Magical Girl Raising Project, Vol. 6

“I’d rather not have you arrest me once this is over, so for that I would request a plea bargain. Essentially, extrajudicial measures.”

“You mean to let you go?”

“Well, simply reducing my crimes somewhat would still mean the Magical Kingdom would try to arrest me. Rather, it would make both you and I happier if you were to pretend you’ve never seen me. Come now, I won’t do any more evil deeds. I simply don’t want to go back to prison.”

Frederica was bound to continue to be a crook. But at this point, they needed her help to prevent a weapon of mass destruction from being launched in this town. And since she’d promised not to lie, then she shouldn’t do anything to betray or deceive them.

“Hmph… Then first, we’ll have you search for Pukin. This is you we’re talking about. You’ll have some of her hair, of course?”

“If I could just have my crystal ball back, I could do that immediately. However, I ask that you please not make me put my hand into it. If I were to stick my fingers in there, I’m sure I would quite literally be caught red-handed.”

They discussed how they would integrate Frederica into their strategy, and then 7753 returned to her own task. She examined the new magical girls, who were not yet completely using their magic to the fullest. Looking at them through her goggles, she checked their magic’s effect range, use criteria, speed, and accuracy—every heading available to research how they might be used in practice.

7753 had seen more than just a couple hundred magical girls in her time. Making use of all her experience in Magical Girl Resources, she considered what these girls were capable of. 7753’s job had been to search out negative traits and report them. This required her to get an accurate grasp of the target. She hadn’t been writing out reports, lately, but it wasn’t as if she’d lost that experience.

Pukin (Time remaining: one hour, twenty-five minutes)

Pukin bit into the ham, devouring it. This is just like Sonia, she thought, laughing at herself, but remembering Sonia made her chest ache. No matter how she ate and ate, it still wasn’t enough. Was it that she lacked enough food? Or was it stimulation she was lacking? She’d just absorbed the ultimate nutrition, a fairy, so she should have no complaints regarding quality, at least. Taste and texture aside, fairies were more nutritious than just about anything.

“Bring us more. It’s still not enough.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rain Pow was obedient and easy to use. She obeyed anything, no matter what the order. Pukin had made her that way, but it was lacking in interest. She’d prioritized ease of use, so it made sense she would end up like this. Pukin could order her to do something interesting or say something interesting, but she doubted Rain Pow could entertain her. She would loyally attempt to carry out such orders, but it was sure to go poorly. Pukin considered summoning Frederica back, under the strict instruction to never slack off again, but she had no means with which to call her.

Both thinking about Sonia and thinking about Frederica felt unpleasant. She was just going on eating like this without any form of distraction because those she awaited weren’t coming. If the inspection team, which meant to capture Rain Pow, were to come, that would be entertainment enough for Pukin. She couldn’t understand why it was taking them so long to do their job.

Pukin had sliced up the walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture of the room in an attempt to vent her aggression. But despite how she let it out, there was still no target for her to attack. This led to her spinning her wheels fruitlessly, and the walls, floor, ceiling, and furniture were made sacrifices. It wasn’t interesting.

It wasn’t good that the inspection team was so incompetent. How dare they make Pukin wait this long? But if her opponents were incompetent, then she would have to accommodate that. Pukin was generous and tolerant. She treated not just her retainers but even her enemies with kindness.

When Rain Pow came back through the window with foodstuffs in her arms, Pukin ordered her, “Go outside and begin killing every human you encounter. Destroy buildings and vehicles, too—and not only that but set them on fire, too. Once there is rising smoke, they’ll be forced to take notice.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Before long, Pukin heard screams and sounds of destruction coming from outside. If she could hear the cries of children, the shrill sounds of women screaming, men yelling, and some begging for their lives, too, that would be perfect. A lump of ham in one hand, Pukin stood and gazed out from the veranda as she bit into the meat.

“Swine. Their squeals are unexpectedly pleasant.”

This made her dull meal a little more interesting. She should have ordered this earlier.

Rain Pow (Time remaining: one hour, five minutes)

Pukin’s orders were absolute. Rain Pow had no choice. She did as she was told. She let fly her rainbows at the elderly couple sitting side by side on the bench at the bus stop, fired them at the incoming cars, and used more to cut down road signs and traffic lights. She raced through the middle of the commercial district, using her rainbows on shop after shop, splattering red liquid on the show windows from the insides until you could no longer see within.

