Null Magical Girl Introduction: Year 2X21 C.E

Translation credit to Project Mokyuu on Tumblr.

"A story of the me of now, dedicated to those of us that once were." - Quote on the cover image (translated).

The story starts in 2021 after the emergence of SARS-COVID-2, causing a worldwide pandemic. From this perspective, a 24 year old Kosane Kiriha laments about her life. A graduate student (until March) who cant find a job for the life of her. She wonders what would happen if she decided not to pursue a master's degree.

She says, by April, she will become a nobody. Unable to write "student" on official documents yet unable to write anything about employment. She calls herself insignificant and unable to change the situation she finds herself in.

As Kosane gets out of her bed, she moves to the mirror. After rubbing her eyes, she realizes she saw something move in the mirror. She thinks it must have been in her imagination - she is the only one in her room, after all. That is, until she heard a voice.

"Sister..." She hears.

Kosane mumbles a name: "Eruna", as she turns around. Naturally. there is no one behind her. She wonders why she said "Eruna". After all, Eruna is the long dead twin that she never met.

Kosane then tells the reader that Eruna had been her imaginary friend for a very long period of her life. She says that she could hear and touch her despite her only being in her imagination. Kosane says its normal for children to develop imaginary friends, especially if they are lonely. However, in her case, Eruna persisted until her upper grades of middle school instead of dissipating earlier. Kosane's parents had to send her to many pediatricians before she would leave her mind at the age of 14.

Ten years, It was only ten years ago. She says that time does sure fly. Ten years is enough time to turn the hopes of a middle schooler into the ashes of unemployment. Ten years ago, Eruna finally left this world. And... what else happened? Kosane can't remember, but knows something important happened ten years ago.

She sighs and says it doesn't matter as she washes her face. When she looks up, she plays her game of "Gokko". "Gokko" is a game Kosane plays by herself where she pretends to commit suicide and imagine its release. She says that, if she had lived in America, she would have died long before 24. However, she is scared to death of the idea of ending her own life. She says there is no evolutionary advantage to suicide, and that it should have been waned out long ago. This leads her to wonder why she thinks about suicide so much. Is it fear and anxiety for the future, or is it something else?

She touches a bump on the back of her neck, a bump that she had since she was young and a bump that keeps on growing. In recent years it has grown quickly to the size of a golf ball, giving her anxiety of what it is and what will happen to her if, and when, it continues to grow. She fears that she will be absorbed by the bump and become nothing.

Her only solution to her situation, Kosane decides, is to ignore the future and instead look back into the past. Deny reality and run from her problems.

Kosane thinks about her teenage years when she still had hope. She thinks on the time where she wanted to become a hero and not the pathetic bump she is today. She wanted to be a Magical Girl.

She begins to laugh at herself. Thinking about Magical Girls at her age? Much more, wanting to be a Magical Girl at 24? It's absurd. Kosane is, after all, the definition of "not a Magical Girl". She is a "Null Magical Girl".

She accepts that, at the age of 14, she desperately wanted to be a Magical Girl. That's why she made a contract, after all.

Wait, a contract? Pain surges through her head as memories surge into the limelight. She can almost recall something unusual and terrible. She can almost remember, but the pain causes her to give up. Kosane curses herself as she makes herself a coffee. Impatient, she pours coffee powder in her mouth followed by the near-boiling water, leading her to curse again.

She says the pain was worth it, though. The burns distract her from the pain in her head. And with that distraction, she gets closer to remembering. Kosane comes to the conclusion that she must hurt herself so that she can remember, leading her to slam her head into the mirror repeatedly.

As the mirror cracks, so do the walls Kosane set up in her mind. Ten years ago, she met him. She met Kyubey.

The emptiness in Kosane's mind goes on for what seems like forever, but she believes that there is something she can do with the emptiness - something else she can remember.

Kosane believes that she feels incredibly tired and wants to relax, but must pull herself together. She suddenly gets pulled out of her trance by her professor yelling at her to answer the question "What is the 'cognitive revolution'?" Kosane answers with the theory of evolution and how the human mind evolved to obtain drastic cognitive ability . When asked how she evaluates this hypothesis, she says the answer is too convenient given how there are cave murals that predate the human race entirely, drawn by Neanderthals. Kosane suggests that, instead, the cognitive revolution was driven by habitat differences between humans and Neanderthals over a long period of time. When asked about this habitat difference, she cannot find an answer. She berates herself for choosing such a difficult topic for her master's thesis when she can't even answer the most important part.

Disappointed by the lack of an answer, her professor moves on to the next question: "Please describe the relationship between the cognitive revolution and Magical Girls."

This causes her to stumble mentally. What type of question is that? When Kosane fails to answer, the professor asks again. "What’s wrong, big sister? Tell me about the relationship between the cognitive revolution and Magical Girls." As this is said, her professor turns into Eruna, her dead sister.

Kosane wakes up from her dream. She subconsciously starts to analyze her dream, but stops herself. She feels exhilarated like she hasn't felt in a long time. She observes that it feels like a refreshing spring breeze blowing through her mind. She stands up happily and skips for a few steps before stopping. She feels a sticky fluid running down her face.

Blood. Fresh blood. As Kosane looks over her body, she realizes it is covered in dried blood. Thinking back, she realizes she hit her head on her mirror and fainted, causing all the blood. She moves to a non-broken mirror to look herself over. Upon seeing her reflection, she jokingly questions who she is looking at.

