“Hey guys!” Miki’s loud voice suddenly woke me and Naanya up from our sleep. We saw everyone getting up while Miki was running and jumping around.

“What’s got into you this morning?”

“The Idol News magazine came in!”

“Ah, that!”

“That’s right. We always look at the rankings.”

“Well, it’s obvious you’re going to be top again, Mako-chan.” Miki giggled.

“Oh, you guys are too nice~”

“It’s true, though!”

She flipped through the pages and smiled. “Here it is!”

“Read it out loud.”

“Weekly Idol Ranking! ‘This week, too…’”

“Oh!”

“‘The top is…’”

“OH!!!”

“‘Akihabara48’s, that SUPER popular idol…’”

“OHH!!!!”

“‘Kizaki Yuria-cha—’ Eh?”

“Eh?!”

We all got up and looked at the magazine. The picture on the rank boards wasn’t me. It was another girl, smiling while making a peace sign with her hand.

“Kizaki Yuria?”

“Currently, the number one ranking of this week is none other than Akihabara48’s Kizaki Yuria!”

“EEEEEEH?!?!?!”

“K-Kizaki Yuria?!” Miki looked closer at the magazine. “Who is this?!”

“Apparently, she’s part of the agency.”

“But, that can’t be. We’ve been in Akihabara48 for almost half a year, and we’ve never even heard of this girl.”

“Hold on…” Nana opened up her phone and started searching the internet.

“Are you sure you guys don’t know her?” Naanya asked.

“No. This is the first time I’ve even heard her name.”

“I found her!” Nana said. There was an online article of her with her profile information. “Kizaki Yuria.”

“Born in Nagoya, an 18-year-old all natural idol.”

“Formerly under Sakae48, she has been featured in dramas, variety shows, and currently stars in her own official radio show.”

“And very recently, she has been cast the lead of a new kids’ TV show, *‘Kaito Mahou Shoujo Yuria’.”

“‘With her signature “Peace!”, this cute magical thief will steal your heart.’”

“She’s been active for 5 years…”

“How can we not have heard of this girl?”

“What if… she’s an Akuma?”

Me and Naanya both looked at each other. If that pulse of energy we felt was from her, that must mean she has something to do with us.

“We need to tell Takamina and Miichan. They’ll know what to do.”
…..

“Miichan! Takamina!”

“Oh, hey, what’s up, girls?”

“Do you know about this?” Naanya showed them the magazine.

“Ah, it’s Yuria-chan!” Takamina said with a smile. “Top again, I see. Good for her.”

“W-wait, Takamina, who is she?”

“Eh? What are you talking about? Yuria-chan is your sempai.”

“Huh?”

I looked over at Miichan. She was giving me a serious look. She must know something’s up.

“Our… sempai?”

“C’mon, girls. Don’t you remember? ‘Always in my heart, peace! In your heart, Yuria-peace!’ Her. Stop joking.”

“Yuria-peace?”

“Good morning~” A voice chimed in as the door opened.

We all turned around.

“Ah, if it isn’t my kouhai, everyone from Tentomu chu.”

That’s… Kizaki Yuria?

Being 18, she was the oldest out of the eight of us, but she looked very young. She had a cute round face and rather short, but not as much as Takamina.

“Morning, Yuria-chan!”

“Good morning, Takamina-san.”

Takamina smiled one last time before leaving.

“You too, Miichan. Good morning.”

“Uh, yea. Morning…”

“Hm? What’s wrong? You guys seem a bit glum.”

Nana immediately went up to the girl. “Excuse us, but there seems to be a bit of confusion among us.”

“Confusion?”

“We’ve been told that you were an idol under Akihabara48 industries, but we’ve been working for almost half a year and we’ve never seen you before.”

“We found your profile online, but we’ve never seen any of the things you were featured in.”

The girl giggled. “What kind of joke is this?”

“I’m sorry, but this isn’t a joke, Kizaki-san.”

“Eh..?”

“Really… who are you?”

Yuria’s face grew serious.

“I see. It didn’t work on you guys.”

“Eh?”

She smiled. “Fine. I’ll just try it again.”

“What..?”

She raised her hand, making a peace sign, and winked.

I felt something pulse inside me. Everything froze for a few seconds before it unfroze. Yuria put her hand down and smiled.

“Morning, guys.”

“Ah, good morning, Yuria-chan.”

“Morning~”

Eh? What are they doing?

The guys suddenly went over and greeted her, as if they knew her. The only ones who didn’t were me, Naanya, and Miichan.

