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ultra-violet-heart · 2 years ago

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86 -Eighty Six- Magical Girl Regina ☆ Lena ~Fight! Galactic Cruise Battleship San Magnolia Ep. 1

This is the fan translation for the 86 -Eighty Six- Magical Girl Regina ☆ Lena ~Fight! Galactic Cruise Battleship San Magnolia side stories!

(They are original bonus side stories from the 86--EIGHTY-SIX Blu-Ray DVDs, written by Asato Asato and are illustrated by Suzume Somemiya). Will be translating all of these side stories soon. If you can, please support the full manga adaptation of these side stories (published by Comic Alive and are also illustrated by Somemiya as well here!)

Catalogue / Next Chapter (to be up soon)

Please ask my permission and credit me+this post if you will be retranslating this to other languages. PLEASE DO NOT REPOST THIS TO OTHER SITES. Please take the fan translations here with a grain of salt. If anyone is feeling generous, feel free to buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi!

Episode 1:

The catapult started to light up.

“Spell activated! Magical Girl Battle Dress: Juggernaut [1], on!”

A beam of light emanated from the launcher’s magic circle, just like a trail of footprints left by lovers on the sands of a beach, or like railroad tracks from the distant past. As if pointing the way forward, Lena stepped into that path of light stretching into the starry darkness of outer space, and her Battle Dress fluttered, woven from particles of light.

The chiffon frills of the dress overlapped each other like rose petals. It has ribbons like a kaleidoscope of butterflies, and the full-on set of this Battle Dress has various trinkets imbued with magical protection: a tiara, a brooch, bracelets, a pair of earrings, and a necklace. It resembled a beautiful fairy in a fairy tale, or something akin to a luxurious bridal dress.

The dress’s hues were all sky-blue, the color of the heavens as seen from the ground on a long-distant home planet. To Lena, who was born and was raised in a Galactic Cruise Battleship, it is a color she feels distant with, having only seen it in videos.

“Setting up the Guardian Spirit Control System. All units, Wehrwolf, Gunslinger, Sirius, Kirschblüte, stand by.”

Particles of light started to gather at the four vertices of the star-shaped brooch above her chest, materializing and fitting themselves in form of four small gems with various colors: a strong iron-blue, a clear gold, a burning-flame white, a gentle cherry blossom pink.

My four precious Guardian Spirits [2].

The space traffic controller then announced: “Launch path clear! Magical Girl, Handler [3] Regina ☆ Lena, prepare for take-off!”

The light from the launcher’s magic circle brightened, changing from a warning signal of red to a go signal of clear blue.

Taking a deep breath, she answered loudly: “Vladilena Milizé, Regina☆Lena, rolling out!”

Casting propulsion magic on her back, she soared through the vacuum of outer space. She took another deep breath after passing by the Fleet’s final defense unit. The Magical Girl Battle Dress’ barrier maintains such airtightness as a space suit, and said barrier also protects the Magical Girl from everything, including the enemies’ low-level attack magic.

Looking back, their mothership, the Galactic Cruise Battleship San Magnolia still lied in all its majesty over the sea of stars. The extremely gigantic immigrant battleship, which contained a single country inside of it, still looked large on her point of view, despite her being away from a considerable distance because of the launching and propulsion magic casted on her earlier. Even if she passed by the final defense Fleet’s barrier, she was still within range of the space traffic control communication magic from the mothership. Thus, she could directly hear the controller’s comms as well as the voices of the other Magical Girls responding to it.

“Setting up FCS [4]. Laughing Fox, Black Dog, Snow Witch, Falke, stand by.”

“Handler Owlette☆Annette [5], prepare for take-off!”

“Yeah, yeah. Henrietta von Penrose, Owlette☆Annette, rolling out!”

A figure clad in mint-green got launched from the now-pinhole-looking Magical Girl launcher catapult. Said figure stops next to Lena after the launch, shaking off dusts of light left from the propulsion magic. It is Annette, a Magical Girl around Lena’s age, and she has short silver hair and almond-shaped silver eyes.

By the way, Annette’s Battle Dress has a mint-green color, and the color of the dresses are determined by the wavelength of the Magical Girl’s innate magical power. However, for some reason, these colors are rather biased towards cutesy-looking colors like cherry pink, cream yellow, or orchid purple, so the Battle Dress colors are very, very unpopular with male Magical Girls.

Anyways.

“Owlette☆Annette, to think we share the same sortie shift!”

