The Goggles and the Tortoise

Magical girls’ bodies are strong, but when it comes to resilience and regeneration abilities, mages aren’t much different from humans. They can, however, use magic spells to heal their wounds. This is why even when they do get injured, they don’t go to the hospital.

So then do mages not need hospitals?

Not so. Mages do use hospitals. For a mild cold, rather than going through the big hassle of ceremonial magic—going to buy a chicken, cutting its head off, and chanting forever—you could save time and money simply obtaining cold medicine from your doctor.

And besides, there were reasons other than illness and injury you’d need a hospital. If you were affected by a magicked poison or drug, then in order to cleanse yourself of the effects, you went to a specialist hospital. Unlike with simple poisons or drugs, there was no such thing as being too cautious if it was the magical type. If you didn’t spend time with a specialist to get the right treatment, the effects would linger.

This was the reason Mana had been immediately hospitalized following the incident. She’d strengthened her body through magical doping to the point that she could contend with even the strongest of magical girls, and the consequences were not at all mild. Once the drug wore off, she immediately foamed at the mouth and passed out.

Mentally and physically at the end of her rope, 7753 had believed she was a goner. She’d clung to Mana, sobbing belligerently even after they’d been taken into an ambulance. Her subsequent, sorrowful days were spent in tears, remembering the incident and everyone who had fought with them. When her boss had told her Mana had survived, 7753 had cried some more.

Unlike 7753, her new roommate Tepsekemei showed no superficial signs of emotion, living her life dispassionately. It seemed she’d taken 7753’s standard “Please make yourself at home” remark quite seriously, as she conducted herself more freely than the owner of this thirty-something-year-old house. She fashioned the old office belonging to 7753’s father into her base and fully occupied herself, exploring the interior of the house and fiddling around in the yard.

With that as part of her life, she also engaged in study, sitting down at the table every day to look at picture books for small children and read the letters out loud. She mastered the alphabet, and with time, she was able to read books for children—slowly and only as long as there was a pronunciation guide.

Tepsekemei had not shown tears ever since the moment she’d cried when killing Pukin, but she really was sad—that much 7753 could tell by observing Tepsekemei through her goggles. Tepsekemei just didn’t show it.

The incident had devastated the town, and there had been a lot of civilian casualties, too. The things they’d tried to protect had slipped through their fingers one after another.

As for the rumor about a plan to use a weapon of mass destruction, 7753 heard the Department of Diplomacy had flatly denied it. The shock of that made her weak in the knees. So then why had they all been sent out to the battlefield to die so helplessly? According to her boss, “Now that things have come to this, the Department of Diplomacy will never acknowledge such rumors.”

And she was completely right. There was no way the Department of Diplomacy would reveal the truth now. But even if the rumors were true, the fact still remained that 7753 had gotten Kuru-Kuru Hime, Funny Trick, and Weddin killed. Her naive insights had led them to underestimate Pukin and mistakenly believe they could negotiate with Frederica. She had no excuses for what occurred.

7753’s boss tried to console her—“You did the best you could have”—but that wouldn’t bring the dead back to life. Her boss didn’t blame her or punish her for defying orders. 7753 would rather have been punished. She knew that was naive of her, but she still wanted it.

Her goggles could see magical girls’ abilities, and when she pointed them at someone, she would learn not only their individual parameters but everything about them—including everything they had ever thought or done. That person’s very life story: the beautiful, the ugly, the noble, and the dirty—all of it. Kuru-Kuru Hime, Funny Trick, and Weddin had all pushed their fears down so they could stand up and protect what was important to them. They’d been terrified and had wanted to run away, but they’d made up their minds to fight anyway. They’d trusted 7753 when she’d continued to lie to them. They had been righteous magical girls. They’d had futures.

7753 had felt absolutely obligated to get them back alive, no matter what happened. Yet she had been the one to survive.

The regrets never stopped coming. If not for Tepsekemei, who’d been sent to her along with the message from her boss, “Take care of her. It seems she has no complaints as long as she has her magic lamp, but do check to see if she’ll go wild or not,” then 7753 might have been crushed all alone.

It was rare for a magical girl to be an animal, pretransformation. Among the countless magical girls 7753 had encountered during her career, there had only been three who’d begun as something other than human. Often, they were of a more impulsive and guileless type compared to humans, quickly making decisions to take action, straightforward in their expression of emotions like anger and joy, and making clear who was their friend and who was their enemy.

Tepsekemei deviated from that sort of animal-type magical-girl template. She hardly ever showed emotion and was calmer even than human magical girls. It wasn’t fully unexpected, based on how you’d imagine a tortoise to be.

A few days after the incident, with a single model lamp as her one possession, Tepsekemei had come to 7753’s house and moved in. Completely indifferent to any of 7753’s crying, occasionally, she would go out into the yard and gaze up at the sky, or dig into the ground, or even bury herself.

“I don’t want you going outside as a magical girl,” 7753 told her.

“Mei prefers to be a magical girl.”

“But the neighbors might see.”

Tepsekemei must have basically understood 7753’s concerns, since when she went outside, even if she was just in the yard, she would meld with the wind and fade the colors of her body as much as possible.

