CHAPTER 11

MY FRIEND

Tepsekemei (Time remaining: seven hours, ten minutes)

Mei didn’t know who was an enemy and who was a friend. It should have been Weddin and Kuru-Kuru Hime and Rain Pow and Postarie and Captain Grace and Funny Trick and Toko who were her friends, but Weddin was with people she’d thought were enemies, then escaped from the people she’d thought were enemies, and Tepsekemei didn’t really understand what was going on.

Other magical girls might understand, she figured, but when she asked Weddin and Funny Trick, she didn’t get a clear reply. Nor did she get a clear reply when she asked why Weddin had been with the enemy. She understood she was asking very difficult questions.

“Let’s meet up with someone first.”

Tepsekemei went into the air to scout someone out. But she just couldn’t tell who was an ally and who was an enemy. If they were going to meet up with someone, then who would it be?

Funny Trick’s and Weddin’s faces were different from usual. When Tepsekemei asked why, they told her, “This is what people look like when they’re worried.” Tepsekemei didn’t really understand worrying, either. It was nothing but difficult things, and she didn’t like it.

“Pukin, Sonia, Frederica, and Tot Pop—those four are enemies, no matter what.”

“And rabbit ears and the ninja?”

“If what Frederica and the others discussed is true, they’re the inspection team. I really doubt they hold us in high regard, but still, they might cooperate… In fact, I think perhaps we should cooperate with them.”

“And Toko?”

“She’s out. From what Frederica’s party said, she tricked us.”

“But… Can we believe what they said?”

“Hmm… Good point… But back then I was being controlled, and Funny Trick, you were tied up. Would they go to the trouble to lie in that situation? It’s not out of the question, but I believe it’s unlikely. Right now, rather than chasing unlikely possibilities, we should think about what’s most plausible.”

“So then all that’s left is Kuru-Kuru Hime, Rain Pow, and Postarie… Right?”

“Do you think Toko’s partner is one of us? Or do you think she’s someone else?”

“Who knows…?”

Tepsekemei listened to Weddin’s explanation. Bunny Ears and the ninja were allies. They had been enemies, but for now they were allies. The one who had killed Captain Grace plus her three allies were all enemies. Weddin had been friends with them, but now they were enemies. Toko was an enemy. Postarie, Rain Pow, and Kuru-Kuru Hime were tricky but allies. Tepsekemei didn’t quite understand the meaning of the word “tricky,” but when she asked, the reply she got was hard to understand. For anyone else, they would decide if they were friend or foe based on who they were with.

“Who are the enemies?”

“The one who killed Captain Grace, the other three who are with her, and Toko.”

“And our allies?”

“Bunny and the ninja. And it’s tricky, but Postarie, Rain Pow, and Kuru-Kuru Hime.”

“Do you know what sort of magical girl Postarie is?”

“She moves ribbons.”

Weddin and Funny Trick heaved deep, long sighs.

In the end, they decided that if Tepsekemei caught sight of a magical girl, she was to remember their location and characteristics and then return to the mountain where Weddin and Funny Trick would be. Also, she needed to be careful not to touch the barrier.

Tepsekemei had thought that becoming human would give her more freedom. She’d thought that a magical girl, which was stronger than a human, would be even freer than that. But in actuality, it was nothing but restrictions. She had to help her allies, and she had to follow the leader’s instructions. And their enemies were powerful. These enemies wouldn’t run away if you snapped at them.

The black-winged magical girl she had fought in the sky above was strong. Tepsekemei had nearly been frozen. If she’d continued fighting, she would have been killed.

The magical girl who had killed Captain Grace was strong, too. Anyone but Tepsekemei would have died, and even she would have died if she’d taken one more hit.

Tepsekemei decided she would not fight either of those two ever again. No matter what Weddin said, or even if Weddin got mad at her, Tepsekemei would absolutely not fight them. If it came to that, she would carry Weddin and run away.

Tepsekemei thinned out her body, making her appear fainter. Gliding through the sky, it became harder for enemies to find her. If she made herself too thin, she would be blown away in the wind, so she modulated it, flying high in the air as she observed the world below.

There were disturbances happening all over. People were gathering; “cars” were gathering, talking, listening, moving, not moving. There were no magical girls. Where were they? Tepsekemei flew toward the school.

On the way, she saw a road with a circle carved out of it. There were quite a lot of people there and a rope that ran all the way around the hole. No magical girls there.

