Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Fancy Meeting You Here Again!
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Time had flown by, and the day of the shoot arrived.
'Hey, Tokkung. No dark circles or anything like that, right?'
[Looking good. Perfect Alice as always, from every angle.]
'Good.'
It was more reliable to have someone else check than to look in the mirror myself, even if mirrors were the surefire way.
Besides, my house didn’t have any mirrors.
Ever since I started living like this, I hadn’t liked looking in mirrors much, so I’d gotten rid of them all. If I really needed one, I could just use my phone camera, so it was a minor inconvenience at worst, nothing that really bothered me.
A Magical Girl’s transformation basically registered your appearance once, then perfectly reproduced it no matter if your real body had just rolled in mud.
Dark circles usually vanished during transformation anyway, but you never know. Just checking.
Of course, I couldn’t go out the front door, so I teleported to an abandoned building again, then repeated it two or three more times just in case, twisting my trail until I ended up in some remote back alley far from my home.
It wasted some mana, but so what? I was S-Rank.
Reducing the chance of my home being pinpointed was worth more than mana that would recover quickly anyway.
-Whoosh
"Hey! Over there!"
"It’s a Magical Girl!"
"But... who is it?"
In a society where Magical Girls lived alongside everyone else,
Seeing one flying through the sky—whether heading out on a call or coming back—wasn’t that rare anymore. It had gotten a lot more common compared to the old days, but in densely populated areas, tons of Magical Girls were concentrated in tight spaces, so it was even more frequent.
Some who were dead serious about their Magical Girl duties even stayed transformed for everyday life, so this wasn’t enough to cause a huge fuss.
Just the kind of thing where someone might post on SNS, 'OMG I saw a Magical Girl lol,' and call it a day?
And in this era, there was an unwritten rule: don’t photograph a Magical Girl unless she allows it. So unless you were super famous, you wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable out in public.
Take Emerald or Kariel—if they walked down the street transformed, crowds would swarm them. Someone would be hiding, sneaking photos.
Alice? Go ahead and try. I didn’t care.
The reason Alice had stayed out of the media spotlight despite her ranking, coming across as low-profile to civilians, was exactly this...
[Stellar Escape]
The pinnacle of Alice’s unique magic, the technique she’d poured the most effort into among her spells. A passive magic always active.
Its effect: 'Blocks any recording of Alice without her permission.'
...Honestly, calling it a pinnacle technique sounded impressive, but I had to admit it wasn’t suited for combat. Still, it was an incredible spell.
Stellar Shift, one of the keys to Alice’s livelihood, was derived from it, after all.
What did 'blocks unauthorized recordings' mean? Exactly what it said.
Any recording medium using light that Alice hadn’t allowed—either because I noticed but didn’t permit it, or I didn’t even notice it—wouldn’t capture Alice’s image.
You could see her with the naked eye, but cameras, CCTV, dashcams, whatever—no photos or videos of Alice unless I allowed it. So to ordinary people who experienced the world through media, Alice felt even more distant.
I couldn’t exactly advertise it either. If I went around saying, 'I took a photo of Alice, but she’s not in it. It’s like a ghost. Weird, right?' people would just say I messed up the shot.
If Alice was clearly photographed but didn’t show up, it meant I hadn’t allowed it. Either a sneaky shot, or one I didn’t want even if it wasn’t sneaky.
Who’d brag about that? They’d just mutter, 'Something’s off...' and shut up.
Reporters were the same.
Even in this changed world, reporters did reporter things, but they couldn’t mess with Magical Girls lightly.
Unless it was blatantly obvious she’d done something wrong, what excuse did they have to target a job where young girls risked their lives fighting monsters to protect citizens? They’d just get beaten down instead.
...Ah, about ten years ago, it happened more. Back when old habits hadn’t died yet.
Anyway, unlike other Magical Girls, Alice could walk around openly without photos or videos sticking, and she did very few public activities to begin with. So even with her high rank, low recognition made sense.
Like how more people know the pretty, rich, nice, popular class second than the quiet, plain top student.
I had no intention of posing for photos, so I sped up toward the agreed shoot location.
I hated shoots, but I’d taken the money, and a contract was a contract. If it was truly unbearable, I wouldn’t have done it no matter how desperate for cash.
Back in the day, when there were no Magical Girl subsidies and times were tough, they’d pick up lost wallets or items from civilians and sell them to survive... Things were better now, looking back.
Though I hadn’t benefited.
"Alice, you’ve arrived!"
-Land lightly
"Nice to meet you in person, Alice-nim. We’ve been waiting. I’m the new manager, Saph..."
"Sapphire, right? I can tell just by looking! Your texting style matches perfectly!"
"Thank you. Any inconveniences on your way here? If not, I’ll guide you."
Sapphire the Magical Girl... and my manager, was exactly as I’d pictured.
Her vibe oddly resembled Emerald’s—probably matching concepts since they were from the same company. Emerald had assigned her to me with care, so whatever their relationship, it wasn’t just boss and subordinate.
"The shoot’s for a month, right? Looking forward to working with you!"
"Likewise. Even if it’s not directly shoot-related, if any issue might interfere, feel free to ask for help. Helping you focus without worries is part of a manager’s job too."
"I doubt perfect Alice will need it, but... I’ll let you know if something comes up!"
"And here’s some chocolate milk we prepared. You must be thirsty after flying. Take as much as you want."
"Th-thank you!"
I naturally reached for the chocolate milk she offered, then froze.
It was in a tumbler.
I should’ve predicted it when she said they prepared drinks.
Who the hell drinks chocolate milk from a tumbler?
...Alice might, so I couldn’t complain!
'...Gotta have salad when I get home tonight.'
I could already picture my mouth tingling from sweetness after the shoot.
"First, I’ll introduce you to PD-nim. Since it’s the first shoot today, he wants to focus on light girls’ talk rather than serious lessons."
"Alice is fine with that. The materials said so too... Bonding with the rookies before diving into real lessons is important."
After finishing with the manager, I approached PD-nim, exchanged light greetings, and started chatting.
Given the industry, PD-nim was Magical Girl-related too. Unusually, after about five years active as a B-Rank Magical Girl, she’d met retirement conditions.
She’d retired but wanted to create a safer world for junior Magical Girls, so she worked under Emerald now.
Jealous. I wanted to retire too.
Eight years in, still no end in sight, and here someone retires in five?
...Really jealous.
"Alice-nim? Got it? Alice-nim?"
"Of course. Just organizing it in my head."
"Good. So today’s shoot should be about you and the students getting to know each other, as discussed. Given the conditions, do it however you’re comfortable. If something feels off during, just call NG then. Emerald-nim and I agreed not to interfere with your teaching content, so go wild."
"Leave it to Alice!"
Outwardly, Alice smiled with a hand over her mouth, but inwardly, I wanted to spit.
'No interference' my ass—they were making me improv the whole scriptless thing for an easy win.
That woman was great at taking credit.
"And... if you need an assistant during lessons, just call. Sapphire over there is A-Rank, and we booked a B-Rank support-type Magical Girl too, so minor injuries are no problem."
"Ooh! B-Rank support..."
...Wait. Something felt ominous...
"Ale!!!!!xan!!!!!der!!!!!Se!!!!!ni!!!!!or!!!!! Eeeeek!"
"If you have business with Alice-nim, approach slowly and speak properly. Running in yelling her name isn’t recommended on set."
"O-okay... I got too excited..."
'Why the hell is that woman here again!'
At this point, it was getting a little scary.
The blonde B-Rank support-type Magical Girl I’d met recently was clinging to Sapphire.