Debut Battle
Magical Girl Noir. For a while now, that name had been circulating through every medium across South Korea and the rest of the world.
Until then, monsters pouring out of gates and the villains empowered by those same gates had always clashed with magical girls. That was simply how things were.
But an unprecedented incident had occurred: a magical girl—one who had not undergone witchification—was now fighting other magical girls.
On top of that, the fact that she didn’t kill her opponents but only stripped them of their power had ignited fierce debate.
And the mysterious magical girl standing at the center of it all—Noir—was currently…!
Eating ice cream.
“It’s delicious…”
I’m not sure if it was a side effect of ending up in a girl’s body, but ever since becoming Magical Girl Noir I’d been putting away three ice creams a day.
“Yuhee, if you keep eating that much ice cream you’re going to make yourself sick.”
“I’m not a little kid…”
“You kind of are right now. You’re fifteen…”
My mascot, Ryuk, kept scolding me like a worried mother, but I didn’t stop licking the treat.
Ever since the fight with Red Sprite a week ago, I had been lying low. The incident had put everyone on high alert, and there was nothing to gain by sticking my neck out now.
Besides, according to Ryuk there weren’t any other magical girls on the verge of witchification at the moment. This was essentially a break.
Of course, calling it a break didn’t mean I could actually rest.
“Yuhee! Gate reaction!”
The red jewel on Ryuk’s necklace flashed, signaling a monster’s appearance.
Unlike ordinary magical girls, fighting monsters had become almost mandatory for me—I was the one who stole and used their power.
“No choice, then… shall we?”
I could gather more strength, protect the neighborhood while I was at it, and—if possible—take work away from the magical girls to slow their corruption. Fighting monsters was a three-birds-with-one-stone deal for me.
The only difficult part was finishing before the magical girls or the authorities showed up… but then again, the life of a villain was never meant to be easy.
The monster that emerged in the alley was staring straight at me.
“Grrrrk…”
A humanoid creature that looked like a crayfish foaming at the mouth. The real threat was the oversized claw on its right arm.
“All right… let’s go.”
[Set…!]
Transform!
[Turn to Noir…!]
I fired a magic circle forward, shoving the monster back, completed my transformation, and immediately leveled the Magical Revolver at it.
“At range, I have the advantage!”
The magic bullet sank into its body and detonated, launching the monster into the distance.
“Haha! This is what reach differe—”
A massive shockwave grazed my ear, whipping my hair around. An enormous explosion roared from behind me.
“…”
The monster in front of me was gathering magic power in its claw before flicking it forward like a cannon shot.
“You’ve got to be kidding…”
I had tried to claim the long-range advantage, but it turned out that was exactly the creature’s specialty.
“Then there’s no choice…!”
Change Weapon!
I switched the weapon into Revolver Saber form and charged with a blazing sword.
Rushing straight in would be suicide…!
In that case—!
“Ha!”
I kicked off the alley wall, zigzagging rapidly as I closed the distance.
Its attacks were fast and lethal, but the creature clearly struggled with rapid fire.
I pulled out the monster ability I had converted into bullet form during the last fight—the one I called a Magic Core.
“I’m counting on you…!”
Set… Aigis!
Noir Shield!
I spun the cylinder once, then swung the sword. The released blade energy expanded into a giant barrier that shattered both the incoming magic projectile and the monster’s attack.
The real fight was about to begin—whether I would cut it down first, or whether it would fire again first.
The creature began gathering magic power in its claw once more…
At that instant I yanked the lever, switching the weapon back to revolver form.
Double Charge!
Over Charge…!
Noir Magical Finish!
“Now!”
I spun the cylinder twice and fired powerful magic bullets straight into the claw before it could finish charging. Two dense masses of magic collided, creating a massive explosion.
Aiming the revolver at the monster whose claw had been ruined by the blast, I spun the cylinder a third time.
“Dieeeee!”
A colossal spike-shaped magic bullet pierced the monster. A huge explosion followed, shredding its body into pieces.
In that moment I extracted the creature’s magic power from its core.
“This… is the ability it used when it fired magic power?”
The red core earned the name Blast Core. I slipped it into my pocket.
“Yuhee! People are coming!”
I glanced back at Ryuk’s warning. Three enormous magical signatures were rushing this way.
“They really are! Time to run!”
I scaled the wall to the rooftop again and sprinted across the buildings, fleeing the scene. In the distance I could see the magical girls and police finally arriving.
“Whew… that was too close…”
Once I was far enough away, I wiped the sweat from my brow and scanned the surroundings. It looked like I had lost them.
With something to show for the day, I headed home.
The old villa was empty again today. Perfect—no chance of being discovered.
I opened the front door out of habit, released my transformation, and collapsed onto the bed.
“Haa~”
My body bounced once on the soft mattress. The cores I had tucked in my pocket spilled across the sheets.
Including the new one, I now had three cores total: the Aigis Core from the fight with the magical girl, the newly acquired Blast Core, and the Noir Core I used to transform.
“Hey Ryuk, not every monster drops one of these cores, right?”
“Yeah… they only seem to come from fairly strong monsters that possess special abilities.”
I had been lucky so far, but there was clearly no guarantee the next monster would yield a core. The last time I had defeated one without getting anything, I’d found it strange.
“Still, every monster I defeat feeds its magic power into the Noir Core anyway… so there’s still plenty of reason to hunt them.”
“I see… More importantly, is this really the power I wished for—to crush the magical girls?”
“We’re the ones who grant wishes, but… we can’t control exactly how they manifest.”
“Ugh, that’s such a cop-out…”
I lay on the bed and pulled out my phone.
Searching for myself online had somehow become a recent hobby. Ryuk always nagged that it was a bad habit, but… it was genuinely entertaining.
And the most fun place of all was—
“The Magal, obviously!”
The Magical Girl Gallery—commonly called Magal—wasn’t an official government forum. It was a gray-zone community secretly run by civilians. Because of that lawless atmosphere, the reactions there were raw, unfiltered, and endlessly entertaining.
Today, as usual, the entire board was on fire with talk about me.
(Scene of Noir battling a monster)
(Scene of magical girls arriving late and staring at Noir)
Just like that—magical girls, get owned~!
These days it honestly feels like Noir’s doing the job better than the actual magical girls lol.
No wonder she struts around openly declaring she’s sniping magical girls left and right lol.
“Hehe.”
Even though I had been an adult man until recently, hearing that I was pretty still made me feel good. At first it had felt awkward and embarrassing, but lately I was trying to enjoy it. It was a decent way to relieve stress.
Since it was a community full of magical-girl fans, plenty of people viewed my activities negatively or with outright fear. If I hadn’t been fighting monsters, those opinions probably would have been the majority.
Still, it was comforting to know that even among the criticism, a small but dedicated group of Noir fans existed.
(Photo of Red Sprite showing signs of witchification)
Before Noir showed up, the big theory was that Red Sprite was about to witchify, right?
Yet at the perfect moment Noir appears and conveniently stops her. Doesn’t that seem way too coincidental?
If you think about it rationally, maybe Noir isn’t out to destroy magical girls at all. Maybe she’s an existence created by the government or some shadowy organization to protect citizens by eliminating unstable elements?
While passionate debate raged about me, my fingers itched. I decided to write a post of my own. There were a lot of Noir fans today… call it fan service.
“Hehe… I figured this would happen, so I specially asked Ryuk to take a natural super-close shot…”
