Chapter 6
☆ Dreamy☆Chelsea
Around the main building, there were trimmed trees and grasses, and it looked a bit like a garden. There are now guests within these gardens. At a glance, there were weak old men, and despite being told to take a rest, they never nodded to the suggestion. There were people that were waiting for the Magical Girls who left to listen to Meier’s voice, they all seemed worried, and Chelsea could sense that they were uneasy, and they say that they’d escape if they were attacked here, but won’t the old men be a burden then? Either way, there were lots of reasons for Chelsea to be in front of everyone reporting things.
When the sun started to set, they lit the lights, which gave everyone a shaded look, and it was embarrassing to have to tell things that she didn’t wanna say.
Pastel Merry was missing everywhere. She checked all the vacant rooms one by one, she opened all of the boxes in the storerooms to check if she was hiding inside of one, she even lifted the toilet seats and checked inside. She wasn’t even hiding behind the curtains in the bathrooms, Chelsea even took out all the books from the shelves, but no secret rooms popped out. To top it off, the grayfruits that she and Merry collected had now disappeared too. As soon as they figured out the effects of the grayfruit, they were ordered to collect all of them surrounding the building, which was just one of the first of many jobs that Chelsea hated doing ever since she came to this island. If the grayfruits were stolen, they’d be in all kinds of trouble.
Hearing Chelsea’s report, everyone had a very horrible looking expression on their face. Chelsea didn’t want to report this to people either, but the truth was the truth.
It was as if Chelsea were on top of the clouds. She was certain she was down here, but she also didn’t feel like she was down here. It was as if she was watching this unfold through a TV screen somewhere. Merry going missing, the Grayfruits going missing, they all seemed like things that wouldn’t happen in real life. That was probably why she didn’t feel too angry about Merry’s disappearance, or too sad. She was strangely calm, yet still flustered.
However, the others didn’t think the way Chelsea did. The fact that Merry and the grayfruits were missing made Agri angry, screaming, and shouting, she grabbed Shepherdspie’s collar and shook him. She kept spitting out words like “You!” “How do you explain this!” “Really!?” “Don’t bullshit me!” “Damn you!” out of her mouth, along with actual spit. She went from the face of a beautiful young woman to a distorted ugly angry looking face, and the transformation was scary to watch. Chelsea kept wondering “Is this when she’ll blow? Is this when she’ll blow? Is this when she’ll blow?”
Shepherdspie looked nervous. His form was like someone who couldn’t find any excuse. Seeing Shepherdspie like this made Chelsea angry. Shepherdspie never got angry. She was angry at all these people who were always saying it was Shepherdspie’s responsibility whenever something happened.
“What, so everything is Shepherdspie-Kun’s fault!?”
She moved without thinking. She jumped in front of Shepherdspie and pushed her hands outwards. Agri had a baffled look on her face before she stared at Chelsea blankly.
“Listen, I don’t know if you’re a maid or his mistress and I don’t care, but now’s not the time for this. I don’t care if you’re loyal to your master or whatever, we need to get that away from here.”
Chelsea had no idea what any of those words in the first part meant, but she understood the meaning of the last few ones, ‘we need to get that away’. Those words not only doubled, but tripled Chelsea’s anger.
Chelsea was really mad.
“I will not ‘get that away’! Dreamy☆Chelsea will always help those in need!”
Nobody says those words to Chie Yumeno. If anyone was angry about it, then they should calm down. The fire inside Chelsea couldn’t be cooled. She spat out emotions. Time began to pass. As they spoke words, their angry tones began to cool down bit by bit, until dinnertime, when they said “Well, we’ll have to continue this later. Just don’t get another outburst” “‘Mkay, sorry!”
Agri huffed out irritatedly.
“Oh, wait! You said you always help those in need right? Then can you help us fix the Gate and find our killer? We’re really in trouble right now, and could use someone like you.”
“But that’s not Shepherdspie-Kun’s fault! That’s like asking you not to get angry at Shepherdspie-Kun!”
“Now you’re just flipping the questions”
“No, you’re flipping the questions!”
Navi stood up and placed a hand on Agri’s shoulder.
“Hey, why don’t we instead focus on-”
“Oh shut up, old man!”
With a single word, Navi sat back where he sat before.
Instead, the horse—or was it Clantail, came forward instead, “Excuse me,” she said in a calm tone, as if she didn’t realize everyone was being angry right now. Agri annoyedly, or gloomily, tried to conceal her frustration and bent her neck.
“What?”
“I’m going to get some fruit.”
“Wait a minute.”
Mana interjected, shaking her head.
“It’s too dangerous. At least wait for Margarite and the rest.”
“But…”
Someone coughed. The coughing continued, and occasionally it stopped. Chelsea’s maternal grandfather had this cough. He said that after he got out of the hospital, he’d want to have some nice steak, but he never got out of the hospital.
Clantail ran to the coughing man, and patted his back. The old Mage used a handkerchief to cough into, and the white handkerchief became red when he coughed. Clantail stood up, bowed her head, then ran towards the annex.
...The annex? Why?
When she returned, she was carrying a large roll of cloth paper.
“I’ll be using this.”
She walked off before Shepherdspie could even tell her if it was good or bad. Her lower animal body became bathed in light, and then when it faded, it became a leopard, her hooves changing to claws, her tail becoming wavy and bouncy, her height became lower, and her posture also became lower.
Chelsea was surprised at how she transformed, and the people surrounding her were also as surprised. Mana took a slow step forward, was she trying to stop her? She looked hesitantly at Chelsea. Perhaps she was confused if she should stop Clantail, who headed for the forest to help Ragi, who looked like he was in bad shape. Chelsea could see why. With Mana being confused and Clantail speeding off, she couldn’t even see the tip of Clantail’s tail as she disappeared so fast. 7753 muttered to Mana “Should we go after her?” but Mana simply shook her head.
“But, does Clantail know where the grayfruits grow?”
“She’ll be fine…”
Everyone but the collapsed Ragi looked and saw Shepherdspie. Shepherdspie shrugged his shoulders, looked around, and cleared his throat.
“It’s not a rare tree in this island. You can find them at riversides, the forests, even the edges of the road. Though, it’s not like you’ll find many fruits in one tree. There’s only a certain amount. Well, I’m sure it’ll only take a while… Oh yeah, it would’ve helped if she checked the topographical map.”
“Wait, was that what Clantail was carrying earlier?”
“I thought that was a tapestry…”
I see. Oh yeah, there were tapestries hung on the wall of every room. Using that to search would be better than searching blindly.
“Can you really understand from a tapestry, though?”
“Since it’s drawn pretty accurately, I’d say it’s better than nothing, but… they do grow all over the island, but she shouldn’t have to go to all that trouble. She should be able to find something if she searches around the Annex. She doesn’t have to go too far…”
Wow, even though she’s got an animal for a body, she’s a pretty smart girl, thought Chelsea, impressed. However, Mana was just arbitrarily acting out and being angry, and Agri was just shouting about thieves and being angry. That’s why Mana, who was angry, and Agri, who prioritized securing the stolen fruits but in reality was just angry, butted heads. The other Mages and Magical Girls don’t even want to go between these two’s arguments. Shepherdspie breathed out a sigh of relief because the focal point of their arguments weren’t directed at him. Chelsea could only think “Guess you’re saved huh, Shepherdspie-Kun!”
Agri was shouting at Shepherdspie and Chelsea, and was now shouting at Mana. Perhaps Chelsea just doesn’t exist for her now that she doesn’t see her. Or perhaps Agri’s just fine with shouting at anyone really.
Her mom told her Mages were a very smart bunch. When she met them though, all she could think of was “Really?” as she tilted her head. They don’t seem very intelligent, to be honest.
Granted, the situation of people killing people didn’t seem like it was something that happens in reality. It felt like an action drama, or a manga, or a movie, or an Anime, or a Light Novel. It didn’t seem to be something she should concern herself with. Even when she saw Ragi collapsed on the floor, all she could muster was “Poor guy.”
She was concerned that Clantail ran off, but at the same time she was so daring that she looked really cool doing it. Ragi looked like he didn’t want to be here, so basically a stubborn old grandpa. If it was Chelsea, she’d consider him disgusting, yet Clantail risked her life to go out to the forest to find a way to save him.
Working hard to save your friends. That was very Magical Girly of her.
Even though Clantail was a Magical Girl, she didn’t look like the ones that Chelsea liked. If a Magical Girl like Clantail showed up in an Anime, comments like “Why would something weird like that be in a Magical Girl show? I wish people would stay faithful to the old days of being a Magical Girl and not take shortcuts. Seriously, people these days,” would probably show up in social media. But even though she wasn’t the kind that Chelsea preferred, she was still a Magical Girl. She would risk her life to save her Employer to find the grayfruits, without even having to be asked.
Of course she would, she’s a Magical Girl.
The wind stroked the ground, and blew in twice. Chelsea unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself. Wait, that’s not very Magical Girlish, she thought as she separated her arms again. For some reason, when she faced the palm of her hands to her, they were slightly trembling.
She looked at the sky. The sun was about to set beyond the forest.
She looked at Mana and Agri. She had no idea what they were talking about all this time, it was just shouting to her. She was angry because she believed Merry stole the fruits, saying it was Shepherdspie’s responsibility, saying that Merry might have caused these series of incidents.
Chelsea gripped her shaking hands together and squeezed them tight. Her brilliantly long red Magical Girl nails dug into her skin, and she felt pain. However, that pain was what brought Chelsea back to reality.
She wasn’t the Chelsea who would shut up while her friend was being badmouthed. She wasn’t even the Chelsea who would shut up despite Clantail carrying something delicious.
“You’re wrong.”
She blurted out. Mana, Agri, the Mages and Magical Girls all looked towards Chelsea. Chelsea simply puffed out her chest and looked proudly at everyone.
“You’re wrong, Merry-Chan didn’t steal anything!”
Her mother had once told her, you daydream too much about being a Magical GIrl, she said to her, you’re a Magical Girl that lives in reality, so you need to have a realistic perspective. However, if she just nodded out and said “Okay!” then Dreamy☆Chelsea wouldn’t be Dreamy☆Chelsea now, would she? She won’t yield to anything, not even when she’s being told to come for dinner or that she’ll get less of her monthly allowance.
“Merry-Chan is not a thief!”
When she said those words, her consciousness became clear. She knew what she had to do. Ever since she came to this island, Merry was the closest Magical Girl she knew. She was a friend. She’d never steal. She can’t be the culprit. Chelsea was also a Magical Girl. Magical Girls are supposed to believe in their friends. No matter what happens, she’ll always believe in her. So she won’t betray Merry, and she knew Merry wouldn’t steal either. The reason Merry left could’ve been that she was running away from whoever stole the Grayfruits. What’s so bad about that? Though, Merry could have also just been taken by someone, and why would she need to run away in the first place? She’s in a dangerous situation either way.
Chelsea pointed to herself with her thumb. That was her declaration of determination. That was her saying I’m a Magical Girl.
“I’m gonna save Merry-Chan!”
There were so many people here. They’ve all gathered together. It wasn’t that dangerous. Wherever Merry was though was different. She could’ve been captured by someone. She could be running, hiding, and crying somewhere, she could even have been killed. As a Magical Girl, and as a friend, Chelsea had to save her.
While looking around at all of the surprised faces staring at her, she could feel the fading Magical Girl strength inside of her. Fortunately, since she often ate some Grayfruits while Shepherdspie wasn’t looking—she can’t help it—her strength should last longer than the other Magical Girls.
Shepherdspie in a panic shook both of his hands.
“I-I don’t think you should-”
“Nope! Gonna do it!”
Mana stepped forward and reached out to Chelsea.
“It’s dangerous!”
“I know that!”
She nimbly dodged Mana’s hand, then kicked a tree trunk, landing at a myriad of tree roots on her toes.
“Leave it to Dreamy☆Chelsea!”
She posed, looking at the old men and young ladies that had stunned expressions. She was going to save Pastel Merry.
☆ Miss Margarite
Margarite looked up at the main building. The light was on at the upper floor. They must have wanted to have a little light, though the atmosphere of this place was still dark.
Although she was positive that Meier’s killer was someone she didn’t know ever since they visited the body, she wanted to confirm her theory by using 7753’s goggles. She didn’t feel that the atmosphere had lightened, that any motivations came out, or that anyone was willing to work together. The Magical Girls returned back to their original employers, and some were busy reporting in secret.
Touta was doing well. Even Yol, who had been crying all the time, seemed to be feeling better after he presented her with some Grayfruits. Her eyes were red, her cheeks were pale, she was hardly what you’d call healthy, but she was able to eat something that would keep her alive.
Margarite wanted to stroke Touta’s head, but stopped just at the verge of doing it. Treating him like a child when she wanted to show him respect was unseemly.
“...What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
She patted him on the back twice, and Touta looked up with a strange look on his face. He was doing better than she thought. She began rubbing his back, but when Touta looked like he was in pain, she removed her hand.
“I’m surrounded by egoists! Seriously! Bah!”
