The Day the Magical Girl Fell in Love
In a world where magic beasts appeared without warning, gates would suddenly tear open for a few seconds, unleashing hordes of the creatures. They were fast, razor-sharp, and hostile to humans. To make matters worse, conventional weapons barely affected them. With no time to react, countless people died and society crumbled. If magical girls had appeared even a little later, humanity would have gone extinct.
Just like the magic beasts, the magical girls appeared without any forewarning. People transformed into beautiful young women who soared through the sky, hurled spells, and saved lives. Their appearances were identical to the magical girls from comics. Decades passed, and humanity finally escaped the shadow of annihilation. Even now, there remained only one way to eliminate magic beasts without casualties.
Magical girls alone.
In some era, in some city. A narrow alleyway. It was the height of summer, so blisteringly hot that heat haze shimmered above the asphalt under the blazing sun.
Spica was flying above a forest of buildings. Spica was a magical girl. Ranked 13th in the world among magical girls. And among those without lovers, she stood at number one. She didn’t like to brag, but she was exceptionally strong.
A magical girl’s power grew stronger the greater her capacity for love. Affection for family. Friendship with friends. Love for all humanity. Gratitude toward the world. Every form of love became a magical girl’s strength.
Yet the most powerful of all was romantic love for a partner. When a magical girl fell in love with a romantic partner, her magic would amplify anywhere from tenfold to several hundred times over. People called this phenomenon Special Awakening.
The stronger the magical girls became, the safer humanity grew. Everyone cheered on a magical girl’s love.
Spica, who still had no lover, had always wondered. What exactly was a lover, that it could make love overflow so completely?
She loved people smiling at one another, delicious food, beautiful paintings and poetry, magnificent scenery, and the ever-changing, always-unique landscape that flowed with time. The world was filled with things worth loving. Could affection for a single person truly surpass all of that?
Even when she asked her seniors, juniors, and colleagues who had lovers, she never received a satisfying answer. They only said you couldn’t understand until you experienced it yourself. She would watch happy couples and admire their beautiful love, but she couldn’t imagine it would amplify magical power by hundreds of times.
At least, that was how she felt until that day.
Between two buildings. Beneath dazzling sunlight that slipped through the gap. The sound of the wind, the shrill mating cries of cicadas, the murmur of people—everything was pushed far into the distance.
Time itself seemed to stop. Only the frantic beating of her heart echoed through her entire body. Just seeing his back was enough to lock her gaze in place. The instant he turned and looked her way, the moment burned itself into her mind so deeply she would never forget it. When he noticed her flying overhead and broke into a delighted smile, her mind went blank.
By the time she came to her senses, Spica was already soaring through the sky with an unconscious man in her arms. It was her first and last crime—she had never even jaywalked before.
Spica now understood love.
Just twenty years ago, a magical girl falling in love had been considered a serious problem. If a magical girl had sex with her lover, she would lose her powers. The effect could last anywhere from two days to as long as ten. She would gain an overwhelmingly strong surge of power before it drained away, but afterward she would lose her magic forever and return to being an ordinary girl. It was like a double-edged sword. Keeping it as a trump card to be used in emergencies was impossible. Once the expiration date passed, it became useless—like a time bomb of an existence.
A hot-blooded man overflowing with sexual desire. A devoted woman brimming with love. Everyone agreed that clinging to each other and acting lovey-dovey was fine. But no matter how often they were warned not to cross that final line, it was only a matter of time before they did. Fiery youth. When two people in love spent every day together being affectionate, it would have been strange if things didn’t progress.
No magical girl could endure it. At the same time, they couldn’t forbid the lovers from ever meeting again. There were human rights issues to consider, and magical girls who couldn’t see their partners would waste away from lovesickness and collapse. Such tyranny could not be tolerated for humanity’s protectors.
The only solution was to beg them to endure without sex for a limited time. If a powerful enemy appeared during that period, they would share their love, charge into battle, and then retire. If no such threat emerged, they would retire quietly. At the time, that had been the best available option.
The situation changed because of one groundbreaking—and utterly terrifying—idea conceived by the lover of a certain magical girl.
