53. Magical Girl... Maybe
53. Magical Girl... Maybe
Meanwhile, while Nikolai was enjoying a happy retreat with the spirits in the Forest of Spirits, Bon Voyage Studio was operating as usual.
"...Human. Is this correct?"
Allen paid no mind to Ceres's question.
He had a feeling things had gotten a touch more violent and slightly more explosive than usual, but since no major problems had arisen in the story, he was convinced nothing was actually wrong.
And so, the filming of Magical Mari continued no differently than usual.
Then one day, the story reached a major turning point.
===================
Though Dina had joined the magical girl team, Mari and Isis's daily lives hadn't changed much.
They'd been savoring a summer break that wasn't over yet—playing on Dina's island and occasionally defeating monsters that came looking for Heart Gems.
Whenever a monster appeared on the island, Mari would spread her wings wide as always and beat them down, while Isis would bisect monsters with her quick-draw swordsmanship to keep the island safe.
Dina's role, you ask?
She was the magical girls’ bankroller and cheerleader.
Realistically speaking, magical girl work was not a money-making endeavor.
Of course the academy and the imperial household did commend their efforts and provide a reward, but it was a pittance compared to the expenses drained by developing all manner of equipment to fight monsters and maintaining the surveillance system.
Isis's family also provided some money, but they weren't exactly comfortable either.
Her family had continued paying her scholarship even after she left the Twilight Council, so naturally they did not have enough money left to support the magical-girl operation as well.
In that situation, Dina joining was like rain after a drought.
For the research team—who had been subsisting solely on sandwiches (containing the daily recommended allowance of carbs, protein, and fat) just to save on food costs—she was practically a savior.
Dina normally served as the magical girls’ bankroller. Whenever they deployed, she joined the researchers in cheering them on from the laboratory, which transformed into a command-and-control center.
That day as always, Dina quietly watched the magical girls fighting on the other side of the monitor from the control room.
A researcher approached her.
"...This outfit?"
"Do you not know what a cheerleader outfit is?"
"I know. But why are you giving it to me...?"
"Hehe..."
The researcher's eyes curved like crescent moons as she smiled and pushed the cheerleader outfit on Dina.
Dina was normally expressionless and impossible to read, but the contempt on her face as she looked at the outfit made her thoughts obvious to anyone.
"You. Tomorrow's lunch will be flour gruel."
"Wh...what! I'm sorry! Please, show mercy!!"
"Drag her away."
"Yep!"
Having somehow naturally become the queen of the research lab, she had the lecherous employee removed from her sight and refocused on the monitor.
It showed her friends using the power of their Heart Gems to fight the monsters.
Watching that sight, an unidentifiable feeling began creeping up from a corner of Dina's heart.
"..."
"Dina, you’re too close to the screen."
"...Sorry."
She pulled back from the screen and kept watching their battle.
Seeing that, the elderly researcher gave a bittersweet smile and walked over to her side.
"You'd like to fight alongside them, wouldn't you, young miss?"
"Huh?"
At the question that suddenly flew at her, Dina's poker face cracked for the first time.
The elderly researcher knew Dina's past.
That was because he had been one of the researchers who'd participated in the project to search for her brother, and because he'd seen many people like Dina in his life.
With a kindly smile on his face, the elderly researcher shifted his gaze from her to the screen and continued speaking.
"I understand that feeling. I dreamed of becoming a knight when I was young too. But as you can see, I was more talented at making things than at fighting. I had no choice but to leave that dream behind as a youthful fantasy."
"..."
"But I’ll tell you what I realized while working as an engineer: throwing punches isn’t the only way to fight. I had my own fight as an engineer—making weapons for those young ladies. That was my battle."
Dina silently watched the researcher's profile.
Dark circles hung beneath his heavily wrinkled eyes, but those eyes sparkled, filled with pride.
"Dina, you must have your own way of fighting. Don’t give up on that dream. Try to find it. I’ll help if I can."
Without waiting for Dina's answer, the researcher returned to his station.
Gazing at his receding back, Dina repeated his words to herself.
A fight, he'd said.
My own fight...
Until Mari and Isis returned from their sortie, she stood rooted in place, repeating only those words.
*
Sometime later.
As the magical girls were enjoying their usual ocean swim, a monster ambushed them.
Without introducing himself, he attacked them out of nowhere.
