In this world, there are those known as magical girls, cheerful and innocent young girls with enormous destructive potential that instilled fear in their greatest and sworn enemies, the witches.
Exactly three years ago, on a gloomy and cloudy day like today, the war between witches and magical girls began. Essentially, they were the same, as witches were nothing more than a malevolent and twisted version of magical girls.
So different and yet so similar at the same time.
The main objective of magical girls is something inherently naive like protecting the innocent and confronting evil, while witches sought something very predictable and obvious like world domination.
Of course, with such mutually exclusive objectives, peace had never been an option. And eventually, the war began with the sole aim of seeking the total annihilation of the enemy faction.
Witches or magical girls. Only one side could emerge victorious.
In general terms, it was a quite long and destructive war in regards to collateral damage. After all, neither the witches nor the magical girls could, or wanted to, hold back in a fight.
As a consequence, each battle ended with at least one street destroyed or several parts of the city damaged, and in extreme cases, some cities were reduced to rubble.
Of course, that included a depressingly high number of innocent civilian casualties, whether due to the witches or the magical girls themselves.
But no matter how long the war was, its inevitable end eventually arrived, sooner rather than later.
It was in the middle of the second year when a trend began to emerge and persisted throughout the rest of the war. Somehow, the magical girls had managed to gain an advantage, and the witches gradually started to lose battles.
Until finally, in the skies of this city, the witches staged their final resistance. In a battle involving seven magical girls against nine witches and lasting approximately an hour, the battle ended with an absolute and crushing victory for the magical girls.
After three years, the end of the war arrived.
Naturally, with the magical girls being practically famous idols around the world, they announced the end of the war with great joy, and as a consequence, the whole world was immersed in a huge celebration.
Everyone except you, a lonely girl walking back home.
Your name was Bianka, and the reason you were completely ignoring the celebration was quite simple. You had no reason to be happy.
**
A tired sigh escaped your lips for what seemed to be the tenth time in the last ten minutes. There was no one around to see you, so you didn't even bother to conceal it.
Everyone was simply too busy crowding into the celebrations, and no one paid any attention to you. Everyone had the same stupid hope of being able to meet in person the heroines who ended the war.
You really don't understand the reasoning of those kinds of people.
Why idolize killers?
You weren't very interested in attending or joining those celebrations due to your lack of interest, and even if you wanted to go, there were many other things that deserved your attention and were infinitely more important than idolizing killers whose names you didn't even know.
It was a waste of time, time you didn't have. And even if you did, you seriously doubted spending it on something so stupid and pointless when there was something important deserving of your attention.
Your eyes unconsciously landed on your left wrist, and immediately, a disheartened sigh escaped you. You had lost, or rather, someone had stolen the bracelet your mother had given you years ago.
The last and most cherished memory you had left of her, because, due to the war, the rest was completely lost. Not even a small photo had been saved, or at least, you never found one.
The person who stole it from you was someone difficult to deal with, and they definitely had no intention of returning it willingly. So here you were, on your way home, thinking of a way to retrieve your bracelet.
No matter if you have to resort to violence to do so.
"Hmm?" Suddenly, your steps came to a sudden halt when you noticed a small black spot on the ground a few steps away. And as you approached, you discovered it was a small black cat.
It would seem deeply asleep if it weren't for the ugly wound it had on its side.
You carefully picked it up in your arms, and the cat reacted to that, opening its eyes and looking at you for a moment, only to close them again, apparently falling unconscious.
Witnessing such a scene, you could only manage to smile a little, though more than anything amusing, you're sure it only conveyed weariness. "I see you've been mistreated a bit too..."
You searched for a collar around its neck that could indicate where its home was, but quickly realized it didn't have one.
A small sigh escaped your lips when you realized that this poor, innocent cat was probably a stray who hadn't harmed anyone and simply had the misfortune of being caught by some criminal who hurt it for fun.
For a moment, you wondered what to do with this cat, as leaving it here would basically be abandoning it to its death, and that felt wrong on many levels. The fact that it's a stray cat means that no one is going to pick it up or do anything to save it.
But no one will complain if you take it with you...
That elicited a small, lively smile from you. "A little company wouldn't be bad..."
