I Became the End of Magical Girls
I became the end of magical girls.
"Haha! Hahahahaha!! It worked! It actually worked!"
When I opened my eyes, a complete lunatic stood before me.
I had no idea what, exactly, he had succeeded at—but judging by the pure, unhinged delight pouring out of that laugh, it had to be something spectacular.
Still… his face looks vaguely familiar…
Did I know anyone this far gone? Then again, I barely had any acquaintances to begin with. If he were someone I actually knew, I wouldn't have needed to think this hard.
"A masterpiece forged from the despair of magical girls—yes! A Monster Girl! Monster Girl has such a nice ring to it!"
"Ah."
That was enough. I got it.
The dissonance of watching something that should have stayed two-dimensional slam into three-dimensional reality was considerable, but if I was right about who this was…
"Go forth, my masterpiece Monster Girl! Wipe every last magical girl from the face of the earth! Ahahahahaha!!!"
"…"
"…Why aren't you moving? Did the control systems fail?"
I had thought he merely looked insane. No—he truly was insane.
What had started as an ordinary magical-girl story had flipped completely on its head the moment the news began reporting magical-girl deaths. The man standing in front of me was the one responsible for the series' infamous reputation as pure toxic sludge—the Doctor of the monster faction from Magical Girl Apocalypse.
"I crafted her from the souls of magical girls, so I assumed she'd possess at least a measure of cognitive function… At this rate, I may have no choice but to control her with command codes."
"…"
By every means available, he had abducted magical girls, locked them away, and tortured them until he could extract their Despair Energy. That refined, concentrated despair had given birth to Apocalypse—the end of magical girls themselves.
…And that end was me.
"Move, Monster Girl. To the control room! Move!"
I sighed inwardly at the Doctor's irritated barking.
In the original story, Apocalypse had followed the monster organization's orders—primarily the Doctor's—hunting down magical girls and harvesting their despair. An ordinary human might have resisted or refused. Apocalypse had obeyed like a machine, following every command and every instruction.
That language of command had always carried a sense of compulsion, so fans had speculated that she might eventually come to her senses and switch sides.
"I'd rather not?"
"Wha…"
One truth had come out at the very end of the series.
The magical girls had thrown everything they had into killing the Doctor, convinced that once the one holding the command authority was gone, Apocalypse would simply stop. She hadn't. The reason was simple enough.
His so-called forced commands never worked on her from the start.
Apocalypse had only ever listened because following the Doctor's orders was the easiest way to obtain magical girls' despair. She needed to eat to keep her strength up, and Apocalypse's meals were the despair of magical girls.
"Obey me! That is an order!"
"I'll obey everything except orders to kill magical girls."
"…Tch."
I watched him bite his lip in frustration for a moment, then turned my head away.
What kind of experiment was anyone supposed to run in a place this dark? He had apparently performed human experiments here, too, and yet the lighting was so poor I had to wonder how he had ever managed anything of the sort. Villains might love the dark, but would it kill them to turn on a light once in a while?
Click.
"Gyaaaaah…!! Th-the light… the light…! It's so briiight…!!"
"Ah."
Right—he was weak to light, wasn't he?
This was only the brightness of ordinary fluorescent bulbs, and he was reacting like that. I watched with genuine curiosity as he rolled around on the floor from nothing more than a flipped switch. Was that smoke rising off his body? I had never seen a person produce smoke before, so I stared for a moment—until the stench of burning flesh hit me. I grimaced and flipped the switch back off.
"Khah… haah… hngh…"
"…If you're that weak to light, why did you install a fluorescent switch in the first place?"
"…"
Was this man an idiot?
Anyone who knew how desperately the magical girls in the original story had fought to kill the Doctor would have found this almost anticlimactic. All they would have needed was to break into the lab and flick a single switch, and he would have been completely incapacitated.
If the Doctor is in this state, is there even anyone left who could stop me?
He lay collapsed and quiet, still reeking of scorched flesh. I glanced at him, confirmed he wasn't so much as twitching, and quietly started walking.
Not that he could have stopped me even if he tried—but slipping out unnoticed still felt preferable to having to force my way past him.
