by Asari Endou
Swim Swim was now a master. She didn’t know exactly what that meant, though. Fav had given her a lot of documents filled with words she still didn’t know how to read, so she’d asked him to write out how to pronounce them and left it at that.
She had become a leader of all magical girls, just like Ruler had wanted to be. But she’d lost the Peaky Angels and Tama in the process. Ruler would have been able to become a master with everyone still alive.
Swim Swim looked up at the sky. The rain was about to get worse.
When Fav had told her Ripple wanted to meet, Swim Swim had accepted easily. Ruler had always said that a leader was not a leader without followers. They didn’t have to kill each other anymore, and she needed followers.
Footsteps echoed through the rain droplets, rhythmic splashes of water. Whoever it was, she was at the entrance about one hundred yards away. She was like shadow—black clothes, black hair, black eyes.
Fifty yards. She seemed familiar. Swim Swim had seen her somewhere before.
Twenty. She was wearing a coat.
Ten. The wind whipped at the coat. Something was written on the back. The kanji characters were too difficult to read.
Five. She stopped. The light in her almond eyes was sharp enough to cut her when she met her gaze. Swim Swim remembered who she was. She flicked a pill into the air with her thumb, caught it in her mouth, and swallowed.
She didn’t intend to waste time. The moment Ripple attacked, she glimpsed Swim Swim’s magic. Everything passed through her, like a blade slicing through air. The first time they’d fought, she’d sunk into the building like it was made of water. She could pass through matter, so even if there was a time limit to her magic, Swim Swim could still escape easily.
There was only one way for Ripple to counter her.
Swim Swim produced her enormous weapon and slashed. Ripple attempted to dodge by spinning a half step to the right, but failed. Swim Swim’s blade was faster and stronger than she’d expected. She was a different beast from when they’d fought atop the hotel. The left side of the ninja’s face burned, and her vision turned red.
Ripple clicked her tongue. Stripping off Top Speed’s coat, she threw it over Swim Swim. The coat met no resistance and simply fell to the pavement. By the time she realized Swim Swim had sunk into the ground, she could feel a thirst for her blood behind her.
She twisted around and sensed a rush of air coming at her—a blade. She glimpsed Swim Swim as something translucent to her left attempted to chop her in half. The weapon was almost invisible—there was no dodging it. Instinctively, she pulled back her arm. Something yanked at her skin, and pain soon followed. The wound was deep. But that had been her goal—she’d created her own opening.
Ripple kicked at Swim Swim’s head, but not to damage her. Covering the other girl’s eyes with the sole of her foot, she reached into the four-dimensional bag hanging from her hip—Calamity Mary’s item.
Swim Swim couldn’t pass through everything. According to Fav, there were some things she was weak against, like light and sound. Ripple’s only choice was to take the mascot’s advice.
With her magic, the weapons she threw always hit their mark. Even with a deep wound in one arm and a crushed eye, as long as she threw them, they’d land. She pulled the pin and gently tossed the stun grenade. It seemed to fly through the air in slow motion. Her ability made sure it hit the target, and it slid into her body.
The stun grenade was a specialized hand grenade for situations where casualties were not an option. It was a nonlethal weapon to render targets helpless with the intense light and sound it emitted when detonating. The temporary loss of sight and hearing caused its victims to panic and freeze. This was one of Calamity Mary’s weapons, and though she was dead, it was still boosted with her magic.
Even with Swim Swim to cover the explosion, Ripple was so close that the impact nearly knocked her out.
The sound of the rain was gone. The world spun, and her feet felt unstable. There was a terrible ringing in her ears, and her vision was completely black. She almost fainted. But this was nothing compared to what Swim Swim was experiencing. Once she’d passed out, her magic would have no effect, and she’d lose her invincibility.
She focused her screaming senses to find Swim Swim—and felt a presence. Though she couldn’t find her with light or sound, instinct served just as well. She raised her sword and hurled it.
It connected. She heard something collapse into a puddle and a violent, continuous spray. A large amount of liquid splashed against her. Blood, possibly. The rain washed away the warm mystery liquid.
It was finished. She’d finished it.
What would Top Speed say? She’d probably be mad.
Ripple was glad she got to meet Snow White. She’d been the kind of magical girl who lived to protect others—the kind Ripple had wanted to be. If she got another chance, she wouldn’t click her tongue. She’d be a proper hero.
The energy from the blast made her stumble back a few steps. She tripped on the curb and fell into the bushes. The bleeding was heavier than she’d first thought. She needed to rest. The rain began falling harder, and the cold droplets pelted her body.
Her consciousness dimmed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Snow White crying. As far as visions on your deathbed went, this was pathetic. Ripple tsked, then closed her eyes.
She’d been too late. Snow White sank to her knees in the middle of a puddle.
To one side was a girl who looked to be in early elementary school, skewered by a Japanese sword. It ran through her back, out of her chest, and into the pavement. The girl was, without question, dead. A cross between a pole arm and a hatchet lay nearby, and farther away was a magical phone. This device was double the size of Snow White’s.
