Snow White sat next to La Pucelle atop the Southern Radio Tower, where they'd been meeting since practically forever at this point. It was time for the first weekly announcement to determine which Magical Girl would be eliminated, but first...
"Hey, who the hell is that?" La Pucelle asked, and when Snow White turned back to look at her own Magical Phone, she figured out why.
Sonic was there, laying on one of the two benches in the Chatroom, one hand was holding his head up, and his right foot was flat on the surface, his knee turned up to be at eye-level, his left leg was crossed over it, his other hand was nonchalantly tapping the air. His eyes opened upon noticing the two girls, which were the only ones (aside from him) in the Chatroom.
"Oh, hey. Is the party finally gettin' started? I've been waiting forever!"
"Who are-" La Pucelle started, only for the hedgehog to cut her off.
"I'll save the introductions 'till everyone's here. Saves time and effort."
"Koyuki, do you know this guy?"
"Eheh, maybe..."
Next, Top Speed and Ripple entered.
"Sonic! Fancy meeting you here!" Top Speed waved, and the hedgehog returned the gesture, Ripple once again said nothing, and began waiting for the others.
Next to arrive was Cranberry, who simply eyed Sonic before taking her spot on the nearby log and beginning to play her violin.
Now entering were Weiss Winterprison and Sister Nana, followed shortly by Nemurin. Winterprison squinted at Sonic, who simply waved her off while Nana just sort of stared at him.
"Oh, Sonic. You're here~!" Nemurin stated.
"Got one of these phones to stay in the loop. Why wouldn't I?"
"I guess that's true..."
To cap off everyone, Ruler and her entourage entered the Chatroom last, and saying Ruler was less than happy to see Sonic would be an understatement.
"You!" Ruler said upon spotting the hedgehog.
"Me!" Sonic responded, flashing a peace sign with his free hand, giving a wink and a cocky grin.
"What are you doing here!?"
"Same thing you are: Seeing who's going bye-bye tonight. And I'm half hoping it's you with that attitude."
"Alright! Is everyone here, pon?" Fav asked, appearing above the fountain in the middle of the Chatroom.
"I think we're missing a few." Sonic pointed out. "I'm only seeing thirteen people, fourteen counting myself. Isn't there supposed to be fifteen girls?"
"Well, Calamity Mary is never in the Chatroom unless she's absolutely forced to, so I wouldn't count on her showing up, pon. And Magicaloid is a bit of a wild-card, pon. But that doesn't matter, I can tell them the results later. But outside of those two, it looks like everyone is here, pon! And I'm certain you're all wondering who that is sitting on the bench over there, pon! Why don't you go and introduce yourself?"
"What do I look like, a transfer student?" Sonic quipped, effortlessly hopping off the bench. "Name's Sonic. Sonic the hedgehog! Fastest thing alive!"
"Since he isn't a Magical Girl, he won't have to gather Candies, pon. I just figured that since he'd be sticking around, I'd give him a Magical Phone so he could keep in touch, pon!"
"Hold on a minute!" La Pucelle said. "What about that fifty million Candy offer for capturing him?"
"It still stands, pon. Although, if you're serious about going for it, I can only wish you good luck. With that out of the way, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for: The weekly rankings, pon!"
"You've got nothing to worry about, Koyuki, I already know it's going to be you again." La Pucelle said, smiling.
"This week's top earner is... Snow White!"
"See?"
"Way to go, newbie!" Top Speed cheered.
"Yes, nice work." Cranberry stated.
"Not bad. Not bad at all!" Sonic whistled.
"Thanks so much!"
"And now I will announce the girl who earned the least amount of Candies: It's Nemurin!"
"Huh?!"
Sister Nana was the first to walk over to the soon-to-not-be Magical Girl. "I can't believe we have to bid farewell. Goodbye, Nemurin."
"It's been a blast and I'll miss you too, Sister Nana~"
"Goodbye, and good luck." Winterprison stated, approaching Nemuring as well.
"Thanks so much! Bye, Winterprison~!"
"Did you know about this?" Snow White asked upon noticing her partner's rather blank expression.
"It's not that I really knew..."
"Come now, it was so obvious." Ruler sighed.
"Yeah, it's not like you earn Magical Candies by hanging out in the chat." Minael added.
"I hate to admit it, but she's right..." Sonic admitted.
"You guys have a point..." Nemurin chuckled.
"...But I had a decent suspicion." La Pucelle finished.
