Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Because of the monster tide, Yuri Takajo went to bed later than usual last night. Already severely sleep-deprived and needing magic to maintain her normal energy, Yuri Takajo didn't plan to catch up on sleep over the weekend.

While Hitomi Tono and Satoshi Sugiyama were still asleep, she got up, washed, and changed her clothes to go to the hospital to visit a relative.

Departing from her usual style, Yuri Takajo styled her blonde hair into a more convenient ponytail, and her bangs were not styled as meticulously as usual. She went out wearing comfortable and well-fitting clothes, but not particularly attractive ones.

The gentle young lady immediately became less noticeable.

Yuri Takajo has a distant relative she was very close to when she was a child. He was in a car accident a while ago and broke both legs. He still has to sit in a wheelchair.

Whenever she has time, she comes to the hospital to chat with her overly introverted cousin.

Takajo Yui didn't tell her friends about this, after all, even good friends don't have to tell each other everything.

Moreover, Yuri Takajo presents almost two completely different faces in front of her cousin and friends.

Therefore, when she saw Mayumi Haga, who had been brought to the hospital by Rika Sugiyama for a stomach pump, she was struck dumb.

Chapter Eleven: You're Different Today

Sugiyama Rika didn't actually bring Haga Mayumi over for a stomach lavage.

While at home, she had secretly used magic to give Mayumi Haga a preliminary physical examination, and the results showed nothing abnormal. However, she was still worried, so she took Mayumi Haga to the hospital owned by an acquaintance for a checkup.

It's related to magic.

After the examination, Mayumi Haga made an excuse to go to the restroom, leaving Rika Sugiyama and the doctor in the office.

After seeing Mayumi Haga leave, the doctor frowned immediately: "What did she drink?"

“I don’t know exactly what it is…” Sugiyama Rika’s voice trailed off under the doctor’s disapproving gaze, and she stammered, “It might be the secretions of the beverage monster.”

"Even if you bring that kind of thing home, you should keep it safe. How can you leave it where a child can get their hands on it?" the doctor sighed. "Fortunately, it's just an ordinary drink. Although it has the scent of a weirdo, it's not enough to leave a mark on it."

Sugiyama Rika breathed a sigh of relief while defending Haga Mayumi: "Mayumi is already seventeen years old, she's not a child anymore."

Even children know not to pick up things randomly on the roadside, so who would imagine that an adult in the family would put drinks of unknown origin in the refrigerator?

So it really was Sugiyama Rika's fault after all.

The doctor's gaze sharpened even more as she looked at Sugiyama Rikka, this unreliable guardian.

Then, her expression became even more serious: "Although nothing went wrong this time, but..."

She discovered another problem.

The orange juice didn't cause any harm, but Mayumi Haga's medical examination results were still not optimistic.

"Did you know she has a congenital heart condition?" the doctor asked.

"...Huh?" Sugiyama Rika looked completely bewildered. Her face froze, then her eyes widened. "You mean Mayumi?!"

She never noticed anything amiss. When Mayumi was first found, she was taken to the hospital, but no problems were detected during that time.

Although Mayumi always had a pale complexion, she had never been sick since childhood and her physical condition was not very weak. Her medical check-up at the hospital did not reveal anything.

Generally speaking, people with this congenital disease should show abnormalities in early childhood.

Some children with mild symptoms do not show any abnormalities until they grow up and are diagnosed.

"Your child's condition is not mild; that's what my diagnostic magic tells me." The doctor pushed up her glasses, equally puzzled. "His heart condition is very bad, yet his bodily functions are operating normally."

Rather than saying it was terrible, it's a miracle that we've survived to this day.

.................................................. .................................................. .

The "miracle" himself is in the hospital looking for something unusual.

Mayumi Haga felt there was something strange about this hospital that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

It's not that the doctor who examined her earlier was the problem. After all, Sugiyama Rika had a premonition that this place must be related to magic, since she brought her to this small hospital for a stomach pump.

Sure enough, the doctor was an acquaintance of the guardian.

Judging from the other party's appearance, they must be a magic user proficient in healing magic. When they used magic to examine their body just now, the magic power lingered a little longer when it swept over their heart, so they must have been able to detect it.

Before becoming a Guardian, Mayumi Haga was a fragile human. She barely survived before obtaining a contract with the world's consciousness, and since then, she has never been troubled by illness again.

When she came into this world, her body shrunk back to about ten years old. She was not reincarnated, so she retained her physical condition from her youth.

