2: An Explanation and a Promise

"Nope. Nope nope nope, I'm absolutely, one-million percent fucking done!"

"Annie, come on! Be reasonable!"

"No! I just saw some weird giant spider thing try to kill me in some parallel universe and was saved by Ms. Magical Bullshit and her psychic stuffed animal! Reason has left the fucking building! It's been kicked onto the curb and now it's on its way to a nice fucking vacation in Florida!"

"I'm not a stuffed animal, I assure you."

"Kyubey, shut up! You're not helping! Annie, just calm down for two seconds, and give me a chance to explain! I promise it'll make sense!"

"What could you possibly say to make something this insane make sense!?"

"Give me two minutes to explain, and I will, okay!?"

Annika finally slowed her walk to a stop, glancing around to the numerous strange looks the two of them were getting. Most people just minded their own business, walking along with headphones in or phones blathering, especially in this part of town. But even without sound, the two of them must've been a weird sight.

She shoved aside her self-consciousness, and thought hard about this. She could probably just keep walking, go home, and spend the next three hours curled up on her bed trying to process todays' events.

But...could she ever face Serena again if she did that?

Did that even matter?

…...

"...two minutes," she finally growled.

"Huh?"

"You have two minutes. One hundred and twenty seconds, starting now. If I'm still not convinced I didn't take a million mushrooms without realizing it, then I'm going home and you're not invited."

"Uh...okay. Can we walk somewhere else, though? I don't wanna draw too much attention."

"...fine."

Serena wrapped her arm around Nika's shoulders, gently pushing her along as the two of them began walking. Part of Annika's mind was buzzing at the fact that the woman she'd been furiously crushing on for the past month was so damn close, but that part of her was drowned out by the part that'd been screaming and flailing at the absurdity of...whatever that was earlier (not to mention, how close to death she'd come).

"Okay...so...where to begin?" After a few moments of thought, Serena began explaining. "So...to start off, there's a sort of underlying field running throughout the universe called the Miasma. Think of it basically like the undercurrent of pain and despair that runs throughout the universe. The more a sentient being feels those emotions, the more they add to the Miasma and thicken it in that area. Follow so far?"

"More or less."

"Okay, good. So, when the Miasma gets thick enough in one spot, it'll coalesce into something called a Wraith. That's those guys in robes you saw back there. And when fifty Wraiths get together into one spot, they combine into something called a Nightmare."

"That's the big spider-thing?"

"Yeah. Now, because they're born through the Miasma and need regular doses of the stuff to survive, they basically try to spread that emotion as much as possible, pushing people into collapsing into despair so they feed the Miasma as much as possible. Wraiths aren't too smart about it...or in general really...but Nightmares are a lot more clever. Clever enough to know Magical Girls are after them, so they spend the daylight hours hiding in pocket dimensions called Labyrinths, and feed the Miasma by messing with people in their sleep. Hence the name."

"Okay. So what's a Magical Girl?"

"Magical Girls are people who've made a contract with Kyubey, to get one wish in exchange for a lifetime hunting Wraiths and whatnot. We keep the Miasma in check as best we can, with liberal application of...well, you saw."

"Mmmm."

"As for the specifics..." Serena held out her hand, that familiar steel ring flashing blue to reveal a small, egg-shaped muddy-blue gem wrapped in a silver cage-like casing. "...this is my Soul Gem. Essentially, it's me, extracted and packaged up into a handy little gem. As long as that's fine, I can recover from any injury."

Nika started slightly. That ring was something that important? She'd seen it a million times and had never thought anything of it. Now...she couldn't help but stare at it a little.

"Now, see how muddy it looks?"

"Y-yeah, actually..."

"Mmm. That means I'm running low on magic. The more I use, the darker it gets. And when it goes completely black, it shatters, all that pollution releases into the Miasma, and my soul is carried away by the Law of the Cycles."

"Carried where? By who?"

"Not a clue. All I know is, it means I die."

Nika stared at her in shock. Something that apparently prompted laughter, for no fathomable reason.

