The Magical Girls Launch Their Assault (4)
“Huh? Magical girls?”
In the control room of Mera Studio, a strange figure tilted his head while staring at a holographic screen floating in midair.
The surveillance cameras, built with Mekrak’s cutting-edge technology, displayed several women who appeared to be magical girls.
‘Come to think of it, there was that weird letter.’
It had been a scrap of paper with no context or evidence, simply stating that magical girls were coming to attack. A ridiculously elaborate drawing of Cookie decorated one corner. What kind of prank was this? Why would something like that even exist? He had been half-convinced it was nonsense, but watching the group of monsters near the entrance get wiped out in an instant had turned his doubt into certainty. Earthlings didn’t normally wear such bizarre outfits, after all…
“Magical girls are pretty dangerous, though.”
Even as an executive, he was strong enough to handle one, but three of them… and considering the extraordinary combat ability they had just displayed, unease crept in.
A wise man doesn’t walk dangerous paths. Even with a fifty-fifty chance of victory, he had no desire to shoulder the risk of failure.
Maybe he should manipulate things to send them back… but just then—
Flutter—
“Huh? Another letter?”
Out of thin air, a single sheet of paper suddenly came fluttering down.
He snatched it neatly and read the message:
Don’t worry nyang. You guys can do it nyang.
Along with the usual drawing of Cookie.
“……Hoh?”
As the light faded, I stared wide-eyed at the costume that had appeared.
Of course I did—the outfit that materialized was a familiar magical girl costume. A fluttering skirt, a skintight suit, garter belts, over-the-knee boots, gloves… the extremely standard magical girl ensemble I had seen countless times before.
Something was wrong.
Really wrong.
Because Cookie was involved, the fact that it looked so ordinary was what felt off.
“W-why are you looking at me like that nyang……?”
“……”
Suspicion flooded my mind, but I awkwardly averted my gaze. There was no actual proof, and baseless distrust felt rude. Besides, did Cookie even have the authority to mess with costumes…? Maybe? I had no idea. If he said he didn’t, then he didn’t.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Once I transformed, Alpha followed suit. It wasn’t the Lucky Roulette version—just the normal frilly-dress Normal Form I had seen before.
Leaving the rescued women behind, we pressed deeper inside.
‘…What a strange layout.’
No matter how carefully I examined it, the design gave off an increasingly bizarre feeling. The areas where the monsters had been bustling about earlier felt like ordinary offices or broadcasting stations you might find anywhere in the city. This place, however, felt like a quiet, gloomy cave, and the corridors twisted in complicated ways.
If I let my guard down, I would probably get lost.
“I-I don’t really know this place either.. Heh, hehe…..”
Even the driver we had dragged along as a guide said as much, so the only things we could rely on were our own eyes and the map we had recorded earlier.
But even that map…
“…This doesn’t match what’s on here. There are way more hallways and rooms than the map shows. The layout seems different too.”
Alpha compared her smartphone screen with the actual corridor in front of us and muttered.
What was the point of a map like that?
“……It feels really weird. There are these strange grooves and stuff too.”
“Grooves?”
“Yeah. Look at this.”
Yura tapped an odd mark on the floor with her foot.
I had no idea what they were for, but the entire structure was peculiar. If this were a real broadcasting station or office, they would prioritize efficiency—grouping similar rooms together and keeping the layout simple enough to grasp at a glance.
Instead, the rooms were spaced far apart, and the hallways twisted unnecessarily. Seriously, in a country already short on land, who builds something this wasteful? I understood that being in the mountains meant plenty of space, but still…
A layout that made both entering and escaping difficult… Was that the intention?
‘Probably to trap anyone trying to run away. Or maybe to prepare for intruders?’
The thought suddenly reminded me of the Labyrinth of Knossos from Greek mythology. A maze. A labyrinth. It felt completely out of place for a studio.
Since we had no idea where the women were being held, we opened every door we came across.
“There’s no one here.”
Yura muttered anxiously.
“Worried about Blue Sapphire?”
“Yeah, well… She feels like a cute little sister. We’ve known each other since before we became magical girls.”
“Really?”
“That’s probably why I’m even more worried. I know what she’s like…. She’s overflowing with confidence and talent, but she’s also incredibly clumsy and easily influenced… Even after what happened in the mine last time, she was still….”
Yura sighed, resting a hand on her cheek with a worried expression.
Blue really did seem like the clumsy type. When she came to rescue me, she had ended up getting caught by the monsters instead.
A confident, bumbling, airheaded magical girl.
Tap. Alpha’s hand landed on my shoulder.
“Hey, don’t tell me you’re thinking…”
“You too? You thought the same thing?”
I swallowed hard.
““Witch Girl Peachpot…!””
The poster child for clumsy magical girls. An absurd gag character who occasionally stole the most unexpectedly serious scenes—Witch Girl’s resident airhead, Peachpot.
Alpha pressed a hand to her forehead and shook her head.
“No… There’s no way a real girl could be like that. Peachpot is, Peachpot has to be…! A perfect creation of fiction! A flawless airhead like that doesn’t exist in reality! I refuse to hold pointless delusions about the real world!”
“True fans of Witch Girl are the ones who keep dreaming that someone like her might exist in reality! Your way of thinking is just resignation and defeat all wrapped up, which doesn’t suit a magical girl story at all!”
Yura watched our bickering with interest.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh— Doors nearby all swung open at once.
