No one understood her own brother's personality better than she did. Yuya was the kind of person 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 struck her. She felt as if she had been thrown into the air, then dropped back onto the ground.
What happened?
She looked around in confusion. There should have been plenty of people walking around inside the school, and plenty more outside heading off in all directions, but now, all of them had vanished.
Beneath the suddenly dimmed sky, she was the only person left in the entire school.
As if she had sensed something, a cold feeling shot up Ando Meiko's spine and into her brain. Before she could think, her body instinctively threw itself to the side.
Something pounced onto the spot where she had just been. It hit the ground with a violent tremor, then slid a long distance across the floor after missing its target.
When she turned around, she discovered that the creature attacking her was a wolf covered in blackish-purple fur.
The wolf clawed at the ground with all four limbs. Every time its sharp claws struck the cement floor of the campus, they left behind pale, ghastly scratches.
Only after it had completely canceled out its momentum did it turn to face Ando Meiko again.
Ever since a moment ago, she had felt something strange. The air around her seemed incredibly thick, making it hard for her to breathe.
[Master!]
A flash of red light passed through her hair, and Ruby's voice immediately entered Ando Meiko's mind.
She touched the source of light atop her head. The metallic feel confirmed it was indeed a hair clip. So Yuya hadn't imagined it earlier—the clip had been hidden before she noticed it.
It looked like Ruby had done that. Still, it had been a good thing.
[Ruby, where am I right now?]
[A Void Beast... I never expected Master to be dragged directly into the Void World.]
[Huh? But I was just walking normally a moment ago?]
[Anyway, I need to get there first. It seems leaving a mark on Master really was the right choice.]
[A mark?]
[The hair clip you're wearing. It's a magical mark that allows me to teleport one-way. But it's only one-way—once I arrive, I can't go back.]
[That's how you got to Nanako last time, right?]
[That's right. So, Master, hold out until I teleport over!]
[Huh? I-I have to stall for time?]
[D-Don't touch me, Nanako! Master is in serious danger! I need to hurry and—]
The communication cut off there. Their mental exchange had only taken a brief moment, but the Void Wolf had already regained its balance and lunged at her again.
"How am I supposed to stall it?!"
She rolled across the ground in a panic, dodging the Void Beast's second attack. Even though her school uniform was already covered in dirt, she scrambled to her feet and ran toward the school building.
Facing a huge, agile creature like this in an open space was practically suicide.
The Void Beast didn't give up after missing for the second time. It launched another attack at the fleeing Ando Meiko.
Fortunately, Ando Meiko's body had become small enough after turning into a girl. Just as the Void Wolf thought its third pounce would catch her, she ducked and slipped right under it.
Seeing the Void Beast pass over her head nearly scared her to death.
Her transformed body was even weaker than before. She practically crawled and stumbled while fleeing, but she still managed to run through the main entrance and into the school building.
The wolf pursuing her relentlessly crashed straight through the entrance. Lockers went flying with it, while shattered glass and bits of metal scattered all around her.
If those glass shards cut across her body with that kind of momentum, she wouldn't have doubted they could pierce straight through her or leave horrifying bloody gashes.
"Why are you chasing me so hard?! It's not like I taste good!"
Hiding in a classroom would be a dead end. The only way to stall for time was to run and circle around, so she searched for places that could stop the Void Wolf from charging while she fled.
Feeling the sound of something cutting through the air behind her, she hurried around a corner. The Void Beast slammed into the wall, only to be bounced back by it and knocked to the ground.
Human engineering really was reliable. That bought her plenty of time, allowing her to reach the stairs to the second floor and run upward.
Tired... So tired...
She had barely run a few steps, yet exhaustion was already washing over her.
It wasn't just the suffocating feeling caused by the thick air around her. The two heavy objects bouncing on her chest with every movement were constantly draining her stamina too.
"Ruby! Are you done yet?!"
She shouted furiously, but her momentary carelessness allowed the Void Beast, which had caught up to her, to tackle her from behind.
A sharp pain erupted across her back. Ando Meiko rolled across the floor before finally coming to a stop, but before she could get up, the Void Beast braced itself on all fours and stood atop her.
Drool dripped from the Void Wolf's jaw. The disgusting liquid fell onto her clothes, and the fabric of her school uniform began dissolving for no apparent reason.
The Void Wolf opened its enormous, blood-filled jaws, clearly intending to bite Ando Meiko's head clean off.
Volume One: How I Got Scammed into Becoming a Magical Girl — Chapter Sixteen: Just Shoot Something Out Already!
"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 the most critical moment, she had finally arrived.
"Blessing of Ruby! Radiant Stone Magical Girl, transform!"
An invincible transformation light effect appeared. The Void Beast pinning Ando Meiko down was blasted away by white light that swelled into a sphere, crashing through a window and falling from the second floor back to the first.
"With my current combat ability, there's no way I can beat it, right?!"
The moment she saw the Void Beast knocked back, she got up and ran. She didn't know where she should go, but she kept fleeing upstairs.
