"Why an old warehouse? We're not Yakuza." Nyxia had brought up an important problem, though. Kiyo tried her best to act like Nyxia's situation was normal, so she must have glossed over that detail in her half-asleep haze. Haruna had her own concerns. She meant well—she always did—but Kiyo knew it was unlikely she'd be listened to. Shuuko might be the only one who even listened to Kiyo's quack ideas about magical girls, and only Hotaru maybe kind of believed in them. Fortunately, Tsubomi dug her out of the hole with her own idea that was actually kind of brilliant. "Well, if anyone can think of a way to convince the Boss to go on her own road trip, that could be ideal..." The rest was left unsaid. It wasn't very likely they could convince Rei to do anything with her being none the wiser. In fact, Kiyo rather thought her own idea was quite unlikely to work unnoticed. Tsubomi mentioned Rei "accidentally" taking their power-ups, but she wasn't so certain of Rei's intentions in keeping them under her watch.

"The entire premise behind the one year deadline was that we need to get stronger, otherwise defeating us would not even be a challenge for her. That's what she said, isn't it? If that's actually true, then her plans shouldn't include misleading us about how to get stronger. If it's false, then she was never a threat, and she's just having fun watching us run around in a panic instead of calling her bluff." Kiyo tried not to let her frustration show, though Ember was likely going to notice anyway. It was her own fault for not being around when Ashbringer threw down the gauntlet.

Roche and Suki showing favor to her ideas put some wind back in her sails. "I can rent a company van. They'll comfortably seat seven... or eight." She glanced at the Omega Obliterator. "More importantly, if dark magical girls are black holes, then Hibusa is Rei's event horizon. Whatever 'gravity' we have doesn't really matter here. Her pull is just stronger than ours. Case in point..." She paused. She didn't really like to talk about the time she was gone—when she wasn't sure if she wanted to come back. "Suki. Last battle, you asked 'since when' could I create those stronger minions? I've been able to do it since I fought a giga miseria with another group of girls outside Hibusa town. I fought one, and that's when I came back to share my findings—though, you'd already fought the one on the beach." She tilted her head to address the others. "Unless someone else has gained a new ability they'd like to share, I'm guessing the boost from that last giga miseria Black Gate awakened didn't hit quite as hard as the one from the beach. Am I wrong?"

Nyxia listened as her club mates gave their various suggestions. Potentially growing stronger by beating up the GEMs was appealing enough to the Neon Tempest, but she still preferred cleansing Hibusa Town of the crimes against nature that were Miseria rather than some collection of mildly annoying brats. The idea of Rei leaving town only made Nyxia roll her eyes. Even if it was true that their overwhelmingly powerful, self-appointed leader’s presence was somehow syphoning off the bulk of the energy they’d normally gain by slaying Miseria, getting Rei to take a lengthy vacation seemed like the very definition of a lost cause. Talk then turned to black holes, and the possibility of Dark Girls having some similarities with them, but none of that really mattered one way or another to the Neon Tempest. Roche’s observations were of considerably more interest, and the terrifying tealette was genuinely grateful that her partner was unwilling to do anything without her. That said…

“Well, I’m not really sure how making it a school trip would solve anything,” Nyxia noted with a doubtful frown. “I mean, I’m not even enrolled at your school to begin with. And something tells me the plan here is for a trip that lasts a little longer than just one night,” she added with a condescending sneer in response to Oros’s observation. Damn, this perverted bitch is always so dense… the Neon Tempest grumbled to herself. However shortly thereafter, Suki brought up the possibility of riding motorcycles, which forced Nyxia to concede that maybe the perverted pinkette wasn’t a complete waste of space. Wait… She meant actual bikes? As in, bicycles? Okay, yeah, I take it back, she’s just as much of a dumbass as I thought.

---

Suika winced when Shuuko called her 'Tsubomi,' but she didn't think anyone noticed, given the conversation. She did her best to follow along, but a thought kept nagging at the back of her mind. The others don't know I met Regina...

It wasn't until Nyxia's point about a school trip being flimsy cover that she was finally overwhelmed by it. She hadn't even registered Evil Eye's question before it.

"I met Regina!" Suika nearly shouted her 'confession' of having kept a 'secret' from the Club as she sat upright. "Oh, er, Ashbringer, I mean. At least I'm pretty sure it was her."

A sheepish look took over her face, and she leaned back down and turned her neck so she was facing downwards, towards the dust-covered box she was once more laying against. "She went to the arcade when I was there, so I think she's watching us somehow. She also mentioned that Michi is basically on her side now..."

There was a tinge of anger in her voice as she gave her report. But it faded quickly, and soon she was back to her slightly nervous tone.

"She said that she wants to destroy everyone who was included in her challenge. It sounded like she only cared about the people who were there when it happened, but I don't think that's right..." Would Haruna be included, then?

Finally absolved of her self-imposed 'crime,' Suika started thinking about what had been said.

"I think if we leave, we're going to meet another person who'll be on her side, somehow. Maybe they're already working with her and she just... wants to make us aware of it? But I definitely think that we'll run into another member of her group if we leave town. Maybe even if we stay..."

Suika's face turned back towards the other club members. As if it had been waiting for the most dramatic time possible, more of her magic seemed to come back to her. For the first time since the aftermath of the day the dream happened, she could feel the emotions of the others again. In a split second she shot up to a full sitting position and slapped herself lightly on the cheeks as she tried to make herself feel something, anything, other than what she already was, but to no avail. It seemed she still couldn't affect her own newfound emotions with her magic.

