I own none of the characters, settings, or organizations that appear in this story, but if I did then I would take over the world.

This is an old idea of mine that I have been tossing around for a while and slowly working on over the past year or two. I have greatly enjoyed much of the work created by the Bofuri fandom and could not help but be inspired by the amazing and amazingly entertaining work of all of you, so thank you! I hope that this story can serve as a small way to give back to the fandom. You do not need to have seen Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department to enjoy this fic, but I highly recommend watching it, because it is a funny anime that you will probably enjoy especially since you must be someone who enjoyed Bofuri to have found your way here. If you do not watch that anime first then you will be missing out on parts of this story and will not be getting the full experience.

This story will eventually have Kaede/Maple x Risa/Sally among other ships.

This story was originally split into much shorter chapters, so the first two chapters that will be released were originally five chapters and I decided to keep the subheadings I originally wrote for each. I will probably add subheadings for the new chapters I am working on. My time writing this story will not be interfering with my time working on my other writing projects.

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy Maple VS The Monster Development Department

X-X-X-X-X

How Maple Escaped Her Prison!

It was a Friday evening and Kaede Honjou rubbed her forehead where a bruise was forming. She had to remind herself that here in this world she was not the invincible god of death and destruction that she was in NewWorld Online. She was also much faster in this world. Maybe she took both details about not being a human turtle for granted earlier when she was running home from school, not even bothering to zip up her backpack on her way out the door, but Kaede could not help it. She was so excited about her upcoming interview with Armagadoon LLC, the makers of the best game in the whole world, NewWorld Online.

Her aunt had very recently become an executive of Armagadoon's parent company. The how was anyone's guess. Kaede's aunt Karen was just a temp worker a few months ago, something grandmother was never thrilled about, almost as much as she was not thrilled about both of her daughters moving to the big city. Her mom and dad both had their theories about Karen Mizuki's unprecedented rise to the top, but grandmother was proud of her, so Kaede's parents kept their thoughts about romancing executives and criminal conspiracies mostly to themselves.

Karen had come to visit a few days after the invasion by American monster manufacturers to check on her big sister and look at some of the houses for sale in the neighborhood. Karen had brought her coworker Miss Heiki Matsuyama who gave the family the only clue they had about Karen's rise to the top when she said that Karen helped save her company and several others during the invasion by utilizing her extensive network of contacts that she had built up as a temp worker.

While Miss Matsuyama was talking to Kaede's parents, Karen and Kaede had started geeking out about their love of gaming over the dinner table. Karen preferred handheld and mobile games while Kaede only had room in her heart for NewWorld Online, but Karen's favorite games were also made by Armagadoon and even took place in some of the levels of NewWorld Online featuring many of the same characters, but the stories were often told from a new perspective. Kaede would never have guessed that the hydra boss of the poison dungeon on the first level would have a love for cooking, but Kaede was not too surprised. She knew that the hydra boss had excellent taste from all the times she had eaten the creature and she knew first hand how the hydra's poison made for an excellent seasoning.

Karen's preferences made sense since she used to have to move from city to city or travel out into the countryside for her various odd jobs. She only started looking into buying a permanent residence in the last month and after talking to Kaede, she was even thinking about getting herself a copy of NewWorld Online to play with Kaede and some of her friends from work. Karen had held off on buying any expensive gaming system, because money had always been tight, but with her position in Armagadoon's parent company, she could just get a VR set and copy of the game.

And that is when Kaede learned that not only was Armagadoon based in her home city, Tokyo but also that Armagadoon was a subsidiary of the company Karen worked for. Not only that, but Armagadoon was also about to start looking for test pilots, especially young gamers, for their new VR platform INSIDIOUS that would revolutionize the world of online gaming and turn NewWorld Online into an even more immersive experience. Her aunt also mentioned something about military contracts, but that probably was not important. Her aunt Karen even helped Kaede fill out her application while Kaede's parents helped her with her resume with a few surprising tips from Karen.

According to Karen, the people in charge of hiring Armagadoon's test pilots would actually value Kaede's leadership and lateral thinking skills that she had developed in their game, and Kaede's parents were overjoyed their daughter's two thousand hours in game had not been time wasted. There were details on the application that made very little sense to Kaede like the question about what to do if the office building was attacked by a super powered person and/or monster and Kaede had jokingly said she would eat the attacker and take their power for herself. Karen had said, completely seriously, that Kaede should write that and when asked why, had just said to trust her.

That had been weeks ago. The response to her application had come just days later, but the interview would not be held until tomorrow. Today however, Kaede had a different problem. In her excitement about the interview, she had made the one mistake that should never be made by anyone living in Tokyo; Kaede had run through a hero battle.

Kaede only realized she was in danger after this week's monster's projectile weapon or maybe a broken piece of a building had struck her on the head. Then she recognized the voices she was hearing. They were the voices of the local hero and wielder of the Sacred Sword, or at least one of a few hundred sacred swords, Divine Swordsman Blader and he was talking to Agastia's infamous monster makers. Kaede had only heard a little of their conversation, but they seemed to be discussing the infamous villain Dark Blader who had been seen terrorizing local restaurants and department stores, though thankfully Dark Blader had not harmed anyone yet.

Kaede also heard one of Agastia's monster makers, probably the red headed woman from TV who had gone missing during the invasion, say something about being really glad she did not have to wear some kind of suit or something anymore. Kaede did not want to know the details right then. She knew she would probably hear all about what happened from Risa when the two called tomorrow after her interview, a call where they would probably also be talking about the special event NewWorld Online would be hosting on Sunday, just for residents of Tokyo.

