52. There Is No Forest for Mascots
52. There Is No Forest for Mascots
"What? What are you talking about?"
"The light spirits have nothing to do with this, squeak."
Cled denied the spirits' assumptions and told them the truth.
In truth, the light spirits were already exhausted by the other spirits' expectations.
The spirits demanded that they be utterly flawless spirits of justice, but in reality they themselves were soft-hearted.
So they played the part of the righteous ones in public, serving as impartial mediators and friends to all, but in reality they too had friends they held more dear.
Openly worrying about their sleeping friends would have created an image of favoritism, so they had always had to visit them in secret.
The suspicious magic the tree spirit had mentioned had been born of that need.
A spell that bent light to hide the body.
It was suspicious magic utterly unsuited to a light spirit that preached justice.
They had been living a daily routine of remaining invisible, secretly visiting their friends, checking on their condition, and returning.
At Cled’s deduction, the light spirits wept and honestly confessed their feelings.
As that happened, the dark spirits, perhaps overwhelmed as well, began crying together with them.
The spirits apologized to the light and dark spirits for the burdens they had placed on them and for the prejudiced way they had viewed them.
In the process, they reflected on their prejudice, regretted having ostracized Lirpin and Cled, and accepted them as friends.
And so the forest regained its happiness!
.
.
.
"Then what was the Witch’s Lullaby, mew?"
"Squeak?!"
If only Lirpin's sudden question had not echoed through the plaza.
Those words sent out an enormous ripple.
If you're not the culprit, and I'm not the culprit, then just who is the culprit?
Surely not Great Mother?
The moment everyone's eyes turned toward the house where Great Mother lived, its door opened.
The spirits pointed their fingers at the woman walking out of Great Mother's house.
"Who are you!"
"You're not Great Mother!"
At the spirits' words, it was now the mascots' turn to fall into confusion.
"What do you mean, meow?"
"This woman isn't Great Mother, squeak?"
"What do you mean? Great Mother is currently looking after the children of another forest right now!"
"What, meow (squeak)?!"
That was right.
The woman Lirpin and Cled had unquestioningly believed was the Great Mother had never been her at all.
Now everything made sense.
Each time they produced the residence token or vigilante badge the false Great Mother had given them, the spirits’ indifferent response had not been wariness toward outsiders. They simply had no idea what those objects were.
From the start, concepts like residence permits or vigilante corps were ideas created outside the forest.
Lirpin and Cled had grown accustomed to the outside and accepted them without any sense that something was amiss, but originally those were words that should never have left Great Mother's lips in this forest.
Only then did the woman who had posed as Great Mother bow toward the mascots, who had realized they had been deceived.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am a scout of the Twilight Council. You may call me Madrine."
The moment she finished her introduction, she spun once, and her appearance transformed.
The green hair that had given off a benevolent air turned red, and violet lipstick coated the pink lips that had whispered in a gentle voice.
Once her transformation was complete, Madrine's appearance was unmistakably that of a witch.
There was no longer any need to search for the culprit behind the Witch's Lullaby.
"I am fortunate. I had planned to put all the spirits to sleep and take them to the laboratory, but now the Heart Gem spirits have come here as well. If I take you too, I can only imagine how richly the organization will reward me."
"Cled!"
"I know, squeak!"
They moved at once.
They could not fight directly like magical girls, but they were still Heart Gem spirits.
They still possessed at least one or two passable attack techniques.
"Hope Punch!"
"Invisible Slash!"
The two mascots swung adorable fists and tails as they attacked Madrine.
But their efforts were in vain; the attacks could not so much as scratch her.
Having endured their attacks with ease, Madrine merely flicked her fingers, and violet lightning struck down from the sky, turning the spirits' plaza into a wasteland.
"Uwaaagh!"
With a somehow cute yet worrying scream, the two mascots went flying.
Madrine opened a collection container to capture the mascots and approached them.
"Heh heh heh."
The other spirits blocked her path as she drew near with a spine-chilling smile.
For the mascots they had now accepted as friends, and toward the outsider who had invaded the forest, they poured out their fury.
But because Heart Gem magic power could only be pierced by the same Heart Gem magic power, their attacks could not inflict even a scratch on Madrine.
