Origin: How I Became A Magical Girl’s Hapless Sidekick In A Craptastic World

Despite the disaster, school continued as usual on Tuesday. We'd been closed on Monday as the city announced the conclusion of its investigation and cleanup. Still, the school refused to cancel any classes for the rest of the week. I was okay with it since getting through homework was slow due to my injuries. The one-day delay helped me get through everything.

I sighed as I closed my locker and looked around the hallway. The school still looked relatively bare and empty since the disaster. I knew the school administration was worried about a possible decrease in attendance and was preparing for it with provisions. There was a palpable air of tension everywhere I went.

Stepping towards my first class with a skip and jog — I nursed my ribs and winced. Getting kicked there by Willis Kong and his gang had been more than a bit of an inconvenience to me Friday and over the weekend, to say the least. Fighting for my life and running away from monsters with a bruised rib was an experience I didn't want to relive. On top of that, I still felt really nervous and exposed here. It was a different anxiety from what I'd felt when I'd first enrolled here.

I'd have to be careful. There was no telling what those thugs would do.

With a heavy sigh, I turned the corner and nearly ran face-first into someone.

"S-sorry!" the girl managed to stammer out, recoiling back in a flinch.

"Oh, no, no, it's okay. I'm erm, sorry too! I wasn't paying attention, Natasha..." I apologized sheepishly.

The girl was a bit shorter than me, with a bob of short curly black hair and green eyes behind a pair of thick glasses. She looked at me with a bit of shock before returning to a more neutral expression. Natasha smiled shyly and flushed tomato red.

She was wearing a frumpy pink sweater, navy slacks, and black shoes today and clutched a leather-bound book to her chest. Her backpack was a plain black bag that was too big for her. I could see the outline of a string instrument case jutting out of one of its side pockets.

Natasha Zamir was adorable but in a mousy band girl kind of way. I'd seen her around the school and was in a few of my classes. She was always looking down and away, hiding her face. I could see her breathing nervously, and her fists were clenched.

"Umn. While we're here. Thank you for last week. I heard about what Willis did last Friday." Natasha looked away then and seemed to shrink as she spoke, looking very, very uncomfortable.

I stepped back, not knowing what to do. Natasha went on,

"I just... I just wanted to say... I'm sorry for the trouble, Ikazuchi," Her voice was soft, small, and quiet. It was like she didn't want to be heard, like a mouse trying to squeak out a cry for help.

This girl had one of the worst cases of anxiety I'd ever seen in my short life. It made me feel guilty that I hadn't bit the bullet earlier and intervened. I'd seen Willis's sister Carrie harassing her three times before I decided I couldn't sit by. I knew I was messing with the wrong people, but I just couldn't stand by and do nothing.

Well, at least I knew that monsters were here too. The real ones. Sometimes, there were things that could be just as much of a pain in the ass to deal with as zombies and venomous, tentacled moths.

I wasn't sure when she had developed a nervous disposition, but I could see in her eyes that she had been this way for a long time. I could see her looking around in her mind as if she were preparing to flee at any second.

"Yeah...umn. erm. " I replied awkwardly, "It's completely alright. Anyway, I'm, erm, I'm sorry about bumping into you again."

Smooth. Real smooth, Ikki.

"Th-thanks. I appreciate it." She whispered, blinking rapidly as she looked around.

I could see the fear and uncertainty in the way she moved, how she looked around, and how she carried herself. What causes that in a person?

The bell rang, and I was snapped out of my thoughts.

"I... I-I should get to class. See you around!" She hurried off, practically racing after the other students, her face bright red.

I couldn't help but be reminded of a mouse from how she scurried off. I had nearly been run over by her in the halls once or twice. She always seemed to be either overreacting to things or giving off the impression of completely being absorbed in her thoughts.

I sighed and shook my head, wondering what had happened to her in the first place. This interaction only made me warier toward those people. And angry, to be perfectly frank.

I walked into the cramped history classroom and found my assigned seat. Mister Tillman was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, Shane, what's up?" I greeted the blond kid who sat in front of me as I walked in. I wouldn't say we were friends yet, but we had biology and history together and were at least amiable.

Shane flinched almost reflexively and turned his gaze away from me. "N-nothing's up..." He stammered.

"Erm..." I said before looking around.

"Are you okay?" I whispered.

He was sitting beside a girl named Jillian, who shook her head at him.

