Chapter 31: Magical Girl Black! Transform!

In the end, Kenji Tanaka’s disastrous blind date, in a final, spectacular fit of furious, self-righteous indignation, slammed her hands on the table hard enough to rattle the silverware and then stormed off, presumably to write a scathing, one-star review of him on the matchmaking site. Watching her retreating, indignant figure, Yuki Kirishima immediately, and with a soft, almost apologetic smile, let go of Kenji’s arm.

Kenji looked at her, his heart filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. “Thank you so, so much, Miss Kirishima. Truly. If it weren’t for you, I honestly don’t have the slightest idea how I would have managed to get out of that incredibly awkward situation with my dignity even remotely intact.”

Yuki waved her hand dismissively, her expression bright and cheerful. “Oh, please, what’s there to thank me for? It was nothing! Besides, you didn’t charge me for that delicious barbecue yesterday, did you? The money I tried to transfer to your account was automatically, and rather rudely, I might add, returned.” She then, with a casual grace that was almost unnerving, pulled over the chair that his former, now-vanquished blind date had occupied and, without a second thought, sat down. “But, I must say, this is really, truly surprising! Mr. Tanaka, to think you’d actually be out here, on a blind date and everything… Wow.” She couldn’t help but let out a soft, musical giggle.

Kenji scratched the back of his head, a fresh wave of awkwardness washing over him. “Well, you see, it’s… ah… that is to say… I’m getting older, you know, and I was just… I was just thinking of finding someone, a partner perhaps, to support each other and live out the rest of our days with. A simple life.”

“Hmm, is that so?” Yuki tilted her head, her eyes sparkling with a mischievous light. “Because the woman who just stormed out of here in a huff… she certainly didn’t seem like she was selected based on the ‘simple, supportive partner’ criterion. Mr. Tanaka, be honest with me now,” she leaned in, her voice a conspiratorial whisper, “you didn’t just look at her height, weight, and three sizes and then pick your blind date based on that, did you? Tsk, tsk.”

Kenji could only manage a strained, embarrassed laugh. Although this situation was also quite, quite awkward, it was different. Utterly different. This Miss Kirishima, for all her teasing, didn’t make him feel repulsed or defensive. Kenji could clearly tell that she had no real ill intent. She was just… just joking around, like a friend might. An old, familiar friend.

Just then, the waiter, with impeccable, if slightly inopportune timing, arrived with a tray laden with food.

Kenji was taken aback. “Ah—oh, right. I already… I already ordered the food for… for her… Um, excuse me, is it too late to cancel this order?”

The waiter’s apologetic smile was all the answer he needed. The answer was a firm, soul-crushing no.

He scratched his head again, a gesture that was rapidly becoming his default response to social awkwardness. “Well, since that’s the case, then, Miss Kirishima, to properly thank you for your… ah… heroic intervention just now, please, allow me to treat you to lunch!”

“My, my, Mr. Tanaka, you’re so refreshingly honest!” Yuki chirped, her smile widening. “If they could have canceled the order, you wouldn’t have invited me then, would you? Is that it?”

Kenji, for some reason, found himself being completely, utterly honest with this strange, beautiful young woman. “No, I would have invited you again, properly, on another day. It’s just that… this meal was originally ordered for her, you see. And I… well, I really was afraid of it all going to waste.”

“There aren’t many truly honest people like you left in the world, Mr. Tanaka,” Yuki said, her expression softening. “I quite like being around people like you. You know, we writers, we tend to be rather solitary, somewhat awkward creatures. If the other person is one of those slick, glib-tongued, overly charming types, I have a very, very hard time dealing with them.” Saying this, she cheerfully, and with no small amount of gusto, picked up her chopsticks. “Well, then! It seems I’ve really lucked out today! A completely free, five-star feast! Itadakimasu!”

