Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 4 - Chapter 3

<Investigating What Fell>

Back in modern times, we each got to work on our usual tasks. Peeps was on the desk in front of the laptop, engaged in a fierce staring contest with the screen as it displayed the time difference between worlds. I, on the other hand, picked up my work phone to see if anyone had tried to contact me while I was absent.

I’m sorry my task is way, way easier than yours, Peeps. I wished I could help him, but he was already far beyond any assistance I could provide. As I started poking apologetically at my smartphone screen, I found a notification icon in the corner. A missed call.

When I opened it up, I saw Mr. Akutsu’s name. It was seven o’clock local time, and he’d called just a few minutes ago. As I looked at it, the phone started vibrating, notifying me of an incoming text message. The sender was, as expected, the section chief. He wanted me to come into the office as quickly as possible.

“Peeps, I’m afraid I’ve been summoned by my boss.”

“Are you leaving now, then?”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

Sans notification, I planned to head over to Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa and do nothing but eat and sleep all day. I was a little frustrated—it felt like the chief had seen right through me.

I hurried to get ready. “Sorry,” I told Peeps. “Would you mind watching the place while I’m out?”

“Not at all. Take care.”

“Thanks, Peeps.”

After saying good-bye to my pet bird, I left the apartment.

But it didn’t take long before I realized something. If I simply headed to the station, I’d end up neck-deep in the morning rush hour. Lately, I’d been relying on Peeps’s magic and Ms. Futarishizuka’s car. When was the last time I had to brave a fully loaded train? I began to grow anxious. I was spoiled now—could I even handle being packed in like a sardine again?

Just then, by some trick of fate, I saw a taxi parked near the front of my apartment complex. The sign on its roof read VACANT.

“……”

No, no, I thought. I can’t indulge in that kind of luxury. But in truth, I still had quite a bit of money left over from my recent business deals in the otherworld. If I really needed to, I could go through Ms. Futarishizuka to convert the gold from the otherworld into yen.

The moment I started thinking this, my feet turned toward the road. I couldn’t stop them. A moment later, the taxi’s rear door popped open. My heart, weak at the thought of avoiding packed trains, drove my wobbling legs ever closer to it.

“Where are you headed, sir?”

“Oh, um, if you could take me here,” I said, pulling up my personal phone’s map application and showing him the building where the bureau was located. All the while, I feigned a calm demeanor, forcing an expression that I hoped said Yeah, I take a taxi to work every day. The driver fiddled with his phone for a bit, and then we were off.

Crap, I thought. I just hired a taxi. Is this more of a luxury than I deserve?

For me, taxis were reserved for when I fell ill and needed to get to the hospital. Climbing into one while perfectly healthy filled me with guilt. I fidgeted, wondering if I’d made a mistake. At the same time, though, my heart was aflutter at the prospect of a little adventure so early in the morning.

Eventually, the taxi arrived at our destination without issue. I paid the bill—enough money to eat for several days—then alighted. We were a short distance away from the building—I didn’t have the gall to get out right in front of the entrance. I was afraid that if anyone I knew saw me, they’d get suspicious.

Quickly, I headed for the bureau, passing through the front entrance and onward to my assigned desk. I still wasn’t accustomed to the place. Then, as soon as I set down my bag, I heard Section Chief Akutsu call for me.

“Sorry, Sasaki, but could you come to the meeting space?”

I headed over to the conference room as instructed, no time to switch on my work computer. Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka were already there.

“Good. Now that we’re all assembled, let’s get down to business,” said the chief.

Apparently, they’d all been waiting for me. Mr. Akutsu and Miss Hoshizaki took seats on one side of the table while Ms. Futarishizuka and I lined up across from them. The chief had a laptop in front of him, and a cable connected it to the large screen used for meetings. As he moved his hands across the keys, several photographs came up on the display.

“What is that?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“It’s…floating in the sea, right?” Miss Hoshizaki chimed in at nearly the same time.

She was right—all the images seemed to show the ocean from above. No land could be seen anywhere nearby; it had to be pretty far out. The pictures had probably been taken from an aircraft.

Naturally, the focus wasn’t on the ocean itself, but on a gigantic living creature right in the middle of it. It looked like some sort of dragon-octopus hybrid—an octodragon—like the two creatures had fused together. It had the body of a dragon, with several squirming, tentacle-like appendages coming out of it. Its entire form was covered with tightly packed scales, and it had a few spikelike protrusions, as well. If I had to give my first impressions, I would say it reminded me of some eerie monster out of the Cthulhu Mythos.

In short, it looked like something straight out of the otherworld.

“Let me guess,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “You’re calling it a kraken?”

“Involved agencies have all adopted the code name Abnormal Object Four, or AO4 for short.”

Ms. Futarishizuka had come up with a much cooler name. What was an “octodragon” anyway? I chalked it up to the generation gap. Wait, isn’t she a lot older than me?

“Then is that lizard person who fell on the convenience store parking lot considered number one?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Don’t tell me our companions are numbers two and three,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“You’re both right on the mark.”

Apparently, Peeps and Lady Elsa were being considered “abnormal objects” here at the bureau. They’d been given numbers according to the order of their discovery, sort of like typhoons here in Japan. I wondered if I was already in the running for number six.

The chief pressed a key on his laptop, and a new set of photographs appeared on the display. With the pictures all being of open sea, it was really hard to get a sense of scale. The only hint came from one picture in which we could see the wreckage of a helicopter. One of the monster’s many tentacles had coiled around it. It was a military helicopter, probably about ten meters long, at least.

The tentacle was wrapped all around it, and the creature was hoisting the machine into the air.

“Chief,” I said, “this thing looks…large.”

“According to reports, its body alone is over fifty meters tall.”

“I wonder what it must have eaten to grow so big,” wondered Ms. Futarishizuka aloud.

It was even larger than a blue whale—the poster child for big animals. What’s more, the monster wasn’t long and thin, but stocky and solid. It probably weighed even more than a whale. If you included its tentacles, which numbered in the double digits, it would probably give an ocean tanker a run for its money.

As we looked on in astonishment, a video began to play on the screen. It was of Abnormal Object Four and had been shot from a fixed point in the air a good distance away. You could hear the whirring of rotors in the background, so the camera was probably on a helicopter. In the video, another helicopter was making its way toward the object.

Eventually, one of the monster’s tentacles lashed out toward the aircraft, now close by. The creature was quite agile despite its size, and as the helicopter attempted to escape, the tentacle closed the distance in a flash. It wrapped up its prey, paying no mind to the powerful, spinning rotors.

The monster had more reach than I would have imagined. The helicopter pilot probably hadn’t believed they were in range of attack. One of the aircraft’s blades—which could have easily torn through a person, bones and all—had been stopped dead by the tentacle’s surface. We couldn’t make out any changes to its scales. Not even a dent. It had to be extremely solid.

A moment later, like a snake squeezing its prey, the tentacle contracted. The helicopter crumpled and immediately exploded. Then, as if startled by the unexpected sound, the kraken tossed it away into the sea. That must have been the wrecked helicopter we’d seen in the photo. The video was around two or three minutes long, and when it finished playing, it went back to the starting scene and froze.

“So what do we know about this octodragon?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

I couldn’t believe it. She had the same exact naming sense I did. Part of me was pleased, but another part was disappointed. It was complicated.

My senior colleague’s gaze moved from the screen to Mr. Akutsu. Ms. Futarishizuka and I followed suit.

“Abnormal Object Four… We’ll nickname it the Kraken for now. Anyway, let me give you the rundown…”

Ah. So the chief is with Ms. Futarishizuka. I felt an indescribable sense of defeat.

He proceeded to bring us up to speed on the octodragon—or, rather, the Kraken. Since he’d only invited the three of us to this meeting, he must have been suspicious it was somehow related to Lady Elsa or Peeps. He didn’t say a word about any of that, though.

“First, its appearance. It showed up a little west of the international date line in the North Pacific Ocean. According to satellite imagery, the Kraken suddenly materialized in the air, just like the lizard person who landed in the store parking lot. Then it fell into the ocean.”

“Really? I’d love to see a video of that,” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“They’ve got that one on lockdown,” explained the chief. “Even we haven’t received it.”

“That’s a shame,” replied Ms. Futarishizuka as a map appeared on the display.

One spot on the map had been indicated with a marker. If I had to give a rough position based on the islands nearby, its latitude was about that of Hawai’i or Taiwan, with roughly the same longitude as the Marshall Islands. As far as I could tell, it looked well within international waters—outside the territory of any one country.

“Could you at least tell us when it appeared?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“It’s been about ten days since it was sighted,” answered the chief.

I felt uneasy about how much time had passed. If they’d been keeping it secret for so long, why had they suddenly decided to share the information with the bureau? Considering the Kraken’s location, I highly doubted other countries were just sitting around observing.

“Has it perhaps moved in the meantime?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“You’re on the right track.” The chief pressed another key on his laptop, and the marker slid from east to west—to the left, in terms of its position on the screen. “This is its location as of yesterday.”

“Of all the directions it could have gone,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “It decided to come west.”

She was right—the Kraken was headed straight for Asia. If it kept going, given its current trajectory, chances were high it would end up in Japan.

“We received information that it is continuing westward,” explained the chief.

“Wait, are you serious?” exclaimed Miss Hoshizaki.

“Naturally, the government is already tracking its course. However, it’s extremely difficult to judge where it will go—unlike typhoons, we can’t use past data or external factors. We won’t be able to rely on their predictions.”

At that, I saw Miss Hoshizaki grow nervous. The real question, though, was why he’d called us here. The monster could crush a helicopter with a single tentacle, and it was bigger than a whale. I suspected even a group of B-rank psychics would have a very hard time dealing with it. Even A-ranks might fail depending on the matchup.

At this point, I was forced to ask the question. “So, Chief, what did you call us in here for?”

“You can’t possibly expect us to do anything about that, can you?” added Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Given where it appeared, I doubt you’d be allowed to go out and exterminate it even if you wanted to, for political reasons,” said Mr. Akutsu, turning back to face us. “But the bureau can’t remain uninvolved forever. The higher-ups are already asking for opinions.”

Apparently, it wasn’t time for a monster-killing quest just yet. Based on the chief’s explanation, it sounded like Japan was still in talks with other nations about how to investigate or whether to initiate an attack. I sighed in relief.

