Today is supposed to be the start of her lessons as an idol, but Otoha wasn’t quite feeling it. It wasn’t because of her singing or dancing, Halstar—no, Hoshina-san had said that she’s already good enough with it, at least compared with Nikita and surprisingly, Aika. All they need was a little group lesson with her assisting the two. It definitely wasn’t the fact that they have yet to decide on a group name either, though she is indeed worried about that. What made her anxious was entirely something else.
The Magical Girl Idol of Yozora Production’s Combat Lesson, shorten as Magidol Combat Lesson. That was the thing that awaits her beyond this futuristic, sci-fi like doors of white under the nameplate of ‘Combat Simulator Room’.
Director had allowed her to ask three questions before they return to their job, after Otoha’s initial confusion. While Otoha is thankful for it, she has too many questions that she couldn’t begin with.
“Then, the first one…. Why idols here have to be magical girls?”
“Well, it’s a long history. To put it short, it’s an exchange—and don’t get us wrong, the ones that wanted the likes of you to be magical girls were the Earthlings themselves!” Maho smiled as they crossed their arm. “Nitestellar, the planet we were from, has a long relationship with Earthlings and has protected Earth in secret from Earth commoners. As for why we want to, we are mostly interested that they were able to gain their so-called female kind as an entertainer. It’s impossible for Nitestellarian…”
“…Huh, why impossible?”
“If something equal to Earth’s female of Nitestellarian race got too famous, they’ll explode!”
“Explode?! Are you serious?!”
“Yep, do you want to see a video?”
“No thank you!”
“…Alright, that makes 3 questions! I have piles of work to do, goodbye!”
“Wait, what?! Those last two shouldn’t be counted! I still have more questions! How do we even be magical girls and what are we fighting?! Wait, Director! Please wait—“
…and so, Yozora Maho had to back off only after her three questions, and the other three people responsible for telling her what’s going on all have horrible way of explaining. She still couldn’t understand anything, aside from them having to fight aliens as a magical girl team with their Producer, Hoshina-san actually being a mascot alien dog thing. At most, she only understands that today is supposed to be their early combat lesson, after all those normal group lessons with their to-be debut song.
She hoped “Experience is the best teacher” would’ve actually worked here, as Otoha sighed.
“What are you waiting for? Let’s get inside, Iroha.” The blonde girl with twin-tail tapped her shoulder, her eyes stern, and reeks of impatience. Aika was really just the usual, care for no one but Haru-sama who is probably beyond this door. Behind Aika was the tall Nikita who is currently snorting loudly as she watched a video on her phone.
Let alone magical girls, would they even work out as idols at this rate?! Otoha kept on wondering to herself.
“It’s Otoha! Please at least remember my name properly! Also, Futaba Nikita, shut down your phone!” Otoha protests as she opened the door with a bang.
“Ah, you girls! Welcome! How was the regular group lesson?” Greeting them was the flying small dog they known as Halstar, tinkering with a hi-tech looking wrist bracelet.
“Haru-sama~!”
Aika hurriedly runs to him calling his name, though she did him a favor by stopping in front of the desk to not disturb him.
“All good for now, Hallie!” Nikita, who finally closed down her phone raised up a thumb. “Though I kinda failed all my turns… and forgot the lyrics often”
“That’s not a ‘good’, Nikita-san.” Otoha hissed, and Nikita just forced out a giggle as she scratches the back of her head. To that, Halstar chuckled.
“Aren’t you two getting along! That’s great.” Otoha would cut in what Halstar said to deny, but Aika stared sharply at her as if she was saying ‘Don’t disturb Haru-sama’, so she just let the dog continue his speech. “Well, let’s get into the point. Ichinose, I’ll have you and the more experienced Aika spar with this, and have Futaba observe.”
He gathered the high-tech bracelets he had been tinkering on; before he flies to the two girls he had mentioned to give them one each.
“This is….”
“A replica of your actual transforming bracelet! This one’s battery powered, but they can replicate the battlefield pretty accurately with the help of this room” Halstar explained with what Otoha thought was a smile and stopped as Otoha tried to wear the bracelet. “Just don’t wear it yet though! It will get turned on once you put it on, so it’ll be a waste of energy.”
