Magi Black, Na I-hyeon, upon hearing those shocking words that she had been fated to become a sacrifice…
“Ha, honestly. Would anyone in their right mind keep living here after their house burned down and disappeared?”
—did not stop walking.
It was not that she had not been shocked at all. Had her family known about that “contract”? Had Uncle Chalsu?
Questions rose one after another, like links in a chain. Suddenly, she remembered what the man who had been plucking and eating mugwort had said.
The Black Forest is an ill-omened place.
‘Was this what Uncle Raban was warning me about?’
They said he had amnesia, but he had once been a researcher at Naju Pharmaceuticals. If he had originally known about Naju Pharmaceuticals’ contract, perhaps something like his subconscious had acted up and manifested as that warning at the mountain lodge.
Na I-hyeon buried all those questions. For now.
Right now was not the time to dwell on her own fate, nor to wonder which of her memories with her vanished family were real and which were false.
Because what she had to do right now was raise both fists and land a hit on that bizarre monstrosity.
The moment Magi Black took a fighting stance and drew up her magical power, the contractor’s voice stabbed into the ear of the Grand Duke of the Demon Realm.
[We’re in trouble, Grand Duke!]
[What is it-sawayo?]
[My creativity issue means I can’t squeeze out any more lines!]
For a moment, Inian nearly let out a sigh aloud. What an utterly pathetic reason. But it worked out well. The amount of magical power being consumed to maintain the Evil Eye was gradually becoming dangerous.
Strictly speaking, it was not dangerous for Inian herself, but for the black mage who had to bear the magical power cost. Still, if the black mage suddenly collapsed now, she would have to deal with the aftermath as well.
At this point, it would be better to stage a suitable scene of the Flayed Bull’s defeat.
[Leave the cleanup to the magical girls now-sawayo. Say something like, “Kuh, my body won’t move?!”]
[Confirmed!]
Raban shouted once more through the mouth he had made sprout near the Flayed Bull’s flank.
[Kuh, what is this…! Why can I not move? You lot, with the power of magical girls, you should not be able to stop this body!]
Raban applied his memories from his hometown, Earth. It was a variation on a line from an anime he had seen once. As soon as Raban shouted the promised line, Inian responded with impeccable timing.
“I have activated the Evil Eye-sawayo! I will not permit you to move-sawayo! Now-sawayo, magical girls!”
Magi White looked back at Magi Black. Her expression showed concern over the aftereffects of what the Flayed Bull had just shouted.
Magi Black answered by raising her right thumb. She was not the sort of person to let tedious, heavy worries keep her from focusing on the battle at hand.
“Thanks, Sawayo! White, let’s get ready for the first time in a while!”
Magi Black and Magi White clasped hands. It was the preparatory stance for casting the finishing move they had not dared to use lately, since their opponents had been the Four Heavenly Kings, the Ochanja, and not a single one of them had been easy to deal with.
Ordinary monsters would fall into a groggy state after taking a few clean hits, leaving plenty of time to chant a finishing move. But once they were on the level of the Four Heavenly Kings, they would grit their teeth and endure through sheer spite, then begin their counterattack before the spell could even be completed.
And so, in recent times, their finishing moves had changed into techniques derived from Magical Martial Arts, like Magister Magic Low Blow—methods that could be activated swiftly in extremely close combat…
But originally, a magical girl’s finishing move was supposed to be a beam.
Magi Black raised her hand.
“The dreams of the Magirists!”
Magi White raised her hand.
“And the hopes of the Magirists!”
Two bolts of black and white lightning struck the magical girls, each in their symbolic color. They struck toward the fists the two girls held clenched. The lightning did not harm the magical girls, but instead condensed around their raised fists.
The voices of the two magical girls rang out together.
“Shall punish evil!”
The moment the chant was completed, a beam fired. Two bolts of white and black lightning intertwined into a double helix and rushed toward the Flayed Bull. Bound by the Evil Eye, the bull could not move and took the lightning head-on.
[Uooooooooh—!]
The Flayed Bull screamed. It was a noise that seemed to rummage through the brain. Na I-hyeon and Syune once again saw phantasms of the past that pierced their hearts.
Fortunately, however, this hallucination did not last long. As the Flayed Bull burned in the lightning and vanished without even leaving ashes behind, its magic also evaporated.
The moment the bull died, Dunamis flapped down between Inian and the magical girls.
“Fuhahahahaha! Accursed Magirists! This time, at least, I shall thank you for protecting our mademoiselle!”
“…Mademoiselle?”
