Norika’s teeth ground together upon hearing the maids’ words. It was no secret that they despised her. Practically everyone did. As she forced herself to slowly get ready for the coming day, and, most pressingly, her impending tutoring session, the frail girl found herself considering if, perhaps, framing one of the maids for the break in might actually be the best course of action. She’d initially been reluctant to pin the blame on someone in such close proximity to both her home and herself for a variety of reasons, but with things becoming increasingly complicated, the possibility was looking more attractive by the minute. She would have to discuss the matter with Roche when they met later that day.

Speaking of Roche, thanks to the Rule Keeper’s guidance, Norika had begun to grow significantly more proficient in her studies, and her confidence in herself had grown along with it. Thus, she was now starting to enjoy her other tutoring sessions as well. It was always immensely satisfying to see the looks of shock on her disdainful instructors’ faces when she managed to accomplish far more than they believed a stupid failure like her could ever achieve. Of course, they never gave her more than the most minimal and begrudging of praise, but Norika didn’t care. The wonderful feeling of triumph was all that really mattered to her, and as she prepared for the day’s lesson, she eagerly awaited her chance to metaphorically shove all the instructor’s snide remarks about her lack of intelligence right down their throat.

A splitting headache woke Takae Shuuko.

It speared straight into her brain, then spread through her whole frontal lobe, almost as though it wished to obliterate her pathways of thought. And while normally, she would have switched to another body to fix the issue, it disappeared in a blink of an eye. Literally. She opened her eyes, took a look at her room, blinked, then the seemingly all-encompassing pain vanished.

It would not be the only odd thing she noticed about the morning.

Everything felt slightly off. Her arm was either longer or shorter than she was used to, or both. She missed the light switch, failed to find her hairbrush between the four others – since when did she have four hairbrushes – and the room felt too large while the bed felt too small. She even hit her head in the doorway. Little annoyances like these piled up one after another until she started towards the shower in an attempt to freshen up herself.

But “Takae Shuuko” stopped dead before the full-body mirror in the hallway.

”This is not possible.” And yet, the mirror looked back at her with blue eyes. Red hair. A figure that harkened back to her school days. She looked exactly as though she were seventeen years old, give or take. And while she had started to experiment with altering the appearance of the Khir, those changes were still in their infancy. They took a long time, not to mention she could not do it with such accuracy, no matter how hard she tried.

So she knocked on the mirror. The image did not change. She pulled her cheeks and the pain did not wake her up. It seemed as though she were in reality, with everything that entailed.

”This is not possible.” She repeated it as though it changed anything, then bolted back into her room, only to find that another “Takae Shuuko” laying in the bed, clutching a pillow between her arms. Her long, blonde hair framed her as though she were an angel, not that Fourth Shuuko had any desire to let her remain asleep. Instead, she jabbed a finger between the ribs, resulting in an undignified scream and Second Shuuko scrambling away.

”W-w-why?!” Second Shuuko asked with tears brimming in her eyes. She hugged the pillow even closer, almost as though she were wielding it as a shield.

”I’m really sorry for waking you up like that, Shuuko, but I needed you awake yesterday.” answered Fourth Shuuko.

”S-s-shuuko?!” asked Second Shuuko. Her green eyes widened as she too, noticed the changes. ”What happened?”

”I wish I knew the answer, however, all I know is that this is not my doing.“ Fourth Shuuko’s lips pressed into a thin line. ”We are, however, in the same situation. And unlike before, there is no possibility of us pretending to be each other.“ Fourth Shuuko only said that out loud because she too, needed the reassurance that this was not a nightmare. She could hardly believe it either, but Second Shuuko’s served as further proof they were in reality right now.

For the next several moments, they just stared at each other. Then Second Shuuko smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. Nor did it really reach her lips.

”Does it really matter?” asked Second Shuuko. Fourth Shuuko’s eyes widened.

”Did something happen while we were talking?” Second Shuuko shook her head in response. Fourth Shuuko could not help but notice how lifeless the gesture looked.

”No, nothing that really matters.” Fourth Shuuko knew that Second Shuuko lied, yet she could not quite pick up on how or about what. The entire sentence felt as though it had been stripped of its essence, robbed of anything it should have possessed.

”Can you please talk about it anyways? Maybe it is not important to you, but I would love to hear about it.” Second Shuuko shook her head once again.

”It doesn’t matter. We’ll be late for school if we don’t start now.” Second Shuuko let go of her pillow, then stood up. ”Come on now, Shuuko.” The smile only became more eerie. ”I’ll do your hair if you’ll do mine.” She went straight to the makeup cabinet – since when did Takae Shuuko have one in her room? – and expertly retrieved the hairbrush Fourth Shuuko could not find, along with another one that belonged to Second Shuuko.

”Please,” repeated Fourth Shuuko. ”Please tell me what happened so I can help you.”

”I don’t know if you can.” Second Shuuko’s smile dropped. ”Even if they’re repaired with gold, some things remain broken and useless.” She opened up one of the cabinet doors to reveal a mirror. For a moment, it looked as though a golden spiderweb criss-crossed its surface, the kintsugi washing away all imperfection.

”Please let me do your hair.” The eerie smile returned. ”If we can’t hide, we must look beautiful. We must hide all blemishes.” Fourth Shuuko felt her throat tighten. Those were phrases borrowed from the old bitch. Not word for word, because she would have never used it like that, but they carried her spirit all the same. Only that she used them whenever-

”However,” Fourth Shuuko refused to finish that thought, so she spoke up instead, ”please recall, that when molten gold is poured into an object’s imperfections, it is meant to highlight its beauty along with how precious it is to its owner.”

