A 1-Star Review Appears
A 1-star review had popped up.
"Her unique magic is probably Warp, I'd guess."
"It's magic that's never appeared before, right? So the Association..."
It had been a week since I'd lent a helping hand to English Lavender.
The weather, which hadn't shown even a hint of warming up, had flipped in an instant, turning mild as new life began sprouting from the ground. And a small change had crept into my life too.
"Hey, Sofia, stream the site to the TV for me."
Now that we'd gotten a bit closer, she didn't mind when I said stuff like that.
"I'm not some big corp's AI or anything!"
She grumbled, but she still did it kindly enough.
Tsundere through and through.
The site that came up was none other than my review site.
Cute, rounded UI, plastered with Pronesis photos everywhere.
And amid it all, just a single review left behind.
Hmm.
She really seemed like a good magical girl.
It was the first review request since I'd set up the site last week, and she'd written it diligently without review-dodging.
All magical girls must be diligent and kind at heart.
Since I'd only promoted it to English Lavender so far, there was just the one review, but it'd build up over time.
"But do you really have to do this?"
That's when Sofia's voice, laced with doubt, asked me.
Hmm. Do I have to?
"Of course."
Every magical girl has their own unique "ideal."
And the closer they get to that ideal, the stronger they become.
This activity was part of me pursuing mine.
In fact, ever since I started, my magic had gotten way stronger than in the early days.
I used to only be able to warp things my size, but lately I could handle magic beasts much bigger than me with ease.
With those thoughts, I explained it to Sofia.
"What? That's why? I was wondering what you had in mind when you asked me to make it, but you actually had a plan?"
Fortunately, she seemed convinced.
Magical Girl Association HQ.
"..."
Silence hung over the conference room until someone finally spoke.
"Hello, everyone."
It was a young voice, like someone just past puberty, but no one dared question it.
Association President Lee Hana.
The golden nameplate on her chest. Even without it, no one here wouldn't know her.
The one who'd founded the Magical Girl Association twenty years ago—and still an active magical girl to this day.
Or in other words...
The strongest magical girl.
"First, thank you all for gathering here."
Clap clap clap.
At her brief pleasantries, everyone in the room applauded.
"The reason for this emergency meeting is none other than..."
She gestured to her secretary, and soon a profile appeared on the central screen.
Magical Girl Pronesis
Presumed Unique Magic: Warp
Presumed Rank: C+
"...a discussion about this magical girl called Pronesis."
A magical girl with a unique magic so groundbreaking it could turn the world upside down once revealed.
That made Pronesis a red-hot potato lately.
"As you all know, our Association has conducted various studies to minimize casualties as much as possible."
Their current protocol for magic beasts or kaijin was to detect them as fast as possible, dispatch magical girls as fast as possible, and evacuate civilians as fast as possible.
As fast as possible was the motto, no matter what.
They'd built dedicated highways for magical girls, detection systems for magic beasts and kaijin, evacuation shelters, and more.
But there was always inevitable time loss.
And then Pronesis showed up, warping around like she was mocking their entire system.
"Her ability renders all our measures to scrap paper—it's that useful."
No magical girl with such power had ever existed before.
Which meant the Association was desperate for her.
"We don't yet know the limits of her ability. But one thing's certain: it'll be helpful, one way or another."
Even if only she could warp, the Association didn't care.
They had facilities and researchers ready to nurture her power anytime.
She declared it firmly.
"Bring her in, by any means necessary."
"Sorry."
"Huh?"
"Did you like Magical Girl Pronesis's service? If it helped, please give us 5 stars."
"Wait—"
Hmm.
Something was off.
This was the fifth time already.
Every magical girl I helped ended up making weird offers about joining the Association.
Even so, getting pitched five times out of seven outings in two weeks felt suspicious.
Hey.
Sofia's voice echoed in my head then.
It was trembling slightly, for some reason.
"What's up, Sofia?"
She wasn't usually like this, so I asked gently.
You aren't thinking of joining, are you?
Worried for nothing.
"Why would I join that place?"
Put simply, no matter what they offered, I was confident I wouldn't bite.
Not with my history of getting canned in the past—what would I even do there—
...
"Join us now, and I'll give you limited-edition merch from me and our group... with signatures!"
Oh.
"...Sorry."
You totally wavered there for a sec.
"Did you like Magical Girl Pronesis's service? If it helped, please give us 5 stars."
Phew.
I somehow shook off the temptation and made it home.
Vicious Association bastards. Their analytics were sharper than I thought.
Looked more like they were just shooting in the dark.
No way.
I immediately dropped my transformation, pulled out my smartphone, and checked the review site.
[View more +17]
...Hmph.
"Hey Sofia, clean up the review site for me."
"Here, take the permissions and do it yourself! This crap's annoyingly tedious, you know!?"
The site admin here sucked. Instead of deleting ad reviews herself, she just dumped it on users.
A mere user had no choice but to bow to the admin's power abuse.
★★★★★ [Join the Association now for billions in support...] - 1 day ago.
[Delete?]
[ YES , NO ]
...With this level of dedication, why not just add an auto-ad filter?
Anyway, after using Sofia's permissions to nuke the ad reviews, only three legit ones remained.
Ah.
The moment I saw the 1-star review, I debated deleting it—but I stopped myself.
It was valuable feedback in its own way. What if I needed to reflect on it later?
And so, the overall rating came out to...
11 ÷ 3 = 3.7
No way.
Even in a world flooded with 5-star reviews, shops usually held around 4 stars. Dropping below that tanked trust hard.
"Sofia, what do I do?"
"...What now?"
"Any magic beasts or kaijin popping up right now?"
At this rate, I'd flop right out the gate—no customers for my "shop."
"Nope."
Damn. Should I run errands for other magical girls instead?
I never wanted to feel a small business owner's struggles like this, but my shop was on the brink from day one.
But why hadn't the other magical girls reviewed?
Eight encounters and promo pitches in two weeks, and only three reviews?
Was this what it felt like getting stiffed on delivery food review events?
As I brainstormed ways to snag new reviews...
"Ah!"
There was a way!
──────!!!!!
An irritating siren burrowed into my ears inside the dorm.
Magical Girl English Lavender in the dorm: Dispatch to the kaijin site immediately.
"Ugh, seriously... Why are they popping up so much lately..."
Association magical girls only had a two-dispatch quota per month, after which they were off the hook—but she'd been going out more than that recently.
This month alone made four, including this one.
"Whatever... At least the pay's good..."
With that thought, she left her dorm stuffed with cute mascot plushies and initiated her transformation.
"Transform."
Her black hair turned pale lavender, her plain clothes became a frilly, pretty dress, and the transformation was complete.
As she headed out, she calculated the time to Sanggye Station.
Sanggye Station's about four minutes if I run... D-rank, so as fast as possible—
"Hello."
And then someone in a motorcycle helmet appeared.
The familiar voice threw her off, so she answered hesitantly.
"...Huh? Who the hell are you?"
"I'm the magical girl Pronesis."
Removing the helmet revealed a quite familiar face.
Pronesis. Second encounter since last week, and the one the Association was under orders to recruit by any means.
"Uh... So, what're you doing here?"
The situation was urgent, so she cut to the chase.
"I've started a swift and accurate delivery service. I was looking for new customers, so I came this way."
"...What?"