"Sparkle Sparkle Run Time!"

Shima slammed her hand at the alarm clock beside her bed. The alarm clock yelled out in anguish and flew to the sky. "Go run now!" Repeated the alarm clock as it flew around her head, flapping its annoying wings.

She ran swinging out of her current home. A tent she stole yesterday to brave the nights. She was advised to stay at a hotel at the meantime by her animal companion and she tried to argue that she was broke as a can of beans but her guide can't seem to humor the idea of a Magical Girl not being able to afford a 5 star hotel.

"Yaaaaawnn!" Shima stretched and gazed at the bright rising sun. She was used to waking up early due to school but she still hated the morning. "Did you just say yawn out loud?"

"Shut up birdie."

She finished stretching and started running at the park. The bird followed her with fast flaps and fitting montage music. She ran and ran, swinging her wand around like a mace until she left the park and out into the city.

She ran block after block, until she arrived at the destroyed parts of the city being repaired. She took in the sight of the damages done by the invaders the day she died. She ran even more until she arrived at her old home, knocking before running away when her mother came out holding a talisman and throwing salt at her.

She ran back to the park. Her legs gave up and her face was drenched in sweat. With heavy breaths, she then pulls her body to the nearest trashcan and begins scavenging like a raccoon.

While running around covered in trash, her amazing, genius, and cute and also additionally perfect bird companion yells at her about Magical Girls. Knowledge of invaders and old Magical Girls and their signature moves and strengths flood her mind.

When night comes, she practices her magic. She throws out blobs of hardened magic, trying to form concepts and shapes but failing to do so. With a small fizzle shooting out of her wand, she fell to the ground, her eyes scrambling and her head empty of thoughts. Her bird drags her back to her tent and she sleeps until morning.

"Wake up!"

She rolled out of the tent, ran out of the park, into the ruins of the city, stepping on a bear trap outside her parent's house, tackling trash cans, drawing other magical girls' costumes in a notebook, throwing out lines of sparkles and then passing out in her spit and sweat.

"Arise!"

She backflipped out of the tent and ran out of the park, she climbed over the fallen over structure and chunks of stones on the floor of the ruin city, she ran around the exorcist her parents hired, she found a coupon for a free meal at bakery, she found out it was not a real coupon, she left quickly with multiple loads of bread on her hands, she practices her magical girl speeches while munching on her stolen bread, she whips out colorless blocks of magic at the ground, and finally she falls to the ground.

"Stop Sleeping!"

She exploded out of the tent, she ran away from the dogs and out of the park, she slid under construction vehicles and took a dip at drying cement, she wrestled a martial artist, a rikishi, and a monk outside her parent's house, she got scouted by an idol manager while poncing the streets, she studied the idol brochure she obtained, she practices dancing and singing by her tent until night, and she passes out.

"Aaaaahhh!"

She materialized outside her tent and jogged across the park, she arrived at the apartment rented by her new idol group, she met the other scouted beginner talents and the famous child actor whose fame disappeared as she grew up, she clumsily practices her dances with the group, she ate some proper food for once, took a bath and then slept in a futon.

"Tweet."

She woke up and her idol group joins a competition with other more famous idol groups as opponents, they all practice hard and have a training montage of their own, they grow closer together and create an unbreakable bond, they train super hard nonstop and on the day before he competition, the lazy and carefree member of the group gets into an argument with the silent hardworking one, she helps them reconcile and they perform in the competition and win 4th place.

"Wait huuuhhhh? Stop!" Shima slapped her face and the montage music finally stopped. She stood outside the venue with all of her fellow idols talking with smiles on their faces. "I quit!" She ran out without waiting for a response from them and went back to the park.

"Bird!" She yelled out and her companion flew beside her, landing on her shoulder. "Why did I join an idol group? And why didn't you stop me?!"

"Well Magical Girls and idols are pretty similar. To be an idol is to be the people's admiration and star, basically what a Magical Girl does."

"I thought they mostly exterminated invaders."

"They do but in style."

"Yeah."

"Anyway I think you're ready to be a Magical Girl."

"But I only spent a couple days training and a month being an idol."

"You danced a lot and dancing takes stamina, you learnt how to act like a proper star and you need that skill as a Magical Girl, you also memorized songs and the dance moves which helped improve your reaction time and magic. Whenever the song comes on, you immediately move your body and perform the dance on instinct. You are ready."

"Wait really?" Shima stopped in her tracks and rubbed her chin. "I guess I did train when I was an idol. I'm ready!" She ripped off her idol dress revealing her magical girl outfit underneath.

"Nah to be truthful I was just tired of you not fighting invaders."

"Is that so?"

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"Yep!"

Shima threw her bird away from her shoulder, summoned her wand, swung it and sent the bird flying into the sky. “Fly high my wings.”

