Undercover vs. Undercover (1)
"Nice to meet you, sawayo."
Inian greeted them with a face stiff as a board, showing not a shred of actual pleasure. Her lustrous golden hair and eyes like fresh blood gleamed brightly.
"My name is Inian. I've recently come to Hikarius City, sawayo. Please take good care of me from here on out, sawayo."
The demon lord couldn't wrap her head around this insane city's administrative procedures.
She'd gone to the Mana Disaster Support Office on the third floor of city hall and tossed out a single line: "Memory loss, sawayo." No sooner had the words left her mouth than they replied, "Ah, I see. How truly unfortunate. Our Mana Disaster Support Office will do everything in our power to help citizens affected by mana disasters return to their daily lives." And just like that, they shipped her off to Lux Tierra High School.
"Attend classes starting tomorrow? Is this how they run a city?"
Even the demon realm didn't have such slipshod bureaucracy. When a suspicious entity showed up, wasn't it the ruler's duty to at least run basic verification protocols?
When she vented this sentiment to the black mage, his response was a spectacle in itself.
"Huh? Then doesn't that make you a failed ruler too?"
It was Raban—himself a repeat intruder into her domain—praising his own infiltration skills while turning her complaint back on her. She promptly punished him with a fist to the face.
Raban had slipped past the demon realm's verification procedures entirely. Every time a black mage containment failure occurred, Inian had pulled all-nighters rechecking the city's security, so she had no reason to feel ashamed of herself.
In truth, the Mana Disaster Support Office did have some verification process. It was just geared toward confirming pre-amnesia educational levels. Inian, following Raban's plan, easily proved high school-level math proficiency and asked in disbelief,
"And if my education level turned out to be middle school?"
"Yes, you'd be placed in the affiliated middle school at Lux Tierra High School."
"……."
The demon lord was starting to suspect Lux Tierra High School was some kind of dumping ground. A containment cell for lumping together risky, troublesome elements that were a hassle to deal with separately.
"This mad world has gone crazier than the demon realm, sawayo!"
"Yeah, whoever dumped me here bears massive responsibility, right?"
"It's the customer's fault for proceeding without sufficient deliberation, even after being informed of the terms in advance, sawayo."
The two glared at each other, then grabbed each other's collars and brawled. The result was Raban's defeat. What could a powerless, frail black mage possibly do against a demon lord?
After the commotion settled, Inian finally faced her thrilling first day of school.
'I wanna go home.'
Magical girls' magic was remarkably fair. Mainly in how they all hid their identities—though they also had equally potent attack power for everyone, that wasn't the key point right now.
A standard magical girl, contracted via a guardian fairy bridging the girl and the Mother Fairy, could be fully tracked: pre- and post-transformation appearances were all known. Thanks to the mascot's close supervision.
But the codename "Sawayo" who appeared last night was a different story. The Mother Fairy had zapped her into a magical girl without any prior revelation. They remembered her pre-transformation look, sure, but what could they do? The monstrous form Papirun witnessed and the normal form after magical girl transformation (and release) were worlds apart.
Thus, the Lux Tierra High School mascot crew didn't pay much mind when a "blonde girl with red eyes" showed up at the Mana Disaster Support Office. Magical girls changing hair color on transformation? Not exactly rare.
But….
"Whoa! Where're you from?!"
"From outside Hikarius City, sawayo."
"I've never heard such princess-like speech before!"
"It wasn't familiar to me from the start either, sawayo."
"Your family elders forced you to use super polite speech like that, right!?"
"…Something like that happened, sawayo."
That "sawayo" speech pattern was too distinctive. No clue why an otherworldly being would disguise herself specifically as a high schooler, but whatever.
"We already have a lady-like girl in our class! Dine, though she misses some days due to poor health… Oh, she's here!"
The red-haired girl was swarmed by friends grabbing her hand the moment she entered the classroom.
She was dragged, wide-eyed and bewildered, to a spot with a slightly smaller stranger: blonde hair, red eyes gleaming.
"Ta-da! Our class's original lady, Dine!"
"Side by side like this, both have such fine, straight hair! Is this the lady style?"
The nonstop chatter from the students was overwhelming positive energy—brutal for Inian, whose origins were steeped in darkness (demon realm native).
"Uh… transfer student?"
Dine asked, half in disbelief. Blonde hair, red eyes. It reminded her of that brat from yesterday. Magical girl disguise magic blurred mental impressions, but not basic traits like these.
