Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)

[inverted_helix]

Turn 35​

You explain to Serena that you plan to acquire an abandoned village and refurbish the houses over the next couple of months to provide much more space for her and her friends, which will provide far more space for them. She just needs to hang in a little longer while you work out financing. She's okay with it for now, though she'll hold you to that.

You also pass along that her efforts have delayed the Incubators plans to "sterilize" Tokyo, and thereby helped save tens of millions of lives. She's not at all surprised at the Incubators willingness to sacrifice those lives, they're hardly the sort that care about humans. It was only after her wish that she realized that Incubators have no real understanding of human emotions, and so making a wish predicated on emotions was ultimately doomed from the start. They had no way of really understanding what she wanted, and thus the twisted result she got. At least something good came of her wish though, she's paid back the suffering she's caused at least.

You also explain to Keiko in advance of your trip with her to Kyoto about the importance of being on her best behavior, and that you'll be there to make sure of it. She can't mess around and you cannot afford for her to offend your new ally in this endeavor. She could benefit tremendously from the learning opportunities from seeing the product of so much development time, but she needs to listen and stick to proper behavior. You don't seem to have needed to worry too much, she managed to give a decent impression on the trip, at least not deranged.

You give a series of briefings to the Serene, in smaller groups for lack of ability to host a full group anymore, on the plan for this month and the results of the efforts from the last two months. Through their efforts Tokyo has more time, through their sacrifices the human citizens of Tokyo yet have a chance. There is still more to do to achieve victory, but with the help of another organization you have reliable teleport interdiction to help kill those Youma that would otherwise flee. The greens will be handling much more hunting this month than normal, but you've provided for their safety such that they should be in no real danger even as they provide the cubes the group needs while so many are deployed to Tokyo.



Tokyo Operations
See Endless Mini-turns


Money Actions
Apartments: 40 space for new refugees.
2 vets, $10,000
Armor: Purchase 7 additional Kevlar armor sets from Nagoya.
$11,200
Purchases made (no failure chance on this anymore)

Existing jobs: 8 vets, 11 greens, 1 associate
Even with the still ongoing slump in the general Japanese economy your various mundane enterprises manage to at least hold their profit level as a whole.


Pet Whisperer (1 Nagisa, $100): Start putting out notices to gain work, while continuing to spend time at animal shelters, pet parks, and pet shops to help practice and gain recognition. Print up some fliers and business cards and ask to leave them in various appropriate businesses.

While Nagisa tries to build up recognition this month in preparation for starting her own pet training business, response is lukewarm at best. She's a little strange around people, and it's kind of hard for her to get people to take her seriously.


Translator (1 vet): One of the new refugees has translation powers. Set her up with Hainako to expand their ability to handle job requests.

Hainako takes on the job of getting the other translator, Kumiyo set up with the job. Hainako reports Kumiyo is almost fanatically driven to do her job well enough to make herself too useful for field work, and if anything, does more work than Hainako does. Though Hainako comments also that Kumiyo is quite skittish. Your income from this source is doubled to $11,000, ($9k this month due to startup).

Kyuubey informs you that while Hainako's primitive efforts of using multiple accounts originally prevented suspicion he had to intervene to prevent investigation of this explosion in activity and has set up VPNs, edited records, reorganized her accounts, and divided translation capabilities amongst them into a significantly less suspicious arrangement that more effectively presents the image of your girls being a number of more humanly capable translators. (-1 GCU, automatically stifled early)


Nagoya Magocracy (5 vets): Nagoya has requested some experienced quants to help handle their development of improved hunting in their territory, paying at $2k/month each.

From what you hear back it's going to take at least two months even with the five vets you sent to begin to get traction. Hino has ordered cooperation, but there's a huge institutional difference in systems.

The girl power dedicated to hunting is also a bit lower than they expected, and the general level of demon strength is somewhere around 0 to 10, fluctuating a bit across the territory. They've been implementing rotating tactics and high low hunting rotations, but it's been less effective for them than they'd like. They've given your girls authority over a "small" section of territory around fifty units in size to work on optimizing as a test case.

They work over the course of the month to try to instill proper paperwork and demon strength rating systems, which are far less codified in the NM and more similar to the qualitative measures you originally used. They track the number of demons killed and the relative strength of those demons, but accuracy of positional data is poor, a girl reports how many demons and their strength along her entire hunting route, but not to the street address as your girls do.

