Mahou Shoujo Troper Magica - Yamanaka City -

"She uses up quite a lot," Kyubey said, leaning forward and allowing himself to be skritched under the chin by Noa. "It's actually very impressive! Just tonight she gave me three that were full to the brim. She doesn't use magic at anywhere near that rate, so I don't know why she would have to... Maybe you could find out for me?"

"Three? That sort of consumption is beyond common logic. How..."

Rei's eyes shifted from side to side as she pondered the question.

"... Something is odd about that girl. I'll see what I can find out, but I think you will have a better chance of success. Tail her for me, if you have the spare time; she has to use all that magic somewhere." The black-haired girl took a breath and resumed the video on her cellphone before continuing. "One more question: what kind of abilities does she have, and on what level? I know she can project and fire large quantities of daggers, but surely she has more than just that?" Not that Rei expected a useful answer, but just in case.

Sora collapsed backwards onto the ground as Noa won the last of three rounds, thus claiming the first victory of the evening. "Defeat..." Dangling her hands in the air, she proceeded to growl at the ceiling... before propping herself back up and grinning. "Good game, Noa-chan! Looks like I need more training there." She punched the palm of her hand with enthusiasm. "But we've still got plenty of games left to go! Just you wait!

"Rei-chan, spot's open for you now!" Getting up, Sora brushed herself off. "I'm gonna change out of my uniform and see how dinner's coming along..."

At the very moment Rei asked Kyubey that last question, Sora got up and addressed her. "Ah, okay," came the reply, and she shuffled over to pick up Sora's controller and select a character to fight Noa with. She had memorized a few basic combos for the character she picked (thanks to the guide she looked up a moment ago); hopefully that and her honed reflexes would be enough to pull her through!

Ready for timeskip now!

There was nothing sweeter than victory. Ok, maybe there technically was — she did love sticky buns very, very much. But right here? This very moment? Utterly freakin' sweet! She set the controller on the floor, leaned back, and let out a sigh as she basked in the feeling of success. She felt like she'd just slain a great beast — not counting the one she fought hours earlier of course.

Though she couldn't rest yet. A new challenger was approaching!

"Ok Rei. Let's go!" She chose her character, rapping her knuckles on the floor lightly as a show of the energy flowing through her veins.

And so, a long evening of game playing was had by Sora and her friends, with the score soon lost track of after the first few games. Afterwards, Noa and Rei shared some dinner with the Yamamoto family before heading back to their own.

Then, morning came.

It's 1:30 here. So blah.

Nazuna visited a neighbouring district for a change instead of staying in Yamanaka. She had some friends to meet up with. It was a common thing for her to do, since several areas' magical girls were more fun that just one's.

After some searching, Nazuna found Hanako sitting under the park tree. Closer inspection revealed that she was in her magical girl outfit, clutching her axe for seemingly no reason. Around her in the dirt were several crevasses, devoid of the park grass.

"Hey, what's up Hanako."

"Nazuna... What should I do?"

Nazuna cocked her head at the question. Before she could respond, Hanako ran into her arms, a river of tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I-I couldn't do anything.... I tried saving her little sister but the witch was faster than me.... It's all my fault! If I were a bit quickerthen I could've saved Eimi's little sister.... Why am I so weak! Why can't I be stronger!"

Nazuna tried to comfort the girl, patting her head. "It's okay, I'm here Hanako. Calm down. Everything's fine.... Could you tell me what happened?"

Hanako's tears continued dripping down, falling onto Nazuna's shoulder. "E-Eimi said that she didn't blame me.... That it wasn't my fault, but I know that inside... Inside, she thinks it's my fault too! Nazuna, what should I do?! I think she might become a magical girl. She thinks that I'm not strong enough to protect the town!"

Nazuna gently stroked the sobbing Hanako. In times like these, she had to be a pillar of support and comfort for the other girlsDon't worry. I'm sure Eimi doesn't fault you for anything. I'll go talk with her later, but first, we have to deal with that witch, right?"

Hanako's tears dried off, and Nazuna dried off Hanako's face with her handkerchief, making solid eye contact.

