Chapter 1

When you think of magical girl anime, what usually comes to mind? Sparkling heart-shaped wands? Pink flashes of light with the name “magic” in the title? Cute mascot characters that look like they belong on keychains? Outfits overflowing with frills and adorableness?

None of these things are exactly wrong. It’s all about defeating monsters and the emphasized friendship between the girls.

Suddenly wondering why I’m thinking about this…

Oh, wait. Let me have a moment to complain.

“Ugh, damn it…?”

Why, you ask? Because that’s exactly what my situation is like right now. To explain why it came to this, I need to go back a little in time.

I’ve always enjoyed manga and anime. In that realm, it might be considered a common and overly familiar story. “You died by accident, so here’s a special ability for you.” It’s all so surreal, just words that don’t really resonate.

Just like the characters in the manga who coolly accept things or just go with the flow, regular people can’t handle such situations. So I just listened with one ear and let it drift out the other.

“In your new world, I’ll make sure you never die! You’ll be called the strongest!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

The deity who looked like a small child said this. Apparently, in this setting, the world resembles the deity’s appearance and personality.

I should have known better than to make that kind of statement to a deity who looked like a clueless child.

And now, back to the present.

From being an adult man to suddenly becoming an orphaned little girl with magical girl settings, here I am—Kim Mari, a name that sounds perfect for dipping in tteokbokki.

“Ugh, Mom…”

“Sun! You shouldn’t use bad words!”

The girl who scolds me by calling me Sun is named Siyeon. “Sun” is the name we use for each other when we become magical girls.

Since the citizens seem to have face blindness, I can probably just brush it off. But, what other words are there besides “Mom”?

“Dad…”

“That’s not allowed either!”

With a sharp, piercing shout, I pondered deeply. Why isn’t this allowed? Is it because of that?

Having come up with a brilliant reason, I proudly voiced it.

“Since I don’t have a mom or dad, it’s right that it isn’t allowed, right?”

“No-!”

The girl with silver hair’s short shout filled the apartment room.

In this messed-up world, there’s no plausibility whatsoever.

So, isn’t it a bit strange for two elementary school kids to be living in a corner of an apartment? It might be something that wouldn’t normally happen according to common sense, but in this world, monsters pop up in the middle of the city, and kids who are barely elementary school age transform with some unknown power to defeat them.

The citizens are fundamentally afflicted with facial recognition disorder, where they can’t recognize even someone right in front of them just because of a single mole on their cheek. Yet, for some reason, the magical girls worry about it.

“A magical girl must always be cute! You shouldn’t use such bad words!”

In front of her eyes, there’s a girl named Siyeon striking a pose. That girl, too, is a pitiful soul bound by the role of a magical girl and forced into labor. Her magical girl name is something like Moon or whatever, just a translation of ‘moon’ into English.

“That’s right, Sun should pay more attention to those details!”

“Hey, didn’t I tell you how to speak?”

“I’m sorry. My speech habits are… no, I mean, yes, sir.”

This flying bear is a mascot, also a supervisor, who sticks close to the magical girl giving advice. After getting beaten up several times for using a terrible tone, it’s better now, but it still reverts to its original speech pattern when there are other kids around and needs correction.

It was something I should have twisted off at the start, without listening to anything.

“Such a pity…”

“…”

Siyeon and the mascot look at the bear with pity, but this ridiculous speech pattern definitely needs to be corrected. The other mascot doesn’t have such odd speech patterns.

Unfortunately, the bear assigned to me activates dormant cells originating from the male chromosomes, which had emerged from the deepest part of its body every time it spoke.

“Such a pity. Child labor exploitation is a serious crime, you criminals.”

“Labor, exploitation…?”

Siyeon doesn’t fully understand the difficult words being used and asks for clarification.

With a serious expression and speaking solemnly as if it’s still early, I said, “You don’t need to understand right now, young girl.”

“But Sun is the same age…”

A minor quibble is lightly ignored. After all, dealing with monsters that appear as if by magic is the girl’s role. Even though this bear is technically in charge of the contract, if she says, ‘I won’t do it!’ there’s no solution for these guys.

