Chapter 82
The appearance of an S-rank Abyssal is commonly called a disaster.
Of course, an Abyssal by itself is already an incredible monster that takes about five or so decent S-rank magical girls to defeat, but the astronomical collateral damage caused in the process is another reason for that name...
<Grrrrrrrr!!!!>
<Kuwaaaaaaaaa!!!!>
"You're noisy! You stink, so go back where you came from!"
[Divine Hammer]
<Yelp!>
"...Phew! That's number ten!"
S-rank and A-rank Abyssals alone are more than deserving of the name disaster, but to mid- and lower-ranked magical girls like us, even hundreds of low-ranked Abyssals were enough to qualify as a disaster.
It wasn't the kind of battle where buildings collapsed with every single attack, but furniture, streetlights, and all sorts of facilities were still destroyed easily enough.
People whose homes remained intact were said to have accumulated enough good karma in their previous lives, while those whose homes were unharmed all the way to the inside were said to have saved an entire country in their previous life. It was even said to be harder than winning first prize in the lottery.
-Rat-a-tat-tat!
"Senior! Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine! Miss Black Rose, you're not hurt, are you?!"
"Yes! I'm fine too!"
With hundreds of Abyssals tangled together, this place was chaos itself.
Various magical girls were trying to bring the situation under control: those who could fight were fighting, those who could heal were healing, and those who could rescue civilians were rescuing civilians. But there was absolutely no room to spare.
There were hundreds of Abyssals, while there weren't even a tenth as many magical girls. And when an S-rank Abyssal appeared, most magical girls were risking their lives simply by coming to the battlefield in the first place.
Somehow, amid that chaos, I ran into Black Rose, the junior magical girl who had originally been following Senior around today.
"Thanks to Lady Aia, things are finally being brought under control somehow, but... the damage... it's too much, Senior... This is..."
"...Don't think about the damage. Think about the people we saved."
Even though I always act like a junior by calling Senior Alice “Senior,” I'm a six-year veteran magical girl myself. I'm a B-rank magical girl, and a veteran at that, specializing in support.
Which means I can offer this bright-eyed young junior some pointed advice.
"Miss Black Rose, you respect Senior Alice, right? There was a time during the old Leviathan battle when Senior Alice gave the juniors a sharp talking-to."
"Senior Alice gave us a talking-to...?"
"Hehe, of course you wouldn't know. It's something only the magical girls who were there at the time know about."
It's a story known to those who know it, but not one that was ever particularly spread as a rumor.
Under the rules of magical girls, it isn't polite to casually talk about another magical girl's affairs, but Senior's harsh words had been meant for every magical girl who was there at the time. No magical girl felt the need to spread them around.
It's not something I normally brag about, either... but I should say it now. I think Senior would have done the same.
"She told us not to think that we had failed to save people, but to think that people were alive because we had saved them. None of us had the authority to blame ourselves by saying, ‘If only I'd stopped the Abyssal from the start, this wouldn't have happened.’"
"...She did?"
"Yes. She comforted us, saying that since we had no authority, we naturally had no responsibility either. Back then, I was only as young as you, Miss Black Rose... It was so long ago. I got drenched and then scolded by Senior, and my heart was pounding..."
"I-I'm taller than you!"
"You just hit me where it hurts! You shouldn't bring up a woman's height or bust!"
"I-Is that so? S-Sorry! But Senior's bust is bigger!"
...Sigh. Maybe because we're both exhausted, we're saying some strange things.
If Senior were here, she probably would have given us an earful.
'...I hope she's safe.'
Through her mascot... Angel D, I heard that she was currently keeping the S-rank Abyssal occupied all by herself.
“That's Senior for you! Even during Leviathan, she was amazing!” would have been the natural reaction... but I felt a strange weight in my chest instead.
Back then, Senior had felt like an idol. A celebrity. A perfect magical girl. To put it more simply... she seemed like the sort of person who would remain perfectly Alice even if you poked her with a needle.
