Magical Girl Mk. II
The magical girl’s body convulsed with a wet squish. What little remained of her human form opened its mouth and let out a piercing scream.
—Kuh, grrrrrrrk—!
She screamed for a long time. Then, with a cartoonish pop, a pitch-black World’s Enemy burst out of her. It was an awkward comparison, but the sight truly looked like the magical girl was giving birth to the monster.
The newly born World’s Enemy flailed through the dimensional gap. Before long, it was seized and devoured by the original World’s Enemy still clinging to the magical girl’s flesh.
Having eaten its own newborn, the creature swelled slightly larger. It had now consumed most of the magical girl’s body.
—P-please… just kill me……
Bubble, bubble. While the left side of the face wept in agony, the newly sprouted monstrous face on the right curled into a wide, eerie grin.
Halia, forced to watch her comrade’s gruesome end, finally looked away. She dropped her head with a heavy thud and turned desperate eyes toward Eight.
“……H-help me.”
“—With what?”
“Anything. I’ll do anything. Just please… save them!”
“Do you honestly believe I can do something like that?”
“You can! That’s why you came looking for me! I’ll give you whatever you want—just hurry up and save them!”
Eight listened to Halia’s frantic plea, then broke into a willing smile and nodded.
She was offering compensation before he even asked. Only a fool would refuse a gift like that.
The next instant, Eight reached out and began manipulating the machine connected to the spirit’s body. He was about to rescue the girls who had stopped being human.
—Mew… mewww… p-please kill me, myong….
“Ah, would you like me to revive you again?”
—I misspoke, myong… please spare me, myong…….
The spirit of the magical girl Elemental Flame—Myongmyong—darted wildly through the spirit realm, rescuing the corrupted girl.
Naturally the World’s Enemy fused to the magical girl refused to leave the spirit alone… but that didn’t matter.
The World’s Enemy and the spirits were essentially siblings, both born beneath the Fairy Queen. A spirit was also an information entity, which meant that as long as this side kept feeding it data, it could resurrect endlessly.
This was one of the facts Eight had uncovered while studying White Fang’s spirit. Spirits do not die. Or more precisely, even if they die, they can come back.
“……Myong. When you return, I’ll buy you something delicious, okay? Just hold on a little longer…”
—F-Flame saying that actually gives me chills, myong…… Wouldn’t it be better if you just yelled at me like usual, myong?
“Yeah… I’ll do that when you come back……”
—That’s honestly terrifying, myong.
Normally the hot-tempered Halia would have been spitting curses and driving the spirit forward. But the situation was too grave. Instead of scolding, she offered only gentle encouragement.
To the spirit who had lived with her for so long, the sudden kindness sounded horrifying—like watching a family member flirt with their lover. Still, Myongmyong performed its duty brilliantly.
After dying and reviving roughly 1,372 times, it somehow succeeded in extracting the magical girls who had fused with the World’s Enemies.
“Just a moment. I’ll open the gate right away……”
Two capsules filled with restorative formalin had been prepared. The girls’ bodies were nearly half-destroyed; the moment they returned to the physical world they would die without it.
Once the gate opened, the rescued girls were immediately placed inside the capsules. If the information entities could be sealed inside before they regained physical form, the procedure would be complete.
From that point on, it was a race against time. Already the wounds on the girls inside the capsules were beginning to heal.
“Aqua… Leaf……”
Halia stared at her comrades—bodies stitched together from fragments like grotesque ragdolls—and tears spilled down her cheeks. She fell to her knees before the capsules.
She had believed her friends were dead. Seeing them in this broken state only shredded her guilt even further.
“If I had just paid a little more attention… No, if I had fought even a little better back then……”
“—That’s incorrect.”
I offered a word of comfort to the despairing girl.
“In the past, people died in droves from simple illnesses like pneumonia, tuberculosis, or cancer… But that wasn’t because the people of that era lacked care or effort.”
They simply lacked the technology. They simply ran out of time.
It would be absurd to scold a medieval person for not knowing how to use a smartphone. Likewise, it was absurd to expect a girl who knew nothing about the Fairy Queen’s true nature to anticipate and prepare for such a catastrophe.
None of this was her fault.
“……So? You’re saying it was unavoidable, so I should just accept it?”
“Of course not. That would be unbecoming of an adult.”
