Rishi Squad

Iroha's Origins, Part 1

Let's start from the top.

My name is Iroha Chikyū, and I am 22 years old. I am 182 cm tall and I weigh about 55 kilograms. Why do I weigh so little? I'm a model at Warugashi Modeling Agency and Studios. And oh, do I hate it. My boss had trained me since my high school graduation to starve myself so I weigh no more than 60 kilograms. Otherwise, he teases me about being overweight and threatens to fire me. For context, post graduation, before I worked at Warugashi, I weighed about 135 pounds, and my parents signed me up to work there and told me if there's anything I don't like about it, they should know. But I was afraid of parental disappointment for the longest time. That's because I never wanted a modeling job.

I wanted to be a magical girl when I was young. My parents told me there were no such thing as magical girls, but I never believed them. I read ALL the magical girl manga and watched most magical girl anime, and I strived to be one. My friends and I used to pretend to be magical girls from elementary school to late junior high, and we all loved it. Then all my friends transferred to a different high school, and I had to go to the high school that my parents went to. It was truly a shame that I never knew my childhood friends during their high school lives.

I also used to pretend my favorite doll could talk to me. She was a hand me down from my grandmother, and her name is Mai. Before I graduated, I never brought her anywhere. Now I bring her to my job every day as a comfort item. My boss doesn't like it, so I try to hide it from him any opportunity I have.

But one day, I didn't hide Mai from my boss, and he sent me home early. He also threatened to terminate me for the thousandth time. As I walked back to my parents' house, moping down the street with Mai in my backpack, I heard a muffled noise coming from there. I just assumed my phone was going off, so I opened my backpack expecting a call from my parents saying that I had let them down.

But instead, I found Mai in a different outfit, holding a necklace with a pendant that looked like a tiny magic wand that you get in a gacha machine. Was I dreaming? I did a double take, and sure enough, the sight I saw was real. "Mai?" What happened to you?" I asked, in a futile attempt to communicate with my inanimate doll.

"Hi, Iroha-chan!" the doll responded.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Did Mai just develop vocal cords and TALK?!

"Um...hi, Mai..." I mumbled. "Uh, last I checked, you were wearing a blue flapper dress and no cheapo magic wand necklace. What the heck happened to you?"

"I'm your guardian now." Mai said. "You said you wanted to be a magical girl for the longest time, so when you were feeling at your lowest, I arrived in this doll's body and..."

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA... STOP!" I shouted. "You do realize I was half joking when I told my parents I wanted to become a magical girl, and when they told me that they weren't real... nice try, but I'm no fool. I'm waking up right now."

I pinched myself, only to realize I was still more awake than ever. I slapped myself, yelled at myself to wake up, and was just about ready to hit my head on a wall, but Mai stopped me as I was about to do it. I was this close to hitting the wall, when a pillow spawned out of thin air.

"WHA- how did you do that?" I asked, stunned. "I did that because you are a magical girl." Mai answered, proudly. "I made you one because that was your biggest desire."

"Reeeeeally..." I smirked, skeptically.

"Really." Mai smiled, earnestly.

"Okay, I believe you. Just show me what I need to do in order to not disappoint my parents." I stammered, confused. "Oh, you won't need that. Your parents aren't disappointed at all!" Mai exclaimed. "Why? And how?" I asked.

Oh, to be a fool and ask that. Mai pointed to her left and out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed my father staring at me, all concerned.

"What are you doing?" my Dad asked. "I can explain..." I began, but he cut me off. "What are you doing in the middle of the street? You're going to get hit by a car!" He immediately dragged me inside of our house.

And then the questions began.