The Duel of the Century
After the World's Enemy retreated from H City. Or rather, after it was revealed that H City had been using the World's Enemy to hypnotically brainwash its citizens en masse. The magical girls couldn't easily escape their share of the blame either.
After all, it had come to light that there was some connection between the World's Enemy and the magical girls. The fact that no new magical girls had been born after the original World's Enemies all withdrew, and that the spirits had severed their connection to the spirit realm, served as clear evidence.
In the midst of all this, the reason the magical girls weren't subjected to a full-blown witch hunt by the angry public was because Aile had created a new World's Enemy to attack the city. It was also why some magical girls now prioritized studying for exams over their magical girl activities.
“Another evil magical girl showed up? …Wait, but she doesn’t even bother the citizens. Can’t we just leave her alone?”
“I mean… the World’s Enemy has gotten so cute they’re selling mascot dolls of them now. Do we really have to take it down?”
The evil magical girl might harass magical girls, but she never troubled the citizens. And the World’s Enemy, far from destroying people’s sanity, was actually adored for its unique cuteness.
In a situation like this, the importance of magical girl activities had faded even more than before. The general consensus was that it was better to just debut as an entertainer from the start, or hide the fact that you were a magical girl and focus on studying instead.
The citizens of H City no longer saw magical girls as heroes who saved their lives. They viewed them as little more than entertainers putting on a show.
In the middle of all that, the news that the Flame Magical Girl had received a duel challenge from the evil magical girl became an enormous topic of conversation.
Or more precisely, someone had deliberately turned it into one.
“Why are you calling me out of nowhere…?”
The Flame Magical Girl, Flame, had swallowed the red pill sent by the evil magical girl, slept soundly through the night, and woken up the next day. She let out a small groan, as if asking how the hell the other woman knew about it.
The duel challenge had arrived only last night. She hadn’t told a single soul about it. So how—?
But the president of the association revealed that she wasn’t the only one who knew. In fact, the entire city already knew.
“No, the duel itself is real, but… what exactly is this post you’re talking about?”
Listening to the association president practically shouting over the phone, Flame opened the internet on her smartphone. She didn’t even need to search. The headline news that she and the evil magical girl were going to duel was plastered right on the front page.
Clicking on the article with a dumbfounded expression, Flame burst into a hollow laugh at the sight of something that looked like a poster you’d only see for a fight between famous MMA fighters.
There was an illustration of her and the evil magical girl glaring at each other as if they were about to fight to the death. The date and location of the fight were clearly written, and they were even selling tickets to watch the battle live on the day of the event!
“Wow… this girl is actually insane.”
“It’s real, yeah…”
She never imagined the evil magical girl would promote the fight so blatantly. And she certainly never expected her to make money off it.
The Flame Magical Girl checked the price of the arena tickets and roughly calculated how much money this single event would generate. It had to be at least several million dollars.
And yet not a single cent would come her way. Her motivation to accept the duel suddenly plummeted.
“There was no mention of getting paid.”
“Then why are they charging for tickets?”
“The very bottom…?”
Following the association president’s instructions, Flame scrolled to the bottom of the poster. When she saw the large text tucked into the corner, she burst out laughing again.
All proceeds from this match will be donated to children with rare diseases and children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The thought that she might refuse the duel out of sheer greed, wondering what kind of villain would bother with donations, suddenly made her feel deeply embarrassed.
“She really is crazy…”
Flame muttered to herself. After that, she completely ignored the media outlets that swarmed her every day. She never once publicly stated whether she would participate in the duel or refuse it.
And then the day of the duel arrived.
Countless spectators poured into the massive stadium. As roughly ninety thousand audience members gradually filled the seats, Eight blended in among them and looked down at the arena.
This was the seat he had prepared for her after she said she wanted revenge on the magical girls. She probably wouldn’t lose here either… With that thought, Eight quietly waited for the duel to begin.
“Ah…”
“…?”
“Hello…”
While he was waiting for the match to start, an unfamiliar woman spoke to him. As he kept tilting his head in confusion, not recognizing her, a small animal-like creature suddenly popped its head out from between the woman’s breasts.
The moment Eight saw its face, he realized who the woman was and gave her a careful bow.
─MewMew—! Nice to see you, evil scientist!
“Mew…! Don’t shout like that!”
─What’s the problem, mew? No human besides this guy can hear a spirit’s voice anyway, mew.
The former magical girl, White Fang, shoved her partner spirit back into her cleavage with a crumpled expression and let out a bright laugh.
