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Part 3
“T-this place…”
The two girls and a pet looked up at the building on the grounds, out of breath.
“The track and field competition venue?!”
Sumimaru led them to the outdoor stadium where the athletic competition Kaede had said she would participate in was being held.
“That Debipachi will definitely mess up the competition!”
“We can’t let that happen!”
The image that came to Kaori and the others was Kaede’s smiling face as she said, “I will do my best in the tournament!”
“Let’s go to the venue right away!”
“Yes, that’s right!”
“Wait a minute-Maru!”
Sumimaru raised his voice with a stern expression.
“Su-Sumimaru-san? What’s wrong?”
“This is a sacred place that only athletes who have trained hard and those who support them wholeheartedly can enter-maru… In order to infiltrate without arousing suspicion, we need to disguise ourselves-maru!”
“No, I don’t think it matters what we wear or how we look.”
“No good-maru! With that half-hearted attitude, you’re not worthy of this holy tournament-maru! You must definitely disguise yourselves-maru!”
“B-but what should we disguise ourselves as…!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the costumes-maru. I’m the versatile, octopus-shaped, highly mobile Guardian Fairy No. 1 Lacquer-style─leave it to me-maru!”
“U-understood!”
And a few minutes later.
“Wow, is this the tournament site? It’s so huge~!”
“This is also the first time I’ve been inside. It feels even bigger than it looked from the outside.”
Kaori and Noah were sitting in the spectator section of the stadium.
In cheerleader outfits.
“Phew. Anyway, I’m glad we managed to sneak in safely!”
“Yes, as expected from Sumimaru-san! No one will suspect us now… but wouldn’t it have been better to just wear normal clothes?”
There were many people in the audience, including school staff and parents of the athletes, so Kaori and Noah stood out, dressed as cheerleaders with pom-poms.
Kaori, who had shouted without thinking, shook her head vigorously.
“You can’t wear normal clothes-maru! To find the Debipachi, we have to search the back of the building thoroughly-maru! Wearing cheerleader clothes is the best way to avoid arousing suspicion-maru~, ufufufu~.”
“No, you just want to see Kaori-san in cheerleader clothes, right?”
Sumimaru shakes his body and Noah gives him a look of disdain.
Next to him, Kaori has a serious expression on her face.
“I-I see, that’s what it was about. I’m embarrassed, but I’m also doing this for Kaede-san and the others…!”
After swallowing her embarrassment, she looks back at the cheerleader outfit.
“By the way, Sumimaru-san, you really can make all kinds of outfits, can’t you?”
“Fufufu, that’s one of my proudest skills-maru! I can make the coolest outfits anywhere, anytime-maru! They’re not just cosplay; they’re high-end products, carefully selected for their materials and design-maru!”
“It’s like you’re a craftsman; it’s so cool!”
“It’s just a hobby that’s gotten out of hand!”
The preliminaries were already underway on the sports field.
The expressions on the faces of all the athletes were stern, and you could feel the tension in the air.
Kaori looked around from the front row of the audience.
“It looks like Debipachi hasn’t arrived yet.”
“I’m sure they’re hiding somewhere, waiting for the right moment to do something bad, just like in the maid’s cafe!”
“We don’t even know what kind of Debipachi it is, so we have to be careful-maru!”
“Yes! We can’t let Debipachi do whatever they want, not for Kaede-san’s sake!”
They keep a watchful eye on the whole place.
However…
“Gosh, but the sunlight is so strong…”
Noah blinks her eyes.
The stadium is outdoors, so the sun is beating down mercilessly.
“Oh no, UV rays are the worst for your skin-maru! I’ll put on this sunscreen-maru!”
Sumimaru takes out some sunscreen from somewhere.
“This is a special sunscreen for cute cheerleaders only─’Magical Absolutely No UV Ray Allowed’-maru!”
“Ma-Magical Absolutely No UV Ray Allowed?”
