Magical Girl? I Got Scammed Into It! Chapter 13

"That was so much fun! I want to do it again!"

She completely understood that urge to play with something again after trying it once. Everyone had felt that way as a child—if something was fun, they couldn't bear to leave without doing it two or three more times.

[Master, sob... I want to play too. I want to join you all too.]

Ruby's voice in her mind made Ando Meiko frown slightly.

In fact, ever since they had entered the amusement park, Ruby had been complaining in her head nonstop.

She had admittedly started out with a bit of a desire for revenge, but making Ruby watch the rest of them have fun did seem a little cruel.

Should she let her out to play for a while?

Ando Meiko considered it, but the situation clearly did not support that idea.

After all, Fuko was here too.

[How about this? Behave yourself and stop bothering me. After a while, I'll find an excuse to leave Fuko and Nanako alone, then let you out to play.]

[Okay! Master, it's a promise!]

[A promise is a promise.]

Ando Meiko could clearly feel Ruby's emotional shift after she agreed. Even within her consciousness, Ruby's entire tone had become lively and cheerful.

Did Ruby really like amusement parks that much?

She didn't quite understand.

After dealing with Ruby, she went back to enjoying herself.

There was just one thing that caught her attention: every time they came out of an attraction, Fuko's gaze would drift, intentionally or otherwise, toward the Ferris wheel.

"Fuko, do you want to ride the Ferris wheel?" Ando Meiko asked.

"Huh? You noticed?"

This wasn't a matter of noticing or not. Fuko's expression had been far too obvious.

"Yeah. I've always wanted to ride the Ferris wheel with Koichi, but I never got the chance."

Since she had been found out, Fuko no longer hid it. She spoke bashfully, occasionally glancing at Ando Meiko. Her intentions could not have been clearer.

"Then let's go together. I've been wanting to see what riding a Ferris wheel feels like too."

Embarrassingly enough, she had never ridden one in her entire life.

There simply hadn't been anything like that nearby back then. Judging from how new the amusement park's Ferris wheel looked, it had probably only been built this year or last.

Still, as one of the classic dating spots in anime, novels, and games, never having ridden one did not stop her from longing for it. Now that she had the chance, she could experience it with Fuko.

"Okay! Meiko, you're the best!"

"Meiko is the best! Meiko is the best!"

"Of course I am." She and Fuko laughed as they gently stroked Nanako's head.

Whenever she walked with and looked after this little evil god, Ando Meiko felt that rather than a younger sister, Nanako was more like an innocent daughter full of curiosity about everything around her.

"Let's rest for a bit. I'm getting tired from all this playing."

"Meiko, I'll go buy some drinks. What do you want?"

"An iced cola will do. What about Nanako?"

"Iced cola!"

Nanako raised both hands and copied them, making Ando Meiko and Fuko smile at each other. "All right, all right. Big sister will go buy them now."

Watching Fuko's retreating figure, Ando Meiko leaned back in her chair.

It was perfectly normal to be tired.

Since it was a weekday, the amusement park was not very crowded. With no lines to wait in, they could ride four or five attractions in the time it had once taken to ride one.

Even though they had only spent the morning there, they had already done far more than when they used to come to amusement parks as children.

The wait was not long. Before long, Fuko returned carrying a tray with three cups of cola and crepes—the kind they had always bought whenever they passed by as children.

"Cough, cough, cough... What is this? It's sweet, but it's so harsh."

Nanako, drinking cola for the first time, clearly could not adapt to the carbonated drink. But after playing for so long, she was thirsty, and the flavor made her want more with every sip.

"This one's for Meiko." Fuko handed her a cream crepe covered in a thick layer of strawberry sauce.

"Fuko really knows me well." Ando Meiko had actually noticed that when she ate Fuko's cooking.

Fuko knew very well that her tastes had not changed since childhood.

But Fuko had overlooked one thing. She might have chosen iced cola because she wanted to quench her thirst, but she had not known Fuko would buy crepes too.

With the intense sugary flavor of the cola stimulating her taste buds, the crepe tasted utterly bland, like chewing wax. It could only barely fill her stomach.

After eating, the Ferris wheel was undoubtedly the most suitable ride. Fuko had thought of that from the start, which was why she had saved it until now.

And because there was no one around, they did not even need to wait. They walked right over and got on.

As the Ferris wheel slowly began to turn, the innocent little evil god pressed herself against the window and watched the scenery gradually pull away. And she was not the only one; this was also Ando Meiko's first time looking down from a Ferris wheel.

She had to admit, it really had a unique charm. The city where she lived looked unexpectedly beautiful from up high—beautiful enough to make her want to protect it.

"It's so beautiful..." Fuko turned toward the window and sighed from the bottom of her heart.

Ando Meiko watched her reaction. She had never observed this childhood friend of hers, who had always been labeled an airhead, as closely as she did now. Fuko was actually quite pretty.

She was cute, considerate, gentle, and had a great figure. A girl like her should not have lacked pursuers, yet she did not seem to have a boyfriend.

Maybe she did and simply did not want to tell her, though that seemed unlikely. More than that, Ando Meiko worried that this airhead might be deceived by some strange man.

Thinking that, she suddenly wanted to know more about this childhood friend with whom she had had a two-year gap. "Fuko, how have you been lately?"

"Huh? What's with the sudden question?"

"I just wanted to know a little more. We exchanged messages sometimes, but we only ever talked about everyday things, right?"

