CHAPTER 8: Courage From Turning Gears
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
From its tracking software's visual outline the target appeared to be another one of those metallic mannequins Gamma practiced shooting back on the target course.
-| RANGE: 9.472 METERS |-
But there was something anomalous about its behavior pattern that was incomprehensible to Gamma. It was bouncing between the walls, impacting the corridors with enough force to leave damaging marks and dents.
-| SPEED: 7.628 METERS PER SECOND |-
-| RANGE: 11.565 METERS |-
-| SPEED: 5.790 METERS PER SECOND |-
-| RANGE: 13.693 METERS |-
-| SPEED: 4.451 METERS PER SECOND |-
Had Gamma's assigned role in this undertaking been to observe and analyze its erratic activity, Gamma would have staked a secure, passive position for further monitoring. But the Cyber Regina had tasked it with a seek-and-destroy mission, so it activated its weapon, locked on and opened fire.
-| FIRING |-
-| TARGET HIT |-
Its target made zero effort to avoid taking damage, another peculiarity.
-| TARGET REMAINS |-
Despite every shot hitting its shell square on, the subject's activity was not terminated by the blasts.
"Delete," Gamma heard its own synthesized voice speak reflexively. It concentrated its next volley center mass on the target.
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| RANGE: 15.104 METERS |-
-| SPEED: 2. 002 METERS PER SECOND |-
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Its vocalizations were joined by two other CBX units in support. They too honed their tracking software on the thing and blasted away.
-| TARGET NEUTRALIZED |-
So thorough their fumigation of fire was, that all that was left of the strange kill was a molten mass of glowing slag. Out of a prudent regard for itself and its combat detachment's safety in potential future encounters, Gamma initiated its Scan Mode and was about to examine the remnants.
"Cancel postmortem scan." CBX Unit Two Thirty-One, Gamma's assigned subordinate recommended. "Proceed to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen." Gamma knew where it was supposed to be advancing, it did not require a vocalized reminder from this subaltern. Though the machine was just doing as it was programmed, Gamma did not appreciate the suggestion. Why would a dummy unit try to compromise the structural integrity of their fortress in such a chaotic, inefficient way? It demanded further scrutiny before proceeding.
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
But the abrupt appearance of what appeared to be another misbehaving dummy robbed Gamma of the chance to further assess the matter.
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
And so came another.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma and its squadron's voices echoed throughout the dark hallways. The pair were engaged in a rather exotic dance, tossing one another into the walls at full force whilst paying no attention to the barrage of bullets Gamma and its entourage were hailing upon them. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" The two were obliterated by the barrage and Gamma and its crew proceeded undeterred.
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
Yet another oddity was awaiting them around the next corner. This one was behaving even more errantly than the first three.
-| RANGE: 12.390 METERS |-
-| SPEED: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
-| VERTICAL MOMENTUM: 6.585 METERS PER SECOND |-
It was leaping up and down and slamming itself against the ceiling. But upon damaging the structure the thing did not try to inflict further damage or degrade the metal but was instead grinding itself against jagged and exposed chunks of metal and grating, and in doing so, cutting and slicing into its metal shell . From this act Gamma suspected the pseudo-unit's intention was not to destroy the surrounding habitat, but rather disassemble itself.
"Delete! Delete! De-"
"Do not delete!" Gamma commanded. It also punctuated that instruction by raising its arm outward, an unnecessary automatous act it may have done to assert its authority. Gamma reasoned that if the malfunctioning dummies' goal was indeed to self-destruct, then Gamma and its cohorts would simply be accomplishing the goal for them.
"Proceed to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen," The same CBX Unit reminded it. But Gamma was not about to cede all autonomy to its mission parameters. It wanted to understand the reason these more simpler model machines were breaking down and functioning so unpredictably.
"CBX Unit Two thirty-five is to remain posted here," Gamma ordered. Although all CBX units had the same basic specs, units ending in the number five were customized to feature additional sensory enhancements and detachable components for the purposes of reconnaissance and surveillance. "New objective. Monitor and record target activity for later analysis." In lieu of Gamma itself remaining, this in Gamma's logic was an adequate alternative. "Establish a two-way audiovisual link for continuous observation." A picture-in-picture viewscreen appeared at once in Gamma's view.
-| CYBER NEURALINK PEER-TO-PEER ENABLED |-
"I comply," The unit it called upon put its hand to its chest and tilted in a deferential bow to Gamma. Gamma timed their next advance so that the next time the thing hurled itself into the ceiling, they could pass without interruption.
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| RANGE: 13.013 METERS |-
-| SPEED: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
A stark contrast from the one in the last hall, this one was not exhibiting any outward activity whatsoever. It was wedged against the wall and curdled into a ball on the floor.
"Unit Two Four Zero," Gamma spoke. With Unit Two Thirty-Five assigned to the last one the next best choice for a more in-depth examination would be the one outfitted with specialized forensic examination tools. And it knew this fact, as it did not wait for Gamma to finish its verbal command to approach the inactive specimen and secure it. "Report status of target."
"Deleted," The CBX Unit replied. Gamma and the rest closed the distance and examined the dummy's remains. Meanwhile the subject Unit Two Thirty-Five had been watching was now splayed on the floor, writhing around.
-| NOXIOUS GAS ALERT |-
-| PARTICLE LEVELS NOW AT 106 PARTS PER MILLION AND RISING |-
As its Master had told it to disregard the gaseous foreign substance polluting the air, Gamma had not been running a continuous check on the gas's proportional levels. But on a particular whim Gamma ran its subroutine. And that conceit being the nonzero possibility of a link between higher vapor levels and the baffling conduct of these dummies.
"Forensic analysis conclusion," Unit Two Four Zero updated its observations. "Cyber-Manikin was terminated by outgrowth of proto-biological organic matter," It turned the body over and revealed to all that its innards were hollowed out from the inside.
"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee!" A sound shrieked so loud it reverberated numerous times throughout the halls. "Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee!" "Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The noise matched no audio file stored in Gamma's memory banks.
Gamma zoomed in on Unit Two Thirty-Five's visual stream. The glitching dummy had stopped spastically colliding its way around the corridor. Now it was standing in one spot on the floor, propagating its body up on all four appendages, however its two lower appendages were bent the wrong way at the limbs' adjoining points. More unusual, its primary appendage was spinning around and around, twitching in a manner that was even more uncontrolled than what Gamma observed with Unit One Zero Three.
