The train pulled into the Tokisadame Station, bringing with it a large group of middle school girls. They were the last out of the car, waiting for the rest of the crowd to disperse. Leading the group was a girl with blonde hair and a large red ribbon. A manga was in her hand, the title Magical Mirakurun printed across the white strip in bold pink letters. She flipped through the pages, turning to the author's notes in the back.
"We made it!" said the blonde girl, "Tokisadame, the birthplace of Mirakurun! The author grew up here. All of Mirakurun's most famous battles took place here. I've always wanted to go on a pilgrimage."
A girl with short purple hair stepped out behind her, grabbing her by the shoulder. "Kyoko, calm down. Tokisadame is a peaceful town. The people don't need someone like you barging in and asking to have your picture taken."
"Oh, that's okay. China's the one who's going to be getting her picture taken," said Kyoko, giving a thumbs up and winking at a girl with bushy pink hair. Chinatsu clung to the purple haired girl's arm, trying to issue the girl to attack Kyoko like a watchdog.
"Yui," said Chinatsu. "I thought this was a field trip."
"But field trips are about doing things together," said Kyoko.
"I know. That's why I'm going to go sightseeing with Yui," said Chinatsu, giving a devilish smile in Kyoko's direction.
The train doors were about to close. That same red haired girl from the title call was stuck in between them, struggling to pull herself and her luggage out into the train platform. She pushed open the doors with her right hand and her left foot, struggling and panting. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. For a brief moment, she had a space large enough to squeeze through, and joined the group.
"Akari," said Chinatsu, looking at the girl, who was now sprawled out across the ground. "Were you still sleeping?"
Akari stood up, catching her breath. Her eye twitched. "I would've gone to the next station! How come nobody told me we made it?"
"Sorry, Akari," said Kyoko, "I didn't notice you in the car."
Akari's face turned into an expressionless canvas. She could feel her body vanishing before the eyes of her friends. Akari stomped her foot on the ground and regained her presence. "Calm down, Akari. You're in another city. Nobody here knows you. If I'm the star of this fanfic, I have to live up to that reputation. I'll try my best!"
The rest of the Amusement Club had vanished into the crowds. Akari was left standing in the station, the weight of her bag weighing on her shoulders. The wind blew through the station, causing a copy of that day's newspaper to blow past Akari's face. She heard the clang of the train departing, and collapsed to the polished floor.
As she lay in the orz position, her mission ended before it even started, she head the sound of footsteps in the distance. A small white and brown dog approached her. Akari looked up, wiping the tears pooling in her eyes. The dog never once opened his mouth. He sniffed around Akari's hair and extended his paw outward, placing it across her lowered shoulder. Akari felt his warm paw recharge her with energy.
"That's right," Akari said to herself, "There are people in this world who care about me! Kyoko, Yui, Chinatsu, wait for me!" Akari's bag brushed past a plant outside the train station as she released herself into the streets of Tokisadame. A pair of leaves caught themselves on the bag's zipper, fluttering in the wind.
"...and then I said, 'Oatmeal, are you crazy?'. Hey, Mio, why aren't you laughing?" asked a desperate girl. Her short brown hair was an untidy punchline. Every Sunday morning, Yuuko Aioi attempted to come up with a gag that could be weaponized, one that her friends would finally respect her for. She was starting to run out of material.
"You were saying something, Yukko?" asked Mio Naganohara. She was on her way to the art supply store, looking to restock her manga drawing supplies. She'd put up a flier on the school bulletin board seeking assistants, but nobody had called yet. Mio checked her hair quickly to make sure her wood block ties were keeping her blue hair in place.
"Never mind," said Yuuko. Her eyes flashed with the genesis of another bright idea. "Hey, Mio, why do you draw manga anyway?" Yuuko had found out only recently. At the end of that sentence, she felt phantom hands jabbing into the sides of her body, recalling Mio's run in with the law a few weeks ago.
"Sasahara," said Mio casually.
