Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)

[Kinematics]

Omake: Always Remember

---

A lone girl knelt silently in front of the shrine nestled behind the house. Her head was bowed, but her back was straight. A small candles burned gently, though placed notably away from the more flammable elements. Her movements carried the sense of ritual, rather than grief. After a time of meditation, she bowed more deeply, rang the singing bowl, and placed a flower in the vase placed in one corner. She then returned to her meditative pose.

The soft crunch of footfalls on the carpet signaled the arrival of a new individual, though they stopped a respectful distance away.

The girl at the shrine maintained her vigil, bowing and placing another flower, before finally turning to greet the new arrival. "Ah, hello," she said, even as she stood up and turned to face the other girl, stepping back to indicate that she would give up her space if the other girl wished to pay her respects. "Oh! You're, uh, one of the new arrivals. Sorry, I haven't really had a chance to see you. My name's Katana, by the way," she said, holding out a hand in greeting.

The short-haired girl snorted at that, but took her hand anyway. "Urako. And it's fine. We haven't been to this house much; just here for some training or something. Kaiya's inside with some redhead, and I'm just taking a look around."

"Ah. Of course. So, umm..." Katana paused, glancing around awkwardly. "Are you here to pray at the shrine, then? This is usually when I'm here, but — ah! But it's fine! I don't want to get in your way or anything." Katana yammered a bit nervously, holding her hands up to deny any ill intentions.

"What? No, I was just wondering what this was, is all," Urako replied, gesturing at the home-built shrine — somewhat sloppily built, but lovingly cared for. "Didn't look like what I expected, for something like that. Figured a shrine would be more..." She trailed off, equally uncomfortable with the subject.

Katana took a deep breath to calm herself, then turned and started explaining. "This is a shrine for those who have died — a remembrance for us. Even if it looks a little silly, it's important." She knelt down, gently pulling out a small plaque with a photo-booth sticker attached, and bright colored marker squiggles around it. "This is Keiko," she said, holding it out for Urako to see, and turning it over to see the girl's name written on the back, along with a date. She returned it, and pulled out another, this time with a proper 3x5 photo taped down with PreCure stickers. "Hitomi." She continued, repeating names for each of the other five plaques.

"Huh." Urako gave small acknowledgement, though her face scrunched up a bit as she tried to remember something. "Wait... Keiko? Isn't that—"

"No!" Katana interrupted, rather more sharply than expected. "Er, it's not Science-Keiko," she explained, face taking on a rather melancholy look. "She was..." Her voice trailed off.

"Yeah, sorry. Got it." Urako waved it off. "You have one of these at each of the houses? I don't remember seeing one at the other house."

"No, just this one," Katana answered, recovering from her funk.

"Huh. New, then?"

"New? No, we've had it for a couple years. Well, some of the drawings and decorations have been replaced, but it's still mostly as originally made."

Urako reached out a hand to flick one of the pinwheels, though her eyes didn't seem to quite focus on it. "Seven girls in a couple years? Well, guess it'll see some more use after your little trip to Tokyo."

Katana's face hardened a bit. "We won't let that happen."

"Won't 'let' that happen?" Urako answered incredulously. "You do know what you're up against, right? I heard your group fought one of those killer class 3's a few months ago. Would think that'd be enough to give you a clue."

"Yes, we fought one," Katana replied, iron forming to replace previous hesitance. "The class 3—", she seemed to spit the word out, "it hurt a lot of people. But if Mami is going back into Tokyo, she has a plan. She won't let anyone die needlessly."

"A plan?" asked Urako incredulously. "There's no 'plan' against those monsters, except 'get the hell out'! Even Sae couldn't—" She cut herself off at that point.

Katana also stopped her own reply, staring at the other girl, who was now deliberately avoiding her gaze. "Sae?" she finally asked.

"Never mind. Was before your time. Doesn't matter. Look, the class 3s in Tokyo aren't going to just roll over for you, so don't go in there thinking like that, or you're just gonna get killed."

Katana narrowed her eyes, but allowed the subject change back to the original topic. "The class thr— gah, I hate that name! These... superdemons, or whatever, have to be dealt with. Even if we have to risk our lives for it, the thought of how many more in Tokyo are having to... to say goodbye forever to their friends, all the time. I just can't.."

"And what are you going to do about it?" asked Urako, more than a little bitterness in her voice. "You think another shrine is going to help?"

Katana's face was suddenly far closer than Urako was quite comfortable with. "Yes. We will fight, and we will pray, and we will remember," she growled out in a steely tone. "We will try to keep them safe. And if we can't keep them safe, will will never allow them to be forgotten. Because people will know that the ones they care about will always care about them, and that their memories won't be lost."

Urako stumbled back a bit, before shoving her hands in her pockets and snorting. "Yeah, sure."

"You still remember Sae, right?"

"So?" Urako scowled.

"Would you want her to be forgotten?"

"Of course not! But that has nothing to do with you! You never even knew her."

Katana stared at her for a long moment. She then turned and carefully pulled out three placards. "I never knew these girls, either. They were part of Seto's group, when they were attacked by the... the 'superdemon'." Urako gave her a strange look, and she explained, "It was what we called the first one that we encountered. Before Kyuubey came in and gave them numbers, like they weren't anything special. Just another line in their book of records.

"But these three... They're not just numbers, or names, or records. They were important to their friends, and to Seto. And they should be remembered. Sometimes Seto will tell a small story or two about them. It keeps them alive in our hearts."

Urako tried to look away, but kept being drawn back to the pictures, clipped out of other settings. What were they like? Smiling faces of people she'd never met, yet felt connected to somehow. It was nonsense, but still tugged at her. Finally she just gave a muttered, "Whatever," but that seemed to be enough for Katana, who replaced the plaques with care.


After a bit of awkward silence, with Urako milling about, not quite willing to leave, but not sure of an excuse to stay, she finally tried another change of subject. "So, what's your problem with the 'class 3' name anyway? Seems as good a name as anything. They're just demons."

Katana blinked, then shrugged. "I just don't like it. They have those same numbers for magical girls, you know? 'Class 2' for a typical veteran, stuff like that. Just feels too... impersonal. When we use it, it's like we're trying to hide things. Like, the importance of a person, or the danger of a demon. Like they're just a bunch of numbers on a spreadsheet.

"There's that saying, you know? 'One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.' If we just think of them as numbers, I think we start to forget about the real tragedy that they represent. We forget what's important."

"Sure, but what are you gonna call them, then?" Urako asked, hands shrugging in the air. "For us magical girls, they're just 'demons'. But they're definitely not the same thing as the normal ones we fight."

"I'm... not sure, really. I'm not good with naming things. Anything I've tried to come up with just sounded silly." She finally put the ritual paraphernalia away, and started walking towards the front of the house, Urako vaguely trailing her.

"Heh. Hmm. You know, there was this manga I used to read, a couple years back. Crappy little webcomic, really, but it had some cool fights. What do you think of....

Spoiler: Notes

It suddenly occurs to me that I don't know if the shrine was inside or outside the house. For some reason I'd always assumed it was outside, but a regular memorial shrine would be inside. And the types of things used to construct it originally wouldn't last through the first rainstorm.

Katana is the girl who cracked after Keiko's death, and ran away, only lured back by blueberry pie. She's a pacifist, and hasn't been brought up since, so I figure she mostly fills in on various non-combat stuff, such as jobs and support training.

Did we ever get the names of the girls in Seto's group that died? I thought we had, but I can't find them anywhere.

Spoiler: Personal notes

Sorry for the delay on this. My roommate's mom ended up going to the hospital and hasn't been doing that well, so have been a little distracted.

Regardless, this was far harder to write than it should have been. It was hard to pull back the original idea.

 

[inverted_helix]

Attack on Tokyo 3
​

You decide to slow down your attack cycle to ease up on the evolutionary pressure and give yourself more time to scout things out.

Sending KyoClone to scout things out in advance turns out really well, she slips in and about Tokyo with contemptuous ease, and while she can't exactly slip into miasma undetected, it's required that they try to attack her to figure out their powers anyways. She acquires a lot of information to work with for targeting further demons. She definitely proves herself the most skilled of your fighters time and again over the weeks, avoiding even false death against anything thrown at her.

Though granted that's with never attacking at all, but you'd never guess that from her crowing about it. The gloating is good for her though: alternating exposure to supernatural positivity and negativity is definitely stressing her out even if she's trying to hide it. So you can listen to her boasting to you.

The first operation against a pair goes fairly well. Serena's team is more than able to handle the pair. One of the two is a teleporter and they try to focus it down first, but there efforts really aren't that rewarding. While it doesn't immediately flee like it had previously, a bit braver with its friend there, it's still very skittish and flees before taking too much damage, leaving the other behind to die.

The second attack goes a bit less well, the opponents significantly more dangerous with a barrier using teleporter much more capable of withstanding their attacks and staying in the fight while the other laid down heavy supporting fire while they tried to put down the teleporter. They ended up calling in the support team, which helped overwhelm the shields, but the teleporter simply fled when it was endangered.

You explain the situation to the squad leaders of the groups that Nagoya lent you and tell them to pass it on to their superiors as needed during your normal updates with them. They're a little disappointed with your reduced optimism but you're still doing a good job. They can't risk engaging directly now though. While generally they consider it safe for a squad of elites to hand a class 3, there's too much danger that if they engage one pair another pair will arrive to reinforce and that could quickly shift the situation dangerously. They can still handle a defensive deployment as it isn't too likely if demons flee for them to be that coordinated, but attacking would be too risky.

You switch over to having your support team handle demons while Serena just stays safe and negates the demons aura. It's a lot more dangerous than the previous method, and alpha strikes simply aren't as effective as you'd like. Too many pairs have at least one barrier power between them , plus they can simply absorb much more damage than a magical girl could and heal it back up. You still manage to deal with two more of them in that fashion though.

You adjust again to having Kyoclone bait demons into a prepared ambush location. The first two goes on that work quite well. Having the advantage of a free shot from stealth really helps in tilting the fight in your favor. You're still only getting one kill at a time though as the teleporter will abandon the other when it shifts too much against them and you've not had a good shot at any pair without a teleporter yet.

The third attempt at baiting them in is where everything goes wrong though. The idea was perhaps too predictable. Just after Serena teleported in and you began the attack four more demons appeared. Possibly stealthed, possibly teleported in you had no idea. Your own body felt like you were going from a hot tub to an ice bath, Serena's and six Class 3 demons' auras hitting you at once practically sparking across your gem in a sensation you shove to the back of your mind.


Spears, bones, acid, bolts of every color of the rainbow, tentacles and more smash against the layered barriers protecting your group. Your vision from within the barrier is virtually nonexistent, the attacks lighting up the whole surface and effectively cutting off your view of the battlefield. You launch your own attacks through the shield completely blind in a desperate attempt at distraction. You really hadn't considered how everyone being under the same dome would let attacks blind you like this.

