Regarding the fact that my best friend is a magical girl

This feeling made him feel guilty even about normal self-exploration...

Yes, I think it's perfectly normal to understand your own body after transforming. It's just repeating what you experienced as a child. Is it shameful to know yourself?

Although it wasn't as severe as his, I also went through a similar phase. A year and a half ago, I went from being an ordinary junior high school student to a potential magical girl, and even a super-powerful one at that. It took me a while to adjust. Those few pieces of women's clothing were bought back then, so it's not entirely wrong to say they were junior high school student's women's clothing.

I dried my hair with a towel and walked out of the bathroom. Ayao was sitting cross-legged on my bed, rubbing his NS (a type of massage), seemingly engrossed in a fierce battle. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his fluffy pink hair swayed with his body, making him look extremely cute.

When it saw me come out, it only looked up once before lowering its head and continuing to be beaten to the ground by the monsters in the game.

"Yezi, are you done washing? Look, I made you a bed!"

Beside my old bed, there's a rather large air mattress, which she created with magic, and it's even covered with a blanket.

I lay down and tried it out, and it was pretty good, at least more comfortable than sleeping on the floor.

"Your magic is quite useful, but I don't know how to use it in combat."

"Currently, the plan is to lift the monster up and then drop it from a great height."

"I'm afraid that won't work. Those weirdos are all thick-skinned and tough. Unless you can throw them out of the atmosphere."

I was standing by the bed, drying my hair with a hairdryer, when Ayao suddenly said, "Yezi... thank you for earlier... I feel much calmer now."

She thanked him again.

"Idiot, I didn't do anything that you need to thank me for. It's just that you still insist on being a magical girl in front of me and keep doing this role-playing. It's tiring for us to be together. Not just for you, but for me too."

She pushed a can of iced cola towards me with bubbles. I caught the cola and let it sit for a while, just in case it was a trap.

"Actually, it's not entirely role-playing. This identity has had some positive effects on me. Putting aside everything else, I feel like I've become a little more... responsible?"

She herself couldn't explain exactly what had changed about herself.

But I understand what she means.

It's hard to explain the reason for this change, but as Milno, I am indeed more calm and rational. From a combat perspective, this is positive, as it helps me keep secrets, but it also leads to me being labeled as an ice queen.

The iceberg type? I'm definitely not that kind of person...

Ayao waved ns at me.

"Alright, let's continue what we didn't finish this afternoon."

"Then you'd better put your legs together, otherwise I'll be able to see the style of your battle suit underwear as soon as I sit down on the air cushion."

She changed to a side-sitting position with her legs together and giggled foolishly.

"Hehe, it's good that you speak your mind."

She seemed to be in a better mood than before; at least she wasn't rambling anymore.

After taking my Nintendo Switch, I sat down on the soft cushion.

"Speaking of which, I haven't asked you yet. What's your name as a magical girl? You've already registered with the association, right?"

"The magical girl's name is Seruno, and she has already registered with the association."

Seruno?

My lips twitched.

"...Is this name inspired by that Miluno?"

Ayao lay on the edge of the bed, peeked out from under the bed, and chuckled, "Hehe~ What's wrong with emulating your idol? Although she's no longer just an idol, she's my role model and mentor!"

Sigh, there are so many magical girls in the world, with as many as 13,000 registered with the association alone, why is he so obsessed with Milno...?

Obsessed with me?

Even if ranked by strength, I would always hover around seventh or eighth in the top 10. If I were to admire the strong, wouldn't Sirius, who carried the banner of magical girls and fought for twelve years, be more suitable?

"Then Seruno."

When I said that, Ah Yao... Seruno looked startled.

"Whoa! Do you have to call me that even when we're alone?"

"Of course, so you can get familiar with it first, so you won't be caught off guard when someone talks to you later."

"That seems to make sense. What is it?"

"Could you please turn me into a cushion?"

"Ooh!"

She picked up her wand and waved it casually, showing great skill in using magic. I observed the process of the bubble forming; first, a small dot appeared, and then it expanded into the shape she wanted.

Then, the soft, airy cushion gently floated down onto my lap.

I didn't really want the body pillow; I was just observing the process of her magic taking shape.

Although she was focused on playing the game, I kept thinking about how to use her soft magic in battle.

This is something I should be concerned about, and something I have to consider.

I asked, "Can you create this point inside the monster's body, and then use the force of its expansion to burst the monster apart?"

"Not quite right. I did an experiment this afternoon, and my bubbles can't expand over anything too sturdy. In other words, the force when they expand isn't strong enough... Ugh! It's a cat!"

