The Fairy’s Prank

Translated by LyraDhani

Edited by LyraDhani

Watching as the black mouth completely swallowed the Dragon, Tsugumi sat up and let out a big sigh.

…Really, he thought, this time would be useless.

Feeling strangely full, Tsugumi gazed at the fainted children, who had fallen limp and unconscious after the beast’s mouth disappeared, and slowly lowered them to the ground. They saw a scene like that. No wonder they fainted.

…He felt a little sorry for the young children laying on the hard ground, but it wasn’t a good idea to touch these children too much.

As soon as Tsugumi stepped away from the child, the effect began to show.

“As expected, touching these kids was the reason I couldn’t use my ability…”

Saying this, he manipulated the threads entwined in his fingers. The threads moved as if the earlier malfunction was a lie. When he checked the screen, the children were properly reflected.

…They showed up in the picture, so they weren’t a God or a ghost.

Then he sent the picture to the operations center, leaning against a nearby wall and putting his hand on his chin thoughtfully,

–What will happen to these children now?

If he touched them, he would lose the ability to use his powers as a Magical Girl–It was the biggest threat to Magical Girls. Moreover, these children belonged to another country. In some cases, there was a very high possibility that they would become an enemy of Japan.

As Tsugumi was worrying about this, he received a call on his terminal.

“Yes, hello?”

[“This is Yamabuki. –Hagakure-san, I’m going to cut to the chase, where have you been?”]

“Eh?”

He asked Yamabuki for more details after that, and it seemed that between the time when Tsugumi picked up the children and the time when he put them down, Hagakure’s bio-signs suddenly disappeared, and they couldn’t find him. Moreover, a huge hole suddenly opened up in the river and the Dragon’s corpse disappeared, so there was a big commotion at the scene.

Maybe just as these children were unrecognizable to people, he might become unrecognizable when he touched them as well. …What a nasty ability.

As for the photos sent by Tsugumi, only a few people could see the children, and the rest of the people seemed to just see a picture of the ground. Incidentally, none of the personnel on the British side could see the children, and they thought it was a bad joke.

After listening to such a little scary story, Tsugumi briefly explained what had happened after going down near the bridge and he also explained that touching them made him unable to use his abilities. “I’m going to send a car to pick you up, and please take the children with you. Wait there for about 15 minutes.”

It seemed that various things had to be considered after returning to the waiting area.

Tsugumi, who suddenly had nothing to do, vaguely looked at the river that had returned to normal and muttered.

“…It was really not worth the work. I knew I shouldn’t accept requests from people.”

As he renewed his resolve to complain to Yukino, he heard a voice right behind him.

“–It sounds like you’ve been through quite a lot”

The sudden voice startled him and he turned around with a start.

“Who’s that?! Oh, it’s you, Nii… I mean, Shiro-sama. What are you doing in a place like this?”

There he was, the white rabbit with golden eyes–Shiro, Chidori’s contract God. Since Chidori was in England, it wasn’t strange for him to be here, but he didn’t expect him to talk like this.

–He looked around, thinking that Chidori might be nearby. As he did so, Shiro approached Tsugumi’s feet and said in a whisper.

“Don’t worry, she’s not here. Of course, I have made sure that neither my appearance nor my voice is visible to anyone else. Fufu, it’s adorable how my little sister is worried about me.”

“Um, I’m not your little sister.”

…He had agreed to be a brother at that time by giving up a hundred steps, but he definitely didn’t intend to be a sister.

When Tsugumi replied with a disgusted look, Shiro floated and clung to Tsugumi’s chest. He hurried to support the underside of the fluffy ball of fluff to keep him from sliding down. It was like a cuddling position.

Apparently, his curt response had offended Shiro. …He didn’t know which one of them was the younger brother anymore.

Shiro sat in Tsugumi’s arms with a satisfied expression, then looked down at the children who were unconscious and said with admiration.

“–Still, it’s amazing that such a unique relic has survived to the present day. It’s also of high quality. I wonder if it has gained strength recently.”

“A relic, is it?”

“The clothes have a hint of mystery that has taken root in this land. It is most likely a relic that was made in the past and given to the children on a whim by a fairy or some other entity that manifested in the aftermath of the Demonic Beast’s power.”

Fairies–for ordinary Japanese people, the first image that came to mind was that of beauty and cuteness, but in reality, they were quite malicious.

According to Chidori, who loved to collect foreign books, fairies were said to be a form of a fallen God of indigenous beliefs, not so different from the origin of Japanese yokai. Therefore, there were still many anecdotes of their viciousness that harmed people.

He didn’t know why fairies gave the children mysterious clothes that could make them disappear, but considering the current state of the children, who were thin and dirty, he didn’t have a very good impression of fairies.

“Then the mysterious power to make their figures disappear is not their ability but the effect of that robe.”

Saying that, he patted his chest in relief. If the power to disappear was due to this robe, there were many ways to deal with it. At worst, if he secretly burned it, it wouldn’t pose a threat.

