Chapter Text
It was cold.
Fall had surely arrived, and the full moon cast a ghostly light over the decaying cityscape. Nestled in a wide valley, an array of once-beautiful buildings now stood rusting and crumbling. Muffled noises could be heard coming from one of them. The occasional cry of a young child would be cut off by the stern admonishment of a caretaker who would order that they fall asleep.
The door of that two-story building slowly opened, and a girl slipped out, her green hair flowing behind her. She hastily walked along the side of the building before turning down into a smaller street.
Once that building was no longer in view, the girl slowed her pace. With a flash of light, her ragged clothes were replaced with a fluffy dress. With little effort, she hopped onto a rooftop, her eyes looking down at the streets below. She scanned the area with a faint shimmer of green from her eyes, and thought to herself.
Alright, there’s two over there, three hundred meters away at a bearing of three hundred forty degrees, heading due east, perpendicular to the orphanage. There’s a third, three hundred thirty meters away, at a bearing of three hundred fifty degrees, heading due south, towards the orphanage. Her brow furrowed as she considered the possibilities. I assume they’re going to meet up, and hopefully continue east. If they go south… right. I want there to be a buffer zone of two hundred meters. If they come closer than that, I’ll fight them off.
The creatures she was remotely observing did meet up and, to her relief, continued heading east. She didn’t sense anything else in the area within her range of perception, so she started to relax, until...
A fourth energy signature, a few dozen meters behind the other three… and it’s a human? What are they doing? She set off, gingerly hopping across the rooftops towards the energy signatures.
When she arrived, she carefully perched on a rooftop overlooking the street the signatures were traveling along. Indeed, there were three monsters. She recognized them immediately: they were commonly called crystal wolves, beings that preyed on humans—and those who were like her. They did so either to feed off their victim’s life energy or simply for the twisted pleasure of hunting. Their dog-like fangs shone, and innumerable tiny flashes hit the girl’s eye as their scaly bodies caught the moonlight.
Yes, their presence was expected, as they were by no means uncommon in sparsely populated areas. But behind them… there appeared to be another human, a teenage girl by the looks of it. The green-haired girl tried to get a good look at the stranger’s face, but she was wearing a sweatshirt whose hood concealed all but a few loose strands of blue hair.
That girl carefully trailed behind them, darting from pipe to trash can to streetlight, before suddenly making a move. She lunged at one of the monsters, grabbing at its neck. She was tossed off with ease, hitting a brick wall with a thud. The crystal wolves stood around her, closing in. She lashed out, striking one in the face, to little avail. The largest one tore into her, biting and clawing her viciously. The girl observing looked away, out of habit more than shock.
The crystal wolves soon moved on, continuing east. She decided to track them, hopping from rooftop to rooftop as they advanced. Neither she nor the monsters she was following heard the creaking of metal being pulled apart behind them. After some time, the crystal wolves stopped. They smelled the air and looked amongst themselves, before heading south. The girl, viewing from the rooftop, immediately tensed. Since they had been going east for some time, the road they traveled on was no longer a straight shot to the orphanage, but they would still come uncomfortably close. Nervously, she followed them, preparing for the worst. Something caught her attention, though: footsteps on the rooftop opposite hers.
She looked over and saw the girl from before, somehow very much alive, carrying a large metal pipe. She leapt at the crystal wolves, bringing the pipe down and crushing one of their heads. She then swung the pipe in an arc, smashing it into the side of a second crystal wolf and shattering it. Turning to the last, she tossed aside the mangled scraps that remained in her hand and clenched her fists. It jumped at her, and she grappled with it for a few moments before forcing it to the ground belly-up and pummeling it with her bare fists until it too broke apart.
As it faded to dust, she sat back on the cracked pavement, coughing and wiping her face with her hand. She slowly got to her feet and began walking again, albeit with a slight limp. The girl on the rooftop didn’t quite know how to react. She had seen plenty of nascent magical girls before, but this one felt odd in a way she couldn’t fully comprehend. She could hunt down monsters far beyond her league, but seemingly couldn’t even sense the even more powerful individual watching over her. Furthermore, her power seemed to only flare up after being injured. Was that the result of some oddity or a lack of training? The girl on the rooftop’s curiosity got the best of her, and she hopped down.
“Ah! Wh-who are you?” The strange girl exclaimed, jumping back from the figure who suddenly landed before her and instinctively raising her fists.
“Calm down, calm down, I’m not here to fight you.” She dismissively waved her hands. “My name is Fukuzawa Setsuko. And yours?”
“Oh… yeah… that’s a relief… I’m Aiko. Takanashi Aiko. Pleased to meet you!” She let her shoulders sag, breathing heavily. “I didn’t know there were other humans around here… you are a human, right?”
