An Unborn Hero

cathfach Alternate title: The one in which realisation finally dawns.

"I feel indecent," said Kellela, looking down at her ankles.

"Really? It's your ankles you're worried about?" asked Hayedalf incredulously, as the other men in the audience seemed unsure if they were supposed to be averting their eyes.

"I need to build up to the rest," replied Kellela, trying to ignore the breeze she could feel across the tops of her thighs, and even parts of her bum. Given the usual modesty of high fashion and her typical choices of ankle-length robes, any sort of skin exposure was a novel experience. To the upper crust of the capital, anything that resulted in a breezy posterior flew straight past novel, out the other end of risqué and deep into the realm of downright scandalous.

"So this is the spell Mystery keeps casting on people?" asked Platus.

"Yes, it..." started Kellela as she turned to look at Platus. "Woah! When did you get so big?!"

"Uh, sorry to break it to you, kiddo, but I didn't get bigger."

"Kiddo?"

Kellela blinked as her brain filled in a few details that it had helpfully filtered out earlier, on account of them not being relevant to solving the immediate problem of the swarm of vicious monsters trying to murder her. Most notably, the oddness of her voice, and the fact that everyone had grown.

"Umm..." she started as she felt her face. "Does anyone have a mirror?"

No-one did, but a soldier had a particularly shiny sword that he offered up instead.

Kellela froze, eyes wide.

"If it helps, you're seriously cute?" tried Hayedalf.

Kellela twitched as her brain rebooted. Or possibly crashed. "No, it doesn't. But no matter. Presumably I'll revert to my proper age once the spell wears off. Or maybe I won't? It healed Rose's wounds, and they didn't reopen when it expired, so maybe biological changes stick? I got the [Hero's Party Member] achievement, too. Does this spell only work on party members? Hmm..."

"Uh oh, I recognise that look. That's your research face. At least get inside our wards before you get engrossed."

"No time. The spell doesn't last that long. Just keep a lookout for more monsters."

Hayedalf sighed, not needing the exasperated-looking [Lieutenant] to tell him that sticking around was a bad idea. "Platus, would you mind carrying her? There's no talking her down when she's in this state; this is her version of shock. It's her way of coping with stress, and to be fair, that was bloody stressful."

Platus looked very much like he would mind touching a scandalously dressed [Court Mage], but the fact she now looked the same age as Rose helped. As did the dead swarm of murder-wasps littering the ground, so he grabbed her by the waist and tucked her under one arm as the soldiers regathered their discarded equipment.

"Hey!" she complained, thrashing around and easily overpowering Platus.

"Suck it up," demanded Hayedalf, as Platus struggled not to drop her. "You can research while moving. And when we get back, I think you should start practising combat magic. Obviously, if the demons want to kill Mystery, they'll have to go through you, so you need to be able to protect yourself."

Kellela pouted, a far cuter expression on her fourteen-year-old face than it would otherwise have been.

"You look slightly different to what I was wearing," pointed out Rose, looking over Kellela's costume, her gaze lingering briefly on a patch of chest that was definitely better developed than her own.

"Yes, the costume is obviously personalised," agreed Kellela as she bumped around under Platus's armpit. "In both cases, the predominant colour matches our hair colour."

"But the design is slightly different, too. I suppose fingerless gloves make sense for me, since I need to hold a sword, and you don't; it's not as if thin gloves would have offered my fingers any protection, so I may as well have the better grip. But even non-functional parts of the design are different."

"I think we're based on different flowers. I didn't recognise the one in your hair, and I can't see my own well, but its reflection didn't look familiar. They're probably species from Mystery's original world that match our colours."

"Wait. Stop a minute. Original world? That's the second time that's been mentioned. The [King] brushed over it like it was obvious, but what's with that?"

"No-one really knows. All heroes come from another world, after dying there and reincarnating here. Normally they don't remember their past life until puberty, but Mystery seems to have had her memories from the beginning, hence her... oddness. Personally, I believe that everyone reincarnates, and it's a feature of the [Hero] class that gives them their memories back to help them mature more quickly."

Rose nodded along, despite feeling the explanation would have been far more dignified had it not been given by a young teen being carried by her dad, bumping up and down, with her skirt pointing directly at the train of soldiers behind them.

The soldiers were definitely having issues knowing which way to look.

"Anyway, we're getting sidetracked. You brushed against an interesting point; you hold a sword and I don't. So our costumes aren't just styled to match our hair colours, but also our abilities."

"Yeah, that move you did at the end was cool. If you could do spells like that, why did you wait?"