Still, the return to being more 'normal' gave her hope, a smile breaking out on her face. "If we have to go somewhere, we might need two vehicles, in case one breaks down, right?" She tried to think back, but the memories wouldn't surface. Were there two possible drivers among the club members? "Otherwise, if we get one big one we can all fit in, odds are we'll get stranded somehow, since Regina is probably watching us. I wouldn't be surprised if she does something to it while we're there to 'force us to get stronger,' or something."

Another thought slipped by, smacking into her mind at just the right angle to spark the match of recognition. Suika's mouth spread into a wide grin, and she couldn't suppress a small laugh at the irony of it.

"Isn't it funny? Light Girls can grow however they want, but for Dark Girls... The only way to get stronger is together, as equals. If one gets too strong, they take away from the others. I'd guess they grow slower too, but the rest? We can't grow much at all."

She giggled slightly as she looked upward at the ceiling. "No choice but to 'huddle together for warmth,' I guess. Isn't that ridiculous? Your light goes out, and suddenly it pays to help each other instead of strangers."

Suika's smile slowly faded. Is that right? She wasn't sure, but she didn't want to dwell on that thought any longer. "If it's a field trip, maybe a place with a Museum? A chance to study the past... seems fitting for an excuse, doesn't it?"

It was hard to gauge how everyone felt. Fewer people were talking and most everyone seemed to be keeping to themselves. Everyone seemed to have ideas, but few had ways to actually implement them. As Evil Eye implied, it would be next to impossible to force Rei out of town.

"It definitely wasn’t." Suki agreed with Evil eye.

That was about when Nyxia looked at her weird. "Who said it had to be a school trip?" Roche had, but Nyxia wasn’t looking at Roche. She didn't think she secretly wanted to ride up and down the countryside on motorcycles as a lesbian biker gang, did she? Because that was 100% true, but Suki figured that Nyxia wouldn't be able to work that out. "I think we’re gunna have to do this at night or on the weekends, which would rule out making it a school activity." She looked at everyone else. "Even if it’s just once a week, it’s once a week more than we’ve been doing." Then she looked back over the computer. "So you can get a van? Why don’t we try that? This spot here doesn’t look too out of the way."

As soon as her finger touched the computer screen, Suika started talking. A lot. Way more than the old Tsubomi would have. Suki froze in place and allowed her companion to speak uninterrupted.

"Uhhhhh…"

That kinda came out of nowhere. If it was anyone else, Suki would have wondered why they hadn’t said something earlier. But because it was Suika, it was hard to be surprised. Or rather, it would have been hard to be surprised if it was still the old Tsubomi as Suki remembered her. But she was being shown time and time again that the girl she used to know really didn’t exist anymore. Had evil Tsubomi won? Was this how she planned on killing good Tsubomi? All of this to ponder before addressing that she had been confronted by Ashbringer, or anything else she managed to ramble out, both behind and ahead of the current point in the discussion. Suki was more or less paralyzed by the flow of revelations, not given enough time to really absorb much of what she said. So she mentally latched onto something she could understand and turned to Evil Eye with it.

"Can you rent two vans?"

It appeared Evil Eye wasn't holding back on pointed questions today. "Can we handle a giga miseria at night? The last one may have seemed like it went down almost too easily, but it wasn't that long ago that fighting the same one at night felt impossible," she reminded them. "I'm not inherently opposed to taking multiple trips out, but doing so might attract more attention, from Rei, the GEMs, and if Ashbringer's watching, her too. It's also more likely someone or something will follow us home if we keep coming back after every trip."

Suddenly, one of the other Club girls began to speak. It was Tsubomi—at least, as far as Evil Eye knew—but that was about to change. It had felt like the crisis surrounding Tsubomi's desire to 'kill Tsubomi' had been resolved, but rather suddenly, Evil Eye was forced to contend with the reality that there was no real reason why Tsubomi should suddenly just 'be okay.' Ever since Michi's betrayal, she'd been thinking of herself, Haruna, the three Shuukos, Suki, and even Roche, but the small part of Michi's stage play that she'd managed to catch before she'd run to find Rei had slipped through the gaps in her mind like a fever dream.

She said that she wants to destroy everyone who was included in her challenge. It sounded like she only cared about the people who were there when it happened, but I don't think that's right...

^{STOP TALKING.}
Barely louder than a whisper, but clear as day, Haruna heard it: a desire even Evil Eye couldn't quite manage to suppress.

Suika felt something from Evil Eye, too: a twinge of shame when she began speaking, and after her mentioning of Ashbringer's challenge, a sudden surge of anxiety that came in an instant and abated slowly over the next several minutes.

The others could only notice that Evil Eye chose not to engage with the part of Suika's commentary that waxed philosophical. If Evil Eye had a wheelhouse, that was it, and she either missed it, or chose to ignore it. "I wouldn't worry about getting stranded because of a broken down van. Even with no cell signal, two of us can fly out and get help if we really need it, and as magical girls, we really shouldn't be so helpless. I mean, I can get two vans, but who's going to drive the other one?" she asked, leaving the fact that she was pretty sure she was the only one with a license unsaid. "I wouldn't get pulled over on my bike because the normies can't see it when I'm riding it transformed, but I'm not sure that relying on magic obfuscation would work with a van."

---

What. The. Flying. Fuck?!

It wasn’t ideal that Regina was flirting with the rest of the club, but that Zassou had come out of their most recent crisis by mentally rebounding into an outgoing chatterbox. Roche was aware enough to admit she was being a massive bitch about it, but was it really too much to ask for the reluctant to volunteer Tsubomi back for just the one meeting?

