Shinjuku, Tokyo. Home to the capital’s, nay, Japan’s largest and most widespread train system, it was only natural for its people to be willingly caught in the never-ending spiral of life. And while they were too busy for their own good, they failed to notice anything else happening around, or above them.

Going up several hundred meters above ground level, atop a nearby skyscraper where the sun was only a reach away, sat a lone girl. From just a glance at her casual black T-shirt, as well as her overly young and innocent face, anyone would have assumed her to be a first-year high school girl, but her legal age was, in truth, a decade larger than that. And her behavior only added to the case.

“Ah, this is the life!” The young woman stretched out in bliss as she lazily lay down on the skyscraper’s rooftop. “I wish I could just take a nap here until tonight…”

As the words left her mouth, she truly closed her eyes, determined to fulfill the claim she made for herself. However, her slumber would never come true, for before she could drift into dreamland, a voice called out to her:

“My Lady, there’s another sign of corrupted spiritual activity.”

“...”

“My Lady,” the owner of the voice - a crow whose feathers were not the usual black, but a blueish-white, ethereal color - continued. “You can’t pretend to be asleep at this hour.”

“...”

“My Lady…”

“Okay, okay! I’m up already!” The young woman angrily sat up, covering her ears while shouting out the top of her lungs as though trying to drown the crow’s voice. “Can’t I get some peace and quiet around here?”

“With all due respect, my Lady, it is your duty as the guardian of this world.”

“I know, I know…” sighed the woman. Things were much simpler for her ten years ago, when she would just enjoy her high school life without a care in the world alongside the person she liked. But circumstances happened, and she was now all alone, only with a newfound power and an obligation accompanying her.

She had lost count of how many times she had wished to go back. But more than any other, she knew that messing with time would not bring her the ending she would have wanted. Her strange white hair with strands of black highlights was the biggest proof of it. And so, as tiring as she might be, the woman was still doing her job with diligence.

Gone was her lazy expression. As her eyes lit up with the spark of a ruler, the woman turned to the crow and ordered with utmost determination:

“Lead the way, Mangetsu.”

“As you wish,” the ethereal crow flapped its wings and took off to the sky.

Stretching her body one last time, the woman followed her guiding partner and leapt off the building. As she free falls, a burst of black flame engulfed her body and turned her into a pitch-black dot in the sky. After only a second, the flame dissipated, revealing the woman in an unrecognizable look.

Her baggy T-shirt became a bonafide gothic dress, complete with its black main tone, tattered white frills, and small spikes throughout the sleeves. Her neck, which wore nothing of interest just a moment ago, now had an equally edgy spiked choker. A light layer of pale makeup covered her face, and on her left cheek appeared a mark of a black star.

“My Lady… May I ask what the meaning behind this new getup of yours is?” the crow named Mangetsu let out a sigh. If crows could sweat, there would certainly be a drop on its forehead right then and there.

“I learned this from Akane-san recently,” with a cheeky grin, the woman answered. “Gotta remember that I’m still pretty famous, y’know, so a disguise is just a natural consideration. I took the idea from magical girls shows, what do you think?”

“I’m not sure if magical girls wear this kind of clothes, my Lady… More like magical villainesses…”

“Hey, I didn’t resurrect you to badmouth my sense of fashion!” The woman scoffed.

“Well, technically, my Lady, I was always here. Your growth in power only allowed you to see me, nothing else.”

“Details, details,” quickly dismissing the crow’s fact with a click of the tongue, the woman diverted her attention forward. “Anyway, where are we going?”

“Around three hundred meters to the east, above Shinjuku station, my Lady.”

“Shinjuku Station… Ugh, why can’t this ghost pick a place that doesn’t have people in it?” The woman complained.

“Aren’t you versed enough in Perception Magic from your father at this point?”

“Well, sure, but it doesn’t make things less annoying,” shrugged the woman, before lowering her speed into a hover mid-air, but still leaving plenty of room to be left unseen.

“We’re here, right?” She continued, looking towards the stream of people beneath her.

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“Indeed…” nodded Mangetsu, its pupils dilating into a spiral pattern as it tracked the people along with its owner.

After a brief pause, the crow sounded, gesturing its beak towards the source. “I see it. 30 degrees north-west from where we stand, fifty meters below.”

“Got it. Moving in!”

The woman instantly flew down the road at a lightning-fast pace, leaving behind the panicked cry from her avian partner:

“My Lady! The Perception Spell!”

“Of course, I didn’t forget!” Waving to signal her crow, the woman let out a grin before mumbling a chant:

“I am a rock, a tree, the air that we breathe.”

A thin veil of magical energy surrounded the woman, refracting the sunlight around her like a giant bubble shield. At the same time, she had landed safely on the ground and was facing her intended target.