But his next words caused me to tense right back up.

“In any case,” the chief continued, “they’ve asked us to send personnel to investigate.”

“You’re not talking about us, are you?” I asked.

“The Kraken isn’t all we need to worry about out there,” explained the chief. “We’ll likely need Futarishizuka’s help as a rank-A psychic. Also, the location is out in the middle of the open sea. Since Hoshizaki can control water, she can put her powers to good use.”

“I agree that the two of them are a good choice to conduct the investigation,” I said tentatively.

It wasn’t clear how we’d be getting out there, but the destination was literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It didn’t exactly have a train stop. If he assigned us to the job, it would take a long time to get there and back.

It was a long trip out to Iruma when we recruited the glasses boy previously, and that was nothing in comparison. Considering Peeps’s and my daily business deals in the otherworld, this was one job I needed to turn down at all costs. I couldn’t exactly bring my pet sparrow out there, after all.

Unfortunately, my hopes were quickly dashed.

“And the only one with a good affinity with Futarishizuka and the flexibility to coordinate with Hoshizaki is you, Sasaki,” finished the chief. “Given the nature of this job, your communication skills will be even more important than your combat ability.”

“I believe Ms. Futarishizuka is more than adequate in that department,” I argued.

“You’re trying to weasel out of this and leave us with the mess?” complained the girl in the kimono. “That’s rather cruel, don’t you think?”

“You’re pretty up front about stuff like this, huh, Sasaki?” commented Miss Hoshizaki.

“No, no, not at all,” I replied. “I was just lamenting my own lack of strength.”

“But it’s only an investigation,” my senior pointed out. “And the extra pay you get for long-distance work is pretty good, you know.”

“……”

Miss Hoshizaki was all about work, as always. She had on a huge smile and was already raring to go—incredible.

“But there’s only so much I can do…,” I said.

“Please understand that even if we must limit ourselves to investigative work, this is a very big deal,” explained the chief. “That’s why I chose the personnel most likely to get results. Sasaki, I have high hopes for you as a member of this bureau.”

Once he put it like that, it became a lot harder to keep objecting. And if I turned him down now, after my little presentation the day before, he was sure to ask why I wanted to become a bureau member in the first place. There’d definitely be backlash. All this, plus the debt I owed him after the hotel incident, left me no choice but to accept.

“Understood, sir,” I said finally.

“The higher-ups are expecting a lot from us,” the chief went on. “And I have faith you three will achieve sufficient results.”

He probably planned to use the Kraken to get more information out of us, despite not knowing of the otherworld’s existence. As Abnormal Object Six, I wasn’t quite sure how much to give him. Either way, I’d need time to discuss it with Peeps. And if possible, I very much wished to get word to those in the otherworld about my forthcoming absence.

“So when do we leave, Chief?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“I know this is sudden, but I’d like you to set off within the day.”

“My, aren’t we restless?” commented Ms. Futarishizuka. “Though I suppose this is par for the course.”

He wasn’t kidding when he called it sudden. I was shocked. He hadn’t said as much, but maybe he’d really had to push the higher-ups just to secure an investigation. That thought only made me more uneasy about going, however. Ms. Futarishizuka, too, was staring at the chief with an accusatory look.

“Chief, my passport is actually expired…,” I said.

“No need to worry. You’re not entering another country, so you won’t need a passport or a visa.”

“I see.”

“More importantly, you won’t be going back home to pack,” he explained. “We’ve already prepared everything you’ll need. I apologize for the rush, but as soon as you pick up your luggage from the resources department, I want you to head out.”

“With only the clothes on our back, eh?” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“The tickets we’ve secured for your trip are somewhat special, you see.”

“Can we assume that we’ll be on the job the entire time, right up until we return?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Yes—you may think of it that way.”

And so it was decided we would head out to investigate the Kraken immediately.

Following Section Chief Akutsu’s instructions, the three of us left the bureau. Just as he’d said, we found a hired car already parked in the building’s lot. Unlike a normal taxi, this was a new model deluxe sedan, painted black with tinted windows. I naturally had doubts about this strange preferential treatment.

When I asked the driver where we were going, he simply said we’d find out when we got there. He didn’t talk anymore after that. Maybe he was ordered in advance to refrain from conversation.

The three of us couldn’t talk among ourselves, either, for fear of leaking crucial information, so we kept talk to a minimum while in the car. Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka traded some light banter in the back seat, but that was about it.

Eventually, the car brought us to a Maritime Self-Defense Force air base located in Atsugi. This particular base was shared between Japan and another country. When the vehicle passed through the gates and onto the premises, Miss Hoshizaki looked surprised. Ms. Futarishizuka, on the other hand, seemed to have guessed what was happening; she didn’t show much of a reaction. As we entered, they asked for bureau identification from all three of us.

No wonder the section chief had been in a rush—these were not your average tickets.

The car eventually came to a stop in front of a building deep inside the base. I could see a few amenities for those employed here, such as a convenience store and a shopping mall, but we were far away from these. I saw a runway much closer.

As we climbed out of the car, a uniformed member of the SDF arrived immediately to greet us. Surprisingly, it was a young woman with a very pretty face who looked to be in her midtwenties. She’d probably been chosen out of consideration for Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka, but her formal salute and brisk movements as she led us away made it clear she was still a real member of the SDF. I could sense the gulf between her and our group of phony public servants.

She guided us into the building. According to her explanation, this was the Fleet Air Wing 4 headquarters and office building. We ended up in what looked like a reception room. While the building itself was made of rough concrete, the room seemed pretty decked out—maybe they welcomed guests here as well. Even the sofa set where we were asked to sit was made of expensive-looking leather.

Eventually, the person in charge came to meet us. He was a tough-looking man, and he took a seat next to the woman who had shown us here. He was probably in his late thirties or early forties. Quite large for an Asian man, he had to be close to 190 centimeters tall. His shoulders were broad, too, and he was very well-built. He was in great shape, easily in the same league as those handling rough work in the otherworld. Plus, he looked really suave in his uniform. His hair was cut in much the same way as his fellows—a longish crew cut. He had deep, prominent facial features, and the sharp look in his eyes was a little terrifying.

According to the insignia on his shoulder, he was a captain. A pretty high rank, considering his age. This kind of base was usually overseen by a rear admiral, only one rank higher, so this guy was probably quite a big shot around here. Perhaps that was why the guide sitting next to him seemed considerably more nervous than she had when she showed us in. Her rank, incidentally, was that of ensign. Judging by her young appearance, she had to be a cadet.

There was no one else in the room, likely to keep the bureau’s existence as secret as possible. Personally, the fact that I was in an organization with more secrets than the SDF made my heart start beating a little faster—I felt like a special forces operative on my way to deal with a giant monster. It seemed Ms. Futarishizuka’s remark from some time ago had become reality.

“So you’re the ones Akutsu sent…?” said the captain.

The first words out of his mouth included our boss’s name.

For a corporate drone like me, used to beginning such conversations by exchanging business cards, his lack of manners alarmed me.

“You’re familiar with our section chief?” I asked him.

“If I wasn’t, we never could have put this together so quickly.”

“I’m much obliged you’ve taken time out of your busy schedules to arrange this.”

Apparently, this man was an old acquaintance of the section chief. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about their relationship. One belonged to the Cabinet Office and the other the Maritime Self-Defense Force. It’d be a nice story if they somehow got to know each other as two bright, ambitious career men from the same generation, despite belonging to different organizations. I didn’t want to think about what it meant for us if this man knew the chief for the wrong reasons.

“My name is Sasaki, sir,” I continued. “These two are Hoshizaki and Futarishizuka. We’re all members of the bureau.”

“Captain Yoshikawa,” the man replied. “The one who brought you here is Ensign Inukai.”

Miss Inukai bowed to us at Mr. Yoshikawa’s prompting. A moment later, the two women with me spoke up.

“If we’re at a JMSDF base,” said Miss Hoshizaki, “does that mean we’ll be going by boat?”

“That would be a little much, don’t you think?” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka. “It would take quite a while.”

Even faced with this tough-looking SDF executive, neither of them seemed daunted in the least. I supposed I could understand, given their abilities. However, as the one charged with looking after them, I couldn’t help feeling a chill as I watched. I wished they would have introduced themselves a little more amicably.

Incidentally, the two of them were sitting on either side of me. This was because Miss Hoshizaki wanted some distance between herself and Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Don’t worry,” said the captain. “Even the Maritime Self-Defense Force has aircraft.”

“Oh really?” said Miss Hoshizaki. “That’s excellent.”

“I’d heard stories, but it seems the people in your organization are indeed quite unique.”

“I’m honored, sir,” my senior replied. “Unlike the SDF, we place great emphasis on individual discretion.”

“……”

It seemed she was impervious to sarcasm.

Miss Hoshizaki’s such a powerhouse, I thought. It would be a little much to expect a high school girl to understand how the SDF was organized. That said, she and the captain were not on the same page at all in terms of viewpoint or priority. It was a little embarrassing listening to their exchange from right beside her. Even Ms. Futarishizuka was looking at me as if to say, “Can you shut her up?”

As someone who wanted to get this job over with and go back to his hotel, I didn’t want to spend too much time here. Taking over from Miss Hoshizaki, who was grinning intrepidly as she spoke, I tried to urge the captain on.

“I apologize, but Akutsu told us this was very urgent.”

“Right, I’m aware,” he replied. “I need you all to get ready right away.”

After that, Mr. Yoshikawa explained the plan. The aircraft was already prepared, so we’d be leaving the base the moment we were ready. The vehicle had another reservation coming up in a few days, so he instructed us to hurry. Our organization probably wasn’t the only group keen on investigating the Kraken.

We did as we were told, preparing ourselves and heading to the facility’s terminal. The building was situated along a north-south runway. It had big glass windows facing the tarmac, like a regular airport would, and I could see aircraft parked all over outside. A few of them had a friendly nation’s flag painted on their fuselage.

Mr. Yoshikawa and Miss Inukai would apparently be accompanying us on our trip, and we met up with them again once we were ready. They’d also swapped outfits, exchanging their crisp formal uniforms for camo-patterned work clothes. They were now fully armed and more than a little intimidating.

