Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon nor Dresden Files. If I did, Moon would not be so useless, and fans would burn me at the stake for destroying Harry's awesomeness

The Senshi Files: Silver Warden
File 04: Splitting Hairs
By Irritus185/Raithe

A bead of sweat trickled down from my temple to the side of my cheek. My eyes twitched in their sockets. A lump formed and lodged itself in the back of my throat.

I was very much in a pinch.

I stared at the crisscrossing amalgamation of lines and curves that formed eldritch, archaic symbols in front of me. Ever since I started living with papa, symbols like these had become an ever-increasing source of annoyance for me. That line had to go that way, but only after this line swooped in this direction. Trying to make sense out of these blasted runes only got more frustrating the longer I lived in Chicago, and now they were being thrown at me like rice at a wedding.

Not helping were my current jailors. They hadn't left me alone since I arrived, bombarding me with something new and unknown every time I started making headway. To think that I had walked into this situation completely of my own volition, thinking it was the smart thing to do.

I'd certainly learned my lesson.

The person in front of me gave a not-unkind smile, obviously pushing me to try and solve the nonsensical enigma in front of me. Their partner followed it with a barely concealed scowl, swallowed up in a thin-set line.

The classic 'good cop' and 'bad cop.' Given their attitudes, Scowly Pants was the mean one. I'd seen the situation enough with papa and big sis, though the two tended to mix up who was good and who was bad, sometimes the difference being purely relative (and occasionally, not even that).

And then there was that one time uncle Tom came in with half his shirt off, Bobbu started to twang out a cheesy porno tune, and everything went downhill from there.

I held back an annoyed growl and resisted the urge to scratch my head, a bad habit I'd picked up from papa during his own 'tutoring' sessions.

At least these captors didn't threaten to literally light a fire under my butt if I took too long or got distracted from my task. …Though, if I was right about them, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened sooner or later...

But no, I had to solve this problem; it was the only thing I could do. I'd at least managed to narrow it down to a few possibilities. I just had to take a stab in the dark on the answer.

My tongue momentarily slipped out. "Um... 'create'?"

"No, sorry," the 'nice' one said. "It's 'divide'. But you were close!" She smiled again, the sides of her mouth crooked. "Those two are really similar to one another; they even have the same number of strokes. Here, let me show you where you probably messed up." She proceeded to demonstrate the differences between the kanji.

I snuck a cross look at the sheet of sixth-grade kanji lying in front of me – or, as papa liked to call them, darn moon symbols.

I was currently getting a crash refresher course on the kanji I'd never formally learned while living in America with papa. It was the day after the (literally) explosive contact with Usagi and Luna, and I had come to one of her friend's house, the pro genius, for some private tutoring.

Did I mention it was Monday? And that I didn't actually have any school for the entire week because of that awesome holiday known as Golden Week?

Thank you, papa, for being such a doof that you transferred me during the one time of year when I'd only have a half-day of school before I couch-potatoed myself to death away from your careful eye!

Now, if only such fortuitous bumbling could actually be put to use instead of wasted worrying about the possible enemies I was sharing tea and snacks with. I glanced back up at the young teen who was showing me the common pitfalls between similar kanji in a quick and easy-to-understand manner.

Ami Mizuno was a small girl, barely any taller than Usagi. Her frame was slimmer, with a heart-shaped face rather than the blonde's rounder one. Her short, slightly curly hair was of a similar color and sheen to Luna's, a dark black that seemed almost bluish in the right light, though it was much more noticeable on her than on that darn moon cat. Ironically, her personality was much closer to Usagi's namesake than the flighty girl's would ever be - Ami was a quiet, gentle, and soft girl that looked like she would freeze up at the slightest exposure to social awkwardness or conflict.

In other words, she hit all the right switches in my cuteness sensors.

She also had the same kernel of magical power located right near her heart that Usagi did.

That kinda put a damper on things. Things weren't helped by the girl's partner/watcher/bodyguard, who was sitting by Ami's side on the opposite end of the low table from me and attempting to glare a hole through my face.

Ms. Scowly Pants's name was Rei Hino, and judging by the near-identical magic lump in her chest, she was probably also a cosplay soldier and not very pleased with me. Unlike Ami and Usagi, she had a more cool look and personality to her. When I looked at her, I imagined a more regal, female version of Mister.

I really had to hold in the chortles that threatened to escape at that thought.

With long, pitch-black hair that reached to the small of her back, a narrow face with high cheekbones, and a lithe, dancer's body, Rei was the epitome of the classic Japanese Yamato Nadesico.

I'm sure those looks would actually mean something if her face wasn't trying to scrunch itself out of existence.

Now, why was I in this kind of situation? Oh right, because I had asked Usagi to hook me up with someone who could aid my failing kanji skills, and was instead paired with two people who viewed me as a traitor to the cause.

Not to my cause, mind you, but it's not like that mattered to budding zealots.

And why wasn't Usagi here to join in on the awkwardness? Rei had told me that the blonde couldn't make it because she had to - and here I quote - "Shampoo Luna."

Now, normally I would immediately call bullcrap upon hearing the sort of excuse normally used to blow off a bad date... but this was Usagi making the excuse. Honestly, I had to take a grain of salt with my usual cynicism when it came to that girl.

So now I was in close contact with two rather misguided magical girls who had a bone to pick with me, and indirectly with papa, while they assumed I didn't know who they were in turn because Usagi and Luna hadn't actually revealed their identities to me but weren't aware of my magic radar.

Got it? Understand the whole convoluted situation? Good.

'Cause I have no idea where to go from here.

Ami must've mistaken my frustration at the situation as annoyance with the busywork in front of me, because she frowned nervously. "I-I'm sorry, am I going too fast? Maybe I'm not as good at kanji as I thought. Would it be better if we review the previous set again?" She looked down, her fingers touching each other in twitching motions.

I waved my hands in front of me. "No, no, you're fine, really!" I rushed to assure her. Just what I needed, scaring a girl that looked like she'd pass out if you blew on her too hard. I tapped my pencil on the sheet, trying to distract myself from my swirling thoughts. "It's just been a really long time since I had to actually write in Japanese. I kinda spent my first three years or so in Chicago learning a completely different language, so kanji was on the back-burner for me. Heck, I'm surprised I even recognize most of these."

"'Least you're doing better than Dumpling-Head," Rei snorted. Her expression was still cross, but I could see the start of a curling to her lips as she mentioned the missing girl. "She's full-blown Japanese and has the comprehension of an elementary student." The curl disappeared. "Though saying you're better than her isn't really much of a compliment."

I laughed nervously. "Um, so, have you been friends long? She speaks pretty highly of you."

The two shared a brief look. Rei stuck her nose up. "Of course! For a long while now. I don't know what the idiot would do without us."

Ami hesitated for a brief moment. "Yes, we've... been together for a long time. In fact, it seems like it was a lifetime ago when we first met."

...Huh. Now, I wasn't any detective by any stretch of the definition. As straightforward and dense as papa was, I was worse, and he was always a lot better than me when it came to noticing when things were off.

But even I could tell that brief statement was as phony as a three-dollar bill. Ami even seemed embarrassed that Rei had set the whole thing off, but before I could try and pursue the matter further, Ami zigged into a different topic.