"I'll be back, Doctor."
Whether I would actually return was another matter entirely.
It was a bit of a trek, but I managed to reach a busy commercial district where people actually lived. There had been a few minor incidents along the way—punching through a wall here, getting lost there—but nothing worth dwelling on.
"Mommy, Mommy! That big sister is wearing weird clothes!"
"Shhh, don't look at people like that! That's rude—very rude!"
"…"
…Maybe I should have stolen the Doctor's lab coat on the way out.
Wandering a crowded street in this bizarre outfit was, admittedly, a little much. Something like a pure-white patient's gown, top and bottom, with holes punched through it at random intervals. If I'd had any money, I would have changed—but I had left in such a hurry I hadn't brought a single coin with me.
…Maybe I should just look around for now, then go back and grab some cash.
I had been created by the Doctor, but the timing of my creation didn't match Apocalypse's original debut. Apocalypse was supposed to appear much further in the future—well, not that much further, maybe?
Anyway.
Growl—
"…"
Monster Girl or not, I was still hungry. I let out a long sigh at the rumbling from my stomach.
If you were going to wake me up, Doctor, you could have at least filled my stomach first. Then again, anyone capable of that kind of basic consideration wouldn't have installed a light switch inside his own lab.
Wheeeeeeee—!!!!
"…A monster?"
The moment I started to drift into thought, a siren cut through the air. As the monster alert blared, I looked around—and found that nearly everyone who had packed the street only moments before had already vanished.
I had been distracted for a second. Where had they all gone? Then again, in a world where monsters showed up on a daily basis, maybe this was just normal.
"You there, student! Get to the Shelter! Now!"
"Ah—yes."
I shuffled toward the voice of someone who looked roughly like a police officer, yelling at me as I stood blankly in the middle of the street. Of course, I still needed to know where the Shelter actually was before I could go anywhere.
There is a way to find out, though.
This body of mine—Apocalypse's staple food was human despair. The fuel efficiency was terrible; only a magical girl's despair could truly fill me up. But as a monster, tracking the scent of despair was well within my ability.
"All right, then. The Shelter should be…"
Ah. That way.
I followed the faint, clustered ripples of despair until a building that looked unmistakably sturdy came into view. A checkpoint-like structure sat out front, with a massive bunker-like building behind it. The barricades and coils of barbed wire practically shouted, This is the Shelter~ in my direction.
Still—would they even let me in?
…My official designation was Monster Girl, after all.
"Don't just stand there staring—get inside, hurry!"
"Wha—"
Apparently the CCTV outside had caught me standing around like an idiot. A soldier from inside the Shelter shoved the door open, grabbed my arm, and hauled me straight inside.
It's cleaner in here than I expected.
"What the hell were you doing just standing out front like that? Looking to get yourself killed?!"
"…Not particularly."
He started yelling the second I stepped inside. A monster would never attack me, but on the outside I looked human enough, so I couldn't exactly blame him.
"Then what? Don't they run drills at your school? The ones where you evacuate to the nearest Shelter the moment a monster alert goes off!"
"I've never done any drills."
"…You've never done any drills?"
Ah. Maybe I had answered a little too honestly. His eyes narrowed with suspicion, and I casually looked away. This was starting to look like a perfect setup for getting myself investigated—especially in these clothes.
"I don't go to school."
"Do… do your parents know about that?"
"My parents, well…"
Was I supposed to call the Doctor my parent? He had created Apocalypse, so in a sense he was—and in another sense, he absolutely wasn't…
"They're unconscious. Collapsed. Out cold."
"…"
Once again, I had stuck strictly to the facts. "Parents collapsed and unconscious" had a pretty grim ring to it. I only realized that after the words were already out, and there was no taking them back. Still—if that made him feel sorry for me, that might actually work in my favor.
"Just… go on inside. I'm sorry I came down on you so hard."
"It's fine. I was wrong not to head for the Shelter right away."
I offered a small smile to the man, whose expression had gone soft with something like pity. Fortunately, he hadn't commented on my outfit. Lucky break—I was dressed like someone begging to get detained.