episode_0002

[2030, a city in Japan. Neo-Doutan.]

Skkiiiiieek!!

Rough scratching sounds echo from the road.

A bus with worn tires and a frame of steel scrapes the asphalt road, its rear tire blown out, swaying precariously down a winding mountain path.

“Ahhhh!!”

“Save us!”

“Mom, Dad!”

Inside the bus’s windows,

Male and female students in school uniforms cry towards the glass, tears streaming down their faces.

If there’s something peculiar, it’s that their hair is wildly fluttering in the wind.

Of course.

There was no roof on the bus to shield them from the wind.

The part of the ceiling that would have shielded them from rain and wind blowing in from the front had vanished as if the top part of the bus had been crudely chopped off.

“Keeheeheehee!”

And above that, a monstrous being, hardly recognizable as human, cackles maniacally.

Limbs stretching out from the center of the bus.

Arms and legs so elongated they could be over several meters long, resembling an insect-like figure one might see from high above.

Yes.

Perhaps like a spider.

Four limbs extending outside the bus.

Inside the bus, three limbs reaching towards the students’ seats as a warning.

And in the driver’s seat, a limb impaled at the back of the driver wearing a blue uniform.

The driver, his eyes devoid of focus, holds the steering wheel, twisting it left and right as if he were a puppet.

Grrrrr.

A helicopter chases the bus from high above.

Through the open door, the camera captures the monstrous being fully as it leans precariously against the seatbelt, aiming at the lens of the cameraman.

While the torso resembles a human’s, the head, raised straight towards the sky, features multiple compound eyes, scanning in all directions.

Those unflinching eyes fixate precisely on the sky, then on the helicopter.

A human turned into a spider.

A spider-like monster.

Something one might expect from a horror or supernatural tale, or perhaps a giant transformed creature from a tokusatsu show.

“Keeheeheehee!”

Such a spider-like monster clings to the bus, twisting its body wildly as it races down the mountain path.

“Hurry, hurry and come out!”

The spider-like monster shouts.

“We already know there’s a magical girl in Class 3-B! Keeheehee!”

The thirty students aboard the bus held captive by the spider-like monster are all middle school students.

“Hurry out, [Scarlet Viper]!! I’ll devour your mana, and I will become ‘complete’!”

The spider-like monster is likely targeting one magical girl among the middle school class.

“Reveal yourself!! If you don’t show yourself willingly, everyone here will die!”

As soon as the magical girl appears, it seemed like the thought of tossing the hostages below the mountain path crossed the spider-like monster’s mind, but none of the hostages could say anything about it.

Just pleading.

“Please, please come out! Please save us!”

“Please, please save us!! Save us!”

Apart from begging for salvation, there was nothing else they could do.

Did their wishes reach someone?

Or had the savior already arrived, waiting for the right moment?

Thud.

Someone jumps out of the helicopter.

A young girl who looks about ten, with a red ribbon tied behind her, leaps out of the helicopter as if skydiving.

!!

The spider-like monster is taken aback at the sight of the girl.

“D-Damn it!! A magical girl who has reached [Complete]?! Th-This can’t be! It’s unbearable!!”

With a scream, the spider-like monster flings its body sideways.

Kwaaang!

It hurls the bus over the guardrail with the tip of its leg touching the ground, flying towards the slope below.

If they hadn’t worn seat belts, people would have flown away as is, but to survive on the bus shaking wildly from side to side, the students who were hostages had to wear seat belts.

Thud.

Because of that wind, the students floated beyond the guardrail towards the mountainside.

“No, I don’t want to die!”

Before one student’s cry could even finish.

Flutter.

“Wha, what…?”

“Is this…?”

The bus floated directly in the sky.

No.

The bus stopped in the sky.

Underneath the bus.

“It’s okay now! I’m here!”

Above their heads, a girl with a red halo sparkling, lifted the bus with both hands and flew into the sky.

“Don’t worry, everyone! As long as there’s a magical girl, you’re safe!”

With the help of the girl who didn’t even look 10 years old, all 30 hostages survived unharmed.

“Hehe!”

Lifting a bus that floated in the air, with the help of a girl flying in the sky.

—

Until when will the magical girl retire?

Different people judge differently, but most think around the age of 20.

To discuss the strength of magical girls from the start, one must analyze how magical girls exist in this world.

There was nothing special.

