PrologueThat night, Hatato Ako was worried.
She went straight to her part-time job from middle school, and from there she walked to the bus stop in a minute. But when she arrived back at home, she realized that she had lost the key to the front door.
The key was small. Even if she looked for it, it would take a long time to find it. And it was night right now. Night fell early on autumn days and she wouldn’t be able to look for it properly with only the street lights and moonlight.
She would be able to get into her home when her Aunt and Uncle returned. But there was still the fact that she had lost her key. The key would have to be replaced because if somebody picked it up, they would be able to use it to get inside.
She didn’t want to cause that kind of trouble.
It"s been three months since her father stabbed her mother to death and was then arrested. Ever since then, Ako had been taken care of by her Uncle’s family… he was her mother’s younger brother. In addition, she was conscious of the fact that she was being a great inconvenience. So far, she had been allowed to continue at the same school and had even been given pocket money so she didn’t feel deprived every day.
She kept on being a bother.
She met her father once. And at that time he turned her away with “Never come back again”. Even to her father, Ako was an undesired existence. Somehow, everyone knew that Ako’s father stabbed her mother to death after an argument. As a result, there were rumors being whispered about her and because of that, they kept their distance from Ako.
Right now, Ako was unwanted by anyone and was only spreading trouble around.
That’s why she thought she would be better off dead. Her paternal grandmother had said “You have a strong conviction, just like your father” as she sighed. Her grandmother thought that such a decision wasn’t such a bad thing. It’s much better to be dead than to continue to be an inconvenience. Little by little, Ako worked on the preparation for her death. She got rid of her mementos, wrote a suicide note and had been stealing her Uncle’s sleeping pills that he took regularly for his insomnia. Little by little, she stole them from the drawer of his writing desk without being caught.
She would soon have the amount of sleeping pills she wanted.
But she had lost the key. She didn’t want to be even more of an inconvenience as she was going to die, but it looked like she would be a bit more troublesome to them. Ako was thoroughly disgusted with her careless self. She had lost the key at such an important time and squatted down helplessly in front of the door.
The key she had lost became the symbol of everything that tormented her. Ako stopped thinking about the key and tears fell from her wide eyes in large drops.
“What"s troubling you?”
Out of place… she might not be out of place since she was the middle school student called Ako, but nevertheless there was something out of place in the nighttime residential area. It was the voice of a pretty girl that was out of place.
“I want you to tell me what’s troubling you. For example… is it that you lost your key somewhere and you’re now unable to enter your house?”
Ako raised her head, her heart throbbing, only to see a beautiful girl there. Her nearly transparent white skin stood out in the dark night. Her facial features were perfectly arranged. Her smiling face was somehow awkward, but her beautiful appearance and inexperienced smile together gave off an unbalanced but rather charming look.
But her outfit was odd. At a glance it looked like a school uniform. but the way it was arranged was too over the top. Rather, it was closer to a cosplay of a character from an anime or manga. The scarf had a frilly border and decorated white flowers hung down to the pleated skirt. There was something like a school badge drawn on the armband, but it didn"t look like anything from a school around this area. The same school badge was on her knee-high socks… however,they weren"t knee-high socks but white boots, she thought. Her platinum blond hair shined like the moonlight and her ribbon was also completely decorated with white flowers.
Two words came into Ako’s mind – “Magical Girl”. In a daze, she noticed that she had confessed to losing her key. The girl nodded, said “Wait a minute” then vanished on the spot. Wind flew up and a pleasant fruit-like smell tickled Ako’s nose.
——She’s real. A real magical girl.
Ako stood dumbfounded and five minutes later the girl returned, gasping for breath.
“Is it this?”
She presented the exact key that Ako lost.
“Don’t lose it again, okay.”
The girl laughed. Her smiling face invited Ako to thank her. Her smile was like those of Ako’s mother when she was still on good terms with her father, but her looks were completely different. It was the kind of smile that was delightful and filled with infectious happiness.
She bowed her head in thanks and by the time she raised it the girl was already gone. She was definitely a magical girl.
Ako got really excited. Her heart warmed up.
The feeling of wanting to die had already disappeared. It was really a magical girl. Ako was saved.
Could Ako become a magical girl too? Would she be needed if she became a magical girl? Her heart was thumping madly as she thought about it.
Will there be someone who needs Ako?