65 – Interim Report

Before all this, I had asked Sora for a favor.

To catch a monster for me, in my stead.

The original plan had been to interrogate the captured monster myself, but I couldn’t do it because of my injuries.

So, right before being transferred to Magical Capital Hospital, I grabbed the last remaining shred of my consciousness and desperately pleaded with Sora.

To interrogate the monster, in my place.

The questions to ask weren’t anything special. Who they heard about me from, how much they knew.

Even if it meant resorting to somewhat… forceful measures, I asked them to just get the information out. What happened to the freak was of no consequence to me, anyway.

“Did you manage to ask them anything?”

“Ah, about that, I have some good news and some bad news.”

“Oh?”

Sora cleared her throat delicately, then slowly began to speak.

“First, the good news is that we were able to successfully complete the magical interrogation of that unusual monster.”

That was certainly good news.

In other words, Sora had made contact with the monster and asked the questions I had.

“And just in case, we also gave all the normal monsters a quick magical interrogation, too.”

She must have been anticipating a situation like before, where a normal monster suddenly started talking.

I hadn’t specifically asked, but she thought of it.

Asking Sora was a good decision.

“Thank you. Was it difficult, at all?”

“Well, it went smoother than I thought. I offered to take care of the monsters’ magical disposal for them, and they happily agreed. It made contact easier.”

“Oh, that’s fortunate.”

It really was.

There was always the possibility that other magical girls might intervene and prevent the interrogation, but it seemed they hadn’t been interrupted at all.

“After that, it was uneventful.”

“What do you mean by that, *wasuyo*?”

However, it seemed that Nakji couldn’t agree with Sora’s assessment. She quickly opened her mouth to object.

“Taishi, what is it?”

“It wasn’t uneventful at all, *wasuyo*. Magical cigarette smoke was leaking out of the magical shower room, and we almost got into big trouble in many ways, *wasuyo*.”

Then, Nakji glared at Huindung.

“Why did you! Magically smoke indoors, *wasuyo*!”

“No, well… I was just trying to capture a sophisticated atmosphere, and it suddenly happened without me realizing…”

Huindung’s voice trailed off.

Nakji’s voice became even louder.

“It was only thanks to the magical depth of faith of the young lady that we managed to overcome this without panicking, otherwise we would have all been magically incanted together, *wasuyo*!”

Nakji’s sudden outburst. Or, rather, sudden acceleration.

Of course, the criticism itself was valid, but the timing was terrible.

And so it was, perhaps.

The situation grew ever more tangled.

“Don’t, don’t just keep yelling at me! I wasn’t the only one smoking! Sora smoked too! Unlike me, it was a whole magical chain-smoking extravaganza!”

Upon hearing Squid’s words, Little White voiced her indignation, dragging Sora down with her no less.

“You wretched older sister! I told you time and time again not to mention that in front of the senior!!!!”

Sora, suddenly pulled into the fray despite her quietude, shrieked at Little White with all her might.

“Senior, I didn’t smoke magical cigarettes. It was, it was merely magical secondhand smoke. Ah, no, I was just so down in the dumps because of what happened to you, Senior, so I honestly just had one, truly only one.”

Suddenly, Sora began to spew out all sorts of excuses, glancing nervously at me.

“Sora, lies are bad. You said you felt like a penis that day and smoked a whole magical carton─”

“Sister, please shut up!!!”

Then, Sora’s eyes half-rolled back as she harshly snapped at Little White.

They truly were all misfits, weren’t they?

Their skill at dragging each other down was unsettling, to say the least.

Afraid the situation would spiral to the point of no return if I let it continue, I quickly grabbed Sora.

“Then Sora, what is the bad news?”

“Senior, please believe me! I really only smoked a tiny bit of magical cigarette that day─!”

“Anyone can smoke, it’s alright.”

I cut off Sora’s ramblings, for she had begun to babble half out of her mind, and repeated my earlier words.

“Anyway, the bad news?”

Sora took a moment to calm herself with a deep breath, before cautiously opening her mouth.

“That freak didn’t know anything.”

“What?”

That couldn’t be.

He clearly seemed to know something.

Sensing the meaning in my gaze, Sora quickly opened her mouth to elaborate.

“You might think it strange, but the freak genuinely knows nothing. It’s like the memories themselves are completely gone.”

“Amnesia, you mean?”

