"Forget it. At least it's not that bad."
Mithril comforted Angell, rubbing the hair on the body he was currently occupying with a tiny paw.
"Shall we go back, meow?"
"No. I want to check one more time," Angell said.
"...You actually kind of like this movie, don't you, meow?" the Black Cat teased.
Angell didn't care what the Black Cat said. He called over his unlucky servant Tom and had him get another movie ticket.
This time, Angell remembered to buy a hot dog and some sweet orange juice, and he bought Mithril some dried fish, too, before going back into the cinema.
The Magic Gear logo appeared on the screen first.
Golden gears spun round and round, scattering glittering powder. Then Sir Mandela's Iron Puppet logo clumsily walked across the screen.
The movie officially began.
The plot was more or less the same as the script Allen had given Angell.
Sweet little Maya was an ordinary twelve-year-old girl whose family ran a tailor shop. She was lively and cheerful, and everyone loved her.
At the beginning of the story, on her way to school, Maya came across a strange Maine Coon wearing boots. She followed it through an alley full of cats, with the Receptionist Cats making cameo appearances. At the end of an ordinary alley, in a garbage dump, she found a broken full-length mirror. But instead of reflecting her own image, it showed a breathtakingly beautiful woman who called herself "Cecilia."
When Angell had watched this part the first time, he hadn't thought much of it.
It was a very by-the-numbers opening for a Magical Girl movie.
On his second viewing, Angell noticed that there had been early signs of the later oddities.
For instance, the opening seemed bright and colorful, but that radiance only touched little Maya. Her family's tailor shop was gloomy, as were the streets she lived on. Her parents and neighbors wore cheerful smiles, but under the strange lighting, they looked troubled. By contrast, the shopping mall outside the old neighborhood was brightly lit, yet the fashionable passersby had blurry faces and looked like puppets. If you looked closely, they were downright creepy.
After Maya entered the cats' alley, the atmosphere took on a fairytale quality. But the scene seemed overexposed. It was cute, certainly, but it felt incredibly fake—especially when Maya walked through the alley and returned to reality. The contrast with the gloomy alley made it seem as if she'd just been dreaming.
As for the old Crystal Ball, Magic Wand, Magic Sword, bow, and other artifacts from the Magic Era in the garbage heap where the broken mirror lay, that was practically an outright metaphor.
The "Lady of Charm," Cecilia, was interesting, too.
Cecilia's appearance in the mirror kept changing. One moment she was an innocent young girl, the next a glamorous woman. It might have been Sir Mandela's makeshift solution to accommodate all the backdoor casting requests, but the uncertainty of her breathtaking beauty made her all the more eerie.
At this point, Maya even asked, "Can beauty alone defeat enemies?"
"Of course, girl," Cecilia replied with a smile. "Beauty is a woman's greatest weapon."
"Damn it!" Angell muttered around the dried fish he was feeding Mithril.
He remembered that line. On the page, it had seemed perfectly fine. He'd even thought it would make a decent advertising slogan for merchandise. But in this eerie setting, it only made him uneasy.
Still, the plot followed a familiar, by-the-numbers path.
Kind-hearted little Maya couldn't bear to see Cecilia remain sealed away, so she agreed to accept her legacy, defeat Monsters, and gather moonlight energy.
Cecilia gave Maya the Moonlight Wand.
Maya brought the wand to school. When a Monster appeared during class, she transformed for the first time and defeated it.
This was where the scenes began to make Angell feel that something was off.
When Angell had read the script, Allen had explained that this Monster was one of Maya's classmates. His family's business had gone under, and he'd collapsed into a Monster. Angell had thought it was a pretty ordinary reason, but good enough. Later, Maya attended the boy's funeral, where she met her first little friend, Little Red.
Angell just hadn't expected the transformed classmate's home to be so close to Maya's, with such a similar layout. It was also a small workshop. And at the funeral, Maya's parents and the warped, eerie passersby talked about whether they should shut down their own businesses and go work in factories.
"Heh. Intensifying social tensions—the subject critics love most." Angell took a hard bite of his hot dog.
"It's pretty realistic, meow." Mithril reached for a piece of dried fish.
"The last thing I need is realism!" Angell grumbled.
That was why the transformation and battle scenes he'd storyboarded were so unrealistic.
Angell was aiming for a commercial hit, and with his past-life experience in planning, he knew all about flashy transformations and battles that could tempt players to spend money. That was exactly what he'd put in the storyboards.
As for whether those storyboards fit the plot... Who cared about that?
As long as the merchandise sold, that was all that mattered!
The transformation scenes were the part of the movie Angell cared about most, so he'd been on set to watch the Magical Girls' transformations being filmed.
