Snow White
She took a step. It sank in. She pulled it out. She moved forward.
The moss wriggled and squelched, and when her foot lifted, the mark she’d made immediately went back to how it had been before. If these were ruins like the labyrinth Puk Puck had occupied, maybe she would have been happy, thinking that nobody would follow her. But if Frederica came into the ruins, she would just follow along this single path. Whether there were tracks or not didn’t matter.
Snow White turned to look back, then immediately faced front again. She couldn’t hear any voices from outside the ruins. Inside the ruins, even the minds of the two right next to her, Mephis and Tetty, were hard to hear. The voices of Kumi-Kumi, Lillian, and most likely the ruins themselves were all mixed up. She was just barely able to hear them if she listened close, but the more she listened to them, the worse she felt.
But even so, there was a voice she had to listen to.
“I think…I can hear…Frederica’s voice,” said Snow White.
“So she got in?” Mephis croaked.
“Probably.”
“Are the people up there okay?”
“I can’t tell.”
If they were okay, then Frederica wouldn’t have come in. Mephis understood that, which was why she was scowling.
“This is bad,” she said.
“It is.”
“Um…is she fast?” Tetty asked, her voice quavering.
“I don’t know how far away she is…,” she whispered.
She heard Frederica’s mind. This time, it wasn’t just that she “thought” she heard it. It was Frederica. It broke off and she couldn’t hear it again, but there was no way she would mistake that.
“She’s fast,” Snow White announced.
“Oh no…,” Tetty whimpered.
“And she’s getting closer.”
If they encountered her in this narrow corridor, Snow White doubted they could win.
They were supposed to have put up defenses against Frederica at the ruins’ entrance. Kana, Calkoro, and Halna were there. But even then, they had been unable to stop her. Judging from Frederica’s speed, she hadn’t even been wounded enough to slow her down. All she could do was pray that at least those magical girls who had stayed behind were alive.
Snow White bit the very tip of her tongue. It brought her to her senses just a bit.
They had to reach their goal ahead of Frederica. But considering Frederica’s speed, she would catch up to them. Fighting back would be difficult. And moving faster than Frederica would also be difficult.
The image of the black Snow White that had been fighting against the Lightnings rose in her mind. The principal had said that Snow White should be just as strong now. She was strong, and fast. Or so she should be, but now she was dragging the others down and being a burden to Tetty and Mephis.
Snow White had always been a burden. All the magical girls she’d tried to protect had died, or had met horrible fates as bad as death. She did nothing but hesitate, and in the end couldn’t do anything. She said a lot of noble-sounding things, but she was always waiting for someone else to save her.
No!
Snow White bit her lip. The taste of blood brought her to her senses.
✦ ✦ ✦
0 Lulu
She was supposed to be looking for Snow White, but what she found first was a number of Princess Lightnings. The Lightnings were all in a group, so of course they were noticeable, and they were also acting strangely. The Lightnings, who should have been doing something under orders of their master, all had their heads together and seemed to be discussing something.
Lulu wasn’t able to call out to them. By the time she hesitated, they were already out of view.
“What…is that?” Miss Ril asked.
“I’m not sure” was the most Lulu could say. She really had no idea what was going on. It was laughable, but she couldn’t laugh.
She examined the information. Would Lightnings be acting on their own? Old Blue might be in a state where she couldn’t command them. She might—rather, she had to be. If she were doing all right, then the Lightnings wouldn’t be here entertaining themselves by standing around talking.
Old Blue was strong and tenacious—and, most of all, a canny magical girl. She would never take more people than she was capable of commanding. And Old Blue would also not put the sort of magical girl who would panic at the scene under her command. In other words, the lackeys standing there muttering to each other and not doing their jobs meant something was wrong.
She’s wounded, or maybe… Oh no…
This was bad. Groups of Lightnings moving about in a confusion, and Old Blue not being there, was an absolute disaster. Of course this was bad for their team, and it was also bad for Lulu as an individual. Asserting her position as “a great Lazuline candidate” had only worked because she’d been dealing with Lightnings. If Old Blue’s enemies were at the advantage, then that wouldn’t work anymore.
Or…was Master defeated?
It didn’t seem like she would die—rather, Lulu couldn’t even imagine her dying. Her fleeing though, that might be possible. After her group escaped, Old Blue would immediately block the way behind them. She would leave behind any slow subordinates who couldn’t catch up. Though Old Blue was normally someone you could count on, when the time came to make a decision, she would not bring emotions into it.
So then it made sense that the Lightnings were confused. No more commander, no more escape route, and babbling to each other saying, “What do we do, what do we do?” wouldn’t bring up any good ideas. You weren’t going to get any wonderful solutions popping up when it was all the exact same person discussing.
What should she do? Lulu waffled. But she hadn’t seen Snow White yet. That would mean breaking her promise with Ripple. Lulu groaned. With a brief curse, she clicked her tongue sharply like Ripple.
Something was strange. It was difficult to imagine that their master had lost, and her running away seemed reasonable at a glance, but it was still strange, after all. If it were simply that she had lost, or fled, then that would mean the enemy was at the advantage. If the enemy were at the advantage, then she should see some of them, but thus far, she hadn’t seen any of the masked magical girls.
Did everyone flee after figuring out that the barrier would be undone soon? Is that it? And then some of the Lightnings were left behind?
Among those abandoned Lightnings was Lulu. Worst case scenario, could she have Miss Ril defend her case? She didn’t know if there was any point in that. At the very least, Lulu had to see if Snow White was safe, or her mission would not be complete.
She felt like she’d had a job she didn’t want foisted on her. But this job she didn’t want was also a job that she had to do. She would take responsibility to the end. Lulu felt around inside her bag and pulled out a ball.
“Miss Ril. Take this.” She tossed her the reddish-brown ball.
“What is it?”
“Goldstone. It will show the path to your goal… Or, it should. Let’s use this to search for your classmates.”
Miss Ril’s expressionless face seemed to brighten a little, although maybe that was Lulu’s imagination. In the blink of an eye, Miss Ril’s whole body transformed into goldstone, and Lulu used her magic on her. This should have had some amazing results that you wouldn’t be able to get from a tiny little cheap stone.
“All right, this way.”
They ran haphazardly a ways, and at the end of it, the barrier was waiting. Ripple was lying face up on the gymnasium roof.
“Who…is that?” Miss Ril asked.
“Hey! What are you doing here?!” Lulu cried.
She approached Ripple, looked down at her, and let slip a groan. Ripple had been very badly beaten. Both legs were in weird shapes, bent at impossible angles. And there was more aside from that. She had been tortured just to the verge of death and then left there.
Enraged, wondering just who the hell had done this, and also shocked that Ripple had been this badly beaten, Lulu was also afraid that whoever had done this might still be in the area—but even as her heart was muddled by all these feelings, Lulu, as a Lazuline candidate, made the optimal move.
Lulu swiftly chose from her mental gem list what she would use. Miss Ril would react to metals and transform. It had to be something that had a meaning as a stone and also included metal or was metal itself.
“Here, Miss Ril, take this. It’s malachite,” said Lulu.
“Understood.”
It was a beautiful stone, a dark green with a striped pattern in it. It had the power to repel evil and heal. Lulu went to her knees and sat right beside Ripple. Ripple didn’t thank her—she didn’t even move. She was lethargic.