It wasn’t unusual for the Old Earth Museum to be closed. Usually it happened when a Void kaiju managed to pass through the breach the city was built around and was rampaging from being in an unfamiliar environment. The building was locked down and sealed, it was decoupled from its foundations, and the built-in artificial gravity generator was used to float it high into the air to keep it out of reach.

  The declaration that one of the artifacts in the museum was going to be stolen that night had caused the Museum family to seriously consider closing the building for the night… so they could turn their museum into a deathtrap.

  Metaphorically, of course. Killing was wrong.

  However, they eventually decided against it. The Museum family studied Kaede’s memories more than most—the majority of Kaedekin dealt with memory flashbacks by learning to block out the recollections instead of fully incorporating them—and so had more ready recall of Kaede’s dealings with Phantom Thieves. Thus, they were well aware that trying to locking down a location was seldom an impediment to the Dai Kaitou. It had never turned out well for police. Not to mention, the challenge letter had not specified which of the irreplaceable, ancient artifacts the Dark Magical Girl intended to steal.

  Thus, they needed girlpower. Lots and lots of girlpower. After all, there were few problems that couldn’t be solved if you threw enough people at it, not even the problem of Phantom Thieves. Yes, having whole precinct’s worth of police hadn’t stopped them, but obviously that meant they needed more than a precinct’s worth of people!

  The Old Earth Museum had visitors every day. There were always little sisters who wanted to see ancient artifacts from another planet, or artists looking for inspiration from the past, budding scientists who wanted to appreciate the basis for many of their technologies, or just best friends who wanted to spend time together and thought that the museum was a nice indoor venue for it. The ground surrounding it had well-tended greenery and benches, situated among outdoor dioramas depicting typical scenes of life on Earth, like corrupt government officials stealing ‘money’ before being captured by superheroes and magical girls, bank robbers in cars about to get captured by superheroes and magical girls, humans shooting each other because their governments said so before being stopped by superheroes and magical girls, supervillains doing bad things before being stopped by superheroes and magical girls, aliens invading before being stopped by superheroes and magical girls, and the mythical creatures known as ‘boys’ and ‘men’… who were either corrupt government officials stealing money, bank robbers in cars, shooting at each other because their governments said so, or supervillains about to be captured by superheroes and magical girls

  The Old Earth Museum was tended to by the Museum family, or so they were called. It wasn’t rare for Kaedekin family groups to stay with a certain profession if many enjoyed doing it. There were many farming families, mining families, orchard families, lumber families, and various flavors of engineering families. However, this was only one Museum family, who had been running the Old Earth Museum and taking care of the ancient artifacts for so long the institution had become part of their family. They were among the rare few—statistically speaking—Kaedekin who took on a surname. They were the Musuem, and the Museum was them.

  Not that all the members of the family took care of the museum, and not all who tended to the museum were part of the family. There were those who went off to become rangers, farmers, artists, scientists, or whatever else they chose to pursue. However, in every production batch there were always enough little sisters who decided it was important that these things in their care should be preserved and learned from, and when they grew old the other members always had a home in the museum to return to, where they could while away their days helping with the chores of their youth.

  Once the Museum family heard that someone who had declared themselves a Phantom Thief intended to steal one of the irreplaceable artifacts in their care… well, after the unseemly violent fury came over them, they were able to come down to icy rage and started recruiting every Kaedekin they could, which consisted of going out and grabbing anyone and everyone off the streets and… politely pulling them inside. Once the situation was explained to the mildly befuddled girls and buddies, many were more than willing to cancel their immediate plans and assist. After all, this was villainy! Definitely evil stuff! And as magical girls who weren’t dark or evil, they had an obligation to do something about it!

  They had most definitely never daydreamed about evil stuff happening just so they can finally be obligated to do something about it! Definitely not! That was a terrible mindset, wanting for bad things to happen so they could do good things! One could do good things even without evil things happening!

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  However, since evil things were about to happen…

  In their zeal, they might have been a bit overenthusiastic, as they got several little sisters who just got out from school and had been on their way to volunteer to various places. Thankfully the next day was a weekend, so the little sisters didn’t have to worry about having to wake up for school the next day.