While 7753 was lying around depressed, Tepsekemei was making piles of earth and moving shrubs to different places, altering the yard as she pleased. No matter how many times 7753 told her to stop, she still wouldn’t listen.

“This is Mei’s home now; Mei can do what Mei wants.”

“Uh, no, it’s my house.”

“We’re cohabiting, so it’s Mei’s house.”

“Cohabiting… How do you know that word?”

“It was on the TV.”

7753 wished Mei would call her a roommate, at least. Maybe she’d been a male before her transformation. For her first-ever cohabitation partner to be a male tortoise of all things would be way too pathetic, and 7753 was too scared to check Tepsekemei’s sex pretransformation.

Tepsekemei began having her way with not only the yard but also the interior of the house. She was making it a more pleasant living space for herself, but it didn’t feel comfortable to 7753 at all. No longer able to take it anymore, 7753 eventually made Tepsekemei stop. With all this going on, she didn’t have the time to be depressed. She wondered if maybe Tepsekemei was deliberately being a pain to distract 7753 from her worries—but then when she tried checking via her goggles, she found this was not at all the case, and the other magical girl was merely someone who did what she wanted.

Besides, it wasn’t like this had actually taken her mind off things.

Like Hana, who kept fighting Pukin until her dying breath.

And Archfiend Pam, who had tried to save Hana.

And Ripple, who had gone to save Archfiend Pam and hadn’t come back.

And Weddin, who had cried over how she’d longed to be a magical girl.

And Funny Trick, who had crawled up to attack Pukin, even when she’d been mortally wounded.

And Kuru-Kuru Hime, who had taken on the dangerous role of being the bait all on her own.

And the bent road signs, twisted guardrails, broken roads, crumbled cement-block walls, billowing black smoke, people on the ground, tipped trucks, the train crashed into buildings.

Mana had been carried off elsewhere. 7753 and Tepsekemei had gone to help with relief. There were dead bodies everywhere; they couldn’t save them all no matter how hard they’d tried. It had been like being in a nightmare where you’re in the water, and even if you kick your legs, you stay stuck in place.

7753 had started maintaining her magical-girl form, even when at home. If she’d remained in human form, she really would have been crushed under the weight of her emotions. Surely not even a trace would have remained. She wouldn’t have been able to escape through alcohol or sleep—her mind would have caught up before she could run. It would have crushed her. Maybe it was a good thing that she was even capable of wanting to go on despite the circumstances. She never got to the point of, Who cares if it crushes me? I should be crushed.

While rebuking Tepsekemei for her eccentric behavior, 7753 cooped herself up in the house in a depression for one week, then two—and then on the third week, she got a call from her boss.

Her boss told her the name of a hospital, a wing and room number, and a time of day.

“We’ve received permission from Chief Mana’s father. She’s currently recuperating but is apparently very bored now that she has nothing to do. I’m sure she’d be glad if you paid her a visit. I’m busy dealing with the aftermath of recent events, so go and give her my best regards.”

A hospital visit. 7753 not only wanted to see how Mana was doing but also felt so terrible that she couldn’t face her. Both feelings were sincere and from the heart.

“Mei knows about hospital visits. Mei saw on TV. Mei wants to go, too.”

Tepsekemei wanted to go. But even if Mana’s family said it was okay, what would Mana herself think?

The next day, 7753 hid her hair and costume under a coat and hat and left the house, avoiding the neighbors’ eyes all the while. Since it was almost Christmastime, the streets downtown were lined with Japanese fir trees and decorated with lights and tinsel. Even the pine by the teahouse was decorated with Christmas lights.

It was a lifeless season, her breath white in the air, the trees on the boulevards wilted to a dull dark brown. Nonetheless, the people bustled about joyfully, their mood positively contagious.

Tepsekemei was trying to poke her face out of the bag hanging off 7753’s shoulder in an attempt to get a glimpse of the outside, so 7753 couldn’t let her guard down.

“I thought you promised to stay still in your lamp.”

“Mei wants to see outside.”

“I’ll let you out in the hospital room, so just wait until then, please.”

On the way, they bought a bunch of flowers at a flower shop. 7753 had the florist arrange as bright a bouquet as possible, with a big pink cymbidium soaring up in the middle. A ribbon tied it all together.

She also bought some chocolate mousse cakes from a famous sweets parlor that had been featured on TV. These adorable desserts came topped with whipped cream and strawberries, and they were so popular that the shop usually sold out before noon unless shoppers ordered one in advance.

“Mei smells something tasty.”

“I told you not to poke your face out.”

7753 added a slice of cheesecake to the order and put it in her bag in order to shut up Tepsekemei. Magical girls didn’t need to eat or drink, so why was she so drawn by the smell? It had to be because she was an animal.

She transferred trains and crossed over the prefectural border to arrive at a hospital so big, it would take an hour to walk its perimeter. There was not a single mark on the stark white walls… Actually, no—when she looked closely, there was bird poop stuck on it.

This hospital was a branch office of the Magical Kingdom. It was even equipped with facilities to draw magical poison out from mages. But it wasn’t like they didn’t take regular patients—in fact, that was what they mainly received, rather than the much rarer magic-related patients.

