CHAPTER 4: Walk My Way
- | UPDATE IN PROGRESS |-
"Update in progress." Gamma's audio sensory system detected sounds coming from its vocal synthesizer again.
It did not know the reason why it would make such an utterance. All it was doing was verbalizing its own ongoing system status. Telling itself what it already knew. It was redundant.
"This patch will be the minor software tweaks I made after linking with Unit One Zero One's shell," The voice, Gamma's Master spoke. "They will enhance your targeting subsystem by four point zero nine three one percent."
- | UPDATE COMPLETE |-
"Update completed," It droned aloud, adding a past tense twist. It did not know why it would do that, either.
The electronic feedback its central processor received from speaking was somewhat vivifying. Could that have been the reason? Did it possess an innate drive to experience external stimuli? Did it need to constantly take in and process those impulses?
"This will be purely an exercise in measuring your target assessment capacity and response time," The voice commanded. "While the targets will be returning fire, it will only be as a means to highlight them as priority targets," It explained. "You will disable defensive and counter maneuver procedures. This exercise will be purely an offensive assessment."
"Yes, Master." The stimulation it caused was not a hindrance. So Gamma chose not to turn it off like it did with its defensive and counter protocols. Of course, if its Master had ordered it to do so, it would have complied. It was, after all, still bound to the whims of its creator.
"And reduce the energy output of your weapon by seventy eight point four one percent," It instructed. "That should help mitigate the overheating issue in your arm's main gun barrel."
"Yes, Master," Gamma complied.
"The target range has been reconfigured and is ready," Its Master's voice said. "Take point." It visually pointed at a spot behind Unit One Zero One's back.
- | COMBAT MODE ENGAGED |-
A new feature courtesy of Gamma's last software update. It could sense the electrical energy divert from its redundant safety systems to its offensive mechanisms. Its auditory systems heard the whirring and clicking of its internal servos and motors as it took its position and readied its visual sensors. It was quite the enthralling new experience.
"Begin simulation," The voice instructed.
- | TARGET 1 |-
- | RANGE: 18.379 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-
With an automatic precision Gamma directed its weapon at the mannequin target and fired. One faux foe down.
- | ACQUIRING TARGETS |-
From one soon spawned two.
- | TARGET 2 |-
- | RANGE: 21.386 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 3.439 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 3 |-
- | RANGE: 19.095 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.139 METERS PER SECOND |-
The third dummy target was closer, moving faster Gamma had detected the presence of a laser armament. This logically made it the priority target.
"Too, slow," At the periphery of Gamma's wide-ranging view it saw an outstretched arm train its gun on the third target and neutralize it. Gamma's response was to lock onto the second target instead. It took aim, fired and defeated the second target. It only took Gamma zero point zero six two nine seconds to follow through. Practically no time at all, but within Gamma's mechanical mind arose the conclusion that its master was in actuality measuring the way Gamma would reprioritize targets if circumstances prevented it from engaging the primary one.
- | TARGET 4 |-
- | RANGE: 20.318 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 4.607 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 5 |-
- | RANGE: 23.259 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 4.999 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 6 |-
- | RANGE: 18.842 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.017 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 7 |-
- | RANGE: 19.918 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 4.002 METERS PER SECOND |-
From two cropped up four more. The fifth target was not armed, thus it automatically was designated the lowest-priority target. The sixth target was the closest and moving the fastest, but its pattern of movement indicated that it would have only an eighteen point two one seven percent chance of hitting Gamma once it reached its point of attack. Target Seven, on the other hand, was the next closest, and moving at both a vector and pace more deliberate and well-positioned for a successful shot. Target Four was the last in line, and was mere nanoseconds from becoming a threat equal to the statistical one Target Seven posed.
The exact moment Target Seven reached the optimal location for counterattack, Gamma locked on and fired. The target was neutralized. Target Four, those same pre-calculated nanoseconds later, made it within range. Using the recoil as a means to bump its view over to the next target, Gamma steadied its arm and fired. Target Four was eliminated. As anticipated, Target Six missed its first shot, making it all too easy for Gamma to take it down with a counterblow.
"Very good differential targeting logic," Its Master took the liberty of annihilating the unarmed final target. "Next."
- | TARGET 8 |-
- | RANGE: 22.449 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.180 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 9 |-
- | RANGE: 23.109 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.297 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 10 |-
- | RANGE: 24.305 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.001 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 11 |-
- | RANGE: 20.903 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.078 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 12 |-
- | RANGE: 18.931 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 4.934 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 13 |-
- | RANGE: 17.482 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.507 METERS PER SECOND |-
Now Gamma had six targets to evaluate. Every single target was armed this time, marking them all as priority. The thirteenth target was the closest, but was actively moving away from Gamma's position, with Target Eleven going in a vector that would shortly match the two together in tandem. Target Twelve was the closest and slowest, marking it as the ideal target of first engagement. Without first accounting for the other three targets Gamma pointed its weapon and fired it at Target Twelve, hitting squarely in the center mass point and knocking it limp.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Target Eight was the culprit. Gamma angled its body to a lower and less susceptible position and returned fire twice, missing it the first time and only partially connecting on the second.
"I warned that you were going to take a few licks," Its Master, meanwhile, was busy engaging its own practice targets. "Do not lose face, allow your tactical learning algorithm to do as it was programmed to and analyze the data." Targets Eleven and Thirteen had come together in their retreat and were now collectively moving closer to initiate their tandem attack. Targets Nine and Ten were themselves about to engage Gamma. With four choices now at an equidistant range Gamma made its decision and fired its weapon at Nine, striking it well enough to classify it as neutralized.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
That decision gave Ten its opportunity to open fire, with the other two targets not yet ready and Target Eight still reeling, Gamma chose to next engage the target that attacked it. Gamma again opened fire twice, smacking Target Ten first in the lower section of its mannequin body then smacking it directly in the center.
"Delete," Gamma sensed the electrical surge that emanated from its synthesized utterance. It was a tactile input that was most animating.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Targets Eleven and Thirteen had launched their assault, hitting Gamma twice. The electronic stimulation it received from its external damage sensors was not unlike the kick it received from utilizing its vocal synthesizer. Had it been so inclined, it might have deliberately allowed its targets to hit it again. But that was not the purpose of the simulation, nor was its software tailored for such an allowance. So again Gamma countered, disposing first of Target Thirteen in one shot and taking two to be rid of Target Eleven. That only left Target Eight, the first to successfully land a blow on Gamma.
"Delete," Gamma spoke as it fired upon its final target, but to its curiosity, the target had dodged its projectile and had instigated a counter of its own.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
"Delete," Gamma vocalized again while it fired. This time Target Eight was not so lucky.
"I never could manage to expunge that word from our operating base code," Its Master was making short work of two dummy targets charging its way. "It seems to be hard-wired into the way we function. From all the diagnostic data I've compiled, saying it aloud would appear to trigger a quick release of dopamine which in turn causes a nominal spike in our reaction time." Its Master had locked onto the final target of this wave, and opened fire. "Which is all a rather clinical way to say, it is like our catchphrase. I confess I enjoy speaking it aloud, too. Just sharing that between us friends. De-lete."
- | TARGET 14 |-
- | RANGE: 19.740 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 4.698 METERS PER SECOND |-
But there was no time to ponder the nature of its Master's comment. The next training round was commencing.
- | TARGET 15 |-
- | RANGE: 18.721 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.055 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 16 |-
- | RANGE: 21.216 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 6.100 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 17 |-
- | RANGE: 22.911 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 3.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 18 |-
- | RANGE: 23.039 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.858 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 19 |-
- | RANGE: 20.772 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 4.829 METERS PER SECOND |-
- | TARGET 20 |-
- | RANGE: 17.238 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 6.123 METERS PER SECOND |-
Gamma went right to business analyzing and engaging its new targets. Target Twenty was the closest and moving towards it the fastest, making the decision to deal with it first the easiest. Target Fifteen came next, though it took two shots to bring it down for good. As Target Fifteen went down, Target Fourteen opened fire.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
"Delete," Gamma fired at Fourteen at almost the same moment. The simultaneous electronic jolt of both the damage input and its vocal mechanism was quite the new sensation.
