This had gone on long enough.

Willow had been willing to wait a few days to see if the problem solved itself. But predictably, it did not. When a chair has a loose leg it does not magically mend itself by repeatedly sitting on it. More often than not, the seat’s leg gives out and drops its occupant onto their butt. Normally rickety chairs weren’t a problem for a girl that was unbound by gravity, but metaphorical chairs like the one she was standing on were. Metaphorically, the light bulb needed to be changed. Metaphorically, she could not fly and had to stand on her toes to reach the bulb. Metaphorically, someone could kick the chair out from under her, turn on the light, or do any number of unpleasant things to make her abort her task. The worst part was that no one person was responsible for all of these potential negative scenarios. The second worst part was that everything that was brought about was done so by a single dark magical girl.

The feline magical girl was hovering over a building, grasping a mogall in both hands. She was shaking it vigorously.

"Evil Eye!" She called into the creature. "Reveal yourself!"

Ever since her phone got stolen, she was hesitant to draw it out while transformed. Especially since the monkeys had taken up residence in the place. They were good at hiding, and even Willow was seldom the one who noticed them before they noticed her.

Evil Eye didn't know what it was Willow wanted, but she didn't seem to sense any enemies around, so it wasn't that kind of emergency. "Of all the ways to reach me," the girl's voice drifted in on a sigh as she floated up from the nearby alley and slowly settled, like a weary old balloon that had been kicked, onto a bench on the roof. "Call, text, Lime..." She began listing them off with her fingers. "Natter, Concord, Loom... hell, even Snipe." Her half-lidded eyes, at once mildly annoyed and amused, settled on Willow. "It's a bit late for an open door policy, but you could've tried knocking. So many options! And you chose violence. Should I have brought backup?" she teased lightheartedly, patting the seat next to her.

Willow did not turn to look at Evil Eye. She immediately burst into light and teleported on the edge of the roof where Evil Eye had invited her to sit. The mogall was sent reeling. Its iris circled as it gained its bearings before floating off.

"Why would I use Concord?" She practically spat out the words, and didn’t look at Evil Eye as she spoke. "Nobody uses Concord, and if you do, you should be ashamed of yourself." Willow kept her arms crossed and kicked her feet off the edge. "Whatever. The point is I couldn’t make it to the big meeting, and I understand there’s been a change in how we’re going to operate, ah-gain!" She swung her head so that she was looking straight at Evil Eye. "I appreciate that Schrade and I are still on the same team, but why the heck did you lump yourself in with us?"

Evil Eye tilted her head to look at Willow and blinked. "Who said it was my decision?" she inquired, joining her in swinging her legs restlessly. "Actually, hold that thought—if I had my dream team picks, who do you think I'd have gone with?"

"I don’t know!" The liar threw out her hands. "It’s not like I peeked inside your super secret diary or anything! The one that’s pink, is covered in way too much glitter, and is locked tight with a rhinestone studded key." She huffed. "I get why you’d want to be by Rei’s side, but then why hang onto me? I knew the whole Hizuki/Willow combo wasn’t going to last, but…" She lifted a finger under her chin. "Hmmm, there really aren’t a lot of people in the detention club that understand you, are there?"

"Nope," Evil Eye remarked plainly. "And it's better that they don't—especially Hizuki." Gingerly, she reached a hand into her pocket and retrieved a stick of black cherry gum, popping it into her mouth as easily as Suki might a cigarette. She held the bag of contraband out to Willow, too, for her to pick one she liked. What was she supposed to say to her? No one wants to work with you, Willow, so I'm taking one for the team. She scoffed inwardly as she imagined herself saying it. It wasn't wrong, per se, but that had been the natural conclusion of her process, not the starting point. "All the teams scattered into pieces with their own priorities, and even the ones who tried to stick with their groups had trouble keeping up. So I tried to match people based on a combination of their willingness to work together and their movement abilities." She peered over the edge of the roof at the street below, at all the people going their own way. Even if they could see the girls, it was doubtful they'd pay them any attention, with their eyes glued to their phones or to the pavement.

"Your first mistake was thinking you could manage chaos. Plot twist: You can’t." Willow rummaged around before pulling back her hand. Though she had helped herself to a few. Blackberry, peach, cherry, and lemon were sticking between each of her fingers. She even had the gall to reach a second time for a single blackberry, which she was able to unwrap in one hand with a single motion. "Good luck placing Tsubomi in any team. I don’t think anyone moves as slow as she does, unless you count being missing like an absent father as slow." She grinned to herself.

Evil Eye watched Willow pilfer nearly half the bag with a smirk. She seemed rather pleased about something. "True. I've always been a terrible manager, but always ended up as one, because no one else was willing to step up to the plate to try." She blew a bubble and popped it. "If Tsubomi gets out of her funk, it won't be because a change in teams solved the problem, it'll be because Suki and Haruna have what it takes to solve the problem I decided to give them."

"Like I said, good luck with that." The feline girl began licking the bubble gum, but didn’t chew any of it. "Ah, but I don’t really care. Hizuki mentioned that she had a crush on someone in the club. Since most everyone’s willing to move heaven and earth for the girl, I wasn’t sure if you were trying to play matchmaker."

Evil Eye tilted her head in thought at the mention of Hizuki having a crush. "This is the first I'm hearing about a crush," she half-lied. She knew that Roche had one, but not Hizuki. "Young girls give their hearts away so easily. Nothing good would come from playing matchmaker. We've got bigger fish to fry, and one we're trying to not get fried by."

"I think the GEMs are a bigger problem than some dark girl Rei could crush like an insect." She started mushing the bubblegum together and shaping it with her hands. "Come to think of it, she could kick the GEMs asses too. But I gotta give them credit, they actually seem like they enjoy being around each other. And they can work towards a single goal. Makes you question if dark girls are really the apex they think they are, huh? There’s gotta be a reason Rei’s got her club here and not in the city of light." She continued to massage the bubblegum shapes in her hands. "If I could have any team I wanted, who do you think I’d want on it? And uh, you wouldn’t happen to have any apple gum, would you?"

"In a team of three, you'd want Rei and Suki. Isn't it obvious?"

"You’re half right, but I’ve already got Tsubomi and Suki as band mates."

Evil Eye tilted the bag upside-down and spilled all of the candies out onto the space between them. There was just one green apple left, which Willow quickly snatched up. "Of course we are superior to them. We're stronger, and we know more about the world and about ourselves. There are just fewer of us than them. They have the numbers. Ashbringer has a team, too, and they're probably better." There wasn't a hint of doubt in Evil Eye's tone.

"Probably." Willow emphasized. "Though I think the GEMs have an advantage in that they seem to know more about each other. Must be a light girl thing. Hizuki wanted to know where Suki was, and I wouldn’t tell her. Despite this, she managed to find them before I even arrived, and I knew exactly where she was." She sighed. "Well, whatever. Regardless of what you say, I think you paired us together because you know I’m the only one who can understand you." She presented her hands to Evil Eye, which had the licked and molded bubble gums in it. Only now it looked like two magical girls. Blackberry for their clothes, peach for their flesh, cherry for red accents and eyes, and lemon for one of the gum figurine’s blond hair. The apple one seemed to be unused, or maybe it was that tiny bulge in the side of Willow’s cheek.

"Really," Evil Eye replied with no small amount of skepticism. She was mildly curious why Willow would not tell Hizuki where Suki was, but decided to say nothing. It had to be some form of teasing. "And what, exactly, makes you think you do—or that you're the only one?"

"I think it’s plain enough to see we have a lot of similarities." She grasped Gum!Evil Eye in one hand and Gum!Willow in the other. "We can both fly, summon creatures, yadda yadda. Even the things that make us different are kind of similar, like how I’m the little sister and you’re the older one. And sisters always know each other’s secrets." The figures wobbled side to side in Willow’s hand. It wasn’t hard to picture them having a conversation. "And even without that, I believe you like cats, do you not?"

Evil Eye snickered. "Well, sure. I love cats. That's hardly a secret, though."

"Love, eh? That’s a pretty strong word."

She watched Willow play with her food, considering the girl. She'd predicted, quite correctly, that she would take a bunch of flavors and mash them together—though she hadn't expected her to play with the resulting amalgamations like dolls—and she hadn't been sure exactly why she predicted Willow would do that. Now, she thought, it was because that seemed like exactly the kind of thing an excitable child would do. "But you, a little sister? That's the first I've heard of it." If it was in regards to the girls within the Detention Club, Evil Eye rather thought Willow reminded her of a neglected middle child, not a little sister—but she wasn't going to say that. "You're right, though. Our similarities make us fit to work together." And, she was willing to try—but that part had been implied earlier, and didn't need to be said.

"It’s all metaphorical, my dear Watson." She put her toys off to the side and leaned backwards to stretch. "Well! I feel a lot better about the prospect of us teaming up now. Here I thought you were trying to pull something weird, but I was just overthinking things." She rolled her head side to side. "I’m also glad you weren’t trying to deepen Hizuki’s relationship with Acid Drop or Oros. Because she seems to like those two. I probably don’t look it but I get jealous easily."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," Evil Eye replied simply. Of all the Detention Club girls, if she had to tier them by readiness for a relationship, Suki was racing her to the bottom, and Tsubomi... was Tsubomi. Hizuki was the only one in that group with any hope of pulling it off. She does seem like the type to let someone take her out on a pity date, but... "Suki didn't seem that interested," she decided.

"That’s exactly what I wanted to hear!" She stood up. "I think I’m going to call our little meeting adjourned. Until next time!" Willow dove off the roof and fell towards the people below, only to glide away between two buildings. The pedestrians didn’t look up for a moment.

The only hint that Willow had been in the area was the gum figures she had made, which were standing where she had been sitting moments prior. Only they seemed to be holding hands now, or their hands had been fused together in some horrific accident.

Evil Eye peered over the edge of the roof to watch Willow fly away. For a moment she sat there, chewing her gum until the last faint hint of its short-lived flavor was gone. Then, she stuck it beneath the bench, to join a mound of others. "Yeah. Way too similar," she mused, as she too floated away.

---

Haruna was doing Haruna things.

Which was to say that she was busy. She was busy at night helping people, busy during the day with her schooling, and busy in her down time trying to help the detention club not implode on itself. It might be fair to say Haruna didn’t have time for herself. Or rather, what little time she had for herself she freely gave to other people. Her morning jog might have just been the only time she truly did something for herself.

And it was then, when she was tying her jogging shoes, that her phone rang. It wasn’t someone calling to tell her about her car insurance though, it was from a certain pink haired magical girl that slurred her words. She pulled the strings tight before fishing her phone out of her pocket. The sight of the call ID prompted mixed feelings in Hibusa’s shiniest magical girl, but these didn’t stop her from answering the call. "Hello?"

"Ey you!" Came through the phone, confirming what should have been obvious. Though there was the small chance that an ape had stolen her phone before she could depart. "Are ya okay? Da ya need help? Should I bring the gals with meh?" She laughed like someone two-hundred pounds heavier than she was. "Couldn’t help mahself. Anyway, uh, dere’s a Pancake Abode halfway between us. We could meet dere if ya want. Talk face to face like old times."

"Yeah, that might be nice. I was just about to go for a run, but I wouldn’t mind getting a nice breakfast." Routines were important, but so were breaks from them. "And for the record, I’m doing fine. There are a few challenges here in Hibusa, but nothing I can’t handle." She hoped the conversation would lower her stress levels, not raise them, but given she had practical matters to address, that was less than certain. "I think I know the place. Race you there?" she asked, smiling a bit to herself.

"Sure ting!"

And with that, the race was on.

…

…

…

The Pancake Abode was nothing special. It was a small restaurant that owed all of its business to people driving past the gas station it was built next to. Travelers would fuel up and get a nice meal before continuing on to the city of light, where they would rent a hotel room and sleep for the night. The restaurant was very much a greasy spoon, but it was in an old, charming building. Some of the brick work had been repaired, with day old bricks sandwiched between decade old ones. There were evergreen trees at every corner of the structure and bushes that lined the front of the establishment. The real symbol of the restaurant’s age was from its billboard, which likely hadn’t been updated for decades. The little chipmunk mascot was not drawn in a contemporary style, and the font was bold and goofy compared to the contemporary minimalism that most businesses had adapted.

Predictably, Haruna had arrived about five minutes before Morganite got there. Or at least she assumed that was who was jogging to the Pancake Abode in a hurry. The identity protection magic tied to their transformations always made it a bit hard to tell, and Morganite had never revealed herself like this. She had never seen Haruna and had worked exclusively with Hizuki. The pinkette looked around, her eyes scanning the roof tops and the greenery in front of the joint.

"Am first!" She threw her fists into the air before doing a little dance. She scuffed her feet and moon walked backwards (unconvincingly) three steps before turning to look in Haruna’s direction. Then she froze.

Haruna flashed her a broad, smug grin before closing the distance. "Not quite. I’m still the fastest one around here." She clapped one hand on Morganite’s shoulder. "Good effort, but I’ve kept up training all this time. I’m actually joining the track team in Hibusa, so you shouldn’t feel too bad about losing this one." She gestured at the entrance. "Shall we go get some water, and then some pancakes? I could eat so many chocolate chip ones right now."

After Haruna concluded her humble brag, the girl gave a quiet little "ya" before they entered the establishment together. The interior was a great deal cleaner and fresh when compared to the exterior of the building, but was still dated. It really tried to look like a place where you could eat western style food, but perhaps they had leaned a bit too hard into that aesthetic. The interior was lit with old fluorescent lights that were a bit too dim to properly light everything, and the awnings over the windows prevented much light from coming in. There was also a lot of brown, from the picnic style tables to the tiled floor. Even the white countertops and vinyl seats seemed to be a light shade of brown. Pushes of the mascot were tucked in every corner of the establishment, and the squirrel’s brown coat didn’t alleviate the color oversaturation.

There also weren’t too many people inside. It was easy to pick up on the untransformed Morganite’s desires. She wanted to understand, she wanted to keep a friend, she wanted to be understood. A lady at the counter wearing a yellow waitress outfit directed the girls to a booth, took their orders, and departed.

"Wasn’t sure how ya were gunna look." She tipped her head side to side as she viewed Haruna from as wide an angle as she possibly could. "Since we’re off da clock, ya might as well call me Saundra."

"Then you should call me Haruna." She watched the other light girl pivot back and forth, wondering at what exactly she was doing. "Um, sorry again about the other day. I really appreciate you being willing to put yourself at risk for me like that."

"Ahhhhh, dun mention it, Haruna!" She beamed with joy. "Riskin’ it all is what us GEMs ‘re all aboot!"

Haruna scratched her head awkwardly. "Er, other than that, have you been alright? Anything interesting happened back home while I’ve been away? Are the GEMs still getting along decently with SF?"

"Az gud as we can." She lowered her eyes and sighed. "Da old boss has been kinda distant ever since da switch, but we all keep da city protected." Saundra made a not so subtle attempt to change the topic, and her dour expression changed with it. "How about da light girls around here? I know there aren’t a lot, but do ya get along with ‘em?"

"I’ve only really met the one, but she seems pretty nice. She really doesn’t like the Detention Club, but honestly, that’s pretty understandable," she sighed. "Sayuri gave me a good luck charm and everything. If there’s other light girls around Hibusa, though, I haven’t met them. Everyone except Miss Gate has been either a GEM or a Detention Club member."

"Mmmm, dat’s not too surprising." She tapped her fingers on the table. "A lotta light girls who go to Habusa town don’t stay there. Da Detention club is massive. We’ve been ignoring dem because they keep to themselves." Clearly mentioning that she understood why someone would hate the Detention club was, to Saundra, an invitation to talk about why she didn’t like them. That was what her desires told Haruna before she opened her mouth. "I only went into Hibusa to look for ah missing person. I saw a mascot and figured it belonged to the detention club. Ah knew I was playin’ with fire, but ah only really wanted to get their help. But dey put some kinda hex on me." Her eyebrows became cross. "Dey suppressed my emotions or somethin’. It was disgusting magic! I got ah little sidetracked and followed them out to their beach vacation. Ah can’t do a lot on my own, but it was clear they were up to something. I got Pearl, but by that point they had already summoned a giga miseria. You know what dey are?" Haruna didn’t have to answer. Saundra could tell by the grave expression on her face at the mention of the word that she had. "And dey had da nerve to ask me why I didn’t help them kill it! Because giga miseria don’t create more of themselves, and I needed to take care of da bigger threat, that’s why!" She folded her arms and leaned back in her chair.

"Here you are." The waitress served their meals. For Saundra, that was a stack of pancakes with a mountain of whipped cream on top, covered in strawberries. The whole thing had been lightly dusted with powdered sugar. The pinkette was so delighted by her treat that she nearly forgot to speak.

"Tanks!" She scooped up her fork and dove in immediately. After taking a single bite, she leaned back in her seat, her eyelids closed, and while she chewed, a smile of pure bliss crossed her face.

Haruna thanked the server and started in on her own pancakes a bit more sedately, drenching them in maple syrup before taking a couple small bites. "It sounds like you ran into Acid Drop in town," she started. "I don’t think she meant anything by it, she was probably just trying to get you to leave the mascot alone. She’s not very good at communicating." She avoided pointing out the GEMs’ hypocrisy in their retaliation.

"As for the beach incident, I don’t approve of them involving innocents, obviously, but I’m starting to learn why it happened. The Detention Club is under threat. Another dark girl showed up, burned down a flower shop, kicked the crap out of them, and then said she’d be back with friends. They’re trying to get stronger so they can survive, and your team being around is making them feel backed into a corner. Especially since they can’t always rely on Schrade to be around." Haruna took a few more bites, giving Saundra an opportunity to reply.

Two seconds into talking about the beach event, and Saundra already looked agitated. "Ahyea, dark girls are always da problem. Not too surprising they are a headache for their own." She stabbed her fork at her meal until it was loaded up with pancake and strawberry. "Ya pretty quick ta paint us as part of da problem, but den what did dey do to da other dark girl ta make her so angry? And what did she do to dem to prompt dem makin’ her angry? And was dere a ting before dat? Or before dat even?" She took some syrup and drizzled it over her sweetened pancakes. "An eye for an eye makes da world blind, sure. But dat was uncalled for, regardless of reason." Her cheeks bulged when she bit down on her fork full of food.

"They’d never seen this girl before. She just showed up out of nowhere and trashed the place. If there was some kind of preexisting grudge, nobody’s said a word." Haruna frowned. "I’m not trying to paint you as anything, I’m explaining what’s going on so we can resolve this before someone gets seriously hurt. Or at least so you can understand why I’m opposing you if we end up fighting for real."

Sandra dropped her fork onto her plate with a clatter.

Haruna sighed. "They’re not actually bad people, mostly. Just. . . troubled. You know?" She looked down and to the side. "It’s not like you don’t know anyone dealing with their own stuff."

"Most people dealing with dere own stuff don’t summon monsters and endanger da public." She folded her arms. "Everybody does something bad once. Dark girls do it over and over. Dey will rob, cheat, steal, harass, and force people ta do things dey don’t wanna do." She exaggerated a look of sorrow and threw her hand onto her head. "Wahhh! My notebook got stolen! Betta burn down da school!" She switched hands. "Wahhhhhhhh! I got made fun of! Betta make it my life mission ta kill the person who did it!" With a groan, she shook her head. "If ya saw da tings I saw dark girls do, ya wouldn’t be staying in Habusa town. Dey are hurting, and dey don’t wanna get better. Dey just wanna hurt everyone else too."

"That’s not true!" Haruna’s hand slapped down on the table loud enough for the girl to flinch at the sound, then look briefly sheepish as she realized other people were reacting as well. Sandra, however, only kept up her steely glare. "All they want is to keep their friends close to them and stay safe. Yeah, they do bad stuff sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be hunted in the streets. Do you know how scared they are of us? Most of them think they’ll just die if someone finds them in the city of light, and now they have light girls stalking them at school and trying to kidnap them on the way home." She was trying to keep her voice down, but it was getting increasingly difficult. "Seriously, why doesn’t any other magical girl believe in talking about anything!? It’s driving me crazy."

"I did try ta talk, and that’s how I got mind wammied by ‘Azid drop.’ I tried ta talk again after da fact, but dey are so proud dey attacked me for making ah funny bannah for dere club room." Saundra started to race her voice. "Diamond tried ta talk to them too, but dey attacked with ah big monstah they summoned! She ran with skiddle cuz she didn’t want ta fight and hurt her! Why does da Detention Club get ah pass on everything and da GEMS get treated like monsters for da smallest missteps?" She folded what remained of her pancakes in half and shoved them into her mouth.

Haruna took a deep breath. Stay cool. Yelling at her isn’t going to help with anything. Even if she might as well be lying through her teeth at you right now. "Okay. I’m just gonna. Not respond to that right now. You don’t think I’m being fair, and I don’t think you’re being fair, can we leave it at that so we can keep talking?" She paused a moment for Saundra to reply.

It took a moment for Saundra to finish chewing her food. "I guess…"

"You said you were looking for a missing person, and you wanted to see if the Detention Club would help. Can you tell me more about that?"

"Ah light girl went missing ah year or so ago." She groaned, clearly still agitated with what the outing had devolved into. "Her name was ‘Glorious.’ We taught she was dead but some of us saw her, only she ran away when we approached. She was headed for Hibusa town so ah figured I would see if she stopped by. Ah don’t think she did." She sipped her orange juice.

"Glorious? . . ." Haruna shook her head. "Doesn’t ring a bell. Although," she frowned, "is it possible she fell instead of dying? There’s a dark girl that seemed newer to the area that I made friends with. She decided to join up with the club recently. I don’t suppose you know what she looks like when she’s not transformed?"

"If she is alive den maybeh she fell. Would kinda hope not." She looked away from Haruna, or rather, she was trying to search her memory. "She wus a strawberry blonde, usually smiled, About as tall as you but like, kinda toned? Bat not too toned." She rubbed her arm and tried to make her arm the correct amount of muscle, but decided to give up when her tiny noodle arms didn’t yield anything she liked. "She liked to dress cool. Like she wore shirts with cool designs on dem. Sorta like a punk rock aesthetic but den it was scaled back to not be overbearing. Her hips swung when she walked, and guys always turned dere heads to look at ‘ere." She sniffed. "Like, she had dis aura about her? Like she was really cool, but also approachable? Even though she kinda looked like a delinquent she didn’t act like one or hold herself like one, you know? She was just cool without any of the bad stuff. She wasn’t Japanese, like me, or like any of us really. Definitely a foreign beauty type." Sandra’s breathing became noisier. "And she was interested in a lot of stuff. Like, if you wanted to show her something, she would always come see and let you explain it to her. Even if it was kinda stupid, she’d make sure you never felt that way."

Haruna searched her own memory for a few moments, but came up blank. "No, that doesn’t really sound familiar. That’s not what Miss Gate looks like at all. I’ll ask Evil Eye to keep an, uh, eye out though. If someone like that’s in Hibusa now, I’m sure we’ll see her." There was a reassuring note to her voice, but it didn’t do anything for Saundra. "What happened there, exactly? Did she just vanish one day, or did she get into a big fight or something first?"

"She was… Attacked." Saunda wiped her eyes. "She was never the same after that. We heard she was killed in a car crash so we came to the City of Light to see what happened, but all we found was her ruined car. Magical girls don always get ta leave a corpse. We suspected the dark girls did somethin’, but we never got da truth. Half of da dark girls in da city of light said dey never saw her. Da others? Dey all bragged about it! Not dat we think any of dem did it, but dey just tried to push our buttons. All we knew was she was gone, until summer. Den we had some hope. But…" She sighed. "Just lead ta more problems."

"I’m sorry this whole thing has become such a mess," Haruna said, sadly. "I’m also sorry for yelling at you. Like I said, I’ll do my best to find Glorious. Um. . ." She hesitated for a moment. "I’ve been a little too hard on the GEMs, I think. The Detention Club is nicer than you seem to think too. Can we forgive each other for that and maybe try to get our teams to try the whole talking thing again? It can just be a couple of them and a couple of you meeting in a place kinda like this to figure stuff out so people don’t need to be any more angry or scared than they need to be."

"We could try, ya." She looked down at her empty plate and then back at Haruna. "I haven't got faith in da detention club, but I got faith in you. Just keep everyone in Hibusa town for a while and den we can try talking again. If dey start summoning giga miseria again, well, we might be ‘fightin’ for real’ as you put it." She grabbed the top of her seat and slid herself out of the booth. "But I’d rather we not so dat we could do dis again." After flashing Haruna a smile, she walked up to the counter to get settled up for everything. The counter person accepted her money with a nod and waved to her as she departed. But Saundra stopped as soon as she got outside.

Haruna nearly bumped into her as she followed, having polished off the last of her pancakes while Saundra paid. "Is something wrong?"

She turned to look at Haruna. "Da lighting wasn’t good but…" She squinted her eyes. "Ya, you need to go ta bed earlier." Neither girl was in great shape. They had just run, were still sweaty, and would likely need a shower before they did anything else today. "I’ll see what ah can do wit da other GEMs, take care."

Haruna shrugged at Saundra’s comment. "Someone’s gotta patrol Hibusa at night." Then, she nodded. "You stay safe, too. I’ll keep an eye out for Glorious." She gave the GEM a wave, then turned to jog back home. "See you."

Hizuki was soaring above Hibusa once again. She climbed higher than usual, as she wasn’t scanning the streets for miseria, hostile magical girls, or people in need, but just going somewhere. She said she wouldn’t be hard to find, and she looked kinda like a shrine maiden. . . I think someone mentioned frogs on the mountain, too? Her body tilted into a lazy banking turn, bringing the towering landform into view. Yeah, that’s probably right.

Her wings flashed as she put more magic in, darting toward the mountain. From the air, it didn’t take long to see the distinct cutout of human structures in the verdant terrain. She let off the proverbial gas again, gliding down toward the shrine’s entrance. As she drew close, Hizuki pulled upward a bit, bleeding off the rest of her momentum. She came to a moving stop, losing the rest of her speed with a few running steps before glancing around to look for the frog-themed magical girl from the other day.

The sun was already setting by the time Haruna made land at the shrine, painting the whole place in a golden hue. Apart from the chirps of the cicadas throughout the mountain’s surrounding woods, there was not a sound to be heard. The stone stairs led to a Torii entrance that led to the main Shrine’s ground. It had two buildings - The shrine, centered towards the back, and Sayuri’s - that is, the shrine keepers - house more to the side. A pathway beside the shrine led to the woods and, eventually, the cemetery where Sayuri first met Boleite.

Exactly as intended, this place was the perfect refuse from the hectic city lifestyle.

"You actually came!" Haruna heard chirp nearby. The door of the house closed behind the girl now advancing towards the guest. She had blond hair tied at the back and modern clothing this time, not the whole shrine maiden attire.

"We’re done for the day, but the Shrine’s always open of course. I’m guessing you’re not here for praying or good luck, though?" This Sayuri was a bit less quippy, and seemed more downright positive and outgoing than the Kaeru Haruna met last time.

"Of course I came," Hizuki said, turning toward the girl she only knew as Kaeru as she replied. "I said I would, and it doesn’t take me very long to go places." She looked around at the shrine. "I could probably use some good luck, given how things have been going for. . . a while, but no, I didn’t come here for another blessing."

Sayuri’s smile turned to an exaggerated frown; "Nonsense! Here." she took Haruna’s hand as if they had been friends already, leading her towards the shrine proper. Once there she took an Ema, a wooden plaque, and began writing on it with a small brush.

"Did you think about what we spoke about?" she dropped, as she was still looking down, writing.

"If you’re asking whether I’m going to ditch the Detention Club, the answer is no." She shook her head for emphasis. "They really do need my help, I think. Not that they’re exactly making it easy to do that, but they’re still people. Mostly pretty miserable people, as far as I can tell. They’re all so afraid, it hurts to watch sometimes." Haruna sighed, letting her transformation go as she did so. "And it’s not like there’s no reason. The GEMs just straight up abducted Acid Drop off the street to do who-knows-what to her."

There was a moment of silence where Sayuri finished writing and put the plaque down, still looking straight ahead. Haruna’s words resonated a bit, of course. "Yeah, they really do." she said alluding to the needed Haruna’s help bit.

"Of course you won’t ditch your friends - and asking you to would be so wrong of me!" Sayuri grabbed some colorful little strands of thread and began to tie them together to the plaque.

