---

Tsubomi, no that wasn't right. Acid Drop, if she could still call herself that, lay still, her eyes staring straight up into the sky.

"Sunshine! Are you okay?"

No response. Even within Acid Drop's mind, there was no reaction. She felt Oros' head lay over her Acid Drop's heart. With the second poke to the ribs, a thought finally showed itself. Not a lot of sunshine, with the moogals in the air.

"Ahh geez! Don’t make me give you mouth to mouth."

It wasn't until Oros gave her threat that Acid Drop's eyes moved or even blinked. They closed for a moment, but reopened as she was poked once more. They then drifted slowly down to look at the other Club member.

"... Mm. I'm not injured."

What had even happened today? The Club made a plan of attack for something, and in an attempt to not slow down the others for it, she'd gone... alone? With a moogal? There weren't other Club members with her... And then she was grabbed and hit in the head a few times. Did one of them knock her unconscious, or was it just good timing that she was dragged into the theater around the same time?

Regardless, the result was the same. The girl tried to lift her head without disturbing Oros, but at her speed it would take a moment. When she finally finished craning her neck, she took a look around. Something had happened. The Club, barring herself and Oros, were all standing with... some woman. Had she seen her before? She felt like she did, but she wasn't sure.

In the other direction, there were the batter and the girls who had been at the beach. And the frog girl, for some reason? And... a few others, it seemed. Her head fell back to the ground. A sting of the impact was there, but not enough to matter. Maybe it helped or hurt Tsubomi's progress, though. Acid Drop didn't know. The irony of the situation flew well over where her head had just been to pass by without being noticed.

"What... happened?" Finally a second blink occurred, and with it came recognition of what she'd saw a moment before. Eyes once more drifted to look at Oros. "Are you okay? You don't have your arms."

Looks like she didn't need to intervene with Hizuki's situation after all. As quickly as Willow tried to trick Morganite and Pearl, the Daybreak had quelled their fears and told the truth. Albeit with a bit of self-deprecation, but she was still new. Nocnista couldn't fault her for her hesitance. With a hum and a tilt of her head, the nightmarish woman stepped away and back to the group at hand. After all, she would've respected Hizuki's choice either way.

"Forgive me for being so scattered, my dears~!" Clasping her hands together, Nocnista glanced around the girls. "Just wanted to make sure everyone was accounted for first. Now then!" Oddly enough soon as she was about to continue, she saw Tsubomi wake up, accompanied by a limbless Oros. Oh. Limbless. Now how did she overlook that? That certainly won't do. She hurried over to them, muttering a quick 'excuse me' to Kaeru.

"Hello, Miss Acid Drop is it~? What all do you remember before waking up? Is your head in any pain? Or your mind, perhaps~?" Nocnista steadily asked Tsubomi, carefully sitting her up from the ground. She took a quick glance at the injured Suki again, then looked back to the other detention club members.

"I'm not exactly equipped for helping physical injuries, can anyone heal or find a healer?" She asked them. Though the question did extend towards the GEMs technically, the woman still kept a close, almost unnerving eye on them just in case they tried to do something. Her magic was still superimposed over this piece of Hibusa Town. They'd have to be foolish to attack again.

After Topaz was returned to their number, Diamond turned to look at her. "Are you okay?"

Her irises had been completely consumed by her pupils. There also seemed to be a shadow on her face that would darken it for the rest of her life. With a trembling hand, she took one of her arrows and slammed it into the base of her chin. With a blink, color had returned to her eyes, and her smile beamed so brightly it chased away any shadow. Then she turned to Diamond. "It was a little scary, but I’m all good now, hun!"

Boleite shrugged her shoulders and heaved her weapon over her shoulder. It seemed like everyone was okay, so there was no reason to keep fighting. On her approach, she caught what Kaeru was telling her. "I’m actually a lot heavier than I look. You have no idea how much this equipment weighs. The backpack makes me too awkward to carry." She took Kaeru’s joke at face value, but didn’t seem offended by the comment. "And I’m not riding in the belly of a frog. If they touch both ends of my tesla coils, they could get shocked."

When Noc asked for a healer, Diamond could sense her eyes wandering over the GEMs. "Somehow, I don’t think the rest of your club would appreciate our help." She settled her bat on her shoulder and began walking towards Morganite and Pearl. "We should get going, Topaz. There’s always next time."

"Yup!" She looked back at Nocnitsa. "You can try these if you want. I don’t usually heal magical girls that banged up." She pulled out five arrows and stuck them in the dirt where she was standing. Before turning to follow after Diamond, she took Kaeru by the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. Unbeknownst to her, it would leave some of her lipstick behind. "Thanks for the save, darlin’! You’re welcome to visit the City of Light anytime!" And with a skip, she was off.

With her allies departing, and the Detention club’s presence making things awkward, Boleite rubbed her collar bones. "Yea, I’ll catch up with you later, shrine maiden. Maybe back at the shrine?" She started to walk away, out of Hibusa town’s entrance rather than with the other GEMs.



"Oh, you woke up." The disappointment in Oros’s voice was evident. "I mean, it’s good that you’re okay, heh!"

The rest of the world didn’t exist to Oros. Not the GEMs walking to and fro or the frog girl standing over her. Mostly because she couldn’t lift her head that high right now, but that could change.

Her blood converged around her severed limbs, and became twisting tendrils. She was able to scoop up Tsubomi and stand up with her, getting both of them onto her feet. Oros almost looked like an octopus attempting to stand, but was actually succeeding at it. "Yup! Not just my arms, but my legs too!" She almost sounded like she was bragging. "It’s all coming back to me, slowly. I think I was trying to catch up to you, but I don’t think I was successful." A groan escaped Oros’s lips. "Well, maybe we could go get something sweet to drink? I feel like my blood sugar levels are a little low right now."



Willow’s arms went limp and her back became weak. She watched Hizuki work overtime to ensure that she didn’t get a replacement prisoner that she had freed earlier.

"Yea, it looks like you’ve got this under control, ‘partner.’" Willow turned around and walked towards the other Detention club members. Diamond and Topaz passed her a glance, but she did nothing back.

Morganite, for her part, just looked between the girls in confusion. "Wuts goin’ on!?"

Pearl waited a moment for Willow to get some distance before looking at Hizuki. "What’s going on here? You’re willingly helping the Detention club?" She sighed. "You know they blew up a beach, right? Like, they got together a bunch of beach goers and terrorized them until a giga miseria appeared. Then they killed that miseria using, well, not exactly environmentally friendly attacks. And then they had the nerve to blame us for not helping them get stronger."

---

The cybernetic light girl heaved a sigh as Willow sulkily walked off. Of course Willow was going to be upset with her, as if she hadn't messed up Hizuki's plans about as badly as Hizuki had messed up hers. Willow did save her from getting knocked out by Suki, at least, but the light girl was much more concerned about a friend of hers being hurt than herself.

She turned to Pearl to respond to her and Morganite. "I don't know everything they've done in the past, and I don't really care that much. I just want to help them. They're not actually that bad. They're just. . . I don't know. Troubled? And scared of you. Because the GEMs do things like ambush them in the streets and try to kidnap them." Hizuki failed to keep the accusatory tone out of her voice with this last. "Nobody actually asks about whether we can help dark girls, we just chase them away whenever they show up. It's not right, so I'm changing that."

A flash of... anger? Resentment? Evil Eye couldn't place it precisely enough for her liking before her eyes and body were covered and restrained, a position from which she could truthfully do very little, even if her heart were not also being subdued. It was proof that, for as poorly as she understood her partner's capabilities, Oros understood hers perfectly. It was proof that, much as she wished to do more, she knew Shatterscape was right. She was the one who required supervision. She belonged in the air, free as a bird, away from danger. Why, then, did her heart desire anything else other than what her mediocre skills lent her to? Ah, well... Acceptance didn't wash over her so much as it consumed her. In my next life, then. But whatever it was Evil Eye expected Oros to do, she didn't.

For a moment, she remained there, her body half slumped over. "Right. Try not to mistake me for... someone you hate," she replied half-heartedly. This feeling... she knew it well. It was the sting of failure. A part of her began to wonder just how long she could stay there, pretending she was still under Oros's spell, before anyone would notice and think it'd been a bit too long. For a moment, she did remain there, and just listened. Slowly, she processed that Tsubomi was going to be okay, and Suki was going to be okay, and the light girls were going to just... walk off into the sunset, as one did. How very convenient for them. How very glamorous, how picturesque. None of them would try a move against Nocnitsa, not when the cost of a loss against her was a stain on their glorious reputation as indomitable heroes of light, or whatever. As for Evil Eye, there was only ever one thing to do when she felt left behind—when her mood turned most foul—and that was to harvest more miseria.

"...All this excitement's going to rouse up more miseria. I'll mop them up before they turn into something nasty," she said to no one in particular. Then, she took off upwards, about a story higher than the rooftops, and began to create a bunch of winged, hooded fairies wielding little scythes. True to what she'd said, they began to mow down the nearby stragglers before flying a bit further off, accompanied by Mogall, retracing the steps of their chase with Diamond—in particular, toward the place that had baked under the gaze of the Titan. Ah. I lost a meeting with the new girl in town, too, she realized, as her mind flipped through the images transmitted to her.

While things were certainly wrapping up, it seemed there were still a few annoying little interactions that needed to finish playing out. Nyxia simply rolled her eyes at the utterly uninteresting bits of mind-numbing melodrama and barf-inducing buffoonery. “She’s a jackass,” the Neon Tempest replied after her partner commented on Willow’s latest distasteful antics. “And an attention whore. I would have expected nothing less from a bitch like her.” Not for the first time, Nyxia was immensely thankful the cat-themed musician wasn’t on their team. For Willow’s sake…

However, it was about then that Evil Eye said something that drew Nyxia’s attention far more than the others’ various babblings ever could.

“Come on!” the Neon Tempest snapped at her two teammates as she prepared to blast herself onto a nearby rooftop. “If we just keep standin’ around here, little miss ‘wandering eyes’ is gonna steal all our kills!”

---

The woman with the ever so slightly familiar voice helped Tsubomi sit upright, and Oros soon was standing on her tentacles of blood, helping her stand as well.

"What all do you remember before waking up? Is your head in any pain? Or your mind, perhaps~?"

It was, but she didn't think it was a good idea to say that. She wasn't sure why. "I remember..." Acid Drop's words trailed off as she turned to look at Diamond. "She wanted to talk, but I don't know what she wanted to talk about."

But she didn't have time to question at all, as Oros' words reached her brain, forcing the rainbow haired girl's eyes towards her. "Mm. Okay."

For the first time in a long while, Acid Drop tried to lift Oros to carry her limbless body. It would take some time, but... "You're losing a lot of blood." It was a little awkward, with her trying to carry her partner in a bridal carry but soon giving up on that idea.

Once Oros was safely in her grip, she looked towards Evil Eye as she flew away. Listless thoughts passed through her like a leave on a gust of air. Aren't we supposed to stick together in teams of three now?

Once the thought finished she turned her attention back to Oros. "We should get your arms and legs so you don't lose more." A typical pause filled the air, but didn't last as long as it usually would. "Then you can decide what to drink."

"Wut?!" Morganite placed her hands on her hips. "How can ya say dat? Dey definitely ain’t scared o’ me. Da one there nearly tore ma butt off! Dey troubled aight!" She side eyed Hizuki. "Ya shur ya ain’t mind whammied?"

"Morganite, we should probably get going. The others are leaving."

"Hmmmm." It was apparent that the little armored girl was frustrated, but she didn’t seem to know how to say what she wanted to say. "Lets talk later, Hizuki. M’kay?" She wiped her eyes. Pearl needed to give her a gentle push to get her walking towards the other GEMs. Pearl watched her companion waddle up to Diamond and Topaz.

"So the Detention Club ist a group of misunderstood misfits, and we’re just bullies that harass them." Pearl didn’t look at Hizuki as she spoke. "Then I guess there’s nothing else to say." She was about to join up with her fellow GEMs when she stopped. Then she turned to face Hizuki. "Just think about how they act before you decide if the members of the Detention Club are good people. I'll see you later." And with that, she departed.

---

Yeah, that was about the response she expected. She didn't think that one conversation would get the GEMs as a whole to stop their crusade against dark girls, and it sounded like they had legitimate reasons to be after the Detention Club right now. Hizuki would have to ask them about this whole beach incident later. "Yeah. My number hasn't changed," she said as Morganite was herded away. She was glad she hadn't ended up having to fight the shield-wielder in the end. It might not have gone well, either; the GEM had more awareness of Hizuki's weaknesses than most.

She sighed, staring at the ground for a bit as the snarl of magical girls slowly untangled itself and dispersed. It seemed like she'd mostly made everything worse for everyone by showing up, in the end. Black Gate got hurt, Morganite was sad, and she couldn't even get close to Tsubomi, not to mention making Willow angry. The GEMs weren't any friendlier than before; if anything, it was the opposite. Her goal of talking this through was getting further away by the second. What's the point? Hizuki shook away the thought.

"I'll. . . go look for them." The Daybreak latched onto the excuse to leave the situation, at least for a moment, and took off, flitting between the rooftops between here and the school in the search for Suki's discarded bits.

---

A responsible adult had a tendency of de-escalating conflicts between youths. Even with a clear bias towards one side, neither really had the same motivation to go at it under an adult’s gaze, even if she was a rather disjointed and airy personality.

Earthshaker should have appreciated the moment of peace and surety, secure in the knowledge that the GEMS would be unable to fight them any further. That the Detention Club had succeeded in driving off the invading Light Girls. Yet, was that even true? Had the Club won, or had the Light Girls cut their losses before they even had to pay the tiniest bit for the Hell they brought to Miso city.

Those sanctimonious little…The gore Shuuko with a laser while trying to hit me, they have no issue forcing their emotions on us or themselves like a bunch of junkies, and they tried to kidnap one of our own after they gave up on stealing our mascots. Earthshaker was seething, wrathcooling into a poisonous malaise as she watched the Gems trickle away unblemished for their adventure. Not a scratch on them.

Never had Roche been more grateful to be Nyxia’s partner then when the laser enthusiast suggested they race off to crush Miseria. It was almost quaint to focus on what should have been the main enemy, and not the City of Light or….other forces.

I’ll need to look more aggressively into that. Think I’ll have to start poking into that college more directly. With a harsh exhale Earthshaker turned away from the insensate Shatterscape and followed at Nyxia, needing to release some of her pent emotion away from their supervisor’s oppressive gaze. ”Catch up soon, High Priestess. I need this, but it would be better together.”

From inside Kaeru's hat could be heard a croak in protest of what Boleite had said, possibly arguing their endurance.

"I wouldn't underestimate these not-so-little guys, but suit yourself."

She barely had time to finish that sentence before Topaz grabbed her by the shoulders, Sayuri's fingers lingering on her cheek for a second, clearly surprised by this sudden European farewell. "Hum... I'll think a-about it... See you around." before shaking the surprise off.

Seeing the Gems scatter after that was almost a relief. It seemed like the fight was over before it began and everyone would go back in their ring's corner for the night. The fact Topaz offered help to the club all the same was not lost on Sayuri, though.

After having bid farewell to Boleite, she was about to leave too when her attention go caught by Pearl, one of the Gems Sayuri didn't get to interact with yet. Her interlocuter, though, she'd met; Hizuki. Sayuri got interested in what the Witch-looking girl had to say.

The more she learned about that Beach event, the more Sayuri was convinced her own point of view on the Club wasn't flawed.

"My!" Hizuki'd hear from behind Pearl. "Where did you hear that before?" On this quip she'd have left, but felt a little bad for Hizuki. All in all, she was doing what she thought was just.

"Helping others is never wrong. Trying to rise them up is noble - just don't let them bring you down at their level, Hizuki. Come talk anytime, if you don't know where just ask your glorious Leader."

With a leap into the night, Sayuri disappeared back towards her mountain.

Boleite sighed. "I’m not calling your frogs weak, I’m just saying that electricity hurts even in small doses." Her eyes drifted to Kaeru’s cheek, or the little mark Topaz left there. "But it looks like you can handle shocks and sparks at least, haha!" She made the wise voice to but out of whatever Kaeru was trying to tell the confused light girl. Only for her to up and hop into the night itself. "Hmm, I haven’t seen the forest at night. Maybe there are some fireflies." With a crack of thunder, the lightning girl was gone.

Diamond, Topaz, Pearl, and Morganite had all gathered together and were making their way out of Hibusa town.

"Doesn’t feel like we did much of anything." Pearl looked back at the dark girls departing. "Did we accomplish anything here?"

Morganite said nothing. She watched as Hizuki disappeared into the sky. Once she was out of sight, she turned around to join the others.

Diamond adjusted her cap. "Our goal wasn’t to abduct their members, mock them, or beat them up. Our goal was to let them know that their actions have consequences." She looked over her shoulder at the remaining dark girls, narrowed her brow, then looked back ahead. "I think they got the message. Whether they heed it or not is entirely up to them."

"It was equal parts disappointin’ and excitin’ that the dark woman showed up." Topaz was skipping alongside the group.

"It did make for a more peaceful resolution to things. I don’t think either side would have enjoyed that if it dragged on like it could have." Diamond’s grip tightened on her bat. "You guys want ice cream when we get back?"

Nobody said no.



"I can’t really bleed out since I can command some of my blood to stay inside my body. But you want to find my limbs anyway?" Oros laughed. "Oh, that would be great! I mean, I’m not sure if we can re-attach them. If they are too badly damaged I’ll just need to kiss myself back to health." She swung her head around. "Hmmm, I don’t suppose I can get the blond one with the bow to kiss me. The one with the bat looks kind of scary and- Oh nope, no there’s too many of them over there." Oros placed a tendril on her head. "I feel really light headed, let’s go see if we can find anything."

And they would, but all of Oros’s limbs looked like miniature spiral cut hams. Fortunately Suki still had all of her limbs, and wasn’t at risk of bleeding out.

…

…

…

There weren’t that many miseria left to hunt.

Boleite had been pretty thorough with their extermination and all that was left were stragglers that surfaced after the GEMs departed. It seemed the lightning wielding girl was just as crazy about killing miseria as Nyxia was, if that was possible.

As many mogalls as Boleite nuked, there was still plenty of "footage" that survived the fight. She was able to catch everything, from Willow entering Red Cafe, leaving with a defeated Black Gate, and finally the goat girl's escape. And she really did seem to be stationed outside Hibusa town. She ran right out of the town’s limits before more stunted apes showed up to chase off the mogalls.

Why did no one respond to her call? Normally, even when they did not help each other or refused to, there would be something in Shuuko’s skull that she could sense. Yet it was completely empty. So much that if she imagined dropping a pin, then it would result in an echo coming back to her. Which meant she was completely alone for the first time in her life. It should have been as freeing as having this body to herself.

Instead, it drove a spike of terror into her chest. Just in time for the baseball bat to slam into her and send her flying. Normally, an attack like that would not be allowed to hit as Sylvia would have either warned the warrior, or she would have caused Shuuko’s body to take a step back, but without that protection, Hotaru flew through the air like a particularly graceless rock. Her gauntlets dragged her downwards face first, but at least she had the wherewithal to draw her arms in and tuck her head into the envelope she created.

She called out to Sylvia once again as she flew, all but shouting the protector’s name into the void. As expected, she received no answer. It had been a shot in the dark anyways, so the warrior grit her teeth as she tried to pull herself into a ball, knowing that the impact would hurt like hell without her comrade being there to shoulder most of the pain. However, it seemed that the Detention Club’s supervisor had other plans.

Nocnitsa emerged out of nowhere, catching the warrior by the torso, then spinning around to bleed off the momentum before switching to holding her like a saddlebag. The warrior had little time to react and even if she could, her focus completely slipped from the fight. Instead of paying attention, the only thing she did was stand, her expression frozen in a mixture of shock and betrayal.

Why….? Why had the others left her? Why did they no longer respond? Sure, she did not treat them exactly right if she was honest with herself, but did she really deserve something like this? Surely, she did not do something that had them disappear without even a word. Ember even tried to talk it out several times! Maybe they got upset she had not listened? But they were not listening either! They knew that light girls would only end up sinking their blades into their backs!

But Sylvia, she found even stranger. The schemer could do awful things for the sake of the greater good, but the protector would never hurt a fly. Or perhaps this is how she started out, abandoning the warrior when she needed the protector the most. The thought sent her into dark places and she barely noticed being set down on her foot, lost as she was in her own world. She barely even sensed Roche reaching out to her as she looked forward, trying to figure out what happened.