"Shane?" I asked,

"Hey umn, no offense — but I'd appreciate it if you stopped talking to me. I-I'd really rather not deal with you." Shane spoke apologetically, turning away.

"W-what? Why?" I was taken aback.

"Oh, uh, I'm sure you're a fine person. But, my mom is a VP at Chang & Young's and I don't want any of that smoke." Shane leaned back in his seat, silent. He seemed to be trying to ignore me.

This was too weird.

Jillian and Shane were generally okay people, and I'd never had trouble interacting with the two of them in classes before. I looked at them and saw Jillian glaring at me and tapping her pen on the table with one hand. She was a petite girl with a brown ponytail and green eyes. She was wearing a prim St. Antonia's uniform with a skirt and shook her head.

"Sorry but uh, to be blunt, anyone who associates with you is on the Kongs' shit list. It's an open secret now, actually," She whispered, barely audible. "I don't have anything against you, but to be blunt — were you fucking out of your mind? You know how seriously people like that take public loss of face."

Umn.

Well, this could be awkward. How far had this gone?

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk to me either!" She added with a hiss of venom in her voice.

I looked speechless back to Shane, also wearing a sad look.

A rustle of paper and the sound of a pen tapping on a clipboard took me out of my shock. "Ahem! My apologies for the surprise, everyone."

Turning around, I saw a short, pudgy, 20-something brunette with pink eyes and limping gait walk into the room. The woman wore a red plaid miniskirt with a pink blouse, and she wasn't attractive by any stretch of the imagination. Still, she had a somewhat assertive grin and appeared to have a commanding presence.

The woman cleared her throat before continuing, "Hello! I regret to inform you that Mr. Tillman has been confirmed missing. My name is Miss Roth, and I've been brought in as your substitute for the foreseeable future."

The students murmured in confusion, still caught in the aftershock of the sudden teacher change.

"Ahem. Quiet down, class! Now, I don't know how Mister Tillman ran things around here, but I sure as heck know how I do things. I'll not be having any of this nonsense from anyone."

Her voice was soft, but somehow, it carried a lot of weight. I looked around, listening to the murmur of voices die down a bit. Then, the voices started picking up again. The class collectively flinched as the pudgy woman somehow got her leg on a desk and stared down at one particularly noisy girl.

"Listen, kids. I don't care who your parents are. Here's a hint for the semester: I have zero. Zero! Tolerance for disruption. If you're going to make a ruckus, I'll have you writing lines for detention. Got it?"

We all nodded in unison. The class was as quiet as the grave from there on out. I didn't even know who she was, but she'd sold herself to me quickly with that move.

After the class settled in, we spent the rest of the class recapping a broad overview of Terran history. Miss Roth spent the entire ninety-minute class reviewing our comparative history with a focus on Aberrations.

The two worlds had surprisingly similar journeys, even though their history was varied and the results differed. Many significant divergences really began to crop up in the 1800s.

Aberrations had started showing up all over Europe and Asia ever since the Mongols crossed into Europe. No one knew why, but their numbers had been small and hardly noticeable at that time.

These powerful creatures — classified as 'Chaos Beasts' by academics and 'Demons' by religious groups — were incredibly deadly. It was a mystery how anyone from Terra could defeat them with conventional tactics in the early days.

The warriors of the past could defeat the few Chaos Beasts that had begun to appear, though it was no easy feat. Settlements rarely encountered Chaos Beasts, but they were ubiquitous and always present in the background. Nursery rhymes and scary stories permeated Terra's culture, and they were often used to frighten children into bed early. On the more serious side, special task forces had been created to hunt these 'demons.' In Europe, they had templars, while in Asia, they had exorcists.

When this began, magic users from across the world suddenly appeared out of the woodwork - from the witches of Europe to the sages of Asia and doctors of Africa. These mages had hoarded secrets for centuries, but even their secrets barely tipped the scales in favor of humanity as force multipliers. Traditional magic users were few and far between now, and even the strongest would be hard-pressed to take down a Baron-class Chaos Beast on their own. Back then, the alliances they'd formed with the monarchs and leaders of the period were more than enough to deal with the Aberration threat.

Throughout the 19th century, however, Aberrations suddenly appeared in more significant numbers — and strength. Chaos beasts that could only be exterminated by entire, specialized battalions of regular trained soldiers backed with mages — 'Marquis' class Aberrations began to appear. These beasts were manageable, albeit at a significant loss of life. Unfortunately, they grew in numbers and strength until the dominant powers worldwide were slowly overwhelmed and decimated. Province after province. Mile after mile.

