First Experience ♥
Anyway, I set aside the idea of a massacre I'd never actually pull off. I did toy with some newbie slaughter in games, though. In a world where superpowers let you wield magic-like forces in real life, SF and mecha genres were apparently more popular than straight fantasy. Armored Coffin was this mecha-piloting game that had made it all the way to installment nine, so I gave it a shot. It was from Two the Soft, too. Doesn't that feel kinda contrived? No? You think this is normal? Their Soulslike game felt way too easy, but by the ninth entry, this one was decently challenging. At least I went from not taking a single hit to getting a few scratches.
It wasn't a game with chat anyway, so I dipped into PvP for a bit of fun. The uncle in my head cackled while bullying them, but the girl's shell just impassively clicked away at the controller. Ah, boring. Kihihi.
Magical girls don't get pissed off! Magical girls spread hope and love! Magical girls always keep a firm heart!!! The uncle in my head thrashed around in a fit of irritation. But the invincible magical girl gazed down at the flailing old man with serene compassion. Disconnect, detachment, alienation. What was this sensation? In the hollow void, only the uncle spoke of emotions. The girl just stayed silent, watching.
Even while grumbling like this, I coldly butchered some human alive somewhere inside the monitor. Well, it was just a game, and what got smashed was a mecha—no blood splattered.
Be happy. You've turned into something this pretty—why aren't you glad at all? You've got insane gaming skills now—why aren't you enjoying it one bit? Magic's awesome! Awesome! I love magic! Be happy! Be happy! Hooray! Hooray!!! Long live magical girl Baek Yeha!! You've escaped that rotten defective body and become a perfect beauty! You can blast magic to your heart's content! So be happy, damn it!!!
I forcibly tugged the corners of Magical Girl Baek Yeha's mouth into a smile. I could tell it looked awkward even without a mirror. The shell was calm and still, but the contents felt like they were going mad. The girl was serene and composed, but the uncle was twisted up.
"Ah."
Breathing. Sitting in the chair, spinning round and round with my mouth open, sucking in fine dust like an air purifier. My house, which hadn't been around long, was starting to feel lived-in, with dust drifting about. Was this the dust made from magical girl dandruff? Sniff sniff. Something smelled good. Nom nom. Mmm, tastes nice.
Snap.
One finger snap purified the entire house. All the dust vanished, replaced by a pleasant fragrance. Wasn't giving a hikikomori a body this premium a bit of a waste?
Eh? What was this? Magical Girl Baek Yeha's mood felt subtly off. Like her quiet heart was fluttering just a little. No matter how much the uncle raged, the girl hadn't budged, but now a twinge of displeasure welled up. Like spotting a cockroach skittering across the bathroom floor? Or something crawling up my back—an obsessive itch. Transform? 'Transform.'
The transformation was near-instant, close to zero seconds. The hikikomori soul armored up in outdoor gear. She climbed the stairs to the second floor without a sound echoing. She crossed a space devoid of even a speck of family traces—no dust at all. Out onto the veranda her little sister had loved. Leaving the auto-locking door's click behind, she breathed in the scent of the evening glow tinting the sky green. The bone-chilling minus twelve degrees of winter was just a fresh aroma.
Stepping outside felt too natural. Just as the uncle intended, it merged seamlessly with the girl's will.
"Ha."
The girl exhaled lightly and stomped the air, leaping upward. Not even the whisper of wind reached her ears. In that weightless instant, the neighborhood shrank below. Ah, so this is what it feels like from the sky. The uncle marveled. The girl seemed to like the sky quite a bit too. Clearer than any photo or game view, the scene etched sharply into her mind. Feels good. Standing in the heavens, she watched the sun's lingering blue fade away. That moment left purple ash and quickly dimmed. Her chest tickled. Under the ink-blackening sky, she became a lone white star. As night deepened its stride, she unfurled her senses wide.
Over high altitude, past the horizon's smiling curve like a starry grin, her senses stretched out. Ultra-wide-range mana wave detection. The magical girl's scouting method, known to both girl and uncle. But the girl's senses picked up something the uncle didn't know.
