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Maruyama Aya had a very exciting secret. She was a magical girl! It was true, she had been hand-picked and everything. They had given her a pretty pink rod, just like the magical girls on TV had. Though hers was even prettier. It had a star at the tip. And it hummed in her hands, so she knew it was magical.
Not that she had actually done any magical girl stuff yet. She had only gotten it about a week ago. The only thing she had done was try transforming. And it had worked! Her outfit had been exactly like Sailor Moon's! Though that hadn't seemed quite right to her. Only Sailor Moon was Sailor Moon, so she had tried to change it. It was magic, so it should be able to do anything. And while it was hard, she had been able to change it a little. She had made the skirt pink! Which honestly just meant she looked more like Chibiusa instead. She'd need to work on it some more.
Her birthday was the next day, and it was getting close to bedtime. She felt more excited than tired, though. Most of the girls in class were coming to the party, and she desperately wanted to tell them. But she knew it needed to be kept a secret. Even if the Guardians hadn't told her, she knew the rules. Only other magical girls were allowed to know, or if she had a very close, trusted friend to tell. Aya didn't know any other magical girls yet, nor did she have that one friend she told everything to. She kinda got along well with everyone. Someone would probably show up. She wondered what other magical girls there might be, and where they might be. The Guardians hadn't mentioned any. Maybe Aya was the first, and the others were coming later. That would make her the leader!
Her homework was done, and she had changed into her pajamas, so she should probably go brush her teeth.
~AYA.~
Aya jumped. "Y-yes?" She recognised the voice. There was no mistaking the voice of the Guardians. It was one voice, but it was like there were many within it. She couldn't really tell if it was a man's voice, or a woman's voice. Maybe it was neither, or both. The weirdest thing of all was how it spoke directly into her head, and not her ears.
She hadn't seen the Guardians yet either. She didn't know whether they had a secret base or anything like that. Whether she would meet them one day. The messenger that had given her the rod had been faintly glowing and transparent, as if it was a ghost or something. Not a cute mascot animal at all. Yet for whatever reason she hadn't felt afraid of it. Maybe that was what a Guardian looked like, or maybe it was just someone who worked for them.
~THERE IS AN INVADER.~
"W-what?" But it was dark outside. It was almost bedtime. "Where?"
~WE WILL TAKE YOU THERE. HURRY.~
She had been admiring her rod just before doing her homework, and then put it in her desk drawer in case her parents came in. Even if they didn't think magical girls were real, they would know that they hadn't bought it for her, and would ask where she had gotten it. She retrieved it.
At first she had thought she would do like on TV, and transform on the scene where the monster was, but the Guardians had told her it was dangerous to transport her if she wasn't transformed first. So she had to do it in her room.
"Uh... transform!" She'd have to work on some cool phrase too, but the rod still responded to her. It was her first serious transformation, for her first battle. It was both exciting, and a little scary. The first time it really counted. The other times had just been to see what it was like.
Her clothes vanished, and the magic swirled around her to create her uniform. The bodysuit materialised first, wrapped around her, and snapped on tight. Twirls of magic wrapped around her arms to form her gloves, and then around her legs to form her boots. Her skirt popped into existence, along with the ribbons on her back, and her chest. Her hair grew longer, and magic flowed into it to form the accessories that supported her freshly formed twin-tails. It would have been nice if she could use the magic to do her hair in the morning before school, but that was probably not allowed. And the very final thing was her tiara wrapping across her forehead. Once she figured out how, she wanted to change it as well. Maybe into something that looked more like a princess tiara. She liked princesses too.
Then it was done, and she looked around. "So... how do I...?"
~OUT THE WINDOW.~
"What?" But she was on the second floor.
~YOU WILL BE SAFE. HURRY.~
"Okay." She knew the Guardians wouldn't lie to her, but she still felt nervous as she opened the window, and climbed onto the sill. "Do I just jump?"
~YES.~
She hesitated for a moment longer. Magical girls were supposed to be strong, and able to leap far, but she hadn't actually tested out her abilities at all. There wasn't time to hang around though. Who knew what the monster was doing while she stayed put.
The Guardians had told her about what they called the invaders. Beings from another dimension, who wanted to come to Aya's world to cause havoc and destruction. To hurt people. They couldn't be allowed to do that. She would punish them. So she closed her eyes, and jumped.
