by Asari Endou
“Hmm. You know, I imagined I might experience sickness, or uncontrollable shaking, or even ecstasy. Some kind of emotional response. But I only feel disgust, like I did when I was a child and we watched pigs being butchered on that school trip. An instinctual disgust, perhaps.”
Her face held no expression, but her tone suggested she was trying to joke.
“This is my first time killing a person… a magical girl, but it is not very interesting. I guess I will never understand why Calamity Mary loves killing so much.”
Magicaloid 44 extended her right hand, and Snow White recoiled.
“Can you see it? There are fine threads attached to my fingers. I guess you cannot. Boy, I am glad today’s mystery gadget turned out to be useful.”
Something glittered in the moonlight, but it was impossible to tell exactly what. Magicaloid 44 swiped her right hand to the side, and without a sound five cuts appeared in the concrete wall next to her. Snow White gasped.
“My plan was to just kill you.”
She kicked the head at her feet, sending it rolling over to the other girl. Snow White barely managed to remain standing—if it had landed face up, she surely would have sunk to the pavement. But the face was toward the ground.
“I was not planning to kill someone else. Though this is good-bye for you as well. There is no reason to keep you alive. Maybe Calamity Mary will be more pleased with two bodies instead of one. If murder repulsed me, I would be more careful. But it is no big deal. Well, good-bye.”
Magicaloid 44 raised her right hand, and a loud screech erupted, like metal being pierced. Her arm still in the air, the robot looked down to her chest. Something was protruding from it. Someone had impaled her through the chest with an arm. Unable to believe what she was seeing, Magicaloid 44 stared at the arm as it lifted her up and slammed her into the crimson puddle. Blood drenched Snow White and dyed her white clothes almost entirely red.
She’d held it in for a long time, but that was too much. A scream escaped from deep within her throat. Magicaloid 44’s impaler was none other than the decapitated black Alice, whose head still lay at Snow White’s feet.
Her own scream woke her up. She jumped out of bed, sweating profusely. Her pajamas were soaked and sticky and gross—and not just her pajamas, but her sheets, blanket, and pillow covers, too.
“Koyuki? What’s the matter?”
From downstairs, her mother called with worry.
“Nothing!” she answered.
A dream?
She hoped it was only a dream. But it had been too real. Though something like that could never happen in reality, it had. Koyuki glanced down at her right hand. In it she clutched a fluffy white rabbit’s foot.
CHAT #4
Fav: So…
Fav: Has everyone mastered their items, pon?
Fav: What? Enough with the formalities, pon? Oh, fine
Fav: This week Magicaloid 44 was cut
Fav: Well, see you next week
Fav: Oh, Cranberry. Thank you for the music, pon
CHAPTER 5
FAREWELL TO THE HINDRANCE
Swim Swim’s magical phone rang. Tama fell silent, and even Yunael and Minael stopped chatting to listen to her conversation with Fav. After exchanging a few words, she slipped the phone between her breasts.
“What’s the matter? Did something happen?”
“Sister Nana sent a message. She wants to meet.”
“Seriously?” “Winterprison is scary.” “What do we do?” “What?”
“Above all, deal with strong enemies swiftly.”
If they couldn’t win in a fair fight, then they would just have to fight dirty. Swim Swim gave the angels her instructions.
Atop the desk sat a lone ball of fluffy white fur. The plethora of plush animals in the room wasn’t unusual for a girl to have, but this item was not like the others.
“What is this?”
“The rabbit’s foot listed in the game, pon. Something lucky will happen when you’re in trouble, pon.”
“Why do I have it?”
“Maybe you picked it up after someone dropped it?”
“Who is ‘someone’?”
“Logically speaking, probably Hardgore Alice, pon.”
“Hardgore Alice?”
“The girl who looks like an all-black version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland.”
So it really had happened. Visions of the shambling headless corpse resurfaced. Bile rose in her throat, but she suppressed it. Her heart had never been at peace since La Pucelle died. Every time she remembered her death, the urge to throw up and cry overtook her.
