The World

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

---

Just before Michi gave her reply, Zassou wondered: How had she known those things? She had never had those memories, they were only for Tsubomi to know. Her earliest sensation was after falling down at the home of Tsubomi's aunt and uncle...

The final thing that Tsubomi felt was metal striking her down. She didn't even register it under the weight of her own inner turmoil. She did not feel Michi catching her, nor the sudden cessation of her breath.

The final thing that Zassou felt was metal striking her down. She didn't even register it until well after, finding herself in a void of darkness. She did not feel the sting of the strike, nor the uncharacteristic racing of her heart.

When the flower finally attempted to bring herself to her feet, there was no solid ground on which to try. When it tried to reach out, there was no sun to feel. When it attempted to budbreak, there were no petals to open. When it tried to live, there was no life to spend.

Instead there were feelings. Feelings foreign to it, feelings it did not understand. There were images, images it did not see. There were sounds, sounds it did not hear. All of its experiences seemed to drain away into the past, or perhaps the future instead.

The bulb began to fall from a height it had never known, to depths it had never imagined. Like a stone that had been bounced on a lake's surface and had finally lost its momentum, it was dragged down under the pressure around it. The only thing it knew was that it wasn't where it belonged.

Soon enough, scenes passed by it, fellow droplets from the same cloud that it was born from. Scenes of things it thought it might have known, scene of things that it might have come to know. They all passed by at their own pace, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind.

The cold of the wind. The smell of freshly cut grass. The weight of a hand on the head.

"Tsubomi, what is it that you want to be when you grow up?"

"I told you, Grandma, I want to be a psychiatrist!"

"That's quite the word for someone so young! And that's going to take a lot of effort and studying! Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Mhm! I want to help people be happy!"

"That's the Tsubomi I know! I'm sure you'll be a great help to people some day. You already are!"

The scent of wood smoke. The sensation of wetness. The sound of thunder.

"Big Sis! Where's Peach? Did she run away again? She's scared of storms..."

"Yeah... She is. I'm sure she's okay, though! She's a strong cat, and she wouldn't want to come home and see us sad, right? So we have to be smiling for her to return home to!"

"Right! We'll throw a party when she gets back! Come on, ███████, let's go get Mom and Dad so we can get ready for her!"

The sound of paper. The despair of helplessness. The feeling of inadequacy.

"Everything's okay, Tsubomi, your mother and I are just tired. We'll make it through okay."

"Dad, I know we're running tight on money. There's got to be a way I can help! I could get a part-time job!"

"You're too young to worry about money. Just focus on doing well in school and staying healthy. That's more than enough."

The pulse of music. The vibrations of shaken water. The glow of sun on the sidewalk.

"Kid, whatever this stuff is, it's a gold mine! You just keep making it, and I promise that you'll never worry about money again!"

The taste of iron. The tiredness of worn muscles. The pain of cracked bone.

"Are you okay? That Miseria nearly got you. Looks like it already got some others... If only I got here sooner..."

The scenes stopped falling, hanging midair as the bud fell deeper.

"Most good deeds don’t involve going into venues you’re too young for, peddling products you have no business selling, in an attempt to help people you don’t understand."

"Nobody ever understands anyone. If all you can do is swim, you'll find a way to be in the water. Limiting yourself to only what others say you can do will kill you."

"Who could have done something to stop this?"

"Anyone who tried could have succeeded. Anyone who wanted to could have failed."

The sound of shattering glass. The feeling of tearing paper. The sound of a raindrop.

"This is all your fault! If you didn't exist, none of this would have happened! I could have saved them, I could have made things better!"

"If only I didn't exist... They would be safe. They would be happy..."

"If only..."

"Things were different..."

"I have to die!"

"I have to live!"

You can't change anything if you're dead! You can't make things better!

You can't make things worse if you're dead! You can't hurt anyone!

Die!

Shut up!

Die!

Shut up!

Die!

Shut up!

Die!

Shut up!

There was an emptiness, somewhere. An emptiness that was filled with more nothingness as it grew. A river with no water, on which flower petals were afloat. They drifted ever onward, desperate to feel a sun they would never reach.

