Light surrounded my body. Bright orbs of light began to appear. Gather the light and give it shape. I could feel the light around me gathering into a point. I need to keep focusing… I slowly opened my eye, taking in the giant orb of light in front of me.

I took a deep breath and sighed. It didn’t work… I released my concentration, and the orb vanished harmlessly into streams of light.

“What are you doing?”

I looked to see Bridget sitting on a crate. She was watching me with an unamused look on her face.

“I was trying to make a sword.”

“A sword? Why would you be doing something like that? Just focus on firing lasers and such like you magical girls do.”

I could help but pout.

It doesn’t matter. I’m doing it because I want to. I started again.

Breathing. Feel the power within you, gather. Light started to gather around me once again.

Cascading rainbows of light manifested into multicolored orbs.

“You should give up on that spell. I didn’t think I’d have to tell you that guns are better than swords. Just work on shooting the energy forward.”

I released my breath, and the light faded.

“Did you make a sword when we first met?”

“I do not use magic.” Darkness and shadow quickly gathered around Bridget forming half the shadows into a greatsword and the other into an arrow. “These are my weapons. They exist, unlike the magic you use.”

“Care to explain?”

“Not really. You cannot use it, let alone understand it in your current form.”

“Sounds like a pretty cheap copout.”

I returned to focusing on my own exercises. Though I was a little too embarrassed to practice my magic at this point, so I rolled my training dummy into place to practice my jabs.

“Giving up on your magic already?”

“It’s hard to focus when someone tells me I can’t do it.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

I ignored her and jab, pivot, jab, pivot.

“I’ll stop distracting you, then.”

“Ugh, that’s not what I—“

She was already gone. Once again, I was left in an empty warehouse illuminated by my own magic in place of the ceiling lamps.

I am Kyrie right now. It would be a shame not to be using magic. It would be great if I could fly or teleport like Bridget does.

I moved the training dummy back next to the striking dummy and archery target.

Thirty years and I still get embarrassed when people see me practicing, or worse, failing.

My aim was never bad. I could hit a target without my glasses, but magic is different. It's entirely visualization. Becoming distracted could cause you to hit a different target, and the spell loses any impact if you cannot visualize your opponent being injured, defeated, or otherwise killed.

Conjuring orbs of light once again, I returned to the basics of manifesting my delusion.

“Still practicing, I see.”

I looked around to find Rainy walking around a few crates that block the door. Placed there to keep passersby from happening upon my training.

“First Bridget, and now Lily Mint herself.”

Rainy showed up as her Lily Mint persona, probably to make the trip slightly faster and less exhausting.

“Come on, don’t tease me. I’m not as thick-skinned as my sister.”

“Sorry, I hope I didn’t offend you.”

She giggled at my apology and set a grocery bag onto a folding table that I’ve been using.

“My family’s famous lunch set A prepared by yours truly. Ah, but it's not complete without the magic spell, is it?” She placed her hands together and made a heart shape. “Moé, Moé, Kyun!”

“Do kids your age even get that reference?”

She let out an exhausted sigh. “It’s hard not to when old perverted otaku ask me to. It wasn’t until I made my public debut and confirmed my age that people calmed down about those sorts of things.”

“Well, on behalf of all the Jiji out there, gomenasorry.”

“Haha, it's funny hearing a girl who looks as young as me say that.”

I returned to my training while Rainy watched. Becoming bored of the same orbs, I tried turning them into prismatic arrows… I think they were becoming a little pointer each time, right?

“Aren’t you going it a little backward?”

“What do you mean?”

Actually, Rainy uses the same magic as me. She might be more helpful than her sister.

“Myrian and Chris usually shape their spells to better visualize attacking their target. Chris even uses different elements like fire or lightning since it's easier to visualize.”

I hung my head in defeat. This whole time, Bridget had me manifesting the magic first and then transforming it. Now I’m being told that I’m doing it backward.

“This whole time, I’ve been doing it wrong.”

“Well, there’s no wrong way to do magic. It would be more accurate to say that the method you were using is kind of archaic. Manifesting the magic first makes a spell stronger, but it takes longer and is harder to manifest into reality.”

I gave it a try. Manifesting the image of an arrow and filling it with magic, and loosening it upon my target.

“There you go!”

I couldn’t help by smile. I felt a little happy and maybe a bit of pride, but I could feel it. Bridget was right. It doesn’t look as nice, but shooting lasers has more power behind it. I guess now would be a good time to finish up.

Before returning to her mundane persona, Rainy had been using magic to keep the lunch set warm. An impressive skill, if I’m being honest. Bridget has been teaching me how to manifest the energy, but I really want to just make things a little more convenient.

