Chiba City is hell. So thought Sere.
Children must steal to survive.
Criminals pour in.
The government looks the other way.
There’s no running water.

　This was right next to Japan’s capital, Magus City Tokyo. So while the north was a mess after the Hakodate Decisive Battle, the south was no better. Sere didn’t like this country. Children living in the bright city versus children living in the dark city. The gap was too vast, unbearable. Japan resembled her hometown Moscow before it burned.

“But hey… the silver-haired one’s no good either, you know?　Strolling around Chiba looking like that. Whatever she carries, she just looks rich.”
“My appearance is my own business, isn’t it?”
“Just being able to choose your own clothes makes you a winner, doesn’t it?”
“Then I suppose I’m a loser. I don’t have any clothes other than this.”

The child street urchin whose life she had saved — guided by him, Sere shouldered her magic cyberdeck sheath-mounted staff and slipped into the illegal structures.
　Dripping sounds came from some kind of waste liquid.
The stench assaulting her nose was death and decay.
The eyes of drug-addicted residents gleamed from every shadow. If she let go of her belongings for even a moment, or strayed from the child before her… her local guide, Sere, who looked like nothing more than an innocent girl, would instantly be marked as ‘prey’.
　Or perhaps not.
As long as they could see the magical cyberdeck staff on her back, they might not attack.

That was Chiba City.
The locals still called it ‘Chiba’, the city before its collapse.
Deep within the jungle of scrap materials, where illegal structures piled sky-high…

“…Here it is, the old hag’s place.”
“Hey, don’t call her an old hag.”
“She is an old hag, isn’t she? We’re going in! You gloomy old hag!”

The child kicks through the corrugated iron wall. It was a crude door.

A dark room.
VHS tapes piled haphazardly everywhere.
Countless square televisions stacked like towers, all uniformly broadcasting anime footage tinged with blue light.
　【Magical Girl】 anime.
A series that had been running for decades – ever since the Third World War. Propaganda-filled, gaudy, childish nonsense packed only with fun, good triumphing over evil, and government bond promotions.

“Tch… Customers, you know! Old hag!”

A child kicks over a television.
The tower of VHS tapes collapses with a crash.

“Guh!”

The sound of someone being crushed by the tower.

“…Here it comes. [Staff Craftsman].”
“Ah… ahh… that voice… the aura of magic… fuh, fuhihi…! [Blue]. [Blue], indeed. [Sapphire Blue]. The most beautiful blue…!”

Responding to Sere’s voice, it rises from the mountain of VHS tapes piled up like rubbish.

　An eyeless girl.

A jet-black mask covering the lower half of her face.
A monstrosity overloaded with magical cyberware—steel arms sprouting countless scissors.
Though her features suggested fourteen or fifteen years of age, her long, unkempt black hair, riddled with split ends, made her appear withered, like a spectre crawling from the depths.
　A body more voluptuous than Sere’s, ruined by a hunched posture.
A monstrous girl sprouting countless scissors from both arms.
A dark woman reeking of alcohol.

“…No, Staffmaker. I am…”
“Blue! Fuh! Fuh-huh!
For you, I would do anything!
　For you, the most beautiful in the world.
For the most beautiful blue in the world.
This [Topaz Orange]! No, [Crab Witch]! Fuhi! Fuheh! I’ll do anything, anything at all!!!!”

High-concentration black phosphorescence engulfed Sere’s vision.