Prepare for…some slight OOC moments. At least I think so. But hey, magic makes people crazy. What can I say? Be on the lookout for some foreshadowing, and if you get the chance, check out the prequel, "Puella Magi Yūko Magica"! If you know the series, you might know what I mean.
Knowing when to stop
Is not something I know how to do
I need to stop
Stop
STOP!
…
It all stops
Chapter 12: The Fourth Wall?
Enciclopedia Magica » Questionable Competitions » "The Game" » Artifacts » Registro delle Anime
The Subcriptio de Animas, (also known as Registro delle Anime or simply the S-registry) is a very well-known magical artifact. Its uses are mostly limited to tracking and location of souls. It is a vital (nearly invaluable) item used in the ever infamous "Game", and has been seen with the earliest of players.
Once a player or supporting character has been entered into "The Game", their name appears in the S-Registry, with limited information shown about them. If they are nearby, however, the tome in which the registry is linked to shall alert the owner.
Its uses aren't limited to only tracking souls within the competition. Once the Magi or their Famulus can recognize the Soul Signature of any person, it is possible to track them down using the registry and a simple scrying ceremony.
…For further information regarding the S-registry, please see Magical Tomes and Artifacts.
躁鬱
Chii had a very peculiar dream the night that she saved Amber. Freya was with her in Papa's old laboratory, and they were both wearing pink gowns. Papa was apologizing, but she couldn't hear what he was saying exactly. All she knew is that he was sorry about something, and it showed on his face.
Something about a girl?
There was blood. It was on her hands. Chii could see it shining on her palms, but wondered why Freya did not have any on her.
Instead, Freya…was crying.
She reached out to her sister and wrapped her arms around her twin, but Freya continued to cry. The blood was still fresh, so it smeared against her sister's clothes.
Something had…happened, hadn't it?
There was a man being taken away by some strange robed people. There were two of them holding long wooden sticks. Chii couldn't see their faces because the robes they wore had hoods, and there wasn't enough light for her optics. Freya was sad; Chii couldn't remember when she had seen her sister like this other than when she was about to die.
But still…Chii remembered. Mama had given her the disk, so Chii remembered. It had taken a very long time to process the memories, but…that blood belonged to her friend. Their friend.
Their very best friend.
Chii had saved her for a second time last night.
魔法授業
"Alright, Min-kun. Time for your first lesson."
Amber leaned back in the chair at his desk, putting her feet up in front of her. The sound effect for a high-class lady's laughter faded in and out beside her head. 'ホホホ' read the katakana, which was repeating itself for no reason other than effect.
Minoru was going to yell at her for trying to ruin his desk with her boots, but was too distracted by the content of her declaration to care otherwise.
"My first—what?" Maybe he hadn't heard her clearly. Perhaps his ears were still clogged from the last time he went swimming. She didn't just say he had a 'lesson', now did she?
"Don't play dumb." She sat upright in the chair and propped up her head on the desk using her hands, and three 'フ's appeared this time. "You heard me, wand up!"
"Augh…" Directly above Minoru a giant 'モーッ' ascended from nonexistence to protest this new development. He squinted at the girl who was (at least she appeared to be) mocking him and frowned deeply, angry at himself for not realizing why he had been given such a gift in the first place.
"By the way, when is everyone else coming?" Her smile turned positively patronizing.
His palm became a resting spot for his forehead. "Within the hour."
"I think we can accomplish a lot in that timeframe, don't you think?"
"R-right," he agreed, begrudgingly at best, his forehead still touching his palm and looking at her through his dark bangs.
"Now hold your wand like so." She curled her fingers like she was gripping a violin bow, except the index finger was pointing apart from the others. Minoru mimicked this with his wand, the star trembling at the end of it because of his shaky hand.
"Yes, excellent." She clapped. (Was that out of amusement or congratulations?) In any case, Minoru had pretty good form. "First off we shall start with the four basic elementals."
火(Hi) – Incendio
水(Mizu) – Aquos
土(Tsuchi)- Terrarus
風(Kaze)- Ventus
Each Kanji had its turn to take up the screen, and beside each of them Amber chose to pose like a character in an eyecatch. Once she got all of that silliness out of her system, Amber got serious.
"Incendio is the easiest of the four, but for some reason I'm thinking you will fare better with Aquos. "
"Let me guess: Incendio is fire and Aquos is water? "
"Precisely! Your Latin is pretty top-notch."
He decided to ignore the compliment.
'No wonder he finished the book and even made a pact.'
Amber pressed her finger to his nose. "Hmmm…Do you know how to do everything, Minoru?"