Target Nineteen's turn was next, but it took an extra split-second to corroborate with Sixteen and launch another tandem assault. This time around Gamma reacted much quicker, opting for a melee barrage of projectiles that carved the poor dummies to bits.
"De-lete," Gamma chirped as smoke bellowed forth from its main gun barrel.
- | GUN BARREL TEMPERATURE: 196.387 CELSIUS |-
- | TEMPERATURE WITHIN TOLERANCE RANGE |-
- | INITIATING COOLDOWN PROTOCOLS |-
With two foes left to go, its weapon was on the cusp of overheating, in spite of its Master's suggested adjustment. Target Eighteen charged forth, its velocity nearly doubling in a matter of zero point six eight seconds.
"Delete," Gamma's voice crackled, unleashing another barrage that overwhelmed its target. That only left Target Seventeen, a dummy that Gamma had already analyzed and concluded to be functionally a non-threat. It was still farther away, moving slowly and it hadn't even positioned its mock weapon to fire yet. This allowed Gamma to take an extra three point four one six seconds to allow its main weapon to cool down to a more stable temperate, although the ambient heat was instilling Gamma with yet another rush of captivating stimuli.
"De-" Gamma paused once its sensors noticed something odd about Target Seventeen's behavior.
- | TARGET RESCAN |-
- | TARGET 17 |-
- | RANGE: 20.283 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 0.027 METERS PER SECOND |-
It was still getting closer but it was slowing down, and its appendages were jerking around in erratic ways, twitching up and down and back and forth as if it were suffering from a malfunction.
"Target reacquired," Gamma said as it trained its weapon and prepared to fire. "De-"
Suddenly the metallic mannequin sprouted two new appendages, and it somehow launched itself high into the air.
- | TARGET LOST |-
Gamma had to arc its whole upper chassis to such a steep angle that almost tipped itself over a third time.
- | TARGET RESCAN |-
- | TARGET 17 |-
- | RANGE: 42.337 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 39.473 METERS PER SECOND |-
Now it was careening straight at Gamma at a speed so fast that the machine had scarcely a moment remaining to lock on and fire before there was going to be a collision.
"De-" The next sound to register on Gamma's sensors was the clanging thud of its body hitting the floor. But the cause was not due to an impact from the dummy. It detected contact with something positioned behind it.
"Delete," It heard its counterpart, Unit One Zero One speak. "Target Delete," It fired its weapon a second time. "De-lete. De-lete. De-lete." It fired three more explosive bursts that mortally wounded the airborne object. Gamma rolled back over and picked itself up off the floor, before taking another opportunity to visually examine the remains of the thing.
"That flying target was a more experimental model," Its Master drew Gamma's attention back towards itself inside Unit One Zero One. "The intended trajectory of its charge was a collision with this Unit." That did not track with Gamma's analysis, but it was possible that its data was incomplete. Unit One Zero One was fitted with more advanced targeting software, so its Master was more than likely in a position to know better. "Trial simulation complete," It declared. "You are ready to face the next step in your combat training," It took several steps forward before making a big, sweeping one hundred and eighty degree turn. "Which is to say, you will now spar with this unit in a live-fire combat test."
"Yes, Master," Gamma acknowledged.
"But before we begin, download the software patch designated file zero one seven four two eight."
"Update in progress," Gamma complied. "Update completed." It was a further tweak to its targeting system.
"I shall also temporarily disable the communications interlink between us," Gamma sensed a minor jolt in one of its sensory antennae. "It would after all be unfair for me to know everything you are thinking while we engage."
- | CYBER METANEXUS LINK DISABLED |-
"Now then, proceed to your designated starting position," It commanded. Gamma complied, taking several steps across the vast training room. "On the count of three. One. Two," Its master gave a curious, long pause that lasted several times longer than a chronological second. "Three."
- | TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-
- | RANGE: 25.000 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
Gamma opened with a projectile volley targeted at Beta's lower appendages. Beta avoided them with a sideways strafing maneuver, then it countered with a wide-ranging barrage of its own. "You recalled my words regarding the advantage you possess in maneuverability over this unit, and your strategy is to widen that gap by first damaging my legs. A most logical opening gambit," Its master succinctly assessed through verbal communication. Gamma hustled its way out of the heaviest of the torrent.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Gamma sensed a modest temperature increase on the back side of its upper right appendage. Although it was successful in avoiding the brunt of its opponent's assault, one of the blows did succeed in grazing it.
- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: NEGLIGIBLE |-
Gamma ignored the damage and took off in a full speed run around the training area. Its opponent was but a step behind with its next salvo of heavy gunfire, each blast rattling against the wall behind Gamma. Beta then adjusted its tactics to aim at where it calculated Gamma was going to be next.
But that was playing precisely into Gamma's ploy. In the zero point three five second interval between the projectile flashes behind it and the ones exploding before it, Gamma juked out of the firing line and made a charge run towards Beta. It returned fire, striking its target three times smack in the middle of its body. A successful engagement, but the offensive failed to achieve its primary goal of obtaining maneuvering supremacy.
"Hmm," Its counterpart buzzed. "Quite the demonstration of your tactical adaptability," It brushed off its minor licks and retook the initiative by giving it to Gamma with both barrels. "We shall see how you adjust to a more concentrated bombardment."
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Gamma's forward momentum was abruptly blunted by the force of Beta's blows. It reeled around and retreated while its damage detection software evaluated its overall condition.
- | UPPER CHASSIS HAIRLINE ARMOR FRACTURE |-
- | MIDDLE CHASSIS SECOND LAYER EXPOSURE |-
- | LEFT SHOULDER SOCKET JOINT DISLOCATION |-
- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: SIGNIFICANT |-
- | REROUTING POWER |-
The combination of heat and electronic stimulation induced by Gamma's injuries was quite the new experience for the young Unit, though it lacked the capacity to both process and understand the full extent of it while the battle was still raging.
Gamma knew that the only chance it stood of prevailing was to find a way to immobilize its foe. But it could not retreat and wait for an opportunity to present itself. As it strategized it zigzagged around the arena, dodging Beta's blitz of projectile file, but it knew it could not keep this evasion tactic for long.
"Your lack of extensive combat experience is obvious," Its opponent boomed. Beta went into pursuit, Gamma whipped its body around and tried to fire back. "I have now deduced the overall pattern to your movements." Beta dodged each shot with little effort.
Its Master was correct: It was one thing to defeat a series of unarmed dummy targets on an obstacle course, quite another to oppose an intelligent threat with superior fire power. It was one hour and sixteen minutes old, the only experience it had to distinguish itself from its counterpart on a software level were the two instances where it angled its body too far in one direction and fell to the floor.
"At the rate this combat scenario is proceeding, I will achieve victory in forty-eight seconds," Its Master warned. It launched a half dozen projectiles, barely scraping Gamma's main body as it arched its back over so far it neared the angle where it once toppled over backwards.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-
- | TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-
- | RANGE: 17.400 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 6.298 METERS PER SECOND |-
Gamma quickly locked back on to its target. It had to do something, and fast. But the only three files formative enough within Gamma's memory banks were its first time falling over, the big leap it took when it cleared the chasm in the obstacle course, and that stray dummy target's sudden ballistic trajectory. What possible strategy could be devised from such a limited pool of data?
"You had but a one percent chance of prevailing anyway. You might as well accept the inevitable and allow this combat exercise to conclude." Its Master's voice recommended as it chased Gamma down.
Its own logic core also insisted as much, but Gamma would not concede. What could have been the driving force behind this inner resilience? The answer it did not know, nor was it in its programming to consider. But whatever it was, presented Gamma with this last-ditch offensive opportunity, one devised from a combination of those two previous looping experiences.
In a span of just under zero point two seven seconds, Gamma went from a steady retreat to a furious charge, gunning towards Beta in a jolt of sudden acceleration.
"I must question this tactic of yours," Beta unleashed a battery of heavy gunfire on its prey.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: DAMAGE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM DISABLED |-
Gamma ignored the hits, outstretched its gunning right arm and hunched its body lower and lower and lower until it leapt horizontally to the air, landed on the floor with a resounding clanging thud, and skidded across the training area in a chaotic symphony grinding metal sounds and electronic circuit sparks.
- | TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-
- | RANGE: 1.058 METERS |-
- | VELOCITY: 5.921 METERS PER SECOND |-
By the time Beta recognized what Gamma was attempting it was too late to stop its inertia and much too late to get out of its way. Gamma repeatedly fired its main weapon at its opponent with such overwhelming force that it penetrated through its outer layer of armor. Then it collided directly into both its lower appendages, sending it toppling over forward in a big flip.
- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-
- | UPPER CHASSIS FIRST LAIR ARMOR FRACTURED |-
- | MIDDLE CHASSIS SECONDARY ARMOR LAYER EXPOSED |-
- | MAIN WEAPON APPROACHING MAXIMUM TOLERANCE TEMPERATURE |-
- | CRANIAL ARMOR COMPROMISED |-
- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: HIGH |-
- | INITIATING SELF REPAIR PROTOCOLS |-
But from what Gamma could visually glean from its counterpart as they both laid crippled on that scuffed metal floor, it appeared to be in just as roughened up of a shape. After several seconds Gamma gradually picked its body up, the apparent victor of this duel.
"Hmmmmm," Its Master's voice warbled with an echoing distortion. "What your strategy lacked in logic it compensated for in effectiveness. Very well. It seems that in order to continue this engagement I shall have to take the proverbial kid gloves off." With a loud, reverberating bang Beta's lower appendages snapped off its main body, and it took to hovering in the air. Gamma's audio sensors detected the loud, whirring roar of a jet engine. "I will allow your self-repair systems to restore you to combat condition, But rest assured, your sparring session with Unit One Zero One is not yet over, Unit One Zero Two."
"So I noticed how Walpurgisnacht would flip its whole body around whenever it attacked." The group was over half way to the grocery store, and Tsuruno hadn't even broached the meetings in Mitakihara. Instead, she had gotten sidetracked by Felicia and was regaling her with the tale of how she and Momoko helped the magical girls of Mitakihara defeat Walpurgisnacht. "And that's when I figured out that its real weak point were the big, spinning gears on the top part of its body!"
"And then what happened?" The young magical girl was all too eager to learn how such a massive monstrosity could've been handled by just over a dozen girls who had met mere moments before making their stand.
"We lured it away to a spot way away from any civilians," Tsuruno detailed. "And we all combined our powers together into one big, super mighty attack that cracked its main gear up, which broke all the rest, and just like that…" Tsuruno paused. "Walpurgisnacht was finished! Yup-yup!"
"Woooooow!" Felicia exclaimed.
"I do still regret not being there to assist during the crisis," Yachiyo chimed. It was hardly the first time she'd heard Tsuruno retell the story of her exploits on that eventful day, but it sure beat playing Tsuruno's guidance counselor. "Sorry."
"Naw, I get you couldn't help not being there," Tsuruno said. "What, with your modeling career taking you to all sorts of places around the world." In actuality, Yachiyo's planned flight overseas had to be canceled due to inclement weather, which turned out to be a herald of Walpurgisnacht.
"Yes," Yachiyo sighed. Instead, she used the scheduling change as a chance to follow up on a potential lead she'd received on Mifuyu's last known whereabouts. A lead that sent her on yet another wild goose chase. And to rub in the salt, it meant that she'd learned about all the ruckus in Mitakihara from everyone else long after the fact.
"So how did you guys combine everybody's powers into one?" Felicia asked.
"Us experienced magical girls have this super secret awesome technique that lets us mix our magic together and use it to unleash even mightier attacks," Tsuruno answered. Felicia's head and eyes tilted back towards Yachiyo.
"It's not really a huge secret, nor does it require that a magical girl to have much prior experience," Yachiyo corrected Tsuruno's explanation. "And it's not so much a technique as it is a sort of telepathic bonding. In which the hearts and wills of magical girls come together and transform their thoughts into power."
"So yer gonna teach me how to do it, or what?" They reached a red light at a crosswalk.
"If I knew of a safe, effective method to make it work all the time, I would teach you," Yachiyo replied. "But I don't."
"Hmph," The flippant Felicia snorted. "Some teacher."
"Hey, now! Watch that tone!" Tsuruno warned. "Master Yachiyo is such a natural magical girl that she pulled the technique off once with me… When she wasn't even tryin' to!"
"Rrrrrrreally?" The crosswalk light turned green.
"It was quite a long time ago, back when Tsuruno was much wetter and looking to stake her reputation in town by posing as a serial duelist and weighing her skills against whatever poor magical girl happened to pass under her nose." Yachiyo explained.
"I wasn't posing!" Tsuruno clarified. "Honor comes from strength. Strength comes from practice. Practice I'd been getting by challenging other girls to one-on-one battles!"
"Whatever you were doing, it was bound to lead you into serious trouble sooner or later," Yachiyo recounted. "Luckily, word about you soon found its way to Momoko and I."
"Maaaaaaaan," Tsuruno recounted. "You really cleaned my clock once I challenged you, too! What was it? Six matches? Or was it seven? I'm almost embarrassed by how green I was in those days!"
"Whatever the number was, you were still a pretty formidable force to contend with," Yachiyo consoled. "I only prevailed because I was able to turn your own explosive momentum against you." They stopped for a moment and watched a group of kids in the park that were playing tetherball.
"Boring," Felicia moaned. "When's the good part gonna happen?"
"Be patient," Yachiyo patted the two girls along. "Just listen."
"Anyway, I was so upset over losing that I ran off in a trail of dust!" Tsuruno continued.
"More like, you ran off in a trail of dust in tears, is what happened," Yachiyo detailed, eliciting a mortified blush from Tsuruno's cheeks. "That's how I realized that I'd wounded more than just your pride."
"I was so dang upset with myself that as soon as I could, I set up shop in an abandoned parking garage and put myself through the mightiest, most intense-st training session I've ever done!" She pumped her fist like a basketball player after netting a three-pointer. "I was trying my hardest to copy every single one of the tricks Master Yachiyo pulled on me the day before," She elaborated. "There was one in particular that I was tryin' my darndest to pull off, one where she fooled me with this real lifelike illusionary twin made of magic!" Tsuruno's eyes went wide with both admiration and envy. "And wouldn't you know it… After hours and hours of concentration… Suddenly I found myself face-to-face with a girl who looked, sounded and acted exactly like me!"
"Wooooooow!" Felicia oohed. "You gonna teach me that?"
"That's one technique that does take years worth of training and refinement to pull off," Yachiyo informed. "And it helps a lot to be acquainted with a magical girl whose natural talent is to craft illusions, as I was," She sighed. "As for Tsuruno's little doppel, weeeellll-"
"It turned out the thing was all the ruse of a witch!" Tsuruno interrupted. "It had these familiars with copycat powers. Never seen anything like it 'til then, so I had no clue its magic wasn't mine right up to the moment it knocked me cold and dragged me into its home labyrinth!"
"Haaaaa! Felicia guffawed. "I'd never fall for any tricks like that!" Tsuruno and Yachiyo both exchanged brief, unbelieving glances.
"Lucky for Tsuruno," Yachiyo went on. "I felt sorry enough about the duel that I set out to find her, looking to apologize," She recounted. "That's when I too found myself face-to-face with Tsuruno's clone. It had already pulled a fast one on Momoko, and was looking to do the same thing to me," Yachiyo paused. "But I could sense that something was up. Even if Tsuruno and I had only just met the day before, I could tell by looking at it that it wasn't at all what it claimed to be. But I played along long enough that it brought me into its master's lair, whereupon I came to see before me at least a dozen other Tsurunos."
"Aww, geeeez!" Felicia gasped.
"There were Tsurunos battling familiars, Tsurunos hard at work training, even Tsurunos dueling with other Tsurunos," Yachiyo described. "Like each of them was trying to one-up the other in an attempt to prove they were the real one. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen up until then."
"So how'd ya' figure out which was the real one?"
"Oh! Can I tell the rest of it?" Tsuruno asked. Yachiyo gave an affirmative nod. "Once I came to I looked around and saw all those 'me's tryin' to out 'me' me. I was so way beyond confused! I was so confused and upset that I wasn't even sure that I was the real 'me' anymore, 'til I remembered something Master Yachiyo told me earlier, right before I ran off in a huff."
