Taylor Hebert watched, mouth agape as a honest to god portal formed in the middle of her room.
She knows about Capes and all the bullshit they can get up to.
Try as she may, she can't recall ever being acquainted to someone who has super powers so the logical conclusion is that whoever is responsible for the portal does not have good intentions.
She should be screaming and calling for her father but all she could do in that moment was look transfixed at the light blue swirling portal.
A beat passed and abruptly, someone comes out of the portal as if being thrown out, landing face first on the floor.
Taylor takes a step back and cautiously observes the person as he stirs, she is sure it's a 'he'.
As the person starts to get on his feet, Taylor finally gets the chance to observe him fully.
He is wearing a long black cloak over a white long sleeve with black trimmed edges. Black trousers and white shoes, on his left hand he holds an ornate looking staff that has intricate carvings with a gemstone resting atop it.
What stand out about him is his short white hair and amber colored eyes that seem to glow in the moonlight illuminated room.
Looking around the room, his eyes settle on her and they seemed to hold confusion for just a moment.
With exaggerated motions, he flourished his long cloak and twirled his staff, pointing it to her and said the most ridiculous thing she has ever heard.
"You are a magical girl, Taylor!"
•••
Choosing my portal point as Taylor Hebert's bedroom in the middle of the night might not have been the brightest idea, but it couldn't be helped.
My goal was to gaslight Taylor into believing she wished to be a magical girl and make her save the world through the power of friendship.
I have been in this world for around six months now and it's only today that I decided on what to do.
During those six months, I've focused solely on increasing my abilities and now that I'm confident in my repertoire, I can fuck around without consequences.
I watch as Taylor stares at me, obvious bewilderment present on her face.
She opens her mouth several times but closes it each time.
"Go on, take your time." I encourage her.
It wouldn't do for her to panic now.
She audibly inhales then exhales, then.
"What the fuck." She settles on.
"Hey, language. You are a magical girl, the image and voice of hope, don't go be cursing before you even debut." I chastise her.
Seriously, how rude.
"Wait, wait, wait, magical girl? What are you talking about? In the first place, who are you?" She fires.
"Ah, I didn't introduce myself, forgive me…"
Activating a skill called [Too cool for you], my cloak starts to flutter gently and the moonlight seemed to accentuate my figure.
"You can call me Z! I am the manifestation of the dreams of young girls such as yourself and I have come heeding your summons Taylor Hebert!" I say, putting my very perfect acting skills to use.
"I… summoned you?" She asks in a skeptical voice.
Spreading both arms wide, I respond to her.
"Of course you did! You, Taylor Hebert who seeks do away with her mundane life, you who seeks to become something bigger than what you currently are, you who hopes to make the world a better place if given the chance, despite facing bullying and discrimination, your heart is still set on a righteous path, despite being bullied by your former best friend, you have never once fought back. That is your ideal Taylor Hebert!"
With every word I say, Taylor's eyes widen.
It seems like she's really getting into it.
"You are not weak because you did not fight back! You are strong because you could put up with everything and still remain steady on your feet. Tell me honestly Taylor Hebert!"
I point my staff to her.
"Deep in your heart, what is it that you have always wished for?"
"I…" She hesitates.
"Go on, Taylor Hebert! Say it!"
At this point, I'm probably sounding like a fanatic.
"I want to be a superhero! I want to save people! I don't want to have things taken from me anymore! I don't want to give up on things just because I don't have the power to protect them!" She practically screamed out.
Oi, oi, oi, if it wasn't for my noise dampening barrier, your dad would have been here by now, you know?
Well, let the show go on.
Twirling my staff in my right hand, I grin fiercely as the gem starts to glow.
"Then… welcome to the world of magical girls, Taylor Hebert… may your ideal be forever unbroken."
A complicated expression mars her face and before she can responds, the light from my staff covers her and she goes unconscious.
Before she falls to the floor, I levitate her and place her on her bed.
Wasn't that too easy?
Was she that desperate to have powers?
Although I say that, it was actually impossible for her to refuse my offer.
Taylor right now has not gone through her trigger event so she's still susceptible to suspicious individuals like myself.
And the fact that I used a skill to make myself look cool while increasing my charisma and acting skills also helped.
Walking over to the sleeping newly minted magical girl, I hold her right hand.
