Magical Girl Solaria
"Th-this is..."
Light enveloped Seoyoung, and in a heartbeat her entire appearance had changed. Her short black hair had become a cascade of long golden locks, and her clothes had turned into the kind of scandalously revealing costume you'd only ever see among cosplayers.
"I named you Magical Girl Solaria, nyang."
"That's not the point!"
"Right, nyang. First, the demonic beasts in fron—"
"What is this outfit?! The sides of my chest are wide open, and there's barely anything covering me down below! How am I supposed to walk around like this?! Thank god there's nobody here—if anyone caught me wearing this, my social life would be over that very day! Aaaaah!"
"So that was the problem, nyang..."
Mea stared at her in sheer disbelief, then let out a sigh.
"More importantly, shouldn't we take down the demonic beasts in front of us first, nyang?"
The demonic beasts she had shoved away stood frozen, thrown by the sudden change in the girl before their eyes—then they snapped back to themselves, bodies coiling as if to charge.
"I... I know that! So... what am I supposed to do?"
"Fill yourself with the will to strike the enemy down, then shout an incantation, nyang."
"S-saying that out of nowhere..."
Me, who'd never even imagined using magic in my life, suddenly coming up with an incantation...? Of course that's impossible!
Then the demonic beasts lunged at Solaria with terrifying speed.
"Ugh... nngh! Stay back!! I really... I don't know...!"
The will to strike them down... the will to strike them down... a magic that could wipe those things out right now...
In that instant, an aura bloomed around Solaria's body, flooding her with power until it felt like she could do anything.
Solar Ray
A yellow beam of light erupted from Solaria's hand and shot toward the charging demonic beasts. The ones the light pierced through vanished without a trace.
"W-wow! I did it!"
"Well done, nyang."
The rush of taking down an enemy for the first time lifted her spirits—but only for a moment.
"Ugh... now... ah—that's right! Seola!"
She spun toward Seola in a panic, desperate to check if she was all right.
"Hah... Sunbae... that look..."
After one startled glance at Seoyoung's appearance, Seola fainted.
"Seola, are you okay?!"
"Don't worry, nyang. She just fainted from exhaustion, nyang."
"Phew... thank god."
Seola's clothes were torn and her body was a mess—she'd clearly been subjected to every kind of harassment from the demonic beasts. Seoyoung looked fine on the outside thanks to the transformation, but she'd suffered the same treatment as Seola, and on top of that she'd suddenly become a magical girl and taken down demonic beasts besides. Mentally, she was anything but fine.
Borrowing the strength of her transformation, she first carried Seola home safely, then dragged her exhausted body back to her own place.
"My name is Mea. I'm a spirit, nyang."
"Like I said earlier, this world is in danger right now, nyang. I need your help, nyang."
According to Mea, Dementia—the monster that had seemed to command the demonic beasts they'd encountered—was an aggregation of malice, lust, and chaos, and it was plotting to swallow the world whole.
Mea and Dementia had originally been a single being, split apart by some incident. Mea was the Spirit of Reason; Dementia, the Spirit of Chaos.
Mea's power had been badly depleted after using too much of it while fleeing the split. To recharge, they would have to defeat Dementia's creations and replenish their strength.
So, in other words...
"I have to keep fighting terrifying monsters and winning from now on? And if I lose, the world gets taken over by those bastards?"
"You've got it, nyang."
"So! Why! Me, of all people?!"
"The power coming from your soul was the strongest—that's how drawn the demonic beasts were to you, nyang..."
Mea looked at her with a face that said there was nothing to be done about it.
"More than anything, we've already contracted. It can't be undone, nyang..."
"AAAAAAAH!!"
"Hey... don't worry, nyang. In your transformed state, you won't go down to demonic beasts that easily, nyang... Still, if your mana runs dry, the transformation can come undone, so be careful, nyang..."
As she finished speaking, Mea produced several peculiar violet stones from somewhere on her small body and dumped them clattering onto the floor.
"These are called magic crystals, nyang. Remember the demonic beasts we took down earlier, nyang? After you defeat them, stones like these will drop, and if you use them well, both you and I can get a whole lot stronger, nyang!"
"H-how?"
"I'll show you, nyang."
With a look of utter confidence, Mea picked up a stone, chanted an incantation, and the purple stone turned yellow. Then she swallowed every last one of them.