She even volunteered Ashbringer’s actual name, no doubt souring the girl's plans to covertly cozy up to the rest of them and prodding her to escalate in response. Just by voicing everything that Roche had been agonizing over for months-

”Oh, that’s what it is.” Roche vocalized, wearing the expression of a pedestrian who just turned to stare straight into Truck-Kun’s high beams. Forget feeling like one, the Rule Keeper simply was a rancid bitch for feeling such strong jealousy claw its way into her heart in the face of Zassou’s honesty. Was it really a virtue when it came from lips that seemed to care nothing for the future?

It could have been an opportunity to come clean as well, but then she’d derail the entire discourse to her own mess, and why she had waited for Zassou to confess first. No, she’d have to bury it deep now and deal with the inevitable explosion later.

Following Kiyo’s example and prompting, she cut in before she could nix the prospect of a second van. There wasn’t going to be any hope of Nyxia spending multiple days afield with them if she didn’t have somewhere private to revert to Norika. ”Considering I was the one who drove a van to our beach trip, I can handle the second van if you can procure it. If nothing else it’ll let us pack more than the bare essentials so we aren’t miserable traveling.”

”We do need to face the facts, however; We are a known quantity. Even when we aren’t looking for trouble, Magical Girls find us. They follow us. They try to take us down. We can’t give up on our growth just because we fear provoking someone who’d have taken a punch at us just for existing regardless. We don’t need to go around burning cities down, but we need to take every opportunity we can.”

---

---

Haruna sat up a little straighter in response to Kiyo. She couldn't help but give the crimson-eyed girl a concerned glance. Her arm lifted halfway to give her a reassuring pat before realizing that the action would air out Kiyo's stresses to the group as a whole, something she had firmly resolved not to do to anyone without a good reason. "I still need a little more time to recover, but I can try to focus on regenerating THUNDER CRACK if we're worried about backup transportation." She felt a little more aware of being one of the only ones here untransformed, but Hizuki needed as much rest as possible. "I think I can carry everyone?" She'd never actually tried to carry that many people, but it seemed within her power.

She also took a moment to nod at Roche. "That's a good attitude. I can also try to talk to any light girls we run across and explain the situation. They might not be thrilled about who its coming from, but I doubt anyone wants a giga miseria stomping around her hometown." Haruna tried to focus on the issues they voiced; besides Kiyo, the desires of everyone in the room blended into a hazy miasma of fears and anxieties, obfuscated even further by her lack of transformation. It was honestly distracting, like trying to have a phone conversation with a loud party next door.

There was also the matter of Tsubomi. She was. . . different. She couldn't tell if this was the old, pre-fall Tsubomi, the one they'd called a weed, or some combination of the two. At the very least, this one would be less frustrating to talk to. The light girl felt a little guilty at the thought; it was mean to get mad at someone for things they couldn't control, and this might well mean the slow girl she'd met was, effectively, dead.

Maybe that's why Kiyo wanted her to shut up so badly.

"I'm not going to be able to do the trick I did against Black Gate for a while, by the way. If we bite off more than we can chew, that's it. Ideally I don't have to do that again until Ashbringer's team comes back." The mention of Michi made her shoot another glance in Earthshaker's direction. The expression on her face, at least until she smoothed it over again, was conflicted. She had a lot of sympathy for Roche. The two of them had a lot in common. Evidently, though, it wasn't enough to prevent Roche from doing something that felt more than a little bit like a betrayal. Haruna didn't want to hold it against Roche, because the Rule Keeper had plenty of reason to not fight at the time. . . but it was difficult. Her sensibilities rebelled against the decision, even if she understood it. There's the gap between light and dark again, I guess.

Nyxia was still reflecting on just how much stronger she’d become after the bone giant was killed and how that compared to the power boost she’d received from the bone galleon’s destruction, when Apathy Incarnate, of all people, suddenly blurted out that she’d run into Ashbringer at the local arcade. Just the very name of the draconic woman made the Neon Tempest’s teeth grind together. Her anger only grew when Tsubomi went on to reveal that the goat-themed, shadow monkey-manifesting girl who’d wrecked the school was now a member of Ashbringer’s little group. So I wasn’t seeing things when that dragon bitch scooped up the goat bitch and octo-girl… the terrifying tealette reflected. Which means Sink Queen’s also working with her… While Nyxia couldn’t say she liked the aquatic young woman, Sink Queen had never done anything to annoy her, let alone be openly hostile. Indeed, the tentacled girl had been rather forthcoming with helpful advice. Now, that opinion would need to be radically altered…

Even as she brooded about this, the conversation around her continued, now turning back to the topic of possible forms of transportation. None of it really mattered to Nyxia, since she was still pretty sure she wouldn’t be tagging along anyway, but the simple fact that it was Tsubomi, of all people, dominating the discussion forced the Neon Tempest to refocus her full attention on it. Damn… She’s certainly chatty today, Nyxia noted. And did she just… giggle? Yes, the normally emotionless girl who barely spoke, the girl Nyxia had always referred to as “Apathy Incarnate” was not only running off at the mouth, she was showing genuine emotion. Laughing. Smiling. At this rate, I’ll need to come up with a new name for her…

Haruna then offered to fly everybody to wherever they ultimately decided to go, prompting Nyxia to finally speak up. “Uh, those battlesuits of yours are cool and all, but even if you could use that big mech you fought goat bitch in back at the school, it still didn’t look large enough to carry the whole club. At least, not without things getting really uncomfortable…” she added with a scowl.

The others seemed certain that Ashbringer was not misleading them for some reason, but it did not make any sense. Even if the red-haired monstrosity gave them time legitimately, why would she actually want to make them stronger? The more she thought about it, the graver the picture became in Ember’s mind as she drew associations between Miseria, Negative Emotions, Dark Magical Girls and Giga Miseria, coalescing into a frightening picture. Which would be too much to share in the open.