”That’s yet another one of the lies.” Second Shuuko arranged the two chairs. ”Now, be a good girl and sit still, or we’ll never get it done.”

---

Third Shuuko felt free for the first time in her life. From the moment she woke up, she knew her chains have been lifted, because even if it was in the same bed, Third Shuuko recognised in the mirror that she was Hotaru, and all the better for it. So she absolutely did not skip to school. No, she had walked to school like a digni-

She almost died of laughter before she could finish that thought. Dignified woman her foot! Neither Sylvia, nor Ember, nor the goddamned “grandparents” had any power over her anymore. She did not even feel the two others, so whatever twist of fate lead to this, it showed that she had not been at fault.

Right?

The thought took the wind out of Hotaru’s sails. Her head dropped, her gait slowing as she thought about it all, because even though the “heist” with Roche went well, the issue with Sylvia still sat ill with her. Why did the protector think Hotaru hated her? It made no sense. She only attacked the damned light girl because she wanted to protect both of them. Shouldn’t Sylvia be the first one to understand where she came from? Ah, she really was no good with these things. She needed to talk to Kiyo. Maybe the reliable “senpai” would help her out this time.

But would Kiyo even recognise her? That was the second question on Hotaru’s mind. She looked so different now. Perfect in her own eyes, of course, because it was the body she always inhabited in their shared mindscape, but also unrecognisable aside from her face. Even then, she looked more like a sibling of Takae Shuuko than Shuuko herself.

Shaking her head to dismiss those thoughts, Hotaru reassured herself that no matter how she looked or what she sounded like, Kiyo would never mistake her for someone else. Now, she only needed to track her down. Maybe Hotaru could accomplish it during the first recess?

---

Takae Shuuko knew that something was wrong. In her mind's eye, she watched two of her selves help each other get ready, the schemer desperately trying to get through the protector’s eerie facade. At the rate they were going, they would be arriving only during the second class of the day, a blemish on their otherwise perfect record. She could not find it in her heart to fault them for it, because the situation certainly did not make any sense.

Because, as the one to wake up first - even before Hotaru - she visited the faculty room and asked around. As it turned out, there were three Takae Shuukos on record in the school, each one in a different class, each one using the same kanji for their names. Which did not make any sense. They had all chosen the characters together. Even if there were three students whose names sounded the same, it would take an astronomical coincidence for the spellings to be the same. They had to have used at least one different kanji.

Unfortunately, before she could investigate thoroughly, students started arriving and she had to abandon snooping around. Even if it felt wrong, even if it drove a wedge into her heart, “Takae Shuuko” knew she could not be revealed right now. So she hid on the roof and hoped no one would be brave enough to look for someone who did not even exist.

So Kiyo was in a good mood too? Hmmm…

Suki listened in to her conversation, but mostly kept to herself as the girl’s friends listened along. She had been injured for some time, so it wasn’t that out of the ordinary for her pain to clear up, was it? Though with Kiyo being so, well, Kiyo most of the time, it was hard to figure out what bothered her from moment to moment. It was just nice that Suki wasn’t the only one in a good mood today.

Of course, Suki wasn’t the only one to notice her mood was better today.

"Am I?"

The smile ran from her face. Suki hadn’t considered herself an open book, but with barely a glance, Kiyo seemed to have the entire thing figured out. Though Suki wasn’t oblivious to the fact that she could have been the person who put the note there. Kiyo’s attendance at the school was spotty, and she wasn’t one to arrive anywhere early, but it wouldn’t have been hard for her to leave a club meeting with Rei and slip a note in Suki’s locker. They had the same classroom, so it wouldn’t have been hard. Regardless, it wasn’t a good idea to talk about it. Because if everyone knew, everyone would want her to read it. Kiyo’s cool exterior would crack, her friends would make fun of both of them, and then Kiyo wouldn’t like Suki anymore. And if Kiyo didn’t like Suki, that would mean that she’d have to work closer with Roche, and that just wasn’t very good at all.

"Ahh, well, I got some good news today." The smile returned. She could not pretend to be chill with something so big resting inside her text book. "Oh, I gotta use the bathroom real quick. I’ll be right back."

Without putting down her textbook, which had the letter inside, she hurried down the hall to find a restroom. She flung the door to one of the stalls open, only to shut it as soon as she was inside. Then she sat down, flung open her text book, and gave the letter a closer look. Had Kiyo done this? It felt a little understated. Even if she was trying to be mysterious, surely she would pick something a little flashier. Maybe a light pink envelope or something with a heart on it. Who could say?

As soon as she pulled out the letter, she noticed something was written on the outside page. With beautiful calligraphy like writing, someone had written "READ IMMEDIATELY." It was a weird message to hide inside an envelope, but Suki’s curiosity was no less piqued now. She opened the letter and scanned the words on the page. Everything was written in the same, beautiful calligraphy style as the outside message.



If the look on Suki’s face was dumb before, it was really dumb now.

She couldn’t help but laugh. Of course Suki had been tricked by ruses like this in the past, but they were never so carefully constructed. Maybe a text message or a hastily scribbled note, but nothing with this level of class.

Once she returned to her seat and plopped down, she sighed. Her smile was stretching all the way back to her ears.

"Did I miss anything?"

"No?" one of Kiyo’s friends laughed. "Did we?"

