Tsuan watched Luna leave the school building through the window, flying all the way into the sky until she disappeared from view, before finally lowering her arm that had been frozen in front of her.
The magical girl patrolling the sky around the school looked at the familiar floating beside her.
It was a white rabbit with some blue fur, named Ruby.
"I can sense magic power fluctuations near the shopping district. Let's go defeat the monster quickly?"
It urged Luna once again.
Luna, who was waving hello to classmates who noticed her, stuck out her tongue, then rode her staff toward the shopping district near the school.
Although she could fly without using her staff, she still felt this looked more cool.
The Cream Monster feeding the shop owner endless cakes in the pastry shop sensed a large amount of magic power rushing through the air.
It gave up continuing to feed the female shop owner who kept shouting "I'm on a diet!" and instead created even sweeter, more delicious cream out of thin air to use as ammunition and weapons for battling the magical girl.
Luna, who had locked onto the cake shop using the monster's magic power fluctuations, kicked open the door and aimed her staff at a large puddle of human-shaped white cream.
"Cream Monster? Why are you causing trouble again? Have you finished paying for the damages you caused at the gymnasium last time?"
The Cream Monster, which hadn't yet grown a mouth to answer her, proudly put its hands on its hips and puffed out its chest, seeming to inform Luna that it had already completed compensation through its own hands.
"Whatever, take this! Blizzard!"
Unlike her enthusiastic and kind personality, all of Luna's magic was 'ice-cold.' It was perfect for solidifying cream.
To prevent itself from turning from a Cream Monster into an Ice Cream Monster, it hurriedly sprayed more cream toward Luna through its hands, beginning to face off against Luna.
But after a brief standoff, the Cream Monster fell into a disadvantage, and it looked like Luna would soon achieve another victory...
It should have been like that.
After the magical girl was caught in the Cream Monster's desperate charging embrace and failed to break free, she gave up using magic, since she certainly couldn't be frozen inside ice cream to become a cream filling.
The Cream Monster, thoughtfully leaving her space to breathe, successfully captured Magical Girl Luna and quickly transferred her to a specially prepared prison cell. Incidentally, it quietly slipped a pastry shop flyer into her hand.
The magical girl, who had just regained her freedom of movement, pounded forcefully on the tightly closed door, but the special building materials here prevented her from easily using magic, so her plan to forcibly break down the door with magic was completely ruined.
"Hey! Let me out quickly!"
'What's going on? Why would the Cream Monster suddenly commit such a terrible act of kidnapping me?'
Ruby, who had been hiding nearby, nuzzled her soft neck, then used its fluffy paw to point at a special symbol on the prison door.
A purple moon.
"It's those bad guys from the Dark Moon Society causing trouble!"
Luna, who understood the situation, regretted her underestimation of her defeated opponent the Cream Monster, and sat down huffily on the super-soft large bed in the center of the room.
Then she picked up the prepared sweets from the table and put them in her mouth to chew, while opening up a brand new game console to pass the time.
"Really, when will they let me out!"
And just beyond the wall from her, in the corridor, a silver-haired girl wearing a mask was severely criticizing the Cream Monster about its unauthorized act of bringing the magical girl back during class time.
After all, it just had to cause trouble at this time, preventing both herself and the magical girl from studying properly.
The magical girl, still thinking about how to escape, heard the sound of the door handle turning and picked up her staff, preparing to rush out in one go.
But the silver-haired girl obviously knew her thoughts, so she used her own body to block the door gap, making it impossible for Luna to escape without hurting her.
"Hello... Magical Girl Luna."
The masked girl tilted her head slightly, her smooth hair reaching her shoulders swaying in the air.
"Hello... wait! Who are you?"
Luna wasn't sure if she was a hostage, so she began asking directly.
"I'm one of the executives of the Dark Moon Society. You can call me Enoki."
She shrugged her shoulders and pointed at the game console in her hand like a host treating a guest.
