Kumi-Kumi
Kumi-Kumi’s self was shrinking into nothingness when Mephis, Tetty, and Snow White came inside. That led to all sorts of problems. She emphasized her existence—and yet, her mind did a one-eighty back to the start, and her intentions got her nowhere.
Meanwhile, Lillian’s self had been contaminated; it did a one-eighty back to the start, a collaborative effort—shared. That didn’t seem to be having a good effect on the three magical girls—Kumi-Kumi knew that, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t possibly will herself to stop.
An “intruder” was “assimilating” the “whole.” Kumi-Kumi was one “part”—she was assimilating. Same with Lillian. They couldn’t fight it.
But wanting to save the others—that was still Kumi-Kumi. Her body was nothing, her mind just a “part.” All that remained was melting together. They would melt together, but first, one of her classmates; they still wanted to—even now.
Feelings made magical girls stronger—she’d heard that before, remembered it, forgotten it. It was gone, then still remained; it was right here—Kumi-Kumi.
Kumi-Kumi was good at this. Lillian was not. When they were magical girls, Kumi-Kumi was the clumsy one, and Lillian was the clever one. Being taken in and programmed—maybe that had already happened. Now Kumi-Kumi was the one who used to be Kumi-Kumi. Lillian struggled to think.
All sorts of things—Kumi-Kumi thought they weren’t worth being conscious of. She should mix, melt, become one, but this—was different. No—not unfortunate. Yes—fortunate. But she couldn’t melt now. Not yet. Not like this. Mephis. Tetty. Snow White. Kumi-Kumi couldn’t melt yet. Together, over there—no, not like that. Contradiction—over there—no—save them.
Help the three of them.
Kumi-Kumi’s goal. That goal.
Kumi-Kumi’s voice—it went nowhere. Kumi-Kumi went nowhere. Meaning was meaning. Nowhere. Snow White was weakening. Little time. None left. There was little left.
Motivation. Mephis. Group Two. Standing firm. Tetty. Student rep. Mephis. Group leader. Stubborn.
Protect. Kumi-Kumi had desperately tried—with Group Two. Mephis was protecting. She was protecting someone. Strong. So strong. Kumi-Kumi was not strong. The green—that meant Kumi-Kumi had been protected.
Motivation. Don’t take it lightly. Group Two.
This was how Mephis held hands. Clasped Tetty’s hand. Encouraging. Tetty felt a little better. Better—just a little. Kumi-Kumi gritted her teeth. Watching Lillian, who felt better.
That made sense. True. One wasn’t enough. Two was a lot. Kumi-Kumi was one. Kumi-Kumi and Lillian were two.
Combined selves.
Even as “parts,” their strength was doubled. Combining might change their two selves, but there was no point clinging to something that was going to vanish anyway. Not being able to combine—they never considered that for even a second. Magical girls were all about making miracles.
✦ ✦ ✦
Tetty Goodgripp
Tetty looked up.
She felt like she had heard voices—Kumi-Kumi’s and Lillian’s voices. They had been hearing them this whole time since they had entered, but this was different. It seemed more meaningful, like she might understand it, or might not—that sort of voice.
She looked at Mephis. Their eyes met. Had she heard their voices, too?
Something fell on the moss with a splat. Panicking, Tetty looked toward the sound. While supporting Snow White from the side, she walked up to her rapidly, grabbing the thing that had fallen and was about to be buried in the moss in her mitten, and pulling it up. It was something familiar. She had seen it many times when they had been preparing for the festival, watching the whole time as it was gradually completed. The one making it had been so into it she wouldn’t notice even if you talked to her. And with the passage of time, it had taken proper form. Seeing that now was as wonderfully cheering as the time when they’d been so focused on working on it.
It was Kumi-Kumi’s dragon. She’d been swinging it around continuously while fighting the Lightnings, so most of it had to have been broken, but the broken parts had been sewn together and mended with Lillian’s yarn.
The weight of Snow White’s body suddenly grew lighter. When Tetty looked, she was standing with her own strength.
She looked up at the ceiling and muttered, “I see. I can hear it.”
