever of them did that, whether it be Adelheid or Lillian, it would essentially be robbery. In other words, they would be unable to come back to the magical-girl class.

Of course, they had joined the class with that intention. They had been aware this was infiltration. They should still be thinking of it like that, but she hated the weak-willed, sensitive parts of her that would think, if she let them, that this was regrettable. Plenty of unpleasant things had happened—getting beaten by Groups One or Three during recreation time, having Lightning steal her dessert during lunch, getting dragged into a fight between Arlie and Dory and falling down, how all of Calkoro’s classes were boring—so Adelheid hadn’t assumed the Founding Festival would be fun. But she still found this regrettable, even though a proper mercenary magical girl should obviously be able to instantly attack someone she’d been chatting pleasantly with a second ago, if needed.

With a feeling like she was punching the weakness inside her, Adelheid firmed up her expression and nodded, saying, “That’s basically what it means. Will ya be able to do yer job, Lillian?”

“I’ll do it.” Lillian’s agreement cut her off. There was a harshness in her expression that was different from the transcendentally soft expression she had when she transformed.

Feeling a little overwhelmed, Adelheid waited a beat, then right when she was about to speak, she heard a voice from the classroom. It was a scream. The two of them raced out toward the classroom without a word.

  Calkoro

Calkoro was getting tired of seeing her students at work, so she was zoning out and looking outside. Considering her proper function, she should be watching the classroom, but that made her feel constrained. She had to have the freedom to look at birds flying in the sky and think about them with an envying sigh, or she wouldn’t be able to manage.

So Calkoro noticed before her students. Before her eyes, the color of the sky turned to black charcoal, and beyond the net on the school field, the road and residential area became hazy, as if seen through mist. She didn’t know what had happened, but she knew something had happened. If not for the incident where the homunculi had gone out of control, then she may have dithered, but now things were different. Calkoro immediately rose to her feet, transforming as she did, and faced the students.

“Everyone, transform!”

All the students were looking at her. They had yet to transform. They stared at her in shock. Turning around, Calkoro pulled out her abacus, but the intruder who broke the window to come in casually blocked it with her right hand alone.

It was a magical girl. Her costume was fluttering with frills. But on her face was a plastic mask, like the sort a child would pester their parents to buy them at a festival—it was probably some magical girl from an anime—to hide her identity.

More made to come in from behind her, with the same magical-girl masks hiding their faces. Calkoro was confused, but her body responded. She went to stomp on the foot of the one who’d blocked her abacus—her opponent dodged and kicked at her with the same foot. Calkoro shielded herself with her abacus but failed to brace herself with her left leg, and even that light kick was incredibly powerful. She was thrown backward, but someone broke her fall.

She looked up. She could see the jaw of Tetty, who had caught her. The line of her jaw was beautiful. She had transformed into a magical girl.

“Who are you people?!” Tetty asked, but nobody replied.

The masked magical girls swung up staffs or clasped both fists and held them at the ready in front of them as they came forward. The next thing she knew, Snow White was thrusting forward with a weapon like a naginata, and when a stick struck her from the side, Rappy unfurled her magic wrap to block it for her. Dory charged in with a wild shriek, and Arlie followed Snow White’s lead to go for the enemies.

“Piece of shit!” Pshuke cursed as she fired her water gun blindly, spraying a silver liquid at the enemies. The diffused liquid was difficult to evade, but the enemies swept their staffs, twisted around, or created shields in front of them, and not a single one was struck by the attack. In fact, since it was sprayed in every direction, the liquid hit Miss Ril in the back of the head, and the silver drops dribbled down her body.

Miss Ril staggered and melted into the same silver as the liquid. It was the worst misfire—not. After getting hit by Pshuke’s mercury, Miss Ril had activated her magic and turned herself into mercury to crawl around on the floor of the classroom while she attacked the enemies’ feet.

A makeshift formation took shape—with Arlie, Rappy, and Tetty at the front as the shield as Snow White and Dory thrust from behind; near the ceiling, Sally’s crows looked for openings from above; and from below, the protean Miss Ril attacked their feet as Pshuke tried sniping them from the very back.

