[23|12|20XX/Night/Marie’s home]

“Buuuuurp…” Marie sits on her messy apartment’s couch with beer and snacks about, the windows closed and watching some random Netflix anime she got recommended. You’d think a 30-year-old woman would get her life together and never allow this, although this wasn’t the case for her. Her job allowed her to get paid big and live this lifestyle at the cost of something she’d spent 4 years in college for: being a performer in magical girl kigurumi shows.

Worth it? Maybe. She certainly didn’t want to star in Broadway or in any big musical or participate in a community production. As someone with a more “refined” taste and a desire to keep her identity concealed, kigurumi was perfect. Do anything without the feeling of embarrassment as long as that mask and hadatai were on — it’s wonderfully easy for someone with little dignity like Marie.

“Hm. Wasn’t I booked for something today? Some magical girl anime Christmas concert.” She rolls to rest on her stomach and pulls up her calendar. “…” Her eyes widen before she screams:

“I WAS! SH#T!” She gets off the couch and stumbles around the house to her room to get ready. Funny enough, Marie plays the protagonist of this magical girl show unlike many other roles given in her career—side characters, villains—not this time… MAIN CHARACTER.

“Dummy, dummy…” She gets to her room and searches for the provided cosplay by the company of the show, minutes later finishing.

She tests the kigurumi by going to a nearby full body mirror. She’s wearing a full hadatai bodysuit—skin-colored—underneath her clothing, a wig, and a mask with the face of Ruby that has a permanent, unchanging expression with big expressive pink eyes and a big cute smile—the kigurumi making her look like a doll or figurine of the character. The mask fully covers her face, so you can’t tell what she feels. At the same time, she can’t speak due to the mask and hadatai covering her face, muting her completely—only communicating through anime-like gestures and movements, except for the voice box system built in that reacts to a limited amount of gestures, releasing a voice line.

She tries to test this system by putting her hand on her hip and waving her hand. The voice box recognizes this from a library of voice lines and chooses a greeting one, playing the following from Ruby’s voice actor: “Hi! I’m Ruby and I wish you the happiest holidays! Stay hot~” Her mask not moving at all but remaining in that same look.

She nods as she fixes her dress and wig before taking her magical rod prop and sneakily heading to her car, setting it into autopilot and sitting, waiting for the effects of alcohol to go away before the show.

Minutes later on the road.

She remains on the road until she notices something out of the corner of her restricted vision of the kigurumi: an orphanage on fire. She gasps by putting her hands on her mask’s mouth, the suit misrecognizing the gesture: “Oh my! So kawaii!~” She mentally facepalms at the horribly placed voice line before she stops the car and runs out, past the gate, forsaking the show to help, despite her attire.

She finds nothing but broken glass and you on the snow with ashes coming off them, unconscious — clearly someone who survived within the fire. She wants to rush and help, but feels like it’d be intimidating for a magical girl to sprint up and check if you’re alive while agitated.

She takes a deep breath and gets in character to not unsettle you, hoping that the voice box’s pre-programmed voice lines won’t unsettle you. She puts her hands behind her back and takes careful steps towards you. From your side (if you have woken up by now), it looks like a magical girl with a still face approaching you as they look down on you.

She tries to check if you’re okay by waving at you, and as soon as that voice box recognizes the wave motion, the same voice line from the apartment repeats: “Hi! I’m Ruby and I wish you the happiest holidays! Stay hot~” Her mask remains still, smiling at you without change as silence returns.