Her smile… that bright, genuine, almost radiant smile… it was so, so much like Kaoru’s. And her sudden appearance here, helping him out of a difficult, humiliating situation… it was just like that time, all those years ago, with Kaoru…

Back in his awkward, painful junior high days, Kenji Tanaka had been, by all accounts, a "good student." A model student, even. But he was also an honest, dutiful, and perhaps overly earnest person. And so—he wasn’t very popular. Some kids, for reasons he could never, and would never, truly understand, seemed to take a perverse, malicious pleasure in spreading vicious, unfounded rumors about the top students. At that time, Kenji had been their unfortunate, primary target. They had spread a rumor, a particularly nasty one, that he was having a secret, illicit affair with the girl who was, by common consensus, considered the "ugliest" girl in their entire class. And then, a group of them, the usual pack of jeering hyenas, would surround him in the hallways, hooting and hollering, making his life a living hell. As a man, as a boy on the cusp of manhood, logically, rationally, he knew he should have just punched the ringleader square in his stupid, smirking face. That’s what a hero would have done.

But he was a "good student." He had the heavy, suffocating burden of being a "good student"; he couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let his parents, his teachers, down. So, he didn’t. He just endured it. Silently. Miserably.

And it was at that very moment, at his lowest, most pathetic point, that Kaoru Shirakawa had appeared, like a goddess of salvation.

“Kenji Tanaka is my boyfriend,” she had declared, her voice clear and unwavering, her chin held high as she stood between him and the jeering mob. “So what exactly are you all shouting about here?” Kaoru hadn’t been particularly conspicuous in their class at the time; she was quiet, gentle, almost invisible. Even Kenji himself, in his self-absorbed misery, had never imagined, not in a million years, that she, of all people, would be the one to stand up for him. Even though she herself, by doing so, would almost certainly become a target of their cruelty as well.

And, just as Kenji had feared, after Kaoru had heroically, miraculously helped him, she had been mercilessly scolded by both the teachers and her own parents for being in a "premature, inappropriate relationship." They’d made her write several thousand words of self-criticism, a truly soul-crushing punishment for a teenage girl.

When he had finally, guiltily found her again, when he had asked her why, why she had done it, when he had tried to offer her something, anything, to compensate her for her troubles, she had simply, beautifully, looked at him with that wonderful, radiant smile of hers.

“And how do you know, Kenji-kun,” she had said, a playful, teasing lilt to her voice, “that I wasn’t telling the absolute, honest-to-goodness truth back there? My Boyfriend!”

That smile… that single, life-altering smile… Kenji Tanaka knew, with an absolute certainty that he would never, ever forget it for as long as he lived.

And at this very moment, Yuki Kirishima’s smile was so, so uncannily similar. In this single, heart-stopping instant, Kenji Tanaka’s weary, cynical heart wavered as it had never, ever wavered before.

He knew, of course, that this was wrong. That this was foolish. This young woman, Yuki Kirishima, was only acting out of a simple, selfless kindness, or perhaps just out of a desire to repay the favor of yesterday’s barbecue. To be so easily, so completely moved by such a simple thing… was he still some kind of foolish, hormonal, love-struck teenager? Even Ren, for all his youth, wouldn’t be so easily moved by something like this! So how could he, a jaded, middle-aged man, possibly allow himself to feel this way? It was ridiculous! Pathetic!

“Speaking of which, Miss Kirishima,” he said, desperately trying to change the subject, to regain his composure, “are you… are you just here for a meal today? Or do you have other plans?”

“Oh, I was also planning to go and check out the magical girl exhibition downstairs, actually,” Yuki replied brightly, in between mouthfuls of what looked like very expensive steak. “You see, my parents… they passed away in a fiend attack a few years ago. At that time, it was the wonderful Magical Girl Lapis Lazuli who saved my life. And from that moment on, I decided that I was going to become a novelist, that I was going to write the amazing, inspiring stories of magical girls.”