“How do we battle with this…?” Otoha figured out it wouldn’t hurt to ask, as she holds the bracelet with her right hand, flipping it to see what kind of technology does it runs with. Even if she hasn’t agreed with the whole magical girl thing, it does interest her a little.
“It’s kind of like what you humans called as ‘Virtual Reality’, I think?” Halstar stopped by to think. “I think it’ll be easier once you try it on. In the count of three, please put it on!”
Along with Halstar’s signal, Otoha puts it on. As she did, one blink on her eye turned the surrounding of her to forest scenery in the light of grey glitches. Her training jersey had turned to a color of pink, too. She still hasn’t understood much on what is going on, yet she can’t deny feeling quite amazed with it as her eyes visibly twinkles.
“Ichinose, can you hear me?”
Halstar’s voice rings in her head.
“Y—yes? Where are you?” She panicked a little. After all, she couldn’t see him anywhere.
“Right now I and Nikita are observing you two from outside of the field… some kind of waiting room.” Halstar’s voice rings again. She tilted her head confused, as she decided that she needs to learn a little more about what are they doing.
“Uh… what do I do now?”
“Forge a weapon from what you thought as ‘Strength’.”
“Sorry, what?” Otoha got even more confused now. “Wait, I’m not going to transform here and get it myself or something?”
“Transformation requires an actual energy that only manifest once you debut. For now, it is still just training… so it’s using battery energy”
“Sorry, but I still don’t understand anything. What do you mean by forging a weapon—“
With a bash, Otoha got punched in the face by a gauntlet fist as she got thrown to the nearby tree before she could even finish. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt as much as she would’ve expected. It felt like she only fell to a soft, fluffy bed, despite how clear would that gauntlet hurts normally.
“Don’t monopolize Haru-sama’s intercom like that! Think for yourself for once, Otome!” Crisp and clear she could hear Aika’s voice protesting eerily. Not ringing in her head as Halstar’s voice did, but still clear enough for Otoha to feel the anger of the glasses girl who just punched her. She really is a bad yandere character with pure fist power on top of it, Otoha wondered to herself.
“It’s Otoha! Also, what the hell was that all of sudden?! Can’t you cut me some slack?! I’m a junior of yours in this case! Can’t you at least give me some guidance properly?”
“It’s my way of teaching. If you slack on a magical girl’s battlefield, you’ll be sent home quick, Kotoha” Aika sent her a thumb down as she charged towards her. “I will teach you a lesson by knocking you out first!”
“That’s really close but my name is actually Otoha— W—whoa!” Otoha attempts to dodge as fast as possible. To her surprise, her feet were quicker than expected. Aika with her darker aura still attempt to charge on her, so Otoha figured out she needed to figure out how to forge her ‘weapon’ sooner or later. Aika was so close to delivering another blow to her, but…
“Aika, she’s a newbie… Please don’t go all out on her…” Halstar’s voice ring again. As he said so, Aika stopped.
“Oh, right… Sorry, Haru-sama. I was just…”
“Well, it might be your way of teaching, but at least wait until she could forge a weapon.”
“Ah, that’s right! That means I could get angry all I want to this girl for monopolizing Haru-sama’s intercom once she forged a weapon, am I right~?”
“Yeah, kinda!”
“As expected from Haru-sama~”
…Suddenly Otoha felt like she would be safer if she just doesn’t forge a weapon. This girl is way too crazy to handle.
“Can you two hear me too, by the way?” Another voice rings on Otoha’s head, this time it belongs to a girl she known as Futaba Nikita.
“…kind of?” Otoha is the only one who replied, despite that. Though she understood that Aika’s not the type to care about anyone else, so she probably ignored Nikita on purpose and waited for the moment she forges her weapon and got bashed away.
“Whoa! That’s really cool! Never thought being an idol would have Shounen manga feel to it… Do your best, you two! It is really fun watching you two fight like in comics from this floating place thingy”
“Because idols normally don’t, Nikita-san” Otoha sighed.
