Chapter 15
"Is teleportation immediate?"
[I-I’m a little short on range! I need to fly as Alice for about three minutes to get within range!]
"That’s why A-rank ones are...!"
Alice’s teleportation range is fairly extensive, but the moment an A-rank Abyss One appears, every magical girl capable of fighting in that city and its neighboring cities is effectively summoned.
It isn’t just one powerful monster appearing and then leaving. They usually bring along several D- or C-rank monsters, and in severe cases even B-rank ones, so the more magical girls there are, the better.
The stronger magical girls fight, while those with comparatively weaker combat abilities take on roles such as preventing civilian casualties and stopping major buildings from collapsing.
Alice would undoubtedly be assigned to the combat team, but... in any case, I didn’t have time to stand around like this.
'Transform. Alice.'
-Flash!
After transforming into Alice, I immediately used the common magical-girl spell that moved me to a nearby place with neither people nor CCTV cameras. Once I confirmed that my surroundings had changed, I kicked off the ground, lifted myself into the air, created starlight beneath my feet, and began moving.
'Maximum speed.'
-Whoosh!
As I poured magical power into the starlight, the light beneath my feet accelerated, and the wind that had already been battering my face grew even fiercer, whipping my long white hair violently.
'Bunny. Count down the time until we reach a point within teleportation range.'
[Got it. 30, 29...]
I was moving so quickly that the scenery around me changed in a dizzying blur, but I had experienced this sight countless times already, so it didn’t bother me.
Perhaps an evacuation order had been issued. Some people stared wide-eyed and pointed toward me while evacuating, but I was moving fast enough that ordinary people would lose sight of me in the time it took them to say, "Huh?" They should just focus on evacuating.
If you can react to this speed quickly enough to take a picture, I won’t stop you. It won’t show up in the photo anyway.
[8, 7, 6...]
-Grind.
If an Abyss One had appeared, it was probably in a crowded area, and unlike usual, Alice hadn’t flown in the moment it appeared. Taking detection, travel, and teleportation into account, about five minutes must have passed since its appearance.
I charged my wand with magical power and prepared to move in time with Bunny’s countdown, ready to deal with whatever situation awaited me at the destination.
[3, 2, 1! Move!]
-Flash!
'Skipping today’s line!'
Even something like "Magical Girl Alice has arrived!" was something I could only do when I had the leisure for it. In a situation like this, no one would hear me anyway, and I’d only get cursed at.
As soon as my vision changed, I fired Starlight Shower at the two D-rank Abyss Ones that were about to pounce on the people I’d spotted, giving each of them a friendly dose of precharged magical power. Then, using the ambient magic to locate the A-rank Abyss One, I saw a giant fist descending toward a place where two or three magical girls had gathered, with impeccable timing.
'Run? Too late. Starlight Shower? It can’t stop that. Lunar Blast? By the time it’s finished charging, they’ll already be crushed. Fly there? That would be too late as well.'
Ordinary techniques were already too late.
Then there was only one thing I could use.
Stellar Shift.
-Flash!
"Sis... I’m sorry... Because of me, you... Huh?"
"Don’t say that! We promised, remember? That we’d die together if we had to!"
"N-no, Sis... Behind you..."
'Stop chattering and just dodge!!!!!'
"Leave this to Alice and get out of here!"
-Boom!
"Tch!"
<Hmm. A new magical girl, is it? Those mascot bastards never get tired, do they? They follow us into every dimension the Abyss visits.>
"P-please... get... away."
"Th-thank you! Hey! Wake up! We’re alive!"
"Thank you for saving us! I’ll DM you later!"
'Stop wasting time and get lost!'
-Grrrk...
At present, I was using my wand to block the Abyss One’s fist as it came crashing down from above.
It made no sense for a single human to stop something with more mass than a truck and roughly the size of a small two-story building, but magical girls made such impossible feats possible.
'Damn it... Just when I’m not in top condition.'
As I said before, Alice—or more precisely, my condition—was in no shape to be called good, even as a figure of speech.
I’d done mental labor, fought a couple of Abyss Ones, even if they hadn’t been particularly high-ranked, and hadn’t had a proper meal or any real rest.
My mental strength, magical power, and stamina—the things needed to manifest magic—were all considerably depleted.
In that state, immediately after teleporting here, I’d fired Starlight Shower at two Abyss Ones attacking people, then, without time to charge my magic again, used Stellar Shift once more to save those rookies and block the attack. So, if I were to compare Alice’s current condition...