“You won’t lose your sanity at least, so don’t worry, pon. Business depends on our magical girls remaining healthy in body and mind, pon.”
As if he had read her mind, Fav cut off all escape. Anger bloomed in her. She wanted to scream, smash the magical phone, and stamp on the pieces. But she wasn’t brave enough to hang up on the only one she could still converse with.
Hardgore Alice had been decapitated and walked away. Such a scene you’d only see in nightmares—yet it had all been real. Her death hadn’t been reported in chat, so she was still alive. If the rabbit’s foot belonged to her, then what did she think now that Snow White had it? She doubted she would get away with a friendly explanation that she’d picked it up by accident.
“Can’t you give this back to her for me?”
“You’d have to do that in person, pon. Fav can contact her for you though, pon.”
She’d asked precisely because she didn’t want to meet in person, but he didn’t seem to understand. Or maybe he did, and he was saying this on purpose. Was it malice she sensed from the black-and-white sphere floating daintily in the air? Or was it indifference?
Snow White collapsed on the desk and cried. Five minutes of sobbing later, she raised her head, a little recovered. She thought about how much easier it would be to just let her mind go.
From the floor below, her mother called, “Koyuki! Dinnertime!”
“Coming!” She stood from her chair. She reached out to turn off the magical phone, but just before she could, Fav piped up, half an octave higher than normal.
“Oh, I have a message, pon.”
“Message?”
“Sister Nana wishes to meet you, pon. What do you say, pon?”
Magical girls didn’t get many opportunities to meet others like them in person. Of course, if two girls paired up, like Snow White and La Pucelle, Sister Nana and Winterprison, or Top Speed and Ripple, they would naturally see each other. But outside of the mentor system, there weren’t any reasons to meet. No major accidents or events that required them to join forces had occurred since they became active in N City. Plus, some girls were more territorial than others, and they were strong enough to maintain their own areas, so there was no real reason for anyone to set foot in another’s neighborhood.
Sister Nana had visited other territories—except the late Ruler’s—with friendly intentions before, but after Calamity Mary nearly killed her, she had adopted a firm policy of noninvolvement and nonintervention. That is, until this game to reduce the number of magical girls to eight.
Personally, Snow White had only ever met Sister Nana and Winterprison in real life once, before Sister Nana stopped leaving her house.
Snow White arrived early, but Sister Nana and Winterprison were already there. Every time she saw Winterprison, she marveled at how cool she looked. She was more like a prince than a magical girl. As for Sister Nana, she exuded kindness. The solemn abandoned supermarket serving as their meeting place reminded her of a run-down chapel.
“It is good to see you again, Snow White.”
“Hey.”
“Hello, Sister Nana! Hello, Winterprison!”
“I heard about La Pucelle. It is… truly regrettable…” She clasped Show White’s hands and dropped her head.
Tears stung Snow White’s eyes. Was she happy that others missed La Pucelle, too, or did remembering La Pucelle’s dea
th make her sad? She couldn’t rightly say.
Sister Nana raised her head.
“We cannot allow such tragedy to continue. This is the time for us to band together! We can pool our knowledge and find a solution!”
The tears welling in her eyes spilled over. Sister Nana’s hands were warm and secure around hers. Everyone she’d met since the start of the game had been hostile, save for La Pucelle. None of them had spared a kind word or needed her. To them, she was no more than prey.
Snow White nodded.
“I want to help… Please, let me help!”
“Oh, thank you, Snow White! Let us work hard together.”
Great tears continued pouring from Snow White’s eyes, and through her blurred vision she could see Sister Nana smiling. Maybe it was the tears, but her smile looked crooked somehow. Still, it was reassuring. Sister Nana looked away and spoke to someone behind Snow White.
“What do you say? You left before we could hear your answer the other day.”
