Short 8 - The Art of Persuasion

Alright, alright!

You want to know what I did in Mitakihara when I brought the TARDIS to the time before Homura's loop. Don't lie, I know you lot. You're just giddy with anticipation of what hijinks I was up to, if I met any of the other Magical Girls or hunted down a Witch or some sort of thing.

I will remind you that I had yet to seek full medical attention at that point, meaning I went out with a knee that was only partly mended and a shoulder still suffering from dislocation, although I admit the cane I picked to use made me look rather distinguished and my backup version of my navy blue and blue suit fit just as well. To make the point clear, this was not an adventure.

Rather I went to pursue a little project I had in mind for the future and, upon getting the long range scans I needed, I was returning to the TARDIS when the sonic picked up a dimensional distortion. Such a distortion could be only one thing; a Witch's labyrinth. No, seriously, similar bandwidth to Walpurgisnacht's and everything, just lower on the energy scale.

So I decided to investigate. I got rather close when the distortion disappeared. Instead, upon finding the origin point, I noticed several youths running out of an alley laughing. My Time Lord senses could feel the cold coming from one of them as they did so and I glanced long enough to see what he was holding. It was a bag.

A bag with a few grief seeds in them.

Stumbling out of the alleyway was a school girl with a head of styled blond hair with two curling tails at the end and brown eyes so light in hue they were almost yellow. Her school uniform was tattered up a bit, as if she'd in the fight of her life... and given who she was I imagined that was entirely possible. "Come back, those aren't safe!", she cried at the youths running away.

I put my hand on my face. Somehow I didn't see this ending well if something wasn't done. Since my knee was all blown out I wouldn't be pursuing them and, given the girl's injuries, I suspected she wasn't up for it either. A good thing I had a sonic screwdriver.

Then again, it's always a good thing to have a sonic screwdriver. I'd say everyone should have one, but that would be like saying everyone should have a gun. Not that the sonic screwdriver is a gun. Guns can't reprogram missile computers or send a matter-antimatter reactor into overload.

"This is why they say youth is wasted on the young," I said aloud. I looked to the girl. "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Just 'the Doctor', mind you. A little nickname I've picked up."

She looked at me with curiosity tempered by politeness. When she spoke again her voice, while still strained, changed to a soft and friendly tone. "Pleased to meet you, sir. I am Mami Tomoe."

"That you are," I remarked. I pulled the sonic out and activated the scanning feature. "Now, let's track down those juvenile delinquents who made off with your property."

We walked along the street, my cane helping to support my tender left leg. "You've been injured recently?", Mami asked.

"Yes. Fell from a height. Twice. May I say you look rather hurt yourself, young lady?"

"Oh, I..."

I smiled at her. "...faced a rather nasty Witch I imagine."

She stopped and looked at me with surprise. I winked. "Don't worry Mami, your secret is safe with me. If you want some reciprocation, I'm a Human who regenerated into an alien, a Time Lord to be precise. We can discuss it later as we are now within ten meters of our young thieves who, I believe, are within this condominium building here."

We entered the building and found the scamps looking over the Grief Seeds at one of the benches facing the elevators. Unfortunately my cane was rather unstealthy and they heard us enter. The moment they saw Mami step out from beside me they scrambled for the nearest elevator. We dashed up as fast as we could but, given our hobbling, the elevator door was already closed. "It's a secured elevator, we don't have a card to follow them with," she said, looking fairly irritated.

"Yes. Of course, I don't need a card." I pointed the sonic toward the control panel and turned it on. The purple tip lit up and there was the brief, soothing whir of the sonic. The elevator immediately proceeded on its way back to our floor. "Sonic screwdriver," I said. "Never leave my TARDIS without it."

"What's a TARDIS?"

"It's my ship. Can move through six dimensions of space-time, hold it..."

The door slid open. The delinquents looked on in shock. "Okay lads, hand the nice lady back her things."

One reached out and jammed the door close button. It slid to a close in my face and the elevator began going up again. I activated the sonic and brought the elevator back. When the door opened and they were facing us again I said, "Do you really want those things? They're black eggs with pointy needle bits, not valuable at all."

The door slid in my face again. The elevator started to go back up. I used the sonic to bring it back down once more. "How badly do you need one of these seeds for your gem?"

"Oh... it's not too bad at the moment." She held the yellow egg-shaped soul gem up for me to see. There was a kernel of black in the middle, but just a kernel. "But if those seeds stay together for too long a Witch might hatch."

"Indeed." By this point the door opened again. The kids stared at me in amazement. "I can do this all day," I said to them. "Now give the nice lady back her..." The door slid shut yet again. "Ah, macho posturing. No wonder women think males are bloody idiots. Maybe a little more incentive..."

This time I had the sonic keep sending them up... all the way to the top floor, and at the highest speed the elevator would permit. "Going down," I laughed, using the sonic to send the elevator into a very quick descent. Not too quick- this wasn't a theme park ride with safety bars - but enough to get the message across. When the door slid open I had four very queasy and nauseated and frankly terrified youths looking at me with horrified expressions. "Now, once again... give the nice lady back her black eggs. Or do you want another drop?" When I got no immediate reaction I brought the sonic back up. "Another drop it is!"

"Wait, stop!," one cried. He grabbed the bag of grief seeds from his conspirator and pushed it towards us. "Just leave us alone!" Going by the looks he was getting, a couple of his compatriots were thankful but the one he grabbed the seeds from was rather upset with him.

After Mami accepted the bag she checked it. "They're all here."

"Good. Now I want you boys to apologize to Miss Tomoe here for stealing from her." When I got sullen looks in reply I pressed the sonic to close the door. Just before it closed I heard one cry out for me to wait, so I re-opened the elevator. We received a chorus of apologies to "Miss Tomoe" and, miracle of miracles, at least two were actually sincere. "There we go, not so hard was it? Now I better not catch you lot doing this again, or I'm going to actually get angry with you. Alright?"

They answered with nods, so I let the elevator door close on its own.

"Thank you, Doctor," Mami said, securing the bag to her shoulder. "You may have saved their lives."

"Quite likely. Now, I believe I owe you an explanation, so if I might have the pleasure of your company for a short walk..."

By the time I was opening the TARDIS door I had explained just what I was to Mami, although I left out the mechanics of how I knew about what she was and how this world worked. As much as I would have been happy to warn her and any other magical girl of Kyubey's deceptions... I remembered full well what Mami had done in Timeline 3. I didn't want to send her on a wild purge of other Magical Girls that would throw all of this cosmos' history into a trash bin. She looked into the TARDIS' "It's like a labyrinth," she murmured.

"In a way, I suppose. It's a pocket dimension inside of a ship, at least. Better decor than a Witch's labyrinth, though." I smiled at her and extended my hand. "I won't be around at all times, but I'll be coming in once and a while to check up on things. Take care of yourself."

"Thank you again for your help, Doctor," Mami said respectfully. "If you ever need my assistance with anything I'll do whatever I can to help."

"I'll let you know, then," I promised. "Now I think we both need to heal up a bit. And I still have a loose end to tie up so I must bid you adieu. Take care, Mami Tomoe." I stepped into the TARDIS and, after exchanging one last series of nods with her, closed the door behind me.

And there you go. My grand adventure in pre-loop Mitakihara. I figured I should let you in on it, it has a slight role to play in some bits coming up.