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The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Girls of the Crystal: Enter Copycat and Efreet
by Regina Magia
C&C by Fred Herriot and Rose Ash
A side story to The End of the Circle: A Tale of the Yizibajohei, by Fred Herriot
Based on characters and situations from Kantai Collection, created by Kadokawa Games; Worm, created by John C. McCrae; Urusei Yatsura, created by Takahashi Rumiko; Sister Princess, created by Tenhiro Naoto and Kimino Sakurako; Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika, created by Urobuchi Gen, Shaft and Aniplex; normalman, created by Jim Valentino; and Stargate SG-1, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner.
Hōzuki near Hōfu in Yamaguchi Prefecture (sixty kilometres east-northeast of Kitakyūshū), the first Monday in November of 2012, two hours before supper...
"Any sign of Kagari-san?"
Amano Suzune shook her head before taking a bite out of a prim'ta-stuffed bread roll. Such had been specially baked for the Gift Mime, Tumhoto ("Copycat"), thanks to one Kisaragi Utako currently living on Ōmure-jima with her beloved commander Moroboshi Ataru and his family. The Rainy Scrapper of Spring, Nyuodake ("Uzuki"), reborn from the fourth of the Mutsuki-class fleet destroyers in late spring had brought back a whole ha'tak-full of young Goa'uld symbiotes after she and her sisters had gone on a joint mission with America's Stargate Command the previous month, the most childish of her class of Great War era fleet destroyers then experimenting with the sweet chicken-like flesh to create various concoctions both edible and drinkable. Fortunately for the adopted native of the Chūō Ward of Tōkyō proper, she could easily fall back onto the knowledge of the Great Chef of the West, Syuosekuo ("Küchenchefin"), living today as Ataru's half-sister Osamu Shirayuki when it came to properly spicing the prim'ta for those who would be interested in actually eating one of the so-called "children of the gods". "Lucky for us, she skipped town after becoming Twisted Sister. That's a relief. Even before becoming a mid-level telepath — never mind one who can mess with people's memories — she was a sadist, maybe even a flat-out sociopath." She paused, raising an eyebrow at her snack. "Damn! Kazumi and U-chan were right! These ARE pretty good!"
Briefly looking up, her adopted sister Kagero — born originally as Suzune's eldritch witch darker half Clothette, now her near-twin in looks though she had fiery red-orange hair instead of her other-self's silver locks — nodded before she went back to looking through her binoculars to scan around them; said device had been built by another of the sisters of Earth's most famous teenager, Hatoyama Rinrin AKA the Technological Sorceress of the East, Kamluo ("Schmiede"), to replicate all forms of PAA scanning functions and convert them to visual format. "Maybe once we're done, Onē-sama, we can go hunting for some prim'ta ourselves. Rumour has it there's a would-be System Lord — one of Amaterasu's would-be underlings — here in Yamaguchi-ken; no doubt, this is replicating what Kim Hyegyŏng-sama's so-called 'parents' are probably doing in North Korea as we speak. If it's a queen, it'll be breeding a tonne of servants."
A hum escaped the would-be magical girl slayer-turned-power replicator; as Copycat, Amano had the ability to replicate the powers of most low-to-mid-level strength metahumans save for the basic reality warpers. "I wonder if those other girls would want to try 'em," she mused before popping the rest of her own special bread roll into her mouth and munching on it.
Her crimson-haired near-twin hummed in turn. "Well, let's go find out!"
Elsewhere in town, a half-hour later...
"It's happening again, Sempai!"
The small group of people now relaxing on the roof of Hōzuki Junior High School apartment near downtown turned to gaze upon Narumi Arisa's now-brightly glowing hands. "You think a witch is doing this?" the strawberry-blonde sophomore asked, her voice echoing the timid tones she normally spoke with before her fateful encounter with Kyūbē when she made a special wish to become a puella magi.
Gazing intently at that silvery aura infused with streaks of dark crimson and touched in places with midnight black, Arisa's beloved sempai Kanade Haruka shook her head. "No, Arisa-chan," the model-perfect high school freshman with the long blonde hair trilled, her light brown eyes narrow; they had been friends since early childhood, when Haruka had been asked to babysit Arisa whenever her parents had to leave her alone. "Despite what this could have be, it's DEFINITELY not related to either puella magi or witches."
As the pink-haired girl shuddered, her mind literally reverberating with images that seemed both alien yet comforting, Shion Chisato took a deep breath, she squeezing her classmate's shoulder. "What are you getting this time?" the pony-tailed brunette wondered, she ignoring the same type of energy now billowing around her own hands. "I think mine's some sort of gravity controller..."