As she flew, she checked all the places visible from above: the tops of buildings, on top of an iron tower, atop roofs. It just made her eyes tired, and she didn’t find anything special.

There was no one on the roof of the school, either. Some humans were running on the sports oval. No magical girls there.

Tepsekemei landed on the roof and sat down, leaning against the wall. She pinched the spot between her eyes in her fingers and rubbed lightly. She’d been using her eyes this whole time, and they were tired.

There wasn’t much difference between doing nothing in the air and doing nothing while sitting, so Tepsekemei just sat there and gazed up at the gray clouds. They were no different than they had been the day before. They were thick, and she couldn’t see any higher in the sky. They hid the sun, making it cold. As she looked at them, thinking, The wind won’t blow away the clouds, will it? something that was not a cloud flew toward her. It looked like a bird but wasn’t one. It was something small that moved its wings to fly but was not a bird. As she looked hard at it, it seemed as if it was flying toward her, and it was more interesting to watch than the clouds.

As Tepsekemei continued to observe the flying thing, she realized that it really was headed toward her. Gradually, the outline of the thing became clearer.

It was a lamp, which had sprouted birdlike wings, flying toward her. She knew that lamp. It was the one Captain Grace had given her. Come to think of it, she’d lost it at some point.

She didn’t know what made a lamp useful, but being inside it had been calming, so she’d figured that’s what it was for.

Slowly and steadily, the flying lamp came closer until it fell lightly into Tepsekemei’s hand. The bird wings melted into the air and disappeared. She poked the lamp in her hand, then tried sniffing it. There was no mistaking it. It was that lamp, after all. It still smelled like Tepsekemei.

“Oh, so you came back to the school.”

Two magical girls appeared, hopping over the iron fence. Tepsekemei confirmed they were not enemies. However, their names were rather vague in her mind, and she couldn’t remember them. She’d just split up with Funny Trick and Weddin. So then one of these was Rain Pow, and the other was Kuru-Kuru Hime?

“Do you know where the other girls are?” A tiny fairy poked her head out from one of the girl’s chests. Tepsekemei wouldn’t forget this: Toko. Toko was an enemy.

“Toko is an enemy.” Tepsekemei voiced her thoughts out loud. When she did this, others would correct her when she was mistaken, and someone would explain to her about what she didn’t understand. That was the correct course of action this time, too. The two girls reacted to Tepsekemei’s statement, and that told Tepsekemei that her statement wasn’t wrong.

Rainbows scissored Tepsekemei from in front and behind, slicing her in half, and Tepsekemei blew a gust of wind, attempting to blast the enemy over the iron railing. Tepsekemei abandoned her lower body and her upper half fled into the sky, from where she shot wind at the two girls and Toko one more time. The more colorful of the girls braced herself in the wind, but the other one couldn’t resist it and was tossed backward. Right before the plain magical girl flew over the iron railing, the fancy-looking one reached out to her, grabbing her friend’s arm with her left hand as she gripped the railing with her right, holding on. The sudden motion caused Toko’s tiny frame to spill out of her top, and so Tepsekemei focused her wind on Toko, blowing the fairy away until she couldn’t see her anymore.

Tepsekemei left both magical girls as they yelled and cried out, before rising high, high into the sky.

Postarie (Time remaining: six hours, thirty-five minutes)

Since Toko couldn’t come back on her own, it took quite the effort to search for her after she got blown away. She ended up caught on the branch of a cherry blossom tree, which had been planted in one corner of the schoolyard to commemorate some graduation, wailing shrilly. Postarie reverted to her human form so as not to be noticed by the students out with their sports clubs, approached the tree quietly, instantly transformed again in order to climb the tree and retrieve Toko, then came down and detransformed once more. She checked all around and saw that nobody was paying attention to her. They were focused on running hard. She was relieved.

On top of the roof, Toko and Rain Pow argued.

“Now everyone knows that you’re a bad guy, Toko.”

“Huh? Why’re you saying that like it’s my fault?”

“’Cause it is your fault. Everyone’s all cautious of us because they know you’re the bad guy!”

“But you’re the bad guy, too, Rain Pow.”

“I haven’t been found out, though.”

“Why d’you have to make it like I’m the only one at fault here?”

“I mean, this is all your fault. Now we can’t meet up with any of the others.”

Though it seemed like they were trying to blame this on each other and shouting each other down, they weren’t seriously angry. You could tell that much easily, just watching them. As they argued, their facial expressions and tones of voice clearly never left the realm of good humor. They were enjoying it.

