Chapter 1

WEEEE-WOOOO-WEEEE-WOOOO!!!!

Monster Alert! Monster Alert! A monster has appeared!!! All residents in the vicinity, please evacuate. I repeat!! A monster has appeared! Please evacuate immediately!!!

An alarm suddenly blared across the station plaza.

An announcement warning of a monster’s appearance boomed throughout the area, plunging the once-bustling fountain plaza in front of the station into utter chaos.

“Aaaaaaaaaah!”

“A monster’s appeared!”

“Run!! Run for your lives!!”

People screamed and scattered in confusion.

“Kuhahaha!! Behold!!! Monster Venom-sama has arrived!! You humans, you’d best prepare yourselves!! I’m going to destroy this city and make a bloody sacrifice of every last one of its inhabitants!!!!”

A low, raspy, and unpleasant voice echoed from above.

A purple monster was floating above the heads of the fleeing crowd.

The creature, constantly emitting a malevolent aura, is what’s known as a monster.

Monsters are, without exception, enemies of humanity—a menace that must be destroyed.

However, as monsters possess a variety of superpowers, they cannot be defeated by ordinary people or conventional weapons.

There is only one means of opposing them.

“Look over there!!”

“It’s the magical girls!!”

Someone shouted.

From high in the distant sky, two flying objects were approaching the monster at tremendous speed.

“So you’ve come already…! You wretched magical girls…!!”

The monster took a stance, facing the two flying objects that had soared in.

The flying objects were, in fact, two girls clad in colorful outfits.

They are beings known as magical girls.

Magical girls, as their name implies, are girls who can use magic, and they are humanity’s only means of fighting back against the monsters.

Wielding the power of magic, a phenomenon unexplained by science, they fight monsters and protect people’s daily lives.

That’s right—magical girls are allies of justice.

“Prepare yourself, Monster Venom!!”

“Now that we’re here, we won’t let you have your way!!”

“Yeahhhhh!!!”

“You can do it, magical girls!!!”

Cheers erupted.

Seeing the saviors who had appeared to fight for them, the people’s eyes filled with hope as they applauded.

“Kuhahaha!! I knew you would come!! But you’d be mistaken to lump this Monster Venom in with the small-fry monsters you’ve faced until now…!! I was created by that Individual to be a monster capable of fighting even magical girls!!”

“That Individual…? Who are you talking about?”

“It seems you have a mastermind. Once we’ve captured you, we’ll have you tell us all about this person who created you.”

“That’s impossible! Because you are going to die right here!!”

“…!”

The battle between the magical girls and the monster began.

It was a tremendous battle of superpowers and magic.

Roars, tremors, explosions.

Destruction dominated the surroundings.

Both the magical girls and the monster fought with reckless abandon, paying no mind to the surrounding buildings and property.

Fortunately, since most people had already evacuated, there were no human casualties, but the property damage would surely be astronomical.

But the magical girls, being extralegal entities, cannot be sued for property damage.

In exchange for their mission to protect the Earth, they are granted a status and treatment by the state that differs from that of ordinary people.

“Hahahaha!! Is that all you’ve got, magical girls?! How pathetic!!”

“Ghk… This thing is strong…”

“It’s different from the others…!”

The battle between the monster and the magical girls was reaching its climax.

It was the magical girls who were being pushed back.

Monster Venom seemed to possess a level of strength that set it completely apart from all previous monsters.

The two magical girls fought desperately, combining their destructive magical powers, but they were clearly being overpowered.

“I’ve got you now!! Magical girl!!”

“Kya!?”

“Chiyo!?”

And then, at last, a desperate crisis befell the magical girls.

Monster Venom, having teleported behind one of them, grabbed her by the neck and lifted her into the air.

One of the magical girls groaned in pain while the other let out a scream.

“Don’t move, magical girl! Or do you not care what happens to your little friend?”

“Ghk…”

The monster grinned vulgarly.

The magical girl wore an expression of pure frustration, her friend taken hostage.

“If you move even an inch, I’ll kill her…!”

“Stop… Please, I won’t move…”

The magical girl’s face twisted in anguish, and she froze.

“Kukuku… That’s right. Good girl. Don’t move…”

Having neutralized both magical girls by taking a hostage, the monster began preparing an attack.

Wicked energy gathered in its hand.

It was surely an attack meant to blow both magical girls away at once.

With her comrade taken hostage, the remaining magical girl was powerless, able to do nothing but watch as Monster Venom readied its assault.

“Mikan… don’t worry about me… just kill this thing…”

“I can’t, Chiyo… If I do, you’ll…”

“Just do it… At this rate… we’ll both be killed…”

“…!”

The captive magical girl, disregarding her own life, demanded her partner attack.

But the magical girl called Mikan was panicking, seemingly unable to muster the resolve to abandon her friend to land a blow.

While they hesitated, Monster Venom finished its preparations.

“Now then, magical girls! This is the end!! I’ll kill you both at once!!”

Monster Venom began its attack motion.

The free magical girl looked around as if searching for help.

But the people had already evacuated, and there was no one else around.

“It’s no use…”

As if giving up all hope, the magical girl squeezed her eyes shut.

“Dieeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

Monster Orochi fired a beam cloaked in evil energy.

“Mikan! Ruuuuuun!”

The magical girl’s scream echoed.

The next moment…

BA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

“Eh…?”

“What the…?!”

A tremendous crash resounded.

A wall of light had suddenly appeared before the magical girls, who had been on the brink of death.

The wall of light spread out as if to shield them, deflecting the entirety of the wicked beam Monster Venom had fired.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?!?”

Struck by its own reflected beam, Monster Venom shrieked.

Unable to withstand the power of its own attack, Monster Venom disintegrated into dust.

“Ugh… We were saved…”

“But who…?”

The two magical girls looked around, searching for the person who had protected them.

“Look…!”

“Huh? What’s going on…!?”

They saw the figure of a person running away from the scene.

There was no sign of anyone else around.

In other words, that person was the one who had saved them from the monster.

“That magic just now was from that person…”

“Is she another magical girl…?”

“But… how could that be…”

“No way…”

The magical girls looked at each other, their faces etched with confusion.

In this world, only magical girls could use magic.

That meant the person from before had to be a magical girl, too.

…And yet, the person they had seen, no matter how they looked at him, did not appear to be a “girl,” but unmistakably a “boy.”