"I know we just met, but I’m still, you know… worried a bit. Apart from the nature of simply being…a member of that Club, I just have such a hard time believing their feelings is mutual. Worried for you, that is."

"It's hard to say," Haruna said, shrugging. "I think Evil Eye cares what happens to me, even if she's kinda inscrutable. I don't know Earthshaker that well, but her partner Nyxia seems to like me. Willow. . ." Haruna shook her head. "I have no idea honestly, and Rei thinks I'm interesting. I don't know if most of those count as worried, but it doesn't really matter. I'm a big girl, I'll be okay." She smiled, as if to emphasize the point. "All I need is to know I'm doing good by someone."

Sayuri finished binding the plaque while listening to Haruna.
"I’ll be honest with you. As selfish as they are, as evil as some of them can be, The Club… they seem to at least care for one another, I can give them that much. In their own way" she started to hang the plaque on the wall alongside many other, all of which had little prayers and messages written on them. "...which I *don’t* understand, mind you."

She then bowed twice to the shrine.
"But we’re supposed to do more than just that. Friends are important, but we’re meant to project *everyone*. No? And I’m not saying that the GEMs do it right, or defending what they did or how they did it. Whatever they were aiming to do anyway." She clapped her hands together twice and closed her eyes.

”I am still protecting everyone. I’ve been going on patrols constantly, but that’s not the main thing. Think about it. If the dark girls of Hibusa are actually happy and don’t feel terrified of light girls coming to beat them up or drive them away all the time, then they won’t need to try so hard to get strong.” She looked as if she were about to continue, then looked between the other girl and the shrine. Haruna hadn’t come for a blessing, but she did still want to be respectful, so she gave it her own couple of bows and waited a moment for Sayuri to finish.

When Sayuri opened her eyes again, she smiled at Haruna upon seeing her respect the Shrine even though it was written all over her ths wasn’t why she was here.

"I have no reason to doubt you, it’s just… I’m not sure if I believe as much as you do that any of the Club members would act as you believe they would. As far as my understanding goes, the Club started from selfish desires, not fear. Trust me, Rei aptly demonstrated just how much she did not fear me back then." she said, speaking of some past event without trying to clarify what had exactly transpired.

"But…" Sayuri continued, changing the subject immediately "Frogs are powerful symbols for good luck but also the safe return of anyone looking for their home. I like to think it also means not losing sight of where we come from. This Shrine’s kami is represented by a Frog." Sayuri produced a small bag from one of her pockets that she had prepared earlier; an Omamori.

"Like I said, I didn’t want your visit just to debate or change your mind. I wanted to give you this, a small charm I made for you. For good luck, but also so you never lose sight of your home, your ideals. It’s okay to prop up your friends, but just be careful not to let them - or your mission - drag you down into the same kind of darkness."

Haruna smiled at the gift, but there was a distinctly hollow look to her expression, the happiness not quite reaching her baggy eyes. "Remember home, huh?" She took the charm and turned her gaze down to where it rested in her hands. "And my ideals." Her hand closed around the bag, and she nodded once. "Yeah, I can do that." Haruna looked back up at Sayuri. "I really appreciate this." She hadn’t been very superstitious before, but now that she was a literal magical girl, Haruna had begun to give a little more credit to things like gods and blessings. ". . . You know, I don’t think we ever introduced ourselves with our actual names."

"Oh!" Sayuri’s face perked up at the realization of just how right her new friend was "You’re right! You only got to see me at work. Well, I’m Sayuri Kotowaza. My family and I have been the keepers of Hibusa’s Shrine for a while now so I’ve been in Hibusa all my life. Nice to properly meet you." she said, yet again giving her a polite bow and a big smile.

"Haruna Maeda," she replied, returning the bow. "I only moved into Hibusa a couple weeks ago, actually. I’m from the city of light originally. Nice to meet you too, Sayuri."

"Wait…from the City of Light?" What she had been told by the GEMs came back to mind about visiting. Boleite probably also mentioned it once or twice. "So you’re from the same place the GEMs come from? The name feels a little on the nose, doesn’t it?"

"Yep. Morganite’s actually the one who showed me the ropes on the whole ‘being-a-magical-girl’ thing. The GEMs wanted me to join, actually. In another world, I might have introduced myself as ‘Tenacious Tourmaline.’ I just. . . don’t like them, even with them still being mostly good. They don’t really let any other light girl teams exist, and I’d never even seen a dark girl before I came to Hibusa."
‘Hibusa has enough Gems as it is, I think. And from what I’ve seen, even the City of Light might agree.’ Sayuri said with a smile, as a jest. She wanted to say that she understood why Haruna did not trust or like the Gems. That sometimes we do the best we can but still make mistakes. The road to hell is paved with good intentions kinda talk - but she realized only too well the hypocrisy of that statement, so kept it to herself for now.

"Well…" she stepped back from the Shrine now that the prayer was done "Not to worry about the light girl team thing - I work pretty much solo anyway." she said with a wink.

"Yeah. I’d offer an invitation to my team, but, uh. . . you know." Haruna shrugged. "You seem like you’re doing fine with your amphibian friends, anyway, so I wouldn’t want to cramp your style." She sighed. "Before I head off again, I did have a couple quick questions. Do you know anything about Schrade’s past? I heard she lost someone precious to her, but it’s a little hard to talk to her personally. . . oh, and, uh, have you met a dark girl named Ashbringer or heard anyone talking to her?"

Sayuri did not often refer to the boss of the club by that name, but guessed it was expected of Haruna to do so. "Ashbringer? Sorry, does not ring a bell. With a name like that, are you sure she’s not part of your Depression Club?" Sayuri said as a jest, sticking her tongue out, then grabbed Haruna’s hand and walked away towards a side path at a leisurely pace.

"As for Rei, yeah - a little. We grew up around one another due to family business. I’d like to say we were friends when we were little, but I think that was pretty much one sided. She left for a while and then…" her hand reached for her side for a moment before falling back down, but Haruna probably caught it "...We had a falling out! Call it a difference in opinion. All I know is when she came back to Hibusa, she changed, but I got no idea why. Sorry."

By this point, they were back near the Temple’s entrance. "So she wasn’t always the cool, enigmatic type?" Haruna asked. "Did she ever have, like, a particular guy she liked? It’s kinda weird to picture you two being friends, honestly, you’re very different."

Sayuri stared at Haruna for a second "What’s weird is imagining Rei loving a guy. Besides, we were kids. I got it in my head we should be friends, and I didn’t take no for an answer until she made it very clear." She shrugged.

"That’s just kinda how kids are, isn’t it?" Haruna shrugged back. "And. . . sometimes people older than kids." This was also more or less what she’d done with the detention club. "Anyway though. Thanks for letting me visit. I hope we can be friends even if we end up in conflict down the line."

"Aren’t we friends already?" Sayuri said with a warm smile "Besides, that entirely depends on how hard you’ll hit me in a brawl. No point in thinking about that now, anyway - I don’t usually go looking for fights, despite what your violinist friend claims." She stepped forward and gave Haruna a little friendly hug before bidding her farewell.

"Thanks for visiting, come around anytime."

Haruna, despite wincing at the mention of Willow, returned the hug before breaking off with a short wave. With a glance around to check for observers, she transformed, then took to the skies once more - and, for what felt like the first time in a while, she left in a better mood than she arrived in.

It was not an especially sunny day.

Not that it would have meant much. The filter on Norika’s window prevented much of anything from lighting up her room. But today it was cloudy. Very cloudy, in fact. And a bit stormy too. It was dark and hard to see much of anything, save for when a lightning bolt lit up the sky. And forget hearing anything. The rain drummed on the window for hours, drowned out only by the occasional crack of thunder.

Despite the harsh conditions, a pair of headlights cut through the darkness outside. Guests never brought Norika much joy, but this one was especially troublesome. It was that beat up truck that belonged to the private detective. The engine was almost louder than the rain.

W-Why is he here? Norika wondered as she peered at the unwelcomely familiar truck from between her thick curtains as it made its way through the torrential deluge, growing ever closer to her home.

While she had gotten Roche to buy her a wig that matched the hair of her magical girl form, Norika had yet to settle upon a suitably unpleasant candidate to plant it on. At first, Suki had been the obvious choice to frame for the break-in, but recent developments had caused the sickly girl to hesitate on going through with that plan. Indeed, with current affairs being what they were, bringing unwanted attention to any member of the club was problematic at best. If only I knew where any of those annoying GEM bitches lived… In any event, she’d thought the worst she’d have to deal with was keeping the troublesome investigator away from Misoka. She hadn’t expected he would return so soon, especially not before she’d finalized her cover story. I-I’ll just have to get creative… Norika resolved, her mouth set in a firm line as she clutched the precious pendent around her neck. Taking a deep breath, the frail girl steeled herself as much as possible for the impending meeting.

The door swung open. It was one of the maids.

"Let’s get this over with. Come on."

A sentiment she could agree with.

…

…

…

The setup was much like before, with the sickly Norika positioned on a chair with her back to a corner. What was different was that her father was nowhere to be seen this time. The chair her father usually sat in was empty, and Makoto was seated shortly after Norika.

"These are some comfy seats." Makoto’s expression remained professionally apathetic as he spoke. "The truck’s seats are starting to show their age. Maybe when I get them reupholstered, I’ll have the cushions replaced with whatever your family lines their chairs with."

"W-Why do you w-want to speak with me?" Norika inquired, getting right to the point despite the meek tone of her voice and her visibly unsettled demeanor. "I-I already t-told you e-everything I know."

"Oh…" Makoto’s demeanor returned to its normal seriousness. At least, normal compared to his first visit. "You had said that your parents tend to keep you out of most things. I had to talk with him for a bit and I thought you might like to be involved in things a bit more. In particular, I wanted to introduce you to someone." He tipped his head. "When you mentioned the teal wig, I thought you were pulling my leg. The case is almost a slam dunk, but given your father’s influence I need to make sure parties outside of Hibusa town are not involved. Apparently ‘Cosplay Criminals’ are something that exist, and they can be very difficult to catch." He shrugged his shoulders. "Your father is already paying me quite well, so I’ve decided to hire a specialist to work on that aspect of the case. I thought you might like to meet him."

"O-Oh, I see…" Norika replied softly. This was both good, and bad news. For one thing, it was rather considerate of Makoto to want to involve her in more of the investigation, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel that this was in some way a ploy to fish for more information. For another, while looking for possible suspects beyond Hibusa’s bounds significantly lessened the chances of Misoka, or her family, suffering any repercussions, it also greatly complicated Norika’s plans to frame an unpleasant individual of her choosing for the crime. In any event, she would have to think over those issues at a later time. Right now, she had a more immediate concern to deal with. "Y-Yes," she confirmed with a hesitant nod. "I-I would v-very much like to meet him."

Makoto gave the girl a single nod. "Mister Vanhorn?"

The teenage boy who walked into view wasn’t most people’s idea of a mister. He had youthful features and didn’t look like a Japanese native. His hair was short and curtained the sides of his face. His clothes leaned European and he took better care of his appearance than Makoto did. But he said nothing, and simply took a seat in her father’s chair across from Makoto.

"Yes, Mister Vanhorn." Makoto pointed at him once. "He knows a lot about these cosplay criminals."

"Just Finn is fine." He placed his hands in his lap, which also held a laptop. "We don’t need to be so formal."

Makoto scoffed. "He doesn’t let me call him Finn."

H-He’s a teenager…? Norika wondered incredulously. Indeed, the young man before her looked younger than she was. Then again, thanks to her frail constitution, Norika herself looked several years younger than her actual age, so perhaps the same was true of this "Finn". "I-It’s a pleasure to m-make your a-acquaintance, Finn," Norika told the boy detective with a demure bow of her head. "I-I’m Norika."

"So I’ve been told." He returned the nod with one of his own, then flipped open his laptop. His eyes were focused on Norika as his fingers tapped away. "I’ve spoken with Makoto, and I have a few extra questions about the wig. It was teal, but do you remember how long it was? Any accessories that stood out?"

"I-I, um… I-I think it was waist-length," Norika replied hesitantly, as though she were trying to recall what she’d seen. "I-I didn’t really get the b-best look at it," she added with a frown. "I-I mainly just n-noticed the color…"

"I see." Finn’s eyes flicked down to his laptop. But rather than furious typing, he scrolled and tapped a few times. "Are you a fan of Hatsune Miku?"

"N-Not really…" Norika replied, unsure of where Finn was going with this new line of questioning. "I-I mostly prefer i-instrumental music," she added softly. "W-Why do you ask?"

"She also has teal hair. If you were a fan of her, you might be more inclined to misremember details about the thief and project something you were more familiar with in your memories." He closed the laptop. "I also prefer instrumental music. Beethoven’s Moonlit Sonata is one of my favorites. Particularly the first movement, Adagio sostenuto. The melancholy of the notes gets me every time. Though the furious maelstrom of notes in the third movement is also to my tastes. Do you have any favorites?"

Norika was silent for a moment before answering. "I-I like v-video game music," she explained, looking away out of embarrassment. "M-My brother and I u-used to play a l-lot of different ones, a-and I really e-enjoyed their soundtracks." If she had to pick a favorite, Blood Shot, from the console port of Gearmantic Hearts, would have been a strong contender for that spot, but she wasn’t about to tell the obviously high-brow Finn that. Indeed, she felt self-conscious enough about revealing this much insight into her taste in music as it was.

This made the corners of Finn’s lips curl up. "Ahh, I’m always hesitant to bring up my love of videogames. Have you ever played Gearmantic Hearts? I heard good things about it, but it was just a curiosity for me until I learned one of the characters was named ‘Finnegan Fabricant.’ I remember I tried to get really good with him." His eyes flicked down to his computer. A little bit of typing, a few clicks, and some music started to play. "Combining the eerie electric organ with a heavy guitar rift isn’t something I’d normally picture for him, but it kind of makes sense given his past traumas."

Norika had to stifle a gasp when Finn started playing the very song she’d been thinking about. She also had to stop herself from falling into the trap of clarifying that the track in question was actually the theme for a different character, a death ray-firing technomantic horror that was one of her most often used fighters, along with the equally beam bombardment heavy Sixshooter Synthia and Necroid 99. Instead, she simply replied, "I-I’ll take your w-word for it. K-Kaito and I o-only played that game a f-few times, so I’m n-not especially familiar w-with the characters’ b-backstories…"

T-That was close… This kid really knows what he’s doing. I need to be very careful with what I tell him…

"It’s a fun game." Finn nodded as his smile retreated. "But I play a lot of stuff. Actually, do you have a Mist account? Disharmony? You could add me to your contacts and-"

"We’re here for the case." Makoto raised his hand. "I’m sure Mr. Tsukishima doesn’t need us to act as a rent-a-friend for his daughter."

Finn groaned and flicked his eyes towards Makoto. "Getting to know people is part of a detective’s job." Then he looked back at Norika. "Anyway, no pressure. All of my socials are ‘TheRealFabricant’ without spaces. Sometimes ‘TheRealFabricant99.’ Add me if you’d like, or don’t."

Makoto lowered his hand. "Any questions about the case?"

"None that your report didn’t answer." Finn closed his laptop. "Sorry for getting you out here for just one question."

"That has to do with the case." Makoto added.

"But thank you for your time, and it was nice to meet you."

"Y-You’re welcome," Norika replied with a small bow of her head, her voice as quiet as ever. "A-And it was n-nice to meet you as well," she added, even if, in actuality, she hadn’t enjoyed the experience in the slightest. "I-I’m sorry I c-couldn’t be more h-helpful."

As the man and boy got up, one of the maids returned to Norika’s side to hand her a cane. Then the maid departed as quickly as she could.

"Oh, but one more thing!" Finn turned around before leaving Norika’s sight. "It was hard to make out with the storm, but I thought I saw a Xolys poster through one of the windows." He flipped open his laptop. "He looks something like this? I thought it was your room, but you aren’t familiar with Gearmantic Hearts so I must be wrong. Or do they just have similar designs?" And on the laptop screen was a picture of the towering technomantic nightmare, a bit stretched out and low resolution, but still unmistakable to a true fan.

Norika’s heart practically stopped upon hearing the young detective’s latest words. Her eyes went wide while a trembling hand pressed against her chest.

H-How in the world could he have seen that?! her dizzy mind wondered frantically.

Indeed, it should have been impossible. Even discounting the rain, her window was tinted and the shades were almost completely drawn across it. Furthermore, the poster in question was located on the back wall of a walk-in clothing closet, one that, while it had been open at the time, was still impossible to see into from outside the house.

W-Who is this boy…?

Unconsciously biting her lip, Norika’s mind raced to formulate a convincing response, even as she desperately tried to compose herself.

"I-It was m-my brother’s…" She eventually answered, her soft voice even meeker than usual. Taking a gulp of air, she continued, "H-He l-liked the way that c-character l-looked, so he g-got that p-poster f-for his r-room. W-When he l-left for u-university, h-he let me h-have it."

Finn and Makoto just stared, then Finn tipped his head back with a grin. "Ah! That explains it!" He shut his laptop. "Your father showed me his room, and I noticed he had pictures of all the fighters but that one. That makes a lot of sense."

Makoto sighed. "We ready to go?"

"Yea." He backed out of the room while pointing at Norika. "You’re very lucky to have that! Those are quite collectable now!"

And with that, the young boy and the scruffy man were gone.

W-What… W-What even was that…?! Norika wondered, still in something of a state of shock even half a minute after the pair had departed. The whole scene had been so surreal, and it had added such drastic complexity to an already complex situation that she was having trouble figuring out where to even begin solving just one of its myriad facets. I-If only Kaito was here… the frail girl reflected somberly as she made her slow and shaky way back to her room, one trembling hand tightly gripping her cane, while the other continued to clutch her precious pendant. H-He’d know what to do… After all, he had always seemed to know the easy solution to any problem. But the sad fact was, Kaito wasn’t here, and Norika would have to solve this problem on her own…

Tsubomi had been invited to hang out at the Arcade.

Haruna had been notified of her success.

The nice yet spooky nightmare lady had also been notified.

Everything was going smoothly.

Yet Suki was fidgeting like it absolutely was not going to go smoothly. Her foot tapped the sidewalk while she waited. She wanted to pull out a cigarette, but knew that she’d have to put it out as soon as she went inside. Even as a delinquent, there were certain places where you had to respect the rules. To smoke or steal from the arcade would be like smoking or stealing from a church.

Everyone should be here shortly. Everyone but Tsubomi. She wasn’t the sort to arrive anywhere first. That would give the three of them some time to form a battle plan, but there wasn’t much to plan. Suki wasn’t even sure if she was going to bother playing any games. It wasn’t like they ever brought Tsubomi any joy.

Was this even the right thing to do? Maybe Tsubomi would get kidnapped again. Before she started panicking she decided to wait for the others. It had only been a few seconds since she called Haruna, but Suki suspected she would be the first to arrive.

---

---

Sure enough, about half a minute after Suki called her, a telltale streak of light in the air announced the light girl’s imminent arrival. The alley between the arcade and the next building became an impromptu runway, before a freshly un-transformed Haruna scurried back out and up to Suki. "Hi," she said, giving the blood witch a short wave. "So what’s the plan?"

"I’m not sure." Suki sighed, her foot didn’t stop moving. "The important thing is that I talk to her. But I’m kind of having second thoughts about everything. Like was it a good idea to go to an arcade? In hindsight it’s a normal activity we do together but I’m going to ask her why she wants to kill herself, which is really going to bring down the mood. But she can’t feel emotions, so there’s no mood to bring down. But if she’s not bothered by anything, then why does she want to off herself?" She sighed again before placing her hands on her hips. "We gotta wing it. I can’t plan for how she’ll react. I mean, I guess Tsubomi’s behavior has been pretty consistent, just not her thoughts."

"Yeah, there’s not really a good way to broach that topic, is there?" She didn’t exactly sound eager to do so in any context. "We have to, though. I don’t want her to keep suffering because she doesn’t even know its happening." Haruna shook her head. "I guess we just shouldn’t overthink it. All we have to do is ask what’s going on, and see if we can help with it, or at least be there for her. Right?"



Just when Haruna asked her question, Tsubomi came within eyesight of the arcade. Still her usual slow self, it seemed like it would take her another minute or two to get to where the duo stood. For her part, she hadn’t thought anything was different than normal when meeting at the arcade. But she still hadn’t written the letters she wanted to, though now wouldn’t be a time to do so.

Suki’s face was stricken with worry. "She’s here already!?" The delinquent’s shoulders rose up to her neck. "Okay, keep calm, Haruna. We still have time to prepare before-"



"Oh!" Luckily, Nocnista appeared soon after and carefully scooped Tsubomi up. "Right, here we go. Hello, dears~!" She walked up to Suki and Haruna with a smile, setting the apathetic girl down soon as they were close enough. "Will any of you be needing funds, by chance?" The nightmare-mancer offered. Who knew how long this was going to take? Might as well help keep everyone occupied.

"No!" Suki squeaked out. Haruna shook her head in reply. "I think we’re good for now." She paused and took a moment to eye the woman up and down. "That’s, um, a nice outfit." She blinked. "And um, you can probably set Tsubomi down now." She pushed open the doors. "Right this way."

The arcade was a familiar place to both Tsubomi and Suki, but it was the sort of place you needed to spend some time in to really appreciate its charm. First time comers would notice the cracked sheetrock on some of the walls, and even the ceiling. Most of the overhead fans were working, but there was only one or two that had all of its incandescent bulbs lit up. Most of the machines were older. Some were covered in white plastic that had begun to yellow years ago. Even the newer machines had blemishes on them, but they all worked.

"Alright!" Suki bounced into the air before turning to look at everyone. "There aren’t a ton of four player games, but there are a few. But uh, what’s everyone in the mood for?" Even though Suki addressed everyone, she was looking at Tsubomi.

"Mm. I think Wave Racer still has four seats?" There had been a time where one chair was broken, but it was supposedly fixed a few trips ago. Though Tsubomi was just throwing out games that were four player without regard for if they would be fun for her. "Does anyone have a favorite game?" Tsubomi’s head drifted lazily to look at Haruna and Nocnista.

The former shrugged. "I haven’t been in here as a customer before. It’s just that one time I walked a clerk home after closing time." She gave the question a moment of thought. "I like games like Raiden, I guess? Where you run or fly around getting powerups and blowing up enemies."

Nocnista on the other hand blinked incredulously. Four-player games? She thought she was just here to chaperone. "O-Oh, you’re sure you want me to play with you all?" She tilted her head. "I don’t exactly frequent arcades often."

Suki groaned. This was starting to feel like the Kate date all over again. She peered around the arcade and noticed there weren’t a lot of people walking around. The few people who were here at this hour were in front of the machines, bombarding their every sense with the light and sound that they made.

"In that case, let’s do this instead." She guided Tsubomi and everyone else towards the older part of the Arcade. The games here were less flashy and only resonated with the arcade’s oldest patrons. Most of the games were made out of wood and if they had any metal at all, it wasn’t for anything electronic. Perhaps to compensate, this was also the most well lit part of the arcade. The overhead bulbs were all working, and it was a bit quieter. Suki cleared her throat. "Uh, Tsubomi? Are you okay?" She moved her hand up to the girl’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Has something been bothering you?"

Tsubomi shrugged. "... Are we friends?"

The words caused Suki’s eyes to fly open. She took a step back, and the hand that was on Tsubomi’s shoulder continued to hang in the air, reaching. "Well, yea!" She retracted her arm and scratched the back of her head. "Yea, I-I think we’re friends. We hang out together, we have each other’s back when miseria or light girls show up, heh!" Her smile was nervous, and faltering. "I uh, I worry about you. I don’t uh, I don’t think I’d worry about someone if they weren’t my friend, you know?"

--"You are nothing but a parasite. An unfeeling homunculus that decided to burrow into my body and brain like a tapeworm."--

"Mm. Would we still be friends if I was a worm?"

"....Yes?" Suki responded with a tentative tone.

Tsubomi nodded twice. "Okay." She looked around at the games, before continuing. "What should we play?"

"I know you want to kill yourself," Haruna blurts, then immediately covers her mouth.

Nocnista’s eyes shot open for a few seconds in stunned silence. "........Well!" She then cleared her throat and put on a rather anxious smile. "Ripping the bandaid off forthright works as well~! Eheh." She turned to face Tsubomi. "I’ve been meaning to do something real quick, my dear, would you allow me to check the condition of your mental state?" The nightmare witch softly asked her.

Tsubomi’s head tilted in her trademark sign of thought. She looked down at the ground to see that once more, her shoes were still on. Her eyes rose to look at Haruna. "Mm. That doesn’t work. I think Tsubomi doesn’t want to die too. Just me." Then she turned to their club advisor. "If you want to."

"Excellent! I’ll try to be careful~" Nocnista ruffled Tsubomi’s hair, yet her hand lingered. Anyone looking closely would see the faint purple glow of her magic coming from beneath her palm. The club advisor’s nightmare magic meant she could peer into the minds of others and gauge out the best fears to weaponize against them, but with a bit of restraint, she could simply see and attend to the condition of one’s mental health. "Hm…"

It seemed that Tsubomi’s mental state was… normal. Too normal. The only thing that seemed to be off was the presence of magic, Tsubomi’s magic. Everything else checked out to be like that of a person who actually had emotions, albeit with a rather strong rage kept under check.

"Oh my." Nocnista pulled her hand away. "You, my dear, have some pent up anger inside you! I’m not sure who it’s coming from, but, if I’m inclined to theorize, it’s almost as if your own magic may be…rejecting you? Grown antagonistic?" She glanced back at the other two girls. "Do either of you know when this started? Or have any idea as to when?"

Haruna shook her head. "No, it was one of the first things I noticed. I guess I should probably explain." She gave Suki an awkward glance, hoping the blood-themed magical girl didn’t take her lack of explanation up to this point as another betrayal of trust. "My magic lets me kinda, I think the best word is hear? I can hear people’s desires. Tsubomi almost always wants to kill Tsubomi. Or. . ." She frowned, then turned to the subject of the conversation. "You implied you aren’t Tsubomi?"

The apathetic girl’s head raised again. "Mm. Tsubomi says I’m not. She’s starting calling me ‘Zassou.’" Tsubomi’s gaze drifted to a game. She was quiet for a moment before adding, "She says she’s why I can’t use my magic anymore. Or hers."

"Wait, from Sumikko Gurashi?" Suki was a little familiar with the franchise. There was a character called Zassou that was a weed that had aspirations of growing into a flower that could be put in a bouquet at their favorite flower shop. It was a weird thing to call anyone, but it almost sounded endearing. But that wasn’t the most pressing thing going on right now. "Wait waiiiiiiiit wait wait wait wait wait wait… Wait… Wait." Suki placed a hand on the side of her head. She didn’t understand the situation, but she felt like she was starting to understand it enough. "If you’re not Tsubomi… Have I ever known Tsubomi, or has it always been ‘you’?

"I’ve been me since before coming here. Tsubomi started showing up more after the beach trip. But I don’t think she’s met anyone yet." A pause took over again as she let her brain catch up. "Or anyone has met her."

Haruna took Tsubomi(?)’s slowness as an opportunity to carefully consider how she worded her next question, given the girl’s lack of ability to express much in the way of preferences. "Is Tsubomi still the right thing to call you?"

"Mm. I don’t know. If I’m Tsubomi, what should I call her? I don’t mind either way."

Suki, meanwhile, was staring at a wall. The lighting conditions were a little dim, but her pupils had shrunk down to little dots. They erratically swirled in her head as she thought back on the beach trip. It had been a weird time for her, she did some things she hadn’t been proud of. Some things that she wished that she never did, but in the heat of the moment found herself impossible to stop. But rather than voicing any of this, Suki just laughed.

"Alright, alright, alright." She turned to Tsubomi with a smile. "So ‘Tsubomi’ has woken up, and that’s where the murderous intent is coming from. And ‘you’ are what she’s trying to kill." She bit the corner of her lip. "So! All we need to do is put ‘Tsubomi’ back to sleep! We repeat whatever it was that caused ‘you’ to be born. Would you happen to remember what that was?"

The apathetic girl nodded once, then shook her head twice. "The earliest I can remember is after moving here. I remember… Tsubomi’s aunt and uncle picking me up and putting me on a bed. Not much of it." A moment of lag passed. "But Tsubomi made it seem like she was asleep before that."

