The sun beats down relentlessly. The gaze of the crowd is unwavering, few daring to take a breath. The grassy pitch is continually torn up. This is the reality of the heated soccer match between Mitakihara and Aozakura High School. The score is 0-1, in favor of Aozakura.

No one wanted to lose.

"Go, Madoka! We're counting on you!" Mitakihara's bench cheered.

At the center of it all is one Madoka Kaname, A second year highschool student representing Mitakihara High. Sweat pools down her face, yet with a determined gleam in her focused red eyes, she dribbles down the field while avoiding the enemy team.

"If we can win, we'll go to nationals. I won't let my team... my friends down!"

Madoka makes it to the goal, her eyes only seeing the back of the net. This was it! This was where her team would make it to the nationals, and she would make sure of it! She plants her foot, priming herself to score...

"Madoka! I'm free!"

Her focus snaps in two. Her head swivels to the girl asking for a pass.

"Natsume-Chan?"

"Remember, Kaname! It's one for all and all for one! Go for the goal!" One of the coaches yells, familiar with Madoka's overly giving nature. If she gave up the goal, it'd be the end of them.

"Soccer is a sport where eleven people work together to win!" Madoka thought resolutely, before passing the ball to Kako Natsume. The blue-green haired girl messed up her shot, hitting the edge of the goal.

"NO!" Madoka shouted, a mix of shock and alarm all over her face. An opposing player catches the ball, as Aozakura goes on the counter-attack. The ball eventually lands in possession of Mito Aino, a second year highschool student and the star player representing Aozakura high.

"STOP THEM!" One of the girls on Mitakihara cried desperately, but it wasn't going to help them against the sweeping counter-attack. Mito giggled as she took her shot, the ball curving around the goalie before she could react and impacting the net. The final whistle sounded as the game ended with a score of 0 - 2.

The players on Aozakura High laughed and hollered as they celebrated by lifting up Mito's smaller frame, tossing her up and down. On the opposing side, the players on Mitakihara High were sprawled out across the field and trying to catch their breath, defeated.

"I'm sorry! If only I'd… scored…." Kako buried her head in her hands, overwhelming guilt coursing through her.

"It isn't your fault, Natsumi-Chan…." A hand was placed on her shoulder. Multiple girls of the team surrounded and tried to comfort her, though clearly still reeling from the loss themselves. Madoka sat by herself as she caught her breath, desperately holding her tears back on the crowded field. Mito gave a cheeky grin and waved to the audience calling out and chanting her name. Shortly after, she was interviewed at the scene of the game.

"Mito, people call you the gem of Japanese Women's soccer. You were even called up to play for the U-18 team." Mito's expression evened out to a soft smile before she spoke, her brown eyes filled with light that blinded those around with her positivity. "Well, right now I'm focused on winning with these guys. I'd never leave my friends behind, y'know? I'm here now because of them."

Mitakihara, on the other hand, had little reason for such joy.

"You guys put up a good fight. Instead of moping, we should be proud of the days we fought together as a team. One day, we'll all look back on this loss…." The coach started to tear up alongside the rest of the team. "and know… It wasn't for nothing….!" As the rest of the team bawled their eyes out, Madoka kept her arms behind her back, light tears falling from her eyes and sobs escaping her throat.

6:23 PM, Mitakihara City

Madoka was walking down one of many sidewalks in Mitakihara city, Sayaka Miki by her side and keeping her company after the devastating loss.

"Come on, Madoka… We can go down to the arcade with Hitomi!" Sayaka tried to distract her from the game earlier in the day, though it had no effect.

"I'm sorry, Mom… I'm sorry, Dad…. I'm sorry, Tatsuya… And I'm sorry, Kagami-Sama… I won't ever be…"

A young Madoka watched on TV as her idol and Europe's best female Soccer player, Kagami Masara, scored yet another effortless goal.

"A star like you."

The waterworks came pouring out of her eyes as she broke down, Sayaka gently leading her to sit down on a nearby bench before rubbing circles on her back.

"If this is what Soccer can do to my friends…." Sayaka glared at the sky, silently making a new resolution.

"Then I'll become the second best in the world… If only to make sure that Madoka isn't alone."

7 PM, Kaname Residence

Madoka closed the door behind her as she walked in, her tear-stained eyes glued to the floor. Soccer was an eleven man sport… it was all about teamwork, wasn't it? She couldn't have won if she just tried to score all by herself.