"Indeed, sawayo. Pleased to meet you, sawayo."
Dine was stunned.
'This one's not even trying to hide her identity…?!'
In fact, Inian was equally shocked. Red hair screaming "I'm fire attribute!" And the name Dine. She vividly recalled the magical girls calling their fire spirit ally "Dine" yesterday.
'No, wait. According to the black magic scum, the Four Heavenly Kings and magical girls are enemies, right?'
Then the rising question.
'Sneaking into enemy territory with that disguise?!'
The two, each hiding their true natures, inwardly recoiled at the other's getup. Outwardly, though, they exchanged fluff like,
"Today, I'll treat you to Rabbit Sweets Cafe's sculpture cake. The spring strawberries are delicious."
"Wow, strawberry cake—my favorite dessert too, sawayo."
"…So."
Raban nodded toward Inian, who—for reasons unknown—had been assigned to the room next to his by Hikarius City's baffling bureaucracy.
"What kept you out all day?"
By his calculations, Inian should've been rolling around her room by the time he tidied the counseling room and clocked out. They planned a strategy session under the guise of "neighborly bonding for amnesia victims," dodging mascot surveillance.
But Inian didn't show at the dorm until after Raban, tired of waiting, scarfed down dinner (two triangle kimbaps).
His question now was less anger at a no-show business partner and more pure curiosity.
'No way she makes friends on day one with that personality.'
"……."
Inian looked utterly drained. The vigor and energy fueled by rage at Raban from last night's infiltration planning? Gone. Hard to picture demon lord dignity in this soggy, shrunken kitten vibe.
"Some chatty brats dragged me to a cafe called Rabbit Sweets, sawayo."
"Yeah, these kids have freakish affinity for weirdos."
Raban nodded. The students here had a hobby of latching onto oddballs—first him, now her.
"They kept shoving food at me, saying it was cute how I ate, sawayo."
The demon lord, bombarded with "Oh no! So tiny! Adorable!" every bite, had a genuine headache.
"Every time I ate, they'd go on about how cute my munching was—like being a circus clown sideshow, sawayo. I'm exhausted, sawayo."
Raban, who'd already had his vitality sapped by the counseling room's radiant youths, could sympathize. Even a black mage who'd double-sold his conscience via contract, pitting buyers against each other to recoup costs, couldn't chide her this time.
"Got it. You got screwed. What about Nai Hyun?"
"Didn't see her—she skipped the cafe, sawayo."
"Didn't see that coming."
Raban rubbed his temple. But Nai Hyun wasn't likely ambushed on day one either. Prioritizing his business partner's mental recovery seemed wise today.
"Alright. Tomorrow's a fresh start. Anything noteworthy?"
"Salamandine."
"Ah, a Heavenly King? You saw her?"
"Same class, sawayo."
"Hold up…."
This was bad. A bead of sweat trickled down Raban's neck.
Nai Hyun and Salamandine in the same class? He'd been so focused on digging into personal histories that he overlooked class-specific watchlists!
Those wicked industry peers used negative emotions as prime ingredients for Evil Pings. From Salamandine's view, Nai Hyun was prime, delicious prey.
'Need preventive measures.'
"Tch. No helping it, Nian. Sacrifice a bit. I hear she loves cafe desserts—how about corralling the whole class for a Hikarius cafe tour for a while?"
"You're insane, sawayo?"
Inian shot down the horrific proposal flat. Surrounded by strangers cooing "cute"? Her demon lord pride forbade it.
…Though she'd just endured it today—but never again! Ruminating on the chaos and flutters from hours ago, she shook her head and eyed Raban.
"I probed the kid's inner thoughts today, sawayo."
The fire Heavenly King, who craved fair duels with magical girls, was stuck ladylike-acting against her nature. Performing clownish infiltration amid mascot scrutiny in enemy territory? Negative emotions should've piled up.
"Huh?"
"Salamandine has a hefty stockpile of negative emotions too, sawayo. So…."
"Wait, hold on. You…?"
Raban's eyes wavered. He could see the nonsense coming from the demon lord.
"I'll bring Salamandine to the counseling room too, sawayo."
"You're serious?"
"Don't you know the investment wisdom: 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket'? Rely solely on Nai Hyun, and if—as you say—she lives a sparkling youth-filled school life and her negative emotions evaporate, we'll both be prepping for magical girl beam dives, sawayo."
The demon lord proposed business diversification to her partner!