"Um, h-how about yourself, Makoto? Do you have a lot of friends back in Chicago?"

Oi, right to the heart. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. "A few," I said. "Lots of acquaintances but not too many that I'm close to, at least in school."

My constant heroic crusades shockingly started to become old after the nth time I got the kids roped up with me either sent to detention or verbally lambasted by big sis. Weak, the lot of them!

"But I am pretty close with the family of my papa's best friend. Lots of kids, and since papa and his friend get together a lot, we usually do, too. They're a really nice bunch, real sweet. The youngest is even named after papa!"

And poor Harry Carpenter is going to be mocked so much once he gets old enough. Papa still thinks it was some sorta karmic payback on the poor kid for some slight in a past life.

"Does your dad not approve of you playing with kids he doesn't know?" Ami asked. She retreated a bit when I stared at her for a second, not saying anything, before barking out a short laugh.

"Wha? Papa? Stop me from playing with kids he didn't know? Ha!" The two stared at me blankly as I continued to laugh. "When he first adopted me and I wouldn't leave his side, he would take me down to the local playground and literally shove me at the largest group of kids there. He always described it as a 'trial by fire.'"

And any kid that made fun of my horribly thick accent or scaredy-cat attitude usually got a pants-wetting death glare. Papa never dealt well with bullies, regardless of their age.

"Besides, if he didn't want me hanging around strangers, I doubt he'd let me come here today."

"Hmph, so you'd just listen to whatever he said?"

I looked at Rei, taking note of the deepened glare on her face. "Well, yeah, he's my papa. Why wouldn't I listen to him?"

Ami made to open her mouth, but Rei cut her off before she could say anything. "So you'd do anything he said, even if it was wrong?"

I closed my eyes, took a small breath, opened my eyes, and smiled, trying to hide the twitch that'd begun to form. "Well, of course not." A smug look began to cross the long-haired girl's face. "Papa would never tell me to do something wrong in the first place. And even if he did, he would listen to me if I said 'no'."

Well, I'm pretty sure he would listen, anyway. Maybe.

Rei's smug look shattered. Ha! She made to say something else, but stopped, glanced quickly to her side, sighed heavily, and settled back on her legs. Though my eyes hadn't moved from her face, my peripheral vision caught the hand Ami had placed on her foot. Seemed like the bad cop was getting a little out of hand and had to be pulled back.

"Sorry," Ami said. She tried to look me in the eyes, but hers kept flickering off my face to keep contact for long. "Rei can get a bit touchy on that topic. In any case, what does your dad do, Makoto? Usagi mentioned something about being a PI?"

I briefly considered pushing on the matter, but decided to let it go for now. I did not need to willingly place myself in the middle of the minefield that was Rei's thinning temper. Though I did wonder why she was so adamant about it... Bah, moving on.

"Just like Usagi said, papa's a freelance detective. You know, basic things like finding lost items, paranormal investigations, consulting. That kind of stuff."

Ami perked up, her previous anxiety seeming to flow away at the new topic. "What was the second one?"

"Paranormal investigations. You know, like the occult and stuff. Papa's a wizard for hire. Even acts on tap for the Chicago PD."

There was a lull. Ami and Rei looked at me, eyes wide, mouths slightly agape at the nonchalant way I had revealed papa as an honest-to-goodness wizard.

I tried - I mean really tried - to keep the smile of pure smarm off my face. I think I might've succeeded. Papa told me long ago I wasn't any good at being subtle, and when Mr. Insurance Premiums says you failed at all things subtle, you listen. So I figured I'd just slam right past any attempts at subterfuge and go right for the proverbial artery.

...well, maybe I hold off a little bit longer.

There was a veritable cranking as Ami's transmission slipped before she could speak, and Rei just seemed plain dumbfounded. "I'm... I'm sorry," Ami stuttered slightly. "Did you say your father's a wizard? Do you mean, like a psychic?"

I pursed my lips. It's not like the term 'psychic' was inherently false; I even knew a few people with minor psychic abilities through papa. Still, the majority of so-called 'psychic readers' were con-artists and really clever scammers. "No, not like one of those frauds. Papa doesn't just make stuff up to trick gullible people." I leaned forward onto the low-table, resting my chin on an upright arm. "I mean, papa can find people supernaturally, but not through visions or bunk like that."

"So, he uses... magic?" Ami said carefully. "Along with his detective skills?"

"Ayup, he's the real deal. In the phonebook and everything. Reasonable rates, too, but don't even try to ask for things like love potions, endless purses, or for him to perform at birthday parties."

"Because he wouldn't be able to?" Rei snuck in, finally seeming to recover her cool. "Because the idea of magic is ridiculous."

I snorted. "Heck no. Because it would be immoral, unethical, and likely to end in tears, respectively. Plus..." I placed a hand behind my head and stuck out my tongue. "Papa's had bad luck when it comes to love potions."

Oh yeah, Bobbu told me all about that. Hmph, trying to take papa away when he should be with big sis. The nerve!

"So… what exactly does he do for the police?"

"Oh, magicky things normies can't usually deal with. Fairies stealing your left sock, boogiemen haunting the closet, demons pulling unsuspecting victims off the street in the middle of the night for food..."

"Um, Makoto..." Ami smiled in a placating fashion. She'd begun to wring her hands forcefully, unsure as to what she'd say next. Her voice had the tone one used when speaking to a very unhinged individual just about ready to do something monumentally stupid. "Not to say your papa's a liar, or anything, far from it-"

Rei scoffed lightly and looked to the side, and I could just make out a muttered, "Yeah, right." I narrowed my eyes. I don't think I was going to be good friends Ms. Prissy Pants all that much over my stay.

Ami's smile fractured a bit, and she shot Rei a begging look. That got Rei to keep her thoughts to herself. She instead retreated to sipping at her tea while shooting the empty air next to her a glare so hot that summer fey would sit up and take notes.

The quiet girl started again. "But... but I think he or you may be confusing impressive deduction skills and psychological profiling for something like magic, or applying a shaky concept like 'the occult' to try and explain difficult-to-solve mysteries." She blinked and dodged her head. "You know...?"

"Well, that's just silly," I said lightly. "Of course magic and fairy tale creatures are real. Papa taught me that."

"And… and you don't think he may have been just playing around with you?"

Ok, there was no way they didn't know papa could use magic. After the fireball he'd shoved into Luna's face and her reaction showing that, yes, it was a recognizable kind of magic to her, the two magical girls in front of me should've been aware of it. The way they were acting, however, along with their constant denial and rationalization, led me to two possible conclusions:

One - Luna hadn't told them, in which case it was right back to 'burn the kitty';

Or two - they were bullshitting me for some reason, in which case they were doing a really good job. And if that was how it was gonna be, then I was going to have to do something reaaa~lllly blatant.

Let's see them deny this!

"If he was just making stuff up, then he really went through a lot of trouble defying physics and common sense to teach me how to do this."

I poured power into my hands, and a crackling orb of electricity spread out from my fingers.

The reaction was instantaneous. Ami snapped her hand back so quickly I could've sworn a small pop came from the vacuum in space she left, a strangled gasp escaping from her lips.

