Love Language
A Magilumi oneshot
by mew-tsubaki
Note: The Magilumiere Co. Ltd. characters belong to Iwata Sekka-sensei and Aoki Yuu-sensei, not to me. My brain is abuzz with a million ideas for the Magilumiere charries and I love them, halp. ;w; Read, review, and enjoy!
- ^-^3
"Compression transmission!"
Sakuragi caught her breath while her senpai held steady with their company-branded flash drive aimed at the remaining, straggling monsters crawling away from them in front of the motorcycle shop.
"Extension: Wit!"
She blinked and, the next thing Sakuragi knew, Koshigaya had sucked up the final Kaii. The flash drive snapped close, and the younger magical girl turned her broom around to face the blonde. "That was the final one, Koshigaya-san," Sakuragi confirmed. She wiped some sweat from her brow but spared her colleague and friend a beaming smile. "Thirty-seven Kaii in total, but we did it."
"Not without effort—or without breaking a sweat," Koshigaya remarked, catching Sakuragi's tired expression and sharing in the latter's smile with a grin of her own. She pocketed the USB.
"Koshigaya-san, Sakuragi-san, that's a job well done," President Shigemoto said over their open channel.
"Thanks, Shachou-chan," Koshigaya replied. She hovered next to Sakuragi and shook some Kaii-looking goop off her boot with a grunt.
"After the past two hours you spent chasing down the Kaii in the auto district, I don't want the pair of you to fly back in your drained state."
Sakuragi perked up at that, and she landed on the ground alongside Koshigaya as she considered their options. "The train station's not far… Maybe a five-minute walk? Back…that way," the pig-tailed girl stated, looking up the street end that merged into a larger throughway.
"Good. Take the train back to the office; tickets are on me." There was a pause on his end before Shigemoto added, "It'll give us time to prepare, too…" Then again, he mumbled that last bit, so Sakuragi wasn't exactly certain she'd caught his words correctly.
The magical girl pair transformed back into their civilian forms, and Sakuragi found a comfortable position to lean her broom against her left shoulder as they began their trek towards the station. She furrowed her brow and pinched her chin. "You heard him, too, right, Koshigaya-san?"
"Hmm?"
"The president." Sakuragi dodged the large end of the blonde's broom, since the taller girl had it stretched across her shoulders. "He said, 'It'll give us time to prepare.' Prepare what? Did he and Midorikawa-san line up another job for us today?"
Koshigaya hummed to herself and shrugged, making her broom heave up and down, but she made sure to avoid Sakuragi this time. "Not to my knowledge…? Plus it's getting kinda late in the day… Ahhh, I'd definitely wanna call it a day anyway! But." She raised her eyebrows at Sakuragi and shook her head, her long hair flowing freely behind her now that she was out of uniform and it was down. "Knowing the president, it could be anything, so."
Sakuragi hummed in agreement. She'd been a part of the Magilumiere Company for…goodness, had a month snuck up on her already? Either way, she was learning the ropes quickly, some things picked up in the field alongside Koshigaya and many things memorized from the countless references Shigemoto and Midorikawa located in the office for her, though Sakuragi had the sneaking suspicion some books were newer purchases for their newbie.
Still, she liked this work, and Sakuragi had figured out what Koshigaya had learned a long time ago, how to go with President Shigemoto's flow, no matter the surprising twists and turns.
…although, that said, both Sakuragi and Koshigaya were confused to return nearly half an hour later and find the office empty. "Weird. Shachou-chan's basically always the last to leave himself," Koshigaya said.
Sakuragi put away their brooms and checked every last corner. "No signs of Midorikawa-san or Nikoyama-san… Ah, wait. Koshigaya-san—" She beckoned her colleague over to Midorikawa's computer and pointed to the sticky left on the blank screen. "Isn't that—?"
"Eh? Kaede-chan's handwriting. 'Koshigaya-san, Sakuragi-san'—and an arrow?" Koshigaya narrowed her eyes but followed the sign…and found another sticky with another arrow on her right. He'd left maybe half a dozen, in a straight line, pointing them from his desk back to the front door.
"Oh! They want us up on the roof?" Sakuragi read as the older girl plucked the last sticky from the back of the door. Sakuragi frowned. "Couldn't they have just, well…told us that earlier? The roof's only for takeoffs, after all." She pursed her lips. Oh, no. What if this were some ploy? What if Midorikawa had been forced to write these?! What if he hadn't written these at all?! Whatever awaited them upstairs—
Koshigaya clamped a reassuring hand on the pink-haired worrywart's shoulder. "Ah, yeah, it's a bit odd…but perhaps it's another job in the end, Kanacchi," she admitted with a sigh. Koshigaya scratched the back of her head, paused, and darted to the closet. She was back with their brooms in a few seconds. "On the off-chance it's more work," she said.
