Mahou Shoujo Chapter 1

Chapter 1 : As If I Met Her In My Dreams...

Do I have real friends? I often thought of this question after I had entered junior high. Are the people whom I go to shopping with after school my friends? Are the people who prepare for exams with me, who chitchat about other classmates, or who share the secrets of the boys they like my friends? I couldn’t come to a conclusion after refuting my own thoughts repeatedly. This was probably because I didn’t understand how close or intimate relationships should get to be called as friendship. So, at the end of the day, I didn’t have a clear conclusion of whether I have real friends around me.

Yet, if I had really said what I thought, Sayaka-chan would definitely get angry at me, saying, “what? Are you regarding me as an outsider? What are you coming up with now?” And Hitomi-chan would definitely say, “these words kind of hurt people. Do you want to say that the friendship we’ve built till now is as illusional as a castle in the air?” Sayaka-chan and Hitom-chan certainly regard me as their friends, but am I really fit as their friends? And thus I became a little restless. When the thought that I couldn’t become anyone’s true friend came over me, I felt a bit lonely and dejected.

It was probably because I went to sleep with these irregular thoughts in my mind that I had an inexplicable dream that one night. The dream’s scene was in some kind of an armageddon. The sky was dyed red by the midst, and the broken and wrecked buildings on the street were devastating. In this world where everything went to its end, only I was standing foolishly on a cliff. Then, before my eyes, there was a monster I had never seen before. The monster’s body was so gigantic it covered the whole sky, making sharp, laughing sounds. The buildings nearby swirled around it, burning like paper and then falling down, collapsing. It looked as if it hated everything that mankind has made, wrecking them with all its might. In this appalling scene, my legs trembled spontaneously; I wanted to run, but my legs went against my will.

“Eh?”

At this moment I discovered at last what the huge monster, which is destroying the city savagely, was actually after. Then, what was it actually after? I saw it—it was a girl who looked extremely small compared to that huge monster. She was a very beautifl girl with black hair. She was wearing back-and-white striped clothes, dancing in the sky, jumping and evading while attacking the monster occasionally. It was surprsing to see her fighting alone such a huge, abominable monster.

“Goo-Good Luck!” I couldn’t help but to clasp my hands and root for her. But, my weak supporting sounds couldn’t possibly be sent to her; not long, she was swirled away like a dried leaf by the turbulence blasted from the monster.

“Yiahhhh!” At the same time I cried, the girl was blown to a far building by the strong wind and slammed right into it.

“Tha-That’s too atrocious,” my lower jaw was trembling so vigorously I couldn’t close my mouth. Nevertheless, the girl who was slammed into the wall of the building was still living; her beautiful face twisted in pain. Althouh she was beaten black and blue, she still used all her might to get off from that wall of the building. And at this moment, she seemed to have landed her eyes on me. At the same time I was stared, the rate of my heartbeat rocketed indescribably. Those firm, condescending, yet dismayed eyes penetrated directly through my heart, making me feel as if I forgot something very important, and hence making me afraid. But, at this moment, the displeasing monster made another appalling laugh, blasting this black-haired girl and the building behind her away.

“Why…Why?”

“Do you want to ask why she had to suffer from such things?”

As I mumbled with tears welled in my eyes, an adorable and young voice suddenly came from my back, freaking me out. I quickly turned around in a flurry, happening to see a peculiar living thing before me. It had round, red eyes, and long ears like those of a rabbit. A pair of golden rings hung on them.

“Who…Who are you?”

It didn’t answer my question but just lightly said, “this can’t be helped. After all, it’s too much for her to shoulder alone. But, she knew that from the start.” Hearing its words, I couldn’t help looking back to the black-haired girl. She was blasted afar; and when she tried to stand up again, the monster hurled a multitude of pieces of buildings and threw them at her, exploding her from head to toe. She evaded swiftly, but she couldn’t evade all the attacks: she was hit by a huge concrete piece, her feet twisting into an unnatural figure.

“Yiahhh!” I couldn’t help but to cover my eyes. “This is too atrocious! How can something like this happen?!” I cried, tears about to rush out of my eyes. At this instant, the black-haired girl called for me.

“Eh…what?” However, I couldn’t hear a word she was saying. Even when this was the case, she still called for me loudly and repeatedly. When I looked at her, her face of trying all her might to cry to me tightly tore my heart. Yet, I was too feeble: all I could do was to tremble with my legs, unable to move an inch. I couldn’t even go to her side to lift her up. Why am I so useless? I was angry and regretful of myself being so weak; tears rushed out of my eyes, incessently trickling down my cheeks.

“If you give up, everything will end here.”

A sound suddenly came into my ears again.

“But, you can change your fate.”

That peculiar creature was sitting before me, though I didn’t know when it sat.

“You can upturn all these inevitable unhappiness and chaos, as you have the power to do so.”

Until now did I find out that this voice directly appears in my mind. This adorable and young voice seemed to have blended into my subconscious, reverberating in it. At the same time, many people I hadn’t seen before appeared in my mind and gradually faded away. There was a girl with a torn yellow dress lying in a pool of blood dismally. There was another girl beside her with a broken long sword, her blue skirt cut into threads. There was another girl with her sleeveless red garment torn open apathetically, with round eyes that implied her subsequent death.

“Who are they? Who are these girls?”

“It’s up to you to upturn all these inevitable tragedies. You have the power to do so.”

I tried my best to turn my neck to put my eyes on that black-haired girl again. She was shouting something to me with all her might and staring at me with eager eyes, yet I couldn’t hear what she wanted to say no matter how I closely look at her mouth.

“Is it true?” I sounded a husky voice from my mouth, “can someone like me really do something to change everything before me?”

“Of course.”

The eyes of the peculiar creature flashed with beam. Then, it jumped up.

“You can change everything—simply everything! So…”

So…?

“So, sign a contract with me and become a magical girl!”

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Ring, ring, ring…!

“Wuaghh?!” I abruptly sat up in the frustrating alarm sound.

Before my eyes was my familiar room. The teddy bear plush and the Kappa plush I like very much was placed beside my pillow. There was also my favourite calico bolster. I turned my head to look at the window absent-mindedly, looking at the flashing sunlight penetrating through the curtains and spilling inside the room.

“Awaa. Was that a dream?” I turned off the switch of the alarm clock with a dizzy and slacking mind, heaving a sigh at the same time. Then, I got off my bed, walked beside the windows, and opened it to see the refreshing sunlight of early summer and the soft and tender wind blowing through the windows. This was enough to rejuvenate me and blow away the appaling nightmare in my mind. There was a snall, private garden below the windows where dad was now in. I felt rest assured when I saw him acting usually with his apron.

“Good morning, dad,” I greeted my dad, waving my hands.

“Good morning, Madoka.”

Yes, this person who was standing up and smiling at me was my dad, Tomohisa Kaname.

“Where’s mum?”

Hearing my inquiry, dad shrugged his shoulders and said in a soft, placid voice, “Tatsuya has gone to call her. Can you also help?”

“Sure.”

With that said, I jumped and ran out of the room. This was our family’s everyday routine. I rushed from my room to the hallway and busted into mum’s room.

“Mum! Good morning! Good morning!”

As I had expected, Tatsuya was crouching on mum and hitting her repeatedly. Of course, mum wouldn’t be willing to wake up to the punches of a three-year-old kid. And thus I ran to the windows and flipped open the curtains. Then, I lightly inhaled, and cried, “wake up!”

“Yiiahhhh?!”

This jovial job had become my routine job recently, for it was wondrous to see mum, Junko Kaname, wake up with such a spectacular reaction.

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