There were flashes of light in the night sky. New stars igniting in the air. With each flash of light, the two figures could be see. Girls, one surrounded by floating mirrors, and another wielding some kind of enormous gauntlet. Again and again, lights flared. Mirrors slammed against a massive silver fist, and they girls fought. Beams of light lit up the night sky. Explosions ripped through the air as they struck at one another again and again.

This time, there was a massive explosion that rocked the night, blasting the gauntlet-wielding girl back through the darkness and sending her tumbling and skidding across a nearby rooftop. She rolled once, and with an ugly crack struck the wall behind her. For a few moments, she laid perfectly still, and it looked as though she might not be able to get back up. But then, with a shuddering breath, she struggled to her feet.

The mirror girl floated towards the rooftop.

"... You really should give it a rest," she said, simply, inclining her head to one side. "There's no way that you'll defeat me, not like this. You won't win the Hex Night."

The gauntlet-wielding girl growled. With a clank, her the silver metal of her gauntlet seemed to expand, letting out a whine as steam poured from its inner recesses.

"Like hell I'd give the prize to someone like you," she snarled, rising and turning to face her opponent. She drew back her arm, sections of the gauntlet spinning to life with a whir. "I'll go all out on you, if that's what it takes!"

"... Then I'll cease to hold back, as well," the floating girl replied, with a smile.

A silvery light erupted from the other girl's gauntlet, circular segments of the enormous fist spinning rapidly and releasing steam and smoke.

Three mirrors aligned in front of the floating girl.

"Airgetlam... OVERDRIIIIIVE!"

"Threefold Annihilation Star!"

---

"Mmmnn...?"

Her alarm had gone off.

The brunette rubbed her eyes, stirring as she blinked blearily. Had she been dreaming...? She yawned. It was something strange, filled with some sort of fanciful battle, like you might see in some sort of anime. She didn't know how to feel about that. She hadn't watched anything weird recently. Why would she have a weird dream like that?

She swung her small, slender legs over the side of the bed as she rose. It was such a vivid dream too... Like she was actually there. But things like that weren't real, were they?

In the mirror, as she rose, was the shape of a small girl, one who certainly looked quite a bit younger then sixteen years old, clad in orange pajamas that fit her small frame rather loosely. Her shoulder-length brown hair was to her shoulders, messy from bedhead, her brown eyes half-closed from early morning bleariness.

Dismissing the strange dream, she went about her normal business. Getting her school uniform ready, brushing her teeth, taking a shower, brushing tying up her hair. Now much more awake, she nodded firmly to herself, her characteristic pigtails bobbing. Soon enough, she was dressed in her school uniform, and made her way downstairs.

"Good morning, Hikari-chan," said her mother, a pretty woman in her thirties with the brown hair of her daughter.

"Good morning," replied Hikari, smiling at her mother as she set about having breakfast. Father had already left, his walking stick gone. He had to get to work early in the morning, after all.

With plenty of time to eat breakfast, the girl had time for her mind to return to the events of her dream. It was almost like it had its own narrative, and it had been so real... aaah, what kind of ridiculous nonsense was she thinking? There was no way she could have even been dreaming of something real. Premonitions of the future or visions of the past were something out of mythology. And certainly, even if they were true, they wouldn't feature anything so strange as two magical girls doing battle.

Eventually, she finished her breakfast, and set out on her way to school.

Hikari met her friends on the way there, chastising one of them over a failure to be up to date with her studies and growing irate when one of them joked about her height.

Everything was as usual.

Hikari conducted her duties as class rep and remained focused on her teachers.

Everything was as usual.

She ate lunch with her friends, deciding not to bring up her strange dream.

Everything was as usual.

She closed the school day by conducting her standard duties as class rep.

Everything was as usual.

And yet, as she began to depart from her school...

Hikari didn't understand why, but she felt almost like she was being watched.

Soon, her life would would be anything but the usual.

---

"... She'll be perfect!"

The small figure, the size of a young girl, smiled to herself as she stood atop the roof.

The Hex Night would soon begin, it was true, but after discovering a candidate to be a magical girl, how could she possibly hold back? She knew many of the other girls were already preparing, some would be arriving in Japan for this Hex Night today. She rather sadly noted that there had already been at least one fight, even though the Hex Night had yet to begin properly... but there was no way she could ignore that this little brunette girl(perhaps she was so smart she was moved up to high school!) was an excellent candidate.

She smiled to herself. She might be throwing her into the Hex Night, but...

The Hex Night was one of the most important rituals a magical girl could be involved in, wasn't it? It was a chance this girl deserved to have.

And it was going to begin tonight.

