Chapter Text
Bishōjo senshi mahō shōjo worm.
Transformation 1.1
Class ended in five minutes and all I could think was, an hour is too long for lunch. In class, I was much safer. Not safe, but safer. There was less that could be done in class, though they found all sorts of new and creative ways to pick on me. Pencil shavings in my bag, stealing my work, whispering behind my back. Nowhere was safe from them, except for home.
I’d been looking forward to finally getting to the part of Mr. Gladly’s World Issues class where we’d start discussing magical girls. Now that it had finally arrived, I couldn’t focus.
He was clearly excited about what he was talking about, likely a magical girl fan-boy, which carried its own slightly perverted connotation. He had started by enthusiastically talking about the first magical girl to appear, a story we all knew well. Scion. The Golden Girl. She appeared naked above an Ocean Liner, a point that Mr. Gladly seemed to fixate upon and sounded slightly disappointed when describing that later sightings of her included her wearing clothes. Nobody else seemed to pick up on his fascination or the lecherous tone in his voice, they all sat listening with rapt attention.
I glanced over my shoulder. Madison Clements sat two rows to my left and two seats back. She saw me looking and smirked, her eyes narrowing, and I lowered my eyes to my notebook. She was the type of girl who everybody thought was actually a magical girl. She was the epitome of cute and always wore clothes of the sort magical girl fangirls often wore. Boys flocked around her, they were always interested in her. She wore the same barrettes in her hair every day, little red hearts (a common theme amongst magical girls) and always had an embroidered red heart patch on her clothes somewhere.
She was the complete opposite to me, whose only redeeming feature was the hair I had inherited from my mother. Unlike Madison, who looked like a bird trying to attract a mate, my clothes were formless gray or black. Clothes to hide in.
Mr. Gladly’s lecture had moved on to the appearance those who are now known as the Triumvirate, the next group of magical girls to appear. Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon and Hero. The most powerful magical girls in the world and the leaders of the Protectorate. Then on to local magical girls: Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Velocity, Battery, Assault, Triumph.
He had slides on the projector for each magical girl. Every single photograph seemed to have been taken from such an angle that a flash of the magical girl’s underwear was visible under their skirts. Again, nobody else seemed to notice.
I continued to doodle in my notebook, letting Mr.Gladly’s words flow around me.
“Let’s wrap up here,” Mr Gladly announced. “Sorry guys, but there is homework. Think about magical girls and how they’ve impacted the world around us. On Monday, we’ll break into groups of four and see which winning group has the best list.”
The class cheered and some of the more social students gathered around Mr Gladly to chat. Me? I just packed up my books, eager to get out of the classroom, eager to escape. Eager to talk to Arachne.
The bell rang and I was out the door and up the stairs to the third floor girls bathroom before anybody else had even left the classroom.
As soon as there was a free stall, I locked myself in and called for my only friend.
Arachne, arachne, arachne. I called silently.
With a barely audible pop she appeared on my knees.
She was about the size of my palm, with black fur and resembled the unholy love-child of a spider and a rabbit. A rabbit’s head and body, with eight long legs like a spider, Arachne had segmented pedipalps and fangs. She was cute though, like all magical animals apparently are.
Taylor! How goes your schooling? Her voice sounded inside my head. I wasn’t sure if it was a skill unique to her, or whether all magical animals could do it, but it could only happen when we were within about ten yards of each other.
Okay… I replied. It’s hard to concentrate, I’m too eager to get out there and do some good.
This weekend? She asked, her mental voice sounding eager. You could always go out tonight? Why not tonight?
I shook my head, No.
Then I heard the door to the bathroom slam open. Giggling and the sound of running water. Then a knock on the stall door that made my jump. I ignored it, but it was repeated moments later.
“Occupied,” I called out.
“Oh my God! It’s Taylor!” one of the girls outside exclaimed and I could feel my stomach sink, I knew that voice.
Get out of here . I told Arachne.
I knew what was coming and I desired more than anything to hide it from her. I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me, or ask questions or… encourage me to do something about it.
