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 [b]that[/b] 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. 

[color=orange]”Shuuko, what’s eating you?”[/color] 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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”Why should I te-”[/color] Her mouth snapped shut, the biting remark cut in half as Ember’s words surfaced in her mind again.

[color=#D8CD9F]”Errr… ummm….”[/color] she stammered as she floundered for something Sylvia would do. [color=#D8CD9F]”I’m sorry?”[/color]

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.

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

[color=#D8CD9F]”Yeah, well, it’s-”[/color] Hotaru cut whatever she had to say in half again, not even realising she pulled away from Roche’s touch. [color=#D8CD9F]”It’s nothing.”[/color] Confidence and certainty filled her voice.

[color=orange]”If it was nothing you wouldn’t be out here trying to tear an ACL or acting like a Tsundere.”[/color] 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 

[color=orange]”This isn’t like you.”[/color]

[color=#D8CD9F]”I’m normally not piss- angry like this,”[/color] she responded, brushing off the comment as though it were a piece of lint on an otherwise immaculate dress. [color=#D8CD9F]”Lots of things happened. You can’t make sense of them if you’re pissed off, can you?”[/color] A lopsided smile appeared on her face as she turned towards Roche, but it fell away just as quickly as it appeared.

[color=#D8CD9F][i]”Shit. I’m not acting like Sylvia at all.”[/i][/color]

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.

[color=orange]”What did you do to Shuuko?!”[/color]

[color=#D8CD9F]”I [b]am[/b] Shuuko, you idiot!”[/color] Fury met fury. Hotaru grabbed Roche’s hands and squeezed, almost driving the nails into the other girl’s skin. [color=#D8CD9F]”And if you don’t let me go, I’ll fuck up your face!”[/color]

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

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. [color=orange]”Are you one of the GEMS? Or are you just another opportunist thinking you can fuck with us?”[/color]

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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”What the fuck! That’s insane!”[/color] She snarled back at her opponent. [color=#D8CD9F]”Get the hell off me or I’ll shred you into pieces!”[/color]

[color=orange]”Now you aren’t even trying anymore.”[/color] 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.

[color=orange]”Did you hurt her? Where is she? Tell me now before we see how well you run with broken bones.”[/color] 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. 

[color=#D8CD9F]”I’ve told you I’m Shuuko! Get it into your thick skull already!”[/color] The biting anger in Hotaru’s voice probably did not help matters, nor did the constant struggle against the Rulekeeper’s grip. [color=#D8CD9F]”Now let me go, or I…”[/color] A pause. A sudden flash of inspiration, and she thought she knew what to say. [color=#D8CD9F]”I’ll never cook for you again and you’ll eat that tasteless crap the rest of your life!”[/color]

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. 

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

[color=#D8CD9F]”We watched a movie after I cooked for you.”[/color] Hotaru ground her teeth as she suffered through the indignity of, out of all the things, being mistaken for a light girl. [color=#D8CD9F]”I made you teriyaki chicken, you ungra-”[/color] 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.

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

[color=#D8CD9F]”I could ask you the same thing. What gives?”[/color] 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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”And don’t you compare me to [b]them[/b] ever again.”[/color] She added after a moment’s pause, her steady voice displaying her unrelenting hatred.

[color=orange]”Who is them?”[/color] 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. [color=orange]”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.”[/color]

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. [color=orange]”Tell me what is going on, please.”[/color]

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 [I]that look.[/I] 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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”You…”[/color] the voice remained confident, if strained. [color=#D8CD9F]”are talking with Takae Shuuko Hotaru.”[/color] Hotaru slammed her hands into the dirt again. [color=#D8CD9F]”Before that, you…”[/color] she sucked air through teeth again, [color=#D8CD9F]”talked with Takae Shuuko Sylvia.”[/color]

A beat.

[color=#D8CD9F]”Damnit, I knew this wouldn't work!”[/color] 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. 

[color=orange]”You’re saying there are multiple Shuuko sharing a body?”[/color] The Rule Keeper ventured tentatively.

[color=#D8CD9F]”Yes, I am.”[/color] Hotaru's steel-clad voice cut deep. [color=#D8CD9F]” Sylvia, Ember and Hotaru. That last one’s me. It really doesn't take someone with keen eyes, does it?”[/color] She asked rhetorically, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

[color=orange]”It wasn’t something I’d have considered as possible, so no.”[/color] 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 

[color=orange]”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.”[/color] 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?

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

[color=#D8CD9F]”No. You’re stuck with me.”[/color] Frustration mixed into Hotaru’s voice, along with a hint of guilt. [color=#D8CD9F]”So make the best of it.”[/color] Now in a much better spot, physically speaking, the warrior forced herself upright and looked straight at Roche. [color=#D8CD9F]”What the hell happened to you anyways? You look like you've seen a dozen demons.”[/color]

[color=orange]”Okay then,”[/color] 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. [color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=orange]”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!”[/color]

Though just because the energy had left her didn’t mean  the madness brewing in her eyes lessened much. [color=orange]”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.”[/color]. 

[color=#D8CD9F]”Well, if you know a nice place in Hibusa, you’re about to be a couple thousand yen richer,”[/color] spoke Hotaru as she moved around to let some blood flow back into her body, [color=#D8CD9F]”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.”[/color] She then started brushing the dirt off herself, with very little luck.

[color=#D8CD9F]”Anyways, don’t mind my problems. They’re mostly just… idiot issues.”[/color] No, they really weren’t. [color=#D8CD9F]”And thinking that things are just a little too suspicious.”[/color] She continued, adopting an angry frown. [color=#D8CD9F]”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?”[/color]

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


[color=#D8CD9F]”Because I sure as hell think so.”[/color]

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. 

[color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=orange]”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.”[/color] 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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”You too?”[/color] Hotaru groaned, rolling her eyes. [color=#D8CD9F]”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.”[/color] Her voice dripped with bitter conviction. [color=#D8CD9F]”Open your eyes already!”[/color]

[color=orange]”What do you mean ‘Find us’? You can’t be under the impression no one knew about Hibusa.”[/color] 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? 

[color=orange]”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!”[/color]

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. [color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=#D8CD9F]”Oh for… The club room, Roche, they attacked the damned club room!”[/color] Hotaru smacked her own forehead. [color=#D8CD9F]”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?”[/color] She pointed a finger at Roche, voice growing heated. [color=#D8CD9F]”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-”[/color]

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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”Damn it, we’re both screwed in the head.”[/color] The warrior growled, her primal fury turning into embers. [color=#D8CD9F]”You need a break. I sure as hell need a break. Everyone needs a break!“[/color] 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.

[color=orange]”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.”[/color] 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. [color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=orange]”Wanna watch a movie?”[/color]

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.

[color=#D8CD9F]”No, I’m not going to sit down and rot away.”[/color] But she still felt exhausted and she could not swap bodies without Ember’s help. [color=#D8CD9F]”Let’s find some trouble instead.”[/color] She grinned. [color=#D8CD9F]”What’s your favourite sort?”[/color]

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. 

[color=orange]”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.”[/color]

[color=#D8CD9F]”That’s the spirit! We aren't going to transform, though. Wouldn't want to make it too easy.”[/color] 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. [color=orange]”I just hope you’re better at running away then you are at running around a track.”[/color]