July 2025

  ***

  The streets were filled with the screams of surprised and terrified citizens. As usual, phone alerts went out mere moments before tears in reality itself opened, and strange invaders stood in the middle of Tokyo’s busy roads. This time, they were upright-standing lizard creatures, wielding strange, shamanistic magic. Minerva fought these adversaries before, and Ayame, while under the spell of Lethe, vaguely remembered this one enemy, thus making them the antagonists of her novel series, “My Friend, the Magical Girl’, albeit with an altered appearance. They were a nuisance more than a real threat, at least in Bellona’s mind.

  The two Magical Girls landed in the middle of the street, and the people running past them showed relief at their arrival. Some had to be hurried along by Minerva, as they stopped to admire the duo of Magical Girls and almost got hit by the strange spells the creatures were slinging their way. Bellona quickly pulled a girl out of the way as a bolt of green energy was headed for her; it hit the building behind them, and a large tangle of vines grew, covering the windows with green leaves. As they finished their growth and covered roughly a square meter, dozens of beautiful flowers sprouted from the greenery, dotting the carpet of foliage with their blue, red and yellow petals.

  “I kind of like it!” Minerva commented. “But I will not wait around to see what this magic does to people!”

  Bellona nodded, hurrying the girl along as she took her position by her partner’s side.

  “Do you still have time?” Minerva asked, gently prodding Bellona’s side with her elbow and wearing a little smirk on her face.

  “If we can make it fast, I should be able to get to work on time. I can just fly, can’t I?”

  “As long as you’re good for time!” Minerva responded, erecting a barrier to stop multiple spells flying their way. Even as they were blocked, plant life sprouted from where the magical energies dispersed, and soon the two Magical Girls stood in a field of green dotted by flowers.

  “I’m just glad we get to spend a little time together before your shift, even if it’s like this!”

  Bellona couldn’t stop herself from smiling in response to Minerva’s words, but she soon had to deflect another spell coming their way. The lizard creatures converged and faced them as a group: half a dozen spellcasters challenged them, with wooden staves adorned with various trinkets such as painted shells of foreign stone fruits, chains of animal teeth and more. Bellona couldn’t quite identify what sort of lizards they were, but they had raised eyes on top of their elongated skulls and long maws, like crocodiles. Their scales offered colorful variety, some shimmering in purple, green, red, or brown. They were letting out strange high-pitched shouts towards each other, and not even the Magical Girls’ translation magic could pick up what they were talking about.

  “Oh, I got it now!” Minerva suddenly exclaimed, as the creatures formed a circle to work a strange magic. Bellona watched vines grow and shape into something, but Minerva kept bumping her elbow into her side to get her attention, and Bellona’s eyebrow twitched before she finally faced her partner.

  “What?!” she shouted impatiently.

  “They’re kobolds!” Minerva exclaimed excitedly.

  Bellona let out a sigh. “Really? That’s your big insight? They’re doing something strange right now, so can we please focus on-”

  “At first, I didn’t realize it, because in anime and in folk tales, kobolds are usually dog faced, right? Like just a variation of goblins. But then I remembered, there’s a western version of kobolds that has them be the weak descendants of dragons, and I thought, ‘Hey, maybe they are that kind of kobolds!’”

  Minerva rambled on and grinned, while Bellona looked on and let out an exasperated sigh. Finally, Minerva let out an “Eeek!” as a mass of vines hit her and pinned her against a nearby building. Bellona followed the mass of vines with her eyes to its point of origin, seeing the kobold shamans dancing around what appeared to be a golem formed from plants. Many beautiful flowers sprouted on its back, while its main body was a mass of green vines, like muscle fibers in a vaguely humanoid form.

  “See, this is what I wanted to focus on!” she complained as she brought her halberd to her side and cleaved through the mass of tendrils holding her partner trapped. The kobolds yapped something and swung their staves around to work some more magic, causing the creature to grow several sizes taller.

  “Alright, I’ll focus. Thank you!” Minerva said hurriedly as she came back to Bellona’s side.

