Title: Potential Villain Needed.
Difficulty: ***
Details: I want to construct an organization of villains. A minimum of three people are needed for this to work so I need one more. Oh, and anyone who is truly evil will be declined. Sorry!
Signed: (Section left blank)
Out of all the Spiral of Happiness forms I accepted, this one is the most interesting.
"This form is so unclear I couldn't leave it alone." I chuckle to myself. "Who even wrote this? The name is left blank."
"That doesn't matter, nya. You know her anyway."
"I do?"
Chen nods. "Yep, she's one of your contracts; the busty blonde."
"You mean Mami Tomoe?" I ask while I cycle through my deck and find Mami's card. I show it to Chen afterwards.
"That's her!"
"No way.."
[BGM~poMEfOSprMU "Showing Signs Of A Mystery"]
[Mitakihara City: Mami Tomoe's Apartment]
The first one I see upon entering is not who I was expecting. A long red ponytail is draped over the back of the living room couch watching some sort of kung-fu action movie. At the same time, the girl is using a pair of chopsticks to stuff her face with a noodle dish that looks chinese. She chews loudly without a care in the world. I take a moment to absorb the rare sight before closing the door behind me. Sure enough, the girl's head whips around as soon as the door latch clicks. Her aura surges with a fearful yellow.
"How long were you behind me..?"
A self-conscious Kyoko Sakura is a much cuter than I would have anticipated.
"Not long, nya!"
"Less than a minute. Don't worry about me too much."
From here I explain that Chen and I are here to visit Mami. She reluctantly directs us to the door to her bedroom. Then Mami admits the three of us into her clean, candle-lit quarters. It's the kind of organized setup I expected all adults to have when I was a kid growing up on TV sitcoms.
...
"Kyoko has been more-or-less living with me as of late."
We start off our meeting with some small talk. Eventually the topic shifted to Kyoko and her presence.
"Oh really? That's good to hear. I thought you'd be too stubborn to accept help."
Kyoko gives me a decent glare before replying. "It's a bit more reasonable when only one of us have to deal with Grief Seeds. Plus if this girl eats everything she buys all by herself, she's going to get fat."
My eyes subconsciously shifts to Kyoko's exposed midriff. She catches me almost immediately and folds her green jacket over her navel with a squinted stare.
"Now-now," sings Mami.
So this is a result of me becoming factor around here huh? All the magical girls remain alive and no one is playing the loner. At this rate, maybe everyone will stick around to face the final boss of this world. But there's no need to think about such things right now.
"So what's this letter all about?"
I reveal the form to Mami. She glances over to Chen who has been quiet for a while.
"So that's why you stopped by. Well honestly, this is an idea that just recently surfaced." Mami nods as she verifies that she really is the author. I still find it hard to believe. "It came to me while I helped Kyoko with a Witch Hunt the other night. If I no longer need Grief Seeds to maintain my powers, then I no longer need to hunt witches for myself. And that means... I should become a villain instead!"
"What?" I glance at Chen who doesn't seem to be giving our exchange much thought. "Sorry but I'm really having trouble understanding how you reached that kind of conclusion."
"She's an idiot; plain and simple." Kyoko replies. Mami clears her throat before continuing.
"Everyone has been worrying about me since I stopped being a true magical girl. Ideally, I want the others to stop worrying about me from here on, but I have been too reluctant to tell them the truth to this day. I feel like it would be quite the upset to let everyone know that I stopped being one in the number after convincing everyone else to get involved, you know?"
"I can see that causing a lot of problems with your friends. But wouldn't becoming a villain cause even more?"
"Think of it more as the role of the rival," she replies calmly. "By shifting to a more villainous persona, I can adversely motivate the others to hunt witches with a conviction strong enough to outweigh their concern for me."
"Or you can just spit it out and save a lot of trouble." Kyoko's response is followed by the sound of an apple's surface being breached by teeth.
Mami pulls out a small stack of papers from a cheap notebook. "I came up with a scenario guaranteed to get everyone into gear. And get this: It is so ingenious that the moment Kyubey read it, he agreed to play along with the story right away!"
