(2025 Edit) Technomancer: A Magical Girl's Sidekick [Post-Apocalyptic][Mecha][Magical Girls]

Edited Reupload! I understand some folks were turned off by the prose and end-of-arc 1 writing decisions from the original Writathon. I've taken the commenters' constructive feedback from back then to heart and fixed most of the issues. Twelve years ago, the world as we knew it fell to the Aberrations. Cities across the world were razed to the ground, and entire nations fell overnight. But during Earth’s darkest hour, unlikely saviors arrived through portals that suddenly appeared all across the world.  Legions upon legions of Magical Girls. Soldiers with colorful, glowing hair wielding swords twice their size. Pilots in bipedal mech suits that bordered on magic itself.  These warriors stymied the tides of death and despair, and were hailed as Earth's saviors. In the end, the Terrans may have saved the world from complete destruction… but the world as the denizens of Earth knew it ended in ruin and slow, crumbling despair. Ikki won't accept that life for his family. Not anymore.  As the first child of Earth offered a scholarship to study magitech on Terra, he finally has a chance to change things. To learn the secrets of Terran magic and technology, to make a name for himself — and to build a future strong enough to protect his family and world. To fight so that his loved ones would no longer have to take on dangerous odd jobs just to make it to their next meal. Then, on one final salvage run with his father’s crew, everything goes horribly wrong when they are captured by slavers. But as he escapes his confines onto the open road, he finds something impossible. A sleek, pristine briefcase. Too pristine to be left in the ruins of a long-abandoned highway. Like it was waiting for him. Inside was a Terran magitech construct. A construct far more advanced than anything he'd ever studied. A machine that addressed him by name. “I’ve been waiting for you… Ikazuchi.”  Ikki once thought magical girls, world-ending monsters, and ancient conspiracies belonged in someone else's story. Fanciful tales for kids from the boonies like him to dream about.  But fate has plans, and it won't let him go without a fight. What to expect: - A near-future cyberpunk setting with: Real Robots Mecha. Magitech. Frilly magical girls. Urban fantasy.  - A 'weak' but useful protagonist. -The usual horrifying extradimensional monsters associated with RR's Magical Girl subgenre. -Lite LitRPG elements in the form of a tactical HUD and resource management apparatus that serves the plot.