Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 8 - Chapter Pr

PROLOGUE

Kanoe was suspicious of Mamori. And her suspicions seemed to be increasing day by day.

Mamori Totoyama couldn’t hide things from Kanoe Hitokouji, a girl who could determine someone’s thoughts by reading their faces. And since Kanoe saw Mamori more frequently than even she saw her own family, interpreting her feelings from her expression was hardly any bother. She could pull it off with her eyes closed.

Until now, whenever Mamori had realized Kanoe had figured out she was hiding something, she had quickly given in. She knew from experience that all attempts at resistance were useless. If you knew you’d cave to the pressure and eventually raise the white flag, then it was best to surrender right away.

But this was the one time she couldn’t do that.

The other day, robbers had forced their way into the secondary house on the Hitokouji estate. It had been made clear to Mamori that Kanoe Hitokouji—the magical girl Pfle—occupied an important position in the magical-girl world.

When a robber broke into the home of a highly esteemed individual, it was only natural that a proper investigation would follow. But Pfle had sensed there was something more behind all this. She had a hunch someone was using the investigation as pretext, and their true intention was to probe into her secrets.

Pfle had also noticed that the manner of the robber’s intrusion had been unnatural. It didn’t seem this was a simple extension of power struggles or someone who just wanted to take Pfle down. Those who engaged in dirty activity—Kanoe Hitokouji in particular—got strong hunches at times like these.

Pfle had been the one to initiate the “artificial magical-girl project.” It was a big deal, something that was bound to shake the foundations of the Magical Kingdom, and she had thought perhaps that was what the culprit had been after. If someone powerful enough to meddle with the investigation had learned of the plan somehow, then that person could have everything seized as a part of the investigation only to secretly take it for herself afterward. This was what Pfle most wanted to avoid.

She came to a decision quickly.

Before the investigation, Pfle had disposed of everything that could be used as evidence of anything shady. She’d also used magic to remove all her memories related to any sort of illicit activity so that she could act as an upstanding, unassuming individual fair and square. Her cover-up had kept her bad deeds from being exposed, and she’d gotten through safely.

Simultaneously, everything about the artificial magical-girl project from the technology to the current results had been anonymously made public—without leaving a single piece of evidence that would implicate Pfle, of course. As expected, there had been a great uproar, but doing this had avoided a situation where one party would illegitimately monopolize the technology.

During this series of cover-ups, Mamori—the magical girl Shadow Gale—had undertaken an important role.

Mamori had been entrusted with Pfle’s memory crystal—or rather, it had been pushed on her. She’d been clearly instructed that she was to return the memories once everything had settled.

Pfle had anticipated that if she could just hide her memories, she could get through things for the time being. She’d been correct until halfway through the process, when Mamori, who’d secretly looked at the memories she’d been entrusted with, had decided she shouldn’t return them. After agonizing over it, Mamori had entrusted the memories to another magical girl, Snow White, who was nicknamed the Magical-Girl Hunter. Pfle’s life continued today without her lost memories, all the while feeling as if something was off.

This was what Mamori Totoyama—Shadow Gale—was hiding.

She didn’t think everything Pfle was trying to do was bad. Pfle had ideals she clearly followed, and she was devoted to trying to change the stagnating and rotten Magical Kingdom.

But for the sake of those goals, Pfle believed the ends justified the means. If she thought bringing together a hundred magical-girl candidates to challenge an evil magical girl would be less efficient than obeying the evil magical girl to kill those hundred, she would, without hesitation, choose the latter. The closer Pfle got to her goals, the more sacrifices she would make. Someone had to stop her. And no one else could—no one but Shadow Gale, who had been entrusted with her memories.

Mamori wasn’t stopping Kanoe for the sake of those who might die. The way Mamori saw it, Kanoe, struggling toward her goal, was in terrible danger. Even if she were to make it through this episode, it was clear that eventually she would go off the rails somewhere and crash. If Kanoe had been driven to the point where she was forced to entrust her memories to another, Mamori could assume Pfle was so close to the edge that it wasn’t a step away—it was a mere half step.

At any rate, Mamori wasn’t giving Kanoe’s memories back. This was the one time that no matter how much pressure Kanoe put on her, no matter what sorts of sly traps she set, Mamori swore to herself she would never reveal it. She wouldn’t return Kanoe’s memories. If worst came to worst, she was prepared to bite off her own tongue.

Despite having left as few discrepancies in her memory as possible, Kanoe still sensed something was off—but nothing more than that. She used various techniques to try to probe into what Mamori was hiding, from leading questions to bribery attempts. No matter what, Mamori never said a word.

The problems started here. Even if Mamori never said a word, that didn’t necessarily mean Kanoe wouldn’t figure things out based on hypothesis and insight. Or, rather than “necessarily,” it would be wise to assume that the time was coming ever closer.

Holding Kanoe’s memories was nothing more than a stopgap measure. At the end of the day, it only delayed the inevitable. Having this gap in Pfle’s memory was unwise, and depending on the actions of the party who had sent those burglars to attack the secondary house, they could end up in even more danger. Mamori knew she had to come up with something, but she couldn’t think of anything worthwhile. Kanoe was the one who came up with good plans, but she was the one person Mamori couldn’t discuss this with.

Shadow Gale didn’t have much in the way of friends. She essentially had no connections. Even her number of acquaintances was few enough to count on one hand. And if you subtracted people who might be accomplices in Pfle’s plots, that number decreased even further.

She wanted to keep Clantail out of matters of this nature as much as possible. Mamori wanted to keep her away from anything even vaguely dirty, like deceiving people and entrapping people. She wanted the girl to focus on becoming a zoologist.

That left Snow White as the only one she could talk to. The way things had wound up, it felt like she was entrusting the memories to Snow White just to drag her into this. Mamori felt so bad about that, she wanted to disappear, but no matter how she racked her brain, there was no one else she could ask for help.

Then one day when Mamori kept writing and rewriting Snow White a message, feeling more and more without recourse, Kanoe summoned her out to the courtyard, where she, transformed into Pfle, sat with a magical girl Mamori had never seen before.

“This is Patricia,” Pfle introduced her. “Patricia, this is Mamori.”

The stranger greeted her. “Hello, hello, good to meetcha.”

“Oh, yes, good to meet you…,” Mamori replied. “Miss, who might this be?”

“I already told you. This is Patricia.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

“I’ve entrusted her with your personal security.”

“Pardon?”

Pfle had told her how the burglary incident at the estate’s second house remained unresolved, and that they hadn’t even captured the lackeys who’d been sent to do it. The entrance of the house was cordoned off by yellow tape, and to that day, magical girls were still stationed at the Hitokouji residence under the pretense of security. Furthermore, it seemed Mamori was hiding something from her—everything was unsettling.

After saying her piece as she pleased, Pfle’s mouth relaxed into a smile. “So I figure I’ll assign you a guard as well…being that I haven’t even properly grasped what the danger is.”

Patricia cheerfully proffered her right hand. Stunned, Mamori offered her own in response. Patricia squeezed her hand so hard it made Mamori wince.