“Unbecoming of an adult? What does that even have to do with—”
“Children should act like children. Which means it’s time for the adults to lend a hand.”
The situation had grown far beyond what any child could handle. The time had come for an adult to reach out.
I glanced at the computer running at full capacity. Despite using cutting-edge components that produced almost no heat, the room had grown stiflingly warm.
After a while, a notification appeared: the built-in AI had finished its calculations.
> CALCULATION COMPLETE
> Analysis of cognition-altering entity used on corrupted subjects has concluded.
> All preparatory data acquired.
Every preparation was now finished.
“Aile? Could you angle the camera this way?”
“Huh? O-okay……”
“Perfect. Just like that.”
I cleared my throat and stared into the lens. Just in case this recording had to be submitted later, I brushed the dust from my suit and straightened my clothes.
Then I began my self-introduction.
—Doctoral candidate at the university. This is ○○○. This intervention was unavoidably conducted without prior consent from myself or the administration in order to protect the minds and souls of the affected parties. Under the Good Samaritan Law, this action qualifies for exemption and indemnity……
And so, the world was rewritten.
“Mmm……”
The blue-haired girl woke to the bustling morning sounds of people preparing for work. She immediately opened the window, letting fresh air and sunlight wash over her.
After shaking off the last traces of sleep, she headed straight to the bathroom, washed her face, and returned to the living room.
“Umi, you’re up? Breakfast is ready.”
“Yes—! Mom!”
She ate the breakfast her mother had prepared while fiddling with her smartphone. Her mom scolded her to put it down and actually eat, but the girl never let the device leave her hands.
After finishing her meal while catching up on the messages and news that had piled up overnight, she brushed her teeth and left the house.
Going to school. A perfectly ordinary activity for girls her age.
“Umi!”
“Ah, Naru!”
The girl waved happily at her green-haired friend. The two quickly linked arms and headed toward school together.
“Did you see it yesterday?”
“See what?”
“They’re saying the Flame Magical Girl took down another World’s Enemy!”
Umi nodded as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Of course I saw it! Flame is so cool, right?!”
“She’s insanely cool… Ah, I wish I could become a magical girl too.”
“Right? You’d definitely be amazing, Naru. Don’t the spirits ever say anything to you?”
“Ahahaha—! You’re one to talk, Umi! Your power is water manipulation—it matches Flame perfectly!”
“Then the three of us could be a magical girl trio!”
The bright laughter typical of high-school girls rang out. As she spoke, Umi briefly lost herself in a daydream—imagining herself fighting the World’s Enemies as a magical girl, just like Naru had said.
Since her power was water, maybe she’d be called Aqua. Naru could control trees, so maybe Natural? No, that didn’t sound cute enough. Leaf would be better.
‘Flame, Aqua, Leaf……’
The names fit together perfectly. The image that formed in her mind was so vivid it felt like it had actually happened.
Considering her imagination was usually rather ordinary, the clarity of the vision was startling. She almost wondered where such a vivid fantasy had come from.
“Umi?”
“Ah, yeah! What?”
“So, after school today, want to check out that new café everyone’s talking about on SNS? It just opened nearby—”
“Let’s go!”
Snapped out of her daydream, Umi nodded enthusiastically. Yes, becoming a magical girl was nothing but a distant fantasy. They were just ordinary high-school girls.
As the two friends headed to school, high in the sky above them, Flame watched with a faint, bittersweet smile.
“……They really did come back.”
“No, it’s not that……”
“……I see.”
At the evil scientist’s words, Flame let out a quiet, careful sigh. The fact that everything after she became a magical girl had been erased meant the friendships she had only formed after becoming one had vanished as well.
If she visited them now, would they even recognize her? Probably not. They might know of the famous magical girl Flame, but that would be nothing more than celebrity recognition.
There would be no memory left of the human named Halia.
“I’m fine.”
Flame turned away. Her friends had been brought back to life. That was enough. Hoping they would remember her too would be too greedy.
She smiled in quiet satisfaction and began flying home, only to receive another transmission from the scientist.
“……Ah.”
She had indeed said that. Flame’s lips moved silently for a moment before she let out a long, resigned sigh.
“P-please take good care of me……”
And so Flame was mortgaged to the evil scientist—body, heart, identity as a magical girl. Everything.