Kaede massaged the bump on her head as she unpacked her school things realizing that she had left her bag open again when she had run out of the school. As she was pulling out her school tablet, which was thankfully intact after whatever had hit her on the head, her hand brushed against something that did not belong, a funny shaped black bracelet. The bracelet was a dark purple, almost black, with a pinkish purple gem like display shaped like a shield with a gun metal gray outline set in the middle, dark purple accents like the poison of Maple's hydra, and a high tech magnetic clasp.

The bracelet looked like the kind of rare loot drop accessory Kaede's NewWorld Online self, Maple, would wear, being all dark and scary and mysterious. If this was NewWorld Online, the bracelet would even give her some kind of game breaking ability even if the Administrators had not realized Kaede would find a way to use the ability to break the game. Kaede really wanted to try the strange bracelet on, just for a moment. Then she would try to find the owner. The bracelet probably belonged to one of her classmates and just got mixed into her stuff. Risa would probably know who since Risa usually noticed details Kaede would miss.

Kaede put on the bracelet. It looked pretty and evil. As she held the bracelet up to the light saw some small kanji etched into the side. The kanji looked like a set of user instructions. Kaede shrugged. Kaede decided the words should be safe to read since even if they activated something, nothing could hurt her with her absurdly high health and defense, "This item is actually a monster whose form changes in response to the monster who equips it." Kaede read as she thought back to all of the times people had called her a monster. "To activate, say Transform."

There was a flash of red light and a screen appeared on the gem. On it were the words "As of update 31.47, this monster now includes a user interface to allow new monster users to customize their experience. This update was added to prevent unintended user experiences such as…" and went on to describe a number of things like users being trapped inside of the monster suit that Kaede was not interested in reading, because she had seen another screen behind the screen talking about the update.

She clicked out of the update to see the words New User, choose the stats for your new form. She saw a hexagon appear with a stat at each corner. Kaede poured every single point into her defense stat. A new option popped up saying 'choose your sword'. She selected the option for the requisite sword to be shaped like a tower shield, and when asked to choose one ability, she selected one for Adaptive Defense which according to the description would allow her to become more resistant to a kind of attack the more times she was attacked with it, just like how she gained some of her absurd effect resistances in NewWorld Online.

Kaede was then prompted with a series of warnings about how the suit would be impossible to move in, how the suit was supposedly hard to remove, and how it would pose a danger to the user. She clicked out of all of them. She was then prompted with a final warning in very big letters saying that her suit would become an inescapable coffin. That was silly. She, the invincible Maple, did not care about such absurdities. Let the non invincible mortals worry about such things. She clicked out of it.

When prompted to enter a name for the new configuration, she entered Maple. With this last step out of the way, the red light returned bathing Kaede's room in what was to her the comforting glow of blood mixed with maple syrup. She smiled. She definitely lucked out with this rare loot drop.

This rare loot drop that probably belonged to her classmate meaning she would have to return it…

This rare loot drop that she found in the real world.

The real world being the place where Maple was not invincible, because here she was not Maple, but was only Kaede, the awkward girl who according to her parents had developed a video game addiction and was according to her parents and real world friends losing her ability to separate reality from fiction.

As the light began to encompass her body, Kaede wondered if she had made a mistake.

When a white light began to transform her school clothing into something else she was sure she made a mistake and she wondered if she should try screaming for help. At the very least she would probably need a new school uniform.

When the red and white light receded leaving a wicked suit of black, red, and purple heavy segmented plate armor all over her body, and she looked at herself in her full body mirror to see a horned helmet with sinister slits for eyes and a too wide mouth full of fangs, spiked pauldrons, and heavy gauntlet and boots, with a big spiked tower shield with blade like edges along the bottom and side and a top resembling a crossguard she had to wonder if this was actually one of the best decisions of her entire life.

She had always wanted to own armor like that of her in game avatar. She was even planning on making a version of her armor out of EVA foam for a big convention coming up in just a month that Risa was dragging her to. A repeating rose motif throughout her new armor even reminded her of her armor from NewWorld Online. The only detracting factor was that this armor looked ever so slightly like a sentai suit, completely covering the body and looking somewhat form fitting, in fact it actually looked like if Dark Blader was a medieval fantasy knight, but that would just be silly.

Yes, this was definitely a good idea, Kaede thought as with long experience from moving as her in-game avatar she made one careful step after another as she adjusted to the familiar and comforting weight of invincibility.

That was until she heard the knock at her door. "Kaede, are you home? You better not be playing any games. You have an interview to prepare for."

Kaede had already spent tons of hours researching and practicing for her interview. She was ready for it even if her mother could not see past her gaming habit. Kaede did not want to be sat down at the dinner table for another mock interview that would inevitably devolve into her mother ripping into her for spending so much time gaming.

Kaede also realized looking into the mirror that she could not have her mother see her looking like some kind of super villain.

She could make an excuse to buy time, take off and hide the armor, and then do just one more practice interview. Looking out the window, Kaede thought about the bushes underneath that would certainly break her fall and had more than once in the past.

She made her decision and with a rattle of metal made her way to the window to the sound of her mother's scolding and threats to enter.

With a heave of effort Kaede lifted herself over the sill just as the knob of her door started to turn. Kaede saw the knob move, her hand slipped, and she fell heavily onto her mother's bushes.

Kaede felt nothing from the fall unlike any other time she had fallen out her window. That was actually a lie, Kaede decided. She did feel something. For the first while also fully aware that she was in the real world, Kaede felt invincible.