While calculating, Calkoro chanted spells, but before her spell could complete, she noticed the enemies were getting passive. Even after Tetty crushed a staff that swung down on her in her hands, the enemy wasn’t particularly rattled, just moving to the rear to prepare for the next attack. In addition to that, the stones of her magic abacus clicked along, and she quickly derived the answer.

Are they buying time…?

An incredible boom that sounded like an explosion shook the school building. Dust fluttered down from the fluorescent light covers. The magical girls strengthened their offensive, but the enemy’s defensive formation was tenacious, never taking a fatal hit as they gradually backed up toward the window of the classroom.

What were they buying time for? They were most likely after the ruins, but there was no time for that. All the magical girls attacking the class were strong. They didn’t simply have excellent physical abilities—Calkoro could sense their experience. They were responding to the students’ magic calmly, too. It could be assumed that they’d looked into all of them beforehand. This wasn’t a sudden act of violence—this was a planned attack on the school, terrorism.

Calkoro mulled over all this. There was nobody protecting the ruins right now—no, there were the students who had left: Lightning, Mephis, Kumi-Kumi, Ranyi, Diko, and the dragon art piece that Kumi-Kumi had been making had all vanished at some point. She thought it was odd that those kids would dash off right as the enemy appeared, so maybe they’d gone to strike back at some enemies who’d attacked from another angle.

This did seem too convenient, but she just had to cling to that hope right now. Was the principal safe? If the enemy had headed to the principal’s office as well, then not being a magical girl, Halna would be helpless. And if Halna lost her life, even if Calkoro safely made it through this battle, most certainly nothing good would happen.

There was no point in thinking any more. Calkoro’s mission was to drive away the enemy, protect the ruins and Halna, and keep the students safe if possible while resolving this situation. She stopped chanting. With magical girls fighting at high speed, the chant of a mage was despairingly slow, but being a magical-girl-slash-mage, Calkoro’s rapid chanting was effective.

Calkoro charged up powers of sleep and fainting in her palm, but right before she could fling it at the enemies’ faces, the enemy group leaped out the window like the tide receding, and Calkoro’s magic lost its target.

The timing was just too good. Did that mean her guess that the enemy had looked into the students also applied to Calkoro? That course of action would make sense if they’d checked the types of spells she was good at, as a magical girl who used mages’ magic.

No. This wasn’t the time to think about that. The enemy had finally showed a weakness. She should take advantage of this opportunity.

“Everyone! Withdraw for the moment and move to the first floor!”

Strangely colorful apples were tossed in from outside one after another, and a beat later, the whole area exploded.

  Ranyi

Some of the girls moved backward at the same moment as the enemies attacked. With a hand signal from Lightning, Ranyi left the classroom with Diko, and a little after, Mephis and Kumi-Kumi also emerged in the hall.

“Why did you two leave, too?” Lightning asked with a grace that completely clashed with the situation.

Mephis answered with a click of her tongue. “Adelheid and Lillian just left the classroom. I’m gonna call for them.”

“To what end? Aren’t the people who just came your allies?”

Mephis’s expression clouded in confusion. Diko slightly narrowed her right eye. That was evidence that she felt something was off.

The tone of Lightning’s voice lowered. “Oh my, they’re really not yours?”

“I dunno. What about you guys?”

“Of course we don’t know.”

The two of them glared at each other—but really it was just Mephis one-sidedly glaring, while it was more accurate to say that Lightning was closely eyeing Mephis’s face, rudely and with deep interest. Kumi-Kumi quietly cleared her throat. She had a large package wrapped in a cloth on her back. From the gaps in the cloth, you could see the aforementioned dragon art piece. She apparently hadn’t abandoned it, even at a time like this.

“We don’t…have the time…to stand here…and talk…”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Mephis peeled her gaze away from Lightning as if she’d just remembered that and ran off, while Kumi-Kumi followed, swinging her pickax, and Lightning quickly kept up. And since they were going, Ranyi also had to go. She heard footsteps coming from behind, which meant Diko was coming, too. Ranyi sighed in relief so that no one could hear.

