2. Magical Girl Management Bureau
2. Magical Girl Management Bureau
Fortunately, my body was fine. If anything, it felt even cleaner.
My hands and feet, without a single blemish and with all the excess fat gone, felt unfamiliar. As I stood there blankly, the teddy bear—or rather, the mascot 'Dori'—slapped my cheek.
Ouch.
[Do you like it?]
"Yes?"
I was startled for a moment. An unfamiliar sound flowed from my throat. It was a high-pitched female voice. The kind of voice that felt cute.
Ah, so this is the Magical Girl form.
[I finally understand why you were chosen as a Magical Girl. You were suited for being a Magical Girl more than I could have imagined.]
Dori said, scanning my body.
No. Even if I was a man before I passed out, I'm in a Magical Girl's body now—a beautiful girl's body.
Isn't it weird for him to be fumbling around like that?
[Don't be shy.]
"No, no, no! You're the one in the wrong for fumbling around!"
[Tut-tut, when did I ever do that? Perpetrators never remember, you know.]
That thing definitely remembers 100%!
I suppressed my anger and walked to the mirror. Because the mirror was in the bathroom, I felt a strange sense of cognitive dissonance.
Before my eyes, in the mirror, a beautiful girl with long silver hair and red eyes was blushing while wearing my clothes. Because of the loose black short-sleeved shirt, my shoulders were subtly revealing their presence.
......Lewd!
Wait a second. Anyway, why isn't it the cute and lovely outfit with frills hanging all over that Magical Girls wear?
I glared at Dori. Surely, this isn't the outfit for a Magical Girl, is it?
[For now, it was a transformation just to experience the appearance. Next time, your clothes will change automatically too. More importantly, you know how to bewitch people.]
"That's sexual harassment!"
[Listen here. What kind of wealth and glory would I get from sexually harassing you? I never look at my contractors with sexual eyes.]
"Are you, are you not saying that right now after looking at my collarbone?"
[......What are you talking about? Seriously, I don't know if you're playing dumb, but what is your IQ?]
I shut my mouth. I didn't want to say a single thing to Dori—no, to that beast-like thing.
[Making a pouty face. And yet, even that is cute. Are you sure you weren't born with the wrong gender?]
I remained silent.
[No, no. These days, it's an era where diversity is respected, so I shouldn't say things like that. It's just that sometimes there are people among the contractors. Sensitive people.]
My mouth twitched, trying to let out a breath. Or maybe it was a sound of speech.
I want to say something.
I looked in the mirror again. A girl with a pouty expression, looking somewhat sulky, was blushing.
Ah.
Lewd.
Maybe even more so than the Equitesia doujinshi I relied on last time.
[Don't you have anything to say?]
"Uh...... is this...... me?"
[Listen here, are you a narcissist? 'Is this me?' Who usually says that out loud?]
"Be quiet."
[Alright, alright. Let's stop the joking here. You, get ready to go out. We need to leave soon. As for clothes, hmm. For now, change them with magic. You know the theory, right?]
Magic to change clothes. I know the theory. The problem was that it was magic that could only be used after a lot of training.
It looks simple, but it belongs to the difficult side. As proof of that, I'll point to the fashion and clothing brands that rake in hundreds of millions in sales.
I mean, if this were simple magic, the clothing industry couldn't have developed, right?
Of course, by a wizard's standards, it was simple. Since wizards can use even higher-level magic, it was relatively easy for them.
The problem is that I'm not a wizard.
[Why are you thinking about it so difficultly? You are a Magical Girl. Didn't I clearly tell you? Magical Girls can wield greater magic than any wizard.]
"I'll, I'll try."
Let's just do it. Yeah. I'm a Magical Girl.
I close my eyes and imagine various threads in my head. And I weave those threads into one. Weaving and weaving, I create a surface, and by weaving that surface, I create a piece of clothing.
Clothes that fit my current body. Hmm, anything looks good on such a cute body. In that case, I'll go with something plain.
I opened my eyes at the sensation of soft fabric fluttering and brushing against my shoulders, chest, and stomach.
Instead of the lewd girl, a girl dressed in plain clothes stood before my eyes.
[......You. You really do know how to bewitch people.]
I immediately slapped Dori's cheek. My face turned bright red. As I glared fiercely at Dori, only then did Dori calm me down, saying, [It's a joke, a joke.]
[Anyway, let's head out now. To the Magical Girl Management Bureau.]
I nodded silently.
&&&
Beautiful girls receive a lot of attention. Yeah. In a way, isn't that obvious?
People revere beauty, and a beautiful girl is a girl equipped with beauty, isn't she?
But looking at it now, it shouldn't be an obvious thing.
Since I changed from the perspective of the observer to the observed, my way of thinking has changed.
This gaze is surprisingly heavy. It feels weirder to be watched on the sly than to be watched openly!
And above all, seeing people glancing at me and typing busily on their smartphones made me think a lot.
Are they writing a post on the internet? Or are they giggling and laughing while messaging a friend?
Whatever it was, it was embarrassing. A 20-year-old me, hugging a teddy bear on the bus. And so many people glancing at it!
'Excuse me. The gazes are too heavy.'
'Endure it.'
'By the way, why is Dori being carried in my arms?'
'It's a kind of hobby. Being carried in the contractor's arms to the Magical Girl Management Bureau. Isn't it romantic?'
'You've created many victims, including me, for the sake of romance.'
'No, I actually think it enhances the charm. Do you think otherwise? Don't you think a girl hugging a doll is beautiful?'
'That's a matter of taste, you bear-thing.'
I let out a deep sigh. I had to get off at the next stop soon. I tried to press the stop bell.