"That wasn't a spell. I can barely do any offensive magic, and not much more defensive. I just... knew I could do it."

"Sounds like my ability to summon a sword."

"Hmm... I wish we could see the spell description. I need to learn to cast it myself, but there's no way for Mystery to teach us the activation phrase or the proper image."

"Speaking of, why didn't it work on me this time?"

"Ah. That was simple; lack of mana. Mystery doesn't have much, so she needs to rely on mine to cast it successfully. Sorry, but I was a bit... distracted at the time, and didn't give her the mana she needed."

"Thank goodness. I was worried she'd given up on me."

The pair fell silent for a moment, while Kellela poked and prodded herself, feeling out what she was wearing.

"I wish I had a proper mirror," she muttered as some of the soldiers outright closed their eyes. As unprofessional as it was, the alternative was watching a pubescent-looking [Court Mage] poking at her groin. "Even my underwear has changed, and just like your gloves, I can't get them off. How strange. How am I supposed to relieve myself while wearing this? Was it the same for you?"

"Uh... I... didn't look," replied Rose, who probably wouldn't have even had she not been in shock at the time.

"Pity. I wonder why... Ah!"

The spell reached its limit, and Kellela started trailing motes of white light as her costume dissolved back into mana, and Platus found himself suddenly carrying a grown woman in thick robes. He stumbled and fell sideways, the underarm carrying position not exactly suitable for an adult.

"Interesting. My wounds remained healed, but my age still reverted. When we get back, I'll ask Mystery to cast it on us both again," declared Kellela from ground level. "We can do some proper experiments with it."

"That sounds fun," agreed Rose, looking forward to the feeling of power again, and glad of any legitimate excuse to experience it. "But it's getting late, so save it for tomorrow. And I think we need to ban the men from watching."

"Agreed."

Hayedalf pouted. It looked nowhere near as cute as Lotus Pink's attempt.

"Well, that didn't go quite as expected, did it?"

Xry'kl twitched, caught completely by surprise, but doing his best not to show it. It wouldn't do to show weakness in front of his teammates.

"Indeed not," he agreed, turning to look at Fylith sitting on the branch next to him. He'd completely missed her approach.

"Don't worry; I found some... interesting individuals over in that quaint human town. Did you know they have a whole guild dedicated to killing each other for money? I'll soon fix up your failure."

"I wouldn't go that far. Unexpected, yes, but hardly a failure. I would say I picked up some vital intelligence."

"Oh?"

"For a start, our target isn't our target."

"Aww, did your loss drive you senile?"

Xry'kl grinned. "Not at all, my dear. We aren't after her. We're after what's growing inside of her. After all, no-one in the group seemed surprised at the attack, and she specifically yelled, 'I won't let you touch my daughter'. We were expected."

"Now, that is interesting. Not helpful to you, of course; it's not like you can get to her daughter without going through her. Literally."

"Perhaps not, but that wasn't the only information I picked up. She may look soft, but she has powerful defences. She's shielded against projectiles, immune to poison, and can transform into a younger form that let her regenerate even fatal wounds. Furthermore, she can use powerful barrier magic. There was some time between the start of the fight and her transformation, during which she didn't fight back at all. In the future, we should target that gap."

Fylith peered dubiously, having only caught the tail end of the fight. "Yes, I saw her barrier magic, but what's that about transforming into a younger form? You mean that pink frilly kid didn't start off as a kid? Why would she do that? What's the advantage? Surely she'd be stronger as an adult."

"Don't ask me to guess how humans think," shrugged Xry'kl. "Go ask her yourself if you're interested."

"Perhaps I will," replied the succubus with a smirk.

When Fylith vanished again, her presence completely erased, Xry'kl managed not to even blink.

"Finally!" thought Mystery, bursting out of Kellela's belly the moment she'd recovered sufficiently to reactivate [Astral Projection]. "What happened?"

The first thing she saw was Kellela, looking unharmed. She didn't miss the trio of holes torn through her robe, though, and a quick loop confirmed a matching trio on the other side.

"Thank goodness my spell heals people," she thought. "Shame I didn't get to see Mum in action, though."

A further look around revealed no apparent injuries, and that the group had made it back to the outer fields of the farms, where the group of soldiers were setting up a small camp. There were no signs of monsters.

"Good. No-one was hurt. A total victory for Lotus Pink!"

Mystery had no evidence that Kellela had played a role in the battle, but couldn't help but imagine her leaping around, blasting out her magic at the monsters as she defended the others. Who were professional soldiers. And adventurers. And probably didn't need defending.

