Magical Girl with Demonic Time Magic-Chapter 80: Group Mission

Chapter 80: Group Mission
"Let’s go, Setsuna!" I say, quickly pulling Setsuna’s hand into the magical girls’ base. Last night, Setsuna and I had a long phone conversation that lasted for hours.
And today, Setsuna has decided to return to school, so until Saturday and Sunday arrive, the two of us need to complete lots of magical girl missions!
Setsuna didn’t seem to be feeling well this morning, and it also looks like she didn’t get any sleep all night, although she still looks gorgeous. I bet a mission will help her forget any problems.
"Hey, hey, hey!!" I say hurriedly, pressing the reception button to call someone. I’m so excited for the weekend I can’t wait to hang out with Setsuna on Saturday and my boyfriend on Sunday. It’s going to be the perfect weekend.
"Hello, how can I help you?" The receptionist who appears asks quickly with a smile on her face.
"Yes, Setsuna and I want to go on a mission from the base’s registry. Do you have anything for the two of us?" I ask while Setsuna stands beside me. The receptionist types something on the computer for a moment and then looks at us.
"I’m sorry to inform you, but Lenore, who is the leader of your group, won’t be able to participate in anything today because she’s busy. Without a leader and an attack member in the group, you two can’t do any of the registry missions since you’re still new to this," the receptionist says, typing something on the computer.
"New magical girls can only take on this type of mission after 7 months of activity, provided they’ve shown they can handle problems on their own or in smaller groups of less than 3."
"Ah...I see," I say, slightly disappointed. But if Lenore is busy, she’s right. Setsuna and I have gotten stronger, but we’re still newbies with less than two months of activity.
"But we can send you with another team. There’s a team that needs at least 5 members to defeat a specific monster, and they’re in need of help. You two can go with them," the receptionist informs me, cheering me up.
"Really? And who are they?" I ask urgently, as time is of the essence. I’m so glad there’s something for us, or else Setsuna and I would have had to go back home, train at the base, or try to find monsters on our own.
"Hoshikawa Nozomi, Shiranui Kaguya, and Arakaze Fuuka. The 3 of them are a group, but they need two more members for a specific mission they want to take, and they’re waiting at the base trying to recruit more girls."
"Do you two want to go with them?" the receptionist asks politely as she waits.
"Yes, we want to go! And you, Setsuna, are you okay with this?" I ask with a smile. If Setsuna refuses, I obviously can’t accept it for her.
"Yes, this mission is fine," Setsuna simply agrees, and the receptionist starts typing on the computer. After 5 minutes, the 3 girls come over to us.
One of them I know it’s the girl who was with me at school and lost her boyfriend. She helped defeat the mind-control monster. The other two I don’t know.
"So, are you two the ones? I’m Arakaze, and I’m the attacker of the team. We’re hunting the Dream Tormentor, an annoying monster that mainly kidnaps children. Are you willing to come with us?" Arakaze asks.
"Yes!" Setsuna and I say at the same time.
"Great, first come with us, and we’ll discuss it," she says in a firm tone, leading the way as the other two follow. Soon, the 5 of us go to a room with a table and several chairs. Each of us takes a seat, while Arakaze stands.
"Okay, newbies, first, let’s talk about why we need 5 magical girls, so you don’t get scared thinking it’s a super dangerous monster."
"The Dream Tormentor is a monster that can force people to sleep and enter their dreams to steal things from them be it memories, life force, or even body parts. It usually chooses a single target and forces that target to have nightmares for a week before attacking. It does this to evaluate the prey and plan its next steps."
"We’re not entirely sure why it does this or why it only hunts people based on waiting, analyzing, and then acting."
"The point is that this monster’s magic has a limit of 4 targets at a time, meaning that if it puts the 3 of us to sleep, we’ll lose and get kidnapped. We need at least one person awake to fight it or wake the others."
"This monster isn’t that strong, but its magic is problematic to deal with. Worst of all, this monster has changed its target from normal people to children, kidnapping a large number of them recently and reducing its routine from a week to two days, while observing up to 4 targets at a time."
