Perfection

Mary Sue lived an ordinary life in an ordinary suburb, being the quiet kind of girl that you never really noticed. Her long curly brown hair bobbed whenever she walked and her dull brown eyes would gaze in boredom at the world around her. Televisions would talk of celebrities and mysterious occurrences going on in cities, but nothing really happened in the suburb she lived in. She honestly wished for something to happen, anything to get rid of her boredom.

…Well, writing helped allay that somewhat. She would insert herself into her favorite stories and tv shows, living the life of a main character that was never dull. Her character was always the perfect being, something she admired constantly. Who wouldn't want to be perfect? She certainly did. And she escaped her dull, boring life into the world of magic and intrigue through her stories. So what if she got bad reviews because of them? She was living her life through them and she wasn't going to let some nobody take it away from her.

And then he came to her. A white cross between a cat and a rabbit, calling himself Kyubey. She had never seen anything like it, it was like a magical girl mascot or something from animes she watched! What's more, he came to her with a proposal. In exchange for a single wish, he would turn her into a magical girl that fought witches, beings of destruction that secretly live in this world. She wanted it, that life, so much! But what should she wish for? Something simple? Something grand? She pondered for a few moments before giving her answer. She wished to be the most perfect girl in existence, perfect according to her rules.

"Your wish has been granted," he said as a soul gem floated towards her, "Now, accept it!" And she did.

Her parents suddenly found themselves with a lot of money and so moved to the city. She, the new transfer student, found herself the talk of the block, whispering about her golden wavy locks and her bright sapphire eyes. Yes, she found her appearance had changed just to match the ones from her story, though to her dismay her eyes couldn't change color. Oh well. Her parents weren't complaining about her new look and that was all that mattered. She found girls wowing at her every action, boys falling at her feet. She wasn't used to such attention and she would be a little awkward, clumsy, even. But they hung onto her every word and she soon began to love it, the attention.

Her soul gem reacted one day while she was going to school. Curious, she followed to where the soul gem glowed and walked straight into a witch's barrier. Eyes sparkling with determination, she found herself transformed into a magical girl, in her favorite color, purple. True the outfit seemed mismatched at first, but she somehow managed to rock it as she fought past familiars and traveled deeper into the labyrinth.

Then the witch appeared, a large grotesque thing that was could never compare to the beauty she now had. The girl was shaken though, outright terrified of the monster before her. But she did her best, and soon she found herself…admittedly beaten up. She didn't take that too well, though, and soon her hot blood fueled the fire to win the battle. When the battle was one, she stood stock still for a moment before yelling "YES!" and dancing around in joy.

She continued this life for many more days, many more battles. She found she had a talent for witch hunting, and none would escape her wrath. She was full of herself, admittedly, ever since she gained fame within her school and the people around her would notice her. She took pride in the fact that she was now the perfect girl everyone wanted to be, and nothing was going to change that.

Then she met her, Pema Taring. A Tibetan Buddhist monk that traveled to America and came to fight witches in Mary's city. She was doing her customary opening dialogue when it happened, the sneaky thief attacked her witch and stole her kill. She allowed her to use the grief seed because, well, it was her kill, freaking- She went up to the girl and began, calmly, telling her how she stole her witch. The girl just shook her head in confusion.

"Isn't it enough? That the witch is dead?" she asked.

"Still!" she protested before lowering her voice, "Leave the fighting to me from now on, okay? This is my city, I protect it from harm."

"But would it not be better to work together? We can defeat witches faster that way and share the burden together." …Touché.

"Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name's Mary, Mary Sue. And you are?"

"…Pema Taring," she said quietly, blushing out of shyness, "Your power, I can sense it. What did you wish for to obtain such power?"

"Perfection!" she answered, puffing her chest in pride. Pema's eyes narrowed.

"Nothing remains perfect forever," she warned, "Everything will crumble away, just like we will someday."

"Then it's not perfect if it will go away," Mary argued, "Perfection is immortal!"

"No, nothing is immortal. Magical girls, witches, your idea of perfection, we will all fade away one day and make way for the next generation."

"Pssht, whatever, talk to you later." She left her alone with the grief seed, feeling haughty as ever. What did that girl know of perfection? She wasn't perfect, not like her. They would meet several more times in her life, always with a lecture on the Buddhist's lips. They never really formed a close friendship, but it suited her just fine.

Her life was suddenly interrupted when she got the call that her parents died in an accident and that their fortune would go to her when she came of age. Until then, she had to live with her uncle and aunt. They acted kind…at first. Then there was the occasional yelling and the slaps. Then it quickly escalated into downright verbal and physical abuse. She was stunned, abuse couldn't hurt this bad, right? Besides, how did she have the luck to suffer under such cruel people? She was perfect for crying out loud?

People didn't ask about the bruises on her face, instead gushing about how much it matched her eyes…sort of. Didn't they care? she wanted to scream, Didn't they care about her situation? But no, they just praised her over and over again as if she were a goddess and took no notice of her plight.

Then one day she was coming home from school when someone came and…stole her away. She was shocked by it, by such a dreadful action. What was this, one of her stories' backstory?! She ranted to Kyubey about how her life sucked so much now. This wasn't perfect! Why was she suffering?!

"I was only going by what you considered perfect," he said simply, "I read your stories, interesting stories, by the way. You had abuse and rape as your idea of perfection and that's what I was going by when you made your wish. No, I did not predict your parents' death, though that does tie in wonderfully with your idea of a tragic heroine's perfect backstory, no?" She was crushed.

Pema found herself searching for Mary, feeling incredibly worried for her. She had seen the girl in battle, but she would always flee quickly looking emotionless and pale after grabbing the grief seed. Was she…going to turn into a witch soon? She hoped not, she had formed a bit of a bond with that perfect girl who apparently had the same name as those who- she won't go into detail about it.

She eventually found Mary crying silently on top of a building.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Mary sniffled and mumbled, "No…" before ranting about how her life had taken a turn for the worse and that it just wasn't fair that she had to suffer so much now. Pema became increasingly worried as the darkness in her soul gem grew at an exponential rate.

"It's funny, all my life I wanted adventure and fun, the perfect life," she murmured, looking and the Tibetan monk dully, "Now I realize that's not what I want at all! I want none of this to ever have happened. I want my mom and dad back, I don't want to be hurt anymore…" She wailed out her grief and the despair turned into hatred.

"They should all pay for what they did to me! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!" She began to laugh, becoming more hysterical by the second as her soul gem cracked and she turned into a witch. Pema just stayed there, stunned as the perfect witch twirled around in her cage.

"…Don't worry, my friend, I will save you from your misery," she said, getting out her staff and preparing to attack. And then, after a short while, the perfect witch was no more.