But after spending time with Senior recently... I had begun to feel that she was a person too, and that made things feel different.
Senior really was an incredible magical girl. Strong, cool, and self-sacrificing.
But Senior... Ms. Sejin was a person too.
How could I not worry when a person was fighting a monster... one of the monsters that had appeared so rarely throughout the world that they could be counted on two hands?
-Woooooooong!!
"W-what is this?"
"W-what's happening? An incredible amount of magical power just appeared..."
At that moment, tremendous magical power suddenly began spreading from the place where Senior had been fighting.
It wasn't the filthy aura of an Abyssal, but the pure magical power of a magical girl... At this scale, it had to be an S-rank magical girl's ultimate move...
-Whoooooosh...
"...Whoa."
"This is..."
The sky filled with stars. Even though it was broad daylight. Even though the sun, high in the sky and brightly illuminating the world, was right there, stars began filling the sky beneath it as if they owned it.
Their number doubled with every blink, multiplying in an instant. Before long, the sky on our side was packed with starlight as well, until it was so full that the blue of the sky disappeared.
"I-It's moving!"
"I-I'd only ever seen this on TV...!"
The stars filling the sky—or, more precisely, magic taking the form of starlight—began dropping one by one with a plop, like fruit falling from a tree, and heading somewhere.
That direction was... the source of the wave we'd just felt. The place where Senior must have been fighting.
"Is this... Senior Alice's ultimate move...?"
"Ultimate move...?"
...Come to think of it, it's been a very long time since I'd seen this technique.
The name was probably... Alice... Hmm... It was so long ago that I couldn't remember it well either.
I couldn't remember whether it was actually an ultimate move, but compared to the starlight and beams she mainly used, it certainly boasted incomparably greater destructive power.
'...Then it must be her ultimate move.'
If it was a powerful technique she rarely used, that was what an ultimate move was. What else could it be?
"With a technique this powerful... even an S-rank Abyssal would retreat, wouldn't it?"
"...Who knows."
I had never personally fought an S-rank Abyssal. During the Leviathan incident, I really had been a rookie magical girl. All I had done was support the other magical girls, so I didn't have many memories of physically experiencing an S-rank Abyssal's power.
This was the first time I'd seen magic this powerful, so it was only natural that I vaguely thought, If it's this strong, it must be able to defeat even an S-rank Abyssal... but...
'...I have a bad feeling about this.'
That aside... yes. The thing people usually called a hunch was sending me a bad signal.
'...She's okay, right?'
I wanted to go too, but... I knew there was no place for me there, so I couldn't.
From the moment the first S-rank Abyssal appeared, Senior had told us through her mascot to get away from this area altogether. She hadn't merely told us not to come toward her side.
Even now, it was only thanks to Lady Aia that we'd finally gained some breathing room... During the first ten minutes, when the Abyssals had just begun appearing, the civilians hadn't finished evacuating, the magical girls couldn't communicate with one another, and Lady Aia wasn't here, I had nearly died. An Abyssal's attack that I hadn't managed to block or dodge had grazed my face.
'...She has to be safe.'
* * *
"Damn it...! Alice should give me some time to prepare before firing so I can do something...!"
[Still, you did arrive in time.]
"Quiet! If I don't look after her, who will?! I have to do something!"
After the stars filling the sky through Alice's magic fell to the ground, the place where Alice and the Abyssal had been looked as though a meteor had struck it. By now, only the surrounding ruins remained as evidence that this had once been a city.
Of course, “dropping stars” was only an expression; she hadn't actually dropped stars. But even a small stone falling from that high in the sky would crack a person's skull with ease. And since thousands of magic masses created from Alice's magical power had fallen one after another, their destructive force was comparable to that of a meteor strike. Against an Abyssal, they might even have been more effective than dropping an actual meteor.
"Q-quickly. We don't know when it'll come back out."
I was outside the Emerald Castle I had created.
I couldn't help it. Alice had landed one huge hit on the Abyssal from outside the castle's range and then passed out. I was the only one who could go retrieve her.