“…Hear what?” asked Mephis.
“Kumi-Kumi’s and Lillian’s voices.”
“Uh, we’ve been hearing them for a while.”
“In more proper, clearer, more meaningful words.”
“Huh…so then…does that mean they’re still alive?” Tetty brought her face closer, pressing her for an answer.
Snow White managed to smile, albeit weakly. “They’re trying to help us,” she said.
✦ ✦ ✦
Pythie Frederica
By the entrance area, it had already been smelling aggressively of danger, but once she was inside, it was far beyond that—it really was dangerous. Even just walking through the mass of green was difficult, and even though it was just one straight path, it would not be at all strange to meet disaster in here. It seemed that the ruins or the relic had some kind of will, and it called out to her, but she couldn’t tell what it was saying. And despite not understanding, she felt like she was being swept away by it.
The calm Frederica murmured: She’d been aware that this was dangerous. In fact, she would have been disappointed if the activated ruins were safe. She would not feel anxious about the danger. If her heart had been that weak, then she never would have thought to come in the first place. She was becoming antsy because of a different sort of anxiety. And she was trying to avert her eyes from that.
The passionate Frederica smiled: Why did she have to look at trifling details at this point? Rather than thinking about petty things, she should just act. There are many moments like that in life, but right now was very much that time.
Frederica took both views into consideration.
She had designed her body with extreme caution. She had been given the stamp of approval that she had enough resistance and durability that she would be okay, but she was uneasy about going inside. But such anxiety, in fact, gave Frederica joy. That meant that there was enough power ahead to make her anxious, even with an incarnation’s body.
She was ignoring anything irrelevant for the time being—but not everything across the board. It would be a problem if something caught her off guard. She was going to maintain the flexibility that defined the magical girl Pythie Frederica.
Did the other incarnations—Grim Heart, for example—have these doubts? Would a magical girl designed to be freed from that sort of mental weakness not? Puk Puck had prided herself on her exceptional resilience, but apparently, she’d been easily crushed by the giant device the First Mage had so painstakingly constructed. So it must have been possible to penetrate magic.
It was absurd, but there were such things all over the world. If you gave up because magical girls were absurd, you couldn’t do business. She couldn’t be stumbling over some minor absurdities when she was trying to accomplish something great.
She ignored the voices, drowning them out by humming a magical-girl-anime opening medley; with her body light, stepping on the moss without sinking, she moved so fast it was like she was sliding along.
If she went on like this, then she would be able to catch up quickly—so she thought, but she came to a quick stop. Low in the corridor, some yarn was strung up right where it would catch her shin. When she brought her face close to look at it, it seemed this was some of Lillian’s yarn.
Classical Lillian?
Frederica knew all of the magical girls of the Elite Guard who she had sent into the school. Not only that, her personal preferences were involved. Lillian was a rare magical girl, with both a complex about her human form and a sense of omnipotence while transformed, held in perfect balance. Of course, her hair was beautiful. If Frederica could ask for one thing, it would be that she wanted her to be a little more careful with her treatment of her human hair.
Hmm.
It was too clumsy to call sabotage, but it had actually stopped her. It wasn’t that having this in the way was really a problem—she was just perplexed by the bizarreness of the situation, and wondered what was going on. Frederica stepped over the string, on guard for any pitfall traps or bear traps that might be ahead as she went forward, and quickly came to a stop again. There was a yarn strung up.
Hmm, hmm…interesting.
This was both interesting and troublesome at the same time.
Frederica stepped over the yarn, and after going forward a while, she saw that another yarn was strung up.
This was persistent. It was also childish. Lillian would be capable of making smarter traps, so why was there a string of traps set up that were so simple, as if they had been designed to make a child trip? She couldn’t figure out what she was after.
But times when you couldn’t read someone’s intention, it was best not to read it. Frederica had learned that from experience.
Leaping as softly as a feather, she twisted her body in midair and put both feet on the wall, running straight along it like she was sliding. Lillian’s traps were set up periodically, but of course she ignored them. Right now was the time to act rather than think.