Magical Girl Origins - Crystal Genocide

Origin - One - Crystal Genocide

Crystal had never been so excited before.

She had also never been so terrified.

Running away from an ambulatory skeleton would do that, she figured. The undead chasing her clacked its teeth together and one long arm clawed out towards her. It was only a last moment duck that allowed her to avoid getting her hair grabbed by bony fingers.

She squeaked and pushed herself to run just a little bit faster. She was pretty good at that.

Crystal always tried to stay fit. And it helped that her family ran a little sheep and alpaca farm just an hour’s drive from Christchurch. There was always something physical to take care of on the farm and that helped her build muscles and grow stronger.

Two things she’d need if she ever became a magical girl.

The skeleton clacked its teeth some more, and she spared a glance over her shoulder to see that it was still following her.

They were a couple of streets away from the stretch of road used up in the weekly farmer’s market. A part of the city she wasn’t entirely familiar with. There were lots of new post-earthquake buildings around right next to some which were way older. She always felt like it made the city look like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be old or not, but it did lend it a certain charm.

The undead running around weren’t really vibing with the decor though. In fact, she didn’t think they fit in at all.

“Hey, over here!” she shouted as she rounded a corner, her well-worn sneakers scraping across the ground. The skeleton stumbled after her; it wasn’t exactly dextrous, nor were its pals behind it. His buddies behind were catching up too.

Was the skeleton a he? She didn’t know how to tell.

None of them were wearing any clothes, but fortunately, there were no dangly bits on display since those had rotted off a long time ago. That made it kind of hard to tell if they were boy or girl skeletons.

Crystal supposed it didn’t matter. They could be whatever they wanted to be as long as they stopped trying to eat people. Or maybe they were just trying to kill people? She wasn’t really sure.

Really, the moment she saw real living (well, not living) undead she acted. First, she bonked one on the skull with a change jar, then she grabbed a folding chair and flung it at another. Then the skeletons had started chasing her. Some of them, at least.

It was all very exciting, and she was pretty happy with herself.

Crystal knew that she wasn’t very clever. Or smart. Or any of the other words that meant about the same thing. She’d repeated a year in elementary school because of it, and she had a hard time making friends because when she got excited about something, she really got excited about it.

That was alright. She had a nice family, she had an okay life, and while her dreams were mostly impractical, they didn’t hurt anyone to chase.

She wanted to be a magical girl.

It had started when she was young, watching bootleg, pirated shows from Japan, then a year and a bit ago the first real magical girl (presumably, there were all sorts of reports out now, and a bunch of fakes too, she followed all the stories) showed up.

A lot of people doubted at first, but Crystal wasn’t one of them.

When images of Magical Girl Gravity’s Heartbeat (so cute!) surfaced, Crystal believed them, even if everyone else said they were faked. And when videos of Magical Girl Burning Ultranova (so cool!) surfaced, with the redheaded girl planting a foot on top of an ancient nazi warmech, people said it was a joke.

Crystal followed all of their stories. From Hypertense Breakpoint’s destruction of an alien fleet over Egypt to Feasting Carnage’s dire warnings on TV about the fae.

The world might have been shaken by the reveal that magic was real, but to Crystal it was all fantastic good news.

So she determined to become a magical girl. Which meant, of course, saving people and being as good a girl as she could be.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any nazis to punch or murderous mimes to combat in New Zealand. Not that she knew, at least. Not until today, that was.

“Come on, come on!” she called back.

The skeletons ran after her, and Crystal zipped out of the other side of the alley, then paused to wave her hand over her head. There was a police car racing down the street. She practically stepped up in front of it when the driver jerked the car to the side and zoomed right on past, siren blaring.

“Hey!” she screamed after them. She’d almost lost her knees to the car’s yellow-blue bumper.

A skeleton jumping out at her reminded Crystal that standing still was a foolish idea, so she took off running again.

Now, what was a wannabe magical girl supposed to do about a small bunch of angry undead chasing her around?

If she was a proper magical girl, like the others on the news, she’d whip out her super special weapon, then do some incredible magic at the undead until they were nothing but dust! Unfortunately, she didn’t have that, so she kept running.

Why, she wondered, was there nothing along the streets that was convenient and weapon-like that someone could grab in a hurry? A nice rack of umbrellas or even a pile of loose stones? That would have made her life easy.

She spun around a corner and found the police car reversing down the street in a hurry while being chased by a skeleton riding... was that an alpaca skeleton?

She didn’t stop to stare--for long--and instead kept on sprinting until, about half a block later, she developed a stitch just under her ribs. Crystal groaned and pressed a hand against her side. “Why now?” she moaned.

Glancing around, she made note of the skeletons (still following) and her surroundings. She was... right in front of her favourite place. The shop was fairly new, opened by a fellow weeb and magical girl enthusiast and it sold all sorts of over-priced merch.

