Vol 1: Magical girl Black - Chapter 1: A Thorny Father-Daughter Relationship

Infernos raged, painting the cityscape in flickering orange as panicked citizens scrambled for their lives. It was a maelstrom of raw energy, twisted matter, concussive blasts, and brutal collisions…

“The pretty guardian of love and justice! Strawberry Sweetheart! Feel my Lovely! Sweetheart❤Shock!” A dazzling wave of rose-pink light erupted from the ornate staff clenched in her hand, striking the hulking, two-meter-plus fiend head-on and instantly obliterating it.

Yet, before Strawberry Sweetheart could even draw a shaky breath, a pillar of ominous, jet-black energy engulfed her.

When the malevolent light dissipated, Strawberry Sweetheart’s frilly magical girl costume was in shreds. She lay sprawled on the cracked asphalt, weak and covered in numerous wounds, all strength seemingly leached from her limbs.

“Hahaha! Strawberry Sweetheart! Pathetic! Is that the extent of your power?” Not far off, a masked woman—a fiend clad in a bizarre, almost fetishistic-looking skintight bodysuit—threw back her head and roared with laughter. “Today, you die!”

Strawberry Sweetheart tasted blood, her body screaming in protest as she tremblingly forced herself to her feet. “Fiend Mask! I… I absolutely refuse to let you rampage through our city any longer! Even if… even if it means sacrificing this very life…!”

“Hmph! Then by all means, die—Gurgle?!”

Fiend Mask’s taunt died in her throat, choked off into a strange, almost comically cute sound, as if an invisible hand had clamped around her neck.

Strawberry Sweetheart blinked, stunned. A sudden, chilling presence bloomed behind her.

She whipped her head around. And saw her.

A young woman stood there, an imposing figure in a jet-black trench coat, a simple black tank top, and ripped black denim shorts—the very picture of a hardened street delinquent. She was bare-handed, her expression an unreadable, glacial mask.

“Magical Girl Black!”

Before Strawberry Sweetheart could utter a word, Fiend Mask had already spat out the newcomer’s name, laced with a mixture of fear and hatred.

Without a glance at the fallen magical girl, Black strode past Strawberry Sweetheart, each step deliberate as she closed the distance to Fiend Mask. “Your resolve is pitiful,” Black stated, her voice as cold as her eyes. “When faced with fiends like them, those who shatter the peace of our city… there's only one proper course of action, isn't there?”

“Black!” Fiend Mask shrieked, her earlier confidence wavering. “You’re the monster who butchered Silver Drill and Quivering Tentacles! Today, I’ll settle old scores and new, all at once—Oof!”

Faster than Fiend Mask's eyes could track, her body reacted to an impact she hadn't seen coming. Magical Girl Black, in a blur of motion, had appeared directly before her, a devastating fist buried deep in her gut. The blow stole her breath and sent her organs into a chaotic dance; a horrifying certainty bloomed in her mind that her stomach and intestines had just been shredded.

Through the haze of agony, she saw it—the ghost of a smile playing on Magical Girl Black's lips.

“Listen up, Strawberry Sweetheart!” Black’s voice suddenly dripped with a chilling intensity. “Towards fiends like this! Towards these walking disasters who demolish our city, who force countless hardworking salarymen to be late for work, to suffer the indignity of docked wages!”

Her icy composure shattered, replaced by a terrifying, almost ecstatic grin. “You must mercilessly… ANNIHILATE THEM!!!! Eat this, you scum! My God-Severing Cleave!!!”

Her fingers snapped together, forming a deadly blade hand. With a guttural roar, she brought it down in a vicious arc, aiming to cleave Fiend Mask in two.

An image of Silver Drill's mangled corpse flashed through Fiend Mask's mind. So that’s her weapon—a damned hand-blade! This is how she does it—! In that micro-second of horrified realization, Fiend Mask was brutally bisected.

Or so it seemed. Only the mask split apart with a sharp crack. The true form of Fiend Mask, a shadowy silhouette, instantly regenerated a few feet to Black’s side, unleashing a concentrated pillar of pure dark energy at point-blank range.

“You colossal fool! Did you really think I wouldn't have countermeasures for you, Black?!” Fiend Mask cackled, her voice distorted with triumph. “Today, whether it's you or that pathetic Strawberry Sweetheart, you're ALL GOING TO DIE! HAHAHAHA!!!”

