Blinking slowly, you try to see what is before your eyes, a thick haze clouding your thoughts. Everything feels... wrong.
Stumbling and pulling yourself up, a hand catching on... something you can't make out, shaky legs hesitantly supporting your body.
What... what happened?
Your vision still isn't clearing, but you can feel something in your other hand... a bunch of disks with uneven surfaces... some kind of coins?
You have gained one gold coin, three silver coins and four bronze coins
Doesn't matter... or it does, but you're distracted by the burning sensation all over your body, as though you're dunked in acid or something, even as your ragged breaths filter in and out of your lungs, cool night air on your skin.
Ugh, you feel... weird. All small and... why are you female? Your clothes, once fitting you tightly and perfect for a long workday, are sliding off of you, letting you see your naked body. A bit scrawny, completely hairless and, most importantly, missing your dick, having it replaced with a smooth mound instead.
You're nearly naked now, your body only clothed in the oversized suit jacket you slung around your shoulders, when all of a sudden, a pair of... holsters? Appears with a belt around your waist, the faint sound of shifting water audible from the guns that popped up with a soft glow inside them.
However, before you can decide what to do, what little of your previous vestments you didn't lose as they slipped down to the ground begins to glow as well!
With the sound of rustling fabric, your leftover clothes flare up, flowing outwards and elongating as you close your eyes, the light too bright for your confused mind to handle.
When you open them again, you see you're wearing some kind of dress, reaching to your shins and moving with every breath you take.
What the fuck is going on?!
However, before you can attempt to make heads or tails of what's going on, you start seeing... weirdly, or more so than you already were anyways. With your left eye, you can see a sudden light coming from your right side, but as you look around, it seems to move with your head... until you realize it's coming from your right eye.
Blinking a little, you realize you can see the light with both eyes now that you know where it's coming from, as well as a shifting glow around your dress, with two pulsing streams of light at your hips... the weird pistols.
This isn't getting any better, is it?
All of a sudden, you stumble, feeling the coins in your hand crumble into pure, unadulterated power as they become a... an aura, a thing you can see, one that is absorbed inside you.
You can't quite see it, the place the power goes, but... nearly. Like in the corner of your eyes, except you're distinctly aware what you're seeing is not at all real in the same way everything else around you is, more... ephemeral. Ethereal.
Non-physical.
Something about you has changed, but what it is, you can't make out, slowly straightening yourself out to all your diminutive glory.
At least you can actually see what's going on around you this time around.
"Puchuuh!" The word, if it is indeed a word, comes from right beside you. Slowly turning your head, you soon realize the object you've been holding onto to avoid falling on your face this whole time is an overturned car, a worrying amount of blood spread on the roof currently at the bottom of teh whole thing.
"Puchuu!" At the repeated call, you look upwards at its origin, some kind of plush abomination imitating a black cat sitting on the bottom of the car currently pointing skywards. One of its eyes is literally sewed over with fabric in the form of a cross, and its mouth is a long, drawn out line along its head, imitating a grin in the way the ends are curving.
Something is written along the front of its long neck going down to its chest, but before you can take a closer look, it waves its enormous, bushed-up tail and makes a sound again, its mouth unmoving the entire time.
"Puchuu! Are you finally done, then?"
You just stare at it, blankly.
"Oh, great," it says in its high-pitched, gender-neutral voice, "you're one of those. You mute or just in shock?"
"I-I am... mostly just in shock, I think. What are you?" You ask, your voice high and feminine in a way you can't help but dislike.
"Great, progress then. How much do you remember?"
"I was... driving home, I think," you say, your memory finally clearing up, "but then something happened. I think it was... a family of deer? They came onto the street, so I-"
"Let me correct you there before the memories form wrong," the talking plush toy interrupts you. "You were driving home, that part's probably true. But what walked in front of your car weren't deer, puchuu. You see, there was a magical girl in these woods, staking out a goblin nest, before they tried attacking your car as it drove by, puchuuh. Taking the opportunity of all of them being out in the open, she tried to blast them, puchuu, except she missed and hit your car with her fireblast instead."