“For now, seems like we’ll have the same shift this whole month, Regina☆Lena!”

It is mandatory for Magical Girls to address each other by their callsigns, not their real names, when on duty. Having the ☆ on their callsigns is also mandatory. Neither Lena nor Annette knows the reason why though.

Far out of their line of sight, Annette’s eyes narrowed as she looked at a corner of their first line of defense.

“As predicted, the first offensive barrier’s been broken through… they even got the fleet of Fidos on our second line of defense.”

Their current automatic defensive system consists of the first defense line, the offensive barrier Gran Mur, and the second defense line, the Fido Fleet of automatic fighter machines, but depending on the enemy’s strength, both lines can be broken through.

In case something like this happens, Lena and the other Magical Girls are responsible for intercepting the enemy.

Lena reacted by listening clearly to the unfolding situation on the great barrier. Fortunately, it seemed.

“Looks like there’s only a few which broke through.”

“Yes… let’s finish this quickly.”

“Right.”

As the enemy’s vanguard unit came into sight, both chanted at the same time.

“Snow Witch, Activate!”

“Wehrwolf, Activate! Enchant, Sirius!”

On the brooch on Annette’s chest, a snow-white gem flashed and vanished, but at the same time a missile pod appeared above her outraised right palm.

From Lena’s brooch, the iron-blue gem and the burning-flame white gem also sparkled and vanished, and then suddenly beside it, a Gatling gun with six barrels appeared, and blazing white flames swayed from its muzzle.

Snow Witch, Wehrwolf, Sirius: these are the Personal Names of the Eighty-Six, the Guardian Spirits who materialized as weapons to protect their Fleet.

“FIRE!!!”

The pod then aimed and fired a group of missiles at the enemy.

The Gatling gun fired a rain of bullets wrapped in flames.

Far away in outer space, all bullets and missiles pierced through the enemy vanguard.

***

In search for a habitable planet to move into, the Galactic Cruise Battleship San Magnolia continues to navigate a faraway galaxy. The battleship, sailing on a sea of stars, has been embroiled in a long war that has spanned more than 100 years.

***

After taking off the Juggernaut in the dressing room, Lena then headed back to the waiting room, where she saw Annette (who returned earlier) raising a hand.

“Good job today, Lena.”

“You too, Annette… and everyone as well.”

She smiled at them while everyone rested on the table, murmuring in response while munching on magic-replenishing cookie-like Ether Crystals like a human munching on a whole apple.

“Good work, Lena. Raiden and Kurena, too.”

“Thanks for your hard work, too, Kaie, Kujo.”

As Lena pulled a chair and sat down, the Eighty-Six resting on her shoulders or head slid down to join the others lounging at the table.

“Want some?” Annette handed out some of the Ether Crystal to Lena, but the latter raised her hand to say it wasn’t necessary. Annette tilted her head in response.

“Don’t you want these cookies as snacks, then? It’s my new recipe, made with real eggs!”

“It’s not like… those that taste like cheese when they don’t have cheese in them, or those which look like black smoke coming out of them… right?”

Before Annette could reply, however, someone from the table answered.

“Sadly, those cookies seem like the type that has black smoke coming out of them…”

The reply came from one of the Guardian Spirits on the table. With the height of less than 30 cm, they have large heads, short limbs, and bodies the size of infants or probably stuffed toys.

For some reason, they are clad in desert camouflage combat fatigues and have silver ear cuffs attached to them. They also have fluffy triangular ears and bushy tails like those of puppies, though overall they have a human-like appearance.

They are the Eighty-Six.

They are human-like magical weapons, partnered with the Magical Girls, also called as Handlers, who protect the Galactic Cruise Fleet. These Guardian Spirits have protected the battleship and its people throughout this long war spanning more than 100 years.

“By the way, Annette, why are these little ones called Eighty-Six?”

Annette nodded.

“It’s said there were 1,010,110 Guardian Spirits in total from the beginning.”

“Huh?”

She didn’t get what that meant.

“The binary number of 86 is 1,010,110.”

“I see…”

“Well, to be honest that’s rather a stretch…”

Annette’s Eighty-Six, Snow Witch, Anju, smiled wryly. She has the appearance of a young girl with silvery-blue hair, and the fur on her ears has the same color.

Returning to the topic, Theo continued to speak. He has golden-brownish hair, jade eyes, and golden-brownish ears. His Personal Name [6] is Laughing Fox, and he is one of Annette’s Eighty-Six.