“Mei hates this smell.”

“Nobody likes the smell of antiseptic. Just put up with it, please.”

From the front gates, they passed by the side of the parking lot and a chain-link fence with a ditch along it to go into the hospital. There were some decorations to stir up Christmas spirit, like wreaths and Santa statuettes. It seemed the hospital wasn’t separate from the world; the inside was no different from everywhere else. The doctors and nurses who passed by seemed kind of upbeat.

7753 checked her current location and destination at the facility map, but first, she went into an empty-looking lounge.

“Going pee?” asked Tepsekemei.

“Why would you get that idea in a lounge?”

The mirror reflected 7753 with her goggles on. She tried changing the settings from sadness to suffering, and then after that to loneliness. Nothing came up. As she should know. The mirror ultimately reflected her image and nothing more. It wasn’t 7753—it was just her reflection.

Sighing at her own foolishness and sentimentality, 7753 took off the goggles and tucked them inside her bag. It was one thing to keep them on during emergencies, but it was a bad idea to have them on when she was going to meet a superior. She’d been thinking similar things the first time she’d met Mana in B City, too. And then after introducing herself, she’d immediately been taken to task for not coming in magical-girl form.

“Why are you smiling?” Tepsekemei asked.

“…I’m not smiling.”

Checking in the lounge mirror that her hair and costume were properly hidden, 7753 left the room. Her steps on the linoleum rang strangely loud, and she slowed, setting her feet down smoothly and softly as she walked along. Her legs were heavy. Or rather, her feelings were heavy. As she approached the hospital room, they got heavier. Her throat dried out, and her palms dampened instead.

What was Mana thinking right now? What did she think about what had happened back then? Mana had seriously cursed her out hard, but 7753 was aware that she’d done enough to deserve that. Mana might shower her with abuse again, but 7753 also thought it’d feel easier if she did.

7753 knocked on the door of the hospital room, and hearing the voice prompting her to “Come in,” she went inside.

She squinted the moment she entered. Multicolored magic sigils, making lavish use of fluorescents and in varying sizes, large and small, were drawn on the ceiling, floor, and walls, as if in an attempt to bury every surface. The room was fully furnished with a big LCD TV, an electric kettle, a freezer, cushions, and even a leather sofa bed.

Placed in the center of the room was a canopy bed, and the small-framed girl lying there was looking toward her.

“Oh, it’s you.” She adjusted the position of her glasses with a snort.

7753 rubbed at her eyes, which had started welling with tears. “Um…you seem well.”

“Don’t be stupid. Anyone who’s been hospitalized clearly isn’t well.” Mana turned her face to the window. This meant she was looking away from 7753, but she didn’t yell at her to leave. “Sit wherever,” she said quietly, and 7753 was so relieved, her eyes started tearing up again. Lately, her tear glands had been so hopelessly leaky.

“Can Mei come out?” Tepsekemei asked.

“Oh, yeah. Go ahead.”

When Tepsekemei slid out of 7753’s bag, for some reason, she had the goggles on.

“What are you doing?! I said no goggles!” 7753 hurriedly snatched away the goggles and tossed them into her bag.

Tepsekemei seemed to have zero guilt, boldly sprawling out on the couch. “No punch yet?”

“What? Punch? To drink?”

“Like when you pay a visit to someone and hit them.”

“No, no, no! It’s not that kind of visit!”

“What about tasty stuff?”

“Look, um, this is for the visit… I bought this to give as a present… Um, Mana, please have this, if you like. Oh, and these, too…”

There was a large-ish glass vase beside a watering can, but nothing was in the vase.

“May I put these flowers in here?”

“Do what you want.”

7753 couldn’t handle just standing there. Moving around would take her mind off things. She filled the bone-dry vase with water in the bathroom sink. A private room with its own bathroom and sink—kind of like a VIP suite. Everything about it was lavish, from the smoothly polished ceramic sink to the size of the room and its furnishings, but there were no flowers.

It made her feel kind of lonely. When she came out of the bathroom, Tepsekemei was setting out the chocolate mousse cakes on paper plates. Tepsekemei wasn’t the type to set a table of her own accord. She’d also poured out hot water from the pot, and teabags were floating in cups. Mana must have ordered her to do it. 7753 glanced over at Mana, who was looking out the window. She didn’t seem angry or sorrowful, either.

7753 stared at the floor but straightened her posture. “Things are really getting into the holiday spirit out there—Look, even the flowers.” She took care to avoid making Mana think she was forcing a cheerful tone.

Sitting down next to Tepsekemei, she picked up a paper plate and cup of tea and looked at Mana’s face. Her glasses reflected the light that seeped through the curtains, and 7753 couldn’t see her eyes. Her characteristic curled hair had gone straight again and was tucked under the blankets. She was wearing the kind of sweatshirt they sold at the big emporiums, and she appeared less like someone who had been hospitalized for a long time and more like a lazy slob.

Her gaze still pointed out the window, Mana took one bite of the mousse, then another. Maybe it was the light of the sun on her skin, but her face looked very white.

“How have things been going with you?” Mana asked.

“The same, more or less. Though it seems the boss is busy with cleanup.”