There was a quick jolt in her stomach, but then she didn't really feel anything. She slowly opened her eyes, and saw the lights of the city fly by underneath her. Before she could make sense of it, she was headed over the countryside, where it was hard to see much of anything.
"I... I'm flying."
~YES. EVENTUALLY YOU WILL LEARN TO DO SO ON YOUR OWN, BUT FOR NOW WE WILL ASSIST YOU.~
She seemed to be moving really fast, yet Aya couldn't feel anything in particular. Not even the air rushing past her. Normally she would have worried about movement sickness at that speed. She wasn't particularly good with car rides, for instance. Yet for some reason she felt perfectly fine. Though she wondered where they were going.
~THERE.~
"Uh..." Aya squinted. She could see some lights up ahead, but otherwise... "I can't see anything."
~OH. OF COURSE.~
Suddenly it was like the world lit up for her. Not quite as clear as day, but she could see everything below and around her. It all had a slight blue tint to it. That actually felt a little unsettling. "W-what?"
~THE MAGIC WILL GRANT YOU NIGHT VISION. WE WILL TAKE YOU TO THE GROUND NOW.~
Her course changed downwards, and she slowed down considerably until she was finally put feet first onto firm ground. It was a surprisingly gentle landing.
~THE INVADER IS RIGHT AHEAD. HURRY.~
She looked ahead. The landscape was visible, but there was still one thing that was pitch black. And it was moving. In spite of the unpleasant feeling in her stomach, she hurried closer. There was a visible trail of destruction left in wake of the invader. There were some smashed trees, trampled fields, broken fences, and what looked like a crushed shed. Thankfully she couldn't see any signs of humans. It seemed like they were on the outskirts of some town, and the monster was heading right for it. In fact, it was moving right towards the nearest house with lit up windows. Whomever lived there was both at home, and awake.
"Hey! Hold it right there!" she shouted.
The thing stopped, and turned around. A trio of yellow lights that seemed like they might be eyes fixated on her. She couldn't make out a face as such, but the intense hatred radiating from those lights caused her to take a step backwards.
Whatever the invader was, it looked like a mass of dark mist roughly shaped like a body. She could make out what looked like two legs, and two arms, but she couldn't spot anything that looked like a neck to separate a head from the rest of the body. It was just a large shape with arms, legs, and eyes, about three times as big as her. She got the feeling something like that wasn't supposed to exist.
A hint of fear crept into her. She had to fight that? It didn't look like anything she had seen on TV. Sure, magical girls often went up against scary enemies, but this felt different. She wanted to run, she wanted to cry, but she knew she couldn't. She was a magical girl. She was the hero. No one else could stop that thing. Probably. But how did she fight? She had never been particularly athletic. P.E. might actually be her worst subject, and she wasn't exactly a top student in anything else either. She was decidedly mediocre. Why had she been picked in the first place?
~TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.~
Aya didn't know what that meant. She wasn't sure if she had any instincts, except the one telling her to run away.
The invader started moving towards her. She took another step backwards, then felt a sudden stab of anger towards herself. She had wanted this. She hadn't hesitated when she said yes. She wasn't allowed to hesitate when it actually mattered. There was a considerable print left in the earth as Aya dug her foot in, and kicked off. A flying kick was a common opener, so she decided to try that. With a grace she didn't know she had, she flipped around, and sailed through the air with both legs aimed right at the centre of the monster. Its arm started moving as if to hit her, but it was too slow. She impacted it with a thud that sent a tremor through her whole body. Thankfully the enemy felt more solid than it looked. She had worried she might fly right through it.
She was able to knock it back, but not as far as she had hoped. While she stumbled upon landing, the invader recovered quickly. Its next blow hit, and sent Aya flying. She hit the ground, and rolled around several times before she was stopped by a tree. That had hurt.
"Ow... h-how do I defeat it?" She struggled to get back on her feet.
~YOU HAVE TO DESTROY ITS CORE. THE HEART.~
"Where is that?"
~USUALLY IN THE MIDDLE. ALTERNATELY YOU COULD EXHAUST ITS ENERGY. IT TAKES EFFORT FOR IT TO STAY IN OUR WORLD, AND IF YOU INFLICT ENOUGH DAMAGE IT WILL BE FORCED TO GO BACK. BUT IT WILL PROBABLY RETURN AGAIN LATER.~
She could hear a quick stomping sound, and looked up to see the invader approaching at a run. It aimed another punch at her, but somehow she was able to dodge. The tree was hit instead, and basically exploded. The flying bits of wood forced her to close her eyes, and then she was hit again. Whether it was a kick or a punch was uncertain, but she flew up into the air, and came crashing back down. The impact left an Aya-shaped hole in the ground.