Ya know, like magically cleaning my apartment or laundry. I would save so much money on water and soap. I could even clean myself! I’d save so much time on trips to the bath and have more time to watch anime or inch in an extra hour of gaming!

“I hope my sister hasn’t been giving you a hard time.”

Rainy broke me away from my flight of fancy while I ate.

“I don’t think she’s quite as cheeky as you are. She does come off as an emo loner, though.”

“That does sound like her. If you want, I can talk to her about it.”

“No, it's fine. I’m technically the adult here. I shouldn’t have been so impatient with her earlier.”

Rainy made a concerned face. It wasn’t hard to tell what she was thinking.

“I take it Bridget doesn’t have too many friends?”

“You certainly don’t hold back, do you… but you’re right. Mom and Dad have been called into school a few times about how Bridget’s been bullied and that she needs to be more social.”

“It must be lonely for her. Isolating herself like that… Try not to worry about what I said earlier. I lost my patience, but it's not like we fought or anything. She actually ran away before it could even become heated.”

“That sounds like her. I used to think she was such a cool older sister. Retreating from conflict does not bring peace! I remember her saying once. It was when some kids were teasing me about becoming a VTuber.”

“Sounds like she’s quoting a video game.”

“She is. She’s actually a pretty hard-core Otaku.”

“I think I get it now. She looks down on everyone else. That’s why they are mean to her. And she doesn’t like opening up because it feels like no one would understand her. Pretty typical of a kid her age.”

“I think she’s also been really looking forward to meeting you.”

“Heh, more like she was waiting for Kyrie. A Kyrie that I am not.”

“... You’re not wrong… She used to talk about you a lot. She would tell me about you. How you inspired everyone you met and how no one would feel lonely whenever you were around.”

“Apparently, I’m going to become some literal messiah…”

Rainy and I chatted for a little while longer. About being a magical girl, Bridget, myself… Mr. Ericson wasn’t too keen on the whole VTuber thing, but after Bridget backed her up, Mr. Ericson gave in, and Mrs. Ericson helped her put her account, rig, camera, etc., together.

***

It was already dark by the time Law and I finished chatting. He really is cute as a girl, but I don’t think I’ll be able to collab with him any time soon.

Le sigh.

But at least I was able to take a few more pictures of him wearing his cute gym clothes… Damn, he has such a flat stomach as a girl… I pinched my stomach a little… I’m kinda jealous.

“I finally got the lights to turn off.”

“They are your lights. I’m surprised it took you that long.”

“I honestly thought they would go out on their own.”

“They would, but you put so much magic into them, they would probably keep going for another month or two.”

Law curled his lips into a smug grin.

“That must mean my magic is amazing.”

He’s super cute like this! I wonder if he would want to stay as Kyrie forever…

“Hey, Law…, or do you prefer Kyrie?”

“Either is fine. But I only use the name Kyrie online, so it's weird hearing people say it out loud.”

“Then… Kyrie. Would you ever stay as a girl if you could?”

He stopped for a moment. The cute faces he was making, I wasn’t sure if it was to be cute or if he was actually thinking.

“When I was young, I used to think of myself as Trans. But I’ve become pretty comfortable with myself… past Lawrence would want to go full-time, but if I can go back and forth, why wouldn’t I put that to use?”

“But what if you had to choose?”

“Hm… I mean, there are too many benefits. Even if I didn’t consider myself fluid, I’m younger, I can use magic, and overall, I feel healthier.”

Not really the answer I was looking for… But maybe he would be open to the idea of collabing with me.

“I guess, for now, I’ll just have to stick to uploading pictures of you to my fan server.”

“Uh, hey now. I’m not sure I should be drawing that kind of attention.”

I giggled to myself, but the amusement was short-lived.

The air became cold, and the lights around us grew dim. A minion of Darkness was nearby. This wasn’t good!

I continued to walk alongside Kyrie. If we’re lucky, it won’t bother us.

That’s what I hoped for anyway. But I could sense it getting closer. It won't be long until—

“Hello, girls~ I foun—”

Suddenly, a burst of light fired through the robe of shadows that manifested behind us. The prismatic wave of light must have lit up this entire side of the harbor.

I turned to look at Kyrie. The look of terror and fright that was on her face. I looked back at where the seeker of Darkness once stood—vaporized by light.

“Kyrie… you scare real easily, don’t you…?”

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

I quickly snapped a picture of her with my phone. An embarrassed kyrie should get lots of likes.

***

Magical Starlight Knight Myrian—the strongest magical girl in Lancaster, was locked in knightly combat against the Harbinger of Malice, Darkness General.

