Magical Girl? I Got Set Up, Okay!

After noticing that Ando Meiko had already gone far ahead, Yuya came back to his senses and hurried after her. "Meiko, hey, wait for me."

No matter what kind of event it was, the speeches from the leaders before the opening ceremony were always the most boring part.

No matter how long the principal and teachers droned on up there, it was basically all about carrying forward the school's fine traditions and how their school was full of good students. In short, it could all be summed up in one word: boasting.

The speech had only gone on for five minutes, but to the students waiting beneath the stage, it felt as though five centuries had passed.

That was enough time for Ando Meiko to get through several routes in a dating sim.

If she had not known what her homeroom teacher, Ms. Ci, was capable of—and if she were not currently playing the role of a well-behaved girl—she would have skipped the school festival assembly and hidden at home until it was nearly over before coming back.

[Ruby, do you have any way to help me pass the time? It's so boring here.]

[I do! I have a hundred-thousand-word love confession. How about I read it to you, Master? That way, you can truly feel my endless love for you, as vast and surging as the tides.]

[Forget it. I'll listen to the speech.]

What if she could not hold it in during the assembly and did something violent, like smashing the necklace?

After suffering through half an hour, the endless speech was finally over... But that was not a problem for Ando Meiko, because the person she liked was standing right beside her.

Before the school festival officially began, the students who had drawn the three-legged race were led by their teachers to the track to prepare.

"Meiko, I'm tying us together now."

"Thanks." She lined up her foot with Rei's, side by side, and let Rei bind them together with a rope.

After moving around a little and jogging forward a few steps as practice and a warm-up, she said, "All right, I've completely got the feel for it."

"That was fast."

"Because we don't have much time left. Let's do our best. Our goal is to bring home first place."

Rei was really way too optimistic.

Ando Meiko did not remember agreeing on that goal with her.

Still, since Rei had said so, she would aim for first place. After all, half of her body was not human anymore. Once she got used to it, sports should be easy enough.

The starting pistol fired, and the race began.

In order to gain an advantage at the start, Ando Meiko wanted to pull ahead as much as possible in the opening stretch. She had simply forgotten to tell Rei about that beforehand.

Rei, who was moving steadily to match her pace, and Ando Meiko, who was taking bigger strides to gain an advantage, clashed the moment they started.

Their movements threw each other off balance, and before they could even take a single step from the starting line, they fell over.

"All right, with the sound of the starting pistol, all contestants have begun moving. Oh? The two contestants in lane three have actually made a mistake right from the start!"

"Sorry..."

"It's okay, Meiko. That was only the start. We still have a chance!"

"You're... right." Encouraged by Rei, she quickly got back up. Coordinating their movements, they began to accelerate.

"One, two, one, two, one, two..."

Remembering yesterday's practice, their rhythm grew better and better. Their movements became faster and faster, eventually surpassing the speed of an individual jogging alone.

"The contestants in lane three have pulled themselves together, and they're so fast! They've overtaken the students in lanes one and four in an instant! They haven't stopped—they're still accelerating! At this rate, is this dark horse going to make a comeback from behind?"

Everyone watched the two girls who had made a mistake at the very beginning, only to adjust themselves and start tearing through the competition.

But the two of them had focused almost all their attention on matching each other's rhythm. They were so concentrated that they did not even hear the cheers around them.

On the short two-hundred-meter track, Ando Meiko and Rei sped past one competitor after another.

"Go! Go!"

"Go, you two big sisters who fell down!"

Amid the waves of encouragement, they charged across the finish line... Unfortunately, they ultimately came in second by a narrow margin.

"Sorry." Because her mistake had prevented them from achieving the placing Rei had hoped for, Ando Meiko apologized for losing her composure once again.

If Ando Meiko had communicated with Rei beforehand, they would not have stumbled right out of the gate... Besides, with their performance, they could have easily taken first even without rushing for an early lead.

"You don't need to apologize. We already did our best. We were just a little unlucky."

By around ten o'clock, the kickoff assembly came to a perfect close.

The members of each class dispersed and returned to their respective posts, marking the true beginning of the school festival.

Rei had activities to handle in her own class, so after the dismissal, she said goodbye to Ando Meiko and left the field with her classmates.

Ando Meiko, who had nothing scheduled, planned to wander around for a while before going back.

"Found~ you~ Meiko!"

The hug from behind felt incredibly familiar. Just from that soft touch alone, she knew who was sneaking up on her.

"Fuko?"

"Surprised? Caught off guard? I came all this way specifically to see you."

"Big Sister Meiko, Big Sister Meiko! There are so many people here! This is so fun!"

"Nanako came too?" This was the first time the little evil goddess had been brought somewhere with so many people to play. It was far livelier than the amusement park during the previous workday.

Nanako's curious, sparkling-eyed expression made Ando Meiko rub her forehead in frustration.

It looked like she would not be able to get through this school festival peacefully.

About How I Got Set Up as a Magical Girl: What Kind of Love Rival Battlefield Is This?

With so many troubling things happening lately, Ando Meiko had been unable to think clearly. She had even forgotten that the school festival was open to the public.

If she had just told Fuko and arranged to meet at school, she would not have been startled like this.

"Meiko, who was that person just now?"

"You mean the girl who was talking to me? Her name is Nakajima Rei. I guess you could call her my friend."

"Huh? A friend? It looked like you two were pretty close."

"Our relationship... is all right, I guess."

Fuko's puffed-up expression was cute, but Ando Meiko had no idea what she had done to make her so angry.