Even worse, as she rooted around in her own head, she could no longer sense the other bodies as well as before. Their presence seemed muted, distant and if she attempted to reach out to them, the distance turned effectively infinite. She might have been able to do it if she strained her magic to the limit and expended every mote, but that would leave her vulnerable to attack.

That was what snapped Hotaru out of it at the end. With a twisted expression, she returned to reality and prepared to rip apart the light girls for…

…

Where the hell did they go?!

The traitorous bitches disappeared into the aether as though nothing had happened. Hell, even most of the Detention Club vanished on her! What the fuck!

Hotaru slammed her gauntlet into the ground, creating a new-found crater in the pavement. Debris flew everywhere as she used all of her magic-augmented strength to vent her frustration, turning three or four inches of ground into shrapnel before she literally fell into her own trap, causing her knees to buckle. Then, just to add insult to injury, she hit her head on one of her gauntlets.

”Fuck!” She cried out. ”I can’t even sense Misera nearby…” Of course she could not. That was Sylvia’s job for the most part. She never learned how to really tune into her magical senses save for the instinctive understanding that every magical girl had, because she never had to. And now that her comrades were gone, she would be paying the price.

What even happened to them? Could they have been destroyed because of… whatever the hell happened back then? Were they dead? No, she could not think of it that way. She needed to find them somehow!

---

---

Haruna couldn’t be sure if Suki was going to show up for their jog together or not. But she didn’t have her number and it seemed a little awkward to ask Tsubomi for it when the goal was to talk about Tsubomi without her being present. So all she could do was wait by the proverbial start line and hope she showed up. Ten to twenty minutes before the agreed time was a nice time for punctual people to aim for, but Suki did not feel like a punctual person. However, it was now ten or twenty minutes past the agreed time, which seemed awfully late for someone who wasn’t Tsubomi.



"Huh?" Willow’s voice reached Haruna’s ears from a nearby rooftop. "I like how you’ll go out of your way to screw over someone who saved your life, but wouldn’t think of ditching someone who put you in that position in the first place." She looked at a wrist watch she didn’t have. "Welp, they seem to be running a little late."

"Hi, Willow," Haruna responded, her apparently-perpetual look of exhaustion seeming to intensify at the very sight of her "partner." She had actually done something good, for once, so she had a point, but it was undercut by her actions immediately before and after. "Are you going to come down here to talk, or is the pain in my neck from looking up part of my punishment?"

"You’re too young to have neck pain." Willow rolled off the roof and floated down to the street below. She folded her arms behind her head and threw one leg over the other. "Do I really seem like the sort of person who would punish my fellow partner? On the contrary, Hizuki. Everyone in the Detention club either avoids me or hates me, so even though you are, hmmm, ‘competition’ for Rei’s attention, I don’t mind playing nice with you."

"I figured you would be mad at me. Or, well, you obviously are, and if I’m being honest, you seem like the type to get revenge." She gave a sort of half-shrug, not really sure how to put that in a way that didn’t sound like an accusation. "I don’t know why Suki attacked me, but I wasn’t planning on holding it against her, either. Just like the thing with Shuuko." Haruna sighed. "I also wasn’t trying to screw you over. You were hurting someone who placed their trust in me, so I did my best to make up for it."

The cat girl squinted her eyes. She was more or less eye level with Hotaru, but only because she was still hovering in the air. "I understand you’re a light girl and everything, but you could stand to be a little dishonest. No book has to be that open." In a puff of smoke and musical notes, Willow turned into, well, Willow. Her normal form. The difference was small, with only her eye color and ears changing. Of course magical girl identity protection made spotting the similarities in her face difficult, but it was uncanny how similar both of her forms looked. "But honesty can be fun too, I suppose. You know Suki is part of my band, right? I could give her a phone call and get her here in seconds. Buuuuuuuuut since I’m a vengeful bitch that’s incapable of remorse, as you worded it, my services will come at a cost to you. Then once I’ve exacted my revenge, there will be no reason to hold anything against you moving forward. Sounds reasonable, right?" The girl folded her arms behind her back.

"That’s not. . . whatever," she said with another, more irritable sigh. "Sure, hit me with whatever you’ve got. As long as we can get past this. Although after that, I want to talk to you about what happened back there." She noted Willow’s mundane appearance for the future. Transforming in front of her was a sign of trust, at least. Or that Willow felt absolutely no threat from the idea of Haruna knowing her significantly more vulnerable mundane form, which was also entirely possible.

"Of course, of course." She said with a dismissive tone. "Hmmm, but how should I exact my revenge?" She swiftly stepped behind Haruna. "Trust is hard to restore, especially for me." She stepped back in front of Haruna and rubbed her chin. "Hmmmm, yes, I should take something from you. Something that you can never get back, regardless of how willing I am to return it. But I feel like it should also be something you would be willing to part with. Something you would be willing to, hmmm, share, if you would." Willow’s hands went behind her back and she leaned in towards Haruna. "Got any ideas?" She tipped her head to the side.

Haruna stepped back, squinting at Willow as she tried to both preserve her personal space and figure out what the hell the dark girl was on about. "You. . . aren’t seriously asking for a first kiss or something, are you?" That was the only thing she could really think of that fit that description, other than. . . well, one other thing of a similar nature. "That’s just really weird and inappropriate if you are. So please don’t be."

"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow. "No! No, I was just thinking out loud. I really didn’t have any ideas. But that would sort of fit, wouldn’t it?" She brought her hands in front of herself and smiled. "God you’re smart, Haruna! Yes! I don’t have to ask for it because you just suggested it! That makes this all a lot less weird. But I appreciate that you look so repulsed, which makes this the perfect little revenge." She giggled. "Aside from satisfying my criteria, it’s painless and simple. We can just kind of get your ‘punishment’ out of the way and then once you’re done with me you can go for your little jog with Suki. Oh! It’s symbolic too! To end a feud with a kiss and to emerge as friends! It’s almost poetic!" Willow went to play a song, only to realize she didn’t have her violin now that she was no longer transformed.

"Absolutely not," Haruna snapped, before she had time to really think about it. "No. Not happening. I don’t care if it's poetic or whatever, I’m not doing it." She crossed her arms. "I know you probably think you can just push me around however you want because you’re Rei’s partner and I’ve tried to be forgiving with the club, but I still have lines. Think of something else." She glanced to the side a bit. "I want that to be shared with someone special to me. And you don’t even know if I’m into that sort of thing." Her slight blush wasn’t doing her any favors in selling that last. Willow was kinda cute, but that wasn’t the only thing that mattered. The light girl was sure she’d continue to insist, too, now that she’d found something that really bothered Haruna.

"Okay so, a few things." Willow raised her fingers and started counting them off. "Number one, hetero girls just say they’re not into that. Or they laugh. Or they get really disgusted. You get the idea. ‘You don’t even know blah blah blah’ is what closet tuna munchers say. Number two, do you remember why you’re in this predicament? You freed my prisoner and denied me a second one, both of which were sought after targets by the club." She pursed her lips and tipped her head side to side. "I might have gotten a little rougher with the goat girl than I needed to, but it was justified. Number three, you’re also Rei’s partner, and my seniority does not seem to have endeared anyone to me over you. I doubt Rei is any different. She just seems to like you for no reason whatsoever. And four, I have no extra points to make, but I feel like I need to raise my finger anyway." She walked in front of where Haruna was looking and cast out her arms. "What? Do you want me to beg for it? Do I need to say ‘I want to be special to you’ even if you won’t believe me?"

"Nobody told me about any plans to take any prisoners," Haruna said, her voice starting to rise. "Black Gate trusted me and I promised I would keep her safe during a meeting I was trying to set up with her. A meeting, not an ambush. You would know that if you actually bothered to talk to me for a reason other than making me uncomfortable!" She balled up her fists. "You want to convince me I did something wrong by not wanting to betray my friends? You want to humiliate me for no reason other than your failure to ever communicate anything useful?" Haruna was breathing heavily at this point, her face flushing for an entirely different reason. She could feel her fingernails digging into her palms. She forced herself to take a deep breath and unclench her fists before continuing at a lower volume. "Look, I’m grateful for the save back there, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just do whatever you want now. So seriously, stop it."

During this entire exchange, from Willow appearing on the rooftop to now, Willow had been giving off the desire to play with Haruna. But with Haruna’s most recent contribution to their discussion, that had changed to a desire for Haruna to understand her. Willow pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay." She nodded. "I didn’t want to have to do this, but I’m going to have to count at you again." She lifted up her fingers. "Number one, I brought up the prisoners because that was something you did that went against my wishes. You’re smart, Haruna, and I know that you knew that I wanted the girl that stole my phone. Same with Morganite. Number two…" She looked at her fingers. As if suddenly realizing how futile it was, she stuffed her hands into her pockets. "I think Rei’s dying."

It took Haruna a moment to respond. All of the pent-up frustration finally beginning to boil out was abruptly shoved to the back of her head as she finally processed what Willow said - and that she was serious. "Wait, woah, what?" The idea of Rei being anything but the indestructible, inscrutable demon she seemed to be was strange, to say the least. "Dying? Why do you think so? She seemed okay to me." Though she was questioning Willow’s words, concern was by far the strongest emotion in her voice.

"Well, I did specify think." Willow averted her eyes. "Look, I want Rei to think I’m cool and everything, but sometimes she doesn’t want anyone around. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m going to stay away." She rubbed the back of her head. "She was in the kitchen, and I thought I saw her coughing up blood. You can’t really appreciate it, but she used to come out and watch the club fight miseria all the time. Just recently she’s started doing it again but I don’t know. Maybe the two are related?" She raised her hands and pretended to hold a cylindrical object. "They say a flame burns brightest just before it goes out. And well, I doubt she’d like to be compared to a flame, but I don’t think there’s a lot of magical girls that can compare to her."

Haruna sighed in frustration, though this time it wasn’t directed at Willow. "This is one of the many times I’ve wished I could heal people with my powers." She knew of a couple magical girls with healing powers - and, obviously, the club had just met one - but if it was something she was capable of doing, Haruna hadn’t figured out how yet. It wasn’t exactly an easy power to develop if it didn’t come to you naturally. "Is there anything we can do?" She rubbed at her eyes, trying to banish her exhaustion. "Maybe it’s related to that big Miseria she killed the other night? It could take more out of her to keep that thing in check than she lets on."

"Maybe. But if that’s the case, we’re kinda screwed." She lifted a finger to her lips in thought. "She seems more irritated with the GEMs presence than anything else. That’s a problem we can fix, maybe, but she’s been acting weird for a while now." Haruna could sense a shift in Willow’s desires. The desire to be understood was gradually overtaken by the desire to play once again, and then Willow lowered her hands onto Haruna’s shoulders. "So you see, it’s really about having a plan B. And despite everything that’s happened, you’re still my second favorite member of this club. I mean no one can replace Rei, but I don’t have to wallow in despair, right? They call me Willow and not wallow for a reason." She grinned. "And really, I would like to be special to you."

"I’m still not kissing you," Haruna said flatly, giving Willow a look before pointedly lifting the other girl’s arms off her shoulders and stepping back. "I have some ideas on how to deal with both of those problems. Not the me-not-kissing-you, that’s only a problem for you." That much wasn’t actually true, Haruna could tell, but she wasn’t going to belabor the point. "Also, you shouldn’t take Maliss stealing your phone very seriously. I’m. . . not actually convinced she knows how to charge a phone." Haruna looked like she didn’t actually want to be saying this last - it felt kinda mean - but felt she had to. "She probably would have given it back if asked. I’m going to try to get in contact with her again at some point, I told Kiyo I’d set up a meeting."

Willow blinked a few times. "Right, well, sounds like you and Kiyo have it all under control then. And not to put too fine a point on it, but if she asked when she took it, I wouldn’t have kicked her butt. You can let her know that." Her tone let Haruna know that she didn’t think she would, but also that she didn’t really care. "So you’re really big on romance, huh? Who are you saving that kiss for?"

The light girl went back to looking rather awkward and embarrassed. "I mean, I didn’t really have anyone specific in mind. It’s not like I’m dating someone right now, I don’t really have the time." She did have the tiniest crush right now, but she wasn’t going to give Willow that ammunition. Especially given the target. It wasn’t that serious of a consideration, anyway. "I just, you know, want that first moment to be something I don’t regret." She abruptly stopped her efforts to look away from her partner, hitting her with a sharp look. "Also, even if I did have someone in mind, you wouldn’t ever let me hear the end of it."

Willow’s chest puffed out as she slowly, very slowly drew in the autumn air until her lungs were filled to full capacity. Then, without taking her eyes off of Haruna, she sighed. A lot. Possibly beyond what her lungs were holding. If it was possible for someone to create a vacuum inside their chest, Willow had most assuredly done it. Then she inhaled before speaking, but it was much faster. "When I said you could be a little dishonest, I meant you didn’t have to be so direct. But lying? To me?" She held her chin and looked at the floor. "It couldn’t be many of the club members, but it is a club member. You don’t know anyone else around here. Or is it Maliss? It could be Maliss." She completely turned away from Haruna. "Boy that would be a twist, wouldn’t it? Or would that be too obvious? No no, she joined the club, dummy, it almost couldn’t be Maliss, even if it would justify most of her actions." Willow transformed back into a magical girl, dust and musical notes floated off in every direction. Her ears still hadn’t healed from the peirce job Pearl gave her. "Kiyo’s an option. She won’t leave the girl alone it seems. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s watching her right now. But does that mean Haruna would reciprocate? Aren’t there other explanations for Kiyo’s behavior?" She floated off the ground. "Tsubomi’s an option too. She was trying to rescue her, and didn’t they talk a bit? That's what Suki told me but… It couldn’t be Suki ,could it?" She snorted. "No, no. Impossible. Is what I would normally think, but Suki hates herself just enough that she’d miss the obvious clues. So that’s at least four…" Willow landed on the roof. She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. As soon as someone picked up, she held the phone to the side of her head and manifested a sickeningly sweet smile. "Hey! Yup! She was waiting!" A pause. "Oh, no, I think she’s positively pissed that you nearly killed her. I’d say things are pretty bad right now. H-hey! Don’t cry! You don’t need to cry. I think she’s going to try and pretend nothing ever happened for the team just… Yea, be careful. I know. It’s okay though. I saved her. Uh-huh, see you at band practice later." She hung up and looked down at Haruna. "Um… I don’t think Suki’s coming."

Haruna buried her hands in her face, partially because it gave her hands something to do besides slapping Willow and her face something to do besides yell at Willow for what she just did. She took a long moment, took a nice deep breath, then let her hands drop before responding. "Please give me Suki’s number," she said calmly.

"If she wanted to talk to you, she’d have shown up." Willow stepped away from the roof edge. "I think we’re even now. See you later."

"Willow! This is serious!" Getting somewhat desperate, she glanced around to check whether the coast was clear, then transformed herself to follow the dark girl up onto the roof. "Wait! If you give me her number I’ll tell you who I have a crush on!" She hoped Willow wouldn’t be able to resist such a tantalizing tidbit to tease someone about, though how she would react is anyone’s guess.

"Hah!" Willow spun around. "I wouldn’t think of betraying my band mate’s trust like that. Giving you her number would be in poor taste. And besides…" She placed her bow on her violin. "The suspense is growing on me." Her body faded into a cluster of lights, the will-o-wisps she was named after, and she vanished from sight.

"Damn it, Willow-! Ugh." She threw her hands up in frustration, stomping around in a quick circle as she transformed back into her mundane form. Haruna needed to talk to Suki, one way or another, and at this point she might be willing to do it with Tsubomi right there. Given the incident, this really couldn’t wait any longer.

With one more sigh of frustration, she belatedly remembered the club’s group chat. "At least that can’t fly away and disappear," she grumbled to herself, before opening it on her phone and sending a message.

> Suki? Did Willow really call you just now?

For some (not so) strange reason, Suki’s icon went from Online to Offline just seconds after the message went through. "Yeah, that figures." Fortunately, there were figures in the club who hadn’t decided to be exceedingly weird about her, and one in particular who probably knew where everyone was at all times.

> Kiyo, I need to talk to Suki and it can’t really wait. Can you let me know where she’s at?

Kiyo's status was idle, and it would take a moment for her to appear online.

> Sure. Just give me a minute or two.

Only a few seconds passed before she began typing again.

> Is ut sonething serious? Can I help?

There was not one typo, but two.

> Is it something serious? Can I help? _(edited)

A couple minutes later, it was fixed before she began typing again. That was just how Kiyo was.

> She's at the convenience store near the bowling alley.

"Okay. This is still salvageable."

> Thanks, Kiyo. I’m glad I can rely on you.

She transformed once again and took off. Normally, she might swap armors to get to Suki faster, but given the blood witch had broken THUNDER CRACK, Hizuki would have to fly there without. Fortunately, she was still fairly swift, especially when she didn’t have to bleed momentum swerving around after a moving target. Hizuki flew straight toward the mentioned area, reaching out with her senses as she got closer to get a better sense of Suki’s exact location.

It was just as Kiyo said. There was a muddled desire that belonged to a magical girl coming from the Eight/Twelve right next to the bowling alley. She landed on the sidewalk not ten feet away from the door. Going in wouldn’t be necessary, it seemed like someone was coming out.



The delinquent looked concerned when she opened the door. She was cradling five kitkat bars in one arm, all different flavors. On top of them was a pack of generic cigarettes, and an unlit one was wedged between her lips. Suki looked to her left, and then to her right, at which point she saw Hizuki. Her gaze lingered on her far longer than it should have, Then her head sunk as she slowly backed into the convenience store.

Hizuki sighed again, then ducked around a corner to transform back (so she didn’t just pop into existence in front of some random passerby.) Haruna hurried back, following the dark girl inside. "Hey, Suki. I’m not mad, I promise. You know how Willow can be sometimes, right?" She admittedly wasn’t even sure Willow had actually called her, and if so, whether the reaction she communicated to Haruna was the real one, so she figured she’d start by covering her bases. "And even if I was, this is more important, it’s about helping Tsubomi."

Suki peaked out from one of the isles. One of her pigtails was fully visible while she did this. "Tsubomi?" The sound of a kitkat hitting the floor caused the girl to pull her head back. After some grumbling and what sounded like product rearrangement, she stepped out from the aisle. None of the candy appeared to be on her person, and even the cigarette in her mouth was nowhere to be seen. "I uh…" She rubbed the back of her head. "I want to help her." She still seemed nervous, but her desires lined up with her words.

"Okay. Is there someone else you’d want to talk? It’s. . . some pretty private information, I think, so it feels weird to just talk about in the convenience store. I don’t think Tsubomi would really care, but, well, that doesn’t really mean much." She blinked after a moment, realizing this might sound like trying to lure Suki to a third location for some nefarious purpose. "Here is fine too, though, if you don’t-"

Mid sentence, Suki grabbed Haruna’s wrist and power walked out the door with her. Once they got outside, she turned the corner into a shaded alleyway. "No, I uh, I don’t really want to stay there." She retrieved a cigarette from one of her pockets. "I know we said we were going to jog today, but I thought that was off after, uh, things happened." She placed the cigarette between her lips; the light girl resisted the urge to tell Suki about the dangers of smoking in response. "I uh, tend to over react when I go bridezilla. I’m glad you’re okay."

"Don’t worry too much about it. There was a lot happening." She didn’t know if Suki was telling the whole truth, but Haruna was willing to accept it for the moment. She took a deep breath, trying to figure out how the hell she was supposed to broach the actual topic.

"So. . . before I talk about Tsubomi, I should probably mention how my magic works, so I don’t have to explain later." It was something she hadn’t actually mentioned to most people; she hoped Suki would appreciate the gesture of trust. "I can kinda hear what people want. It’s harder with magical girls, so I don’t usually get a very clear idea. It’s also weaker when I’m not transformed." Haruna paused again. "I got a really clear read on Tsubomi. She wants to die."

Suki froze while she was pulling her lighter out of her pocket. "Wha-" She was already pale, but somehow Suki looked even worse now, like she was transforming into a corpse. "What the hell?!" She pointed at Haruna with both hands. "We just got outside, and-" She held her lighter up to her cigarette, but it took her far too many tries to get it started. With a deep inhale, half the cigarette turned into ash. Suki’s back fell against the wall with a thud, and smoke rolled out of her mouth. "I don’t know why, but that makes a lot of sense." She balled one of her hands into a fist. "She told me she liked being this way, not feeling anything. But I just couldn’t rationalize it. It seems like she is feeling something and she feels horrible." She covered her eyes with both hands. "Awwwwwgh! I’m such a horrible friend, what the fuck am I going to dooooooooo…"

Haruna hesitantly reached out to put what she hoped was a comforting hand on Suki’s shoulder, nose wrinkling a bit at the smell of nicotine. "Hey, it’s not like you had any way to know. I figured, since you’re her best friend and all, you might be able to use the information better than I could." She let her hand drop. "I don’t really know her that well, but I do want to help. Unlike the whole getting-stronger thing, I don’t have any ideas of my own, though."

