Magical Girl Origin - Happy Sparkles (Patreon)

Origin - One - Happy Sparkles

So far, Rosa thought that being a magical girl was quite cool.

It, of course, came with a lot of perks. She slept like a babe, she felt better and had more energy, and when she did the laundry she could just change into her magical girl costume while the rest of her clothes were in the wash.

The magic was like a cherry on top of a double-decker sundae, and she was all for it.

There was only one teensy little thing that made it a little hard, and that was the overwhelming responsibility that came with the magic.

She was a magical girl, which meant, of course, that she was now responsible for keeping her neighbourhood and city and maybe even the world, safe.

Kitten Sage had been great so far. It was the kindest, nicest chainsword she’d ever met. It was also both the only chainsword she’d ever met, and the only weapon she’d ever shared a conversation with. It had been teaching her all sorts of things about being a magical girl, and for a little while, she’d kind of just assumed that those responsibilities wouldn’t ever show up.

Then, last night while watching the evening news, Kitten Sage had pointed out that one of the politicians currently up for election was a vampire.

“No way!” she said with a gasp.

“Sweetie?” her mom asked. She poked her head into the living room and looked around. “Did something happen on the news?”

“No, it’s nothing mom,” Rosa said with her most winsome grin. Her mom smiled back while Rosa pointed to the TV. “One of the guys running for Minister-President in Saarland is a vampire.”

Her mom blinked, then pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Yes, sweetie, he’s a politician. I didn’t ever imagine you being interested in politics. It’s good. In a few years you’ll be old enough to vote you know.”

“I meant it literally,” Rosa said, but her mom waved her off and went back to the kitchen. She was whipping up some breakfast since it was her turn. Their little family of three took turns making breakfast in a sort of rotation. That meant that they had a good, solid meal two days out of three--her dad couldn’t cook, even if he claimed otherwise and tried his hardest.

Rosa continued to watch TV, but soon enough she had to get up and shut it off.

“So, is the fact that he’s a vampire going to be a problem?” she asked.

VAMPIRES ARE HUNTERS. THEIR PREY IS HUMANITY. BUT THEY ARE LONGER LIVED AND SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE HUMAN, AND THEIR MAGICS ARE BOTH SUBTLE AND LONG-LASTING.

Kitten Sage’s voice was like a gentle fog-horn in her ear, as always. Once she got better at magic, she determined that she was going to figure out how to adjust the metaphorical volume knob on her weapon’s voice.

A problem for later; right now, she had breakfast to look forward to.

She sat down, and her mom placed some sausage and eggs onto her plate. “Eat quick, the bus will be here in an hour.”

“Uh-huh,” Rosa said. In reality her mind was elsewhere. It wasn’t quite nice of her to tune out though, so she smiled at her mom and dug in.

Then her dad dragged himself into the kitchen and plopped himself down at her seat. “Oh, eggs,” he said.

“Just the way you like them,” her mom said. She placed some on his plate, then Rosa looked away as her parents kissed. She knew it was great that she had parents who loved each other, but she really didn’t need to see it.

“Dad,” she said. “Can I ask you a hypothetical?”

“Of course,” he said as he poured himself some coffee. “What is it, Sweetie?”

“Let’s say you find out that a politician is... uh, corrupt, I guess. Like, they’re really bad. What do you do?”

“Vote them out,” he said.

“And if that’s not an option? Like, they’re using evil vampire magic to trick people into voting for them?” It was just a suspicion on her part, but... well, the Nachzehrer Demokratische Partei had only sounded a little weird before she discovered that vampires were an actual thing.

Then again, maybe she shouldn’t have been too surprised. She grabbed the coffee from her dad and poured herself a cup after stealing her mom’s mug. Her mom didn’t like her drinking coffee, but that didn’t stop Rosa from taking a few sips... with lots of milk and sugar, of course.

“There are systems in place to prevent that sort of thing... well, perhaps not for magic since magic isn’t real, but still.”

“Huh,” she said. “And if those systems don’t know? Like, let’s say you discover something really awful about a local politician. Really, really bad. Who do you tell?”

He frowned. “This is sounding less hypothetical by the minute. Did something happen, Rosa?”

“Just asking,” she said quickly before turning her attention to her plate.

“You could tell the media, I suppose. They’re another sort of vampire, but they feed on that kind of story,” he mom said as she sat with her own plate. “Now, eat up, the bus won’t wait for you, you know.”

Rosa nodded and did just that, but... well, she felt a little bad about it, but she didn’t intend to go to school today.

She wasn’t going to tell her parents that, though. They’d worry needlessly, and she didn’t want them to do that. No, so far she’d been a straight 1.0 student, so missing one day wouldn’t be that big of a deal, would it?

Her tummy roiled a bit at the idea, but she justified it to herself easily enough. After all, magical girls needed to do magical girl things, and that might mean skipping out on a lesson or two. That was how it was in all the anime she’d watched.

Breakfast done, she ran to her room, changed out of her PJs and into a nice blouse and skirt in pale purples, which were her favourite colours, then it was back out of the house. She didn’t think either of her parents noticed her leaving with just her purse and no backpack.

“Okay!” I said aloud. “Now, if I were a media company ready to report on the appearance of vampires, where would I hide?”

That turned out to be a harder question to answer than she’d originally thought. A bit of time spent on Google pointed her towards a couple of news stations in the middle of the city, so she walked a few blocks out and to the nearest Saarbahn tramway stop.

It felt bizarre, travelling across the city on her own. There was a bit of worry there, some tension she wasn’t used to feeling. Fortunately, no one talked to her on the tram and when she finally got off she only had to look at her phone to see where to go.

