Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

BLACK & WHITE

After the government merged several municipalities four years ago, the harbor metropolis of N City became the largest city in the area. It encompassed the futuristic business sector, where uniquely designed buildings jutted up around city hall; mountainous villages, abandoned and left to rot; a great hospital, equipped with the latest medical technology; and a massive factory that had gone bankrupt and had to be demolished. Altogether, this formed a uniquely twisted city forced into being by the government.

And six months ago, reports of “magical girls” started flooding in from this N City.

As a car raced down the highway at blistering speeds well above the speed limit, the driver heard a knock on the window. He turned to look, thinking it was a rock, and discovered a smiling witch riding a broomstick. “You should slow down,” she warned.

As a truck bore down on a child chasing a ball into the street, a girl clad in armor appeared between them and stopped the truck with her bare hands, then disappeared without a word.

As a guy hit on some young women and refused to take no for an answer, a girl with doglike ears ran up on all fours and dragged him away.

The only thing witnesses could agree on was that the girls were “too beautiful to be human.” Yet their appearances, their clothes, and the situations in which they appeared were all scattered and unrelated. No one could tell the story the same way twice.

At first, people laughed it off as overactive imaginations, tall tales, and general BS. But the sightings continued pouring in, and a video of “Two Angels In Flight Holding Hands” was even uploaded to a video-sharing website, causing the rumors to spread like wildfire.

“It’s real!” “No, it’s gotta be a fake.” In the workplace, in schools, on the Net—people everywhere were talking. Sometimes self-professed recipients of their help stepped forward and shared their stories, fanning the debate over the believability of the videos and the existence of these girls.

One witness swore that upon asking one, “Who are you?” the girl had answered, “I am a magical girl.” It was at this point the “mystery girls” became “magical girls.” Fan sites and research blogs cropped up one after another online, and aggregate sites updated daily with news about the sightings. One of the latest was particularly thrilling: A gunslinger girl like something straight out of a Western had raided the apartment of a triad gangster in the red-light district, beat up the bodyguards, and stolen all the money and guns inside.

“Hey, doesn’t this sound like it actually happened?”

Three middle school girls sat waiting at a bus stop, one showing the other two the screen of her smartphone. On it was an aggregate site with the latest magical-girl reports.

“You really like that crap, don’t you? No way it’s real.”

“What? It seems totally real, don’t you think?”

“This article’s too believable. It’s like whoever wrote it was actually there.”

“Yocchan, you always shut me down. Fine, so what if it does sound like they were there?”

“I shut you down because what you’re saying is stupid, Sumi. If whoever posted it was actually involved, one of the gangsters or the mystery girl herself would have to have written an article, and they aren’t gonna do that. Plus, aren’t you too old for this?”

“Wouldn’t it be cool if they did exist, though?”

The third girl, watching her friends’ discussion, could no longer keep quiet.

“Yocchan, Sumi, you’re both wrong. If magical girls were real, they wouldn’t do stuff like that. They care about justice and helping people in need.”

“Thanks for the flowery opinion.”

“Yuki, your world is all, like, rainbows and unicorns, huh? It’s almost delusional.”

Behind the bus stop where the middle school girls argued over the rumors was a seven-story office building, the Seventh Sankou building. Atop its roof, a lone girl was considering the same article. She wore a Japanese kimono, but one showing enough skin to be a swimsuit. On her feet were extra-tall geta wooden slippers, a shuriken pin in her hair—all in all, more of a costume than an outfit. Only a magical girl would go out in public with such a getup in N City.

“Is this for real…?” she asked, pointing at the article on her magical phone. The heart-shaped screen shut off for a moment. Then, a light shone forth to form the holographic image of a sphere, hard and smooth like tile, floating in front of a lake background. Its right half was black, the left white, in an unsettling design. From its body sprouted one wing that fluttered like a butterfly’s, scattering glittering scales into the air with every beat. Its face was an emoji-like smile, frozen in place and never changing, from which came a high, childlike voice.

This creature was Fav, a mascot character.

