In some dim corner of Kaedehara City, thorns spread silently, like a stain diffusing through water, extending unnoticed onto the bustling streets—like the tip of an iceberg emerging from beneath the surface.
A gloomy, unremarkable woman wearing glasses stepped out from the crowd and quietly slipped into an alley, walking step by step into its depths.
At the far end of this alley, one could see several thick thorns extending out from an open door.
She casually lifted her foot, stepped over those thorns, and slowly walked into the empty room that was covered in them.
And in the center of the dim room stood a monster entirely shrouded in thorns.
Compared to before, its mask had cracked even more severely; even its face was now veiled by countless slender thorn-vines, and across its body, innumerable thorns writhed uncontrollably like snakes.
The tips of the thorns split open, baring densely packed fangs, from which came a cold, hissing “sssss.”
“Looks like the fusion is just about complete.”
Haibara pushed up her glasses with one finger and said flatly.
The Thorn Monster’s once-rigid body twisted, and in a hollow, pained voice it said:
“You…
what on earth was that crystal you gave me?
That was no Flower-type crystal at all…”
Mature Form monsters were divided into four categories in all.
Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon.
The Thorn Monster belonged to the Flower category, and the color of its crystal was rose-red.
But a few days ago, the crystal this woman had given it had been dark green.
And yet it had clearly sensed the “Flower” element from that crystal, had been drawn to it, and, unable to control itself, had absorbed the power within it.
Now, after absorbing that crystal, the power inside it had run wild.
The thorns all over its body seemed to have gained their own consciousness and life, turning into snake-like monsters, and had begun to gradually transform it into a zombie-like puppet.
“Oh, you mean that crystal.”
Haibara casually extended a single slender finger to toy with one of the thorns that had come to life.
That thorn-snake immediately closed its fang-filled mouth and gently nuzzled her fingertip like an obedient little snake.
“This is a crystal called ‘Snake’—a magic that belongs to me and me alone.
Quite interesting, don’t you think?”
This, too, was knowledge she had gleaned from that magical girl’s memories.
A fifth category of magic crystal, lying beyond Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, had been named “Snake” by that magical girl.
Though it was the fifth category, this type of crystal could be absorbed by any other kind of monster and transform it into an entirely new sort of special monster.
As for whether that transformation was what the monster wanted—well, that was no concern of hers.
The Thorn Monster was still trembling, as though it wanted to say something more, but its pale mask was soon completely veiled by the thorns, and it became a writhing mass of green snakes.
From here on, all that remained of this monster was the raw instinct of desire.
…
The weekend was the day Kirishima Ai worked her part-time job.
This week she was a clerk at a convenience store, skillfully deactivating the security tags on the items customers handed her, when she heard a commotion break out beyond the store.
A young man threw open the store door and shouted that a monster had appeared.
The citizens inside quickly grasped what was happening and, abandoning the goods they had been browsing, rushed out of the convenience store.
And Kirishima Ai was already quite used to this sort of thing.
She took off her cap, unzipped her bag, slid her hand inside, and walked out of the convenience store along with the fleeing crowd.
But she did not follow the crowd retreating into the distance; instead, she headed off alone in the direction opposite to everyone else.
One person after another brushed past her, but she simply kept moving forward, then drew from her bag a silver-white, staff-like object.
It was an intricate creation, almost like a sculpture—a staff bearing only a single wing—with a slot at the wing and another at the tip of the staff.
This was the magical tool she used to Transform: “Broken Wing.”
First, she reached toward the wing and gently folded it down—
“Which one to choose?
Which one to choose?
Which one to…”
A strange, bewitchingly girlish voice welled up.
This was the odd sound effect that played when she used the magical tool to Transform.
According to Shiori, it was the voice of the spirit power dwelling within nature.
At first it had been a little embarrassing—she’d even wanted to die—but by now she was used to it.
Next she took out a pure white crystal: “Silver Feather.”
Silver-white was the crystal color that belonged to the Bird category.
Kirishima Ai set this crystal at the top of the magic staff and slowly fit it into place—
“Silver-white feather!”
In the same way, a sound effect played whenever a magic crystal was set in.
She gave the staff in her hand a gentle wave, then returned the folded wing to its proper position, pointing it straight ahead toward the street where the monster was running rampant.
“Transform.”
Kirishima Ai said calmly.
The wing on the magic staff blossomed with silver-white radiance, and then a wing formed of pure light instantly enveloped half of her body.
The clerk’s uniform she wore rapidly faded, dissolving into nothingness.
The girl’s form was bathed in light, and then a gorgeous silver-white feathered robe slowly took shape.
Silver feathers layered and interwove into an elaborate skirt, gradually tracing out the girl’s beautiful silhouette, rising from her waist to her neck.
“Sky!
Wings!
Future!”
Her jet-black short hair gradually lengthened and fanned out, dyed by the light into a dreamlike silver-blue.
And in her eyes, too, welled up an azure as clear as the sky.
Feathers shed from the gown, falling one after another, and the ruined street was blanketed by those scattering feathers, gradually returning to its original, unbroken state.
The transformed girl took a step forward, and the final voice proclaimed the birth of a warrior—
“Magical Girl—Silver Feather!”
The legendary warrior—the magical girl—had thus completed her Transformation.
The magical girl Silver Feather walked slowly across the street and let out a sigh.
No matter how many times she Transformed, she found it hard to accept the whole premise of sound effects accompanying the process.
Now then, let’s make this quick…
She pressed a foot lightly against the ground, held it there, and applied a slight force.
And then—
“—Whoosh!”
Her foot kicked off the ground, and an enormous force launched the girl’s light body forward as if in flight, crossing several hundred meters in an instant, carrying her from this end of the street all the way to the far end where the monster waited.
