“I have things to do! I’ll be going now!”
Clara figured it was about time she headed back to Beast Fox Bell’s workshop.
“Wait, Clara.”
But just as she mounted her broom and took off vertically, Kamui, who she usually had little interaction with, suddenly called out to her and flew up as well.
Kamui’s flight didn’t rely on any external object. Other magical girls still needed to attach flight magic to something, but Kamui used herself as the vessel for the flight spell…
With a Mana Emission parameter of zero, it meant all the magic she cast could only affect herself, and flight magic was no different.
It was a bit hard to control and flying felt counterintuitive, but once she got used to it, there were no side effects. However, she seemed more like a different type of Hero than a magical girl.
Clara, however, didn’t really want to talk to her.
Kamui was the source of her magical girl power, so when she used this magical girl combat body, her facial features were inevitably eight or nine parts similar to Kamui’s. Not to mention the petite figure and lolita build—they were practically like twin sisters.
Precisely for that reason, when acting as “Magical Girl Clara,” this gas mask, which was sometimes full-face and sometimes half-mask, was especially important.
The more she interacted with her, the easier it was to see through her.
“…What is it?” she asked helplessly.
“Let me see,” said Kamui as she flew up. “Take off your mask and let me have a look.”
“Huh?! No way! That’s not allowed! A mask is a hero’s soul! You can never take it off!” Clara quickly covered her mask. “No, no! To think you called me just to see my real face…”
As Clara shouted, Kamui reached out to take it off directly.
Not needing to hold onto a broom to maintain balance, she clearly had the advantage.
“Does any magical girl wear a mask all day? If you ask me, a cute face is what proves we’re magical girls!”
“Ha, what are you saying? You’re the magical girl here, aren’t you!”
Seeming dead set on pulling the mask off Clara’s face, Kamui grappled with her in midair. The cold air at high altitude made them more acutely aware of their situation.
“Please stop!!”
Though Kamui had seen Clara’s bare face during the variety show livestream earlier, at that time Clara had just turned back into herself and put the mask on.
While fighting as a magical girl, she still looked the same as when she first met Kamui.
And now, still using her magical girl power to maintain flight, if she turned back into the squid loli Clara (Squill factor), she’d fall from a hundred meters up!
[Pretend to let go of the Inkstained Staff and deactivate it, then hug Kamui. Secretly break the transformation. That way, it’ll be safe when she removes the gas mask.]
Her personal assistant, Nyx, started offering advice.
[Flight ability is a normal thing. She won’t suspect you. For an average magical girl, losing their staff means losing flight ability.]
‘I have no choice but to cling to her…’
“Waaaah!”
Clara pretended to let go of the squid broom she had been clamping between her legs, and her body immediately dropped.
The sudden loss of gravity triggered her survival instincts, making her reach out and grab wildly, ending up clutching Kamui’s collar and tearing open the butterfly bow decorated with a red gold gem.
Even though her collar was torn open, Kamui still pulled the latter into her small embrace…
“We’re falling!!”
Kamui mistakenly thought her own struggling had caused Clara’s flight error.
“Don’t worry. You won’t fall.”
Flying while holding Clara was easy for her. After all, the squid loli’s weight was nowhere near her golden mace’s; with her strength, she could even swing Clara around as a weapon.
The falling Inkstained Staff dissolved into mana in the night sky before hitting the ground.
Most creations of the NIX-Driver were like that—if they went too far, they naturally dissipated.
Clara still clung tightly to Kamui, like a koala baby hanging onto its mother.
Her limbs wrapped around Kamui, who had the same build as her; her chubby legs coiled around the latter’s waist, and even the slippery little tentacles in her hair wrapped around Kamui’s head like facehuggers. Her mask naturally pressed against the latter’s cheek.
The embrace was unfamiliar.
Kamui hadn’t expected things to turn out this way.
She always acted alone. Forget boyfriends, she didn’t even have many close female friends. Even female friends wouldn’t hold her like this… Was this hug closer to that between mother and daughter?
“Don’t hold on so tight. I’ll take us down first.”
To get this “sticky candy” to let go, Kamui reluctantly chose to land.
But she didn’t land on the ground. Instead, she touched down on the roof of a slightly shorter building.
Safe.
With both feet on the ground, Kamui patted Clara on the back.
“What exactly are you trying to do?!”
Clara complained pitifully.
She was faking it.
She was fairly confident in her acting skills. After all, good acting was part of a “small fry’s” self-cultivation, a means to pretend to be dead and survive in fierce battles.
“So can you take the mask off now?”
“W-Why are you so fixated on this? My face hasn’t changed. You can find my face online… Why do you want to take off my mask…”
Of course, Kamui wouldn’t say she wanted to confirm if Clara’s face was the same as hers.
“Some magical girls look different before and after transformation. I want to see your current face to confirm. Is that not allowed? Or is your transformed face really ugly?”
Clara had already secretly turned back into the squid loli, but she was still wearing the magical girl’s dress outfit.
No longer a magical girl, just cosplaying at best, she had no problem taking off the gas mask. But even if she cooperatively removed it, Kamui would still be suspicious…
She shook her head in refusal.
“I told you, the mask is a hero’s soul!”
Clara believed that Kamui, who would start a fight at the drop of a hat, would definitely come to take her mask off. Evidence obtained firsthand would be more convincing.
“Clara, what exactly…”
But instead of reaching for her mask, Kamui summoned her magic mace.
“Huh? You need a weapon to take off a gas mask?”
“I don’t know since when you’ve been lurking nearby, but your timing in that battle just now was perfect.”
“Thanks. Well, then… I’ll continue my patrol.”
Kamui looked away, apologized sheepishly, then stepped onto her mace and flew off.
“Ha, not taking off the mask?”
Watching the distant figure, Clara took off her own mask instead.
She felt there was something indescribably different about the magical girl Kamui.
The way she treated her…