Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 18 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

THE MASTERMINDS GATHER

  Thunder-General Adelheid

She drew her lips into a line. As the smoke was slowly clearing, her gaze never left the direction where the enemy had been. She lightly clasped both hands, crossed both her arms in front of her face, and crouched down in a low stance. She transmuted all of the lightning bolts she’d taken into energy, and using that, she prepared for the next attack.

“Festung Marienberg.”

She repelled two lightning strikes in succession. If not for her Festung Marienberg, which made use of her magic purely for defense, she would never have been able to take it. The ceiling fell, the floor cracked, and the rubble lit on fire, illuminating from below the composed look on the face of the Lightning before her with the ace of spades on her thigh.

Adelheid consciously put on a self-deprecating smile for the enemy. “Hold on a sec.”

“What for?”

“I got one of yer compadres right here.” She lowered her shoulder to show her the head of the wounded person on her back.

The Lightning in front of her didn’t even spare her a glance; she didn’t seem to care.

“She’ll get hurt if ya do anything reckless. Not a good idea.”

“If you’re trying to take a hostage, then you’re vastly underestimating me.”

Lightning swung her longsword. But it wasn’t as if Adelheid had seen the slice. She just realized belatedly that she’d been attacked when she saw pillars, dirt, and sliced-up floorboards hanging in the air and saw that the Ace Lightning was suddenly holding her longsword.

This was not an opponent Adelheid would ever want to fight. She’d abandoned any joy in fighting stronger foes before turning ten. She was only going to fight enemies she could beat.

“You’re tough. And I went easy on you because I can’t just kill you.”

Invisible attacks followed. They gradually became more forceful. Adelheid continued to withstand it. Unlike Siegfried Linie, this wouldn’t transmute the stored energy to attack. She would do nothing but defend, defend, and continue to defend. This was a technique she fundamentally should not be using, unless she was counting on the enemy running out of stamina or an ally showing up very soon.

The Lightning Adelheid knew would wear herself out from splurging and firing too much lightning, but she couldn’t expect the same thing from the Lightning in front of her. If the group of Lightnings were appearing elsewhere, then even her seniors from the Archfiend Cram School would have had trouble just getting away. Not to mention her classmates—she didn’t know if they would even survive. In other words, she couldn’t expect any help, either.

The Archfiend Cram School had been the foundation of Adelheid’s life since she’d been small. There, she had been able to count on her seniors, her mother included. In the magical-girl class, it had been the others counting on her, instead. It had felt annoying and like a hassle, but she’d also been proud. I see, she’d thought. So this is what school is like.

The attacks from the Ace Lightning were gradually becoming more intense. Adelheid’s military cap flew off; her cape was shredded, and the ground swelled up and cracked. Adelheid patiently bore it.

The Ace Lightning’s expression grew cooler as if in inverse proportion to the intensity of her attacks. In the middle of attacking, she fixed her eyes on Adelheid’s and asked, “Are you trying to stall for time? I knew it.”

Adelheid hadn’t replied. Had the Ace Lightning seen through the changes in her expression? She had dashed over here in the first place by figuring out Kana, so it seemed fair to assume she was good at reading people, unlike the Lightning Adelheid knew.

“You’re defending yourself by absorbing my attacks…which means you can handle strikes, slashes, and lightning.”

Adelheid wasn’t about to respond to her opponent’s fooling. But Adelheid was probably reacting to those words in minute ways that even she wasn’t aware of. It would be better if she could close her eyes and plug her ears, but that would benefit the enemy.

“Strangling you…is one option, I suppose. But that would, like, take time. Being in close contact for that long would be a bit dicey. I don’t want to get attacked while I have my hands around your neck.”

Adelheid prayed that the Ace Lightning wouldn’t consider what it meant, so she clenched her teeth to keep her from reading her face.

“…Never mind. I might as well just incapacitate you and carry you away.”

It was no use. Any more would be bad. She couldn’t give her any information, but she was so focused on defense, she couldn’t pay attention to that.

She would bear it. That was all she would do. Her cuffs tore off, the laces of her boots were shredded, but even so, she maintained her posture and expended the energy on defense, capturing even more energy, then repeating the process.

“This isn’t even my forte—incapacitating someone and not killing them, I mean. It’s not my thing. I’m at my best when the instructions are clear-cut. Being forced to go along with your ploy to buy time is particularly stressful.”

