62 – Interlude – Each of Their ‘Processing’

“Fucking hell…”

Leader Futanari spat out the curse.

Knowing nobody would hear her, knowing it was utterly pointless to say it, still, she had to let the words escape.

Because without saying them, she simply couldn’t endure it.

“What the *fuck* is going on…”

Even now, she still couldn’t comprehend it.

She distinctly remembered subduing the two Magical Girls and one man with Magical Aphrodisiac at first.

But.

The next memory was of herself, already wearing Magical Handcuffs, undergoing Magical Interrogation. After that, she was tossed into a Magical solitary cell.

In other words, the entire middle process had vanished.

Only the beginning and the result remained.

Or to be more precise, only the result.

‘What in the world happened?’

She couldn’t for the life of her remember how she’d moved behind the Magical Girls.

She vaguely recalled receiving some kind of help, but nothing more than that came to mind.

And that wasn’t all. Gaps existed even in her memories of the relatively distant past.

What had disappeared was the basis for her actions.

The reason for moving from the brothel to Magical OnlyFans.

The method by which she’d managed to flee from the Magical Girls.

The reason why a gigantic male appendage had grown on her lower body.

She couldn’t properly remember any of it. It felt as if someone had yanked out her memories, chopped them up haphazardly, and stuffed them back in any old way.

Utterly lost in this baffling predicament, Leader Futanari lowered her head, muttering a curse once more, barely a whisper.

“Shit…”

But, there was a stark difference from before.

“I told you, tone down the cursing.”

Someone had answered her profanity.

And from right in front of her, no less.

Leader Futanari startled, snapping her head up.

“W-what the hell!”

Someone was there, standing before her.

“W-who are you?”

It was an anomalous being.

A strange entity where even its face, figure, age, and gender seemed concealed, hidden from perception.

And yet, a sense of déjà vu prickled at her senses.

‘Why?’

Her mind held no memory, but her intuition faintly recognized this paradoxical person.

However, stranger still was something else.

“H-how are you even here?”

The place Leader Futanari occupied was the Magical Isolation Cell.

Only a select few magical girls granted Magical Clearance could enter, and even then, only when accompanied by at least two Magical Military Police.

So how could someone be here?

What’s more, not even the sound of the door opening had reached her, and until she spoke, she hadn’t felt the slightest presence.

‘How is this possible?’

Unbeknownst to her, something incomprehensible was unfolding.

But the words coming from the person before her were even more baffling.

“It’s been a while.”

“Huh?”

It’s been a while? What in the world was that supposed to mean?

“Ah, that’s right. You don’t remember now, do you.”

Moreover, they seemed to completely grasp the changes happening within her mind.

Leader Futanari urgently grasped at what appeared to be the other’s shoulder.

So many questions clamored to be asked.

Why they, including herself, were here.

Just what had happened to them, anyway.

Why their memories were so maddeningly indistinct.

But what escaped the lips of the leader, Futanari, wasn’t a question at all.

“Gckh…, ghk-ugh…!”

A few fragmented gasps.

She was being choked.

At a speed Futanari couldn’t even register.

“Ghhk-ugh…! Gh-, h-hh…”

Just as she forced air into her frantically constricting windpipe, a chilling voice resonated.

“Hey.”

Even hearing it from closer than before, she couldn’t discern any distinct quality.

She couldn’t tell what was gripping her throat. Only the vague sensation of being caught in a vise.

“What did I tell you?”

But there was one thing she could be certain of.

“I told you explicitly not to write down anything about me, or any conversations with me.”

The other was enraged.

“So why did you keep a record in a fucking diary!”

The pressure on her neck intensified.

Leader Futanari trembled, wringing her hands.

“Cgh…!, Choke…! Sa-, ve…! Me…!”

“I let you escape! I gave you information! I gave you a dick! You little shit! I gave you everything!”

“Plea-, please…”

“And this is how you repay my kindness!?”

“Un…… know…… ingly…… wrote……!”

“Because of you, I left a clue!!!”

Leader Futanari’s vision flickered. Even the thought of survival, which filled her head, became hazy.

In that instant.

“Still, it wasn’t without its merits, I suppose.”

The pressure around her neck released.

“Looks like the camcorder’s been sliced up. As far as I know, none of you girls have the skill to make a cut that clean. Am I right?”

Leader Futanari couldn’t grasp a word he was saying.

“It’s strayed quite a bit from the original plan, but this isn’t so bad either. No, maybe I should say it’s even better.”

What was he so angry about? Why the sudden talk of a Magical Camcorder? And what was with the Magical Diary babble?

“Might have to move the schedule up a bit.”

And lastly, what was this damn plan of his?

But that wasn’t what mattered. Right now, what mattered wasn’t this gibberish, but shoving air into her opened windpipe as fast as she could.

“Gasp…! Huff…! Haaah…!”

At that moment, Leader Futanari heard something she could finally understand.

“So, I won’t be killing all of you.”

“T-thank… y─”

“But.”

That toneless voice cut her off mid-sentence.

“I won’t be leaving you intact, either.”

Pressure clamped down on Leader Futanari’s head.

Like being seized in a fist.

Frantically, Leader Futanari clawed at whatever was gripping her.

“W-wait a min─!”

But before she could finish speaking, the other person uttered a single syllable.

“■.”

In that instant, her mind began to empty, bit by bit.

Or rather, to be devoured.

It felt like maggots were writhing inside her skull.

‘N-no… way…!’

Leader Futanari’s thoughts gradually faded into blankness. She couldn’t understand why she was here, or what she meant by saying “no way.”