"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" That sound echoed everywhere all at once again. The closest zoological match in Gamma's database was to that of the squawking of a large predatory bird. Gamma's acoustic comparison analysis subroutine pegged it as something between the screech of an owl or the call of a falcon. "Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The sound had gotten so intense it was muffling the heavy, clanging stompings of Gamma and its cohorts.
"ETA to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen," Gamma's underling unit communicated, despite the racket. "Approximately two minutes, twenty-eight seconds." Another reminder that, unusual sights and sounds aside, they all still had a preprogrammed assignment to complete.
They took a left, then hit a right, followed by a twenty degree incline then another right, down a second thirty degree incline and then third right. With a sudden lull in the anomalous activity Gamma used this as another chance to check the air quality.
-| NOXIOUS GAS ALERT |-
-| PARTICLE LEVELS NOW AT 128 PARTS PER MILLION AND RISING |-
"Is it generating these gasses autonomically, perhaps akin to the way bone marrow produces additional white blood cells in response to the presence of a foreign infectious agent, or is it secreting these particulates for an explicit purpose?" Gamma heard its Master's voice muse. Gamma was not even aware its Master had been monitoring it. "I am always watching over you, Gamma." The voice said in response to Gamma's stray deliberation. "But the secondary objective of this excursion is to evaluate your performance as a Cyber Adjutant and field commander. Towards that end I am not going to offer advice or issue any overriding instructions unless the situation makes such action necessary."
"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Was the eponymous entity its Master designated as 'It' responsible for that most vexing sound? That was Gamma's ensuing notion.
"A detachment of CBX units, plus Unit One Zero Zero, and Unit One Zero One are at this present time engaging the entity in question." Its Master replied to that thought. "None have recorded any audio that is a match for what you and your group are experiencing." A design schematic detailing the profile of Unit One Zero Zero popped into Gamma's field of view. The first thing Gamma took note of was that its outline was radically different from that of itself, One Zero One and the CBX units, it was larger and cylindrical in shape. "However that does not preclude it from being the source, as it could theoretically be capable of unknown alternative forms of communication." Gamma had to close that window, as its routine coupled with Two Thirty-Five's sensory stream was taking up too much of Gamma's active processing capacity.
"Skrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
Three more metal dummies. All sprawled on the floor around the corner in a triangular pattern and holding stationary in the same exotic position as the one Two Thirty-Five was watching.
-| TARGET 1 |-
-| RANGE: 8.263 METERS |-
-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
-| TARGET 2 |-
-| RANGE: 10.081 METERS |-
-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
-| TARGET 3 |-
-| RANGE: 10.081 METERS |-
-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-
One the very tick Target One and Gamma made visual contact, one hurled its body at Gamma full charge.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma blasted and blasted away with every round it could manage. But its lightning-quick opponent pounced first and tackled Gamma hard against the wall.
"Skrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
In a near-simultaneous occurrence, Unit Two Thirty-Five found itself under attack by its observational subject. But Gamma could not expend the processing power to do more than watch, as it stood there pinned.
-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Gamma switched off its damage alert system. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma uttered while striking back at its attacker with the full brute force of its fists. It had no other option. It calculated that firing projectiles would risk more extensive damage from either ricochets or cause it to backfire, and utilizing its electrical immobilization system on a metallic body would result in doing even more harm to itself.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" It smacked its foe straight to the head and delivered an even bigger blow hard into what Gamma concluded to be its center of mass. Repeating those vocalizations may have been a superfluous waste of energy in this predicament, but Gamma could not deny that there was an effect as saying it aloud repeatedly sent a significant surge of power down through its appendages and overclocked its cognitive processors in a brief burst. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" A series of consecutive blows to that area was enough to drive the thing off of it and into the awaiting arms of Gamma's support units.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Units Two Thirty-Seven and Two Thirty-Eight shoved it against the opposite wall. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" While Unit Two Thirty-Six was busy severing its lower limbs from its body in a hailstorm of heavy gunfire. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" Then they tossed Gamma's half-bodied assailant a clear ten meters across the room.
"Skrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Target Three seized this moment in Gamma's recovery as a chance to hit back. A large, jagged protuberance spawned from the bottom of its back at the juncture of its hind appendages and lashed towards Gamma at a speed even faster than a cracking whip. Even so, Gamma was still fast enough to react, catching the extension mid-air and yanking on it, tugging the creature off its feet and into the rapid fire of its support squad.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!"
But all this was transpiring while Unit Two Thirty-Five was getting hammered by its attacker. In its secondary viewscreen Gamma could see everything that Unit was experiencing. Its secondary audio processor could hear every metal-to-metal blow. It could even register and catalog the damage Unit Two Thirty-Five was taking, in a sense, perceiving the Unit's growing peril as if Gamma were enduring it all firsthand.
Gamma and its forces were on the advance. Target One had been obliterated. Target Two was in the process of being subdued and eliminated. Target Three had pulled a sudden retreat, booking it in the direction of their mission destination. This presented Gamma with the need to make a tactical decision: Should it take a chance and send reinforcements back to assist Unit Two Thirty-Five, or would splitting its forces now be an error that would cost it if even greater obstacles await at the endpoint?
A mere second's calculation was all Gamma needed to make the choice. The mission objective was priority one, the thing of paramount importance. Any deviation was projected to lower their chances of success too significantly to be worth the cost in time and effort. "All Cyber Units proceed to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen." Gamma ordered, its voice intoned in a cadence closer to that of Unit Two Thirty-One's. With its decision final their comrade unit was left behind to fend for itself. "ETA approximately seventy-four seconds."
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Unit Two Thirty-Five struggled just as hard as Gamma had. Through its ocular system Gamma watched the duel. The rampaging mannequin had it all but totally immobilized and helpless, its arms locked in the unyielding clutches of its enemy. Its one and only recourse was to kick its leg into the center mass of its target's body and knock itself loose. Just as Gamma predicted, Two Thirty-Five tried that. But Gamma couldn't foresee a big gaping hole in the thing's body opening right where Two Thirty-Five kicked. It swallowed up the Unit's leg and squeezed, doing so with a force so overpowering the electrical impulses translated back through the link and compelled Gamma to share the sensations.
-| UPPER CHASSIS HAIRLINE FRACTURE |-
Gamma had to turn its own damage subroutine back on so it wouldn't have to process everything from the helpless Two Thirty-Five.
-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MODERATE |-
Another opening had opened up around the dummy's primary appendage. It was a thirty-eight point four seven centimeter long, upwards-curving slit. It took one point two six seven seconds for the slit to open to its widest point and for exactly two dozen large, spiked protrusions to form inside. It selected the raised circular piece on Two Thirty-Five's front chassis as its penetration point and dug in.