And if the performance in her head was to be believed… "The play looked like she might have fallen asleep when she almost got eaten." The girl wasn’t sure if that was the case, since she couldn’t remember that far back, but that scene being shown more than once gave the idea credibility. "Mm. I don’t know if I was there then, though."

"Hold on, Suki. If the Tsubomi we know isn’t the original, and the original’s really angry about her being here, then it might be more complicated than that. I don’t think it's fair to choose either one over the other before we know more about what’s going on. There might be a way to let them coexist." Haruna was clearly anxious about the conflict; it made an already-worrying situation more complex. "Um, Tsubomi, or Zassou, I don’t really know which to use, um, if the first thing you remember is being picked up and put on a bed, that might mean that you appeared when the original Tsubomi fell asleep, and you were just normal asleep when you arrived?"

"Mmm…" Tsubomi’s verbal tic was elongated in thought. The play had implied that Tsubomi proper had the symptoms of being Zassou before the move, but without concrete memories of it, she couldn’t say for sure that she existed then. "Maybe. Can’t remember much from then."

After another bit of lag, the thought to tell the others more of what had been happening showed itself. "She said that she realized who she was when I fell. The day after we came back. I woke up in the hospital that afternoon. Someone there said I had a concussion." The syrup that was her thoughts slowly oozed their way down her mind. "I could still use Tsubomi’s magic for a while after that." The girl’s face turned towards Haruna. "It stopped working when we met Haruna." The light girl looked alarmed for a brief moment, but it faded when Suki didn’t immediately turn to her with accusations.

"I mean is this even really a problem?" Suki laughed. "Okay, past Tsubomi wants to kill our Tsubomi, it’s clear that you guys don’t get along very well, but it’s not like there’s anything she can do about it, right?" Suki stepped closer. "Right?" She leaned in really close. "Riiiiiight? Because, bleh!" Suki placed a hand on the side of her head. "Right?"

"I wouldn’t count on that, Suki. If this other Tsubomi is taking over her magic, it's entirely possible she could destroy the Tsubomi we know with it." Haruna glanced to the side, thinking. "Tsubomi, I don’t know what your magic does, exactly. Would you mind explaining it? I might be able to get a better idea of what’s going on here."

When Haruna’s question was finished, Tsubomi finally responded to Suki’s, looking her partner right in the eyes. "Tsubomi says she’s going to get rid of me soon. Two months or less. I don’t know how though."

With that said, she registered Haruna’s request and responded. "Mm. It’s emotions. Sense and control them." A pause as she remembered something, rather than her lagging. "The night we met you, something weird happened. I couldn’t use magic, but could still transform. When I got bit, it slowed the Miseria down. Then Oros got some in her and it messed with her too. I didn’t know my blood could do that until then."

"If it’s emotion control. . . then yeah, she might be able to just get rid of you entirely if she takes control of your magic all the way. I’m not exactly, like, an expert, but it makes sense. Emotions are core to who you are, even if that core is not having them." Her expression betrayed no small amount of worry.

"Okay, I don’t think this is getting us anywhere." Suki interjected with a chuckle. "We can hypothesize this or theorem that, but it’s magic, and magic is almost always bullshit, eh?" She stood in front of Tsubomi, or whoever she was supposed to be now. "I’m still not sure what’s going on here, but I know one thing. Regardless of which Tsubomi is the real one and who or what the other one is, I’ve only ever known of one Tsubomi. And that one is always going to be Tsubomi to me. So, ‘real Tsubomi,’ If you’re listening in…" She clinched her teeth. "I think you have a lot of nerve thinking you can just kill someone and expect the rest of us to forget about it. If you kill the Tsubomi I know, there won’t be a whole lot stopping me from killing you either." She poked Tsubomi’s chest. "So, don’t be an ass hole. Two can play at that game." Suki was able to hold her stern face for all of two seconds before she wiped off her forehead. "It’s a little stuffy in here, I think I’m going to head outside." She excused herself without waiting for a response.

Haruna watched her go. She clearly considered stopping Suki, but figured the other girl could probably use a little time to cool off. Instead of addressing her or Tsubomi, she turned her eyes to their mysterious club advisor, hoping Nocnitsa had something helpful to say.

"Hmm…" Having been quietly overseeing the conversation, Nocnista took stock of Suki and Haruna’s theories. But the former had a point, speculation can only go so far without going to the source directly. She turned back to Tsubomi. "Is there any way we can talk to the other you ourselves, my dear?" She cautiously asked.

"I've been seeing her and hearing her talk to me sometimes. I don't know how to get her to, though. Nobody else could see her before."

There was a deep groan that only Tsubomi heard. "I am not going to put myself through trying to talk to someone with you as my interpreter."

"Tsubomi says she doesn't want to talk with me interpreting for her."

"What did I just say?" the original Tsubomi asked. Zassou noticed the otherwise invisible girl out of the corner of her eye and turned her head to look at her.

"You said you don't want to talk with me interpreting for you."

The ghost girl rubbed little circles around her temples with one hand. "Then stop doing it."

"Mm," the physical Tsubomi turned back to the others nearby. "She wants me to stop saying what she says."

"I think we’re already talking to her with you as an interpreter."

Zassou heard a deep sigh. "This is a bad idea. But if you're going to be annoying about it, then fine. I'll talk through you, but you have to say exactly what I say, got it?"

Tsubomi's head nodded once. "Okay. Tsubomi says this is a bad idea but she'll talk. I'm supposed to say exactly what she says."

And you've already failed at that... Tsubomi muttered under her breath. Somehow the other occupant of her mind didn't hear her.

"Okay, so, can you clarify any of the information we’ve tried to get? When you two split, and what happened at that time, and maybe why?" Haruna asked. "Figuring out how to resolve things starts with understanding what’s happening."

The invisible Tsubomi scoffed, turning away from Haruna and towards her own body. "'Split,' she says. We didn't 'split,' she is not a part of me. She's some sort of external entity, as far as I've been able to tell. Definitely not some other personality of mine, I know that much for certain. Which is why I have no intention of co-existing with the thing that stole my life from me."

After a momentary pause, while Zassou was still readying to relay her words, Tsubomi added, "Whatever it actually is, Zassou isn't a person."

Zassou tried to remember the words she was told so she could properly repeat them, but had some trouble doing so. "Tsubomi says we didn't split. I'm not a part of her. She thinks I'm something external, not another personality of hers. She's certain of it and doesn't want to live with what took her life from her." The words probably deserved some form of sadness or disappointment from her, but Zassou's conveyance was without emotion as usual.

"She says I'm not a person, but she's not sure what I am."

Haruna’s lips pressed into a thin line as Tsubomi related the verbal abuse she was getting from. . . herself. This was very confusing. "We got the part where you want your own life back. What makes you think this isn’t some manifestation of your own magic? I’ve never heard of a magical girl getting possessed or something. And whether it was a split or not, you never explained what was happening when you ended up like this."

Tsubomi leaned her right arm on her physical body's left shoulder as she spoke to it. "If by whatever chance you are my magic, you're doubly screwed. Because if that's the case, I won't even have to snuff you out, you'll just disappear once it's all back under my control, right?" The invisible girl waited for Zassou to relay her newest statement.

"Tsubomi says, ‘If by whatever chance you are my magic, you're doubly screwed. Because if that's the case, I won't even have to snuff you out, you'll just disappear once it's all back under my control, right?’"

"God damnit, now you choose to say exactly what I did, the time I'm talking to you instead!?"

Tsubomi's body turned its head toward her. "Mm. Should I not have?"

"I swear you're doing this to piss me off." The original Tsubomi took a deep breath, as much as one can without a body at least, and decided to answer Haruna's next question.

"Anyway, I dunno what precisely happened. I only remember up to shortly before getting attacked; there's no memories between then and the first of Zassou's."

The physical Tsubomi turned her head back to look at Haruna. "Tsubomi says she doesn't know what happened. Her memories stop after getting attacked and then there aren't any until my first memories."

Haruna tilted her head. "Attacked?"

"Mm. That’s when she stopped being a Light Girl."

"Oh." Haruna clearly had no idea how to respond to Tsubomi’s fall coming up. She seemed a touch uncomfortable with the topic in general. "Maybe this happened because your magic changed? What was it like before, compared to now?"

Nocnista spoke up with a curious tilt to her head. "Perhaps a spark of your old light resisted too much? Or perhaps one of you actually is the magic made manifest, like a defense system?" She hummed.

"As far as I know, the only change in my magic was that, for some reason, now my blood apparently acts like a sedative."

Tsubomi paused in thought for a moment. "Otherwise it's really just the way it's being used that's changed. Which is expected between a Light Girl and their Dark Girl versions."

"Tsubomi says the only changes to her magic were how it's used and the new thing with her blood."

"As for the idea that one of us is magic, I guess it holds water at least. Though again, if that's the case then I don't think I'd even get to remove her, she might just go away on her own when I get control back."

"Mm. Tsubomi's not sure if I'd be around after she got her magic back if that's what I am."

"Well, either way, dears, if neither of you can come to a truce of any sort, there must be a way to simply separate you both. Without risking your lives, of course."

"Uh-huh." Tsubomi replied, her disagreement evident in her voice, even though only Zassou could hear her.

"Uh-huh." Zassou replied, completely genuinely in her apathetic tone.

"Maybe we can combine some of our magic to do it? Pretty much all of mine manifests physically somehow, and Kiyo can make living creatures, so there could be a way."

Tsubomi poked her body on the cheek. "If they want to waste their time with that, I don't have too much of a problem with it. So long as I get my body back and not some pathetic imitation, they're welcome to flail about trying to save you."

Zassou nodded once. "Tsubomi says it's okay to try."

"Okay." Haruna glanced between Tsubomi - Zassou? - and Nocnitsa, then nodded. "I’ll go get Suki and let her know what the plan is. Not that it’s, um, that much of a plan, at this point." She sort of shrugged awkwardly before heading for the entrance to the arcade.

The light and sound from the arcade’s main attractions drowned out the others. Several patrons were basking in the flashing lights of their chosen coin devouring machines, but Suki was not among them. That was likely because Suki said she was going to wait outside, but she was not visible through the glass door of the arcade. Nor was the trail of cigarette smoke that one might expect to follow her. Haruna pushed her way outside to see if the delinquent was still around and was promptly greeted.

"Heeeeyyyyyyyyyy Samanthaaaaaaaaa!"

It was easy to place Suki’s voice, even if she sounded inebriated. Haruna didn’t have to look at the girl for more than a second to know that was the case. She was leaned up against the side of the arcade with a can in her hand. There were about four more cans that had been crushed flat and didn’t make it into the waste bin Suki was standing beside. She belched, and the air was filled with another clue as to what Suki had been drinking. Perhaps the real mystery was how Suki had managed to get so much beer so quickly.

Suki stumbled over to Haruna, nearly falling into her as she did so. "Sam, Saaaaaaaam, ya gotta help meeeeee… Waiiiiiit, did you get arrrrrrrrrested?" She peaked behind Haruna’s back. "Oh gooooooood, that’s gooooooood." She giggled.

Haruna stumbled back a few steps herself in an effort to evade a collision with the suddenly-drunken magical girl. One didn’t need Tsubomi’s powers of empathy to feel the disappointment rolling off Haruna in waves. "Suki, I’m not ‘Samantha,’ and you’re not twenty." She wrinkled her nose at the rather unpleasant blend of alcohol, stale cigarette smoke, and Suki’s generally poor hygiene. "I thought we were supposed to be here to help Tsubomi."

"Awwwwwww." Suki giggled. "You kiiiiiiiiiinda look like Sam though." She hickupped. "But… Maybe if you’re not Saaaaaam, then maybe this isn’t all my fault." The corners of her lips twitched. "Maybe… Tsubomi was always going to do this." Suki wobbled in place for a moment. The can slipped out of her trembling hands, which she held up to her face. She didn’t look at them long before tears began to roll out of the corners of her eyes. "I shouldn’t have hit her."

"W-wait, what are you talking about?" Her disapproval faded, much of it replaced with concern. "Hit her? What happened?" After a moment, she added, "I promise I won’t judge, it’s in the past."

"Ahhhhhhh." Suki looked to Haruna. "Well, Tsubomiiiiiiiii made me let go of the catch of my life. Sooooooooo when we had a vacation, I saw a volley ball and-" She hiccuped again. "I thought it might be fun to see how hard I could bounce it off the side of her head. So I transformed and gave it a kick."

The light girl bit her lip. Suki clearly didn’t need to be told how mean that was. "A head injury probably didn’t help her, no, but it also probably didn’t cause what’s happening now." She also elected not to ask what, exactly, Suki meant by "the catch of her life." It was probably nothing good. "We got to talk to the original Tsubomi some, and we came up with. . . well, it’s more of an idea than a plan to solve this."

"It’s prooooooobably better than anything I could come up with." Suki stumbled backwards, then grabbed a hold of the doorway to steady herself. "I can’t fix anything, but you got this!" Her finger drifted to an area around Haruna.

"You might be able to help. We’re going to try to build a new body for our Tsubomi using magic, so maybe your blood manipulation could help?" Haruna offered, more for Suki’s sake than anything else.

"Oooooohhhhhhh… That’s not going to worrrrrrrrrrk." She stumbled forward, but still had a hand on the doorway. "I can onlyyyyy controllllll my ownnnnnn blooooooooooood, so unless Tsubomi’s going to inhabit my body, I don’t think I got much to offer." She pointed at the side of her head and twirled her finger. "This all seeeeeems kinda craaaaaaayzy. But if you thiiiiiink I can heeeeeelp, I’ll tryyyyyyyyyy." The color of Suki’s face started to change. It wasn’t red, but it was turning a greyish green. Like day old hummus or pea soup.

Haruna, recognizing this, quickly moved out of the direct line of fire. "Suki, you should really drink some water. And, um, the trash can is right over there, if you need it." She pointed at the one in front of the building, which would hopefully contain any sort of "rising forces" the dark girl was about to experience.

"I don’t drink water because of the things… Fish… Do in it." That was about as far as Suki got before she turned around and talked to Ralph on the big galvanized phone. Haruna was spared from the sight, but not the sound, as something heavy and wet splashed around in the garbage can. "Ugh." She sunk to her knees. One of her pigtails was draped into the garbage can. "Got a napkin?"

"I’ll go grab some." She hurried back into the arcade, beelining for a napkin dispenser near the concessions area. After a moment of hesitation, she also filled a small plastic cup full of water. "You are going to drink water if I have to pour it down your throat," she mumbled to herself. "What fish do in it. . . Hydration is important!" She was just about outside, so her lecturing of the absent Suki was forced to end before it became lecturing a present Suki. "Here." She held out the napkins, keeping the water in reserve until the dark girl finished cleaning herself up. "You really shouldn’t be drinking like that."

After wiping her mouth down, she accepted the cup and sipped it. "That tastes kind of funky." She sipped a second time. "I’m not sure how we’re going to make a body, but if Tsubomi needs us we should head back inside."

Once Haruna and Suki went back inside, they’d notice that Nocnista and Tsussou had disappeared from where they were grouped up earlier. When they looked around for them, they found the two standing in front of a crane game. Despite her saying she doesn’t frequent arcades often, Nocnista was surprisingly focused, trying to move the crane into the perfect spot before time ran out. "You know, in a way, arcades are a less-gambling focused casino. Wouldn’t you say~?" She idly chatted with Tsussou.

"Mm. Only if it's for prizes." Zassou watched with half-closed eyelids as Nocnitsa worked her magic, perhaps literally. Tsubomi had retreated out of Zassou's awareness, muttering something the one in control of the body couldn't understand as she did.

"A lot of gamblers say that it takes skill. Maybe."

Haruna, not wanting to interrupt, walked up quietly as she watched their advisor play the game. It wasn’t exactly what she’d expected to return to. A part of her was surprised that she hadn’t just transformed and teleported the prize she wanted out. Maybe adult magical girls (magical women? Witches?) grew out of their delinquent tendencies.

"Yea." Suki sighed as she wandered back inside. "There’s a certain prestige that comes from getting a high score, which is all skill." She was wobbling a bit, but at least she wasn’t slurring her words anymore. "I don’t really consider claw games part of the arcade. It seems like most places have them now." She walked up to the crane game and peered inside. Her forehead was just an inch away from the glass. "Whatcha trying to get?"

"Mm," Tsubomi seemed to point at a fuzzy worm plush, though she was actually pointing at a cat behind it. "That one."

The crane slowly lowered over the cat plush, scooping it up in its claws. Nocnista furrowed her brows, watching it automatically move to the prize chute. "Come on now…"

Thunk-!

"Ah!" She knelt down to grab the plush, and after giving it a little dust-off, handed it to Tsusou. "Here you go~!"

Suki raised an eyebrow. "Was that the right one?"

Tsubomi’s hands reached out at their usual slow pace to grab the black and white cat. She stared at it for a moment before nodding once. "Yes. This one. It might be friends with the other two." After a moment, she pulled it closer to get a better grip on it.

After the cat settled, Tsubomi turned to face her partner. Though she didn’t notice any signs of Suki’s drinking, her recent attempts to improve her awareness of others’ feelings drew her to ask. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Suki answered a little faster than an honest person would. "How about you? If you’re good, then I’m good."

Haruna glanced at Suki sharply, but elected to keep her meddling in this particular relationship to just that, for the moment.

The apathetic girl shrugged, a genuine response even were she able to feel, all things considered. "Tsubomi says we can try. She doesn’t think it’ll work. I don’t know if it will work either. If it does, it might be good. Might be bad." She raised the cat plush to be level with her face, staring into its eyes for a moment before lowering it again.

"But we," the cat was raised once more, this time to face away from Tsubomi and towards Suki. At the pace she moved it, one would normally be done with their statement, but for Tsubomi there was still enough time between her words to lift it fully to eye level with her partner.

"we…" Something made the girl pause. Given her attempts to be more aware of the feelings of those around her, she decided to lower the cat once more. "Mm. We’ll try. Maybe we’ll be able to see what happens."

Zassou tilted Tsubomi’s head to the side, her usual sign of thinking. "If we try, we might win. The Club has been winning a lot, it seems like. So we should just keep going. We’ll reach Rome eventually."

"It doesn’t feel like we’ve been winning." Suki grumbled, but opted to not pursue that thought any further. "Haruna told me what you guys wanted to do, but not how we were going to go about doing it. Beyond, you know, what my role in it would be." She folded her arms. "How are we going to get you a body?"

"Magic." The reply hung in the air for a few seconds. "Somehow making magic happen with magic." Tsubomi’s eyes drifted to look at Haruna. "Then Haruna went to get you."

"Like I said. We’ve got a couple magical girls who can summon things, and a couple others that can mess with people’s heads. There’s gotta be a way to just make a spare Tsubomi if we put our heads together, right? Then there’s no more issue." Haruna nodded, though truth be told she was reassuring herself more than anyone else.

Suki glared at Haruna, but it was more like a hundred yard stare that she happened to be obstructing. She turned to look at Nocnitsa. "So how are we doing this?"

She hummed. "Well I do have a contact of mine that can get us a spare body, artificial or otherwise, though I’m not sure if you’d all want to go down the route of Frankenstein. Then there’s the issue of finding someone that can help carefully extract either Zassou or Tsubomi from the first body and securing them into the new one." Nocnista thought out loud. "My magic can only affect someone’s state of mind however. I swear I’ve seen something like this before, I can try to separate them myself anyways, but this seems more of a soul sort of issue? If that makes sense? Their mind…minds? Well, it did appear completely fine in spite of their situation."

Suki looped her thumbs inside her waist band and looked at everyone present. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the situation looked pretty hopeless. Even if they had someone who could perfectly transplant Tsubomi (as Suki knew her) into a different body, then what? She has to live on in some unfamiliar form that isn’t hers? Would she be able to go to school? Would having her own body bring up other problems? What if she suddenly gained emotions, and realized she hated her existence? But they weren’t even at this stage yet. They still lacked the ability to take Tsubomi, whoever and whatever she was, and do anything with her. Maybe the ability to do such a thing was simply beyond everyone’s ability.

"Yea uh, I guess we’ll have to find someone who can do that, huh?" Suki made her way outside. "I’ll let you know if I find anything."

Nocnista seemed to hesitate for a moment, a glimpse of concern for the delinquent girl crossing her expression, then nodded. "That would be quite appreciated, thank you-" Then something else crossed her mind, causing her eyes to widen. She pinched her nose with a groan. "Alright, yep, I really do not want to ask her of all people, but if we have no other options…" The club advisor glanced back up at Tsussou and Haruna, putting a smile back on. "There is someone I can try to convince, but…er…" She genuinely grimaced. "Easier said than done, really."

"Is there something wrong with asking anyways?" Haruna inquired. "I’m willing to work extra hard if it means that both Tsubomis can be happy."

"Yes, but-"

Tsubomi walked over to pat Haruna on the shoulder. Well, to lay her hand on it, at least. "Mm… Snapdragon’s teacher?" Tsubomi finally asked. That seemed the most likely, somehow.

Nocnista tilted her head at Tsubomi. "Who?"

Perhaps the outcome of that meeting was predictable. Maybe she should have seen it coming, but Suki found that after confronting Tsubomi, she felt even more agitated and unsure of how to move forward. Or was ‘Zassou’ the right name to use? She didn’t consider herself a religious person, but god this was frustrating.

Metaphorically, Suki felt like she was on a fracturing iceberg. Tsubomi was on one chunk that was drifting away, and all she could do was watch her apathetic face shrink as she drifted off. In actuality, Suki was walking, aimlessly, around a neighborhood. It was too early to do magical girl stuff, and too late to do mischief. All the stores were open and there wasn’t anything she needed or wanted. Now might be a good time to drop by the arcade, but she was already there earlier and felt like what had happened there would just continue to repeat in her head.

Suki took a step and her head bounced off a walking light. It was as if it had teleported in the way, but it must have always been there. She looked around and noticed that a few people were looking at her, but they dodged her gaze and resumed their business.

With a groan, the delinquent ducked into a noodle shop and pulled out her phone. While her eyes scanned the area, her fingers dialed a number from pure muscle memory. Once she was done, she held the phone to the side of her head. "Come on sister, pick up…"

…

…

…

Kiyo stared at the string of characters on her screen. A part of her knew that this was never going to work. The two of them were simply not compatible, and yet she kept coming back. With a finger, she gently swiped, closed the app and sighed. "I really need to get over this, and try a new programming language..."

Then, her phone vibrated, which caused Kiyo to start. Her phone was silent unless it was something important, like a ping from the group chat or a direct message. It was neither of those, though—her phone was ringing. That almost never happened. Everybody used text these days. Calls were always telemarketers and scammers. "Suki?" There was no reply, of course, because she hadn't actually answered the phone yet. She'd been subtly avoiding Suki ever since she'd nearly lost Tsubomi. Each time she'd looked at Suki, she remembered the look of animal rage she'd made as she was coming to, and it made approaching her difficult, even for Kiyo.

"Setting that aside..." she said, as if saying the words would make it easier. Another reason one would call instead of text is if it was a complicated situation, or an emergency. "Suki?" she finally answered, her voice even but slightly urgent. "Where are you? Is everything okay?" She tried not to sound like a 119 operator, but even Evil Eye was on edge these days after the encounter with the GEMs.

"Noooooooo…" Suki practically whined in her response. "I uh, I need to talk to you, but like, you haven’t been hanging around any of the usual spots. Where are you?"

"At home. Been working on a project," she replied vaguely. Already, she was checking her mogall to see if she could find Suki. It didn't sound like an emergency, but she was clearly in distress of some kind. Of all the people she could have called instead, she still chose to call Kiyo, and that offered her some relief. "Where do you need me to be?" she asked softly.

"I don’t knowwwwwwwww." Her voice cracked. "I’m downtown right now. Where was the burger place you took me? I think I saw it nearby, but I’m not sure."

Downtown. She began searching there while flying blind through her apartment. "Okay. I'm on my way, so just stay where you are and tell me what you see." She was outside now, transformed and flying in the direction of the downtown area that included their usual haunts. Suki almost sounded drunk, but it didn't really matter. She wasn't in a state to be told to go anywhere, so Kiyo would go find her.

…

…

…

Sometimes, while cruising around as a magical girl, it was hard to remember that people lived in Hibusa town. Hibusa High had a fair number of students, and downtown was always filled with them after school. But by the time the sun set and the shops closed, the town felt eerily quiet. One would be forgiven for thinking that Hibusa town was only occupied by high school girls, but that was not the case. In the middle of the day the streets were filled with locals moving to and fro, trying to get their mid day chores done before the lunch rush ended. Suki did not blend in on the best of days, but she was easily the youngest, most disheveled person on the street. She was sitting on a bench in front of a convenience store with a statue of a beckoning cat on the other side. Her heel bounced on the concrete as she waited for Kiyo to arrive.

It was easier to spot something with a mogall's-eye view, so once Suki had stepped outside, it wasn't terribly difficult for Evil Eye to find her. She untransformed in a nearby alley and made her way over to her. Kiyo walked with a barely-noticeable limp, but she was free of her cane at last. Like Suki, she was also a bit disheveled in her apparent haste. She was even wearing slippers instead of shoes—the fuzzy black kind with cat ears. "I'm here," she said, sitting down on the bench next to her. "What's wrong?"

It took Suki a good while to turn her head in Kiyo’s direction. First her face, and then slowly her eyes were dragged onto Kiyo. She blinked once, then again, and then her eyes traveled down Kiyo’s form and settled on her slippers. "Did you get all dressed up for me?" This wasn’t a joke, the delivery was too deadpan. "You didn’t have to. I um…" She hugged one of her knees. "I just wanted to talk to you. About Tsubomi."

"Mm." Kiyo vocalized her acknowledgement with a simple nod. In her experience, Suki tended to bottle things up, so if she was like this, it was usually pretty serious. "I asked about Tsubomi during the last meeting, but Miss Supervisor wouldn't tell me anything—said she'd look into it. Do we know what's wrong with her?"

"Um, yea." She pointed her face ahead, but kept looking at Kiyo. "I’m just gunna start at the beginning." With a sigh, her eyes focused on something in the distance. "So you know that Tsubomi has been acting kind of weird after the beach? And how she’s like, you know, progressively becoming more like herself as time goes on? So I was trying to figure out how to make her better and Pinocchio approached me out of the blue. Apparently she can hear what people want, aaaaaaaaand Tsubomi wants to kill herself." Suki curled her lips into her mouth, then she turned her entire body to face Kiyo. The leg she had been hugging slid out of her hands and filled most of the space between Kiyo and herself. "So this was really confusing, because Tsubomi can’t feel anything as I understood it, but I also kind of had my doubts? You know, because she’s gotta want things. But this is Pinocchio so I couldn’t just blindly trust her. But we encountered the supervisor and the three of us wanted to talk with Tsubomi. And that was when things got, well, kinda wild." Suki paused to catch her breath.

Pinocchio? By process of elimination, that must have been Hizuki, but questions about the case of the might-be-lying magical girl of light would have to wait on account of the bombshell. Kiyo sat so still that she might have been mistaken for a trained shinobi. They'd taken it for granted that Tsubomi didn't feel anything because of her nature as a dark magical girl—in fact, Evil Eye admired that ability to suppress her emotions and desires as something to aspire to—but now, it seemed that everything she thought she knew about Tsubomi was in doubt. Depression—she ought to have recognized it immediately, she thought.

There was another bombshell, too, to which she had a delayed but visible reaction, her eyes widening to a degree they usually only did when she was Evil Eye. Impossible, she thought. A light girl, aware of her ambitions, wanted to help her? That's impossible. But it— She thought back to her first meeting with the girl. I can help you, had been practically the first words out of her mouth. I let my emotions run wild that night! My guard was down... Then, she knew all along about Ashbringer. She knew that I planned to stir up shit with the GEMs to show Rei that these girls really need her. Yet, she played along as if she knew nothing. Well done, Hizuki. We really are... quite similar. Kiyo suppressed the beginnings of a snicker, disguising it as a sneeze. "Kusu. ...Pinocchio is a good name. So then, was Tsubomi depressed?"