We eat life to live, a ravenous need to continue driving us to end the needs of others.

Even flowers need nutrients, the corpses of others serving to let them grow.

Even when its leaves are torn away, it will thirst still for the light.

You have to cut the roots to kill the weeds.

You have to kill the cat to bring it back.

And something has to die to be reborn.

The twins found themselves staring at each other. One, a rose by another name. The other, a daffodil that bore no narcissism.

The flower spoke, "If only you weren't around, nobody'd have to suffer."

And the flower listened, "If only I weren't around, you'd be the only one suffering."

Neither knew what the other's appearance. Neither knew the other's voice. Neither knew the other's feelings.

Neither knew their own appearance. Neither knew their own voice. Neither knew their own feelings.

The two blindly flailed through the dark, through life, until they struck something. Only then would they wonder what they wanted.

Neither knew what the other wanted. Neither knew what they themselves wanted.

Finally, one stopped flailing. It was satisfied.

Finally, one stopped flailing. It was not satisfied.

The light was enough.

It was enough for a lifetime.

It was enough for now.

One reached for the light while the other stopped reaching.

It was not enough for either.

---

Tsubomi did not awaken when Kiyo and Haruna did. She did not awaken when Roche and Shuuko did. She did not awaken when Suki did.

Instead she lay still, stiller than stone. Her body was not sure that it was breathing, its inhale and exhale too faint. Her body did not know if its heart was beating, its rhythm too slow, too faint. But it was alive. It lived on, regardless. It kept existing, despite everything.

It did not know how long that would continue.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"I feel funny."



You can't just tell people the story's moral halfway through.

---

The Tsubomi visible to the audience watched, unamused, as the majority of the Detention Club input their own ideals into the performance. Did they have the media literacy of a flea? Or worse, the emotional maturity of one? But she only had a moment to wonder that before Michi announced what was happening, what had happened. And suddenly her own emotional maturity, or at least her grip on its titular part of the human experience, broke around her.

Acid Drop watched as her originator brought her hand to her head in despair as she heard the words Black Gate spoke. It made sense, to her, that Tsubomi would react that way. She hadn't been an aware entity since the moment she left the Light, if she herself actually ever had. Sure, Tsubomi was a bit mean now, (though Zassou wouldn't blame her for it) but the girl's lack of interpersonal tact was neither surprising nor a sin worthy of calling her a member of the Dark. Whatever her words may imply otherwise, the weed knew that the flower it was slowly choking out had good intentions. That it was reaching out toward the sun to take its hand, not to block it from another.

So when Sylvia suddenly found herself back on stage, and Michi continued her explanation, her cry for understanding and revenge, Acid Drop didn't simply watch as Tsubomi began to hyperventilate. Instead, she did the only thing she could think of: she walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, pouring her magic into her other self to push out the regret and despair, filling her with as much calm as she could.

But Tsubomi refused. She turned and slapped away Zassou's hand as she did, screaming out at her.

"Don't fucking touch me!" was all she could manage before she fell to her knees, crying. If this was what had happened, to a schoolgirl, what had happened to her town when she disappeared? Were her loved ones safe? Was anyone safe?

Zassou simply stared down at her weeping mirror. After a moment, she looked to the audience, who seemed to be torn by confusion at her reaction to an unseen hand and fear at the gun being waved around. Her eyes drifted towards Michi, still far too quickly to be normal for her. She breathed in, and then sighed.

Suddenly, there were two Tsubomis on the stage, visible to the crowd who had already seen so much magic. Just as she began to feel her mental faculties leaving her, returning to their normal pace, she used the last of their momentum to speak aloud, before her words became their usual slow selves.

"But Tsubomi also saved people." Zassou began as she started towards Sylvia, her pace slowing with each step. "She used her talent to wean addicts off their vices, giving them most of the money she made from giving out her drink. She kept her family afloat with it. And nearly every yen she made off of those with no desire to kick their habits that didn't go to bills went straight to those who most needed them."

By now Zassou's words were back to their usual cadence, her steps following suit. She wasn't quite to Sylvia yet, but she continued. "And most importantly..."