-| DAMagE DeTeCTEd |-
-| ERR0R |-
A cascading flux in the feedback caused Gamma to detect Two Thirty-Five's injury as its own. And this time, Gamma was unable to block all sensation. It attempted to close and sever the MetaNexus link with Two Thirty-Five, but failed. A sequential error between the transmission programs and Gamma's central processor was keeping the connection open. It had to watch the thing tear away at Unit Two Thirty-Five piece by piece.
"Auuuuuuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" A very loud synthesized sound reverberated behind them. Or at least, that was the closest match in their databanks. The audiovisual stream was breaking up, yet somehow the other effects were not subsiding.
-| P2p C0NNeCTION L0ST |-
-| MEtANExUS L1NK TERmINATED |-
-| SySTEm REST0RE Pr0GRAM |-
-| RESTORATION SUCCESSFUL |-
-| ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL |-
Gamma's recovery came not a moment too soon, as their party was closing to within six point two seconds of their mission objective.
"Skrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Every unit opened fire on them all at once. The dummy targets took no evasive action or countermeasures, acting as if they wanted to be gunned down on the spot.
"Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!"
Gamma's audio sensors recorded and registered hundreds of repeated occurrences of that noise. Two point five seconds later, and that number hit approximately one thousand. Seven point one four seconds later, and that number had reached ten thousand.
"She is using a harmonically resonant, subsonic cry to agitate her children," The Cyber Regina relayed. "Which then couples with the active compound in that gaseous chemical and the mixture hyper-stimulates their growth!" Its Master added a raised tone Gamma had not heard before. From the molten slag of the dummies' corpses they emerged, tiny sets of flapping wings affixed to thousands of living creatures. Gamma had no inkling of what they were. The only close match to its zoological database was the hummingbird, and even that assessment denoted a high margin of error. They took to the air like an insect swarm on the offensive and came straight at Gamma's group.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" They unloaded everything they had at the sudden blitz. But their blasts had little effect. There were too many of them, and Gamma's support troops could not fire fast enough to keep pace.
"Gamma!" Its Master implored. "Remove the wall paneling in front of you on the left side. Subjuncture Eighteen-Alpha!" Gamma obeyed, hustling over and dealing with its attackers by resorting to the inefficient method of swatting. It did not know the reason, but the levels of cortisol and adrenaline within its primary neural network had spiked by one hundred and thirty-seven point six nine percent.
-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-
Gamma's audio processors distinguished three loud hissing sounds coming from the outer layer of its chassis. Its exoskeletal sensors alerted it to the fact that its armor was being compromised by an unknown, fast-acting corrosive compound. Gamma located the spot from which to gain access to what lay behind the paneling, gave it a hard tug and removed it. Inside there was a thick, reinforced metal piping with a round, black puck-like heat detector attached to the side.
"That's a fire suppression system filled with pressurized bromochlorodifluoromethane," The Cyber Regina's voice exposited. Armed with that critical information, Gamma intuited that its Master's plan was to utilize the super-cooled flame retardant as a means to stun the biologicals by dampening their flight capability. The next challenge was in figuring out just how to trip the sensor and activate the system, as Gamma calculated that merely puncturing the piping and releasing the gas would not suffice in covering the area necessary to squash these creatures.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma joined in the chorus of units firing rapidly and wildly. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It fired off rounds at the fastest rate its safety mechanisms would allow, then fired even faster than that. "Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! De- Lete! De- Lete! De- Lete!" It disabled its safety cooldown protocols, raising the temperature of its gun barrel.
-| GUN BARREL TEMPERATURE: 273.860 CELSIUS |-
-| TEMPERATURE APPROACHING TOLERANCE RANGE |-
-| WARNING: COOLDOWN PROTOCOLS DISABLED |-
Then Gamma touched the tip of its barrel against the sensor. A high-pitched alarm chirped, and from protruding nozzles in the ceiling their vaporous assistance sprayed forth.
"Skrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Their wings too drenched to fly, the unknown hummingbird entities fell to the floor. But that did not cease their activity entirely. They scurried all around the floor and clung themselves to the walls, spewing their acidic concoction at whatever threat they perceived in proximity.
"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma went right to work slapping and stomping out as many as it could with its own hands and heavy, clanging feet. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It could not comprehend the rationale to it, but Gamma wanted nothing more than to see each and every single one of these primitive beasts exterminated. It was following an impulse it had not experienced before, one that was not programmed, and sending electrical impulses even stronger than the communications error that disoriented it moments ago. Yet somehow it was as compelled to follow this urge as intensely anything its Master coded into it. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"
"While I agree with your driving sentiment, I do not deem your action to be an efficient elimination method," Its Master's voice chimed. "If they are still being controlled by that noise, then a logical next course would be devising a method of counteracting its wail." A signal sent by the Voice forced Gamma's attention straight onto a computerized panel on the other wall. "And if that is so, then the solution lies within our own fire alert subsystem." Gamma took big, sweeping, pounding steps over to the panel, stuck out its balled fist and two little wires emerged and plugged into the computer.
-| FIRE ALARM SYSTEM OVERRIDE |-
"Now the trick will be in resetting the sonic frequency to one that is exactly opposite of hers, in theory the harmonic resonance should cancel the sound." A graphic display subwindow appeared in Gamma's view. "From this acoustic analysis you should set the alarm to this frequency and decibel level." Gamma complied, knocking away a few creeping crawlers up the wall with its still-superheated and exposed gun barrel sticking from its other appendage.
"Skrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
"Weeeeoooooooooweeeeooooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeooooooo!" The alarm blared at the adjusted tone. It was slowing them down, but not enough to make them stop entirely.
"Syncing fire control subsystem to Cyber Regent neural plexus," Its Master's voice intoned. "Making acoustic adjustments. I will take it from here." Gamma extracted itself from the interface. Three more CBX units wearing tanks on their backs with tubes running into their arms marched out from around the corner.
"Beginning decontamination and liquidation protocol," One Unit spoke. "All functioning Cyber Units are to evacuate at once!" Gamma pinged its mechanical compatriots, checking their operational statuses.
-| CBX-231 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-232 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-233 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-234 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-235 STATUS: TERMINATED |-
-| CBX-236 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-237 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-238 STATUS: TERMINATED |-
-| CBX-239 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
-| CBX-240 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-
A visual inspection confirmed that Unit Two Thirty-Eight was down, irreparably damaged not by the metal-eating spray of their enemies, but from multiple penetrations of heavy gunfire. From the entry and exit trajectories the rounds could have only been fired from Gamma itself. It seemed, in Gamma's haste to heat its barrel fast enough to trip the sensor, it unwittingly executed one of its own.