“It could be a fake, pon. Or it could be real, pon.” The sphere did a flip and finished with a burst of sparkling scales. Blinded, the girl averted her eyes. “Calamity Mary could do something like this, pon. That silly girl loves to play the outlaw, so she tends to pull crazy stunts, pon.”

Calamity Mary had laid claim to N City’s Jounan district. Magical girls would often call the area under their protection their “land” or “home,” but she more fittingly called it her “territory.” Her actions warranted unkind descriptors such as “vulgar,” “crude,” “savage,” and more. Even the mascot had belittled her with “outlaw.”

“So it’s true…?”

“Fav can’t possibly tell you that, pon. If Fav spilled the beans every time someone asked what another magical girl was up to, Fav would be a tattletale, pon. And fairies hate tattletales, pon.”

“Then what about this…?” She swiped a finger across the screen to a new page. Sightings of the “girl in white” vastly outnumbered those of all the other magical girls combined. She even had her own special section of the site dedicated to her. “I think that’s too many sightings.”

“Oh, Snow White’s page? She works the hardest of all, pon. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, pon. She works double, even triple what you see there for the good of the people, pon.” The clearly inorganic black-and-white sphere with its organic-looking wing did two more flips and landed on a flower. “Ripple, weren’t you looking at that site before, pon?”

“Was I…?”

“Is a rivalry brewing, pon?”

“No… I’m just surprised she works so hard.”

“Rivalries are good in Fav’s opinion, pon. It’s a wonderful thing to have everyone competing, pon.”

“Hmm…”

The girl, Ripple, looked away from her device, brought her dangling legs together, and dived from the edge of the roof she’d been sitting on, landing easily on the ground sixty feet below.

“Why’d you suddenly jump down, pon?”

“A pest is coming, so I just wanted to get out of the way…”

“A pest, pon?”

Ripple looked up from the valley between office buildings, and Fav followed her line of sight. A point in the sky grew steadily larger until it was recognizable as a person. Seeing who it was, Fav called out, “Top Speed!”

Top Speed, a witch riding a broom, descended into the concrete forest and peered at the other girl’s face.

“How ya been, Ripple?” Ripple clicked her tongue loudly in response, and Top Speed smiled wanly. “Prickly as ever.”

“I should have hidden faster…”

“We’re both magical girls—we should get along more!”

“Shut up…”

“Well, anyway.”

Ripple tsked in frustration again, but Top Speed paid her no heed. She was a stubborn sort—one of the reasons Ripple disliked her. That very stubbornness probably prevented Top Speed from noticing, too.

“Have you seen this article?” Top Speed held out her magical phone to show the news site she had been browsing. The gist of it was that the costumes of the rumored altruists in N City, aka “magical girls,” resembled the ones in the popular mobile game Magical Girl Raising Project.

“A lot of people are connecting the dots. This could be bad, don’t ya think?”

“It’s not a problem at all, pon.”

“Oh yeah?”

“If a magical girl was leaking information, that would be against the rules and a big problem indeed, but Fav knows none of you are so naughty, pon. News stories about us from regular people are just free advertisement, pon. It’s wonderful, pon.”

The little sphere had a tendency to talk like a salesman. When Ripple had first transformed, she’d pointed this out. Fav had unabashedly responded, “It’s more like HR than sales.”

About two months ago, Kano Sazanami had gained her costume and powers.

She’d heard the local legend that one in tens of thousands of Magical Girl Raising Project players had become real magical girls, but had never taken it seriously. From kindergarten through middle school, people had insulted her for no reason at all, and she’d always handled it by hurting them until they squealed and submitted. But when she started high school, various obstacles made it difficult to solve problems with violence.

The fifth would-be stepfather her mother brought home had touched her butt, a disgrace she had replied to with her fist before she packed her bags and left home. She found an empty apartment to live in by herself, and as long as she stayed there, she couldn’t afford to get fired from her part-time job. As she fought through the mounting expenses, she also made sure to attend high school so she could have a future.

In order to keep herself employed and in school, she needed a hobby to relieve stress when things went sour. She also firmly believed that those who spent money on their hobbies were idiots, which made Magical Girl Raising Project a perfect match. So she added the game to her two other hobbies: reading manga in bookshops (without buying) and reading at libraries.