"Lucky for me, there's a way out." From within her pocket, she pulled a few of the small black cubes. Most were barely the size of keys on a computer keyboard, while the one big one was about the size of a ping-pong ball. "These are called Grief Cubes. They're little pockets of Miasma, and I guess you could think of them as Soul Gems for Wraiths and Nightmares." Nika stared at them, totally not backing away slightly. Serena didn't seem to notice, though. "Right now, they're kinda dormant, since I shot the ever-loving hell out of them. But when they're like this, they're ridiculously hungry for any kind of Miasma. Which means, if I put this next to that..."

She set the grief cubes next to her soul gem on one open hand, and thin streams of black smoke began streaming from the latter to the former. Within a minute, the cubes were pitch-black, and the soul gem was shining with a bright indigo light. Throughout the whole process, they'd stopped at a crosswalk, and Serena was nervously glancing around for passers-by while Nika watched transfixed.

"That's..."

"Kinda cool, right? That's why Grief Cubes are so important. With that, all the magic I used in the fight is restored, and I even still have a few little ones left over. Which is always nice."

"But they're so dark now...is that something bad?"

Serena chuckled. "Yeah, that's something kinda bad. Like I said, they're pockets of Miasma. So if they collect too much, they could re-hatch a Wraith or Nightmare."

And just like that, the terror was back. "But...but then, there'd be no end to them! The miasma would just spread infinitely until it consumed the entire universe!"

Serena laughed slightly, muttering "Told you she'd catch on quick", while Kyubey finally chimed in from his perch on Serena's shoulder.

"That's where I come in. In addition to contracting new Magical Girls, one of my duties is destroying Grief Cubes that have become too dense."

"Destroying?"

"Yes. Observe..." That teardrop shape on its back popped open, and Serena casually tossed the entire handful of grief cubes into its...back. Whereupon, the little shape closed again, flashed slightly, and Kyubey bobbed his head as if he were chewing.

"You...ate it? With your back?"

"In a manner of speaking. My species developed the technology needed to destroy Grief Cubes, converting the Miasma within into energy that could be used free of the laws of thermodynamics. However, since we lack the ability to destroy Wraiths and Nightmares on our own, we contract Magical Girls across the universe to do it for us."

"Quite the symbiosis we have going, really," Serena added, scratching the Kyubey under its chin.

Annika simply plodded along beside Serena, taking it all in and running through the insanity in her head. At the very least, the insanity was self-consistent now. As much as it could be when talking about wishes and magic and evil monsters made of negative emotions.

"You follow all that okay?"

"Y-yeah. I mean, sure, all this feels like some corny anime, and there are some things I wanna ask, but...well...I'm following along okay."

Serena laughed, and now that the part of her going wild over the absurdity had died down, the obsessively romantic part of her brain had adequate space to obsess over how pretty her laugh was. "Well, I can tell you right now that it's entirely real, as absurd as it can get. Anyways, you had some questions?"

"Yeah. First, you said fifty Wraiths merge to make a Nightmare. But what happens when fifty Nightmares merge?"

"Well...we don't know, really." Serena morphed her soul gem back into a ring and slipped it on. "From what I hear, something like that almost happened once or twice throughout history, but the Magical Girls around then noticed what was going on and put a stop to it before it could get to that point. However, the common assumption is that it'd be stronger and smarter than a Nightmare, which is a pretty scary prospect if you ask me. We call it a Demon."

"But there's never been a...Demon, before?"

"No. Came close here and there, but never got to that point."

"Okay. Second question, which you already kind of hinted at: What does the Magical Girl culture look like?"

Serena thought about that a moment before responding. "Tense, really. We're all competing for territory unless we're in a group, but none of us really wanna waste magic fighting each other, so we all kinda share a cold-war pact. That said, we share information, we have our own little forum going online, and some pretty big groups do pop up here and there. It's just that the way things work kinda favors loners, y'know? Even if a hundred girls take down a Nightmare, it still only drops one grief cube."

Nika nodded. "Makes sense. Last question, more for Kyubey than you: Can you make a contract with anyone, and how big of wishes are we talking about?"

