The Pirate's Daiquiri
"Uh... is someone like that really a magical girl...? Then what about the one in the Capital?"
If she was the magical girl who guarded the largest, most bustling place of all, I had assumed she would at least be more sensible than the pirate captain just described—or else carry a gravity worthy of the post. My expectations missed the mark in spectacular fashion. Momiji's crimson eyes, which had been studying me in silence, trembled by the smallest degree. Recalling the pirate captain, she had looked like someone wearily putting up with a troublesome brat. The moment I asked about the Capital's magical girl, those same eyes flashed cold as a blade tempered beneath the ice.
"The one who holds the Capital... Haeshin."
The name that left Momiji's lips was colder than the blizzard beyond the refuge.
"She styles herself a king."
What settled so quietly in those words was anything but light. Even from my side of the counter, the pressure bound up in that name came through whole.
"She is officially acknowledged as the strongest in all of magical-girl society. The splendid armaments she summons, she commands as if they were her own limbs."
Momiji lowered the hand that had been propping her chin and resettled herself with immaculate poise. It was the unblemished bearing of a warrior, and yet the body that had gone languid only moments before was drawn taut with tension once again.
"She is strong. There is no room to doubt that overwhelming force. But her sense of justice takes root in an arrogance that does not know how high the sky is. She believes, without the slightest doubt, that the right to lead people and to rule them belongs to her alone."
Her gaze drifted past my shoulder to the cabinet of fine spirits, washed in the bar's soft light.
"She does not protect the powerless. She means to reign over them. As a warrior, I can never accept her way."
So the magical girl at the Capital's summit was an arrogant sovereign who called herself king. The powers beyond all measure who were said to gather here seemed, even more than I had imagined, beings both remote and immense. A magical girl's world was supposed to be brighter than any other. The ones meant to give people hope, and to be loved for it, were naming themselves kings and rulers. The more I learned, the less their ecosystem felt like a ship that had merely sailed up a mountain. It felt like one that had gone ahead and landed on the moon.
And yet, strangely, that ungraspable eccentricity—the sheer variety of it—came over me as a peculiar charm. My own position would look endlessly bizarre to anyone else: seating such unreal powers across the counter and setting down hard liquor before them instead of sweet dessert or coffee.
I opened my mouth slowly, meaning to ease apart the air that had settled heavy over the bar.
"Well... if she's that strong, then the hearts of the people who cheer for her, and her own sense of justice, must be every bit as sincere as the magic she carries."
I met Momiji's edged gaze calmly and answered her in a quiet voice. However arrogant and high-handed her methods, a magical girl drew her strength from the public's support. That the countless people of the Capital truly wanted her rule and her protection, and stood behind both, was part of the same truth. I rounded off that contradictory underside of things and slid it gently across to her.
"Just as you say."
The shoulders that had bristled cold came down, if only by a fraction.
"The shape of her justice differs from mine, that is all. That she bears alone the vast bulwark called the Capital is a fact I cannot deny."
Momiji brushed the faint trace of liquor from her lips with the back of her hand and let out a small breath.
"Her arrogant sense of duty—to cut her subjects... no, the people, off from outside threats and keep them safe—that much, at least, must be sincere. The public, too, no doubt finds its peace inside that overwhelming power."
The line of her shoulders, slack over the counter, drew taut again. The gaze that had sunk low cut through the empty air and fixed straight on me.
"Even so, I cannot acknowledge her way. A sword is drawn to protect. It is not swung in order to reign. Should we meet again someday, I will not bend. We will clash, as surely then as now."
"Even so... here, at least, wouldn't it be all right to wash talk of ideals and convictions away with a drink?"
I set the careful suggestion upon the quieted air of the bar and offered it to her. Beneath this cozy light, if nowhere else, I hoped she might set down the heavy helm of a warrior's pride and rest as an easy guest.
At my words Momiji tapped the bar lightly with her fingers and nodded toward me.
"Washing one's convictions away with drink... a rather romantic proposal. You have a remarkable gift for easing a person's tension, Bartender."
"Very well. As you say, before this glass at least, I shall try to erase both that arrogant face and the pirate's laughter, loud enough to leave the ears ringing. Even a warrior needs, from time to time, an inn where she may set down her sword and rest."