Huh, would you look at that? Her ideal is『not giving up.』
How very Taylor-like.
Ehhh, her affinity is darkness… actually that's not very surprising.
Well, anyway gotta bounce… I still have two clients for today.
•••
Stepping through the portal, I come face to face with Amy Dallon who is standing back against the door, holding an IV drip stand like a sword.
"Amy Dallon, you are a magical girl!" Spreading my arms, I declare with all the grandeur in the world.
"Who the fuck are you?" She yells.
"I am—"
"I don't fucking care! I will have you know this is a violation against the unwritten rules, if anything happens to me, everyone will come after you… this locked door is your doing isn't it? Open it right now! Somebody! Help! There is a villain here!!! Help!!" She yells banging at the door with her feet while facing me.
Ehhhh, what is with this rude fellow?
I look down at my outfit.
No matter how you look at it, I don't look like a villain.
I am not even wearing a mask either, is this girl okay?
She is glaring daggers at me.
Ah, pitiful poor lamb. You have no idea being a magical girl would solve all your problems do you?
"What is with that look on your face as if you are pitying me?" She bites out.
"I am… you are very pitiful. But don't worry. You can call me Z! I am the manifestation of the dreams of girls such as yourselves. I am here to make you a magical girl." I say, smiling like a saint.
"Fuck that! If you come close to me, I will fucking give you cancer." She says as she continues to bang at the door.
Ah, this is getting nowhere.
"Okay let's cool off a bit. Time stop."
As soon as those words left my mouth, the world turned grey.
In this silent, static and timeless world, I alone remain aware of what is going on.
No matter how many times I see it, it always feels brand new to me.
Such a mesmerizing sight.
I walk over to Amy, my footsteps not producing any sound.
Amy's face is stopped mid yelling.
To be honest, she would look a lot prettier if she was less stuck up.
"Is it fun living life always that angry?" I ask poking at her cheek. It's not like she can answer me anyways.
It seems like I would have more chances seducing the Simurgh than convincing Amy to adopt an ideal in order to become a magical girl…
This would have been a dent on my plan but luckily I have just the thing. This was one of the reasons I chose such a template after all.
With a thought, a vial of bottle containing a green liquid appears on my left hand and on my right hand, a syringe appears.
What am I about to do, you ask?
If I can't convince her to become a magical girl, I am going to make her one manually duh!
Creating this potion was… actually easy, what was difficult is the fact that I had to specify every single effect on it.
Filling the syringe with the contents of the vial, I equip a lab coat in order to get in the mood.
"Alright, one new magical girl, coming right up!"
Compressing the syringe to remove the air from it, I slowly inject the contents into a vein on Amy's arm.
Patting my back for a job well done, I walk over to where I had been standing before I stopped time then released my control on it.
"Congratulations Amy Dallon, you are now a magical girl." I start clapping my hands.
"Omedetou, omedetou, omedetou, omedetou."
"Wha-what the fuck did you do to me?!" She asks looking at her hands.
"I'm sorry but I'm not taking questions right now… anyways, you should know how to transform already." Saying so, my staff appears on my hand and starts glowing.
"Wai-" Amy says, rushing to me but the light from my staff is faster and she goes unconscious.
I levitate her to the hospital bed in the room.
I'm such a good guy, letting the tired healer take a nap.
I won't be able to know Amy's ideal until she goes through a Henshin at least once since I made her a magical girl manually, unlike Taylor.
Now then, my final client for the night.
•••
As I step through the portal, a surprising sight greets me.
Dinah Alcott is in her room, sitting before a table and a cup of hot tea? is before her and on the other side of the table is an empty chair and a cup of hot tea? as well.
Oh, so she anticipated my arrival.
My Information defense is currently set to allow neutral parties but only if they have no intentions of using such information against me.
"I'm surprised that you were waiting for me." I say as I say as I catwalk to the table.
"You can talk?" She asks, surprise on her face.
Ah, you see, I realized that maybe Amy would have agreed to become a magical girl if I had used a mascot form so I am now using one now.
I am currently a white bipedal cat wearing a black robe with my shrunk staff in my hand.
"Of course I can, I wouldn't be a mascot if I couldn't right?" I say to the surprisingly calm girl as I take a seat.
"I see… the numbers are weird with you." She says as she walks over to me and picks me up.
