About Becoming a Magical Girl

About Becoming a Magical Girl Author: BrokenYuri

Synopsis:

[Slightly melancholic, yuri transformation 1v1, slight angst with sugar]

She was an agent and an idol, and once a "big brother," but now she could only cross-dress as a man to barely maintain her final dignity as an elder brother.

Until... she saw her younger sister holding an exaggerated support sign, standing in front of her with stars in her eyes.

She was dumbfounded.

I am your older brother!

Volume 1: Song of the Other Shore

1. Being a Magical Girl

The early morning air carried a humid chill.

Listening to the wake-up alarm coming from her younger sister's bedroom, Yanase Naoto unhurriedly turned on the stove, picked up her phone with one hand, and wedged it between her ear and shoulder.

A woman's voice came from the other end of the call:

"...Thank you for your hard work yesterday. Are your injuries better?"

"Nothing major, thanks for asking."

Naoto took an egg from the refrigerator, tapped it lightly against the back of a knife, and the egg white and yolk slid from the cracked shell, pooling in a frying pan and quickly making a sizzling sound.

She poured half a spoonful of cooking wine along the edge of the pan, expertly lifted and flipped it once, sprinkled salt over it, and watched it turn from transparent to golden.

"Um... Doctor Nishiki asked me to forward the diagnostic records to you. Should I bring them over later?"

"No need, I'll return to headquarters tonight and pick them up then. More importantly, what's the current situation at Maesakagawa? Are there any other discoveries besides the two survivors?"

"None... and the follow-up work is progressing very poorly," the person on the other end sighed. "Without a 'Boundary Stele,' our people can't take a step. Qinglan and the others have already returned after investigating, and will probably postpone it for the time being... Never mind that. Anyway, just stay home and properly recuperate for now, and leave the rest to Qinglan and them. But if possible, I must continue to ask you to look after Shiyin. You know that child's emotions seem a bit unstable, so..."

"I understand, leave this end to me," Naoto glanced back. "Though my sister is about to wake up..."

"Oh~ I see," the person on the other end smiled. "Talk to you later then~"

"Mhm."

With that, she hung up the phone.

Naoto put down the phone, silently sighing to herself as rustling sounds came from the room behind the living room—her sister had already woken up.

In this oversized house, there were only two people: her and her sister. Their parents hadn't been home for two years, and during this time, taking care of her schooling younger sister had become her obligation and habit as an elder brother.

Her relationship with her sister couldn't be called good—not that they treated each other with malice or found each other hard to get along with, but the inseparable closeness they shared when they were very young was now a far cry from the present. The distance between them had slowly grown estranged due to all the various inevitable things that had happened over the past year or so.

Her sister used to be very attached to her when she was little, but ever since Yanase Naoto began doing "that side's" work, the communication between brother and sister gradually dwindled into almost nothing. Unlike Yanase Naoto, who dropped out of university halfway through, her sister served as a student council officer at school, achieved excellent academic grades, and was an outstanding honor student.

Yanase Naoto would occasionally comfort herself—anyway, children always went through such a stage during their growth, and breaking away from her reliance on an older brother like him was probably a good thing for her sister. Yet in her heart, she also knew that all these changes were actually because of her own involvement, only she couldn't compromise in this regard no matter what.

She slid the omelet onto a dinner plate, then served roasted tomatoes, sausages, bacon, a piece of fruit pudding, whole-wheat bread, and oatmeal milk mixed with crushed nuts and honeyed red dates. In this decadent era where human society was cornered and barely clinging to survival, such ingredients rarely appeared on the dining table anymore.

She took her sister's mug out of the cabinet.

Although used by her sister as an everyday drinking cup, the mug's style was actually closer to something meant purely for display. The workmanship could be described as exquisite and brand new; it was one of the "merchandise gifts" her sister had brought back a while ago, with a chibi pattern of "Magical Girl Avenil" printed on the side alongside exaggerated promotional catchphrases in cheering colors.

Yanase Naoto frowned, turned it over to look at it from all angles, shook her head, and set it down.

She understood some of her sister's extracurricular hobbies. Her sister loved Avenil very much, and always paid special attention to anything related to Avenil, treating it like a precious treasure even if it clashed somewhat with her own style.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with whatever her sister liked, and Yanase Naoto wasn't someone who liked to talk too much about others, but... how should she describe this feeling? It felt somewhat subtle.