In fact, if the guardian Mayumi Haga hadn't been so badly injured that she was almost unrecognizable, she should have looked exactly the same.

Once the guardian finds out her true physical condition, she'll definitely become troublesome and difficult to deal with...

Mayumi Haga rubbed her temples, deciding to think about it for now and deal with the immediate problem first.

She sensed something unusual about one of the few people in the hospital.

As mentioned before, she doesn't have magical abilities, so she can't sense the strange person.

However, her past experience as a guardian made her very sensitive to hostility and emotions, and she was also quite perceptive of the atmosphere around her.

not only that.

The vortex of negative emotions such as irritability, anxiety, and anger was almost tangible; just walking past those patients, one could feel a sense of oppression.

He looks to be in an unusually bad mental state.

In animation, a close-up of half a face in shadow, clenched teeth, or red eyes would be used to highlight the abnormality of these people, making it immediately apparent to the audience that something is wrong with them.

In reality, if you are slightly distracted and don't pay special attention, it's quite difficult to notice something is wrong with a stranger.

Haga Mayumi became alert and was thinking of following them directly.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her clothes frantically from behind. The voice was familiar: "Mayumi-san!"

Haga Mayumi was taken aback and turned around.

Fearing she would follow, the person who quickly called out to her was none other than Takajo Yuri, who had been hiding in the corner trying to avoid being seen.

Yuri Takajo naturally didn't want to be discovered by Mayumi Haga. If Mayumi Haga hadn't recklessly tried to follow the person marked with the demon's mark, she wouldn't have shown herself for a while.

Mayumi Haga wanted to turn around and glance at the strange guy, but with Yuri Takajo in front of her, she turned her head halfway and stopped, looking as if she was suppressing her unease. She spoke to Yuri Takajo somewhat casually: "Takajo? What are you doing here?"

"Um, I'm here to visit relatives. But what are you doing here, Mayumi? Are you sick?" Takajo Yuri pulled Mayumi aside, speaking gently, trying to distract her so that her ordinary friend wouldn't rashly rush over to find the person marked by the monster.

"...It's nothing." Mayumi Haga remained suspiciously silent for a moment, not revealing her guardian's unreliable behavior to her junior.

Seeing that Mayumi Haga didn't seem to be giving chase, Yuri Takajo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As a magical girl, she could sense that there were people in the hospital who had been marked by monsters and had become breeding grounds for new monsters.

There's still some time, so let her take Yuga Mayumi to a relatively safe place first, and then I'll figure out how to deal with those monsters that are unusually active because of the approaching tide.

Then, Yuri Takajo heard Mayumi Haga's belated realization and remark:

"Your style today is a bit different from usual."

Main text: Chapter Twelve Strange Events

"Your style today is a bit different from usual." Because they were so close, Mayumi Haga, who was a little taller than Yuri Takajo, lowered her eyes, and the shadow of her eyelashes fell, making her gaze seem very focused from this angle.

Even though she knew her friend had a beautiful face, Yuri Takajo felt her ears burning because of the slightly softer tone in the other person's voice.

To be honest, Mayumi Haga is known in her class as someone who is difficult to approach.

But she is good-looking, and although her personality is aloof, she is very polite, even more considerate than she appears.

Yuri Takajo and Hitomi Tono are magical girls who often need to be dispatched to deal with attacks by monsters and demons. This leads to them often making up lame excuses to run away from class, just like Ichigo Kurosaki.

Mayumi Haga would silently watch over them and handle the rest of the matter for them.

If someone is temporarily absent from the long-distance running event at the sports meet, Mayumi Haga will fill in for them. If someone falls asleep during the day due to lack of sleep, she will buy them an energy drink. If someone doesn't have time to eat lunch, she will leave them a piece of bread. She always carries candy in her pocket, and she will relay any notices she misses from class in detail.

Sometimes, when the teacher is really angry, Mayumi Haga will help explain.

Hitomi Tono sometimes jokingly refers to it as "motherly behavior," but Mayumi Haga's appearance doesn't quite match that of a mother.

She was tall and slender, with neat and handsome short black hair. Her pale complexion always gave her a sickly look, making her both fierce and fragilely beautiful.

Normally serious and taciturn, but when his expression softens, it's truly...

...very lethal.

For some reason, Yuri Takajo felt guilty. She looked away, thinking to herself, "Don't look at me like that."

Mayumi Haga's question left Yuri Takajo speechless. She stared at the leaves of the potted plant beside her, her mind a jumble of thoughts.

How should I put it?

She claims that she is only outwardly glamorous and acts like a pampered young lady at her parents' insistence, but in reality, she is a lazy and unkempt person.