At least, before Alice's attack ended, a combined assault had trapped it inside the barrier made of emerald. But no one knew when the S-rank Abyssal, enraged after taking Alice's attack, might burst out.
-Swoosh
"Oh dear... this adorable child is completely... No, what a waste of such beautiful hair..."
I hurried over to the fallen Alice, lamenting the wounds all over her body and the hair that had been cut away, and was just about to pick her up when...
[W-wait! I'll help you!]
"Oh. I haven't seen you in a while."
Beside Alice, her mascot appeared: a rabbit holding a clock.
[Alice is badly hurt...! Please hold her on the side with fewer injuries! I'll lift her for you...!]
"O-okay, but could you hurry? We need to get back inside the castle before that thing comes out, you know? You roughly understand, right? I don't have the confidence to hold out against it outside the barrier."
[O-okay! Hurry!]
A mascot that came out to worry over its fallen partner and help with her rescue. It was a genuinely heartwarming sight.
In the end, the position I carried the unconscious Alice in was one hand supporting her back and the other supporting the backs of her knees. It was the position commonly known as a princess carry.
Don't get the wrong idea. This is simply the easiest and most stable way for one person to carry another unconscious person. It was true that I normally had the desire to hug this girl, but I wasn't so shameless that I would indulge that desire at a time like this.
'But she smells nice. I wonder what shampoo she uses.'
...I did entertain that thought for just a tiny moment. Anyway, we only had a little farther to go before we reached the inside of the castle's barrier...
-KWAANG!!!
<...I said this wasn't a one-on-one duel, but don't you think ambushing someone during the honorable moment of receiving an opponent's technique is discourteous, mage?>
"You son of a bitch."
<If you thought you could block my sword with that useless, glittering illusion that dazzles the eyes, you are sorely mistaken!!>
The knight that had broken through the barrier was clearly in an exhausted state.
Alice's attack had destroyed 70% of the thick-looking armor, exposing the grotesque flesh and bone fragments characteristic of an undead. It looked as though striking those exposed areas could deal it a considerable blow, but...
-SHWAAAK!!!
"Aah! Couldn't you have come thirty seconds later—or at least ten?!"
We were practically at the barrier! Just a few more seconds and we would have made it!
[Emerald Phantasm—Defending Shield]
-Crash!
The shield, which would have served as a sturdy wall inside the barrier, was shattered by the red sword before it had even finished materializing.
...Ah. Is this the end?
-Squeeze
As the sword that had already reached my face drew near, ways to stop it appeared and vanished in my mind at intervals of 0.01 seconds. Eventually, even the final option surfaced: should I pour all my magical power into the child in my arms before I died?
-Whiiiiir!!
-KWAANG!!!!
<What is this now...? Ngh!>
-Stagger!
Far away, from a position so distant that I could barely make it out with the naked eye, a thick blue beam struck the side of the Abyssal and succeeded in throwing it off balance.
A golden opportunity created by Aia.
-Tap!
"...Made it!"
As a magical girl who had been through all sorts of battles, I shattered the deathbed montage that had just flashed before my eyes, seized the opportunity, and successfully entered the barrier—the range of the Emerald Castle.
<How long do you think a castle made of mere jewels can hold out, mage!!!>
The moment I entered, I reconnected with the castle, and countless possible courses of action appeared in my mind.
It would have been impossible before, but now that Alice had broken its armor, there were far more things I could do.
"Are you curious how long I can hold out?"
The calculations were complete.
It might have been impossible before, but now it was more than doable.
[Come forth. The great and beautiful Emerald knows what you desire.]
-Shwaa...
The emerald castle, that symbol of fantasy and extravagance, began emitting an even deeper and brighter light.
After that, all I needed were a calculated expression and calculated gestures.
The foundation of an illusion was making the target stray from reason in the first place.
"You? ...You could easily last a week."
Naturally, if a woman who had been hiding in fear said something like that, it would make the other person angry.
That's precisely why I was saying it.