"Excellent work, Gamma." The Cyber Regina lauded, an evaluation that somehow ran contrary to Gamma's own performance assessment. "You managed to be of great assistance in the subjugation of our host and did so with only an eighteen percent casualty rate." Gamma watched Units Two Thirty-Seven and Two Thirty-Nine drag the remains of Two Thirty-Eight away. "The sacrifice of a few is always necessary in facilitating the prosperity of the many. If the percentages are what dissatisfies you, then I will inform you that Unit One Zero One and One Zero Zero's detachment incurred a higher rate of twenty-seven percent." It turned around and witnessed the three CBX units spray down the whole corridor with a thick, grayish liquid. "Although they did go in with a considerably higher number of support units. I want you to know that you did not make any choice I myself would not have also made upon factoring in all variables." They trod past the remains of Unit Two Thirty-Five, in a state that was almost unrecognizable. "You demonstrated more than enough competence as both a leader and a loyal soldier in this burgeoning movement. Now return to your birthing chamber, and I assure you that you will be patched up and modified so that you can serve me even better than you already have."
Yet somehow, its Master's total adulation came as little comfort to Gamma. For two of its own were no more. And while it was programmed to anticipate and accept the loss of underlings, knowledge of the circumstances under which they were destroyed was sending unprecedented levels of new electrical activity into its processing core. Gamma saved them all, even though it did not like these sensations.
It could not grasp its reasons.
Whenever she was in a bathroom, Homura always took deliberate measures to avoid looking at her reflection in the mirror. At home, she'd draped a shower curtain over the thing. In school, she'd position herself in front of the paper towel dispenser, washing one hand underneath the right sink and the other under the left, closing her eyes or looking down whilst reaching for soap. In public restrooms, she'd set her sights on another occupant or the doorway or a ventilation duct or any assorted decor. Here at Madoka's, despite this humongous room featuring multiple mirrors, it was fairly easy to avoid looking at herself. They were all high-tech electronic window panes that could transition into becoming mirrors at the push of a button. Homura could simply choose not to press the button, and her toothbrushing partner Madoka was so accepting of her quirky habit she never questioned the reasons behind it.
Her ritualized behavior began long ago. Back at the church's orphan home, the other girls would constantly harp on her appearance, never missing the chance to tell her how ugly she was. They'd say her eyebrows were too close together, that her nose was too small in proportion to her eyes, or that her two front teeth were too prominent, or that her left ear looked like it stuck out further than her right, that there was a strange splotch on her cheek that might have been a growing pimple. It made her too self-conscious to tolerate seeing her own reflection on mirrored surfaces.
And every other day it seemed they had a new nitpick which would send Homura running off in a humiliated bout of shame. She'd tweeze the region between her brows with her fingernail tips, narrow the size of her eyes by squinting, try to grind her teeth down by eating thicker, harder foods, and wash, scrub, rub, touch and pick at her face to such an excess that she'd cause a big, red splotch or blister. Even after she grew wise to their wicked tricks her face-touching had become a full-blown behavioral tic. By then her only remedy to it came by exchanging it for a different, less damaging one. So she braided her hair and started fiddling with the tips whenever she got anxious or agitated. Eventually that morphed into the hair flipping and finger combing that, in an ironic twist, her classmates at Mitakihara came to mistake as her putting on an air of cool, feminine mystique. Once Madoka told her she should try to look the part she just rolled with it, and became a signature trait.
Oriko Mikuni nailed one thing in telling Homura that her current face was a mask and one which she still loathed looking at. But could Junko's cosmetic makeover have at last given her a façade that was more palatable? Did Homura dare have hope, even knowing what a mess of a girl still hid underneath? She'd rallied the courage not to cry in front of Junko, all she had to do here was scrounge up what was remaining and push that button. Slowly but bravely, her hand drifted to that control panel behind the sink.
"Nnnmf," Homura turned on the mirror and opened her eyes. "Huh?" She leaned closer and studied the results of Junko's handiwork. "Unnnngghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She groaned. The lipstick just served to highlight how large and tumid they were. The blush on her cheeks only accentuated how drab and plain her cheekbones appeared. She went way overboard with the goop on her lashes, they were so elongated and stuck out so far a bug could've mistaken them for flower stems and tried landing. Putting eyeshadow above that only made those eyes of hers look even more doleful. As if she needed her inner melancholy to be manifested in such a garish way. All and all, in Homura's objective and pragmatic assessment, Junko's experiment was an unmitigated bust. This new visage of hers best resembled that of a sad, sorry-eyed clown. She could not wait to wash this crap off. She cupped her hands underneath the faucet, and turned on the tap.
"You holding up in there alright?" A knock and a voice came through the door. "Everything good?" It was Junko.
"I'm fine," Homura opened her palms and let the collected water splash down into the drain. "Just finishing up." So caught up in her visceral revulsion she hadn't considered how insulting she would be to Junko if she were to just wash all her well-intentioned efforts away so fast and do it in her own bathroom. It'd be past rude, callous even, to walk out of this bathroom without keeping it on. Her best course was to offer up an excuse to go home and take steps not to be seen looking this way. Avoid confrontation, and when asked next time just say that the make-up did nothing for her.
"There's one last thing I'd like you to try out," Junko added, to Homura's dismay.
"What is it?" Homura asked, being polite and stifling another moan.
"It's some perfume," Junko answered.
"What's it called?"
"Uhhhhhm…" Junko looked over the label. "'Resplendence'." Another exotic word courtesy of the English language.
"Tch," Homura trudged over and unlocked the door. "They really do just make these products as hard for us Japanese to pronounce as possible, don't they?"
"Heh," Junko tittered. The joke was so that Junko wouldn't suspect just how gloomy Homura was feeling and try yet another tacky thing to cheer her up. "Do you mind if I spray a little on you?"
"Fine," Homura caved without fuss. What was one more minor embarrassment for the road? She would just have to stay out of sniffing distance from anyone on her way, and take a nice long, hot bath once she got home. Wash it all out with her favorite green apple scented shampoo. "Please don't spray too much," She requested. The label looked expensive. She didn't want the thought of Junko wasting money in her head all night trying to sleep.
"Alright!" Junko squeezed the little rubber pump attached to the top. Homura tossed her hair back, a gesture Junko interpreted to mean she should spray with a little more gusto. "Smells nice, doesn't it?"