Chomp— chomp—
"Ugh... what are you doing?"
"Absorbing the energy, nyang. Absorb the magic crystals that drop from defeated enemies and you can strengthen your power, nyang! But when they're still purple, they're packed with demonic energy, so you must not swallow them like that, nyang. Purify them first, then either I or you can absorb them, nyang!"
"Bring them to me and I'll purify them so they're ready to absorb, nyang."
"Absorb...? Do I have to chew and eat the stones like you just did?"
"That works too, but if you press a magic crystal against your belly while transformed, it'll absorb naturally, nyang."
"That's all I know, nyang. The split was so sudden I don't remember much, nyang... Once you take down demonic beasts and get stronger, my memories should come back too, nyang... Probably, nyang?"
Ugh... I guess there's no getting out of this.
"Ah, wait...! That's all well and good, but what about this?"
Seoyoung pointed a finger at the crest that had appeared on her abdomen.
"This is... what, nyang?"
"How can you not know?! It got carved into me when those demonic beasts we just fought were doing that to me! How am I supposed to go outside with this thing on my stomach?!"
If I walk around with this on me, people will think I've lost my mind... What if they think I'm a pervert?
"That's the problem, nyang...?"
Mea brought a paw close to her stomach, and light bloomed over the crest. The pattern drawn on Seoyoung's abdomen vanished.
"Oh, what?! It's gone??"
"Not quite, nyang... I only hid it from view temporarily, nyang."
"Th-then that doesn't even help!"
"I don't know exactly what this is, but if the demonic beasts inscribed it, wiping it out with the power I have left is impossible, nyang. Once you defeat more of them and get stronger, we should be able to erase it around then, nyang."
So I have to fight demonic beasts anyway, even just to get this crest off me...
Haaah...
Shaaaaa—
Seoyoung let the warm water pour over her as she showered.
It's warm...
"Hahh..."
She sank down against the wall, hugging her knees.
Me, a magical girl. A magical girl, like something straight out of a comic book!! Rather than excitement or anticipation, worry already made up half of what she felt. Can I even do this?
A faint tension coiled in her chest.
"Can I really pull this off...?"
After finishing her shower, Seoyoung crawled into bed with her mind full of everything that had happened that day, and a heavy anxiety about the extraordinary life waiting for her.
Two days later.
As if nothing had happened, Seoyoung and Seola met on the way to school and walked in together. Seoyoung explained to Seola what had happened that day—and that she had become a magical girl.
"Whoa, that's so cool!"
Hearing that she'd become a magical girl, Seola looked at Seoyoung with envy in her eyes.
"C-cool...?"
Getting praised like this is kind of embarrassing...
"A magical girl who protects the world—it's like being a comic-book hero. That's so cool."
"Enough about that... Anyway, are you okay? After what happened that day?"
"That..."
Seola shuddered, as if the memory of that day had just washed over her. Her face flushed red for a moment, then she pulled herself together and answered.
"Me? I'm... ahem...! Bursting with energy, actually!"
"Yeah... that's a relief."
They walked toward school, both holding back as the memories of that day surfaced...
"KYAAAAAH——!!"
A scream rang out from the University Commercial District in front of the school. They walked slowly toward the sound, and when they took in the scene...
"Demonic beasts...?"
Demonic beasts that looked similar to the ones from before were attacking civilians right in front of the commercial district.
What's going on? I don't think I've ever even seen anything online about them coming out onto the streets this aggressively and causing damage...
"Aaaagh!!! Help me——!!!"
"Please, help!! Ugh...!!"
People had fallen into a panic at the sudden appearance of the monsters and were scrambling to flee. Someone tripped while running in a frenzy. Someone else got knocked down by the people fleeing. Someone who'd tried to evacuate civilians and hold the beasts back had been caught. And there were people already captured, being tormented by the demonic beasts.
Seoyoung herself froze in panic for a moment at the sudden appearance of the demonic beasts, unsure what to do—until Seola tapped her on the shoulder.
"Sunbae! Snap out of it! Transform and take all of those things down!"
The jolt brought Seoyoung back to her senses.
"Ah... ah!"
Thanks to Seola, Seoyoung's mind cleared. She moved to find a place where people wouldn't see her. Slipping into an alley between the fleeing crowds—somewhere she reasonably wouldn't be spotted—Seoyoung called out.
She transformed into Solaria.
