If the world changed overnight, it would be impossible to know, wouldn't it? The world as it once was would fade into legend, becoming an impossible goal that people would hope towards. That some would risk their life for. Magic that makes this world better is something that hasn't existed for a long time. Mitakihara has become the center of this world's primary form of entertainment, and of justice. Magic is used to decide the fate of human lives. Then where did the legends come from? From here, they look like nothing more than a wonderful dream.
My name is Amai Sato. This will be my first year as a middle school student. My family runs a little cake shop in the middle of the city, but what I really love is cheese. I finish my breakfast as I try to roll up my uniform so that nothing's hanging off. My magenta hair always feels really sticky in the mornings.I just know that people are going to wonder which elementary school I should be at. I'm going to show them that I'm not that naive.
I run out of the store and catch the first train across the city. Seeing the sun rise over the glassy landscape of the city is really beautiful. My cell phone starts buzzing in my pocket, waking up the salaryman next to me. It's a text message from Mami. She lives in the same neighborhood as me. We've been best friends for a long time. She's like my older sister, but this is her last year of middle school, so this is the only chance I'll get to be with her.
"Good morning! If you want to know where your classes are, you should probably ask Ms. Saotome for help. She's located on the second floor. Best of luck. Mami."
I feel like I've entered an entirely new world. Looking around the schoolyard, everyone is dressed in the same uniforms as I am. I can't wait to see what the summer ones look like. I run through the doors and into the hallway. Compared to my elementary school, this feels like a maze. I dash up the stairs, grabbing onto the railing as I go. The hallways are busy; I catch some girls reading a magazine out of the corner of my eye. Girls in wonderful fashions are on the cover, presenting themselves in a row for a publicity photo.
I approach Ms. Saotome's office. It looks like there's someone already in there. A girl with green hair and a ladylike air to her. She's holding a mirror to her face while applying lipstick. She sets the mirror down, holding the small tube in her hand. Ms. Saotome, an older woman with short hair and glasses, is talking with her about something. She opens up the back window, and looks down onto the terrace below, where some of the teachers are taking in their morning coffee.
"What did you want to talk about, Shizuki?" asked Ms. Saotome.
"It's about the puella consulti," says Hitomi. "I think one of my friends..."
The air begins to shake. A mark materializes on Ms. Saotome's neck, something circular and pinkish in color, and seems to be causing her great pain. Her vest and the front of her shirt are ripped open. She collapses, and her eyes go blank. She starts muttering something about a lack of a boyfriend and how nobody wants her. Hitomi gasps in shock, causing her handheld mirror to fall to the floor.
The morals committee runs in and looks at the scene. They see Hitomi, standing there with her lipstick, and Ms. Saotome lying down on the floor. Hitomi's hands are shaking. The president, showing her red armband, grabs Hitomi and looks at her sternly. I keep quiet behind the corner.
"Did you do this?" asks the president.
"No, she just-" Hitomi starts. The president confiscates her lipstick as evidence.
I witness the committee walking past me, carrying the unconscious Saotome. Following them is Hitomi, pleading for her case. The more she struggles, the more it looks like she's the guilty party. A girl with pink twintails and red ribbons, another second year student, sees the ensuing chaos, and runs directly into it.
"What happened?" she asks. "Someone sexually assaulted Ms. Saotome?"
She looks down the hallway. My eyes follow hers. A girl with short blue hair is walking away from the scene. Her uniform is unkempt; she looks like a delinquent. She gives a cursory glance at this pink haired girl, then turns around and continues walking, blending into the crowds.
"Sayaka! Wait! I want to talk!" she calls out.
A woman with long, dark black hair, dressed in a lab coat, approaches the girl with the red ribbons. Her sharp eyes kind of creep me out.
"Momozono, what's going on here?" asks the sharp-eyed woman.
"Sorry, Nurse Nayuta. I'll tell you later," says the girl called Momozono.
Nurse Nayuta ignored me. I'm short, so I'm used to it. Her eyes track themselves over toward the magazine. She looks at the page about the puella consulti. The hallway falls deathly silent. I take that as my cue to escape. I would go to homeroom, but on a day like this, I wonder if I'm going to have it at all.
By the time lunch break comes around, the news has spread all across the school. A voice comes over the intercom, solemnly informing us about what has happened.
