Jane was a friend and a nice person. She was with me throughout my beginning days. Long straight black hair, light brown eyes, and light tan skin. She resembled one of those cold beauties. Though, the bags under her eyes made her look less like the cold beauty and more like the cold-looking but actually aloof type. Her actual personality is a mix of an emo and one of those friendly store workers.

If you're wondering when the actual Magical Girl stuff starts happening, it won't happen yet. I didn't start my adventure out by defeating or meeting some kind of monster like those in manga and shows. I started out slow with no instructions at all on how to even use any magic besides the transforming and un-transforming. Still, as stories go, and like what I said before, things did not stay this way.

...

....In fact, I just forgot what I was about to say. Well, I really didn't. As it stands right now, I don't know if learning to fight monsters was a good thing or not. But it certainly felt good! I get to save so many people because of it! I also screwed myself completely...

....but I guess it had to happen eventually, right? If it didn't, a lot more people would have been dead. We're not selfish-...I'm not selfish...

...No, we're not selfish. Me and Dukha had a new duty and job to do, and we were just going to do it. I did focus on the future, but never focused on the right things for myself.

 

 

. . . .

 

 

Since I had no money and nowhere to go, my boss, Morgan, allowed me to sleep in the back, also known as the shipping room since this is where the trucks drop off the supplies and where the supplies are stored. For reasons I didn't ask, Morgan already had a green sleeping bag and two pillows waiting in the back by a heater. Next to the heater was a fan I could turn on at any time in case I got too hot. I thanked her and watched her leave through one of the two backdoors. Jane had already left after she me the basics. Since I don't start working until midday tomorrow, and because it was also midnight, I settled down to sleep. Or at least try to. I was never one to fall asleep fast unless I was sick or took some medicine. 

After waiting a good ten minutes or so. I couldn't exactly tell since I didn't have a phone, a watch, nor night vision to see a clock...if there even was one in here, I got up and cupped my hands around my mouth.

"Dukha!? Where are you?" I called out, my voice barely above a whisper in case Morgan was still outside. 

My call was answered almost immediately. Out from the shadows emerged one cute no-eyes rabbit plushie. Dukha was bouncing, obviously excited to see me again. They ran over and jumped into my arms, snuggling up to me like my dogs would back at...home....

Immediately, a frown formed on my face. It seemed my mood even affected Dukha as they too seem to pause in their snuggles. I don't know why it took me this long to actually realize. I'm not in my old body. I'm nowhere near my home either. I'm miles and miles from my friends and my family. I'm...

....pretty far from everything I knew. Even if I went back, the chances are high that they will not recognize me, let alone accept me. Plus...

....

....

....there is that clone of me taking my place. They don't know that anything even happened to their son! But! But, if I kill him before I make myself public, then they might just believe me, especially when monsters start appearing.

'Yeah! That's a perfect plan! That's what I'll do.'

I felt my smile return to my face as I thought more and more about my plan. I know I'm suppose to be a Magical Girl but, I was technically created by someone who takes souls so...I'm not really a full good guy, ya know? Besides, once that clone is taken care of, I'll make it up by being a public hero!

Actually, on second thought that might not be such a good idea. Hmmm...

You know what? I'll think on it. Still, currently I'll let that clone of mine live. Just a little longer as currently, I don't have any plans to go back home just yet. I still need to figure out how my magic works. I mean, I know that my body is tougher than a normal human body but I don't know by how much. I could still be killed by a bullet to the head or something vital. Besides, something tells me that if I die from a bullet, I won't actually die die. It's just a feeling that, somehow, I'll still suffer from that whole eternal mental suffering thing that the man was talking about.

Speaking about the man, or really thinking about him, I wonder if I'll ever see him again? I think I will but when, I don't know. Though, something tells me he can pop in and see me at any time, probably without me ever knowing too. Ugh, just that very thought pisses me off. But, there ain't nothing I could do about it so I might as well suck it up. After all, I do know what people say.

 

Tomorrow is another day.

 

With that in mind, I continued to softly pet Dukha, who started snuggling in return. After a while, Dukha settled into a comfortable position for both me and them and, taking the sign, I closed my eyes to try and drift off to sleep. Somehow, it worked out.

 

 

. . . .

 

 

When I woke up, it wasn't midday. How could I tell? Well, no one was in my room yet. I had a feeling that Morgan was someone who made sure things got done. 

I looked at Dukha and saw that they were also waking up. I could tell that they were rubbing their closed right eye while their left eye was open, looking at me despite them having no visible eyes. Yes, I could tell. You common folks do not understand the wonders of my mind.