“I see… Once things have settled and aren’t so busy, I’d like to meet your boss. Could you let her know that?”

“Yes, I’ll do anything I can.”

“I want to investigate that incident more.” Mana cut into her mousse and took another bite. Her face seemed to have regained a little color.

Outside the window, clouds were gently floating by. The atmosphere inside the room was rather heavy. What should she talk about? If she was seeing Mana, there was only one thing to talk about: the incident. Hana, Archfiend Pam, and Ripple. Funny Trick and Kuru-Kuru Hime and Weddin. 7753 couldn’t bring herself to talk about that, though.

Mana parted her lips, wet with tea. “There’s some things I want to know more about. Things I want to look into. Once I’m out of here, I’ll get on that immediately.”

“Things you want to know?”

“‘You’ll never see the full picture if you only look at it from one side.’ Hana often said that.” Mana looked up at the ceiling, picked up the TV remote and stared at it, then immediately set it down again. “I want to see for myself.” Mana squeezed the edge of the blankets tight and then let go again repeatedly, then put her hands on her cheeks and pressed them from both sides. 7753 didn’t really get what she was trying to do.

Mana put some mousse in her mouth and sighed. “It’s like…”

“Yes?”

“It’s like, you know…”

“Yes?”

Mana put down her teacup. “It’s like, it’s like…”

“Yes…?”

“Nobody comes to visit me.”

Seeing the dry flower vase, 7753 had guessed that much. But hearing it directly from the one in question, she didn’t know how to react.

While 7753 was hesitating, Tepsekemei answered, “We’re here.”

“Only you two. My dad came, too, but he’s a research nut, so he didn’t bring me anything. Just the bare minimum, like my clothes and stuff.” Mana’s voice was shaking. She thrust out her lower lip and stuffed the remaining mousse in her mouth all at once.

“Well, um—,” 7753 began.

“Nobody loves me. Hana…Hana is gone, now.”

There was the sound of her sniffling. Large teardrops spilled down her cheeks, one after another, and 7753 rose up from her seat. “A-are you…okay?”

“Hana… Hana…”

Her body trembled, and that made her voice tremble, too. She started crying like a baby. Her face was red. She must have gotten agitated. 7753 looked over at Tepsekemei, but she was not at all bothered, silently eating her mousse. Obviously, 7753 couldn’t call for a nurse.

Mana continued to sob like a child, while 7753 stood frozen from indecision, and Tepsekemei began reaching for 7753’s chocolate mousse. Suddenly, the door opened with a rattle.

“Ah! You’re eating something bad again!”

It was not a bear but a middle-aged nurse with a large, bearlike frame who lumbered into the room. She picked up a plate with chocolate mousse on it, sniffed it, and scowled. “Alcohol! What on earth were you thinking?!”

“Oh, um, well—”

“Mages are sensitive. It’s not unusual for drugs taken orally to have incredible effects. And on top of that, to come visiting a mage who’s in the hospital for toxin cleansing, of all things, bringing sweets with alcohol in them!”

The giant nurse was probably a mage specialist and possessed that sort of knowledge. Until the nurse mentioned it, 7753 hadn’t noticed the alcohol. Panicking, she brought her plate close to her nose. The smell had been covered by the disinfectant scent that wafted around the whole hospital, but now that she’d been made aware, it really did smell of alcohol.

“Put in a state like this… You poor thing.” The giant nurse embraced Mana, who clung to her, then finally bawled hard. “This sort of thing is exactly why I say magical girls are so insensitive!”

“Y-yes, pardon me, I’m sorry—”

“Get out!”

“I-I’m so sorry!”

They were practically chased out.

Come to think of it, 7753 vaguely recalled Hana having said something like, “The chief gets friendlier when she’s got a little alcohol in her.” It was too late to be remembering that now. Her weakness to alcohol was beside the point—bringing alcoholic sweets to a patient in the hospital was unquestionably lacking in sensitivity.

In a bathroom stall, 7753 hugged her bag and hung her head. She had failed. She’d done something she shouldn’t have. There were other things she should have talked with Mana about instead—and lots of things she had wanted to talk about. She wanted to know trivial things, too. Like what foods she liked or the type of guy she was into. Anything would have been fine.

“What’s it mean when the red things go down?” came a voice from inside her bag. 7753 lifted her head. What did Tepsekemei think about having been kicked out? Surely she mustn’t care.

“…What do you mean, red things?”

“The round things with the pointy ends.” Tepsekemei slid out of the bag. Suddenly the stall was very cramped. “They come up in here.” In Tepsekemei’s outstretched hand were 7753’s goggles.

“Oh, the hearts?”

“Mei was watching with these the whole time. When we went in, the hearts of the lady we were visiting all went down at once. I’m curious about what happened to her.”

The display on the goggles was lonely, the same setting they’d been on before 7753 entered Mana’s hospital room.

“Mei’s very curious.” With that, Tepsekemei slid back into the bag the same way she’d come out.

7753 closely examined the goggles. Under the bathroom lights, they reflected a cheap yellow color.