"Second year homeroom teacher Kazuko Saotome was sexually assaulted by one of her students, Hitomi Shizuki. Shizuki denies it. The morals committee is looking into possible causes for this crime."
I walk out into the hallway. Should I go to the committee and tell them I was a witness? My first day of school would turn into a downer instantly if I did that. Hitomi is already at the police station, where her trial has been decided. I cast a glance down at my left hand. It's only a matter of time before I receive the call to take place in her trial.
Hitomi was brought into a darkened room, with only a podium to present her case and a row of screens arranged before her. Each screen resembles a card, presenting a fantastic and horrifying creature, with the silhouette of a girl beneath them. There was also one guy. Everything in this room is written in a language unlike anything else on Earth. Hitomi struggles against her handcuffs, but such an emotional response will not work on the judge that sits before Mitakihara's primary form of justice, and of entertainment.
"Welcome, suspect Shizuki," says a cute voice from the darkness, the only thing visible a pair of red eyes, "I am Judge Incubator, the overseer of the puella consulti."
"Puella consulti?" asked Hitomi.
"You humans are far too emotional in your law. The Incubators took it upon themselves to come to this planet and establish the law for you. That is why we contract people to become puella consulti. In trials, each of them represents an opinion. The winner is the one whose witch, a manifestation of their soul, gets the most energy in their Soul Gem by gathering it from the defeated Grief Seeds of the others," says Judge Incubator.
"That doesn't sound right," says Hitomi.
"They fight within the barrier, or the bar for short. The defense, the prosecution, lawyers public and private, and people related to the case all do battle. The puella consulti system has been deemed the most objective court of law in the universe," says the Incubator.
What was happening inside the bar was visible to everyone. It was a dreamlike landscape that constantly changed depending on who was ahead. As it is now, it resembles a parking lot, albeit one made out of construction paper and scotch tape. The puella consulti had begun their fight.
In the background, a girl dressed in an artists' smock twirls around a large paintbrush, throwing out paint and thinner in alternate spurts towards a girl in a a leather suit. The leather girl holds out her magical staff, which resembles a crowbar, and sends an array of multicolored birds flying outward. The paintbrush girl draws something in the sky. Her Soul Gem began to glow, and a large stone arch appears. Her witch. Its crash shakes the scenery.
On another part of the battlefield, a puella consulti with a torch was dueling with one whose outfit bears a large pair of butterfly wings, and who wields a large pair of garden shears. The girl with the torch wears a black and red ensemble that resembled a nun's outfit. She charges towards the butterfly girl, hoping to burn her right on the rose that held her Soul Gem. The rose girl flicks her shears, summoning a storm of petals that lets her vanish from sight.
Then there was my senior, Mami. She was engaged in battle with a girl dressed like an idol. The idol consulti was a defensive fighter, summoning boxes out of thin air to block off Mami's gunshots. She spun around until the image of a carousel appeared around her head. She dashed toward Mami, hoping to ram into her like a top.
"I'm sorry, but I must prove that Miss Shizuki is guilty," says Mami, setting her teacup down on a railing. She holds her ribbon above her head and summons a very large musket, easily twice the size of her body. She presses down on the trigger, sending a bullet through the boxed daughter's defenses.
The girl with the torch bends down to her knees and starts to pray. "Should I lose on the battlefield today, grant me the strength," she says. The rose girl approaches her. At that moment, the torch girl stands up and holds her torch above her head, summoning a kneeling projection of a woman from the shadows. Her witch's tentacles extend out and grab the rose girl's Soul Gem, breaking it apart and transforming it into a Grief Seed.
The rose girl loses her outfit and catches her breath. "You call yourself clergy?" she asks.
"I was only doing what the Lord told me to," says the girl who had contracted the witch Elsa Maria.
At that moment, a girl dressed in a short skirt, holding a cutlass in one hand and a western sword in the other, approaches the battlefield. Musical runes flare up behind her, playing out her entrance on the winds.
Back in the police station, Hitomi is taken away to the room where she will be questioned. "This isn't fair at all!" Hitomi shouts, "I want an alternative!"
Momozono and I are summoned to the police station. Hitomi is handcuffed. Up close, I recognize her as being the daughter of the Shizuki family, one of the more prominent families of Mitakihara. Momozono looks up at me with those innocent eyes.
