by Asari Endou
But despite all this, she had never tried to start a fight with her. The first target she’d chosen to steal candy from was Snow White, not Calamity Mary. Ruler had hated and feared the gunslinger at the same time. Why this was, Swim Swim did not know. The two had become magical girls long before Swim Swim had, so while she could guess what might have happened, she doubted she’d ever truly know. For now, all she knew was that Calamity Mary was scary and nearly untouchable and that Winterprison, who’d gone toe-to-toe with her, was on the same level.
Every magical girl in the city knew how Winterprison had fought Calamity Mary to save Sister Nana. The nun had made sure to brag about Winterprison’s strength in chat after.
Ruler was Swim Swim’s idol, but also someone to surpass.
And Ruler had feared Calamity Mary above all.
The only one to fight on even terms with Calamity Mary was Winterprison—who would be arriving soon.
If she could beat Winterprison, could she beat Calamity Mary? Surely it wasn’t that simple. But possible victory was infinitely better than defeat. Ruler would have thought the same.
Both parties agreed to meet at Ouketsuji. If they didn’t manage to win on their home turf, they’d definitely lose their base. But regardless of the risks, she was set on Ouketsuji. It was easier to set up traps in a familiar place, and they had the land advantage if a battle broke out.
That didn’t mean they needed to do anything fancy, though. Ruler had never been a fan of complicated things and always insisted that plans be as simple as possible.
Swim Swim peered outside through the skylight. Filtered by the glass, the courtyard appeared faded. Something was moving—a bug? An endlessly chirping autumn insect, or a predatory insect eyeing it for a meal? Between Winterprison’s group and hers, which was the predator and which was the prey?
Suddenly the chirping stopped, signaling the arrival of Sister Nana and her companion. Two sets of footsteps creaked across the floorboards in the silent temple. The sound of a door opening followed the creaking, and the two faces appeared in the entrance. Swim Swim’s eyebrow rose slightly. Sister Nana was in front. She wasn’t supposed to be there.
“It is good to see you again, Swim Swim. Thank you for your candy donation before.”
Silently, Swim Swim stood up. She could sense tension from behind Sister Nana—or, more accurately, from the person behind her. Sister Nana was smiling pleasantly, not perturbed in the slightest.
“Snow White and Hardgore Alice just recently agreed to join us.”
Swim Swim took a step forward. Winterprison stayed still. Another step. And another. Finally, Winterprison moved protectively in front of Sister Nana. There. Perfect.
“Go.”
As Swim Swim gave the signal, Sister Nana screamed from behind Winterprison. Still wary of Swim Swim, Winterprison turned around, and her face froze in horror. Sister Nana shakily pointed at Sister Nana—there were two of them now. The other nun pushed past the first and clung to Winterprison. Dumbfounded and unable to process what was going on, Winterprison took her in her arms—and received a dagger to the chest.
Even with a dagger embedded in her, Winterprison remained calm.
There were two Sister Nanas. One was screaming, the other grinning; one was crying, the other holding a bloody dagger. The Sister Nana with the weapon kicked Winterprison and backed off. Her body began warping. It bent, twisted, stretched, shrunk, and changed color, and after numerous transformations, the second Sister Nana became two angels. They smiled maliciously, not even trying to hide their excitment. That was when she understood how there had been two Sister Nanas, and how that tiny dagger had pierced her sturdy, muscular body.
Winterprison smiled back. Blood running from her mouth, she smiled. Her enemies were fools. Why had they changed back? If they had stayed as Sister Nana, she never could have attacked, even if she knew it was a fake.
One of them had transformed into the magic dagger that now pierced Winterprison’s heart. Blood gushed from her chest. She couldn’t breathe. Her consciousness dimmed. But she wouldn’t die for a few more seconds. She couldn’t die just yet.
“Run!” she shouted at Sister Nana, then activated her magic. Walls of earth shot up, breaking through the floorboards—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Stirring up clouds of dirt, the barriers struck the ceiling and trapped the angels. It was a prison.
