Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

What Is Magical Girl Raising Project?

  Simple and fun for beginners, yet deep enough to keep experts addicted!

  Beautiful card art from world-renowned artists!

  Highly animated characters like you’d find in an action game!

  Five hundred character types and two thousand items! The combinations are infinite!

  Completely free to play! No purchase required—ever!

Welcome to a world of dreams and magic!

This is Magical Girl Raising Project, an RPG where you can become the ultimate magical girl! The Magical Kingdom has appointed you as Earth’s guardian—a cute, fashionable, and powerful heroine, who must use her powers to fight against the forces of darkness! But don’t forget the magical pals, costumes, magic items, and catchphrases you also have at your disposal. Defeat enemies to gain magical candies and become the magical girl of your dreams! The world is always in dire need of more of you, so be brave and take the first step! Your dreams will surely come true.

PROLOGUE

That night, Ako Hatoda was in a bind.

Having gone straight to her part-time job after school, it wasn’t until she’d arrived at her front door, after walking home along the road with the lone bus stop, that she realized she’d lost her key. The small bit of metal would take forever to find under the best of circumstances, not to mention it was night out. It was fall, meaning the sun set earlier. Her only aids would be the weak light of the streetlamps and the moon.

Of course, she could just wait until her aunt and uncle came home to unlock the door. But that wouldn’t change the fact that she’d lost the key… They’d have to change the locks in case someone picked it up and decided to use it. The last thing she wanted to be was an inconvenience.

Three months ago, her father had been arrested for stabbing her mother to death, and Ako’s uncle, her mother’s younger brother, took her in. She knew how much of a burden she was… She got to attend the same school, received an allowance, and wanted for nothing, but she was a constant nuisance.

She’d once visited her father in jail, but he’d turned her away, saying “Don’t ever come back.” At school, no one talked to Ako. For some reason, everyone knew about the argument between her parents that had turned deadly, and they whispered rumors about her incessantly. But no one talked to her. Ako was just a plague, a source of endless trouble for others.

So she decided to kill herself. Her mother had once complained tiredly, “You’re as stubborn as your father,” but the decision she’d reached seemed wholly reasonable to Ako. Better this than to remain a nuisance. She had slowly begun preparations for her suicide. She’d disposed of all her personal effects, had written her will, and had been steadily stealing her uncle’s sleeping pills here and there so they wouldn’t be missed, hiding them in her desk drawer. She only needed a little more to do the deed.

But now she’d gone and lost the key. The whole point of killing herself was to keep from causing trouble, yet here she was causing even more. Disgusted with herself for being stupid enough to lose her key at such a critical juncture, she sank down on the doorstep, hugging her knees. In her mind, the missing key became a symbol of everything bad in her life. It was all she could think about, and tears started pouring from her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

The voice was out of place. Maybe not so much around a middle schooler like Ako, but not one you were likely to hear in a residential neighborhood at night, and especially not one this adorable.

“If something’s wrong, please tell me. Like… being locked out of the house because you lost your key?”

Ako looked up to see a girl so beautiful her heart raced just looking at her. Her white skin was almost translucent against the darkness of the night, her features all flawlessly arranged on her perfect face. Her smile was slightly awkward, and the contrast with her striking appearance made it that much lovelier.

Her outfit, however, was quite strange. At first glance, it seemed like a school uniform, but the style was way too garish. In fact, it was more like cosplay. She had a scarf fringed with frills and a skirt adorned with white flowers. Her armbands were emblazoned with some kind of school insignia, but it wasn’t local. The same crest decorated her knee-high socks—no, they were actually white boots. The moonlight illuminated her platinum-blond hair, which was done up with a ribbon and flowers of purest white.

The words “magical girl” popped into Ako’s head. Stunned, she somehow managed to convey that she had, in fact, lost her key. The girl nodded and said, “I’ll be right back,” then vanished with a gust of wind, a fruity scent tickling Ako’s nose.

She had met a real magical girl.

Five minutes later, the girl returned, breathing heavily.

“Is this your key?”

It was indeed hers.

“Don’t go losing it again, now.”

The girl smiled, and Ako, captivated, stood to thank her. Somehow, even though they looked nothing alike, her expression reminded Ako of her mother, back when she still loved her father. It was a cheerful smile that made others happy to see it.

She bowed and thanked the girl, but when she looked up, no one was there. Her benefactor just had to have been a magical girl. Ako’s spirits soared, and her heart felt warm. She didn’t feel like dying anymore, now that she knew magical girls were real. She’d been saved. Ako wondered if she could become one, too—if she did, would people need her? The prospect was exciting. Did someone out there need Ako?