With this thought in mind, Tsugumi continued his question.

“Is the fairy who gave them the robes still with them?”

“They are gone. The power that fills this land is too weak. Perhaps they gave these children a cloth that would conceal or shift the boundaries…and then quickly disappeared. They basically don’t know how to adjust. I’m sure they didn’t mean any harm, but it’s a problem.”

“…What a nuisance”

Tsugumi said so in disgust.

It was beyond irresponsible to give young children something they didn’t understand, and then quickly disappear. They should learn from Bell, Tsugumi thought angrily and asked Shiro a question.

“Shiro-sama, do you know what effect this has?”

“Yes. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out once you see it. This is a relic that has the effect of dragging those who touch it into a pseudo-astral world, hiding their existence from the present world. It’s what we call an invisibility robe.”

“Ah, so it’s invisible to others. But still, a ghost world? It’s like a small-scale barrier.”

Tsugumi nodded his head in agreement.

By creating a dimension out of alignment, it was made invisible to the outside world – in other words, it was a system similar to the Magical Girl’s barrier system.

But how could Tsugumi see the children who had disappeared? Thinking that, Tsugumi opened his mouth.

“But why is it that some people can see this child and others can’t? And I’m also curious as to why I suddenly lost my powers.”

When Tsugumi asked this question anxiously, Shiro said in a slow tone.

“The only way to be able to see these children is by having a near-death experience. For those who have had a glimpse of the real ghost world, this kind of concealment will not work. The reason why the connection with Bell was cut off is because the distance between you and the contract God was too wide when the effect of the concealment – the shifting of boundaries – was triggered. In addition, the fact that Bell-dono hates this place is probably one of the reasons why the connection has faded. The God is extremely incompatible with Western countries. Well, this situation could have been prevented if Bell-dono had been closer.”

“Eh, is that so?”

It was a shocking fact. In other words, if the person standing here was another Magical Girl – someone working together with their contract God, they could have used their ability without any problem.

…He never thought that Bell’s restraint would have an adverse effect in a place like this.

Tsugumi said in a weak voice as he slumped his shoulders in disappointment.

“I understand. It was just a bad time for me that I lost my ability. ….Huh? Then why was I able to use [Gluttony], then?”

The connection was temporarily severed – then why was the [Gluttony] skill activated?

When Tsugumi asked that question, Shiro answered with a blank look.

“Perhaps the skill was deeply connected to the soul. The fact that you were able to use your powers outside of the barrier may have been due to your body’s mistaken belief that you were inside a barrier because you were close to the world of ghosts. In a way, I guess you were lucky.”

“Ah, that certainly makes sense…”

Tsugumi put his hand on his chin thoughtfully. Shiro’s argument certainly made sense.

The connection between [Gluttony] and his soul–the number of times he had sacrificed a part of himself was outstanding. It wouldn’t be so strange if the skill was triggered on its own in the contractor’s crisis. –But why did he feel like something was still bugging him?

Maybe he was just a bit preoccupied because of this near-death experience.

At any rate, the question had been answered. He was a little worried about the children’s futures, but he should leave the rest to the higher-ups.

Having made that decision, Tsugumi let out a small sigh and stared at Shiro.

“Thank you for going out of your way to explain everything. I was worried about a lot of things, so it helped.”

When Tsugumi said that and lowered his head, Shiro narrowed his eyes and smiled.

“Fufu, you don’t have to worry about it. Since your guardian can’t come here, it’s only natural for me, your older brother, to help.”

He jumped down from Tsugumi’s arms.

“Now, I think it’s time for me to go back to our sister. I’m sure she’s worried about me right now, since I came out without telling her.”

“…Please don’t make Chidori worry too much. Unlike me, she’s delicate.”

When Tsugumi told him this, Shiro lowered his ears as if he had hit the nails in the head and left the place, dissolving into the air. …It seemed, there was still some self-awareness in him.

Tsugumi shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the sleeping children. Perhaps they were siblings. Their faces were very similar.

Their hair, spilled out of the brown robe, was dull blonde and unevenly long as if they had cut it themselves at random. Their body was also very thin, it was hard to tell their genders at a quick glance.

If, as Shiro said, these magic robes were given to them by accident, then surely these children were not in any danger. It was better to leave their future to the government now.

–But more importantly, he and Azalea talked about relics yesterday, and this robe might be the closest thing to that.

It was a perfect model for relics–something from the past that had been altered by fairies who had manifested.

…Things are going to get a lot rougher from here on out, Tsugumi thought, but the rest should be discussed by people on top. There was nothing more that Hagakure Sakura, a low-ranking soldier, could do.

As he thought so, the sound of an engine reached his ears.

“–It’s the sound of a car.”

Apparently, a lot of time had passed while he was talking with Shiro.

—Anyway, this seems to be the end of the story.

Tsugumi waved his hand at the car coming toward him, dodging the debris.