Mana was enraged, Agri wrapped her arms around Ren-Ren and Nephilia, those three were talking about something. Clarissa and Navi were doing the same. It felt like something happened. Whatever it is, it couldn’t have been good.
Margarite took the Grayfruit in her right hand and pushed it in front of Mana.
“I collected some on-”
Mana quickly took the fruit, then turned around, giving it to 7753. She returned with a somewhat softer expression on her face, then she was fine with speaking.
“I was going to say that I collected some Grayfruits on the way home.”
Once again she handed a fruit towards Mana. Mana looked at the Grayfruit in her hand, then looked around. She was probably trying to calculate if there was enough fruit to share to everyone. Mana sighed, then chewed it with an annoyed look.
“No, I’m grateful… No really, I am.”
“Well, I found it by chance anyway. It didn’t take a lot of time, so it’s no big deal.”
“Even if it wasn’t a big deal, it’s kind of valuable.”
“What happened? There’s less people around”
“The fruits we’ve collected were all stolen.”
“...How did that happen?”
“Pastel Merry’s gone.”
“Did she take them?”
“That’s what we’re discussing right now.”
Mana’s face became bitter. By discussion she probably meant shouting.
“Now Dreamy☆Chelsea’s flown off somewhere.”
“Why?”
“Oh, Pastel Merry’s not a thief. She’d never steal from anyone. I’m going to go save her!”
Margarite placed her hand on her forehead. Her headaches weren’t an imagination. Who allowed someone with a few screws loose to be a Magical Girl again?
“Nobody stopped her?”
“Nobody can stop her.”
It’d be cruel to ask the Mages to try and stop a Magical Girl
“...And Clantail?”
Mana looked behind her. 7753 was squatting next to an old Mage. She was feeding him the Grayfruit. Ragi had swallowed the Grayfruit in his mouth, though whether or not he was chewing them, she couldn’t tell. 7753 hurriedly held up the hat that was about to fall from his head.
“The old man was vomiting blood. While there’s no official verdict, he’s reaching his limit, and since he won’t be able to last long without Grayfruits, she took a tapestry and ran off to the forest.”
Clantail was being unreasonable. Still, compared to Chelsea’s insanity, her actions would have some benefit.
Margarite took a mouthful of the Grayfruit. The fruit skin and juices mixed with her saliva as it went down her throat, replenishing the feeling of hunger that not even Magical Girls could feel.
While Ragi wouldn’t say it, his elderly physical condition was telling. When the Magical Girls lost their ability to transform, he was the first among the Mages to fall down. Meaning Ragi was already weak even before their transformations were lifted. He was literally reaching his deadline. He won’t be able to show any resistance should the Magical Girls detransform and the enemy attacks them, and would be killed on the spot. Everyone knew that, it’s because they knew that that Agri, Navi, and the Magical Girls chomped down on the Grayfruits.
...But still...
Although she didn’t measure time accurately, this was considerably shorter than the last time Ragi fell ill and ate Grayfruits, were the Grayfruits getting weaker? Or was the situation becoming more serious?
7753 stood up and headed towards Rareko and Yol. Was Ragi still comfortable? He was leaning on his cane and sitting down, his expression showed fatigue and tiredness, and he also looked like he was about to collapse.
Margarite took the last of the fruit in her palm, chewed it, and swallowed. While she didn’t like treating the weaker older men like canary birds, she wouldn’t be able to avoid doing it. Clantail was no doubt a passionate Magical Girl to be running off to the forest like that.
Although she was self-deprecating, it was no excuse to abandon her job. With the Mages at the center, the Magical Girls began consulting each other. Even though they said they shouldn’t clump together, in the end they were.
“Pastel Merry being the culprit is one thing, but we should all stay close to each other”
“Okay sure, but…”
Mana’s bitterness increased.
“I think we need to know each Magical Girl’s powers, as well as each Mage’s specialties.”
They knew that among them, Meier’s killer and whoever sabotaged the Gate wasn’t one of them. Which means it should be imperative that they work together as closely as possible. Normally, she’d suggest they use 7753’s Magical Skill, but for some reason Mana wasn’t doing that.
She could do it without telling people. 7753 could conceal the use of her powers. She could investigate the other Magical Girls and Mages’ capabilities and only reveal it to her own side. Ragi wanted 7753’s information to be shared, so those intentions were shattered, but everyone knew that Mana could’ve ordered 7753 to do that anyways. It wouldn’t be unnatural for someone to wonder whether 7753 had really done it or not. As long as they were quick-witted, only they would reap the rewards.
It’d be hard to propose something to Mana, considering she had some negative qualities. Moreover, looking at the current situation, Mana seemed to have been arguing with someone while Margarite was gone, which would only make offering a proposal more difficult.
Margarite moved her finger from her forehead to her chin.
As Margarite was merely an escort Magical Girl, and not an invited guest, accepting a suggestion from her would be tough. Depending on how she’d say it, some people might get aggravated. If this were the Examination Division, no one would care about the differences between Magical Girls or Mages, but this wasn’t the Examination Division. Despite Touta being invited, people surely have noticed his inability to use magic. It wouldn’t be suitable for him to propose anything.
If she were to ask Yol, who Touta seemed to have a good relationship with, would that result in something good? Even though she was young, she had good character and an influential family. She had a strong pull despite her youth. However, with Meier having been killed, the girl may be suffering emotional shock, and might not be able to-
“Excuse me.”
Margarite removed her finger from her chin and turned around. John Shepherdspie, who was slumping as much as possible, stood up. Oh right, I forgot he was here. He’s actually more useful as someone who can propose something than Yol.
“I want to ask about Pastel Merry. Did you happen to see her in the forests?”
“I didn’t.”
“I see…”
He sighed out loud, not trying to hide anything, and took a bite out of a Grayfruit. She could see the hardships in his face. He may be a good person, but she doubted that he could carry more burdens. Still, he was a better option than the crying Yol.
Shepherdspie slowly swallowed his fruit.
“Hm, I’ve got something to ask… about Meier.”
“Yes?”
“Where should we bury her?”
Margarite looked at him with a serious face. Shepherdspie flinched, then pushed his hands forward.
“Er, well I’m glad that she was able to be returned to Lady Yol safely, but I’d have to know where she’s… I mean, I don’t have any ill intentions or-”
“No, no… The body is still how I left it.”
“A...Ah… I see… Yes, right.”
Shepherdspie bowed down in an apologetic matter. Margarite rubbed her face from top to bottom before returning to what she thought was her original expression.
It would be natural to bury a body during peacetime, but there were no Magical Girls that she could propose it to when she was there. Margarite didn’t think about that. She mourned for Meier’s death, but she still didn’t think of that. She didn’t think they could spend time digging a grave when their enemy could attack any moment. At best, she simply picked up some fruits on the way back.
Given that Shepherdspie had a relatively good personality, wouldn’t that make Margarite the deviant instead? She certainly put him lower in priority than Yol, though Margarite didn’t really mean to forget his existence. She glanced at Mana as she nodded slightly, walked this way and bowed at Shepherdspie. Had she known Margarite’s intentions?
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
Instead of an annoyed look, he gave her a puzzled one instead. But the one she could ask for help was Shepherdspie. Before Margarite could explain what it was, she heard an instant “Now listen here” reply.
It was Agri. She had a Grayfruit in her right hand, but her empty left hand was pointing out with her index finger. She was pointing at the three Grayfruits Margarite was holding. Although she tried to distribute one by one to everyone, three remained still. In other words, there were three left over.
“Listen here, you know collecting more of that would’ve been better, right? This is barely enough!”
“She’s right!”
Navi nodded as well, and Clarissa nodded many many times, perhaps to imitate him.
“Looking at the state of things, I think we should start forming teams, right?”
“That’s right. That’s what I’m saying! So, I suggest-”
Agri moved the fruit from her right to her left hand, probably to throw it behind her. Love Me Ren-Ren was standing behind, catching it with both hands.
“I think the ones collecting should keep their own share”
She looked at each other one by one, then placed her hand on her chest.
“For example, let’s say the enemy attacks us. Us Mages can barely put up a fight whether we’re laying down or wide awake, but can you imagine if the Magical Girls suddenly couldn’t transform? I think we should prioritize the Grayfruits to the Magical Girls”
“Now wait a minute.”
Navi shook his head, and Clarissa shook hers many many times, perhaps to imitate him. Her big catlike ears shook left and right as well.
“I’m all for Mages who think they’re kinda useless and all that, but I consider myself pretty useful. When I can’t do anything in an emergency, I can’t help any of you guys.”
“Wha… What?”
Agri placed her hands on her hips. She bent forward to face Navi, and Navi didn’t back down, puffing his chest to face Agri, resulting in the two of them being in this bizarre position.
“You trying to say that just because you think you’re useful that you should get special treatment, old man?”
“Well little lady, I think that you just want a bigger share, just because you have two Magical GIrls with you.”
“What!? Oh, I get it, you sneak. You think just because you have thoughts like that then obviously everyone else does too.”
“I never said that.”
Navi looked around, and in his gaze was the sickly Ragi.
“Now listen, I ain’t saying changing the distribution method’s a bad idea, but segregating Magical Girls and Mages is just discrimination, don’t you think? The standard should be if they’re useful or not useful. That’s not discrimination, that’s just meritocracy.”
Yol and Touta seemed to be perplexed at the whole thing, Rareko alternated between the two Mages with a weak expression, Shepherdspie was meekly slumping, Ren-Ren felt apologetic, and then there’s Nephilia, who seemed to be having a great time smiling by herself. 7753 was glancing at Mana, slightly scratching her shoulder, and Mana… Margarite couldn’t tell what Mana was thinking. She was furrowing her eyebrows to the point of wrinkling her forehead, and she was gritting her teeth so hard you could visibly see her teeth. No matter how much progress seems to be made, there’s always something that gets these two fighting. Explosions are bound to happen not 5 seconds away from each other.
Margarite was strangely calm. Why? She didn’t know the answer to it herself. This was a situation where they should cooperate, but no one was cooperating. Instead they were cutting off weak ends and trying to gain as much profits as possible. They act like desperate people reduced to base wants and needs. Normally Margarite would be angry like Mana, but for some reason she was calm. She couldn’t find the words to why she was like that-
“She’s here.”
There was a voice from above. It was just across from Mana, the flying Magical Girl. Tepsekemei. The Magical Girl Margarite couldn’t understand. It was her voice, though. But she wasn’t paying attention to the two Mages that were arguing. Instead, she was facing the main building. She wasn’t looking at the main building, merely facing it. In fact, she was looking far beyond the main building, at somewhere far away.
“What’s wrong, Mei?”
Mana asked Mei. Mei kept staring at where she was staring while muttering out “Pukin.” Mana’s expressions started changing as fast as they came. First confusion, then disgust, then surprise, and the most powerful one, was fear.
Margarite squinted her eyes. She knew who Pukin was. The files regarding the B-City incident mentioned her name several times. The Magical Girl who killed Hana Gekokujo. She had extremely high battle potential, and the number of victims caused by Pukin in B-City alone couldn’t be counted with the digits of your hands or feet.
But Pukin was gone. She wasn’t even imprisoned anymore. She was deceased.
Mana’s breathing became shallower. She was breathing fast and was nervous.
“Pukin’s… Why is Pukin here?”
“She’s the same.”
“She’s the same?”
“Someone like Pukin is here.”
Margarite tried to ask Tepsekemei what she meant, but she closed her mouth. She had a feeling. Something was here. Her heart began beating loudly. She pulled out her sword. The main building was around 50-100 meters across from here. Despite that distance, she felt endangered enough that she could feel the killing intent all the way over here, and then her body moved. The ground shook after, an earsplitting noise caused all the animals to disperse, and large chunks of the ground and the trees began falling. Some of them hitting the spires of the main building, breaking the walls and towers. Then, what looked like a geyser of steam burst from behind the main building, sparking and hissing.
“The power supply is behind the main building!”
Not even a millisecond passed after Shepherdspie spoke, the lights in the main building all went dark.
Margarite looked towards Touta, but Touta wasn’t there anymore. Rareko had ran off to the forest carrying Yol, and Yol was holding onto Touta’s hand, carrying him into the forest as well.
In the corner of her eyesight, Clarissa was carrying some big luggage and running away. She was probably just carrying Navi. Shepherdspie fell on his back, and Agri’s group was gone.
They must’ve sensed the killing intent and ran off just as well, but not unconditionally. This was probably a trigger that made the group act out on their own. It was obvious to everyone that the fruits weren’t enough. The need to move had risen, and since the main building was destroyed, there was no point in staying in one place. In addition, the attack happened just after the exchange where people thought “We’re just rabble anyway”. Their will to cooperate had already withered.
Everyone had their own reasons. Rareko due to her timidness, or perhaps Meier’s death, or perhaps she was protecting her Master. Agri and Navi were two people who would want to take initiative. Plenty of Mages like them would want to stand above the others no matter when. They probably didn’t want anyone else taking control or deciding what to do, or perhaps they just didn’t want 7753’s goggles to see more of them. Margarite huffed out loud. That wasn’t something she should think about in a place where she could die.
