Of Daily Life And Sibling Rivalry

The Fool Arc

A creature sits in the dark, thinking. The words had flashed on the screen of its computer. A simple invitation, but one that was impossible to ignore. And once it had been accepted, the world began to bloom in strange colors and lights that the creature had never seen before.

There’s a space between worlds, a gap visible only to those who know where to look. That’s where the creatures come from—materialized evidence of the evil present in every corner of society, small doses in each person, condensing into form.

When it first looked into that gap, it was awed, dumbstruck, and filled with sickening pleasure at the confirmation. It was right. It. Was. Right.

♥ Magical Girl Rinrin ♥

I arrive on the rooftop next to my bedroom silently. I live in a small house in Tokyo's Shinkawa Town, a new residential zone that was set up following the redistricting. A decade before I was born, there had been a great destruction visited on Tokyo. A large chunk of the outer districts had was destroyed, and countless lives lost. In the aftermath, a rapid redevelopment plan led to the creation of multiple new districts expanding outwards from the city. That was the Tokyo I grew up in. Tokyo in an industrial boom.

My home is one of many matching buildings down this street. It's a cozy place for a family of three. I’m sure when my parents got the place, they didn’t expect to have a second child, but they made it work somehow. Then I came along and there were a lot of hand-me-downs and squabbling for space until my brother moved to college and I got his old room.

Slipping open my window. I always leave it slightly ajar, and when mom complains I yell about how the room stinks of my brother to shut her up. I leave the neon lights of the city at night and dismiss the transformation, pink and white outfit disappearing into a simple nightie and slippers, a character print on the front of an angry-looking cat throwing ramen. It’s got that style of ugly-cute, where it’s not quite what you’d expect from a mascot. Cuteness with an edge. I don’t know when I bought it, but as I flop down on the bed, parts of me buzzing with energy and excitement while the rest of me protests with desire to sleep, all the exhaustion of the night coming back now that the magical stamina boost was depleted.

“You should wash before bed. Don’t want your sheets stinking of sweat.” Nyamu chides, fluttering down to land on my desk. I grab the plushie on my bed, the only one left since I got rid of them all when I turned 13 and decided I was too big for them, and throw it at him.

“Boys shouldn’t be in girl’s rooms at night.” I’m muffled by the pillow in my face.
“I’m not a boy, I’m a fairy lifeform. That I look like a ‘boy’ is purely because it’s a form that works-”
“Do you want to spend the night in the drawer again?” I look up and glare with one eye. He sighs, and turns to face the wall.
“Better?”
“Better.” I yawn, feeling sleep slowly overcoming me.

*            *            *

Morning always comes way too fast when you’ve been busy the previous night. Maybe it’s a cruel joke by whoever decided that warn midday sun was the best time to spend shut in buildings and darkness was the time you have free to do what you want.

Groggily moving, I sit up and look around. There was… something. Oh, that’s right. A knock at the door. I’d heard my mother’s voice, quietly, calling me to breakfast. I fumble around on my bedside cabinet, pull the cord from my phone, and stare at the timer with a twinge of guilt. It’s almost an hour to lunch.

“Definitely missed the train.” I joke to myself. Sitting upright and stretching, I look over to where Nyamu spent the night… gone again. His early rising makes the twinge of guilt I felt even deeper. I don’t know if he tried to wake me, he used to, but I’d swat him away in my sleep.

I swing myself up out of bed, slide my feet in my sli- my foot in my slipper. I look around irritatedly and fish out the other one from where I’d kicked it off, and open the door to the hall. I take a half step out and pause, foot swinging in the air, very narrowly avoiding spilling a small thermos full of miso and a neatly wrapped onigiri riceball.

“Safe.” I whistle under my breath, and pull the food into my room, grateful not to have spilled any. I place it onto my desk, mumble a short “itadakimasu”, and begin eating. I can tell it’s homemade because the riceball crumbles a little as I begin eating it, and the soup, while lukewarm, fills me with a gentle comfort and a slightly bitter aftertaste. Mom’s never been much of a cook.

With rice clinging lightly to my cheek, I stare at the remainder in my hands and plan out the day. Mom would want me to show up at school, apologize for being late. Dad would… No, I shake my head. Not doing that, not going there.

Instead, I look over at my collection of manga, and the nestled small group of boyish video games for the system I pilfered from my brother’s room when he went off to college, their covers promising death and/or glory. When I was a kid, watching weekend morning anime about princesses and magical transformation, I’d get frustrated with him for taking the TV to play his games, but that’d never last and I’d end up sitting next to him, enthusiastically pointing out collectibles until he’d hit me in the face with a pillow or yell to mom to get rid of me. I smirk inwardly, it wasn’t a deliberate choice by me to annoy him while he was gaming, but I couldn’t help but reflect with an air of “serves him right” when I was midway through a show and he’d take over the whole living room with his friends.

I consider the games for a while but dismiss them. My brother’s old things aren’t all that’s in the room, of course. My sister- who croons about “middle child syndrome” but I know for a fact has never had to wear second-hand underwear because ‘money’s tight’- and I had fought and argued about what in the room we'd shared growing up was hers and what was mine until finally Dad had to pull us apart like squabbling cats and make us apologize. Still, I got some half-used fancy makeup as part of the Great House Negotiation, the one that took half a week and left both parents looking like retired soldiers longing for the ship home.

I grab my phone and look over what’s going on in the world outside these four walls, the world that doesn’t rely on transformation sequences, flashy finishing moves, and coming up with move names that fulfil a latent chuunibyou desire in me. One friend is complaining about that teacher. I don’t know which teacher is that teacher today, but given the sort of person she is, it’s definitely a different one from yesterday’s or last week’s. Another is writing sweet nothings about a boy she likes and has never spoken to. I want to poke holes in her dream by asking if he knows her name yet, but instead give her the text-based equivalent of nodding along politely. I'm about ready to close the phone when something moves in the corner of my eye.

Outside the window, there’s something glittering and shining. It looks familiar. I’d seen something like that in the sky the day I’d become a Magical Girl. I remember all those shows I watched as a kid, all the manga, magical girls are plural, they work in teams, each with powers that complement each other. Could that sign appearing in the sky mean…?

I get up hurriedly, taking another bite deep into the heart of the second onigiri… mom forgot to put in the filling for this one.