She grinned, feeling her fanged helmet grin with her and turned from the slightly squashed bushes and broken branches and towards the neighborhood lit in the evening's dying light. She was invincible! Maple had escaped into the real world!

Maple's First Victim!

Yuto Higatani sometimes wanted to be an ordinary boy with an ordinary life, but he had a secret. What his classmates at school and everyone else in his life with the exception of his parents and his comrades at JA HQ did not know was that Yuto Higatani was actually Magia Zwart of the magical girl duo Pilia Magia, a defender of truth and justice. At least he had believed in fighting for truth and justice in the beginning. He still believed in the fight itself, just not in the ways he was doing it.

He was especially lacking faith in the methods used in the good fight right now with his latest orders, to test out a newly upgraded and more importantly, at least for hq's merchandising department, newly redesigned Magia Compact.

Reo, or as she was known to the public, Magia Rose was not with him today and for that he was a little grateful. Reo's strange mood swings and more importantly what she did under their influence, a side effect of her use of the compact, could leave him feeling some mixture of aroused, intrigued, disturbed, uncomfortable, and mortally embarrassed. Thankfully Reo had a serious cold. He did not want to imagine Reo testing out this prototype.

The new compact supposedly would not cause similar magical hormonal imbalances in already hormonal teenagers, but the boffins who put these devices together had guaranteed no side effects with the original compacts and he knew that the real focus on the new and alarmingly expensive prototype (he had seen a paper once showing just how many yen went into its development) was on its new and all important special ability, Mirror, well that and finding the most marketable new design for the compacts while staying recognizably consistent with Pilia Magia's existing aesthetic.

The new compact was the result of months of development in the wake of the American invasion. No single force could stand against the American monster corporation's creations and as such Pilia Magia had been forced to team up with not only Agastia and Black Lore, but also the vigilante Divine Swordsman Blader to defeat the Americans. Yuto had no problem with the Divine Swordsmen or any other Sentai heroes, but his boss gave him orders. Blader was competition for heroing and therefore a greater threat, at least to HQ's bottom line, than a monster making company like Agastia or Black Lore.

So now, Yuto was being sent out to test the Compact mirror's special Mirror ability on an actual villain. According to the boffins, the new compact still allowed transformation like a regular Magia Compact, but unlike the regular one, it would not transform into the Magia Stick. Instead, the Magia Stick would be summoned in the same manner as the outfit. The boffins had taken Reo's feedback following Pilia Magia's battle with Canon Thunderbird and Hydra very seriously and would not allow a shot to the Magia Stick to take the magical girl out of action.

He was on patrol when he heard a beeping from the device. Pulling it out of his pocket he saw the familiar red warning holographic and heard the familiar words for a monster sighting with the accompanying location of the sighting.

With a sigh he said the magic words, "Magia Break" and was consumed by light.

Yuto felt himself rise into the air, his clothing disappeared, and his body began to change. He grit his teeth through the odd combination of calm and euphoria. It felt a little stronger than usual. He could feel fabric forming all over his body and a Magia Stick forming in his left hand. After a surprisingly long time the transformation was complete and he felt his feet lowered to the ground and attached the untransformed prototype compact to his belt using a remarkably mundane clasp for such an expensive prototype.

Looking at his clothing, he saw that it was embarrassingly less covering than his usual magical girl attire. He considered trying to cover himself, but without Reo here, there was nobody he knew who he would have to worry about showing this side of himself to, and anyway, the people needed to see their hero standing confident in the face of evil.

He turned towards the general location of the monster sighting.

Magia Zwart had joined the hunt.

Magia Zwart found his prey in an abandoned suburban street on the edge of Tokyo. He was pretty sure he had some classmates who lived around here based on all the birthdays he would get invited to and then never be able to attend, because of the fight against evil.

There in the center of the street was an armored villain, almost like a demon with a horned grinning fang mask and spiked pauldrons. In its hands was a great big tower shield with bladed edges. The monster's armor looked vaguely similar to Dark Blader, no doubt a sign of its inspiration as the newest Agastia monster meant to fight Blader.

Agaista's monster production had been on a hiatus for a while, no doubt working on some new and even more terrifying creation, no doubt one meant to stand against possible future invasions of Japan. If this thing was like the new compact, the result of countless hours and yen and a new ace up Agastia's sleeve then underestimating it would be a fatal mistake.

That being said, Magia Zwart figured this thing was probably meant to be the perfect anti Blader weapon as well, since Blader was Agastia's principle hero rival, Blader who was a ground pounder, so even if it had some anti air capabilities, Magia Zwart guessed it would probably only be meant to target American blimps used to transport monsters and not something as small and fast as a magical girl.

Still, to be on the safe side, Magia Zwart maneuvered in the air to hang behind the monster and aimed his Magia Stick at the villain's back, "Piercing Rose!".

Seven pink beams of light speared towards the target and struck its back, each with the force of an armor piercing bullet. The monster tilted its head to look over its shoulder before turning to face Magia Zwart. Magia repositioned to fire another Piercing Rose, the strongest attack he had for fighting armored opponents, but this one was blocked by the thing's shield. Magia fired another shot again to no effect. If this went on he would have to give up the fight until his magic could recharge.

He heard a voice like that of a small girl, but with a kind of horrifying reverb as if the girl was actually a demon in disguise, "Is this supposed to be doing something to me?"

"What? Impossible! How do you just shrug off all of my attacks?!"

