Tokyo: Magical Girl Shatters My Dream of Going Public

Ome City, Tokyo, a winding mountain road.

A bright red convertible sports car ripped through the night, its engine roaring.

The blond young man in the driver's seat shook his head wildly to the deafening rock music, the steering wheel in his hands like a toy.

Even on mountain roads with continuous sharp bends, the speed was kept steadily above 60 kilometers per hour.

Another sharp right turn.

He grinned, swerved the steering wheel sharply, and the car drew a smooth arc, barely clearing the guardrail.

Cool.

Just then, a dull and rough engine roar came from behind him.

It's not a sports car.

It doesn't even look like a performance car.

More like... a truck?

The young man frowned, subconsciously eased off the accelerator, and glanced at the rearview mirror.

Behind us, two yellowish lights pierced the darkness around the bend, rapidly closing the distance.

The car was traveling at a considerable speed.

Who is it?

How dare you drive this fast on this road?

He squinted, trying to identify the car model.

In that split second when he was distracted—

Whoosh!

A blurry black shadow flashed past the side of his car without warning!

It's so fast it feels like an illusion!

The young man suddenly turned his head to look out the passenger window.

Empty and desolate.

Only the mountain wind howled.

Hallucination?

Before he could react, the car behind him was already close behind, its lights illuminating his car completely.

This time, he saw it clearly.

A boxy, gray van was aggressively closing in on his rear, its front rapidly approaching!

The young man's pupils contracted sharply, and his mouth opened unconsciously.

...A bread truck?!

The car's speed appeared to be over 100 kilometers per hour!

"What the hell..." the young man muttered.

The next second, without the slightest hesitation, the van turned the steering wheel, and the vehicle tilted sharply to the left, its tires crushing the gravel on the road and sending sparks flying.

With a domineering yet precise move, he overtook him from the left!

The strong airflow even made the convertible sports car sway.

The young man paused for two seconds.

Immediately, a surge of anger, a mixture of provocation and competitiveness, welled up within him.

"Interesting! You dare to compete with me?"

Without hesitation, he floored the accelerator!

The engine of the crimson sports car roared with fury, and the sudden surge of power pressed him firmly into his seat.

The performance gap was obvious; in just a few seconds, he caught up with the bread truck in front and kept a close distance.

He had driven this mountain road countless times, and the angle of each bend, the entry point, and the acceleration zone after the bend were all etched into his muscle memory.

It's a win.

He could almost picture the other person being left far behind in a pathetic state.

Ahead, the iconic deadly U-turn appears.

The angle is extremely steep, with a bottomless cliff on the outside and a cold rock wall on the inside.

The guardrail is covered with scratches and dents left by accidents over the years.

The young man skillfully slowed down and downshifted in advance, turning the steering wheel as he prepared to unleash his most impressive drifting maneuver.

However, that bread truck ahead...

There was absolutely no sign of slowing down!

It even lurched inwards, and in the young man's incredulous gaze, the right wheel precisely rolled over the innermost edge of the U-shaped bend, the edge of the shallow drainage ditch!

The car body leaned inward at an extremely exaggerated angle, with the left wheel almost off the ground. Only the right wheel provided grip and steering force at the edge of the ditch, drawing a breathtaking arc, scraping the inner rock wall, and whistling through the U-turn!

The whole process was lightning fast and so smooth it seemed like something a human could do.

"What?! The drain goes around a bend?!"

The young man gasped in shock, his mind went blank, and his hands froze completely.

When the screeching sound of tires and the approaching rock wall pulled him back to reality, his sports car had already lost control and was hurtling toward the outer guardrail due to a loss of speed and a wrong cornering angle!

"Oh no!"

He frantically swerved the steering wheel while simultaneously slamming on the brakes!

Squeak—!!

The tires locked up, leaving long black tracks on the road.

The car came to a close, with its front end less than half a meter from the guardrail.

White smoke was coming out of the hood.

The young man slumped in his seat, his heart pounding, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

He stared intently at the two taillights rapidly disappearing into the distance at the end of the bend ahead, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Is that... really a corner that a human could drive through?!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Inside the bread cart.

Kurokawa gripped the steering wheel firmly with both hands, his eyes fixed on the winding mountain road ahead.

The speedometer needle on the instrument panel was steadily pointing to 105 kilometers per hour.

There was no music inside the car, only the roar of the engine, the noise of the tires rubbing against the road, and the whistling wind outside the window.

He had already activated his combat suit.

The world seemed to slow down in his eyes.

The curvature of every bend, the subtle undulations of the road surface, and even the disturbances in the airflow all flooded into his perception in an almost intuitive way.

Right in front of the car, within the maximum visibility range that the headlights can illuminate.

A gray and hunched figure was speeding along the mountain road at a speed beyond common sense.

Grandma on the highway.

It's right ahead!

Kurokawa gripped the steering wheel tightly, his eyes fixed on the almost vanished gray-white afterimage in the night ahead.

The van bounced violently on the rugged mountain road, its suspension groaning.

"Hurry!" he yelled towards the back of the car without turning around, "Change your clothes! We're about to lose them!"

Clang!

With a sharp turn, the car tilted violently.

"Whoa!"

As soon as Chika poked her head out of the collar of her combat suit, she was thrown hard against the carriage wall by inertia, and the back of her head hit the wall with a "thud".

