Mahou Shoujo Troper Magica - Yamanaka City -

Nazuna lied down on her bed, munching on some pocky. She flipped through a local newspaper, getting relaxed. The paper wasn't recent enough to have any news of the Ameriburger incident, but the news companies would always find a way to make a story out of nothing. In some ways, Nazuna was amazed by them.

Reading the newspaper and eating, Machi Nazuna's evening passed by as always.

"Hey, Kyubey. You there?"

Ayaka was snapped away from the news report as she heard someone unlocking the door from the outside.

"Oh, that must be Mom!"

She walked out of her room to greet her, and found her guess was correct. Her mom had gone out to buy a fair amount of groceries, and was in need of help.

"I'll go bring in what's left outside!" Ayaka offered as she ran downstairs and outside, noting three large bags. She balanced two in one hand, and grabbed the other with her right hand, taking care not to drop the bags on the way back upstairs. When she got inside, her mother was holding a small package for her, from her dad. Excitedly, Ayaka put the bags down, and grabbed the package, ripping it open quickly, revealing a few carefully sealed pouches of flower seeds and a letter.

Yay, more flowers from Dad! Yes!!!, she yelled mentally.

"Thanks, Mom!"

A stray gust of the early-April wind danced through the inch-wide opening Nazuna had left in the window by her bed, sending her curtain swirling out into the room. When she glanced out the now-uncovered window, Kyubey stood perched on the railing, looking in at her.

"Of course, Nazuna. What can I do for you?"

Nazuna tossed Kyubey three used up grief seeds and watched as he scrambled to capture all on his back.

"I didn't manage to secure any grief seeds this time. Kinda getting to the point where I'm not meetnig my quota. You know any other girls in the area that I could go hunting with?"

"Well, you didn't make a very good impression on the group from this afternoon," Kyubey said thoughtfully, sighing as the last of the Grief Seeds vanished into his back. "Let's see... there are a few contracts I'm hoping to pick up in the next few days, but I'm not sure of one or two of them." He tilted his head curiously at Nazuna. "Where do you use all those Seeds, anyway, Nazuna? You're not powerful enough for this kind of magic consumption just from fighting Witches."

That's something I'd like to know, too! D:<

"Ah, right. That incident...."

Rei's gaze lowered itself to the floor, and the smile on her face faded. The attack on Ameriburger was still fresh in her mind, to the last detail: the sickening crunch that took the life of one chef and the arm of another replayed itself in her head.

"... They are innocent, right? They should be fine," said Rei, after a couple of seconds. "The law is just, after all."

But the law would never find the true culprit.

A smile reappeared on the girl's face, out of politeness, and her eyes looked back up to Yuudai. "In any case, you don't have to apologize, Mr Yamamoto; I was the one who brought the topic up, after all," said Rei, bowing to the man respectfully. "I shall join your daughter in the other room now. Thank you for your time."

With that, she rose from her bow and quietly made her way to the room where Sora and Noa were.

Aoi sat in the living room of her house, taping back the pages of Miki's sketch book.

Jeez, what got into me?Aoi thought, taping back another portrait of herself. I know how much Miki's art means to her...So why'd I rip stuff out? And why'd I think I was fat all of a sudden? I might not be as skinny as some of the gymnasts at this school, but I'm just as flexible!

She glanced up at the TV as a news report on Ameriburger came on screen. I bet it was just the atmosphere, and the crazy exercise people. Yeah. That's it. Aoi looked back down at the book on the coffee table, and continued taping together a ripped page.

—-

Aoi taped back in the last page. "Hey, Miki! I fixed your sketch book!" She shouted, flipping through the pages, making sure they all stayed in place. She made it to the last drawing in the book, a drawing of a certain creature. Hey.... I didn't know Miki drew fanart. Wonder what show this is from.

Miki then came into the room, and Aoi handed her the book back. "I'm....Really sorry about ripping up your pictures. They're Really nice. I don't know what came over me back there."

Miki smiled. "It's alright. And thanks."

The two hugged, and then Aoi said, "Hey, Um... you know the last drawing in your book? The one of the....Ferret-cat? Is that fan art or something you made up?"