"Don't blame yourself. I'm just invincible, but you're welcome to keep trying."

Magia Zwart was down to half his starting mana reserves.

He looked at his compact which he had attached to his belt. The Mirror ability would allow him to gain an inferior version or imitation of the target's power. The boffins who made it though had not said if that meant it would allow him to steal the target's ability or just copy it. If he could steal the ability then the monster would lose its defense. If he could only copy its ability then he would gain a slightly inferior version of the monster's impervious defense for whenever he might need it, and HQ could not complain, because they had sent him out to gather a villain's ability to study the effects on the compact. Even better still, the compact relied on an internal battery that would be refilled by ambient mana in the environment and therefore would not drain his own reserves the way his Magia Stick would.

He tucked his Magia Stick into his belt and lifted up his compact. The original compact had some mostly meaningless pretty decorations on the cover that included six gems, a heart, a turtle shell, two stars, and two dots arranged in a pretty little design. The upgraded compact still featured six gems, but this time there were two hearts, two turtle shells, and two stars, arranged in a circle. Apparently dots, even as accent pieces, just were not very popular with focus groups. The upgraded compact however actually made these gems useful. All of the gems were also now a white crystalline color as opposed to the original's fake amethysts and rubies.

Opening the compact and pointing it at the target he said the activation phrase. "Mirror, Rose Shell One!"

The front of the compact exploded into an eerie ruby light. The ruby motif the PR department insisted on was nice until it started to look more like blood. A ring of red glyphs formed around the cover of the device.

The monster cried out and lifted their shield. For a moment Magia Zwart hoped for the best, but when the light faded along with the glowing glyphs about a full minute later (he would have to talk to the boffins about the long capture time) the monster was still standing there, seemingly unaffected.

Yuto really hated testing new equipment and not being sure what it would do and if it would even work.

"So… you say Mirror, Rose Shell One and a bright light appears? That's a weird spell incantation for just summoning a magic flash bang. I did not even feel any damage happen."

"It's more than just a magical flashlight." He said, not really paying full attention to the ground bound target as he examined Rose Shell One on the cover of the compact. The shell had turned pure black with a creepy purple sheen. The marketing people would probably try to get him to get rid of it, but he really did not care. Assuming this device actually could recall the monster's power, he now had an impenetrable armor shell. He would be able to just sit still in a fight and let his magic recharge rather than being forced to run away. He would be able to put himself in harm's way to save those who could not save themselves.

"Cool, anyways, I think it's my turn." said the monster, "Deploy Armaments!"

Magia Zwart saw his life flash before his eyes. There was something about the way that the monster said those words, 'it's my turn' like she was absolutely certain that Magia Zwart would not survive what came next and 'Deploy Armaments' was always ominous to hear.

He did not think. He flew up into the air in a corkscrew to throw off any shots, the direction chosen to protect civilians from stray blasts. The compact was in his hands. He had another option. He was supposed to test out the new compact's properties afterall, "Rose Shell One Activate!"

A black light pierced the evening light consuming all in shadow. Bloody light filled his vision. He stopped his evasive maneuvers. He was trying to fly. He pushed his flight spell to the maximum. He crashed to the Earth landing on all fours, but strangely he felt no pain.

He tried to move. He tried to run. Whatever armaments that were deployed were no doubt targeting him, aiming enough firepower at him to bring down a dirigible.

His limbs resisted. He saw that they were coated in black metal with a purple sheen and a lot of red accents, likely an aesthetic by-product of using the Prototype Compact.

He was wearing impenetrable armor. He was on all fours in a small crater. HQ would not like the damage to public property. He had dropped his compact. It was at the edge of the crater, the glowing glyphs had returned, what he figured was a sign of the charge in its battery. He could not dismiss the armor without it unless the battery was drained. The battery did not appear to be draining. He could not dismiss the armor that was imprisoning him without the compact. He could not detransform without the compact.

He looked up into the eyes of the monster. It was standing right over him between him and the compact. It had not deployed any new armaments.

"Sorry, I forgot I don't have that ability here." Zwart wanted to bang his head into the ground at his own stupidity, but right now he had to escape.

Pushing his flight spells to the limits he unsteadily pushed himself to his feet while the monster slowly stepped around behind him.

"Wow, it looks a lot like my own armor, but maybe a little more red."

He was now barely holding himself on just his feet when he saw two arms, one holding a shield reach around from behind him and he felt a pressure on his back.

He fell back onto all fours. His mana reserves were in the red.

"Hah! I knew you wouldn't be able to defend against my special move, Hug Attack! I know because I would fall all the time when my friends would hug me." He was beaten by a hug? "I also figured you would have basically no turning speed. You know that mirror copy trick is pretty cool. Can you tell me what dungeon you got that item from?"

He said nothing. He had to reach the compact and get out of this armor, but how? The compact was still slowly draining its battery. There was an ever so slightly darker point in the circle. There was no way he was going to be able to stall for enough time for the battery to run out, not if it could take as much as a quarter hour, though perhaps less if it required energy to maintain its form against attacks.

"You were happy to talk earlier? Don't be a sore loser. Nobody can beat me, so there's nothing wrong with you, in fact you're so great I really only beat you through luck."

Zwart would say it was his stupidity for engaging in evasive maneuvers without even seeing any kind of threat and then using an untested tool in an active battlefield.

"Can you at least tell me your name? I'm Maple."

She was talking. She was distracted. He may not be able to stall for time, but this was still an opportunity. Just get her talking and when she lowers her guard, lunge for the compact. "I'm Magia Zwart. You might have heard of me."

