Stelletta

Every Saturday morning, a young Stelletta would jump out of bed and run to the television screen, plastering herself against the monitor as she absorbed every pixel of her favourite magical girl TV shows. The drama! The strength! The elegance! As the girls emerged from a flurry of stars cuter than before, only to kick the ass of whatever evil lurked in the dark alleyways, Stelletta would whoop and cheer!!

“All girls are magical!” the girl on the TV would announce, and Stelletta would hold the television screen, enamoured. All girls! Including her! Starbeam, transform!!

Surely enough, half the kids at her school thought she was insane, but she and her best friends were thick as thieves, roleplaying magical girls at lunch and having sleepovers every weekend to watch cartoons together. The bullies were just the evil monsters in the cartoon, and the best way to defeat them was through love!

As Stelletta got older, her love for magical girls slowly died down. After all, they were pretty childish, and Stelletta was a cool, mature, all grown up fifteen year old! Her friend group changed to include more boys, and they all got really into Ashuri Tournaments and fighting championships. Usually, they all fawned over one guy, a tall, jacked fire Ashuri with an unbeatable win/lose ratio, but then a newcomer stepped onto the scene. They were a handsome woman with a charming grin and an undefeated record - tall, gangly, and dressed like a magical girl. Their weapon was a big magical girl wand, and they would hold it up at the start of every match.

“All girls are magical!” they would announce, and Stelletta’s eyes sparkled. All girls! Including her! Starlight, transform!!

The new fighter’s name was Mitra - and they were a shining-star newcomer, a teenage prodigy Stelletta’s age, destroying the game with every fight they entered. Stelletta was immediately one of their biggest fans - buying all of their merch and streaming all of their fights. They were so cool! They were so magical! Stelletta’s love of magical girls blossomed once again. A real life magical girl… out defeating evil in the ring. She never thought she’d see a real one. In real life! Her chest swelled with inspiration.

She had to become a magical girl too!! She stayed up all night sewing herself a special magical girl outfit, and practising her fighting moves. Within a few short weeks, she was ready to start hitting the streets, patrolling around in her magical girl get-up, looking for trouble!!

It turns out there isn’t a lot of crime on the streets, and for the first few weeks, her spirits slowly fell. Until one day, she finally caught a mugging. Announcing her presence, she descended upon the criminal. It turned out that… it was easier than she thought! The man ran away and his victim thanked her profusely. Stelletta grinned. Now she was a real magical girl!! She kept up her patrol for months, tirelessly trying to keep the city safer!!

Graduation came and went. Her parents asked her what she wanted to be. It was true magical-girling didn’t pay the bills, but… it was all she wanted to do!! She asked her parents for a gap year, and was lucky enough to get one. One final year of being magical! Then she would… settle down, she supposed. Magical girls were usually teenagers, anyways. Despite Mitra still going strong in the fighting circuits!

She kept up her beat, but there was less and less crime occurring in her district - the miscreants surely fearful of her wrath! But that wasn’t as fun, so she moved her patrol a bit further north, in a posher side of town. She was wandering down the road as she suddenly heard a somewhat… familiar scream? Immediately, she ran towards it, running into an alleyway and holding up her wand, only to see…

Mitra?!

Her eyes filled with stars. No way!! THEE Mitra?! She was so excited she could nearly faint! The man approaching them had a knife, but Mitra was the BEST fighter this side of the world! There’s no way they couldn’t take him down! They opened their mouth to cheer them on when…

Suddenly, Mitra was behind her, clinging to her back, trembling. “Help me!!” they screamed. The man turned around, seemingly recognizing the hero.

“Huh? Help you?” Stelletta managed to stammer. “Can’t you destroy him?”

“No way!!” they shrieked. “I can’t fight at all!! Help me!! I’m too pretty to die!! AAAA!!”

“I don’t want no trouble, Star Ranger!” the man yelled, before running off.

Stelletta stood there for a good minute, before slowly turning to the woman behind her.

”What do you mean, you can’t fight?!”

At wand-point, Mitra confessed the entire thing. They were from a rich family, and they wanted to be famous. And since they couldn’t dance or sing, the next best thing was buying themself a perfect win-ratio at fighting tournaments. Stelletta didn’t even know what to say. Her idol - her inspiration - the whole reason she was here to rescue them - was a fraud all along? She was heartbroken. She was furious!! She opened her mouth without thinking.

“You’ll join my patrol, or I’ll reveal your secret.”

“What?! But I can’t even fight!! You just–”

“I’M FORCING YOU TO HANG OUT WITH ME!!” Stelletta interjected, pointing at them with her wand. With no other options, Mitra conceded. Stellatta’s mind spun violently between abject betrayal and pure glee at the opportunity to hang out with her idol!!

The next day, they met in the alley. Stelletta had made her a costume and the both of them masks. Mitra tried to complain but it was too late. There's no way this would ever backfire on her, right? Magical girls, away!!