Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 5 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

DROWNING IN LOVE AND HEARTS

  7753

A pro baseball player developing a special throw to strike out one ace batter after another. A cop surviving a fierce firefight in order to apprehend a vicious criminal, even after shotguns came into play. A private investigator gathering all those involved in a case into one big room to unveil deductions and brilliantly point out the culprit.

These popular and dramatic exploits can only be enjoyed in fiction. For the people who actually work in these professions, such stories are ultimately considered pure fantasy, good for a laugh or two at most. With magical girls, however, some of them would refuse to let such fantastical, daring feats remain in the realm of amusing anecdotes.

Since she specialized in mental health–focused guidance, the magical girl 7753 (pronounced na-na-ko-san) had plenty of opportunities to meet colleagues who desperately pursued that dream.

These girls spent their days in training, dreaming of fighting an as-yet unseen but powerful foe; it might be an evil archfiend, a malevolent god, a twisted science experiment, or an assassin sent from another world, and there were far more of these girls than professional baseball players seriously trying to develop their own unique pitch. 7753 didn’t even have enough fingers to count all the ones she had met personally.

For example, one self-righteous girl had proclaimed she was training in preparation for the threat to the world that would one day come. Her training ground had been littered with the fragments of boulders she had kicked to bits. Looking into her beautiful, sparkling eyes, 7753 hadn’t been able to say, “If the world were ever on the verge of crisis, then some other, stronger person would handle it. There would be no job for you,” or “Before you worry about any worldwide threats, worry about the safety of your hometown, please.” The most she could manage was a weak smile on her face and an order to clean up the scattered rock debris.

7753 hadn’t seen that girl again since her reassignment. Was she still dreaming about the “global crisis that was bound to happen someday” and destroying boulders?

Another magical girl had sought out “opponents worth fighting.” To her, battle itself was the goal, and ideological issues such as “justice” and “evil” were mere distractions.

Once, that girl had touched the trunk of a big tree, and the opposite side tore open in a great blast, its leaves scattering all around. 7753 had thought, I’ve seen that move in some manga before, but she didn’t say so. The most she could do was smile weakly and advise the girl to refrain from destroying the environment.

“This is what I am now,” the girl had said. “My abilities have reached a point far beyond what your average magical girl can achieve.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Master! Give me a chance! Please give me a place to wield my powers!”

“Uh-huh…”

Before long, that girl was reassigned. 7753 could only pray she’d managed to go somewhere she could wield her power.

Sometimes, she was visited by scholarly types who believed, “Magic is a technology to be systematized and researched instead of something vague and indeterminate.” There had been revolutionaries, too, who believed, “We have powers that surpass scientific civilization, so shouldn’t we be the ones to rule and unify the world? Humans work only for their own selfish aims, and we can’t leave this to them any longer.” She also encountered patriots who insisted, “The power of magical girls is necessary to reverse the nation’s decline and stagnation. We could be the greatest force for national security.”

One magical girl had claimed, “We should go beyond our local districts and actively involve ourselves in human affairs. If magical girls make a serious effort to tackle these issues, we can prevent tragedies,” then flown off to the Middle East and toppled a government. Afterward, she had gone around beating up bad magical girls one after another, winning her the violent nickname of “the magical-girl hunter.”

7753 had known for quite some time what the Magical Kingdom was using her for.

The ones they sent to her were all problem children drunk on their dreams and power. Then, after between one week and six months of time with her, they would be transferred elsewhere. Magical girls were sent to her and taken away, one after another, like a conveyor belt.

7753 was obligated to hand in reports about them. So she wrote them up based on the information she learned through her magical ability and submitted them.

7753’s special power was data visualization. There was nothing noble or challenging about what she did. Her ability and the results she got from it were quite insignificant.

She would examine a subject through her magical goggles and see the great variety of data displayed in them. They showed her something like a status screen in a role-playing game. When the subject was in her goggles’ sights, there would sound an electronic beep-beep-beep, and then the data would display. Just by adjusting the dial, she could attain practically limitless information, from the broader parameters of intelligence, endurance, and combat power, to more fine-grained detail like arm strength, grip strength, pinch strength, finger strength, fingernail hardness, etc. And the information she could learn was not just limited to traits that could be expressed in numbers. It included everything from hobbies to likes to even—if the subject was a magical girl—her own unique magic. The numerical values of abilities were displayed in heart symbols, and sentences were written in a very cutesy, childlike manner, all oddly typical of a magical girl.

This ability was useful to the Magical Kingdom for uncovering magical girls who could pose trouble. No matter how you tried to hide things, you couldn’t deceive 7753’s magic, and undetected problem children became exposed problem children so that the Magical Kingdom could know. Though most of the problem children didn’t even try to hide it.

7753 calmly completed the tasks assigned to her. If this was the work the Magical Kingdom wanted from her, then there was nothing for it but to meet their demands.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t come up with other ways of using her powers. She could have gone to a bigger city to search for criminals to unmask. She could set out to countries where terrorism was rampant and round up the dangerous people who lived in hiding among innocent civilians.

Those things would surely have been a worthwhile use of her magic. But she wasn’t going to oppose the Magical Kingdom to do it. If they demanded she use her powers to uncover these problem children, then she would go along with that.

Seven years had passed since Kotori Nanaya had gained the powers of the magical girl 7753, and that young magical girl brimming with hopes and dreams was now a veteran. She was more world-weary now. She wasn’t drunk on her own power, either. Tons of magical girls out there were more powerful than she was, and even if she did seek out ultimate strength, the only one to decide how that would be used was the Magical Kingdom.

The Magical Kingdom was not suffering financial stress, yet they kept a tight budget. Basically, they were cheapskates. As a rule, magical girls were volunteers who slaved away for no pay, and if you didn’t like it, you were told to quit—often rather frankly, depending on the person. 7753 had heard some graphic rumors about some magical girls being on welfare so they could focus on their magical-girl activities. But those were probably just rumors.

Even the unabashedly exploitative Magical Kingdom did sometimes pay money. They doled out a regular chain of treats in the form of a salary to hold on to certain personnel they wanted to keep in their sights.

Only a very few magical girls received this salary, like the managers who coordinated a whole region, or the scouts who discovered talent, or those with abilities, skills, experience, or magic that would allow them to work for the Magical Kingdom in a specialized capacity.

7753 was one of these individuals, and as one affiliated with the Magical Girl Resources Department—like human resources, but for magical girls—she received a regular paycheck from the Magical Kingdom.

While this was an honor, it also narrowed her options. If she’d had a “normal,” human job, even if she were to quit being a magical girl, she could make a living. But unlike those who did this work as a side job, a full-timer had nowhere to run.

There are many jobs, like professional go or shogi player, singer, actor, entertainer, manga artist, novelist, or pro athlete, that will leave you with no other marketable skills if you fail. But of all these careers, magical girl is worst of all. If a shogi player or manga artist fails, they still retain their experience and skills. But a magical girl isn’t even left with that, since her memory will be erased. She becomes a completely blank slate, literally left with nothing, a human with no skills, no experience, and no work history, flung right out into the middle of the raging waves of the world.