As the final word hung in the air, she took her final slow steps to bringing Sylvia in arm's reach. The dandelion reached up to the Baretta the armed ape was holding, and wrapped its roots around it at a glacial pace.

"She did her best. She gave everything she could for everyone she could, even if that wasn't enough."

With the barrel of the firearm in her hand, Zassou's muscled tensed just enough to start it on a trajectory away from Hizuki and towards herself. "After all..." She turned her head back to face Michi, giving her a smile that was still too forced, but was practiced enough to be somewhat believable.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the stairway to heaven is bricked by evil. There's nothing but Rome under the sun."

And then the final petal of the wilted flower was plucked away.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Got it memorized?"



Yes, but I can only access it randomly.

---

"Nobody here wants to watch, anyway." echoed through Acid Drop's mind. She supposed it was true, that she didn't want to watch whatever was about to be shown. She hadn't wanted to watch Tsubomi's repetitive shows either, when she was being carried by the bat-wielder.

As Michi spoke about her sister, Tsubomi simply stood still. She wasn't sure how the girl had learned what she knew, but it didn't matter, really. Whatever Michi thought she knew was irrelevant. To Tsubomi, it was obvious that she wasn't that 'drug' dealing person anymore.

But in the end, this was a play. A performance put on by actors. And what was an actor but someone pretending to be someone they weren't? So she ignored the desire to cringe at the lines and choreography, put on a smile, and stepped forward into her role on her way to Roche.

"Hey there," she began, pulling the cap off the bottle as she did, "Never seen you around before, but you're looking like shit." Tsubomi didn't have to try very hard to make that line convincing, with Roche's inner-conflict visible on her face.

With what would have once been a practiced pour, but now took far too much effort to measure the liquid correctly, Tsubomi filled the cap with some of the colored water, then held it out to the other girl.

"Dunno what's going on with you, but this'll help it, promise. Takes the edge off." Was that what the line was meant to be? Was that correct for the role she was playing? She wasn't sure. Knowing the motions didn't make them natural, and knowing the words didn't make them true. But she was sure that she was doing well enough that the untrained viewer wouldn't notice.

Zassou's right eye was dyed orange for a moment as she tilted her head to the side. She had no idea that Tsubomi used to be that way. Even now, after having been shown a performance going through the event, the first wearer of her skin had kept the memories of what actually happened out of reach. It was hard to believe that the rough girl had ever been that way, but she wasn't well-versed enough in the material to say that she wasn't.

Still, something told her that this wasn't quite right.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Know Thyself."



As Above, so Below.

---

Zassou blinked, not in surprise, but definitely in recognition. Once again she had realized that it was much harder to remember where people were without being able to sense the emotions coming from them.

That's right, Haruna was untransformed. She suddenly stopped, a few steps away from the seat next to Misoka. While she was thinking if that made as much sense, Kiyo stopped herself from running over Zassou to make her rushed request.

"Mm. I'll try. I haven't been able to sense anything with my magic today, though." At least, except for that spark from Tsubomi earlier. She blindly tried to reach out with her magic to start giving those with blue ribbons positive feelings, but without being able to target them by their present emotions, she couldn't seem to manage it.

Zassou quickly raised her hand to try to focus further on those Kiyo had asked her to affect. If she couldn't grab them all at once, maybe one at a time? As she pointed to the nearest one, other than Misoka, she once more looked at her hand. "Too normal."

Maybe a change of perspective would help? The apathetic magi held out her palm, to her view bringing a group of mundane students to rest on it. But even when she closed her fist, she couldn't find any evidence that their emotions had been changed.

Something was nagging at her mind. If Tsubomi's Sweet Arm had been a scalpel, then even if it was warped now, was affecting many people at once the way it should be used? She supposed she'd have to try anyway, or it'd be too late. But first...

Zassou turned to Haruna, her hand outstretched with the palm up as if asking her to take it. A second later, her hand closed, and Haruna felt Zassou's, Tsubomi's, magic wrap itself around her. The Light Girl would have just enough time to notice that she was feeling more clear-headed, more calm, before Acid Drop disappeared like a car on a stage.

---

As soon as Tsubomi was airborne, her mind raced to find a way to fight back. Then how about a foot up your ass instead?