“Rather than seem to be, those cookies now have black smoke coming out of them, so don’t eat them, Haruto, Daiya.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.”

Black smoke, however, continued to puff out of the mouths of Haruto, who has copper-brown ears, and Daiya, who has golden ears.

Lena froze with a vague smile. Those two of Annette’s Guardian Spirits usually like making noise, so them being oddly silent for today… maybe that’s why.

“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Lena’s Eighty-Six, Kujo, whose Personal Name is Sirius, pointed his fingers at the two and continued to laugh loudly, so Lena pinched his ebony-colored dog ears to rebuke him.

“Hey!”

“Do-wah!”

Kujo rolled his eyes, then fainted. The Eighty-Six’s ears and tails are very sensitive, and touching their tails and ears weaken them.

Lena’s Guardian Spirit, Raiden, whose Personal Name is Wehrwolf, gave Annette a side-eye and said, “Can’t you just give up on making sweets, Annette? They always end up as charcoal anyways.”

“DON’T WANT TO.”

“I mean, isn’t that your Curse in the first place?”

“Since that Curse makes things impossible, it’s kinda stupid to fight that, you know?”

As Lena’s Guardian Spirits, Kaie and Kurena, continued the current talk, Annette went fuming.

The price Handlers pay for in exchange for them to use the powers of the Eighty-Six is always having a minor inconvenience in their lives, or what’s known as a Curse.

In Annette’s case, it is “to always fail at making sweets.” For Annette, this is a very painful Curse, as making sweets is her hobby.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to pass on the cookies, Annette.”

She really didn’t want to breathe out black smoke, too…

“Ugh…” Annette looked even more angry.

She pouted at Lena sullenly and then pointed a finger at her accusingly.

“Hold on… so you dare say that after you see people now spouting black smoke. When it comes to cooking, you don’t even know how to crack an egg open!”

Lena averted her eyes away.

“Mother won’t let me do housework as she said it would roughen my hands, and the kitchen is off-limits as it’s the cook’s territory…”

As said, Lena is someone who hasn’t cracked an egg open, nor does she know how to.

“I know you’re a young lady from an aristocratic lineage, so I don’t blame you for not knowing how to. Still, you don’t have the right to talk about me like that!”

“Well, if the cookies are a little burnt, that’s fine, but I think people will complain if you make them eat something that’s completely charred…” Daiya said this while coughing black smoke, but Annette ignored him.

With a bit of surprise in his voice, Theo chimed in. “For some reason, I knew you’re a rich young lady.”

“Lena, you’re really some sort of a princess, huh.”

“Don’t say that!”

Lena swallowed her words, trying to ask if Raiden and the others can crack an egg open. She didn’t think the Eighty-Six’s tiny hands can break eggs open, and it might be wrong of her to say so. She did hear eggshells are tough and hard. However, the Eighty-Six coolly nodded at her.

“We do know how to, though.”

“We know how to crack an egg open.”

“I mean, I can still do it, maybe?”

“You can’t really crack an egg open with one hand.”

“If we have two people doing that, then maybe…”

“Wait. With just one hand…?”

Lena groaned in surprise, while the Eighty-Six just nodded at her.

Not that it mattered much, but a stuffed-toy-sized Eighty-Six cracking an egg open looked like a very fairy-tale-like image, or the stuff out of picture books, Annette thought.

***

After parting ways with Annette, who said she'll go shopping, Lena was walking alone in the defense area corridor when the enemy’s second unit launched an attack.

She heard the space traffic controller’s comms again: “Course, clear. Handlers Drunken☆Sanders, Gluttonous☆John, Super Cool☆Tom, prepare for take-off!”

Said Mr. Sanders, Mr. John, and Mr. Tom could be heard replying. They sounded… heartbroken.

“Enough with these Magical Girl names! Can’t we change these to sound more like Magical Warriors or something?!”

“Can’t you also change the Juggernauts’ design to something more military-like?! We’re soldiers, too, after all!”

“My callsign sounds way too half-assed!”

Instead of the controller, however, girlish, high-pitched tones responded to the complaints.

Lecca, Mikuri and Myna respectively are the Guardian Spirits for Mr. Sanders and the others.

“Can’t be helped, it’s tradition!”

“The whole Dress, including the frills, the ribbons and even the gems are part of the magical defense schtick, you know.”

“Yeah, Super Cool sounds really half-assed.”

The space traffic controller replied coolly.

“It’s fine! Prepare for take-off. Forced launching activated. Bye!”

“DAMMIT ALL!!!”