Each time this thought would pop back up in her mind, 7753 would shudder. She had no options left in life now other than being a magical girl.

Magical girls with dreams, those who wanted to get stronger and shoot for their goals, were beautiful. More than a few times, 7753 had felt a longing to be like that. But it had never gone beyond longing. People always admire those who live a life they can’t. She didn’t actually have to follow that same path herself. 7753 did not live in dreams but in reality.

A full-time magical girl did not receive benefits, but 7753’s cash income was not by any means small. Keeping moderation in mind as much as possible, refraining from wasteful spending and saving up her income, just recently she had finally managed to save ten million yen. Her pocketbook gave her a solid sense of satisfaction, and looking at the numbers, she quietly cried.

7753 had heard of some magical girls who had amassed wealth by doing evil, but she wasn’t going to take any risks. Getting fired over something like that would be getting her priorities backward. She would save slowly and steadily. She didn’t mind doing it the hard way.

Her saving was going well, but it still wasn’t enough. She would have a long life after she quit being a magical girl. The house she was living in now had been built more than thirty years ago. After rebuilding and renovations and various other things, ten million yen would be used up in a flash.

A few years ago, both her parents had passed away, one after the other. Left to her were some meager savings and stock certificates, as well as their house and land parcel. She had only met her relatives on the occasion of her parents’ death. She hadn’t seen them since.

The time after her parents’ passing had been full of upheaval.

First, her boss was demoted. Her direct superior, the one person she might have been able to rely on aside from her parents, had been very much a competent woman, the type who always looked crisply put-together. She had guaranteed 7753, “If anything happens, I’ll cover for you.” But due to the misconduct of a different subordinate, something 7753 had no power over, her boss had been demoted. And even though they had worked together for years, she hadn’t been able to say good-bye.

Immediately afterward, she had met the replacement.

The replacement was a vaguely capricious-seeming magical girl. She didn’t strike 7753 as reliable, compared to her former boss. According to hearsay, she was an up-and-comer who had shot up through the ranks, and the nastier rumors said she’d just got her way up through nepotism thanks to someone in her family with deep connections to magical girls. Her nature was as elusive as the airy impression she gave off.

If 7753 were to use her magic, she may have been able to find out what sort of person she really was, but 7753 had always removed her goggles in front of her boss. Of course. Using her goggles on her boss was bound to offend her. And it was rude to access someone’s data without permission, no matter who it was.

Her new boss had taken 7753’s goggles in hand with deep interest and said, “I’ll take these for now.” 7753 explained that without them, she would be unable to perform her regular duties, but her boss didn’t listen and just carried them off. Then, a few days later, the goggles were sent back to her by mail.

Attached to them was a letter that read, They’ve been improved. We’ve made it so that the goggles can transfer information directly to us, so from now on, written reports will be unnecessary. 7753 balled the letter up and threw it in the trash. What an openly contemptuous way to talk to someone! The letter also informed her of many things even she hadn’t been aware of, like how if she detransformed while the goggles were away from her, the goggles would remain where they were, and that they could be modified despite their magical nature. At that time, she was too angry to be surprised.

Not only had her boss taken away her goggles, the foundation of 7753’s magical-girl existence, she had tweaked them without asking permission or apology. What she could learn from this was that her boss was selfish and pragmatic. She hadn’t looked through the goggles to acquire this information, but she was certain this impression was true. The new boss didn’t seem any more reliable than her previous one—in fact, it seemed to 7753 that if she looked to her for help for the wrong thing, she was apt to be discarded.

At the time, 7753 had lamented her wretched life. Being placed under such a miserable boss made her depressed.

Eventually, months passed, spring became summer, and summer turned to fall.

People are self-interested creatures. As her life went on by without any serious problems, she came to think, It’s actually easier to not have to write reports. I like it. The information 7753 could acquire with her magic was extremely detailed, and that had made for a lot of time taken writing reports. Thanks to the modification on her goggles, there was no more of that, and she could take it easy.

What’s more, she had pessimistically believed she’d be stuck with a pitiful salary until her death, but it was raised by 30 percent. She was even grateful to her boss, like a capable employee working briskly under an elite. The evening she heard about her raise, she opened up the three foreign-made dark beers she’d won from a raffle in the shopping district. The bottles were shaped differently from the Japanese standard, with an interesting acute angle to them. Being the first alcohol she’d had in a long time, the beer hit her hard. The thrills of humanity were pretty weak, compared to being a magical girl.

Having some financial leeway eased her heart. When cleaning her house, she even started paying close attention to the details, like doorframes and window frames. She switched from herbicides to weeding her yard by hand and even considered planting some vegetables.

And so 7753’s lifestyle became more fulfilling, and going to work, which had felt like a hassle before, was now something she could do with a smile. And so it had been until now.

She woke up and gazed vacantly at an unfamiliar ceiling until she remembered that she was staying at a hotel. This was her first business trip in a long while. Someone else was doing the cooking and cleaning for her. The Magical Kingdom was paying for her food and transportation costs. Though the room was so tiny that she hit her head getting into the bath, the hotel conferred a rare happiness to someone who lived on her own. Magical girls mainly worked at night, so she went back to sleep once, and then a second time, savoring the blissful experience. Once it was evening, she leisurely rose from bed.

After getting up, Kotori Nanaya immediately washed her face. She had to, or she wouldn’t wake up properly. The magical facial cleanser her old boss had given her thoroughly cleansed away the excess oil.

At a sparsely populated buffet, she read the evening paper over a salad and some sausage. The crunchy texture of the lettuce was pleasant. As she spread apricot jam on her bread, she quenched her thirst with lukewarm milk. She shot a vague glance at the TV. An evening news show was on. Seeing the teenage girls on-screen giggling exuberantly, she thought, Aw, they’re so pretty.

If she hadn’t gotten these powers, maybe she would have had such an adolescence.

All she’d ever thought about was being a magical girl, and her life as a human had been secondary. She’d figured stuff like fashion and dieting and makeup had nothing to do with her, but getting another look at her face in the mirror now, maybe she looked older than her age. Gold will sparkle beautifully even without polish, but iron merely rusts.

Since Kotori had come all this way to B City, she’d made a reservation at a beauty salon. It was so famous it had even been featured in a magazine. She told herself that ultimately, she was just taking the opportunity while she was on her business trip.

Wait, no, it’s not just a side thing, she corrected herself. This wasn’t a waste of time to begin with. It was a necessary expense. Balancing things between her human life and magical-girl life would make her time more fulfilling. Or it should. It was true that if she stayed transformed, she could cut a lot of expenses—primarily, food. When she’d first become a magical girl, she’d lived that way to save money.

But just because transforming would make her pretty didn’t mean she could neglect her grooming when she was in human form. With each year that passed, the weight of that fact became heavier. Once you were an adult, you had to function in a social environment even just going out to do a little shopping.

