Magical Girl Mk. II
The hospital room was filled with nothing but the sharp beeps of machines and faint, pain-soaked moans dragged up from the depths of suffering.
Children lying in the beds were tormented by a variety of illnesses. Cerebral infarction caused by ESP, rare diseases that could be cured but required an astronomical amount of money, incurable conditions whose very names remained unknown… and so on.
Beside the children suffering from countless diseases stood their parents. Though they weren’t the ones physically in pain, their expressions were equally grim. After all, how many parents could remain composed while watching their own child endure such agony?
A middle-aged man swept his camera across the ward full of patients, then cautiously approached them and spoke.
“—You’ve all been through so much.”
“……Pardon?”
“You don’t have to suffer anymore.”
As he said this, the man pulled out a vial containing a liquid that glowed with a faint red hue. He injected it in place of an IV drip, and the child who had been writhing in bed slowly opened their eyes.
The child who had just awakened looked at their parent and spoke carefully.
“……Mommy?”
“Y-yes? What is it—?”
“Mommy, why are you crying?”
“Hic… I-I wasn’t crying, sweetie…”
“Don’t cryyyy…!”
While the child and mother clung to each other, bursting into tears, the man turned back toward the camera and spoke.
“We at Evils will share in your pain.”
A while ago, I had researched the World’s Enemies appearing in H City, the magical girls, and the Fairy Queen.
Through that research, I realized that the World’s Enemies and the Fairy Queen were working together. I also discovered that both the H City government and its major corporations were deeply entangled with them.
What followed was smooth sailing. I completely drove the Fairy Queen out of this world. To be precise, I just poked around a little to confirm a few things, and she got scared and ran away on her own.
Of course, I didn’t do any of this out of some sense of justice. It wasn’t because I felt sorry for the millions of citizens under H City and corporate control. It was simply because they picked a fight with me first, so I gave them a taste of their own medicine. A perfectly villainous reason.
‘I didn’t think I’d have to look into this again.’
I rummaged through the notes I’d scribbled about the Fairy Queen at the time and once again attempted to connect to the Spirit Realm.
Unlike when there had been that massive landmark called the Fairy Queen, finding the Spirit Realm again—now without a single trace left behind—was incredibly difficult. If I hadn’t left behind coordinates, I probably never would have found it a second time.
After all, the coordinates of other-dimensional realms change in real time. Even Earth repeats its orbit and rotation every minute and second. Nothing in this world stays still.
‘The Spirit Realm… Should I go there myself?’
The problem that came to mind after locating the Spirit Realm’s coordinates was that I couldn’t enter it directly. Who in their right mind would just barge into a place without knowing what was inside?
I couldn’t just throw anything in there either. Whatever I sent had to be capable of interacting with whatever existed within.
In the end, the only things I could send into the Spirit Realm were organisms that had originally lived there… in other words, spirits.
“—Aile. You know that person’s home address, right?”
“Huh? Whose…?”
“The one you fought.”
Naturally, Aile knew Flame’s address. It wasn’t information normally disclosed to civilians, but she was hardly a civilian. She was the Dark Magical Girl and the chairman of World’s Enemy, the organization that controlled the World’s Enemies and gave magical girls a reason to exist.
After quickly obtaining Flame’s address, I headed to her house together with Aile. It was an excessively small house for a magical girl to live in.
When I thought about how other famous magical girls lived in penthouses like actual celebrities, this place looked less like a magical girl’s residence and more like the home of a young breadwinner supporting their family.
“Is this really the right place?”
“Y-yes… I’ve sent packages here before.”
I tilted my head in slight confusion for only a moment. Since Aile said she’d been here once already, I trusted her and pressed the doorbell.
A short while later, a red-haired girl appeared, scratching her backside vigorously. The moment the door opened, the smell of instant ramen wafted out—she must have been eating.
The moment Flame saw our faces, she scrunched up her expression as much as possible and immediately took a stance to transform into a magical girl.
“What the—? Why the hell are you two here?”
“Pardon the intrusion— Whoa, you really live in a tiny place for a magical girl.”
“W-what? Hey—! Where do you think you’re going…!”
Without waiting for the owner’s permission, I stepped straight inside and realized that what she was eating wasn’t proper ramen, but cup ramen.
A quick glance around the house revealed hair scattered everywhere, thick layers of dust, and piles of disposable trash. It painted a very clear picture of the kind of life she usually lived.
