Chapter 30 – The Question

“I’m sorry?” I asked, unsure if I heard Everglaive correctly.

“Is being a Magical Girl something you want?” Everglaive gave a gentle shrug. “I believe your contract was an emergency one, yes? After which, you were placed in one life-threatening situation after another. So, I’m curious if you even wanted to be a Magical Girl in the first place, or if your hand was just forced at the time.”

“I… D-does it matter?” I fidgeted, a flurry of discordant thoughts rising up inside me. “With the contract, haven’t I already agreed to be one?”

Naiad waved her hand in a so-so gesture. “Yes, but there’s other things you could do besides fighting on the front lines. Plenty of Magical Girls have either ‘retired’ or take a non-combat focused specialty like crafting. Magical Girl Index, for example, serves as a sort of knowledge expert on… well, kind of everything, I guess. Magical Girl Hephaestus-chan is a master crafter and enchanter, and Dungeon Master creates defenses and fortifications for cities. There’s all kinds of other specializations that don’t involve combat available, really.”

“There’s plenty of options available for roles that deviate from the standard Magical Girl archetype,” Everglaive nodded along. “Which is why I ask if you truly want to be what most would consider a ‘standard’ Magical Girl. While switching paths later is certainly possible, making a decision now when you are still at the beginning of your career would be much more efficient.”

I chewed on my lip, feeling a little lost. Ever since meeting Selene, I’d always just assumed that this was my path now. Killing Anathema and doing whatever else it was Magical Girls did. If I really did have a choice though…

What did I want?

It seemed like an eternity ago, thinking about my life before the mall. Every day had just been living in the moment, never really giving thought to the future. I’d been looking for a part-time job, but finding one was difficult. Sure, there were plenty of openings for cashiers and other customer service jobs, but…

I was weird and awkward. It had taken months for me to just get comfortable talking to Lily, and I still managed to mess up regularly. Even if I managed to get a job somewhere, there was no way I’d be able to hold it for long, not with the added social pressure and anxiety. I wouldn’t be able to handle it, and that would make me bad at the job itself.

Other than trying to find a job to earn the money I desperately needed, I didn’t really have any plans for my future. I needed to move out as fast as possible, I guess, but that wasn’t likely to happen any time soon. But after that, I had no idea what I really wanted. My future plans had always been dark and nebulous because getting from one day to the next was always the priority.

But becoming a Magical Girl had changed everything.

It had given me the answer to a question I’d never really had the luxury of asking. It was like I’d been handed a future, a path that I could follow and be proud of. When I’d contracted, the power had been exactly what I needed to keep myself alive and protect everyone.

But was it what I wanted? Did I really want to fight in life-or-death battles for the rest of my life? To face fears and nightmares made manifest? More than that, was that something I was even capable of?

Then there were all the other aspects of being a Magical Girl that didn’t involve combat. Selene had called it being a beacon of hope, but what did that even entail? Talking to people and inspiring them? Interviews and marketing deals?

If that was the case, then I already knew the answer from my failure to find any suitable jobs. My only real hope on that end was maybe I was mistaken about what it involved. Still, if half of being a MG was combat and half was social stuff, and I wasn’t sure about either part…

“I…” I slowly started to say before the electronic lock to the room let out a soft beep.

A second later the door was thrown open, banging against the doorstop noisily as a blond girl with pigtails entered, a wide grin on her face. I let out a surprised squeak, pulling the blanket coving me higher over myself as I curled up into a small ball, my heart thundering in my chest.

The girl appeared to be in her mid to late teens and was short enough to barely be taller than me. She wore a complicated short-sleeved dress with a puffy skirt and sleeves. The color scheme was white and black as a base while a red diamond pattern dominated the edges, tapering off near her stomach. Red and black thigh-high socks following the same checkered diamond pattern covered her legs, but I couldn’t see what she wore on her feet from my position. Red bows and ribbons adorned her dress, and a scarlet headband rested on her head with lightning bolt shaped pins rising off it.