Kotori went back to her room and checked her schedule book. She’d never carried around anything this stylish before. It was a pretty fancy one, with a leather cover. If it hadn’t been for her raise, she never would have bought something like this.

Who knew getting a raise could feel this good? It was like the world had done an about-face. She was very much struck by how systems like age-based promotion, periodic raises, and lifetime employment would get such a firm grip on people’s hearts.

The plan for today was to meet with a magical girl who would come to her for training. That was scheduled late at night, so during the day, she would go to the beauty salon for her appointment. She made a mental note of what she needed to do and what she wanted to do, and she was carefully culling the list when her magical phone rang. It was from her boss. It was unusual for her to call instead of messaging.

Kotori transformed into 7753 and took her magical phone in hand. Her posttransformation voice was different from her human one. Answering a work call without transforming was bound to get her needled for carelessness. Magical-girl business manners were tedious in the oddest ways.

“Hello, this is 7753.”

“We have emergency business. Inspectors have been sent to B City.” 7753 could sense the anxiety in her voice. “B City” had to refer to this town, where 7753 was currently staying for her business trip.

She was confused by the “inspectors” part, as she wasn’t sure who was to be inspecting what, and took several moments to think before responding, “Inspectors?”

“Investigators. Who investigate magical-girl crimes.”

“Oh, I see.”

“The inspection team acquired information that a dangerous criminal was in hiding in the city and went there. They came into contact with the criminal not long ago, but the enemy’s forces were greater than anticipated, so the team has made a retreat.”

Reflexively, 7753’s hand clenched her magical phone. “So what does that mean, exactly?”

“I’m told there have been casualties, and there is also a request for support from the magical girls in the area. That includes you, since you’re in B City for your business trip. I really want to have one of my people there. You’re fortunate enough to be there already, so you’ll go.”

This wasn’t fortunate. It was the worst kind of bad luck.

“If it’s that dangerous, I’ll just get in the way.”

“You can’t leave the city anyway. The Department of Diplomacy has erected a barrier with the request for support as their pretext.”

“Pardon?”

“Officially, they say this is to prevent the criminal from fleeing. But to the magical girls within the city, it’s tantamount to being locked in. The barrier prevents any magical elements from passing through. That includes anyone in human form.”

“That’s crazy!”

“Since you can’t get out, at any rate, it’ll be much safer for you to stick together with the investigation specialists rather than be alone. If you act on your own without knowing what you’re doing, the team might decide you’re one of the criminal’s cohorts and attack you.”

“Well, but—”

“I’ll message you the details. You don’t have much time. Report in secret. Don’t make any decisions on your own, no matter how trivial. And take care of yourself.” Her final remark seemed to 7753 like a perfunctory afterthought, but maybe it was just her victim complex talking.

Her routine was falling apart. For a while, she was dazed, unable to think at all. Feeling as if some outside force was pulling her strings, 7753 checked her messages. There was one from her boss. She immediately opened it and ran her eyes over the text. It said she was to meet the inspection team at the hotel in front of the station. The meeting time was very soon. Her boss urged her to go while in human form.

In a stupor, she thought, I’ll cancel my appointment at the salon, for now.

Kotori decided to walk around town before going to meet the inspection team. When she stepped outside, the sky was covered in thick clouds—a dark, ashen canopy stretching endlessly to the limits of the horizon. It had been brighter inside with the lights on than it was outside. Even though it was late afternoon, it was so dark it seemed night was about to fall. It was like a symbol of her fate. She felt weary.

It was five minutes walking from the hotel where she’d been staying to the intersection. The city limits were right close by. The air didn’t taste particularly nice. The briskness of it stung her throat. It was just a semirural area.

The intersection near the station had a lot of foot traffic for the edge of town; men and women who looked like white-collar workers and students in coats walked by without giving her a glance. They all stopped together at the red light, then at the green light, they all started up again. Kotori walked along with them. But before she could reach the other side of the crosswalk, her forehead hit an invisible wall, and then she doubled over. She hadn’t just run into a hard wall—the moment she’d touched it, she couldn’t even stay upright. She wanted to yell, but her voice caught in her throat. Her head felt numb all the way to the core. Her vision went red for an instant, then gradually eased back. Wrapping her arms around herself, she slumped to the ground. A powerful wave of dizziness washed over her. She couldn’t breathe. She wasn’t even sure which direction was down.

She had been walking on the edge of the crosswalk, so nobody bumped into her from behind, but she couldn’t avoid the suspicious looks from people walking down the street. Rolling, crawling, scrambling, she made her way back to the sidewalk, and when people addressed her with concern, asking if she was okay, she waved them off with a weak smile and finally stood up using a roadside tree for support. The corners of her mouth felt cold, and when she ran her hand over her lips, she found they were covered in saliva. She pulled out her handkerchief and wiped it off.

So this was the barrier. Regular people might come and go as normal, but 7753 couldn’t proceed any farther.

Though she’d been told that anything magical would be repelled, she hadn’t thought it would hurt this badly. Even just touching it would be sure to take you out of the fight. She shuddered to think about what would have happened if she had unknowingly tried to leave the barrier in a car or train.

Having given up and about ready to go back, Kotori noticed the green pedestrian crossing light had stopped blinking, and rushed off in a panic.

Pulling out her magical phone, she checked the time. It was only a bit longer until the meeting. With a light swipe of her finger, she first checked a map of the area, then located the nearby playground and headed in its direction. Sitting down on the bench, she opened up her messages and browsed the documents her boss had sent to her.

The documents included information on the criminal, although their name and affiliation was as-yet unknown—basically a mystery killer. As she read up on their MO of hacking up victims with a large blade, Kotori felt herself wilting. She was being forced to investigate someone like this?

All the victims were connected to the Magical Kingdom: whistle-blowers, administrators who had been scheduled to appear in court as important material witnesses, examiners who had supposedly accepted bribes, and magical girls rumored to have loaned items from the Magical Kingdom to organized crime. It was all written quite frankly. Kotori was shaken. She wondered if it was okay for her to know all these details, but at the same time, the fact that so many local magical girls had gone about their business completely oblivious to these events made her vaguely fearful. Just how many of them were killed in the line of duty?

But that was just the beginning.

Scrolling down the page, terms like “undercover investigation” and “double agent” and “cover-up” jumped out at her, and she immediately put her magical phone into sleep mode. She tossed it into the tote bag hanging from her shoulder as she stood. After two pats to the seat of her skirt, she bought a black coffee from the vending machine and returned to the bench. There was an old man fishing in the pond in the park. His life must be so carefree and easygoing. Kotori’s jealousy cut deep.

The dangerous job of investigating a criminal—more specifically, apprehending a criminal, a task she’d never been involved with before—had now been thrust upon her.

7753 had just happened to be in this city by coincidence, and her boss, who she had believed was a capable individual, had given her this preposterous order. Kotori’s instincts were right after all—her boss was a pragmatist who didn’t understand people’s feelings. She shouldn’t have trusted her just because she’d decreased 7753’s workload and given her a raise. But regret it as she might, it was already too late.