“I saw the magazine this morning. Congrats on being top of the ranks again.”

“Thanks.”

“You have a shooting for this kid’s program today, right?”

“That’s right. You guys should come. It’s gonna be awesome!”

“Really?!”

“Of course! Just a lil’ treat for my kouhai~”

“Nee, isn’t this amazing, Mako-chan?”

I pretended to be affected and smiled. “Un. That sounds awesome.”

As the others continued, the three of us went into a separate room to talk in private.

“So… this is..?”

“Yes. Even Haruna was affected by it. To be frank, I kinda expected Haruna to become affected by a spell like this, but certainly not Takamina.”

“That Yuria… she altered their memories.”

“Not just them. She was able to make everyone in Japan think she was a member under this agency.”

“So, it’s just us now.”

“Miichan, what if she’s an Akuma?”

“We’ll just have to see. She has a powerful energy about her, but it’s not the same as the Akuma’s. Let’s just pretend to be affected by her spell, then if she tries to do something, that’s when we’ll get our answers.”

“Okay.”

We walked back in and saw they were still talking. They probably didn’t notice we left.

“Let’s go, Makocchi!” Miki took hold of my hand.

“Eh? Where are we going?”

“The filming!”

…..

The filming was taking place on location at a school. In the show, Yuria is a high school girl when she’s not fighting monsters as a magic witch.

“Tada~” Yuria posed as she showed us her outfit.

It was a high school uniform, a navy blazer with a white sweater underneath, and a blue tie along with a plaid skirt.

“What do you guys think?”

“It’s adorable!”

“You look like a real high school student!”

“I am!”

As they laughed and chatted on, the director soon called for Yuria and they started the shoot.

Yuria was talking with some girls who were portraying her friends. When they suddenly brought up a phantom thief who stopped a burglary, she suddenly got nervous and tried to cover up.

“So she’s the phantom thief…” Miichan said softly.

“Seems like it.”

When her friends left, a string on her bag pulled it open and the staff spoke as someone.

“Are they gone?”

Yuria panicked and picked the bag up, looking into it.

“Kirari, what are you doing? If someone sees you, everyone’s going to know I’m the phantom thief,” she said in a low voice.

“Sorry, Yuria-chan.”

“You need to be careful. Talking animals aren’t normal on Earth.”

“A familiar,” Naanya spoke. “Most magical girls have one.”

“Un.”

Then, we heard a beeping. Yuria pulled away some of her sweater and revealed a watch.

“What is that?”

“Mou~ not now!” Yuria grabbed her bag and ran out of the room.

“Cut!” The director said. “That was good.”

As Yuria talked to the director, Miichan watched what was going on.

“Is something wrong?”

“That wristwatch…” She pointed at the watch on Yuria. It was a light pink watch, and inside, it was a magenta pink with small gold stars around it, as the twelve points of the clock.

“What about it?”

“I feel this strong energy coming from it.”

“Do you think it’s actually magic?”

“I don’t know…”

As they were talking, we suddenly heard a familiar voice in earshot.

“Come forth, my friend!”

Eh? That voice…

We walked over to the room next door and saw a short haired figure.

“*Youkai Medal, Set On!”

She placed a small coin in the slot, making it light up.

“Hai, cut!” The director stopped her and smiled. “That was a good take, Ikoma-san.”

“Thank you!”

“You seem rather happy.”

“Ufufu, yes. I love, love, LOVE *Youkai Watch!”

“It’s Ikoma-chan,” I smiled and walked over to her as she went over her script. “Ikoma-chan~”

“Ah, Mako-chan!”

“What are you doing?”

“Filming a CM. Look,” she showed me her watch. “It’s the Youkai Watch.”

“Wow~”

“When you put the Youkai Medals in, it lights up and sings.”

She placed one in and music started playing along with a voice singing. We both laughed.

“That’s amazing.”

“Also,” She picked up a small cat doll. “This is *Jibanyan~.”

“That’s so cute~”

“It talks, too.” She pushed a button on the watch and the small bell on Jibanyan’s collar lit up.

“Nyaa~ nyaa~ It’s Jibanyan, nyaa~”

“Aw~ that’s adorable!”

“Oh, by the way, why are you here?”

“Oh, there was a filming next door, and some of us got invited.”

“Eh? I wanna see!” She and I went back to the classroom. “Oh, Naanya-san and Miichan. Hi.”

“Hey, Ikoma-chan.”

“Nee, who’s filming?”