As the thing speaks, you start to remember, it wasn't some kind of normal animals you saw, it was... these weird, green midgets, ugly as sin, that suddenly came storming out from the trees surrounding the road, a fallen tree blocking the street for you.
Then, suddenly, fire, a sense of vertigo, and-
"You were bleeding out when one of them stuck you like a pig as you fought the seatbelt upside down, so I waited until they were busy and came to have a chat, puchu. The magical girl drew them away when she ran deeper into the woods, but she's probably dead by now, from what I'm feeling, puchuuh. So I gave you an offer; you had the spark, and you said 'anything' when I asked what you'd give to survive this, puchuchuchuh!" Stretching, the talking plushie demonstratively sits down again, the main body of the car crunching down on the space you were presumably in until a while ago, showing exactly what would have happened.
Ignoring the creepy laugh the cat thingy is giving off, you bathe in the full recollection of events leading up to the present. "Why did I-"
"Think up some mundane nonsense at first? Chuh, the veil's aftereffects, most likely. You were mundane until I changed you, and so it is trying to cloud your memory of what happened, puchuh. Now that you're a magical girl, though, it shouldn't bother you, chuh."
You open your mouth, but it interrupts you. "Before you ask, the veil is what the phenomenon is called, chuh. Anyone that is not magical is forced to repress and rationalize anything magical they perceive after the fact, puchuh. If you've ever heard a horror story, fairytale or mythological tale, it's probably true in some sense, chuh, though possibly embellished and with wrong details, puchuuh. Though I don't think that matters for you right now, puchu!"
You blink, having been completely immersed in its words. "And why is that?"
"Because the goblins have come back, puchuuh!" And with that, it jumps down behind the car, leaving you to turn around and immediately spot what it was talking about.
The green midgets are back, and they don't look happy. Also covered in burns, though, even as they wave spears and stone axes in your direction as they begin screeching and shouting in pleasant voices.
Okay, think. You're apparently a 'magical girl' now, whatever that means. You're meant to fight things like these monsters and have been equipped towards that end.
... Your eyes fall upon your guns, halfway hidden in a fold of cloth out of the dress you're wearing now each. Well, when in Rome...
Whipping out your guns, oversized for your current form as they are, you roughly aim at the approaching horde, having about as much experience with guns as with advanced astrophysics, that is to say, none.
Still, you'd best give it a try, right?
Pulling the triggers, you nearly drop your guns, not because of the recoil, which is manageable, but out of surprise at what comes out, a stream of water cutting the distance between you and your targets and literally cutting into a 'goblin's' throat, nearly beheading it before your confused shaking has it veer off to cut another one's ear off, the stream from your second gun just disappearing in the distance.
Holy shit! Like, seriously, holy shit! The goblins seem to share your thought pattern, screaming and starting to rush at you instead of walking menacingly.
And, more worryingly, two of them that you can see rip off the simple loincloths they are wearing, revealing dicks looking just like their owners; short, green and stumpy. The fuck is wrong with these things?
You have one turn until the goblin horde is upon you!
You have consumed 10 mana, 123/130 mana remaining
Well shit, shit, shit. The goblins are gaining on you and there's simply too many of the things, you can't exactly shoot them down fast enough to get through this.
So you need an alternative. And something, deep within you, answers your frantic calls for one.
Calming all of a sudden, you focus on your foes. You lower your guns; you won't need them for this. Instead, you take a step forwards, tucking them away again as you stretch out your hands.
"HAAAAAAAH!" Exhaling in a shout, you expel what feels like a cold winter morning, cold filling the air around you and spreading in all directions for a moment before it, trailing flakes of snow behind, rushes out towards the goblins, hitting them almost like a physical wall.
At first they try to ignore it, rushing towards you with naked lust and greed in their eyes, but you don't particularly see the need to react. After all...
They're already frozen.
The frontmost ones notice it first, being hit the hardest by the effect, but before long, all of the Goblins realize something is wrong. With every step they take, a layer of ice trawls further up their bare legs, covering and hindering them. They try to rip it off, but not only do they merely manage to get their fingers covered in frost, too, they have stopped walking.
