Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 8 - Chapter 4.1

After only a few minutes on the motorcycle, we were in sight of the commotion. The scene was near a parking lot about two or three hundred square meters large.

We turned off the two-lane national highway down a T-shaped intersection with no light and proceeded along a side road. At last, we reached a gravel-filled plot surrounded by a rusty fence and tall weeds. I couldn’t spot any lines demarcating parking spaces. It was the sloppy kind of lot you find in the country where there was more land than anyone knew what to do with.

Just as the boss had said, it appeared that combat had already begun nearby. I could see telephone poles on the ground, destroyed buildings, and overturned cars. Things were on fire, and the debris made it look like a hurricane had just blown through. I could see damage in other places nearby, too, suggesting the fighting had been gradually moving.

Still, things weren’t as bad as when this happened in Tokyo. After all, there were far fewer people around. The road leading up to the scene was so small that it didn’t even have a center line painted on it. There were only a few pedestrians—students on their way home and an elderly person out on a walk. Nearby buildings were sparse; in fact, more of the land here was dedicated to fields and parking lots. Cleaning up afterward would take much less work.

Nearby, traffic had already been stopped, and I didn’t see any more vehicles or pedestrians approaching from the highway. When we entered the area, we’d had to show our IDs to a police officer.

My only other concern was people watching from nearby homes. But Miss Inukai’s subordinates were already taking care of it. Dressed in camouflage, they were evacuating nearby residents on the pretext of a terrorist threat.

“Ah, and there’s the magical girl,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Yes, there she is,” I said.

“She’s really going at it, isn’t she?”

“Positively relentless.”

The first thing I saw was Magical Pink, floating several meters above the parking lot. Surrounding her on the ground were a dozen or so people—probably psychics. It appeared the two sides had already attacked. Several psychics had perished, and their remains lay strewn across the ground—victims of the girl’s Magical Beam, no doubt. A lot of the bodies had parts missing.

Magical Pink, on the other hand, was unharmed. Splattered with the blood of her enemies, she calmly floated in the air. She looked like a boss character in a game.

The psychics were broadly split into two groups—the first was composed of colleagues I vaguely recalled seeing around the bureau. A little ways away was a second group I didn’t recognize. These must have been the unknown psychics Miss Inukai mentioned. It looked like the two had joined forces temporarily once the magical girl appeared.

Near the former group, I saw a few people in camo gear with guns in their hands—Miss Inukai’s colleagues, no doubt.

The attacks coming from the ground were all aimed at Magical Pink. They came in many forms, such as flinging cars through the air with psychokinesis, hurling fireballs, and shooting guns.

But everything was blocked by her Magical Barrier before it reached its target.

The magical girl then fired her Magical Beam in retaliation, killing even more of her enemies.

Lately, we’d run into a lot of strong characters—angels, demons, and the nerd, for example. It was easy to forget how much one magical girl was capable of. Speaking in psychic terms, you’d need multiple people of rank B or higher to combat her.

Unable to sit back and watch this continue, Futarishizuka and I frantically rushed into the fray.

“Stop right there, magical girl!”

The Masked Sailor rolled onto the scene astride her motorcycle to the thundering sounds of its engine. She brilliantly slid the back wheel out, bringing us to a stop in front of Magical Pink. From a distance, I imagined we looked pretty cool.

“The Masked Sailor has arrived!”

Naturally, the Demonic Middle Manager—currently sitting on the tandem seat—was not equipped to resist his partner slamming on the brakes. Unable to hold out against inertia, I was launched right off the bike. From there, I tumbled onto the gravel and rolled for a bit.

“Oh no!” exclaimed the Masked Sailor. “The Demonic Middle Manager is down!”

“And whose fault is that?”

It was a good thing she hadn’t been going very fast.

As I lodged my complaint with the driver, I hastily stood up and brushed the dirt off my suit. Just then, I noticed my horned hairband at my feet. The impact must have knocked it off. Frantically, I scooped it up and put it back on, then headed over to Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Well,” I began, “what’s the backstory for our battle here?”