The NM do use a clairvoyant dispatch system, and even make use of teleport transit using more efficient elite teleporters. They haven't optimized it using historical demon concentration data though, as they haven't been making the individual hunters generate that level of reporting. Their individual hunters also seem to be more effective on a time to yield basis, which your quants account for in their math, but are unsure of the source, though this diminishes to a degree as they implement rotating tactics more.

The NM are a little guarded around your girls, and they've been given literal guest badges to wear which helps mark them out. The NM has pretty clearly put out a memo about taboo subjects to talk about with them, but they do hear some banter and gossip just from being in the NM headquarters on a regular basis, as teenage girls are not known for their tight lips even when they're supposed to be. The NM has substantial manpower devoted to border control operations which ties them down, as well as their dedicated combat unit that focuses on training between deployments rather than any particular job beyond that.

They also effectively confirm your belief that the NM is a conglomerate of several groups that had a merger, as there's still factional lines amongst them that are only partially sealed. There are some that drag their heels just because it's Hino that ordered them to make the changes, even if it has the nominal support of their council.

The NM do have higher internal loyalty than you'd expect from that though. They just occasionally put their faction ahead of the whole, but against something outside the NM entirely they are definitely loyal. It is more the feel of either company loyalty or patriotism though than the familial bonds that tie the Serene together.

You still don't get enough to go on about their money sources though. They do operate at least some legitimate businesses, though your girls aren't in a position to hear much about that.



Training
General Training: Train the new recruits understand our procedures and tactics.
3 Vets and 13 greens
Month 2 for turn 33 refugees

Training continues in getting the first wave of refugees versed in your group's tactics and culture. It feels a bit like you're falling behind given the second and third waves of refugees flowing in though. At least these ones were greens with little to unlearn, but they've still got some strange mannerisms by your standards. The later groups may well be even harder to train.


Artifact powering: Send a couple girls to train with Hiko to learn how to handle powering her artifacts.
$2,250 (for rail passes), 4 vets, 1 Mami. Include Keiko and 3 other meguca without wish magic specialization who seem more resistant to Serena's aura than most.

You traveled this month to Kyoto to learn from Hiko a bit about how to power her artifacts, relatively unsure about what would dictate the process take so long. It was a bit of a time sink though traveling so far and you had less time than you would have liked.

Hiko oversaw your first attempts and gave some initial instruction but mostly left your training to a couple of her better students. She regrets having to pass you off in this matter but she has much to do that she cannot delegate. The difficulty largely lies in trying to strip out the unique flavor that your wish and your personality put on your magic. It's not something you'd ever really put much thought into before. You've always used magic directly for some sort of goal, never tried to experiment with purifying it in this way.

What you and Keiko extract from your tutors is that magic between individuals always differs a little. "Pure" magic unaffected by the caster may or may not even exist, but it's not actually the goal here. The goal is more to bring the magic into a similar enough standard range that the systems in the artifact which act similar to electrical transformers or perhaps a sort of funnel can handle the magic from different casters rather than being limited to only a single one it's tuned for.

In practice this involves a lot of meditation and staring at a sort of desk they've given you to sit at with a grid of little lights in a spiderweb that when you channel magic into indicates how close you are. The tutors then try to explain how to move from your dot towards the center depending on what the position of the dot you're at indicates.

This has proved a lot harder than you expected it to be with your own greater experience in magic use. Only one of your girls has even managed to get the dot into the center of the grid even once. Keiko seems to be spending most of her effort trying to understand how the desk itself works rather than trying to manage her magic output, though much to her frustration she isn't making much headway on that either. Her best guess is she's looking at the magical equivalent of a circuit board, but she's basically guessing at this point.

(This was modeled as progress dice if you know what I mean by that. You get 1d100 progress per completion each turn and need 75 progress to complete. Rolls were terrible: 7; 14; 30; 3; Mami 6+10 (for being elite) = 16)


Diplomacy
Local Gossipmonger/Coordinator plan(1 vet, 10 cubes):

Spoiler: Specifics

Stay in touch with all the local girls (Kofu, Numazu, Coalition, The Enlightened, and Area 3). Try to encourage and coordinate a regional response to the refugee problem. Identify when there is a problem in an area, and help the local girls coordinate as best they can. Specifically ask the Coalition and The Enlightened to help provide scouting information about refugees so that we can avoid ambushes, approach refugee girls with a force outnumbering theirs, etc. Ten cubes is the budget to work with for aiding local groups (the above excepting The Enlightened as they are too big to need it) that need help.
- In addition ask the Coalition if they would be willing to consider hunting in Tokyo if we provided them with teleport charms allowing them to escape youma responding to them?