A small piece of winter twirling around yourself, you consider the situation. You have successfully stopped the goblins, all that remains is neutralizing them... Correction, finish neutralizing them, you note with bemusement, as one of the ones that took off their rags of clothing perhaps a bit prematurely cries out, his dick literally falling off and shattering on the icy floor.
Grabbing your guns again, you get to work. Note to self, adding water to freezing temperatures equals fun, you think as your stream of cutting water turns into a stream of cutting ice midway, somehow keeping up its velocity as it spears through a goblin stomach.
You have consumed 30 mana, 96/130
You have successfully neutralized the goblins!
You are still feeling that same odd, detached calm as the plush cat comes back, jumping atop the frozen head of one of the goblins you have turned into an ice statue.
"Good work, puchuuh. I knew I was making the right choice when I dragged you out of that wreck, chuh!"
"I am feeling strangely calm," you tell it, your voice positively radiating placid readiness. "Also, you haven't told me what you are, yet."
"Chuh! That may be because of just how deeply you drew on your ice magic, puchuu. Magic is the expression of a magical girl's soul, chuh, and using it can draw them closer to their true self. So it turned you calmer, like ice girls often are, chuuh!"
"I see," you reply, happy about figuring that out, at least. "The other question?"
"I am a Puchuu, puchuuh! We are the awesome mascots traveling the lands to find and awaken magical girls to fight the magical threats that assail humanity, puchuh!"
"I see. And the real reason you are doing so?"
"No comment, chuh."
So much for that, then. Looking over at the goblins you fought executed, you tilt your head. "What about these?"
"Don't worry, puchuh, someone will be along to clean them up at some point, chuh. Probably won't even realize what it is, too, chuh. I would normally suggest you keep the bodies, but, chuh, they're goblins. Worthless."
Nodding at the advice, you reach out with your hand, metaphorically rubbing it through the air to get a clean, clear piece of ice.
"What'cha doing, chuh?" The Puchuu asks.
"Making a mirror, to see how I look like now." Honestly, being this... calm and colllected all the time sounds pretty nice, though you can already feel your muted emotions returning to normal bit by bit. Looks like this isn't just an instant change, then, you ponder to yourself as you spy at yourself.
Mhm. White, long hair growing down to your butt, decorated with ribbons bearing roses. Another ribbon on the front of the segmented choker around your neck, contrasting your bare shoulders and arms, with only your hands covered in a pair of gloves.
The rest of your torso is covered by what seems to be a red and black corset-like top coming just to the top of your breasts, ending in a wide skirtlike dress flaring out to the sides and back, leaving the front of your legs uncovered and revealing your garterbelts and stockings.
Also, you're wearing what you're pretty sure are some kind of high heels, though they aren't as hard to walk in as you'd expect.
Probably some more magic weirdness, that.
"I am going to need a new name to go along with this, won't I?" You ask out loud, your innate calm suppressing the terror and disgust you feel at suddenly being in the body of a kid a third your age and the opposite gender.
"Probably, chuuh. Or you could just stay nameless, puchuu, it works for me."
"Jacqueline Frost. Or just Jack for short. Yeah, I think that'll work."
"Cute," the Puchuu snorts derisively, "now can we get a move on? Not to complain, but there isn't exactly much for us to do for now."
"What am I even going to do? I don't know if you've noticed, but my car is quite thoroughly wrecked, I am quite a few years younger and very much female now. I doubt my identification is going to do be any good, and let's not even talk about making a living in this state," you say, getsuring at yourself.
"Puchuh! Just get back to town first, then you can figure out what to do next, chuh!"
Staring blankly for a moment, you nod. "Yeah, you're probably right. How will we get there, though?"
"By putting one foot before another, chuh! How else do you get anywhere?"
"It's an hour by car from here."
"Do I look like I care? Puchuh."
On the way back to town, you go ahead and ask the Puchuu a few questions, mostly in relation to this whole magical girl deal and how it normally goes, as well as any follow-up questions you can come up with.
To begin with, you are a magical girl. You knew that, but what you didn't know is that you're no longer, strictly speaking, human. Humanity being defined, here, as 'metaphysically human or in possession of a human soul'.