This had to be what friends were. Toko and Rain Pow were friends. So what did they think of Postarie? Rain Pow had said she thought of her as a friend. Postarie had decided not to think about whether or not she really felt that way.

Never once before had a classmate needed Tatsuko Sakaki. She’d been alone from preschool to elementary school to middle school. When they’d gone on school outings, she’d eaten the rice balls her mother made for her all by herself. When they were deciding groups for school field trips, after everyone else had settled in groups, she would be assigned to whichever group didn’t have enough people.

She’d taken it for granted that things would be this way and felt it was easier to spend time alone. Solitude formed the foundation, while being in groups took effort. It was a pain having to take care not to end up isolated, to smile to flatter people, to be forced to watch popular TV shows she didn’t care about in order to keep up with the conversation. If people weren’t going to bother with her, Tatsuko took no issue with that. As long as it didn’t develop into bullying, that was fine. If they just laughed at her sometimes, like, “She’s always alone, huh?” then she could suck it up.

After befriending Kaori, Tatsuko concluded that friends really were a bother, after all. Talking, smiling, hanging out, and doing things together was all more troublesome than being alone—but it was really fun.

Friends were a curse. Tatsuko didn’t want Kaori to abandon her. Before, she’d taken it for granted that she wouldn’t have friends. It had been normal for her. But now, having friends was normal and something she took for granted. She’d say hi like it was normal, eat lunch together like it was normal, and they’d invite each other over to each other’s houses after school like it was normal.

Without Kaori, she would lose that normalcy.

Toko was a liar, and Rain Pow was her accomplice. Rain Pow had said she wouldn’t kill Postarie for now, since she was going to make her a hostage. That wasn’t the sort of thing you’d say to a friend.

But Postarie had gone and saved Rain Pow. She sort of understood that the ninja had probably been on the right side of things and that Rain Pow and Toko were probably the real “evil mages,” but she’d saved Rain Pow anyway. When she’d seen that ninja trying to defeat her, Postarie had taken action. She hadn’t wanted Rain Pow to die.

As a result, Postarie had killed the ninja. She’d killed the one doing the right thing.

Postarie didn’t feel much shock over the fact of having killed her. She was actually a little gleeful at having done something bad, the same sort of thing Rain Pow and Toko, the villains, did. And she was shocked at herself for being glad about it.

Postarie was clinging to the possibility that Rain Pow saying she’d make Postarie her hostage had just been a convenience for use in that moment. It had to have been just something she’d blurted out in order to ensure the ninja wouldn’t attack Postarie. She was clinging to Rain Pow so hard, she was even trying to deceive herself with these implausible fantasies. She wanted to believe that she’d not made the wrong choice, at least.

Toko and Rain Pow were arguing about who was at fault. Feeling and hoping strongly that she was part of their group, Postarie smiled.

7753 (Time remaining: six hours, seventeen minutes)

“Whatever unbending convictions or principles you may have, bend them, just this once,” Mana told her. She said this as someone who had abandoned her own convictions and principles. And she wasn’t wrong in that. “This is an order from the team chief. Use your goggles on everyone, no matter who they are.”

“…Understood.”

“Even if it’s someone you’ve seen before, don’t let your guard down. We don’t know how the situation may have changed. Some people might mean well but do crazy things. Don’t make an exception for even a single person.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Not even for me.”

“Wait, but—”

“You can’t trust me just because I’m me. Don’t forget that there’s someone here with mind-control abilities. Nobody’s gonna commend you for getting stabbed in the back.”

“Yes, ma’am… I understand.”

7753 couldn’t look at herself through her own goggles. In other words, if she were to lie in her reports, then nobody could nail her for it. Mana knew that and was still ordering her to use her goggles without exception. It was no different from saying she intended to die together with 7753. Mana was telling her that she would take the leap of faith that 7753 was not an informant, so she should handle things in the easiest way possible.

Mana had been antagonistic, mean, and angry, had grabbed her by the collar, and had yelled at 7753 and Ripple, the outsiders, but in spite of all that, she was now saying she would trust 7753.

If the reason for that was that Hana had told 7753 about her relationship with Mana, then this basically meant 7753 was deceiving her. Her boss had given her that information, and she’d been ordered to say that and had done so. That was all. Hana had never trusted 7753 to the point where she would talk about her personal relationships.