He flinched more at the lack of his nickname than the absence of an honorific.
"I don't know how to do everything. I only know how to learn at an efficient pace and act upon my knowledge accordingly."
Amber rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. "Geez, give a guy a compliment and he self-deprecates himself. "
"Why do you think I'd be better at water?"
"Uh..." She stared at his dark blue hair and eyes for a few seconds. "No reason…" And with that she rested her right cheek within her hand, like one of those fujoshi girls within a BL daydream.
Minoru looked at the (pretty much sparkling) image of his new "teacher."
'What a liar...'
"So all you have to do it swish your wand upwards in a fluid motion and yell 'Aquos!', and let the power flow like water from your toe tips to your arms."
She demonstrated the motions.
Looking at his arm and trying out the motion, Minoru thought over what she said. "And for Incendio?"
"For that, you need to thrust your arm out like you're fencing. Then you focus all your energy on one point at the end of the wand. After, you say 'Incendio!' In a loud voice."
Amber also used herself as an example this time as well.
Watching her fence against an invisible opponent, Minoru nndded in understanding. "Does the order in which you do the motions even matter in relation to the incantation?"
"Of course! For Aquos the incantation acts like a faucet opening, and then the power you supply is transmuted into water. For the other spell, the power you supply at first is like pouring out some gunpowder, and the incantation ignites the released mana."
"Curious. Is there a more detailed book on the matter?"
"Heheh, I can already tell..." She snickered and bit her lip, giving him an intense stare with slotted eyes.
"What?"
"You're going to be one powerful Mage. Most likely you'll start writing your own spells at one point, once you've got the theory down. You already have such an interesting mind, but I am sure of it, you'll want to become a Magister Magi."
He had seen that term in the book.
"Is that what you want to do, Lee-Young-san?"
"I told you Min-kun..." Amber stretched his cheeks like they were deflated rubber balloons. Her smile was a deceptively sweet mask that her irritation. "You don't have to be so polite all the time. What's with you and speaking in Keigo all the time? (Though there are some who are moé for that…) I'm your frieeeend. At least call me a nickname or something!"
"Oh." He paused in thought for moment, and then punched his palm in realization. "Okay. How about, 'Haku-chan'?"
She wasn't about to be named after that dude from an anime. Not even if it was a shortened version of her name translated into Japanese. In fact, that alone made it worse. Minoru tried to ignore the glare he was getting and smiled good-naturedly.
"If you don't like that, then we could always call you 'Tsundere-chan'.*"
For a genius/rich-kid who was usually so polite and formal, this was surprising. Especially since he called her 'omae' instead of 'anata', as usual.
"What!" Her face somehow lost all of its color. She became a husk of a person, only a paper cutout of what she once was.
Minoru took the lack of response as an acceptance of some sort. "So you like that one?" He was acting his age now, and it was very unsettling, especially the devious grin he was developing. "Then it's settled. You are now Tsundere-chan."
He found himself in a headlock five seconds later.
'Maybe I should have called her Yandere-chan instead?' He thought, laughing silently to himself.
莫迦物語
Hideki and Chii were at the forefront of the little party arriving at the mansion. Kojima took up the rear and grumbling about something incomprehensible to himself. Hideki noted that he'd never seen the front windows of the place looking so fresh and clear. But he dismissed it, reminding himself that Minoru had at least six Persocoms to help him with cleaning, so he chalked it up to being unobservant those other times he visited. The trio was greeted by Yuki this time and as usual per their entrance, took their shoes and gave them some house slippers. She bowed once before leading them to the sitting room stationed outside Minoru's study.
"Please make yourselves comfortable," she droned. "I will return shortly."
With all three pairs of shoes in hand, she walked down the hallway and turned the corner.
"So what do you think Minoru's called us here for?" said Kojima, resting his neck on the back of the chair he was sitting on. It was a muted green armchair and beside it was a tiny mahogany side table with a picture of Minoru sternly staring straight ahead. The picture was facing Kojima at an angle, yet for some reason he felt it was watching him.
"Honestly, I don't know," said Hideki, closing his eyes to think. Immediately after he said that, Chii gave a bright smile and giggled, giving his hand a squeeze.
"Chii knows," she announced.
One of Hideki's eyes popped open and rolled around to look at Chii. He wasn't sure if she was serious, but was still taken aback that she had said that.
"What? Why didn't you tell me?" he said, frowning.
"Hideki did not ask," clarified Chii, giving a shrug, an action she had seen on television many times before when Hideki was not home.
He was surprised even further at this declaration. In fact, he was quite mad. Platinum Mad, in fact!
