Twisted Alliance
I didn't have the luxury of pondering what kind of dramatic ordeal to inflict on Gem. Not with that voice yapping nonstop right beside me.
“Ugh, I'm only telling you this because you look so pathetic spouting that nonsense. There’s no such thing as an Ideal Magical Girl. How could any magical girl be ideal when they're all garbage?”
“Or maybe your definition of ‘ideal’ is different from mine? What exactly does an ideal magical girl look like to you?”
I'd fallen silent for a moment, lost in thought, and when I looked up the one talking had switched to Pania. Or rather, she'd been the one steering the conversation ever since the topic of the ideal magical girl came up. Her tone was still mocking, but the outright hostility had softened considerably. What the hell had gotten into her all of a sudden? Had a few casual words been enough to lower her guard?
If I let her keep going she'd never shut up, so I decided to give her a proper answer.
“I'm talking about a magical girl who possesses both power and genuine moral character.”
“A magical girl with moral character? Is your brain broken?”
Pania's aversion to magical girls ran deep. Maybe the memories of her original body, who had been killed by one, were influencing the evil spirit now inhabiting her. If only her manner of speaking were a little gentler, I might have been able to tolerate it, but that strangely sarcastic lilt made it even more grating. It really would be nice if she could at least resemble the real Pania even a little.
I could have just ignored her, but that wasn't an option. Cutting the conversation off now would make it look like I was conceding her point.
“Right now they might all be garbage, just like you said. But magical girls are beings with infinite potential. Only after that potential is tempered and refined through ordeals can an ideal magical girl finally emerge. Do you get what I'm saying?”
I swallowed my irritation and explained it as kindly as I could, in terms even an idiot like her could understand. Her attitude was awful, sure, but she did seem genuinely interested in the concept of the ideal magical girl. And since I was also quite fond of chatting about magical girls, I had no reason to refuse.
“So the ordeal is capturing magical girls and torturing them? Fine, let's say that's true. But what does that have to do with moral character? Are you brainwashing them through torture?”
Brainwashing? As if any magical girl who crumbled under mere torture could ever be considered ideal. Sensing the conversation was going to drag on, I sighed and sat down on the stone floor.
“The ideal magical girl isn't created through something as crude as brainwashing. She has to attain enlightenment on her own through the ordeals. And I already told you it's not torture.”
Pania tilted her head at my answer. This time, the words that left her mouth didn't carry that mocking edge.
“Not torture? In the end you're just saying you'll catch them one by one, play with them, and kill them.”
Not everyone who undergoes an ordeal becomes an ideal magical girl. If it were that simple, every single character in the original story would have been an ideal magical girl without exception. The birth of a true ideal requires countless trials and errors. After all, a masterpiece is always born atop hundreds of shattered pottery shards.
“If they collapse under the ordeal, that simply means they never had the capacity to become an ideal magical girl in the first place.”
At my offhand remark, the chatterbox finally went quiet. Pania rested her fingers on her chin, brows furrowed in thought. I couldn't tell exactly what she was thinking, nor did I particularly care to know.
Around the time Gem's groans had echoed through the underground passage five times or so, Pania slowly opened her mouth again. What came out was something I never could have predicted.
“Hey. Want to join hands?”
...Join hands?
I stared blankly at Pania and blinked. If I'd heard her correctly, this was her way of proposing an alliance. But why? No matter how I thought about it, there was no reason for Pania to want to team up with me. Alliances were formed for mutual goals or benefits, weren't they? But between me and Pania?
Our objectives were fundamentally different. My goal was to inflict ordeals on magical girls, not to kill them. Besides, she hated magical girls—why would she want to join hands with one? After careful consideration, I concluded I must have misheard her. Which meant she literally wanted to hold hands.
She was an unpleasant creature, but out of consideration for the original owner of that body, I decided to grant her request. It wasn't like it would wear my hand out or anything. I grabbed Pania's hand without hesitation.
The warmth and softness that traveled through our palms. Then came a slightly damp sensation.
“What the fuck is this?!”
She recoiled in horror, yanking her hand away and frantically shaking it in the air. The way she convulsed as if she'd touched some disgusting bug was both ridiculous and offensive.
“This isn't what you meant...?”
“Of course not! Who the hell suggests holding hands?! I meant we should cooperate since our goals align!”
Well, if that's what she meant, she could have just said so. Why scream like that? My ears were ringing.
“Do you even understand what cooperation means? It means I help you, and you help me. But don't our desired directions completely contradict each other?”
A slaughterer whose goal was to kill every magical girl. And a hero struggling to restore the world to its original state. There was no way the two could share a common objective. It would have been more convincing if she'd just shamelessly demanded I help her one-sidedly.
But Pania didn't seem to see it that way.
“You're going around killing every magical girl in search of something that doesn't even exist. If that isn't the same direction as mine, what is? Oh. Yours is probably a bit crueler, I suppose. I plan to kill them cleanly without dragging it out.”