I only had a second to recognize her as one of the Magical Girls who rescued me before she threw her hands into the air as if cheering.

“The food has arrived!” she announced with a high pitched voice, an excited look on her round face.

Everglaive and Naiad had both snapped their heads around to the door when it was thrown open, Naiad halfway rising out of the sofa. Upon seeing the girl, Everglaive let out a long sigh, shaking her head as Naiad put her hands on her hips and glared at the newcomer.

“Rina! What were you thinking entering like that?!”

“Uh,” the girl blinked sheepishly as she took in the room, “I was thinking that I came bearing food and it would make for a cool entrance? Um… My bad?”

There was a silence before Naiad let out a sigh, throwing up her hands in a gesture of surrender as she fell back into her seat on the sofa, arms crossed.

“Sorry about her,” Naiad grumbled. “She didn’t mean any harm. She just sometimes doesn’t use her brain. Or, ever does, really.”

“Hey!” the girl squawked.

“This is our teammate Thorina,” Everglaive continued over the girl’s protest. “I apologize for her rudeness. Would it be alright if she joined us?”

Slowly, my heart began to slow down, and I forced the tension from my muscles to unwind as I relaxed my posture. I gave an uncertain nod. Thorina grinned at that, walking over and sitting on the couch to my left without ceremony. As she sat and stared at me with a wide grin, I noticed she had startlingly blue eyes with pupils in a thunderbolt pattern. Fidgeting under her gaze, I looked away uncomfortably.

A soft knocking made me look back to the still open door.

“Excuse me,” a deep voice rumbled. “Is everyone in there decent enough for me to enter as well?”

“Oh?” Everglaive murmured with a raised eyebrow. “So Gildscale and Naiad both have the manners and presence of mind to knock before entering a girl’s room, and yet you don’t, Thorina?”

Thorina sputtered, looking at Everglaive in shock.

“But he’s a guy! Of course he should knock!”

“Rina, it doesn’t matter if it’s a guy or girl, normal people knock before entering a stranger’s room,” Naiad chided her teammate, shaking her head.

The girl grumbled, crossing her arms and slouching into the sofa with a pout that turned her already soft face even more childish. Everglaive turned to address me.

“Do you feel comfortable with our last teammate joining us?”

I looked down at myself, feeling more self-conscious as I pulled the blanket a bit higher over my pajamas. It was a little embarrassing to be seen by so many people in bunny-print pajamas, but the blanket more or less covered me up as long as I didn’t move around too much.

I nodded to Everglaive, and she smiled before calling out.

“Come in, Gild.”

A man with dark skin entered. He appeared to be in his early twenties with sharp, chiseled features and black hair shorn close to his scalp. His armor was like that of a fantasy knight, but made of golden scales. Every design detail I could see seemed to be sharp and jagged, coming to points like claws or talons. The heavy metal pauldrons covering his shoulders were shaped like that of dragon heads, but beyond that, I couldn’t see the rest of his costume due to the mountain of fast food bags he held cradled in his arms.

I must have made a surprised face, because Everglaive glanced back to the entryway just as the man dexterously used his foot to close the door without even looking. Everglaive’s eyebrow twitched at the sight, and she quickly stood up.

“Would it be alright if I moved some of your items so Gild can set down the food?”

I quickly nodded, and Everglaive went to work relocating my guns and magazines to a different table. Naiad followed her example, shooting a look at Thorina who slouched back into the sofa with an excited expression as she stared at the food.

“You came barging in here without knocking, and you weren’t even the one with the food?” Naiad asked dryly, and Thorina stuck her tongue out.

“Gild offered to carry it all!”

“Only because if you tried,” the Guardian’s deep voice rumbled as he began setting bags on the table, “you wouldn’t be able to see over them.”

“Oh, ha ha, a short joke,” Thorina rolled her eyes. “Very original, never heard that one before.”