Kyubey shifted his perch to sit on the shoulder facing Annika. "While I can, theoretically, make a contract with anyone, not all Magical Girls are created equal. And if too many Magical Girls are in one area, they will tend to fight with each other more than hunt Grief Cubes. As such, it's best to focus on filling in large territories with those who have the most latent potential. And as for wishes, while their scope is somewhat limited by the latent potential involved, they can be virtually anything. However, the last thing we want is to have someone regret their wish, as their soul gem would then shatter and rob us of a valuable asset."

"So you focus on girls in certain areas with lots of potential and wishes that won't backfire?"

"Precisely."

"...I guess that makes sense."

"Mmmm. Any more questions?"

"Actually, yeah, just one more."

"Which is?"

"Where the hell are we going?"

Serena blinked, then glanced around, as if realizing for the first time that neither of them had a damn clue where they were. The low-rent apartments had been replaced by warehouses and storefronts, and the smell of ocean was just barely perceptible under the overwhelming scent of smog.

"Uh...well...it's in the port area..."

Annika nodded.

"Um...west side of the city..." she spotted the nearest street signs and jumped with joy. "See, right there! Fifth Street and Avondale Road! I know exactly where we are!"

"Ahuh."

"So, from here, we just go...um..."

Annika tried her very hardest not to smirk. After only ever seeing the cool badass Serena, this egotistical dork was both surprising, enlightening, and hilarious to witness.

She stumbled over her words for a few more seconds, before finally deflating. "Annie, where do you live?"

Nika finally let herself smile. "Twenty-fifth and Markson."

"R-right! Exactly! Twenty-fifth and Markson! This way!" With nothing but boundless energy, she began marching down one of the streets. Annie followed behind her, trying her hardest not to laugh.

"A-Any more questions?"

"Not right now. I'm sure I'll think of some later, though."

"Fair enough." They walked for another block, before Serena suddenly perked up. "Oh, that reminds me! Didn't you have a party tonight? How'd that go?"

Nika started. Had that been today? It felt like ages ago. Did that Nightmare thing mess with her head or something?

She forced on her best smile and tried to say, "G-Great! It went really, really..." her fake smile didn't last long, and she avoided Serena's piercing gaze. "Honestly, the booze flowed a little too fast, and things got awkward. So we all ended up leaving early. You didn't miss much."

"Oh. Yeah, I was wondering what you were doing out and about. I'm sorry."

"I should be the one apologizing. I almost invited you to a disaster."

"Ah, but you didn't, did you? So there's nothing to apologize for." She smiled. "Besides, I wasn't apologizing, I was offering condolences."

"Condolences? Seriously? No one died, okay?"

"Huh? Condolences as in, 'I'm sorry things didn't go well'. It doesn't necessarily mean anyone died. Honestly..."

"Meh. In any case, there's always another time, right?"

"...I mean, my schedule's pretty full as it is. Miasma won't keep itself in check, right? And I don't think I want you coming on any hunts..."

"Oh. Yeah, right. Sorry I asked."

Serena chuckled nervously and playfully swatted at Nika's hair. "Stop apologizing for everything, Annie . You'll make me feel bad if you do."

"Heh. Sorry."

Serena rolled her eyes.

"That said," Kyubey cut in, his little alien voice resonating in her skull, "I do want to keep an eye on you, Annika Mara. Ever since entering that Labyrinth, something about your perception has changed, and I'd like to study it further."

"Huh? My perception?"

"What do you mean?"

"To explain it with a simple example, imagine a pair of frogs in a pot of boiling water. One of these frogs will always have the same core temperature, and thus will feel the surrounding temperature from the same point of reference. The other has a core temperature that gradually changes to match its environment. If you were to gradually bring this pot of water to a boil, which of the two frogs would notice and hop out?"

Serena looked thoroughly stumped, while Annika tapped her lips in thought. "The first frog, right?"

"Precisely. Using this example, the Miasma correlates to the pot of water, the temperature to its concentration, the first frog to Magical Girls, and the second frog to humans. Because their souls are separate from their bodies, Magical Girls are capable of sensing changes in the Miasma and seeing creatures born from it, such as Wraiths and Nightmares, with perfect clarity. Most humans, however, are incapable of this, and even the ones who are typically receive nothing more than a vague sense of the Miasma's concentration."

