“GRAGHHH!!! HELP ME! HELP ME! IT HURTS!”

  I try to mash it with my hands, but it’s a real tough one. I instinctively roll my body sidewards and back, as one would when catching fire, yet the creature is stuck like glue.

  “ARGH!!!”

  “Where did the creature go?!” the magical girl wonders as she runs out of the corner, then she stumbles upon the poor suffering of me.

  “Gyah! Don’t worry, I’ll save you!” she reassures me.

  “PLEASE HURRY UP!!! ARGHH!!!”

  “Wonderous Heart!”

  Her signature move followed by a pose and a beam straight towards me, she strikes the monster.

  “GAAAHH!!!”

  Not to mention… including me.

  Because of the strength of her magic, the force lifts me up in the air, and even the monster detaches from me, falling behind me as well. Reaching the apex moments ter, gravity catches up and pulls the two of us down.

  “A-Ah?!” the magical girl panics, “I’ll save you!”

  As we fall, we continue to accelerate faster and faster.

  Never would I have thought that I’d die randomly to an oopsie caused by a klutzy magical girl. Well, you can’t choose how you die… sometimes.

  “Fluffiness of the Clouds!” a cry from a different voice afar.

  A beam hits me and out of nowhere, a cloud appears before me. Unusually, this cloud isn’t actually transparent at all. It’s thick white and I can apparently stand atop of it.

  Best not to question this stuff, considering the type of show it is.

  I look behind me and see as the monster falls to its death.

  Spt.

  Oddly enough, the sound it emits as it crashes makes is akin to a slime of considerable size dropping from a height of a building. I watch as its bck goo oozes out of its body.

  “Ew.”

  I pat the cloud.

  “Hm, this feels pretty comfortable.”

  The cloud slowly descends.

  “Is this what it feels to be on the Flying Nimbus? I must be holy then?!”

  Note: Hell no.

  “Chill out, I was kidding.”

  The cloud safely takes me to surface level and I drop off, before it eventually disappears into thin air.

  The magical girl runs to me.

  “Thanks for saving me. Although, you did get me into that danger in the first pce,” I tell her.

  “Th-Thank you… but… I wasn’t the one who saved you while in air…” she utters meekly.

  “Then wh-”

  As I was about to ask that question, another magical girl approaches us, essentially answering my question.

  Her color scheme was of sky blue and white, which are rather calm colors, so they do their job by easing the tension earlier. Her attire was pretty much simir with the frills, only with different variations. She had white hair and brown eyes. To call her a beauty would be an understatement. She’d probably rank #2 in the list of beautiful girls, #1 being the girl I met by the pole one day and Arisu in #3.

  “You’re welcome,” she says all of a sudden.

  I nod. But then, we kinda just stand there. I mean, we wouldn’t really know what to say after all that.

  “A-Am I intruding your job or something?” I ask.

  “You’re stomaching this quite well,” the other magical girl compliments.

  “Oh, well I’ve seen worse actually. Why don’t we introduce ourselves to break the ice?”

  “Sure thing.”

  But the other magical girl tugs her outfit and whispers.

  “Asato-senpai, are you sure about this? He’s a stranger… we’re not supposed to reveal that information to the general public.”

  She whispers back to her.

  “Don’t worry about that. Judging by how unfazed he is, he’s not a normal guy. There’s a good chance he’s encountered the Withers.”

  “O-Oh! You really are an opportunist! Amazing!”

  Hm, this outing proved to be more eventful than I thought. I’m not compining!

  After finishing their small talk, they come to face me. The pink magical girl introduces herself first.

  “Yoshikawa Tsukiko, I-I’m a magical girl, as you can see… I’m a 1st year college student…”

  Next up, is the other.

  “My name is Asato Hiromi. I’m this girl’s senpai in being a magical girl. We’re both 1st years in the same school though.”

  “Is it really okay for both of you to introduce yourselves as magical girls nonchantly? What if someone overhears us? Or perhaps what if I deceive you?”

  “I mean, if you’re asking those questions and giving those ideas, clearly you’re not that type, are you? Also, about the question of people, we make sure to steer away bystanders.”

  “Ah-”

  “You’re clearly used to these events, so it would be useful for us to exchange information in the near future.”

  “Yeah. I mean what?”

  Exchange information? Huh? What could I possibly provide?

  “Isn’t it about time you introduced yourself first?”

  “Ah, sure.”

  I’m kind of confused.

  “My name is Takayuki Kibe. Call me whatever you want.”

  “Nice to meet you Kibe-san,” Hiromi greets me.

  She nudges Tsukiko.

  “Come on, greet him too,” she tells her.

  Behind her, she hides like a coward.

  “H-Hello…” she says.

  “Sorry for that, she’s a bit shy around boys her age. Please excuse her attitude.”

  “N-No, it’s no problem at all,” I reply, “Anyways, what’s this about information exchange?”

  “Hm? Well, clearly you’ve encountered the Withers, no? Manifestations of negative emotions from people and all that?”

  “The what now?”

  “Huh?”

  “Huh?”

  We stare at each other awkwardly.

  Oh, I think I get it now. Since she saw my cool attitude towards these, she assumed I had encountered these supernatural creatures in their world, because in their story, these are possibly the only paranormal things that occur. Though, unbeknownst to them, there are much more than ‘Withers’.

  “A-Ah! Withers! So that’s what they’re called.”

  I don’t know a thing about Withers. But if I don’t involve myself now, I might never be able to contact them again. As they said, they normally steer the public away from where their job takes pce.