When one company succeeded in lowering prices on their smartphones, competing companies joined in on the price war. Three years ago, smartphones had expanded to 90 percent of the cell phone market, according to some reports. In the years to follow, demand continued to rise until they controlled the entire cell phone market.

And with the increase in smartphones came an upsurge in mobile games designed for them. Most of these followed the model of being free to download but requiring real money to progress smoothly. But Magical Girl Raising Project was completely free-to-play.

Kano had always scoffed at the immature boys at school talking about their games, but once she tried it herself, she was hooked. She’d designed her own avatar, the in-game representation of her player, then jumped right into the game. By clearing quests to help people and fight enemies, she could collect cards for magic and items, strengthen her character, and take on more difficult quests and adversaries.

Sticking religiously to sessions of thirty minutes a day, she progressed at a snail’s pace. But she still enjoyed gathering the cards for her perfect strategies and combos, combining them, and winning battles. With its perfect balance of hard work and reward, the game brought her pleasure, and to a newbie like Kano, everything was fresh and original. She didn’t care much for magical girls, but she remembered how, back when she still had a TV, she used to smile along with the girls on-screen—and realized she had in fact used to love them. Strangely, she found herself reveling in her memories. Multiplayer battles and co-ops she found troublesome and irritating, so she opted to play against the AI and clear quests in the story mode. Progress was slow but steady. And a week after she’d started the game, something changed.

Fav, the mascot character floating inside the screen, began talking to her.

“Congratulations, pon! You’ve been selected to become a true magical girl, pon!”

Thinking it was some kind of new event, Kano rapidly skipped through the dialogue. Suddenly, the screen shone brightly, and the blinding light enveloped her. The next moment, she had transformed—she had become her game avatar, Ripple.

Kano took three deep breaths, looked at her hands and feet, then checked her entire body in the mirror. Then repeated the process four more times. She wasn’t imagining things. She pinched her cheek and felt the sharp pain—she wasn’t dreaming. Searching for a realistic explanation, she decided she must have been exhausted from school and work.

“This is going to be a problem,” she thought, and the next time she looked in the mirror, she had detransformed. As a test, she willed herself to change again, and she transformed in the light. The same happened when she willed the costume away. She repeated both processes over and over, and still she saw Ripple in the mirror. Her face, body—everything about her was different from Kano, especially the salacious outfit she would never be caught dead wearing. The transformation was so real and vivid that she couldn’t possibly consider it a dream or hallucination.

She flexed her right hand repeatedly, then drove her fist into her left hand. The sound wave and impact caused the windows to shudder and the ceiling light’s pull cord to swing. Her fingers were like beautiful works of art—finer, longer, and more graceful than Kano’s—yet held great strength within. She kicked at the floor lightly and almost hit her head on the ceiling. If she had cracked it, the landlord would yell at her again. Her physical power had increased by leaps and bounds, clearly no longer a normal human’s.

Next, she examined her limbs and couldn’t find any scars, bruises, or hairs—not even a mole or patch of dry skin. Her skin was smooth and soft, and firm as ripe fruit. Inside her body, energy coursed through her like never before. Outside, throwing knives and shuriken were sewn into her collar and sleeves. One unlucky slip and she could really hurt herself.

The rumors were true. The Magical Girl Raising Project game created magical girls.

She regarded the beautiful, perfect face in the mirror one more time. What was she, a model or an actress or something?

“Hmm…” Even her voice was different, higher and clearer than normal. She struck a few poses in the mirror—smiled brightly, blew a kiss. Everything she tried just looked right. Yet it was still a bit off from her idea of a true magical heroine. At the very least, it didn’t feel orthodox.

“Something on your mind, pon?” the mascot asked from her phone’s screen. Kano almost jumped, but somehow managed to keep her shock from showing. She couldn’t do anything about the blush on her cheeks after getting caught striking poses and smiling in the mirror, though.

“Who are you…?” she asked, as calmly as possible.

“Fav is Fav, pon. If you played the game you should know who Fav is, pon.”

“That’s not what I mean… What is your goal?”

“Fav provides support to girls who show potential, pon. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask, pon.”