A capable supervisor like hers would also expect her subordinates to be capable, too. But what could she want from 7753? The most experience she had with violence was intervening in a fight between drunks. No, her boss was not the capable type at all. She was an incompetent who mistakenly believed she was talented. If she really were capable, she would have a firm grasp of her subordinates’ skills and say something like, “Some conflict may break out in B City, where you’re staying right now, so please remain on standby in as safe a place as possible.” 7753 griped furiously about her superior but she couldn’t abandon the job she’d been assigned. It was rough working for the man—or the Kingdom, in this case.

Sipping her coffee slowly, Kotori checked her magical phone again.

She’d once heard that in the information field, sharing unsolicited secrets with someone could make them feel closer to you, and you could use that to drag them onto your side. Kotori couldn’t help but feel as though she were being given information that she fundamentally shouldn’t know. The coffee she’d drunk was hitting her stomach.

This wasn’t simply a list of documents. Great pains had been taken to provide detailed explanations for the reader’s sake.

Magical girls had been killed in their homes while they were detransformed, too. Their addresses were strictly managed; it wasn’t information accessible to the general public of the Magical Kingdom. To say nothing of the fact that if you were high up enough to figure out secret identities, you’d have to be in the upper echelons or possibly right at the core of the organization. Suspicions were erupting among concerned personnel that a political purge by some power could be underway, ridding themselves of individuals who were inconvenient to them.

Within this cesspool of suspicions, various powers had offered their cooperation in this investigation. Among those were Kotori’s own Magical Girl Resources Department and the Department of Diplomacy, which had erected this barrier. The purpose of the barrier might be to create an alibi: They had cooperated with the investigation, so they had no connection with the criminal. Their goal could be to let the criminal escape if things went well, or, if left with no choice, they would kill the criminal to silence them.

Even these details were explained in full, adding to Kotori’s woe.

It wasn’t as if she had absolutely no ambitions for promotion, but that was motivated by the plebeian desire to get a higher wage for a better lifestyle. She had absolutely no desire to get involved in a tug-of-war between factions, assassinations, political purges, or anything like that. That was way too dangerous.

The inspection squad currently in B City was made up of three people. From the Inspection Department, there was Hana Gekokujou and Mana. There was also Archfiend Pam, who had been assigned to them from a different department. Hana Gekokujou and Mana were specialists in inspection and investigation. The documents said Archfiend Pam was currently attached to the Magical Kingdom’s Department of Diplomacy, but she had been temporarily assigned to the team in a combat capacity, since her presence had been deemed necessary for arresting such a vicious criminal. With the addition of 7753, affiliated with the Magical Girl Resources Department, their mixed team was complete.

However, it was particularly unsettling that the Department of Diplomacy had clearly enlisted combat personnel. The part 7753 had just read, about the goal being to silence people, began to feel real. They might believe 7753 herself was there for similar reasons. The mere fact that she’d been forced onto their team was suspicious enough. They wouldn’t welcome a compulsory addition.

Making up her mind to at least do her best not to arouse suspicion, she scrolled down to the next page.

The criminal’s accomplice had been identified as the mascot Toko.

The recently developed state-of-the-art magical phones contained magical-talent search tools that had greater directivity than previous models, but the device also left a record of each use with Magical Kingdom inspection headquarters. This was a hidden function kept secret from all but the handful of people involved with the project.

Basically, this meant that the Magical Kingdom was keeping a close eye on how the function was used. All magical girls in active service had to have felt once or twice just how much of a sieve the Magical Kingdom’s surveillance was. A certain number of troublemakers had always slipped through the net to work nasty side jobs. It was no surprise that those in power had decided to do something about the situation. As for the top secret observation part, that did make 7753 feel a little of the tight, suffocating stranglehold created by a secret police or a society full of moles and spies, but it was still better than an observational system with massive leaks that let everyone do what they wanted.

This was the mechanism that had caught Toko. The mascot was a shrewd scout; her colleagues had described her behind her back as “the slave dealer.” As could be surmised from her nickname, she was competent but had little love for magical girls. She would create them at random, and those who had talent, she would guide with care, but she didn’t care at all what happened to the rest. Anytime a prospect seemed unlikely to gain Toko any prestige, she would easily rid herself of the girl. Rumor had it that when former recruits came to her for advice, she would treat them coldly. Her poorly formed policy was, As long as they’ve got talent, I won’t worry about the little things, which meant she had raised a number of talented magical girls so far. But though they were talented in terms of ability, personality-wise… Well, you get the picture.

And so, since Toko had achieved some degree of success, she got priority distribution of the experimental new phone. She’d used it and, ultimately, been caught. She had been found at the scene of a certain crime and subsequently exposed. The victims had been brutally murdered by a large blade—something a mascot didn’t have the strength to wield. Toko had been the one to use the magical phone, but someone else had carried out the crime. That someone had probably been discovered by Toko, a master at raising talent, and trained in secret—as a magical girl who specialized in killing.

The conclusion derived from the pattern of victims and Toko’s position was Toko couldn’t be the real one behind this. There was some other person, or organization, giving her orders. That was the reason that the upper echelons of the Magical Kingdom were filled with such trepidation about which departments would be involved with this. 7753 could deduce that this was also why she herself had been forced into this investigation unit.

Kotori tilted the can of coffee. A few drops fell onto her tongue, but after that, no matter how she shook the can, nothing more came out. Sighing, she tossed the empty container at the garbage bin by the vending machine and missed. The can rolled onto the pavement. Sighing one more time, she stood, picked it up, and put it in the garbage.

Before she left the park, she peeked into the bucket sitting beside the old fisherman. There was only water inside and no catch. Kotori sighed a third time, and the old man glared at her. Tugging the lapels of her coat closer, she hurriedly left the park.

They were to meet in a karaoke parlor box. It was at a well-known chain that also had a branch in Kotori’s hometown, but both the building itself and the parking lot at this one were much smaller and older. The automatic doors opened and closed stiffly, as if they were about to get stuck. Maybe rust was the cause, or perhaps the whole plot of land was sinking due to land subsidence, or the building could just be crooked. They all looked plausible.

She got the feeling that even the staff weren’t all that friendly, but of course, she didn’t let that show. Kotori informed them that she wanted to join up with the group in room number twelve and headed off that way.

Sound leaked from the doors on either side of her as she made her way through the hall. Business was booming. It seemed the place was more popular than she’d assumed. She stopped before a plate with the number twelve written on it. Before entering the room, she checked her palms. They were shining with sweat. She wiped them off with her handkerchief.

It wasn’t wearing a coat indoors that had made her palms so sweaty—it was nerves. Switching her bag from her right to her left shoulder, she cleared her throat two, three times, then knocked. The sounds coming from inside abruptly stopped.

“…Come in.”

“Pardon me.” Kotori pushed the door open.