“Her,” Naanya pointed at Yuria over in the corner, who was looking over her script.

Rina tilted her head. “Who is she?”

“Eh?!”

“You don’t know her, Ikoma-san?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never seen her before. Is she new?”

Me and Naanya looked at each other, then at Miichan. She nodded.

“Then, that means…”

“Eh? What?” Rina looked at us, before she finally got the feeling of the atmosphere. “Ah… does this have to do with the Maou or something?”

“We’re not sure…”

“She just suddenly appeared… and she was also somehow able to alter everyone’s memories and make them think she’s been working with us for five years.”

“The only ones who were affected are us four.”

“Eh? Me too?”

“Seems like it.”

“Her name is Kizaki Yuria.”

“Kizaki Yuria… ah!”

“What?”

“Rena-san mentioned her to me this morning!”

“She did?”

“Yea. She said she got a text from Jurina telling her about Yuria being cast in her own TV show. She said that Yuria was their kouhai.”

“Even Rena and Jurina, huh…”

Miichan scratched her head. “How strong is she, really?”

“Miichan!” Yuria came up and smiled at us. “Whatcha talking about?”

“Oh, Yuria. Uh…”

“Ah,” She walked over to Rina. “You’re Ikoma-chan, right? Ikoma Rina-chan.”

“Y-yes.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Un. Me too.”

“Hmm… is this the first time we met?”

Rina looked around a bit. “I think so.”

“Hee~ I had a feeling we met somewhere before.”

“Really? Mm… did we..? I don’t think we have. This is the first time I’ve seen you, Yuria-san.”

Yuria suddenly looked away.

“Her too…?” I heard her say in a low voice. Then she smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Ikoma-chan. Look!”

She raised up her hand, the one with the wristwatch on it.

Wait…!

“With a smile and peace… ei!” She winked and I saw her watch flash pink for a second.

“Masaka…”

But, Rina’s expression didn’t change. She just stood there, confused.

Hold on… does that mean..?

“Ah,” Rina started again. “I see. A smile and peace makes you feel better, right, Yuria-san?”

“Eh..?” She lowered her hand, and spoke in a soft voice again. “She’s still adding the ‘-san’..?”

Rina seemed to hear her. “Oh, do you want me to just call you Yuria?”

“Uh…”

“Sorry this is so awkward. This is the first time we’ve met, so I often act shy in front of people I meet for the first time.”

“Oh… I see…” Yuria pulled back some of her hair behind her ear.

Rina saw her watch and her eyes widened. “Hey… that watch.”

“Hm?”

“It kinda looks like this,” she held up her wrist holding the Youkai Watch.

Then, Yuria suddenly grabbed her hand and looked at it in shock.

“Where did you get this..?”

“E-eh? Yuria..?”

“How can you possibly have this?!”

Rina pulled away. “Sorry… Ah, you must be a fan of these, too. Don’t get so panicky, okay? This is just a prototype.”

“Pro-to-type?”

“Yeah. It means it’s just a model of the real thing. You don’t know what a prototype is?”

Yuria shook her head.

“Hmm… Yuria.”

“Yes?”

“Are you from a foreign country?”

“Uh…” Yuria rubbed behind her ear again, pulling back a strand of her hair. “Y-yeah, you could say that.”

“Eh~ where?”

“Um….”

“Kizaki-san! Let’s get back to filming!”

“Ah, hai~” Yuria immediately avoided answering and started walking back. “Uh, it was nice talking to you, Ikoma-chan.”

As she left, we immediately felt something was wrong.

“What was that all about?” Rina asked.

“It’s obviously got something to do with that wristwatch. I noticed during filming, even if it’s acting, whenever she’s hiding something, she’ll pull her hair behind her ear.”

“That’s her tell!”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It’s obvious…” We looked over at Yuria, fixing her outfit and getting ready for another filming. “Yuria can use magic.”

================================

Footnotes

*1. Kaito Mahou Shoujo Yuria – A (fictional) kid’s TV show Yuria stars in. The show’s title means “Phantom Thief Magical Girl Yuria”, where Yuria plays herself as a high school student who’s actually a witch.

*2. Youkai Medal – A special medal used to summon a youkai.

*3. Youkai – A ghost/spirit/supernatural being.

*4. Youkai Watch – An anime based on a popular 3DS game with the same name. The show talks about a boy who encounters a ghost and receives a Youkai Watch, a wristwatch which allows him to see and befriend youkai.

*5. Jibanyan – A ghost cat who appears as the image character of Youkai Watch.