The bar Emma was sitting in had been cautious about letting her in without a chaperone. It was a bit of a hole in the wall, several minutes of transport-tube-riding away from the MSY Corridor. The bartender wasn't used to magical girl customers and had been worried.

It made sense, especially given how young some magical girls were. It was still infuriating. Thankfully, Emma's soul gem, and her magical summoning of it, had convinced the bartender that she was old enough to at least be let in. Even then, the bartender had still sent Emma a private text message letting her know that he was going to keep a closer eye on her, out of a sense of caution. It was wholly unnecessary, and made Emma feel singled out.

The stares that Emma felt following her as she made for a booth in the back didn't help.

The seat creaked as Emma shifted her weight, sipping her whiskey. She was wearing another hoodie, this one a blue and white zip-up, over the military-issue black shirt and camouflage trousers that she'd picked up in Samsara. They'd been close at hand, and she didn't see any reason to wear anything else. These days, the jeans she used to prefer felt alien and unpleasant. She wasn't quite sure why.

The whiskey she was drinking was handmade from a distillery up in northern Hokkaido. Good, if a bit unusual to her palate. Emma's father imported his whiskey from Ireland, and it tasted very different. Quite smooth, with a bit of sweetness, in contrast to the rougher, darker flavors of the whiskey Emma was drinking now.

It was the first chance Emma had gotten all day to sit down and relax. She'd sent Mikoto off to get settled into her new apartment, then gone to the Church's underground medical bay for the cortical dumps that came with her mundane coursework. The process had taken up most of the morning and been singularly unpleasant. The sensation was said to be like opening and closing boxes, except Emma felt more as if someone had reached into her head and crammed in a bunch of foam and stuffing, leaving her mind feeling bloated and uncomfortable.

Then she'd had to go back upstairs to the housing office and sign up for a room, find one that was immediately available, and actually move in. She had ended up with a small efficiency-style apartment several levels down. It was reasonably large, with enough space for a bed and a desk, as well a kitchenette where she had her own synthesizer and a countertop for eating the food that came from it.

The heavy lifting of the move was done by drone, of course, but the exact set up was something only she could really direct. It wasn't hard, just time consuming, mostly involving some of her personal effects and arranging the furniture to her liking.

It reminded Emma far too much about commanding drones in combat, and the memories that she didn't want to think about.

The whiskey was starting to kick in now. It was a nice feeling, though getting drunk in the bar was a very different experience compared to getting drunk while wandering the streets of Helsinberg.

The bartender's eyes felt like tiny feet crawling over Emma's neck.

Her glass clinked as she set it down, a robotic server sweeping it away and replacing it with another one immediately. Emma watched the amber liquid within wobble from the brief motion, then picked up the glass and took a sip.

Good. She wasn't being treated like a child.

The rest of her leave seemed like it would be relatively uneventful though. Just laboratory experiments she was expected to attend in order to gain a firmer understanding of the physics she'd downloaded, a few training courses for polearm fighting, and figuring out what she wanted to do in the future.

The way the military worked, Emma wasn't expected to do any serious training while on "rest" leave. Her free time was intended entirely for rest and relaxation, with no obligations apart from the occasional demon hunt. A lot of people spent most of that time in time-dilated VR, pulling in their families with them via military privileges, and children still in school could have their schoolwork forwarded to them as was appropriate. The goal was to mentally recuperate, not work yourself into the ground.

Afterwards though, each soldier had a choice. If the military didn't simply reassign them, he or she could choose to complete a training course and get assigned as a replacement in an appropriate unit, return to their previous unit, or request a reassignment. The last was encouraged, to an extent, in order to give soldiers a wider breadth of experience.

Emma knocked back her glass, then blinked at the girl sitting across from her. It was Eliana Cruz again, the girl that Emma had talked to while in line to visit the Ribbon. She wore a light colored dress with billowy shoulder sleeves and a bow across her waist. It matched the sapphire blue of her soul gem, set in ring form on her middle finger.