"You’ll know before the day is over." The other girls immediately started grinning at each other. "Hey Kiyo." Suki chose to drop the nickname this time. "Have you been practicing your calligraphy by any chance?"

---

Regina shook her head. "That’s not what I meant. That was a weird day, and the particulars aren’t worth getting into. Point is this has become something far larger than it had a right to, and I’d like to make it right."

Roche pointed out the very obvious problem with Ashbringer joining the club.

"Fair enough." She sighed. "But I don’t think I need to join the club as Ashbringer to make a difference around here. The problem is in the mundane world, so there has to be something I can do to help." She rubbed her chin. "I could be someone you used to know. Maybe pose as an old or current flame of yours if not some distant relative. Maybe both? I don’t know, if you don’t want me walking around as Ashbringer there are still tons of ways we can work together."

---

Haruna could feel Saundra smile on the other end.

"It ain’t no big thang! Am ah big grill, eye can take da blame if somethin’ goes wrong." She laughed. "Tings are in motion. If ya don’t wanna lie ta da GEMs, I’ll do it. Dis makes it easier fa both of us, yah? Just keep ‘em from blowing up anything elze and nuthin’ ‘ill come of it. Oh, an letz have pancakes again dis week some tiem."

After cheerfully bidding Haruna a wonderful day, she hung up.

But not before Haruna said something in return.

---

After Norika finished getting prepared, the moment finally arrived.

But something felt off as soon as they arrived. With an exception to Roche, none of her tutors were ever pleased to be teaching her. Their steps were firm and heavy, like they were pissed off before even meeting her. In contrast, this one’s steps were much lighter. The hallway floors barely creaked as they approached, and they knocked on the door to announce their arrival.

"Are you ready for your lessons?"

Boy, that voice sounded familiar. It was a bit muffled though. It didn’t matter, asking for permission before entering her chambers was little more than a formality. She was going to be taking these lessons regardless if she wanted to or not.

The sight that greeted her was a little different than what she expected. While Norika was a sickly child, it was rare for her tutors to be in a complete hazmat-like suit to interact with her. The outfit was bulky and, quite frankly, ridiculous. It was almost impossible to see the eyes of the person inside due to the tinted lenses on the mask, which gave the hazmat suit an almost insect-like appearance. There were a few butterfly insignia here and there, and some English words written on the suit, but none of it meant much to Norika. It looked to be something custom, and clearly wasn’t something the tutor had been given by her parents.

"Today we’re going to learn about Linear transformations and matrices, and get introduced to our friends I-hat and J-hat!" The tutor unstrapped a backpack and placed it on the floor. Then they reached inside and pulled out two sticks. Each stick had a cardboard cutout of a hat on it, each having an I and J on it respectively.

---

Tsubomi gave a glare to the girl who bothered to check on her, but the expression was short-lived. Almost instantly it was replaced with surprise and concern, neither of which fit well on the face that was known for its stationary state.

But there at the other end of the hallway, moving at the pace of a sedated worm, was Zassou. Seriously? Tsubomi's first though was that she shouldn't have turned back to her mundane form on the way to the school. She supposed she just wanted to bask in the feeling of being free.

But none of that really mattered right now. If Tsubomi was going to uproot her life back into her own hands, she needed for nobody to know that there were two of her. Or at least for the general populace to be ignorant of it. If only Zassou were transformed, everything would be fine.

Just as the signal finished shooting through her brain, her wish came true. Zssou was suddenly invisible to the rest of the school's students, though none were looking her way, as she had become Acid Drop.

Tsubomi blinked. There was no way things were that coincidental, right? She shook the thought out of her head and decided to figure it out later. For now, she'd deal with the unrecognized girl who seemed worried about her well-being.

---

Zassou found herself doused in paint, a multitude of colors that couldn't fit in a single pail, or at least that's what she first assumed when her hair fell in front of her eyes. Then it hit her.

Why had she transformed? And... what had changed? Something certainly had, because she could think! As if whatever had been going on recently in her magical form had never happened at all! She'd have to take advantage of the situation.

Now suddenly aware of her surroundings, she noticed the other students staring down the hall at... herself. Tsubomi had come to school? Why? And why in her mundane form?

Well, it didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting to the Club room in case she was turned back without meaning to. Plus, she decided that taking advantage of the sudden change was better than simply killing time until it went back to its new normal. And so Zassou traveled down the hallways, not as slow as usual but slow enough to not run into anyone, and made her way there.

---

"Uh... yeah, I'm fine. Doing better than usual, no thanks to getting run over."

"Better than usual, hmm?" Michi blinked. No more words came out of either girl’s mouth for a time. "Hmmm, it’s unfortunate that Haruna isn’t here. She’s quite easy to talk to." More silence. The other girls, just the girls, continued to stare at the two of them. "I was going to try and meet up with her, but I thought it would be good to talk to other members of the club too. You’ve helped me quite a bit and we haven’t spoken very much. Thanks again." She waved for Tsubomi to walk with her. Many of the girls had departed to go to their classes, but a small group followed behind them. "Oh, I never asked how you got run over. How did that happen? There aren't many cars on the road, or was it a horse?"

No matter how prepared Norika thought she was, nothing could have prepared her for the voice which called out from the other side of her bedroom door.

“N-No…” she whispered in stunned terror as she clutched her hands over her furiously racing heart.

No no no no no no NO!!! Norika cried into the horrified depths of her mind. I-It… I-It can’t be…!

But she knew it was. Even if it sounded a bit muffled, there could be no mistaking that slightly chipper, boyish voice.

