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Chapter 126
Chapter 4 — Sleep, until your life is over • Episode 4–2 — Hypnotism ②
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
「I failed!」
「You suddenly call me up and I wonder what’s going on…」
On a weekday night, Shadow was wandering around a town where young people in somewhat boisterous outfits were strolling about, when she was suddenly summoned to the Magical World by Succubus, she had metastasized in a great hurry to see what was wrong, and that was the first word that Succubus, who was waiting for Shadow in a plaza with a fountain that is often used for rendezvous, released. In other words, it seems that the great plan to make friends with Tyrant Sylph that she had discussed with Shadow the other day has failed.
「The gift was not accepted… I was able to talk to Elephant-san and her friends quite a bit, and we got to hang out and get to know each other, but Sylph-san didn’t talk to me at all…」
「Okay, well, you did your best.」
「Ah, wait a sec——」
Once she has accepted an apprenticeship, though, Shadow is firmly committed to taking care of Succubus in the Magical Girl activities herself, she had no intention of going further with her very personal business of getting along with Tyrant Sylph, ignoring the voice that stops her, she left the place with the shifting light. In Sakira Town, Shadow doesn’t want to have anything to do with Tyrant Sylph, because if Sylph stare at her, she could be kicked out in the worst case.
To add to this, there was also the circumstance that she didn’t want to stay in a place where she would be seen for too long, because the Magical World has by far the largest number and density of Magical Girls compared to the real world, although this is a matter of course. This is because of her own past misdeeds, but there was no way she would want to talk about them, and Shadow didn’t tell Succubus that she was hated, if anything. Therefore, despite having arranged to meet up with Shadow, Succubus was left all alone in the middle of nowhere.
And as bad luck would have it, the timing of the day was too bad.
「Hey you, you met with Shadow, right? My name is Necro.」
「I am Pantera. Hey, little girl, are you friends with Shadow? Actually, we are too. What’s your name?」
「Is that so! My name is Saki! Shadow-san is my Master!」
They guesed she’s about the age of a middle school student. A pair of magical girls, one in a horrifying costume with skulls and bones as decorations and the other in a shapely form-fitting bodysuit and mechanical ornaments with cat ears, approached Succubus with good-natured smiles.
No matter how energetic and intuitive a child she may be, the normal Succubus would never answer honestly to a stranger’s name when approached by a stranger. She have that level of common sense and know not to follow suspicious people.
However, when it comes to Magical Girls, one had to say that Succubus’ brain must be in the flower fields. She is so convinced that Magical Girls cannot be evil that she even responds with a smile when a stranger speaks to her in a familiar manner.
「We haven’t seen Shadow in a while, but I’ve been having trouble getting in touch with her. Could you please call Shadow again? Oh, but we want it to be a surprise, so keep it a secret that we’re here.」
「There’s a nice place we have, invite Shadow there.」
「Okay! I understand!」
It was a kidnapping technique, but Succubus didn’t notice, and while making idle chitchat, they left the fountain plaza and was gradually led to an unpopular back street. Then, when the other Magical Girls were completely out of sight, the duo, who had been carrying on a conversation in gentle tones, stopped in their tracks.
「What did Shadow say to you?」
「About that, if there’s something you want to talk about, you can just call her. What do you want to do? Do you want to surprise her another time?」
「Just call her up now.」
As soon as she heard Succubus’ answer, the Magical Girl who called herself Necro told her in a commanding tone. Her voice was cold, as if the kindness she had shown earlier had been a lie.
「Aww! Eh…!? W–What are you doing!?」
「Would you please stop fussing? We don’t mean to be rough with you either, okay? You just have to get Shadow to come clean. Call her out or I’ll hurt you more, okay?」
The Magical Girl who identified herself as Pantera abruptly slaps Succubus on the cheek and threatens her, only her tone remaining as polite as before.
「You two, you’re not Master’s friends! Aren’t you two ashamed that you would such things being a Magical Girl!!」
Finally, Succubus understood the situation. Apparently, the duo had a grudge against her Master, and she had been tricked in order to lure her in. The fact that there are Magical Girls who would do such a thing was a big shock, but Succubus wasn’t intimidated and stared at the duo, showing her resistance.
「If you are willing to resist, we will show no mercy. Immortal March.」
「If I send a picture of you in tatters from your Magiphone, will she come? Dual Pantera」
「Open The Gate Of Nightmare!」
A swarm of skeletons with rusted hoes and sickles appear, scrambling across the ground and advancing stealthily towards Succubus. As if weaving between them, Pantera quickly zigzags across the ground to close in on Succubus.
From the Nightmare Gate that opened into the void, an unidentifiable monster the size of a large car crawled out, but its movements were too slow to catch Pantera, and it was surrounded by an army of skeletons that began to beat it into a sack.
「Weak, weak! Show me some more bluster!」
「Hiee——」
Succubus had never been in a fistfight in her entire life, and even after becoming a Magical Girl, she wasn’t basically a fighter herself, attacking directly. Therefore, once approached, she was powerless, and she involuntarily let out a small scream of fear when the Pantera quickly approaches her.
