Mana
The attack on Umemizaki Junior High three months earlier had exposed details about the ruins that had been preserved underneath the magical-girl class, sending the Magical Kingdom’s upper echelons into utter confusion. But it wasn’t enough to cause much of a fracas for underlings like Mana. The big shots weren’t actively revealing the facts; the only information was rumors at most.
To ordinary mages, the Three Sage incarnations were like deities. It wasn’t unusual to never see one in your entire life.
About 40 percent of people surveyed weren’t worried at all. They figured it was common enough for a Sage to be absent; one would surely revive again. Another 40 percent were concerned about what had happened to the Sages. They wondered why there were only rumors and no official announcements. The remaining 20 percent of people had other reactions.
Normally, Mana would have been the type to stay away from any hullabaloo, but being directly involved in the incident and having found out a mountain of facts that it would be better to not have known meant that there were way more things she had to do. An extremely busy month passed by in the blink of an eye, and now she was on Sataborn’s island.
As for why she came to a remote spot like this while things were busy—that day, she was engaged in separating a magical girl who had wound up fused with some island flora. The way this tree worked, sending roots out all over the island to suck up the power around it and generate grayfruit, was very much like the system of the ruins, which had sucked up power from the Magical Kingdom in order to create its seeds. Ragi, who was engaged in this task of separation, made use of his position of being more or less treated as Osk Faction leadership to look up details of the ruins system, calculating backward from that in order to successfully construct a formula to save 7753, the magical girl who had wound up fused with a tree—so Mana had heard.
Either Sataborn had learned about the ruins somehow and copied them or he had coincidentally wound up constructing a system that resembled them—they couldn’t know from the materials left behind. Ragi had said, “They say that geniuses sometimes receive their ideas from God. I would not be surprised if Sataborn were granted some divine revelation from the First Mage,” but Mana didn’t really get that. She’d be grateful so long as they could save her friend.
Piled up around the tree that 7753 was inside was equipment that she had never seen before. It was extrication equipment shared from the Lab, which had offered its aid. Not only that, many white-coated robes had begun to gather. The whole thing felt dubious, but Mana would never have been able to cover the expenses with her own meager savings, and even adding in what Ragi had and the Management Department’s safe, it wouldn’t be enough, so there was no helping this. A mage from the Lab who Mana knew smacked the now-sizable sum and smirked. “It’s like an apology,” they said, but Mana couldn’t trust that. Right now, however, she had to use even things that she couldn’t trust. Even the stubborn old man Ragi, who had once refused to accept anything improper, was now bending the conviction that he had never bent for many years, so Mana didn’t have the right to butt in.
“I wonder… I wonder if this will be all right,” Mana fretted.
“Don’t worry; apparently, they’re following every safety measure to a T,” said Ragi.
“The way you put that does not inspire confidence in the safety.”
Tepsekemei, now about half her previous size, flew over with a bag packed with magic gems, and Ragi yelled his instructions. Mana connected cables with hands unused to the task. The voices of the mages got louder. Chants overlapped. Steam shot out. The area was filled with light, and gradually the voices chanting grew quieter, the light faded, and the steam vanished.
Someone cried out in astonishment. A vine grew from the plant, and a giant grayfruit was born. It was dozens of times larger than the grayfruit that Mana knew. The fruit twitched, the skin broke open, and juices spilled out. The tear gradually grew larger, and then a hand came out of it and it burst open.
A magical girl appeared from within, soaked in juices. She coughed and took off her hat and goggles.
Mana looked at her in a daze. It looked like 7753, but it was not the original 7753 herself. The details were different. Most of all, her whole body was sparkling brightly. Ragi groaned, and the mages of the Lab all whispered to one another.
“That…”
“Looks very similar…”
“An incarnation…?”
Some were tearing up, and others fell on their knees, seemingly overcome with emotion. At this rate, some were bound to start praying.
Unrelated to the reaction from the gallery, the magical girl’s coughing got worse and worse, so Mana hastily rushed up to her and wiped her with a big towel. The magical girl looked up at Mana with a weak smile on her face.
“Whew…I thought I was going to die this time, for sure.”
Her miserable smile, her withering voice—they were both so categorically 7753. Relieved, Mana rubbed 7753’s head, looking up at the ceiling to hide the tears that threatened to overflow. The tiny Tepsekemei whirled around and around expressionlessly.
They’d struggled a lot to get this far. Tepsekemei must have been glad, too. She’d caused quite a lot of trouble, but complaining about that now would be very tactless.
That reminded Mana of one more magical girl who had caused her trouble: Uluru—formerly of the Puk Faction. Mana treated her the same as Tepsekemei. Uluru and Mana had been seeing each other practically every day for a while, but ever since the incident, Uluru was nowhere to be seen. Still aggressively rubbing 7753’s head, Mana wondered where Uluru was and who she was causing trouble for. 7753 groaned.