She disappeared with another barely audible pop just before I was inundated by sticky liquid being poured onto me from above the stalls on either side. Moments before I whipped my glasses off, I caught sight of Sophia and Madison holding the upended plastic bottles before the empty ones were replaced with full ones.
I remained sitting on the toilet until they had finished emptying the bottles. Dark skinned Sophia, the track star, prom-queen contender and Cute, adorable Madison. Which meant that the voice that I recognized, the voice that I dreaded, belonged to the last member of the trio; Emma Barnes. Red-headed model, with feminine curves and a lawyer daddy. Emma, who had led my torture for the past year and a half. Emma, who had been, before then… My best friend.
The door to the toilets banged again, possibly signaling their departure, though I couldn’t rule out faking it in order to lure me out of the stall to take photographs of me or something.
Regardless, I remained sitting. I looked down and my bag, which had once been khaki, was now stained orange and purple. My hair was soaked, plastered to my neck and my hoodie was likewise saturated.
I struggled to take a hold of my temper, which was close to boiling over. I shut my eyes and could feel the tiny pin-pricks of data in the immediate area around me. My range, and my ability to effect them weren’t anything compared to when I was transformed, but it was still there. They still responded to my subconscious thoughts and emotions and still reflected my frustration, my anger and my hatred for those three girls.
A small pop indicated Arachne’s re-arrival and I let out a small sigh of resignation. She could appear and disappear at will, or when I called her. Thankfully, at least, she chose to appear once the downpour had finished and not during it.
Taylor! What happened to you? Everything’s all wet! She exclaimed.
Some girls poured their drinks all over me. I explained.
Why don’t you transform? We could go and teach them a lesson! She suggested and I struggled harder to reign in my temper. It would be so easy to do and with the transformation, nobody would know that it was me.
No! I exclaimed. I had to be better than that, I couldn’t go Carrie on the school, no matter how much every single person there deserved it.
I held out my hand for Arachne to move onto and then stood up and opened the toilet stall door. There were bugs over every surface in the bathroom. Wasps, bees, flies, centipedes, cockroaches, ants. More were coming in from the open window.
Picking up my bag, I felt liquid sloshing around inside. Everything inside would be ruined, all of my school work and text books. Everything. I couldn’t use a locker, not after the incident that made me; Taylor Hebert, a magical girl.
I sent a signal to disperse, to leave, and they did so very quickly. Just a thought was all it took and they went back to their lives before my anger called upon them.
I looked at Arachne, who looked back at me with what could possibly be hurt in her eyes, I can’t Arachne. I can’t do that here, I want to be a hero. I can’t just use these powers for personal revenge.
She nodded in what I hoped was understanding, But we’re still going to go out on the weekend?
Yes . I told her. I needed to, at this point. I was even considering going back on what I had told her earlier and going out that night. I could restrain myself at school, but I desperately needed an outlet.
First, though, I had to clean myself off.
You’d better get out of here Arachne, in case somebody else comes in. I suggested.
Righteo! I’ll see you later Queen! She said cheerfully, before popping away.
I shook my head. Sure, my transformation sequence named me Queen, but covered in sticky liquid, I sure didn’t feel like one.
Paper towel quickly got soaked through and I needed to wash the stickiness out of my hair in the sink. When I upended my bag, half a bottle’s worth of liquid came pouring out into the sink, a disgusting brown color.
The bell rang, but I ignored it. There was no point going to classes if all of my books were ruined and it would just give the trio more opportunity to ridicule me. I kept cleaning myself off for a bit, giving everyone a chance to get to their classes, before I slunk out of the school. The bus driver took one look at me and refused to let me onto the bus.
“I’m not having all that shit all over my seats!”
Which was ridiculous. The bus drivers let merchants onto the bus, people who had pissed themselves or worse.
It was a long walk home, there were many places that I had to avoid, more out of habit than actual need. If I were waylaid by muggers, I could easily transform and take care of them. But I wasn’t a transformed magical girl at present, I was Taylor.