"Woah. That true Kyubey?"
I glance over to Kyubey who was resting on the top of Mami's dresser the whole time. Its voice echoes through everyone's minds. "It is. The story that Mami came up with is just that perfect!"
"Hearing Kyubey say something like that feels a bit awkward." What kind of story has even Kyubey's attention..? "Anyway, you said that you need one more villain for your plan, correct?"
"Yes. Three rivals are best to keep things evened out between everyone. Kyoko is in, so that just leaves one more." Kyoko flinches at the statement. I see now. This is counterpart logic! "When I think about it, either you or Ms. Knowledge would be perfect for this idea. They met you both once before, so in a sense, it would be like foreshadowing. Yes, this is perfect!"
Chen grins at Mami's sudden change of tone. "Someone seems excited, nya!"
"Couldn't you be doing something better with your free time..?" Kyoko sounds annoyed but the aura seeping through her is a contradictory orange color.
So that's the situation huh. How should I respond to this?
[_] Accept (Louis)
[x] Accept (Patchouli)
[_] Withdraw
I wonder if Patchouli would be interested in something like this? Someone like her can look and act the part perfectly. Should I go back and bring it up with her..?
[x] Accept (Louis)
[_] Accept (Patchouli)
[_] Withdraw
Eh, I should have thought about bringing her along beforehand...
"I think I can help you guys out. But what am I supposed to be doing exactly?"
Mami's aura becomes a visible orange. "Since it's you, I'll have to change the scenario just a bit. That can wait. For now, here's the plan."
[Fade BGM]
And so the lot of us engaged in an interesting conversation. The more Mami explained herself, the more I realized that she put quite a bit of thought and reasoning into this. In a way, it's almost like she is doing this to keep in touch with everyone even if she no longer shares the same struggle as the others. Watching Mami work this hard for the rest of her cast fills me with a similar motivation as well.
{Mitakihara Town: Abandoned Rooftop}
Phase One of the plan is to gather all of the magical girls in one place. This is a simple matter of Mami using Kyubey's telepathy network to direct everyone to this abandoned eight story rooftop. Kyubey himself decided to stay at home, which is also where Chen is waiting.
Kyoko and I are not supposed to reveal ourselves until Mami gives a signal of sorts. That is why the two of us are hiding behind the tall building entryway, watching Mami from a distance. The afternoon sun stares down our backsides as we play the waiting game.
"I can't believe I'm doing this..." Kyoko shows a visible disinterest in being here.
"Well, it kills time doesn't it?"
Kyoko shakes her head. "I could be doing better things right now like taking care of Bee."
"Bee?"
"That's my dog's name." Kyoko's voice softens up a little.
"Oh, nice! Why Bee though?"
"He's a Golden Lab. His fur looks just like the color of honey so Mami jumped at that kind of name. But what kind of boy name is Honey?"
"It wouldn't be unheard of." An image of a pink rabbit stuffed animal flashes through my mind. "I get what you mean though."
The rooftop stirs about before our conversation could go any further. The center of the rooftop now has four people present. In other words, all of the intended magical girls are here. Everyone but the one beside me are in their stylish magic outfits.
[BGM~0IDOo7nztHA "Highland (Quest 64)"]
"It's been a long time, Ms. Tomoe." The blue magical girl named Sayaka stands at front of the formation while the glasses girl named Homura tries to read the mood.
"What is this all about?"
"Didn't expect you to call us out of the blue like this," says Sayaka. "I started to think that you just up and abandoned us."
"Well, you're not far off." Mami falls silent for a brief moment. Sayaka tenses up a bit. "Tell me something. Are either of you regretting the binding wish that you made?"
Everyone takes an appropriate amount of time to process the question.
"N-No, I don't think so." Madoka is the first to speak up. Homura simply shakes her head.
"I have no regrets," Sayaka replies.
"That's good to hear. It would be a shame to lose spirit now that you all are trapped. To think that you all took the bait so easily."
"Bait..? What are you talking about?" Sayaka squints. "I was skeptical at first but this magic business is the real deal. Kyousuke... His arm is healed because of my wish. There's no other way that it could've happened!"