"It smells sweet," Homura said. It hit her nose like some combination of lilac, lavender, melon and the morning dew. Although she didn't trust her sense of smell much. Every other girl would gush over how nice Miss Saotome smelled while to Homura she smelled like coffee beans and a high-end brand of laundry detergent.
"Kazuko claims she bought this thinking of me while she was touring Paris last year," Junko studied the label a little more closely. "But a name like that, I'm starting to suspect she was actually thinking about me during her layover time in America…" She squinted at the fine print identifying the name and location of the manufacturer. "Montreal?"
"Eh, it's a French enough place I guess." Homura joked and sniffed. A chiming ring of the doorbell drew their ears.
"Now who could that be?" Junko glanced at the wall clock. Then her feet glided to the front door.
"Oh, hey Missus Kaname," Homura recognized Sayaka's voice and ducked behind a wall. "Are Madoka and Kyoko still around?" Homura wanted nothing more than to transform right there, engage her time magic, and book it right past the two in the door, but alas. Oriko had also nailed her prediction that Homura's issues with her time-stopping ability would become a recurring impediment. "I wanna wish them the best before their big dates tonight."
"You just missed them by about ten minutes," Junko informed her. Homura peeked an eye out from behind her hiding spot. Sayaka was wearing brown undine boots, a plain pair of blue jeans with a white sweatshirt with red and blue stripes running down the middle. And over top was a shiny black coat. One which Homura had never seen her wear before.
"Dang," Sayaka snapped her finger. "Knew I should've come straight from work and not changed clothes."
"That's a really nice coat." The coat was such a standout feature on her it even caught Junko's notice. "Did you buy it at the mall?"
"Nah, My Dad got it for me when I was little," Sayaka tugged the collar up to her face. "We were sorting through stuff in my closet when I realized I had finally grown into it." She sniffed the leather. "I'm surprised by how new it still smells after a bunch of years." She sniffed deeper. Then her wanderous eyes latched onto a figure peeping out from a spot behind Junko. "Homura!" Homura's position had been betrayed by her own curiosity. "That is you, isn't it?"
"No need to be shy," Junko tried waving Homura out from her hiding spot. "It's just Sayaka." She said it as if she was an owner trying to lure their skittish cat out from under the couch. Although Junko was almost certainly not intending to sound that way, it was doing Homura and her shaken self-confidence no favors nonetheless.
"H- Hi." Homura forced something verbal out of her mouth.
"Is there a reason you're trying to play it so coy at the moment?" Sayaka, of course, with her natural perceptiveness, sensed Homura's discomfort.
"Would you prefer to explain it or should I?" Junko offered.
"Missus Kaname was curious to see how I might look with cosmetic enhancement," Homura gulped down a breath of courage and stepped forth. "And I obliged her."
"Rrrrreally?" Sayaka trod right inside upon hearing that. "Hmmmmmm," She studied the results. "Weeeeeeird." Not the most heartening first word. "It's like, Madoka's practice work on Kyoko was hilarious and everything, but this," Homura prepared to hear another one of Sayaka's oafish-but-often mortifying ribbings. "You for reals took her to a whole 'nother level of cuteness!" Instead she zig-zagged Homura's expectations with a pure, wholesome compliment.
"If there's one thing I know from nearly a quarter century's experience in make-up application," Junko boasted. "It's that when you're dealing with a natural beauty, all you've gotta do is find the best ways to highlight what's already there."
"Mission accomplished," Sayaka gave Homura's new look her patented 'thumbs-up' gesture. Yet somehow Homura still harbored doubts. These two weren't objective. Of course Junko would take pride in her own handiwork, and Sayaka was hardly the best judge of what qualified as fashionable or feminine. Although it begrudged Homura to admit she was really pulling that coat off well.
"If you still want a chance to catch up to Madoka and your cousin," Junko mercifully changed the subject. "They said they were going to go go-karting when they took off."
"Naaaaaah, they dudes would probably think it creepy of me to drop in on them uninvited in the wild," Sayaka said. "And Kyoko would kick my ass for sure if I stumbled by while she was flirting or playing footsie or doing anything lovey-dovey." They were interrupted once again by a loud noise. This time it was the buzzing and chirping ringtone of the smartphone in Junko's bag on the coat rack.
"Such impeccable timing," Junko griped at the sound.
"I thought that one on the kitchen table was your phone," Homura pointed at it.
"That one's just my personal phone," Junko specified. "This one hollerin' for my attention now is my brand spankin' new work phone." She trotted over and unzipped her bag. What she couldn't share was that it was a customized model on a private network with an encrypted messaging system.
"Is your new job going well?" Homura inquired.
"Yeah, everything's fine." Junko dissembled. What else was she to say? That at any moment that altered voice on the other line might tell her the whole world was about to come flying apart?
"New job?" Sayaka turned an interested eyebrow. "What is it?"
"It's just service work, that's all." She would always tell Madoka that honesty was the best way to make and keep those friends, and now here she was being a hypocrite to them. It was aggravating as hell to her conscience yet it couldn't be helped. "The company's trying to set up a new fast food franchise, and my job is to help supervise the newest wing of their operation." So she told as much of the truth as she was allowed as she took the phone out and unlocked the screen.
"Gee, that sounds like a bit of a step down from what you used to do for them," Sayaka commented. She said it despite knowing nothing about how the inner workings of the corporate ladder go. She just knew enough about her dishwashing job to know she did not want to spend the rest of her life working in a restaurant.
"Hey, as long as my pay keeps going up every year I'll be up for doing whatever they tell me," Junko justified. Words meant just as much for her own peace of mind as theirs. "Just a hunch but I think they're going to call me back in for another go this evening. I'm still in my orientation period." She waved for them to go outside. "As much as I enjoy being friends with my daughter's friends, I think this is where we've gotta be parting ways."
"Thanks for the makeover, Missus Kaname," Homura yanked Sayaka along by her swanky-looking black coat.
"Bye," Sayaka waved.
"Take care of yourselves, girls." Junko waved back without looking up from her screen.
'***PRIORITY ALPHA*** ALL SENIOR STAFF REPORT TO UNIT UNSTEP HQ ASAP'
"See you later."
"Do you see this watch?" Yachiyo dangled her family heirloom, a Seiko branded gold plated pocket watch, in front of Felicia's eyes as they sat on the futon in the parlor room. "Train your eyes on it." She swung the watch around from side to side. "Focus on it."
"Hey, waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiitasecond," But Felicia, as predicted, wasn't going to comply without question. "You're trying to hypnotize me or somethin', aren't you?" She wasn't a good student, but even she was intelligent enough to see straight through Yachiyo's intentions.