At some point, the Ace Lightning had touched a shining gem to her forehead. That’s bad, Adelheid thought, but being committed to defense, she had no way of stopping her. But even if she hadn’t been committed to defense, it would have been impossible to stop her.

“Luxury Mode: On.”

There was a burst of dazzling lights. With it shining so bright it was difficult to keep her eyes open, Adelheid clenched her teeth. Magical girls were truly unreasonable and unfair. Could she stop her, or not? It was fairly unlikely. Evading would be even more unlikely—

“Ah…ngh!”

A smothered sound leaked out from the back of her throat. The Ace Lightning’s face was right there. She was giving Adelheid a bored look.

“Your defensive magic can’t stop bleeding, right? You’ll bleed even more if that wound gets any deeper. It’d be a big help if you just stopped fussing.”

The dagger the Ace Lightning held in her right hand was pressed against Adelheid’s windpipe. She was gradually pushing it in, making blood spurt out.

“Let’s make this an endurance contest, then. I’m not going to let you stall any further, and I’m not going to go easy on you. If you die, I’ll come up with some other plan. I’m watching you closely, so don’t even try to resist. Admit defeat as soon as you can.”

Bit by tiny bit, the blade was sinking into her flesh. Her blood continued to flow. Adelheid smiled weakly but, even so, stood there without falling. She tensed the right hand she held behind her back, clenching it. The Ace Lightning furrowed her brow in bafflement.

“What’s so funny?”

Adelheid couldn’t make a sound, so she couldn’t respond. She heard the sound of a thick artery being cut. She was bleeding. She didn’t undo her magic, and the energy continued to circulate. Her body temperature was dropping. Her pulse was slowing. But it still wasn’t certain if she’d lose. Right now, Adelheid had no choice but to cling to a very, very fine thread. That was the one way to survive—a way that she might be able to make it out alive. She clenched her right hand.

She laid her left hand on the Ace Lightning’s right hand, clasping the handle of her knife. The blade sank in even deeper. Adelheid was resisting the force pushing in with her magic, but she was hopelessly losing.

Blood spurted out. The right side of her vision was red. A burst of purple lightning. Her clenched teeth cracked. The strength was leaving her right hand.

She never undid her magic. She was still continuing the loop of defense and defense. But Adelheid’s body had reached its limit. It was already impossible for her to try to do something on her own. Her legs crumpled. She leaned on the Ace Lightning.

The Ace Lightning’s mouth opened. The corners of her mouth turned up. She was mocking Adelheid. At this point, Adelheid no longer had the energy to think about a damn thing. She didn’t have her pride as a graduate of the Archfiend Cram School, the miracles that magical girls could cause, or even the strength to clench her fists.

Adelheid’s right hand opened. The heat and strength left all at once. It was over. Her eyes met with those of the Ace Lightning, who was smiling nastily with that pretty face of hers. And then, as those eyes were watching Adelheid, from behind, a dagger thrust out to stab into one of them.

Normally, Lightning surely would have been able to evade. The enemy’s physical abilities, reflexes included, were more than monstrous—she possibly even surpassed the physically strongest magical girl that Adelheid knew of, Archfiend Pam herself. But with victory in front of her, she had relaxed her attention and had even had a smile on her face. She had come too close, thinking that so long as she had an eye on Adelheid’s movements, there was no problem. She had overlooked the thing on her back, thinking of it as a mere burden. While she excelled in physical strength and powers of judgment and insight, according to Adelheid’s estimation, she was just lacking in combat experience.

The Ace Lightning’s eyes flared. Her mouth opened wide. She was not trying to say something. The arm that came from behind Adelheid shoved forward, pushing in the dagger. Blood spurted up. Adelheid’s whole field of view was dyed red.

She remembered the night the homunculi had gone out of control. Back then as well, she had carried Princess Lightning on her back and used her ability. Lightning had skimmed energy from Adelheid’s magic, regaining her strength to bring down lightning on the homunculus.

The Ace Lightning’s hand slid from the dagger she’d thrust into Adelheid. Then it wandered around and writhed, trying to grasp at something, but it just scratched through air and touched nothing.

While it had seemed like what Adelheid had done left her no way out, defense for the sake of defense, behind that, she’d been continuously sending energy to the wounded person on her back. She felt like a nurse.