The Coalition is willing to help you out with hunting in Tokyo for the normal demons, though they will not tangle with the stronger ones you've been dealing with. They don't really need extra cubes, but they aren't going to turn them down either. That's a deal that favors them far more than you though. Their limited numbers limit their options though. They could provide scouting for you, and they'd be willing to do that for free as a contribution to the effort, but they simply don't have the manpower to provide scouting and hunting forces.

The Enlightened give off even more cult vibes than your own group, but you can recognize they have either large numbers of clairvoyant and/or they're clairvoyants are better. They can provide tracking data across fairly large swaths of territory. They've also deployed forces to secure the Nagano capital region, apparently by request of the girls in the area, though you can't independently verify that. It's still heavily contested, but lethality is lower as a result of more organized resistance.

The overall situation is less positive than you'd like as well. Multiple hotspots have appeared in the rural areas west of Tokyo where demon strength has risen quickly enough to possibly spawn Youma. They believe it possible for there to be secondary Youma spawns in the rural areas next month, but the odds should remain low.

In general, your efforts have been falling flat. You didn't devote enough manpower to really enforce anything. You've distributed a few cubes here and there to try to leave some of the pressure, but the churn in terms of which girls are in any given location is very high. Lifespan appears to have dropped even lower than wild type life would normally suggest from sheer amount of competition. The band of urban area down the middle of Nagano especially is seeing some lethal fighting.

Though Enlightened projections are that the demon strength will kill off enough of the girls in the area before they can drive demon strength high enough for significant numbers of Youma to spawn, at least should the number of people fleeing Tokyo diminish.

Toyama, Isikawa, and Fukui Prefectures are also seeing some degree of conflict as the areas see girls trickle in from Nagano, but the higher base support rate and there being at least small packs of girls in the area has kept the lethality lower. Demon strength is increasing, but it may be a couple months before it reaches critical levels.

(In retrospect definitely should have required extra meguca power for this action, was doing way way too much for 1 vet.)


Kofu, Numazu plan (2 elite, 1.5 vets 20 cubes):

Spoiler: Specifics

Including 0.5 Taya and 0.5 Seto to Numazu with 0.5 Kyouko and Kyoclone to Kofu (avoid putting Kyouko in Numazu where there might still be some hard feelings). Apologize for not being as proactive about stemming the refugee problem as we should have. Assign an elite to each group to help the locals with preventing poaching, coordinate with the local forces as much as possible. Attempt to recruit any refugees with a budget of 20 cubes to help out with urgent cube need. If there are girls who refuse to join the Serenes we can direct some them towards Magick Corp, showing them the sample contracts (send no more than three girls that way though). As another option, offer to provide girls that insist on staying independent with teleport charms so they can safely hunt the boarder regions of Tokyo. However, use force if necessary to prevent girls from hunting the territory of the locals (again coordinate this with the locals so that we have their support if it comes to force, retreat if outnumbered, etc. All the typical Serene safety procedures.) There are also 1.5 vets assigned to represent reinforcements that can be called in by the Serene Elite if more girl power is needed based on refugee numbers (call it an additional 6 girls available about 1/4 of the time). Goal in combat would be to size the girl's gems, forcing them into a coma state and then preserving their bodies and soul gems to be revived once the Tokyo crisis is resolved.

Your efforts at smoothing things over with the people living in Kofu and Numazu are a bit of a mixed bag. While each have their own internal strength, and do a tolerable job of deflecting those invading from Tokyo, your help is significantly insufficient to the cause.

Numazu you've managed to make up significant lost ground in their eyes by being willing to put at least a little bit of payment and labor into helping them. They fend off dozens of intrusions, mostly one or two at a time and easily deflected. You manage to persuade some of the refugees to join the Serene instead, and a very few to stay in Tokyo. You at least deflect some of them though.