Mayumi-kun... will you feel disillusioned?

Takajo Yuri felt uneasy. Her gaze wandered, and she tried desperately to find an excuse for herself: "It's just that it's more comfortable to wear this way."

“I see.” Without any hesitation, Mayumi Haga nodded in agreement, subtly indicating that she was not entirely satisfied with the casual clothes her guardian had chosen, “It’s better if they’re easy to move around in.”

Previously, Mayumi Haga's wardrobe was full of similar casual clothes, prioritizing comfort and not hindering movement. Although she is good-looking and doesn't look sloppy in anything she wears, her guardian was clearly not very satisfied.

When we came back, I bought her a lot of new clothes, squeezed out the old ones from the closet and put them in the storage room, forcing her to wear the new ones.

Mayumi Haga doesn't dislike changing outfits; in her original world, she collects sets with different effects, such as fire resistance, cold protection, diving assistance, rock climbing ability, increased movement speed, defense, and attack power.

However, apart from magical girl battle outfits, none of the clothes in this world have any special effects, so there is no need to collect them.

She was wearing a thin shirt or dress... and her defensive capabilities were not even as good as her most commonly used Guardian Set.

Therefore, under Yuri Takajo's bewildered gaze, an appreciation for pragmatism suddenly appeared on her face.

Takajo Yuri: ?

Why do I feel like I'm closer to Mayumi-kun now?

However, now is not the time to think about these things.

Those seedbeds looked like they had just been marked. Based on Takajo Yuri's past experience, she guessed that they wouldn't sprout anytime soon, which was why she was standing here exchanging glances and a few words with Haga Mayumi.

This hospital has almost no record of being attacked by magical creatures, after all, a senior figure works here... no, it should be said that this is the hospital of that senior figure's family.

However, the senior is a magic user who primarily uses healing magic and is not very skilled in combat. To block monsters and strange beings, she set up a protective barrier that would issue an alert, and then immediately notified two active magical girls via telepathy to handle the situation.

Simply put, the senior is a healer with little combat ability. It's relatively safe here because the senior has internal communication and can call for reinforcements in a timely manner.

It was because she knew there was a senior here who was skilled in healing magic that Yuri Takajo suggested that her cousin come here for treatment.

There was a lot of movement of people inside the hospital, but the fluctuations in the monster breeding beds weren't as noticeable. Even so, the senior should already know that a dangerous person had infiltrated the area.

Fortunately, Yuri Takajo, who happens to be able to solve the problem, is right here, so there's no need for further notification.

Even if Yuri Takajo doesn't work out, Rika Sugiyama does.

The latter still owed a favor, making them easier to manage.

So the senior doctor wasn't flustered at all. She was telling Sugiyama Rika to pay more attention to Haga Mayumi, who has congenital heart disease, and had no intention of taking action.

Yuri Takajo knew she had better finish the job quickly and purify the victims who had been turned into breeding grounds before the monster was born.

So she stuffed the things she had prepared for her cousin into Mayumi Haga's arms.

“I suddenly remembered I have something to take care of,” Yuri Takajo said with a gentle smile, asking politely, “Mayumi-san, could you please take these textbooks to my cousin for me?”

Mayumi Haga silently accepted it.

She was used to such occasions.

There is a 50% chance that a similar scene dialogue will be triggered when you are with your friends who are magical girls.

After saying that, he dumped what he was doing on me, then ran out of sight to find a place to transform, resolve the incident, and reappear...

It's so damn familiar.

Mayumi Haga took the stack of books handed to her by Yuri Takajo, noted down the ward number she was given, and walked toward the elevator behind her.

Yuri Takajo finally breathed a sigh of relief. After getting rid of the sharp-witted Mayumi Haga, she could finally find a place to transform.

Mayumi is great in every way, except her intuition is too strong.

Unlike the thick-skinned Hitomi Tono, Yuri Takajo always observes her friends with a smile.

Many times, Yuri Takajo wondered if Mayumi Haga already knew that she and Hitomi Tono were magical girls, but Mayumi Haga never showed any problems, and Yuri Takajo never found an opportunity to talk to her about it alone.

Just now, Mayumi had already sensed something was wrong. If I hadn't called her back, she probably would have gone with the dangerous person. But after I arrived, she immediately put down what she was doing, giving me space to fight.

Mayumi-kun... I need to have a proper talk with her sometime.

Yuri Takajo was thinking about finding a toilet without cameras to transform.

Just then, she noticed something unusual.