Arisa bit her lower lip as she concentrated. Much that she had been guaranteed by Kyūbē that she wouldn't undergo what non-mesonium powered metahumans — "parahumans" in modern American parlance — called a "trigger event", that THIS was happening...! "Some kind of pro sportsman. The memories make me think he could have come from Japan or Korea; the language is weird, but I can understand it now," she explained. "He's the same as those others I've seen in my mind. Super-strength, super-speed and he could fly."
"I honestly can't think of a power set better suited for you, Narumi-san."
The small gathering of magical girls spun around...
"Who are you?!" Haruka demanded as she moved to shield her kōhai.
The silver-haired woman in the psychedelically-patterned sleeveless jumpsuit of a cut that definitely made the magical girls gazing upon her immediately think "mystery woman" in the North American sense then leapt off the stairwell roof to land close by, her crimson-haired twin sister accompanying her, she holding the hand of another fellow puella magi, Hinata Matsuri. Like Arisa and Chisato — and though not as noticeable to anyone who was not born or adopted of the World of the Forge, Haruka as well — the green-tinted brunette with the long French braids and odango-like buns at the back of her temples who was now a senior at Hōzuki Junior Hugh was also inundated with the curious energy aura that the puella magi had begun to notice surging from their own bodies over the weekend just ended. Since Matsuri was normally a very jovial and energetic girl, seeing her now about to break down and cry made her friends all tense.
"Matsuri-chan! Are you all right?!" Haruka demanded as she raced over to grasp the other girl's shoulders, inwardly surprised to note that neither of the newcomers had moved to stop her from comforting her kōhai. "You're not hurt, are you?!"
"No," came the weak answer. "But...well...!"
"You girls know of Hinata Kagari?" the silver-haired newcomer asked.
All four puella magi recoiled as if they had been splashed with acid. "What about her?!" Haruka frostily asked.
"Did you notice that shortly after the turn of the new school year, Kagari-san simply stopped trying to hunt down and kill puella magi, Sempai?" the redhead in the black, flame-trimmed jumpsuit with the golden-red belt and boots calmly wondered. "Why she elected to turn her attention on normal criminals and rogue eldritch witches?" She then indicated the blonde magical girl's glowing hand, making her kōhai — save the grimly nodding Matsuri — both gasp in horror on realizing that Haruka was enduring what they were now experiencing. "What's happening to you now happened to Kagari-san just after the start of the new school year."
"You're experiencing the memories of the past-selves of natives of the planet Yiziba, the World of the Seeker's Forge where Raeburn-shihan's Power Jewel was forged three billion years ago," her twin sister announced, making Haruka's, Arisa's and Chisato's eyes widen with both surprised and unexpected recognition. "No doubt, someone left behind something that allowed your souls to link up with the Great Crystal of Power, which is the source of all metahuman powers used by natives of that planet..." She then waved to herself before indicating her sister. "Not to mention those who were effectively 'adopted' into that society like my sister and I."
"When she was 'Gifted' — which, as you should realize by now, is far milder than what a parahuman experiences in a trigger event if you haven't read about same on Parahumans Online — Kagari-san became a telepath of considerable power," the redhead said with a grimace. "Sadly, she didn't lose her sadistic streak; she actually picked the Gift of a reborn psychic spy from Yiziba's equivalent of pre-October Revolution Imperial Russia. We call that particular person 'Lo'otutodum R'benae'; 'Twisted Sister' is how you'd say it here."
"Sounds like something that sick bitch would like!" Chisato sneered.
"It's better than what could happen to us, Chisato-chan."
Hearing Matsuri's meek comment, her friends focused on her. "What do you mean, Matsuri-chan?" Haruka asked.
Said girl looked over. "Are you still replicating Hinata's telepathy, Suzune-san?"
The silver-haired girl nodded before facing Matsuri's friends. "I can show you what I showed Matsuri-san here when my sister and I found her just now. The energy you're seeing around her — and what's around you now — shows you're pre-Gifted; that means your bodies are primed to take a Gift and become a true metahuman." She gazed at her reborn darker half, making her blush. "Believe me, the benefits of being Gifted are many, especially considering what Kyūbē DIDN'T tell you about the price one pays to become a puella magi."
"Just remain VERY calm," the redhead then cautioned. "As Matsuri-san could easily explain, this 'reveal scene' is VERY disturbing."
Arisa, Chisato and Haruka exchanged looks, then glanced again at their fellow magical girl. Seeing Matsuri nod in reassurance as she reached up to wipe her eyes clean of tears, the three other girls nodded. "Do it," Haruka bade...