Huh?
I tried to press it. That was the end of it. In other words, I couldn't press it. Because I was sitting on the aisle side, my hand couldn't reach it.
I scanned the person sitting by the window.
"......Excuse me."
"Ah, yes."
For some reason, that person's face turned red. I think I know the reason, but I didn't want to think about it.
"The stop bell, please......."
Ding-dong.
"Thank you......."
Haa....... Why did I have to do something like this? Why do I have to do something like this?
To cause trouble for the person next to me just because the stop bell is far away.
Next time, I must take the window seat.
The bus stopped, and I got off. My stiff body started to stretch out automatically.
Ugh!
[That building over there.]
I walked in the direction Dori was pointing.
Because there were so many people, it felt like there were even more gazes looking at me.
It's tough. Being a beautiful girl.
&&&
"What brings you here?"
Sweet Chocolat, a guide belonging to the Korean branch of the Magical Girl Management Bureau, whose real name is Lee Ha-yeon, couldn't take her eyes off the cute girl who appeared before her.
She was fidgeting, hugging the teddy bear tightly, and her eyes, searching the air for a place to land, were just too cute.
[Long time no see. Sweet Chocolat.]
That was when Dori opened its mouth first. Ha-yeon was dumbfounded by the sight of it shamelessly greeting her with a brazen face despite not having seen her in a long time, but she let it slide.
That aside, that girl must have been chosen as a Magical Girl too. Deep down, Ha-yeon started to take a liking to her new junior.
Cute.
"You're here to register as a Magical Girl, right?"
"Yes? Ah, y-yes!"
Ha-yeon felt the urge to pet the girl in front of her right now. However, she couldn't put it into action. Even if they were both Magical Girls, if she were to make physical contact with someone she didn't even know well yet... she might end up in handcuffs.
Ha-yeon took a calm deep breath and took the girl to the examination room. Every time she looked back, the girl was on the verge of tears, like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse.
She must still be scared. Ha-yeon chuckled inwardly and opened her mouth.
"Are you scared?"
"Yes? No. I'm not scared. Yes. Really!"
When people lie, their words tend to get longer. The eyes of the girl pretending to be okay trembled slightly. Ha-yeon kept having impulsive thoughts.
After arriving at Examination Room 10, Ha-yeon asked the girl.
"By the way, what is your name?"
"Me? Uh, me? Hmm......."
[She hasn't chosen her Magical Girl name yet, so please don't ask. What if she says her name and it turns out to be an acquaintance?]
At those words, Ha-yeon recalled an important principle of the Magical Girl world.
"Ah, that's right. I didn't think it through, Dori. Respecting the 'red pill'. To think I forgot such an important principle of the Magical Girl world. Man, I'm getting old."
[In the Magical Girl world, where old people are everywhere, hearing a fresh young kid say that gives me cognitive dissonance. Sweet Chocolat, never say that again. And you, your tone has changed in that short time.]
"So what. I might use honorifics for a new friend, but there's no need to use them for you, right?"
Ha-yeon laughed mockingly.
That aside. Come to think of it, despite the title 'Magical Girl', it was full of old people. There were too many cases where they weren't 'girls'.
The Magical Girl world was a place where they looked like girls on the outside, but on the inside, they were sometimes over 100, 500, or 1000 years old.
It was because of the immortal nature of Magical Girls.
"Then, um. New Magical Girl-yang? Anyway, could you place your hand on this crystal ball here?"
"Ah, y-yes! Ugh...... okay."
Whether she bit her tongue or just made a cute sound, the girl placed her hand on the crystal ball. Perhaps because of the mysterious texture of the crystal ball, or the strange sensation of emitting mana for measurement. The girl made a subtle expression.
Soon, when the girl took her hand off, only then could Ha-yeon see the crystal ball containing the girl's information.
-Mana Amount: High
-Mana Utilization Ability: ???
-Estimated Rank: PR
"Oh, the mana amount is high. That means the potential is great. Mana utilization ability is...... ???-class? Hmm. You have the temperament of a hook collector."
???-class. It was a rank also called a hook collector. There was no particular reason; it was just slang. It was an expression that had been used since Ha-yeon's generation and the generations before that.
The characteristic of ???-class was...... it was like a lottery ticket. Someone might be better than 'High-class' and thus not displayable at this stage.
Or someone might be lower than 'Low-class' and thus un-displayable.
"And the estimated rank is...... Oh, PR-class. It's Prima-class! Congratulations!"
"P-Prima-class?"
"Yes, Prima-class."
"Uh, isn't that Latin for 'first'? Since it means the best, am I perhaps extremely talented?"
The girl approached Ha-yeon with bright eyes, looking excited. It was so different from how she was fidgeting just a moment ago.
By the way, how does this girl know Latin words?
Usually, people don't know that, right?
Ha-yeon reached a simple conclusion in her mind, 'Maybe this new friend is a Roman nerd.'
"Hmm....... wouldn't it be a little different, perhaps?"
"Yes?"
[Sigh. Listen here. Logically speaking, would a Magical Girl who just awakened receive the highest rank? Prima-class is the second from the bottom. The term Inceptio is omitted.]
"Inceptio means beginner, right?"
Ha-yeon just found it fascinating that the girl knew Latin.
[For now, there are all sorts of ranks like Maxima, Magna, and Optima, but I'll just express it simply as A-rank, B-rank, etc. Prima-class is about D-rank.]
"Ah. Boring."
[Did you become a Magical Girl for fun?]
The girl looked at Ha-yeon and Dori with a pouty face. She looked like a child who was dissatisfied with something.
Well, what could she do? In Ha-yeon's eyes, she was just cute.