The Only Plan I Have

If you asked whether I had a way, I had one.

If you asked whether I had a plan, I had one.

I clenched my left hand, hidden beneath my coat. This was all I had to count on.

My unique weapon.

My unique weapon, whose name I didn't even know.

A half-baked magical girl without so much as a unique incantation. All I had going for me was a monstrous reserve of magic power, optimized for nothing but churning out Mains. Mother-optimized, through and through.

That didn't mean I never had to fight.

I wasn't exactly swimming in combat experience. I'd only fought Pricue once. But I'd walked away from that fight with a few things.

One. A body tough ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enough that Pricue's attacks barely left a mark. Durability.

Two. A unique weapon powerful enough to drop Pricue in a single hit. Offense.

Three. And one trick Keru had taught me. A sub-skill.

Put those three together, and I figured I had both ends of a fight covered. Whether any of it was always active was another question entirely.

"Hey. Clear the tables."

Women in tailored suits poured in and swept the tables aside. The tables must have been magical fixtures themselves — someone did something underneath one, and it simply melted out of existence. The chairs followed. In moments, the conference room had become a wide, empty hall.

"Mother, you going to be okay?"

Eve had come up beside me. Whether I'd be okay or not was anyone's guess. Probably?

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Want me to throw a mental-defense buff on you?"

I considered it for a second. Then I shook my head.

I had to win this on my own power, clean.

Otherwise, even if I came out on top, they'd start in with the excuses — oh, she only won because of Eve — and my victory wouldn't be worth a damn.

"If I win, you're buying dinner. Treat my kids to a proper night out."

"Deal. I'll get you beef. Just win."

"Leave it to me."

Eve stepped back, and Dusick took her place.

"Boss."

"Yeah? What, you here to recite a victory charm?"

"Please don't say strange things. I came to cheer you on. So you'll win."

"Sure. I was going to win anyway, but if I do, I'll give your cheering ten percent of the credit."

"Isn't that a little low?"

"If I go any higher, that'd be weird too, wouldn't it?"

"...I believe you'll win. I only hope you aren't hurt."

"Got it."

I clapped Dusick on the shoulder and walked a few steps forward. My eyes found Frilly.

Her face was flushed; she wasn't even trying to hide how worked up she was. I, by comparison, was perfectly calm.

"Frilly. You were frothing at the mouth to throw down with Eve — don't tell me you're the one getting cold feet."

"Mother. Unni here is just a little excited, all right? Think you can understand?"

God, I genuinely hated this. I'd really appreciate it if she'd stop treating people like potential wives.

The magical girls had formed a ring around us.

"Somebody put up a Colosseum."

At the voice, Eve lifted a hand and began to chant.

A vast rush of light unfurled —

The conference room, already spacious, stretched wider still. Like a true Colosseum, only Frilly and I stood on the arena floor. The other magical girls receded behind a transparent barrier.

"So those are the stands, huh."

Eve and Dusick were on the far side of the spectator wall. My mutter vanished into the empty air, unanswered.

So this was magic. Convenient.

Frilly and I faced each other across the arena, a measured distance between us.

She wore black slacks and a beige shirt. The look was closer to magical lady than magical girl — though given her age, magical lady wasn't far off.

That Frilly was staring me down, her short red hair stirring around her face. I just stood there in my transformation form, more or less as I was.

I could feel my coat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flutter. For some reason, even draped over only one shoulder, it never slipped or slid off. And beneath that coat, my left hand.

If you asked whether I had a plan — I had one.

If you asked whether I could win — I didn't know.

If you asked whether I was going to lose — that was probably the safer bet.

But there are times you have to fight anyway, even when the odds look like that.

If I won, that would be good.

If I lost, I'd keep my head down and grow stronger. A fairly hideous future might be waiting for me — but a loser doesn't get to talk, not with ten mouths. I'd bow my head, and then I'd get stronger again.

"Ready?"

Frilly was grinning so hard she couldn't hide it, that smug little smirk plastered across her face. I smiled back.

"Been ready. For a while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠now. You?"

"Yeah. Then I'll start."

Darkness settled over the battlefield.

Magical girl Frilly. She had become a magical girl at nineteen — the fourth, after Eve, Pricue, and Aquamarine. Her specialties were mental manipulation and cognitive disruption.

Her usual method of fighting was to seize the minds of Mains and turn them on each other, or to layer a cognitive disruption over a magical girl until that girl registered Frilly as an ally. Beyond that, she was fond of personally beating an enemy to a wretched death with her one-handed club. She had been witnessed often enough cackling, lacquered in her opponent's blood, that the nickname had stuck: the Mad Dog Princess.

But that was not the plan tonight. She couldn't possibly put a scratch on a body that lovely.

In all the years she had been alive, had she ever met an ideal this perfect?

The instant the fight began, she unfurled a Mind Field that swallowed the entire arena. Unique incantation: Mind Field. Her mastery of it had long since hit its ceiling; speaking the spell's name was enough to deploy it.

Darkness drowned the field.

The moment Mother stepped inside Frilly's Mind Field, she was in the palm of Frilly's hand.

"Dark in here. You did something, didn't you?"

Mother's gaze was pointed straight at Frilly. A trick of the light? No. That was impossible.

"Well. I can still see you, so I guess it doesn't matter."

Mother was looking right at her. The darkness that had settled over the arena was thick enough that an ordinary human would have been blind. Frilly was certain of it now.

Mother was unaffected by the Mind Field.

Tap. Taptap. Taptaptaptap—

Footsteps, and Mother was running straight at her. Frilly stood at the far end of that line of sight.

Frilly faltered.

Given that she opened every fight with mental manipulation or cognitive disruption, allowing anyone to close the distance put her at a disadvantage. That said, a magical girl was still a magical girl. Even a diminished combat strength was nothing to shrug off.