"What was it?"
"That magical girls shouldn't be fighting other magical girls, that at the end of the day we were all on the same side, that our ultimate enemy was witches," Tsuruno narrated. "So I ignored all the copycats and searched the labyrinth for the ringleader at the center of that whole circus."
"In other words," Yachiyo briefly took over. "The real Tsuruno was the only Tsuruno who was trying to do the right thing in that circumstance."
"Yup yup!" Tsuruno affirmed. "So once I found it and tried to take it down, suddenly all those 'me's pretending finally showed their true colors and came at me all at once… That's when Master Yachiyo found me!"
"And that's when it happened?" Felicia guessed. "The thing?"
"Yup yup!" Tsuruno confirmed. "They were trying to stop me by doing this big dogpile blitz on top of me, and that's when Master Yachiyo's hand reached out and grabbed mine," She said. "A big flash and a second later, all the copies had perished in flames and it was like we were both floating on air together, from there we had that witch dead to rights in front of us!"
"I believe what my little token gesture of assistance really did was greatly amplify the effects of her Hail Mary blast," Yachiyo added.
"You don't make it sound that hard at all!" Felicia commented.
"If done correctly, it can serve as quite the trump card in battle," Yachiyo explained. "But far too often, at least the cases that I've learned about afterward, it's done wrong. Which can result in some rather unpleasant… Side effects."
"Like what?"
"Well, think about it." Yachiyo suggested. "When it's done it's not just a method of combining magic. It's hearts opening up to one another, a bearing of one's whole soul to whomever they're connected to." They reached a freeway overpass and watched the fast but delicate weaving of all the cars, cabs, vans and tractor trailer trucks moving and passing by one another. "Do you want somebody potentially learning of your meanest thoughts, your darkest fears, or all your most persistent doubts about yourself?"
"Nope!" Felicia shouted. "No way! Nah-uh!"
"Exactly!" Yachiyo concurred. "Indeed the one person I know whose specialty was enabling and facilitating the practice, had to retire from doing it because it forced her to gaze deep into the abyss of peoples' souls and she didn't like the things she was seeing. Got so that no amount of dough was enough for her to even try."
"Oh," Felicia muttered and looked away with a grimace. "Her."
"Master Yachiyo and I were real lucky though." Tsuruno continued. "It only lasted for like a quick second or two, so I saw that Master Yachiyo had a lot of years worth of experience ahead of me," She described. "And I realized that if I was ever gonna become the mightiest, I was going to have to learn whatever she could teach me first."
"Huh," Felicia turned back toward Yachiyo. "So what'd you see?"
"I saw…" Yachiyo paused, taking immediate notice of Tsuruno's piqued interest as well. She had never revealed what she had seen of Tsuruno in that moment they had together, Tsuruno had never asked. Presumably the reason was because Tsuruno believed Yachiyo had seen only that superficial sunny side of her personality, and nothing below the surface. "That underneath all that power, bluster and bravado she demonstrated in our duel was just a kind, caring normal girl who was trying to do her best in this world. And what she needed more than anything first was a friend who'd help bring out that best." So she gave her that surface version she expected to hear.
"So when Walpurgisnacht loomed large," Tsuruno circled the topic back around, her curiosity sated by Yachiyo's pleasant words. "I stepped right up and offered the experience I had with Yachiyo that we needed to use to power our way to victory!"
"I have to say I am quite impressed that the technique managed to be accomplished between so many girls," Yachiyo opined. "Makes me think that Mami Tomoe in Mitakihara must truly be a transcendent magical girl in order to be able pull off such an astounding feat while fighting in the shadow of Walpurgisnacht!"
"Yeah," Tsuruno agreed, though not in a tone as vociferous as the one Yachiyo expected. "She sure is something else."
"You don't agree?" Yachiyo perked her ear out.
"No, it's not that," Tsuruno clarified. "She's strong and everything… And she's super nice… And plus she's the only person keeping Konoha and Nanaka away from each others' throats." She hesitated. "But I don't think she was the one who really helped us all connect with one another that day."
"You don't?" Yachiyo pressed. "Hmm... So who do you believe to be the one responsible?"
"I don't know," Tsuruno admitted. "All I can say is that I also heard this voice in the back of my mind when it happened," She uttered in a hushed, almost somber tone. "It was a voice that wasn't mine. A voice that I have never heard before and I haven't heard since."
"A voice?" Yachiyo questioned.
"Who's voice?" Even Felicia was interested to hear.
"I dunno," Tsuruno sighed. "All I heard was this calm, caring and sweet little voice that told me that everything was going to be okay. That my soul was a beautiful thing and that my hope would last far beyond the karmic bonds of this world… Or something like that?"
Yachiyo's gaze drifted up into the deep blue sky above. "Interesting. Has anyone else from that day told you they heard a similar voice?"
"No," Tsuruno replied. "But I haven't spoken about it to anybody but you. I didn't want people thinking I was nuts."
"Maybe you are nuts," Felicia suggested, in a not-entirely facetious way.
"Felicia, please," Yachiyo waved her button-pressing words away with a small gesture. "It's not crazy at all to craft an encouraging voice in one's own mind whenever we face a moment of great crisis. Especially in those darkest periods when our own voices try to doubt our confidence," She stepped ahead and gave Tsuruno a gentle pat on her shoulder. "I suffer those nights all the time. And I swear, whenever it happens, I can hear the voices of Mel and Kanae telling me to rise above, carry on and take each new dawn as it comes."
"Awwwwww," Tsuruno smiled.
"Yeeeeeeesh!" Felicia, on the other hand, could only roll her eyes and grumble. It was such a hokey thing for her to say, such an embarrassing thing for her to have to hear. It was making her stomach twist and churn into knots. Or maybe it was Banbanzai's food? No… In an instant she realized the culprit wasn't either of those. There was a distinctive miasma permeating the air. It was weak, but it was unmistakably there. Like a dead animal's corpse its rotting stench wafted beyond where it lay, making contact with Felicia's keen young magical senses. There was no doubt in her mind over the cause: There was a witch somewhere around this part of town.
"Damn it." Yachiyo exclaimed. "So much for the big Triple Points Value sale today." She could see the growing look of discontentment that was plain on Felicia's face. "Oh? So you sensed it too? That's actually impressive."
"Notice?" Tsuruno turned and stared at them both in puzzlement. "Notice what?"
"There's a witch somewhere close," Yachiyo informed her comrade.
"Whaaaaaat?" In a hurry Tsuruno took out her Soul Gem and stuck it square in the air. It wasn't pinging anything.
"Well I guess proximity is a relative thing, in this case," Yachiyo added. "Either it's in a very weak state, or it's hiding in a spot so isolated only the most finely-tuned Soul Gem can pick up on its magic." Whatever the case was, they could both plainly see that the young lady between them was just aching to ditch their grocery errand and charge headlong into the fight.
"Master Yachiyo," Tsuruno beseeched. "Why don't you go take care of your shopping and let me watch over Felicia?"
"That's a generous offer Tsuruno, but," Yachiyo felt obligated to decline. "I volunteered to take responsibility for her. It wouldn't be appropriate to delegate the task to someone else so soon, and on our first witch hunt, no less."
"Fine, yeah fine," Tsuruno acquiesced. They could all hear the catchy jingle of the store's advertising theme bopping out its doors. They came all this way, it didn't seem fair to Tsuruno that Yachiyo was going to have to miss out on her sale just because a witch was so inconsiderate and Felicia so troublesome.
Yachiyo had an alternate idea, one so obvious she was certain Tsuruno had already thought of it first herself, but she figured was resistant to it for a perfectly understandable reason. "How about I leave you to do the shopping while Felicia and I hunt down the witch."
"Nope!" Tsuruno rejected the idea as expected. "You need me to be there in case something bad happens!" For the reason she expected.
"Tsuruno, look," Yachiyo approached her and laid both her hands reassuringly on her tensed shoulders. "I know what you fear most is a repeat of what happened to Kanae and Mel. But I assure you," She leaned in closer and whispered into her ear. "I don't have any real intention of fighting the witch. What I would like to do is first gauge this girl's tracking ability. If the witch moves to anywhere beyond the point she can track it, then that'll be that. But in the event she does manage to bring us somewhere close to where it hides, then I'll call in a favor to one of the other magical girl groups and let them take care of the situation, well before she gets the chance to put us in any danger."
