Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 17 - Chapter 12

Queens Preflop

  Puk Puck

It was at a gathering of the Three Sages that Puk Puck learned about the Very Delicious Chocolate Fair that was being held in the underground of a certain department store in K Prefecture.

Grim Heart was shrieking something incomprehensible, and as Puk was responding with some careless remarks like “Oh really,” “Huh,” “Mm-hmm,” just as usual, it gradually came across what Grim Heart was trying to say. She was probably insisting that the various snacks prepared for this tea party were quite wonderful.

And the multicolored chocolates she had brought in were all actually very delicious. When Puk asked where she had purchased them, all she got back were those shrieks, but seeing the piece of paper Grim Heart was waving around, the wise Puk Puck was able to figure it out. Printed on that piece of paper was “Very Delicious Chocolate Fair” in a cute font. In other words, it was a pamphlet.

She doubted that Grim Heart had gone to the fair herself. She had wrangled something that Lethe had bought, or ordered a subordinate to go buy something for her, one of the two. Since unlike Grim Heart, Puk didn’t mind going outside, if she was going to buy something, she would check it out with her own eyes and tongue.

Puk was unusually picky when it came to her clothes, food, and living space. She had to go to this chocolate fair.

Returning to her estate from the Magical Kingdom, she immediately took action. From her closet, which was as layered as a mille-feuille, she would pull out her favorite dresses and togas, and after swiftly deciding on her best costume, she’d leave her “estate, which was both everywhere and nowhere.” Then, using a gate and other public transportation facilities, she would go to the chocolate fair to buy a lot of sweets.

In her heart, she had already raced out to the event venue, but unfortunately, things didn’t go so smoothly. Waiting in front of her closet room was a very sinister old lady wearing an unsophisticated hooded robe—her grand chamberlain—forcing her to come to a stop.

“I’ve heard,” said the grand chamberlain.

“Heard what?” Puk replied.

The grand chamberlain put a hand to her mouth and coughed for a while.

“If you’re not feeling well, you can’t push yourself, ’kay?”

“This is just a complaint of an elder with not much more time left.”

The slender old mage clung to her cane to stand. If someone more ignorant were to see, they would be entirely convinced by her remark that she didn’t have long. But Puk Puck knew that her grand chamberlain had been calling herself an “elder with not much more time left” for the past fifty years.

“Puk thinks you have got some time left, though.”

“Whether I do or not, please listen. You’re going to a World Sweets Exhibit, aren’t you?”

“It’s a Very Delicious Chocolate Fair.”

“I don’t know if it was the Osks or the Caspars or what, but good grief, they didn’t need to tell you such a thing. Your going out presents so many harms, Mistress Puk, and not one whit of benefit. You would obviously go the moment you heard there was some program with sweets or whatnot, so they should have used their sense and kept quiet.”

She didn’t speak in the most polite way, but she was the first disciple of Av Lapati Puk Baltha, and nobody in this estate could tell off this old nitpicker who had served for so many years—Puk herself included.

“They told me to be nice, so Puk feels bad for you to say that.”

“Regardless, I am against it.”

“Puk wants to go.”

The grand chamberlain most likely was about to argue, but couldn’t manage it, and coughed painfully. Puk circled behind her and kindly rubbed her back as she considered coolly. Whether she was not long for this world or not, this was certainly harming her health. If she escorted the old woman to her room now and laid her down, and then went out while she was asleep, Puk could go drown in an ocean of chocolate.

The grand chamberlain pushed aside Puk’s hand and glared at her. “You were just thinking something bad, weren’t you?”

“You think? Puk doesn’t think so.”

“You’re always like that. When you get an idea, you push it through. You misuse your magic. You’ll question whether people like or dislike you, but not whether something is right or wrong. If there wasn’t anyone to stop you, you would get so out of control.”

“Will this be a long lecture?”

“Just those three sisters who are your favorites are still not enough, Mistress Puk. They must gain more experience, or there’s no way they’ll be able to stop you from doing whatever you please. You won’t even need your magic. You have the history of a great Sage, and the charisma that comes from it—they won’t be able to oppose that.”

Puk consciously made not to use her magic on the grand chamberlain. It was because the grand chamberlain knew that that she would say as she pleased. Her charisma or whatever she said never worked then.

“I must live just a little longer, and train those three…”

“Puk is busy, though.”

“A retainer who can offer admonition is truly needed in any time and place, in any country, for any ruler.”

