Old Blue
Even someone with no aptitude for it could become a magical girl, and it was possible to get magical girls of similar functionality cheaply and in large quantity. This was the concept of the artificial magical-girl project, otherwise known as the Princess Project. Spearheaded by the R&D Department under Old Blue’s command, it had been moderately successful, but they hadn’t attained their goal—securing a fighting force that could oppose the Magical Kingdom.
But the project had continued to move forward without wasting the sacrifices of the princesses, and they had managed to get to the point of Princess Lightning. These guaranteed aptitude, firepower, physical capability, magic with a wide application, fuel economy, survivability, mental fortitude, and intellect on a level with humans. Assigning them roles via suits and numbers strengthened them even further, and the Lightning army was complete—or rather, was in the process of being completed. There were still things Old Blue wanted to get done before they were sent into actual combat, but if Frederica was making her move, then this would be an experiment-slash-implementation.
“Where to next?”
“The courtyard.”
“There are enemies there?”
“Are they actually our enemies?”
“What else would they be? They’re not our allies.”
They had been an item with a history: girls made from magic, designed to be like pets and sold like products, posing nothing but problems, even by the Magical Kingdom’s sense of ethics. Nothing good had happened to anyone involved: All her sponsors had been punished, and the development office had been ruined. But to Old Blue, the product had been good news. The moment she had seen it, Old Blue’s magic had penetrated her true nature, and Old Blue had hit on the most effective and powerful way to make use of them.
“What do we do about her?”
“Bring in reinforcements?”
The report that a magical girl who called herself Ratsumukana-honome-no-kami was in a wild fight was not worthy of surprise, but she did also feel strongly that this made sense. If Pythie Frederica were going to cause trouble, she would leave behind at least that much of a missile. There was no need to worry over whether it was real or fake. If she was strong enough to be undaunted by a group of Lightnings, then you could assume she was real.
Old Blue would draw Ratsumu away from the center of the fight. She would send in the elites, led by the Ace of Spades, and draw her away from the courtyard. The Ace of Spades would be able to secure her own safety as well as finish things off. If she simply couldn’t do it, then she would contact Old Blue. Old Blue could think about it then.
The specifics about the ruins and the relic had been struck from all documentation, and Old Blue had been unable to learn anything, even via illegal methods. This information wasn’t relayed to high-ranking leadership. The Three Sages had to know, though Old Blue hadn’t confirmed that much. It was ambiguous and uncertain. Even when things were that iffy, mages would just conclude, “Well, they’re the ruins made by the First Mage, after all.” But Old Blue had to know the details, no matter what. So she would see them for herself. Even if the information couldn’t be gained through photo or video, with Old Blue’s magic, if she could see the subject, she could get it.
She would take in the ruins with her own eyes, and if it seemed she could go in, she would do so and steal the relic. Confirming the ruins was number one, and if it seemed she could secure the relic, then securing it was number two. If securing it was unlikely, she would destroy it. The important thing here was just to keep the relic away from Frederica like she wanted. Old Blue had been able to cooperate with Frederica before, since they both opposed the Magical Kingdom. The crystal ball Frederica used and Old Blue’s eyes were incredibly compatible.
But the inevitable time had come when they parted ways. Frederica’s ultimate goal was control of the magical-girl system and creation of a magical girl who measured up to her standards, so they could never cooperate until the end, when that was in contradiction with Old Blue’s touted goals: separation from the Magical Kingdom and elimination of the magical-girl system. And Frederica was not the sort of magical girl who would abandon her original goal to obey Old Blue.
Old Blue would not let her accomplish her goal. No matter what trouble the ruins were, it was fair to assume that Frederica sending in her troops meant that she had a way to break into them. She would rather destroy the relic, ruins and all, than have it stolen by Frederica. If she could neither destroy nor invade, then another plan.
✦ ✦ ✦
Pythie Frederica
Dodging a sword with a flutter, she tapped her enemy’s shinbone and shattered it, then swept their legs out from under them and broke the rest of their lower leg. With a light push, she sent them crashing into a different enemy, destroying both foes. Frederica passed under one lightning strike, and when another fired at her right side, Frederica swept it away with her right hand and erased it. All she felt from it was a slight numbness.
A body made to be an incarnation is indeed quite strong.
Destroying every Lightning she saw with light, stroking attacks, she grabbed one of them by the neck and drew her upward, peeling back her costume to look at her collarbone area. The glimpse that she had gotten earlier had been no mistake. The suit was diamond, the number eight. After checking just that, she twisted the Lightning’s neck and broke it.
So these are Lazuline the First’s secret weapons?
She must have combined the Shufflin and Princess Series. It was simplistic, but nothing was stronger than simplistic things. If that went on to define a generation, it would become the standard. Frederica could practically see right through to the blood and tears of the technical experts.
But she couldn’t give them a high grade. They were inelegant. It pushed aside personal attachment to magical girls, making them to be used as weapons—though this was something she could say of all artificial magical girls generally, not solely Princess Lightning. Before, she had felt that personal attachment was the strength of magical girls, and the current Kashiki-akarukushi-hime—Pythie Frederica—still thought so.
A magical girl was all about turning even the weakness of the heart into a strength.
Frederica eliminated one, two Lightnings, four, five, gradually getting a grasp on how her own body moved. Six, seven, it was nothing but Lightnings that she encountered.
Are there none left of our first force?
And how long would the second group last? They had more elites compared to the first group, but still, the Lightnings were strong. Eight, nine, jumping to fifteen, sixteen—more and more kept showing up. If they could get these numbers, and this strength, then of course Lazuline the First would save it as her ace in the hole.
As Frederica was on the move, she witnessed her subordinates fighting with the Lightnings.
A magical girl with a Miko-chan mask was struck by lightning and spasmed, and right as she was about to be finished off, a magical girl with a Cutie Cloud mask cut in and swallowed up one, two Lightnings in something like a black haze. Flashes of lightning burst inside the haze.
Lightning wasn’t strong enough to pose a problem to Frederica now. But if Frederica’s subordinates couldn’t dispose of them alone, then it wasn’t like she wouldn’t fight them. Ignoring enemies when they came at you couldn’t be called elegant conduct for a magical girl who had powered up before appearing.
Though her goal was the courtyard, she couldn’t go there right away, even aesthetic sense aside. A little later would be the perfect moment. Until then, she would get used to her new body while also enjoying being in this chaos. She perked up her ears. Her new body excelled in all physical areas. Her senses, hearing included, were incomparably superior.
This sound…
Footsteps could be heard at a distance. They were clearly different from those of the Lightnings. The manner of their step, the carriage of their bodies—she sensed a beauty even in their individual movements.
Old Blue… So you came after all.
There was an opponent she had to defeat before acquiring the relic.