Sakuragi nodded her thanks. She had a good tactical head in the field, but Koshigaya's coolness in their daily life really did come to their aid at times like these…!
They headed to the staircase with Koshigaya in the lead, although the taller girl paused a few steps up, to sniff the air. She narrowed her eyes again and poured on the speed, but her excitement gave her away by the time she burst through the rooftop door.
"Ah, good job today!" Midorikawa said from the middle of their gathering. Nikoyama waved with one hand before he returned to typing on his laptop, and Shigemoto, nearest the girls, nodded to the pair.
"A barbeque…!" Koshigaya all but dropped her broom, her eyes bright and her mouth watering like a hungry puppy, when she saw the spread. Thankfully, Sakuragi grabbed a hold of the worn device and set it and her own by the roof door.
"What's the occasion?" Sakuragi asked. She was used to grabbing a bite out with Koshigaya or having lunch inside the office, but this definitely felt like a rare treat. What a surprise, too, even to see their coder taking a break—although, on closer inspection, Sakuragi noted that Nikoyama was eating non-greasy foods with one hand and coding on his laptop with the other.
"We never had a proper welcome party for you, Sakuragi-san," Midorikawa pointed out while turning some skewers on the grill. "But it's also been a lot busier since you joined us, so we wanted to celebrate our recent success."
"In addition to celebrating hard work, it's good to take a break," Shigemoto tacked on in his soft, even tone. He manned the station beside the grill, elegantly plating the food their officer manager cooked. Considering his usual choice of outfit—his favorite pink dress with the white gloves and matching red ribbons—the president gave off an oddly refined air for their midday casual barbeque, putting Sakuragi in mind of the princess-type magical girls still popular in so many current anime.
Yet, disrupting that air, Shigemoto cut a sharp look to Nikoyama. Without even looking up from his laptop, Nikoyama said, "I heard you before! And I can't! No breaks—not yet! I just need to get this idea outlined before I forget it!"
"New incantation circle concept," Midorikawa mouthed to Sakuragi and Koshigaya, who both nodded in understanding. Of course Nikoyama was in the zone and wouldn't pause quite yet.
Koshigaya rubbed her hands together eagerly and hovered by Midorikawa's shoulder. "Sooo, Kaede-chan, whaddaya got?"
He laughed and pointed with tongs. "Mostly chicken-and-veggie skewers, but I nabbed some premium strips of marinated beef, and there's that pork belly you love so much, Koshigaya-san."
Her shrieks were shrill and made Sakuragi wince, but the guys seemed used to it. Shigemoto all but shoved a plate into her arms so the blonde didn't knock Midorikawa over, and Midorikawa added to their newbie, "We've also got salad and lots of fresh fruit, Sakuragi-san, so feel free to dig in." He punctuated things with his trademark smile.
Considering summer was newly upon them, Sakuragi made up her own plate, happily switching from the chicken skewers (yummy! Midorikawa really knew his way around the grill) to salad and eating her weight in watermelon and strawberries (ahhh, naturally sweet and perfect for summer—so delicious!).
The quintet had staked out the middle of the roof, with a few folding chairs and portable tables, spaced out to give Midorikawa room for the small grill. Midorikawa stood and grilled so long as he had ingredients, and the president kept fiddling with prepping plates, mostly for himself and for Nikoyama, who had yet to come up for air.
It was a quiet scene, but Sakuragi found that she didn't mind, though she was glad when Koshigaya pulled her chair close and sat beside her. She stifled a laugh when she saw her senpai's face. "Happy, Koshigaya-san?"
"Mmf?" Koshigaya finished chewing and swallowed with a laugh. "Ahh, sorry. I just love this kind of thing."
"Even though Midorikawa-san usually greets us with snack when we return to the office?"
"Well, he's awesome at that. But this." Koshigaya looked fondly at the scene. "This is really the best way to relax after a hard day."
Hearing those words, Sakuragi thought back on the thirty-seven Kaii this afternoon…and suddenly her muscles seemed to remember flying around, deploying magic circle after magic circle, too. She nodded. "Yeah."
"Too bad we can't do it all the time."
Sakuragi nodded a second time. She noted then that Midorikawa finally set down the tongs and removed his apron, able to enjoy the fruits of his labors himself. "Thank you, by the way, Midorikawa-san, for cooking. You're really great at making sure there's always the right things for everyone," she stated. With a glance, Sakuragi saw Koshigaya had left the pork belly for last and was starting in on it now with a blissful expression.
He smiled, but Koshigaya—tamping down her excitement a bit—trilled and exhaled a happy sigh after a few bites of pork belly. "Ahhh, you really managed to score all my favorites… I love you, Kaede-chan!"
