CH 1

1 - Prologue

T/N:  Caliburn” and “Excaliburn” are interchangeable for one character’s name.

The land is in the midst of a storm!!!

The winds blow like whips heavy enough to knock everything down, at the eye of the storm, like an arena no one could approach, a magical girl dressed in a frilly costume faces off against a giant steel robot, about 20 meters tall.

The tension as the two were about to clash only amplified the power of the storm.

“Let us decide now if Magic or the Sword is strongest, shall we, Lulurun!!?” the robot cries.

“You’re as hot-headed and annoying as ever, huh, Excaliburn?” the girl replied.

The robot, “Mobile Knight Excaliburn” resembles a medieval knight and is tens of times larger than the magical girl, his fated rival, “Magical Girl Lulurun.”

To be clear, they want to settle who’s the best of this world.

The magical girl responds to Excaliburn’s passion and puts magical power into both her hands.

“No holds barred!!” Excaliburn yelled.

“Just what I wanted!!” Lulurun cried.

“CALIBURN KING BLADE!!!!!”

A lightning bolt strikes from the heavens and into Caliburn’s raised hand, and a gigantic sword appears shortly after.

The gigantic Caliburn King Blade was pointed at Lulurun, the duel between the magical girl and the giant robot was about to begin.

“The strongest Holy Sword in the world, this is going to be fun, isn’t it?!” Lulurun called out.

“HERE I GO!!!!” Excaliburn roared.

The battle between the strongest robot and the strongest mage was about to begin.

Lulurun took the initiative.

“Extreme Magic, Flame Inferno!”

A gigantic flame erupts from the magical girl’s palm, but before it hits the robot directly, the spell turns to motes of light and disappears.

“It’s a shame, Lulurun, my magical barrier will not let even extreme magic pass through it!” Excaliburn said.

“In that case, how about this?! Ultimate Magic, Heaven’s Fall!!!” Lulurun said.

To counter the barrier, activated the Ultimate Magic spell Heaven’s Fall, transcending the limits of this world’s magic.

A gigantic magical circle of light forms in the sky, feather-like motes descend from it and surround Caliburn, disabling the anti-magic defense barrier.

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“Well done, Lulurun!!” Excaliburn cried.

With its barrier disabled, Excaliburn quickly swings Caliburn down on Lulurun. Lulurun barely blocks the titanic sword with a physical defense barrier.

Despite the block, damage still reached Lulurun.

“You as well, Excaliburn!!!!” Lulurun said.

“This is going to be fun!! LET’S SETTLE THIS!!!!”

And just when it looked like the battle would be decided!!

Both suddenly stopped moving…

In an instant, everything in the world stopped.

Why was that?

Because the man you could call their creator held them both in his hands and was making them fight, but stopped out of feeling so empty.

Because he should stop playing with dolls.

… The strongest Magical Girl and the Giant Robot are both fantasies and imaginary characters he created.

“What the hell am I doing…?”

The man who played both roles, including the dialog, sighs and sits at his desk, holding the figures of Lulurun and Excaliburn in his hands.

“How long has it been since magic stopped working? Right, it’s been 5 years, I know that, but still…”

Yokoi Keisuke, CEO of the MHG (Magic Handy Girl) Corporation, mutters alone to himself in an office building where everyone else is gone before he looks skyward.

The backrest of his office chair is fully tilted back as he stares at the ceiling, with the company’s mascot characters “Magical Girl Lulurun” and “Mobile Knight Excaliburn” in his hands, he looks back on his memories of this place.

“About how I was so crazy about starting a business.”

“About the fun we had.”

“About the dreams that didn’t come true.

“About the people who betrayed me.”

“About the world without magic.”

There were so many things, but there was only one thing he could say clearly:

“Why did we end up like this…?”

There are two kinds of human beings in this world:

Those who can use magic: Magia.

Those who cannot use magic: Norma.

The difference was the source of the rifts in this world and repeated discrimination.

It was the Magia who moved the world.

Norma had always been under the Magia, and this discrimination continued despite the work of good people who called for the end of it.

Yokoi Keisuke is one of the strongest wizards in the world with the title of “Tanzanite”, the only one of his kind in the world, and one of the “good people” who aimed to harmonize the Magia and the Norma with that power… or at least he was.

Until the magical power of this world was depleted and magic itself disappeared…

The magical elements that once overflowed all over the world were consumed by the destruction of the environment, air pollution, and the military use of magical power, and so “ran dry.”

Before they knew it, no one could use magic.

Yokoi Keisuke is no exception, and if the world’s strongest wizard can’t use magic, he’s just another human being.