The ruins of the main building and the clumps of earth rained down, mixed together with trees that were uprooted straight from the ground and man-sized boulders. Tepsekemei stood there not avoiding it, but they all merely passed through her body. Margarite avoided the flying objects as if they were grenades, while barely swinging her sword. 7753 stood in front of Mana and Shepherdspie, gathering up any fruits with both hands and screaming out “Ow, ow, owwww!!!” while guarding them and stopping the debris with her upper body.
“Margarite.”
From beyond the dust smoke, she heard a voice calling out.
“You didn’t escape?”
“I should be asking you that… Tepsekemei.”
“Mei is good at escaping, that’s why Mei’s a survivor.”
“I see.”
“Mei escaped Mao Pam.”
“Wow, that’s actually… impressive.”
“Mei gets praised often for that.”
“You could get in the history books for something like that. No one’s ever escaped Mao Pam, just having it in your biography will let all of the Divisions welcome you as a fighter with open arms, especially the Examination Division, they’re always looking for…”
She stopped herself talking. Beyond the main building, the silent presence from beyond the forest continued to make her shiver, causing her to stop speaking. Though they purposefully left themselves open, it didn’t seem like the presence was going to attack these two Magical Girls. The presence slowly faded, and disappeared. Margarite relaxed, counted a whole 5 minutes before finally sheathing her sword. She made a loud noise, baiting it, but the presence didn’t make any signs of returning.
She took her hat, the edges of them were wet. She touched her forehead and felt sweat pouring down. She could even feel sweat pouring down her back all the way behind her. 7753 was breathing out as if calming her soul, supporting the fallen down Mana.
Tepsekemei took a bite from the Grayfruit in her right hand, then stared at it.
“Is this porridge?”
“Porridge?”
“Or is this cucumber sandwich?”
Margarite had no idea what she was saying. She looked over at 7753, but she looked like she was staggering with a crying-looking face. She didn’t look like she was in any shape to interpret her. Margarite closed an eye. There were plenty of Magical Girls who seemed like they were talking about something, but really they weren’t really talking about anything. Margarite decided to not respond to Tepsekemei, but to ask instead.
“So you said Pukin.”
“She’s like Pukin.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s not like us.”
“You mean… she’s not a Magical Girl?”
“She’s not like us.”
At least this made more sense than whatever that porridge talk was about, as Margarite already had more experience with this. Whoever she was, she was a fearsome Magical Girl, a powerful Magical Girl, a great Magical Girl, a variety of imagery that suggested a Magical Girl that rose above all others, but she wasn’t simply strong. She had something fundamentally different from them. Perhaps the most appropriate description would be disgusting. Margarite has never seen her, and only felt her presence, but that was how she felt. She acted before she even thought, or perhaps… she was forced to act.
Was she even a Magical Girl? Then again, it would be difficult to suggest that she was something other than a Magical Girl. Surrounding her were rocks, rubble, fallen trees and clumps of dirt. The main building was almost semi-destroyed. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that the terrain beyond the main building had been altered as well. This type of destruction and killing intent stopped Margarite in her tracks. Who else than a Magical Girl could’ve done something like this…?
“Was Pukin… a Magical Girl?”
“She was a Magical Girl. But she’s not like us.”
She had heard that older Magical Girls had a different build than modern ones. Similar to neanderthals and cro magnons, or more accurately, modern day birds and ancient reptiles.
“So what should we do?”
7753 was dusting off any remaining debris from her shoulders—and looked to be quite burdened at that, but she was still willing to help—while asking Mana. Margarite answered,
“We need to regroup with the ones that ran off, but first…”
“But first?”
“We need some Grayfruits.”
“Oh, right.”
Margarite straightened her hat, the parts where sweat had flowed were now cold and pale. In this tropical island, the temperature dropped down at night, and if you looked up, the clouds would be almost transparent, making way to the moon shining behind it.
Even if she had companions who would stay behind rather than scatter and run in times of danger, it wouldn’t mean much if she didn’t have many people. Their enemy wasn’t an ordinary foe. She was a Magical Girl—no, she was a thing that was on a level capable of killing Meier. She knew that, but Margarite’s legs couldn’t move. She wasn’t able to see whether there was a winning move or not.
She was worried for Touta, but she had to rely on Rareko on that end. If there was one thing Rareko excelled at more than Meier, it’s that she would be the first to run away without any hesitation, she had no illusions of unneeded pride. She prayed that wherever the enemy showed their face, Rareko would be able to escape.
As she looked around, she saw no signs of Ragi. Was he dragged off by someone helpful, or did he somehow manage to escape in the large explosion? Margarite wrapped her arms around the fallen Shepherdspie and carried him on her back, 7753 asked her worriedly.
“Is he… going to be okay?”
“...He has no injuries.”
According to Mana’s observations, he has no injuries, but the large shock he received knocked him unconscious. Whether that’s a good thing or not is yet to be seen.
First, they should find some Grayfruits as originally planned, Margarite believed the fruits she saw on the way home would be a good place to start. There wasn’t enough time to pick all of the fruits then, so there should be some remaining. The first one to start walking was Tepsekemei, and behind her, Margarite was-
“Wait, Tepsekemei!”
“What’s wrong, Margarite.”
“Would you mind if you choose directions where I could also travel with you?”
“What’s wrong with the pond?”
“I can’t walk on the pond.”
“Oh, okay.”
Behind her, Margarite was following along.
☆ Love Me Ren-Ren
The river flowing between the trees was shallow enough that even a five year old could waddle around on it. Ren-Ren was floating above those rivers, crawling, and traversing cliffs, diving into culverts, all while traversing a river upstream. She finally reached the rockside that bled out the water making the river before breathing out a sigh.
From the center of the island, she’s reached the eastern edge. She could hear the sounds of insects from inside bushes and the hooting of owls from above the trees.
Ren-Ren had something like a closet inside her heart. She’d sort out the humans, Magical Girls, and Mages that she’s met into different types and put them in her closet before taking them out when needed. None of them were exactly the same, but there were some similarities, or something they had in common. Even Magical Girls Ren-Ren had just met responded accordingly to the Magical Girl information she had stored.
However, there were Magical Girls she couldn’t categorize. For example, Tepsekemei. She had no idea what that girl was thinking, whatever it was, she definitely didn’t convey it well to the others. Then there was the earlier encounter. That’s right, she didn’t see it directly, but she felt like she’s encountered this opponent before. Just remembering it made her body tremble and made her feel nauseous. She didn’t want to remember it if possible. Even though she didn’t see her, she was sure she’s never met anything like her.
She had met violent people, and selfish people. There were even people who enjoyed badmouthing others, and people who felt joy at others’ suffering.
However, she’d never met anything like what she had encountered.
“Ren-Ren. Hey, Ren-Ren.”
“Y-Yes? What is it?”
“You’re holding me too tight. If you go any tighter, I think you’ll actually break my limbs.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. You can let me down now anyways. Thanks.”
“Yeah…”
She put down Agri, who she was carrying before. She felt the warmth of her thighs disappear from her arms. She supported her back on a tree, and raised her arms to stretch them out like some radio gymnastics session.
Ren-Ren took a deep breath and looked at Nephilia. Nephilia was looking back at her.
“Earlier… Earlier… Was that…”
There was no hiding her expressions, she was having a serious look on her face and wasn’t willing to speak. Ren-Ren nodded, then looked at Agri
“Um, about earlier.”
“Yes?”
“Do you think that was the one who…”
“Attacked Meier? I think so.”
“I think so too…”
“Do you think you can win against that, Ren-Ren?”
There was no way to measure that. She wasn’t even thinking of exactly how strong her opponent could be. As far as how strong compared to herself, whoever that was was probably 10 times stronger than her, or perhaps 100 times stronger. Ren-Ren was far too weak compared to that to see for sure. To Ren-Ren, she would clump Mao School students, Mao School graduates, and Mao School teachers as “Really powerful people”. The only people who could determine who was stronger and weaker among that group were people who were already in that group.
“So is it impossible?”
“I, um, well… I’ll try.”
“Alright. Good answer. What about you, Nephi?”
“...Nope.”
“Alright. That’s also a good answer.”
She seemed to be smiling brightly in a situation like this.
There was no sign of the hysterical Mage that she was before the building exploded.
“Um.”
“Yes?”
“I left all of our stuff back there…”
“It’s fine, it’s not that big of a deal. It’d actually be more trouble to go back and get it.”
“Okay.”
“For now, as long as we have these.”
Agri took out a Grayfruit in her hand, opened her mouth, but stopped just short of taking a huge bite out of it. She looked at Ren-Ren and Nephilia in order while still opening her mouth, then wiped the fruit with her sleeves before giving one to Ren-Ren, then taking out another and giving it to Nephilia.
“You two need this more than me.”
“But-”
“I told you all earlier, didn’t I? I wasn’t being half-hearted. If we’re ever in danger, there’s a big difference between me being unconscious and you two being unable to transform.”
Nephilia made a happy face and chomped down on it. Ren-Ren reluctantly took a bite. No matter how many times she did it, she’ll never get tired of the sweetness. It was delicious.
“Okay then, here’s good, right?”
“It should be.”
“She’s not here yet, though…”
“Well, yeah…”
After eating the fruits, Nephilia, who had a soft expression, looked diagonally upwards and tightened her face, then placed her finger on her mouth, interrupting Ren-Ren’s conversation. Ren-Ren listened. She heard the rustling of leaves, followed by footsteps. They weren’t alone. Wait, they were alone, but it was as if there were a bunch of animals behind them. The sound of insects stopped.
“She’s here.”
The moment she said that, Ren-Ren had barely blinked. The person Agri had talked about had finally arrived.
“I’m sorrryyyyy, I’m laaate, I’m sooooorryyyyyyyy!”
Pastel Merry dove and slid dramatically, and Ren-Ren took it like someone who would take a tackle. She landed with her face on Ren-Ren’s chest, to the point where Ren-Ren could feel the heat of her breath. She unconsciously tried to pull her off, but Merry unexpectedly resisted, and resisted with such strength too.
“Merry. Merry, are you okay? Could you get off?”
Merry was muttering something she couldn’t hear, but was just constantly pressing her face to Ren-Ren’s chest. Ren-Ren turned her head and looked at Nephilia for help. Nephilia laughed while helping out Ren-Ren, and the two Magical Girls were able to lift up Merry.
“Are you okay, Merry? Can you hear me?”
“Ren-Ren! I’m so sorry! It’s just I’ve been separated for so long, I felt lonely!”
Merry looked embarrassed but reluctant to pull away, then she fell backwards, tripping on some rocks, and rolled over, her body being caught by one of the sheep as she sunk into their wool.
The feeling of love that Ren-Ren causes from her Magical Skill varies between people. Pastel Merry has a relatively high suppression rate. Ren-Ren thought reserved and modest people were good characteristics.
“Merry, why’d you steal all the Grayfruits that everyone’s gathered up?”
“But you asked me to get some Grayfruits, Ren-Ren. So I got ‘em… Was that bad?”
“Well no, but…”
While Merry continued to apologize by bowing multiple times, her eyes kept looking up at Ren-Ren. What Ren-Ren actually asked her was “Could you gather us some Grayfruits as fast as you can and meet us somewhere?” She was hoping that Merry would take the hint and gather some Grayfruits in the forest nearby, but she resorted to theft instead.
“Guess I should’ve been more specific.”
Agri sighed out.
This was Ren-Ren’s fault. Agri didn’t know the full extent of Ren-Ren’s powers. The only one who knew what kind of state the people on this island that Ren-Ren shot with her arrow and made to fall in love with her was Ren-Ren.
That’s why Ren-Ren needs to be very specific in her orders.
Agri had said that she wanted to gather up Grayfruits. That in itself was a good thing, thought Ren-Ren. However, Agri also wanted it to be kept secret from everyone else. “We have to cooperate with the people we trust.” “I don’t think you two will be enough with the killer running loose.” So Ren-Ren was persuaded to do so because of the urgency of those words.
The Grayfruits shared by everyone were worthless. The ones that Agri would’ve kept by herself would have value. When time passed and the number of shared Grayfruits ran low, only then would Agri’s Grayfruits prove useful and valuable. She could use it to gain things in bargain, and Agri would be able to get things she wouldn’t be able to normally but craved for.
Agri’s eyes felt like they were filled with heat, though the words that came out of her mouth were strangely cool. Agri’s own life may be in danger, but if Ren-Ren tried to explain it, she’d just reply with “I don’t think people will die anymore.” For some reason, those words without basis managed to pierce through her argument, and since she asked while holding both her hands, Ren-Ren could do nothing but nod.
They had to gather Grayfruit secretly, so Pastel Merry, who could control plenty of sheep, was suitable for this job. Agri’s suggestion defied all manner of laws and ethics, but Ren-Ren kept nodding. She nodded while realizing that she’d be sending Pastel Merry alone to the dangerous forest. While Pastel Merry was working in the main building and had her back turned, Ren-Ren aimed her arrow and shot it like a sniper. Ren-Ren’s arrows wouldn’t cause physical pain to the target, it’ll only fill them with uncontrollable love. When she asked her to do her orders, she saw Ren-Ren leave out the backdoor. Ren-Ren simply watched the backdoor as she thought her mission was already complete.