Would the whimsical princess save Adelheid? Though she’d nearly been killed by the group of Lightnings, it had been a bet. But Adelheid had had no other choice but to make that bet.

And even if Lightning wanted to help, would she be able to wake from her half-alive, half-dead state? Would she be able to strike a fatal wound in one blow without the Ace Lightning realizing it?

Adelheid had won many bets, and if she survived now it would be her complete victory—or so it should have been, but things had gotten quite questionable.

The enemy and Adelheid fell together, facing each other, tangled up as they hit the floor. She couldn’t even move her fingers anymore. Her vision had gone from red to black.

“Eh… Guess this counts…as a win…”

She couldn’t see what sort of look Lightning wore on her back. That was her biggest regret.

  Snow White

Arlie’s, Dory’s, Calkoro’s, and Miss Ril’s inner voices grew distant. Dory had used her magic to drill a hole in the classroom, and the hard magical girls like Arlie and Miss Ril guarded them from the attacks of their pursuers as the rest of them kept moving. But Snow White didn’t know how long that would continue.

The school broadcast had been saying to gather in the courtyard—looking at that on its own, it was extremely suspicious. Snow White’s magic was not working well around the courtyard, an indicator that something shady was at work there. In the end, she couldn’t even get started at getting out of this situation without going to the courtyard.

Snow White clenched her weapon—an instinctual, unconscious move.

Frederica had entered the school. Snow White had been unable to hear her right away, perhaps since the courtyard had been between them, but she would never mistake that voice.

She could not allow Frederica to touch the ruins.

Without the time to wipe away the spiderwebs stuck in her hair, Snow White moved down the hallway. It was not just this old school building—the majority of buildings were not directly in contact with the ground, so there was a space between the floor and the ground. The space underneath the floor of the old school building was about twenty inches high, and you could move through it.

Right now, the floor was destroyed and there were holes everywhere, so it was difficult to sneak around. But on the other hand, that meant you could get in and out of it.

It was a space that normally nobody would go into. It was packed with dust and trash. Now she would make use of that. She threw up dust to block their vision, changing her position dizzyingly to confuse the Lightnings that pursued her. Listening to their mental voices, she thrust her weapon up from under the floor, aiming for the Lightnings’ feet, and with her third thrust, she came up out of the floor. She drove off the Lightnings who had been rushing Rappy, who was defending herself with her magic wrap.

They weren’t as capable as the Lightning Snow White knew. They were also lacking in combat experience. So many inner voices were flitting through Snow White’s mind unceasingly that she had trouble focusing on only a single one, but she could still tell who was coming at her.

And yet, there were so many. A beat later, lightning was fired in from all four directions, which she avoided by going inside the wrap with Rappy, and her storming blade swept from right to left, mowing down Lightnings.

The voices came closer. Snow White kept going.

She broke the window of the classroom and leaped out, and when lightning followed her, Rappy blocked it, smacking some wrap on the broken window. Tepsekemei wove through the Lightnings’ legs, and when the enemy’s eyes were drawn to her, Snow White punched and kicked them, and those who ignored Tepsekemei to go for Snow White had their feet swept up in a whirlwind and were made to fall as she cut across the hallway.

A lightning strike that the wrap hadn’t been able to block hit Snow White’s back, and she clenched her teeth to keep from getting knocked out. Her legs seemed like they would falter at any moment, but she moved them mechanically forward, catching the thoughts that she had heard from the end of the hall.

A group of Lightnings was looking for enemies as it made its way along. It was a group led by the club face cards, and it was far stronger than the Lightnings that they were fighting now.

“To the left.”

She changed direction to avoid the group. The enemies were strong, and there were many of them, but she had the advantage of knowing the location. This could still work—just barely.

She kicked out a floor-level window with a baseball slide that stirred up dust, entering a vacant classroom and pulling Rappy’s hand. To stop the enemies who were following her, Snow White put the wrap over the window—but her pursuers tore down the wall almost immediately. Without a moment to catch their breath, she and Rappy ran off.

They couldn’t face those Lightnings in a straight fight. Right now, they had no choice but to just keep running.

There were so many Lightnings it was hard to pick up their individual voices, but she somehow heard one as she made her way along, while correcting her way to the courtyard. Arlie and the others’ voices grew distant, but Snow White was too busy to focus on them. She could only pray that they were safe.