Rei on the other hand...

Huh, I'd never actually seen a spit-take before. Didn't think they existed outside of slapstick. Really wished I could own a phone without instantly frying it, just so I could take a shot.

Wiping her mouth, Rei leapt up from her kneeled position up to her feet, eyes widened to their limit.

"The hell did you do that?" Rei shouted.

"Magic," I said smugly. "Or at least, that's what I think it is. It might be I'm just really good at deluding myself."

Ami mouthed something silently. Her entire demeanor had changed from the mousy, little girl I'd first met to someone who was forcing all their mental power to study the grand object that garnered their attention. Her eyes hungrily ate at the sight I'd laid before her, a solid, unending drive completely atypical to her former nervousness.

Heh, tell me my papa is a liar when you're the ones throwing together a magical bonfire in the middle of a populated city. At least papa tries to make sure he's either in abandoned areas or his opponents really need their butt whooped before he starts chucking fireballs all over the place.

Seemingly done with her data collection, Ami swallowed and leaned forward. "So you're saying this is... is magic? Real magic?"

I shrugged. "That, or I'm just exceptionally good at hiding tasers all over my body." I glanced at Rei, who had downgraded her posture from 'ready-to-blast-my-face-in' to merely 'wary'. "Please don't try and strip me to prove the latter."

Ami blushed. "Rei wouldn't do that, right Rei? We both believe you're telling the truth, Makoto, right?" Not getting a response, she put in a bit more emphasis, her voice straining. "R-right?"

Rei was quiet for a couple more seconds. Finally, she sat down, shakily grabbing her glass of barley tea. "...right," she mumbled as she took a long sip. Her eyes never left my hand, which still had mini-sparks of lightning diffusing from it.

Satisfied, Ami focused back on me, her eyes slipping back to my hand every so often. "So your father actually can do magic? What can he do?"

"Oh, lots," I preened. "Papa's awesome, one of the best there is. I mean, he's one of the top magic users in the world! Still..." I eye them suspiciously. "I'm surprised it took me showing you that to get you to believe in magic. I mean, how 'bout them senshi?"

To her credit, Ami did not react nearly as badly as I'd hoped she would. I think the largest response she made was an extremely tiny twitch in the corner of her right eye. Darn it, my show of power must have desensitized her to any more of my shock-and-awe treatments! It would be a lot harder to get her off-balance now that I'd shown my hand early. Papa would scold me for being so blatant with my powers, but he did say I was bad at being restrained, so let's get wild and crazy!

Thankfully, someone else agreed with that sentiment.

"Okay, that's it! There is no way you're that oblivious!"

I smiled winningly at Rei, who had slammed a hand on the table, her death glare turned up to maximum overdrive. "Why, whatever do you mean?" I asked sweetly.

"You know, don't you? There's no way that you don't!"

"Know?" I tilted my head to the side like an inquisitive bird. "Know what?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"I'm sorry, you lost me. What are you talking about?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ami shaking her head slowly, already knowing how this was all going to turn out. She wasn't even trying to stop the steady flow of crap that was piling on her friend.

"I'm talking about how you know we're the sailor senshi!"

My eyes widened comically, and I leaned forward. "You're the sailor senshi?"

I'm pretty sure the cracking I heard just then was Rei's teeth. She let out an inarticulate shout of rage and frustration as she yanked on her hair. Heh, good luck tearing it out; pretty sure her roots were too strong for that.

I kept up a brave face, but my body was beginning to shake way too hard with all the laughter that was bubbling up inside of me. Knocking Miss Prissy Pants down a peg was just glorious, especially with how high and mighty she had been acting.

Heheh, you mad, sis?

"Makoto, p-please stop making fun of my friend."

I turned to answer Ami and felt all the air disappear from my sails. It wasn't the tone of her voice – a somewhat breaking, somehow cracked, a bit pitch of a whine - that made me just stop short. No, it was the look in her eyes. The full force of her pitiful, lonely, and huggably cute animal expression smashed through any defenses I might've been able to put up.

It felt like I'd just punted a puppy. A puppy with flushing cheeks and soulful eyes and glistening tears and soft sniffling and... Gyah! Stop looking at me like that!

Darn it, why couldn't she have reacted like Rei? I could deal with people yelling at me or getting self-righteous. I was not properly prepared for the emotional mess she was showing right now; it just wasn't in my nature!

Stupid Ami and her Super Effective crying. I didn't have damage reduction against that...

Feeling put on the spot all of a sudden, like I'd been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, I wriggled around on my butt before sighing morosely. "Yeah, sorry, whatever..." Ruin all my fun...

Ami sniffed again and wiped her face with a handkerchief. She looked up briefly when Rei put a hand on her shoulder and smiled that same nervous-wracked smile before silently waving her off. The taller girl sighed before she gave me one last hate-filled glare, sat back down on her legs, and turned to look off to the side. Ami took a deep breath, hiccupping softly, before she turned back to me, her blasted doe eyes tearing through my soul.

"So..." she started. "So, um, R-Rei may have put it somewhat aggressively, but what... what she said was right - you knew we were senshi, didn't you?" She hiccupped again. "Um... right?"

I said nothing for a moment. Here I'd been, trolling the situation to my heart's content, just having a little fun, and now I felt like I was the bad guy. I'd even made a cute girl cry. Hell's bells, papa would give me such a tongue lashing if he knew. Still, the conversation had come to a point, and even though Ami was clearly out of her depth taking the conversational reins, she still was trying to learn. The least I could do was try and respond in kind. I took a deep breath and then let it out.

"Yeah, at the very least, I knew you were magic users. Deducing you were senshi was just the next step."

"How did you know we could use magic?" Ami asked.

I frowned. "All magic users can tell if someone else is one." I left unsaid that I was one of the few, maybe the only, ones that could tell if someone had magic in them without touching them. And if one magic user was touching another, it was usually only because of one of two situations – either they were on the same side, or one of them was unconscious or dead.

Ami looked surprised by my assertion. "Anyone can tell? Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah, here, I'll show you." I extended a hand.

Ami frowned softly and gave my hand a speculative look She reached out her hand and, after a few false starts, gently touched mine. I felt the expected tingle as the energy of life gave its own unique greeting between two mages. Ami's hand vibrated a bit as she instinctively tried to pull her hand away, only to stop herself. She gave our grasped hands another look before pulling hers back to examine it.

"It... it felt a bit like static shock." She glanced back up at me, questioning.

I shrugged. "That wasn't because of my particular kind of magic. Almost everyone experiences it the same way."

Ami raised an eyebrow. "Almost everyone?"

I could read the question that was in her gaze. How could I tell if I hadn't touched her 'til now? I just smiled in response. My little secret.

Seeing that I wasn't going to say anymore, Ami looked at Rei, who was staring between mine and Ami's hands. "But I've touched Usagi and..." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Rei before, but I never noticed anything."

I pursed my lips. "Why would you? It's so small you'd have to know what to look for, and over time you'd get so used to it that you wouldn't even notice, anyway. Like you said, you probably just thought it was a static shock."

She gave a nod of comprehension. "I suppose." She tapped her fingers together. "But really, you were telling the truth before? Lots of people can use magic?"