Tsubomi’s Relevation further deepened the web of uncertainty around them. In the first place, how did Ashbringer convince Michi to side with her? And why, if she was certain of her victory, did she start to gather a team of individuals by her side? The schemer felt her revelation become muddled by those questions. She would share her concerns anyways.

”I have also been approached by Regina,” she lied without blinking or pausing, choosing to cover for Roche’s lack of admission with one of her own so they could start building a profile. She did not even know how close she was to the truth.

”But I couldn’t get a read on her or what drives her forward, nor what forces she has at her command at the moment. And as Hananami-san pointed out, we are risking something either way. So I want to propose something unusual.” She took a breath. Prepared herself.

”I have recently gained more command over the extra bodies I create. There are only twelve, however, I can send out the more magically potent of them,” in other words, the ones controlled by herself or Hotaru, if she was willing to cooperate, ”to scout the nearby cities that seem to be suitable locations for hunting grounds. If Kuroki-san is willing to lend some of her creations to aid my cause, I would be capable of a reconnaissance-in-force and gathering much-needed information without risking too much of Hibusa Town’s security.”

”And then, building on Oyama-san’s idea of only striking out for a night, or a day at most given our limitations, not to mention the situations of some of the members of the group, I propose that only a given number of members leave Hibusa Town. If worst comes to worst, one of my spares can inform the group of the situation and they can come back to us.” It was not the perfect plan. Travelling between cities, even at night, would likely take an hour at least, which was plenty of time for opportunists to dig into Hibusa Town.

”As hard it is to swallow, those who remain will likely have to hide while the others are returning,” Ember nodded towards Nyxia, acknowledging she would likely be opposed to not taking the fight head on. ”I also acknowledge that if Kana-san is right about us being monitored, this creates the worst possible situation for us, because an enemy can strike at our weakest point. However, it also means that our home is not undefended.”

”Even if I do admire Ishiko-san, she will likely not lend a hand unless it is interesting or challenging enough. We have to rely on ourselves for this one.”

She had also noted Tsubomi's strange behaviour along with Kiyo's tension, but there was precious little she could do about those out in the open.

---

Suika slouched backwards, preemptively dejected by the emotional response of the other girls. Her despondence only grew as they felt what they actually felt, rather than what she predicted they would.

Oh no. This was exactly what she had been afraid of. She'd said, done, something to make the rest of the Club upset. A precursor to whatever would happen later, and one that didn't bode well for her. Even in her natural form, her regained senses were enough to know she'd messed up.

Oros' feelings of... well, Suika couldn't quite separate them from each other, a mass of different emotions that all pointed towards the vine having said something wrong. Evil Eye's anxiety spiking when the girl was normally so in control of what she felt. Earthshaker feeling a mess of things that Suika couldn't quite figure out the reason for, but blamed herself for regardless. Haruna was easier to get a sense for, but that didn't make her feelings make more sense to the empath. At least Shatterscape didn't seem to react too poorly, and Nyxia was her usual angry self, like a rock that had stood in the same condition for a lifetime.

Part of her wanted to try to parse these things. Another part of her wanted to disappear completely. And yet a third part wanted to try to contribute something useful to the conversation, something to prove to herself and the others that she somehow belonged there.

In the end, what won out was a little of each. She slowly dragged herself backwards and slunk behind the box she had been next to. With the others mostly hidden from her sight now, she timidly responded to Shatterscape's suggestion.

"I don't think Ashbringer would let us do that... Even if she would, that could lead to another issue of some of us getting too strong for the others to grow too..."

It was odd listening to Evil Eye weigh their options. She seemed cautious about fighting a giga miseria at night or taking multiple trips out, yet did not seem as concerned about someone attacking their ride. Regardless, Oros found herself agreeing with her point about their transportation.

"It would more convenient to keep everyone together, and having two automobiles can make things weird. We could get separated and have twice as many vans to defend. I doubt we’re going to get that strong going out of town once, so we have a long term plan." Oros nodded to herself.

However, Oros was reminded of how infuriating working with others could be when Roche spoke up again. Yes, she had driven everyone to the beach. There were a lot of reasons Oros didn’t like to think about the vacation, but it did seem like they had a second driver. It wasn’t like Oros cared one way or the other. It was just so tedious how a quick discussion could get hung up on tiny details like how many cars they should drive. Were they going to discuss the color too? Not a bad idea honestly. But nobody was going to agree to her idea to do a waifu car wrap. The important part was that they did something. Though Oros could agree with Roche’s assessment of their situation.

"Yep, trouble really is everywhere. Goat Girl is proof we can just stand around and trouble finds us." She looked back to Evil Eye. "See what you can do with the vans. If you can only get one, that’ll probably be enough. If we don’t drive too far, we don’t need to pack like we’re on vacation." Holy shit did Oros hate packing. It was fortunate that all of her possessions could fit inside a small closet.

The GEMs were definitely something that needed to be addressed, and it seemed like that was something Haruna was willing to work with. Oros’s own feelings on the matter were a little complicated, but she saw the value in having a light girl vouch for them. She didn’t have anything else to add to what Haruna was talking about. That was, until Nyxia decided to be a wet blanket again. This bothered Oros, but only because she didn’t understand her behavior. It was hard to believe the foul mouthed girl who did as she pleased would hesitate to do anything over a family situation. "I think Pinocchio is capable of moving a van once she’s transformed, with or without us inside." So long as the van still had it’s wheels, it wouldn’t be hard for some of the stronger girls around them to push it. Hell, Nyxia’s cannon was about the size of a compact car. She could probably push a van for miles, with or without the wheels still on it. Did the idea of traveling together still bother her? It couldn’t be, she reassured herself.

