[center][color=#FF0000]"[/color][color=#FF3100]F[/color][color=#FF6200]e[/color][color=#FF9400]e[/color][color=#FFC500]l[/color][color=#FFF600]s[/color] [color=#A4FF00]l[/color][color=#73FF00]i[/color][color=#41FF00]k[/color][color=#10FF00]e[/color] [color=#00FF52]i[/color][color=#00FF83]t[/color][color=#00FFB4]'[/color][color=#00FFE6]s[/color] [color=#00B4FF]b[/color][color=#0083FF]e[/color][color=#0052FF]e[/color][color=#0020FF]n[/color] [color=#4100FF]a[/color] [color=#A400FF]w[/color][color=#D500FF]h[/color][color=#FF00F6]i[/color][color=#FF00C5]l[/color][color=#FF0094]e[/color][color=#FF0062].[/color][color=#FF0031]"[/color]

[url=https://youtu.be/JJ9ofo5SNZk][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/01978fe7-68e9-70ef-8a52-5003317a4991.webp[/img][/url]

[color=#FF0000]I[/color][color=#FFDA00]t[/color] [color=#00FF91]h[/color][color=#0091FF]a[/color][color=#4800FF]s[/color][color=#FF00DA].[/color][/center][hr]

Tsubomi watched the lantern of her life spin away from her. Or she would have, if her sight wasn't flashing a rainbow of colors across her cornea as a myriad of poisons flowed through her veins. There was no replay of life, no almost-fifteen years of experiences being shown like a movie as it slipped away. There was only the taste of blood alongside a detached sense of reality that dulled the pain of her chipped skull.

The Miseria crouching on her back raised its hand to tear out the back of her throat, but it never came down to do so. Instead, there was a loud *crack* from a nearby rooftop, and the monster vanished into smoke.

The gun's wielder came floating down to the drug-addled teen, unaware of what had happened before her arrival. But she could feel the hint of magic from the girl prone on the concrete. 

She glanced around the area only to see the bodies of others who tried to run from reality.

[color=662d91]"Are you okay? That Miseria nearly got you. Looks like it already got some others... If only I got here sooner..."[/color]

There was a true sorrow in her voice, but Tsubomi couldn't feel it. All she could feel was a growing emptiness inside herself, as if it were consuming everything it touched but never gaining any nourishment to fill it.

She didn't hear anything, after that. She didn't feel anything from that point either, the drugs seeming to have somehow left her body. All she could do was allow herself to be pulled up by the Magical Girl, unaware of anything that happened. 

When she found herself in a hospital, she didn't answer the doctors' questions. Even if she had wanted to, she couldn't. They found the cocktail in her bloodstream, of course, but even with the psychiatrists' help, they couldn't get her to explain why or how it was there.

The first day passed without her opening her mouth even once. She didn't remember how to speak. 

When she was taken off of IVs, she didn't remember how to eat.

When she finally returned home, she didn't have the wherewithal to do anything she had done before that night.

Like a zombie, her dazed and hazy mind growing more and more blank by the day, she shambled through the motions of her previous life. Too slow to move and too slow to think, everything she had ever worked for, ever poured herself into doing... it all faded alongside her very self.

And so she did not realize that she was on the train to Hibusa. She didn't not realize that she could no longer move the body that she had stopped feeling long ago. She did not know that it would be the last time she would fail to realize anything at all.

Tsubomi's body, moving on autopilot, had barely managed to plug in her precious MP3 under the desk in her new home. It stood up, and turned towards the bed that it would spend the next year in. It tripped, and Tsubomi finally faded into nothingness.

[hr][center][color=#FF0000]"[/color][color=#FF3D00]I[/color][color=#FF7A00]'[/color][color=#FFB700]l[/color][color=#FFF400]l[/color] [color=#8EFF00]m[/color][color=#51FF00]a[/color][color=#14FF00]k[/color][color=#00FF28]e[/color] [color=#00FFA3]t[/color][color=#00FFE0]h[/color][color=#00E0FF]i[/color][color=#00A3FF]n[/color][color=#0065FF]g[/color][color=#0028FF]s[/color] [color=#5100FF]r[/color][color=#8E00FF]i[/color][color=#CC00FF]g[/color][color=#FF00F4]h[/color][color=#FF00B7]t[/color][color=#FF007A].[/color][color=#FF003D]"[/color]

[url=https://youtu.be/4y_InZASsEo][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019cef99-4ff8-726b-9a3f-da926ae26e90.webp[/img][/url]

[color=#FF0000]H[/color][color=#FF1C00]o[/color][color=#FF3800]w[/color] [color=#FF7100]m[/color][color=#FF8D00]a[/color][color=#FFAA00]n[/color][color=#FFC600]y[/color] [color=#FFFF00]l[/color][color=#E2FF00]e[/color][color=#C6FF00]a[/color][color=#AAFF00]v[/color][color=#8DFF00]e[/color][color=#71FF00]s[/color] [color=#38FF00]d[/color][color=#1CFF00]o[/color][color=#00FF00]e[/color][color=#00FF1C]s[/color] [color=#00FF55]i[/color][color=#00FF71]t[/color] [color=#00FFAA]t[/color][color=#00FFC6]a[/color][color=#00FFE2]k[/color][color=#00FEFF]e[/color] [color=#00C6FF]t[/color][color=#00A9FF]o[/color] [color=#0071FF]s[/color][color=#0054FF]c[/color][color=#0038FF]r[/color][color=#001CFF]e[/color][color=#0000FF]w[/color] [color=#3800FF]i[/color][color=#5500FF]n[/color] [color=#8D00FF]a[/color] [color=#C600FF]l[/color][color=#E200FF]i[/color][color=#FF00FE]g[/color][color=#FF00E2]h[/color][color=#FF00C6]t[/color][color=#FF00AA]-[/color][color=#FF008D]b[/color][color=#FF0071]u[/color][color=#FF0054]l[/color][color=#FF0038]b[/color][color=#FF001C]?[/color][/center][hr]

Suika felt something, as she lay on her back, unsure how she got there. Something was poking her cheek. 