"I have been trying to make her feel better, and hearing this is not helping!" She started to gyrate in place. "Ah geez…" Suki, suddenly, ceased all moment. "Um, so she wants to die?" she pulled her hands off of her face. "Has that always been the case? I mean you say you can hear what people want and I’m pretty sure she wanted you to join the club. Were you able to hear that? If she wants to die why would she want you in the club?"

"I think so? She wants other things alongside it sometimes, but it’s always the same thing on top. Although, I guess it’s not necessarily. . . her wanting to die." She frowned, thinking. "Tsubomi wants to kill Tsubomi. Is there a reason there would be a difference?"

"I mean, I’ve always considered my magical self and myself two different people. Maybe Tsubomi is the same way? Did she, maybe, know you were a light girl somehow?" Suki looked at Haruna. "Is it maybe Acid Drop that she wants to kill?"

"I don’t think she knew. Or if she did, she didn’t want to do anything about it." She shrugged. "Maybe it is Acid Drop. Or. . . Acid Drop wants to kill Tsubomi, maybe?" Haruna shook her head. "I have no idea. You said she doesn’t feel anything, right? Maybe that’s not actually true. Could her emotions be still there, but locked away somehow?" Her mouth twisted. "I kinda hate to say it, but I’m wondering if the GEMs somehow know something we don’t. They were going to mess with Tsubomi’s emotions somehow."

"I uh, don’t think it’s hard to see that she’s not like most girls, heh. And getting the GEMs help is not a realistic option anyway." The delinquent held the side of her head as her cigarette burned up. "Well, I have two ideas." She raised a finger. "The first one is that we try to make her happy. I noticed she has an attachment to you for some reason, so I was thinking she maybe had a crush on you. Maybe if you started dating her, she wouldn’t feel so suicidal. I was working up to matching you guys together, but uh, things happened." She huffed her cigarette. "The other thing we could try is to confront her directly. If she wants to die or kill one of her selves, I want to know why." She snorted. "You uh, you wanna try one of those ideas?"

Haruna scratched her head awkwardly. "I think I’d rather just talk to her about it."

"I was afraid you’d say that." Suki sighed before extinguishing her cigarette. "You don’t mind being there, do you?"

"No, not at all. I was just told I’m painfully blunt, so I can probably do it if you can’t, heh." She glanced to the side, thinking about something. ". . . Did Willow actually call you by the way, or was she just full of crap as usual?"

"Oh!" Suki looked at her phone. "Oh yea, you texted me, heh, um, I don’t like to answer the phone when I’m in the convenience store, so I usually leave my phone off." She blinked. "And uh, she sent me a text when I woke up this morning. She sends me memes sometimes."

"Oh, thank goodness. She acted like she called you and that you cried when she said I was still mad about the whole ‘smashing me into the pavement’ thing." Haruna’s relief was palpable.

"Hah!" Suki looked like she might laugh. "That Willow is such a prankster!" Then she immediately lowered her head. "But I understand why not everyone likes her that much. She’s always been nice to me though."

"I understand, though, you were worried about your friend. Well, kinda. Um. But it’s fine. Just, er, I’m kinda fragile compared to other magical girls, I think? And I was getting ready to charge Diamond all dramatically and stuff." Realizing what she’s doing, Haruna drops the proverbial shovel. "Aaanyways, um, when did you want to talk to Tsubomi? I’ll be there right away when you’re ready."

"Yea…" She averted her eyes. "Soon. Very soon. I don’t want to wait. We go to the arcade sometimes. She doesn’t enjoy it, but she says it helps her practice her precision, which is useful." She nodded. "It’s too noisy inside, but if you wanted to join us, maybe on the way home we could talk to her."

Haruna returned the nod, resolutely. "Yeah, absolutely. I’d be happy to." Something occurred to her, something that made her blush a bit. "Hey, wait, why did you just assume I’m into girls!?"

Suki nearly jumped out of her skin at the accusation. "I- uh-ae-aasd-gasd-fu!" Her hands flew up around her head. Then she froze for a moment while the gears started to turn. "I uh, I didn’t?" Suki lowered her arms. "I said that I thought that going on a date with Tsubomi would make her happy. I uh, guess I figured you’d do it if it made her not suicidal." She averted her eyes from Haruna. "I mean, I’ve never met someone who didn’t like cute girls. Is liking cute girls weird?"

"N-No! Or, uh, kinda? Maybe? I think it depends on who you ask? Like its not weird to like cute girls because they’re cute, but its a little weirder to like, want to date and kiss them and stuff, I think, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it," she babbled in a panic. "But some people do? I think? I know Grandpa got mad when someone brought up himejoshi that one time. I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a boy I would think about kissing but-" She nearly bit her tongue cutting herself off, trailing off into a sort of strangled sound instead of whatever she was about to admit to.

The delinquent’s stern, judgemental, unimpressed eyes bored into Haruna. "Riiiiiight…." She went to smoke her cigarette, only to realize she crushed it out. "Well, I didn’t mean anything by it." She tried to stretch out the tiny crumpled stub. "This isn’t a prank or something, right? Tsubomi is really feeling that way?"

"I wouldn’t joke about something this serious," Haruna said as she shook her head. "I know I got a little, um, flustered there for a second, but that’s just because Willow was messing with me like ten minutes ago. I’m really worried about Tsubomi and I really wish I knew how to help."

"It’s fine." Suki eventually gave up and shoved the cigarette butt into her pocket. "We’ll talk to her and figure everything out tonight." Suki hung her head. "It’s all we can do I guess."

Haruna put a hand on her shoulder, this time with more confidence. It caused the delinquent to jump a little. "We’ll find a way, I promise. Optimism is for light girls, I know, so I’ll just have to be three times as hopeful to compensate."

"T-Thanks Haruna." The corners of Suki’s lips twitched into a smile.

"Make that four times as hopeful." Another hand fell on Suki’s other shoulder, which made her jump again. "I’ll keep my distance, but know that I’m rooting for you from the shadows." An untransformed Willow winked.

Suki looked between the two girls. "How long have you been there?"

"Not too long." She tucked her hands into her pockets. "But stay focused! You guys are probably going to want to exchange phone numbers, right?"

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Suki pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Haruna pulled her own phone out as well, trying not to be too obvious with her incredibly mixed feelings about Willow's presence. "How did you get here so fast, anyway? I didn't think anyone in the club except Rei moved faster in a straight line than me."

"What can I say?" Willow stretched, and then proceeded to say nothing. "Oh! Suki, did you get any candy?"

"Eh?" Suki was halfway done programming in Haruna’s number. "Oh, not this time."

"Ah well." Willow patted her shoulder before walking off. "Why don’t we move band practice to tomorrow. It’ll give you time to sort things out, right?"

"Sure does!" Willow was almost out of sight when she turned around and looked at the two. She smiled, shook her head, and then fully departed. Maybe. Suki kept staring at where she had been before her eyebrows perked up. "Oh!" She turned back to Haruna. "So the going out with Tsubomi thing, Bast had the same idea?"

"H-Huh? No, she just called me a ‘tuna muncher’ for other reasons. She tried to get me to kiss her as revenge for messing up her plans and it came up." Haruna made a face at the prospect.

"Oh." Suki rubbed her cheek. "Yea, she acts like that sometimes. But I think she’s just trying to be funny. She’s offered to kiss me a few times, but insists that I be transformed when it happens." After a moment of silence that was just long enough to be awkward, Suki wiggled her phone before putting it away. "I’ll call you later." She sighed.

"Yeah, I’ll see you then. Assuming I don’t get sucked into another ridiculous pileup of magical girls who all want me to fight each other, or something." She let out a laugh, but it sounded a little hollow. "Hope everything goes well in the meantime."

---

Once again, Rei had called a meeting with left and right hand girls respectively. Unlike the previous meeting, Rei, Roche, and Kiyo would be joined by the mysterious Nocnitsa. The four of them were seated around the center table, which still had some clippings Suki had used to construct Ash Bringer several months back.

"Seems they finally made their move." Rei was so aloof, she could have been mistaken for Kiyo if she had longer and different colored hair. She was reclining in her seat with her head propped up on her fist, and made absolutely no attempt to seem like she wanted to be there, despite being the one to call the meeting. "Nocnitsa told me everything. What I want to hear are your opinions."

Kiyo, by contrast, lacked her characteristic aloofness. What had stolen its place was a certain dreadful expectation, like that of an honor student who had failed bracing for their chastisement while trying to remain placid. Squatting at the foot of its ill-gotten throne was a blood-boiling rage that always threatened to emerge from beneath its shadow if not contained. Like a previously-dormant volcano set to erupt at a random time in the not-too-distant future, a certain kind of tension had risen the floor of her emotions, a trembling anxiety of the sort that typically only the intuition of animals or the precision of scientific instruments could detect.

"One of them has a power that manipulates the heart, and she seemed to take an interest in Tsubomi. I don't think they targeted her because she was vulnerable. They came in such force that a precautionary measure like that wouldn't be necessary."

"We can’t be certain of that. They launched a four pronged attack on this city. Morganite and Pearl came directly to the club room and fully planned to take one of us out. That Archer was covering most of the city from so far away they had to have some way to stay in contact remotely. Diamond abducted Tsubomi and led the rest of the club on her own, while that lightning girl was wrecking Miseria on her own."

"The only thing we can be clear on is that they cased us before attacking and planned it out with ruthless efficiency. At this point I’d assume they know our civilian identities and were we live as well." Roche bit the words out with a simmering anger. Where Kiyo was the volcano soon to erupt, Earthshaker wasn’t far behind, only curtailed by Rei’s presence serving as a threat to keep them composed.

"We might have won if we’d fought them together, but it still would have been a fight on their terms. Every time we meet some other Magical Girl, they’re always choosing the time and place while we react. Eventually we’re going to stop being lucky and start paying for letting the other girl throw the first punch here. Not that we can even consider going to the City of Light…"

Rei nodded along as they spoke. "Interesting observations." She sat up a little straighter. "But speculation does not solve the issue. I was more interested in what you thought of the new team arrangements." Rei tapped her finger on the counter. "It did not seem like making the teams larger increased their effectiveness."

Denied absolution by Roche's words, Kiyo's posture retreated slightly deeper into the back of her chair. Perhaps she was right, and the intensity of their coordinated attack on Tsubomi really was just a shallow attempt to 'teach the dark girls a lesson.' Perhaps she was projecting her own scientific curiosity onto a bunch of power-mad fools. It would certainly explain why their own token scientist figure seemed to be keeping her distance from them.

"It's a bit early to dismiss the idea. I think the teams were effective insofar as they were able to stay together. Our priorities were, perhaps purposefully, divided. If we had been operating in pairs, the outcome might have been worse—and I still believe my own team is the weakest of the three by a wide margin. A slight re-arrangement might suffice."

Speaking of the team wasn't pleasant, especially when Roche had been so uninvolved with Tsubomi’s kidnapping, but it was one area that Roche could meet Rei’s gaze without wavering in the least. "Without the teams I could have died. Shatterscape threw me out of the way of Pearl’s laser when I was closing on Morganite. We definitely applied more pressure as a trio then as a pair in pursuing them afterwards."

"The teams are a good idea, but we were naive in thinking we could coordinate as trios so quickly. Worse still, our teams thought we could divide and conquer because this is our city, but the Light Girls were coordinating between pairings. That was the deciding factor. Even when apart, they had support who could fire outside of Kiyo’s detection, and they had Morganite’s speed to engage us while Boilite and Diamond drew attention."

That was what rubbed at the Rule Keeper so harshly, because she knew better than most just how hard it was to train that degree of cooperation and trust into a group known for being so individualistic and stubborn.

Rei’s eyes settled on Roche, perhaps a bit too long, before looking between both girls. "Yes. It may just take time for the teams to acclimate. The GEMs have been doing this for a while. Their formations are solid." She looked to Kiyo. "I had hoped Oros would be able to make use of your talents, but she doesn’t work well with others. The only reason we put her on a team with Acid Drop was to mitigate the harm she could do to the Club, as she is immune to her. Endless Ecstasy was never the most effective." She shrugged. "But Acid Drop has become a full time liability. You are correct that your team needs to change." Rei adjusted her jacket with a tug before leaning in. "We could put you on another team but that’s still too much liability for one person to handle. Oros’s training wheels need to come off." Rei looked between both girls again. "How should we rearrange them?" Rei always had her own ideas, but it seemed she wanted to see if her ambassadors could figure out a solution.

Kiyo went through the options. All of the teams needed both muscle and leadership. She, Rei, and Roche needed to be on different teams. Suki would object to losing Tsubomi, and even if there was a chance Suki had soured on her, she would probably still prefer her to be being under Rei or Roche's leadership. Nyxia wouldn't want to be under anyone else, either. Shatterscape would probably rather not be moved, but would go along with it if she had to. Nobody wanted Willow, and Shatterscape wasn't compatible with Hizuki. Moving Hizuki to her own team would resolve the muscle issue, but if they formed a quartet, Willow would whine that Evil Eye had conspired to isolate her—never mind the relentless teasing that would flood her DMs.

As if in sync with her thoughts, her phone vibrated. When Kiyo's phone vibrated, it was almost always the group chat. Given that the other two's phones hadn't done the same, it was certainly a private message. For now, she tried to ignore it. "If the goal is to take the training wheels off, why not swap me and Hizuki and let Oros lead the team? And if my 'talent' is in keeping watch over everyone, me and Willow can do that from anywhere. Having me and her, both fliers together, and Hizuki and Oros, both speedsters together, Shatterscape with her multiple bodies around Hibusa and Nyxia's ability to launch herself and Earthshaker across the town, we maximize our ability to mobilize in unison and respond to these kinds of multiple-front attacks without drifting apart. It'll be more natural for the teams to stick together if they not only have personalities that mesh well, but also travel in similar fashion, and at similar speeds."

Rei raised an eyebrow. "I still question the effectiveness of Endless Entropy. But it’s a good strategy, isn’t it?" She smiled and looked between both magical girls. "Instead of balancing the teams, give them each a specialty they can lean into. What do you think, Roche?"

"I can’t believe I’m saying this, but letting Oros lead might be our best option." Roche exhaled and settled forwards, hands clasped under her chin as she considered Kiyo’s proposal. "She won’t work on a team with me, and if we put her with Willow…."

The less said the better. With Tsubomi becoming a vulnerability they couldn’t leave her with Suki either. "If she has her own team she may even grow into the role. It’ll let the rest of us focus on specializing. If we play to our strengths and get comfortable enough to integrate with other teams, this might just be the edge we need to close the gap in our response. Good thinking, Kiyo."

"It’s interesting enough to try." Rei smiled. "Very well, Evil Eye will join Shinimori and Hisuki will be moved to Endless Ecstasy." She looked at a clock on the wall and then back at her ambassadors. "Was there anything else that needed to be discussed?"

Kiyo felt that replacing herself with Hizuki would balance Oros's team better, but she decided to keep that to herself. A part of her had hoped Roche might counter with a better idea, but similarly to her, it was the only option she could really think of, and making an unappealing but workable option sound like the best course of action for everyone was a skill all leaders must develop to some degree. She chose to accept the cold comfort that she had come up with the best arrangement they could make, and swallow the pill that she would now be working directly with Willow, and all that entailed. You're doing it again, she counseled herself, a little too late.

With that task filed away, she took the opportunity to check her message. Funnily enough, it was Hizuki. Perhaps I can start laying the groundwork for those two to work together. Kiyo typed a quick response, and then her eyes entered that unfocused state they did when she looked through the eyes of her Mogall. Still, she continued typing while blind to her screen. "Do we know what's happening to Tsubomi?" She replied to Rei's question while asking Hizuki another.

"I had hoped that she would come out of it, but that clearly isn’t working. Looking her over is something on Nocnitsa’s to-do list." Rei pointed at the woman with her entire hand.

"I had been hoping to get a gander at her mind back when we first met face-to-face, but she immediately left with Miss Oyama…" Nocnista sighed. "Not sure if my magic will be any effective in mending whatever’s wrong, I’m not exactly a healer either, but at the very least I should be able to see what’s wrong."

"Either way she’s vulnerable and the GEMS know it. Even if they changed targets from Mascots to Magical Girls between attacks, we can’t hope they’ll ignore an easy target. Especially one we’ve already proven we’re willing to follow blind to recover."

The Rule Keeper kept finding new reasons to sigh, wondering when the world was flipped on its head so completely. "Here we are, Dark Magical girls defending the defenseless from roving packs of marauding Light Girls. Yare yare daze…."

"So that's it. They were going to use their 'happy daze' to interrogate her on where our mascot is hiding out," Kiyo decided. "I have seen it hanging around her from time to time," she mused.

"It usually hangs around the club, which they were able to find." Rei lifted an eyebrow. "But if the Mascot is the target, then why did they hit everything but the cat? Acid Drop and Shatterscape had been attacked previously. Like you, I thought that was to uncover the location of the mascot. But now I’m not so sure."

"Either they changed targets because Tsubomi was too tempting, or they didn’t have enough numbers to spread their attention on two dedicated objectives. If Pearl and Marganite had gone for the Mascot, that archer of theirs would have had a hard time covering them both against dedicated efforts."

"Whatever their objective, they know where we are, and they came with enough numbers to effectively declare war. So if they put one toe back into the city limits, I have no reason not to give them an army to fight, do I?" Kiyo inquired.

"It would be wise to avoid further escalation if we can. Things should have never gotten to this point." Rei groaned. "Working with incomplete information is such a drag. Worrying about the GEMs is such a drag." She stretched her arms. "Not having our domain secured by mogall is a drag. Think you have a handle on the ape problem?"

Kiyo thought they were past the point of hoping for de-escalation, but she bit her tongue again. Her chair offered no more give for retreat. "We confirmed who is responsible. I hope to recruit them, but they will be dealt with one way or another."

Roche’s eye slid to Kiyo before she settled back in her chair with a nod to the other pillar of the club. "Want help with that? Nyxia may not care since they aren’t Miseria, but I can convince her to help."

The question warranted Kiyo lowering her phone slightly. It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "You must know that she despises me more than anyone." She sent one more text before putting it away. "Unless she's had a sudden change of heart or spark of genius, she's just going to make convincing the girl we're a group worth joining more difficult."

"Sounds like you have it covered." Rei turned to Roche. "If that’s all, I’d like a moment with Kiyo."

Kiyo seemed somehow both surprised and not. Already, she regretted putting away the only barrier between her and Rei's gaze.

The Rulekeeper wasn’t going to disagree but she imagined if the needs must, then she could convince Kiyo of the merits of target practise against agile apes if this new girl forced the matter.Rei seemed intent on a moment of privacy so she made her excuses and pushed away from the table.

"Text me if anything comes up. I’m gonna do my own digging around Miso and see if anything comes up. Till next time." Roche said, departing with a hand raised before slipping out the door.

Rei watched her disappear through the door frame and waited for the door to close all the way. She sighed before leaning away from the table. "Defending Hibusa town with an army of terrors would be interesting." She waved for Nocnista to check the door, but Roche always shut it all the way. "The problem is Roche. Surely you’ve noticed that she’s been a bit agitated recently? I had Nocnista watching over the club when the GEMs attacked it, and she heard her say she ‘felt like breaking a few rules tonight.’ It was likely a figure of speech, but given that she said it to Nyxia, I'm inclined to believe she meant it more literally than not." She propped up her head with the back of her hand. "Do you know why those rules exist?"

Kiyo blinked in surprise, considering Rei's question as well as her accusation. From where she was sitting, everyone was a little more agitated than usual recently—with the exception of the new blood, Hizuki, who had no point of prior reference, the usual suspect, Willow, who never seemed to take anything seriously, and Tsubomi, who allegedly had no emotions—but even she had voiced a concern over the numbers not being in their favor. "No killing aside from the miseria, to keep the light girls out of our territory, and no exposing ourselves to the non-magic world, to keep any other interests, powers or organizations from involving themselves. There may be other reasons, but I think those should be self-evident," Kiyo replied. She did suspect, on some level, that Rei's Detention Club was allowed to exist in part because some light girls with a lot of influence in the nearby City of Light had agreed to allow it, so long as she was the one watching over it. The GEMs' recent display of power only gave her theory more weight, but she dared not suggest it openly.