The grand chamberlain coughed again, and with a hup, Puk lifted her into her arms. She felt like she’d gotten quite a lot lighter, compared to the last time she’d carried her. She started walking toward the grand chamberlain’s room. “You’ve got to take it easy and rest.”

“Mistress Puk.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Though I am opposed to it, I will not say not to go.”

While walking, Puk tilted her head. “Really?”

“If I were to oppose it so foolishly, you would choose either to sneak out, or to simply do it regardless. Don’t you tell me you don’t know how much you’ve made me cry. And every time, I’m hard-pressed just cleaning things up afterward… So I won’t oppose it. However! I will make you accept some conditions. If you go out like that, Mistress Puk, then your magic’s influence will leak out even if you restrain it, and the new friends you make will cause a great confusion in the outside world. And if either the Osk Faction or the Caspar Faction take advantage of the confusion, that would bring about some awful things indeed.”

“Puk doesn’t want that.”

“But we also couldn’t really clear people out for this—that would be stealing a chance for amusement from the people. That is why this comes with conditions. Please go out in a costume that will not cause confusion. If you’re going to be going outside, then your appearance, language, name, and magic must not be that of Puk Puck.”

  Uluru

To the right, there was chocolate. To the left, more chocolate.

“Wow! Chocolate Uluru thinks she’s heard of, chocolate Uluru’s probably seen before, chocolate with a complicated name, chocolate with a name Uluru can’t read—there’s so much stuff!”

“Sis, you’re so excited, your vocabulary’s going downhill.”

“That one looks so good! And that, too! Don’t you think so, too, Lady Puk…huh?”

Uluru turned around. Sorami, carrying candy, had an exasperated look on her face, and Sachiko, who was carrying ice cream, looked like she would burst into tears at any moment. Uluru looked back, front, right, and left, and up at the ceiling while she was at it, but Puk Puck, who was supposed to have been there, was gone. Remembering that Oh yeah, she was looking different from usual, she tried looking around once more, but she was still gone.

“Hey, Sorami,” said Uluru. “Where did Lady Puk go?”

“She yelled like a bandit who’s just found a caravan and flew off,” said Sorami.

“Why didn’t you stop her?”

“There’s no way I could. And besides, she always does this.”

“Where is she now?”

“Well, I couldn’t really say. There’s so many people going in and out here, and it’s basically never a closed space, so my magic doesn’t work well. Plus, I’ve been calling Lady Puk’s phone for a while, but she’s ignoring me.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Like I said, it’s always like this.”

“Hey, hey…what do I do?” Sachiko asked. “I got handed this ice cream to hold for a bit, but do you think I can eat it? At this rate, it’s going to melt and get all sticky…ahh, it’s dripping.”

“Aaall right, the Lady Puk search brigade is here! Everyone follow Uluru!”

  Shadow Gale

Tarts. Fondue. Mousse. Cookies. Crepes. Scones. Brownies. Eclairs. Buche de Noel. Bonbons. Sacher torte. Opera cake. Mohrenkopf.

No matter where or by what means you went in the department store underground, it was all chocolate, and you couldn’t get away from it. In the first place, anyone who wanted to escape wouldn’t be here, and wouldn’t come. From casual snacks to famous brands, Pfle and Shadow Gale enjoyed chocolate to their hearts’ content.

That day, Shadow Gale was not a black nurse, and Pfle was also not using her wheelchair—she was walking on her own feet. To mingle with the crowds, they wore ordinary clothes. “Magical girls have a sharper sense of taste than humans. And they can keep eating chocolate without worrying about the calorie intake. That’s why we should transform” was Pfle’s suggestion; Shadow Gale had wondered, “Wouldn’t this be transforming for self-interest?” making her hesitate for a total of two seconds.

Though their clothes looked ordinary, Shadow Gale’s knit shirt and loose-fitting pants were both strong enough to withstand a magical girl’s movement and easy to move in—in other words, they were specially made, so getting chocolate on them was out of the question. And so with a mastery of both caution and boldness, they were walking while eating. The two of them went to buy food and then to the eating area over and over, and then once both of them would have bled out the nose if they put any more in had they not been magical girls, they finally stopped eating.

From here on out, they were going to split up. Pfle would take it easy waiting in the eating area. Shadow Gale, who was being worked like a dog, would go to buy souvenirs, with a notepad in one hand. Slipping through the crowds with the speed of a magical girl, she briskly continued her shopping, and then happened to turn back.