The company “MHG Co.” established by Keisuke to research magic and develop magical machines for daily use has also disappeared with magic, its very existence was denied.

One by one, another employee quits. Sponsors left, and the dream of coexistence between the Magia and the Norma has disappeared…

He remembered an unpleasant memory.

“Ah, Yokoi-kimi, I’m sorry, I can’t work with your company anymore.”

“Why is that?”

“I had joined you because you were the best ‘Mage’ in the world, but you’re worthless if you can’t use magic.”

He remembered an unpleasant memory.

“The Tanzanite is finished when he’s just another human being.”

“This is what you get for making fools of the Norma for all this time.”

“I’ll be damned.”

The echoing taunts, the memories, the harsh words.

“A mage who can’t use magic doesn’t deserve to live.”

That’s what the world says.

“Damn it!!!” Keisuke yelled.

He slams the desk, the Lulurun doll starts to talk mechanically from the impact.

“Leave it to me! I can solve anything! Magical Girl Lulurun♪!”

“… If I could leave it to you, I would leave it to you, Lulurun…” Keisuke said.

Today, the curtains close on MHG Co., with the demise of magic.

“…”

The tears, the overflowing emotions, they all spill, the regrets, the anger, the sadness, he wanted to smile more with everyone, he wanted to make the company a success.

In the face of the end of the world that relied too much on magic, of the pride that he was the best one time, of his failures, of his helplessness against this world, Yokoi Keisuke screams.

It did not reach anyone, no one would understand him, but he couldn’t help but scream.

Keisuke packs his last things in a cardboard box in the office, outside the office the sun is falling fallen and it’s getting dark, and suddenly Lulurun and Excalibur come into view.

“… I’m sorry, Lulurun,” Keisuke said.

“Leave it to me! I can solve anything! Magical Girl Lulurun ♪!”

“… I’m sorry I couldn’t finish you, Excaliburn.”

With that, Keisuke puts the two dolls in the cardboard box and puts on a determined look on his face.

He takes the cardboard box and starts shuffling out. He opened the office door vigorously, and Yokoi Keisuke looked back at the empty building and gave his final words:

“Thanks for all your hard work…”

After Yokoi Keisuke left the former (…) MHG Co. office went down the stairs, it was already totally dark outside.

“Should I go home…?” he muttered.

And at that moment:

Doss.

A dull sound echoed behind him.

“Huh?”

Something burns on his back, something is stuck into it, and he feels hot.

Nurr…

When he touches the hot area, it feels like a warm liquid.

“What?”

When he looks back, someone has stabbed him deeply in the back.

The pain finally registered when he realized “Someone has stabbed me with a knife.”, it was enough to tell Keisuke the gravity of the situation.

The momentum of the stab causes Keisuke and his attacker to tangle together and fall.

The contents of Keisuke’s cardboard scatter all over.

“Ah……”

Keisuke kicks the person who stabbed him and pulls himself away, but blood pours from the stab wound and doesn’t stop.

“Gghh… guah…”

The wound is burning hot, Keisuke cannot speak, he holds his hand over the wound as he stares in agony at his attacker.

The person who stabbed Keisuke slowly stood up with her blood-stained knife, her hands trembled, and she looked upset.

“You’re…”

“You, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have been in this mess!!! None of this would have happened!”

The street lights illuminate the demon-like face of the criminal.

However, he doesn’t recognize the face.

“Why……?” Keisuke whispers.

“Because you’re a mage! You’re evil, because you’re a Magia!!! It’s Magia’s fault that our company is in the mess it’s in!!!”

“What, are you……”

“You robbed me of everything! You got to build a company like this! You didn’t lose anything! My family! My job! My everything!!!! That’s why you’re the one at fault!!”

“What are you, even talking about…?”

The woman spits, doesn’t give a second glance at the bloody Keisuke, and leaves the place with erratic movements, leaving him to sink into the pool of his blood.

“Did I take everything?”

He thinks of the face of the woman, was it someone from a rival company? He doesn’t understand it, his vision blurs, his mind doesn’t work. The blood that spills out of my body deprives him of his consciousness.

“… Great Healing Magic, Granhelion…”

He tried to cast a healing spell, but there is no response, the super magic that would heal any wound instantly is now just words, words that had no power… this is reality.

The infinite miracle has already been lost and replaced by a finite reality.

“So this… is how it ends…?”

If he could have, he would have chosen a nicer ending.

He wanted to create a world of coexistence where Magia and Norma hold hands, where magic would save the world.

“I thought it would be my company that could do that…” he whispered.