Neither of which, it seems, applies to you now, your nature as a magical girl making you distinctly inhuman as part of the procedure turning you from another boring vanilla mortal into a powerful engine of mana-fueled destruction.
So yeah, that's a thing now, apparently. So basically, the Puchuu, for reasons it doesn't disclose, wants you to go around beating off monsters, in what way it doesn't really care. As far as it is concerned, the important part is that monsters don't attack humans, while it does seem interested in actually keeping certain 'specimen' around, to study them in-depth.
It even alluded to the possibility of additional payment if you were to assist it in this, though it doesn't give you any direct offers quite yet- in its words, you should 'get used to the job before doing overtime'.
Incidentally, the 'payment' it refers to is in what is commonly simply called 'coins', literally power condensed into physical form, as you undertsand it. The very same ones, in fact, that it gave you while transforming you, to 'give you a leg up' as you transformed for the first time.
The things can actually empower you even now, though they seem to be much more efficient when used during the creation of something new, even if it's something as minor as pushing magic into an item to created an enchanted object- a topic 'your' Puchuu spends a significant time talking about, from the exact rates of mana efficiency to the duration coefficient significant when using copper or bronze coins.
To sum it up, copper is almost worthless, but useful when in a pinch and used right, capable of creating momentary enchantments or refilling minor amounts of mana (far less than what went into creating them, but, you know, mana transfer efficiency seems a very touchy subject). Bronze coins, on the other hand, can create longer-lasting enchantments, 'a year and a day', apparently, and be used to increase one's power marginally, but permanently.
Coppers are plentiful and easy to collect if one knows where to look, while a decent amount of bronze coins can be gathered if one knows how to.
Silver coins, the next on the list, are supposedly the main 'currency' used in important dealings, prized for the permanency of enchantments worked with them and the noticeable boons they are when consumed.
Lastly, gold coins. A rarity amongst rarities, they are hard to find and even harder to keep, with the curve of power holding true.
Exchange rates seem to vary wildly, and so your Puchuu doesn't particularly bother with them, simply exchanging money when it seems convenient.
"Anyways, puchuu, you should probably detransform. Give yourself some time to rest and recover, puchuh."
"How do I do that?" You ask, the two of you slowly approaching a bunch of suburbs, the first sign you're advancing towards civilization.
"Just think about it and look deep into your heart! Or whatever equivalent you have, chuh. The deactivation phrase should come to you by itself, just as with your transformation phrase for when you need to enter your enhanced form, puchuu."
"Threat Neutralized. Defrost." With that, a quick and simple phrase said, your costume glows a little, starting to dissolve into motes of light drifting off of you as you keep walking... revealing that you are not, in fact, wearing anything under it.
This might be a bit of a problem.
"Puchuuh, interesting. Both the phrase and the loss of clothing. It happens sometimes for first-time transformations- the clothing is absorbed into the costume, instead of being stored as an uncertain quantum state of your clothing ready to be accessed when you transform back," the Puchuu says, the only thing making this situation even slightly tenable being the fact you're fairly damn sure it doesn't care you're naked as such.
"This is still awkward and uncomfortable," you say, thinking deeply. "Where the fuck are we going to be taking clothes from?"
And just as soon as the thought comes, you see a pile of folded clothes on the ground in front of you, just lying there on the street.
"Puchuh. This looks like one of the rarer minor abilities magical girls sometimes exhibit. Summoning of clothes often considered 'stylish' or 'cute', chuh, potentially combined with body hygiene that never worsens, puh. Something to keep an eye on, puchuuh."
Taking its words for what they are, you put on the casual clothes fitting you as though tailored just for you, a pair of skinny jeans and a simple black top studded with a few obviously fake gemstones.
"At least I'm covered now," you mumble as you fight the shoes, the damn things just big enough for you to get inside. "How often does this kind of thing happen, anyways? You know, the nudity, the goblins trying to show off their miniscule manhoods?"
"Pretty often, chuuh. Magical girls are meant to face monsters, and many of them are more interested in sexual intercourse than anything else, chuuh, for one reason or another."
"..." You just hold in the urge to curse out the Puchuu, the world, the magical girl that got you into this confusing mess and yourself, too, for good measure.
