CH 1

Prologue

『Magical Girls』

What exactly do people associate with that name?

A princess of the magical world who casts spells into a mirror?

Or do you mean the apprentice witch training in an ordinary town?

Or brave girls fighting bad guys for justice?

None of them are wrong, but the girls in this world are in a slightly different situation.

Volunteers for the National Defense Magical Contract – a.k.a. “Magical Girls”. They are “Defenders of the Nation” who have chosen to fight against the endless number of Demonic Beasts that keep springing up.

For some, it’s a position.

For some, it’s a matter of ideals.

For some, it’s hope.

Some others chose that path because they wished for peace.

What awaits those who become “Magical Girls” are dangerous days of life and death. A meritocratic society where one’s talent is the only thing that counts.

In such a lonely battle – defeat is never acceptable…

Winning is deserved. Losing means death as it is.

–This is the story of a girl, or a boy, entangled in such a fate.

—- Hagakure Sakura’s story.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

2:00 a.m. On a quiet residential street in the middle of the night, there was a girl. She was wearing flower-patterned pajamas and staggered down the street with her hands against the wall. She seemed to be in poor health, breathing heavily as if in pain.

The appearance of the beast in five minutes. Please evacuate to the northwest as soon as possible.

Such a mechanical voice came from a cell phone the girl had.

“Quick, we have to get out of here…”

The girl muttered bitterly, biting her lip as if reprimanding herself and putting strength into her trembling legs.

-How long has it been since the warning… If she didn’t escape soon, she really wouldn’t make it.

Cough. 

The girl coughed. She had a high fever and dizziness, probably due to a cold. There’s a reason why she was outside in spite of her condition.

Yes- because the monsters… were coming.

–Predicted outbreak of Class-E Demonic Beast has been confirmed. There are 30 minutes left until the appearance of the entity. Everyone in the area near the marker should immediately begin evacuating to the designated area.

She certainly heard such an alarm in the middle of the night in her foggy consciousness. Her memory was somewhat hazy, probably because she was deeply asleep due to the fever.

–E-class Demonic Beasts. Based on the map on the cell phone, the government’s predicted location of the Demonic Beast is within a radius of 200 meters from the vicinity of the girl’s home.

At this distance, under normal circumstances, she would have been able to evacuate with her parents. However, the girl’s parents were away for a relative’s funeral and would not return until tomorrow night. Therefore, the girl could only escape alone with her ailing body.

In this day and age, it isn’t unusual to see deaths caused by Demonic Beasts. A certain number of people are killed each year – it’s like a traffic accident, so to speak.

However, even though death by Demonic Beasts is not uncommon, it’s the nature of human creatures to not want to be involved in such events.

The girl’s grandmother used to say that just a few decades ago, though… There were no such things as Demonic Beasts.

『The Demonic Beast』

The joke of this existence’s nature suddenly began to encroach on reality.

–The beginning of the event was 30 years ago. It was July 7, at 2 pm.

People suddenly looked up at the sky and mouthed the following words.

The sky is cracking.

The crack, which could only be described as a crack, was so large that one could not see its edges just by looking up at it, and it spread out to cover the entire Japanese archipelago.

People were suspicious of the mysterious phenomenon, but the cracks that appeared soon melted away into the blue of the sky. The news that day reported that it was an unseasonal aurora borealis or something.

–People still had no way of knowing that that day was the beginning of it all.

The day after the sky broke, in an urban building area during the morning rush hour with many passersby -it appeared without warning.

The beast, which looked like an even more vicious version of a large bear, killed and wounded dozens of people and was shot dead by police riot police a few hours later. If that had been the only case, it would just have been labeled as a case of an unexplained animal rampage and eventually faded from people’s memories.

-But it didn’t happen.

After that day, the beast-like creature began to change its shape and location, appearing in various parts of the Japanese archipelago at a rate of approximately several times each day.

Mysterious beasts of wondrous destruction, which after a while dissolve into the air like a haze and disappear. The Demonic Beasts could only be called unknown invaders. Anxiety and fear spread slowly. People were still unable to admit that the world had changed.

Then, a few days after the incident began. A psychic said to the government, which had not even begun to solve the problem, “This was caused by yesterday’s disaster. Evil things are entering Japan through that crack,” he began to warn on social networking sites.

At first, most of the voices were mocking, saying that they could not believe that it was the word of a stinking spiritualist, but these voices gradually became quieter. It could also be said that they simply no longer have the time to worry about such things.

The foreign media reported on the Demonic Beasts incident with great frequency. At first, the tone was as if they were presenting a poorly made monster movie, but as time went by, the tone gradually changed into something more and more sinister.

A Modern Hell.