Most of these strange creatures aren't really living beings, and their internal structures are quite sturdy, so this trick really doesn't work.

I thought for a moment and then asked, "If you want to wrap a person or something inside, do you have to put the membrane on the target from the beginning?"

"Well, unless you break or remove the bubble, there's no way to get anything out of it."

As someone who was once taken care of by her, I always felt that something was wrong.

"No, that's not right..."

I tapped my forehead and put down the Switch in my hand.

“…Serno, try locking me up again.”

She didn't ask me any questions about my request. She simply picked up the magic wand from the bedside table and pointed it at me. The ruby ​​at the tip of the wand flashed slightly, and I was once again enveloped in an invisible magical membrane.

"stop."

I seized the opportunity to make Seruno stop.

"Ok?"

"Just leave it like this, keeping it in a membrane-like state, don't let it expand yet."

Then I pointed to my nose and mouth.

"Look, even though my mouth and nose are covered by a membrane, I don't feel any difficulty breathing at all. Not only that, but what I say inside this membrane can also be heard."

"Oh! It really is!"

Seemingly only now realizing this, Seruno also showed surprise.

"Breathing requires air, and sound travels through air. In other words, air is not blocked by your bubble."

"Even though gravity and weight have been eliminated, air is still circulating?"

"I'm not sure. This is just my hypothesis. Sometimes the power of magic is not as simple as it seems on the surface. If air can flow through your bubbles, then what exactly is supporting your air cushion?"

I pressed down on the cushion in my hand, but couldn't squeeze out the air, so the guess about air circulation is not very plausible.

"What happened?"

Seruno herself couldn't understand it.

Magical girls all start from scratch to explore their abilities. I initially thought I was just an acceleration-type magical girl, never expecting to have such a broken ability as manipulating the flow of time.

Acceleration type: bursts out with a speed faster than others, but that's all it has.

The time system, in essence, slows down everything except oneself. During this slowed-down time, I can think of more strategies and have more time to react.

Although the results appear similar, they are fundamentally different, with time-based abilities clearly being more profound.

And right now, Seruno's magic might be in the same situation.

If the bubbles are just a facade, then what is her true ability?

Chapter Nine: Under the Bubbles

(Sun Yao)

Yezi analyzed the principles of magic for me in great detail, completely unlike the person who always said he had no interest in magical girls. He seemed to know more about magic than the average person, and I even suspected that he was secretly acting as a supporter of magical girls...

"Then tell me, what exactly is the deal with my magic?"

If my magic isn't just about blowing bubbles, then what is it?

When I pressed her for an answer, Ye Zi just shrugged helplessly.

"Fool, you don't even know it yourself, how am I supposed to understand it? Magic can't be explained by science, but believe me, you'll definitely discover something in actual combat, and you'll further expand the application of magic... But what you should be thinking about now is how to fight with this kind of magic."

It sounds like the words of someone who's been there.

"That's true..."

I put down my Switch and picked up my wand to dispel the magical membrane covering the leaf.

"The only thing I can think of right now is as a defensive measure, and it's not particularly robust."

The bubbles I created were all soft and fluffy, completely harmless. Even if Ye Zi said that it was possible to expand the bubbles inside a monster's body, it might not be possible. Even if it were successful, it wouldn't cause much damage, let alone be able to just wrap around a head and cause the monster's head to be separated in such a ferocious way...

If reality were a game, then my role would be purely support. Could such magic truly replace Miss Kagerou in protecting this area?

We can't just lock up the weirdo and wait for Milno to rescue him, can we?

Moreover, those strange beings from outside the world are all killing machines. They generally have the ability to break bubbles. If they keep releasing bubbles, I might be the one whose magic power runs out first...

Unable to come up with a solution, I scratched the long hair that had fallen onto my neck and was making me very itchy, then leaned over the edge of the bed and whispered to my good buddy on the air mattress, "Yezi, can you help me think of something again?"

"I was just thinking about this. We can see what's inside the bubble, which means that not only air, but light can also enter. Otherwise, the bubble in our eyes should be as dark as a phase wormhole. What do light and air have in common?"

Light, air.

These are things that are easily overlooked, yet are everywhere.

"Is it because my subconscious felt that things should pass through that the bubbles let them through? If I feel that something should be able to go in, then it can go in?"

"It's also possible that the membrane itself can't block these things. I can only give you ideas; only you know the specifics. After all, I'm not some magical girl... Anyway, it's getting late. Go to sleep early."