"What a fool..."
Kyoko's voice projects from my side. By the time I glance over, Kyoko already left the area and joined the others clad in her magical crimson vest and pink skirt. Sayaka and Mami glare at the development for different reasons.
"What did you say!?"
"You had one chance to make any wish in the world," Kyoko continues. "And you go and waste it on some other guy? That's got to be the dumbest thing I ever heard!"
"Who even are you..?"
"Don't worry about it," Kyoko scoffs.
"Foolish or not," Mami continues. "That is the wish that you will have to defend with your life - every day, as long as your Soul Gems remain impure."
Sayaka frowns. "We went over this already. Tell us something we don't know."
"Gladly." That sounds like a cue for Mami to reveal her award-winning story that she kept boasting about. "Have you ever started to wonder where witches come from? The truth is... failing your duties as a magical has a hefty price to pay. And that.. is becoming a Witch yourself!"
[Fade BGM]
The sudden announcement unnerves everyone but Homura, who lets out a small groan.
"No way.." Madoka's voice quivers. "It can't be!"
That's the ingenious story that Kyubey agreed to!?
"But Mami..."
"Louis, I know what you're thinking." Kyubey's telepathic voice sounds from within me. "My response is 'let's not complicate things."
(For once, I agree with you...)
"Then everything we're fighting..." Sayaka chokes. "That's horrible!"
Homura wears a more stern expression. "Ms. Tomoe, did Kyubey tell you this?"
"He did," Mami lies.
Sayaka points an accusatory finger at Mami. "What's with you acting like you're not involved with any of this!?"
"Funny you should ask. There's an explanation for that too."
Once Mami says this, a few thin yellow ribbons rise up in front of me and motion me to step forward. Oh boy. Now huh..?
Earlier, Mami mentioned trying to make my entrance as flashy as possible. I told her that it was impossible, but after giving it some thought, there really might be something I can do. It's another trick I picked up while training. I call it dowsing.
[BGM~y49b8aiQVBg "Here We Are" (Undertale)]
I take my acrylic staff and send a small amount of energy towards the ground by tapping it. The energy becomes a signal that spreads out to a large diameter and searches for loose traces of mana. The traces that it finds reveal themselves as light orbs. The quality/quantity of orbs I gather doing this depends on the concentration of magic levels nearby. In this case the amount of stray magic present is immense. This is likely because there are so many powerful humans right in front of me. Either way, the light show from dowsing has everyone's attention, so there's nothing left to do but walk in on everyone and get this farce over with.
"It's you!" Sayaka is the one who barks at my appearance.
Let's see, I have to play a heel huh? Ah, I hope I don't screw this up!
"So everyone wants to know what is different about Ms. Tomoe, but neither of you have realized the obvious. Ms. Tomoe's Soul Gem is gone - or rather, she has no more use for it." This realization locks in everyone's attention even further. "Just so you know, I'm responsible for that. You see, I have different plans for this one."
"So you're the one responsible for all these Witches!" Sayaka jumps to a rather convenient conclusion. "What are you trying to accomplish!?"
That's a question that demands a response. What to say..?
[x] World domination
[_] Become a god
[_] Build a harem
"The answer is simple. World domination! If this world becomes overrun by witches, then I will be free to rule all!" Once I spout this typical response, a light orb hovers toward me. I hold it gently with one hand. "That's the beauty of this system. If my own power isn't strong enough for my goals, then what better backup army is there than fallen allies of justice?"
"Ohohoho! Simply cunning Louis!"
Mami sounds so convincing as a villain's accomplice, it's almost scary...
[Fade BGM]
Sayaka draws a sharp cutlass out of thin air and enters a charging thrust stance. Perhaps the coolest part about her stance is the fact that she managed to converge her steamy red aura towards the metal of her weapon.
"You're all mad... I'll crush you all - starting with you!"
[BGM~Y1nsp5CnvVQ "Random Encounter (FF10)"]
As Sayaka rushes towards me, the scenery distorts, as if the space surrounding her is bending to her anger.
(Objective: Survive Miki Sayaka's attacks!)