"I know he stars in your manga, but why do you draw it?" asked Yuuko, leaning over Mio's shoulder. Mio could feel her breathing on her neck. She walked a little faster, her face shadowed and blushing bright red at the same time.
"Sasa... culture..." whispered Mio. "You know, Yuuko, if you're so intent on questioning me, perhaps, maybe, as friends," her voice was winding up, becoming tenser every moment, as if someone was turning a key in her back, "you could tell me what your dream is."
Yuuko put her hand to her chin and started thinking. She had penned a poem while working on her English homework, but that was something born of boredom, there's no way she could make a career out of that. The fliers for the Igo-Soccer Club came to mind. Unlike Mio, she could actually play sports, but was Igo-Soccer a real game? Yuuko was so scatterbrained trying to get her life to function correctly she had never considered a career.
She had been trailing behind Mio the whole time, following her into the art supply store until she was right in the middle of the paints section. She snapped back to reality and gave Mio her answer.
"Comedy!" she shouted. Yuuko looked around, noticing Mio one aisle over. She was talking with someone a head shorter than her. Several someones, in fact.
"Mio!" Yuuko shouted.
"Hey, Yukko," said Mio, holding a new sketchpad under her arms, "I finally met someone else who draws manga. Kyoko, Yui, Chinatsu, this is Yukko. She's an idiot."
"I can relate," said Yui, "Kyoko's an idiot too."
"She is," said Chinatsu, clinging to Yui's arm. Yui was ignoring her, instead keeping her hand firmly over Kyoko's bag. Kyoko was trying to unzip it and show Mio her drawings, despite meeting her a minute ago.
"What about my dream?" asked Yuuko, slack-jawed.
"Don't be silly, we're still young. Carpe diem," said Mio, waving her hands about.
Yuuko stood in the aisle, absorbing the scents of fresh paper into her nose. She saw the girl called Kyoko hand off the book she was holding under her arm to Mio. A childlike smile crossed Mio's face as she flipped through the pages, stopping on a scene of a girl clad in what looked like a school uniform blowing up a fleet of aliens.
She lowered the book, matching up the expression of the magical girl with Chinatsu. There was a hint of malice in Chinatsu's eyes that the warrior of love and justice Mirakurun eternally lacked, but the resemblance was uncanny. Artists often drew the people that they knew. Nervously, Mio asked of Kyoko a question she was certain she'd heard many times before.
"Did you draw this?" Mio asked.
"Oh, no, I'm just a fan. We're here because the author grew up in Tokisadame," said Kyoko, "but I am a doujin artist. Did you see my booth at Comuket last summer? It was the one with the cosplay."
"Co-co-Comuket?" asked Mio. Inside her head, her voice exploded. "How did a middle school girl get to Comuket?"
"What kind of stuff do you draw?" asked Kyoko.
Yuuko walked in between Kyoko and Chinatsu. The pink haired girl used this oppurtunity to hightail it out of the store. As she left, she called out to Yui. "I'm going to find Akari! Meet me back at the station!"
Yuuko wrapped one of her arms around Mio's shoulder, cleared her throat, and announced the contents of Mio's bag with great pride. "Mio is an excellent artist. She specializes in drawing men in sens-" Yuuko never finished her sentence because Mio, faster than a breath, had hit Yuuko over the head with a corkboard.
"Yukko, please don't continue any further," said Mio, "Come on. I got the supplies I was looking for. So, how would you like a tour of the city? Nothing exciting happens here, so I don't know how much I could show you."
"That'll be fine," said Yui.
"Yukko, come on!" said Mio.
Yuuko had a stream of tears running down her eyes and a large bump on her forehead. She slunk behind the group with a slow pace. Her energy instantly returned when she remembered that she was also a local. There was nobody in this city who had seen more of what it had to offer than her; and nobody who was believed less than her.
"Toshino, Funami," said Yuuko, walking beside the middle school girls, "Nano and Mai would love to meet you. Where's the fourth member of your group again?"
Yui and Kyoko continued walking until they were out of the store. Then until they reached the street corner. It was at that point the two gave each other a surprised look. An innocent laugh and a pair of red balls of hair appeared in their minds' eye.
