I Think I Summoned Something Strange?
It was peaceful. Birds chirped, and a gentle breeze drifted in through the window, brushing cool against my cheeks as if tapping them softly. I had no idea how long this peace would last, but it was the kind of weather that made me want to squeeze every drop of happiness I could out of ordinary days.
When classes ended for the day, the girls hurried off to their assigned dormitories. I tidied up my spot and rose from my chair, and Mika, sitting beside me, looked my way.
"Serena, you're with Irene, right?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Aww, too bad. It would've been nice if we were roommates."
"Would've been."
Mika's social skills were monstrous. In the brief moment Irene—my roommate—had stopped by, the two of them had already grown close enough to know each other's names. Granted, it was entirely thanks to Mika's storm of questions leaving the shy Irene flustered and scrambling, but still.
"Well then, see you later!"
Mika waved a bye-bye at me and walked out of the classroom with her own roommate. Her roommate, apparently quite pleased with the arrangement, hooked her arm through Mika's slender one with a satisfied smile.
Kaissa Pairn. Mika's roommate, and one of the people who had despised Serena with a burning passion in the original story. From the moment Mika began noticing Serena as a rival and focusing on her, Kaissa had spewed out obsessive, venomous jealousy.
Case in point: she was already glaring openly at me as she left the classroom. I silently prayed that from the next class onward, Kaissa and not I would be sitting next to Mika.
You could ask me why I hated it so much, but one guess kept circling in my head with no intention of leaving. This story revolves around Mika. But if Serena—who was never supposed to be by her side—is right there next to her, does the story change? It was a hypothesis with more than enough plausibility.
Maybe the problem was that I entered with Mika at the opening ceremony from the very start.
The second hypothesis was that the problem lay in the fact that I wasn't the real Serena... but that one was beyond fixing, so I'd let it slide. As I filed away these meaningless hypotheses and stepped out of the classroom, someone was standing there waiting for me.
"C-can I... walk with you?"
Irene, fidgeting with her hands and staring fixedly at the ground. Was it because all the other friends had already gone back to their dorms with their roommates? She'd apparently been waiting quietly for me to come out instead of heading off ahead.
"Sure."
"Th-thank you!"
Only then did Irene light up with a bright, beaming smile. How to put it—she acted nothing like her face. On the outside, she looked like a nobleman's daughter, elegant and refined, the type who'd sneer while bossing around a retinue of servants. But there wasn't a gentler lamb to be found anywhere.
She's like a golden retriever.
The way one pets a docile large dog, my hand instinctively went to her head and stroked it. Even that didn't offend her—on the contrary, she blushed and looked pleased.
Irene Sapamente. As far as my memory went, I knew precious little about her. I didn't even know what Unique Magic she used. Given that I couldn't remember her at all, she was either a pure background extra, or she died early on and exited the story. It had to be one of the two.
Personally, I'd prefer it if she were the former.
I kept stroking her head as we made our way to the dormitory. Her eyes seemed full of questions about me, but since she didn't speak first, I saw no need to break the silence either. Passed with flying colors as my roommate of choice.
And so we arrived in front of Room 104. When we opened the door and stepped inside, no princess-like chamber greeted us—just a dorm in visibly poor condition, looking like it had been thrown together overnight.
"This is the worst living space I've ever seen, and that's saying something."
"Living space...? What's that...?"
"Nothing."
One look was enough to draw a sigh. I knew magical girls got the royal treatment, but the dormitory of a first-year—the greenest of the green—felt like a slapdash, ramshackle barn.
Can't be a budget issue. Are they trying to stoke our need for achievement?
Even this academy, which preached equality, had never managed to root out the class system. As a result, the rewards granted based on a magical girl's standing and achievements ran the full spectrum from feast to famine. Then again, this was the place that produced elite magical girls who went on to become nobles in society—how different could it really be?
The room was bare and empty. The only things in it were a wardrobe, two desks, and a rickety bunk bed. The bathroom, of course, was a squat toilet.
It was enough to make anyone sigh. With a squat toilet in the room, summer would bring not just bugs but a bonus stench to torment our delicate nostrils.
"Wow~ it's so spacious!"
Despite the grim reality of the situation, Irene was simply overjoyed to have a room of her own and didn't complain one bit.
"Serena! Um... would it be okay if I took the top bunk..?"
Irene's eyes were sparkling harder than usual. Like a puppy presented with a treat, an invisible tail seemed to be wagging furiously behind her.
"Knock yourself out."
"Yaaay! Thank you!!"
Irene went boing-boing hopping up toward the top bunk. Right, at that age a bunk bed must feel like discovering a brand-new toy. If she actually used it, she'd find plenty to complain about soon enough.
Killing two birds with one stone, I indulged Irene's inner child while securing the comfort of the bottom bunk for myself. Practicality win.
"So fluffy~"
Irene rolled around on the soft bed, soaking in pure bliss. Watching her act like a single bed meant she owned the whole world, that unspoiled innocence of hers looked, just a little, enviable.
"Oh, but Serena... what color did you get... from your mana stone..?"
Irene poked just her head out from the top bunk and looked down at me.
"Black."
"Black? I've never seen that before..!"
"What about you, Irene?"
"Mine was yellow... I think I'm still lacking a lot... What if I can't summon a good mascot..?"
She drooped a little. Like a treat given and then snatched away, her invisible ears seemed to wilt.
"You just have to work hard. Study hard for a week and..."
"Yeah..? If I work hard... I can become a cool magical girl too, right..?"
"Of course."
"Hehe.."