"You think you can fight with me? Don't worry, I'll be right there with you."

Hanako stood up. Though she was wobbly at first, she found her balance and faced Nazuna. "Yeah. Yeah, we have to fight to defend the town. Thanks for listening to me. And sorry for dumping my troubles on you."

"No problem. We're friends, right?" Nazuna stuttured at her next words. "And. I-I'm sorry Hanako but I'll still need the grief seed from the witch. I'm so sorry about this."

With a regained composure, Hanako gave Nazuna the thumbs up. "It's fine,as long as the town's safe. You're a big help Nazuna, don't worry. You deserve every single grief seed you get."

Relieved, Nazuna returned the smile. "Thanks Hanako."

-RINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG-

The sounds of an alarm clock broke the beautiful and perfect silence of a certain girl's morning. Akane lazily moved her hand toward the nightstand, looking for the hated device to turn it off when she reached something.

"Hmmg...?" Opening one eye she tried to focus her vision to identify the foreign object. It was something red... oval shaped...

"Ah...!" Akane opened both her eyes, now completely awaken, and sat up on her bed, taking her Soul Gem in both hands to confirm it was really there. Memories of the past day rushed into her head... They seemed more like something taken out of a nightmare but she successfully identified them as reality.

"So... A Magical Girl..."

She sat there, the alarm clock making a horrible noise at her side as Akane pondered on her situation. Getting ready for school could wait a little while.

-BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE-click-

Ayaka blindly shut the alarm clock off, effectively stopping the alarm sequence. She groggily began to move, letting out a small yawn. She would not be late for school again! She went through her custom of stretching a bit, before selecting a flower to wear.

"Mmm....forsythia!" she decided to herself, attaching a flattened forsynthia flower into a metal clip, which she then placed in her hair gently.

She exited her apartment quickly, and began a rather leisurely walk to the school, the smell of flowers about her.

edited 28th May '11 7:23:19 AM by Miruruneko

Kiku, too, was off to a slow start... but soon she pushed the morbid thoughts out of her head.

You can't afford to regret it. You can't afford to make useless wishes about what could have happened instead. You and sis are magical girls now. As long as you have each other, everything will be okay. Maybe her wish was wasted, but you made two. There's enough hope for the both of us.

She was still afraid. Very much so. But she felt like she could deal with it, now that she had her power back. If there was one thing she wouldn't accept, it was to be helpless on the sidelines while her sister put herself in danger. That would be her reason to fight.

edited 28th May '11 10:57:34 AM by Zudak

After a little while of thought Akane walked downstairs, just as she was, to prepare breakfast and lunch for Kiku and herself. Now this wasn't something she usually did but what could she say? After the events of yesterday her big sister instincts were kicking in hard. If only those could give her raise her cooking stats then she would be incredibly grateful...

As she was, she could only make a few sandwiches for lunch and pray to the myriad of gods so that she doesn't burn the pancakes.

The girls spent their night doing homework and watching tv, and getting scolded by their mother for going to a resturaunt alone without telling her (considering what happened, it was understandable).

Miki had gotten up an hour early as usual, and was looking at the sun rising over the city through her open window. She grabbed her sketchbook and started drawing a nearby building. Wonder if there's an art club at school... Miki thought. I'll ask the teachers today. an art club would give her a chance to meet some more of her classmates, and maybe make some friends.

Upon coming downstairs, Kiku greeted her sister with a smile.

"Oh wow, you made me breakfast? You didn't have to do that... thanks so much, sis!"

From the way she was acting, it was like the big fight last night had never happened.

"Eat it with some care Kiku, that thing hissed at me while I was cooking" Akane said as a playful warning while she packed and wrapped their lunch boxes. The elder sister too acted like nothing had happened yesterday... It was a difficult subject to talk about but while the pretense felt a little weird to her... it was a little price to pay for the comfort that was a nice breakfast with her little sister.

With one final blow from a volley of daggers, the witch finally fell with a crash. The two magical girls converged on the witch's vanishing corpse as the surreal scenery around them dissolved into a dark alleyway.

