Magical Girl? I Got Tricked Into It!

She knew her own brother's personality better than anyone. Yuya was the type who couldn't stop once he started talking, so she hurried away before he could continue.

The moment she stepped out of the school gate, a sensation like weightlessness washed over her. It felt as though her entire body had been thrown into the air before landing back on the ground.

What happened?

Confused, she looked around. There should have been plenty of people walking through the school, and plenty more outside heading off in every direction. Yet now, all of them had vanished.

Beneath the sky that had suddenly dimmed, she was the only person left in the entire school.

As if sensing something, an icy chill shot up Ando Meiko's spine and into her brain. She had no time to think before her body instinctively threw itself to the side.

Something pounced onto the spot where she had just been standing. Its landing caused a violent tremor, and having missed its target, it skidded across the ground for quite a distance.

Only when she turned around did she realize that the creature that had attacked her was a wolf entirely blackish-purple in color.

The wolf clawed at the ground with all four limbs. Every time its sharp claws touched down, they left pale scratches across the campus's concrete pavement.

Only after it had completely canceled out its momentum did it turn to face Ando Meiko again.

Since earlier, she had felt something strange. The air around her seemed to have become incredibly thick, making it difficult for her to breathe.

[Master!]

A red light flashed through her hair, and Ruby's voice immediately rang in Ando Meiko's mind.

She touched the source of the light on her head. The metallic feel confirmed it—it really was the hairclip. So Yuya had not been imagining things earlier. The hairclip had been concealed before she noticed it.

It looked like Ruby had done it. Still, it had indeed been a good thing.

[Ruby, where am I right now?]

[A Void Beast... I never expected you to be pulled directly into the Void World, Master.]

[Huh? But I was just walking along normally!]

[Anyway, I need to get over there first. It seems leaving a mark on you was the right decision after all.]

[A mark?]

[The hairclip you're wearing. It's a magic mark that lets me teleport one-way. But it's only one-way—once I arrive, I can't go back.]

[That was how you came over during Nanako's incident, right?]

[That's right, so hold out for a while until I teleport over, Master!]

[Huh? M-Me, hold out?]

[D-Don't grab me, Nanako! Master is in serious danger right now! I need to hurry and—]

The communication cut off there. Their mental exchange had lasted only a short time, and the Void Wolf, now steady on its feet, lunged at her again.

"How am I supposed to stall it?!!!"

She rolled across the ground in a panic to evade the Void Beast's second attack. Though her school uniform was already covered in dirt, she flipped herself back up and ran for the school building.

Facing a huge, agile creature like this in an open area was practically suicide.

The Void Beast did not give up after missing its second pounce. It launched another attack at the fleeing Ando Meiko.

Fortunately, Ando Meiko's body was small enough after becoming a girl. Just as the Void Wolf thought its third pounce would finally catch her, she neutralized it simply by ducking down.

The sight of that Void Beast's head sweeping over her nearly scared her to death.

Her transformed body was even weaker than before. As she fled, she was practically scrambling on all fours, but she still managed to rush through the main entrance and into the school building.

The wolf that relentlessly pursued her smashed straight through the doors. Glass and metal from the lockers scattered around her.

If those glass fragments, still carrying that momentum, had sliced across her body, she had no doubt they could have pierced straight through her or left terrifying bloody gashes.

"Why are you chasing me so hard?! I don't even taste good!"

Hiding in a classroom would be a dead end. The only way to buy time was to run and circle around, so as she fled, she looked for places that could keep the Void Wolf from charging her.

Feeling the sound of something tearing through the air behind her, she quickly rounded a corner. After slamming into the wall, the Void Beast was actually bounced back by it and knocked onto the floor.

Human engineering was surprisingly reliable. That bought her plenty of time, allowing her to reach the stairs to the second floor and run straight upward.

Tired... So tired...

She had barely run a few steps, yet exhaustion had already swept over her.

It was not only the suffocating sensation caused by the thick air around her. The two heavy objects on her chest, swaying with every movement, were constantly draining her stamina too.

"Ruby! Are you done yet, damn it?!"

She shouted in frustration, but her momentary carelessness allowed the Void Beast, which had already caught up, to pounce on her from behind.

Pain exploded across her back. Ando Meiko rolled across the floor and barely managed to stop, but before she could get up, the Void Beast braced itself on all fours and stood on top of her.

Drool dripped from the Void Wolf's jaw. When the disgusting liquid landed on her clothes, the fabric of her school uniform inexplicably began to dissolve.

The Void Wolf opened its enormous maw, clearly intending to bite Ando Meiko's head clean off in one bite.

Volume One: The Story of How I Was Tricked into Becoming a Magical Girl: In Short, Shoot Something Out!

"Master! I'm here!" In the next instant, red light flashed in her hand as Ando Meiko tightly gripped the necklace Ruby had transformed into.

At this most crucial moment, she had finally arrived.

"Blessing of Ruby, Radiant Gem Magical Girl, transform!"

The invincible transformation light effect appeared. The Void Beast pinning Ando Meiko down was blasted away by the white light swelling into a sphere, smashing through a window and falling from the second floor back to the first.

"With my current fighting ability, there's no way I can deal with it, right?!"

The moment she saw the Void Beast get knocked back, she was already on her feet and fleeing. She had no idea where she should run, but she kept escaping higher up the building.

"Master, the magic power in the Void is too dense. As long as you move, the disturbed streams of magic power will become a map that exposes your trail."

"I knew I'd felt like I couldn't breathe since earlier."

If she could not win, could she not just run?

Last time, she had used the gate-opening incantation Ruby gave her to escape Fault Space with Nanako. If she used it now, could she not leave directly?