"That’s what I tell most people when they ask." Rei picked her head back up. "And it’s not too far off. There’s another good reason why we don’t kill people though. It changes you." Her hands came together in front of her face. "Not immediately, but a gradual transformation takes place. Some people last a month, others turn in a week, but it happens. You turn into a special kind of miseria called a demon. I’ve only had to fight one and it was stronger than the giga miseria we battled the other night. I thought it was a rumor until I watched it happen to someone else." Her fingers locked together. "It was a mundane human that was killed, granted. Maybe it won’t happen if you kill a light girl, maybe it will but the transformation is slower. I wouldn’t risk it though."

Kiyo's mind raced in several directions. If she continued to cultivate negative emotion, was this what waited at the bottom of that well? If nothing useful could come from turning into a demon, why was Rei keeping it a secret instead of warning others? Why was she telling her this now? Was 'Demon of Hibusa' a figurative title or a literal one? "You're telling me Roche knows better," Kiyo decided. "I can watch her, but I'm curious why the others are being kept in the dark about this. Is there some reason why someone would want to become a miseria? Is Ashbringer a demon? Her destruction was awfully reckless." Now that she thought about it, this could be the real reason Rei was so angry about the beach incident, too.

Rei lifted a hand in an attempt to get Kiyo to slow down with the questions. "Explaining things is such a drag." She lowered her hand. "Roche is my rule keeper. No one should be opposing the rules. Guess part of me figured everyone slept easier not knowing the consequences. Don’t think most would set out to be a demon. Maybe out of spite, or extreme despair, one might turn to becoming a demon as a final act of revenge." She let silence hang in the air for a moment before commenting on Ashbringer. "She’s not a demon. I got a sense for her mana when I approached her and she’s too weak."

Rei's silence was deafening. She said she had seen it happen before, after all. There was little use probing further on the matter. "Since you're telling me this now, are you reconsidering? I can watch Roche, and call you if she engages a light girl, but I can't hear what she says, or stop her—not remotely. If I were there with her, maybe. A hard maybe. If more than one of the others are feeling murderous too, not likely." She seemed to be running calculations in her mind.

"I’m telling you this because my rule keeper is slipping, and she’s doing it on purpose." Rei folded her arms. "You need to be aware of what’s at stake. She is bothered by something, and I believe you have the best chance of figuring it out. If we’re going to wage war with the GEMs, we need to be in our best condition. Roche is not her best right now."

So, they were on the same page regarding the GEMs. Kiyo resisted the urge to smile. "She's an emotional pack-rat. Always looking for more burdens to carry. Even that trip to the beach was an attempt at getting the club girls to get along—it might've even worked if things didn't go awry, but I'll bet she planned and organized and paid for the whole thing herself. On the surface, she's keeping it together, but up here, she's like a single mom with eight kids." She prodded her temple to make the point. "I told her as much. I see a bit of that in Hizuki as well—that's why I volunteered to take her under my wing. Roche doesn't need a disciple, she needs an intervention, but she seems determined not to get it. I feel like we could organize a whole 'Roche appreciation party' and she'd just spend the whole day worried that she's not having enough fun for our sakes." Kiyo pinched the bridge of her nose, seeming to momentarily forget that it was Rei she was ranting to. "Ah, anyway. It's on my list. I'll think of something."

"Of course you will." Rei stood up and dusted herself off. "The goal is to return things to normal as fast as possible. We can focus on better than normal later." Once she straightened her posture, she looked out one of the windows. "It’s a nice day for a walk. We shouldn’t spend any more time here."

"Nice day for a jog," Kiyo agreed.

As was becoming her habit, Hizuki stood overlooking Hibusa from one of its taller buildings. She had a lot to think about, and even more to do. At the very least, next on the list was unlikely to result in her wanting to hit someone, run away, or cry. She rang Kiyo's number. "Hey, are you busy?"

There was a very brief pause. "Nope. Why..? Oh, the monkey girl. You found her?" Kiyo replied. There was the sound of rapid typing in the background.

"I was going to give her a call." She glanced toward the roofs where she'd first run into the girl. "Here's hoping she answers, after the whole disaster the other day. I wanted to make sure I wasn't interrupting anything important first."

"You aren't," Kiyo replied immediately and unconvincingly. "I mean, you are? But fuck this shit, I need a break." There was a sound that, in context, was probably a laptop being slammed shut. "So, where am I meeting you?"

"Honestly I half expected you to just see where I went after I gave Maliss a call and show up. There's a toy store I saw earlier, I was going to suggest that as a meeting point. You doing alright, by the way?"

"It's quicker to just ask. I can't see the whole town at once. I'm not Beelzebub. Though I'm sure Miss Frogger told you I was," came Kiyo's reply, among other noises. "I'm fine. I just need to be presentable. Make the call, I'll show up in a few minutes."

"Okay. Just let me know if you need anything." Hizuki hung up, then dialed in Miss Gate’s number. Please pick up, she thought. It’d drive her a little crazy if she didn’t, since it wouldn’t be clear whether it was the odd girl’s issues with phones or an avoidance of Hizuki after the earlier kidnapping attempt.

The phone rang a few times, but to her surprise, she picked up. "Paladin?" Black Gate’s voice was cautious. "I charged my phone." She stated the obvious.

"Oh, good, I thought you might not answer after what happened."

"I’m okay. I heal quick."

"That meeting I mentioned, I still want to set it up, if you’re willing." Her voice was hopeful, if anxious.

"It’s just going to be you and the other one, right?" Black Gate huffed, but it was hard to tell if it was her being apprehensive, or a quirk of her lackadaisical nature. "Please tell me it’s just going to be you two, and nowhere near the school."

"Unless someone follows me and I don't pick up on them, it'll just be you, me, and Evil Eye." She paused for a moment to examine her surroundings with her magical senses, looking for traces of magic or anyone who seemed to want to know what she was doing. "There's a toy store in town, I was thinking around there?"

"Construct-A-Cat? Okay, that could work." Haruna could almost feel her smile on the other side. "I had been meaning to free more helpers to assist with our mission. I’ll meet you there shortly. Bye-bye."

"See you." She quietly cheered to herself; not only had Black Gate accepted, but she liked the spot Hizuki had chosen specifically for her comfort. She texted Kiyo that the meeting was on before gliding over to the store, letting her pseudo-aerodynamics do most of the work of getting her there.

It was about then that Hizuki could feel a magical presence approaching, flying low and close to the rooftops, at Evil Eye's signature speed—or lack thereof, to be more precise. Soon, she was in view, her eyes showing the telltale signs of someone seeing the sun for the first time today.

The light girl banked toward Evil Eye, turning and losing speed until she was more or less alongside Kiyo. "I know I asked already, but how are you doing? In all that chaos I lost track of what was going on before Nocnitsa showed up."

A desire flared up within Evil Eye: a desire to maintain her image. It rose from the mire of her emotions with such sudden ferocity, like a crocodile snapping its jaws, that it might have been mistaken for the base instinct of self-preservation. "All's well that ends well. If I look a bit tired, I've just been working on an alternative, in case this girl doesn't want to cooperate with us."

Hizuki couldn't keep the look of concern that arose before Evil Eye even said anything from creasing her brow. "What kind of alternative, exactly?" She'd play along for the moment; from what she'd seen of the club, it made sense to worry about one's image. There was a lot of posturing both internal and external happening there.

Evil Eye studied Hizuki, but seemed to dismiss her concern as nothing out of the ordinary. "If she won't stop her minions from killing the Mogall, I need another way to watch over the town." She smirked. "What did you think I was working on? Some way to force her to do my bidding?"

"I was just worried you might be planning to try and run her out of town or something. That doesn't really seem like your style, but I've only known you for a couple weeks." She shrugged, or at least the closest approximation she could manage while oriented horizontally. "Seems like that's what a lot of the others would do, especially if it turns out she's working with the GEMs."

"Well, I would run the GEMs out of town." She scowled. "But a dark girl, I'd rather not. There aren't too many places where we can go. Working with the GEMs seems out of the question, too."

"Seems unlikely, yeah," Hizuki said with a nod. She was quiet for a moment, mulling over something in her head. "What's this beach incident I keep hearing about, by the way? Every other light girl I've talked to seems to know about it."

There was a shift. Another desire, that of protecting the Club, joined the former. The two settled uneasily together, like two apex predators using the same watering hole—a temporary truce. "I wasn't there. Our girls fought a giga miseria on a beach. Nobody was hurt, but the beach was destroyed. GEMs showed up conveniently after the fact and blamed them for it. Maybe they did share some fault, but instead of helping slay it, they let it weaken us, and then struck opportunistically. They only fled because Shatterscape showed up unexpectedly, giving us the advantage. Clearly, they still haven't gotten over it."

"A miseria like that showed up in broad daylight?" She sounded horrified at the prospect. "It's a miracle nobody died. And you said the GEMs blame the club for it showing up? Why?"

"They're weaker when they show up during the day," Evil Eye quickly added. "I haven't asked for more details. It's one of those 'I don't care who started it' situations." She did her best impression of an annoying parent. "Rei's just mad that it happened at all, which is stressing Roche out, because the beach trip was her idea of bringing the Club together. And now Rei is mad that Roche is stressing out, so it's become my problem to solve, but I don't know where to begin." She sighed. "You can't just charge in and offer help directly, because she won't take it easy at all. She'll just add to the workload to account for the extra help. She's that kind of person."

Hizuki very carefully did a mental triple flip to avoid thinking about how any of that might also describe her. "The Club doesn't seem very good at accepting help in general. Not that I'm about to let that stop me." She also thought back to her interaction with Shuuko. That's different, I don't have all these problems to deal with. "I just have to be patient, I guess." Her tone indicated that she was well aware this wasn't her strong suit. "I think I've managed to convince Suki I'm not lying about everything again, at least."

At her declaration that she wouldn't stop trying, Evil Eye had one of those rare, non-sinister smiles. "Mm. Suki can be a bit... hypervigilant, I think is the word for it." For a moment, it seemed as if Evil Eye was feeling regretful about something. "You'll be working with her more, now. We're swapping. I'll be with Willow. You'll be with her and Tsubomi."

"Oh. That makes some stuff easier, I think. I'm going to be around those two a lot anyway." She tried, and failed, to not look too relieved at being spared a double dose of Willow's taunts. "Any particular reason? Is Willow secretly still mad at me or something?" The catgirl didn't seem the type to actually hold a grudge like that, by her admittedly limited read.

Evil Eye shook her head. "Executive decision. Willow had no say in it. If she even knows about it, it'll be because Rei told her yesterday." She lowered herself and alighted on the pavement. Hizuki touched down a moment later, her own landing taking slightly more maneuvering. "Huh," she opined, taking in the sight of the toy store, reaching toward her nose to adjust a pair of glasses that didn't exist. Cute.

Hizuki glanced around their surroundings, looking for the goat girl or any of her minions. This included peering into a nearby bush, in case she'd decided to replicate one of her earlier stunts. "It seemed like decent neutral ground that she would like," Haruna said, in response to Kiyo's non-question. "Mal-um, Miss Black can be a little odd, but she's nice enough."

Speak of the devil and she shall appear. Down in the streets below was said goat girl. She had an arm around a large stuffed bear and a thumb in her mouth. Her eyes searched the area for someone, but didn’t seem to notice Hizuki or Evil Eye. At least, not right away. But once she got in front of the Construct-A-Cat, she turned to the two magical girls. She did not remove her thumb from her mouth.

Moments later, a few stunted monkeys showed up beside her and began screeching and beating their chests. One of them pointed at the mogall in the sky, but none of them moved in to attack.

Hizuki gave her a wave. "Hey, Miss Black." She gestured toward Kiyo. "This is Evil Eye. Evil Eye, this is Black Gate." She pointed in the opposite direction.

"Good day," Evil Eye greeted politely. She looked up to where the monkeys pointed, blinked slowly, and the Mogall retreated behind the edge of the rooftops they watched from. Glancing back down to Black Gate, Evil Eye smiled. She had expected the leader of the monkey minions to be a bit... wilder. This was a pleasant surprise.

The mogall’s retreat seemed to be cause for celebration, as the apes were hopping into the air. Some even spun once or twice during their jump. Black Gate looked between Hizuki and Evil Eye before walking closer. Her feet scuffed across the pavement until she was right next to her. Then she pulled her thumb out of her mouth and wiped it on her dress. "Hi." She hugged the bear with both arms. "Hizuki says you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes. I supervise the Detention Club." With Nocnitsa in town, she supposed she shouldn't give herself the title of supervisor, just in case she was watching. "I came to tell you that we're not your enemies. I was also hoping to invite you to join us last time, but we were attacked by the GEMs. What Willow—the violinist girl—did was not permitted. She did it behind my back—though it should've been my job to stop her, I urgently needed to save someone else. I'm sorry."

"Thanks for trying." Her eyes were half closed. She used her wrist to rub them, which just made them look more bloodshot. "I don’t know if I can though. I don’t really like that school. That’s where the club is, right?"

"I see," Evil Eye replied with a small sigh. "We do have a member who doesn't 'attend' the school, per se. I don't think you would have to change schools if you didn't want to. But if you don't want to join, we won't push you to." She looked at the stuffed bear, then back at Black Gate. "But it is my job to look after the dark girls of Hibusa town. It is a bit distressing when I wake up each day to find half of my eyes turned to paste. They're not dangerous, and they help me keep our town safe. If you leave them alone, they might even help you someday. And I do need them left alone." Her voice was more exasperated than stern.

Her eyes opened a bit wider. Only a bit. "Okay, we can discuss a truce. They seem a lot friendlier than the caustic bovine the cat sent after me." She held the stuffed bear up to Evil Eye’s face. "Do you like Hoover? It’s okay if you want to touch him. He likes having his ears played with. He’s old, but very durable."

"Caustic... bovine?" Evil Eye seemed to be calculating something in her mind, like what on earth the strategic value proposition of such a creature was. Or maybe she was just surprised to hear the childish-looking girl speak big words while shoving a teddy bear into her face. It was hard to say. She glanced at Hizuki, as if to seek either approval or mockery, but her gaze didn't linger long. She decided to give the bear a headpat. "Good day, Hoover." Ear scritches were had as well. "Is he also a creation of yours?"

"I don’t think Miss Black created her servants?" Hizuki said, half answering Evil Eye, half asking Black Gate herself.

She moved Hoover just far enough out of the way that she could look past his head at Kiyo. "Yes, my servants are like friends. You can make friends, but you can’t create them." The bear’s head tipped. "Quite the charmer today, Hoover." She lowered Hoover under her chin. "Hoover likes you. He says your hands are very soft." She pet the bear’s head. "No, Hoover. I’m not trying to get a compliment out of you. Don’t be weird." With her servant addressed, the horned girl looked back at her apes. "We have been having difficulty distributing my servants. I would like to get one in every home in Hibusa town. Maybe even hide some in the school. If you wanted to help with that, I think we could be friends." Her eyelids fluttered a bit. "Maybe we could do some club activities outside the school too, if you’d like."

"You're right. You can't create friends," Evil Eye replied thoughtfully, her gaze seeming a bit far off. So then, her magic probably animates preexisting objects. Perhaps a toy store wasn't such a neutral ground after all. Briefly, she held a desire to give Miss Black a headpat, too, but she forced it back with a smile. "Our leader may object to the idea of them attending our club meetings, but if you just want us to hand them out to students around the school, I think we can do that. It's a fair trade. We can watch over the town together."

"I’ve actually already been doing that," Hizuki chimed in. "I had the box of plushies with me the first time I talked to the club in school. Suki took one."

"You’ve been doing well, Hizuki." Black gate turned to face the light girl. "If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t have this connection now. So thank you." She gave a small bow before turning back to Evil Eye. "They don’t have to be in the club room, I just want everybody to have one." Her eyes shifted side to side. "So what do we do now? Do we sign a contract? Maybe a ceremony of some kind." After some thinking, she held out Hoover again. "Maybe you could take Hoover as a sign of trust from both of us? He’s my second oldest servant."

"Ceremony..." Evil Eye murmured, laughing it off with a nervous giggle that she had hoped would sound cool. When she had the advantage of knowing ahead of time, sure, she liked to welcome a new girl to the club with a touch of flair—a memorable first meeting—but nobody was supposed to know that she did that. "Is it really okay for me to take him? I don't have anything special to give you." She looked up at the toy store's facade as if it would have the answers. Incidentally, absentmindedly looking up did give her an idea, for once. "Let's do it. The construct-a-cat thing. I like cats, so I'll give you a cat."

"That sounds fun! We could all build one together. Although, I guess if it’s supposed to be from Evil Eye, it would make more sense for her to make one herself." She thought for a moment. "We could all three make our own and trade them around? I’ve gotten plushies from Miss Gate, and Miss Gate is getting one from Evil Eye now, so maybe I should make one for Evil Eye and. . . well, I don’t actually know who Miss Gate should give one to, since she’s already given both of us plushies." She glanced toward the girl in question. "Maybe you should just make another one for yourself?"

Black Gate’s arms seemed to get weaker. "Oh?" She looked between the two magical girls, and despite it being late out, her eyes began to sparkle in the limited light. "You want to make cat servants, and then exchange them?" She looked away from them. After standing there for a moment, she took a few steps and kneeled on the ground with her bear. "Sorry Hoover. You were really charming, but they have another idea. It’s okay, I’m sure you’ll see her again. Maybe she can take you home later." She stood up, and one of the apes picked up Hoover. It hugged it close and continued to do its spinning celebratory jump. While Black Gate looked just as glum as she normally did, she was a lot faster to return to the group. "I like that idea." She folded her arms behind her back. "Lead the way."

Hizuki walked over to the alley between the store and the adjacent building, then transformed back into Haruna. She looked at the other two expectantly. "I can pay, by the way, if that would be trouble for you guys."

It seemed as if Black Gate had misunderstood something about Evil Eye's intentions, but she decided not to correct her. She didn't really have the space to accommodate Hoover in a way where he wouldn't be watching her sleep, anyway, and if her gift's intended recipient wanted to include Hizuki, she didn't really have a reason to refuse. "'I can pay,' said she, blissfully unaware of the price-gouging world of custom-made plushies..." Kiyo narrated dramatically. Still, she followed suit and untransformed in the alley.

"Won’t it be cheaper if we stay transformed?" The horned girl wondered out loud. "I think they’re expensive." She added, as if reading Evil Eye’s mind.

"Well. . . yes, it would, I guess" Haruna began, "but it wouldn’t really be the right thing to just take it. Plus, wouldn’t it be weird if someone saw plushies just floating around?"

Black Gate tipped her head. "Hmmm?" She tipped her head the other way. "You mean like, if it was caught on security footage?" She thought about it for two seconds. "We could break into the back. That’s probably where the security footage is stored. If we don’t find anything we can just destroy the cameras. I don’t think a lot of people will see us at this hour. It would be more weird for three girls to enter a Construct-A-Cat when they should be at school."

Haruna tapped her foot, trying to figure out how to convince these two to not abuse their powers. "I mean, sure, but why would we steal if we don’t have to? Like I said, I can just pay for it, it really won’t be any trouble," she insisted. "And I think I would feel bad about just having a stolen plushie around."

"I’d feel bad if you had to buy my gift for you." She pouted. "But I have no money."

Kiyo looked between the two girls, thinking. Her desire seemed to be to find a compromise. "I mean, logistically speaking, stealing from this place would be kind of a nightmare anyway, wouldn't it? We'd have to figure out how to use everything. Much easier to just let the employees do it." She seemed to settle on agreeing with Hizuki, even if it wasn't necessarily on the right principles. "If Hizuki says she's paying, that makes us even. Since this was my idea, she's doing me a favor, so I'll make it up to her later."

"The gift is the thought you put into making the cat, not the money the cat costs," Haruna offered, in an attempt to placate Michi. "Besides, I feel like I owe you a little for the whole Will-o-wisp thing."

Michi pondered on their words. She looked at the floor to gather her thoughts, and nodded once. Then the goat girl took her time walking behind the side of the building and emerged in her normal form. Even though this was Haruna’s second time seeing her like this, it was rather strange how much more mature the girl looked when untransformed. "I understand now." She said while approaching Kiyo. "We pay this time, understand how it all works, and then we can get more later at a discount." She turned back towards Haruna. "But those would not be for you, because that would defeat the purpose." She almost smiled, then pushed open the double doors and stepped inside. She held one of them open for her friends.

The light girl suppressed a frustrated sigh. Baby steps, Haruna. She couldn’t force them to conform to her standards overnight. That wouldn’t stop the promise of future theft from bothering her, though, something she couldn’t quite keep off her face. Haruna did her best to push a smile to the forefront as she walked into the building, trying to focus on the entertainment of the event and bonding with new friends over her long-term moral concerns.