She heard someone’s inner voice—one she’d never paid attention to before. It hadn’t appeared suddenly. During the battle, it was so peaceful she could just about miss it. This person was suppressing their own mind’s voice. Never before had a magical girl done such a thing.

Snow White was surprised as well as confused at the quality of the voice and what it was thinking. But she kept her guard up, raised her weapon, and faced the voice.

“You’re putting up quite a nice fight.”

The group of Lightnings broke open. A hand gesturing to her approached her gradually. Snow White thrust her hand out in front of Rappy, restraining her. Rappy was at a loss, just like Snow White. She couldn’t understand what was happening.

In a sense, Snow White was even more confused than Rappy. The things she was hearing from this voice and its vocal quality—it had a warmth that made her want to lean into it.

“You and I could join forces. Don’t you agree?”

She heard another inner voice. This girl was working with Ripple.

Snow White gripped her weapon.

Ripple… Ripple… Ripple!

The Lightnings were pointing their swords at her. Old Blue stood among them, her gaze on Snow White. The blue magical girl looked like she was enjoying herself.

  Old Blue

Old Blue had been getting detailed information about Snow White ever since the end of Cranberry’s final exam. If Ripple were to find out about that, she’d be sure to give her a punch or two.

Old Blue was just that interested in Snow White, and more than a little curious. Of course, she did not proactively want to do her harm.

But the Lightnings were whimsical individually, and also whimsical in groups. Even with Old Blue as their commander, it was difficult to give them minute instructions. Managing them gently by having them operate under broad orders was best. Ordering them not to attack only Snow White when storming in was bound to slow them down when Snow White herself would be acting to protect her allies.

She would have them fight Snow White—and pray there would be no misfortune in the process.

Acting based on the information she got from the Lightnings, when Old Blue stepped out in front of Snow White, she was privately crying in joy that things had gone well. Snow White was valuable to use in many ways. Her cooperative relationship with Ripple would grow longer, too.

Presently, Snow White was working from within the Magical Kingdom, but privately, she had the desire to change the Magical Kingdom to protect magical girls. She was a part of the system, and Old Blue was the leader of an organization that aimed to overturn the system—but even if full cooperation was out of the question, some limited coordination was possible. For example, to work together here and now to defeat Pythie Frederica.

Snow White was injured. That much was to be expected in a fight against the Lightnings. The more she was weakened, the fewer options she had.

She looked at Old Blue like a small cornered animal as she made her request: “Promise me Miss Calkoro and my classmates will be safe.”

Of course, if Snow White was going to cooperate, then it would come with conditions. It was a demand made for her compromise, made precisely because she could read her thoughts—in other words, Old Blue could not reject it. Old Blue nodded and gave orders from her headset.

“I’m forbidding anyone from attacking the members of class 2-F other than Drill Dory. If they flee, let them go. If they attack, then you’ll have to respond accordingly.”

She would have liked to reduce the burden on the Lightnings by reducing their orders as much as possible, but this was better than having Snow White complain to her.

“Why is Dory an exception?” Snow White asked.

“She’s affiliated with the Lab.”

“That doesn’t matter. She’s still a classmate.”

Without giving Snow White a direct answer, Old Blue gave the instruction, “I also forbid attacks against Drill Dory.”

“Thank you very much.”

“No need to thank me. Now then, it appears we have an agreement.”

Snow White dropped her weapon and raised her hands.

The King of Spades Lightning cutely snorted. “May we attack?”

“No attacking noncombatants,” Old Blue cut in, indicating to Snow White and Rappy as well as the Lightnings that she was willing to accept the conditions.

Seeing Snow White directly with her own eyes now, she had to revise a few things about her perception of the girl. Snow White was weaker than had been spoken of in the rumors. Her body wasn’t suited to combat, but she’d brought herself to the battlefield through training and obsession. And was her heart of unflinching strength? Not at all—she was constantly hesitating and worrying.

But as for whether those facts lowered her opinion of Snow White—that was not at all the case.

Snow White was weak, injured, and mentally worn down, but she hadn’t lost the shine in her eyes. Those were the eyes of someone who didn’t give up. And even though she was aware of Old Blue’s evaluation from reading her mind, and she knew that Old Blue judged her to be weaker than she’d heard, that still didn’t dim the light in her eyes. She was stubborn, and persistent.