You resumed your journey, this time carefully carrying the cat in your arms, making sure its wound didn't end up staining the uniform you were wearing. Blood was hard to remove, and it would cost a lot of money to replace your uniform, so you wanted to avoid doing so if possible.
**
The rest of the way home was somewhat uncomfortable, not because you had both hands occupied in a delicate balance between a shopping bag and a wounded cat, but because the few people you crossed paths with didn't even have the decency to conceal their stares.
Of course, you returned all those looks to make it clear that you weren't in the mood for someone to judge you for picking up a stray animal. You often wonder what the heck goes through people's heads when they judge those actions.
Was it better to abandon it to its death?
That routine of stares repeated for almost fifteen minutes until you finally managed to reach home. A simple one-bedroom apartment that the government provided to those who lost their homes due to the war.
Simple, basic, and only with the essentials to try to have a somewhat normal life, but at least it served its purpose of providing a roof over your head.
"I'm back." Upon entering the apartment, the first thing you did was announce your arrival, although you did it more out of habit than anything else; you lived entirely alone, after all...
Shaking your head, you decided to free one of your hands by dropping the shopping bag sharply onto the table and proceeded to close the door behind you.
The contents must have spilled across the table, but the only thing that showed was a small package of cat food. Halfway there, you had come across a store and decided to buy some food for the cat.
You consider that this cat would be more than happy to eat something decent that wasn't garbage or scraps of food.
It was a small expense that wouldn't bother you much, or at least you hoped so.
The interior of the apartment also offered only the bare essentials and had nothing that could be considered luxurious, but at least it was yours.
You improvised a cushion to let the cat rest on, while at the same time examining the wound and were horrified by what you saw.
Your baseless theory that some criminals had caught him to hurt him gained much more strength. The wound was actually a fine cut, too clean to have been made by accident and could only have been caused by something sharp.
Like a knife.
Your hands clenched involuntarily at that thought. Why are there people so inherently evil in this world?
Do they even deserve to be protected from the witches?
You would have preferred them to die instead of your parents...
You would love to take the poor cat to a veterinarian, but that was completely beyond your financial means, so the only thing you can do is rely on your own skills and the help of the internet.
How hard could it be to try to heal a cut?
With a bandage on one of your hands and your phone with internet in the other, you set to work to clean and bandage the cat's wound as best as you could.
Once you finished, as if it were some movement of destiny, the cat woke up.
The reaction it had was more violent than you expected. At first, it had looked around with curiosity, but when you tried to reach out one of your hands to pet it, the response you received was a painful scratch that made you let out a cry of pain.
At that moment, the cat took advantage of it to quickly move away, jumping out through an open window.
"No, please wait!" Your plea was totally futile as the cat jumped out of the window without even looking back.
Several seconds passed as you simply stared at the window with your hand outstretched, but eventually, you let out a small, shaky, tired sigh. "I guess there won't be any company..."
You looked at the new wound on your hand, a small bleeding line running across one of your fingers. You passed your hand over it and decided to go wash your hands to clean off the blood.
Later, you stored the cat food somewhere it wouldn't be in the way before going to change and start your schoolwork.
It was better to start now while it was early if you wanted to be able to sleep a little tonight.
**
Time passed after its escape, and the little black cat peeked through the still-open window, observing the interior with curiosity as the human girl sat at her desk, her attention focused on several notebooks and books.
This human girl was strange, that was Mofu's thought, the cat that had previously escaped.
The girl was concentrated enough on whatever she was doing with those books and notebooks not to pay attention to Mofu, which is why she didn't notice his presence.
Looking closer, the girl hadn't even bothered to cover the wound on her hand. She simply cleaned the blood and left it like that...
But her room also provided some worrying information, or in Mofu's case, reassuring information.
The walls were filled with posters of magical girls, but the interesting thing was that each and every one, without fail, had scribbles or an X over their heads.
On her bed, Mofu could even see a distinctive and familiar stuffed. Not from a magical girl, but from a witch... How could she get that? As far as Mofu knew, witches weren't exactly popular when it came to selling merchandise.
Did she make it herself?
"Oh! You're back."