That was, until the magical girls appeared.

Nobody knows how or why they began to manifest, but appear they did. Young women who wielded magic power more extraordinary than even the greatest mages could fathom spontaneously appeared across the world. Over the last two centuries, countless research had been put into their nature, but complete comprehension had always escaped science.

Nearly as surprising as their existence was their nature. They wielded an array of different powers that should be fundamentally impossible, similar in many ways to the Chaos Beasts they could defeat. They escaped many conventions and limitations of physics, and their powers were noted to be fundamentally dependent on the hope and inspiration they could create and harness. Their abilities would wax with the hope and courage they inspired from mankind, while their powers would wane should they drive fear and despair in their fellow man.

They were highly resistant to the corruption that Chaos Energy could inflict on their victims, which supposedly correlated with their personal convictions. That in itself had countless spiritual implications that I wasn't ready to wrap my head around. The idea of sending young, idealistic little girls to the front lines against horrific monsters made the world balk. However, humanity was out of options, so they had no choice but to accept them — and their help.

As Miss Roth droned on, I couldn't help but let my mind wander. Who were magical girls? Why did humans suddenly gain such a powerful ace-in-the-hole?

"Okay. Well! Next class, we'll be going over the Great War and the Imperatore event that nearly buried mankind in a hole. Since this is the first day you're all stuck with me, I'll let you out a few minutes early. Get out of here, kids, and don't give me too much trouble while I'm here. I'm warning you."

With that, Miss Roth slowly walked back to her desk. She seemed like a nice enough person, but the glint in her eyes and the little smirk she had on made me shiver a bit. Miss Roth came off as a confident apex predator who knew her place and didn't have to remind anyone of it.

After class ended, my mind started going a mile a minute. I sat at my desk and watched my classmates filter out. They seemed in a hurry, as if they were trying to get away from something. A girl with long, silky blue hair met my eyes, and her lips curled into a sharp wince before she turned away with a huff. She wasn't the only one, either. A few other students flashed looks at me and whispered to each other before hurrying out of the room.

Man, I was so fucked, wasn't I?

Miss Roth turned to stare at me from her desk as I packed my bags, and I turned away from her piercing gaze, blushing a bit from the pressure.

"Kid, lemme give you a bit of advice," she started with a soft but firm tone.

Slowly, I looked back up at her.

"There ain't no way to fit in here, and you'll just have to deal with it. People here might look at you and think you're an idiot or inferior, but don't let that get to you. This school is filled to the brim with rich, spoiled brats. It's gonna drive you crazy. Just take their shit with a spoonful of salt, and you'll do fine. They might be able to convince the other stupid kids, but I'll bet you a pretty doubloon that daddy would be sorely disappointed by what's going on with them."

Her words shocked me. "How do you know what's going on with us?" I asked.

She chortled in mirth before looking me in the eye with a soft smile.

"Call it experience, call it intuition, or call it a gut feeling. Take your pick. I don't even need to read your transcripts to know that. You don't have to be a genius to guess what's going on here."

I blushed a little bit, but I couldn't help but nod. I'd gotten in my fair share of trouble when I was younger, but dealing with a power-mad schoolboy like Willis Kong was entirely different. I wasn't sure if it was worse than the types of trouble I was used to.

"Listen, kid," Miss Roth said, "This might be my first day, but I know you'll do well in my class. If you ever need help with anything, don't hesitate to come talk to me. I'll be happy to help you out in any way I can."

I nodded at her and smiled before grabbing my stuff and heading out the door.

"Oh, and one more thing, kid," Miss Roth called out after me.

I looked back at her, and she waved me back and spoke low.

"You're not from around here, correct? Just remember that everyone has their reasons. These other kids, for all their faults, probably have their own stories too. Don't be quick to judge them just because they're raised with a sense of entitlement. People have their reasons for acting the way they do."

I nodded. Miss Roth did have a point. A flawed one. I was so focused on Willis and my own problems that I hadn't even thought about what might have caused him to act the way he did.

Still, that didn't excuse the shit his sister had put Natasha through, nor did it excuse him throwing his weight around last Friday. Miss Roth was just taking a shot in the dark, but I'd never forgive them for the way they'd been treating people.

"Thanks for the advice, Miss Roth. I'll keep that in mind," I said.

She winked and waved me off, and I walked out of the class.