As she got back up, she noticed she had landed pretty close to the house. If the invader charged her again... in spite of her aching body, she pushed herself back into action. Her next flying kick was blocked, but she followed up with a series of punches and kicks that succeeded at pushing the invader back again. She wasn't sure how to get to the core, but she had to be doing damage. If she could just push it back enough...
The invader wasn't staying idle though, and started to fight back. Aya was able to dodge one blow, and actually stopped another, even though it made her arm feel kinda numb. The fact that it was so much taller than her was an issue. Her punches could hit the bottom of the main body, and she could kick its legs, but she needed to hop and jump to reach anywhere else. It was hard to tell if it had any weak points. Maybe the eyes. But she'd have to jump pretty high to reach them.
She made a quick hop backwards, just in time for the monster to throw another swing, and punch right into the ground. Then she leapt into the air, and brought her boot down as heavy as she could right onto the middle eye. The invader made a sound for the first time, a chilling shriek as it stumbled backwards, and fell over. While that put her hairs on end, Aya recognised it as her chance, and went for another leap to strike the finishing blow.
But her boot was caught in mid-air. The hatred shining from the monster's eyes seemed even stronger than before. Maybe she had just made it angry. It threw her aside, and she went smack into a stone fence. Before she could recover, she received a kick to the stomach that smashed her through the fence. There was a weird taste in her mouth as she tried to come to her senses again. Then she heard a strange sound. It took her a moment to realise it was barking. She pushed herself up enough to see a dog rushing towards the invader, barking aggressively. It didn't look very big, but Aya's eyes had trouble focusing enough to see exactly what kind of dog it was.
"No... doggy... run away..." Aya tried to shout, but couldn't make her voice very loud.
The invader turned towards the dog. Aya could see it lifting its leg. It was going to stomp on the poor puppy.
"N... no!"
The time for thinking was over. Suddenly Aya was between the invader and the dog. She caught the leg, and grabbed it tight with both arms.
"Don't... hurt... the doggy..."
With a heave she lifted the invader into the air, and slammed it into the ground. Again. And again. And again. It wasn't long until the monster was embedded into a crater made of its own smashing. Aya climbed on top of it, took out her rod, and jammed it star-tip first into the centre of the body before it could recover again. There was a glow inside the darkness, another shriek, and then it was gone. Aya dropped into the crater, and to her knees.
She wasn't sure how long she sat there before she could feel something nudging, and then licking her arm. It was the dog. That close up she could see it was a shiba. It was whining as if it was worried about her. She raised her hand, and carefully patted the dog's head.
"Good doggy..." she said.
The dog let out a quick, happy woof.
~WELL DONE, AYA. TIME TO HEAD HOME.~
"But... the damage..."
~THE MAGIC WILL REPAIR IT.~
Oh right. Just like on TV. Of course.
She waved goodbye to the shiba as she was lifted into the air, and zoomed back towards her house. She felt bruised, and battered. And was probably bleeding. It would be tough to explain that to her parents. And everyone coming to her birthday party. But at the moment all she wanted to do was sleep.
* * *
Aya woke up. Her room was dark, but the alarm clock on her nightstand told her it was morning. She sat up, and rubbed her eyes. Suddenly she remembered the night before. She quickly started checking her body.
"Huh?"
She couldn't find any marks or injuries. Nothing ached either. Had it all been a dream? She was in her bed, in her pajamas, and couldn't remember coming home, or going to bed. Though her rod was also in bed with her, hidden under the duvet. Had she been fantasising about it in bed, and then...
~GOOD MORNING, AYA.~
Aya jumped. "W-what? Uh... good morning... uh..."
~LAST NIGHT WAS NOT A DREAM. THE MAGIC SIMPLY REPAIRED YOU TOO.~
"Oh..." That was handy. Weird. But handy. She wouldn't have to explain anything. Probably.
That also meant... she had done it. She had been a real magical girl, fought a monster, and defeated it. And saved a doggy! She was a hero!
~HAPPY BIRTHDAY.~
"Yeah! Thanks!"
Aya felt even more excited about the day ahead. It was as if she had started a grand adventure.