Unfortunately, when Hideki gets Platinum Mad, his voice also gets quite whiny and high.
"So if I don't ask you won't tell me?" he said, riling himself up more than needed. "D-don't you think that's sort of, I dunno, unfair?"
"Chii has her reasons." She pressed a finger to her lips coyly and winked.
This, of course, floored Hideki once more. For one, she winked at him. Genuinely, honestly winked for god's sake. His anger quickly morphed into embarrassment, making his face a nice rosy red.
Kojima rolled his eyes. In the distance there was a muffled shout, and his ears pricked up.
"Hey, do you hear that?" said Kojima, unfolding his arms and looking forward, to Minoru's study.
"What?" said Hideki, lifting a hand to his ear. Chii mirrored his action as she did in the old days.
"Listen..." he whispered. Kojima stood and walked to the door. He motioned for the others to join him, and pressed his left ear to the door. Hideki pressed his right ear to the door, and Chii did the same.
All three of them clearly heard young boy's voice.
"Don't you think this is enough?"
"Sounds like Minoru-kun," said Chii, stating the obvious. It was quite easy to identify his voice, but it usually never sounded so distressed.
"What? No! Why're you putting it away?" said a distinctly female speaker. "We were just getting started, so whip it back out!" Her accent was bordering on the line of believable and pretty darn foreign, and was out of breath from the sound of it.
"I'm a bit tired," said Minoru, who was panting heavily as well. "Maybe we can try again later?"
The response from the girl was immediate.
"Unacceptable," she scoffed in a haughty tone. "You need more practice."
"Really now, what's the rush? This is my first time doing something like this!" protested Minoru.
Hideki's thoughts were suddenly wandering into the section of his mind labeled 'ADULT' for no apparent reason. His blush from before became even more pronounced, yet he had to keep listening. It reminded him of the time he caught Shinbo and Ms. Shimizu almost-kissing, except he couldn't see what was happening.
"There's no rush. You just need to keep at it!" countered the girl.
"But—," said Minoru, trying to get out of whatever she was trying to make him do. He was interrupted though, and you could basically hear him sulking.
"You're young!" The girl was trying to encourage him now, despite his adamant refusal. "You'll spring back in no time, I promise you. Your body will gain more stamina in time."
Hideki pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
"Yeah, you would know, right?" he said, trying to cut her down with sarcasm.
Of course, it backfired, and the following statement nearly made Hideki faint.
"Exactly, because I am a Professional!" she said proudly.
Instead of falling unconscious, Hideki's brain chose the only other option for his body—to collapse on the floor and stare into space aimlessly. Kojima and Chii looked to where their comrade in eavesdropping had landed.
"Why're you on the floor?' said the two of them at once. Kojima was more annoyed than curious, and Chii was more curious than annoyed. The door opened while they were still staring at Hideki.
"Oh," said Yuki, her hands on the door handle. "Why are you thee sitting so close to doorway?"
Somehow she had already gone into the study before them by another route.
"Nothing," said Chii, her face a shining ball of innocent sunshine and happiness.
Minoru was flopped onto the couch near the middle of the room, lying on his belly. He looked up weakly from the seat toward the doorway. His hand clutching the wand quickly buried the instrument in the crease of the couch.
"Y-Yuki?" he said.
"The guests have arrived, Lord Minoru," said Yuki, adjusting her glasses. One corner of her mouth fell by 2 millimeters, the sternest frown that anyone could get from her.
"Hello, everyone," said Minoru. He used the edge of the coffee table to pull himself up. "I'm glad to see you've been able to make it." A few of the trays rattled as he did so, and Amber came over to help him. Hideki wondered what exactly had been going on as they were listening, but figured he shouldn't ask any questions. That would mean that he was an eavesdropper, and he couldn't take another title burned onto his reputation.
Kojima was silent for a few moments. "Yeah…" The young man scratched the back of his head and looked towards the window. 'It wasn't like I had anything better to do,' he thought to himself. "You said you wanted to see me?"
"Us too!" said Chii, waving a hand around in the air. Beside Hideki fiddled with his thumbs, looking quite guilty for some reason. His eyes wandered from person to person before settling on their host.
"Hey, Kokubunji," said Hideki. "Amber-san," he added, his head nodding in a semi-bow toward her direction.
Kojima suddenly donned a similar look to Hideki's.
"Yuki, could you please call Garrett and Yuzuki from the courtyard?"
"I shall send Yuzuki-sempai a message." Yuki's eyes unfocused for three seconds before turning to normal. She bowed in Minoru's direction and blinked once. "They are on their way, sir."