She ran into the store. Not because she wanted to bring in the skeletons (it was her favourite place, and she had planned on stopping by to gawk once the market was over) but because she knew what they sold.

“Perfect!” Crystal said as she ran to a display on the far wall. It had replicas of some of the magical girl’s weapons. Rending Nightmare’s awesome rapier, Happy Sparkle’s chainsword (with revving noise action!) and, right there in pride of place, Feasting Carnage's massive fork. She grabbed the Prongs replica, then charged out of the shop while the guy behind the counter called out for her to stop.

She was barely out of the store when she encountered the first skeleton following her.

“Devour!” she shouted as she plunged the fork forwards.

The skeleton smacked it aside, and the top half went flying.

She stared at where the plastic broke off and was suddenly very glad she didn’t waste a month’s allowance on the replica.

“Hey, what are you, oh shit!” the store’s clerk said as he ran out, then right back in. The door shut with a jingle and clang and Crystal was left on the street with nothing but half of a giant novelty fork and less of a clue as to what to do next.

Then the skeleton grabbed her arm and she screamed and tried to pull back, but it was impossibly strong for something with no muscles left.

“No, let go!” she said as she smacked the skeleton’s skull repeatedly with the bottom end of the fake Prongs.

This was it, she was going to die.

IN THE FIRST AGE--

“Holy shit!” Crystal screamed. “Are you a voice in my head?”

... IN THE FIRST AGE, DURING--

“Am I a magical girl?” Crystal asked, tears springing to her eyes. They were only partially because she was being dragged across the pavement by what was now a pair of skeletons. One had grabbed her ankles when she tried to kick it.

... YES. I AM SCINTILLATING DISHARMONY, AND I--

“Pretty name, but can you appear because I could really use some magicking right now!” she screamed.

There was a long, drawn out sigh that wasn’t hers in her mind.

Then Crystal felt something cool in her hand and when she glanced down, she realized she was holding a sword. It was long and narrow, with a blade made of a glass-like, crystalline material and with a hilt of twisting gold.

“Whoa,” she muttered. Then she snapped out of it, raised the sword, and inexpertly hacked at the skeletons.

As resistant as they were to her smacks and punches, they broke apart and splintered into pieces with every blunt strike of the sword.

“Yeah!” Crystal said as she jumped back to her feet, sword raised above her in a big cheer. “We’re awesome! You’re awesome.” She hugged the sword and spun around with it. “This day is awesome! Even with the undead!”

More skeletons were approaching, and she faced them with a smile.

“Hey, Scintillating... uh...”

SCINTILLATING DISHARMONY.

“Yeah! What’s my magical girl name?”

YOU ARE CRYSTAL GENOCIDE, THE LAST.

“Oh, that’s my normal name! That’ll be easy to remember.”

YES, I IMAGINE THAT’S THE POINT.

“So, how do I transform?” she asked.

A MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMS AS SHE WILLS IT.

That was simple enough. Crystal let her eyes go half-lidded and she focused really, really hard. She made a loud grunting noise and felt the blood rushing up to her head and her face warming up.

She was worried she’d either wet herself or give herself a stroke. It wasn’t working.

So, time to try something else.

“Come on, Scintillating Destruction, let’s do this!” she shouted. She swung the sword across herself in a long slash and... and she transformed.

The sun’s light glinted off the tip of the blade then split apart. Two beams of light made solid wrapped themselves around her form and she felt her clothes disappearing a split second before the entire street lit up with brilliant, rainbow-hued beams of glittering light.

Crystal stumbled backwards, caught herself with a spin, then wavered a bit as a skirt swayed around her knees.

She looked down at herself, then up to the side where she could see her reflection in the glass of her favourite store, with cardboard cutouts of other magical girls just behind the window.

Her costume was a big, poofy dress, with a wildly impractical bow at the small of her back and poofed sleeves. It was covered in little lacy details and a few sparkling gems.

“I am never getting changed, ever,” Crystal said.

YOU CAN OBSERVE YOURSELF LATER. THERE ARE ENEMIES TO BE ELIMINATED. CLEANSE THE WORLD TO CRYSTAL CLARITY!

“Wow, I’m pretty dense, but even I know that that wasn’t the best choice of words there,” Crystal said.

JUST KILL THE UNDEAD.

“Okay!” Crystal said with a cheer.

She ran at the undead who were shambling towards her and met the first with a swing of her sword which sent its head crashing through the second floor window of a nearby home. Someone screamed from in there and Crystal winced.

But it was okay. She’d figure this magical girl thing out, and then she’d make all sorts of friends and be the best magical girl there ever was!

***

The last of the Origin chapters! 

The story will start being posted on... the 8th of January!