"Well, not lots," I clarified. "Magic is still a pretty rare thing for humans. I think papa said it's only like one in ten-thousand that have the capability for it, and even then it's usually just small-time stuff. Still, did you really think you were the only ones in the world?"

"Well, why wouldn't we?" Rei put in her two cents again. "We haven't met anyone else who could, and Luna told us we were the only reincarnated soldiers in the world, here."

"Luna," I deadpanned. "You mean the cat that was supposedly frozen like a popsicle for heaven knows how many centuries and can't even remember half the stuff she's supposed to? You were just going to take her words at face value?"

Oh yeah, she'd told me about the gaps in her memory, and papa mentioned how his soulgaze with her had revealed a great deal of corrupted memories and knowledge. I wouldn't trust that darn moon cat to remember how to make a tuna salad sandwich.

Ami's lips cracked a bit at my description, but Rei trundled onward. "Why wouldn't we?" she repeated. "I trust Luna, and I know the others do, too."

"She also says she's from the moon and that she lived eons before pre-history. Pretty certain she's missed a lot that's happened since then."

"Well, fine then, miss know-it-all," Rei retorted. "If you're so smart, why don't you tell us why we haven't seen any other people using magic since we became senshi?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but Ami beat me to the punch. "It's because magic is supposed to be kept a secret, isn't it?" She brightened slightly at my eyes widening. Her anxiety began to melt away again as her thirst for knowledge came to the forefront. "If magic was widely-known, it would become a big problem, wouldn't it?"

"Give the lady a cookie," I chortled. Ami brightened up even further. "But yeah, pretty much. Magic's supposed to be kept under wraps, so most people don't go around advertising it."

"But you said your dad does!" Rei said. "If magic's supposed to be some big secret, then why's he putting his identity as a wizard in the public eye?"

I started to answer. Then I stopped.

...Hell's bells, Miss Prissy Pants was right. Darn it, papa, why do you have to mess with me even when you're not here?

I ignored the prim look of superiority on Rei's face. "Point," I muttered. "Papa's not exactly subtle, but he's the exception, and a lot better than the real whackos out there. A lot of people just think of him as some kind of crackpot, but at least he's not using his powers to try and take over the world like your Dark Kingdom creeps are."

Rei made to say something, but suddenly paled. "You mean the Dark Kingdom's in America, too?"

"Oh, no," I said. The color returned to her face. "We've got much worse." Before she or Ami could say any more, I suddenly jumped in their faces. "Which leads me to the next point I wanted to make - are you three goddamn insane?"

"What are you-"

"Did you really think three girls just learning magic could fight against a group of warlocks and expect to win?" Granted, from what papa said one of them was a mildly incompetent warlock, but you'd be surprised how well crazy can make up for stupid. "I mean, maybe if you were older and there was a ton more of you, but-"

"Why are you ragging on us like this?" Rei interrupted. "You're supposed to be on our side!"

"Your side?" My eyes began to goggle.

"Yeah, our side! You're a sailor senshi, which means you're supposed to be helping us, not calling us worthless!"

"Excuse me..."

"I'm not calling you worthless, I'm calling you stupid! There's a big difference!"

"S-stupid?!"

"Yeah, stupid! Not only for thinking you can win when you're barely off your training wheels, but for not even considering the consequences of your actions!"

"I think maybe we should-"

"Did you even consider what your stupid battles may have been doing to your surroundings? About any bystanders that might be in range?"

"If it weren't for us, those people would be drained of all their life energy and then discarded like trash by the Dark Kingdom and their youma!"

"That's only if you didn't blast them to kingdom come fir-"

"Stop it! Both of you!"

The impassioned cry sliced through the air. Rei and I turned to its source, finding an Ami who looked on the verge of emotionally breaking down again. Damn it, how many times was I going to make a cute girl cry? Heroes didn't do that!

Ami blinked a few times at my and Rei's mirrored stares, tears having gathered at the corners of her eyes. Her cheeks flushed something fierce, and she ducked her head to avoid looking at either of us. "I... I'm sorry," she stumbled. "But you two were getting too confrontational and it wasn't helping anyone and I didn't mean to act out of line but I..." She trailed off from her run-on ramblings, mumbling something under her breath.

"No problem!" I said quickly. "We were wrong, right?" I shot a frantic look at Rei.

The girl copied it and waved her hands in front of her. "Y-yeah, it was our fault, so don't worry, Ami. Really!"

Ami looked back up at us. "Are your sure? I don't want to-"

"Totally sure!"

"Absolutely!"

She put a hand to her chest. "Oh, thank goodness." Ami took a deep breath and let it out, the tension flowing from her shoulders. She looked up, her face still flushed, but at least a nervous smile was on her lips. "In that case, what... what exactly did you mean when you said we were going about this wrong? What exactly are we doing wrong taking on the Dark Kingdom?"

I... I sighed. I glanced around the room, trying to take note of the situation and buy some time to collect my thoughts. The kanji sheets had fallen by the wayside, completely forgotten in all the turmoil that'd come bubbling to the surface. Yeah, serves those stupid symbols right.

I rolled my shoulders. Well... may as well get started. "I meant exactly what I said - you guys are way too green to be taking on these DK jerks."

Rei made to say something, but Ami cut her off with a subtle gesture. "Why do you say that?" Her voice was not accusatory or demeaning, merely curious.

"You guys have been doing this for, what, a couple months, tops?" The two nodded. "Have you even been trained in your magic?"

"We don't have any need for it," Rei said. "Using our senshi powers is instinctual for us."

I think I knew what she was talking about. The one attack I performed in that fetish suit was like a pre-made combat skill - just add energy. Really, it was almost cheating... or would be if it didn't also set horrible limitations like I suspected it might. I sighed dramatically. "You're given magical powers out of the blue - by a talking cat, no less - shoved into a fight against some Saturday morning villain rejects, and you think you can just waltz through?"

"We've been getting along so far," Rei said petulantly.

"Yeah, 'so far'. Do you think that's gonna continue forever? Eventually one of you is gonna screw up, and I don't want to imagine the fallout." I shook my head. "You need to leave it to the professionals."

Rei snorted. "What, like your dad?"

"Him," I agreed. "Or someone with his level of experience. Certainly not a bloody cat, and definitely not yourselves."

"I'm sorry, Makoto, but what credentials does your dad have to make him the go-to person for something of this magnitude?" Ami bit her lip, looking divided between trying to criticize me and feeling bad about it. "The enemies we're dealing with are not exactly small, as you're so fond of reminding us. I mean, your dad may be able to use magic, but..." She looked like she was about to say something more but lost her nerve and just puttered out.

"Yeah," Rei added, seeing Ami wasn't going to be saying much else. "We've fought these guys before in our past lives and beat them. And we've been keeping Juuban safe from them since long before you or your dad showed up. Why do we have to drop everything and step aside for some puffed-up newcomers who think they're better than us? Besides..." She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a fashion that made me think she'd made the condescending gesture enough times to perfect it. "You said your dad's a private eye. When has he come across any possibly world-ending events?"

A shit-eating grin worked its way across my face. Oh, you did not want to go there, little miss 'I'm-so-smart.' "You mean in total, or just in the last year alone?"