Kiyo put a hand to her mouth, hiding her smirk. She must have given Suki a good scolding for shoplifting, she decided as she entered the double doors.

Once everyone was inside, Michi let go of the door.

"Oh! I got an idea." She almost sounded like a normal person. "Maybe, we should come in here two at a time." She pointed between the two detention girls. "Because then you could ask Haruna stuff about me when you make my cat, and then I could ask you stuff about Haruna, and then Haruna could ask me stuff about you. Though I probably wouldn’t be able to help that much…"

Kiyo considered. "That should work. You first then, Haruna," she decided on the spot.

She blinked. "Oh, okay." Haruna had been puzzling through how to get a reasonable rotation going when she was the only one who knew both Black Gate and Evil Eye. "Well, I hope I don’t disappoint." As she moved up to begin the process, she looked back at Kiyo, straining to get a sense of what she might actually want in a custom-made stuffed cat. Not that she expected to get a reading that specific, especially when Kiyo was probably more curious about the other dark girl than anything else.

Kiyo was a girl of contradictions, Hizuki found. While she kept herself cool and level-headed on the surface, the scope of her desires was like a murky bog teeming with hidden life. There were, as ever, the two titans sharing uneasy space together. The desire to maintain appearances demanded Kiyo dress and act like a rebellious girl—as though such were not her natural inclination, and she needed to be reminded to do it. Beneath its shadow were subordinates: the desire to maintain control, which had Kiyo immediately place herself at the back of the line, with Hizuki in front, quickly retreated from whence it came. At its side lurked the desires to make a good first impression, and to recruit more members to the club. Nothing unusual there, but not what Haruna was looking for.

Then, something else stirred. Anticipation—both of receiving a gift from Haruna, and of getting a glimpse into what this new girl thought she was like—rose up from the deep. Then, as if it had been promptly smacked by someone in a canoe wielding an oar, it then retreated into the mire. Had it been judged too selfish a thing? No, it couldn't possibly have been, could it? Her desire had placed no certain expectations on what she would receive—it would have been satisfied to simply receive at all. Why, then, had it been battered, as if it were an unwanted thing?

At some point during Haruna's glimpse into Kiyo's desires, their eyes had met, and Kiyo seemed to be the first to notice. She looked away, glancing at Michi. "Just tell her what you think. Don't worry about whether it's right."

Haruna had broken off at the same time Kiyo did, rubbing at her eyes as she turned back to the task at hand. That had been incredibly clear and detailed (even if she hadn’t figured out what Kiyo would like), moreso than Haruna had gotten on, well, anyone. It was a little overwhelming, and it showed in her slightly dazed expression.

"Oh okay." Michi took Haruna by the wrist, delicately holding her with her thumb and point finger. Then she walked some distance away before stopping in front of some machines. Kiyo was still in sight, but looking away and probably out of ear shot. "Um, I don’t really know her, she’s right." She sighed. "This is the first time I’ve met her. I’m sorry." Michi lowered her head.

"That’s okay. You’ve seen how she acts a little, and you’ve also seen her eyes and stuff, so just, you know, give your impressions. Don’t worry too much about it," Haruna said, attempting to be encouraging. "At the very least, if you say something that sounds wrong, then I’ll know to do something else when I wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise."

"Okay." Michi turned around to look at Kiyo one last time, then turned back to Haruna. "She does have a lot of eyes looking around, but I don’t know. I don’t think anyone likes to be typecast. I think I’d avoid giving the cat more than two eyes." She scratched her chin. "I um, think, she liked red and black. They wear a lot of red and black in both forms." She tapped her foot. "And…she seems cool. I think this cat, it needs to be cool too."

"Well, black cats are a classic, so I guess we’ll start with that as a base. And it should look all cool and mysterious." She started perusing the available cats, looking over all the ones with darker colorations. "I wonder. . ." Haruna picked out one of the black ones, then inspected part of it closely before putting it back down. She did this with a few before she found one with the trait she was looking for. "Aha! This one." The cat she’d chosen looked mostly like the others, but in the middle of its chest was a small white patch. "What do you think?"

The goth girl’s eyes shifted between Haruna’s selection and all the other available choices. "Why that one?"

The light girl leaned in toward Michi and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. "She acts all cool, but I think she’s kind of a softie on the inside. Don’t tell her I said that, though." Haruna gave her a small smile, then began to move toward the next station. "Do you think we should put something in it so it meows when you squeeze it?"

"It’s not a chew toy, I don’t think sounds are necessary." Michi rubbed the back of her head. "You understand this is for her, right?" She folded her arms. "Do you think she’d find it amusing if you secretly thought she was weak?"

Haruna tilted her head in confusion. "Weak?"

"You said she was secretly soft on the inside." She placed a hand on her hip in an unusual display of annoyance. "If she’s secretly soft, then she’s trying to look strong. It would be mean to poke fun at her like that, wouldn’t it?"

The light girl glanced down and to the side awkwardly. "I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that. It’s supposed to be a little bit of a poke, but do you really think she’d be that bothered?" Haruna looked a bit sad; she’d thought it was a fun little idea, and a reference to a shared secret. "I don’t want to be a bully."

Haruna was about to put the cat back when Michi placed a hand on her shoulder. "Wait." She stepped in front of the light girl. "Maybe it doesn’t have to be what she thinks is cool, so long as it’s what you think is cool."

"I do think it’s cooler if she has more to her than just what she shows." She tilted her head again in the opposite direction from before. "Or, I guess it’s not really cooler necessarily. I don’t think it's less cool for it being there, either. It just seems nice. You know?"

With a shrug, she removed her hand from Haruna’s shoulder. "You seem like you know what to do." She turned around and looked at one of the machines. "You should finish up before it gets crowded."

"Right." She started making her way toward the stuffing machine. "You’re the plushie expert, how firm do you think the cat should be?"

"They always get softer with age. I would say firmer is better." She poked a button on a machine, and it spun for a bit before stopping. "But if she’s going to do more than display it, might want to make sure it’s at least soft enough to be pleasant." She stepped away from the machine. "Then you want to think about accessories. You probably don’t need a lot. Maybe one or two that mean something. And you want something that can be stitched on, otherwise it’ll just get lost." After some hesitation, she added. "Sometimes I dress up my plushies myself, but that’s an exception."

"Right." Haruna handed the plush over to the employee managing the machine, requesting the second-highest firmness. She watched with interest as it went about its work, but seemed more eager to get to the accessorizing than continue watching it stuff random animals. "Accessories. . . what accessories are cool? Capes?"

"Capes, maybe a mask of some kind. Cat eye or opera mask maybe, for that mystery." Michi was looking at the ceiling. "Tentacles are cool too, but that feels a little on the nose. What do you think is cool?"

Haruna scratched her chin thoughtfully. "Wings are pretty cool, but they’re not very Evil Eye. Maybe. . . hmm. . . a cool red scarf? Or is that too heroic? I feel like they can kinda go either way." Her mouth twisted a bit. "Do you think a cape and a scarf is too much?"

"If you think it’s cool, it’s probably fine." the goth girl added, unhelpfully. "Those are good accessories though, as they won’t just break off." She added helpfully.

Haruna shrugged, then went to pick out the most suitable variants of each of those. She handed them and the plush to another employee, who set about attaching them to the stuffed cat. Once that was done, she turned back to Michi. "Do you think it needs anything else?"

She looked over the plushy carefully. "I’d hug him." She changed her viewing angle. "Yea, I think he’s fine. I don’t really know Kiyo, sorry I couldn’t be of more help."

"Don’t worry about it. I put you on the spot with the suggestion for us to all make plushies." She gestured toward where Kiyo was waiting. "I’ll pay for them all at once, so we should go get her now."

"Wait!" Michi grabbed a gift bag and rose it up over the plush before handing it to Haruna. "This way we can all see what we got at the same time."

"Oh, yeah, good point." She slid the plush into the bag. "I hope the others turn out well, too." Then, she navigated around what few customers there were at this time of day to reach Kiyo once more. "Alright, who’s next?"

Kiyo stood up, only leaning slightly on her cane. "That'll be Miss Black—which means it's my turn to gossip," she teased mischievously.

"I can only imagine what you’ll tell her." Haruna didn’t sound particularly afraid, saying the words with a slight grin.

"Okay." Michi waved for Kiyo to join her further down the isle. She looked back at Haruna to make sure she wasn’t peaking. "I think I know what I want to do, but I’d like to hear your input first." She folded her hands behind her back. "What do you think Haruna would like?"

Kiyo pondered, scratching her cheek. "That's a good question. You mentioned asking me about her, and I had plenty of ideas for a 'Hizuki-like' plushie, but I'm not sure that's the best approach. Maybe she'd rather have something that reminds her of you than something that resembles herself. Since she's the kind of person who's always thinking of others," she mused.

"Oh, that’s true." Michi blinked. "I was going to make a cat in pajamas, because she always looks tired."

Kiyo covered her mouth just in time to stop herself from laughing. "Pfft." But then, she looked like she was considering it. "Actually, something like that could be ideal. For the person who's always thinking of others, a gift that reminds them that someone else is thinking of them, so they should take care of themselves too. A 'take-a-break' kitty."

"I’m glad you like the idea." Said the girl that looked largely indifferent to everything. She immediately went to work getting the parts she would need. She selected a tan cat with a sleepy expression, and gave it a nod. "Oh hi there." She held the cat with both hands. "You’re name is going to be Haruna Jr, and you’re going to make Haruna very happy. Maybe." She went through the process of getting the cat firmed up and was ready to start picking out accessories. She got a night cap with little moons and stars on it, as well as pajama tops and bottoms to match. She finished dressing the sleepy cat when she stopped and turned to Kiyo. "I don’t think it’s Haruna enough." She turned it over in her hand. "It’s just a cat in sleepwear. Do you think it would be weird to write her measurements on Haruna Jr’s clothes?"

"Just a bit," Kiyo replied, not sure what to make of her off-color comment when she just seemed so... blank. It felt like a joke, but without the expression needed to stick the landing. Perhaps Miss Black had been a dark girl for much longer than Kiyo had initially thought. "You're right. With just this, it's a bit... She doesn't really give off the vibe of a custom-made plushie, does she?" She took a minute or so to think about it. "I feel like if we add something too Haruna-like, the whole vibe would just kinda clash. Like, pajamas and a motorcycle helmet... y'know?" Kiyo both looked and felt a bit helpless for a moment. "I'm definitely feeling a different hat, though. A detective's hat is too on-the-nose. Gives busybody vibes. Maybe a nurse cap? Nurses take naps, I bet." Her voice trailed off as she went on.

"I don’t think Haruna is a nurse or a detective though." She pouted. But after looking at the plushy just a bit longer, her eyebrows poked up. "Oh!" She tugged the sleeping cap off of the cat’s head and found a helmet. It had an open front that showed the cat’s facial expression, but the back of the helmet had feathered wings and a gold-like trim around the edges. "I call Haruna paladin sometimes." She placed the sleep cap on top of the helmet. It didn’t quite fit right, but the paladin cat looked pretty sleepy. "I think that’s an improvement, right? Actually…" After looking through the accessories again, she put the pajamas away and grabbed a breast plate to slide over the cat’s torso. Then she grabbed a tiny pillow and stuck it under the plush’s arm. "I think this is better. What do you think?"

Kiyo nodded along approvingly. "Haruna's definitely a paladin," she agreed without missing a beat—but Michi kept adding parts. Something about the way she was excitedly proposing one thing after another reminded her of Suki, and Kiyo didn't quite know what to say. "Well... the breastplate might be a bit much. It feels like we've strayed from 'take-a-break kitty' to 'high-stakes-pillow-fight kitty.' I like the helmet with the nightcap on top, though."

"Oh, yea." She looked at it again. "It’s a little overboard, isn’t it? I just wanted the paladin bit to come through." She tugged on the breastplate, and it popped off. "You’re right, I think that’s better. The pillow prevents the sleeping cap from looking like a wizard’s cap, I think." She shrugged. "I told Haruna not to go overboard on accessories too. It can be hard to focus when you’re the one doing it I guess." She handed the items off to get stitched together. "Well, I was almost able to do that myself. Thanks for the save, Kiyo."

Kiyo shook her head. "Calling it a save is giving me too much credit. I'm sure Haruna would have been happy to have High-Stakes-Pillow-Fight Kitty, too," she replied with a smile. "I can be a bit... particular." Michi's non-expression blurred any possible line that Kiyo could have attempted to draw between what was either sarcasm, or an almost zealous level of sincerity scarcely seen outside of TV programming made for children. In the end, Kiyo decided to take her words at face value. "Suppose it's my turn then," she said, making her way over to Haruna.

"Yup." After getting the plush put in a gift bag, Michi dragged her feet back to the entrance. Her attention was immediately stolen by a clerk sewing an expression on one of the cats.

Haruna turned at the sound of the pair’s footsteps approaching. "I’m looking forward to seeing what you two made. Shall we?" she said, looking at Kiyo and gesturing toward the bins of yet-to-be-constructed cats.

Kiyo nodded, turning back whence she came just as soon as Haruna stood up. She appeared to be deep in thought as she looked at the cat plushies. "What do you make of her? Miss Black," she inquired of Haruna, eyeing charcoal grey cats and scrutinizing faces with half-lidded eyes. One by one, she picked them up and put them down, seeming to consider each one but never quite finding satisfaction. She turned to Haruna, as if seeking it from her answer. The question was surely deeper than simply what kind of cat Michi would like, though she seemed determined enough on her own to find an answer for that too.

"She’s a little. . . odd. It’s hard to get a read on what she actually wants, but I don’t really get the impression she’s being intentionally mysterious or anything." The implied comparison was hard to miss. "And I think she’s pretty shy in the end. Or, shy’s the wrong word. Anxious, maybe? She’s afraid of the club and nervous about the GEMs, but she does seem to like having company if she feels comfortable around them." Haruna shrugged. "She also thinks your mogalls are super cute," she added after a moment.

Kiyo nodded along, seeming to agree with much of what Haruna said, but it was the last one that surprised her. "C-Cute... That's a first." Kiyo picked up another cat with half-lidded eyes, but instead of a grumpy or neutral expression, this one had a slight smile. It looked mischievous, or maybe a little smug. If Kiyo had been designing a cat to resemble herself, she had picked the perfect face. "A smile suits her better," she remarked instead.

She was quiet for a moment while she looked at the accessories, before she spoke up again. "I could have made them to look like anything, you know? My sentries." She paused. "Cute, fluffy bunnies. Silly, googly-eyed birds. The fly on the windowsill that you'd never noticed was there until the day you went to clean the window and realized it was dead." Another pause. Suddenly, she turned around and showed Haruna the cat with a witch hat. "Witches should have lots of friends, don't you agree?"

She nodded in response. "Yeah, I think a witchy cat is appropriate, as long as we can find a fancy dress or something to dress her in. Miss Black really likes her tea parties and such." She hesitated for a moment, then decided to ask the obvious question. "Why eyeballs, then? You don’t sound super attached to them. I guess they fit your name?"

Kiyo appeared thoughtful, nodding and turning her attention to some small gothic dresses. "When you cry, and wipe away your tears with a tissue, do you keep the tissue in a box for safekeeping?" She paused to look up. Perhaps she was thinking, or perhaps she was just waiting for the absurdity to set in. She was probably on the lookout for any nosy employees, too. "A child might, for fear of losing a part of herself, I suppose, but once she becomes an adult, she realizes that the purpose of tears is in the act of shedding them. My sentries might look like living things, but they're nothing more than negative emotion given form. The raw substance is useful, but once it takes on shape, its only purpose is to fulfill the task for which it was born. Getting attached to them would be like befriending Miseria."

After sorting through so many black-and-white dresses, mumbling complaints about how too many of them looked like "maid dresses," she finally turned around, showing Haruna the one she chose. "...Oh, but I've just dodged your question." She turned around again, looking at the other accessories available to see if anything caught her eye without digging too much for it. "Plushies really are cute, aren't they?"

"Yeah." Haruna didn’t fail to note that, despite acknowledging the dodge, she still didn’t actually answer. Still, she could probably pluck some kind of meaning from among the ramble Kiyo had given her instead. . . and the dark girl wouldn’t be able to hold whatever interpretation she got from it against her. "I should get a couple more for my apartment, it might be a bit cozier then."

Returning her attention to the task at hand, she leaned forward to inspect the dress.

"Plushies are cute when they're not watching," Kiyo replied darkly. "Once you realize that the teddy bear has been watching you, you don't think it's cute anymore. You want to tear its eyes out instead." She lightly squeezed the innocent cat plush in her arms. "Security cameras might not be cute, but they, at least, won't lie to you—and if you're being followed by a creep, you'll never be happier to see one."

Kiyo's eyes had settled on a wand accessory, and she picked it up. It looked more like the sort of thing a princess or fairy godmother would use, rather than a witch. If she gave it to the cat, it would stand out as the only colorful object on an otherwise dull canvas of black, white, and grey. "The Mogall are sentinels, not spies. They don't lie about their purpose. They're eyeballs, because I created them to watch. They're not cute, because I made them to not be cute. They don't hide, because I didn't make them to be stealthy. I want my girls to feel safe knowing when they're alone, and feel safe knowing when someone is watching over them. I wanted the Mogall to be like the security camera."

Her use of past tense and slightly morose tone implied that she knew they were not, in fact, "like the security camera" for the other girls. She turned back to Haruna and showed off her handiwork. "The witch came from a world of black and white—but after she learned magic, she surrounded herself with friends who filled her world with color," she explained in the past tense as though it were already decided. Then, she made a slightly stern face. "Sometimes, you shouldn't explain why something looks the way it does. The language of symbolism is supposed to be secret. So, don't tell anyone. But, what do you think?"

Haruna replied with one of her small smiles. "I think that makes a lot of sense." She deliberately didn’t clarify which statement she was responding to. Kiyo cared a lot about the club, it was obvious, and one of the few things she didn’t seem to put effort into making ambiguous. Haruna appreciated that kind of earnest effort. "I think the only thing I’d add to the cat is if we could give her a stuffed rabbit, or something. Miss Gate gives me Alice in Wonderland vibes, you know?"

Kiyo smiled, too, seeming to appreciate the reciprocal ambiguity. "Do I give you Alice in Wonderland vibes, too?" She raised the cat plush so that its impish grin was right beneath her chin. "You shouldn't be able to tell easily whether she's supposed to resemble me or Miss Black. That's part of the charm." She raised the cat's paw with a finger to make it look like she was casting a spell.

Haruna raised an eyebrow at that last, an eyebrow that seemed to playfully warn that she might try to read more into that idea. "I wouldn’t say you do on the surface, but now that you ask. . . I can think of some reasons you might." Things were rarely immediately as they seemed in Wonderland, of course, and appearances could be deceiving. "But those might not be right for the plushie, you’re right."

"I'm not opposed," Kiyo replied. "The rabbit could be Roche, or it could be you." Her eyes wandered a bit. "But then, so it's not mistaken for any old rabbit pulled from a magician's hat, the rabbit needs a pocket watch, and then a bowtie, or maybe a cravat, and now there's too many accessories and too much visual noise. So maybe not." She gathered up everything she'd chosen and started to look for an employee to hand them off to. "...Thanks," she whispered ambiguously.

The smile returned. "No problem." Haruna flagged an employee down for Kiyo. "Just glad to help. And this has turned out to be way less stressful than pretty much everything else I’ve done since I moved here, too. Maybe we should do something like this again sometime?"

"Yeah." Kiyo's now-emptied hands fidgeted aimlessly for a second before finding her jacket pockets. "This was—fun." She seemed to settle on the word after considering several others. After receiving the plush and bagging it, she started to walk back to where Michi was sitting. "I've actually never done this before, even though I always... wanted to try."

"I wouldn’t mind coming back here, if you wanted," Haruna said as she followed. She decided not to ask Kiyo why she hadn’t tried before; it seemed like the dark girl would probably retreat emotionally if Haruna looked too deeply at once. Speaking of looking deeply, I’m surprised she didn’t feel that earlier, or something. "I wasn’t really very invested in coming here, but now that we’ve actually done this, I like it a lot. It’s nice to make things for each other, and I’m not a very crafty person myself," she said, as they reached Michi with the third and final plush in tow. "Time for the big reveal?"

"Um, AKTUALY!" An attendant at the counter said, pushing their glasses up their nose. "I need to make sure you have this first. I understand you’re paying for all of these?" Michi averted her eyes as the clerk spoke. Then they presented Haruna with a paper slip with the cost of everything, at which point the clerk smiled. "They are all very cute cats though, and I’m sure you’ll all enjoy them." Before they backed away from the counter they added "And we have credit options available."

