About Becoming a Magical Girl

"Phew..."

For no particular reason, Efnir let out a sigh of relief.

The account she had posted from was her usual official personal social media account, public to everyone. Updates and announcements regarding her activities as both "Magical Girl Avenil" and "Agent Efnir" were posted there. As Efnir's sole official account, anything posted there carried considerable weight and credibility.

In other words, posting it there would certainly draw attention and quickly seize the spotlight, spreading what she wanted to convey in a very short time.

Efnir glanced at the account's follower count.

Nearly two hundred thousand. In other words, this account undoubtedly held enough influence to attract attention.

"I'd noticed it before, but this number still feels a little ridiculous..."

Efnir murmured uneasily.

Normally, Efnir had not put much effort into managing the account. She had merely posted event previews at Shinomiyami Nami's request, reposted educational columns about Corruption, or occasionally shared updates about herself when she had free time.

Yet before she knew it, Efnir had gained such an enormous number of followers.

As for the other Agents, either they had no official accounts at all, or they only had several thousand to ten thousand followers. Even the organization's official account had barely surpassed eighty thousand.

Just as Masaki Hina had said, Efnir's accumulated popularity could not be underestimated.

For a project intended to turn Agents into idols, Efnir was undoubtedly qualified. Though it was opportunistic to some degree, using this method for publicity and to ease psychological pressure had indeed produced positive results.

Efnir sighed, no longer wanting to think about that tangled mess. She clasped her hands and stretched them over her head, then yawned.

Ding-dong—

Efnir heard a notification from her computer.

She had only posted it around ten seconds ago, yet comment and repost notifications had already popped up in the corner of the screen. Then the message count in the window shot straight up to "99+," like ants swarming from their nest after finding food.

Efnir tugged at the corner of her mouth.

It's already one in the morning. Don't these people work or study during the day? Why aren't they asleep?

By tomorrow, the number of comments and reposts would surely become terrifying, wouldn't it?

The voices condemning her would flood her ears all at once, too.

Efnir's shoulders drooped. She rubbed them, did not open the notifications to look, and simply shut down the computer.

"Whatever happens, happens..."

I'm really sorry, Shinomiyami Nami. All your efforts are about to go down the drain. Efnir apologized inwardly to Shinomiyami Nami, who had supported her as her manager.

After something like this, Efnir's career as an Agent idol would probably end here, wouldn't it?

For some reason, she felt lonely.

It was not as though she had loved this job all that much, but no matter what the object was or what form it took, people were simply accustomed to hating loss.

But to Efnir, even losing everything she had could never compare to losing Yukina.

Speaking of which, Yukina was still here.

"Yukina, I'm done over here. You can go to sleep now."

Efnir spoke lazily.

But she received no reply.

Efnir turned her head toward the bed, only to discover that Yukina was lying diagonally across it. At some point, she had already fallen asleep.

Nightfall

"Looks like she really was exhausted..."

Too many things had happened yesterday. For Yukina, everything she had taken for granted in daily life had probably been thrown into chaos all at once.

That was why she had come running to Efnir's room, just like when she was little.

Efnir sighed softly, rose as quietly as she could, drew the curtains, turned the air conditioner up a little, then carefully sat down at the edge of the bed.

Yukina slept peacefully, hugging a pillow to her chest as she rose and fell gently. If Efnir listened closely, she could even hear her soft breathing.

Quiet. Beautiful.

How long had it been since she had seen such a sleeping face...?

When Yukina had still been small, Efnir had seen it often. It had been an ordinary sight, one she had taken for granted. Yet later, when she looked back, it had somehow become blurred without her realizing it.

Until yesterday, when Yukina had cried in front of her.

Efnir suddenly realized that the distance between herself and Yukina had never been as great as she had imagined.

Yukina.

Efnir reached out and gently brushed aside the hair at Yukina's lips, as though trying to catch a dragonfly.

The sleeping girl gradually overlapped with the girl from her memories who had once laughed so brightly, and Efnir's gaze unconsciously softened.

Efnir took out her phone and checked the time.

It was already this late.

A dry exhaustion filled the corners of her eyes.

It was time to sleep.

But Yukina had taken over her bed. After thinking about it, Efnir set her sights on the sofa in the living room. For just one night, it was soft enough to be reasonably comfortable.

Efnir paused, then hesitantly and gently lifted Yukina's little feet, which had been dangling over the edge of the bed, and placed them on the mattress.

Yukina clutched the pillow with both hands, but Efnir easily pulled it free from her arms.

She set the pillow aside, got up, and turned off the light. The room became pitch-black, save for a faint glow spilling in from the living room.