At their instruction, we headed for one of the planes on the runway. The other SDF members nearby saw us off with a salute, probably because we were with their captain. Regardless, I felt like I’d suddenly moved way up in the world. Oh no, this feels really good.

Finally, we came up to the craft we were scheduled to board.

“This plane looks kind of like a puffer fish,” commented Miss Hoshizaki. “It does fly, right?”

As she said, the vehicle was short and stout. The belly—or whatever you’d call it—had a swollen lower half, giving it a very distinctive, chubby silhouette. As a fellow layperson, I couldn’t blame her for doubting its flight capabilities. The fact that it had propellers for propulsion only intensified this impression. Although it had a total of four wings that I could see—two on either side—they were quite small compared to the craft itself. It really does look like a puffer fish.

Ms. Futarishizuka wasted no time interrupting, however. “This is an expensive seaplane, you know,” she said. “One produced in Japan, too. Very sophisticated.”

“Really?” said Miss Hoshizaki.

“I’d estimate it costs about twice as much as the one you two shot down in Iruma.”

“Hold on,” I said. “That was the magical girl’s doing.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.”

I really wished she’d practice a little more discretion in front of the SDF. When she said stuff like that, I started to worry something else might come crashing down.

The incident in question seemed to be a topic of conversation around the base, as well. At Ms. Futarishizuka’s remark, Mr. Yoshikawa’s expression grew stern. He didn’t offer any criticism, however. That made me really curious how the incident was being treated here.

Perhaps worried about her superior’s mood, Miss Inukai jumped right into an explanation. “This is an amphibious seaplane called a US-2. Its main role is seaborne rescue operations. It has a top speed of five hundred and eighty-three kilometers per hour and a flight distance of about four thousand, seven hundred kilometers. Its somewhat plump appearance is necessary for landing on the water’s surface and taking off again.”

The plump underside of the fuselage was probably there to dissipate waves. Personally, the in-depth specs didn’t make too much sense to me. I did, however, get the feeling that it was a pretty amazing plane, underneath its charming appearance.

Ms. Futarishizuka took over responding to the woman. So much for me being the “communicator.”

“Then will we be refueling at Ogasawara?” she asked.

“Yes. We’re scheduled to refuel at the JMSDF’s Chichijima Base,” said the ensign. “We’ll be staying overnight nearby, then taking off for Abnormal Object Four the next day. We’ll be heading out a little earlier tomorrow morning.”

“How long will we have for the investigation?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Due to the aircraft’s schedule, we’re expecting to wrap things up in half a day. We’ll finish in the afternoon, then return to Chichijima Island to refuel again before returning overnight to Atsugi Base.”

This business trip was shaping up to be a two-day, one-night affair. At most, it might spill over into the early morning of day three. That relieved me somewhat. It would have been a mess if they’d said we weren’t returning for a whole week. If that happened, several months would pass in the otherworld. And with Lady Elsa in our care, that was a major concern.

Urged along by Mr. Yoshikawa and Miss Inukai, we boarded the JMSDF seaplane. Inside were two rows of seats facing each other, like those in city train cars. There wasn’t much space inside, though—at most, ten people could fit if they squeezed. That meant the three of us would be sitting alongside Miss Inukai.

Our seating arrangement, starting from the side closest to the plane’s nose, consisted of Miss Inukai, followed by Miss Hoshizaki, myself, and Ms. Futarishizuka. Mr. Yoshikawa was the only one of our group absent; he was sitting in the cockpit.

Three male SDF members I hadn’t met sat in the other seats a short distance away. Mr. Yoshikawa introduced them as mechanics and communications officers. We exchanged only greetings with one another, nothing else. Unlike Miss Inukai, who would speak to us about this or that, they remained completely silent.

As she explained, this craft’s main role was rescue, and I could see a stretcher built into the wall of the plane, along with various other fixtures whose purpose I couldn’t guess. If I had to give a summary of the plane’s interior, I’d say it was extremely practical.

Though I felt rude thinking this, I’d rate it zero stars for comfort. There was no use expecting in-flight service, either. I figured that was like looking for a smooth ride in an ambulance and eventually gave up. Still, the idea of being in here for over ten hours, including the trip back, was really depressing. Belatedly, I found myself relieved we’d be staying overnight somewhere in the middle of it. Lately I’d grown too reliant on Peeps’s teleportation magic and completely lost my endurance. This must be how people become soft.

“The acceleration when we took off was incredible,” remarked Miss Hoshizaki. “I didn’t think a plane could get off the ground so quickly.”

“Compared to a fighter jet, propellers tend to seem slower,” Miss Inukai responded. “But during liftoff, the sense of acceleration can be equal to that of a jet—or even greater. The same is true of civilian planes. People boarding propeller aircraft for the first time are usually surprised by it.”

“Really? You learn something new every day.”

Miss Hoshizaki was particularly energetic, and she seemed genuinely impressed as she spoke to the ensign. When she smiled, I caught a glimpse of the young girl underneath all that thick makeup.

When I was young, chatting with friends always seemed to make the time pass more quickly. These days, that seemed impossible. Maybe I’d simply become harder to impress and narrowed the scope of my interests; the thought scared me a bit.

“If I’d known this would happen, I’d have brought some games,” commented Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Don’t you have any good fighting game apps on your phone you can play offline?” I asked.

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that. Damn.”

As I looked at my colleague, whose interests were many and varied, I wondered if a similar feeling had led her to become the way she was—playing all the latest games, driving her own car and motorcycle.

“What is it?” she asked, noticing my stare. “That’s an odd look in your eyes. Horny?”

“No,” I replied. “I was just thinking about what it means to grow old.”

“Bleh. You do so enjoy being rude to a person’s face.”

“To be fair, I was genuinely impressed.”

“You speak as though you’re not in the same boat.”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard from the little one,” she explained. “Something about an elite? A higher-ranked individual?”

Sometimes, individuals in a species with a grounding in magic would undergo a change, and those changed individuals were referred to as elites—higher-ranking versions of their species. Peeps had told me as much in the past. But I hadn’t expected Ms. Futarishizuka to know about it. After all, it was more of an otherworld thing.

“Excuse me for asking,” I replied, “but did he tell you that himself?”

“People like me aren’t exactly common in this world,” she replied. “When we become isolated, we’re often shunned. He asked me to look after you if anything was to happen to him. The nerve, demanding one thing after another of me…”

“…I didn’t realize.” I hadn’t thought the bird was looking out for me to that extent. He was so good at moving things into place behind the scenes like this. Though I do feel bad for Ms. Futarishizuka. It sounds like he’s really using her however he pleases.

“Anyway,” she went on, offering me a suspicious grin, “I have a head start when it comes to living a long time. I’ll teach you all there is to know.”

“Sure,” I said with a small nod. “Just don’t go too hard on me.”

It was easy to forget, but I’d need to be even more conscious about my golden years—or my future, rather. Depending on how I conducted myself, there was a chance a longer life might bring me the kind of misfortune someone living normally would never suffer. But this girl here had already successfully overcome that obstacle.

“Sasaki, what are you two talking about?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Just discussing the game she’s playing,” I told her.

“Really?”

With nothing else to do, we passed the time chatting. We were graced with good weather, and our flight was the definition of smooth. After around two and a half hours, we arrived at Chichijima Base.

By the time our flight was over and we stepped out from the plane, the sky was already turning crimson. The inlet right next to the harbor glittered in the sunlight, creating a beautiful scene. How long had it been since I last saw white beaches, with waves rolling in and out over the sand?

I’d sent a text message to Peeps using my personal phone on the way to Atsugi Base, informing him we wouldn’t return tonight because of work. Before getting on the seaplane, I’d received a response. “Understood. Take care,” he said. What a wonderful sparrow—he could even use a computer to send me messages.

We departed from the base, and Miss Inukai led us to our lodgings nearby. This area was called Omura, the busiest neighborhood on Chichijima. Apparently, a lot of visiting tourists stayed around here. We were no exception; we’d be staying at a minshuku, essentially the Japanese version of a bed and breakfast.

But when we arrived at our lodgings, Miss Inukai brought in her own luggage and began checking in, just as we had.

“Oh? Will you be joining us?” asked Miss Hoshizaki, glancing at her from the side.

“Though our time together is short, my superior has ordered me to serve as your guide,” she explained.

“You have my apologies,” I told her. “You must be so busy.”

“No need. There’s only so much I can do here anyway,” she said.

“Would it not be more appropriate to call you a supervisor rather than a guide?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“We’re little better than civilians ourselves,” I reminded her. “No use criticizing.”

“I’m terribly sorry,” Miss Inukai said. “Those orders came from above as well…”

“Don’t be. We’re in your care.”

Among office workers, going out to drink on work nights was very common. Recently, fewer and fewer people were doing that sort of thing, and when I remembered my previous place of employment, I couldn’t really blame them. That said, there was no denying that alcohol imbibed on a business trip was especially delicious. Getting to sample the local booze and snacks was what was so great about these sorts of trips—the only real thing to look forward to, in fact.

“We have a dinner reservation tonight at a nearby restaurant,” continued Miss Inukai. “I know you’re probably all tired, but would you mind gathering here again once you’ve put away your things? I won’t force you if you don’t feel up to it, of course.”

“Why don’t we assemble back here in thirty minutes?” I suggested.

“I don’t need thirty minutes, Sasaki!” countered Miss Hoshizaki.

“Hear, hear!” agreed Ms. Futarishizuka. “If we don’t head out for food soon, my stomach will start growling up a storm.”

“I mean, I don’t care one way or the other, but…,” I said, trailing off.

While Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka looked pretty much like they always did, Miss Inukai was dressed extremely plainly. If we were going out on the town, I figured she’d need some time to reapply her makeup and so on.

“If you’re being considerate of me,” said Miss Inukai, “there’s no need.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yes. Let’s meet back here in a few minutes, then.”

Afterward, the four of us speedily left the minshuku and headed to a local restaurant.

At the table, Miss Inukai casually asked us a few things about the bureau. I had a hunch that, in addition to her role of supervisor, she’d been instructed to get any information out of us she could on the topic of psychics. Thankfully for the rest of us, Ms. Futarishizuka did a good job of evading all her questions with vague, noncommittal answers.