"Promise?" Tsuruno whispered back.
"We will be alright, I assure you." She reached into her purse and pulled out a two page stapled grocery list. "Here's what you've gotta buy. Now please hurry, the sales will only last for another hour or so."
"Okie dokie then, Yachiyo," Tsuruno gave a courageous salute while studying the list. "Mayonnaise, relish, tuna, pasta, beans, flour… Gee, these are awfully vague and generic!" She observed.
"That's because I don't have any particular brand loyalty," Yachiyo pointed to one of the last items on the list. "Except for that cereal. They're for Yuma. It has to be that brand."
"Ehhhhhh... 'Kyouko Puffs'?"
"Yes," Yachiyo said. "Yuma is absolutely cuckoo for those."
"Guuuuuuyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Homura and Sayaka heard a loud, disquieting wail fly past their ears as they walked down the last block. Its apparent source was coming from inside Madoka's house.
"Madoka!" Homura started running.
"Kyoko!" To Sayaka that raspy cry was all-too familiar.
"Bwaaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaaaaaa!" A bellowing laughter came through the front doorway once they approached it.
"Sayaka," In an urgent rush Homura broke towards the door "You go fin- Unnnnnggf!" The door struck her square in the face and knocked her to the side.
"Waaaaaaaahhhh!" Kyoko came running outside, her hands covering her face.
"Kyoko!" Sayaka called out to her. "Hey, Kyokoooo!"
"Horrrrrrible!" Kyoko grunted. "Just horrrrrrrible!" She repeated with a level of disgust that made Sayaka think her friend was on the brink of blowing chunks.
"Kyoko, pleeeease come back inside!" Madoka called out from inside. She did not sound like she was in any imminent peril, to both the alleviation and confusion of the two at the door.
"Ooooooooops," A second voice came over to the doorway. "Sorry about that. My fault. I couldn't help but laugh." It belonged to a third person the two had seen countless times before, Junko Kaname. "Guess I shouldn't have embarrassed her like that."
"Embarrassed?" Sayaka questioned. "Kyoko," She strolled up to her friend at the end of the walkway. "What did they do to you?"
"Are you okay?" Junko, meanwhile, was tending to the injured Homura.
"I'm fine!" Homura insisted. "It's fine!"
"Sayaka," Kyoko whimpered. "How could they do this to me?"
"What did they do?"
"Don't they know I've got a rep to keep up?" In a slow, deliberate manner Sayaka tried to pry Kyoko's hands away from her face.
"You don't look fine," Junko lent her a hand in getting up from the tiled pavement walkway. "You look like you've got a pretty nasty lump on the head right there."
"We've still got to work on styling your hair!" Madoka had at last made her way to the front door. That's when she noticed Homura and her mother nursing the injury to both her forehead and her pride. "Homura? Are you okay?"
"I'm cuuuuuuuuuuute!" Kyoko blared from across the lawn. She had finally let Sayaka pull her hands far enough away from her face to see. Madoka had done a real number on Kyoko's face. Her eyes were highlighted by a complimentary shade of turquoise eyeshadow. Her cheeks were as red as Santa Claus's, Madoka had even added a little glitter to give them a bright beaming glow to match. Her lips were puffed and glossed with a cherry shade of lipstick. Her usually unkempt eyebrows had been plucked, trimmed and groomed straight. Even all the little bumps and imperfections on her nose and under her nostrils had been covered over. Overall she was unmistakably still Kyoko, but now she was a full one hundred and eighty degree turn from the person who put so little effort into beauty and self-care that she made Sayaka look and feel like an excessive primp and preener by comparison. "Why didn't you ever tell me I looked like this?"
"Gee," Sayaka answered. "I thought you… Already knew?"
"Madoka, would you go into the fridge and grab the cold pack from the freezer?" Junko requested.
"Okay," Madoka trotted back inside.
"Really, you two don't have to trouble yourselves, I-" Homura noticed the bump in her reflection. "Damn."
"Are you gonna be okay over there?" Sayaka then took stock of Homura's condition.
"I wish everyone would stop asking me that," Homura responded. Madoka came back with the cold pack. "Thank you." Homura graciously took it. "I'll be okay. I've endured worse."
"I was practicing different makeup styles and combinations on Kyoko," Madoka explained. "If I found a look that she liked, then we'd do it again once we go out this weekend."
"And I was helping out," Junko added. "By that I mean, mostly fetching them drinks and snacks and offering up some perfume samples from my collection." She spoke while she checked on the physical state of her front door. "Man, that was a pretty hard hit."
"Do you wanna try on some makeup too, Sayaka?" Madoka went and asked her longtime friend.
"Uhhhh… Maybe next time. Thanks." Sayaka replied. "I'm already havin' plenty enough fun over here, seeing Kyoko sparklin' and poutin' like a runway model." Kyoko gave her a quick raspberry in return.
"I said I'll be alright." Homura turned down Junko's next offering of aid, a hand to help her make it inside.
"I'm just making sure that it didn't give you any major head trauma," Junko assured her. "Maybe you'd like to sit in the kitchen and have a few drinks with me instead?" She suggested.
"Thanks, but I'd rather go be wi-"
"Oooooooooooh, no you don't!" Kyoko blared with a boisterous scream directed at Sayaka.
"C'moooooooon!" Sayaka pleaded. "Let me just get one picture." She had her phone in hand, and was wrestling with Kyoko over control of it.
"Ughhh," Homura groaned. Hearing the two bicker so loud was like placing her head in a vice grip, no tonic for her already achy head.
"But I've still got to finish your hair," Madoka broke up their little spar by taking Kyoko by the arm and pulling her back inside the house.
"Gotta say, I'm really amazed, Madoka!" Sayaka complimented. "Who knew she could get as shiny a brand new figma toy?" The three of them strode past Homura and Junko on their way up the stairs. "You've got a real knack for this!"
"Think yer somethin' smart, just wait 'til yer asleep and I get the magic marker," the two downstairs overheard Kyoko mutter as she passed.
"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer after all," Homura relented. Even a little time with Madoka wasn't worth the trade-off of putting up with Kyoko and Sayaka's antics, at least not while that bruise on her head was still fresh.
"You're home rather early," Homura observed as she held the cold pack to her head with one hand and pulled out a seat at the kitchen table with the other.
"No," Junko amended. "I'm home at the time I should be." She opened the refrigerator door and pulled out several large containers. "I didn't go out drinking with my coworkers after work today." She poured what appeared to be alcohol into a large glass. "That's what's usually been keeping me out so late after dark."
"Ah," Homura nodded. Junko poured an identical-seeming liquid into another glass. "I see. Does that happen to be an activity that you particularly enjoy?"
"The drinking? Has its perks," Junko next took out an ice tray from the freezer and broke off a few cubes. "The forced fraternization and testosterone-laced interpersonal posturing and constant corporate gamesmanship?" She plunked them down into the liquids. "Not so much."
"Hmmm," Homura mulled over it for a moment. "Sounds like an exhausting routine."
"You're not wrong about that." Junko came over, pulled out her chair and slid Homura's drink over as smoothly as if she were a trained bartender.
"That doesn't sound like a career I would be able to fit into very well."
"At your age I probably would have thought the very same thing," Junko concurred while she took the first sip of her drink. "But life has this way of forcing you to take on roles you never imagined you'd be suited to when young and starting out."
"That, I do understand." She gave a moment's inspection to the liquid in the glass. "To that place, I've also gone." She added. She took a long, drawn out, pensive sip. "It's… Apple juice?"
"Haahaahaa!" The amused Junko chuckled. "I might try to be one of those 'cool moms,' but even I gotta draw the line at serving alcohol to minors." She smirked while taking down another gulp of her own drink. "Hope I didn't disappoint you too much."
"... No." Homura played around with one of the ice chunks in her glass. "Not disappointed. Guess I had something of a momentary lapse in expectations." She took a sip. "I blame this dumb lump on my forehead."
"So what role did you take on?"
"Hmm?"
