Magical Girl? I Was Tricked Into It! Chapter 30

"Please, I'll do anything."

Ando Meiko admitted she was being a little cunning. Before Kajieliena could refuse, she had already offered a price Kajieliena could not turn down. Didn't she want to study her Half-Aether Body? Then she could study it.

If it could save those magical girls' lives, it was not too great a loss.

"Deal."

"Then... here I go." Although Ruby said she had evolved, she still did not know what state her body was in. She only felt that controlling magic had become much easier.

The red arrow resting on the bowstring had already finished its third charge.

She released the hand pulling the string. The rebounding string desperately launched the arrow forward, and once it had completely left the bow, its speed had already broken the sound barrier.

Ando Meiko's magic was drained dry in an instant. What little remained could not even maintain the bow's shape, and it reverted to a magic wand.

Without the magic Kajieliena had poured into her body, her fleeting new form dissipated as well.

But that arrow, carrying the momentum of a star-piercing strike, tore through the silence of the Void World. After tracing a perfect arc through the air, it shrieked toward the Void Spider's cocoon.

gigigigi...

The monster let out an indescribably bizarre cry. The instant the arrow was fired, it sensed the immense magic compressed within it.

The Void Spider abandoned its pursuit of Three Purities and the others, turning around and rushing back toward its cocoon at incredible speed. It forced its body between the cocoon and the arrow.

The arrow pierced the monster's tough hide, trembling only slightly before punching straight through and leaving a gaping hole in the spider's abdomen.

Condensing both Kajieliena's magic poured into Ando Meiko's body and all of Ando Meiko's own magic, the power of this strike exceeded even Kajieliena's expectations.

Although the spider's interception knocked the arrow off its original course and drove it into the ground.

The magic erupted with a thunderous blast, sweeping in every direction. Turbulent currents spread like blades, continually slicing through the webs hanging over the shopping mall.

Before the Void Spider, injured while protecting its cocoon, could recover, it was swept into the magical turbulence once more.

Volume One: How I Was Tricked Into Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter 52: Magic and Miracles Aren't Free

Elsewhere, Kajieliena leaped from the twentieth floor like Superman. She borrowed force from the wall in midair, and the recoil from shattering the glass sent her diving toward another building.

She turned, landed, and kicked off the ground. Her speed rose once again. The posture was far from graceful, but every movement flowed without a single unnecessary motion, relying entirely on explosive physical strength.

One kilometer. It was a full kilometer.

Kajieliena covered the entire distance in under ten seconds. Though Ando Meiko was shocked, the moment she saw Kajieliena successfully meet up with Three Purities, she found somewhere to hide.

After all, she had shot an arrow at that thing's child. She was terrified the spider might trace the direction of the arrow back to where she was.

Even if it seemed busy right now, it would be no good if it remembered her and came looking for revenge.

Ando Meiko was the kind of person Void Beasts could drag into the Void World. If that thing pulled her in next time, she would truly be left with no one to call for help.

Before long, a startling commotion came from behind Ando Meiko. When she stepped out of the shadows, she saw Kajieliena returning with five magical girls slung over her shoulder.

"Sorry. To keep them from realizing it was me, I knocked them all out first."

That was really violent. If a problem could be solved with strength, she did not even bother using magic. Should Ando Meiko say that Kajieliena truly lived up to being from a fighting nation, or that she was simply a muscle-headed brute?

"It's fine. As long as they're okay."

Three Purities, the strongest among the five, moved her fingers. She looked like she would wake up any moment.

"I'll leave the rest to you. If they ask about that spider, just boldly admit you did it." Kajieliena slipped into a dark corner in their blind spot and concealed her presence.

"You don't need to tell me that."

But Three Purities' body should have been pierced by a spider leg. Yet she did not seem to have any wounds at all... Wait, no, it was not that there were no wounds.

Ando Meiko turned her over and saw a huge tear in Three Purities' combat suit. What showed through the pierced area was not blood, but Aether glowing with rainbow light...

So magical girls were no longer human even in the conceptual sense. I really should be glad that I could still get hurt and bleed... at least for now.

