Chapter 6 : The Colorless Magical Girl

[Magical Girl Supernatural Ability Weaponization Plan]

The gist of this plan is very simple.

They collect children who are involved in crimes or are marginalized in society due to unavoidable circumstances, such as being orphans, among the magical girls. Then, through harsh secret experiments and training, they confirm the limits of their abilities and use that data to identify the gems that can work for the state and corporations.

In the early stages of ability awakening, there were also hardline opinions to bring in all girls confirmed as magical girls and implement national control along with identity registration, but after the emergence of healing abilities.

They changed direction to indirect control while being mindful of external views.

-I may be the bad guy locking up and beating magical girls, but could you heal my son’s serious illness?

-Yes…?

To avoid such awkward situations, they implemented preferential policies and encouraged social participation for magical girls externally.

However, they only educated magical girls actively externally, referring to data brought from ‘somewhere’. Later, that ‘somewhere’ was burned down in the rebellion of 200 experimental girls who were mobilized for harsh experiments.

During the rebellion process, there was a disturbance where girls armed with guns and magic advanced to where Congressman Fujimoto, the chief planner and drafter of this plan, was staying, seeking revenge.

And they were blocked by a single magical girl… a magical girl who had bloomed the fate of [Protection].

Their leader, the magical girl of [Freedom], bloomed belatedly and established a self-governing organization.

-You’re people who don’t even know where to use your own power.

-We will no longer be bound by anyone! We will raise the ‘Flag of Freedom’!

FLAG.

A self-governing organization declared by the 50 surviving girls who could no longer trust the state.

They continued to fight against corporations and the state, and Japan fell into chaos.

People later called this 6-month period of chaos the ‘Fujimoto Disturbance’.

Only after the main story began did people realize that the ‘Fujimoto Disturbance’ made it impossible for <Magical Girl HAZARD> to end happily.

They realized it was their irreversible mistake.

It was a tragic event that announced the beginning of the magical girl era and a monumental event that announced the existence of ‘bloomed’ magical girls who could use true transformation for the first time.

* * *

“So what?”

“What do you mean ‘so what’? Are you an idiot? Why can’t you understand what I’m saying?”

“You’re not speaking properly.”

In a room at Tokyo National Hospital.

There, Yamashita, a capable police officer who graduated from Tokyo University Law School, didn’t shy away from field work at a prominent local police station to build up achievements and finally was allowed to enter Tokyo Headquarters at a young age… this supreme elite police officer even insulting the gods was feeling despair for the first time.

“In the end, all you saw was that the suspect was in front of your girlfriend and moved her hand, right?”

“She’s a magical girl, a MA-GI-CAL GIRL! This is a real easy problem, you know? Magic! A magic murderer!”

“The question was whether there was any method of magic activation or other abnormal signs.”

“This is why cops… When that bitch raised her hand, it went POW! WHOOSH! WHAM!”

“…Are you an elementary school student?”

“Huh? Don’t look down on me! I’m a first-year high school student; what are you saying!”

Japan is doomed.

No.

Yamashita, rubbing his eyes and coming to his senses, changed the way he asked questions.

“Come to think of it; you said your girlfriend Yamahara-san tried to steal the suspect’s star?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

The delinquent male student, who had been ranting throughout, spoke with a cowed expression for the first time.

“Yacchan was jumping for joy when she first got the star, and I was really happy too…”

The male student scratched his cheek as he continued speaking.

“…I guess Yacchan thought that wasn’t enough, she tried to be a bit greedy, and after that, she didn’t feel so good.”

“Yamahara-san?”

“C, CT? I don’t know what it is, but when they took pictures, the doctor said her head had hardened, so there wasn’t much wrong with where she was hit.”

“Then why do you say she’s lacking energy?”

“I guess she’s depressed because she got hit by someone she usually looked down on.”

“I see.”

Ultimately, it was just a simple story of immature teenagers without any substance.

Tsk

Yamashita clicked his tongue and glanced at Yamahara’s back, lying down dejectedly beyond the delinquent male student.

For Yamahara, who had been living a worthless, delinquent life, being chosen as a magical girl must have felt like becoming Cinderella from a fairy tale.

The stupid Cinderella seemed to be in a bad mood after getting soundly beaten while trying to steal even the glass slipper of the maid next door.

Yamashita chuckled, feeling the irony.

Now that high-ranking officials of the state have shown interest in researching magical girls’ supernatural abilities, there’s no happy ending for magical girls other than submitting to power.

‘That girl doesn’t even realize she’s fortunate to be treated as a victim.’

The suspect is 13 years old and barely protected by juvenile law.

On top of that, the suspect’s side could even be considered for self-defense due to the recognition of impulsive action and urgency, so it seemed like she would be dragged away using this incident as an excuse, which could be seen as a complicated situation.

‘If she had turned herself into the police immediately, actively hired a lawyer, and appealed to the media.’

Even then, the media would look to the political and business circles so that it would be hushed up, and she would be imprisoned in a research facility.

Busujima Haruko was trapped in a dead end.