Cough cough. Anyway, after the morning schedule of pets and snuggles, Dukha and I got up out of bed and did some nice morning...you know, while it probably isn't twelve o'clock, it still wasn't morning...well, not here at least. I think I am in some city either near or in New York. The only thing is that I can't see New York City from where I am. I also learned from Morgan when I first met her that I was in between two cities, with Revell City being the closest to the right of the store.

Me being the I-don't-bother-to-learn-cities-and-stuff-in-the-modern-time-and-I-forgot-most-of-the-old-cities person I am, I never heard of Revell City before. Well, since I am somewhere in or near New York, that means I am also near New Jersey too, which is wear I live. That is also where my clone is located.

The small smile on my face grew at the last thought. The man made it seem like such a big deal, killing my clone. He even said-

My smile faded as I froze mid-stretch. It came to me that the man didn't answer my question from before. For all I know, my clone could be aware of me and could have some crazy powers he could use to defeat me. I don't even have any magical attacks-

My thoughts were rudely cut off as I felt a tingling sensation making me look up, very similar to yesterday. And, just like yesterday, a familiar-looking book fell from a grey portal and landed on my face.

Cursing once again and clutching my nose, I eyed the evil book and, if he was here, glare at the evil man who summoned it. After I finished my incomprehensible string of curses, I leaned down and picked up the book. I opened it and skipped past the empty space and went on to the instructions. Instead of flipping to the pages with text, I accidentally skipped past it. However, much to my surprise, instead of nothing being there I saw another two...I kinda called the instructions from yesterday one page even though both pages had text on it, (my bad), there was more text, this time with one of the pages being named; Magic.

I instantly sent a silent prayer to the man before I sat down on my borrowed bed, Dukha climbing up on my back to get a look at the book too. I gave them a nice chin scratch before I started reading.

The new set of instructions talked about feeling two lights inside me. The first light is purple in color. That is apparently from the man himself. Once I focused on that purple light for a while, my body would then feel weird, like I got in a food coma(don't ask). Once there, I need to close my eyes and focus on the yellow lights and spread them all over my body, mainly my eyes and hands. He said to think about it in the instructions, so I had a feeling he wasn't a very good teacher.

The last two instructions was that my wand had a bunch of mana within it, and that mana will ignite with my inner magic, allowing me to control it like a limb I've always had. Then, the one I had been waiting for, if I ever wanted to use my magic, I have to get the image of the light in my head, think where I want it and what I want it to do, (he told me to take it easy for now, so nothing complicated), and focus on the warmth the light will bring. Once I feel the warmth, wait until you decide the warmth is enough, (the warmer the better), and send it out like a simple tiny flex.

The instructions weren't the best but they were enough. At least, I hope it was. Seeing as I still had time and, also by the fact that I was too lazy to go and find a clock, I got into a meditation pose and closed my eyes. Besides me, to my left, I felt Dukha do the same. I resisted the urge to look knowing that, if I did, I would be distracted throughout most of the day by the cute image I would see.

As the calming darkness of my eyelids or whatever filled my mind, I saw a light of purple down at the very bottom of the ripples of darkness. I reached out for it and, upon somehow reaching it, felt it engulf me for four seconds. When it finally stopped, I nearly opened my eyes upon the weird feeling I had. The best way to describe it would be like having a food coma. (I'm not the only one who sometimes feel all weird after eating a sandwich, like I'm going to pass out, am I?)

Remembering the next step in the instructions, I focused away from the purple light and was instantly nearly blinded by the yellow light that nearly took up everywhere. After I recovered, I focused on the light and tried to will it to go to my eyes and my hands. Instantly my vision became yellow and, somehow seeing through it and my eyelids, I saw my hands light up in a weird white light in a weird pattern, like they were some kind of gauntlets. 

I opened my eyes and noticed right away that my vision seemed much sharper, though, despite it being sharper I didn't feel confused at all. It was like my eyesight was always like this.

The next thing I noticed was how warm I felt. It was an odd kind of warmth, but a comfortable one nonetheless. At first I thought I was about to explode into a magical mess but, when that didn't happen, I realize the warmth wasn't me getting ready to dispel magic. 

I got up, bringing my left hand closer to my face and studying the palm. I could see amber yellow lights squirming beneath my skin like a bunch of oversized fireflies. I concentrated harder on the lights and saw them steady themselves, becoming less wild and not moving around as much. Instead, the warmth in my left hand started to grow. 