The three then left a trail of different colors of flight magic as they faded from sight in the sea of stars.

Seeing this happen on and then off screen from beyond the spaceship’s window, Lena smiled strangely. By the way, as one may have guessed, Mr. Sanders, Mr. John, and Mr. Tom are all adult men, contrary to the Magical Girl moniker.

Or rather, the moniker was derived from the first Magical Girl, Handler Saint☆Magnolia, who first fought with the Eighty-Six more than 100 years ago, and there is no particular age or gender restrictions to become a Magical Girl.

It doesn’t mean that not everyone is not dissatisfied with being called a Magical Girl, having such excessively decorated Battle Dresses, or their rather-embarrassing-to-use-even-in-ordinary-times callsigns (to repeat, having the ☆ is mandatory).

The demand to revise the names continues to be rejected, the authorities being adamant about this being tradition. And “Super Cool☆Tom” truly sounds way too half-assed.

Well, that’s what Lena thought while walking.

“Ah!”

Lena felt her toe got caught in something, but she actually fell in the middle of nowhere.

In the technologically advanced Galactic Cruise Battleship, while walking in the seamlessly constructed spotless corridor of the defense area, Lena fell with a loud thud, though the ship didn’t even so much shake after.

“Ugh… it hurts…”

She did quickly get her hands and elbows together to shield her face, but then her hands, elbows and both knees hurt… it was pain she had grown accustomed to even if she’s not exactly happy about it.

That’s the nature of Lena’s Curse, “to often fall down at random.”

She never gets too injured, and it does hurt and not hurt at times, but it’s rather embarrassing when her Curse activates on public. Also, the reason why Lena has never set foot in the kitchen is partly because her mother is afraid the Curse might activate when Lena uses a knife or fire while cooking.

Lena stood up, sighing as she did so. Brushing her knees, she then saw something that certainly was not there before she fell.

From an arm’s length, there appeared to be a cardboard box.

“Farm-fresh oranges” was printed on the label of the box’s side, and it looked like someone from the public used the frayed box as some kind of container just lying around their home or something. On top of that, for some reason, rain started to fall, soaking Lena and the box in a blink of an eye.

Since this is just some kind of activating magic, please refrain from thinking how rain managed to pour inside the corridors of the Galactic Cruise Battleship, much less inside the corridors of both the defense area and near the residential area. [7]

However, in front of Lena, who was silent…

Triangular, black furry ears popped out from inside of the box as the lid opened.

A small head then followed.

Then her silver eyes met his blood-red eyes.

***

Freshly laundered bath towels and face towels are always available at all the captains’ rooms of the Galactic Cruise Fleet. This is because the manifestation of the Eighty-Six randomly happens by a cardboard box having one inside appearing in front of a randomly picked Handler while it randomly rains coldly on top of them. And since supervising Magical Girls are among the captain’s duties…

At once… the captain’s secretary placed a bath towel on Lena’s shoulders, but she didn’t bother using it to wipe her wet hair and clothes. One can see the Eighty-Six wiping his hair using the towel given to Lena while she lifted him with both hands and hugging him tightly close to her chest.

“Uncle!!! Can I take this little one with me?”

“Um…”

For the time being, Captain Jerome Karlstahl of the Galactic Cruise Battleship San Magnolia wondered if he could change this stupid manifestation ritual, which seemed to be like that common trope of a child adopting a stray dog.

His best friend’s beloved daughter, who he helped raised to be honest, is rather a little too honest… The Eighty-Six boy with black hair and crimson eyes, who was still wiping his hair, perked up as he was suddenly picked up, his pitch-black furry ears now flat and his bushy black tail wagging from side to side. Karlstahl thought it was like a dog’s tail when said dog is not growling, barking, or biting anyone, but didn’t mean the dog is on a pleasant mood, either. That Eighty-Six boy wasn’t a dog, but judging from his narrowed eyes and the crease between his eyebrows, he did resemble one…

Perhaps the boy noticed Karlstahl’s gaze, so he implored with a look that said Help me! but Karlstahl pretended he didn’t notice and nodded with a very sociable-looking smile. The crease between the boy’s eyebrows went deeper and it was a sorry sight, but Karlstahl didn’t care at all.

The girl he helped raised was just too honest. If he even tried to suddenly tear out that Eighty-Six boy out of her arms, she would probably say, “I hate you so much, Uncle!”, which made him depressed. Even thinking about it made him depressed. Compared to that, being resented by an Eighty-Six was nothing. He then put that aside and then gently pointed out an important fact.

