My Rival Is an Expert on Hollow Contract Law?!

“So let me get this straight…” Shōko said as we gathered around her living room table. “You think I could have magic just like Ayame?”

“Baa!” the little lamb cried out happily. She then pulled Shōko's picture out of her magical fluff pocket. I considered giving it the name fluffspace, for simplicity's sake.

“Where did you get this picture of me?” Shōko asked the little lamb.

“Baa! Mm-baa! Ah-baa! Meh-meh!” The little lamb and Shōko seemed to perfectly understand one another. Could Shōko understand lamb-talk or was there something more magical about their conversation?

“Maybe I should get Aichi here to help explain what's going on,” I said.

“No need,” Shōko told me. “The lamb, her name is Sachiko, by the way, just told me about Hollows and magical girls. She wants me to help you fight giant monsters and stuff.”

Okay, how the heck did she get all of that out of a few lamb bleats?!

Were they already contracted?

“So tell me more about these contracts, Sachiko,” Shōko then said to the lamb.

“Baa! Baa!” Sachiko answered. “Meh-eh-baa!!”

“Lots of complicated rules?” Shōko asked. “Surely it isn't any more complicated than the rules I have to follow at home, right?”

While Shōko and Sachiko were busy working out how magic worked, I kept getting lost in Sachiko's shiny fluff. How on Earth did she get her hair so shiny and clean like that?!

I went to try to reach for the fluff…

“Ow!” I shouted in pain as a set of canine teeth gripped my hand tightly. “Aichi?! What the heck are you doing here?” Somehow, he had either magically appeared suddenly or he had slithered his way over to Shōko's house while nobody was paying attention.

“~woof! Rule 419 of our magical girl contract says you cannot touch another Hollow who is contracted to a human,” Aichi explained. “That risks breaking our contract ~woof. And, as I'm sure you know, you'd like to keep your magic, right?”

“Meh!” Sachiko added.

“Of course!” I told Aichi. “I uh… I had no idea they were contracted already!”

We would have continued our little table banter, but we were all interrupted by the most horrible buzzing sound imaginable. A monster was close by, but we had no way of knowing what we would be dealing with until we found it.

“Aichi, let's do this!” I shouted. “Flower Power! Rise Up, pretty pretty please!”

“~woof! Coming right up!” Aichi replied.

Shōko finally got to see my transformation in full. Aichi ran in a complete circle around me, creating the iris sigil. As the sigil went into the air, it created the sandals first, then the long black hakama, then the white kimono embroidered with an iris and a puppy face. Then came the bows, one on my kimono, one in my hair. Finally, my staff appeared right in front of me, ready for me to carry it into battle.

“Oh my fluff!” Shōko shouted happily. “Is that what I get to do now?!”

“Baa!” Sachiko said, as if she told Shōko to try it out.

“Okay,” Shōko took a couple deep breaths. “Flower Power! Rise Up, pretty pretty please!”

“Ah-baa!” Sachiko shouted, ready to cast the transformation spell on Shōko. But nothing happened.

“Huh… Did I do it wrong?” Shōko asked.

“I don't think so…” I told her. “Maybe Sachiko is low on mana.”

“Baa! Baa!” Sachiko protested, as if to say she had plenty of mana to spare.

“We don't have time to figure this out, ~woof,” Aichi told us. “Not enough room in this chapter. Let's move out!”

The four of us stormed out of the house to find a twenty meter tall teenage girl, no older than a middle schooler, dressed in a bright pink tracksuit and storming through the city…

“Come out and play, Yuji Ogawa! You big dummy!” the girl said with a very loud and obnoxious giggle. “I'm gonna find you and give you a big kiss!”

… and an obnoxious little man flying nearby on a broomstick. He wore a top hat and a raccoon mask and had icky black hair…

“Meteron!” I shouted at the sorcerer. “Come down here so I can punch your dumb face!”

“Flower Girl!” Meteron shouted back down at me. “Do you like my latest creation? I call her the Giant Tsundere!”

“Are you trying to bait me into breaking my contract and losing my powers?” I asked Meteron.

“Actually, that's exactly what I'm trying to get you to do!” Meteron explained. “You see, I fancy myself a bit of an expert on Hollow contract laws. You're supposed to be using your Flower Powers for good, but if you get caught using them for evil, like say, harming a little girl, you lose your powers forever! And we'll be one step closer to conquering the world!”

“Does he always monologue like this?” Shōko asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” I told her. “He thinks all villains are supposed to do this.”