"When did you get there?" Emma asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just now," said Eliana. She waggled her fingers, smiling slightly. "Like magic."

"Uh huh," said Emma, unamused.

"I'm very good at sneaking around magical girls," said Eliana. She shrugged. "Comes with the job, y'know."

"What's that then?"

Eliana raised her eyebrow. "You should look up others more often. I'm in MagOps."

Emma shrugged again, accepting another glass of whiskey from the serving drone. "I know more than one girl in MagOps."

Eliana rolled her eyes. "What're you up to?"

"Well, as you can see, I am currently consuming whiskey," said Emma, holding up her glass indicatively. She took a swig and sighed. "I intend to continue consuming whiskey."

"Why's that then? It sounds boring."

"Better than sitting around thinking."

"Ah."

Eliana watched as Emma sipped from her glass. A moment later, a tall glass of clear liquid arrived for Eliana. It had been chilled with three ice cubes, then mixed and garnished with some sort of green foliage. A black straw was stuck through the surface.

"What's that?" Emma asked, gesturing with her glass.

"It's called a mojito," said Eliana, sipping from the straw. "A mix of rum and lime juice, sweetened with crushed mint leaves and sugar. I'd get a caipirinha, but this bar doesn't have cachaca."

"What's cachaca?"

"It's like rum, except it's made from straight sugarcane juice," said Eliana. "Rum is made from molasses. Same plant, very different drinks."

Emma nodded. "Makes sense. Is that any good?"

"I like it," said Eliana, nodding. "This place does a good mojito. Switch with you?"

Emma nodded again, and they exchanged glasses. She took a considering sip.

"That is good," said Emma in surprise. "I didn't know about this."

"I can teach you if you want," said Eliana. "I spent a few years in Jamaica during the Unification Wars, after moving back to Brazil."

"You fought?"

"Of course," said Eliana, scoffing. "You didn't look up my age either? I turned four hundred and thirty seven a few weeks ago."

Emma choked on her drink.

"Wha— seriously?"

"Oh yeah," said Eliana, handing Emma a napkin. "Joined the Soul Guard back when it first started up, then did special missions during the Unification Wars."

Emma blinked at Eliana while wiping rum off her chin. This was absurd.

"Don't Ancients have, like, things to do?" asked Emma. "Why're you spending your time talking to me?"

"Oh, a few reasons," said Eliana, shrugging. "Most of all because of your vision."

"Seriously?"

Eliana smiled. "An old lady like me can't help but be interested in seeing how a girl like you will deal with it."

Emma snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. I totally buy that."

"Believe what you will," said Eliana, shrugging. "Ultimately, I just want to be friends."

"Mm. Fair enough, I guess," said Emma, sipping the mojito again. "I never thanked you for helping me after the vision."

"No worries," said Eliana, chuckling. "You were a little unsteady on your feet. It was the least I could do for a fellow magical girl."

"Have you really been waiting all these years to see something like that?" asked Emma.

"Yes," said Eliana. "I was at New Athens, when the squid first attacked. A dozen years isn't that much for someone like me though, so it's surprising that it happened so soon. It makes you wonder. You believe in the Goddess?"

Emma blinked. "Yes."

"Hmm," Eliana mused, sipping Emma's whiskey. "Interesting…"

Emma looked askance at Eliana and drank more of mojito. "Um, what is?"

Eliana stared at Emma briefly, then sucked down the whiskey in one gulp. "Finish your mojito. I want to take you barhopping."

"Huh?"

"Finish your mojito," said Eliana. "Trust me, okay? It'll be fun."

Emma frowned at Eliana and considered refusing. The girl had shown up literally at random, and while the Network had confirmed everything Eliana had said, it still was difficult to just trust someone instantly.

Then again, this was Mitakihara, and magical girl on magical girl crime was nearly unheard of. The worst that happened was the occasional fistfight during a nasty breakup, but Emma was hardly intending to date Eliana. And, most importantly, whatever Eliana was proposing would be an excellent distraction from thinking about the future.