Sayaka must be charging me first since I am the self-proclaimed Overlord of Witches. I answer with a Passionate Squall projectile that leaps from the ground toward her midsection. My attack connects then detonates. I wait for dust to clear. When it does, Sayaka is nowhere to be seen. Instinct has me look above to witness my opponent trying to impale me from above. I hop back just in time to avoid becoming a part of the small crater that she causes. Sayaka follows up with a close quarters assault immediately as she lands. To parry Sayaka's attacks, I must infuse my staff with a constant energy or else my weapon will not hold up at all. Most of her swings have an outward trajectory, as if she prefers to disarm over harm. However, my technique masks my weapon exterior with a fine battle aura, causing Sayaka to question her own dexterity. Eventually she goes for a high-powered vertical swing that I block with my staff horizontally. Then we push at each other for an advantage and get nowhere.
"I knew that there was something fishy about you since we first met," she says calmly.
"Heh. It's because I'm black isn't it?"
"What!? N-No I..!"
Just then, I feel Sayaka's offensive pressure easing up a little. I take the opportunity to throw her off-balance and scuttle to a mid-range position. I immediately fire a ground level Passionate Squall towards Sayaka's feet. She avoids it at the cost of what was left of her balance.
"Of course someone righteous like you would never think that way."
Nearly a dozen more identical swords rise from the ground as she pulls herself up using her original weapon.
"Don't mess with me!"
As Sayaka levitates from the ground, the newly developed swords orbit around her then launch themselves at me all at once. This may get tricky.
...
Or so I thought! An ominous blood-red chain link fence develops in front of me and stops all the cutlasses in their tracks. The tips of the swords stick through the fence and stop at merely inches from my flesh. Suddenly, the one responsible hops in beside me.
"Pivot to the frilly one!" shouts Kyoko. "I'll play with this one for a bit."
"All right."
Madoka stands alone in a corner with magical bow and arrow drawn. She appears to be aiming to intervene the skirmish between Mami and Homura. She looks very focused, but even more hesitant. By the time I approach her, she is still in the same position.
"Good luck with that, I suck at sniping." My line startles Madoka and her energy arrow disintegrates.
"I don't understand... Why do we have to fight each other all of a sudden?"
"To be honest, I really couldn't tell you."
"Neither you nor Ms. Tomoe seem like any kind of bad guy to me."
She's even giving a stranger like me the benefit of the doubt? We need to do something about that. I manipulate some of the light orbs in the area and toss them at Madoka's direction. These kind of orbs cannot really hurt anyone if I use them this way, but the girl that is frantically dodging them does not need to know that. Besides, it lets me discover that her agility is way higher than I would have guessed.
"Don't you try and find an excuse to hold back Ms. Kaname. Trust me, that's no way to survive out here!"
Madoka frowns and readies her weapon for battle. Yay, now we can move on!
(Objective: Survive Madoka Kaname's attacks!)
I decided that I have to see Madoka attack at least once before this day is done. With that in mind, I continue tossing the orbs around in obvious patterns. She avoids them well enough. Eventually I line the orbs up and make a little millipede out of them. The new structure charges at Madoka. She takes the opportunity to fire a soul arrow and pierce all the targets down in one shot. The projectile keeps going towards me without losing momentum. Now it's my turn to be defensive.
...
Or so I thought. The arrow launches itself up towards the sky once it reaches within a yard of my distance.
"Still can't go through with it huh?"
"..."
A pink glowing light shines down from above. I look up and witness an intimidating design made of bright pink lights. The structure generates a series of raining arrows. The projectiles are thick and in a mostly straight trajectory. Because of my danmaku-based training, I can dodge these without much difficulty.
"Please stop this!" Madoka shoots out a much larger arrow from her weapon once the arrow rain subsides. Its sheer size will make this a difficult dodge. I pull a card from my deck with the hopes of not becoming a casualty.
My choice summon brandishes a large oval shield and takes the arrow shot head-on. Nephenee holds her ground until the power shot dissolves.
"Woah there, that attack was a real doozy!"
"That's the power of a main character for you." Madoka surveys the situation with cautious eyes. "Nice one Madoka, but you must defeat my maidens to stand a chance."