“Dear Frith, he does know the rules, ~woof,” Aichi said. “That's rule 274.”

“Well, Flower Girl,” Meteron then said, “I'd love to stick around and regale you with more Hollow bureaucratic trivia, but I simply must prepare for tomorrow night.”

“Don't ask,” I told Shōko. I just knew she wanted to ask.

“What are you going to do tomorrow night?” Shōko asked him.

“I said -”

Meteron cackled loudly, interrupting what I was about to say. “Yes! It's the same thing we do every night, try to take over the world!”

“Ugh! Why do you have to be like this?!” I asked him. He smiled his typical evil smug smile that I hated so much.

“What, evil?” Meteron asked in response. “Because it's fun, and I like messing with you. Ta-ta! Ha-ha-ha-ha-har-ha-harr!”

As he flew away, I shouted at him, “Coward! Get back down here and fight me!”

“Ayame,” Aichi warned me, “look out!”

The four of us had to quickly dart out of the way to avoid getting squished by the giant teenage girl.

“I'm so glad their clothes grow with them when people grow to giant size ~woof,” Aichi said. “Just another one of the silly rules the ancient Hollows made up.”

“Meh…” Sachiko seemed to agree.

“Come on, Yuji!” the girl continued to cry out. “Where the heck are you hiding, you idiot?” She continued to stomp through the city looking for (presumably) her crush. People managed to evacuate their homes and businesses in an attempt to avoid getting crushed by her footsteps.

“What are we supposed to do?” Shōko asked. “She could destroy the whole city at this rate!”

“I got an idea,” I told her. “I think I'm getting used to this flying thing.”

I flew up to the girl's face in an attempt to get to know more about her. However, she was not pleased to see me.

“Eww, a bug!” the girl screamed. “Get away from me!”

Before she could try to swat me away, I hurriedly shouted “Hey, wait a minute! I'm not a bug!”

“Huh?” The girl was obviously confused by my words. Maybe she didn't realize she was twenty meters tall. Maybe she thought she was dreaming the whole thing up. “Then what are you supposed to be, some kind of fairy?”

“Uh… Yeah, I guess you could say that,” I said to the girl. “What's your name?”

“Hanako Tokura,” the girl answered.

“Well, Hanako,” I then said, “What brings you out here on a Saturday morning?”

“I'm looking for my boyfriend, Yuji Ogawa,” Hanako answered. “He lives somewhere around here, but I can't seem to find him.”

“Now, is he actually your boyfriend or is he more of a wannabe boyfriend?” I asked Hanako. “Do you need help?”

“I don't think that's any of your business, little fairy,” Hanako then told me. “And I don't need your help finding him!”

She then swatted me out of the way as if I was little more than a mosquito.

“Ayame!” Shōko and Aicho shouted.

“Meehh!!” Sachiko then began to charge towards the giant Hanako.

“Sachiko, wait!” Shōko started running after her.

Sachiko tried to get Hanako's attention by bleating very loudly. It seemed to work, as Hanako turned around to face the little lamb Hollow.

“Ooo, a little lammy…” Hanako said upon making eye contact with Sachiko.

“Ah… Baa-baa-baa-baa-waa… Meh-baa-meh-baa-waa…” Sachiko began singing to the giant Hanako! Despite the song consisting entirely of lamb bleats, it sounded like a very pretty song. And then for some reason, I started to feel very sleepy…

It was a sleep spell! This must have been how Sachiko defeated the giant cannon monster from earlier. But that didn't make any sense! Fumiko said strong emotions were the key to defeating the giant monsters. This singing seemed like the total opposite of that. Unless…

“Aichi! Shōko!” I yelled at the others. “Let's get away from the song or we'll all fall asleep!”

But Hanako was not having any of it. The singing seemed to work at first, but as the song droned on with more and more baas and mehs, the more Hanako seemed to get angry at the little lamb.

“Stupid little lammy is trying to keep me from finding my sweet Yuji!” Hanako yelled. “I know how to get rid of things that bug me!”

She took one step towards Sachiko, then another, and then another. She was going to stomp the little lamb into the concrete! The three of us tried to yell at her to get out of the way, but whether it was due to her own singing or whether she was just too stubborn, she did not listen to us.

Hanako got closer, and closer, and closer again.

Shōko then decided to make a run for it… towards Sachiko.

“Noooo!!!” Shōko shouted as she ran towards Sachiko.