AN: While I am very impressed with Sleepless Domain's worldbuilding in general, one of the details I found particularly fascinating was that trans girls can receive the Dream and become magical girls. And when I read that, almost the first thing that occurred to me was "Ok, so what might happen if a cis boy unexpectedly manifested magic? After all, there's no physical distinction between a cis boy and a trans girl (unless surgery enters the picture, of course), it's all about their self-identification. So what might happen if you had someone who was mentally and physically a boy, but who society insisted must be a girl?"
Lucy Knight (nee Dawn) had feared that this moment would come ever since she'd first learnt she was pregnant. As Magical Girl Dawn Flower, she'd been lucky: she had been a healer, and as such had spent most of her five active years in a safety center or a hospital. She'd only seen actual combat twice: once when a monster had breached the inner barrier of her center and once when a lunatic had tried to set fire to the hospital she volunteered at.
But she'd known the risks other girls faced, seen their wounds, known that outside at night death could come with one wrong move, or even with nothing more than pure bad luck. And since aging out she'd continued to work as a nurse and then as a doctor, continued to see wounded girls come in the doors night after night. For her whole adult life she'd feared what she suspected every mother in the City feared on some level: that one day she would escort her daughter through the door of a registration center, faced with sending her out into the night to risk her life against the monsters.
She'd never expected that she'd escort her son through the doors of Twilight Stars instead.
As they walked up the steps, she shot a glance down and to her left, still not quite able to believe what she saw. Arthur had always had her coloring, blonde hair and bright blue eyes rather than Paul's black hair and dark eyes. But on that impossible morning a couple of days ago, his hair color had… not darkened, exactly, but become more vivid, blonde hardening into a true, metallic gold just as hers had when she had been Dawn Flower. And the same thing had happened to his eyes, the blue somehow becoming more vivid than any normal eyes could be. It was subtler than some, but those were unmistakably a magical girl's features now.
The lobby of Twilight Stars was tastefully ostentatious. The walls were paneled with what Lucy was almost certain was real wood, adorned with large pictures of various magical girl teams. There were plush chairs, carpeted and upholstered in royal blue. A tall plant stood in the corner of the waiting area, stretching all the way to the ceiling.
Behind a desk sat a young woman with bright red hair. As she and Arthur drew closer to the desk, Lucy noticed a crimson starburst tattooed on the back of the woman's hand. For half a moment Lucy wondered if the receptionist was an actual magical girl, but that didn't seem very likely. Besides, now that she took a closer look Lucy could see that the roots of the woman's hair were black, meaning that the bright red hair was most likely dyed. The receptionist was probably a former magical girl, one who had gotten a tattoo of her old sigil just like Lucy had. A lot of girls did that after they aged out.
"Hello and welcome to Twilight Stars," chirped the receptionist - Penny, according to her desk nameplate. "What can we do for you today?"
"Lucy and Arthur Knight," Lucy said, gesturing towards Arthur. "I believe we had an appointment to register Arthur?"
"Of course!" said Penny. "If you'll just take a seat, a registration specialist will be with you shortly."
"Help yourself to a piece of fruit if you'd like some," she added, gesturing at the bowl on her desk. "It's all real."
"Thanks," Arthur replied, taking a strawberry from the bowl.
Lucy and Arthur dropped down into chairs next to each other. Neither spoke. Arthur bit into the strawberry with a nervous smile.
Lucy found herself contemplating the pictures on the wall across from her. Some Lucy didn't recognize, but others she knew, either from the news or from seeing the girls come in the door when she had the night shift at Founder's Mercy. There was Team Bow, Team Wild, and of course Team Diamond, the quartet whose patrol area included the Knight house. That particular quartet Lucy had never met professionally, since Pink Diamond was a healer and so the team rarely had reason to darken the door of a safety center. And, thank the Founder, Lucy's home had never suffered a true barrier breach. Though there'd been a couple of close calls… The tattoo of her old sigil Lucy had gotten on her forehead itched, and one hand came up to massage her brow.
"Hello there," a voice interrupted Lucy's thoughts. "I am Jacob Ignave. I understand you are here for registration?"
Lucy started at the voice and turned to see an older man, slightly balding and holding a clipboard with a sheaf of papers and a pen attached.
"'Arthur', is it?" the man said.
"Yes, that's me," said Arthur.
Jacob nodded. "Before we get to the exciting bits, you need to fill out these forms," he said, handing Arthur the clipboard. "Mrs. Knight, there's some things I would like to discuss with you in my office."
Lucy felt herself wince slightly as she got to her feet. She was fairly certain that she knew what this was about. Still, she'd known she'd probably had to have this conversation sooner or later, and perhaps it was better to get it out of the way now.