"Welcome back, Madoka! How'd the game-?" Tomohisa stopped when he took in her appearance, coming closer to rest his hands on her shoulders. "Madoka, look at me." She slowly raised her head, meeting his gaze with a dejected expression. Her pink eyes, once sparkling and full of life, only reflected a dull haze now.

"We lost, dad… I'm sorry… If only I'd… We'd…" She murmured, coming close to tears again. They were halted in their tracks as he pulled her into a tender embrace. "Don't be sorry about it, honey. Think of this as a learning experience rather than a failure. Come over here, something arrived in the mail that'll make your day…"

They stood in the living room a few minutes later. "Here, read it." Tomohisa handed her a folded paper. Madoka opened it, her eyes widening. "What…?"

MADOKA KANAME
You have been selected to become a certified athlete

"A certified…. athlete?" She had failed- "No," she corrected herself. Their team had lost. They had lost their chance to get into the nationals. In what world would a loser be sought out?... "Why… Me?"
"Madoka! Best Striker!" Tatsuya happily giggled. She looked at her little brother, watching as he clapped and laughed as if nothing else mattered. The edges of the paper in her hands bent and crumpled. She wouldn't run.

A FEW DAYS LATER

8 AM, Japan Football Union

Madoka glanced down at the letter and then up at the supposed entrance to the JFU. She winced slightly as the strong wind blew her pigtails to the side, the hustle of daily city life filling her ears. "Is this… the right place?" Uncertainty clouded her features.

"Hey! Kaname-Chan, right? Good game the other day!" Madoka swiftly turned, facing the voice that had been stuck in her head ever since Mitakihara lost. She spotted the girl with brown hair and a bun on both sides of her hair, an infectious smile on her face: Mito Aino. Letting go of past grudges, she smiled back and stood next to her. "Y-Yeah… um… Aino-San."

Mito patted her on the back. "No need to be so formal. Aino's fine. You know, you've got a good perspective on the best places to score from. I've seen you score from across the field. If we were on the same team, you'd hit some killer passes!"

"Oh, thank you." Madoka blushed at the praise, quite a bit surprised that Mito was being so friendly with her off the bat. Her expression evened out to a smile. "Aino Mito is really complimenting me?"
"Nice to meet you, Kaname-Chan! Come on, let's go!" Mito beckoned Madoka to follow with a wave of her hand, before they both entered the building.

"This seems to be the place…" Mito mused, observing the dull brown walls that surrounded the bright, medium sized room. Madoka paled as she noticed how many people were packed into the room, all of them turning to stare at the newcomers. She shrunk back a bit, subtly hiding behind Mito despite the fact she was taller than her. Mito spotted a dark blonde girl with a gray pin in her hair at one of the far corners with seemingly no interest in being here. She was more focused on staying awake, very clearly holding back yawns. She was accompanied by a dark blue haired woman with an elegant look and aura to her, dressed in a similarly colored robe with her long hair tied in twintails behind her back.

"Woah… Talk about a ton of girls." Mito said, pointing out the obvious. "I see some people I recognize here… That's one of Kamihama's star players, Mitsuki Felicia." She was referring to the blonde haired girl, her long locks held in a lengthy purple robe/hood. "They even have Yui Tsuruno, the 'Marta of Kamihama' here.." The lively orange-brown haired girl held her smile, relaxing amidst the crowd.

As Madoka looked around, she slowly realized something. "Isn't everyone here a forward…?" She was losing it, right? The indisputable truth was that Soccer was a team sport. Everyone had their own roles to fill, coming together to collectively lead the team to victory. The lights dimmed, and the chatter silenced itself. "Congratulations, Magical girls." The "pit, pat" of a small animal's footsteps rang out from the stage, before a small white creature revealed itself. A light shined down on the being, illuminating its form before the crowd. It took its seat on the floor, focusing its beady red eyes on the audience. One universal thought made itself known in everyone's head: "What the hell is that thing?"

"Why did I call you 'Magical girls'? Because you three hundred eighteen and under strikers are the magic that will bring Japanese soccer to the World Cup! I am Kyubey, the incubator here to make sure Japan wins the Women's World Cup."
"What'd it just say? Wins… the world cup?" Madoka thought in stunned silence. Many others began to murmur amongst themselves. A similar looking Incubator, its beady eyes and highlights/features a light green, watched from out of sight on the left side of the stage.

"There's only one thing the entirety of Japanese soccer needs to become the best in the world: The birth of the best and revolutionary striker. To that end, this is an experiment designed to turn one of you 300 'Magical girls' into the women's- no, the world's best striker. That's what this facility is for!" A logo with a yellow clock and wings appeared on the large white doors behind Kyubey, with the large words 'MAGIA LOCK' spanning across it.