Taking to the air, the strange girl decided to observe her chosen candidate.

Indeed, all across the city, there were girls preparing for battle that would soon come.

The Hex Night of Magical Girls.

@TheFake@Flamelord@Raineh Daze@Natsu@Crusader Lord

Her own dream echoed what her waking hours had been even just a month ago. Bombs exploded in the distance on in the street surround her was a tide of darkness, unstoppable and resisted all that she could throw at it. She was on her last legs. Then the explosions came closer and the earth seemed the shudder and crack open beneath her feet.

And Sonya woke in her seat on the airplane, bouncing slightly as it descended to the clouds. She looked out the window at the lights of the city. This was to be the battlegrounds of this Hex Night and her home where she would be as a transfer student for the near future.

---

She had flown in last night and realized a few steps out of the doors at the airport that she had little in the way of a plan. Just an address and the drive to do push on through any challenge in her way. The information package had said that they had a place for her to stay and a uniform that fit. Almost as if the universe wanted this all to work out for her.

After she'd figured out the public transportation system it wasn't long before she met her new roommate. It was a little bit... difficult. But the less said about that the better. Now that it was the eve of the Hex Night it was up to her to do her part. A bittersweet opportunity, the fulfillment of her dream would mean crushing those of others. But what could they want for that would be more important than this.

---

After her first day at the new school, and what an interesting day it had been, she had felt confident in how things had gone so far. Now she stood under a bridge after having changed out of her uniform with some hours to go before dusk. This spot felt right, with clear sight lines down the shore in either direction.

There was a service tunnel here and she walked inside.

It was awkward that so soon after becoming a magical girl, her parents had agreed to take in an exchange student for a while. In general, she would have rather kept her privacy, but the timing was nothing short of problematic... with the Hex Night coming up, it was going to be hard to get time away without it raising even more questions, especially when she had to help the other girl get used to the country. It wasn't like she was going to skimp on that duty, either; it was as important as doing her job as a magical girl. Possibly more, that was just a bit of fun.

On the plus side, senpai had visited without too much trouble, so that was one less thing that she would have to cut back on. As much as it was senpai's encouragement in the first place to become a magical girl, she didn't want to avoid her entirely until time freed up...

Leaning back from just-finished homework, Hikaru tapped a pencil against her glasses. She couldn't really stay home right now, with everything about to kick off. She had hoped to make up some excuse about going out for Sofia but... well, she wasn't home either, much like her parents were also busy. There were a few leftovers in the kitchen if she got back first, which would just have to do. The foreign girl would hopefully not be too annoyed if she got back to find the place entry.

It was time to get ready.

Amelia Serrai

It was strange, Amelia mused to herself as her finger tapped idly against a glass window. Every city, no matter which country, looked similar from such a high distance. People scurried like ants, cars chugged along, and people went about their lives just like everyone else. They were unaware of the bigger things that sat above their heads, bigger things like a magical girl.

"Amelia my dear, are you sure you're going to be alright on your lonesome?"

Turning her gaze from the window, Amelia nodded as she brushed a stray lock of hair back into place. "I'm sure Papa," she replied with a warm smile. "You just focus on your meeting."

That was why they were here in Japan after all, her father's business meeting for a business deal with a Japanese Zaibatsu. She was here because she had convinced her father to let her come, so she could see the world before she was too old to really enjoy it. Never one to resist too fiercely when it came to family matters, he had agreed.

'Oh, once you get the handle on Japanese culture it's not too difficult. The waiting is going to be the most boring part," he reassured her. Stepping over, he wrapped an arm around her in a hug before kissing her forehead. "I'll see you at dinner."

"Right," Amelia agreed, stepping back. She watched as he left before returning to the window. Her hand drifted to rub a small bird pendant as her thoughts turned to the real reason that she was here, and the reason that she had persuaded her father to let her come. Hex Night was drawing near, a grand battle of magical girls that would compete for the granting of a wish to whomever the winner was. She didn't really have a wish for herself, not yet, but she knew that it would be better to have some say in who got the wish rather than not. And since her father had planned to come here, it made things easy to arrange.

"Time to get going," she said to herself with a growing determination, as she turned and moved to leave her hotel room. best to get the lay of the land here before everything started happening. She wouldn't have much time at all

---

Martha Waters

---

Martha laid her pencil down on her desk, finishing up the last of her homework. It was tough, working in Japanese constantly. She'd been learning in school for the past few years now, and was almost conversational, but this was on another level. Her new school spoke, and wrote in it exclusively, and her host family, while having a passing knowledge of English, wasn't going easy on her. She frowned at the paper in front of her, confident she'd made several mistakes, but was unable to properly catch them. She knew she could go to her host mother, who'd seemed kindly and cheerful, but Martha has bigger things on her mind than homework. The Hex Night; The real reason she was here. She rose from her seat, and opened up her window. Yes, she needed to get out of here without alerting her hosts, and the window served her well in the past. She propped up her glasses, and gracefully slid outside, closing the window behind her.

