Magical Girl? I Was Set Up to Become One! Chapter 4

"Hehehe, Ando too—hm? No, wait, how did you know my name? I never told you."

Crap, crap! I said it without thinking...

The sudden question made her feel as though she had been thrown into a stampeding herd of alpacas.

"Uh, no, it's just that my brother talks about you all the time. He says you're his best friend."

"So it's that brat Koichi. You're an Ando too... So the so-called substitute student is here to fill in for your brother."

Ando Meiko remembered explaining that the moment she came in. This guy really didn't know how to listen.

Yuya seemed to want to say something else, leaning his face closer toward Ando Koichi.

Normally, she would have slapped him across the face, but before she could do anything, a piece of chalk struck Yuya squarely in the head with the force of a rocket blasting through the clouds.

The principal's punishment made Yuya rein himself in a little.

Since the principal was the teacher, everyone quietly finished the morning class. Then the dismissal bell rang, and the principal left...

Just like a scene recreated from a game she had played, all the students gathered around at this time, asking the transfer student one question after another.

Questions like where she was from and why she had become a temporary substitute student came one after another.

With no interest in answering them, Ando Koichi could only smile at them, filtering out the lecherous gazes and expressions from some of the boys. She only answered when she got one or two interesting questions.

With classes starting and ending like that, enduring the curiosity of classmates she had known for two years and her buddy's endless verbal teasing, time passed much faster than she had imagined.

Volume One: The Story of How I Was Set Up to Become a Magical Girl: Chapter 5: A Magical Girl's Natural Enemy

On her way home after school, Ando Meiko was like a deflated balloon. She had thought that, since she knew everything about the school, dealing with it as a girl would be easy.

Knowing something but having to pretend not to know it turned out to be far more difficult than she had expected.

It made her truly appreciate just how skilled professional actors were.

"Today was absolutely exhausting." Both physically and mentally.

A sudden strange noise made the weary Ando Meiko perk up slightly, instinctively beginning to search for its source.

But aside from the road and the walls around her, there was only the small park beside her, intended for local residents.

Maybe the sound had come from inside there, but she couldn't see anything. Still, surely there should have been at least one person around at this hour?

Ando Meiko thought to herself...

Although her intuition told her something was definitely wrong and instinct kept urging her to leave, curiosity killed the cat—and humans were no exception.

She slowly walked toward the little park, until...

"Huh? M-my foot? Why did my foot disappear?"

The foot she had stepped into the park with had vanished strangely, yet she could still feel it firmly touching the ground. So she tried pulling it back, and the vanished part returned along with the movement.

"Could this little park be covered by some barrier I can't see?"

Ruby, the one who called herself a magic wand, had said that one of a magical girl's enemies was called a Void Creature.

Did that mean stepping into this place meant stepping into the void? Or perhaps another invisible space?

She stretched her hand forward again. Once it crossed the boundary of the little park, Ando Meiko found that her hand vanished as well. The answer was obvious now.

Should she just walk in? Or should she leave? The two choices lay before her.

If she went in, it meant accepting both the identity and reality of becoming a magical girl. But why should she accept such a bizarre premise?

Besides, why should she take the magic wand's word for it and accept becoming a magical girl, a role whose cringe factor was off the charts?

So Ando Meiko stopped hesitating and stopped feeling lost. At that moment, her mind felt incomparably clear.

"To hell with magical girls. Once my body finishes fusing with magic power and turns back into Ando Koichi, I'm going to start over with my ordinary li—"

Before she could finish, an impact struck her back and instantly plunged her into despair. The force threw her off balance, and her entire body fell into the barrier.

"Huh? I think I just bumped into someone... Why did she disappear...? Probably my imagination."

That voice was not unfamiliar to Ando Meiko, but she had no time to think about that now.

After getting back on her feet, she tried to leave through the place where she had entered. But all she found there was a hard wall.

What was that sound now? Still driven by instinct, she slowly turned around.

In the dark space that had gone unnoticed moments ago, something as thick as hemp rope was swaying.

Something that looked like an insect was also wriggling across the ground toward her.

Drip, drip...

The eerie sound of liquid dripping made her retreat, but her back soon hit the barrier wall. Only then did Ando Meiko realize she had nowhere left to go.

A rope-like object shot toward her face at incredible speed. She turned her head and focused her gaze, and what she saw made her pupils constrict in sheer terror.

"T-t-t-t-tentacles?! You've got to be kidding me!"

A drop of slime fell from the tip of the tentacle onto her shoulder, and she finally understood what the dripping sound was.

Yes, those rope-like lines she had seen in the darkness were Tentacle Creatures, known as the "bane of magical girls."

She swallowed hard. No matter how terrified she was, Ando Meiko did not dare let her body move or even tremble in the slightest.

The tentacle slowly moved toward her and finally touched her face, sliding across it as if caressing her. Disgusting slime remained on her skin.

Where was Ruby? Where was my magic wand? Hurry up and save me!

Only when her heart screamed that out did she remember that she had left Ruby at home. She had left her magic wand at home because she didn't want it causing trouble!

And amid her wild thoughts, she figured out two things.

First, she now understood why the heroines in magical girl anime and games froze whenever they encountered tentacles.

Back then, she used to point at those easily captured heroines and laugh at them. They could clearly run, yet they refused to. Looking at herself now, she really owed them an apology.

Second, of course, was what it felt like to be touched by slimy tentacles. You really couldn't know unless you experienced it yourself.

Still, she felt things were not that simple. She had no idea whether the slime was poisonous or contained some other strange substance.

Of course, maybe it was fear. Either way, Ando Meiko had felt her body trembling uncontrollably since earlier.