"You heard me," She took another drink and chomped through a chunk of ice that went down with it. "No, wait, lemme take a guess… Mid-year transfer student… You ooze a certain feminine charm which turns a few heads without really trying… So all the boys conspired together to elect you class president when you'd really rather watch birds out the window or something?"
"No," Homura said. "I wasn't speaking of class, or any of the boys in class." She took a sip.
"Well darn it," She swallowed the ice chunk and took a more measured taste. "By all means, share it with me. I'm curious," She paused. For the past several months this young lady had been a well-behaved consummate companion of their beloved daughter. She had broken bread with them so many times by this point, too many dinners to count. She'd spent innumerable hours sleeping at Madoka's bedside, on call more often than Madoka's own boyfriend, coming over, hanging around and helping do her homework, finish the chores, take care of Tatsuya, and now even learning how to cook for them. Yet she had never once taken the liberty of discussing the details about her own life. Not once had she ever mentioned her own family, or talked about any of her own hobbies or interests. She was a total enigma, and Junko's natural inquisitiveness was driving her to wonder. Here and now was a golden opportunity to get to know this oddly mature, yet upstanding young lady better.
"So tell me what role it was for you… That's already…" She stopped again and took a small sip of her drink, a textbook stalling tactic. Junko always knew exactly the right way to get into her own daughter's head. It wasn't difficult, as Madoka was the type of person who would wear her heart right on her sleeve. But this girl, well, from what limited interactions Junko had previously attempted with her, she couldn't have presented herself as any more of a polar opposite. That poker-faced façade was in place for a good reason she presumed, all she needed to do was crack through it, get to the human inside. "Taken you beyond the limits of your teenaged imagination?" Direct, but not so insistent as to put the poor girl on her back foot. Not the worst start, in her mind.
It was just a throwaway comment. Homura hadn't intended to make this woman interested in hearing all the lurid details about her life, nor was she too eager to spill them. And what could she possibly say about her past that would be taken at face value, anyhow? "The role I once had," She flipped the cold pack around to its other side and repositioned it, then she took a generous sip of her apple juice. "I was given a mission to prevent your daughter from being tricked by a predatory alien bunnycat into dying needlessly for the sake of meeting some bogus energy quota," She deadpanned. "T'was a feat I only accomplished after countless years worth of retry attempts." She then took a more deliberate large, drink-finishing glug. "So you see, I actually am old enough to be consuming alcohol," She slid the glass back over. "If you'd please," She deadpanned her request.
It wasn't as smooth as Junko's toss. The glass ricocheted off a dinner plate and stopped well short of Junko's reach. Junko sat there for a minute, her head tilted and her mouth partially agape. "Bwaaahaaahaaaahaaa!" She burst into an uproarious fit of laughter. "Nice try, anime girl." She got up and reached for Homura's glass. "Still not gonna serve you. Hahaa!" She poured some more apple juice and sent it sliding back. An introvert who would deflect from discomforting topics through poker-faced wit. A start, but if she truly wasn't comfortable talking about herself to a greater extent, then Junko wasn't going to press her too much. She was, after all, still a young girl. "Aw man, the kinds of effin' plots they come up with for those shows these days, I could tell ya' a story."
"Ah, yes. That's right," Homura lied. "That was the plot of an anime I watched a while ago. Sorry. It's this bump getting me all mixed up." She caught the glass and took another big glug. The terrible truth obfuscated by being told in the most impassive yet cartoonish way possible. And it got exactly the reaction she expected it would. Now to flip the conversation around. A key thing she learned from all of Miss Saotome's classroom digressions was that the only thing adults liked more than exploring the problems of others, was yapping about their own. "What I find interesting is adults' seeming constant reliance on alcohol." She calmly took a sip. "I do fear that once I come of age to drink, if I start, I may not have enough of a will in me to ever stop."
"Yeah, I admit, alcohol can be a pretty addicting crutch to use when the going gets tough," Junko said. "I guess all I can share is that it's a bit like a friend who can ease your pain, one who doesn't abandon you, who doesn't gossip behind your back, one who can even help you see past the lies that you've built around yourself in order to cope with this high-stakes world that isn't designed to forgive all the blunders you'll make so easily." She poured a little more out for herself and took a drink. "But like all good friends, it's not something you should rely solely on to make it through this messy life. Or else you're going to wind up alone and in a spot where you realize your 'friend' is just an expensive chemical that's distracting you from life's truly meaningful experiences. And it's also trying to murder your liver."
"Hmmm, interesting." Homura sipped. It was still late afternoon, the woman was home without her husband around, a forced smile on her face while indulging in drinks, and there was the steadily billowing smell of cookies emanating from the oven. With such details known Homura sensed this woman did indeed have some things on her mind that she was trying not to think about through this chit-chat ploy "Is Mister Kaname not around?"
"He's taking Tatsuya to a doctor's appointment," Junko answered. "Nothing serious. Just a routine check-up and some booster shots."
"I see," Homura nodded. "If I may be so bold to ask," She worked up enough courage to circle back around with a couple additional large glugs. "Why are you here at home, and not out socializing with your coworkers as you would on a typical day after work?"
"Ehhhhh?" Junko tilted her head, shocked by this young girl's audacity. "Can't a mom spend a nice day after school entertaining her daughter and friends?"
"I understand that, I do." Homura backtracked. "But the fact that you are passing the time by idly consuming alcohol and partaking in an activity that would normally be in the domain of your spouse, suggests to me that you weren't actually planning on spending your day here like this."
"My, that's some intuition ya' got there," Junko praised, though whether it was sincere or sarcastic Homura could not determine.
"Intuition… Aided by a little insider info," Homura backpedaled. "Madoka mentioned something the other day about your role at work changing. Is everything all right between you and your company?"
"Baaaaaah!" Junko waved her question off with a hand gesture. "Just boring, bullcrap grown-up stuff. A girl your age needn't be concerned with silly office politics."
"I'm not concerned," Homura expressed. "I'm confident that whatever is bothering you, you have the will, the wisdom and experience to deal with it." She sipped as she once again adjusted her cold pack. "What worries me is that right now you're relying on precisely the thing you just told me shouldn't be relied solely upon when things in life get stressful." She drank the last drops of apple juice and motioned Junko for another go-round. "All I'm doing is volunteering to be an ear that's willing to listen. I may not understand the gist, but still there is a chance I could be that source of clarity you appear to be lacking right now."
"Oh, how kind and considerate of you," Junko took the glass and poured some more. Though an introvert who had an oddball sense of humor, to Junko it was evident that this girl also possessed a keen mind that was well beyond her fifteen years. What could be the harm in spilling a few office secrets to a girl with such a guarded demeanor that she won't even talk about her own past? Heck, Junko wagered that if she opened the book up on her own life, then this young lady might just return the act in kind. Why not? It was worth a try.
"Yeah, I got a promotion at work recently," She started. "Except, it wasn't exactly to the position I thought I was going to get. It also wasn't to a place where I thought I was suited to be," She divulged. "My general attitude bled into my opinions of the project I had been assigned to work on, and sure enough, my big fat mouth has caught up with me and gotten me in trouble with my bosses."
"I take it you're a savvy enough employee to know when you have to apologize for a slip-up," Homura said. "I'm sure you'd be given another chance."
"Ahhhh, but this is where the complexities of the adult world must rear its ugly head," Junko countered. "To a corporate bigwig an apology isn't enough. You have to make sure to grovel and beg forgiveness, and accept whatever punitive sanction they decide to impose on you for the high crime of daring to speak your mind and allowing your ego to momentarily supersede theirs."
"Oh, I see," Homura took a sip of her juice. "And that's been a bigger hurdle than you could manage?"
"Naaah, I already bowed and apologized and reaffirmed my commitment to the cause, and all that jazz you're supposed to say when you're in hot water," Junko stated in a glib fashion. "They've since reassessed my status with the company, and I guess an outside political matter has made me a very lucky girl, because unlike what happens in most insubordination cases I've been presented with a list of choices for what they want me to do next."
"So that would be the source of your present anxiety, then?"
"Awwyuuuup," She answered with a big glug of her drink. "My first choice is to maintain the status quo, and rejoin the project while trying my best to keep my trap shut this time around." From her inflection Homura could tell that this seemingly straightforward option wasn't what it sounded like.
