"Don't worry!" insisted a voice in her ear. Akane swiftly realized it was her fairy. "You did great! Even if it got back up again, you still helped free all those people that were stuck inside it!"

"I..." Akane looked down towards her feet. She wanted to believe that, and wanted to continue to be excited about her new abilities... but a veteran magical girl had already told her she'd screwed up. It was hard to keep up your enthusiasm when you hear something like that. She didn't even realize that someone had come up behind her until they put an arm around her and spoke.

"A-ah? K-Kuroe-san?" she let out a small exclamation, not exactly used to people throwing their arms around her in normal circumstances, let alone much more extraordinary ones. Pizza? She fidgeted nervously. She probably had to get home, but it was an offer from a magical girl... a [i]fellow[/i] magical girl... "... U-um... um... I h-have to go but maybe tomorrow?!"

It was a barely stammered reply, brought out by nerves and self-doubt.

As was the fact that, shortly after making that reply, Akane found herself sprinting away and blushing.

[hr]

There had been a moment when Akane woke up the next morning that she felt like she might have been dreaming. But it didn't take too long for her fairy to reveal that was absolutely not the case. In fact, it was clear that everything that had occurred the other day had quite abundantly been real. On one hand, this was something that was truly amazing... To finally be a magical girl, a real magical girl! ... On the other hand, after what she'd heard... all that from Saori, it had hurt, to put it simply. And she wasn't sure what to do... So, inviting her fairy to take up residence in her bag, Akane decided to head out the door after showering, dressing, and talking with her parents.

She wasn't precisely sure [i]what[/i] she was doing, but... maybe she'd meet the other magical girls again or... or something... she'd been offered pizza, but totally forgot to actually give Kuroe anything to actually contact her with.

So Akane, really, was kind of lost, and her fairy was messing about in her bag. But she was a magical girl now, so that counted for something!

In any case, she'd headed for the shopping district. It was Sunday and that seemed like the best place to hopefully meet some of the girls from yesterday. She completely forgot to get any contact information at all...