He didn’t seem to be listening. Ripple clicked her tongue and returned to the mirror. Staring back at her was, no matter how you sliced it, a magical girl. That fact was unmistakable.

“People described them as ‘too beautiful to be human.’ Is this really…”

“The ones you help will remember a little differently, pon. An average face will suddenly become ‘too beautiful for this world,’ pon. Is this unacceptable, pon?”

“No…”

Kano’s avatar, Ripple, was based on a ninja—black hair, almond eyes, and thin eyebrows. She’d chosen her accessories in an attempt to compliment the half-kimono, half-swimsuit costume, yet seeing herself in full now, she looked rather plain for a magical girl. She sported a red scarf, the ninja cliché, and a giant shuriken hair clip that glinted silver. All else was a coordinated black, from head to toe. The name “Ripple” she’d come up with by translating her last name, Sazanami, into English, but in real life the Japanese outfit and Western name simply clashed.

“Is it possible to change your avatar’s outfit?”

“Not at this stage, pon.”

“Oh, I see…”

“What’s the matter, pon? Something bothering you, pon?”

“No…”

Fav continued his explanation. Now that she had been chosen, she was expected to help people in need. Kano had no interest in helping others, but she couldn’t resist the allure of beauty, superhuman strength, and the unrestricted use of magic.

More than anything, she was bored with her life.

“Fav will be sure to give you all the support you need, pon. For starters, take this magical phone, pon.”

“What kind of support?”

“Fav is friends with every magical girl, so if you ever want to communicate, Fav can connect you, pon. Fav can also answer any of your questions, pon.”

“What is a magical girl, anyway?”

“A magical girl is a magical girl, pon. Don’t you watch TV, pon?”

“But what exactly does that mean?”

“The Magical Kingdom has granted you powers in order to help people, pon.”

“For what reason? What is the Magical Kingdom’s goal?”

“Don’t you watch TV, pon?”

“Like I said…”

“You’re a magical girl now, and that’s final, pon. That is an irreversible truth, pon. No matter what you ask, no matter what the answer is, you are Ripple, pon.”

“What?” It was all incredibly fishy, but she couldn’t deny the extraordinary phenomenon she was now a part of. With enough effort, Kano could get into a good university, but effort alone couldn’t make her into a magical girl. For that, she had needed a fair amount of luck and latent talent. If she let this chance pass her by, she’d most likely never get another one. So, after weighing her options, she made the calculated decision to accept.

Kano reflected on her objective pro-and-con calculations. As a self-professed realist, she was impressed at how calmly and collectedly she had accepted such an unusual situation.

Fav spoke up, possibly sensing her thoughts. “If you cannot accept that magical girls exist, you wouldn’t have been chosen as one in the first place, pon.”

She wasn’t allowed free rein right off the bat, though. When Fav informed her she would need lessons from a more experienced mentor, Kano became moody. Just imagining it rubbed her the wrong way.

“Fav, you said you would be my support…”

“Fav would love to help as much as possible, but there is only one of Fav, pon. Fav cannot do everything, pon.”

Kano remembered the game’s forced tutorials and how slow and frustrating they were—simple button-clicking over and over, clearly made for idiots with no imagination. She shut off her new magical phone and clicked her tongue angrily. She could barely stand to look at the heart-shaped screen.

Talking to others had never been Kano’s strong suit. To be honest, others in general had never been her strong suit. She had a deep dislike for people who herded together and thought they were tougher for it. This was one of the reasons she’d started playing Magical Girl Raising Project in the first place, so the looming prospect of obnoxious human relationships upset her.

Her first impression of Top Speed, her mentor, was that she seemed like an idiot. She wore a triangular witch’s hat and a witchy dress and carried a magic broom. She was your generic spellcaster, and even her face appeared more Western than Ripple’s. Her big blue eyes, a classic magical-girl trait, darted about busily as she tossed her flaxen braids. Only her long purple cape and the charm hanging from her neck broke the witch archetype in any way. The back of the cape, Ripple noticed, was embroidered with the words “No Gratuitous Opinions.”