“Lena, you already have four Eighty-Six with you. While it’s true the maximum number of Guardian Spirits a single Handler can possibly possess is up to five, it doesn’t mean there’s no consequences to reaching that maximum. You’re well aware that a shortage of magical power can end in disaster, both for the Handler and the Eighty-Six they possess.”

“I’m well aware, but… our eyes happened to meet in the rain!!!”

That was not exactly an answer to what Karlstahl pointed out.

“I’ll take good care of him! And if it’s about my magical power capacity, it’s been previously measured I’m capable to possess up to five Eighty-Six, so this is favorable chance!” Or so she said.

The Guardian Spirits, magical beings who don’t have a physical body, have enormous amounts of magical power themselves, but they also require a supply of magical power from their Handlers in order to recover said power they spent in battle or during their materialization. Insufficient magical power, especially during battle, can lead to destruction of the Eighty-Six, or worst, the death of the Handler. Therefore, the number of Eighty-Six possessed by each Handler is strictly and carefully determined based on the Handler’s magical power.

And as she claimed, Lena’s magical power has been determined to be exceptionally enormous that it was certified she could possess even up to five Eighty-Six with plenty of power to spare.

However, Karlstahl was rather eager to say what many parents would have usually said to their children who picked up stray dogs: Return it to where it came from.

The Eighty-Six can be returned to the temple in the innermost part of the Fleet’s Battleship, and afterwards there is no way to return them to the captain, not to mention the Magical Girl, but that aside…

After all…

Karlstahl couldn’t care less if the Eighty-Six was a girl, but this was a boy they’re talking about.

He was like a pest [8], and Karlstahl didn’t like that at all.

Uncle! Lena pleaded earnestly while looking at him with the eyes of a puppy about to be thrown away, and Karlstahl let out a sigh.

“Lena.”

At the firm mention of her name, Lena held her tongue.

“You really are like your father, Vaclav.”

Lena smiled at Karlstahl.

“Even if you want to sidetrack this issue at hand by suddenly mentioning Father, you can’t fool me like that, Uncle.”

Karlstahl raised his hands in defeat. I can’t fool her any longer like this, huh.

Anyways.

“To begin with, which part of this conversation brought out that part about her being like her father?” retorted the Eighty-Six boy, who had been silent until now.

Lena then answered. “Even though he is posted away due to a work transfer, Father is also a Magical Girl. Guardian Spirits tend to choose him, and since he just can’t refuse every time he gets chosen, he ended up possessing the maximum limit of five Eighty-Six.”

“Oh, so he’s still alive.”

Why did this past tense reference sound similar to earlier? [9]

In any case, Lena faced her new Eighty-Six. She placed him, standing, on a low table in the captain’s lounge suite, and then she crouched down so he could see her at his eye level. She took his little hands after, smiling, the gesture somehow resembling wedding vows.

“My name is Vladilena Milizé, and I am a Handler. Please call me Lena. From now on, I’ll be counting on you.”

“……��.”

The Eighty-Six boy lowered his eyes and let out a small sigh. For now…

“Handler, can you please change your clothes?”

Underneath Lena’s now-sticky-and-wet blouse, the sight of navy-blue cloth and the white frills [from her undergarment] asserted itself so fiercely, the boy looked troubled as he averted his eyes.

***

The Eighty-Six boy called himself Shinei Nouzen.

“So, your Personal Name is Undertaker, right? Is it all right if I call you Shin?”

“If you like that, Handler.”

They left the defense area, walking onto the residential area of the battleship. An image of the sky was projected onto the high ceiling, and Lena walked along the green-looking boulevard with Shin in her arms.

Shin looked like he had given up on Lena trying to hold him like a puppy or a stuffed toy and has stopped resisting the way he was being held.

On the other hand, Lena raised her eyebrows at his curt responses. She didn’t mind if he was gruff as he might be that kind of person, but the way he called her…

“It’s Lena, Shin.”

“… Lena, then. Excuse me for saying so, but you’re rather strange.”

“Is that so?”

Shin glanced up at Lena, who tilted her head.

Such red eyes.

“The Eighty-Six serve as weapons to defend the Fleet. I thought it was common practice for Magical Girls to leave them dormant except in battle to reduce magical power consumption.”

Lena blinked.

It is true that most Magical Girls are capable of possessing only one Eighty-Six, and the Guardians who are not possessed are usually put to sleep [11] in order for them to be able to keep up in battle. However, for that matter, Lena and Annette are exceptions.