This girl was viewing me as a fellow murderer. Like sees like, I guess. And what did she mean, something that doesn't exist?
“What if an ideal magical girl actually appears? What if I achieve my goal?”
“That won't happen, but if it does, our cooperative relationship ends automatically. From then on we go back to how things were. I'll kill you, since you're a magical girl, and you... well, do whatever you want.”
“......”
A relationship of use and discard, only for as long as necessary. In a way, it was the raw, unfiltered essence of the words “alliance” and “cooperation” taken to the extreme. A twisted proposal that excluded all human emotion, sustained solely by reason and selfishness. That was what Pania was suggesting.
If it's a relationship like that... would it really be so bad...?
I had no intention of trusting this evil spirit at all. Even if we tied ourselves together with the flimsy thread of cooperation, that fact wouldn't change. But if we laid everything out openly from the start like this? It might actually be better. We could avoid wasting emotional energy on pretending to be comrades or feeling disappointed in each other.
Even if an ideal magical girl were to appear, there'd be no problem. There was no way an ideal magical girl would lose to a thing like this evil spirit. Any magical girl who couldn't endure the ordeals was irrelevant anyway. As long as I handed over the scraps produced during the search for the ideal one, I could borrow this girl's power. And even if I never found her, the situation would be the same. The moment Pania became a threat, I could simply strike first and kill her, eliminating any risk.
Of course, Pania was probably thinking the exact same thing. But it had already been proven that if the two of us fought, I would win. In truth, Pania's ability was something I needed as well. My own power was only half-complete. Precise manipulation was impossible unless the object was made of magical power.
Of course, things like Gem's gauntlets were also composed of magical power. But those were objects that had been tamed over a long period, so the owner's control took priority. In the end, the only things I could connect threads to and manipulate were objects created by Pania.
The same applied to her. No matter what she made, her manipulation ability could only produce slow, crude movements. The more I ran the numbers, the more inclined I became to accept this shady relationship.
The problem is whatever hidden card Pania is keeping up her sleeve.
That thing I'd seen in the status window. The incomprehensible number showing a danger level of 8. Setting aside what kind of ability could produce such an absurd figure, I'd already confirmed it was currently unusable, so it was irrelevant for now. But what if there were other hidden cards?
“What exactly is your ability? Oh, you've seen mine, right? I can create objects of any shape I want using magical power. I can manipulate them too, but not as precisely as you.”
After I'd been lost in thought for a while, Pania's somewhat impatient voice reached me. She was probably urging me to answer her alliance proposal already. What she'd said matched the Pania's ability that I knew. She wasn't exactly lying, but she clearly hadn't revealed everything either.
“I can emit threads of magical power from my hands. I connect those threads to objects made of magical power and manipulate them directly.”
That was as much as I was willing to say. I didn't mention my knowledge of the original story or my ability to view others' information. The more information comrades shared, the wider their strategic options became. Sharing information benefited both sides. But that only held true under the assumption that the other party was a trustworthy comrade. In our contractual relationship, where we were inevitably destined to become enemies, that premise simply didn't apply. Therefore, I wouldn't ask about Pania's hidden abilities either. I wasn't expecting an honest answer anyway.
“Then how strong are the threads themselves? I'm talking about the force they can exert on normal objects.”
Unlike me, Pania shamelessly pressed for more information right away. Based on what I'd confirmed in the wasteland, the answer to that question should be, “Sufficient killing power against humans, but meaningless against magical girls.” But my answer was this:
“If you're curious, experience it with your body.”
I deliberately conjured a thread of magical power right in front of Pania's eyes and waved it around. Underestimate gold. And overestimate a lump of stone. That would become the guiding principle of behavior in this newly established relationship.
“Pfft... ha... ahahaha!!”
Pania laughed so hard the entire underground passage rang with it. After a while, she extended her hand with the corners of her mouth slightly lifted.
“Pania. Twenty-one years old. You?”
“Xena. I'm two years older than you.”
When I took her hand, it felt like gripping a cold, dry tree root. It had been warm just moments ago—why did it feel so distinctly different now?
“You're younger than you look. With that face, I'd have guessed at least thirty.”
At Pania's words, strength flowed into my grip.
“You fucking bitch.”
“It was a joke, no need to get all serious. Still, since we'll be seeing a lot of each other from now on, wouldn't it be better to at least act friendly? Nice to meet you, big sis Xena?”
Pania looked up at me and smiled sweetly. It was the same smile I'd seen from her in the slums. The smile I considered the most ideal for a magical girl. But it was only the appearance. Now it was nothing but an empty shell, merely a distortion of her face.
Swallowing down the surge of something rising in my throat, I forced my mouth open.
“Don't spout whatever you want.”
At my response, Pania's smile grew even deeper.
It was a relationship born purely of necessity. There was no need to let it sway me. As I was steeling my resolve like that, a distinctive blue-white LED light pierced through the darkness. Accompanied by the sound of countless footsteps.