Lancaster is undoubtedly a strange place. Magical girls, minions of Darkness, Saturday morning cartoon fights happening on the news. It was made less cartoony with the appearance of homeland security.

I don’t recall media coverage like this existing before I moved here… What if I’m insane and I never completed my move? My living rates have been extremely convenient up until now. And I’m living out my fantasy of being able to transform into a magical girl.

Could it be that the convenience store I’m standing in is my rationalization of the trauma unit? That would make these customers… other patients? Mr. Ericson must be the doctor handling my mental recovery.

“Would you please stop thinking so loudly and ring me up already.”

“What are you doing awake during a school night?” I started to ring Bridget for a lunch set, tea, and two bottles of strawberry milk. “And what are you doing paying?”

“I don’t want my dad finding out when he does the numbers in the morning. I also hope that school will be canceled thanks to the stunt Howard’s pulling.”

Hm… I don’t actually know a lot about Bridget. Who would she be? Would she be an actual person in my delusion? Maybe she’s my subconscious enabling this fantasy.

“You’re not delusional. And I wish you would stop using that word.”

I handed her the groceries, and she promptly teleported back to her room. That’s too bad. Things were getting dull, and I had allowed my mind to wander. I was hoping—

“Here, this one’s for you.”

I turned to see Bridget standing next to me. She held out a bottle of milk. I noticed that she had a game console in her other hand.

“Thanks, but you should get some sleep… you do need to sleep, don’t you?”

Bridget seemed to ignore me at first. Opting to unfold a stool to sit on while she ate and played video games using what I can only imagine is psychic powers to do each of those things in a single motion.

“My body is human, like my father, mother, and sister. If I don’t eat, I get hungry. If I don’t sleep, I become tired. If I do not tend to my body’s needs, it will perish.”

“I see, so your reason for not sleeping is much like any other person’s then?”

She looked up at me with a blank stare. It took a moment, but she did answer me.

“You could say that, yes.”

The TV was still airing the breaking news report of monsters and a magical maiden who battled against them. The battle had ended, but a panel of… ‘specialists’ were in fierce discussions over the events and what it could mean for all of mankind.

“You didn’t command this Dark General guy to attack Crystal Gleam plaza, did you?”

“The minions of Darkness are not under my command, much less my control.”

“Do you know why he attacked the plaza?”

She paused her game and looked up at me again.

“They are doing it because you killed a seeker of Darkness and your fight with Heart Princess and Black Crow.”

“I don’t see how that’s any of my fault. I was ambushed both times.”

“I didn’t say it was your fault, but the minions of Darkness seem to be operating with a policy change. Before, they didn’t like drawing attention to themselves. Remember that we don’t live in 1980 or 1990s Japan or Germany. This nation has a standing military, and this city has a diligent police force. If I had to guess, the minions of Darkness are performing a display of force. Showing the magical girls in the city that they are a might prepared to fight back and capable of winning. After all, Myrian is the only magical girl stationed in this city with any live combat experience.”

Damn, I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard her talk without installing me somewhere in between.

Still, what was I supposed to do with that information? I’m a magical girl, too, aren’t I? Should I be battling evil and such?

“You… knew me in a past life, right?”

“Not a past life. You are my oldest friend, yet to be.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Sometime in the future, you will go back in time. There, you shall battle against myself, emerge victorious, become the progenitor for all magical girls, and establish the foundation that allows this reality to exist.”

“You make it sounds so simple.”

“You already succeed, so there’s nothing for you or me to worry about.”

“I feel like there is a lot for me to worry about.”

“Kyrie once told me that she scares easily. You don’t like horror. Being alone frightens you. It's why you set up a domain.”

Damn it, why am I telling other people embarrassing things about myself. I don’t want kids teasing me about this.

But… a domain? That’s what I call it, but honestly, it's just me trying to be comfortable in a new space. Sometimes I’ll put up a few things that one of my cousins gave me.

“Whoever made those charms must care about you.”

“You know about them?”

“I didn’t want to break them. It's why I come through the front door.”

I couldn’t help but be a little amused.

“You’re telling me those things actually work?”

“Depends on what you’re using them for. They might keep shadows out, but most people use them as alarms.”

I wonder if this means my cousin has the potential to use magic. Maybe he’s been using it without telling me.

“You could make more powerful charms if you wanted.”

“Do you think so?”

“Your ability to use magic has been getting better.”

“I feel like you’re being awfully nice right now. What’s the occasion?”

I gave a playful laugh only to find she was gone. The stool was also folded and put away. I guess she went to bed.