Magical Girl Raising Project, Vol. 1

by Asari Endou

  She’d flown fast as she could, nabbing Ripple from the side just before the grenades exploded. This simultaneously removed Ripple’s foot from the mine and set it off, but Rapid Swallow was faster than the explosion. In the end, Ripple had escaped with only a few scorched hairs.

  Ripple grabbed Top Speed’s shoulder, flipped onto the broomstick, and plopped into the rear seat. That moment, she spotted the brilliant crescent moon in the night sky. Her mind flashed back to Calamity Mary’s smile, glinting white, and she ground her teeth in frustration.

  “We have to get rid of her.”

  “Don’t talk like a gangster, yo. We should withdraw.”

  “Do you know why she was terrorizing the highway? Because she wanted to make me mad. Because she knows I care for this town. She’ll continue to hunt here until I die or something stops her. I—”

  She took a breath. Why did Ripple want to fight? Because she was angry. Pissed. When Ripple had been Kano Sazanami, most of her motivation had come from anger. Why was she angry now? Was it because of Calamity Mary?

  Ripple had always thought the laid-back nature of Nakayado clashed with her own personality. But just thinking about what had happened to her town made her insides boil.

  “I don’t want to save the world, and I don’t even think I can. But… I wouldn’t be a magical girl if I turned tail and ran from the people of Nakayado. Even passing strangers.”

  Ripple squeezed her arm around Top Speed’s waist. The heroines she’d idealized long ago surfaced in her mind.

  “I am a magical girl.”

  Top Speed seemed to be at a loss for words. After a while, she let out a breath. This wasn’t a sigh or a simple exhalation, though.

  “Oh yeah?”

  She dipped her chin and pulled down the edge of her triangle hat.

  “Well, aren’t you proud of yourself.”

  The broomstick slowed, until finally it stopped.

  “I’ve never seen ya talk so much before,” she said, grinning wryly. “But you missed something.”

  She spun 180 degrees in the air. Ripple held tightly to Top Speed’s waist to keep from falling off, but Top Speed didn’t sway in the slightest.

  “I’m a magical girl, too, ya know.”

  Boosters extended from either side of the broomstick. Flames ignited within, and they took off like a rocket. The loud flapping of Top Speed’s coat in the wind and their own screeching through the air threatened to destroy Ripple’s ears. Not even the sound of the streamlined windshield cutting through the air could catch up. Atop the broom, the girls lay as low as possible to hide behind the barrier.

  Thanks to her magically enhanced eyes, Ripple spotted the Hotel Priestess. The roof was gone without a trace, exposing the top floor. Smoke rose from fires here and there. Steel beams jutted out at every angle, and debris covered the floor. She prayed no one had been staying there.

  But the sight of her enemy erased all noble prayers from her mind and sent her rage into overdrive. There she stood against one of the ruined hotel walls, watching them. Calamity Mary. Dual-wielding automatic rifles, she opened fire in their direction.

  Ripple’s magically enhanced eyes could pinpoint each bullet as it traveled through the air, but most of them ended up ricocheting off the windshield. The few that didn’t missed by a wide margin and disappeared behind them. Rapid Swallow’s windshield possessed formidable strength, able to withstand even supersonic speeds. Calamity Mary seemed to shout something, but the wind carried her voice away, so Ripple had no idea what it was.

  The broom made a beeline for Calamity Mary.

  It broke through walls and ripped up the floor. The shock wave behind them crossed the entire floor, picking up flames, smoke, carpets, beds, and heavy chunks of rubble in its wake. Six miles away from the hotel, they turned. Then the sound caught up with them, and the mountain of rubble collected by the shock wave dropped out of the sky. A great I-shaped scar was now carved across the entire top floor of the hotel.

  Ripple saw everything. Calamity Mary had escaped. She had shot at them until the very last second, but when her bullets couldn’t harm Rapid Swallow’s armor, she’d turned to the side and dived into the pile of rubble.

  Heavy, sticky bloodlust blacker than night coiled around the hotel. It was so thick, they could almost see it. The pile of rubble collapsed, and a silhouette rose from the debris.