“Why’re you following me?!” Mephis yelled with annoyance.

“We can do what we please!” Lightning yelled back gleefully.

Were they going to fight again? And if that happened, what should Ranyi do? They had no time to think about it, and after turning a corner, they saw two magical girls running toward them. It was Adelheid and Lillian. The two of them looked at the others with startled expressions and came to a halt.

“Hold on a minute, ’ere!”

Acquiescing to Adelheid’s demand, Mephis stopped. There were about ten steps between them. Mephis did pause, but she seemed dissatisfied.

“Why’re we waiting?”

“Why are y’all together?”

“They just went and followed us.” Mephis jabbed behind her with her right thumb. Being pointed at, Ranyi couldn’t really say anything. She didn’t know Lightning’s true intentions, so she really did wonder why they were with her. But it would be a disgrace if she were the only one confused, so she managed to put on a confident expression as she folded her arms behind Mephis. This one gesture from Ranyi made Adelheid’s brow furrow, and she clicked her tongue.

“Hey, bitch, you just clicked your tongue at me,” Mephis snapped at her.

“It’s just some tongue clickin’, let it go.”

“Hey, Adelheid.” Lightning cut in on Mephis and Adelheid’s conversation. “Some rough folks have showed up at the classroom—are they some of yours?”

Adelheid got an expression as if she’d had something nasty-tasting forced into her mouth.

Before Ranyi could figure out what that expression meant, Lightning laughed elegantly. “That look. It seems you do know them. So then you’re also in cahoots with the burglars? And if we were to beat you down here and now, then we would be on the side of justice.”

Adelheid opened her mouth to reply, but this time Kumi-Kumi cut in. “Wait…what does that mean? I haven’t heard…anything about that.”

“Don’t give me this shit,” Mephis spat. “Give me a proper explanation for what’s going on, dumbass.”

The words were caught in Adelheid’s throat. She wasn’t sure what to say, or how. And her hesitation made the others even more emotional. Mephis yelled, Kumi-Kumi pressed her, and Lightning shrugged her shoulders and laughed.

“Hold on there.”

All attention went to Ranyi. Satisfied with that, Ranyi pointed with a palm at Adelheid and Lillian. “Whatever’s going on, first, we should ask what their situation is. Everyone keeps interrupting, and Adelheid can’t talk anymore.”

“What sort of excuse could she possibly have?” said Lightning. “If she’s connected to the thieves, that’s unacceptable right there. And it’s no concern of mine if Mephis and Kumi-Kumi haven’t been informed on things.”

“Well, that’s, uh, but sometimes you can’t know unless you ask…probably.” Ranyi wasn’t seriously trying to defend Adelheid. It was just that it felt dangerous for this arguing back and forth to go on, with the slight added spice of, Adelheid looks just like I normally do when she doesn’t know what to say, and as a result, she’d wound up defending her.

Either because of Ranyi’s statement or having other intentions, everyone fell silent for the moment and looked at Adelheid. Adelheid blew a sigh, put her right hand on the hilt of her military saber and her left on the back of her head to scratch it, then shook her head like a small child going, “No, no, no.”

“Ah got a message. Sayin’ they’re comin’ here now.”

They heard the piercing boom of an explosion that made the whole school building shudder. It was in the classroom. That grabbed Ranyi’s attention, but not everyone else’s. Princess Lightning covered ten steps worth of distance in a split second, swinging her lightning sword down on Adelheid while Adelheid blocked that with her military saber.

“You really are with the thieves,” said Lightning.

Lightning shone around the two of them, making crackling sounds. Mephis ran, Diko came forward to block her way, and Ranyi moved to restrain Lillian. Kumi-Kumi alone seemed confused, looking around at her classmates.

Lightning muttered, “Plasma Ball.”

All at once, the lightning that was flickering between Lightning and Adelheid grew in every way—brightness, size, sound—and the magical girls around them who had been about to start a fight, the confused Kumi-Kumi included, all leaped to escape the area of effect.

