76. Magical Girl Civil War
76. Magical Girl Civil War
While Ceres was busy piling up memories(?) in her hometown, Allen spent every spare moment carrying out his duties as a priest.
By the time the group returned to the academy after a fiercely busy weekend of tourism, Bon Voyage Studio's Hyphen Kingdom branch had been completed.
After that, as if he'd made up his mind, Allen purchased a special sanctuary with an enormous sum of money that was utterly incomparable to any spending he'd done before.
Nikolai worried about the sudden expenditure, but Allen just answered with a sunny grin.
"Don't worry! I only used about fifty percent of the studio assets and seventy percent of my personal funds! It's a set we'll be using for ages—this level of investment's a must!"
The Parma siblings, who'd been listening behind Nikolai, swayed on their feet for a moment.
After that, the little commotion was settled when it was decided that Leon, their sponsor, would manage the studio's assets, while Pia would manage a portion of Allen's personal wealth.
From then on, the studio balanced classes and filming, steadily preparing the civil war episode.
About a month later.
At last, Magical Mari's civil war episode aired.
*
The day the civil war episode aired.
People gathered in front of their televisions, everyone and their neighbor determined not to miss the live broadcast.
This time, as if the studio were deliberately showing off that they meant business, they'd been scattering teasers for a month, and public anticipation had skyrocketed through the roof.
To give you an idea of just how much—traffic in major cities dropped so drastically there was no need to even measure it.
And so, amid the public's expectations, the curtain rose.
==============================================
As the episode began, Riv's figure appeared on screen for the first time in a long while.
He looked bedraggled, as if he hadn't appeared even once since being thrown into prison last time.
Before long, the prison door opened and skeletons escorted him to the magicians.
"A mission."
Before sending him out on the mission, they placed a suggestion on him with eight words, just as they had last time.
Squinting against the sunlight he felt for the first time in ages, Riv boarded the skeleton train.
When the skeleton train's engineer asked his destination in a cheerful voice, he set his course for Hetairo Island.
Having arrived on Hetairo Island, Riv immediately assaulted the city.
"Accordingly, by the resolution of ten councilors, the following judgment shall be rendered."
- Total Annihilation.
The scene that had appeared in Magical Mari's promotional video was finally broadcast in the main episode.
Explosions erupted throughout the city, and Mari scrambled into action, beginning to stop Riv.
If there was a difference from that time, it was that the action had been significantly enhanced.
Before long, just as in the promotional video, Riv was defeated by Mari.
In a way, it was only natural.
During Riv's first assault, Mari had been unable to use her full power because there were many citizens nearby, but this time, thanks to Riv making such a flashy entrance, the citizens had already evacuated.
Hit by Mari's merciless finishing move, Riv activated a magic tool and fled from her.
Up to this point, it was all footage that had been in the promotional video.
But the problem was what came after.
As if she'd known where Riv would flee, Isis was waiting there.
With his body in tatters, Riv engaged Isis in battle.
Naturally, Riv, exhausted to the breaking point, was no match for Isis, who had defeated the third-ranked Ignos.
Just as Riv was about to be arrested, fog shrouded the heart of the city and the skeleton train appeared.
With a blaring horn, the skeleton train cut between Isis and Riv, spilled skeletons from its walls, and departed once more.
By the time Isis had defeated the skeletons, both the train and Riv had vanished beyond the fog.
The screen shifted back inside the train.
"That was truly dangerous, Mr. Riv!"
The engineer rattled on jovially at Riv, who was catching his breath in a corner of the engine room.
Riv stared at the engineer with meaningful eyes, then flinched and turned his gaze toward his pocket.
The source of that sense of wrongness was a broken pendant.
Wondering why such a pendant was in his pocket, he widened his eyes as if realizing something.
And for the first time, he responded to the engineer's chatter.
"It's been a while. Engineer."
"What do you mean, it's been a while? It hasn't even been a month since we retook Lord Ignos's train last time... Ah. I suppose a month does count as a while, doesn't it?"
Hearing those words, Riv was certain.
"They've tampered with my memory."
An excellent weapon was, by its nature, difficult to handle.
An unfamiliar pendant was in his pocket, details of a mission he didn't remember had come from the engineer's mouth. And his memories lacked continuity.
From those facts alone, he realized his state was not normal.
At Riv's words, the engineer's demeanor, which had been utterly cheerful just moments before, transformed in an instant.
"Ah, I slipped up. Did they reset your recent memories, perhaps?"
A fierce battle immediately erupted inside the train.
