Pythie Frederica
The billowing dirt and dust slowly settled.
Everything to be seen all around was pocked with craters, and with piles of wreckage filling the view in every direction, Frederica had become a part of said wreckage, lying on her back. There was quite a lot that she would like to say to the magical girl who was looking down on her, but she couldn’t stop gasping for air, and it was difficult to even say a word.
Her whole body was covered with cuts and bruises. It should have been difficult to even wound her incarnation body, but now it was in tatters. The wounds on her neck were particularly deep, and they would have been fatal for an ordinary magical girl.
“Can you stand?”
Frederica was unable to reply, but she was able to take the hand that was offered to her. The magical girl who was looking down on her—in a classical style of a simple red dress, a yellow ribbon, and a bamboo broom in her right hand—lent her a hand, and she somehow got up. Standing in the wreckage, she somehow caught her breath.
“Goodness… I thought I was going to die.”
Old Blue had truly fought like a demon. There had been no weakness at all in the tactics she had assembled in order to fight the overwhelming strength of an incarnation. It had been too much for Frederica to dominate with pure physical abilities. The rapier star decoration had shattered before she could use it; Frederica’s confidence had also been shattered, and she had been quite badly beaten up.
She looked to the rubble to her right. The magical girl who was half-buried there—now an old woman with her face peaceful in death—had shown strength beyond Frederica’s expectations. Thinking back now, she had been quite the buffoon for having laughed to herself about feeling so sorry for her, since she couldn’t know how much stronger Frederica had become.
“I wish you’d gotten here a little sooner,” said Frederica.
“A bunch of identical twins kept getting in my way.”
While being helped by the magical girl in the red dress, Frederica stepped over the mountain of wreckage and stood there. What she saw over the mountain was a destroyed school, with nothing of worth.
“I’m going to search for the wounded and carry as many as I can before retreating,” said the girl with the broom.
“Retreat?” Frederica said. “It’s too soon for that.”
“I got a message. Inspection is pulling out all the stops. They gathered casters from over ten departments to have them undo the barrier. They’re not doing this for show—it’s for real.”
“Inspection’s work goes so quickly. How wonderful. They must have a great commanding officer. But that’s a completely different matter. I have yet to achieve my goal.”
“You’ve lost your cool.”
“Well, yes, that is indeed true.”
Frederica had defeated Old Blue, but that hadn’t been her original goal. Frederica would be fine even if the authorities showed up.
But she didn’t have the time to explain that from square one. She’d had no intention of explaining in the first place. As the employer who had lost her cool and chosen to remain alone, parting ways with Old Blue made Frederica a bit sad, but that was unavoidable. It was mere sentimentality.
“I will stay here,” said Frederica.
“Then this is where we part ways. No issues on your end, right? I earned my keep.”
The magical girl spun around the Hiyoko mask that she’d turned to the back of her head to cover her face, and then she slung a leg over her bamboo broom.
Frederica bowed low. “Thank you very much. You’ve helped me quite a lot.”
“We’ll vacate the estate. If you come back alive, then I’ll contact you.”
“Until then. Farewell.”
Just as Frederica had ultimately used up the mercenaries, once the mercenaries gave up on Frederica, they would flee right away. Those who lacked situational judgment would not live long—just like the magical girls who had died here.
Watching that red dress go as it went flying through the air, Frederica turned back to the courtyard. She leaped, leaving the wrecked area, running over the broken school building, and perked up her ears.
She’s here. I’ve been waiting for this.
Frederica kicked away the wall of the school building and destroyed it, and going three steps through the hole she’d made, she got some momentum and then dropped her elbow down to be blocked by a single right hand.
An Umemizaki Junior High uniform, mussed hair, violent accessories—she looked rather different from what Frederica knew, but she would never mistake her. It was Ratsumukana-honome-no-kami, Kana. She was expressionless. But Frederica could sense her quiet anger.
She was easier to understand than Old Blue, who had faced her with a thin smile. It was nice.
“Looks like you’ve said your good-byes,” Kana told Frederica.
“It’s been quite some time since we last met.”
The two of them traded blows, then leaped at the same time. They went up to the roof, running side by side as they continued to fight. Frederica thrust, swept her legs, concealed a shin kick using her skirt, and blocked Kana’s high kick with her left arm. Kana wrapped a chain around that arm and grabbed it. Frederica’s flesh cried out, and her bones creaked.
Neither of them could retreat, so they went back to trading blows. Frederica was hit over and over. Blood flowed from her forehead, and the right side of her vision was dyed red. But even then, she did not close her eye.
I see. So this is the difference between an incarnation and a fake.
Unlike Puk Puck, who had been created as the definitive edition of an incarnation, and Grim Heart, who had been created to surpass Puk Puck, Ratsumukana-honome-no-kami was not created to fight. Her fighting capacity was far less compared to Puk and Grim, but she was still too much for Kashiki-akarukushi-hime’s body.
And yet, Frederica was the only one who could go up against Kana. Just as the Lightnings had made a group and encircled her, but even so been unable to give her a single wound, an ordinary magical girl wouldn’t even be a contest. It was beyond an adult versus a child—it was a giant versus an ant.