Warm air caressed her face through the gap. She focused her gaze and faltered.

There were four magical girls.

—Four?

She was confused. Why was there an extra girl? She hadn’t been listed in the briefing. What was the meaning of this? All four were already transformed.

One girl was in a miniskirt yukata and had bunny ears. Another wore a black dress and coat. She had little horns on her head. Both appeared to be in their early teens—typical magical girls.

The third girl, however, was less typical. She wore a ninja-style costume and had a scar from a sword wound over her left eye. The arm cover on her left arm was loose below the elbow, too. One eye and one arm. Her remaining right eye glinted as it caught Kotori’s gaze, and Kotori reflexively looked away. She felt cold shivers coming from the pit of her stomach. This magical girl oozed violence.

The fourth girl wasn’t scary, but something about her felt off. Like the other three, she appeared to be in her teens, yet she was somehow different. She wore round, frameless glasses, her hair was gathered casually in the back, and her costume was plain—less a costume, and more casual, like normal clothes. She wore a plain navy-blue shirt, a loose tunic the color of fresh green grass, a gray cardigan, and beige cotton pants. She’d left a brown coat folded over the armrest of the sofa, and on her feet were sneakers of some foreign brand Kotori didn’t recognize. There was a faint sprinkle of freckles on her cheeks, and you could sense a strong will in her furrowed brow. She wore an irritated expression.

The girl with the glasses glared at the newcomer. Kotori didn’t miss the creases between her eyebrows. “And here comes the amateur who doesn’t even know the basics of investigation, barging in to mess up the crime scene.”

“Come on, now.” The bunny-eared girl raised a hand in mediation. “She’s helping us out. You can’t talk like that.” The girl stood up and bowed her head. Her bunny ears bounced along with it. They were so cute that in spite of herself, 7753 wanted to reach out and touch them. “You’re 7753, right? My name is Hana Gekokujou.”

“Oh, yes. Thank you for your courtesy. I’m 7753.” 7753 hurriedly bobbed her head down and up.

Hana introduced the others one by one, gesturing to each girl as she went. “The glasses girl over here is the chief of our team, Mana.”

“Who’re you calling glasses girl?”

Ignoring Mana’s obvious displeasure, Hana continued. “This is Archfiend Pam. Like you, she’ll be working together with us on this operation.”

The girl in the dress coat gave a small smile and dipped her head, saying, “Good to be working with you.” This was apparently Archfiend Pam. Now that it was pointed out to her, Pam did indeed seem to have a devilish motif; her dress coat was all black, and the wiggling, eel-like thing poking out from the bottom of her coat might be her devil tail. The word “archfiend” was probably why descriptors like “lips redder than blood” and “hair blacker than darkness” were coming to mind. However, her smile seemed more unreliable than kind, and her sleepy-looking eyelids were more Buddha-like than devilish.

“And that’s Ripple.”

Expression blank, the one-eyed, one-armed ninja bowed her head.

Ripple. That sounded familiar. Or maybe she looked familiar? She’d seen that name somewhere before, but it hadn’t been on the list of the inspection team members. Kotori dug through her memories, wondering where on earth she had seen that name. It was recently. She had the feeling it was pretty important…but she couldn’t remember.

“You’re a bit slow on the uptake,” Mana muttered loud enough to be heard. “How long are you going to stand there? We have no time as it is.”

“Oh, of course. Sorry.”

Do karaoke boxes have a seating order? Kotori had never heard of such a thing. The girls were sitting on a couch surrounding the table, with what looked like documents spread out on it. From where Kotori was facing, in the back on the left was Mana, with Hana sitting beside her, and then a space, then Ripple. Archfiend Pam was alone on the right side, sitting daintily and slightly removed from the rest of the group.

Ripple stood and opened up a space for Kotori to sit. Right now, even this small kindness was something to be grateful for. Sorry for assuming based solely on your appearance that you only know how to fight, she mentally apologized, sitting down on the sofa.

“First, remove your coat.”

“Right.” As Mana instructed, Kotori took off her coat. There was a coat hanger by the door, but in order to use that, she’d have to make Ripple get up again. So she silently placed her coat atop of the backrest.

“And transform.”

“Right.” Kotori transformed into 7753. She’d never transformed in front of others, so she was a little embarrassed. She then took off her goggles and placed them on top of the table.

“All right, well, I’ll explain things one more time for the latecomer.” Irritation dripped from every word out of Mana’s mouth. 7753 quietly looked down.

“You will remain in magical form at all times. Until the criminal is apprehended…” Mana glanced over at Archfiend Pam. Archfiend Pam tilted her head and gave a quiet smile. Mana harrumphed and continued. “…or killed, you’re not permitted to detransform. We’re dealing with a vicious criminal, here, and there’s no guarantee they won’t ambush us. Until I have judged that there will be no more combat, absolutely do not undo your transformation. Do not under any circumstances assume you will be fast enough to transform after you’re attacked. Some birdbrains don’t understand just how much faster magical-girl reaction time is compared to a human’s.”

It felt like 7753 was being attacked for carelessly strolling in as a human. She ducked her head even lower.

“There’s already been one casualty. Be sure to stay on guard at all times.”

The weight of the word “casualty” came down hard on her chest. If there would be another death, then who would it be? If one of the group was a lot less used to combat, then they were the prime candidate. Just thinking about it made her shiver.

Mana glanced over at Archfiend Pam and continued. “The barrier erected by the Department of Diplomacy will last twenty-four hours. And once it wears off, they won’t be able to just throw it back up again. We will apprehend the criminal while the barrier is still active.”

Stupid Department of Diplomacy, 7753 whined in her head. Why did you have to do this? But even if she were to voice these complaints, nobody would listen.

“While we’re moving from place to place, hide your costume under a long coat with a big hat or scarf and such. A surgical mask is also a good idea, since more than a few people will be wearing them to prevent seasonal flu and colds. Those who did not come with attire prepared must purchase it themselves.”

Now 7753 understood the reason Mana had told her to take off her coat—because if she transformed without removing it, the coat would disappear until she canceled her transformation. But she still had no hat or surgical mask. She’d have to pick some up. Would the Magical Kingdom foot the bill? For now, she would hold on to the receipts.

“If you use this—” Mana pointed to the wooden stick lying on top of the table. It was about a foot long and completely unadorned. “It won’t be impossible to find the individuals we’re after.” Her phrasing was oddly roundabout. “It’s a primitive magic. It indicates direction but can’t tell you precise locations. Our professional who used more advanced search methods…is gone. She was killed.”

On the karaoke monitor, a pop group famous for having a lot of members was dancing. They were all arranged like Tetris blocks. Combined with the total silence of the muted TV, it was slightly creepy. The bright lights spilling from the screen lit Mana’s face red. The soft hairs on her cheeks shone.

“That’s all. If you have any questions, go ahead.”

Ripple raised her hand, and Mana stared daggers at her. “What is it?” For someone who had invited questions, Mana seemed rather unwilling to answer.

