Magical Girl? I Got Tricked into It!

"Then let me handle it, cutie. You won't blame your big sister for stealing your prey, will you?"

Ando Meiko shook her head and stuck out her tongue at her. "As if I'd dare. If you hadn't stepped in, I'd probably have already been squeezed out."

"You really are a funny little newbie. I like you. Don't worry, big sis will look after you this time."

As they spoke, the Void King Serpent, which had been repelled by the samurai contracted beast, raised its head again. Black flames erupted from its body, while its scarlet eyes flickered with fire.

The cooked duck had actually flown away after being ambushed... It was obvious the Void King Serpent was furious enough to explode its own weak point.

"Even for a Void King Serpent, it seems an attack of that level isn't enough to take it down easily."

The purple-haired girl lowered her right hand into her skirt and pulled a purple wand from a girl's absolute territory.

Th-That thing... had she conjured it, or was it stuffed in there?

Seeing that absurd sight, Ando Meiko simply could not suppress her urge to comment.

She pointed the wand forward at her humanoid figure and muttered a spell so quietly that even Ando Meiko behind her could not hear it. "Anti-Magic Enhancement. Speed Enhancement."

Two successive beams of light shot from the tip of the wand and entered the samurai's body through its back.

The moment the Void King Serpent attacked, the humanoid abruptly raised its helmet-covered head. The next instant... it vanished from where it stood.

From Ando Meiko's perspective, by the time the samurai humanoid reappeared, it was already in front of the Void King Serpent's head.

"His sword... was sheathed?"

The samurai gripped the sword that had somehow been returned to its scabbard in his right hand, then drew it at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow. The shrieking blade seemed to possess the power to cut through anything that stood in its path.

Afterimages and cold flashes crossed with the Void King Serpent. When the samurai appeared again, he was already behind the Void King Serpent.

Ignoring the motionless Void King Serpent, he merely shook the black flames from his blade before returning it to its sheath with a clang.

The Void King Serpent, whose body seemed frozen solid, finally moved.

The next moment, an enormous amount of Demonic Aether burst from a point about three inches below its head as if blood were gushing out. Its head slowly separated from its body before falling to the ground with a thunderous crash.

Ando Meiko swallowed as she stared at the smooth cut at the severed joint.

Though the purple-haired girl had given the Void King Serpent two buffs, she had truly killed the beast that had nearly scared Ando Meiko breathless with a single strike.

That was way too strong, wasn't it?

She could not help but marvel inwardly.

Could it be that every Magical Girl except me has this kind of strength? Being a newbie is way too humiliating. Forget a newbie bonus—I didn't even get a tutorial.

"We met by chance, so how about being friends? What's your name?"

"My name is..." Before Ando Meiko could say it, Ruby promptly reminded her.

[Master, when a Magical Girl is asked her name while transformed, don't give your real name. Use an alias or codename.]

Different Magical Girls belonged to different factions. Considering that she was a Sunstone-type Magical Girl, Ando Meiko decided to use Ruby as her codename.

Ruby was the foreign name for the gemstone. Maybe this little fellow's name had been transliterated from it. If so, then Ruby should be my codename.

"My name is Ruby."

"Ruby, not bad. I'm Xiphias."

[Huh?]

[What is it, Ruby? Is there something strange about her name?]

[Her name means swordfish. A sword... It suits her contracted beast pretty well.]

[Tch, that's it? Don't suddenly speak up and scare me for no reason.]

Exchanging names made them friends for the time being, right? But could a bottom-tier Magical Girl like her really hope to befriend such an unattainable beauty?

"All right. Though the Void King Serpent has been defeated, this place is already contaminated by Demonic Aether, so I still need to deal with it. Ruby, you should head back on your own."

"Okay." Ando Meiko answered. Just as she tried to stand, her legs buckled and her whole body lost balance.

Her head seemed to hit somewhere incredibly soft, soft enough to make her entire body relax.

When Xiphias leaned her head closer, Ando Meiko somehow thought she could faintly hear hurried breathing coming from her mouth.

"Oh my, cutie, how could you be so careless?"

"Sorry... My body feels a little weak." In front of someone who truly possessed strength, she could not help feeling inferior.

After steadying herself, she hurriedly pulled away from Xiphias's embrace and barely managed to stand.

"It's all right. You should hurry home. With your current strength, staying in Demonic Aether too long could get you into trouble." Xiphias smiled and shook her head, then waved her wand and opened a door back to the Material World for Ando Meiko.

"Thank you." After solemnly thanking her once more, Ando Meiko left through the door Xiphias had opened.

[She really was a strange person.]

[Magical Girls are all a little strange in one way or another, Master. Don't worry about it.]

[I suppose that's true.]

Volume One: The Story of How I Got Tricked into Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter Twenty-Five: It'd Be a Shame If She Didn't Become a Detective

"Wait! Aren't you just saying I'm strange?"

I was supposed to be a boy, but I turned into a girl. That was strange too. So did that mean I was also a strange Magical Girl?

Xiphias had thoughtfully opened the door somewhere deserted. Though rather than that, it was more accurate to say that everyone in the amusement park had long since fled because of the Ferris wheel incident.

She canceled her transformation. Behind a tree serving as cover, her body turned into aether until she changed from her loli form back into Ando Meiko.

"It's time to head back. Nanako and Fuko should be waiting for me."

