Interlude Part Two
Mikoto
Mikoto sighed as she rolled the bedazzled surface of her crystal ball between her palms. She'd done a dozen or more readings since Kusuo and the rest had disappeared for training, trying to track down the elusive Akemi Homura, but no matter how much power she poured into the orb, all that came back was the fuzzy picture of two shadows standing back-to-back. One was small, slight, and feminine, the other taller, broader, and obviously male.
"With only silhouettes it's, like, impossible to tell," Mikoto mused aloud. "The girl figure is probably Akemi; I mean, I am, like, looking for her and whatever. But who's the guy…?"
"Probably her Reborn," Yamato said from her side of the small "training room," though it was actually just an empty bedroom Yukina said she, Yamato, and Natsuko could use to further Mikoto's seer training. Not that much had changed in the last ten days. As loath as Mikoto was to admit it, Yamato was right that day on the school roof when she had said Mikoto's potential was tapped out.
At the time, Mikoto hadn't thought much about it. So what if she couldn't get better at seeing? Her abilities as-is were already enough to drop Kusuo's jaw in shock and awe (she might be exaggerating, but only just), so, sure, while it would be nice, it's not like she needed to get better.
And then she met Yamato and realized just how pathetic her abilities actually were. When reading the here-and-now, Mikoto had a slight lead on the demi-goddess with her ability to pin-point even the most obscure object or person with better-than-GPS accuracy, but when it came to the future—whether near, middling, or far—Yamato won hands down.
Unlike Mikoto, who could only see the most-likely-to-happen-based-on-this-moment future, Yamato could see hundreds of possible futures in the blink of an eye. With a little more focus, she could pin-point the linchpins needed to make the best possible future the most possible future and, in so doing, change the course of history by changing the course of the future. It was a dangerous power to have, and one Yamato swore gravely that she never used without permission.
"Reaching into someone's future like that is basically rape," Yamato had said on that first day of Mikoto's training. "Except, in some ways, it's worse. When you change a person's future without their knowledge, you're stealing their choices—their very agency—and the ability to choose, to rationalize those choices, and to learn to live with the consequences of those choices, is the very definition of being human. If I were to reach into someone's future and change their course—no matter how good my intentions may be—I'm not just taking away their possibilities, I'm stealing their humanity."
Hearing it explained that way made Mikoto shudder with disgust. Had she ever done that? Used her abilities to tamper with a person's choices without permission or a request?
"Chisapoyo…" Mikoto frowned at her reflection, barely visible as it was beneath all the bling on her crystal ball. Had she stolen Chisato's agency by meddling with her missing father?
"No, no." Mikoto shook her head, trying to purge that hateful thought. Chisato had asked for Mikoto's help, and it had all turned out for the best in the end…more or less…
"But only because…Kusuo…" Tears of frustration and shame burned her eyes. That whole situation had only worked out for the better because Kusuo had interfered, and he'd only interfered because Mikoto had forced his hand by looking into the future and seeing how he would react. If she hadn't seen him helping her, would she still have pushed Chisato as hard to reconnect with her father?
Shivering, Mikoto hugged herself. It wasn't her fault that had happened; she didn't know then what she did now! If something like that happened again, she would definitely…definitely…
Mikoto slumped in her chair, her hair draped over her crystal ball like a mystic curtain. If something like that were to happen again, Mikoto honestly couldn't say what she would do. Because there was a part of her—an ugly, selfish, greedy part—that wanted whatever attention Kusuo would deign to give her. Even if it meant manipulating his future to get it.
"…disgusting…" she murmured, her shoulders trembling with suppressed tears of self-loathing. "I'm so…disgusting…"
"Why are you muttering to yourself?"
Mikoto jumped at the sudden intrusion, though the familiar voice was far less forceful and self-confident than she'd become used to. Looking up from the crystal ball idling on the low tea table, Mikoto saw Yamato climb to her feet from where she'd been lounging on the other side of the room. She'd grown increasingly gaunt and pallid in the five days since Kusuo and the others had left, and no one had any idea as to why. When asked, Yamato would just shrug and say: "Just shoring up contingencies."
Groaning, Yamato lowered herself beside the table opposite Mikoto. It was time for their daily debriefing, not that Mikoto had anything substantial to report.