“Yes, I do believe I’m a human.” Setsuko flatly stated. She looked over Aiko, noticing that although her hoodie was shredded around the stomach area, the skin underneath was hardly even scratched. Furthermore… there were dozens of poorly repaired rips in that hoodie. Evidently, it wasn’t Aiko’s first time doing this, and apparently she was able to get away with minimal injuries each time.
“Ah, just checking… y’know?” Aiko wobbled on her feet a bit. “Anyways… did you need something?”
“Well, I’m mainly curious as to what on earth you’re doing, and how on earth you aren’t dead.”
“Oh… oh! I’m hunting these… dog… lizard-looking things. Ever since I started coming across them, they seemed aggressive, so I thought it was best to get rid of them. Wait, that’s not bad, right?”
“No, I mean, they are dangerous, although I’ve rarely heard of a magical girl going out of their way to attack these things for the sake of hunting them, let alone one like you.” Setsuko blinked with a slight amount of disbelief.
“Huh? A magical girl? Is that what I am!?” Aiko sounded increasingly chipper.
“You didn’t figure that out already?”
“No…? I… should I have?”
“I guess not. But it’s still a bit shocking that you’ve gotten this far all on your own. Makes me feel like I was a bit slow.”
“Did someone train you, then?” Aiko tilted her head.
“Yup. I don’t talk to them anymore, though. It's a little hard to do that nowadays. Shame.” Setsuko looked down with a scoff.
“Oh! Then, since I don’t know any other magical girls, could you train me?”
“Me!? Train you? Well… fine, but only until you learn how to properly transform, okay? Then you’ll be on your own. I already have enough on my plate as it is.”
“Thank you!” Aiko hopped over to Setsuko like a bunny and clasped their hands together. “When can we start!?”
“Uh… now, I-I guess…” Setsuko looked away and jerked her hands free.
“Great! What’s the first thing we should do?”
“Walk. The coast is clear, and it’s one in the morning. I’m going to hike the adrenaline off and sleep.” Setsuko started heading north. “You can tag along and drill a hole through my brain with the million questions I assume you have.”
“Okay!” Aiko hopped to join Setsuko, keeping pace by her side. The two walked through the otherwise quiet street, not talking.
“…”
“…”
“Um, can I ask a question now?”
“Sure…”
“What exactly is a magical girl? I didn’t get visited by some mascot, and I don’t think I have some pretty transformation like the ones I saw in cartoons as a kid. All that’s different is that now I’m strong sometimes, and really strong for a split second every now and then. Kinda… feels like I’m a fake or something.”
Setsuko looked up at the sky and rubbed her chin. “It’s a bit hard to explain, but from my understanding, every organism has a sort of life energy that distinguishes them from, say, a computer. Normally you can’t actually manipulate that special energy, but for humans… besides the slim chance you’re born with the ability to, some people’s life energy will mutate during adolescence to a form more similar to that of a youkai. I don’t understand the how and why, but that’s a magical girl!”
“Huh… so I’m a youkai now?”
“Sorta. Specifically, you’re a sort of bridge between a human and a youkai. At least, that’s how a lot of magical girls come to classify themselves.”
The two continued down the street, which eventually narrowed into an alley. They stepped around stagnant puddles, and Aiko almost tripped on a tile that had fallen from an old rooftop. Eventually, she piped up again.
“Question! Another one! How come I didn’t ever bump into one until now, or at least learn anything at all about real magical girls on the news or in a book?”
“That’s the result of a self-protection tactic. After all, even though magical girls are on good terms with humanity in the modern era, that wasn’t always the case.”
“You mean… humanity was the enemy of magical girls?”
Setsuko sniffed. “Nah, more like magical girls were the enemy of humanity. There was a point where we almost became extinct. After that, we started to use a variant of a sealing spell to—”
“Spell? A real spell? They exist too!?”
“Yes… a real spell. Anyways, we used one that… well, it’s too complicated to explain in full, but we used it to deprioritize experiences involving magical girls in the memories of normal humans. Even if there was something involving a magical girl that was unforgettable to an individual, a news segment covering it would generate less buzz than even some surface-level happy story. So, stuff like that never makes it to broadcast unless the news is really slow.”
Aiko stopped walking. “So now that I’m one of them… my friends and family will slowly forget about me?”
“No, no! Although the spell is more or less a collective action, you still have agency within it. It only kicks in if they know you’re a magical girl, and if you have a positive view of them, the effect will be negligible.”
“Good… that’s good. Because if I had to choose between being a magical girl and being with my friends and family, I’d choose the latter ten times out of ten.”
“You know, with my situation, I’m in no position to debate you on that. Just do whatever your heart tells you to do, okay?”
They continued walking down the alley and rounded a corner. “Uh… third and final question for today… what did you mean by ‘your situation’? As long as it isn’t too private!”
