NOVEL NEXT 21 – Fifth one!
The demon attacks didn’t always have an obvious goal or even target. After all, why attack an amusement park? Just to cause panic and chaos? Or was there some greater plan at play?
That seemed to be the common topic of the magical girls’ meetings. Finding out what the demon lord’s big plan could be and stopping it before it could come to fruition. Although, they never seemed to figure out much…
Lately, however, the topic of discussion seemed to have shifted to something else. Or rather, someone else.
“A… bomb?” Sarah asked as her eyes shifted to the black gem on the table and back. She wondered whether it was timed or otherwise rigged to blow up at any moment.
“It’s stable right now. It won’t go off on its own, but it can be activated,” Nicole assured. “Although… There’s a seal on it. You need to know quite a bit of magic to activate it.”
“Right…” Sarah kept nervously glancing at the gem.
“Looks like our minion is even more mysterious than we thought then,” Iris nodded to herself. “I doubt most minions have access to things like this, or can even operate it, otherwise we would be in serious trouble.”
“Good thing she’s on our side then,” Erika reminded them.
Sarah crossed her arms while frowning. “I dunno, this just makes her seem more unhinged. I mean, a bomb? Strong enough to level some buildings? Are we sure she’s a good guy?”
“Well, if this is her work–” Nicole grabbed the pea-sized bomb between her fingers and lifted it up to eye level. “--then she just sabotaged a demon general. Pretty sure she’s on our side here.”
“Meh. An enemy of our enemy isn’t always our friend,” Sarah pointed out.
“Point…” Nicole relented before drawing attention to the gem again. “Either way, I had a thought when I was looking into this thing.” She turned it in her hand, studying it from different angles. “It absorbed the magical power from those pillars, and now it’s waiting for someone to release it.” She put it down again before narrowing her eyes. “Eerily similar to our weapons, wouldn’t you say?”
The others stopped at that, thinking of the implications.
“That… I mean, I guess? It’s a bit of a stretch. This thing is way more extreme than our weapons, isn’t it?” Sarah voiced her opinion.
“Maybe she somehow replicated the effect?” The redhead suggested.
“Oh…” Iris suddenly exclaimed as her eyes widened. “The fifth weapon…” She stared at the gem as if she’d seen a ghost. “Do you think she figured something out? Is that what you’re implying?”
Nicole pursed her lips and frowned before nodding. The other two looked between them in confusion.
“The fifth weapon…? As in… a fifth magical girl?” Erika asked, unsure.
Nicole simply nodded again.
“Wait, what? There’s a fifth one?” Sarah’s eyebrows rose. “Who is she? Where is she? That’s the first time I’m hearing about this!”
Erika gasped. “Are… are you saying that the minion is…?” she asked, shock painting her expression.
“No.” Iris shook her head. “The fifth magical girl doesn’t exist. The weapon doesn’t exist,” she declared.
A moment of silence followed. The confusion on Sarah’s and Erika’s faces grew even more.
“Then what are you talking about?!” Sarah threw her arms up.
“It’s… well, it’s something I heard about from the first generation,” Iris started. “The first Pretty Flame was researching the magical weapons, apparently, and from what I heard, a fifth weapon was possible in theory, but impossible in practice. Something about it being too volatile.” She nodded to Nicole. “I don’t know the details, but Nicole here often discussed it with the previous Pretty Bloom.”
Sarah frowned again while Erika hummed to herself.
“Wait… But how can a fifth weapon even exist?” Sarah then realized. “After all, aren’t our weapons’ powers based on…” she trailed off.
“Yeah. That’s why it’s impossible.” Nicole nodded. “Or, well… it should be impossible.” She once again lifted the gem up. “This is either something similar, or our mysterious demon minion ally has figured something out.”
The possibility of a fifth magical girl had never crossed Sarah’s mind. In the first place, it didn’t even make sense considering their power source. The thought of this minion with dubious allegiances gaining the powers of a magical girl and then turning on them didn’t fill her with confidence either.
“It would be cool to have another ally,” Erika mused. “And if she figures out a way for us to go to the demon realm as well, that would change everything…”
Sarah frowned. As much as she liked Erika’s positivity, the girl could definitely benefit from being a smidge more skeptical.
“Or she could harness the fifth weapon’s power, whatever that is, and become the new demon lord we would have to worry about,” Sarah said while sitting back and crossing her arms.
The others stared at her.
“You know. Just saying.” She shrugged.
“Well, let’s hope for the best and expect the worst, I suppose,” Nicole said with a nod. “Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say. I’m gonna try to talk to my cousin about this, see what she thinks.”
A few murmurs of agreement followed. With that topic out of the way, Erika chanced a question.
“By the way… anyone talked to Jessica lately?”
“Lately? Like, since the pool…?” Sarah asked, and when Erika nodded, she frowned. “Not really… Why?”
Erika frown. “Well… I tried calling her and texting her a few times… But all she replies with is just text saying ‘Sorry, I’m busy’.” The frown turned into a grimace. ”I have a feeling she’s avoiding me.”
Nicole frowned at that. “Well… She did almost die back there… I bet she’s still shaken.”
“What? Jessica? Nah, she has balls of steel. And she isn’t even a guy!” Sarah exclaimed.
“That she does,” Nicole confirmed, much to everyone’s surprise. “But that doesn’t mean she’ll take almost dying in a stride, you know?”
“I feel like such a crappy friend…” Erika sighed.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Iris spoke up for the first time since the topic had changed. “I don’t know her personally, but… Well, isn’t she the girl who pepper-sprayed a demon general into submission? She kinda struck me as the type to look death in the eyes and tell it to fuck off.”
Sarah snickered at that, but Erika didn’t feel better at all.
“Come on. I bet she’s just busy with work,” Sarah tried to cheer her friend up, before remembering, “Hey, you know what? I’ve actually been in contact with Cody,” she revealed. “I can ask him about Jessica. He works at the same place as her, right?”
“Right, yeah…” Erika mumbled.
“Come on. You know that crazy girl, she’s gonna be fine!”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Erika’s expression finally broke into a small smile.
Still, Erika couldn’t help but worry. Was her friend traumatized by the experience? Did she realize it wasn’t a coincidence the demons always happened to attack near where they were? Or maybe, as Sarah had mentioned, she just happened to have a busy week at work.
Once again, Erika wondered what kind of job Jessica had exactly.