If perfect condition were represented by simply standing normally, my current state was comparable to fighting with six sandbags attached to my body, one foot raised, balancing on the other, and swinging only one arm.
It was a somewhat undignified metaphor, but the handicap Alice was carrying was almost that severe.
If I’d had even ten seconds—no, five seconds—to gather magical power, I wouldn’t have needed to engage in this struggle of strength.
I admit it. I failed to manage my condition today.
I always say that magical girls—Alice especially—never know when or where they’ll have to fight an Abyss One, so they must always maintain optimal condition. Ending up in this situation was undeniably a mistake in my judgment.
I hadn’t even considered the possibility that an A-rank Abyss One would appear when I was in this condition.
But Abyss Ones weren’t going to move according to what I expected.
-Grrrrk...
<What is this, magical girl? For someone who boldly blocked me, is this all you can do to hold me back? If this is some scheme to buy time, how boring.>
-Crack.
'If only I’d been in good condition, I could handle this much...'
Even in this condition, Alice wasn’t so weak that an A-rank Abyss One could simply overwhelm her.
But I wasn’t confident I could prevent the surrounding area from being reduced to rubble in the process.
If I simply unleashed my most powerful techniques without worrying about what came afterward, I could defeat even an A-rank Abyss One without much difficulty, but dozens of buildings would be destroyed in the process. There would probably be hundreds or thousands of civilians who hadn’t managed to evacuate, too.
In the end, being a magical girl wasn’t all about having overwhelming strength.
That didn’t mean Alice was going to keep struggling for strength with this Abyss One.
The scorching heat I’d felt carried on the air from far away had reached the immediate vicinity before I knew it.
-KABOOM!
"What the hell! It’s Alice! Haven’t seen you in ages! Have you gotten rusty?"
"As if!"
Thanks to a magical girl who appeared beside me, wreathed in magic that was literally blazing, and dramatically delivered a dropkick to the Abyss One’s fist, a gap opened in the force pressing down on me. That brief opening was enough time to retrieve my wand and charge it with magical power.
"Watch out for the explosion!!"
Lunar Blast.
-KWA-BOOOOM!!!
<Tch! How dare you!>
Thanks to the opening that magical girl had created, Lunar Blast detonated, and the Abyss One’s fist was instantly reduced to a tattered mess.
But an A-rank Abyss One wasn’t an A-rank Abyss One for nothing.
<How many dimensions do you think I’ve fought my way to victory in against fools who relied on nothing but the power of those mascots?! This is nowhere near enough!!>
Nearly twenty fists like the one that had just been shredded were floating around the black-form Abyss One’s main body. Twenty-four, to be exact.
"So? Any useful information to share? Like a weakness?"
"Alice only just got here too."
"True. It hasn’t been long since it appeared. But this should be enough firepower, right?"
This woman, who had latched onto me as naturally as if we were close, was Rabiz, ranked fifth among the S-rank magical girls.
Her habit of casually clinging to people everywhere was similar to Emerald’s, but while Emerald was fundamentally gentle and mature, this woman was so utterly informal that I knew other magical girls found her uncomfortable to deal with.
Well, maybe not.
"Bunny. Alice and Miss Rabiz have enough firepower to defeat an A-rank Abyss One. Send any other B-rank or lower magical girls who join afterward to rescue civilians and deal with the Abyss Ones that came along with it."
[Hmm... One B-rank support-type magical girl is currently on her way here. Do we not need her?]
"B-rank support type... Even so, we already have enough..."
"Oh! I need her! When you’re fighting something around A-rank, it’s hard to control your strength! If she’s a B-rank support-type with plenty of experience, she’ll be more than enough help!"
"...Let’s do that."
[Okay. I’ll contact the mascots. Any magical girls joining after that one will be assigned to rescue civilians and prevent secondary damage rather than combat.]
<H-huh... You think you can face me with only two people?! Me?!>
"That takes me back nine years. There weren’t as many magical girls then as there are now, so a few of us had to handle everything—defeating the Abyss One, rescuing civilians, clearing building debris, and so on. The world has definitely gotten better, hasn’t it?"
"It’s good that there are more people shining brightly."
"Haha, that way of speaking hasn’t changed, then or now. We’ll do it like last time. I’ll charge; you attack from range. You can match my timing without me giving you specifics, right? Then here I go!"
-Bang!
I didn’t know. I had no way of knowing what that woman had said to Alice nine years ago or how they’d coordinated back then.
...Not Alice. Me, who was merely taking her place.
Me, clumsily following that light and simply praying I wouldn’t be found out.
How could I know what only 'Alice' had experienced?
I had no choice but to wing it.