  “So, the plan?” Bellona asked as the two dodged to the sides, avoiding a giant fist slamming down where they stood before.

  “I’ll take the golem! You take the shamans!” Minerva answered but added “Don’t kill them, they’re kind of funny! Just kick their asses!”

  “…right.”

  Bellona flew away from the large plant golem and approached the shamans. They were exchanging some of their high-pitched words and laughing until they noticed her, then their shouts became a little more panicked. Green-colored magic bolts soared her way and she dodged them with nimble changes of direction. Even if they didn’t hit a building behind her, they exploded in a mass of leaves and flower petals, raining down on the overgrown streets below.

  She landed right in front of a pair of kobolds, who got startled and fired more spells her way. She deflected them to the sides, growing more vine covers on the surrounding buildings.

  At this point, a few more plants don’t matter.

  “Just get it over with quickly.” Bellona proper urged her on, and she chuckled internally as she took a step forwards. The eyes of the kobolds widened as she grabbed their heads and knocked them together. Gently, by her standards. The creatures let out synchronized squeaks and fell on their butts, rubbing their heads in confusion after that takedown right out of a cartoon. They soon found themselves bound by a rope as Bellona continued, tossing a weighted net towards another pair of kobolds who immediately got tangled up and cursed in their squeaky language as they tried to free themselves, unsuccessfully.

  The last two quickly exchanged some ‘words’ in their strange language and peppered Bellona in spells which all hit her barrier. Vines sprouted, naturally, but Bellona suddenly buckled under the weight of a whole tree growing on her barrier, its roots wrapping around the protective energies and yanking them around, together with their caster as the tree fell over.

  Bellona was launched a short distance into the air and hit in the chest by one more spell which was shot her way with surprising coordination and accuracy. The kobolds high-fived each other and cackled as the spell’s vines wrapped themselves around Bellona’s body. She landed on her feet in front of them, her arms tied tightly to her body and seemingly helpless. The creature in front of her propped itself up, its clawed hands on its hip as it laughed in her face with a shrill ‘gya-hahaha’ sound.

  Minerva is right, they are kind of funny.

  Bellona responded the only way she could in this situation, by punting the kobold a good distance away with her armored boot. Its high-pitched screech grew quieter with gained distance before it landed in the cushioning foliage with a little ‘poof’. Bellona summoned floating blades to her side, which rotated around her body once and cut the vines. She glared at the final kobold, who gulped as it looked up at her, then it pointed its staff at Bellona to fire off a desperate spell. It never got that far, as the remains of a vine golem hit it and launched it towards the nearest building, where it slammed flat against the windowfront and slid down with a terrible, loud squeak.

  “I was wondering when you’d finish that small fry!” Bellona commented as Minerva walked towards her with a big, dumb grin.

  ***

  The kobolds were gathered and given a stern talking to, as Minerva insisted, even though Bellona was certain that they couldn’t understand the Magical Girls any more than the Magical Girls could understand them. The kobolds enthusiastically nodded along anyway, as if to assure the Magical Girls that they were very sorry and wouldn’t ever do it again. Bellona distinctly recalled that a few of their previous encounters ended the very same way. She wasn’t entirely sure, but she had a hunch that these were even the same kobolds and that the little troublemakers simply forgot about the promise they made. Or, maybe there were cultural misunderstandings regarding ‘never doing it again.’ Maybe it was similar to how Japanese people declined gifts once or twice before accepting them, just that these kobolds were going to cause trouble one or two more times before stopping.

  “As if.”

  You’re right, we’ll probably see them again. But despite everything, it was fun.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Oh, shoot!

  Bellona panicked a little, turning towards Minerva after she made one of the kobolds open a portal back to their own world and tossed them through the hole in reality one by one.

  “I’ll be off, or I’ll be late for work!” she declared, quickly rushing over towards Minerva and giving her a kiss. She wanted to launch herself into the air and fly away but stopped as the two heard an obscene cackle. The last two kobolds were exchanging looks and dirty laughs, lolling their tongues and moving them in licking motions before they laughed even harder.