Of course, she stopped by a little coffee place and grabbed an iced coffee with one shot of every syrup they had and a fresh chocolatine imported from France (which really wasn’t saying much when France was spitting distance away, but it did mean it cost a bit more).

Rosa skipped along while downing her food. According to Kitten Sage magical girls had bodies that were much improved compared to a normal person’s. She was betting that meant it would be harder to gain weight.

Well, she hoped that was the case, which was why she was eagerly testing it.

The only other ways to test that would be to hurt herself, and that sounded like a very impractical and unhealthy thing to do. “Hey, Kitten Sage,” she said.

MY NAME IS KETTENSÄGE.

“That’s not a very wholesome name,” Rosa countered. “Besides, nicknames are a great way to become friends with someone, right? So, I wanted to know, are there others? Other magical girls, I mean?”

THERE ARE TWELVE AND ONLY TWELVE.

“Neat!” she said. Rosa couldn’t wait to meet the others. She was sure they’d all become fast-friends.

She took a sip from her drink as she stood before the SMC-media building. It was a six-story place in downtown, all mirrored glass and sharp, modern architecture with a few digital billboards on the side cycling through ads for different programs the station ran.

Stepping in, Rosa glanced around the lobby, then walked up to the counter at the far end where she was greeted by a young woman in a nice uniform. “Hello, how may I help you?”

“Hi,” Rosa said. “I, ah, don’t know exactly how any of this works, but if I have a story to tell, is there a way to contact a journalist?”

The receptionist blinked, then gave Rosa one of those charming-but-fake customer service smiles. “We have a contact system on our webpage where you can send our team an email. It’s entirely anonymous, if you wish it to be.”

“Oh, no, I don’t care about that kind of stuff. I really just want to talk to someone who can help me. It’s, uh, well, somewhat sensitive? I’ve discovered something about a local politician, and... yeah.”

“Well... give me a moment, I’ll see if someone’s available to speak with you,” the lady said.

Rosa grinned back and rocked on the balls of her feet as she waited. This was going great so far.

“Ah, Tim will come to meet you,” the receptionist said with that same plastic smile. “You can wait off to the side, if you want.”

“Thanks!” Rosa said. She shuffled off to a bench and sat down for the illusive Tim to show up. Fortunately, it didn’t take all that long. Tim, as it turned out, was a thin guy in a slightly frumpled suit and with messy hair who walked into the reception space oozing nervous energy.

“Ah, hi,” he said as he came over and extended a hand, then pulled it back, then extended it again as he seemed to realise that he was being a little rude.

“Hello,” Rosa said as she changed her iced coffee from one hand to the other and shook. “You’re Tim, I take it?”

“That’s me,” he said. “I was told that you had a story?”

“I do,” Rosa said. “But maybe this isn’t the place for that?”

“Oh, sure, please follow me.”

Tim led her into an elevator and stood there rather awkwardly as they rode up three floors. Then he guided her through a cubical farm to a space near the centre. His cubical had a small wooden desk with a laptop on it, an old office chair at the back, and an even older chair on the guest-side of the desk.

“Please, sit,” Tim said with a weak smile as he positioned himself behind his desk. “So, I didn’t get much information from reception, she said you had a story? Something nice and wholesome? Your school team struck a victory? Maybe a fundraiser for a club?”

Rosa giggled. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just didn’t know who to approach about this, but... yeah, the NDP is staffed by vampires.”

“Pardon?” Tim asked.

“The political party,” she explained.

“I’m familiar with them,” Tim said. “But, uh, I don’t know if I’m the person for political pieces.”

“In that case ,could you point me in the right direction, please?”

Tim scratched at the hints of stubble on his cheek. “Um, miss...”

“Sparkles,” she said.

“Miss Sparkles... wait, is that really your name?”

She shook her head. “It was supposed to by Magical Girl Hysterical Slaughterfest, but that’s way too much of a downer. I much prefer Magical Girl Happy Sparkles.”

“What?”

Rosa nodded along. “Look, I know it’s a lot to take in, but magic is real, and so are Vampires, and right now some of our local politicians are blood-suckers who may or may not want to take over the world or something, so I just thought we ought to report that.”

“Uh-huh,” Tim said. He was very notably not writing anything.

“I can prove it, if you want,” Rosa said. “Not the vampire thing, that’ll take some work, but that magic is real.”

Tim smiled, and it was that kind of smile an adult wore before a kid showed them a lame trick. “I’m afraid that--”

Rosa smiled right back. Then the entire office glowed a vibrant pink. Laughter filled the room, hysterical, insane laughter, and with that, Rosa started to spin and dance, never really leaving the same spot, but moving around all the same while her clothing glowed and disappeared, only to be replaced with her magical girl costume.

It was a very nice costume, she found. A long-enough skirt, a sweater with frills. Very modest. It even had a little bowtie.

Then, once the magic died down, Rosa reached a hand to her chest and laid it flat against her sternum. Her chest burst open and Kitten Sage ripped its way out of her with a roar. She flicked the weapon around, which was tricky since it was nearly half as long as she was tall, and they let it clunk onto Tim’s desk.

Somehow, her chest wasn’t shredded after the chainsword came out of her, but she chalked that up to magic being magic.

“So,” she said with a dazzling smile. “Ready to believe in magic yet?”

Then Tim’s desk shuddered and crashed to the side, unable to handle the weight of her sword laying atop it.

***

Art by: Fnostic!
Find them here: https://twitter.com/Fnostic1