"I take it from your voice, that you suspect there are strings attached to their offer?"
"Mmmhmm," Junko nodded. "That's because it'll be a return in name only," She added. "In actuality what they'll do as my punishment is make me take on the sorts of demeaning tasks that they would typically delegate to first-year interns or assistants," She detailed. "So I'll be making copies and fetching coffee and taking calls and all sorts of those wonderful little chores that make the office drones question their will to live."
"And your pride won't allow you to toil pointlessly while you believe you can still contribute in a meaningful way," Homura asserted.
"That's it exactly," Junko smiled. She poured some more alcohol in her glass and motioned an offer to Homura for some more apple juice. "My second option is to return to the job I used to have, to the office I used to have, with the coworkers I used to have." There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm to that description.
"So what's the downside?" Homura outright asked as she accepted the offer for more juice.
"Well, the higher-ups' opinion of me is probably gonna color my next performance evaluation, which is gonna cost me a raise or three," She rolled her eyes as she poured more into Homura's glass. "And I'll likely wind up on a list of names to pass over next time a corner office opens. Ughh. Eleven years of dedicated work, with five in middle management only to erect my own glass ceiling. Might be the only thing worse than fetching coffee."
"You're not eager to go back, huh?"
"I was getting tired of that gig anyhow," Junko admitted. "Five years is a long time to be in any one job, and I've gotten so good at what I do that it's starting to bore me."
"That's unfortunate," Homura sipped her drink. The bump on her head no longer hurt, and soon enough the bruise would be gone, too. She was only keeping the cold pack in place so as to appear more personable and keep Junko from any further probing questions regarding her past. "Could you not volunteer for reassignment in another department?"
"Actually, those are my two remaining options," Junko revealed. "A few years back, a position opened up in America and at the time I turned it down. They say it's going to open up again very soon, and the offer is still on the table."
Homura abruptly slammed her glass hard on the table. "Y- You-" She stammered. Her face went an unearthly pale shade of white. "You're not seriously considering moving away to another country, are you?"
The sense of urgency in the young lady's voice caught Junko off guard. "I admit, when it was first offered up a few years ago it had an appeal. Our American branch was smaller back then, and I saw it as an opportunity to build up my own little fiefdom abroad."
"But what about everything that's near and dear to you here? Surely the life you've built for yourself here outweighs your career aspirations? Would you really leave it all behind in the name of personal ambition? Don't you think you should at least consult your family about it first? Consult Madoka? Don't you know how hard that would be on her?" The level of gravity to her questions were even starting to unnerve Junko.
"W- Would you relax, sheesh ?" Junko tried to reassure her. "I agree, moving would be hardest on Madoka. My husband studied the culinary arts abroad so his English is good enough to get by, mine is pretty fluent and Tatsuya's still young enough to learn both languages naturally. I figured back then it would be hardest for her to adjust and it would be even worse on her now that she's got a boyfriend and a close circle of friends who…" She paused. What was the deal with that outburst? A girl who by all looks appeared very emotionally reserved reacting to the idea of a classmate moving away as if she were vanishing from this world entirely? "... Care about her so much. Needless to say," She breathed. "My view on that hasn't changed."
"Alright. Good that's how you see it," Homura tried to recollect herself. "What is your other remaining option?"
"Something… Completely different," Junko replied. "I guess there was at least one guy on that board who was impressed with my mouthiness, because a little while ago I was contacted by people who claimed to represent one of our major contractors in the public sector, who told me they were looking to recruit some fresh blood. And apparently whoever it was on the board floated my name on down through this contractor's chain of command."
"What do they do?" Homura asked.
"They wouldn't tell me much else beyond that," Junko answered. "Except that they said that in accepting I would be..." She hesitated while trying to remember the speaker's exact words. "Doing our nation and all my kind a tremendous service. They promised they'd fill me in only if I agreed to join."
"Hey, Missus Kaname," A voice from over by the stairs peeked its head in and spoke. "Those cookies done yet?" It was Kyoko, her face even more beautified by all the new layers of makeup Madoka had applied to it.
"Couple more minutes, hang tough." Junko smiled. The smell was permeating throughout the whole house.
"Oh, hey Homura!" In the earlier rush out the door she had failed to pay any mind to the existence of the other person who had come here to Madoka's house alongside their friend Sayaka. She gave a polite wave of a greeting.
"Hi." Homura lifted the ice pack off her head long enough to return serve. It let Kyoko see the little welt atop her head.
"Yikes, what the heck happened to you?" She blared.
"You did."
"Oh." Kyoko winced. "Sorry."
"You look very nice, Kyoko." Homura lauded Kyoko's appearance in her typical unemotive but sincere tone.
"Th- Thanks!" Kyoko blushed and retracted her head behind the wall. The two listened for her footsteps to make it all the way back up the stairs before they resumed talking again.
"That last offer sounds a bit fishy, but still intriguing," Homura continued. "So it's lousy option 'A,' boring option 'B,' dreadful option 'C,' and an option 'D' that you know nothing of unless you accept," She summed.
"And now you know why I've been drinking on my own today," Junko gave her a wink and a nod as she downed the rest of her glass in one chug. "So what would you do, if you were in my place? I ask, sheerly out of curiosity over what goes on in one Madoka friend's mind." The timer on the oven dinged which signaled that the cookies were finished.
"I think that my own pride wouldn't let me even acknowledge that I was wrong, let alone apologize and accept some form of humiliating punishment for it, " Homura stated. "I suppose that would imply that I still have some growing up to do." She took a big drink of her apple juice.
"Hey now, it's already pretty mature of you to be aware of such a shortcoming." Junko got out of her seat and ventured over to the oven.
"And I can identify with the notion of being bored with going through the same old motions every day over and over for years on end," She took another gulp.
"Tch. How are you so bored with your life at fifteen?" Junko pulled the trey out and took a spatula out from one of the drawers. "Then again, when I was a teenager I thought middle school was the most tedious place on earth too."
"And while I don't have a family that could be upended by any action I took," Homura drank the last of the juice and set her glass down.
"What?" Junko shot her a sudden look. "What do you mean you don't have a family?"
"I-" Homura swallowed hard and froze. She just let slip a secret that she didn't mean to. How was she going to wriggle out of this self-inflicted awkward moment? "Uhh... If I did," She tried to recover from her blunder by ignoring her follow-up question. "I think the last thing I would want to do is upset them all with a sudden move to the other side of the globe. Particularly when I know it's going to be much harder on one of them over the others."
"Uh-huh." Junko's glare was unwavering as she shoveled her cookies into a clear glass bowl beside the tray. Suddenly this young lady's little outburst a few minutes earlier was making sense.
"I'll take those cookies upstairs for you," Homura volunteered.
"Is that the real reason you keep coming around here so often?" Junko pressed. Homura had one hand gripping the bowl on the counter while Homura had another on the other side of it. Thirty seconds and no answer. A mounting air of awkward tension swelled between them.
"Th- Thank you for the juice," Homura tugged at the bowl. "A- And the c- Cookies." She tugged again. Though Junko's concerned stare was rapidly eroding her appetite. "A- And for tending to this owchie on my head." She uttered in a lighter-pitched, child-like cadence so unexpected it made Junko lose her grip on the bowl.
"No problem," Junko was finally able to blink her eyes. "It was nice talking to you." She walked over to the refrigerator and searched for another bottle of her favorite liquor. As she turned her back a satisfied smirk erupted from one side of her mouth to the other. So opening up a little caused this girl to do the same, albeit without intending to. But it worked, just as planned.
"I would always do what's best for Madoka, if I were the one in your situation." She heard that cooler, more collected voice utter on its way out.
"Closing in! Directly behind you!" Saya shouted at Hitomi.
"Hiiiiiiiiyaaaaahhhh!" Hitomi chopped the spectre right in half vertically with her scythe.
"More are coming from over there!" Princess Sana pointed towards a four-by-four formation marching its way down a grassy knoll in the Jellyfish Fields.
"Sana," Saya commanded. "Use your shield duplication and erect a barrier around them!"