Oh, she’s an idiot, Kano thought to herself, and her appraisal dropped even more. They’d agreed to meet on the roof of the Seventh Sankou building, and as Top Speed landed she gave a big smile and jabbed her right hand out in a thumbs-up.

“Nice to meet ya! I’m Top Speed. Good to have ya on board!”

“… Nice to meet you.”

“Where’s your energy, man? You eating right? Ha-ha-ha!”

She spoke like a guy and cackled like a fool. Ripple’s assessment slipped down another level.

With a flourish, Top Speed spun and parked herself on the guardrail and beckoned Ripple to sit beside her. Not wanting to sit next to her, yet also not wanting to stand under her gaze, the ninja chose the simplest option and leaned against the wall.

Top Speed then proceeded to explain all that being a magical girl entailed. In essence, they used magic to help normal people, and doing good deeds earned them magical candies.

“Good deeds…?”

“In the game, you’d defeat enemies and stuff, but in the real world there ain’t much in the way of enemies to defeat, ya know? I know it’s not glamorous, but honest work like this is best.” Top Speed spoke with an air of experience, but Ripple just scoffed silently.

Top Speed also taught her functions of the magical phone that only they could use—although it was nearly identical to a regular smartphone. The way Top Speed talked it up only added to Ripple’s exasperation. She did not show this, of course, but silently scoffed again.

Following instructions, Ripple used the device to bring up a page with her personal data. Height, weight, and measurements—it was all there. As Kano, she was an inch taller than the average boy and solidly built, but when she transformed into Ripple, everything about her became feminine. Under “Personality” was written “Violent and unsociable,” and the fact that she agreed with this just irritated her more. Under “Magic” was written “Throws shuriken that always hit their target,” and this time she audibly clicked her tongue.

“Hmm? What’s up?”

“I only have one kind of magic…”

It was so plain. Throwing shuriken was more of a ninja technique than a power. She could think of so many other ninja-like things to do, like creating clone illusions or breathing fireballs.

“Magical girls only get one kind of magic, see. It was way easier in the game when you could use lotsa magic, but them’s the breaks.”

That wasn’t the only depressing piece of information Top Speed had to share, though. There were also two rules that all magical girls had to follow: Never reveal yourself to a regular human, and never talk about the rules or your powers to a regular human. Those who broke these rules had their right to be magical girls rescinded.

Once a week, they had an online meeting. While attendance was not mandatory, it was a good idea to attend so as not to miss some major announcement.

Certain members of their ranks were very territorial. The two places to avoid in the city were Calamity Mary’s Jounan district and Ruler’s Nishimonzen. The former loved to pick fights, and the latter was just aggravating to listen to. Both were an equal pain in the butt.

Top Speed regaled Ripple with stories. For instance, Sister Nana had once stumbled into Calamity Mary’s territory and was nearly killed for it. There was also the time a video of the Peaky Angels had made its way to the Internet and caused a stir. The more she talked, the more Ripple checked out. When her mentor had finally finished, hopped onto her broom, and disappeared into the night sky, Ripple clicked her tongue.

“Hey…”

“Yes, pon?”

“Who made her a mentor?”

“Friendly magical girls volunteer for the job, pon. Top Speed’s explanation might have taken three times longer than normal, but that just shows how thorough she was being, pon.”

So not only had she been the victim of an overzealous busybody, but she had also suffered through a longer-than-necessary introduction. Ripple clicked her tongue louder than she had in years. To her, Top Speed had gone from “idiotic mentor” to “idiot trying to act like a mentor.”

For some reason, Top Speed kept coming back to visit Ripple. Not even subtle sounds of dismay or saying to her face, “You don’t have to come back” could stop her. She simply waved it away with a, “You’re such a prickly pear.”

Realizing words wouldn’t reach her, Ripple decided to ignore Top Speed. In the end, the witch would talk without interruption until she’d had her fill, then leave for the day. One time she brought a plastic container of boiled sweet potatoes, which Ripple grudgingly tried and found delicious.

In summer, Kubegahama practically teemed with tourists, but by fall it was a ghost town. When the sun set, not a soul could be found wandering the streets. A very tall steel tower stood on a hill overlooking the beach, and on this tower sat two girls in costume. One of them wore a white school-uniform-esque outfit, and the other looked at first glance like a knight from the Middle Ages, but with a long tail. The two of them huddled close around a magical phone and spoke with the mascot character, Fav.