A girl was watching Shadow Gale. Her apparent age was in the single digits, her glossy black hair flowed like water down to her lower back, to be tied at the end with a red ribbon. She wore a T-shirt with English—no, some foreign language on it—a parka, shorts, colorful socks, and famous kids’ sneakers that sold themselves on being able to run fast in them. Her eyes were sparkling with curiosity, gazing in her direction.

Someone who didn’t know would just see a pretty girl, but someone in the same profession could tell. That was a magical girl. She had taken off her costume and changed into ordinary clothes so she could keep her magical girl physical abilities and magic.

In other words, she was the same as Shadow Gale that day.

What should she do? Shadow Gale couldn’t make a decision in this situation. Thinking, but Pfle would, she turned her face to where she should be, but that magical girl must have anticipated that, as she was smiling at her from point-blank range.

Shadow Gale swallowed a shriek and cleared her throat to cover it. “Umm…what do you need?”

“—I mean…I’m kind of in trouble. Could you help me out?” She tilted her head cutely. “My name is Pu…Chocolat Granité. I got separated from my friends.”

“Uh-huh. Oh no, that’s not good.”

The lost child station rose in Shadow Gale’s mind, but she figured that bringing over a magical girl would be a problem, and after worrying about it, she said, “Then come this way” and pulled her hand. She would keep trying to wander off every time she saw something unusual, so Shadow Gale pulled her hand hard, but the little girl was stronger, and so left without a choice, Shadow Gale took off her watch. Thinking that this sort of thing might happen, she was wearing a number of mechanical objects she could use up. But she still felt a bit regretful as she did her modifications with the wristwatch as material and made a robot. It wasn’t a design for girls, but it looked pretty good for something made so quickly.

“Wow, amazing!” cried the little girl.

“Amazing, isn’t it, isn’t it? Look, it can transform again and again.”

“Wow! Wow! Your fingers just keep whirling around, they’re amazing!”

“Huh? That’s what impresses you?”

“They’re pretty and cool and cute fingers.”

“Ah, oh. Thanks.”

She somehow covered her shock as she proceeded along. And then at her goal point, in the corner of the eating area, there was a magical girl having a tea party on her own. Pfle was sitting there, smiling faintly, a paper cup placed on the table. The sleeve button of her white bow tie blouse touched the table and made a clicking sound. Since it was forbidden to bring in outside food, she was not drinking the Hitokouji special ridiculously expensive black tea, but the black tea she had bought at a shop here. She followed the rules, when it could be seen.

“You took quite a while,” said Pfle.

“There were so many souvenirs.”

Placing the two armfuls’ worth of bags on the table, Shadow Gale wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. She was trying to emphasize how much work she was doing, but Pfle showed no appreciation for Shadow Gale’s toils, shrugging her shoulders. “It was my intent to enjoy tea with you, though.”

“What a strange thing for you to say! If you had helped, then the time spent going shopping would have been cut in half. Why am I doing everything…? Miss, you don’t think much of common courtesy, do you?”

Pfle picked up a scone with plenty of chocolate sauce drizzled over it and bit into it elegantly. The gesture itself should have been, if anything, crude, but for some reason, it looked classy.

“I wouldn’t say I don’t think much of it. I’m leaving it to you because you work so briskly for me.”

“It all depends on how you look at it…”

“By the way, whoever is this?”

The magical girl who was standing behind Shadow Gale lifted her right arm cheerily. “Ohhh! I’m Chocolat Granité! I’m a magical girl.”

Her voice was high and loud. Shadow Gale didn’t really want her saying “magical girl” in a public place. Shadow Gale lowered her voice, saying, “It seems she’s lost,” to explain her—Chocolat’s—situation.

“Have you tried calling for her companions via the store broadcast?” Pfle said, her manner suddenly polite.

Shadow Gale was startled, looking at Pfle. She was looking at Chocolat with a cool and unruffled expression. Unlike Shadow Gale, Pfle was aware of what she was doing when she ignored etiquette. She was not normally so kind as to speak politely to a magical girl she had just met simply because she didn’t know her age, and even if she wouldn’t say out loud, Don’t get in our way, she would indicate it with her attitude. And then all the more so if it was with someone who lacked the delicacy to lower their voice when they talked.

“I’d like to avoid attention, if I can,” said the little girl.

“Why not try contacting them on your magical phone?”

“It isn’t working right.” Chocolat placed a magical phone on the table. It must not have been able to turn on, as the screen was black, with no sign it would work.

Shadow Gale gave a little nod. “If that’s the issue, I think I can repair it.”