“I don’t need for my Spirits to be put to sleep. It’s more fun if they’re awake and they can materialize and do a lot of things.”

Even if the Eighty-Six are magical beings without bodies, they still have feelings and wills, just like humans. If she didn’t need to put them to sleep, she wanted them to do whatever they want, and let them do so if they’re not in battle.

“That’s why the little ones with me are usually up and about and they just play around.”

“I see… Come to think of it, I heard you already have four Spirits.”

Lena slightly smiled.

“Yes. They’re really good kids. I can introduce them to you on our way back.”

***

She didn’t even need to introduce everyone.

“Ah, Shin!”

“Thought you’re someone else, but it’s Shin. Long time no see!”

As soon as he entered the room, Kurena and Raiden’s voices greeted him. Shin’s eyes widened a little, and Lena was surprised.

“Kurena… Raiden… Kaie, even Kujo?”

“Yeah, here I am, Shin. Long time no see.”

“I mean… you’re here…. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Why is that the headless Reaper of the Eastern Front here and brought out like a stuffed toy BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Kaie raised her hand and pointed at Shin being held by Lena, causing Kujo to burst out laughing. Shin silently twisted his body to escape Lena’s grasp, jumped on the table where the four were located, grabbed an Ether Crystal from a pot there, and then threw it. It hit Kujo’s forehead directly, causing it to split open. Kujo, who fell flat on his back, managed to catch the Ether Crystal with his mouth and then munched on it. Lena saw that he seemed to be joking around, and turned her attention to Shin, Raiden and the others.

“You all know each other?”

“Well, we do, for quite some time now.”

“We’ve worked several times under other Magical Girls.”

Now that it’s mentioned, the Eighty-Six have been fighting for more than 100 years, protecting the Galactic Cruise Fleet alongside successive generations of Magical Girls.

In those 100 years, they must have had at least stood on the same battlefield and had materialized under the same Magical Girl, even once.

Suddenly, Lena realized something, and she just had to ask. What if…?

“If that’s the case…, have you all been acquainted with the first Magical Girl, Handler Saint☆Magnolia?”

She was then greeted by a faint silence. Not an “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”. The gesture was peculiar to those who were being asked something they didn’t want to remember.

They all responded while averting their eyes away from her.

“No.”

“I’ve never met her.”

“I don’t know her.”

“Me neither.”

“Me neither, I guess?”

They were lying.

She wondered what happened… or rather.

Lena wondered what kind of person the first Handler was.

As a sense of dread enveloped her, she was about to speak and ask further questions—

Suddenly, the alarm for a sortie request rang from the mobile terminal comms.

***

“Geez, two sorties in one day? And this time it’s the enemy’s main force attacking, Regina☆Lena.”

“Right, Owlette☆Annette. Seems like the Legion we dealt with earlier wasn’t just the enemy’s vanguard unit and then the main force, but all of them were just the vanguard.”

This keeps being repeated a lot, but it is mandatory for Magical Girls to address each other by their callsigns, not their real names, when on duty, and the ☆ on their callsigns is also mandatory.

Anyhow, they passed through the first defense line, the offensive barrier, and then the second defense line of the automatic fighter machines.

Hordes of the enemy then rushed in.

They are hostile beings dubbed as the Legion, in testament to their vast numbers. They are the never-ending enemy forces fighting against the Galactic Cruise Fleet in this hundred-year-war.

They are the enemy of all Magical Girls and Guardian Spirits.

Looking at the enemy, Lena held the brooch above her heart, where her Eighty-Six currently were contained in. The star-shaped brooch now has five small gems on all its vertices: iron-blue, gold, burning-flame white, cherry blossom pink.

And then a deep, transparent, blood-red crimson gem.

Annette sniffled.

“It’s rather a blessing in disguise the enemy looks like… Sheep.”

The enemies’ shape, as the name suggests, do resemble sheep. Kind of like pressing twisted wire, or a collection of lines drawn by children using crayons, with different colors, thickness, and length. One could say they’re a caricature of a large flock of sheep.

The Sheep were strangely flat, visible to the eye but weren’t substantial enough, and they gathered in unison as far as the eye can see, rushing immediately like ants.

Their name is their army, of which there are many.

The countless lines that made up those countless Sheep suddenly untangled themselves.

They then gathered again in one place and swirled in a circle, and in a flash, the innumerable lines suddenly weaved themselves into a large, complex-looking shape. Each of said line is a Legion, making up the body of a large, united Legion unit.