This was less the home of a magical girl and more the apartment of a basement-dwelling NEET or a graduate student. I could easily believe it.
“Why are you just walking in like you own the place?!”
I silently took a seat on the sofa. Flame marched right up in front of me and shouted.
Maybe it was because I had told her I was a civilian. Or perhaps because we had both entered unarmed. Instead of transforming into a magical girl and kicking us out, she simply yelled with words.
“Miss Flame? Please accept this first.”
“Hurry up and get ou— Hm? This is…”
I held out the gifts I had brought. They were the same gift sets that Evils Enterprise distributed to its employees every holiday.
The boxes were packed with canned goods like ham and tuna, along with various foods that people felt too guilty to buy for themselves but happily accepted when given as gifts.
I had originally considered bringing something like beef, but Aile had mentioned that Flame lived alone, so I changed my mind. Meat wasn’t a great gift for someone living by themselves. It was just a hassle to cook and clean up after.
The moment I saw her house in person, I realized my judgment had been completely correct. Whether out of laziness or lack of money, a magical girl who lived off cup ramen was hardly going to grill beef.
“It didn’t seem polite to come empty-handed.”
“……You didn’t have to. So, why are you here? Hurry up and leave.”
Just moments ago, Flame had been glaring at us like she wanted to kill us. But the moment she saw the gifts, her eyes softened considerably.
Watching her attitude flip in an instant, I thought to myself that she really was living quite pathetically for a magical girl. I then immediately explained why I had come.
“I have a favor to ask. It’s something only a magical girl can do.”
“A magical girl? Then why don’t you ask the one right there? Why me of all people…?”
“Hmm— Is it okay to tell her?”
I glanced at Aile. She gave a small, careful nod. She showed absolutely no hesitation about revealing that she wasn’t a real magical girl, but a fake one.
Well, that made sense. Multiple media outlets had already been speculating about the possibility that she wasn’t a genuine magical girl. After all, she had shown off numerous abilities that other magical girls couldn’t use. Things like committing villainous acts or evolving.
“Aile— In other words, the Dark Magical Girl is not a real magical girl. She’s a fake that I created.”
“……You created a fake? What are you talking about?”
“If magical girls are beings created by receiving the power of spirits, then the Dark Magical Girl is a being created through the power of science.”
“Science? Did you just say science?”
“Yes. Science.”
Flame looked back and forth between me and Aile with an expression of utter disbelief. Her gaze seemed to ask whether I wasn’t just some producer—some suit from an entertainment agency.
Receiving that look, I gave a small smile and revealed my identity.
“Nice to meet you. I am Eight, an executive of the villain organization and an evil scientist.”
“The villain organization… You mean the one in E City…!”
“Yes. That very same villain organization.”
I could feel Flame’s body tense up the moment she heard my identity. The villain organization was one of the world-class villain groups that possessed numerous S-class equivalent villains.
Not only had an executive of such an organization come all the way here, but he had also claimed to have created the Dark Magical Girl with his own power. It was only natural that she would wonder what business he could possibly have with her.
The reason I had come to her and even revealed my identity was simple. I judged that revealing my identity to just one person wouldn’t cause any major problems. And more importantly—
She was the only talent capable of finding what I was looking for.
“Anyway— There is something only you can do, Miss Flame.”
“……I am a magical girl. There’s no way I would join hands with villains—”
“It’s about finding your comrades who were said to have died.”
At those words, the Flame Magical Girl froze. Her two eyes burned fiercely with rage.
It was a clear warning not to speak of it lightly. The reason she wasn’t spitting out curses like before wasn’t because her anger was mild, but because she now knew my identity.
I explained once more.
—Aren’t you curious why the World’s Enemies suddenly disappeared?
—Why the spirits can no longer return to the Spirit Realm?
—And what caused the Fairy Queen to abandon everything and vanish?
All of those things were my doing. And I had no intention of stopping here. I planned to go even further.
“—If you help me, I will bring back to life the comrades who were said to have died.”
“……You’ll bring them back to life?”
“Yes. Of course, this is under the assumption that they are still alive…”
I was certain of it. There was no way the Fairy Queen would grant such immense power to a magical girl and then simply take only the power back. She had never acted that way before.
The magical girls who had been devoured by the World’s Enemies and were thought to have died were most likely still alive.
From the moment they died until now. They were still alive.
“You are the only one who can save them.”
At my words, Flame’s head slowly drooped.