Chapter 1: Random Female Teacher

Haibara’s teaching record in high school was far from impressive.

As a Japanese-language instructor at Kaedehara High, her academic background was nothing remarkable, and her teaching résumé was equally lackluster. Although she was considered young among high school teachers, she always gave off an unassuming, forgettable impression.

Her personality was terribly dull as well, and since she taught a subject like “Japanese,” she was not particularly popular with the students.

Gloomy and boring, wearing thick round glasses, always looking lazy and indifferent. Her classes had no passion to speak of, and she basically showed no concern for her students.

By every measure, she was an utterly ordinary teacher.

Supposedly, she was already close to thirty this year, and had still never dated anyone.

“All right, that’s enough for today’s lesson. For the rest of class, do self-study. Start working on your homework.”

At the podium stood a slightly gloomy-looking woman in glasses. Even dressed in proper work attire, she could not hide her overly thin, delicate figure. Her entire being carried a bleak, listless air.

Although she was a teacher, she gave off the decadent feeling of a failed adult.

She tossed the chalk back onto the desk and spoke in a voice utterly devoid of motivation.

This year, Haibara had become the homeroom teacher of Class 1-4.

As a result, her reputation had sunk even lower.

Because Class 1-4’s truancy rate was disastrously high.

But Haibara did not think this was a problem with her teaching ability or classroom management.

No.

It was because of a group of utterly terrible problem children.

Haibara had only just been about to sit down and rest when a dry, hoarse girl’s voice disturbed her thoughts.

“Teacher, my stomach hurts.”

The moment she heard that girl’s voice, Haibara’s gaze turned cold.

The one who had spoken was a pale, cool-featured girl with a slender, delicate body and short black hair. She wore the standard black-and-white sailor uniform of a Japanese high school girl.

“May I go to the bathroom?” she asked, a little embarrassed.

The girl’s tone was polite and calm, making her look every bit like an exemplary student.

“So it’s your turn this time?”

Teacher Haibara did not immediately agree. She merely asked in her usual indifferent tone,

“Kirishima, do you have stomach problems? How many times has it been now that you’ve said your stomach hurts?”

Teacher Haibara’s voice remained utterly unmotivated.

Kirishima’s face flushed faintly, but there was an indescribable anxiety in her eyes.

“Yes… teacher.”

That was right. In Haibara’s class, there existed a group of problem children.

And all of them were girls.

They clearly looked very well-behaved. They did not wear makeup, did not dye their hair, usually did their homework properly, and their grades were not bad either. Yet they were always skipping class for no reason.

It was as if they had discussed it with one another in advance. Every few days, one of them would suddenly claim to have a stomachache and ask to leave, then vanish for more than half the class.

If asked what exactly they had been doing, they would even cover for one another.

Kirishima Ai was the worst of those girls.

Although she was known as a quiet, aloof beauty beyond reach, a perfect all-rounder in both academics and athletics, to Teacher Haibara, Kirishima Ai was nothing more than a problem child through and through.

“Go.”

Haibara seemed to have given up.

“Thank you, teacher.”

Kirishima Ai gave a bow, then hurried out. The other students in the classroom showed no reaction at all. They were clearly already used to it.

Most likely, Haibara would not see this child again until the end of class.

She sat down and returned to her state of total resignation.

The students continued working on their homework, while Haibara had nothing to do.

However, after she opened her phone, a breaking news alert suddenly popped up.

“Emergency notice: A kaijin has appeared in the Xingge Street area of Kaedehara City. Citizens are advised to take care!”

……

Yes.

Kaijin existed in this world.

They were born from humanity’s ugly emotions and fed on human fear and despair.

That was why they were destroyers of urban peace. Enemies of mankind.

They were often impervious to blades and bullets, and possessed all kinds of strange and terrifying abilities. Even the police could do nothing about them.

Fortunately, kaijin also had their natural enemies.

Magical girls.

“Damn magical girl!”

The once-bustling Xingge Street had now been reduced to ruins. Twisted thorny vines and murky black oil covered the ground.

An extremely bizarre creature had collapsed there.

Its entire body was covered in thorny brambles, as though it were a sculpture forged from thorns. Its body was tall, but its waist and limbs were abnormally thin, giving it an alien, unsettling shape.

Its head wore a pale human-face mask, hollow and cold. But after an intense battle, a long crack had appeared in it, stretching from the eye down to the chin.

“Thorn Kaijin, this is the end. I, Magical Girl Silverwing, will put a stop to your evil deeds.”

Before the kaijin, a dazzling figure slowly approached.

It was a girl, like an angel descended to earth, and also like the most radiant of stars.

She wore a magnificent dress, silver-white as its base, decorated with all kinds of brilliant colors. Layers of delicate gauze fell just to her thighs, outlining the girl’s charm together with her short skirt.

Her hair was even more dreamlike, a vivid silver-blue.

This girl was the guardian of the city, Magical Girl Silverwing.

In only a little more than ten minutes, this magical girl had defeated the Thorn Kaijin that had been destroying the city.

“Don’t get so cocky, magical girl!”

