Saki launched into an explanation of the whole situation from top to bottom, beginning all the way back to the day of our fight with the director.
Hana’s companions looked at us incredulously, seemingly confused as to whether we were being serious or not. Hana herself, however, kept a stone face the entire time, taking in every word Saki said and thinking all of it through quickly.
“…which is why we came to ask for your help. As of the winter solstice of this year, humanity will be at open war with the legions of hell, and the four of us can’t fight that war alone. I know I’m asking a lot. Hell, I know the things I’m saying probably sound like the ravings of a lunatic. But please, I beg you with everything I have, lend us your aid. The entire human race depends on it.”
Saki once again bowed her head deeply as she finished speaking, and the room was suddenly drenched in silence. The words that Saki had just said likely sounded absurd to everyone who heard them. It would be a miracle for someone to hear it and believe it without a second of doubt.
“I believe you,” Hana said after a long and deafening silence.
“What?!” The seven of us cried in unison.
“Don’t get me wrong, this all sounds… insane, to put it nicely. And were it coming from anyone else, I’d be sceptical to say the least. But I would trust the four of you with my very life. Had you told people the truth about magical girls when I was still kidnapped, everyone likely would have written that off as crazy speak too. And yet, it was the complete and unabashed truth. So I’m choosing to believe what you say. All of it. I trust you.”
We were all stunned at her words. Few people alive would believe something so outlandish without a shred of physical evidence, and yet here was Hana, brazenly doing just that. I was unsure whether to be touched by her unwavering trust or worried about her naïveté.
“Maybe Hana’s willing to put blind faith in you, but I can’t say the same.” The cool-headed Suzume was the next to speak, and unsurprisingly she took a more rational stance. “Before I believe something as outlandish as humanity going to war with both heaven and hell, I’m gonna need to see some evidence.”
The four of us had little response to her words, as her stance was too fair to challenge and we had no physical evidence to speak of.
Wait… physical evidence?
“Uhh… how about giving this a read through? It’s the last thing the Director wrote before disappearing.” From within my coat’s inside pocket, I produced the letter and slid it over the table to Suzume. “No man on Earth was more familiar with the mechanics of magical girls than him. If it comes straight from his mouth, will you believe it?”
Suzume wordlessly picked the letter up off the table and began reading. “This handwriting…” she whispered under her breath as she read. Hikari and Kyouma also read over her shoulder, until Suzume sighed, folded the letter up and slid it back to me.
“I can’t say I’m 100% convinced, but this is enough for me to believe you for now. Whatever it is you guys are planning to do, count me in.”
“I trust Suzume’s judgement, so count me in too,” interject Hikari
“Slaying demons and protecting the people of Earth, a chosen few setting out to save the world from a threat beyond their comprehension? Thou shan’t find me missing such an opportunity. I pledge to thee my assistance.” For some reason taking on the voice of a 16th century knight, Kyouma added her own input last.
“Thank you… thank you all… you won’t regret this, I swear on my life.” Saki heaved a heavy sigh of relief as she spoke once again, the pressure of bringing Hana’s circle to our side finally subsiding. “Now then, I think we have work to do.”
***
Saki and Hana eventually got down to talking about how to broach the subject of the war to the rest of Hana’s small army of magical girls, and it seemed like a discussion that would only need to include the leaders and their right hands at most. As such, Suzume and Hikari offered to show me and Mai around the manor while we waited.
The more we walked around, the more impressed I was. The “manor” was more like a small town, with well-furnished living quarters, several side buildings for food and exercise, and a plethora of other rooms with various purposes, all decorated nicely with seemingly no expenses spared. I was amazed that such a property wasn’t already occupied.
“Hey, Suzume? What was this place before Hana took over it?”
“Hmm? A forest.”
“What?! Are you tell me this entire place was built within the past month?!”
“You can achieve a lot with three hundred superpowered teenagers. Hell, most of the construction was done by a handful of telekinetics, the majority of the complex was built in less than two weeks.”
I was gobsmacked. Even with magical girl powers, it seemed like an impossible undertaking. They’d have had to have chopped down thousands of trees, refined the wood, built the structures and held them together in a way that ensured longevity. Frankly I was having a hard time believing it all.
“Wait, what about all the furniture and stuff? You can’t tell me you guys built all those sofas and beds from scratch?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention that Kyouma’s loaded too.”
“Okay, that makes a little mor- wait, Kyouma herself? Not her family?”
“She’s the last one left. Poor girl. Lost both of her parents a few years back. They left her a butt load of money to live off of, but no amount of money can replace family.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
A pang of guilt spread through my body for being so judgmental of her chuuni antics. I had thought she was just someone with no self awareness, but if someone can find joy and excitement in their life after going through that, all power to them.
“So, Sora, is it true that you were the first one to gain powers without being mind controlled?” After a lull in conversation, Hikari turned to look back at me as she walked and asked that question.
“Ah- yeah, that’s right. The four of us were in the same position as you girls, but I got lucky and didn’t get affected by the brainwashing.”
“That’s so cool! It’s great to finally meet you in the flesh. You’re pretty much the reason we’re all free now, if it wasn’t for you no one would have saved us.”
“I-I guess so. But I’d have never achieved anything without my girls, and you guys really have Hana to thank for saving you anyway.”
“For the others that’s true, but for the two of us and Kyouma not so much. You all came and rescued us that day, right?”
Hikari’s words made a light bulb go off in my brain. The three classmates of Hana’s that we saved the day I met Kagami, I recognised their faces. It surprised me I didn’t make the connection.
