Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Page 151

If you refuse to deepen your bond because you're afraid of getting hurt, all that's left is endless emptiness.

“…Oh no, looking at it this way, Mayumi really is much more mature than me.” Sugiyama Rika’s eyes widened.

Mayumi Haga declined to comment.

Just how much of a filter did this girl have on herself before...?

No, if Mayumi Haga wasn't as mature and reliable as Satoka Sugiyama, then there would be a big problem, right?

Mayumi Haga had lost count of how many times she had sighed today.

She felt that since coming into this world, she had been sighing more and more because of helplessness.

"I will keep it a secret for you, because it's best if you tell everyone about your own affairs yourself." Mayumi Haga pointed out Sugiyama Rika's main purpose this time.

Sugiyama Rikka gave a bitter smile.

She did want Mayumi to keep it a secret, but she didn't expect Mayumi to teach her a lesson.

Indeed, if she continues to run away like this, she will really regret it later.

I hadn't figured out how to face it before, but now that Mayumi said it, I feel that always running around outside is indeed a waste of the hard-won time we spend together.

Now that Yoko has gone home, Miracle City is about to enter the peak period of singularities during the summer vacation, and he is dating Ayasa again.

It's not that I want to stop helping Mayumi find the magic of creation, but I should also cherish the time I spend in Miracle City and stay at home with my family until a new abyss appears...

This might be a better choice.

As Mayumi Haga watched the expressions on Rika Sugiyama's face change and finally settle into a bright "I've figured it out" look, she knew that her guardian must have already come up with a solution.

But Mayumi Haga suddenly realized something: "Speaking of which, isn't the dividing needle still with you?"

“Ah, right. This thing is very important. [God] told me to keep it safe for now…” Sugiyama Rika hadn’t quite caught on yet, and continued on to the topic she wanted to tell Haga Mayumi, “Let’s not talk about that for now. Summer vacation is coming up, and things will probably get even busier, since it’s collaboration season.”

"No, I mean..." If you don't want to live forever, why not use that needle to split yourself in two and distribute the power of immortality so that you won't be in this situation?

Just as Mayumi Haga was about to suggest this solution, after all, based on her observation, Sugiyama Rika's two identities weren't very well integrated either, and perhaps the dividing needle really could accurately separate the part that Sugiyama Rika didn't want.

Even if it's not precise enough, given the relationship between Sugiyama Rika and the god sleeping in the spiritual vein, it feels like the separation could be completed with the god's favor.

However, before she could say those words, she realized that something seemed to be happening beneath her feet.

Beneath her feet, something like a summoning circle silently unfolded, bursting into flames that scorched the restaurant carpet.

"...Is this how the crossover movie is supposed to be?" Mayumi Haga felt her body and mind being enveloped by a huge suction force, and her hands and feet became extremely heavy.

Then, she heard the dreamy voice of a strange little girl coming from the other end of the summoning circle:

"I love magical girls the most! Please let a magical girl protect me!"

Text: 234. The Fantasy Contest of Desire

Yukari Hachiya is a third-grade elementary school student whose favorite manga genre is magical girl.

Whether it's "Magical Girl Yoru", "Cardcaptor Sakura", or "Sailor Moon", I've happily watched them several times.

My favorite series is the children's magical girl series, which is always on TV. Not long ago, "Magical Girl Red" ended, and the next one, "Magical Girl Crimson," will start airing next January.

Yukari Hachiya is a huge fan of magical girls. She is deeply attracted by the beautiful and powerful figures in the anime and always waits in front of the TV to watch every episode without missing a single second.

I would also record it carefully and then watch it three or four times.

The room was covered with magical girl posters, and the diary, which recorded the cute thoughts of elementary school students, was filled with drawings of magical girl battle dresses that the students had designed themselves.

The ten-year-old girl believes that magical girls really exist in this world.

And when she grows up, she can become a magical girl's assistant.

Just like Tomoyo Daidouji in "Cardcaptor Sakura", he sews battle costumes for magical girls and records their heroic figures with his own camera.