"Master, the magic power in the Void is too thick. As long as you move, the disturbed currents of magic power will become a map leading straight to you."
"I knew it. I've felt like I couldn't breathe since earlier."
If she couldn't beat it, couldn't she at least run?
Last time, she had used the gate-opening incantation Ruby gave her to escape Fault Space with Nanako. If she used it now, couldn't she escape directly?
It was such a simple idea, yet she had only just thought of it. She wanted to slap herself.
"May the sky bestow the pure gift of stars, may the earth bestow the exquisite miracle of gemstones, may the ocean bestow its ceaseless waterborn kin. Open—the Gate to the Mortal World."
As the incantation ended, a red heart separated from the wand. But instead of becoming a spatial vortex like last time, it simply exploded and vanished into nothingness.
Ando Meiko froze as she watched her skill fail to react at all.
"Master, with your current abilities, you can't accurately manipulate 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 defeat that giant wolf with a fruit knife?"
"The disturbed traces of magic power will soon be covered up 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 covered toilet seat, tightly gripping her magic wand as she listened for movement outside.
[Listen, Master. The defining trait of Sunstone-type Magical Girls is imagination. Both magic and outfits 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 was like last time, when Ando Meiko had clearly imagined a sharp sword, yet what appeared in her hand had been a fruit knife.
She had thought about it afterward and figured it might be because she had never actually 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, the sword she imagined had turned into the thing in her life that most resembled a sword.
"Imagine the process of gathering magic power and then releasing it. You can fire magical blasts based on that impression. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it—there has to be something similar in daily life that you can use as a reference!"
There were countless similar attack methods in anime, games, and novels, but she had never experienced them in real life. If she rashly used one of those methods, she would end up in the same embarrassing situation as Nanako.
What was similar to gathering magic power and releasing energy?
"A faucet?"
But faucets and water pipes didn't have any process of gathering magic power. You just opened the valve, and water immediately sprayed out.
A sudden tremor came from outside the door. The sound stopped her train of thought. Feeling danger close by, she focused nearly all her attention outside.
The Void Beast appearing here meant it had already traced her escape route, but her luck was still fairly good. Just before she was discovered, the magic power in the Void covered up the trail she had left behind.
[I hope this ends like this...]
[That's impossible, Master. You have to defeat it here.]
[Why?!]
[Normally, Magical Girls who are Ether Bodies possess resistance to the Void. But Master was casually dragged into the Void World. That means if you don't deal with this Void Beast, even if you escape, you might be dragged back here again at some unknown time.]
"Hiss..." Ando Meiko couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
When she had first been dragged into the Void, if she hadn't been lucky, she might have died in the surprise attack.
If escaping meant she would have to face being dragged into the Void World again, she couldn't accept that reality at all.
[I can't be the only one here, right? Where are the other Magical Girls? Why aren't they dealing with this thing?]
[This Void Beast is one of the lowest-level monsters. The others probably can't be bothered to act, and even if they ignore it, its weak magic power can't interfere with the Material World anyway.]
It couldn't interfere with the Reality World through magic power. In other words, this thing was originally just trash that could safely be ignored.
Ando Meiko didn't know what she had done wrong. Why was she the only one so unlucky that even a lowly nobody like this could casually drag her into the Void World?
[Wait, Ruby. You said this Void Beast is so weak that it can't even interfere with the Material World through magic power.]
[Yes. What is it, Master?]
[But it was able to drag the real me into the Void World.]
[I don't know whether that's truly the reason, but right now, it's the only possibility.]
[Then doesn't that mean every time I encounter a Void Beast, I'll be forcibly dragged into battle?]
[...]
Ruby fell silent. Her lack of an 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 didn't send those words to Ruby mentally—they slipped straight out of 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 had already crouched on the floor with her arms over her head.
The Void Beast smashed through the restroom door and every partition between the stalls. Above her head, its sharp claws swept past. The hair that hadn't lowered with her was severed the instant it touched those claws.
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 away and leaped out. She wanted to run, but where could she run to?
No matter how she ran, as long as she didn't defeat it, she might get dragged into the Void and beaten up even during class. If that was the case, she might as well deal with it right here!
The Void Beast lacked the strength to break through reinforced concrete. In other words, this cramped restroom had become a natural enclosure trapping the Void Beast. This was the perfect chance!
In that instant, her brain raced wildly through every method of releasing magic power she could think of.
Just as she was beginning to regret acting so tough, she suddenly spotted the women's restroom sign that had been knocked inside along with the door.
An idea suddenly flashed through her mind. The process of gathering magic power and releasing it—wasn't that like becoming a human-powered generator?
Not only had she encountered that in real life, she had personally experienced it! She could definitely imagine it perfectly! No—not just imagine it. She could do it!
Magic power gathered at the tip of her wand. 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 that much!"
"No, I can't hold it in anymore! I'm already at my limit! Just shoot something out already!!!"
The stream of magic power erupted. The magic gathered at the tip of the wand exploded in an instant, and the red torrent of light swallowed the entire restroom, turning everything inside to ash.
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