When her eyes finally opened, they saw someone standing above them. Someone who sure looked like Tsubomi, but something was wrong. 

Yes, even now, she could remember what had happened to her. In spite of the weariness, she knew that the Tsubomi she saw was too... complete, to be what remained after the dream. This Tsubomi seemed as if she were the original. 

Tsubomi's foot poked Acid Drop's cheek once more, but said nothing. The supine girl didn't move. 

[color=0072bc]"Hey. What are you doing laying down? Don't you have someone to stand up for?"[/color] The girl sneered down at her. [color=0072bc]"Do you really have time to take a nap?"[/color]

No, of course not. Suika knew that this wasn't real, that this wasn't Tsubomi. But she still couldn't tear herself away from the specter that looked down on her. 

But then it was gone, and Suika was alone. She slowly sat upright only to hear another voice from behind her.

[color=0072bc]"My magic is empathy, so let's test yours. Put yourself in my position. Would you want to coexist with something that took your life away from you?"[/color]

No, of course not. Suika shook her head to try to clear it. Were these the lingering remnants of Tsubomi's mind, left behind after being knocked out of it? 

She could feel something pushing its way into her mind. Tsubomi's memories, the sum of her experiences, the stimuli that had formed her into who she had been... She could feel them. She could grasp them as if they were her own. It seemed that she really had ingested the parts of her host that had been cut away, as if they had been turned to mulch.

Where, then, [i]was[/i] Tsubomi? The remainder of the unfortunate girl who had been cursed by Suika's existence?

The invader couldn't sense her. All she could do was wait and see if she'd see the poor flower again.

[hr][center][color=#FF0000]"[/color][color=#FF4200]H[/color][color=#FF8500]o[/color][color=#FFC700]w[/color] [color=#B1FF00]l[/color][color=#6EFF00]o[/color][color=#2CFF00]n[/color][color=#00FF16]g[/color] [color=#00FF9B]h[/color][color=#00FFDD]a[/color][color=#00DDFF]s[/color] [color=#0058FF]i[/color][color=#0016FF]t[/color] [color=#6E00FF]b[/color][color=#B100FF]e[/color][color=#F300FF]e[/color][color=#FF00C7]n[/color][color=#FF0085]?[/color][color=#FF0042]"[/color]

[url=https://youtu.be/gES4Z1ll9nI][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019cef99-4ff8-726b-9a3f-da926ae26e90.webp[/img][/url]

[color=#FF0000]J[/color][color=#FF3400]u[/color][color=#FF6900]s[/color][color=#FF9E00]t[/color] [color=#F6FF00]l[/color][color=#C1FF00]o[/color][color=#8CFF00]n[/color][color=#57FF00]g[/color] [color=#00FF11]e[/color][color=#00FF46]n[/color][color=#00FF7B]o[/color][color=#00FFAF]u[/color][color=#00FFE4]g[/color][color=#00E4FF]h[/color] [color=#007BFF]t[/color][color=#0046FF]o[/color] [color=#2300FF]r[/color][color=#5700FF]e[/color][color=#8C00FF]m[/color][color=#C100FF]e[/color][color=#F600FF]m[/color][color=#FF00D3]b[/color][color=#FF009E]e[/color][color=#FF0069]r[/color][color=#FF0034].[/color][/center][hr]

The sun was too bright; from the moment it peeked over the horizon, its rays stabbed into the now-insomniac girl's closed eyes with the passion of her own aunt's knitting needles. The early birds were singing, their notes bashing into Tsubomi's ears like war-hammers on equally prepared for war drums, and to top it all off, there was still that annoying cicada who had been buzzing all night. 

This was... wait a minute. This seemed familiar...

Ah, right. This was how she had awoken the last time she'd come to after using up all of her emotional stockpile. It was almost too similar, but at least the memories of what had happened after remained. 

It seemed she'd been out for about... thirty hours, if the clock was accurate. Somewhat surprising that her caretakers hadn't taken her to the hospital in that time. 

... Surprising? Surprising, her mind reminded her, was 'of a nature to excite wonder and astonishment.' In other words: [i]Why the hell was she surprised by [b]anything[/b]!?[/i]

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Even if only tangentially, she should [i]not[/i] have been experiencing anything even slightly akin to emotion. Her existence wouldn't allow for that. 

Sure, she still didn't know what she actually was, or where she came from, but in the span of her entire 'life,' she hadn't really felt surprise before. And yet she knew that was what this was. It felt almost the same to her magic sense as it would from another person, just... weaker. 

Was this a result of her magic being dead? It couldn't be, she could feel the sensation as if it were someone else's, so she had to still have her magic, right?

Suika threw her senses outward in the hopes of feeling something from the adults in the home, but there was nothing for her to feel. 

Instead, another alien sensation boiled upwards into her throat; for the first time since her conception, Suika felt fear. The lingering fear that a human would have felt the whole time since the dream a day and a half ago. 

[i]Why couldn't she find Tsubomi?[/i]