Magical girls preferred constructs like office buildings and steel towers. These tall, deserted areas were good resting spots where their outrageous outfits could go unnoticed. Few of them could truly fly, but they all had the ability to run up building walls as if they were flat ground.

“Be extra sure to come to the next chat meeting, pon.”

“Why?”

“There’s going to be an important announcement, pon.”

“I heard a new girl was joining. Is it that?”

“That, and a big event as a result, pon.”

“What kind of event?”

“You’ll have to show up to find out, pon.”

“Hmm.”

Snow White turned off her phone and rotated a little to the side. She drew her knees close to La Pucelle’s, making it easier to converse.

“Sou, Sou. Did you hear that?” she chirped.

“I did.”

In contrast with Snow White’s ill-fitting nonchalance, La Pucelle’s response had a tinge of melancholy to it.

“What do you think?”

“Chat attendance has been low lately, so maybe Fav is doing this to get people to show up.”

“It’s low?”

“Yes. Yesterday only seven people showed up: you, me, Nemurin, Cranberry, Top Speed, Sister Nana, and Winterprison.”

“But that’s higher than before.”

“It’s still low. Can you recall even one time when everyone showed up?”

Attendance at the once-a-week chat meeting was recommended but not mandatory, which was causing a drop in attendees, a situation Fav was always trying to remedy. He constantly insisted that everyone should exchange information more, and that they should be friendlier toward one another. Hardly anyone listened.

Snow White and La Pucelle both had a high attendance rate. They were huge fans of magical girls and jumped on every chance to associate with others like them. Thanks to the chat meetings, they had developed many friendships, so to them, at least, the meetings had not been for nothing.

“That chat room is so tiny. I think it’d be really hard to squeeze lots of people in.”

The weekly chat took place in an imaginary meeting room, with each girl entering as a simplified version of her avatar.

“It’s not like we’ll be literally squeezed, so what’s the problem?”

“Still, Sou…”

“Also!”

La Pucelle jabbed her pointer finger at Snow White, who stared blankly back.

“Don’t call me Sou when I’m transformed!”

“Oh! Sorry, So—” Snow White started to apologize but made the same mistake again, so she laughed to try to cover it up. Her infectious laugh caused La Pucelle, finger still extended, to start giggling as well.

Koyuki Himekawa had always admired magical girls. As a child, watching the adorable Hiyoko in the Hiyoko series had been an emotional roller coaster. From there, she had moved on to the Star Queen series and the Cutie Healer series. Watching these brave girls fight against evil enthralled her. Her childhood friend and fellow magic fan would also borrow older series from a cousin for them to watch, which introduced her to girls like Merry, Riccabel, and Miko. They used their powers to bring people happiness and never faltered, no matter what the danger. Koyuki even declared that when she grew up, she’d become a magical girl just like them, which made her friend jealous, since he could only hope to become a sorcerer.

As the years went on, more and more of her classmates began to consider magical girls childish, but even in high school Koyuki stubbornly stuck to her beliefs. To her, they weren’t just fiction—they had become an irreplaceable part of her being. But she knew people would only mock her wish to become one and help people if she ever voiced it, and so she kept it to herself. But she just couldn’t bring herself to abandon her dream.

It was in middle school that Koyuki first came across Magical Girl Raising Project. It was inevitable that a girl who’d wished all her life to become a magical do-gooder would learn of a game rumored to grant that wish. Still, she didn’t start the game convinced it would actually happen. Her reasoning was something like, “It’s just a rumor that people actually transform, right? Yeah, they’re just rumors. But it’s okay to just wish that they’re true, right? I still like magical girl–themed games, anyway. Besides, it’s free!” Twenty-eight days after starting the game, Koyuki Himekawa became Snow White.

