Magical Girl? I Got Tricked Into It! Chapter 7

If there was any difference, it was probably that after becoming female, her body had become smaller, softer, and cuter.

"So, you're Koichi, aren't you? Hehehe, you can't fool me."

Ando Meiko was at a loss for words. On a sudden whim, she thought that since she had already been found out, telling her probably wouldn't hurt.

"That's right, I'm Koichi. As you can see, for certain reasons, I've become a girl." Silence. Absolute silence. The only thing she could hear was some indescribable chewing sound by her ear.

"Koichi, come with me for a moment." Fuko grabbed her hand without explanation, dragged her into the bathroom, and shut the door.

Something felt wrong here. Fuko, why did you lock the door? Even if you wanted to do something embarrassing to me now, I absolutely wouldn't submit.

"Take off your clothes!"

This airhead dared to yell at me?

"But... but..."

"Be good and let me see!"

Faced with Fuko steadily closing in, Ando Meiko clutched her clothes and kept backing away until she slipped into the bathtub, which was still somewhat wet from having just been used.

There was nowhere left to run.

Calm down, Fuko, calm down! Y-you, don't come any closer!!!

She screamed inwardly, but Fuko did not notice the struggle in her eyes or the resistance on her face, continuing to pile emotions called fear and despair onto her.

"Surrender!" At last, Fuko pounced on Ando Meiko, and her heart flew away along with the clothes casually tossed onto the floor.

With empty eyes, Ando Meiko felt that nothing mattered anymore. Unable to escape the intense gaze of her childhood friend, she could only search her heart for a way to leave Earth.

A moment later, Fuko ignored the tear of humiliation in Ando Meiko's eyes and gently brushed her hand across the place where something should have been, adding even more to her despair.

"Koichi, it really is gone... You really did turn into a girl. I thought you were just cosplaying and messing with me."

If I were cosplaying, why would my height and build have changed so much too?

And why could you accept something like this so easily? Couldn't you have a more dramatic reaction, like suddenly jumping up and yelling, "Unbelievable! That's impossible!" or something?

"Sorry. At first, I thought you were lying to me."

"Why would I lie to you?"

With an unhappy look on her face, Ando Meiko was pulled out of the bathtub by Fuko. The clothes she had just changed into had fallen onto the floor and gotten soaked, so she could only helplessly toss them into the laundry basket.

She wrapped herself in a bath towel and was about to return to her room to find something to wear, but the strange sounds from the kitchen forced her to stop after only a few steps and turn back.

"Fuko, help me find some clothes to change into."

"Okay~"

Fuko answered and left the bathroom to look for clothes in her room, while Ando Meiko quickly hurried to the living room and opened the door.

The refrigerator in the kitchen was open. A pink tentacle reached inside and dragged out chunks of raw meat and vegetables, as well as the ham sandwich she had planned to eat for breakfast.

"Stop! Nanako, stop for a second!"

"What is it, sis?"

Nanako turned around at the sound of her voice. Her hair-turned-tentacles were still wriggling, and there was a patch of red liquid at the corner of her mouth. It was impossible to tell whether it was ketchup from something she had eaten or blood left over from raw meat.

"Can you put your tentacles away first?"

"Okay."

Thankfully, Nanako was still obedient. She put her tentacles away, but her hair was already covered in all sorts of filth: bits of meat, bread crumbs, and every kind of sauce. The mixed smell was almost unbearable.

"Koichi, what's wrong? Huh? What's with this little girl?"

The question from beside her made her vision suddenly go dark. She pressed her temples through a pounding headache, unable to speak for a long while.

It was a mess. A complete mess. My school life is already gone, and now even my life at home has turned into a complete disaster. I just wanted an ordinary daily life. Why did so many unexpected things have to happen?

"I'll explain later."

"Mm, you should take her for a bath first. I'll make dinner."

There was no need for thanks between her and Fuko. After nodding at her, Ando Meiko took Nanako into the bathroom.

This kid, honestly... Even if she was hungry, could she not wait a few minutes?

Although her hair could turn into tentacles, while in its normal hair state, it was still incredibly smooth and beautiful. But now, that beautiful hair had clumped together into sticky messes.

"Master, do you know that girl?" The necklace Ruby had transformed into had somehow appeared on the bathroom shelf.

"You mean Fuko? Her name is Sakura Fuko. She's my childhood friend. Why are you suddenly asking?"

"It's nothing. The reason you fell into the barrier was because she hit you with her bicycle. You disappeared so suddenly that she mistook hitting someone for an illusion."

"Oh my god, could it really be such a coincidence?" Ando Meiko felt as though her world was collapsing.

Of course... There were no coincidences in this world, only inevitability.

Volume One: The Story of How I Got Tricked into Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter Eleven: The Explosion Incident

Ando Meiko was about to wash Nanako's hair when a faint sound outside the bathroom window caught her attention.

Looking up, she saw a white creature lying on the windowsill and quietly watching her.

"Yue, where have you been fooling around these past few days? You haven't even been eating, have you? Be careful not to upset your stomach from eating random things outside."

This pure white creature with mismatched beige and blue eyes was Yue, the pet cat she had picked up a year ago.

When she had found Yue outside her home, she had been covered in blood. Now, Yue was family, someone who had spent even more time with her than her parents had.

"Meow."

She held out her hand to Yue. With a soft cry, Yue jumped onto Ando Meiko's hand, then smoothly landed in her arms and rubbed against her affectionately.

I've clearly become a girl, but she still seems to recognize my scent. Is that just an animal's instinct?

"Yue, go play by yourself for now. I need to wash the dirt stuck in Nanako's hair."

