[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/zhp2XL5.png[/img][/center]
[hr]
	Evil Eye's manic laughter was drowned out by the whooshing of air all around them as they rose higher and higher. Did it seem to her like Nonsuch was acting as a protector of the world? Not really. As was usually the case with Evil Eye, it was a rhetorical question for her to think about later—something to slowly bore into her mind and eat away at her—but as was usually the case with Nonsuch, it was like trying to bore a hole into a lava tube. Everything Evil Eye thought she knew about magical girls, all of her experienced calculations told her that she could make this girl fall; but something beneath the surface, burning and inexplicable, repelled her efforts—and it made her laugh so.

	She was just so [i]interesting.[/i]

	[color=#990000]"Hehehe! If we hadn't been stopped just now, would you have chased me all the way to the ocean? Just so you could chat me up?"[/color] She crossed her legs and tilted her head curiously, still not looking away from Nonsuch. If her body ached at all from the fresh bruising she'd just received, she didn't show it. Instead, she flashed a sly grin at her alleged enemy's suggestion. It seemed as if she liked the idea. [color=#990000]"Hmhm~ Just what am I supposed to gain from tugging on my allies' supposed heartstrings? Some sense of validation—that someone cares about me, that I'm important enough to risk life and limb to come rescue?"[/color] She scoffed at the notion.

	[color=#990000]"Perhaps you don't understand me as well as I thought. My dear Nonsuch—[i]that's how a [b]Light Girl thinks."[/b][/i][/color]

	If it were possible, her eyes grew even wider with madness. Illusory magical girls that Nonsuch couldn't recognize appeared behind Evil Eye, looking down at her with scorn. [color=#990000]"These protectors of the peace rejected me because my powers weren't useful for violence. Isn't it funny? How they'd [i][b]fallen already, and couldn't see it."[/b][/i][/color] An illusory sun rose and quickly swept the girls away as it passed over the two of them. It continued to rise and set at unnaturally fast speeds. [color=#990000]"The light is fleeting and quick to leave us when we need it most. The human heart is just a pit of darkness, with carefully woven lies as our only safety net to prevent us from falling in. Things like love, hope, duty—once you see them for the flimsy excuses they are, and sit on the precipice of that gaping maw, you can only accept what you are, or stand up for lies."[/color] She giggled suddenly. [color=#990000]"Or I suppose you can just sit on that precipice until your heart is as numb as your ass—but then, it'll be too late to stand back up again... Someday, you will make that choice, Nonsuch. To stand up for lies, or fall head-over-heels into the truth—and when you do, I'll welcome you with open arms!"[/color]

	She extended her arms out toward Nonsuch, as if to offer the girl with broken bones a hug. Her smile almost seemed genuine; was that an illusion too? —but Evil Eye's "moment" was spoiled by the notification from her phone. Her face soured, she pulled the offending dopamine dealing device from inside the folds of her gi. Reading the text, she giggled. [color=#990000]"You see, it's just as you say. Like I'm not even in danger, ahuhu~! ...but it doesn't matter to me if they 'care' or not, you know?"[/color] She smiled, holding the phone loosely in her hands and waving it contemplatively as she considered her reply. It didn't really matter to her whether she was "part of the Club" or if she was just an orbiter who got made fun of behind her back. Rei gave her food, a place to belong, and Miseria to hunt, which was more than she [i]expected[/i] from others. Her reasons for doing all of that for Kiyo didn't matter. Only her actions in the moment mattered. Someday, she'd [i]find[/i] an excuse to stop doing those things. Her reasons for turning her back on her wouldn't matter either. Somewhere, there was another "Rei" willing to take her. [i]Their[/i] excuses for doing so wouldn't matter, either. "Kindness" was illusion—just another carefully woven lie—and in the end, things like illusions and lies—excuses and misdirection—they weren't really worth thinking about, were they?