As if the inside of the train were his own domain, the engineer manipulated objects freely, but he was swiftly subdued by Riv.
Riv strangled the engineer with his prosthetic arm and demanded answers.
"I have served loyally, precisely so that no more victims like my little sister would be created. But judging by your attitude, it seems this place's purpose isn't quite that. What is the true purpose here? No, before that—why are you loyal to the organization?"
The engineer answered his question with a ghastly smile.
"Because the world abandoned us."
"What?"
"The East, the Empire, the world—they abandoned us. Come to think of it, aren't you the same? Seeing how things have gone, why don't you join—"
Crack.
The engineer's neck snapped.
Riv threw the corpse out of the racing train and muttered.
"I'm not like you."
Riv seized the controls where the engineer had vanished and changed the destination.
He headed back toward Hetairo Island.
*
Leaving the train on the coast of Hetairo Island, Riv headed for the academy.
With a mutter that he had something to confirm.
Before him, Dina appeared.
"You're..."
"Big brother isn't getting past."
"Who said I'm your big brother?"
"There's something like that. Anyway, you're not getting past."
A three-section staff extended from Dina's hand, and the two faced off.
Riv tried to pass her by, but Dina kept blocking him, making it impossible to advance.
At first, Riv shook Dina off as if she were a nuisance, but unable to endure her persistent resistance, he attacked her.
However, Dina only blocked Riv, and did not counterattack.
She merely deflected Riv's one-sided attacks with her staff; she never swung it herself.
When none of his attacks landed, the impatient Riv kicked her away and tried to aim for her now-defenseless throat, but he suddenly complained of a headache and lost consciousness.
*
When Riv came to, he was in an inn.
Around him remained traces suggesting someone had nursed him through the night, a vase of multiflora roses, and some bread.
Watching all this with meaningful eyes, Riv left the inn without a word.
"Big brother. Were you well?"
Dina returned to the room Riv had left.
With a bittersweet smile, as if she'd expected him to be gone, she tidied the room.
A few hours after Dina emptied that room.
Riv came back to it.
Without even giving the poignancy of the two people crossing paths a chance to land, Riv stared intently at something outside the window, then left a note on the windowsill.
Over several days, he drifted from inn to inn, leaving notes on windowsills. Then one morning, he stared fixedly out a window.
In that direction was the figure of Dina heading to school.
Once he caught sight of her getting out of a car, Riv opened the bag he'd left behind him.
Inside were the firearms he'd used when attacking Dina.
*
The screen shifted back to Dina's point of view.
Dina, enjoying her daily life as usual.
A professor summoned her.
The professor called her to his laboratory, saying he had something to discuss with her.
"What is it, Professor?"
When Dina entered the laboratory, the professor had his back turned to the door she'd come through.
Having briefly worn a sinister smile as she entered, the professor turned around as if it had never been there and put on a kind smile.
And from the professor's elbow, as he drew closer to her, grotesque spikes like those of a monster were sprouting.
Just before the unknowing Dina and the professor got close enough, Riv emerged from the shadows of the laboratory and blew the professor's head off with a pistol.
"Big brother?"
Leaving Dina staring at him in utter bewilderment, Riv escaped the laboratory.
Dina belatedly tried to chase after him, but he had already vanished from sight.
A few hours later.
Dina received word that Riv had killed dozens of people at the academy that day.
At that news, Ceres and Isis were furious, steeling themselves and insisting that Riv absolutely had to be caught, but Dina kept doubting the condition of the professor he'd killed.
While Dina was doubting the true circumstances, word of Riv's whereabouts reached the magical girls.
"A report has come in that Riv has been sighted in the Hyphen Kingdom!"
They headed immediately for the Hyphen Kingdom.
There, after countless twists and turns, they came face to face with Riv.
When they found Riv, he was in the forest, snapping an elf's neck.
Mari, having discovered him, shouted.
"Your evil deeds end here!"
At Mari's declaration, Riv raised both hands to assert his harmlessness, even as he slowly tried to persuade her.
"Calm down. I understand what you're thinking, but this isn't the time. The Hyphen Kingdom is in danger."
But no one was willing to listen to the words of a criminal who, just a week ago, had bombed Hetairo Island.
Mari attacked him.
Just as Dina had done, Riv only blocked her attacks with his right prosthetic arm, never letting it turn into a counterattack.
And when Isis joined in, he was subdued in an instant.
The two magical girls handcuffed the subdued Riv and attempted to take him away.
It was the moment Riv's imprisonment was confirmed.
That was, unless they felt the cold touch of metal against the backs of their heads.