"In the last 3 months, it has successfully kidnapped over 59 children." When Arakaze says this, I’m shocked. This is terrible! This monster needs to be stopped as soon as possible.
"And how do you know where it is?" Setsuna asks, and I’m also curious about how they found it.
"Ophelia, with her ’tracking’ magic, has found 3 of the target children. What we’ll do is stay with one of them and wait for the monster to appear, and we know it will appear because this monster doesn’t usually run from a fight unless it’s injured."
"The monster will attack tonight around 10 PM to 11 PM, based on the two-day time frame, but other teams are busy...and...well..." Arakaze says, looking at Shiranui, who is wearing a magical girl outfit that resembles a shrine maiden.
"...I need money for my mother’s surgery in 3 days...but I don’t have that money, and I can’t just borrow it, as I already have many debts."
"The Dream Tormentor is a Colossal-class monster due to the damage it has done and its magic, even though it has the strength of a Human-class, so it’s not as dangerous as a true Colossal-class."
"In other words, the payment for defeating it is almost 20 times higher than for normal monsters, plus an additional reward because of the children’s case, so I need to defeat it because I desperately need the money," Shiranui says, avoiding eye contact with a hint of shame.
"As you two have heard, our team decided to take the case, but we only found out later that it requires 5 people, and as you can see, it’s a serious need..." Arakaze says, looking at Shiranui with pity.
"Why not ask Ophelia for money?" Setsuna asks, and it makes sense. Ophelia is rich and kind, and I’m sure she could lend money for a situation like this.
"Haa...we already asked, but Ophelia refused. It turns out that Shiranui already has a huge debt with Ophelia from asking for a lot of borrowed money, so Ophelia can’t just give her more money."
"All Ophelia could do was say that there will be no interest or fees on the borrowed money, and that Shiranui has 20 years to pay it back," Arakaze says with regret.
"So, as you can see, Shiranui is in a bind, on top of the debts she has with other people. Being a magical girl does bring a lot of money, but Shiranui ended up contracting many debts even before becoming one, and it has helped, but not solved everything," Arakaze says, looking at the two of us.
"Plus, Shiranui’s mother’s case is particularly negative, and the magical girls’ base can’t transfer her to a special medical ward, so she has to stay in a regular hospital, and Shiranui has to pay for the costs herself."
"So, will you two come and help?" Arakaze asks as Hoshikawa briefly looks at Setsuna and me.
"Of course we’ll go!" I say quickly. We need to help this girl’s mother and protect the children from this monster. As soon as I confirm, the three of them seem relieved.
"It’s almost 7:30 PM. We should be quick. When does the monster attack?" Setsuna asks.
"Around 10 PM to 11 PM at night..."
"And the other three children?" Setsuna asks, as the mood becomes strange.
"Well...we can’t protect all of them...if we split up, we’d be defeated one by one, which would break the logic of why we gathered more people...unfortunately, some of the children may disappear."
"W-What!" I exclaim, alarmed.
"If we’re lucky, the first place the monster will attack will be where we are, but if we’re unlucky, it may take 3 of the children before it appears where we are..." Hoshikawa says to me.
"..."
"Ayane, understand that we can’t save everyone, but we can prevent more children from suffering this fate in the future," Setsuna says, comforting me.
"You’re right, then we should go soon," I say, thinking about Septarion. When I become an angel, I’ll do everything to make sure things like this don’t happen.
It’s horrible that we have to just let children die because of our limitations, but it gives me more determination to get stronger and protect everyone.
"Then it’s decided. The 5 of us will form a temporary group to hunt the Dream Tormentor," Hoshikawa says, standing up from the table as the mood is somewhat heavy.
"I got the locations of the 3 children from the receptionist, and we’ve chosen the one that’s the farthest from the base, as monsters tend to like more remote and isolated locations, so the monster may attack there first," Hoshikawa says, showing us the map of the locations.
"We can discuss each of our magic abilities at the location and plan better there. We should go soon, as we can’t know if the monster will decide to attack earlier," Shiranui says, also standing up from the chair.
Soon, we all stand up and start walking to the location, discussing the magic and weapons of each of us along the way.