Chapter 22
Before I knew it, time had passed, and the day of filming arrived.
'Bunny. You don't see any dark circles or anything, right?'
[You look neat. You're exactly the perfect Alice you usually are.]
'Good.'
It would surely be more reliable to check myself in a mirror, but having someone else look at my face was even more reliable than looking at it myself, and
There are no mirrors in my house.
Ever since I started living like this, I hadn't really liked looking in mirrors, so I'd gotten rid of all of them. Whenever I really needed one, I could just use my phone camera, so although it was a little inconvenient, it wasn't a major issue.
A magical girl's transformation basically registers her appearance once, then perfectly recreates her magical-girl appearance even if her actual body had just rolled around in mud.
Dark circles usually disappear during transformation anyway, but you never know. I just said it to be safe.
Naturally, I couldn't leave through the front door, so I teleported to another place that looked like an abandoned building. Just in case, I repeated the process about three times, twisting the route each time, until I ended up in some blind spot far away from my actual residence.
It wasted a bit of magical power, but so what? I was S-rank.
Reducing even slightly the chance of my residence being identified was more valuable than magical power that would recover again soon anyway.
-Whoosh
"Oh! Look over there!"
"It's a magical girl!"
"But who was she... again?"
A society living alongside magical girls.
Whether they were heading out on deployment, returning, or flying for some other reason, seeing a magical girl flying through the sky wasn't particularly unusual. And though things had improved considerably compared to the past, certain densely populated areas still had a high concentration of magical girls in a small area, making it even more common.
Some people who were truly devoted to magical-girl activities even went about their daily lives transformed, so this alone wasn't enough to make people squeal and cause a commotion.
It was the sort of thing that ended with a single SNS post: 'Wow, I ran into a magical girl lol.'
And in an era like this, there was an unspoken rule against photographing a magical girl without her permission, so unless she was exceptionally famous, she wouldn't feel uncomfortable out in public.
If someone like... Emerald or Cariel were simply walking down the street transformed, people would gather around and surround them, while someone would probably hide somewhere and try to snap a covert photo.
Alice? I didn't really mind if people took pictures.
The reason Alice had somehow managed to avoid much media exposure and had lower public recognition than her rank suggested was...
[Stellar Escape]
The ultimate Alice technique, the unique magic she'd put the most effort into creating, and a passive-type magic that was always active.
Its effect was simple: 'It blocks photographs of Alice that Alice has not permitted.'
...To be honest, I admitted that, for something called an ultimate technique, it wasn't very suited to combat, but it was still an impressive magic despite appearances.
After all, Stellar Shift, one of Alice's bread-and-butter spells, was a magic derived from it.
Anyway, what did it mean to block photographs Alice hadn't permitted? It meant exactly what it said.
Alice had not permitted them. In other words, if I had noticed the light-based recording medium but hadn't allowed it, or if I hadn't even noticed it at all, Alice's image would not appear in it.
The naked eye could see Alice, but whether it was a camera, CCTV, dashcam, or anything else, it was impossible to record Alice's image in a photo or video unless I allowed it. So to ordinary people, who mainly encountered the world through media, Alice's existence inevitably felt even more distant.
It wasn't as if I could openly talk about it, either. If someone went around saying, 'I took a picture of Alice, but Alice wasn't in it. She looks like a ghost. Something's weird,' the first thing they'd hear would be that they must have taken the picture wrong,
The fact that Alice hadn't appeared in a photo despite someone clearly photographing her meant that I hadn't permitted it. In other words, it was either a covert photo or, even if it hadn't been taken secretly, a photo I hadn't wanted taken.
Why would anyone go around bragging about that as if they'd done something impressive? They'd just think, 'Something's weird...' and keep quiet.
The same went for reporters.
Even though the world had changed this much, reporters still acted like reporters, but even they couldn't recklessly mess with magical girls.
Unless a magical girl had done something so blatantly wrong that anyone could see it, what justification would reporters have for going after someone whose job was to risk their life fighting monsters from a young age to protect civilians—and what riches or glory would they expect to gain by doing so? The reporter would just get mobbed instead.
...Ah, there had been quite a few of them about ten years ago. That was back when they still hadn't broken their old habits.
Anyway, unlike other magical girls, Alice could walk around in plain sight without leaving behind any photos or videos, and since she also did very little public-facing work to begin with, her public recognition was bound to be low no matter how high her rank was.