"If you need anything, you can tell me. Just dial the phone on the desk to contact me."
Luna huffily tapped the desk.
"So you really are a bad guy... when will you let me go?"
"We will release you by 6 PM at the latest."
"Can't it be earlier?"
The only response she got was "no."
The two stopped communicating, and aside from knowing that the executive was a girl called 'Enoki,' Luna gained no other information.
Although the facilities in the prison were extremely luxurious, Luna couldn't stay here until 6 PM.
She was a magical girl who needed to protect everyone. Now that she was stuck here, what would happen if other monsters went to cause trouble in the city?
Could she rely on Amber? But Amber has been very busy lately! Moreover, there are far more monsters than magical girls...
She had to find a way to escape!
Meanwhile, the executive miss complained about the Cream Monster causing her to skip class to accompany the magical girl, while chewing on the sweets it created to vent her anger.
She also opened her phone to connect to the nursing home surveillance to check if the Cloak Monster doing volunteer work there had caused any trouble.
"So why is the magical girl's prison so luxurious, while I don't even have a table!"
A black cat obsequiously brought over her name tag, then jumped onto her head to lick its paws.
"Because our Dark Moon Society is a public welfare monster organization, so of course our limited funds should be used in more appropriate places."
The silver-haired girl put on the name tag reading 'Enoki Reiko' and grumbled irritably.
"So why be so nice to magical girls? Aren't they enemies?"
The black cat patted her head, correcting her wrong thinking.
"Even if they're enemies, you can't do anything too excessive, okay? This is an agreement between the magical girls and us."
"Huh? Why do monsters need to make agreements with magical girls?"
The black cat helplessly jumped down from her head and pushed a can of cat food in front of her.
"Because this is the best and most peaceful way to handle things, meow~"
Reiko opened the can for it and put her homework to one side.
"Because without such an agreement, many monsters might be killed by magical girls right after being born, meow. And magical girls might also get injured or die in battle..."
She nodded silently, listening to the black cat continue explaining.
"And if monsters hurt humans, then magical girls who harbor hatred toward monsters would be born among humans, meow. At that time, everyone would shed even more blood, meow..."
The black cat ate a couple of bites, found the taste different from what it expected, and disappointedly started rolling on the ground.
"So we made this kind of agreement with the magical girls, meow. Although we don't know why monsters are born, we all know that monsters need 'presence' to survive, meow."
The Cream Monster, with no facial features on its head and looking like a big piece of milk candy, applauded in agreement, though the collision of two pieces of cream made no sound at all.
"Monsters without presence all disappear silently, meow, and the way to create presence for yourself is also simple..."
Enoki Reiko curled her lips.
"Just cause destruction?"
The Cream Monster raised both arms, making an exaggerated gesture to show it was very strong now, successfully making the executive miss laugh.
"Cheer up, meow. The original intention of establishing the Dark Moon Society was to spread this peaceful concept to every newly born monster, meow. Like this... after more than ten years of our efforts, meow~ no more monsters or magical girls will shed blood!"
Reiko blinked and raised an objection.
"If that's really the case, why don't you cooperate directly with humans? If all humans would like monsters, then magical girls wouldn't be born anymore, right? When the last magical girl retires, monsters would never be in danger again, right?"
The black cat licked some cream and pointed at her with its paw.
"Then as a human, why did you join the Dark Moon Society, meow?"
Reiko answered without thinking.
"Because I hate magical girls."
"Even cute and beautiful magical girls who fit human aesthetics can be hated by some humans, meow, so how could relatively uglier monsters be liked by humans, meow."
That makes so much sense...
"Speaking of which, why do you hate magical girls, meow?"
The black cat tilted its head in confusion, letting her knead its fur.
"Because I just don't like that high-and-mighty attitude of magical girls."
'I see, meow, you just like doing bad things, meow.'
The black cat obsequiously licked her palm.