However, the bold ambush fizzled out, as the monster wasn't particularly strong; Isis and Mari disposed of it easily.
The problem came next.
The following day, the very same monster appeared before them again.
Only this time, there were two of them.
"What?"
"Save the grumbling for later and just transform, Ceres."
They had beaten him easily on the first day, so having two of him did not make the fight difficult.
Mari and Isis handled the monster in an instant, yet somehow they couldn't shake a sense of unease.
And as if confirming that gut feeling, the monster appeared again the next day.
This time, there were four.
"..."
Realizing the situation was taking a serious turn, they took a little more time to deal with the four before returning to the lab.
There, the former Council member—the Lab Director—and Isis's father were waiting.
From the girls' testimony and photos of the monster, the two men quickly deduced its identity.
Name unknown, appearance unknown.
His assigned Seat was <Expectation>.
The Councilor of Expectation had been a figure shrouded in secrecy even when they were part of the Council.
Normally the councilors at least knew one another’s identities and Seats, but the Councilor of Expectation kept everything about himself secret.
He always wore a mask, hid his build beneath a robe, and even spoke through a mechanically altered voice.
The best guess they could make was that, judging by his sheer bulk, he was probably male.
"...If the contents turned out to be a woman, that might be terrifying in its own way."
Chuckling, the head of the Optepe Family concluded his explanation.
Going by his track record so far, the Councilor of Expectation had neither engaged in eccentric antics like Scapul nor been flashy like Ignos.
On the contrary, he was extremely pragmatic and efficient.
Without introducing himself or revealing his ability, he methodically tightened the noose around the magical girls through ambushes alone.
That rationality gave them a serious headache, of course.
Still lacking any real intelligence on him, the girls had no choice but to wait and hope he'd appear again.
And the next day, he appeared.
This time, there were eight of him.
"Can I say what I’m thinking?"
"I think I know already, Isis."
Seeing him double every day, it was obvious that even if they defeated all eight, sixteen would appear the next day.
After discussion with the command-and-control center, the girls decided to prioritize locating the original body, which had to be sending the clones from somewhere.
After subduing the clones, they began scouring the island for the original body, wherever it might be.
Apparently aware of this, the original body continued sending clones to hinder them.
At the end of a psychological war of attrition, they located the original body.
He was underwater a short distance from the island, continuously summoning duplicates.
The sight of it—purple magic circles blazing on its hands, identical-looking clones spawning from both palms—was the image of a villain, no mistake about it.
"This ends now, monster!"
The moment they spotted him, Mari and Isis charged their finishing moves.
Then, without preamble, they slammed a colossal shockwave and a blade aura down onto his head.
The monster watched them with a detached gaze, then took the finishing moves head-on.
A massive explosion erupted, the ocean surface surged upward, and when the spray settled, the monster had vanished.
"We did it!"
Mari cheered.
But Isis didn't take her eyes off the spot where the monster had been.
Just before the finishing moves hit, she'd had the distinct feeling that he'd sneered at them.
And her intuition proved correct.
For in the place where the original body had disappeared, a monster identical to the original appeared.
Standing where the original had been as though mocking them, the monster used the same magic the original had used and summoned clones.
"That's impossible!"
It didn't end there.
When the summoned clones opened their hands, purple magic circles formed in both palms of every clone.
Then, from both sides, more clones emerged once again.
"No way..."
Isis muttered.
She hoped it wasn't the worst-case scenario she had in mind, but reality was always cruel to her.
The summoned clones each, in turn, summoned more clones.
Only then did the two of them realize their mistake.
From the very beginning, the distinction between original and clone had been meaningless.
These clones were the original bodies, and the original bodies were the clones.
Even the daily doubling had been nothing but a deception.
His ability needed no one-day interval, nor did it need to expand gradually by doubling.
Watching him multiply threefold by the second, the magical girls realized that everything had been his trap.
[You need to escape from there right now!]
"I'd love to!"
"I'm afraid that's going to be difficult! The expansion speed is too fast!"
Once the Councilor had multiplied by three until his numbers reached the thousands, all of his copies pressed their palms together and introduced themselves.
""I am Legion.""
""I am one, yet we are whole.""
The sea surface gradually rose.
No—that wasn't the sea surface.
A human tidal wave, thousands upon tens of thousands strong, was surging up over the ocean.
""I am the legion.""
A tsunami of Legions swallowed the magical girls.