They are said to be similar to the Eighty-Six, except these magical beings cannot communicate, though each and every one of them also possess enormous magical power.

Countless Legion then assembled, interweaving as they formed a magic circle, which shone brightly as it got activated. It was bombardment magic, aiming at everyone and everything in their line of sight.

Which included Annette.

“Laughing Fox, Activate! I’m counting on you, Theo!”

“You don’t need to tell me twice. Don’t bite your tongue, Owlette☆Annette!”

The Legion’s bombardment magic circle blasted out a large, bright star beam.

Just moments earlier, Annette barely succeeded getting out of the bombardment magic’s range using Theo’s Laughing Fox magic, a materialized virtual wire anchor that shoots a wire that gets fixed at any coordinate, and the wire hoisting the caster away to said coordinates at high speed.

At the same time, Lena completed chanting.

“Gunslinger, Activate! Enchant, Kirschblüte!”

“Copy that, Regina☆Lena!”

“Leave it to me, Regina☆Lena!”

The gold gem and the cherry-blossom pink gem flickered like bubbles of light, materializing a steel-blue sniper rifle on Lena’s hand. Kurena’s Gunslinger magic is a sniper with magic bullets that aim perfectly at its targets, and this time it has the added effect of Kaie’s Kirschblüte enchantment.

“FIRE!!!”

They shot at the Legion. The golden light beam rushed out, piercing through the center of the Legion’s bombardment magic circle, causing it to crack. As Kirschblüte’s enchantment was in effect, myriads of small blades of light resembling cherry blossom petals then appeared, slashing through the Legion which made up that magic circle.

“Switch now! Black Dog, Activate! Enchant, Falke!”

Annette’s double-hit blow struck after: Daiya’s Black Dog magic materialized as a rain of high-explosive projectiles, and in effect, Haruto’s Falke enchantment appeared after as a shower of falcon-plume-like blades attacking the enemy.

As the explosions and slashes blasted the Legion away, the bombardment magic circle shattered completely, vanishing without a trace.

“What a pain in the neck… Regina☆Lena and I have to blast those away one by one…!”

Annette possessed four Eighty-Six while Lena has five, and they have enough magical power to keep them materialized even when not in battle. If a Handler has two or more Eighty-Six, they can double their power by enchanting one with the magic of the other.

It took the doubled offensive magic of both Lena and Annette just to take down the bombardment magic circle of such a large scale. The Legion’s number is that vast. And yet… even after destroying said magic circle, the majority of the Sheep in the main Legion force were still active and moving.

“We need to reduce their numbers first, even just a little…!”

Lena took a deep breath, trying to materialize a wide-range machine gun using Raiden’s Werhwolf magic.

Out of the blue, Shin spoke.

“Handler.”

Her callsign, Regina☆Lena, seemed to be something he didn’t want to say.

“With those vast numbers, it would be better for you to use me.”

“That’s…”

Since it hadn’t been long since they met and the sortie they were in was rather abrupt, Lena wasn’t able to confirm what kind of magic Shin’s Undertaker would be, how much magical power it consumed, and how powerful it might be. It was why she hadn’t planned to use it yet.

Lena’s lips tightened. He went out of his way to tell me he thought he would be useful in this battle. How could I, a Magical Girl, not believe in that?

“All right, then. Undertaker, Activate!”

The blood-red gem on her chest glowed.

Like an ephemeral bubble of light, it diffused, with the same blood-red light placing itself on Lena’s hand, materializing…

What appeared was a long hilt, as tall as Lena, with the color of dry bone. Its curved blade was dyed red, the color of frozen flames. The weapon looked sharp and gave the impression of danger, like it was some kind of ominous threat.

It was a scythe.

A melee type of weapon, huh? In this case…

“Enchant—”

She was about to enchant the scythe with Kujo’s Sirius flames when Raiden interrupted her.

“Don’t, Regina☆Lena. Use that one alone… No matter how much magical power you have, it will run out if you use him.”

“Huh…?”

Scarlet lines then ran across her field of vision [11]. Then there it appeared: a visible trail of how to cleave through the Legion’s main unit, as if the trail is whispering: Here. Cleave.

She was still doubtful about this, but her body moved on its own, as if fascinated by the weapon. As if impelled by the scythe’s will, she swung it wide, and cleaved.

In the blink of an eye.

The Legion’s main force, comprised majority of those countless Sheep, were obliterated in an instant.