Emma could even justify it as making connections.

"What the hell then," said Emma, tipping back the rest of the mojito and wiping her mouth. "What next?"

As it turned out, "barhopping" referred to heading back to, then wandering the entire length of, the MSY Corridor and visiting nearly every bar there, having one or two drinks at each. They'd ended up joining a party for a while, though they'd skipped out when the party had wanted to visit a nightclub and find somebody to bang for the night. Afterwards, they'd had a few more cocktails in a calmer lounge, intending to sober up enough not to make a fool of themselves on the way to Emma's new apartment. The venture promptly failed as Eliana began to relate funny stories about her past experiences with the Church's founder.

Emma flopped onto her bed, giggling incessantly as Eliana's latest story concluded.

"That really happened?" she asked Eliana. "Wow! Ancients have so many incredible secrets!"

"Don't tell anyone," hushed Eliana, sitting down on Emma's floor with a thunk. "Kyouko'd totally kill me."

"Heee. I won't."

Emma kicked her shoes off, wiggling upright to lean against the wall. "You don't have to sit there you know," she said, patting the bed next to her. "Come sit! It's more comfortable."

"Well…"

"Come onnn!"

"Fair enough then," said Eliana, making her way onto Emma's bed and sitting down. The bed sagged briefly, before stabilizing. "So! Vids, right? Do you have anything in mind?"

"Let's watch something stupid and dumb," said Emma. "Like um… like that vid about the police guy in old-timey Hong Kong, and the kung fu!"

"Oh oh, I know which you mean," said Eliana. The wall across from them began to roll the opening of the movie as the room's lights dimmed.

"In the year 2027, the City of Hong Kong is in chaos," the deep voice of the narrator boomed. "Conflict between the People and the Communist Party of China has erupted in a mass uprising across the entire city…"

It was a typical Governance-sponsored semi-propaganda film. Hammy and stereotypical, with plenty of action and explosions that typified mass-market blockbusters. It was incredibly dumb, but fun all the same. Soon enough, the protagonist was angsting over something or another that involved dead protesters.

"So, you going to tell me why you were drinking yourself into a hole today?" Eliana asked as a protester on screen began to sing about the rights of the people.

"Hmmm?" asked Emma, blinking up at Eliana. When had she started leaning against Eliana's shoulder?

"You were pretty upset today, when I found you," said Eliana. "You looked determined to have an entire bottle on your own."

"Oh. Eh, just bad memories," said Emma cheerfully. "Whiskey makes them go away. It's really nice."

"What sort of memories?" asked Eliana.

Emma paused, and swallowed. "You know the kind."

Eliana sighed. "I see."

The vid continued, beginning a long car chase sequence with thrilling action shots and a variety of antique cars slammed into walls. The protagonist ended up trapped behind a wall of fire, without hope of escape, before a ventilation shaft opened up miraculously and two hands pulled him in.

"You should see the MHD about your memories," said Eliana as the protagonist and the obvious love interest crawled through the ventilation as fast as they could. "Drinking like this isn't healthy."

"I don't do it that often," said Emma.

"It might get worse."

"It won't."

"You don't know th—"

"It won't," Emma snapped angrily. "I'm a magical girl. I fight monsters. I can't do that if I'm drunk all the time. Stop acting like I'll neglect that duty."

Eliana gave Emma an undefinable look, before nodding and turning back to the vid.

"My mistake," said Eliana. "Sorry. Just don't forget it's there, if you need it."

Emma paused, then nodded. "Okay."

Eliana left between three and four in the morning. Emma walked her out to the elevator, then went back to her room and slept for two more hours. That left her half an hour to change into a different hoodie— black with a yellow "go faster" stripe across the hood and the back —to get to pre-demon patrol briefing and check in with the commander, Major Jiuliana Acciaioli. The patrol met in the Refectory, where magical girls milled about with pastries and coffee in hand.