Nazuna picked up the grief seed and casually pocketed it. In contrast to Nazuna's comfortable movement, Hanako was leaning on her axe for support, panting. "F-finally. Don't think I could've done it without you Nazuna."

"No problem, anytime."

Done with their job, Nazuna helped Hanako out of the alleyway. Without warning, a new magical girl jumped into the scene, brandishing a sword against Nazuna.

"Hanako, get away from her!"

Nazuna let go of Hanako, pushing her to safety, and summoned daggers to parry the new girl's consecutive slashes. Each projectile only barely stopped her advance, just providing a distraction to bat down.

"A-Ayaka! What're you doing?"

Ayaka, the new girl, ignored Hanako's pleas and continued her assault on Nazuna, each blow barely being deflected by a newly created dagger. "I finally caught onto what this girl's doing doing Hanako. Don't trust her! She's trying to-"

Nazuna took the offensive, diverting an attack with one dagger and summoning another one aimed at Ayaka's neck. Though both projectiles were easily blocked, the distraction gave Nazuna a chance to respond.

"What are you doing? Aren't we friends?"

"Yeah right. What kind of friends steal from each other? You're no friend of mine, or of Hanako's."

"I'm so sorry about the soul gems but I need them."

"Yeah right. Like I'd believe you when you don't even give me a reason. Die!" Ayaka struck again, unleashing a combination of strikes that Nazuna was barely able to parry each time. As the struggle continued, it became apparant that Nazuna was being pushed back constantly, backing into a corner.

After watching the two girls fight from the sidelines for so long, Hanako finally mustered up the courage to jump between the girls, brandishing an axe in either hand. "STOP IT! W-we're all magical girls here... Ayaka, Nazuna... W-why do we have to be fighting?"

"She's not one of us Hanako. She's just with us for the grief seeds."

"That's not true. I sincerely care about you girls." Even as she said that, Nazuna eyed Hanako's soul gem bracelet. There were drops of black condensing inside the glass. "I'm sorry Hanako but I can't stay with Ayaka trying to kill me. Call me over when you have a witch to hunt and I'll be back in a jiffy."

Hanako slowly nodded, and Nazuna ran away from the scene, right back to Yamanaka.

edited 29th May '11 2:46:08 PM by neobowman

"Alright, I'm heading out, Dad! Thanks for taking care of me! I'm going to head to class now!"

A certain girl in a certain household got finished putting on her shoes and threw open the doorway leading to the outside world. Before Yuudai could tell his daughter to "Wait!", Sora had begun to rush down the sidewalk.

The father gave a weary grin as he watched her speed off. "That daughter of mine..."

But before he got a chance to get back into the house, Sora came rushing back through the doorway.

"Whoops, almost forgot my backpack! That would've been bad..."

Yuudai sighed, but gave her a smile. "That's why you double check if you have everything."

"Right, right. Sorry. Always in a hurry..."

Kiku hungrily devoured her breakfast. She felt even more famished than usual. She supposed that fighting witches tended to have that effect. Knowledge poured into her as she ate. Her ability was working just as well as it had before.

"Ready for school, sis?"

Meanwhile, in America the Hateshinai household....

♫kawashita yakusoku wasurenai yo, me wo toji tashikameru~♪

A muffled sentence (that sounded suspiciously like "five more minutes") came from the pillow, which currently had the face of one Hateshinai Rei buried deeply into it. Upon realizing that the sound bothering her sleep was coming from her alarm clock, however, the girl promptly shot up and sat upright in her bed.

She sighed. Being a Magical Girl had its perks, certainly (the relevant one in this case being increased stamina), but her body still needed rest, which was currently the one thing she had failed to get. Shaking the last bits of sleepiness out of her head (the peppy J-pop song in the background helped a lot in this regard), she got out of her bed and shuffled over to her bathroom for her morning cleanup.

At least she woke up on time today.

—-A few hours ago—-

Rei turned around in her bed. Her mind was wandering again, as it always did when she was alone, thinking, thinking.

Fujimiya Noa. Yamamoto Sora.

Thinking about the people she met.

Minori. Machi Nazuna.

Thinking about past, present, future.

Hanami Akane. Hanami Kiku.

Thinking about everything.

