Innocent

In the Innocence Seekers and Yume ni Aruku series, an Innocent (イノセント), or a magical girl (魔法少女, mahō shōjo), is a special type of mage. These girls (and they are always young girls) have the ability to use what is often referred to as Innocence, a power which is the only thing capable of killing witches and demons.

General abilities

Innocents have abilities beyond that of a normal mage. In addition to being able to use Innocence, magical girls also possess Inherent Abilities, which are special abilities unique to magical girls. Inherent Abilitites stay with the girl even after she loses the ability to use Innocence. Magical girls are also fairly resistant to being killed; like witches and demons, if their body is destroyed, they can recreate it at a particular location after some time has passed. It is not clear how magical girls can be killed, however, it is known that witches and demons have the capability to do so.

Magical girls are also the only mages to have access to Full Burst mode from the beginning. While ordinary mages require intense training to unlock Full Burst mode, a magical girl can simply say "Bloom, my flower!" (Japanese: 「我が花よ、咲け！」 Waga hana yo, sake!) to enter Full Burst mode if she has enough mana (through training, a magical girl can use other phrases or even skip the activation phrase altogether). Like Inherent Abilities, this trait remains even if the girl loses the ability to use Innocence.

Growth and development

Innocents are notable in that they not only start off with a higher raw power level than most mages, but that their power level increases rapidly as they grow. However, the growth rate of a magical girl's power level decreases rapidly once she reaches puberty. In addition, it becomes harder for a pubescent magical girl to use her Innocence, until she loses the ability altogether sometime before her sixteenth birthday (although in very rare circumstances, an Innocence Shard may be created on the girl's sixteenth birthday).