"Oh! Did you name your avatar after the magical girl Magia Zwart? You even have the face and hair, but I don't think that's the correct outfit for her." What was this monster saying about avatars? Whatever, she was distracted and with a final burst of magic and strength, Magia Zwart threw herself across the crater until her fingers touched the Compact.

"Rose Shell One Off!" and the armor burst into motes of magical energy shaped like rose petals. Magia Zwart was about to take off into the air again when he felt hands grip his ankle and then searing pain, "AHHHHHHHHH!"

"Tasty!" said the monster and then Magia Zwart heard it SWALLOW. "I'm afraid I can't have you resume this bit of pvp right now, so I'll be taking this." The thing stepped over Zwart and picked up the prototype compact. "I'll return it when you stop trying to kill me. That sound good?"

Zwart whimpered in pain clutching his bleeding ankle.

"Ooops! Sorry that was probably a little painful wasn't it." The thing had been eating him. He saw blood on its fangs and… and bits of him that were supposed to be attached to him. "I'm really sorry!" said the monster's bloody fangs.

"Please either kill me or go away!" The monster looked slightly sheepish.

"I would heal you, but I don't have any health potions here, at least I don't think I do. Sorry."

"Go away!"

"Yeah, I'm so so sorry, uh, bye I guess."

It was only when the thing had made its slow way away down the abandoned suburban streets that Magia Zwart realized he had lost the compact, the expensive prototype compact, the expensive prototype compact that was the only way for him to transform back into his regular self.

For what felt like hours he drifted in and out of consciousness as the sun slowly sank on the horizon. He saw two women in tracksuits jogging down the road.

"Mizuki, is that a person over there?" said one, a redhead.

"Oh God, it looks like she lost a lot of blood. Matsuyama, call an ambulance!" said the other.

He reached out his hand to them, "Help, please."

His vision was getting foggy, but he could see the face of a young woman clearly. She had short dark blue hair and purple eyes. She actually looked a little like one of his classmates, Kaede except as a young adult. He thought she was very pretty, but that could just have been the blood loss. She held his hand and smiled the most beautiful smile at him, telling him everything was going to be alright, as his world faded into black.

He awoke in the HQ infirmary to the sight of a very angry President Mistsuru, but he could not get the pretty woman's smile out of his head. He thought her name was Mizuki.

The Musings of a Maiden and a Monster!

It was night. Risa Shiarmine was snacking on some seaweed, getting a head start on this weekend's homework, and keeping one ear on the tv that her mother was watching in the next room over. Her mind was not on her homework or the tv. She had been thinking about her friend Keade's upcoming interview the next day with Armagadoon, but that train of thought quickly switched tracks to Armagadoon's upcoming Tokyo exclusive event in their VRMMORPG that would be taking place this Sunday.

Information on the event was very limited with even less known about a super secret prize for the event's winner. The company even took a huge hit to their reputation by making it a Tokyo exclusive and apologized publicly, promising to host similar events around the world that would not just be limited to big cities to ensure that everyone would have a chance to experience, whatever it was that was happening. They apologized, but they did not announce a single change to the original event or reveal any new information about it. They also promised that the reward for the Tokyo event would have no lasting effect on any player's NewWorld Online gaming experience.

It was all very mysterious and Risa was looking forward to playing through the event with Kaede along with a few of their in-game friends who lived in Tokyo, those being the dorks who were just as weird as Risa and Kaede and who also were not scared of the two unlike most of the players. This was usually because those players were pretty scary themselves.

Learning that a not insignificant number of their online friends all lived in the same city had been quite the surprise to everyone with Kaede practically begging and threatening everyone until they all agreed to meet up in person after the event to celebrate. Risa was thinking about how she would protect Kaede if any of their online friends from the game turned out to be creeps since she just knew Kaede would have trouble looking after herself and would find some way to get herself into trouble when Risa heard the words "Breaking News! Magical Girl Magia Zwart has been attacked!"

Now that sounded interesting and maybe even a little dangerous, though maybe not too interesting or dangerous since this was Tokyo. She set down her pencil and snack and stood in the doorway to watch the tv screen. She could use a quick break to clear her thoughts, so that she could actually focus on her homework.

Apparently Magia Zwart was defeated by some new villain. The heroine had lost a lot of blood after having her ankle bitten. According to a spokesperson for Pilia Magia, the villain was some as of yet unknown but nearly indestructible Agastia monster calling itself Maple. There was even an artist's rendition of the monster.

The drawing was rather crude, showing a purple and black armored figure with a massive shield and even more massive head filled with dozens of sharp teeth dripping blood. The figure was vaguely demonic with horns and spikes on its shoulders, but curiously no weapon other than the shield and its fangs. The rather distinctive name, shield, and bite attack reminded Risa more than a little bit of her best friend Kaede Honjou's NewWorld Online persona.

"So Agastia have created their own version of Maple then. Why am I not surprised?"

The reporter went over the monster's known attributes. It was very slow, but completely impossible to harm. All civilians were warned to not approach, to flee and call the police as soon as they had reached a safe distance of at least a city block. The 'demon' literally feasts on the flesh of magical girls and it is only thanks to really expensive cutting edge medical magitech that Magia Zwart would make a full recovery.

Risa heard her phone beep at her. She had a text and the ringtone was the sound of a cartoon monster going "nom nom". It was the ringtone she had set for Kaede.

The text read "Hey Risa, I might have gotten myself in a little itty bitty bit of trouble and don't quite know exactly how to get out. Can you please please please help me?"

