Crash-Bang Moving Operation - 2

It had all been dizzying. Posts even popped up from time to time comparing her bust shots with the girls who'd appeared regularly on the broadcasts — the Magical Girl of [Baking], the Magical Girl of [Nursing] — and teasing the contrast for laughs.

'Is... is this really okay? Shizuku and Himari would be hurt if they saw this.'

Beyond that, there was fan art with suspiciously emphasized hips and chest, cosplay attempts ("fake chest attached"), threads like "I dyed my hair a similar silver!" — the list went on and on.

"Just how many different ways are you people planning to play with me? And what's truly astonishing is that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠most of the keywords are 'chest.'"

"Our Leader has been all of Japan's content since the moment she first appeared. She just never knew it herself."

"Kinda wild that I'm only finding out now, over."

Ichika and Kyoko lay sprawled right there on the floor, grinning ear to ear as they scrolled through video after video, post after post, all about her.

'Is it because of the impression of being the first Full Bloom magical girl?'

In the original story, the first to bloom had been Sumire, the Magical Girl of [Protection]. But there, her image had soured badly, because of the harrowing figure she'd cut through the war that raged from December of 2011, when the first Full Bloom appeared, until the Magical Girl of [War] emerged in 2012.

'Because she knew only her father's way, she'll stagger on with his ghost on her back, thrash and flail — and then die a pointless death at [War]'s hands.'

By contrast, the attention the public was showing her now was closer to a kind of affection. These weren't magical girls forcibly commercialized by corporations; this was fondness felt for her actions, exactly as they were, seen as they were.

"Well, goodness..."

She'd never been on the receiving end of this sort of attention from an anonymous crowd before, and it left her feeling a little dazed — and a little embarrassed, too.

"Look at that — the interest appears and she notices it instantly, and she's loving it."

"I've always thought this, but pretending you don't want attention while secretly eating it up is the greatest feeling in the world, over."

"Shut it. People are simply built to enjoy being paid attention to. That's how it works."

"Wow, that is textbook attention-seeker logic right there."

"Shut up! So — the housewarming. How are we doing it?"

"Look at her forcibly changing the subject! Hilarious, over!"

Pang!

"Yeeowch?!"

"Answer me before I hit you again!"

I smacked the thigh of Kyoko — still lying down, fiddling with her phone — one good sharp smack, then pressed Ichika for an answer.

"I looked into it, and turns out we should file the change-of-address registration first, check the state of the rooms, get all the odds and ends done, then throw the party."

"The orphanage said they'd send over all the paperwork we needed, right?"

"Haaah, apparently one mouth leaving the table feels that good — they were faster about it than they ever were handing out allowance."

"Same for me, over! It stung, over! You checked the documents before you ever paid out allowance!"

"Heh, I always told the old codger at the cheap-candy shop I was buying a snack, and walked off with a fake receipt every time. So there!"

Given how the orphanages scraped by on pure donations with no room to spare, Ichika and Kyoko — both over sixteen, with housing secured — were probably on the "we'd love it if you moved out" list even without the whole incident.

'The survival instincts of these two weeds, honestly.'

Even I, who had worked every part-time job imaginable in my past life, could never have kept up a stable routine in this world if Master and the Sato couple hadn't helped me out when I first arrived.

"Oh, right — after moving in, we were told to open the closets and check under the flooring."

"That's for the tatami and the mold. I brought the powders earlier, so let's spread them now."

Psshh.Psshh.

In an apartment this old, encounters with the residents of Planet B — the ones with far too many legs — were simply an unavoidable fact of life, so she sprayed the insecticide thoroughly into every last corner of every room. Surprisingly, there was very little mold, and hardly any torn tatami to speak of.

'Strange. I've never once seen a building manager for this place.'

Setting that nagging unease aside, she soaked a dry rag in disinfectant and scrubbed and scrubbed — and before she knew it, night had fallen. Even though the rooms still reeked of the powder, Ichika and Kyoko insisted on sleeping in their own rooms next door.

The next day, the two of them headed to the ward office to file their change-of-address registrations, and while they were out, I worked through the list of people to invite to the housewarming.

"Heehee, I'd love to come, but my probation period isn't over yet — I'm so sorry!"

Haruko, being of juvenile-law age, and considering what a magical girl's starlight now meant in society at large, had had her violence judged as an act of self-protection — which became the decisive factor in the court granting her a suspended prosecution.

"Yay! I'm coming! Hikari-chan! Thank you for inviting me!"

Hana agreed instantly, the moment I'd finished explaining.

"Long time no see, Shirogane-san! Ichika-chan and Kyoko-chan already told us everything!"

The four magical girls working their trial period at the Saitama Cottage Factory accepted warmly as well, as if they'd already heard the news.

'It's going to be bustling again, for the first time in a while.'

The days when thirteen girls had lived together under one roof, preparing for the Débutante — barely a month had passed since then, and yet the longing came flooding in all the same.

'That whole affair had been aimed at Fujimoto, but the real cause lay in this society itself.'

The corporations of this world's Japan were simply holding back, careful of Fujimoto's watching eyes. If the fundamental perception of magical girls never changed, a second research facility could spring into existence at any moment.

"We're back!"

"We're back, over!"

"Everyone can make it except Bushijima, they said."

"Ahh, yeah — walking free right after the trial was always a long shot, over."

"Hmph~ Then I'll just have to feed that cheeky Sato brat the orphanage's special dark hot pot!"

"What exactly are you planning to feed me, Hikari-chan?!"

"Leader's playing favorites with Sato again, over."

"That's because you two keep goofing off every time I turn around!"

And so we traded our idiotic banter back and forth, all the while drawing up the list of everything we'd need for the housewarming party, just a few days away.