An actress in our midst! (web version)

Max groaned.

Of course. Of course, he would run into the magical girls fighting someone just one day after Jessica left for the trials. Why ever would the world let Max have a relaxing stroll through a park?

“I-glue!”

“Cleansing fire!”

“Raaargh?!”

What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just leave now. Especially not since the magical girls seemed to be having a difficult time. But he couldn’t join in either. If he helped out the heroines, he would be branded a traitor once Salem found out.

Actually, who even was that? That was neither Salem nor Hecate, and minions never attacked without their general. Or rather, was that even a minion? He seemed way too… wild, animalistic. That didn’t seem right.

And then Max remembered. In that little confrontation Jessica and the magical girls had had, they had mentioned something about aberrant demons back then. Was this it? A demon possessing a civilian? That had to be it, right?

“Reap what you sow!”

“Stun bolt!”

“Grraaaah!”

Then would it be fine to join forces with them? Salem hadn’t mentioned anything about the rogue demons. Were they part of the big secret plan to save the world? Or were they connected to the danger threatening world destruction instead? The latter seemed more plausible, so… stepping in would be the right decision, wouldn’t it?

But openly working with the magical girls was risky. If Salem or the Demon Lord learned of it… At best, Max would be fired and his memories wiped. And then he would go back to… Back to…

“Uwaah?!”

“Flame!”

“I got you!”

But… The magical girls were struggling here. For some reason, that demon seemed to be at the level of a demon general. Maybe even stronger. Would they win if Max didn’t intervene? The rogue demon already didn’t follow any of the usual rules, possessing civilians and whatnot, so what would happen if they… lost? Dammit…

The rogue demon fired off another blast of magic and Pretty Frost managed to protect her team with a magical barrier just in time. Unfortunately, she didn’t block it completely and the magical splinters showered the surroundings.

One of them flew right at the tree Max had been hiding behind.

“Wah!” Max squeaked as he jumped away from the falling tree.

“There’s someone?!”

“Run! We can’t fight while protecting you!”

Max scrambled to get up again, only for his eyes to register the rogue demon looking at him, grinning.

Crap.

The blast of dark magic shot at him before Max could decide what to do. Pretty Frost didn’t make it in time to block the attack.

Acting on instinct, Max whipped up his hand to meet the blast.

Just as Jessica had taught him oh so long ago, he used sealing magic on his hand, creating a mini magic-absorbing barrier. The moment the blast touched it, Max hijacked the spell, rewrote its essence to make it his, changed its attributes, and reversed the spell’s momentum, effectively reflecting the blast back at the rogue demon. All in a split second.

It was an incredibly precise trick that even Jessica couldn’t do perfectly. She only ever managed to deflect attacks to the side, but had never succeeded in sending them back where they came from.

The demon’s grin morphed into shock as it dodged to the side. The blast narrowly missed him.

Max’s eyes momentarily widened in horror. He had almost killed the man the demon was possessing. Stupid reflexes!

Also, both the demon and the magical girls were staring warily at him now. He instinctively dipped his head down and slid his hoodie further down to cover his face.

Well… The decision had been made for him. No running away now.

He let the wings sprout from his back as his trusty sword appeared in his hand. He walked forward a few steps as he grabbed his minion mask from the pocket space and placed it on his face, using a thin layer of magic to make it stick without having to fasten the straps.

There was a surprised gasp.

“L-let me… assist you,” Max said, trying and failing to sound somewhat respectable.

“You? Imposter!” the rogue demon howled as his victim’s face morphed back into rage. He immediately began gathering more magic to throw at Max.

Max didn’t waste a second before darting forward, snaking between the magical girls, shifting the grip on his sword, and slashing away at the blast. As expected, the sword’s bastardized fifth weapon magic-absorbing effect kicked in, absorbing the brunt of it and dispersing the rest.

The demon roared again, but Max was already next to him, preparing a spell in his fist, reusing the magical energy he had just absorbed. The punch connected with his stomach and the movement-restricting seal spread over the rogue demon’s body.