But the thought split its own way onto a side road as she was dropped and barely caught her balance. Soon enough, it replaced the wild flailings of ill intent being thrown Michi's direction by Tsubomi's subconscious with a new thought: 'The same goal?' And if that was so, why was she as angry as... well, herself up until this morning? Better question, how many times can I stab this girl before she bleeds out?

The goth girl before her continued her monologue without waiting for Tsubomi to try to find out. If she had been bodied for the past almost-year, she may have still had the instincts to lunge at the goat-girl. As it was, she simply stood there as she was talked down to further.

Then she was gone, having heard the roles but not given time to think about them.

---

"Mm." Acid Drop dutifully took the water bottle, looking over it as she rolled it in her hands.

This all seemed familiar, but she played the role she was undoubtedly unsuited for and walked over to Tsubomi to pass off her liquid baton.

For her part, the original identity recognized the bottle. At the same time that her eyes brought in the stimulus, her mind understood the 'setting' of the play. But things were too hazy for her to parse why the curtains were blue.

Consciously, she knew that this mirrored a memory of hers, one that Zassou didn't share. Like all her old memories, before the weed had grown its roots inside her, they were there, things she could see like old half-burnt photographs. But at this point, this one was more ash than paper. She'd tried her best to salvage it, but charcoal rubbings didn't show the contents of the matte paper no matter how hard she pressed.

Zassou stood still in front of her origin as the latter attempted to reminisce. She couldn't help but wonder what was taking her so long, why she was staring at the bottle for so long. At least she could understand the irony of that.

She could also understand, to some level, what must have been going through her mind. After watching that performance, put on by such talented Miseria, she had a rough understanding of the last time Tsubomi had been in such a place. At least, she assumed that's what the backdrop implied. Did that mean that the goth girl had been in attendance? She didn't remember seeing her in the seating...

Having glared a hole in the plastic, Tsubomi made up her mind. Her mind. What a wonderful concept. She couldn't decide if that meant she should be glad that the girl in black seemed to be trying to help her remember something from it, or if she should be furious that she would imply she knew anything about it when its owner had so little of it left. After another few seconds, she had made her choice.

"Sure, let's play along. Nobody here wants to watch, anyway."

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"It'll be okay, Roche."



Nobody responsible for this post condones the language used, only the message.

---

Just after Willow found her way to Tsubomi and Sylvia, the empath finally realized who she was talking with. "Oh. You're... Shatterscape, right? Didn't remember you looking like this. But as for your question, I expect that the rest of your Club can handle themselves. Normally I'd say you could too, but... Actually, you know what? Go for it. Maybe it'll help you sort things out."

Then to Willow, speaking a bit quieter, "Honestly, at this point I think it's better to give her a little time to think." And to drive that point home, she spoke again to Sylvia, still with her voice lowered.

"Look, you're rightfully angry now, and hopefully at whoever caused you that original harm in the first place, but don't go stewing in it for too long." Maybe it was hypocritical of her. No, it definitely was, but what person could follow their own advice? Besides, Tsubomi wasn't the type to have any interest in helping herself improve anyway. That sort of thing had to be external for her to accept it.

"If this turns out to be a legitimate misunderstanding, go for a run or a swim." She paused. "Okay maybe don't go swimming when you're angry, you could drown. But take all your anger and beat it out through your feet, and then you'll be ready to look at things again. Just definitely break up with him, or whoever this was all started by."

---

Zassou listened as Suki gave her take on Michi's words. She had meant that Michi was the one in question, but Suki raised a good point. And with her newfound thinking ability, she wondered: Wouldn't that then mean that Earthshaker is the antagonist right now?

It didn't matter who the protagonist was, or who was ready to fight. It didn't matter if anyone was any of those things. Even with Tsubomi MK.I having the emotion senses all to herself, it was obvious that things had reached a dangerous place for everyone.

Zassou glanced over at Tsubomi, who was now questioning her statement as well. That made two of them. Regardless of if Michi was an enemy, she was acting rather... catty. In multiple ways. Putting that aside led Zassou to where she was earlier. Who had wished for this?

---

Tsubomi began to walk away from the now-transformed girl, but stopped to give one last comment. "Hey, also. Don't go confusing me for Zassou, got it? If you do, you'll get much worse results."