  “Oh, you little shits…” Minerva groaned, and the final two creatures weren’t tossed but kicked through the portal. Thus, another invasion ended.

  “That was fun! I wish more invasions were like that.” Seika declared with a grin as she walked out of the station, looking around for the person she was supposed to meet today.

  “Those little guys do have their charms. The last time you had that much fun with an enemy was with the skeleton pirates.”

  “Oh, I wish I could see those again!” Seika sighed, grinning as she remembered commandeering the Hotaluna, with Bellona summoning cannons and engaging in naval warfare with Captain Crossbones’ crew. She liked those slightly silly encounters way more than those with purely evil entities like Lethe or the Shadows. If only the silly ones were the only ones she had to care about.

  “Hey there, Seika!”

  Her daydreaming was interrupted by Sayaka’s voice, who approached her and waved her way with a wide grin on her face. Seika had only ever seen her in her doctor’s coat, so it was refreshing to see her in a summer outfit. She wore a medium-length plaid skirt and a black, half-transparent, breezy top. A crop tank top underneath ensured her modesty.

  “Good that you’re on time. I saw a news video of what happened earlier.”

  Seika nodded and gave Sayaka a little thumbs-up.

  “No problem at all! In fact, it was fun.”

  “Fun?” Sayaka let out a little chuckle. “Fighting weird lizard things that make plants grow everywhere was fun for you, huh?”

  “Of course! Beats fighting Shadows every time.” Seika declared with a grin and took her place by Sayaka’s side.

  “So, you said you had places you wanted to take me, hm? This better not be a date. I’m already dating four women as it were.”

  “Four?” Sayaka asked with a raised brow.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “There’s Miori and Ayame, in the flesh. And by circumstance, we have accepted that our Magical Girl forms are part of the equation as well, since they’re their own people, even though we share our bodies with them.”

  Sayaka listened and let out a little snort. “You’re living life to the fullest! And here I thought that you would be able to get more sleep with the adjustments to your lifestyle.”

  Seika grinned and followed Sayaka as they walked along the street, giving the woman a little wink. “Don’t worry, I get enough sleep. And I haven’t touched an energy drink either, just like you demanded as my doctor.”

  “That’s a good girl,” Sayaka remarked as they approached a local high school. The students were out for at least an hour now, and apparently that was exactly the time Sayaka wanted to arrive. They approached the gym, and Sayaka pushed the door open, revealing to them a tall, athletic woman with lightly tanned skin and short, brown hair who was currently busy cleaning up sports utensils after PE classes were over, though it was more accurate to say that she was messing around with the basketball, skillfully dribbling it around herself and between her legs. She was the quintessential tomboy, from what Seika could see, and she knew who this would be long before Sayaka called out “Fuuka!”

  “Hm? Ah, Sayaka!” Fuuka exclaimed and dropped the basketball. She grinned and ran towards her old friend, wrapping her arms around her and lifting her in the air, demonstrating her strength as she spun around once and put the doctor back down. Sayaka stumbled a step to the side once she was free again and let out a laugh.

  “You’re still doing that whenever you see me, huh?”

  “Well, you’re small and cute and lightweight, I can’t resist!” Fuuka declared with a wide grin, then she looked at Seika who gave her an awkward wave.

  “And who’s this?” Fuuka asked as she stepped closer, offering Seika a polite bow despite her rugged appearance.

  “Someone you kicked in the face more than a decade ago,” Sayaka said with a mischievous smirk.

  ***

  “Bahaha! An office lady, huh? I never would have guessed!”

  Fuuka was having a laugh as the trio stood next to a vending machine, enjoying some cold drinks. As expected, the Magical Girl trio’s tomboy kept the physical exercise up and even entered some national competitions for track and field, but she was always aiming to become a PE teacher, and only two years ago she started her first job as one at her old school.

  “But you know, I’ve been keeping track of Minerva Crimson since that day! You didn’t do anything for a few months, is everything alright with you?”

  Fuuka stepped closer and gave Seika a concerned look, to which she responded with a smile, running a hand over the side of her face where the scars from Lethe’s nails were a permanent mark.

