“Honestly, I really doubt it,” said Hana after we discussed our theory on Kei’s disappearance with her. “Before you guys took down the director, the magical girls were organised. Strong, and backed by a lot of money. After everything the director owned went belly up and the magical girls were effectively left abandoned, fighting them was more like chasing rats. They had nowhere to go nor any goal to achieve. They were simply trying to hold onto the last remnants of their former glory before they were brought down. Could they be kidnapping new girls? It’s possible. But from everything I’ve seen it’s highly unlikely.”

Hana’s words were enough to let us all breathe a small sigh of relief, but it didn’t change the fact that our friend was seemingly missing under the same circumstances as all the other kidnapping victims.

“You’re certain? It can’t be them?” Saki asked

“Certain? No, not completely. You’re not wrong in that this situation resembles their MO a lot. But given the turmoil they seemed to be going through the last time I saw our enemies, the probability of them continuing their previous work seems low at best.”

“Continuing their previous work…” I muttered to myself. A nasty possibility took root in my mind. “Kei… she’s the biggest gossip I’ve ever known. You guys don’t think it’s possible that they’ve targeted her as a way of silencing her, do you?”

Everyone turned to look at me, equal parts worried and sceptical.

“Silence her? I know she has a big mouth, but she just spreads high schooler gossip. Why would a group of magical terrorists want to shut her up?” Asked Saki.

“Even if that’s usually the case, remember that she always seems to be way ahead of everyone else when it comes to information. I mean, she always seemed to know what we were up to before anyone else. Maybe she stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to know.”

Everyone's expressions suddenly changed to grave concern. Everyone except Mai, that is, who’s eyes had grown wide seemingly in abject horror.

“Mai?”

“Huh?”

“You look really freaked out. Did you realise something important?”

“I… no, I’m not… I don’t think… no, that couldn’t be right…”

Amai Sugi, the genius with a greater grasp over logic than any other teenager in the world, seemed completely stumped over something.

“If there’s something you’re worried about, let us know. Five heads are better than one.” I urged her to keep me talking, but she shook the distressed look off her face and brushed me off.

“No, I thought I could be onto something, but it was so insane that it’s not even worth saying. Don’t worry about it.”

I was, obviously, very worried about it. But everything about Mai’s demeanour told me not to push any further. Whatever possibility she had thought of must have been truly awful.

“Dammit. Damn it all. We don’t have time for all of this. First we get a declaration of war from fucking Lucifer himself, now one of our friends turn ups missing out of nowhere? The universe is determined to kick us to the curb.” Saki spat as she talked. She wasn’t one to let frustration get to her, so everything happening must have been piling up on her.

“Until we have more information, I’m afraid there’s not much we can do for your friend. But we can prepare for the upcoming fight. That’s why I’ve invited you all here to spar with my girls.” Clearly trying to alleviate some of of the tension of the conversation, Hana steered us back to the business at hand. “Kyouma and the twins are probably already in the sparring hall, so let’s not keep them waiting. I’ll show you the way.”

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Though the atmosphere hadn’t dissipated, we followed Hana through the halls of the enormous manor. As we were walking, a question sprang to mind.

“Hey, Hana, how’s writing the speech going?”

“It’s… going. That’s all I can really say about it, honestly. Kyouma and Saki have both been a big help, but there’s always something that just doesn’t feel right. I recognise that we’re steadily losing time, but honestly I’m struggling to get it finished.”

“Well, from what I’ve seen, the girls here seem to revere you fiercely. I’m sure they’d follow you into battle even with an imperfect rallying call.”

“I certainly hope so…” she bit her lip in barely concealed frustration, the issue clearly weighing on her heavily.

The rest of the walk was spent in silence, though it was mercifully short. We arrived at the so-called sparring hall less than a minute later, finding Kyouma and the Twins already waiting for us.

For a room simply made for sparring, it was enormous. More like an arena than anything else. There was even seating around the edges of the room, with the sparring area itself taking up most of the floor. The walls were black, but there was lighting around the entire arena making it easy to see even with the dark walls and lack of sunlight.

“Sorry to keep you girls waiting, we had some stuff we had to ask Hana when we arrived.” Saki jogged out ahead of the rest of us to talk to Hana’s team.

“No worries, we’ve not been here long ourselves. More importantly, you guys don’t know how our sparring matches work, right?” As the rest of us arrived, it was Suzume that greeted us, as cool and laid back as ever.

“Rules are simples. Both teams get their pick of imitation weapons, and free use of magical abilities is totally fair game. You’re considered out if you take a clean hit from a weapon, go outside the bounds of the match area, or are caught in a situation you wouldn’t realistic get out of in real life. It’s just a spar so we’re trusting you guys to judge yourselves as out fairly. Get it? Got it? Good. Let’s get to pickin,’ people.”

Suzume’s inverse, her own twin Hikari, rushed through her explanation impatiently and ran off to the far side of the court where there was a table covered in wooden weapons.

“You guys understand all that or you need me to go over some stuff more?” asked Hana, somewhat exasperated at her teammate’s hyperactivity.

“Despite the… ‘interesting’ explanation, I think we’ve got it down pat, right guys?” Saki turned to the three of us, all of us giving her nods of affirmation.

“In that case, your weapons are on the opposite table to ours. I’ll give you guys a few minutes to prepare, then I’ll fire a starting pistol to commence the match.”

“A starting pistol? For a sparring match?” I questioned.

“It was Kyouma’s idea.”

“…yeah, that makes sense.”

The introduction complete, our teams separated and went to our own respective weapons tables at opposite sides of the court.

The selection of imitation weapons was surprisingly large. Pre-gunpowder weapons of every description were represented, from polearms like spears and naginata to every form of sword from katana to zweihander.

Saki wordlessly took a katana from the table and slung it over her back. Even if it was the wrong way to wear such a weapon, I had to admit she looked pretty cool.

I gravitated towards the twin short axes. Fast, easy to carry, brutally effective if you catch someone by surprise. For someone who can use trickery, they would be a lethal option.

Mai surprised me by grabbing a rapier. As something that rarely if ever saw use in active combat, it seemed like a poor choice.

“Rapiers only didn’t see military use because they’re heavy and unwieldy. For people with superhuman strength and movement, it’s a solid choice.” She looked at me and smiled as she explained, as if she had read my very mind.

“Umm… uhh…” Nao, the only one of us who hadn’t picked a weapon yet, tottered around indecisively. It occurred to me that she had likely never even considered having to fight with a weapon. Hell, before all this magical girl business began, she had likely never expected to have to fight at all.

“Why not take the bow and arrow? Then you can fly around and be our Angel archer, like my own little Cupid.” Saki said, winking like some sort of playboy and leaning against the table.

“Ack- that’s not…! But we’re not…! Gah, why do you have to tease me all the time!” Nao’s face went cherry red while Saki, seemingly taken aback by Nao’s flustered reaction, looked away awkwardly and scratched her cheek.

Mai shot me a grin, which I returned with an eye roll and a silent ‘just get married already, you idiots.’

The sound of a starter pistol reminded us that we were, in fact, preparing for a fight and that we had wasted too much time already.

“Shit- girls, form up on me!” Saki drew the katana from her back and stepped out in front of us, Mai and I two paces behind her on her left and and right respectively. Sunao hurriedly grabbed the bow and arrow and spread her magical wings, taking to the skies behind us.

Thus began our first team fight against Hana and her squad.