Mephis Pheles
Mephis had heard from her seniors in the Elite Guard just how frightening the Lab was. She’d heard various rumors: that it was the final stop for magical girls who blew it, a place divorced from law and ethics despite being a public facility, that you could have an easy death that was on the better side, and much more, but that wasn’t what she found scary about it. She could only think of it as very far away from herself.
Most likely, if she were told she was to be taken away by the Lab, even Mephis might have been pathetically terrified. But where she was actually taken, a few days after when she tried asking, “Oh yeah, so what the heck is this hospital?” she was told, “the Lab,” and she was deeply impressed, thinking, It actually makes it scarier that you’re there before you know it.
While the Lab was doing who knew what in the shadows, at the very least to Mephis, it was a big boring hospital. Every single day, she’d have blood or hair or flakes of skin or whatnot taken for tests she didn’t really understand, and her meals were typical bland hospital food.
She didn’t see her classmates. Fortunately, they didn’t take her phone away from her, so she managed to keep in contact with Miss Ril and Rappy on MINE, at least. Also, Dory alone occasionally popped her face in.
Mephis had had her body remade without her permission. Her mind had also been controlled. Since the crazy elf, a.k.a. the principal, was dead, things had worked out for her mentally, but it seemed the body part was difficult. At this rate, her lifespan would be short. Life in the fast lane was the iron rule of delinquent manga, but getting your body modified without permission and your lifespan shrunk was like science fiction.
There was no way the Lab was treating her as an act of charity. It was quite possible that she had unwittingly become an experimental subject. But according to what Dory said (which was difficult to understand), they wouldn’t be that reckless. They were apparently treating her as a guest entrusted to them from the Caspar Faction, and someone important was checking every few days.
Did they think she was Kana’s friend? Or was this a repayment of debt or something since she’d been taking care of Kana? She hardly thought that Kana had given detailed instructions to “take good care of Mephis.” Thinking about back then, there had been no time at all for that.
People tend to think too much when they’re at loose ends. While looking up at the ceiling of the hospital, Mephis thought about nothing but the events of that day. Even after falling, Tetty had saved Mephis. In her fading memories, she had the feeling like Kana had said something to her. She had probably saved her, too. Even after something unthinkable had happened to Kumi-Kumi and Lillian, they had helped her. If not for Snow White, Mephis wouldn’t have survived. And Adelheid had fought to the bitter end elsewhere—to her death.
Mephis had heard that the ones who’d come to save her and the others deep in the ruins had been Dory and her friends. They had said that it was because the activation had been canceled, but even then, no matter how many times she thanked them for coming into a place like that for them, it wouldn’t be enough. Rappy and Miss Ril must also have been struggling and suffering, but they tried to support Mephis in various ways. Dory showing up also had to be her own way of demonstrating consideration. And there had been a call from Calkoro recently, who apparently had gotten her contact info from Miss Ril. She had apologized very earnestly.
She was suffering the whole time, the first few days after being saved. After that, it was like a hole had opened up. She had wanted to become a magical girl who could save people. She’d been in such a temper about not wanting to become someone who would be saved by Tetty, and then in the end, Mephis had survived because everyone had saved her. She still wanted to say things to Tetty, and Tetty would surely have wanted to say things to her, but they could no longer speak.
Their other classmates would obviously have wanted to survive, too. Diko, Ranyi, and Pshuke must have joined the magical-girl class with dreams and things they wanted to do.
She felt like she should have a mission and do something, but she couldn’t dredge up the energy to do anything, and so she read the manga that had been gifted her. She read genres she liked, and those she didn’t, all of it. The romance that Lillian would have liked, the standard shonen manga that Adelheid would enjoy, the isekai reincarnation fantasy that Kumi-Kumi liked, the delinquent manga she had recommended to Kana—all the manga she read were connected to memories. Even manga that wasn’t connected made her think, I bet she’d like this one, or This might’ve made her angry.
Was it simplistic to assume that Lightning would enjoy a foodie manga? It was a sure thing that Sally would read the manga adaptation for Cutie Healer. Tetty would surely read a magical-girl story, saying that it would be educational.
Placing the manga magazine she’d been reading on the pillow, she sighed. She would no longer have discussions about how this manga was interesting, or that manga would definitely be to your taste. Just counting manga she wanted to recommend to Kana alone, there were too many to carry, but she couldn’t do that anymore.
She sighed one more time and then rolled over on the bed. She sat down on a chair, and her eyes met with Dory’s, staring right at her. More accurately, Dory was looking not at Mephis but at the manga magazine.
“What? You wanna read it? Huh? You don’t know how to read it? That’s no good, c’mon, sit down here. I’ll show you right now. A life where you can’t read manga has got to be miserable.”
Two magical girls—one in white and one in black—were running side by side over the rooftops. Kicking up tiles, blowing away sheet metal, they never slowed down.
The white magical girl glanced behind her, grimacing, and then looked forward again.
The black magical girl glanced at her partner out the corner of her eye. “Are they still there?” she asked, concerned.