When dinner was over, we went straight back to our own rooms in the minshuku and went to sleep. We needed to go to bed before the date changed in preparation for the next day’s work.

We set out from Chichijima Base first thing the following morning. For passage, as originally planned, we used the JMSDF’s seaplane, fresh from refueling. The positions of its occupants were the same as the day before, with Miss Inukai, Miss Hoshizaki, myself, and Ms. Futarishizuka sitting side by side in that order.

Mr. Yoshikawa was the sole exception. No longer in the cockpit, he now sat directly across from us. We were about to hold a meeting inside the plane regarding the Kraken investigation.

According to what we heard from Miss Inukai the previous evening, the Kraken had destroyed several other aircraft and marine vessels in addition to the helicopter in the video Section Chief Akutsu had shown us. Naturally, everyone from the SDF was on edge.

Additionally, a whole host of other nations’ vessels and aircraft were currently at work in the surrounding waters. Depending on their actions, it was possible we might meet with some unforeseen dangers—the other investigative teams present wouldn’t all be from nations friendly with Japan. The tension was really ramping up.

“Current estimates place AO4’s tentacle range at around one hundred and fifty meters,” explained the captain. “That doesn’t mean it can’t reach farther, though, so we’ll be maintaining a distance of at least five hundred meters at all times. I don’t know what orders you have from Akutsu, but this much is nonnegotiable.”

“Understood, sir,” I replied.

We had no plans to leave the seaplane during this investigation. Still, we all wore life jackets, just in case. The JMSDF members had supplied them to us; everyone else on board wore one as well.

“Is that why you handed out binoculars?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka, picking up the set hanging from her neck.

“I would’ve liked to get a little closer,” complained Miss Hoshizaki, “since we came all the way out and everything.”

These remarks earned a strict rebuke from Mr. Yoshikawa. “You’re free to get yourselves killed, but I will not allow you to put the lives of my people in danger. If you want to get any closer, you’ll have to jump out of the aircraft and swim—in which case, you’ll be on your own for the return trip.”

“My, what a frightening thought,” said Futarishizuka.

“Oh well,” replied Miss Hoshizaki. “Guess we’ll just observe from afar for now.”

The captain was a huge man with stern features, and at the moment, he was fully armed. A threat from a guy like him, even if I knew I’d have the advantage in a fight, was very scary for a novice like me who wasn’t used to this sort of thing.

I couldn’t help but be impressed at how straightforward and unfazed the other two were acting. Just how fearless are they? I wondered.

The captain’s face grew sour as he continued. “The three of you will be under my direct command until your investigation of AO4 is complete. While on-site, my word is final. If you don’t listen to me, then I won’t be able to guarantee your safety. Please keep that in mind.”

“I understand, sir. Thank you for going to all this trouble,” I said, bowing my head obediently in place of my two compatriots.

Casually, I looked around at the other crew members. They were watching us with expressions that said Are these three really going to be okay? Our bureau was pretty lax when it came to training, so maybe that had them feeling anxious. Can’t say I blame them. That laxness came from the fact that we were just a ragtag bunch of civilians. Ms. Futarishizuka, for example, literally looked like a little girl. Every time we had to coordinate with another organization, it hammered home just how far removed we were from normal society.

“If you have any questions,” said the captain, “now is the time to ask.”

“Our boss has instructed us to photograph the Kra—Abnormal Object Four, as well,” I replied. “Is there anything you don’t want us getting on camera? If so, I’d like to know before we get started.”

“No, you can photograph or film whatever you want.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Could we perhaps open up the aircraft door over there?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Yes,” returned the captain, “if you don’t mind falling into the ocean.”

“So stingy.”

“Ms. Futarishizuka,” I began, “Don’t cause trouble for everyone else by asking the impossible.”

“Fine, but the windows are so small. How are we supposed to get a good view of the outside?”

“If you’re using binoculars, your field of vision will be the same from the window as anywhere else,” said Mr. Yoshikawa, his face growing sterner and sterner. And yet he continued to answer every outlandish question Futarishizuka asked. Maybe he’s more caring than I gave him credit for, I thought. Miss Inukai, meanwhile, observed us in silence.

“Anything else?” asked the captain.

“This aircraft seems to be flying at a pretty high speed,” remarked Miss Hoshizaki. “What will we do when we reach our destination? Regardless of how big the thing is, won’t we just be flying right past it at this rate?”

“That’s a good question,” the captain replied. “Once we arrive, we’ll lower our speed and enter into a slow loop around the object.”

“This plane can fly that slowly?”

“Over the sea, it depends on the wind direction and velocity, but this craft can maintain altitude even at the speed of a car, just like a Cessna. We can’t stop in midair like helicopters can, but we can go slowly enough to make a wide circle around a target for observation.”

“Oh yes?” replied Ms. Futarishizuka. “How very convenient.”

“I’m sorry,” I broke in, “but there are a few things I’m still curious about…”

I took advantage of this opportunity with a high-ranking SDF officer to ask some questions of my own. Eventually we began discussing things outside the scope of the investigation, but Mr. Yoshikawa was kind enough to answer anyway.

A little under an hour passed before the question and answer session settled down, and conversation petered out. That was when we heard a voice from the cockpit call out, “Abnormal Object Four sighted!”

With the announcement that the Kraken had come into view, Mr. Yoshikawa gave the order to begin our investigation. As originally planned, the three of us stood up and looked out the seaplane windows.

“Watch out for sudden turbulence,” the captain warned.

“Understood, sir,” I replied.

We each gazed out a different window of the craft. If allowed, I would have had them open up the door like Ms. Futarishizuka suggested—that probably would have made it easier to see. It would be horrible if someone fell out, though, so I obediently stayed indoors and looked through the glass, remembering to keep my camera at the ready.

Skies were clear that day, and visibility was good. When I raised my binoculars to my eyes, I had an excellent view of the Kraken.

“Whoooa,” breathed Ms. Futarishizuka. “He’s a tall one, isn’t he?”

“Looks like a lot of other aircraft are buzzing around here, too,” commented Miss Hoshizaki.

Neither of them wasted any time giving their impressions. They were right, though—the monster was bigger than it had seemed in the photographs and video. We were currently looking diagonally downward at it from the sky.

Other than its size, however, the creature looked the same as it had in the photos. Simply speaking, it was exactly as I had described it—an octodragon. Most of its many tentacles were tucked away under the water, drifting to and fro beneath the surface. It didn’t seem bothered by the aircraft circling above it. I became very curious as to how intelligent it was.

We also saw a few maritime vessels far in the distance. Most of them had the characteristic flat silhouette of a warship. Several helicopters whirred around nearby, so the ships were probably the aircraft carriers that had brought them here. Every one of them had the colors of another nation’s flag painted on its side.

“We can’t bring her any closer than this,” explained the captain, “but we can change our position a little if needed. We’ll circle the target a few times to start. If you would like to request a change, please speak up.”

“I’d like to see underwater, if possible,” replied Ms. Futarishizuka.

“We’re looking into using unmanned submarines to investigate below the surface.”

As we continued our observations, we noticed a change near the Kraken. A helicopter began to close in on it from a distance. It had lifted off a stationary aircraft carrier and was now headed straight for the creature. The tandem rotor helicopter was painted in tricolor grays—likely a military craft. It had the same striking design with the fat fuselage as our seaplane.

Suddenly, its door opened, and a moment later, several people jumped. They’d stepped out in midair without a single parachute. Under normal circumstances, they would have plummeted straight into the water upside down. But the entire group maintained their altitude and flew toward the Kraken.

Their outfits, pretty and covered in frills, fluttered in the wind.

Ms. Futarishizuka gave a low groan. “Some magical girls just left a helicopter out there.”

“Wh-what the hell are they even doing here?!” exclaimed Miss Hoshizaki.

Confusion spread among the SDF on board at the incongruous term. They had no idea what “magical girls” were. Mr. Yoshikawa grabbed a pair of binoculars and rushed to a window.

“……”

They were indeed magical girls. Not just one this time, either—a whole group of them. I’d seen two of them before.

The first one was the girl Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka had battled in the hotel suite only a few days earlier. The other was the blond who had supported her during their attack on the bureau. In contrast to the former’s pink coloration, the latter’s outfit was mainly yellow.

I could see several other girls in the same age range with them. They wore vividly tinted clothes in colors like red or blue and carried magical staffs in their hands. I’d never seen any of them before, but judging by their similar style of clothing, they had to all be magical girls.

We’d heard there were only seven in the world. I counted them; there were five here.

“They’re launching an attack on the Kraken,” observed Ms. Futarishizuka.

As soon as the girls left the helicopter, they all lined up and fired Magical Beams at the Kraken simultaneously, which melded together to form one immensely thick beam.

The octodragon idling about in the sea was instantly engulfed in the flash of light. It was so bright I didn’t want to look directly at it. We felt the impact and heard the roar of the explosion in our seaplane a few moments later. The craft wobbled to the side, and I stumbled a little.

Miss Hoshizaki staggered as well but kept her binoculars to her eyes as she yelled, “Five magical girls in one place? Isn’t that a little weird?”

“They probably have some kind of network,” I suggested, frantically working my camera. Hope this thing’s image stabilizer works.

“That yellow one teamed up with the pink one to attack the bureau once,” noted Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I’m more worried about who’s commanding them,” I pointed out.

I remembered hearing from the pink one that all the magical girls were in contact with one another. That didn’t mean they were all friends, but they probably had at least one other girl they knew well in the group.

A dozen or so seconds had passed since they fired the Magical Beam; eventually the light began to die down. We all held our breath and peeled our eyes.

Instantly, the magical girls began to move. Using Magical Flight, they scattered, putting distance between themselves and the Kraken. A moment later, multiple tentacles lashed out from the water’s surface toward the spot they had just left.

“I can’t believe it,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “The beast endured their beams.”

“And it doesn’t even look hurt,” observed Miss Hoshizaki.

They were right—I couldn’t see a scratch on the Kraken as it whipped its tentacles around with sharp, quick motions. Seeing this, the magical girls escaped higher into the air, climbing until they were clear of the tentacles’ reach.

Then, just as quickly as they’d separated, they assembled again and formed a circle. Discussing strategy, perhaps? I wondered what language they were speaking—their skin tones and facial features suggested an array of ethnicities.

