Why Should I Be a Magical Girl? I'm Overworked As It Is! — Chapter 15: The Truth

Shuli was a happy loaf on the coffee table, facing Maya and Carmen. She’d eaten treats, an entire can of pâté, and the chicken filet sat untouched next to her, a promise saved as the pièce de résistance.

Carmen finally had her chips. She was licking the spicy coating before mashing it with her teeth, chewing loudly, as loud as Shuli had been with her treats.

“Okay,” Maya said. She clapped her hands together to call attention to herself. “Now that everyone’s fed and nobody’s dying—I want the whole story. What are you? What’s this secret society Carmen told me about? What’s a disturbance, like actually?”

Shuli sagely cracked one eye open. “I’ve told Carmen all of this already.”

“Huh, you have?” Carmen inquired.

“Multiple times. At length. I repeated it all to you three times.”

“I don’t remember any of that.” Carmen shrugged, licking her chip and admiring the bright red powder dusting her fingers. She wondered how stained they’d be when she was done.

“You weren’t listening?” Both of Shuli’s eyes were open now, one of them twitching.

“I would have listened if you paid me for my time like in those scammy time-share presentations. They at least pay people an incentive to be bored to death for two hours. You should take note of it.”

“See, Maya! Do you see what I have to deal with?”

Maya laughed and said, “Remember a few minutes ago how you couldn’t be bothered after chasing the feather?” She grinned. “Same principle.”

Shuli huffed.

“So, can you answer my questions?” Maya patted Shuli on the head. “I want to know. The cat’s out of the bag. So pretend it’s the first time. For me. Pretty please? I’m very trustworthy, you know. I have never once told anyone Carmen’s PIN.”

“That’s not remotely the same category of secret.” Shuli was examining Maya. “Besides, there are rules.”

“If you don’t, I’ll just have you re-tell me and then tell her anyway.” Carmen yawned.

“Then I won’t re-tell you!” Shuli argued back.

“Then the chances of me touching that wand are negative fifty.”

Maya put her arm around Carmen and smushed herself against her, in a hug. “We’re a packaged deal! There’s no universe where Carmen would be fighting monsters in a cute outfit without me knowing!”

“What she said.” Carmen put more chips in her mouth.

Shuli gave a long-suffering sigh. She stared at Maya intensely. Maya fidgeted, feeling judged all of a sudden. Shuli’s green eyes glowed slightly before she suspiciously announced, “Fine.”

She unloafed and sat up straight. “As you know, the world runs on balance. Every living organism is part of a chain that supports continuance. For example, the insects working with the flowers, trees, and plants, and in turn, the animals that feed off of them. Predators keep populations in check. It may look cruel from the outside, but it’s a necessary cycle.”

“You’re talking about the circle of life!” Maya whispered.

“Yes. But balance is only half of it. The world is full of magical energy, flowing through every living being. For as long as life has existed, there has also been a malevolent corruption of that energy. Intense emotions of grief, cruelty, or anger, culminating in a mass of negativity that infects the living. It drives them to commit acts of violence. If I could compare it, I’d say it’s like an illness looking for a wound. It goes where the hurt already lives and it spreads—Carmen! Are you listening to me?!”

Carmen had her mouth open, snoring slightly, head back on the couch’s backrest. The chip bag was haphazardly strewn on her lap.

“Ignore her, she’s tired. I can give her the summary later. You were saying it spreads. Is that because we are all connected, you know, in the circle of life?”

“Precisely. It can spread and devastate entire areas if not cleansed. Lately, there has been an increase in energy getting corrupted. Neither I nor the council know what’s causing it. We have a theory that there is a severely corrupted being out there, infecting others. But we haven’t been able to find them.”

“Why not tell everyone, if it’s this serious? Also, what is the council?” Maya asked.

“It is a large group of animal representatives who manage these disturbances. Every animal knows the council exists, except for humans. We keep this from you. Because history has shown what happens once your kind gets its hands on power. You build faster and further than us, your actions have world-wide impact. And too often, once a human has power that grows large enough, it stops being about protecting the world and starts being about themselves and money.”

“That’s actually fair,” Maya admitted. “But people are aware that something’s wrong. There are videos all over the internet.”

“Disturbances were never the secret,” Shuli said. “There are cameras everywhere, phones in every pocket. Even back then, newspapers, and word of mouth. Nobody fought to prevent that because it isn’t preventable.”

“I don’t get it. What’s the secret then?”

“Why it’s happening. Who’s fighting them. That there’s a system at all: chosen ones, artifacts, a council of animals. Humans would want control because they think they’re superior.”

“But people are going to keep asking questions.” Maya’s eyebrows were furrowed. “They’re already wondering how this keeps happening and why nobody official explains it.”

“They can wonder. But they’ll never land on the truth, because it wouldn’t occur to them to look at us. Humans have spent millennia deciding animals are simple. Instinct and no intellect. They’ll suspect government cover-ups, possibly even aliens. They will not suspect a council of talking animals made up of a variety of species.”

“That’s actually kind of insulting to you guys.”

“It’s useful to be underestimated. This isn’t the first time incidents have broken into public view, and it won’t be the last. Your own governments have entire archives of things people swore would change the world forever. Files kept sealed for decades and then finally released to exactly the shrug you’d expect.”

“You’re comparing this to UFOs?” Maya tapped her chin, recalling how when the news came out, it was a big deal. People talking about aliens being real. Nowadays, it wasn’t even brought up anymore.

“I’m comparing it to how short human attention actually is, historically speaking. Once the initial shock passes, interest fades. Lots of strange things happen in the world.”

“But how is it that you talk? Do all animals talk?”

“All animals talk, Maya. You just don’t speak the languages. But not all speak human. We are selected, like the artifact users are, and can choose objects imbued with magic that allow us to tap into magical energy and use it to talk to humans. For me, it’s my bowtie.” Shuli proudly lifted her chin, so Maya could see the pink bow in its entirety.

“Huh, I would’ve thought it was your monocle.”

“My clever misdirection.”

“That’s a lot of information. To be fair to Carmen, this is all very long. I’m surprised you’re surprised she’s been zoning you out and that she fell asleep. Hasn’t this happened with another user before?”

“No.” Shuli began grooming herself. “I’ve been with two people before Carmen, and neither had the attention span of a goldfish.”

“Oh.”

They both looked at Carmen. Who was passed out. She had a line of drool going down her chin.