Chapter 3 — Dry scrape, burn and perforate! ? Prologue — Qualifiers

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

In a room the size of a high school classroom, there were Magical Girls dressed in costumes that lacked any sense of unity. There were about a dozen of them. The girls are so different from reality that an uninitiated observer might be forgiven for thinking that they had just stepped out of an anime or manga.

Magical Girls. They are enigmatic maidens with beauty so well-defined that it is hard to believe that they are the same person, and who wield powers that transcend human knowledge.

Some were carefully watching the other Magical Girls with their arms crossed against the wall, while others sat on the backless benches set up in the room, engrossed in playing with their Magiphones. They’re playing with their magiphones in this room with no reception, probably because they’re playing a game. Others were greeting other Magical Girls and chatting with them, perhaps because they knew each other.

In the midst of all this, a certain distinctive Magical Girl had a dubious look on her face.

She is a high school-aged girl with long, gradated hair that starts out deep navy blue at the top of her head and gradually turns white as it gets closer to the ends, tied into a thick braid, and dressed in a dark blue costume with a shooting star motif. Her name is Meteor. She is a very skilled Magical Girl who holds the title of No. 2 in the faction called the Natural Faction, one of the four factions among Magical Girls.

She is often sent to clean up the mess of the Ice Witch who is the leader of the Nature Faction, and is often pushed around by the spontaneous behavior of the Ice Witch, who doesn’t know what she is thinking, and is regarded as dangerous by Magical Girls who aren’t familiar with the situation because the remnants of the Natural Faction who had been quiet until recently have caused several incidents. Although she is a very earnest person, she is often the one who has to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Meteor, who usually exudes a friendly and kindly atmosphere, wrinkled her brow and craned her neck because of one Magical Girl who was operating a magiphone with a bored, Buddha-like expression at the end of her gaze.

A Magical Girl with long straight emerald green hair and a light green fairy-like outfit. While the other Magical Girls pretended not to care, in fact they seemed to care about the other Magical Girls to a greater or lesser extent, only this fairy-like magical girl seemed to have no regard for the other Magical Girls from the bottom of her heart.

However, that is not what Meteor was wondering about that Magical Girl. What made Meteor feel uncomfortable was the fact that she didn’t know this Magical Girl.

Right now, the girls in this athletes’ waiting room-like area are all top-tier Magical Girls in Phase 2, led by Meteor herself, with the exception of a fairy-like girl whom Meteor does not know.

There are no Magical Girls in Meteor’s equivalent class, such as Doll, Phoenix, or Space, but Meteor believes that this may have been assigned to a different block to balance the matching process. She did not think that the girls had not received invitations.

If Meteor’s prediction was correct, only Magical Girls with solid abilities in Phase 2 would have been invited to this event. As proof of this, Meteor knows all the Magical Girls here, with only one exception. All of them are well-known strong people with solid abilities. Some she know directly, others she have never spoken to, but she have at least heard rumors of their activities, their appearance, and their names. That’s the level of these Magical Girls.

That is why she was different.

Among such a strong group of people, even the Natural Faction No. 2, the Magical Girl of the Meteor, had never seen or heard of her. To be clear, she is an unknown Magical Girl.

Even Meteor does not remember the names and appearances of all Magical Girls. A Magical Girl who doesn’t deserve to be remembered may be forgotten, even if she is seen or heard from once. Still, that is the extent of the Magical Girl she was dealing with. It’s impossible to forget that there are Magical Girls who would be invited to this event.

Meteor turned her attention to her surroundings to see if the other Magical Girls had noticed her strangeness, but what she sensed was a strong sense of caution.

It is only natural that only one person will be able to get the winning ticket for the upcoming event. In such a situation, Meteor, the most famous magical girl in the world, should not be alarmed. The attention of almost all Magical Girls is directed toward Meteor. That’s why she doesn’t realize it. And Meteor noticed it only because she can afford to be the strongest one in this place, without having to be specially wary of only one person. Only one irregularity.

「Hello. I don’t recognize you. May I ask your name?」

If no one else is aware of the girl, Meteor herself has no choice but to contact her.