Winterprison closed the gap in one stride. Balling her left fist hard, she drove her hand into the earthen walls and shattered them, crushing one little angel within.
One angel left: the one who had transformed into the dagger.
Winterprison chopped at her, attempting to rip through her neck with her bare right hand. Unfortunately, the blood spray from her first attack got in her eye, and as the blood loss reached a critical level, she just barely missed the timing. Her target inside the prison ducked, and Winterprison chopped through the upper half of the earthen walls. She tried to attack again, but a hole suddenly opened up beneath her and threw off her balance. Swim Swim attacked, chopping off her right arm.
Winterprison watched her limb arc through the air. She remembered how she’d stroked Sister Nana’s hair with that hand, those fingers.
She couldn’t sense Sister Nana nearby. Fortunately, she seemed to have escaped. Winterprison relaxed. Please, please be safe, she prayed, before dropping to her knees and lowering her head.
After Minael had transformed into a dagger, Yunael had held her and hid under the invisibility cloak. She waited until Sister Nana arrived, then shape-shifted into her. With the real thing right in front of her, her disguise was perfect. Then she’d thrown off the invisibility cloak and shown herself to Winterprison.
The events with Calamity Mary had suggested Winterprison would protect Sister Nana no matter what. But if she suddenly had two people to protect, and one even attacked her, surely Winterprison would be too confused to react.
And up until the stabbing, things had worked out perfectly. But then Yunael lost her life in the counterattack, and Sister Nana ran away so quickly, no one spotted her. It was hardly a success.
Minael wailed and clung to the body of a girl about university age. This was Yunael’s real form. Tama sobbed next to her, too.
“Yuna… Yuna saved me in the end, didn’t she?”
“Mm-hmm. Yeah.”
“Yuna… Yuna…”
“Mm…”
Swim Swim’s powerlessness weighed painfully on her shoulders. Ruler would have done better. Swim Swim still couldn’t measure up. She had to learn from this mistake for next time.
Alcohol didn’t serve as a cure-all for long. For one, it was expensive. Two, there were the hangovers. Three, her husband’s complaints. Thanks to that, alcohol never really became that magic medicine.
Eventually, her daughter became an outlet for her frustrations. Under the pretext of “discipline,” she kicked her, beat her, burned her with cigarettes, and starved her. When she was drunk, the abuse became a wonderful source of stress relief, until her worthless husband ran away with the victim.
She’d enjoyed bullying her daughter because of her own weakness. The weak could only bully the weaker, after all, and her daughter sufficed for that. But it was a stopgap for what she really wanted. Her true wish was to torment someone stronger. The desperate pleas of a swaggering gangster gratified her in a way her daughter never could have.
The strong, the self-important, the beautiful, the clever, the confident—the expressions of the esteemed when they fell to their knees at unstoppable violence! With pleasure like that, she’d never need to touch alcohol again.
A small compact rested on her ebony desk. The little mirror reflected a woman in her thirties, nearly forty. She was the definition of a middle-aged woman past her prime. A wide smile spread across her face.
She put her hands to her cheeks and shouted, “Calamity Miracle Kuru Kururin! Transform into the magical gunslinger, Calamity Mary!”
Gone was the tired woman in th
e mirror. Now she had a holster strapped to her left thigh, a sheriff’s badge on her breast, a tiny mole under her left eye, thick blond hair extending down to her hips from underneath her ten-gallon hat, voluptuous breasts barely covered by a bikini-style top, a miniskirt exposing practically everything, soft thighs, long legs, and spurred cowboy boots. Popping her shapely hips to one side, she struck a pose. In the mirror now was a beautiful creature.
There was no need to chant or pose while transforming, but in all the anime Calamity Mary had watched as a child, none of the girls could transform without it. Thus, she should do the same. There was no deeper meaning behind it.