Minutes later...
Pained sobs escaped both Arisa and Chisato as a shuddering Haruka and a grimacing Matsuri comforted them.
"Kami-sama! That lying son of a bitch!" Arisa hissed, her hands clenching and relaxing as she imagined what she would do once she got her hands on Kyūbē. "When I get my hands on him, I'm gonna rip him apart with my bare hands!"
Suzune snorted. "He'll just spawn a new body, Narumi-san," the Gift Mime derisively noted. She hadn't spared the three girls she and her sister had just encountered. She showed them everything about her own life, from her making the wish under Kyūbē's guidance to become a puella magi until her Gifting...where she gained a SISTER from the darker half of her very own SOUL; on that day, the newly-named Amano Kagero had been Gifted as the Blazing Juggernaut, Pasoha ("Efreet"). And, on experiencing that, the silver-haired ex-magical girl learned the awful truth of her original empowerment from the first of their kind to be saved from the ghastly fate forced on those like themselves by Incubators like Kyūbē and his kinsman Kyūiin. How the "eldritch witches" she had been tasked to fight were actually warped versions of puella magi like herself who had succumbed to despair. How a magical girl's soul gem actually contained their very SOULS, said souls splitting in half on the emergence of a new witch, the "original self" being lost forever to the next life.
"Don't worry," Suzune added. "Those mercenaries'll be facing a Mother of All Fight Scenes soon enough." As the recently pre-Gifted puella magi perked on hearing that now-VERY familiar term escape her, she added, "More importantly, since you all are pre-Gifted..."
"Which is probably due to eating something with mesonium in it," Kagero automatically chimed in.
"—the chance of you meeting the same fate as Tsubaki-san are effectively zero," her sister/other-self finished with a wistful look briefly flashing across her face as she remembered her mentor Mikoto Tsubaki. One of the eldest of the current generation of puella magi active in Japan, the motherly woman ultimately hadn't been able to keep her soul gem sufficiently clear of despair; to ensure her recently-orphaned charge would keep her own soul gem cleansed when various grief seeds were obtained. Tsubaki's subsequent "witch-out" was how Suzune finally learned the horrible truth; in the immediate wake of that, she honestly considered both crushing her own soul gem to kill off her darker half...as well as becoming a 'mercy killer' of sorts as Hinata Kagari ultimately became. Fortunately for her, Suzune would soon meet one Tomoe Mami, who gave her another option which saved her soul and gave her new family to boot!
"As you might now suspect, there's a big recruiting drive dedicated to saving puella magi like yourselves and like Onē-sama was once by seeing people like us Gifted to eventually drive the Incubators off Earth," Kagero added...
...just as the loud sound of metal being torn apart made the Blazing Juggernaut stop, she putting her omniculars up to her eyes to scan around. The other girls looked around themselves before Suzune called out, pointing off to the east of the school grounds...
...where what appeared to be a tall suit of steely armour now stood, it driving a sword into the thankfully empty street.
"Is that...a witch?" Haruka hesitantly asked.
Glancing down, Matsuri — the only one at this gathering not in a magical girl's fighting uniform or a Yizibajohei battlesuit; she had been swept up by the Amano siblings before she could change — then grimaced as she noticed her soul gem glowing, a visual indicator that the darker half of a lost puella magi's soul was quite close by. "Hai, that is a witch! Why isn't it in a barrier?!"
"Doesn't matter," Chisato declared, rising to her feet. "She needs to be taken down before anyone gets hurt!"
Suzune's hand snapped up to stop the brunette magical girl. "Hold off a moment, Shion-san!" the power-replicator called off. "If you force the Gifting, you'll be stuck with whatever bonds with you! Relax and make your choice; you don't want to...!"
She was cut off as Arisa bolted up, racing for the roof edge. "Screw it! I'm ready!"
The Gift Mime then moaned as the pink-haired middle school sophomore leapt off the roof, her body glowing like the noon Sun...
Tene lomher'buo, Narumi Arisa...!
"TAEIM LETAM!"
Nesu...TAEKANA!