In contrast with 7753’s sinking feelings, Mana was moving briskly.

Pukin had killed Hana, and after 7753 had stopped Mana from immediately seeking revenge, Mana had become restrained. She’d made the calculated judgment that if 7753 were to betray her, then she would lose, no matter how she struggled, so she’d decided to trust 7753 and was aiming to use her powers to the fullest. Hana had died in battle, and her trust in 7753 had to be a big part of this. 7753 couldn’t help but feel miserable.

Mana was not a magical girl. She hadn’t had a wink of sleep, so she had to be exhausted, but she didn’t show it. Her hair was a mess, she was covered in dust, and her glasses were cracked, but she was still standing firmly. When she gave orders to 7753, there was drive in her voice, and 7753 could see no hesitation in her.

7753 would even have preferred that Mana not trust her. She wasn’t actively betraying Mana, but she was essentially passively betraying her. 7753 had received orders from her boss, and she was hiding that fact. She was hiding that Archfiend Pam was dead, she wasn’t telling them that Pam’s death was driving the Department of Diplomacy into chaos, and she wasn’t saying anything about the weapon of mass destruction that might hit the town. She was trying to keep Mana, the team chief, in the dark about it all.

She wanted to talk to Mana. She wanted to tell her. But her boss’s instructions remained firm: “don’t talk to her” and “don’t tell her.” No matter how 7753 tried to convince her, her boss wouldn’t listen. Mana and her boss were similar in that they both believed they were doing the right thing. At this point, just what was 7753 trying to protect?

They met up with Kuru-Kuru Hime again on the roof of the radio station, and 7753 didn’t even have to look through her goggles to know she was haggard. 7753 knew about what had happened. She couldn’t think of what to say.

Kuru-Kuru Hime held out a smartphone to her. “I got a call. She said to call back…”

“A phone call? From who? A student?”

Kuru-Kuru Hime silently shook her head and pushed the phone toward her again. It was as if she was saying she didn’t want it.

When 7753 checked the call history, she saw that there had just been a call from another cell phone. Was this the one she was meant to call back? 7753 pressed redial, and before the first ring was even over, they picked up.

“Is this Kuru-Kuru Hime?” It was a girl with a sonorous voice. She sounded young, but there was something mature about her tone, too. She was either a magical girl who was an adult, pretransformation, or one who was still a child but had had a long career. Those conditions applied to none of Kuru-Kuru Hime’s allies.

7753 gave Mana a look. Eyes narrowing, Mana listened carefully.

After a moment of hesitation, 7753 replied, “No, this is 7753.”

“7753? The one from Magical Girl Resources?”

“…Yes. I’m with the inspection team now.”

This girl knew about 7753. Her voice was unfamiliar. She’d managed to call Kuru-Kuru Hime’s smartphone. 7753 couldn’t think of anyone to whom all this could apply. “Who might this be?”

“My name is Pythie Frederica.”

7753 drew her face away from the phone and closed her eyes. This brand-name phone now looked to her like some abominable magical artifact. She looked over at Mana and saw an expression of sincere disgust on her face, one eye scrunched.

Mana stole the phone from her. “Just what the hell do you want with us, Frederica?”

“Who is this?”

“Mana, the team chief.”

“Oh, so this is Chief Mana? That works out perfectly.”

If Frederica was the one talking, that explained why Kuru-Kuru Hime didn’t want to touch the phone.

“Might you and I cooperate?” Frederica’s voice was inappropriately sunny.

“Cooperate? What d’you mean by that?”

“Archfiend Pam is dead. I’ve also checked Ripple’s body. I know what she looks like, pretransformation, so there’s no mistaking it.”

Ripple was dead. What should she feel? What should she think? Though 7753 had anticipated this, her thoughts and feelings were all in disarray. She closed her eyes.

“Is Hana Gekokujou well?”

7753 hurriedly placed her hand on Mana’s shoulder, figuring it’d be bad if Mana were to get emotional, toss the phone on the ground, and break it. But Mana instead breathed a deep sigh. “Pukin killed Hana.” Even standing beside her, listening, 7753 could tell that Mana was doing her utmost to restrain her tone of voice.

Frederica’s tone lowered slightly as well. “We’ve also suffered severe losses. The assassin—the rainbow user of the middle school group—killed Tot Pop, and Archfiend Pam killed Sonia Bean. Pukin is alive, but…she attacked me. She’s like a cat who’s been sprinkled with cold water. She’s out of control.”