“What if the condition isn’t the magical girl having sex, but specifically losing her virginity?”
“What kind of drugs are you on to come up with that?”
“No, think about it. Virgins have always been treated as magically precious throughout history.”
“Even if that’s true, losing your virginity and having sex amount to the same thing.”
“No! We have magic! We can just transform the female genitalia into male genitalia!”
“...Even if you do that, the lover is still a man.”
“Then we change the lover into a woman.”
“Be honest with me. Did you take something you shouldn’t have? Or did you forget to take what you should?”
“There was research showing that magical girls fall in love with the soul rather than outward appearance. A little thing like gender shouldn’t matter, right?”
“Oh my god. You’re insane! So this is what it feels like to meet a mad scientist!”
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“Becoming a woman and getting to be all lovey-dovey with a beautiful girl is the dream of countless men!”
“I see. So you’re just a pervert.”
Surprisingly, this perverted notion completely changed the paradigm of magical girls. It changed everything.
A magical girl was the sole existence capable of defeating the monsters invading humanity. She was the last hope, the solitary shield. And the source of a magical girl’s power was love. Affection for family. Friendship with friends. Charity toward all humanity. And above all else, love for her romantic partner.
“Senior. You remember everything, right?”
“Of course! I remember!”
“Then since we don’t have much time left, I’ll just go over the final important procedures to confirm.”
Two magical girls were deep in conversation. Spica, the one addressed as senior, was overflowing with tension, anticipation, and impatience. Her junior watched her with clear worry.
“What’s the first thing you have to explain the moment you meet?”
“That when a magical girl shares love with her partner, her power increases by dozens to hundreds of times, and that’s why every government in the world supports magical girls’ romances with every resource they have.”
“Next?”
“That when a magical girl meets someone she wants as a lover, her sexual desire increases dramatically. That once she has a lover, she remains devoted to that one person until death.”
“Correct.”
“However, if a magical girl is no longer a virgin, she will gradually lose her magical power over the course of about two weeks. But if she can’t be affectionate with her lover, that in itself will cause her to go berserk.”
“Yep, yep.”
“And after giving all those explanations, I have to confess my love. I have to tell him I love you.”
“Right, right.”
The junior nodded and gave her senior a thumbs-up for remembering so well.
“And finally?”
“I have to explain that for these reasons, you becoming a woman is completely legal.”
“I’m glad you’re remembering everything properly.”
“Of course! My brain isn’t bad, you know!”
Magical girls were generally quite intelligent. Simultaneous calculation of multiple variables while performing aerial maneuvers and casting numerous spells at once was not something a slow mind could handle.
“You must absolutely obtain the other party’s consent before having sex. Under no circumstances are you allowed to suddenly pounce and thrust your dick inside first.”
“Why are you stating something so obvious…”
Spica tried to brush off her junior’s earnest warning, but the younger girl had no choice but to repeat herself.
“Once you actually see his face, you might get completely swept away by lust and lose control. Especially for high-ranking magical girls—the higher the rank, the stronger that tendency. Haven’t you heard that?”
“I have, yes?”
“Besides, Senior, you reached world rank 13 while never having a lover. You’re an incredibly powerful magical girl.”
“It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine~ After all the ordeals I’ve overcome until now, you think I can’t control my own body?”
Her junior could already see how this would end.
“Just remember that if you pounce on him recklessly, it will create all sorts of problems for the rest of your life.”
“...You mean I’d get arrested?”
“You won’t get arrested. You’ll live arrested.”
“What does that mean?”
“Think about it. Someone who arbitrarily changes a person’s gender after he’s lived as a man his entire life, then suddenly pounces without any explanation and starts having sex… What would you call that person?”
“...Total garbage.”
“They say you’d never be able to lift your head again for the rest of your life. Haven’t you heard those stories about certain magical girls?”
“...I think I know who you mean.”
“Please be careful.”
“.......I’ll definitely be careful. I’ll pay close attention.”
Spica vowed over and over. For the sake of a healthy, happy romantic relationship, she would absolutely never pounce without first giving a proper explanation and confession. Of course, the world rarely went exactly as one hoped.