The sun was intensely bright—blazing hot and radiant. Patches of weeds dotted a wasteland stretching into the horizon. She could see tall constructs that looked like skyscrapers, three in total, but they were all crumbled. This was when Chika realized something: Her vision had become much, much better than when she was human. Without even realizing it, she had transformed into Pechka.
She patted her hands, feet, upper body, and lower body, examining herself closely. She had definitely transformed into Pechka. As a test, she hopped a little and flew straight up ten feet, then stuck the landing. Yup, she’d definitely transformed—though that had never happened involuntarily before.
“Where am I? Why am I here?”
Where indeed? It didn’t resemble anywhere in Japan. She’d heard you could find vast stretches of land like this in Hokkaido, but she doubted they came with broken-down buildings. Maybe she was in some foreign country that was embroiled in civil war or had been invaded by another nation. That would explain the high-rise building, and this desolate landscape would match the blood-soaked circumstances. It would also explain why there were no people.
But why was she here? Pechka didn’t understand at all. She’d been on her bed moments earlier, squirming with joy. Maybe she’d just been too happy, so the bad stuff had come for her to balance it out. Or perhaps this was her punishment for using her powers for something other than good deeds.
Oh yeah. Pechka recalled that just before she’d been transferred here, her magical phone had rung. Maybe that had something to do with this.
She took out the little device. Besides the apps of a regular smartphone, it had an amazing portability function that enabled the user to materialize things out of thin air. It was also shaped like a heart—exactly the sort of style appropriate to a magical girl. But such an oddly shaped screen would be unpopular on a normal phone because it was impractical and hard to read.
Displayed on the screen in simple serif typeface were the words TUTORIAL MODE. Pechka cocked her head in confusion. She’d never seen this before. She tried to start her messaging app, but for some reason, the phone wouldn’t respond. The message started to scroll of its own accord.
In this tutorial mode, you will personally experience battle in Magical Girl Raising Project. Defeat your enemies to gain magical candy.
Magical Girl Raising Project? Battling? Enemies? Magical candy?
Then Pechka noticed the ground rumbling around her—but it wasn’t an earthquake. Only a specific section of the ground was moving, not the entire earth—rumbling, swelling, and bursting from within its depths to create a hole. A white arm reached out from it, followed by its owner. Teeth rattling, bones popping, it slowly rose up. Darkness obscured its eye sockets, hiding them from view. But even if she had seen them, there would surely be nothing inside. Altogether, there were five animated skeletons, reminiscent of gods of death. She was surrounded.
Five skeletons have appeared.
The message appeared on her phone’s screen. Pechka swallowed the scream rising in her throat and steeled her buckling legs. Gritting her teeth, she held her weapon, a spatula, at the ready. Still confused as to what was going on, she smacked away the skeletal hand reaching for her. She kicked the bony figure that rushed at her, then she drew back again, dodging the skeletons grabbing at her from either side. Then she froze. The first one, the one she’d kicked, was lying facedown on the ground and holding her leg.
The touch of the skeleton’s hand was cold and repulsive, bringing her to a halt. Her magical strength normally would have allowed her to easily brush it off and crush it underfoot. But Pechka was at her limits, emotionally speaking, and she was on the verge of panicking. For all her magical enhancements, Pechka’s special ability was just food preparation. When it came to fighting, her own body was all she could rely on. She had no other choice but to hit and be hit, kick and be kicked. This wasn’t something a middle school girl with an average, peaceful life could handle.
The four other skeletons closed in on her as if in slow motion. But just before they reached her, they were sliced in half from skull to pelvis, clattering to the floor.
“…Huh?!”
At her feet, the skeleton that had been holding her was now cut cleanly into three vertical slices. The deep gouges in the ground from the expert cuts were evidence of how much force had been behind each strike. Flustered, Pechka shook her leg, and the bony fingers clasping her fell off.
What happened? What happened? As far as she could tell, she hadn’t awoken to any new power or unlocked something sealed inside her. This wasn’t Pechka’s handiwork. Looking all around, she spotted a figure beyond the dust storm with her magically enhanced vision. It was too small to be an adult male…
It was a girl. In her right hand dangled a katana. She must have been her rescuer. Over a mile of distance separated the two, but ruined buildings and weeds were the only other things around, and compared with them, the girl seemed a more likely suspect.
That the girl had saved her meant she was friendly—she had to be. To Pechka, who had suddenly been thrown into a confusing landscape and forced to fight terrifying monsters, she was a savior. The rescued girl sprinted over, and in a flash she had covered the mile distance and was vigorously bowing her head. “Thank you very much!”
Pechka gently lifted her head to look at her protector, who really was a girl. She was garbed in samurai-like clothing, but it was dramatically stylized, as was her long ponytail, bound into a unique accessory that resembled a blooming flower at the end. Her garb looked less like a samurai’s attire and more like something else—like a magical girl’s costume. Not to mention that no one but Pechka’s fellows would be capable of attacking an enemy from over a mile away with a katana.
“Are you…a magical girl?” asked Pechka.
No response.
“Um, my name’s Pechka. I’m a magical girl, too.”
No response. The girl merely stared.
Sensing that this was a sign to hurry, Pechka went on. “I wonder where we are. Would you happen to know? I just randomly ended up here, and I really didn’t know what’s going on, and then I got scared when those skeletons appeared, and I’m really in a mess.”
“Must I do this again? Is it not over?”
“Huh?”
“I don’t like it. It’s…not right.” The girl’s eyes were focused on one point, yet she didn’t appear to be seeing anything. Her gaze was aimed at Pechka, but she was looking off somewhere else entirely. The girl reached out her hand and wrapped her fingers around Pechka’s throat.
Unable to move, Pechka didn’t resist, letting her do as she would. The girl’s fingers felt cold. Pechka swallowed audibly. The grip around her throat tightened. Muscle and flesh contracted. The katana in the girl’s right hand edged slowly closer to her captive’s throat. Something was chattering—Pechka’s own teeth.
“Is it not over?” the girl murmured. “Come on, Musician.”
“I—I don’t know anything,” stammered Pechka. “I—I don’t know what’s going on, either. I blinked, and then I was here.”
The samurai stared at her with those unseeing eyes. Her grip weakened, and her katana dropped to dangle at her side again. She let go of Pechka’s throat and pushed her away. Unable to stand her ground, Pechka fell on her bottom and peered up at the other girl. Her teeth were still chattering, hard.
“It seems you are not the Musician. That person is more…like…” The girl turned her back to Pechka and began to stagger unsteadily away, her dragging katana carving a trail as she went. She was muttering something under her breath, but Pechka couldn’t quite hear.
Still sitting on the ground, Pechka watched her go. After all that, she still didn’t know where she was or how she ended up there. But she had no urge to go after the other girl.
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Magical Daisy