"Magia Lock". Starting today, you all will live here together and undergo the special training we've conceived. You won't be allowed to go home, and starting now, your lives will be soccer! If you manage to survive and beat the other 299 'Magical girls' here, you will become the world's best striker. That's all. Nice to meet you!" The lights brightened as the presentation ended.

The audience was stunned in place, trying to process the words of the strange creature before them. "Soccer's … a team sport, isn't it? Why would we fight to survive?" Madoka blankly looked down, a hand on her face. The incubator's presentation had gone against everything she stood for. It just… didn't make sense!

Mito held up a hand as she began to speak, with a far more serious expression than those who knew her were used to seeing. "I can't agree to the conditions you're forcing here. Each of us have teams that are important to us, not to mention tournaments such as the nationals to attend. I'm not abandoning my friends to participate in this barbaric program of yours."

Multiple girls in the crowd voiced their agreement.
"Yeah. We've got Nationals, too!" "Why would we live here, away from home?"
"Who and what even are you supposed to be?"
"We demand to speak to a human being. You know, the species that invented and plays soccer?"

Kyubey simply flicked its ears before speaking again. "'Lock off.' Anyone who wants to leave can go. Those who think so highly of friendship in soccer don't belong here. Becoming the number one high school in this country isn't worth more than becoming the world's best striker. Let me ask you all something:. What is soccer? Is it really about eleven people working as a team? Valuing your bonds and friendships? Self-sacrifice? Playing for your 'friends?' This is why Japan's soccer is weak. Soccer is about scoring more goals than your opponent. Whoever scores the most is the best." Kyubey said it all as if it was nothing but fact. There was not an ounce of respect in its beady eyes for the beliefs it was shaking and shattering. "Those here to play and have fun with your friends, 'lock off'."

"W-What's with that thing? It's spouting nonsense!" Madoka thought to herself, believing they were listening to the ramblings of a lunatic. There was no world, no universe, even, where this sport was about "scoring the most." What team could form out of that? What team could win competitions like that?

Mito clenched her fists.

"You're wrong. Take it back. There's many athletes on the women's Japanese team that I respect. They all work together to be the best, and all of us here grew up watching them fight as eleven! That's the reason they're stars!" Her brown eyes were ablaze with anger and indignation, unable to believe the audacity of this white 'thing'.

Kyubey sighed, as if it were talking to a child. "See, that's the reason they've never won the world cup. You need more than that to become the best in the world." It tilted its head.

'Instead of assisting my teammates to win 1 - 0, it fills me with much more excitement to pull off a hat-trick and lose the game 3 - 4.' These are the words of the women's best striker, Kagami Masara, who beat both Marta and Aitana Bonmatí."

Madoka's eyes widened in further disbelief. That… that couldn't be real. No, it wasn't real. There's no way Kagami-Sama would say or believe in something that selfish. Madoka shook her head. No way.

"Minami Rena also said, 'I don't care about my team. I just need to stand out!' You think that's just awful, right? That's the mentality of the best. They're extraordinary egoists! This is what Japanese soccer is missing." Kyubey's lifeless, beady eyes somehow grew more dull. "You won't become the world's best striker if you aren't the world's biggest egoist."

Madoka was pale, cold beads of sweat on her face. Was this… what Soccer really was? Was this all she would ever amount to if she remained the way she was? "The things this creature is saying… are wrong. Someone who will stand on 299 others. A lone hero. I just… there's no way I could ever do that." The massive doors behind Kyubey opened.

"Now, abandon all of your common sense. On the field, you're the star. This is what it means to be a striker."

"But… I don't want to lose like that ever again!" In her mind, Madoka ran through the events of that damn game, that game of a few days ago. The game where she and her team were crushed and reduced to tears in front of everyone and everything they had known. She clenched her fists, eyes filling with steely, burning resolve, as if they were lit with pink flames. "If it means that never happens again… if it means I can stop that from ever becoming reality.."

With a burst of speed, Madoka was the first to run towards the large, imposing doors. "I'll do it! I'll be my team's striker!"

"I'll be my team's hero!"

"Fine! I'll play this game of yours, you freak!"
"Me too!" Soon, everyone was storming through the doors after Madoka. Mito eventually caved, rushing in after everyone if only to prove the incubator's idea of Soccer wrong. Kyubey sat stationary, its eyes silently roving its selected players as the foot stomps of the crowd filled the air.

"Shall we begin then, 'Magical girls'?"