Chapter 1 : The Colorless Magical Girl

In a shabby corner of the room.

Today, again, I open my eyes in my bleak room without a single piece of furniture.

“Aa-hm. Hm. One, two, three.”

As I clear my throat after waking up, the thin voice I’ve grown accustomed to hearing for two years comes out.

The scratchy cheap blanket laid out on the room floor.

The women’s training suit hanging on the wall.

White and slender fingers.

And the date shown immediately upon opening the old-fashioned cell phone.

June 6, 2011.

I’m 12 years back in the past from the day I died at 27.

More precisely, I’ve returned to the past of ‘The Novel’s Japan’ that I read during my middle school days.

This is not reality, but the world inside a light novel.

The place where I’ve spent the last two years.

“…”

Light Novel

This genre of literature, often called ‘ranobe’ for short, typically has a smaller book size than conventional novels and can be described as a subculture novel featuring illustrations with cute girl art styles. Among them, <Magical Girl HAZARD>, which I read in middle school and am now inside of, is a depressing magical girl story.

Magical girl.

A term that makes children’s hearts flutter, and that word that made budding sprouts rush to the TV like zombies on Sunday mornings. The shy first love of those mischievous children of that era, led them to a land of dreams and hope as they sat in front of the TV, showing off their colorful hair.

But one day, that perception changed completely.

An animation that appeared like a comet, pleasing the eyes of magical girl genre fans who held onto pure innocence with its exquisite artwork and luxurious action.

<Magical Girl Sakura Blossom>

An episode of this work, which officially pushed the abbreviation MSB, completely changed the meaning of the word ‘magical girl.’

-Haruka onee-chan?

-Kyaaaah!

The reliable senior character Haruka, who had been fighting against fairytale-like designed enemies, let her guard down during the battle and was beheaded and killed.

The shocking truth is revealed.

-What are you saying? It’s right to call you magical girls because you’re seeds of witches, isn’t it? (tl/n: the term magical girl (魔法小女) contains characters of the term witches (魔女))

[Magical girls rise from the despair given to them in exchange for their wishes and fight against fate!]

MSB’s bold attempt to throw despair into the magical girl genre, which was full of dreams and hope, gained explosive popularity. Although MSB, which clearly became the origin, was a work that drove characters into depressing situations to emphasize the hymn of humanity.

The works that followed, imitating MSB’s success, all had unreasonable depressing elements. They were created not for characters to overcome but just to be depressing for the sake of being depressing.

<Magical Girl HAZARD>, which I had read, was also a work born in this trend.

A work that was nothing more than an imitation created by following fragments of a masterpiece.

A story of characters who exist just to become unhappy.

It’s a harsh story where the protagonist tries to overcome everything with a righteous heart in unreasonable situations but ultimately experiences a desperate ending.

This work was translated and published in Korea through the efforts of a publishing company famous for only translating failed works.

“And I read that.”

And I woke up in that world.

Rustle

As I get up, silver hair tickles the nape of my neck.

When I first inexplicably woke up as a silver-haired beautiful girl in this world, I was utterly confused.

“…”

I took out the glass star that I had always kept in my pocket for the past two years and looked at it.

A glass star where rainbow-like streaks of starlight swirl inside the colorless, transparent glass.

The moment I first saw this glass star, I couldn’t help but despair.

If it were the past of the world I lived in, I would do anything to return to my mother.

But there was only one way to escape in this world of <Magical Girl HAZARD> where this glass star exists.

* * *

On a slightly hot early summer day.

Tokyo’s Shibuya Scramble Crossing was full of people waiting for the signal.

The same everyday scene.

Numerous people gathered there.

Office workers who had finished their drowsy morning work on Monday were contemplating what menu to eat at the restaurants across the street to satisfy their hungry stomachs.

‘Ah, I’m hungry.’

‘What should I eat for lunch today?’

Female college students who came for shopping were chattering while looking at the 109 Department Store visible from across the crosswalk.

‘I think my makeup is a bit off. Should I fix it in the bathroom?’

‘I can’t remember where the sale was.’

An ordinary scene like any other day.

12 o’clock sharp.

The sky turned red.