Taya and Kyouko leave the shield at angles to the attack and engage the enemies while you begin shouting for everyone to retreat. Half your girls teleport out, while the other half just fires back. The second barrier vanishes even before the first one fails as the girls maintaining it abandon it in favor of launching their own attacks. The first barrier buckles as one of its own casters teleports out. At least the third barrier stands strong, both casters managing to stay focused on what they're supposed to be doing and it shines against the withering firepower breaking upon it.

After a few more seconds of yelling at them, most of the girls have teleported away, though you end up just dragging a couple less coherent ones with your ribbons as the barrier girls retreat their shield depleted.

You twist out of the way of a fireball on instinct and deflect a splinter of bone with your shield. The girls tied up in your ribbons providing somewhat comical covering fire. You make your way towards Serena as her group attempts to flee in some semblance of a formation with no teleporter appearing to extract them. The only other girl you can tell is still in the miasma is Kyouko and she's spun off dozens of images which are playing distraction, you can only hope that she's got a clear enough head to stay safe. Unlike the girls you're still dragging around wildly, perhaps you could use some practice with this as defending yourself and the two wildly flailing roman candles of spells is leaving them both worse for the wear and they show no sign of feeling like teleporting.

The vision of the world in the miasma is starting to twist like a funhouse mirror, reality seeming to warp under the metaphysical weight. With no words exchanged you and Serena's group have the same idea and are simply zig-zagging the same general direction trying to get out of the miasma while trying to slow down your pursuers.

They break through your ribbons fairly quickly, but they take longer to break them then it slows you down to control them. But at least half of them can teleport, and you're trying to push away a school of teleporting piranha with a sphere of whirling ribbons as they tear bits off your flesh. You dig into the ground for a second at a mental word from Amelie and she fires a blast of solid air directly at you pushing away the swarming fish for a moment, but it was hardly worth it with how it tore open the small tears into larger ones.

You take the breathing space to glance about. The demons seem to have given up on attacking Kyouko images for the more reliable targets.

Then you realize that the ribbon holding one of your errant girls has broken and you watch in horror as she takes on a monster that seems to be ninety percent mouth and teeth with her giant fountain pen. You double back and try to reach her but just manage to lose an arm reaching for her as the demon tears her apart.

You kick off against its face and tourniquet off your shoulder; you don't need arms that much anyways. You still have other girls to defend though, not least the one you're still dragging around. You can cry after. You fumble some grief cubes from your pockets and throw them at your gem as you summon another set of muskets and blind fire them behind you through a dust cloud conjured by Amelie.

Serena's group slows to let you rejoin them before you continue to run, but it doesn't seem to be working though as your sense of the edge of the miasma isn't getting any closer, the teleporters keep extending it.

Finally Shinobu appears on your location and mass teleports the whole group of you away.

Spoiler: AN

Delayed as a result of many distractions, and much depression. Also was torn on how to handle casualties, decided to post this before fully deciding. Hence the ambiguity. At present you're looking at 3 dead. Ultimately was tough choice since I've grown attached too, but there has to be risk.

Hopefully I'm past a block again and I can work on the main turn again.

 

[Kinematics]

So, half an omake.

---

Kia casually dropped the cell phone on the table, picked up the glass of water, finished it off, and then with a wild, incoherent scream threw it at the opposite wall of the room, shattering it and throwing shards in amongst the other remnants of her rage — broken cabinet doors, torn notebooks, plate fragments, and other such things.

The door slammed open an instant later to reveal a girl in a green dress, glaive already forming in her hand. She looked around the room with sharp eyes, before relaxing and letting her weapon vanish. "We're going to run out of dishes if you keep doing that, Kia," she said, even as she made her way across the room to a closet, pulling out a broom.

Kia just snorted and collapsed back on a short couch. "White knights are at it again," was all she explained.

The girl in green just raised an eyebrow even as she started sweeping the floor. "And shouldn't we be grateful for that?"

"All they care about is getting the credit. Not interested in letting us help, or getting us out of this hellhole. 'Just sit tight and we'll let you know when it's safe to come help us,'" she added, in a sing-song voice. A flick of her wrist had a dagger protruding from the wall, where the glass had made impact.

"Well, can you blame them?" the other girl answered, shaking the fragments of the glass out of the broom in one corner where all the mess had been swept, but strangely not making any attempt to move it into a trash bin. "Imagine the glory of being the ones to save Tokyo. That's worthy of a wish, right there. And it's not like the Tokyo groups are all that trustworthy to begin with. After all, they're the ones who caused this mess in the first place."

"Buncha greedy bastards," Kia muttered. "Can't admit when someone else might do a better job than them, eh, 'tomi?"

'Tomi' just rolled her eyes, though she kept her face where the other girl couldn't see.

"Anyway," Kia continued, "they're just telling us how well they're doing, and that everything'll be all copacetic in a month or two. 'No need to worry.'"

Tomi turned after returning the broom to the closet, tilting her head slightly. "But you are worried, aren't you?" She then tilted her head a bit further as a knife whizzed past her cheek.

"I'm just worried about the mess they're gonna leave Tokyo in after they screw up!" Kia retorted. "We've already seen the demons starting to act a bit funny, since these girls started their little campaign. It was dangerous enough before; all they're gonna do is make it worse, before they all bite it and we're left with the aftermath."

"Hmm."

"Don't 'Hmm' me! Say what you mean, or get the hell out!"

"Just sounds to me like you want to drop in on them, and, well, show them what you're capable of, as it were."

"Feh. They already said they 'didn't need our help'."

"Since when have you ever done what someone else wanted?" Tomi said with a small smirk.

Kia narrowed her eyes at that, while Tomi quickly slipped out the door.

Spoiler: Notes

Kia is from one of the groups that Nagoya would have described as, "part of the problem". She's aggressive and confrontational, a bit like Kyouko might be if she had been in that situation. Underneath her gruff demeanor, she really does care about the people around her (mostly, more or less, but she certainly qualifies as a 'hero' type); she just can't understand why people won't admit that she's right, and do what she says. She tends to see only the very short term, though, and doesn't recognize her actions as contributing to the downfall of Tokyo.

Also, the "Didn't need her help" bit was a biased interpretation how she reacted to the initial recruitment, where she refused to sign up if she had to deal with a couple of the other locals.

'Tomi is her Alfred, able to see what she really means, and nudge her onto less destructive courses of action. She might possibly have been inspired by Hitomi. >.>


Anyway, I like the characters and their interplay. Just finding that extending this outward at the present time doesn't work too well, as it starts hitting several OOC barriers.

 

[Storyteller]

I mean, we have ~80 high school aged girls, and yet apparently none of them can write a persuasive essay.

Click to shrink...

I was reading through and came across this. And the come up with an idea, which shifted somewhat.

Edit: Forgot the title

Grammar Instruction​

Mura sighed, staring at the… brochure. She refused to call it a manual. She had managed to get access to the school printers to make a copy of the rotational hunting section. She had also 'borrowed' a red pen from one of the teachers. As much as Yui and Aiko complained about her having too much pride, this was not acceptable quality for the Serene to be having to their name. It was downright embarrassing.

Mura furiously circled a badly drawn stick figure diagram. The red ink was a barely noticeable addition upon the page. She had known that no one had been able to actually write with decent grammar, the competition that the group had put on in search of someone that could made that very apparent. Mami had later put on a slideshow explaining the difference and use of 'they're' and 'their'.

Mura scratched a final line of red before turning the page. She would have to find that slideshow, apparently there was a need for a remedial course. The math thankfully was correct, though it had cost her the last two months of personal time to check. Mura yawned, shaking her head violently. She was not going to wonder about what Keiko had wanted those kittens for. It had been hard enough hunting down from all over the Serene territory. Keiko had gone over the math, written down the formulas for her, complete with notes and explanations.

She was going to improve the operations brochure so that it would not kill her by embarrassment, or die trying. Her eyes drifted to a use of text abbreviations. Most likely die trying.

Mura consulted the grammar book at her side. The first sentence was missing a comma to denote the use of a… clause. That was the word, a clause. Two pages down, only… Mura listened to the burr of the papers as she ran her thumb down the pile. Only thirty two more to go. And then she could begin the section upon dispatch! The solid thunk of her head hitting the desk echoed through the empty classroom.

"That bad?" Correction, not so empty.

Mura shot up, only to relax when she realized it was only Mrs. Ishiwaka. The teacher that she had 'borrowed' both the red pen and earlier the teacher I.D to the printer from. How the wallet of the woman did not get stolen, Mura had no idea. The teacher was peering into the dark room.

"It is nothing for you to be concerned with Sensei." Mura answered, rising from her seat.

"Oh good. So you have time for me to buy you dinner." Ishiwaka replied.

Mura bristled, she, nor any of the other Serenes did not need charity. "I really must-"

Ishiwaka cut her off. "You are coming with me to dinner, or I am going to fail you and report you for stealing my printer I.D. I would also like my pen back."

Mura was reminded of the top reason she preferred work as a hunter to mundane work.

Demons you could kill.

*****​

"For the record" Ishiwaka began as food was served. "The next time you want to print out your education material, you can just ask me."

Mura carefully chewed, buying time to think. Exactly what was the woman saying?

Ishiwaka took Mura's silence for an attempt at playing dumb, shaking her head before removing from her own purse the Serene 'manual'. Mura froze as she recalled the horror stories of the house fight. Fifty cubes in fines she was told. Kyouko was going to kill her!

"Mura, I am not dumb. I've seen you with" the woman snaps her fingers as she attempts to remember, "Yuma! I've seen you with Yuma, helping her with math. I am not quite sure of why you and the other girls apparently chose advance subjects such as rotational farming and the historical importance of supply lines, but I am not going to punish you for trying to teach."

Ishiwaka shakes her head fondly. "Telling overly complicated stories to make learning interesting is something that I did with my sister." The woman pauses for a second, characteristic exuberance missing, before jumping back into the conversation.

"Now, the grammar is terrible. But going by how you've been stealing my pens for the past week, you knew that. Now I had to run by the science and math with friends from my university, and I still need to give them an excuse because I will never hear the end of it… Where was I going with this?"

Mura decided to keep eating so that she would not have to answer. Apparently her teacher was a loon, and had concluded that the brochure was an overly complicated attempt at teaching younger girls with terrible grammar.

"Oh yes. The subject matter nailed. Now as your teacher, I refuse to correct the grammar myself, but I would be happy to help with the subject if you need extra help in the future."

Mura swallowed. "Why are you doing this?"