But even this became a serious matter. Merry was performing Ren-Ren’s decisions and determination to the brink of their capacity. Ren-Ren needs to have detailed conditions to give to Pastel Merry, and what she asked was missing some. Because of that, Pastel Merry, who was trying to collect as many Grayfruits as possible without people finding out went to the Grayfruit stockpile in the main building. That was what she was ordered to do.
Agri panicked. Ren-Ren panicked too. She had no idea if Nephilia panicked though.
Agri played the part of an emotional and rash Mage, shouting and roaring, talking about Nephilia’s powers and what they discovered from Meier, and generally delaying everything as much as possible, then the enemy showed up. The timing was perfect, rather it was too perfect, but Agri just said “Well, guess that happened,” and convinced Ren-Ren enough to just nod along.
Although it wasn’t exactly as planned, in the end they did manage to collect the fruit. There was a considerable number of sheep behind Merry carrying around the bags and boxes.
“Turns out it was a big deal that we didn’t know the full details of your powers, Ren-Ren. I thought it’d be worthwhile to have an atmosphere where we wouldn’t have to share Magical Skills.”
“It was.”
“But it’s still not enough.”
A smile formed at the edge of Agri’s mouth. Ren-Ren gulped.
“Not enough… You mean the fruits?”
“Yes. More is better, right? Though I’d like to refrain from using all this sheep if possible. Everyone’s scattered on the island so we won’t know if anyone could spot them. Well, I wouldn’t mind if they were just seen, but we’d be in trouble if the sheep were followed.”
“But it’s dangerous… Trying to collect more now would be-”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I don’t think anyone wants any more trouble. Everyone else has that look on their faces, too.”
Ren-Ren tilted her head. Agri was talking like she knew what was going to happen. Ren-Ren even had a thought, was she the one who killed… But no, remembering 7753’s goggles, Agri wasn’t the one.
“Um… do you know if anything’s… going to happen?”
“Well no, but I’ve been thinking loooong and hard about this, like wonder if anything like that will happen?”
What’s that supposed to mean? She wanted to say, but before she could, she felt a tap on her back and instinctively reacted. It was Nephilia. When she turned around wondering if now was really the right time for this, she saw Nephilia looking at the sky. Ren-Ren looked at where Nephilia was looking at as well. She wasn’t looking at the sky, but above a boulder. The image of a person with the light of the moon behind them was standing on top of a boulder.
“Chelsea’s finally here! ...Hey, are you listening!?”
She remembered her voice, and she also remembered her objective.
Ren-Ren placed her fingers on the box, tapping them twice, the fingers tapping back did the same thing, tapping twice. Ren-Ren nodded, and she felt Nephilia nodding back in return.
Ren-Ren leaped and flapped her wings in one action, passing the boulder and the person standing on it while looking down at them. Nephilia held out her scythe and stood in front of Agri, slowly retreating towards the bushes. Merry had a frightened look on her face and escaped with a lump of her sheep.
Ren-Ren had clearly shouted out I have to do something in her mind. It was clear what that something she had to do was, shoot out an arrow and charm her opponent. Dreamy☆Chelsea struck the pose she did just then before running off to the forest and coming face-to-face with Ren-Ren.
The sheep Chelsea was holding down with her left hand was struggling. She then abruptly let go, and the sheep began rolling down underneath the rocks.
She followed the sheep…?
“I found you, you scoundrels! Give Merry-Chan back now!”
Her words and her poses, it was like she was actually acting out the part of a Magical Girl.
“Give her back? What are you talking about…”
Ren-Ren flapped her wings again, and while distracting her with it, she nocked some arrows in her bow behind her back, managing to prepare one, two, three bolts.
“We had a hard time looking for Merry before finally finding her too!”
Chelsea squatted down, then punched the boulder with her right fist, cracking the surface, her fist continuing to burrow underneath the cracks, making it spread farther. Once she went as deep until her wrist, she pulled it out and raised her fist in front of her face as it throbbed.
“Leave it…”
She opened her fist, inside was a distorted brown stone.. By the time Ren-Ren noticed that Chelsea had grabbed the stone from inside and crushed it to form a star-shape, Ren-Ren had performed a summersault and shot out the arrows in a firing spree. She aimed the three arrows at Chelsea’s face, chest, and belly. However it didn’t manage to reach. In a flash, Chelsea moved her left hand, and caught Ren-Ren’s arrows with her thumb and index finger, index and ring finger, and ring and little finger. She then struck a pose.
“...To Dreamy☆Chelsea!”
Ren-Ren flapped her wings, rose up, and shot another arrow at the same time. This time, the first arrow was a direct shot, the second arrow was hidden behind the first, and the third arrow she fired moved faster than the first two. After Ren-Ren released her shots, the third shot would’ve made contact the same time as the first two. She changed her orbit in mid-air to target Chelsea… but the three arrows didn’t hit Chelsea either. Just before it was about to hit Chelsea, she kicked it away with her right foot, as it spinned around and disappeared behind her.
Chelsea lowered her kicking feet, and bent backwards cutely. She placed both hands on her mouth while posing.
“How dare you!”
Chelsea threw the star-shaped stone on her right hand. Ren-Ren was prepared to dodge, but the star wasn’t aiming for her, instead it was circling Chelsea in a bizzare motion.
Afterwards, Chelsea leaped in the air, striking a pose in the middle of her jump. She then landed with a cute gesture on the star-shaped stone, kicking herself up with a momentum that didn’t match her movements, and just before she reached the top, the spinning stone moved ahead of her, letting her kick on it again as she rushed down towards Ren-Ren with a speed that wasn’t so cute.
The arrows she fired to intercept her were intercepted by the stars, and the blind spot curve shots she attempted were knocked down by Chelsea’s star cane as she posed. Afterwards, she posed once again, and halfway during the pose, Chelsea raised her leg and brought it down.
...Oh.
Just barely in time, Ren-Ren raised her right leg, blocking her shin with her thigh. Ren-Ren was then sent flying the opposite direction, that is to say, she was slammed hard towards the ground.
Those weren’t trained movements, or rather, they weren’t something you’d call an actual kick. All Chelsea did was strike an unnatural pose and moved her leg towards Ren-Ren before making contact. But her power and speed were extraordinary. The place where she hit Ren-Ren was practically screaming, as Ren-Ren’s muscles felt like they were about to be ripped apart.
She attempted to brake, as even a Magical Girl would lose her life if she crashed at this speed. She flipped in mid-air and used her large wings to break her momentum, and she then felt a huge shock hit her from behind, this time, she was actually slammed to the ground. Something trampled her from above, and just because she saw it coming doesn’t mean she could avoid it. Just before she fell, her wings flapped to stop her momentum, and while it softened the blow, it didn’t stop her from crashing and rolling down the ground.
Ren-Ren broke her fall. She killed her downwards momentum and rolled across the ground, avoiding the trampling attacks that kept coming, but then she took a kick, slamming her to a boulder.
She held her chest tightly in agony as her knee broke. She grasped the situation in one look. Chelsea was relatively 3 meters away from her, and just beyond her was the fearful Merry and her sheep. Agri and Nephilia were nowhere to be seen. Ren-Ren had taken a lot of damage, but considering Chelsea’s abilities, it was a miracle she was still alive.
Chelsea posed as usual, ignoring any sense of practicality. She was completely focused on fighting like a cute Magical Girl. Still, Ren-Ren was being overwhelmed by an opponent who wasn’t even being too serious, despite her needless actions, their power was fundamentally different.
Ren-Ren then realized something, the stones orbiting Chelsea were doing so in a star-shaped pattern. That probably didn’t mean anything either. She probably did it because she thought it looked nice. She definitely would be the one to reason like that.
She’s crazy. Ren-Ren was also crazy for fighting even though she had no reason to, but Chelsea was crazy for fighting and punching her while treating it like it was just a playfight. Ren-Ren swallowed up the blood in her mouth.
She expected Chelsea to continue, but she was heading off to Merry’s direction instead.
“Merry-Chan! Don’t worry!”
Merry looked confused for a moment, but then a look of relief washed over her face as she spread her arms out towards Chelsea, before pulling out Ren-Ren’s arrow from her sleeves and stabbing Chelsea with it—or she would’ve, had Chelsea not posed and punched her in the spleen in the process, causing her to faint. The flock of sheep carried her off and she disappeared.
“Aw, c’mon! You too, Merry-Chan!? Seriously, how dare you!”
She’d seen all of her moves up till now, not even surprise and deception could get past her. No matter how stupid her actions were, if she won, that’s still the winning move. That wasn’t just something limited to Magical Girls.
Ren-Ren held down her own stomach and tried to slide over to the right, but Chelsea had already leapt ahead and—with the beauty of a ballet dancer no less—kicked the flock of sheep away.
“You’re just trying to buy time, arentcha? Teehee, I already knew that!”
The box hidden by the flock of sheep was revealed. Inside were the Grayfruits that were equal to a Magical Girl’s lifeline at this point, the ones that didn’t fit began to overflow to the side. Ren-Ren saw the whole thing with a look of despair on her face. Just having that supply was a huge advantage. Seeing this advantage revealed meant Ren-Ren had nothing up her sleeve, and Chelsea saw it all on Ren-Ren’s face.
Chelsea reached for the fruit inside the box, before it suddenly jumped out from inside.
Nephilia, who was hiding inside the box, jumped upwards, and Ren-Ren jumped at the same time as well. They performed a pincer attack. Chelsea spread out her arms, raised her leg, and spun on her toes as if she was dancing. She might not think it was dancing, but she actually was dancing.
Chelsea parried Nephilia’s scythe with her hand before sliding it off of her elbow, then grabbed her collar as she lost her balance, throwing her towards Ren-Ren. Ren-Ren lowered her posture, dashing towards Chelsea as Nephilia flew above her back. The arrow she held in her right hand was gripped by Chelsea, and the one in her right was smacked away. She heard the sound of a blade crashing, Nephilia must’ve thrown her scythe as she was thrown away. The scythe grazed Ren-Ren’s wings. Chelsea managed to raise her leg and kick it off without any pain. Ren-Ren attacked with her final arrow, the one she held with her tail, swinging her tail in-between her legs towards Chelsea. Chelsea jumped backwards and retreated.
With three flips, Chelsea landed on the side of the box, her eyes looking at her leg. A prick of blood flowed from one of her toes. The arrow that was standing upright by the edge of the box just barely managed to prick Chelsea painlessly. Nephilia was the one that planted the trap. She must’ve thought that Chelsea would at some point land near the box. Though there was no way she could’ve predicted Chelsea’s flashy needless actions. Predicted or not though, in the end it succeeded.
Chelsea’s expression gradually became glazed and vague. Merry stood up from the flock of sheep groaning before calling out.
“Chelsea, could you please stop?”
“Mmkay, I’ll stop.”
That was a quick answer. Chelsea ran over to Merry and helped her up. She apologized for hitting her, and Merry said it was fine while her gaze was focused on Ren-Ren. Ren-Ren nodded as she started walking away from the two. Chelsea bashfully continued to apologize. It seems that she’s become obedient thanks to her love, which wasn’t a bad thing.
That was dangerous. Chelsea was far stronger than Ren-Ren expected. She couldn’t just think she wasn’t a big deal just because she was normally lazy. Despite her laziness, she was still hired for a reason, so she should’ve thought of that. Thinking that she was just her employer’s mistress was an easy but dangerous way of thinking.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah… somehow.”
She gave a smile to Agri, who was climbing out of the bushes, and Nephilia. Thanks to her injured sides, her right face was still distorted.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I can move.”
“Alright, then. Still, your powers are really something, huh, Ren-Ren?”
“Thanks…”
“They’re good, but also… inconvenient?”
“Well… you’re not wrong.”
Merry restrained Chelsea with an uneasy look on her face. Chelsea ignored Merry’s expressions and simply nuzzled her cheeks.
Ren-Ren’s Magical Skill made the person who she struck with her arrow fall in love, but the only person who’d fall in love with Ren-Ren would be only the first one she shot. The second one would fall in love with the first, and the third with the second, endlessly chaining them together. This would continue to happen until it was out of her control, and it had already happened twice before.
“But if it’s only two people it’s manageable. I can do it.”
“Okay, what about three?”
“I’ll… work it out, somehow.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Nephilia snickered, Agri nodded satisfactory, then pointed ahead with her finger.
“Let’s head out to the riverbank. We made so much noise that something might come after us here.”
“You mean… the enemy?”
“No, I don’t mean the enemy. I don’t even think ‘enemy’ is the right word to call them… Either way, let’s just move.”
Nephilia followed Agri, while Ren-Ren gave a sign to Merry. The flock of sheep clumped around Chelsea, and carried her despite her constant hugging and her unwillingness to let go.
Perhaps finally deciding that the fuss was all over, the insects finally started to chirp again after a slight delay.
