Pre-Story Notes: Nothing much to say about this one. Truth be told, I don't know if this thing could live up to the potential of the idea in general.
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Tatemiya Saiji looked at array of marked paper in front of him and the other Amakusa members with a wide grin and a look of satisfaction on his face.
"Man, this took a lot of work, but the end result will be worth it if everything goes right," Tsushima commented, confident of the plan she and the other magicians had come up with.
"Yeah," Tatemiya agreed. "Now all we have to do is activate it and leave the rest to Itsuwa."
"Hopefully, she won't be too angry about what we're about to do," Itsuwa's grandfather, Isahaya, grimaced, remembering that despite Itsuwa's gentle demeanor, she could be ruthless if angered.
"Ah, she'll thank us when the plan works," Tatemiya stated, dismissing the very likely possibility of what they were about to do. "Alright, let's do this." He said resolutely while clapping his hands.
The magicians nodded while moving toward their respectively plotted positions on the paper array of magic circles. They were doing this so that Itsuwa could get closer to him. The Amakusa had been getting tired of the progress in which she was getting closer to the object of her affection, which was little to none. However, the spell had taken a lot of time due to factoring in that troublesome right hand of the boy that Itsuwa had her eyes on. Special modifications had to be made so that it could not be dispelled or tampered with in any way.
"Now, you're absolutely sure she is still in the kitchen with the Priestess?" Tatemiya questioned one last time to Tsushima. The blonde girl nodded her affirmation.
And then they started the chanting. As their mana surged through the intricate collection of magic circles, the ink began to blaze to life with an ethereal light. The group of magicians continued to concentrate on casting the spell, while the circles were activating their intended purposes.
Magic was, at some times, hilariously simple, and, at other times, horrifyingly complex. When dabbling in any spell involving magic circles, the drawings had to be precise or something different from the intended effect would happen. If something went wrong with the spell, the Amakusa magicians (and the building that they had taken as their residence, for that matter) would all be disintegrated in a big, fiery bang.
And the magicians didn't really want to cause a big, fiery bang with their magic. At least, not without a proper reason.
Eventually, the chanting peaked and a bright flash of light occurred. All of the lit ink slowly started to retract itself from the outer edges of the room where the markings ended over to the central magic circle. After collecting into a violet, lump of luminescent ink, it slowly floated itself up off the large, now-blank sheet of paper that it used to reside on.
It slowly writhed and shaped itself into a perfectly round sphere and gave off a light thrum, before speeding off silently to seek its intended target. The somewhat-fatigued magicians followed briskly after the materialized spell, wanting to make sure that it would fulfill its intended purpose.
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Itsuwa was currently in the kitchen with the 'Priestess', Kanzaki Kaori, who were both preparing dinner. She was slowly stirring the soup while Kanzaki chopping the vegetables in a somewhat clumsy manner. Her sword, Schichiten Schichitou, was lying sheathed against the counter while the female Saint worked diligently. The Supreme Pontiff hadn't been used to helping with dinner, considering she was always doing her best to maintain order among the varied personalities of the Amakusa magicians. Because of this, she was giving the utmost concentration to the task at hand.
As this was going on, Itsuwa felt a chill go up her spine, as if someone had dropped an ice-cube down her shirt, and a sense of foreboding coming from her left, where the opening to the hallway was. She then looked in that direction before shrugging and going back to her stirring. However, she kept sending furtive glances toward the entrance.
That was when the purple ball of magic and ink flew into the kitchen, aimed at Itsuwa. Her eyes widened, before narrowing as her training kicked in and she quickly rolled away from both the counter and ball of magic. It flew past her, not having enough time to adjust its course before it hit the closest, available target.
Which so happened to be the 'Priestess', Kanzaki Kaori.
After snapping out of her concentration from Itsuwa's acrobatic movement, she turned her head to where the other girl had been stirring the soup. It was at that moment her face made contact with the purple ball of magic, which had chosen precisely that moment to activate.
BOOM!
The ball exploded in a flashy manner, while covering the entire room with pink smoke. The other Amakusa members had burst into the room just as the magic had exploded. They coughed while trying to wave away the oddly-colored smoke. As soon as they saw that Itsuwa was unaffected, their hearts sunk, thinking the spell hadn't worked and that they'd needlessly harmed her. One could create all the slander they want about the Amakusa, but they were as closely knit as a family and would never intentionally harm each other, even if the Pope himself commanded their destruction.
And then another terrifying possibility was presented to their thoughts. Another person had been in the kitchen with Itsuwa, helping her prepare dinner. If Itsuwa wasn't the person that the spell hit, then the spell had hit…..
All of the magicians who had been involved in the creation and casting of the spell felt a growing sense of fear, and generally only had one simultaneous thought in their heads.
'We're screwed.'
When the smoke finally cleared, the previously hazy figure had also been made clear. It was Kanzaki Kaori, only she was….. different. The spell that she had been struck by had been created to alter the physical appearance of a person, in a very specific way, for a certain amount of time.
The alterations, however, were very visible.
Everybody in the room did a double take at Kanzaki's altered appearance, and gawked openly. Kanzaki herself slowly picked herself up off the ground before picking up her long sword, which had clattered to the ground during the explosion.
She blinked confusedly at the stares she was getting, before asking "Why are you all looking at me like that?" The magicians nervously pointed to their own heads with shaky fingers, prompting the long-haired girl to mirror the motion. She then felt something furry and froze. Kanzaki slowly moved her hand over the furry something before moving the other hand and feeling another furry something. She attempted to pry it off, but yelped from the unexpected pain that accompanied the motion.
Kanzaki's eyes widened before hurriedly moving herself over to the spotless, reflective surface of the kitchen's countertop to see herself. She gaped openly at she saw black cat ears sprouting out of her head. Kanzaki then felt muscles that she absolutely knew she didn't have before twitch above her pelvis. She slowly turned her head and fearfully cast her eyes down at where the motion had been felt from.
There was a feline tail with smooth black fur sprouting out of the back of her waist.
Kanzaki was often known as a levelheaded person who could think clearly, even in the most chaotic situation. But when she saw the tail, her levelheaded attitude left her and she snapped.
"Nyannnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Kanzaki shouted, unknowingly reverting to a strangely modified version of Japanese.
Her mind worked frantically while her feline ears twitched occasionally, trying to find out the who, what, when, where, and most importantly in her mind, why, of someone turning her into an honest-to-God catgirl.
Kanzaki came to one inevitable conclusion, and bowed her head enough for her bangs to cover her eyes.
The Amakusa magicians slowly backed up, as they saw her head bowed and came to the correct conclusion on who it was that altered her appearance.
Kanzaki faced them, before letting her unoccupied hand rest on the handle of the sword at her side. Her now-uncovered eyes stared blandly at the terrified magicians before opening her mouth and said,
"Any last words?"
The fearful Amakusa members shook their heads very slowly, as if making the motion any faster would get them killed. It was very hard to come up with proper last words when their brains were too busy gibbering in fear at the angered Saint preparing to bring pain upon them.
Kanzaki nodded in acceptance.
Then she pounced.
Only one coherent word was heard before pandemonium erupted,
"NYANASEN!"
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Post-Story Notes: Well, Kanzaki's now a pissed off catgirl. And here we thought she couldn't get anymore deadly :P. Also, would you believe me if I told this is the third time I've ever written a story in general?
Well, leave some reviews. This is the first time I actually put anything on this site so here's hoping.