The Magical Girl of the Waning Moon (3)
Artificial girls.
Magical girls created artificially to shore up insufficient combat strength. Everything but the brain and spinal cord had been replaced with artificial organs and machinery. Outwardly they looked no different from ordinary girls, yet in essence they were nothing more than living machines wrapped in human skin.
They had become something too delicate to call human. Bearing children was, of course, impossible. After customization they were sometimes offered up as “entertainment” to powerful politicians of various nations or to the upper echelons of the overseeing bodies.
Average lifespan: twenty-five years. The power of a magical girl was simply too much for a human frame to bear. No matter how thoroughly the body had been remodeled, artificial girls could not endure that power.
They vanished without a trace when their magic ran wild. They were eaten by Unknowns until not even a corpse remained. Their bodies collapsed and they were disposed of. They lost their selves, went berserk, and were put down by other magical girls.
Whichever end it was, intact corpses were rare.
Most of the artificial girls Ian-na had been close to met the same fate. Their faces, their personalities, their tastes, their names… everything about them remained burned into her memory.
Aside from ending their lives to spare them further pain, there had been nothing Ian-na could do. The first-generation artificial girls who had once stood with her against the Unknowns died trembling with fear right before her eyes.
Guilt.
It was the emotion that formed the largest part of Ian-na’s heart. She was gripped by the guilt of having failed to properly protect the artificially created magical girls.
Even now, with her body reduced to something closer to a corpse and a machine, even with a control chip embedded in her brain and her consciousness growing hazy, that guilt alone refused to fade.
…
The massive monitor at the front of the Control Room synchronized with Spes Unit 3’s field of vision. Just as most of her organs had been replaced with machinery or artificial parts, both of her eyes had been swapped out for miniature cameras.
And then—
The spinal cord was ripped out first. Then the machinery and artificial organs that made up her body spilled free. Above the neck there was nothing left. As if nothing had ever been there, the stump sprayed the blood it had been holding in every direction, cut clean.
A space filled with absolute darkness. In this place that was little more than the intersection of two dimensions—the place meant to prevent the Unknown’s materialization—Spes Unit 3 met the most wretched of ends.
Pale violet skin entered the field of view. A humanoid Unknown that looked to stand a full three meters tall. The creature possessed no organs whatsoever except a mouth. Aside from that enormous maw of interlocking, saw-like fangs, its surface was nothing but dirty, pale skin where tentacles writhed.
Slice.
The Unknown transformed the edge of its hand into a blade as sharp as a sword and cleanly severed Spes Unit 3’s neck. In an instant.
The camera feed—Spes Unit 3’s head—rolled across the rock-like surface of the dimensional boundary and captured the humanoid Unknown as it began to tear into her body and feed.
Spes Unit 3’s life signs vanished completely.
“…”
Everyone in the Control Room fell silent. No one looked away from the monitor. They simply stared at the Unknown as it crunched and chewed Spes Unit 3’s already-cold body.
Even for me, this was the first time I had actually watched a magical girl die—excluding Ian-na’s own memories. For a moment, every person present lost the ability to speak. The weight of a magical girl’s death was far greater than anyone imagined.
For one person, perhaps, it was not.
“…A moment of silence.”
The Deputy Director rose from his seat and murmured the words low.
“Deputy Director…?”
“Everyone, observe a moment of silence. Spes Unit 3 chose a sacred and noble sacrifice of her own will in order to buy us even a little more time. Honor her spirit with silence.”
“…”
The Deputy Director put on the black-rimmed glasses he had set aside. He and the agents observed a brief silence, then began assessing the situation once more.
“…Beta Ether readings have broken forty-point-two percent. The Unknown that absorbed Spes Unit 3’s intellect and power is growing larger still. Confirming Medium-class Unknown.”
Medium-class. A threat level that required at least ten artificial magical girls working together merely to suppress. The story was proceeding exactly as it had in the original novel.
“Issue a summons to every magical girl not currently assigned a mission. Under no circumstances are we to allow a second Nightmare of Beirut.”
“Understood!”