  “She’s alive.”

  “Looks like…”

  “All right, I’m going in for another pass, damn it! Hold on tight!”

  Top Speed reignited the boosters, and the armored broomstick rocketed toward Calamity Mary on the hotel. Calamity Mary reached into her bag and pulled out a gun. This was no pistol, nor an automatic rifle—was it a sniper rifle? The barrel was long, about three feet by itself… maybe a little over four feet in total. She still has more?

  Calamity Mary aimed at them, and her lips twisted. She was smiling. A shiver ran up Ripple’s spine, just like when she’d stepped on the land mine.

  “Dodge!”

  She shouted and lunged forward, grabbing Top Speed’s triangle hat and shoving her down with all her might. Rapid Swallow’s trajectory jerked to the lower right. The boosters reversed, pumping flame in the opposite direction, but it was too late. They smashed through the hotel wall and floor, and the sudden change in momentum sent them weaving back and forth like a squirming snake until they landed on an office building a few miles away.

  The office building was around the same height as Hotel Priestess. And they hadn’t so much landed as crashed straight through the roof and destroyed it. Shattered concrete flew everywhere, and clouds of fine glass hung in the air.

  “What the hell was that for?”

  Top Speed’s anger was natural, but Ripple pointed at the top of the windshield.

  “Look…”

  “Huh?”

  The upper section of the windshield was twisted and ripped away. Thousands of bullets and pieces of concrete traveling at supersonic speeds hadn’t even scratched it, but now it was beyond repair.

  “What happened?”

  “That last bullet grazed it…”

  Top Speed hadn’t seen it because Ripple had shoved her head down. The bullet from Calamity Mary’s sniper rifle should have hit the windshield dead-on, but since they had dodged out of the way, it only grazed the top. Yet that was all it took to rip their protection from the broomstick. A direct hit would have ripped through both of the girls.

  “How? Her little peashooter wasn’t even scratching it earlier!”

  “She changed guns…”

  That last bullet was clearly faster than the rest. If they hadn’t changed direction before she pulled the trigger, they would never have been able to dodge it. It would have scored a bull’s-eye, blowing them to smithereens.

  Top Speed used Rapid Swallow to stand. Dusting herself off, she placed her triangle hat back on her head and glared angrily toward Hotel Priestess.

  “Damn it! Let’s go in for another run!”

  “If we do the same thing… she’ll just shoot us down and kill us.”

  “So what do we do? I can’t do anything except attack head-on!”

  “That’s all I can do, too…”

  “Then what?”

  Ripple’s direct assault on Calamity Mary had nearly gotten her blown up.

  Top Speed’s direct assault had nearly gotten them shot out of the sky.

  One-on-one, they stood no chance against her. Luck was the only reason they were alive. If they repeated their approach, they’d certainly die this time.

  “Next time…”

  “Next time?”

  “We should take her head-on anyway…”

  Calamity Mary’s magic was the ability to imbue weapons with power, so she could not create weapons from nothing. She required premade weapons to work her magic. The Dragunov, the Tokarev, the AK, and this KSVK anti-materiel sniper rifle—all of Russian or Soviet Russian make—created an odd contrast with her Wild West gunsli
nger motif, however.

  She would have liked to use only American models, but the South American drug cartels sold mainly black market models. She hadn’t exactly been overjoyed when she’d first received them, but now she loved each and every one. Calamity Mary slid her tongue along the muzzle brake. It tasted of iron.

  The shot from the KSVK had only grazed the enemy. A narrow miss, but they must have sustained some damage regardless. Even through her rage, she knew her baby’s firepower.

  Ripple and Top Speed must have learned by now that challenging her head-on without a plan would only lead to their deaths, so what would they do next? People who couldn’t win one-on-one usually relied on the advantage of numbers. Most likely, Top Speed would come from the front. But after witnessing the power of the KSVK, she would charge without much speed or power. That would just be the distraction. Ripple would strike from the left, the right, or behind—some angle different from Top Speed’s. That would be the real attack. If she could predict that, she could deal with them.