The light show around the now-FORMER puella magi immediately faded, showing Arisa now clad in a magenta jumpsuit in the modern sleeveless style with a flowing pink cape draped over her shoulders, she also bearing a chest emblem resembling a comet flying in a circle. Catching the pink heart-shaped gem that held the soul of her eldritch witch-self, she tucked it safely away in one of the utility pouches on her belt — the just-Gifted Comet Launcher, Taekana ("Fastball"), gingerly landed on the lawn just short of the school property fence, then bounded over said barrier land a haymaker which could impress the most powerful destroyer shipgirl on the steely colossus trying to destroy the street it was standing on. Watching such a performance as the once-shy Arisa seemed to regain her post-wish confidence as she easily dodged the armoured witch's sword thrusts, using her new flight abilities (which she never had as a puella magi) to keep well clear of such a sharp and clearly magically-enhanced bladed weapon — on being pre-Gifted as her mind began to be bombarded with the memories of DOZENS of battle lines, all of whom had become strong FISS-types during the Dawn of Power, Arisa's do-or-die determination had effectively evaporated — the other three still-pre-Gifted puella magi standing with the Gift Mime and the Blazing Juggernaut exchanged knowing looks, the auras of their new empowerment cloaking their bodies increasing in intensity.
"Alright!" Chisato breathed out. "Don't know about you guys, but my mind's made up...!"
Tene lomher'buo, Shion Chisato...
Ignoring the blinding glow of power now cloaking her, the pony-tailed brunette walked towards the edge of the roof, such an act making Haruka and Matsuri exchange looks before they squared their shoulders, then moved to follow...
Tene lomher'buo, Kanade Haruka...
Tene lomher'buo, Hinata Matsuri...
Now barely visible thanks to the auras cloaking them in anticipation of their being Gifted, the three girls allowed their fighting attire as puella magi to vanish for the last time, being replaced by now-burning civilian attire. As the Amane sisters averted their eyes, Chisato's, Haruka's and Matsuri's soul gems shattered, allowing their true selves to re-merge with their bodies, leaving behind three glittering jewels holding the darker halves of their souls: A blue teardrop for Chisato, a yellow hexagon for Haruka, and a green oval for Matsuri...
Nesu...NORIMGIM!
Chisato emerged from her Gifting bearing the navy blue jumpsuit with a silver cross-on-broken circle gravity emblem, marking her as the newest incarnation of the Lightweight Lady, Norimgim ("Radion")...
Nesu...TAHIAYA!
Next came Haruka, she wearing a jumpsuit in a buttercup gold/yellow shade, the flower-and-eye emblem on her upper chest now declaring she was the Hidden Mistress of Emotions, Tahiaya ("Wallflower")...
Nesu...BEBUMU'U!
Finally, there came Matsuri; unsurprisingly in Suzune's eyes, the green-tinted brunette now had a jade green jumpsuit, a sunburst emblem over her cleavage declaring her to be the Gleaming Lady of the East, Bebumu'u ("Jyoti")...
"FIGHT SCENE'S ON!" Chisato screamed as she used her gravity-manipulation abilities to launch herself and her friends into the air.
Mentally dropping the telepathy she had mimicked from the Mind-Moulder of Insanity, Lo'otutodum R'benae ("Twisted Sister"), Suzune allowed her body to replicate the just-Gifted Chisato to help her and Kagero also fly through the air to join in on the party. By then, Arisa was busy using a good hunk of chest armour she physically pried off the witch's body as a bashing tool. "I'm glad this one's not falling so easily!" the Comet Launcher declared with a joyous laugh as she brained said creature. "This is too much fun!"
"Don't get cocky, Narumi-san!" Suzune called out as she teamed with Chisato to trip the witch up by creating a null-gravity field under its feet. "Kagero-chan and I have run into a few other witches running around these parts that weren't hiding behind barriers!"
Peppering the creature with her newly-endowed photokinetic powers, Matsuri scowled. "She's tougher than shielded witches!"
"Sadly, they gain strength when they're in this state, Hinata-san! I can't say why, though!" the Blazing Juggernaut declared as she used her own fire-manipulation powers to send photon torpedo-like "shells" into the witch.
Considering that, the Gleaming Lady glanced at the Hidden Mistress, making the older girl perk as she sensed what her kōhai now had in mind. "Haruka-sempai and I can help slow her down!" Matsuri barked out. "Shield your eyes, everybody!"
As the others did as she had bade, the reborn priestess of old Ha'asaka summoned several orbs of light, then mentally flung them at their target. The witch screeched, she blinded by such a display of force as she dropped her sword. Lunging forward, Kagero seized said weapon, using her pyrokinesis to heat up said blade to a level that not even a properly-shielded worker at a steel factory could tolerate. Coinciding with that, Arisa flew over to snare her sempai in a bear hug from behind, flying forward to allow Haruka to touch the witch's armour, such making the already-stunned creature instantly freeze as the emotional manipulator literally forced HER to feel despair. Once that was done, Arisa pulled Haruka back to put her down on the ground, holding out one hand. Kagero threw the ultra-hot blade over, said weapon not affecting the Comet Launcher as she moved to wind up for a pitch. "TAKE THIS, WITCH!"
