by Asari Endou
She recounted her regret over Nemurin. No response.
A little perplexed, she shared how Ruler had been cut. No response.
Even their tussle with the crazy Cranberry. No response.
Winterprison was approaching the limit of her patience. From her cool appearance and quiet demeanor, most would say she was calm and logical, but in actuality Winterprison had a short temper. She was just about ready to yell at the girl.
“I heard that Snow White was attacked the other day. I bet they were after her candy. She’s been the undisputed top candy earner, after all. Oh, despicable…”
Alice’s shoulder twitched.
“This Snow White.”
Sister Nana stopped talking. She’d nearly missed the small whisper—the first time Alice had opened her mouth since they’d met.
“Is that the white magical girl?”
“Huh?”
“Is Snow White the white magical girl?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And her clothes are like a school uniform?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“I believe she was designated Kubegahama. Isn’t that right?” The last bit was directed at Winterprison, but before she could respond, Alice turned on her heel and ran off. Her footsteps faded into the distance.
“Does she even know how to say thank you?” she muttered, fully aware it was beside the point.
“Do you think… she went to go help Snow White?”
Winterprison found it more likely that she’d excitedly rushed off to steal from the girl with the most candy, but she knew the idea would upset Sister Nana, so she nodded stonily.
La Pucelle was sorry. Deeply, deeply sorry. Deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply sorry. She was sorry she’d been so naive as to think the update to the magical phones would only be used for willing transfers. She should have foreseen that people would use it to steal. That way, she would have been more on guard.
She was sorry for making the steel tower in Kubegahama her meeting place with Snow White. They’d even talked about it in chat, so it was practically public knowledge. That was probably the most appealing point for any potential criminals looking to attack.
She was sorry for being so sure she and Snow White shared the same ideals. Snow White had never wanted to fight. Arrogance had made La Pucelle believe their vision of what a magical girl should be was the same.
She was sorry for not realizing the initial attack was a diversion until it was actually said out loud. She’d been so excited at the chance to use her full power, drunk on it, that she had put Snow White in danger. It was completely her fault that 37,000 pieces of candy had been stolen.
But she wasn’t just sorry. La Pucelle actively worked to make sure everything she did as a magical girl went safer and smoother than ever before. Every day they changed their meeting spot. To minimize risk, they split their candy between them. Whenever they were together, they’d talk with their backs to each other. This way, they could respond to attacks from either side.
Then there was the shame.
She’d sworn to protect Snow White no matter what, yet only a few days later they’d been utterly defeated. It was unbearable. She was so ashamed she couldn’t bring herself to look at her friend. Yet, of course, she couldn’t afford not to. There was no telling when something similar might happen again, and that was when she would need to protect her. Snow White, however, had become depressed despite being saved. La Pucelle desperately wanted to cheer her up.
Seeing Snow White’s sadness upset her. The fact that someone had stolen her candy—that a magical girl would think to steal another’s candy—had shocked her. La Pucelle’s attempts at conversation mostly received half-hearted replies. If she said nothing, the only sound between them would be the night wind blowing as they both stared off into the distance.
She remembered how, as a child, Snow White—Koyuki Himekawa—had hated fighting. She was the kind of girl who cried over fights that didn’t involve her in the slightest. Of all the magical girls, she was the least suited to stealing and hurting others.
La Pucelle had to protect her.
The memory of Snow White in her arms atop the steel tower made her heart race. Her blood ran cold as she remembered the attack.
Now Snow White was no longer by her side. She’d already gone home.
“Good evening.”
“Hey.”
Suddenly, a voice came from behind, but La Pucelle answered without shock or panic. She’d felt the presence all night. Something had been observing them, and while she’d sensed it, Snow White had seemed unaware.
“Seems you noticed me.”
“Yeah.”
“Of course. But then why did you let Snow White leave?”
“Because this’ll be easier alone.”
“Well, well… That makes this simpler.”
The seventh port warehouse was shorter than the steel tower, but it was closer to the ocean, so the thick, salty scent of the waves on the wind was stronger. From the gaps between the clouds, stars flickered in and out of view. The one facing La Pucelle appeared quite old. All the magical girls she knew, enemy or friend, looked to be between ten and nineteen, but this one was at least twenty.
“La Pucelle, I heard you were victorious in a three-on-one battle.”
“I wouldn’t really call it a victory.”
“No need to be modest. It’s better for me if it’s the truth. Your strength is the only reason I would challenge you.”
La Pucelle blinked.
“You’re not after my candy?”
“I am the Musician of the Forest, Cranberry. I have no need for candy. All I want is a strong opponent.”
A magical girl who’s not trying to steal candy, eh? It had only been a few days since the last attack, so being on her guard wasn’t unwarranted. She was a bit embarrassed she’d been so quick to judge, though. To hide her embarrassment, she smacked the roof of the warehouse with her tail.
Still, this girl was crazy to stalk strong opponents to battle. Well, if she wanted a fight, La Pucelle would give one to her. She liked these sorts of situations. Two people aiming to be the strongest would meet each other and have a clean, fair fight, acknowledging each other’s power. She’d seen it so many times in manga and anime and had always dreamed of something similar.