She took in a breath of fresh, evening air, and quietly said to herself, "Alright, now let's find a place to get set up." The most difficult thing about this would be reconnaissance .She normally liked to perform hours, if not a whole day's worth, but as she would be actively hunted, that might not work out the best. She could, however, get herself to a defensible position, and lay a few traps for her eventual prey.

Martha made her way though the city, and thought as she went. She wasn't made for direct confrontation, at least not in the way some of her more spectacular "Sisters" were. Sure, she couldn't light a building on fire, or destroy a monster with but a thought, but she didn't need to, the way she saw it. Her powers were a toolbox, that if used correctly, would guide her though any struggle. She couldn't be snuck up on, and her reaction time was better than anybody else's, possibly in the world. Those two alone made her formidable, not to mention her signature. She smiled to herself, and slipped away into an ally way. Time to start planning

She held out here had and grasped the axe that had appeared in a flash of darkness. It's savagely curved head and spear point that graced it's other head left little doubt as to it's purpose as a weapon if war. She judge the distance to the locked door blocking the tunnel and swung, severing the hasp of the lock and leaving the cut edges glowing with heat. Even restrained the weapon had scored the concrete even in places that should have been out of reach.

As she entered the hallway she dropped Apollyon and it vanished in a similar flash of darkness before reaching the floor. Sonya pushed through the formerly locked gate and into the room beyond.

She looked around the dimly lit space. Back home the gate would have long since been broken down, anything useful stolen and, more likely than not, the would have been someone living inside. But here it was clean and dry. After a moment of looking around She retreated back out into the sunlight, quietly closing the gate.

It was a while before the Hex Night and she was hungry anyway. There would be time to explore later but now she should prepare in other ways. The foreign girl climbed back up to street level and walked around to search for a convenience store.

Her home wasn't particularly far, and she had a little bit of homework to do. By her standards, it wasn't much and she'd have it done quite quickly, so there was no harm in stopping by the local convenience store for a snack. As Hikari made her way there, she found her thoughts drifting once again to the subject of the unusual dream she'd had. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a dream that made so much sense while simultaneously making so little. It was as if it had been cut and past out of a story, or real events, but she hadn't read or watched anything like that recently and obviously it couldn't have been anything real, right? So why was it that she had such a strange dream?

As she walked, deep in thought, Hikari's red pigtails bobbed. But even still, due to her small size she wasn't exactly an easy person to notice, and as such, when she failed to notice someone crossing her path, they entirely missed her as well.

Moments later, the two girls collided. With a yelp of surprise, Hikari stumbled back and landed on her rear end. Thankfully she hadn't dropped anything, but...

"H-hey!" she cried, looking up at the perpetrator, "Watch where you're going!"

The girl looked like a foreigner, though Hikari wasn't sure where she was from. Platinum blonde hair, red-brown eyes, she almost seemed slightly familiar, like the small redhead had seen her somewhere before once, but not frequently enough to be certain as to where.

---

From atop a nearby rooftop, the girl who had been watching her continued her observation. On further inspection, it was unusual just how small she was, almost the size of a large doll. That and the fact she had wings made it unlikely she was human, really.

"... She looks like she has a bit of a temper, but that's not always a bad thing!" she declared, nodding to herself. Certainly, that little redheaded girl was going to be a great magical girl! She could sense it, the will to help people, the aptitude to wield magical powers... even if she was temperamental, that didn't mean she couldn't be great!

"Aaah, jeez, are you giving me more competition?"

The angel girl glanced back over her shoulder, to the source of the voice.

"You know I'm not the strongest magical girl, and you're piling on even more for me to fight?"

The blonde gave a small smile.

"I can't just ignore someone with lots of potential, I'm sorry," she replied.

"Aaaah jeez!" complained the speaker.

After a moment, however...

"... You know... you won't be able to make her a magical girl if she's stuck in the hospital for a couple weeks, right? As long as it's not too bad, just enough to keep her out of the Hex Night..."

"Eh?!"

@TheFake

"I- "

In just an instant all of the Japanese that she hap been practicing for these two years was gone from her head. Cast out by panic the likes of which she had never before known. Normally Sonya was alert to a fault with nothing in sight going unnoticed. And she was caught off guard. Just a day here and she was already becoming complacent.