"Who are you?" she asks.
I tell her my name. "I'm Madoka Momozono," she replies, "The accused is my friend, and the victim is my homeroom teacher."
"So you saw what happened with this pervert?" I ask.
Hitomi, despite being restrained by the handcuffs, holds up her arms and lurches forward, jabbing me in the solar plexus. I feel a sudden loss of breath, while Momozono continues talking.
"I heard about it a little too late," Madoka says, "By the time I got there, someone had ripped open Ms. Saotome's clothes, and planted a kiss on her neck. Hitomi was there, with her lipstick."
"I forgot to put on my makeup this morning," says Hitomi, trying to escape the handcuffs. "It takes a lot of work to look this professional."
"You're a super pervert," I say.
"No, I just wanted to know about the puella consulti," says Hitomi, "My father's been trying to get me to become one, and I wanted to confirm with Ms. Saotome if it would affect my studies. Then this happened..."
Our visiting hours were over. Madoka and I walked down the streets, approaching a construction site. Yellow tape had been put up, signifying that this was an entryway to the bar. The further out of the way the bar was, the better. If a person who wasn't a puella consulti wandered in, the legal troubles would be horrific.
"So you're a member of the arts club?" I asked.
"Yes," says Madoka. "I want to work in fashion design, so I've been drawing some clothes for the school. Something in a gothic lolita style, perhaps. What do you do?"
"I haven't gotten a chance to do anything yet," I say, "This was my first day of school. I'd love to join the cooking club, though! Do they make pastries there?"
"They make all kinds of things," Madoka says. She looks down at our fingers. "It looks like we've been chosen."
I didn't even know we had been. Incubator is watching this city at all times, for the bar could be anywhere, but shouldn't he at least inform me before saddling me with a position in this trial? Madoka presents the ring on her left hand. I look down at my own hand. My name has been inscribed on a silver ring in those runes.
"I don't think Hitomi did anything, so I don't want to fight. Being a puella consulti is a dangerous job," says Madoka.
"Who do you think did?" I ask, wanting to get back to my school life.
Madoka glances into the bar. She sees runes shaped like musical notes flying about, and the sound of swords clanking is heard from within. I hold out my Soul Gem. A magical circle shoots out from behind the barricades, beckoning me to enter. I look towards Madoka and smile.
"You're going to fight?" Madoka asks.
"I'm a witness, it's my job," I say.
My Soul Gem covers my body in a magenta light, transforming me into a polka dotted outfit that looks like it came from a carnival. My sleeves are kind of floppy. I hold out my hand to summon my weapon. It turns out to be a giant ornate silver fork. I don't have time to question how that's going to help me, because the wind has already stopped blowing past my eyes. I'm in the bar now, and that blue haired girl is here, fighting with her twin swords.
The bar resembles the construction site I left, being set in a very large pit. Half of it resembles an outdoor concert, with stands set up that house nobody. The sky is pure white, and those who enter within a certain area find themselves turned into silhouettes. Ideas are vying for control here, and I'm stuck in the corner, being able to do nothing but watch.
"Your salvation isn't extending very far," says Sayaka, running her fingers down the blade of her sword.
"I'll repent, I'll repent!" says the puella consulti with your torch.
"I promise, it won't hurt at all," says Sayaka.
Sayaka taps the Soul Gem on her belt. A blue aura surrounds her, and takes the form of an armored mermaid with three metallic eyes. So she's the wielder of Octavia von Seckendorff. It's said that witches are a manifestation of one's inner desire, so her desire must have something to do with the ocean? I want to get closer, but the noise is too loud.
Sayaka and Octavia hold up their swords in perfect synchronization. She spun her blade in a perfect circle, creating a wooden wheel. The wheel bowled through the holder of Elsa Maria, knocking her backwards into part of the construction site before rolling up into the sky and vanishing. The torch girl's Soul Gem turns into a Grief Seed, and her costume vanishes.
Sayaka bends down and looks at her weapon. She examines the inside of it with her finger, and tosses it to the side, leaving it among the rubble at the twisted construction site. I'm hiding behind a giant cake, squeezing its red velvet sponginess between my fingers. Sayaka sees my hands and turns around to face me.