“They don’t? I thought Japan was being cool this time with it…”
“You see! Idols are entertainers; they are not mercenaries that fight barbarically like this! They are the bringer of hope and smiles to all people who listen to their song—“
As Otoha rambled on her own, her bracelet shines as it forged a stick on its own, manifesting on her hand. The shining thing was shaped as if it was a large light stick and as she knew what was going on; Otoha feels screwed with Aika turned her head to the source of the lights and understood the situation.
She runs as fast as she could before Aika could’ve thrown another punch to her.
“Wait here, you little—“
“You’re still mad about something that’s not on my control?! At least try to explain things better to me so I won’t need your precious ‘Haru-sama’ to explain!”
“This is how I roll, Otonashi! Haru-sama already approved with my way of mentoring, too, right?”
“It’s Otoha! Geez, Hoshina-san! Go say something to stop your girlfriend here!”
“Uh…if it works out well, why not? A true battle experience would be the best to teach you, right?” Halstar’s voice rings again and Otoha wants to curse him so badly. Not to mention she started hearing Nikita cheering on her and Aika with a loudly sounding snort kind of laughter, so very unlike an idol.
Otoha herself does understand that if she did nothing, she would just be beaten up to a pulp. Yet, she doesn’t understand how this stick-thing worked yet for sure. Since she’s a magical girl now, maybe she’s supposed to shoot beams from it?
It’s worth a try. She ran to a distance that Aika could not catch her with a punch with a dash and yells in an embarrassment of something she had only done once when she was six years old.
“Magical… Beam…?!”
Nothing happened, and Aika caught up to her as she got punched again and being thrown across the forest, albeit without much pain due to it being just a simulation. Of course, she thought to herself.
“You seriously think you’d be able to shoot beams from it right away? Ranged attack is such a high-level skill, you’d need some more points for that.” Aika still has the creepy aura, but her less-than-pleasant empty eyes were more to someone who looks at a pitiful stupid thing right now. Otoha now is sure she hates it more than her just being a yandere character.
“At least tell me that first before punching me!” Otoha retorts. “Besides, what do you mean by points?”
“In our company, you can buy skills with points gained during your idol jobs. You seriously aren’t reading the contract, huh”
“What is this, a video game?! MMORPG?!” Otoha dodged another punch from Aika, this time successfully. “Just give me time to get used to this stick, please! We haven’t even decided our unit name; I’m not going to the hospital before I knew at least the name I’ll debut on!”
“Is that even necessary? We can just call ourselves Halstar’s Angel and Two Idiots.”
“There’s no way I’m naming us that!” Otoha is starting to get tired of dodging and retorts, as she noticed a heart-shaped button on the pink, straight line stick she’s holding.
As Aika delivers another strong blow, she closed her eyes as she pressed the button. She couldn’t feel in the blow even just a little, as she opened her eyes. Blazing out from the stick was a saber formed from a light pink light, and it was able to deliver a counter that throws Aika away.
“Oh, so that’s the true form of your weapon.” The blonde girl doesn’t even look surprised as she took a stance. “Now we can have a good sparring in equal stance, shall we?”
Otoha prepared herself for another punch from Aika’s gauntlet with the light-saber on her hand, at least until she could’ve heard a strong bell ringing on her head. As the bell voice calmed down, the forest field they were on slowly disappears in glitches and becomes the simulator room they were on before, with Nikita and Halstar, now in human form standing in front of them.
Not to mention the bracelet they were wearing just before got off of their hands immediately and falls to the ground before the ground pulled it with some robotic hands to store it back to what Otoha speculated where they usually belong.
“Wait, what’s going on—“
“Ah, I totally forgot. We have limited time for our first combat training today…” Halstar— or should they say Hoshina commented as he scratched the back of his head. “TSUKIGUMI’s group is going to use this room on their busy schedule, too. I guess we can observe them for training instead.”
Otoha couldn’t believe her ears at all, as two girls and a flying, bat-winged rabbit entered the room after a knock behind her noticing.
After all, for Otoha, the voice that said “Excuse us…” were one of the most beautiful singing voice of the centuries that she knew of well.
airisregina 