On the other side, Ripple lay in a bed of flowers. Strands of skin and muscle barely held her right arm together, and the pool of blood flowing onto the pavement from her body was as big as the one from the skewered girl. It gushed out like a red river, slowly thinning as the rain came down.
“Congratulations.”
Head bowed, Snow White ground her teeth until the voice made her look up. The oversized magical phone projected a holographic image into the air.
“Swim Swim and Ripple are gone, leaving only you, pon. Snow White, you are officially the winner, pon. Boy, to win without ever dirtying your own hands? Should have expected as much from you, pon.”
Fav’s tone was brighter than ever before.
“Things would get a little inconvenient for Fav without a master, pon.”
“I won’t…”
“Hmm?”
“I won’t become a master.”
“Why?”
Snow White stood, letting the rain and tears flow down her face. Silently, she approached the image.
“I can hear you… You said if I don’t become a master, you’ll be in trouble.”
“Well, in a sense, yes, pon. But—”
The sound of splitting pavement cut off Fav’s speech. Snow White stomped on the magical phone, breaking the surface beneath it. She didn’t stop, driving the device into the concrete.
Wham! Wham! Wham! The smashing sounded through the rain.
“What are you doing?”
“I can hear your voice…”
“Huh?”
“You’re saying you’ll be in trouble if this master phone is destroyed…”
“Oh, that explains it.”
Fav snorted.
“Right, you can hear the voices of those in trouble. Seriously, you’re wasting your time.”
Snow White retrieved the device from the hole in the ground and slammed it against the asphalt. It bounced thirty feet into the air, then as it fell, she smashed it into the ground again. She threw it, kicked it, wailed on it, bashed it, ground it underfoot.
“It’s seriously no use, pon. The master phone is built tough, pon. It’s not like the cheap knockoffs you all use. This is a super version people in the Magical Kingdom
use every day. You’re not nearly strong enough, Snow White.”
Snow White panted with effort. Her target, however, was unharmed.
“Personally, Fav would like to be on better terms with you. So go ahead and hit the phone all you like. Once you’re done, we can talk. Okay?”
Snow White sank to her knees before the device. She beat it relentlessly—left fist, right fist, over and over and over and over. Her knuckles split and blood covered her fists, but still she continued.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! When will you learn that it’s pointless?”
She didn’t care. She just needed to destroy this thing, no matter what. She ripped up a piece of pavement and bashed on it. She hurled a bench at it. Not even a piece of the stone around the flower bed had any effect. Did she have anything that would help? A flower hairpiece, a broken magical phone, an armband—nothing. She dug through her pockets and brushed against something soft. Pulling it out, she saw that it was the rabbit’s foot.
“Magical girls have a bad habit of thinking they can solve anything and everything, pon. If La Pucelle and Hardgore Alice had realized that, they wouldn’t have died like dogs. Even Top Speed, after all she did to survive, just died like a fool—”
“Shut up…”
Neither Snow White nor Fav had spoken. A shadow fell at Snow White’s feet. She looked up to see a wounded girl, ready to collapse at any second, leaning on a staff of some kind.
“Ripple? You’re alive, pon?”
“Don’t laugh at Top Speed…”
Ripple shakily raised her support—not a staff, but the weapon that had been lying on the ground earlier. The pole arm–hatchet combo. The projected image flickered. Fav flapped his wing faster, scattering more scales than before. Snow White could hear his innermost thoughts.
The weapon Swim Swim was using…
From the Magical Kingdom…
That could be bad…
Really bad…
Gotta talk Ripple out of this somehow…
“Hold on, Ripple. You’re mistaken, pon. Fav isn’t making fun of Top Speed, pon. Fav respects all magical girls, pon. Maybe it seemed like Fav was picking on you, but it was all under Cranberry’s orders, pon. She threatened Fav into helping her and made Fav do all the dirty work, pon. It was all her orders; Fav got these abilities to stop rampaging magical girls, but she used them to break the rules—”
“Don’t listen to him!”
Snow White yelled as Ripple stepped back and swung.
EPILOGUE
Students on the way home from school packed into the fast-food joint. Among the crowd, two high school girls sat across from each other. One rested her chin on her hands, apparently bored, while the other swiped through her smartphone with practiced hands.
“It’s tomorrow, isn’t it?”
“You mean when Koyuki comes back?”
“Yeah.”
“According to her e-mails, it’s tomorrow.”
“It’s been two weeks since she left that letter and disappeared. Back in middle school, I never expected her to run away from home. She didn’t seem like the type.”
“Yeah, I totally agree, Yocchan. And she got worse when we started high school… Well, not really. But she got kinda crazy.”
“Her parents were so worried… Like, they were just glad she came home. Uh, what are you doing?”
“Reading up on magical-girl sightings.”
“Suuumiii, are you still going on about that?”
“Look, I know you don’t see them as much anymore, but they’re still there. Koyuki loved them, too, remember? So I was going to get all the sightings for when she comes back.”
“Don’t give me that. That… what was it, Magical Girl Raising Project? That game had to shut down because of some major bug. It was all over the news when their stock plummeted. Magical girls are, like, done.”