Eight let out a small sound of surprise at seeing White Fang’s face—something he had never seen even during their intense research period.
“I don’t understand why you were hiding a face like that.”
“Huh? Ahaha, well… it’s better if no one knows, right?”
“Fair enough. I feel the same way.”
White Fang was just as beautiful as any other magical girl. It almost seemed a waste that she had covered up such a lovely face and figure…
The reason she had finally stopped hiding her face was probably because she had earned enough money that she no longer needed to work as a magical girl. Enough to buy several buildings, manage them, and live comfortably off the income.
“By the way, what brings you here…?”
“Me?”
“Yes. Since you’re a scientist, shouldn’t you be down there with the others instead of in the audience seats…?”
White Fang asked in return. Eight answered that it was for the same reason as her. If he went down there, he would be hounded by people curious about his identity, so he had come up to the stands instead.
Hearing that, White Fang chuckled in understanding. The two of them spent the time until the match began chatting about various things.
Questions about what had happened after their experiment was forcibly stopped and she was dragged back to H City, light small talk about what she had been doing lately, and so on.
As they were chatting, the appointed time arrived. Darkness fell over the world.
“Oh, is it starting…?”
“Daddy! I hope the evil magical girl wins!”
“The evil magical girl is the bad one, sweetie…”
“I don’t care! The evil magical girl is cooler!”
From the voices around him, Eight realized that quite a few people were actually rooting for the evil magical girl. A faint smile crept across his face. At that moment, Aile, who had covered the world in darkness, slowly descended into the arena.
From the sky to the ground. Like an angel descending on a moonlit night, Aile gently landed on the earth. She swept her gaze across the audience, offered a light smile, and slightly lifted the hem of her dress.
Her restrained movements and graceful demeanor captivated the crowd. Then, accompanied by a grand entrance theme, a magical girl with bright red hair appeared at the stadium entrance.
It wasn’t particularly grand, graceful, flashy, or righteous. Instead, Flame sauntered in like a delinquent, not even bothering to look around. Her eyes were fixed solely on the evil magical girl.
“—Shut up.”
WHOOSH—! The speakers that had been broadcasting the announcer’s voice burst into flames from the fire magic shot by the Flame Magical Girl.
She had no intention of playing along with this silly circus act. Her attitude was that they should be grateful she had even shown up.
The audience immediately began booing. They had come to watch a match, but it looked like she was here for a real brawl.
As jeers poured down from every direction, the Flame Magical Girl calmly flipped the crowd the middle finger.
“You’re lacking professional spirit.”
“Professional spirit? Why the hell would a magical girl need that?”
“Because—magical girls are righteous beings who protect the citizens, of course?”
After being lectured by the evil magical girl, the Flame Magical Girl let out a huge, hollow laugh. Righteous beings who protect citizens—well, that wasn’t wrong.
But it was far better than failing to protect citizens while trying to uphold that so-called justice.
True justice could only be expressed by the strong. Nothing was more hollow than justice spoken by the weak.
“Yeah, yeah. As a magical girl of justice, I’ll just beat up the bad guy and go home. Sound good?”
“Hehe, I won’t be going down so easily today, you know?”
“Did you go down easily last time because you wanted to? Are you a masochist?”
“Of course not. Allow me to show you—my second transformation—!”
The moment Aile said that and soared into the sky, the dress covering her lower body spread out with a dramatic SWOOSH like a pair of wings.
Jet-black wings that seemed to embroider the sky spread wide from her waist and fluttered. With those wings, she looked exactly like a fallen angel descending from heaven.
However, both Flame and the entire audience fell completely silent at the sight.
“Y-you… that’s…”
“Hehe, are you scared now? In this mode, I am a much more powerful Super Evil Magical Girl than before…”
“No, your panties are completely visible. Are you okay with that?”
Just as Flame pointed out, the moment Aile’s skirt had transformed into wings, her underwear had been left completely exposed to the world with no covering whatsoever.
Upon hearing the Flame Magical Girl’s remark, Aile froze for a moment before bursting into laughter as if nothing was wrong.
“H-hehe— ehehe. I-it’s not panties, so it’s fine!”
“Anyone can see those are clearly underwear…”
“Since they’re not panties, I’m not embarrassed!”
As the only person in the audience who understood what she meant, Eight quietly clapped from his seat. Meanwhile, parents who had brought their children to watch the match quickly covered their kids’ eyes and turned away.
Having caused a massive scandal before the duel had even begun, Aile flew through the air, quietly sniffling to herself.