She’d gotten Mana drunk on spiked mousse and made her cry, but still, maybe she’d been just a little bit useful. Mana’s loneliness had reduced. And that went the same for 7753. Seeing Mana’s face for the first time in a long while, her own loneliness had decreased. She could tell that much, even if she couldn’t view herself through her goggles.

7753 got up.

“Let’s try going back once more. Maybe we’ll get kicked out again, but then we can visit another day. There are still lots of things I want to talk to her about.”

“Mei thinks that’s a good idea, too. Mei is staying with Grace.”

“…Grace?”

“Grace is like Weddin. Like how she’s puny.”

Not only was 7753 being mistaken for someone else, she also got the feeling she was being insulted somehow. But she figured even if she did correct Tepsekemei now, she wouldn’t remember it. In that case, she’d tell her later. The things 7753 should do now, she would do now.

Mana had said she wanted to investigate the incident. So then this magical girl would help.

7753 turned the stall knob.

Hot to Tot About Music

Suddenly there came two sounds loud enough to make anyone want to plug their ears. The first was from the impact of a door violently banging open, and the second was the ricochet of the door against the wall.

She knew only one person who would walk in here like this.

“Heeey! It’s your lover, the cutie Tot Pop! Haven’t seen ya in forever!”

Her excitement was equal parts irritating and sickening.

This girl was committed to the punk-rocker aesthetic: dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt matched with a rough-looking guitar, a skull motif, and a shiny lip piercing. She even had on a thick face of makeup, particularly for a magical girl, as if bragging, “Of course a star should be wearing stage makeup.”

“I know, okay… You don’t have to introduce yourself. I know your name well enough that it bugs me…”

“What’s wrong, Keeky? You seem down. As the senior student here, I’ll listen to your troubles.”

“What do you mean, senior student?”

“Ahhh, sorry. That was a Tot Pop secret, huh? Pretend you didn’t hear it.”

Damn it, she’s as incomprehensible as usual… And so obnoxious…

Keek spun her chair around and openly sighed at Tot Pop, but Tot Pop didn’t flinch; to her, it seemed only natural to just make herself at home. Without asking permission, she pulled up the folding chair that was off to the side and took a seat, leaning her guitar against the steel table.

“Listen,” said Keek. “I’m busy at the moment.”

“No worries, I’m totally free right now.”

“I don’t care. Go off and spend that free time by yourself.”

“Don’t be so mean. Once I’m done with what I came for, I’ll be gone super quick.”

Keek tried to push up her glasses with her right hand, but the sleeve of her white lab coat was too long, so her fingers never emerged from the sleeve. “Give me a break, seriously… You always ramble on and on about one thing or another whenever you open your mouth…”

“I can’t help that. It’s ’cause I have so much fun when I chat with you, Keeky.”

Keek was choked into silence. She cleared her throat a few times to cover it. This was no good. She couldn’t accept Tot Pop’s charm. This was how the girl always got her way.

“Aw, Keeky, your cheeks are all red!”

“Huh? No way—You’re kidding?!”

“Yep, I’m kiddin’! Yaaay, gotcha!”

“You…seriously…aghhh!” Keek jumped to her feet, knocking back her chair, which rolled into the corner, kicking up some dust in its wake.

Shoulders trembling, and actually red-faced this time, Keek glared at Tot Pop. On the other hand, Tot Pop handled being glared at like it was water off a duck’s back; she was totally composed. In fact, she was even smiling.

Seeing her smile like that made Keek weaken. She tried to sit down, but there was no chair.

“Good grief, you’re… You’re seriously just…”

“Seriously just?”

“It’s fine, whatever. What’re you here for?”

“Do you know any important people from the management division?”

“No.”

“Then do you know people who know people?”

“I guess I do know some, but…”

“Introduce me.”

“What?”

“Help me out here, pretty pleeeease!”

Keek did have a few important acquaintances. After all, Keek herself counted as a fairly important person. Still, she’d already given up on getting Top Pop to treat her as such.

She could introduce Tot Pop to someone who knew someone who knew someone high up in the management division. And the division’s top brass hated the more infamous magical girls, didn’t they? In that case, Keek might be able to get one of the higher-ups to rebuke Tot Pop for her. Maybe then Tot Pop would feel a little remorseful about her actions.

“Fine, I’ll tell you. You better be grateful.”

“Thaaaanks! Love ya, Keeky! Smooches!”

“You’re so annoying! Stop that! Don’t get your drool on me!”

The room was all black except for the various multicolored mandala-like magic sigils shining within. In that room sat an old man and a girl facing each other.

The old man was reclining in a leather-upholstered chair, glaring at the girl in intense displeasure. Between his floor-length robe, long white beard, and knobby, overstated staff, all symbols indicated that he was a mage.

The girl had a chunky-looking guitar lying on her lap. Her style was aggressive, with a shirt and pants that made lavish use of studs and belts and a hair decoration in the shape of a bear trap. It seemed more appropriate to call her a musician or guitarist than a magical girl. In contrast to the deep wrinkles in the old man’s brow, she had an excessively broad grin on her face extending from ear to ear, as if something about this was amusing to her.

The old man clicked his tongue like he wanted her to hear it. “I came to this meeting because I heard this was an introduction from Master Osk… I didn’t imagine it would be with a magical girl.”