Then Shatterscape spoke up again. She couldn’t help but sigh when she mentioned that she, like Suika, had been approached by Regina. "Oh come on…" There was no reason for Oros to suspect it was a lie, but she was inclined to disbelieve the claim. While she could see Suika holding off on mentioning something so important, Shatterscape wouldn't hide anything for any length of time from Roche. And Roche would have told the club by now . There was something about Shatterscape's mannerisms that rubbed Oros the wrong way. Her beautiful face scrunching, as her brow knit itself together and her smile turned.

Fortunately, a much cooler head spoke before she did. "Yea!" Oros’s face lit up like the sun when Suika finished speaking. "If some of us get too strong, we’ll run into the same issue we have now, where we have to gain distance from each other to hunt. Maybe." Lord this magical bullshit was hard to keep track of. "I think Eyeball has reconnaissance covered, so long as the GEMs don’t spot ‘em first. But that’s why Pinocchio is gunna contact them. If we can do something about them, then that makes a lot of stuff easier. Though if you’re offering I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the backup. Anyway, once we have a van or two and we get word about the GEMs we can start doing stuff!"

It felt like a plan had come together. Or at least, the first steps of something happening. More details needed to be resolved, but getting everyone unanimously on board with an idea was kind of a light girl thing. That and Oros was pretty tired of getting ignored by Nyxia. Though that was preferable to getting more odd looks from her. But for now it felt like everything was settled.

"I guess I’ll uh, root for your success." When Oros excused herself, she found herself power walking out of the room and down the hall. If anything important hadn’t been resolved, it could be handled later.

Surely.

To Nyxia’s relief, shortly after Oros noted how she’d assumed Hizuki could simply fly the entire van to wherever they were going, the meeting began to wind down. It might not have been as fast as the Neon Tempest would have liked, but things were concluding nonetheless, a fact made abundantly clear when Oros made her way out of the makeshift club room. With the meeting’s organizer having taken her leave, Nyxia saw no further reason to stick around.

“Well, have fun sorting out all those headache-inducing details,” she told the remaining club members as she stretched herself out before strolling over to the window. “I’m gonna go do something a bit more fun,” she added with a smirk as she slipped through the circular frame and out into the darkening night.

Maybe the others liked the feeling of power and control that came from organizing complex operations and planning intricate strategies, but Nyxia hadn’t become a magical girl to be bored out of her mind mulling over monotonous minutia. No, Norika had been reborn as the Neon Tempest with the sole purpose of cleansing the world of the abominations that murdered her beloved brother, and that was precisely what she intended to do now. Indeed, it was what she would continue to do for the entire time the rest of the club prepared for their upcoming trip, however long those preparations would take.

…

…

…

The weather was getting colder. In November, it wasn’t common for Hibusa town to get much snow. There were places in Japan at higher elevations that would be getting snow well before Hibusa did. But the northern winds had certainly arrived. If Nyxia wasn’t a magical girl and virtually immune to the natural environment, then the cold air would make her deathly ill or worse. Even on the coldest nights, she’d only need her baby to keep her warm.

It was the dead of night, and all the other detention club girls were elsewhere. Many of them had daytime rituals and needed at least a little bit of sleep to function the following day. Though Nyxia was truly free in that she could hunt for as long as she wanted. Though there was something off. There appeared to be more miseria than normal. Usually by now Nyxia would have them mopped up, but it was like she was only half done. A glaive of green light ripped through five of them on a rooftop. But as soon as they vanished, a few more scurried up and into view.

"You fuckers are persistent tonight, huh?" Nyxia muttered as she fired another blast from her beloved energy cannon. "That’s fine," she added a moment later as her scowl turned into a psychotic smirk. "That just means more fun for me!" The Neon Tempest unleashed a peal of sadistic laughter as she swept the Omega Obliterator’s neon-tinged, lightning-wreathed cylinder of annihilation across her myriad foes, while also deploying her pair of hovering octahedron drones for good measure. "And my little darling here always has room for more, right baby?!" she asked her oversized weapon before giving voice to another burst of unhinged laughter.

But while Nyxia gave into her inner anarchist, she heard an unfamiliar voice call out from the darkness. "Was zum Teufel?!?" Some grenades flew up from behind the building, which Nyxia’s beam cut into. They detonated, but rather than turning into balls of fire they exploded into bones. Whole bones like ones that once belonged to a man. They bounced harmlessly off of the roof, but a femur did fly pretty close to Nyxia’s head. Once the light and sound died down, the stranger spoke up again. "Ja." There was some shuffling, but the stranger remained out of view.

"The fuck…?!" Nyxia exclaimed, leaning her head to one side to avoid getting struck by one of the flying bones. Holding her fire for a moment, she called out, "Whoever the fuck’s down there, ya better get outta the fucking way! Otherwise, it’s not my fault if I vaporize your stupid ass!"

"Ja?" the voice called out again. "You zink I vould leave a miseria alive? Maybe if I vas really stupid." She chuckled. "Nah. I vould do no such thing. Maybe fire your veapon where there are targets to hit?"

"I’m killing these Miseria, ya fuckin’ moron!" Nyxia snarled as she furiously, yet still cautiously, made her way to the edge of the roof. "Go find your own!"

