Chapter One: The Shield and The Sculptor

The walk to school was a journey through a silent opera of the impossible. Above, the colossal Eye remained, a fixed celestial nightmare staining the heavens. Below, the streets of Tokyo were unnervingly quiet, the usual relentless hum of the city subdued into a fearful whisper. And between them, occupying the very air, were the Magical Girls.

They stood on lampposts, their feet not bending the metal. They floated in perfect formation above intersections, their gowns of starlight and armor of solidified dawn shimmering in the pale light. Their presence was not loud, but it was absolute, a constant, gentle pressure against the skin of the world.

Hikari moved through this surreal landscape with a calm that set her apart. Her school uniform was a stark contrast to the radiance around her. She paused at the end of her street, where a particular guardian stood vigil. The girl’s silver hair cascaded like a waterfall of mercury, and her ornate armor, the Manormaid Silversheen, seemed to drink the ambient light.

“Good morning, Camilla,” Hikari said, her voice soft but clear in the stillness.

The magical girl turned, her movements fluid and precise. A faint, respectful smile touched her lips. “A good morning to you, Hikari. Do you journey to meet my master?”

“Yes. I can only hope he has already stirred from his sleep.”

“I must offer my apologies if my master has been a burden upon you.”

“There is no need,” Hikari replied, her gaze gentle. “We have grown up together, after all.”

She continued on, leaving the majestic sentinel to her watch. Her destination was a modest apartment building, its ordinary appearance almost blasphemous given the context. She climbed the stairs and stopped before a familiar door. Her knock was soft, a whisper of knuckles against wood.

“Koji, are you ready for school?”

A moment passed, filled with the distant, silent shimmer of magic from outside. Then, his voice, muffled and tense, filtered through the door. “Can you… can you go alone this time? I’m scared.”

Hikari leaned her forehead gently against the cool wood. “Why should you be scared? You summoned them. Look outside—ten thousand magical girls. They float in the air, a legion guarding every inch of this place. You are the most protected person in the world.”

“I know that, but… it’s all so sudden.”

“I know. I was right there with you when it happened.” Her voice softened, pleading. “Please, just come to school with me. If you stay behind, our classroom will feel even emptier.”

A heavy silence hung in the air, thick and palpable. Finally, a series of locks clicked, and the door swung inward to reveal Koji Katsuo. He was tall and broad-shouldered, his frame hinting at an athleticism that now seemed coiled inward. His dark, dangling bangs shadowed eyes that held a storm of uncertainty and exhaustion. The weight of the world had settled on the shoulders of a boy who just wanted to be invisible.

Hikari offered him a small, steadying smile. “Good morning, Koji.”

He merely offered a silent, weary nod in return, stepping out and locking the door behind him.

They walked side-by-side through the silent streets. Koji’s eyes were perpetually drawn upward, not to the terrifying Eye, but to the countless shimmering figures that were his doing. Their light reflected in his wide, dark pupils.

“Do you truly believe they can do it?” he murmured, his voice barely audible. “That my Magical Girls can save the world from… that?”

Hikari followed his gaze to the sky, where Camilla and her sisters formed a living, luminous canopy. “I cannot know for certain. But they are a shield where we had none. For that, at least, we can be grateful.”

“It’s still impossible to believe,” he breathed, shaking his head. “That my mobile game, ‘Puzzle & Unlimited Magical Girls’… became all of this.”

A gentle breeze, scented with ozone and something like starlight, rustled Hikari’s hair. “Yes, it was a shock that changed the world. But I, for one, am glad it did.” She turned to look at him, her expression utterly sincere. “You should be proud, Koji. You are our hero now.”

Koji fell silent, the title settling on his shoulders not as a crown, but as a weight almost too heavy to bear. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked on, a solitary sculptor unable to comprehend the scale of his own creation, trailed by the silent, beautiful echo of his power.