Whether Ripple noticed that or not, she began to speak at a murmur. “You said there’s been a death… So the fighting’s already begun?”

“One of our members was killed in retreat. She abandoned the car and ran, but the enemy caught up to her and broke her neck with a single strike. That’s all.”

Her manner of speaking as she said “that’s all” was simple, but her expression was not. Every inch of it was twisted in rage. Silently, 7753 averted her gaze. She was scared.

“…Could you give us any details about the enemy?” Ripple asked.

Mana snorted. “I’ve written up a memo on their general characteristics and made copies. Check that.”

A pirate, a stage magician, an Arabian dancing girl, ribbons, a postal delivery girl, a wedding dress… The sheer number was more frightening to Kotori than their descriptions. Why were there so many?

“This document only lists what they look like…,” said Ripple.

“That’s all that we know, so that’s all I’ve written down. I shouldn’t have to explain that.”

“But…”

“What if I told you it wasn’t even a real fight? That we fled for our lives and one of our own was killed in the process? That we requested backup? …Happy now, you little shit?!”

7753 continued to look away, but even so, she knew exactly what kind of expression was on Mana’s face. It felt like her fury was swallowing up this small room. Like chili pepper dissolved in water, it hurt to even touch it.

The only remaining sounds were Mana’s breathing and the karaoke commercials repeating over and over again. The interval between each breath gradually lengthened, and eventually, Mana punched the desk, drowning out the jingles. “Goddamn it. We really…have no time, and all of us gathered here are good at combat. Even if we’re not as good as you.”

But I’m not good at it! 7753 screamed internally.

“In this situation, we’ve got to fight. You may not like it, but you’re going to do the job.”

Mana and Ripple stared at each other for a little while. On Mana’s end, she was wearing more of a scowl, and on Ripple’s, she seemed to be sizing Mana up. Mana held Ripple’s gaze to the end, but Ripple slowly closed her eyes. “…Understood.”

Don’t give in, Ripple! Try harder! The cries of 7753’s heart reached no one and vanished. All the others were picking up their outerwear and coats and scarfs and getting ready to go. 7753 hid her reluctance, but she dawdled in putting on her coat. She’d bought it for when she was in human form. The classy charcoal gray was too drab for a magical girl, and it was too big.

She equipped her goggles, and then while she was buttoning up her coat, she heard someone whispering to her.

“…This has been a disaster, huh?” It was Ripple. Up close, the scar on her face looked raw and painful. 7753 had assumed that it was just part of her character design, but maybe it was actually a wound she’d received in real combat. “So will the training be after this is over…?”

Oh! thought 7753. Data popped up in her goggles. Name, height, and weight, and then it slid down to a new page, listing career and place of birth, family structure, then the next page, and a number of pages after that, it arrived at the Today’s Plan column.

Now she understood why Ripple’s name had sounded familiar when she’d first heard it. Originally, 7753 had come to this rural town to train a newbie. She’d arrived here along a series of special express trains after receiving an order to look into a certain magical girl’s aptitude for working an internal affairs job for the Magical Kingdom.

7753 put her hands together, apologizing for having forgotten, too. “I’m sorry, but we may not be able do that right away. Even once the arrest is done, we’ll have to deal with settling everything.”

“I wonder how long that will be…”

“I’m thinking the earlier, the better, but right now, I couldn’t really say… But the city where I live isn’t so far from here. Once things have calmed down, I’ll come over right away.”

Ripple raised her eyebrows doubtfully. She was probably just trying to look doubtful, but in her case, even that look had quite a lot of punch. “You don’t live here…?”

“Huh? No, I don’t. I mean, this is your region, isn’t it, Ripple?”

“No…it’s not.”

“Huh?”

They looked at each other.

7753 had been called out to her trainees’ districts before. This was done when she had to do things like watch them work in their home region, or check up on town rumors to see if they had been exposed or not. That was less like training and more like observation. Conversely, trainees would come out to visit 7753, too, which was more common. That was done when she was teaching the basics to young magical girls who had not yet been assigned a region.

Not once had she ever been summoned to an area that was not her trainee’s responsibility. If there was some reason for this, it would certainly have been told to 7753.

As she tilted her head, wondering just what was going on here, she got a phone call. Her magical phone’s caller ID indicated it was from her boss. Archfiend Pam, Hana, and Mana all left the room. Making an apologetic gesture with one hand, 7753 told Ripple to go on ahead and pressed the ACCEPT CALL button. “This is 7753.”

“So it seems you’ve met the team.”

Without thinking, she stared at her phone. Had her boss been watching from somewhere?

“I wasn’t watching. Your goggles are sending me information.”

“Oh yeah.”

“When the goggles are removed, the signal terminates. So could you not leave them off again like you just did when you set them on the karaoke table?”

So she had been watching, after all. 7753 gave her magical phone an uncomfortable look.

“There’s no need for such tact. Even if your magic does invade their privacy, that won’t be a problem as long as the individual in question doesn’t know.”

“Okay…”

“And there is something else I’d like to inform you about.”

Before 7753 even called out, Hana Gekokujou was looking at her. It seemed her bunny ears were keen to her surroundings, even under her hood.

7753 raised an arm and called out to Mana and Hana, who had left the karaoke parlor and were about to head to the parking lot. Hana gave Mana a light poke, and before long, Mana broke out into a grimace. She had been staring at 7753. 7753 didn’t need to check the data in her goggles to recognize she was angry.

“What are you dragging your heels for?! What about the other two?!” This time, Hana made no attempt to pacify Mana, who was still eyeing 7753 suspiciously.

7753 raised her palms defensively. “Ripple is back at the front desk, distracting Archfiend Pam for you. I need to talk to you about something.”

“I have nothing to talk about.”

“I am not an assassin or a killer.”

The creases in Mana’s brow vanished. Her anger turned to surprise, and her mouth, slightly agape and about to retort, froze in place.

“The Magical Girl Resources Department purely wants to be allowed to cooperate in the investigation.” Moving in so close to Mana that she could feel her breath, 7753 lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “My own abilities in combat are nothing more than average, since my job provided no opportunities to fight. But I have a discerning eye. And I don’t just mean because I’ve been trained in magical-girl resources.” She flicked her goggles with her fingertip. “This is my magic. Even when a magical girl is in human form, if I look at her through my goggles, it’s clear to me at a glance what she is.”

Mana grabbed 7753 by her coat collar. Her expression wasn’t irritated, but it was hard to call it amicable. She wasn’t angry; she was threatening 7753 to learn what she could. “Just—what—and—how much—do you—know—?”

“Your investigation team believes that Ripple and I are assassins sent in to finish off living witnesses, since we were dispatched from other departments. Am I wrong?”

Still clutching her collar, Mana fell silent. Her attitude was basically an affirmation.

“It appears a barrier has been erected around the town.”

“What about it? It’s to prevent the criminal’s escape.”