Beneath the scattered stars, flickering colors chattered. Countless tiny pebbles clattered past her senses. The girl's lips curved naturally. Her pale cheeks flushed red. Pervert getting off on weird stuff, huh? Magical girl.
Soon spotting her target, the girl bounded across the sky as if it were natural. Stars stretched into long trails, dyed blue in afterimages. The trailing echoes burned red like sunset. Light rings sucked inward, scattering brightly. The uncle marveled again. The girl wore a naturally smug expression. The drawn-out sound and starry winds scattered rainbows across the sky. Time rewound; the ink-black heavens blazed bright. Blue and azure clashed white, assembling the landscape like glass shards frozen in place.
"Summon!"
No need to shout it, right? But the thrilled girl let out a proud cry to the sky like the protagonist in a story. The magic wand's white shaft gripped in her pale hand. She swung the hefty thing down without a single creak. Then she eyed the intruder crawling out from the vast, cloudless ocean. Something churning the space like it was chewing it—muddy, sticky tentacles rioting on the surface. No, a monster. The girl grinned like a delighted child at the revolting sight.
The filthy stench and realism of the first monster she saw hit the uncle with familiar comfort, like something he'd seen a million times. His sense of reality had always been a bit broken anyway. He was just puppeteering the girl like a game character, enjoying her glee.
Landing at the wave's edge, she found footing. Waves from the wand pushed back the seawater. The seafloor sand bubbled and vaporized instantly. The tentacle mass lunged at her with speed unfit for its size. Ha! This is it. My heart raced. She shook off the writhing swarm with a casual flick of the wand. In a flash, rainbow mana afterglow trailed long. Defying physics, the tentacles vanished in a range wider than her swing. A beat later, the shockwave boomed.
Not a single fragment reached me.
Turning the grotesque monster's cry into a death rattle. She wrapped the area in a barrier, trapping the beast and surging waves. Swung the wand to smack it. White rainbow afterglow stitched a long tail through the air.
A thrilling heartbeat rocked my chest as the monster shattered. Like poking a giant with a finger—but physics don't apply here, right? And stuff's supposed to burst when poked by a finger anyway. Kihihi.
Flesh chunks ignited with the seawater in an instant. Lumps surged, reeking of briny rot. A beat late, charred mucus scattered as black rain. The spiteful downpour couldn't even graze my body, falling futilely. Purity stays unsullied.
Crack.
The hole that spat out the monster split with an eerie death knell, gulping seawater before vanishing.
"Kihihi."
I laughed. Amid the fishy blood-rain spray, I saw myself beaming wide.
Snap.
A light finger snap released the barrier and sprinkled purification. The monster crumbled to black ash without a trace. The natural end for such a thing. As a magical girl, I knew it well.
Refreshed, I hopped back into the sky. Wow, so this is being a magical girl. Magic rocks! "Kihihi."
Laughing shrilly and goofily, I soared through the heavens. My heart pounded.
Fired off one purification, punched in the veranda code, stepped inside, and shook off the chill clinging to my body. No matter how far I went, coming home felt like the most natural thing. Another purification as I undid the transformation—the magical girl's shell dissolved into the air. I felt the floor's warmth under soft soles. My sweet home.
"Kihihi, this is fun."
The voice rang out merrily, still a tad awkward. I'd never been one for talking much anyway—closer to communication disorder. Still, flying through the sky had been fun. Smashing that monster was a blast. No wonder games felt boring to magical girls. The uncle was deliriously thrilled after riding that insane rollercoaster. The numb girl's senses felt like they were waking up wildly. Though basic urges were still absent. Normally, you'd crave some hot soup by now, right?
By the way, since earlier, the magical girl's senses had been picking up kids' voices chattering nonstop. Not a bad feeling—more like a sense of kinship. Were the world's kids hanging out in some magical group chat? Or other magical girls...? Ah, mascots? Those weird verbal tics screamed mascot. Overhearing innocent kids' banter by accident as a hikikomori felt too intrusive to butt in, so I tuned my senses to block the line. I couldn't even leave comments on communities. Conversation? No way. Quick block! Kihihi.