She’s so much like her.

The magical girl who had never flinched, even in front of the Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, and her overwhelming violence. Her heart had been stronger than her body. Old Blue—Lapis Lazuline, back then, had loved her grandchild, and her granddaughter had also adored her.

“As long as we’re together, Granny, we’ll never lose.”

The grandmother had smiled to hear those words, and the Musician of the Forest had sneered.

You really do get a different impression from hearing about someone, versus actually meeting them. Considering how Old Blue’s magic worked, of course one eyewitness would be better than many hearsays.

In fact, she was satisfied now.

“What will you do?” she asked the magical girl next to Snow White.

Rappy Taype nodded several times and replied, “I won’t resist.” She dropped her magic wrap as if it was filthy.

“I heard there was one other person with you,” Old Blue said.

Snow White shook her head. “We were together until just now, but I don’t know where she went.”

It was true that there hadn’t been time to discuss. It could be that one had decided on her own to go hide. Old Blue’s magic was telling her that Snow White would not tell petty lies in a situation like this.

“Snow White, can you make sure that girl will not attack us?”

“I don’t think she’ll attack unprompted.”

“I’ll believe you. You three Diamonds—keep Rappy safe.”

The implication wasn’t much different from kidnapping. Old Blue ordered the Lightnings to surround Rappy and prevent her from resisting. Old Blue planned to take Rappy to headquarters and use her to negotiate with the Magical Girl Resources Department. Juube might pretend to be heartless, but she wasn’t the type to abandon her humanity.

“Um…just me?” Rappy timidly asked.

“Just you,” said Snow White.

Rappy looked over at her, eyes wide, and tried to say something.

“I will stay behind. They need me,” Snow White told her.

Rappy swallowed what she was about to say and heaved a sigh.

“Weren’t you in the same class as me?” said one of the Lightnings.

“Oh, I’m not sure. I was in the same class as Princess Lightning, though.”

“What did you think of me? Did you like me? Hate me?”

“I didn’t hate you as long as you didn’t eat the leftover desserts at lunchtime.”

Ignoring the Lightnings’ cackling at Rappy’s joke, Old Blue turned to Snow White. “Well, then.”

She could use Snow White. Old Blue understood that at the very least, Snow White had no intention of betraying her right now. Snow White and her magic were useful tools. If someone laid a trap, being able to read their thoughts, Snow White could give appropriate advice. If Ripple were to get mad at her for keeping Snow White on the battlefield, Old Blue would say, “I thought she’d be safest with me,” and whether that would pass or not aside, there would be no problem so long as she could hand her over safely. If Snow White was not safe, then Old Blue would also in all likelihood not be safe herself, so there really was no problem.

Snow White had to be picking up all of this from Old Blue’s thoughts, including those calculations regarding Ripple, but there was no change in Snow White’s attitude or in her expression. While aware that she was being listened in on, Old Blue didn’t change her attitude or expression, either.

“You can keep up, right?” asked Old Blue.

“Yes.”

Perhaps because she could read her mind, things thankfully moved quickly. Old Blue nodded.

  Snow White

Her eyes seemed to see through everything. With her kind attitude, just talking with her was like an embrace, and she moved so elegantly, even in the school turned bloody battlefield. If you only knew what could be seen of her, you might never notice that her driving force was anger and sadness.

Her inner voice seemed to ooze blood. And not only in this moment. For over ten years, her heart had continued to bleed, and it did not know how to stop.

Snow White ignored the Lightnings conversing behind her—they seemed like they were communicating with one another somehow. She carefully steadied her breathing. That alone was difficult for her right now.

Old Blue hid her seething anger toward the Musician of the Forest, Cranberry. She understood that if she were to recall everything about those events, she might lose herself in rage. Some of those memories were dear, too. But she would put a lid on them, if needed. Old Blue could do that. She kept enough distance talking to Snow White so that the girl couldn’t hear her inner thoughts.

Snow White was a fearsome magical girl, but now that she was trying to fight Frederica, she was a reliable ally. She reported the information she had gathered from reading minds.

“Frederica’s subordinates are trying to gather in the courtyard, but your people are making it difficult for them,” Snow White told Old Blue.

