Episode 15: Adjustment
“Don’t come any closer. I might cut you.”
The training facility, [School].
A pink flash, the [M-65 Monofilament Whip], sliced through the rain of bullets.
A cut so swift it made not even a metallic sound.
As fragments of metal pattered to the ground, the girl, [Chihuahua Yellow], clapped her hands. She clapped like a puppy might.
“W-wow! Amazing! So this is ma-gic!”
“Looks like my output’s increased by thirty per cent…”
“Out-put…?”
“I’ve become stronger.”
“Amazing!”
Clapping like a puppy.
She did not think. And yet, Momotsuki Haruka was completely thrown off her stride.
*
It was what they called a day off.
*
The training schedule contained only the bare minimum required to promote her rehabilitation.
There were no deployment missions scheduled, either, at least for the time being.
Days like this were hardly unusual.
Magical girls were a special forces unit specialising in countering magical cyberterrorism.
Terrorists who casually used magic, despite its prohibition under UN conventions, did not appear all year round. Including operations to prevent terrorist attacks before they occurred, deployments generally took place about once a week. And Strawberry Pink was not the only magical girl.
There were days when they had nothing to do.
Days when they were forbidden to think, but had no work to do.
Most of these days were spent instructing junior magical girls or undertaking individual training.
Permission to go out was also granted upon application, but few magical girls whose freedom of thought was restricted ever bothered to apply.
Momotsuki Haruka usually passed the time alone in bed.
Otherwise, she would join [Viola Purple]… [Shizuki Fuyumi] for her individual training.
That was what her days off had always been like.
Or so they had been.
*
“Senior Strawberry Pink! Where are you taking me next!?”
…It was difficult to know what to do when she was asked that with such sparkling eyes.
*
She had never thought of showing a junior around the facility.
The time was meant for rehabilitation, getting used to her new legs and new internal organs. They were simply wandering around the safe confines of the facility. And [Chihuahua Yellow], who had come along as her attendant, had eyes that sparkled with excitement.
“Amazing! Amazing, amazing! So this is the magical girls’ base!”
“Yeah.”
The authorities’ base consisted of grey buildings resembling blocks of flats in a communist society.
It had no official name.
Because it was not officially acknowledged.
It did not appear on maps.
Because the government concealed its existence.
There was only a command centre. That alone was enough for the magical girls to call the place [HQ].
“The biscuits aren’t tasty.”
“…No, they aren’t.”
At the edge of the base, surrounded by forest, the two girls sat down in a spot that opened out into a small clearing.
They held rationed biscuits in their hands.
Strawberry Pink also had a carton of strawberry milk.
Other children who looked much like the magical girls passed by, along with adults going about their work.
“Not enough sugar… hard… all dry and crumbly…”
“They’re sweet. And they’re nutritious.”
“…Maybe they’d taste nice with mi-lk.”
“Milk?”
“Cow’s milk.”
“Cow’s mi… Ugh… People drink that?”
No good, thought Momotsuki Haruka, and she took a sip of strawberry milk.
The disgust she felt at words like cow’s milk… It was a pointless thought, one she was not permitted to have.
“…? Senior Strawberry Pink, that thing you’re drinking…?”
“Strawberry milk. It makes thoughts go away.”
“But that’s cow’s milk, too.”
Pffft!
She hadn’t wanted to hear that.
“Ah, but these days there’s syn-thetic stuff and all…”
Chihuahua Yellow tilted her head, pondering.
Her fluffy golden hair rested against her shoulders, looking soft to the touch.
“Ah… That must be it. Synthetic. I don’t drink cow’s milk.”
“Wooow.”
“…”
She wanted to stop thinking.
But she had stopped drinking her strawberry milk, too.
“…I want a sip.”
“Huh?”
“Just one sip! …Is that not allowed?”
“…Permission granted.”
“Yay!”
With both small hands (though they weren’t all that different in size from Momotsuki Haruka’s own…), she gripped the carton of strawberry milk firmly and put her soft-looking lips to the slightly crushed straw.
Sluuuurp… She sucked awkwardly, using her entire cheeks.
A forbidden thought crossed Haruka’s mind.
A hamster she had seen in an archival video.
A small pet animal that had gone extinct.
“Uuugh…! This is too sweeeet…!! It’s got weird chemical flavourings in it…!”
“…Really…?”
Chihuahua Yellow stuck out her tongue.
Another pointless thought crossed Haruka’s mind.
There was no strawberry milk.
Apparently, ordinary girls had a concept of whether food tasted good or bad.
Then what was this thing that the “future magical girl” in front of her possessed?
What was it that she had, before she underwent [Adjustment]?
It was dazzling.
Though the sunlight was not particularly strong, for some reason those words passed through Momotsuki Haruka’s mind.
Perhaps they were a remnant of the thoughts of the [Witch of Pisces].