[h2]Last Night[/h2]

The lower edge of the girl's spear hummed as she revved the engine built into the blade. Her long purple hair drifted in the wind as she skidded across the rooftop, swinging the weapon upwards. A brilliant beam of light streaked towards her in that moment, and slammed into the weapon. With a yelp, the girl staggered backwards, her frilled outfit ragged from the sheer impact of the beam, forcing her to brace herself on the edge of the roof using her weapon.

The girl gritted her teeth.

"Why did you attack me?" a voice said from above. It was soft, and nonthreatening. But there was no real intonation, and to any listener it would appear devoid of emotion. "I did not make any attempt to harm you."

"Like hell!" snapped [url=http://vitavitaar.deviantart.com/art/Magical-Girl-Shadowrender-Mitsuko-649619634]the girl with the spear, raising it as she did[/url]. Her hair and eyes were purple, her outfit black and red. "I don't know what you're doing, but I won't accept it. There's no way it's anything good!"

Before she could raise her spear again, another beam blazed towards her and struck her square in the chest. With a pained gasp she staggered back and hurtled over the edge of the building, plummeting into the darkness.

She landed, far below, with a thud.

"... Ow..." slowly, she got to her feet, rubbing her back and wincing as she did. "... Grr... whatever she's doing...!"

Before she could complete that thought, however, something shifted in the darkness behind her. Turning swiftly, her eyes fell on the dark shape of a large, octopus-like creature, multicolored eyes surrounding its bulbous body as thick tentacles stretched towards her. One eyebrow raised, the girl rested her spear on one shoulder.

"Can't you give me a moment to catch my breath?" she complained. One of the tentacles raised, preparing to strike.

"Fine," the girl responded, with a sigh. But then, a rather vicious grin spread across her face. "I see how it is."

[hr]

[h2]Today[/h2]

The sun began to sink low in the sky.

Class had long since ended for the day, and one particular girl, one with long red hair, was still on her way home. East Umitori High School was a fairly decent building. There was a higher class high school not terribly far away, but it wasn't like East Umitori was worst place Akane had ever been to. But there was something more exciting then simply having a nice high school on the girl's mind at the moment. The possibility of there being magical girls among the female students of East Umitori was far too exciting! The other day she'd noticed that the fansites had recorded a few girls having overlapping patrol routes around the high school so that meant that at least one of them probably lived nearby and attended classes there! It was hard to help being visibly excited about such a prospect... but then Akane realized that someone might see and swiftly tried to quell her excitement. There were people nearby and all... it'd be embarrassing if she looked so excited over nothing in front of people she'd never spoken to.

Still... had she already spoken to her? What if she'd already spoken to her? What if there was more then one?! Akane could at least dismiss Nadeshiko-sempai as one of the possible magical girls...

The redheaded girl's braid swished behind her as she walked. Her mind so engrossed in the thought of potentially going to the same school as a magical girl, it took a moment for her to remember what she was doing. That's right, she was picking up some drinks from the convenience store nearby. Hopefully there weren't too many people in there... after that, she'd head home. Her mom had wanted... what was it again? Ah, why was she having trouble remembering... Maybe she should have written it down. It wouldn't do if she had to bother her mother again.

Little did she know that making sure she remembered the right drink was about to become the least of her concerns.