  Halna Midi Meren

Getting attacked before the Founding Festival began—and during the middle of the day, too—was completely unexpected. Apparently, Halna’s assumption that even outlaws had to possess enough intellect to calculate profit and loss had been an overestimation. It was the height of madness to charge down a path that would lead straight to destruction just to try to take them mildly by surprise.

When Halna noticed the attack, she attempted to contact the outside—which of course failed, leaving her angry. If they were going to set things up beforehand so that they couldn’t contact the outside, then they should have attacked at a time that had greater odds of success—but they were incorrigible in all respects.

It was very difficult to maintain her composure while she was mad, but once you were used to it—and with Halna’s talent—it was nothing much. Even angry, she would aim for the optimal course of action. It was clear that the enemy’s goal was the courtyard, and the ruins that it led to, but it was very plausible that while they were at it they would make to occupy the principal’s office. It would be a bad idea to stay here. She would be in trouble if large numbers burst in, and if they threw in a bomb or something from the outside, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

First, Halna left the principal’s office. Whether she went right or left down the hallway, it would lead to the courtyard, but she heard footsteps from the right side, so she ran to the left. The footsteps were following her. They were running. There were lots of them. Halna’s boots were spelled to speed up her running, but she obviously wouldn’t be fast enough against a magical girl. Something was shot toward her, and the robe protecting her back shone blindingly. There were further flashes in succession. There was a lot of protection magic worked into it, but if it got hit that much, she didn’t know how long it would hold.

She just ran. She didn’t look back. The sound of footsteps did not recede—in fact, they were getting closer. Her enemies possessed far stronger physical capabilities. Her robe continued to flash without pause, and then after one final great beaming glow, it crumbled into rags and fell. The final attack had not been a projectile weapon. One of them had run up to her and struck her from behind. The enemy was right there. Halna leaped forward. She held up her hand to the entrance of the courtyard, opening the door and tumbling inside. She did a forward roll over the paving stones and hit her back on the trunk of a flowering dogwood tree.

“Oh, you showed us in.”

“What an idiot.”

Turning back to the vulgar jeers that struck her from behind, she hid her face with her palm and yelled, “Stop this foolish nonsense! Are you trying to start a fight with the Information Bureau?!”

The response to her paltry threat was loud and scornful laughter.

“How dumb can you get?”

“You’re gonna die.”

“Try fighting ’til the end. Though it’s pointless.”

“Ah-ha-ha!”

There were three magical girls with masks. Even if they were hiding their faces, their lack of class was apparent from their voices and attitudes. They made Halna all the more sure that what she was trying to do was not wrong. It was because these sorts of degenerate magical girls were throwing their weight around like they owned the place that a magical-girl class was needed. She would cultivate real magical girls who could do what was right in the right way—not sadistic outlaws who loved to bully the weak or a vanguard of a faction who could only see their own advancement. She would not let the tragedy that the Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, had caused ever happen again. Imitators would all be eliminated.

She would do anything for that sake. She could accept sacrifices. Even if a hundred died now, if that meant a million would be saved in the future, then that was no waste. That would be fortunate for those sacrificed, too.

The villainous magical girls cackled. They were forgetting that they needed to finish off their opponent quickly. Or rather—they had been made to forget that. Halna slowly stood up and walked toward them, but they didn’t even respond.

The courtyard, which Halna had taken great pains to make, was a magic forest. Only when inside here, all spells could be completed without chanting or gesture.

She wasn’t sure what the enemy’s numbers were right now, so to avoid even the slightest consumption of her energies, she was not using any magic to finish them off. She pulled out a spell-conferred knife and sliced the throats of the smiling magical girls, one by one. Not even aware that their allies were being killed, the magical girls fell one after another to lie facedown in pools of blood.

No one but Halna knew the secret of this place. There was a barrier erected around the courtyard, and observation from the outside was impossible. The mental defense spell kept information from being transmitted to Snow White, too. The details were even a secret from the Information Bureau. It was a secret among secrets.

Returning to the entrance, she sealed it once more. It wasn’t an absolute defense, but it would buy her some time.