Setsuko laughed quietly. “Nah, it isn’t private. I do these patrols and fight off the crystal wolves to protect an orphanage. Specifically, my little sister, who’s asleep in there right now. Those monsters don’t usually attack adult humans, but in groups, they’ll definitely go after children.”
“I see… that’s nice of you, protecting your sister like that! You’re a nice person!” Aiko patted Setsuko’s back eagerly.
“No need to flatter me like that, you’re already on my good side.” Setsuko said with a smile, her cheeks a tad warm.
“I mean it! It’s definitely—oh! A kitten!”
“Hm?” Setsuko looked ahead. Indeed, there was a tiny, scuffed kitten up ahead. It was cleaning itself vigorously before pausing and looking up. As soon as it did, it quickly darted away, seemingly scared of the two girls who were approaching.
“Hey! Come back here, little guy!” Aiko ran after the kitten, doing her best to catch up even without knowing how to use her powers.
“Ugh…” Setsuko gracefully lifted herself off the ground and floated after Aiko and the kitten, wondering which had more intelligence. She followed them as they weaved through corner after corner and tried her best to hold back laughter when Aiko hit a wall or crashed into a garbage can.
Eventually, the kitten started slowing down, its tiny body not capable of running much longer. This seemed to re-energize Aiko, as she quickened her pace and started closing the gap with increasing speed.
“I’ve got you!” Aiko lunged forward just as the alley opened up, her hands reaching out to finally grab the kitten.
“Hey, wait, a road’s—” Setsuko’s sentence was cut off by a large thud and the screeching of tires. She flew out of the alley and landed on the roadside. There was a car with a teenager-sized dent in the front bumper, and a few meters away was Aiko, sprawled out in an unnatural position.
Setsuko ran up to the accident. Aiko remained motionless on the ground. The driver stepped out, promptly falling onto his hands and knees and beginning to hyperventilate upon seeing Aiko’s body. Setsuko sighed. The story of a new magical girl being reckless and meeting an unfortunate end was all too common, but it still stung.
“I didn’t die!” Aiko suddenly came to and sprawled herself out. “Is… is the kitten okay? Oh, there it is… ahaha…” The kitten was standing a little way down the road, totally unharmed. Aiko pulled herself to it, using her right arm to scoop it up and hold it against her body. Her left arm dragged behind her, limp but not obviously broken.
“Takanashi! Don’t do things like that!” Setsuko felt relief and indignation simultaneously. “And you better keep that cat now that you’ve gone this far.”
“Don’t worry, I will… but can you help me up?” Rolling onto her back, she let the kitten go and rubbed her nonfunctional left arm. “Ah, my shoulder…”
Setsuko helped Aiko to her feet before looking at her arm. “Looks like it’s just dislocated. Honestly, it’s a bit of a miracle you didn’t even break any bones. Here, let me just…” She moved Aiko’s arm and, with a sharp shove, popped it back in place.
“Ow!” Aiko gasped in pain before wiggling her arm. “Oh, half of the pain’s gone, just like that. Thanks!” She picked up the kitten again, who seemed to have given up on running. “You’re coming with me, little guy.”
The driver, after an unbearably long consolation by Setsuko, was finally starting to calm down. He had repeatedly been asking to touch Aiko’s arm to confirm she was not a vengeful spirit. After the fourth time, she grew annoyed and decided to fly home, making it three meters into the air before falling on her back against the pavement. This, of course, ruined most of Setsuko’s progress in getting the man to come to his senses, leading to an even longer wait.
Once the man was finally convinced that all was well, it was three in the morning. Upon learning that Aiko was headed towards Nagoya, he offered to take her back to her neighborhood. Aiko was near her physical limit by now, and half-heartedly agreed. She awkwardly sat in the back, trying to avoid leaving any stains and doing her best to endure a car ride with a random salaryman who still seemed to subconsciously think she posed some sort of supernatural danger to him.
Once Aiko was dropped off in her neighborhood, she stumbled her way to her house and skipped over the fence to the front yard. She took the cat out of her pocket and held it up in front of her, squinting at it. It looked back in her direction with thoughtless eyes.
“Hm… what will I call you? More importantly, where will I put you?” She narrowed her eyes further. “It’s not as if I could just go tell papa that I picked up a kitten…” She sighed. “Oh, I guess I could keep you a secret for a few days, and then plant you under a bush when I know papa’s gonna be out doing gardening. There’s no way he’d turn you down then.”
Hopping up to the second story, Aiko climbed into her open bedroom window. She took off her hoodie and placed the kitten on top of it. She then turned to her bed and collapsed face-down on it, utterly exhausted. Her freefall into sleep was quickly broken by the kitten’s tiny meow ringing out from below.
“Agh… I guess I should get you something to eat, huh?”