Jacob's office wasn't far at all. Second door on the right. Upon entering the door, it was quite a large office, yet very simplistic. A long wooden desk sat deep into the room, leaving a large expanse between it and the door. The back wall was lined with shelving, with various boxes all neatly labeled filling them entirely. Various filing cabinets lined the side walls behind the desk. Nothing sat in front of the desk with the exception of three chairs.
It's so empty in here. The space had caught Lucy's attention. Why have such a big office and so little inside?
Lucy settled into one of the chairs, trying not to feel like a little girl called to the principal's office. After closing the door behind him, Jacob took a seat behind his desk.
"Mrs. Knight," Jacob said, "I understand that it can be a surprise, discovering your child is… not what you thought she was. But…"
Yep, Lucy thought, called it.
She sighed and cut Jacob off with an upraised hand. "Jacob," she said, "I know that not all magical girls are girls on the outside. Not saying that was my own case, but I knew a couple…"
"Founder, I sound like a bad stereotype, don't I?" Lucy said, cutting herself off with a humorless laugh. "'Some of my best friends are transgender,'" she said in a false voice, making air quotes with her hands. "But the point is," she continued in her regular voice, "Arthur still identifies as a boy. You can ask him yourself. And if a trans girl's body doesn't disqualify her from identifying as a girl, then surely Arthur's magic doesn't disqualify him from identifying as a boy."
Jacob gave Lucy a rather skeptical look. "I… see," he said after a long pause. "Very well, we'll shelve that topic for the moment. Now, let's head back out and see if 'Arthur' has finished filling out the papers."
They headed back out to the reception area, where Arthur was still filling out the registration forms. After a minute or two, he got up and offered the forms to Jacob. He stared at the first page for a moment, then rolled his eyes. Looking over, Lucy saw that Arthur had scratched out "Girl" from the "Magical Girl Registration" title at the top of the page, then penciled in "Boy" in its place.
"Well," Jacob said after briefly scanning the rest papers, "this all looks... more or less correct. Though I see you left the space for your sigil blank. It's a complex one?"
"Yeah," Arthur said. He rolled back his left sleeve, revealing the sigil inscribed on the inside of his left forearm. The sigil was golden against Arthur's pale skin and more elaborate than most, all curves and arcs coming together to form a stylized sword.
"And I'm no good at drawing anyway," Arthur added.
"Not a problem," Jacob said, holding up a camera. Jacob snapped a photo of the sigil, then he and Lucy took a couple of steps back.
"Ok, Arthur," Jacob said. "Let's see your transformation."
"Here goes," said Arthur. His sigil blazed golden-white on his arm for a moment, then the light expanded to envelop his body. When it faded again, Arthur was clad from head to toe in shining armor. The edges of the larger plates were etched in golden light, and at the joints numerous smaller plates fitted together with unearthly precision, sliding over and under each other as Arthur moved to provide seamless protection.
Arthur raised his gauntleted fingers to touch the side of his helmet, which vanished in a flash of golden light to reveal his grinning face.
"Pretty cool, huh?" he said. "This is the best part, though." He held his hand out to the side, and a sword made of what looked like gold appeared in his grasp with a flash. Arthur flourished the sword, then he held it up in front of himself and it began to glow a brilliant golden-white, almost too bright to look at. Even from several places away, Lucy could feel the heat radiating off the blade.
Arthur made a couple of quick flourishes with the sword, then the sword and armor alike vanished in a blaze of gold, leaving Arthur clad once more in his civilian clothes.
"So I was thinking 'Dawn Blade' for my magical boy name," Arthur said.
Oh Founder… Lucy thought, feeling her heart swell with pride. That is so… I don't even have the words!
"'Dawn Blade' sounds like an excellent name," Jacob said with a smile. "So, any other powers you've discovered yet? Besides the armor and sword in your transformed state?"
"No, I think that's it," said Arthur.
"Not surprising," said Jacob, "That's already quite a respectable powerset. Though do be sure to let us know if any other abilities turn up. Now, I'll need to go through the rosters, check if there are any other girls you might be thematic with and see which teams could use another member. That'll take some time, though, so I'll do it later and get the results back to you. Right now, let's move this to my office and I'll run you through the perks you're entitled to as a registered magical girl."
Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy thought she saw Arthur make a face at that last line.
Why do I have a feeling that this is only going to get more annoying from here on out? She thought. Seriously, Founder, why did you have to give the Dream to Arthur? Putting a child on the front lines who I'd never expected to be there, and giving us all kinds of headaches in the process.
Well, I guess I have no choice but to hope there's some good reason for all this, she thought as she and Arthur settled into chairs in Jacob's office.