Intermission 2

Planet Gail.

Tetra, Shirley, and Rain were taken by the pirate captain Squallow Low to the factory. They could hear the heavy breathing from beneath his mask, but he never said a word. He just led them deeper into the facility. According to the signs on the walls, they were headed to some kind of lab.

Tetra did her best to hide her fear as she held Rain and Shirley’s hands tightly. Their hands were shaking, of course. Rain in particular seemed to even lack the strength to clutch her hand back, but Shirley was scared, too. Tetra was putting all her effort into hiding it, but she was just as terrified as they were.

But the three girls walked along in silence. Not one of them was strong enough to fight or run. Fortunately, they’d been safe so far, but if Squallow turned violent, they would be helpless. The thought was too much to bear.

“It’ll be okay. Rekka will come save us.”

So Tetra tried to try to cheer the others up by putting her hopes into words.

“But Rekka’s just a normal person, right? W-Will he really come save us from these pirates?”

Shirley frowned, but Tetra nodded as firmly as she could.

“Rekka’s really somebody you can count on.”

“...You really believe in him, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“I’m jealous... I don’t have anybody like that. Nobody’s going to come save me...”

“Don’t worry. Rekka will save you, too, Shirley.”

“Even me?”

“Yup,” Tetra said confidently.

The boy she knew named Rekka Namidare would never abandon his friends at a time like this.

“You, too, Rain, so cheer up. Rekka will figure something out.”

“...”

Tetra turned to Rain and repeated herself, but there was no answer. Rain was deathly pale. She was walking mechanically forward with her face toward the ground. She looked like she hadn’t even heard Tetra.

It’s normal to be afraid, but somehow...

Rain seemed to be afraid for a different reason than Tetra and Shirley. Her stiff expression betrayed her. She was afraid, but it wasn’t of sudden violence. Her fear was more like that of a criminal about to be judged.

“Rai—”

Tetra started to call to her when Squallow suddenly stopped walking. The huge pirate silently turned and looked down on the three girls with his terrifying eyes. He then opened the door to the room next to where they were standing and threw Tetra and Rain inside.

“Kyah!”

Tetra was thrown in so violently that she hit her shoulder hard on the floor when she landed.

“Ugh... Rain! Are you okay?”

“I-I’m all right,” Rain answered weakly. She’d landed much the same way.

The door shut noisily behind them.

“Shirley!” Tetra cried.

The room was dark, but she didn’t care. Tetra’s eyes shone like a cat’s as she ran up to the door. She screamed, but there was no answer. Shirley was being taken somewhere else? But why? The door to the room was so thick that Tetra couldn’t even hear their footsteps through it. She had no way of knowing what had happened to Shirley.

“Shirley!” she screamed again, but her words just echoed in the darkness.

▽

On planet Berano, three hours had passed since the pirate attack.

Casualties among the tourists and merfolk were surprisingly light, but many of the police who’d tried to protect the town had been injured. The clinics in Ryugu Palace City were soon over their heads in patients, so the spacious Ryugu Palace was opened up as a temporary relief shelter.

“Satsuki! Use a healing spell on these people!”

“Okay!”

“Harissa, you get the ones over there!”

“S-S-Sure thang!”

Satsuki and Harissa had joined the group of healers and doctors tending to the injured. Their magic and sorcery was every bit as powerful as space medicine, so they were running around helping the patients that needed it most.

“Suzuran, hold their legs.”

“Okay.”

Hibiki and Suzuran knew first aid, so they were helping the doctors.

“Tsumiki, bring more hot water!

“Iris, that’s too many towels! I can’t see in front of me!”

Even Tsumiki and Iris, who had no idea how to do any of those things, were volunteering to carry towels and hot water. But between the group of them, their hard work paid off. Before long, all the wounded had been treated, and there was a moment to relax.

“Wow, even I’m tired...”

Iris took a deep breath as she collapsed onto the floor. The other girls weren’t in much better shape.

“I-I used all my magic power, too...”

“But we managed to save everybody who was brought in, right?”

Satsuki and Harissa were leaning up against each other’s backs, both looking half-dead.