Click.
"Big brother is innocent."
Dina had aimed a gun at the two girls' heads.
In the tension-filled atmosphere, the two asked Dina.
That they understood Riv was precious to her, but she had to be sensible about this.
That he was a criminal who had sacrificed countless people.
But Dina refuted their arguments.
That Riv had merely been brainwashed. That he couldn't be held guilty.
At that, Mari argued firmly for Riv's arrest, saying that the fact he'd been brainwashed could be investigated slowly in prison once he was apprehended.
Dina countered that, with so many executives having broken out of prison up until now, if Riv went to prison he might be recaptured and brainwashed again.
As Mari and Isis held fast to the position that the law was important for the sake of social order, Dina shouted in irritation.
"What order! Why should I have to respect laws that nobles decide!"
Indeed.
Dina couldn't trust the law.
Having once been separated from her brother by corrupt power, she could never go through the same experience again.
To her, justice was something freer, less bound by forms, unlike what it was to Mari and Isis.
In contrast, Mari and Isis, who had been active as magical girls for a longer period, carried guilt over the experiences in which unavoidable collateral damage during their activities had wounded people.
Because of that, they placed even greater importance on law and order.
The difference in the three's opinions showed no sign of narrowing.
And as the confrontation between them gradually intensified, matters came to a head.
While they were arguing, a massive explosion occurred in the city.
When they hurried back to the city, the Capital Defense Elf Knight Order was chasing Riv.
- Right after the wanted fugitive entered and left that building, an explosion occurred inside!
When she heard that real civilians had died in that explosion, Dina could find no further grounds to defend Riv.
Mari looked at Dina pityingly and moved to take Riv into custody.
"You understand, right? There's no helping it now."
That was the trigger.
The sight of Mari taking Riv into custody overlapped with the image of Riv being dragged away by guards.
In the end, Dina pulled the trigger.
And before long, this became the spark that ignited a civil war among the magical girls.
The battle between Mari and Dina began.
At first, Dina overwhelmed Mari with her overwhelmingly superior range.
Even if Mari closed the distance, Dina would switch her gun into a shotgun, stop Mari, then widen the gap again, so Mari couldn't catch her.
But when Isis joined in, using the dense forest to conceal herself, Dina's range advantage became useless.
When Isis aimed for Dina's back, Dina reacted—but her gun was cut, and she was effectively neutralized.
The two urged Dina to surrender.
But Dina didn't give up.
"System: Barbara. Requesting deployment."
The two rushed at her to deny Dina the time to transform.
At that moment, Riv, who had somehow freed himself from his restraints, stopped them.
He couldn't defeat the two of them, but he could buy enough time for Dina to complete her transformation.
And right after Riv was taken down by the two, Dina, aboard her robot, glared at them with a face full of murderous intent.
"What did you do to my brother?"
"No... that's..."
Barbara's eleven pairs of cannons blasted beams in every direction.
The forest had become a plain before anyone knew it.
On this transformed battlefield, Dina seemed poised to overwhelm the two.
But Dina's firepower, mobility, and durability weren't enough to withstand Isis's sword, which cut through all magic, and Mari's full, focused power.
In the end, even the Barbara system was shot down, and Dina was defeated by the two.
"I'm sorry. Dina."
Having knocked Dina unconscious as well, Mari and Isis prepared to move Dina and Riv respectively.
At that moment, a third party suddenly broke in.
"Well done, girls."
A horde of monsters that had suddenly appeared surrounded the two.
Bearing the handicap of having to protect Dina and Riv, Mari and Isis pushed their exhausted bodies to defeat the monsters.
In the process, they learned that the terrorist attack in the elf country had been the monsters' doing, and that Riv had been framed while trying to stop them.
Right after the misunderstanding was cleared up, Dina and Riv regained consciousness and began supporting Mari and Isis, tipping the scales in favor of the magical girls.
Fighting on together, the magical girls came to understand each other's views of justice anew, and they restored their friendship.
Then, with their hearts lightened, the battle was brought to a close, its highlight being the magical girls' new combined attack forged again by the power of friendship, and Riv's combat scene in which he bought them the time to create it.
And just when everyone was certain of a happy ending.
Riv's prosthetic arm began to emit an ominous vibration.
"Get away!"
The instant after Riv shoved the magical girls away, space warped around his right arm.
Mari and Isis were thrown clear of Riv, but Dina, despite Riv's attempts to stop her, leaped into the distorted space.
With only Dina's magic wand left behind where the two siblings had vanished, the episode came to an end.
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