Even understanding all of that, Old Blue quietly laid Diko down, eyes closed, in a corner of the hallway. She drew in a breath and got herself back in the game. She left her sentimentality behind. Ignoring the pain, she snapped her dislocated left elbow back into place. She couldn’t fully heal the bruise on her shoulder. She would go like this.
The Lightnings were running around the hallway in front of the courtyard. Old Blue was the only one who could reorganize them and assign them. Giving instructions from her headset, she ordered a charge into the courtyard.
Various things—a Snow White homunculus who was far stronger than the real thing, a magical girl like a dinosaur who had suddenly gotten up—had pushed the Lightnings into a tough fight, but ultimate responsibility lay with Old Blue. Diko had known quite well how Old Blue fought, and her coordination with Cranberry had kept Old Blue busy enough that she hadn’t been able to give orders. Diko had been stronger and her magic more powerful than Old Blue had known, with the strength from the homunculus’s body being combined with the principal’s magic. The enhancement had gradually lessened, but she’d still had some, even on the verge of death.
What had happened to Diko had been Old Blue’s blunder. Diko had been cleverer than the other students, and so Old Blue had thought there was no need to see her frequently. If Old Blue had just met with her, she would have been able to notice there was something wrong with her, but it was too late for regrets now. All she could do was get Halna Midi Meren to pay the bill to mourn her.
Old Blue glanced over to a lump of meat opposite from Diko that she’d been ignoring. It had brought her no joy at all to beat down something that looked just like Cranberry. At most, she felt that she had acquired some good material, as the head of the R&D Department.
Various sudden and unforeseen events had kept Old Blue tied up, resulting in her being unable to lead the Lightnings then, and Snow White had been kidnapped, too. She would regather the scattered Lightnings and have them attack the courtyard. This would mean that she had fewer forces to hold back Frederica and Ratsumukana-honome-no-kami, and it was a matter of time before they came to the courtyard.
There was no helping what was already done, but hindrances to what she was about to do would be no good. There was no response from the Ace of Spades. Her combat capabilities were far superior to those of the face cards, and she also had excellent judgment. She was not the ultimate and most unrivaled fighting force in the school right now, but she wouldn’t die so easily, either.
Without the Ace of Spades, she was going to struggle. But she had to act now, or things would get even worse.
Then let’s go.
The Lightnings were moving around restlessly. She couldn’t see the Snow White homunculus from the entrance area. She leaned forward to check inside, but she still couldn’t see it. For some reason, a number of the enemy fighters that were most troublesome right now had vanished.
Mephis and Tetty had also backed off into a corner of the courtyard. The thing built from mysterious objects was, Old Blue’s eyes saw, the joint Kumi-Kumi and Lillian defensive point. It hadn’t been there before. In front of it, the magical girls were fighting the Lightnings.
Old Blue soundlessly entered the courtyard. She was headed to the center, ignoring the defensive point.
She would not fight. She took a position where she would not be attacked and looked around the area. She looked closely at the courtyard. She looked. But she did not only look. She saw through to its true nature. Lightning bolts flew. Mephis Pheles was wailing. One of the Lightnings went flying, breaking down a wall as she went.
Old Blue wouldn’t lose her focus. She was capable of that.
So it’s here.
✦ ✦ ✦
0 Lulu
“Thank you very much.”
The lady statue bowed its head deeply. Overwhelmed by her polite attitude and strange appearance, she covered her mouth against the urge to blurt, “Oh, no, it’s nothing,” just clearing her throat instead.
She had repaired Miss Ril. She had also saved her from attack. Lulu was, to her, the one who had saved her life. She should not let this slip out of her fingers. If she had saved her life, then she had to get her to repay her double or triple. If this was who was at the end of the thread of fate that Lulu had reeled in with her magic, then all the more reason to not let go of her so easily.
“So you’re saying you got separated from the other magical girls.”
“While we were fighting, I wound up alone… Oh, there was a school announcement. It said to gather in the courtyard.”
“I heard that, too.”
Not sure as to how to explain who she was, she decided to say she was Snow White’s friend and a freelance mercenary magical girl. They were just mutual friends, but sometimes, it was best not to explain everything in such detail.
Lulu considered. She had read about the magical girl called Miss Ril in her documents and knew about her. When she held a metal, her body would change into the same substance as what she held. Her damage would also be repaired. Having picked up the goldstone Lulu had dropped, Miss Ril had completely changed her whole body. Right now, she was a giant goldstone.
So then in other words, by combining her with Lulu’s magic, wouldn’t she be able to generate some massive results?
This was very much a fateful encounter indeed, but there was no point in using her magic when there was nobody around.
“Isn’t it…rather quiet?” asked Miss Ril.
“It is,” Lulu agreed.
The two of them were lurking in the empty classroom, hiding behind the teacher’s lectern, but they no longer heard the sounds of battle, or the sounds of the Lightnings’ bolts, which had been particularly noisy. Lulu sensed no presences. Of course, she didn’t think the battle was over. This was the calm before the storm.
Was now the time to move? If they were going anywhere, it would be to the courtyard. But it would be very risky to move in a doubtful situation where she didn’t know what was going on—when that common-sense thought rose its head, she cleared her throat once more.
If it was a question of going or not, then she had to go. Lulu stood up, extending a hand to the crouching Miss Ril.
✦ ✦ ✦
Halna Midi Meren
It had fulfilled its orders not to kill Snow White—and to bring her over if she saw her. If it were a mage or magical girl that had done this, she would have praised them for pulling it off, but there was no need for that with a homunculus.
What should she do? If she were to put Snow White’s soul into the homunculus body, it would complete a perfect fusion, enhancing her combat capabilities even more. Being in a firefight meant Halna was strapped for time, but the fusion was simple and quick; she could start and finish it inside this shed just as usual. That was precisely why she had been successfully able to fuse students on school grounds without anybody noticing. If it were inside the storage shed, then she could use power directly from the root—then she heard a sound like powder being ground on a giant mortar, and vibrations reverberated up through the soles of her feet. Halna lifted her head. This sound—these vibrations were familiar. Thinking it couldn’t be, she ran up to the window and looked outside.
A magical girl in a blue costume stood surrounded by the Princess Lightnings. She was near the center of the courtyard. Chanting a spell with smooth and composed movements, she was moving her arms and fingers just as prescribed. In front of her, the place where an arch had stood before it had collapsed was opening up while making that “sound like powder being ground on a giant mortar.”
The flagstones opened up, revealing stairs beyond. Past those was the entrance area, and if you went farther on, there were the ruins.
It can’t be… Why?!
There was no reason for her to know the spell. But her pronunciation was correct. The movements of her arms, the movements of her fingers were all accurate. Had someone told her? Was there a spy on the inside? But the official way of getting in through the ruins entrance should only be known by certain people in very high positions in the factions. That was beyond the level of a spy or an informant.