"Ah, Emma, good morning," said a girl, appearing with a basket of bagels and a cup of coffee. "I'm Jiuliana, welcome to Patrol Group D."

"Good morning," said Emma as Jiuliana handed her the cup. "It's a pleasure."

"A pleasure to have you as well," said Jiuliana. She gestured with the basket for Emma to take a bagel. "Now, I understand that you're coming back from Samsara?"

"Yes," said Emma. The Everything Bagel looked good.

"You've worked as part of an assault team then."

"Yes."

"Good, then I want you running up front," said Jiuliana. "You'll be with Team Three, they're short one girl at the moment."

"Do we have teleporter support?" asked Emma. She bit into her bagel, and found that it tasted as good as she had expected.

"We only have enough for the Bomb Squads," said Jiuliana. "Extraction is an option if you guys get caught in a bad spot, but we've got enough ranged fighters that it shouldn't be a problem."

"Alright," said Emma. "Then I guess I'll go talk to my team?"

"Go ahead," said Jiuliana with a nod, moving off. "The patrol route is on your interface. Team Three is…" She paused, then pointed to the left. "Over there, by the pillar."

Team Three was one of several three-girl teams. According to Emma's implants, the missing girl had redeployed a few weeks ago. The two who remained were midway through leave cycles. They stood untransformed by the pillar, waiting for the pre-patrol briefing to start. Vivianne Tamboli, a tall brunette with short hair and dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants, looked extremely displeased to be there. Shoshana Grosser was shorter, with light brown hair down to her waist, and looked vaguely amused at Vivianne's bad mood.

"Good morning," said Emma, waving vaguely with her bagel. "I'm Emma Sinclair, wind elemental. I'll be joining you for the foreseeable future."

"Nice to meet you," said Shoshana. "It's good to have you. Don't mind Vivianne, she's always like this."

Vivianne grunted and sipped her coffee.

"Is she okay?" asked Emma.

"I'm fine," groaned Vivianne. "It's too early for this shit is all."

"No, I don't know why it bothers her either," said Shoshana as Emma paused in confusion. "I don't think anyone does."

"It's because of my wish, I told you," said Vivianne grumpily. "Stupid Incubators fucked it up, I swear."

"And I keep telling you, wishes don't work that way," said Shoshana. "I looked it up and there's no evidence to support it."

"No trend," said Vivianne. "Doesn't mean exceptions don't occur. I should totally get the MHD to like, scan my brain or something. My wish scrambled my head, I'm telling you."

"But that doesn't make any sense," blurted Emma. She immediately flushed.

"See, she agrees with me!" said Shoshana smugly. She flashed Emma a grin. "Knew I could count on you, Emma."

"Bah," grumbled Vivianne. "Fine, whatever. What sort of magic you do, Emma?"

"Er, wind magic?"

"Yeah yeah, what kind though?" asked Vivianne. She snatched a bagel from a passing serving drone and began to munch it aggressively. "You make hurricanes or something?"

"No, no, that's way beyond me," said Emma with a small laugh. "I uh, well, I make wind that cuts I guess? It's sort of abstract."

"Eh, good enough. You're AOE I think, according to your file?"

"Mostly, yes, mixed with melee."

"Good, you'll mesh well then," said Vivianne. She tipped back the rest of her cup, then looked at it sadly. "Shoshana, you want to do the run down? I'm going to get more coffee."

"You could help me you know," said Shoshana. "It's better if you can explain your parts."

"Eh, whatever," said Vivianne as she began walking away.

Shoshana sighed, then turned back to Emma.

"Well, the short version is that we're primarily a containment and reconnaissance team," she began. "We'll be out on the leading edge of the patrol, scanning for miasmas and working to keep it from spreading. First ones in, last ones out.

I'm a summoner-slash-clairvoyant, and summon crows that speak over telepathy. They'll range ahead. Vivianne shoots grenades and has reasonably good clairvoyance as well, so the plan's always been for her to perform a general attack from mid-range while I harass the demons to draw aggro. It's been difficult without a third person.