Chapter 6
☆ Dreamy☆Chelsea
Around the main building, there were trimmed trees and grasses, and it looked a bit like a garden. There are now guests within these gardens. At a glance, there were weak old men, and despite being told to take a rest, they never nodded to the suggestion. There were people that were waiting for the Magical Girls who left to listen to Meier’s voice, they all seemed worried, and Chelsea could sense that they were uneasy, and they say that they’d escape if they were attacked here, but won’t the old men be a burden then? Either way, there were lots of reasons for Chelsea to be in front of everyone reporting things.
When the sun started to set, they lit the lights, which gave everyone a shaded look, and it was embarrassing to have to tell things that she didn’t wanna say.
Pastel Merry was missing everywhere. She checked all the vacant rooms one by one, she opened all of the boxes in the storerooms to check if she was hiding inside of one, she even lifted the toilet seats and checked inside. She wasn’t even hiding behind the curtains in the bathrooms, Chelsea even took out all the books from the shelves, but no secret rooms popped out. To top it off, the grayfruits that she and Merry collected had now disappeared too. As soon as they figured out the effects of the grayfruit, they were ordered to collect all of them surrounding the building, which was just one of the first of many jobs that Chelsea hated doing ever since she came to this island. If the grayfruits were stolen, they’d be in all kinds of trouble.
Hearing Chelsea’s report, everyone had a very horrible looking expression on their face. Chelsea didn’t want to report this to people either, but the truth was the truth.
It was as if Chelsea were on top of the clouds. She was certain she was down here, but she also didn’t feel like she was down here. It was as if she was watching this unfold through a TV screen somewhere. Merry going missing, the Grayfruits going missing, they all seemed like things that wouldn’t happen in real life. That was probably why she didn’t feel too angry about Merry’s disappearance, or too sad. She was strangely calm, yet still flustered.
However, the others didn’t think the way Chelsea did. The fact that Merry and the grayfruits were missing made Agri angry, screaming, and shouting, she grabbed Shepherdspie’s collar and shook him. She kept spitting out words like “You!” “How do you explain this!” “Really!?” “Don’t bullshit me!” “Damn you!” out of her mouth, along with actual spit. She went from the face of a beautiful young woman to a distorted ugly angry looking face, and the transformation was scary to watch. Chelsea kept wondering “Is this when she’ll blow? Is this when she’ll blow? Is this when she’ll blow?”
Shepherdspie looked nervous. His form was like someone who couldn’t find any excuse. Seeing Shepherdspie like this made Chelsea angry. Shepherdspie never got angry. She was angry at all these people who were always saying it was Shepherdspie’s responsibility whenever something happened.
“What, so everything is Shepherdspie-Kun’s fault!?”
She moved without thinking. She jumped in front of Shepherdspie and pushed her hands outwards. Agri had a baffled look on her face before she stared at Chelsea blankly.
“Listen, I don’t know if you’re a maid or his mistress and I don’t care, but now’s not the time for this. I don’t care if you’re loyal to your master or whatever, we need to get that away from here.”
Chelsea had no idea what any of those words in the first part meant, but she understood the meaning of the last few ones, ‘we need to get that away’. Those words not only doubled, but tripled Chelsea’s anger.
Chelsea was really mad.
“I will not ‘get that away’! Dreamy☆Chelsea will always help those in need!”
Nobody says those words to Chie Yumeno. If anyone was angry about it, then they should calm down. The fire inside Chelsea couldn’t be cooled. She spat out emotions. Time began to pass. As they spoke words, their angry tones began to cool down bit by bit, until dinnertime, when they said “Well, we’ll have to continue this later. Just don’t get another outburst” “‘Mkay, sorry!”
Agri huffed out irritatedly.
“Oh, wait! You said you always help those in need right? Then can you help us fix the Gate and find our killer? We’re really in trouble right now, and could use someone like you.”
“But that’s not Shepherdspie-Kun’s fault! That’s like asking you not to get angry at Shepherdspie-Kun!”
“Now you’re just flipping the questions”
“No, you’re flipping the questions!”
Navi stood up and placed a hand on Agri’s shoulder.
“Hey, why don’t we instead focus on-”
“Oh shut up, old man!”
With a single word, Navi sat back where he sat before.
Instead, the horse—or was it Clantail, came forward instead, “Excuse me,” she said in a calm tone, as if she didn’t realize everyone was being angry right now. Agri annoyedly, or gloomily, tried to conceal her frustration and bent her neck.
“What?”
“I’m going to get some fruit.”
“Wait a minute.”
Mana interjected, shaking her head.
“It’s too dangerous. At least wait for Margarite and the rest.”
“But…”
Someone coughed. The coughing continued, and occasionally it stopped. Chelsea’s maternal grandfather had this cough. He said that after he got out of the hospital, he’d want to have some nice steak, but he never got out of the hospital.
Clantail ran to the coughing man, and patted his back. The old Mage used a handkerchief to cough into, and the white handkerchief became red when he coughed. Clantail stood up, bowed her head, then ran towards the annex.
...The annex? Why?
When she returned, she was carrying a large roll of cloth paper.
“I’ll be using this.”
She walked off before Shepherdspie could even tell her if it was good or bad. Her lower animal body became bathed in light, and then when it faded, it became a leopard, her hooves changing to claws, her tail becoming wavy and bouncy, her height became lower, and her posture also became lower.
Chelsea was surprised at how she transformed, and the people surrounding her were also as surprised. Mana took a slow step forward, was she trying to stop her? She looked hesitantly at Chelsea. Perhaps she was confused if she should stop Clantail, who headed for the forest to help Ragi, who looked like he was in bad shape. Chelsea could see why. With Mana being confused and Clantail speeding off, she couldn’t even see the tip of Clantail’s tail as she disappeared so fast. 7753 muttered to Mana “Should we go after her?” but Mana simply shook her head.
“But, does Clantail know where the grayfruits grow?”
“She’ll be fine…”
Everyone but the collapsed Ragi looked and saw Shepherdspie. Shepherdspie shrugged his shoulders, looked around, and cleared his throat.
“It’s not a rare tree in this island. You can find them at riversides, the forests, even the edges of the road. Though, it’s not like you’ll find many fruits in one tree. There’s only a certain amount. Well, I’m sure it’ll only take a while… Oh yeah, it would’ve helped if she checked the topographical map.”
“Wait, was that what Clantail was carrying earlier?”
“I thought that was a tapestry…”
I see. Oh yeah, there were tapestries hung on the wall of every room. Using that to search would be better than searching blindly.
“Can you really understand from a tapestry, though?”
“Since it’s drawn pretty accurately, I’d say it’s better than nothing, but… they do grow all over the island, but she shouldn’t have to go to all that trouble. She should be able to find something if she searches around the Annex. She doesn’t have to go too far…”
Wow, even though she’s got an animal for a body, she’s a pretty smart girl, thought Chelsea, impressed. However, Mana was just arbitrarily acting out and being angry, and Agri was just shouting about thieves and being angry. That’s why Mana, who was angry, and Agri, who prioritized securing the stolen fruits but in reality was just angry, butted heads. The other Mages and Magical Girls don’t even want to go between these two’s arguments. Shepherdspie breathed out a sigh of relief because the focal point of their arguments weren’t directed at him. Chelsea could only think “Guess you’re saved huh, Shepherdspie-Kun!”
Agri was shouting at Shepherdspie and Chelsea, and was now shouting at Mana. Perhaps Chelsea just doesn’t exist for her now that she doesn’t see her. Or perhaps Agri’s just fine with shouting at anyone really.
Her mom told her Mages were a very smart bunch. When she met them though, all she could think of was “Really?” as she tilted her head. They don’t seem very intelligent, to be honest.
Granted, the situation of people killing people didn’t seem like it was something that happens in reality. It felt like an action drama, or a manga, or a movie, or an Anime, or a Light Novel. It didn’t seem to be something she should concern herself with. Even when she saw Ragi collapsed on the floor, all she could muster was “Poor guy.”
She was concerned that Clantail ran off, but at the same time she was so daring that she looked really cool doing it. Ragi looked like he didn’t want to be here, so basically a stubborn old grandpa. If it was Chelsea, she’d consider him disgusting, yet Clantail risked her life to go out to the forest to find a way to save him.
Working hard to save your friends. That was very Magical Girly of her.
Even though Clantail was a Magical Girl, she didn’t look like the ones that Chelsea liked. If a Magical Girl like Clantail showed up in an Anime, comments like “Why would something weird like that be in a Magical Girl show? I wish people would stay faithful to the old days of being a Magical Girl and not take shortcuts. Seriously, people these days,” would probably show up in social media. But even though she wasn’t the kind that Chelsea preferred, she was still a Magical Girl. She would risk her life to save her Employer to find the grayfruits, without even having to be asked.
Of course she would, she’s a Magical Girl.
The wind stroked the ground, and blew in twice. Chelsea unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself. Wait, that’s not very Magical Girlish, she thought as she separated her arms again. For some reason, when she faced the palm of her hands to her, they were slightly trembling.
She looked at the sky. The sun was about to set beyond the forest.
She looked at Mana and Agri. She had no idea what they were talking about all this time, it was just shouting to her. She was angry because she believed Merry stole the fruits, saying it was Shepherdspie’s responsibility, saying that Merry might have caused these series of incidents.
Chelsea gripped her shaking hands together and squeezed them tight. Her brilliantly long red Magical Girl nails dug into her skin, and she felt pain. However, that pain was what brought Chelsea back to reality.
She wasn’t the Chelsea who would shut up while her friend was being badmouthed. She wasn’t even the Chelsea who would shut up despite Clantail carrying something delicious.
“You’re wrong.”
She blurted out. Mana, Agri, the Mages and Magical Girls all looked towards Chelsea. Chelsea simply puffed out her chest and looked proudly at everyone.
“You’re wrong, Merry-Chan didn’t steal anything!”
Her mother had once told her, you daydream too much about being a Magical GIrl, she said to her, you’re a Magical Girl that lives in reality, so you need to have a realistic perspective. However, if she just nodded out and said “Okay!” then Dreamy☆Chelsea wouldn’t be Dreamy☆Chelsea now, would she? She won’t yield to anything, not even when she’s being told to come for dinner or that she’ll get less of her monthly allowance.
“Merry-Chan is not a thief!”
When she said those words, her consciousness became clear. She knew what she had to do. Ever since she came to this island, Merry was the closest Magical Girl she knew. She was a friend. She’d never steal. She can’t be the culprit. Chelsea was also a Magical Girl. Magical Girls are supposed to believe in their friends. No matter what happens, she’ll always believe in her. So she won’t betray Merry, and she knew Merry wouldn’t steal either. The reason Merry left could’ve been that she was running away from whoever stole the Grayfruits. What’s so bad about that? Though, Merry could have also just been taken by someone, and why would she need to run away in the first place? She’s in a dangerous situation either way.
Chelsea pointed to herself with her thumb. That was her declaration of determination. That was her saying I’m a Magical Girl.
“I’m gonna save Merry-Chan!”
There were so many people here. They’ve all gathered together. It wasn’t that dangerous. Wherever Merry was though was different. She could’ve been captured by someone. She could be running, hiding, and crying somewhere, she could even have been killed. As a Magical Girl, and as a friend, Chelsea had to save her.
While looking around at all of the surprised faces staring at her, she could feel the fading Magical Girl strength inside of her. Fortunately, since she often ate some Grayfruits while Shepherdspie wasn’t looking—she can’t help it—her strength should last longer than the other Magical Girls.
Shepherdspie in a panic shook both of his hands.
“I-I don’t think you should-”
“Nope! Gonna do it!”
Mana stepped forward and reached out to Chelsea.
“It’s dangerous!”
“I know that!”
She nimbly dodged Mana’s hand, then kicked a tree trunk, landing at a myriad of tree roots on her toes.
“Leave it to Dreamy☆Chelsea!”
She posed, looking at the old men and young ladies that had stunned expressions. She was going to save Pastel Merry.
☆ Miss Margarite
Margarite looked up at the main building. The light was on at the upper floor. They must have wanted to have a little light, though the atmosphere of this place was still dark.
Although she was positive that Meier’s killer was someone she didn’t know ever since they visited the body, she wanted to confirm her theory by using 7753’s goggles. She didn’t feel that the atmosphere had lightened, that any motivations came out, or that anyone was willing to work together. The Magical Girls returned back to their original employers, and some were busy reporting in secret.
Touta was doing well. Even Yol, who had been crying all the time, seemed to be feeling better after he presented her with some Grayfruits. Her eyes were red, her cheeks were pale, she was hardly what you’d call healthy, but she was able to eat something that would keep her alive.
Margarite wanted to stroke Touta’s head, but stopped just at the verge of doing it. Treating him like a child when she wanted to show him respect was unseemly.
“...What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
She patted him on the back twice, and Touta looked up with a strange look on his face. He was doing better than she thought. She began rubbing his back, but when Touta looked like he was in pain, she removed her hand.
“I’m surrounded by egoists! Seriously! Bah!”