“Excuse me, sir,” I said to Mr. Yoshikawa, “but were you made aware of any of this in advance?”

“Of course not,” he answered, evidently shocked as he watched the magical girls. “I can’t believe they’re real…”

It sounded like he’d heard of their existence but had never seen one in person before. The others appeared to know nothing. They were all speechless at the scene unfolding over the ocean.

In the meantime, the Kraken displayed a clear reaction. It looked to me like it had just registered the magical girls as a threat. It stopped moving and turned its head, previously pointed in the direction of its advance, up to look at them. It seemed fairly intelligent—it clearly understood where the beam had come from.

Its giant eyeballs rolled and fixated on the girls as they continued their discussion. At the same time, its enormous jaw opened wide and let out an earth-shattering roar. It resonated clearly despite the growing commotion, even inside our seaplane.

The next thing we knew, something odd emerged right in front of the Kraken.

It was a large, flat circle, with a dense series of what looked like letters and patterns packed together inside. And as it appeared, it began to glow—with its normal vector aiming straight for the magical girls in the air.

“What’s this, now?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka. “That certainly looks familiar.”

“……”

I had a hunch I’d seen it before as well. It looked a lot like the magic circles that appeared whenever someone from the otherworld, like Peeps or Lady Elsa—or myself, for that matter, used magic. I wasn’t exactly surprised to get confirmation that this huge sea monster from the sky had originated in the otherworld.

Just to be safe, I’ll take a few pictures of it with my private phone, too, I thought. At this point, it seemed like we’d get a lot more information from asking Peeps than from investigating on our own out here.

It appeared the magical girls noticed the Kraken’s activity, too. Looking panicked, they all pointed their magic staffs at the target. A moment later, a crimson-red glow blasted out of the magic circle’s center, soaring up from in front of the Kraken toward the group in the air.

“Oh!” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “They’re taking that octopus thing’s attack head-on.”

“What the hell is that attack…?!” exclaimed Miss Hoshizaki.

The glow of the Kraken’s magic scattered and dispersed, flowing around and behind the Magical Barrier the girls had deployed like the flow of a river splitting in two around a stone jutting out of the water.

But the attack was still pushing them back, shrinking the girls’ safe zone little by little. Left alone, they’d be engulfed within minutes.

“Just looking at them makes me anxious,” said Miss Hoshizaki. “Are they gonna be okay?”

“Who knows?” replied Ms. Futarishizuka.

As we watched, the magical girls made their next move. Maintaining their Magical Barrier, they began to move away from the Kraken while lowering their altitude. They continued until, eventually, they plunged into the ocean—all the while keeping a perfectly even distance between each other, never straying from their course. It looked like they were performing some kind of aerial acrobatics.

Once they’d disappeared from its field of vision, the octodragon’s magic slowed and stopped.

“For children, they sure think fast,” remarked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Jealous of a bunch of children, eh?” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“…Oh, shut up.”

Finished with its spell, the Kraken began to move again, this time toward the patch of ocean where the magical girls had dived underwater. Most of the tentacles protruding from the surface dipped back under, writhing and slithering about. Its persistence indicated to me it had some level of emotion.

But within moments, the magical girls burst back out of the water. The five of them emerged in a circle around the creature, simultaneously rising into the air. Once they’d risen higher than their target, they took aim at the seabound monster and fired their Magical Beams all at once.

The monster took a direct hit, then roared in fury. It picked its tentacles up out of the water and moved to counterattack.

I felt like I was watching a movie—The Giant Sea Creature Versus the Magical Girl Alliance. The stark difference in their fighting techniques only made it more surreal.

“Things are really heating up,” noted Ms. Futarishizuka.

“What if we get hit by a stray beam?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“Excellent point,” agreed the captain, nodding. “We’re ending this investigation and withdrawing immediately.”

At around the time they were speaking, another of the Kraken’s attacks struck a maritime vessel trying to flee the scene just like us. A spell aimed at the magical girls flitting about in the sky had missed its mark, just as Miss Hoshizaki had feared.

The ship’s nose was sheared away, and it seemed to lose control. It didn’t blow up or anything, but it wouldn’t be going anywhere now. Before our eyes, it lost its balance, keeled over, and began to sink. Through the binoculars, we could see its crew trying to evacuate into the water.

“…They’re friendlies,” Mr. Yoshikawa said, swearing under his breath before giving another order. “We’re moving in to rescue.”

This surprised the three of us. Ms. Futarishizuka, in blank amazement, asked, “What? Are you serious?”

Personally, I wanted to get out of here just as much as the next guy. We were pretty far away, but the Kraken was going wild down there. Though the giant monster’s tentacles appeared slender, they were each several meters thick. Huge white waves were rolling every which way like a typhoon was going through.

Plus, we were smack in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometers from Japan. If something happened, and our seaplane was damaged, we wouldn’t be returning.

“Hurry!” barked the captain in spite of our concerns. “If we move now, we’ll be able to maintain distance from AO4.”

The seaplane entered an approach toward the sinking naval vessel.

“Wait, wait!” pleaded Ms. Futarishizuka. “What if we get hit in the process?!”

“We’re the closest ones to them right now,” explained Mr. Yoshikawa. “And AO4’s attention is on the magical girls. If we circle around the object as we approach, there’s a good chance we’ll be able to rescue them. We cannot abandon any who might be saved.”

“Can this plane even hold that many people?” she demanded.

“Fortunately, we can land on the water’s surface. We should be able to rescue a fair number of people by ferrying them to the other ships nearby. If you’re unhappy about it, then you three can disembark with the first round of survivors.”

“Well, don’t mind if I do!”

The three of us didn’t have any training. Trying to help would just create confusion. Wouldn’t it be better to take him up on his suggestion and evacuate? I did a little mental fist pump at Ms. Futarishizuka for dragging that particular compromise from the captain.

“Is there anything we can help with?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“What?!” exclaimed Ms. Futarishizuka. “What are you—?”

“I appreciate the offer, but you all would just get in the way.”

“I see. How disappointing,” replied Miss Hoshizaki, her dreams of heroism quickly quashed.

A few moments later, our aircraft approached the sinking vessel. We felt our altitude drop as the plane came in for a landing. At last, the aircraft hit the water, kicking up waves as it slid along the surface.

“Wh-whoa, we’re really shaking!” said Miss Hoshizaki.

“This plane can even land on waves three meters high,” replied the captain.

We only coasted along the water for a few seconds—the seaplane quickly lost its momentum and came to a stop. Thanks to the pilot’s skills, we ended up right next to the shot-up boat and away from anyone floating in the water. The crew moved quickly to open the hatch.

“Seems we wound up opening it anyway,” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Bit of a different story when you’re soaring in the air,” said Mr. Yoshikawa, aiding the other crew members as they inflated a rubber boat. He’s still responding to Ms. Futarishizuka’s silly comments. What a guy!

“Now see here, even an old lady can help out with this,” she said. “What a perfect opportunity to place these people in my debt.”

One man had seen us land and swum all the way to the hatch on his own. She reached out her arms, casually hoisted him up and dragged him onto the plane. He was a huge white guy, probably a head taller than me. But she picked him up with ease, as though he were nothing more than a baby.

“Huh?!”

The man looked a little panicked as he helplessly flailed his limbs, held aloft in her arms. Mr. Yoshikawa and the rest of the crew blinked at her in astonishment, like they’d been playing a game and had suddenly run into an unexpected glitch in the programming. They could logically understand what was happening, but their brains had trouble accepting what they were seeing.

After a few seconds, Mr. Yoshikawa addressed her. “I take back what I said earlier. Would you mind helping, after all?”

“Oh, I suppose,” Futarishizuka replied.

Mr. Yoshikawa and a male crew member boarded the rubber boat. Ms. Futarishizuka joined them, and they set off across the water to rescue the allied soldiers floating nearby. Everyone else remained on standby in the craft, busily preparing to treat the wounded and so on.

But just as the rescue crew stuck their oars into the water, I heard a scream from somewhere ahead of them. It had to be a drowning allied soldier.

“Shark! Shaaaaaaaark!” someone cried out in English.

I may not speak much English, but there’s something very Jaws about the sound of that scream. In a panic, I peered through my binoculars toward the source of the voice. Several shark fins were protruding from the water’s surface. Had someone been wounded when they were tossed into the sea?

After a few moments, I saw the screaming man get pulled underwater.

“Oh. I suppose I should assist,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Let me help!” exclaimed Miss Hoshizaki, suddenly leaping out of the hatch and, amazingly, landing on the rubber boat.

Mr. Yoshikawa roared at her. “You fool! Get back in the plane!”

“I’m fine! Just get this boat moving! I’ll disable the sharks!”

“D-disable?! What on earth?”

Miss Hoshizaki was really holding her ground. This was not the kind of courage you’d expect from a high school girl. I bet a normal high school girl would have broken down in tears. Come to think of it, I don’t know squat about normal high school girls.

“Move those oars!” she repeated. “You’re gonna let those people die when we could save them?!”

“Ugh… Fine,” said the captain.

She probably intended to freeze the seawater to stop the sharks from moving, and it seemed she’d be getting her way. The captain, for his part, appeared to indeed be an old acquaintance of Mr. Akutsu’s. He was familiar with magical girls, and he probably knew a thing or two about psychics. I bet Futarishizuka’s little display a few moments ago also helped make the man more receptive to our suggestions.

“Movies about shark attacks seem to be all the rage lately, eh?” remarked the girl in the kimono.

“Would you mind keeping Miss Hoshizaki safe?” I asked her.

“No problemo. I’ll take excellent care of her.”

There was nothing I could do here. At most, I could stand by inside the plane and help to pull the rescued people out of the water. I couldn’t exactly reveal my magic in front of everyone. I’d managed to secure Mr. Akutsu’s silence, but he probably wouldn’t protect me if someone else found out. Without much choice, I silently watched the rubber boat head off into the distance.

Throughout our relief efforts, the battle between the Kraken and the magical girls raged on. The latter group deserved particular attention. They were using Magical Barriers to keep themselves safe, Magical Flight to zip around in the air, and a volley of Magical Beams to maintain their offense. Meanwhile, the monster was firing off a series of bright-red rays from the water’s surface.