Magical Girl Avenil was not some trendy student anime idol, but a flesh-and-blood person who wielded influence in every aspect of this city. Her official codename was Agent: Ephnel.

An "agent," formerly known as an "operative" and generally called a "superhero," was one of the terms that had entered the public eye over the past few years alongside the public disclosure of the "White Hole Erosion" phenomenon. In this era, to maintain urban stability and resist the disasters brought by White Hole Erosion, every city was equipped with no fewer than ten agents. They were collectively managed by an organization called the Orderkeepers, serving as the bright starlight taking charge of humanity's future in this era.

Each agent had a unique codename and was invariably female. They wielded magical power that transcended scientific explanation, and fighting Erosion Disasters to protect the city from being swallowed by erosion was their most important and sole duty.

Occasionally, they also cracked down on crime.

Because the definition of their actions was hard to delimit, and the special nature of their work prevented them from being bound by conventional rules, they also went by various other titles such as "Punishers," "Vigilantes," and "Lynchmen."

In short, because the world was threatened by erosion, people needed agents, which made the status of agents special.

And Avenil was one of the agents active in this city over the past two years, holding the official codename Ephnel, and recognized as the city's "chief" and "strongest" agent. Because her combat uniform had a distinctive style, she earned the nickname "Magical Girl." She was not only an agent idol, but also a hero in the eyes of citizens, though she was more often called a "magical girl" because of her appearance.

Yanase Naoto's younger sister, Shiomi Yukina, was a loyal hardcore fan of Avenil. She collected many things related to Avenil, such as jackets, keychains, cups, school bags, notebooks... and so on, mostly merchandise distributed or sold by Avenil's fan club.

That's right, although Avenil was an agent, because she concurrently worked as the spokesperson and promoter for the Orderkeepers Organization in this city, and gained considerable popularity among the public due to her formidable strength and active performance, she somehow ended up with an idol-like persona. Before long, people spontaneously organized things like a fan club, and Shiomi Yukina was one of them, even serving as one of the core members.

These were all well-known facts...

In reality, however, Avenil herself had a few complaints about this, because whether it was joining the agents to fight or starting to act as an "agent idol" out of nowhere, neither had been her original intention from the start.

This could be considered an unknown secret.

As for why Yanase Naoto knew these things...

Because she was Avenil.

Unspeakable as it was, she truly was that Avenil whom her sister was so infatuated with, down to the last detail.

Right now, she was cross-dressing as a male to maintain her identity as an elder brother.

This matter started over a year ago, when Yanase Naoto, having entered university, got caught up in the "White Hole Event" caused by a massive erosion, accidentally transformed into a girl, and as a female became a rare "eligible" person capable of resonating with "Order Force." Through this physique, she resonated with Order Force for the first time and "transformed," becoming Avenil. After that incident, the Orderkeepers actively contacted her and recruited her to be active in this city as an agent, and she officially registered her agent action codename as Ephnel from that moment on.

Thus, her dual identity as Ephnel was born.

2. Not Siblings

Yanase Naoto took a long time to gradually grow accustomed to living as an agent.

Over the span of two years, she started as a rookie agent, climbed step by step, and ultimately became the city's independent number-one figure—the so-called "chief." Fighting the erosion entities that had invaded the urban area of Xijing City day after day was her most important duty.

When no dispatch missions were assigned, she cross-dressed as a boy to continue playing the role of "Yanase Naoto" in order to maintain her original identity as an elder brother—simply put, acting in front of her sister. Having become a girl, she looked somewhat overly delicate among boys, and deliberately lowering her voice only felt weird. Such a disguise was far from flawless, but she could muddle through by making up excuses.

No one had ever suspected that he was an agent, because... agents capable of resonating with beacons and gaining power could only be female. Thanks to this, as long as the secret that "Yanase Naoto is a girl" wasn't exposed, she didn't have to worry about her identity as an agent being exposed in front of her sister.

This was her life, continuing uneventfully for nearly two years. At first, even executing missions had exhausted all her strength, let alone balancing her sister's feelings, and only later did she finally become comfortable and proficient in missions.

As for becoming active as an "agent idol," that was a matter of the past few months.