Ishiwaka gave a bitter sweet smile. "Mura I know that you joined the group home only a few months ago. You girls are bright if you can put this together from scratch, you would be bright if you could come up with the idea, let alone a good practical application for examples. But if you cannot write well, there is no way that any of you will be able to get scholarships to continue your education."

The pieces clicked. Ishiwaka was the odd duck out among the other teachers. A little too sharp sometimes, a little too slow in the pickup.

"Your scholarship was the only reason you were able to complete university wasn't it?"

Ishiwaka cringed, looking away. "That obvious? I just don't want to see history repeat."

Mura finished her food. "Well you blackmailed me here, I think you owe me the story."

Ishiwaka shook her head. "I do don't I. My sister Chihiro was six years younger than me. A house fire broke out in the neighborhood while the two of us were sneaking out to see the cherry blossoms at night. This is Tokyo I am speaking about mind, so it was very foolish of us considering how people just disappear after dusk. The fire apparently made it to a gas line, as our family's apartment exploded."

"We had actually almost made it home at the time. I can't even remember anything after we decided to return home. I must have gotten Chi behind me, because I woke up in the hospital while she was unharmed."

Out from the purse came a weathered picture of a smiling twelve year old, peering out of black hair so untrimmed to become shaggy. And just within the photo's borders, a silver ring with a gray stone wrapped around the left hand's middle finger. "Last photo ever taken."

"Tokyo was getting... rough at the time. I was working part time attempting to make ends meet, for... a while. Two weeks before Chihiro went missing, a letter came from out of city. Full ride, and somehow there was even room for Chihiro. If it had came just a little sooner..."

Ishiwaka shook her head. "Thank you for having dinner with me, Mura. Chihiro had made me promise that I would introduce her to one of my students her twenty second birthday."

There was nothing more that could be said. The next day, the photo of Chihiro was borrowed for a short time. By nightfall, there was a new portrait in the shrine.

Notes:

Yeah, this started as an attempt at a funnier omake making fun of how bad at writing the Serenes apparently are. Mura I picked out of a hat, since she was named and mostly uncharacterized. Apparently I can neither stick with characterization or do funny. Practice makes perfect I guess?

Further editing: So, apparently one vet was lost, and so far in the campaign we have taken down 10 class 3 demons. Is this expected for the 'farmers' or impressive for the 'farmers'?

 

[inverted_helix]

Turn 33
​

Training
General training
Even with much of your forces deployed to Tokyo this month you continue the basic training you need to get your new recruits up to snuff, and by the end of the month they at least understand your organization enough to not drag the standards down.

Learning Japanese
Learning Japanese is no easy task, or at least so you've heard. All the languages they have between them are from the same linguistic family, while Japanese is not. None of your girls have actually taught anything beyond magical girl skills before either. They start picking up basic phrases, but this is going to be a fairly long term activity, though you likely could leave it to their free time and they'd eventually learn.

Review and Training
This month was the first time that Serena's really faced demons that didn't just fall over from proximity. While her friends had some prior experience before being caught in her orbit that still is somewhat distant and rusty. Some discussion of what they encountered and ways they could have done better is certainly helpful.



Diplomacy
Trade Deal (Coalition): (1.5 Vet): Attempt to trade for their Tandem Casting research. Explain that we need to improve our Tandem Casting to help with the clean up of Tokyo. Be willing to offer more in addition to our own Tandem Casting research if necessary.

Your efforts to persuade the coalition to exchange their research notes with you surprisingly bear fruit. You've gone a long way at bringing relations with them to a more neutral level.

Their notes on tandem research give you some perspective, but at the basic level it's largely matches with what you already knew. Synchronizing magic between casters is hard and requires some form of mnemonic timing mechanism. They use ritual dances to do so, but fundamentally it is all about more precisely matching timing, and it is possible to do so in other ways.

There may be more value in their notes in what it tells you about the way they think though than in terms of the research itself. They're very focused on concealment. All of their attempts on fusion are in relation to stealth. It's no wonder that the girls in area 1 never had trouble eluding you. (Insight: The girls in Area 1 which formed the core of the coalition were sharply skewed towards stealth, and doubled down on it. They gain bonuses to stealth, surprise attacks, and stealth research, and penalties in other fields.)

You suspect their research on fusion has had the results redacted, as they give you enough information to rapidly piece together your own success but do not include their own variants. They have only had luck with individuals with very strong connections to each other and suggest that to some degree it is a trust exercise. While two girls with the same magic type can externally synchronize their magic and project it cohesively this method doesn't seem to work when the magic types differ. With truly different abilities there must be some degree of magical give and take, passing magic between the two to blend its flavor.


Open Formal Relations (Heaven's Chosen):
You personally handle making the initial contact with the Heaven's Chosen. Their name itself is rather ominous to you and you haven't particularly heard good things about them, but you don't let that cloud your perspective. Your initial contact goes pretty well. The contact information you have essentially connects you to Taura's counterpart, the leader's personal assistant. She speaks in a sort of overly formal and archaic manner most of the time but occasionally slips up in minor ways.

As you work to arrange a formal meeting directly with Hiko you try to feel out the basis of the organization through three of her assistants. You get the feeling that she's not very often in her nominal office. You slowly wheedle some details out of the various girls you end up talking to. There's a sort of layer of imposed tradition upon them, but that's not exactly something they chafe against, following the leader is something that's heavily ingrained in Japanese society from birth.

To their perspective the NM is too corporate. Hiko runs a sort of feudal responsibility system where people are responsible for fulfilling their duties to those above them, but those above them are also responsible for the wellbeing of those beneath them. The NM only serves the people at the top. But at the very least that makes the NM somewhat predictable once you have a grasp for what the top level goals are.

The Junta and Republic are far less simple to work around. The Junta is always pressing for weaknesses, a society built purely on martial lines, and they're dangerously aggressive. The Republic has the failings of any democratic system and is unpredictable and unreliable with goals and directives changing too fast.

Their probing on you is more subtle you would have expected from how open they are in answering your questions. They try to determine your goals, the treatment of your subordinates, and angle for the number of members of your group though they seem to have an estimate already. You can't be sure how well you prevented them getting information, though they took your deflections with good grace. They also open the possibility of long term trade deals.

You're questions about their quality of life are poorly answered. They say they're fine, but you don't trust the answer. They're vague and comparative. They live less dangerous lives than the Junta, they aren't subject to contrary directives like the Republic, and they aren't sent to fight distant wars like the NM.

They can't really answer why the name is what it is for you. It's not something they've really questioned. Tokyo doesn't seem to matter as much to them as you'd expect. They don't seem very concerned, though you try to keep your own worries about it out of your voice.

At the end of the month you get a short audience with Yashiro Hiko. You are allowed to bring whatever honor guard you like. They don't even give you a limit to how many, though they warn you that the location will not be safe for teleportation. You take a small entourage on the bullet train to get there. It travels fast enough that from your knowledge magical girls don't care about you passing through unless you get off in their territory.

You're escorted by a pair of very modestly dressed girls from the Kyoto station to what appears to be an old but very well maintained Shinto shrine. You're glad you wore a formal kimono for this. You're hardly use to measuring demon strength by feel given your group's usual methods, but you're thinking it's definitely not negative, you'd feel that for sure, you suspect from the appearance of the human population that it's probably well above baseline.

Your guides take you through an illusion barrier into a larger building than the shrine building. Entering the building feels strange. The closest comparison would be entering a miasma but that's not really close. There's a sort of heavy weight to the building, spiritual pressure almost, you can tell magic runs through the bones of the building. You find yourself suddenly remembering the myth that old items can gain a life of their own, but it's probably nothing.

There weren't all that many people in the building. Certainly no obvious guards as your guides directed you to a sliding door and waited. Yashiro Hiko was waiting in a traditional largely empty room. She would have looked young, ten or twelve maybe in a cute priestess outfit, but even a human would surely have felt the weight of years behind her eyes, and her sheer presence filled the room. It wasn't something magic or you would have noticed, but you could feel her eyes scything through you, silently judging. Then her demeanor changes and she cheerfully greets you with a voice and expression befitting her appearance. That sets the tone for the rest of the meeting as she seems to stick to an upbeat personality with odd bits of young and old.

You're treated to a rather strange mix of cut down traditional customs. She apologizes that she doesn't have time to do things the long way as she abbreviates many things with casual magic use and unnerving grace.

The conversations that follow are an array of careful probes, oblique deflections, implications, and metaphors that leave you confused at times if you're even talking about the same things. You really aren't sure what to make of her.

You think she'd like Kyoto to be the capital again, but that seems like it's more a means to her than an end. The Emperor would endure either way she's sure.

She's certainly not as concerned about Tokyo's fate as you are, but restraining your own anxieties about it limits your approaches on the matter. She claims that over the years many entire towns have died out from the folly of their magical girls, and Japan has nonetheless endured. She can hardly be expected to clean up the mistakes of every foolish girl in the country, nor can she ask her subordinates to risk their lives to do so. She has a hard enough time just keeping them safe as it is.

Her responses about tradition and culture are interesting. The way she speaks of it proves more than anything else that she's had a great many years to ponder it. Her tradition and culture have diverged from what she grew up with; many ideas have been cast aside as useless or completely wrong. She's oddly more pragmatic than you'd expect for someone so traditional. Anything about the weakness of females or females taking a subordinate role has essentially been discarded as absurd. And she's perfectly capable of adapting to the times where it's clearly useful, she even has a computer and a cell phone. But why should things change that work fine? Why has cuisine shifted so radically, or architecture, or clothing? She spends at least an hour on the subject and she's much less guarded about it than other things.

She encourages you that you're used to thinking in the short term, but you should also think about the long term, and you have a feeling she has a different perspective on what those mean.

You get less out of her in the end than you wanted, but more than you perhaps expected. She's interesting, and you definitely don't think she's crazy, but you could see why some might think that.



Daily Progress Updates (0 vets):
Nagoya Teams - Give them the locations we feel are likely to provide the best screening for demons heading west if they flee from our actions (though they may of course adjust as they see fit). Let them know that our progress is likely to be slow and steady, so they might not see any action for the first few days, but we'd appreciate if they let us know about any unusual behavior in the areas that are outside of our scan range.

Tokyo Contacts - Maintain contact with the elites, and inform them of our progress through the month. We will let them know if we have a situation that is ready for their direct assistance, but otherwise expect that mostly they should play defensively, particularly when the demons start getting more agitated and disturbed.

You maintain contact with the groups, but there's nothing unusually significant outside of what was already reported.
The Tokyo girls give you some idea of how many girls are leaving Tokyo, but even they don't have solid numbers.



Research
Tandem Casting, Fusion x3: Intensified research.
The amount of resources you spend on research this month dwarfs all of your previous efforts. 14 meguca months and 14.25 GCU spent on this project trying to brute force your way into an immediate breakthrough.