Both sides struggled to land a decisive blow, and neither seemed to have taken any damage at all. Ever since the maritime vessel sunk, the magical girls seemed more cautious of collateral damage and were trying their best to remain up high. That’s very considerate, I thought. This way, the Kraken won’t aim at the water.

When I took another look at the girls through the binoculars, I noticed they had portable intercoms in their ears. It seemed likely they were receiving instructions from somewhere else.

“Look at the size of this catch,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “What a splendid sight.”

“I’ve been doing nothing but sitting since yesterday,” added Miss Hoshizaki. “This is the perfect stress reliever!”

Past the rubber boat, I could see fully frozen sharks bobbing up to the surface, one after another. My senior was at the top of her game out here. It was no exaggeration to say this much water made her invincible.

I made up my mind then and there—I’d never piss her off near the ocean.

We’d been at the rescue operation for a little while, and the rubber boat carrying Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka was back from yet another trip. As I was looking after a group of survivors, we heard the voice of one of the communications officers over the onboard comms.

“Mr. Yoshikawa, incoming message!”

“From who?”

“Well, it’s…”

Luckily, Mr. Yoshikawa happened to be present to take the call. He headed into a corner of the cabin where an officer was seated near some kind of communications apparatus. The officer handed him a pair of headphones connected to the device, and the captain began speaking to whoever had called.

Their exchange was all in English, so I didn’t have a clue what any of it meant. Eventually, he turned back to the three of us and said, “Request for rescue from allied forces. We’ll be heading there now.”

“Request?” repeated Ms. Futarishizuka. “Have we not already saved them all?”

“It’s from the magical girls.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Aren’t they all flying around in the sky, doing fine?” said Miss Hoshizaki.

I looked out the window again, decreased the magnification on my binoculars, and counted the magical girls zooming overhead. There was one less than before.

“I don’t see the one wearing blue,” I pointed out.

“Oh, you mean that girl with the star-spangled scarf around her neck?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

The other magical girls were still fighting the Kraken. But when I looked more closely, I could tell they were being a lot more conservative with their Magical Beams. Occasionally, one of them would raise their staff, then put it back down without doing anything. It was like they were hesitating to attack.

When I glanced over to the Kraken, I realized why.

As I watched, Mr. Yoshikawa explained the situation. “One of the magical girls came into contact with AO4 and is currently unable to withdraw.”

I increased my binoculars’ magnification as high as it would go and saw a magical girl sprawled out limply on the monster’s upper body. Though the creature was lashing out ferociously with its tentacles, its torso remained relatively still, so she hadn’t yet been flung off. It was also possible her clothes had gotten stuck on its scales.

“Did it catch her with one of its tentacles?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“No,” replied the captain. “It seems she fell on top of it and lost consciousness.”

Evidently, the other magical girls were fighting to get the blue one back. But the Kraken’s giant tentacles were swinging around quite busily. If any of them took a direct hit, it would be like an 18-wheeler ramming them at top speed. And if a tentacle managed to wrap them up, even their Magical Barriers might not save them. All this was making it hard for them to reach the monster’s body, despite their efforts.

“Is that worth risking your own unit?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“The orders come from above.”

“Oh, do they? I see we both suffer from good-for-nothing-boss syndrome.”

“……”

I wondered if allied forces had spoken to his boss and demanded our assistance in the field. This was a move even the most corrupt corporations would blanch at. And since it involved magical girls, it reeked of politics. The rest of the crew weren’t saying anything, but their faces had all turned sour.

“What do you suggest?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka. “Freeze it the same way we did the sharks?”

“I doubt freezing will do much to stop it,” replied Miss Hoshizaki.

The monster could easily demolish a helicopter. My senior was right—even if she wrapped it in ice, it would probably break out pretty quickly. It might even use those destructive red laser beams.

“Why not go all out? You know, shoot some missiles?” suggested Ms. Futarishizuka.

“With the firepower we have on hand,” the captain began, “we won’t be able to damage AO4. Its scales will block most weapons. Plus, it can heal whatever wounds we manage to inflict.”

“Wait, it can repair itself?” asked Miss Hoshizaki.

“That’s what the report says.”

“Sounds like a whole lot of exaggeration coming from people who fled with their tails between their legs,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“They’ve already put it to the test,” replied Mr. Yoshikawa. “And with our rescue target unconscious, she could fall into the ocean and drown. Until we can get closer to AO4, I can’t permit the use of weapons. We cannot risk the target dying, so we cannot agitate the monster into crushing her with a tentacle or knocking her into the ocean.”

“Couldn’t have picked a better monster to come falling out of the sky…,” grumbled Ms. Futarishizuka, casting a bitter gaze my way.

I didn’t know what she wanted me to do about it. She seemed convinced the Kraken was a product of the otherworld. Maybe she’d even begun to suspect, between this and the reptilian incident, that Peeps and I were plotting something diabolical. We weren’t, of course.

For now, I decided to raise a thought of my own. “Personally, I’m curious about each of the magical girls’ unique powers.”

“Do you think they’d be willing to reveal them?” wondered Ms. Futarishizuka. “Even to protect one of their own.”

“Each magical girl has their own sponsor, so some may not even be allowed to use them,” suggested Miss Hoshizaki. “Though, if they’re facing down the monster together, their employment situation might be similar to ours at the bureau.”

“That seems very likely,” I agreed.

“Or perhaps they’ve already used them, and we simply can’t tell,” mused Ms. Futarishizuka.

My two compatriots were concerned, and rightly so, that there were a lot of people watching nearby. More than a few cameras, just like the one in my hands, were pointed at the magical girls under the pretext of investigating the sea monster. And I’ve heard that satellite imagery is getting far more advanced at surface analysis these days.

If the magical girls wanted to keep certain abilities a secret, it made sense they’d hesitate to use them here. I was reminded of the time a pair of them attacked the bureau as a team; I didn’t see them use any special powers back then, either. They’d both stuck to a small set of moves as if their lives depended on it.

And now, as a result, they were up the creek without a paddle.

We put our heads together, trying to think of what to do. Just then, the pilot yelled to us from the cockpit.

“M-magical girl approaching!”

“What?!” In a panic, Mr. Yoshikawa leaned out the hatch.

As he did, a figure smoothly landed inside the plane—one of the very girls we’d been talking about.

Hovering with Magical Flight, she drifted past Mr. Yoshikawa and proceeded into the cabin. She then approached our group and landed on her feet with a thud.

She looked like she was in cosplay, her clothes replete with ribbons and frills. Their eye-catching design was primarily a vivid pink. This was the magical girl based in Japan.

“Tch…”

Every one of the crew members immediately drew their gun and pointed it at her. I was shocked by how smoothly and quickly they moved.

Miss Hoshizaki and Ms. Futarishizuka both turned to the girl as well. The former had her gun out, just like the crew.

But the girl ignored their reactions. Instead, she looked at me and spoke.

“It’s the magical middle-aged man,” she said.

“I’m finding this hard to believe,” I began, “but did you need something from me?”

“…Please save my friend.”

How was I supposed to object when she put it like that? After all, she was just a little girl, no matter how you looked at her. And not a fake one like Ms. Futarishizuka, either. I could see desperation in her eyes as she pleaded with me to save her friend. There was no way I could refuse. But I couldn’t act conspicuously, either, so my options were limited. I couldn’t afford to betray Peeps’s wishes by selfishly acting at my own discretion.

“If you save her, I’ll do anything you ask,” she said.

“You shouldn’t make promises like that so easily,” I told her.

“Why not?”

“Because not every adult is trustworthy.”

“Why are you looking at me?” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

Incidentally, I didn’t see any dirt on the magical girl’s clothes this time. All the frays and tears had been neatly fixed up, and I didn’t smell that awful stench coming off her, even though she was standing right next to me. She’d probably been cleaned up for the big group operation—likely by the other magical girls and their sponsors. It made me think. Maybe she’d be better off letting one of those other places scout her. That would probably make her Japan’s enemy, though.

“Sasaki, a moment?” said Miss Hoshizaki.

“What is it?”

“Magical middle-aged man?”

“Oh well, that’s…” I hadn’t expected her to bring that up now. You never go unpunished for trying to look cool, huh?

“The chief told me not to pry into the hotel stuff yesterday, either,” she went on. “Obviously, I’m all kinds of suspicious. Would it kill you to trust me a little more? I want us to stay good buddies.”

“Whoa-ho?” interjected Ms. Futarishizuka. “I wasn’t aware you had that sort of relationship.”

“Th-that isn’t what I meant!” stammered Miss Hoshizaki.

“Leave the lovers’ quarrel for later,” cut in the captain. “Tell this to the magical girl. We wish to rescue her comrade per a request from allied forces. If it’s all the same to her, I’d like to discuss our strategy.”

Ms. Futarishizuka had deflected Miss Hoshizaki very smoothly. I was acutely aware of her gaze; it felt like she was saying “You’d better be grateful for this.”

As for the magical girl, Mr. Yoshikawa beat us to the response. He spoke calmly and with a broad smile. I wondered if he had any idea that this little girl was feared by psychics all over Japan and boasted a kill score in the double digits. This little Jason Voorhees was probably the strongest one here.

“Can you not use Magical Field to move in close and grab her?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I tried,” replied the girl. “It didn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“That monster goes crazy when we use magic.”

“I see.”

“Does that mean you could get in close if you didn’t use magic?” I asked.

“Yeah,” agreed Miss Hoshizaki. “It doesn’t seem like the creature realizes the blue girl is stuck to it.”

“Maybe it’s so large it simply misses things that tiny,” mused Ms. Futarishizuka. “You or I wouldn’t notice a mosquito sucking our blood until the bite swelled and got itchy, right? Though if it’s buzzing around in your face, you’re liable to get annoyed.”

“Then we’ll need to approach from its blind spot.”

Everyone looked at the captain in shock. Was he actually suggesting we approach it in the seaplane? Even his subordinates looked like they doubted his judgment. What happened to not getting closer than five hundred meters?

“Excuse me for asking,” I said, “but do you plan to use this vehicle to approach?”

“No,” he replied. “We’ll use the rescue boat.”

“Not the most reliable craft to be paddling around all those tentacles…,” remarked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“If worse comes to worst, we’ll have allied forces support our return.”