W-What the hell is he doing here?! her mind screamed, even as her meek voice stammered an utterly untrue, “Y-Yes…” in response to his query. Of course she wasn’t ready for another session of passive aggressive verbal sparring with this annoying brat, but it wasn’t as if she had any choice.

Yet, if the boy’s voice was shocking, his appearance when the door finally swung open was even more so.

W-What the fuck is he wearing?! Norika wondered, even as she gasped at the bizarre sight, her frail, shuddering form cringing in fear where it sat on the bed.

The whole situation was so surreal, so much like some feverish dream or nightmare, that Norika was too busy trying to wrap her dizzy head around what was happening to fully register, let alone comprehend, what her “tutor” was saying. The hats on sticks he was waving in front of her only added to the absurdity.

Finally, Norika was able to compose her whirling thoughts enough to speak. “F-Finn…?” she asked hesitantly. “W-What are you doing here? A-And what is that you’re wearing?”

---

---

"Y-you don't have to lie, really," Haruna insisted. "You can tell them to assume I accepted until I or you tell them otherwise, alright? And I'll text you when I'm good for pancakes." After exchanging her own farewell with Saundra, and listening to the line go dead, Haruna sighed and slipped her phone back into her pockets. Suddenly, it seemed like her night of sleep wasn't that great, after all.

Or, you know, that one night of functional sleep wasn't actually enough to make up for the chronic sleep deprivation the light girl was stubbornly pretending didn't exist. She felt a small pang of. . . guilt? at the thought. Maybe I should listen to them more. Her new friends had told her to take it easy a few times by now. It was hard, though. Maeda Haruna had time for sleep, homework, track, and clubs, and Hizuki the Daybreak had time to watch over Hibusa and the Detention Club, but both of them were the same entity, trying to cram their activities into the same schedule. Something had to give.

Lost in thought as she was, she nearly collided with another student on her way into class. Haruna got most of the way into an apologetic bow before it clicked who she'd bumped into. Mainly because she hadn't been moving as if immersed in molasses. ". . . Tsubomi?"

Contrary to Suki's paranoia, Kiyo hadn't really pieced anything together—until now—and only that she was hiding something, but so was most of the club. I wonder if I hit the nail on the head, or struck a nerve. It was also technically possible that she really did suddenly need to urgently use the restroom, she supposed. Whatever she ate when no one else was looking couldn't be much better than what she was willing to eat while Kiyo was watching. "Kay." She shrugged and went on without her, rather than following or standing guard outside. Really—whatever it was, it was none of her business.

The novelty of an unusually good day was starting to wear off, giving way to Kiyo's usual boredom. Her first thought upon Suki's return was that she could at least rule out that she had been crying, thankfully. She was back on her phone again, and her scrolling abruptly stopped at Suki's question. She went silent for a moment, as if contemplating the possibility that she might be speaking in code. "It's an underappreciated skill, but no. I'm too busy with—club work." The pause before her excuse was almost imperceptible.

---

Tall and mysterious lost some of its luster when Regina herself was trying to skip past the pleasantries, dropping even the thinnest semblance of her holding any sort of grudge against them in the face of Misoka’s crisis. Had Roche not known the blonde she would have scoffed at such weakness, but Dark Magical Girls were selfish, not heartless. A bitch Roche was, but she’d be damned before she let someone she liked get shafted.

Especially when the Club was as equally responsible as Regina herself was.

She might have pointed it out verbally to test the college girl, but she was suddenly captivated by doing her best impression of a fish drowning on dry land. Roche’s fist beat against her chest as she doubled over, choking on air at the cavalier Magical Girl that had been terrorizing her waking and sleeping mind for months on end.

It was a credit to her steadfast- Read, stubborn as a mule- nature that she didn’t blush like a sunburnt gaijin. More a light dusting of color against sun-kissed skin before she dispelled it with a snort. ”As flattering it is to think they’d by me dating a senior, Suki would be smelling the lie and digging like a truffle pig in France.”

”Till recently none of them paid attention to my club. We’ll just say your a Sempai who graduated and came back because of issues with Misoka. I’ll tell them I confided in you about the Magical Stuff back when I was….not in the club.” Roche hissed the final part, turning away as the last of her blush faded with displeasure. All directed inward as she knew she was digging her hole deeper, but could they afford blowing up the situation if Misoka was in danger? Nyxia was the only one who might care enough to help if Roche asked, and Haruna was a given, but without Regina’s knowledge they’d be flying blind.

”I’ll get you into the club. We can make our case and hope the others are feeling reasonable, but I need some answers, Regina.”

---

As Tsubomi tried to think of a way to take attention off herself, the other girl seemed to respect her time enough to stay silent as well. At least for a little bit. Then the girl mentioned having helped with something, but Tsubomi couldn't place the girl or what she, or most likely Zassou, had done for her. A Magical Girl, then? Maybe not. She could have just been not paying attention when it happened.

As she followed along, she couldn't help but notice the weird way some of the other girls followed them. Don't suppose she's from Hamelin... Are these her friends? The thought was quickly dropped when Michi asked for clarification. Geez, another one?

"Not in such a literal sense. I got bowled over by someone running through the hall. Didn't even get the chance to see who-"

Tsubomi's words were cut short by an impact with yet another black-haired female student. This one actually acknowledged her, at least.

"Got it in one, good job. Glad to know the bags under your eyes aren't messing up your vision."