Miki Shook her head. "It was a doll this girl at the resturaunt had." Or at least I think it was a doll... Miki thought, having seen it suddenly move when things started getting crazy.

"Oh, ok...." Aoi said. "It looks pretty cool, actually."

"

edited 10th May '11 10:31:05 AM by stargirl93

Nazuna snuggled into her bed, switching off the lights. In the dark room, Kyubey's red eyes still reflected what little moonlight there was. The resulting effect was two dots floating in the darkness.

"I enjoy making contact with other magical girls. Though they're not always so happy to see me." Nazuna sighed, tucking herself deeper into bed. "Takes some effort. Well, a lot of effort to get as many grief seeds as I do. I end up using a lot of them in the process."

"Well, it's not like I'm going to complain," Kyubey replied, pacing effortlessly across the footrail of Nazuna's bed to perch on the corner-post. Even in the pitch darkness of the room, his eyes shone the same bright red, and Nazuna realized it was not reflected moonlight that made them glow. "But I don't understand your motives. Do you people really seek companionship that badly?" He sounded genuinely interested in the answer.

"Enjoy yourself," Yuudai told Rei with a friendly smile. As the girl joined her two friends, the man headed towards the kitchen to check with his wife.

"Alright!" As Rei stepped into the den, she could spot Sora laying out all her fighting games on the floor, radiating with such energy that it was hard to believe she was injured only a few hours ago. "I'll pick a game at random, and all of us will play a few rounds on that with each other before moving onto the next! I got plenty of games, so we've got a marathon of matches laid out for us!"

Nazuna slowly nodded off while in conversation with Kyubey.

"Companions? I guess you could say that. I want to get to know interesting people. Isn't that normal?"

edited 12th May '11 11:49:01 PM by neobowman

"I don't know. Is it?" Kyubey asked. He waited for an answer, but none was forthcoming; Nazuna had dropped off. Kyubey sighed and shook his head before hopping back onto the windowsill. Though Nazuna had closed the window after letting him in, the next second he was outside, his tail blowing gently in the cool night breeze, and he turned his gaze north, toward the Yamamoto household.

"Sounds good to me!" Noa laughed aloud, getting comfortable on the floor as she looked over the smorgasbord of games, each one looking equally as good as the other. She didn't have a collection of this variety back at home. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she'd even broken out her gaming console. 'Man I hope I'm not too rusty!'

"Did you want to go first Rei? Or..." She turned to Sora with a mischievous grin, "Do you want your butt whipping right up front?"

Sora grinned right back as she picked out the first game. "Someone sounds confident! Rei-chan, if you don't mind, I'm gonna have to show Noa-chan here a thing or two about challenging the one and only Yamamoto Sora!"

"So energetic~" Rei chuckled. "Okay then, you two go ahead. I'll just sit here and observe for now," she said, setting herself down on the floor behind the other two girls before idly pulling her cellphone out and typing a message.

Kyubey sat outside the Yamamotos' house, looking in. The curtains in the way made no difference to him, and he tracked the motion of the girls across the game room with ease. Rei's presence was unexpected, but it probably wouldn't be that much of a problem. Kyubey was inside in less than a blink, and set about finding his way to the girls.

>2 months ago<

Nazuna stood atop the witch's remains, spinining its grief seed on her ring finger. The last wisps of the evil spirit's smoke disappeared along with the its territory. Behind her were two other magical girls, fallen onto the ground in a small pile. Tears in their clothing revealed gaping wounds and bruises covered their body. In comparison, Nazuna was scratchless.

The girl at the bottom of the pile, the only one of the two still conscious, spoke in a raspy voice. "Nazuna.... The grief seed." Closer examination revealed that the unconscious girl on top of her was wearing a soul gem as a necklace. It was almost completely blackened.

The Nazuna smiled sweetly in response. "I'm sorry Ayumi. I can't do that."

"W-why?"

"It'd be better for you not to know. Now I have a matter to attend to."