“That’s good.”

“The students have also gathered in the courtyard, but…”

“But?”

“It’s usually hard to hear voices from that direction.”

“Hmm.”

“Judging from Pshuke’s voice when she was headed there, she was being mind-controlled.”

“That was the school principal.”

The principal had gone so far as to guard herself with magic to keep Snow White from listening in on her true intentions. There had been something hidden in the courtyard. The one managing the class was the principal. Putting together all these facts, the principal was nothing but suspicious. So that made sense to her. It did make sense, but it still made her angry.

Old Blue would immediately be able to read the anger of someone like Snow White, but Snow White still kept a calm tone and look on her face as she continued her report.

“I was able to confirm everything before Frederica showed up, but I’ve had trouble hearing people’s thoughts ever since.”

“Oho.”

Her back spasmed, having recently been struck by lightning. She felt faint from pain. Her magic not working well on the courtyard was typical, but she felt like it was more messed up than usual. Was her confusion due to her own injury, or had something gone awry in the courtyard?

She could hear Kana’s inner voice screaming out.

Ranyi was gone. Snow White already knew that from having listened to Old Blue’s thoughts.

Snow White had known that the students had been defending the courtyard, but she didn’t think she could go help them. She’d learned from Old Blue’s thoughts the things that Principal Halna had done. It was fair to assume that all the students in the courtyard were being controlled.

She perked up her ears and heard another voice. This person must have been in quite a lot of trouble, which made their voice reach Snow White more easily.

“One of your students…a magical girl who is close with Ripple is trying to stay hidden. She’s frightened.”

Snow White’s point was that the student was in distress, but Old Blue responded without any change in expression.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the time to save her. I’m sure she’ll hang in there.”

Old Blue did see that as unfortunate, but she had no hesitation. She would not waste time on making decisions that had to be made. That went all the more so on the battlefield.

Snow White had no time. Neither did she have the temperament for this. That’s why she worried and agonized. 0 Lulu was Ripple’s friend. She was thinking about Ripple. If possible, Snow White wanted to save her, but she couldn’t reach that far.

If only Snow White couldn’t hear thoughts, maybe she could have had a life relying on someone like Old Blue. But she could hear these thoughts from people.

“Ripple is…”

“We can deal with her after everything is done.”

An image of Ripple rose in her mind and didn’t leave. She was always either worried or angry. Even if she smiled, it was only sometimes.

  Calkoro

One, two, three swords swung up, crackling loudly as they shone with ominous charge. Now that things had come to this, her calculations meant nothing. Neither did she have the time to chant any spells. Her abacus was kicked up into the air and slid into a corner of the classroom. She reached out her hand practically reflexively, but even if she thought, I have to get them to let me go somehow, she couldn’t even cry out in the moment.

“Good-bye.”

She was going to die. She was going to be killed. Why had things wound up like this? Why were there so many Princess Lightnings? Nobody would answer. Her mouth moved to form “Stop it,” but her voice was shaking, and it wouldn’t make words.

“Hold on a minute.”

One of the Lightnings raised her hand. She had a flat device the size of her palm, probably a communicator. She put it to her ear and began nodding along.

“Master says not to kill her.”

After a delay, the swords were lowered one by one. Slumped on the ground and looking up at them, Calkoro heaved a deep sigh and fell forward onto her knees.

They’re not gonna kill me…?

She really couldn’t understand what had just happened. Things she could understand were probably in the minority, here. Raising herself up, wondering what was going on, she happened to get a whiff of a burnt smell. Before thinking about the reason why, she took a jump to the right side into the corner where her abacus was.

A human-sized dark red flame suddenly blew upward. The three Lightnings had reacted just a hair slower than Calkoro, but they still managed to avoid getting a direct hit. With their hair and costumes singed, they readied their swords, heading to the source of the flames, to the attackers in magical-girl masks.

Calkoro scooped up her abacus, maintaining her speed as she broke through the classroom window. The attackers’ masks were from the Star Queen series. They were different magical girls from the ones Calkoro had been fighting. There were no marks or dirt on their costumes, no signs they had been fighting. Calkoro also didn’t recall that magic.

Were they hiding? Or maybe…

They were fresh troops. Lightning shook the floor. The sounds of swords clashing increased in ferocity. The numbers were increasing. New forces were being sent in. This was a different force from the Lightnings. Jumping under some torn floorboards, Calkoro went under the floor. In the dark, crawling around like the mouse that was her motif, she kept on moving to wherever was quietest.