She kicked up clouds of dust as she raced along the road, spurts of blood following her, dyeing her path red.

Rain Pow lacked any powers of judgment—no I wanna do this or I don’t wanna do that. And not only had she been ordered to kill and destroy, but to set fires, too.

She went into a miscellaneous goods store and fished around, but found no matches. She headed for a convenience store not too far away, and found an employee there, so she tried asking, “Where are the matches?” The employee just kept on screaming and didn’t make to answer, so she cut them up, then recalled a shop for Buddhist articles might have matches.

Running along the road, she used her rainbows to destroy everything in sight. She had to do just as Pukin had ordered. Making use of her many rainbows, she could accomplish that easily. She sliced open a police car, cut down an officer, cut up a dump truck, and slashed the giant Buddha statue on the roof of the Buddhist goods store into three pieces. The Buddha statue collapsed with a shudder, and it crushed the roof of the building it fell onto.

Rain Pow just carried out the orders she’d been given.

She took an economical ten-pack of matches from the Buddhist goods store. With this, she would be able to set as many fires as she wanted. Surely, this would satisfy Pukin.

“What are you doing?” she heard suddenly from behind, and with a leap backward, she turned around, sending out rainbows. Those seven rainbows total all soared true, hitting the source of the voice, but even so, the target did not fall.

“You’re an enemy, after all.”

Tepsekemei gathered together the pieces of her shredded form and looked down at Rain Pow. If Tepsekemei was here, that meant the others had to be here, too. The names rose in her mind one after another: Kuru-Kuru Hime, Weddin, and Funny Trick.

Weddin (Time remaining: fifty-eight minutes)

Weddin’s magic forced someone to keep the promises they’d made.

According to 7753’s analysis, she was unlimited in both her number of promises received and number of promises a single individual could make to her.

A contract could be overwritten. If contradicting promises were made to her, the newer promise would have stronger powers of compulsion.

She could compel a target to act but could not restrict their thoughts or feelings.

A contract could be made even without her meeting someone and speaking to them directly. This was also true for her communicating her desire to her target.

Also, the foundation of this ability was Weddin’s subjective view.

Reflected in Frederica’s crystal ball, Rain Pow’s expression was vacant as she engaged her destructive activities. She looked clearly as if she’d lost her mental equilibrium. It was clear she was being controlled by Pukin’s magic. You didn’t have to be Weddin, with her experience of having been under Pukin’s control, to be able to tell that.

The question was: Would Weddin’s magic work on someone who was under Pukin’s control? Rain Pow’s promise had been worded as “to obey the leader’s decisions.” Obviously, Rain Pow didn’t acknowledge Weddin as her leader at the moment, but 7753 had said that whether the magic worked depended on Weddin’s perception of Rain Pow. As long as Weddin believed that even if a person was brainwashed or had lost their memories or their personality had fallen apart, she still held the right as their leader, then her magic would work.

“What incredible carnage,” Frederica said cheerfully as she watched Tepsekemei in her crystal ball. No matter what a master of self-deception Frederica might be, as long as Weddin kept it together, Frederica would never be able to oppose her magic.

“She must be destroying things like that in order to show us where she is, to lure us to her.”

“Quiet, please. You’ll distract me.”

Rain Pow and Tepsekemei were about twenty yards apart, engaging in an ongoing long-range fight. Tepsekemei’s body had been sliced to ribbons by rainbow blades, while Tepsekemei’s attacks were blocked by walls of rainbows. I see, so that’s how she uses them. Rain Pow’s attention was focused on Tepsekemei, who was fulfilling her role as decoy.

“All right, then do it, please.”

“Yes, yes, understood.” Frederica grabbed Weddin by the collar and shoved her face into the crystal ball.

That hurts, Weddin thought, and an instant later, she was somewhere else. Rain Pow and Tepsekemei were fighting right close by. Weddin leaped out from cover and yelled, “Stop, Rain Pow! You’re not allowed to hurt anyone!”

Rain Pow turned around. Her expression was still vacant.

“I’m the leader! Rain Pow, don’t use your magic! No kicking or hitting! Don’t hurt any living things! Don’t break things! No evil deeds! You’re not allowed to do anything ba—”

A streak of light. By the time Weddin realized it was a rainbow, there was a yank on her collar and she was dragged back. Tepsekemei and Rain Pow both vanished, and there was Frederica beside her.