Risa sighed. By the way Kaede worded the message, Risa figured the situation was world ending levels of serious. She wondered if she would need to log in to get out her nerve gear or hop on a video call to coach her friend through something. She might even have to get on her bike and race to her friend's house.

Did Kaede get into trouble in the game? Was this about the interview tomorrow? Did Kaede get feelings for a boy? Did Kaede get feelings for a girl? Was that girl Risa? With Kaede there really was no telling what kind of trouble she could get herself into, so Risa texted back. "What did you do this time?"

"I got stuck inside this really cool outfit that I can't find a way to take off."

Risa sighed. She was not sure if she was disappointed or relieved.

"Also I might have killed someone and may need help burying the body."

Risa was slightly less relieved and to her shame slightly less disappointed as well. She took comfort in how, knowing Kaede, the person who her friend killed either had it coming or their death was a complete accident. Risa would honestly bet on a combination of the two.

"Details, please?"

"Yeah, sure, but it might be easier though if we talked face to face."

"Fine. Want me to take my bike over to your place?"

"No need. I'm outside underneath the rose bushes."

With a sigh Risa slid the door of the room she was in closed, threw the window open and then waved towards the rose bushes.

The silhouette of a hand waved back.

"Hey Kaede, I know you're probably feeling a little bit stressed, but you wouldn't believe what I just saw on the news. It looks like Agastia have made their own version of you. They're even calling it Maple!"

"Agastia didn't make their own version of me." Kaede said and stood from the bush revealing a demonic armored figure with a shield on its back. Risa noticed there was a strange reverb in her voice making it almost unrecognizable. "Risa, I think I…" Kaede's voice cracked, "made a really big mistake." and she burst into tears or at least what sounded like tears with the reverb..

Risa without even thinking leapt out the window and took her friend in her arms. Kaede was covered in rose thorns and was wearing some kind of spiky black armor that blended into the night, but Risa ignored the little pricks of pain in order to hold her friend. She was careful to avoid the blade-like edges of a monstrous tower shield attached to her friend's back.

"Shhhhh, shhhhh, you didn't kill anyone. Magia Zwart is expected to make a full recovery."

Kaede, if anything started crying louder, "She is? Thank the Administrators! I was so worried!" The loud crying brought Risa back to the present, and how she was holding what might as well be the subject of a manhunt on her front lawn.

Slowly and as gently as she could she led Kaede back through the window she had opened and up the stairs to her room before her parents could see their new and scarily armored guest.

Risa almost led Kaede to her bed, but from the little of Kaede's weight she had felt from letting the girl lean on her as she cried outside, she figured that would be a very bad idea, so instead she guided her friend onto a beanbag chair.

Risa noticed Kaede was holding some kind of compact mirror clipped onto her belt, a suspiciously familiar design of compact mirror with six gems, five that looked like white diamonds as well as a single jet black diamond. "You didn't!"

"I know I didn't actually kill her, but I still feel bad. She was in so much pain!" Some part of Risa's brain thought it was kind of cool how Kaede's fanged mask moved as she spoke, as if the mouth was speaking.

"I mean you didn't actually take Magia Zwart's Magia Compact did you?"

"Her what? You mean this?" Kaede held up the compact.

"Yeah, that."

"I never really paid much attention to Pilia Magia. What's this supposed to do exactly?"

"It's the magic compact that allows Magia Zwart to transform. It also lets her receive calls when a villain is nearby, but the cover's design looks all wrong. It's only supposed to have one shell and one heart and I think some parts of the image are missing as well. Also, it's supposed to turn into a Magia Stick whenever one of the Pilia Magia duo transforms"

"So, with this I can turn into a magical girl?"

"Yeah, just open it and say the words Magia Break."

Kaede opened it and cried out, "Magia Break!" but nothing happened. Risa stared at it. Kaede turned thoughtful, "Maybe nothing happened, because Magia Zwart was already transformed when I met her, so she would, I don't know, have to transform back in order for me to use this to transform?"

"Yeah, I guess so or maybe it's just needing to recharge or something?"

"I don't think it's an issue of charge. Let me see if I remember it correctly, Rose Shell One Activate!" and in a flash of red light Kaede's armor became much thicker with red highlights and detail work all over. The compact lit up with a ring of red glyphs forming around the cover.

"Do you seriously have an ability that lets your armor that looks like it's already impenetrable become even more impenetrable?"

"I know right!" Kaede said with a now even further warped voice. "You know, I was thinking about it on the way over, and I've decided since she attacked me without provocation, I think it is only fair that I claim this as the spoils of war!"

"So you're not planning on returning it even though it is an important tool for a magical girl to do her job?"

"She attacked me first and you said that the cover design was all wrong. Her outfit was all wrong, too, so I think this is a new compact. This is not her only magic compact, so she can just use her old one when she's doing her job. This here is just a new toy, and she decided to test it out on the first vaguely suspicious person she saw. She didn't even ask if I was a monster or give me any chance to surrender. She just opened up with a Piercing Rose right into my back, and she acted like that attack was supposed to be really powerful or something."

Risa was actually a little horrified at what she was hearing, not at Kaede, but at Magia Zwart. A Piercing Rose was supposed to be like being shot with several sniper rifles at the same time. If Kaede's armor had not been so absurdly strong, she would be dead several times over. Magia Zwart had tried to kill her best friend.

Risa was angry.