Frightened, I summon my own witch for protection. Her name is Charlotte. She's a cute little sprite with a black cloak like me and these adorable blue ey- wait! How am I supposed to fight with this? Even my inner desires make me look like an elementary schooler. Sayaka's probably going to make fun of me like everyone else.
"What is that? A fairy?" asks Sayaka.
"Sorry," I say, tears streaming down mine and Charlotte's eyes simultaneously.
At that moment, shots ring out from overhead. A flurry of bullets rains down. Sayaka and I run for cover beneath a giant slice of cake. I look up and see Mami. The very same Mami who showed up for my elementary school graduation. She's holding a musket and firing bullets towards us at a rate where they look like sparks.
"Mami?" I shout out.
"I guess the third years need to have their say too," says Sayaka.
"But I'm-" I barely get a word out as another bullet whizzes past my hair, creating an explosion that the both of us have to shield ourselves from. This cake will hardly provide the protection I need.
Charlotte vanishes back into my Soul Gem, and the two of us run for the exit of the bar. I transform out of my outfit, and land back near the construction site where Madoka is waiting for me. I stand up and catch my breath while she looks at me.
"You're trying to prove Hitomi's innocence yourself?" Madoka says. "That's a great plan."
"I don't think anything I did in there counts as a plan," I say.
We return to the school, and classes proceed as normal. Lunchtime comes around, and Madoka and I are summoned to Ms. Saotome's office, which has been marked by the police in their hunt for evidence. That black haired lady with the creepy eyes is here. I look towards the door, trying to come up with an excuse to get out of here.
"Hello, Momozono. Who are you?" she asked.
I present my student ID.
"I'm Nurse Nayuta. This is my first year at my school myself," she says, "It's terrible that someone would assault that poor woman, who's never had a boyfriend in her life. That mark on her neck, it's a witch's kiss, you know?"
"So you saw it?" I ask.
"I was getting a drink from the vending machines this morning," she says, pacing around the room, "I was doing a lot of paperwork last night, so I had to recharge with a bit of Morning Rescue. But from what I heard, Shizuki came in, and then Ms. Saotome was found collapsed on the floor with her shirt ripped open."
"Don't look at me," I say, turning away their glances, "I had to avert my eyes. I can't handle these sort of things."
"The first person to witness it was Sayaka Aono," says Nurse Nayuta.
"Sayaka...Aono?" I ask.
"She was my and Hitomi's best friend," Madoka answers, "She turned into a delinquent. Started dressing rough and stopped coming to school. She didn't even tell me she'd be back at school today."
"You should know that Miss Aono is currently taking place in the puella consulti trial too," says Nayuta.
"Sayaka's been contracted?" Madoka asks, genuinely surprised.
Nurse Nayuta presents her finger. She, too, has a Soul Gem. Since she knows Madoka's not going to be fighting, she glances at me. A portal to the bar opens up in the entrance to the hallway, and the two of us stand to face it.
There's a flash of light on my body as I transform into my outfit. She dons an outfit that looks like a blue and white frilly stage dress. Gears make up the cuff links on her gloves and boots, and her gear-shaped Soul Gem is situated on a band on her head. The two of us enter the bar, which now resembles someone's backyard. School uniforms are hanging everywhere. Does this school let you wash your uniforms here?
"I am the contractor of the strongest witch in history," says Nurse Nayuta.
"I'm...not that naive!" I say, "I'll show you what a first year student can-ah!"
By the time I have my fork out, Nayuta is sending gears towards me, slamming against my suit. One of them rips my cape. The silhouette of a clown appears before me, sparkling in purple. It bashes its head against mine, knocking me back onto my butt. My foot gets caught in my cape. I summon Charlotte to help me out. As she grabs onto my wrist and pulls me up, I find out that it's too late.
What looks like the lower torso of a schoolgirl on a pair of rollerskates starts swarming me. I don't know who contracted these half-sized schoolgirls, or why they're attacking me. Nayuta does nothing. She sits back and laughs at me.
"Why did I think an elementary schooler would be a challenge?" she says, holding her hand under her mouth.
"I heard that!" I say back.
From one of the portals that lets one exit the bar, I can see what's going on with Madoka. Sayaka is her friend, after all, and she knows where she lives. It looks like she's decided to pay Sayaka a visit while I sit here and get pummeled to death by girls who have even less on top than I do!
