Haibara’s track record as a high school teacher was far from impressive.
As a Japanese-language instructor at Kaedehara High School, she had an unremarkable academic background and a lackluster teaching résumé.
Though she was on the younger side for a high school teacher, she always came across as someone easy to overlook.
Her personality was dull as well, and on top of that she taught a subject like “Japanese language,” so she wasn’t exactly beloved by the students.
Gloomy and boring, she wore thick round glasses and always had a lazy, indifferent air about her.
There wasn’t an ounce of enthusiasm in her lessons, and she paid almost no attention to her students.
She was a teacher who was thoroughly unremarkable in every possible way.
Rumor had it she was pushing thirty this year, and still single—never once having dated anyone in her life.
“All right, that’s where we’ll stop for today’s lesson.
Next is self-study, so everyone get started on your homework.”
Standing at the podium was a rather gloomy woman in glasses.
Even in her formal work attire, she couldn’t hide her excessively thin, slender frame, and her whole demeanor carried an air of melancholy sluggishness.
Though she was a teacher, she gave off the vibe of a washed-up adult whose life had failed.
She tossed the chalk back onto the desk, speaking in a voice utterly devoid of motivation.
This year, Haibara had become the homeroom teacher of Year 1, Class 4.
And this had only dragged her reputation down even further.
Because the truancy rate in Year 1, Class 4 had climbed to an absolutely appalling level.
But Haibara didn’t think this was a problem with her teaching skills or her ability to manage a class.
—Rather, it was because of a pack of thoroughly troublesome problem children.
Haibara had barely sat down to rest when a hoarse girl’s voice disturbed her thoughts—
“Teacher, my stomach hurts.”
At the sound of this girl’s voice, Haibara’s gaze instantly turned cold.
The speaker was a girl with a pale, aloof face and a slim, well-proportioned figure.
She had jet-black short hair and wore the standard black-and-white sailor uniform of a Japanese high-school JK.
“May I go to the restroom?” she asked, a little sheepishly.
The girl’s tone was polite and composed, every bit the model student.
“It’s you this time?”
Teacher Haibara didn’t grant her permission right away, only asking in her usual cold tone—
“Kirishima, do you have stomach trouble?
How many times now have you claimed your stomach hurts?”
Teacher Haibara pressed on, still in that utterly unmotivated tone.
Kirishima’s face flushed faintly, yet there was an indescribable urgency deep in her eyes.
“Yes…
teacher.”
That’s right—in Haibara’s class, there was a group of problem children.
And they were all girls.
They all seemed perfectly well-behaved—no makeup, no dyed hair, always doing their homework, their grades decent enough—and yet they were forever skipping class for no reason.
It was as if they’d all agreed on it beforehand: every few days, one of them would suddenly get a “stomachache” and ask to leave, then vanish for most of the class period.
And if anyone asked what they’d actually been up to, they would cover for one another.
Kirishima Ai was the worst offender of them all.
Though she was hailed as a quiet, unattainable flower—a flawless superwoman who excelled at both academics and athletics—to Teacher Haibara, Kirishima Ai was nothing but a bona fide problem child.
“Go on.”
Haibara seemed to have given up.
“Thank you, teacher.”
Kirishima Ai bowed, then hurried out of the room.
The other students in the classroom didn’t so much as stir, clearly long since accustomed to it.
From here on—likely right up until the class ended—Haibara wouldn’t see any sign of the girl.
She sat back down and slipped right back into her can’t-be-bothered mode.
The students went on with their homework while Haibara did nothing at all.
However, when she opened her phone, a breaking-news alert suddenly popped up—
“Emergency notice: A monster has appeared in the vicinity of Star Song Avenue in Kaedehara City.
Citizens, please stay safe!”
*
Yes—monsters existed in this world.
They were born from humanity’s ugly emotions, feeding on human fear and despair.
And so they were destroyers of the city’s peace, enemies of mankind.
They were often impervious to blade and bullet, wielding all sorts of bizarre and terrifying powers, so even the police were helpless against them.
Fortunately, monsters had their natural predators too.
—Magical girls.
“Damn magical girl!”
The once-bustling Star Song Avenue was now a field of ruins, the ground strewn with twisted, thorny vines and murky black oil.
An extremely bizarre-looking creature lay collapsed on the ground.
Its whole body was covered in barbed thorns, like a sculpture forged from brambles—tall in stature, yet with an unnaturally thin waist and limbs, exuding an alien, grotesque quality.
Its head wore a pale human-face mask, hollow and cold, but after the fierce battle a very long crack had appeared on it, stretching from the eye all the way down to the chin.
“Thorn Monster, this ends here.
I, the magical girl Silver Feather, will put a stop to your evil deeds.”
Before the monster, a dazzling figure slowly drew near.
It was a girl, like an angel descended to the mortal world, radiant as the most glamorous of stars.
She wore a gorgeous gown of silver-white, adorned with all manner of brilliant colors.
Layers of intricate gossamer reached just to her thighs, tracing out the girl’s charm together with her short skirt.
And her hair was even more dreamlike—a vivid silver-cyan.
This girl was the guardian of the city, the magical girl Silver Feather.
