The Real Target

Translated by LyraDhani

Edited by LyraDhani

After being taken out of the women’s restroom by the theater staff, Tsugumi was brought to the backyard with the crying girl. Apparently, they were told to wait quietly here.

Sitting down on a round chair, he let out a loud sigh.

–The bloodstained jacket and smashed cell phone. It was obvious that Chidori had been involved in some sort of incident.

Attempted kidnappings of women had certainly been on the rise recently. He told Chidori that she needed to be careful, but he had never thought that someone would be kidnapped in broad daylight like this.

Still, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that she was still inside the theater, so the theater staff looked around the venue during the screening, but they could not find Chidori or the missing junior high school student anywhere.

Currently, they had closed the restrooms where the crime scene took place and were waiting for the police to arrive, but it would be some time before they arrived.

In reality, kidnapping cases like this could be solved more quickly with the help of the government’s Magical Girls with special abilities, but there was some friction between the government and the police force in this area, and it seemed that the government could only intervene in the form of a request from the police.

–Up until now, he had thought that this was inevitable, but he had never imagined how frustrating it would be to be a party to this case.

However, no matter how dissatisfied he was with the way things were handled, the rules couldn’t be changed. He knew that if he got into trouble, it would only slow down the investigation.

Tsugumi clenched his hands tightly and suppressed his smoldering passion. –At least for now, he needed time to calm down. He glanced at the girl next to him. The girl was still sobbing.

“Here, use this.”

He handed the girl, who was wiping her tears with her cuff, a towel that the staff had prepared. The girl replied in a small voice, “Thank you,” and looked up, gripping the towel tightly.

She looked at him with unfocused eyes and began to speak in a hushed voice, as if in penitence.

“..I, it’s my fault. Because that girl was scared, and I forced her to go outside.”

“Was she scared?”

When Tsugumi asked this back, the girl nodded slowly with a pained look on her face.

“That girl said she felt like someone was watching her lately. I was worried at first too, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find anyone suspicious, so I just assumed she was mistaken. …She seemed depressed, so we went out to distract her, but I had no idea that this was going to happen…”

“It’s not your fault.”

When Tsugumi said this to the girl with concern, the girl denied it in a loud voice.

“It’s my fault!! Because I knew she had Magical Girl aptitude! Even though I was told to be careful with girls because things are even more dangerous these days… I should have been more careful…”

While staring at the girl who said this and buried her face in a towel and began to cry, Tsugumi put his hand over his mouth in thought.

–This time, the kidnapper was definitely after her friend. If the word had somehow spread that she had an aptitude to be a Magical Girl, it would make sense that she was targeted.

It was possible that the kidnappers knew about Chidori, but it was only an hour ago that Tsugumi decided to come to the movie theater. It was hard to believe that they could be ready to kidnap someone in such a short time. Perhaps Chidori was caught in the middle.

–Chidori might be inexperienced, but she was still an accomplished Magical Girl. As long as her consciousness was clear, it should be easy for her to escape from her kidnappers. But there was one more problem.

–The kidnapper’s real target. She was probably kidnapped somewhere, just like Chidori, but it was hard to believe that Chidori would run away without the girl.

It would be best if they could escape together using Chidori’s ability to transport, but Chidori, still weak as a Magical Girl, would take some time before she could get out the door to transport. …If the kidnapper was a professional, the time lag would be fatal. Failure could lead to the worst possible incapacitation.

The kidnappers were after girls with Magical Girl aptitude. If this was the case, the kidnappers must be desperate for a real Magical Girl.

Since Chidori was treated as a temporary worker, her name was not on the official government website, but if one wanted to look her up, they could easily find her face and name. …He could only hope that the kidnappers were not that smart.

…If Tsugumi could get in touch with Shiro, it would be possible to locate Chidori through Shiro, but that would be difficult since he didn’t know where Shiro was.

When Tsugumi reported the situation to Bell earlier, he had asked her to tell him about the kidnapping if she saw Shiro, but it would be better not to expect too much.

As he waited quietly, someone came into the backyard. When he turned his eyes toward the door, he saw Azalea standing there with a worried look.

“Nanase-kun, are you okay? …I never thought this would happen.”

Azalea said with an anxious look as he offered a drink, which had completely melted, to Tsugumi.

“The staff member over there was talking about a customer who saw a woman coming out of the restroom before and after Chidori-san disappeared, pushing a large cleaning cart. The woman went straight out the back door at the back of the building, and it was a wonder why she was there, but perhaps she was…”

“…I see.”

A woman pushing a cleaning cart. Perhaps she had placed a no trespassing sign in front of the restroom, and when no one was around, she took the opportunity to kidnap her. Not very useful information, but still better than no clue at all.

Then, after gulping down his lukewarm juice in one go, Tsugumi got up and started walking toward the trash cans. On the way there, he bumped his foot on something big, and he crouched down.

“Ouch…! What is that, – a no trespassing sign? Did you bring this here, too?”

Saying this, Tsugumi glared at the sign. And then, he suddenly noticed something strange.

The sign was not very big, but it was still large enough to catch the eye of a normal person walking by. It would have been strange not to be able to avoid it.

Tsugumi looked at the sign with a curious look, and then he suddenly took off his thin jacket and wrapped it around his right hand.

“Nanase-kun? What are you…”

“It’s fine. –There’s something wrong with this.”

He reached out with his right hand and touched the board with “No Trespassing” handwritten on it. When he tugged on the corner a little, he heard the sound of the board coming off.

Taking care not to touch the board directly with his hand, he gently put his jacket down on the ground. Azalea looked at the backside of the board and let out a surprised voice.

“This is probably a magic circle. Moreover, this language is a very old type. …I never thought such a thing was hidden.”

The backside was covered in reddish-black ink, with spell-like patterns written on it.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Tsk, I should have gone for an exorcism with Chidori.”

Tsugumi venomously took his cell phone out of his pocket, found one person among his contacts, and selected her.

Azalea was staring at the board as if he were looking at something hideous, and Tsugumi spoke quietly to him as he listened to the phone call.

“The police can’t handle this one. It’s a waste of time to wait for the police to make a decision when the case is going to be in the government’s custody anyway. –Mochi is mochi. The occult is occult. …I’m so glad I got her card back then.”

The moment Tsugumi said that, the call sound cut out.

“Yes, this is Inaba. –What’s wrong, Nanase? I can’t believe you called me all of a sudden.”

–The display on the cell phone that Tsugumi was holding–it read “Inaba Honoka, Demonic Beast Countermeasure Headquarters”.