Chapter 3: The True Reason for the Conflict

A business trip. To A-City, of all places.

Magical Girl Black had initially thought about bringing her daughter, Hana, along with them. It might have been nice, a little father-daughter (in disguise) bonding time. But Hana's reasons for staying behind were, she had to admit, perfectly logical and infuriatingly reasonable. After all, the organization was going to help them move house, a massive undertaking, and at the very least, someone needed to be there to supervise the movers and make sure they didn’t steal any of Hana's precious gacha game merchandise. Although they could have easily asked the ever-reliable Akiyama family for help, having Hana there herself was probably for the best.

And so, she set off for the bustling metropolis of A-City with only the competent, and occasionally far-too-perceptive Ren Akiyama for company.

Seated on the plane, soaring high above a sea of endless, fluffy white clouds, Ren, ever the diligent Supporter, asked Black, “So, are you planning to maintain your Black form for this entire trip, Miss Black? It must be quite draining.”

“Hmph. I’d like to, if I can,” Black grumbled, her gaze fixed on the mesmerizing, hypnotic expanse of blue outside the small, circular window. “But, as we both saw, if we run into another high-level, ridiculously overpowered opponent, someone on par with that lunatic Darkmoon Queen, and my stamina gets completely depleted, I’ll change back into my old man form whether I want to or not. Still,” she added with a sigh that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand corporate meetings, “it’s probably best for everyone if I maintain my magical girl appearance as much as possible, right? If the fans and the organization keep seeing me change back into some tired, middle-aged dude, they’ll probably just be disappointed, don’t you think? It’s bad for the brand.”

“That’s… a surprisingly professional, almost idol-like level of dedication, Miss Black,” Ren said, a note of genuine, unfeigned respect in his voice. Magical Girl Black’s work ethic, her commitment to her role, truly was remarkable, almost admirable. And completely at odds with her usual grumpy, fiend-punching demeanor.

Black just kept her gaze fixed on the clouds, a thoughtful, melancholic expression in her eyes. “To be perfectly honest, kid,” she said, her voice a low murmur, “I have a very strong, almost certain feeling that the organization is hiding some other, more important secrets from us. Just like with my secret identity getting leaked before. It feels like the organization already knew, or at least strongly suspected that my information would eventually be compromised, but they didn’t treat it as a particularly big deal. This Darkmoon Coven… what’s their real situation? Their true objective? Have you managed to investigate them at all?”

“Of course, I have, Miss Black,” Ren replied instantly, his professional Supporter mode activating with an almost audible click. “Just as magical girls themselves seem to be born in successive, cyclical generations, fiend organizations also appear to be born in similar generational waves. However, unlike the relatively recent phenomenon of magical girls, the recorded history of fiends and their nefarious organizations goes back much, much further. They correspond to the different, now mostly forgotten, eras of other, more conventional heroes. It’s only in the last few decades that the dazzling, overwhelming brilliance of magical girls has gradually overshadowed all other types of Espers. And the sudden, meteoric appearance of the Darkmoon Coven itself… it seems to be intrinsically, almost poetically linked to the history of Strawberry Sweetheart herself.”

Black’s brow furrowed in thought. The previous battle between Strawberry Sweetheart and the Darkmoon Queen had always struck Black as strange, almost… personal. After all, although Strawberry Sweetheart seemed to desperately want to save the Darkmoon Queen, to redeem her somehow, that didn’t mean she was generally soft on other fiends. In fact, if you actually took the time to look at Strawberry Sweetheart’s extensive, and often quite brutal battle record, you’d see that while she sometimes got into tough, drawn-out fights, for the most part, she showed absolutely no mercy to her monstrous enemies. Only towards the Darkmoon Queen was her attitude so… so strangely ambiguous. So hesitant. What did that mean?

“So, have you managed to dig up any dirt on your cute little kouhai, then?” Black asked, her voice laced with a hint of sarcasm.

Ren, once again, nodded. “I have. Many of the relevant files were, of course, classified as top secret, almost impossible to access. Although I was eventually able to access them using your high-level clearance, Miss Black, it still took a great deal of effort, and possibly a few minor breaches of inter-departmental protocol, to acquire them. The publicly available information, as usual, is only a tiny, insignificant fraction of the truth—which, I suppose, fits perfectly with my established image of the organization’s frustratingly mysterious nature. In any case,” he leaned in slightly, his voice dropping to a more confidential tone, “based on all the available data and circumstantial evidence, my current working hypothesis, with a confidence rating of approximately 87%, is this: The Darkmoon Queen and Strawberry Sweetheart… they were, at one time, childhood best friends.”

Black’s eyes widened slightly. “You mean…?”