In this end-times era, people needed faith and spiritual pillars, and the organization also urgently needed a spokesperson accepted by enough people. Thus, a "project" formulated to shape a hero was finalized. By then, Avenil was increasingly showing the potential to become the city's strongest agent and was a rapidly rising star among agents. Her outstanding appearance and comforting approachability naturally led to unanimous recognition, making her that "symbol"—yet what surprised most of the project's planners was that after Avenil was pushed to the forefront as a hero, it immediately evolved into a model similar to an "idol."

Consequently, the project planners went with the flow and simply had Avenil try out some offline promotional projects modeled after idol activities, which achieved massive success. In the end, the number of times Avenil was called an "idol" was almost indistinguishable from the number of times she was called a "hero." It could be said that Avenil becoming an agent idol was merely an unintended accident, yet the process that ultimately brought about this accident and the final results achieved were unexpectedly extraordinary. For Avenil herself, she didn't have much real sense of being active as an idol up to now; to her, all of this was closer to just executing missions.

Yet, an "idol fighting with all her might," such a persona was genuinely popular in an era like this—it could be said to be a very successful "accident."

"Phew..."

Looking at her own chibi image printed on the cup, Yanase Naoto sighed softly, holding the cup as she walked to the table.

Her face had gauze pasted on it, and her waist was wrapped in a thick circle of bandages—these injuries had been left behind in yesterday's bloody battle, slowly recovering thanks to the power brought by the force of "Order." With an agent's recovery rate, such injuries would heal in less than a week, but the sharp pain of the wounds and the psychological fatigue could not be so easily erased.

She actually wanted to sleep, but thinking that this was the rare breakfast time shared with her sister each day, she suddenly felt full of energy again.

Thinking of her sister, she hummed a tune leisurely as she poured oatmeal milk into the mug and placed it on the table. Soon, the final step of breakfast preparation was complete, and the aroma wandered wantily around the tip of her nose. She arranged the bread, sausages, and roasted tomatoes into a pleasing shape before nodding in satisfaction.

Making a mouth-watering breakfast was a rare pleasure for her, but it had been a long time since her sister last commented on Yanase Naoto's cooking skills, which made her feel a trace of disappointment.

She rubbed her brow and took a deep breath. If she were over at headquarters, she would probably be humming softly right now, but doing such a thing at home might expose her identity, so she could only hide her excitement deep inside her heart. She arranged the cup and spoon, took off her apron, walked up to her sister's bedroom door, raised her hand, and just as she was about to knock, the door opened from the inside.

The figure of a girl wearing a snowy-white nightgown appeared before her eyes.

Her younger sister, Shiomi Yukina.

Raven-feather-like black hair cascaded down to her waist, her eyes were clear, her lips held a slight dampness, and her eyelashes were curled with a high-bridged nose. Though her figure had not yet fully matured, it was still slender and graceful, pretty and charming.

In Yanase Naoto's eyes, Yukina was an impeccable princess, exquisite and noble.

Unfortunately, this princess wasn't very warm toward him, and as for the reason... it was probably rather complicated.

"Yo, good morning, Yukina."

She withdrew her hand that had been about to knock and greeted her. Although her mood was still quite good, she didn't deliberately let too many smiles bloom on her face because of it, maintaining only a faint smile.

Shiomi Yukina stood in front of the door, showing no trace of morning lethargy.

"Mhm... Good morning."

She responded, her voice gentle as early autumn drizzle, yet extraordinarily flat, lacking the emotional fluctuations Yanase Naoto anticipated.

Shiomi Yukina walked straight toward the bathroom.

Morning's brief exchange pretty much ended here—though saying it aloud would only make Yanase Naoto sigh, she had to admit that the way they got along now didn't resemble siblings at all, acting instead more like roommates bound by some contractual relationship. Regarding Yukina's change in attitude toward her over the past two years and recently, Yanase Naoto didn't show any particular expression, because her sister's attitude toward her wasn't formed in a single day; it was all brought about intentionally by her own hand, and she had nothing to say in her own defense.

"Breakfast is ready, there are roasted tomatoes and oatmeal milk that you like. Come over to eat after you wash up."

"Mhm..."

Yukina entered the bathroom, and the crisp click of the doorframe echoed.

Yanase Naoto pursed her lips, came to the dining table, and sat down.

Ever since that accident over a year ago, she began to deliberately distance the space between herself and her sister. Gradually, her younger sister stopped clinging to her and turned into this lukewarm state.

Yukina was actually the daughter of her parents' distant friends. Her parents died in an "accident" when she was very young, and young Yukina was sent to this city to live under Yanase Naoto's roof. They shared no blood relation yet still addressed each other as siblings.