Even with the enormous resources you throw into it, you still face tremendous trouble trying to bring together different magic types. With so many people to throw at the problem but so little time there's a number of positively odd experiments running through the month. Some are apparently taking the musical metaphor a little too far and even trying to use music directly. Other times you see the positively jarring clashes from people throwing magic at each other, which results mostly in wasteful light displays.

In the end partly through brute force efforts of trying so many mechanisms and with a little help from the research notes you traded for you come up with a usable solution. You end up passing little bits of magic between girls, pushing the magical energy across in a somewhat similar manner to enchanting. You start with a small amount and the partner blends an equally small amount of their own energy into it while holding it stable. You keep passing it back and forth blending a bit more together each time until you get a useful amount. Blend too much at once and you get an unusable mess. You think of it like pouring flour into a mixer gradually working while pouring it all at once just results in a messy kitchen.

It definitely requires a high degree of connection to let someone pass magic into you without resisting, like not flinching when someone throws a punch at you knowing it will stop. Even a bit of resistance can disrupt the fragile process.

It's very different from the previous comparisons to music, but then magic is neither music nor flour. No analogy is likely to hold in all cases.

Generally speaking it will require some training and practice to even use it, and some research time for any new application. You had some extra time though because the Coalitions note's helped you finish early. Your focus for the result of this research was something combining teleportation and barrier magic to interdict teleports and with that time you've got some early results. Shinobu and Aiko managed to handle blending their teleportation and barriers and turn the result towards preventing teleportation, but it's not really at a level you can accept at this point.

Blending magic is both slow and inefficient in how much they can build up. They've managed to stop a teleport in tests with anchors, though it just materializes the object bouncing off the barrier rather than anything more dramatic. But the capability to stop a determined teleporter simply isn't there. A few teleports even at a veteran's casting capability can break through their barrier. Seto can punch through in one try if she puts enough into it, though it degrades her performance severely.

Maybe you could combine it with your charm techniques to get something more functional, but the magic is far more unstable at this point than anything you've dealt with before.


Morale
Welcome home dinners (1.0 vets, $2,000): Every day that the Tokyo teams go out, have special "Welcome Home" dinners (comfort food) prepared when they get back, with the camaraderie of everyone else supporting them in a difficult endeavor.

In spite of the frenzy of activity this month you still set some time aside for safer more normal activity. A good hot meal and some time together to eat has been a staple of human combat morale for centuries for good reason. You don't force anyone to come, but most of your girls do anyway. Teenagers basically never turn down the offer of good food.

Mountain Hiking & Picnic (2.0 vets, $750): A day early in the month (after the first week in Tokyo) spent hiking and appreciating nature. Pack up snacks and a good picnic lunch, and do some mountain hiking in the nomadic area, with a picnic at the top. Have Mami accompany Serena, while Seto goes with the main group. Keep the groups separate since we still want to minimize aura exposure this month.

The mountain hike goes well enough, though not everyone really appreciates nature. There's something to be said for the perspective you gain from standing on a hill and looking out on the land stretching out beneath you though. A view of what you're fighting for. Serena appreciates you going with her, talking to someone that's not affected is nice, though she claims that after living in the wilderness for much of the time since she Contracted she's more than happy to stay indoors.


General
With the global economic slowdown things are a little hardscrabble keeping profits up in your businesses, but you still manage normal profits.

With the finishing of your training program both Tama and Yukari are promoted from green to veteran.

The aftermath of the primary assault on Tokyo is a mixed bag. You've lost a girl straight in front of your eyes, and you don't think you'll ever be okay with that. But you've eliminated about a quarter of the Oni class that were stalking the magical girls of Tokyo and you knew going in there were risks.

More immediately you've got new problems. While you don't have any sort of exact numbers estimates are that dozens of magical girls have been fleeing Tokyo through the holes in the defensive ring you've punched. You've had around forty come to you looking to join up after the string of victories and you doubt you can take them all right away without the safe territory to support them.

Worst still is how many groups on the periphery of Tokyo are dealing with random migrants pushing through their territory and competing for the limited safe resources. It's sparking new problems fast.

The attacks of Tokyo this month, particularly the messy retreat from the final fight of the month have left people quite shaken up though, and the number of spirals was quite severe as a result. Not even counting that you issued everyone present some extra grief cubes just to calm nerves afterwards, including yourself. There were 7 spirals this month: four of them pretty minor including Sayaka having what Kyouko referred to as a crisis of faith. There was also a moderate spiral costing two cubes, but worst still were two extra severe spirals. (2 death level spirals)



Rumors
The disease outbreak in Hong Kong appears to have burned itself out to a large degree, too fast and too lethal. It was at least contained, though none of the explanations really hold much weight, especially as much of the medical workers and researchers that responded died in mysterious circumstances. It screams government cover up to most, but it's unclear who and why.

An American naval vessel shot down a North Korean missile above the Sea of Japan, before it could cross Japan. This follows a steady increase in rhetoric which appears to have driven the North Koreans to saber rattling and the Americans to need to make a show of their own in response.

The economic downturn seems to be proportionally worse in Tokyo with unemployment rising and productivity falling, and suicide rate as ever when people lose jobs have skyrocketed. There has also been an unusual shift of population from Tokyo to the other major metropolitan areas where the economy is performing better.

In magical news, there has been a major breach of the Tokyo encirclement. Casualties in Tokyo are down significantly but many are taking this as a chance to flee. Hino's faith in the Serene now appears somewhat justified. Many wonder however why the Serene's leader previously controlled from the shadows and only now appeared in direct combat.



Resources

• 4 (5) Elite Meguca: Mami (+20% persuasive), Kyouko (can act as if two Elites), Taya (Can fill role of two clairvoyant vets), Seto (Elite teleporter)
• Legendary Serena, +4 vet/elite special
  
• 58 Veteran Meguca, 6 Green Meguca, 1 Associate
  • Upkeep: 21.5 Veteran, 6 Green, 1 Associate
    • Support/Training (8.5 Vet)
      • 3 vet demon finding training (+20% grief cubes)
      • 2 vets on dispatch service (+30% grief cubes additive with demon finding, -1% casualties)
      • 2 vet on telepathic communication (-2% pair hunting, -1% pack hunting)
      • 1.5 Veteran, Paperpushing
    • Jobs (13 Vet, 6 Green, 1 Associate)
      • 1 veteran (Hainako) Translation service
      • 4 veteran + 5 green working courier business (Minimum 3 vets)
      • 1 Akeno Delivery
      • 4 Vets (Akane), 1 Green, 1 Associate Restaurant
      • 3 vets - Restaurant delivery
• Grief Cubes 114.3
• Money: $88,950
  • Expenses: $30,920
    • $1480 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
    • $600 upkeep on cable/internet
    • $5000 upkeep on apartments
    • $8000 upkeep on house
    • $300 upkeep on Akiya
      
    • $7400 upkeep on stipend
    • $7400 upkeep on food
    • $740 upkeep on gear (bikes, shields, misc)
  • Income $37,500
    • Translator: +$5500 per turn
    • Courier Business, Mitakihara: +$9500 per turn
    • Courier Business, Kasamino: +$4500 per turn
    • Restaurant +$9000 per turn
    • Akeno Delivery +$4000 per turn
    • Restaurant Delivery +$5000 per turn
• Morale: [4 of 10] Your girls are pretty shaken up about the events of this month.
  
• Assets
  • Tiny household shrine: Somewhat reduces losses to morale from deaths. (Bonus Increased by omake)
  • Shields: -3% Casualties
  • Spoiler: Training

    [*]Basic General Combat Training: -2% Casualties (May decay with losses or recruitment).
    [*]Basic Solo Combat Training: -1% Pack Hunting, -2% pair hunting, -3% Solo Hunting
    [*]Defending Others Training: -2% Pair Hunting, -1% Pack Hunting
    [*]Pack Tactics Training: -4% pack hunting, -2% pair hunting
    [*]PvP training: Still terrible, but slightly less so +2% PvP effectiveness
    [*]Experienced Hunters +10% grief cube gather rates
    [*]Tandem trained
    - Healer: 2
    - Teleporter: 5+Seto
    - Stealth: 2+Kyoko
    - Clairvoyant: 3+Taya
    - Barrier: 11

• • 74 Bicycles (Mobility Bonus)
  • 28 Bulletproof vest (-2% casualty)
  • 29 Sets of Kevlar Clothing (-4% casualty)
  • 3 Sets of Leather (-2% casualty)
  • 9 sets hardened leather (-3% casualty)
  • Housing (68/93)
    • Apartments (40 capacity)
    • House (50 capacity)
    • Mami's Apartment (HQ of sorts) (Can be traded for $1200 per turn)
    • Akiya (5/6 capacity, special)
• Territory
  • Urban
    • North
      • Demon Status: Average -0.1
      • Sustainable Harvest: 37
    • South
      • Demon Status: Average 0.0
      • Sustainable Harvest: 37
  • Rural
    • Demon Status: Weak -4.8
    • Sustainable Harvest: 8

________________________________________________________________________________________
I've cut down the amount of armor you had a little bit, count it as actual destructive damages from the fights you've been in. It wasn't clearly referenced in the mini-turns, but you knew going in that in these fights you'd actually take armor destruction, and Mami isn't actually the type to note such losses immediately.

Cubes you gained 109 GCU from the Tokyo demons you destroyed. This was knocked down significantly though by various expenses. You burned 14 on grief spirals this turn. Plus a lot of extra on extraordinary magic use and just generally handing them out like candy as a preventative measure after a terrifying retreat.

And there's a couple of options imbedded in here. You have two fatal spirals that you can choose to put with Serena indefinitely (I did secondary rolls which gave you the opportunity to do so if you want to). Plus you have approximately 40 meguca from Tokyo willing to join up.

Tempted to flatten out training upkeep in to a general 10% upkeep to training instead of specific ones highlighted. In retrospect would have made more sense to keep general combat training and tactics working with each other as the upkeep and drop the demon finding to renewable.

As ever I expect a million errors in my post, especially since I wrote it in many little bits over time.

 

[Storyteller]

Safe-Keeping​

Keiko peered nervously at the lit window above her from the street below. When Sakamae had called, saying that Katsuko had been looking for a successor, Keiko had thought it was a joke. Or at worst that Katsuko had burned out in being dragged along for the past, year and a half with science. She wished it was one of those options as Sakamae let her into the boarding house.

She was not supposed to find Katsuko up at two o'clock in the morning. That was Katsuko's job, to drag her to bed, and if… alright when, that proved fruitless to pour herself a cup of coffee and supervise as science happened .Keiko should never be in the position of dragging Katsuko to sleep.