Okay, so the image had some flaws, but they were nothing a bit of cognitive dissonance couldn't paper over.

She eyed the treeline suspiciously, wondering when the next group of monsters would burst out of it. Mystery wasn't a complete idiot, and she could put two and two together. She'd seen the [Demon Slayer I] achievement, and read the description of the [Hero] class. All these guards weren't fancy decorations, and the guy in the centre of the table earlier looked pretty darn important. Someone had to be very important to wear a crown, after all. It seemed very likely the demons were after her.

Mystery took a moment to process that, before freezing up completely in horror as she came to a realisation that utterly undermined everything she had planned.

"I'm... I'm..." she thought, stuttering in her own mind thanks to the sheer enormity of the admission. "I'm not a magical girl. I'm the mascot!"

When she'd first been reincarnated in this world, she'd lamented that there wasn't a proper, small and cute alien to bestow powers on the deserving protectors. Yet here she was. A tiny floating orb, that may well be cute were she not invisible, bestowing her power on the deserving. From another world, even! She literally was an alien, and even had the group of inhuman enemies after her life. She was the one putting together the magical girl squad, while not being able to use the power herself. The defenceless little mascot.

She zipped around in agitation as her mind spun. When she'd first developed her spell, the thought hadn't occurred to her; she'd been minus nine months old, after all! It wasn't an age to be fighting! She'd expected to grow up normally, build up her magical girl squad once she was an appropriate age, and fight demons together. But demons were attacking her now! That hadn't been part of her plans. Now she was making magical girls to defend herself, and they were slaying demons on her behalf.

"This is literally a cliché magical girl anime situation. An alien arrives from another world, who is under threat from some big, bad evil, and chooses cute girls to fight against it. Minions of the great evil come out one by one, trying to kill or capture the alien, when they should just attack all at once and get the job done. Normally, the great evil doesn't come himself because he's sealed away somehow, and the minions are trying to free him. Is that the case here? It would explain why they need multiple heroes, if the demon lord can't be killed, and just gets resealed each time."

She continued to zoom around aimlessly as her thoughts spiralled, threatening a deep existential crisis.

"No, it's fine. Everything is fine. It's just a couple of demons, not a whole demon army. And we have guards here protecting us, so I'm obviously not expected to fight. Give it another decade and a half, and... I'll be fine. I can join in. But if there are demons here, shouldn't we get away and come back later? Did they come here because of me in the first place? Or, at least... Huh? What was that?"

Mystery found herself distracted from her sudden existential crises when her vision warped. It was only brief, but for a moment, it had been as if she'd been looking out at the world through a deep pond of turbulent water.

She paused her random circling and reversed, finding her vision warping again once she passed through the same point. And, when she stared harder, a thin flicker of mana became visible.

ding
For successfully stumbling through an illusion, even if completely by accident, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 24.

The thin stand of mana became more pronounced, and it was like nothing Mystery had ever seen before. A dirty purple, with hints of blood red and rot brown.

ding
You have seen corrupted mana, upgrading [Soul's Eye] with [Sense Miasma]. Level cap of [Soul's Eye] increased by 10.
For observing a new aspect of reality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 25.

What was previously mere thin strands suddenly lit up. A humanoid shape, but with thick horns.

Mystery looked around in alarm, and realised that in her despondency, she'd wandered outside of the wards. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. Something invisible was watching them, unwilling or unable to step through the wards. It had horns. It didn't show up to [Sense Soul]. Maybe it could hide it, but it didn't impede her [Astral Projection], so it seemed more likely that it didn't have one. Just like the demon that had attacked Rose.

They were being watched by a demon, and Mystery had no idea how to warn anyone.

Spoiler

μ̵̼͉̐υ̴̡̽̿σ̷̭͓̃̀τ̸͉̤̾̆ή̶͎̱͌ρ̸̤͕̏̿ι̷̬̾͜ό̸͈ (Human)
Age: -8 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (25/80)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
>> Pierce Illusions (U)
>> Sense Miasma (R)
- Astral Projection (U) (18/60)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
>> Uncontainable (U)
>> Tether of Will (L)
- Robust (C) (17/40)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
>> Pain Tolerance (C)
- Stealth (C) (3/20)
>> Camouflage Vitality (R)
- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (10/20)
>> Age Correction (R)
- Light (C) (6/10)
- Increased Attributes (C) (6/20)
>> Mana Storage (U)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer II (R)
- First Skill (C)
- Apprentice (C)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)
- Astral Explorer I (R)
- First Spell (C)
- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)
- Spell Forger (R)
- Demon Slayer I (R)
- Monster Slayer I (C)

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