A few years ago, Yanase Naoto's parents insisted on going abroad, claiming there were "important matters," and simply dumped her and Yukina behind in the country.

3. Strangers

Yanase Naoto and her younger sister were not biological siblings.

Thus, Yanase Naoto maintained some self-awareness; she never stood on the high ground of being an "elder brother" to boss Yukina around.

Most of the time, Yanase Naoto simply maintained a gentle, silent stance, quietly and dutifully playing the role of an "elder brother"—taking care of her sister, helping her out, and accompanying her. In return, Yukina was also very sensible and careful, expressing gratitude and concern toward Yanase Naoto in a sisterly way.

Their relationship when they were little had been very good and enviable, but this way of getting along lasted only until a little over a year ago before coming to an end.

Yanase Naoto was an "agent"; battle and training missions from the organization kept her overwhelmed, and later, after being pushed as a spokesperson, she was kept busy with regular meet-and-greet events, leaving her with no time to spend with Yukina. Meanwhile, Yukina was a student council officer, busy with academics and school affairs, and also struggled to carve out much leisure time. Their schedules often staggered, sometimes failing to even see each other a few times throughout a week. Their life trajectories had no intersection, leaving them with even fewer topics in common.

Neither of them was good at conversation, and they could barely say a few words throughout the day. On top of that, Yanase Naoto had more than once left her sister stranded in loneliness because of work when Yukina needed her most, and had even broken promises when invited to graduation ceremonies and school festivals.

Yanase Naoto always remembered that the day she went out to fight erosion entities as an agent, her younger sister had faced the pursuit of an erosion entity all alone, and in the end, what she waited for wasn't her "elder brother," but her disguised self as "Avenil."

If Avenil had arrived a minute later, Yukina probably would have become a cold corpse—the situation back then had been that urgent. Therefore, in Yukina's mind, the position of the reliable "elder brother" she had always depended on was replaced to a certain extent by "Avenil," who had rescued her at that time.

Such similar events piled up like snowflakes, forming a layer of ice between the two of them. The once inseparable "siblings" had now turned into "roommates" living under the same roof without cheerful laughter.

All of this was partly deliberate on Yanase Naoto's part, and partly unavoidable.

On the day Yukina's accident happened, she truly hadn't expected her younger sister to suddenly leave home alone and ultimately encounter an attack by an Erosion Disaster. As for the other times, on one hand, Yanase Naoto was burdened by missions out of necessity, while on the other hand... Yanase Naoto was guarding a secret about Yukina—a secret that even Yukina herself knew nothing about. She deliberately avoided Yukina, dismissed the people secretly protecting herself and Yukina, and had Yukina transfer to Youcheng Girls' Academy in the West District. All of this was done to ensure Yukina was absolutely isolated from "this world" where she herself resided. Over the past year and a half, this alienation had yielded remarkable results; it hadn't taken long for Yukina to stop following closely behind her and shouting things like "Big brother, old bro."

All in all, while there were plenty of objective factors involved, the bitter fruit was ultimately of her own deliberate making, so there was nothing to complain about; Yanase Naoto was well aware of this.

Yet when it came to her own circumstances and choices, she had little room to run her mouth.

Yanase Naoto never regretted doing it, even if it meant destroying the relationship with her beloved younger sister—she had steeled herself for such a thing over a year ago when she first picked up the spear of Ephnel.

Ceasing all useless thoughts, she lazily let out a breath as exhaustion surged up her spine toward the top of her head.

The wound at her waist burned with a pain like chili water splashed upon it, a piercing injury left over from yesterday's battle.

Tsk...

She clicked her tongue softly.

Such an injury was not exactly light for an Agent, but neither was it severe, merely the sort of degree that would recover in a week.

To an Agent, medicine could only be considered a negligible aid, and resting anywhere made little actual difference, so Yanase Naoto had not chosen to remain at headquarters to recuperate, nor had the doctor forced her to stay.

Moreover, what was more important was that Efnir disliked the oppressive atmosphere of the headquarters medical department; compared to sitting and staring blankly in a hospital room, going home was far more comfortable. At least her younger sister was still at home, and just by seeing Yukina, Yanase Naoto would feel that everything she had done was worth it.

To Yanase Naoto, her sister alone was ten million times more important than anything else; her sister was simply that indispensable of an existence to her.