4 Magical Girl Hears the Rules

Author: Kumanano
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7313mj/4/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Awake?”

The white cat is sitting on me, looking at my face.
I try to move my body, but my body screams.
It hurts.

“Demon…”
“Calling me a demon is cruel.”
“De—definitely only a manner of speaking.”

Even when I screamed that it hurt, over and over, he wouldn’t stop.
Even when I told him to stop, he wouldn’t stop.
Even when I tried to run, my body was fixed in place, and I couldn’t.
He’s not a god. He’s a demon.

“Everyone calls me a demon, or an oni, after they stretch these mana lines through their body. And I’m such a cute cat.”

At first I thought he was a cute cat.
But now he only looks like an evil demon.

“Nnh…”

It hurts.
Even twisting my body a little sends pain through me. I can’t move a single finger.

“You won’t be able to move for a while.”
“Demon.”
“That’s cruel. And I was going to give you medicine.”
“Medicine?”
“If you drink this medicine, the pain will ease a little.”

Even moving a little hurts.
If there’s medicine like that, I want it now.

“Give it to me, hurry.”
“Isn’t there something you should say? If you don’t drink the medicine, you won’t be able to move for three days at least.”
“Demon.”
“You won’t be able to use the toilet or eat, either.”

I freeze at the word toilet.
If I can’t move for three whole days, then here I’ll…
No. As a girl, that alone is not okay.
And hearing the word toilet makes me need to go.

“What will you do?”

The cat peers down at me.
Dad said he was working and wouldn’t be home for a while.
I can’t eat, and I can’t use the toilet.
Besides, I can’t let Dad see me in such an embarrassing state.
And I wouldn’t be able to explain.
He might take me to the hospital, and it might turn into a whole scene.

“Cute Cat God, please let me drink that medicine.”

Those were the only words I could get out.

“If you put it like that, I suppose I have no choice.”

He’s easy.
The cat brings a small bottle wound around his tail to my mouth and lets me drink the medicine.
It really was a treatment medicine, and the pain eases a little.
When I move my body it still hurts, but not so much that I can’t move.
With this, I can get to the toilet.

“Ah, by the way, this medicine has a side effect.”

The cat only says that after I’ve drunk it.

“A side effect?”
“It’s nothing major. If you call me a demon or an oni, pain will just run through your head. After I give them the treatment medicine, everyone starts saying demon this, oni that, so I added an extra effect to the medicine.”

He’s a demon.
I understand how past magical girls felt so well it hurts.

“Is there something you want to say to me?”

I want to scream “Demon!” “Oni!” at this cat.
But if I do that, a headache will hit me.
I remember when the mana lines were stretched into my head.
I never want to go through that again.

“Cat God, thank you for the medicine.”

That was all I could say.
Even crawling, I managed to reach the toilet.
He says the pain through my whole body will last for a while, though.
I don’t think I can cook, so meals will probably be cup ramen, or bread.

I can’t stay naked, so I somehow get my clothes on and collapse onto the bed.
The exhaustion is awful.

“You should sleep for a while. Resting your body is the best way to recover.”

I sleep until evening.
When I get up, my body screams, but I can move somehow.
If I hadn’t drunk the medicine, I might not have been able to take a single step.
I want to hear what the white cat has to say too, but first I have to eat something.
I go downstairs, boil water, and eat cup ramen.
I’m glad I had some stocked.
Going down the stairs, my whole body screamed, and it was rough.
Then time passes, and after three days I can move properly.
If I stretch my arms or legs there’s a little sting, but just doing things normally is no problem.
I cook something simple with what’s in the fridge and eat.

“Do you want something to eat too? I don’t have cat food, though, so I’ll buy some later.”

I ask the white cat.
He wasn’t here, and then after three days he showed up.

“I can eat, for what it’s worth, but I don’t need to. I’m a god, after all.”
“Oh.”

I eat, then go back to my room.

“With this, I can save Dad, right?”

I became a magical girl to save Dad.
I even bore that pain.

“Not yet. All you have is a body that can use magic. You still don’t know how to use magic, or anything else, do you?”

It’s true, I don’t know how to use magic.
I had been sure that once I became a magical girl, I would be able to save Dad.

“Then teach me.”
“You don’t have to hurry that much. Your dad is still all right.”
“Really?”
“If I didn’t make it in time and your dad died, you wouldn’t follow me after that, would you.”

I think I would resent him, if anything.

“So I wouldn’t tell a lie like that. I need you to become a proper magical girl.”

I decided to believe the Cat God’s words.

“Well then, I’ll explain the magical girl regulations.”
“Regulations?”