The End of Atheism.

A Nation Abandoned by God.

Those Demonic Beasts must be demons.

“-If we get involved with a country where such horrible things happen, our country is doomed!”

…However the mystery had faded and the existence of God had been reduced to a skeleton, religion was still deeply rooted in countries around the world. It was only natural to associate the fear of the unknown with a known entity.

The greatest misfortune for Japan was that it could not involve other countries. For some reason, the Demonic Beasts only appeared in Japan.

Many countries were concerned that Japan’s current situation might spark a firestorm in their own countries if they got involved in such a situation.

Foreign countries moved quickly: the U.S., the EU, Russia, Asian countries, all closed their embassies within three months of the first incident, and some countries even banned Japanese citizens from entering their countries.

Three months – that’s how long it took for the country of Japan to be mercilessly driven into isolation.

It may seem thin-skinned, but for other countries, the Demonic Beast was becoming a symbol of fear. Some of them may have been under pressure to be more sympathetic, but the faraway island nation was just a stranger to the rest of the world. The world easily dismissed Japan as a country that had no choice but to save itself.

Japan was almost forcibly forced into a state of isolation, and its lifelines were destroyed by Demonic Beasts, plunging the country into a state of devastation. The people living in Japan became exhausted by the fear of being attacked by the monsters day and night.

On the other hand, those with wealthy upper-class family members had long since fled the country, and those with foreign nationality who were in Japan fled back to their home countries as soon as possible. Only those who could not escape were left behind in Japan.

…Thirty years have passed since such a nightmarish situation. Miracle after miracle has occurred that no one could have predicted, and the current situation in Japan has greatly improved, but they’re still constantly exposed to the threat of death.

–The monster has not disappeared yet.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, her feet tangled and the girl fell to the ground. The impact distorted her vision.

Even so, she was in poor health due to a high fever. When impatience and fear are added to the situation, it isn’t surprising that she was unable to move satisfactorily. 

But she couldn’t just stand there.

The girl tried with her last strength to stand up.

–But, as if to mock her determination, a rasping sound rang out from her cell phone.

“Warning, warning. Leave the area now. I repeat. Leave the area now. The predicted location of the apparition is 20 meters from your current location. Repeat. Now–“

“What? No way… I’m pretty sure it was safe this way on the map!”

She hurriedly checked the map on her cell phone, but to the girl’s dismay, the display of her current location was filled in red with an emergency alert.

“Why? Why is the display map different from the first one? I had never heard of such a glitch…!”

–I have to run, I have to run, I have to run!

At the moment when the impatient girl tried to run away from the pain in her body, a chill, different from the chill caused by the illness, ran down her spine.

“Oh, oh, no…”

She could hear something strange approaching from the alley right next to her, making a strange rustling sound. 

-She had to run away, but her legs didn’t move as if they were frozen. The girl looked to the side, shivering.

It… had the silhouette of a large man. However, there was one thing that was definitely different from that of a human man.

With the light of the full moon on its back, the thing – a Demonic Beast with the face of a wolf – stood there, waving its murderous intent.

She squealed.

Horrifyingly intense fear dominated the girl’s thoughts. She should run away from this place right now, but she couldn’t turn her eyes away from the Demonic Beast.

–Oh, no. No way, no way.

She’d seen plenty of Demonic Beasts in her life. But they are always unrealistic things that we see on TV or read about in books. Even hunters get upset when they encounter wild bears, so how could an ordinary girl be so calm when she encountered a Demonic Beast?

“Uh-uh.”

Tears were spilling from both of her eyes. Unable to hold it in, a small sob escaped. Absolute fear of death. The girl was simply terrified of the monster in front of her.

The Demonic Beast twisted its largemouth into a grin and looked at the girl. It looked happy, as if it had just gotten a new toy. The expression on its face spoke volumes of the girl’s future treatment.

–I can’t do it anymore. I’m done here. This werewolf is going to tear me to pieces and kill me.

Just as the girl was about to give up, she felt something touch her shoulder.

“Close your eyes.”

The voice entered the girl’s ears with surprising ease. She did as she was told and closed her eyes. For some reason, she felt that she had to do so.

A moment later, she heard a sharp whistling sound and the sound of something large slamming into the ground. The sound of water was fresh in her ears. Her body shook involuntarily, but she didn’t want to open her eyes.

Too speechless to speak, the girl slumped to her knees on the spot. As the girl covered her face with her hands and shivered, she heard footsteps that sounded like walking through a puddle. The footsteps were slowly coming toward the girl.

A chill run down her spine. 

What is it that is approaching me now? If she looked up and opened her eyes, she was sure she could see it was. But she couldn’t help but be afraid.

