TESTC 07

“I want to become a tentacle.”

Hearing Aille’s request, I clasped my hand over my forehead and fell into thought.

What did I just hear?

Struggling to suppress the thought that was about to blurt out, I carefully asked again.

“Um… so you’re saying you want to have tentacles?”

“No. I want to be a tentacle.”

“Ah, ha. You don’t want to have tentacles, you want to become one…”

Like that’s going to happen.

However, I didn’t flat-out reject her. She was a teenage girl, after all. Most of them have their heads in the clouds. The girl in front of me seemed to have her head in a Venus flytrap instead of a flower garden, but either way…

If I refused the tentacle request, who knew what she’d come up with next? I needed a consultation before a blanket refusal led to something more serious.

“Why, out of all things, do you want to become a tentacle?”

“…Because I thought it would be the most memorable.”

“Memorable?”

“Yes. In the memories of the Magical Girls… their memories.”

“Hmm, memorable, you say.”

Fortunately, this could be resolved through a proper conversation.

I recalled the books I had read about Magical Girls since coming to this world and began to speak.

“Magical Girls are said to fight enemies from other worlds, the Igye—is that right?”

“Huh? Yes… that’s right.”

“And those enemies from the Igye don’t look like anything from this world. They look more like, well, tentacle monsters.”

“That is also correct.”

“If Aille were to become a tentacle, wouldn’t they just think you’re one of those Igye enemies? Far from sticking in the Magical Girls’ memories, they might just shrug it off, thinking, ‘Oh, it’s just one of the usual guys we see every day.'”

“Ugh.”

Aille let out a faint groan, as if that point had struck home. Judging by her serious expression, she seemed to agree with me. Good. Now I could steer her toward a direction that was easier for me to create.

“Still, if you really want to be a tentacle, I’ll try my best. But if your goal is to be memorable to the Magical Girls… wouldn’t it be more important to become a being that has never appeared before?”

“Become a being that has never existed…?”

“Yes. For example, an Evil Magical Girl.”

“Oh, an Evil Magical Girl…!”

It was a common trope in the many Magical Girl anime I had seen back on Earth, yet surprisingly, such a being had never appeared in this world. In fact, it was a world where they couldn’t physically exist.

Magical Girls are beings given power by spirits or some similar entities. Those spirits, in turn, are like a counterbalance, created to stop the Igye enemies, so they have no reason to grant power to someone who would become an enemy of humanity.

Falling to evil while fighting an Igye enemy? That’s impossible. As I said before, the Igye enemies are closer to creatures from Cthulhu-like myths than intelligent beings. I’ve never heard of a Magical Girl awakening into that kind of state; they’d just die fighting.

And the suggestion that she could become an Evil Magical Girl seemed incredibly exciting to Aille.

“S-Scientist! I-I want to become one…! An Evil Magical Girl!”

“Hmm. All right. Do you have a design in mind?”

“I-I do!”

Aille shouted that and scurried off somewhere. A moment later, she reappeared holding a notebook.

“H-here…”

She stammered and blushed as she handed it over, clearly embarrassed to show her personal notebook to a stranger, but it was better than asking me to create a tentacle, so I took the notebook and checked its contents.

And I became certain of one thing.

‘Has she always wanted to be a Magical Girl?’

Inside the notebook was a self-designed dress that a girl suffering from ‘eighth-grade syndrome’ (chūnibyō) might scribble—a black, heavily-laced gown with excessive frills. A dress whose aesthetic I couldn’t decide whether to call beautiful or self-mutilating.

As I quietly looked through the notebook, Aille wriggled her hands and feet and cautiously spoke.

“W-what do you think…?”

“—It’s well drawn. It’s cool, actually. I’ll make it for you just like this.”

“Yes! Yes…! Thank you…! …B-But. Is it okay for someone like me to wear this? All the Magical Girls are pretty and cute. I, I’m not pretty or cute…”

“Aille, you’re cute enough. I guarantee it.”

“Y-Y-Yes, what—!? M-Me, cute…”

Aille, unaccustomed to receiving compliments, blushed fiercely and fidgeted before bolting out of the lab. Watching her go, I sighed and turned my attention back to the notebook.

“I have no idea what’s going on in the minds of kids these days…”

Wanting to become a tentacle, wanting to be remembered by Magical Girls…

I thought she needed a mental hospital before she needed to be a villain.

Well, the boss could deal with that. My job was just to figure out how to realize the dress in the notebook.

The immediate problem was how to actually make this exact design.