“Well, either way, I certainly could never achieve what Hana has done with you guys here. Saving hundreds of innocent girls, amassing an army, basically starting an entire secluded town, you guys deserve way more credit than I do. I just got lucky.”
“Lucky or not, you saved our skin. We’ll always be grateful for that,” interjected Suzume.
“Come to think of it, how did you avoid the brainwashing? Seems like it worked without fail on basically everyone else. Was it really just dumb luck?”
“Ah-“ I found my words stuck in my throat. The reason for my resistance to the drug was nothing more than my male body rejecting something refined to work against women. Hikari and Suzume had no idea I was a man, and I wasn’t really in the business of telling everyone who I really was. Even with the Director gone, the identity of Shin Nomimoto was one that carried a certain level of danger. I had to be discreet and choose my allies carefully.
‘Anything you can tell me, you can tell them.’
I remembered Hana’s words, and pondered them for a moment. Hana herself had more than earned our trust. In fact, she had exceeded every expectation a thousandfold. Yet I was still keeping such a big secret from her. We had won her blind faith, but I didn’t believe that amounted to earning her genuine trust.
I resolved myself in that moment to do away with unnecessary secrets.
“Actually, I wanna wait until we reconvene with three others before I tell you that. There’s something you all should know, and I want Hana and Kyouma to be there when I tell you.”
“Sora? You’re sure?” Mai seemed taken aback at my sudden willingness to discuss my identity, which was to be expected. The number of people who knew who I truly was barely numbered in the double digits, and half of them were enemies.
“Hana at least deserves to know. And if she trusts them as much as I trust you, Saki and Nao, I have no problems with them knowing too. Communication is a two way street, we can’t ask them to invite us into their home but continue keeping secrets from them.”
Mai seemed to think on it for a moment, but her expression softened and she seemed content with my decision.
Suzume and Hikari looked at each other confusedly, but Hikari simply shrugged her shoulders and continued showing us around.
After a few more rooms and hallways, we started to become very aware of the time, and I wondered if we’d start heading back soon.
“Hana and Saki are probably almost done talking, so we should head back soon, but there’s one more place I really want you guys to see.” Hikari beckoned us to follow, and we exited the main building through yet another enormous pine door.
The complex was surrounded by an enormous forest, making me wonder where exactly we were. I doubted we were outside of Japan, but whatever area we were in must not have been particularly populous.
Some ways from the door to the complex, we came face to face with a basement door leading to a set of metal stairs, seemingly leading to an area underneath the forest that had been carved out recently.
As we descended the stairs into the somewhat dimly lit area, an unrecognisable smell hit my nostrils. From deeper within I could see a dull glow, though as we crept closer to its source it became brighter and brighter until it was hard to look at.
The sight at the bottom of the stairs was something to behold. An enormous area carved out beneath the forest, with walls of rock reinforced with metal, and a ceiling so high above us that it was hard to see.
The source of the light was a flowing stream of molten metal, with dozens of people in heat resistant suits and welding masks working at numerous different work stations.
“Flame Queen on deck!”
“The Flame Queen is here!”
“Double time, ladies, don’t disappoint her majesty!”
Hikari’s arrival seemed to drive the workers in the underground workshop into a frenzy, with some stopping to bow while others picked up the pace of their work.
“At ease, girls. Just here to show some friends around. Keep up the good work, all of you.” The usually hyperactive and over the top Hikari effortlessly calmed down the horde of girls who had snapped to attention at her arrival. “Sorry about that. I’ve been nicknamed ‘Flame Queen’ because I’m both the first and strongest pyrokineticist in the manor. This place has a lot of people working with extreme heat, so I’m something of a figurehead for them.”
“And… where exactly is ‘this place?’” I asked, looking at the insane sight around me. Some 50-or-so magical girls, many producing fire or heat directly from their bodies, were all working with molten metal and other extremely hot materials. As a result, the place itself was also immensely hot, and I felt myself sweating buckets from the moment I entered.
“This is the centre for metallurgy, smithing and repair, but we mostly just call it the forge. It’s only been in operation a few days, cos it turns out that hollowing out a huge area of rock and stone to burn metal in is surprisingly challenging.”
“You don’t say. But why exactly do you have a metallurgical facility filled with pyrokineticists?”
“What do you mean ‘why?’ To make these, of course.” Hikari showed us to a rack toward the back of the Forge which held several finished items, all assumedly being created right there.
Among them was around a dozen circular shields coated in bronze, as well as roughly the same amount of spears, each standing at least six feet long.
“Woah…” Mai looked like a child on Christmas Day. Even I had to admit it was pretty damn cool. But my mind was elsewhere.
“Wait… if you guys are making these…”
“We might stand a better chance against that threat you told us about earlier?”
Hikari seemed to read my mind. The group that were housed in the manor numbered 300 strong. Not an entire army, but with magical power and weapons like this it may not matter.
We might be able to hold them at the gates.
“Hana wanted a distinctive look for her new generation of magical girls, one that separated us from the ne'er do wells that kidnapped us but still gave the message that we protect the innocent and strike down evil. We may only have a dozen or so done now, but we’re ramping up production quickly. 300 by the winter solstice isn’t just feasible, it’s almost a guarantee if everything goes to plan.”
I felt a glimmer of hope that hadn’t been there before. Part of me still felt guilt at getting the rescued ‘cultists’ involved in our fight. But this proved that, not only were Hana’s 300 prepared to fight tooth and nail to protect people, but that they were better equipped to do so than we were.
“Sora… I think we have a real chance.” Mai looked at me as she said that, and I saw a twinkle in her eye. She likely saw the same in mine.
We could win this war.