With you specializing in AOE and melee, we'll want you to engage high priority clusters while we concentrate on suppression. I'll use my crows to flag targets based on priority and send them to you over clairvoyance, and Vivianne will be able to drop rounds on whatever you flag as a target. Make sense?"

"Yeah, I can do that," said Emma as Vivianne wandered back, sipping from an entire carafe of coffee now. "Anything special I should know about you guys' powers?"

"Not really," said Shoshana. "We're both pretty straightforward, so far as magic goes."

"I can switch between flares, incendiaries, and smoke grenades," said Vivianne. "Not just high explosive."

"Ah, right, I forgot," said Shoshana, looking slightly embarrassed.

Vivianne gave Shoshana a longsuffering look, then turned to Emma. "You'll have to tag targets, especially if you want me to do something specific. Otherwise, I'll just use HE rounds."

Emma nodded. "Okay, got it."

"So with that done with, tell us a little about yourself, Emma," said Shoshana. She smiled, a little creepily, at Emma. "You have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend, I suppose."

"Er, are girlfriends really that common between magical girls?" asked Emma.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Shoshana with a shrug. "I'd almost say me and Vivianne are dating, but it's really more casual than anything else."

"I— okay?" said Emma. She looked at Vivianne, who smirked and sipped her coffee.

Well then.

"Er, well, I mean, I don't really have a girlfriend or a boyfriend," said Emma, "though I'm sort of working on both?"

"Ooo, still choosing, or both at once?" asked Shoshana.

"Erm, w-well, I— I guess I haven't figured that out yet?" said Emma. She felt herself blushing and looked away, biting into her bagel. "We've uh, not had much time to talk about it."

"Battlefield romance then," said Shoshana, nodding thoughtfully. "Well, as a bit of unsolicited advice, try and figure out what you want to do quickly. Leaving people hanging just creates hurt feelings."

"I'll, um, try," said Emma. She fidgeted uncomfortably. "Thanks."

"Try not to be too embarrassed," said Vivianne consolingly as she sipped more coffee. "Shoshana's a huge gossip, but she doesn't mean any harm."

"I'm not that huge a gossip!"

"Yes you are."

Shoshana huffed. "Jiuliana is getting started. We should pay attention."

The pre-patrol briefing was dull. It was important to pay attention, of course, but Emma had eschewed a career in finance partly to avoid meetings like this. Shoshana and Vivianne seemed to be paying attention though, so presumably they'd yell at her if she screwed up later. Emma took the chance to look around the room.

The patrol was considered "young" and was made up of roughly one hundred magical girls, organized into either teams of three or groups of nine. About a third were experienced girls on leave or reserve duty, but the rest were young contractees who were below the minimum age for military service. Mitakihara was a big place, with an already-substantial native magical girl population, making it inevitable that an unusually large number of young contractees would be present in the area. Since classes typically started sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 AM, it was common for younger girls who wanted, or needed, to continue their pre-contract career tracks to go demon hunting before school. Those who preferred to sleep in, even though they didn't need to, would often show up after school for the 5:00 PM slot. Older girls who were already in the military were more evenly distributed.

Mikoto was, apparently, organized into a group of summoners, providing support for the rest of the teams from the fringes. She was part of a minority of contractees who were both very new and below service age. The vast majority of the younger magical girls had been contracted for at least a few months, were used to things, and had formed close-knit patrol teams. Mikoto was somewhat isolated as a result, but— Emma tried not to be too obvious as she examined the girls Mikoto was sitting with —she seemed to have found friends quickly.

"Hey Mikoto," Emma whispered telepathically. She smiled as Mikoto flinched, then glanced around to see if anybody noticed.

"Hey Emma!" said Mikoto. "You're here too?"

"Yeah. I'm still finalizing my schedule, but I'll have class in the day, so this time made sense. Having fun with the meeting?"

Mikoto shrugged. "It's alright I guess? It's a lot like the ones we had on Samsara."

