*
The matters regarding magical girl awakenings were largely kept as a secret from the other experimentees, while those who were awakened were taken in under our wing to train and become reliable fighters. The number of magical girls were extremely scarce in modern times, the advent of technology had largely eliminated the presence of the arch nemesis of magical girls, the monsters. That led to a proliferation of in-fighting and eventually, the main source of conflict was the magical girls themselves.
With no enemy, mankind turns on itself, subtly mimicking general society. An era of peace causes people to become complacent and to seek more, with no justification, they turn on one another anyway to fulfill their desires. The original enemy of mankind, monsters that threaten the entirety of humanity, have already been wiped out. All that is left are the remnants, weak monsters that the stronger magical girls wouldn't even bat an eye for. Stronger monsters would gain intelligence and conclude that hiding was for the better.
While the monsters were mostly gone, humanity had also eliminated the environments that had favourable conditions to birth monsters. The original ones were born naturally from the magical particles and organic or inorganic materials in the environment, in actuality most of the ancient monsters were the descendants of the originals and reproduced like any other living creature. With those types wiped out, only originals are born now, and since originals haven't existed much to evolve and adapt to their environment to any extent, their existence and their magic circuits are rudimentary and weak.
I shuddered to think of it, but seeing the experiments that we did on our own countrymen, what did the other underground cults do?
***(Marianne)
I was born at a time long before what the others would call 'modern' now, while I didn't personally witness the industrial revolution, I certainly felt its effect on my home. While industrialisation was indeed rapid at the core of where it occurred, its aftereffects were even faster and drastic, making more significant changes to my living environment.
Homes were taken down in favour of factories, our sanitation system was primitive compared to today so there wasn't much to do about it. They simply built over the sewers after filling them up. In the blink of an eye, the town I had lived in was gone. It was an insatiable greed, the people in authority acquired the technology from overseas, the fruits of the industrial revolution. In a decade, our country skipped a couple centuries of change.
In favour of the betterment of lives for a select few, tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. Most of the victims had starved to death and the streets were littered with corpses... My parents had long past and I was alone. That was when it happened, it was explained in the far future that a tiny portion of humanity had expressed a specific elusive gene, a gene that causes one to awaken as a magical girl. Everyone had the gene, it was simply that most of humanity couldn't express and use it.
I awakened, there wasn't much of a history between monsters and me, we just happened to fight. As it turns out... It was simply the normal act of preying, rather than using their sense of smell like an animal, they only sense the high magical particle count of magical girls and hunt them.
As semi-spirits, beings partially composed of magical particles and partially composed of other materials, they only need magical particles to sustain themselves. If they get damaged, their massive well of magical particles need only arrange their organic and inorganic body parts to become repaired again.
The only downside to their biology is the excessive reliance on magical particles as sustenance, while they can breath it in from the atmosphere it's often not sufficient enough. So they have to prey on those with large amounts of magical particles like other monsters or magical girls.
On the other end, humans awaken as magical girls to counter them. Beings born to be able to rely on normal organic food or magical particles, and could absorb magical particles from the atmosphere at a sufficient rate to maintain their transformation. In exchange they can only transform for a given amount of time in order to not put too much strain on their 'normal body'. They also awakened in an incomplete state, starting out really weak and slowly growing stronger.
While the magic research community largely believes that magical girls can grow stronger as they train, there is a sizeable community and reasonable basis that they aren't growing stronger but only unlocking their already present strength. They theorise that each magical girl is born with a given amount of strength and slowly work toward it from a lower point.
This is why the hierarchy of nature on earth wasn't really as it seemed... Largely the human population has forgotten the existence of monsters. Humans believe they are at the top, but they share that spot with the monsters. They counter each other and keep each other in check... Until the monsters were nearly wiped out.
It was a good thing as well as monsters can be born of human thoughts and imaginations about monsters as well. In the past there was a large proliferation of monsters, necessitating a large number rof magical girls to counter them. They increased in numbers with no limit in sight, there was even a sea of them in a certain continent. A counter formed by humanity to their only rival in the natural hierarchy of the world, that was what magical girls are.
Less monsters needed less magical girls to awaken in humanity, less magical girls means less prey for monsters to feast on. In the far off distant past, every human had enough magical particles to be counted as a C grade magical girl today, serving as a delicate feast for monsters. However humans had evolved to filter away magical particles and become 1/50th of an E grade.
In a way, they became unappetising, though that was just the average amount of magic held by a person. Exceptions exist, they particularly become witches when they are born able to control more than the average amount, though it's still less than a magical girl's. Witches are an entirely different thing altogether, even among magical girls they are a rare existence not known to everyone.