Sayaka agrees on letting Madoka into her apartment. It's become more run down since the last time Madoka was there. The corkboard is full of pictures of the three of them, going all the way back to elementary school. Newspaper and magazine articles detailing the puella consulti system are scattered about.
"Sayaka, is it worth it to go to all this for Kamijo? Hitomi's still your friend, I'm sure you can work something out. Come back to school. I know that you remember all the fun times we had together. The three of us were going to be placed in the same class this year," Madoka says, running her hand over the photographs. "What were you doing there?"
"I just wanted to see Ms. Saotome," Sayaka says.
"Even though she's not our homeroom teacher?" Madoka asks. Madoka holds up her Soul Gem to Sayaka. "If you want to talk through battle, then that's what we'll do."
Madoka and Sayaka walk outside their house, where another portal to the bar appears. Sayaka dons her knightlike outfit, while Madoka changes into a frilly pink dress that makes my ensemble look downright tomboyish. Madoka produces a bow with a rose on top from out of nowhere, and Sayaka draws her swords. The two of them enter the bar, and begin sparring.
Madoka tries to load her arrow, but Sayaka thrusts her sword across the bow, coming narrowly close to cutting apart Madoka's dress. Madoka's Soul Gem in this state resides below her neck. If it's hurt, she, too, will suffer some serious damage.
"You didn't have to frame Hitomi," Madoka insists.
"Madoka, why would I want to frame her?" Sayaka asks, "You're talking crazy. Why are you in this anyway? You're a lover, not a fighter."
"I want to do what's right," Madoka says.
At the moment, I'm dealing with the puella consulti who contracted the half-schoolgirls. Her outfit looks like the winter uniform of a school far, far away from here. Does she even have any creativity? I close my eyes and hold out my hands, giving her a strong blow to the stomach with my fork that sends her flying across the battlefield, going right through Madoka and Sayaka.
"I'm on a roll here, don't stop me!" I say.
The fork grows in size as I run further ahead, the three prongs extending outward. It starts to glow. I swing it like a baseball bat and destroy the girl who had contracted the witch Patricia, knocking another competitor out of the bar. The landscape around us changes once again to become a wonderland of sweets. Everything is pastel colored and the ground looks like icing. Charlotte pops out of my Soul Gem and high fives me, but I see that now is not the time for games.
"Aono, was it? I want to fight you, too. Now that I know how to work this thing," I say.
I get the feeling that Nurse Nayuta was leaning on a nearby fudgesicle at that moment, watching us with a bored look.
Sayaka turns around and bows her head. Madoka looks worried. She wants to stop us from fighting, but both of our determinations are far too great. Though my head was too blurry at the time, that was exactly what Judge Incubator wanted. The more we fought each other, the quicker the judgement would be brought.
Sayaka holds her blade above her head. The aura behind her warped into the form of Octavia. I stabbed my fork into the ground, and Charlotte floated over my shoulder. I must have looked totally uncool. Octavia sends her wheels spinning in my direction, knocking us back into what I think was supposed to be a parking garage, but now resembles a gingerbread house with gumdrop decorations. Gingerbread breaks easily, leaving me to run through the holes her wheels create before I get crushed by the falling sugary support above.
"Why did I have to end up with such a lame witch?" I say. I've been getting beat up all day, and having to wake up early to get to school did not help matters.
"I don't even know who you are," says Sayaka.
"I... don't either, but this is still our fight," I say. "Charlotte, get her!"
My Soul Gem starts glowing really brightly, making even the deeply saturated pinks in the frosting seem pale by comparison. Charlotte starts to transform into a black polka dotted worm like creature, with one red wing and one blue, and an ice cream cone on the end of her nose, and these big puffy yellow cheeks. She opens her mouth, revealing sharp teeth that let her charge across the scenery, eating through gingerbread and frosting, before chomping down on Octavia's tail.
Octavia retaliates by stabbing Charlotte on her midsection with her twin swords. Sayaka and I can feel some of the residual pain from our witches getting beaten up. She has more weapons than me, but mine is larger and hits harder. I send Sayaka to the ground. Charlotte snakes around me, her mouth open wide. Sayaka looks up in anguish, while Madoka watches us from the side.
"Sayaka, please, stop fighting," she says.
It is the nature of the puella consulti. The fight only stops when someone has won. Which means that everyone else must lose. No matter what.