"Yeah, it's nothing new," said Emma. She turned back to the front, watching the diagrams projected into the air. "I sort of wish we could just get on with it, though I guess reviewing doesn't hurt."

Mikoto shrugged again, the gesture transmitted through telepathy. "I guess."

"Do you have class today?"

"Mmhm, starting at 10:30 and going until three."

"You excited?"

"Yeah! My roommates were telling me about the classes, and they seem fun."

Emma concealed a laugh as Jiuliana segued into the conclusion of her briefing.

"How was the move then?" Emma asked. "It sounds like you like your roommates."

"I do, yeah, they're pretty cool," said Mikoto. "The move was fine. I found a vintage-style desk for my room that I think is cute."

"What are your roommates like? Any interesting stories from the first day?"

"Well, we got lucky and ended up with only three people in a four-person suite," said Mikoto. "So there's me and Tabitha Asenov in one room, and Lily Fong in the other."

"Are they all from Earth?"

"Lily is, she's from San Francisco. Tabitha's from a colony called Novyy Zemelʹnyy. They're both summoners too, of course. Lily summons sheep, and Tabitha summons cockroaches, which is kind of creepy, if I'm honest."

"Cockroaches?"

"Yeah."

"What's a cockroach?"

"These big, big bugs," said Mikoto, sounding unsettled. "I mean, like, huge."

Emma restrained the urge to roll her eyes. "It's just an insect. I'm sure Tabitha's are nice."

"I mean, sure, but they're like the size of my hand."

Emma had to conceal a laugh again. "Yeah well, maybe if you let one of them ride you for a while, you'd get used to it."

"Eeeww! Emma!"

"Heh, sorry, sorry," said Emma, hiding her smile behind a coffee mug. "What about Lily? Anything interesting about her summons?"

"They're not very smart, but they can talk," said Mikoto. "It's kind of funny watching them yell at the mirror."

"…Wow, that's impressive."

"Yeah, I know right?"

"Are you three all on this patrol?"

"Yeah. We're in the same classes after all."

"I'll have to keep an eye out for you guys," said Emma as the meeting wrapped up. "It sounds like you'll be interesting to see in action."

"Thanks!"

The patrol had half an hour to requisition any weaponry and supplementary equipment they wanted from the armory. Emma got her old standby of extra combat armor. She was sitting on the roof, pulling on the individual plates and giving them a temporary aesthetic enchantment. Shoshana and Vivianne were sitting with her, not having any preparatory things to do themselves. The rest of the patrol was scattered across the roof and the grounds below.

It was interesting. Emma wasn't used to seeing this many magical girls all at once preparing for a mission.

"Ah, figures that you'd be getting armor," said Shoshana. Her costume was dark grey, with a full skirted dress lined with bronze. She had a tall fur hat on her head, with a single black feather as an ornament.

Emma glanced up at the older girl and shrugged. "Always did it. Seemed logical. I never got why it was only the melee girls who did it in my training cohort."

"It's not only melee girls, really," said Vivianne. She had transformed into a suit of white, full-body ballistic armor, patterned with dark-orange and yellow honeycomb on the panels and black at the joints. At the moment, her costume's helmet was tucked under one arm. "It's more that there's a few different archetypes that end up liking armor and extra weaponry for some reason."

"Really?" asked Emma, tugging on a shoulder plate with a grunt.

"Yeah. All the obvious ones, like touch-based powers or barrier generators, tend to like getting extra armor. It's also true for anyone who was a military otaku before contracting. It's rare outside that, though nobody's sure why. I think the latest theory is that it has to do with your wish interacting with your subconscious self-image and affecting your ability to utilize magic when that self-image is corrupted in reality."

Vivianne paused as Emma stared at her.

"What?"

"Nothing," said Emma, going back to putting on armor. "You're just really talkative suddenly."

"Hey, I got coffee," said Vivianne with a shrug and a grin. "Coffee's good stuff."

"I… I guess?"

"Don't think about it too much," said Shoshana, patting Emma on the shoulder.