Efnir opened the bedroom door and was about to leave, but after some thought, she turned back and took out two thin blankets.

She covered Yukina with one and gently tucked it around her, keeping the other for herself to use on the sofa.

"Good night, Yukina."

Holding the thin blanket, Efnir smiled warmly. She rose once more to leave, but her little finger suddenly sank as a soft, warm little hand hooked tightly around it.

"Big sister..."

A faint murmur broke the stillness of the air. In the dim light filtering in from the living room, Efnir met a pair of hazy eyes heavy with sleepiness.

At some point, Yukina had woken up.

Efnir had not noticed at all.

"Yukina... you're awake?"

Her drowsiness was swept away in an instant. Efnir swallowed and spoke awkwardly in a low voice.

"Sorry... Did I wake you...?"

Sleepy ripples flickered at the corners of Yukina's eyes. She held tightly onto Efnir's finger, her gaze falling upon the thin blanket in Efnir's hand.

"Where are you going, Big Sister?"

"Where are you going, Big Sister?"

Yukina and Efnir looked at one another in silence.

"Can you stay with me? Just for a little while..."

Seeing disappointment and uncertainty appear on Yukina's cool face, Efnir froze for a moment, not knowing how to answer.

I was going to sleep on the sofa so I wouldn't wake you—that kind of answer sounded too distant and unfamiliar, so Efnir immediately rejected it.

But the thin blanket in her hand and the light from the living room had already betrayed her.

Her intentions could not have been more obvious.

"Big Sister."

Yukina called softly.

There was a rustle of fabric. Still hooking Efnir's little finger with hers, Yukina sat up on the bed. The thin blanket slipped from her delicate skin, and the living room light swept across her neck. Only one strap remained on her snowy-white shoulder.

The light became like gauze curtains, thread by thread, half-concealing and half-revealing. From Efnir's angle, her gaze could just barely slip beneath the clothes below Yukina's neck.

Efnir looked away as though she had seen nothing, but her heartbeat began to quicken.

"Do you not want to sleep with me, Big Sister?"

Whether it was dissatisfaction deep in her heart or a trace of hope, Yukina asked the question before she even realized it.

She felt the warmth from Efnir's fingers and lowered her lashes.

There really was a difference in skin temperature between someone who had just woken up and someone about to fall asleep.

Efnir's hand was much warmer than Yukina's. That warmth passed through her palm and reached the depths of her heart, like winter sunlight melting snow.

Whenever she was with her sister, that fluttering feeling filled her chest.

By now, there was no longer any good excuse to brush off these genuine feelings, yet she had no right to respond to the emotions surging within her.

But they were sisters.

It was unrequited love.

If she recklessly continued down this path, she would undoubtedly step off a cliff and be shattered to pieces.

"It's not that I don't want to..."

Efnir turned her head aside and denied it immediately, though she did not know where she was looking.

"It's just that Yukina has grown up too, and I thought... maybe you might dislike sleeping in the same bed as me... something like that..."

"I never said I disliked it."

Yukina stubbornly gripped Efnir's finger and interrupted her.

"We've slept together before, haven't we...? If they're sisters, there are probably times like that often enough, right?"

Efnir froze again.

What should I do now? Efnir had no idea for a moment.

They had indeed often fallen asleep together before, but the current situation clearly could not be compared to those days.

Efnir was growing up, and so was Yukina. The mischievous little girl of the past had grown into a graceful young woman. Her youthful skin carried a perfectly measured charm, and Yukina as she was now made it impossible for Efnir to remain calm.

Much less sleep in the same bed.

She was clearly the older sister, yet her younger sister had made her waver. The fluttering that filled her chest in an instant left Efnir flustered.

They were supposed to be sisters, yet some other feeling seemed to be sprouting between them.

That unmistakable feeling made Efnir's scalp crawl.

"I can't sleep if you're not here, Big Sister."

"I'll stay here with you..."

"Get in."

The thin blanket in Efnir's hand was snatched away and tossed aside.

Efnir had nowhere left to run. Her throat moved, and she could only sit down stiffly, kicking off her slippers.

Then she climbed onto the bed.

I'm the older sister. I'm the older sister. I'm the older sister.

She's the younger sister. She's the younger sister. She's the younger sister.

Efnir comforted herself like that and gradually calmed down somewhat. They were only sleeping in the same bed. It was no big deal. Being able to once again be this close to the younger sister she loved most made her very happy, so she did not need to think about anything else. She only needed to fall asleep full of happiness.

The bed creaked softly. Efnir tried her best not to touch Yukina as she lay down in the space Yukina had made for her.

It was only a single bed, not particularly large, but both Efnir and Yukina were slim, so lying side by side did not feel cramped.