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Shima and her bird companion were running at their full might. After waiting for quite some time, they finally got news of an attack. It was far away from their current location but with the help of a train, they were able to arrive in little time.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" A white eel fell down in front of her, screaming out in pain. The eel flung around scattering out bolts of electricity everywhere.

The city under attack was the city of Tulip

Shima jumped back and shoved her bird under her hat. "Magi Magi Beam." She punched the air with a one two combo, sending two pink solid beams of pain. The beams pierced the eel in the head, killing it and stopping the electricity.

"Aaaaahhh!" Multiple pained screams were coming from above, in the sky were multiple flying white eels biting onto something. "A little help here. How do I fight flying monsters?"

"Just fly?"

"I can do that?"

"Well…"

Shima sighed loudly and swung her arm down, summoning her wand and concentrating her mind. "Fast ball" A ball popped out of her wand and onto the air.

She grabbed the ball and tossed it into the air. She took a stance that seemed comfortable and swung the ball up into the air with her wand. The ball struck an eel in the head, doing little damage but taking all of its attention.

The eel flew above Shima and dropped the object in its mouth as a sign of war. The object plummeted next to Shima in a quick and messy impact.

"Fuck!" Shima jumped back as the smell entered her nose. She clenched her wand and her teeth, looking at the body in front of her. A half eaten carcass was right in front of her in its full disgusting glory.

"Aaaahhh!" The eel dashed towards her, it was reminiscent of a bird swooping down to the surface of water to grab its prey before flying away. But in this case instead of the sharp talons of a bird, it's the sharp jaw of an eel.

Shima stepped away from the eel's pathway, her feet tapping quickly and her arms moving in style. "Die!" Her arms tensed up as soon as she got out of the way and she slammed her wand down at the body of the passing eel.

The attack did little to alter its course of movement and only provoked the eel to send out a shock at Shima, frying her up in energy. Her head spun and her muscles crammed up as the shock dispersed into the ground.

She glanced up and saw the eel flew back up into the air before turning around to do another swoop down. She shoved her wand into a pocket in her dress and punched the air twice again. Two concrete beams were slowly launched to the eel but were simply pushed to the ground by a shock shot by the eel.

The eel continued swooping down at her before getting covered in a web of ice. With the decrease of speed, Shima dashed to the side, grabbed her wand, and jammed it into the eel's body. "Claw Crush!" A claw straight out of a massive arcade machine wrapped around the eel's and crushed it in half.

Its blood splattered everywhere including Shima's mouth and somehow under her fingernails. "Surprisingly decent." She spat the normally gag worthy taste out of her mouth and rubbed the blood out of her eyes and face.

As she was cleaning her poles free of eel blood, a forceful hand dragged her away quickly. She slapped the hand and fell to the ground upon getting released by her captor.

"Ouch."

Shima pushed herself up and quickly equipped her wand. "Wait, calm down." A girl wearing a blue dress with a fur collar, fur boots and latex gloves raised her hands up.

"Hmm? A weirdly dressed survivor?"

"Huh no?! I'm a magical girl."

"A weirdly dressed magical girl. Hello." Shima smiled widely at her first ever magical girl encounter.

The girl reacted to her smile with a force and anxious smile of her own. Shima's mismatched uniform and blood drenched appearance certainly made it hard for a natural simple to appear.

"We should leave before the eels kill us!" She pointed at the swarm in the sky, busy munching on their captured meals.

"Are you from around here?"

"Yes but does it matter now? The city is being ravaged! I'm not ready for this. This is my first ever invasion and so many people are dying. I can't do anything but watch." The girl had a grim look on her face and despite her warm clothing, her body shook rapidly.

"Calm down." Shima placed her hand on the girl's shoulder, despite also being in the same boat as the magical girl beginner, she did not experience any anxiety.

"Can you bring these eels down?"

"Yes but it takes time for me to create a strong enough blast of cold wind to knock an eel down. It's only a matter of time until they get hungry again so we should leave already!"

Shima nodded slowly and tapped her hat. "This sounds like a good time to attack them when they are occupied. We should take control over the situation and squash them now." She said slamming her first into her open palm.

"You don't understand. I was here when they appeared. They were ruthless. They devoured so many people, only stopping after a couple minutes of slaughter… I don't know if we can handle them all."

Shima removed her hat and faced the bottom of it. "What do you think we should do?"

"Are you talking to your hat?"

"Cleanse them all."

"The hat talks?!"

"Hmph no. Don't think about" Shima shoved her hand into her hat and performed a bad magic trick of pulling a bird out of a hat. She threw the bird into the air, letting it free of her grip and allowing it to flap its wings.

"My 'guide' was there… Please ignore the ramblings it will spit out."