"President! That's asking too much! Who changes clothes in a mountain van traveling at 100 km/h?!"

"Stop complaining!"

Kurokawa glanced at the instrument panel; the water temperature gauge was climbing dangerously close to the red zone, and an ominous hissing sound came from under the hood.

"Who would have thought I'd run into it so soon after entering the mountains! And my beat-up car is about to give way!"

He felt the accelerator pedal becoming increasingly soft, and the roar of the engine was mixed with the metallic scraping noise.

For this dilapidated bread truck, speeding at 100 kilometers per hour in the mountains is really asking too much of a challenge!

On the other side, Kaoru had already deftly fastened the last sash of her kimono-style combat suit amidst the violent shaking.

The fabric clung tightly, without a single thread falling out.

She immediately turned around, grabbed the swaying Chika, and helped her straighten her tangled sleeves and the energy interface on her back.

"Sister, raise your hand."

"Oh, oh!"

Stumbling and scrambling in the cramped and bumpy space, the two finally managed to put on their gear.

"Ready!"

Chika shouted and pressed her thumb hard against the magic battery on her lower back.

hum-

A faint blue light emanated from both of them at the same time, instantly elevating their senses.

"President!"

Qianxia flung open the back door, and a violent night wind immediately rushed in, making her hair dance wildly.

She gripped the door frame tightly with one hand, leaned out most of her body, and shouted towards the driver's seat.

"I'll get on the roof! Please drive carefully! Don't throw me off!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she twisted her waist and, taking advantage of the swaying of the vehicle, nimbly flipped over, landing steadily on the metal roof.

The night wind howled, and she lowered her center of gravity. Four dark blue energy tentacles quietly emerged from behind her, attaching themselves to the roof of the car like anchors.

Xun then quickly opened the metal box at her feet.

The lid of the box popped open, revealing a kimono-clad, closed-eye "Battle Maiko" doll lying quietly inside.

She sat back in the passenger seat, fastened her seatbelt, took a deep breath, inserted the [Puppet Control Plugin], and closed her eyes.

In an instant, the perspective shifted.

Her perspective completely overlaps with that of the battle maiko.

Simultaneously.

High in the sky.

The overhead views transmitted from the four drones that had already taken off were like four additional paintings, clearly and orderly "overlaid" into the background of her consciousness, without feeling chaotic at all.

The information flow is overwhelming yet well-organized.

Is this the function of the [Puppet Control Plugin]...?

Xun's lips twitched very slightly, even with her eyes tightly closed.

She immediately manipulated the Battle Maiden to sit up from inside the box, and all her senses completely overlapped with the Battle Maiden, as if her soul had entered it.

Unlike her sister, who had four energy tentacles behind her, she only had two thick, tail-like tentacles behind her.

The battle geisha controlled by Kaoru silently approached the open rear door, its mechanical tentacles curling slightly behind it, ready to strike.

Kurokawa glanced at the rearview mirror to make sure the two were in position, then slammed his foot on the gas pedal!

The van's engine roared as if on the verge of collapse, forcibly increasing its speed as it once again closed in on the hunched gray figure speeding through the night.

The distance was reduced to less than ten meters.

The car headlights illuminated the elderly woman's silhouette on the highway.

The dark kimono billowed in the gale, sparse white hair clung to the scalp, and the emaciated limbs swung at an inhuman frequency, leaving blurry afterimages on the rough pavement with each step.

"I saw it!"

Chika lay on the roof of the car, her body low to the ground, her dark blue tentacles rising up behind her.

however.

Even if they catch up, attacking them is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

The van's massive body barely maintained high speeds on the mountain roads, making maneuverability virtually nonexistent.

Chika's energy tentacles attempted to intercept the attack several times, but were easily evaded by Granny High Speed ​​with a bizarre twisting motion that seemed to predict her movements.

"This won't do, President!"

Chika shouted from the roof of the car, but her voice was ripped apart by the wind.

"I can't hit her! I can't predict her movements at all! Find me somewhere to dive out! The car is in the way!"

Kurokawa gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the dark, mountainside ahead.

The mountain road winds and twists, with a rock wall on one side and a deep valley on the other. Where is there any open space?!

"Two kilometers ahead!" Xun shouted suddenly, her eyes tightly shut. "After passing through the tunnel, there's a highway rest area! The road surface is smooth, and there's plenty of space!"

In the drone footage she shared, the small clearing behind the bend was clearly marked.

"Let's go there!" Kurokawa said without hesitation.

He stared intently at the back of the old woman on the highway ahead, pushing the van to its limits to barely keep from being left behind.

A more pronounced metallic scraping noise came from under the hood, and the steering wheel trembled slightly in my hands.

The darkness rushed towards us from the tunnel entrance, only to be quickly left behind.

A flash of light, and suddenly everything became clear.

A small concrete clearing appeared on the right, clearly a place where one could stop and rest.

It's now!

On the roof of the car, Qianxia suddenly tensed her legs and pushed off with her feet!

Bang-!

The metal roof of the car made a dull thud as it was trampled under the weight, leaving a very obvious dent!

The suspension even let out a groan, and Kurokawa almost lost control of the car.

Using the momentum of the vehicle and her own explosive power, Chika shot out from the side of the roof!

The eerie blue tentacles trailed dazzling tails of light behind them as they lunged straight at the old woman on the highway, which was speeding alongside the bread truck!

"Old woman! Where do you think you're going—!"