Could she be upset because I forgot to invite her?

"But why do I feel like the way you looked at her was kind of strange?"

Fuko was the only person who knew Ando Meiko's secret, so when she noticed that her childhood friend seemed to care so much about that girl, she felt a little jealous.

"Was it?" Ando Meiko had not noticed anything strange about her gaze. She felt like she looked at everyone more or less the same way.

Maybe it was just Fuko's imagination.

"Forget it. Since we're all here, want to walk around together?"

"Sure. I don't have anything scheduled to help out in class anyway."

Yesterday's rare break had been ruined by what happened at the park, so Ando Meiko decided to use today's opportunity to make it up to the two of them.

She looked around the field. Although each of the little booths set up around them was not very large, together they had practically everything.

At a glance, nearly all of them were related to food. Not to mention okonomiyaki, tamagoyaki, and takoyaki—there was even yakisoba and bubble tea.

Could they really have completely prepared all this, including the equipment, in just a day and a half?

Then again, the school probably provided substantial financial and manpower support.

"Delicious! This is delicious!" Before they even reached the school building, the snack stalls had already kept Fuko and Nanako from stopping eating.

Fuko might have been absentminded by nature, but unlike Nanako, who ate practically anything, she never compromised when it came to food.

And no matter how much she ate, the fat accumulated exactly where it was supposed to.

Not only had that given her an impressive figure back in elementary school, it had once made the older girls who played with them incredibly jealous.

"Meiko, here. Aaah~"

"Ah... mmm..." Ando Meiko was fed by Fuko.

As she chewed the takoyaki that had been blown cool, she shifted her gaze away from that impressive pair of peaks before their owner noticed.

Yet that embarrassedly averted gaze let her spot a familiar figure.

A girl was waving at her while walking this way, trying to get her attention. It was the neighbor's daughter, Sawamura Rin.

"Big Sister Meiko, you really were here."

Rin had a cheerful personality and loved helping others, making her popular with her classmates. She was usually incredibly busy in class.

Frankly, Ando Meiko did not understand why Rin would appear here during this busiest period just before noon.

"Meiko, I'm back. It's a rare school festival, so let's relax and enjoy ourselves." At that same moment, Nakajima Rei, who had finished helping her class, approached Ando Meiko from another direction.

"Huh?" Ando Meiko's heart skipped a beat.

Th-This could not be the legendary love rival battlefield, could it?

[Master... good luck dealing with this.]

Seeing the situation, Ruby proactively announced that she was giving up.

"Meiko... how many girls have you picked up outside?" The jealousy beside her was practically overwhelming.

At this point, no matter how slow Ando Meiko was, she could figure out what Fuko meant even by guessing.

They said three women made a play, but adding Ando Meiko seemed to make four girls... No, if they counted the little girl who only cared about eating, that made five. Forget a play—they could form a whole team.

While everyone introduced themselves, Ando Meiko tried several times to escape, but Fuko glared her back each time with a gaze fierce enough to kill.

"My name is Sakura Fuko, and I live with Ando Meiko." As the last person to introduce herself, Fuko emphasized those final words so heavily that the other three immediately understood her ulterior motive.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

As if they had learned some explosive news, two disbelieving voices came from Rei and Rin respectively.

Even their movements were astonishingly synchronized as they looked at Ando Meiko, then turned to look at Fuko.

You might be telling the truth, but isn't this private business? Fuko, is it really okay to just say that out loud?

In less than five minutes, Ando Meiko could already smell the strong scent of rivalry between them.

What exactly had happened to make the three of them act like this? Could it be my fault? Impossible. Absolutely impossible. How could a love rival battlefield that only harem male protagonists had possibly happen to me?

"Anyway, since everyone's here, let's all walk around together. But Rei and Rin, is your time really okay?"

"It's fine. My class doesn't need my help right now." Rei immediately made her position clear.

"Same here."

Rin's situation was much the same as Rei's. They had both been responsible for a lot, but it had mostly been preparatory work for their classes. Once the school festival began, they had plenty of free time.

Aside from those two, Fuko had not yet received permission to attend school. Ando Meiko, as a new student, had not been assigned any work either. Then there was Nanako, the little girl who only cared about eating...

All five girls were unexpectedly completely free.

Still, interacting with girls as a girl was genuinely difficult for Ando Meiko.

If boys met up, the conversation would probably turn into things like what anime they had watched that day, what fun games had come out recently, or how things were going with the girl they liked.

But Ando Meiko knew nothing about the kinds of conversations girls had. Of course, she had never had much chance to learn before, either.

Compared to how boys talked about anime and games, food and clothes were much hotter topics among girls.

Especially when they discussed how delicious some shop was, Fuko casually mentioned the flavor and texture, and the conversation immediately took off.

It was good news for Ando Meiko that the three of them could find common topics and chat so harmoniously, but she had no interest in those things. Nanako, meanwhile, only cared about what they would eat next.

After Ando Meiko became a magical girl, her Half-Aether Body could not absorb too much magical power on its own, so she needed to replenish the necessary amount through large quantities of food.

She used to deliberately control how much she ate in order to maintain her figure, but now, even though her appetite had grown considerably, she was not worried in the slightest.

The key was that the energy would be consumed in all the right places, and after becoming a Half-Aether Body, her weight had been fixed at this girl's body.

Being able to eat whatever she wanted without getting fat was something countless people dreamed of. If she did not eat more now, when would she ever make back the energy she wasted fighting monsters?

The only thing that could make Ando Meiko hesitate was the issue of financial freedom.