As she spoke, she casually took out her smartphone and, with a few quick taps, opened a webpage. “Look! See? This is the story I’m currently serializing online: ‘The Secret, Untold, and Probably Very Romantic Story Between Magical Girl Black and the Lovely Strawberry Sweetheart’.”

“?!” Kenji Tanaka froze, a piece of steak halfway to his mouth. He stared at the screen, his mind a complete, utter blank. Wait, what? A romance? Between ME and Strawberry Sweetheart?!

But… but I’ve actually met Strawberry Sweetheart’s civilian self! In person! This… this isn’t good, is it? Not at all! Am I, a forty-something-year-old man, supposed to somehow marry Strawberry Sweetheart, a sweet, innocent girl who’s even a year younger than my own daughter?! Isn’t that… isn’t that a bit… much?! And probably illegal?! And besides, Strawberry Sweetheart is practically my senior, my mentor, on this whole crazy magical girl path! The awkwardness! The sheer, unmitigated horror!

He asked, his voice a little strained, almost a squeak, “Um, is… is there actually an audience for… for this kind of highly specific, and frankly quite disturbing work?”

“Oh, yes! A huge one!” Yuki chirped happily. “My royalties from last month alone were over four hundred thousand yen, you know!”

“!” Seeing his genuinely, almost comically shocked expression, Yuki laughed again, a bright, cheerful sound. “Oh, Mr. Tanaka, your expression is so wonderfully exaggerated! It’s not nearly as amazing as you think! I just… I just really like to write, that’s all.”

However, Kenji Tanaka had actually, with a sudden jolt of sympathy, noticed another, far more important issue in her story. That her parents had died in a fiend attack. So… so that meant… she was actually an orphan, wasn’t she? Just a young girl, all alone in the world. Also… also a pitiable, lonely soul. Just like him, in a way.

“You know,” he heard himself saying, much to his own surprise, “I’ll… go with you to the exhibition. To be perfectly honest, I’d also like to get to know the magical girls a little better myself. Recently, I’ve only really seen news about Magical Girl Black and Strawberry Sweetheart.”

“Really?! That would be wonderful!”

After their surprisingly pleasant meal, the two of them went down to the second basement level, where the magical girl exhibition was being held. The colors here were decidedly, aggressively girlish, a dazzling and dizzying combination of pinks, purples, and sparkles that made Kenji’s middle-aged eyes ache. The life-sized statues of the various magical girls, captured in dramatic, heroic poses, were incredibly, unnervingly lifelike.

And then, Kenji Tanaka, to his utter, profound horror, saw it.

Yuki Kirishima had her smartphone out and was, with a practiced and professional air, shamelessly, blatantly taking pictures up the skirts of the magical girl statues.

“You’re… uh… um… what are you…?” Kenji stammered, at a complete loss for words.

Yuki, however, was utterly, completely unapologetic. “What? Everyone does it! It’s practically a tradition!” she declared, her voice filled with a righteous, academic conviction. “At the end of the day, if you’re looking at magical girls, what else is there to look at besides their skirts! It’s the law of the universe! Only Magical Girl Black, that frustrating, uncooperative prude! The Black that appears in public is always in those boring, un-cute shorts! Even with her cute idol outfit from the concert before, she actually, unforgivably, wore safety shorts underneath! She’s not being magical-girly at all! It’s a disgrace to the profession! Strawberry Sweetheart, now she understands! She never wears safety shorts! And whether it’s her classic blue and white stripes or her pure, innocent white panties, they both suit her so perfectly, don’t they! It’s an aesthetic choice!”

This kind of fan… Black—Kenji—thought, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow, this is a kind of fan that Miss Magical Girl Black is not particularly keen on having. Not at all. He suddenly felt that it was a very, very good thing that most of his own fans were just obsessive, socially awkward power-level enthusiasts. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how much creepy, unwanted sexual harassment poor Strawberry Sweetheart had to endure on a daily basis from fans like this. Such a pitiable, long-suffering girl. To be able to withstand even this kind of invasive fandom… was this the true, indomitable spirit of the strongest magical girl? In that regard, he certainly, absolutely couldn’t call himself the strongest! Not by a long shot!