Had she invited another magical girl? Snow White turned around toward whoever Sister Nana was talking to—and there was Hardgore Alice, a dark parody of her namesake, peeking out from the entrance to the supermarket. Snow White bit back a scream and jumped to hide behind Winterprison. Her hands were still firmly held by Sister Nana’s, so she nearly fell over trying to change places with the nun, but nonetheless she moved extraordinarily fast.
“Um… Do you two know each other?”
“Yes, we do.”
Hardgore Alice answered before Snow White could tell her about the attack. All the girl in white could do was quiver in fear behind Winterprison. Suspicion darkened the prince-like girl’s expression, but Sister Nana continued without concern for Snow White’s reaction.
“Um, well then… Will you help us, Hardgore Alice?”
“Yes. I understand. I will help.”
Hardgore Alice spoke blankly, like she was reading off a script. Her inelegant speech sounded like a translation of her response from a foreign language.
“Oh, today is such a wonderful day! Thank you so much!”
Apparently Sister Nana didn’t doubt her sincerity. She ran over to Hardgore Alice, clasped her hands, and shook them vigorously, just like she had with Snow White.
The last thing Snow White wanted was to end up alone with Hardgore Alice by accident. But Sister Nana’s constant delighted exclamations (“We four are united in purpose!”) left her no opportunity to tell them the truth.
“I have other meetings with magical girls planned for today. Perhaps our ranks will yet increase,” Sister Nana mused happily.
Unable to think of a reason to stop her, Snow White ended up in the one situation she wanted to avoid—alone with Hardgore Alice. She tried to mutter a good-bye and extricate herself, but when she turned she discovered Hardgore Alice following her. Awkwardly, she smiled and bowed, then set off quickly, rounded a corner, and looked back. She was still there. A shiver went up her spine.
Maybe she’d only been playing nice earlier because Sister Nana and Winterprison were there. But with them gone, she probably felt free to attack. Snow White put up her guard, but Hardgore Alice just stared, unmoving, as if her eyes had been glued there.
Oh, right.
Remembering, Snow White reached into her pocket. Her fingers touched soft fur, and she pulled out the rabbit’s foot. She held it out to Hardgore Alice.
“Is this yours? Um, I didn’t steal it. It was just there when I woke up, honest.”
That was the truth, but it seemed like a flimsy excuse. Snow White backed up, still holding out the rabbit’s foot.
“No.”
“Huh? Am I wrong?”
“That belongs to you.”
“N-no, I’ve never owned something like this.”
“I gave it to you. To Snow White. So it’s yours.”
“Huh? Why? Why would you give it to me?”
Hardgore Alice suddenly cocked her head, startling Snow White. She almost expected her head to fall off again. What exactly had happened the night Magicaloid 44 beheaded her? On closer inspection, there were no scars or bandages on her neck. A natural assumption would be that her magic was responsible, but the power to survive decapitation was too much to believe.
“Because I felt like it.”
“Huh?”
“I felt like it, so I gave it to you.”
“But why—?”
Hardgore Alice cocked her head again and stared.
“Because I felt like it.”
Yesterday, Hardgore Alice had been a blood-covered monster that could move even after death, inspiring a self-explanatory fear. But this Hardgore Alice… this magical girl cocking her head at Snow White… blocked the way as an unfathomable object of terror.
Water gushed from the fountain in the center of the town square in a simple rhythm. The show of flashing lights and changing spray arcs was over. The fountain simply continued its work in a robotic manner—though it was in fact a machine—as if the lively waterworks of only a few minutes ago had never even taken place. The spectators drifted away one by one, abandoning the benches around the fountain, signaling the end of the light show.
Ripple tsked.
Every month on the fifteenth at ten PM, the fountain in N City’s central park square hosted a light show. The infrequency of the lovely display made it particularly special—the lights even changed depending on the season, flaring bright pink in April when the cherry blossoms were in bloom and replicating exploding fireworks in August—and ensured more people came to watch.
A bigger audience meant more problems, and more work for a magical girl. All the potential witnesses also lowered the risk of an attack.