If the opponent is trying to concentrate or calm down for the upcoming fight, that would be bad manners, however, there is no rule against talking to them in the waiting room.

Even Meteor has no intention of forcing the conversation to continue if she doesn’t want to, but nothing can start without talking to that person first.

Therefore, she thought she would start with a light greeting and introduce herself to each other, but..

「....」

The girl glanced at Meteor and returned her gaze to her Magiphone without responding.

It was what they call ignoring.

「Ahh— haha, I guess I should introduce myself first. I am Meteor, the Magical Girl of Meteor. I’m the No. 2 from Naturalist Faction, and I think I have a good reputation carrying for myself.」

「....Hello.」

Since many Magical Girls have one or two quirks, Meteor did not have a soft mentality to be offended by being ignored at this point, but she quickly gave up trying to interact with the girl because she did not respond well to her.

There are a certain number of these types of Magical Girls in the faction who have no intention of getting along with other Magical Girls. Most of them are just middle-of-the-roaders, so Meteor is tempted to quip about joining a faction even though she has no intention of fitting in, but she puts up with it. She know that this was better to leave her alone and interact with her only after she starts wanting to be left alone, because she will be overjoyed inside if she give her a lot of attention and repeat the move without her.

Meteor decided that at this rate, no good would come from forcing her to talk to her, although she couldn’t tell if this girl was that kind of person or if she was seriously uninterested in other Magical Girls. Although they are heterogeneous, they will all still be equally smashed once things start anyway.

Just as Meteor was about to give up the idea of talking with the girl and walk out to greet other acquaintances, the monitor screen in the room that had been playing the same background music and images of the stadium for a long time switched to a different screen.

『Now then— Thank you for your patience! Coming right up! The qualifying round of the Magical Girl Team Battles were about to begin!』

『In the previous competitions, there were no qualifying rounds, and the 12 participants, selected by lottery from among the Magical Girls registered in advance, were assigned to four teams to compete, so this is a new competition format. It seems that there are high expectations not only from the Magical Girls but also from the general public who are watching the games.』

『We’re Live and Comment! As always, we will be live and commentating the matches! Not only that, by the way, Comment-san, I’m thrilled to hear that everything is different this time around in this rivalry!』

『That’s correct. After all, only the nine winners of the preliminary round, which is divided into nine blocks, will be able to proceed to the main competition. And even the preliminary rounds are only open to top-level Magical Girls invited by the management, so it looks like we can expect to see some extremely high-level competition.』

『After all, it looks like the first two-star Magical Girls of each faction will be there!!』

『Yes. The participants in this year’s competition have not been made public, so we do not have a full picture of the Magical Girls who received invitations, but apparently the management did not place any restrictions on publicizing the fact that they received invitations, because it seems that they did not. For a while, it became a topic of conversation when many famous two-star Magical Girls, including Meteor-san and Doll-san, announced that they had received invitations one after another.』

『There was talk at the time that Witches might have been invited, but in the end no one came forward!』

『As this was the first match under the new regulations, it was quite possible, but I think it was still difficult in terms of balance. It’s generally said that Witches and Magical Girls are no match for each other.』

『I can’t say for sure since detailed information on the show is not yet available, but there have been more and more comments recently that the game development has been in a rut, so I think it is possible that the rules have been revised. It seems that a lot of effort was put into advertising this year’s competition, and some of you watching the broadcast may not be familiar with the rules, so let me first explain the existing rules of the competition.』

『We would if time permitted! A kampee has just been issued! There’s a mistake in the time schedule, and they’re already starting the qualifying rounds! Please just explain the rules for the qualifying rounds for now!』

『As usual, the management here is a bit of a mess. The rules for the preliminary round are quite simple. A battle royal is held in a prepared stadium. Loss of consciousness, death, or being out of place will result in disqualification. There is no time limit, so the last one standing is the winner. As in a normal rivalry, the participants fight wearing avatars made of magic power, and if they are unable to fight, they are transferred out of the arena, so there is no need to worry about actual injuries.』

『Alright! Thank you for your concise commentary! Uh-oh! Looks like the countdown has begun! 10! 9!』

At the same time as the microphone-shaped fairy begins its countdown in the monitor, a transfer magic circle overlaps Meteor’s body and begins to glow.

