by Asari Endou
She was disappointed in her comrades who’d ignored people in need to fight instead, but she despaired that some had purposefully hurt and killed civilians.
And now they needed to reduce their numbers to four, not eight.
After letting her emotions take over and screaming at Fav, there was nothing left in her. Not anger, not fear. Nothing. Only weariness and exhaustion.
She’d spent her whole life thinking magical girls were supposed to help people in need, and Snow White’s magic was for this express purpose. But maybe she was the crazy one, not everyone else. La Pucelle wasn’t there anymore to cheer her up and tell her that wasn’t true. Sister Nana and Winterprison had suggested they band together to overcome the danger, but they were gone, too. It was hilarious, really—she was like a character in an action movie trying to change it into a romcom on her own.
“I don’t want to do anything…”
The sentiment bubbled up from deep, deep within her heart. She was tired. She’d stopped checking the aggregate sites for magical-girl sightings, grinning widely at her own section. She had missed just one day at first, which became three, until finally she had stopped altogether for who knows how long.
“I don’t have to do anything, do I?” she asked, hoping to hear some kind words.
“Not true,” came the swift denial.
“There’s nothing I can do.”
“Not true.”
“There’s nothing I want to do.”
“Not true.”
“Hey.”
“Not true.”
Snow White’s toe kicked the pebble she’d been staring at. The flat little stone flew straight through the air and bounced off a utility pole.
“I don’t want to do anything anymore!” Snow White screamed. Secretly, she was surprised she had the energy to scream. She stood and seized Hardgore Alice, sitting next to her, by the collar, hauling her up.
“There are no magical girls in this town anymore! I! Don’t! Want! To! Do! Any! More!”
Hardgore Alice’s apparent indifference to what had happened infuriated her. Her eyes were dead and colorless. Dark bags drooped beneath them. Her back was straight because Snow White was holding her up, but other than that she was the exact same as when they’d first met.
So much had happened. Was she not sad or depressed at all? Snow White was mad at her, but she was also angry with herself for yelling at her.
“There are still magical girls in this town.”
“No, there aren’t. They’re all gone.”
“Not true. They’re still here.”
“They’re gone.”
“Not true.”
“They’re gone!”
Snow White roughly let go, and Alice fell back onto the stone stairs. Snow White continued to shout.
“La Pucelle, Sister Nana, and Winterprison are gone! There are no magical girls left in this town! Just leave me alone!”
She took the rabbit’s foot from her pocket and hurled it at Hardgore Alice, then turned and ran. She could sense a presence chasing after her, but she shouted, “Don’t follow me!” and it disappeared. Alone, Snow White ran off into the darkness.
Ako Hatoda woke to rays of sunlight peeking in through a gap in the curtains and chirping swallows. Sitting up in bed, she reached next to her pillow for the white rabbit but came up empty. Ako was often careless with it, so it constantly went missing. Thinking she would look for it later, she decided to have breakfast.
Her uncle worked the night shift, so he was asleep. Her aunt had already eaten breakfast and headed out for the day. Ako spread some butter on her bread, then topped it with sweet red bean jam. She added ketchup to her fried egg and soy sauce to her cabbage salad. The bottle got jammed, so she opened the hole with a toothpick. She’d packed her schoolbag the night before, so it was ready. Her school uniform was on a hanger hooked on the wall. She checked the mirror. Her complexion was bad, but she seemed the same as ever. Picking a piece of cabbage off her cheek, she put it in her mouth.
Everything was normal as she shuffled into the crowd of students heading to school. Without any attempt to start conversation or even say hello, she blended into the mob.
Snow White had flung the rabbit’s foot at her, saying to leave her alone. But she couldn’t. Unlike Hardgore Alice, the other girl would easily die from being beheaded or impaled. Alice needed to be by Snow White’s side and protect her. If not, Snow White needed to at least hold on to the rabbit’s foot for emergencies.
She could ask Fav to contact her, but Snow White would probably ignore her. In that case, she needed to look for places to find her that night. She hung her head as she walked and thought, but at the sound of her name she looked up. That moment, she realized the name she’d heard was not Ako, but Hardgore Alice.
A few yards in front of her stood an oddly dressed figure. Now that Ako had reacted, the figure slowly approached. She didn’t seem to be heading to school or work, and she stood out in the crowd. From the shadow of her hood, she watched Ako. She was coming closer. Beneath the coat was… a swimsuit? It seemed familiar.
Her eyes reminded Ako of her father’s. The one time she’d gone to visit him in prison, he’d said nothing except “Don’t ever come back,” and then he’d returned to his cell. This girl’s glittering eyes were the same. The same as the ones she saw in the mirror, so perfectly like her father’s. They were the eyes of a killer.
She panicked. A murderer in a white school swimsuit and coat was walking toward her. There were so many people nearby. If she transformed, the other students from Ako’s school would learn who she really was, and she’d lose her right to be a magical girl. In other words, she’d die. She had to find somewhere private to transform.