"So apparently, Tsubomi as we know her is some sort of manifestation, or something, that is inhabiting the real Tsubomi’s body. And the real Tsubomi is waking up, and they want to kill our Tsubomi, because they don’t want to share control. And then Pinocchio just casually suggests we find our Tsubomi a new body and magic her inside of it. And then our supervisor starts acting like this is a totally normal thing to do and mentions she has a supplier and everything, but there’s still doubts as to if they can move Tsubomi over because we don’t know what she is. And even if it worked without a hitch Tsubomi would either be a mannequin or a zombie, which would be all kinds of weird. And given the timing, it happened around the time I struck Tsubomi’s head with a soccer ball. Pinocchio said she doesn’t think it’s my fault but this is Pinocchio and I fully expect her to lie to me." Suki placed her arm on the backrest of the bench and rested her head on it. "It would be a little bit easier to deal with if our Tsubomi had like, a care in the world."

A supplier who can transfer someone into a new body with magic? Now that, I have to see, thought the mad scientist, but she suppressed that excitement for now. "A manifestation..." Kiyo repeated the word. "Well, it seems like there are two possibilities. Either the 'light girl Tsubomi' is still in there, fighting to regain control of herself like this is some kind of anime—unprecedented, as far as I'm aware, but not impossible to imagine—or something more like a split personality. Though, one getting a hold of magic is pretty unusual, maybe." She didn't exactly have many data points on magical girls with split personalities, but she had none on dark girls returning to the light. "The latter seems more likely to me. In the case of split personalities, they usually appear to serve some kind of role, like a coping mechanism. That would mean that 'our' Tsubomi exists because the original Tsubomi couldn't allow herself to want or feel things. It's not too hard to imagine why a dark magical girl would want that. I do too, sometimes." She tapped her cheek with a finger, apparently in deep thought. "Perhaps, at some point in time, she had some need to deny herself, and was cultivating this personality on purpose—but now, she's having second thoughts, and that means Do-Not-Want Tsubomi is an obstacle now, and not a helper, because... original Tsubomi has decided that she wants something, or wants to want something, and feel things about whatever that something is," she decided. Setting aside the question of why on earth Kiyo would know so much about split personalities, of all things, she seemed pretty confident in her conclusions.

But theories on why this was happening wouldn't help Suki cope with the idea that it was her fault this was happening. "It's true that there's probably a lot going on under the hood in Tsubomi's head, and getting hit with a soccer ball hard enough might shake things up. If original Tsubomi lost control of her body, and then one day woke up and decided she wanted it back, she might've been waiting for an opening like that. Thing is... it might be too soon to use a word like 'fault' to describe what happened." Her eyes ceased their thoughtful wanderings and found Suki. "Because if my theory has any merit at all, that would mean Tsubomi is healing. She's in a situation now where she doesn't need to suppress her feelings, wants and needs." She said it with such absolute confidence, it was as if she'd seen a similar sequence of events play out firsthand. "This was going to happen eventually, in that case. If it wasn't a soccer ball to the head, it would have been something else. Us dark girls regularly take bigger knocks to the head than that, after all."

"Right, but-"

Kiyo reached across the space between them and lightly tapped Suki on the head with a knuckle, offering her best reassuring smile, before turning serious once more. "So, this operation of hers... If our Tsubomi is in fact a full person, turning her into a compliant doll doesn't seem like a good solution—but that seems unlikely to be the case, if you ask me. Two entire people sharing one body—I'm not sure how that would happen. It's more likely that the Tsubomi we know was just a protective shell, of sorts." She frowned. "This Wants-Things-Tsubomi—does she still have the memories of the Tsubomi we know? In the worst case, if she is actually the only Tsubomi—do you think you can be her friend, too?"

"Could I be her friend?" Suki seemed to think back on earlier events. "Uh, there was this point where our Tsubomi was- Actually, I guess she calls herself Zassou now, like the happy weed." She hung her head for a moment before continuing. "Zassou was communicating with the true Tsubomi, and relaying messages to us. And I, uh, I kinda, maybe, said I’d kill her if she killed Zassou?" Kiyo giggled, and Suki rubbed the side of her face. "But to clarify, the idea was that we’d put Zassou in some other body and let Tsubomi keep her own. I’m sorry I wasn’t more clear, it’s really hard to wrap my mind around what’s going on." She pulled her other knee up on the bench so that she was kneeling towards Kiyo. She steadied herself with the backrest. "But I’ve kind of been thinking something along the same lines. If Zassou is fated to go away, and she can’t feel things, then maybe the humane thing to do is to let her uh, ‘die’ for lack of a better word." She looked away. "But Tsubomi, the real one, she uh, well, seems kiiiiiind of like a bitch? Like, she seems very irritable, and I couldn’t see her liking anybody. Especially if she’s a light girl, I couldn’t picture her sticking around with us."

"I see..." Kiyo frowned. These, then, were the real stakes. Suki would lose her friend, and the Club would lose a member—perhaps some of the others might say that Acid Drop was already basically gone, but Kiyo didn't want to just give in that easily. Still, any hopes that the original Tsubomi might have bonded to one of the other girls seemed to be dashed, now. "Nyxia seemed like kind of a bitch, too, but she seems to be doing fine. Though there may be... another way." She bit her thumbnail, in that way she did when she was uncomfortably considering the merits and demerits of her own ideas. "We could try... hypnotism," she suggested. "Putting the original Tsubomi to sleep again would only be a temporary solution to a permanent problem—but if I could put her under hypnosis, we could delve deeper into Tsubomi's psyche and find out more about what's really going on without having to hear it from a biased source. Then we would have a little more certainty about whether or not this body-swapping magic would actually do what we intend for it to do." Her eyes wandered as she thought. "But she might resist—violently—and she's... very good at getting away from me." Her voice trailed off into a mumble.

"Riiiiight." Suki sighed. "I guess this is something else that needs to be run past everyone. Though, maybe it would be best to just see what you can do before they go through with the body swap stuff." She scratched the side of her head "You could see what you could learn, and then we could tell the others your findings." Suki hadn’t made eye contact with Kiyo for a bit now. She was distracted by something. "So you think the name Pinocchio fits too?"

"Sure. Not malicious, but not completely honest either. Desperately wants to be a good girl, but ends up dancing on another's strings." There was a pause. "If it wasn't us, it would be someone else taking advantage of her. I get that impression." Another pause. "Still wanna do the pizza pockets thing?" she offered.

Suki didn’t answer right away. She had clearly been listening to Kiyo, her eyes flicked to her occasionally, but there was something in her mind she was pulling apart. "I think she might be gay."

Kiyo blinked. "Based on the available information, it's probable."

"T–that came out wrong, hehe!" Suki waved her hand at Kiyo. "W-what I mean to say is, she got really defensive because she thought I said she was into girls. But was that a cover up? I mean, if she was a deceitful person, then Pinocchio would try to throw me off her trail. I think she said she never remembered wanting to kiss a guy but like." Suki looked directly at Kiyo. "What if she did? And she didn’t like it? I wish I could remember more of what she said." Suki folded her legs and looked straight ahead. "But she didn’t seem that bothered when I initially suggested she should date Tsubomi. But she was bothered that I assumed she was into girls." She placed her fingers on her forehead. "What could it mean?"

"Are you and Willow having a bet on who she has a crush on?" Kiyo tilted her head and smiled accusingly.

"Wah?" Suki’s head poked up. Somehow she looked even more distraught than she had when Kiyo first came over. "N-no! I would’t- Why is Willow even in this discussion?" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I haven’t spoken to her for a bit. She was eavesdropping on Pinocchio and I-" Suki clenched her hand in a fist. Her eyes looked like they were trying to escape her head, and her entire body was quivering. Then with a sigh, she fell backwards against the bench and rolled her head towards Kiyo. "You sound like you know who she’s interested in."

"Nope. Doesn't really concern me," Kiyo replied, ruffling Suki's hair a little. Suki winced, but didn’t do anything to stop her. "Though Willow did say Haruna had a crush on someone, none of us know who it is."

Suki snorted and pulled her hair straight. "I guess it’s a stupid thing to think about." She folded her hands and placed them in her lap. "Pizza pocket things sound good right about now."

"I just mean that it's not my business, as long as it's not going to cause infighting," Kiyo clarified with a shrug. Her hand relented on the hair-ruffling and found her shoulder instead. This seemed to make her face glow red, or was it just from her being in a post drunken stupor? "Let's see... I believe it was..." Kiyo checked her phone. "Oh. Pizza bites, hot pockets and smores, to be precise. And 'soda for days.'" She rattled off every detail she'd stored in her note. She stood up, offering a smile. "Sounds good to me. I've been craving carbs and red dye number three."

"A-and yellow five, heh!" Suki stumbled to her feet and kept pace with Kiyo. She took exactly three steps before looking at her. "Um, so does Willow have any idea who it might be?"

"Nope," Kiyo replied, but then her lips curled with mischief. "She seemed to cheer up a bit when I said it probably wasn't you, though?"

"She uh, she did?" Suki lowered her head, but kept her eyes pointed up at Kiyo. "That’s uh, kinda weird." They got about five steps away from a traffic crossing that was devoid of any automobiles, which was when Suki spoke up again. "I mean it ‘probably isn’t me’ is a little generous, isn’t it? You should have said it definitely wasn’t me!" She chuckled a few times, then stopped as soon as she started to sound like a pig snorting. "Hey uh, you mind playing a game with me?" Suki rubbed her arm. "When Tsubomi was, uh, less confusing, we’d discuss possible matches in the detention club. There have been a lot of developments, but I don’t think she’d be up for it anymore. I know it’s none of your business, but, you know?"

Kiyo almost considered saying something about Suki's 'confidence issue,' but that was a discussion for another day. Suki had enough to worry about right now. "Hmm." She tilted her head in thought as she made her way to the supermarket. "Roche and Haruna," she suggested.

"Wha?" Suki took a step away from Kiyo. "You have got to be kidding with me right now!" Her hand flew up and she weakly slapped Kiyo’s shoulder. "Roach has like, Nyxia fawning over her, and Shuuko cuddles with her in public. There’s no way it could be Roach! Haruna is not that kind of girl!" She swatted Kiyo’s shoulder again. "Take me seriously, please!"

"Ahaha! I thought you’d like the crack pairings." Kiyo smiled as Suki made a fuss. "Yeah, I couldn't see Nyxia with anyone else. Think Roche could teach her some chill?"

"She’s practically got her eating out of her hand." Suki grumbled. "But if we pair them together, then Shuuko gets… Hmmm…" Suki meditated on it, but not long enough to give Kiyo another chance to tease her. "Kind of weird to think of her as your old partner, given you guys have been apart for a bit now. She’s kinda nice, kinda clingy, That doesn’t really feel like your style." She thought a bit more. "Eh, aside from Haruna, I think she’d get along with almost anyone. Maybe we save her as a wild card option when we narrow them down a bit more? Or we pair her with you. What do you think?"

"Me and Shuuko, huh," Kiyo pondered. She supposed she'd have to be paired up eventually, Suki would insist on it. "Feels like another 'default pairing,' yeah. I wouldn't call her clingy. Her loyalty is fierce. I like that." She walked inside the store and pulled out a shopping cart, earning herself a fair few fake smiles from some employees who were probably ready for closing right about now. "Who would you pair Willow with, then? Don't say Rei, that's boring. Humor me."

"I’m pretty sure Tsubomi and myself are the only people who can tolerate her. She seems to annoy everyone else." Suki didn’t even need to think about this one. "I’d normally say Rainbow, but uh, not sure about this new Rainbow. If Baast has her eyes on Pinochio that’s kind of a no brainer. But yea, Pinocchio or Rainbow."

"Mm. I think Willow will be mad at Haruna for a while. If new Tsubomi is a mean girl, maybe they'll get along?"

"Maybe…"

Kiyo grabbed a little bit of everything vaguely pizza-related from the frozen appetizers section without thinking about it much. "Then it's... oh. Right, there's nine of us now. Then I guess that leaves you and Haruna after all. Rei can just sit this out now. Though maybe—her and the Supervisor?" She considered it. "I almost forgot about her."

"Back up." Suki held her hands up, but she wasn’t standing in front of the the cart. She quickly counted her fingers and mumbled some names. "Roach and Nyxia, Sister and Fingers, Willow and Rainbow, Boss baby and Mom…" Suki pursed her lips. "Nah, I uh, I don’t think Boss Baby would be interested in mom. I don’t think she would make a club and not be interested in anyone, either. She was okay with Pinocchio joining us, so maybe she likes her. Or hey! Maybe Rei and Fingers could be a thing and… I mean you said earlier but you know… You were… kinda… interested in…" Suki threw down her fingers. "You just said it probably wasn’t me a minute ago! You can’t just change your mind now!"

"Pfft." Kiyo covered a mischievous smirk with her hand. "Shuuko is pretty interesting after all, so maybe? Her and Rei, then. Well, what if Haruna's crush turns out to be Tsubomi? Then it's you and Willow."

"Maybe." Suki scratched her head. "If she doesn’t want me to be with Haruna, it could be that… Hmm, that doesn’t feel quite…" Suki was half talking to herself, half thinking to herself.

"Putting the two Supervisors together is no good, huh? Pairing her up with anyone else almost feels like a crime though, you know?" Chocolate bars and marshmallows, acquired.

"Well, what about you and me?"

"You mean as more than just sisters?" Kiyo added after a pause. "I'm not the kind of girl who can make a partner happy, Suki. You'd rather be with anyone else. Even being alone might be better..." Her voice trailed off. "Well, that's why I picked Shuuko. She has the patience of a saint, after all."

And then, silence.

Suki’s fidgeting, mumbling, and fuming no longer filled the air. The confection isle was rather quiet, with no sign of shoppers save for the far off sound of carts rolling through checkout. The loudest sound was the hum of the freezers the next isle over. Of all the isles, this was also one of the few that did not have any sort of surveillance in it.

A pair of porcelain hands slid over Kiyo’s shoulders. Their marble fingers reached for her collarbones before sliding along the contour of her shoulders.

"Mmmm, you’re kind of cute when you blush though." Oros said with a giggle. "Red really is your color."

Kiyo's shoulders tensed. This was how it always started. This gentle coaxing—sweet talking, hands coming from behind, inevitably while she was doing something else—but this wasn't him. This was Suki, she told herself, and told herself again. "I told you to forget about... that night," she replied after checking the aisle for eavesdropping employees. She couldn't remember any other time she would have blushed in front of any of the Club girls. She also couldn't forget that time, either, and remembering it now did cause her to lightly blush. Suki had left her feeling... complex emotions. She had almost allowed herself to feel a desire that she should not. What Suki needed was guidance from someone who cared, not... whatever she would have been, if she hadn't taught herself to suppress that nasty impulse humans called "love."

"Some things are hard to forget." Oros’s fingers turned red with her blood. "Others are impossible."

"Why do you do this to yourself, Suki?" The strange question came out of her suddenly, and she looked a bit sad. It was a look she never showed in front of the Club, even when she had to cry to use her magic. She was always giggling like a maniac during those times.

"Hah!" Oros retracted her hands and stepped in front of Kiyo. As she did, her essence bubbled and distorted and rushed back into the tip of Suki’s finger. "Maybe lighten up on the teasing if ya can’t take it, eh?" She grabbed a package of assorted Dig-Dawgs and tossed them into the cart. "So what do you need to make sure the hypnotizing goes as smoothly as possible?"

Kiyo's lips parted to say something, but she seemed to think better of it, turning around and pushing the cart to the next aisle over instead. "The more of Tsubomi's friends we can gather, the better. Club only, of course. Just to keep her calm and back me up if something goes wrong." Graham crackers, acquired. Last was the soda.

Suki was eyeing the sodas at the end of the aisle, but she occasionally peaked at the alcoholic beverages in the corner of the store. Then her eyes flicked up to a security and she sighed. "I dunno about that. I mean, Tsubomi doesn’t have any emotions. The shell I mean. I forgot what we were calling her." She looked back to Kiyo. "And I doubt the other one really cares for us all that much. I couldn’t even tell you if she enjoyed being my partner or not."

"Then, let me put it this way. If what we're doing seems to be out of concern for our Tsubomi, other Tsubomi might be less suspicious of my intentions. Better she thinks we look stupid rather than looking prepared. Speaking of which." On the soda aisle, too, she got a little bit of everything again. "My place or yours?"

"Uh…" Suki’s eyes wandered over to the cart, which was starting to look pretty full. "I haven’t been to your place in a while, heh!" she rubbed the back of her head and smiled. "Done shopping?"

"Yeah," she replied simply. There was a pause at checkout where she seemed to consider something, credit card in hand, but she shrugged it off and paid. When they left, the employees locked the door behind them, the last customers of the evening. "It's getting late, so Shuuko might be out," she remarked absently.

"That’s not too surprising." Suki looked at the cart again. "Actually, that’s a lot of food for two people, isn’t it? I’m surprised you got that much." She pulled out a box of cigarettes that still had a cellophane wrapping on them. They also looked like the brand that was near the counter where they checked out. "If you took less, we could have skipped checkout. But uh, guess you were really hungry for red three huh?"

It was only now that Suki said something that Kiyo seemed to realize that she'd done grocery shopping for a family of four. The shock of that epiphany seemed to sweep away the question that came soon after entirely. "Ah. Well, it's... When you treat someone, there should be leftovers." She stated it factually, like that was just how this was done. It had all been so automatic, until the moment she realized that there was no car to load any of this into, and the employee from before had followed the pair of weirdos to the end of the parking lot because they couldn't close the store with a cart outside. "E-Excuse me, miss..."

She sighed. "Fuck." She unloaded as many of the bags as she could loop around her arm, leaving Suki to take the cue to carry the soda, which she picked up and balanced on her head. Or rather, she used her head to help hold the soda up along with her scrawny arms. "Family emergency," Kiyo mumbled as she rolled the cart over to the girl, whose demeanor melted into sympathy as she bowed and took it. She must have looked the part, doing grocery shopping in slippers. When Kiyo rounded the corner and was sure no one was watching, she transformed. "Fuck," she repeated with a groan, taking flight, but staying low to the ground so Suki could follow. "...It's not far, but it could've been closer."

"I hear ya." Carrying so much soda was always going to be awkward, but she couldn’t really look up at Evil eye since she was supporting the load with her head. The carton of cigarettes in her one hand were half crushed, likely a casualty from the girl’s speedy retreat. "It could definitely be closer." She stumbled as her foot found its way into a shallow pot hole. "Oh whew! It’s usually rained when I do that." She giggled. "So um, what are we doing at your place? Are we gunna watch a movie, maybe play a board game. Make, uh, a video?"

Evil Eye giggled, quickly recovering from her embarrassment and other complicated emotions. "A video? Like, what, of us eating? Hard pass." Kiyo didn't really do social media. Or rather, she did, but mostly by proxy, being tagged in other girls' posts. She was the type to cultivate a following at school with that kind of 'the less you know' mystique that the foreign beauty types always had. "It's a little out of season to watch a scary movie, but what about, like, one of those 'so bad it's good' movies that people watch to make fun of?"

"What do you mean it’s out of season?" It was nearly halloween after all. It certainly wasn’t like halloween had happened nearly a month ago and they were closing in on December. Then again, perhaps every day was halloween when you were a dark magical girl. You always got into a costume, and went to a party every day. Said party just happened to involve eating big, black, amorphous blobs of negative emotions. Some of them looked like they were made of mochi. "B-but I’m fine uh, watching a bad movie. I like those."

Kiyo blinked. "Time is slipping away from me, I suppose." The candy being on sale should have tipped her off, in hindsight. "How about a bad monster movie, then? Have you seen Sharktopus?"

.

..

...

Kiyo and Shuuko's apartment was in a pretty nice part of town. It had a traditional Japanese aesthetic that suited the priestess-like Shuuko and princess-like Kiyo. A simple living room, kitchen, two bed, one bath. They'd even splurged on one with a laundry room. Kiyo began by stuffing most of their pizza-like goods in the freezer that was otherwise full of meats. Taking one box out, she was just able to make it all fit. "I have to say, I've never used the microwave to make smores before." She started with putting in some pizza bites, though.

"The marshmallows are the only bit that’s different." Suki puffed out her chest and folded her hands behind her back. "When you use a fire, the outside gets all crispy, and you can tell when they are done because they get dark. But uh, when you microwave them, they just sort of get bigger? Then they shrink down when you stop cooking them. If you nuke them long enough they just kind of turn into a liquidy, sticky mass" She nodded, waited, then nodded again. "I kinda like microwaving them though. You get to eat a lot faster."

"Marshmallows aren't the same without the char," Kiyo replied with a shrug. "You do you, but I'm air frying mine."

"You have an air fryer?" Suki looked at the counter top. "Oh hey, you do!" It was one of those weird basket style ones that you needed a pair of tongs to remove what you were eating, but it would do. Suki pulled it open, chucked a few marshmallows inside, and started pushing buttons. "I don’t like holding the stick for so long." She further elaborated, but she could have been talking to the air fryer or Kiyo.

Kiyo vaulted over the arm of the couch, turned on the TV and popped her laptop open. She had too many tabs up to count, let alone read their contents. Pretty much anyone who'd ever used the internet would recognize the site of choice for video content, though. "Free with ads. My ass," she mumbled. There were supposed to be ads, but there wouldn't be any. "Oh, fuck. Suki, have you seen The Room?"

"Room?" Suki tipped her head. "Like Panic Room? It’s a bad movie, but not so bad it’s good."

Kiyo smirked with glee. She wasn't sure if the horrible line delivery would hit the same in Japanese, but not knowing was part of the fun of bad movie night. "Getting to see your reaction to this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so here we go."

"Sounds good!" She nodded. "In the meantime, I’ll just finish making these smores!"



"Hello all! Suki here to show you that Rachel Ray isn’t the only one who can be done in thirty minutes! C-cooling that is!" She gestured towards a pile of goodies, which was really just everything Kiyo had bought earlier. "At the very least, for this recipe you will need…

-An air fryer!

-At least two large marshmallows!

-Gramcrackers, preferably not stale!

-Some chocolate!

-(Optional) assorted candy toppings!"

The delinquent picked up a roll of tinfoil. "It would be a good idea to put something in the air fryer in case things get messy, but since I already tossed some marshmallows in there, it’s too late to worry about cleanup!" She tossed the roll aside and looked at the air fryer. "Actually, it’s going to be kind of hard to get soft marshmallows out of the air fryer without a graham cracker under them. So we’ll cheat and add them in now." She quickly pulled open the air fryer, cracked a gram cracker in half, tossed it in, and shut the airfryer. "And don’t forget the chocolate!" She repeated the same thing with a hershey bar, and was careful to pull the wrapper off and cast it aside. "And that’s really all there is to it. But since we have all these other wonderful ingredients, why not add in some gummy worms, last year’s halloween candy, gay bacon…" She stopped listing off ingredients and hummed as she tossed item after item into the air fryer. She eventually finished with a cup of Kookie-Koola. "And after a short cooking time of three minutes, you should have some tasty smores!" She threw open the air fryer and dumped the amalgamation on her plate. Though what came out looked like a sea of inky darkness. Only the faint glow of dying stars and cold planets could be seen in its mass. Something had been called from the coldest corner of the cosmos, breached the veil of reality, and now sat on a plate like a lump of tar.

"Oh, uh… It looks like I accidentally made Endless Eclipse again." Suki sighed.

…



"Hello all! Suki here to show you that Rachel Ray isn’t the only one who can be done in thirty minutes! C-cooling that is!" She gestured towards a pile of goodies, which was really just everything Kiyo had bought earlier. "At the very least, for this recipe you will need…

-A microwave!

-A box of hot pockets!

-Crisping sleeves! (Included in hot pocket box)

"Now, what you are gunna wanna do is slide the hot pocket inside the crisping sleeve and cook for whatever the box says!" She followed her advice and punched in some numbers on the microwave. "Once you’re done, you can dispose of the crisping sleeve or hold onto it. I always hold onto them, but it’s sort of unnecessary because they always come with more. What can’t be skipped is waiting about five to ten minutes for your hot pocket to cool. Unless you really, really hate yourself. Because you could burn your tongue and then you won’t be tasting anything."

…

Suki stuck a spoon in the amalgamation she had made. "So uh, ready to watch a movie?"

Kiyo had made the mistake of leaving Suki alone with an air fryer when it was her turn to do the dishes. She looked over her shoulder and watched in horror—not shock, as none of this was surprising—as Suki added one ingredient after another like she always did, none of which belonged in an air fryer. How and why Suki had ready access to year-old Halloween candy, and whatever the hell gay bacon was, Kiyo didn't ask. She just massaged her temple in frustration and clicked the button to stream the movie to the TV. "...Does it still taste like sugar, at least?" she asked, more out of a morbid curiosity than anything.

"That’s kind of the interesting part." She attempted to pry the spoon out of the mass. The handle of the spoon bent and flexed, but eventually it popped free. A purple miasma and the distant cries of anguishing spirits were released along with the utensil. "Like it tastes different than it usually does, but it’s like comparing french fries to sweet potato fries, you know?" Putting the spoon in her mouth was easy, but the tar-like mass must have had the consistency of cold toffee. She pulled and pulled and pulled, and eventually the spoon drew a bridge of shadow between Suki’s lips and the spoon’s tips. It took Suki a moment of working the mass around in her mouth before she could finally swallow it. "Yea, I get some of the marshmallow fluffyness in there. It might be easier to eat with chopsticks."

To Kiyo, a shovel seemed like a more appropriate tool, but perhaps that was because it seemed to be begging to be mercy killed and buried in the park rather than eaten by a human being. "How can you eat something like that often enough to have a 'usual?' As long as you like it, I guess..." The microwave dinged, and she got up to get her own food.

"I mean, everything Midas touched turned to gold. If he didn’t have servants, he’d probably eat gold every day, right?" With a nervous chuckle, Suki hopped over the back of the couch and landed beside the laptop.

Kiyo blinked. "Yeah? I mean, I'm not a servant, and that's not gold, but the rest of that is true, I guess." What 'rest?' What point was she trying to make, again? Even Kiyo wasn't sure anymore. She sat down with her hot pockets and poked a few holes into them with a fork, letting steam out.

"Huh, this doesn’t look familiar to me." She positioned the laptop between herself and Kiyo. "So ya wanna watch this? Looks kinda low budget, but I’d be willing to try it."

"Mm." She nodded. "If you like bad movies, The Room is essential viewing."

"Okay-cool!" Suki clicked the start button and glued her eyes to the screen. "Hmmm."

One of the delinquent’s pigtails was draped in front of Kiyo’s face, but she brushed it over her shoulder shortly afterwards. It was a little hard for the two of them to watch the movie on such a small screen. The laptop was parched on both of their laps, with their hands so close.

Then Kiyo changed the signal to the TV she had turned on earlier.

"Oh! Hah! I was wondering why you turned that on earlier." Suki sat up and swung her legs in front of herself. "Do you watch a lot of movies with Shuuko?"

Kiyo nodded. "It's my pastime. I liked to laugh at how stupid some of them were—the backwards plot, bad dialogue, unbelievable effects. I'd put one on while I made dinner, watch from the kitchen, and I'd usually finish the dishes in time to see the ending." She cut off a piece of her hot pocket, blew, and ate it. How like Kiyo it was to eat finger food with a fork.

Some time passed, and the infamous line came up.

"I did not hit her, it's not true. It's bullshit, I did not hit her. I did noot... oh hi Mark"

"Puhyahahaha! Oh, fuck, it's somehow even worse than in English!" She laughed so hard she was losing her breath, while Tommy and Mark had a mundane yet somehow unbelievable discussion about whether or not girls liked to cheat, too. The delivery was surreal, like the actors were trying to imitate what AI-generated video content would look like 20 years later.

"Heh… Hah… So that’s what the meme was from…" The acting was awfully hammy. The script didn’t give them much to work with either. Their discussion felt more like two adolescent boys pretending to be adults discussing relationship woes. "Uh, so, do you see stuff like this with your mogalls? Private conversations up on the rooftops?" It was a staple of anime, one that was interesting to see depicted in foreign media.

"Sometimes. It's a big cliche to have the characters stare off into the distance, but not really necessary in a real conversation. It's a typical love confession sort of scenario, not that I can hear what they're saying. So sometimes I make up my own dialogue for them based on how it seems to be going."

"Mmmmm, that sounds kinda fun." She tapped her chin. "I guess we could kinda do that with this movie if we wanted to, right? Just turn off the volume and make up words?"

Kiyo considered for a moment. She didn't mute the TV, but decided to add a little spice of her own to the scene. "I wouldn't cheat on you, Tommy," she said dejectedly on behalf of Mark in an obvious twist, then snickered.