With that said, she made her way to grab a handful of napkins before heading over to the "fight" between Michi and the other three. Other two. However you were supposed to classify the Shuukos.

When she was finally within arm's reach, she reached her arm out to Michi's held out hand to place her own palm over it, holding out her other hand with a fistful of napkins. "Hey, if this is all just a misunderstanding, then I'll apologize on behalf of everyone." She shrugged. "I made the mistake of assuming the cafeteria is full of your lackeys, since so many girls were around you in the hallways."

After trying to gently lower Michi's arm, Tsubomi grabbed a few of the napkins from her other hand and started trying to flick pieces of food off of the other girl's dress without directly touching her. "Sorry about that. Also sorry for Zassou's Club being on edge, though I'm sure you can understand why. Hell, I understand why and I've only gotten things secondhand from something that couldn't pay attention to details if it had to in order to survive."

---

Then it all clicked. "Mm. Thank you." Acid Drop carefully made her way to sit next to Misoka.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"My math was correct."



This just in, resident genius can count.

---

"Look, just because I can't read your mind doesn't mean you're some impenetrable vault. You're putting out so much pain that it's actually kind of hard to think straight around you. Besides, if you kick me back, that makes it a fight. And at least according to a bunch of manga, that's a great way to get to know each other and work through someone's issues." Tsubomi gave a grin, one not quite as lighthearted as she wanted it to appear.

"Buuuuuut, that'll be our last resort, I figure. So let's go with plan A and just... start with this. You're getting mad, which is promising since it means you're not so far off the deep-end that you're not feeling anything, but you're keeping it in pretty well. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing. You were able to make eye contact, but barely. And it's pretty obvious that it's not because you're being shy."

Tsubomi put her hand to her chin and looked away at the ceiling. "Which means, if you're afraid to face an aggressor head on, and you're quashing your angry feelings as quickly as you can, then it's probably not a missing pet. It seems more like..." Tsubomi tilted her head across her shoulder to look back at Sylvia. "... an abusive relationship? Does your boyfriend hit you?"

Truth be told, Tsubomi didn't know if Sylvia was aware of her magic, but that didn't matter at the moment, with how overwhelming Sylvia's pain was. Besides, with how weird the day was, she wouldn't expect anyone to not be magical at this point.

---

Acid Drop had just noticed Tsubomi out of the corner of her eye and was about to walk over to intervene when it happened. Something akin to a jolt of static in the cold passed between Tsubomi and Zassou as Black Gate's words carried through the air.

To Tsubomi, the spark came with a thought. The point of this isn't to make anyone happy. Maybe it was, but if so, whoever was behind it was worse than she was at getting it across. But she couldn't help everyone, at least not at once, and the girl in front of her needed help soon, or it might become too late. Even if it was only through the flames of anger, she needed to keep this girl's heart from becoming too cold to feel again.

But to Zassou, it came with something else. She wasn't sure why it was, or how, but the knowledge was there; Tsubomi felt something just then, something that wasn't suited for her with her lack of connections to the Club members. Despite her dulled magical senses, something she didn't understand either given that she was transformed, she could tell that Tsubomi felt an emotion in the back of her consciousness that she had no reason to feel.

Something's changing. If she had the time, she'd wonder if this was a result of the magic that had somehow separated them. If she had the time, she'd wonder if she and Tsubomi were crossing a boundary of their Venn diagram. If she had the time, she'd wonder if the two of them were even separated at all at the depths of their selves, or only at the surface.

But she didn't process any of these musings. Even with her high-speed (relative to her usual) thinking, she didn't have the time or inclination to think any of those thoughts. Suki was slowly making her way away, and Haruna had gone to try to help. Even Kiyo, grabbing two other girls, ran to and past her.

Tsubomi proper wasn't ready to leave the girl in front of her alone. If she did, would she ever get a chance to try again? When this dream ended, would she still be able to do things on her own? When Kiyo made her realization, Tsubomi had a similar epiphany.

This girl is magic after all. She must be part of the Club...

Furthermore, Haruna and Suki, even Kiyo... "God damn, can you people stop being pits of despair for five seconds, please!?"

