The AR MP Regen Effect
Cast:
Cure Miracle, Asahina Mirai - age 14
Cure Magical, Izayoi Riko - age 13
Cure Felice, Hanami Kotoha - age 13
July, 2016
"What is it that you're always doing on your phone?"
"Ha..." Kotoha's response to Mirai's question is not so much an answer as a distracted exhalation.
"That's it. You brought this on yourself!" Riko plucks the smartphone from Kotoha's hands and holds it out of reach.
"Ah!" Kotoha reaches out but only grasps empty air. Despite being the same age as Riko, she looks like she could be three years younger.
"Kotoha! I'm not giving it back until you talk to us! What has gotten into you?"
"...you stopped doing magic."
"Ha?!"
"Ah! Riko, you've been infected with Ha-chan!"
"I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"
"Hahahahaha!" Her smartphone forgotten, Kotoha rolls on the floor. After a few moments, she gets up, and wipes tears from her eyes. "Ah... I needed that."
Riko frowns and crosses her arms. "So glad you're amused. Now spill."
"You stopped doing magic!" Kotoha says.
"Because there isn't any such thing."
"It doesn't have to be real to mean something! It meant something to me!"
"I skipped school for almost two months!"
"You went back to the Magic World! You said so yourself!"
"Maybe calm down a bit, you two?"
Following Mirai's interjection, Riko and Kotoha stop and catch their breaths.
"Kotoha, how does any of this connect to you becoming a phone addict?"
"It's an AR game where you play as a witch and collect Linkle Stones. I started playing it to refill my imagination gauge after you came back, since you don't do magic anymore."
"Ha?"
"Oh no, you really are infected with me!"
"Ah! Ah- ah-ah-ah..." Riko's attempts at further protest are rendered unintelligible by Kotoha, who is holding the Riko's jaws open and trying to examine inside her mouth.
"It came from me to begin with... maybe I can suck it out?"
"No!" Mirai's hand covers Riko's lips just in time.