The Mahou Shoujo Mall

As the Lemons wandered around the mall, Risa was thinking about the Mahou Shoujo Mall.

Huh? You never heard of it?

Well, it’s the mall in the Mahou Shoujo Village.

Wait? You don’t know about Mahou Shoujo Village?

That’s understandable. Such a place hasn’t been mentioned yet in the story. If you did know about the Mahou Shoujo Village or the Mahou Shoujo Mall, then something is wrong. Who told you about it? Curious.

Anyway, Magical GIrls don’t live in the normal world. They don’t study at normal schools, eat at normal restaurants, or sleep in normal houses. They live in the Mahou Shoujo dimension. And they stay there until their contract expires, and they return to the normal world. It was made this way because it simplifies everything. Missions are unpredictable, and they always have to be ready. It would be too much of a hassle to call in a Magical Girl when she is in the middle of class or dinner or on a date. That’s too unrealiable. So, they live in this dimension.

So, what do they do in this dimension while waiting for the their next mission? That’s what the Mahou Shoujo Village is for. Originally, the Helpers just made a personal void for each girl as they waited for the next mission. However, they soon realized that keeping them there tended to cause depression with many of the girls. Who knew that keeping people in complete isolation for extended periods of time destroyed their mental wellbeing? Then they added multiple Magical Girls in each void. But then it turned out that only having social interaction as their only entertainment caused a lot of conflicts. The girls literally tore each other apart. Frankly, it was too much for the Helpers. So, they made the Mahou Shoujo Village. It was made to distract the girls at first, but it soon became an incentive to become a Magical Girl. They added schools, malls, sport centers, movie theaters, libraries, and radio stations. All of it was free, and it was a great way to kill time as they waited to kill demons.

Another fun feature of the Mahou Shoujo Village was that it didn't have a single culture associated with it. Magical Girls come from all around the world. As such, they made their own culture. You could talk to people all around the world. It was an interesting place. You may ask how Magical Girls understand each other. Well, in the Mahou Shoujo Village, everyone's speech is translated automatically.

Oh yeah. The mall. It was a great place. Since malls are mostly an American invention (thanks, capitalism), the mall didn't look that different from your average mall. People entered the mall, and they saw a massive statue of a Magical Girl blasting away with her wand. It was made of iron and clay, giving it a strange mixed look. It was breathtaking. Risa remembered wanting to take a picture of it. However, you couldn't bring anything back from the Mahou Shoujo Village. Everything you owned stayed there forever.

Risa's wand was one of the things she lost. It was a staff about the length of her forearm, and on the end was a star-shaped object with a cylindrical hole in the middle. Inside the hole was an energy orb that powered her magical powers. Her wand could do many things and certainly could do the massive blast the statue was doing. However, she didn't do the blast constantly. The blast was very energy-draining, and you usually saved it for a final finishing move. The blast could finish off almost any demon, but it was very stressful. So, the Lemon that did most of the blasting was Kasumi. Her aim was scarily accurate, and she could kill anything in the right conditions.

Risa was more of a shielder. Not a tank as some video games depict it. Risa was just as fragile as everyone else and she couldn't just take a bunch of hits. She summoned a shield with her wand, and it protected the Lemons. The shield popped up from her wand like an umbrella, and it could protect from most attacks, but she only used it to gain a positional advantage. Using it to push into better spots was very useful as they could gain the high ground and stuff like that. You see, the battlegrounds of demons are very varied. So, the position was of massive importance. The Lemons have fought in cities, countrysides, and even the middle of the desert. The reason they could fight in these places is that the demons lived in a place between the Mahou Shoujo dimension and the "real" world. Even if the girls destroyed the whole city, nothing will affect the "real" city. It would be as if nothing happened.

Since I explained Risa's and Kasumi's roles, it makes sense that I explain Yuri's roles. Well, it's transportation. The ability to move fast is quite important when fighting a massive enemy. You have to move quickly to blindside the enemy. However, magical girls can't go extremely fast. They can fly, but that wasn't that fast. However, you can grab and throw each other. If Yuri used a grab spell on Kasumi and threw her, Kasumi could be going extremely fast. Imagine standing outside at night and pointing a laser at the right end of the moon. Then quickly point that laser to the left end of the moon. Even though it was a relativity slow movement from your end, that laser dot on the moon would travel faster than the speed of light. Of course, Yuri couldn't break the speed of light, but she was able to throw Kasumi or Risa at speeds nearing the speed of sound. (Magical girls are pretty good at surviving massive speeds because of their magic.) Yuri's "throwing" ability plus her exceptional teleporting skill was very useful for the team.

You may ask "Won't the Lemons need other teammates?". Maybe you're thinking about a healer role, but the Lemon Quartet had done well without a medic for a long time. One of the things the Lemons did was "not get hit". It's a complicated strategy, but it tends to work well if done correctly.

Anyway, when Risa looked at the mall, she was thoroughly disappointed at the lack of a massive statue.