“Why do you have such a thing?”
“I had it prepared in advance for situations like this-maru! Now, Kaori, leave yourself to me─I’ll apply it all over with my smooth tentacles-maru!”
“Eh, um…”
“I’m not going to let you do that, you perverted squid! We’ll put it on ourselves; we’ll borrow it!”
Noah took the sunscreen from Sumimaru and started applying it together with Kaori.
“Noah-san, you should apply it to your neck as well. Let me apply it for you.”
“Thank you very much! In return, Noah will apply it for you as well!”
“Kyaa, Noah-san, it tickles!”
“Kaori-san, you can’t move! Oh, don’t forget to put some on your ears too!”
“Mm, it’s so ticklish…”
“Kaori-san, you’re so ticklish!”
The two of them playfully applied sunscreen to each other.
The athletes and people around them who were watching them were all excited.
“Hey, hey, what a precious sight…!”
“I’ve never seen such cute cheerleaders!”
“I mean, why are there cheerleaders? Well, they’re cute, so it’s okay!”
“If I had those girls cheering for me, I’d be so excited!”
“Awawa, I wanted to put on the sunscreen-maru. But after all, the best part of watching sports is the fun of putting sunscreen on each other-maru. Good job, ufufufu─but, hey, who’s that running on the course-maru…”
Sumimaru suddenly looked at the track on the ground and noticed something.
Kaori followed Sumimaru’s gaze and exclaimed.
“Ah, that’s… Kaede-san!”
The qualifying heats for the 100m race were being held on this track, and Kaede had just finished first.
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
“Kaede-san, she’s in a league of her own! She’s so cool!”
Kaede noticed Noah and Kaori in the audience and ran over, her ponytail fluttering.
“Kaori, Noah-chan! You came!”
“Yes! You’re amazing, Kaede-san!”
“You made it through the preliminaries!”
“Hehe, all the practice paid off!”
Kaede made a victory sign and tilted her head.
“But why are you two dressed as cheerleaders?”
“Oh, um, well…”
“Of course, it’s to cheer with all our might! We’ll be cheering with our lives in the finals! Hurrah, hurrah!”
“T-That’s right! Hurray, hurray!”
Kaori also waved her pom-poms as hard as she could in time with Noah’s loud cheers.
The entire audience was drawn to the adorable sight.
“Oh, look at those cute cheerleaders cheering us on! Just looking at them makes me feel so much better.”
“They’re like idols! I wonder what school they’re from?”
“I’m so glad we came to the tournament because I get to see something so cute for free.”
The cute cheerleaders’ performance lifted the spirits of all the athletes at the venue.
“Thank you! I was a little nervous, but when I thought about you two cheering me on, I felt so much strength! I’ll do my best in the finals, too!”
Kaede waved happily and went back to her team.
“Kaede-chan is so cute-maru! The combination of her track uniform and her swinging ponytail is just perfect-maru!”
“I hope she can get good results for all the training she’s done!”
“Noah and the others will be cheering her on!”
“Yes! And we have to be ready at all times in case Debipachi-san shows up at any moment…!”
Kaori and the others cheered their support while keeping an eye on the place.
Noah was very curious about the various athletic events she was seeing for the first time.
“There are so many different events! What is that event where they measure distance by jumping?”
“That’s the long jump.”
“Oh, look, Kaori-san, there’s a strange tool over there! Could it be a secret tool for digging up gold, silver, and treasure?”
“That’s a dragonfly. It’s a tool for smoothing the ground.”
“Huh, what is that flying saucer? Could it be a UFO? If we catch it and make a spectacle of it, we’ll make a fortune!”
“Well, I think it’s a discus thrower…”
“Hmm, what about that cup that looks so expensive?
“It’s a trophy. It’s something the person who wins first place gets.”
“Wow, a trophy that looks so shiny and gold, it must be worth a lot of money! I’m going to enter the competition!”