"Yes I am," Yachiyo admitted outright. "In today's exercise, I'm going to help you learn to recognize and resist an attempt at hypnosis and any mind or behavioral control that could happen as a result."
"No way!" Felicia crossed her forearms in an 'x' form. "Nuh-uh! Ain't no one ever gonna hypnotize me!"
"You were already hypnotized once," Yachiyo pointed out. "I'm only trying to make it so that anybody who tries to do it to you again will fail." She passed her a cup full of a hot steaming liquid.
"I never got hypnotized!" Felicia barked a denial. "Who told you I got hypnotized?"
"Nanaka Tokiwa and her group apprised me of your incident in Mitakihara which wound up stranding you all in Canada." Nanaka classified it as more of a full-blown outburst, but Yachiyo aimed to avoid inflaming Felicia further with any accusatory language.
"They're lying!" Felicia exclaimed. "I was gonna smash a familiar, but that stupid teleporter got in my way! Nanaka's just tryin' to make me look bad so that no one else'll hire me!" She eyed the drink as she retorted with her own version of events and their motives. "What's this stuff?" She sniffed at it.
"It's a special mint-flavored tea," Yachiyo took a sip of her own drink to allay Felicia's suspicions. "You do realize in your version you're calling Kako a liar too, right?"
"It was dark, Kako didn't see the same stuff I did," Felicia insisted. In the theater of her mind she recalled a fast-moving, energetic familiar that was darting around all the corners and down the station steps. If she hadn't attacked it when she did, it might've swallowed up someone boarding the late night train. "Nnnngh," Slowly the sweet scent of the tea overcame her misgivings.
"I'm sure you're convinced you're telling your truth as much as they are in giving theirs," Yachiyo said. "But what can you recall of the events between you first splitting off from Akira and Kako to the moments leading up to your familiar chase?" She sipped.
"Well, I was gonna go show Kako what I won playin' 'Whack-A-Mole' at the carnival," Felicia recounted. There was a stuffed plush toy with an oversized head laying on the pillow next to her. She couldn't resist her sweet tooth's urgings anymore, so she slurped up a sample of the tea real quick, sloshed it around like mouthwash and swallowed once she was satisfied it wasn't a part of Yachiyo's hypnosis ruse. "That's when I sensed this familiar comin' around the-" She paused. "No wait, it was a girl." She took another swig of the tea. "She said my Snaa looked so cute and wanted me to show her where she could win her own." She stroked the doll atop its head trying to parse the explicit details. "Nope. I was definitely chasing around that familiar, 'cuz that's how I got back to Kako and Akira at the station." Then where did that memory of the girl come from? Was she mistaking it for a later memory? But how could that be? She remembered it happening on the streets of Mitakihara, indeed the location was the only specific thing she remembered. She couldn't even describe the girl's face to Yachiyo if asked.
"Repressed or contradictory memories are a common after effect of mental manipulation," Yachiyo informed her. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It can happen to anyone, even the strongest of magical girls." She took another sip. "The key to warding it off lies in understanding how it works. And for you to learn that is going to require a bit of immersion therapy." She dangled the watch again. "So are you willing to trust me in the name of becoming a tougher magical girl?"
"Guuuuuuuuuh!" Felicia grunted. "Fiiiiine!" She downed the rest of her tea in one guzzle. "Good luck gettin' me to fall asleep, though." With furled brows and great reluctance she set her eyes upon the watch. "I don't even sleep all that much during bedtime!"
"So I've noticed," Yachiyo swayed the watch at a fixed tempo from side to side. Felicia had spent no more than a singular night at Yachiyo's villa thus far, and already she could tell the girl was a very light sleeper. "Just keep your eyes on the watch, please." Back in the waiting room during Yuma's interview she got intrigued enough by Yuma's comment to take out her phone and do some searches on the Internet. While insomnia was a prevalent symptom in a whole host of learning and behavioral disorders, the trait alone wasn't enough to draw any conclusions.
"Aren't you supposed to say, 'You are getting veeeeery sleeeeepy' or somethin' next?" Felicia's eyes slipped off her target.
"If this were a movie or an anime, yes," Yachiyo put her finger up. "Eyes on it. Now listen to the soothing sound of my voice."
"I really don't think this is gonna-" Felicia's mouth fell and her eyelids came to a close. Her sudden loss of consciousness also took away her ability to sit up straight, so next her head collapsed onto the pillow beside her soft, pink-cheeked doll. She was out cold.
"I knew you weren't gonna be able to pay close attention to anything that wasn't a backlit screen for more than a few moments at a time," Yachiyo removed the gold ring on Felicia's finger. "So I laced your tea with a magic powder the Coordinator said would ease you right to sleep. If this accomplishes nothing else I'll at least know I got my money's worth for it." Not more than two minutes later the doorbell rang. But Yachiyo did not need to peep through the window to know it was Tsuruno waiting outside.
"Yuma's at Momoko's, like you wanted." Tsuruno greeted Yachiyo with folded arms. A greeting only slightly warmer than a cold shoulder.
"Thank you," Yachiyo expressed her gratitude in her softest voice. It was also an initial olive branch, a subtle way of indicating that, for as heated as their verbal spat got yesterday, she held no grudge towards Tsuruno and could never do so. "Please, come on in."
"Huh?" Tsuruno came into the parlor and found Felicia fast asleep with her Soul Gem sitting transmuted into its egg form on the table. Next to it was an eighteen centimeter high, roughly ten centimeter wide candle with a very light violet color to its wax. "What're you up to?" There was also a piece of white chalk situated nearby.
"Together the three of us are going to dive into a sort of shared, lucid dream state," Yachiyo disclosed. "And once we're deep enough asleep, that's where I plan to tell the Truth to Felicia."
"T- That's-" Tsuruno stammered. "That's nuts! Why do you need to tell her what we are inside a dream?"
"Well have you been any paying attention to the local nightly news of late?" Yachiyo asked.
"A little," Tsuruno replied. "What's that got to do with anything?" She questioned back.
"You hear about that big, growing sinkhole that threatens to swallow Lake Kamihama?" Tsuruno nodded an affirmative response. "That's on her. And on me for letting her leash get a little too long." Yachiyo transmuted her own Soul Gem into its egg form. "I figure what she needs above anything else right now is a healthy outlet for which she can vent her bottled emotions and destructive tendencies, in case she doesn't deal with it very maturely." She set it down near the candle on the opposite side of Felicia's.
"And you know how to link people together in their dreams?" Tsuruno queried, her skepticism made obvious through her arched brow, flared nostril and curled upper lip.