She couldn’t remember.

More precisely, she couldn’t even think.

Everything she’d done in her life, as well as the most basic things, like how to walk and how to form words, were all gone.

Everything was being eaten away.

The single syllable the opponent spat out in his last moment was all that remained, intact, inside a head otherwise cleared to dregs.

Leader Hutanari kept muttering it.

Without even grasping its meaning.

*

The magical girls were confounded.

First, they encountered an oddball monster who took hostages, and they suffered for quite a while under a curse.

Then, making their suffering seem almost meaningless, the magical girls who answered the Magical Help Call rescued the hostages with ridiculous ease.

Two magical girls subdued a monster who had given several of them a run for their money.

They had relaxed, relieved at the successful Magical Capture, when the magical girl (boy) who responded to the Magical Help Call was critically injured.

Well, up to that point, it wasn’t so bad.

In the end, it benefited them, after all.

But then.

“All you kidnappers will align yourselves in rows and columns and proceed to the Magical Shower Room, alrighty!”

The sight of a uniformed, insane magical girl shouting at the monsters was just too much.

The magical girls clutched their aching heads, reviewing everything that had just happened.

As they were preparing to transport the captured monsters to the Magical Brigade, Blue Fox, the magical girl who answered the Magical Help Call, had suddenly offered a proposal.

Since they were short on manpower, why not let her handle the Magical Processing of the monsters? A sweet, tempting offer.

The magical girls readily accepted.

They were already exhausted; why refuse help?

So, they entrusted the Magical Processing of the monsters to three magical girls, and were just about to take over the Magical Handover when they were confronted with *this* situation.

Truly baffling.

Of course, the action itself wasn’t wrong. According to Magical Sanitation Protocols, captured monsters must first be taken to the Magical Shower Room.

After the monster’s Magical Cleansing is complete, preparations are made to transport them where they are needed. The most typical example being delivery to the Magical Laboratory.

In that sense, this action was commendable.

She was proceeding with the appropriate procedures swiftly.

However, something about the scene felt off.

“Kidnappers with all limbs intact, to the right! Kidnappers who are not, to the left, alrighty!”

A crisp uniform.

Stiff, measured dialogue.

An overly “efficient” Magical Processing method.

A sense of déjà vu washed over me.

“Um… could you explain what you’re doing?”

“As you can see, we’re performing the ‘final solution’ regarding the magical processing of abductees, dear.”

“Uh oh…”

Everything about this kept bringing to mind a certain country, one best left unmentioned.

“T-This is the Magical Shower Room, right?”

“That’s correct, dear! However, this time it’s a special procedure unique to Magical Buddhism for extinguishing the abductees’ worldly woes, so it can also be called by a different name, dear!”

Taishi nodded regally.

The magical girls forced reassuring smiles. Even if the setup was a little odd, they assumed it was still following proper procedures.

“I-Is that so? What name do you call it?”

“The Ausumeitz Annihilation Accommodation, dear─!”

“W-Wait, wait, wait just a moment!”

Well, the smiles didn’t last long.

“What’s wrong, dear? We simply took the name from Aukana, a Magical Buddhist organization, and Mount Sumeru, the center of the Magical Universe, dear.”

“Uh… no, it’s nothing.”

The last part must be referring to Nirvana (寂滅). A state of absolute peace where all worldly desires vanish.

But.

Strangely enough, all the magical girls were thinking the same thing.

That one consonant seemed to be off.

Perhaps that’s why one of the magical girls muttered the contents of her mind almost unconsciously.

“Isn’t ‘Nirvana (寂滅)’ supposed to be…”

…Annihilation (絕滅)? she wondered.

At that moment, the door to the Magical Shower Room creaked open. Sora’s voice poured out through the opening.

“Taishi, are you almost done?”

Along with vapor that was rather murky to just be steam.

“Uh…”

The magical girls flinched.

It was clearly magical cigarette smoke. After all, they’d seen that kind of smoke more than once or twice.

Right. Magical indoor smoking.

The kind of thing only bottom-of-the-barrel types did.

Magical indoor smoking.

“So, open the door immediately and verify, then administer punishment in accordance with proper Magical procedure.”

Punishment was what they *should* be doing…

“…”

Yet not a soul dared utter a word about confirming anything. The very thought of opening the door never even crossed their minds.

It was obviously Magical tobacco smoke, but the smoke that was slithering out now, somehow, felt like more than just plain Magical tobacco smoke…

Like a specific ‘gas’.

Like a gas that was extremely ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’ at dealing with grotesqueries.

Like a ‘final solution’ in every sense of the word.

“I’ll have it in just a moment. All that’s left is to inscribe the Magical serial number onto the abductee’s forearm.”

“Understood, Taishi.”

The Magical Girls flinched at Taishi’s toneless words, exchanging glances with unnerving speed.

What were they going to do?

Were they going to open that door now?

Their decision was swift.

“I, I’ll come back later! Just finish it up somehow!”

Their speed in fleeing the scene was even faster.

Something felt impossibly daunting, and they instinctively recoiled from even setting foot in the place.

Magical handover?

It was the furthest thing from their minds right now.

They just wanted to return when it was all completely over. They even seriously considered not coming back at all.

And so, they turned on their heels without hesitation, shedding all Magical responsibility as they went.

“Please don’t worry.”

Taishi smiled radiantly as she watched the Magical Girls rapidly disappear.

“The maiden will ‘select’ most appropriately.”

It was a smile perfectly suited for ‘annihilation’.