In the mirror, she sees herself with a crack in her head. The skull is so cracked that Kosane could see the contents inside. She wonders if she is seriously injured, but thinks it's unlikely.

She is in disbelief about what she sees, or rather what she doesn't see. She has no brain whatsoever.

Upon this revelation, sne stands still and stares in disbelief at the empty cavity in her head until the day turns to night. She says she doesn't understand. Suddenly, a familiar voice comes from behind her.

"What I don’t understand is your existence, Kosane Kiriha."

When Kosane turns around, she sees a cat-rabbit creature. Kyubey. He says that it has been a long time since they last saw each other. Kosane finally remembers their last meeting ten years ago. a 14 year old Kosane made a contract with Kyubey to become a Magical Girl. However, the contract failed because she had no soul. This leads to him calling her a "null Magical Girl".

Kosane wonders why Kyubey had to show up now, and why he had to remind her of a memory she would rather bury deep in her mind. Kyubey says that he had appeared to address the irregularity known as Kosane Kiriha. The Incubators had been observing her due to the lack of a soul, but now that she has no brain they decided to make contact.

He says that they theorize that the tumor on her neck is what thinks and controls her body, and therefore the real her.

Kosane cannot believe what she hears. The bump she had once feared is her brain? It's impossible. Kyubey continues and says that her tumor is made of the same type of cells that make up his body, and says that it must have been planted within her by something.

Kosane jokes that this must be a family reunion then, but Kyubey says it's more serious than that. He reveals that the spacetime continuum is collapsing around her, causing her to go into a momentary shock. After the moment has passed, she says that she will help Kyubey as long as he tells her everything it knows. As such, he reveals its true nature as an Incubator and the true purpose of the creation of Magical Girls.

Kosane then asks about the spacetime continuum collapse, saying she hasn't noticed anything. Kyubey says that the collapse is still on a small scale. In a few days time, the distortion will be apparent enough for her to understand. As a result, she offers that he stay with her to monitor the situation. Kyubey accepts and nests inside the hole in her skull.

Thus, Kosane's new life with Kyubey began. She notes that not much has changed due to her nature as a loner. The only difference now is that she has someone to talk to. She says that its logical responses bring her peace of mind. Kosane says that Kyubey reminds her of the 1966 AI ELIZA. While the AI was simple and only mimicked what the users input into it, she notes that the users felt that ELIZA truly understood them. Despite how advanced AI has become, Kosane states that AI will never have emotion, much like Kyubey.

Then, the distortions begin to be apparent. First, clocks began to mess up. No matter the type of clock (internal, sun dial, digital or analog), none pointed to the same time. She notes that, when she looks outside, she cannot tell what time of day it is.

Second, Kosane's logic collapses. She says that her logic is now like that of dreams. Her sense of time is no longer linear and memories of the past merge with the memories of the present. As long as the memories have some sort of connection, no matter how loose, they connect in Kosane's internal timeline.

Bringing her out of her internal monologue, Kyubey says that this is not good. This confuses Kosane, who responds that she doesn't feel like anything is wrong. She notes that the collapse makes her comfortable since the questions of time and existence are fading away. Given that response, Kyubey prepares to take his leave. She asks why, and he responds that she is low on their list of priorities. Kosane despairs about her future unemployment and lack of being prepared for the spacetime collapse. Kyubey reveals to her that there is a letter in the back of her head, shocking her. He hops back in and retrieves the letter for her. The letter is written on regular notebook paper and has a dotted line on it that spreads in multiple directions. She quickly reads it.

"Dear big sister,
From your sister Eruna
Big sister, long time no see. It’s been 24 years in your time.
Anyways, I’ll be waiting for you at the epicenter of fate.

P.S. If you fold this letter along the dotted line, you can use it as a train ticket on the Time Railroad."

From Eruna? But that's impossible. She died 24 years ago. Kosane feels confused and scared by this. She asks Kyubey about what it thinks about the letter. Kyubey responds that the letter seems to be a "three-dimensional slice of a four-dimensional structure", and asks her to fold it along the dotted line. She struggles with it, but eventually creates a triangular pyramid out of the paper.

Examining the pyramid, she notices that a faint blue light is leaking out from it. It gets brighter and brighter, slowly illuminating the entire room. Inside the pyramid a three-dimensional "shadow" forms, creating another pyramid. The pyramid inside the pyramid soon grows another pyramid inside itself, and so on. Additionally, more pyramids envelope the original pyramid and soon envelope Kosane and her whole room.

Suddenly, everything inside the pyramids warps away, and she feels the sensation of falling. Kosane notices that she is falling into the center of the infinite amount of pyramids, transporting her to a distant place and, at the same time, distorting her body into what she calls a singularity. Slowly, a dot begins to enter her vision. As it expands, she realizes that it's actually a train. As the train screeches to a halt, Kosane finds herself on a train platform. In large letters, the train reads "Time Loop Railroad Express 107".

Appearing beside her, Kyubey urges her to enter the train. In sync with Kyubey's movements as he stalks towards the door, the train's doors open. Kosane reluctantly and cautiously enters the train. Inside, the train is dark and dingy and filled with a weak orange glow. In the shadows, there are multiple figures. Kosane attempts to greet them, but hesitates. Its a group of five people, each wearing odd clothes.

Suddenly, all the figures turn towards them. They are cute yet terrifying. They are so cute that Kosane wants to vomit. All of the figures carry staffs. bringing her to the realization that these figures are Magical Girls. Suddenly, one of the girls raises her staff and hits Kosane on the head, causing her to collapse with a sickening crack.