Top Speed’s plan had seemed sound, so Ripple had agreed. They watched the entire affair from the roof of the park’s multipurpose auditorium, completed the previous summer, but not a single problem had cropped up. After enjoying the colorful display, the people quietly left. The only thing the girls had done was dispose of cans, empty convenience store food containers, and broken glass before people showed up.
Had this been Jounan, would there have been more of a disturbance? A fight or two might have broken out in Kubegahama and Kobiki, where fishermen and tradesmen still resided. But nothing of the sort happened in Nakayado. That was what made it Nakayado, after all, and while Ripple liked that aspect, right now what she wanted more than anything was a problem.
The ninja tsked again. Perhaps she should be happy about the peace, but there was no way for her to earn candy.
“Man, good thing nothing happened.”
“It’s not a good thing…”
“Hmm? Ya say something?”
“No…”
“Wasn’t that a pretty sight? The moon was out and everything, so we could see the lights all the way from over here. We shoulda brought some booze to watch it with.”
Ripple reached into a Tupperware container, picked out a mushroom with her fingers, and popped it into her mouth. Top Speed could be annoying, but her cooking was always good. The stewed vegetables were juicy with soup stock.
“I can’t drink alcohol…”
“Why not?”
“I’m underage…”
“Huh? You mean not just as a magical girl, but for real? In real life? Wow, I just can’t see it. Ripple, how old are you actually?”
“Seventeen…”
“Seriously? I’m nineteen.”
If Ripple wasn’t wrong, a nineteen-year-old was still a minor in their country. Naturally, that meant she shouldn’t be drinking. Ripple clicked her tongue.
“So, you’re younger than me, huh? I thought you were my age. Maybe older.”
She had thought she was older and still used that tone with her? Ripple made her signature sound of irritation and reached out for another stewed veggie. Potato this time. It was good.
“Is school fun?”
“It’s whatever…”
“You have friends?”
“No…”
“No…”
“Man, you seem just like me when I was seventeen. I’m getting déjà vu here. Creepy.”
Not many could resist pointlessly acting older once they learned they were talking to someone younger—Ripple thought it was inane, but she didn’t tell Top Speed that.
“You’re super-honest, though. You answer any question I ask. When I was seventeen, I was more like a knife. Like, anyone who tried to get close got cut. I’m all dull now, though.”
Ripple clicked her tongue.
“Ripple, Ripple.”
A high-pitched synthetic voice came from her magical phone. Fav turned it on remotely and projected a hologram.
“Fav has a message for you, pon. Calamity Mary wants to meet. She’ll be waiting at the Hotel Priestess in Nakayado at eleven PM two days from now, pon.”
Ripple looked at Top Speed, and Top Speed looked at Ripple.
“C’mon, Ripple. No need to look so grumpy.”
Apparently her distaste showed in her expression. Well, she hated the idea. Hated it a lot. The fear of staring down a gun still hadn’t faded, even months later. Sometimes she had nightmares of her death at Calamity Mary’s hands.
“I’ll pass…”
“Whoa, you’ll pass? I know how you feel, but don’cha think something really bad could happen if ya don’t go? I’m getting serious bad vibes—my one tiny wish to live another six months might not come true because of this.”
“Would you stop that…?”
“Hmm?”
“Tell me why you keep saying six months already…”
“Oh…”
“Hey, Ripple! Ripple!”
From within the projected image, Fav flapped his wing vigorously. So many scales flew off that a yellow cloud seemed to cover the image, nearly blocking him out.
“Calamity Mary says it’s important.”
Ripple looked at Top Speed, and Top Speed looked at Ripple.
“Seriously, no need to look so grumpy.”
Ripple clicked her tongue.
Swim Swim wasn’t the only one who knew Ruler had been cautious of Calamity Mary—Tama and the Peaky Angels did, too. “Cautious” was a weak word to describe her attitude, though; perhaps “hated” was more fitting. She’d seen Calamity Mary as an enemy and something in her way.