Sakamae quietly led Keiko to a small room that Katsuko had converted to a room of… science madness. The other occupants of the room had fled, taking cover elsewhere away from Katsuko's sudden change of behavior. Sakamae patted Keiko on the back, before stepping away. The message was clear. It was all in Keiko's hands.

Oh what had she done to deserve this?

"Katsuko, you need to sleep", Keiko called from the doorway. She waited for Katsuko to respond, maybe a response about hypocrisy, or even one of the numerous paper coffee cups scattered around the room thrown at her head.

All she heard was silence.

Keiko wished she had brought a kitten with her, and stepped hesitantly over the boundary of the room. She touched Katsuko's shoulder, finally dragging her partner's attention away from the stack of paper she was writing.

"Keiko, you should" Katsuko's voice was cut off by a yawn. " be in bed."

"You first," Keiko responded, before peering over Katsuko's shoulder at whatever had kept her friend up so late. Katsuko flipped over the papers in retaliation, glaring at Keiko.

"Bed." The order would have been more effective if Katsuko had neither yawned or nod her head as she said it.

Keiko paused, trying to think of how… well Katsuko would have handled the situation. She started to pick up the used paper cups to throw away into the trashcan, buying time to think.

"What are you working on?" Keiko asked, giving up. She was not Katsuko, and the best thing she could do was join.

Katsuko looked at Keiko sullenly, as if… Keiko could not say what.

"I talked to Rika today." Keiko racked her head trying to place the name. Katsuko spent time with her to prevent a repeat of the magnesium flare, and at least in part because she also enjoyed experimenting. Everyone Katsuko spent time with Keiko knew, if only because Katsuko had called in backup the one time Keiko had tried the expresso, but she did not know that name.

"Chihoko's little sister. The family had stopped by the police station, to see… if Chihoko was found among this month's Jane Does." Katsuko shook her head. "And that'll be happening again if we can't get our two back out from Serena's aura."

Keiko quietly drew up to Katsuko. "Kat, they are dead if they leave…"

Katsuko flipped through her stack of documents, before drawing out one to press into Keiko's hands. The title on top read "Drug Withdrawal" and was liberally coated with Katsuko's handwriting encircling some portions with questions and notes scrawled between lines and in the margins. The one paragraph with the most densely packed additions was the one detailing the dangers of a complete and sudden curtailing of a drug.

Keiko looked up from her reading to see Katsuko nervously looking at her. Keiko was the head scientist, of the Serenes and Katsuko's friend. Keiko put her nose back to the paper, and began to pace to hide her grimace. She was not the one to make these calls, it was Katsuko's job to do this! But jumping from a tenth story building would kill a normal, while a two or three story building would be survivable… Keiko nodded to herself.

"What do you got?" Keiko asked, pulling up a chair. Katsuko broke into a grin at the validation that she was not wasting her time.

"Alright, there are three main approaches as I can see to attempt a detox. No matter what, we have to have a smaller stepping stone than a cold turkey withdraw. That means we have draw the aura down from full power. We could recreate the aura at a less powerful strength with a set of wards, bind it to a location-"

Keiko cut in, grabbing the back of a piece of paper. "Oh!, And we could reuse that in demon hunts! Set up the wards around a suspected/proven nest and repeat what we did at Tokyo but with a smaller scale. It would have less benefits, but less side effects."

Katsuko nodded. "And that would make use of the tiers of strength we would need for this. Say, eighty percent power would be too much for a handful. But twenty, or ten? That would let the full scaling set to be viable outside of detox."

Katsuko turned another page. "Another possibility is a single person charm, to negate the effects of the aura on them. This would be quicker for development than making a whole detox room, since we would could possibly start handing them out at five percent, and work them down as we go."

Keiko jumped in once more with the combat applications. "Oh, and that would enable our forces to stay in longer than we can now. Pair that with ward sets and you can bypass the drunkenness that Kyouko has been complaining about while still affecting the demons! Or…" Keiko snapped her fingers, before jumping up to pace again. It was just at the tip of her tongue… The mad scientist clapped her hands together as it came to her. "And a complete buffer would let Sato be usable with Serena despite the aura!"

Katsuko nodded, writing down what Keiko was saying, and rewriting Keiko's pigeon scratched notes upon the combat usability of the Serena wards. "The most efficient production wise would be to create a nullifier to be given to Serena, but that runs into the problem of how dangerous it would be for the girls we are trying to get out of the aura. If one starts to spin out, the only way to save them would be to drop the nullification entirely, plunging everyone back to full blast.

Keiko nods, "Despite that, this is likely something that we will be looking at for Serena's sake. Being out by yourself, it's lonely. Something else we should consider, as an intermediate to the ward sets, are smaller personal charms. If we can work a detox, a one or two aura charms to stop or halt a death spiral, or at least buy enough time to… wait Serena would hopefully having a nullifier charm… Ah, we could use a full aura ward set to stabilize, and then drop them down from that to eighty, seventy... Whatever is a safe rate "

Katsuko nods, but bangs her head onto the desk. "The problem is that there is no way to test this except with one of us and…"

Keiko frowns, before flicking Katsuko in the head. "You are being stupid. Mice. And if that does not work… Well, well talk to Kyouko and not Mami about purchasing monkeys. Or more likely stealing monkeys. But why are you in such a rush, Katsuko? We've been working together for over a year. You tell me to slow down. "

Katsuko looks up, and then draws from the bottom of her stack a final list. It is the history of grief spirals within the Serenes. "Keiko, we both know I am not going to last. If it happens before this is done… can you complete it for me?" Keiko does not consider herself an angry person, but she is ready to slap Katsuko for saying that with a tone of acceptance. For daring to ask her to do that. Something must have been readable on her face, because Katsuko continued to speak.

"I have grief spiraled four times, that is more than anyone. And eight grief cubes to stabilize me total." Katsuko admits. Keiko glances down at the sheet, admittedly Katsuko was correct. However… "So what, that is only two more grief cubes than the next highest, and all of one more grief spiral. Yeah, it's high, but the last two times have only been one grief cube each. " Keiko is cut off as Katsuko shakes her head.

"I almost died the last time. I've had a four spiral, and before Kaoru found me… it felt worse than a four. If not for her, I would not have come out of it."

Keiko simply pulls Katsuko in tight for a hug, partly to reassure Katsuko. And partly to reassure herself that Katsuko was still there.

"You're still here aren't you? Seems to me that the Law of Cycles has decided you have to stay here and keep me out of trouble. If you ever need to talk, talk to me, Aiko, Mami. Talk to the kittens. But you can't go without saying goodbye, promise?" Keiko prayed to anything that was listening that she was helping, and not…

"Keiko…" Keiko squeezed harder, that was not a promise.

"Do you promise me?"

"Alright, I promise." Keiko blinked her eyes. Katsuko sounded like herself again.

"Alright then, bed." Keiko announced, taking the papers and turning off the light in one quick motion.

"Kei-"

"Bed, because there is no way we are going to convince Mami to give us funding for mice cages at this time of night." In the darkness Keiko could still set Katsuki glance toward the desk. She needed to call Aiko first thing in the morning. Earlier if she could get Katsuki to sleep.

Keiko was not as patient as Katsuko. She was also better at operating past midnight, as she dredged up the one plan that Katsuko had not yet tried. Bodily carrying Katsuko up to one of the multiple abandoned beds, though it did help that she was slightly taller, and enacted a koala by clinging to any limbs that attempted to get out of the bed.

Eventually, Katsuko fell asleep. Keiko was still awake, a little scared to go to sleep, fearful that Katsuko would not be there when she woke up. The next time Kaoru put on a performance, she was getting flowers that changed color. Or something. Keiko owed her, for saving her best friend.

*****​

I hope I didn't maul characterization to badly, I think that Keiko could be more serious if the situation called for it, and tried to work her energy into the science segments. Also detailed my idea for several years to decades of research in regards to Serena's magic and how we could use it and get the current girls off their dependency.

Second omake planned with Serena's group, their additions and the problems of Google Translate. Hoping that it will turn out better than this.

I went through the quest for these numbers, and I had originally intended this to be with the motivation being for the memory of Chihoko, our first death by grief spiral. And then I looked through the quest and Katsuko is the character with both the most GC's used for aversion of grief spirals and total amount of grief spirals. And a GM waved kill spiral.

Turn 28

You had five grief spirals this month. Ayako's was the most severe and for obvious reasons and required 4 units of grief cubes to arrest. Though oddly neither Sora nor Mariko spiraled, it doesn't seem to have actually been that traumatic, more of a blur really. Akeno had a bit of a crisis of usefulness before she got her new job and required two units to stabilize but thereafter seemed to work harder than ever. Kaoru had a minor spiral due to her lingering issues of self-doubt, but helped reduce the severity of Katsuko's spiral with her music, which seemed to cheer Kaoru at least. Sayaka also had a minor spiral this month because of other meguca hurting your girls when they should be protecting people, you're oddly happy to have made such a safe place that that she can have such ideals.

Click to shrink...

+1

Also as a freebie for being such a terrible length without updating I mitigated your worst grief spiral this month.

Click to shrink...

And my point of Katsuko comes from this line, as the worst that actually happened was Ayako's for 4 GC, and the only thing worse than a 4 GC is a kill spiral...

 

[Storyteller]

Lost In Translation​

"They are still giddy." Amelie commented. Rae grunted, folding the blanket on the couch. She wasn't displeased with the situation due to the aura, but she was not pleased with it either. The subtleties of living under an aura. The house had had enough room for the five that originally came over the seas. And then suddenly two more girls had been dropped off in the middle of the night by… Seto, Rae thought the teleporter's name was?

They had all recognized the teleporter as the one that reacted badly to the aura, so it did not take a genius to realize that whatever happened was not good. Sure enough, quickly they had been contacted by the leader of the Serene… cult? As well as the… Lita thought that the translator was just a translator, while Rae herself thought that the girl may be a secretary for the group. The two girls had grief spiraled, and… And Serena had a large heart.

So far, all signs indicated that the two girls preferred living under the restraints of the aura over death. Which did not change the fact that there were seven people living in housing meant for six at most. At least they had free entertainment.

The first few days had been interesting. If you put five people capable of speaking one language together with two others that speak something entirely different… In the words of Nina, to not expect difficulties is not expecting a wheel to roll down the mountainside. It was legitimately pleasant to be able to see everyone, and talk.

Hearing Amelie speak of her grandparents, or to share stories that you had almost forgotten about foolish brothers. Or to hear Nina to instruct about her native culture. And even having mutual language education with the new girls. Speaking of which:

"Silla." Lita pointed to one of the cushion chair back without legs… chair?

"Zabuton" one of the girls responded.

Rae was not entirely sure that they were on the same page. But she decided to follow Amelie's lead in following Lita with the understanding that the two would be very amused when the inevitable difficulties came up.