“Y-You can’t do that, Noah-san! Trophies are things to be displayed with care, not things to be sold!”
The two cheerleaders, who were exceptionally cute and made a lot of noise in the front row, stood out.
“Watching those girls really helped me relax.”
“They’re really calming.”
“Oh, they’re too cute… I wish they were our school’s exclusive cheerleaders.”
The two girls’ presence was a refreshing tonic in the high-pressure competition, and they were very popular with the athletes and spectators alike.
Eventually, the preliminary rounds for all events were over, and the finals for each event finally began.
“So the finals have finally begun!”
“But the Debipachi still hasn’t appeared. I’ve been feeling her presence for a while now-maru…”
“…I have a bad feeling…”
Kaori watched the athletes running on the long-distance track, holding back the fear that was swirling in her chest──
“──Ah!”
Suddenly, the athlete in first place fell over.
“I-it looks painful!”
“I wonder if he’s okay…”
The audience seats stirred restlessly.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Come to think of it, there was another athlete who fell earlier, wasn’t there?”
“Yes. Fortunately, it seems to be just a scratch, but it’s still worrying…”
“The injured athletes say that their legs were pulled by something. They inspected the ground just in case, but there seems to be nothing there.”
“This is all so scary…”
The final, which had been interrupted, resumed, but accidents and injuries continued to occur as if a floodgate had been opened.
Kaori’s face contorted in horror at the unnatural situation.
“Could this be…”
In an instant, Sumimaru’s ears began to glow and shake violently.
“My Empela is reacting-maru! The presence of Debipachi is getting stronger-maru… This is definitely Debipachi’s doing-maru!”
“But there’s no sign of Debipachi at all!”
As Noah said, there were no suspicious shadows on the ground.
As the situation continued for no apparent reason, the voices of fear and concern among the athletes and spectators grew louder.
“This is bad-maru. This atmosphere is the Debipachi’s favorite-maru…!”
“So far, only minor injuries have occurred, but it’s only a matter of time before a serious accident occurs. We have to find it quickly…!”
Kaori and the others strained their eyes.
“Ah, I found it. Over there!”
Kaori pointed to the track in the back.
That was the track where the 100-meter final would be held.
Halfway down the track, a black tentacle stretched out from the ground.
The tentacle was cleverly lurking in the shadows, and no one else had noticed it.
“Debipachi is lurking on the ground, causing the athletes to fall over!”
“What? There are Debipachi who can do that too?”
“It’s a troublesome type that lurks on the ground and moves around-maru. We must deal with it quickly-maru! Both of you, transform-maru!”
“Yes!”
“Understood!”
Kaori nodded and raised her wand.
She waited for the right moment and then shouted the incantation.
“The world of seven colors that glitters! The perfect pure princess, dress up!”
“The world of seven colors that sparkles─fuee, fueree, fueekushoi!”
“Noah-san!”
A blinding light erupts in the middle of Noah’s incantation.
Then, the two girls appear, transformed into their costumes.
“So, in the end, you can transform ──────!?”
“It’s all about the feeling! Magical Girl Papipuri is here to save the day!”
“Wow, you look so cool-maru!”
The people around them were stunned by the sudden appearance of the Magical Girls.
“W-what is that? Magical girls?!”
“Where did they come from?!”
“I saw them on SNS! They were at the Maid Cafe, beating up some weird octopus!”
Kaori and Noah leaned over the railing.
It was quite a distance from where they were to the back course where Debipachi was hiding.
“We have to defeat Debipachi quickly…”
“It’s too far from here. We have to hurry…”
“Look, that’s Kaede-san…”
Noah shows the starting point.
Among the athletes who arrive at the starting line one by one is Kaede.
On the track, Debipachi is waiting for her.
“Oh no! Kaede-chan is going to be Debipachi’s prey-maru!”
“What are we going to do? We won’t make it in time! Noah-san?!”
Without even a moment’s pause, Noah jumps down to the ground.
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