Someone had probably been here ahead of her. There were marks on the ground. The meandering trail aside from hands and feet—had she been dragging a long weapon?

What do I do?

She had gotten separated from the students. If Miss Ril and Arlie hadn’t blocked that lightning bolt, Calkoro would have died. Was Dory okay? Calkoro spat in frustration and turned around.

She remembered that there had been a broadcast saying to gather in the courtyard. It was fair to assume that at the point of broadcast, at least, the principal had been safe. If the security homunculus remained, or even if they didn’t and there was some kind of security system, that would be a lot better. If they focused on defending themselves while the two attacking forces destroyed each other, then eventually either the Inspection Department or the Information Bureau or something would come to save them.

Besides, Calkoro had no other prospects. If the students remembered the broadcast, then they should head that way. She should head to the courtyard. Even being under the floor, where it was hard to tell where she was, she could figure out her direction and position by calculating.

Calkoro inched forward even more cautiously than a mouse.

  Mana

No matter how much she glared, from outside the barrier she could only vaguely see what was going on inside the school, as usual. Occasionally, she caught some flash or explosion, but she couldn’t even observe it properly, never mind interfere. All she could do was stand idly by from the outside and grind her teeth.

Inside the barrier, she couldn’t see any particular activity at the main school area of Umemizaki Junior High, while at the old school building, a number of magical girls seemed to be running around and fighting. Mana had heard that the students were an array of elites, but she doubted they’d all be unharmed when they were tossed into the middle of a battlefield.

The analysis of the barrier was slow going. They had sent out all the casters they could from Inspection headquarters and summoned everyone who was on standby, but the reports didn’t come back with anything specific. They added nothing of value.

The casters were surrounding the barrier just in case, but it was the most they could do just to keep ordinary people from getting close.

Mana couldn’t get in contact with Snow White. All communication had been cut off.

Mana gritted her teeth. The initial response had been almost as fast as it could get. But it still hadn’t been enough. The roof of the old school building was blasted off, and Mana instinctively covered her face. The roof fell, stirring up dust and dirt, making the blurry view even hazier.

“Hey, listen.”

Not only that, but she also had an annoying magical girl at her side. An outsider with fundamentally no good reason to be here, Uluru was on site because she claimed to be one of Snow White’s allies. Mana ignored Uluru, walking the outer perimeter of the barrier. They were really lacking in a surveillance system.

“Listen, listen.”

“Be quiet.”

“Listen—Uluru came up with a good idea.”

“I’m telling you to be quiet.”

“You should just get them to help.”

Mana came to a stop and turned around. Uluru was nodding, her face annoyingly smug.

“The students were dispatched from lots of different places, right? So then if you tell those places what’s going on, they’ll send in some more people. Uluru knows some acquaintances of Snow White who would help, and Uluru has connections in the Puk Faction, too. So if you don’t have enough people right now, you should just get more from elsewhere!”

Many people in the Inspection Department wouldn’t like having outsiders poke their noses in an investigation. There were a lot of stakeholders at play this time, and Mana had been told by her direct supervisor that if such busybodies showed up, she should turn them away.

Mana agreed with that, partly out of pride that they—the Inspection Department—were the real specialists. But right now, she didn’t feel like rejecting Uluru’s proposal as stupid. In fact, there was no telling when the barrier might come down, even with all of Inspection concentrated on dispelling it.

“…Let me ask you one thing,” Mana said to Uluru.

“What?”

“Did you come up with the plan of asking for help from other places?”

“Of course Uluru came up with it.”

Mana was now more convinced than ever that Uluru had devised this plan, and that was how she knew that Uluru’s magic was working—in other words, Uluru was lying.

It was Snow White.

“There should be a list of people we should contact,” said Mana. “Tell me!”

“Wow, so bossy! Fine, here!”

There was a long list of names. Mana scanned it. There were famous casters that even Mana knew the names of. If Inspection could summon them all, then maybe undoing the barrier was not an unrealistic fantasy.

Upsetting your boss is part of an inspector’s job, she told herself. She’d heard this tidbit from Hana Gekokujou.

Mana clicked her tongue and nodded.