She did not linger at the amusement park and left. When Fuko and the others saw Ando Meiko emerge from the main entrance, they ran over in concern.

"Meiko, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Behind her, the mother and child she had saved also came over to thank her.

"Big sister! Thank you!"

"It's all right. As long as you're okay."

Without bothering her further, the frightened mother and child quickly left after waiting for their savior to emerge and thanking her.

Watching their retreating backs, Ando Meiko revealed a smile she herself did not notice.

Hadn't that been her original intention? She had simply wanted to save people for the sake of saving them, regardless of her identity or beliefs.

But what did it feel like to be thanked by someone she had saved?

Only now did she understand that perhaps it was not vanity at all. Such gratitude was enough to awaken the most original and purest conscience within a person's heart.

Perhaps from now on, she would have to reconsider her decision not to fight.

Even so, she still did not want to involve herself in battles... After all, not only were other people's lives precious, she believed her own life was just as precious.

But before that...

[All right, all right, don't be mad, Ruby.]

That idiot Ruby had been angry ever since she returned from the void. Every now and then, she would huff in Meiko's head for no reason, making sure her presence was felt.

Still, Meiko could not blame her. She had promised to let Ruby out to play for a while, and Ruby had kept her end of the deal by staying quietly inside all morning.

This sudden incident had ruined their plans to have fun together, so it was natural that she was unhappy.

[Actually, I was planning to give you a present as compensation.]

[Huh?]

[That plushie. Why do you think I shot down three of them? One was for you.]

[Huh! Huh!!! R-Really?]

[Of course it's true. Why would I lie about something like that?]

[Master is so nice. Hehe, thank you, Master. So Master really does care about me.]

Her change of expression was far too fast to praise. Of course, Ando Meiko had only shot down three plushies because she had three bullets left.

Besides, she had not originally planned to give the third plushie to anyone. Still, peacefully settling things with Ruby was great.

She would treat this as a secret to take to her grave.

"At an amusement park where accidents had never occurred before, a Ferris wheel destruction incident suddenly took place. As can be seen in the footage, the Ferris wheel's load-bearing axle abruptly snapped, and the excessive force crushed and warped even the metal used to construct it."

Less than two hours after she returned home, the television stations were already reporting on the Ferris wheel incident that had just occurred.

The incident seemed to have been handled as an accident. Fortunately, no one had died, and most of the injured had merely suffered scrapes from accidentally falling while fleeing.

The entire sequence, beginning with the Ferris wheel's load-bearing axle breaking, had been recorded by a cellphone camera from afar. However, it had not captured Ando Meiko's heroic deeds.

That was a good thing for her. She had not saved anyone to become famous. If she had been recorded and people discovered her existence... she did not want her daily life to become any more chaotic.

Ando Meiko got up and walked toward the entryway, where she happened to run into Fuko returning to the living room from the bathroom.

"What's wrong? Going out?"

"Yeah, I'm going for a walk. I'll be back before dinner. Please watch the house, Fuko."

"Okay. Be careful on the way." I said I was going for a walk, but I actually had nowhere to go.

Perhaps she had developed muscle memory from walking this route so often. Though she had only planned to take a stroll, before she knew it, she had arrived at her school.

Why were there so many people here?

It was a holiday, and it was almost dinner time, yet the entire school was still filled with students' laughter. That in itself was strange.

Was there some special event today? Or had I remembered the vacation dates wrong?

With that curiosity in mind, Ando Meiko walked toward the school gate.

"Excuse me, miss, are you here to see someone?" When an unfamiliar girl attempted to enter the school, the security guard promptly stopped her outside.

"Ah, um, I'm a student here. I was passing by and saw so many people, so I wanted to take a look inside."

She looked down at herself and only then realized why the guard had refused to let her in.

She was not wearing her uniform...

"I'm sorry, but without proof, even if you attend this school, I can't let you in."

"I see. Then all right." She did not insist. It did not matter to her whether she went in or not; she had only wanted to look because she happened to pass by.

"Wait." Just as she was about to leave, a familiar voice made her turn around instinctively.

"Rei... Rei?" The person who had called out to her was Nakajima Rei.

"Would this count as proof?" Rei showed the guard the card in her hand. After taking it and giving it a glance, the guard stepped aside from the entrance.

"Of course it does. Please go on in, miss."

Ando Meiko had no idea why Rei had appeared before her so conveniently, nor why Rei had brought her inside.

"All right, now that guard won't stop you. Come in."

"Oh... okay. Th-Thanks for the trouble."

But as she followed behind Nakajima Rei, Ando Meiko did not dare ask anything.

"The thing I showed the guard was a note our homeroom teacher wrote for me. I finally found you, Ando Meiko."

"Huh... Me? Do we know each other?" The moment Rei called her by name, Meiko was startled. She wanted to stay calm, but could not calm down at all.

Putting aside the fact that Ando Koichi had been rejected three times after confessing, Ando Meiko had never had any contact with Nakajima Rei since entering the school.

How... did she know me?

"Of course we don't know each other. You're my partner, right? So I asked your homeroom teacher. She described what you looked like in detail, so when I saw you here, I knew it was you."

"Huh? That's impressive."

There had to be at least two thousand people in this school. Identifying the right person solely from a homeroom teacher's description was far too impressive.

It would be a real shame if she did not become a detective.

Volume One: The Story of How I Got Tricked into Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter Twenty-Six: Practice for the Rally