Ako did an about-face and took a step, searching for a secluded place, when something bumped into her from behind and knocked her off balance. There was nothing to grab on to, and she clawed at the air as she pitched forward and tumbled across the ground. She heard a scream. Her back burned. She hadn’t been pushed—she’d been stabbed. Blood gushed from a deep wound. Was she going to die? She needed to get away from the crowd, and fast. There she could transform into Hardgore Alice, and she would heal in no time.
Crawling across the asphalt, she made it a full body length before her arms stopped working. She couldn’t transform. If that was the case, then she at least needed to find Snow White.
The rabbit’s foot in her hand trembled slightly.
Koyuki had just gotten up for the day when a faint voice reached her ears. She couldn’t hear the cries for help without transforming into Snow White—that rule had never been broken before. Yet now she heard a voice.
It was small and weak, like it would disappear at any moment.
Still in the middle of changing, Koyuki raised her head and strained her ears. The words she’d shouted the day before haunted her. There are no more magical girls in this town. La Pucelle, Sister Nana, and Winterprison were all gone. Snow White had lost all hope for her fellow heroines.
Koyuki bit her lip. The voice was fading. Tossing aside the scarf she was holding, she leaped out the window, transformed into Snow White, and threaded her way through the mass of students making their way to school. She ignored the screams and shouts, focusing only on the direction of the voice. Kicking off the ground, she dashed up a utility pole and looked down from the power lines. A crowd was gathering—that must be it.
She ran across the wires and jumped down. A circle had formed in the crowd, and no one attempted to approach the girl lying in the center. She could hear the girl’s voice.
Snow White…
She rushed over. The crowd was buzzing with excitement, but the only voice Snow White could hear was the girl’s. It was small and weak, about to vanish, but still she heard it clearly.
As she approached, something seemed off to Snow White. How did this person know her name? Why was she calling her? All became clear a moment later.
Seeing the girl in white, the girl on the groun
d weakly extended her right hand. In it was a white ball of fluff.
I wanted to cheer you up.
If you’re here…
If the one who saved me is here…
Then this town will always have one magical girl in it.
That’s what I wanted to say.
But you ran off, and I couldn’t…
So now…
Snow White held the girl’s hand in both of hers. She was cold as death.
Snow White…
Please, at least take this…rabbit’s foot…
The voice faded away.
Blood stained the girl’s uniform, but her face was clean save for a few flecks of blood. Snow White remembered her. She was the middle schooler who’d lost her house key that night months ago.
She gripped her hand tightly.
She’d learned her lesson after the mistake with Winterprison.
The Peaky Angels had fatally injured her, but they lost Yunael in the counterattack. All because they had assumed she was dead and revealed themselves.
You couldn’t let your guard down for a second—disguised, closing in, or stabbing. Gritting her teeth, Minael shared what she’d learned from Yunael’s death.
After snatching the invisibility cloak from Tama during the battle at National Route X, Minael had used it to replace the white rabbit plush Hardgore Alice always carried around. After she tossed the cloak over the plush in the middle of the road, she’d transformed and swapped places. Hardgore Alice had picked her up and brought her home, and that was how Minael learned her true identity and address.
She carefully considered when they should strike. She’d learned from her mistake—she could only attack when there would be no risk of counterattack. Somewhere like in the middle of a giant crowd, where her target would be unable to transform or risk exposing herself.
Under her breath, Minael muttered over and over, “We should have done this in the first place. Then Yunael wouldn’t have had to die.”
CHAPTER 8
THE DEMONIC GIRL
Two days had passed since Hardgore Alice’s death.
The Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, had accepted their offer to meet, but her tone had been so flippant that Swim Swim half suspected a trap. But if they could lay an ambush without being caught in one themselves, there was nothing to worry about.
Each of them received one energy pill. The effects only lasted for thirty minutes, so they would wait for Swim Swim’s command before taking their pills and attacking Cranberry.
The meeting would take place on N City’s second-tallest mountain after Mount Takanami, Mount Funaga. The entrance was a short ways from Koujimadai Station, following the road counterclockwise and up a hill. Unlike on Mount Takanami, there were no abandoned structures from failed development projects. There was equipment to turn it into a skiing area, and in the winter tourists from all over came to ski and snowboard.
But that was the mountain’s southern side. On the northern side, there was no such thing as a tourism season. Trees and grass grew wild, untouched by man. The unpaved mountain road and various animal trails formed the only paths, such as they were. For a human, climbing the steep northern side required specialized knowledge. But for a magical girl, the ascent was a breeze.
Swim Swim’s chosen meeting spot was a mountain cabin halfway up Mount Funaga. Thanks to a landslide after a great storm some years ago, the cabin was now half-buried in earth. No one would think to come here, no matter how eccentric or crazy they might be.
Minael and Tama moved to their places while Swim Swim waited for Cranberry inside the cabin alone. She could tell Minael was emotionally unstable, which was making Tama uneasy, too. But a leader must remain calm, and so Swim Swim was unaffected. She would need to figure out what to do if the others messed up their parts of the plan.
It was already late at night. From inside the cabin, she could hear the occasional hooting of owls and the endless buzzing of insects. Tired of the moldy air inside the broken-down cabin, she stuck her head out and checked the area, but all she could see were trees and flowering plants shivering in the wind.