The look she turned on me had softened again, the grain of it noticeably looser.
"The Manhattan just now was rather to my liking. This time..."
She lowered her eyes as if weighing the thought, then met mine once more and added, calm as ever:
"Something a little lighter, something refreshing enough to cool the throat, so the heart might be washed clean. I will gladly trust your second glass as well."
I nodded and was just about to make her a drink when, at last, I saw the pirate captain she had spoken of.
Bang!
The lobby door flew open.
"Landfall at last! Captain Crystal herself has come ashore!"
A bright voice, having cut straight through the northern blizzard, rang through the room. I set down the ice tongs and turned toward the entrance. Bronze skin, hair the blue of the open sea, a confident stride, and an unrestrained smile blooming across her face. Just as Momiji had said, she looked immensely hearty, and thoroughly pleased with the world.
"Oh? There's already a guest? Isn't that the fastidious little princess from the east?"
Crystal came striding toward the bar with a bright, open grin, and Momiji slowly closed her eyes.
"Haa... If you were coming, I had hoped you would come a little later. You are as noisy as ever, Crystal. My ears already ache."
"That's a cold hello for a reunion! It's been ages—you could at least look a little happier to see me!"
Crystal winked at Momiji, playful as anything, and then turned her attention to me.
"Oho~ So you're the bartender here? Hey, bartender! Pour Lady Crystal a killer drink too! Crossing the sea has left my throat bone-dry!"
"Of course. Something for the thirsty captain, and... Momiji?"
At the question, Momiji gave a light shake of her head.
"I am quite all right. I have neither the energy to keep time with that racket, nor any wish to cut short the excellent aftertaste of what I just drank."
I nodded and began choosing a base for the captain's cocktail. A pirate, of course, meant rum before anything else. For a moment I was tempted to play a wicked little trick and mix vodka with peach schnapps, but a party drink would hardly be welcome in a room this still. I reached first for a clear white rum. Opening the refrigerator beneath the bar, I found it excellently stocked with mixers and bottles of juice; whoever had used this place before me had clearly known their drink. I was only here on temporary assignment, but I raised a quiet toast, inwardly, to that unseen senior's taste. Next came lime juice, a sailor's other old friend, and last of all the sugar that would take the rough edge off the rum.
I loaded the shaker with the ingredients and ice and snapped my wrist. Unlike Momiji's glass, this one I shook hard and loud on purpose, so the ice striking the walls would carry out into the room.
Clatter!
Ice broke rough inside the cold stainless steel, and the sound mingled with Crystal's bright energy until it rang through the lobby. It was the very opposite of Momiji's quiet, decorous cocktail—a rhythm like waves striking a bow. The pirate captain in front of me seemed to like the racket. She planted both arms on the bar and watched my hands with sparkling interest.
I poured the finished drink into a glass gone white with frost and slid it lightly toward her.
"They say a person of the sea has two old friends. Rum, and lime juice... This is a daiquiri, made from the two of them."
"Rum for the sea, of course! Now that's how you treat a captain!"
Crystal lifted the glass with gusto and drained it in a single swallow, no hesitation at all. The bronze line of her throat moved cleanly, and the frost-beaded cocktail was gone down it in an instant. She set the empty glass on the counter, wiped her wet lips with the back of her hand, and laughed loud.
"Kah~! Sour! Sweet! And strong as anything! Feels like I took a wave full in the face on a storm-tossed sea! Bartender~ your hands are something else!"
Beside Crystal, who drummed the bar with her palm in pure delight, Momiji let a faint sigh escape.
"Crystal. This is a refined retreat. It is not the cabin of that lawless pirate ship of yours."
"Aww, Momiji~ You finally came to really rest, so why so stiff? Loosen up! Swing a sword day in and day out, and of course your shoulders lock up like that."
Crystal burst into a mischievous laugh and reached toward Momiji's shoulder as if to clap it. Momiji twisted like flowing water and slipped the touch with ease. Crystal's hand cut only air, and she did not mind in the least. She simply laughed again, hearty as ever.
"Still not a single opening! Hey, bartender! Stick another lively one in that fussy warrior's hand! Let her unwind a little!"