  “Yes! You’ve encountered them every day, no? Those annoying pests.”

  I’ll bluff myself out of this one. I’ll bet on my knowledge of past works.

  “Yeah, I get it now, sorry, it took a while for me to process.”

  “You see, these things can clump and become rge anomalies. For that reason, eliminating every single Wither is necessary. If you could contact us whenever you see one, or have useful information regarding them, that’ll be a big help. Oh, of course! You can name your price whenever the time comes. Is that alright with you, Kibe-san?”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, I take the offer.

  “For the sake of the world, I will.”

  For the sake of progress, I’d say, kufufufu~

  In order to proceed with transactions, we take out our phones and exchange LINE contacts. Just as we finish, Hiromi’s phone rings, so she picks up the call in front of me.

  “Mhm,” she nods.

  “Yeah.”

  A slight pause and then she says, “Got it, we’ll be right on it.”

  She keeps her phone in her pocket.

  “Have work to do?” I ask.

  “Yeah, there are more Withers in the neighborhood. Me and my kouhai right here are going to take care of it.”

  “Um, y-yeah,” Tsukiko shyly responds.

  “Off we go, Yoshikawa!”

  Her back faces me and she marches forward.

  “W-Wait for me!”

  Tsukiko follows her.

  “Bye.”

  I stand there for a hot second, contempting about what had just happened.

  “Yes! I have more connections now!”

  When I eventually leave the Slice-of-Life genre, I wouldn’t have to search far and wide for the next one. This is great!

  “Ah- But I still have to buy. Damn it, I keep getting distracted.”

  Promising myself not to be led astray any further, I keep walking. As I keep saying for the past few minutes now, eventually, I will find the pces I seek. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a maid café.

  “NO WAY! It’s the fabled pce!”

  In respect to its existence, I bow before its presence. I must honor it with my very being. It is a taste of a male’s fantasy!

  “There’s no way I’m not going in there. That would be a sin! Don’t worry my fellow brothers in school; I will go in your stead. I will bear witness to heaven itself.”

  Straightening my posture, fixing my attire, I prepare for the upcoming battle.

  Step. Step. Step.

  Baby steps. My heart pounds like crazy, since I never went to these kinds of pces before. Then I gather all my courage and go into the pce.

  “E-Excuse me.”

  Surprisingly enough, it was not as crowded as I thought. In a world of protagonists, one would expect this to be a huddle for young men. Well, it is, but perhaps protagonists are more inclined to go to malls nowadays. That’s only mere specution though.

  “Oh yeah, it’s only slightly past 12. Maybe it’ll get crowded after css or on weekends.”

  “Welcome!”

  “Hm?”

  My head turns toward the feminine voice.

  “Welcome to Hana Ichigo, Master!”

  Before me lies a beautiful girl with brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a maid outfit along with a cat ear hairband. Her outfit was designed with flowers paired with a blue theme. The sight was so beautiful that I almost fainted, but I manage to hold my grasp, being left only with a nosebleed.

  “S-Sir?!” she panics.

  “Thank you for the meal,” I say as I accept my fate, blending into the floor as I turn into dust.

  “The meal hasn’t been served yet!”

  …

  ..

  .

  Eventually, I find my way to the seats. Some are sarymen, some are fellow teenagers around my age, and some are hikikomori judging from the messy attire and unshaved hair. I feel slightly sentimental for the tter.

  You’ll get your stories soon enough.

  Looking around the walls, ceiling, and everything else in general, one could see the pce is littered with ornaments, be it, flowers or strawberries, matching the name of the establishment. Not too much to be girly, but not too much to be mundane.

  “Hm, I’ll take note of this pce.”

  I see the various girls come and pass serving moe to the customers, and their reactions being reciprocated by nosebleeds, tons of them.

  “Moe moe… kyun~”

  “KYAHHH!!!”

  Even after all this time, that phrase is still used. K-On! still lives to this day.

  After some waiting, one of them approaches me.

  “Hello, master. I have come to take your order!”

  A bright and cheerful tone, enough to make a man’s heart dance in glee.

  “Here’s the menu!” she adds, as she passes it down to my hands.

  I take a good look and realize that I actually was hungry. For that, I have a valid excuse to have come here. Now, on to the option I actually choose…

  “I’ll go with the cssic omurice!”

  She picks up the menu.

  “Coming right up!”

  Leaving me to rey my order, I take a while to settle down and enjoy the peace around me. A few minutes of listlessly gazing at the pce’s features, I take out my phone to check any updates from the team.

  “Ah, it seems I have new messages. Quite a lot of them.”

  As I open the group chat, I see a lot of worried messages, so I scroll up to backread to get an idea of the situation. Unconsciously, I read their messages out loud.

  “What should we do… Kibe, where are you… Man, there are a lot of cluttered messages. You know what? I’ll just ask them directly.”

  SFX: カタカター (katakata)

  “And send.”

  Now, we wait.

  I wait for a good five minutes and the maid arrives with my steaming hot meal. Before she leaves, she performs the necessary ritual.

  “美味しくなれ, もえもえキュン!” (Make this food taste delicious, moe moe kyun!)

  She leaves with a bright smile, and sure enough, her presence was enough to bring my mood to the peak of happiness. Now when I look at my phone, finally, I see someone typing.

  “Masaru? Hm…”

  I read his message.

  “We lost the challenge… sorry, Kibe.”

  No way… just as I got my mood up…

  END OF EPISODE 39