“That’s how it seems, judging by the circumstances. He doesn’t even remember fiercely fighting us, not even the fact that he cursed the magical girls.”

Something was off.

How could this possibly be?

At the very least, shouldn’t he remember something like casting a curse?

“Actually, he was more curious about why he was even here, what even happened to him.”

Apparently, the aberration had completely forgotten even the reason he confronted the magical girls.

Is such convenient amnesia even possible?

I’d certainly never seen it in this world.

Could it be magic, perhaps?

“Speaking of which, have you two ever seen magic that induces amnesia?”

“Nope. Never.”

“I haven’t either. Never even heard of such a thing.”

This isn’t caused by magic then.

The more I heard, the less it made sense.

“Was there anything special that happened to that aberration at the end, maybe? Why can’t he remember anything?”

“Well…”

“Sora, something happened, didn’t it?”

“…I don’t really want to talk about it.”

You’ll regret hearing it, Sora added.

I pressed on, digging a little deeper.

“Just tell me. I won’t regret it.”

“…That b*stard’s sensitivity was cranked up 300 times, so he got his nipples twisted at the end and climaxed like crazy before passing out.”

“……”

I shouldn’t have asked, damn it all.

I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, swallowing it back with a grimace. Whatever the case, it was my fault for asking.

As if seeing right through my feelings, Sora looked at me with slightly dead eyes.

“I told you that you’d regret it.”

“So, then, he climaxed at 300 times the sensitivity, so his memories just… disappeared.”

I concluded with a forced smile.

But Sora shook her head resolutely.

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

“Why?”

“Other ordinary aberrations couldn’t be reasoned with, but they seemed to not remember either. They looked quite wronged, from their perspective.”

“Sora is right. We tried some strong magical torturing, but these freaky Indios really didn’t know anything.”

“You asked properly, right?”

I gazed steadily at Whiteday.

Whiteday opened her mouth calmly.

“We even tried a magical baptism with magical water, but it was no use.”

“Ah, then you did all you could.”

Certainly, having used water, the all-purpose means, Whiteday and Sora had done their part.

Water can solve everything.

Losing weight, too.

Removing stains from clothes, too.

Making people quiet, too.

Getting unknown answers, too.

If it can’t be solved with water, it means this is no ordinary difficult problem.

“I even zapped them a bit with magic, but it didn’t work. They just screamed they didn’t know.”

“I see.”

Even having used fire, another all-purpose means, it seems it was of no use.

At this point, one could fairly say they’d all done their best in the realm of magical girls.

I expressed my gratitude to everyone.

“Understood. Thank you, you’ve all worked hard.”

It wasn’t the result I wanted, but separately from that, I’m grateful for what they did.

They’d all done the things I was going to do, in my physical absence.

Besides, even if I had interrogated them directly, the result might not have been different.

“I’m sorry it doesn’t seem like we were much help.”

“I should’ve welled more…sorry…”

“It’s okay. You did all you could, more or less.”

They must be just as frustrated as I am.

I understand. They tried hard in their own way, but in the end, proper results didn’t come out.

“It is slightly regrettable that we could not ‘select’ more abductees in the Magical Shower Room. All the more so since the girl could not do it herself.”

“Uh…is that so.”

Well, someone might be frustrated for other reasons.

Anyway.

The matter was settled, but a new question had only sprung up. How had the monster’s memories vanished?

Predicting the possibilities was difficult, and reproducing the phenomenon was even more impossible.

If I could recover my strength to near its peak and see it for myself, I might be able to grasp at least a faint thread, but that was a distant prospect for now.

I suppose I have no choice but to be satisfied here.

A shame, but it can’t be helped for the time being.

Meanwhile, it didn’t seem like we had been talking for that long, but somehow, we had already finished everything we ordered.

Right on cue, Sora spoke up.

“Senior, should we get going now?”

“Yeah.”

“Inferior species, thank you for the meal.”

“……Thanks.”

I waved dismissively and stood up from my seat.

Whatever the case, I particularly overdid it this time, so I wouldn’t be ordering anything anytime soon, nor overdoing anything.

At most, I’d just do some work a few times, like usual, and live moderately. There wouldn’t be anything especially unusual beyond that.

Yes.

Just another peaceful day for a magical girl.

「We will now commence the Magical Cooking Tournament! All magical girls, please prepare yourselves!」

“Ah, shit.”

…or so I had thought.