Kazumi Magica Chapter 2: Pop Dogs
Picking up where the last chapter ended, Kazumi falls unconscious, exhausted and hungry. Looking at the detective's unconscious body, Umika and Kaoru find an object that resembles a Grief Seed. The mysterious girl from before watches, clearly annoyed. Kazumi wakes up, finds a black cat (which might be a reference to the black cat from the anime's opening animation) and comes downstairs to find Umika cooking. Kaoru explains that Umika has writer's block, which causes her to grow horns on her head and act oddly. After eating, Umika takes the girls shopping. While at the mall, Kazumi gets an odd feeling and runs away to find another monster attacking people. Kazumi transforms, causing the monster to recognize her as a magical girl. Kazumi has trouble fighting the monster, which prompts Umika and Kaoru to transform into magical girls themselves. Kazumi remembers that Kaoru would immobilize the monster, while Umika would use her book to read its mind. However, Kazumi performs the next step - attacking - too early, which nearly causes the attack to hit Umika. The monster gets away as Kazumi runs to her friends. Kazumi apologizes to them, but they don't seem to mind. When she insists on being punished, they take her to a hair salon where they cut her hair.
At the salon, Umika explains that there are fairies who scout out magical girls and make contracts that grant them wishes (a silhouette of Madoka and Kyubey are seen during this scene). Kaoru says she wished for a healthy body that could always play soccer, while Umika wished for an editor that could appreciate her novels. When Kazumi asks why they didn't wish for success or fame, they reply that they want to achieve those things with their own abilities. Kazumi then asks what her own wish was, but she had never told her friends. The monsters in the current and previous chapter are confirmed to be a new type of witch that Kaoru and Umika haven't encountered before. At this point, Kazumi's haircut is finished, and is rather messily done. Kazumi says she likes it, saying that it's fine for the "new Kazumi", having distanced herself from the "old Kazumi". When Umika wants to fix the lock of Kazumi's hair that sticks out, Kazumi claims that it's a witch sensor. It seems to have some use, helping Umika learn that the witch is a cosmetic saleswoman, who is attacking girls who have bad skin. When they find and confront the witch, the mysterious girl from before appears and is identified as a magical girl. She quickly leaves, leaving Kazumi, Umika and Kaoru to fight the witch on their own. They defeat her, returning her to normal and making her drop another unusual Grief Seed. Afterwards, Kazumi muses that those who become witches aren't always bad people. Umika replies that anyone can become a witch. It's implied that she and Kaoru know that, like in the anime, magical girls become witches.
Trivia
- Scanlations originally translated this chapter as AHA! Dogs