7 Magical Girl’s First Battle

Author: Kumanano
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7313mj/7/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

I spent about a week being taught how to handle magic, and in that time I studied magical beasts and youkai too.
A week of my summer break disappeared.

“Shall we try actual combat soon?”
“Then I can save Dad?”

That’s why I became a magical girl.
And lately Dad’s face looks terribly tired.
The Cat God said it’s because he’s cursed.
I wanted to help him right away, but he said he was still all right, and didn’t do anything.

“But before that, it would be better to fight a low-rank magical beast first.”
“A low-rank magical beast? I still can’t save Dad?”
“There’s an order to things. What will you do if your first fight against a curse is a loss? With other magical beasts, if you lose you can just run. But in your dad’s case, if you run, it might get worse. So failure isn’t allowed. That’s why it’s better after you’ve had actual combat. And more than anything, if you fail and you resent me, I’ll be in trouble.”

I can’t fail.
If I couldn’t save Dad, I might resent the Cat God. I might not be able to keep being a magical girl either.

“…All right. So what’s a low-rank magical beast?”
“It was going to be a dog that had turned vicious, but it looks like a target for subjugation showed up first.”

The Cat God leaps to the window frame of the room and looks up at the sky.

“Showed up—what did?”

I’m curious about the vicious dog too, but something seems to be getting closer.

“Transform into a magical girl and wait in the air.”

I transform into a magical girl as I’m told.
I put on the black magical girl outfit.
I’ve done it plenty of times, but being able to change in an instant is still strange.
There’s no transformation scene like in anime.
Well, if there actually were a transformation scene it would be embarrassing, so it’s fine that there isn’t.
As a magical girl, I fly out the window of the room.

“What’s coming?”
“A crow tainted by miasma.”
“A crow?”

I look where the Cat God is looking, and a black speck gradually gets closer.

“Combat stance.”

The crow comes closer.
I ready myself.

“…That’s a crow tainted by miasma.”

Maybe because I became a magical girl, I can tell it isn’t an ordinary crow.
It’s ominous.
The crow seems about to close in, then speeds up and shoots past my side.

“!?”

It was so fast I couldn’t move.
If it had come at me…

“Watch carefully.”

I look back, and the crow tainted by miasma is coming back. The crow flies around me.
The crow is wrapped in an ominous black haze.
Its red eyes shine.
The crow spreads its wings and sends feathers flying.
I make a barrier of mana on the spot.
The crow’s feathers stick in the barrier.
I immediately loose magic, but it’s dodged.

“Fast.”
“Look closely. Becoming a magical girl raised your dynamic vision, so you should be able to see the movement.”

The crow’s movement is fast.
But gradually I start to see it.
It’s fast, but I can follow it with my eyes.

“This should work.”

I gather mana and loose it at the crow.

“Hit!”

No good. It doesn’t hit.
It dodges easily.
Even if I can see the movement, it’s actually fast.
The magic isn’t catching up to the crow.
The magic is slow.

“Mana is part of you. You can move it freely. Speed and shape can both change depending on your imagination.”

Mana is part of me.
The shape of mana changes.
I image it.
Thin, and fast.
Something like an arrow forms in front of me.
I swing my arm.

“Goooooooo!”

The mana arrow loosed from my hand flies toward the crow.
The crow accelerates. But the magic arrow accelerates too and chases the crow.
Like a missile tracking in a movie I saw, the magic arrow chases the crow.
The crow accelerates even more.

“You’re not getting away.”

The arrow accelerates and hits the crow.
The crow the arrow hit falls.

“I did it!”
“Not bad for a first time.”

The Cat God praises me.

“But in one hit?”
“There wasn’t much miasma, so once the magic hit, it looks like one shot finished it.”

That was a small amount of miasma?
The Cat God said low-rank, too.
It’s true it was fast, but if you can defeat it by landing even one hit, I think it’s in the weak category.
And it’s an opponent you can defeat in your first battle.
The excitement gradually settles.

“What about that crow?”

I look toward where the crow fell.

“Things tainted by miasma either become a corpse or disappear. One or the other.”
“They don’t go back?”
“If they were only just tainted by miasma, there’s a chance they go back, but basically, by the time you find them it’s too late.”

Unlike in anime and manga, they can’t go back to how they were.
In other words, the only way to save them is by killing them.
I killed that crow.
It’s the first time I’ve killed a living thing.
My hands are shaking a little.

“What you’re feeling now is right. That’s why I chose you. A child who enjoys slaughter has no qualification to become a magical girl. So I want you not to forget that feeling.”
“Are there really kids who enjoy slaughter?”
“There are. There are kids who pull the wings off butterflies. And kids who grow up and enjoy killing animals.”

Just imagining it makes me feel sick.

“I wouldn’t make a child like that a magical girl even if they had the talent. So that heart of yours is right.”
“…Right.”
“I know it’s hard. But from now on you’ll be fighting not only birds, but every kind of animal tainted by miasma.”

Animals… dogs and cats too.
I love dogs and cats.
Crows, if anything, are birds I don’t like.
That’s why I could fight.
But if I were asked whether I could fight a cute dog or cat, I don’t know.
I may have been thinking of being a magical girl too simply.