Chapter 17: 17 – Cipher!

The two ran into each other on the way.

“Hey, Iris.” Sarah waved at her teammate.

“Oh, hey.” Iris smiled back at Sarah.

Just like everyone else, she didn’t look all that different from a regular university student in her civilian guise. No sparkling blue dress and azure hair, just boring old wavy brown hair, sweatpants, and a white tee. She also wore glasses even though transforming would temporarily fix her eyesight.

“Any ideas on what the message could have meant? Nicole said it was big,” Iris asked as the two fell into step.

“Eh… I really thought it was a red herring to distract us. I have no idea what it could be if it’s actually meaningful.” Sarah shrugged.

“Hmm…” Iris hummed and the two continued walking in silence.

They arrived at Nicole’s house in a few minutes. She had always been quite well off, what with her family owning a rather large house rather than renting an apartment like most.

Sarah rang the bell and a few moments later, the door opened revealing the other half of their magical girl team.

“Come on in, my parents are out at the moment,” Nicole said, her expression serious despite the welcoming words.

“Oh, you’re already here, Erika…? Wait, no. Pretty Flame?” Iris asked, noticing Erika was already transformed for some reason.

Erika nodded. “Nicole needed my help with the deciphering… It’s a bit complicated.”

Sarah and Iris briefly exchanged a glance before shuffling inside.

“So what does it say? Is it some secret plan to destroy the world?” Sarah asked as the four settled themselves in the spacious living room.

“The opposite, actually.” Pretty Flame shook her head.

“Huh…?”

“Here’s the thing. This message is… incomplete,”  Nicole said as she put the piece of paper on the table. “It took me a while to figure out, but part of it is written in something like invisible ink.” She looked at Flame. “And you need magical light to reveal it.”

Flame in turn put her palm above the paper and poured just enough magic to ignite it, shining some light on the paper. A few seconds later, more shapes and squiggles appeared on the paper, filling in empty spaces and even completing certain symbols.

“Alright… But that still doesn’t say anything,” Sarah said, eyeing the nonsensical symbols.

“Right.” Nicole sighed. “Once you reveal everything, it’s a polygraphic cipher that uses these symbols instead of letters.”

“Uhmmm… Right?”

“Polygraphic cipher is when you replace a letter with multiple other letters,” Iris added, like the smart university student that she was.

“Yes, that.” Nicole nodded. “And then, finally, once you decipher that, you have to read the result backwards to get the full message.”

“Jesus Christ. Someone didn’t want people figuring out what it says, huh?” Sarah shook her head.

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“Actually… I’m pretty sure we were supposed to figure it out. The message is for us,” Flame added as she pulled her hand back and transformed back into Erika.

That only made Sarah frown at the offending piece of paper. “Seriously? Alright… What does it say then?”

Instead of answering, Nicole pulled out another piece of paper filled with notes and pictures. She pointed at the underlined few sentences at the bottom.

It read, ‘I am not your enemy. I have infiltrated the demons. I’m searching for a way to get you to the demon realm and end it once and for all.’

Sarah’s eyes scanned the message twice, then three times, and then she stopped, still staring at the offending text.

“Wait, seriously? A… double agent?” Iris echoed Sarah’s thoughts. “That sounds kinda fishy…”

Nicole shrugged. “I have no idea if it’s a lie or not but…” She looked at Sarah and Iris. “Thinking about it… That minion… She never attacked us back, did she?”

Sarah’s frown returned. Now that she mentioned it… That minion could have totally fought back, but she had just kept defending and dodging instead. And then all the waving and thumbs up… Had that not just been trolling but a genuine friendly gesture? No way.

“I think we should wait for what she does next. If this is true–” Erika gestured at the paper. “Then it would help us out of our stalemate.” She then frowned. “But then again, it could be a trap.”

“Hmm… so, what? Do we now try to chat with her next time we meet her or something?”

“I think that would give it away to the other demons,” Iris said. “I think we should just keep going as before, and wait for the minion’s next move.” She shrugged. “Whatever that may be.”

“So, nothing really changes.”

“I… guess not,” Nicole admitted. “We’ll have to see what she does, I suppose.”

Some murmurs of agreement later and it was time to disband the meeting.

“Still, I’m surprised you managed to decipher this thing. I would have never figured it out,” Sarah said whilst shaking her head.

“Oh, to be honest, I had some help. I asked my cousin for some input,” Nicole admitted.

“Your cousin?”

“The previous Pretty Bloom.”

“Ah, right… Yeah, she could easily figure something like this out.” Iris nodded to herself. “But I thought she was done with magical girl stuff?” Iris recalled the utterly relieved expression the previous Pretty Bloom had worn when she had handed the Wand to Nicole.

“I just had to bribe her with some chocolate.” Nicole smirked. “Always works.”

Everyone giggled at that, and after some goodbyes, the girls left, all going their own way.

Nobody noticed Iris’ solemn expression as she thought about her old team, the previous generation of magical girls, and how her own time might be coming to an end soon as well.