Senou Kaede—who was actually the noble Magical Girl and superhero Stardancer—felt just a little embarrassed as she stood on stage, Lyrica in full weapon form in one hand, and wearing most of her regalia. She’d replaced the vennplate face visor with a 3D-printed plastic replica that’s she’d still worked hard on painting to the right colors and pasting a colored film on it to try to make it look like her usual face protection, and she’d needed to replace her armor plates with painted foam replicas, but other than that what she was wearing was what she went out to fight crime in. She could see her friends in the crowd cheering her on and taking pictures, and waved at them to show she appreciated the support. No one thought it odd. Everyone else was doing the same.

  “The judges have come to a decision!” the MC announced, an envelope in hand. “Are the contestants ready?”

  Kaede and everyone else on the stage—some taller than her, some shorter, and there were at least two boys—all cheered along with the audience.

  “All right then! In third place—”

  Kaede was not sulking.

  “Could you please stop taking pictures of me?” she said very politely as Maria—who unbeknownst to the public, but knownst to you the readers as the Pyrotheurgist savant Black Queen!—kept moving around, her phone in her hands as they sat on a bench to wait for their friends.

  “But you look so cute when you’re sulking and pouty,” the red-head said with a wide grin. She nudged the girl next to her with her elbow. “Right, Di-chan?”

  Dione blushed, clearly embarrassed at being put on the spot like this. Proving why she was Kaede’s best friend, she ignored Maria’s horrible slander and just put a reassuring arm around Kaede’s shoulder. “You did your best, Kaede-chan,” the clone said, the nihongo coming easily to her now even if she still had that alien accent. “And you still got a prize.” Secretly, she was actually the elegant and heroic Magical Girl, Black Reaper!

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  Kaede let out a small smile as she looked down at the gift bag full of snacks. “I suppose,” she said.

  “Hey, everyone! What’s—Kaede-chan? Why are you dressed like that?”

  They all looked up to see Shizuka—who unknown to many was actually the heroic magical girl and sometime mecha pilot Knight Queen!—walking towards them, her cane in hand and sunglasses on her face. She barely needed them nowadays, but too many people had known her when she was still blind, and the excuse of ‘experimental eye surgery’ could only withstand so much scrutiny, so she’d probably still need to wear them for a few more years. Evie stood next to her, the child-shaped Void Doll holding her mistress’s hand as if helping her navigate.

  “It’s cool, don’t worry,” Maria said cheerfully. “Someone decided to join a cosplay contest as herself.”

  Shizuka tilted her head. “Oh! That’s just a costume?”

  “No-ope. It’s her work clothes.”

  “Ah… okay…” Shizuka looked towards Kaede, but she had returned to a state of dignified silence as she womanfully accepted her loss. “And why is she pouting?”

  She was not pouting!

  “It was a ‘Best Stardancer Costume’ contest,” Maria said as she took some more photos.

  “Ah… okay, I get it now,” Shizuka said, nodding. “She lost?”

  “Oh, even worse.”

  “Worse than losing? How?”

  “She placed third. Second place went to a boy.”

  “It was a boy who kind of looked like Kaede,” Dione said. She’d moved on from shoulder patting to giving Kaede a hug.

  “So a boy looked so much more like Kaede than Kaede he won a ‘look like Kaede’ contest?” Evie said with her usual blunt brutality.

  “Yup,” Maria confirmed.

  Shizuka looked thoughtful for a moment. “Who won first place?”

  Kaede slumped down even more.

  At that moment, the rest of their friends finally arrived… still chanting.

  “She won, she won, she won, she won, she won!” Claudia—who unknown to the public was actually the Sovereign of Twilight, Consort of the Abyss!—repeated smugly.

  “She won, she won, she won, she won, she won!” Lussei—who sometimes had to be reminded that she was the Rampaging Champion Favored By Fortune, which was good because otherwise she wouldn’t have a secret identity at all!—echoed, her tone far more innocent and happy.

  On their shoulders was their sister Tanz, holding the gift certificate she’d won with blank-faced appreciation. The Archmage of Final Kindness was still wearing the ‘costume’ that had won her the contest.

  It was a two cardboard boxes and several milk cartons painted to look like Kaede’s Magical Girl regalia, along with a sneeze guard worn at the neck upside-down.

  “Ah,” Shizuka said. “That’s why she’s pouting.”

  “Justice failed me today!” Kaede sobbed.