  “I’ve been injured and Sayaka told me to get some rest. My girlfriend, the woman behind Bellona, took over in the meantime.”

  “Woah! A girlfriend!” Fuuka exclaimed excitedly.

  “Four.” Sayaka chimed in with a shit-eating grin and Fuuka looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her skull.

  “Four?! I mean, you’re a damn hero, you deserve that many, but… wow! Talk about greedy.”

  “I mean, one of them is myself, sort of, and Bellona and her user are the same person, as well. But yes, I have more than one girlfriend, even physically.”

  “You count your Magical Girl forms?” Fuuka asked with a raised brow.

  “They’re their own people despite sharing our bodies, yes.”

  Fuuka’s eyes went wide again.

  “Sharing your body? That means, they…?”

  “Yes. And that’s why it would be a little awkward to exclude them from our relationship, if they get to see and feel it all anyway.”

  The trio kept moving through the neighborhood, as the final person on the list of people to meet would be Haruka. Fuuka immediately let out a loud ‘Aaah!’ and wanted to say something but was hushed by Sayaka. Whatever Haruka was up to, it was supposed to be a secret, something that would ‘blow Seika’s mind’, as Sayaka said last year. They finally stopped in front of an apartment building and rang the bell. There was no response.

  “She’s probably deep in her own world again… wait a moment.” Sayaka walked over to a small rock and flipped it over, revealing a spare key, hidden like a bad cliché from a movie.

  “Seriously? A spare key under a rock?” Seika commented with a sigh and Sayaka grinned.

  “She only leaves it out on days when someone announces they’ll come over. She knows that she tends to get so absorbed in her work that she doesn’t even hear the doorbell.”

  “At this point you should get a spare key from her,” Fuuka suggested.

  “Pff. You’d call us girlfriends if we did that,” Sayaka brushed her off with a little grin as she unlocked the door and the three entered. They took off their shoes, and immediately Seika got an odd feeling as she looked at framed images in the entryway. There was the cover of ‘The Demon Lord’s Right Hand Woman is my Little Sister Volume 1’, and on the other wall was the one of ‘The Starfaring Maiden Volume 1’.

  “Wait, don’t tell me Haruka is…?” Seika’s eyes went wide as she stepped closer to the framed covers.

  “AKITO, yes. But that’s not all,” Sayaka said as she stepped through the living room, which was currently empty. There was nothing truly remarkable about the place, it was a living room like every other, with the difference that many framed images of MagiColle works which AKITO illustrated were hanging on the wall.

  Seika could hear a little murmur from behind a door. Sayaka stepped close to it and put a finger on her lips to shush the other two, then she opened it a crack wide, peeking inside before opening it the rest of the way. The space inside was the total opposite of the neat living room. It was a small office, and it was filled with stacks of books. Reference books, be they photosets of posing people, or clothing magazines, architecture photography or myriads of other studies of real life, were stacked on top of each other, and the quiet tapping of a tablet pen being moved over a screen could be heard. The person sitting at the work desk wore big glasses and had her hair fastened to her head with a bandana so it wouldn’t get in the way of her drawing. Seika could now hear the words coming out of her mouth.

  “Come on, come on… just two more pages. I need to get this ready for Comiket in a month! Aaaah, so little time! I have to draw for the Starfaring Maiden, too…”

  Seika stepped behind Haruka, or AKITO, and she was shocked for the second time today. The woman was drawing an erotic doujin featuring none other than Minerva Crimson herself. While she was busy with a zoomed-in page on her drawing tablet, Seika could see the other pages of the doujin on one of her screens. The Magical Girl was wrapped in tentacles and was drawn with heart eyes on a two-page spread, while the rest of the pages before detailed how she got into that sticky situation in the first place, while the pages after dealt with the aftermath, where Minerva Crimson’s powers flared up and she defeated the monster after all (not without both reaching the climax, though!) and made a comedic comment about the entire encounter before a cute little ending illustration. Haruka was busy adjusting the poses on one of the final pages, frantically drawing and abusing the undo key combination on her keyboard. Seika found the artist behind Kawaguchi Magic, who drew the only doujins of Minerva Crimson that existed.