Looking around, of course, other Magical Girls are also enveloped in the shifting light and floating around.

As the two microphone-shaped fairies explained, what is about to begin is the preliminary round to advance to the main competition of the team battle. Unlike the main competition, this is a simple head-to-head match, so the result will be based on pure ability, not luck, unless it is a concentrated target.

Meteor tapped her own cheek with a flick and braced herself. There is no doubt that she will be the first to be targeted. But that is why they can show that their own strength can reach the Witches by winning in this competition. Even if she is targeted intensively, she can prove that she is so strong that she will not allow even luck to intervene.

Until just a few months ago, Meteor thought she would be the next Witch. She was now being hailed as the closest Phase 2 Magical Girl to becoming a Witch, and she never doubted it.

For Meteor, the existence of witches has long been a dream. She didn’t know how many times she have wished to stand at the top of the Magical Girls and stand next to them, shining brilliantly. She have been studying with the belief that someday it will be her, too.

But in reality, she was not so sure. She was overtaken by Extend she thought was below her, and even a plodding newcomer was ahead of her.

She would be lying if she said she was not jealous of her. But more than that, she was angry with herself for her inadequacy.

There was only one more step to go. She didn’t think there is such a big difference between her and those girls. If only there was a chance to move forward a little more, she thought, she would be able to open the Third Gate. She wondered why she couldn’t take that step. She was frustrated, pathetic, and miserable.

The invitation arrived just as Meteor was feeling helpless.

Meteor has never competed in the competition because she believes that the true purpose of a Magical Girl is to defeat the Diest and that a rivalry is a waste of time. She didn’t even register in the first place.

If it was the normal Meteor, she would have kicked it to the curb. She said she would make more effort to improve herself if she had time for this kind of fun. But only on this occasion, this one time when she was looking for some kind of breakthrough, she could not tear up that invitation.

She will win. And by competing in the main tournament and comparing their strength with the top-ranked Magical Girls who normally don’t have the chance to fight, she will definitely get a chance to show them what she was made of.

Meteor’s renewed resolve and the countdown reaching zero were almost simultaneous.

The vision switches with a blinding light.

The group transitions to a beautiful, marble-white, cobblestone battlefield, and immediately afterward, everyone begins chanting with their gazes moving busily.

Each of the dozen or so Magical Girls were metastasized some distance apart, but such a distance is only a distance that can be packed in a matter of seconds by a body enhancement system, and a large-scale magic can sufficiently involve the entire group in its range.

It will be a battle of large scale magic and maximum enhancement magic that each of us has. Such was expected as part of the pattern even before it began.

「Meteor——」

Instantly reading the situation, Meteor begins chanting reinforcement-type magic instead of range-attacking ultra-high-power magic.

A Magical Girl’s magic is meant to defeat Diest and is more than powerful enough to defeat a single person. If you are caught unprotected by large-scale magic unleashed with broken abandon, that alone will decide the game. Even so, there is an out-of-bounds area in the rules this time. Even if the fighters could endure the fight, they would not be able to resist being thrown out of the ring.

「——Charge!」

「Field Magic『Tempest.』」

Almost at the same time as her own chanting was completed, Meteor was startled to hear the chanting of that foreign Magical Girl, who happened to have been transferred much closer than the other Magical Girls.

Speaking of Field Magic, it is no exaggeration to say that it is a very high-ranking depth magic in each system of magic. The high level of this magic can be understood if we say that it is a large-scale magic that only a very small number of Magical Girls have mastered even in Phase 2.

It is only natural that Magical Girls invited to this event would be able to use it. But, the girl uttered the words,『Tempest.』

There is no way Meteor doesn’t know about that magic. Because she knows, and she cannot believe it. Because that magic must be the magic of that genius who passed her with ease and took no notice of her.

Despite the momentary confusion, Meteor was a quintessential top-notch Magical Girl. She kept her distance to escape the huge storm that was brewing around the foreign girl and asked what was going on.

The range attack magic that the other Magical Girls would have used, the large-scale attack magic, was swallowed up by a storm that overwhelmed it, bouncing it away and making it disappear.