  The wide roof was no longer flat. Her battlefield was now covered in rubble. Setting traps was a simple matter. She had had plenty of time earlier, after Top Speed’s rescue.

  There was no way for Ripple to come straight at Calamity Mary, regardless of the direction she chose. She’d laid down piano wire around the roof and even set up a trap with wire and stun grenades in the room below. If the worst happened and she decided to attack from below, it’d be no problem at all.

  Ripple’s only opening was from above, but she couldn’t fly. Without Top Speed’s help it would be impossible, and if Top Speed helped her they couldn’t try the pincer attack. She’d easily vaporize them with her KSVK.

  Seventy degrees to her right, a window broke in the five-story building—a department store, if memory served—and something large crept out. Calamity Mary had of course noticed, her senses heightened and attention focused, but she was also confused. Thing was the only word she could use to describe whatever had climbed out. Seeing it, she couldn’t tell what it was. By the time she realized the black, fifteen-square-foot wall was a fire door, she’d pulled the trigger. The fire door blew away, and the flying broomstick lurking behind it zoomed off into the building’s shadow.

  What was that?

  The fire door, most likely from inside the department store, had been mounted on the front of the broomstick. They seemed to be using it as a shield or screen of some kind, but would it do any good? Another fire door popped up in a different window and headed straight for her.

  Calamity Mary licked her lips, though they weren’t dry. In fact, they glistened with moisture. The moment her tongue poked out of her mouth, saliva dripped from the corner of her lips. She did nothing to stop it.

  The fire door was heading straight for her. Last time, she’d been confused and had shot without thinking, but this time was different. She’d fire once she had a clear view of the target.

  Come on, little girl.

  Come from whatever direction you want.

  Then…

  Die.

  The bullet hit the instant she pulled the trigger. The speed of the bullet far surpassed any magical girl’s reflexes. She couldn’t have dodged.

  The fire door shattered and fell to the ground below. Glee spread across Calamity Mary’s face. Then her expression twisted. Not with joy—with bewilderment. The door had exploded, but there was no corpse, not even the remains of the broomstick. There was nothing but the fire door.

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She could sense a piercing intent to kill. Tossing aside the KSVK, she pulled the Tokarev from its holster.

  She’d already calculated every possible route of attack in case of a diversion—left, right, behind, and below. Even if she was caught unawares, her quick shooting would handle the rest.

  She pointed the Tokarev toward the murderous aura she’d sensed—above her. The crescent moon. The starry sky. Wait, were there that many stars before? Not in the middle of town, at least. Flying toward her were thousands of… shuriken? No, too many. The projectiles glittering under the moonlight were not shuriken—but shards of glass. These buildings were full of it.

  High above, Top Speed and Ripple gazed down at her from atop the broomstick.

  Damn them!

  She squeezed three shots off but couldn’t manage a fourth. She swiped at the shards with her pistol, and that was it. Glass pierced her shoulder and lower neck, and spinning shuriken ripped through her flesh. A knife sank deep into her forehead and threw her head back, bending her whole body backward.

  Don’t look down on me! Calamity Mary thought just before she died.

  Calamity Mary toppled back, her body riddled with shuriken, knives, and shards of glass. Her ten-gallon hat floated through the air, landing on its owner’s breast.

  Ripple let out the breath she’d been holding. Pain spread like fire throughout her body. She hadn’t had the time to feel it before, but now it hit her full force. She could feel her consciousness fading.

  The fire doors had been Ripple’s work. By throwing them with her magic, she knew they were sure to fly in a straight line toward Calamity Mary. From the front, the second had looked the same as the first. The point was to make Calamity Mary think Ripple was still using the door as a shield. The moment the violent gunslinger shot at the door, it created an opening for Top Speed and Ripple to attack from Rapid Swallow above.

  Once she saw out of the corner of her eye that Calamity Mary had detransformed, Ripple collapsed. It felt like she might stop breathing altogether.

  “Nice job, partner.”

  She raised her head. There was Top Speed, extending her right hand to Ripple as she gasped on the ground. She grabbed it.

  “You look like someone used you for target practice. Everything okay?”

