What the hell?
At this moment, Eriri's brain was practically frozen—it had suffered a shock beyond imagination, overloaded to the point of shutting down.
Ever since she stepped into the world of anime, she'd seen all kinds of works. But this was her first time encountering a magical girl like this.
At first, the entire series gave off the vibe of a typical cheerful magical girl show.
The animation was clearly crafted with care—every frame and cut was pleasing to the eye.
The character designs, especially the girls who kept appearing one by one, felt like they had come to life. Every expression was spot-on.
Especially the magical girl named Mami Tomoe, an upperclassman with a beautiful aesthetic.
She was the kind of character no one could possibly dislike. Even if she wasn't the true protagonist, it was obvious she held a key role in the story.
However, what happened to her in Episode 3 left viewers completely dumbfounded.
What the hell was that?!
"AAAAAAAHHHHH—!!!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHH—!"
Snapping out of her dazed state like a broken machine, Eriri, after confirming that her eyes hadn't deceived her and the drawings weren't a mistake, immediately went into a frenzy and let out a crazed scream.
Clutching the screen with both hands, her face pressed right up against it, she was furious.
For the first time in her life, she was so angry she felt like she was going to explode.
She wanted to crawl through the internet and find the author of this work, then give them a brutal beating.
What kind of story was this even?
Such a gentle and kind upperclassman was suddenly killed—bitten by a witch out of nowhere.
Her head was literally chewed off, brutally showing the gory truth of the series for the first time.
Wait, maybe there's a twist? There are still a few pages left. Maybe that was just someone's imagination?
Yes, yes, that must be it.
With trembling hands, Eriri grabbed her mouse and continued reading, hoping for a turnaround.
"...Hehehehe..."
A broken laugh slipped from Eriri's lips. It made one's scalp tingle.
There was no twist. Instead, the witch continued to devour Mami Tomoe right in front of Madoka and Sayaka, eating her alive.
Then Akemi Homura showed up just in time to save the two traumatized girls, calmly explaining to them that this was the cruel reality magical girls might face.
Eriri opened the comment section, ready to unleash a storm of fury, only to find over a dozen angry messages already posted—most demanding the author to change the plot.
[With this level of detailed art, there's no way it's a newbie. Someone figure out which veteran artist this is!]
[Exactly, find that bastard and feed them razor blades!!!]
[I've never liked magical girl series before. I finally found one I liked, fell in love with Mami Tomoe—and then this happens...]
The comment section was on the verge of a riot.
Some people even started a new thread to ask others in the community to help identify the artist's style. Of course, there were also some who couldn't stand to suffer alone and wanted to drag others down with them.
Exactly. Why should she be the only one suffering?
So Eriri immediately made a call.
...
High school beauty and author of the light novel Love Metronome, pen name "Kasumigaoka Utaha"—Kasumigaoka Utaha herself—was in no mood to write today.
"Hehehehe…"
A cold laugh trembled from her seductive red lips. Her beautiful face seemed frozen with frost.
Inside the box where she had placed her change of clothes was… an outfit with a very suggestive design.
She remembered now—the person who bumped into her earlier had dropped something too.
They must have taken the wrong item. Judging from the indecent design of this thing, it must've belonged to some disgusting pervert.
He probably intended to do unspeakable things with her clothes!
Even though she didn't want to imagine it, she couldn't help herself.
The more she thought about it, the more furious and disgusted she became. She felt violated, as if someone had licked her skin.
"Hehehe… Kiryu…Yazuki…kun. Very good!!!"
If he hadn't dragged her into that horrifying pit, would she have ended up leaking a little in fear?
So for everything that happened, this bastard bore a huge chunk of the blame. She was absolutely furious.
Utaha had never suffered such humiliation in her life—she would get her revenge.
Hm? Her phone was vibrating. Who would be calling this late? Probably that menopausal hag or that loser dog girl.
She ignored it. Time to sleep!
After tossing and turning for half an hour and still unable to sleep, she checked her phone—it was Eriri, who had called over ten times and sent many messages.
"A healing-type story?"
She'd called this late just to recommend that? Well, since she couldn't sleep anyway and was feeling seriously annoyed, maybe reading it would help her calm down.
She opened the site and went to the new manga section. The one Eriri mentioned was already trending at number one, with ten times the popularity of the second place.
Then she read it—and her poor mouse began crying under the strength of her grip. She immediately picked up her phone and called Eriri, but of course, after a few rings it was declined.
No surprise—Eriri wouldn't answer at this point.
"That girl's brain broken or what? What does she have against magical girls?!"
Her slender hands flew across the keyboard, and Utaha began frantically leaving comments.
Then, an idea came to her. She called another number. It rang for nearly two minutes before someone picked up.
"Seriously, do you know what time it is? Utaha, what do you want—"
"Miss Machida, listen. I just found an incredible manga."
"Huh? Come on, this—"
"Just hear me out! After reading it, I got an idea for my next novel. I need you to read it too so we can discuss it properly. Quick, while my head is still clear! If I sleep, I'll forget everything!"
"Huh? You're serious? Fine, I'll check it out. What's it called?"
With a devilish smile, Utaha gave her the name and promptly hung up—and turned off her phone.
(T/N: That's how I imagine World War 3 happening..... too bad the one that will start it is China.
Claiming other countries sea and all that.
Prolly gonna prepare myself to be drafted once the war started.)
...
Machida Sonoko—an editor at Fushikawa Shoten, currently in charge of Kasumigaoka Utaha's Love Metronome.
After being forced awake to read a manga, she felt like she'd been played hard. It was obviously a prank.
"That girl must've realized it too."
She muttered to herself about an old college friend. They used to attend conventions together, but things changed. That person had changed, in ways that left her heart aching.
Most people were enraged by this manga, but that person would've been smiling—smiling with glee.
She would definitely try to hunt down the author and recruit them.
And then, Machida felt she couldn't be the only one to suffer. Surely, plenty of her colleagues were still working at this hour. Once they read it, they definitely wouldn't be sleepy anymore.
Soon enough, others were spreading it like wildfire.
One after another, more and more people wanted to find the author—just to feed them razor blades, and feed them until they burst!!!
The situation was spiraling out of control!!!