"<I'm so sorry, I didn't see you.>"

It was doubtful that the other girl understood her native language. As tiny as she was, the impact hadn't come close to taking Sonya from her feet. She was taller than most in this country but this one was almost childlike in her stature. She extended a help to help her up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. Are you alright?"

@VitaVitaAR

If it hadn't already been obvious the other girl was a foreigner, she said something that Hikari didn't understand. It better have been an apology... Though, moments later, the girl spoke in clear, correct, if slightly stilted Japanese, confirming her intent had been to apologize and offering her a hand. Rather then take it, however, the still-irritable girl pushed herself up off the ground unassisted, folding her arms as she stood up and quickly turned away.

"Hmph, you should be more careful!" the redhead declared, glancing back over her shoulder. After a moment's pause, she walked back a little bit on her admonishing tone. Certainly, she was annoyed, but... at least this foreigner girl had apologized to her rather then anything else. "... But at least you apologized. I'm fine."

Her expression continued to betray her irritation, but at the very least she hadn't gone off on the other girl. Not that she didn't want to, but... well, she'd apologized, so Hikari managed to stop herself. Had the girl failed to acknowledge her fault in this, well... Hikari would have been considerably less kind.

@TheFake

Amelia Serrai

"I am so lost," Amielia muttered to herself as she strode down a crowded sidewalk. In spite of what one might thing, it was a state of affairs that she was okay with. Initially she had come out here to plan for Walpurgis Night, to perhaps set some traps and gt a lay of the land, that sort of thing. But she had quickly realized that there wasn't too much of a point to it. The native magical girls undoubtedly knew the city much better than she did, so there was no way she was going to pull out some kind of clever trick on them.

That left, in effect, tourism. It was the best way that she could think of to explore the city and get some idea of how to get around. Which was really all she could hope for in the time that she had left. As such, being lost wasn't a problem, it was just part of her efforts. And she was curious to see what she would end up stumbling over.

Of course she could have easily tracked out what her location was using her phone, but she didn't feel an urge to do so. She didn't have to be anywhere soon so it wasn't like time was an issue. When she needed to head to dinner with Papa then she'd find where she was. Until then she was perfectly willing to wander.

For the moment that meant...window shopping. And some actually going inside the stores that attracted. She could tell she was in an older part of town from the proliferation of smaller shops, and she was ready to spend some Yen for souvenirs. If she found anything she liked anyway. There were plenty of shops to look at though.

"Hm, let's see what's behind this door," she mused to herself with a grin before slipping inside what seemed to be a pawn shop. It was a bit heavy on the incense or perfume or whatever, but at the moment it wasn't too heavily occupied. Perfect to browse and waste a bit more time "Who knows, maybe I'll find a good luck charm for myself." Wouldn't that be useful pretty soon? One could certainly hope, as she began browsing through the various shelves and displays within the store.

---

Martha Waters

---

Martha headed down the ally, and considered transforming and starting her planning now, but she figured she didn't quite need that kind of extra time just yet. No, she'd had her general strategy for a while now. They key, that she thought a lot of people missed out on, was there was no incentive to actually fight, besides in self defense. All she needed to do, would be to wait out until the very end, when others had grown exhausted and then strike. Was it sportsman like? of course not. But she didn't come here to have fun, she came here to win. Stick to the public eye once the Hex Night started, lay low, and if she had to end up on her own, hole up, defend, and wait for a chance to get back among the muggles.

She made her way to the end, crossing into a quieter part of the city, secluded enough to her liking. It was a small street, wedged between two buildings, with exits on either ends leading out to main roads. She exhaled, knowing that conflict, one way or another, may very well end up being inevitable, especially given that she was American. There was a certain home field advantage to this competition, in that she definitely stuck out like a sore thumb, where as she wouldn't have any way to identify the magical girls who already lived here, unless they were parading around in their transformed state that was.

Martha absolutely loved this chance to show off and play essentially what was high stakes chess. Ironically, she never actually enjoyed chess. It was far too structured for her. Sure, she could make her regular plans and know exactly what steps to take to win, but real time strategy games were just so much more appealing to her. In chess, it doesn't matter who's fighting who, a pawn can take a queen, and there's nothing logic or reason can say against that. But in the real world, power is not so easily taken away, relative power was a major factor and made engagements far more interesting. That was why she always gathered information before a fight. If she knew her enemy, not only would that be one more advantage to have, but she knew if a direct attack had any likelihood of working in the first place.