  “Somehow…”

  She pulled the other girl’s hand, but for some reason Top Speed collapsed onto her, and Ripple ended up supporting her instead. Before she could ask what was wrong, she noticed the silhouette behind Top Speed.

  There stood a girl about high school age, sporting a white school swimsuit and wielding a giant pole arm–hatchet hybrid. The ridiculous outfit and obviously aggressive stance made her intentions clear. Ripple rolled, still holding Top Speed. The massive weapon cut through the floor like a hot knife through butter and scooped up after her. However, Ripple had already sprung into a crouch and whipped out her sword. She parried, and the weapon skipped away to the side. She followed with an immediate slash back at its wielder’s left thigh and right wrist.

  She should have seriously wounded her, but the girl hardly reacted and continued to swing her weapon as if she didn’t notice. Ripple retreated a step. Not a drop of blood appeared where she’d struck.

  Magic…?

  Dodging a swipe along the ground, Ripple drew her short sword and hurled it. The sword nailed the girl’s foot to the hotel floor, but then slipped right out. Still no blood. In fact, she didn’t seem to be a wounded at all.

  She attacked like a bladed whirlwind, striking with pinpoint accuracy at her enemy’s vitals. The girl wasn’t even trying to dodge. Direct hits had no impact. Everything felt like whiffs. Her opponent’s attacks were heavy and simple. Ripple had no trouble dodging them, but none of her own attacks were finding purchase.

  The swimsuit-clad girl retreated, as if realizing they were at a stalemate, and the giant weapon vanished. Then she sank into the hotel floor—first her ankles, then her calves, thighs, and hips, until even her head had vanished.

  Ripple clicked her tongue. Her attacks hadn’t missed—they’d passed through her. The girl was definitely using some kind of magic. And as long as she couldn’t get around that, Ripple could never win with her abilities.

  As the futility of the situation sank in, exhaustion settled heavily on her shoulders. There was nothing to gain from fighting anymore. They’d simply lose. If the girl had retreated, that was fine, but that was an optimistic assumption. It was smarter to assume s
he was hiding, waiting to strike again, and she had to act accordingly.

  Ripple spun around to grab Top Speed and beat a hasty retreat. Suddenly, she stopped.

  The one lying facedown on the floor was supposed to be Top Speed. There she was, with her coat declaring “No Gratuitous Opinions” draped across her like a blanket. But the girl wasn’t Top Speed. The coat was there, but the triangle hat and witch clothes were gone.

  Staggering, Ripple made her way over and kneeled next to the human lying there. She appeared to be in her late teens with braided chestnut hair. A deep wound crossed from her shoulder to her breast, the worst of the bleeding already past. Her eyes were closed, and her expression was so peaceful she might have been sleeping.

  Ripple took the girl’s hand in her shaking one. It was cold.

  The girl was wearing a maternity dress. Her belly was quite large.

  Top Speed had always said she needed six more months to live. Ripple bit her lip. Hard. The taste of iron filled her mouth, and blood dripped out, but she didn’t release the pressure.

  Her words echoed endlessly, deep in Ripple’s heart.

  Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

  That night, Ripple lost her one and only friend.

  The moment the angel descended, Snow White breathed a sigh of relief. Even in these extraordinary circumstances that forced them to fight one another, magical girls rushed to help when disaster struck, regardless of faction. That was how magical girls should be. That was what this was all about.

  The Peaky Angels had attacked her and La Pucelle on the steel tower in Kubegahama, and she still remembered them with fear. But if this one wanted to help save lives, then she had to forget the past and assist her. She had to be careful to keep her smile natural, so as not to put her on guard.

  As she welcomed the newcomer with the warmest smile she could muster, Hardgore Alice tackled her and sent her rolling across the pavement. Surprised and confused, she stood up and frantically tried to piece together what had happened, only to find Hardgore Alice already in heated battle with the angel.

  The angel’s expression was not normal. Her lips formed a thin line, her face was pale, her brows were knit, and she was moaning. Hardgore Alice hurled her plush animal onto the road, unceremoniously yanked a traffic sign out of the ground, raised it above her head, and swung. The angel maintained her distance.