“Eh? What’s this?”

“A movie shooting?”

“What… the…?”

[Ah, ah, can you hear me?]

Along with a huge reverberation, a somewhat drowsy female voice echoed. At the same time, monitors, TVs, and cell phone screens worldwide turned red and emitted the same sound.

A clearly abnormal situation.

[I am the judge for this Magical Girl HAZARD □□□]

Woong-

“Ugh… ack…”

“Kyaaah!!”

The moment the woman was about to say her name, people on the street complained of headaches or started retching. Also, the woman’s name was inaudible, covered by a massive noise.

[…that’s who I am. Well… It’s probably an unacceptable name for you degraded people.]

The woman’s voice, which had been lacking in enthusiasm, now carried a hint of faint anger.

And the woman’s explanation began again.

[The ritual of human evolution.]

[<Magical Girl HAZARD> begins with 10,000 girls.]

[Girls who accept the seeds prepared for evolution will be given glass stars.]

A girl waiting for the signal cried out while looking at the shining glass star that was suddenly in her pocket.

“Eeh?! When did this get in here?”

“I, I don’t have one?”

[Depending on the number of starlights received, they hold a more substantial potential for evolution, and can become stronger more quickly according to the direction of fate each holds.]

[It’s also possible to increase the number of starlight by absorbing others’ starlight.]

The girls who were showing off their stars on the street heard this and hurriedly hid them in their clothes, terrified.

They began to look at each other with suspicious eyes, even though they hadn’t paid any attention to each other until just a moment ago.

[Please try to… achieve evolution by holding more starlight… if you can.]

[Next time, I’ll tell you a more detailed story.]

[Face the fate of humanity with a cautious attitude.]

Adding one last sentence in a very small voice.

[…Though you probably can’t.]

“…”

The scenery returned to normal.

That day, the whole world was set ablaze by that event.

* * *

The original story has finally begun.

To be precise, ‘that incident,’ which will happen about a year later, becomes the main content of volume 1, but from now on, we can consider that we’ve entered the flow of events.

I was secretly sweating among the crowd of people.

Because I knew what was going to happen after this.

Because I knew that what lay ahead was by no means peaceful.

“What on earth is going on?”

“Um… nothing happened, so it’s fine, right?”

“It must have been some kind of movie or game promotion event.”

Murmur murmur

Despite the anomalous event where the sky all over the world had turned red just moments ago and, an unidentified object was distributed to everyone in a language they could all understand.

People tried to return to their daily lives.

Because they thought it had nothing to do with them.

“…”

I quietly took out the glass star and looked at it.

Three colorful lights formed a triangle inside the transparent glass star, emitting a huge starlight.

Because of this colorless glass star.

I despaired upon realizing that this world was inside a fictional story.

And I held hope because I could receive the power to escape this world.

Three lights.

This enormous power, called a born 3-star, was at the same level as the four strongest survivors in the original story.

It was my last hope to endure the numerous unreasonable battles, borrow this world’s immense power, and return to my original world.

“Mother.”

I carefully put this last hope in my chest and muttered.

“I’ll definitely come back.”

My previous life.

Sim Hyun-woo closed his eyes in a cold alley on a winter day in 2023. And he woke up again as Shirogane Hikari in another world.

“…”

As I thought of my mother, I looked up at the sky, suppressing the sadness that was rising again.

On a hot early summer day in June 2011.

The sky on the day of the first incident of <Magical Girl HAZARD>, an apocalyptic story where most of humanity perishes due to fighting and only a few magical girls survive, had returned to its usual blue color.

“So what should we eat for lunch now?”

“Hmm, let’s just eat hamburgers or something.”

“How about katsudon?”

Watching people quickly return to their daily lives after the extraordinary events of the past few minutes, I carefully put the glass star in my chest and headed back home.

Fearing that the tragedy of <Magical Girl HAZARD> might strike at any moment.

“I think that girl who just passed by also received a glass star?”

“Really? She was really pretty.”

“I wonder if her hair was dyed.”

I was worried that the lamp of hope I received in this strange world might go out.

I was just afraid of everything that would come in the future.

I was afraid of everything.