Teacher, I'm Actually a Villainous Magical Girl

"I remember the Black Death Cult being a far more impressive organization several centuries ago."

"You make it sound like you've seen the Black Death Cult from centuries ago..."

Sha Qina felt that this woman would always say something improper from time to time.

Still, the Black Death Cult truly was no longer at its peak. There were only three executives still active in public.

She mainly operated at headquarters, managing the organization and keeping track of its operating funds.

The other two executives were responsible for creating Monsters, absorbing people's emotions, and using them to create negative crystals for the leaders' resurrection.

That's right, "leaders."

At the center of this headquarters hall stood four statues hidden in deep shadow. These four were the leaders of the Black Death Cult, the Black Devil Kings.

At present, their goal was to revive one of the four of them first.

However, they had yet to create even a single Perfect Form Monster.

"So, you... Miss Haihara, right? How would you like to talk?"

Sha Qina rested both hands beneath her chin, her arms propped on the table, putting on the air of a working adult.

Hearing that question, Haihara slightly raised her neck and looked Sha Qina over with interest. Then she extended a slender, fair hand and curled her fingers.

Sha Qina froze for a moment, thought about it, then cautiously leaned her face over.

Then she rubbed her face against Haihara's hand.

"..."

Haihara looked utterly confused.

"What are you doing?"

"...Weren't you going to touch my face?"

Sha Qina blinked.

Haihara fell silent for a moment, then sighed.

She was starting to regret following this naïve idiot here.

"You have the thing used to make Monsters, right? Let me see it."

Haihara pinched Sha Qina's cheek and spoke coldly.

Sha Qina sat back awkwardly, gave two performative coughs, then looked toward the Monster underlings beside her and held out her hand.

A transparent crystal without any color was placed in her hand.

She handed the transparent crystal over to Haihara.

Haihara casually held the crystal between her fingers and played with it for a while.

"How do you make this thing?"

This transparent crystal was the embryo used to create Monsters. After continuously absorbing human emotions, it would gradually develop a glow until it took on color.

In the past, it would not have been easy for Haihara to obtain a crystal like this.

"Of course, with the power of the Demon Kings."

She looked toward one of the four statues in the center of the hall.

On one of the statues was a crystal emitting an unusual glow in the darkness, its appearance vastly different from an ordinary Monster Crystal.

It was a dark purple crystal engraved with a twisted, grotesque crescent moon.

Haihara glanced at that crystal as well.

She remembered it.

"Death Calamity Poison." That was the name the Magical Girl had given it, the Demon King Crystal that symbolized "Moon."

However, there was something strange about this memory.

Why had a Magical Girl been the one to name it?

Thinking that, Haihara continued fiddling with the transparent crystal, then gave it a shake—

"Simply put, we can cooperate."

As she shook it, the Magic Crystal went from transparent to gradually being tainted by black mist, until it was dyed a murky dark green.

Sha Qina stared at the sight blankly.

"And the terms of our cooperation are that I can help you create Monsters."

Haihara turned the faintly glowing crystal in her hand, then gripped it again.

"You don't need to worry about it ending up like the Thorn Monster before. That happened because it forcibly fused with a different type of crystal. But if the Sprout Form absorbs it from the very beginning..."

With a casual toss, she threw the dark green crystal into a Sprout Form minion.

Like this.

It was as though it had fallen into water. Ripples spread across the Monster's surface, as if it had absorbed the crystal. Then it convulsed, and its entire body began to change.

This transformation was unlike any of the previous kinds of Monsters. The other minion combatants were completely dumbfounded at the sight and shrank into the corner, trembling.

Sha Qina looked at her in disbelief.

"You... You're clearly a Magical Girl. Why can you create Monsters?"

This was clearly an ability granted to their Apostles by the Demon Kings.

Resting one hand against the side of her face, Haihara smiled for once.

"How do you think Monsters came to exist?"

In an empty clearing in the park, Kirishima Ai sat on a swing, staring at the dark green crystal in her hand.

It was a color she had never seen before, and the pattern on it was a Thorn Snake.

What exactly was this crystal...?

She looked at Takanashi Shiori, who was sitting on the swing beside her.

"Still haven't found anything about this crystal?"

Takanashi Shiori was flipping through a thick book that looked quite old, its pages tattered and yellowed.

"I think I've already guessed what it is. I just need to confirm it..."

Kirishima Ai, being an Earthling, did not actually know much about magic or Monsters. She needed Takanashi Shiori, who attended Witch Academy, to explain such matters.