When she looked in the mirror, she could see the figure she’d dreamed of since she was a child. She hadn’t just dreamed, but had drawn it out on paper. She’d based the outfit on the school uniform from the most popular manga at the time and, as the name “Snow White” indicated, made her outfit entirely white and decorated it with white flowers. While Koyuki had rarely been called lovely, let alone beautiful, the girl in the mirror was truly beautiful. Her skin was a translucent white, her eyelashes long. Snow White was an entirely different person from Koyuki, but it didn’t seem odd that they were one and the same.

She didn’t think she was dreaming, either. The experience was surreal, for sure, but also overwhelmingly authentic. She jumped and squealed with joy, smacking her head on the ceiling and then falling on her butt. Her mother, surprised by the noise, came to her room to investigate. Fortunately, Koyuki managed to change back in the nick of time and convince her mother she had simply tripped. As a normal human once more, she started to think that maybe it all had been a dream, but then she transformed again.

And there stood the magical girl Snow White.

“Yes… Yes… Yesss!”

“Congratulations, pon.”

“Yes! Yes! Yesss! Thank you, Fav! I’m so excited to start!”

She spent the rest of that day smiling so widely her mother began to worry she’d hit her head. That night she snuck out to school, careful not to get caught by her parents. Late at night in the empty school yard, she hopped, leaped, kicked, punched, flipped, and somersaulted, slowly unleashing more and more of the power welling within her, discovering new moves she could never have done before. She had really become the heroine from her imagination. When the realization finally hit her, joy and excitement overwhelmed her without giving her a moment to breathe.

She did a somersault again, and her skirt flipped up. Perhaps she should have made it a little longer—compared to her school uniform, it was extremely short. She made a mental note to keep her actions more restrained in front of others.

“Oh, can I use any magic?”

“You should check the personal data on your magical phone for that, pon.”

She turned on her new gadget and consulted the page listing various details on Snow White.

“Hey, Fav.”

“Yes, pon?”

“Under personality it says ‘clumsy’ and ‘strong sense of justice,’ which is fine, but what’s this ‘tendency to daydream’?”

“Humans find it difficult to view themselves objectively, pon.”

“Really…?”

Under “Magic” was written, “Can hear the thoughts of those in need,” the perfect ability for Koyuki’s ideal, the champion of the people. She was so grateful to the ones who made this possible. Thank you, Magical Kingdom. Thank you for giving me this wonderful power.

That day marked Snow White’s debut. Every night she’d sneak out her window to look for people to help: a middle schooler who’d lost her house key, a university student who’d had their car stolen, and a businessman under pressure for money, to name a few. There were also many troubles she couldn’t do anything about, like concealing adultery, a boy unsure of whether or not to confess to the girl he had a crush on, or a retiree desperate for their pension.

Hearing the thoughts of those in need was the only special ability she possessed, so the only way she could help was to roll up her sleeves and join the fray with her magically enhanced arms, legs, eyes, and ears. However, the problems that could be solved this way were endless, and so work was never in short supply. Only two days after her first transformation, she was earning magical candies left and right, and the candy warehouse in her phone was filled with bottles—and she hadn’t even met her mentor yet.

At her first chat session, the girls welcomed her with open arms. There was Top Speed, her avatar dressed like a witch; Sister Nana, clad like a nun; Weiss Winterprison, dressed in a long scarf; Nemurin, wearing pajamas; Musician of the Forest, Cranberry, draped in flowers; and La Pucelle in knight’s armor. Top Speed shared her experiences, cracking jokes the whole time, while every now and again Sister Nana would interject with her own. Nemurin hardly spoke, saying she preferred to listen to what others had done. The silent Winterprison simply stood at Sister Nana’s side as Cranberry played music from her chair in the corner.

Just as the meeting was about to adjourn, La Pucelle approached Snow White. As it turned out, she was in charge of the area just next to Snow White’s and had volunteered to be her mentor. They agreed to meet at midnight the next day at the tallest steel tower by the Kubegahama beach.

Koyuki had never met another magical girl in real life before, and the excitement caused her to space out even more during class. She received three warnings from her teacher that day, and even her friends worried something was wrong. Becoming a magical girl hadn’t changed Koyuki’s passion for them in the slightest, and now she was going to meet and talk to one face-to-face. And not as a fan and celebrity, but as fellow heroes. It was impossible to calm her racing heart.