Yue seemed to understand her words. She leaped from her arms to the floor, then left the bathroom under the watchful eyes of Ando Meiko and Nanako.

But Ando Meiko noticed that there was something off about the way Nanako looked at Yue. It was clearly the gaze one gave food.

"Nanako, she's my family. Don't you dare lay a hand on Yue, or I'll get angry."

"Ugh..." Nanako looked like a child caught red-handed while doing something bad. "Nanako understands."

But even if Nanako wore such a wronged expression, there were some things Ando Meiko absolutely could not compromise on. Since she had brought this little Evil God home, she had a responsibility to teach her what was right and what was wrong.

Of course, that process might be very long.

"Big sis, it's so itchy. Ugh, I hate washing hair."

"It can't be helped. Bear with it. You used your tentacles to touch so many dirty things. Remember to use your hands properly when picking things up from now on. Don't use your hair, okay?"

"Okay..."

Both annoyed and amused, she scrubbed Nanako's hair clean with shampoo. Just as she was about to rinse it, Nanako leaned her whole body against her.

"Big sis, you're so soft and comfy. I wish I had this size too."

"..."

She had no idea how to respond. It was something that would make any girl happy to hear, yet she could not feel happy about it at all.

Nanako untied the bath towel around her body, grabbed the hand Ando Meiko had been using to wash her hair, and placed it on her chest. Though it was flat as a board, the slightly raised area was soft and squishy to the touch.

"Meizi, hug me."

Suppressing the guilt that rose in her heart, she pushed Nanako slightly forward. "Sit still. We're not done washing yet."

Enduring the fluttering in her heart, she firmly retied Nanako's bath towel, then carefully rinsed the foam from her hair with the showerhead.

Nanako shook her hair, but Ando Meiko held her still. She grabbed the excessively long hair, picked up the scissors beside her, and carefully began trimming it.

"Does it hurt?"

"No. Meizi is really gentle."

Nanako's hair was beautiful, but her elementary-schooler-like height could not support such a length.

So no matter how reluctant she was, Ando Meiko could only trim it a little.

But considering that Nanako could control the tentacles made from her hair, she was unsure whether Nanako's hair could feel pain. That was why she asked every time she cut a little off.

"Dinner's ready! Are you two done?" Fuko knocked on the bathroom door and called to them.

Even with ingredients in the refrigerator that did not need thawing, making an entire meal in the time it took to wash someone's hair was far too fast. As expected of someone who often did housework.

After drying themselves and changing into clean clothes, they went to the living room together.

The ransacked refrigerator had already been cleaned up, and fragrant dinner was laid out on the dining table, making the starving Nanako drool at the sight.

In front of the childhood friend she knew better than anyone, there was no need to pretend to be a proper girl. She wolfed down the food before her, including the meal she had lacked the appetite to eat at noon.

"Come to think of it, what should I call you now? You seem like you want to keep it a secret, so you don't plan on letting others know you're Koichi, right?"

"Exactly. Until I completely change back, I plan to live as a girl for a while. As for my name, I'll be Ando Meiko, Ando Koichi's cousin."

"You really thought this through. Good thing your aunt and uncle aren't home, or you'd get exposed sooner or later. But..."

As her tone shifted, Ando Meiko realized Fuko was staring at her with burning eyes.

"W-what is it?"

A bad feeling crept into her heart. After all, only just now had she discovered that her childhood friend had such a forceful side.

"Since you're going to live as a girl, there are some habitual things you need to pay attention to."

"Habitual things?"

"It's fine. We have plenty of time. While I'm staying at your house, I can slowly teach you."

"I haven't even asked you yet. Don't you have school? Why are you coming to stay at my place?"

"Yeah, classes have been suspended for now. Apparently, there was a terrorist attack at school, and it got blown up."

"No way? Fuko, you weren't hurt, were you?"

Fuko smiled and shook her head at the concern.

"Although the entire school building was blown away, there had been an earthquake beforehand, so the students had all run out early. That was why nobody died, though quite a few people were injured."

Terrorist attacks were not common in Tokyo, but neither were they unheard of. Still, why would they choose to blow up a school building?

Could the culprit actually have been a student? Maybe they wanted revenge on the school, so they got hold of a bomb powerful enough to blow up the entire building or something.

Of course, Ando Meiko was only imagining that for the amusement of it. Explosives powerful enough to destroy an entire school building were not something one could obtain so casually.

[Master...]

Clang...

The sudden voice in her mind startled her so badly that she dropped her fork onto her plate.

Ruby always spoke to her directly through their consciousness like this. It was fine when nothing was happening, but when she was tense, it could really give her a fright.

Still, the ability was indeed quite convenient.

After all, telepathy was like a radio, not one-way communication. She could also communicate with Ruby through her thoughts.

Even in public, she would not have to worry about being discovered while secretly plotting something aloud.

[What is it?]

[Are you really not going to consider whether this might be related to your identity?]

Volume One: The Story of How I Got Tricked into Becoming a Magical Girl: Chapter Twelve: If You Can't Resist, Enjoy It

[So what are you saying?]

[A disaster that humans could not cause might have been caused by a battle. Damage in the Void World can be reflected into the Reality World through Spatial Distortion.]

[All right, that's enough.]

Someone like her, who could only swing a magic wand around as a club, would not even be able to take part in a battle capable of blowing up a school building. A normal monster could probably crush her to death with ease.

"Then that earthquake really came at the perfect time."

"It was terrifying. Even thinking about it now still scares me. But since school's suspended, there's nothing to do at home anyway. Why not take this chance to come hang out at your house?"