Scratch, scratch, scratch~ Scratch, scratch, scratch~
A digital pen moved rapidly across the screen.
Without the slightest hesitation, the girl wrote down the answers to the questions displayed on the blackboard.
Long, flowing black hair, violet eyes, fair skin, and a black headband adorning her head.
Her movements were swift and precise, as though she already had complete confidence in every answer.
The girl who had been called to the front of the classroom solved one difficult problem after another with remarkable efficiency.
She had already finished several of them before the students sitting below had even finished reading the questions.
The front of the classroom had practically become Homura Akemi’s personal stage.
Her cool, aloof demeanor, combined with her swift and decisive movements, naturally attracted whispers from the surrounding students.
Sitting at his desk, Makoto Tsukimi could clearly hear the girls around him discussing her exceptional abilities.
“She’s amazing.”
“Didn’t Ms. Saotome say she hadn’t attended school for the past year?”
“Maybe she’s just a genius.”
Scattered whispers arose from all around him, some carrying a faint hint of jealousy.
However, Makoto, who already knew something about Homura’s abilities and background, couldn’t help looking at her with a rather peculiar expression.
What he really wanted to know was how many times Homura had already solved these exact same problems.
Ring, ring~ Ring, ring~
As the bell rang, the mathematics lesson came to an end, with Homura Akemi having completely stolen the show.
Almost the instant the bell announcing the end of class sounded, the transfer student was surrounded by a crowd of girls.
“Homura, which school did you attend before?”
“Did you belong to any clubs? A sports club? Or maybe a cultural club?”
“Homura, your hair is so beautiful~”
The girls’ voices echoed throughout the classroom during the break, while quite a few boys secretly stole glances in Homura’s direction.
Even though humanity had evolved from living in primitive forests to inhabiting jungles of steel and concrete, its instinctive admiration for strength and excellence seemed never to have changed.
Of course, it was also possible that some of the girls surrounding Homura were harboring darker thoughts.
After all, while humans were capable of elevating someone to the status of a god, they were equally capable of developing the desire to tear that god down.
They would place someone on a pedestal in their hearts, only to attack that person when their true nature failed to live up to their imagined perfection.
By emphasizing the difference between expectation and reality, they could find some consolation for their own mediocrity.
Homura’s exceptional abilities were just as evident during the afternoon physical education class.
Whether it was running, high jumping, exercises on the horizontal bar, or practically anything else, she claimed first place by an overwhelming margin.
Her long black hair, reaching all the way to her waist, fluttered and swayed behind her as she moved.
The teacher responsible for recording the results repeatedly checked the figures on the evaluation sheet in disbelief.
After all, Homura’s performances had directly shattered multiple athletic records at Mitakihara Middle School.
A beautiful transfer student with outstanding academic results and extraordinary athletic abilities.
Within a single day, practically everyone had formed a fixed impression of Homura Akemi.
Exceptional people naturally inspired admiration.
And a beautiful, aloof girl who excelled at everything was attractive not only to boys but also to girls.
During breaks between classes, Homura was almost always surrounded by people.
Meanwhile, while Homura was busy maintaining her newly established image, Makoto had no intention of unnecessarily disturbing her.
He casually walked over to a shaded spot beneath a tree beside the athletic field and sat down.
After spending some time watching the energetic boys and girls enjoying their youth, Makoto took out the tablet he always carried and began preparing to work.
Of course, before starting work, he first needed to arrange a suitable working environment.
Sitting beneath the shade of the tree, the boy used his stylus to operate his tablet.
The specially designed electronic pen spread colors across the digital canvas, layering and embedding one image over another.
By manipulating the images on his tablet, Makoto used a form of autosuggestion to anchor the changes he wanted to make to his five senses.
One by one, the images he assembled on the tablet were projected into his perception of reality.
Almost instantly, the lively school athletic field before his eyes transformed into a tranquil lake beneath the night sky.
A golden full moon hung high overhead, its reflection shimmering on the lake’s surface.
Next, Makoto opened the corresponding audio files for the lakeside scenery on his tablet.
At the same time, he used his ability to block out the sounds of the real world.
He also lowered his perception of the temperature of the breeze blowing against his face by a few degrees, making it feel more like the cool wind of a peaceful night.
And just like that, although Makoto was still sitting on the school grounds, his eyes and ears were experiencing an entirely different world.
But his preparations weren’t finished yet.
Holding his tablet, he opened a document located near the upper-right corner of the screen.
An illustration that Makoto had carefully drawn appeared at the center of the display. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
Simultaneously, a girl matching the figure in the illustration appeared within the scenery he was perceiving.
A golden full moon.
A cold and elegant girl.
A lonely princess.
What kind of qualities did Makoto Tsukimi like in a girl?
Emotionless and reserved, cool and distant, deeply devoted, stubborn, serious, and someone who never lied.
Under Makoto’s control, the girl began leisurely strolling along the lakeshore.
Most of the time, she would maintain her cool demeanor and keep her distance.
However, whenever Makoto began feeling tired, she would approach him and quietly sit down beside him.
Then, using tea leaves and utensils that seemed to appear from nowhere, she would prepare a cup of steaming black tea for him.
“Seriously, what I’m doing isn’t all that different from a programmer changing his desktop wallpaper to an anime girl, right?”
Makoto nodded solemnly, as though he had just made an entirely reasonable argument.
After briefly fixing the scene in his mind to keep it stable, he finally began his actual work.
And the task he needed to accomplish could be summarized quite simply.
— Making money.
From his earlier conversation with Homura Akemi, Makoto had vaguely realized something.
Although magical girls were constantly engaged in dangerous work, perhaps because of the pride and reserve characteristic of young girls, they generally didn’t think the way an old schemer like Makoto did.
The moment he discovered supernatural powers existed, his first thought was how to make money from them.
Or, to be more precise, those naive girls who possessed extraordinary powers had never seriously considered using them to commit crimes or engage in wrongdoing.
They still worried about the ordinary concerns of adolescence.
They felt upset when they fell behind in their studies.
They hesitated and agonized when the person they liked didn’t return their feelings.
They had never considered that, with their overwhelming supernatural strength, they could simply crush many of the rules that governed society.
“I can’t say whether they’re simply naive or whether they’ve been brainwashed, but they’re definitely underestimating the power of money. For most people living in modern society, the vast majority of their wishes can actually be fulfilled through money alone.”
At the moment, Makoto wasn’t entirely certain whether the idea he had in mind would work.
After all…
“Buying a magical girl’s wish… Now that I say it out loud, that really does sound like something a villain would do.”
He murmured to himself as he gently tapped his stylus against the screen.