Not knowing what the limit was, or really when I should stop, I kept letting the warmth grow. It wasn't until twenty seconds passed of the warmth not increasing as fast as I like was when I decided to stop. I turned my hand away from me and brought my arm back down to my side, letting out a sigh and relaxing my hand which was only slightly tense.

Instantly a bright yellow burst of large light shot out of my hand as it was going down to my side. The yellow burst of long javelin-like light hit the wall in front of me, melting the heavy and thick-looking stone brick wall and without a doubt nearly burning all the way through it. The area of impact was at least three feet wide and circular in shape, though the actual crater was around two feet wide.(Not including the three feet wide area of impact) 

Where the magic had hit and around in the area of impact, the wall was black and deformed, like magma had just went through it. A faint smell of smoke was in the air, but that was it. No fire or smoke. Just a black ugly crater.

I felt my left arm go limp as I tried to grasp what I just did. When I did grasp what I just did, me and Dukha turned around and walked off, whistling despite having never whistled more than a second back in my old body.

 

 

. . . .

 

 

"So, if we ever practice magic, we are going to practice magic in the woods out back, got it?"

Dukha nodded, briefly sneaking in a glance at the four boxes we put up in front of the crater I made with magic, though those boxes were really dark blue bins. I had gotten stronger too, or maybe I always was this strong with this body. There was, by the sound of it, heavy metal stuff inside those bins but, in our hurry to cover my mistake up, we tried to drag them anyway. After I nearly turned the bin into a bowling ball by accident, I realized that I was quite more than just stronger then my previous body. 

Dukha nodded quickly in agreement and the two of us together glanced at the bins we moved. Since we, or really me, did something bad and will probably get my identity exposed, when the door to the main building suddenly opened, Dukha did their impression of a ninja and disappeared into the shadows within the blink of an eye. I, on the other hand, spun around and let out a startled yelp.

"S-sorry!" A young voice cried out that definitely didn't belong to Jane nor Morgan.

I looked at who entered and realized that it was someone I hadn't seen before. They wore the same peach-orange and blue outfit and cap Jane wore which meant they worked here. They were closer to my size though still noticeably bigger with long brown curly hair and jade green eyes. She looked a little paler than Jane did and, surprisingly, looked kinda fit. 

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts from muscles, I looked down towards the nametag Jane also had on her uniform and, surprise surprise, she had one too. The name read Echira Moree. Strange name but I like it. It was definitely unique. 

"Oh, hello there...Echira," I greet, hoping that I pronounced her name right.

Before she could say anything back, Jane's head poked out of the door, causing Echira to jump in surprise.

"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you about our newest member," Jane said flatly, standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Echira, meet Gabriel. Gabriel, meet Echira," Jane greeted us to each other, pointing at the both of us.

"Oh yeah. Gabriel, your shift starts in two hours so get ready. Your outfit is in the boss's room," Jane informed me before leaving me and Echira alone, presumably to go back to work. 

The two of us stared at each other, both being silent. After having enough of the awkward silence, I opened my mouth before closing it. Instead, I did a bow and spoke, bowing eloquently if I do say so myself.

"I hope we get along, Echira," I tell her, giving her what I hope is a bright smile. It must be because she seemed to blush a little.

"So, you um...you living here?" Echira asked, trying to start up a conversation which ended just as you would expect it to end between two socially awkward people.

"Yep."

"...Why?"

"I don't have any money so I struck a deal with Morgan to work here for free."

"Oh! That's neat."

"Thanks."

"...."

"...."

"Wanna come in?" I asked, glad that my scalp doesn't get itchy like it did in my old body when I was embarrassed.

"Um, no. I-I'm fine. I'm a-"

"Afraid of the dark?" I finished, deciding to take a couple of steps forward into the light myself. When I did, I could have sworn I saw Ecchilen frown. However, it must have been my imagination since she was still smiling that shy smile.

"Say, can you show me around?" I asked, hoping I could do something to take our minds off the embarrassing conversation we just had, "Jane showed me the ropes but I was never given a tour."

"Sure! Follow me," Echira said, jumping on to what I was doing.

Echira opened the door wide for me to step through. As I started walking towards the door, I felt a slight chill. I looked at my arm and realized I had goosebumps. I stopped in my tracks and looked behind me. In the darkness I could see Dukha waving at me from behind a shelf. They couldn't have been the one to make me get chills.

Chopping it off to me being nervous about working and being in public view in this body, I continued walking towards the door. This tour will not only get my mind off of things, but it will also help me gather information on what exactly I'll be dealing with. Call me paranoid but I have a feeling that this ice cream shop gets many more customers than Jane let on.