“My name is La Pucelle. Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, I accept your challenge.”
“Thank you very much.”
La Pucelle drew her sword, and Cranberry readied her fists. The salt spray licked at the two combatants as they squared off atop the warehouse, rustling the flowers decorating Cranberry’s body. The blossoms reminded La Pucelle of Snow White, but Cranberry’s were darker, fresher, and more vibrant.
CHAT #3
Fav: Well, time for another exciting chat, pon!
Fav: Uh… but no one seems to be here, pon
Fav: Three weeks in and we’re down to two. That’s kind of a problem, pon
Fav: Well, no matter, pon. Everyone looks at the logs anyway
Fav: Cranberry, thank you for always attending, pon
Fav: No one else is here, so it’s fine if you play your music
Fav: Well, there are three announcements today, pon
Fav: Two pieces of good news, and one piece of bad news
Fav: Let’s go with the good news first, pon
Fav: The magical phones have received another update, pon
Fav: You can now download useful items, pon
Fav: There are five in total!
Fav: They’re all on a first-come, first-served basis, so remember, the early bird gets the worm, pon!
Fav: Now for the bad news, pon
Fav: La Pucelle has died in an accident, pon. This is very sad, pon. Heartbreaking, pon
Fav: But everyone, do your best not to let this sacrifice be in vain, pon
Fav: And the last piece of good news:
Fav: Because La Pucelle is de
ad, no one is getting cut this week
Fav: So, see you next week!
Fav: Oh, and the top earner hates having her results announced, so that is canceled, pon
Fav: Thank you for your understanding
The music from the magical phone no longer reached her ears. At home, at school, even at the funeral, Snow White had held it in, but now she screamed into the howling winds—she writhed, wailed, and punched the steel tower. Unable to consider why it had happened or what this meant for her, Snow White cried. She sobbed and grieved over the death of La Pucelle—Souta Kishibe.
CHAPTER 4
THE MOONLIT MAGICAL GIRL
La Pucelle’s death meant no one was cut that week. No one really questioned the cause of death, either. If someone dies, I’m not cut. If I kill someone, I’m not cut. If I want to live, I should kill. That was the best mind-set, and eventually everyone would come to realize that.
“You think it’ll be that easy?”
“It will, it will. The medium to gather people this time is a mobile game aimed at a younger demographic, pon. That’s drawn in lots of them, and they’re all young. Their youth makes them particularly emotional, so all we need to do is add a little fuel to the fire, pon.”
Fav was the one who had suggested using a mobile game as the medium. Meaning he probably wanted to claim the success as his own. Cranberry had first met Fav some time ago, but this part of him still rubbed her the wrong way. Most likely, Fav also found Cranberry to be a pain as well. That was how work relationships should be.
Cranberry rolled onto the bed and tapped her magical phone. A new header had been added to the start screen for Magical Girl Raising Project, entitled GET ITEMS.
Four-Dimensional Bag: Can hold items of any size or weight that can be carried by one person. Its fourth dimension gives it unlimited storage.
Invisibility Cloak: Makes the wearer invisible to others. Also erases smell, so dogs can’t find you.
Weapon: A weapon you can add to your costume. Can stand up to the abuse of superpowered combat. You may choose your weapon from the list. Give it a cool name!
Energy Pills: Medicine that makes you really pumped! This doesn’t heal wounds, so don’t make that mistake. Some side effects may occur from overuse. Ten pills per container.
Rabbit’s Foot: Brings good luck when you’re in big trouble. Whether that saves you or not still depends on you, so don’t rely on it too much.
In total, there were five downloadable items, and all of them were everyday tools from the Magical Kingdom. However, they each came with a price in order to use them. Fav, of course, had proudly announced that these items with irreversible effects would up the intensity of the fighting and cut off any means of escape for the girls.
Cranberry spoke into the device.
“Fav.”
“Yes, yes, master? What is your request, pon?”
The black-and-white sphere with butterfly wings faded in from a corner of the screen.
“Are you sure adding these items won’t ruin our goal of cultivating the strong? Some of these might allow the weaker ones to overcome the stronger ones.”
“If that’s all it takes to kill them, then they weren’t really that strong to begin with, pon.”
Fav did a flip in the air, scattering scales.
“Magical girls aren’t just users of magic, pon. The ones who pass that shallow selection test from the Magical Kingdom aren’t true magical girls at all, pon. They must be heroines, pon. If they die some silly death just because items were added to the game, they’re failures. Just consider them side characters that were supposed to die, pon.”
Inside the screen, Fav’s mouth twisted ever so slightly into what looked like a truly ominous smile.
“Hey, master! Fighting tough opponents is enough for you, right? And you hate a selection test that doesn’t choose the strongest survivors, right? So this is just fine! This sets up the true magical girls to brutally crush the ones who scheme and suck up to survive.”
After finishing his spiel, Fav did another flip and returned to his usual expressionless demeanor.
“That’s about it, pon.”
“I see.”
“Fav is trying to grant your wish to fight at full power, so the least you can do is grant Fav’s wish for a super intense spectacle, pon. That’s our contract, pon.”