“Black!” Strawberry Sweetheart screamed, her heart lurching. She knew firsthand the terrifying destructive power of that dark energy. She was still far too injured to re-join the fight.

Yet, when the acrid smoke of the blast finally cleared, Magical Girl Black stood there, completely unfazed, a terrifyingly wide smile plastered across her face.

“Excellent! Oh, this is wonderful! Absolutely magnificent!” Black’s laughter was wild, joyful, and utterly unhinged. “That Silver Drill idiot kept boasting his drill was the hardest thing in existence, capable of piercing anything. Turns out, it wasn't harder than my fist. And Quivering Tentacles? Claimed no mere girl could ever be his match. One punch, and pop—he exploded. Utterly, pathetically boring, both of them! But you, Fiend Mask… you’re actually quite interesting… It seems you might just be able to give me… a really good time!!!!”

Like a phantom, her form flickered and vanished from Fiend Mask's sight. The very next instant—BAM!—Fiend Mask was blown apart in a shower of dark particles. Her mask, or what was left of it, clattered to the ground. Undeterred, her shadowy true form regenerated again, this time a considerable distance away, already looking for an escape.

“Hahaha! HAHAHAHA!!! YES! MORE! AGAIN! Come on, Fiend Mask! Don’t run! Come at me again! Do you have any earthly idea how much I've craved an encounter like this? Do you know how much simmering rage, how much agonizing stress is bottled up inside this soul of mine?! Smashing up buildings means I have to pay for damages—it all gets deducted from my bonus! My damn boss at the company is an inhuman slaver! And then, when I finally drag myself home, I have to deal with a rebellious teenage daughter who’s permanently glued to her phone! Do you understand?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I HATE IT ALL?! Do you know how incredibly difficult it is to find a durable punching bag like you?! SO COME ON! Play with me a little longer, Fiend Mask! Today, we fight until one of us is a bloody pulp—yours or mine!!!!”

“H-help me… HEEEEELP!!! PLEEEAAASE!!!”

……

“…and with that, Magical Girl Black utterly vanquished the rampaging Fiend Mask. The fiend’s final moments were reportedly marked by desperate cries for help, though authorities speculate this might have been an unfortunate civilian caught in the chaotic crossfire. To this day, Magical Girl Black's success rate in subjugating fiends remains at a perfect, awe-inspiring one hundred percent. It is noteworthy, however, that despite her overwhelming, almost terrifying power and an unparalleled combat record that leaves other magical girls in the dust, she ranks a mere fifth on the Official Magical Girl Popularity Charts. Most commentators attribute this to her… uniquely eccentric personality.

Esteemed veteran magical girl enthusiast, a certain Mr. X, was quoted as saying: ‘What kind of magical girl is that?! She possesses precisely zero cute, marketable elements! Sure, being a ‘yandere-type psycho’ can be a valid ‘moe’ point for some niche audiences, but shouldn't there be some attempt at conventional cuteness? Just a little? Last time I braved myself asking for her autograph, she just kicked me into next week!’ An anonymous netizen promptly replied, ‘Dude, for a known pervert like you, Mr. X, wasn't that basically a reward?’ Mr. X indignantly retorted, ‘That ‘reward’ put me in the hospital for a solid week, you hear me?! A WEEK!’…”

……

Kenji Tanaka, briefcase clutched in his hand, his salaryman suit slightly rumpled from a long day, pushed open the door to his modest apartment. The first sound that greeted him was the blare of the evening news, his daughter engrossed in the latest fiend report.

“Don't you have evening cram school today, Hana?” Kenji asked, forgoing a proper greeting. His tone was already weary.

A flash of annoyance, quickly suppressed, flickered across his daughter Hana's face. “There was a fiend attack today, remember, Dad? The school building’s a mess. We had classes out in the schoolyard all day. It'll probably be like this for a few more days, they said.”

“Is that so?” Hearing this, Kenji decided not to press further about school matters. He had enough on his plate. “Even if you’re a shoo-in for Esper University, your grades in regular academic subjects can't afford to slip too low. Otherwise, people will just write you off as some brainless, muscle-headed brute.”

“Study? You mean like you, Dad?” Hana scoffed, not even looking up from the screen. “Slaving away with overtime every single day for a measly one hundred sixty or one hundred eighty thousand yen a month? I hear even rookie espers make at least one million yen to start, easy.”