『It’s the magical girls!』
『Run! Evacuate underground like we were ordered!』
『Take the women with you! If you’re about to get caught, throw them as hostages!』
With a sudden uproar, monsters poured out of every room into the corridor.
“?! Looks like they found out we’re here!”
“I’m going ahead.”
Before Yura could move, I kicked off the floor with my enhanced leg strength and shot forward like a bullet toward the fleeing monsters.
“H-huh?!”
“Hi there.”
I slammed the rearmost monster’s head into the wall. Crunch! A sickening sound echoed.
“S-so fast?! Run! Everyone run!”
“W-we’ve got hostages! Touch me and this woman dies! Show some mercy! Please! I’m begging you! Honestly, I don’t even know what to do with a hostage!”
Well, I could just chase down and kill the ones trying to escape.
With that thought, I decided to deal with the ones holding hostages first.
“She disappeared…?!”
“I’ll show mercy and go easy on you.”
Pouring magic into my legs, I moved so fast it felt like I was teleporting, closing the distance to the monster in an instant.
Thud—!
I had gone easy, but watching a head burst like a tomato was still pretty grotesque. Thankfully the hostage woman had already passed out and wasn’t looking.
Yura and Alpha joined in, mowing down the fleeing monsters. Still, plenty remained.
Ahh, a strange feeling was starting to bloom inside me.
Watching those powerless monsters desperately trying to run away filled me with an indescribable sense of omnipotence… and it felt good. Yeah. It was the aesthetics of a hunt—trampling weaklings was satisfying.
“Bwahahahahahahaha! You little spiders!”
“Aaaagh! She’s insane! A crazy magical girl!”
“Watch out! If she catches you, she’ll kill you without mercy!”
“Hnnngh! My ankle—! Save meeee~~~!”
“Smoke! Use the smoke!”
“Hmph…! I’ll hold her off. I am the bull monster who has confidence in his strength—Pohahak?!”
“He didn’t even last one hit?! There’s a hole in the bull guy’s stomach!!!”
It was utter pandemonium. A crucible of chaos.
“Ahahahahahahaha!”
Covered in monster blood and bodily fluids, I laughed like a demon.
This exhilaration was different from usual—probably because of the frustration I had felt during my encounter with Lupin.
That bastard had toyed with me one-sidedly, and I hadn’t even managed a proper counterattack before he left. I had spent every night since then grinding my teeth in rage, and now that anger had finally exploded.
“U-um, unni….”
“She has the same expression as the blackened Rubii from the Witch Girl movie….”
Even Yura and Alpha, who had been helping, eventually stared at me with horrified faces. Not that it mattered!
But in that moment—
“Yaaah! I’ll catch every last one of you and—Eep?!”
Thud!
After ripping out a monster’s shoulder and leg bones, stomping him into minced meat, and preparing to charge the next target, I suddenly lost my balance and fell.
“Ow, owowow….”
A loud crash echoed as the floor cracked deeply. It didn’t hurt much, but a pained groan escaped me anyway.
“Are you an idiot? Why’d you suddenly trip by yourself?”
“N-no… Something felt weird.”
What was that just now?
Right before falling, I could have sworn I felt something strange.
“A-anyway, we have to chase them before they get away!”
I tried to kick off the floor again.
But at that exact moment, the same sensation from earlier—a ‘wriggling’ feeling—came from my crotch.
“Hnnk…!?”
Thanks to that, I froze mid-stride, stuck in an awkward half-crouch.
Huh, what…?
“? What the hell are you doing?”
“…………What…?”
I carefully reached under my skirt and touched my crotch. Nothing seemed wrong. It felt smooth and normal, just like always. Yet I had no idea where that wriggling sensation had come from.
Confused, I tilted my head.
“They got away. We could still chase them, but….”
Yura looked around.
The women the monsters had abandoned as hostages and bait were sprawled across the floor. We couldn’t just leave them like this…
“Should we wait until Cookie gets here?”
At my suggestion, both Yura and Alpha nodded.
* * *
A low mechanical hum echoed through the air.
In a place unknown to Kei and the others, walls rose and floors shifted, the building’s structure writhing and changing as if it were alive. All of it was being controlled directly from the control room.
The training room of Mera Studio—commonly called the taming chamber—was a crucial base for their ambitions. It was also a fortress designed with the assumption of an invasion by dangerous magical girls.
Extracting magic from magical girls had always been far more efficient than extracting it from ordinary women.
But the executives of Mera Studio had more than that in mind.
The adult videos they produced catered not only to Mekrak natives but also to wealthy Earthlings.
And those customers preferred seeing strong or rare women being broken.
Magical girls were perfect actresses for fulfilling that demand. And they were this powerful. If they could film these strong-looking women being subdued afterward… Hah, hah. They could create videos that would satisfy even the most jaded connoisseurs—so expensive they wouldn’t even be able to laugh.
So they couldn’t afford to let them go.
The note that had appeared out of thin air, saying [You guys can definitely do it nyang], had also contained evidence that three magical girls could be defeated. Whether it was trustworthy or not, letting them escape would be a waste. They were far too valuable.
“Heh heh… I’ll capture them all and film the most embarrassing, shameful treasure erotic videos! I’m going to be a billionaire!”
In the control room, the chief director of Mera Studio—the monster adjusting the layout of the Taming Chamber Area—burst into laughter.
