Magical Girl and the Infiltration Operation (1)
【4th Factory City】.
A location not far from the 5th Factory City, where Er and Black Twilight are currently infiltrating.
Even at this late hour, an unexpected commotion was erupting within that city.
『―――――!』
『――…!! ―――!』
The crack of gunfire.
Sounds of destruction, clashing blades, and the roars of monster soldiers echoing everywhere.
Right in front of the Factory—the most critical facility in the Factory City—a fierce battle was raging. Blood and chunks of flesh littered the ground, alongside the shattered remains of numerous monster soldiers and security robots.
Each monster soldier or combat android robot possessed technology and firepower capable of effortlessly crushing an average Earth army unit.
Yet even these beings were being helplessly sliced apart before their current foe.
Despite there being only one enemy—and one companion.
"Fuck! She's strong! When the hell are the reinforcements from the barracks arriving?! When's the Magical Girl Hunting Chimera getting here?!"
"S-Squad leader…! All comms devices are completely down right now…!"
"Then run over there and deliver the message yourself! What are you waiting for?! She's gonna break through!!"
Watching one of their astronomically expensive combat androids get torn to shreds and sent flying, the monster soldier called the squad leader bellowed in rage.
His subordinate hurriedly replied and dashed off toward the far side of the city.
In that direction lay the barracks housing the city's garrisoned monster soldiers and the chimera storage facility.
Even that fleeing silhouette felt agonizingly slow. The squad leader gnashed his teeth in fury.
—Right now, their Factory was under attack.
The assailants: a single magical girl, accompanied by a fairy fluttering at her side.
For reasons unknown, the magical girl had ignored the blaring alarms and stormed straight through the main gate into the Factory grounds.
Yet no reinforcements from the barracks had arrived, suggesting the alarms were confined to the Factory interior.
The intruding magical girl's identity was unknown, but she was ridiculously powerful.
She wore a strange mask covering half her face, and for some reason, even facing her head-on, it was impossible to properly lock onto her form.
It was like trying to grasp a cloud drifting by, even when staring right at her.
'That's…!'
The masked magical girl who popped up here and there—recently the talk of the town among monster soldiers as a major headache.
The magical girl Pure White.
She had to be that Pure White. No other invader fit the description.
Rumors said she struck guerrilla-style, inflicting heavy casualties on monster units, sometimes freeing captured magical girls or demolishing key facilities.
Already, three critical sites had reportedly been destroyed that way.
And today, it seemed this Factory was her target.
Shraaaash!! Shraaaash!! Boom!! Crash!! Kreeeeen…!!!
Gaaahhh…!!
Aaagh…!!
Wielding swords of light in both hands—and more floating around her—she mercilessly slaughtered the monster soldiers, combat androids, and equipment swarming to subdue her.
Mech拉克's elite gear and troops, which could outmatch Earth's top forces, were getting shredded like sandbags….
'Damn it… a magical girl of all things…!!'
Magical girls were powerful.
High-rank ones couldn't be touched by regular monster soldiers or their gear—not even if you brought a truckload.
Mech拉克 hadn't seen them as much of a threat because extensive research had yielded anti-magical girl equipment and chimeras.
Mass production was costly and labor-intensive, but even one unit drastically reduced casualties.
It was that gear that made "Magical Girl Hunting" possible.
The staff-like weapon in the squad leader's hand—guarding this Factory—was one such anti-magical girl tool.
'Ugh… but what am I supposed to do with this? She moves too fast to even track…!'
To make matters worse, the Factory's guard detail was short-staffed right now.
Over half the usual personnel had been reassigned for some major event elsewhere in the city.
If the magical girl had struck today by sheer luck, she was fortunate.
If she'd chosen it knowingly… that meant intel had leaked somewhere.
Either way, it was bad luck for him, tasked with guarding the Factory tonight.
"—Damn it! Team A, use the remaining guard bots to suppress the magical girl! Team B, head to the nearest key point immediately! Link up with the hypnotized magical girls stationed there and engage! I repeat—"
He shouted into his crackling, malfunctioning comms device, clutching at straws.