*crunch*

With a growl, Rei sat up. Two hours had passed since she laid down and pulled the blankets over herself, but sleep never came to her - she was just as awake as she was before. The events of the previous day replayed itself over and over and over, and each time Rei thought of possible ways to make it turn out better.

I'm still not powerful enough... If I was faster, if I was stronger, I could...!

She failed to stop Nazuna from taking the telescope witch's Grief Seed. She failed to protect two civilians. The appearance of a second Witch had caught her completely by surprise. Hell, she was nearly crushed by the barbell-hammer of a mere familiar! Failure, failure, failure, failure-

*whoosh*

In an instant, without a sound, she was gone. The night breeze gently fluttered the curtains around the open window.

The blade of Rei's serrated glaive whistled as it cut through the air again and again and again. She was in her Magical Girl dress again; the skirt flowed around her legs as she stepped forward to land another mighty blow against an invisible opponent. A ferocious flurry of slashes followed, ending with a powerful overhead smash that utilized the full weight of both Rei and her weapon; the reverie was finally cut in half, and the head of the glaive sunk itself a good two feet into the earth with a dull thud. The weight of the weapon, which had tripped her up during the fight with the Richards, was now no longer an issue.

But she was not yet done; in an instant a new group of imaginary foes were upon her. A moment of downtime could easily mean death in a real battle; abandoning the glaive without hesitation, a familiar crimson spear burst into existence in Rei's hands, and she hurled herself into the fray. It was foolish for a spear-user to engage multiple enemies in such close quarters; Rei knew that by heart. But she had to practice for that inevitability.

Within minutes, the enemy mob was defeated; she had sustained a few 'injuries' in the process, but none of them were particularly severe or debilitating. Immediately, Rei lunged at a new target (this time a large tree at the edge of the mountain forest where she was training) and-

In less than a second, seven consecutive thrusts struck the tree at different points. Pulling her spear out, Rei inspected the damage she inflicted.

... Not good enough.

There were supposed to be nine holes. She had missed twice; not by a lot, considering the two scratch marks on either side of the trunk, but still, it was a tree. It wasn't good enough.

There was no longer any time to continue training, however, not if she wanted at least a bit of sleep. With a sigh, Rei dismissed her weapons and her Magical Girl dress, returning to her pajamas, and headed home for the night.

"Yup, please grab the lunches from the counter!" Akane said as she walked down the stairs. While Kiku ate her breakfast the older sister went back to her room to get dressed and ready for the day.

At the door she put on her shoes and looked back at Kiku "You didn't leave anything?"

edited 31st May '11 8:01:49 PM by daltar

The new day came, and Noa was there to greet it with open arms. She'd been way too wound up to sleep properly, only really gaining about two to three hours worth. The moment she'd gotten home last night the effects of her wish were readily apparent. Her parents didn't come up and scold her for not telling them of her whereabouts. Instead, they happily greeted her with smiles and hugs — acts that were drastically different from their normal behavior. After getting over her initial shock, Noa nearly jumped for joy.

'No more arguments. No more demands. I've got it easy now!'

Sliding into her school uniform she finished getting ready, hopping downstairs to grab some breakfast with her much easier to deal with mother and father. They wished her well, mentioning that they would be celebrating as a family tonight as soon as she returned. Noa didn't ask what the occasion was, too excited to care really. A celebration was a celebration after all!

Bidding them goodbye she set off for school, a skip in her step and a tune being whistled loudly. Life sure was beautiful!

Stepping foot in the open gate of Kitakou High School, Sora breathed a huge sigh of relief. This time, she knew she was on time for class. In fact, she was even a little bit early; there were still a few minutes left until the school bell would sound. Stretching her arms, Sora made her way into the school building to grab herself a seat.

About an hour or so later...

Aoi's alarm rang, and she got up and got dressed for school. Miki had finished her drawing, and was in the kitchen eating her breakfast.

Aaaand Writer's block. Sorry.

"Good morning, father, mother!" called a voice from just outside the Hateshinai kitchen.