Mana was enraged, Agri wrapped her arms around Ren-Ren and Nephilia, those three were talking about something. Clarissa and Navi were doing the same. It felt like something happened. Whatever it is, it couldn’t have been good.
Margarite took the Grayfruit in her right hand and pushed it in front of Mana.
“I collected some on-”
Mana quickly took the fruit, then turned around, giving it to 7753. She returned with a somewhat softer expression on her face, then she was fine with speaking.
“I was going to say that I collected some Grayfruits on the way home.”
Once again she handed a fruit towards Mana. Mana looked at the Grayfruit in her hand, then looked around. She was probably trying to calculate if there was enough fruit to share to everyone. Mana sighed, then chewed it with an annoyed look.
“No, I’m grateful… No really, I am.”
“Well, I found it by chance anyway. It didn’t take a lot of time, so it’s no big deal.”
“Even if it wasn’t a big deal, it’s kind of valuable.”
“What happened? There’s less people around”
“The fruits we’ve collected were all stolen.”
“...How did that happen?”
“Pastel Merry’s gone.”
“Did she take them?”
“That’s what we’re discussing right now.”
Mana’s face became bitter. By discussion she probably meant shouting.
“Now Dreamy☆Chelsea’s flown off somewhere.”
“Why?”
“Oh, Pastel Merry’s not a thief. She’d never steal from anyone. I’m going to go save her!”
Margarite placed her hand on her forehead. Her headaches weren’t an imagination. Who allowed someone with a few screws loose to be a Magical Girl again?
“Nobody stopped her?”
“Nobody can stop her.”
It’d be cruel to ask the Mages to try and stop a Magical Girl
“...And Clantail?”
Mana looked behind her. 7753 was squatting next to an old Mage. She was feeding him the Grayfruit. Ragi had swallowed the Grayfruit in his mouth, though whether or not he was chewing them, she couldn’t tell. 7753 hurriedly held up the hat that was about to fall from his head.
“The old man was vomiting blood. While there’s no official verdict, he’s reaching his limit, and since he won’t be able to last long without Grayfruits, she took a tapestry and ran off to the forest.”
Clantail was being unreasonable. Still, compared to Chelsea’s insanity, her actions would have some benefit.
Margarite took a mouthful of the Grayfruit. The fruit skin and juices mixed with her saliva as it went down her throat, replenishing the feeling of hunger that not even Magical Girls could feel.
While Ragi wouldn’t say it, his elderly physical condition was telling. When the Magical Girls lost their ability to transform, he was the first among the Mages to fall down. Meaning Ragi was already weak even before their transformations were lifted. He was literally reaching his deadline. He won’t be able to show any resistance should the Magical Girls detransform and the enemy attacks them, and would be killed on the spot. Everyone knew that, it’s because they knew that that Agri, Navi, and the Magical Girls chomped down on the Grayfruits.
...But still...
Although she didn’t measure time accurately, this was considerably shorter than the last time Ragi fell ill and ate Grayfruits, were the Grayfruits getting weaker? Or was the situation becoming more serious?
7753 stood up and headed towards Rareko and Yol. Was Ragi still comfortable? He was leaning on his cane and sitting down, his expression showed fatigue and tiredness, and he also looked like he was about to collapse.
Margarite took the last of the fruit in her palm, chewed it, and swallowed. While she didn’t like treating the weaker older men like canary birds, she wouldn’t be able to avoid doing it. Clantail was no doubt a passionate Magical Girl to be running off to the forest like that.
Although she was self-deprecating, it was no excuse to abandon her job. With the Mages at the center, the Magical Girls began consulting each other. Even though they said they shouldn’t clump together, in the end they were.
“Pastel Merry being the culprit is one thing, but we should all stay close to each other”
“Okay sure, but…”
Mana’s bitterness increased.
“I think we need to know each Magical Girl’s powers, as well as each Mage’s specialties.”
They knew that among them, Meier’s killer and whoever sabotaged the Gate wasn’t one of them. Which means it should be imperative that they work together as closely as possible. Normally, she’d suggest they use 7753’s Magical Skill, but for some reason Mana wasn’t doing that.
She could do it without telling people. 7753 could conceal the use of her powers. She could investigate the other Magical Girls and Mages’ capabilities and only reveal it to her own side. Ragi wanted 7753’s information to be shared, so those intentions were shattered, but everyone knew that Mana could’ve ordered 7753 to do that anyways. It wouldn’t be unnatural for someone to wonder whether 7753 had really done it or not. As long as they were quick-witted, only they would reap the rewards.
It’d be hard to propose something to Mana, considering she had some negative qualities. Moreover, looking at the current situation, Mana seemed to have been arguing with someone while Margarite was gone, which would only make offering a proposal more difficult.
Margarite moved her finger from her forehead to her chin.
As Margarite was merely an escort Magical Girl, and not an invited guest, accepting a suggestion from her would be tough. Depending on how she’d say it, some people might get aggravated. If this were the Examination Division, no one would care about the differences between Magical Girls or Mages, but this wasn’t the Examination Division. Despite Touta being invited, people surely have noticed his inability to use magic. It wouldn’t be suitable for him to propose anything.
If she were to ask Yol, who Touta seemed to have a good relationship with, would that result in something good? Even though she was young, she had good character and an influential family. She had a strong pull despite her youth. However, with Meier having been killed, the girl may be suffering emotional shock, and might not be able to-
“Excuse me.”
Margarite removed her finger from her chin and turned around. John Shepherdspie, who was slumping as much as possible, stood up. Oh right, I forgot he was here. He’s actually more useful as someone who can propose something than Yol.
“I want to ask about Pastel Merry. Did you happen to see her in the forests?”
“I didn’t.”
“I see…”
He sighed out loud, not trying to hide anything, and took a bite out of a Grayfruit. She could see the hardships in his face. He may be a good person, but she doubted that he could carry more burdens. Still, he was a better option than the crying Yol.
Shepherdspie slowly swallowed his fruit.
“Hm, I’ve got something to ask… about Meier.”
“Yes?”
“Where should we bury her?”
Margarite looked at him with a serious face. Shepherdspie flinched, then pushed his hands forward.
“Er, well I’m glad that she was able to be returned to Lady Yol safely, but I’d have to know where she’s… I mean, I don’t have any ill intentions or-”
“No, no… The body is still how I left it.”
“A...Ah… I see… Yes, right.”
Shepherdspie bowed down in an apologetic matter. Margarite rubbed her face from top to bottom before returning to what she thought was her original expression.
It would be natural to bury a body during peacetime, but there were no Magical Girls that she could propose it to when she was there. Margarite didn’t think about that. She mourned for Meier’s death, but she still didn’t think of that. She didn’t think they could spend time digging a grave when their enemy could attack any moment. At best, she simply picked up some fruits on the way back.
Given that Shepherdspie had a relatively good personality, wouldn’t that make Margarite the deviant instead? She certainly put him lower in priority than Yol, though Margarite didn’t really mean to forget his existence. She glanced at Mana as she nodded slightly, walked this way and bowed at Shepherdspie. Had she known Margarite’s intentions?
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
Instead of an annoyed look, he gave her a puzzled one instead. But the one she could ask for help was Shepherdspie. Before Margarite could explain what it was, she heard an instant “Now listen here” reply.
It was Agri. She had a Grayfruit in her right hand, but her empty left hand was pointing out with her index finger. She was pointing at the three Grayfruits Margarite was holding. Although she tried to distribute one by one to everyone, three remained still. In other words, there were three left over.
“Listen here, you know collecting more of that would’ve been better, right? This is barely enough!”
“She’s right!”
Navi nodded as well, and Clarissa nodded many many times, perhaps to imitate him.
“Looking at the state of things, I think we should start forming teams, right?”
“That’s right. That’s what I’m saying! So, I suggest-”
Agri moved the fruit from her right to her left hand, probably to throw it behind her. Love Me Ren-Ren was standing behind, catching it with both hands.
“I think the ones collecting should keep their own share”
She looked at each other one by one, then placed her hand on her chest.
“For example, let’s say the enemy attacks us. Us Mages can barely put up a fight whether we’re laying down or wide awake, but can you imagine if the Magical Girls suddenly couldn’t transform? I think we should prioritize the Grayfruits to the Magical Girls”
“Now wait a minute.”
Navi shook his head, and Clarissa shook hers many many times, perhaps to imitate him. Her big catlike ears shook left and right as well.
“I’m all for Mages who think they’re kinda useless and all that, but I consider myself pretty useful. When I can’t do anything in an emergency, I can’t help any of you guys.”
“Wha… What?”
Agri placed her hands on her hips. She bent forward to face Navi, and Navi didn’t back down, puffing his chest to face Agri, resulting in the two of them being in this bizarre position.
“You trying to say that just because you think you’re useful that you should get special treatment, old man?”
“Well little lady, I think that you just want a bigger share, just because you have two Magical GIrls with you.”
“What!? Oh, I get it, you sneak. You think just because you have thoughts like that then obviously everyone else does too.”
“I never said that.”
Navi looked around, and in his gaze was the sickly Ragi.
“Now listen, I ain’t saying changing the distribution method’s a bad idea, but segregating Magical Girls and Mages is just discrimination, don’t you think? The standard should be if they’re useful or not useful. That’s not discrimination, that’s just meritocracy.”
Yol and Touta seemed to be perplexed at the whole thing, Rareko alternated between the two Mages with a weak expression, Shepherdspie was meekly slumping, Ren-Ren felt apologetic, and then there’s Nephilia, who seemed to be having a great time smiling by herself. 7753 was glancing at Mana, slightly scratching her shoulder, and Mana… Margarite couldn’t tell what Mana was thinking. She was furrowing her eyebrows to the point of wrinkling her forehead, and she was gritting her teeth so hard you could visibly see her teeth. No matter how much progress seems to be made, there’s always something that gets these two fighting. Explosions are bound to happen not 5 seconds away from each other.
Margarite was strangely calm. Why? She didn’t know the answer to it herself. This was a situation where they should cooperate, but no one was cooperating. Instead they were cutting off weak ends and trying to gain as much profits as possible. They act like desperate people reduced to base wants and needs. Normally Margarite would be angry like Mana, but for some reason she was calm. She couldn’t find the words to why she was like that-
“She’s here.”
There was a voice from above. It was just across from Mana, the flying Magical Girl. Tepsekemei. The Magical Girl Margarite couldn’t understand. It was her voice, though. But she wasn’t paying attention to the two Mages that were arguing. Instead, she was facing the main building. She wasn’t looking at the main building, merely facing it. In fact, she was looking far beyond the main building, at somewhere far away.
“What’s wrong, Mei?”
Mana asked Mei. Mei kept staring at where she was staring while muttering out “Pukin.” Mana’s expressions started changing as fast as they came. First confusion, then disgust, then surprise, and the most powerful one, was fear.
Margarite squinted her eyes. She knew who Pukin was. The files regarding the B-City incident mentioned her name several times. The Magical Girl who killed Hana Gekokujo. She had extremely high battle potential, and the number of victims caused by Pukin in B-City alone couldn’t be counted with the digits of your hands or feet.
But Pukin was gone. She wasn’t even imprisoned anymore. She was deceased.
Mana’s breathing became shallower. She was breathing fast and was nervous.
“Pukin’s… Why is Pukin here?”
“She’s the same.”
“She’s the same?”
“Someone like Pukin is here.”
Margarite tried to ask Tepsekemei what she meant, but she closed her mouth. She had a feeling. Something was here. Her heart began beating loudly. She pulled out her sword. The main building was around 50-100 meters across from here. Despite that distance, she felt endangered enough that she could feel the killing intent all the way over here, and then her body moved. The ground shook after, an earsplitting noise caused all the animals to disperse, and large chunks of the ground and the trees began falling. Some of them hitting the spires of the main building, breaking the walls and towers. Then, what looked like a geyser of steam burst from behind the main building, sparking and hissing.
“The power supply is behind the main building!”
Not even a millisecond passed after Shepherdspie spoke, the lights in the main building all went dark.
Margarite looked towards Touta, but Touta wasn’t there anymore. Rareko had ran off to the forest carrying Yol, and Yol was holding onto Touta’s hand, carrying him into the forest as well.
In the corner of her eyesight, Clarissa was carrying some big luggage and running away. She was probably just carrying Navi. Shepherdspie fell on his back, and Agri’s group was gone.
They must’ve sensed the killing intent and ran off just as well, but not unconditionally. This was probably a trigger that made the group act out on their own. It was obvious to everyone that the fruits weren’t enough. The need to move had risen, and since the main building was destroyed, there was no point in staying in one place. In addition, the attack happened just after the exchange where people thought “We’re just rabble anyway”. Their will to cooperate had already withered.
Everyone had their own reasons. Rareko due to her timidness, or perhaps Meier’s death, or perhaps she was protecting her Master. Agri and Navi were two people who would want to take initiative. Plenty of Mages like them would want to stand above the others no matter when. They probably didn’t want anyone else taking control or deciding what to do, or perhaps they just didn’t want 7753’s goggles to see more of them. Margarite huffed out loud. That wasn’t something she should think about in a place where she could die.