Director Peter was an obedient director, too. He'd followed Angell's instructions to the letter. Not a single detail had been compromised.
What Angell hadn't expected was that Allen could even make this part fit.
He'd rearranged the battles, placing them where they could provide the strongest contrast. So after the gorgeous battles came the bleak reality, making the fights seem even less real, as if they were just a little girl's fantasies.
That sense of unreality naturally seeped into the protagonist, too.
The next few battles followed the usual pattern: defeat an enemy, meet a new friend. But as the enemies' backstories grew more tragic, Maya's innocence and sweetness seemed ever more hollow. Her battles looked like she was defeating her enemies, but in truth, it was as if she were being swallowed by Cecilia.
Especially toward the end of the story, after Maya finished a dazzling battle, the blood-red moonlight cast her shadow on the ground. It wavered just like Cecilia's reflection in the mirror.
Even the romance subplot couldn't save the shift in atmosphere.
If anything, Maya's crush on the School Prince repeatedly pushed her closer to becoming corrupted.
Most frightening of all, even after the "Monsters" were defeated, passersby resembling their "original forms" continued to appear. Their faces were blurry, and their builds, clothes, and ways of speaking all resembled the "Monsters." The newspapers also kept hinting at all sorts of horrific crimes. It all suggested that these corrupted people hadn't truly turned into Monsters and been destroyed by the Magical Girls. They were still among the people around the girls.
Damn it! When Angell saw them reusing the supporting cast and costumes over and over, he'd thought they were helping him save money!
The girls' Monster-slaying seemed to be nothing but their own delusions.
They were going mad under the control of the Black Witch Cecilia.
Biting into his hot dog, Angell said, "This part follows the classic progression of a Witch going mad. The changing moon even mirrors the extent of the protagonist's mental collapse."
That was also why Angell had never suspected the director and instead had been grinding his teeth, wanting to settle the score with Allen.
No one could understand better than Allen how the Mana Tide caused by the moon affected the mind.
Angell didn't notice that when he said "moon" and "Witch," the audience member beside him took a long look at him. In the end, the person held back from discussing it with Angell then and there, made a note of the two words, and decided to look them up after returning home.
Maybe audiences of this era needed time to think over the metaphor. But as far as Angell was concerned, by this point in the story, he could practically fill in the answers to an essay question on the spot:
—This movie satirizes the horrors of XX-ism, where people prey on one another. Under the oppression of XXX, the lower classes become Monsters and cannot be saved. The heroine is no exception. She wants to save her friends and family, but it's all an illusion. She can save no one and can only end up being assimilated into the Witch. This shows that—
It showed that the screenwriter was asking for trouble!
As Maya gathered more and more moonlight energy in the second half, she acquired more and more Magic Items. That should've been the kind of thing that got the audience excited. But the disagreements between the Magical Girls came from their unconscious competition over who was prettiest! They were also jealous of Maya's Magic Items, with an undercurrent of criticism toward consumerism.
Angell: ...You son of a— I still have to sell those items!
One of the Magical Girls went to the Mage Tower in search of greater power, but ended up corrupted and transformed into a Witch.
By then, Maya had failed to save everyone she wanted to save. Even her companions had betrayed her.
The atmosphere reached its most depressing peak. When Cecilia smiled and asked Maya, "Do you really want to save her?" the mood practically implied that Maya had gone completely mad and was ready to sacrifice herself.
Angell suspected that this was what Allen had intended.
In the original script, Angell remembered, Maya had agreed to Cecilia's request without hesitation and saved her companion.
For children watching, it looked like a victory. Angell had thought so himself when he read the script.
But given the way the mood had been built up, it actually suggested that Maya had already killed herself and that Cecilia had devoured her soul. The other Magical Girls had met the same fate long ago.
The script never said so outright, but Cecilia's beauty, which could beguile everyone, came from the girls' "sacrifices."
Whether Monsters or the girls who defeated them, they had all become part of Cecilia.
Part of the past, abandoned and forgotten by everyone.
But at this point in the plot, Allen seemed to have changed his mind at the last moment. He added a scene where Maya held firm to her convictions and awakened the wand's power through her own strength. As a result, the final battle's atmosphere changed, and Maya ended up saving her companion through her own power.
That scene shifted the entire story back toward "a grand battle between good and evil," rather than "a little girl's delusions" or "magic is a scam."
—Allen had saved himself, too.
Honestly, after watching the movie a second time, Angell wondered whether Allen's original script might have angered Mayor Owen and Branch President Hume.
But Branch President Hume had watched the whole movie alongside them. If that had been the case, it wouldn't have been released, would it?
At that thought, Angell suddenly felt a lot better.