Suddenly, a fast projectile speeds out from Madoka's side and tags Nephenee. The projectile detonates, and Nephenee's projection dissolves in the blast. "Kinda like that..."
Once the smoke clears, the magical girl in black pigtails, red glasses and rather plain white/grey attire now stands beside her comrade in pink.
"I don't know who you are," says Homura. "But I won't let anyone hurt Madoka!"
This determined one is a time manipulator. Great, now I'm really going to have to be on my toes! Speaking of which...
"That's right, you're aware that I'm not from this time, huh?"
"T-That's..! Who are you!?"
Madoka's curiosity is piqued. "What's wrong, Homura?"
"Sayaka needs help," she replies. "I will take care of things here."
"O-Okay."
Madoka looks my way for a moment then takes off. I think I'll lay off taunting Ms. Akemi. I can do without trying to outsmart bullets!
[Fade BGM]
Homura and I wind up hopping to the highest platform on the rooftop. Honestly, just the thought of time manipulation intimidates me. How can anyone gain a real advantage over a power that lets you act freely in a split second? I'll have to try and come up with something.
"Just now you said you're not from this time. Where are you from?"
"I'm just a visitor from another world. Don't worry about me too much." Wait, that phrase doesn't fit in this situation, does it?
"Another world..?" Homura very likely believes me solely based off her experiences with this world. "Then why.. are you really here?"
That's right. Homura is interested in me because she went through enough bad timelines to realize that how odd I am goes beyond a mere skin tone difference. Perhaps I can use that to my advantage?
[x] No real reason.
[_] I can help you save Madoka.
[_] To live the harem life! (Unavailable)
"So you do not want to answer..?"
It would be nice to have an answer but I'm still in the process of finding that out myself. Oh well.
[BGM~vL3dkAt1xAs "Game Start!" (No Game No Life)]
"Heh," Might as well stick with the program. "Good luck getting anything out of me!"
Homura strikes a defensive battle stance. Well, here goes nothing!
(Objective: Survive Homura Akemi's attacks!)
I make the first move by leaping upwards and dropping a barrage of spirit danmaku towards the platform. Homura folds her arms and activates her frisbee-shaped magical artifact attached to her forearm. Doing so warps her out of blast range. I catch her observing me from the left side of the danger zone. I land where I started and Homura phases from her position. Suddenly she is in front of me with a golf club in hand. She then charges me with a vertical swing so sluggish that it looked like I could have stood still and taken the hit with no consequence. (Of course I opted to sidestep it.) The swings to follow were just as clumsy. Some of her wide swings seem to toss her about half the distance of her arcs. At one point she strikes the ground immediately followed by a more proper golf swing motion that was dangerously close to a low blow. What's with this pattern!
"So uh, do you not have any non-lethal bullets or something?"
"Huh!?" My random question came as a shock to her. She answers after a small frown. "I never thought about them."
"Now that I think about it, you're the only one in the group that never harmed another magical girl huh?"
"What are you saying..?" Homura loosens her grip on her golf club a bit. "That's wrong anyway. Madoka would never hurt anyone either."
Definitely not under normal circumstances.
"What about in self-defense?"
"I.. don't know. You don't know either!"
Homura shouts this and phases out of sight. I check my surroundings and randomly kick an object at my feet. I look down, and once I take note of the pinless grenade, I shove it off the ledge with my ankle.
VEE-EEE!
The grenade detonates with a deafening high-pitched explosion. So it was a flashbang huh? Either way, this has to stop or someone's going to get hurt. Now might be a good time to go all out.
"Affinity Sign: Blissful Cosmic Collision!"
The light orbs in the area start to gather at a point in front of me. Magic has been going on all over this rooftop, so there is a lot of stray energy to gather for this bomb. When my giant light orb gathers enough energy, a loud chime-esque noise rings loud enough for the whole rooftop to hear.
PEW!
My gathered orb suddenly flashes and an odd beam shoots up from it. Then I notice Homura standing in front of me with a pistol of sorts drawn. From the looks of things, she shot at the orb and the single bullet was deflected and tossed upward.
