Meet Miharu, eighteen years old. She currently attends Nameless High School, resides in Tokyo, Japan, and lives in an apartment by herself for reasons that will likely never be explained.
She was walking to class one morning, carrying her school bag as she gazed up at the cherry trees. She wore a fairly cookie-cutter "sailor suit" school uniform, thick square-lens glasses and black hair done up in a pair of braids. She was also walking alone. Though she'd been in the area for a while, she could count her friends with one finger. The bookworm had been considering trying to get out of her shell and make some more friends... but how?
The answer to that question lay in that chocolate cupcake smudged on the sidewalk in front of her.
She stopped, not just because there was a cupcake in her way, but because it was floating up, had two beady eyes and tiny hands and feet, and spoke.
(Writer's note: If you hadn't just noticed, this story is going to be weird.)
Anyway, the cupcake spoke, and in a squeaky voice, too.
"Princess?... Is that you...? Oh my, this cannot be! I've finally found you!" The living cupcake flew in circles around the confused schoolgirl, examining her from every angle. "W-what's going on? Who are you?" Miharu stammered. "Oh, pardon my manners!" the cupcake squeaked, "I am Cuppy the Cupcake from the Cupcake Kingdom. You see, every thousand years, as part of a sacred ritual, a mortal is chosen to become our princess, and... But you probably don't care about the details, do you? The short of it is: would you like to be a magical girl?" "Sure."
Miharu had answered without thinking at all. Cuppy the Cupcake, from the Cupcake Kingdom, nearly fell back to the ground before floating up to Miharu's face, visibly shocked.
"Wait, you're accepting just like that? Right away?" "Of course." Miharu tilted her head with a small smile. "I've wanted to be a magical girl ever since I was little." "But that's just it! Aren't you a little old for that sort of thing?! Plus, I haven't even told you why, or about the whole sexual angle, and..."
Both fell awkwardly silent for a moment. Cuppy was at a loss for words. He wasn't expecting the girl to say yes to such a strange proposal, much less this suddenly... And Miharu wasn't expecting him to argue against it. She also hadn't been expecting a cupcake to ask her to become a magical girl either, for that matter.
"Actually..." she started up again, slowly, "...you might be right. That IS a very weird thing to ask me, and you're already making it sound sketchy as heck. Never mind, then!" "B-But... Princess, let me start over. Will you form a contract with me and become a magical girl?" "No!" For some reason, these words put her even further on the defensive. She started back towards the school, briskly, not to mention belatedly wondering if she was starting to hallucinate. "Princess! Hear me out, please..." "You're a talking cupcake. Your arguments are invalid!" she snapped back in a tense, high-pitched voice, without turning around.
*****
Cuppy wouldn't leave her alone. First he appeared in her locker, squealing out a "Please?" before having the door slammed in his face.
Then, he was making puppy eyes at her from her bento box. She threw him off the roof and went the rest of the day without eating lunch.
Later, when she came back home, she found him in her fridge, frosted over and unmoving. She quietly took out the milk, poured herself a glass, put the carton back in and closed the door. The paralyzed pastry didn't seem to notice.