Halna took off her glasses, carefully wiped off the blood spatter with the sleeve of her robe, approached some lilac bushes, and squatted down. Sweeping away the dirt from its roots, she exposed a metal lid, put her hand there to undo the seal, and opened it. She picked up the receiver that was among the equipment there, extended the cord, and brought it to her mouth. Now she had a basic broadcast room.

She didn’t need any incantations or gestures so long as she was in the courtyard, but casting would still tire her out. It wasn’t as if she could freely make use of any great magic. So her spells were limited to combat ones, and that meant that Halna alone wouldn’t be enough. If the enemy hadn’t been interested in engaging her in conversation, then she probably would have been dead now. She needed a protector who would guard her from enemy attacks—even temporarily.

  Kumi-Kumi

Mephis blocked Diko’s roundhouse kick with the tail in her hair, then slid into range and thrust up at her jaw from below with the heel of her palm, which Diko squatted down to evade, keeping the momentum of her roundhouse kick going to try to sweep her legs out from under her—Mephis popped a leg up and caught her with the sole of her foot. Even as the pair went back and forth, the two magical girls never stopped running, weaving between trees, going along the old school building to head for the classroom.

Kumi-Kumi thrust her pickax at Ranyi, holding her off, but she knew that Ranyi was quick, and right now the package on her back was in the way. She struck her pickax in the ground to shower her with earth that she changed with her magic into square throwing stones, but Ranyi easily dodged. Since they each knew each other’s physical abilities and magic, they weren’t even surprised. Mephis and Diko’s fight was just like an extension of recreation time, too. The pair that had clashed the most during their class recreation time had been Mephis, the kamikaze commander of Group Two, and Diko, Group Three’s resident violence expert.

Ranyi stepped from side to side, feinting once before using a low kick to keep her back.

Kumi-Kumi jumped way back, put out her palm, and stopped. “…Wait.”

“Wait? For what?” she said, but she wasn’t as aggressive as her words. Ranyi also stopped, watching to see what Kumi-Kumi would do.

“There’s…no reason…for us…to fight.”

“Like she said, you’re connected with the thieves.”

“I’m not…connected. The only ones…who were notified…were Lillian and Adelheid.”

Turning to Mephis and Diko, who were continuing to strike each other, Kumi-Kumi put a hand by her mouth. That meant turning her back to Ranyi, but she chose deliberately to do so. If Ranyi would hesitate over this, then she wouldn’t attack.

“Diko! Mephis! Stop it! There’s no…reason…for us to fight!”

Both their arms and legs stopped, and they looked toward Kumi-Kumi. They didn’t seem suspicious or like they were restraining anger. The looks on their faces said, “Well yeah, I know that.”

Feeling she was getting a good response, Kumi-Kumi continued. “Mephis…and I…weren’t contacted… We have…nothing to do with it. It’s obvious at a glance…from how Mephis acted…that she had no idea…what Adelheid and Lillian…were doing…”

From beneath her hood, Diko looked at Kumi-Kumi’s back. She was making an eye signal, or something like it, to Ranyi. Everyone here understood. It wasn’t like they really had to fight right now.

“Right now…Lightning…and Lillian and Adelheid…are fighting. Shouldn’t you be going there…? Mephis and I…will… Classroom…heard explosion…”

They probably did want to keep an eye on Mephis and Kumi-Kumi. But they had to be more worried about Lightning, who had dramatically activated her magic in the hallway and then had gotten separated from them, and Adelheid and Lillian, who were probably with her. They didn’t have the time for hesitation. Diko and Ranyi ran off without any signal, leaping through the window that they had come out of moments ago, which had been destroyed by Lightning’s magic, into the exposed hallway.

Watching the two go, Mephis clicked her tongue. “Why’d you have to get in my way? That was a great opportunity to take Diko down.”

“It’s not…the time…for that. We don’t know…what’s happening now.”

“I should be telling you this isn’t the time—for the big package on your back. Why the hell are you carrying that?”

Kumi-Kumi wasn’t so quick on her feet that she could make a snap judgment and retrieve the dragon. She’d explained as much to Diko and Ranyi earlier. She was very much lacking in the speed to come up with the logic on the spot and carry it out. Kumi-Kumi knew that herself better than anyone.