She simply had not expected Mother — immune to the Mind Field — to close in first.

Mother's eyes were gleaming. Her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vertical pupils had contracted so far they were no longer pupils at all, just thin slits slashed down the center of each eye.

Frilly crossed her hands as she chanted. Magic circles bloomed at her fingertips and flared. The two circles fused into one great sigil the instant her hands came together.

Mother was smiling. The face drawing closer with every stride wore a look of pure, triumphant amusement. The circle at Frilly's fingertips finally discharged, and a beam of light roared straight down the center of the arena.

It hit. There was no question it hit. A thunderous crash, and the beam bloomed wide enough to swallow Mother whole, light ricocheting in every direction.

"See, if you don't have a unique incantation—"

Mother stood behind a wavering wall of dark energy, grinning.

"—you can just paper over it with raw magic, right? Not like I'm running short."

"What…?"

Frilly had never seen anyone use magic this way. Even Eve, whose individual magic reserves were said to be the largest in existence, had never wielded her power like this.

Using a mass of magic power as a shield. Mother scattered the broad slab of magic she had been holding out in front of her, then pinched a writhing scrap of black energy off the stream still pouring from the glove on her left hand, plucking it free with her right.

The flickering black aura — a fragment of magic power — twisted in her palm.

"Like this."

A wind-up. And in the same motion, Mother hurled the fragment at Frilly as hard as she could.

"Kh—!"

Frilly batted the incoming shard aside with her club. The fragment veered off, then dissolved and streamed back to Mother as if it had never left.

"It's not like I've got as much fighting experience as you people. So I'd appreciate it if you didn't call this cheap."

Two. Three. Four. Magic fragments came at Frilly in a rapid volley — and through the gaps between them, Mother charged.

Zero combat experience.

Capable of nothing but close-range attacks.

The only reason she had dropped Pricue was a single clean hit that had landed by luck.

That was what Frilly had believed.

But now, in this moment, staring straight into the pale face rushing toward her and those vivid red eyes, Frilly had to revise her assessment.

I let my guard down.

I had asked Keru about it once. If I didn't have a unique incantation, was there a way to fight with raw magic power alone?

This was the method he had taught me. I was still clumsy at it — all I could really do was tear off fragments and throw them.

Even so, it was more than enough to rattle Frilly, who had been looking down on Mother's combat ability.

Frilly backpedaled away from the oncoming rush, pouring mental manipulation into every opening. She slipped the fists and the kicks raining down on her and kept chanting, spell after spell of psychic interference.

Mother's pupils flashed. The look in her eyes didn't change. The spell hadn't taken.

Fine. Change of type — from mental manipulation to cognitive disruption.

Mother's eyes flashed again, a sharp gleam. This one didn't take either.

"You crazy bitch…!"

Neither of the two magics she specialized in would land.

A raw shout finally tore out of Frilly. A blue magic circle inscribed itself at her feet, and a brilliant light projected upward, wrapping her from head to toe.

The opening sequence of Frilly's Full Manifestation Unique Magic: Dance of the Marionette.

"Frilly, don't—!"

Eve's shout cut across the arena as she vaulted onto the field. A Full Manifestation Unique Magic could not be allowed to unfold here. The Colosseum had been raised by magic, yes, but its foundation was still a reception hall — if that spell went off inside it, the whole structure would come down. This was not a magic you used in a place with no Otherworld barrier.

Eve's intrusion and Mother's charge happened at the same instant. Dark magic — abyssal magic power — was pouring off Mother's fist in thick, seething sheets.

Mother had been smiling the entire time. She had this. She didn't know what the other woman was doing, but anyone mid-incantation was wide open.

Which made this the moment to strike. Still — for Eve's sake, she'd aim somewhere that would hurt a little less—

She cocked her left fist, dark magic erupting from it so violently it streamed off in ropes. The seething black power surged past her forearm, past her elbow, and jetted.

The fist rocketed forward at explosive speed, shattered the caster-protection barrier of the Full Manifestation Unique Magic mid-cast, and slammed into Frilly's abdomen.

BOOM!!!

The arena shuddered with the impact. Frilly went airborne and crashed into the far wall of the field.

She coughed — a wet, ugly sound — blood spilling from her mouth as she tried to push herself up. Then she went still, her head lolling forward.

A sound like a pane of glass exploding — and the darkness shattered into a thousand pieces, scattering and fading. With its caster unconscious, the unique incantation Mind Field collapsed, and the Colosseum, which had been drowned in shadow, flooded with light once more.

Silence hung over the stands.

Frilly, crumpled in the corner, out cold.

Mother, standing at her ease in the center of the arena, without a scratch on her.

The result laid out on the field overturned every expectation the magical girls had brought with them.

I won.

I won again.

I won.

The satisfying thud of the Rocket Punch landing clean in her gut had told me everything I needed to know.

I'd aimed for the stomach out of consideration for Eve's dignity, more or less. The head or the ribs would've hurt more. A stomach's got more give, right? Doesn't it?

Once Frilly was down and out, the Colosseum brightened. I finally looked around. The magical girls in the stands were staring down at me with their mouths hanging open.

I didn't like that look. Tch.

"What are you all staring at like idiots? I won. You gonna clap or what?"

I snapped it out, irritated, and a thin scatter of applause started up.

"Louder, you lot!"

Clap, clap, clap — a little bigger than before.

"I said give me a real ovation!!"

Much louder now. Yeah. That was more like it.

"Mother. You did well."

Eve. She still looked a bit dazed, but she was clapping too, at least.

"Anyway, I won, so that's that. Hey. You're buying dinner for my kids tonight. Got it?"

"R-right."

Rejoice, kids. Your captain just earned the company dinner.