The door to the mysterious room opened and a blonde woman in a tattered nurse's outfit stumbled in.
The three generals sneered at the newcomer. They knew her well enough to know what she wanted.
Takano Miyo. A former general. A current waste of space. It was her idea to take over Hinamizawa but she had been easily bested by the Magical Girls.
No doubt about it. Takano Miyo was no longer useful. And she knew it.
The general to her immediate left spoke first:
"Takano san! I see you've managed to drag yourself back here. Good to see that Oyashiro Rika didn't blast away your stuborness."
He said those words with a mocking tone in his voice that automaticaly made anyone who heard him want to slap him in the face- Save for Takano. She was too shocked to think about slapping him. But rest assured; Had she been in full control of her senses, she would have had his head on a plane to Russia by now and the rest of him would never be heard from again.
"Okonogi-san!" Takano could not believe that the man she had once outranked would speak to her like that. She could expect that from Teppei but not from Okonogi!
Speak of the devil...
"Hah haha haha. Damn Takano! My niece and her miko friend sent you flying higher than a weather balloon! I din't think it was possible to fly like that... Then again, you are a blonde. Airheadedness is in your genes! hahaha!"
Takano snapped her attention to the general to her right. He was laughing like a maniac. Drunk no doubt. Takano quickly gave the quickest quick comeback that could come to mind.
"Y-your not one to talk! You're blonde too Houjou-San!"
"Silence!"
Everybody looked to the general in the being a middle aged woman, her hair was ash gray. She had a voice that could-quite obviously- silence a room of magical evildoers with one word.
"Houjou"she looked to the big blonde man with the booze breath"Okonogi" She looked to the skinny man with the pointy ears and the black ponytail."We can discuss Takano's blondness at a later time. Now it is time to discuss her incompitence. Am I understood?"
"Yes Namura-San." They said in unision.
"I'll start off,"said Teppei Houjou,"Last year, I was dropping hints that I wanted a puppy for my birthday. You remember what you gave me,Takano? It was a godamn doodlyf*cking BOOK about PLANTS! When did I ever show any signs of liking plants! You disgust me you little ...!"
"I meant about the Hinamizawa project, Houjou!" Said Namura.
"Oh... Well that sucked too!"
Takano truly had to restrain herself from drop kicking the man in the goofy belly shirt right then and there.
"It was MY idea to go there! It was MY grandfather's research that led us to becoming all powerful. I was the one who led the ritual tool devils. I was the one who created and spread the mist. And Houjou, I would have won had it not been for YOUR meddling niece! I had Oyashiro Rika on the ropes and if that little brat Trap Satoko hadn't interfered, I WOULD HAVE MADE OYASHIRO RIKA MY BITCH AND ALL OF HINAMIZAWA WOULD HAVE BEEN MINE! ALL MINE!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
A collective silence filled the room.
Okonogi (bless his evil heart) broke the silence.
"She's right you know."
A three way "EH!" was what he had for an answer.
"Think about it. When we invaded the shrine, we bested Oyashiro Rika easily. Since then, Oyashiro Rika has fought us but hasn't managed to truly put any dents in our plans. Now her first true victory doesn't happen until Satoko Houjou becomes a magical girl as well. This stands to reason that if we eliminate Trap Satoko, Oyashiro Rika will cease to be a threat and go back to being a minor thorn in our sides." Okonogi's reasoning was flawless. Truly magnificent. He should get an appearance on a detective show!
Heh. A detective show with magic in it. What a ridiculous thought. Why not just write a book about a vegeta lion that wanted to be king of beasts?
Still...Back to the point. Okonogi was totaly right. Satoko gotta go.
"I see..." Nomura thought thoughtfully. "But what about Oyashiro Rika? If we are going to elliminate one pest, we might as well eliminate them all."
"Yes. That's true."
"Yuhup"
Nomura's face lit up. Had this been an American cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared and lit up over her head. But this isn't an American cartoon. It's an anime. So shut up.
"I have a plan..." Said Nomura wickedly.
"Can I be in on it?" Piped up Takano innocently.
"No." Was Nomura's deadpan respponse. Her follow-up response was to wrap a telephone cord-like rope around Takano.
