Mawata held the mask lovingly against her chest, but her gaze was still fixed on Nadeshiko.
Nadeshiko is… so small, her eyes sparkle, she’s super cute…
The broom inside her field of vision twitched slightly.
“Ah! Nadeshiko, behind you!”
Mawata cried out as the broom behind them suddenly stood upright and flew straight at the two of them.
Nadeshiko twisted aside on pure instinct, trying to dodge the attack, but she never expected Mawata to throw herself at her and pin her to the bed.
The broom skimmed over their heads and thunked into the wall like an arrow leaving the string.
The hood slipped off from Mawata’s huge movement, revealing a pair of fluffy cat ears, and a tail slipped out from the hem of her clothes and wrapped around Nadeshiko’s calf.
“Mawata… you’re on my hair.”
After a long silence, Nadeshiko spoke.
Only then did Mawata realize how suggestive their positions were.
Her left leg rested lightly on Nadeshiko’s lower abdomen, while her right leg had spread Nadeshiko’s legs apart, their graceful curves tangled together.
As for her hands, they formed a small cage that forced their eyes to meet.
“I’m sorry…!” Mawata scrambled up at once, the tail behind her lashing uneasily in wide arcs.
Mawata is a cat-eared monster…? But why does she have such a strong magic source?
Nadeshiko looked over Mawata’s cat ears and the swaying tail.
“Um… Nadeshiko, please listen to my explanation…”
She drew a deep breath, clutched at her chest, and seemed to steel herself.
“I… I’m a magical girl!”
“Huh?”
The question slipped out of Nadeshiko’s mouth before she could stop it.
“This… this is my staff.”
Afraid Nadeshiko wouldn’t believe her, Mawata pulled the broom out of the wall and held it out in front of her.
“I named her Little Sleepy… The mess in the living room earlier was all Little Sleepy’s doing… I can also use Little Sleepy to cast magic!”
Mawata pulled a stack of cards from her pocket and held them out to Nadeshiko with both hands.
What is this… Cardcaptor Sakura?
Nadeshiko quickly pushed the cards back.
“No, no… I don’t doubt you, Mawata. I was just thinking, is it really okay for you to tell me this?”
“It’s fine… because Nadeshiko is my friend.”
Mawata answered, and her tail quietly wrapped around Nadeshiko’s arm again.
We’ve known each other for less than a day… This kid seems really easy to trick.
Nadeshiko thought, and a heavy stone in her heart finally settled.
“But ever since I transformed for the first time, the cat ears and tail haven’t gone away… and Little Sleepy flies around out of control every now and then…”
So that’s it… another case of magic going berserk?
But I definitely can’t just kiss a shy kid like this straight on. What should I do?
Nadeshiko thought for a moment, then said,
“Mawata, can you transform for me?”
Mawata hesitated, then still raised the broom and lightly swept a card across the upper part of it.
Star-dust flashed, and the broom burst with a dazzling radiance that lit up the entire room, so bright Nadeshiko had to shield her eyes.
The white light slowly faded.
The girl’s oversized hoodie had become a light, fluttery little dress trimmed with ruffles, star ornaments swaying at the hem.
A big bow was tied around her tail, and a huge wide-brimmed witch’s hat sat on her head, specially cut out to leave her cat ears exposed.
“How is it…?” Mawata twisted her body uneasily.
“Mawata is super cute. It suits you so— well!”
Nadeshiko circled Mawata once and answered from the heart.
Another punching bag for later. How wonderful.
“Um… Mawata, can you take me flying?”
Nadeshiko pointed at Little Sleepy and pressed her palms together in a plea.
“I want to try how it feels to fly over the city, too—”
Being able to transform into a magical girl in front of someone she liked already had Mawata a little floaty.
Seeing Nadeshiko plead like that, she naturally tossed all reason out the window.
“Okay…”
Mawata reached toward Little Sleepy, and the broom slowly floated up from the floor.
Seeing that, Nadeshiko sat sidesaddle on it like a lady.
“Nadeshiko… you have to hold on tight, okay? If you’re scared, tell me.”
Mawata thought for a moment and added,
“You can hold my tail…”
“Okay—” Nadeshiko agreed offhandedly and grabbed Mawata’s tail in one go.
The girl’s body jerked as if she had been shocked, the tips of her ears already scarlet.
In a bit I’ll pretend I accidentally fall off the broom. Then Mawata will have to save me and that will force out her potential, so she can control her magic!
Where Mawata couldn’t see, Nadeshiko wore a just-as-planned smile.
The broom carried the two of them slowly into the air and out the window.
—
A few dozen minutes earlier, elsewhere.
Sakuraraku and Seika had decided that tonight they would bring that cat-eared monster to justice… no, hold a proper talk with that newly awakened magical girl.
They had requested aid from the Demon Hunting Division Intelligence Department.
With a tracking device, the two of them had sneaked and hidden the whole way until they finally found the target’s location.
“It’s so close to the school. She wouldn’t happen to go to Hoshisaki Girls’ Middle School too, would she?”
Seika asked.
“Amashiro Mawata… I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere…”
Sakuraraku looked at the name on the doorplate and thought.
“Looks like she’s still inside. Why don’t we hide in that tree first and watch the situation?”
Seika suggested.
It was a tree several meters tall with dense leaves, more than enough to hide two people.
The two of them climbed the branches nimbly and crouched there, watching the house through gaps in the foliage.
“Wait… that’s Nadeshiko!?”
Sakuraraku shook Seika beside her and pointed toward the end of the street.
Nadeshiko was walking toward them, holding something in her arms.
“Nadeshiko didn’t go home?”
Seika frowned, a faint unease stirring in her chest.
While they were talking, Nadeshiko was already standing at Mawata’s front door.
She knocked, the door opened a crack, Nadeshiko leaned in, and she started chatting with the person inside.
“Nadeshiko knows that person…?”
Shock flashed through both their minds, but the angle only let them see a blurry silhouette.
After another exchange, the door finally opened all the way and Nadeshiko went inside.
“Nadeshiko went in!”
Sakuraraku said in surprise.
A room on the second floor lit up.
Clearly they had gone upstairs.
Then came the crash of shattering glass, and both girls’ hearts leapt into their throats.
“Is there a fight inside?”
Sakuraraku already couldn’t hold back from charging in, but Seika beside her held her down.
“Don’t rush. She shouldn’t go so far as to attack Nadeshiko.”
“But…”
Sakuraraku wanted to argue, but in the end she decided to wait and see.
The window opened.
That Mawata seemed to have already transformed into her magical girl form, identical to the photo.
She rode the broom with Nadeshiko sitting behind her, and the two of them rose slowly into the sky.
“Where is she taking Nadeshiko!?”
Sakuraraku watched with her own eyes as Nadeshiko was carried into the air by that cat-eared magical girl and shouted in anxiety.
“Hurry and follow them!”
Seika shot a thread from her bow.
The two of them walked along the thread onto the roof and ran after the direction Nadeshiko had left.