She did hope she'd get a chance to watch some good fights, and in service of that, she decided that scouting out a good vantage point, one that would let her flee into the public if need be, would be a good idea. She stepped towards the building across from her, an apartment complex, and tried to see if the door in was locked.L Luckily, it wasn't, and led into a stairwell, on which she began her trek to the top. As she expected, roof access was locked, but to magical girl, that wasn't much of an issue. She briefly transformed, and forced the door open with her considerable strength, before transforming back. She sat herself down on the roof, and looked out to the main street in front of her, lying low enough to not get noticed. It really was a pretty site, looking down at the city from up here. She took a moment to appreciate it, taking this as a pleasant calm before the oncoming storm.

Whilst the night proper would be starting soon, Hikaru's focus wasn't on trying to find the ideal ambush spot. No, she wanted to take advantage of her houseguest's early absence to make a visit whilst there was still time; between the other girl's job, the Hex Night, and the foreigner, she couldn't see senpai anywhere near as much as she would like to.

It wasn't the nicest apartment in the world, but given it only needed to squeeze in one person and provide privacy, it didn't need to be. Maybe it was more of a pain to commute from such a quiet area into the city centre... but she'd not heard any complaints about it yet. Just worries that the lack of an exterior lock was going to cause trouble at some point.

Something that was on the glasses-wearing girl's mind when she heard the sound of something solid breaking from further up. Rather than stop two floors from the rooftop as normal, Hikaru carried on upwards--if it was a burglar or something, then what threat could they be? As she made her way through the forced door, expecting some hulking brute, she saw...

A blonde girl, sat by the edge. What on Earth...?

"Excuse me but... how did you get up here?"

@Natsu

How could anyone be so rude to a stranger? So far everyone that Sonya had met had been nice, though she had only spoken directly to a handful of people. And her roommate had been... weird. People in Japan were supposed to be nice. She mumbled something under her breath. Maybe this was just a little kid that did this sort of thing when their parents weren't around.

"You have a short temper there. Maybe you could try being nicer to people."

@VitaVitaAR

Arms still folded across her chest, Hikari turned once again to face the foreigner girl.

"Hmph... I could be a lot meaner if you want," she replied, with a frown. "You were the one who charged into me, after all. As far as I'm concerned, that's a lot more rude then anything I've said."

In the small redhead's mind, her rather sharp response to the accidental collision would serve the purpose of chastising the taller girl for knocking her over, as well as hopefully serving as a warning against doing such a thing again. After all, it was pretty unlikely anyone would respond too well to some... big girl walking into them. Yeah... Hikari tried to ignore the pang of jealousy as she noticed the other girl was, well, obviously not the size of a child and instead focus on the present. "What were you doing, anyway, that left you in such a hurry that you didn't even see me walking?"

@TheFake

---

Martha Waters

---

Martha was content, waiting, and sitting, until she was interrupted by the voice of a girl. She took a moment to process what was said, Japanese still not second nature by any means. She craned her neck, and saw a bespectacled girl peering at her. She froze internally, crap. She for one, didn't expect to get caught, and secondly, didn't like the idea of being near an unknown factor. She didn't know if this was some civilian, or a fellow magical girl. Best to treat her as a civilian, but be as cautious as she could be.

Martha cleared her throat and stood, "I uh... picked the lock." She said awkwardly, trying her best to seem embarrassed. "Pl-please don't tell anybody! I'm here as a student and I don't wanna go home." She almost whimpered. She figured if she could distract her as much as possible from focusing on how she actually got here, her lies could pass. "It's just.. the city is so pretty! I wanted to see it like this..." She said, quieter now, averting her eyes from her. She stepped away from the edge of the building, ready to transform and engage with the girl if she turned out to be anything to worry about.

What an angry little girl...

But how could she tell the girl how unusual it was to be able to freely walk the streets during the day, to only venture out at night for fear of snipers and soldiers. Just as unusual was how crowded the streets were. This was a totally different world from the one Sonya knew. "I was... looking at the buildings. Nothing where I come from is so tall."

That much was true anyway, but she was also looking at the windows for anyone that might be looking out of them. After a slightly uncomfortable glance around she looked back down. "So what's your excuse? How did you not see me to get out of the way?"

"You picked the lock... by breaking it open," Hikaru said, looking back at the door. "I know that the view from up here is nice, but please be considerate of the residents and don't go around breaking and entering."

It was rather strange that she had found yet another foreigner wandering around the city, let alone another foreign student--what were the odds of that?--but she seemed rather for the most part to be somewhat sincere about this. That didn't make what she was doing at all acceptable... though she wasn't going to report the girl straight away, it was unlikely to have been the first time the door was forced open recently if someone so slim had pulled it off.

"It can get quite windy up here, so please be careful and stay away from any edges. There was supposed to be fencing installed but..." you got what you paid for, even if that was pretty dangerous.

@Natsu