Tsubomi tried to collect herself, before turning back to Sylvia.

"Hey, looks like someone noticed that we're surrounded." Tsubomi reached a hand out to Sylvia, doing her best to not scare her off. "Can't heal if you're dead, so let's get out of here. We can fight or talk later."

While Tsubomi tried to lead Sylvia away, Zassou went to Suki's side. "The antagonist has revealed herself. That means they're ready to fight."

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"I'm going to send the cause of this to nintendo."



It's too late to file a complaint.

---

Tsubomi couldn't help but roll her eyes at her foot being caught. "Yeah, obviously you're not okay. The thing I'm interested in right now is why are you not okay."

A smile, not quite a sneer, but on its way to graduating from the school of contempt, broke out on her face at the twinge of emotional change she felt. Sure, anger wasn't great from Sylvia right now, but it was better than the rest of what the girl was feeling.

The empath shook her head to clear the meaner of the thoughts she had rising in it from her mind, and replied. "If you want, I could actually kick you. Make it hurt. That's how some people deal with pain in their minds, by replacing it with pain in their body."

Tsubomi slowly began to pull her foot back so she could set it on the ground once more. "To be blunt, though, I'm really just wanting to help you out so you stop radiating emotional turmoil like a nuclear waste site."

---

"Was I supposed to be wearing one?" Zassou asked. The increase in her thoughts' speed didn't help her when she didn't know why something was incorrect.

She glanced around the room, still at her increased pace, before turning back to Suki. "Is it a holiday today? Or is this part of the wish?"

With Haruna's reply came certainty. "Mm. It's not just me and Tsubomi, then. Which means... is the wisher a dark girl, or a helpful light one?"

A pause that wouldn't fit the role of a sentence ender for her usual pace passed by. "One of Snapdragon's friends? Or a jewel? Both?"

Zassou turned her attention away from her questions and back to Haruna. "Is there a light girl who's good at... dreaming?" Zassou held her hands in front of her face, staring at them to see if they were correct.

"Mm. Making dreams come true, maybe. Fantasies? Mind-melding?" Her thoughts trailed off, only to be pushed aside by her next one. An irritating illusion, spun by a jerk? A jackass? An Eeyore?

"... an egregore?"

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Does a perpetually incrementally increasing force ever cross the boundary of a doorway?



Be thankful you're on flat ground.

---

"Stop. Feeling. Like. Garbage." Tsubomi punctuated each word with a kick, each with slightly more force than the last. It was a somewhat impressive display of balance to do so on one leg with her hands full, especially given that she didn't have a body to practice with until now.

Having heard Sylvia's question, Tsubomi explained in case the girl wanted to ask again.

"I'm not going to stop until I've knocked some sense into you, so hurry up and tell me what your problem is." Another kick.

She wasn't exactly a trained psychologist, but half the time people choose to be less than forthcoming with those who are, so she figured her chances were about fifty-fifty.

"Trust me, this'll go much easier for both of us if you just spill your issues now." Her final warning(?) was once more accompanied by a more forceful, but still relatively light kick.

---

Zassou found her stomach grumbling when she entered the lunchroom, yet another surprise. She couldn't remember the last time that it had actually caused her to want food. Normally it was just a noise she blocked out, or used as a sign that her body needed refueling. Never a discomfort like this.

In the end, she decided to ignore it once more, instead making her way to Suki and Haruna at a speed very much unlike her.

"Is today going well for you two, too?" If nothing else, the eyeless cat had confirmed one thing: this was not the result of Nocturne. Something had happened, and while she still leaned towards a wish being granted, there was nobody who would wish for just Tsubomi and herself to be separated.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"The cat went away."



It's too busy writing a story to stick around, I guess.

---

When Sylvia bowled into Tsubomi, she wondered through the pressure of the girl's feelings if coming to the school was a good idea. And since when was her magic so sensitive!? Especially when she wasn't trying to use it. Was this due to being locked away in her mind for so long, or was it because Zassou was transformed now?

She didn't have a lot of time to think about it before some of the gaggle of schoolgirls around them helped her stand back up. She was dragged along by the wave of bodies into what was luckily the room for her next class.