-What if it is another Demonic Beast in front of me right now? If so, she wasn’t sure she could keep her sanity. 

I think I would actually be happier if I just close my eyes and get it over with. That’s what she thought.

As the girl was currently shaking, something touched the girl’s shoulder.

Hee?

The body shook violently. 

–I’m scared, scared, scared, if it’s a dream, please wake me up. The girl cowered, hoping so. However, her expectations were betrayed.

“…Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

–It was a terribly clear tone. But the voice was somehow nostalgic, and she even felt a strange sense of relief.

The girl’s back was stroked awkwardly, and her breath, which had been hyperventilating from the anxiety, slowly returned to normal. The owner of the mysterious voice continued to gently cuddle with the girl until she calmed down.

-Who is this person?

Gradually calming down, the girl opened her eyes fearfully and looked up. There was a lady, two or three years older than the girl, with a worried look on her face.

Cool eyes and slender features. She looked somewhat boyish, but the girl just thought she was vaguely beautiful.

Upon seeing her, the girl immediately knew who it was. No, she knew the generic name of that “Being”.

“Magical Girl?”

The lady nodded in response to the girl’s question.

–When Demonic Beasts began to appear in this world, they were followed by the sudden appearance of other beings. That is the 『Magical Girls』

Girls around the same age as her who made a contract with a miracle to fight against Demonic Beasts. The lady in front of her must be one of them.

–Oh, I’m saved.

The moment she realized this, she suddenly lost all strength from her body. It was as if her body was heavy.

Gently supporting the girl as she fell, the lady quickly checked the girl’s body and told her, “It looks like you’re not injured. But the next time you’re sick and there’s an alarm, call the emergency services. You don’t have to go alone.”

“Ah…”

When she said this, the girl remembered the ambulance for the first time. Because of the fever, she only thought that she had to get out of there as soon as possible, and such a thing had never occurred to her.

“Your fever is high, and I’m going to drive you to the hospital. You can sleep a little.”

She then gently placed her right hand on the girl’s forehead. The cool temperature of her hand felt comfortable. Just as the girl was about to fall into a deep slumber, she muttered something as if a thought had just occurred to her.

“What’s your name?”

-I am sure that I will never forget what happened today. That’s why I want to know the name of the benefactor who saved me from the depths of fear.

Then the woman smiled softly and beautifully and whispered.

“–My name is Hagakure Sakura. You don’t have to remember it. It’s an insignificant name anyway.”

“Hagakure Sakura.”

-That was all the girl could remember.

The next thing she knew, the girl was on a hospital bed receiving an intravenous drip. Her mother, who looked like she was about to cry, rushed over to the girl who was rubbing her eyes in a daze. It seemed that the lady, Sakura Hagakure, had carried the girl to the hospital after that.

According to the doctor, the cold had worsened due to her moving around, causing pneumonia, and the girl had been unconscious for about a week after she was brought to the hospital. If she had come to the hospital a little later, she might have lost her life in the worst-case scenario, he told them mysteriously.

And the lady who had carried the unconscious girl on her back seemed to have disappeared without a trace after handing her over to the doctor.

She didn’t even say her name, and the girl smiled with narrowed eyes at the doctor, who said curiously. It’s kind of like her, she thought vaguely.

While quietening her mother, who cried that she was safe and sound, the girl recalled that night. It was a terrifying experience. But more than that, she wanted someone to hear about this strange experience.

“You know, Mom. –I was saved by a Magical Girl!”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

–Months after the incident in which the girl was nearly attacked by a Demonic Beast.

A girl, now in good spirits, was walking on the station platform chatting with her friends when her foot got caught on the cobblestones and she bumped into a high school boy who was walking in front of her. The girl’s staggering body was supported by the boy as if in a panic.

“I’m sorry!”

“No, you don’t have to worry about it. It’s my fault for being so unaware.”

It was the girl who was not looking ahead. The boy did not seem to be bothered by the girl’s apology and left.

As she patted her chest in relief and stared at his back, her friend smirked and tugged at the sleeve of her dress.

“What is it? Did you fall in love at first sight by any chance? He was so cool, wasn’t he? He seemed kind.”

“No, no! But what can I say, you know?”

Then the girl clammed up and held her mouth as if in thought.

“–He felt like ・・・・・・・ someone else.”

Her friend looked bored by the girl’s response, “Hmmm?” She took the girl’s hand and started to walk away, saying, “I’m going to be late, so let’s hurry up and go.”

And the girl, too, did not pursue the sense of déjà vu she had at that time, but returned to her peaceful daily life.

He turned back to the girl at a distance, unaware that the boy had muttered, “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better” – and he really was.