His voice was low and mumbly. The way he was muttering, it almost felt like he was talking to himself. “I can’t stand you magical girls.”

“Sheesh, there you go again.”

“I’ve been driven into this position all because of you people and the barbarians you’ve created. I would even say I despise your lot…” He didn’t react to the girl’s comment. He was looking more and more like he was talking to himself. “Normally, you wouldn’t even be allowed access to this room. You’re a mere magical girl—grown arrogant, getting the mistaken idea that you’ve become a mage. Just who do you think you are?”

The old man pointed to the room’s entrance with his staff, the tip of which was trembling—not out of fear but with anger and old age. The old man’s voice got lower and lower, becoming increasingly difficult to hear. “Get out. I have nothing more to say to you.”

“Come on, now. I’m sure we’ve got something to talk about.”

The girl put her hands up, smiling all the while, not a trace of fear or anger on her face.

Thirty minutes later…

“So I told them—even if we could temporarily benefit from such improper means, it would damage our trust. And that, I believe, is what the Magical Kingdom should fear most.”

“Whoaaa! That must’ve taken some serious courage, huh?”

“But in the world we live in, it’s not always the righteous who are victorious. They used their position to gradually undermine my allies, and at our final meeting, I was surrounded by only enemies.”

“For real?! That sucks!”

“As a result, I was driven from my leadership position, chased away to the boondocks of the magical-girl management division, and now I have nothing to do with researching enhanced magic…”

“But there’s been some good things, too, huh?”

“What good things could there possibly be?”

“You got to meet cute li’l Tot Pop, didn’t ya?”

“…Hmph, foolishness.” The old man bent over, leaning on his staff. He knew perfectly well that he wasn’t as surly as he sounded. “Which reminds me—why was it you’ve come here?”

“To get you to tell me Magical Daisy’s current address.”

The old man cast a brief spell and gave his staff a little wave. A slip of paper popped out of thin air and fluttered down, and the girl shot her hand out to catch it.

“Her address is written here. Take this.”

“Great!”

“Hmph. Don’t get the wrong idea. I only told you because you went through the proper procedures.”

“Thanks, dude! I owe ya one!”

The girl vanished from the room, and the old man stretched out his back and knees and leaned into his chair.

It was true that she’d gone through the proper procedures. But still, he’d never meant to speak with a magical girl of all people. The old man couldn’t stand them. He looked down on them as the lowest of creatures.

So then why had he continued to talk with her? It had been a completely unnecessary idle conversation. And after having enjoyed his first inconsequential chitchat in a long time, mysteriously, he’d come to figure it was okay to tell her the address. His hatred and discriminatory attitude toward magical girls had faded.

He didn’t think she’d cast any magic on him. So then why had his feelings changed so much in such a short period of time? He didn’t understand it. The old man stroked his beard under the illumination of the magic sigils.

When Kiku Yakumo got back home, there was a magical-girl visitor there.

“Hiya! Nice to meetcha! The good-for-nothin’ magical girl named Tot Pop has arrived!”

“Huh? Um, huh? Wh-what?”

When a hand extended toward her, Kiku absently returned the handshake. She was confused. Of course she was confused. She’d gone to class at the university, then transported a bunch of super-heavy packages of dried food at her part-time factory job, then just barely made it to the public bath right before closing to wash off her sweat before finally transforming into a magical girl to protect the local public order—specifically, pick up garbage around the children’s park.

After coming home completely exhausted, she’d figured now she’d collapse into her futon and sleep, but then for some reason, the door to her shabby apartment had been unlocked. I couldn’t have left without locking it…but then again, do I even have anything in here worth stealing? she wondered, and when she opened the door, sitting on her knees on the tatami rug with her guitar beside her was what looked like a member of some punk band.

Of course this would confuse Kiku.

“Huh? A magical girl? How did you get in here?”

“I got the management division to tell me your address.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. The door was locked, wasn’t it?”

“I talked to the landlady, and she had no problem opening it for me. I didn’t do anything violent, so don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry? Don’t be ridi—”

“So you’re Magical Daisy, right?”

“Oh, yes.”

Kiku closed the door behind her and transformed. In her right hand was her magic rod; at her waist, a flower decoration; and with a skirt that fell ten inches above the knee, the girl who’d once been made into an anime—

“Oooh! It’s really Magical Daisy! That’s crazy! And hey, that rhymes!”

The girl took Daisy’s hand and shook it hard up and down. Daisy smiled softly even though she was aware this girl was letting herself get swept away by her excitement. They said there was a tax for fame. Get made into an anime, and you got fans. If you had a lot of fans, then you’d get that many more weirdos among them, too. Anyway, it should probably be okay to just give her an autograph or take a photo together and then quickly send her home.

“So then, um…Tot Pop, was it? What did you come here for today?”

Tot Pop released Daisy’s hand and then fell prostrate on the tatami. She moved so smoothly that Daisy couldn’t stop her, and despite the girl’s quirky mannerisms, she might actually be pure Japanese. If she wasn’t, then would she be capable of doing such a fine kowtow on the floor?

“Please! I want you to join up with me to start a band!”