A rather sardonic first thing to say to someone, but at least it didn't have to be filtered through Zassou to be said. To Tsubomi, that made it more real, more soulful, even if it was mocking. Though that realization dragged another thought in by its hair: This girl isn't her. She's trying to help, and on meeting her that's the first thing I say? What's wrong with me?

Tsubomi gave an obviously fake cough in a futile attempt to recover her senses and distract from what she'd said.

"A-anyway, there's no need to apologize. I wasn't paying enough attention." She didn't think it wise to say what had been distracting her, when the subject of the statement was right next to her.

Besides, she already knew she was being meaner than she should from her time in her own head, so the suspicion she was feeling had to be from that too, right?

"Is that so?"

Suki looked at her textbook, or more specifically, where the letter hiding in its pages should be. She’d know who it was in time, but she couldn’t help but try to work out who it could be. It was a hand written note, so Tsubomi was out. Girls usually had really nice handwriting, but that wasn’t the case with her. It didn’t appear to be Kiyo either. The cryptic girl was awfully forward today, which might have been a sign she was hiding something. But nah, Kiyo was usually up to something. That, and Kiyo had made it evident she had enough of Oros a long time ago. It would be too out of the norm for her.

It was a little annoying to talk with the peanut gallery present. If only Kiyo was alone, or they were walking somewhere, then maybe she could talk to her more.

The door to the class room flew open. A heavy set, middle-aged balding man skidded into the room. Despite falling off the ugly tree and hitting every branch on the way down, Suki found Mr Wantanabe to be one of her favorite teachers. They didn’t always get him, but he was one of the few people who made learning math fun. Quite the opposite of Miss Hara, who was easy on the eyes and little else. Suki had nicknamed her sniper because she was acutely aware of what was happening in the classroom at all times. You couldn’t sneak a peak at your phone without Miss Hara catching you. Then you were pulled to the front of the class and humiliated in front of everyone. Mr Wantanabe didn’t need to do that because his classes were interesting enough that you didn’t want to look at your phone.

"Hey kiddos! Who’s ready for some-" He placed his hand on the desk and felt around. "Ah, well, woops!" She shrugged his shoulders. "I forgot the projector. It’ll take me a moment so… Miss Oyama and Miss Kuroki! Just who I was looking for!" He slapped his belly with both hands. "Would you mind helping me set up? I left the projector in class H-2, so if you could just-"

"We’re on it!" Suki saluted her teacher (who reciprocated) before urging Kiyo to get up. "Come on, Aneki! Time’s a wastin!"

Me Wantanabe rubbed the back of his head. "It’s no rush, really!"

Suki tipped her head side to side as she practically danced out the door. Her pigtails swung side to side, an miraculously didn’t get caught in the doorframe as she passed by. What incredible luck! It was as if the world was bending to give her exactly what she wanted.

"Ah, it really is a good day, isn’t it?" Suki’s dumb smile only got stupider as they walked down the halls. There were a few students moving to and fro, but no one that looked like an eavesdropper. "I think I’ve got a secret admirer. I didn’t want to say anything in front of those other girls because I haven’t confirmed it yet." She placed a finger on her chin. "I wonder if it’s Roche or Nyxia. I told Shuuko that I’d be willing to hang with them a few weeks ago, but nothing came of it. I figured they decided against it." Suki pursed her lips. "Not that I’m surprised by that." With a sigh, her smile returned. "But I’m kinda glad, honestly. Roche is too needy. I'm just waiting for her to invite Haruna into her harem, but I know she has too much class for that."

While they walked. Suki noticed a girl that gave her a familiar vibe. It didn’t look like Shuuko, but… Well, it wasn’t, at any rate.

"So uh, how’s the club stuff?"

---

"A truffle pig in France?" Regina shrugged her shoulders. "If the goal is to prevent anyone from digging, then maybe leaving the magical aspect out of it would be best? I’m one of Misoka’s friends, I’m concerned for her, I’m from out of town. That’s all true and who and what I am magically won’t be an issue if we stick to the facts. It also removes the need to get me into the club, since I’m sure I can work with you without being involved with it directly. But if you want answers, I’m not adverse to providing them."

The red head turned her attention to the classroom. Someone was approaching. Regina hugged Roche’s head against her chest and turned away from the door. As she did so, Misoka stepped outside. As she did so, she was humming a tune with a smile on her face. Not that Roche could actually see her smiling from her position. Her eyes flicked over to the the two girls, and just as quickly darted back ahead. There was a brief pause in her humming, but then she resumed, doing so even louder than before.

"I don’t think she noticed us." Regina released Roche. "Oh, your face is all red. Did I hug you too hard?" She brushed one of her bangs with her finger. "Either way, I can give you answers. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know if you want to help Misoka."

---

Michi didn’t even get a chance to say "I see" before Haruna appeared. Once Tsubomi got her shitbag response out of the way and then attempted to back pedal out of it, the goth girl addressed the newly arrived. "Good morning, Haruna. Tsubomi got run over by a mysterious assailant. And by run over, I mean someone ran into her and didn’t stop. She’s a little flustered is all." She folded her arms behind her back before looking at the two girls. "Otherwise, how have your mornings been? I’m quite pleased everyone is enjoying their toys. I’m almost fresh out of servants." She nodded to herself.

---

It was hard to tell exactly what Finn was doing under so many layers of protective gear, but Norika’s questions caused him to freeze up. After a few seconds of stillness, he spoke.