"Anyways," said Kaede, not noticing the Mt. Risa preparing to erupt right next to her, "I'm already going to have to give up this armor of mine back to whichever of our classmates actually owns it, so I might as well have something that allows me to summon a copy of the armor in case I'm ever in danger again."

Risa was broken from her rage by shock, "Wait what?"

"Risa, I can't move."

"What?"

"I can't move Risa. My limbs aren't working. This second layer of armor feels a whole lot heavier than the original one." Risa noted that Kaede had not moved even an inch of her body since activating the second layer of armor. "I think we've actually found a level of heavy armor that is too restrictive for me." Kaede actually sounded like she was laughing. The sound was a little menacing with the strange reverb.

"Do you know how to get the second layer of armor off?" Risa asked, looking at the compact which showed a red ring of glyphs though one of the glyphs was only very faintly glowing now.

"Easy. Rose Shell One Off!" The armor disappeared in a bloody flash leaving Kaede behind. "That's better."

"So, you can make yourself even more impenetrable, but at the cost of being completely unable to move."

"Pretty much!"

"And what happens if somebody takes the compact from you while you're frozen."

"Then I'm stuck forever, I guess."

"Not forever. It looks like there is a timer going on the compact. There were some red glyphs." Risa pointed to the compact and to her surprise the red glyphs were still there. The faded glyph was almost back to full brightness. After a few seconds it returned to full and all of the glyphs disappeared. "Looks like some kind of recharging magic meter."

"Awesome! Still probably a bad idea to change when someone is close enough to pry the compact out of my hand."

"How are they going to do that if you can't even move your own hand?"

"What if they have super strength? They could be a magical girl afterall."

"True. Also, what was that about our classmates and giving the demonic and I should probably also add incriminating armor to them?"

"Oh, that, so funny story there, I found this weird bracelet in my backpack that let me transform, so that's why I think someone at school owns it."

"So, someone at school is a supervillain, possibly even working for Agastia, great."

"Why does everyone think this person would be working for Agastia?"

"I don't know. That's just what the news said, and you have to admit that the armor does vaguely resemble Dark Blader who is an Agastia creation."

"So one of our classmates is working for Agastia. Awesome!" Kaede flopped back deeper onto the beanbag chair accidentally spearing the chair with her shoulder spikes. "Oops."

"Ignore it. The chair isn't important right now. What is important is that you cannot give them this Dark Shielder bracelet or whatever we're calling it."

"But it doesn't belong to us!"

"Neither does that compact, technically speaking."

"Spoils of war!"

"Isn't a rule that will hold up in court."

"But it's the right thing to do, to give back the bracelet I mean."

"To give a super villain the means to do evil?"

"How do we know they are a super villain anyway?"

Risa gestured towards a mirror. Kaede sighed, stood up to examine herself. Her fanged mouth moved several times as if she was going to speak. "Fine, we aren't giving back the bracelet."

"Good girl." Risa patted Kaede between the horns as she sat back down on the now ruined bean bag chair. "How do you move around in the Dark Shielder armor anyway? That stuff looks heavy."

"It is. I actually was starting to get tired from wearing it when I ran into Magia Zwart. Like my limbs were aching really bad which doesn't normally happen when I am in my armor." Risa looked at Kaede. Kaede seemed to realize what she had said, "Well, I guess my muscles don't get sore in NewWorld Online unless I was playing all day so I didn't really think about that being a possibility wearing this armor. I was actually starting to have problems moving around until I was about a block away from your house and my tummy was starting to get really angry too, maybe from something I ate, but now I feel just fine. In fact the armor actually feels just like it did when first I put it on, too, like I could keep on wearing this stuff forever."

"Your stomach was angry? Did you eat something that humans in the real world shouldn't be eating, again?" asked Risa, remembering the last time Kaede had put something into her mouth that did not belong, because she had mistakenly thought she was still in the game. Really, her friend might have a slight problem that extended to more than just trying to tank dodgeballs in PE. Risa was never letting Kaede get ahold of Skyrim VR. Kaede would discover the alchemy system and then poison herself irl.

Kaede seemed to think for a moment before the expression on her fanged mask shifted to something that might have been horror or embarrassment. "I might have eaten something I found on my way over here, something no human should probably eat."

"Do you think you might need to go to the hospital?" Kaede shook her head, "Then best to forget about it. I think we've got bigger problems than you eating a bug or something gross like that."

"Yeah, a bug, I totally ate a bug." Risa had to wonder if Kaede had actually taken a bite out of a rabbit or someone's escaped pet, and did her best to block the image

"So, the armor. We need to figure out how to get that armor off of you," said Risa.

Kaede nodded her helmeted head, "Yeah, I can't wear this to my interview tomorrow! They'll think I'm unprofessional!" Risa was a little more focused on the manhunt, but if focusing on the interview was what it took to motivate Kaede, then that is what she would do.

Suddenly, there was a flash of red light, this light looking like old blood or maybe reddish tinted maple syrup and the armor disappeared, replaced with Kaede's school uniform. A holographic display appeared over a purple and black bracelet on the girl's wrist. It looked like some kind of text block.