To her powerful eyes, the mountainside at night was as clear as day. But it smelled damp compared to when they’d come during the day to scope out the place. Maybe the smell was different at night, or maybe rain clouds were approaching. Swim Swim pulled her head back in and waited some more. In a corner of the cabin was a spiderweb with no spider. Maybe it had gotten tired of waiting and moved on.
Her magical phone rang with an incoming call. She’s almost here.
Cranberry would be there soon, and then they would take her out three-on-one. Soon. Until then, she could only wait. Swim Swim swallowed the energy medicine. The pill was large, but it went down easily. She could feel power welling within her.
What’s taking so long? Did she need to wait even more? At that moment, she heard what sounded like a startled shriek, or a dog being kicked. It was Tama.
It had already begun. Swim Swim slipped into the ground with a soft splash.
Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, had excellent hearing far surpassing that of the average magical girl. She’d noticed the flapping of angels’ wings before she even set foot on the mountain, and as she hiked upward, the footsteps, breathing, and rustling coming from her invisible stalker were all too obvious. The invisibility cloak was a powerful item, but it had many weaknesses. If the wearer had any personal troubles, Snow White could hear them, and it was useless against someone like Cranberry, who could track an opponent just by sound.
She picked up a fist-sized rock from the ground, rolled it around in her fingers, tossed it up and caught it about two times, then flung it at her stalker. The rock bounced off what was supposedly air, eliciting a doglike yelp. Something swiped at the ground, opening a hole a few feet wide. The magical girl fled into this endlessly extending tunnel.
Cranberry had thrown with the intent to kill, but it seemed this one was strong enough to escape with her life. She had most likely blocked it with her arm, but she still must have sustained heavy damage and lost her desire to fight. That would explain why she’d fled.
Creating a yard-wide hole and escaping underground—that was Tama’s handiwork. Cranberry knew the extent of her abilities. Normally, her reflexes wouldn’t be enough to react to a shot from Cranberry. Her reaction speed was being abnormally enhanced. Clearly, she was under the effects of the energy pills.
Cranberry could hear her traveling through the ground but made no attempt to follow. She had bigger fish to fry than a beaten dog. The flapping wings above her were gone, too. She proceeded cautiously, taking care to make her gait natural so she didn’t seem wary. She avoided the great moss-covered trees, crushed the saplings under her feet, and climbed up the ivy on the cliffs. She was getting close. Her heart pounded with just the right level of tension. She’d need to account for the energy pill when attacking. Wading casually through the underbrush, she randomly plunged her right hand into a human-sized boulder, lifted it, then slammed it against the ground.
The pulse she’d heard from within the boulder stopped. The boulder faded, transforming into an angel with a great hole in her chest, then a young girl. Not a bad idea to transform into an object to ambush people, but it was pointless against Cranberry.
Winterprison’s killers were such petty creatures, she thought with a sigh.
Five minutes after leaving the cabin, Swim Swim ran into Tama as she was escaping underground.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! She just… she just suddenly threw this rock, and my arm… my arm…”
Now was not the time to listen and sympathize. Ordering Tama to follow behind her, Swim Swim poked her head out of the ground and carefully searched for the enemy. Minael could be fighting at that very moment. If they could find wherever that was, they could trap Cranberry in a pincer attack.
It wasn’t long before she found what looked like the remains of a fight. Several small trees were broken—more like they’d been trample
d underfoot than hit in an attack. In other words, their enemy had almost definitely gone this way. As she turned to follow the trail, the ground shook.
What happened?
She ran, relying on sound to guide her, and came upon the corpse of a young girl. She looked just like Yunael after she’d detransformed, and it didn’t take long for Swim Swim to piece together the situation. Tama dropped to her knees, holding her head, but Swim Swim grabbed her and forced her up. They couldn’t grieve just yet.
Ruler would have yelled at her a bit, too. Swim Swim had opened her mouth to speak when she noticed a silhouette among the trees ten feet behind Tama. Colorful flowers not native to this area covered her. No, she was the Musician of the Forest, so that wasn’t strange. Swim Swim leaned close to Tama’s ear and spoke softly.
“Cranberry is behind you. Let’s attack her from both sides.”
She slipped beneath the ground.
Swim Swim was gone before Cranberry could attack. A wise choice. So far she’d killed three people, far and away the best score among the candidates. Plus, her magic was top-tier compared to the others’. Her ability to stay calm and efficient was also a good thing. She’d had an inkling before the game began that Swim Swim might be the last one alive.
Cranberry’s greatest wish was to struggle and suffer against strong opponents, yet still manage to bring them to their knees. Victory would be hers, though just barely. Eliminating the powerful was in direct conflict with her goal of discovering the strongest candidate, but it was their fault for being so foolish as to challenge her without even realizing they were outmatched. If they couldn’t figure out when someone could beat them, then the fools weren’t worthy of being chosen.
Cranberry smiled bitterly.
No magical girl in N City could take her down in a fight to the death. Obviously, that included Swim Swim as well. While at first glance her ability to pass through matter seemed insurmountable, it did indeed have a weak point. Some things she couldn’t pass through.