“Wha—?”

Lena, who swung the scythe, and Annette, who was beside her, just stood there, stunned into silence.

They had never seen such an enormous amount of magical power; one could describe it as a violent, overpowering destructive force. Her magical power, however, got so depleted quickly that Lena, who possessed an unparalleled amount, even felt dizzy, but this was expected with such destructive power from such a weapon.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is a trump card in humanity’s fight against the Legion—a very powerful one.

The other Magical Girls deployed to other coordinates to clean up the Legion’s main force were far away from the activation of Undertaker, and so were less likely to be shaken by the event. The Legion’s numbers decreased so much one could see that these Magical Girls would be fine without Lena or Annette there helping them.

In a daze, Lena stood there, shuddering. As if she was shot by some divine force out there, she whispered. This is…

“Undertaker…”

***

The other Magical Girls took care of the Legion remnants Shin missed, and their numbers seemed to have decreased to a level even the automatic fighter machines could clean them up. A somewhat cheerful battle then ensued, the window-like monitor showing how the dog-like Fido automatic fighter machines chomped up the floating Legion debris and the remaining surviving Sheep.

Even with her vast magical power, Lena was exhausted from using such an enormous amount all at once. After going back to her room, she went straight to bed, with her five Eighty-Six resting in the adjacent lounge. Although the five can materialize and remain active outside of battle due to Lena’s magic supply, it is more efficient for them to sleep for a certain amount of time and focus on their own magical recovery.

The Eighty-Six have their own egg-shaped crystal pods where they can sleep. Shin has been allocated a pod of his own, but as he crawled into it, he opened his eyes as he heard someone. Hey.

From the pod next to Shin’s, Raiden turned his iron-colored eyes at the former.

“Now that you’ve come here, it means that is coming soon, too, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Those that are close echo each other. Because… they call out to each other.

“Brother. He’s calling out to me.”

To be continued…

Translator’s Notes:

Some of the images posted here are taken from the Regina Lena manga. This SS covers Chapter 1 of said manga as well as part of Chapter 2.

[1] Yes, the 魔法少女舞闘衣装 (literally rendered as “Magical Girl Battle Dress” in English), is read as ジャガーノート (Juggernaut) in katakana. I honestly don’t know what ran through Asato’s mind naming said mahou shoujo outfits…

[2] The 守護精霊 (Guardian Spirits), besides being written as “Eighty-Six” in katakana, are also written in an alternative kanji as 精霊, which means “spirits of the deceased”. This will be significant in the other Regina Lena SS.

[3] The 魔法少女 (Magical Girls) are called ハンドラー (“Handlers”) in katakana in this SS.

[4] FCS = flight control system

[5] Annette’s Personal Name as a Handler is アウレット☆アネット, and the katakana of アウレット can be interpreted into three: “outlet”, “aureate” (which means “golden”) or “Owlette/owlet”. I chose the third one due to the PJ Masks reference and this referencing to LN canon in Annette’s Legion-designated callsign of “Minerva”, the name being the Roman version of the Greek goddess of wisdom Athena, and Athena’s symbol being an owl. This personal translation of mine is obviously subject to change depending on if we get an official translation of Regina Lena.

[6] Personal Names in the Regina Lena SS are written as 術式発動名 in kanji, and this can be alternatively translated as “Summon Chant”.

[7] Asato said this, not me. DON’T ASK ME WHY, I FIND IT ABSURD, TOO 😞

[8] 悪い虫 literally means “bad bug” or “pest” in Japanese, but it is an idiom for “undesirable lover”. Why do all Lena’s father figures hate Shin LMAOOOOOOO

[9] This has two references, one referencing to Karlstahl’s talk of Magical Girls being in danger due to lack of magical power, the other is on… Regina Lena Side Story 4 (I will translate all Regina Lena SS if Yen Press has not, which I kind of doubt they would as of the moment.)

[10] The Eighty-Six here are usually put to sleep (like literally just SLEEP, nothing else). This is a phrase that’s a double-edged sword in future Regina Lena chapters LOL

[11] Based on how I read Regina Lena so far, this very description reminded me of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, if anyone here is familiar with Tsukihime or Kara no Kyoukai. (Another in-line reference, Lena’s Japanese VA, Ikumi Hasegawa, also voiced one of the pivotal characters/love interest, the True Ancestor, Arcueid Brunestud, in the Tsukihime remake made by Ufotable/Type-Moon. ARCUEID BEST GIRL btw)

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