「Power Of The Elephant, Three!」
「Wha—— Gaaah!?」
Just before Pantera’s outstretched hand reached Succubus, a figure quickly jumped out from behind Succubus, kicked Pantera, and the army of the dead was knocked down like bowling pins by the blown Pantera.
「Elephant-san!?」
The girl, who was in battle stance with her back to the succubus, was a respected senior Magical Girl, Elephant, whom she had recently become friends with and had been playing with until the sun went down today.
「Thank you very much! But, why?」
「We’ll talk later. We’re not done yet.」
「What the hell are you doing!? Those who aren’t involved should stay out of this!!」
There were a number of questions about how she found this place and why she was here, but she restrained Succubus who was about to ask her, and Elephant answered without taking her eyes off Pantera that was under the pile of fallen corpses.
Immediately after, a pile of corpses blew up as if caught in an explosion, and Pantera appeared from underneath, one arm hanging brazenly and powerlessly.
「This girl is my junior. If you’re going to bully her, I’ll be your partner.」
「Tch, Necro! This gilr ain’t no small fry, she’s going for real!」
「So as your friend said, do you still want to do it?」
「!?」
Pantera saw that the Magical Girl were at least in Phase 2, as she had taken not a little damage in her enhanced state, and called on her partner to crush her with a two-man effort. But the words that came back weren’t those of her partner, and when she turned around with astonishment, she found Necro standing there with her hands raised, with a large cane held out to her by a girl about 10 years old. It was clear, without needing to ask, that she was signaling her surrender.
「You, you’re the Wind Witch, Tyrant Sylph! What’s a big shot like you doing here?」
「Please don’t talk to me so casually. It makes me very uncomfortable.」
「……So that’s how it is. I didn’t think there were any new rumors about Shadow lately, but it turns out she’s under your umbrella.」
「What if it’s the case?」
She has a nonchalance and calmness that belies her age. Her emotionless appearance adds to the eeriness of the substandard existence of Witches for Pantera, who knows nothing about them. The little girl was starting to look more and more like a huge monster. Cold sweat was pouring down her cheeks, and apart from the damage she had sustained earlier, her body had begun to shake before she knew it. If she really attempted to fight the Magical Girl in front of her, she will die. Pantera senses with her beastly instincts that she won’t even be able to fight.
「I’m not going to do it. It’s not worth it. If Shadow has joined your ranks, it would save some face if she didn’t force you to settle up.」
The rough atmosphere that had prevailed earlier faded away, and Pantera announced in the same calm tone that she had used when she initially spoke to Succubus. In response, Sylph also lowered her wand and released the Magical Girl called Necro.
「I see. Just a word of advice, don’t even think about retaliation in the future. Next time, I won’t show any mercy either.」
「Hahaha, I’m aware. And I don’t want to make an enemy of you. Let’s go, Necro.」
While laughing dryly and inwardly shivering with fear that Tyrant Sylph might change her mind at any moment, Pantera remained aloof to the end on the surface and left with Necro in tow. At least as long as Sylph is around, she would never think of attacking Shadow or Succubus.
「U–Umm, Elephant-san, Sylph-san! Thank you for helping me!」
「Don’t worry about it. You’re my friend and I’m supposed to help you. But don’t follow strangers because it’s dangerous, okay?」
「Yes, I’m so sorry… I didn’t expect to find someone like that as Magical Girls. By the way, how did you two end up here? When I said goodbye to you a while ago, I thought you had all left.」
「Ahh, regarding that. Sylph-chan and I had some business to attend to, so we were around here after we said goodbye. Then I saw Saki-chan following those two. I didn’t want anything to happen to you, and I just wanted to check on you for a little while. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you sooner, okay? Were you hurt?」
Elephant glances at Sylph with a little slurring of words, and Sylph turns her head away as if to escape her gaze. Hidden by the darkness of the night, Succubus couldn’t see it, but Sylph’s cheeks were slightly tinged with vermilion.
Today was a weekday, but she had come to visit the Magical World after school to deepen her friendship with Sakira Town’s newest companion, Succubus. Succubus persistently invited Shadow as well, but she ended up not participating and only five people gathered. As she had reported to Shadow, Succubus could hardly talk to Sylph after all, but they still had a good time and had just broken up about 30 minutes earlier.
Succubus was then left alone to enjoy the afterglow and the atmosphere of the Magical Girl world, but apparently Elephant and Sylph were alone at the time.
「Yes! It was nothing like that! Thank you so much!」
Succubus was envious to be playing alone with Sylph, but she was even more grateful to her for saving her from a dangerous situation, and she thanked them in a loud voice, bowing deeply.
「But still, what were those people? It was like they had a grudge against Master…」
「H–Hmm, I think it would be better to ask Shadow-san directly about that.」
「That’s true too. Well then, I’ll leave you to it! Elephant-san, Sylph-san, let’s play again!」
When Succubus was enveloped in the magic circle with a big wave of her hand, Elephant looked away with a smile and a wave in return, while Sylph stood there looking off, not doing anything in particular.