It’s a relationship where they are both the boss and the subordinate.

“Um, um…”

“Let’s hear it.”

“A monster… has appeared.”

With the awkward bear’s hesitant words, an alarm blares through the apartment room. It’s an alert that a monster has suddenly appeared in the middle of the city.

A cursed alarm blaring on its own without any warning.

“Damn it, I told you not to do this.”

Swearing, I picked up the staff like a summer emergency responder.

“Automatic alarms are unavoidable…”

“Try to do something about it, you damn bear.”

“It wouldn’t be too bad if it were midday, but if this alarm goes off in the middle of the night while I’m sound asleep… The annoyance is beyond words.

I opened the drawer in my closet and pulled out a black mask with holes in it. Essential for a magical girl! A sleek black mask to hide your identity! And, it even turns white when flipped inside out!

“Ready.”

“Sun, do you really have to take that…?”

“Of course, Moon.”

With a solemn and serious expression, I left the apartment. Even if such a noisy alarm goes off, there’s no one to complain. It’s the norm in this haphazard world. If a magical girl is involved, most things just get overlooked. How amazing is that?

Collapsed streets and buildings are repaired overnight without any workers in sight! Even if a monster suddenly appears, people are somehow always evacuated by the time it arrives! Monsters, waiting idly for the magical girl to show up, with no intention of attacking a single person! Thanks to that, there’s plenty of time to grab a snack from the fridge.

A piece of dried squid from yesterday, with its seal already broken, was lying around in the fridge. Today, this will do.

“Sun! We need to go quickly!”

“Oh, it’s fine.”

The appropriately salty and chewy texture of the dried squid lingered in my mouth. It’s nice that children’s taste buds are honest about strong stimuli.

After all, even if I walk slowly from the apartment, the monster will be waiting for us just like always. When we arrive, it will greet us with a rough laugh, as if we’ve just arrived.

“Stop right there!”

“Ahahaha! It’s the magical girl…”

The monster, momentarily doubting its own eyes which had never doubted before, turned to the voice. The figure that looked like a magical girl was shouting with a powerful voice, but the only part of the outfit that resembled a magical girl was the black mask with holes in it, with only the eyes visible, and the person was chewing something.

Chew… Chew…

“…girl?”

“What the heck, kid?”

The muffled pronunciation of the masked girl made it clear she was actually chewing on something. She struck the ground with her staff, adorned with heart-shaped decorations at the end, and spoke in a rough manner.

She was definitely not an ordinary girl. The monster realized this. However, at the same time, it was enraged that she was trying to confront it in such a manner. Even though she was a strong opponent meant to defeat them, she was still a child.

Wasn’t it just five magical girls who had been brought down by its roar alone? It roared once more.

“I’ll make you swallow this, kid-!”

The monster’s fierce energy was no different from usual.

At the sight, at least the magical girl named Moon might have been surprised.

“Mu, Moon Power—!”

“What’s for lunch today? Drum roll, drum roll, drum roll, meat meat, wolf meat ♪”

But to Sun, who had been her, the sense of intimidation was less than that of a wild boar encountered on a mountain hike.

With a chillingly cheerful song resonating and a flashing magic wand, an impromptu beatdown show began.

The power of the sun.

As befitting her title as a magical girl named Sun, the warm power contained in her magic wand.

However, the warm power that should have been used to save someone had long been transformed into a tool for post-situation torture.

The bipedal wolf-like monster, thoroughly beaten and sprawled on the ground.

A girl casually sitting on its back with crossed legs was clearly using that cute-looking wand inappropriately.

“Ughhhhh!”

“Since it has so much fur, it’s not working well.”

“Never again…”

After groaning in agony for a while, she took the wand off the monster, which had been used for torture…

“Hm?”

That pitiful gaze reminded her of the look her puppy gave when it had an accident on the bed in a past life, so she decided to listen to the story.

“I will never come back here again! So please, have mercy…!”

“Kid, what are you saying, as if it’s something obvious.”

Anyway, it’s not like you’re going to die, so stop with the whining.

She put the wand back to its previous spot, as if she was briefly listening to the story.

“Arrrgh!”

“Sun..? Let’s stop now….”