Nazuna walked away from the scene without looking back or giving any farewell to the girls. Ayumi struggled to get away from the soon-to-be witch but to no avail. Her injuries bogged down any movement, stopping her from getting out from under the lifeless corpse, and the other girl's soul gem slowly bubbled up. Then

The black soul gem cracked.

Already a safe distance away, Nazuna gobbled down a chocolate candy. A witch's territory expanded in front of her as she watched the spectacle, giggling.

"Hehe, Those two were pretty interesting. Wonder who I'll meet next?"

A quick button tap after that, and the message was sent. As the other two girls loaded up their game of choice, happily chattering away, Rei began looking up various guides and videos related to the game.

She noticed Kyubey quietly slipping into the room at the corner of her eye.

"Are you here to contract Yamamoto-san, Kyubey?" queried Rei, focusing a little to ensure that only the cat-rabbit thing got her message. She was still quietly tapping away at the cellphone as though nothing had happened.

"I'd certainly like to," Kyubey replied, staying at the back of the room. "She's so energetic, she'd probably make a wonderful Magical Girl." He hopped up on the back of the couch, finally making himself known to the others in the room. "Hello!"

"Eh?" Kyubey's abrupt greeting made Sora mistime her block, allowing Noa to snatch up the first match-up victory. "...agh! Kyubey, you made me screw up! Rematch, Noa-chan, rematch!"

"Ah-"

The veteran Magical Girl watched as Noa's fighter landed the finishing blows on Sora's for the win. There were still two more rounds to go, though, so maybe Sora could make a comeback...

"... well, now might not be the best time, Kyubey. Over here," said Rei, beckoning the cat-rabbit thing to her lap with one hand while watching a gameplay video on her cellphone with the other. "I have some things I need to ask you, in any case," she continued mentally, again restricting her broadcast so only Kyubey could hear it. "Most importantly, Machi Nazuna: do you know anything about her? Her history, her personality, her agenda; anything at all?"

Noa had to admit that thing weren't looking too hot for her. Sora wasn't just all talk. She was good. Really good. Biting her lip she mashed the correct buttons to pull off a marvelous air combo — most of which ended up unfortunately being blocked by Sora. Darn! Losing this round was a definite possibility.

...Unless of course a certain weird cat-weasel hybrid popped up and threw her opponent off guard.

With the surprising distraction Noa was able to come back and take out Sora, ending the round with her as the victor. "Aww yeah!" She pumped her fist in the air and laughed heartily, spinning around to look at the girls and Kyubey, eyes dancing with excitement.

"Hah! Kyubey you are the best accidental distraction ever. I'm buying you something yummy for sure."

"I don't really know anything about her," Kyubey replied privately to Rei. "She contracted a few years ago. Her wish was, on the occasion of her death, to be reborn with retained memories - does that help at all?"

As Kyubey asked the question, Noa spun around, eyes aglow. "Hah! Kyubey, you are the best accidental distraction ever. I'm buying you something yummy for sure." "That sounds good, Noa," he replied, closing his eyes to smile at her. The two sentences overlapped in Rei's brain, causing a strange sort of resonance that felt weird - but the feeling passed quickly, leaving the girl a little dizzy.

edited 21st May '11 11:46:27 PM by RedSavant

Rei smiled at Noa's cheering a couple moments after the odd spell of dizziness (Note to self: thinking at people may or may not stun them.), but her eyes seemed to be lost in thought. Which she was.

"To be reborn with retained memories... how odd," she replied (privately, of course). "How would she be reborn: on the spot or at another location, as a baby or as she currently is..." That train of thought chugged on for a few seconds before the girl interrupted herself. "Anyways, if that's all you know... no, wait."

Rei paused the video she was watching. "Spent Grief Seeds must go to you or otherwise risk being reborn into a Witch, correct? In that case, you should also know the rate at which Nazuna uses up Seeds. Unless, of course, she doesn't give any to you, which I find highly unlikely."

edited 22nd May '11 12:12:16 AM by Midreus

"We still have two more rounds!" Sora insisted. "Don't be so proud! Just watch; I'll make a comeback in the next two rounds, and I won't need a distraction to win!"