  ***

  Haruka was in deep focus. She needed to draw two more pages, and then get the process started to get enough copies printed for Summer Comiket. And yet, she had hit a roadblock. There was an angle which she wanted to draw, but she had never seen her idol Minerva Crimson from that side. Or, rather, she did once, a long, long time ago when she was part of the Kuma Group and the Magical Girl in red swooped in and made short work of them after Fuuka thoughtlessly attacked her. But trying to draw that angle from memory was like pulling out her nails.

  She ruffled her hair and undid another failed attempt. She started anew, loading up the template for the paneling which she prepared weeks ago. She started with a wire drawing for the pose, then she added the simple shapes. The face, the arms, the legs, all the naked things in-between, of course.

  “Hmm… something’s missing… if I could only find any footage from that angle…”

  She grabbed her tablet and searched frantically for any sort of video recording in which Minerva Crimson could be seen from the angle she had in mind, but she had no luck. Whenever it looked like she might get lucky, the recording turned into a blur. The Magical Girl was moving too fast, saving people and hurrying somewhere else entirely right after. Haruka suffered a complete art block, and the one reference that would get her out of it eluded her. She buried her face in her hands and let out a loud groan.

  “You seem to have a hard time right now.”

  Someone spoke to her. Haruka assumed it was Sayaka, since she announced a visit today, and Haruka left the key outside for her.

  “I’m not certain what she would look like from this angle… I have an utter art block… ugh!”

  A hand covered in a white glove reached over Haruka’s shoulder and tapped the illustration. “Maybe this will inspire you: I know about a detail that no one else knows about her. Minerva Crimson has a mole on her left breast that is usually covered by her outfit.”

  Haruka furrowed her brow. This wasn’t Sayaka. This was some stranger, who told her she knew an intimate secret like that about her idol which even her, Haruka, AKITO, Kawaguchi Magic didn’t know?! The audacity! The heresy!

  The thought that some stranger broke into her apartment didn’t even occur to her. This was a heretic among Minerva Crimson otakus, and she had to set this misguided soul straight! Or, failing that, she would have to challenge the stranger to a duel to preserve her honor. Whatever that would look like. Haruka jumped out of her chair and slowly turned around.

  “Now listen here! I’m the foremost authority on all things Minerva Crimson! You can’t just waltz in here and claim to know more about her than…”

  Her jaw dropped after she realized who was talking to her. She fell to her knees and basked in the crimson glow of the dazzling, beautiful goddess that was Minerva Crimson, who towered above her, hands on her hips with a big, wide grin.

  “Hello there, ‘Kawaguchi Magic’! I’ve been a long-time fan!”

  ***

  “You’re Hitoishi?!”

  It took a while for Haruka to gather her wits again after the initial shock, only for her to threaten to faint again. As it turned out, Haruka knew Seika’s face as one of her regulars. The office worker attended every Comiket that Haruka was a part of and bought her doujins, but the recognition of course went only one way, as Haruka wore a surgical mask, like so many artists who wanted to remain somewhat anonymous while selling their works at Japan’s premier otaku market.

  Now she found out that this loyal fan of hers was both the editor who commissioned her for MagiColle’s light novels as well as Haruka’s own idol, Minerva Crimson.

  “I am. Things have a funny way of lining up sometimes, don’t they?” Seika couldn’t help but laugh at the absurd coincidence of the situation. She nodded Sayaka’s way. “You were right. It did blow my mind.”

  “Told you!”

  “Uhm!” Haruka spoke up again, shuffling closer to Seika. “I’m uh… I’m stuck. Can I take reference photos?”

  Seika blinked, then she nodded.

  “Of course. I don’t mind posing a little.”

  ***

  “…and then I told her that she had to model for me, over and over! So, in a way you can all thank me for being served drinks by a top-class supermodel right now, yeah? So, maybe you could offer me a drink or two, you know?”