"Wait, then...I shouldn't have been able to see that Labyrinth!?"

"Yes and no. Normally, you would have a vague sense of your surroundings, and perhaps even be aware of the danger you were in. How humans evolved to be able to sense these changes at all is baffling. Perhaps some learned to avoid areas with concentrated Miasma, since they posed an inherent danger, and passed this trait through the generations, but even we Incubators don't know for sure. However, something about you is unique. You were able to see your surroundings in their Miasma-altered state with perfect clarity, something no normal human has ever accomplished. Furthermore, you were not born with this trait, else we would have noticed sooner, so some event occurred that altered your perceptions, and it likely had to do with that Labyrinth on account of your lack of understanding of Miasmal properties. Whether or not this trait will persist is unclear, but such an exception to the rule demands further study."

"Kyubey, I know you have a habit of it, but you are not going mad-scientist on my friend."

Even through the shock of finding out that she was somehow special, despite being distinctly non-magical, that word cut into her mind. "We're friends?"

"Well...yeah. I thought that was obvious."

"I mean, we've only met a handful of times, and that was just because you come into my work..."

"Still...after all this, I just thought..."

"Oh! Yeah, I...guess we kinda are, aren't we?"

"I apologize to interrupt this courtship, but perhaps we should return to the matter at hand?"

Nika felt heat slam into her face like a sack of bricks. "C-Courtship!? No, no no no, it's nothing like that, we're just friends! Right Serena!?" No, her voice didn't sound manic, not at all.

Serena glanced over, then laughed, rubbing Nika's head. "You're cute when you blush. You know that?" Her hand fell away, leaving Nika to try her hardest not to obsess over the fact that Serena had just called her cute. "Still, you're right, Kyubey. Like it or not, Annie, you're involved in all this. As much as it kills me to say that..."

"So? How would you like to proceed? I'd like to test the limits of her perception by exposing her to at least a Wraith or two, and I'd like to perform this test periodically to see if it fades away anytime soon."

"Mmm. So I guess she's coming on a hunt or two, at the very least." Serena sighed. "That means the others should know about her, so let's start there. We have a bi-weekly strategy meet, and the next one's this Sunday. Wanna tag along?"

"S-Suuuurrrreeeee..." Totally not obsessing still. Nope, not at all, not even a little bit.

At the very least, Nika snapped back out of it once she realized what she was signing up for. "Oh wait, what's the address? And the time? How many other...erm...Magical Girls will be there?"

She chuckled, even though it faded fast. That was her first clue that something was bothering the object of her affections. "I'll text it to you, it's at noon, and just the three of us. Think you can make it?"

"Y-yeah. I just have a couple classes in the morning, so...I should be fine."

"Alright. What's your number?" She pulled out her phone (a simple flip-phone with no extraneous features, Annika noted) and punched in the appropriate digits as Nika recited them.

"Wait...three of you for this whole city? That seems pretty small..."

"It's not the whole city, just most of it. The outlying suburbs, as well as some districts, belong to our neighbors. And for a territory this small, three's actually a lot. But we don't step on each other because this territory happens to be really damn ripe. So it works out well enough." Having been tapping at her phone through that whole monologue, she finally hit the send button. "There. Successfully texted."

A few seconds later, Nika's phone (a since-outdated iPhone model) sang a jaunty little tune from deep within her pocket. She pulled it out, opened the text, and glanced it over before slipping her phone back intgo its hidey-hole. "Great! See you there!"

"Yeah. See you there."

That was the second sign that something was wrong. She didn't sound excited; hell, if anything, she sounded depressed. Did she think this was a second date? More importantly, did she think this was a second date and she didn't want to go?

Better probe subtly.

"You okay? That Nightmare thing didn't mess with your head, did it?"