‘Should I commission a designer…?’

Unlike Earth, superpowers exist in this world. Heroes utilizing those powers exist, and naturally, so do villains. And that’s not all. There are Beastmen who adopt the characteristics of animals, Magical Girls and their adversaries the Igye enemies, and… well, all sorts of geeky otaku-like beings.

Which meant that a creature like the one in front of me could also exist.

“Ohoho—You’ve summoned me. You must be a person of taste.”

“Ah, yes…”

I told the boss I needed a clothing designer, and the next day, a Scissor Man showed up. Not Edward Scissorhands. A Scissor Man. A bizarre being that was a giant pair of scissors walking on two legs.

I spent a good while wondering how such a thing could be real and how it managed to walk, only to realize that thinking about it too long would be detrimental to my sanity.

“I’m Eight. And your name?”

“I am Scissors-Jesus. So, what is the masterpiece I’m to create?”

“It’s this… It’s a bit crude.”

I carefully handed over the notebook, and the Scissor’s body shimmered. I had no idea how it saw anything, but after inspecting the notebook, Scissors-Jesus let out a Hoo-hoo laugh.

“An interesting design. You’re entrusting this to me?”

“…Ah, was it too difficult?”

“Difficult!—There is no garment I cannot create! But I am merely asking if you truly summoned me to make this.”

The scissors shimmered again. I felt something like sharp killing intent. My mouth went dry, and after clearing my throat a few times, I explained what the design was for.

“This is the Magical Girl uniform our organization’s executive will be wearing.”

“…Magical Girl?”

“Yes. We’re running an experiment to see if we can replicate a Magical Girl with our technology… This is the design the subject requested. If it’s a problem, we can change it.”

“—No, Professor. You shouldn’t give up so easily.”

“Huh?”

I meant that if the shoddy design, which looked like a middle schooler drew it, was impossible, I would switch to another design. But Scissors-Jesus seemed to interpret my words as a threat to cut him, and he placed a cold scissor hand on mine, speaking,

“Ohoho, splendid! If this is not merely a scrap of clothing but a garment with special power, I, Scissors-Jesus, will gladly lend my hands!”

“Thank you. Oh, please use this material.”

I presented the thread I had prepared beforehand. Superpowers exist in this world. Among them are abilities that allow one to store their power. The robot R…something that Regalia treasured also had a battery with such an ability.

This thread was the same. I found an ability user who could store power and infused the thread itself with that power. A garment made with this thread would contain its own energy, and by attaching various devices that could utilize that energy, we would imitate a Magical Girl.

Well, first, the clothes had to be made…

“It won’t take long. Just call the executive who will wear this!”

“Ah, yes.”

True to his nature as a Scissor Man—a being of blades and scissors—he instantly began sewing the thread. Indeed, at that speed, he seemed faster than any normal sewing machine.

The dress began to be completed at a visible pace, a testament to the fact that Regalia hadn’t called him in vain. In a few hours, a single dress would be finished. I had been nearby, researching the equipment to attach to the dress, but seeing the signs of completion, I left to find Aille.

“Th-this is…”

“Ohoho—Are you the young lady who owns this dress? It’s nearly finished, so try it on. We need to make sure there are no parts that need fixing.”

Aille, who appeared a moment later, gasped upon seeing the completed dress. It was no wonder she was surprised; an object that had only existed in her head was now right before her eyes.

She tried on the dress with Scissors-Jesus’s help. He instantly identified the areas that needed adjustment just by looking at her and finished the final tweaks.

The completed dress truly looked worthy of the name Evil Magical Girl.

“S-Scientist…! H-how do I look?”

“You look cool.”

“Hmm-hmm—That’s not how you give a compliment, now is it? You look lovely and adorable, young lady.”

“Y-Yeeeesss…”

The Scissor Man mumbled something next to me, but I barely paid attention. I couldn’t afford to.

My gaze was solely focused on Aille.

‘I didn’t think she’d like it this much…’*

Aille, wearing the Magical Girl outfit, twirled around, lifted the skirt of the dress this way and that, and struck poses as if brandishing a magic wand.

Seeing how happy she was, I knew that if I told her now that becoming an Evil Magical Girl was impossible, she would be utterly devastated. She might even burst into tears and run to the boss to demand that I be cut to pieces.

…I can make this, right?

I offered a silent prayer for the successful completion of the Magical Girl outfit.

I prayed to the Machine Spirit—which, somehow, felt like it might actually exist in this world.