To his surprise though, it wasn’t enough. The demon could still move well enough to sluggishly lash out at Max with the victim’s hand-turned-into-a-claw.

Max jumped back to dodge but before he could retaliate, the others rejoined the fight.

“Cleansing fire!”

“Stun bolt!”

A surge of hot wind blew through the rogue demon eliciting a distorted scream, right before a glowing yellow arrow hit the man’s back. The arrow proceeded to splinter into glowing chains and wrapped around the thrashing man.

With both the chains and Max’s seal impeding the demon’s movement, Pretty Frost and Bloom flew forward to finish the battle.

“Reap what you sow!”

“Cryo Sanctuary!”

Vines rose up to further restrain the man as the many icy barrier layers materialized around the man. His thrashing eventually stopped and a snowflake symbol appeared on the ice, marking the end of this fight.

Incredible. Just as Jessica had described, this Pretty Frost’s sealing spell really was quite advanced. Max could tell. Although… something felt wrong about it. The individual layers seemed… weaker than they should be?

“Frost?!”

“It’s just temporary! We’ll let the guy out, but we had to stop the demon first!”

“Right… so, uh…” Flame looked in Max’s direction, and all the other eyes followed.

Max froze, unsure of what to do in this situation. They were technically enemies, even though it was just a pretense. Was anyone from the demon army watching them? Surely not, right?

Either way, last time he had seen them in his demon minion persona, they were much more focused on Jessica. Should he reveal himself to them? After all, he already knew about Iris… Pretty Frost. It only seemed fair, right?

“Thanks for the help. You’re Jessica’s friend, right…? Ms. Demon?” Bloom asked before Max could decide what to do.

Ms. Demon?

Max’s heartbeat sped up minutely. Rather than speaking, he nodded his head.

“Is our actress doing alright?” Spark asked, a small grin appearing on her face.

“She’s… on her way to the trial,” Max said, instinctively making his voice even more soft and feminine in response to being called Ms. “Left just yesterday. She said it would take about a week till she came back.”

Flame’s shoulders slumped at that as she sighed. “I guess we’ll see her again after the summer holidays, then. I hope she’ll be alright…”

A round of nods and grunts of affirmation followed.

“Sooo, what should we call you?” Spark brought the attention back to Max and he stiffened. He didn’t have a codename or anything ready…

Well, in for a penny…

Max retracted all his demonic features, put away the sword back into his pocket space, turned off the voice changer, and reached up to remove the mask and pull down the hoodie. Once he revealed his face, Frost’s eyes widened.

“H-hi. I’m Max. Uh… Please don’t tell my moms, Ms. Iris.”

The other three seemed surprised as well. Spark looked between Max and Frost, a frown on her face.

“O-oh! Of course, I won’t tell them.” Frost’s expression warmed up as she nodded.

“Huh? You two know each other?”

Frost chuckled. “You could say that.”

“My moms are… were the first Pretty Frost and Bloom,” Max mumbled. “I was there when they told Ms. Iris the whole story.”

“Huh? Seriously?” Spark kept looking back and forth, her mouth agape. “Sounds like a plot of some cheesy novel. The two magical girls settled down and adopted a kid who became a spy in the demon army!” She nodded to herself.

Max gave an awkward smile while the rest chuckled.

Crack.

“Wha–?!”

The ice began to crack around the sealed demon. Frost immediately rushed over and put her hand on the seal in hopes of stabilizing it. Max, acting on instinct, joined in, hoping to help however he could.

It wasn’t enough.

The ice prison shattered into pieces and everyone immediately readied themselves for another fight.

But instead of lashing out at them, the victim’s body – now devoid of any demonic features – simply slumped to the ground.

“What the–”

Max sensed the camouflaged signature too late.

“Over there!” he shouted while looking into the distance.

The magical girls turned just in time to see the shadowy creature slide down the storm drain near the road at the edge of the park.