Calamity Mary understood her role. She was happy with it. It meant she could shame magical girls, the strongest and most honorable creatures in existence, and crush them underfoot. To her gun belt she attached the four-dimensional bag, containing all kinds of important tools.
Ten minutes had passed since she left the club. She’d ordered Fav to send for Ripple, then made her way to Ripple’s designated neighborhood, Nakayado, to meet her. It was currently 10:45 PM. It was almost time.
Japan National Route X, which the locals called “High Road,” passed through Nakayado. Like its nickname indicated, the road stood thirty feet above the ground. Traffic law enforcement here was relatively lenient for a public highway, and this, combined with the sparse traffic outside of the New Year’s rush, meant that vehicles often raced by at speeds far above the speed limit.
From her perch atop the tallest hotel in the city, the Hotel Priestess, Calamity Mary watched the road. The cold wind whipped around her cheeks, threatening to blow away her ten-gallon hat, so she pulled it down tighter. Strong winds made sniping difficult, but with Calamity Mary’s magic, a regular weapon became an enchanted weapon. Its power, bullet speed, accuracy, and range were all optimal. No amount of wind would matter. The guns also became easier to handle and maintain. Calamity Mary withdrew one of them from her four-dimensional bag.
It was the Dragunov, a sniper rifle developed by Soviet Russia. While its slim design made it easier to transport, the extra kick made it more difficult to actually use. But none of this mattered to someone with her powers. Calamity Mary held the rifle lazily and squeezed the trigger. With semi-auto mode off, she fired bullet after bullet in rapid succession, but each one found its mark in a car. The Dragunov, designed for urban warfare, was sold for its ability for quick fire.
An explosion, then a fiery plume. One by one, she destroyed the cars on High Road. A flaming tire rolled across the road. When the vehicles erupted into flames, the ones behind them slammed into the blazing wreckage, and so did the ones behind them. The Dragunov picked off the vehicles lucky enough to escape the pileup. The night road was as bright as day.
One man managed to stop his car and jump out in a panic, and she shot him for sport. She thought his guts would explode all over the asphalt, but the truth was far harsher. He didn’t just explode—he was erased. Everything above the kneecaps gone without a trace.
A sniper rifle was too powerful as an antipersonnel weapon. It was no fun. Cars were better game than people.
And magical girls were even better.
If she took Ripple on directly, Top Speed would interfere. And if Top Speed fled at full speed, Mary would have no way to catch up. If she wanted to fight Ripple, she had to give her a reason. A noble do-gooder would show up to defeat the evil woman destroying her city and its innocent civilians.
Angering Ripple also made her happy. Two birds, one stone. And after she’d slaughtered Ripple, the town would be crawling with people looking for help—the perfect chance to earn candy. Calamity Mary pulled the trigger until the magazine was empty, destroying everything on the highway.
This was all because of one mistake. If Ripple had just bowed her head the first time they’d met, she would have killed her and that would have been the end of it. But she hadn’t, and now Calamity Mary was obsessed. It was all Ripple’s fault.
Calamity Mary could not abide those who did not fear her.
CHAPTER 6
MAGICAL CANNON GIRL
A magical phone displayed the flaming highway.
“This is bad… We have to help!”
“I’ll follow you, Snow White.”
“R-right! Let’s go together!”
A magical phone displayed the flaming highway.
“Wh-wh-what do we do? We have to help!”
“Let the other magical girls handle this.”
“Huh? But…”
“We’ll attack anyone who tries to help. Tama, Minael, hurry and get ready.”
“Huh? Huh? Huh?”
A magical phone displayed the flaming highway.
“What’s this? Master, you’re not going, pon? You should be able to have lots of fun if you do, pon.”
“Perhaps.”
“You’re hard to understand, pon.”
“That’s enough of that. More importantly, is it true that Winterprison is dead? Who killed her?”
“You should probably consider your future and not some dead rival, pon.”
“I just want to know.”
The moment she spotted the figure aiming a gun at the highway, her brain exploded with rage. Springing off the broomstick, she dived. Top Speed shouted something, but she couldn’t hear it.