The sudden voice surprised Mofu, who turned his attention to the girl, who had stopped paying attention to the books and was now looking directly in his direction.
Mofu considered whether he should just escape again, but seeing that the girl didn't make any move against him, and instead went to fetch something, along with her obvious animosity towards magical girls, made him decide to stay and see what was going to happen.
The girl returned with a strange bowl or dish or whatever that thing was called, blue in color, along with a package in her hand, which Mofu didn't recognize. She placed it on the table, giving Mofu several glances to make sure he hadn't left again.
She opened the package and poured the contents into the bowl before slowly approaching Mofu. "Calm down... I don't want to hurt you."
Her voice was soft, calm, and reassuring. If Mofu weren't so cautious right now, he would have immediately fallen into her arms, but as she approached, Mofu prepared to leave.
However, before jumping out the window, he remembered her plea from earlier. A plea so desperate that it made him pause and give the girl a closer look, her eyes, her mouth, and her expression in general conveyed only one thing.
Hope.
Mofu decided to stay and let the girl come to where he was. Insecurely, she brought the bowl closer to him, and Mofu found himself not knowing what to do. Did she want him to eat that?
His doubts were almost immediately dispelled when he looked at the girl, who remained expectant.
At least it didn't seem unpleasant or have anything poisonous, well, not that he expected this girl to enjoy poisoning injured animals, or at least that's what he wanted to believe.
Finally, he dared to take a bite, and... It was surprisingly good.
Before Mofu knew it, he was already eating that food with such energy that the girl had taken the trouble to put it down on the floor, and Mofu followed the bowl almost hypnotically.
He heard a small latch, and when he looked up, he saw the girl closing the window. Mofu realized he had totally fallen into the girl's trap.
Although her smile told him she didn't plan to harm him. And indeed, in an instant, she had Mofu completely defenseless against the onslaught of head scratches.
Mofu didn't even bother to stop her; it was quite pleasant, after all.
"Hmm." The girl suddenly made a thoughtful sound. "I'll have to give you a name. I can't just refer to you as 'cat'."
Was she thinking of keeping Mofu?
It was probably because she didn't know that Mofu was actually the creature responsible for hiring witches, because if she did, she would likely have already tried to kill him.
Although... upon closer inspection, Mofu was able to see that this girl had great potential to be a witch. Now that he thought about it, Mofu had forgotten to check this girl's affinity with magic.
With a closer look, he did, and what he saw was exciting at worst.
This girl had a high affinity with magic, very high indeed. A large part of the power of magical girls or witches comes from emotions, whether positive or negative, and the more intense the emotions, the more power they gain.
And this girl is absolutely filled with negative emotions, mainly hatred, sadness, and loneliness.
She was perfect to be a witch.
Mofu had to try to make a contract with her.
However, he was met with a rather intense gaze from the girl, and Mofu briefly panicked. Had she realized his identity? That was impossible; a simple analysis like that was supposed to go completely unnoticed by a girl without training in magic.
"How about... umm, Tofu?"
Hearing those words calmed Mofu down a bit. The girl had said something about wanting to give him a name, so he was sure she was just thinking about that.
Tofu, close enough to his real name, but far enough to be absolutely inadmissible.
"Mofu," he decided to try to make a contract with her.
"Eh? What?" The girl found herself confused upon hearing the voice, and Mofu decided to repeat.
"Mofu, that's my name." This time, the girl gave Mofu an empty stare, quite aware that the cat in front of her had spoken.
Silence filled the room, and Mofu realized he had probably messed up.
**
The silence seized your body the moment you heard the cat speak, and you froze in place.
You...
[ ]You watched him in silence for a few seconds before screaming in terror and throwing the first thing you saw, one of your books.
[ ]You slowly back away with a mix of fear and curiosity, pinching your cheek to make sure you didn't fall asleep while doing your schoolwork.
[ ]You leap forward and catch the talking cat in your hands to look at it curiously. You're absolutely sure that talking cats shouldn't exist, and you're curious how this one can talk.
[ ]This must be a stupid hallucination caused by the exhaustion you've been experiencing lately. Just ignore the cat's words and go back to doing your schoolwork.
[ ]Write in