Kenji's jaw tightened, his expression darkening. “If you genuinely don't want to study, Hana, you can drop out right now. As you so helpfully pointed out, Esper University doesn't give a damn about high school academic results. I can file the withdrawal papers for you first thing tomorrow morning.”

Hana’s mouth opened, then snapped shut. She turned her face away, her voice barely a resentful mutter. “I never said I wasn't going to study…”

“Hana! Get this through your head: you're not studying for my sake! You're studying for yourself! You, and you alone, need to take responsibility for your own life!”

Hana simply clapped her hands over her ears, effectively ending the conversation.

Kenji seethed, a familiar wave of impotence washing over him. My daughter… the older she gets, the wider the chasm between us grows. She used to be so sweet, so adorable, his tiny ray of sunshine during the darkest, most grueling years of his life. But now, a budding young woman on the cusp of adulthood, she’d become so… prickly, so rebellious. She used to tell me she loved her papa more than anything in the world… With the weary sigh of a profoundly unfortunate middle-aged man, Kenji retreated to the sanctuary of his own room.

He locked the door – a necessary precaution against his daughter’s potential sudden intrusions – then slumped onto his bed and pulled out his smartphone.

A new message glowed on the screen from his handler: “Subject: Reward & Opportunity. Today's fiend subjugation (Fiend Mask – Threat Level: Significant) has been processed, Black. Bounty: 10,000,000 yen. Separately, an urgent opening for a magical girl concert tour appearance tomorrow. Interested? The appearance fee is projected to be even higher than the Fiend Mask bounty. Talent irrelevant; they just need a warm body in a magical girl outfit to wave at the crowd.”

Fiend Mask, a regenerating nightmare whom I personally had to beat into oblivion at least thirty agonizing times, is only worth ten million yen! And a single, probably humiliating, concert appearance pays even more?! This goddamn world is broken!

Kenji felt his blood pressure spike, the familiar vise of stress tightening around his temples. He quickly navigated to his banking app, a desperate need to see something positive. The balance displayed—a little over sixty million yen—did manage to soothe his frayed nerves, if only slightly.

Hana will be starting university soon… but the thought of her out there, fighting those monstrous fiends… it’s too dangerous. Far too many promising young espers have met gruesome ends. Sixty million yen… that's almost enough for a small, respectable villa. If I can just stomach taking down a few more high-bounty fiends, maybe I can finally buy a decent car too. That should just about cover Hana's dowry, more or less… give her a good start.

But this concert tour…

Among the population of Awakened Espers, those possessing transformation-type abilities aren't exactly rare. But those who can specifically transform into bona fide magical girls? You could probably count them on two hands for the entire planet—well, those who publicly admit to it, anyway. And here I am, Kenji Tanaka, a man who awakened to this… ‘gift’… in his weary forties. Am I supposed to feel blessed or cursed? Honestly, some days I can’t tell the difference.

If I actually agree to this ridiculous concert tour, I'll have to take time off from my actual, respectable company job. After slaving away there for over a decade… would they actually fire me for such a sudden, unexplained leave of absence? This whole magical girl gig is utterly unreliable – one month it’s a feast, the next it’s a famine. If I had any other choice, I’d quit this moonlighting madness in a heartbeat. My day job… it’s stable, it’s decent, it looks good on paper, and it comes with a full benefits package…

At least it won't be a source of embarrassment for Hana.

Though, if I'm being honest with myself, I have a pretty good idea who Hana will end up marrying… Her not-so-subtle crush on the neighbor's boy, Ren-kun… it’s an open secret between both sets of parents. I'm old acquaintances with his folks, after all. We all have a fairly clear picture of how that particular story will unfold, sooner or later.

But setting that aside for the moment… this concert tour. Ten million yen, and that’s just the base fee, ‘and up’… How much ‘up,’ I wonder? It’s a hell of a lot of money to just walk away from… especially with university fees looming…

He rubbed his throbbing temples, a fresh wave of frustration and exhaustion washing over him.

If only I could be like that all the time—like I am when I transform into Magical Girl Black. Confident, powerful, decisive. But that… that’s a persona, a role I can only play when I don the ‘mask’ of the magical girl.

It's Magical Girl Black's prerogative. Not Kenji Tanaka's.