A shapeless, formless being with only eyes and mouths in a slime-like structure. Made from the same ethereal substance as Mangetsu, it was indeed not of the living world anymore. Hence no regular human was able to see it, even if it currently stood (or crawled) as tall as a two-story building. Creatures of its nature didn’t have any effect on the physical world either, but the mental damage it could inflict upon humans was undeniably dangerous.

“Ugh, these things keep getting more disgusting by the day…” mumbled the woman. “Ten years long, and there’s still no signs of these dropping. Talk about persistence.”

Taking a deep breath, the woman’s face formed a grin.

“But alas, rejoice, foul spirit… For not every day you get to face a God.”

As if understanding the woman’s taunting words, the creature let out a deafening shriek with its multitude of mouths, creating a cacophony that echoed through the area. Its body then moved forward like a surging tidal wave, aiming to crush the woman with its massive figure.

The woman, faced with danger, simply raised her hand forward.

She had claimed that she was a god, and if anything, her action was the biggest proof.

With a simple movement, the giant spirit was split in half. If anyone else could see its body splashing against the building, they would immediately make the connection of a famed messenger splitting apart the ocean. But the woman knew better - without a corporeal body, any damage done to spirits would be nothing but a mere inconvenience. Given time, any spirit could heal itself, and for something as large as the one she was facing, that healing process would only amount to seconds.

And so, she went for the real kill.

“In the void of the universe, a fire lights the sky. In the vacuum of space, a black flare devours the light…”

As the chant left her mouth, on the woman’s hand flickered a black flame. But unlike the same kind that engulfed her a moment ago, upon closer inspection, one could see countless white dots shining deep within it, akin to a small galaxy in the shape of a fire. The fire then morphed in her hand, taking the shape of a giant sword as long as her body.

“Void-Flame Style: Zero Burn!”

The woman took a step forward and swung the flaming sword. In a blink of an eye, the creature’s body was riddled with pitch-black flaming spots as it screeched in pain. It coiled and expanded upon itself in a rampage, trying to put out the fire on its body. But little did it know, the more it squirmed, the more the darkness burned it, for this special flame used spiritual energy as fuel. Akin to a black hole, it directly sucked magical powers to fuel its burn, and the more these beings acted, the more power they would expend.

Struggled as it might, the creature grew smaller and smaller, and finally, it disappeared without a trace left in this world.

“Well, that’s that!” raising her hand to form a peace sign, the woman let out a bright smile. But before she could do anything else, said smile was frozen in place as her eyes caught the sight of a little girl pointing straight at her in utter surprise and elation:

“Pretty lady, that’s such a weird costume!” The child innocently exclaimed. “What are you doing?”

I forgot that Perception Spells only work on people with common sense! The thought ran through the woman’s mind as she was sent into a panic. Of all the people, why are kids here?

“Haha, I… uh…” the woman scratched her head and let out an awkward laugh, her eyes shifting around as if going through all the excuses she could make.

In the end, as she glanced over someone with a guitar case further away from them, she finally said:

“I’m preparing for my band later tonight! We have a show, you see…”

Thankfully, kids were generally easier to deal with than adults, even with their immunity to Perception Spells. “That’s so cool!” The kid’s eyes shone as she exclaimed once more. “What are you playing?”

“Uh… it’s a… contemporary rock band!” The woman spouted a lie. Never in her life was she invested in music, let alone rock, so she didn’t have a clue whether or not what she said made sense. But looking at the kid’s sparkling eyes, she thought that she was at least safe for now.

“That’s so cool! What’s your name?”

And out came the final question that she didn’t want to answer. But at this point, she could only hope and pray for the best.

“It’s uh… Mi… Wait no, I shouldn’t use my real name… How about Ryuu... Wait, no, my normal stage name is a bit…” the woman mumbled. But just as she was in the direst situation, help came in a way she expected the least:

“My Lady, how about…” Mangetsu flew down her shoulder and whispered into her ears.

Instantly, a drop of sweat formed on the woman’s forehead.

“... Enma! The beautiful judge of the netherworld, Magical Girl Enma!”

What kind of lame-ass name is Enma? While she posed with utmost confidence, her mind was cringing in any and all ways possible. It’s not even a girl’s name, right? That’s the goddamn King of Hell!

Thankfully, the little girl bought it.

“Good luck with your performance, Enma-baasan!”

The innocent child then left without a care in the world, unaware of the emotional damage that she had just dealt.

“This body is sixteen… This body is sixteen…” Enma lay on the road curled into a ball of shame, repeatedly mumbling as if to erase the remark from her mind.

With a defeated sigh, Mangetsu pecked on her head. “My Lady, we should get out of here before you break the Perception Spell due to your lowered mental prowess.”

“Okay…” Still with a heavy heart, Enma stood up and once again flew away. This kind of thing was not her first, and, to her detriment, it certainly wouldn’t be her last, either.