What Even is a Magical Girl Anyways?!

The next morning, I woke up in my bed. Somehow, I was no longer in the magical costume, but rather my regular clothes. I guess the magic had worn off. I took a look in the mirror… totally normal me, blonde hair, twin tails, brown eyes, and all. In the mirror, I caught a glimpse at my alarm clock…

…

8:45?! I was supposed to be at work in fifteen minutes! I had to push myself out the door and make a run for it. Who knows what might have happened if I was late!

And luckily for me, the Susaki Journal was close to where I lived. Mr. Kaneko wanted to see me and Sakamoto as soon as I got into the office.

“Look at this nonsense!” Kaneko told us as he showed us a stack of newspapers from all over the world. “From the Hokkaido Herald: Kimono-Wearing Witch Saves Kōchi From Monster. From the Tokyo Times, Strange Monster Defeated By Even Stranger Girl. The Nagasaki Ninja, the Okinawa Orange. Heck, even the London Loudmouth and the Daily Comet! This news is everywhere, and we didn't get the scoop first!” He then threw the stack of newspapers into the air, leaving a mess of pages all over the office.

How did this news even get out so fast? I literally just learned I could do magic yesterday! Now the whole world knows about it?!

But I didn't bring up any of that. Instead, I asked, “Is that… front page news everywhere…?”

“A giant monster was spotted attacking a city in Japan,” Kaneko told me, with a strong smack of sarcasm in his voice. “Of course it's news everywhere!”

Sakamoto tried to talk sense into the boss. “Mr. Kaneko…”

“Shut up! I'm ranting over here. Can't you see my arms are crossed like the Angry Otaku?”

“Mr. Kaneko, that's what we've been trying to tell you.”

“What?”

“Miss Tanaka got pictures of the monster yesterday. Good ones. Front page worthy, if I do say so myself.”

Mr. Kaneko flipped through the pictures. As he did, the expression on his face said it all. It was his big scoop face.

“These pictures are good…” Kaneko admitted. “Probably even better than the ones the locals took. Alright, tomorrow, we run this story on page one. Exclusive interview with Ayame Tanaka, the photographer who shot the picture of the year. In the meantime, I'll shoot these over to my buddies in America. They'll flip when they see the angles on these!”

•

Other than that, work was actually fairly quiet today. We were even allowed to leave early!

As soon as I got home, though, there it was, almost like it was mocking me.

The puppy. Inside my house.

“Alright, you and I need to talk,” I told the puppy. “You're obviously not some talking stuffed animal, so what are you?”

With a sigh, the puppy answered, “I just can't get anything past you, huh… Very well. Do you know what magic is?”

“Of course! Maybe… Well…”

“I figured as much,” the puppy sighed. “Well, magic is everywhere ~woof, even if you humans can't acknowledge it. Everyone has somewhat of an affinity with magic. Ever had something go exactly as you had hoped it would? Probably magic. Aced that test without even studying once? Probably magic. Got the person of your dreams to say yes to going on a date? Probably magic. Magic is basically willpower turned up to eleven… with a few extra steps.”

“Is that what the dancing is for?” I asked.

“Yeah, that's basically what the dancing is for ~woof,” the puppy admitted. “The dancing amplifies your mana, which is the energy you need in order to cast spells and such.”

“So anyone can, if they really wanted to, just… do magic?”

“Kinda… The average human doesn't really know how magic works ~woof, so at best they use it accidentally, like with my earlier examples.”

“So, what's your name?” I asked the puppy. “You seem to already know my name, but I never learned yours.”

“Oh, I'm Aichi,” the puppy answered. “I'm known as a Hollow ~woof.”

“What's a Hollow?”

“Hollows are creatures who feed on magic, ~woof. Humans have very high magical potential, so we tend to seek them out so we can live with them. A lot of us just end up becoming pets.”

“So, as far as anyone is concerned, you're just a regular puppy…”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

I wanted to ask the puppy more questions, but we were interrupted by a very loud and irritating noise.

“What is that?!” I asked.

“There's another monster on the loose,” Aichi explained. “The closer it is, the louder this cursed buzzing is ~woof!”

“Seems there's only one thing to do. Flower Power! Rise Up!”

Suddenly, the noise subsided. Seems like the act of transforming made the noise go away. But nothing else happened. Aichi simply looked at me with disdain.

"Ayame... you forgot the special magic phrase ~woof!"

"Please?" Ugh! I can't believe I've already forgotten the entire magic phrase!

"Nope."

"Pretty please?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Pretty pretty please?"

"There it is! One magical girl, coming right up ~woof!”

The transformation was much faster the second time around. Practice makes perfect, after all. In no time, we were out of the house and running towards the scene.

“Why are we running?” Aichi asked me. “You do know we can fly, right?”

“No way,” I told Aichi. “I'm scared of heights, remember?”

“Just please don't make a fool of yourself like last time. I really don't have the mana to bail you out again.”

•

We arrived in the downtown district just in time to witness a giant kitten treating the entire city like its plaything. Vehicles were reduced to mice, buildings to boxes, and helicopters (with their spotlights) to birds (and laser pointers).

“You have got to be kidding me!” I said upon seeing the giant kitten.

“I think you meant to say you have got to be kitten me,” Aichi said.

“How am I supposed to defeat a giant kitten?” I asked before breaking out in a sneezing fit.

“Allergic to cats?”

“How could you tell…”

“Hollow's Intuition.”

“Alright let's get this over with before I break out in hives. Brave Charm!” Trying to remember the moves I made last time, I was able to conjure up… a giant ball of yarn…

I immediately realized that what should have been heavy enough to flatten me like a pancake was actually no trouble at all to carry.

“Here, kitty kitty, ah-CHOO!”

I had managed to get the kitten’s attention. Throwing the ball of yarn into the mountains, I hoped I could lure the kitten away from the city. It worked; the kitten was absolutely elated. As it played in the mountains and trees, dark energy began to escape from it, and the kitten gradually shrunk back down to its normal size.

That was easy…

“It's just as I feared!” Aichi shouted as he flew towards the location of the kitten. “The Covens have returned!”

“Covens?! What are you talking ab-”

As I was trying to get answers from Aichi, a foot suddenly dug itself into my back. I landed on the ground very roughly, and who was it that hit me so hard?! I rolled over to look at the attacker.

She was a girl wearing a very similar outfit to mine! Her kimono had a wisteria pattern and the image of a snake printed on it.

“Ayame! Are you alright ~woof?” Aichi shouted as he ran over to me.

“I'm alright,” I answered as I struggled to get up. “You wouldn't happen to know who she is, would you?”

“I might get my magical girls mixed up ~woof, but I believe that's Magical Sukeban Fuji…”

The girl said absolutely nothing; she only stared right at us, ready to fight at the drop of a pen.