In a mere ten-odd minutes, this magical girl had struck down the Thorn Monster that had been wrecking the city.
“Don’t get too cocky, magical girl!”
As the Thorn Monster spoke, its pale human-face mask didn’t move in the slightest, making it look eerily unsettling.
“Then next time, send an officer of your Black Death Cult to come find me.”
The magical girl Silver Feather raised her hand, and the magic wand in her grip burst into resplendent light.
Time was almost up, so the magical girl decided to end this quickly, and unleashed her ultimate move.
This was her final strike.
“—Hmph, next time I won’t let you win so easily!”
The Thorn Monster spat out its threat.
The next moment, its entire body was engulfed in blinding light, its form swiftly disintegrating.
Slowly the light faded, and the Thorn Monster’s body vanished without a trace, leaving only the magical girl standing there, gazing down at the spot where the Thorn Monster had just been.
“Strange…
it didn’t leave behind a crystal…”
The magical girl’s face filled with confusion.
Every monster, once defeated, would leave behind a crystalline substance—one holding the energy the monster had gathered by absorbing human emotions.
And after a magical girl defeated a monster, the negative emotions within the crystal would be purified, leaving only pure positive energy.
The purified crystal would become new power for the magical girl, making her stronger.
In the past, every enemy the magical girl Silver Feather defeated had left behind such spoils—so why not this time?
Could it be…
that the Thorn Monster wasn’t dead yet?
“How troublesome.
My transformation time’s up.
I’d better hide for now—how am I going to explain this to Teacher Haibara when I get back?”
The magical girl sighed, cast her final spell, turned herself into a ball of light, and vanished on the spot.
After she disappeared, the light scattered into countless white feathers that drifted down to the ground.
As these feathers touched the ground, they melted into liquid light, mending the ruins the monster had destroyed.
Before long, the wrecked street was restored, and everything returned to its former, peaceful state.
*
In a dark, silent corner, a seed quietly began to sprout and grow.
Soon, several bleak, gray thorns shot up from within the seed, gradually weaving out of nothingness into a slender, uncanny humanoid form.
“Damn magical girl…”
This creature was none other than the Thorn Monster the magical girl had struck down not long before.
After its defeat, it began to reflect on its actions, realizing it had been far too reckless—barely mature, yet already rushing off to wreak havoc.
It should have developed a while longer; once it had fully mastered its powers, it would have no need to fear the magical girl.
Its most pressing task now was to find a few more humans and absorb their emotions.
But the moment it lifted its head, meaning to leave this place, it noticed that someone had appeared at the mouth of the alley at some unknown point.
The person stood with their back to the sunlight, face shrouded in shadow, but it could tell she was a human woman—one who seemed utterly unremarkable.
And yet, upon seeing it, this young woman actually kept walking closer, which let the Thorn Monster get a look at her.
She looked like a somewhat gloomy woman in glasses, and rather tall—but beyond that, even though she stood right in front of it, it couldn’t quite say what she actually looked like.
She seemed like the sort of nondescript passerby you’d find just about anywhere…
An ordinary human who saw it and didn’t run?
Truly…
a death wish.
“To be beaten so easily by my student—how pathetically weak.
Is this the level of the monsters the Black Death Cult produces these days?”
the woman said, in a listless, low, husky voice.
“You know about the Black Death Cult?
Who are you?”
The Thorn Monster felt a flicker of confusion.
“How disappointing.
And here I was hoping you’d beat her—make her give up her dream of being a magical girl and come back to class like a good girl.”
Spouting these baffling words, the bespectacled woman drew closer to the Thorn Monster.
“Wait, this aura…
how is that possible?”
The Thorn Monster had just raised its hand, intending to attack this human, when it was struck by an overwhelming sense of wrongness—
“No—could you be…?”
Through those drab, thick, black-framed glasses, the woman fixed her hollow black eyes on the Thorn Monster, giving no answer to its question.
She merely said, calmly—
“—Transform.”
The next moment, endless black mist surged out from behind her, devouring her whole like a greedy demon.
Afterward, the passerby woman was gone, and in her place, a slender, elegant figure stepped out of the black mist.
It appeared to be the figure of a tall, graceful woman, but her entire body was wreathed in eerie, blurring black mist, making it impossible for the Thorn Monster to make out her exact features.
The Thorn Monster froze, the scene before it utterly shattering everything it thought it knew.
But before it could react, the mist-shrouded female figure vanished from before its eyes.
By the time the Thorn Monster came to its senses, its neck was clamped in a force so immense it was terrifying—a force at least dozens of times stronger than the magical girl Silver Feather’s from before.
It felt its feet leave the ground.
Throttled by the neck, the Thorn Monster’s entire body was hoisted into midair like a little chick.
“Kh—kh!
You…
just what are you…”
Held fast in that terrifying grip, it couldn’t move at all.
The Thorn Monster stared at this mysterious being in terror, its voice trembling uncontrollably.
This was a magical girl.
And a magical girl whose power was who-knew-how-many times greater than Silver Feather’s.
But this aura…
why was it even more evil than its own—a monster’s?
“As you can see, I’m a magical girl.” the woman radiating ominous black mist said coldly.
“—Only, I happen to be a villainess.”