"I’m teaching!" His excitement came through his outfit easily enough. Though he must have understood that wasn’t going to cut it, because he continued to explain. "Your father is a shrewd man. He was talking to Makoto and I about how much further you’ve come after presenting you with a young tutor. A student from Hibusa high, if memory serves." He held up J-Hat, as if it were himself. "But she’s not available at all hours, so, um, I might have suggested that I could try my hand at tutoring you." He chuckled nervously. "I’m not going to ask you anything about the case, so don’t worry about that. Right now we’re just going to help you learn, okay?" He pointed at himself with both thumbs. "As for the suit? Your mother vaguely mentioned you were sensitive to certain types of allergens, but didn’t mention what any of those were. So I decided not to take any chances!" He figured that answered her questions, and moved on. "So a Linear transformation as it refers to matrices simply means that, after the transformation, all vectors on a plane that were in a straight line, are still in a straight line. Think of a lattice with a nail at the center of each intersection. The nails are the vectors, and the wood that makes up the lattice are the lines. You can’t bend the wood, but you can pivot it across all the nails. You can turn all those little square holes into diamond ones, or even rotate the lattice completely!"

Kiyo noticed Suki's glance at her textbook, but said nothing. She put her phone away as soon as the door opened, fully expecting the Sniper to appear and look her way before doing anything else. She was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Mr. Watanabe, at least until she was called on for some mundane chore. "Hahh?" She shot a confused look at him, then Suki, and finally relented. "I get it, I get it. Twist my arm." She stood up, and it struck her again just how easy it was.

"Yeah, I guess it is," she mused. How long had it been since she'd had a genuinely good day? Not a normal or mediocre one, but actually good. That in itself was notable, but Suki receiving a love letter had her raising a brow. "Roche, needy? Surely you jest." She giggled in spite of it all. If it was a prank, or some no-good loser, they would get their comeuppance. Then again, why did Suki seem so sure it was someone from the Club?

"So wait, what'd they write?" Kiyo asked at exactly the same time that Suki asked her question. That also hadn't happened in a while—maybe because she hadn't been so eager to talk about anything these days. "Well, good, I guess. I found some useful stuff this morning, so I might be able to finish it soon." When Kiyo worked on something, she rarely shared anything about it until it was finished. "Well, we made peace with Miss Black, so really it's just for fun at this point."

Norika simply stared blankly through the entire first half of Finn’s explanation, before giving voice to a soft “O-Okay,” in confirmation that all they’d be doing was learning things together. Of course, she didn’t believe that for a minute, despite the boy detective’s fairly rational reason for his presence and assurance that he had no ulterior motives. The timing, the bizarre outfit he was wearing, the talk of “transformations”, it was all far too convenient, far too pertinent, to be as innocuous as he wanted her to believe it was. This, unsurprisingly, meant that she would once again have to be on high alert throughout his visit. After all, even the slightest slip up could be disastrous, and it wasn’t as if she could just tell him to leave, as much as she might have wanted to.

“I-I, uh, I-I guess I understand…” Norika replied hesitantly once Finn had finished explaining his lattice example. “O-Oh, and, umm… W-While it’s true I have a weak constitution, y-you don’t need to wear that suit for my sake,” she told the detective-turned-tutor, averting her gaze as she did so. “B-Besides… I-I’m pretty sure suits like that are for protecting the person wearing them, not the other way around…”

It did not take long for Hotaru to find two of her club-mates. Apparently they were running an errand of some sort, so she brightened up when they approached, only for both Suki and Kiyo pass her by.

In that moment, she felt as though she had turned into an ancient statue of salt. Her legs rooted in place as though ancient vines had encircled them. Her head felt as though it had been assailed by countless picks attempting to liberate the riches from inside the protective shell. The only thing she could think was why they had not noticed her. Sure, she looked different, but Kiyo-! She was supposed to know! She was the all-seeing eye!

With an audible stomp, she turned around and grabbed both of them by the collar of their school uniforms.

”Good morning to you two!” The forced cheer in her voice could not be mistaken. ”I guess it’s difficult to recognise someone after they had a makeover, huh?” She let go of their collars and pranced in front of them with a smile, channeling the energy Kiyo knew her for so she could see the girl behind the presumably unknown face. At least she still resembled Takae Shuuko - but she seemed more like a sibling than the ‘high priestess’ Kiyo knew.

”No hard feelings, though. I…” She blinked. Huh. Maybe it would be interesting to also hear what Suki had to say on matters of the heart. Surely, she had plenty of experience, right? ”Actually, I guess I could use some advice from both of you.” She crossed her ams and flashed a grin at her two club-mates.

---

Ember had tried everything in her power to get through to Sylvia. She pleaded, she remained honest, she even told the protector she was worried, but the facade, along with hints of the old bitch remained. Something severe had to have happened to her. She needed to find out what- she needed to call on the club as a whole to ask them about it. She only had to figure out how. Maybe she could fake a magic injury? That would be painful, but it could work.

And then came the umpteenth surprise of the day. Namely, that when they entered the school and Ember approached a teacher for guidance, they were told to report to different classes.

Sylvia went along with it. Ember tried to get her to stay and investigate what was going on, but the protector shook her head with that creepy smile of hers and said she did not want to be late for the second class of the day. Which made sense, but it made it so much harder to live up to her promise. But instead of playing model student, Ember decided she would play hooky for once to watch over the protector. Because something was not right. And she would be damned if she let Sylvia be hurt again.

Yet not even she could have been prepared for the sight in front of them. Namely, Ryoba Hananami being lifted into marshmallow heaven by what could only be described as a scarlet-haired bombshell.
Sylvia walked by, seemingly without any comment. Ember, however, could barely get her jaws off the floor, because the situation was unmistakable as far as she was concerned.