Suki had to stifle a laugh so that she could try her hand at voicing Tommy. "You’d better not, Mark! Did you see me come up here? I had to duck just to get through the door, and I’ll throw your head like that water bottle." Kiyo wasn’t trying to match what was on screen, and neither was Suki. "Maybe if Lisa and I don’t work out, we can."

"Forget about Lisa, man! You know we were made for each other!" Kiyo added, giggling.

"She’s already a memory. I’ll take that ball as an engagement gift." She managed just as Tommy took the ball from Mark and he stormed off. "I hope Mark’s not cheating on me." Suki added, even though Tommy wasn’t speaking to anyone. Though as soon as Mark departed, Danny took his place. "Oh hi, Danny. Did Mark cheat on me?"

"You kidding? That guy gets no bitches," Kiyo replied on behalf of Danny. "But uh, you do know he shoves this football up his ass, right?" Danny happened to be both handling the football and giving Tommy an inquisitive look at the time, and Kiyo burst out laughing.

"Then I think you should have it-I said you should have it!" Eventually the brief game of hot potato ended with Danny holding the ball. "You know we’re getting married?"

But Kiyo couldn't, anymore. She was down for the count, leaning over the arm of the couch, wheezing. Aside from laughing maniacally while on a miseria hunt, this might've been the only time she'd seemed to be having this much fun.

Suki wiped away her tears and reclined in her seat. Her head tipped backwards over the backrest, and she sighed into the air. "Ah, I doubt I could get Tsubomi to laugh like that." She blinked at the ceiling and groaned. "So I guess I gotta lead around Pinocchio and Rainbow now. I have no idea what gets into Boss Baby’s mind sometimes."

Eventually, Kiyo recovered, glancing askance at Suki. "Mm. Will that be a problem? Hizuki doesn't seem like much of a troublemaker."

"Ah-hah, ah, no. I think those two are probably the most agreeable people in the club. I mean, Rainbow’s got some problems right now, but I can work with her. Pinocchio seems agreeable, at least to your face. I just think it’s weird that Boss Baby went from pairing me up with Rainbow as a form of damage control to giving me access to the new light girl. If you told past me that I was going to have a light girl on my team I’d have been dancing on tables and singing. But uh, I dunno now… Maybe that’s why it happened though."

"Really?" Kiyo pursed her lips. "Why? You like light girls?" Her tone wasn't judgmental, but there was some skepticism. "Or did, until recently?"

Suki’s head flew up. Her pigtails were still flying through the air when she turned to look at Kiyo. "Oh! Uh, that came out wrong!" She laughed, a little too hard. "Uh, I mean, I like playing with light girls, you know? There’s just something about how uh, pure, they are?" She scrunched her lips. "Mmmmm, anyway, I’ve never really gotten to know very many light girls, and uh, I guess Hizuki qualifies, but you know, I guess, um, uh…" She cleaned her ear. "Like she doesn’t really match my idea of a light girl, you know? I mean she’s not like us, that’s for sure, but she lies, she’s exhausted all the time, I dunno. I guess I just thought light girls were supposed to be happy and kinda stupid all the time."

"Pfft." Kiyo scoffed, amused. "Happy and stupid, huh. The ones I knew were fake and bitchy. Definitely not pure." She reclined into the couch, putting her feet on the table. "Well, you're right about Hizuki not being like that. If she keeps running herself ragged for the sake of others, she'll fall soon enough, just like us." A moment passed and she glanced quizzically at Suki. "I thought for sure you liked bad girls."

"I like playing with light girls." She reiterated, this time stretching out her arms and wiggling her fingers for emphasis. "But I guess it depends, you know? Like, Boss Baby is pretty cool. Nyxia is kind of a bad girl, right?" She folded her arms. "And uh, you’re cool too. Kinda weird that we never got to be on a team together. I don’t really count the Gem invasion, heh! I can’t even remember a lot of that."

"You fought the hardest. Enough to make a girl jealous," she teased. "Maybe next time. Our magics are an interesting combo, but I can't keep up with your speed."

"Yea, heh." Suki tapped her foot. The Room had just become some background noise now. "Now that Pinocchio is on my team, I’m gunna have to be on my toes to keep up with her. She seems sorta spontaneous." She tipped her head and stared at Kiyo. "Uh, sis, do you have a type? Other than the patient type, I mean."

Kiyo might've looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't. She considered it for a moment. Then, her answer came quietly. "Maybe I like the pure ones, too. But it doesn't last long because I'm a bad influence. Anyway." She stood up and returned to the kitchen, presumably to get a head start on cleaning out the air fryer basket.

"Hah! Great minds… Think… Alike…" Kiyo had already departed. She grabbed the EndlessEclipse!S'more in both hands and bit into it like it was a wad of jerky. After some pulling, it snapped and she was able to chew it. Sort of. "I wonder if Kiyo would be okay if we did this more often." Suki thought out loud. "If Shuuko is going to keep darting off to see Roach…" But her train of thought was broken when her eyes settled on the TV screen.

What a horrible movie.

---

---

It was another club meeting day, and Haruna had been given a lot of things to think about, and a lot of questions to ask. Questions that could likely only be answered by the mysterious president of the Detention Club, the Demon of Hibusa, and theoretically her former partner. So, she went to find her, figuring she would probably be observing nearby, unless today was a day she deigned to make a proper appearance.

Nope, it seemed like she was observing nearby. And by observing, Rei seemed like she was trying to duck out of the school before anyone noticed her. She looked side to side before crossing any intersections and had made her way past some lockers and almost out of the school proper. Then she shrugged, looked over her shoulder, and finally turned to face the girl that was looking for her.

"Haruna." Her hands were shoved inside the pockets of her jacket. "You’re going to miss the meeting if you don’t hurry."

"I’m not the club president," the light girl pointedly replied. "It’ll be okay if I miss a little bit. I try to keep up with everyone outside of club, so they can just fill me in on everything I’m missing later." Her shoulders shifted in a gesture that only made it halfway to becoming a shrug. "I just wanted to talk to you a little, I guess, since we’ve only spoken the one time, and we were theoretically partners for a little while."

"Few things get resolved in a stuffy meeting room." She leaned against a locker, threw one leg over the other, and folded her arms. "I was told to leave everything to those under me. They find interesting ways to solve problems, usually." Her grin grew a little bit. "It’s interesting that you’re the only one that’s made an effort to track me down. Interesting things happen when I don’t attend meetings." She tipped her head. "Mmmm, but you wanted to talk to me. I’m not in a rush to be anywhere." Though she did glance at the wall clock right after saying that.

"If you do actually need to be somewhere, I don’t want to be the one who makes you late," Haruna said. After hesitating for a moment, she continued. "It’d be bad if you missed a doctor’s appointment or something like that." Haruna paid close attention to her magical senses as she spoke; Rei was too inscrutable for her to reliably read her expressions, but it was harder to disguise the shifting of one’s desires behind the scenes.

Though Haruna’s powers were weaker when she was untransformed. Even Hizuki had difficulty getting much out of the enigmatic reaper, but she could sense that Rei did want to be somewhere. Though it was impossible to tell with what level of urgency, and there was an interest in what Haruna wanted to say.

"I can manage my time." Rei stated. "If I didn’t want to talk to you, I wouldn’t have stopped."

"I appreciate it, regardless." She thought for a moment; there were a few things she wanted to ask about, each with its own varying degree of awkwardness and necessary tact. "Honestly, it’s hard to figure out where to start," she admitted out loud. "There’s been a lot going on, and I don’t actually get very many chances to talk to you." She thought back to their last interaction, and to her credit, managed to avoid visibly blushing at the memory of being princess carried.

"You said as much."

"I guess I could at least thank you again for saving me against that giga miseria. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I don’t just mean the monster."

"It was nothing." Rei didn’t move away from the locker. "You were interesting, that’s all."

"Ah." Haruna’s face clearly showed that she wanted to ask more about that, but wasn’t sure if it would be too awkward. "Um. . . anyway, I should also mention, I talked to one of the GEMs. It turns out the reason any of them showed up in Hibusa was to ask for your help, actually, and I think that we can stop the conflict here from escalating any further. According to her, all they wanted to do was ask about a light girl named Glorious."

"I see." Rei didn’t look surprised. "I’d be more inclined to believe them if they hadn’t tried to capture our mascot, ambush us when divided, or any of the other ways they’ve tried to get my attention." The corners of her lips twitched, then she shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe the Rulekeeper would like to hear that. I was asked to leave it to her, so I won’t get involved."

"That’s more or less what I said, but if we can get them to stop invading us, I’m willing to let them make a couple excuses." That, and she didn’t actually want to lose her friendship with Morganite, despite their divergent approaches to life and magical girl-dom. "I don’t suppose you’ve seen or heard of her? She’s got strawberry blonde hair, around my height, foreign looking and likes to dress punky. Apparently she disappeared around a year ago, the GEMs thought she was dead until they spotted her over the summer and she ran away. My guess is that she fell because of the car accident she was in, and supposedly she was headed in this direction."

"I was in the City of Light for a time, but I didn’t get to know the light girls very well." She tipped her head until her neck cracked. "I’m unfamiliar with how everyone looked in their normal forms. If it was before the GEMs had been founded, I’d guess that she was part of some lesser light girl team. The city of Light was not always so safe for light girls."

"I figured as much." Haruna shrugged. Rei in the city of light was an interesting thought. In her head, the infamous Schrade had always haunted Hibusa Town. Plus, it occurred to her, it could lead to some answers for Nyxia if she inquired. "If you don’t mind me asking. . . why’d you leave? Was it because of that lack of safety?"

"It got boring." Rei unfolded her arms and stretched. "Most light girls are boring, and irritating. I got tired of hearing their redundant platitudes. It was all such a drag. My parents weren’t having much luck in the city, so it wasn’t hard to convince them to come back here."

"Am I really that different from the others?" Haruna asked. "I didn’t think I was all that distinct from them, except for wanting to give dark girls a chance I guess." Rei’s apparent interest in her, as much as she appreciated it, also confused Haruna. "I do most of the same stuff."

"I don’t think many light girls would go as far as joining the Detention Club." Rei tipped her head side to side. "There was another, but she left some time ago. She didn’t last as long as you did."

Haruna remembered Willow mentioning this girl, too. "What happened to her?" I hope she’s alright. "Did she just not get along with the rest of the club?"

Rei’s smile became just a bit more mischievous. She was expecting this question. "The detention club has two simple rules; We don’t kill anything other than miseria and we don’t reveal ourselves to the outside world. Notice how there isn’t actually a rule protecting the club from itself." She tipped her head back. "If you’re too annoying, someone can do what they want with you. Conversely, someone could beat them up if they get too out of line. We split everyone up into squads with who they seem to get along best with, but you may have noticed that not everyone likes everyone." She didn’t mention Nyxia’s name. She didn’t have to. "I thought she would be interesting too, but even I’m wrong sometimes. She saw herself out once she realized she wasn’t a good fit." Somehow, Rei had managed to talk a lot without saying too much about the girl’s fate.

". . . You know, you and Kiyo have a decent amount in common." She wondered if Rei was concealing her own set of anxieties - like the one Willow had asked her to look into. "Like being able to ask if you need help with anything." She paused for a moment. "Not to put too fine a point on it, but most dark girls become that way for a reason. I know the ones behind some club members, like Nyxia, and it’s not really hard to guess that the rest came from some bad places, too."

"Most dark girls? Which ones don’t have a reason?"

Haruna scratched her head awkwardly. "I mean, I don’t really know. I didn’t mean to imply that anyone didn’t, sorry."

"Ah." Rei nodded. An uncomfortable silence hung between them. Things were starting to feel awkward when Rei spoke again. "I have no issue airing my grievances when necessary. The boss delegates their problems to the top. Earthshaker and Evil Eye are my left and right hands. If you make their lives easier, you are making my life easier. Most of the time."

"Well, that’s good to hear, at least." She once again scratched her head as the question of whether to push harder on her intended line of inquiry was considered, shied away from out of embarrassment, and then ultimately pursued anyway. "Uh, sorry if this is a weird question and out of the blue, but, er. . . have you ever like, uh, liked a guy?"

Rei was not an emotional person, but that got her eyes to bulge a bit. She dismissed her surprise with a blink and a shake of her head. Her smiling lips parted just enough to show her teeth. "An interesting question. Is there a reason why you’re curious?"

"W-well, I heard there was a guy you were close to once," she stammered, "a-and it seemed kinda weird to picture you as being anything but all mysterious and solitary. Plus I kinda, um, wanted to know _{if you were the type who goes out with only guys.}" The light girl wanted to jump in a hole and never leave after admitting that part, and it showed on her face.

Rei lifted an eyebrow. "I didn’t hear that last part." When it didn’t seem like Haruna was going to repeat herself, she shrugged her shoulders. "You aren’t the first one to ask me about such things." Her face hardened. "Given how possessive Willow is, and how particular Oros can be, it might be best to talk about this with them present."

Well, that was probably a pipe dream anyway. "I wasn’t really planning anything, you know, like that," she said with a wave, trying not to sound too disappointed. "Sorry, is it a sore subject? I don’t mean to be rude, but you haven’t actually answered the question."

She tipped her head. Her smile had been receding as they spoke, but now she looked truly bored. "True Dark Girls know the value of a mysterious past, and won’t share it easily. But I’m curious." She pushed her hands into her pockets and stood up. "This guy I was close to, did he have a name?"

"Kaito," she said simply, quietly lamenting the dark girl’s apparent boredom.

"Hmmmm…" She lifted a hand up to her chin and looked away. She was in thought far longer than she needed for any of the other questions Haruna put forth thus far. She ran her hand through her hair and refocused on Haruna. "I don’t like a lot of people, but I don’t think anyone hated Kaito. Not sure why he bothered with me, honestly. Everyone liked him though, and he liked everyone in return." She stepped around Haruna, but didn’t look at her. Rei kept her arms folded as she looked out a window at the end of the hall. Haruna was expected to follow her. "He invited everyone to do things with him. Wasn’t a pushy guy. I’d tell him no, then get curious and show up wherever he was. He was always surrounded by people." After Rei was at the window, she looked out. After satisfying her curiosity, she turned back to the light girl. "I started to like him. He’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back here so bad. But we weren’t in a relationship. He could have had anyone. Never showed a lot of interest in romance. And none of us ever asked him. We knew we’d always be second to his sister."

That explains so much. "He sounds like a really good guy. Or, sounded, I guess." She felt a brief pang of sadness, despite not knowing him. It was never good to hear that someone kind was gone from the world. "Do you miss him? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that many words at once."

"I don’t think you’ve asked anyone else that many questions." Rei started to walk away. "That meeting must have started already. Maybe it’s over. Guess I’ll be off."

"Oh, uh, okay." She glanced down for a moment. "Oh, um, seriously though, if you need help with anything, let me know. Not just club business. Alright?" But the only response she got was Rei waving over her shoulder.

”I just don’t want to be hurt again.”

Ember could do little in the face of such a strong resolve. Despite the words being forced through clenched teeth, she felt the hurt she had unknowingly inflicted on Sylvia. Or rather, she understood the protector in a way she would not have an hour or so ago, before she decided to throw away the pretense that blinded her. She saw it clearly now: She, along with Hotaru, had pushed the protector too far. They should not have relied on her this much in the first place.

”I am afraid that is not something I can affect, Sylvi,” responded Ember. Her voice projected a calm she did not feel, tension winding up inside her as though it were a steel spring. It reached towards her heart, squeezing it as though there were no tomorrow, causing it to stifle her lungs. She swore her palms were sweating gallons upon gallons, but right now, she needed to be a rock. She needed to be the one who protected the protector.

”However, I can share your pain, Sylvi. Please let me do it. It is the least I can do for you after I have failed you so thoroughly.”

Sylvia flinched. Her arms wrapped around her shoulders, her eyes darting to the side. Goosebumps showed on her skin as something - Ember reminded herself she did not know for certain what it was - stirred inside the protector. The schemer barely managed to catch the moment the green-eyed girl’s pupils dilated.

Normally, their bodies had red eyes. Every single one of them. Though many would have dismissed the change as something superfluous, Ember knew better and she wondered: What colour would her eyes be if she were to look at a mirror right now? How would she see herself? But those questions could wait. Sylvia needed her.

”Please don’t.” The protector spoke barely above a whisper, yet her words still left a deep impact. ”I know you hurt me… but I don’t want you to be hurt.”

”While I may be hurt in the process of sharing the pain, it is the best thing I can do for your sake right now, Sylvi.” Ember suppressed the uncertanty in her voice, for she channelled that most terrifying of emotions: honesty. She still chose her words carefully, wanting to avoid stirring up the past or opening up fresh wounds. Her role demanded as such. ”I am aware that your duty is not something to be taken lightly. I do not know how difficult it will be for me to share your pain. But it is what I would like to do for your sake, Sylvi.”

Sylvia refused to look up at Ember. A pause, a gap settled between them while she thought, perhaps about her abusers. The arguments between Grandfather and Grandmother. The punishments which were nothing save for an exercise in sadism. All inflicted upon Sylvia. All something that Ember should have been looking out for, should have encouraged to be healed - yet she stood by while the protector suffered. And so she had lost the right to reach out.

The schemer’s body started to feel hollow. It felt as though every moment she looked at Sylvia, her eyes were immersed in fire. It burned so bad she wanted to look away, yet she did not permit herself to look away.

”I… Ember… Were you really my friend?” Sylvia let her arms down, almost as though she wanted to collapse right on the spot. Her legs seemed unsteady. Her head drooped along with her shoulders.

”That is a matter for you to decide, Sylvi. No… Hiramatsu-san.” The protector all but whipped her head back towards ember. Green eyes locked with the schemer’s, a mixture of terror and surprise reflected in them. ”Please do not let me give you an answer.”

”I don’t know. You helped me, but you also…”

”I can only repeat how sorry I am for letting you get hurt. I should have shouldered at least a portion of your suffering the moment we arrived in Hibusa Town and so I can completely understand if you were to disbelieve me.” Ember suppressed a wince as she spoke. It felt as though the hollow inside her body grew bigger. ”I’m so sorry, Hiramatsu-san. I swear that I will never let this repeat. I want to share in your burden so you may find your answers to your questions.”

The protector refused to listen to her honesty, dismissing the schemer’s earnest wish with a powerful shake of her head.

”I can’t hurt you, Ember! Even if you aren’t my friend, you… I don’t know. I’m just a bad girl who-”

”Please do not use that word to describe yourself, Hiramatsu-san. I beg of you.” The emptiness twisted. ”I know it will be difficult for you to believe me, however, every girl has something within them that could turn them into a bad girl in the eyes of others. So please listen to me, Hiramatsu-san. I wish to tell you with all my heart that you are not a bad girl”. Ember had to take a deep breath to suppress the shivers building along her spine. For once, she too, struggled with her words.

”That isn’t true! If I’m not, then why did you two fight? It was because I wasn’t getting hurt anymore, isn’t it?!” Just how badly had they screwed up if Sylvia thought like that? Ember’s blood started to run colder as she voiced that thought.

”You had nothing to do with it as far as I am concerned.”

”You’re lying!” Sylvia put her right foot forward, then started to march towards Ember. Her steps struck harder than they had any right to, bringing her intentions of menace closer and closer to Ember. Then, her eyes glowing green with magic and she raised her hand to strike.

She mirrored the very same pose the old bitch used whenever she hit Sylvia.

The schemer knew it very well, which was why she could avoid it at the last moment. Then she grabbed the protector’s hand, gently, to prevent her from doing something she would no doubt regret.

”Please believe me when I say that I am telling you the truth.” Ember injected steel into her voice that she did not feel, still trying to be what Sylvia needed her to be.

”No you’re not!” Despair coloured Sylvia’s fury. Her hand lost its strength within Ember’s grip and she did not rip herself away, her wide eyes desperately parsing her… sister…? Friend… Comrade…? “Their” face. ”You’re speaking just like Grandfather and Grandmother.”

”I… I am so sorry, Hiramatsu-san. I do not know how else I could convey my intentions.”

”Y-you’re doing it again, Ember.” Fear. No, terror. So much that Ember let go of Sylvia’s hand and the emptiness inside the schemer roared with needle-laced laughter. ”Please don’t lie to me, Ember. Please tell me what I did wrong and why you’re like this. I don’t know if you’re my friend, but I think you could be. Please?” The laughter seized Ember’s limbs. It placed an all too heavy mantle upon her shoulders, chattering and snickering exactly like Sylvia’s abusers. The schemer refused to let it show, for she had to be strong.

”I can not tell you what you have done wrong, Hiramatsu-san, because as far as I am concerned, you are not at fault. I am the one in the wrong. If you find it difficult to accept my offer, please think of a way for me to prove my sincerity.” Tears started to bud in Sylvia’s eyes. Ember had no idea why.

”You’re lying. You’re lying, you’re lying, you’re lying! Please stop it!” Every time the protector repeated her plea, the dreadful laughter inside Ember grew stronger and more warped. It echoed, reverberating and turning into ice-cold static. Her skin grew goosebumps. Pins danced along her insides, threatening to spill them out, but even so, she held out, asking her next question with the utmost care.

”Can I please hear why you think that way?”

---

Hibusa Town’s streets turned into cracked ruins as a frantic magical girl blitzed through them. Hurricane-force winds forced people off sidewalks, giving rise to many-a-rumor. Windows rattled and some buildings had their corners gouged out as Hotaru sank her gauntlet into them, using them as pivots. Her victims included the occasional streetlight as well, which bent beneath her reckless use of force. Focused as she was on finding her missing comrades - they might have been traitors, but they were still important! - she almost made her hospital rampage pale in comparison.

Where were they?! She expected this sort of behaviour from Ember, especially given she wanted to protect the light bitches. But Sylvia? She would never dare to hurt a fly, never mind go against what was good for Hotaru. Or were they perhaps in cahoots?

The warrior slowed her pace. The whirlwind turned into an unpleasant gust that still menaced people in its way, but was somewhat gentle at least. Choosing a more methodical approach to her search as her head cooled, Hotaru started to comb the streets over one by one while extending her magical senses. Well, extending them as much as she was capable of.

Her efforts were rewarded. Soon, she picked up on the faint scent of magic in the air, along with the suspicious lack of people in one of the alleyways. Stopping at the entrance, she saw two figures with all-too-familiar bearings: one ever-so-pretentious while the other carried the courage of a mouse trying to stand up to a ravenous cat.

”What the hell are you two doing?!” Her shout echoed in the empty street, causing both of them to flinch. Served them right. ”I almost got my ass handed to me because of you two!” Hotaru did not even attempt to hide her vicious grin as she advanced on them. She did not care what the other two were discussing and she did not notice how Sylvia shrunk back the moment she appeared, but she definitely noticed Ember stepping in front of the protector.

Hotaru’s eyebrows hiked up in response.

”’Ru.” Ember’s blue eyes narrowed. They contained something Hotaru had not seen before, but she could not quite place it. ”I understand that you are upset, however, would you be so ki-”

”No. I’m pissed off beyond words and I need an explanation for what happened back there. I could’ve been skewered like Sylvia!” She snapped her hand towards the protector as though it were a whip, causing Sylvia to shrivel up even further. Hotaru’s heart twinged at the sight, but she pressed on nevertheless. It was not like either of them would ever understand her, even if she shouted at them at the top of her lungs!

”You two disappeared like two filthy traitors. If all of us had been there, we could’ve taken all of them! We could’ve delivered the light bitches’ heads to Rei on a silver plate. What was so important that you had to betray me?!”

”Silence, ‘Ru. I am trying to- ah.” It was fortunate that Ember cut herself off before she made an even bigger asshole of herself. She likely was thinking of an excuse to throw at the warrior, though, which was just fine with Hotaru. If Ember did not care about her safety, then she could go screw herself!

And why did Sylvia meet Hotaru’s eyes head on? That never happened.

”I… I don’t want to be hurt anymore.”

Hotaru had to restrain her laughter at that.

”Yeah, no way that’s happening.” Did Sylvia perhaps live in a delusion? Well, she would be happy to dispel it for the protector. ”We’re dark magical girls, Sylvia. We’re fighting against Miseria. You will get hurt, whether you like it or not. If you don’t want to be hurt, then don’t fight with us ever again.”

”Please hear Hiramatsu-san out, ‘Ru… No, Hotaru.” What? What was Ember talking about? Hotaru’s brows frowned while Sylvia retreated into her shell again and the schemer… She still wore an expression the warrior could not make heads or tails of.

”While we can definitely not make her wish come true, she deserves not to be burdened so much with every one of our encounters. And I am also so sorry to you, Hotaru. I have failed you as well.”

”Huh?!” Now Hotaru lost the plot completely. She turned towards Ember with the entirety of her body, glaring daggers at her supposed comrade-in-arms. ”She,” she pointed towards Sylvia, ”Also deserves not to be called by the name of those old assholes! She endured everything just so she could get us out, so why the fuck are you trying to remind her?”

Heated as she was, the warrior did not notice how Sylvia started to collapse. Her gaze dropped to the floor and it looked as though all of her life had started to escape her.

”Please don’t talk like that.” The protector’s whisper stopped the warrior cold in her tracks, causing the tension between Ember and Hotaru to waver. ”You sound like Grandfather.”

For a moment, it seemed as though her words reached Hotaru, but then she crossed her arms and adopted a scowl.

”Oh, now I get why you’re taking her side. You two teamed up against me just because you can’t admit I’m right about light girls.”

”Please hear me ou-”

”Well I won’t!” Hotaru’s scowl became more prominent. ”Why should I listen when you’re trying to get rid of me? You too, Sylvia! You’re using your goody-two-shoes act just to make sure I get smoked!”

”We were trying to do no su-”

”That’s exactly what some-”

”Will you even attempt to unclog your ears already?” Ice cold precision cut through the warrior’s objections with laser-focused intensity. ”And do open your eyes. Even if I have mistreated you and not heard you out as well as I should have, we have to work together. And there is no possible reality in which we can do that unless you hear… Sylvia out as well. You have every right to be furious with me. But Hiramatsu-san does not deserve any of it.”

”But she deserves your contempt, doesn’t she?” Pure, vicious venom coated Hotaru’s words. Combined with the mockery she injected into them, she sounded as though she spoke a language of pure, undiluted hatred.

”Please stop…” As always, Sylvia’s pleas went unheard. “Their” argument never left any room for her. “They” always excluded her. She never mattered to “Them”, so she did not even know why she tried. Only that “They” were impossibly important to her. Just like the gods of the Hiramatsu shrine.

”If you think she deserves my contempt, then look at what your supposedly compassionate words caused.” Ember’s words were like a gunshot fired in the middle of an empty field. Hotaru almost snarled back at her challenge to do war, but thought better of it at the last second just to prove her wrong-

Sylvia had curled up into a whimpering ball. She had not even noticed.

The warrior’s breath hitched.

”... Shit.”

”Need I remind you what you said only a few moments ago?” Hotaru clenched her fists along with her teeth. Her eyes closed as she tried to rein in her anger, because for once, Ember was right. ”Oh, that is exactly correct. She endured everything just so she could get us out of that household, if it could be even called that. So why are you reminding her of what happened?”

”Fine. But I better hear an explanation, or you’re toast.” Fortunately for the schemer, there was no refuting that argument. Hotaru really had caused Sylvia pain despite the best of her intentions. ”I’m not angry at you, Sylvia. So hurry up and get up already.”

”You’re lying.” Sylvia’s whisper froze the air. The warrior felt as though blocks of ice had just lodged themselves into her lungs, grinding and cracking against each other. ”You hate me, Hotaru. You hate everything. Why do you hate me? Are you really my friend? Friends don't hate each other, so they?” The protector sounded hollow. Broken. She was quiet as a mouse and yet her words struck as though they were earth-shattering strikes.

Ember shot a look towards Hotaru, promising retribution if the warrior were to attempt anything. Then Ember lowered herself beside Sylvia, gently brushing away a thread of the girl’s hair to get her attention.

”Sylvia. I know you desperately wish for us not to be in pain. However, this is something Hotaru and I need to talk about without you, because I do not think it is good for you to hear us shouting at each other. There are…” The schemer sucked air through her teeth. She let her voice tremble and shake as though it were a newborn calf, trying to see if showing her true emotions would get through to Sylvia. “...many things you shouldn't have had to do for our sake. So please leave. Go home and cook something delicious for yourself. For your sake.”