"Zat sounds like a good idea." Without firing her obliterator, Nyxia was able to pick up on the soft pop of a grenade launcher. She heard it several times, and not long afterwards many nearby roofs had one grenade shell bouncing on their roof. It didn’t take them long to detonate and eviscerate the miseria lurking nearby. Though it wasn’t just bones that ripped through the disgusting creatures. Some exploded into horseshoes, candles, clocks, keys, even pages of an old book. All were equally devastating to their intended targets. Another interesting detail was the trajectory of the shells themselves. They weren’t all being fired from the same area. It was as if this magical girl was moving between shots and firing in quick succession. Though if she was moving, she had to be pretty fast because the houses weren’t being shelled in any sort of order. "Just shoot ze ones you don’t vant me to touch."

Nyxia’s jaw clenched and her eye twitched. "That doesn’t even make any fucking sense!" she shouted, while furiously scanning the streets below in an attempt to catch sight of the mystery grenadier. Though there was nothing to be found. "Well, whatever…" the Neon Tempest grumbled before opening fire once more. "If the stupid bitch gets vaporized, it’s her own fuckin’ fault!"

And so the hunt pressed on. Miseria were getting vaporized left and right. If not by a death beam, then by whatever ordinance the other girl was using. Sometimes there were some close calls. A laser would burn through a miseria moments before a grenade got it, other times it would be Nyxia’s beam that caught a grenade, and the fragmentation would take out all the miseria in the area before she could hit even one.

Eventually, the town became quiet. The end of Nyxia’s obliterator smoked, but there were no other targets to shoot. The last grenade to explode had thrown goat horns everywhere, and one of the more rounded ones rolled towards Nyxia before falling on its side a few feet from her position.

The Neon Tempest eyed the horn as it rolled to a stop. After taking a moment to glare at this latest incongruous object to cross her path, she took a step forward and crushed it under the high heel of her boot. "Just what I need…" she muttered. "Another annoying dumbass getting in my way…"

The powdery remains of the horn were scattered to the wind. They glimmered under the moon light before finally dispersing enough to where they couldn’t be seen. For a time, it was just Nyxia and the wind. But she wasn’t fortunate enough for it to remain so quiet.

"Zat vas the last of zem." The stranger’s voice was near, possibly right over the other side of the roof. "You’re rather good at hunting miseria, ja? Not many can keep pace vith me."

"And just who the hell are you?" Nyxia inquired, her tone clearly conveying her vexation. "Ya don’t sound like anyone I know, so ya must be new in town," she added. "Were there not enough Miseria to kill where ya came from?"

"Something like zat." Came the stranger’s voice from the other side of the roof. "I heard zere was a school that vas obliterated. It sounded like a good hunting ground. I also had been curious about a demon of Hibusa town and her dark harem. I had heard zey were weak, but that does not seem to be za case with you. You kill as well as I do."

Nyxia’s eye twitched when she heard the word "harem", but she chose to ignore it. "Thanks. I’d like to think I’m the strongest magical girl around here," she said instead. "Aside from that demon you mentioned…" the Neon Tempest added with a scowl. "So, if you’re as strong as you say, mind showing yourself?" the tealette inquired, putting a hand on her hip. "Or are you shy, too?"

"You vant to see me? Hmmm." She hummed, though her voice came from yet another direction. "Or maybe you vant to shoot me? Vould a smart person show zemselves now?"

Nyxia’s eyes were drawn to some light. In the darkness of the night, she could make out a halo. It was white, but a red neon glow. Slowly it rose, and slowly the scalp of the mysterious magical girl rose into view. Her hair looked pink under the glow of her halo. Then her body turned into a blur as she shot into the air and landed on the roof. While the landing was hard, both the girl and the roof were fine. Though some chain links bounced away from her landing spot. Finally, Nyxia could look upon the person she had been talking to.

There was no doubt she was a magical girl, but her halo was the only angelic thing about her. Two ribbons tied off her twin tails, which draped down her leather trench coat. Said trenchcoat was too small for her, and was held around her waist by a tactical ammo belt. A partial leotard struggled to cover her body modestly, and employed the help of several leather straps to keep everything in place. If it wasn’t covered in tactical equipment or leather, it was covered in netting or pantyhose. Her lace up boots went half way up her thighs and had an elevated heel, though there was no arch in the shoe. Among her numerous pouches and ammo sleeves were a few choice accessories. She wore a chain around her neck and a gothic cross necklace. She had a few piercings under her eye, and may have had more that Nyxia couldn’t see. In either hand was a grenade launcher with chains wrapped around the barrels. Each one was latched onto the launchers and terminated in goat skull charms. They were both aimed into the air.

"Guten Abend. Zey call me Home Vecker."



While this was Nyxia’s first time seeing Home Wrecker, it appeared to be her first time seeing Nyxia as well. Her eyes moved over Nyxia carefully, clearly trying to get a read on the girl. Though most of her time was spent looking at the giant gun Nyxia was holding. "That makes a little more sense." Her eyes rested on the business end of the weapon. "Does it have a name?"

"The Omega Obliterator," Nyxia replied, while taking in the appearance of the other girl. Although she probably wasn’t a GEM, the odds of her being a member of Ashbringer’s little group were considerably higher. As such, the Neon Tempest resolved to not let her guard down. "Whadaya call yours?" she inquired, pointing at Home Wrecker’s pair of grenade launchers.

She looked to either side, and turned the guns over in her hand. "Sköll and Hati." The wind wasn’t too bad right now. It was blowing, but it wasn’t so noisy that they needed to shout to hear each other. Wrecker’s trench coat flapped by her legs. "Now zat ze miseria are gone, vat shal ve do, hmmm?" She tipped her head. "You’re not ready to go to bed either, ja?"