"Nyan?" I respond.
Sitting back on her side of the table with me on her lap, she draws the cup of tea closer as she starts to pet my fluffy fur.
Yare, yare, the ladies just can't get enough of me huh?
"You are very cute." She says.
"Of course I am, there is nothing in the world cuter than I the mascot…" I respond to her.
"Anyway, the numbers are weird… how so?" I ask taking the cup of tea (yep, definitely tea) before me.
"Only two questions worked when I asked. "What are the odds I would get kidnapped today?" The answer was 8% and the second question was "What are the odds that someone will help me if I stay home today?" The answer was 94%" She says with a weary voice.
As she said that, I realized something.
We are currently having a tea party, which means she had to have known I was coming.
"The tea is hot, how did you know I was coming?" I ask taking another sip.
I wonder if she made this herself, it's pretty good.
"The odds of someone helping me if I stayed home today was 94%. I asked that question in the morning. I have been in my room all day, brewing tea every thirty minutes."
Oh… wow. Talk about commitment.
"I see. Your resolve is very strong." I say to her honestly.
In response, she sighs as she rests her chin on my head, my ears twitches. "Resolve? I don't think so. I am really scared… ever since I got my powers, I've been really scared, it feels like the world is blatantly telling me that I can't do anything. I don't have any resolve… I just want things to go back to normal." She says.
Oi! How old are you again? Why are you acting like an old lady who has seen everything in life.
That's not the right attitude for a magical girl you know.
"Hmmm… things going back to normal means you don't have to worry about some kidnapping attempt huh, in other words when things were peaceful. So you want to protect your peace then… I see, I see." I nod to myself as I cross my arms.
"If you could take away my powers…" She says, letting the unfinished sentence hang in the air.
"Nonsense! I'm here to make you a magical girl, not a magicless one." I say, offended.
"Wha… a magical girl? Like in TVs and stuffs?" She asks.
"Oh? Are you excited about it?" I nod my head. "Umu, umu, that is the right attitude after all… becoming a magical girl, spreading love, hope and friendship, what is there not to like about it?"
I hop off her lap as she watches me with curious eyes.
"Now, young Dinah, a question for you." I say as my staff appears in my hand, glowing.
"Do you want to become a magical girl? No that's not right… what are the odds of you becoming a magical girl?" I ask, a smirk on my face.
"…95%" She responds, wide eyed.
"Let's make that 100% shall we?"
As Dinah falls unconscious, I levitate her to her bed, she has dark circles on her eyes and I can tell she has overused her ability, and she was actively using it even as we were talking.
Casting a healing spell to assuage her headaches, I hold her hand.
Ah, what a lovely ideal.『Protection』and her element is water. How nice.
Nodding to myself, I walk over to the table and finish my tea in one swig as a portal manifests in the room then I step in it, leaving Dinah to her sleep.
•••
Appearing inside my apartment, I transform back into my normal form as I take a seat on the throne like chair I created some months ago.
You might be wondering what was the reason for all this act I put on tonight.
The answer is nothing complicated.
It's entertainment.
My goal is easy.
I am going to make these newly minted magical girls resonate deeply with their Ideals while creating bonds amongst themselves or other people they consider friends.
And when they get strong enough, the final boss would appear.
Who is the final boss, you ask?
Scion? Bah! As if.
It's me, of course.
Think about it, the same guy who gave them magical powers turning out to be the bad guy, I can't wait for how they would react to it.
Although it's kinda cliche yeah but I'm going to act that cliche dammit!
Well, I wouldn't actually be hiding though, I am going to be acting as the mascot while also being the final boss… umu, my genius is frightening.
Now then.
We have the magical girl who genuinely wants to do good, Taylor Hebert.
The magical girl who is a grumpy, snarky, gremlin healer who is tired of everyone's shit, Amy Dallon.
And then, the magical girl who is craving normality, Dinah Alcott.
Something is missing.
Something that will make the magical girls grow, something that will keep them on their toes and make them spread love, hope and friendship.
I snap my fingers.
That's it!
What is missing is monsters of the week and I know exactly how to procure it.
[Skill created: Monster creation]
Now then magical girls, make this interesting for me.
Hehe… heheh… muahahahahahahahahah…
Coughs… coughs…
Okay, okay, too soon.