In any case, I was forced to fight monsters in the night for many years. I had awakened with a huge amount of power, such that I felt the law of magical girls deemed I had enough power to protect an entire city so they didn't awaken any others. It was a solitary existence... Not only seperated from others by the mental burden I possess, but also the age difference.
I was already a few decades older than highschool girls if I pretended to be one after transforming. If I didn't transform... Well, to say the least the age difference would be the least of my concerns. Even walking by strangers in the public, I could see in their eyes that they were repulsed by my appearance. It was unruly and unkempt, a large mess that would drive away any potential suitors.
One day, after half a century, I wiped out the monsters. I defeated the largest one that was reproducing the smaller ones in a manner akin to the queen bee. It was a tough battle where I thought I was going to die multiple times, but despite my uneventful life... I wanted to continue living. I wanted to find a loved one, I wanted to settle down and have a family. I... Didn't take long to realise I wanted a normal life. This power.... Being a magical girl... It's useless if it doesn't give me what I want.
I was hired into the cult on the premise that they could grant me my greatest wish. A reset in life in a better place. A modern family where I could live out a proper childhood, have loving parents show their affection and pamper me. Then have them scold me for getting too spoiled and ask me what I wanted for dinner. After that... I also want to take a walk outside with them and talk about my day at school...
I... Hate my life. I joined the cult for the sake of my greatest wish, and they weren't kidding around. What I saw there utterly repulsed me. Human experiments... Especially on orphans much like me before I awakened. If I hadn't awaken... I would have ended up like them. It seems that they are provided for, but they live in such a small world...
It looked unbearable just looking into the one sided glass from the outside. They simulate the sun in the canteen to provide vitamin D, but they never once see the outside world since their capture. It hurt. It hurt just to know there were those suffering more than I am. As if someone's fingers were tightly entertwined around my neck, coiling like a snake's vice grip to suffocate me. My hands clenched tighter and I accidentally bit my lip. It was deep enough for blood to flow out and dye my skin crimson.
But I can see clearly. I didn't live for a few decades for nothing, I had gained a new level of composure from seeing the same few uneventful things everyday. I thought I would take it easy and take my time killing the monsters, but they still ran out faster than they can reproduce. I simply thought maybe fighting the queen would be exciting, and it was. Honestly I don't know how to feel about the monsters. I've gotten so used to it, that I feel more like the spectator of a show than a character.
***(Paridia)
"I'll be leaving this region to you. By the way the bonus money you get from assassinations... It's not from the organisation, it's from my salary. I'll give you all my savings so make sure to properly improve the lives of those guys okay?
I was always too busy... No, too scared to do it myself. "(Marianne)
While I had indeed feared her the first time I saw her, she was unexpectedly fair and serious when she isn't threatening our lives. We were reluctant to work for her at first, but as time went past... As she fulfilled the promises and expectations of her subordinates, she had shaped quite a character in our hearts. To the point that I sometimes wondered why she was working for such a shady organisation. With her final words, I finally understood. What she had set out and failed to do.
In an instant I understood... If this was a year ago, I may have been ecstatic at the offer... But now... The only thing I felt was that an empty hole had been bored into my heart. The void that persists weighed on my chest like a mountain, my eyelids raised in desperation as I reached my hand out. She had already left her office, which was part of her identity at this point.
Never once looking back, she marched out of the office to certain doom. Gerald gave an inquisitive look as an odd turmoil welled up in her heart. She turned her gaze to me, unable to project her question. She was scared as I was, but unfortunately this was reality.
"Where is she going, right? I think you probably know from what she said just now. She's the same as us, she gathered strength for this long... She's going to oppose the the progenitor..."
"She knew she was going to die... Why....?" (Gerald)
'Why did she go?' or 'Why did she want to die?', I gripped my fingers tighter, to the point my wrist was going numb and my fingers purple. Here was another person I was forever grateful to... Gerald who once represented my hope was faltering now at such a late stage. Then I... I'll finish everything else for her. If she doesn't need to make any decisions, she won't need to falter and feel guilty about it. If everything is over, she can live the normal life she yearns for and take care of everyone else in an orphanage.
I have to be her light. That was non-negotiable. With this skill that creates light, I will guide the way and all she needs to do is follow behind, it's where she is safe. Any enemies that show up, I will destroy them. Whether it was the cult that we were in or the entire world. This time, I am her light. The one that cleanses the world of evil.