“Croak!
That woman beat Big Sis Shaqina down onto her knees—bet she’s gonna haul Big Sis back and work her over as a little ‘love slave,’ ya!”
“Damn it, you caterpillar, what’s the point of having such a vivid imagination!”
At the Black Death Cult’s headquarters, the villainess officer Shaqina was performing dogeza to apologize for her blunder.
Haibara, meanwhile, sat in a chair, lost in thought.
Just today, the new-type Weirdo they’d created had met a heroic end, brutally mobbed by the magical girls’ righteous beatdown.
Naturally, Haibara’s teaching career had slid down yet another slope.
She tapped the table, motioning for Shaqina to sit first.
And Shaqina obediently sat down in another chair.
“Even so, it was only a mature-stage Weirdo—does dealing with more than two magical girls really strain it that badly?”
Haibara propped her chin on one hand and started to think.
As mentioned before, Weirdos are divided into three stages: Sprout Form, Mature Form, and Complete Form.
A Sprout Form is only slightly stronger than an ordinary person, and so far the magical girls have mostly dealt with Mature Form Weirdos.
As for the Complete Form, none had appeared in this city in the three years since.
In the magical girl memories Haibara had acquired, Complete Form Weirdos did indeed exist.
In that magical girl’s impression, a Complete Form Weirdo had the strength to take on five opponents at once, and only high-ranking magical girls who had stepped into the “Sanctuary” could handle one with ease.
So-called high-ranking magical girls were those who had entered the royal family’s Sanctuary, had an audience with the Queen, and received the “high-grade Magic Crystals” bestowed by Her Majesty.
They were roughly the equivalent of the magical girls’ nobility and mentors.
To put it in tokusatsu terms, you’d need to buy at least one more Bandai power-up item before you could win.
“But Complete Form Weirdos aren’t easy to make.
It’s really hard.”
Shaqina shrugged.
“Is it hard?”
Haibara honestly had no idea how Complete Form Weirdos were born.
After all, the magical girl in her memories could whip up Complete Form-level Weirdos with a casual pinch of her fingers.
“Mm.”
Shaqina nodded.
“The things we call Weirdos are born from people’s negative emotions, and also from their impure wishes—what we call desire.”
“A Weirdo is born out of greed that can never be satisfied, and from then on it acts to fill that void.”
And just like that, she casually laid out for Haibara the very principle behind how Complete Form Weirdos come to be.
“And the one that ultimately fulfills its own desire is the Complete Form.”
In this era, few Weirdos could fulfill their desires and complete that final-stage sublimation while being hunted down by magical girls.
And if the desire was too trivial, it wouldn’t accumulate enough greed to produce a sufficiently powerful Weirdo.
“So what about the officers?
The Complete Forms from a few years back must have all evolved with the officers’ help, right?”
Haibara had impressions of the villain organization from a few years ago too.
Back then, there were villain officers who were active on TV and wanted nationwide, but so far the only one she’d actually seen was Shaqina.
“The magical girl active back then was Huanfeng, you know.
Two of our organization’s officers were wounded by her, and they still haven’t recovered.”
A few years ago, the strongest magical girl in Kaedehara City—the magical girl Huanfeng—had been in a completely different league from the current crop of magical girls.
Even now, those few Black Death Cult officers had simply stayed hidden in the shadows, nursing their wounds while cranking out Weirdos.
Haibara looked over at Shaqina:
“And what about you?”
This woman ought to be an officer too, right?
“Me?
I’m scared of pain, you know.
I’m not a magical girl or a Weirdo—getting hit actually hurts.”
Shaqina blinked.
Besides, she’d only joined the organization within the past couple of years.
This line of work paid less than her old IT job—a mere few tens of thousands of yen.
Why on earth would she risk her life for that?
“……”
Seeing Haibara’s expression turn cold again, Shaqina instantly realized she’d said the wrong thing, and she scrambled to rephrase:
“Uh… besides, for me, the real goal is only to revive Lord Demon King.
Defeating the magical girls isn’t really all that necessary.”
As a villain officer, all she needed were the Magic Crystals left behind after a Weirdo was defeated, to supply power for the Demon King’s revival.
In a sense, she and the magical girls even had a mutually beneficial, win-win relationship.
“Come to think of it, Ms.
Haibara, are you a magical girl too?”
Everything she knew about Haibara she’d only heard from the Thorn Monster.
Normally, she could barely sense any magic power from Haibara at all, yet she could feel an extremely terrifying and oppressive aura.
Just like the feeling of standing before the Demon Kings.
“…You could say so, I suppose.” Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
It all depended on how you defined a magical girl.
After inheriting that magical girl’s memories, she possessed the very same power as a magical girl—equivalent to a magical girl’s human form.
“So what do you look like after you Transform?
How come I’ve never seen you Transform?”
Generally speaking, after Transforming, a person changes completely, right?
Shaqina suddenly grew very curious about what Haibara looked like after Transforming.
“Transforming requires a Magic Tool and a Magic Crystal.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a suitable Magic Tool on hand right now.”
Haibara said flatly.
For the Witches of Ruruye, a Magic Tool was more or less like a spellcasting implement—it could mobilize the magic power within them and unleash all sorts of wondrous magic.
And a Magic Tool well suited to oneself could draw out a Witch’s special combat form—the magical girl.
As for Haibara right now, she didn’t have any Magic Tool that suited her well enough, so she couldn’t Transform.
“Then if we snatched a Magic Tool from Silver Feather and the others and gave it to you, would you be able to Transform?”
Shaqina asked curiously.
Haibara pinched her chin, thought it over seriously for a while, and finally said, rather uncertainly:
“Probably… no.
It would take at least a Magic Tool that can set four or more Magic Crystals to let me Transform.”
Because the memories she’d acquired weren’t entirely complete, she wasn’t quite sure how she was supposed to Transform, but in her hazy impression, that magical girl seemed to have possessed an exclusive Magic Tool.
“…Four?
There’s no such Magic Tool.
Silver Feather’s Magic Crystal slots should only number two.”
And what magical girl could ever bear that many Magic Crystals all at once?
“How should I put it… the thing was kind of like a scythe, extremely beautiful, with an adorable little Snake carved onto it…”
Haibara said seriously, arms folded.
The villainess officer could only shake her head.
In other words: there was no Complete Form Weirdo, the villain officer couldn’t fight, and the villain magical girl couldn’t Transform for the time being.
The hall fell somewhat quiet once more, until at last Haibara raised her head and asked Shaqina:
“So—how long until you revive the Demon King?”
The Black Death Cult had, as she recalled, already been active in this city for many years.
“Mm… probably in another few weeks?”
“……Huh?”