"I knew things wouldn't be that bad," Angell muttered.
He seemed to have forgotten who'd rushed to Xiesse in a fury after seeing the newspaper.
"Feeling reassured at last? Shall we go back, meow?" Mithril asked for the second time.
It had watched the movie twice with Angell and was getting tired.
Angell also found movies filled with hints at every turn exhausting to watch. He sighed. "Not yet. Before we go back, let's visit somewhere that really does heal the heart."
"Heals the heart?"
Angell left the cinema with Mithril and headed out to the street.
Xiesse deserved its reputation as one of the greatest commercial cities in the world. Its prosperity was every bit as impressive as that of the first-tier cities on Blue Star, where Angell had lived in his previous life. Take the shopping street outside the cinema, for example. It looked almost exactly like one on Blue Star. You could find all kinds of shops there, including some selling Movie merchandise that was already quite sophisticated.
Angell had no interest in those shops, naturally.
He headed straight for the shop with the most children gathered at the entrance.
Only when Mithril got closer did it understand why Angell had come here.
Children streamed in and out of the shop, clutching Magical Girl merchandise. There were art books, character cards, chibi Maya dolls, Maine Coon plushies, Magical Girl backpacks in all sorts of styles, and little accessories, among other things.
And it wasn't only children. Even adults who'd just seen the movie couldn't resist stopping by and buying something.
Selling merchandise around the cinemas as soon as Magical Girl was released had been a strategy Angell and Mandela had agreed on from the start.
"Well? Doesn't it heal the heart?" Angell asked blissfully.
"What exactly does 'healing the heart' mean to you? A little extra cash?" Mithril teased.
Seeing how well the merchandise was selling, it felt relieved.
The Magical Cat had truly had enough of being stuck with unsold inventory.
But speaking of unsold inventory, Mithril felt like something was missing—
"That's strange, meow. Why haven't I seen any children buying wands?" Mithril thought for a moment, then bristled in alarm. "Could they really not sell even with that appearance, meow?!"
"That's not it. It's because..."
Angell was about to explain when an excited voice rang out from the counter:
"Honored guest, you've discovered the hidden clue left behind by Lady Cecilia. Would you like to receive her legacy?"
The exchange naturally drew everyone's attention, including Angell and his cat.
They looked over curiously and saw a shop attendant leading a little girl toward a curtain. When she pulled it aside, there was a full-length mirror behind it, exactly like the one in the movie.
And just like in the movie, the mirror showed no reflections at all. It was as if no one in the shop existed.
The little girl wasn't afraid. Her eyes were wide with excitement.
The attendant smiled at her. "Do you know how Maya transformed, little one?"
"I do," the girl said in a babyish voice.
The attendant encouraged her. "Then why not give it a try?"
The girl seemed a little unsure at first. She glanced back at her parents. When she saw everyone smiling at her, she awkwardly performed the transformation pose.
"Moon's magic, transform—"
The other employees and people nearby joined in.
Only Angell took a step back.
Even though he'd come up with this, watching it happen in person still made him cringe so hard he wanted to dig a hole in the ground.
Fortunately, no one else seemed to feel that way.
As the girl shouted, the center of the mirror rippled like water. When its surface became still again, the girl's reflection appeared in it—but the girl in the mirror wore the exact same Magical Girl outfit as Maya.
"Maya! Lily turned into Maya!"
The girl shouted, not quite making sense. She reached out to touch the mirror, but the girl inside smiled and handed her several cards. Then she disappeared.
When the attendant saw the cards in the girl's hands, she announced loudly:
"Congratulations! You've won a 'Cecilia Invitation Ticket'!"
"A Cecilia Invitation Ticket?" The girl's mother picked up her daughter, who was still staring blankly at the mirror, and took the cards from her to have a look.
They were black Invitation Letters. The Magic Gear on them spun endlessly, and they read: [You are cordially invited to the Holy Spirit Carnival in Cecilia.]
The attendant explained, "This is an invitation from Cecilia. If you travel to the Magic City of Cecilia, you can attend the Carnival and join the Magic Gear's Millennium Convention. You'll also have a chance to get a real Moonlight Wand."
"But that means we have to go to Cecilia City ourselves, doesn't it?" The girl's father frowned.
The attendant didn't press them. She smiled. "If the journey is too far or inconvenient, you can exchange the invitation for any item in the shop. But unfortunately, only Cecilia has Moonlight Wands. We can't sell them here."
The little girl was quite clever.
She only half understood what the attendant had said, but she caught the important part. "A wand! I want a wand!"
She shouted at her father.
The attendant added, "The Magic Gear convention only happens once a year! It won't be there if you go at any other time."