"Hmm... I've been pretty good, I guess. Going to school, coming home from school, nothing too different from usual. But it's been a little less fun."

"What kind of fun?"

Fuko smiled faintly. The Ferris wheel cabin was not large to begin with, so she only needed to lean forward slightly to bring herself close to Ando Meiko. "Of course, I've been missing Koichi, who used to stay by my side all the time."

No wonder it was considered one of the best places for dates. That simple motion alone gave her a feeling of ambiguity she had never experienced before.

"Stop joking around."

"Honestly." Fuko straightened up and leaned back against the padded seat. "I wasn't joking with you."

Forget it. Asking had been pointless.

She knew this girl had loved teasing her since they were young. No matter what she said, she could never outtalk Fuko, so she decided not to ask any more questions.

As she took in the different feeling the city gave her, the brief journey had already come to an end. In the end, amid Fuko and Nanako's reluctance, the Ferris wheel slowly descended.

"I want to ride it again."

"I'll pass." Ando Meiko waved her hand. "If you want to ride again, I can wait here for you."

"Mm, if Meiko isn't coming, then forget it."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be much fun without Meiko."

The reason she did not want to ride again was actually simple. No matter how magnificent a view was, it would grow stale if she saw it too often. Being able to experience something so wonderful only occasionally meant that perhaps it could bring fresh healing every time.

In short, she wanted to save it as something special, rather than treat it as an attraction to ride repeatedly just because it looked nice or was fun.

"Hm?"

A sound like an eggshell cracking reached her ears, making her turn around instinctively. Yet no matter how hard she looked, she could not find where it had come from.

[Ruby, did you hear anything strange?]

[It must have been Master's imagination. I didn't hear anything.]

Ruby's voice in her mind carried a faintly sulky tone, but since she said she had not heard anything either, there was probably no problem. Ruby would not possibly joke about something like that.

"Is there anywhere else Meiko wants to go? We've been playing so long that I'm starting to get tired."

"Yeah, there is. Let's go try it." She led Fuko to a building beneath the shade of the trees.

"It's this place. You always loved playing here when we were little."

"Yeah. Shooting guns was every little boy's dream, after all." Ando Meiko walked up to the booth and picked up an air gun.

Yes, this was the air gun range. Naturally, it was divided into two sections: one where hitting targets earned prizes, and another where people simply shot for practice.

Ando Meiko chose the section without prizes because it was cheaper.

There was no need to choose an especially expensive option just for simple practice, though she could not rule out winning a couple of presents for Fuko and Nanako as something to save for later.

She bought some pellets and the right to use an air gun, then casually fired several shots at the target in the distance. Every pellet hit the target, but they were nowhere close to the bullseye.

Perhaps because she had played this as a child, she was already beginning to get the feel for it after only picking it up again.

There was naturally a reason Ando Meiko had come to play this game.

Since Ruby had said magical power could produce results through imagination, then in theory, the game she was playing now could serve as imaginary practice for battles she might encounter in the future.

After landing several consecutive bullseyes, she stopped at just the right time. When she went to the other section, she found Fuko and Nanako playing there as well.

A thousand yen for ten shots sounded like quite a lot, but the guns in this section had actually been subtly adjusted by hand. Even if someone made good use of the sights, the bullets would still drift slightly off course.

"How's it going?"

"Fuko has already fired sixteen times."

Sixteen shots without a single hit. Fuko was as bad at this as ever.

"Ugh, why can't I hit anything? Why? That can't be right!"

Her tone made it clear that she was getting carried away. In that case, it was time for Ando Meiko to step in and stop Fuko from spending more money.

"I'll do it." Several minutes later, the stunned stall owner watched the three of them leave the attraction carrying plush toys.

He had used little tricks to arrange the prizes in ways that made them hard to knock down, but this beautiful girl had used the final four pellets in the gun—one to adjust, then the other three all hit, and every one of them knocked down a prize.

If someone with that kind of skill kept playing, he would probably lose even his underwear.

Still, that sequence revealed something interesting to her. Even though she had not looked through the sights, she had felt as though something were guiding her toward a particular direction.

She had not even planned for the last shot to hit. She had merely followed that absurd feeling, yet it had somehow landed.

Maybe she had just gotten lucky.

The funniest part was that when she intended to stop while she was ahead, the owner practically scrambled over himself to bring them the prizes they had knocked down, terrified that she would pay for another magazine.

The three of them had already had their fill of fun, and noon was time for lunch. Taking advantage of the opportunity, she could use an excuse to send Fuko and Nanako away and let out Ruby, who had started muttering to herself again.

"Meiko, where should we eat later?"

"The old place we used to go to as kids. Take Nanako to that restaurant and order first. I'll use the restroom and come over afterward."

"Okay." Though deceiving them made Ando Meiko feel a little guilty, what else could she do? It was not like she had chosen to end up with such an idiot.

"Nanako, big sister will take you to eat something tasty."

"Yay! Fuko is the best!"

Watching their departing backs, Ando Meiko confirmed that they were not looking back before slipping beneath the shade of a tree. Just as she was about to remove the necklace around her neck, a tremor sounded in the distance.

[M...aster?]

The sound had come from the direction of the Ferris wheel.

She looked up and saw only one thing: the Ferris wheel's load-bearing axle snapping apart.

Without its supporting axle, the Ferris wheel began collapsing at a visible rate, while every metal object nearby was twisted by some force into grotesque spirals.