To be a little honest with myself, I was a bit ambivalent about transforming. I’d done it a few times, of course, but I felt different when I was a magical girl. I felt… colder. Less emotional, less worried about things. Fear was meant to be useful, a good thing. Fear was what stopped you from doing stupid, dangerous things. On the other hand, I felt a lot better about myself as a magical girl. I had breasts, I had curves. My proportions were normal and best of all I retained my curly, black hair. As a magical girl, I had no problems with the fuku that was my magical girl uniform. I didn’t care that it showed off my legs or that the corset allowed a full view of the swell of my breasts. At least while I was wearing it.
When I finally made it home, I stripped off my clothes and put them straight into the washing machine before jumping into the shower. The hot water made me feel a little better. It washed the anger away, in part. Getting into clean clothes was comforting and allowed me to separate myself from the day's events.
Those feelings disappeared when it came time to take stock of my school bag. Everything was a mess, ink running through text-book pages. Everything stained a terrible combination of orange, red and brown. My notebook was ruined, my record of every thought about my hero career. All of my power testing and training, hero name ideas (no matter how much Arachne wanted me to call myself Queen Administrator, I needed a more serious name!) and all of my notes on the current dark and light magical girls of Brockton Bay. All ruined.
I went for a run to clear my head and work off some of my anger, I had a bit of time before school was due to end and even more before Dad was due home. Running was half of my magical girl training, the half that I insisted on. Jumping was the half that Arachne insisted on. It was almost like she was built for jumping and if it were up to her, that would be the only training I would be doing. The first time we went out to the Trainyard to practice, Arachne demanded that I jump (untransformed) onto the roof of a boxcar. She was very disappointed when I failed to do so and demanded that I practice until I was able. Transformed, I fared slightly better. Something about the magical girl transformation enhanced my natural abilities slightly, not as much as a Brute magical girl, but enough that I was able to grab the top edge of a boxcar and lift myself up.
When I pointed out to her that I was neither a rabbit, nor a jumping spider, she just huffed and said that ‘ Any magical girl of mine should be able to jump’ .
I was in what I thought was one of the safer parts of the docks, having completed my run to the boardwalk and begun the circuit home, when I heard the scream.
‘Welp, looks like I wouldn’t have to wait for nightfall for my first outing after all’ I thought to myself.
Reaching into the neck of my hoodie, I took grasp of the magical pendant that Arachne had given me, the simple black crystal on the end of a chain that apparently nobody else could see.
The transformation words echoed in my mind and I repeated them aloud, stretching my other hand out to the sky.
“QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR POWER, TRANSFORM!”
Darkness wrapped about me, stripping me of my clothes, then slowly covering my dark shimmering form with my fuku. First the black, knee-length boots, then the gray leotard wrapped itself around my body. Then a short gray skirt unfurled, with black lace on the edge and a black lace edged corset closed itself over my torso. Finally a white crystal tiara appeared on my head, its design reminiscent of spider webs.
Thankfully, I wouldn’t have to worry about anybody seeing my transformation. It was a well known fact that part of the magical girl’s transformation sequence involved privacy protections. Attempts had been made in the past to film them, but all that could be captured was a very bright light. Also, anybody who saw a transformation sequence could never link the person with the magical girl. Even if it happened right in front of them. I could transform in front of a school assembly and everybody would forget that it was Taylor standing in front of them just moments beforehand. The exception to this rule was if you told somebody, or they had seen me detransform. Because detransformation was where the danger lay. If someone watched you detransform, then there were no such protections. There were theories about why this was the case, but mostly it was just chalked up to ‘magical girl stuff is weird’.
With my transformation, my awareness expanded significantly. The pinpricks of data, the insects in my range increased rapidly as my range increased. They were all around me for hundreds of yards.
Lastly, Arachne popped onto my shoulder, What’s going on, why did you transform?
I was going for a run and I heard a scream, I explained.
Arachne lifted her front legs to gesture towards an alleyway, This way. Three men have pushed a woman down!