It was like how more people knew the beautiful, wealthy, kind, and popular second-ranked student than the quiet, ordinary-looking top student.
That didn't mean I intended to let anyone photograph me, so I picked up the pace and headed to the agreed-upon filming location.
Disliking the filming was separate from being paid; a contract was a contract. If I thought I truly couldn't endure it, I wouldn't have taken this job even if I desperately needed quick cash.
Back when there were no magical-girl subsidies and times were hard, magical girls used to get by picking up wallets and belongings citizens had dropped and selling them... Looking back, times really had changed for the better.
I didn't get to enjoy those benefits, though.
"Alice, we've arrived!"
-Light footsteps
"Nice to meet you, Miss Alice. I've been waiting. This is our first time meeting in person. I'm the manager assigned to you, Sapph..."
"Miss Sapphire, right? I could tell at a glance! Even your speech is exactly the same as when you texted!"
"Thank you. Did you have any trouble on the way here? If nothing happened, I'll show you around."
Sapphire, the magical girl... and my manager was exactly what I'd imagined.
Her image being strangely similar to Emerald's was probably because, as employees of the same company, they'd matched their concepts. Since Emerald, who cared about Alice in her own way, had been the one to assign this manager to Alice, I didn't know what their relationship was, but there was a good chance it wasn't that of an ordinary boss and subordinate, at least.
"The filming period is a month, right? I look forward to working with you!"
"Likewise. Even if it's not directly related to filming, please ask me for help if any problem arises that could interfere with it. Helping the talent focus on filming without other worries is also part of a manager's job."
"I don't think anything like that will happen to perfect Alice, but... I'll let you know if it does!"
"And here's the chocolate milk I prepared. You must be thirsty after coming all this way, so I prepared plenty. Please have as much as you like."
"Th-thank you!"
I was about to accept the chocolate milk she held out, but I couldn't help stopping when I saw that it was in a tumbler.
I should have predicted it when she said she was preparing it as a drink.
Who in the world puts chocolate milk in a tumbler to drink?
...But Alice probably would have, so I couldn't say anything!
'I should just eat a salad when I get home today.'
I could already see my mouth going numb from the sweetness by the time filming ended.
"I'll introduce you to the producer first. Since today is the first shoot, they said they wanted to focus on light girls' talk rather than serious lessons."
"Alice is fine with that. It was written that way in the materials you sent me, too... It's important to get acquainted with my juniors before properly teaching them."
After finishing my conversation with the manager, I approached the producer and began talking after a light greeting.
Given the industry they worked in, the producer was also connected to magical girls. Interestingly, they had been active for about five years, reached B-rank, and then retired after meeting the conditions.
Although they had retired as a magical girl, they began working under Emerald because they wanted to create a world where their junior magical girls could work more safely and at ease.
I was jealous. I wanted to retire too.
Even after eight years, I was still stuck waiting with no end in sight, while they got to retire after only five?
...I was genuinely jealous.
"Miss Alice? Did you understand? Miss Alice?"
"Of course. I was just organizing what you said in my head."
"Then that's a relief. So, as I mentioned, I hope today's filming can be a chance for you and the students to get to know one another. Given the conditions of this shoot, please proceed however you're most comfortable, Miss Alice. If we get to a point where you think, 'Ah, this is really not okay,' I'll call for a retake then. Emerald and I have agreed not to interfere with what you teach, so please proceed however you like."
"Leave it to Alice!"
On the outside, Alice laughed with a hand lightly covering her mouth, but inside, she felt like spitting.
Saying they wouldn't interfere sounded nice, but they were making me improvise everything without even a script so they could get the whole thing for free.
That woman was always so good at making herself look generous.
"And... if you need an assistant during the lessons, please call for one. Miss Sapphire over there is an A-rank magical girl as well... and we also arranged for a B-rank support-type magical girl, so she should be able to handle most minor injuries."
"Ooh! A B-rank support..."
...Wait. Something about this feels ominous...
"Al!!!!!!!ice!!!!!!!Tea!!!!!!!cher!!!!!!! Eek!"
"If you have business with Miss Alice, please approach her calmly and speak to her. Running into the filming location while shouting her name is not recommended."
"O-Okay... I was just so happy..."
'Why is that woman here again!'
By this point, it was honestly starting to scare me.
The blonde B-rank support-type magical girl I'd met a little while ago was being held back by Sapphire.