“They’re not ‘done,’ stupid! There are still sightings! See? Right here. This one-eyed, one-armed girl in black saved someone.”
“She looks more like the grim reaper.”
“And there was that thing in the Middle East.”
“Oh yeah! Everyone had just given up on stopping all that terrible stuff going on because China and Russia wouldn’t let other countries interfere…”
“… And then the revolutionaries caught the president and his officials and overthrew the government! They say the person who caught the officials and brought in the revolutionaries was just one girl her own. ‘Like the wind, the girl in white appeared,’ or so they say. It had to be a magical girl!”
“Or a tall tale or an urban legend. What she did was basically terrorism.”
“That’s beside the point! Magical girls are not done! Not in the least. I bet Koyuki will say the same thing once she gets back.”
The sky was so blue, heaven so close. The sun seemed to be shining right next to her, and the clouds streamed boldly toward the horizon. Miles above the earth, there was nothing but clouds, sky, and sun.
Her fantastic journeys through the sky, relaxing against the tail of a jumbo jet, had begun after she’d applied to become a master. The battering of the wind, the freezing temperature, the roaring engines—none of it bothered her.
Free rides… no, I guess free flights, since I’m on an airplane. She corrected herself internally. As she could not fly, Snow White always used this method to travel internationally.
Normally, magical girls stuck to helping people in their small, town-sized territories and avoided straying too far from that. The Magical Kingdom would probably frown on interfering in international affairs according to her own morals.
After learning how out of control Fav and Cranberry’s selection tests had been, the Magical Kingdom had immediately dispatched special envoys to Earth. They had apologized profusely to Snow White and Ripple, made them official magical girls, and granted them special rights as honorary citizens of the Magical Kingdom.
Snow White wasn’t sure whether she was grateful for that or not. Whatever the case, the Magical Kingdom was having a little trouble keeping a handle on their selfish do-gooders who got angry at what they saw in the newspaper and set off for foreign lands.
She turned the master phone on, opened the mailbox, and saw she had an e-mail from her director in the Magical Kingdom.
Magical girls are more than capable of becoming assassins and terrorists, which is why we of the Magical Girl Division require self-control. Your dedication to upholding morality should allow you to suppress personal impulses. In fact—
She stopped reading there and deleted the e-mail.
Snow White knew all too well that small kindnesses would change nothing. Just watching from the sidelines would never bring about progress. Leaving it to others would never solve anything. She’d learned all this the hard way, which was exactly why she was trying to change. She wanted to change.
The magical girls she had known would have done the same. Up until their deaths… and even at death’s door, they remained true to themselves.
Another e-mail popped up.
Memory alteration has been detected on testing grounds B-7098 and B-7243. Accidents appear to have caused deaths in both cases. Furthermore, they are caused by the same master. Said master will be holding a selection test soon on testing ground B-7511—
Unlike Snow White, who was a lone wolf, Ripple knew many people in various departments. They were more like fans than friends, though. How exactly that had come to be she didn’t know, but Ripple was cute and cool, so it was probably inevitable, Snow White thought to herself.
“Don’t regret not acting next time. Act before you regret it,” she whispered to no one in particular.
Afterword
My name is Asari Endou, and I love magical girls so much that if they really existed I’d be over the moon. To change the subject a bit, my friend I-kun once told me, of all things, “I love tentacles (interacting with girls in various ways).” The next day, everyone called him Tentacles. You may be confused, but in star
ting this afterword by stating I love magical girls, I am saying I am prepared to be called a magical girl.
Now, back on subject.
To help me write this, I pulled out some of my old works and read the afterwords, which were filled with things like, “If possible, I hope we meet again soon.” Adding on “if possible” to protect myself in case the “I hope we meet again soon” part doesn’t come true was quite cowardly, I think. There probably aren’t many out there, but I hope any young boys reading this afterword never become like me when they grow up.
In my previous afterwords, I wrote about how my editor, S-mura-san, warned me not to write anything that could come off as socially objectionable, but this time I received no such warning. Perhaps he thought there was no need to try to cover up anything in the afterword when the novel itself was rather socially objectionable.
After all, there’s no denying the antisocial natures of our pre–writing process discussions in family restaurants about how best to kill off innocent girls, and our long discussions over the phone consisting of, “No, this won’t work. That won’t work, either. This seems interesting. Let’s go with that.”
Thus this will be an afterword with a focus on proper societal behavior. I’m sorry, that was a lie. There’s not much of that here at all.
Writing this was less of a bumpy ride and more of a roller coaster. First, I screwed up with the progression of the plot, and once I had finished my first draft, I couldn’t settle on either the middle or the ending. Slowly, after countless suggestions to change this, nix that, add this, et cetera, the polish was done. We fought with words and fists, collapsed spread-eagle by the riverbed illuminated by the setting sun, then got up and said, “You’re not so bad.” “Heh-heh. Same to you,” and laughed together. I was surprised to find that this was what authors and editors must go through together. And so, in this fashion, the novel changed shape many times until we finally settled on its current form.