Despite the fact that no one believes in magical girls, people are so obsessed with them that they can't make friends and are often ridiculed.

Although the cruelty hidden in the world was opening its bloody maw at her for the first time, completely contradicting her previous understanding.

After school, in the pitch-black alley where the setting sun could not penetrate.

The girl was trembling.

"...What, what is this..." Everything in front of her was far beyond Yukari Hachiya's comprehension.

Before her stood a giant wolf forged from blood, blocking her escape route.

Yukari Hachiya, clutching her precious notebook, huddled next to a trash can in the alley.

After school, she went home alone as usual.

But when she got to this area, she suddenly felt a burning pain in the back of her neck, and then a foul-smelling wind blew by, taking away the thick glasses perched on her nose.

Yukari Hachiya was born with poor eyesight. Without these glasses, she couldn't see things clearly, not even the traffic lights across the street. Moreover, a pair of glasses wasn't cheap for her.

She frantically searched for her lost items, but suddenly someone appeared behind her.

The man roughly grabbed her hair, and after seemingly confirming something, lifted her up and threw her into the alley.

"The last contestant is a brat." Judging from the voice, this unfriendly stranger should be a young man, with a sleazy and malicious air. "What bad luck, he just got selected and ran into me."

Yukari Hachiya didn't know what the other person was talking about. She remembered what she had learned in the safety education class, and despite being terrified, she still grabbed the alarm hanging on her backpack in a panic.

The teacher said that if you encounter a bad person, pull this.

Just as Yukari was about to pull the rope of the alarm to make it sound a sharp, piercing blast to attract the attention of the adults nearby, the alarm was pierced by a bullet forged in blood in the next second, and completely fell apart and became unusable.

She was startled and looked up, but because she didn't have her glasses, she could only see a blurry figure standing there.

The shorter one must be the bad guy from earlier. Who is that who appeared silently next to us?

"Lucky! I was just out for a stroll and ran into a clueless brat. I got ten points for free!" The young man grinned, hands in his pockets, with an annoyingly nonchalant attitude.

Standing beside him, the Blood Manipulator, wrapped in scarlet bandages, remained silent.

The Desire Fantasy Race – an urban legend that has been proven to exist.

Contestants selected for the Desire Fantasy Contest will have the qualification to randomly summon a fantasy entity.

The contestants need to fight against each other with their own fantasy forms to earn points, and the one with the highest score after seven days wins.

The winner will receive a prize of 100 million yen.

Yukari Hachiya is the youngest contestant in this year's Desire Fantasy Contest, and she has not yet summoned her own fantasy form.

The young man was hunting nearby when he stumbled upon a piece of meat that wouldn't fight back.

Logically speaking, such a young child shouldn't be able to summon any powerful magical entities.

Children cannot understand killing and death, and their thinking is very unpredictable. Even if they summon some kind of fantasy entity, it might just be a sponge or starfish from a recently popular children's cartoon.

The strength of the summoned entity is linked to the contestant's own aptitude. A child this weak shouldn't be able to summon anything powerful. Even if they did, it would be weakened.

It's like the young man's own fantasy form, the villain from his favorite thriller novel—a superhuman killer who can manipulate blood. But in the story, the killer who can control the blood of everyone in the city can only control less than a hundred liters of blood at this moment.

Nevertheless, it's enough to deal with this brat in front of me.

Under such high pressure, what useful things can be summoned?

The young man scoffed.

"Hey, hurry up and summon your illusion form, I can't wait any longer."

The YMCA gave Yukari Hachiya time, not because he was a great philanthropist.

The fact that he could summon a serial killer to his side, and that so much blood had been collected in just half a day of the competition, clearly shows what kind of person this young man is.

However, killing people directly does not earn any points. He must have his Blood Manipulator kill the phantom summoned by the imp in front of him in order to obtain the corresponding points.

So he took pity on the little devil and gave him the chance to summon it.

If this brat summons some kind of rat that readily surrenders, then if he's in a good mood, he might spare her life.