Nyxia smirked. "When I kill all the fuckers in one place, I just go to another and hunt down some more," she replied. "Seeing as how you’re not from around here, I guess I can let ya tag along, as long as ya promise not to be a nuisance," the Neon Tempest added. "Speaking of, I guess you’re here on some kinda school trip or family vacation, huh?"

"Nein. My parents are parasites." She practically spat the words. "I come near here ven I visit my grandfather. Thought I might take a detour and come zis way." Even though Home Wrecker wasn’t the one who suggested they fight more miseria, she had picked a direction to go hunting for them. "I came here from ze east. ve von’t find any miseria that way." With a shake of her guns, the revolving cylinders swung out of the grenade launchers. She swiped them across her ammo belts in a single flourish and swung them back shut again. "I vould have thought a coven of dark girls would hunt together. Do you not?"

"We’re not a ‘coven’," Nyxia corrected as she followed after the foreign-sounding girl. "We’re a club, and sometimes we do hunt as a group. But I also like hunting alone, without anyone getting in the way," she added, putting particular emphasis on the last few words. "Sucks about your parents," the Neon Tempest said after a few moments of silence. "Mine are pretty shitty, too."

"Parents should look after zeir children, ja? Not ze other vay around." Her hands tightened around Sköll and Hati, but she eased up before her fingers curled around the trigger. "My parents never took care of me. Ven I was small, zey would feed me coffee for breakfast. I could never keep it down."

"My parents openly hate the fact I was ever born," Nyxia replied. "If they both died in a fire I wouldn’t give a single fuck." That wasn’t entirely true, of course. If both of her parents died, it would cause no small number of unpleasant complications for her, and even with as awful as her mother and father might be, she knew her other relatives were even worse… "Anyway, uh, I’ve never actually had coffee before," the Neon Tempest revealed in an attempt to slightly change the subject. "Is it really that bad?"

"It is not something you feed a growing child." Wrecker eyed Nyxia. There was anger in her eyes, but it wasn’t clear if it was from reliving old memories or that Nyxia didn’t understand how bad coffee was for a child. "It’s an acquired taste, has no nutritional value, and is only consumed for a dose of caffeine. Some mix cream and sugar into it to make it palatable, but zat never helped me." While they hopped between rooftops, something caught the grenadier’s eye. She looked over the side of the roof at a fast food chain. It was still open, and wasn’t too busy at this hour. "A moment." She hopped off the edge of the roof. Nyxia didn’t even have time to wonder how long she’d be gone before she hopped back up on the roof again. Only this time Hati was chained to her hip and she was holding a disposable coffee cup. There was an insignia of some mythical twin tailed creature with a vaguely feminine appearance on the side, and the cup’s heat escaped a small opening and turned into steam in the cold air. "Here, coffee." She held it out for Nyxia to take. "At least it smells good."

Taking the offered cup, Nyxia gave it a sniff. "You’re right," she agreed with a look of surprise. "That is rather pleasant." Slowly bringing the cup to her mouth, the Neon Tempest took a small sip. Her face contorted into a scowl as she swallowed the liquid. "Fucking disgusting…" she declared after a moment. "And people actually like drinking this shit?" she inquired, holding up the cup, before tossing it into the air and vaporizing it with a quick blast of teal energy.

Home Wrecker watched the beverage and its container vanish from existence. "It can be an addiction for some, if you can believe it." She loosened Hati and lifted her second grenade launcher up against her shoulder. "Caffeine makes it addictive. No different zan tobacco in cigarettes or alcohol in beer." She hesitated before adding. "Sugar makes zings addictive too. But at least zey taste good." Home Wrecker chuckled. "I might be addicted to killing miseria."

"And what’s so bad about that?" Nyxia asked with a smirk. "The less of those fucking things in the world, the better. Plus, killing them is so fucking fun."

"It’s bad because ve both vant to kill zem." She squinted her eyes and looked off in the distance. "But if zat isn’t a problem anymore…" Home Wrecker’s next jump caused her to fall between two buildings. The miseria at the edge of town were hiding among the trees, but scattered when a grenade detonated and threw lit candles everywhere.

"Well, there’re plenty to go around," Nyxia replied, before leaping to a higher vantage point and using the provided illumination to fire a crackling cylinder of incandescent annihilation at a cluster of Miseria lurking just beyond the nearby wood line. "Wanna have a race to see who kills the most?" the Neon Tempest inquired, her sadistic grin widening.

"Ja! Let ze slaughter commence!"

And so the night pressed on, with flashes of teal lightning and the thunderous explosion of entropic projectiles.

As much as Nyxia had initially despised the strange interloper, she was forced to concede that she was beginning to feel a sense of camaraderie with Home Wrecker. The two of them shared several similarities, not the least of which being how much they enjoyed killing Miseria, and as the Neon Tempest had begun to discover during her outings with Roche, doing so with a competent and equally enthusiastic partner was almost as fun as slaughtering them solo.

Taking aim at a particularly gruesome Miseria, Nyxia was just about to open fire when it burst apart amidst a hail of random objects, causing her to grind her teeth in frustration.

Almost…

Shortly after Rei arrived, the other girls departed. There wasn’t anything else to be done, and many of them needed a moment to recover their strength. Though Rei seemed like she was still full of energy, and so was Willow.

"What a day, huh?" The cat girl hovered by Rei’s side. "To think you’d have been sleeping past all of this if I hadn’t come to wake you up."