“Strawberry Sweetheart had a very close, inseparable friend who, during a tragic, and reportedly quite devastating fiend attack when they were both just small children, went missing and was, for all official purposes, presumed dead,” Ren explained calmly, like a detective laying out the facts of a cold case. “And at the exact same time, almost to the day, the enigmatic and already incredibly powerful Darkmoon Queen made her very first, terrifying appearance on the world stage. And it was also during that same, tragic period that a heartbroken Akari Natsume awakened her own latent magical girl powers, and the two of them, the two best friends, set off on two completely different and diametrically opposed paths. If it were Hana analyzing this situation,” Ren added with a wry smile, “she would have already, with absolute, unwavering certainty, declared that the missing friend is, without a doubt, the Darkmoon Queen; after all, it’s a classic, almost cliché plot development straight out of a manga. But, of course,” he concluded, ever the pragmatist, “the possibility of it all being just a series of bizarre, tragic coincidences still technically exists. However small that possibility might be.”

Black nodded slowly, processing the information. “But that… that doesn’t matter to me anymore. On this trip, I’m going to tell Strawberry Sweetheart myself, face-to-face. I can’t rest easy, I can’t sleep at night with the Darkmoon Queen still out there, threatening my daughter. I will subjugate her. For good.” Ren knew with absolute certainty that the Queen’s recent, insidious actions, her targeting of Hana, had thoroughly, irrevocably enraged the protective father that lurked beneath Black’s tough exterior. She was now determined to eliminate the Darkmoon Queen, regardless of Strawberry Sweetheart’s complicated feelings or tragic past. All bets were off.

And so, the two of them, the magical girl and her Supporter, arrived in the bustling metropolis of A-City. As soon as they landed, someone from the local branch of the Hero Organization, a harried-looking man in a rumpled suit, was there to meet them.

It was then, in the sterile, fluorescent-lit briefing room of the A-City branch, that they finally, truly learned the real, and frankly quite ridiculous reason why Strawberry Sweetheart and Magical Girl Red had come to blows.

Theoretically, Strawberry Sweetheart was an incredibly mature, patient, and professional magical girl. She had years, a veritable lifetime, of valuable, hard-won magical girl experience under her belt. At the same time, she was also the most popular, most beloved, most universally adored magical girl on the planet, a veritable goddess of hope and justice who treated everyone she met, from world leaders to lost kittens, with a gentle, disarming, and incredibly marketable smile. What kind of person, what kind of utter, absolute maniac, could possibly start a fight with the one and only Strawberry Sweetheart? Black herself was very, very curious to find out.

And now she knew. It turned out that the new rookie, Magical Girl Red, was an incredibly, almost professionally provocative, and deeply insecure individual. A classic, hot-blooded, angst-ridden shonen protagonist, in other words.

She had, apparently, upon first meeting her designated senior mentor, completely, and with much theatrical posturing, refused to accept Strawberry Sweetheart’s guidance. And then, she had bluntly and with a shocking lack of self-preservation instinct, called the legendary Strawberry Sweetheart a “pathetic weakling” right to her face. She’d apparently claimed that if Strawberry hadn't tragically and conveniently sacrificed her own comrade to gain the dark, edgy power of Inversion, she’d be nothing more than a half-baked, C-tier magic-user with a lame, dessert-themed gimmick. She’d gone on to say that her famous, all-powerful Sparkling Form was also, undoubtedly, built upon the tragic, noble death of her fallen teammate, calling her a vile, parasitic, emotional vampire who fed on the deaths of her own allies to get stronger.

This… this, understandably, had thoroughly, spectacularly ignited Strawberry Sweetheart’s rarely seen, but apparently quite formidable fury. And so, the two of them, the sweet-faced veteran and the angsty rookie, in their full, glorious magical girl forms, had gotten into a massive, city-damaging, and probably very expensive brawl right in the middle of downtown A-City. And as it turned out, much to no one’s surprise, the new-generation Magical Girl Red was absolutely no match for a genuinely, truly enraged Strawberry Sweetheart, and had been soundly, thoroughly, and with extreme prejudice, thrashed into submission.

Hearing this incredible, almost unbelievable story, both Magical Girl Black and Ren Akiyama grimaced in unison.

“This… this new generation of magical girls is terrifyingly, suicidally bold, isn’t she?” Black couldn’t help but remark, a note of grudging respect in her voice. “Even I, in my most belligerent, fiend-punching moods, wouldn’t dare to provoke Strawberry Sweetheart like that. Whose insane, bright-eyed subordinate is this one supposed to be, anyway?”