Green eyes looked up at the schemer. They filled with countless questions and belonged to someone who truly lost their way and in response, the hollow laughter inside Ember turned into an evil, satisfied grin. Still, the schemer did not let it win; and yet as much as she hated to admit it, she could not answer all of the protector’s wishes right here.

”Please, Sylvia. I promise I will answer all your questions later and listen to you properly.” Sylvia nodded in response to Ember, an automatic response. She then collected herself off the ground, moving almost as though she were a robot. Then slowly, she moved away. Every second step, she glanced back. Every third step, it seemed like she had something to say. But eventually, Sylvia chose to disappear in the town’s streets.

”Okay, spill. What happened? Why does Sylvia hate me?” The moment Sylvia disappeared, Hotaru stopped holding back. She let her scowl take over her face again, her heated words turning into a spear of flames aimed straight at Ember.

”Shouldn't you be asking the very same question of yourself, Hotaru? Why do you hate Sylvia?” A wall of ice stood in front of the warrior’s thrust, seemingly impregnable.

”I don't.” The spear twisted, trying to drill into the obstacle. The wall did not budge.

”I believe Sylvia clearly told you that she feels as though you hate her, and looking at your actions, I am inclined to believe her words over yours. So, do allow me to repeat myself: Why do you hate Sylvia?”

”I’ve just told you I don't!” The attack could not penetrate. It was slowing down, getting stuck in the ice despite Hotaru’s best efforts. Ember seemed like an immovable object, her calm extinguishing every bit of venom the warrior spat at her.

”Then I invite you to stop acting as though every bone in your body were made of hate.” Ember’s counterattack started as frost started to creep up along the spear, slowly creeping towards the warrior’s hands. ”I know I have failed Sylvia. As you would put it, Hotaru, you could even say I fucked her over. However, I have realised this and I wish to make amends. Do you intend to do the same? Do you even really care about Sylvia? You do not, do you?”

”You don’t get to tell me what I think! Get off your fucking high horse already, Ember! You aren’t better than I am! What, are you some sort of light bitch now? You keep talking like one!” Hotaru attempted to put more momentum behind her spear. The frost kept it in place.

”I am only attempting to rely you Sylvia’s intentions and emotions the best I understand them, and in the best way to get them through your thick skull, Hotaru. And I am no light girl; I want to see if I have to get rid of you in order to protect Sylvia.”

”Even if I hated Sylvia, It’s her fault for-”

”No. What did you tell-”

”You don't get to interrupt me!”

”And in exchange, you have the privilege of cutting me off?”

”Only because I’m right.”

”Then I invite you to consider the following.” The frost snapped off the lance’s head. However, it would never reach the warrior behind the weapon. ”You are not always right and neither am I. So I will extend the same courtesy to you as you have to me: I will not be helping you jump between bodies. I will not be helping you out in combat. I will continue to do these until you realise your mistakes. That is final.” And with that, Ember spun around, leaving with hurried steps.

”You’ll regret all of this! The club will find out in seconds, and then we’ll be toast!” Hotaru shouted after the schemer. But all she got in response was a shake of the head before Ember, too, disappeared in the messy streets of Hibusa Town.

It was not her fault.

Yet Hotaru’s feet still pounded against the track field. No matter how her legs screamed and wailed at her, she willed to keep them going with magic. When that threatened to run out, she switched to willpower. When that ran almost empty, she turned back to magic. The warrior knew she could not sustain it, but at least it distracted her from her thoughts, save for the single one that kept returning.

It was not her fault.

Hotaru continued until she felt her legs start to give out, then she took a seat. She let herself relax for a couple of minutes, just enough to get back the reserves she expended, then took off again in a sprint. Even the Detention Club’s resident slave driver would likely be forced to concede that the warrior pushed herself too far, but she did not care. Maybe Ember would rethink her idiocy if she ruined this body.

And it was still not her fault.

So why. Why?! Why did her chest feel so hollow? Why did she want to disappear into the Sun?

It was not her fault. It was not her fault!

She kept telling herself that. It just made her breath run out faster, forcing her to take a break once again. Knowing that her exhausted legs could not make it to the benches right now, Hotaru sat down on the track and glared at the setting Sun, wishing she could banish it.

Rare were the days that Roche found herself the watcher upon the grass, looking out over the Track Field as another ran herself into the ground. She could accept Kiyo as a one-off, but looking over Shuuko running not for growth, but self destruction, couldn't be ignored. Even without her trauma and tendencies for extreme responses, not even a Dark Magical girl could ignore the display.

Her fingers caressed the smooth curves of a magic orb in her pocket, but she quashed the impulse to check it as her feet carried her forward. Picking her moment she didn’t need to hasten to come upon Shuuko, the girl who so often swung from cold efficacy and emotional vulnerability now wearily animated. Roche may have called it progress if it hadn’t led to the track as she was.

”Shuuko, what’s eating you?” There was no point beating around the bush in the Rule Keeper’s eyes, but there was also a plethora of reasons for what could be bringing her friend down.

Hotaru flinched. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she did not even notice her onlooker. Clenching her teeth, she whipped her head towards Earthshaker.

”Why should I te-” Her mouth snapped shut, the biting remark cut in half as Ember’s words surfaced in her mind again.

”Errr… ummm….” she stammered as she floundered for something Sylvia would do. ”I’m sorry?”

In the face of Shuuko’s peculiarities, Roche had chosen not to dig too deep. There was no lack of oddities she herself possessed, just the same as every girl in the Detention Club, but it felt like a line was being crossed when Shuuko was pushing herself beyond any constructive norm.

More than that, though, was that it was the first time Shuuko had ever sounded so insincere with her apology.

”Don’t apologize. The track is for anyone when the team isn’t using it, but that wasn’t what I was asking for.” Another step, and Roche was near enough to reach out and rest her hand against her friend’s shoulder.

”Yeah, well, it’s-” Hotaru cut whatever she had to say in half again, not even realising she pulled away from Roche’s touch. ”It’s nothing.” Confidence and certainty filled her voice.

”If it was nothing you wouldn’t be out here trying to tear an ACL or acting like a Tsundere.” Roche replies back, the deep bags under her eyes telling just how little restraint the Rule Keeper still possessed. Her hand clenched around open air and it proved an effort of Will to return it to her side with a heavy set scowl

”This isn’t like you.”

”I’m normally not piss- angry like this,” she responded, brushing off the comment as though it were a piece of lint on an otherwise immaculate dress. ”Lots of things happened. You can’t make sense of them if you’re pissed off, can you?” A lopsided smile appeared on her face as she turned towards Roche, but it fell away just as quickly as it appeared.

”Shit. I’m not acting like Sylvia at all.”

A more rational Roche may have responded with composure and an unflinching resolve to get to the bottom of the matter. The one that had an eight ball rolling in her pocket bodily tackled the imposter off the field and into the grass.

Driving the air from her lungs as the Rule Keeper straddled her chest, both hands clutched at clothing and pulled her up till they were nose to nose. Bloodshot eyes narrowed to pricks of roiling fury lanced down into the imposter.

”What did you do to Shuuko?!”

”I am Shuuko, you idiot!” Fury met fury. Hotaru grabbed Roche’s hands and squeezed, almost driving the nails into the other girl’s skin. ”And if you don’t let me go, I’ll fuck up your face!”

Violence only invited equally fierce reprisal and in that regard, few in the club could match Roche for sheer depths of spite. ”You would have done better impersonating Nyxia with that mouth!”

The imposter had no warning before the Rule Keeper’s head came down., foreheads crashing together with a barbaric crack of impact to rattle loose her grip on Roche’s hand. Surging forward, she tried to wrap her hands around ‘Shuuko’s’ wrist to pin her fully. ”Are you one of the GEMS? Or are you just another opportunist thinking you can fuck with us?”

Reeling from the impact, the warrior had no chance to dodge the Rulekeeper’s attack, nor did she have a snowball’s chance in hell to resist being turned around and then made to taste dirt as she was pinned. Reduced to spitting the clumps out of her mouth, she nevertheless tried to struggle, but could not even budge the Rulekeeper’s hold on her.

”What the fuck! That’s insane!” She snarled back at her opponent. ”Get the hell off me or I’ll shred you into pieces!”

”Now you aren’t even trying anymore.” For all that she balked at Suki’s insistence she was some malicious tormentor, there wasn’t a point in deluding herself into thinking darkness wasn’t nestled in her heart.

Because feeling this threat that possibly harmed her closest friend was intoxicating.

”Did you hurt her? Where is she? Tell me now before we see how well you run with broken bones.” Days of venom that had no release in the face of her own powerlessness was pouring out upon the vulnerable girl beneath her, and the sheer eagerness in her hissed tone conveyed it was not an empty threat.

”I’ve told you I’m Shuuko! Get it into your thick skull already!” The biting anger in Hotaru’s voice probably did not help matters, nor did the constant struggle against the Rulekeeper’s grip. ”Now let me go, or I…” A pause. A sudden flash of inspiration, and she thought she knew what to say. ”I’ll never cook for you again and you’ll eat that tasteless crap the rest of your life!”

Her words proved to be like a splash of ice water, dousing Roche’s rising violence and leaving her staring with a medley of shock and concern. There hadn’t been a point she’d told anyone about that, and she certainly hadn’t mentioned it in any electronic messages to be intercepted by their enemies.

Shock paralyzed her like a spider frozen in the moment before biting into squirming prey, but steadily she leaned down with an iron grip upon the girl’s wrists.

”You….You could have been watching us on the street that day. Tell me something private that anyone couldn’t have seen in passing.”

”We watched a movie after I cooked for you.” Hotaru ground her teeth as she suffered through the indignity of, out of all the things, being mistaken for a light girl. ”I made you teriyaki chicken, you ungra-” She snapped her jaws shut before she could finish her sentence, hissing through her teeth as she tried to calm down.

Roche went from the verge of mutilating Shuuko to scrambling away in a heartbeat, bounding beside her with stark horror on her warbling lips. She couldn’t consider anyone torturing that information out of Shuuko and she certainly wouldn’t have shared it willingly, so that could only mean Roche had attacked Shuuko.

”Shit! Damn it, I screwed up. I-I didn’t think you were you.” The Rule Keeper cursed, all that heavy vitriol turning inwards as the weight of her mistake struck her bodily. ”What the hell is going on here? Why is nothing making sense anymore?!”

”I could ask you the same thing. What gives?” Hotaru asked as the weight disappeared from her back and she could stand up at long last. Or at least she wanted to, before she realised that her body had not agreed to this most unwelcome treatment and she was forced to sit back down on the track.

”And don’t you compare me to them ever again.” She added after a moment’s pause, her steady voice displaying her unrelenting hatred.

”Who is them?” Roche knew she hadn’t spoken about Shuuko’s family, so what had she done besides the obvious to rouse such a response if it wasn’t over the near-beating that Shuuko had avoided. ”Even if you are Shuuko, you’re acting completely different. This isn’t even like the other times you acted like a switch was being flipped.”

Fingers clenched clods of grass and tore them loose as she rose, casting her shaky gaze upon a girl she thought she knew with an unbecoming skittishness. When violence failed her, Roche felt naked before the encroaching madness seeming to swallow her home, and the weight in her pocket felt like a lead ball trying to drag her to the ground once more. ”Tell me what is going on, please.”

Hotaru snapped her head back towards the Rulekeeper, ready to tell her that she needed to mind her own business and that everything was fine.

But that look. It stopped the warrior right in her tracks.

The Rulekeeper could see Shuuko’s expression change from one of righteous anger to a strained one that seemed to be on the verge of buckling from some sort of pressure or conflict. Neck muscles tightened right before the ‘Shuuko’ she talked with balled her hands into fist and hit the ground. An explosion of magical force followed, causing dust to swirl around the two.

Hotaru closed her eyes. Clenched her teeth. Tried to force herself to think. But such was not her area of expertise. So she sucked in air a couple of times, breathing loudly and blowing the contents of her lungs out through her nose as though she were a bull.

”You…” the voice remained confident, if strained. ”are talking with Takae Shuuko Hotaru.” Hotaru slammed her hands into the dirt again. ”Before that, you…” she sucked air through teeth again, ”talked with Takae Shuuko Sylvia.”

A beat.

”Damnit, I knew this wouldn't work!” Hotaru shouted to the high heavens at full power. She knew she should have lied, tried to cover it up. But the look in Roche’s eyes… it was exactly the same as Chiaki’s when the light bitches betrayed her one last time.

If her words weren’t enough to convince Roche of Shuuko’s authenticity, then it was the belief in her words that put to rest her doubts. As outlandish as it was to accept there were multiple Shuuko, her friend had an uncanny talent for rousing her from the spiraling mire of filth that threatened to drown her mind. She bobbed uncertainly upon the surface, feeling the rippling sludge roll against her chin as she hovered in the liminal space between surety and stark, raving madness.

With outbursts that she could never have imagined Shuuko having before, the now named Hotaru explained things and instantly regretted it. That regret was too palpable to be faked and Roche felt her lungs swell with the cool evening air, shoulders rising as she uncurled from a bestial hunch.

”You’re saying there are multiple Shuuko sharing a body?” The Rule Keeper ventured tentatively.

”Yes, I am.” Hotaru's steel-clad voice cut deep. ” Sylvia, Ember and Hotaru. That last one’s me. It really doesn't take someone with keen eyes, does it?” She asked rhetorically, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

”It wasn’t something I’d have considered as possible, so no.” Roche said, and considering the trauma that Shuuko had endured it would have been more likely to say she was simply mad herself, or fractured her mind into several parts were it not for magic

”Magic has done strange things before. Creating new mentalities and mindsets in others under pressure. Creating entirely new people isn’t out of the question.” It was nowhere near close to the rest of the mind fuckery that was threatening the city, so what was hurling herself into another leap in logic?

”Since you know about that da- Night together, then you all must see the same things. Could I take to Sylvia now?”

”No. You’re stuck with me.” Frustration mixed into Hotaru’s voice, along with a hint of guilt. ”So make the best of it.” Now in a much better spot, physically speaking, the warrior forced herself upright and looked straight at Roche. ”What the hell happened to you anyways? You look like you've seen a dozen demons.”

”Okay then,” Roche deflated, accepting that it wasn’t going to be so easy as getting Sylvia out on request. It would be too much to think such a condition was anything approaching convenient, and she was finding in the wake of her outburst she was lacking the vigor to push the matter now that Hotaru was unbound and fired up.

A mirthless snort preceded her answer as she carded a hand through sweat matted hair. ”Two demons, more like. There was a lot of crying, and I’m a couple thousand yen poorer for the experience, but I suppose it could have been worse. One of them seemed a bit handsy in the Suki sense.”

”It seems every other day I’m finding new and dangerous things out there that all suddenly want a piece of us, and we can’t even get stronger without inviting more of them here in the process. My already poor sleep cycle is shot to hell more than usual for a Magical Girl, so when I come here to see Shuuko acting like a completely different person, you can imagine my surprise to find she actually is!”

Though just because the energy had left her didn’t mean the madness brewing in her eyes lessened much. ”But that’s just me. What’s got you down, Hotaru? You don’t mind if I skip to first names, do you? We may have just met formally, but you already know the majority of mess.”.

”Well, if you know a nice place in Hibusa, you’re about to be a couple thousand yen richer,” spoke Hotaru as she moved around to let some blood flow back into her body, ”because that sounds like a really shitty experience. And I’m not going to let you get off just because you have to patrol or something.” She then started brushing the dirt off herself, with very little luck.

”Anyways, don’t mind my problems. They’re mostly just… idiot issues.” No, they really weren’t. ”And thinking that things are just a little too suspicious.” She continued, adopting an angry frown. ”Say, I know you’re on the new light chick’s side, but… isn’t it a little suspicious how the GEMS showed up at our doorstep right after she’s joined?”

Yellow eyes met Roche’s greens with an almost unbearable intensity.

”Because I sure as hell think so.”

There certainly was no lack of shit to be found in Hibusa, and even Roche was scratching her head trying to consider a place not tainted by association with GEMS or Miseria. But the distraction was welcome and she almost cracked a wan smile in the face of Hotaru’s clumsy deflection that was so very alike to Sylvia’s own efforts.

Till she brought up their newest member and the Rule Keeper groaned with frustration.

”Okay, I understand you- Well, all three of you have issues with Light Girls. I’m not fond of them on principle either, and I certainly won’t hesitate to beat the crap out of her friends when they come back, but I think you’ve got some things mixed up here. I’m not accusing you of anything, but you showed up after some things happened at the beach.”

”That trip of ours to the ocean? Yeah, we bumped into the Gems there. The ones that shot us outside the Club Room. Probably enjoying their own vacation till we gathered up all the civilians and terrified them into summoning a Giga Miseria. So the GEMS aren’t here because of Hizuki.”

”They’re here because I made the Club provoke them. Hizuki didn’t even come to the city till after that, and if you believe the GEMS girls would send one of their own alone into our territory, then I’ve got a lake house on Mt. Fuji to sell you.” Roche finished with a weary shake of her head. It wasn’t like she expected Shuuko to forget all her animosity, but accusing Hizuki of such patently impossible things wore on her nerve.

”You too?” Hotaru groaned, rolling her eyes. ”Come on! Just like you knew I wasn’t Sylvia, you know she’s told them where we are! They couldn’t have found us otherwise.” Her voice dripped with bitter conviction. ”Open your eyes already!”

”What do you mean ‘Find us’? You can’t be under the impression no one knew about Hibusa.” While Shuuko hadn’t been the most active in the group meetings, could she really not have known the GEMS knew full well about them?

”Rei nearly took my head off for provoking the GEMS. If there’s anyone here you want to strangle for provoking them, well, I’m right here! Everything that’s gone to shit here is because of calls I made. We attacked Ashbringer because I chose to fight a stranger instead of reigning in Nyxia. I’m the reason a Giga Miseria nearly flattened the city. You got lasered and emotionally mind fucked because my actions broke whatever peace we had and called the GEMS in!”

The Rule Keeper’s laugh was a wretched thing, curdled with loathing. A step drew them closer and she raised her chin, running a nail along her own taut jugular. ”And here you are raging against a girl who was drawn here, not by any of that crap, but because we’re all so miserable she’d work herself to the bone to help. She’s so *Light* it almost hurts to look at, but she didn’t hesitate to throw her lot in with us in spite of all we have done to scare her off.”

”So you’re either going to hurt the one who started all this, or you’ll save that anger to beat the GEMS into an early retirement. But I’m not letting you store up any more trouble.”

”Oh for… The club room, Roche, they attacked the damned club room!” Hotaru smacked her own forehead. ”See, all you’re telling me is that our light bi- traitor got me lasered, not you! Do you think the world revolves around you or something?” She pointed a finger at Roche, voice growing heated. ”Screw that! The GEMS attacked us because they’re conniving, good-for-nothing, traitorous, fuck you class bitches! And I’m going to wring their heads off their pretty little necks, starting with the one in our-”

A sudden breath. Hotaru slammed her fist into her own palm, causing a ripple of golden magic to rush out from the point of contact, the sound of metal encountering metal clear even though no Devil Arm materialised.

”Damn it, we’re both screwed in the head.” The warrior growled, her primal fury turning into embers. ”You need a break. I sure as hell need a break. Everyone needs a break!“ She seized Roche’s hands, drawing them away from the Rulekeeper’s throat, then started dragging her away, though it was not nearly as effective as she would have liked. Having spent her strength on the track earlier, it almost felt as though a malnourished kitten was the one who tried moving Roche.

”Are you listening to yourself? Anyone could find our Club Room. Nyxia is always transformed in there! We’ve never been subtle in where we gather, but we were expecting them not to be so underhanded.” The two were getting into a roaring shouting match, something Roche never would have imagined with the skittish girl who she’d been welcoming into her home. There was a deranged sort of catharsis in voicing it all out, the kind of fight she could still partake in without regret. Though Hotaru seemed to have had her full as she flashes a burst of magic without transforming fully, leaving the Rulekeeper real back under a gust of golden motes.

In that space where tempers cooled as Hotaru withdrew her interest, Roche deflated amidst being tugged rather feebly away from the field. With a grunt she advanced, shaking loose the grip and instead supporting Shuuko with an arm around her shoulder. ”Let’s just table this for later. We can agree that the GEMS are going to be eating through straws next time they show up, but let’s just blow off steam elsewhere.”

”Wanna watch a movie?”

Accepting the offered shoulder with a begrudging look, Hotaru let some of her weight settle onto the Rulekeeper while making an effort to carry at least some of the weight. She did not agree with her companion, of course, but… maybe it was better to leave it be for now. Roche would eventually come around. She knew it. So instead of making a fuss about it, she merely shook her head at her offer.

”No, I’m not going to sit down and rot away.” But she still felt exhausted and she could not swap bodies without Ember’s help. ”Let’s find some trouble instead.” She grinned. ”What’s your favourite sort?”

Roche shot the girl a disbelieving look given her state of exhaustion before brushing it off with a snort. For someone who claimed to be separate from Shuuko Slyvia, her bullish stubborn streak must be shared.

”Screw it, why not? Let’s go nick some over priced desserts from a cafe. It tastes better when you walk away with a full wallet.”

”That’s the spirit! We aren't going to transform, though. Wouldn't want to make it too easy.” Hotaru's grin grew wider as she found a fellow spirit to indulge her bad habit, hoping that the thrill of being caught would ease the growing guilt inside her. After all, it was not her fault that Sylvia hated her. No matter how many times Ember tried to make it so.

In her ignorance of Hotaru’s motives the Rule Keeper nodded her assent to the extra challenge. Having the chance to punch downwards might be just the release she needs amidst the constant torrent of Magical Girl issues. ”I just hope you’re better at running away then you are at running around a track.”

The discussion left behind countless questions. Sylvia wondered what happened after she left, not knowing if “They” started shouting at each other again, or if “They” managed to make up. But if she were honest with herself, she did not want to know. She did not even want to be in the same room as them, the wounds still fresh and lingering in her soul.

Hotaru’s words cut especially deep. What did Sylvia even do to make the warrior hate her so much? And why did Ember lie like that when she told the truth later on? It all made her head swim, hours blending into one another until she completely lost track of where she was.

Really, she wandered wherever her legs took her. She deliberately avoided people by taking the small alleys between the main roads, always sticking to the emptier side. The only difference between her usual walk was that she kept her head up in order to see if she could find anything to occupy her frazzled mind. Except, she only found a green-eyed ghost staring back at her, along with fragments of Roche.

Stinging pain bloomed in her chest as she walked, her friend seemingly at every corner. Every store front had something that Sylvia swore would suit Roche. Every bystander seemed like a shadow of her one and only friend. And yet every step took her further away from the rulekeeper. Maybe it was what she needed right now. What she had to go through. She could think of it as a trial arranged by Grandmother and Grandfather.

But the protector did not like it. It made the feeling in her chest worse. It weighed down her steps. So much that in the end, she chose to sit down on a bench to take a break, inadvertently locking her gaze at the mountain nearby.

It loomed over her like a ghastly titan. Looked at her with evil eyes. It had stolen the light from Hibusa, and prevented the rays of warmth from reaching the protector. Like Grandfather standing over her with that glint in his eyes, looking for any signs to punish Sylvia.

She shook her head as hard as she could, whipping it side-to-side. It was all right. “They” were no longer a part of her life. Even though she gripped the bench so hard it almost shattered, it was all right. Sylvia had to bear it. She had to grit her teeth. Lock everything in, keep her lips pursed so her screams would not escape and stir up her family.

But before she could sink too deep into her thoughts, she heard rhythmic footsteps. They pitter-pattered against concrete, making Sylvia perk up and see a familiar face approaching. Wearing warm exercise clothes fit for the season, the protector saw Haruna approach her, and even if she wanted to flee in her heart, the streets were empty. It would have probably made Haruna feel horrible, especially since she could recognise Shuuko’s body.

Haruna probably had not seen Shuuko this frazzled, though. Even if the body sat leaned back on the bench, even if there were no signs of a fight present on it, Shuuko still looked harrowed. It was almost as though she had bags beneath her eyes, not to mention the colour had drained from her face. Which could be interpreted as the cold seeping into the bones of someone who wore only a t-shirt with a pair of trousers.

Haruna slowed as she approached, squinting. The reverse happened as she figured out what she was looking at, eyes widening and breaking into a sprint. “Shuuko!” She skidded to a halt as she got closer, nearly running past the other club member in an effort to get there fast without crashing into Shuuko. “Are you alright?” Haruna was already taking off her jacket, exposing a sweat-stained t-shirt to the air. “Here, put this on.” She held it out.

Shuuko jolted, almost shooting into the stratosphere as she heard her name. Her head swung towards Haruna with wide eyes, looking like a rabbit who found itself in the crosshairs of an eagle. She became even paler for a second, her shoulders squaring before she recognised Haruna from their brief meeting in the club room and she let herself exhale. Her hands also stopped gripping the bench with as much strength as before.

Then her eyes got even wider when he jacket was offered, flittering between it and Haruna.

“Umm… Won’t you be cold that way?” asked Sylvia, her tone a far cry from how she had addressed Haruna when they met. There was practically none of the energy from their first meeting, nor the polite, but confident tone of Ember… whom she definitely was not. Nor could she even strive to imitate it.

“Well, yeah, but I’ll be fine. You look like you need it a lot more than I do, right now.” She continued to hold it toward the other girl; it seemed like she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “What are you doing out here in the cold alone? You look like something really bad happened.” Haruna gave the girl what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’m here to help, so you don’t need to worry right now.”

“I can’t take it from you.” Sylvia shook her head. “W-we’d be both become sick!” She tripped over her tongue as she looked up at Haruna, then immediately glanced away. “And umm… Nothing happened. Nothing bad.” What a bald-faced, absurd lie. But she did not want to confess whatever was on her mind. It would only make the situation worse anyways.

”Er… what are you doing here? And um… please take your jacket back. R-really. I don’t need it.” The protector repeated her plea just in case Haruna had not heard the first time. She would be fine. Even if Sylvia skipped a day or two from school, no one would miss her.

The light girl let the jacket drop to her side for the moment, but didn’t put it back on. “I was just out running. I come up this direction pretty regularly, since it has nice views and the incline is good for training. I think the actual question is what you’re doing here. I’m not going to force you to tell me everything, but I am here to talk to if you need someone, and I can try to help you to somewhere that’s a little warmer if you need.”

Sylvia shook her head at the offer. She could not possibly tell Haruna everything that worried her so and it would be rude to impose on the other girl, or at least so she told herself despite the chill starting to settle into her bones. But again, who would miss her at school anyways?

”Umm. I’m… I’m happy you offered, but I really don’t want you to get sick,” she responded. ”I’m just… umm. I’m…” Really, what was she doing here? It was not like the mountains would offer an answer to any of her questions, a realisation that had her shoulders drop. ”I don’t know.”

Her admission sounded as though she had suffered the world’s greatest defeat.

Seeing the way Shuuko was acting, Haruna took matters into her own hands. She draped the jacket around the fragmented dark girl despite the protests, then sat down next to her. “Talk to me,” she said straightforwardly. “I’m not leaving until I know you’ll be okay.” Haruna didn’t exactly need her magic to tell that Sylvia desperately wanted someone to confide in, to provide a little guidance, but felt she wasn’t worthy of the help somehow. “I promise I will only be more annoying if you don’t.” She added a smile to this statement.

”Good girls don't talk about family affairs,” responded Sylvia almost as though she were quoting someone. She dared not look at Haruna, keeping her gaze straight ahead. The only thing that changed were her hands wandering into her lap, gripping her knees. ”S-so… I can’t tell… I’m sorry.” However, she did want to if it were not for something forcing the silence. One could almost hear the silent plea for help, the wailing against unseen chains in the way her voice cracked.

Haruna, without further hesitation, pulled the girl into a hug. “It’s okay. Nobody’s going to hurt you right now.” She wasn’t sure if it was the right decision, given the context. . . but her fellow club member was liable to catch her death out here, too. “You don’t actually have to say anything to me if you don’t want to.” The light girl said this despite her knowledge of how Sylvia felt. “But there’s nobody else here. Nobody will hear you say anything except me, and all I’m interested in doing is making sure you’re safe.”

Sylvia went rigid. Haruna would have likely felt as though she were embracing a cold, unfeeling statue. In fact, Sylvia looked as though she wanted to be anywhere, her eyes darting all over the place before she let out a big breath, right at the same time Haruna let go of her.