Instead, you pointedly keep on walking without showing any outward signs of what you feel. "Is that the reason you use magical girls for the job?"
"Got it in one, puh-chuh. They have shown to reduce monster attacks the most, statistically, even when they fail and get taking as breeding slaves or whatever the monsters are looking for, puchuu."
You'll just... you'll just let that stand as it is for the time being.
Honestly, hearing all of that? You felt... elated, in a strange way. Really weird, yes, sure, but also just how you thought, in the end.
A whole new world had opened up for you, filled to the brim with fruit ripe for the taking. So many things to learn, to adapt to and take over! More monstrosities to measure up against and ultimately crush under the heel of her contempt!
You still remember your boss' face when you showed him the video of his wife getting gangbanged and loving it, telling him that if only, if only, if only he hadn't been such a huge asshole... It was well known around the company he slept around with the other employees' wives, after all, so why shouldn't his own wife have her own fun, too?
More than anything else, you were looking forwards to the fun to be had in a world filled to the brim with horrendous creatures to humiliate, torture and murder. Perhaps in that sense, at least, you and the Puchuu would get along.
And hey, you may be a little girl now, but that's no reason you can't just build up a lesbian harem of magical girls for yourself. Ooor...
"Hey, Puchuu, monsters wouldn't happen to not be purely male, would they? I mean, given myths of things like harpies and sirens and the like..."
"Puchuh, there are female monsters too, indeed! And even completely genderless monsters, mostly in the form of slimes and the like, though not all slimes are genderless, chuuh. That said, the vast majority of monsters are male, to the point it never really made sense to adjust the recruitment process to include other genders," the Puchuu explains.
"Figures, figures. Anyways, where exactly are we going?" You ask, seeing as even with the ability to just conjure clothes out of thin air, you can't exactly keep walking all night- you're getting tired as is.
"Puchuuh, I do happen to have a little hideout not far from here. It's not much and space may get a liitle cramped, but you can bunk with me for tonight, then look into getting something more permanent set up tomorrow before we go over your job, puuh. Unless you have another idea, chuh?"
"Sounds good enough for me. I'm not exactly spoiled for choice at the moment," you say, your voice as monotone as ever after your first use of magic- though you have recovered your usual emotional spectrum, you think, you still have the same way of speaking. "Though I am seeing things occasionally, I think they're some sort of... gateways or portals? Scattered around the city in places."
"Chuuh. Could it be you're seeing Overcity entrances? If so, that might be quite convenient. Can you see magic in general, or only those?" The Puchuu asks, sounding genuinely curious as a faint stream of mist emerges from it.
"Magic in general, I think. It was pretty confusing when I saw my own ability to see, but I think I've started to get a handle on it, at least."
"Puchuuh. Alright, in that case, we may want to look into just setting up base in the Overcity- with your ability, it might me worthwhile trying to navigate it, puchu."
"Tomorrow, though?" You ask, your limbs feeling like deadening lead- you've had quite the eventful day, you'd very much appreciate getting to rest sometime soon.
"Tomorrow, puchuu. I'll need to pack my stuff anyways."
The two of you keep walking, empty street after empty street greeting you as you shuffle through the concrete jungle of the city.
"Before I forget it, what's the Overcity? Figure it might become important," you half-say, half-mumble with a vague gesture towards the nearest glowing portal.
"The Overcity is a sideways dimension of sorts, puchuuh. It is an endless city stretching in all direction. Most of it completely empty, chuh. Every now and then, magical girls or monsters will lay claim to a place over there to use it as a base, and the Minters- the people that create coins by condensing the mana that goes into them- can be found in some places, puchuu. It's a labyrinth, though, and the way and time you go into a direction could have you end up somewhere else entirely. It's usually not worth the trouble, but with your sight, chuuh, we should be able to use it."
"Alright, something to do for tomorrow. For now, though, let's get- oh are you kidding me?"
"P'chuuh?"
"Don't tell me you actually made your lair inside an old and abandoned condom factory."
"Puchuuh, it was the perfect place to set up shop. Come on in, make yourself at home."
You just sigh.