She could not believe she had only thought of something so simple now. She wanted to slap herself.

"The sky grants the pure gift of stars, the earth grants the exquisite miracle of radiant gems, the ocean grants the endless kinship of water. Open, Gate to the Mortal World."

As the incantation ended, a red peach-shaped heart separated from the wand. But rather than turning into a spatial vortex as it had last time, it simply exploded and vanished.

Seeing her skill produce no response at all, Ando Meiko froze where she stood.

"Master, with your current abilities, you cannot precisely control magic power under the Void Beast's influence. Unless you shake it off, there's no way to escape from here."

"But even if I don't run, I don't have any attack skills! How am I supposed to beat that giant wolf with a fruit knife?"

"The traces left in the displaced magic power will soon be covered again. For now, find somewhere to hide."

Hide? That sounded great!

Following Ruby's advice, she ran into the third-floor restroom. After closing every door, she sat on a lidded toilet, tightly clutching her magic wand as she listened to the sounds outside.

[Listen, Master. The defining trait of Radiant Gem magical girls is imagination. Whether it's magic or outfits, both can be created through imagination.]

[Imagination? Even if you suddenly tell me that, I have no idea how to do it when I've never tried it!]

It was like last time, when Ando Meiko had clearly imagined a sharp sword, but what appeared in her hand had been a fruit knife.

Afterward, she had thought about it and figured that perhaps it was because she had never encountered a real sword.

The only kinds of knives she had encountered in daily life were fruit knives and kitchen knives. If she was right, then the sword she imagined had turned into the thing most similar to a sword that she had encountered in real life.

"Imagine the process of gathering magic power and then releasing it. You can fire a magical energy cannon through that impression. It's fine if you don't understand—there must be something similar in your life that you can use as a point of reference!"

There were plenty of similar attack methods in anime, games, and novels, but she had never encountered them in reality. If she rashly used one, she would end up in the same predicament as she had with Nanako.

What was similar to the process of gathering magic power and releasing energy?

"A faucet?"

But faucets and water pipes did not have any process of gathering magic power. They simply sprayed water the moment the valve was opened.

A sudden vibration came from outside the door. The sound interrupted her thoughts, and sensing danger nearby, she focused nearly all her attention outside.

The Void Beast appearing here meant it had already tracked her escape route. But she was fairly lucky—the magic power in the Void covered her magical trail just before she was discovered.

[I hope this ends like this...]

[That's impossible, Master. You have to defeat it here.]

[Why?!]

[Normally, magical girls as Ether Bodies possess resistance to the Void. But you were pulled into the Void World so easily, Master. That means if you do not deal with this Void Beast, then even if you manage to leave, you might be dragged back here again at some unknown time.]

Ando Meiko could not help drawing in a sharp breath at those words.

When she had just been dragged into the Void, if she had not been lucky, she might have been killed by that sneak attack.

If escaping like this meant risking being dragged into the Void World again, she simply could not accept that reality.

[There should be more than just me here, right?! What about the other magical girls? Why aren't they coming to deal with this thing?]

[This Void Beast is one of the lowest-ranking monsters. The others probably cannot be bothered to act, and even if they leave it alone, it cannot interfere with the Mortal World through its weak magic power.]

It could not interfere with the real world through magic power. That meant this thing was originally just worthless fodder that could be ignored.

Ando Meiko had no idea what she had done wrong. Why was she the only one this unlucky, to the point that even a mere fodder monster could casually drag her into the Void World?

[Wait, Ruby. You said this Void Beast is so weak it can't even interfere with the Mortal World through magic power.]

[Yes, what is it, Master?]

[But it can pull the real-world me into the Void World.]

[Though I don't know whether that is truly the reason, it is currently the only possibility.]

[Does that mean every time I encounter a Void Beast, I'll be forcibly dragged into battle?]

[...]

Ruby fell silent. Her refusal to answer meant Ando Meiko's guess was probably right.

"How can this be?!"

The thought of her completely ruined future life threw her mind into chaos. She did not send those words to Ruby mentally; they slipped straight from her mouth.

"Crap—"

[Master, get down!]

By the time she realized the problem, it was already too late. The instant she received Ruby's warning, she crouched down on the floor with her head covered.

The Void Beast smashed through the restroom door and every divider between the stalls. Its sharp claws swept over her head, severing some of the hair that had not managed to duck down with her the moment it touched them.

That was precious hair! The most precious hair I had after becoming a girl!

Using the trail left by the Void Beast's charge, she immediately rolled and leaped away. She wanted to run, but where could she run to?

No matter how she ran, if she did not defeat it, she might be dragged into the Void and beaten senseless even during class. If that was the case, she might as well deal with it here!

The Void Beast did not have enough power to break through reinforced concrete. In other words, this cramped restroom had become a natural cage for the Void Beast. This was the perfect opportunity!

In that instant, her mind raced wildly as she went through every method of releasing magic power she could think of.

Just as she began to regret acting so boldly, she spotted the women's restroom sign that had been smashed inside along with the door.

An idea suddenly flashed through her mind. The process of gathering magic power and releasing magic power—wasn't that the same as becoming a human generator?!

Not only had she encountered that in real life, she had even experienced it personally. She could definitely imagine it perfectly! No—it was something she could do!

Magic power gathered at the tip of the wand, and as the magic power within her drained away, exhaustion surged over her all at once.

"Master, wait, that's too much! Too much! You won't be able to handle this much!"

"I can't, I can't hold it in anymore! I'm at my limit! Just shoot something out already!!!"

The stream of magic power erupted. The magic power gathered at the tip of the wand exploded in an instant, and the red torrent of light flooded the entire restroom, reducing everything inside to ashes.