”It’s… It’s not… I shouldn’t tell you,” Sylvia repeated. ”But umm… It’s complicated.” Her brows frowned. One could almost see the gears in her head turn as she tried to find the words, to desperately search for a way to speak of secrets without speaking of secrets until she found something she could talk about from the bottom of her heart.

”I don’t want to get hurt.” She sounded more confident now. ”But I think if I won’t get hurt, it’ll be painful for my friends.”

Haruna nodded. “I’m pretty sure I understand that.” She frowned and looked up at nothing in particular as she thought about the quandary. “It’s a tough situation. Usually it’s not your fault, though. It could be that your friends aren’t being fair to you. It’s mean to expect one person to take hurts for everyone else. It could also mean that you need to change your situation somehow, and get away from the thing hurting everyone in the first place. You might also not be having enough faith in the others; if they’re really your friends, then they’ll help you carry that burden.”

She started to reach her hand forward to clap on Sylvia’s shoulder, then swiftly thought better of it before continuing. “That also applies to me. I’m a big girl, I can handle a little extra pain if it means that someone else’s life will be better for it. The rest of the club, too; I’m sure they want you to do well as much or more than I do.”

”But it is my fault if they get hurt, isn’t it? If I don't feel it, then they will.” Sylvia’s hands clenched. ”I don't… I don't know if I want them to get hurt or not.” Her hands bunched up even further, starting to crumple her trousers. Her head along with her shoulders slumped forward, expression distorting into a grimace as she put her feelings into words.

“No,” Haruna said, firmly. “Not saving someone from being hurt isn’t the same thing as hurting them yourself, not at all. It’s either the fault of the person hurting them, their fault for not avoiding being hurt, or nobody’s fault because it was something out of anyone’s control. Okay?” She shifted forward, so she could look Sylvia in the eye. “It’s not your fault.”

”But it is! If I don’t get hurt, then they’re the ones who get hurt!” Sylvia’s frustration exploded, her voice like a whip before her whole body went rigid, exactly like a few moments ago. She let go of her trousers, then dropped her hands beside herself as a tremor ran through her and her voice changed dramatically.

”I’m sorry. Please forgive me for being a bad girl,” she said, taking upon her lips the words that would appease Them and closing her eyes.

“Hey. Shuuko.” Haruna spoke gently. “You aren’t doing anything wrong right now. There’s nothing to forgive.”

Sylvia just stared off into the distance as she awaited Their punishment. However, as the seconds dragged by, it refused to arrive and she was left with an awkward pause between them. Her head sunk low in response as she spared a glance at Haruna for a split second, looking like a spooked rabbit.

[colour=teal]”I’m sorry. I… don't know what to do.”[/color] She really did not. She sounded lost. Hopeless. Even though she knew what she desired, she had no idea how to reach it. She did not even know if she could rely on Ember and she had already burdened Roche too much.

“Just take a few deep breaths for now. Do you have anywhere to go that’s safe? It’ll be easier to think through this if you aren’t shivering on the side of the road.” She kept her voice calm for Sylvia’s benefit. “Maybe we’ll get you some food, too. Are you hungry?” It seemed like confronting whatever was happening all at once wasn’t going to help at this point - at least, not if the person she had to talk to was Haruna - so the next best option was to try to get her to feel more secure in her environment.

”I don’t think that’ll help.” Sylvia shook her head. ”It’s my fault. So I don’t think I can run away or eat things.” She nevertheless took a moment to compose herself before she looked back at Haruna. Her eyes searched for an answer, or really, any semblance of guidance that the other magical girl could offer.

“I’m not telling you to run away from anything,” Haruna said reassuringly. “Not yet, anyway. Think of it as. . . a tactical approach. You’re regrouping and making sure you’re ready before you jump into the fight again. And, hopefully, you’re getting some help from allies who’ll help make sure you come out at the end in one piece.”

”I… Yeah… I’m just a bad girl who can’t do anything right.” The protector agreed in her own way with Haruna. ”I don’t even- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say.” Something that could have brought the situation into a new light almost slipped out when she spoke, but the protector stopped herself just short of it.

”How do I make up with them if they’re angry?” She practically rushed the question out to cover for her mistake, only to realise that it might sound even worse. Because that would imply she did not know how to make up with people. Which she should know, because Ember knew. But the schemer was nowhere near Sylvia.

“I guess that depends on who they are, a little, but there’s only really one way to do that when you really get down to brass tacks. You need to talk to them.” Haruna shrugged. “Whoever they are.” She was beginning to wonder at a few things, but there were a few pieces missing for her to land on any kind of answer. “I could help with that, too, if you need a mediator.”

If only Haruna could actually help make peace between them. It would be so much easier that way, but Hotaru would never listen to Haruna and Ember would be angry that Sylvia brought an outsider in. The other members of the Detention Club were likely of no help either; it was much too complicated to explain why there were three Shuukos. And worst of all, even if they explained it, they would likely have to run again. After all, who would accept someone like them?

”Isn't there anything else I could do? I’m not good at talking.” Sylvia asked of Haruna after she thought it through.

“That’s part of why I keep offering to help. It’s mostly not really about what you actually say, it’s getting those feelings across somehow.” She hesitated for a moment, thinking to herself before her head bobbed in a small nod. “I’m good at helping people talk through these things because of my magic. It doesn’t work as well on other magical girls,but I can still sense what people actually want. It lets me put it into words for them when they might not be able to.” One more brief moment of pause. “Also, yours have always been kind of. . . unusual.”

If Haruna focused on Sylvia’s desires, she would be able to make them out clearly. There were no conflicting voices or wants this time. Only a genuine sense of wanting to be safe and wanting to make up with people, probably the ones she was talking about right now.

Regardless, Sylvia raised her head at the claim, her eyes widening at the admission.

”Umm… that sounds useful.” Her comment came across as awkward and hesitant. Sure, the ability did sound useful, but what did it mean for her situation? Sylvia knew that both Hotaru and Ember wanted something different than her. So maybe Haruna already knew there were three of them.

“Is this related to why you told me not to be concerned when you acted like you’d never met me?” Her tone held no accusation, just curiosity. “I thought that was kinda strange, even though you had an explanation.”

Eh? How could that be? The protector did not have the schemer’s mind or her ability to remember interactions, but she felt sure she would know if any one of them had told that to Haruna. Sylvia’s eyes widened as she thought of that, her mouth opening slightly.

”Err… umm… uh… I didn't… umm… I don't remember telling you that?” she half-asked, half-affirmed as she tried to wrack her brain for any interaction between her, or her comrades and Haruna, only to come up completely blank. They only spoke briefly in the club, haven't they? Oh, if only Ember was here! She could talk her way out of the situation. But the only thing her useless self could do was have the blood drain from her face and look dumbstruck.

“You did, it was when you visited me at my apartment to apologize. Remember, you helped clean my room a little?” Haruna said, attempting to be helpful. “Is there something wrong with that?”

Sylvia froze, looking as though she turned into a statue of salt, because that was impossible. If anyone had wanted to visit Haruna, she would have remembered it, because the light girl seemed so nice. Almost as nice as Roche. And it did not look as though Haruna was lying. So what was going on?

”Ummm… I… err… I never saw you… like this… ummm…. Before the club.” She could not believe what she was saying, nor could she believe what she heard. It made no sense, so much that she did not know if even Ember could have straightened it out.

”Please. I don't want to be a bad girl, but I really don't remember.” Sylvia did not even know what she pleaded for, only that there was something deeply wrong here.

Haruna made a placating gesture. “It’s alright. I’m not upset at you, I promise. I’m mostly just. . . worried. Shuuko. . .” She hesitated, unsure of whether she should even ask this. “The times we’ve met during club activities, I’ve heard three sets of desires from you. Is there. . . more than one Shuuko?”

“No…?” The protector did not like lying. But sometimes, it was necessary even if she was bad at it. Even her statement sounded more like a question rather than an admission, her heart hammering in her chest as she tried to figure out what to say. Once again, Ember could have helped her out here, because she would have known precisely what to say in order to stave off suspicion, but her? She would not be able to do anything.

”Umm… I… err…” She felt herself practically shrivel up under what she imagined as scrutiny. She kept stuttering, feeling like an useless fool as she tried to find anything to latch onto in the way of an explanation.

”Maybe it’s my magic,” she managed to half-whisper after what felt like an eternity of mumbling and false starts.

“Your magic?” Haruna asked, not sounding any less concerned. “Is your magic really that harmful to you to use? Memory gaps and changes in behavior are pretty bad.”

That had to have been the wrong answer then. Sylvia could practically feel the vice closing around her. She had no idea how to respond. She would get in trouble no matter what she said.

”I… Don’t know.” The protector closed her eyes, folding in on herself as she lifted her legs and curled up into a ball. Her voice sounded hollow, almost resigned, as though she knew there was something awful coming and she could do nothing to prevent it.

“It’s going to be okay, Shuuko,” Haruna said, hoping that her repeated affirmations would eventually have an effect. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but whatever it is, I’m not planning on letting anything bad happen to you, or doing anything to you myself. Okay? Whether you’re three people in one body, your magic is messing with your memory, or you’re even possessed by a ghost or something crazy like that, I just want to help you deal with it. And this fight that you got into, if its not the same thing.” She once again had to stop herself from reaching out to give the dark girl a hug. “And if you can’t bring yourself to trust me with it, I can always go get someone else. You get along with Roche, right?”

”I don't want to get her into trouble.” Sylvia's voice choked as she felt an unpleasant throb in her chest.. ”I don't want you to get into trouble either.” Her arms squeezed tight. Haruna could see the body’s hands slowly turn white, the position looking more and more uncomfortable by the second. The protector was not even looking at her anymore, the snake of long-gone memories coiling around her, looking at her with murderous eyes.

”I’m really sorry. Please don't hurt me.” When she spoke, it almost sounded like she was repeating a script of some sorts.

“Shuuko. Listen.” Haruna spoke firmly, much louder than her previously gentle tone. “Nobody is going to hurt you. I am not letting that happen. You are not going to get in trouble for being helped, and nobody is getting in trouble for helping you.” Her voice softened again. “Please just let me do something. I know we’re not that close, but it still hurts to watch you close yourself off when you’re in such obvious pain.”

A pause followed that. Sylvia clenched her legs even tighter, thoughts clashing inside her head. The feeling in her chest grew ever greater, pressing against her meat and bones. She swore she could hear them creak, buckle under the force, because as much as she hated it, there was no escaping Them. Except…

No one was here anymore.

Sylvia took a deep breath. She shuddered with it, her face turning into a grimace in her struggle.

”Are… are you sure you won't get into trouble?” She stumbled over her words again as she forced them through clenched teeth. ”Because… if you're sure… then I really don't want to be hurt anymore.“ She sniffed. She could feel wetness trail down her cheeks as she spoke.

“Absolutely. I promise.” Haruna nodded sharply for emphasis. “You don’t need to worry about me. Especially not right now.”

Sylvia loosened up, letting the light girl see more of her face again. She looked pale, almost as a ghost. The cold surely did not help matters, but it did not feel that bad, so most of the damage had to have been done by the problem at hand.

”I think… my friends… will get angry if I don’t take the pain.” The choice of words slipped out without Sylvia really thinking about it. ”Or they might not be… friends… anymore. Umm. You… You wouldn’t like it if I hit you, right? But if I don’t get hit instead of them, then it’s like I hit them.” The protector squeezed her leg again as she looked up at Haruna, her eyes filled with the desperate glimmer of hope.

The light girl gave her a sympathetic smile. “I understand the feeling. I don’t like it when anyone gets hurt, especially if there’s something I could do about it. That’s why I work so hard at helping both the Detention Club and Hibusa as a whole; it’s hard to rest knowing that there could be someone who needs me out there and isn’t getting me. That feeling can be really overwhelming sometimes.”

Haruna paused for a moment, considering her approach. “It’s important to remember that it isn’t actually the same, though. Like. . . let me put it this way. Say that my landlady falls down the stairs while trying to carry her groceries to her apartment. I’m in school, working on a test. Whose fault is it that the landlady got hurt?” She didn’t wait long for an answer to her rhetorical question. “It wouldn’t be reasonable to say that it was my fault, even though I could have helped if I was there. Or, for a better example - is it Roche’s fault that Suki hurt me? Technically, if she’d been focused somewhere else, she could have stopped it. Is Roche a bad girl for not making Suki throw her around instead of me?” She spoke with no lingering ill will toward either party; things were resolved with Suki already, and it would be unreasonable in the extreme for her to hold the club leader responsible for the blood witch’s actions in that case.

“With the landlady, it’s nobody’s fault. Suki throwing me around is Suki’s fault. If someone hurts your friends, its that someone’s fault. Not yours. It’s okay to want to protect people, don’t get me wrong. It’s fine to be upset about them getting hurt, and it’s also fine for them to be upset about being hurt. What isn’t fine is if they’re upset at you because they got hurt. That’s not fair. And, if they won’t be your friends just because you aren’t there to get hurt for them, then they’re not really your friends at all. That’s just them using you selfishly, and manipulating your better nature for bad reasons.”

Haruna took one more breath before finishing her spiel. “If they’re used to relying on you, then it’ll be hard for them to deal with things on their own. That, too, is not your fault. It’s better for both you and them if your friends can learn to stand on their own feet.” She tilted her head a bit. “Does that make the thought easier to stomach, maybe? You aren’t actually taking something away from them for real if you won’t get hurt in their place; you’re making them into better, stronger people who don’t need someone else to be their whipping girl.”

The protector listened to Haruna with the deepest parts of her being, the words stirring up long-lost feelings. As the light girl spoke, she could probably see how Shuuko’s hands bunched up even while the tears kept falling one after another. Because if she was right, then They lied. There was no question about it, which put both of her comrades’ perspectives regarding Them into a new light. At the same time, Haruna could not be correct, for that would mean something horrible. Something the protector could not even imagine.

”But… it is my fault if they get hurt, isn’t it?” Sylvia’s voice choked as she spoke. It did not seem like the tears would stop anytime soon, for the feeling in her chest started to bloom through her whole body, planting the seeds of an awful, yet profound discovery. Or perhaps merely watering the ones which had already been planted. ”And it’s better if I’m suffering anyways. I’m not good for anything else, am I?” She spoke as though she were making a joke, except there was nothing amusing about it.

“Shuuko. . .” Haruna murmured, lost as to how to respond to the girl’s despair.

”Yeah… ummm… I’m sorry for wasting your time,” her hands dropped beside her as she lowered her legs, then she wiped her tears. ”I understand, but I don’t think it’s like that. If the landlady trips, then…” She stood up.

”It’s my fault that she fell down the stairs, because I should’ve ran and… and gotten in front of her.” A shiver ran through her as she said that, remembering what would have had happened if she had not intervened with an injury like that. Haruna had to be lying. Not maliciously. Not like Them. But a white lie to make Sylvia feel better even though she did the wrong thing.

Did she do the wrong thing?

She had no answer. There was only the mountain’s shadow, looming over her as though it were an executioner’s axe, not to mention the pressure deep inside that refused to go away.

”Am I wrong?” she asked, halting between each word as she tried to get rid of the ugly feeling. ”If I didn’t jump in front of Roche, she wouldn’t have her shoulder.” Yet that was different somehow. How?

“You are wrong. It’s not. . . you aren’t the one that attacked Roche. If she’d gotten hurt there, it would have been Pearl’s fault. Not Roche’s, and definitely not yours.” She resisted the urge to cry herself, the sympathetic feeling of Sylvia’s anguish digging at her. “You chose to protect her. That wasn’t you doing something because you would be a bad person if you didn’t. That was you choosing to be a good person by making a sacrifice for someone else’s sake. And if you tell me you didn’t choose, that you just did it without hesitating despite how much you would get hurt. . . well, I’d say that makes you an even better person, because you wouldn’t let that threat get in the way of protecting someone important to you.”

Haruna did her best to smile at Sylvia, even if it was a sad one, in the hopes that it might give the dark girl the faintest bit of positive feelings. “You aren’t worthless. There’s more to life, more to your life than pain. It’s admirable that you take on so much, but that’s because there are so many other things you could be doing, not because that’s the only thing you can do. People aren’t bad because they run away when they’re scared, or flinch away from being hurt. It’s not normal to be hurt all the time, it’s not right that someone should suffer so much.”

She took a breath. “I guess what I’m trying to say is. . . if you’re suffering on behalf of someone else, it should be your choice. Not their choice, not the way things always are, but your choice. Whoever keeps telling you you’re a bad girl, that you’re only good for getting hurt, that it’s always your fault when they get hurt, that person is the bad girl. That person is evil. Not just bad, not just mean, evil. Evil, and cruel.”

The more Haruna spoke, the more certain it became that a vast gorge separated these two. Perhaps just as massive and treacherous as the divide between the Gems and the Detention Club, it made for a sharp contrast to the mountain that loomed ahead of them. Yet another trial to face on the road towards their ambitions, for the convictions of the light girl landed on almost-deaf ears, expressed with a determined shake of Sylvia’s head. Wiping her tears one more time, the protector looked at her companion with a mote of broken gratitude in her eyes.

”Thank you for trying to cheer me up. But I know you’re lying.” Her hands reached for her own shoulders, almost as though she were bracing herself for the inevitable. ”I have to get hurt. I don’t want to, but that's impossible.” Her words rang hollow. They were a well-rehearsed script. ”If I’m not screaming, then someone else will be.” Bitterness coated her voice. She did not want it. But she saw no other way.

”I’m really sorry. I’m a worthless girl who talks about worthless things.” Sylvia let go of herself. ”Please don’t-” Please don’t what? Tell this to Ember and Hotaru? Grandmother and Grandfather were no longer around and no one even knew that Sylvia existed. Besides, it was a foolish request to begin with. Indeed, she should have never spoken of this to anyone; a thought that made her eyes drop to the floor.

Haruna’s shoulders drooped. She somehow managed to look even more exhausted, as if the tired-looking girl the club normally saw was a front to hide someone else. “Why would I lie?” she asked quietly. “What would. . . what would I gain? For trying to hurt you? I have something to gain if I do the right thing, don’t I?” She sighed, the exhalation almost sounding like a death rattle. In her heart, she felt she knew why Sylvia wouldn’t listen, but she wasn’t going to put that burden atop the already-suffering protector’s shoulders.

”Because it isn’t true.” The reply was simplicity itself, even though the protector had to force it through clenched teeth. ”I’m going to get puni- Ah. I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t talk about it.” Her voice dropped as she realised she messed up again. ”It isn’t your fault. It’s just the way things are. I’m… ah.” She caught herself this time before she blurted out anything. Her voice filled with tension and indeed, if Haruna looked up, the light girl could see that the protector became practically rigid, her body locking up as she clamped down on herself.

“I’m not a liar. Stop calling me one.” Haruna stared at the ground. “If you don’t want my help, just say so. If you want me gone, just say so.” Her shoulders managed to slump even further, before she took a deep breath and forced herself to straighten up, looking the dark girl in the eyes. “I’m reaching out my hand, Shuuko, but I can’t force you to take it. You have to want things to change.”

A war raged on behind those eyes. If the light girl looked up or perhaps extended her magical senses, she would unravel conflicting thoughts. It was as though even like this, Shuuko - or rather Sylvia - could not decide what she really wanted. One half insisted on honouring Grandfather’s and Grandmother’s wishes. The other wanted to unburden herself, to find help. Still another saw something familiar in Haruna’s posture. And in the end, Sylvia borrowed something from Ember’s book when she stepped forward.

”Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”

“I’m fine,” she said reflexively, before shaking her head. “N-no, sorry, that’s hypocritical of me.” She took a breath. “If I’m being honest. . . yes. I don’t like deceiving people, and I don’t like being accused of it. And, well, it also hurts to watch you dig yourself deeper into this pit. I don’t like it when I can’t figure out how to help people, either. It makes me feel. . . useless.” Haruna sighed, looking down again. “But you shouldn’t feel that bad. It’s kinda hard to tell when I should be more pushy and when I should give people more space, and it never really sits quite right to do the latter.” She glanced back up. “And while I’m being honest. . . from where I’m standing, Shuuko, you could use a lot of help. Everyone in the Detention Club could, that’s why I came to Hibusa. Even Rei needs more help than she accepts. But, if you really don’t want it, I’ll leave you alone. I’ll give as much or as little as you ask of me.”

A frown appeared on Sylvia’s face. Her hands went behind her back, squeezing on one another until her knuckles turned white. The war inside her waged on as she considered Haruna’s words, but as the seconds ticked by, there was only one thing she could say.

”Why? I don’t think you should help me. It’ll get you into trouble and I’ll just be a burden. Someone who won’t even say thank you.”

“I don’t help people to be thanked.” Haruna let that statement stand for a moment before continuing. “I don’t do it to get stronger, either. I help people because that’s the right thing to do.” As she considered the rest of what Shuuko had said, she laughed. “And do you seriously think getting myself into trouble will stop me? As a magical girl from the City of Light, I’m standing here in the middle of Hibusa Town, talking to a girl that tried to crush me to death a couple of weeks ago, and trying to convince her that it’s alright to accept a little help. I’m way, way past worrying about not getting in trouble.”

”But something horrible could happen to you! Hota- Ah.” She almost ended up saying something again, her every second word threatening the only thing her friends… comrades… whoever ‘They’ might hold to be sacred right now. She fumbled as the pressure inside of her grew stronger, stammering on her next words. ”I mean! I could attack you again. It… it isn’t something you… you should be doing! Don’t you know that I’m horrible?!”

She could not hold it back anymore.

”I’m a selfish dark girl who almost killed you! I’m a hungry devil who hogs all the food! I’m a horrible girl that brings misfortune! Why are you still here, why are you lying to me?!” Sylvia’s words blurred together as she unleashed her tirade. ”I hurt everyone and I’ll hurt you, make you go hungry, ruin your life, make you lose money! I’ll make you wish you never knew me!” She marched closer towards Haruna. Her eyes glowed green with magic; they had been a different colour when they first met. Her right hand raised up in the air.

The air crackled with anger and magic. They intertwined, dancing around one another like two hungry beasts ready to pounce on their prey, charging Shuuko’s palm with enough energy to fracture bones.

”So render judgement upon this desecrated priestess,” Sylvia’s cadence changed without warning, ”And be certain that whatever terror and harm she attempted to bring onto you, it is not out of malice.”

Haruna backed up a few steps, transforming just in case. A hexagonal gate opened up behind her, though she didn’t go as far as leaping through quite yet. “Shuuko,” she began, keeping her voice level even as she held a combat-ready stance. “Or Shatterscape, or whoever I’m talking to currently.” Her earlier theory was seeming more and more bulletproof. “I’m not going to beat you down, but I’m not going to let you hurt me either. I am trying to help, and regardless of what everyone in the club seems to think, I don’t make a habit of lying. I don’t care how hard it is to believe that someone would actually want to reach a hand out. Magic is a literal miracle, think about that if you have to.” Hizuki’s expression set itself in a firm scowl. “Just tell me what’s going on already! Stop calling me a liar when every other word out of your mouth is false.” She failed to keep the heat out of her voice with this last.

”Unfortunately,” a tremble entered Sylvia’s voice as she spoke, ”this humble high priestess fears that if she speaks of the omens she witnessed, then there will be no salvation, for she is the daughter of a temptress and the harbinger of misfortune. Therefore, she can not let the one who braves the trail stand in front of her, for there will be repercussions.” She repeated the same message as before, just in a different dialect. ”She is aware of this, because she knows she can not escape the pain she must endure.”

“For fuck’s sake, Shuuko, I’m not your parents or whoever else hurt you!” Hizuki shouted. “You’re not going to steal my food or take all my money or anything else you think is going to happen! You’re not any more or less a ‘harbinger of misfortune’ than me.” She planted the butt of her spear in the ground, wings flaring out with irritation. “You don’t need to spill your entire life story to me right now. Or ever, if you don’t want to.” The light girl pointed her weapon at Shatterscape, though it didn’t seem intended as a threat. “What you actually need to do is realize that the only way you’re hurting anyone is by insisting that you can’t do anything but hurt or be hurt!”

”But this high priestess…” Sylvia’s voice trailed off. Unknowingly, Hizuki echoed almost exactly what Ember kept telling her. The same thing Roche implied whenever they spoke. So what if it was true? ”Is this high priestess… Am I… allowed to avoid the pain? Is this high priestess… could I use that name without lying?” The question felt out of context, but its significance seemed clear as Sylvia looked straight into Hizuki’s eyes, her green gaze filled with expectations. ”Answer this high priestess or I- no. I shall- There shall be no threats.”

“Of course you can.” Hizuki met her eyes steadily, letting her spear drop to her side once again. “I’m sure anyone else would tell you the same thing.” She shifted her posture, extending her open hand toward Shuuko. “I know it probably doesn’t seem possible right now, but if you work with friends, you can find a way to avoid the pain for everyone. . . and those friends will be glad to know that you aren’t being hurt any more.”

”And what if this high priestess doesn’t have any friends?” A note of desperation entered into Sylvia’s voice. ”What if, like you said, if others wish this high priestess harm and so they are not her friends, or even worse.” Green eyes averted towards the ground. ”This high priestess thinks that if that is true, then they lied to her.” She could scarcely imagine it. But then why did everyone say that They were worse than liars? That Grandmother and Grandfather…

She could not finish that thought. They were the ones who raised her. She should be grateful that they even allowed her to exist at all, given what she was. And yet they could also be in the wrong if she believed what everyone else had to say about Them.

“You have Roche,” she pointed out. “She’s definitely your friend, and as far as I can tell she cares a lot about her friends.” Hizuki smiled slightly beneath her visor. “And, if you want it, you have me. Even if you can’t work things out with the other people in this situation, that’s two people you can still count on.”

”This high priestess… I… Does not know whose words to believe.” Pain welled up while she spoke, filling her voice. ”This high priestess… she… I… do you… know… why she had been expelled from her shrine?” A pause. Sylvia’s eyes closed. Hands clenched, phantom knives-for-fingers appearing in the air in the form of golden spectres. Then her eyes opened again.

”Because the gods deemed her filthy and beyond salvation. So I… this high priestess… wants to know… want to know… Can gods lie?”

She did not extend her hand. If Haruna focused on Sylvia, she could feel that the protector wanted to. But the desire, as Sylvia put it, not to be hurt again felt stronger.

Haruna took a moment to respond, mulling over who the ‘gods’ in question could be. The answer, regardless of their identity, was clear, however. “Yes,” she said, a sad note in her voice. “Unfortunately. Anyone can lie; the only difference between me lying and a god lying is the amount of power that lie has over you. I’m sorry.”

A long time ago, Ember said the same thing.

A frown rippled through Sylvia’s features, before her eyes widened. The flickers around her hand became a pair of menacing, massive gauntlets.

”I… This high priestess… Why should this high priestess believe your words over… No…” Sylvia closed her eyes, then raised her right hand to cradle her head. ”This doesn’t make any sense. Why would they lie to me?” She wobbled in place. ”They are…” Grandfather and Grandmother. They wanted the best for her. But they couldn’t give it to her because she was a filthy girl who could not do anything right. That had to be the case. If not…!

“I don’t know.” Hizuki shook her head. “People lie for a lot of reasons. Sometimes they don’t even realize they’re lying. I don’t know enough about you or your past to really say why someone would have accused you of bringing misfortune, or being a glutton, or any of the other things they say about you. Maybe it was grief, or anger at someone else, maybe they thought they were doing the right thing, or maybe they were just cruel.” She took a step closer to Shuuko, her hand staying extended. “It doesn’t matter, because you don’t deserve to be called all these things.”

Sylvia shook her head, continuing to sway with the world.

”They… they couldn’t! They’d-” What, never lie? Sylvia’s jaws clacked shut before she could say it. It felt as though something got stuck in her throat and the world seemed to turn into a merry-go-round that had no regards for her dizzy spell. Her legs gave up holding onto the ground and she collapsed, her gauntlets impacting the pavement with a loud, metallic clang. It almost sounded as though it were a death knell.

Her visage certainly looked like she died. Pale, empty-eyed and staring into the infinite distance, it looked almost as though Sylvia’s soul had fled from her body. Only her faintly audible breathing served as proof to the contrary.