“…Huh?”

Still prostrating herself on the floor, Tot Pop lifted her head. There was an imprint from the tatami on her forehead, and her cheeks were flushed. “Just the other day, I was blessed with the opportunity to see the Magical Daisy DVDs.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“The opening theme knocked me out! I couldn’t believe there was such an amazing theme song! A revolutionary anime song! Miracle! Logical! And together with Magical Daisy, its creator, I’ll definitely be able to make a wonderful song! I’m sure of it!”

Magical Daisy put a hand to the back of her head awkwardly and looked down at Tot Pop apologetically. “I wasn’t the one who made the opening theme, though.”

“Huh? For real?”

“Yes, for real.”

“Then I’d like you to introduce me to who did.”

“It’s not like that’s under my discretion… Please try asking the management division one more time.”

“If I go back to the Magical Kingdom to have them look into things again, then I’ll definitely tick that old man off, no doubt about it.”

“Still, I can’t…”

Thirty minutes later…

“And then the deadly Daisy Beam!”

“So cool! You’re the best, Daisy!”

“Oh, but though I call it deadly, I don’t aim it at people, you know!”

“You’re so kind, Daisy! Such a humanitarian! The modern Mother Teresa!”

“And so I somehow resolved the incident.”

“Man, that’s surprising. I never woulda imagined there was secrets like that behind the scenes of episode seventeen of Magical Daisy.”

“It’s not such a big deal I’d call it secrets behind the scenes, though.” Magical Daisy wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. In the tiny apartment, she’d even acted out some events for her story, so she was sweating now. If the neighbors hadn’t been out, they certainly would have been banging on the walls.

With Tot Pop applauding her, Magical Daisy was enveloped by a comfortable sense of exhaustion when she suddenly remembered. “Oh yeah, so why did you come here again, Tot Pop?”

“I want you to tell me who made the opening theme for Magical Daisy.”

Now she remembered having talked about something like that. She’d gotten so into the story, she’d forgotten.

She looked at Tot Pop, sitting properly on her knees on the tatami. Her eyes were sparkling bright under the cheap fluorescent lighting. And it wasn’t just her appearance that was bright—she didn’t seem like a bad person anyway.

If she’s not a bad person, then why not?

Magical Daisy ripped a page out of her university notebook and wrote a number on it. “Please don’t ask them for anything too unreasonable.”

“Whoo! Thanks! You’re the best, Daisy! Love ya!”

The moment Tot Pop got the paper, she dashed out the door like a gale. Daisy closed the door and smiled a little. Palette would surely also be surprised by Tot Pop’s sudden visit. As she went to contact Palette about Tot Pop’s impending arrival, she figured she’d try giving them a call for the first time in a while, too.

“So then why have you come here?”

“Well, uh, I’ve been going around from place to place, and now I’m here,” the magical girl Tot Pop said as she began to count on one hand, sticking out one finger after another. She was probably trying to sound perfectly logical.

“First, at the management division, I asked for Daisy’s address and went to her place. Then I went to see her mascot, Palette, who Daisy introduced me to. But Palette told me the melody had been outsourced to a mascot friend who seemed like he could compose something. And the one it had been outsourced to was a digital fairy mascot named Fav, who I figured had to be some kinda Vocaloid-like songstress-ish thing, but he said no, too. He said he asked a magical girl named Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, to compose the song.”

“And now you’re here.” The girl struck the heel of her boot on the floor. They were in an abandoned building with no one else aside from the two magical girls, so the sound was particularly resonant.

Cranberry could clearly see why Fav had sent this character to her. The digital fairy would manage projects that he liked but would avoid hassles with extreme prejudice.

“So I’m sure Fav told me the one who composed the opening theme of Magical Daisy was Cranberry, Musician of the Forest. He said that although it was made to say that he did it, he just put his name on it, and he made you do all the work.”

Cranberry smirked, and the rose on her shoulder swayed. Golden pollen scattered, then disappeared. “I did indeed undertake such a job.”

“Ohhh! That’s great! So they don’t call you the musician for nothing!”

Looking out the window, Cranberry saw snow dotting the landscape. The tops of the tall cedars were faintly white. The endless woods of cedar would be covered in a blanket of snowfall before long.

She wasn’t fond of noisy guests. There was no one but the two of them in this abandoned building in the middle of the chilly wilderness. Cranberry started to think it would be faster to silence her using the violent methods she was so good at but immediately reconsidered. If this girl had come all the way from the management division, then her disappearance would be rather conspicuous.

In other words, though it was regrettable, there was nothing for it but to have a discussion with her to make her say good-bye.

Although this sort of thing is supposed to be Fav’s job.

Cranberry looked away from the window. Concealing her inner thoughts, never letting her bright smile crumble, she turned back to Tot Pop, slightly daunted by the look on the girl’s face, like her heart was swelling with anticipation.

Thirty minutes later…

“Oh-ho. I didn’t know such magical girls existed.”

“My master’s a scout, so I’ve got lots of stories of weird magical girls.”

“Speaking of which, I once turned a whole family into magical girls.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! How’d that go?”

Another thirty minutes later…

“I was told it would be no overstatement to say she had perfected a sort of long-distance type.”