The poor, harried local branch manager gave a bitter, exhausted smile. “Well, you see, Miss Black, Magical Girl Red’s power is, as her name suggests, related to flames. The ‘Flames of Anger’ are, unfortunately, the easiest, most accessible form of her power for her to use, while the more abstract, more heroic concept of the ‘Flames of Hope’ is much, much more difficult for her to grasp. Our R&D analysts back at HQ theorized that the most efficient way for her to get stronger, to truly master her abilities, would be for her to attempt to master all the different kinds of emotional ‘flames.’ The flames of anger, the flames of jealousy, the flames of righteous indignation… as long as it’s an intense, fiery, all-consuming human emotion, it should, theoretically, grant her power and help her to eventually, hopefully, master the true power of the Flames of Hope. So, that’s probably, most likely why she so deliberately, and with such spectacular results, provoked Strawberry Sweetheart like that. It was… a training exercise. A very, very poorly thought-out one.”

Black felt, with a certainty that was pure Kenji Tanaka, that this was not, in fact, a very good or sensible choice. Not at all. “In that case, has Red managed to master that power of anger, then? It should be relatively easy to grasp, right? Just like when I… ah… copied Darkstar Count’s fear power during our little chat.”

“No, unfortunately, Magical Girl Red did not manage to master that power at all,” the manager sighed, looking even more tired now. “After being thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly, beaten by a very angry Strawberry Sweetheart, she apparently went into hiding somewhere in the city. And Strawberry Sweetheart, now operating under the rather terrifying pretext of ‘special, intensive training,’ has been conducting a high-intensity, city-wide search for Red’s location, intending to, in her own words, properly ‘correct’ the rookie’s poor attitude. As a result, Red hasn’t dared to show her face in public for the past two days. She’s completely gone to ground.”

Ren and Black exchanged a long, meaningful look. So, this so-called "fight" was, in reality, just Red getting unilaterally and probably quite painfully beaten up. And the organization’s real, underlying reason for sending Black all the way over here was, in fact, to act as a glorified bouncer? To physically stop Strawberry Sweetheart from pummeling the new rookie into early retirement? No wonder they had insisted on sending Black. Right now, in the entire known universe, only Magical Girl Black’s raw, off-the-charts stats could possibly give anyone even a sliver of confidence that she could actually, physically control a genuinely, truly enraged Strawberry Sweetheart.

Magical Girl Black slowly, deliberately cracked her knuckles together, a wide, terrifying, and utterly delighted grin spreading across her face. “Heh! Well, well, well. I’ve been waiting for this! A legitimate, above-board, officially sanctioned fight with the one and only Strawberry Sweetheart! To be perfectly, brutally honest,” she added, her eyes gleaming with a manic, battle-hungry light, “I’ve been wanting to see for myself, up close and personal, just how powerful, how truly, terrifyingly strong, an angry, no-holds-barred Strawberry Sweetheart really is.”

Ren rested his forehead wearily in his hand, a profound sense of impending doom washing over him. He really, really didn’t want to see that particular, probably city-destroying spectacle. But, he knew, with a sigh of resignation, that without a good, proper, probably very destructive fight, there probably wouldn’t be any opportunity for a calm, rational, or productive dialogue between these two super-powered, emotionally driven beings. Such is the way of magical girls, he thought, already mentally drafting the damage reports.

......

Strawberry Sweetheart—the one and only Akari Natsume.

Soon, with the help of the local branch’s tracking systems, they located Strawberry Sweetheart hovering majestically in the sky above the city, her keen eyes clearly still searching for her elusive, and probably terrified target. Although Black was still rather puzzled as to how Strawberry planned to find Red if the rookie wasn’t currently transformed, the task at hand, her official mission, was crystal clear…

With a surge of dark, exhilarating power, she shot up into the sky like a black, demonic rocket.

“STRAWBERRY SWEETHEART!” her voice boomed, full of challenge.

“BLACK! What are you doing here?!” Strawberry turned, a look of genuine surprise on her face.

Black moved to block Strawberry Sweetheart’s path, her arms crossed, her expression a mask of grim determination. “That’s enough! It ends here! Strawberry Sweetheart! You cannot, you will not, fight with Red any longer! If you still insist on causing her trouble, on hunting her down, then you’ll have to get past me first!”

Strawberry Sweetheart showed a confused, almost hurt expression. She hugged her staff and flew over to Black, her brow furrowed with concern. “Miss Black, what are you talking about? I’m not trying to cause Red any trouble at all.” Her gaze was so clear, so transparent, so gentle and serene, that it was truly, almost impossibly difficult to believe that this person was in the middle of a righteous, city-wide rage.

Black was taken aback, her own aggressive stance faltering slightly. “You’re… you’re not looking for Red? Because she… she angered you?”

