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ZIRA WATCHES AS Aika undoes her starry robes, dusts off her normal girl clothes, and turns to her, smiling, scooping up her bag. “See you after school?”
Reverting to immense interest in her Moon Sailor manga, Zira clumsily takes her things and tries not to melt into a pathetic puddle. After another moment, she pushes her glasses up, and wills her mouth to flap the right sounds. “Y-yeah. You’re new, right?”
“Mhmm,” Aika affirms. “You’re, like, my first friend. That means we’ve gotta hang out! Though,” she slips sheepily, “I dunno where to go around town.”
“Really?” Zira asks, towing through her backpack to make sure her Moon Sailor book is okay after hastily shoving it in. “I can… I can show you some places for us to go.” She awkwardly coughs. “When we, y’know, hang.” She cringes. “Hang out.”
Aika beams. “Great!” Then she checks her schedule and scatters off to her next class in a panic, realizing it’s on the fourth floor, and they’re still in the half-blown up first-floor cafeteria. “Gotta go! Meet me at the front of school later!”
Zira watches her go, takes in the star-like shape of her hair and the way her heels hit the ground in loud patters from the lifted soles of her shoes, Hoshi flying after her until she angrily waves him away, and Zira sees him enter the abandoned janitor’s closet, exasperated, and wills the growing heat in her cheeks to cease before stomping off to her own class.
All through art class, she doodles stars in the margins of her notebook, half-listening to the teacher as she details their first unit. In gym class, an incoming dodgeball knocks her off her feet as watches the windows in the doors, looking for two familiar star-shaped buns in the passing blurs, and gets sent to the bleachers, glasses scuffed. Next to her, Robbie Dunn picks his noise and she groans, burying her head in her hands.
All Zira’s ever wanted is to be a pretty magical girl. All that Zira’s ever wanted is to have a friend who doesn’t think she’s a total loser. And now she’s got a pretty magical girl for a friend, and it leaves Zira useless in math class, sneaking glances at Aika three rows ahead, excitedly waving her hand as she explains how to graph a y = m(x) + b equation, looking back to grin at Zira who flushes hard and hastily scribbles down what she said as the teacher makes notes of the board.
When the bell finally rings, Aika zigzags around the freshly-abandoned desks set askew in their rows, and nudges Zira with her leg as the other girl tucks her supplies into her Moon Sailor pencil case. “So,” she says brightly. “Where to next?”
Zira adjusts her glasses and zips up her bag, rising to her feet. “Um…” she says, and soon loses her pace. “I… Uh…” Aika looks at her expectedly, waiting, and Zira feels embarrassment curdle in her. She shoves her chain into the desk clumsily. “I’ve never… had someone to hang. Out with.” Her lip wobbles. “I usually just go to library.”
“Great!” Aika says, tugging her by the hand. “Let’s go!” She channels the same jubilance when they find themselves in the manga section of the local library, knees touching as they sit shoulder to shoulder on the ground, and Aika squints at the volume in Zira’s hands. “‘Magica Madoo-ka’?”
“Magica Madoka,” Zira quickly corrects, then stammers, “but that doesn’t really matter, I mean–”
“What’s it about?” Aika asks. “Is it like Moon Sailor, too?”
“Kind of,” Zira shyly admits, shoving down the excitement that sits underneath her skin. Oh! My! God! She’s never had someone to talk about her manga to, and now she’s brushing pinkies with a Magical Girl™ in the flesh, smiling as she lays her head on the other girl’s shoulder and waits for her to explain. “It’s… It starts out the way most magical girl series do. But it’s special in the fact it gets pretty dark. And scary. But it’s good, really good, even if it might freak you out a little reading it, y’know, cause you’re this gorgeous magical girl and–”
“And you like it?” Aika asks, a laugh in her voice. “Seriously?”
Zira blubbers. “Well- well… I- I mean…” She struggles for words. “You can look at the reviews online and see if I’m right?”
“Then I’ll try it,” Aika says. Zira blinks at her dumbly for a moment before scurrying to hand it to her, watching as Aika opens the volume the wrong way, and turns it to the right side, trying not to panic as their hands touch. Aika doesn’t seem to think much of it and puts her attention to the manga as Zira watches her for a moment, studying her expression, the way her lips quirk slightly and the stray eyelash on her cheek that she’s too shy to point out, before picking out a random manga to read and distract herself.
Eventually, the librarian calls that the the library is about to close and the girls pull themselves up, sleepy limbs tingling from how long they were intertwined, and stumble to their feet. Aika yawns, absentmindedly pulling at a stray thread on the collar of her shirt, before she shoots straight, running back to the rows of shelved books. “Wait!”
Zira shrugs her backpack on and waits, clutching Aika’s bag. Soon enough, Aika re-emerges, something in hand, and runs up to the librarian’s desk. Stepping closer, Zira reads over Aika’s shoulder and feels her heartbeat skip faster when she sees the second volume of Magica Madoka placed in the girl’s hands after the smiling librarian scans it.
Aika turns to look at her. Their hands brush when Zira hands her the bag, her blushing and Aika smiling. “Thanks. You ready to go?”
So the two wander off under the beginnings of a starry night, sunset spilling into twilight, and find themselves on a park bench, watching the wind push empty swings as the last swell of summer heat faded away. Aika pulls up a knee as she sits and lays her head on it, sighing. Zira crosses her ankles and brushes lint off her skirt, shy in the silence. “Zira?”
“Yeah?” she answers.
Aika doesn’t look up from where she’s kicking pebbles with her other foot. “Do you really… have nothing to say about me being a magical girl?”
Zira shrugs. “You don’t have to worry about me blabbing your secret.” She mimes a zipping gesture over her lips when Aika looks to her. “My lips are sealed.”
But Aika’s sweet face is still screwed with worry and it makes something sick churn in Zira’s stomach so she rushes to say, “It’s not like I have anyone to tell, either, Aika. I promise. You’re my first… first real friend. And I know it’s been a day but,” and she pauses, struggling to fight the heat in her cheeks at the way Aika’s eyes go glassy, a wobbly smile at her lips, “you… really matter to me. And I want to help you, magical girl or not.”
Aika laughs wetly. The sad sound bites at the edges of Zira’s heart. God, she can’t believe herself. “I’m glad,” she says, then straightens, and smiles, a little more subdued than her usual grin, and it feels special, Zira selfishly wants to believe, special to this moment with her, like even the sugar grain-spilled night couldn’t have a piece of it. “You matter to me, too, Zira. I’m lucky to have met you.”
“Yeah,” Zira breathes, and then realizes that sounds a little stupid, and tacks on, “We both are lucky.”
“Yeah,” Aika agrees, and settles her head on Zira’s shoulder again. “You ready for school tomorrow, too?”
“You think Eclipse will show up again?”
“Don’t remind me,” Aika groans, but smiles mirthfully nonetheless. “You better not scram when he crashes in again, Zira.”
“Never,” Zira says, and when she looks up, the stars seem to shine a little brighter for them, as though cheering her on. “I’ll be by your side, Aika. At least until graduation.”
Aika laughs, a tinkling sound, fitting for a girl from the stars. “We’ve got a whole world until then. Let’s focus on tomorrow, alright?”