Magical Girl Home (Re-do)

“I can’t believe it… Mai was right.” Saki took the words right out of my mouth.

Though Mai’s claim seemed plausible, some part of me had doubted it until now. But this was conclusive proof. There were magical girls that attended the Gifted Girls academy.

“I told you so! You all owe me an apology for doubting me!” Mai puffed out her chest with pride, which I silently admitted that she’d definitely earned. Both for noticing something as easy-to-miss as someone wearing our school socks and for assumedly being the only person to track down the hidden base of the magical girls.

Still, there were things that bugged me.

“Girls, we have to keep this secret,” I said, the atmosphere of excitement seeming to change the second I spoke. “Even though it seems like they’re here to protect the innocent or whatever, we have no idea how these magical girls would react to us finding their hideout. If word got out that we were the ones who discovered it, we could be painting a target on our backs.

Both Saki and Nao looked a little disappointed at the idea, but I was surprised to see Mai nodding her head in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m with Sora on this. We don’t wanna piss ‘em off or something.” Mai expressing a sensible and well-thought-out opinion was so rare it caught me off guard for a moment. “Besides, I have plans for how we can use this information to our advantage, hehehehehehe.”

I retract my previous statement. She’s a nutcase.

“Yeesh, it’s almost 6pm. We better get trekking if we wanna be home before dark,” said Saki. Checking my phone, I realised she was right. It was 17:56, meaning it took us even longer to get here than I thought.

The four of us started making our way back to the station, a complicated atmosphere between us. All four of us had varying levels of excitement at the idea of finding the real identities of the magical girls at our school, but we all also knew that we’d have to tread carefully. These were uncharted waters.

Personally, I felt like we were kicking the hornet’s nest. Were the decision up to me, I would stop pursuing this altogether. But there was no stopping Mai’s resolve once she put her mind to something, and there was no way in hell I was letting the girls get themselves into trouble without being there to protect them.

As Mai and Saki chattered about all the things they wanted to talk about if they really managed to meet the magical girls, I sighed to myself silently.

Something about this whole situation just didn’t sit right with me. And I could see on her face that Nao agreed with me. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

***

“It’s damn near 8pm, Sora, where the hell’ve you been?” The voice of Mr Genmitsu, one of my protective custody agents, was the first thing to greet me when I got back to the small and unassuming apartment I called home.

“I already messaged you to let you know, didn’t I? Some friends wanted to wander around Shibuya after school and asked me to go with them.”

“Most of the shops closed ages ago, you should have been back at 7pm at the latest.”

“We ended up pretty far from the trains, okay? The return journey just took a while.” I walked past him and threw my school bag down in the small living room, before letting my hair down from the annoying ponytail I generally kept it up in. I silently scorned my long hair, but changes to my appearance were an important part of keeping myself safe from those hunting me down. “They don’t even know who or where I am, staying out into the evening isn’t gonna get me killed, Genmitsu.”

“That’s not-” Genmitsu stopped and took a deep breath as he noticed himself raising his voice. He then continued speaking in a calmer voice. “That’s not the point. If you let your guard down too much, you’re risking the exposure of your identity. Do you really wanna be forced to move away again?”

I hesitated at that last comment. I had hardly had the chance to live a normal childhood, so I wasn’t exactly looking to abandon my chance at a normal adolescence too. Especially as I had grown pretty attached to my friends here.

“Oh, don’t be such a killjoy, Gen.” The second voice came from the kitchen, and belonged to the other agent assigned to my protection, Ms Kandai. The two were playing the part of my parents, since an orphan living alone would have been more likely to draw attention. “Sora’s just a kid, a life of constant fear is no life at all.”

“I know, I know, but this isn’t exactly a normal situation. The people we’re dealing with are powerful, unnecessary risks need to be avoided at all costs.”

“We can’t control every part of Sora’s li-”

“No, Genmitsu’s right. I’ll be more careful from now.” I cut off Kandai, not wanting to continue with this subject any longer. “I’m gonna go clean my face off.”

I did just that, cleaning the makeup off my face as I thought back over the events of the day. As much as I hated to admit it, Genmitsu was more right than he knew. I was supposed to be keeping a low profile, and what do I do? Throw a rock at the home of the most sought-after individuals in Tokyo. Imbecile. My carelessness was getting worse, and if I didn’t get my act together I’d likely be forced to abandon “Sora Goto” and adopt yet another new identity.

As I pondered my own stupidity, I dried off my face and looked at my reflection in the small bathroom mirror. Despite having been “Sora” for over half a year already, I still found myself surprised at just how much makeup could change one’s appearance. I used to have short hair and I wasn’t exactly in the habit of putting makeup on every day, so looking in the mirror was almost like looking at a stranger.

I spent the rest of the evening the same way as I spent every evening. I ate the food Kandai made for me, finished up the homework I had yet to do, and talked with the girls over text for a while. For such an exceptional day, it was an exceedingly mundane wind down.

Just as mundane as every evening tended to be.

As I lay down in bed, preparing to go to sleep, I found myself wondering, is there even any point in continuing to live if I had to be in constant fear for my life?

It was a question that had bugged me for a really long time.