Snow White's Return Chronicle - The Moonlit Duel and the Tower's Shadow
She knew the magic of Ruler.
It was the magic that had marked her first defeat as a magical girl.
A three-dimensional projection of Fav floated up from the Magical Candy Phone.
“Starting this week, the sixteenth magical girl has joined!
Collecting candy will begin next week, but everyone please stay on friendly terms!”
“...The sixteenth magical girl...”
La Pucelle, sitting beside Snow White, said.
“You’ll know once you enter the chat room.”
The face of Hardgore Alice floated up.
But Snow White immediately lifted her head and gazed at the full moon.
Under the full moon.
A left-wing angel and a right-wing angel.
Two magical girls who looked exactly alike cut through the moonlight and flew.
Minael and Yunael.
They were on guard.
You could tell just by looking at their expressions.
It wasn’t a friendly approach.
They would scatter.
A signal to pursue from behind.
“One, two.”
An instant later a kick flew at La Pucelle.
They plummeted straight toward the foot of the iron tower.
“You think you can slip away?!”
La Pucelle shouted and leaped after them.
Then she glanced back at Snow White.
“Don’t move here!”
La Pucelle vanished from her sight.
...That was actually better.
This was a scheme by Minael and Yunael to separate La Pucelle, who was protecting Snow White.
It was regrettable for La Pucelle, but she couldn’t reveal the truth of the reality.
La Pucelle landed and glared at the two angels.
“Are you coming~?”
“Of course I’m coming~”
Minael and Yunael exchanged words while laughing.
“What are you thinking?”
La Pucelle asked quietly.
They pretended to be startled and laughed.
“You’d know just by looking, right~?”
“Want some candy?”
La Pucelle shouted.
“You plan to steal the Magical Candy and let only you survive?!”
“Whoa~ That was a great line~”
“You’ve been wanting to say something like that once, right?”
The two floating figures clutched their stomachs and laughed.
“Fuahaha!”
La Pucelle drew her sword.
“Correct.”
“That’s why I became a magical girl. So I can’t forgive cowards like you!”
The great sword stretched out as if to touch the sky.
She gripped it with both hands.
And drove it down.
Boom!!
Dust rose.
“What the hell is that?! The sword—!”
“Is this dangerous?!”
La Pucelle kicked off the wall and leaped up.
And swung.
But it was a graze.
“This was deliberately off. If you vanish now, I’ll let you go, but if you keep going—”
“Next time I won’t hold back.”
“Yes, yes~ Is that so~”
“Tama~!”
At that moment.
The ground collapsed.
La Pucelle fell straight down.
“...!”
When it reaches zero...
Two shadows had already climbed onto the iron tower.
Snow White turned her head slightly and said.
“...You’ve come to steal the Magical Candy, haven’t you? I thought we’d have a conversation.”
“Conversation?”
One was a magical girl in white.
And the other, a magical girl with pink hair.
Ruler and Swim Swim.
“You think dialogue will work after you’ve reached this point? You’re surprisingly quick-witted. But it’s too late to realize now.”
Ruler lifted the royal throne.
“Under the name of Ruler, I command—”
Cling!!
A sword of light blocked the royal throne.
She didn’t want to use the sword.
But she couldn’t compromise with Ruler.
“That magic—”
Snow White said quietly.
“It only activates if you take a pose. The activation range is—”
“...Six meters?... No, five meters.”
“...!”
Ruler’s eyes widened.
A weakness unknown even to her subordinates.
In the old days Snow White would have stolen the Magical Candy here.
But that Snow White wasn’t a fighting magical girl.
There were two types of magical girls.
Those like La Pucelle who fight.
And those like the old Snow White, who fled, hid, and merely tried to survive.
Snow White had been a non-fighting magical girl.
But no longer.
She had changed because she hated her weak self from the past and wanted to become strong.
Ruler’s royal throne froze in mid-air.
Because the sword of light had blocked its exact trajectory.
“...Impossible...”
Ruler’s eyes shook.
Snow White took one quiet step forward.
“It’s already too late.”
Those were the words.
The next instant Snow White’s body vanished.
“What?”
Before Ruler could react, Thud!!
A shock struck her side.
“Cough...”
Her body rose into the air.
“...I’ve already seen how you move.”
Not like before, when she listened to the voice in her mind.
It was just habit now.
She anticipated how the opponent would move and acted accordingly.
That was Snow White, the Magical Girl Hunter.
She kicked.
Thud!!
Ruler’s body slammed into the iron tower wall.
Swim Swim’s eyes widened.
“Leader!”
Ruler gritted her teeth and shouted.
“I command!”
But the sword stopped right in front of her neck.
Snow White’s voice was cold.
“That won’t activate. The distance is too far and you can’t take the pose.”
“...!”
Ruler had been completely read.
Snow White reached out.
Ruler’s Magical Phone.
A light brushed past.
Snow White forcibly transferred Ruler’s Magical Candy in an amount equal to her own.
Ruler’s eyes shook wildly.
“...My candy...”
“It’s gone.”
Snow White said calmly.
“But—for now, this is enough.”
Swim Swim immediately moved.
She hugged Ruler’s body.
“Leader, we have to go! The elimination announcement is at midnight tonight!”
“If we stay here... I’ll be the one eliminated!!
Then I die!”
“Impossible.”
“It’s better to give up. Short and decisive.”
Swim Swim didn’t hesitate.
She jumped and ran away.
On the iron tower only silence remained.
Snow White looked down at the Magical Phone in her hand.
The increased candy count.