While thinking this, Yamashita’s phone started vibrating.

Yamashita answered the phone as he left the room full of idiots.

“Hello. Inspector Oshima?”

[This is Oshima from the scene. We’ve confirmed sighting information of the suspect. It’s near Yokohama.]

* * *

Sato Hana was in a good mood.

There were many reasons for her good mood, but the best reason was the fun of vigorously walking along Yokohama’s seaside with her newly healthy legs.

Early summer, past the middle of June.

In the summer where the word ‘hot’ naturally flows from your mouth.

The sea breeze fluttering her hair seemed to lift Sato Hana’s mood right up to the sky.

Clouds scribbled with white crayon on a blue drawing paper.

They shone so vividly that Sato Hana felt like she could run out and grab them.

Maybe magical girls could jump and catch clouds?

Hop

‘Ah, no way.’

Still, Sato Hana wasn’t disappointed. She could do more things with her healthy two legs, so it wasn’t a problem at all if one or two things didn’t work out well.

“Sea breeze wafting~ Seagulls cawing~”

For Sato Hana, who always spent time alone at home, songs were limited to the children’s song tapes she had been listening to since she was 7.

While 10-year-old peers were at the stage of admiring idols with classmates or comically imitating popular songs, Sato Hana’s taste was stuck exactly as it was 3 years ago when her lower body was paralyzed, and she stayed only at home.

“Sun shining brightly~ Clouds flying high~”

But that would be fine, too, as Sato Hana would soon be re-entering elementary school. She might sing popular songs while running around a regular elementary school and getting along with friends.

“Huh?”

In a corner of the walking path that Sato Hana takes every day, a middle school girl was sleeping, covered with newspapers.

“Ugh, the smell…”

It was a middle school girl with messy hair and an indescribable stench coming from her body.

“Mom said not to get close to strange people.”

As Sato Hana recalled her mother’s words and comically sidled past the middle school girl sleeping in the corner of the street, the middle school girl tried to get up unsteadily.

“Mmm… ugh. My head hurts.”

“Oh? Good morning!”

Following her father’s words that you must always greet her before going to sleep or after waking up, Sato Hana greeted the middle school girl loudly.

“Oh… g-good morning?”

“Mm-hmm!”

Haruko was momentarily confused while answering with a dazed head.

“…”

“…”

Busujima Haruko and Sato Hana, whose eyes met, were silent momentarily.

Sato Hana originally had a personality that didn’t easily talk to strangers. Still, thanks to her mother’s education policy, she couldn’t just let it go if someone was doing something wrong.

“Big sister, why are you sleeping on the street?”

“Huh?”

“Mom said that you should sleep at home!”

“Oh… well.”

Although her mind went blank at the fact that someone had discovered her.

Haruko suddenly felt tired.

It was a miserable feeling that she couldn’t bear unless she told someone about her situation.

“I did something bad… so I can’t go home…”

“Big sister, don’t you have a mom?”

“Uuu… d-don’t say bad things…”

From Sato Hana’s perspective, if someone had a person to care for them when they were in trouble, it was undoubtedly their parents.

So the question ‘Don’t you have someone to help you?’ was transformed into childlike speech and popped out, but to Haruko’s ears, it sounded like a piercing rebuke asking, ‘Can you show this state to your parents?’

So Haruko suddenly sat down crying, tears dripping from her eyes.

Haruko, sobbing at the thought of her parents, and Hana, watching blankly, didn’t realize that their surroundings were becoming unusually chaotic.

Clang! Slam!

“Eek?!”

“Huh?”

The sound of a black metal barricade closing was heard from the opposite side of the alley.

Clang! Slam!

A barricade closed on the remaining opposite side as well, completely blocking off the alley used as a walking path in an instant.

“Enter, enter, enter.”

Armed police officers with their bodies wrapped in black clothes and protective gear were slowly approaching from both sides of the alley.

“Eek?!”

Black protective gear.

Helmets with unseen eyes.

And gun barrels pointed fiercely.

They approached moving as one body, each holding a shield and a gun in one hand.

The armed police approaching relentlessly showed not a shred of humanity.

They were pointing their guns at Haruko with just an attitude of doing their job.

Step step step

Seeing Hana standing blankly in front of the police approaching as black masses, Haruko screamed.

“No!”

“Huh?”

“R-Run away!!”

Haruko shouted with anxiety that this child might get arrested along with her if she got involved with her unnecessarily.

‘What to do what to do what to do what to do.’

Snap!

At that moment, a cheerful finger snap echoed through the alley.

“W-What?! Did the suspect escape?! Where did she go?”

“Where did the suspect go?!”

“HQ, please respond!”

The wind cut Haruko’s cheek, and she and the child next to her were flying through the air.

Just a soaring body.

The ground had suddenly switched places with the sky and was spinning round and round.

What was visible through the endlessly shaking view was as clear as the summer sky reflected…

A clean silver color.

An overwhelmingly dazzling silver.

And she spoke while looking at Haruko.

“Phew, what a smell.”