Magical Girl Raising Project:Volume1 Prologue

Prologue

Hatato Ako was worried on that night.

She went straight to her part-time job from middle school and from there she walked to the bus stop in a minute. But when she arrived back at home she realised she lost the key to the front door.

It’s a small key. Even if she looked for it, it would take a long time to find it. And it was night right now. Night fell early on autumn days and she wouldn’t be able to look for it properly with only the street lights and moonlight.

She would be able to enter her home when her Aunt and Uncle returned. But there was still the fact that she lost her key. The key would have to be replaced if somebody picked it up since they would be able to use it.

She didn’t want to cause that kind of trouble.

It has now been three months since her father stabbed her mother to death and was arrested. Ever since, Ako had been taken care of by her Uncle’s family…he was her mother’s younger brother. In addition, she was conscious about the fact that she was being a great inconvenience. So far she had been allowed to attend the same school and she had even been given pocket money so she didn’t feel deprived every day.

She kept on being a bother.

She met her father once. And at that time he turned her away with “Never come back again”. Even to her father, Ako was an undesired existence. Somehow, everyone knew that Ako’s father stabbed her mother to death after an argument so there were whispered rumours about her and they kept a distance from Ako.

Right now Ako was unwanted by anyone and only spread trouble around.

That’s why she thought she would be better off dead. Her paternal grandmother had said “You have a strong conviction, just like your father” mixed with a sigh. She thinks that such a decision wasn’t such a bad thing. It’s much better than continuing to be an inconvenience. Little by little, Ako worked on her preparation for her death. She got rid of her mementos, wrote a suicide note and has been stealing her Uncle’s sleeping pills that he took regularly for his insomnia, little by little, from the drawer of his writing desk without being caught.

The quantity of the sleeping pills would soon reach her aim.

But she lost the key. She didn’t want to be even more of an inconvenience as she was going to die, but it looked like she would a bit more troublesome. Ako was totally disgusted with her careless self that lost the key at such an important time and squatted down helplessly in front of the gate.

The lost key became the symbol of everything that tormented Ako. Ako stopped thinking about the key and tears fell from her wide eyes in large drops.

“What is troubling you?”

Out of place…she might not be out of place since she was the middle school student called Ako but nevertheless there was something out of place in the night residential area, it was the voice of a pretty girl that was out of place.

“I want you to tell me what’s troubling you. For example…is it that you lost your key somewhere and you’re now unable to enter your house?”

Ako raised her head with her heart throbbing only to see a beautiful girl there. Her transparent-like white skin stood out in the dark night. Her facial features were perfectly arranged. Her smiling face was somehow awkward, but her beautiful appearance and inexperienced smile together with her unbalance was rather charming.

But her outfit was odd. At a glance it looked like a school uniform but the way it was arranged was too over the top. Rather it was close to a cosplay of a character from an anime or manga. The scarf had a frilly border and decorated white flowers hung from the pleated skirt. There was something like a school badge drawn on the armband, but it didn’t look like anything from a school around this area. The same school badge was on her knee-high socks… it wasn’t knee-high socks but white boots, she thought. Her platinum blonde hair shined like the moonlight and her ribbon was also completely decorated with white flowers.

Two words came into Ako’s mind – “Magical Girl”. In a daze, she noticed that she had confessed to losing her key. The girl nodded, said “Wait a minute” then vanished on the spot. Wind flew up and a pleasant fruit-like smell tickled Ako’s nose.

——She’s real. A real magical girl.

Ako stood dumbfounded and five minutes later the girl returned, gasping for breath.

“Is it this?”

She presented the exact key that Ako lost.

“Don’t lose it again okay.”

The girl laughed, her smiling face invited Ako to thank her. Her smile was like Ako’s mother when she was still on good terms with her father but her looks were completely different. It was the kind of smile that was delightful and happy and made someone who was looking also become happy.

She bowed her head in thanks and by the time she raised it the girl was already gone. She was definitely a magical girl. Ako got really excited. Her heart warmed up.

The feeling of wanting to die had already disappeared. It was really a magical girl. Ako was saved.

Could Ako become a magical girl too? Would she be needed if she became a magical girl? Her heart was beating really fast as she thought about it.

Will there be someone who needs Ako?

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