---

Rooftop Takae Shuuko winced as she closed her eyes and took a peek at the various situations unfolding around the others. Would she have to interfere…?

---

---

Haruna recoiled as if bitten from Tsubomi's response, utterly unprepared for any level of snark from the girl. "U-uh, sorry," she said lamely, not even really parsing the second part of what she said. Who she was talking to set in just after that, and she blinked in no small amount of confusion. "Oh. You're, uh," Haruna paused midsentence as she narrowly avoided calling Tsubomi "the other one" or something else similarly dismissive of her position by mistake. "The original. Right?" She glanced at Michi, belatedly realizing the other girl probably had no idea what was going on. The light girl gave Tsubomi a questioning look, silently asking if they wanted to explain, before responding to the question.

"My morning's been pretty good until just now, actually. I, uh, got a call from a mutual acquaintance," she began, not wanting to necessarily get into full details right now. "It's relevant to club business. I don't think anyone's going to like it, least of all Suki."

---

Regina had a point that it would be simpler not to even involve her directly with the club. Too easy was it to be caught out as feigning ignorance of magic if one of them transformed and acted wildly like Satan and her friend had. Better to just have a concerned friend ask on Misoka’s behalf and push for it herself.

”Fine, we’ll play it-”

Soft. Warm. Hot. Hot!

Those were just a few of the deranged musings that sprang forth with the cohesion of the eight-ball’s answers rattling in her pocket as she was swung by her buried face amidst a land of sapphic wonder. Certainly she’d entertained some thoughts of such, and a part of her had hoped- Earnestly. Desperately. Painfully.- That coming out would have led to such amidst the arms of someone trusted and close.

Purple and teal skin. Thinking of Nyxia in that context felt as shameful as the heat that bloomed from an ostensible enemy. Someone who was terrorizing the club for months and whose threats served as the blade to all their necks.

Roche’s skin crawled even as she tried to swallow the rush that came from another’s touch, and she turned away from Regina’s amused look. I’m pathetic. Acting like some puppy just because someone wanted to touch me.

”You just took me by surprise, Regina.” The Rulekeeper poorly deflected, still adamantly keeping her gaze askew, feigning an interest in the wall beside Regina. ”I’ll help with Misoka, so tell me why you are bothering with this sham of a one year revenge deadline? You planned that encounter. There’s no way it was random, so it accomplished something for you, something related to Misoka.”

A thought occurred to her, one drawn forth from the admittedly exceptionally terrible history of the club’s members. ”Was all this about Misoka’s family? Are they hurting her and you burned down the flower shop to distract them?”

”And how are you monitoring all our texts and electronic communications? Does Sink Queen have some power over technology or do you have some hacker hikikomori somewhere?” Roche’s paranoia was finally finding an outfit, proving a welcome distraction from how much she enjoyed that hug.

---

As Tsubomi saw Haruna's reaction, she winced a little. That was exactly the response she was looking for, but the target was entirely misaligned. Shooting at her quarry, when it wasn't even in range, and winging an innocent bystander was unacceptable. Then came the tired girl's revelation.

"Yeah. A very good morning until..." Tsubomi waved her arm in Michi's direction, "as she said, I got run into by someone."

She almost continued, but having other presumably non-magical girls around made her hesitate. If nothing else, weird rumors would be problematic, so she'd have to hold off on any mention of her pseudo-hominid copy.

"Well, if that's the case, I guess I'll have to show up to make sure she doesn't cause problems at the news." Considering the little of Haruna she'd seen, Tsubomi figured she could figure out what she meant by that. And if she didn't yet, she would when she saw the two of herself at some point.

---

Zassou had arrived at the clubroom, but nobody from the club was there. Not surprising, when classes were still ongoing, but that didn't matter very much. She needed to look for the Mascot...

"What did they write?" Suki started to blush, then chuckled. "Ah, they wrote quite a bit. It seemed really nice. Part of me thinks it’s a prank of some kind." The part of her she was using all of her power to ignore, that is. "But I don’t know. No one in school really pranks the Detention club." Yet that was easier to believe then someone leaving her a letter. And yet…

Kiyo being tight-lipped was expected, but fine. There was an unspoken rule that when you refused to share information, you couldn’t expect to get more information. As excited as Suki was, she understood the importance of keeping things somewhat under wraps in the short term. While Kiyo didn’t strike her as a prankster or a saboteur, the halls had many ears.

"Well I hope it all-hurk!"

After shuuko put Suki’s choker to the test, the girl whipped around and nearly beat her over the head with her text book. Then, when they seemed to be slightly familiar, she tossed the text book onto the floor. "I tripped!" She grabbed the sides of her head. "Strangely!"

But it seemed like all Shuuko wanted to do was ask them a question. "Sure, I can answer a question, just let me get the projector we came for." Suki peered into the nearby classroom. Sure enough, the projector was on top of the teacher’s desk, and all the students inside had already started their math assignments. "This shouldn’t take too long." It didn’t look that heavy. It didn’t even seem like the thing that you needed two people for, but it ultimately worked to Suki’s advantage. She walked up to the projector, picked it up, and instantly made a face. "Hngh! A little heavier than- actually it’s fine!!" She walked back into the hall, seeming to forget her textbook as she rounded the corner and looked at Shuuko. "So what’s this question you wanted to ask?" She inquired while she walked.