As the agents began transmitting the call-up orders to the magical girls—
The middle-aged man who had been with Spes Unit 3 appeared on the screen. Every vein in his body stood out in stark relief; he was in a state of extreme rage. He glared at us through the feed as if he meant to kill us, condemning Spes Unit 3’s death.
“Spes Unit 3 chose this path of her own free will.”
“You are out of line, Dr. Mikhail.”
The doctor’s fury swung toward me—toward the one who had given Oksana autonomy and allowed her to walk into death of her own accord. Realizing the arrow had changed direction, the Deputy Director promptly stopped making excuses and simply watched the situation unfold.
“…Sorry.”
“…”
There was nothing I could say. Everything he said was true.
Ian-na, whose physical growth had stopped after she was “chosen” as a magical girl at a young age, and Oksana, who had volunteered for the artificial magical girl project and become a first-generation unit, had fought countless enemies side by side. During the Magical Crusade—the background of the novel’s opening, when magical girls had slain innumerable Unknowns and sealed a massive dimensional rift—they had trusted each other enough to fight back-to-back.
Of course, Ian-na’s power had been far superior.
Later, when Ian-na was captured by a certain faction and subjected to unspeakable torture, Oksana had thrown her entire body into the rescue without holding anything back. The result had been Oksana’s severe injuries… and her death.
“…”
When my eyes met those of the doctor glaring at me with murderous intensity, cold sweat began to pour down my face. Aside from the Adjutant, I found it difficult to meet anyone’s gaze. Whether that was a lingering effect of the torture, I could not say. The doctor’s eyes were sharper and more vicious than anything else. Even through the monitor I could feel the killing intent and hatred.
“Ugh……”
I forced my gaze away. Calming my pounding heart and trembling hands as best I could, I lightly gripped the sleeve of the Adjutant’s uniform—a silent request for him to block the view.
The Adjutant immediately stepped in front of me and shielded the monitor with his own body.
“Spes Unit 3’s death is tragic, yet there is nothing to be done about it now. This is the time to consider countermeasures.”
The monitor was only faintly visible past the Adjutant’s shoulder. Overcome by emotion, the doctor clenched both fists and continued in a trembling voice.
“Beta Ether readings have broken forty-five percent… The Medium-class Unknown has not yet fully materialized……”
“Response from the Hokkaido Temporary Dispatch Organization… Entreaty says she will move……”
The Deputy Director smiled faintly and issued the next order.
“The Magical Girl of Entreaty. Excellent. Dispatch the nearby magical girls together with Entreaty.”
“But… Entreaty’s mental state……”
“Is unstable, yes. That is precisely why we are sending other magical girls. Surveillance and control will be necessary.”
“…Understood.”
The agents seemed to tense the moment they heard the word “Entreaty.”
The Magical Girl of Entreaty (contestátĭo).
In time she would become the worst villain of all—the strongest magical girl, the one who would massacre a third of humanity.
The Deputy Director’s concerns were not unfounded. After losing her sense of self and going mad, Entreaty had revealed her form to the secular world and slaughtered most of mankind.
“Dr. Mikhail, we do not have time. Magical girls will be newly dispatched soon enough, so please endure for now.”
The atmosphere turned ugly.
Ho-jun pushed his glasses up and steepled his hands.
“Doctor.”
“Watch your words. From the Control Room we can know everything. What your son and his wife had for lunch. Which friends your grandson Danilo is hanging around with. We know all of it.”
The doctor’s face flushed an even deeper red. Ho-jun threw off his coat as well, revealing a powerful build, and the two men began shouting at each other.
“A-Adjutant……”
“It is all right, Director.”
I was terrified. The tortures Ian-na had endured rose one after another in my mind. A body reduced to rags. Horrors that would never be forgotten. I clapped my hands over my ears and curled into myself.
Sedative…
I needed a sedative. Trembling alone would solve nothing.
“Adjutant, I… a sedative, please……”
“Understood…”
Just as the Adjutant was about to inject the sedative into my neck—
The protagonist was beginning to make an appearance.