Kojima began to fidget where he was seated, and the others wondered why he was muttering to himself. It was suspicious, but they all knew that Kojima was a pretty suspicious person to begin with, so they attributed it to their personal view of him. His eyes were all over the place, looking from Minoru to Amber to all the available exits.
He knew that Persocom looked familiar. If this Garrett person was her owner also happened to be acquainted with Minoru, then...
A certain Dragonfly was about to go splat.
But wait...why would they lure him here if they knew the truth? Minoru had warned him that if he stepped out of line again, that they'd take more drastic measures for the next incident. That would possibly mean jail time. Wait, not possibly, definitely.
But everyone was acting so nice! If they really knew about it, then the police would've already picked him up.
"Hey guys," said Garrett, with Yuzuki following in behind him.
"Alright, now that everyone's here…we have an announcement for you." Minoru held out his wand and inadvertently used it as a pointing stick.
"You're..." began Hideki.
"An otaku?" finished Kojima sarcastically. The word 'otaku' hovered in the air for a few seconds before fading away.
Minoru noticed he was holding the wand in plain sight.
"Chiiiii," Hideki's girlfriend uttered in a content voice.
Amber took a deep breath, and then the truth rushed out all at once. "Hideki is the only one who didn't know at this point, but I'm not a Persocom." She added a little nervously at the end: "In fact, I'm 75% human."
"I seeeee," Hideki breathed—taking this in stride. For some reason he was calm, and Chii wondered why he was acting so strangely.
Little did she know, Hideki was panicking inside. A little chibi version of himself was running around in his head, sifting through his most recent memories. There just had to be some evidence that indicated that he wasn't completely unobservant.
'I must be dreaming,' thought Hideki to himself. 'There's no way that she can be human, can she?' He was beginning to wobble where he sat, rocking from side to side like a punching bag.
He looked at those dark brown eyes once more.
Amber giggled, and then proceeded to blow their minds. With her left hand she took a firm grip on the headband that the Persocom ears were attached to. And then she yanked them off.
"What did you just do to yourself Amber-san?!" cried Hideki. "Doesn't it hurt?" He looked to Garrett, who smiled back like she'd done a magic trick or something.
"So you're not a Persocom?" Kojima's heart stopped. 'What did I do?' He thought 'I handed over a cosplayer over to those guys!' Then he paused that train of thought. 'Wait a minute...'
"How did you escape?!"
"What?" said everyone at once.
"Uh…Ignore me," Kojima suggested.
"That isn't all," said Chii, who was pouting. "Ototōchan!"
She was pointing to Garrett, and the boy put his hands up in front of his chest.
"You got me Ane," he replied.
Even Amber was confused. 'Since when does Chii call him that?'
Garrett peered into her thought bubble on the page and nodded. "Good question, Amber." He nodded and closed his eyes as if in deep thought. "Chii called me using Ms. Hibiya's phone last night. That's how I knew you were safe."
'A mind reader?' Hideki was getting ready to take Chii and run.
"I can only read minds because this is a manga," explained Garrett with a silly grin. "They smash the fourth wall all the time."
"Since when are we a manga?" Shouted everyone except Chii, and sweat drops hung from every head like oversized hair clips.
"Chii...?"
Kojima was still distracted by the strange revelation from before. He wasn't even sure why he was here in the first place, but he had the ill feeling that it was going to involve a lot of work.
Hideki was still trying to figure out how Amber was a human.
"You see, Motosuwa...-san, I'm a Persocom." Garrett smiled. "To be more specific, I'm #4 in the Chobits series."
Parts of Hideki's brain were splattered on the floor from the second logic bomb that just went off.
"This just cannot be real?!"
The boy was on the floor, twitching as if he'd just been attacked with a Taser.
"Is Hideki okay?" said Chii, touching his forehead to his own.
"Yeah, Chii, I'm alright," he said, which didn't convince anyone in the slightest.
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Yeah! I'm fine. You probably could shoot me with a gun and I'd get up laughing!"
"Unfortunately, that's not even the half of it." Minoru scratched the back of his head. "You see…"
After about 30 minutes of explaining, it seemed Hideki was about to die from shock alone. Kojima took everything with a grain of salt, but he was still wary of the reason why he had been invited to this little get together of theirs.
An announcement by Yuki interrupted the festivities, and not for the better.
"A young woman was at the door for Mr. Yoshikuji," said Yuki, bowing slightly. Behind her was a slender young woman in a light purple sundress. Her hair reached to her knees and was parted into two plum-colored pigtails, held in place by a pair of jingle bell hair ties. No one could recognize her at first glance, save for a very irritated hacker.