And while soaring through the air, the magical girl’s sharp eyes quickly made out just what it was that had swallowed up half the street.
It was thorns, writhing like snakes.
It had to be the Thorn Monster from before—so this thing hadn’t been completely destroyed that last time after all…
But this time, it seemed to have grown a great deal stronger.
The sheer number of those thorns, compared to before, was like the difference between a raging torrent and a still pond—a massive, blackish cluster of thorns that had all but engulfed the buildings.
As she drew near, countless thorns had already shot out, trying to cut off her path.
The magical girl Silver Feather gently raised her hand, and light took the shape of several feathers that gathered in her palm, rapidly lengthening and turning into a sharp, long blade.
Lifting her hand high overhead, she swept it down.
The silver-white feather-blade met the thorns, catching for just a moment against a slight resistance, and then the dark green outer skin split open.
The gash was torn ever wider, and a smooth cut cleaved the foremost thorn in two.
Then the white blade-light carved onward, one thorn after another; this single strike instantly severed several of them and threw open the road ahead.
“…”
She had cut through the thorns, and yet they’d felt far harder than before.
The magical girl Silver Feather kept gliding swiftly through the air until she drew close to the enormous wall of thorns.
Using the same magic feather-blade once more, she cut an opening into the wall and flew inside.
Though she had launched off with tremendous force, she touched down in an incredibly light manner, stirring up only the faintest bit of dust from the ground.
And where the wall had just been severed, more thorns quickly surged up to patch the gap closed.
Rising slowly from her crouch, the magical girl Silver Feather lifted her head—and then the sight before her left her stunned.
At the very center of the street was a cocoon-like monster covered in thorns.
The Thorn Monster from before—even the mask that served as its soul had been veiled by the thorns, as though it had been parasitized, reduced to a puppet of the thorns.
A sense of unease crawled across her skin.
Though she found it a bit strange, what she had to do hadn’t changed: she was going to take down the Thorn Monster, and that was all.
She raised the magic staff, and its shaft bent accordingly, transforming from a staff into the form of a gun—
“Bang!”
Pouring magic power into the gun, she turned the light into a bullet that shot out swiftly and pierced into the body of the thorn-wrapped monster.
Dark green plant sap burst forth.
The fang-covered thorn-snakes let out a threatening, furious growl, and several of them sprang from the monster’s body to lunge at Silver Feather.
One after another they came, like whips lashing out.
Silver Feather leapt to dodge, twisting and spinning through the air—yet up there, the thorns were faster still.
Just as one vine-whip was about to strike her, Silver Feather channeled magic power beneath her feet, borrowing force from the empty air to perform a second midair jump.
As she soared, the magic bullets fired once more, snapping off several of the lashing thorns, while her other hand became a feather-blade and swiftly slashed at the thorn-snakes closing in nearby.
A strain she had never felt before came welling up.
What was going on?
The Thorn Monster from before had never been anywhere near this strong.
Silver Feather dropped back to the ground and stepped forward, meaning to close in on the Thorn Monster’s main body.
“It’s not speaking this time either…”
The Thorn Monster from before had been able to speak, but this time it was like a wholly lifeless thing—instead, it was these thorns that seemed more alive.
Suddenly, countless thorns coiled and interlocked with one another.
This was…
Within Silver Feather’s field of vision, those thorns were rapidly gathering into one, forming into something huge and tree-like.
Then that giant vine tore open as well, revealing the densely packed fangs within, and came charging straight at her.
“—Boom!”
This time, even she couldn’t react in time.
The enormous thorn-serpent slammed heavily into her and sent her flying.
Violent pain spread across her waist; had she been in her untransformed body, that single blow would likely have snapped her in two.
After Transforming, her tolerance for pain rose as well—or rather, she grew braver.
She gritted her teeth and held on, lifting her head, and saw that giant thorn-serpent, its mouth split into four petals like a ferocious python, hissing in that cold, gloomy way.
And as she looked up, the sky itself was woven over and shrouded by vines, with only a few rays of light filtering through the cracks.
Then several thorns plunged down from above, seeking to tear and rend her apart.
Snapping out of the pain, Silver Feather returned the magic gun to its staff form, then thrust it high.
A beam of magic power instantly bored through the cluster of thorns overhead, letting the light pour back in.
The thorns immediately went limp and scattered, revealing once again the street they had concealed.
What was she supposed to do…
The magical girl Silver Feather felt as though these thorns could never be beaten down for good.
Why hadn’t reinforcements from the other magical girls arrived yet?
Did those few of them think that just her being here was enough?
Realizing clearly that she couldn’t deal with the Thorn Monster on her own, Silver Feather decided to stall for as much time as she could.
Her Transformation lasted a fairly long while, so she should be able to hold out until the others arrived.
However, just as those thorns drooped away and revealed the street beneath, she suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a person tucked into the corner of a certain concealed alley.
The magical girl Silver Feather’s eyes went wide—
“…”
In the dim alley, a black-haired woman wearing glasses was hiding there, only about half her body showing—with the thorns blocking her in, she had nowhere else to go.
Once she made out who that person was, the magical girl Silver Feather’s previously fairly optimistic mood was instantly swept aside by anxiety and panic.
Teacher…
Haibara.
Had she failed to evacuate in time?
Why would she be there…
P.S.: For the Transformation sound effects in this chapter, you can look to Kamen Rider Live’s first transformation as a reference.
I gave it some serious thought—should a Transformation produce its sound effects via a belt, the way Kamen Rider does, or should the character shout the transformation phrase herself, like in Pretty Cure?
In the end I realized that shouting it yourself in a novel is even more embarrassing than belt sound effects.