After flipping through the book for a while, Takanashi Shiori sighed. Her tone lacked its usual ease.

"Though I don't want to believe it, it really is that thing."

"What is it...? Is it serious?"

Judging by her expression, Kirishima Ai had the feeling it was something bad.

Takanashi Shiori did not answer immediately. She merely held up the book for Kirishima Ai to see the illustration inside. It showed a dark green crystal, even in an extremely similar shade.

Beneath that crystal was a symbol Kirishima Ai had never seen before.

It was an intricate black ring, but upon closer inspection, one would realize it was an Ouroboros.

"I told you before, didn't I? Magic is divided into four types: Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, the four natural elements. Accordingly, Magical Girls are also divided into four categories."

Takanashi Shiori lowered the book and continued looking at the symbol on the page.

Kirishima Ai recalled the magical knowledge Takanashi Shiori had previously told her.

"I remember you saying there was also something called black magic."

Takanashi Shiori shook her head.

"Even black magic is merely the reverse side of the four elements. Fundamentally, there are still only four."

"However, around three hundred years ago, R'lyeh Kingdom gave birth to a genius Magical Girl."

She turned another page. On it was the image of a witch from a fairy tale, with long silver-gray hair and a beautiful yet mysterious face. She wore a long gown as black as the night sky.

Coiled around the witch was an eerie black snake that carried an evil aura.

"She was favored by every spirit in the world, a witch comparable to a god. Even the Queen of Magical Girls was overshadowed by her talent."

"Yet in her endless pursuit of power and forbidden knowledge, she lost herself. In secret, she conducted countless experiments that defied morality and human ethics, creating the forbidden fifth kind of magic: Snake."

"And thus, a new kind of crystal was born."

It was the thing Kirishima Ai held in her hand now.

"Snake" was an entirely new kind of magic created by fusing the four elements together, a power only that Magical Girl could wield.

"In the end, she even launched a rebellion against the Queen and R'lyeh Kingdom."

This fallen Magical Girl ultimately became an existence even more evil and dangerous than the Demon Kings.

Takanashi Shiori turned another page. It depicted the ending of that Magical Girl.

Under the Queen's leadership, the Magical Girls had joined forces to subjugate the witch. Among them were the witch's former friends and disciples.

In the end, under the Queen's miraculous magic, the witch was sealed away.

Even so, this fallen Magical Girl was recognized as the strongest Magical Girl in history.

When Takanashi Shiori was little, she had heard many fairy tales about that Magical Girl—

"And the name we call her is..."

She stroked the erased name in the book.

"Overlord, Lilith."

Student Council President

"Have you heard? That super idol, Tachibana Aeruru, has recently put her work on hold and is coming back to our school!"

"Huh? She was originally a student at our school?"

"I heard she's in Class Four, Year One. She only came to school for a few days when the term started, then she kept performing around the country."

"Really? Isn't she a huge celebrity? I remember she was called something like..."

"A star among stars among stars!"

Early that morning, Kaedehara High School had become rather noisy. It was even noisier than usual today. Even with teachers maintaining order, they could not suppress the students' endless whispered conversations.

Teacher Haihara sat at the front of the classroom as usual. No matter how noisy the classroom was, she simply looked through the roster in her hands.

The student everyone was eagerly discussing was Tachibana Aeruru from the Class Four she was in charge of.

She was also an active Magical Girl.

This one was an even bigger problem.

Tachibana Aeruru was the girl's stage name. Anyone could tell she was a teenage idol, and a very popular one at that, with considerable popularity among young people in Neon.

Naturally, this Problem Child had not affected Teacher Haihara's performance while she was away performing. But during the period right after school began, this brat had taken the word "trouble" to the absolute extreme.

Recently, this Problem Child was coming back.

Just thinking about it made Haihara feel that her future had grown a little dimmer.

Over the next few days, she needed to carefully consider how to deal with this Problem Child.

Then there were the other people in this school.

First was the leader of this group of Problem Children, Kirishima Ai, also known as Magical Girl Silver Feather.

Haihara calmly turned a page in the roster to Kirishima Ai's section.

Kirishima Ai. Her parents were divorced. She currently lived alone in a rented apartment not far from Kaedehara High School. Her living expenses came from money sent by her mother and the income from her part-time job. She seemed to have a younger sister in middle school, though her sister lived with their mother.

Her grades were usually excellent, consistently ranking near the top of the class. However, she was withdrawn and unpopular with the other students.

She seemed to have no friends and had never dated.

At present, she had the highest absentee rate.