"See anything?" Yamato asked, cutting through the BS like always, though with decidedly less gusto than was her usual.
Mikoto shook her head. "Just those same two shadows." She frowned. "You said something about a Reborn?"
Yamato nodded, her chin propped up on a hand that barely looked sturdy enough to hold her up. "Natsu and I have been thinking about it, and we're pretty sure the reason you keep finding two people when you search for Akemi is because the other—the guy—is her Reborn self."
"But how is that, like, even possible? If this Akemi girl is still around, she's obviously not dead. How can someone get reincarnated if they're still alive?"
"Not reincarnated," Yamato said with a tiny shake of her head, "Reborn. There's a difference."
"What difference?"
Yamato nudged one shoulder up in a weak shrug. "Hard to explain." She was quiet for a moment, contemplating, before saying, "When a person is reincarnated, it's because they died and their ghost was sent back through the Wheel of Life after being judged. Despite what you all think, reincarnations are very rare, and they have to be handled very carefully. Usually, only the extremely valiant or heroic or honorable people are reincarnated because, at their core, their souls remember who and what they were, and that core of goodness guides them to deposit more goodness into the world."
"I don't really get it," Mikoto said, shrugging. "But if you, like, say so, I guess."
Yamato sighed, clearly too exhausted for such a cerebral exercise. "Okay, so, let's look at someone like…Socrates. Okay? Great thinker, great teacher, great spiritual leader, and whatever. He had a lot of major contributions to human philosophy that have crossed both time and space, meaning that, centuries later, his words are taught all over the world and not just in his native Greece. Someone like that can't help but change the world simply by existing, and because the changes he created were largely positive, there are other times in human history when such a person is needed to enact other great changes. Get it?"
"So…you're saying that, like, this Socrates guy has been reincarnated?"
"Multiple times," Yamato said. "Usually in the West, but once or twice in Asia. Actually, in his first reincarnation, he came back as Sun Tzu."
Mikoto blinked. "Like, for serious?"
Yamato nodded, her eyes drifting closed.
"Huh…" Mikoto shook her head, suddenly realizing she'd gotten off topic. "So, guys like that get reincarnated, or whatever. But what does that have to do with the Reborn?"
"Because Reborn don't pass through the Wheel of Life, they're not placed on the timeline chronologically. Lots of Reborn have existed on our Earth long before they were even born on the Other Earth. Sometimes, in a few cases we've seen, they even exist at the same time. It's not very common, but it does happen."
"So, you think this Akemi girl's Reborn is, what, one of those uncommon cases?"
"Best guess says yes," Yamato said. "But even the best guess is still a guess."
"Hm…" Mikoto tapped her fingernail against the glass of her ball. "Then, what if I look for her Reborn? Maybe he…she?"
"He," Yamato said. "All Reborn are male."
"Right, well, what if he can help us with his crazy girl-self?"
"You can look, but he's probably already here somewhere."
"Eh?"
Yamato shrugged again, her eyes still closed. "Not all the humans and demons who come here are Reborn, but most of the really powerful ones are. Jin, Touya, Suzuka…" she yawned, "…Rinku and Chuu. And, of course, your five guy friends. My dad and uncles. They're all Reborn."
"Huh…" Mikoto put a finger to her lips, and her eyes drifted to the ceiling as she thought. "It's like they're drawn together, or something. Like, clustering, I guess."
"From what I can tell, lots of Magical Girls tend to work in groups," Yamato said. "Maybe the ones who were closest find each other again on our Earth?" She shrugged. "Who can say? We've only identified past Reborn—ones whose Other selves were already long dead—and those, only within the last twenty years since we first leaned of Dark Reunion, so it's hard to say with any accuracy how Parallel Reborn behave."
"But, like, what about—"
Yamato jerked up straight, her hand flying out to stop Mikoto mid-sentence. Her eyes were wide, her chest heaving with exhausted gasps. A thin sheen of sweat broke out over her forehead, and her already pallid face went somehow paler.
"S-someone is…" She grunted and touched a hand to her temple. "Natsu! Someone is—!"
An explosion rocked the compound to its roots.
Kaliea: And so the penultimate battle begins. I have some crazy stuff planned, but be honest, you were expecting that ;)
