The Libertor Ball

Miyako Todouji ground her teeth in anger.

The person she resented most was not even Phantom Thief Jeanne, but her own father.

They had clearly failed and let Jeanne get away with it again, so why could her father still act as though it did not matter?

As an inspector in the Metropolitan Police Department's First Theft and Robbery Unit of the Third Investigation Division, shouldn't he have been more dedicated to his job?

"But Miyako, look. The art museum has confirmed that this is what the painting really looks like. They don't intend to pursue the matter. And it was the same before, wasn't it? You know that. After Jeanne stole their paintings, the owners all became much more cheerful."

That was the strangest part. Not a single victim whose painting Jeanne had stolen wanted to hold her accountable.

"Even so, are we supposed to just let a thief go free?"

"Then why do you think we enforce the law?"

"To fight crime, of course, and put all the bad people in prison!"

"But I think what really matters is making up for the victims' losses and preventing more people from becoming victims. Everything else, whether achievements or honors, doesn't matter."

At Inspector Todouji's age, he had long since stopped caring about arresting people to earn commendations and awards. Spending the rest of his career in this position would suit him just fine.

Phantom Thief Jeanne was not his only case, either. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had plenty of theft and robbery cases to handle.

Catching "Phantom Thief Jeanne" would certainly sound impressive, but at most it would earn him a commendation. With "no victims" pressing charges, they might not even secure a conviction if they took her to court. They could probably only impose a public-order penalty for "disturbing social order" by sending out all those advance notices.

Then it would become another juicy topic for the public to gossip about over tea.

In his eyes, a case with no victims was less worthwhile than catching a few more habitual thieves who broke through door locks.

If Jeanne had not kept making such a spectacle of sending advance notices, the Metropolitan Police Department would not really have wanted to bother. That was also why, despite her repeated offenses, the department still had not given the "Phantom Thief Jeanne" case much priority. His unit remained responsible for it as part of their routine duties.

Meanwhile, Phantom Thief Jeanne was being crowded around by three elementary school girls.

"So you're Phantom Thief Jeanne! Is your name really taken from that Jeanne in the stories?"

With someone filming her with a video camera right in her face, Kurumi Kusakabe did not dare undo her transformation.

What was going on? Why did she have to run into something so bizarre?

There were three elementary school girls: one wore a sailor uniform styled like a shrine maiden's outfit, another looked even more like a phantom thief than she did, and the last was dressed fairly normally, but she was the one shoving a camera in her face.

Unfortunately, the three of them had just helped her.

That left Kurumi in no position to turn hostile.

"What about you? That wasn't a magic trick just now, was it? How could you fly?"

"Can't you fly with your magic?"

"Magic?"

Although the Apprentice Angel Fin had told Kurumi that she possessed Jeanne's power, as far as Kurumi could tell, she could merely jump a little higher and run a little faster, with her whole body strengthened.

But that still was not magic.

After all, the historical Jeanne had been a knight, not a mage.

She could not fly, nor did she have any other strange abilities. Most of the time, she relied on the agility she had developed in her school's gymnastics club.

That meant being surrounded by the police during a chase would still be trouble. If someone pointed a gun at her, she would have no choice but to surrender.

For instance, she had once sprained her ankle because of one of Miyako's traps.

She had not gone beyond the bounds of being "human."

So she could not conjure a cloud of mist, nor could she fly.

Even Jeanne was surprised to suddenly learn that magic existed in the world.

Huo Lin understood now. "Jeanne" must have belonged to a native power system, one that already existed on this Earth and drew its strength from faith rooted in centuries of myths and legends.

Magic, on the other hand, was foreign. The Time-Space Administration Bureau called Earth Non-Administered World No. 97 precisely because it was not a planet within magic's reach.

Even Clow Reed had not originally been born in this plane.

So she and Sakura were "outsiders," while Jeanne was a "local administrator"?

That was more or less the idea, except this "local administrator" was a novice herself and had no idea what was going on.

From what Huo Lin could sense, Jeanne's power really did belong to a different system she had never encountered before.

"Jeanne, could you demonstrate your power again?"

Jeanne had used it on a Clow Card earlier, but it had happened too quickly for Huo Lin to get a clear sense of it. A closer look should yield something.

But that request made Jeanne a little angry.

"This power isn't for putting on a show!"

Even if they had saved her, she did not think she should have to let them watch her like some performing circus clown.

"Sorry, I just wanted to study it. Your power is different from the magic I've encountered."

Huo Lin's urge to research had simply kicked in. Whenever she encountered something unknown, she was always curious and wanted to get to the bottom of it. That was true of magic, and it was equally true of this so-called "Jeanne" power.

Jeanne realized that the other girl genuinely meant no harm. She had been too sensitive. Besides, she was curious about magic herself.

"Does magic really exist?"

"Haven't you already seen it? But magic is also a science. It follows rules, forms a systematic discipline, and can be studied."

As long as something followed objective laws, had a coherent logic, and could be studied, it was science.

The idea of treating magic as a scientific discipline was new to Jeanne. Did that mean the other girl also considered her "Jeanne" power a form of science?

She had to admit that it was a novel explanation.

A few months earlier, Kurumi Kusakabe had inexplicably met Fin, a palm-sized little girl who called herself an Apprentice Angel. Fin had given her a cross-shaped medal that allowed her to transform into the legendary Jeanne d'Arc.

But in truth, she knew nothing about what this power actually was. It had frightened her before, and she did not consider being special a good thing. She did not even know whether she should keep being a phantom thief.

If this power could be explained scientifically, Kurumi would certainly feel much better about it. After all, she was already a first-year high school student. After ten years of compulsory education, she had long since developed a scientific worldview.

"If I demonstrate it again, can you really figure anything out?"

"I'll try my best, but I can't guarantee it."

Huo Lin's refusal to make sweeping promises actually made her words more credible. Besides, she, Sakura, and Tomoyo were all adorable little girls. Surely anyone that cute could not be bad, so Kurumi had barely been wary of them from the start.

"All right, then I'll show you again. Come forth, Libertor Ball!"

A sphere appeared in Jeanne's hand. She made no further moves and simply held it on her palm.

"This is the weapon I normally use."

Neither Sakura nor Tomoyo quite understood how a ball like that could be used as a weapon. Huo Lin, however, really did sense a different kind of power.

"So this is holy-aspect power? It's not quite like light magic, either. I really haven't seen it before. If anything, it feels somewhat similar to mental magic."

Huo Lin spent five minutes studying it, even reaching out to try touching it. In the process, she inevitably brushed against Kurumi's arm and body several times. Kurumi rarely had physical contact with others. Abandoned by her parents when she was little, she had no friends besides Miyako, which had left her rather withdrawn.

If a boy had done this, Kurumi would have lost her temper long ago. She only endured the discomfort because the other girl was an elementary school student.

But five minutes was already her limit.

"Are you done? That should be enough, right?"

"Hmm, probably."

"So what's your conclusion? What did you find?"

Huo Lin said nothing. She even closed her eyes, apparently thinking about something.

Just as Kurumi began to think the other girl was merely humoring her, Huo Lin suddenly held out her hand. An almost identical sphere appeared in her palm.

"Ah! The Libertor Ball!"