In a wide room was a desk covered with stacks of paperwork 5 inches thick. The room was kept in crisp condition, and no dust could be found on windows or the tops of shelves. Near one of the windows, a flower pot filled with lilacs was being maintained. The whole room would make anyone think that the owner of it was a very orderly person, if not for the shelves filled with anime figures of little girls stationed at both ends. At the desk, a man in his late 40’s was sitting in a revolving chair. The man turned around in his chair to face the young woman standing near the door.

After letting out a long sigh, the man spoke, “Let me get this straight. What you’re telling me is that a 5-year old girl at our school not only broke the record for highest Magic Power Equivalent, but that her MPE may actually be higher than the number that was displayed because the Magic Power Device was not advanced enough to accurately measure her strength?”

The woman stood perfectly still with her back straight and was holding a clipboard in one hand. She answered him with a clear tone.

“Yes. We contacted the company in charge of manufacturing the MP Devices to see if there were any problems with them, but they could not find any irregularities. Also, the girl’s name is Estelia Cana. She is a new student who is enlisted in the kindergarten Strawberry Class,” said the woman.

“Is there anything special about her family background?”

“No, sir. I researched her family as far back as her great-grandparents, however no one in the family had an MPE that surpassed 300.”

The man put his hand on his chin, which had some light stubble. This was something he did whenever he was forced to think.

“How many people know of this?”

“Currently, the only people who know of this incident is the Strawberry Class.”

He grabbed a pen that was placed on his desk and started twirling it around his fingers to keep his hands busy. After hearing the first piece of good news in this unfortunate event, he felt a little lighter.

“Good. That’ll make things easier. Have you told her parents?”

“I tried to contact Cana-san’s father, but the line went straight to voicemail. I also dropped by their house but he was not at home at the time,” said the woman with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“What about her mother?”

“Her mother died seconds after giving birth.”

The man showed a brief look of pity in his eyes before continuing to speak.

“... I see. Tell the teacher of the Strawberry class to tell her students that something was wrong with the MP Device. We will put a false MPE on her report too. Contact Cana’s father and tell him to come here as soon as possible with his daughter.”

The woman wrote this down on her clipboard and next to it wrote “high priority”.

“We will be keeping this incident a secret?”

“Yeah. That girl will lose her freedom if the press ever finds out about this. Every organization will try to recruit her in hopes of obtaining a living weapon. No, that’s too naive. Many people wouldn’t hesitate to kidnap her.”

The woman disagreed with his decision and protested, “But sir, she’s far too dangerous. I suggest that we hand her over to the Magic Government.”

The man glared at the woman, which made her tremble a little.

“Rena, this is a child we’re talking about. Her power will bring her trouble in the future, no doubt about it. The least we can do is give her a peaceful childhood.”

Although hesitant, Rena knew that he had good intentions and conceded.

“...Understood. At the very least, may I have your permission to keep her under close supervision?”

“No complaints there. Do as you like.”

“Thank you.” After she fulfilled her duty, Rena bowed to her superior and left the room.

It’s been a month after the incident that happened with Estelia, but not much has happened after that. Teacher told us that the MP Devices were malfunctioning because of a special gene in Estelia’s body. The whole class accepted this as a fact. After all, who would believe that a child would have such enormous magic power?

Although it’s unbelievable, I don’t think that what happened was a mistake.

No, I’m absolutely sure. I’m not sure why, but something is telling me that. Telling me that Estelia Cana having so much magic power is the truth.

It all seems so familiar to me…

The name “Estelia Cana”. The high amount of magic power. Even her curly blonde hair was familiar to me.

I had a feeling that the reason why all of this was so familiar was connected to my past life, but it was difficult to remember the things that happened to me before. What is clear about my past life is my name, the age I died, and the way I died. Anything beyond that is hazy. It seems that things like friends, family, and personality were forgotten.

Although the matter was temporarily resolved, it didn’t stop rumors from spreading. Estelia still didn’t have any friends. On the contrary, I’ve seen people bully her on occasion. When we were out of the adult’s sight, the kids would call her “Little Monster”.

They were probably trying to be insulting when they gave her that nickname, but I think it sounds cute.

♫ Lalalalala ♫

♫ I just got released from school ♫

♫ I’m going home to see the mother I love so much ♫

♫ Mother said that she would make me spaghetti when I come back home ♫

♫ Mother’s spaghetti is delicious ♫

♫ Lalalalala ♫

When I was singing gleefully to the song I made up on the spot, I saw curly blonde hair in the corner of my vision.

Ah! Must be Estelia. Since I’m in a good mood today let’s say hi~

When I could see the person I thought was Estelia, my good mood was instantly shattered.

That’s definitely Estelia, but…

What I saw was a classic bullying scene. Up ahead I saw three girls who looked a little older than me, and Estelia was backed up against the wall. I hid in the closest alleyway I could find so that I could watch them but still hide enough of my presence to make me unnoticeable.

The girl in the middle had her hair styled into two pink ringlets. The one to my left had short brown hair and the one to my right had her auburn hair put up into a bun.

While pink-ringlets was doing the talking, short-brown and auburn-bun were holding different buckets. I wasn’t sure what was in them, but I could see the direction this was going in.

“Look look~ The monster’s scared!” said pink-ringlets. Her friends giggled along with her.

“Since you’re a monster, we’re doing a good deed by punishing you!”

Estelia stayed silent, with her head facing down.

“Akane, Nanase, do it!”

When the ringleader gave the cue, short-brown threw the contents of the bucket she was holding towards Estelia.

Splash!

Ahhh~ Now she’s dripping wet.

Despite the things that they were doing to her, Estelia didn’t retaliate. Not surprising.

Auburn-bun followed up, and a few seconds afterwards Estelia was covered with roaches.

Gross! How did they even manage to gather that many? Wait, that’s not the problem here.

“Today’s punishment is finished, but don’t worry because we’ll be back with more in store. Let’s go, Akane, Nanase.”

““Yes, Sumire!”” When the ringleader left, her friends followed after her.

Kids are so scary! Ah, but I also said many mean things to her not too long ago.

When the trio was gone, Estelia stood there alone dripping wet and covered with bugs. The whole time she was being bullied she did not speak even once.

I came out from the alley and walked up to her.

“For a “Little Monster” you sure get bullied a lot huh? Even though it’s supposed to be the other way around.”

When I came closer I could hear her crying.

“Hic… hic… Sia?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” I said as I reluctantly removed a roach that was on her hair. The roach was squirming around and I couldn’t help but feel disgusted.

“Hic… Were you watching?” I watched her wipe her tears with her hands. She tried to wipe them with her shirt but it was covered in bugs and was soaking wet. I reached inside my pocket and gave her a handkerchief.

“Yeah,” I said, taking another roach off of her shoulder. This one looked like it was trying to get into her shirt.

“For how long?” she asked me, as she finally managed to bring her head up and look at me.

“A little before one of the girls threw water at you.”

“Hic… I see.”

By the time I was finished removing all the roaches that I could see, she stopped crying. I thought of a good idea and asked her a question.

“Do you have anything important to do right now?”

She was surprised at the sudden question, but answered it anyway.

“No… Papa is busy at work so I’m usually alone at home.” She gave me back my handkerchief and I refused, since it was covered in snot.

“Then do you want to come to my house? We can dry your clothes over there.”

“Eh?”

I gave her a smile and dragged her along with me before hearing her response.

“Tonight’s dinner at our house is spaghetti, so you should join us. My mom’s a really good cook! I think you’ll love her!”

Skip fanart