  Miori had to hide the grin that wanted to creep all across her face as Ayame told the regulars of Snack Starlight about how she convinced her to give modeling a try. She embellished, she exaggerated, either because she felt just that proud of her girlfriend, or because she really wanted to leech a few drinks off the regulars who got to try and flirt with Miori while she was on the clock.

  Miori rolled her eyes a little as Ayame looked her way and gave her a wink, but she was smiling throughout the entire experience, then both looked down as their phones vibrated from a message, fishing them out and checking their notifications almost in a synchronous motion.

  ‘Seika: I’m sorry for asking this. Sayaka took me to meet one of our old acquaintances, and she turned out to be the artist behind all the Minerva Crimson doujins. She hit an art block, so I agreed to pose a little for the camera, so she has references but… now she wants nude ones as well. What should I do?’

  Miori and Ayame exchanged a short look with each other. The utter confusion at the situation gave way to laughter.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Miori dear?” Ayame asked with a mischievous grin.

  “Of course I am,” Miori answered her with a matching expression.

  Minerva stared at her phone, waiting for an answer under the intense gaze of her fan, Haruka. Of course, she meant that she was going to pose for her clothed, which was what they did. From all sorts of angles, peace sign over her eye, double peace, multiple facial expressions, the list went on and on…

  ‘I want to see the mole,’ were the words that started this whole dilemma. Minerva pulled her bustier down and covered herself with an arm to show off the mole on the lower half of her left breast, and Haruka was immediately all over her, snapping pictures all over.

  ‘You know… I barely draw you with clothes. Maybe nude photos would help me a little more!’ Haruka claimed and Minerva could figuratively see the steam coming out of her nose when she exhaled.

  “That’s definitely a request for her own… pleasure, partner.”

  I know, I know…

  “I’ll ask my girlfriends,” she brushed Haruka off and sent a text to the group chat. The response didn’t take long and Minerva furrowed her brow at what she saw.

  ‘Ayame: Only if we get the pictures.’

  ‘Miori: Yes, send us the pictures!’

  “I wish my girlfriends were a little bit more possessive sometimes,” she said with a sigh before she looked at Haruka, who eagerly expected her answer.

  “Fine,” she finally said with an awkward grin.

  ***

  The photography session was a bit more innocent than she expected. She could still cover herself with her hands and arms as much as she wanted, and Sayaka waited with Fuuka outside. Haruka was meticulously photographing every good angle, but not lecherously so. Maybe there was a clear divide between her otaku desire to see her idol naked and her professional need for proper reference images. The ordeal didn’t even take overly long, and in less than half an hour, Seika was back to her office lady self.

  “Hahaha… thank you for the treat, Hitoishi…” Haruka managed to say, sighing as she looked like she was floating on cloud nine.

  “Seika is alright. And don’t forget to send me those photos. My girlfriends want some tasteful nude pictures of me, it seems.”

  “Girlfriends, plural… heroes these days are so greedy…!” Haruka commented, and Seika gently punched her in the shoulder with a grin.

  “Come on, let’s go get some drinks.”

  Haruka nodded and joined Seika, Sayaka and Fuuka as they made their way to a nearby izakaya, where they would eat, drink and talk deep into the night.

  Seika felt alive. This past year, she had slowly rebuilt what Lethe took away from her and found a balance between being a hero and being a normal woman with loved ones waiting for her at home. She finally felt at peace.

  ***

  “Woah,” Miori commented.

  “Yeah, woah,” Ayame chimed in. “I didn’t expect that we’d actually get anything. I thought she’d chicken out.”

  “What are you two looking at?” a customer asked with a raised brow.

  “Nothing that you should see!” Miori responded quickly, though she wore a huge, self-satisfied grin which caused her regular to laugh out loud.

  She looked back at the phone in her hand, with Ayame looking over her shoulder. A photo of Minerva, nude as the day she was born (figuratively, as she was born with her Magical Girl outfit), covering her chest with an arm while she sat in a chair, looking bashfully to the side.

  “I’ll hang a framed print of this in our bedroom!” Miori declared.