"Naranja." Lita pointed to the large orange.

"Hassako". The naming game continued.


The second girl's phone beeped. Apparently the sound was amusing for the girl started to laugh a bit. Nina poked her head in from the other room, with a sound for the others to hush. Serena was still working upon adjusting to the time difference. Or was using that as an excuse to sleep in.

The laughter quieted, but the two Japanese girls huddled around the phone for a little bit, chattering back and forth before shrugging and saying something entirely in their language. At the lack of reaction one of the girls said with the still present giddy amusement, if with deep concentration and unsure tongue:

"¿Tu no comprende?" You do not (she) understand?

Rae ignored the conjugation mistake, and shook her head. Amelie suddenly popped up with scrounged paper and pencil.

The first girl immediately used the proffered supplies to draw an oval body, with a long triangle nose and along thin tail. Rae, Lita and Amelie all look at each other. It looks like a mouse, but is it?

Amelie picks up the pencil and draws a piece of cheese in front of it, and two half circle ears. The new girls nod, before beginning to jester at each other before taking the picture back. The new addition…

Well, it was a person. The stick figure was clear enough to be certain of that. What the person was doing was… more questionable. The new girls were not good artists. The stick figure appeared to be carrying the mouse, in a cage. Wait, no. That is a bubble around the stick figure and mouse. Going to a… very interesting looking head.

One more whispered conference later, and Lita begins to pantomime. She points to the two girls, taps her head and pantomimes grabbing something. You want to catch mice?

Rae leaves to grab water for the group, it looked as if nothing would be happening quickly for a while. At the time she had returned, several more picture exchanges had taken place. Lita thrusts the paper at Rae in the "I think I can do something, but I know it is the Ghosts' Hope, you try" manner. Rae turns to Amelie.

"What happened?"

"They think we eat mice."

Rae looks at the paper, before turning to look back at Amelie. No it did not look like she was joking.

The word nosotros went on the page. That it meant 'we' had already been taught. The prohibe sign was added to the right, the circle with a slash across being somewhat universal. A crossed pair of silverware, and another picture of a mouse.

The newcomers stared at the returned drawing. They looked at each other. They stared again at the drawing. One shook her head, and pointed to the other. The other hesitantly drew a mouse on a plate, with a fork and knife.

Lita from her corner simply replied. "Nosotros no comemos ratones." We do not eat mice. The drawer apparently realized what they were saying, as she began to frantically wave her hands in denial.

"No come. No come." No eat, no eat.

Several more rounds ensued, and everyone just became more confused. Currently the subject of deciphering was a figure with hair sticking straight up in spikes, a white lab coat holding a lighter. Behind the figure was a second one apparently passed out snoring… with a cup of coffee?

It was at that point of time when a delivery arrived. Partly some food, but once or twice an information packet had come through. Such as the time that Serena had realized that the house that the group was currently living in had possible neighbors. After she had raised the issue, the translator, secretary whoever it was had appeared with information about some location that the group was to be eventually moved to.

This time the girl brought with her a cage. Inside the cage was a mouse. The resultant jabbering, shouting and general noise woke up Serena who had to step in to prevent the mouse from being cooked.

The original question Hainako translated before leaving with the mouse: "We are thinking of sending a mouse. Would anyone mind it?"

*****​

Hassako - different from an orange (naranja in Spanish) Not quite as sweet and larger
Silla- Chair
Zabuton- Japanese cushion

Wrote this up because Keiko is the type of personality to just send a mouse. And just sending a message, and forgetting that most of those there would not be able to read it... Translation is hard.

 

[Kinematics]

Omake: Chisato's Cake

---

Chisato Katsukawa was a big girl. Not in the "all grown up" sort of way, but in the "Do you want to supersize that?" kind of way. Dad was also pretty big ("Fluffy", mom said), and Mom loved to cook (as did Chisato), often favoring western foods over Japanese, with all the extra calories that entailed. Between genetics and diet, she never really stood a chance.

Her mom always told her, "You're not fat!", but getting clothes that fit her often took a few extra requests of the saleslady, who tried very hard to remain professional and not be too dismissive. Such subtle insults were a way of life, though, and she had largely learned to ignore them.

Still, she was generally happy, as every tub of ice cream, or treat at the cake shop, let her forget her worries and just enjoy herself, rather than fight the lifelong battle with her body image.

Well, she told herself she was happy, and laughed off the insults of her classmates with others who were similarly shunned — the geeks, the otaku, the girl always playing video games. And if one of them lost their indoor shoes, or came back from the bathroom looking a bit wetter than expected, at least others were there to sympathize with them. Life was too short to be dragged down by the chic snobs that hounded them, the girls who were already using make-up to look older, more mature.

Nobody said "hooker" or "slut" within earshot.

She entered middle school, classes changed, lost track of her little circle as they moved into different classes, or moved away entirely, while the social pressure of identity and conformity continued to mount. She hardly realized how much stress she was under until she found herself sitting on a park swing one afternoon, crying uncontrollably, after one of her favorite books had been thrown in the river.

And that was when she was asked if she wanted to make a wish.

A strange creature, furry and white, told her that she had the makings of a magical girl, a strangeness outside of her imaginings. It was such an unlikely event that she could barely give a coherent response.

"What?" A master of eloquence, she was not.

"Chisato Katsukawa, you have significant karmic potential," it said, in a strangely childlike voice that spoke with clinical precision. "Will you make a contract with me, and become a magical girl?"

Of course, the first thing she had to do was check whether this was a prank. She searched the nearby playground equipment, looked behind trees, kicked some bushes, and wandered around looking for hidden cameras, all while the white creature casually followed her, querying her about what she was doing.

"It really is not a prank. I do not know why you would think that I would do such a thing. The offer is genuine; make a wish, and become a magical girl."

"A wish?" Chisato asked, somewhat distractedly. "What's that mean? What kind of wish?"

"I cannot provide suggestions for wishes; that is something only the contractee may decide on. However, you may wish for anything you desire."

"And I become a magical girl?"

"Correct."

Unbidden, images of magical girls swirled through Chisato's mind. Fancy dresses; magical jewelry; and, most importantly, lithe and breathtakingly beautiful bodies.

Even beyond the unbelievability of a talking cat.. rabbit... thing, this idea worried her the most. It was the almost perfect temptation that she was sure one of her tormentors would use on her. By the time she could see the streets around the park, though, she had to admit that there didn't appear to be anyone around watching and waiting for her to fall for their scheme, and by then the surrealness of the event had faded somewhat. So, she actually considered it seriously.

She could make a wish, become a magical girl, and look like an idol. The looks on her classmates faces when she showed up tomorrow? Priceless.

And if this was still, somehow, a trick? Well, she'd deal with that when the time came. It wouldn't be the first time, and no matter what the disaster in the kitchen, there was always something you could do with what remained.

So she was absolutely ready to make that wish, to gain an entirely new life. She firmed her resolve, stood up straight, and—

Her stomach grumbled loudly as, across the street, the "Freshly Baked" sign on her favorite bakery shop lit up, reminding her that half of her lunch had been lost in a scuffle at school. Why now, of all times?

"Ugh, I really wish I could have one of those crepes right now. In fact, the cake would be good to. And a bowl of ramen," she added, as she glanced over at a ramen shop further down the street, awning flapping in the breeze. A large beef bowl with an egg cracked over it....

Sparkling lights. A strange tug in her chest. "Your wish has reduced entropy."

"My wha—? Wait, wait!"

A blinding flash. Her soul gem.

It was not one of her finer moments.

~~~​

As the disorientation faded, she took stock of herself and her surroundings. Nothing seemed to have changed. The afternoon sun filtered through the leaves, and there was a small rumble as a delivery truck drove past.

Still, she was a magical girl! Bright, colorful, beautiful! Possibly... Actually, she didn't look any different, still standing there in her school uniform. But she could feel the tug of magic, the power of her soul gem. She was practically bouncing in giddiness as she held up the gem and let the magic wash over her, transforming in a flurry of lights and sparkles.

"I really would prefer if you don't do that," said Kyuubey, as the white creature had identified itself during some of her questions. "Erasing the memories of those who witness active magic is troublesome."

Chisato blinked, then eep'd as she ran back deeper into the park, away from the rather open view of the neighborhood businesses and pedestrians.

Moments later, within a small grove of trees, she finally stopped to take a look at her new form.

And realized that she looked just the same as before, but wrapped up in a frilly dress. Well, frilly apron over top a plainer, striped dress, and holding a whisk. "Why a whisk?" she wondered to herself as she held it up for inspection. "I mean, you'd think at least a knife or something..." And suddenly the kitchen utensil shifted and twisted, transforming into a chef's knife. How interesting...

Wait! Stop! That's not the issue.

"What happened?" she wailed. "Magical girls are supposed to be all thin, and, and..."

Kyuubey tilted its head to the side. "Is there a problem? Your body appears to be perfectly serviceable."

"But I'm still—!" She couldn't quite utter the word, going against what her mother said. Chisato wouldn't shame her like that. "My body is supposed to be different!" she clarified.

"When you make your wish, your body is preserved in the perfect form of your current state. No matter what damage you take, you will always be restored to this form. It is quite convenient, and removes the weakness of your original body. Why would you want it to be different?"

"But I don't *want* this form! I want the pretty, leggy version of me!"

"Changing the underlying body is impossible. That's not the way magical transfomration works. Is there a problem with how you look?"

"Well, I'm not.. I wanted to look..."

"If you wanted to change your looks, then why did you not wish for it? Your wish should be an expression of your true desires."

Chisato stared for a very long time at the white, furry rodent, trying to decide if the image of summoning a deep fat fryer and dropping it on him was appropriate or not.

~~**~~​

Soon after, she was introduced to a local group of magical girls, and inducted into their ranks. It was a necessity, in Tokyo. You didn't fight on your own, not back then. If you didn't hunt in packs, you were a fool. If the demons didn't get you, then the roaming poachers likely would, just waiting to pick off weaker members of their rivals.

Still... The leader of the group was, shall we say, not entirely pleased to accept her.

"Cooking?! Fucking cooking? That's your power? Dammit! What a waste. We need a fucking clairvoyant to spot those damn snipers that the Ueno Tigers keep sending around, or at least a barrier type. And Kyuubey sends us a god damn cook." A ragged sigh, hand sweeping through her hair. "At least try to bring in more cubes than we have to waste keeping you alive," she growled out

That was most of her introduction to the world of magical girls. Simply walking to school became a harrowing experience, as different groups vied for control over territory. She spent more time at home now than shopping, and tended to always have something on hand to eat, to calm her nervousness. "You'll get fat", she was told by the classmates that she had still failed to impress. Except she wouldn't. Well, at least if she couldn't lose weight, she wouldn't gain any, either.

