It's an AMAZINGLY beautiful day outside. Filled with fields of flowers, incredible food, and friendly neighbors who'll tell you all about fantastic stories you'd only ever hear in the news.

At least, that's how it is for my parents.

The two of them suddenly got invited to a wedding for some cousin of theirs or whatever, sending them off on an adventure to the countryside. All my brother and I got were a few sweet words and some extra cash to spend on food and cool things.

As for me, I'm currently sitting inside of class, gnawing on my pencil.

The kid sitting next to me taps my shoulder while pushing up his glasses.

"It seems like you're nervous. Is there anything I could to to assist you?" he inquires, continuing to push up his glasses. Though it looks like a stereotypical nerd move, he actually lost his glasses the morning before, and has been using his ill-fitting spare for the entire morning. It's honestly impressive how he manages to keep his glasses up while he writes.

I sigh loudly to get the obvious hint across.

"I lost my bracelet. It was given to me by my mom before she went on her trip, and she kept telling me over and over about how important it was to always have on me. It's made of pink beads, and I'm pretty sure they were all glass. She's not the kind of lady to buy plastic ones, but she'd definitely never shell out the money for gems." I give him a nasty side-eye. "If I were to ask you, it definitely wouldn't get found."

The boy pushes his glasses up one more time. Though, it seemed a lot more like a gesture rather than a simple readjustment this time around.

"Oh, but I have seen it."

There's no way. The kid titled "Most likely to get lost in a straight corridor" by his classmates actually knows where it is?

"Quit yanking my chain! There's no way you've seen it with that memory of yours!"

"I indeed have. Though, with your current attitude, I'm beginning to have second thoughts on whether or not I should tell you where it is."

I reach out and gently grab him by the shoulder. "If you're lying, I'm tossing you out of the window the next time I see you."

He quickly puts his hands up and squints. "Please don't hit me. I've seen you turn a school bully into a hospital patient. If I even get hit once, I'm probably going straight to the morgue."

I clench my fist and grip a bit tighter.

"If you aren't confident in your answer, you can just tell me what you want written on your headstone in advance."

His glasses fall right off of his face, but he's a bit too nervous to pick them up.

"Alright alright, fine! It's in the alleyway next to the school! I put it under a trash bag so nobody would see it and try to pick it up before I told the owner!"

"...Don't the garbage men pick those up?"

"Only on Thursdays. It's Monday. Did you seriously not know that?"

I lift my arm upwards.

"OKAY OKAY I WON'T MAKE ANY MORE JOKES AT YOUR EXPENSE JUST PLEASE DON'T HIT ME!"

He places his hand up in front of his face, preparing for an oncoming strike. I don't follow through however. I'm not a monster, after all.

If I was, I'd get beat half to death and dragged to some dingy prison or shitty lab facility to get tested on for eternity. Man, it's gotta suck to be a monster.

I calmly lower my arm and let go of his shoulder.

"I'll grab it as soon as possible." I state, picking up my bag and heaving it up onto my shoulder.

"Hold on, class is still in session!" he replies with a bit of a panicked tone in his voice. I pick up the paper on my desk and shove it in his face.

"I've already finished it. Just take it up to the teacher. I've got a bracelet to find."

I quickly dash out of the class, opening the door with a lot less force than I used last week, unto which I literally tore it off the hinges. My mom says it's genetic, which makes a lot of sense. She's got a TON of crazy shit going on with her. I'm pretty sure last time she weighed herself, she was at 90 pounds. She ignores every single medical examination like the plague, and one time I saw her get hit by a car, and the car was the only thing with a scratch on it. By scratch I mean there was a giant mom-shaped hole on the impact. I don't even think she flinched.

The worst thing? She manages to get away with it the entire time. Nobody's noticed a single thing except for me. Not even my brother, who's a lot more attentive.

My mom's a very kind and benevolent lady. But she told me she'd beat my ass if I lost that bracelet. And she always keeps a promise.

I quickly weave through all of the kids in the hallway, sprinting towards the exit. I know I'd totally get called out for leaving in the middle of class, but this is just way too important to ignore. I'm willing to take a hit to my already shoddy reputation right now in order to save my ass later.

Hoping that I didn't miss my opportunity, I ran straight to where the alleyway lies, where the school dumps all of their trash despite the fact there's a VERY OBVIOUS DUMPSTER RIGHT NEXT TO IT!

...At least, I think it's the school's trash. I've never bothered to look inside. Today, however, the trash was a bit weirdly shaped. Curiosity bit me hard, and I decided to open it up to see what's inside.

As if opening one of those mystery boxes from those game shows on TV, I got a grand surprise!