The ruins of the main building and the clumps of earth rained down, mixed together with trees that were uprooted straight from the ground and man-sized boulders. Tepsekemei stood there not avoiding it, but they all merely passed through her body. Margarite avoided the flying objects as if they were grenades, while barely swinging her sword. 7753 stood in front of Mana and Shepherdspie, gathering up any fruits with both hands and screaming out “Ow, ow, owwww!!!” while guarding them and stopping the debris with her upper body.
“Margarite.”
From beyond the dust smoke, she heard a voice calling out.
“You didn’t escape?”
“I should be asking you that… Tepsekemei.”
“Mei is good at escaping, that’s why Mei’s a survivor.”
“I see.”
“Mei escaped Mao Pam.”
“Wow, that’s actually… impressive.”
“Mei gets praised often for that.”
“You could get in the history books for something like that. No one’s ever escaped Mao Pam, just having it in your biography will let all of the Divisions welcome you as a fighter with open arms, especially the Examination Division, they’re always looking for…”
She stopped herself talking. Beyond the main building, the silent presence from beyond the forest continued to make her shiver, causing her to stop speaking. Though they purposefully left themselves open, it didn’t seem like the presence was going to attack these two Magical Girls. The presence slowly faded, and disappeared. Margarite relaxed, counted a whole 5 minutes before finally sheathing her sword. She made a loud noise, baiting it, but the presence didn’t make any signs of returning.
She took her hat, the edges of them were wet. She touched her forehead and felt sweat pouring down. She could even feel sweat pouring down her back all the way behind her. 7753 was breathing out as if calming her soul, supporting the fallen down Mana.
Tepsekemei took a bite from the Grayfruit in her right hand, then stared at it.
“Is this porridge?”
“Porridge?”
“Or is this cucumber sandwich?”
Margarite had no idea what she was saying. She looked over at 7753, but she looked like she was staggering with a crying-looking face. She didn’t look like she was in any shape to interpret her. Margarite closed an eye. There were plenty of Magical Girls who seemed like they were talking about something, but really they weren’t really talking about anything. Margarite decided to not respond to Tepsekemei, but to ask instead.
“So you said Pukin.”
“She’s like Pukin.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s not like us.”
“You mean… she’s not a Magical Girl?”
“She’s not like us.”
At least this made more sense than whatever that porridge talk was about, as Margarite already had more experience with this. Whoever she was, she was a fearsome Magical Girl, a powerful Magical Girl, a great Magical Girl, a variety of imagery that suggested a Magical Girl that rose above all others, but she wasn’t simply strong. She had something fundamentally different from them. Perhaps the most appropriate description would be disgusting. Margarite has never seen her, and only felt her presence, but that was how she felt. She acted before she even thought, or perhaps… she was forced to act.
Was she even a Magical Girl? Then again, it would be difficult to suggest that she was something other than a Magical Girl. Surrounding her were rocks, rubble, fallen trees and clumps of dirt. The main building was almost semi-destroyed. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that the terrain beyond the main building had been altered as well. This type of destruction and killing intent stopped Margarite in her tracks. Who else than a Magical Girl could’ve done something like this…?
“Was Pukin… a Magical Girl?”
“She was a Magical Girl. But she’s not like us.”
She had heard that older Magical Girls had a different build than modern ones. Similar to neanderthals and cro magnons, or more accurately, modern day birds and ancient reptiles.
“So what should we do?”
7753 was dusting off any remaining debris from her shoulders—and looked to be quite burdened at that, but she was still willing to help—while asking Mana. Margarite answered,
“We need to regroup with the ones that ran off, but first…”
“But first?”
“We need some Grayfruits.”
“Oh, right.”
Margarite straightened her hat, the parts where sweat had flowed were now cold and pale. In this tropical island, the temperature dropped down at night, and if you looked up, the clouds would be almost transparent, making way to the moon shining behind it.
Even if she had companions who would stay behind rather than scatter and run in times of danger, it wouldn’t mean much if she didn’t have many people. Their enemy wasn’t an ordinary foe. She was a Magical Girl—no, she was a thing that was on a level capable of killing Meier. She knew that, but Margarite’s legs couldn’t move. She wasn’t able to see whether there was a winning move or not.
She was worried for Touta, but she had to rely on Rareko on that end. If there was one thing Rareko excelled at more than Meier, it’s that she would be the first to run away without any hesitation, she had no illusions of unneeded pride. She prayed that wherever the enemy showed their face, Rareko would be able to escape.
As she looked around, she saw no signs of Ragi. Was he dragged off by someone helpful, or did he somehow manage to escape in the large explosion? Margarite wrapped her arms around the fallen Shepherdspie and carried him on her back, 7753 asked her worriedly.
“Is he… going to be okay?”
“...He has no injuries.”
According to Mana’s observations, he has no injuries, but the large shock he received knocked him unconscious. Whether that’s a good thing or not is yet to be seen.
First, they should find some Grayfruits as originally planned, Margarite believed the fruits she saw on the way home would be a good place to start. There wasn’t enough time to pick all of the fruits then, so there should be some remaining. The first one to start walking was Tepsekemei, and behind her, Margarite was-
“Wait, Tepsekemei!”
“What’s wrong, Margarite.”
“Would you mind if you choose directions where I could also travel with you?”
“What’s wrong with the pond?”
“I can’t walk on the pond.”
“Oh, okay.”
Behind her, Margarite was following along.
☆ Love Me Ren-Ren
The river flowing between the trees was shallow enough that even a five year old could waddle around on it. Ren-Ren was floating above those rivers, crawling, and traversing cliffs, diving into culverts, all while traversing a river upstream. She finally reached the rockside that bled out the water making the river before breathing out a sigh.
From the center of the island, she’s reached the eastern edge. She could hear the sounds of insects from inside bushes and the hooting of owls from above the trees.
Ren-Ren had something like a closet inside her heart. She’d sort out the humans, Magical Girls, and Mages that she’s met into different types and put them in her closet before taking them out when needed. None of them were exactly the same, but there were some similarities, or something they had in common. Even Magical Girls Ren-Ren had just met responded accordingly to the Magical Girl information she had stored.
However, there were Magical Girls she couldn’t categorize. For example, Tepsekemei. She had no idea what that girl was thinking, whatever it was, she definitely didn’t convey it well to the others. Then there was the earlier encounter. That’s right, she didn’t see it directly, but she felt like she’s encountered this opponent before. Just remembering it made her body tremble and made her feel nauseous. She didn’t want to remember it if possible. Even though she didn’t see her, she was sure she’s never met anything like her.
She had met violent people, and selfish people. There were even people who enjoyed badmouthing others, and people who felt joy at others’ suffering.
However, she’d never met anything like what she had encountered.
“Ren-Ren. Hey, Ren-Ren.”
“Y-Yes? What is it?”
“You’re holding me too tight. If you go any tighter, I think you’ll actually break my limbs.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. You can let me down now anyways. Thanks.”
“Yeah…”
She put down Agri, who she was carrying before. She felt the warmth of her thighs disappear from her arms. She supported her back on a tree, and raised her arms to stretch them out like some radio gymnastics session.
Ren-Ren took a deep breath and looked at Nephilia. Nephilia was looking back at her.
“Earlier… Earlier… Was that…”
There was no hiding her expressions, she was having a serious look on her face and wasn’t willing to speak. Ren-Ren nodded, then looked at Agri
“Um, about earlier.”
“Yes?”
“Do you think that was the one who…”
“Attacked Meier? I think so.”
“I think so too…”
“Do you think you can win against that, Ren-Ren?”
There was no way to measure that. She wasn’t even thinking of exactly how strong her opponent could be. As far as how strong compared to herself, whoever that was was probably 10 times stronger than her, or perhaps 100 times stronger. Ren-Ren was far too weak compared to that to see for sure. To Ren-Ren, she would clump Mao School students, Mao School graduates, and Mao School teachers as “Really powerful people”. The only people who could determine who was stronger and weaker among that group were people who were already in that group.
“So is it impossible?”
“I, um, well… I’ll try.”
“Alright. Good answer. What about you, Nephi?”
“...Nope.”
“Alright. That’s also a good answer.”
She seemed to be smiling brightly in a situation like this.
There was no sign of the hysterical Mage that she was before the building exploded.
“Um.”
“Yes?”
“I left all of our stuff back there…”
“It’s fine, it’s not that big of a deal. It’d actually be more trouble to go back and get it.”
“Okay.”
“For now, as long as we have these.”
Agri took out a Grayfruit in her hand, opened her mouth, but stopped just short of taking a huge bite out of it. She looked at Ren-Ren and Nephilia in order while still opening her mouth, then wiped the fruit with her sleeves before giving one to Ren-Ren, then taking out another and giving it to Nephilia.
“You two need this more than me.”
“But-”
“I told you all earlier, didn’t I? I wasn’t being half-hearted. If we’re ever in danger, there’s a big difference between me being unconscious and you two being unable to transform.”
Nephilia made a happy face and chomped down on it. Ren-Ren reluctantly took a bite. No matter how many times she did it, she’ll never get tired of the sweetness. It was delicious.
“Okay then, here’s good, right?”
“It should be.”
“She’s not here yet, though…”
“Well, yeah…”
After eating the fruits, Nephilia, who had a soft expression, looked diagonally upwards and tightened her face, then placed her finger on her mouth, interrupting Ren-Ren’s conversation. Ren-Ren listened. She heard the rustling of leaves, followed by footsteps. They weren’t alone. Wait, they were alone, but it was as if there were a bunch of animals behind them. The sound of insects stopped.
“She’s here.”
The moment she said that, Ren-Ren had barely blinked. The person Agri had talked about had finally arrived.
“I’m sorrryyyyy, I’m laaate, I’m sooooorryyyyyyyy!”
Pastel Merry dove and slid dramatically, and Ren-Ren took it like someone who would take a tackle. She landed with her face on Ren-Ren’s chest, to the point where Ren-Ren could feel the heat of her breath. She unconsciously tried to pull her off, but Merry unexpectedly resisted, and resisted with such strength too.
“Merry. Merry, are you okay? Could you get off?”
Merry was muttering something she couldn’t hear, but was just constantly pressing her face to Ren-Ren’s chest. Ren-Ren turned her head and looked at Nephilia for help. Nephilia laughed while helping out Ren-Ren, and the two Magical Girls were able to lift up Merry.
“Are you okay, Merry? Can you hear me?”
“Ren-Ren! I’m so sorry! It’s just I’ve been separated for so long, I felt lonely!”
Merry looked embarrassed but reluctant to pull away, then she fell backwards, tripping on some rocks, and rolled over, her body being caught by one of the sheep as she sunk into their wool.
The feeling of love that Ren-Ren causes from her Magical Skill varies between people. Pastel Merry has a relatively high suppression rate. Ren-Ren thought reserved and modest people were good characteristics.
“Merry, why’d you steal all the Grayfruits that everyone’s gathered up?”
“But you asked me to get some Grayfruits, Ren-Ren. So I got ‘em… Was that bad?”
“Well no, but…”
While Merry continued to apologize by bowing multiple times, her eyes kept looking up at Ren-Ren. What Ren-Ren actually asked her was “Could you gather us some Grayfruits as fast as you can and meet us somewhere?” She was hoping that Merry would take the hint and gather some Grayfruits in the forest nearby, but she resorted to theft instead.
“Guess I should’ve been more specific.”
Agri sighed out.
This was Ren-Ren’s fault. Agri didn’t know the full extent of Ren-Ren’s powers. The only one who knew what kind of state the people on this island that Ren-Ren shot with her arrow and made to fall in love with her was Ren-Ren.
That’s why Ren-Ren needs to be very specific in her orders.
Agri had said that she wanted to gather up Grayfruits. That in itself was a good thing, thought Ren-Ren. However, Agri also wanted it to be kept secret from everyone else. “We have to cooperate with the people we trust.” “I don’t think you two will be enough with the killer running loose.” So Ren-Ren was persuaded to do so because of the urgency of those words.
The Grayfruits shared by everyone were worthless. The ones that Agri would’ve kept by herself would have value. When time passed and the number of shared Grayfruits ran low, only then would Agri’s Grayfruits prove useful and valuable. She could use it to gain things in bargain, and Agri would be able to get things she wouldn’t be able to normally but craved for.
Agri’s eyes felt like they were filled with heat, though the words that came out of her mouth were strangely cool. Agri’s own life may be in danger, but if Ren-Ren tried to explain it, she’d just reply with “I don’t think people will die anymore.” For some reason, those words without basis managed to pierce through her argument, and since she asked while holding both her hands, Ren-Ren could do nothing but nod.
They had to gather Grayfruit secretly, so Pastel Merry, who could control plenty of sheep, was suitable for this job. Agri’s suggestion defied all manner of laws and ethics, but Ren-Ren kept nodding. She nodded while realizing that she’d be sending Pastel Merry alone to the dangerous forest. While Pastel Merry was working in the main building and had her back turned, Ren-Ren aimed her arrow and shot it like a sniper. Ren-Ren’s arrows wouldn’t cause physical pain to the target, it’ll only fill them with uncontrollable love. When she asked her to do her orders, she saw Ren-Ren leave out the backdoor. Ren-Ren simply watched the backdoor as she thought her mission was already complete.