But it wasn’t like she couldn’t do it if she had some time to think. Since Frederica had begun acting strangely and Kumi-Kumi had seen her much less often, she’d started wondering—Frederica saw her as useless, didn’t she? And she’d cut her off. That was pretty sad, but it was also difficult to deny. It was a fact that Kumi-Kumi had been thinking that she didn’t want to do anything awful or bad to her classmates, if possible. It was quite true that Kumi-Kumi didn’t have the talent that Frederica sought.

So then, she thought defiantly. If Frederica was going to do something, and if Kumi-Kumi wasn’t going to be involved, then what should she do? She didn’t want to just sit there and let things happen to her. Maybe the old Kumi-Kumi would have gotten disappointed, disheartened, and given up, but things were different now. Abandoning things just because they weren’t going as she wanted would be inexcusable to Kana. She’d been willing to throw away her life to save Kumi-Kumi. Because Kana had felt her to be worth going that far to save, Kumi-Kumi had to be a magical girl of just that much worth.

It was rather pathetic that the first thing she had done to that end was make it so she could carry around the dragon, but well, she’d say that was very Kumi-Kumi, too.

“And hey, how can you let Diko and Ranyi go?” said Mephis. “If Adelheid and Lillian are fighting Lightning, if those two go, then it’ll be three on two.”

“If they can’t win like that…they’ll run… If they’re allies with the thieves…then the thieves…might save them. If anything…the ones we should worry about…are Lightning’s group.”

“Huh? Whose side are you on?”

“Right now…we should side with the school… We haven’t…been contacted at all… If the thieves…are just thieves…then as members of the Elite Guard…and as students of the class…we have to…eliminate…the thieves.”

“Come on…isn’t that, like, just interpreting things to suit yourself? I mean, like, that’s what it is. Though I don’t know why it was just Adelheid and Lillian who got contacted.”

“They let us go…”

Before her eyes, Mephis’s expression turned harsh. Kumi-Kumi could understand her feelings. Being let go just made Kumi-Kumi think, Oh, I guess so… But she couldn’t understand why Mephis would be tossed aside. It just seemed like something had happened. And it seemed like it wasn’t something Mephis could accept.

But there was no time. She had to get Mephis to accept it.

“Something…must have…happened,” said Kumi-Kumi.

“Something? Like what?”

“Weren’t you thinking…you don’t want to attack the school…? And they saw through that…”

Mephis’s expression turned even harsher. But it seemed like Kumi-Kumi wasn’t entirely wrong. The proof was that Mephis didn’t argue.

Kumi-Kumi realized she wouldn’t have the time to think carefully going forward.

Kana had gone to the main school. Considering her personality, she would try to defend the students of the main school. They had confirmed that Adelheid and Lillian were connected with the thieves. She had been concerned that there were only two of them, but there was no need to worry. She needed to focus on what came next. They had numbers in the classroom, so they had prioritized Adelheid and Lillian, but that explosion just now worried her. Even knowing that her classmates would be fine from some minor attack, she didn’t know what would happen if the attack was not minor.

“They saw through us…? There’s no way they would cut us off for some stupid reason like that!” Mephis snapped.

“That would…depend on the person—”

The bell rang. It felt so out of place that Kumi-Kumi suddenly stopped talking and looked around the area. She didn’t know what would have to happen for the bell to ring. This hadn’t been in what Kumi-Kumi had predicted and noted down.

The bell was followed by a muffled voice. An announcement was coming from somewhere.

“We are currently under attack. All magical girls in class, after evacuating to the courtyard, please listen to the principal’s instructions.”

A tingling sensation ran from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Mephis’s whole body trembled. She gripped her arms and tried in vain to make the shaking stop. Kumi-Kumi opened her mouth, thinking she had to say something, but no words came out. There was no need to speak. She would act according to orders. She would head to the courtyard. She would go there and seek the principal’s instructions.

Mephis and Kumi-Kumi dashed off at the same time.