A faint "[Roger…]" came through afterward, maybe.
Possibly his imagination, but he prayed it got through, stowed the device, and gripped his anti-magical girl staff instead. He charged toward the battlefield.
He didn't know the magical girl's goal, but he trusted the hypnotized magical girls guarding each critical facility.
Even if she breached the main gate, they'd handle her.
With comms dead, he couldn't command anymore.
All he could do was cling to her, buy time until barracks reinforcements arrived.
Death held no fear.
As Mech拉克 monster soldiers, they could resurrect endlessly in new bodies as long as their data survived.
'If only I can summon the reinforcements… and the anti-magical girl chimera…!'
'Just hold out until then…!!'
Clinging to that hope, the squad leader lunged at the magical girl.
The white-haired, masked magical girl calmly split her attention, continuing the fight against the new arrival….
—The commotion on the Factory grounds didn't reach inside the buildings.
But the nonstop alarms made it clear something serious was happening.
And he knew it was Pure White… Er making her move.
After all, they'd planned it that way together.
"Cookie, Cookie. You sure this is okay? Er pulling all that aggro by herself. Can she handle it alone?"
Magical girl Black Twilight.
The magical girl with deep navy hair evoking a night sky and indelible dark circles under her eyes asked the fairy hovering beside her.
The cat fairy nodded reassuringly.
"It's fine, nyang. With Er's skills, even a division of average monster soldiers couldn't touch her, nyang."
"But… those weird… chimeras or whatever…."
"The ones Black met before were low-number special models, nyang. Tricky to handle and not many around, so they don't just pop out anytime. Besides, current Er could take down a couple without issue, nyang."
Fair point.
Black recalled her first meeting with Er.
While Black had been helpless against the chimera, Er cleaved it in one stroke.
Anti-magic processed to nullify magical girl spells? Er dismantled it effortlessly.
Er was undoubtedly a powerhouse magical girl.
Astonishing compared to her own trash-tier combat ability.
"She has support, so no need to worry, nyang. Right now, Er's at about 80% of the 'strongest magical girl', nyang."
"80% of that? How insanely strong is she…? And support—you mean that other fairy?"
Black thought back to earlier.
Cookie was with her now.
And for Er, drawing eyes during the infiltration, another fairy had been assigned.
Cookie resembled a cat plush; Er's was chicken-plush-like.
Name was Peanut, or something….
"That's just for comms, nyang. Real support's separate. Anyway, stop fretting over nothing and do your job, nyang, you loner bitch."
"…Don't call me that."
At Cookie's urging, Black grumbled and scanned her surroundings.
The room brimmed with complex machinery, and at its center floated a holographic Earth.
Reaching out, the hologram shifted, spawning various windows before her eyes.
Black yelped in surprise, "Eek!"
She was in one of the city's Factory's most critical facilities: the data control room.
Through Cookie and Liliza's collaboration, stealing data here would pinpoint the strongest magical girl's location.
That judgment led to today's expeditionary infiltration from their base in the 5th Factory City.
Roles divided: Er on combat, Black on stealth….
> Beep— Bzzzt—
> [To access this data, an ID with ■ grade or higher authority is required.]
> [Please enter your ID.]
The control room's central hologram screens and AI voice left Black flustered and hesitant.
Still, she tentatively touched the designated spot. Suddenly, "[Approved]" flashed, and data began loading.
Thanks to Liliza's prior meddling.
A few such approvals later, they reached the target data.
Black lacked the brains or knowledge to comprehend the dense info, of course.
"Good, nyang. Now place the data chip Liliza prepped here, nyang."
"Data chip… this?"
Black muttered, pulling out a cylindrical magnet-like device and setting it where Cookie indicated.
The hologram data scrolled rapidly, downloading into the chip.
Estimated time: about [9 minutes] Earth time.
They couldn't get caught here for that long—her heart pounded.