But even this became a serious matter. Merry was performing Ren-Ren’s decisions and determination to the brink of their capacity. Ren-Ren needs to have detailed conditions to give to Pastel Merry, and what she asked was missing some. Because of that, Pastel Merry, who was trying to collect as many Grayfruits as possible without people finding out went to the Grayfruit stockpile in the main building. That was what she was ordered to do.
Agri panicked. Ren-Ren panicked too. She had no idea if Nephilia panicked though.
Agri played the part of an emotional and rash Mage, shouting and roaring, talking about Nephilia’s powers and what they discovered from Meier, and generally delaying everything as much as possible, then the enemy showed up. The timing was perfect, rather it was too perfect, but Agri just said “Well, guess that happened,” and convinced Ren-Ren enough to just nod along.
Although it wasn’t exactly as planned, in the end they did manage to collect the fruit. There was a considerable number of sheep behind Merry carrying around the bags and boxes.
“Turns out it was a big deal that we didn’t know the full details of your powers, Ren-Ren. I thought it’d be worthwhile to have an atmosphere where we wouldn’t have to share Magical Skills.”
“It was.”
“But it’s still not enough.”
A smile formed at the edge of Agri’s mouth. Ren-Ren gulped.
“Not enough… You mean the fruits?”
“Yes. More is better, right? Though I’d like to refrain from using all this sheep if possible. Everyone’s scattered on the island so we won’t know if anyone could spot them. Well, I wouldn’t mind if they were just seen, but we’d be in trouble if the sheep were followed.”
“But it’s dangerous… Trying to collect more now would be-”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I don’t think anyone wants any more trouble. Everyone else has that look on their faces, too.”
Ren-Ren tilted her head. Agri was talking like she knew what was going to happen. Ren-Ren even had a thought, was she the one who killed… But no, remembering 7753’s goggles, Agri wasn’t the one.
“Um… do you know if anything’s… going to happen?”
“Well no, but I’ve been thinking loooong and hard about this, like wonder if anything like that will happen?”
What’s that supposed to mean? She wanted to say, but before she could, she felt a tap on her back and instinctively reacted. It was Nephilia. When she turned around wondering if now was really the right time for this, she saw Nephilia looking at the sky. Ren-Ren looked at where Nephilia was looking at as well. She wasn’t looking at the sky, but above a boulder. The image of a person with the light of the moon behind them was standing on top of a boulder.
“Chelsea’s finally here! ...Hey, are you listening!?”
She remembered her voice, and she also remembered her objective.
Ren-Ren placed her fingers on the box, tapping them twice, the fingers tapping back did the same thing, tapping twice. Ren-Ren nodded, and she felt Nephilia nodding back in return.
Ren-Ren leaped and flapped her wings in one action, passing the boulder and the person standing on it while looking down at them. Nephilia held out her scythe and stood in front of Agri, slowly retreating towards the bushes. Merry had a frightened look on her face and escaped with a lump of her sheep.
Ren-Ren had clearly shouted out I have to do something in her mind. It was clear what that something she had to do was, shoot out an arrow and charm her opponent. Dreamy☆Chelsea struck the pose she did just then before running off to the forest and coming face-to-face with Ren-Ren.
The sheep Chelsea was holding down with her left hand was struggling. She then abruptly let go, and the sheep began rolling down underneath the rocks.
She followed the sheep…?
“I found you, you scoundrels! Give Merry-Chan back now!”
Her words and her poses, it was like she was actually acting out the part of a Magical Girl.
“Give her back? What are you talking about…”
Ren-Ren flapped her wings again, and while distracting her with it, she nocked some arrows in her bow behind her back, managing to prepare one, two, three bolts.
“We had a hard time looking for Merry before finally finding her too!”
Chelsea squatted down, then punched the boulder with her right fist, cracking the surface, her fist continuing to burrow underneath the cracks, making it spread farther. Once she went as deep until her wrist, she pulled it out and raised her fist in front of her face as it throbbed.
“Leave it…”
She opened her fist, inside was a distorted brown stone.. By the time Ren-Ren noticed that Chelsea had grabbed the stone from inside and crushed it to form a star-shape, Ren-Ren had performed a summersault and shot out the arrows in a firing spree. She aimed the three arrows at Chelsea’s face, chest, and belly. However it didn’t manage to reach. In a flash, Chelsea moved her left hand, and caught Ren-Ren’s arrows with her thumb and index finger, index and ring finger, and ring and little finger. She then struck a pose.
“...To Dreamy☆Chelsea!”
Ren-Ren flapped her wings, rose up, and shot another arrow at the same time. This time, the first arrow was a direct shot, the second arrow was hidden behind the first, and the third arrow she fired moved faster than the first two. After Ren-Ren released her shots, the third shot would’ve made contact the same time as the first two. She changed her orbit in mid-air to target Chelsea… but the three arrows didn’t hit Chelsea either. Just before it was about to hit Chelsea, she kicked it away with her right foot, as it spinned around and disappeared behind her.
Chelsea lowered her kicking feet, and bent backwards cutely. She placed both hands on her mouth while posing.
“How dare you!”
Chelsea threw the star-shaped stone on her right hand. Ren-Ren was prepared to dodge, but the star wasn’t aiming for her, instead it was circling Chelsea in a bizzare motion.
Afterwards, Chelsea leaped in the air, striking a pose in the middle of her jump. She then landed with a cute gesture on the star-shaped stone, kicking herself up with a momentum that didn’t match her movements, and just before she reached the top, the spinning stone moved ahead of her, letting her kick on it again as she rushed down towards Ren-Ren with a speed that wasn’t so cute.
The arrows she fired to intercept her were intercepted by the stars, and the blind spot curve shots she attempted were knocked down by Chelsea’s star cane as she posed. Afterwards, she posed once again, and halfway during the pose, Chelsea raised her leg and brought it down.
...Oh.
Just barely in time, Ren-Ren raised her right leg, blocking her shin with her thigh. Ren-Ren was then sent flying the opposite direction, that is to say, she was slammed hard towards the ground.
Those weren’t trained movements, or rather, they weren’t something you’d call an actual kick. All Chelsea did was strike an unnatural pose and moved her leg towards Ren-Ren before making contact. But her power and speed were extraordinary. The place where she hit Ren-Ren was practically screaming, as Ren-Ren’s muscles felt like they were about to be ripped apart.
She attempted to brake, as even a Magical Girl would lose her life if she crashed at this speed. She flipped in mid-air and used her large wings to break her momentum, and she then felt a huge shock hit her from behind, this time, she was actually slammed to the ground. Something trampled her from above, and just because she saw it coming doesn’t mean she could avoid it. Just before she fell, her wings flapped to stop her momentum, and while it softened the blow, it didn’t stop her from crashing and rolling down the ground.
Ren-Ren broke her fall. She killed her downwards momentum and rolled across the ground, avoiding the trampling attacks that kept coming, but then she took a kick, slamming her to a boulder.
She held her chest tightly in agony as her knee broke. She grasped the situation in one look. Chelsea was relatively 3 meters away from her, and just beyond her was the fearful Merry and her sheep. Agri and Nephilia were nowhere to be seen. Ren-Ren had taken a lot of damage, but considering Chelsea’s abilities, it was a miracle she was still alive.
Chelsea posed as usual, ignoring any sense of practicality. She was completely focused on fighting like a cute Magical Girl. Still, Ren-Ren was being overwhelmed by an opponent who wasn’t even being too serious, despite her needless actions, their power was fundamentally different.
Ren-Ren then realized something, the stones orbiting Chelsea were doing so in a star-shaped pattern. That probably didn’t mean anything either. She probably did it because she thought it looked nice. She definitely would be the one to reason like that.
She’s crazy. Ren-Ren was also crazy for fighting even though she had no reason to, but Chelsea was crazy for fighting and punching her while treating it like it was just a playfight. Ren-Ren swallowed up the blood in her mouth.
She expected Chelsea to continue, but she was heading off to Merry’s direction instead.
“Merry-Chan! Don’t worry!”
Merry looked confused for a moment, but then a look of relief washed over her face as she spread her arms out towards Chelsea, before pulling out Ren-Ren’s arrow from her sleeves and stabbing Chelsea with it—or she would’ve, had Chelsea not posed and punched her in the spleen in the process, causing her to faint. The flock of sheep carried her off and she disappeared.
“Aw, c’mon! You too, Merry-Chan!? Seriously, how dare you!”
She’d seen all of her moves up till now, not even surprise and deception could get past her. No matter how stupid her actions were, if she won, that’s still the winning move. That wasn’t just something limited to Magical Girls.
Ren-Ren held down her own stomach and tried to slide over to the right, but Chelsea had already leapt ahead and—with the beauty of a ballet dancer no less—kicked the flock of sheep away.
“You’re just trying to buy time, arentcha? Teehee, I already knew that!”
The box hidden by the flock of sheep was revealed. Inside were the Grayfruits that were equal to a Magical Girl’s lifeline at this point, the ones that didn’t fit began to overflow to the side. Ren-Ren saw the whole thing with a look of despair on her face. Just having that supply was a huge advantage. Seeing this advantage revealed meant Ren-Ren had nothing up her sleeve, and Chelsea saw it all on Ren-Ren’s face.
Chelsea reached for the fruit inside the box, before it suddenly jumped out from inside.
Nephilia, who was hiding inside the box, jumped upwards, and Ren-Ren jumped at the same time as well. They performed a pincer attack. Chelsea spread out her arms, raised her leg, and spun on her toes as if she was dancing. She might not think it was dancing, but she actually was dancing.
Chelsea parried Nephilia’s scythe with her hand before sliding it off of her elbow, then grabbed her collar as she lost her balance, throwing her towards Ren-Ren. Ren-Ren lowered her posture, dashing towards Chelsea as Nephilia flew above her back. The arrow she held in her right hand was gripped by Chelsea, and the one in her right was smacked away. She heard the sound of a blade crashing, Nephilia must’ve thrown her scythe as she was thrown away. The scythe grazed Ren-Ren’s wings. Chelsea managed to raise her leg and kick it off without any pain. Ren-Ren attacked with her final arrow, the one she held with her tail, swinging her tail in-between her legs towards Chelsea. Chelsea jumped backwards and retreated.
With three flips, Chelsea landed on the side of the box, her eyes looking at her leg. A prick of blood flowed from one of her toes. The arrow that was standing upright by the edge of the box just barely managed to prick Chelsea painlessly. Nephilia was the one that planted the trap. She must’ve thought that Chelsea would at some point land near the box. Though there was no way she could’ve predicted Chelsea’s flashy needless actions. Predicted or not though, in the end it succeeded.
Chelsea’s expression gradually became glazed and vague. Merry stood up from the flock of sheep groaning before calling out.
“Chelsea, could you please stop?”
“Mmkay, I’ll stop.”
That was a quick answer. Chelsea ran over to Merry and helped her up. She apologized for hitting her, and Merry said it was fine while her gaze was focused on Ren-Ren. Ren-Ren nodded as she started walking away from the two. Chelsea bashfully continued to apologize. It seems that she’s become obedient thanks to her love, which wasn’t a bad thing.
That was dangerous. Chelsea was far stronger than Ren-Ren expected. She couldn’t just think she wasn’t a big deal just because she was normally lazy. Despite her laziness, she was still hired for a reason, so she should’ve thought of that. Thinking that she was just her employer’s mistress was an easy but dangerous way of thinking.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah… somehow.”
She gave a smile to Agri, who was climbing out of the bushes, and Nephilia. Thanks to her injured sides, her right face was still distorted.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I can move.”
“Alright, then. Still, your powers are really something, huh, Ren-Ren?”
“Thanks…”
“They’re good, but also… inconvenient?”
“Well… you’re not wrong.”
Merry restrained Chelsea with an uneasy look on her face. Chelsea ignored Merry’s expressions and simply nuzzled her cheeks.
Ren-Ren’s Magical Skill made the person who she struck with her arrow fall in love, but the only person who’d fall in love with Ren-Ren would be only the first one she shot. The second one would fall in love with the first, and the third with the second, endlessly chaining them together. This would continue to happen until it was out of her control, and it had already happened twice before.
“But if it’s only two people it’s manageable. I can do it.”
“Okay, what about three?”
“I’ll… work it out, somehow.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Nephilia snickered, Agri nodded satisfactory, then pointed ahead with her finger.
“Let’s head out to the riverbank. We made so much noise that something might come after us here.”
“You mean… the enemy?”
“No, I don’t mean the enemy. I don’t even think ‘enemy’ is the right word to call them… Either way, let’s just move.”
Nephilia followed Agri, while Ren-Ren gave a sign to Merry. The flock of sheep clumped around Chelsea, and carried her despite her constant hugging and her unwillingness to let go.
Perhaps finally deciding that the fuss was all over, the insects finally started to chirp again after a slight delay.