~~~​

Beyond that, there were rumors about "greater demons", monsters that put even the normal terrors to shame. The top members of her group scoffed at that, saying it was propaganda from rival gangs to scare people. Besides, the rumors couldn't agree on what this supposed monstrosity even looked like, so it had to be a hoax.

~~~​

Less than two months after contracting, an explosion in the small set of rooms that their group had acquired for their gatherings — a rival group raiding their headquarters. Chisato huddled in a back room with another girl, also recently contracted — new, pretty, blonde, and just as scared as she was. A girl in black clothing and carrying a rifle ran past their door, only barely glancing inside, dismissing them as not even worth spending time on. The real threats between rival groups were the vets, and the leaders. Newbies were just a distraction.

While they were glad for that, they also knew that it was just a delay, at best. If another group was confident enough to attack another's stronghold, you could expect that the target group was going to get wrecked, and any remaining members weren't going to have a good time in the aftermath.

They needed to run, but that was just as dangerous. They were the weakest of the weak, and had nothing to offer. Without a group to help them with hunting, they'd soon die from lack of grief cubes.

Another explosion caused them to flinch, looking around for something new, as if some miracle might show up that hadn't been there before.

And then the blonde girl, Kumi, raised a nervous arm and pointed. The wall had cracked from the impact, and the wall plaster was hanging a bit lose, showing a gap into a partially lit closet. And Chisato suddenly realized whose closet that had to be. Ashiyama, the most belligerent of those in charge of their group, had a personal room that just happened to be next door to the one they hid within. And she was always insistent on getting her own stock of grief cubes to hold onto...

A quick scramble, and the two of them tried to feel out what they could reach through the crack. Chisato couldn't reach far, but she could hold the edge of the wall fragment up while the smaller Kumi wiggled inside. She finally worked her way back out, holding onto a handful of grief cubes, staring up at Chisato. Chisato gulped, but both could see that they each knew what was needed, even if words failed.

Chisato held out a hand, and Kumi placed a few cubes in her palm, even has she palmed the rest for herself. However, just as she turned back for another run at the closet, a massive blast of energy ripped through the walls just barely over their heads, causing them to stumble and collapse on the floor. Even as they scrambled to recover the cubes, they could see a figure moving on the other side of the new opening, and knew that there was no time left. Both scrambled to their feet and fled the room, praying that whoever that person was, they had someone else to keep them too occupied to worry about a couple fleeing newbies.

Outside, they ran, stuffing the cubes they'd recovered into pockets. Suddenly Kumi glanced over her shoulder, then picked up the pace even more. "We're being followed!"

Chisato didn't question it, and just worked to keep pace. Where were they going to go? Where could they go? She couldn't go home; too many people knew where that was, and there were too many people that might come looking for her, for too many reasons that she probably wouldn't survive.

Kumi grabbed her arm and dragged her down a stairwell, suddenly — into the subway system. They zipped through, paying no attention to the people around them, only running away. Finally Kumi stopped as they rounded a corner, to say, "We have to split up."

Chisato stopped at that, uncertain. A choice like that was one she couldn't make. Kumi seemed to see that, and her expression softened just a bit. She grabbed the bigger girl in a hug and whispered in her ear, "Thanks. And good luck." And with that, she pushed away and was heading to one of the other platforms.

Chisato stumbled the other direction, finding herself on another subway train, packed with passengers, and only dimly remembering how she'd gotten there. She had nothing to her name but what she was carrying on her — her clothes, a bit of cash, and a couple grief cubes — and had to survive on her own in a city full of magical girls at war.

~~***~~​

Chisato picked at the rice in the bowl in front of her. She was holed up in an abandoned apartment on the west side of Tokyo, trying to make do in a world far different than she had imagined a year ago. She had been in and out of groups, and was even considered a group leader by some of the nearby greens — the ones that she'd felt obligated to feed, lest they starve themselves to death — but could never have imagined the world as it was now.

So many fights; so many dead. The conflict that many had called a war had collapsed in on itself when the true nightmares arrived — the greater demons thought to be rumor showing themselves to be far too real. And through it all, she had shuffled from group to group, treated as anything from a liability to cannon fodder. When the world was nothing but fighting, the only thing of value were those who could provide power to those fights. She had never really gained the favor of those above, so instead had turned to taking care of those below — the newbies, or 'greens' who looked far too thin, barely getting a good meal between hunting runs. It got to the point where she considered herself more one of them than the experienced veteran she now was.

Any degree of order had gradually broken down under the pressure of the Tokyo encirclement, with the greater demons becoming the new top of the food chain. Chisato had forced herself to retain at least a small bit of cheer, to keep spirits up among the younger girls as she passed out sandwiches or soup bowls. She barely gave any thought to her weight anymore, as it seemed to be such a trivial concern. She could only do what she was capable of, and keep struggling along.

And now there were rumors. A rail thin girl with brilliant blue hair in a long ponytail — in stark contrast with her mud-stained shirt and frayed skirt — had run in to tell her the latest gossip: the demons were dying. The talk all over town was of a new organization that was trying to kill all the greater demons. However the fantastical farce actually seemed to be bearing fruit. Demons were disappearing, and cracks forming in their formerly impregnable wall.

She'd heard from a couple acquaintances — vets from her old groups that still felt obligated to send her news — that they were breaking out, heading north, or northwest. They were avoiding the Serenissima, though. They had no desire to be thrown back into the fight against the demons, not when they finally had a chance to break free.

This girl in front of her, though — eyes bright with excitement, with her determination to be a hero — wanted to go meet this new group, find out if their offer of safety was true.

There was a bit of a grapevine for gossip among the greens, separate from those of the more formal groups, or experienced veterans. It was like the gossip in a classroom that the teachers were only vaguely aware of, and didn't really care about. But Chisato was still one of them, still part of the green culture, despite her experience and growing power. And so they wanted her to go with them.

Chisato considered it carefully. Despite the impression of those around her, she still had knowledge that gave her a rather different perspective on what they were rushing into. Any power that could fight the greater demons was a power to be reckoned with. And any group with that much power didn't need a bunch of weakling newbies and carnival-attraction powers.

Memories of her past played through her mind, but when she looked up again, she knew she couldn't refuse. The young girl, Emi, reminded her of Kumi. And even if Chisato was still considered the reject of the bunch, she could still be a shield against the harshness that the younger girls would likely face in more serious organizations. After living your entire magical life in constant fear of death, it was all to easy to forget how bad regular humans could be as well.

Chisato didn't really want to turn around and face these demons again, but at the very least she'd do so for the sake of the girls who struggled not to give into despair in the world they had been awoken into, so unexpectedly. After all, what's the worst that could happen?

She took another couple bites to wash away the litany of answers her mind had conjured.

"Come on," Chisato said, as she got to her feet. "Need to get some food for you guys before we go anywhere, or you're all going to collapse by the time you get there. Seriously," she said, poking the other girl familiarly, "have you eaten at all since the last time you were here?" Emi just grinned.

~~***~~​

Chisato stood clustered together with a large group of girls — far more than she had expected — as other magical girls wandered amongst them, holding clipboards and asking questions, or otherwise just supervising. It had taken a bit to get them all moved away from the front lines after slipping through the border zone, but now the Serenes were wandering through the crowd, trying to get a feel for the girls who were seeking refuge. They asked questions about the reasons they came, the reasons they decided to seek out the Serenes, what sort of experience they had... and what sort of powers.

It was natural that they'd want to know, and to want the best. She saw eyes light up at a couple different girls — a clairvoyant, and an illusionist. Still, it didn't look like they were tossing out the others, so Chisato steadied her heart as they finally reached her.

"And what sort of magic is your specialty?" came the inevitable question.

"I, um... cooking, mostly," she replied, embarrassed.

It was quiet. She glanced up. They were looking at her very strangely. Would they, even here and now, consider her to not even be worth—

"Kyouko! This girl's a cook!"

"What? Seriously!? Fuckin' A!"

"Sweet!" came another voice.

What?

"Should I call Akane and tell her?"

"Eh, let it be a surprise! Who'da guessed we'd get a cook out of Tokyo?"

She stared around, wide-eyes, not quite able to grasp the reactions.

An arm was suddenly around her shoulders. A tall red-head with a fanged grin — "Come on! Lemme show you the kitchen." — dragging her along without a hint of reluctance. "We gotta be conservative with ingredients, but I'm sure you can find something to play with. A girl who wishes for food is all right in my books!"

Did this group actually... want someone who wished to be a cook?

...

A small warmth spread in her chest, as she dared to hope.

Spoiler: Notes

Name: Chisato Katsukawa

Hair: Black, shoulder length, tied back in a ponytail.

Body size: Cook

Power: Cooking

OK, yes, she did effectively wish for cake. Madoka doesn't have to feel so bad, now.

Tone changes quite a bit over the course of the omake, as it's covering about a year of time. Feels a bit clumsy and abridged, despite hitting about 3500 words. More bits that I couldn't really get to, and I'm not sure I did a proper capture of her as a person, but I guess it's at least workable as a base.

Desperately needs an omake titled "Cake or Death" for her, now.

 

[inverted_helix]

Mini-mini turn Negotiations
​

Spoiler: Your initial pitch

Further discussions with Hiko about what we can offer that we think could be of use to them, and our own needs with respect to our goals of stabilizing the Tokyo region. Attempt to negotiate a trade for the teleportation interdiction tech.

Make our Hunting Manual the initial gift. Explain how crop rotation has allowed our area to support many more girls than is normal. Mention how the demon strength tracking once allowed us to swiftly identify poaching in our area.

Mention how on one occasion we accepted visitors from another organization to receive training for a month in our hunting techniques. Since our organization is focused heavily on Tokyo right now, our area is currently being under hunted. We could possibly host as many as six to twenty-four veterans right now (up to six if they agree to pair hunting with a Serene hunter, up to twenty-four if they want to do pack hunting), if they were sufficiently experienced with safety measures. If Hiko seems interested, make a note of this to be discussed later when we begin discussing trade deals.

Explain that being right next door to Tokyo the problems there effect us rather severely even now, what with both youma wandering into our area and with refugees coming and asking for help. (Share some specific examples). Mention that we have had 44 girls, mostly greens, come to us for refuge, and while we can manage to support them right now, you worry about more. If Hiko knows any groups that would accept refugees, including greens, if only temporarily, that would be useful. We have been training them in our hunting techniques, and would provide a copy of our Hunting Manual to anyone willing to take some in.

We're concerned that the Tokyo problem will only grow worse. Almost 1/4 of Japan's population lives in Tokyo, and if they die the way Hong Kong did, it will have a devastating effect on the rest of Japan. In many ways the problem isn't directly the high level demons, it's that they prevent magical girls from hunting normal demons effectively. Making it impossible to fulfill the magical girl duty of protecting humans. Those normal demons are what then kill the city. Our thought is that first we need to kill the youma in the city, and then rally the local meguca to hunting the normal demons back up to safe levels. After that, there is a need to put some system in place to prevent the conflicts that created the super demons in the first place.