Magical girls, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have laughed at you! Please bless me and help me get through this! Don't let those tentacles eat me clean!

The electric sensation faded away. Perhaps because she had remained completely still, it no longer regarded her as a living creature. As she watched the tentacle slowly withdraw, she finally let out a breath.

Was I saved? Could my prayer just now have actually worked?

Her heart was uneasy, but Ando Meiko suddenly realized that wasn't this kind of thought basically a death flag?

No, it shouldn't be. This wasn't some anime world, so where would all these death flags come from?

She did not even dare breathe loudly, only repeating words of comfort to herself in her heart.

Whether that counted as a death flag or not, the next instant, the tentacle that had retreated less than two meters shot toward her like a frog's tongue striking prey.

She knew perfectly well that this thing was serious. If she stayed where she was, she would be an idiot.

She lunged to the side, and the tentacle struck the barrier wall behind where Ando Meiko had just been standing with a smack.

Ando Meiko did not relax after dodging the attack. Anyone familiar with this kind of genre knew a Tentacle Creature definitely had more than one tentacle... In the darkness alone, she had already seen dozens of "hemp ropes" waving about.

Whoosh, whoosh.

Several sharp whistles came forcefully from deep within the darkness, but as Ando Meiko moved, every single one of them struck the wall behind her.

She could not help feeling secretly pleased.

Tentacle Creatures had simple attack patterns and simple thought processes. In short, they were just plain stupid. As long as I find a way out of here, I'll—

But before she could laugh, she seemed to kick something and stumble. Her body slipped, and she helplessly pitched forward.

Falling down while running away basically meant it was over.

Sure enough, before Ando Meiko could get back up, the tentacle chasing behind her had already wrapped around her ankle.

No, no, no, no, no!

She could not help crying out both in her heart and aloud. Even though her fingers desperately tried to claw into the ground, those disgusting things still lifted her directly into the air.

"Don't!"

Volume One: The Story of How I Was Set Up to Become a Magical Girl: Chapter 6: Invincibility During Transformation Is the First Law

Though she desperately twisted and struggled, trying to break free from the tentacle gripping her ankle, everything she did was useless. The next moment, several more whistling sounds came at once.

Her other limbs were bound as well. The wet, slippery slime made her feel utterly sick, but she could not escape the tentacles' restraints at all.

Next would be that, that thing, right? No, no, no! I don't want to experience getting tentacled!

But forget escaping—she could not even move her hands or feet.

Especially now that her body had become that of a girl, her strength had decreased considerably. Even though becoming an Ether Body should have given her physical abilities beyond ordinary humans.

And then the terrifying part finally came. Slippery, greasy tentacles wriggled up her legs. Ando Meiko looked down and saw those disgusting things pushing her clothes up, leaving moving trails beneath the fabric.

That tingling sensation... Even if her body had become female, she was still a boy at heart, and she simply could not accept this at all.

Her eyes instantly filled with despair.

This was different. It was completely different from the magical girls she had imagined. Completely different from the magical girls Ruby had described.

Ruby had said her mission was to defeat Void Creatures and save the world.

In that moment, although Ando Meiko had only wanted to live an ordinary life and had been unwilling, she truly had imagined herself shouting embarrassing transformation chants, changing into a beautiful miniskirt with white thigh-high stockings, swinging her magic wand to unleash powerful spells, and triggering a plot event whenever she met an enemy she could not defeat, then changing forms.

That was how it was supposed to be: a beautiful yet ordinary wish.

In the end, it came down to one sentence: even if she really intended to live as a magical girl, she should have been a normal magical girl, not some annoying female side character from an anime who could do nothing but scream.

Inside this barrier, everything was futile. No matter how much she screamed, nobody would come to save her. Nobody would come to help her.

The tentacles continued wriggling upward. The ones binding her ankles had already crawled up to her thighs. Closing her eyes and turning her head aside, Ando Meiko shed a humiliated tear.

She only hoped whatever might happen next would be over quickly. The feeling was unpleasant, yet so real... so... w-wonderful?

Did I actually think this wasn't so bad? Has my mind started breaking down before my body?

"Meiko... Meiko!"

"Who...? That voice sounds familiar... Are you here to save me?"

"No. The only one who can save you is yourself."

"Myself... That's impossible. I feel like my body is about to become a seedbed..."

"Magical girl, open your eyes."

Her only salvation was to obey that command. Ando Meiko opened her eyes, and aside from the tentacles around her, she saw lively red twin tails.

"Ruby?" Ruby floated toward her through the black space and reached out both hands.

"Come, my master. Call out my name!"

The despair in her eyes instantly sharpened. As though she had grasped a lifeline, she stretched out her hand with all her strength and finally clasped Ruby's.

"Blessing of Ruby! Gather the Radiant Stone Power—magical girl, transform!"

Along with a special transformation sound effect, the red gemstone necklace on Ando Meiko's chest suddenly appeared. White light burst from the gem, covering her entire body and pushing all the tentacles away.

A red-and-white hair ornament gathered her red hair into twin tails. Her ruined clothes dissolved completely and re-formed into a combat outfit with a three-layered miniskirt, covering the girl beneath the protection of holy light.

The tentacles tried to interrupt Ando Meiko before she could finish transforming, sweeping toward her like a tide. Yet every one of them was knocked away by the white light enveloping her outermost layer.

"Don't worry. Invincibility during transformation is the first law of magical girls!"

Ruby's reminder filled her with confidence. After all, a magical girl with invincibility frames during transformation could not be that weak, right?

At the very end, the magic wand—Ruby's true body—appeared: a luxurious item of pure gold set with a red gemstone framed in gold.