Michi swallowed. "We’ll reveal them one at a time. I want to see everyone’s reaction before I look at mine." Everyone handed off their plushy to the correct recipient. "Kiyo, Haruna made yours first, so why don’t you have a peak?"

Kiyo made no attempt to hide her cringe-induced disgust from the store clerk. Why are you smiling like a used car salesman who just got a big commission? You didn't even help. For the sake of the other two, though, she said nothing. "Sure." She agreed, and upon taking the cat out of the bag, she was greeted with the red and black she expected, plus a bit of white. "Aha!" She exclaimed, seeming pleased. "Tuxedo cats are the cutest, aren't they?" Kiyo glanced at Haruna with the mischievous look of someone who knew that she knew that she was going to scrutinize every little detail. A cape—noble, classy, mysterious. Scarf—rebellious, self-reliant. A black cat with a white belly—the jerk with a heart of gold? Surely, you're not hoping for more than that, Hizuki?

Kiyo wondered how much Haruna knew about cats—how their bellies were sensitive, and they showed them as an expression of trust—but did not want them to be touched. Thinking back, she decided that Haruna probably did. She's not aloof like Rei or Roche, but she also respects a distance I always wanted but could never get from family. She held the plush close to her chest. "She's perfect, just like her owner," she declared, satisfied. Her smile was lofty, but the look in her eyes seemed different from the 'fake happiness' her eyes usually showed to accompany it.

Haruna’s smile broadened at Kiyo’s reaction. "I’m really glad you like it." Once again, she felt like she was seeing a bit of Kiyo that most people didn’t. "I was worried I might not have added enough embellishments, but Miss Black suggested that less might be more, and I guess it really did suit you." She turned to flash her smile at Michi as well, showing her gratitude. "I guess it’s my turn?"

Michi nodded, then squared up her shoulders.

She loosened the bag a bit to free the fettered feline, then lifted it into the air to inspect it. A pillow, a helmet, and a nightcap plopped atop the latter. Half-closed eyes, like the cat was about to fall asleep. "A sleepy paladin?" she questioned aloud. The knightly parts she understood - and quite appreciated, under other circumstances she might have been preening under the description - but the sleepy bits were throwing her a little. "Do I really look that tired?" She had nearly fallen asleep in class three days a row, thinking of it.

The girl drew her phone and snapped a picture of Haruna. Then she moved over beside Haruna and showed her the photo. "Kind of." She pulled the phone against her chest. "Do you not like it?"

Haruna peered at the photo. She nearly didn’t recognize herself. . . and her first thought was that the girl in the photo needed a nap and probably a shower. "Oh, wow. Do I always look like that. . . ?" She shook her head, looking a bit embarrassed at the realization. "But no, I like it a lot. I just didn’t get that part right away, is all." She resisted the urge to pat Michi on the head as part of an apology. "I’ll take good care of her, I promise." Michi nodded in response.

"Being sleep-deprived is like being a little tipsy. In both cases, the mind is surprisingly good at convincing you that everything is normal," Kiyo helpfully added. "Tsubomi might be the only one among us who actually gets a healthy amount of sleep, to be fair..." she mused. But you don't have anyone at home telling you not to overdo it, do you Hizuki? I can tell.

Michi looked between the two girls, then at the decorative gift bag she was holding. She turned it over in her hand, as if somehow trying to discern what might have been inside. She pulled the handles apart with both hands and was greeted with a wide brimmed witch’s hat that concealed the rest of the plushy from view. She tipped her head and reached a hand inside to retrieve the cat hiding at the bottom of the bag, and pulled it out.

She seemed to freeze in place, with her lazy eyes locked on the lazy, content expression of the cat. But the plush didn’t move. It merely stared back at her with its mischievous smile. At last, Michi’s jaw opened. But she didn’t say anything. Her breathing became noisy, then her eyes became wet. Michi closed her eyes, and tears rolled down her face. The cat continued to smile at her in her trembling hand.

Haruna’s expression flashed from happy to panicked. "W-wait, what’s wrong? Did we do something wrong?" She hurried over to Michi’s side, putting one hand on her shoulder.

As before, Kiyo was slow to speak. "Miss Black?" she prompted softly, her hand occupying Michi's other shoulder. Kiyo hid her anxiety well, but Haruna could feel it: self-preservation stirred, yet Kiyo moved to comfort Michi.

As soon as the outstretched hands landed on Michi’s shoulders, she reacted. The delinquent shrieked and flailed her arms while she backed away from the two girls. Haruna’s arm was swat away, then Kiyo’s, before Michi backed into a gachapon machine. The store clerk had almost disappeared before they returned to the counter to see what the commotion was. Michi was breathing heavy, her teeth clenched tight. The tears didn’t stop rolling down her face. Her desire to destroy had flared up in the moment, but it was starting to subside, and her law loosened up.

"I, I-" She looked at the witch cat again. "I’veneverbeengivensomethinglikethis!" She was just able to get out the words before sobbing into her sleeve.

"O-oh. Good crying. I think?" Haruna glanced hurriedly back toward the employee, waving him off before turning her attention back to Black Gate. She closed the distance again, but made sure to leave her a bit more space than she had previously. "Sorry for crowding you. You, um, like it, then?" she asked, hopeful. She got a nod in response, with the arm covering her face bobbing up and down.

"I hope you make lots of friends," Kiyo added, also appearing hopeful—but she allowed Michi to keep the distance she'd created.

She lowered her arm away from her face, which was now all red. "I like her. Thank you." She hugged the plush witch against her chest. "I think I know where I want to put her. Do you guys mind if i-" She sniffed. "Got her set up?"

"Not at all. I’ve just gotta go pay for these real quick." Haruna sighed in relief before heading toward the register - and trying not to let her startlement show when she saw the price tag on the receipt she’d been given.

"Sure," Kiyo replied, satisfied. The look she gave Haruna from across the room felt like a blend of an amused "I told you so" with some reassuring "we'll go somewhere else next time" mixed in.

…

…

…

Meanwhile, on the roof of the Construct-A-Cat, two Mogalls floated just out of sight. They looked at each other as if conversing, but no words were exchanged.

They turned their attention to the roofs edge when a few stunted apes climbed into view. They were about to float off when the aped began waving their arms. But something was different. Rather than trying to wave the mogalls away, they were beckoning them to come closer. Their shrill screeching was replaced by curious monkey sounds.

The apes parted like the red sea, and a monkey carrying a cardboard box walked out from between them and placed it on the ground. It threw the flaps open before taking a step back.

One of the mogall closed in, curious but cautious. One of its tendrils reached into the box and held up a tiny bottle. It looked at its friend and held the bottle out for them to inspect. The bottle was a container of eyedrops. The eye bobbed, as if nodding, then took off in a flash. Not much time passed before the mogall returned with a box, and placed it on the ground in front of the monkeys before backing away.

The bravest ape approached the new cardboard box and examined it. He scratched his head and looked back at his fellow apes, who only screeched at him. With a shrug, they pulled open the box and looked inside. Immediately, the ape began screeching, and his fellow ape friends joined in unison. Then the brave ape reached into the box and hoisted up a cluster of bananas.

The apes began to spin and jump, while the mogall swirled in the sky. They had made so many friends this day.

---

The girl known for her apathy found herself sneaking back into Hibusa High in the pitch dark. Well, 'sneaking' might not be the right word. She wasn't being cautious at all in her slow climb over the gate, nor her ascent up the ladder at the back of the building. There was no reason to be since any cameras or mogalls watching would catch her regardless. Even in the best of times she wouldn't care if she was seen or not, so hiding out of sight like a hunting snake was pointless.

When she reached the top, her body's owner appeared from behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. The girl didn't react.

"Hey, Zassou. I know you're part of the delinquent club and all, but breaking into the school isn't your style."

Zassou...? Oh. "Mm. Weed. Because flower. That makes sense." The girl now christened 'Zassou' didn't respond to the comment any further. She walked to the westernmost railing and sat on the roof with her back to the weathered metal. Her head was hung as she stared at her feet.

"... I don't know what to do."

"That's not exactly out of the ordinary. But I'll tell you what to do. Accept death. Find peace." Tsubomi appeared next to Zassou and leaned down, face to face with her. "Disappear quietly."

"Mm. I meant with the club. Trying to stay out of their way caused them trouble."

"Not that you feel bad about it. So why the confusion?" Tsubomi stood back up from her leaning position.

"If I go away, are you still going to be in the club?"

Tsubomi sighed at the weed's question. "I doubt I really have a choice, at least until Rei graduates or something. She's too strong to get out from under, and too strong to risk manipulating. So yes, I'll probably end up as part of your little club."

"Mm."

"Look. You can't hide shit from me. I know what you're thinking, so let me tell you something. You don't have a lot of time left, so spend it wisely. Decide if you care about anything, and what you care most about. Would you rather spend the last of your time doing stuff for the girl who could easily kill you, or doing stuff for the girl you'd easily get killed for?"

Zassou blinked. 'The girl you'd die for'? Who? As she was trying to think of who Tsubomi meant, a memory surfaced.

A boy stood in front of Zassou. In one hand he held Roche by the neck, and in the other a handgun. To be honest, it was hard to tell what kind of gun it was, because the boy had massive fucking tits pectorals. Why the word "pectorals" came to her mind when she saw them, she wasn't sure. What she was sure of was that the boy was talking, saying things, evident by the moving of his mouth, though Zassou couldn't hear him. He seemed to finish speaking because he pointed the gun at her. She blinked, and the boy changed, becoming blurry. So she rubbed her eyes to try to bring him into focus, and it worked, but now the boy was Suki? And she was still pointing the gun at her. Oros, oh, Suki transformed apparently, was now shouting about something. Zassou checked her ears and tried to unclog them, but she still couldn't hear anything. The gun was shaking, but Oros lowered it as she stopped shouting. Suki, who was back to her normal form, seemed to say something under her breath. Then she put the gun to her temple, and -

And Zassou moved. She moved without a single thought, faster than even when she was fighting the pirates after waking up from this dream. She managed to push Suki back just as she pulled the trigger, the bullet tearing through Zassou's skull in place of hers. She fell forward, slumping against Suki's front as she caught herself on her back foot from Zassou's shove. The apathetic girl could feel the warmth of her blood cascading from the wound, but she didn't feel any pain. It was just a dream, after all. Just a memory of a fleeting hallucination.

Zassou's eyes opened. Oh. That's what Tsubomi meant. She hadn't remembered the end of that dream until now, not since it happened.

The girl in control of Tsubomi's body stood and turned to lean on the railing, staining her sleeves with rust. Only two thoughts rattled around in her mind. Maybe it was for the best, she decided as she slowly climbed over the railing. It seemed that she had some form of care for Suki. Maybe that was why. If she went away, would Tsubomi be nice to her? She wasn't sure. Her eyes drifted downward towards the ground far below, and she stopped moving. Wasn't it rude to enter a new place with your shoes on? She didn't want to start off on a bad foot, so to speak, if she wound up somewhere else. Nor get dirt on the carpet of the next world. So she turned around to climb back over the railing.

Zassou wasn't sure why Tsubomi didn't try to stop her. She reached down to untie her shoes just as the other girl started to speak.

"What, did you expect me to say something like, 'oh no! Don't do it, please!'?" Tsubomi asked, voice dripping with mockery and venom. She wore a malicious grin as she watched Zassou step out of her shoes and place them next to the rust covered railing.

The weed crawled back over the guardrails and stood on the edge of the rooftop. She glanced back at Tsubomi, then upwards to the night sky. The stars were pretty, clear as day in the darkness. Even the moon shone beautifully, seeming to hold its breath as it watched. She looked down one more time, the closed her eyes and stepped forward once.

...

Zassou awoke to pain as light pierced through her eyelids, her back against the metal bars she remembered climbing. The sun was rising slowly, soon to be high enough to be hidden behind the darkened clouds that covered the sky. She looked up just in time to be hit in the face by the first raindrops, as if the world was crying for her fall.

The girl looked at the roof below her as she went to stand. Huh. That was odd. Her shoes were still on. She stood still a moment as the unpleasant scent of rain engulfed her and her clothes became soaked through. It wouldn't last all day, but neither would it wash away her troubles. Zassou took one last look at the railing behind her, soon to be rusted further, and decided that she need to write a letter. Two, at that.

And as thunder boomed through the air, the sky giving its disapproval of her choices, she decided that she should get some ice cream.

---

---

---

Free time was a luxury of the young that they sacrificed to take upon themselves greater responsibility. School life was already a large part of the day sunk into scholastic pursuits, but with an athletic club and the Detention Club monopolizing her after-school hours, Roche had precious little free time she could afford to spend upon herself.

What remained was a preciously consistent glimmer of time, those wee hours between waking and the first bell of school that were truly her own. A time she found herself not lounging in an empty home, but pounding the pavement on a jog. Feeling the cold air rustling against her wind breaker, trailing puffs of hot air between each stride.

As the city still blinked open its bleary eyes, Roche was already wide awake with only the steady beat of her heart for company. Peaceful. A refrain before the mundanity of academia and the chaos of a city-spanning conflict with creatures of darkness and the GEMS from beyond. She may have wished for company, but its absence wasn’t entirely without its own charms.

But there were days when the serenity lost its luster.

A shame Shuuko isn’t into jogging. Can’t ask Nyxia either. The Rulekeeper thought, her senses spread as she scanned the city block by block. What had begun ages ago as an exercise to pick up Miseria trying to hide in the shadows left by the night was now ingrained habit, a trifling exercise at broadening her perceptions. And I can’t feel Ashbringer or the GEMS either.

Roche hummed, finding her jog halted at a cross walk, sinking into her thoughts as she waited for the light to change. As she stood there, a presence crept into the edge of her senses, a couple blocks away and moving at a pace similar to her own had been just a moment ago. It wasn’t a Miseria, and the feeling didn’t line up with that of a fellow dark magical girl, which only really left the possibility of it being a light girl.

When the light changed Roche was off like a shot, quashing the impulse to transform outright leap over the streets rather than aggressively push the socially acceptable standards for jogging.

Anger was a close friend in recent days, never too far and easily roused to her side at the prospect of one of the GEMS or Sayuri rearing their head so soon after the last debacle. The early hour was certainly strange for a Light Girl to be about, but she could worry about the question of why once she had an idea of who she was dealing with.

Just a little bit…there! The Rule Keeper came skidding around a corner, grasping a street lamp to swing herself around and come face to face with what could only be another Magical Girl.

Her sudden appearance nearly caused said girl to collide with her. Rather than do so, she tipped over backward in her haste, falling on her ass with a yelp and a groan. “Oww. . . Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” She looked up, greeting the Rule Keeper with a familiar face. “Roche?” Haruna asked. “Is there something wrong?”

”Hizuki?!” Roche gasped as she came to a halt before a staggered Haruna. Ire turned to embarrassment and the Rule Keeper was quick to reach out, offering her hand to pull up the Club’s resident Light Girl. Said girl took the hand, allowing herself to be pulled up.

”Sorry, it’s Haruna, right? Looks like I can add that to the list of apologies you’re owed. I had a feeling a Light Girl was around, and after the GEMS showed up I got a little hot headed.”

“That’s understandable.” She gave a sort of rueful shrug. “They’ve messed with you - with us - a lot. No, just me, on my morning run. I use it to think, so I didn’t notice you were getting closer. I would have said something.” She tilted her head to the right. “Should we keep running together? I don’t mind changing my route around to hang out some.”

”No need to worry about it.. I’m the weirdo who invested a bit too much in that magic sense. When you have to punch most your problems, it pays to be able to find them quicker.” Waving off Haruna’s concerns at being caught unawares, she stepped aside and motioned onward with a sweep of her hand.

”I’d be glad to join you. It’s pretty rare I find a Magical Girl who doesn’t sleep in on the mornings. After you.” She was happy to let Haruna set the pace, as it was only polite not to impose on Haruna. Between Shatterscape and Suki, the girl had taken a whalloping from the Club on both her encounters.

”It’s been hectic lately, but I haven’t really had the chance to talk to you. Have you been taking to Miso well?”

Haruna shrugged, starting off on her previous route. “More or less. School is kinda school anywhere, I think, and between studying and magical girl stuff I haven’t actually done much in town besides that. I’ve pretty much got the whole layout down already, though. Perks of flying everywhere.”

”That’s good to hear. From some of our out-of-town club mates, the move can be a bit rough.”

Roche was a city girl through and through, so moving wasn’t anything she had experience.

”You handling the club alright? I know we probably aren’t anything like a Light Girl team, but you are one of us now. Rei, Kiyo, and I are here if you need anything to adjust…or if anyone is giving you trouble.”

“I wouldn’t really know what a light girl team is like, either. I was never a GEM.” She shrugged. “I guess I’d say I’m doing. . . okay, at handling the club? I don’t think I’ve managed to make anyone dislike me, yet, and aside from a couple, um, incidents, there haven’t been many huge conflicts.” She thought back to her main source of strife within the group, and her mouth twisted a bit. “I think I mostly just wish everyone was more willing to talk to each other about things.”

”We wouldn’t be Dark Magical Girls if we were paragons of emotional maturity and communication.” Even one such as Roche was self aware enough to acknowledge she wasn’t mentally well. But there were few miracles that couldn’t be worked with sufficient grit, stubbornness, and sheer spite.

”Give it time. We’re a prickly group at our best, but between the GEMS and Ashbringer we’re living on borrowed time.”

Haruna tilted her head, slowing slightly. “Ashbringer?”

The Rulekeeper blinked, catching herself on the ball of her foot as Haruna’s confusion hit her full to the face. Had no one really….

”You know how the GEMS are gunning for us? Well there’s a Dark Girl who we got into a fight with and now she wants to take us down. She seems to be putting together a team, but there’s something…off about it. Sure she’s stronger then most of us bar Rei, but her motives never sat right with me.”

Haruna shook her head. “No, nobody’s mentioned her yet.” She slowed her jog as a few dots connected in her head. “Oh. . . that’s why you guys messed up that beach. You’re trying to get strong enough to fight her. Right?”

”Yeah. It wouldn’t have been such a mess if the GEMS youngest weren’t there causing a ruckus the entire time. Now that I think about, they probably told the others we were trying to commit some mass sacrifice to lure the Giga Miseria….We weren’t. It just wasn’t going to come out with a lot of negativity emotions.”

”We damn near died keeping those people alive, and neither Morganite or Pearl were any help on that front.” Roche growled, turning her head aside to spit out her displeasure in a literal fashion.

“I wasn’t there, so I’m not going to take either side here.” Her tone made it clear that she didn’t approve of causing negative emotions on that scale, despite her words. “It seemed out of character for what I’ve seen so far, but if you’re being hunted by multiple parties, it makes perfect sense.” Haruna realized she’d slowed her pace, and picked it back up a bit, though it was still less intense than she’d been doing by herself.

“What about Ashbringer’s motivations? Did she say something that sounded strange? It sounds like more than just a struggle over territory or a clash of personalities.”

Roche brow furrowed, a feeling of internal strife warring within that line of questioning. It had been weighing on her mind aplenty as it was, so she ultimately relented as she drew close alongside Haruna.

”It seemed to start over a fight with Nyxia and a flower shop that got burned down, but I’m starting to think that was all just a pretense for something. Not only did she give us a year but then she decides to put together a team as well? If she wanted the territory or just to crush us, she didn’t need the time. Or maybe she does for Rei. I can’t say yet without finding out more. It’s something I’m working on, but I haven’t had much time to commit with everything going on here.”

The light girl frowned. “Any way I can help? With either looking into Ashbringer or getting strong enough to fight her.”

Finding her darkening mood brighten, the Rule Keeper’s hand clapped against Haruna’s shoulder. ”You’re doing plenty already. This girl is my issue to dig into. But if you don’t mind, I wouldn’t mind a running mate for my morning jogs.”

”Who knows, maybe I could poach you for the track team. You’re certainly fast enough for it.”

“You think so?” She was already mentally rearranging her schedule. “I was okay in track in middle school, but I guess with everything else going on I hadn’t considered getting back into it.”

There was certainly a desire to poach a Magical Girl for her personal pride and joy, though the tanned girl had the decency not to salivate.

”You’re still getting settled in so I’m not asking you to jump in, but maybe stop by and see how it goes. I’m….a bit of a slave driver, but I think the Team can make it to Nationals. With another Magical Girl to anchor the team, the sky is the limit!”

“Yeah, it sounds like fun.” Haruna nodded. “I haven’t actually competed in anything since I got my magic, but I think I’m a little more coordinated at least.” She thought back to some time spent with Suki. “. . . Or maybe a lot more coordinated. I don’t think I could do quadruple backflips before.”