Hizuki gasped and rushed to her side, kneeling next to the fallen dark girl. “Wh-what happened!?” she asked aloud, as if the suddenly-unconscious Shuuko would be polite enough to wake up and answer her. She put a hand under her nose to check for breathing, and two fingers to the jugular to check for a pulse. Hizuki relaxed only slightly when neither was absent, shifting to put a hand on either of the other girl’s shoulders. “Shuuko?” She shook her gently. “Shuuko, wake up, you can’t just sleep here. . . !” Another shake, this one with a bit more force - and nothing.

“What did I do. . . ?” she lamented aloud, standing and pacing in a brief circle as she tried to figure out what to do. Had her words alone really provoked this response? “I was just trying to help.” Hizuki squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head vigorously. “N-no, I can’t stop to mope right now. Even if I made things worse, she still needs my help now.”

The light girl stooped over Shuuko again. “Sorry, I know you don’t like being touched.” She scooped her arms underneath the girl’s midsection, then lifted her with a grunt of effort; those gauntlets were about as heavy as they looked, and not for the first time, she was glad she kept up a good exercise regimen. With a shout meant more to motivate herself than anything else, she took an awkward, nearly-stumbling running start, then jumped into the air.

She traveled only a few feet before passing through a gate, resummoning her THUNDER CRACK with a groan of protesting metal. The armor was still recuperating, but she needed it right now; it would have to suffice, damage reports pouring in or not. The armor assembling around her moved Shuuko from Hizuki’s arms to a position best likened to a cockpit, a transparent dome adding itself to the structure to accommodate the unusual passenger and protect her from the wind before it carried both of them off toward Hizuki’s home.

The landing was similarly awkward, requiring Hizuki to dismiss the armor in midair and twist about to catch Shuuko before it dissipated fully. She landed on her own balcony with a painful-sounding thump, the shock reverberating through her legs. With a final burst of effort, she slid open the patio door, carried Shuuko inside, and laid her down on her own bed before releasing her transformation entirely.

Sylvia did not stir. She spent the journey in a daze, her normally vibrant green eyes staring off into the distance. Or perhaps she stared at something else: the nightmares of her past. Grandmother and Grandfather. Them. Their… lies.

Their lies!

She had lived a lie.

As Haruna lay Sylvia down on the bed, she noticed that the protector’s Emblem had manifested on her chest, roughly where her heart would be. An oval mirror assembled from four, irregular pieces shimmered there, the touch of magic clear on it. Three pieces were large and reflected a distorted world. One smaller, clear shard remained that Haruna could perhaps see herself reflected in.

A crack filled the room. A flicker of green energy ran through the body, culminating in one piece of the Emblem becoming clearer - but also fracturing into countless pieces.

“Shuuko!?” She didn’t even have time to finish backing off before whatever was going wrong with the dark girl became dramatically visible, if not any more comprehensible. “What’s happening?” she asked with no small amount of panic, leaning over her fellow club member and looking around frantically in an effort to spot something she could do to help with. . . whatever was going on. “Please, say something.”

The colour of fresh ashes joined green, paradoxically turning into gold, then red, then gold again. A flicker of light returned to Sylvia’s eyes, much like a fire trying to be reborn from its remains.

”This high priestess has always longed for the love of the gods,” spoke Sylvia, voice hollow and broken. ”But met an abomination in their stead. How is she meant to continue her life?” Her head turned towards Haruna. The eyes remained hollow. ”Please. If They lied…” She sounded like she barely clung to the sole remaining thread of her life.

“Then you’ll just have to find someone else to put your faith in,” Haruna said, trying to be firm in offering the girl a lifeline. “The gods aren’t the only place to find love. You have friends that you’re precious to, and they’ve treated you a lot better than any crusty old gods did.” The light of her own determination shone past the bags beneath Haruna’s eyes. “So just believe in them instead! I know it probably just sounds like dumb light girl garbage, but all you have to do to get past this is trust your friends. I swear on my life.”

”I don’t know if I can.” Sylvia’s tone did not change. ”I don’t know who’s lying anymore.” If Grandfather and Grandmother lied, then what did that mean? Were some of the things they said true? If everyone lied, including Them, then how did people know what was true? ”Please, don’t lie to me. Please tell me if they really lied. Please don’t lie to me.” Her voice trembled as she begged Haruna once again.

“Shuuko, as far as I can tell, you’re a caring person who does her best to help others. You do your very best not to be burdensome, and you definitely aren’t making anyone go hungry. I don’t know if they actually meant to lie, or if they really believed all the horrible things they said about you.” Haruna took a deep breath. “But if you had to ask just, yes or no, did they lie or did they not?” She paused again, not sure whether she was saving Shuuko or shattering her even further. “They lied.”

No matter how many times Sylvia asked, the response did not change. In fact, she already knew what the response would be. She still let out a broken sob as even the tiniest chance of “Them” not being what “They” really were evaporated.

Her world lurched. Vertigo claimed her. The walls closed in. Nothing but darkness existed. And yet despite that all, a hand still reached out towards Takae Shuuko Sylvia, carrying a faint glimmer of light in its palm.

”I don't know if I am.” Without warning, Sylvia sat up, moving like a puppet, or perhaps a ragdoll being yanked around by pieces of rope. ”But thank you.” The words were wrong. They were never meant to be delivered in such a tone. Haruna reacted as if they had been a light slap.

”I am all right now.” A hollow lie. She never lied like this before. ”Thank you.” Another lie. Even so, she set her feet against the floor and stood up. ”You’ve worked hard.” Maybe not a lie. It still sounded as empty as she felt.

”I will be okay. All right?” A broken smile. It suited her tone. It suited her lies.

Stepping forward, she wrapped her gauntlets around Haruna in a pitiful, barely-warm-enough semblance of an embrace and wondered… was she lying yet again?

The light girl seized the opening her clubmate had given her. Limp, hollow gesture or no, it was still powerful for the fact that Shuuko had reached out at all. She pulled the other girl into a tight hug, using some of her magic to become a more literal source of warmth. Haruna radiated a gentle heat, like the first rays of the sun peeking over the horizon.

“You'll be alright.” No chastisement, no further attempt to dig the truth out of Sylvia. Just a simple, honest reassurance for the future, covered with the thin veil of courtesy. Haruna let go after a moment, the glow of her power fading. “Just know that I'll be here if you need me.”

”I will be all right.” The very same, hollow tone. A squeeze, because that is what people did when they hugged. Especially when the other person felt warm. ”I will be all right,” she repeated, not knowing the difference between truth and falsehood.

Suki had a tall, body-sized mirror in her room. It was old and not well maintained. Before she even moved in here, the previous inhabitants had managed to crack it. It had dropped on its corner and crudely glued back into place. The mirror was three large shards now, and they had been crudely glued in place. The reflection didn’t quite match up along the cracks, which made it less than ideal for looking at yourself. Suki didn’t like using it, and usually had it turned around so that she didn’t have to look at her cracked reflection every time she entered her room.

But today, she turned the mirror around.

While the mirror was cracked, she was able to get a pretty good look at her face. She turned her head sideways, then to the other side. She ran a finger along her jaw line and tipped her head up to look at her neck. Then Suki breathed into her hand and sniffed her fingers.

Something was off today.

But it felt…Right.

When she went to make herself breakfast (A slice of toast) no one looked at her. When she made her way to school, one of her ‘neighbors’ waved to her. Like they weren’t embarrassed that they recognized her. When she eventually arrived at school, she realized that she was on time.

Suki stepped into her homeroom class and sat down. Her teacher didn’t say anything smart, and just gave her a nod and a smile. The other students were starting to funnel in around her.

Norika winced as the sound of her bedside alarm shattered her restful slumber. She had been having a most wonderful dream, one in which Kaito was still alive and she wasn’t weak and sickly. The two of them were having a fun day at the arcade, playing all sorts of games and eating lots of pizza and snacks. Roche had been there, too, even Haruna. It had been so very enjoyable, but, alas, she knew it couldn’t last. At some point, she knew she would have wake up and face her cold, painful reality.

Opening her tired eyes, Norika slowly forced her emaciated body to sit up, her many blankets still wrapped around her meager frame. She knew a servant would be arriving with her breakfast soon, and although she hated having to get up, she much preferred to do so on her own in response to the relatively pleasant sounds of her alarm, then be forced awake by angry yelling. As expected, it wasn’t long before her breakfast tray arrived. Upon it was her usual morning meal, if it could even be called such: a canned protein shake and a small bowl filled with various medicine capsules and vitamin supplements. Oh how she longed to be able to eat a real breakfast, but she knew her poor constitution would never permit it. At least the servant departed as swiftly as they’d arrived, allowing her to eat in some small measure of peace.

As she swallowed each pill with a gulp of her shake, Norika’s thoughts again turned to her most pressing problem, the one that had been hanging over her for the past several weeks like an anvil poised to crush her into bloody paste. Just when she thought she had figured out a solution, she was confronted with another new complication. Employing the wig to frame a particularly hated individual for the theft of her parents’ money was seeming less and less practical with each passing day, and as if one nosy detective wasn’t bad enough, now this teenage investigative prodigy had gotten involved. Although she didn’t have any concrete proof, she was almost certain that he had mystical powers of some nature, which made dealing with him exceptionally dangerous. And all that was before one even got to poor Misoka’s family and their ruined flower shop. This whole mess had started because of an attempt to help them, and yet, here they were, possibly even worse off than before, all because of her horrible, heartless parents, and that horrible, heartless bitch, Ashbringer…

She knew she had to do something, but she remained completely at a loss as to what. If only all her problems could be solved with a death ray to the face…

Morning greeted Kiyo as it usually did, with a gentle vibration from her watch and the soft trickle of water from a fountain she kept on her nightstand for background noise. With a yawn, she did a prolonged stretch, the motes of stiffness in her limbs from a sleep plagued by terrible posture fleeing away like roaches exposed to light. She opened her laptop first, to check for the email she expected to find, after using that credit card to buy food for Suki. To her surprise, there wasn't one. Well, the transaction had completed without any issues, after all. No fraud checks, no confirmation needed. Perhaps technology had advanced. The girl shrugged. The project she'd been working on was still there, and she added a couple notes of things she wanted to try that had come to her in the twilight of her mental space, between lying in bed and falling asleep. Her mind was clear today. She'd have a breakthrough soon, she could feel it.

Kiyo enjoyed her lazy mornings. A hot shower, on Kiyo's timetable, could take no less than half an hour. Checking her mogall and looking over the familiar scenery of Hibusa town provided an illusion of productivity—she was doing her morning rounds, you see. There, she would find Roche and Haruna doing their regular morning jogs. She also found, most unusually, that there were a great many more mogall left alive from yesterday than usual. Even the outer reaches of the city, which provided the most spectacular views of the sunrise, still had a few. Usually, Kaeru and the GEMs would purge as many of them as they could find. If it was a suspicious development, it was also a welcome one. Her shower ran quite a bit longer than usual today, and she emerged totally refreshed.

This did mean, however, that she would most likely end up being late. This was somewhat tolerated on account of her truancy not really being surprising, given her appearance already broke plenty of school rules, and also on account of her injury, which got her some sympathy points. If she even bothered to get out of her apartment early enough to stand a chance, she usually kept too slow of a pace to make it on time. Today was different, however. She noticed, several times, that her pace was getting closer to the par time at each of her landmarks. That was when Kiyo realized that something was very wrong—or rather, very right. Eyes wide, she pressed her foot into the concrete, hard. No pain. Scientific to a fault, she did it several more times, risking the loss of a much welcome reprieve just to be sure that she wasn't deceiving herself. It had taken such an unusually long time, she was beginning to wonder if anxiety or depression could slow down a magical girl's injury recovery, too. No pain! Her smile widened in a girlish glee she hadn't truly felt in a long time. Right away, she decided to run the rest of the way to school. Today, she would be on time.

Of course, that didn't mean she was going to go as far as to be a goody two shoes. When she crossed the threshold of the school doors, she continued running in the halls. She got some stares of disbelief and a few dirty looks, but for once, she felt like she didn't need to care how their eyes saw her. For the first time in a long time, she felt truly happy about something that was in no way related to being a magical girl—something distinctly human.

---

---

Haruna, oddly enough, woke up feeling well-rested. It's not like she got to bed at a reasonable hour, of course - her quest to improve the lives of everyone in Hibusa one walk home or lost cellphone at a time never ended - but it felt like she'd had a good, solid, continuous night of sleep anyway. She hit every green light on her usual route, and just felt less tense overall.

After the last couple weeks, it was a welcome change. One good morning wouldn't banish her concerns about Shuuko, Miki, Rei, or any number of other people, but her stress level going down instead of up was an uncommon-enough event lately to be worth a small celebration. "Maybe things are finally turning around?" The light girl wondered aloud, as she changed into her (still somewhat rumpled) uniform and headed off toward school for the day.

---

Roche crunched upon her toast, masticating without a thought to the ruddy mix of jam and butter sliding down her gullet. The shadow of a restless night still clung to her face as the tips of her fingers throbbed from laboring over a cork board hung in her room. Strings of red wool ran from pushpins that she’d torn loose and thrust anew ad nauseum for most of the night as she struggled with the tangled web in her mind.

Scraps of paper messily scrawled with the names of key actors in the farce that was her life. Marker slashed out ‘Ashbringer’ and ‘Schrade’ with equal emotion, pinned alongside their supposed civilian identities. Branching from them were known associates, the former only sporting Sink Queen and Misoka, while the latter bloomed into a tree of club members and their associates.

Before she’d put markers to paper, she had thought the club orderly in its chaos, a predictable storm to coax along per Rei’s rules. Now after putting a trio of branches from Shatterscape and seeing the names of three girls when she’d thought to have only held one in her arms, certainty was no longer something she could take for granted.

Satan and her perverse friend sat as twin islands further afield near a cluster of GEMS, with the latter bearing a tenuous bridge back to the Detention Club courtesy of Hizuki.

“What a mess.” Roche swallowed her paltry meal, expression tight as she cast a blanket over the board and tucked the entire thing into the closet. Stepping past a laptop whose camera was taped over and waltzing past curtains drawn tight over shuttered blinds, she shouldered her bag and departed to school, hand palming an orb sitting heavy in her wind breaker.

Emerging from the darkness of her home to find a pleasant day, she’d had time to make a habit of jogging with their new resident light girl. To her enlightened eye she still seemed innocent, and she exulted in the feeling of having another to break the solitude of her routine. Even as her height swelled with dread that it could all come crashing down with another revelation.

After saying her goodbyes, they’d split to make their own way into the school. Roche’s own route should have been without issue, and in truth, it was. If she would only turn a blind eye to the source of her distress, but when had the Rulekeeper balked from the flames that burned her?

After shaking the orb of wisdom in her pocket and stealing a glance at its answer, the Rule Keeper strode forward with a megawatt smile.

“Hey there, long time, no see!” Roche came alongside the crimson haired college student, snatching her into a side hug that let her briefly glimpse Misoka herself through the classroom’s window. Just as quickly she gave the most dangerous threat to the Detention Club her space, leaning against the wall and favoring her like an old friend. The sort of touchy-feely greeting everyone’s glazed over in a high school, too common and vapid to register in their minds if it wasn’t their own friend group.

After her response to the GEMS intrusion, one would have thought she’d be murderous and lashing out, but she’d spent far too much time studying her opposition to misconstrue her intentions so badly. Knowing full well she’d intruded onto Ashbringer’s territory, it feet neatly into her budding theory that Ashbringer showed up at the heart of the Detention Club.

”It’s good to see you. Our schedules really don’t line up, but I’m glad you could make some time after for us Hibusa girls. How’s life been treating you?”

---

To Zassou, one of the best parts of the existence of written language was that it could transmit ideas that take a long time to form all at once. She could think as slowly as she'd like and still have something meaningful at the end.

Even so, it was a little strange, though only to an outside observer. One would think that with as long as it took her, Tsubomi's handwriting would be beautiful. In reality, it was as bad a mess as Suki's cooking. But on she pressed, pen to paper, the hours ticking by. And by midnight, she'd finished something that could charitably be called:



It was folded slowly and carefully, one page inside another, and sealed away in its paper tomb.

She'd just have to put the envelope in Suki's locker the next morning.

---

The rays of sunlight broke through the blinds on the window and straight into Zassou's closed eyes. She tried to bat it away like an aggravated cat to a hyperactive dog, but the life bringing star won like it usually did. And so she found herself sitting up and resting her back against the wall her bed sat against. She yawned and looked around, but stopped soon after. Something was wrong.


To her right lay herself. Was she having an out of body experience? There was only one way to find out. She poked her sleeping body on the cheek only for it to bolt awake at the contact.

"What the hell!?" her other self asked as she felt something for the first time in years. The now awake Tsubomi glanced around the room in shock. After looking at everything else, her gaze fell on her own hands. She stared at them as the fingers flexed, following her commands exactly as they were told. Then she began to laugh.

"Hehehe... hahaha!" Her laughter was loud, perhaps not loud enough to be heard downstairs, and tinged with lunacy. "Hahaha... ahh. Geez, what am I, a manga villain?"

It wasn't until Zassou poked Tsubomi on the cheek once again that she noticed the weed was still there. More than that, she was there, right beside her. Not an illusory image like she had been until now, but a separate body entirely.

"... Huh. I guess I didn't give that advisor of yours enough credit. She works fast, doesn't she?"

Zassou simply stared at her former host. After a few seconds, she spoke. "Maybe."

"Well," Tsubomi began as she jumped to a standing position, "it'd be weird for me to show up downstairs, so I'll leave that to you."

She walked to the closet and began rummaging through it. After throwing a few outfits onto the floor, she spoke up. "Why do you only have, like, five outfits?"

Zassou didn't reply, but she didn't need to. It seemed that Tsubomi decided on a simple hoodie and skirt, which she was holding out triumphantly. By the time Zassou processed what she was seeing, she decided to turn her head away to give the girl privacy.

Did having the same body make that weird? She didn't have enough time to think of an answer before a copy of the pajamas she was wearing smacked her in the side of the head, making her turn back to the now-dressed Tsubomi.

"Well. I'm going to go see what I can find to eat. Feels like it's been years since I've eaten anything." The girl's finally physical face twisted in annoyance. "Oh, wait. It has. See ya."

Her jab at Zassou complete, Tsubomi bolted past her and over the bed to jump out the open window, landing on the same sturdy tree branch that Oros had used to bring Zassou back after the beach. Fortunately, that one hadn't been broken by her exit...

By the time Zassou's head followed her and she could see out the window, Tsubomi was out of sight. She turned back to the room and began to stand and get ready for herself. At least they had both survived. Was that something she could take for granted? Her eyes drifted to the envelope on her desk, the white paper bearing an almost illegible ink stain in the shape of Suki's name.

After a moment, she decided to follow through with her plan anyway, just to be safe.

---

Zassou found herself, as usual, late to class. Though this was worsened today by her detour to Suki's locker, dropping her message inside much less aimlessly than an SOS in a bottle, but almost as desperate in its meaning. Not that Zassou felt that desperation.

The walking weed made its slow way over to her seat, sitting down and shortly thereafter resting her forehead on her folded arms. It probably wasn't wise to let Tsubomi wander around town by herself, but wisdom was never Zassou's strong suit, at least outside of her Acid Drop persona.

The thought wormed its way into the hamster wheel in her mind, spinning around and around alongside her consciousness until everything fell fully into the drain of sleep. Did this mean the theater would be empty? And if one of them was just magic, would they be stuck in their normal forms?

Did dandelions dream of emotionless sheep?

---

For her part, Tsubomi was elated to be free. This was quickly followed by satisfaction as the currently rainbow-haired girl took another bite of her other self's leftover breakfast. The slow girl's appetite was almost as pathetic as its bearer, and that meant plenty was left for her original self. Sure, Tsubomi had to wait until Zassou left before sneaking back in and raiding the fridge, but after a few laps around the house she'd already decided that getting back inside was the best idea. After all, stealing from a shop had too high a chance of being food she didn't even like!

Once she'd finished the last bite, Tsubomi began the walk to Hibusa High. There was no rush in her pace, since the woman was probably busy during the school day anyway, but the least she could do was thank that instructor.

The first class passed by quickly enough. For whatever reason, Suki found the teacher’s ramblings about math especially interesting today. You could use pi to figure out the circumference of a circle or its area. Pie. Pie! Pies are round, and pi times the diameter gives you the circumference while multiplying against the radius squared gives you the area. Pies were also round. This was information she would never forget.

What number was pi exactly?

The teacher bowed and left the room, which gave all the other students a moment to tidy up and prepare for the next class. Suki looked over her shoulder at her locker. Japanese lockers were quite a bit different than their American counterparts. They were usually small boxes without doors, and thus couldn’t actually be locked. Because students usually used a single classroom for all of their classes (barring activities like gym) they could be located right inside the classroom itself. So without moving from her seat, she could see that something else was stashed with all of her books.

She stood up and wandered over to her little cube. Sure enough, a white envelope was leaning against the wall of her locker. She pulled it out and examined it, but saw no markings on the outside. It had been sealed, and didn’t weigh enough to contain anything more than a letter. Of course, the delinquent knew of dangerous things much lighter than a letter, so she held it up to a light source. The envelope was thin enough that the light shined through it but the folded up letter inside was illegible. She didn’t see any powder or anything. With her fears assuaged, she gave the letter a sniff. She couldn’t place the fragrance. It was faint yet pleasant, but was most certainly deliberate.

Could this be a love letter?

It probably wasn’t but, you know? On a day like today?

She couldn’t read something like that now. The next class was about to start. She stuck the letter in the back of her textbook and hurried back to her seat. Her heart was beating a little faster than it was moments before, but she couldn’t stop smiling.

---

Regina, or Ashbringer as she was known in magical girl form, was peering into a classroom. Her arms were folded and her long, crimson hair was swept over her shoulder. She only leaned into the doorway enough that a single eye could peek inside. But Roche’s sudden appearance seemed to startle her. The graduate’s entire body shook before her head snapped over to the newly arrived.

”Long time no see indeed.” She relaxed against the hallway wall. ”I did not come for you, initially. I had intended for our next encounter to be in the spring, as I promised. But the situation has grown complicated.” Regina wasn’t looking at anyone. She had a pensive look, and sighed deeply before she continued. ”Misoka is being harassed by authorities now. I knew she could handle what happened to the flower shop. But this? It’s a step too far, and I need to do something about it.” She turned to face Roche. ”Can we forget about the whole fight thing for the moment? I would like to join the Detention Club and find out what’s really going on with Misoka.”

---

On her way to school, Haruna got a phone call from a certain pancake loving magical girl.

”Eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Morganite, or rather Saundra’s voice, poured out of the phone. ”I waz talkin to da baws about ya, and I waz able ta get some diplomacy done!” She laughed. ”Ruby is fine with us backing off if ya are willing ta keep us in da loop. Ya just gotta let us call ya Tenacious Tourmaline from now on.” She coughed. ”Iz just a title. Ya can keep on being Hizuki, but da other GEMS wanna feel like one o’ deres is watchin’ da Detention club. We’re already backin’ outa da suburbs.”

---

Michi, or Black Gate as her magical girl persona was called, walked down the halls of Hibusa high. Her eyes drifted to the students as she walked by. A great deal of them had little plushy charms clipped to their backpacks, and more still probably had some of her servants in their homes. She allowed herself to smile.

Then she heard a girl yelp, and her head popped up. Kiyo was racing down the halls at full speed, and everyone was making room for her. Michi stepped to the side to allow her to pass.

The wake of a boat closes after the ship has cleared it, but the wake of people behind Kiyo had not done so. Instead, perhaps out of curiosity, everyone’s eyes turned to look at the slowest girl in school. Michi was the first to step away from the wall and approached the girl.

"Are you okay?"

---

As Norika’s morning continued, so too did the usual occurrences, such as the two maids talking just a bit too loudly outside her door.

”I’m so glad I don’t have to enter the room with her today.”

”You say that every time I feed her.”

”It’s no less true.”

”Fair. It's a bother to get all dressed up just for the privilege of giving that ungrateful brat her meal.” She chuckled. ”I’m so tempted to slip her something next time.”

”Hey! Don’t even joke about that! We’d all be out of a job!”

”Relax, I’d never do it. As annoying as she is, her father pays generously.”

”He should ditch his wife. I bet I could produce a son like the one he lost.”

”Now who’s going too far?”

Their voices faded down the hall.

A tutor would be coming in at some time to start teaching, and it wouldn’t be Roche. That was something that Norika had to prepare for.

At least the detectives weren’t coming down the street again to ask her more questions.

…

…

…

Nope. Even Norika wasn’t that unfortunate.

---

---

"Oh, hey Saundra!" she replied to the greeting with a cheery note. Her mood briefly raised higher with the first part of what she said. . . and then fell again when she got the condition. "Oh." Of course.

If it was a few weeks ago, she might've just accepted. Now, though, with what she knew of the Detention Club and the issues they had with trusting one another, let alone some outsider light girl who just sort of inserted herself with the arbitrary decree of the leader. . . "That's good," she began. "You need me to join the GEMs for that, though?" Haruna sighed. "You know my reasons still haven't gone away. I know you're saying its just a title, but I can't help but think the others won't feel that way. I'll try to keep the Detention Club out of trouble either way, but I'm going to need time to think about this."

---

Her expectations were less subverted and more shattered by the breadth of information gleaned from Regina’s reaction. The girl who had made the whole club dance in the palm of her hand had, for the very first time, reacted with unvarnished surprise to Roche’s approach. Lacking anything approaching subtly when it came to other Magical Girls, it was just alarming to see as it was to feel the whip-cord tension of Regina’s muscle in their brief, lopsided embrace.

Of course she’d rallied quickly, even if putting her back to the wall didn’t project the confidence she was aiming for. Just as outright revealing her intentions dispelled a layer of mystery, as though the Rule Keeper were peeking behind the curtain and seeing the Wizard at the controls of marvelous contraptions.

”You knew she could handle it? So you were going to burn down the flower shop even without us being there.” Roche’s lips thinned, finding a piece added to the macabre jigsaw yet still working to find where it fit. The curdling of her expression only deepened as she stole a look into the class, spotting Misoka as she learned of troubles she’d been unaware of.

”Sure you can- Wait, what?!” One could hear the record scratch as her brain ground to an abrupt halt. She fervently wished to have misheard but, alas, the group’s White Whale wanted to come into the club room all on her own.

”Look, I like Misoka, and whatever is going on I’m happy to help, but if I bring Ashbringer to the club room, Nyxia will shoot first and ask questions later. Let alone Suki and Tsubomi’s reactions.” The tanned girl ground the heel of her palm into her brow, trying in vain to quash the pressure swelling behind her eyes. ”You have to give us something here, or we’ll be repeating our last fight before you can finish introductions, and no one will be in a position to help Misoka after the school burns down.”

Though her estimations were shaken by the vulnerability from Regina, she still clung to her assumptions of her character. Wildly fanciful and the clear result of projection on her part, but the Rule Keeper held fast to the thought that Ashbringer was a principled young woman. The sort who imposed their own idea of right and wrong on the world via her own power.

Someone who would force herself onto the Club without offering something in return.

Unaware of the big changes that were happening and being revealed to the other club members around her, Kiyo indulged a little in the spotlight. "Saaafe!" cried a girl Kiyo was nominally acquainted with as she skidded to a halt in the doorway of the class. A few boys clapped. Kiyo was not the fastest girl on the track, but none (she decided on her own, with minimal encouragement) could look as fabulous as she did after one.

"Don't run in the halls!" snapped the teacher, scolding her with all the enthusiasm of someone who knew they were wasting breath. "Yes, yes," she replied, flipping her hair back over her shoulder as she turned to take her seat next to that cheerleading acquaintance of hers, a row in front of where Suki's seat was. "I couldn't believe it if it hadn't happened to me, but when I woke up this morning, my pain was just gone," she'd said to the circle of students seated around her. Some of them acted like they totally bought it, but their opinions weren't worth much when they essentially acted like her minions. Others were poor at hiding their belief that she simply had no reason to fake the injury anymore.

It was a class Kiyo happened to excel in, so she'd been on her phone the entire time. While such irreverence was to be expected from Kiyo, being on her phone was actually pretty unusual. She didn't seem to be texting anyone, so she must have been reading something. As soon as the class was over, though, the phone was put away like it usually was. "So? What's got you grinning like a lovestruck idiot?" she suddenly asked Suki as they walked down the hall together.