“An anti-magic barrier covering the whole of B City… A powerful blockade that prevents anyone with magical elements from getting in or out. Even in human form, a magical girl can’t go through it. The same goes for mascots.”

“Yeah, that’s right. We’ve been locked in. So what of it?” Mana apparently wanted to wait and see how 7753 would act. She licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.

The slight gesture made 7753 flinch, but she plunged ahead. “Their reaction was way too fast to have come only after being notified of your retreat. Putting up such a large-scale barrier requires careful preparation of both practitioners and catalysts. So, in other words, you figured this barrier may have been prepared in advance, didn’t you? Your specialized inspection team was driven off, and they even took into account your request for support. By forcibly creating the barrier they prepared in advance, the Department of Diplomacy has cut B City off from the outside.”

7753 paused, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

“The barrier was erected under the initiative of the Department of Diplomacy. They locked us in with the criminals. That wasn’t done by Magical Girl Resources. Even we didn’t know about the barrier—unlike the Department of Diplomacy, which sent in a weapon of mass destruction and then erected a barrier to lock us all in.”

“No, you are the same.” Mana shoved her aside, releasing her collar and causing 7753 to stagger. “You may seem to be in conflict now, but you’re villains of the same stripe. You’re all trying to use this incident as a political tool. But that’s not how this is gonna go. I won’t let that happen. This murderer will be dealt with, as a murderer. I don’t care if they’re the dregs of society, pure evil, or just a maggot, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to make them your toy. One of mine died. Being forced into your games isn’t worth it,” she spat, her gaze sharp. She wasn’t so much glaring at 7753 as she was glaring through her.

7753 sucked in a breath, filling her blood with oxygen.

“I’ve looked into you guys,” Mana continued, “because I wanted to know what sort of people were butting in here and what their goals were…and I found out that Ripple over there was one of Cranberry’s children. What’s more, she’s a survivor of the final exam, where Cranberry died…the one they say was the most brutal. What a laugh. Who would believe that?”

“Ripple’s job is to guard me. That was why she came here. I won’t make her do anything beyond that. Besides, though she made it through Cranberry’s exam, she just barely survived. You can tell from her eye and arm, right? She’s not as strong now as she was at her peak. The most she can do is protect one noncombatant magical girl.”

7753 lowered the tone of her voice one more notch. “As you know, the magical girl the Department of Diplomacy sent us is Archfiend Pam. Nominally, she’s here to support us, but she’s capable of mass destruction. They call her the Department of Diplomacy’s final weapon. That’s clearly too much firepower just to help us with an arrest in this town. There’s a good chance the Department of Diplomacy is trying to erase this criminal from existence.” She bowed her head. “If we cooperate, we may be able to arrest our culprit before they let Archfiend Pam off the leash. Neither of us wants the Department of Diplomacy doing as they please, and on that count, our goals are the same. We want you to use us. We won’t get in your way. Please make use of our abilities.”

Head still bowed, 7753 went still. She could hear Mana and Hana discussing something in murmurs. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she could take a guess. They were probably deciding whether to let her help or drive her away.

7753 heaved a deep sigh. She felt like her heart was ready to jump out of her mouth.

Every single bit of it had been done under her boss’s instruction. She could claim she didn’t know anything about any of this, but Mana was unlikely to believe her. But it was the truth. 7753 had been following her boss’s orders in real time to negotiate with Mana. Her instructions, down to the words she should say, had been displayed at her boss’s discretion. She had received detailed directions for every gesture, like Drop the tone of your voice here or Move in until you’re a foot away from her. 7753 had desperately obeyed every one, heart pounding all the while.

These were 7753’s goggles, but even she hadn’t known they could do that. Had this function been added in? She didn’t want to think about how else they’d been tampered with.

Digesting the conversation she’d just had, she couldn’t stave off the feeling that something terrible was going on. She was getting closer and closer to the heart of this problem. At the very least, she wanted to get out alive.

  Ripple (Time remaining: twenty-two hours, thirty-eight minutes)

A magical girl had to clear a number of conditions to climb the ladder within the Magical Kingdom’s administration. One of those was to take a one-on-one induction course from a magical girl named 7753.

7753 had magical goggles that could accurately measure all forms of data, and she was good at using them to smoke out potential troublemakers. There were no secrets to be hidden from 7753’s magic. Be it girlish crushes or wounds of the past, everything about you would be exposed to the light of day, and the information they extracted from you would be sent to the Magical Girl Resources Department. This prevented antiestablishment factions and discontent from getting into the Magical Kingdom’s mechanisms.

It wasn’t as if Ripple had any special love for the Magical Kingdom. If pressed, she would say she was closer to hating it. But she wasn’t aiming to overthrow the system, either. She wanted to be successful within the existing structure.

Ripple had a friend, another magical girl. She was the proactive, self-confident type. Her assertiveness also meant she drew more attention from the higher-ups. For now, she was appointed to an important post because she was very capable. But who knew how long things would continue to go that way?

Ripple wanted to be her backup. And for that, she would need status and a position. That was why Ripple wanted to rise through the ranks. Through the tenuous connection of friend of a friend, she had learned the names of some magical girls with ties to the Magical Kingdom and sought them out. She had assisted them, chatted with them, annoyed them until they told her she could stop coming around anytime now, but even so, she’d continued to visit them until they were exasperated by the futility of their plight and by doing that over and over, she’d increased the number of acquaintances she could call connections.

Ripple had picked up this aggressive technique from her former partner. She had made friends in the worst way: forcibly prying their hearts open so she could fit herself into them. Ripple had been one of her victims.

The way everyone else saw it, she might have turned into her old mentor.

Ripple’s application for 7753’s induction course had gone through smoothly. Since she’d heard people would be waiting at least a year, even with connections, she was relieved. Pleased at setting out on the road to success, she’d headed out to B City as directed when she’d received instructions via her magical phone that she should go to a karaoke bar for some reason. Upon arrival, she discovered that she’d been dragged into this arrest attempt and locked inside the city.

As usual, the Magical Kingdom’s use of magical girls was careless. Even when they were aware of threats to the girls’ lives, the Magical Kingdom had no issue with adding nonspecialists to the team. But for Ripple, it was also fair to call it her big chance. Having the Magical Kingdom witness her exploits by accident like this might actually end up being better than taking that induction course. Combat was her strong point anyway. Or, more accurately, she was specialized more in that direction.

But as the situation was explained to her, those thoughts evaporated. The only thing she felt at the orders to fight in an enclosed space was revulsion. The fact that their side would be avoiding killing was a relief, but she doubted their enemy would do the same. As long as arrest equaled their ruin, an assassination specialist was bound to make use of their area of expertise.

7753, whom she had met in the karaoke bar, seemed somehow restless and apologetic as the special investigative team chief, Mana, chewed her out over every little thing. If 7753 was the person she was rumored to be, then her specialty was Magical Girl Resources, and being dragged into this had to be even worse for her than it was for Ripple. Ripple should support her somehow; of course, she also calculated that doing so might improve her standing.