The look on her face was priceless. "What."

I leaned forward, put out a hand, and ticked off my pointer. "Well, last Halloween he battled against a zombie horde and stopped a cabal of legendary necromancers from completing a ritual that wanted to sacrifice the entire city of Chicago so that one of them would become a literal death god." Next came my middle. "Before that, he worked together with a group of honest-to-god paladins with holy swords to stop a bunch of fallen angels from releasing a killer plague on the world." Then the ring. "And before that, he stopped a mad fairy queen from causing the next ice age."

I closed the rest into a fist. "Oh yeah, there was also the super-werewolf, killer vampires, and demon summoners, but those were on a much smaller scale."

And then there was glorious silence.

Oh yeah, papa was awesome.

Ami spoke up, a little shaken. "And you say your... your father had a huge part in this?"

"Well, yeah, cause papa's a superhero."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Rei put her hands in front of herself. "Wait." She took a couple of breaths. "No, just… no." She leveled a glare at me. "If something like that happened, don't you think it'd be on the news? Everyone would have heard about it!"

I screwed up my mouth and sucked on my teeth. "It's a secret, remember? Besides, it was mostly limited to Chicago."

"No, not 'it's a secret'!" she shouted. "With something that big, it'd be all over the place! I mean, demons, gods, and fairies? Everyone would know about it! It'd be all over the news worldwide!"

"Hey, we didn't know about these youma you guys are fighting, or even you for that matter. I'd think monsters attacking people and getting beaten up by girls in mini-skirts would be all over the papers, but they're not, are they?"

Ami cleared her throat to catch my attention. "It's not just because of people hiding what happened, is it? People don't want to believe in the supernatural if a mundane reason can explain it away."

"Uh-huh," I said. "Papa calls it the 'weirdness censor.' People just don't like thinking about things that go bump in the night if they don't have it shoved directly into their face. Strangely-named terrorists? 'We've all heard of those.' Being attack by bloodthirsty mobs? 'Hey, riots happen all the time.'"

I frowned. "Normal people just don't like to step out of their comfort zone."

Shaking my head, I continued, "But do you see what I mean? Papa has all the experience, knowledge, and power needed to deal with this. If you'll just wait like good girls, he'll get it all done in no time."

"Now wait just a second!"

I groaned. "Oh, what now?"

Rei huffed. Her eyes had gained a more determined look than her normal enraged one. This was not anger, but a steady perseverance that brooked no argument and would not be swayed by anything I said. As annoying at she was quickly becoming, I had to give her props for being so adamant in following her own code of justice.

It was wrong, of course, but I had to give her respect.

"There is no way you and your dad are just going to come in guns blazing like a couple of those stupid cowboys and take over what we've been literally ordained by fate to do."

"By a cat," I felt I had to repeat.

"More than that!" she growled. "Your dad may have done those things you claimed, but where was he when Beryl and her generals first appeared? Where were the 'others like him' when they started draining people of their life energy? Where were you when we first started awakening and we could've used the help learning our powers?"

She stood up, one hand on her hip, the other pointed directly at my face. Her jaw was set in an unwavering scowl. I half-expected her hair to start waving in the wind.

"Maybe we are young and inexperienced, but we've been doing the best we can, and it's worked. We've defeated every youma sent our way, saved a whole bunch of people, and even managed to best two of the generals that the Dark Kingdom sent at us. So I don't care if you know more, or if you've seen more, or if you've fought more - we're here, and we won't be cast aside like helpless children!"

Uh, wow, I only just noticed it, but she was totally projecting this whole 'warrior princess' persona in her voice and body language. It was kinda awesome. It was even helped along by the way her magic node was literally pulsing with pure power in rhythm with her words, adding another layer of power to what she was saying.

I might've actually liked her if she wasn't such a bitch.

Besides, it was strictly because they were flying in blind that they were such a danger to themselves and others. They might've defeated some youma already, I'll give them that. However, I severely doubted they actually had any real hand in personally defeating the generals - people like that tended to self-destruct in absolutely glorious ways thanks to the whole 'bat-shit insanity' thing.

However, what if the youma got smarter, or there were more people than they could evacuate in time? I'd seen the way Usagi acted in her senshi form - the girl was completely incompetent in a fight, and the only real attack I'd seen from her seemed like it was just a purification spell, which probably meant she was supposed to be support of some kind. If the others had more offense-oriented powers like my lightning bolts wrought from heaven's wrath, then I really didn't want to see the results if and when they accidentally screwed up.

They were basically warlocks in the making - good kids with the potential to do some real good, but one small slip-up would end up with them water-sliding down the slippery slope.

"..And when you come across someone you can't beat without resorting to some truly desperate acts?" I said quietly. "Or when you start a fight with lots of innocent bystanders nearby? What then?"

"We've always managed to avoid involving innocents before!" Rei snorted.

Oh, I highly doubted that. Humans were surprisingly dumb when it came to dangerous situations. Sometimes that little 'fight or flight' switch in their brains got stuck in the middle, and they'd end up just standing there gaping while raw power came speeding towards them like an oncoming semi... with predictable and depressing results.

I knew that's what had happened whenever I saw that look on papa's face.

"And when you can't avoid it?" I pressed. "What happens when one attack goes off target, or someone's in the wrong place at the wrong time? One small mistake, and you've just broken one of the laws of magic, and trust me..." I shook my head. "That is not a pretty thing to watch."

"What do you mean, laws of magic?" Ami piped in. "There are actually rules that go along with it?"

I paused. Oh wow, I really had a lot to explain, huh? Was this how papa felt whenever someone fell into the know and he had to lay out every gosh darn thing? I slapped my hands together. "Okay, fine, time for the basics." Both Ami and Rei leaned forward. "Magic is essentially the energy of life - no life, no magic. Because of that, it's completely tied to your very being. If you do something bad with magic, it basically twists you into something darker and pretty soon you're trying your hand at conquering the world."

I flipped a finger out. "There's seven laws, but I'll boil them down - no killing, no messing with someone's body or mind, no raising the dead, and no calling up Cthulhu." Rei mouthed 'Cthulhu'' with a befuddled look, but Ami paled a bit, obviously realizing that frickin' outer gods not only existed but could be dialed for a genocidal booty call.

I briefly considered telling them about the one punishment for breaking the laws. But then I realized that doing so would only accomplish one of two things - make it look like I was blowing things way out of proportion, or make all other wizards and especially the White Council look like megalomaniacal psychopaths. Or just both and make them view me as a huge threat. Yeah... Not exactly the best thing to discuss right now.

"Wait, we've been destroying youma all this time," Rei countered. "I don't feel like I'm about to go on a murder spree anytime soon."

"Do they have souls? Probably not," I said. "Most supernatural creatures and non-humans don't, so the laws don't exactly apply to them. It's a whole grey area that even papa refuses to explain, but basically, since youma are evil creatures bent on literally consuming all life on the planet, you don't have to worry about killing them." I narrowed my eyes. "People, on the other hand, yes. Yes, you do."

"Is it really that bad?"

I turned to Ami. She took one look at me and then refused to meet my gaze any longer. I think she knew exactly what I meant.