“That one’s easy,” she replied. “The Masked Sailor and the Demonic Middle Manager have to fight on the same side—it’s what everyone’s been waiting for. Yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend. Faced with the appearance of a powerful, mutual foe, the protagonist and enemy general join hands in thrilling cooperation!”

“But our enemy is a little girl in a frilly skirt. Most people will just assume the Masked Sailor has turned to the dark side,” I pointed out. “I can see it now. Fans will turn against the show and light the internet on fire before the next episode even airs.”

“It’s ‘The Masked Sailor and the Demonic Middle Manager Versus the Magical Girl!’”

“Nice title. I hope you have a screenplay to go with it.”

“Doesn’t it seem like a lot of media these days is just corporations wringing money out of big-name titles?”

“The social commentary can wait.”

The people gathered in the parking lot all looked at us and our strange outfits; their faces seemed to say, “Who are these clowns?” They probably didn’t know what to do with us.

Then, breaking the silence, Magical Pink said, “I’ve heard those voices before.”

“Oh? Whatever do you mean, girlie?” said the Masked Sailor.

“It’s the magical middle-aged man and Futarishizuka.”

“No! Curses! The masked heroine’s identity is supposed to stay hidden until the last episode!”

Magical Pink immediately saw through our disguises. I’d kind of figured she would.

We’d eaten at the same table several times now. She knew our voices, so of course she recognized us right away. Our costumes were for outside observers, though. It didn’t really matter if Magical Pink and the other psychics knew who we were.

“What are you doing blowing stuff up out here?” asked the Masked Sailor. “Your timing seems suspicious.”

“I heard you all discussing things over curry. You said the alien would transfer into a school around here. I thought that psychics would come if I waited nearby. And when they did, I started killing them.”

“Ah, so this is all our fault…,” muttered the Masked Sailor.

“It’s not all bad,” I reminded her. “This isn’t some third party attacking the school or the students, at least.”

“Yeah, that’s what we’ll tell the boss!”

Things had stalled once the Masked Sailor and the Demonic Middle Manager charged in.

…Or so I thought. A moment later, someone took action.

It was the team of unknown psychics. They all floated up into the air and flew away in the opposite direction of the school. Apparently, they’d changed plans after seeing the Masked Sailor. Maybe it was a tactical retreat.

“Get back here!”

Without wasting a moment, Magical Pink chased after them. She wasn’t joking around—she was out here to hunt down psychics.

“Hey! Where are you running off to?!” exclaimed Ms. Futarishizuka, breaking into a run. She couldn’t fly, but she could use her superhuman physical abilities to hop between trees and rooftops like a rabbit. I was amazed. She could leap several meters without so much as a running start.

The bureau psychics followed the others, lifting off and giving chase. Evidently, they had a flight-capable psychic among them as well.

In the end, I was left behind, all alone.

Would it have killed them to take me along? I’m a bureau employee, too.

“……”

The Demonic Middle Manager was left in the dust. What was he to do? Things were going way too fast, and he simply couldn’t keep up.

The JSDF had eyes all over, so I couldn’t use my otherworld magic. Ms. Futarishizuka had left her motorcycle behind, but I couldn’t even ride a scooter, much less use a manual transmission. I didn’t see any cars around, either. The JSDF seemed to have all come on foot.

I searched my surroundings, looking for anything I could use.

And that was when I spotted a signboard. It indicated that there was a horseback riding club right in this area.

“…That skill you taught me might come in handy after all, Peeps.”

Betting everything on a single ray of hope, this demon followed the directions on the signboard and ran for all he was worth.

The riding club turned out to be very close indeed, and I managed to procure a horse.

It went about as well as our requisition of the swan boat at Lake Kizaki in Nagano did—I forced the matter by flashing my police badge. The clerk was reluctant, but when I repeatedly told him lives were on the line and promised to repay him in full and then some if anything were to happen, he finally acquiesced.

Though I could have used more practice, the ride went very well.