A human corpse. There's a dead girl lying in there wearing an odd outfit with a bunch of stab wounds in her. She's got long flowing black hair and eyes that make you feel like you're looking into the deep cosmos. In fact, I recognize her appearance quite well. She's my favorite magical girl, the wielder of two powerful daggers and a horrifying threat to all monsters across the earth. That's right, the one titled Crow's Shank. I'm going to be honest, she's probably gotta change it sometime. Or... should have changed it. I mean, she's literally dead right in front of me. I should probably be a bit more surprised, but I've watched plenty of people get turned into a fine red mist from a piece of flying debris. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get insurance in an area with high magical girl activity.

She, however, was meticulous. She always took down her enemies with a few quick slashes, making sure her foes never even had a chance to destroy the surrounding area. In my opinion, she was one of the few magical girls who deserved the title.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

And now she's lying in front of me. Dead. In a trash bag in an alleyway next to my school.

Suddenly, the corpse's arm reaches out and grabs my hand to pull herself up. I, being a very reasonable girl who's watched plenty of zombie apocalypse movies with my mother, did the only reasonable thing in this situation.

I punched her directly in the face.

"Ow! That fuckin' hurt!" the former corpse says while holding a hand on her face.

"Are you really alive?" I inquire, engaging in a fighting stance. "There's no way a respectable magical girl like you would get stabbed multiple times in the chest by a civilian, only to fall asleep inside a trash bag after they threw you in there."

"Jeez, how'd you guess? I thought it wasn't that obvious!"

Despite knowing the fact she was still alive, I still wanted to punch her again. There's no way this is THE CROW'S SHANK. The lady responsible for the second lowest destruction rate across every city ever.

The lady who's supposedly "Crow's Shank" shakes the satchel currently at her side for a moment. "Memoir, you know the deal. Take her memories, and I'll be on my merry way. I need to group up back with the team, and having a big loose end like this wouldn't be good at all, y'know?"

Out of the bag pops a decently sized teddy bear with oval paws and stubby legs. Though, the frame is where the comparisons end. Its fur is genuine, and its eyes are cute and round, albeit halfway closed due to its apparent exhaustion. It's got jet black fur for most of its body, accented with pale white on its inner ears, bottom of its paws, and even on a tuft of fur coming out of his forehead.

I'd say it's about two feet tall. Pretty crazy how it just leaped out of such a small satchel, honestly.

"Might I inquire what you require, ma'am?" the bear states to "Crow's Shank"

"Just told ya. Wipe her memory." she says while pointing at me. The moment the bear turns around, his eyes are filled with dread.

"Miss. We're leaving. Right now. Before she figures out your true identity."

"Eh? Why's that matter? Can't you just wipe her off like a clean slate?"

"I can't."

The girl picks up the bear and pinches his cheeks.

"FUCK YA MEAN YOU CAN'T?!" she shouts at him in rage. "Why do we even keep ya around if you can't even do yer job right!"

A chip of her flesh falls off of her finger, similar to that of porcelain chipping. The inside is neither flesh nor bone, but a bright violet substance that reminds me of the inside of a neon sign.

She leaps up a building, climbing up all the way to the top, and then points down at me.

"If ya tell a single soul, yer fuckin' DEAD!"

Without uttering another word, she disappears.

That sucked. I just had my entire childhood ruined by one single interaction. I look under the trash bag, and unbelievably, my bracelet was indeed there. Unfortunately, it's been accompanied by something else.

A cute little bunny with big innocent eyes, complimented by its slightly rounded chibi body and comfy paws. If this thing was sold in stores, it'd totally sell out by the weekend. Its design isn't half bad either, with a comfortable light blue accented by gold detailing on each of its limbs. Looks sort of like crude imitations of ornate designs. 'Course, if it's by the trash, that means it's got no owner. Two for one deal!

I pick it up alongside the bracelet and pocket the latter as I head back to class. Thankfully, by the time I get back, class hasn't completely finished.

"I see you've picked up some extra baggage on your pilgrimage. It's quite adorable. You should clean it off though, it seems to be... perspiring." my seat neighbor says to me. It seems he's found his original glasses this time, so he doesn't have to keep holding them up with his hand.

Sure enough, there's a thin layer of sweat on it that I manage to feel after running my hand across its fur.

"Poor thing must be scared out of its mind! Fear not, odd creature, for I will liberate you from fear!" he says, taking the bunny-esque creature out from my hands.

He chuckles a bit as he pets it.

"Oi. What's so funny?"

"While I'm holding this rabbit, you can't even threaten hitting me, right? It means I can say whatever I want while I'm holding it!"

I stare him directly in the eyes.

"You're a smart boy, so let me tell you this straight. Eventually, you will have to drop that thing or hand it over. I don't need to say the rest, right?"