At this moment, Yukari Hachiya finally understood the situation before her.

I seem to have gotten myself into some kind of serious competition, and this scoundrel in front of me is trying to steal my points, so I have to confirm my eligibility to participate...

Summoning the fantasy form is the ceremony that officially confirms eligibility to participate in the competition.

What should we do?

What do I want to summon?

Yukari Hachiya, who was unaware that there was no killing restriction in this competition, was not actually that scared.

Since you're going to choose to summon, you should find a very powerful character!

So I've decided it will be my favorite magical girl...!

Yukari Hachiya had made up her mind. She nervously stared at the slowly approaching blood wolf, sniffed, and said with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, "Magical Girl... Magical Girl..."

In fact, based on the works she had seen, the most likely candidates to be summoned were terrifyingly powerful beings like the Law of Cycles or the White Tyrant.

The world there immediately responded to her call, and a tall figure slowly emerged from the summoning circle on the ground before her.

Main text: 235. Victory is assured

The magical girl summoned by Yukari Hachiya was not the one she longed for, but a tall girl with black hair whom she had never seen before.

It seems that the cold, black color scheme and the warm, cute magical girl series are quite incompatible.

However, Yukari Hachiya, who had watched many magical girl series, did not have the slightest doubt about the magical girl identity of the person in front of her.

It's not that there aren't magical girls with dark themes joining the team, and generally speaking, the characteristics of such characters are more distinct than those of other common bright colors.

Characters who join the team later are what people call "additional warriors".

For Yukari Hachiya, a huge fan of magical girls, adding more magical girls is her favorite thing.

In the children's magical girl series to which "Magical Girl Red" belongs, there was also an additional magical girl with a black background, which seems to be the only black magical girl in the entire series.

What incredible luck of mine, to be able to summon the black element?

However, this doesn't seem to be the character I imagined...

—Of course not that role.

After being summoned to this world, Mayumi Haga inexplicably gained the ability to hear the little girl's inner thoughts behind her. After figuring out the situation, she couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

According to the memories of her temporary summoner, the anime of Magical Girl Red—that is, Sugiyama Rika—had just finished airing its final episode some time ago.

The world of children is a well-known children's animation series that is quite popular among children under the age of thirteen.

She comes from the era of the next work, "Magical Girl Crimson," which is almost ten years away, and it hasn't even started airing in this world yet.

Therefore, she cannot be the dark magical girl that Yukari Hachiya knows.

...In fact, she wasn't a magical girl at all.

Mayumi Haga doesn't know what form she will take in the anime starring Hitomi Tohno, but considering her close relationship with Hitomi and her involvement in many events, she might become an important character.

However, even if she is an important character in "Magical Girl Crimson", characters in anime that have not yet aired cannot be summoned.

As for why she was here, Mayumi Haga had a general idea in her mind.

When summoned, the person who was supposed to be here was less than a meter away.

There's definitely a mistake.

That children's world, which seems like a joke in many ways, definitely sent the wrong person on a business trip.

I don't meet the standards of a magical girl, and I haven't even started appearing on screen yet, so how could I possibly be here?

No matter how you look at it, she was definitely made a scapegoat by Sugiyama Rika, right?

Mayumi Haga quickly grasped the current situation.

She herself has traveled through the world, and there have been even more outrageous situations in the world of children's entertainment, so she can be considered quite knowledgeable.

For her, the mission she had here was clear.

Her summoner didn't want to win the match; he only wanted the magical girl's protection. So all he had to do was protect the child.

On the other hand, aren't the prizes for this fantasy contest a bit too meager?

The competition format was somewhat familiar, but the prizes were certainly not as good as those in similar competitions she had heard of.

They can even summon people from another world, and the prize is... 100 million yen?

Even someone like Mayumi Haga, who doesn't usually care much about these small details, couldn't help but feel a sense of absurdity, like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Although the strength of the illusion is linked to the qualifications of the contestant who summons it, aside from people like Mayumi Haga who are directly summoned as the original body, most other illusions are projections that are weaker than the original body.