"What is that..?" Homura looks unwilling to fire at it a second time.
"You'll understand in due time. Prepare yourself!"
Homura takes my advice and places her hand over her time-bending device. Is this going to be power vs. power? Sure enough, time distorts again the moment my staff collides with the orb. This is the moment where I am applying all of my force towards dispersing the orb, thus leaving me vulnerable. If this fails somehow, I won't have much reserves left!
...
All of my frontal scatter shots detonate abruptly within a few yards distance. The explosions are much larger than usual, meaning whatever is matching my projectiles are also explosive. Despite this, my orbs that shot high and orbs that shot wide are going through its normal trajectory. Was her counterattack miscalculated..? Eventually my bomb completes and I see Homura sitting on the ground while breathing heavily. Some sort of rocket launcher lies at her right side. I see now. Homura must have prepared herself to counter a large orb attack when my Spell Card is actually a maze of smaller orbs. That must have been misleading in frozen time!
"Looks like you jumped the gun a little. No pun intended."
And with that, I have officially held my own against all three of the opposing magical girls. Wow, the achievements just keep on coming!
VEE-EEE!
Ow, spoke too soon. Suddenly, my vision surges white and a lingering high-pitched noise overrides all other possible sounds. A flashbang huh..? This development could have been way worse, but I'm definitely at her mercy now!
[Fade BGM]
Or so I thought. My first sight upon getting my vision back is Homura being suspended in the air by a bundle of thick red ribbons, and Madoka making feeble attempts at freeing her. Mami approaches me and smirks at the situation.
"This is no good girls. You'll fall prey to witches at this rate."
Mami releases Homura from her binds and Madoka keeps her from stumbling over.
"I don't understand..."
"You know, next time we meet," I reply, "Remind me to explain myself a little more. That should be fun for both of us."
When my mind starts to wander, my ears pick up noises of weapons still clashing. Sayaka and Kyoko are still going at it..?
"You really think that wish you made is about justice don't you? Haven't you heard that the road to evil is paved with good intentions?"
"What are you getting at!? Even if you're onto something, I can't just up and change wishes!"
Kyoko manages to evade a stab, and weave into close-quarters. She recalls her weapon and pulls on both of Sayaka's cheeks in one swift motion.
"Then make sure it works the way you want it to. If you got your boyfriend his arms back, then break his legs to make sure he can't escape his savior!"
Sayaka follows suit and pulls on Kyoko's face before relying. "Dat's crahee... You're crahee!"
The rest of us wind up distracting ourselves with their banter. Homura adjusts her glasses with a baffled expression.
"This is.. too different..."
[BGM~rO2x1OqvOog "Melody of Profits"]
Eventually the lot of us wrapped everything up and went on about our business. As for our team specifically, we migrated to the rooftop of Mami's apartment. Mami breathes a sigh of contentment once we arrive.
"That turned out really well. Thank you both for deciding to cooperate with me."
"No problem. That was a lot more fun than I expected."
"It really was a nice change of pace getting to pick on those goodie-goodies," Kyoko replies with her hands behind her head. "Especially the one in blue."
"Heh, the more things change, the more they stay the same." Kyoko scans my expression once I say this. Good luck reading into it! "Anyways, I should get going."
"Until next time, Louis. And thanks again!"
Killing Time on the Road: One Popular Recruiter
CHEN: How did everything go, nya?
LOUIS: It all worked out in the end. How was hanging out with Kyubey? He didn't try to recruit you did he?
CHEN: You missed it. Master Yukari stopped by and chatted with Kyubey while you were gone!
LOUIS: Really? I can't even imagine how that turned out.
CHEN: Their ideals are very different but they seem to respect each other well enyuff!
LOUIS: Figures if anyone could befriend Kyubey, it would be her.
CHEN: But he's so squishy and adorable! Doesn't he have lots of friends?
LOUIS: Well he only ever associates with his clients/victims so I'd say that Kyubey is strictly business.
CHEN: All work and nyo play makes Kyubey a sad cat. I'll be his friend!
LOUIS: Good luck with that.
CHEN: I'm sure it'll work out!