We've managed to kill ten of the demons plaguing Tokyo last month. However, we have struggled with the teleporting demons. Many managed to escape because of this. Worse, we lost one girl last month, because a large number of youma teleported in on top of us in mass. We were there, but unable to save her. If we were only able to interdict teleportation clearing Tokyo would both become faster, and more importantly, much safer. We know it ought to be possible, since the floating eyeball demon is able to do it. We've made some initial progress on researching this ability, but it is still weak and not as effective as we need.

See what Hiko is willing to offer. Both in response to our gift, and to put on the table for trade. We have in addition our Tandem Research, Spell Anchoring, Duration, etc available for trade, as well as cubes and money.

Also on the table is to accept hunters in our territory for training on hunting techniques in exchange for training in their teleport interdiction techniques. We could accept up to 6 vets if they agree to pair hunt with a Serene hunter, or up to 4 sets of 6 vets if they want to hunt as a pack. We could also accept 2 clairvoyants to train with our dispatch team. Recommend girls skilled in math. Discuss the safe level for them to hunt (ask for at least -9% risk when pair hunting before agreeing to pairs, explain that less than that means we cannot guarantee safety, packs we can guarantee safety no matter what, but still try to learn their risk reduction level).

If this offer to trade training is rejected, consider offering to pay the vets training in hunting in our territory as a sweetener (stay below 3 cubes per a vet if they agree to pair hunting each with a Serene girl, below 1.5 if they agree only to pack hunting, 3 cubes per a clairvoyant).

At the close, give our History of the Serenes as a gift. While only a short history, it may still hold some interest to her. Mention that we would be interested in learning the history of magical Japan as Hiko remembers it, if she someday has the time to record it.

Your meeting with Hiko goes largely the same as the previous one, and she hears out your pitch with an attentive patience.

However she must decline your initial offer. It would benefit her little and you much. It's also less feasible than you believe. She doesn't train girls to project such fields; she crafts artifacts to do so.

She pulls off the wall a fairly simple looking wooden calligraphy panel 50cm x 15cm x 2cm. The symbols on it are ornately done, but rather clear and descriptive for a calligraphy plate: passage prevention 100m. She explains some of its function for you, it blocks teleports from being initiated at all into or out of the area it protects. She even hands it to you to feel. It is simple wood to the touch, but to your magical senses it's brimming with energy beneath the surface.

She can offer you an alternative proposal though. She can loan you one of her teleport prevention devices along with a squad of her bugeisha to maintain it for as long as you need it.

The artifact will function on its own for a while. But that duration is variable. It can last several hours if no one is actually trying to teleport through it, but if it's blocking many attempts it can be worn down fairly quickly without someone to charge it. If it goes dead it can still be restored by the technician later. Damage will also shut it down and the technician can only repair very minor damage.

In exchange she isn't asking much of you she explains with an especially cute face, she simply wants a portion of the spoils of the victory. Specifically territory.

Your mind races across meanings and possibilities for such a desire. Is she expansionist, did you misread the local situation? Is she the threat everyone else united against? Or is she just desperate for cubes? The question that you actually ask first is how much territory she wants.

Negotiable, she's not looking for as much as you, you've obviously invested far more effort into this than her, but she needs additional territory. How much she needs depends on how many girls already living on the land she'd need to take in.

You try to take another angle, pushing that the crop rotation and rotating tactics method that your group employs will already improve yields significantly, you could offer training in that and combined with the share cropping you offered to begin with for an immediate infusion of cubes that could satisfy her needs.

Her counter is that the increased yields that would offer her are not actually so high as you believe. It would offer only a few percent increase over her current methods. It doesn't hurt, but it is insufficient. Your methods are also incredibly vulnerable to disruption by outside parties.


------------------------------------------------

Essentially just consolidating what was already said from many posts into one, but at the very least this will make it much more readable.

 

[inverted_helix]

Negotiations 2​

Spoiler: Your side

Listen politely, and then point out a few practical concerns.

First, we do not actually control Tokyo, therefor it would be premature to grant territory that we do not have. We intend to impose training and organization on Tokyo to prevent future development of youma, and we expect that naturally our efforts will lead to a good portion of Tokyo joining us, but that is not certain. How can we promise to grant territory when the local owners of that territory have not sworn fealty to us yet?

What we could do, is agree to recognize a zone of influence, in which Heaven's Chosen would be responsible to ensure that the local girls are organized to hunt Tokyo back up to safe levels, and not over hunt into youma producing levels. Heaven's Chosen would be expected to end up in control of that territory with the same probability of success as the Serenes or Nagoya might control territory. Perhaps the Serenes could even provide some initial logistical support to Heaven's Chosen in establishing their first foothold there.

From some of Hiko's comments, it appears that Heaven's Chosen would prefer an area with a relatively low density of magical girls. This would suggest that one of the border areas to the west or north where the demons regularly patrolled would be preferable to Heaven's Chosen, as they are likely to have fewer surviving locals. Because of the desire to retain contiguous borders, the Serenes would prefer the western area and downtown. Is the north border area acceptable?* What other features are they looking for? (Size of area, access to a bullet train, etc. Use as part of the negotiations for everything else).

Second, this imposes new costs on us. Both in us needing to ensure Nagoya remains satisfied, and in increasing the risk of generating new youma. The greater the number of organizations in Tokyo the more likely future conflict and poaching are to occur, which was the source of the problem in the first place. Nagoya wants to prevent youma from occurring due to a historical trauma. To the Serenes it's more of a concern about youma appearing on our doorstep and killing those girls we have promised to protect. It seems to us that Heaven's Chosen would be amenable to the friendly relations that prevent such things from occurring, but we must also consider Nagoya's feelings. A commitment to use rotating tactics that do not risk youma spawning would be insisted upon. Additionally, if Heaven's Chosen could provide a more permanent tool to ensure the Serenes could handle any future teleporting youma, that would go a long way to alleviating these types of concerns.

Third, there are difficulties in the plan you propose of providing us with a team of Bugeisha to empower the artifact. The power we are using to cleanse Tokyo effects magical girls, and can have lethal effects. Our girls are trained to deal with these side effects, but your Bugeisha are not. We would need to screen your Bugeisha to ensure sufficient natural resistance. Limited exposure at a lower level should be safe for your Bugeisha that pass screening, but this would require us to fight at a lower effective strength. Certainly this would prevent us from fighting effectively against the eyeball oni.

Suggest that our girls would need to receive training in how to empower the artifact, at least for the final push. It would also lower the risk to Hiko's Bugeisha. Of course, we don't know how long training will take. If it is significant (more than 2 weeks) we would prefer to have the Bugeisha team to help with some combat at the lower level around the edges of Tokyo so we continue to make some progress next month. (Note, getting this training is very important, and a high priority in the negotiations, Mami should emphasize the benefits in reducing the risk to Hiko's girls as well.)

Further, a permanent purchase of the artifact would solve the concern expressed about future youma outbreaks. (This is an issue we can give on more. Either by increasing the size of territory in hopes of getting it, or by reducing our request to a promise by Hiko that in case of a future youma outbreak, Heaven's Chosen would loan the anti-teleport artifact to the Serenes again for a nominal price - ie a few cubes, not something big like territory).

Training and payment for girls time (sharecropping in our territory essentially) are still on the table as possible sweeteners if Mami thinks they would be effective.

* If Hiko presses for a specific area, suggest a portion of Tochigi prefecture (Utsunomiya and Otawara) would be acceptable. It lies on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, and so is easily accessible by bullet train. (Note, this prefecture of Tokyo is roughly 2 million people, and so should be about 100 cubes in size. The actual size of the zone of influence to be determined by further negotiations and how much Hiko is willing to give us. An addition of the Gunma prefecture [2 million people] or Irabaki prefecture [2.9 million people] is possible if we need to go higher.)

Hiko is entirely understanding that you don't control the territory as of yet, the arrangement for dispersal of territory are of course dependent on the results of your endeavors. A zone of influence as you term it is an acceptable compromise. There will be little difficulty in convincing girls who have lived under such conditions to agree to shelter under her banner.

Hiko has little doubt that regardless of whatever outcome you were expecting, Hino almost assuredly is planning at minimum a patrol force for the Tokyo area just to ensure that there were no repeat offenses on the matter of Youma as you've termed them. She'll likely be grateful for a plan that allows the NM to recoup their costs. She does understand your concerns with the problems of Youma generation as the Osaka area regularly has to put them down. She's perfectly willing to agree not to overhunt to the level of spawning them as a part of gaining the new territory as she simply won't need to overhunt with the extra territory.

The issue with exposure of her own girls is a troublesome one; she wouldn't want to expose them to whatever strange magic you've come up with unnecessarily. It will take at least one month, more probably 2 to train your girls as needed to empower her artifacts safely though and that doesn't include ability to repair damage to them.

She pauses for a moment and starts speaking a bit more than usual. She could likely come up with some sort of work around given a while to consider, possibly a large mana battery hooked into it, though those are always difficult to move. When you teleport them they tend to fail dangerously so she mostly only uses them for fixed positions. Though depending on range maybe a power transmitter array. You suspect Keiko would have torn apart a wall for writing utensils, but Hiko catches herself and gets back on track.

As to specifics of the territory she wants while having a Shinkansen station in the territory would be preferable so long as she's guaranteed at least teleporter transit to a station it's acceptable. One of the areas along the northern border would be acceptable if you believe the number of natives there to be lower, she's interested more in the extra cubes than extra girls. Permanent purchase of an artifact is something she'd be willing to consider, but for that she'd want 150 territory in exchange for the artifact and the training to keep it charged. After this initial exchange she would be willing to rent you other artifacts at more reasonable rates, she's simply charging you this time based on the benefits you'll be gaining from this. While purchasing in the future would be a whole other matter, she'd be willing to rent artifacts of this sort to you for a bargain 5 GCUs a month though some precautions against reneging will have to be negotiated at that time.



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Something that would likely occur to you at this point in character is that Hiko never said that she was nobility when she was born. She's modeled her organization on a feudal one, but that didn't mean she was born as nobility. She's tried to embody what a good government meant to her. It's why her group is modeled more on fairytale nostalgia version of feudalism rather than the actual oppressive regimes that were more common. She was actually an artisan class. And she's one that's been honing her skills for over a century.

You want an actual thousand-folded sword that can slice through reinforced concrete like butter: been there done that also made a kitchen knife version.