She finally said, "I can see where you're coming from, and even understand what you mean. Maybe it would be fine to listen a bit, but even so..."

"Even so!" Rei looked between the two of us and crossed her arms. "Okay, fine, this just means we have to be more careful. As long as we are, we don't have to worry. So there's no reason you and your dad need to butt in on our fight."

I ground my teeth. You damn little...! "Stars and stones, have you not heard a word I just said?! You're dangerous to yourself and others! You could die! Someone else could die! Papa said that-"

"'Papa said this', 'Papa said that'! Are you ever going to say anything else?!" Rei shouted. "All you've been saying is what your father told you, and that's all the excuse you think you need to try and shove us to the side!"

"Because papa-"

"No, forget your father!" Rei shouted again, her volume rising with each word. "You're a senshi! You were born again across the ocean of time to stand at our side against the rising darkness! You're supposed to be our comrade, our friend, and instead all you've been doing is saying how we're weak, how we're stupid, how we're just going to make things worse! And all because your father said we would!"

Fire blazed in her very being, her presence seeming to swallow up everything around her. I felt like a little girl again, scared and alone.

"...I-"

"What's so special about him?" Impassioned, unstoppable, like waves that pounded against a beachhead, cracking against what was once thought to be eternal. "What makes him so important that you'd throw away your own destiny?" There was no stopping, no stumbling, no stepping aside or standing back. "That you'd just toss aside the one thing that brought us all together, that brought you here in the first place?"

"Because..."

"What?!"

"Because he saved me!" I looked up from the table, angry tears building up in the corners of my eyes. "Because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even be here in front of you!"

Rei's momentum failed her, her mouth open but silent, an unasked question hanging from her lips.

"My parents died right in front of my eyes, killed by monsters that some greedy asshole thought he could smuggle in a goddamned cargo hold for some quick cash! And when they came back to finish me off just because I was lucky enough to be one of the only people to survive a plane crash, he came riding in like a white knight to save me!" I rubbed my eyes and glared at Rei.

Oh how I despised her just then. Not for trying to tear down papa in my eyes, or for refusing to see the truth I was trying to show her, but for bringing up the most traumatic moment of my life.

Not on purpose, and not to hurt me. But she did it all the same.

And I hated her for it.

I sniffled noisily. "Not because he was paid to, not because he was asked to, not even because it would make him look good to save some stupid, lost kid from a different country. He did it because he wanted to, because it was the right thing to do, and because he knew he couldn't live with himself if he knew it was going to happen and didn't try his damn hardest to stop it!"

I forced down the bad memories and feelings burbling in my gut. "He saved me, so he'll always be my hero." I looked down at my lap again. "So I know he'll always have my best interests at heart. I know he'll always try to do the right thing. I know he'll always try his hardest to help everyone."

I met Rei's eyes once more. Unstoppable force? Meet my immovable object - my faith in my papa.

"So fuck your 'destiny'. My papa's real, something I can see and hold and love. He's the reason I'm here today, and I don't care what you or anyone else says - I'll always believe in him first, until this planet grows cold and stops spinning."

And just like that, any chance of convincing one another of the merit of our arguments fell flat on its face, was driven over by a street-cleaner, doused in lighter fluid, and set on fire by a flying monkey flinging flaming poo.

The awkward silence lasted who knows how long until Ami clapped her hands. "All... all right then!" she said softly. She was obviously straining to inject some good cheer into her tone. Surprising, considering how'd she been acting the entire session. "I think this means break time is over and it's time to get back to studying. Rei, get started on your classical Japanese assignment again while I help Makoto with her kanji." She lifted the remedial sheets from where they laid, forgotten on the floor, and placed them back in front of me, handing me a pen as well. She smiled again when I looked at her, but refused to look me in the eyes.

Rei looked like she was going to say something else, but whatever she had planned escaped her, and she slumped her shoulders in resignation. "Yeah, fine, I'll get back to that." She spared me a glance, tried to say something, failed, tried again, and just stopped herself. She gave a tiny sigh and turned to focus on her assignment.

There was no catty remark, no accusing stare, nothing. She just looked drained and tired and wanting to end this whole debacle as soon as possible.

I knew how she felt.

I didn't mean to explode, didn't mean to lash out. Papa was my everything, my reason for living. If it wasn't for him, and the people I met through him, I'd shudder to think how I'd turn out - if I wasn't already dead by then.

I could tell Rei was apologetic. I doubted she was going to try for an excuse after all that happened. I just think that... maybe she was too prideful for a verbal apology, or maybe it triggered something from her past?

...I don't know.

In any case, I started back on the kanji. I wasn't really in the mood for this, but any way to take my mind off of matters was better than nothing. I perked up a bit as I recognized the example in front of me.

I should've; it was the one I'd just learned, after all.

I cracked a forced smile. "'Divide'."

Ami winced. "Um, s-sorry, Makoto, but it's actually 'create.'"

...Son of a bi-

"You gonna loosen up that death grip you have on my arm anytime soon, kiddo?"

I looked up from where I was wrapped around papa's arm. He was gazing down at me with that classic sardonic smirk of his, keenly aware of the progress I was making cutting off all circulation to his limb. I laid my cheek back against his duster-covered arm, frowning slightly.

"I'm just recharging my papatanium. I'll be done in a couple minutes."

There was a slight shift as papa laid his free hand on my head. "Everything all right? You haven't let go of me since we met back up." He ruffled my hair tenderly, as if afraid I was going to break at any moment.

"…Yeah, I'm fine, papa. Just... let me stay like this a bit while longer."

Papa paused before swiftly morphing his ruffling into a quick noogie. I squawked in indignation and shot him a fierce look. He simply chuckled in return and flicked my nose. "Whatever you say."

I huffed and looked away from him, but I could tell he'd seen the small smile beginning to form on my face if his louder chuckling was any indication.

It was partway into Monday afternoon, only a couple hours after my somewhat disastrous meeting with the other senshi had ended. From the vaguely sour look on papa's face, his meeting with the regional warden hadn't exactly come up all roses, either. We'd both decided after sharing notes to do some more active testing of the senshi suit to follow up the small tinkering we'd done the night before.

We had moved to the small nature park where we'd first arrived in Juuban, feeling that it was the best chance we had at an isolated place. Even if people did find us, it would be easy enough to escape, should it come down to it.

I was kinda worried as to what testing the suit out might incur. Sunday night had basically involved figuring out just how to even activate the pen, which we discovered was through the very basic process of running energy into it to turn on the 'transformation' sequence.

Which, of course, led to a highly embarrassing and frustrating scene.

It'd happened while papa was turned around and consulting some notes he'd written down on the basic construction and usage of foci and enchanted items. I'd fed some small trickling of power into the object to see what would happen, and felt it latch onto me like a hungry babe. Whatever contraption the item worked around, it barely took even an inkling of magic before that same rush of energy washed over my body and the world melted into flashing lights and stars.

Before I even realized it, I was clad in that hell's-bells-blasted cosplay outfit, which looked even more stripperific than I'd remembered. And when papa turned around to face me again, obviously attracted by the bright flash of light and magical energy I'd given off, I expected him to immediately order me to take off the mini-skirt and put on some darn pants.