---

"Ah, I apologize." She patted Roche’s shoulder. "But to get to your questions, yes, I did plan the encounter. Or rather-"

She looked around herself. One of the nearby classrooms did not appear to be in use. She put her arms under Roche’s armpits and lifted her up before stepping inside. Then she scuffed her way towards the back of the class where there was a janitorial closet. Once the two of them were inside, she slid the door shut with her foot. Thanks to a skylight, the room wasn’t entirely dark. But it wasn’t very spacious. The closet was only a little bigger than an elevator, but the walls were lined with bins and brooms and cleaning supplies. Few of them appeared as more than colored silhouettes outside of the skylight’s spotlight-like light.

"You mentioned secrecy being important. I hope that didn’t startle you." She set Roche down before folding her hands together. "Now for your questions. You are correct. I wanted to save Misoka from the Detention club. She is one of the few good things in this world, and its clear that the dread your trope spreads is bothering her. Or at least, that was what I thought. I knew that if I burned down the flower shop that you wouldn’t suspect a strong connection between us. Misoka is beloved by many and her father works a steady job in the city of light. Misoka’s father should have a lot of money put away, and who wouldn’t come together to help the town’s most beloved child? But I miscalculated. The real goal was just to cause some property damage and leave. I wanted to hurt the detention club, and at least in that I had succeeded." She sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "Tracking you guys isn’t too difficult. I know I said I was building up a team, but the truth is that I already have one. I have several dark magical girls that work with me and intercepting your connections is child’s play. They know their way around phones, computers, and software." Her eyes wandered around Roche. "You know, you’re not as heavy as I thought you’d be. And you smell kind of nice."

---

"I see" Michi said again. Kiyo had made it apparent the club was a shelter from her servants, and due to not liking the school it was nothing she was ever going to be a part of. "Well, I doubt anything could be that crushing. If so, I'm sure something can be arranged to resolve it… Whatever it is." She rubbed the back of her head. "It sounds like you have your hands full. I saw Kiyo and Suki walk down the hall just a moment ago, so if you wanted to catch them before the next class begins, you can probably do that. And um…" She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I’ll catch up with you again later."

---

Finn looked down at his outfit, then back up at Norika. "Ah, yes." She noted that his outfit offered the wearer far more protection than everyone around them. "You aren’t wrong. I think a mask, gloves, and a gown are what they recommend to keep those around you healthy. I don’t think this is necessarily worse than that, is it?" he tipped his head. "But if it’s not necessary, I shall remove it! Much longer and I’ll start sweating…"

And so, Finn began to undress. There all manner of noises as he shuffled around inside his suit. The squeak of stretching rubber, the hiss of something depressurizing, The click and clack of twenty hasps, and the layers continued to come off. Until at last the boy had removed the last article of his suit. He dried his forehead on his sleeve with a sigh.

"Terribly sorry about that! But I think we’re ready to continue, no?" He picked back up the two paint sticks with I-hat and J-hat glued to them. "Moving on! The main thing you’ll be doing with linear transformations as they relate to matrices is trying to understand what the transformation is. Transformation in this case is just a function. And to start doing that, we use I-Hat and J-Hat!" He held them at a perfect right angle. "They’re really just the coordinates (0,1) and (1,0) respectively. As simple as it is to say, you can figure out where any vector in a matrix will end up after a transformation just by studying those two. But it’s, uh, a little easier to understand with some visual aids." He pulled some papers out of his suitcase and placed them at her desk. "But I also have a video I can show you too, if you’d rather. There’s so much cool stuff on the internet nowadays!"

---

Zassou didn’t have to look very hard. As soon as she entered the empty classroom, it only took the TV headed cat a second to find the girl and start rubbing against her legs.

Norika watched with increasing discomfiture as Finn slowly removed the various pieces and parts of his protective suit. A small part of her wondered if he was just an eccentric goofball, nothing more than the dorky kid he appeared to be. But no, she fiercely reminded herself, that was precisely what he wanted her to think, so as to let her guard down and thus be easy prey for whatever devious plan he was trying to enact. He had arrived dressed in this bizarre outfit for a reason, a reason other than simply accommodating her poor health, and as her tutor finished extricating himself, her mind worked frantically to discern what that reason might be. Unfortunately, by the time the suit was fully removed, she was still no closer to an answer, and it was highly unlikely that her tutor was going to suggest pausing for a break this early into their session to give her more time to come up with one.

Indeed, after apologizing for taking so long, Finn went right back to his little “presentation”, employing his odd visual aids to make things clearer. Norika was honestly thankful for this, as she’d found that she always learned complex ideas better when they were presented via visual examples. Both Kaito and Roche had done this, although their kind encouragement also played a large part with how effective their tutelage was. To Finn’s credit, he was also certainly being polite enough, even if Norika strongly suspected it was merely a well-practiced act.

“Um, y-yes,” she concurred. “I-I also find visual aids to be very useful. A-And I wouldn’t mind seeing a video, i-if you think it might help,” the sickly girl added, trying to sound as timid and unassuming as she could.

---

---

"I don't think she'll make a fuss. Like I said, it's mostly Suki I'm worried about, and maybe Roche. It involves the GEMs, is all." She figured that much was safe to mention; hearing it out of context, one would probably assume it was something in a video game or the like. "I doubt it'd be a problem if you came to club, though, Michi. You are a member, right? Or at least, you were thinking about joining."

At the suggestion of meeting up with Suki and Kiyo now, she shook her head. "I can't really afford to be late to class again, so I was going to head that way as soon as I could. Thanks for letting me know, though."