The horse was more obedient than I’d expected, and I was able to make it move as I wanted. I got the feeling that horses in this world were kinder to their riders than those in the otherworld. Horses loved a pretty face, I supposed—that was something I’d learned on the internet.

Leaving the stable, we proceeded down the road at a good clip.

Using my company phone, I checked Ms. Futarishizuka’s location, then set a course toward the pin on the map. Because the police had restricted traffic, I was able to ride along the road without worrying about cars. Even turning left and right at intersections, which I’d been worried about, went very well.

Thanks to the smooth ride, I arrived at my destination fairly quickly.

I found myself in a wooded area dotted with mansions on a lovely walking trail. The path was pretty narrow, just barely wide enough for a car to pass through. The unknown psychics had probably taken this route on purpose to evade the police and the JSDF. I spotted a high mobility vehicle stuck farther down the path. Thanks to my horse, however, I was able to pass it right by.

The neighborhood was surrounded by foliage, which conveniently hid me from the magical girl’s view. Unfortunately, she’d already spotted the group of unknown psychics and commenced her attack.

The fleeing psychics had been completely annihilated. Every last one of them now lay limp on the road. Next to them was Magical Pink, splattered with blood.

Ms. Futarishizuka stood nearby, staring her down. The bureau psychics were gathered a short distance away, as if hiding behind my junior colleague. While they’d done their job and chased everyone out here, witnessing such an utterly one-sided battle must have given them cold feet. Plus, I imagined it was pretty tempting to stand back and rely on a colleague who happened to be a very dependable rank-A psychic.

“I have an offer for you,” Ms. Futarishizuka said, addressing Magical Pink. “Let’s call it quits for today.”

“You’re all psychics, too,” replied the magical girl.

“Perhaps, but we’re the good ones.”

“You’re all the same to me.”

From Magical Pink’s perspective, it probably didn’t matter at all what company or organization a psychic belonged to. Her next statement was the simple declaration of intent she’d given us so many times before.

“I will kill all psychics.”

As my horse galloped toward the magical girl, she readied her Magical Beam. She thrust her magic wand out in front of her, pointing it squarely at Ms. Futarishizuka.

I wasn’t about to let her fire. The Demonic Middle Manager whacked his horse in the rear.

There was a sharp, painful-sounding slap. Immediately, the horse neighed and accelerated straight ahead—directly toward Ms. Futarishizuka.

“Take my hand, Masked Sailor!”

“Nwooohhh?!”

The horse cut gallantly between Magical Pink and my colleague. I reached my hand out to the latter, and she deftly grabbed it and leaped off the ground, settling quickly into the saddle behind me. As always, her reflexes were something else.

A beat later, the Magical Beam ripped through the air. It grazed the horse’s rear end and continued on behind us.

The blast range was narrow, so it didn’t hit any of the bureau members standing farther back. Instead, it shot into the trees and struck someone’s villa. There was a massive boom as a huge hole appeared in the mansion. I’d put up a magic barrier around us just in case, but the sound made a shiver run up my spine.

Miss Inukai and Captain Mason’s people rushed over to the half-collapsed building.

“Thanks for the assist, Demonic Middle Manager,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“I’m glad you’re safe, Masked Sailor,” I replied.

“Heh-heh, come on. You’re into this, too. Admit it.”

“Actually, I don’t think there’s much point in using our fake names anymore.”

“Yes, it is rather depressing that no one was around to witness such an awesome scene.”

I calmed the horse down and set it walking into a gradual turn. As it moved, I checked our surroundings.

The only other people I could see were JSDF members, Captain Mason’s colleagues, and the other bureau employees. None of the nearby villas’ residents were watching us. It was the off-season for summer resorts, so it was possible many were unoccupied.

Eventually, the horse came to a stop, and Magical Pink spoke.

“Don’t get in my way, magical middle-aged man.”

“I had to,” I said. “This woman is an important colleague of mine.”

“……”

Magical Pink looked at me with dissatisfaction. She was serious. She was ready to hunt down and kill the other bureau employees.