The father looked hesitant.
"This says the Holy Spirit Carnival, so it'll be around Holy Spirit Festival, right?" the girl's mother asked carefully. After the attendant confirmed it, she made the decision. "We're going on vacation at the end of the year anyway, so we might as well go to Cecilia!"
Only then did the girl's father agree.
They bought a Maine Coon plushie in the shop, too, then left happily.
Mithril stared at the whole scene in disbelief and nudged Angell's face with its paw. "What are you up to now?!"
"Don't push! My head might fall off." Angell held his head in place. "I don't have a choice."
"You don't have a choice?"
"Of course! Have you forgotten? When I first made my Game Table, even Enlise couldn't operate it! And no matter how lacking the Pseudo-Wand's functions are, it still needs a certain amount of Mana. It's even harder to use than the Game Table. How could it possibly sell here in Xiesse? The people here have never even used a Game Table!"
"So you're tricking them into going to Cecilia?"
"Right. After a whole string of Carnival activities, they should have enough Mana to use a wand!" Angell said.
It was also a way of screening for the wealthy.
In this era, as industry developed, a few of the most advanced metropolises inevitably became "fog cities." Add in the cold, damp air in winter, and anyone with a bit of money tended to travel elsewhere during the Holy Spirit Festival holidays. If nothing else, they'd buy a villa in the countryside, where the air was fresher.
The Magic Gear's wands were "luxury goods" to begin with. Ordinary citizens couldn't afford to buy them.
So Angell had set his sights on the middle-class children whose families had enough money to travel for vacation.
Though, to be precise, it was a desperate measure—catch whoever he could.
Reality was like the world map in the Teleportation Outpost. To Angell, both the Royal Capital and Xiesse were still gray areas. If he couldn't raise people's Mana levels, he had no way to make money from Magic Items.
Movies and the like were an advance foothold, but the response here wasn't Angell's main concern. Even if the box office was a huge success, it would only let him sell ordinary merchandise.
For now, only Cecilia City was Angell's territory.
Angell and Mithril watched the merchandise shop for a while. Sure enough, a few more customers were lucky enough to win (X) find the clues Lady Cecilia had left behind when they bought something.
Some people who won Invitation Vouchers didn't want to go to Cecilia City, so they exchanged them for other merchandise.
Of course, the prizes weren't limited to Invitation Vouchers.
Most of them were little decorations from the Magical Girl outfits, like ribbons, crowns, and bows. Little girls who received these accessories on the spot were delighted, too... though they weren't all little girls.
Mithril personally saw one father win a prize and, instead of giving his daughter the chance to "transform," happily ran over to the mirror and transformed himself. His daughter got so mad she kept yanking on his arm.
"Was it just my imagination? Why did it seem like everyone preferred that Magic Mirror?"
Angell watched for a long time, then said, puzzled.
"They probably prefer their own reflections in the mirror," Mithril said.
It didn't deny Angell's theory.
A moment ago, a woman—not even a girl, but a grown woman—had bought hundreds of items in one go, snatched up all the "clues" inside them, then struck pose after pose in front of the mirror, twisting and turning.
Mithril thought these humans were completely crazy.
"Right, it's a dress-up game!" Angell muttered.
At last, Angell felt better and stopped dwelling on the Movie.
Just then, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Dr. Marin, why are you at the cinema so early?!"
The man's strike had come so unexpectedly, and hit so hard, that Angell's head fell off—
No, it wasn't Angell anymore.
The moment the head dropped from its shoulders, a figure holding a cat fell to the ground along with it, then vanished as quickly as water vapor in the desert. Only the headless body remained, standing there in a daze.
But neither the newcomer nor the passersby hurrying by paid the fallen head any attention. It was as if a person's head dropping to the ground were no more surprising than a hat falling off.
Even the head's owner seemed to think so.
He slowly bent down, picked up the head, and set it back on his shoulders.
Only then did he slowly look around. "Where is this...?"
Where?
The man known as Dr. Marin wondered. He found that his memory was getting worse and worse. It was as if his head and body had separate minds, always doing things he couldn't understand.
But no one noticed anything amiss.
The man opposite him grabbed his arm and laughed. "So you saw the Newspaper report too and came to check whether that Magical Girl is really as good as they say?"
"...Yes?" Right, I came to see a Movie.
Dr. Marin wondered, puzzled.
His companion didn't care what he was thinking. He hooked an arm around his familiarly and pulled him toward the cinema. "Come to think of it, ever since the Magic Gear changed hands, all its products have been top-notch! And we've finally made progress on the Game Table. I found two High-level Rune Masters in the Royal Capital. They can definitely crack the secret of its core—"