"Hey, Nemurin. I didn't mean it in a bad way when I agreed with Minael back there." Sonic said, walking over to the dropout. "We didn't know each other very long, but, who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other and can catch up someday."
"That'd be nice~" Nemurin agreed. "Here, take this. Something to remember me by."
It was then that Nemurin held out the pillow that was under her arm, and Sonic held out his hand, before letting it fall back to his side. "You're seriously giving this to me?"
"It's not like I'll have much use for it since I won't be a Magical Girl anymore. And this way, when you leave this town, you can say that you made a few friends, right?"
"I guess that's true." Sonic conceded, taking the pillow and storing it away for later.
"It's time to go, pon!"
And then Nemurin disappeared without a trace.
Nemurin has been deleted.
Sonic bolted right up when he saw that.
"Hey, Fav! You didn't have to rush her out like that!"
"Well, I wanted to make sure she could make the most of the time she has left as a Magical Girl, pon!"
'That's strange...' Sonic wondered.
"That's all for today! I hope to see you all next week, pon!"
And then Fav disappeared as well, leaving Sonic and the others with their own thoughts.
Sonic left the Chatroom pretty quickly, but didn't shut his phone off, instead scrolling through his stats.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Level: 10
EXP: 645/1,200
Rings: 736/999
~Inventory~
Nemurin's Pillow (x1) Chilidog (x5)
Emeralds:
~Friends~
Snow White
Top Speed
Nemurin (Former)
What really unnerved Sonic was the 'Emeralds' section just below his inventory. It showed silhouettes of seven brilliant-cut gemstones, and it didn't take an evil genius to figure out what they were for.
Fav included a deliberate section in Sonic's profile for the Chaos Emeralds. And he was determined to find out why.
When Hitomi Sanjou opened the door to her daughter Nemu's room, she wasn't surprised to see her sleeping.
"Nemu? ...Nemu? You still awake? You have an interview tomorrow... Did you fall asleep? With the lights on, no less."
She walked further into the room, shutting the door behind her.
"You really are a hopeless girl... You know, you're gonna catch a cold if you don't use a blanket. ...Are you listening? Nemu?"
A small gasp escaped her lips as the implication sunk in. She was completely unaware of the small, egg-shaped device on the floor slowly glitching out of existence.
"No... No, it can't- Nemu!?" Hitomi pleaded, shaking her daughter. "Nemu!? No! My baby, no!"
Doctor Eggman did not expect to be awoken so soon. Especially by his digitally-constructed daughter, Sage.
"Eh? Sage...? What is it? You know Papa has to get his rest to keep his brain energized..."
"I am aware of that. However, something has come up regarding your most recent plan."
"What is it now? Has Sonic found out about us...?"
"No, he has not. However, it appears that Fav has gone against your orders."
"Pardon?"
"Nemu Sanjou. Nemurin. The first to be eliminated for the sake of your goal. Did you not tell Fav to use the standard procedure of wiping the person's memory after taking their magic?"
"Yes. I did tell him that. It would arise the least suspicion"
"Well, it appears he instead favored to use the termination command implemented in each phone. Nemu Sanjou is dead."
"He WHAT!?" Eggman roared, instantly awake.
"It is only a matter of time until the other girls find out. And when they do, the results will be catastrophic. What do you plan to do?"
"Sage, I want you to try and find the cause of this! Make sure that talking ball stays in line until the plan is ready. I'll try and get this situation back under control as quickly as I can."
"You better, or it won't end well for anyone."
Bam! Just like that, the plot's true colors are revealed! Nemurin's dead, Eggman's plan is in jeopardy, Sonic's smelling something fishy. Yeah, I just so happened to be playing Frontiers again after Update 2 while watching MGRP and got more inspiration to write. Uhh, I also kinda wanted to include item descriptions for a bit more world-building, so here we go!
Nemurin's Pillow
A pillow owned by former Magical Girl Nemurin. It was given to you/Sonic as a memento as she dropped out of the game. It's super soft, it's almost like a cloud. Surely only pleasant dreams await when resting with it...
Chilidog
A human food comprised of a hot dog topped with chili and cheese. They come in different varieties, so feel free to find the kind that suits you! Rumor has it that they're the favorite food of a certain speedster...
Anyway yeah that's that but now it's like midnight and I'm tired and wanna go to bed. Probably gonna work on more tomorrow since I'm really feeling it right now.