Meanwhile, Luna opened the somewhat small window. She discovered that although she couldn't squeeze through, she could try calling for help outside!
Shouting loudly definitely wouldn't work—it would attract that girl called 'Enoki'... so she needed to change methods... like... paper airplanes!
But obviously, the Dark Moon Society had clearly thought more thoroughly—there wasn't a single piece of writing paper anywhere in the room.
Luna looked around and found the flyer that the Cream Monster had stuffed into her hand lying on the floor.
So she excitedly picked it up and held it in front of her... only to discover when preparing to write on it that... it was covered with a thick layer of frozen cream, and her ballpoint pen couldn't leave even the slightest mark on it.
And this cream had deliberately left out part of the flyer to form text...
[Money for dirtying the gymnasium last time is being paid in installments >_<]
Ruby gently patted her partner's cheek, reminding her there was still one more option...
Luna threw Ruby out the small window and wished her partner a safe journey.
She was also thinking about whether, if Ruby really found a new magical girl companion, she would become a senior?
After becoming a senior~ would she be looked at with admiring eyes by a super cute junior?
Hehe~ just thinking about it makes me super happy!
'Right! Let me finish my homework while I'm at it~ then I can spend tonight researching new magic!'
With a little more effort, she could chill drinks bare-handed without transforming! What practical magic~
"Eh... I don't think I brought my homework..."
Unlike her calmness, Ruby was very anxious at this moment.
Although it knew where Amber went to school and even where Amber lived, it was too far away! A familiar separated from its magical girl simply couldn't fly that distance!
This also meant that in this situation... the captured magical girl could only use special rescue magic to call for support. But Luna's current position... made it completely impossible to use magic to contact the outside world.
"There's no choice! Looks like I can only go to the school to search for suitable children!"
Ruby opened its magic vision and quickly scanned through girls of appropriate age in the sky.
Girls without magic power in their bodies appeared as black human shapes in its eyes. What it needed was to find a white human figure with magic power in their body before its own magic was completely exhausted.
Just like when it had found Nagayasu Megumi before, to find the next child with talent.
Unfortunately, it failed. A familiar away from its contractor had very little magic power. After just a few minutes, it lost the ability to fly and could only jump to the ground, using its last bit of magic to maintain its magic vision...
Eh?!
It hadn't seen this from above, but there was a very suitable child here!
"This way! This way!"
Tsuan, who had been wondering which classmate was Luna, didn't notice she was being called by the familiar.
After Ruby discovered it was being ignored, it ran in front of her like an ordinary little rabbit, continuously waving its front paws trying to get Tsuan to notice it.
"Ruby...?"
Although she wasn't sure how Tsuan knew its name, there were more urgent matters to attend to now!
Ruby closed its eyes and condensed its last magic power into a small white glowing orb above its head, which floated into Tsuan's body... hoping she could transform into a new magical girl.
But unfortunately, it failed. Or rather... she failed.
How could it fail?! Megumi-chan had transformed just like this before...?
Tsuan, who showed no external changes, covered her head. She didn't notice that Ruby had already disappeared.
In that instant just now, a large amount of information had continuously slashed through her mind like knife cuts, forcing her to spend a long time organizing her thoughts.
First, Magical Girl Luna had been captured.
How could such a thing happen... what can I do?
Second, I am a new magical girl.
Then! Then my exclusive magic, my beautiful magical outfit, my cute familiar, and my magical tools...
Magic: Death Rattle... upon death, all remaining magic power explodes at once.
Third: My magic is to self-destruct when I die.
This, this is my magic? Can this kind of thing even be called magic?!
No... I should still have magical tools... potions or anything usable would be fine! Even if they're useless, that's okay!
She quietly looked at the only magical tool that had appeared on her—a red button in her palm.
Fourth, my only tool is a switch for suicide... pressing it will cause death, followed by revival in a safe place.
Looking on the bright side, at least I can use magic now... hmm...
What a joke!