He’s sorry, he’s so sorry, it was a company created to prevent such a tragedy from happening, he started the business to help people who can not use magic, he will become the best wizard in the world will change it…

Such thoughts sink into the blood pool as well.

“It’s so frustrating…”

He wanted to change the world with magic, if there was magic… no, it’s not just magic.

Keisuke thinks of the woman who stabbed her, hatred was born even with magic, and she proved it.

In his fading consciousness, as he looks back on his life and finds only “What ifs?”, tears spill from Keisuke’s eyes.

“Damn it all…”

With his belongings scattered on the ground alongside the figures of Lulurun and Excaliburn, Yokoi Keisuke can only curse his lot as the curtain of his life lowers, the curtain of this magic-less world drops as well…

Or so it was supposed to be.

“It’s okay… leave it to Lulurun… Keisuke …”

A familiar voice brings Keisuke’s consciousness back.

“Lulurun?” Keisuke asked.

“It’s okay, just leave it to me!!”

“Leave it to you?” Keisuke asked.

The magical girl smiles at him.

“Just leave it to me and everything will work out.”

“Lulurun.”

When this gentle voice told him to entrust everything to her, he said,

“I can’t leave everything to you!”

He heard another familiar voice.

“Hey, Master, I’ll take care of it, don’t trust this girl!”

It was the giant robot, Excaliburn.

“Hold up, can you please not disturb me right now?” Lulurun asked.

“Shut up, Lulurun!” Excaliburn snapped. “Leave this to me!”

“Even now, you guys will fight, huh?” Keisuke asked.

Even though it’s a very dire scene, they start their usual battles without hesitation.

“This is my business! You stay out of this!” Lulurun said.

“You stay out of this!” Excaliburn said.

“What was that you just said?! No matter how you look at it, it’s a magical space! You should get out of here!!”

“Don’t decide based on the atmosphere!”

“Um, can we please not fight?”

In his wavering world, their fight makes Keisuke’s consciousness even clearer.

“Choose me!”

“Choose me!”

“Leave it to me!”

“Leave it to me!”

“What do you want me to leave with you?”

Lulurun and Excaliburn’s voices echo, Keisuke’s consciousness is released from the pure white world.

When he woke up, it was dawn, and Yokoi Keisuke finds himself in wide grassland that seemed impossible, he takes in his situation.

“I, must be sleeping, huh?”

He gets up and walks around, he has no wound from where he was stabbed, and no blood, either.

“How?”

His body felt uncomfortable but he could walk, and after a short jaunt, he found a big city at the end of a grassy hill.

He could say it was a city but it’s on a large scale he’d never seen.

“What is this place?”

Looking at the gigantic city that spreads before his eyes, the stunned Keisuke feels an even bigger shock

GOGOGOGOGOooo…!”

A loud rumbling noise approaches.

“What is that?”

Immediately after being alert to the sound, a large vehicle passes over Keisuke’s head, a robot that moves with magical power, something he only dreamed of. It seemed like it only moved thanks to the gigantic store of magical energy it fed on.

“A Magical Mobile Knight,” Keisuke said.

His long-wanted magical mobile knight is right before him.

“Seriously? Seriously?????”

Keisuke’s dream was supposed to be a bridge connecting Magia and Norma via magical machines that can be handled by Norma.

“Wait, wait a minute!!!!”

When Keisuke chased after the robot, a feeling of strangeness in his body upsets his balance.

“Ouch, what the?”

He noticed the discomfort in his body, the shoes he’s wearing are different from usual… the clothes he’s wearing are different from usual… or rather, his hair is long…

“What is this… a woman’s voice?”

His voice is clearly different.

And he finally notices.

“Huh?”

A strong sense of discomfort coming from his chest.

“Huh?”

Two soft lumps…

And Yokoi Keisuke put his hand on his crotch.

“What?”

Something that should be there is not, there is something where something should not be… what the hell is this?????

“Wait, wait, wait!”

He has to check!!!

He looked around for something to see himself in but this is a grassy plain, there can’t be such a thing.

Now running, Yokoi Keisuke starts running at full speed toward the city to confirm the impossible facts. On the way, he fell down and stood up many times, touching his chest and continuing to run.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, this can’t be right!!!!”

He ran to the city short of breath, looking around to find something he can see his reflection in.

“Glass!”

He stands in front of the glass display window of a storefront selling women’s clothing, he looks at his reflection.

It’s not the familiar man Yokoi Keisuke.

“What the… huh?”

Keisuke looks at himself twice, from bottom to top again.

The result is the same, the appearance is exactly the mascot character of MHG Co.

It was Magical Girl Lulurun.