Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 18 - Chapter Pr

PROLOGUE

  Kashiki-akarukushi-hime

She was done checking over her body’s new capabilities. All her numbers were up, compared to when she’d been Pythie Frederica. Though this was not the most important aspect of Frederica’s ideal magical girl, it was needed for what she was to do next.

She’d checked over her magic as well. It had even more offensive potential, and she’d be able to exploit its power in battle to crush her enemies. Her old ability had been more convenient in an everyday sense, but she’d overlook that.

She was excited. There was no way she wouldn’t be worked up now, so that was fine. She sensed no increase or decrease in her intellect. At the very least, the numbers told her she’d avoided the tragedy of her intellect being dulled without her being aware of it.

She’d jazzed up her looks a bit but was still Frederica. Properly speaking, it would have been convenient to become a completely different person. But there were reasons she hadn’t done so. Ostensibly, that was because thoughtlessly changing her height or weight, then messing up with a body she was unused to, would pose problems. Privately, she would be quite sad if she ran into Ripple or Snow White and they didn’t realize that she was Frederica—and she certainly couldn’t tell that to anyone.

She had made sure to come informed. The ruins were dangerous. They had transformed from a temple to a mansion to a school before the Magical Kingdom blocked the entrance and kept it guarded. In recent times, a homunculus corps from the Lab had been stationed as an iron-clad defense, but due to repeated incidents and accidents, it was now easier to get inside.

Puk Puck, an incarnation of one of the Three Sages, had once attempted a wild scheme. She had tried to resolve the Magical Kingdom’s energy problem by using magical girls as fuel, just like throwing branches on an open fire. Such an insane plan was bound to have opposition, and from how she’d attempted such a feat, it was clear what an outrageous character Puk Puck had been—and yet even the outrageous Puk Puck had never tried to use these school ruins. She had looked into it and then declined.

These ruins were so fearsome that the infamous Puk Puck herself wanted nothing to do with them. That was precisely why Frederica planned to use the ruins.

She had made the preparations. She was in a good mood. This was the climax. She doubted she would lose to anyone, but those were just the times that you had to be the most careful.

She had the body of an incarnation. Asmona wasn’t with her, but she had assembled the next-best mercenary unit in existence. She had the Caspar Faction’s magical-girl Elite Guard. She had a basic grasp of the ruins and their layout after the various changes throughout the years.

“Now, then.”

Kashiki-akarukushi-hime—Pythie Frederica—smiled and faced the magical girls. Some were stiff with nerves, others were looking up at her like they weren’t thinking anything, and yet others were unable to keep themselves from grinning about the upcoming destruction and slaughter. They were all, without exception, allies she could count on.

“Are you all ready? Well then, let us go. We are going to save the girls of the magical-girl class who were attacked by outlaws.”

She turned, fluttering the hem of her skirt. Then, with an added spin, she leaped down from the podium and ran off with her mercenaries in tow. These little gestures, although pointless for a magical girl, exhilarated her spirit.

  Juube

Umemizaki Junior High had been sealed off by a barrier, and the magical-girl class was under assault.

One of the mansions the Caspar Faction used as its base had been attacked by a group of magical girls.

All communications with Rappy Taype, who Juube had assigned to the magical-girl class, had been cut off. The Rappy Taype doll that she had prepared for just such an occasion was no use; it either stayed silent or said meaningless things like, “I don’t know” or “I have no idea.” Snow White’s magical phone was silent, too. This was both a physical and magical barrier.

The Inspection Department was in an absolute tumult, with disaster at its door.

The spies Juube had dispatched brought back plenty of worrying information, but she didn’t have the money, people, or power to put said intel to its best use. There wasn’t enough time for Juube to use her magic—a pen that revealed the truth—to get a handle on the situation and surmise what was coming. She’d managed to learn a few things, but the circumstances were far from perfect.

But she would still do what she had to, right now.

“Puppeta, give the Inspection Department our full cooperation. Send them every free hand we have—no exceptions. Anyone otherwise occupied is to finish their tasks and report to Inspection.”

“Anything else?” Puppeta asked, although she would have rather said, “Shouldn’t we be currying favor with either Frederica’s Caspar Faction or Old Blue’s R&D Department?” She gave Juube a probing look.

Juube snorted at Puppeta, the Resources Department’s vice chief. “Everything’s happened too suddenly,” Juube told her. “Granted, this is probably my fault for failing to predict it.”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t—”

Puppeta tried to console her, but the Rappy Taype puppet on her right hand grinned and said, “So it’s actually not a big deal.”

Puppeta hastily covered the puppet’s mouth, but it was too late.

“Sorry about that,” she told Juube. “This idiot can be so rude.”

“Calling her an idiot—now that’s rude.”

“Yeah, Rappy did nothing wrong! C’mon, Puppeta, do your job already.”

“Ah! I’m so sorry.”

Puppeta pattered out of the meeting room. Normally, she moved more quietly. You could really sense her feelings—her panic, shock, and fear.

In the now-empty room, looking down at the grain of her long desk, Juube sighed. The inconvenience of being unable to sigh like she wanted now that she was the department chief made her sigh once more.

Even using her position as chief of Magical Girl Resources, it had been difficult to learn about the ruins and the relic. Old Blue from R&D must have been meddling far longer and more deeply with various people and places, but Juube doubted she had the full picture, either. The information had been top secret, confidential outside the core of the factions. Frederica of the Caspar Faction would have been able to learn a little about the ruins and the relic, but who knew whether she understood them completely.

Juube had another way to gather information—as a magical girl rather than the chief of Magical Girl Resources. She could write something down with her magic pen, and twenty-four hours later, it would turn blue if the statement was true or red if it was false. Since it took quite a bit of time to take effect, she couldn’t use it to excess, but it was a rather convenient ability.

The relic enshrined deep in the ruins underground Umemizaki Junior High will solve the Magical Kingdom’s energy problem.

The line she’d written twenty-four hours earlier had turned a pretty blue.

Juube chose not to press any deeper with more spec. Even from this safe place far away from all the action, she had a bad feeling.

Magical girls on the battlefield weren’t the only ones who had a sixth sense; Juube and others who were on the sidelines did, too. Whenever she got the sense that ahh, this is bad, she had to follow her gut. This wasn’t just an occult thing. It was perfectly rational. Juube was investigating the relic via her magic, but there was no guarantee that what she was doing wouldn’t count as “using magic on the relic.”

Some things were better left untouched. If Frederica, Old Blue, and Halna Midi Meren were all scrambling for that relic, then it was best not to get involved. She shouldn’t try helping someone to benefit her after the war. Nothing good would come to the losing side, and she doubted that anything good would come to the winning side, either. So then any involvement was a loss.

Juube sighed again, making her bangs float up, and then stood before they could fall again. The chief of Magical Girl Resources didn’t have the time to be resting in the meeting room.