Instead, he'd demanded I tell him who the hell I was, how I'd gotten there, and where his daughter was.

Yeah, turns out the glamour that was attached to the suit was one heck of a doozy. Even though I'd been right there next to him, and he knew that I could transform, he still didn't recognize me. Heck, he couldn't even look at me properly - his eyes kept sliding off my face and body as if he wasn't even aware of it, and I don't think it was because he was embarrassed to see me like that.

Even trying to convince him of my identity was a laborious task. I used basic logic to show him I couldn't be anyone other than myself, and when that didn't work I dove right into personal information that no one but me could know. That seemed to work, and papa looked like he was about to recognize me, but then he just said it couldn't be possible. I could tell he wanted to believe me, but something was trying its damned hardest to stop him from doing so.

Eventually, he demanded I transform back and then again while in front of him. I complied. Immediately afterward, he hugged me. He didn't have any problems recognizing me in senshi form after that.

Papa theorized that the mental aspects of the glamour had to be some kind of 'safeguard' of the outfit designed to protect the identity of the wearer. He'd described the protection as a very powerful, but not painful, denial of recognition. It was like every time he was about to figure something out, his brain would tell him he was wrong and try to divert his attention. The closer he got or more adamant he was about his belief, the louder and more forceful the voice became.

When I told him of a very embarrassing secret involving him, big sis, Bobbu, and a can of shaving cream, the voice had apparently degenerated to the equivalent of sticking its fingers in its ears and screaming 'LALALALALALA' at the top of its lungs.

Annoying, distracting, and childish as all hell, but not inherently harmful.

After that, papa ran a few more simple tests on the pen, first checking to see if it would have any effect on him. Luckily, he didn't transform - because really, papa may've had the legs for the outfit, but that skirt was already too short for me, so I didn't want to imagine what it'd look like on someone of his stature.

When I told him this after his somewhat disappointed reaction to nothing happening, he quickly agreed. However, he did make me promise to never ever let this pen fall into Bobbu's hands, even if papa was certain that he couldn't do anything with it.

Knowing Bobbu's rampant thirst for all things perverted, I made a lifetime promise before the thought even finished.

He'd also grabbed the pen and tried to walk away with it. He got all of about thirty feet or so down the road before it simply vanished out of his hand and reappeared at my side – far enough that a clever enemy could keep it away from me, but at least it meant that I couldn't lose the thing.

Of course, it also meant that I couldn't ditch it, either.

So here we were, about to test the combat effectiveness of the suit. We both figured that the sooner we could test the limits of the suit, the sooner we could find a way to do something about it and the other girls. I personally suspected that papa wanted to find any flaws in the thing so he could throw them in Luna's face, and quite frankly, I would do my best to support that endeavor.

I reluctantly parted from papa and walked into a small, open space near a copse of trees. Looking around, I saw that we were clear. Papa did the same thing before double-checking that my magical gear was on his person. He pulled out my collapsible batons and a pair of large batteries, both with runes carved all over them.

The batons were basically my version of papa's blasting rod, meant to focus and direct my electromagic. They also doubled as quick stun batons and as literally lightning rods. The batteries were made for the storage of extra electrical magic, literally magical batteries. Kinda like his force rings, papa made them so that I'd always have something to fall back on in case I drained myself too quickly. I was lucky I (and only I, unless you liked face explosions) could charge them like any normal electronic device - and even better, they never lost their charge between uses!

"Got all your stuff, kiddo. Are your batteries fully charged?"

"One of them needs to be topped off. How about yours?"

"I haven't had any need to use it. But let's wait and see." He raised an eyebrow. "Already one thing I don't like about that suit; it removes all your equipment."

We'd discovered that anything on me disappeared into some kind of 'pocket space' whenever I transformed, clothes and items included. Papa theorized that it was something akin to what happened when a wereperson changed into a smaller form, shifting the excess mass into a small, private section of the Nevernever.

Of course, that just meant that I couldn't just transform without making sure my gear was off me first. I was going to have to carry a backpack around if this whole senshi thing became permanent.

I grinned. "Only one thing?"

He gave me flat look. "I already have a counter for the first thing I don't like about it. Now come on, we're burning daylight."

"Right." I calmed myself and steadied my feet. Instinctively, the activation words that sped up the transformation process came to my lips. "Jupiter Power, Make Up!"

With a bright flash, I shifted into my senshi form. I smiled nervously at papa's somewhat stormy expression. Yeah, he still didn't like the way this thing fit me. I couldn't blame him.

I jumped when he tossed a bundle of fabric at me. At my confused look, he lifted his chin and said, "Put that on. You may have to wear that outfit, but that doesn't mean I can't find ways of covering it up."

Unfolding the bundle, my eyes widened as I realized what I was holding. The grey cloak of the Wardens, the premier enforcers of the White Councils, looked back up at me. I turned to papa. "Um...papa? Isn't this kinda important? Isn't this the symbol of the wardens?" Well, besides the silver sword of death, but papa hadn't received one when he was made a regional commander for... reasons.

He raised an eyebrow. "Kiddo, do I look like I care about things like that?"

Point. I quickly slung the cloak around my shoulders. The bottom of it trailed along the ground as I moved back and forth to try and get used to it. I was going to have to raise the hem if I was going to be wearing this a lot in the future. I raised the cloak off the ground and presented myself to papa.

"Well, how do I look?"

Papa put a hand to chin and looked at me appraisingly. "Good, my urge to burn things is fading." I giggled nervously. He smiled. "Well, let's get down to business. First of all, let's see if that thing made any improvements to your body."

I nodded. We both figured that, since my electromancer powers had strengthened my body considerably on their own, the suit would probably enhance them further. Stepping over to one of the many trees, I decided to test the effect it had on my strength. Defense would be hard to check without papa tossing me around like a ragdoll, and speed could be done at any time. I took a basic karate stance in front of a large and thick pine tree, took a deep breath, centered my power, and then lashed out with a right straight as hard as I felt I safely could.

You know how in the kung-fu movies, when a character tries to punch another, misses, and ends up smacking something behind their target? You how the surface usually splinters and breaks, but nothing really more than that?

Yeah, that didn't happen.

The second I made contact with the trunk, it didn't so much splinter as explode. Chips and wood dust scattered everywhere as a good chunk of the tree ceased to exist in front of me.

I stared, slack-jawed at what I had done. …Well! That was a good hint at my power level. It also suggested that my toughness had been upgraded as well, as even after launching a punch at solid wood that should have shattered every bone in my hand on impact, my fist was intact and barely stung.

Papa made a strangled noise behind me. "Sparky, you are never to hit a normal person when in that suit. I don't need to see the real-life version of ludicrous gibs."

"G-good point," I stammered.

That's when the sound of more wood splintering came to my ears. I looked up to see that the rest of the trunk was quickly falling in my direction, no doubt due to the fact that I'd removed most of its structural support with my attack.

I grunted as several hundred pounds of wood got very close and personal with me, barely managing to catch it in my arms. Straining slightly, I managed to shift enough of the tree's momentum to the side of me so that the entire thing didn't crush both me and papa. With a heavy crash, the tree landed on the ground. My hands shaking, I turned around to face papa, who was looking at me with a mix of interest and trepidation.