“But you know... the damage to the town was a lot less than I expected,” Hibiki said after she’d had a chance to catch her breath.

It was a good thing that there were so few wounded, but Hibiki wasn’t the only one wondering about how that had happened. Iris had her own opinions on the matter.

“Rekka said on the phone that the pirates might be after the Mermaid Princess’s Tear.”

“Then maybe they only attacked the town as a decoy tactic. That’s probably why the tourists, who ran away at the first sign of trouble, were mostly unharmed, while the police that fought back were the ones that got hurt,” Hibiki mused.

“Given the lack of damage, the odds that it was a feint are pretty high. But were they really after the Mermaid Princess’s Tear?” Suzuran asked.

“Iris, do you know anything about the Mermaid Princess’s Tear?” Hibiki asked in turn.

“Huh? Why are you asking me?”

“You’re the only person here who’s from outer space. If any of us happened to know a few space rumors, it would be you.”

“Hmm... I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it. And if there’s something we don’t know, why can’t we just have Satsuki look it up?”

Everyone turned towards Satsuki, whose shoulders slumped dejectedly.

“I’m sorry. I’m out of mana from healing. It’ll be a few hours before I can use any magic again.”

“I see...”

Iris didn’t know anything about magic, but she’d seen how hard Satsuki had been working for hours to help people with her magic. If she said she needed to recover, then she probably did.

“Wait, why don’t we just ask Rain’s mom about the merfolk treasure? She’s the queen, right?” Tsumiki asked.

But Iris and Hibiki shook their heads.

“That’s not possible, sadly.”

“Why not?”

“The queen is missing.”

“Huh?” Tsumiki looked at them strangely.

Iris and Hibiki had already gone up to the top floor where the queen supposedly was in order to get her permission to move the wounded into Ryugu Palace. But when they arrived, no one was there.

“What is it you want to do?”

“I don’t know. Rekka went upstairs to save her, but when I talked on the phone, he wasn’t being clear. If the queen was kidnapped with Tetra and the others, he probably would’ve said something.”

“It’s possible that the queen was taken somewhere by herself without Rekka knowing about it,” said Hibiki. She had a good point, but it was only a guess.

An awkward silence settled in the room as the girls ran out of things to talk about. Nothing had changed, and at times like this, knowing that there was nothing you could do only made it harder.

“...Yeah. I know what to do. I’m going up to the surface,” Iris said in a deliberately cheerful voice in an attempt to make everyone feel better.

“What are you going to do there?”

“See if the Estashionian army is here. They’re taking longer than they should.”

“I see. Then I’ll go with you.”

Hibiki stood up and went with Iris. No one else seemed to have the strength left to stand, so the two robust girls went up alone.

“Looks like they’re not here yet,” Hibiki said as she looked up at the night sky.

“That’s strange. One of their warships should’ve been here a long time ago.”

Iris tilted her head in confusion as she looked around. To her surprise, she spotted a woman’s figure lying on the beach.

“Marle?”

Rain’s servant Marle looked up and gasped. Her face was wet with something that clearly wasn’t seawater, and Iris quickly tried to get to the bottom of it.

“A-Are you okay? Did you get hurt...? Or did the pirates do something to you?”

“No... I... I...”

Marle burst into contrite tears again as she explained her sad tale. Her daughter had been taken hostage by the pirates, and they’d forced her to help them if she ever wanted to see her again. In other words, the one who’d let them in through the underwater ducts was...

But the story ended as sadly as it had begun. The town had been destroyed. Plenty of people had been hurt. Queen Muse and her princess daughter were nowhere to be found.

“And it’s all my fault...”

Iris recalled how she’d met Marle that afternoon. She was crying for help, and the ones harassing her were pirates.

“It’s all the pirates’ fault. So don’t blame yourself.”

Iris softly put her hand on Marle’s shoulder as her heart filled with anger towards the pirates.

How dare they take children as hostages?! Rekka, go ahead and kick all their butts!

Knowing Rekka had gone after the pirates, she prayed that he would avenge the pain in Marle’s heart.

Krrrsh... Krrrsh...

The sea was now much rougher than it had been during the day, and the choppy waves lapped up at their feet on the shore.