”Hey, I like the confidence! It’s nice to have someone who can enjoy some athletics that don’t involve Miseria. We put in the work and, and assuming we survive everything coming to this city, we’ll have scholarships waiting for!””

An excited grin was pulling at Roche’s lips as she released Haruna to put on some speed. ”Come on, I’ll show you some spots. There’s a few parks around here to take breaks out, and they keep the vending machines stocked for drinks.”

Haruna couldn’t help but smile too as she sped up to keep pace with Roche. It was nice to share a hobby. “Only if you’ll let me show you my good spots next time.”

---

Hizuki rubbed at her eyes as she flitted up to a nearby rooftop, leaving the disintegrating remains of a trio of miseria behind. It was fairly early in her night, but she already felt like she had weights tied to her eyelids. I really wish Shuuko had actually set up that patrol rotation. She immediately felt a little bad for the thought; Shuuko had plenty of her own problems to deal with, and Hizuki could keep going as long as she needed to. It’s not like she actually slept in her magical girl form, so it probably didn’t need sleep.

Shaking her wandering thoughts away, she alighted atop an air conditioning unit and surveyed the area. Rather than immediately reach out with her magical senses, Hizuki first checked with her eyes; not all issues that faced the nighttime population of Hibusa were something on someone’s conscious mind, after all.

It wouldn’t take long for Hizuki to notice the pulsing flashes of teal light, coupled with the dancing arcs of similarly colored lightning, which emanated from several rooftops away. The neon glow illuminated a familiar figure that was dwarfed by the massive weapon she wielded, a weapon that was clearly the source of the baleful radiance.

“That’s it ya fuckin’ shit stains…” Nyxia snarled as the ruinous cylinder of annihilation projected by her beloved death ray violently vaporized a writhing cluster of Miseria in the alleyway below. “Die for me!”

No small amount of troubles weighed heavy on the Neon Tempest’s thoughts of late, from the GEMs’ increasingly annoying disruptions to the skeletal titan only Rei had been able to harm, but if anything was able to put her troubled mind at ease, it was killing these abhorrent creatures. Yet tonight, the normally enjoyable slaughter of her hated foes brought little comfort, for, unlike all the others, there was a single concern that refused to be so easily swept aside. The picture. The picture of her brother with Rei, of all people, depicting a closeness between them that suggested friendship at the very least, if not something… more. That revelation had shocked Nyxia to the very core of her being, and she was determined to gain further insight on the matter, but, so far, it had proved just as elusive as her other goals. Asking Rei directly was out of the question. The club’s leader was objectively more powerful than her, or any of the club’s other members, so forcing the issue would be an exercise in futility, and she highly doubted the infamously cryptic girl would ever willingly reveal anything about her relationship with Kaito if asked.

No, the Neon Tempest would have to explore other avenues, and she was forced to concede that she wouldn’t be able to effectively do so without help. However, that realization brought its own set of problems. The only other club member she could really tolerate, let alone trust, was Roche, and the Rule Keeper had been preoccupied with her own issues of late. Plus, Nyxia had already sought her assistance with other matters, in particular, the plan she’d concocted for leading that bothersome private investigator her father had hired away from Misoka and towards a far more deserving target. Even so, there was still one possible alternative- the club’s newest member. Although the Neon Tempest hadn’t really interacted with the girl all that much, she not only seemed like a tolerable enough individual, but also someone who was eager to offer her assistance to anyone in need.

With that in mind, Nyxia resolved to have a private chat with the selfless girl about it after the next club meeting. Unless, of course, she crossed paths with her before then…

Fortunately for the Neon Tempest, her lightshow had attracted the exact sort of attention she wanted. A yellow beam pierced one of her opponents before she had a chance to sweep her own devastation across it, followed quickly by the one who’d fired it. Daybreak arrived just after the miseria finished vanishing, landing with a slight thump of boots meeting the roof. “I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone else tonight. Hi, Tera- I mean, er, Nyxia,” she said, with a small wave. “Something on your mind? You look like you’re having less fun than usual.”

Nyxia was slightly startled by the unexpected assistance, and she couldn’t keep her eyes from widening when she realized the identity of its source. “H-Huh?! O-Oh, uh, hi…” the still somewhat shaken Neon Tempest replied, awkwardly pausing as she tried to recall the new girl’s name. “Hizuna, right? And yeah…” she added with a frown, her death ray’s beam fading as the last of the Miseria were vaporized. “There is something that’s been botherin’ me. Something I was hopin’ you might be able to help me with.”

“Hizuki,” she clarified. “Or Haruna, when I’m not transformed.” Understandable error, really. “What’s up? I’d be happy to help.” The rest of the club was already running her a bit ragged, of course, but helping them out was the entire reason she was here, so she didn’t let it come through in her voice.

“Well, first of all, Hizuki,” Nyxia began, exhaling a tired sigh. “What I’m about to tell you needs to stay between us. I prefer as few people as possible knowing about my personal life,” she continued. “Aside from Earthshaker, only Schrade knows my civilian identity and what led to me becoming a magical girl. But ‘Shaker’s busy and I can’t bring our ‘fearless leader’ into this for reasons that’ll soon become really fuckin’ apparent. You’re the least horrible of all the other options, so I guess I’m just gonna take a leap of faith that you’re as cool a person as you seem like.” The Neon Tempest took a deep breath before continuing. “My brother was the most important person in the world to me. We did so much together, shared so many secrets. Until very recently, he was the only person who’d ever truly cared about me. Then the fucking Miseria killed him, which directly led to my becoming a magical girl. The reason I kill Miseria, the reason I’m working so hard to get stronger is all because of him. But a short time ago, I discovered a picture of him with Rei. They weren’t just classmates, they looked like friends. Or m-maybe even… more than that…” She grit her teeth. “Neither of them ever told me that they knew each other, let alone that they were so close. I can expect that of little miss cryptic, but Kaito would have told me, would have said something, so why didn’t…?” Her voice trailed off as she began to get choked up, before she gave voice to a ragged exhale and forcefully shook her head. “A-Anyways, getting some answers to those questions is what I need your help with, if you’re still willing after hearing all that.”

“I’ll keep it quiet, I promise. I, um, can understand at least some of how you feel.” She took a small breath to steady herself, with that particular part of her life having come to the front of her mind. “I don’t know why your brother would have kept that kind of thing quiet at all, and it seems weird for it to have been something that you somehow just didn’t notice.” Hizuki’s brow furrowed beneath her visor, as she frowned in thought. “The usual answer would be magic, somehow, but that’s not very specific, and it doesn’t really answer why. Although, I can’t help but wonder if it’s related to something Willow told me.”

The light girl paused as she considered how much to say (and to lament the number of secrets she was managing to accumulate.) Willow hadn’t strictly said to keep that information a secret, but Hizuki was neither stupid, nor an aspiring lawyer. “Schrade’s been acting strange lately, according to her. I know most of what comes out of Willow’s mouth is nonsense, but I believe what she told me. It’s possible that looking into that might also end up revealing something about Schrade’s relationship with Kaito, whatever it was.” She put a hand up to her chin. “Do you know how long she’s been a magical girl?”

“No,” Nyxia replied. “I don’t really know much about her at all, other than that she’s a cryptic control freak, and that her family runs a funeral home. That’s actually the first time I met her,” the Neon Tempest added. “When my family went there after my brother died. I was still pretty fucked up by what had happened, so I obviously wasn’t paying the closest attention, but I don’t remember Rei looking all that bothered by the news. Then again, that bitch is pretty much always a blank slate, no matter what’s going on, which is why seeing that picture was so disturbing. She was actually showing real emotion in it, like an actual fucking person.”

“I haven't really seen her emote much either.” She didn't mention that she thought this was kinda cool. “I was thinking. . . I don't know how she got so crazy strong, but maybe her wish was tied to him somehow? Or she was a light girl before he passed, and she became who she is now after falling?” She shrugged. “Honestly it doesn't make a ton of sense, saying it out loud. . .”

“Yeah, pretty sure her little club was around for quite a while before my brother’s death,” Nyxia noted. “So if his passing prompted anything from her, I doubt it’ll be something obvious. Listen, I know this really out of character, coming from me,” she added after a moment. “But we need to be as secretive as we possibly can. I don’t want anyone to know we’re looking into this, and between Miss Wandering Eyes and Rei’s seeming omniscience, I realize that’s probably a lost cause, but I still wanna at least make an attempt.”

“I’ll do my best.” She thought for a moment. “Although Evil Eye would probably help us if we asked. Like you said, it’s hard to do anything without her finding out somehow, so that probably also applies to the club president. My only real idea right now is trying to talk to Schrade directly and see if my powers give me any idea of what’s going on there, too, but it feels a little bad to use them without any real intention of helping the person I’m using them on.”

​​“Evil Eye would just tell Schrade, and Schrade isn’t going to help us,” Nyxia declared with a contemptuous scowl. “If anything, they’ll both just make trying to get answers even more difficult, so I think keeping them in the dark as much as possible is the best idea. The picture was of all the school’s various club presidents,” the Neon Tempest explained. “So maybe if you covertly asked some of them if they remembered there being any kind of relationship, or notable interaction, between my brother and Rei, that might start shedding some light on things. Plus, it shouldn’t look too out of place, either, considering how much you seem to like chatting with people to begin with,” she added with a smirk.

Hizuki replied with a self-depreciating grin and a rub to the back of her helmet. “Yeah, I do just kinda walk up to people constantly, huh. . .” She mostly didn’t think about it, largely because it would make her approaches way more awkward if Hizuki actually considered the strangeness of her talking to literally everyone like some kind of RPG protagonist. “That sounds like a good enough plan to me. I can be mostly honest, too; I’m sure they’ll understand wanting to know more about my own club president, considering how mysterious she acts. Maybe I’ll find some answers to other questions I have, too.” The light girl frowned, considering for a moment if she should ask the question that came to mind. “By the way. . . has Rei ever said anything about, I dunno, needing you guys to be able to stand without her, or being able to leave you alone, or anything like that?”

“Not out loud. At least, not that I remember,” Nyxia replied. She’d never really been one to pay too much attention to the club’s leader. “But that general feeling has always kinda been there, that not-so-subtle insinuation that we needed to get stronger, to someday reach her level. Hell, just the fact that she’s so obscenely fucking powerful to begin with is proof of that,” the Neon Tempest continued. “I mean, who wouldn’t get an inferiority complex after seeing her one shot a building-sized Miseria we couldn’t even scratch? And don’t even get me started on that dragon bitch…”

“Since my conversation with Roche the other day, I’ve been thinking about that. I’m hoping I’ll have some more solid ideas on how to help everyone else get stronger by the next club meeting.” Hizuki glanced around, as if to check for someone eavesdropping, and spoke the next a bit more softly. “I’m planning on asking the other light girls in the area if they know anything about Ashbringer, too. The GEMs have a couple members I get along with, and Kaeru and I are on pretty good terms. I don’t know how the others will react, though, since some of them have serious problems with light magical girls and might think I’m betraying the club or something.” She gave a sort of helpless shrug. “I’ll see if they know anything about Rei and Kaito while I’m at it.”

Hizuki seemed like she was done speaking, but started after a moment. “Oh, and, um. . . I don’t actually know what your family name is. Kaito’s not that rare of a name, and it’s not like I really know what he looked like. . .” She trailed off, leaving the actual question unasked.

Nyxia frowned, her visage clearly displaying her indecision as she internally debated on how much she should reveal. She looked away out of seeming embarrassment before finally whispering, “Tsukishima. I-It’s Tsukishima. And I don’t really care if you talk with the light girls,” the Neon Tempest added, the whole “Light” and “Dark” divide being little more than meaningless semantics to her. “Even the shitty ones. Just don’t go into any detail about this situation with my brother,” she instructed, fixing Hizuki with a stern glare. “If you mention him by name, they’re gonna get suspicious, which could lead them to me, and that’s the last thing I wanna have happen. So just, y’know, be discreet.”

Daybreak mentally noted that Nyxia’s surname was also not something to be shared around. And another one. I guess it's inevitable. . . She had the errant thought that she really didn’t want to encounter another magical girl with outright telepathy or mind control; Hizuki was accumulating quite the large collection of secrets. “I’ll do my best. I’m already trying to avoid giving them GEMs more information about the Club as a whole, since they don’t seem very willing to talk things out, so it shouldn’t really be an adjustment.”

“Okay, well… thanks…” Nyxia told her, the words coming out somewhat awkwardly, as though she were unused to expressing such sentiments. “I’m glad we ran into each other,” the Neon Tempest added with a smile. “And not just because I wanted your help. You fight like a total badass, and that beam attack ya made on the night we first met was fuckin’ epic, so, I was thinkin’ it might be cool if we got a chance to team up. Whatdaya say? Wanna see if we can find more of these ass wipes to vaporize the fuck outta?” she inquired, pointing her thumb at the pitiful, wispy remnants of the Miseria she and Hizuki had recently slaughtered.

Hizuki returned the smile. “I’m glad I came this direction tonight. You’re pretty cool too, you know, with the big giant multi-laser cannon and the drones and such.” She twirled her weapon in one hand before planting the butt in the ground next to her, striking a bit of a pose. “And I’m always happy to take out more Miseria. Let’s do this!” With a grin, she gripped her spear in both hands, then rocketed into the air. Hizuki circled a couple times before pointing to the nearest cluster of miseria with her glowing Sweet Arm, then made a beckoning motion to Nyxia before blasting off towards the spot.

“Hell yeah!” Nyxia declared, before making a beam-boosted leap to the location Hizuki had indicated. Charging up her beloved Omega Obliterator while still in midair, the grinning Neon Tempest prepared to do her part in giving Hibusa Town a laser light show it’d never forget.

---

Nothing about Roche was subtle, be it in her complexion or her bearing, she stood out like a rock breaching the surface of a stream. In her experience, however, she’d never stood out for her deficiencies.

If Rei finds out I’m sneaking into the City of Light, I’m dead before I can even get off the bus back home. Roche thought tersely as she jogged sedately, hair in a ponytail beneath her raised hood, while took another lap of the campus. Pavement and manicured strips of lawn marked the spaces between dedicated buildings of the local College, and there she was, a high schooler, jogging around like she had any business being there.

People tended not to question someone who looked like they were moving with a purpose, but how many loops around could she make before someone stopped her to ask questions?

And much like everything else in the City of Light, Roche was alone in enemy territory. One she knew was stronger then, terrifyingly well informed, and with unknown numbers of powerful Allies. Let alone the worry that the GEMS might notice her, forcing Roche to keep her magic tamped down and not even dare to transform lest she be dragged down by weight of numbers.

Yet the Rule Keeper was finding ever more creative reasons to flex the principals of the Detention Club in the face of multiple existential threats. Possessed by some mad spark that would not- could not be appeased till she grasped it in both hands.

Why.

Why did Ashbringer insist on any of the madness she thinly veiled as revenge for what Roche was increasingly convinced was a staged encounter at the flower shop? Why give them time? Why suddenly decide to put together a team of her own?

Why reach out to Roche at all and reveal her civilian identity? The only reason she had the vaguest inkling of where to find the pyro was because she had let Roche know, so it was only a matter of time before she came to investigate the college herself.

If only it wasn't so mortifying being the under-developed one on campus.

Most school children felt self conscious about something. This was true for most dark magical girls and doubly so for perfectionists like Roche. The truth was that most children were awkward, self absorbed creatures. Most of the college students were too busy trying to make classes and earn credits to pay attention to some teenager jogging around in circles. That, and the Collage of Light was gigantic. It was almost as big as a gated community, filled with facilities for all the sciences. It took five or so minutes just to make a single lap.

Though maybe there was a reason to feel a little nervous. Because even if these collage students were ignoring her, a magical girl certainly wouldn’t be. This was the home of the GEMs. If they knew as much about the Detention club as she thought, then they would have little issue dispatching her. She was alone, without a partner, and deep in enemy territory. It would be foolish to think there weren’t stronger light girls around. And even if they weren’t a problem, Ashbringer certainly was.

Just as Roche was running around a corner, she saw a petite woman. She was tall, had pink hair, and was dressed a bit too cutely to be a student. She was also carrying some groceries and had a piece of toast in her mouth. That was all Roche was able to make out before they ran straight into each other. Perhaps a normal highschooler would have had the decency to bounce backwards, but this woman plowed into Roche.

A teenager among young adults was already discomforting, but the scale of the College of Light really hammered home just how much of a disparity existed between the Detention Club and the GEMS. Just because Rei had carved out her fiefdom didn’t mean they were of equal quality, and the wealth of the Light Girl’s stronghold was aggressively direct.

Every street had cleanly marked bike lanes. The trash cans didn’t overflow. Micro-parks sprang every few blocks to offer a breath of fresh air amidst a modern concrete landscape. It was sickeningly cutting edge with an optimistic bent that ruffled Roche’s feathers.

But outrage was not a luxury she could afford, especially not when she was deep in enemy territory. One slip up, and the GEMS would at best use her as a hostage against the Detention Club. Worst case, well, Emblems weren’t impossible to break, and they already demonstrated a willingness to engage in emotional terrorism against the Dark Girls…

So even as she was actively searching, she was caught up in her tunnel vision enough to be taken entirely unawares turning a corner and engaging in an age-old cliche with a college twist.

Usually, when two girls crashed together turning the corner one would be atop the other, faces embarrassingly close as hands inevitably came to set upon feminine curves.

Alas for Roche’s dignity, the college version of this seemed to involve the junior of the two would be bowled over, the breath in her lungs forced out by a shoe stomping down onto her chest as the Light City local halted herself entirely upon Roche.

Feeling much like a doormat she looked up and saw her assailant was a pinkette which was bad enough for the reminder of the GEMs most frustrating members, but that she was actively eating toast as she ran around.

"Eyuu shuud reevy tie cunning wit tust!" She said through clenched teeth.

"I’m okay." She eventually said when it became clear the pinkette wasn’t going to be helping her up. With a hand holding her hood in place and rubbing a soreness that naturally occurred when cracking your head to pavement, Roche crossed her arms over her shoe-printed wind breaker and eyed the toast-enjoyer. "You must be in a rush to snack and go like this."

She reached a hand up to her mouth and removed the toast. "Are you stupid?" She held out the toast. "If you run around with toast in your mouth, you usually run into someone important. So that’s what I was doing!" She tipped her head. "But it seems like the only thing I’ve found is you." With a huff, she reached into her grocery bag and pulled out a second slice of bread, "Here, maybe if we both do it, we’ll run into someone important!"

Is she serious? Roche just barely contained her incredulity as the girl seemed intent on insulting her for interrupting the nonsensical ritual that would only have worked in an episode of Lucky Star. Yet in spite of the madness that would have left Suki caught unawares, the strange runner carried on without missing a beat and offered Roche a slice of bread.

"You’re looking for someone too? You got a description? I might have seen them on my laps." She offered with a shrug, tearing off a chink of a bread and swallowing it dry. Not out of the goodness of her heart, of course. "I’m looking for a girl. Really stands out with her red hair. Pretty mature. Her name’s Regina. See her around here?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you eating it? You have to hold it in your mouth!" She sighed. "Are you a patron champion? You’re kind of acting like one." She looked around herself. The campus corner was pretty non-discript. Other than the brick corner of the university, there was a hedge wall to block the street from the college. There wasn’t even a sidewalk back here. In other words, they were offered some measure of privacy. "Alright, let’s see what we’ve got." A black flame consumed the woman, and her form changed to that of one wearing a dark feudal outfit. She didn’t dance or introduce herself, and simply carried on like it was the most mundane thing in the world. She drew her sword and looked at the blade. "I knew it, you are a patron champion after all!" She laughed darkly after her discovery.

"What the f-" The swift transformation took Roche completely unawares, staring with a horror writ plain upon her face as she staggered back a step from the now armed woman before her. Yet she wasn’t the Rulekeeper for nothing and quickly realized that simply reacting to such a transformation already confirmed to this stranger she was a Magical Girl as well, so playing dumb went right out the window.

With a growl she shifted her weight to her back foot, fingers clenched tight enough to deform the bread in her grasp. "What are you doing just transforming like that?! Do you want the GEMS to jump down your throat?!"

"As if you know anything about how things work around here…" The girl pointed her katana at Roche. "Speaking of deep throating, how about you eat my sword, bitch!" The mysterious, and apparently violent magical girl, took a swing at Roche.

Roche’s luck was truly a black hole of crap rolling downhill. Just when she thinks she takes a step forward, someone tries to kill her!

The track captain had braced herself for a verbal lashing but her balance was just as suited for spring back to evade a slash trying to cleave her in two. "Do you always jump to murder? Cut it out, I’m just visiting the campus. I’m not here to poach your turf or steal Miseria."