"...Yes, ma'am." he says, handing the rabbit back to me with his head facing the ground a tad bit. I gracefully grab the thing's scalp like a claw machine and set it right on my desk."

"I've got no idea how you haven't gotten kicked out yet..." he mutters under his breath.

The final bell rings and I spot the biggest snitch in the school, forcing me to shove my newfound bunny friend into my bag facefirst. Thankfully, he's too busy yelling at some kid for some minor inconvenience, so I manage to sneak by him as I go through the hallway.

I head out of school, and start walking back home. It's a blessing that my house isn't actually that far away, since if I had to rely on any of my family members to pick me up, I'd be stuck at school for eternity.

Thankfully, nothing happened on my walk back home. My house isn't particularly interesting, only being one floor with three bedrooms and one bathroom, but it was certainly cheap and in a good location. Well, a good location relative to the distance to my school and nearby stores. The actual place totally sucks ass.

I give my door a rhythmic knock, followed by my brother unlocking the door. He's a bit paranoid, and always busy. I pity him, honestly. He's still an adult, but lives with his mom and dad despite that fact. He's got a job and pays his bills, but it's still pretty sad that he hasn't even found a nice girlfriend or crush.

"I'm going to sleep. If you wake me up even a minute before it's time to get ready, I'm kicking your fucking ass." I say to him as I pass by.

"Bad day, Auburn?" he replies as I ignore him and close the door behind me.

I walk over to my family portrait. I update it every year on my birthday, since It's the only time I can really get a picture with everybody smiling all at once. Gosh, my mom still looks 25 in this photo. If I had a cooler younger brother, we could probably bond over crazy conspiracy theories about what Mom actually is. My leading guess right now is vampire. If only I had a silver mirror to debunk it... I asked for one from my mom, but she refused. Kind of made it a bit more probable, now that I think about it.

I change out of my uniform and toss it right onto the laundry room floor once I'm done. Man, having an entire room for laundry is sweet. You can just toss shit in there and pile it up, then toss it all inside the washer. I made sure to toss my bunny friend onto my bed, and kept my bracelet held tight in my hand.

It was an eventful day, honestly. Mostly near the end, though. The morning was boring as usual.

...Come to think of it, I haven't actually called my friend by his name before. Though, that's 'cause his name is Carl. I instinctively regarded it as stupid the moment I heard it, and then vowed to never call him by his name ever. Kind of funny, honestly. Ever since then, I've just been keeping the gag going for as long as I possibly could. It's been like, two years.

I stare into the mirror and untie my hair. I usually like keeping it in a ponytail, but letting it flow down is way better. I make sure to leave my bracelet on the dresser, so I can grab it tomorrow morning.

My hair's a nice golden yellow, as opposed to what one would believe my hair color to be due to my name, and my eyes have always been a bit weird. Sometimes they're green, sometimes blue, sometimes brown. One time I've even had somebody tell me there were actual stars in them. I know there's magical girls out there, but I've never seen any that can change on the fly like this.

However, what if that's what they want us to think? I mean, my favorite magical girl was just outed as a lady with a weird accent and horrible social skills, and even had a partner with the ability to (allegedly) erase memories. Changing one's appearance would be the perfect way to hide in plain sight! Maybe I'm secretly a magical girl too!

Though, I don't think Magical Girl is a race. It's more like a job. I feel like it's similar to a police officer, except a lot more straightforward. I mean, your enemies are literally always super evil monsters. It can't get any simpler than that. Probably not every weird superhuman person is a magical girl, and not every magical girl is a freaky weird person! I find it quite odd I've never heard of these people on the news, though. You'd expect it to be covered all the time, especially with people like my mom wandering around. There's seriously not been a single information breach?

I've got plenty of disorganized thoughts rumbling around in my head, ones I couldn't care less about taking care of now. I'll leave all those worries for TOMORROW ME!

I leap right onto my bed, clutching my newfound friend in my arms.

It's really weird and not really an actual animal from my observation, so it SHOULD be fine to avoid feeding it for a night... right?

Dammit, I can't ignore the possibility of such a cute thing starving in my bed! It'd suck to wake up to a corpse lying next to you!

Ignoring the instructions from that one movie about not feeding weird creatures at midnight, I dug out a big box of cookies and hand-fed them to the creature.

Seeing its cute chubby little cheeks as it calmly enjoys the meal... Augh, I can't resist it!

I pinch its cheeks, shocking it a bit.

"You're too cute. It's weird that somebody would just toss you by the trash like that, right?"

I clutch the creature in my arm and pull up my blanket with the other, falling asleep.

Who knows, maybe everything's been a whole stupid elaborate dream, and I'm gonna wake up tomorrow with a normal family and average lifestyle.