“It’s not our fault any other joke we make goes right over your head,” Naiad grinned.

“These jokes may be low hanging fruit, but at least you can see them coming,” Gild agreed.

Thorina’s mouth fell open at the rapid-fire lines, looking between the two Guardians with a look of betrayal.

“Wah- you can’t do this! Look, the newbie is at least as short as me if not shorter! Any joke you make at me might as well be at her too, so who’s the one being rude now?!”

Everyone but Thorina had just finished setting the variety of takeout bags on the table, and they froze for a second, Naiad shooting a warning scowl at Thorina before glancing at me worriedly. I felt a prickle of frustration mixed with embarrassment at the mention of my height, but Thorina seemed completely oblivious as she turned to face me.

“You’re under five feet, right? Or, uh, under 150 centimeters, about? If my conversion is right?”

“Rina…” Everglaive drew out her name in something like a warning, and I saw the girl visibly tense up at the frost in Everglaive’s voice.

“You don’t have to answer that,” Naiad quickly added, sitting down on the sofa and giving me a worried look.

I felt the feeling inside me intensifying, a blush starting to form on my cheeks. Looking away from the three figures, I decided to just give a quick nod. It’s not like they couldn’t see my height, so I wasn’t sure why this girl was asking in the first place. I didn’t think she was trying to embarrass me judging by the innocent, excited expression on her face, but that hardly mattered when that was the effect she was having.

“Hell yeah!” Thorina threw her hands up in victory. “Let it be known that the alliance of below average height gains another capable warrior this day! We may be tiny, but we are fierce! And us shorties gotta’ stick together. Am I right or am I right, new girl?”

She held out her hand in a fist to me, and I blinked in surprise. I was frozen for a second before she wiggled her fist, an expectant look on her face. More on autopilot than anything else, I nervously reached out, gently tapping her fist with mine.

“Awesome,” Thorina grinned, clapping her hands together excitedly. “Now onto the food and-”

“Just… slow down a moment,” Everglaive sighed, her normally restrained voice fraying. “You still haven’t properly introduced yourselves.”

“Ah, apologies,” the young man in golden armor dipped his head to me in greeting. “I’m Gildscale, but most people just call me Gild. I serve as the Archer for our team.”

I bowed my head slightly deeper than him, stopping myself from giving my name on reflex. Now that I could see him better, I noticed he had faint golden scales on some of his skin. Combined with the spikes and design of his armor, it gave him a draconic visage.

The hyperactive girl gave me a wave, a bright, lopsided smile on her face.

“Yo, I’m Thorina, but my friends call me Rina. I smash things for our team.”

“Striker is the term you’re looking for,” Naiad shook her head.

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“Eh, what does it matter what it’s called so long as the Anathema ends up as crushed hamburger? Oh! Speaking of hamburger…”

Thorina pointed to the food on the table, practically bouncing up and down. Naiad was just giving her a disgusted look, and Everglaive gave a quiet, restrained sigh.

“Well. I suppose anything else can wait. Gild, what did you pick up?”

“Thorina made the point that we didn’t know what our new friend wanted, so we decided to get a little bit of everything. We have a variety of burgers in these three bags, fried chicken and wings in those two, various Chinese meals in these three, and then some salads in the last two.”

Everglaive nodded at him with a small smile, before turning and gesturing to me.

“Go ahead. Take your pick.”

Feeling a little overwhelmed—mostly from the ball of energy that was Thorina—I stared at all the food bags. A sudden, deep worry began gnawing at my guts. They’d gotten so much food, and I already owed them more than I knew how to repay. Accepting food would just be adding to my debt. While they seemed kind enough, I barely knew them… I couldn’t just accept more things from them.

My stomach rumbled, and I clenched my teeth together hard as I squeezed my abdominal muscles tight, trying to quell the growing hunger. I wasn’t sure if the sound was audible to the rest of them, but Naiad tilted her head inquisitively.

“What’s wrong? If there’s nothing you like, we could get something else.”