“But then doesn’t that mean a jack-of-all-trades is even better, in the end?”

“It seems they came to the conclusion that when evaluating based on the assumption that they will operate as a team, you should look at more than just individual capability. My thoughts on the matter differ somewhat, however.”

“So what d’you mean by that, basically?”

One hour later…

“So then in theory, that versatility results in omnipotence.”

“Whaaat? I’m not totally convinced.”

“What part isn’t convincing?”

“I mean, fighting that would be super boring, right?”

“Yes, that’s exactly it. So in short, what we’re seeking—”

“Hold on there, pon.”

It wasn’t that her magical phone had spoken. It was the black-and-white sphere that had emerged from its screen—Fav, the digital fairy. Cranberry had known Fav for a long time, so she could tell if Fav was in a good or bad mood from his synthetic voice. And right now, Fav was in a bad mood.

“What’s wrong, Fav? Is there some kind of problem?” asked Cranberry.

“How long are you going to be chatting, pon?”

“This isn’t something you could designate a particular length to.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Tot Pop agreed. “The more wrapped up in talking you get, the more time you need, right?”

“It really is hopeless when women talk on and on, pon…”

Changing subjects from one thing to the next, since each and every one of those topics had been deeply interesting, Cranberry had gotten lost in the conversation. If the time displayed on her magical phone now was correct, then two hours had passed since their chat began.

Despite that disparagement about women talking on or whatnot, Cranberry was not the type to enjoy small talk. She preferred to get up and move. Yet, without even realizing it, she’d been pulled into this conversation. The girl had led the discussion in a direction pleasing to Cranberry while also being very knowledgeable on the topic herself.

“Then there’s no helping it, is there?” said Cranberry.

“There’s no helping what, pon?”

“Yep, yep. No helping it, no way no how.”

“You be quiet for a minute, pon. Come on, hurry up and get out your magical phone.” The red light flashed, and Fav swiftly completed the data transfer. “Cranberry’s busy, so she can’t be in a band or do musical activities, pon. I’ve transferred to you information about magical girls who seem like they could join you in whatever it is you want to do, so go visit them instead, pon.”

“But I think it’d be nice to make music with Miss Cranberry here.”

“What a pest, pon! I’m telling you to get lost already, pon!”

While watching the two quarreling out of the corner of her eye, Cranberry touched her finger to her chin and tried imagining herself singing and dancing with Tot Pop. She thought that wouldn’t be so bad—which came as a total surprise to her.

When having a secret talk, naturally, people lower their voices. The place was a run-down apartment on the outskirts of S City, and inside were members of an antiestablishment group. They were discussing robbing a bank in order to acquire funds and such, so their voices got even lower and quieter.

“We steal the money, then run immediately.”

“That’s simple and easy to get, huh?”

“Do we use a car?”

“We’re magical girls, so it’d be best to run, right?”

In the small apartment scattered with personal effects, the four magical girls leaned their foreheads close around a small wooden table to converse quietly. These girls were going for the outlaw feel of an antiestablishment faction, but since they were all wearing magical-girl costumes, they didn’t quite nail the execution. Neither did the environment—the slab of squared lumber leaning against the wall and the helmet hanging off it seemed weirdly out of place.

But the one thing fitting with their intended outlaw vibe was the gas masks they all wore. It made it difficult to talk and hard to hear, and the room wasn’t furnished with anything appropriate for a confidential discussion, but an antiestablishment faction would value atmosphere the most.

“We know there’s a connection between that bank and the Magical Kingdom, right?”

“Of course we do. I’ve done all the proper research.”

“It’s nice that this isn’t just about getting us funds, huh?”

“So then about how exactly we’re gonna do this…”

Right when they were about to get deeper into things, the door buzzer rang. All eyes shifted to the monitor on the wall of the room to see a girl standing there. At a glance, she looked like a punk rocker or something with the guitar she was holding.

“…Who’s that?”

“A magical girl, right?”

“Is she someone you guys know?”

“I dunno her.”

“Maybe the Magical Kingdom sent over an investigator…or something?”

“Or an assassin to finish us off.”

All of them went dead silent, gazing at the screen. With no idea that she was suspected of being an assassin or an investigator, the girl on the screen was smiling peacefully.

The girls in gas masks turned to one another.

“Suspicious…”

“Sketchy, huh.”

“Shouldn’t we turn tail, for now?”

“Everyone who agrees—”

Suddenly there came two sounds loud enough to make anyone want to plug their ears. The first was from the impact of a door violently banging open, and the second was the ricochet of the door against the wall from being opened with such violent methods.

Panicking and going into fighting stances, they all faced the girl who stood there, holding up her guitar.

“Hiii! I’m everyone’s friend, the cutie Tot Pop! Let’s make a band together! Hey!”

Thirty minutes later…

Tot Pop, standing on the bed, thrust a fist up in the air, and the four girls in gas masks followed suit.

“We’re gonna make this a success! Bank robbery! Revolution for the Magical Kingdom!”

“Whoo!”

“We’re gonna do this!”

“I’ll follow you anywhere, Boss!”

“Hooray for Tot Pop! Glory to the resistance!”