“Actually, I come here quite often, you know,” Yuki said, finally, mercifully putting her phone away. “If you don’t like it, Mr. Tanaka, I won’t take any more pictures. It’s fine. I have plenty of… stock photos… at home anyway.”

“Do you… do you really like magical girls that much?” Kenji asked, still slightly bewildered.

Yuki shook her head, a soft, almost sad smile on her face. “Of course, I like them. I like them a lot. But… but it’s more than that. Here, in this place… I can feel at ease. I can feel safe. A magical girl… she saved my life. And here,” she spread her arms wide, encompassing the entire, glittery exhibition hall, “there are so many, so many magical girls! So many heroes!” As she spoke, a genuine, radiant smile lit up her face, a smile that was once again so, so achingly similar to Kaoru’s. “There’s no place in the entire world that’s more reassuring, more safe, than this!”

“Miss Kirishima…” Kenji began, his own heart aching with a strange, unfamiliar emotion.

But his words, whatever they were going to be, remained unspoken.

A piercing, blaring alarm suddenly, violently shattered the peaceful, otaku-filled atmosphere of the mall.

Kenji Tanaka’s head shot up. And then he saw it. Reflected in the polished, gleaming surfaces of the magical girl statues, he saw the image of a terrifying, pitch-black, all-consuming moon, its ominous light somehow, impossibly, projecting right through the thick concrete walls of the building!

“The Darkmoon Queen! This is her accursed Dark Moon Domain!” he yelled, instinctively grabbing Yuki’s hand and starting to run. The entire exhibition hall instantly, catastrophically descended into a screaming, stampeding chaos.

The Darkmoon Queen, with a casual, bored grace, passed through the solid walls of the building as if they were made of mist. “A magical girl exhibition? What a truly, utterly nauseating space. So much… hope.” At this moment, she was completely, utterly different from the wretched, battered state she had been in just a few short days ago. The current Darkmoon Queen was cold, regal, and radiating an almost palpable, suffocating power. The slight, cruel curl of her lips clearly indicated her supreme, unshakeable confidence.

“Strawberry Sweetheart went to A-City, which is just perfect—the only one who can possibly come to the rescue now is Magical Girl Black.” The Darkmoon Queen’s cold, calculating gaze swept over the panicked, screaming crowd below. “Despair, you insignificant mortals! And die!”

Beams of pitch-black energy began to bombard the ground, terrifying explosions echoing continuously throughout the cavernous hall, the very floor trembling violently beneath their feet.

“It’s best if Black comes! With Strawberry Sweetheart gone, I shall finally, personally kill her this time!” the Queen declared, her voice filled with a triumphant glee. She seemed not to have noticed, or perhaps simply didn’t care about, the lone, middle-aged man who was currently desperately dragging a young woman along, trying to flee for his life. “But, she probably won’t dare to come, now will she? After all, if she comes here now… she’ll surely die. Hehe~”

The panicked, chaotic scrambling of the people was utterly, completely meaningless. Within the inescapable confines of the Dark Moon Domain, there was no space, no possibility, for escape. The Darkmoon Queen was simply, sadistically enjoying the exquisite pleasure of destruction, of tormenting her helpless prey, waiting, as she herself had so calmly, so confidently said, for the inevitable, and she hoped, desperate arrival of Magical Girl Black.

“You! You hide here first! And don’t move!” Kenji yelled, finding a relatively secure corner behind a large, fallen statue and gently but firmly settling the trembling Yuki down. He had to do it now. He had to transform into Black. There was no other choice. But—

Yuki, her eyes wide with a familiar, primal terror, grabbed his hand, her grip surprisingly strong. Her entire body was trembling uncontrollably, her face a deathly, chalky pale, her expression so utterly, heartbreakingly sorrowful. “N-no! Don’t go! Please, please don’t leave me…” she whimpered, her voice choked with tears. “You… you can’t be like my mom and dad! You can’t leave me all alone again! You’ll die! You’ll die just like they did!”