There’s something like that?
Don’t you normally talk about that before someone becomes a magical girl?
For now, I listen.
One: magical girls must not use magic on people.
Two: magical girls must not tell anyone they are magical girls.
Three: follow the Cat God’s instructions as much as possible.

“What happens if you use magic on a person?”
“Same as an ordinary weapon. To put it simply: guns, swords, blunt weapons, flamethrowers—they kill people, don’t they. Magic is the same. It can kill people. God doesn’t allow that. If you break it, punishment is waiting.”
“Punishment?”

I don’t intend to kill anyone, but I was curious about the punishment for killing someone.

“If it’s an injury that wasn’t on purpose, a warning. But if there was malice…”
“What?”
“Well, something like that won’t happen, so it’s fine.”
“Why would you even think that?”
“Adults are one thing, but a child your age doesn’t want to kill people. That’s why magical girls are chosen from around your age. Children are pure, you see.”
“Kids bully people too.”

Elementary schoolers harass people too.
Pulling hair, messing with textbooks.

“That’s true. I won’t deny it. But compared to middle schoolers, high schoolers, and adults, it’s cute. You don’t hear stories of elementary schoolers killing people, do you?”
“…”

But I’ve heard there are elementary schoolers who kill themselves because of bullying.
I don’t know if it’s friends bullying them, or parents, though.

“Of course I won’t say it’s zero. But it’s close to zero. The older people get, the more violent they become. Well, I wouldn’t make a child like that a magical girl even if they had mana. I have an eye for people.”
“So I just don’t turn magic on people.”
“You respect your dad, don’t you. You want to be like him, don’t you.”
“You know my dad?”
“Of course. I’m a god. A police officer, a human with a strong sense of justice.”

My dad is a police officer.
Dad is kind, and strong, and a dad I respect.

“A girl who respects her dad won’t hurt people. That’s why I chose you.”

It feels a little like he’s saying I’m the same as Dad, and that makes me a little happy.

“All right. I will never use magic on a person.”

I promise.
I couldn’t injure people or kill them anyway.

“Then what happens if someone finds out you’re a magical girl? I don’t intend to talk, but there are cases where someone finds out, right?”
“It depends on the time and the situation, but in most cases we erase the other person’s memories.”
“You can do that?”
“We can, but other memories might disappear too. If it’s a stranger, that isn’t a problem. But if it’s someone you know, their memories of you might disappear as well.”
“That’s—”
“Memories. If it’s a stranger, you can just erase the part where they met you. But if it’s someone you know, you don’t know how far it will go. You can’t conveniently erase only the magical girl part. So if someone you know finds out, the memories they have with you might disappear. Be careful.”

If Dad found out, that would mean the memories with Dad would disappear.
I absolutely cannot let Dad find out.

“The third one, follow the Cat God’s instructions as much as possible—what kind of orders are those?”
“I think I told you before you became a magical girl. If magical beasts, ghosts, or things with malice appear, you deal with them.”
“As much as possible?”
“If you’re sick and in bad shape, or you can’t move, I won’t force you. But ‘I don’t want to fight’ alone is not allowed.”
“And if I refuse?”
“You’ll find out when the time comes.”

The Cat God smiles a scary smile.

“But are there really magical beasts and ghosts and things? I’ve never seen them.”
“There are. Ordinary people can’t see them. But a magical girl can.”

Magical beasts and ghosts—when I imagine them, it’s a little scary.
Not a little. It might be really scary.

“Isn’t that scary?”
“Everyone is scared at first.”
“Everyone—are there other magical girls?”
“There are. I’ll introduce you next time. You’ll fight together with the magical girls nearby sometimes, too.”

Hearing that, I feel a little relief.
It isn’t just me.

“Anything else you want to ask?”

I can’t think of anything right now.
But the Cat God seems to remember something, and opens his mouth.

“Right. There was one more thing to watch out for. I said only some humans can see magical beasts and ghosts, didn’t I.”
“Yeah.”
“Even if you can see them, your friends and people you know can’t, so be careful. They’ll think you’re weird.”

That’s true.

“In the past, there were girls who were thought to be crazy, or who were treated as creepy, and lost their friends.”

The Cat God says it with a laugh, but that isn’t something to laugh about.

“There were even kids who got it from their parents, too.”

If Dad thought I was a weird kid and hated me, the shock would be more than I could recover from.

“In that case, erasing memories—”
“You can, but other memories might disappear too.”

Right.

“So be careful about strange actions and strange things you say.”

I swear.
That I will absolutely not let Dad find out.