When she finally got seated, an unfamiliar face entered the room, framed by red. Was this woman always the teacher of this class? Tsubomi didn't remember her... But at least the class should be easy.

...

Time had slipped away into lunchtime, and Tsubomi had only grown more annoyed leading up to it. Whoever this girl was, she clearly needed some sort of intervention. And while Tsubomi probably wasn't the best person to do it, she didn't know anyone who would be better suited for it. She didn't really know anyone, really. Except the girl who had threatened her at the arcade, but she would have to wait for now.

And so Tsubomi found herself standing behind Sylvia, struggling to think through what she should say to her. After a few seconds, she decided to quit on that approach.

Screw it, I'll just wing it.

Her hands full with her lunch, she lifted her right leg and gently kicked Sylvia in the back to get her attention.

"Hey. The hell happened to you? Did your pet run away or something?"

---

It seemed that the Mascot's projection had different eyes than Zassou. Or was that because it didn't have any? She wasn't sure. She was only sure that she didn't know binary. Nor did she know what it meant by saying it was her. Was there a third in Tsubomi's head? She hoped not.

But then it was gone, and the Mascot was back in control. Seeing it happen to something else put things in a strange perspective for her. Was that what it was like at the arcade? Well, it didn't matter too much. She reached out to pet the feline thrice, then paused. What had it meant by Tsubomi being the interface? Surely it was Zassou who had that role, right?

After a few moments she pulled herself up onto the desk to resume the hopefully enjoyable action and closed her eyes in thought.

How strange, to 'think'. It meant that she 'was,' didn't it? That she had agency, a consciousness. 'Free will,' as it were. But what was 'will,' anyway? What was a 'self'? Where did it come from, why was it there? And could she really say she even had that if she was some sort of non-human? Did the grass that grew from a grave have its own will, as well?

Suddenly, as if hit in the head by a grand-slam baseball, she thought she understood Tsubomi a little better. Or maybe that wasn't right. Did she ever understand anyone? Anything? And could she, if she didn't have a 'self'? Haruna had thought that she might be Tsubomi's magic. How ironic, if so, that her magic questioned her existence as if their roles were reversed. But that made Zassou the antagonist, didn't it? Though she supposed that was fitting, given the Club she was allowed to be a part of...

If only she could read the script, everything would be fine. She'd know what mask to wear, what lines to repeat. The choreography would need to be improvised, but the audience wouldn't mind, and neither would she.

She continued her repeating motions on the Mascot's back alongside her rumination. Soon it was dusk, and she'd be late to class, but she didn't move any further than she already was. She decided it was better to not change. There was plenty of reason to make things different, and little to avoid doing so, but even still it was what Zassou decided.

The sun peeked through the window at last, shedding light on the cat and the weed, giving freely what it had to give. Zassou felt her neck slump as her face turned to it, just as her namesake would. As it did, her black hair covered her eyes to block it out. That was about right, she decided. Her own self blocking what she needed. Was that a trait only she bore, or was it Tsubomi's that she was simply borrowing?

Which identity in, or rather formerly in, that rainbow covered head was the owner of Zassou's being?

Oh. That must be what the Mascot's inner self meant. Identity, but what did that word mean? What was the meaning, the meaning of self, the meaning of life? What was the definition of it, while she was at it? She still didn't know anything, even after a day of thought. And that was at the pace of a normal person!

Her hand twitched. As if it had heard her thoughts, the cat under her hand had bit down on her. It drew blood, but she didn't feel any pain. As she idly watched her insides pour out between its teeth, she wondered when the Mascot had turned pink. Was it from her blood? Perhaps from someone else's...

Her eyes lazily drifted to her free hand. Was the cat going to become sedated, or was that unique to Tsubomi's body?

She watched her hand close, only to reopen a moment later. Surely she could stop the feline, but why? If it drank all her blood, she'd be allowed to leave a part of her behind in its existence. A rust-colored bloodstain on the Club; it wasn't quite the way she'd imagined, but that was fine.

Ah, the television was purring on the desk across from her. She'd always hated when teachers brought it in to teach for them, since the static kept her awake at her desk. But this sound was nice. At least, more so than the alternative.