"Alright!" From the sky materialized dozens of green-striped, gold-lined shields that fell to the ground and surrounded the phantoms. Like a zombie horde the two meter tall grey humanoid figures were not fazed by the erecture of the metallic barriers around them. They kept treading ahead, knocking themselves right up against Sana's shields which rang with a thunderous clang.
"It appears that they are attempting to phase their way through the material blockades," Saya assessed.
"How can we stop them?" Sana asked.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Hitomi, meanwhile, was preoccupied with warding off her own mob of ghoulish foes. "Huuuuuuuuuuuup!" With cat-like nimbleness she took to the air and pounced at another, decapitating it and sending it back to the netherworld from whence it came.
The level of force and ferociousness behind her attacks was quite the shock to her, she didn't believe she carried all that much emotional baggage, she was just seeking a way to be able to channel her own deepening self-doubts and fears into a source of physical strength.
The boy in elementary school who once tried to bully her by sticking some gum in her hair on the playground… She mentally projected his smug face onto the lumbering shadow creatures' fuzzy, opaque heads as she hacked and slashed at their bodies. "Haaaaaaooooooh!"
While she was being debriefed after her first delusional episode in the industrial park, one of the officers was voicing his opinion that she was lying and had joined the group because she mistook it for a flash mob. The first time it happened, she'd overheard him say it just outside the door. But then after the second incident, he outright accused her of being a liar. "Taaaaaaaaaaaaake this!" His face was on the next projection as she swung her mighty blade fast and true.
Up next was the face of that nagging Home Economics teacher, the only teacher to ever give Hitomi anything less than the highest marks in class. So what if she couldn't piece together the hems of a duffel bag? Just because she was a girl, it didn't mean she had an inborn talent for sewing. "Aaaaaaaaaand that!" She hacked and chopped another three spirits into wispy bits.
"Up there! The electric jellyfish!" Saya pointed at the glowing, gelatinous swarm that was swimming innocuously through the air. "I will cast an agitation spell and the enemy will be surrounded by them! Then when they zap your shields will act as the ideal electrical conductor!"
"Got it!"
When she ran out of faces guilty of major personal sleights, Hitomi next dwelled on the ones who merely annoyed her to no end. She first thought of that seventh grade boy in her old study hall group who was endlessly referring to her as a 'Spinach Head'. Off with his head when she pictured his face worn by the two spooks trying to flank her. "Haaaaaaaaaah!" She yelled with the same intensity that fueled her major antagonists.
Once while returning home from vacation overseas she once witnessed a baggage handler mishandle her luggage. It broke a cute ceramic doll she had spotted and purchased while touring. That man's face was the next to be pasted onto the attacking apparitions. "Yaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Two more in the bag.
Not long before her crush on Kyosuke blossomed, she tried an experiment where she stuffed her bra with padding and took a detour through the ninth grade section of the school. She was hoping to catch the eye of an upperclassman or two, but as she was about to walk out of the bathroom equipped with her new assets, in walked a beautiful blonde ninth grader whose plump, all natural breast size outclassed even Hitomi's enhanced pair. Feeling humiliated and inadequate she waltzed right back into the bathroom stall and called the whole experiment off. "You're finished!" She cried as she delivered her next strike.
"There's more!" Sana pointed towards another four-by-four formation advancing on their position. Taking the initiative Sana boxed them in with a second encirclement of her large shields.
"We had better get this over with quickly!" Saya clasped her hands and took to one knee. A series of glowing blue circles formed underneath her feet. At her behest the virtual fish came together and swirled around and around like a vortex. "Use your shields and squeeze them closer together!"
"Right!" Sana obeyed.
Not lacking for energy but freshly lacking in faces to serve as cathartic relief, Hitomi's only remaining motivation came from the souls with whom she'd held the most personal grudges. Kyosuke Kamijo was the first and easiest to picture. The hospital visits, the gifts, the flirtation, the sprinkled-on compliments… She could not have made the signs and signals of her crush on him more obvious, how could he have been so dense? "Get… Baaaack… Heeeeeere!" She chased down a quartet of figures headed for her friend in the distance and sent them to oblivion.
"Almost ready!" Sana called out. The apparitions pushed and pushed back as hard as they could against her defensive barriers, but their raw strength was no match for her magic in this realm.
"One the count of three!" Saya commanded. "One!" The swarm of aerial jellyfish were brought under her heel.
Hitomi was always playing second fiddle in her Japanese dance class to a girl who had a natural talent for dancing. She was so good at the art that she got to be featured in a televised national talent show. Hitomi tried to be a good sport and congratulate her on her fame and success, but the girl was so filled with pride and arrogance that she didn't even acknowledge Hitomi's gesture as she climbed into her limousine on the way to Tokyo. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiend!" Down went several more spirits. She cracked the very same smile as the one on the night she witnessed that girl lose the big competition.
"Two!" Saya and Sana were about to execute their plan. Hitomi's job for the final blow was to make sure there would be no unwanted interruptions.
"Eat!" An eerie voice announced its presence right behind it. As it bled into existence it was joined by four more.
"Oh, no!" Hitomi gasped. They were threatening to disrupt her friend's sweeping counteroffensive.
"Eeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" The phantasms droned in unison like a hungry, zombified army. The first Hitomi had heard them chant anything.
"Oh, no you don't!" There was only one face she could imagine upon which she could unleash all her remaining pent-up hostility.
"One!" The jellyfish were converging on their victims. Undeterred, the black demonic armies pounded and pounded against Sana's barricades, their clanging was as loud as a passing freight train.
That damn tomboy. Having the audacity to get a crush on the same boy as her, then totally lacking courage to follow through and spare them both from embarrassment. Starting a physical fight in public over the matter, twice, and making a schoolwide scandal of the affair.
"Nooooooooowww!" Saya shouted. The big glowing circle underneath her vanished and reappeared as four new ones positioned above and below the contained invaders. Bolts of lightning discharged from the buzzing jellies, her attack was ready to be unleashed.
An inadequate apology… An utter failure to make amends after the dust settled… Then moving on to other, better friends and not even bothering to stay in touch in the weeks and months afterward… Some friend Sayaka Miki was. Her face was the easiest to imagine plastered over the hapless horde as Hitomi made quick work of them all. "It's over! Goodbye!" She sent her weapon spinning and flying all through their bodies, dissolving them each to dust in a matter of microseconds.
"Eaaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaaat!" The lightning pierced the heavens crackling down and splitting in twain, utterly annihilating the last remaining attackers.
"You did it!" Princess Sana congratulated.
"Hitomi!" Hitomi was entranced by the virtual images of the withering foes.
"Hitomi!" A voice called out again.
"Hitomi!"
"Huh?" Saya ripped away her virtual reality headgear. "Sorry," Hitomi apologized.
"No problem," Saya smiled. "You did pretty great in there, for a first-timer."
"Oh, I was just following your lead," She put the baton controllers aside. "Be honest now. You've played this game before, haven't you?" She guessed.
"Yes," Saya admitted. "A number of times right after I came back to Mitakihara. That was how I knew precisely how to conjure those magic spells." She took a deep, relieved breath. "Though I have got to say, that battle was much easier to win with a second person."
"Way to go, friends of Sana's Kingdom!" A voice extolled from the television screen in front of them. "You have warded off the first wave!" It was Sana cheering. "But my fair kingdom is still in deep jeopardy, so please come back next time and serve as my heroic defenders once more!"
"Looking forward to it," Hitomi said to the face on the screen. "Thanks for bringing me here today." She expressed her gratitude to her new best friend.
"It was so nice to be with you here today," Saya returned the sentiment.
"See you at school!" Hitomi waved. It was rather late, and if she was going to avoid her parents' scorn she needed to head off posthaste.
"Bye-bye!"
"See you next time! Best wishes!" The onscreen voice of Sana giggled.
"Yes," Saya kissed her hand and touched the screen. "Until then, stay strong."
"Sana!" A voice from the ether addressed the virtual princess.
"What is it?" Sana looked up towards the sky.
"I regret to tell you that Hyperdimension Nemunia has been obliterated," The voice informed. "It will only be a matter of time before a full force invasion is launched into your kingdom, too."
"Oh, nooooo!" Sana exclaimed.
"We will be falling back to assist in the defense of your kingdom," It reassured. "Until then, stay strong."