From her seat atop the horse, Ms. Futarishizuka made a suggestion. “Haven’t you killed enough, dear? Aren’t you satisfied?”

“No, I’m not. I need to kill more.”

“I don’t know what happened to your family, but they must have been amazing people to make you want revenge so badly. Don’t you think your parents would be sad if they saw you going around killing people?”

“They’re not here. They won’t ever know.”

“They might be watching you from Heaven.”

“Heaven isn’t real.”

“Oh, isn’t it? You know angels and demons are real, though, don’t you?”

“……”

Life after death was a myth. I knew that, and yet I found Ms. Futarishizuka’s words oddly persuasive. Magical Pink seemed to think so, too, and a troubled expression crossed her face.

In the meantime, additional personnel arrived on the scene.

“Mr. Sasaki, would you be so kind as to let us take over here?”

“Captain Mason?” I replied. “And Ensign Inukai?”

“Changed your mind, have you?” asked Ms. Futarishizuka. “You must have, seeing as you’ve brought along the blue girlie.”

The captain, still dressed as a teacher, had arrived on the scene with a transformed Magical Blue. I’d heard a car engine nearby but never thought it would be them. Didn’t he refuse our suggestion to send out Magical Blue back in the faculty room?

“When I explained things to Lieutenant Ivy,” replied the captain, “she said she wanted to come talk to the other magical girl. And if she’s on board, then I’m willing to offer my assistance. We had the others show us here.”

“You all helped me through a dangerous situation,” said Magical Blue. “I want us all to get along if we can—you, Sayoko, and me. I know there’s something I can do. Please let me help!”

“That’s all well and good, but you can’t understand each other, can you?”

Ms. Futarishizuka was right—I hadn’t understood a word of what Ivy just said.

The captain smiled. “You’d have found out eventually anyway, so I don’t see any reason to keep hiding it. One of Lieutenant Ivy’s powers as a magical girl is the ability to communicate directly with others, even if they speak a different language.”

“Ah! What a fantastic power!” exclaimed Ms. Futarishizuka. “Quite suitable for a magical girl.”

Magical girls had access to several magical abilities—Beam, Barrier, Fly, and Field. Evidently, each of them also possessed other unique magical talents.

“I suppose we could call it Magical Communication,” mused Ms. Futarishizuka.

“That’s exactly how we refer to it,” said Captain Mason.

I wondered what Magical Pink’s unique ability was. The bureau’s database had no information on it—nothing I could access, at least. I’d never seen her use it, either, so it remained an unknown. I wondered if Ms. Futarishizuka knew. Would she tell me if I asked?

“What about Japan’s magical girl?” asked Captain Mason.

“Oh, we don’t get along very well,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “She hasn’t told us. In fact, I expect she’d tell the blue girlie before she’d tell us. We heard they all keep in touch.”

“Who can say? I certainly don’t know.”

Unfortunately, it seemed my junior colleague didn’t have a clue, either. Captain Mason, on the other hand, seemed to have some idea but wasn’t about to tell us.

A moment later, Magical Blue’s voice echoed in the back of my mind.

“Sayoko! Please listen to me!”

I was perceiving her voice directly in my brain—literally. I could hear a string of incomprehensible English, but for some reason, it also sounded like my mother tongue. It felt kind of like the auditory hallucinations I’d get when I worked several days of overtime and my body started to go haywire. The association caused me to briefly break out in a cold sweat.

That stuff was bad news.

Magical Communication was terrifying.

“I see, I see,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “That certainly is magical.”

“She controls who is targeted,” explained Captain Mason. “I think she’s including you out of courtesy.”

The two magical girls spoke as we listened in.

We heard Magical Pink’s replies with our ears, the same way we always did. But since Magical Blue didn’t know Japanese, wouldn’t that make their communication one-way?

Captain Mason immediately explained. “Lieutenant Ivy’s mind is processing the words the same way it would her mother tongue.”

“Now that’s handy,” said Ms. Futarishizuka. “Even the mechanical life-form’s super-science can’t do that.”