"Hmmm." It was a curious development. Black Gate had placed Rei and Ashbringer away from the school and not with everyone else. Had she succeeded in her plan, she’d have likely transformed into a demon and gone after the entire city next. But then why spare two powerful magical girls that could attempt to stop you? Did part of Black Gate want to be stopped, or did she want to leave a few people alive so that they could suffer as she had when she lost everything? Rei refused to believe it wasn’t a calculated move. But Rei decided that it wasn’t worth thinking about too much. It was kind of a drag to worry about people outside the club. Black Gate’s game had been interesting, but it ultimately failed. There were far more important things to think about.

But as Rei would soon discover, Black Gate had spared more than just two powerful magical girls. She knew about Ashbringer because she spotted her moving through the area, but it was only now that Rei saw the other one.

"Nocnitsa." The reaper smiled. "Enjoy your nap?"

The woman tiredly sighed, her usual smile absent. "What nap? I was wondering where my students were, then I was somehow caught up in helping this trio of pink-haired girls out in looking for one of their own, one thing leads to another and now…" Nocnitsa - Maribel - trailed off, then slumped over with a groan, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Hells below, not even I can rebuild this. Is everyone alright? Did they manage to secure no fatalities? Ugh, and I was so curious about that young miss too! But they just…part with that easily?" She slightly pouted. Black Gate. She could’ve made a fine apprentice if things turned out differently. Can’t do anything about it now.

"Oh wow! Is our leading lady going to have a cry now? I think I left my tissues with Oros after band practice, but I don’t know what she needed them for." Willow rolled in the air and hovered upside down. Maribel shot her a look in response.

"I have a plan for the club, don’t worry about the school." Rei must have, because she was smiling despite how grim it all looked. "It’s interesting they didn’t put up a fight, but I’m not worried about it. I knew Black Gate was going to be a bad fit. Now everyone else knows she was too. As for fatalities…" Her eyes shifted to the one corner of Hibusa high that managed to avoid destruction. "Why don’t we see how they did?"

It wasn’t a long walk to the only standing corner of the school. The trio maneuvered between some bent support pillars and a hallway that had cracked sheetrock along both walls. Willow seemed to take interest in one of the cracks and slipped inside, but the other two continued onward. They finally came into the cafeteria. There wasn’t a single mortal soul to be seen. By the far window were two magical girls, or rather, a magical girl and a magical boy. Morganite looked like she had been roughed up pretty good. Her armor above her collarbones had been ripped off and one side of her face was pretty swollen. Fable looked to be in much better shape, and when the duo entered the room, he raised a hand.

"It’s okay!" The boy said with all the authority of a police officer directing traffic. "I’m Fable. We’re not here to cause trouble. Black Gate captured a GEM and put her in here. I was in the area and swooped by to help eliminate the apes. We’ll be departing shortly."

Rei shrugged her shoulders. "Got em all outside in time, huh?"

"I was clearing out downtown when I heard a giga miseria was attacking the school. The report wasn’t entirely accurate, but it was a true crisis situation. I immediately left Downtown Hibusa to come here. We just finished evacuating the last of the students, and Sink Queen decided to transform. We had some disagreements with how to proceed, some stronger than others."

The nightmare witch allowed the two to talk, brows risen at the curious sight of the magical boy. A magical boy. Here? Or was this something else entirely? "You, ah, know quite a lot for someone so unfamiliar…" Maribel murmured in thought. She tilted her head, despite her words, you could swear there was a hint of recognition in her eyes. It’s probably nothing. "Do you happen to be part of the GEMs, yourself?"

"Fable’s a strange name for a GEM, isn’t it?" He chuckled. "I’m just a PI that specializes in cases involving the paranormal, which is just shorthand for magical girls. I’ll confess not everyone has the GEMs on speed dial, but I do, and I was coordinating with them. None of them entered Hibusa town aside from the ones that were kidnapped. Well, maybe some of them did, but they kept their distance. It’s hard to make a light girl stand back when danger’s afoot." Fable folded his arms. "I don’t think I caught your name though. Can’t say I’ve seen many magical women."

Ah, so this one worked freelance. Maribel’s usual smile returned. "Nocnista, dear boy! I serve as the advisor for the Detention Club." She slightly bowed in greeting. "I was also the foreign studies teacher, technically still am, but… Well…" She looked around at the debris.

"We have it handled." Rei sounded as confident as ever. "You seem less annoying than the GEMs. Take as much time as you need, but make sure to take that one with you when you leave." After Fable nodded in response, Rei looked to Nocnista. "Satisfied?"

"Well, I suppose. I still wish I had returned in time to help. You included." She shrugged. The club was as much of her responsibility as they were Rei’s.

"They had it handled." Rei turned around to leave. "Can’t be there all the time. Pretty sure they like it that way."

Fable watched Rei depart, then turned his eyes to the enigmatic woman. "If you don’t mind me asking, is there a particular reason you work with the Demon of Hibusa? You don’t seem as selfish as dark girls are usually made out to be."

"Oh, dear boy, just ‘cause one is more attuned with darkness doesn’t mean all of us are wicked. Well, not entirely~" Maribel explained with a chuckle. She crossed her arms. "Besides, someone has to help watch over these girls. They’re not evil villains in the making, they’re just…troubled kids that need support. Unconditional support."

"Interesting perspective…" Fable’s eyes followed Rei as she left the area. "...And not one shared by the demon itself it seems. I suppose you need to watch over her too, huh?" With a shrug, Fable swept up Morganite, who seemed a little startled by the gesture. "Be well, Nocnista. With any luck, we won’t be seeing each other again too soon!"

If one looked closely, they could see Maribel’s smile slightly falter. Only just. "Never make promises neither of us can keep, especially in a town like this one. Be well in your endeavors, Fable~" With a slight tilt of the head, she bid him farewell in turn.

...

_{"Couldn't help yourself, could you?"}