Pfle’s right eyebrow twitched. The gesture seemed to say something. Since she knew that Pfle would just give her a hard time, Shadow Gale acted before Pfle could say a word. Shadow Gale’s magic was to modify mechanical things. Magical phones were fundamentally made to not be modified, but if she set things up right, then it was possible to crack them, and simple repair, she could get done on the spot. It seemed like the girl was normally handling it roughly, and the wiring was a bit off. This wouldn’t take any time.

Shadow Gale briskly repaired it, and as an extra, she combined it with the robot she’d made before, then handed it to Chocolat.

“Wow…thanks!” The girl turned on the phone, and the screen was filled with rows of messages. Her companions must have been trying to get a hold of her. It seemed they were worried.

Chocolat stood up and gave a little bow. “Thanks so much! Your magic is so nice.”

“Oh, no, it’s really nothing much.”

The girl waved a hand with a smile and vanished. She must have moved with a magical girl’s speed. Even if they were both magical girls, there were some who could move with a speed difficult for someone like Shadow Gale to see. Thinking about how roughly she had used her magical phone, she didn’t seem like the type who was very good at controlling her strength. Shadow Gale prayed that she wouldn’t bump into something and break it.

Thinking that she’d done something nice, she reached out to a scone. But right before she could touch it, it was snatched away from the side. Pfle bit into the scone she’d stolen. That was unreasonable. This time she was obviously doing it in a crude way.

“What’s the matter?” Shadow Gale asked.

“Don’t give me that,” Pfle replied. “I thought I’ve told you a thousand times that you should avoid showing your magic as much as possible.”

“Well, that’s… But um, that reminds me, miss. You were speaking politely, for once.”

“Since it was someone you should be polite to.”

“A magical girl you’ve only just met? And from the way she was talking, she’s quite a bit younger.”

“She must have had her physical abilities adjusted somehow. She seemed like she was struggling terribly to move around. And there must be some perception block spell cast on her, as her appearance seemed a bit off. It’s fair to assume that was adjusted, too. Her name clearly seemed like a fake. Her clothing appeared casual, but it was all order-made, top to bottom. When you can tell the skill of the tailor at a glance, that means it’s quite the impressive outfit. In other words—that means it’s someone important come in secret.”

Shadow Gale was impressed that she’d seen all that, but since it would irritate her to admit that, she groaned, “Mgh.”

However Pfle interpreted that, she put a hand to her forehead. “Mamori. You just went and showed off your magic, without holding anything back, to someone like that.”

“So in other words…can I dream that I might be headhunted by someone important?”

And now at last, Pfle gave an unconcealed sigh.

  Puk Puck

Sachiko—her mouth dirtied with whipped cream—clung to her with tears in her eyes, Uluru’s ears were laid flat with a look of sincere relief, and Sorami had circled behind the other two to pat their shoulders. All three of them were cute in their own ways, but if Puk was going to make a request of any of them, then she figured that it would be Sorami, the calmest of them. Maybe Puk should ask her to go search for the magical girl who had saved her.

Puk’s principle was to prioritize cuteness. The way that girl’s fingers had moved had been cute. The workings of her magic had also been cute, and their precise movements had been cute and scored high. Incidentally, the robot had been cute in an unrefined way. She wanted to make friends with her. And the other who’d been with her—well, her looks had been cute.

Puk Puck folded her arms, tilted her head, and considered. But she couldn’t ignore the chocolate. Rather than forcing the three sisters to do the unreasonable, she’d poke into the identity of those two later by throwing people at the problem. If someone somewhere knew, then she would be able to thank them, and she could make friends with them.

Right now, she should put everything into buying chocolate.

“All right, then, let’s split up here and go around the different counters,” said Puk.

“Huh…? But we were just finally able to meet up,” said Sachiko.

“We can’t leave you all alone,” said Uluru.

“This isn’t a closed space, so my magic doesn’t work very well,” said Sorami.

“It’ll be okay. I got this properly fixed.” Puk held up her magical phone to show.

It made a clear whirring sound and instantly transformed, and now in a human shape, the magical phone opened up to show them the screen. Sachiko clapped her hands and went Wow! Uluru’s eyes widened in shock, and Sorami narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Her suspicion was no surprise. It hadn’t had a function like this until just now.

Hmm, I might have met someone really amazing.

With some future fun saved for later, Puk Puck hurried to the sales floor. They said that chocolate was originally used as a medicine, so if she made some delicious chocolate as a souvenir, then surely her grand chamberlain would regain her health.