Rappy Taype
The meeting was over. She heard the steps of the participants coming out of the room, and only the department head Juube, her vice chief Puppeta, and Rappy, who was serving tea, were left behind in Conference Room Two, which was about the size of a classroom.
Rappy was very well suited to this activity. She could serve fresh, hot tea at any time by storing it with her magic wrap. The baked sweets wouldn’t get soggy, and the red bean sweets wouldn’t go bad. And she was not purely a tea-server—she also faultlessly managed tasks like writing on the whiteboard and handing out documents. It was very convenient to have her around at a meeting.
So she would have wanted them to have her exclusively attached to meetings forever, but unfortunately, since she also faultlessly managed things other than serving tea, that meant she was sent out to various jobs, especially dangerous jobs.
Right now, she was standing beside the department head and vice chief, listening to them talk.
“7753’s separation was a success, apparently,” said Juube.
“She should still have her position in Magical Girl Resources, right?” Puppeta replied.
“I hear they brought her back in an interesting way. The people at the Lab are apparently making a big fuss over her. Others outside the organization are curious, too.”
“Why’s that?”
“They’re saying lots of things, like she’s a new incarnation, or a revived incarnation. Some mages are even prostrating themselves and worshipping her. This might be the birth of a new religion in the Magical Kingdom.”
“I feel bad for her, then… That’s rough… But won’t the Lab be even more reluctant to let her go now? She could be misused.”
“That would be a problem.”
“I mean…you think so…?”
“I do. If possible, I’d like to have her with us. Even if she doesn’t plan to stay with the Resources Department, she’ll have to submit a letter of resignation or something. That’s just protocol.”
“I see. So that’s how you intend to do this. Wouldn’t it be a real problem if it ended up looking like we were snatching 7753 from the Lab? I’m against it, personally.”
“You’re getting way ahead of yourself. I wasn’t even thinking about asking you.”
“You weren’t?”
“Nope. It’s not only the Lab. Word has it that the Inspection Department also wants to get a hold of 7753 to keep her from being used in illegal experiments. The Management Department chief was the main figure in her separation. That old man… Pardon me, Master Ragi is the picture of a stubborn old man… Ahem. I hear that he has rather firm convictions, and you’re not good with the elderly. This mission requires communication skills, not simple force.”
“Yes, yes, forgive me for being so socially awkward. So who are you sending?”
Juube turned her head thirty degrees to the right—at Rappy, who’d figured things would wind up like this. She wasn’t particularly shocked.
“Rappy,” said Juube.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Extracting you from Lazuline’s gang took precious time and money.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Off you go, then.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
While she was nodding at everything she was told, Rappy’s mind was already on the new job. Specifically, about 80 percent of her head was working on her new job. Twenty percent was remembering past work. Lately, that ratio had decreased. A month ago, and no matter what she did, she had been at 50 percent remembering.
It was nothing but painful memories of the magical-girl class. While she’d played the bright and fun magical girl, inside, she’d felt desperate. Even while wondering just why she had to mingle with middle schoolers at her age and pretend to be in middle school, she hadn’t been able to oppose the upper ranks.
Eventually, she’d come to enjoy even the acting and had gone to school like a real middle schooler, and then the magical-girl class had gone away.
She could consider herself lucky just for surviving. More classmates had died during that turmoil than had remained. But she could also think of it the other way. If Rappy had tried a little harder, if she had not been quickly dragged away and had been able to say, “I’m going to help, so please leave me behind,” then a number of people might have been saved. Considering what-ifs disqualified her as a professional magical girl, and thinking about what if she had jumped into a situation where she might have died was just as much of a disqualification. But she still couldn’t stop thinking about it, and that was surely because the middle schoolers had been fun people.
It was the iron rule of the Magical Girl Resources Department that you’d say whoever was gone had been a good person, and leave it at that. If she were to think on and on about the people who were now gone, then she would be the next one gone. Rappy thought about the friends who had remained to the end—was Miss Ril still able to smile so kindly?—and she reduced the remembering from 20 percent to 10 percent.
✦ ✦ ✦
Calkoro
Once upon a time, the Management Department had just a single room. Now it had four. Since the addition of rooms had been carried out by the department chief using magic, it had cost no money. Two magical girls, Calkoro and Miss Ril, were standing talking in one of the new rooms, one that was used as a storage space.
“Yes, that’s right. There’s been talk of going somewhere new to do a magical-girl class. A purer and cleaner one this time,” said Calkoro.
“Purer and cleaner?” Miss Ril repeated.
“It sounds like it’ll actually get off the ground, too. They’ll form a watchdog agency made up of various experts. Even the slightest impropriety won’t go unchecked.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Also, there’s, um…just one thing I’d like to ask of you.”
“Yes?”
“You see, the department had me under restraint until just recently.”
“That must have been tough.”
As Halna’s trusted retainer, Calkoro should have been disposed of without an investigation, but there must have been some pressure from somewhere, as she had been acquitted from a report based on proper investigation and facts. But it had still taken three months until her release, and even after that, she was entrusted to the Management Department, and not allowed to walk around freely. Not only that, apparently some secret agent was also keeping watch over her. Calkoro herself hadn’t noticed at all, but the chief of the Magical Girl Resources Department, who was Rappy’s boss, had advised her of that through Rappy.
“I still have eyes on me, even now,” Calkoro said.
“None of it was your fault, though.”
“Thank you, but, well, there was some question of my competence… At the very least, I couldn’t prevent the incident from happening.”
“Anyone would have struggled with that.”
“Oh… Also, given the delicate position I’m in, I never thought this sort of offer would come to me…but I’ve been asked to be the new magical-girl class’s assistant teacher.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“You think so…?”
“I do. Last time…all sorts of things happened, but you had things you wanted to do, too, didn’t you?”
Calkoro had made for a very apathetic teacher. Miss Ril must have known that, but she nonetheless encouraged her in earnest with a smile.
“Things I wanted to do…?” said Calkoro.
Calkoro wanted to refuse by any means possible. She didn’t want to be involved in a magical-girl class anymore. It would inevitably become trauma. A normal mage would be laid up in bed for years. If they were weak of heart, then they would never leave the house. Because she was a magical girl, she was now able to stand here and talk during work like this. But right after the incident, she’d been in such a state, she hadn’t wanted to see anything or believe in anything.
“I suppose…I did have my own desires.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“But things were so tough… I caused trouble for everyone… I was always burdening Tetty… I really was.”
Perhaps Calkoro had been burdening the class head, Tetty, in order to avoid trouble herself. Tetty had always seemed to be struggling, running around between her classmates, but now that she thought of it, Calkoro had the feeling that she’d been strangely enjoying herself. Was that just nostalgia glasses, though?
Calkoro hadn’t told Miss Ril about the magical-girl class because she wanted encouragement. She’d been thinking to go through Miss Ril to have the Management Department chief mediate, to either deftly refuse or make it like it had never happened. But she was being encouraged. And looking at Miss Ril’s smile, she kind of wound up feeling like she could do it.
“It’s strange…,” said Calkoro.
“Pardon?”
“No, nothing…”
The door opened audibly. The sliding door was flung open so hard it bounced back to half-shut, and the person who had opened it put his hand on it to open it once more. There stood the Management Department chief, Ragi Zwe Nento. Face red and twisted in anger, he even gave the sense like his beard was somehow standing up.
“Enough chitchat! How long does it take just to bring three books over?!”
Calkoro hastily bowed and apologized. When she timidly looked up at Ragi, he still seemed to be angry. But Tepsekemei was mimicking him behind his back. Calkoro couldn’t help bursting into laughter, which made Ragi even angrier.