《The Mahou Shoujo Effect - Part 1: On the Subject of Pain》 Case 01 - The murder of Innocence There is only one thing i hate more than waking up early, and that thing is being called from work in the morning, because, i know what that means¡­ That i¡¯m going to have a really bad week. I force myself out of bed, knock over some beer cans as i approach the kitchen, i can¡¯t help to notice how badly this apartment needs a cleaning, but for what or who? Not even my daughter come to visit anymore. As i got in the car i notice a message in my phone, a message from my daughter wishing me a good day, i felt ashamed, but duty called. It looked like the entire city was in front of the police station, drawn in like flies to a rotten corpse, and on top of it all the vultures themselves, the TV Stations, glorifying a murder, but this time, i can¡¯t blame them, even i got drawn towards the idea of seeing a magical girl dead. I pushed my way towards the crime scene, i¡¯ve been away from the TV for so long that not even the journalists recognized me, thank god my co-workers did and i was able to enter the place with no hiccups. My hand was sweating with excitement, i can¡¯t deny i had this feeling of anger inside me, in a way this girls took our jobs from us, they created a world so pure and safe that society had no need for us, and that pissed me off more than i liked to admit. My mind just drifted off when i hear her age, it made me realize how much hate did consume me, the worst part of it was to know that deep inside i was jaded, i didn¡¯t really care if one, ten or a hundred of them just vanished from the face of the earth, the only thing that kept my interest in this case was to discover who killed her, and most importantly how. When i came back to reality Lucy had finished her explanation i brushed her aside and approached the body, but nothing in the world, not even my twenty years working as a detective, twenty-five if it wasn¡¯t for them, could prepare me for this, in the end of the alley, there she was, her neck wide open like a sinister smile greeting me, as if she was inviting me to enter a new circle of hell. My stomach churned, i never been so grateful for not eating breakfast, but even still, what scared me, what made me shake in fear of the mere thought of what could do this to a little girl was what was written in blood above her head. ¡°Burn the Witch¡±, that image was burnt in my memories forever, as if the killer himself had painted it in my brain, that grimm memento mori, i kneeled near the body to luck for any clues, but nothing that could even hint on how she got killed, until i noticed something strange, she was only half transformed, i remembered an old interview with a famous Magical Girl, she said that they had to transform back to normal. This person waited this girl to start transforming back and attacked. I was so entranced by that scene, that¡­ Painting that i barely noticed Lucy calling me, thank god that voice was there to rescue me. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Yeah, she is my daughter but i haven¡¯t been much of a father in the past three years, i¡¯m ashamed to face her again, she looked up to me, and now i¡¯m just a empty husk of what was once a man, and so i shambled my way to see my boss, i could see by his face he wasn¡¯t happy to see me back into the field. I can¡¯t really blame Albert for not giving me my gun, just the fact i still have my job is nothing short of a miracle, no¡­ Not a miracle, the bitter truth is that i still have my job because of those magical girls and i can¡¯t accept that, but these thoughts will not help me on what i have to do now, finally here, the Ramirez residence, a small house i must say, not a great neighborhood either, i can feel the back of my head burning because of the looks the locals are giving me, thank god other officers are here already, i just need to ask some questions, search some stuff and get out.