Like Meteor, the Magical Girl who was trying to survive the initial blow by first strengthening her body was unable to escape from the storm that grew larger and larger, and was easily rolled up like a piece of paper.

Meteor’s mind was calm in the face of the impending storm.

She thought she had made a foolish mistake.

What’s so big a difference, she didn’t think.

It is true that she may be an excellent Magical Girl.

If she kept trying, she may eventually become a Witch.

But that girl was different. She was a monster.

.

『Wh–What the! What is going on!? Right at the start of the game, Block B was iced over along with a blizzard! And to top it all off, there is a raging storm in Block C! Ahhh!? Other blocks are following too!?』

『We’ve only just begun, but we’ve already received the results of the blocks: the winner of Block A, Wigs Crosseau. B——』

『No–no–no–no!!! Please hold on for a moment, Comment-san!? Did you say Wigs Crosseau!! Third in the pecking order, who’s in charge of the Witches’ Tea Party! The Thread Witch!? What in the world does this mean!?』

『I know what you’re thinking, but I’m going to go ahead and continue with the results report for the Block B winner, Permafrost. Block C winner, Tyrant Sylph. Block D winner, Red Ball. Blocm E winner, Dragon Call. Block F winner, Doppelganger. Block G winner, Ex–Magna. Block H winner, Rabbitfoot. Block I winner, Extend Traveller. I’m surprised, I didn’t think all the qualifying rounds were already over.』

『That’s not the surprising part, you know!? All of them are Witches!? What was this all about!? How is this happening!?』

『As you can see. Because the participants in the qualifying round were not announced until the end. I think it means that invitations were sent to the Witches from the beginning, just because they did not come forward. Perhaps, unlike other Magical Girls, the Witches were kept quiet. It would be more sensational that way.』

『It’s getting a terrific response on social media and message boards!! Eh? Don’t look at the Internet during a live performance? No it’s not!! I’ll be live on an anonymous message board!!』

『But this is quite a challenging attempt. Perhaps the reason why there were nine contestants in the main competition was because that was the limit of the number of Witches that could be gathered. In other words, from the very beginning, the regulations for the main competition were designed with the expectation that the Witches would qualify.』

『Ding–dong–ding–dong! You’re right on the money.』

『Y–You’re the Bloke, the well-known head of the rivalry steering committee and director of the Magic Bureau!』

『Hello, Director General Earth. Does this project mean that it is the Director General’s heart and soul?』

『Yes, I’m so relieved that they made it through. Now we can finally make the official announcement of the tournament.』

『Is this an official announcement!?』

『I’ve had a request for this for a long time, but as you explained, the rivalry with the Witches was not feasible due to balance issues with other Magical Girls. But we don’t have enough people to hold the event with only Witches. They might have been able to get by with a handicap, but if they’re going to watch it anyway, you’d rather see witches at their best clashing with each other, wouldn’t you? But recently, there have been two more Witches, so I thought maybe we could work something out.』

『So that makes nine people.』

『Well, that’s the way it is. That’s the limit of what we can do, considering we also have to secure the defense manpower. So, I hereby declare once again! Witches-only team battle for position! The dream match that everyone has imagined at least once! The Witch Cup, as we call it!!』

『Uuuuuoooooooggghhhhh!!!』

『But if that were the case, wouldn’t there have been no need to insert a qualifier? Wouldn’t it have been better to hold a Witch Cup with nine Witches from the beginning? I hate to put it this way, but it makes the other Magical Girls feel like they’ve been made to guess.』

『I wanted to do the same, but the sponsors of the prizes said it wouldn’t be fair. At first, they wanted to have all the applicants participate in the qualifying rounds, and it was a lot of work to get it down to this point. So, was it a guessing game? That’s pretty good, isn’t it? It’s not every day that you get to go toe-to-toe with a witch. You should make the most of it in the future.』

『I see. So that was the situation. Oh, while I was saying that, the video seems to be ready. I couldn’t follow the situation at all with 9 games being held at the same time, so let’s take a look at the live commentary in order, shall we?』

『Uuuuooooooooggghhhhhh!!』

『Live-san, please come back soon!』