The ringing of the school's bell brought an orange film over Zassou's eyes. She could still feel a hand on the Mascot's back, but when had she laid down? It took her a moment to sit up again, her hair falling away from her sight as she did.

Her head turned to look around the room. It seemed that she had fallen asleep at some point. Well, that was fine. She always did her best thinking away from the waking world anyway. Granted, not a lot of it, nor was it particularly impressive lately, but it was thinking nonetheless.

She glanced at the clock and wondered if it was worth it to go to lunch. She wasn't particularly hungry, but the Mascot had curled up to take a nap as well, so she decided to let sleeping cats lie and make her way to the lunchroom.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Umu."



Wish I'd saved the "who is stupider" clip for now...

---

She didn't see it. She didn't see the blonde girl walking by behind her now-turned back. But she felt it. As she took her third step away from Haruna and Michi, Tsubomi felt the crushing weight of the passing girl's pain. It stuck her like a baseball bat to the side of the head, causing her to physically recoil and stumble to the side, barely catching herself a step later. It was a good thing Haruna was to her left, the empath not having realized that the two of them shared their next class.

Had being so long without control really made her this sensitive to the way she felt her magic? She'd have to figure that out later, because for now she was having trouble even thinking straight.

When, after a few seconds of standing still, Tsubomi turned back around, she didn't even see the larger crowd that had gathered. She could only glare at the blonde girl as if Sylvia had chosen to feel the way she did just to hurt her personally. As her not-so-subtle stare was finally broken, she made a mental note of the girl's appearance. There was no way to know why she was feeling that way, but it was dangerous in more ways than just to Tsubomi's magic. But she'd deal with that later. Preferably after a class without that girl in it.

But before she could walk off again, Suki stopped to talk. It didn't really matter what she was saying to Tsubomi, because the other girl was, to her dismay, still there. With both Michi's question and the growing number of apostles she seemed to be accumulating going unnoticed, she tried once again to stumble her way to her classroom.

---

Zassou didn't know what the cat meant. What did the Vatican have to do with Mascots? Were cats catholic? If they were, what kind? After a few seconds of thought, in which she did more processing than she usually did in an hour, she concluded that catholic cats made sense, at least for the magic ones. After all, there was nothing but Rome under the sun.

A would-be shock to the girl, if she could feel the results of one, was that she could follow the Mascot's speech while also being able to think her own thoughts.

"Mm... I don't think so. You exist to me. We're talking, you can't talk with something that isn't real. Unless you're also not real, maybe." Zassou paused once more, another few thoughts managing to dig their way through the caved in tunnels of her synapses.

"Plus, negative times negative is a plus. Double not existing is existing, I think." Was this cat the Mascot or another feline entirely?

"This one is sociable. It rubs on my legs and purrs a lot. And you're here, you're socializing. Are you the telekitten's inner thoughts?" She almost said something about how talking to the color yellow was a good thing, something she respected artists for doing, but the Cheshire opened its teeth once more to ask a bigger question.

-'Do you want a wish granted.'-

Even with her new mental faculties and RAM, she needed a little time to think on that.

-Maybe we aren't meant to have our wishes granted.-

And yet she already had. Tsubomi'd had hers granted, that's why she got her magic. Suki, Kiyo, the others in the Club... Even Nocturne and the boss lady had their granted. Did things turn out well for them? Maybe, maybe not. But it wasn't like they were gone yet, so even if it was bad, they still had time for things to become good.

But what about Zassou? She didn't get a wish granted by a cat, but whatever was going on now was good. Tsubomi was free, she herself could think... Did she want or need anything else?

A song, one she herself had only heard once, but which echoed throughout her very being from Tsubomi's love for it, played in her mind. Even if it was for the sake of everyone's wishing, she wouldn't wish for a world without wishes. That's what it said, wasn't it? Even with clearer mind she couldn't remember for sure. So... not yet.

"... Mm. No, thank you. Things are okay for now." The girl's eyes were covered with vibrant color as she bowed in appreciation for the offer.

After a couple seconds in that position, she stood back to her full, slumped height. "But I'd like to know about you. What's your name?"