"Warning, if you are reading this," Kaede read, "then update 34.00 has failed and you only have a set amount of time before the armor reappears and stays around for as much as a week unless you get in a fight. I suggest you take this opportunity to shower. This might be the only chance you will get for a while. The amount of time the armor stays gone will vary based on damage taken while wearing the suit and use of the suit's abilities. The only reason you have this break is because we have tricked the suit into thinking it needs to conserve power in the event of an emergency. As a result, situations that the suit deems to be an emergency will trigger the armor's return. Thankfully, according to simulations only users who have the adaptive defense ability (Oh crap, I have that one) added in update 32 will have to worry about the suit coming to the surface whenever they are in any kind of situation the suit's monster mind considers to be dangerous. Any other user would have to either be injured first, experience an adrenaline rush, go into shock, or have a panic attack before the suit comes back online. A countdown has been built into the suit for how long it will take for the suit to return to full power and the monster suit reactivates. The countdown timer and a convenient built-in watch function can be accessed by simply tapping the center screen of your bracelet with your fingers three times. This feature should also be available when you return to suit form along with a countdown to the next deactivation. Because of the way this update works, the suit will be unavailable even in emergencies for at least an hour after deactivating, though the time may increase if the suit was significantly damaged. In such a scenario, a second countdown will appear underneath the main countdown. If the suit reactivates in response to an emergency, it will hopefully deactivate if no new danger is detected for an entire hour and the countdown to full power will be adjusted according to the additional energy use. Good Luck!"

Kaede touched an x in the corner of the holographic display with her hand and then tried to remove the bracelet from her wrist. It would not budge. Risa tried to help, but there was no seem or latch on the device. After thirty minutes of trying and even attempting to use scissors to remove the device, the two gave up.

Kaede tapped the center screen with her fingers three times and a holographic display appeared with the time of day, the weather forecast for the next 24 hours and projections for the next seven days, there was a section for traffic conditions and the latest news for Tokyo, and in big letters were two sets of numbers counting down.

The smaller numbers in yellow read just under two hours, presumably the time until the suit could be used again.

The larger numbers read 17 hours, 5 minutes, and 37 seconds. Then it was 36 seconds. And then 35.

Tapping an X in the top corner Kaede dismissed the countdown and turned her paler than usual face towards Risa, "At least this means nothing will go wrong with the interview tomorrow, right?"

Left unspoken was that comparing the time the interview was supposed to finish and when the suit would reactivate, she would only have an hour and a half after the interview to hide. Her aunt would probably want to speak to her after she finished the interview as well.

17:05:23

17:05:22

17:05:21

Maple's Perks, Traits, and Inventory

Dark Blader Bracelet (Shielder)-An experimental semi sentient monster developed by Agastia as a counter to the Divine Swordsman. This prototype was rushed into the field with more bugs than a Bethesda release. The most dangerous bug for your wellbeing is probably the part where you cannot take it off and will struggle to deactivate it. The Shielder configuration of the suit comes from one of the customization options introduced during the long string of patches as the development team struggled to remove the suit from its previous user/host. Your current configuration is maximum armor, a dangerous configuration equivalent to entombing yourself in metal. You will probably struggle to walk a block down the street without getting tired and don't even think about running. Your days of moving at a speed any faster than a quick walk are over!

Adaptive Defense-This perk allows your Dark Blader armor to very slowly develop resistances and even immunity to attacks if you are exposed to them long enough. DO NOT EXPOSE YOURSELF TO ENEMY ATTACKS JUST TO RAISE YOUR DEFENSE! This is not a game, and you will almost definitely be horribly injured or killed if you try. This perk also allows your armor to reactivate itself if it ever detects something it judges to be a sufficient threat. Did we mention that the Dark Blader Bracelet was also extremely buggy?

Prototype Magia Compact Mirror-Allows the copying of up to six observed abilities. Each copied ability is in some way inferior to the original, but the abilities can be used in conjunction with each other to create powerful combination attacks. Additionally, the compact has a limited battery that will take time to recharge using ambient mana. Summoning new objects and maintaining and repairing those objects when they are damaged will drain the battery faster. There is currently no way to choose what ability will be copied from a target, but a good rule of thumb would be that the compact will copy the target's most iconic ability.

Actual Magical Cannibal-You have eaten the flesh of at least one magical girl. There is no going back, but do you even want to? After consuming their preternatural meat you feel stronger and more healthy than ever. In just one bite your vitality is now beyond human, and any magical girl who hears of you will likely be some combination of disgusted and terrified. For obvious reasons, there are no studies on the side effects of an ordinary human committing such a forbidden act especially since no ordinary person has ever done this before, but there is a first time for everything. Good job, you got to be the first!

Public Enemy Number One-You are now the subject of a manhunt! Don't know what you did, but whatever it was, it must have been pretty unforgivable. Have fun!

Hope you enjoyed and let me know your thoughts! I will be releasing the next chapter (really two short chapters squeezed together) soon (I want to edit them first). Maple is only just getting started. For those familiar with Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department please let me know your thoughts on dangerous and dangerously perfectly balanced power combinations that Kaede could acquire with her new power copy ability. I am especially interested in the combinations, and I already have several in mind that I cannot wait to unleash upon a mostly unsuspecting Tokyo. I am definitely looking forward to your own gloriously majestic ideas! Don't be afraid to leave a review, (an anonymous one if you prefer that) to share your ideas!

Once Kaede has acquired her second ability she will start messing around with the UI for the prototype compact and give her abilities names like "Overarmor" and "Hydra" that she can shout out to solve problems instead of overly verbose things like "Rose Shell One Activate!".

Also please feed me any ideas on ways to bring the cast of Bofuri into the Monster Development Department World. I have already written out the beginning of Risa/Sally's future career path, but I could use some help with coming up with something for the remaining cast (and more ideas for Kaede and Risa are always appreciated!). I have no clue how long this story is going to be. All I can say is I have not lost my enthusiasm even after probably more than a year of off and on work, and we are just getting started.