Sakuragi started to chuckle at the older girl's reaction (typical Koshigaya behavior), but Midorikawa's smile caught her eye instead. Whereas a moment before it'd been his usual Midorikawa smile, just now—
—just now, had he reddened and become flustered at Koshigaya's words?
She stared at him intently, but Midorikawa quickly changed his focus to his plate of food and chowing down on cooled skewers. Still, he left her wondering….
- ^-^3
The pilot episode of Barley Spice and a dozen AMVs dedicated to her and other beloved magical girl anime of the previous decade later, and they'd managed to have both pulled Nikoyama from his creative solitude and finished all the food.
"Ah!" Nikoyama yipped as he tucked his computer under his arm. "That villain in the pilot episode—that gives me an idea…!" And their coder dashed indoors ahead of them.
Shigemoto heaved a long sigh and settled Koshigaya with a sorry look. "Sorry to tag you in…"
She shook her head and rolled her shoulders. "No problem, Shachou-chan. You need help dragging Niko-chan from his laptop? You can count on me."
"He needs to learn how to take a break…"
They hustled after Nikoyama, so Sakuragi stayed behind to assist Midorikawa with the cleanup. He'd already thought to bring up a few trash bags, and he passed her an empty one so they got to work on opposite sides of their impromptu party and broke things down. They worked in comfortable silence for a few minutes, but eventually she broke it by offering her thanks again. "I don't know if it was your or the president's idea or both, but today was fun. And I got to learn something new about you. Your cooking is really great, Midorikawa-san."
He scratched his cheek bashfully. "Ah, it was just grilling…"
"Not at all! I always thought you had excellent taste in selecting treats for us, just knowing what we like. But making something is another skill altogether."
Midorikawa paused. He mustered half a smile and nodded, slowing as he cleaned and shut the grill. "I appreciate your gratitude, Sakuragi-san. I admire the work you and Koshigaya-san do, you know. …plus, I know my own limits, so I knew I'd need to learn plenty of things to make myself useful and appealing in the real world." He placed his hand atop the grill's hood. "I handle a lot of our communication, but my food can say something else, I guess?" He laughed and scratched his cheek again, but he reddened again, same as earlier.
His words reminded Sakuragi of something she'd read before, though, about food being one of many "love languages." And, if she were right on the mark about what she'd witnessed earlier, then poor Midorikawa might have a long way to go with Koshigaya…
Then again, Koshigaya was her senpai, and her senpai was curiously sharp about certain things.
So Sakuragi, hopefully, imparted some courage as she insisted, "I think your food is yummy and says a lot, especially to Koshigaya-san. So just keep at it, Midorikawa-san." And, taking a page out of his own book, she punctuated it with a beaming smile.
Worse than before, Midorikawa was as red as the watermelon from today's barbeque. But he relented with a tiny smile and nod, and he even accepted Sakuragi's high-five of encouragement before they finished cleaning up the rooftop.
- ^-^3
Done for the 5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 Fandoms Challenge and for the If You Dare Challenge (for prompt #998: a patient man) in the HPFC forum on FFN. I have been drawn into the awesomeness that is Magilumi and I don't wanna come out. 8D Btwn fic ideas (this is the first of many—so many ships!) and art ideas (A LOT), I just…love this series? So much? I CANNOT EVEN. I even made sure to get this category added to FFN just so I could have this posted and properly sorted. XD I love the charries and the found-family trope in it so, so much. As I write, I'm on ch76 rn bc I'm keeping up with the simulpub, and I'm having feels all over the place, so pls feel free to come talk to me on FFN, AO3, tumblr, or pillowfort about the manga, the charries, ships, fic, art, idc. Also I srsly dig Hitokae bc I've noticed a bunch of passing details about them that make them super cute to me and I just. *also a super huge Kaede fangirl* GAH. I LOVE MAGILUMI~ Ah, also a few notes: Still not super sure about the timeline of things, whether Kana's being there a month would deffo coincide with the start of summer so take that with a grain of salt… I will say, Kaede's line about not having a proper welcome party for Kana—there's a panel in ch4 showing the five of them grabbing drinks after she officially signs her Magilumiere contract, so that might've been a tiny celebration…but this is more like a proper, bigger one. -w- Also, worrywart!Kana thinking smthg bad might've transpired before she and Hitomi returned to the office makes sense to me, considering how analytical (and perhaps overanalyzing) Kana is. XD Lastly…regarding a few names, from Koshigaya: I went with the literal "Shachou-chan" and "Kanacchi" as based on the Jpns raws; the latter is truer to her nickname for Kana, but since "shachou" can mean more than simply "president" (plus she routinely refers to him using "-chan"), it feels more natural to me to leave it as "Shachou-chan" when she's speaking to/about him. *end author's commentary*
Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other fics if you enjoyed this~ And reblog this fic on tumblr to show your support!
-mew-tsubaki :3c