When you think of a Magical Girl anime, what comes to mind?
A sparkling heart-shaped magic wand?
A pink, magic-themed flash?
A cute mascot shaped like a keychain decoration?
Frilly designs of adorable outfits?
Well, none of those statements are wrong.
Anyway, the emphasized friendship between girls as they fight the monsters that appear.
If someone asks why these thoughts are coming up now…
Oh, hang on.
Let me have a moment of lamentation.
“Huh, dammit…”
Why? There’s a reason.
Because this is what my current life looks like now.
To explain how I ended up in this situation, I have to go back a bit in time.
…
I’ve always enjoyed watching manga or anime.
In this genre, there’s a story so overused that it’s almost laughable.
“Because you died accidentally…blah blah.”
“I’ll give you special powers…”
And all of that just feels so unrealistic.
It’s not something ordinary people could just agree to or handle coolly like protagonists in anime often do.
So, I just let the lengthy explanation go in through one ear and out the other.
“Instead, I’ll make sure you don’t die in my world! And make you the strongest!”
“Ah… go ahead, do as you please.”
The figure of God appeared as a child.
In this world’s setting, the world resembles the appearance and personality of its God.
That was exactly the case.
The immature child-like God made a mistake that day when I responded that way.
And now back to the present.
I’ve been transformed, through some magical settings, from an adult male to a girl without parents.
And my name, Kim Mari—a name that sounds great with tteokbokki.
“Ah, mom…”
“Sun! Don’t use bad words!”
The name of this girl who scolds me as Sun is Shiyeon.
This ‘Sun’ is how we address each other when we’re magical girls.
Anyway, the citizens supposedly all have face blindness, so it’s easy to pass by unnoticed.
But “mom” is a no-go, so how else should I put it?
“Dad…”
“That’s not allowed either!”
At her firm cry, I pondered.
Not allowed either?
Why?
Ah, that’s why, isn’t it?
Guessing the reason, I proudly said it out loud.
“Of course, since you don’t have a mom or dad, it makes sense that you can’t say it, right?”
“No-!”
The short roar of the silver-haired girl filled the apartment room.
This messed-up world has no sense of plausibility.
Two elementary students living in an apartment corner? Totally possible in this world.
And of course, the city can suddenly have monsters appear, which elementary-school-aged kids with mysterious powers transform to fight off.
The citizens have a face blindness disorder so severe that even a dot on the cheek would make them not recognize someone they just met.
Yet the magical girls somehow care about these details.
“Magical girls must be cute! Bad words are not allowed!”
There in front of me, Shiyeon strikes a pose.
She too, like me, is a victim of being forced into mandatory labor thanks to being a magical girl.
Her magical girl name is Moon, something related to the English word for moon.
“That’s right, Sun, it would be nice if you considered that.”
“Hey, didn’t I tell you how to speak?”
“I’m sorry. I got carried away… No, that’s right.”
This flying bear cub is a mentor and supervisor, or mascot, who sticks beside the magical girls.
Since it kept adopting rude tones, I slapped it around a few times, and now its behavior has improved, though occasionally reverts when around others.
We should’ve twisted its neck from the start when we met.
“Poor thing…”
“Yeah…”
Shiyean and her mascot feel sorry for the bear cub, but clearly, its tone needs correction.
There’s no issue with that other mascot over there.
Apparently, in me, it’s triggering something deep within, activating dormant male-related cells.
“Poor, my foot. Child labor exploitation is a crime, criminals.”
“Labor… exploitation?”
Shiyeon responds, not fully understanding my complex words.
With a serious face, I declare that such knowledge is too profound for her immature mind.
“You don’t need to know right now, young maiden.”
“But Sun is the same age…”
Ignoring her mild teasing, the destruction of monsters is ultimately Shiyeon’s job.
Even though this little bear holds the contract, if she simply says “I won’t do it,” they have no solution.
We’re equally in a complicated relationship of mutual dependence.
“Uh…uh…”
“Come on, try me.”
“A monster has… appeared.”
With the hesitant formalities from the bear cub’s fumbling mouth.
The alarm, a loud wailing, fills the apartment room.