As Ando Meiko continued examining Three Purities' wound, Three Purities suddenly sprang up, retreated several steps, and held three yellow talismans covered in red writing between her raised fingers in a fan shape.

Wasn't she a magical girl of the stars? Why was she using talismans instead of Star Tarot?

Still, Ando Meiko could understand that magical girls from a different lineage fought differently.

"Was it you?" Three Purities' startled movement tugged at the wound in her lower abdomen where the spider leg had pierced her. Pain made her clutch it as she dropped to one knee.

Ando Meiko was curious. Why was Three Purities' first reaction upon seeing her, "Was it you?" As far as she remembered, she had never met Three Purities before.

"You're badly hurt. Don't push yourself."

"It's fine. An Ether Body can repair itself. I just need a little rest." As she spoke, Three Purities glanced at the companions lying beside her. "Did you save us from the Black Demon Spider's attack?"

"Yeah." Ando Meiko nodded.

Naturally, she would not casually explain exactly how she had saved them. After all, she had made an incredible deal with a witch.

If the people from Divine Shield learned that members of the enemy Witch Organization had actually saved them, Ando Meiko might be the first one held accountable.

"Where's that Void Beast?"

"Over there." Ando Meiko pointed behind her.

Still puzzled, Three Purities cautiously stuck her head out and saw that something had seemingly pierced the Void Spider's abdomen, leaving a massive hole behind.

Seeing the Void Spider's agonized state and the devastation around the shopping mall, she could not process it for a while.

Not only did she doubt whether an attack of that magnitude could have been unleashed by the rookie magical girl beside her, but the Void Spider had not even entered a dying state after its body had been pierced so thoroughly and left with such an exaggerated hole.

She knew her own strength well. If the Void Spider truly went berserk, she had no way of stopping it alone in her current state.

Therefore, the safest option now was to retreat with the injured and return to the Divine Shield Branch for reinforcements.

Watching Three Purities sink into thought, Ando Meiko assumed she was wondering whether she had done it... If Three Purities pointed it out, how should she explain herself?

"No matter what, thank you for saving us."

"Why did you come challenge that Void Beast? It didn't look like something you could beat."

"We had actually endured until now. It had only recently laid eggs and was still in a weakened state, but as you can see, we were still completely defeated."

"This was its weakened state?" If it reached its full form, how strong would it be? Even Three Purities would probably only be instantly killed.

"We still underestimated its strength. It looks like we'll have to go back and regroup."

"Safe travels." Seeing Three Purities gather her comrades and prepare to take them back, Ando Meiko waved at her.

"Keep this." Three Purities stuffed a yellow talisman into Ando Meiko's hand, then led her companions through the Material World Gate and left.

"Looks like they're gone." Kajieliena slowly emerged from the darkness.

"Yeah. They sure came and went in a hurry."

"Anyway, they're going to bring reinforcements back to deal with that thing. If you're worried, you can come watch then."

"I'm not in the mood to watch." Ando Meiko put away the talisman and nodded at Kajieliena.

Just as she wanted to use her magic wand to support herself and stand up, she had exhausted the last of her strength. Her transformation automatically ended, and after returning to Ando Meiko's normal body, she was caught by Kajieliena.

Before losing consciousness, she heard one terrifying sentence: "Meizi, miracles and magic aren't free. So it's time for you to pay the price."

Huh? Pay? I-I only just said that! Can't you give me time to prepare myself? No, don't really do this, okay?!

Though she screamed inwardly, she could not resist the exhaustion that swept over her like a tide. She fell directly into a deep sleep, never knowing... what Kajieliena might do to her body during that time...

Volume One: How I Was Tricked Into Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter 53: A Little Experiment

"I... how long... was I out...?"

"Less than half an hour. Not bad. You woke up so quickly despite such exhaustion and your magic recovering extremely slowly. So a Half-Aether Body that retains its human aspects has this kind of functionality."

"Mm..."

Ando Meiko tried to sit up, only to suddenly discover that something was restraining both her hands and feet. She could not move at all. "Huh?"

Something was pressing her head against a metal slab behind her. Strange sensations at her temples, chest, and arms made her realize that some odd things seemed to be attached to her body.