  The plan was simple: fill every room, open space, stretch of hallway, balcony, roof, basement, and ventilation duct with so many Kaedekin the Phantom Thief literally had no way of sneaking in without being seen!

  And if one of the Kaedekin in the room was the Phantom Thief… well, then there’d be a room full of people to try and stop them!

  The solution was blunt, brute force, and inelegant… but it had the advantage of not being an approach that, according to Kaede’s memories, the police of the previous universe had been able to try due to a lack of personnel. Much better to try something that had never been done than to replicate the many ways that had failed.

  Barriers of vennplate were being placed on every window and external vent! Doors were blocked by vennplate on both sides, meaning that no one would be able to get in and out without at least two people knowing, at least one on either side of the door. The only reason they weren’t floating the building was so they wouldn’t have to worry about the Phantom Thieves trying to come up from below. Given how Dai Kaitou were known to use pyrotechnics, it was probably also safer to not risk the building dropping from a misplaced explosion.

  As the Musuem family secured the inside of their museum, the Metro Rangers secured the outside. Mecha were strategically stationed on nearby streets, their sensors scanning the air. Rangers were spread all around, watching all the streets, every alleyway, and stationed on top of buildings.

  This time, Phantom Thief Night Raider would not escape!

  …

  Everyone was very deliberately not thinking that, because everyone pretty much knew the moment someone did, it as all over.

  “Here, big sis! Eat up!”

  Museum Audacia forced the determined scowl from her face as she gratefully accepted the bento the little sister with the big food cart was offering her. Apparently the young girl been caught by the over-enthusiastic recruiting while she’d been on her way to bring lunches somewhere, hence the cart filled with warm food and cold drinks. “Thank you, little sister,” she said, accepting the bento box of katsudon. It smelled delicious.

  “You’re welcome!” the little sister said with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, big sis. I’m sure everything is going to be all right.”

  Audacia kept a smile on her face, reminding herself to take the sentiment the way it was intended. “I’m just worried about our artifacts, little sister,” she said.

  “Why?” the little sister asked, adjusting her wide-brimmed red hat.

  Her anxiety rose again, but she stamped it down. “A lot of them are made of materials whose chemical compositions meant they aren’t really supposed to last this long, especially the ones made from plastic. They need to be kept in their specially insulated display cases so they don’t break down from our atmosphere and exposure to UV. If it weren’t for the special displays, all the things with plastic parts would have broken down hundreds of years ago.”

  “Eh? That’s really shoddy!” the little sister exclaimed.

  Audacia nodded. “We think it’s so that people would keep buying new ones every few years.”

  “So, if any of the things on display are removed… they’ll be destroyed?” the little sister looked aghast.

  “Well, not all of them,” Audacia reassured her. “Some of the books will be okay as long as they’re handled carefully. Anything made of glass, metal or wood will be fine, and a lot of the fabrics will be okay provided they don’t get wet or moldy. But a lot of the plastic things…” She felt her face becoming a little grim. “It’s why we need to stop this Phantom Thief. I don’t know why she’s doing this, but whatever she steals could very likely be destroyed irreparably just from handling it for a few hours in the open air.”

  “…oh,” the little sister said, seemingly taking some of her grim mood.

  Oh no, she’s making the little sister sad! “Ah, but don’t worry!” Audacia said hurriedly. “With this many people around, we–”

  Three of her sisters slammed into her, slapping their hands over her mouth before she could utter the words that would curse them all!

  “Uh… well, g-good luck!” the little sister said. “Don’t worry, we’re going to do our best to help! Ah, does anyone else want katsudon?-!” She walked away on stiff legs.

  Ah, what a nice little sister, Audacia thought as she tapped out, reassuring everyone she’d learned her lesson, and thank goodness her bento wasn’t crushed.

  She paused as her buddy began vibrating, notifying them of a call. “Hello?”

  “Plan B!” Meiko’s panicked whisper said. “We can’t steal one of the karaoke machines! It’s too delicate! If we take it out of its case, we’ll end up destroying it!”

  “Well… poot. What now?”

  “I’ll find something else to steal! Set the time back an hour, and then get started! Ah, big sis, do you want a bento?”

  “Well, I’m a little hungry, but—”

  The call disconnected.

  “Huh. Now that was rude.”