"What is this!" Choked out Takano.
"It's goodbye,Takano." The phone cord squeezed harder then began to wrap itself around Takano more and more until she was completely covered by the cords. A cord mummy if you will.
"Okonogi, have the dogs take Takano to a cell. We have work to do."
"Owie!"
Rena shot up from her futon. Her father! He had just called out in pain!
"Don't you worry, Papa! I'll save you!"
In the blink of an eye, Rena was downstairs, clad in pajamas, holding her up her cleaver in challenge to whomever had caused her father pain. The look of wild anger in her eyes was matched only by the look of wild wildness in her orangy bed head.
She was a force to be reckoned with. A truly terrifying sight to all who dared oppose her.
Or it would be.
If her enemy had not been a stove.
Her father had simply burned his finger making breakfast.
Que the facepalms.
~half an hour later~
"Hey Rena!" Keiichi and Satoshi walked up to their usual meeting spot with Rena. Satoshi had his baseball bat at easy reach in his belt loop. It had been like that ever since Tokyo Magica invaded. Satoshi had it with him every second of the day.
Just as Rena herself had taken to carrying her trusty cleaver in her schoolbag wherever she went.
"Hey Keiichi, Satoshi! How are you? Feeling better?"
"Yeah" responded Keiichi. He had recently taken a beating from Rika and Satoshi and though he kinda deserved it, at the same time he kinda didn't.
"We feel alot better. Thanks for asking." Said Satoshi. He took a beating from Keiichi but had eventualy got him back by knocking him out with his baseball bat. They were even.
They had started walking to school now.
"Wait! What about you! You and Mion and Shion were hit by logs!"
Rena cringed a little at the memory of that. She was thinking bad thoughts about cleaving stuff and burning stuff with gassoline then something about aliens then POW! She was hit with a a tree trunk and sent soaring to the other side of the village!
"Eh... Yeah... I landed on the matress shop in Okinomiya. I lost a rib but Dr. Irie said that I was fine."
"Well that's good." Said Satoshi.
"Hey you guys!"
Was it Mion? Or Shion?
No wait that's a tie! It's Mion!
Shion is the one behind her.
Hey Rena and Keiichi! Hey Satoshi."
One of the names spoken by Shion had a flirty edge to it. You would have to be a total moron to not hear it.
"Hey Shion?" Said Satoshi.
"Yes, Satoshi?" was what Shion was saying on the outside. Inside she was saying OMG OMG OMG! He's talking to me! He want's to ask me out! He is so going to ask me out!
"You have a ketchup stain on your collar."
Shion died inside a bit and walked away to school. Mion, who's twin telepathy forced her to hear every single one of Shion's mental Satoshi thoughts, had to try really hard to not laugh at Shion. Because if Mion can hear the thoughts that Shion has about Satoshi Houjou late at night, Shion probably hears what Mion is thinking about Keiichi Maebara every second of the day.
"I wonder, I wonder." Said Rena.
About what? Asked Mion.
"The thing with the logs. We landed right on the matresses. It's almost too much of a coincidence. Did Satoko somehow know that's where the logs would send us?"
They all pondered this for a moment.
"Well..." said Satoshi "She IS the trap master."
"How did she even get the logs up in the trees in the first place! She's a runt! How did she manage to tie them up then hide them in the trees! It makes no sense!" Ranted Keiichi.
Another thoughtful silence consumes the group ans they contemplated this question.
"That is a good question! Come to think of it, alot of Satoko's traps seem impossible for a little twelve year-old girl to pull off! And since none of us knew about it, She didn't get any help! So..." Mion said.
"How does she do it!" Finished Keiichi.
They had made it to the classroom by now. Keiichi opened the door.
And down comes an eraser on his head.
An eraser that didn't smell like chalk at all.
"OHOHOHOHOHO! even in THIS world, you are no match for me, Keiichi!"
Keiichi turned to the direction of his curse. There she was, the devil in black knee socks and a green dress: Satoko Houjou.
"What the hell, Satoko! I am gonna get you for sure this time! Keiichi started to pounce on the girl with a full intention to noogie her to next week but he was stopped by two hands gripping his shoulders.
"Keiichi..." Growled Satoshi.