And that was what she was doing at the moment.

7753 had begged her to please do this, and now Ripple was face-to-face with one of the other helpers sent from another department, Archfiend Pam. They were sitting on the sofa at the front desk of the karaoke parlor. 7753 had asked Ripple to occupy Archfiend Pam for a while, and Ripple had wondered what to do. She hadn’t been able to come up with any reason to stop someone she’d only just met.

Left with no options, she spoke frankly. “Um…”

“What is it?”

“I’ve been told they want to have a secret discussion…and we should wait for a while…”

“Oh, I see. Well then, let’s wait together until they call for us,” Archfiend Pam agreed readily, without any particular sign of offense. She didn’t seem to be a bad person, which made Ripple breathe a sigh of relief.

The two of them were wrapped up in their coats, and Archfiend Pam also wore a Panama hat to conceal her horns. They sat on the sofa, pretending to be humans. It was an odd hour for two girls to be hanging out, but nobody called them on it. The pair continued to wait in the lobby area and its vague odor of cigarettes, occasionally rejecting men who tried to chat them up.

Archfiend Pam was gentle and leisurely in both her manner and tone. It conjured up the image of an old lady in Ripple’s mind. Not in the sense of advanced age, but her general aura and social distance reminded Ripple of her grandmother. Not that she’d ever met her real grandmother, but she fit what Ripple vaguely imagined her to be.

Archfiend Pam rested her elbows on her knees and supported her chin with her hands, blowing a sigh. “I apologize for asking such an abrupt question, but…”

“…Yes?”

“Have I perhaps met you somewhere before?”

Ripple dug through her memory. She recalled the faces of every magical girl she’d ever met and double-checked that Archfiend Pam was not among them. “…No. I believe this is the first.”

“Oh, is that right? I just had this vague feeling we had.”

Her grandmotherly impression of Pam now included senility. But even just thinking that made her feel bad. It was unacceptably rude, so she chided herself and dismantled that mental image.

Following that, they waited even more. The one to break the silence was, as before, Archfiend Pam. It was uncommon now as ever for Ripple to talk to someone first. “You don’t have to act so formally with me.”

“…Huh?”

“We’re both outsiders here. So neither of us is higher-ranking.”

“Well… You’ve been pretty polite to me, too.”

“I treat both superiors and coworkers the same way, regardless of their status.”

“I’m…the same way…”

“Is that so?”

“…Yes.” Ripple felt like there was something off about this conversation. But it wasn’t that uncomfortable. Maybe that was because the image of her grandmother was still lingering in her mind.

  Toko (Time remaining: twenty-two hours, thirty minutes)

A very regrettable incident has brought about a change in our plans, meow.

This wasn’t what they had discussed. Not at all.

Resigned to her anger, Toko railed away on the magical phone propped up against the fence on the roof. With the petite physique of a fairy, even typing a single message was a huge pain. She punched, kicked, and sent the message, then saw the reply and yelled out, “I said, this isn’t what we discussed!”

She had been told that if she got rid of the inspection team, they would guide her and her partner to their escape. They were supposed to introduce her to a magical girl who had a hideout in another dimension.

But the message she’d received from her ally said that the plan had changed. A barrier had been erected around them, and Archfiend Pam from the Department of Diplomacy had been tossed inside. The Department of Diplomacy was coming to crush them, with their reputation on the line. Her escape routes had been blocked off. Neither Toko nor her partner would be able to get out.

With a rage-filled front kick, Toko hit REPLY, typed her message in a fury, and sent it. A response came quickly.

The barrier is shaped just like a perfect sphere encompassing everything, meow.

So you can’t escape by flying through the air or digging underground, meow.

Just touch it, and you’ll be as weak as a kitten, meow.

If you keep on touching it, your life will be in danger, even if you do have a magical girl’s strength, meow.

I can’t at all recommend trying to do anything to the barrier, meow.

Toko whacked her elbow against the screen.

Every day, she had wondered why every damn sentence had to end with a meow, and now that same question was boiling up within her. She clenched her jaw. There was still more to the message.

We haven’t yet given up, meow.

You two are just that valuable to us, meow.

The grating flattery just made Toko even more irritated. She had been disposing of individuals who got in their way, as per their directions. Both Toko and her partner were in deep with this employee. If she and her partner were caught, this colleague would be the one in trouble. It was less that Toko and her partner were valuable and more that this was a problem that desperately needed a cover-up.

I want you to evade them somehow, until the barrier is taken down, meow.

The barrier will wear off within twenty-four hours, meow.

Shake them off until then, and we will send you backup, meow.

Good luck, meow.

Somehow, Toko managed to resist the urge to smash the magical phone to pieces. If she were to lose her cool, others would take advantage of it. She’d seen more than her fill of people like that—people who’d had everything stolen from them, from their money to their lives, in just the same manner. In fact, Toko had always been on the side that was actively taking advantage. Idiots were made to be used, and she couldn’t afford to become one herself.

Toko turned off her magical phone and took some deep breaths.

She thought about her number-one priority: herself and her partner. All else aside, their own survival and escape was the big goal.

How would she use these twenty-four hours to achieve that goal? Would they just run around from place to place? Or would they kill all their enemies?

It would be one of those two. The choice was up to Toko—and up to her partner. Toko aside, her partner was strong. That inspection team shouldn’t be an issue. The problem wasn’t them but the reinforcements. She’d heard that the Department of Diplomacy was coming to hit them with everything they had.

—Well, if you kill that many people, they’re bound to resent you, eh?

Her partner was strong but not invincible. If the Department of Diplomacy was deploying an incredible magical girl, there was a possibility Toko’s partner would lose. That was bad. Her partner had a future. Toko couldn’t allow her to die now.

So then should they run? That was too cowardly.

She would test the scope of their opponents’ power while placing those middle school kids on the front line, and if it looked as if they couldn’t win, she would choose to flee. Making the kids their meat shields could probably buy them time to escape, at least. She’d always intended for them to be sacrificial pawns anyway, these instant magical girls she’d lured in. Dying was a part of the job, and she wouldn’t let them complain about that. They would lay the foundations for Toko and her partner.

She would have liked to increase her forces and form a magical-girl army to solidify her advantage in numbers, but those with magical potential were not that common. She had summoned all the ones she’d found through her continuous search during her time watching over her partner at school. These were all the cards she had to play. So she had to make do with this hand.

From the floor below, she could hear middle school kids chatting pleasantly, her partner’s voice among them. No matter how impatient she may be on the inside, the girl’s acting was perfect. She was better at this than Toko, who let her real personality show even when she was trying to pretend to be an adorable fairy.

In any event, Toko couldn’t let her go now. She still had room to grow. She was Toko’s ideal magical girl—cunning, self-centered, skilled with the arithmetic of gains and losses. She always took steps to get the upper hand, had endless potential, and ultimately, she would be the one sitting atop the throne of victory.

Toko would show them that, with her partner, she could evade them to the bitter end. She gave a greasy smile.