Whether Ruler was robbed of her candy or stole it herself, the result was the same.
In the end Ruler would distribute the candy to her subordinates.
And Swim Swim would be the one in charge.
No doubt Swim Swim wanted to become leader.
A coup.
She was entrusting the candy to the one Ruler trusted most.
At that moment Ruler’s candy would be the least.
And she would die.
Future Ripple had once told her that.
“...It ends up the same.”
Snow White murmured.
“Stealing the Magical Candy... or being stolen of it...”
Three silhouettes appeared toward the iron tower.
La Pucelle leaped this way.
And Minael and Yunael were also flying toward the top of the tower.
La Pucelle extended her greatsword.
And drove it down toward the tower.
Crash!! But what remained there was only Snow White.
Snow White tumbled and used the wall as a pivot, twisting her body.
At the moment she tried to land safely, La Pucelle pulled her into a hug.
“Are you okay? Snow White... No injuries?... The Magical Candy?”
Snow White shook her head and smiled.
“Nothing was taken from me...”
She hid the Magical Phone slightly behind her back so it wouldn’t be seen.
...If she noticed, La Pucelle would get angry.
But La Pucelle knew.
She sensed that the smile was somehow awkward.
And that something was being hidden.
“Hey... Koyuki.”
La Pucelle said quietly.
“You’re hiding something, aren’t you?”
“Hiding? There’s nothing.”
Snow White forced a laugh and said.
“Hehe... What could it be?”
Kishibe Souta knew.
When Himekawa Koyuki smiled like this, she always hid something.
Her childhood friend.
“...Can I answer?”
“La Pucelle, too, there’s no way something like that exists.”
He was flustered.
But even if he found out, even if she mentioned the regression, La Pucelle would understand her.
That’s why she couldn’t say anything.
“...I see.”
La Pucelle said.
Looking at the smiling Snow White, she let it go.
“If another magical girl comes aiming for the candy, it’ll be dangerous. Let’s separate for now. I’ll take you home.”
“...No.”
Snow White shook her head.
“I want to wait for the result announcement on the tower.”
Snow White was smiling.
But that smile still wasn’t really smiling.
“Then there’s nothing for it... I’ll go with you.”
With La Pucelle they returned to the top of the tower.
And waited for the announcement.
A screen of Fav floated up and the results appeared.
“So... the magical girl with the least candy is Ruler-pong.
...It hasn’t changed.
Ruler dies.
Nemuring was also the same as before.
Fate doesn’t change easily.
“Again this time...?”
Snow White murmured softly.
La Pucelle tilted her head.
“What?”
“Uh... nothing.”
The reason she had climbed the tower wasn’t simple.
This was the place they had agreed to meet the mages of the Magical Kingdom.
She had chosen this iron tower she was often at, since no exact location was specified.
“Hey, Snow White...”
At that moment La Pucelle stopped.
Like a frozen screen.
A scene where time had stopped.
...But she had never heard of a magic that stopped time.
“...As expected.”
Snow White murmured.
This was his doing.
Shinomi ya Gaku.
He was still walking slowly in ordinary clothes from this world, not the Magical Kingdom’s attire.
Snow White looked around and asked.
“This... is a magic that stops time?”
“No.”
Gaku shook his head.
“Stopping time... that’s a bit different from that. He pointed to a space that looked like a wall.
“This is a wall, but will you touch it?”
It seemed you could just pass through.
But Snow White, as he said, reached out.
“...It’s cold.”
It didn’t pass through.
And the Magical Phone also didn’t react at all, as if frozen.
“A magic that sets the entropy value of the surrounding area to zero.”
Gaku said without a care.
“How’s that? Impressive, right? With this, even a magical girl with good physical abilities would take a hit.”
Snow White frowned.
Gaku continued without concern.
“You’re worrying too much. I set it so it wouldn’t affect the magical girl.”
“...So.”
Snow White asked quietly.
“Why did you come here?”
Gaku shrugged.
“Because of the investigation into the Forest Musician Cranberry, I learned various things and asked retired magical girls who passed the test or active ones about their memories of the ‘examiner’.”
“So?”
“Everyone had no memory.”
“...But.”
Gaku’s gaze changed slightly.
“There was one magical girl who remembered something. So I asked.”
“The conclusion is simple.”
“The Forest Musician Cranberry has been holding these slaughter games since long ago. Even though she’s not the Head of the Personnel Division, she put herself in as a participant?”
Gaku chuckled.
“Completely insane.”
“Well... that’s about what I learned from the outside.”
A short silence.
Snow White said quietly.
“...Thank you.”
“If I report this incident to the Audit Division, can it be handled immediately?”
Gaku was silent for a moment, then shook his head.
“No. Impossible.”
“Even if I organize everything that happened here, give testimony, and submit evidence, the current Nabukashi City has a ‘contact prohibition’ request from the Personnel Division.”
“If I leak this fact—”
Gaku chuckled.
“I’d have my head cut off, head cut off.”
“What...”
He shrugged and continued.
“Before that, it wouldn’t be bad to cause some flashy chaos once.”
Shinomiya Gaku sat with his legs stretched out on the top of the tower.
And took out an energy drink and drank it lightly.
Snow White watched the scene for a moment, then asked.
“By the way...”
“The Kurei-san you were with with...”
“That guy?”
Gaku laughed shortly.
“This time I’m moving alone. There are circumstances.”
Gazing at the sky for a moment, Gaku murmured.
“Indeed... I feel like I’m playing with fate. I don’t believe in fate, but still, don’t worry. I don’t plan to reject the Cranberry capture request.”