“You mean the translators you were using at the theme park, right? We’re very interested in those.”

“They’re worth a bit more than the magic girlie’s secret, you know. And I doubt the manufacturer would allow us to share.”

The manufacturer was Type Twelve, of course. As Futarishizuka said, the mechanical life-form’s devices had almost the same effect as Magical Blue’s power. But the latter could be used without any preparations, making it a formidable magical ability.

The magical girls continued their exchange in hushed tones.

“Are you getting in my way, Ivy? You promised before that you wouldn’t.”

“I won’t get in your way. I know this is your thing, Sayoko.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I want to save you.”

It seemed like Captain Mason, Ms. Futarishizuka, and I were the only ones hearing the auditory non-hallucinations. I didn’t see anyone else reacting. They probably thought she was just speaking normally in English, though the fact that one of them was replying in Japanese was probably a little confusing.

“Okay. Then help me kill the psychics,” said Magical Pink.

“Some of these people are my friends. If anything happened to them, they’d be really mad at you. They don’t do things the way Japan does. You won’t be able to kill psychics anymore.”

“……”

“I want to be friends with you, so please stop for today.”

The way she negotiated was quite mature. It was practically gunboat diplomacy. The fact she was a lieutenant only strengthened her argument.

In the end, Magical Blue’s appeal had the desired effect on Magical Pink.

“…Okay. I’ll go home for today,” she said at last.

She whirled around, still hovering in the air.

Ms. Futarishizuka called out to her from behind. “If you’re ever hungry, you can always come to my house.”

“Why?”

“Because this old lady wants to feed you more curry.”

“…It’s not like I need it.”

With a tearing sound, a pure black space opened up in front of Magical Pink—her Magical Field. She went inside, and it engulfed her. In mere moments, she was gone.

There was nothing more we could do at that point.

For the others with us, that marked the end of the incident. I heard people start to express their relief. The bureau employees had only narrowly escaped death; some of them slumped to their knees.

As all that went on to one side, Blue turned away from where Pink had been and faced us. “Mr. Sasaki, I have a question for you. Is that okay?”

“What is it, Lieutenant Ivy?”

Her voice sounded in my brain once again. It really felt exactly like when I was starting to lose it. How utterly terrifying.

“Sayoko called you a magical middle-aged man before.”

“Yes, people do call me that sometimes.”

“Then did a fairy task you with collecting the Fairy Drops, too?”

Huh? I thought. What the heck is she talking about? What are “Fairy Drops”? I guess I just have to wing it.

“Who can say? I certainly don’t know.”

“…I see.”

In the end, I copped Captain Mason’s line wholesale. And Lieutenant Ivy caught my drift and let the subject drop.

Being jostled around in the harsh company of adults really aged a person mentally, even a child like her. I wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing, though.

Now that Magical Pink was gone, Miss Inukai ran up to join us with several men and women in camouflage. According to her, no students from the school had been hurt.

I was incredibly glad none of the kids on their way home had been roped into this madness. I didn’t know how much Captain Mason and Ms. Futarishizuka actually cared about the students, but I intended to do my best to protect them. That was my way of atoning for involving innocent people in all this.

“Actually, I had something to ask you, too,” said Ms. Futarishizuka.

“What is it?” I replied.

“What’s someone who can barely even drive a car doing riding a horse?”

“An acquaintance once showed me the ropes.”

“But they didn’t show you how to drive a car, eh?”

“I’m sorry. That’s still a work in progress…”

It didn’t take long for Ms. Futarishizuka to point out the irony in my mode of transport. But I had an excuse: It was actually really hard to find a driving school that accepted people like me—who had a license but never drove—year-round. And even the ones offering an applicable course had few spots available, and reservations filled up quickly.

I kept this to myself, however, and simply pasted on a smile and let the matter go.

After that, we pitched in and helped Miss Inukai and Captain Mason cover everything up, and by the time we were finished, the sun had set. When we got back to Ms. Futarishizuka’s villa, it was already dinnertime.