Roche was bouncing on the balls of her feet, poised to bolt like a rabbit. She still didn’t want to risk transforming when the GEMS already had an archer with city wide range. Which left her on the defensive, anger warring with incredulity at meeting such a maniac. "Put down the sword already!"

"No!" She practically shrieked the words. "There’s no way some pathetic brat like yourself is going to get me to do anything!" She twirled her blade. "If you’re so scared then run! Run back to mommy and tell her what a bad, bad, BAD girl you’ve been!" She continued to approach and swing with abandon.

"This damned brat!" Roche snarled as she found herself ducking and weaving, backing up from the sword lashing out at with juvenile skill. True, no one in the Club really used a sword but the crazy girl was a damn sight easy jer to evade then Suki or Shatterscape. Even the Miseria pirates telegraphed less clearly then the pinkette.

Running away with an invisible slasher at her heels wasnt ideal either, as at best she’d make a scene just by sprinting across the lawn like a fleeing burglar.

Waiting for the sword to pass by she changed tact, lunging forward as both hands grasped for the aggressors wrist and pulled up and sidewards. Her leg sweeped out, catching the girl at the ankle and trying to through off her balance so she’d fall harshly on her side.

Despite how wildly unpredictable her swings were, that she was transformed, and should have possessed abilities that outstripped Roche’s untransformed state, she managed to pull off her risky move without hardship.

"Oof!" The yet-to-be-identified dark magical girl picked herself up. "I’ve had my salad tossed pretty hard, and that was nothing to write home about." Her onyx black blade shimmered. "No more fuckin’ around, It’s ass eating time!" When she lifted her blade over head, the entire thing turned into the upper half of a lion. But it was a black as the blade was, and its body was filled with stars. Then with a swing, the lion roared and reached out with both paws, threatening to maul Roche.

While a transformed girl was vastly more capable then an untransformed one, throws had a lovely way of turning strength against itself, especially when the magical girl was so reckless.

That only mattered up to a point, however. Overwhelming force had a way of crushing finesse, and the Rulekeeper’s ire was overflowing with wrath as the crass Magical Girl transformed her weapon into the leading section of a roaring lion. Faced with what was clearly a Dark Magical Girl trying to either kill or violate her- Hard to tell when she was talking like a fouler Suki- There was no option left but to discard secrecy.

The shift was instant, no fancy transformation sequence to pad out the run time, and Earthshaker was swinging her shield overhead with both hands. It’s hidebound length crashing into the celestial beast before her power expelled its force to try and crush both lion sword and Magical girl to the ground. This time Roche wasn’t going to give her an opportunity to get back up either, eye gleaming with a malice that would have chilled her club mates.

The overhead shield bash had knocked the opposing magical girl to the ground, and it looked like her sword arm might have broken. "What the hell is going on!?" She said to no one in particular. Then she looked up at Roche. "What? You’re going to pout at me now? Just wait until you see the apex of my power!" With a grin, she plunged her malformed sword into her own rib cage. "WARPGASM!"

Her body grew in every direction, but not uniformly or with any sort of purpose. Initially it was like watching tumors grow on someone at an accelerated rate, but eventually the growths became so numerous and massive that the original girl was no longer visible. Some out of control monster was growing around Roche and threatening to crush her. Walls of flesh came up on all sides of the rule keeper and started to close above her head, blocking out the last rays of sunlight.

While her blow had struck and laid the girl out, it hadn’t been enough to end the fight. Rather it had pushed the vulgar girl to reveal she was as hideous on the outside. Impressive and horrific in equally wretched fashion, Earthshaker reeled back at the sight of flesh rupturing and expanding, a rippling wave of meat trying to crush her in its twisted embrace.

Not moving far enough she felt the wet, raw skin clap against her, stretching overhead till everything turned dark.

Dark. Wet. Suffocating. Clammy hands closing on her windpipe as they sought to drag her down into the ocean depths.

Deeper still and close to home. A memory that sat deeper then her brush with the pirates. One that carried a far stronger familiarity due to the presence of a Magical Girl. Hot blood shaving my skin. Her lips at my throat as a tendril speared my calf. That insane girl would have killed me.

There was no active thought in face of such a hauntingly familiar threat. A flame could be smothered, a bolt of lightning could be grounded, but raw concussive force would travel through flesh all the same. More to hit meant only more to batter. Earthshaker screamed and lashed out without restraint, open palms slapping out into the encroaching walls as she hurled herself forward with a feral scream.

The magical girl, creature, inner demon, whatever Roche was fighting, it ruptured like a balloon and made a hissing sound as the skin deflated. Roche’s charge had carried her out of the magical girl’s clutches, and her deflating form flew around erratically after she had been deflated. She face planted in the grass nearby, possibly knocked out.

Roche didn’t even have time to catch her breath before another girl walked onto the scene. Initially Roche thought she had been followed by Acid Drop, but after taking her in, it was clear that she only looked like Tsubomi out of the corner of her eye. Her clothes were monochromatic. She wore a grey shirt with what seemed to be some devil stars and designs scribbled on with a black magic marker. She wasn’t wearing pants, or if she was, they were too short to be visible over her long shirt. Her hair was closer in color to a slate grey, and her fingernails were painted black. Only her eyes had any color, which were a blue darker and deeper than any non-magical human should ever have. Yet the girl didn’t really look like a magical girl either, whoever she was.

"Oh, now this looks like a mess." She grinned from ear to ear as she approached. "I wonder who was roughhousing so hard back here. They made an awful mess of the grass here. Hmmm…"

Hunched and panting, Roche looked every bit the savage maiden her Magical Girl form projected outwards. Eyes shrunken to pin pricks as lost herself in the raw trembling of her extremities, fingers tingling from the muted splat of her magic striking meat without any holding back.

Just like last time the Rulekeeper was left the one staring down at a Dark Girl, and it was some fluke of fortune that the girl who had burst into a blob of meat wasn’t a smear against the grass. A ragged exhale as she banished the phantom image of Suki imposed upon the lecherous assailant and she considered changing back to her regular form to leave the rotten city behind.

And was stricken in place, a chill racing down her back as she looked to see they were no longer alone, and this girl looked equally as unlikely to be a GEM.

Was she a Magical Girl? Impossible to tell given her attire, while dark, wasn’t screaming magic either. Pushing down the lizard brain instinct to leap away with a blast of force, Earth Shaker took a silent step back onto the paved path and watched the stranger wordlessly. Hoping against hope she was blind to her presence as the other mundane people and she could slip away from this mess.

The stranger approached the fallen girl and kneeled. "Hmmm. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmmmmmmmm…" She lifted a flap of skin that had popped to look under it. "Things are changing around here, we can’t be as reckless as we once could." She allowed the skin to fall out of her hands. As violent as the exchange was, there was no gore to speak of. It was almost as if Roche had defeated some sort of balloon miseria. Only the girl didn’t bubble away into nothing, nor was she all black. "There’s a time and place to be the hero, and it’s not now." She started to stand up. "So, what brings the detention club to the city of light?" She asked her question without looking at Roche. "I thought it would be a few months before you got cocky enough to mount a siege, and certainly not by yourself."

When did everything get so complicated? I swear a year ago all that I had to worry about was Suki and killing Miseria. Earthshaker seethed in her frustration and stepped forward, letting the cloak pull tight around her.

"I didn’t come looking for a fight, but this girl thought different and pushed the matter till I had to push back." The Rule Keeper exhaled, hood quirking to the side as she scanned the campus tensely. If two Magical Girls showed up, it was only a matter of time till more joined them, and she already had a mountain of questions to unpack just from the strangers monologue. It reeked of secrets Rei would keep.

"I came here trying to meet an acquaintance of mine. If she’s not here, then I’ll get lost. I don’t know what you think the Detention Club does, but we aren’t looking to storm the City of Light, even if the GEMS are pushing things too far."

"Well yes, all of that is pretty evident. At least, everything but the ‘meeting an acquaintance’ bit. A dark girl wanting to meet anyone here is about as uncanny as dark girls being in the City of Light. And to clarify, Madness and I don’t really qualify as either of those." The mysterious girl folded her arms behind her back. "What are you doing here, really?"

Magical Girls not identifying with either side, even with their edgy bearings? If she were back home she’d have called it ridiculous, but it wasn’t worth splitting hairs over given the circumstances.

"The GEMS aren’t the only ones stepping into my home to cause trouble, and I was hoping to find her to get some answers as to why she’s bothering with it. Maybe…de-escalate things if she’s reasonable."

Saying that while glancing down at the pummeled Madness didn’t have her too confident in the last approach.

"Ah, of course." The yet-to-be-introduced girl nodded. "I think I got the picture now." She held out her hands and framed Earth Shaker between her thumbs and point fingers. "There are plenty of fish in the sea, but none are biting your hook, if ya catch my drift." She tucked her arms behind her back. "The dating pool back at Hibusa town, or whatever you call it, is far too small. They either don’t like you, you don’t like them, and those you do spark with don’t do so hot enough to fire your cylinders." The pile of flesh that used to be Madness gurgled something. "Yes, your hunch was right, but that’s always your hunch. I can hardly give you kudos for making the same observation you always make." Her eyes returned to Earth Shaker. "I’m afraid your attempt at a romantic rendezvous will not work here. I’m not allowed to say exactly why, but there’s a reason why they’ve chosen to keep their distance and made themselves so hard to track. That, and your world had shifted. Surely you’ve noticed things have not been the same since Ashbringer showed up? Things feel different, don’t they?"

"Wh-What?!" Earthshaker choked on her words, gasping and pounding a fist to her chest at the sudden turn. Even if Madness had been so very vulgar about it, hearing the insinuation directed so flatly at her did leave the Rule Keeper bothered. "This isn’t a romance thing. She’s trying to-"

Huh, so what’s it feels like? No wonder Ashbringer was upset with me. The gears in her mind caught and spun, vision narrowing against the strange gothic girl. One who didn’t seem to identify with either group that fit within Roche’s worldview, and who dropped the name of the very girl she’d refused to say aloud here.

"I see I was too arrogant. Too hopeful she hadn’t put together a big team." Earth Shaker loosed a rueful laugh and forced herself to loosen up. Fighting wouldn’t help her now if this new girl pushed things, and unlike Madness she didn’t seem the mindless berserker type she could lay out with a good counter. "If she won’t talk to me I’ll stop looking to force it, but I won’t stop asking why this is happening."

Or why the world was so tilted, for that matter. Miseria were escalating to the point it was a wonder they remained hidden from the world. The very existence of Giga Miseria was unsettling, as though every natural disaster was in actuality a lumbering monster cleaving across the country.

"Are you saying Ashbringer opened us up to some hidden truth of the world? Or did she actually change reality?"

Finally, the smug grin on the girl’s face opened up her lips. She turned her head and attempted to shield her face from Earthshaker’s view. "Ah, you almost got me." She lowered her hand. "The magical girls here are powerful, but none can transcend the laws of this place. Causality as it pertains to mortals remains intact, etcetera etcetera. No, I am implying that something happened that allowed Ashbringer to show up." The girl produced a gourd from behind her back, one with a tiny hole in it. She shook it a few times and then by the opening was a tiny-teany apple. She pinched the apple between her fingers and slowly pulled it out, at which point it expanded until it was large enough to fit in her hand. "What do you think happens when a god gets tired of their creation?"

That was a small relief. Given the scale and power of girls like Rei and the absurdity of some forms of Magic, it didn’t seem beyond the pall that causality would start being twisted into knots. But any succor she found turned to ash on her tongue at the pointed question. Because the answer had been staring them in the face from the moment the strange girl had introduced herself.

"They’d burn it down and start over." Earthshaker’s voice was tiny, barely heard on the wind as she considered the first meeting with Ashbringer. A flaming harbinger of doom that came completely out of the blue. "She’s older than us but she came all the way to our city to put us down. Like she already had a connection to the Club and wanted to wipe it away. A girl who easily brought together others for a new group like she had experience."

The blob beside the girl snorted. "Holy shit! Dude, what did she just say? Satan here isn’t talking about the six-foot-ten dommy mommy you want to step all over you."

The girl who had been called Satan looked down at Madness. She had taken only a single bite of the apple. "You’re healing up fast."

"Give me ten more minutes and I’ll be feeding this girl an ass wooping!"

"As interesting as that would be, I don’t think she’s going to remain here that long." Satan dropped the abble into the blob, which promptly devoured it. Then she looked back at Earth Shaker. "Anyway, I wasn’t talking about Ashbringer. I was talking about the simple relationship between a creator and their creation on a cosmic scale. And I’ve found that they do not, actually, bother destroying what they created. I mean it sounds very cool, but more often than not they simply move on. Rather than pillaging their creations to start over, they simply back away from them and begin again elsewhere. Gods do not have to be as frugal as you or I do. Their power is limitless, so there is no need to conserve it. And so, sometimes something else can swoop in and start playing with the god’s old toys."

"That’s….better" The Rule Keeper felt she’d dodged a serious bullet there, and with how mysterious Rei was she wouldn’t have doubted if Ash Bringer was some founder come to end the club they started. But no, Ash wasn't god, she was more like the Demiurge trying to fill the void. Though what that said about a God

Though considering the girl telling her all this went by Satan, it might have been wise to take everything she said with a measure of salt.

"Yeah don’t worry, I’ll be gone before the meatbag is back up, but just to be clear; You’re saying all this craziness is because someone set up my City as their playground, and now that they left we’ve got strangers rolling in and there’s nothing to stop them. That’s….a relief."

"No god is pulling our strings or writing our fates. Just a bunch of Magical Girls getting into a fight. That’s so typical I’d call it boring if it wasn’t setting fire to my neighborhood."

"Oh no." Satan finally chuckled. It was dark. "No, no no, no no no. When a god abandons their creation, that is an opportunity for something far more sinister to step in. I don’t doubt there are truly benevolent beings that wish to keep things in harmony, but it’s clear your world is now in the clutches of an eldritch horror."

"Preach it sister!" Madness lifted part of its blob up, which might have been an attempt at pumping her fist into the air if she had one.

"Yes, Aigorost has come to this place. Isn’t it funny how impossibly strong you are, and now there’s a city of light that houses a bunch of ultra strong light girls, some of which can stand up to you? How convenient that Rei has almost stopped making public appearances in your time of need? These anomalies, inconsistencies between the world that was and as it was now could only be the result of a creature that feeds on despair!"

"The tendrils of the unborn god have coiled themselves around the white god’s creation!" Madness bubbled in glee. "It remains to be seen if they will pull themselves out of inexistence, or you into it!"

"Beware his symbol!" Satan opened her hand, revealing a decomposing frog overtaken with plant life. Both squirmed in her hand. "A corpse that fosters life! Duality!"

"From beyond the veil of reality, their unborn eyes look back at us from the stars!"

"Do you see now?" Satan placed a hand on Earth Shaker’s shoulder. "I will be departing from this world shortly, but if there is anything you need, I will do my best to help you. In exchange for a favor, of course."

A moment of stunned silence passed in the aftermath of Satan closing upon her, hand clasped to her shoulder as though they were old friends, and not that she was a complete stranger trying to overturn her understanding of reality so completely she’d be left rudderless and adrift. How did searching for Ashbringer turn so complicated? Were the Giga Miseria a consequence of this supposed Horror?

Her eyes slid to the frog in her hand, mind lurching towards her own city’s resident frog girl, but that relation was only superficial. No, there was something far more appropriate that dawned upon her; The bone giant and it’s shrikes. Creatures of bone with flesh and muscle, life and death puking a viscera that melted all it touched.

There wasn’t a fiber in Roche’s body that didn’t want to call Satan insane, or attempt to label her the deceiver she was named for, but there were enough loose pieces that she couldn’t cast it aside. Especially when she was the only one who seemed interested in explaining whatever was going on in the world.

"What do you want?"

"Tell Suki that I forgot her E-mail address, and I need her to send it to me again." Satan tipped her head. "TheRealRizzo, she’ll know who it is."

If one listened closely, they could hear a loud, visceral snapping sound. One couldn’t know if that was from the grinding of teeth, or if Earthshaker was suffering from an aneurysm at the sheer insanity that was her life.

Her voice was deceptively flat as she nodded, expression blank. Almost serene for the lack of life behind her eyes. "I will tell her. Now if you would be so kind as to help."

It always comes back to Suki. Everything always traces right back to her and her messes….

"Help with what?"

"With the Eldritch Horrors? And Ashbringer?"

"Oh." She clapped her hands together. "I don’t think we can do anything about Aigorost, as Madness is their acolyte. It’s not like we can bring the white god back anyway. All we can really do is pray."

"You need a virgin sacrifice!" The blob jiggled. "Come here, and we can appease all the watchers with an X-rated ritual!"

"As for Ashbringer, she’s not my area of expertise. But I’d say keep an eye out for what’s happening in Japan. Wild fires aren’t common outside the dry season, so they could be an indication of where she is." Satan produced a crystal ball. "Or I could give you this. I’d need you to pay me, of course, but it will let you see exactly where she is."

The horror was clashing miserably with frustration at the pair who switched tactlessly from rousing terror back to irreverent interplay, and Roche was liable to pop a blood vessel if she squinted any harder at Satan.

"Tell me what you want for the crystal ball, and it better not be an X-Rated ritual."

"Good heavens no!" Satan laughed. "Ah, you finally got me. I’m not nearly as depraved as Madness here is. I was going to charge you 25,000 yen for it, but you made me laugh, so how about 20,000?"

"Show me that it works and you have you’re 20k." It wasn’t like she couldn’t steal some groceries to make up for the dip in her funds. If this orb could track Ashbringer then she would have considered the rituals regardless of her words.

"Very well, I’ll show you first, but don’t even think of weaseling out of our deal." Satan closed her eyes and gripped the ball with both hands. "Where is Ashbringer now?" She gave the orb a shake and turned it over to look at the hidden message on the bottom. "It says to ask again tomorrow."

"Ah." Such was Roche’s turmoil that her expression looped upon it into a state of serenity.

Without an ounce of tension she reached out and clasped Satan’s shoulders like an old friend. "How much of all this was you messing with a tourist? I just wanna be clear before…."

Earthshaker’s head tilted with her drifting words, the hood casting an especially deep shadow over her face.

Satan looked back at the crystal ball, shook it again, and waited for the next answer to reveal itself. "Signs point to yes. It helps if you frame your question with a yes or no answer in mind."

"That’s what I thought."

There was nothing in the world Roche Wouldnt have given to be gripped in the thrall of Nyxia’s predisposition to violence without great consideration. It may have helped her forget just where she was or that Madness could likely get back up if she really wanted to soon enough.

But cursed as she was with responsibility and with the sputtering blob of meat before them, Earthshaker would not be blowing her top. Or much of anything, as her transformation unravelled, leaving Roche able to reach into her pocket and draw out her wallet. Wrinkled bills came free and she held them out to the great Satan.

"Thank you for the help. I think I’ll take this back home with me now."

The lavender haired girl took the money without counting it and handed her the globe. "I hope it brings you to what you seek." She folded up the money and pushed it into the tiny gourd, then moved it behind her back to whatever invisible space seemed to hold her inventory. "Ah, but a few more words before you depart." She picked up Madness and swung her over her shoulder. "The world is big. There are many things in it and things happening at every level. During our time together the insects beneath us move beyond our notice. Aigorost and Glexaroth continue to wage war beyond the stars. Regardless of scope, these things are both equally immaterial to us in the moment." She turned around to leave. "A second meeting with Ashbringer is an inevitability, is it not? The time you spend apart will seem so short when you are finally together."

"That’s nice." Roche said, not entirely listening as her eyes glazed over. Fingers curled like the rictus limbs of a departed spider rolled the ‘crystal ball’ over in her grasp. There was a sound like crackling of ice the day after a blizzard, that crisp shattering of a pristine surface that only needed the slightest pressure to collapse into fathomless depths.

Mirth rose sticky and black as she gave the Orb a jerky shake. She didn’t ask it for the whereabouts of Ashbringer or the machinations of the GEMS. Not the secrets of Rei or twisted past of Shatterscape.

Will I ever be loved again?

A childish impulse. The sort of question a cluster of girls would ask a ouija board amidst a giggling sleepover, but it was what emerged as her mind was pushed to the precipice. Bloodshot eyes warbled as the crystal ball was lifted to her face.

Signs Point To Yes.

The Rule Keeper’s cheeks grew wet and contorted, a feeling of euphoria washing away the last of her resolve. A manic laugh as her arms slid over the magic eight-ball and the world tilted wildly.

She struck the grass beside the path, curling into a fetal ball as she wept, cried, and bawled like a newborn babe. Something’s were just too much for the mortal mind to bear.