But if that happened, how many days would it take for me to get back home? Just thinking about it gave me a headache. But I had no valid reason to object, so I found it difficult to argue. Telling him I was opposed because I wanted to go home was completely out of the question.

“Guess that’s our plan, then!”

Miss Hoshizaki, on the other hand, immediately agreed with the captain’s proposition. As her junior, I was curious about her reasoning. It couldn’t be because she’d keep receiving wages until we returned, could it? If we had to be picked up by an allied vessel, the whole time until we returned to Japan would likely count as work hours for the bureau.

For the next few days, we’d just be sitting on a boat, imagining the sound of all that money tumbling into our bank accounts. And there’d be an extra bonus on everything for travel, too. Add the multiplier for the times we “worked” overnight, and it would end up being quite a sum.

“Send a message back,” shouted Mr. Yoshikawa to the comms officer. “Tell them to inform the magical girls of our movements and have the girls move away from AO4 so that its tentacles aren’t swinging. Also, have them prepare a backup plan in case something happens to us.”

Soon the Magical Girl Alliance pulled back from the sea monster. Though the creature had previously been chasing the girls, when they flew up into the sky and used their Magical Fields to disappear, it stopped pursuing. It must have decided to give up.

“It’ll be cramped if we try to put four or five people on the rescue boat,” I pointed out. “If we want speed, we should go with as few as possible. Who were you thinking of sending?”

“It’ll be me, the magical girl,” said the captain, “and if possible, you.” He looked at Ms. Futarishizuka. He’d just seen her incredible physical prowess, after all.

“Again?” she replied. “And over someone from your own team, at that?”

“I’m putting a lot of stock in your abilities should things take a turn for the worse.”

“Ms. Futarishizuka, would you say yes if I accompanied you?” I asked.

“Whaaat?” she whined. “Now you’re on his side?”

If we wanted an easy, quick trip back to Japan, this was where I had to put in the legwork. I couldn’t afford to cause more trouble for Peeps or our friends in the otherworld. Count Müller had already entrusted us with Lady Elsa, after all. If we failed our rescue attempt and had to be retrieved by another nation’s warship, I wasn’t even sure a week would be long enough to get back home.

“Just so you know,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “my help does not come cheap.”

“If we get back safely, I’ll make it up to you.”

“…Well, fine, then.”

Likely understanding what was at stake, Ms. Futarishizuka eventually caved. She was probably wary of Peeps. I felt truly guilty over how much I’d been forcing her to do lately.

And with that, the magical girl rescue team had been decided.

Our boat was filled with air, made of rubber, and sported a single engine. The SDF members on the seaplane quickly made the necessary preparations, and Mr. Yoshikawa, the magical girl, Ms. Futarishizuka, and I climbed aboard and took off.

We set the engine to a relatively low rpm; we wanted to approach the target as quietly as possible. Uneasily, I watched the seaplane grow smaller and smaller in the distance.

“By the way,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “why were you all out here battling this huge sea monster anyway?”

“Because my friend said she needed my help,” responded the magical girl.

“Are you talking about the girl who crash-landed on the Kraken?” I asked.

“Kraken?” she repeated.

“That big octopus monster,” explained Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Yes, that’s her. Then we all got together.”

The Kraken showed no reaction at our approach. We were coming in from behind, so hopefully it hadn’t noticed us at all.

“In other words,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “we’re cleaning up the mess made by our so-called allied forces.”

“I’m sorry for putting you through this,” replied the captain. “I mean it.”

“We shouldn’t be taking it out on Mr. Yoshikawa,” I said.

“But we’ve basically won the bad luck lottery!”

Maybe Mr. Akutsu already knew of the Magical Girl Alliance’s upcoming attack on the Kraken when he dispatched us the day before. That could be why he chose us in particular—yes, that made a lot of sense. This situation held exactly zero disadvantages for him. Ms. Futarishizuka probably understood that when she lashed out at Mr. Yoshikawa.

“How terrifying,” she said, looking at the creature. “One swing of a tentacle, and we’re done for.”

“I have a feeling you’d probably be okay,” I remarked.

“You think I’d be able to swim all the way home from here? My body might survive, but my spirit would be shattered.”

After coming within range of the tentacles, we lowered our speed even further and continued our approach. Eventually, we shut off the engine entirely and started paddling with the oars. Fortunately, it seemed it still hadn’t noticed us. It had stopped moving now and simply floated in place. What was it thinking? Maybe it was taking a little rest after driving off the magical girls.

“How are we planning to save your friend anyway?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“If we can get close, I’ll go save her,” answered the magical girl.

“Oh? You set an old lady’s mind at ease. We shall withdraw immediately.”

“When we withdraw,” said the captain, “we will request, via allied forces, that the magical girls resume their attack.”

“In that case, we should probably leave right away,” I pointed out.

“Yes,” agreed the captain. “As soon as the girl is off, we’re getting out of range of those tentacles.”

Once we got up close to the Kraken, the blue girl would be but a hair’s breadth away. The magical girl would then use Magical Flight to rush in, rescue her friend, and zoom up into the air. Even to an amateur like me, this plan seemed pretty likely to succeed. And if the other magical girls were providing a distraction, the chances of success would only rise.

In fact, our escape seemed to pose the greatest challenge.

We weaved through the tentacles for a while, our rescue boat advancing across the water, until we came within meters of the Kraken. The beast’s every little fidget sent huge waves in every direction—the weather might be peaceful, but the seas here were rough. We were about as close as we were going to get; I could make out each individual scale on the creature’s body and see the subtle patterns they created.

This close, the monster was a vertical wall.

“Oh, how I’d love to tear off one of those scales and bring it back with me,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“A single scale would be bigger than this whole group,” I pointed out.

“We might get an extra bonus if we take one back to the bureau, though, hmm?”

“Several countries and other organizations already have people down at the seafloor looking for pieces of AO4,” explained Mr. Yoshikawa.

“I don’t think this is the time to be worrying about bonuses,” I said.

Eventually, we heard the voice of the comms officer via Mr. Yoshikawa’s handheld radio. The officer was telling allied forces that the pink magical girl—apparently nicknamed Magical Pink for convenience—was commencing her rescue. After a few moments, the Magical Girl Alliance reappeared high in the sky.

This was now a joint operation between the magical girls and the SDF.

“Looks like your friends are here,” I said.

“…I’m going,” replied the magical girl, using Magical Flight to take off from the rescue boat. She accelerated like a rocket, speeding toward the Kraken’s head.

“We’re withdrawing!” announced Mr. Yoshikawa, turning the boat around, restarting the engine, and speeding away. We slid through the water like a racing boat—so fast I was almost flung off.

Upon seeing the magical girls, the Kraken began to move again. Several of its tentacles began to undulate and flail. I saw them splashing in the water not far from us, making waves. Our boat rocked up and down furiously, adding another layer of terror.

The tentacles moved first right, then left, as if searching for something. I followed their motion and saw a figure flying between them. It was Magical Pink, carrying Magical Blue in both arms.

“Looks like she’s got her, Mr. Yoshikawa,” I called to the captain.

“What about the tentacles?”

“Most of them are focused on the magical girls. I think maybe…” Maybe we’re all right.

But just as I was about to finish that sentence, I caught sight of a tentacle approaching us out of the corner of my vision.

Was it intentional? Or just a coincidence? I had no idea what was going through the Kraken’s head. But a tentacle thicker than the total length of our boat was heading this way.

“What…?!” yelled Mr. Yoshikawa, seeming to notice it as well.

The boat’s engine roared—but it didn’t seem possible we’d make it.

Ms. Futarishizuka might be all right; she could regrow torn-off limbs. But Mr. Yoshikawa didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving that thing. If he fell into the ocean, it would be very difficult to locate him and use healing magic. He might as well have been caught in a collapsing building.

Various thoughts flashed through my mind in the span of an instant. I thought of my fight with little Mika; that encounter had left me less than confident about relying on barrier magic. Nor did I want to reveal the otherworld’s existence to a high-ranking SDF officer. Did I have any options that didn’t cross that line?

My desperate thinking bore fruit, and I soon had an epiphany. This was something I’d learned even earlier than flight magic—back in the otherworld, when I’d been falling upside down through the air.

“I’m going to speed up the boat,” I called out. “Grab onto something!”

“What?! What do you intend to do?!” cried Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Understood,” replied the captain.

Firmly planting both feet on the bottom of the boat, I faced backward and held out my arms.

Then I fired my water spell.

Liquid blasted from my hands as if one of those thick pipes buried under roads had burst. I angled it slightly downward so it was skimming over the surface of the water and felt the pressure on my body grow.

With the additional propulsion, the rescue boat quickly accelerated.

“Whoa!” cried Ms. Futarishizuka. “This is fast!”

“Don’t talk—you’ll bite your tongue. Be careful,” warned Mr. Yoshikawa.

This way, I wasn’t using any abilities the bureau didn’t already know about. I got the feeling I was putting out a little too much water, but this wasn’t the time to get picky. If anyone asked, I could just tell them that my ability had leveled up.

Not a moment later, a tentacle slammed into the water where the boat had just been. We’d barely avoided a direct hit.

Ms. Futarishizuka let out a whoop. “Made it in the nick of time! That shaved a few years off my life!”

“Thanks, you really saved our asses!” said the captain.

Both of them sounded relieved. I was, too. I breathed a sigh and stopped casting.

But the boat was slick with water, and my footing was unstable.

“Ack—”

That and the pressure change when I ended the spell caused me to lose my balance and fall toward the water. I thrust out my hand, but I couldn’t grab ahold of anything; the boat was too slippery. I was going to fall into the sea for sure at this rate.

Should I use flight magic to pull myself back up? I wondered.

But in that instant, an arm looped around my back.

Ms. Futarishizuka’s face appeared in front of me as her incredibly powerful arm reeled me back in.

“That was close,” she said. “You should have been the one grabbing onto something.”

“Thank you, Ms. Futarishizuka,” I said, turning back to face her. “I nearly fell in.”

Not only did she have amazing physical strength, she had fantastic reflexes as well. And thanks to her, I was able to stay in the boat without resorting to magic.

But as I turned to look at her, I saw that her small hand had been burned raw. Had she touched the boat’s engine when she stopped my fall? We’d been at this rescue operation for a while now, so the boat’s metal parts were very hot. Everything from her palm to her fingertips was burned. How awful. As expected, however, the wound soon began to heal.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “It’s my fault your hand is—”

“Oh, this?” she interrupted. “This is nothing. It’ll heal right back up.”