"What were you about to do?" Sneered Shion.
Keiichi gulped. Satoko had a strange power over Satoshi and Shion. Every time Keiichi was about to go all ape on the little pest, her Nii-Nii and Nee-Nee would be there to beat the stuffing out of him.
"Okay! If you're so protective over her then YOU should be the one to beat her, not me! As her authority figures, it's YOUR responsibility to discipline a bad kid!''
Keiichi got slapped in the face by an angry demonic Shion.
"Satoko is not a bad kid. She's a super hero. She can't be bad. You're the one who beat up Satoshi yeaterday. Speaking of which..."
This is the part where we skip ahead a few minutes so that younger viewers don't get traumatized by the stuff that Shion does to Keiichi. Just let it be known that he survived. Okay? Okay.
"So, Rika," said Satoko to her best friend, Rika Furude-Who is thankfully only half troll as of yet and she is not a creepy detective- "Have you thought about what we're gonna do?"
Rika said "I don't know. I think that we should try to go back. But we should still help in any way we ~!"
"But Rika! If it's anything like our world then theres a whole army out to get you!And besides..." Satoko's voice dropped and she looked alot more serious now."In that dream. Those four... You don't think HE is really one of them, do you?"
Rika got the message immediately. Unfortunately...
"Those four? Do you mean the Generals? Hanyuu!"
The fairy, Hanyuu apeared in front of Satoko. Smiling bright as ever. Rika silently prayed to any god that wasn't Oyashiro that a fly swatter would smack the purple haired fairy right now.
"The generals?" Said Satoko.
"That's right! The four generals are the ring leaders of Tokyo Magica! They are the ones who stole the ritual tool devils and beat our world's Oyashiro Rika! Hanyuu!"
"Who are they! What do they look like!" Satoko demanded of Hanyuu.
"You know Takano. She was one of them. Then there's the vampire looking one with the black pony tail and the creepy smile. Then there's a lady with gray hair. And this big blonde muscular man that smelled bad. Hanyuu."
Satoko did not know many blonde men. Satoshi smelled quite nice and he was not very muscular. It had to be HIM.
Satoko hated her uncle Teppei for so many reasons trhat listing them all would not only take a long time but probably also give this story an 'M' rating.
She spent the rest of class in silence. The fact that Hanyuu didn't disturb her has nothing to do with Rika threatening to rip her wings off and make her eat them. And I didn't write that just cause Rika bribed me with cookies.
In another part of the classroom, Rena was napping. Her dream was scary.
There was a scratching on the walls. there was a wicked laugh. Rena turned behind her.
There was a man with a scary burnt face there. He had claws and a red and green sweater.
"Hey kid? is this where you audition for a show where the villain screws with reality and kills half the cast in gruesome and impossible ways but then dies if people stop believing?"
"Uhm. No. That's in Rokkenjima. This is Hinamizawa."
"Dagnabit! Screw Japan! I'm going back to Elm Street!"
And the creepy guy went away.
Now Rena walked through the empty streets of Hinamizawa. Then she stopped at her house. The door wouldn't open.
She looked through the window.
Her dad was there.
He was in a maid's outfit. He was bowing to a lady with pink hair.
Rena screamed "Daddy! Get away from her!"
Her dad didn't look up. But the woman did. The pink haired lady looked Rena straight in the eyes. The woman smiled and held out her hand to Rena and held a pink maid outfit in the other. The maid outfit had "Reina" stitched on the front.
"Come, Reina. Join your family. You'll like it."
Rena was scared. She didn't move.
"Come Rena. You're going to have lots of brothers and sisters very soon. That's what you want, right? A big happy family?"
Her dad got up and kissed the woman.
Rena found her voice. "NOOOO!"
"Rena!"
rena woke from her nightmare. Chie was looking at her with daggers.
"You may sleep on your own time, Miss Ryuugu but now you have math to work on."
"Yes, Chie-Sensei."
As Rena scribbled random drawings on her homework, she couldn't shake that strange feeling of paranoia. There is a disturbance in the force. She could feel it.
A few blocks away, her father was making out with his new girlfriend, Mamiya Rina.
He couldn't wait for Rena to get home so he could introduce her.