One fastball special — as the members of the X-Men in another universe that had been encountered by metahumans here months before when the existence of shipgirls went public thanks to the salvaging-and-Gifting of the world's most famous warship off the coast of France one bright Friday morning in late August — said witch was pierced through her heart by her own weapon, making her disintegrate in a shower of molten iron that immediately evaporated into nothingness long before any of those shards could drop to the ground.
Silence then mercifully fell as the newly-Gifted former magical girls took a moment to absorb what just happened to them. As Suzune checked her PAA to note that the automatically set "notice-me-not" field the Gift Mime used when battling eldritch witches had flicked on just before Arisa allowed the Great Crystal of Power to empower her — this ensured that local authorities and would-be bystanders wouldn't note what was going on, thus generate unwelcome news that could leak out to the wrong people, especially in a certain Tōkyō suburb which would be cleaned out of unwanted aliens in a little under nineteen days' time — Arisa and her peers exchanged looks before the pink-haired middle school sophomore held out her hands to high-five both Chisato and Matsuri before accepting Haruka's warm embrace. "You're right about that, Arisa-chan!" the Lightweight Lady declared. "That was a lot of fun."
As the four newly-Gifted metahumans shared a group hug, Suzune walked over to squeeze her sister's shoulder. "Sorry you didn't get as big a piece of the action, Kagero-chan," the Gift Mime quietly apologized.
The former eldritch witch smiled. "It is no big deal, Onē-sama. There will be plenty more fight scenes." With that, the Blazing Juggernaut took a glance around. "Did anyone see where the grief seed went to?"
That made the others perk before they glanced around, then Haruka hummed, pointing to a nearby water main drain cover near the northeast gate of the Hōzuki Junior High school grounds. "It might have fallen in there, Kagero-chan."
The others looked before Chisato shook her head. "Luck of the fight scene," the gravity manipulator declared before blinking as her mind reflected on her using the Yizibajohei phrase equal to the common soldier's lament "shit happens". "Still, even if we're now free of the idiocy Kyūbē unleashed to appease the Sidines of all things, I need another good fight scene or two. Battlezone, anyone?"
"I'm hungry!" Arisa then declared.
Everyone exchanged looks, then Kagero hummed. "Would you care to try some prim'ta pastries?"
Jaws dropped. "You actually eat LAR'BEKE?!" Matsuri demanded.
The Amano sisters exchanged looks. "Want to know what the shipgirls really are?!" Suzune then teased.
The newly-Gifted metahumans blinked. "What about the shipgirls?" Haruka wondered.
The silver-haired power replicator smirked. "Wait until you hear what the newest incarnations of Suiki and Doctor Renaissance found out back during March break when she helped the Fubuki become Fukushima Fujiko...!"
The End...For Now!
WRITER'S NOTES
This short is set about a week prior to the start of Boy Meets Girl Meets Metahuman.
This particular short looks at the characters from the three-part spin-off manga series Mahō Shōjo Suzune Magika, published in 2013-2014. Like other cities in the various series published by Urobuchi-sensei, Hōzuki is fictional, though set close to the near like-named city of Hōfu in the eastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture at the west end of Honshū about eighty kilometres (fifty miles) west-southwest from Hiroshima. The name "Hōzuki" itself means "lantern of the Oni" and is written 鬼灯. In the universe of this story, the kanji would be written 防灯, which figuratively translates as "lantern of the capital (of Suō)"; the word "Hōfu" (防府) is a contraction of 国府 ("capital city") and 周防国 ("Suō Province"), the latter term being the name of the ancient domain around this part of Japan.
Translation list and source language: Prim'ta — Larval symbiote (Goa'uld); Ha'tak — Battleship/aerospace warfare starship (Goa'uld); Ha'asaka — The analogue of India (Yizibajohei); Lar'beke — Snake leech, derisive nickname for the Goa'uld as a whole (Yizibajohei).
Amaterasu was first introduced in the Stargate SG-1 two-part episode "New Order" (first two episodes of the eighth season). As an aside, Kim Hyegyŏng AKA the Sandalwood Empress of the New Dawn, Gamtom-uodim ("Tan'gun-wanggŏm"), first appeared in Part 17 of Boy Meets Girl Meets Metahuman; her "parents" were discussed by President Josiah Bartlet (from The West Wing) and Senator Robert Kinsey (from Stargate SG-1) in Part 14 of BmGmM.