“Even magical girls need mana to create their familiars. With so many rabbits, where did she get so much energy to produce them?”
Fran’s question finally made Clara realize what she meant.
“You’re saying… you suspect some of the food supplies, or something else, was eaten by them?”
To maintain the ecosystem, plenty of wild animals had been released inside the facility. These animals weren’t monitored, just checked on periodically to confirm the ecological balance.
But for Moon Rabbits, as long as they acted in a group, hunting those animals would be easy.
“But the animals in the rainforest are easily seen, and the leftover remains would be discovered. So, they probably wouldn’t dare, which means the only thing left is…”
Fran trailed off. Clara suddenly cut in:
“The seabed! Those Moon Rabbits have gone underwater to fish?”
The aquatic resources in this artificial sea were abundant. Because the ocean area was limited, the density of fish was extremely high, and there was also a demand for them as food ingredients…
“This is just speculation, but since your activities haven’t started yet, why not go investigate underwater? As a magical girl, underwater breathing shouldn’t be a problem for you, right? After all, you can move about freely in outer space~”
Even if she weren’t a magical girl, Clara could still breathe underwater.
After all, she was a squid!
“You want me to go in the sea?”
“That’s right, get in there!”
Fran placed her arm around Clara’s shoulder as she spoke, though it sounded a bit odd.
“Can Moon Rabbits really survive in the sea?”
Parking the vehicle by the beach, Fran replied, “Normal Moon Rabbits definitely can’t. They can’t even enter the dome. But if they’ve been modified, who knows.”
The sand on the artificial beach was very fine and soft.
The tires of the sightseeing vehicle would sink if they drove in, so they could only park beside the main road.
Clara and Sista carried the watermelons they’d brought and set them under the shade tent they’d put up in the morning. Then they kicked off their sandals, carrying them by hand, and stepped barefoot onto the sand to enjoy the beach’s warmth.
“So hot!”
She quickly put her sandals back on.
Maybe stepping on the sand could wait until dusk, when it wasn’t so blistering.
“Is that it?” Fran asked.
“No, we still have to dig four deep pits on the field, big enough to bury all four of them with only their heads sticking out…”
Clara gestured at her own neck for emphasis.
“We’ll handle that—me and Sista. You hurry and get to the sea!”
Come to think of it, since arriving at Lunar Sea Resort, she hadn’t gone into the water yet.
She really should, otherwise, what’s the point of coming all this way?
“But… do you really think there’ll be rabbits in the sea?”
Muttering this to herself, Clara left her belongings behind, kicked off her shoes, and dashed toward the shoreline.
Waves lapped the beach, soaking the pale ankles of the girl.
It wasn’t until the water reached her waist that Clara dove headfirst into the sea.
As Clara entered the water, Sista picked up a shovel and tried to dig a pit on the beach.
She would later have to bury herself, after all.
“Hmm? What are you girls doing?”
A woman in uniform with a striking figure and long, gray-white hair approached from not far away.
“Miss Rabi, we’re digging pits for the afternoon activity.”
Sista answered politely. The staff member, Rabi, thought for a moment and said,
“Oh, I remember—it’s the ‘watermelon smashing’ game, right? You line up four people’s heads and a watermelon, blindfold the striker and the people being struck, and guide the striker with words to split the watermelon?”
Sista nodded. But Fran added,
“Actually, it doesn’t matter if you miss the watermelon. In fact, missing is what makes it fun~!”
Rabi squinted her eyes.
“Miss Fran, you’ve… really got the style of an evil organization, don’t you?”
“Huh? Well, I’ll take that as a compliment!”
Saying this, Fran casually took off her white lab coat and tossed it aside, stretching in her swimsuit to limber up.
She used her discarded lab coat to cover a nondescript plastic bag.
Only then did she ask, “So what brings you to the beach, Miss Rabi?”
“Nothing really, I just saw you all here while passing by and came to say hello.” Rabi pointed to another sightseeing vehicle parked by the roadside near the beach.
“Thanks to your discovery at lunch, I’ve got my hands full over here.”
She was referring to the matter with the Moon Rabbit group.
To eliminate the threat, the resort staff really were busy now.
Fran simply replied, “Well, whatever happens, it’s better than having the whole island eaten clean, right?”
“True enough… Let me help you dig those pits!”
Wearing a short-sleeved shirt, Rabi rolled up nonexistent sleeves, took the shovel that had been prepared, and walked over to Sista. She went on,
“This really should be something our staff help with, but we’re short on hands right now. Your supervisor probably sent you to do it because she couldn’t find anyone else!”
Despite her words, she seemed rather enthusiastic.
In no time, she’d dug a half-meter-deep pit and reinforced it with seawater.
“Maybe so?”
Fran didn’t know all the details. Okuda Daruma was pretty good at getting people to work—maybe she just wanted to make things difficult for her competitor’s hero and give Clara something to do.
But watching Rabi at work, Fran frowned.
She noticed two things.
First, Rabi was a weirdo.
That wasn’t surprising, since this was a Netmare subsidiary and many of the staff were disguised oddballs. As a former member of the modification department, Fran was good at spotting the telltale signs… Second, Rabi was incredibly light.
That part Fran found hard to accept.
You couldn’t tell on solid ground, but on sand, the difference was obvious. Sista was lighter than Fran, understandable, given how slender she was.
But Rabi, with a more mature and curvaceous figure than herself, was even lighter than Sista—
It made Fran extremely curious.
Was this person hollow? Some ability gained through modification? No, maybe it wasn’t low mass, but rather some kind of anti-gravity power?
Puzzling over it, Fran sidled over and squatted beside the pit to chat.
“By the way, Miss Rabi, you’ve really got a great figure~”
“Oh, thank you~”
Rabi seemed genuinely happy. No woman would refuse such a compliment.
“But Miss Fran, you’ve got a nice figure too—a youthful charm~”
“Miss Rabi, you’re not that much older than me, are you?”
“Mmm, perhaps~”
The topic of age made Rabi’s answer rather ambiguous.
While chatting with Fran, Rabi never stopped working, digging quickly and reinforcing the sandy walls with seawater to keep the carefully-dug pits from collapsing—very professional.
Her pit was even deeper and sturdier than the one Sista had started earlier.
Squatting by the edge, Fran brushed sand off herself, thinking: Could it be, she’s a modified oddball with some kind of mole gene?
Rabbits dig pretty well.