The emergency alert indicating that a monster has appeared in the city center blares without warning.
This cursed alarm just keeps going on.
“Oh, come on. I said turn this off.”
“Automatic alarms are inevitable…”
“Fix this noisy bear toy now.”
It would be fine if it were daytime, but when this alarm goes off in the middle of the night while everyone’s sleeping…
It gets unbearably infuriating.
As curses escaped my lips, I readied the cane much like a summer patrol officer would a firearm.
“Well, it’s automatic…”
“Fix it, you useless bear doll!”
At least during the day, it’s bearable, but if this alarm sounds in the middle of the night when everyone’s asleep, the situation is beyond exasperating.
I opened a drawer and pulled out a black bandanna with holes riddled everywhere.
An essential item for magical girls, this bandanna hides our true identities!
It’s reversible, turning white when flipped.
“Prepared.”
“Sun, do you really need to bring that…?”
“Of course, Moon.”
With a solemn and dignified expression, we left the apartment.
In this world, no one bothers to complain about the blaring alarms—it’s simply accepted.
If it involves magical girls, pretty much anything gets overlooked.
How amazing is that?
Collapsed streets and buildings are restored overnight without workers even appearing.
When monsters magically appear, the people are already evacuated before the girls arrive, somehow!
The monsters wait patiently for the magical girls to show up, standing idly without harming a single person.
This gives us enough time to grab a snack from the fridge before heading out.
A dried cuttlefish I had started eating yesterday lay half-eaten and unsealed in the fridge.
Today’s snack is this.
“Sun! We need to go quickly!”
“Calm down, it’s fine.”
Chomp, chomp—the salty and chewy texture dances about my mouth.
Being a child has its good points with straightforward reactions to strong stimuli.
Anyway, even if we stroll from the apartment, the monster will be waiting patiently for us as always.
When we arrive, it’ll pretend to have just arrived and greet us with a rough laugh.
“Stop right there!”
“Kukukuku! So you’ve come….”
The monster suddenly doubted its own eyes, which until then it hadn’t questioned.
Turning its head at the defiant voice, the monster saw one figure, who appeared dressed as a magical girl, boldly yelling.
But the second figure…
The one who only seemed to be wearing a magical girl’s outfit was actually covered by a pitch-black bandanna with holes only for the eyes, visibly munching on something.
“…girl?”
“What the hell, what?”
The distorted sounds from under the bandanna clearly showed that yes, the person was munching on something.
She slammed her staff, adorned with a heart-shaped decoration, against the ground and unleashed a coarse curse.
She’s no ordinary individual. The monster, sensing this, grew furious that she would confront it in such a fashion.
Even if the girls were powerful beings meant to defeat them, they were still children.
“Didn’t my roar floor five magical girls just the other day?” it thought, and unleashed another fearsome roar.
“Devour me you shall, brat-!”
The monster’s presence was as formidable as always.
Perhaps the magical girl Moon was startled by this.
“Mu… Moon Power-!”
“Today’s lunch-? Ching-ching-ching, meat meat, wolf meat-♪”
The magical girl Sun saw this monster as less intimidating than a wild boar in the mountains.
Cheerful yet unsettling singing accompanied by the brilliant twirling of her magic staff began an impromptu beating show.
The power of the sun.
Worthy of her title as a magical girl called Sun, her magical staff contained the power of warmth.
However, that warmth, meant to save others, had long since been transformed into an instrument for post-battle torture.
The bipedal wolf monster, pummeled and sprawled on the ground.
Casually straddling its back, a girl twisted her leg, unmistakably using the cute-looking staff improperly.
“Uuugghhhh….”
“It’s hard with all this fur.”
“You… I will never…”
After enduring endless groans of pain, the monster tried to speak. The girl stopped her heating…no, her staff, momentarily to listen.
“Hmm?”
Its pitiful gaze reminded me of my dog from my past life, after making a mistake on the bed. I decided to hear its story.
“I will never come back here! Please have mercy…”
“Kid, don’t you dare state the obvious.”
Since you aren’t dying anyway, stop your dramatics.
She re-applied the staff, which she briefly removed to listen.
“Uaaaaaahh!”
“Sun…? That’s enough now…”
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