"AKARI!" they said simultaneously.
Akari Akaza was running. Running to the point where her vision of the world was becoming blurrier and sketchier, her very form disintegrating into the basic shapes that made it up. Akari gripped the edge of her skirt, trying to keep her presence from fading away. She held out her foot and skidded to a stop. She was feeling hungry after the train ride. The smell of food was blowing through the air.
A stand called the Daifuku Fair was set up before her. It looked like an ordinary stand, complete with mascot. Said mascot was a person of indeterminate age. All Akari was sure of it was that it was a man. His head was encased in a large, ovoid white helmet. Akari, unsure of how to approach this mystery, pointed to the daifuku stand.
The man in the costume pointed back to the stand. Akari grabbed one of the daifuku off the stand, feeling the sticky rice coat her fingertips. She left a coin on the stand, consumed the treat in front of the man with the daifuku head, wondering if it was a good idea. She started walking away from the stand.
The daifuku-headed man, and another like him, took out a jump rope and began twirling it around. Thwip. Thwip. Thwip. Who were they waiting for? Akari was partway up the street when she realized she was heading back towards the station. She turned around and kneeled to the ground.
"Wait for me," Akari though, taking off like a sprinter.
She ran down the street, her feet tripping on the jump rope. Her left leg was now far in front of her right one, and her speed accelerated far beyond what she had planned. Her bag swung in front of her, pulling her along by her arms through sheer gravitational force. The world became a blur once again.
Akari was little more than a colored mess of red hair to the people she passed. She blew past a girl with short blonde hair, ruffling her skirt. An older man, observing her from behind a bench, was captivated at her messed up look.
Akari's bag caught on the edge of a fence, bringing her to a halt. Akari slammed her head into the wooden panel, and collapsed onto the sidewalk, her arm restrained by her bag. She grabbed onto the fence and forced her shaking legs up. She peeked around the corner, and felt a strong sense of deja vu wash over her.
It was an old building, one that reminded her of the Amusement Club's building. There was a large sign on the roof.
Shinonome Laboratory
Shinonome. She had seen that name a lot around this city.
"It's that place from the title call!" Akari said.
Nobody answered her but the wind. Akari carefully stepped onto the walkway, asking if anyone was there. "Is there someone who can help me find my friends?" Akari asked. She head a voice respond back to her. It was her own echo. There was a second voice among those. It sounded deep and mature, yet low to the ground.
"There must be a drunkard in there!" Akari shouted.
She pushed on the door to the labs, tumbling in through the front door and landing face down on the floor. She brushed herself off and went look for the source of the voice. It sounded like it was coming from within the living room.
"The kid must've left the door unlocked. I'll make sure to inform the girl when she gets back," said the voice.
Akari walked into the living room. Half-finished snacks were lying around, and a daruma with sunglasses drawn on was positioned on a high shelf. Akari had no idea what it was doing there. She called out once again. "Hello, sir? I'm here," Akari said, "I really don't stand out. Whenever I do get page time, it's never to help me."
"How can you not stand out? You're the only person here," said the voice. Akari looked down and saw a black cat with a red scarf around his neck. "You're not from around here, are you? Something about you smells different."
"The cat's talking?" Akari thought. She bent down to her knees. "I'm Akari Akaza. I got separated from my group. Who are you?"
"Mister Sakamoto," answered the cat.
"That's so cute," Akari said, grabbing him and holding him in her arms. "Wait a second," she thought, "talking cats are usually associated with magical girls. No wonder Mirakurun was drawn here." She held Sakamoto to her eye level, her own eyes sparkling like the night sky, and smiled widely. "Have I been chosen to be a magical girl?"
"Miss, I'm only talking because you're out of town. Nobody would believe you if you told them about me. Do try to keep this confidential. The girl wouldn't like it," said Sakamoto.
Akari was still smiling, but a single tear dropped from each of her eyes, rolling down her cheeks and onto the floor. "Okay," said Akari, halfway between joy and despair. Her lack of presence had backfired once again.