August 2025

  ***

  It was the height of Summer. The streets of Tokyo were full of people as always, walking or driving to whatever their destination might be, absentmindedly checking their phones while walking or casually chatting in groups of two or three. Their attention would soon be caught by two sweet voices ringing out at a certain intersection.

  “Hello and gooooood eveniiiing!”

  The cheerful voices carried over the street from the large LCD display overseeing a street crossing. Quite a considerable number of people turned their heads to face the screen, stopping what they were doing in the process.

  It was the Celestial Sisters, though they weren’t alone. Between the beauties in white and black was another person, though she herself was represented by an animated two-dimensional avatar.

  Sol spoke.

  “We’re the Celestial Sisters, Luna and Sol! And today, for our special program, we brought on someone some of you might know: Shoko Kohaku! The light novel author who used her friendship with real, blood-and-flesh Magical Girls as inspiration for her novel series ‘My Friend, the Magical Girl’!”

  Luna picked up from there.

  “And today we brought her on because we share our wonderful friendship with the Magical Girls that inspired her! We mentioned that we were mentored by relatively unknown Magical Girls before, and even partially took their colors, but today, we wish to present to you the whole, unadulterated truth!”

  Sol picked back up again.

  “The names of these wonderful Magical Girls, and countless video clips submitted by Kohaku’s fans, which were assumed to be lost due to the influence of a particularly nasty interdimensional foe! All of this will be part of this special program!”

  Both the idols pointed at the Vtuber sitting between them, whose animated eyes darted from side to side.

  “And now, it’s time for us to hand this show over to our friend, Shoko Kohaku! Everyone, please welcome her warmly!”

  A murmur went through the street as people looked at the Vtuber expectantly. The person operating it must have been inexperienced, as the animated girl’s expressions remained largely unchanged, save for the facial tracking conveying her eye, mouth and head movements. And still, people wanted to listen to what she had to say.

  ***

  Ayame’s heart was racing. What started as a small idea to get her beloveds’ renown back up in her world ended up becoming much bigger than she anticipated. The response to her first stream as a Vtuber was overwhelmingly positive, which gave Miyu and Momo enough of a public excuse to invite Ayame to their next show, and to arrange for it to be broadcast across the entire city’s large LCD screens that were located on every major shopping street.

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes; she sat comfortably in her own apartment, right in front of her laptop, but still, she felt like she stood in front of a gigantic crowd that would judge every word that would come out of her mouth. She moved her finger to unmute her microphone, to become her lovers’ high priestess in the modern world.

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  ***

  People were watching the special broadcast online and on the streets, waiting with bated breath to hear what this friend of the Celestial Sisters had to say. The avatar of a young Magical Girl wiggled a little on the screen as its inexperienced user moved outside of the tracking range for a second, which gave her a little bit of an innocent charm.

  “Hello everyone! I’m Shoko Kohaku! I’m new to this Vtubing thing and to speaking in front of so many people, so please be patient with me!”

  A short break before she continued.

  “As I told my readers recently, I based my novel, ‘My Friend, the Magical Girl’ off my own past. My friendship, my then unrequited crush and everything else I experienced with Minerva Crimson, and later Bellona Azure.”

  The broadcast switched to video footage, blurry or otherwise, of Minerva Crimson jumping in to defend people, be it from marionettes, strange kobolds, Shadows or even skeletal pirates. More videos showed her working in tandem with Bellona Azure and dispatching more interdimensional foes, while Kohaku continued.

  “For seventeen years now, Minerva Crimson has been tirelessly defending our city, without ever asking for anything in return. I got to know her in middle school, shortly after she became a Magical Girl, and for a few years, we were inseparable…”

  ***

  People watching in the streets and people watching at home listened to Shoko Kohaku’s, the author’s, story. She went over her fun years with Minerva Crimson, the decade of forgetting thanks to one of Minerva Crimson’s most dangerous enemies so far, and how she befriended Bellona Azure without knowing her secret identity. She went over all the strange encounters she witnessed, and the many people the Magical Girls saved. Luna and Sol picked up there, and for the first time, they talked about their difficult past. How they were picked by their patron and thrown into the fray without so much as combat training. They told the people how they kept reconnecting to their mentors despite them being forced to forget over and over, and how they ultimately vanquished that creature.

  And during that whole speech, one by one, people started to remember, or to share their more recent experiences.

  “She saved me at the arcade when I was sucked in by some shadow creature!” a young woman reported to those around her.

  “I know her! She pulled me out of a burning car when I was a child! Did she really mentor the Celestial Sisters?” a man spoke up.

  “Bellona Azure saved me when I tried to… jump in front of a train,” a young girl mentioned in the crowd.

  “I had a video of them on my phone but it got corrupted,” someone else remembered and flipped through their phone’s storage. To their complete surprise, the video was back in pristine condition.

  One by one the last remainder of Lethe’s curse unraveled; casual memories that were rendered hazy as a side effect of the creature’s devouring of memory flowers and corruption of evidence of the two Magical Girls’ relationship only needed a little nudge. Once people started talking about the two protectors of the city again, it all came rushing back. Recognition turned into admiration, and admiration turned into tangible power.

  ***

  “What in the world…”

  Haruka was entirely confused. She came to this Comiket expecting to sell her usual twenty doujins of Minerva Crimson under the guise of Kawaguchi Magic. Or nineteen, in this case, since Sayaka told her that Seika would be unable to attend this year and Haruka should reserve one of her doujins for her. She was sold out of her newest work by now, but for some infernal reason a huge line formed in front of her little booth, with people simply coming to talk to her about Minerva Crimson. They even bought up the optimistic supply of older doujins which Haruka brought with her this time; usually these went unsold, and she brought them more to fill out the space of her booth rather than expecting to get any additional sales.

  “Will you make more for C 107 in winter?”

  “Will you offer stock online?”

  “Please sell digital copies! I didn’t get anything!”

  Haruka was happy, admittedly, but also entirely overwhelmed. Worst of all, someone from staff approached her, telling her that the number of people lining up for her booth were disrupting the venue and blocking off the booths of other circles, so they proposed a relocation.

  To Tokyo Big Sight’s parking lot.