"Good morning, Rei!" came the reply. There were two figures inside the kitchen: one was that of Hateshinai Eichi, the father, casually reading the newspaper at the dinner table, and the other was Hateshinai Ai, the mother, currently bent over the counter doing... something.

"Your mother's preparing a bento, apparently," Eichi deadpanned, "although the amount of effort she's putting into it is extraordinary even by my standards: she's been there for the better part of an hour, and she absolutely refuses to let me go near it. Have a seat," he added, gesturing towards the chair on his left while putting away the newspaper. With a nod, Rei took her place at the table.

Turning her head for a moment, Ai chimed in. "Firstly, a bento is a display of love and affection; you can't just put in a half-baked effort and expect them to turn out good! Also," and at this point she adopted Eichi's deadpan mannerisms, "there's three of them, of course it'll take some time. No peeking." The ever-loving mother then promptly resumed working on her edible works of art.

Eichi chuckled. "Alright, alright. Well, she should be done soon, so let's wait a little longer," he said, turning his attention to his daughter. "Say, did you hear about what happened in Ameriburger? It was a huge mess, apparently."

"It was," replied Rei quietly, her amusement at her mother's earlier response promptly disappearing. "I was there." She took a sip from the cup of green tea in front of her.

Eichi analyzed his daughter's response, the smile from his face fading. Quietly, so as to evade Ai's ears, he asked: "So... you saw everything?"
"... No. I evacuated with the crowd. But the sound of crushed bones is impossible to miss."
"... Are you feeling guilty? That you could not save those chefs?"
"..."
"It's not your fault, Rei. There was nothing you could do. You would have been hurt if you didn't run."
"But I could have-"
"Could have what? Even if you had seen the culprit before he made the attack, you would have to go through the crowd to reach them. How fast would you need to be to get to them in time? How strong would you need to be to do that to begin with? It's impossible for an ordinary human to pull such a thing off."
"I-"

Rei immediately cut herself off. Of all the people she had ever known, her own father was easily the smartest and most cunning; as far as she was concerned this man was effectively omniscient. Somehow, no matter how hard she tried to hide anything from him, he just knew, and by the time she was 13 she completely gave up on trying to keep her secrets from him.

Except for this one. That she was a Magical Girl; that she made a wish in exchange for fighting Witches; that she risked death in every battle she engaged in. This secret absolutely must not be revealed, at all costs. No matter what.

"... You're right. I couldn't have saved them even if I tried." Rei took another sip of her tea. "Sorry."

"I'm not mad, and I'm not scolding you, alright? There's nothing to apologize for, so don't worry about it," said Eichi softly, smiling again. "Look, your mother's coming over now."

"And what have you two been quietly muttering about behind my back?" Ai asked sweetly as she approached, taking her place at Eichi's right. "You two already know I don't like people hiding secrets from me," she added, her tone not entirely serious about it.

"We were just guessing what the bentos would have in them, is all~" responded Eichi in a singsong voice. "Quietly, so you don't go and change them if we happened to guess right as I know you will~"

"... I'm sure they'll be delicious either way," said Rei, smiling as if nothing had happened. "So, can we eat yet? I'm starving~"

And so, with a cheerful "Itadakimasu!", the eating of the Japanese breakfast on the table began.

A while later, after saying her goodbyes to her parents (who had set off for work), Rei prepared herself for school. She set off earlier than usual this time; by the time Sora arrived, Rei had already been sitting in her place in class 2-B for a good half-hour, wondering to herself exactly why she even bothered to come this early (among other things).

Nazuna sat at the rooftop edge of Kitakou High School. She was in the school's uniform to not stand out but didn't realize that sitting alone on the rooftop during classtime actually made her stand out even more.

Hmm, I figured out Sora's class so I guess I'll start with her. I'd better avoid Rei too.

edited 17th Jun '11 1:52:09 PM by neobowman

Sorry, maxy; gonna take control of Noa for a little bit.

As Sora stepped onto the second floor of the school building, she spotted a familiar hair style.

"Hey, Noa-chan!" As Noa turned around, Sora ran over to the girl she had met with in combat yesterday...

"YAMAMOTO DYNAMIC GREETING!!!"

And proceeded to headbutt her squarely in the forehead.