That night, she made sure not to be late by arriving fifteen minutes early, but when she climbed the steel tower she found La Pucelle already there. Magical girls possessed great night vision, so even on that moonless night, she could see clear as day the lone knight standing at the top of the tower. Her armor consisted of wrist guards, a breast guard, and shin guards, with a giant sword more than a foot wide and a yard long slung across her back. An image of a fiercely roaring dragon decorated the sheath. Hornlike hair decorations and a tail accessory extending from her waist completed the dragon imagery.

Her magical girliness—her femininity—however, was still quite apparent even under all that armor. Where some might cover up, she left her cleavage and thighs clearly visible. Her hair was done up just so, barely touching her shoulders, with a few strands dangling from each side of her head. La Pucelle heard Snow White arrive and shifted her gaze from the ocean to Snow White. Her expression was regal, but she also seemed uncomfortable. Snow White panicked, thinking she’d shown up late.

“U-um, it’s nice to meet you… Well, we’ve talked before, via chat, so it’s nice to meet you in person? Is that okay? Anyway, it’s nice to meet you!”

It wasn’t a very good greeting. In fact, it was fair to call it terrible. And Snow White, head bowed deeply, knew that more than anyone.

She glanced at La Pucelle. Arms crossed, the other girl gave three deep nods. “I knew it,” she said with a husky voice. “Koyuki?”

Question marks flickered in Snow White’s mind at hearing her name from this person she’d never met.

“H-how do you know my real name?”

“I knew it was you. It’s me, Souta.”

“Huh?”

“Souta Kishibe. We went to the same school until two years ago. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me.”

“Wh-wh-whaaaaaaaaat?!”

The reason Souta Kishibe had realized Snow White’s true identity was simple—she closely resembled the drawing of a magical girl Koyuki had labeled her “grown-up self.” Souta, her childhood friend, had seen her draw it—even memorized it. The first time he saw Snow White’s avatar, he had suspected it might be her. Meeting her in person just confirmed it.

The reason Koyuki Himekawa hadn’t realized La Pucelle’s real identity was equally simple. She never could have imagined that tan, energetic, soccer-loving boy as a regal female knight. Even knowing the transformation could change one’s body, clothes, age, and physical prowess, she had never guessed it could also change one’s gender. The two of them sat next to each other on the steel tower and chatted until the sun was nearly risen, rekindling their old friendship.

“So was it Magical Girl Raising Project for you, too, Koyuki?”

“Yeah. One day Fav just started talking to me. I thought it was some sort of event, and the next thing I knew I was a magical girl. How long have you had powers, Sou?”

“About a month, I think. Man, I’m so surprised you ended up one.”

“Hey, I’ve always loved them! I’m more surprised at you.”

“I’ve always loved them, too, you know. I just didn’t tell anyone,” Souta said. There was a world of difference between boys and girls liking this sort of thing. In middle school, a girl would be considered odd, while a boy would be considered a pervert. He’d had to walk a town over to get his fix at the DVD rental shop where no one knew him and conceal his manga and light novels inside his school desk, hiding like a Christian in the Edo period.

“Sou, I thought you forgot all about magical girls and went for soccer instead.”

They’d been forced to go to different middle schools because they lived in different districts, but Koyuki had seen Souta running during early-morning practice many times.

“Soccer’s fun, but it can’t scratch the same itch.”

“I wonder if there are any other boy magical girls.”

“According to Fav, I’m the only one in the area, and even globally it’s pretty rare.”

“Are you really a girl now?”

“When I transform, I’m completely female. Yeah, no doubt about that.”

For some reason, La Pucelle’s cheeks reddened slightly with embarrassment.

They made two rules: to work together, and to always stay in character, even when they were alone. And so the Snow White–La Pucelle duo was formed. Voices from those in trouble reached Snow White’s ears, no matter how big or small the problem. Using her magic, she roamed the city searching for people to help. La Pucelle became her partner, but her magic was not as peaceful as Snow White’s. It was much more violent. La Pucelle appointed herself the role of bodyguard, insisting she would protect Snow White if something ever happened. Not that anything could threaten a magical girl.