Her dark purple eyes were a bit lost, as if she had just woken up after a very long night-shift at work.
"Kotoko? What're you doing here?" Kojima had decided he was taking the route to a Bad Ending, and walked over to her. He was worried that something had gone wrong during the data transfer, and wondered why she was behaving so unusually.
"…"
She didn't answer right away. In fact, she was so occupied with looking at Amber and Garrett, that Kojima might as well have been transparent. Her features darkened, and then, without warning, her hand smashed against his face. It was the equivalent of 0.4 tons travelling at 8.9 meters/sec. So in other words, a professional boxer just socked Kojima square in the jaw.
It really should have hurt him more than it did, but it was delivered with such precision that he could have taken a dozen more and still be able to stand up. Although, it still would hurt quite a bit despite how much Kotoko would aim for minimal damage.
A bruise was forming on his cheek. "What was that for?!"
"For that!" she said, pointing to a very confused little girl. Amber wondered why this 'Kotoko' woman was having such a violent reaction to her best friend/boyfriend/whatever he really was to her (Amber couldn't really tell by looking).
Clearly it had something to do with Amber, because Kotoko's finger was pointed right at her.
承認
"Junji, I was wondering..." Minako and her husband were sitting on a park bench in the middle of Shinjuku Gyoen, relaxing after a full day's work. Junji had just finished his last lecture at Tokyo U, and it was the perfect place to recharge Persocoms in the sun, or so he had heard.
"Hmmm? About what?" said Junji, half-asleep and clutching her hand.
"Those girls the other night; they were odd." Minako blinked several times and thought back.
"How?"
"I tried to get a good photo of them that night, so that I could search for their faces. But when I compared them to photos of any known Mages in the Main Database..."
Junji sat up immediately, looking her in the eyes. Panic was all over his face, as if a new Demon Lord was going to rip up half of downtown.
"What are you saying? That they're not registered? We have to find them, then." He already was into his 'worried teacher' mode, and there wasn't much she could do to stop him. He was ranting now, and thinking of the many bad scenarios that could stem from such information. "You said they looked young—that means they should be in school!"
"Junji, wait." She pressed a finger to his sips to stop him from speaking. "That's not what I'm saying." The angry blush rising on her face was clue enough that something was wrong. "I'm saying...we didn't have high enough clearance to access their files."
Encyclopedia Magica OLD EARTH ADMINISTRATION Registration
The secret of magic must be kept at all times. That is why the Registration act went into effect back around the 1600s. A group of foolish Mages made up of several underage girls and Adult men and women were caught leaving from performing a cleansing charm in the forest. The spirits and demons had been pressing in in their village lately, causing all sorts of havoc. To ward them away, the Mages decided to gather and cleanse the land of thief malevolent presence. Unfortunately the wards to keep the Mundanes away weren't executed properly, and 'the rest is history' they say.
Therefore it is in the interest and safety of the magical public that once a child is old enough to attend Magic School, then they must be registered at their local Magical Chapter. The District Chiefs and their subordinates are in place to ensure that the existence of magic is handwaved as ludicrous. However, registration ensures that it will be much easier to track any misuse of magic. When they have grown to the age of 18, they are free from the restrictions placed upon them, but they know that then can be tried as an Adult Mage.
For more info, please see the sections Underage Mages and/or Magical Education.
*What Minoru said exactly was: 琥珀ちゃん、そのニックネームが気に入らない場合、我々は常に "ツンデレちゃん" まおまえ 呼び出すことができます。
Oh and I think I have a problem. I am obsessed with Minoru. Augh, I feel like such a creeper. (Bad girl!) Anyway, as always, I hope you liked this chapter.
And now, a silly song for your enjoyment based off of "Fashionista" by Jimmy James:
The Game
Everybody line up!
The game is about to start.
Places!
The game is about to start.
You have to show a skill,
Have a trade, or cast a spell,
Wands? Beautiful.
No one normal allowed.
(Evil Laughter)
Are you ready? Here we go.
.
Magic is the art,
Many are the Gods,
Magi play the part of,
Angels in the dark
Which one of you would ever dare to go against,
That wishes are a trade,
and everyone is paid.
Join in The Game,
How will you play?
Join in The Game,
Will you not stay?
What are you casting?
Where are you casting?
.
Practe Bigi Nar, cullare terra dar!
Excitare lacrimi, mea virga veni!
Plures multis guttis ven, ni corar si mi canta
Veni mi minist, nihil care som.
Oro are como visi, Being good is never easy.
.
Magic has a price.