Na I-hyeon muttered blankly, “How does that guy say such cheesy lines so calmly?” Syune turned her head toward Inian.
“‘Our’? Don’t tell me you…”
“Hmph, it is as you heard-sawayo. Magical girl. I am Inian, consultant in chohwan arts for the Ivory Tower-sawayo.”
“Then today’s opera ends here! The contest between our Ivory Tower and you magical girls shall be decided next time!”
“Ah, hey! Wait! How did you people detect the Ochanja and…?”
Before she could finish asking how they had sensed and found it, a gust of wind wrapped around Inian and Dunamis.
Syune sighed.
“The Ivory Tower seems to possess knowledge we don’t. Let’s not worry about it too much.”
“Still, you know, protecting Hikarious from a vicious enemy is supposed to be our job, not theirs—”
Na I-hyeon staggered before she could finish speaking. It was the aftershock of the echo the Flayed Bull had carved into her.
“Ugh, I really can’t get used to that type.”
[Is everyone all right-mofu?!]
Papirun hurriedly approached the magical girls. A warm light radiated from the fairy’s body, driving away the chill that had invaded their minds.
“Wow. You had a hand-warmer function too?”
[This is not something to brush off as a joke-mofu…]
The Ochanja devoured the corruption that had covered the old era, and were altered into forms resembling what they had swallowed.
That ability to stimulate the darkness in another’s heart and cause negative thoughts to explode. It was unmistakably a technique of their old brethren.
Normally, the best way to counter such a technique was to avoid letting stress build up in the first place.
The next best option was to release stress in an appropriate form even if one did accumulate it.
But Magi Black and Magi White were both patient by nature.
A personality that quietly devoted itself to duty could not be called entirely bad. Even if their somewhat single-minded tendencies were concerning, the two of them shared the secret of being magical girls and could support each other to some extent.
But when it came to matters related to Naju Pharmaceuticals, it was somewhat of an exception.
A test subject of Naju Pharmaceuticals and a blood relative of Naju Pharmaceuticals’ owner. The gap between the two of them was far too clear.
If they were to resolve those fundamental negative thoughts somehow, they would at least have to pour them out to someone…
For an instant, the word counseling flashed through Papirun’s mind. Both I-hyeon and Syune had been fairly satisfied with their conversations with that strange counselor.
But before even a second passed, Papirun shook his head.
Because Raban was still under suspicion of being a monster under Salamandine’s command. Unless convincing proof of his identity appeared, Papirun could not entrust the magical girls’ mental health care to him.
***
“Raban! How did it go-sawayo!”
“…Why are you so late?”
Raban asked back with a strangely dazed expression. Inian answered with a tilt of her head.
“There was a company dinner-sawayo.”
Inian had returned only after thoroughly finishing the company dinner celebrating the new member’s successful operation—a dinner in which Salamandine grilled meat at a campground on the outskirts of Hikarious and brought it inside the Ivory Tower.
“If they say they want to hold a company dinner because the newbie did well on their first day, what would happen to the mood if the person in question didn’t attend-sawayo?”
“You were that socially competent?!”
Inian glanced sideways at Raban. She had, after all, once been the head of an organization. Her level of social aptitude was on a different plane from that of some shut-in black mage.
“Stop trying to change the subject with weird topics, and tell me what happened to the plan to devour the magical reactor-sawayo.”
“I ate it. I did eat it…”
“Finally! Now I can use the Evil Eye without worrying about output limits—”
“No. The moment those crazy magical girls’ finishing move hit him head-on, his body evaporated, so I only managed to recover half of the magical reactor.”
“Did you just say only half-sawayo?!”
Inian stared at Raban with eyes full of betrayal. More specifically, it was a look that said, “You heard me giving the magical girls the attack signal, and yet you couldn’t dodge in time—did your auditory nerves blue-screen or something?”
Raban cleared his throat and averted his gaze.
“Now that I think about it, it’s not only half. It’s as much as half that survived. Isn’t that still encouraging news?”
“Do you want me to play jump rope with your body-sawayo?”
***
Reshef vomited blood. The body he had barely held together with the mask began to convulse.
To think he would lose his shadow so miserably.
He had to report to his lord. He had to tell him that the junior seeker of truth whose disappearance he had lamented was still alive.
That he had succeeded in devouring Reshef’s shadow and preparing to leap to the next stage.
If they used that man, they could summon the other fragments of his lord that were still trapped beyond the dimension.
A new possibility had appeared—one that could end the tyranny of the Mother Fairy.