Arachne shared my power, but in a different way. She could also feel my insects, but while she couldn’t control them, she could see through them. The insects that she was looking through lit up even brighter in the sea of lights around me. I had the rest of the insects converge on the alleyway ahead of me, blocking either end with a wall of bugs. The three men hadn’t yet noticed,
I didn’t know if other magical animals also shared their magical girl’s powers, there was nothing written about it on Magical Girls Online, the bulletin board that was dedicated to magical girls around the world.
As I walked through the wall of bugs, which I parted for my passage seamlessly, I could see the woman on the ground with two of the men leaning over her, the third was going through what I presumed was her handbag.
“Halt!” I ordered, “Unhand that woman and drop her belongings, I am Magical Girl…”
‘Oh shit…’ I thought, ‘I really should have decided on a name before doing this.’
Queen Administrator , Arachne unhelpfully offered and in that moment I had completely forgotten every single name that I had brainstormed. There was a scarab faced Egyptian god that I had researched and other names that were associated with spiders. Could I remember any of them?
The three men were standing, staring at me. They were obviously expecting the declaration of my name, but without it, their brains were basically on pause. A pause that was growing uncomfortably long.
“I am Magical Girl Queen Administrator!” I declared.
Comically, they reacted to my presence almost as if there hadn’t been such a huge delay between my appearance and finishing my entrance.
“Oh shit!” One exclaimed, “A Magical Girl!”
They all ran away from me as quickly as they could, dropping the handbag and their knives as they went. They didn’t really pay attention to the end of the alleyway that they tried to run through and my insects enveloped them like a blanket. This resulted in them rolling around on the ground, trying not to scream lest the insects went into their mouths.
“Lie still!” I commanded them. “Or my insects will bite and sting. You can wait for the police to arrive and if you don’t move then you will be unharmed.”
Surprisingly, they did stop moving, though insects did detect the smell of urine coming from two of them.
Still, I should have brought zip ties with me. I had practiced with my transformation and, with Arachne’s instruction, had mastered the ability of transforming with additional items. Normally when you transform, the clothes and anything you have on your person just disappear and then reappear when you detransform. But you can designate certain things to be added to your magical girl fuku. Of course, they did get transformed in the process. My extendable baton turned into a strange rod, with two prongs on one end with a small red triangular piece between them, it also had diamonds all down its length with pictures of black widow spiders. My pepper spray turned into a perfume bottle of all things.
I heard an “Ummm” from next to me and saw that the woman who was on the ground was now standing and had her handbag all packed back up. “Shouldn’t you call the police?” She asked.
“Oh, um… Would you mind calling? I don’t have a phone in this suit.” I confessed.
“Oh, uh… Sure?” she said as she pulled a cell phone out of her handbag.
I didn’t really pay attention to what she told the operator as I was immediately distracted by Arachne pouncing onto my shoulder.
Well done Queen Administrator! Didn’t that feel good? You did so so well, are we going to go out looking for more trouble? I can keep eyes on everything and let you know if I see something else! She enthused.
No, I told her, I wasn’t even looking for this trouble, I was just going for a run. Though, it did feel good… To do some good.
That’s the spirit! Come on, I think there’s another robbery going on just a couple of blocks away, you can keep the insects on those guys until the police arrive even from that distance. She encouraged and I could feel the location easily within my range.
Well, I couldn’t just let a mugging go on without doing something about it, so I lifted the wall of bugs from behind me and had them move in the direction of my highlighted pin pricks.
“Sorry ma’am, got to go. Somebody else is being mugged just two streets over, if you wouldn’t mind letting the police know about that when they get here?” I asked the woman.
“Uh, sure.” she replied as I turned to run towards the new incident.
Though there weren’t a lot of people around in the docks, those that were all gawked as I ran past or lifted their phones to take my photo.
I really hoped there weren’t any panty shots in there. Even though I didn’t really care as I ran, and my skirt lifted up at the back, I just knew that I’d die of embarrassment if I saw one while I wasn't transformed.