"No. No, I'm fine. It's just..." She glanced at Nika, back at the ground, then finally closed her eyes altogether with a long sigh. "Sorry. This is kind of embarrasing, but...I was secretly hoping that you'd be the only friend I have not involved with all this crap. Hell, you'd be the first friend I've had that's anything approaching normal. Now here you are, with your special vision and learning Magical Girl politics and now you're going to meet the others. It's...hard to accept, y'know?"

Annika stared at her for what felt like anywhere from a few seconds to a full minute. She'd stopped walking, having reached her apartment building, so she had ample opportunity to stare in something bordering on shock.

Was that really how things were?

Annika was her first normal friend?

But...didn't she have a life before becoming a Magical Girl?

'…...what if she didn't?'

'If she didn't...how important to her would that first friend be?'

Nika thought back to the early days of their friendship (back when it was an acquaintanceship). Serena had always seemed to relax when the two were talking. Naturally, Nika's rose-colored glasses made her insist that it was because Serena liked her back, but...now that made perfect sense. She was relaxing because it had nothing to do with her long, possibly-perpetual war. Nika had been an island of calm and comfort in the dark storm that was Serena's life (okay, maybe she was jumping to conclusions there, but she'd be damned if it didn't fit).

And now what? Now that island was disappearing, possibly forever, and there didn't seem to be much either of them could do about it.

No wonder she looked scared.

But in that same moment, Annika realized exactly what she needed to say. Even if she didn't have the words just yet.

So she closed her eyes, smiled softly, and started winging it.

"Look, Serena...I'll be the first to admit that I'm scared to death of getting involved in this. I almost died today. Hell, I'd be done for if it weren't for some hardcore convenience, and I'm sure when that registers properly in my brain, I'll be a screaming mess for a few weeks. "

"I fail to see your point."

"My point is...I don't think I could ever do anything like what you did today. I'd be too scared...probably screw it all up and end up dead. So it's better for everyone if I stay where I am, and remain an observer looking in on this whole secret world of yours.

"But...that means you're not really losing your normal friend, right?" Serena perked up, looking quizzical. "All that's happening is I know more about your life, which helps both of us, right?"

"...how?"

"Now that I know more about this, I know how important someone like me is to you. And that's something I couldn't be happier to have learned. Which is why I know how much I can help you by saying that, if you ever need someone to kick back and share a beer and an evening with, just give me a call. I'll always be there if you want a normal, monster-free evening."

There was a long moment of silence between them. Cars passed by every now and again, and pedestrians walked by less often. Nika was initially worried that someone might mess up their moment, but most people seemed to sense the emotions in the area and avoided interrupting.

Finally, Serena just breathed a quick chuckle. "You've been watching too many shitty romance movies."

"Doesn't make it any less true," Nika laughed back.

She laughed along, much more nervously, fidgeting for a few moments. Finally, she held out her arm in a gesture somewhere between a shrug and a hug-offering. "Normal friends?"

'Oh god...'

'Do I go for the hug? Or the handshake? The hug might be too intimate and scare her off, but what if the handshake weirds her out and why is that gesture so ambiguous and YOU'RE HESITATING TOO LONG JUST PICK ONE!'

She opted to compromise somewhat, going for a half-hug. "Normal friends."

Kyubey, that blessed little angel, decided to remain silent and let them have this moment.

The hug eventually ended, and the two of them separated. Though, they hovered around each other for a few moments, not entirely sure how to say goodbye just yet.

"See you Sunday then."

"See you then!"

Nika took the cue to head inside, withdrawing her keys and tapping them against the detector. The loud door-is-unlocked buzzer pulled her out of her stupor, enough to remind her to get the hell inside and shut the door.

With one last wave goodbye, they went their separate ways.

One short elevator ride later, and Nika found herself in her tiny apartment that never really felt so...empty before.

Almost mechanically, she deposited her purse and coat by the door and went about making herself a quick little snack. All that running for her life...kinda worked up an appetite.

She was all set to freak out over the running-for-her-life bit that she was probably still in shock over, but something else took precedent in her mind.

In two days, she'd be hanging out with Serena.

Admittedly, it wasn't a date, and there were others there, but it was still progress. And that alone made her stomach and heart all kinds of jittery.

"...what should I wear?"