Strawberry Sweetheart blinked her big, innocent eyes. “Well, yes, that was how it started, I’ll admit. I was… very, very angry. But then, later, after I calmed down a bit, I finally understood what Red was really trying to do. She wants to master her own power, to get stronger. So, I’m just completing my mission as her designated senior, that’s all—I’m trying to help her train! But for some strange reason, Miss Red keeps hiding from me every time I get close. Did… did the organization send you here to help me find her, Miss Black?”

“No, they sent me here because they said you and Red had gotten into a ‘violent conflict,’ and they hoped that I, of all people, could somehow ‘mediate’,” Black grumbled, feeling like the world’s most overqualified, and underpaid guidance counselor.

Hearing this, Strawberry Sweetheart’s cheerful expression immediately drooped. She looked genuinely downcast, her lower lip trembling in a rather adorable pout. “What?! The organization has so little faith in me! They thought I was just mindlessly beating up a rookie! When I get back, I’m going to have to file a formal complaint! I’m going to complain to them so properly!”

And just like that, with surprising, almost anti-climactic ease, the potentially catastrophic confrontation with Strawberry Sweetheart was… stopped.

Then, and only then, did everyone finally, truly understand the whole, ridiculous situation.

Strawberry Sweetheart had indeed been thoroughly, righteously enraged at first by Red’s incredibly rude and frankly quite hurtful insults. But once the fight had actually started, once the dust had settled a little, Strawberry, being the experienced and surprisingly empathetic veteran that she was, had quickly realized that Red was simply, desperately trying to find a way to master her own difficult, emotion-based power. So, with a maturity that was far beyond her years, Strawberry had chosen to put pressure on Red, to create a high-stakes combat situation that would hopefully allow the rookie to finally, truly bring forth her own ‘Flames of Anger’ and gain control over that power. But then, Red, after getting thoroughly and probably quite painfully thrashed, had simply… run away and hidden.

That’s not the proper attitude for someone who is supposed to one day wield the Flames of Hope, Strawberry had thought, a little disappointed. No matter how powerful, how terrifying the enemy, a true magical girl never, ever gives up! That is the true, unspoken meaning of being a magical girl… With that kind of cowardly attitude, she’ll never be able to master the true power of hope. As a veteran magical girl of many, many long and difficult years, Strawberry Sweetheart had a deep, profound, and almost spiritual understanding of the true nature of hope. And so, she felt that Red’s attitude was still not correct, that she had not yet grasped the true, fundamental meaning of being a magical girl. That was why she had been so relentlessly, and with a certain degree of tough love, searching for her. Not to punish her, but to teach her.

“Magical girls, you know, we can be afraid,” Strawberry Sweetheart said to Black later, her voice earnest and serious. “We can retreat, we can be confused, and we can, and often do, make the wrong choices. Not everyone is as dependable, as instantly powerful as you are, Miss Black. When I first started fighting fiends, I was so, so scared all the time. The very first time I was seriously injured, I honestly thought I was going to die… But,” her eyes shone with a bright, unwavering light, “until the very, very end, a magical girl must, she must, show courage. She must shoulder the hopes and dreams of the people. Our very existence, Miss Black, is a symbol of people’s hope. I just… I just want her, Red, to be brave enough to come out and face me. To face herself.”

Black couldn’t help but be impressed. This… this was the spirit, the unwavering resolve, the profound magnanimity of the one and only Strawberry Sweetheart.

In that case, her coming all the way here was completely, and with a certain amount of bureaucratic inefficiency, unnecessary. If she hadn’t come, Strawberry Sweetheart would surely have been able to resolve the problem on her own, and probably would have done a much better job of teaching Red how to be a proper magical girl. It was just that the people in the organization, those anxious, pencil-pushing bureaucrats, were far too anxious, too worried about their new asset. Was this new generation of magical girls really that important to them? Black didn’t particularly feel that way. She felt more like a glorified, and very dangerous babysitter.

She looked over at Ren, a slow, almost mischievous grin spreading across her face. “Well, kid, since that’s the case, then let’s just officially treat this as a nice, relaxing, all-expenses-paid trip to A-City, shall we? I heard this city has several rather nice and probably very expensive tourist spots. We can take some nice pictures, be proper tourists for a day or two, and send them back to Hana. She likes this Magical Girl Black character so much, doesn’t she? She’ll definitely, absolutely treasure Black’s exclusive, behind-the-scenes travel photos. She’ll probably frame them.”

Ren, after a moment of stunned silence, actually agreed. “That’s… actually a pretty good suggestion, Miss Black. And if we feel it’s a nice enough place, perhaps we can all come here together for a proper vacation later. As a family.”

“That’s the idea, kid,” Black said, a genuine, almost happy smile on her face. “That’s the idea.”

And so, the two of them, the magical girl who was  a middle-aged man and the hyper-competent teenage boy, promptly, and with a shared sense of profound relief, ran off to have a nice, relaxing, and probably very awkward vacation together.