A dimensional portal opened between this world and Earth, allowing mana from this world to flow into Earth’s atmosphere. Beings adapted to this mana and became able to use magic, known as magical girls.

On Earth, there are various types of superhumans, but no one imagined that the first type of superhuman would become a magical girl.

Not mutants boasting tradition and history.

Nor superhumans born from polluted magical energy of this world.

Nor Earthlings enhanced by extraterrestrial reinforcement energy.

Nor beings whose cellular structure changed due to radiation contamination.

Just magical girls.

Some say.

Since everyone can use mana, why is the world considering magical girls as leaders?

As of 2030, not only magical girls but monsters, kaiju, transformation heroes, and masked heroes exist. Why are magical girls specifically considered leaders?

Simply because magical girls are the strongest.

It’s not because it’s stated in ancient texts…

“The Tree of Sephiroth.”

There is an entity that people call an ethereal being.

Whether called the Holy Trinity, Kabbalah, or Tree of Life, it’s a spiritual aspect with strong religious connotations, which seems to have evolved into a magical system in this world.

How was this magical system transmitted?

The rulers who can be considered the rulers of this world contacted Earth’s beings, discussing the essence of mana, the connection to another world, and themselves.

Why was this transmitted?

Now, officially termed “Kabbalah,” a great war occurred in that other world, and those known as “Clifport’s demons” escaped to Earth through a dimensional portal.

-So, did the sparks of your world’s war hit us?

It’s a natural thought.

Many Earthlings complained of injustice, but they couldn’t stop the connected worlds.

Even if beings couldn’t cross over to the Kabbalah world or vice versa, mana from Kabbalah continued to flow into Earth, merging with human desires, empowering the demons of Clifport once again.

Adults, children, the elderly—demons began to interact with human desires incessantly, leading to all sorts of societal evils emerging.

Mana flowing over to Earth mutated flora and fauna, giving rise to monsters.

Those who became part of Clifport’s demons degenerated into monsters.

Those who awaken mana become villains and cause crimes.

It is an era where various calamities of humanity are unfolding.

The saviors of humanity were magical girls, beings who most actively accepted the mana of the Cabala world and could wield powerful forces.

-The purer the girl, the more Cabala’s mana she could absorb and utilize.

In short.

Love, friendship, courage, hope.

The clearer and purer the body and soul untouched by the storms of the world, the more efficiently and massively they could absorb and utilize Cabala’s mana as their own.

Therefore.

Before becoming ‘adults’ as defined by society, girls are stronger as magical girls.

Like how a white flower petal is most beautiful before being tainted by people’s hands.

The more a girl just wants to receive her parents’ praise, the more she wants the attention of a boy her age whom she likes.

Such girls could absorb the mana coming from the Cabala world most efficiently.

Except for exceptions like me.

“Hey.”

I thrust the spear made of mana downwards lightly.

“Spider.”

“Kuh, hek, kikhek….”

The red girl, who had put saving people first, missed a spider monster that now stood in front of me, its head bowed.

“Is it okay to cause trouble in society like this?”

“T-This…!”

The spider monster looks up at me, trembling.

Trying to escape by riding a mountain, she happened to run into me, caught as she was fleeing, and was dragged into the barrier with only her torso remaining.

Legs?

Most of its legs have been torn off, leaving only the torso writhing on the ground, as if about to be crushed into paste.

“Hey. Do you think you can cross over to the other world by absorbing mana?”

“You, you don’t know! I will be reborn in Cabala! Into the new form I desire!”

“Oh, I see.”

Phew.

“You’re lying.”

“T-This…!”

“While the devils of Clifort whisper so sweetly, in the end…!”

“T-That old witch…!”

“……”

“Kikihit, not a magical girl, but an old hag…!”

Phewww.

“Ha.”

I threw a spear made of mana piercing through the torso of the spider monster.

“Not an old hag.”

Even though the body looks like this.

“If I were an old hag, I wouldn’t have killed you.”

I was once a man.

“Ha, damn. But, what should I do about that?”

I sighed involuntarily at the collapsed temporary shelter.

The shelter I had barely managed to set up after driving away the bear from the cave and lighting a fire was destroyed by the spider monster, making it impossible to enter.

“There’s nothing we can do.”

As I release the barrier, a helicopter passes overhead as if searching for something.

“We’ll have to find a new place to stay.”

After collecting my magic power, I descended down the mountainside as it was.