Becoming a Magical Girl!

(Bai Ziye)

With a complicated expression, she spoke awkwardly.

"Yezi, can I come inside before we talk?"

The corner of my mouth twitched uncontrollably.

The utterly classic pink magical girl standing before me was obviously A-Yao.

It made perfect sense.

Under normal circumstances, after something like that happened, he would basically be unable to live as a normal person anymore. It was even worse than having someone steal his identity. Even if no laws existed to punish him, he would still suffer the cold violence of society as a whole.

After all, footage of that battle was still posted on the Association's website. The Association had blurred A-Yao's face, but they hadn't during the livestream. That idiot's face had long since spread all over the internet, and there was also the news that Heat Haze could no longer fight...

By tomorrow morning, unscrupulous reporters and enraged young people would probably be blocking the entrance to his apartment building.

At first glance, A-Yao could only choose to flee overseas and go into exile, or go to prison and spend the rest of his life there to quell the public's anger.

Either way would be miserable. His life would be over before it had really begun.

But in reality, those weren't his only two options.

It was simple.

He just had to abandon his current identity and become someone else entirely.

And in fact, that was exactly what he had chosen.

I didn't know what had happened, but A-Yao had become a magical girl too. She probably wouldn't—and couldn't—change back for quite some time, at least not until this public uproar died down.

I sorted through everything in just a few seconds.

But...

"Excuse me, who are you? Do we know each other?"

I couldn't let on that I knew she was A-Yao.

Even if I learned the truth later, I would have to act extremely surprised.

Otherwise, it would seem as though I had already known that men could become magical girls too.

Then more and more secrets might be exposed, and I absolutely couldn't let that happen.

So please allow me to proceed with this cliché development.

"Could you not call me so affectionately? Miss, uh, cosplay enthusiast? Did you get the wrong door? I didn't order that kind of service. And my name is Ziye, not Yezi. They do sound a little alike, but did you mistake me for someone else?"

"Huh!? No, I'm not that kind of... Ah, how should I put this... Of course I'd find this confusing too..."

The pink magical girl stammered out disjointed words, then looked around at the hallway. There was no one there for now, but she still looked awkward, unable to express what she wanted to say.

Honestly, her flustered reaction was kind of amusing.

After hesitating for a while, she finally clenched her fists. Her small face was determined as she lifted her head and met my eyes.

So cute!

Even knowing she was A-Yao, I still felt as though an electric shock had hit me straight in the heart.

She narrowed her eyes and shouted, "Anyway, Bai... Bai Ziye!"

"Uh, yes!"

"Let... let me inside first!"

But after that first word left her cute voice, all of her determination dissolved into embarrassment, and she became awkward again.

I understood. It was hard to get used to being a girl at first.

"Then come in. If anything happens, I'll call the police."

"Don't call the police!"

She hurriedly shoved me into the apartment and shut the door behind us.

Right now, I couldn't match the strength of a magical girl like her.

"Yezi, listen to me... Actually, I'm... I'm A-Yao!"

"Really? I don't believe you."

"What are you, a perch or something!?"

She angrily grabbed at my collar, but she wasn't used to her body's center of gravity and toppled forward, pinning me to the sofa.

A soft pressure pressed against my chest.

Th-this was some harem anime's standard trope, wasn't it?

Still, she was huge.

Much bigger than when I was Miluno.

Not only big, but soft too. A-Yao had become a girl who looked like she was made of marshmallows and cuteness, completely opposite to Miluno—me.

At such close range, she was the first to lower her head in embarrassment.

"Miss, aren't you being a little too forward? I'm really going to call the police."

"Don't! Sorry, I didn't mean to knock you over... But I really am A-Yao... Oh, right! Yezi, look closely!"

She hastily apologized, then ran over to draw the living room curtains. She stood before me and reached toward her collar.

A pink, heart-shaped glow flashed around her body. In the blink of an eye, she changed back into the familiar chubby, pale A-Yao.

He held a pink Star Crystal in his hand.

"Yezi?"

"..."

I stood there with my mouth open, pretending to be too shocked to speak.

"Did that stun you stupid? You believe me now, right!?"

"...My best buddy became a magical girl. Emotionally, I'm having trouble accepting it. So magical girls aren't necessarily transformed from girls?"

I was asking even though I already knew.

"Don't worry, most of them are women. I'm part of the small minority of exceptions. Not only can men become magical girls, even animals can become magical girls."

After explaining, he resonated with the Star Crystal again and returned to his magical girl form.

"Then where did you get that Crystal? Do you know people online are cursing you out like crazy?"

"The Association gave me the Crystal. My resonance rate with it was pretty high, so they asked whether I wanted to take responsibility and fill the vacancy left by Miss Heat Haze. I accepted without even thinking about it... As for what's happening online, I know all about it. That's why I came back looking like this."

Wait, something seemed to click into place.

So the newcomer Luer had mentioned was A-Yao?!

"So you don't plan on changing back?"

"Not for now. Not until I pay back the debt I owe."

She was serious. A-Yao had always been carefree and thoughtless, but I could hear her resolve in those words, as well as her guilt toward Heat Haze.

What happened today had made her grow up a little.

As the saying went, an elder brother was like a father. Dad was very pleased.

"A magical girl's identity is supposed to be secret, right? Is it okay for you to come back and tell me?"

She sat beside me, fidgeting awkwardly.

"Normally it should be kept secret, but you're special, Yezi. After all... you're the only person I can rely on."

If it weren't A-Yao, but a normal girl saying that to me, this would have entered a romance route.

"Well, what are you going to do now?"

"My address has already been dug up. Someone might come over to harass me these next couple of days, so..."

She poked her fingers together and pleaded pitifully, "...Can I stay at your place for a while?"

She couldn't go back next door.

If I agreed, it would become inconvenient for me to carry out activities as the magical girl Miluno.

But if I refused, she would become suspicious immediately.

"Then stay. Why be so polite? Haven't you spent the night here plenty of times since we were kids?"

"But things are different now!"

She pressed a hand against her rather springy, ample chest and tried her best to sound imposing. "I'm not only a cute girl now, I'm also a magical girl! Yezi, you're going to be living with a magical girl! Why aren't you happy at all?"

She sounded like a little lamb, and her voice was soft and sweet. There was really no intimidation to it.

"...Come on, it's not like I'm some magical girl fanatic. And to me, no matter what you become, you're still my best buddy A-Yao, right?"

Besides, I had already been "living together" with a magical girl before this.

With the magical girl Miluno...