About Becoming a Magical Girl

Was class always this noisy?

Yukina frowned, feeling strangely irritated. She set down her pen and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

Maybe it was because she had not rested well last night... Actually, her chest had felt uncomfortable since morning. The sensation was faint, there and gone like the rise and fall of the tide.

Her mental state was poor, and she could not settle down during class, constantly noticing other things instead.

She could smell snacks someone had secretly taken out, and with just a glance, she could clearly read the notes being passed between students several seats away.

It was a strange, incomprehensible feeling.

Rather than being poorly rested, it felt more as though she were still immersed in that brief period after transforming into Fifina yesterday.

Was this what happened after Resonance?

Yukina did not know. Maybe her sister did, but her sister was not by her side right now.

"All right, that's it for this class. There's something I need to announce afterward."

At that moment, the young literature teacher and homeroom teacher closed the textbook in her hands, set down the chalk, and spoke.

"Last week, the parent-teacher conference was unexpectedly interrupted because of the Erosion Disaster. After discussion by the committee, we have decided to hold it again. It will be held the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, at three in the afternoon, so..."

"It's finally here... I knew there was no escaping it."

"So annoying. My dad barely managed to make time last time, and then it didn't happen. Now it's happening again..."

Before the teacher had even finished speaking, the students began whispering among themselves. Yukina could not even make out what the teacher said afterward.

"A parent-teacher conference..."

Yukina looked out the window and murmured.

Would her sister come this time?

The afternoon PE class was volleyball practice. With final exams drawing near, the students had become a little more motivated, and the scrimmage was fiercely contested.

"Blue team scores."

The teacher blew the whistle, raised her left hand high, looked toward Yukina's side, and blew the whistle again.

"Rotate."

Yukina shifted her feet and moved to the front of the net, bending slightly. She saw Kanade Kotone standing across from her, smiling.

It was as though she were saying, "That was a beautiful shot."

Yukina returned the smile helplessly.

That shot had indeed been beautiful, but Yukina, who could only occasionally make a play like that, was different from Kanade Kotone, who could always perform at that level.

Normally, the team Kanade Kotone was on would always win, without suspense.

Yukina's academic rank was only slightly higher than Kotone's, while Kanade Kotone was far superior to Yukina in sports. In Yukina's view, that shot had been a complete accident. Even Yukina herself had not expected to pull off such a move.

And besides...

Yukina had considered that her unusually strong performance might be related to the changes in her body she had noticed that morning.

Her five senses had become sharper, and naturally, her physical ability had improved slightly as well. It was like turning on cheats to boost your stats before playing a game. Thinking of it that way only made Yukina unable to feel happy about it.

The teacher blew the whistle again, cutting off Yukina's thoughts.

It was time to serve.

Bang—

The ball flew straight over her head, then bounced up again with another bang.

"I've got it!"

A teammate beside her shouted, stepped forward, and received the ball.

The other side refused to be outdone, and the ball flew back over.

It was clearly a very tricky angle, but in Yukina's eyes, the ball seemed to sway slowly through the air like a drifting balloon.

She pressed her lips together. In the instant her breathing stopped, she stepped forward and leaped high. Her gaze somehow cleared the net. Yukina raised her arm and slammed the ball down with all her strength.

Bang—

A tremendous sound exploded in her palm. Her exertion had been no different from usual, yet the result was completely different.

The sensation from her palm instantly spread through the muscles in her arm. Even Yukina was startled by the burst of strength she had unleashed. The ball smashed down at a speed the naked eye could barely follow, and at the same time, the girls' screams erupted around her.

"Ah—Kanade!!"

"Kanade! Are you all right?!"

"Teacher..."

Kanade Kotone caught that ball.

But in her rushed movement, she had only managed to accurately find where the ball would land. Without time to adjust her posture, she raised both arms at an improper angle. The rapidly spiked ball rebounded at an equally terrifying speed and struck her squarely in the jaw.

Yukina stood frozen in place, staring blankly at Kanade Kotone, who had collapsed unconscious, and at the panicked students crowding around her.

Kanade Kotone

Efnir sat in a café, staring out the window in a daze.

Though she was on vacation, Efnir did not actually have anything to do.

Or rather, if there was no mission requiring her deployment, Efnir had never really had anything to do.

Normally, she would spend this time training without interruption. For Agents, neither training of any intensity nor massive energy intake would change their body shape, but research showed that reasonable physical training could improve their stamina and strength. Therefore, training was an essential part of every Agent's life.

But Efnir had now been "suspended." Going to headquarters to borrow a training room would feel rather strange.

That morning, Efnir had gone to the hospital to visit Fengling Shiyin and Shiina Rin (Furan). She had tactfully asked Shiina Rin whether she would be willing to resign from her position as an Agent after finishing treatment, but the answer she received was, "Absolutely not." Efnir did not dwell on it or say anything further. She merely told her to recover well before leaving.

