Chapter 7: A Magical Girl?

When the school day ended, Hayato rushed out as usual. He had something to do—and the last thing he wanted was for Asley to follow him… or for his classmates to hate him even more if they saw them leaving together.

Once he reached the streets of Akihabara, he finally felt relieved.

“Okay… Sakura said we’d meet at…” he muttered, pulling out his phone.

On the screen, there were only two chats—one with his mother, and another with a girl whose icon was a little white bunny.

Sakura Mizuno: Senpai, don’t forget to be at Social Café by 6:30 p.m.!
Sakura Mizuno: Then we’ll go buy new oils, okay? Don’t make me wait.

A faint smile crossed his face.

“Ara~ I see you’re getting along pretty well with ‘Miss Cup-F’~!” said a tiny voice behind him.

At that instant, Hayato froze. His treacherous mind conjured an image of Sakura in a light dress… and yes, for the first time, he realized the “Cup-F” joke might actually have some basis in reality.

“C-Cup F… I never noticed… wait…” he whispered, breaking into a cold sweat.

“W-who said that?” he asked, slowly turning around.

There she was—Asley—with a forced smile and eyes burning with restrained fury.

“Hiiiiii…” Hayato shuddered. “It’s the serial stalker…”

Asley crossed her arms, puffing her cheeks.

“How rude to your future wife… and on top of that, you’re cheating on me.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say…” Hayato muttered, starting to walk while she trailed behind him.

“Where are you going, darling~?” Asley asked, her tone sweet yet dangerously threatening.

“Nowhere important,” he lied, quickening his pace.

“Really? ’Cause I heard a certain Miss Cup-F-chan say she’d be seeing you at a café…” Asley teased, leaning closer.

“How the hell do you know that?”

“I have my sources,” she replied proudly. “And excellent Wi-Fi coverage.”

Hayato sighed.

He knew he wouldn’t get rid of her that easily.

When they reached the park near the café, he spotted his friend sitting on a bench, bathed in the soft glow of the sunset.

As he and Asley approached, something shifted.

The streetlights flickered. The giant screens on nearby buildings began to glitch.
An electric hum rippled through the ground… and slowly, a thick, bluish fog spread without warning.

“Sakura!” Hayato shouted, running into the mist.

The air crackled with static.

In the distance, alarms blared: “Invader alert! Evacuate the area!”

Asley grabbed his arm before he could take another step.

“We can’t go any further! We have to get out, Hayato! I don’t think she’s still in there!” she cried, her voice trembling.

“There she is!” he yelled, pulling her along.

Through the haze, Sakura’s silhouette could be seen standing before several warped figures.

They were violet creatures with shapeless bodies and glowing cracks that looked as though they came straight from the cosmos itself.

Their very presence warped the air—reality shimmered around them.

But the most unsettling part wasn’t their appearance… It was Sakura’s calm.

The girl stood firm, fearless, gazing at them as if they were old acquaintances.

Then, with total confidence, she struck a heroic pose worthy of any anime protagonist.

“Power of the Stars!” she shouted with boundless energy.

A pink light engulfed her completely.

The radiance cut through the fog, making the creatures halt for a brief instant.

The air vibrated with an almost celestial melody as Sakura’s figure rose slightly from the ground.

Her voice strong, radiant, echoed through the chaos…

“Resonant Transformation… Star Impact!”

Little by little, her hair turned pink, and her clothes shifted into a dazzling magical girl uniform, with ribbons fluttering like living energy.

“So, Miss Cup-F is a Dual too… what a surprise,” Asley commented with almost insulting calm.

“Too? How does she know that?” Hayato thought, staring in disbelief as Sakura completed her transformation.

“I am Luminelle, and I’ll punish you… brutally!” she declared, tightening the metallic knuckle guards that appeared over her hands.

Her voice was deeper and rougher than usual, as if her sweetness had been replaced by the wrath of a yakuza.

“Is that… Sakura?” Hayato whispered, unable to believe it.

The girl moved forward without hesitation. Her fists swung with brutal speed, each strike leaving a pink trail through the air.

The Invaders barely had time to react—they were taken down one after another, disintegrating into a rain of violet blood that stained the electric fog.

Amid the chaos, Sakura’s voice rang out between the lightning cracks of the distortion field:

“For friendship, for art, and for well-aimed punches!”

“Starlight Punch!”

The impact shook the ground.

The fog spiraled, as though reality itself were breaking apart before her.

The remains of the Invaders faded into a shower of violet particles, floating like fireflies within the haze.

Hayato watched, unable to look away.

Sakura—his cheerful, gentle, always-kind friend—now looked like a warrior born from a delinquent’s fever dream.

“Sakura…” he whispered.

She slowly turned her head. Her eyes, once brown, now glowed with an almost hypnotic pink light. But what truly froze Hayato was the fury within them.

Through the mist, that gaze cut through him like a blade.

“So… the Liberty parasites are here already?” Luminelle said, cracking her knuckles with a metallic snap. “Weird… I didn’t hear their mechs.”

She took a step forward, smiling with a mix of boredom and thrill.

“Even better. These low-class Invaders were getting dull anyway…”

Without warning, she lunged forward at full speed.

Hayato barely had time to see the pink blur of light rushing toward him—
when suddenly, a silver figure descended between them.

The valkyrie’s energy lance clashed against Luminelle’s gauntlets, shaking the air with a sonic boom.

“Huh? Why’re you getting in my way, flat-chested blonde?” Luminelle growled.

The valkyrie’s gaze was cold—almost divine.

Not a single muscle in her face moved as she replied.

“I won’t let you hurt Hayato.”

“And I’ll let you live only because you’re his friend… you pink cow.”

A tense silence fell.

“What… did you just call me?” Luminelle said, her smile trembling dangerously.

Her energy exploded all at once.

The “magical girl” charged forward, consumed by fury.

Pink sparks and blue flashes collided in the fog like lightning crossing between two worlds.

Watching them clash, Hayato finally understood… that valkyrie could only be Asley.

But if both of them kept fighting there…

There was no time to think.
The city’s alarms kept blaring without pause.

Then he heard it—a burst of static coming from a broken radio lying on the ground.

*Alpha Team. *
*Proceed with the strike. High command has given the green light. *

For an instant, the sky lit up with flashes of white. The fog began to clear.

And Hayato watched his worst nightmare come true… a rain of missiles was descending straight toward them.

While Luminelle and Valjfreya clashed with all their might, oblivious to everything around them, Hayato could only whisper.

“No… not again.”

The roar of the incoming projectiles drowned out his words.

And the sky finally split in two.