"Another new rule: You're not allowed to hug me in that form either, at least not with the normal death grip. I don't feel like finding out what it's like to be a squeeze toy."

"Papa!" I said, stomping the ground like a child.

A small crater a couple feet wide an inch or so deep appeared beneath my foot.

I looked at papa. He looked at me. I hung my head.

"Fine..."

He nodded. "Good, now, let's get to the really fun stuff." He pulled out a pile of paper with targets sloppily drawn on them... possibly in crayon. "Time to test your spells."

My pout turned into a savage grin. "With pleasure."

It wasn't nearly as fun or interesting as I'd hoped it'd be. Testing out my new spells turned out to be testing out a new spell - one, un, ichi. Turned out that my suit did power up my magic by an order of magnitude, but it severely limited me in the process.

My one and only spell was shockingly named 'Supreme Thunder,' as designated by whatever operating system the suit worked by. And when I said it was my only spell, I meant it was my only spell. I couldn't even use any of the basic magic I'd learned so thoroughly from papa's magic lessons that I could practically do in my sleep; it was like anything other than what the suit gave me was censored from my mind completely.

Which meant that the not-small collection of spells I'd painstakingly learned and polished were useless to me in this form. Awesome.

At the very least, Supreme Thunder was not a bad spell. It was easily twice as strong as my normal standbys unless I was heavily boosting them, and it didn't seem to draw off my willpower and energy reserves to try and cast it. Instead, it came from the suit itself, or at least whatever power source it drew from.

It was even kinda neat to have a literal lightning bolt come down from the sky to act as the attack, if a bit on the flashy side and cause for some worrisome implications when I had to fight indoors. Also, side note - when smashing through very woody and flammable tree branches, it should not not set them on fire. Electricity does not work that way!

Well, at the very least, watching the kinetic shields papa had placed on the targets break after only one attack was extremely satisfying, even if he couldn't make them as strong as normal without standing right next to them.

Of course, there had to be downsides to the attack, as well. I couldn't use my stun batons with the blasted thing; they didn't even factor into the attack, just the princess tiara that came with the outfit and acted as the lightning collector and releaser. It also had a longer casting time: Normally, it would barely take a second for any of my normal attacks to go off, but Supreme Thunder took nearly three to finish.

Maybe that didn't sound like much to a layman, but having almost triple the casting time for my only spell was ridiculous. Trust me when I say a second or two makes all the difference when you have an enemy barreling down on you and you have barely any time to react - that two second window was the difference between giving me some breathing room and only having most of my internal organs still be internal.

One last thing that bothered me heavily about the suit was that I no longer had access to my electro-sense. I can't begin to explain how much that extrasensory ability had had an effect on me. After the plane crash, I was constantly bombarded with the feelings of the lifeforce of everyone around me. And because of that, the presence of papa as a shining beacon among the sea of sparks was everything to me.

Even with him right next to me, not being able to feel him made it seem like I was all alone.

I wasn't very fond of that feeling.

The sun was well on its way to setting when we finally finished up the last of the tests. Papa started gathering up the bits and pieces used to gauge my strength and abilities while I tidied up as best I could the complete mess of fallen branches, cracked earth, and knocked-over trees my rather enthusiastic attempts at shooting the targets caused.

I was about to deactivate my transformation when something caught my attention. It wasn't like my electro-sense, no; it was more like a feeling of wrongness tugging me in a particular direction. I almost felt compelled to just race off after it, but I'd learned enough to know that running towards something just 'because' usually ended badly.

Deciding to test it, I said to papa, "Do you feel that?"

He looked up at me. "Feel what?"

"Feel... something." He raised an eyebrow at my enlightening explanation. I scratched my head in frustration. "I don't know, but it just feels like something's wrong."

Papa's brow drew into his 'super serious' look. "No, I don't, but that doesn't mean it's not there. Maybe it's another function of that outfit."

I pointed off in the distance. "It's coming from somewhere over there..." Suddenly, the sense intensified and shifted. "It's moving! C'mon, papa! This way!"

"Hey, Spar-"

Papa's call was lost as I dashed towards the source of the weirdness, but I was sure that he could keep up with me easily. Considering all the running practice he got from trying to avoid getting killed and/or eaten, I doubted he would lose me. I could still hear his muted cursing and thumping of feet as he chased me, after all.

As I ran through the park, I came to note just how fast I was moving. Every step I took seemed to take longer and longer to complete, and I almost stumbled when I realized I was almost flying with how far I was jumping. My foot pushed off a low-hanging branch, and I briefly saw the sky as I cleared the tree line.

Holy Zeus, I was leaping trees with a single bound!

But wait, if I was moving this fast, then... I looked behind me and realized that I couldn't even hear papa anymore. I'd left him in the dust heaven knows how far back.

Oh crud, he was so gonna ground me after this.

But still, I didn't have any choice but to keep moving forward. As far as I could tell, I was moving in a straight line, so if papa kept moving in the same direction, he'd eventually catch up with me. Besides, I knew that if I didn't keep going, whatever was setting off alarm bells in my brain was going to do whatever it was doing, and that wouldn't be good in the least.

So it was time for the intrepid hero-in-training to fight off whatever evil was ruining the day and hope my more experienced back-up would arrive before I unceremoniously had my butt handed to me. Joy.

Of course, that's when I realized that whatever goes up must come down, and I slammed through several branches, each one managing to whip me on a different part of my body as I made my way back to ground-level. I choked a bit when my cloak caught on my throat, but it soon passed, and I kept on running, my shoulders mysteriously lighter than before.

…Wait, what?

I looked down briefly and noted that I was now only clad in my senshi outfit. I didn't even bother to look back, already knowing what had happened to the one thing protecting my visual purity from lecherous eyes.

Papa was gonna ground me for this. Again.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Once more good sirs, into the breach! And papa could clean up the mess!

A/N (Irritus): Fourth chapter done. Apologies for taking so long; Raithe needs to work on his flogging techniques.

Well, a couple things: Note that this is a full Makoto chapter. I was hoping to flesh out her character more, and I think I did an alright job. Really, the girl lives her life by What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? She'd get along great with Light Yagami if he wasn't a sociopathic mass-murderer with a god complex. But hey, she digs the way he eats those potato chips. Also, to those people thinking that I'm turning this into a 'bash Sailor Moon canon' fic... yeah, check out the way Makoto acts. There's something not right 'bout that girl...

As a quick heads up, the next chapter should be up within a week or so. This and the next one were originally one big chapter, but it was quickly approaching 50 pages and I had another scene that needed writing so... yeah. At least the next one shouldn't take several months! ...please don't hurt me. However, look forward to the long-awaited battle chapter! It should be a blast!

A/N (Raithe): So, it turns out that threatening to destroy everything someone knows and loves is a pretty decent motivator. Who knew?

Do you remember how in the A/N of the previous chapter I mentioned that it was supposed to be two scenes longer, but we shoved them into the next chapter due to length issues? Yeah, that happened again. Enjoy a two-scene chapter! It's still longer than most of Butcher's.

…Irritus said pretty much everything I wanted to. The jerk.