Ministry of Magic

Biodata

Background and History

The Taiping Prefecture Ministry of Magic originated as a symposium founded by self-taught magicians and was later absorbed into the government. After magical girls appeared at the beginning of the new century, their greater strength displaced magicians from the organization’s leadership 32.

Red Rain and Hu Xueting, survivors of the first-generation Five Colors Team, reorganized the Magic Research Society into the Ministry of Magic. Their generation of retired magical girls secured control through its achievements and seniority, then introduced the Magical Girl Prohibition Regulations and Guidelines for the Commercial Standardization of Magical Girls. Fifteen years later, their authority remained entrenched 32 76.

A subsequent United Government reform proposal was defeated in Congress. The founding magical girls’ prestige made intervention politically difficult, although growing public dissatisfaction eventually gave the government an opening to investigate the ministry 53.

Organization and Authority

Administration

• Minister and regional heads: The minister presides over meetings of officials responsible for individual regions. Tianhe City and Liberty City hold the highest regional positions beneath her 32.
• Retirement-to-administration pipeline: Official magical girls commonly move into administrative posts after retirement. Both Red Rain and Hu Xueting followed this route 32 43.
• Composition: Following the leadership transfer, the ministry became approximately ninety percent female. Its remaining male representation was maintained by United Government requirements 32.
• Government representation: Merlin Metal represents the United Government within the ministry, though he is largely sidelined by its dominant leadership 32 67.
• Appointments: Lin Xiaohong’s civil-service appointment was signed by the president; Merlin states that even the minister cannot simply remove her from office 32.

Duties and Regulation

Legal Limits and Abuses

The ministry’s internal rules do not supersede national law 27.

• Limited reach over outsiders: Its conduct regulations bind ministry civil servants and official magical girls, not every independent magical girl 32.
• Supervillain killings: Under the Third Amendment to Superhuman Law, designated supervillains lose their civil and political rights; killing them incurs no legal responsibility. This made Hell’s killing of Ripper lawful despite violating ministry policy 27 32.
• Detention restrictions: Merlin rejects the claim that the ministry can imprison Hell or destroy her magic circuits without a lawful basis. He states that even becoming a witch would not justify confinement if she harmed no one 32.
• Extralegal pressure: Hu Xueting nevertheless ordered Hell captured and taken directly to detention without trial. Earlier witchification investigations commonly involved taking magical girls away for questioning without the procedural care shown in Hell’s case 32 43.
• Concentrated authority: The ministry is described as monopolizing legislative, executive, and judicial authority over magical girls, despite the legal limits challenged by Merlin and Tang Wenjie 76.

Notable Personnel

Headquarters and Resources

Subspace Headquarters

• Origin: Occupies a separate subspace created by a legendary magician two hundred years earlier 54.
• Access: Entry and exit require a Ministry of Magic key and a special method. Witches ordinarily struggle even to approach it 54.
• Facilities: Includes a grand cathedral, a conference room with a golden nanmu table, and an archive large enough to resemble a library 32 56.
• Defensive weakness: The Witches’ Association develops a method combining controlled nuclear fusion technology with magic to breach the subspace barrier 54 56 68.

Detention and Assessment

• Witch detention center: Officials propose using it to imprison Hell, alongside punishment through destruction of her magic circuits; Merlin disputes their authority to do either 32.
• Danger ratings: The ministry assigns ratings to magical girls. Hell considers these assessments inflated compared with her system’s civilization-wide threat standard, particularly in Golden Feather’s case 42 44.

Concealed Witchification System

The Retirement Deception

• Inevitable corruption: After awakening, a magical girl’s Soul Gem gradually becomes contaminated by subspace power even if she does not use magic 56 74.
• Temporary delay: Purifying Grief Seeds increases magical capacity and delays witchification, but cannot prevent it indefinitely 56.
• False public account: The ministry presents retirement around eighteen as normal. In reality, almost all magical girls outside its protection become witches, with ninety-nine percent failing to live to eighteen 56.
• Information suppression: Large-scale Cognitive Interference and a worldwide memetic spell conceal these truths by making ordinary people gradually forget what they learn 56 74.
• Restricted disclosure: Even Lin Xiaohong is kept uninformed because the leadership believes learning the truth would cause her to become a witch and defect 56.

Eternal Device

Major Story Events

Conflict with Hell

Hell’s public debut challenges the ministry’s prohibition on killing by showcasing her defeat of Ripper. The ministry condemns her, demands that Moon Studio blacklist her, refuses to recognize her official status, and announces a witch investigation 30 32 33.

Colossus rejects this pressure. Moro gives Tang Wenjie control over ministry dealings and authorizes superhero protection for Hell. At subsequent negotiations, Tang rejects the ministry’s authority to investigate her, while Firebird forces Golden Feather to withdraw 34 42 43.

Siren Battle Report and Tax Investigation

After Hell defeats Siren, ministry leaders pressure Lin Xiaohong to omit her contribution. The published report excludes Hell and credits Hu Xueting. Moon Studio counters with photographs and aquarium surveillance footage, exposing the discrepancy 49 51 53.

The president’s office sends tax investigators to examine corruption, dereliction of duty, and records potentially reaching back twenty years. To protect the ministry’s secrets, Red Rain sacrifices Hu Xueting, who resumes her Frost and Snow identity and massacres the investigation team 53 54 56.

Red Rain reports Frost and Snow as a defector and orders Red Sparrow Squad to pursue her. Hell intervenes when the squad is outmatched and defeats Frost and Snow 57 59 60.

Headquarters Attack and Surt Incident

The Witches’ Association breaches headquarters despite heightened security. An A-rank familiar gravely injures Lin Xiaohong, kills a stationed defender, and forces the remaining B+-rank defenders into a desperate battle to repel it 68.

During the ensuing Surt crisis, Merlin requests help from the Superhero Association. The minister recognizes that dependence on another agency threatens the ministry’s claim to exclusive authority—and potentially its government funding 71.

Reconciliation and the New Five Colors Project

Red Rain launches the New Five Colors Project, seeking a powerful global team whose victories can restore the ministry’s prestige. She offers reconciliation and official recognition to Hell, hoping to recruit her 71 73 74.

Hell accepts reconciliation but rejects the team invitation. The ministry later publishes her profile and combat record on its website. It also sends Xiaohong and Whale Song to supervise her public duel with Moon God 73 79 80.

External Relationships

• United Government — Funds the ministry, appoints representatives, and retains leverage through taxation. Reform efforts face resistance until the Siren-report scandal creates an opportunity for investigation 32 53 71.
• Colossus Company and Moon Studio — Oppose the ministry’s suppression of Hell, provide protection, and expose its falsified battle report 34 43 53.
• Witches’ Association — An organized enemy that celebrates Hell’s defiance and later breaches ministry headquarters 30 54 68.
• Superhero Association — A separate law-enforcement organization handling supercriminals rather than magical affairs. Its intervention during the Surt Incident raises questions about the ministry’s competence 71.
• Moon God — Refuses the Eternal Engraving and breaks with the ministry rather than accept survival dependent on its system 74.
• Red Owl — Openly distrusts the ministry and declines to intervene in its conflict with Hell unless ordinary people are endangered 50 70.