"Yes," Yachiyo picked up the chalk. "Mifuyu and I used to do this a lot when we were younger magical girls."
"But Mifuyu would have been the real expert at it," Tsuruno pointed out. "Plus that was a pretty long time ago, too."
"True, I don't know if my memories are still fresh enough to be able to initiate an intimate two-way connection the way Mifuyu and I used to," Yachiyo admitted. "But she later developed a multilateral technique that involved others, drew material from everyone's minds and overall drained less magic." She started to draw a five-pointed star around the candle. "And for that reason I feel it's our best bet at working through this safely."
"What do you mean 'safely'?" Tsuruno piped. "You mean you've got a reason to think it might not be?"
"Possibly," Yachiyo hesitated. "But she's a stupid, loud, howling obnoxious nuisance at worst. And I think that if I crib primarily from Felicia's psyche with you as a back-up, then she'll be forced out of her element enough that the chances of her doing anything nefarious will hopefully be almost nil."
"Who's 'she'?" The nervous Tsuruno cocked her head to the side.
"You remember all the things I told you about that brain-altering manifestation Hanna Sarasa planted in my head that manipulated me by taking on Mifuyu's image?"
"You mean she's back? But you said she faded away once that girl and her magic died, right?" Tsuruno recalled.
"She's not back per se, it's more that she left behind a malevolent entity to haunt my nightmares, or it's possible the thing was always in there but she let it out of its cage," Yachiyo expounded.
"Ehhhh?" Tsuruno took a seat on the table. "What is it?"
"It's some kind of manifestation of my witch," Yachiyo revealed. "... I think."
"Whaaaaaaaaat?" Tsuruno gasped. "You're serious?"
"Quite serious." Yachiyo confirmed. She took another cup from the cupboard and headed over. "It seems to behave much the same way a witch would, trying to pick me off while I'm vulnerable."
"You act as if that's no big deal or something!" Tsuruno exclaimed at an elevated tone that almost awoke the sleeping Felicia. Yachiyo gestured that she needed to take it down a notch. "There's a witch in your head! That sounds like the biggest big-deal to me!"
"She only exists in my dreams, what can she really do to me in there?" Yachiyo argued, pouring Tsuruno some tea. "I admit, her first few jump scares had left me pretty shaken, but once I deduced what her real motives were, really she's a pathetic thing who's barely intelligent and self-aware enough to see that I'll never cow to the forces of despair or yield my sense of self control to her in any way, she's lashing out through the only avenue that she can." She passed the tea over. "She's little better than a subconscious version of Montezuma's Revenge," She paused, taking a sip of her own tea. "No, she's more like one of those trolls who tries to stoke outrage or bully people on the Internet. But this time I'll be the one who capitalizes on her tantrums. This way I'll be able to show Felicia that, for as much sound and fury as witches make, they're just personifications of our dark sides and with the right kind of self-discipline our conditions are entirely manageable."
"Well if you're so sure you've got this thing licked, what do you need me for?" Tsuruno stuck her pinkie into the tea and suckled the sample off her finger. There was something in it, more than the minty flavoring. Tsuruno did possess a specialized magical sense that was on par with what Yachiyo and Felicia possessed, but it was somewhat limited to the tips of her taste buds.
"Every time I've slain her in my dreams, she returns, leaner and screamier," Yachiyo noted. "Her attacks are so persistent and predictable now that it's starting to affect my bedtime routine." She struck a long fireplace match and used it to light the candle on the table. "And I think I know the reason. If she really is a proto-witch of some kind as I presume, then it would be logical to assume she's maintaining her existence by feeding off my subconscious worries, doubts and fears." She fluffed a pillow at her side and put her feet up on the couch. "You were right when you said that I was the one who was at fault for what became of Mel and Kanae. You may have meant it in the moment as an insult, but that's been a sore point in my head ever since that night. Honestly, I believed I was protecting you from the consequences of that night by withholding the Truth, dissolving the squad, handing Momoko the mentorship reins, assigning you a non-combat role on our committee and leaving you out of my search for Mifuyu. Because I thought you were still so naïve, weak and inexperienced that you needed protection. Now you might be a Tsuruno who's better equipped to handle all the harsher truths of this world with full awareness of what we are, you might insist that you can handle anything the life of a magical girl throws at you, but no matter what you may say or what you might achieve, I fear there's going to be an uncertainty that lingers within the depths of my heart that'll be enough to feed that thing indefinitely, unless it's exercised." She laid back and clasped her hands over her chest as if she were a princess about to take a months-long beauty nap. "And I feel the best way for you to help ease my mind and show me you have come into your own as a top-tier magical girl, is to personally come along and assist me in ridding myself of that wicked, rotten nuisance, once and for all. So are you ready to prove yourself to my troubled subconscious?"
"Okay," Tsuruno closed her eyes and gulped down her special tea. "If that's what it takes. I'll do it."
"Alright then." Yachiyo inhaled and exhaled a deep, relaxing breath. "Meet you on the next level of reality."
"Those who inhabit this land, bow your heads low, all hail the Almighty Clockwork Queen!" A puppet with Saya's exaggerated voice announced.
"Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there was an all-seeing, all-ruling monarch who made everyone in her domain speak the same words, wear the same clothes, eat the same food, sleep in the same-sized bed, and pay the same tributes to her glory." Hitomi narrated on the microphone to their audience of Kindergarteners, script in hand. "It was a land of true harmony, equality, and peace, like a clock forever kept in pristine shape." Mifuyu plucked a simple melody on her koto, providing their show with a veneer of music. "Everybody did as they were told and there was no sadness or suffering. Everyone lived to serve the Queen, while the Queen did her best to ensure their society's stability. To the Queen this arrangement was perfection. For everyone else, they were content in knowing their purpose."
"Clockwork Queen, the order you have imposed upon these people is wrong, and I shall oppose your tyranny!" Another puppet wearing a harlequin jester's costume appeared onstage.
"Who dares defy my rule?" A third puppet wearing a crown and a white cloth dress spackled in silver glitter appeared and asked. "Ah. 'Tis you. The Fool. The Court Jester whom I exiled for not providing me with sufficient cheer." Saya uttered in a regal, condescending tone. "Begone! Or I will smite thee with my company of Lances!"
"But the Jester was not alone in opposing her," Hitomi rushed over, slid a pair of figures over her hands and popped them above the stage. "They had the help of the storytelling Bard and her friend the trouper, whom the Queen judged and imprisoned as beings unfit for service in the world her ambitions envisioned." She waved at the audience with the hand featuring the Bard clad in yellow clothes while poking at the Queen puppet with the trouper in red.