Madrine brushed off the spirits attacking her as though they were nuisances and walked toward the two mascots.
Just when the spirits’ defeat seemed certain, an intuition flashed through Lirpin and Cled’s minds—zing!
It was only intuition, but as if they had already known it, they instinctively joined hands with the other fallen spirits.
And when they poured magic power into them, their forms changed.
"Chirp?"
"Tweee?"
"Woof?"
The ordinary spirits had transformed into the forms of small animals.
There was no fixed rule to what animals they became, but one thing was certain.
Now they too were no different from Lirpin and Cled.
The spirits, having gained the power of mascots, summoned their respective elements and attacked Madrine.
Unlike how they had been helplessly overrun at first, the spirits now held the upper hand.
Not to be outdone, Madrine revealed her true form and spread enormous bat wings. The lion-shaped light spirit and puma-shaped dark spirit slammed a massive beam into her, tearing away her wings and sending her crashing down.
When Madrine staggered to her feet after her fall, Lirpin and Cled were before her, their hands crossed.
And behind the two mascots, mascots of every attribute were gathering their magic power.
The gathered magic power took on multicolored hues and assumed the shape of a sphere.
The moment the two mascots thrust that sphere forward, light exploded alongside a blinding flash.
"Miracle Elemental Stream!"
"This cannot be!!!"
*
Afterward, the ruined forest was restored by Great Mother, who returned upon hearing the news.
She thanked the two mascots and officially acknowledged them as spirits.
Lirpin and Cled were accepted as friends amid the spirits' warm welcome.
But what the forest had prepared for them did not end there.
"In this place, I hereby declare the establishment of the Elemental Knights."
The spirits who had transformed into mascots during this incident, along with Lirpin and Cled.
A vigilante corps for the spirits, centered around them, had truly been formed.
With acorns pinned to their chests as vigilante medals, Lirpin and Cled were appointed co-commanders of the order by the Great Mother.
Amid the cheers of the spirits, the two mascots put their arms around each other's shoulders, and the film drew to a close.
=============
"So, Cled. When are Ceres and Isis coming back, mew?"
"How should I know, squeak. When they run out of things to do playing around, they'll come back, squeak."
"Huh?"
The word one audience member had blurted out in confusion while heading for the exit summed up the feelings of everyone inside the theater.
Faced with an unprecedented situation where the ending credits were abruptly cut short partway through and a new video began playing, the people too were bewildered.
Had Allen been there, he would have declared, “Ah, you don’t know? This is called a post-credits scene, you uncivilized medievals,” but the audience had no idea what was happening and could only mill about in confusion.
The post-credits scene kept playing without waiting for the flustered audience members to return to their seats.
Lirpin and Cled had been appointed commanders in the forest, but because they had no actual duties, they returned to Hetairo Island.
The two mascots continued their conversation while sunbathing on the roof of Isis's mansion.
Sluuurp.
Wearing perfectly fitted sunglasses of unknown origin, a straw hat, and a floral shirt, Cled sipped his apple-mango juice.
Lirpin was staring at him in disbelief, but Cled paid him no mind and rolled over to roast every last bit of his fur evenly.
At that moment, a gust of wind blew from somewhere and sent his hat flying.
Just as Cled was about to rise to retrieve the flying hat, a small being appeared in midair, caught the hat, and tossed it back to Cled.
Though startled, Cled did not forget to offer his thanks as he got his hat back.
"Thank you... squeak?"
"For something this small, think nothing of it."
The other party answered in a gruff voice.
He wore an eyepatch over his right eye, clenched a toothpick at a crooked angle in his beak, and carried a shotgun over one shoulder...
He was a penguin.
"Meow?"
"Squeak?"
Leaving the two bewildered mascots behind, the palm-sized penguin introduced himself.
"Pleasure to meet you, gentlemen. I’m Frank, and from this moment on I’ll be supporting the magical girls."
"Meow?"
"Well, if you want to get technical about it, you two are my parents, but I'm not the type to get hung up on such things. I'd like you to treat me as an equal colleague."
"Squeak?"
As the two mascots put on expressions of utter bewilderment at the unhinged penguin's words, the penguin laughed heartily as if amused and winked with his remaining left eye as he spoke.
"Mari and Isis will explain the details."
With those words, the post-credits scene ended.