“Am I part of this spectacle as well?”
“Maybe.”
Fav smiled, his expression unchanging.
“Are these items… free?”
“Magical Girl Raising Project is always free to play. You will never be charged money, pon.”
“But there are numbers under the names. The bag has a ten, the cloak has a twenty-five, the weapon’s five, the medicine’s three, the rabbit’s foot’s six…”
“You won’t pay money, but Fav never said there wouldn’t be a price, pon.”
“So I do have to pay something?”
“Part of your life, pon. The weapon takes five years, the bag ten. The cloak takes twenty-five years. The stronger a magical item, the greater the price you have to pay to create it. But for girls like you with magic that isn’t suited for fighting, this is a bailout, pon. You’re supposed to use these items to close the gap between you and the others, pon. When things are this dangerous, what’s a bit of your life that you don’t even know you have?”
Snow White leaned against the concrete-block wall and slid down. Maybe it was the dirty alley, devoid of even drunkards and stray dogs, but she felt alone in the world. She’d sought out a place to spend some time by herself, but the solitude was torture. She wiped her sticky, sweaty cheek with the back of her hand. Her skin was pale as a ghost’s, too.
Souta Kishibe’s death had been explained as a traffic accident. Snow White had attended the wake and funeral as Koyuki Himekawa, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at his corpse because it was so mutilated. The car that hit him had been discovered in a parking garage, but it was a stolen vehicle. The police still hadn’t found the driver.
Snow White wiped her eyes. This time, her hand was covered in tears. She’d thought they all dried up after she sobbed her eyes out over La Pucelle’s death, but just remembering her friend made them well and overflow again.
“Sou…”
She remembered the first day they’d talked atop the steel tower. The day she saved her from the candy thieves. The day she swore to be the sword that protected her. The day they shared their magic with each other and pinkie promised to not tell the others. The day she risked her life to save a kid from an oncoming car and later said, embarrassedly, “My body just moved on its own.” The day they celebrated a web post that called her a knight who protected a child. The days of discourse over manga and anime. The days they sat together and watched anime as children.
She recalled how, as Souta, he had looked at her with such jealousy when she proclaimed she’d become a magical girl. How, as La Pucelle, she had proudly shown her that a boy could become a magical girl after all. How, as Souta, he walked to school kicking a soccer ball. How Souta’s mom bawled over losing her son who had just entered middle school…
His warmth as he held her. The heat blooming deep in her chest.
Time seemed to blur. Memory after memory floated through her mind and disappeared. She couldn’t go on like this. It wasn’t right. She knew this, but her heart was frozen in place. It wouldn’t let her move forward.
“Sou… Sou…”
“Cry all you like. No one’s going to pity you, pon.”
Her magical phone had fallen screen-side down, which muffled Fav’s voice more than usual. It sounded as if the creature was somewhere else.
“Do you think if you snivel and whine, someone will come save you, pon? Are you going to let La Pucelle’s sacrifice go to waste, pon?”
The word sacrifice weighed on her back like a cross. They still hadn’t captured the driver that ran over Souta. Was his killer actually a human, though? She knew it was a horrifying thing to
consider, but she couldn’t get it out of her mind.
Could one of her fellows have killed Souta? Was there a magical girl in the city capable of killing others like her? If so, then if she got one of those new items…
“Cheer up—for La Pucelle’s sake, too, pon. Summon some courage and choose an item, pon.”
Snow White shakily reached out for her device and opened up the item selection screen. Listed were five items. Underneath them, the numbers.
“My life…”
Her heart pounded heavily, and her breathing roughened. She exhaled, then inhaled. The sounds of her ragged breaths echoed in the empty alley. The ground shook—or was that just her imagination? Snow White couldn’t tell. If she took an item, she’d lose part of her life. At the least, that would be three years; at the most, twenty-five. What would La Pucelle do? Her fingers shaking, she clicked PURCHASE. The invisibility cloak that took twenty-five years off her life—with that, she could escape any attacker… possibly.
SOLD OUT!
Sold out?
The words on the screen indicated the item was out of stock. No matter which one she clicked, the same message appeared.
“Aw, I told you, pon. The early bird gets the worm, so you should have bought it fast.”
She dropped the magical phone. It bounced and rolled into the steel trash cans behind a restaurant with a clank.
“It’s always first come, first served…”
Whatever Fav was saying, Snow White couldn’t hear it. She just stared dumbly at her empty right hand.
Weapon, invisibility cloak, energy pills.
Together, Swim Swim, Tama, and the Peaky Angels had three items. They’d tried to buy them all, but the rabbit’s foot and four-dimensional bag were already gone.
“We should have looked earlier.” “Don’t say that, sis.”
After hearing from the Peaky Angels about the download items being up for sale, the four had gathered at Ouketsuji. They got Fav to explain the prices of the items, and Swim Swim instantly decided they should purchase them. She instructed Tama to take the weapon and the Peaky Angels to get the energy pills. When the Peaky Angels complained that part of their life span was too expensive, she purchased the invisibility cloak herself.