Ando Meiko had seen this scenario before. In movies, when experimenting on aliens or mutants, they would bind them to a metal slab and attach electrodes all over their bodies.

"K-Kajieliena... what are you going to do?"

If she had known this would happen, she never should have offered "I'll do anything" as payment.

"Nothing much. I'm just going to study you a little. It's not like I'm going to eat you."

"Then I'd rather you ate me."

She turned the only part of herself that could move even slightly toward the voice and immediately saw Kajieliena standing beside her, holding a one-meter-long cleaver and gesturing with it.

Could this so-called little study... involve cutting me apart? No, no!

"N-No, don't come any closer! I-I don't want to become a human stump, sob sob sob..."

Kajieliena raised the blade and brought it down. Ando Meiko shut her eyes tight, unable to bear watching, and the cleaver struck the metal slab with a loud clang.

The sound was unbearably harsh to her.

"My hand! Ah, my hand is gone! Sob... It hurts, it hurts so much!"

"Hm?" Kajieliena tilted her head in confusion. "Are you already experiencing phantom limb pain? I didn't even hit you..."

"I..." Ando Meiko turned to look. Her hand was still safely restrained, and then she glanced lower and saw a watermelon cut cleanly in half.

"Kajieliena! Did you have to cut a watermelon like that?! You scared me to death!" Did she have to deliberately put it beside her just to cut fruit? Was that not intimidation?

"I was thirsty just now, and this was the only fairly flat surface here. Want some?"

"No! I'm not in the mood! Where are we?"

"Not far from the shopping mall. This is my private little laboratory."

As she spoke, Kajieliena casually scooped out the watermelon with a spoon and ate it. Only then did Ando Meiko think to look around.

The dim lights were not too harsh. Many machines were connected together by all kinds of cables, and nearly every cable extending through the room came from a device standing before the laboratory door.

Her clothes had been neatly folded on a table. She did not need to think to know what state she was currently in. No wonder she had felt chilly all over from the beginning.

Beside the metal slab restraining her as an experiment table sat all sorts of tools—scalpels, cleavers, dental knives, saws, forceps, and more. They all looked like dissection tools.

This was not a laboratory at all. It was an interrogation room, wasn't it?

Where was Ruby? Where was Ruby...

Only when she remembered did she notice her necklace placed inside a machine, isolated beneath a glass cover. It looked like Kajieliena had already figured out that little thing was her transformation device.

She could not transform, and telepathy did not work either. Kajieliena must have turned on her so-called isolation field again.

After finishing the watermelon, Kajieliena grabbed a white cloth beside her, wiped herself carelessly, then walked over to the computer and began typing on the keyboard.

"I... I'm not going to die, right?"

"Your view of research is really traditional. Besides, magical girls don't die that easily."

Kajieliena was not lying to her. Magical girls had already transformed their bodies into Ether Bodies, so as long as their heads were not bitten off or their hearts pierced—something fatal like that.

Minor injuries like losing an arm or leg only required waiting for the body to absorb magic and convert it into source Aether. It would naturally recover before long.

"...Sigh." Though Ando Meiko did not know whether Kajieliena was deceiving her, she stopped resisting. After all, this was something she had already promised Kajieliena.

All she could say was that if there was a next time, she would definitely think carefully before making a deal.

"Then let's begin."

"Come on."

A cool, prickling sensation came from the metal slab behind her. The unnatural feeling made Ando Meiko feel as though something was scanning her body.

"Body structure normal... Status is no different from an ordinary human's. I see."

"Is it done?" She only wanted to leave this place as soon as possible and go home with Fuko, who had agreed to wait for her at the snack shop.

"Not quite. I need to give you a little instinctive excitement."

Kajieliena glanced at her, then opened something on the computer. An indescribably strange sound came from it, making it easy to guess what she was playing.

Kajieliena, don't tell me you're so innocent that you need to watch videos to learn this stuff on the spot? No... instinctive excitement... Could it be...

Remembering the night Ruby had controlled her, her body shuddered involuntarily.

"All right, Fuko, I'm ready. Let's do this."