“But it must hurt.”

“The pain when you beat me before was much, much worse, you know?”

“We were in different positions then.”

“I suppose that’s true.” She grinned and gave a low chuckle. If not for the mark on the back of her hand, I might have fallen for her right then and there. And if that had been her ploy all along? That’d make her one dangerous woman, I thought.

After that, we raced back to the seaplane with the engine at full throttle. Thanks in part to the Magical Girl Alliance’s diversion, the Kraken didn’t pursue us, and we were able to safely reboard the aircraft. Once the crew helped us in, and we packed up the rescue boat, our mission would be finished.

The seaplane withdrew at top speed, and as soon as we were away from the Kraken, allied forces contacted us. According to the comms officer, they wanted to thank us—and asked if it was possible for us to meet. Apparently, the magical girl we’d rescued wanted to see us, too.

This was a perfect chance to forge connections with magical girls from other countries, not just Magical Pink. Mr. Yoshikawa seemed pleased with the idea and granted his permission.

Personally, I was pretty interested in these “allied forces,” or whatever they were. However, I had to decline, citing another pressing matter.

If we got mixed up in even more trouble at this meetup, we’d lose the possibility of leaving on time, which I’d worked so hard for. And besides, Mr. Akutsu had told us beforehand that the giant monster wasn’t the only thing we needed to be cautious of.

And so the seaplane proceeded straight back to Chichijima Base as originally planned. There, we refueled, then set off that same day for mainland Japan.

By the time we got back to Atsugi Base, the sun had already set.

We were all exhausted from everything that had happened, so we decided to wait until the next day to deliver our reports to Section Chief Akutsu. We split up upon leaving the base, and while Miss Hoshizaki’s love of paychecks brought her back to the bureau to write up her report, Ms. Futarishizuka and I headed straight home.

The latter had her car sent from the bureau parking garage to a spot near the base around the time we left Chichijima Island, and she invited me to accompany her. As always, she was excellent at handling these things.

I took her up on the offer, and we went back to my apartment. There, we reunited with Peeps and moved straight to Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa.

“Ahhhhh,” she sighed, plopping down on a sofa as soon as we arrived in the living room. “I am so tired!” The violent motion caused her kimono hem to ride up, offering a full view of her thighs, but she didn’t seem to care in the slightest, despite Lady Elsa’s and Peeps’s presence.

I could understand how she felt. I took a seat on the sofa across from her to relax and heaved a long sigh myself. As I sank back into the cushion, I could feel the bottoms of my feet stinging.

Peeps, on the low table between us, welcomed me back. “It seems that was a difficult assignment.”

“The trip there and back was so long I feel mentally drained,” I told him.

“Difficult?” repeated Ms. Futarishizuka. “More like downright perilous. We were very nearly strangled to death by that octopus.”

“Octopus?”

“Do you have them in your world, Peeps?” I asked.

“They’re the animals with lots of legs that live in the ocean, yes?”

“Sounds like a yes.”

I was overtaken by the desire to simply lie down and fall asleep on the spot. But I couldn’t rest yet. There were things I had to ask Peeps about the Kraken. In a way, this was even more important than our on-site investigation.

“What about them?”

“There’s something I want you to see.”

“Is there?”

“Ms. Futarishizuka, would it be all right if I used the TV for a bit?”

“Do whatever you like,” she said.

At that, I fished the video camera I brought with me out of my luggage. I’d barely settled into the sofa, and now I was getting up again. I walked over to the TV in the corner of the room and used a cable to hook up the camera to it.

Normally, I’d be disciplined for sharing this stuff with outsiders. But I could show Peeps and Lady Elsa all I wanted, and nobody would ever know. I pushed the PLAY button and revealed what we’d captured that day. After a few seconds, the Kraken appeared on the screen.

The sparrow immediately asked a question. “Did this happen in your world? This world?”

“According to the boss,” I said, “it was the same thing as with the reptilian.”

“…I see.” Peeps nodded, a hint of something else coming into his voice. He sounded serious, almost somber.

“Do you know something about it?” I asked.

“As you two have no doubt surmised, this creature does indeed originate from my world.”

“I should hope so,” noted Ms. Futarishizuka. “Think of the alternative!”

As the video continued, it showed the magical girls starting to fly around. Eventually, Magical Blue got into trouble, and the rest temporarily withdrew. Magical Pink requested help, and we prepared to take the rescue boat straight over to the Kraken. That was about all the footage I had. I’d passed the baton to Miss Hoshizaki after that.

She’d caught our struggle on the boat from afar. I sped up the video so it wouldn’t take forever; most if it just showed the Kraken sitting there.

After watching the whole thing, Peeps spoke again. “I didn’t think something this large would slip through.”

“Would you give the ominous remarks a rest?” muttered Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Could you tell us any more about the creature?” I asked.

“Yes.” The bird nodded, then moved from the low table over to the TV. He whipped out one of his wings and pointed to the Kraken, which was enlarged and frozen on the screen. “This is a type of dragon native to the oceans of our world.”

“Wait,” I said. “This is a dragon?”

“It may look strange, but it is most certainly a dragon.”

Compared to the golden dragons Peeps had summoned in the otherworld as familiars, this creature was decidedly less draconic. I’d been calling it an octodragon myself, but now that I knew it really was a dragon, I suddenly became skeptical.

“I’m almost afraid to ask,” I said, “but can it fly or anything?”

“I’ve never heard of one flying.”

“Oh god,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “Imagine if that thing could fly.”

Apparently, the creature was very rare even in the otherworld.

After hearing Peeps’s full explanation, Lady Elsa made a comment of her own. “I’ve never seen nor heard of any such creature.”

“They are almost never seen by humans,” explained the sparrow. “Or rather, those who encounter them don’t return with their lives. They cannot be defeated—one can only hope to flee. They very rarely venture onto land, but I can think of one instance in the past where such a creature destroyed an entire city overnight.”

“Sounds positively terrifying,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Do you not have such threats in this world?”

“In our world,” she said, “we eat the rulers of the ocean for dinner.”

“…I see.”

I had the utmost respect for the otherworld, but apparently even its oceans were set to the highest difficulty level. Fishers and the like must have a really hard time over there.

“I see it is also using magic,” continued Peeps. “Normally, though they possess mana, these creatures never use laborious spells such as that one. It’s highly probable this is an elite. In fact, I am certain of it.”

I recalled hearing the term elite several times in the past. This term referred to individuals of a species endowed with significantly more magical power than their fellows. Peeps had once explained that I was essentially an elite human. The orc I’d fought alongside Count Müller and Prince Adonis had been an elite as well.

“Is it stronger than the dragons you summoned?” I asked him.

“Yes, and it would be so regardless of whether it was an elite. This type of dragon is more powerful.”

“I see.”

Those two golden dragons alone could stave off a military force numbering in the tens of thousands. I couldn’t even conceptualize this monster being stronger than them. Was it stronger than Peeps, too? But I hesitated to ask that directly. Not with Ms. Futarishizuka and Lady Elsa in the room.

“At this point,” said Futarishizuka, “I think we should just vaporize it with a nuke or something.”

“I think that’s a possibility, given its location,” I agreed, “but everyone’s bound to argue over the when, who, and how. And I shudder to think what would happen if it survived.”

“You’re such a worrywart,” she replied.

“Sasaki,” said Lady Elsa, “is there anything I can do?”

“Something you can do?” I repeated.

“I feel bad sitting here in comfort while you and Futarishizuka are struggling. If there’s anything at all I can help with, please tell me. Even just cleaning this mansion. I’d like to help in whatever way I can.”

The blond-haired girl was sitting at the head of the table, as it were, in an armchair to the side of the sofas where Ms. Futarishizuka and I were seated. The way she sat up straight with her legs together starkly contrasted with how the other girl was lazing about.

Everyone else turned to look at Lady Elsa. “What did the girl say?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“She’s frustrated that she isn’t doing anything when the two of us seem so busy,” I explained. “And she’s asked to help, even if it’s only to clean this villa.”

“Oh, what a good girl!” said Ms. Futarishizuka, sounding moved as she looked at her, though that was probably a dig at Peeps. “You’re our guest. You needn’t do anything but sit back and relax.”

“Sasaki?” asked Lady Elsa. “What did she, um…?”

“She wants you to relax, because you’re our honored guest,” I translated.

“But…”

“Though, if we end up biting off more than we can chew, we may ask the bird to come out and greet us,” continued Ms. Futarishizuka, looking back over at Peeps on the low table. When it came to that giant monster, I had to admit it was a distinct possibility we’d need the sparrow’s help.

“Based on what I’ve heard,” replied Peeps, “I would hardly hesitate to offer my support should the need arise.”

“How unusually kind of you,” replied Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I’ve merely judged that handling that creature may be too heavy a burden for the people of this world.”

“You saying that to my face has sent a chill down my spine.”

“But we do want to avoid revealing your identity if possible, Peeps,” I pointed out.

“Could we not simply warp the monster over to your world, like we do the sugar?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Any elite dragon will have incredibly high magical resistance. If it were friendly, that would be one thing, but whisking it away against its will would be nigh impossible. At least, if we have to avoid people seeing it.”

“Then we’ll need to cook up some kind of plan,” I remarked.

“Yes…”

“Well,” said Ms. Futarishizuka, “there’s no guarantee the job will fall to us again. What point is there in being so serious about this now? If you’ve discussed what you wanted to discuss, let’s have some food and go to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

“Yes, I agree,” I said.

Now that we’d gone over the details concerning the Kraken, it was time for dinner. The helpers working at the villa cooked a meal and set the table for us—the food was as extravagant as the residence—and very delicious.

After eating, it was time for Peeps’s and my regular trip to the otherworld. We returned from Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa to my apartment, made a quick stop at the warehouse, and then it was on to the otherworld. We’d been gone a whole two days in Japan, so I decided to bring extra product to make up for it.

I chose a selection of sweeteners, chocolate, medicines, and manufactured goods we’d sold before, among other things. But the first item on our agenda was a visit to Count Müller. With Lady Elsa’s newest video letter in hand, we headed for the town of Baytrium.