I probably shouldn't mention that initial mana capacity is pure talent territory. I don't have the cruel hobby of crushing childhood dreams, after all. In fact, even among Mika's hero party, one of them surpassed her own limits through infinite effort.
"Serena... why did you want to become a magical girl..?"
"Huh?"
The sudden question caught me speechless. Why did I become a magical girl? If I said 'to defy fate,' would she understand? Should I tell her 'because if you sit still, you die'?
"I guess... I wanted to find my own sense of justice."
Eh, whatever. I'd play it off with something a grade-schooler would say. It's actually my real goal anyway, so it's not a lie, is it?
"Ohh, I see..!"
Fortunately, my plausible(?) excuse landed, and Irene carried on.
"A magical girl saved me once, a long time ago. I was so scared back then... I couldn't see anything... but I'll never forget how warm it felt when she scooped me up in her arms."
"That's amazing."
"I'm going to become a magical girl just like her... one who saves everyone..!"
Looking at Irene, brimming with dreams and innocence, I almost wanted to tell her to be careful. Because this world... isn't nearly that kind of a place.
"Before all that, I think you should sleep, for tomorrow's sake."
At some point the sun had set, and a bright moonlight greeted us along with the dark of night. It was the hour when owls hooted and insects droned. The hour when good little children should already be off in dreamland.
"Mmm... talking is fun... but I'm sleepy..."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight to you too, Serena!"
A week flew by in the blink of an eye. Whether it was to adapt to this place, or because these little girls wore my patience down to nothing, the days blurred together in one hectic streak.
"Serena~ come eat with me!"
"Serena... may I sit in front of you..?"
"Hmph, you commoners should be grateful I grace your group activities at all!"
I didn't know why, but Mika always insisted on the seat beside me, and Irene always insisted on the one in front. Strangely enough, Liria—so smugly pleased with herself—also took to sitting beside Irene and showered us with attention at every turn.
"Hey, what about your roommates? Why are you all sitting over here?"
"Hmph, what do I care about some commoner?"
"I'm sure Kaissa will be fine! She's got other friends!"
Thanks to that, I had to endure Kaissa's scorching glare every single day, while the chattering Liria and the quietly listening Irene, as it turned out, got along surprisingly well.
Ugh. I just want to be alone.
Even though I desperately dodged and evaded her to stay away from Mika's side, somehow, the moment class started, there she was, planted right next to me, asking for me by name. Was this another protagonist buff? How does she find me even when I mask my presence? A moment that wounded my pride as a killer, frankly.
"Irene! Look, look! Controlling mana is way easier if you do it like this!"
"Liria... show me one more time... it's too hard..."
"Goodness! Very well—this great one shall deign to show you once more!"
Liria must have taken a liking to Irene's pure-hearted nature, because she kept pouring affection on her. I'd expected jealousy toward Mika or attention-seeking drama, but those situations played out far less often than I'd anticipated.
"By the way, you don't call Irene a commoner, do you?"
"Hmph! How dare you compare Irene to a commoner like you?!"
"Liria... we shouldn't say such mean things..."
"Ggh... if Irene says so... I'll consider it."
Whether she'd grown attached over the week, or it was simply because they sat together as partners every time, Liria's number one pick was Irene. Irene's gentle, large-dog charm seemed more than enough to tame even the prickly Liria.
"Alright, now the moment we've all been waiting for is here! You've all practiced your mana for the week, haven't you?"
"Yes~!"
"Then follow your teacher, everyone!"
The day to summon our mascots had finally arrived. Mika, Liria, and Irene all rose from their seats with gravely tense expressions. I'd half expected them to be giddy, but instead they marched after the teacher with grim resolve, as if the hour had come to decide their fates.
And I prayed, and prayed again. Please, please don't let anything strange happen.
Following the teacher, we were greeted by an enormous magic circle.
"You all learned how to pour mana in at the very beginning, remember? Just do it exactly like you practiced~"
When the teacher finished speaking, they each received their mascots in turn. Just as the lesson had taught, the mascots took all manner of shapes, from insects to beasts—only cuter and more adorable than their real-world counterparts, as it were.
"Now! It is this great one's turn!"
Liria confidently poured out her mana. In response, a mascot in the form of a fairy appeared in a burst of brilliant light. Sure enough, Liria flashed a victory V at us with a haughty laugh. Thank goodness she didn't spew curses like she had at the entrance exam.
Next was Mika. Naturally, as if to flaunt her status as top student, a unicorn—shaped like a horse with a single horn on its head—was summoned, making her the first to produce a Divine Beast-grade mascot. Everyone but me gasped in wonder and erupted in delight and applause.
The surprise, though, was Irene. Like Liria, she summoned a fairy-grade mascot. Had her week of hard work paid off? Irene ran to Liria in tears of joy and threw her arms around her, and I felt an odd, proud warmth watching her. Is Liria really so wonderful that she'd ignore her own roommate? It made me reflect on how indifferent I'd been all this time.
"Now then, Serena. Your turn—last again, I see."
Finally, my turn. Nothing unusual had happened so far. Mika and Liria had both summoned the mascots I knew from the story. All I had to do was summon a fairy-grade mascot, and every plan would be perfect.
I steadied my breath and released my mana.
In that instant.
A tremendous thunderclap split the air as darkness engulfed every direction, and a bizarre phenomenon unfolded—a cloud bank forming indoors. Lightning crackled through those clouds, ready to strike, and through the slowly rising smoke, a massive form gazed down at us. A moment later, an inhuman voice boomed through the entire lecture hall.
The moment it was summoned, I felt every last wrinkle of my brain firing at once, screaming at me that something had gone very, very wrong.