“How come it didn’t work?!”

“It seems her ears are plugged. From the way she’s moving, it seems she can’t hear anything.”

“Her ears are plugged… That’s it?”

Their strategy—wherein Tepsekemei would play decoy, and while she had Rain Pow distracted, they’d take her by surprise with Frederica’s magic—should have worked out. The sounds of destruction were gradually approaching. Weddin bit her lower lip hard.

Rain Pow (Time remaining: fifty-five minutes)

She’d never let her guard down around Weddin’s magic, not from the moment they’d first become allies. One promise to Weddin alone was bound to bring it all crashing down. But still, one of the group refusing a promise would have made her look suspicious. So she’d come up with a way she could hide her presence in the group while also resisting Weddin’s magic. It was a very simple solution.

Tepsekemei dived toward Rain Pow with her mouth open. It looked like she was trying to say something, but Rain Pow couldn’t hear her right now. When they’d started fighting, she’d filled her ears with rainbows to shut out any sound. Neither Weddin’s orders nor Tepsekemei’s yelling would reach her.

She’d figured out a way to deal with Tepsekemei.

Rain Pow raised a wall of rainbows to block her, then put up more rainbows, which she plated with even more. She kept shooting out rainbows, manifesting them, making layer upon layer, burying rainbows with more rainbows. If Tepsekemei had been calm, she would’ve realized Rain Pow’s goal before she could accomplish it and would have managed it somehow. But she wasn’t trying to avoid the attacks, now. She was trying so hard to fulfill her role as decoy, she was making no effort to avoid anything, just taking it all. Rain Pow surrounded Tepsekemei with rainbows, and in the end, she had a rainbow sphere the size of a basketball with Tepsekemei inside it. Even Tepsekemei, made of wind as she was, couldn’t escape an airtight sphere. The multiple layers of rainbows were incredibly strong against brute force, and they were impossible to destroy unless you used some unique magic on it—which Tepsekemei would not have.

Pukin (Time remaining: fifty minutes)

The sounds of screams and destruction gradually grew distant. Rain Pow must have been trying to further the commotion by keeping up the carnage as she moved. Her passion for the job was wonderful, but now that Pukin could no longer hear the background music, her dinner didn’t taste quite so good anymore.

She heard the sound of something falling with a clunk from the kitchen.

“Sonia? Frederica? Rain Pow?”

There was no reply. Pukin drew her rapier, making her way to the kitchen with silent footsteps, then somersaulted in the air to avoid the score of ribbons breaking through the window to fly at her.

“Ha-ha-ha! That’s a good diversion! Not a bad strategy!”

The ribbons made to run outside, so she followed them, jumping out the window. She confirmed the enemy’s position. The ribbon magical girl was making to rush down the wall. There were no others. She could sense no one else around.

Had the ribbon girl come to confront Pukin all alone? She was running too fast for that. Then she raced down the wall and set off in the opposite direction from where Rain Pow had headed. Pukin gave chase but didn’t catch up.

Pukin’s legs were faster, but the ribbon girl could use her ribbons to grab buildings and street signs, tugging at them to swing through the air. She would also use them to make wheel-like shapes, landing on them to maintain her forward momentum. Though she surely could move fast enough to leave Pukin behind if she felt like it, she maintained a speed where she would neither escape nor be caught.

Does she intend to lure us somewhere? If so, then she is underestimating us. Pukin snorted.

There were few pedestrians on the street as they ran down it, leaping over a cluster of police cars and jetting along a raised path between rice fields to come out to a mountain trail. Was the ribbon girl simply choosing a place with fewer people, or had she set up a trap here? They arrived in a clearing in the forest about fifty-odd yards wide. There was a wooden arrow direction sign. Pukin couldn’t read the characters, so she didn’t know what it said.

To her right there was a pile of logs; to her left, three figures: a girl in goggles, a girl wearing a pointed hat, and a stage magician. There was nothing particularly unusual about the ground below. They weren’t trying to pull something with a pit or land mines. So then why had they lured her here?

The town’s outskirts… Oh, the barrier, eh?

So they meant to use the barrier to knock her out? It wasn’t a bad plan—if they could actually pull it off.

Whatever their plan is, we merely need to crush it.