"What?" The Queen exclaimed. "You twosome? The last I saw you were chained in my lowest-dwelling dungeon! Who let you taste this clean air once again?"
"'Tis I!" Saya exchanged the jester puppet for another puppet donning a pair of gray, plastic cups cut up pieced together over its main body.
"Gasp! My most trusted guard and servant!" The tiny hands on the Queen were pushed upward to meet her face. "What possible sort of motivation could have instigated your betrayal?" A sudden eager hand in the audience went up and interrupted the play.
"Yes? What is it?" Mifuyu stopped playing and politely asked the child.
"What does 'betrayal' mean?" A boy with a blue shirt and bowl cut asked.
"It's when one person stops being friends with another, because they did something to make that person hurt." Saya peeked her head over the little stage and explained.
"What does 'motivation' mean?" A girl who did not wait for Mifuyu to call upon her asked. "And what does 'instigated' mean, too?"
"Psssst!" Hitomi nudged her friend and whispered. "I warned you our word choice might be a little too complicated for kids of this age group!"
"But it would be in character for the Queen to use language that is too different and sophisticated for the commoners to understand," Saya argued with her explanation. "It has the effect of making the audience sympathize with the rebels."
"The word 'motivation' means 'reason'," Mifuyu took over the lexicon lesson. "And 'instigated' means 'started'. The Queen wants to know why her favorite soldier would turn against her."
"If there was no sadness or suffering, then why would those guys wanna change it?" A boy in a first grader's uniform raised his hand and asked.
"Because people like to set their value as living things on their own terms," Hitomi spoke up. "They don't like it when some person who controls their lives sets it for them."
"And when that authority figure declares they have no value," Saya added. "As she did for the jester, the bard and the trouper, then they are faced with an unfortunate choice."
"They can either accept what that leader tells them, and go away forever," Mifuyu chimed in. "Or fight back and prove to their worth to the world." She strummed a discordant set of notes on her koto using the back tips of her fingernails. "And when two sides cannot be bargained, reasoned or negotiated with, then conflict becomes a certainty."
"But what about the knight?" Another girl asked. "What made them switch sides?"
"I am sure that part they will explain in the next scene," The teacher watching over their proceedings said. "So please take a seat and let them." But the sudden ringing of the class bell prevented their story from continuing. "Whoops. Sorry girls." The class leapt from their perches on the carpet and shuffled towards the exit. "Guess this will have to end on a cliffhanger for today."
"That's okay," Hitomi stood up. "Nemu's still in the process of writing the ending. She says she hasn't decided whether to make the identity of the knight a sudden plot twist or a gradual reveal."
"And the Arts and Crafts Club still has to construct the finalized designs of the puppets," Saya elaborated. "They have not even decided whether they should stick with these simple hand puppets or try to build full-sized marionettes."
"This performance was mostly sort of a dry run so we could gauge how interested the kids would be in the story," Mifuyu added. "Going by how eager they were to ask questions, I might say we have a hit on our hands." The sound of a vibrating smartphone disrupted their discussion.
"Sounds like that belongs to you, Miss Otonashi," The teacher said as he packed up his own belongings. "Such convenient conversation-disruptors, those things." He remarked as he booked for the door. "And how ironic that such a machine invented to help us stick to schedule does so much to distract us from them." He waved a three fingered salute across his forehead on the way out. "Toodles for the session, Heroes Club."
"See you later," Hitomi and Mifuyu waved back on each side of Saya as she checked on her phone.
"What's the message?" Hitomi saw her friend had received a text of some kind.
"A special 'SOS' message from 'Sana's Kingdom,' Saya read. "The Ghost Army has been spotted amassing its forces at the foot of Castle Ridge." She scrolled. "Our valiant assistance is requested at once."
"Ugh, spam," Hitomi dismissed the plea. "You know, as much as I really do enjoy that game, I'm so glad I declined to give that arcade my cell number." She swiftly scooped up her script, her books and her puppets. "I can't imagine the looks my parents would give me if they found out so much of my alleged club time was being wasted on some silly role-playing adventure."
"Are you not up for answering her call today?" Saya asked her.
"Gee, I'd love to," Hitomi smiled. "But I've fallen to being only three days ahead now in my studies."
"You may be the only student I have ever met who is obsessed with staying well ahead of her peers," Mifuyu observed. "What are you saving up all that spare time for, if not to spend it with your friends?"
"I don't just do it to free up some time to spend with you guys," Hitomi responded. "I also do it so that I can help tutor the lagging students, too." Hitomi waved her goodbye. "Helping others… Isn't that the Heroes Club mantra?"
"See you later," They said in one voice as she made her departure. The very moment she had gone away from their sights, the pair's friendly, amiable demeanors dropped for looks more serious and urgent.
"What are they doing now?" Mifuyu glared at Saya's phone.
"Crossing the moat at present," Saya announced. "Sana electrified the water but they've already adapted to that permutation of the environmental encryption code. Now Nemu's altering the internal layout of the castle for when they breech its walls."
"Then we need to get down there and assist them, pronto!" Mifuyu twirled around and with a bright flicker changed her outfit completely. Instead of a school uniform, now she was wearing a long dark gray overcoat-like dress with white wool lining, with a similarly colored corset underneath and a white miniskirt covering her bottom, and detached gray sleeves on her arms. Once her costume change had completed, she let out a singular long, troubled sigh.
"What are you experiencing?" Despite their hastiness Saya took a moment to question her comrade.
"I believe from comparable experiences this is what the emotion of anxiety feels like." Mifuyu revealed. "Though I know our deception is necessary I do not prefer keeping someone whose confidence and trust I have come to appreciate in the dark about the full extent of our collective predicament."
"I know what you mean," The young lady took her senior's hand. "I did not seek to put Sana in this kind of danger, I only sought to better understand the volatility of the emotional spectra," Saya disclosed. "I do not think I could still carry out my designed function if she were to suffer actual harm because of my innate need for companionship." She turned to her companion, and asked, "Does that description correlate better to 'guilt' or 'remorse'?"
"Unfortunately, as much as I want to ruminate on the topic, we lack sufficient time to share our thoughts on the matter," Mifuyu guided Saya to the window and snapped her finger. "It is imperative we go and take this stand." At whiz-bang speed they had sent themselves straight to the kiosk at the arcade.
"First we secure Sana's safety," Saya put on a specialized headset.
"Yes. Help Sana," Mifuyu did the same. "Then Nemu. And hopefully, save the world."