Episode 10: Night Run
Momotsuki Haruka was turning over the taste lingering on her tongue as she sat in the car.
Potato crisps and cola.
The snacks she had eaten with Sere.
They had been the two cheapest things in the convenience store, chosen because of how little money they had.
Food she was eating for the first time in her life. Or perhaps not for the first time. But if there had been an earlier occasion, the memory had worn away until nothing remained.
It was nothing like the individually wrapped biscuits she was occasionally given at the facility. This was junk food, with unregulated amounts of fat and salt. And the liquid that washed it all down, crackling and fizzing in her mouth, had felt pleasant once she got used to it.
After completing the task of visiting Shizuki Fuyumi’s grave, that was all that remained in her heart.
The silver-haired girl, drinking the fizzy beverage as though it were the most natural thing in the world, smiling sweetly.
The girl with eyes as beautiful as a castle made of ice, resembling the Witch of Pisces.
Sere.
She had forgotten the girl’s full name.
But Sere had given [Momotsuki Haruka] permission to call her [Sere], just like that.
Cute.
Beautiful.
Kind.
*
“… [Strawberry Pink]. [Reminiscing] is forbidden.”
“Yes. Sorry.”
*
She had been lost in thought.
Even the driver had seen through her, recognising behaviour that was forbidden to a magical girl.
“[Thought] is forbidden, too. HQ has instructed you to submit a report of everything that happened, without inserting any thoughts of your own. Everything you ate and drank outside, everything you saw. All of it.”
“Yes.”
“…You have permission to sleep. Well, how should I put this…”
The driver was a man in black whose name she didn’t even know.
“You must be tired… Get some rest while you can. Once we’re back, it’ll be time to work again.”
Even the voice of someone like him nearly prompted her to think, despite herself. But the strawberry milk the driver had brought her drove such thoughts from her brain.
*
…It was a good day.
*
Even the fact that she had soaked her pillow with tears that morning already seemed like something from the distant past.
The communication device containing Sere’s contact details seemed faintly warm.
She could feel it.
Feeling something, at least, wasn’t the same as thinking.
Momotsuki Haruka offered herself this excuse for behaving in a way unbecoming of a magical girl, then quietly closed her eyes…
The car sped along, the scenery flashing past its windows.
She was too slow to notice the silver shadow crossing their path.
*
A metallic clang.
Severance.
Had she not been resting her head against the window, she would have died / The black car was sliced apart / directly above her head / right beside her / Red splattered across her field of vision / The driver’s black uniform / His neck slipping out of alignment / Falling / The steering wheel.
The sound of brakes.
Impact.
The car struck the guardrail on the bridge and came to a halt.
Momotsuki Haruka’s drowsy eyes flew open.
Her trained visual acuity picked out a shape far behind them, a shadow that had sliced through their vehicle as it passed.
*
A girl clad in a silver dress.
A silver mask.
Silver hair dancing in the air.
Chrome-steel gauntlets.
The silver phosphorescence of a Magus Engine glimmering in her chest.
A staff shaped like wings, a magical cyberdeck with a Japanese sword attached directly to it.
*
Despite her small, childlike frame, she looked perhaps a year or two older than Momotsuki Haruka.
The silver shadow slid the Japanese sword back into its scabbard. With a mechanical whine resembling a girl’s scream, the scabbard at her waist accepted the blade.
A mechanical scabbard. There was some sort of mechanism inside it.
The moment you saw that mechanism, you would probably die.
“HQ to [Strawberry Pink]. The life signs of your driver have ceased. Report the situation.”
“Enemy attack. A Witch.”
“Use of [magic] is authorised. Reinforcements are oooooooooooooooooo縺翫￥繧九♀縺上ｋ翫￥繧縺翫￥繧九♀縺上ｋ翫￥繧縺翫￥繧九♀縺上ｋ翫￥繧縺翫￥繧九♀縺上ｋ翫￥繧”
“Jamming, huh?”
Momotsuki Haruka placed a hand against her chest.
The inactive Magus Engine felt cold, like steel.
Somehow, that coldness reminded her of Sere’s hands…
“Ah, so it really is no good. I…”
“It is for the sake of tranquillity. It is for the sake of serenity.”
The incantation.
Floating M-particles shimmered with magical light.
The Magus Engine embedded in Momotsuki Haruka’s heart began to operate, and pink light stained the sky above the skyscrapers. A shadow fell, and within it, the girl’s form began to change.
“For the sake of order, this shall be forged, and the wielding of its power permitted.”
Her black twin tails turned pink.
Her rumpled pink hoodie transformed into an ornate dress that enveloped her body.
“Therefore…”
Her eyes flew open, shining pink and sparkling as though scattered with stars.
Her lips, shaping the incantation, took on a flush that seemed to reflect the girl’s rising heat.
Chrome-steel gloves adorned her slender fingers.
*
A rod protruded from her exposed chest.
White fingers reached out and pulled it free.
*
“Thou art without sin.”
*
Momotsuki Haruka, [Strawberry Pink], swallowed the words she had wanted to say.
I can never become an ordinary girl.
Such an obvious thing to say.
*
“… [Strawberry Pink]! Answering the call and making my grand entrance!”
*
She turned those words into a declaration of war.