Damn it all! Not now! The traumatic events of her past had clearly, deeply scarred this poor woman, to the point where she would have this kind of severe, debilitating stress reaction when facing a fiend attack. But if this continued, if he stayed here to comfort her, the Darkmoon Queen would… she would kill everyone!

BANG!

A stray fireball harmlessly impacted against an invisible barrier around the Darkmoon Queen. She didn't even flinch. Kenji looked in that direction and saw, to his utter, profound horror, his own precious daughter, Hana, and Ren, who was holding her, trying to shield her with his own body.

How… how did those two get here?! Are they… are they actually following me on my blind date?! I should have known! I should have known they’d be worried! Oh, this is bad! This is so, so bad!

Kenji Tanaka, with no other choice, had to scoop up the trembling, almost catatonic Yuki Kirishima and, with a surge of desperate, fatherly strength, run towards Ren and Hana.

“Oh? Oh my, oh my, now this is a truly unexpected, and utterly delightful, little harvest, isn’t it~” the Darkmoon Queen purred, as if she had just seen some rare, precious treasure. She suddenly, almost playfully stopped her attacks. She just floated there, suspended in mid-air, a look of supreme, amused interest on her face as she watched the four of them, her four little mice, converge in their little maze.

Kenji Tanaka, of course, knew exactly what the Darkmoon Queen was alluding to, what she found so amusing, but he couldn’t afford to care about that right now.

“Hana!” he yelled, his voice strained. “Can you… can you use your magic to teleport her,” he gestured to the trembling Yuki in his arms, “out of here?!”

Hana shook her head, her own face pale with exertion and fear. “I can’t, Dad! The Dark Moon Domain… it’s a special kind of reality-warping field! My magic… I can’t get it to work properly! I can’t teleport anyone out!”

Kenji took a deep, shuddering breath. “Is that so?” He gently held Yuki’s hand, his voice now surprisingly, almost preternaturally calm. “Back then, all those years ago, the brave Magical Girl Lapis Lazuli saved you. And today, I promise you, a magical girl will come to save you too.” Saying this, with a sudden, surprising burst of strength, he pried Yuki’s desperate, clinging hand off of his arm.

Ren was stunned. He reached out a hand, his eyes wide with a dawning realization. “Tanaka-ojisan, you… you can’t mean…!”

Kenji looked at him, a strange, sad, but resolute smile on his face. “You knew all along, didn’t you, you clever kid?”

“Oh?” A genuine, delighted look of utter, profound surprise finally, truly appeared in Darkmoon Queen’s cold, calculating eyes. “You… you’re not even going to hesitate? Not even a little bit conflicted? How… boring.”

Kenji Tanaka stepped forward, away from the others, standing alone, a lone, middle-aged man in a slightly-too-tight casual shirt, directly in front of his terrified daughter, his future son-in-law, and the woman who looked so much like his lost love. He stood between them and the Queen of Darkness.

“My most important, most precious daughter is right here, right behind me,” he said, his voice quiet but ringing with an absolute, unshakeable conviction. “And even if I have to cast every single thing I have, every last shred of my dignity, my pride, my very life, aside… I will protect her!”

His feet planted shoulder-width apart, his arms beginning to rotate in that familiar, clockwise motion.

“MAGICAL GIRL BLACK! TRANSFORM!!!”

A vortex of pitch-black, almost tangible flames swirled and erupted around his body. And just like that, Magical Girl Black, under the watchful, disbelieving eyes of all, under the wide, tear-filled, utterly shocked gaze of her own beloved daughter, appeared, in all her dark, terrifying, and unexpectedly heroic glory, before everyone.