Efnir chose to respect Shiina Rin's decision, just as she had never stripped Fengling Shiyin of her Agent status. It was a matter of respect for warriors who bore this duty. The same was true for Efnir herself. Of course, Efnir had initially joined the Agents for herself and for her younger sister, but by the time she had come this far, she was no longer the girl who moved forward for a single, simple goal. Everyone became entangled in countless bonds. Those bonds were shackles that held them back, but they were also the strength that let them fight. For Agents, they had already become an inseparable part of who they were.

After leaving the hospital, Efnir suddenly remembered that most of the women's clothes were kept in her room at headquarters. There were no women's pajamas in the apartment, and barely any spare clothes to change into, so she made another trip to the shopping street and bought several outfits, along with underwear.

After casually finding somewhere to eat lunch, Efnir came to this café and found a secluded corner, scrolling through comments on her social media account on her tablet. Unexpectedly, the direction of public opinion online seemed somewhat different from what she had imagined. But before she could take a closer look, her phone rang.

The caller ID showed Yukina's homeroom teacher. Efnir frowned slightly and answered.

"Hello! Is this Mr. Yanase?"

The other party sounded somewhat anxious.

"I was wondering if you could come to the school... Yukina, she..."

She had injured a classmate?

A faint medicinal smell hung in the air.

Yukina sat beside the examination bed, looking at Kanade Kotone lying on it with a gloomy expression.

Kanade Kotone's left hand was wrapped in bandages, and medicine had been applied beneath her cheek. Even so, the bruised swelling under her skin was still clearly visible. Her delicate, pretty face had been utterly ruined by the ugly medicine stains and bruises.

Several classmates stood around her, looking worried.

"Then we'll head back to class first. Kanade, make sure you get plenty of rest. We hope you recover soon."

"Mm, thank you. Bye!"

Kanade Kotone replied.

The classmates left, but Yukina stayed behind.

"They're gone..."

Kanade Kotone watched her classmates leave the infirmary, drew a deep breath, and forced out a yawn.

"It's tiring having everyone gathered around me all the time. Ah, right, Yukina, is it really okay for you not to go back to class?"

"It's still break time."

Yukina said.

"Besides, the teacher said I could stay here and look after you. My credits are enough anyway, so skipping class once in a while is no big deal."

Kanade Kotone's injuries were much more serious than expected. A brief loss of consciousness, a fracture in her left forearm, soft tissue damage, and a jaw contusion—those were not injuries a rubber volleyball should have been able to cause. It looked more like she had been struck hard by some blunt weapon.

But everyone had clearly seen that shot. The explosive crack that had made their eardrums tremble still lingered in Yukina's mind.

After being injured, Kanade Kotone had immediately been helped to the infirmary, and Yukina had been put in charge of looking after her.

"I see..."

"Um... Kanade, I'm sorry. I hurt you..."

"Shiomi, you don't need to apologize."

Kanade Kotone smiled brightly, then bared her teeth as though she had tugged at the wound.

Yukina said nothing and only lowered her gaze.

"All right, all right, don't make that face. It's only a minor injury. I used to get hurt during training all the time when I was little. This isn't any worse than those. I'm used to it already."

"It's different."

Maybe Kanade Kotone saw it all as an accident, but Yukina knew perfectly well that she had completely failed to control the strength in her hand then. That was why this had happened.

Yukina spread her fingers and stared at her palm.

Her skin was clean, her fingers slender. Her hands were no different from those of other girls, yet the uncontrollable power that had burst forth made her realize that something inside her had definitely changed.

Even if she had not meant to, she had still hurt her best friend.

"Honestly, Yukina, that shot really scared me. That beautiful movement looked like it had been made specifically for volleyball... Ah, right!"

As though she had suddenly remembered something exciting, Kanade looked straight at Yukina.

"Why don't you join the school team with me, Shiomi? Someone as amazing as you would definitely become a starting player!"

"No way."

Yukina rolled her eyes at Kanade Kotone and turned away.

"Why not?!"

"Shiomi, Kanade, please keep quiet in the infirmary."

The doctor's voice came from the room farther inside. Kanade stuck out her tongue and closed her mouth.

Only then did Yukina let out a sigh of relief.

"Get some proper rest. Stop thinking about all sorts of nonsense. Finals are coming up, and if you don't recover soon and your grades slip, I'll feel really guilty."

"Don't worry. As long as you give up your spot, I guarantee I'll take first place and show you!"

In their class, Yukina had always ranked first, while Kanade hovered around second, third, or fourth.

At that moment, the infirmary door slid open, and a burst of noisy voices and hot air rushed in from outside.

"Hey, hey, who's that girl... She's so pretty!"

It was the voice of a student who had just left the infirmary.

At a girls' academy, girls often gathered to look at another pretty girl. If a beautiful upperclassman came to a lower-year classroom, she could easily become surrounded by onlookers. It happened from time to time and was one of the girls' little pleasures.

Yukina glanced at Kanade Kotone.

In the past, whenever this happened, Kanade Kotone would definitely drag Yukina over to join the commotion.

Footsteps entered the infirmary and paused.

"She's so pretty!"

At that moment, Kanade Kotone, who had been looking around, suddenly exclaimed in admiration.

"Hey, hey, Yukina, there's a really pretty older girl. Take a look..."