When the Thorn Kaijin spoke, the pale human-face mask did not move at all, making it seem even more eerie.

“Then next time, have one of your Black Death Apostles’ officers come find me.”

Magical Girl Silverwing raised her hand, and the magic wand in her grasp bloomed with radiant light.

Her time was almost up. The magical girl decided to end the battle quickly and unleashed her special move.

This was her final strike.

“Hmph. Next time, I won’t let you win so easily!”

The Thorn Kaijin spat out one final threat.

In the next instant, its entire body was swallowed by blinding light, and its form rapidly collapsed.

Slowly, the light faded. The Thorn Kaijin’s body had vanished as well, leaving only the magical girl standing there, looking down at the spot where it had just been.

“How strange. It didn’t leave behind a crystal…”

The magical girl looked confused.

All kaijin, after being defeated, would leave behind a crystalline substance containing the energy gathered from the human emotions they had absorbed.

After a magical girl defeated a kaijin, the negative emotions within the crystal would be purified, leaving behind only pure positive energy.

The purified crystal would become new power for the magical girl, making her stronger.

In the past, every enemy Magical Girl Silverwing had defeated had left behind this kind of trophy. So why had there been nothing this time?

Could it be… that the Thorn Kaijin was not dead yet?

“What a headache. My transformation time is up, so I’d better hide first. How am I supposed to explain this to Teacher Haibara when I get back?”

The magical girl sighed, then cast her final spell, transforming herself into a ball of light and vanishing from the spot.

After she disappeared, the light scattered into countless white feathers that drifted down to the ground.

When those feathers touched the surface, they melted into liquid light, repairing the ruins destroyed by the kaijin.

Before long, the damaged street was restored, and everything returned to its peaceful original state.

……

In a dark and silent corner, a seed quietly began to sprout and grow. Soon, several dull gray thorns shot out from it, gradually weaving a slender, eerie humanoid form out of nothing.

“Damn magical girl…”

This monster was none other than the Thorn Kaijin that had been defeated by the magical girl not long ago.

After its failure, it began to reflect on its actions. It felt that it had still been too reckless. It had only just matured, yet it had already gone impatiently rushing off to wreak destruction.

It should have continued developing for a while longer. Once it had fully mastered its own power, it would no longer need to fear magical girls.

Its most urgent priority right now was to find a few more humans and absorb their emotions.

However, just as it raised its head and prepared to leave, it discovered that someone had appeared at the entrance of the alley at some point.

That person stood with her back to the sunlight, her face shrouded in shadow. But it could tell she was a human woman, and she did not seem special in any way.

Yet after seeing it, this young woman actually continued approaching. That allowed the Thorn Kaijin to see her appearance more clearly.

She looked like a somewhat gloomy woman in glasses. She was fairly tall. Other than that, even though she was standing right in front of it, it was somehow difficult to say what exactly she looked like.

She seemed like the kind of ordinary background woman one could find anywhere.

An ordinary human had seen it and did not run away?

How truly… suicidal.

“To think you were defeated so easily by one of my students. How weak. Are the kaijin created by the Black Death Apostles only at this level now?”

The woman spoke in a decadent, low, hoarse voice.

“You know about the Black Death Apostles? Who are you?”

The Thorn Kaijin felt a trace of doubt.

“How disappointing. I was hoping you could defeat her, make her give up on her dream of being a magical girl, and obediently come back to class.”

As the woman in glasses said those incomprehensible words, she continued approaching the Thorn Kaijin.

“Wait. This aura… How is that possible?”

The Thorn Kaijin raised its hand, intending to attack this human, but suddenly felt an immense sense of wrongness.

“No. Don’t tell me you’re…”

Through those stiff, thick black-rimmed glasses, the woman stared at the Thorn Kaijin with hollow black eyes. She did not answer its question.

She merely said calmly,

“Transform.”

In the next instant, endless black mist surged out from behind her, swallowing her whole like a greedy demon.

Then, the ordinary background woman vanished. In her place, a slender and elegant figure stepped out from the black mist.

It seemed to be the figure of a tall, slender woman, but her entire body was wrapped in strange, indistinct black fog, making it impossible for the Thorn Kaijin to see her exact appearance.

The Thorn Kaijin froze. The sight before its eyes completely overturned everything it knew.

But before it could react, the female figure wreathed in black mist disappeared from its sight.

By the time the Thorn Kaijin came to its senses, its neck had been seized by a terrifyingly immense force. That strength was at least dozens of times greater than Magical Girl Silverwing’s.

It felt its feet leave the ground.

The Thorn Kaijin had been grabbed by the neck, its entire body lifted into the air like a helpless chick.

“Cough, cough! You… what exactly are you…?”

Caught in that terrifying grip, it could not move at all.

The Thorn Kaijin looked at this mysterious existence in fear, its voice trembling uncontrollably.

This was a magical girl.

And not only that, she was a magical girl many times more powerful than Silverwing.

But this aura… why was it even more evil than its own?

“As you can see, I am a magical girl,” the woman said coldly, her entire body radiating ominous black mist.

“Only, I’m the villainess kind.”