"It? How rude. I taught you better as a Magical Girl."

"A talking bird?" The girl was rightfully confused by the whole situation. She wiped the cold sweat off her head and glanced at the bird again. "That's not a monster right?"

"However weird its eyes might be, that bird is still sadly my guide."

"Guide?"

Shima frowned and turned to face the bird, raising an eyebrow. "Care to explain why she's confused? Don't all magical girls have magical animal companions?"

"Well you see it's because, umm, the world is uhhh, Magical Girls…" The bird words slowly trailed off as they flew off. "I'm gonna eat this dead eel!"

"..."

"With table etiquettes of course."

"Ummm."

"You're right we should get out of here. I don't think we can handle flying beasts just yet." Shima relaxed her posture and started walking off onto one of the buildings near her. Even after the training montage, it didn't give her the strength needed to be a Magical Girl.

"Yeah we should."

The girl and Shima walked off into the nearest building, a multiple story tall office building. The lobby was empty and there were signs of panic with potted plants and chairs thrown around. The windows were covered in paper and other office materials.

"I think there might be some people hiding in the floors above here."

"Yeah, probably the safest place." Shima glanced around, her eyes instantly taking notice of any trash cans around.

"What's your name? I'm Shima Ayami the magical girl of…" Shima placed her hand on her chin, she blinked and combed her head with the back of her hand. "So what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Rei Sawa, the magical girl of snowflakes heh… Don't worry, I'm guessing your title might be embarrassing as well but it still doesn't make us less of a Magical girl." She said with a big smile on her face.

She began to pace around the room, walking away from Shima but still making sure to return to her."

"I don't have much experience and I still don't know why I was chosen but I have been practicing. I'm a magical girl now after all." She said, slightly giggling.

"Heh… Even though as a magical girl I failed to save any of them." Her smile distorted into a massive frown and the mood was instantly lowered. She gazed onto the floor but randomly stole some glances to her surroundings.

Shima gazed off into a far distance universe, her mind being gravitated by a much bigger field of mass. She was busy thinking of a plan. A plan that will guarantee victory. A plan not to kill the eels but to find the perfect words to comfort a random sad stranger.

"I think you should not be too sad about the loss of people."

"Huh?"

"No wait, how do I say this… As a magical girl, you're gonna see a lot of casualties and death. If you spend too much time thinking about them then you will do nothing but mope. Look, I know how you feel, I was a part of the invasion in the city of Rose. Our powerful and 'ever so great' magical girl was nowhere to be found and the whole city was ravaged. Buildings were demolished, so many lives were gone. Invaders were everywhere. They hunted people, I hid in an arcade but demise still reached me like the others. I died that day. I died. I'm dead."

"Sym-symbolically?"

"No I died, I'm dead! But that doesn't matter now! I'm here and I'm living. My family might think I'm a ghost, I might be unable to go back to my school, my friends might be dead, and all I had to cope with was a tent and an annoying bird. I ate garbage. Garbage."

Shima's eyes were filled with unmistakable grief and confusion. Shima's eyes welled up with tears, her voice riddled with a tinge of despair. "I should be dead but I'm here and how do I cope. By moving on and thinking about something else. I spent a month as an idol to distract myself. I know I should have been training so I can save more lives but I needed to save my own first."

Rei looked up at Shima, her frown replaced with a pitying and empathetic smile. She reached out and placed her hand on Shima's shoulder. She patted her with wide and sincere eyes.

"You're right Ayama." Rei wiped the tears of her eyes. "You suffered much more than me and yet you're out here trying your best." She flicked her hands and snapped her mouth into a big grin. "Let's go and do this. Not as sad girls filled with hard and back breaking responsibilities but as Magical Girls."

"I may be scared but so are you and that comforts me. To know my feelings of dread is not only mine to carry is… wonderful"

Rei stomped out of the building, swinging her arms into an upward arc, spewing flakes of ice. She stopped in front of the door. "If they are flying then I will just fly as well." With a deep and long inhale, she slammed her hands to the ground, covering herself in a cloud of mist.

The mist dissipated and Rei stood with a pair of butterfly wings made of ice. Her wings flapped softly, leaving behind a trail of snowflakes.

"Come on Shima, quick gawking. We have to save some people."

"Yeah you're right." Shima began walking forward with an awkward smile. She felt a little embarrassed after revealing her feelings to Rei but at the same time she felt relieved and happy that she was able to talk to somebody about her trauma.

"I wouldn't think I would have a teammate at my very first invasion but I'm grateful."

"Me too Ayami."

Rei grabbed a hold of the door handles and swung the doors open. She stepped outside and was immediately ripped apart by a large eel. The eel swooped down and bit her head and arm off. Her limp body fell to the ground. Her remaining singular butterfly wing flapping slowly.