“Took you long enough, little girl.”
Discarding the rifle, Calamity Mary pulled the pistol from her hip holster and aimed at Ripple as she landed. Silhouetted against the flames of the highway, her eyes were unreadable in the shadows, but her mouth was another story. White teeth flashed in the darkness.
A bullet shot from the pistol. Holding her blade in typical ninja fashion, Ripple deflected it into the sky. Calamity Mary fired again, but she repelled that as well. Boiling rage had completely replaced her fear of the firearm.
Calamity Mary pulled out another pistol with her left hand. With dual weapons, she unleashed a barrage of bullets. They all zipped past Ripple—or maybe it was more accurate to say she dodged them. The slugs were heavy and fast, but she could read their trajectory. And in her hands, a sword was faster.
Tossing away her pistols, Calamity Mary stuck her hand into the bag hanging from her hip. Ripple dashed forward and slashed as she passed, aiming for the carotid artery.
Sparks flew. Her blade screeched against something steel. Ripple turned around and adjusted her stance. Underneath her armpit, Calamity Mary was holding an automatic rifle about a yard long with a foot-long bayonet.
That was what her blade had struck.
“I guess a Tokarev isn’t enough to take out a little girl of your caliber.”
Ripple leaped and slashed at her side, but the bayonet rebuffed her blade again. She’d been able to cut through road signs and masses of concrete with no problem, but Calamity Mary’s bayonet was a different story. Was she also reinforcing it with magic?
So what if she is?
Tensing her legs, Ripple swung at her torso with all the speed she could muster. Blocked. She shifted her weight and followed up with a stab. Blocked again. Jumping back, she threw three shuriken, but the bayonet denied them all. She feinted to the side and slipped in close to her opponent’s breast. The moment she tried to stab between her ribs, she felt intense heat on her face and sailed backward. The butt of the automatic rifle had connected with her face. She rolled to avoid the subsequent fire and, blood streaming from her nose, adjusted her stance again to close the gap quickly.
It was about thirty feet to her target. She traced an arc to the right. One, two, three steps—then a distinctive click came from below. Ripple froze. Upon close inspection, the concrete block under her foot was slightly sunken. As she realized exactly what she’d stepped on, a chill ran up her spine.
“Ha-ha-ha… Hya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Calamity Mary burst into laughter.
“Go ahead and move your foot, little girl! You’ll be in everyone’s way if you stand there forever! Die and take the land mine with you!”
The automatic rifle spit a burst of flame. Ripple couldn’t lift her right foot or the mine would explode. No normal antipersonnel weapon could hurt a magical girl, but this was a magical trap set by Calamity Mary.
Ripple could no longer move, but bullets rushed at her just the same. She drew the weapon hidden up her sleeve—a ninja blade half the size of her regular one, about the size of a short samurai sword but much better suited to blocking than a full-length blade. Using both swords, she deflected the hail of bullets. Eventually, the automatic rifle ran out of ammo before it could fatally wound her. Calamity Mary pulled the trigger, but only clicks came out.
She chucked the automatic rifle aside.
“Do not go against me.”
She shoved her hand into the bag again and pulled out eight items.
“Do not give me trouble.”
Attached to each dark green spheroid was a pin. Calamity Mary hooked her finger around it, pulled, and tossed the object at Ripple.
“Do not piss me off.”
Calamity Mary flipped over the railing. A fall from the roof of a building was no problem for a magical girl. But for Ripple, there was no escape. If she moved her foot the mine would go off, but if she waited the grenades would explode.
The air boomed.
Something slammed into her, and suddenly she was being pulled through the air. The impact to her side was enough to break her hip, or so it felt. Flames licked at her hair, singeing the ends. Ripple soared through the sky, leaving behind eight grenades and one land mine.
“Enough with the crazy stunts!”
Ripple twisted herself to see the person holding her up, and there was Top Speed, angrier than a hornet’s nest.