Kofu you've remained neutral in their views, but the battles there go far worse. It's all Kyouko can do not to die as a trio of elites cut a swath through Kofu. Tezuka Leiko, the single elite in Kofu and some sort of sound user, battles alongside Kyouko with several veterans supporting them. Ultimately they're forced to teleport escape each battle as the girls they face are far more skilled in pvp combat. Some sort of crystal manipulator, a puppet master that Kyouko isn't sure they ever actually saw, and a power mimicking doppelganger that made coordination near impossible. If Leiko wasn't so capable of shattering the crystals Kyouko believes they'd have been finished outright in the first fight. As it was, they fought numerous unfavorable battles across the territory and ultimately the trio of elites moved on, likely because it was just more troublesome than it was worth trying to deal with the repeated attacks.

Even as it was the distraction those elites provided made it difficult to even manage to keep out the various greens and vets streaming through the territory. Much of Kofu is now at dangerous demon strength levels, and Kyouko gave the Kofu democracy about half the GCU she was allocated for the mission just to help them handle things. They're likely going to need more serious help and supplies next month if they're to avoid increasing problems.

Magick Company (1 vet):
Nagoya (1 vet):
See Mini-Turns

(Note I've flat out decided major negotiations will in the future require Mami, they want to talk to the leader not the flunkie if you need Watsonian logic. The real (Doylist) logic is that it takes too damn long to write.)


Morale
Mentorship Program

Spoiler: Specifics

Devise a mentorship program, where existing members give about 10% of their time to helping welcome and acclimate the refugee recruits, and are given a pair of disciples each (each disciple likewise has two mentors). The goal is to help them acclimate at a more personal level, and a better mental grasp of our worldview and group culture (which should also help them in their combat training). The mentors likewise gain a personal closeness to help integrate the new girls into the group.
6.5 vets (67 recruits * 10% = 6.7, rounded to nearest 0.5 meguca)

The mentorship program you introduce this month certainly helps acclimate the new girls better than your other less focused attempts. It's not perfect, and there's some friction between what they're used to and your ways, but it's certainly giving better results from the more personal level of attention than your broader attempts did.

Doubling the size of the Serene in such short order has put tremendous stress on your ad-hoc system however and the fracture lines and factions between the old guard and the new are starting to show. You're really lucky so many of the new girls are green and have less set in ways, otherwise the whole system might already have collapsed.


Good food (1 Chisato, $1,000):

Spoiler: Specifics[size=5

][/size]Set Chisato on a rotation of cooking for people throughout the org, letting her cycle through the houses and apartment blocks to cook for people. Provide $1,000 for additional ingredients beyond the current basic. In particular, see what she can do when not held back to the requirements of serving the public. Home cooking, comfort food, pick-me-ups, healthy food for those training, etc.; show off what she can do with her magic. Assign Akane as her mentor.

Akane finds it a bit strange to be the mentor for once since she's always been the mentee in such relationships, and Chisato has been a magical girl longer than she has, but Akane does have more experience in actually using her power the way it was meant to be used. So she manages to get a handle on it.

Chisato is used to making the most of very limited amounts of materials and often small amounts of many different ingredients stolen here and there. Working with actual kitchens and ingredients purchased in quantity is a big difference from what's she's had to deal with. Her efforts are sometimes strange as a result, but she has the same basic skillset that Akane had and gradually adjusts her choices.

From what you've seen Chisato does tend to naturally gravitate towards more western dishes and unhealthier but tastier fare than Akane who tends to stick to Japanese cuisine when she's left to her own devices.

You don't have the time or resources devoted to really study the difference in healthiness of the food prepared by a magical chef vs a mundane one. Establishing that it tastes better is easy, but determining calorie or nutritional content would require labwork and equipment you don't have. As to effects on the body, it's hard to tell. Magical girls don't gain weight, so you can't exactly calculate from that.

There is some morale benefit to better food, particularly as many girls are less fond of cooking than Chisato in the first place. Some have suggested you might be better off with just a central canteen so that they could all eat this level of food all the time, or they might just go to the restaurant you operate, but that would be a bit suspicious if they were all eating there every day without paying.



General
You haven't had much time to personally talk with Morita Miho, but from what you've seen she's just a girl that's lost far too much. She gets along well enough, and the fact that she still shows that little bit of fire to still be willing to fight for her home is a good sign. It's hard to say what she might have been like before, but right now you can sense the emptiness beneath that veneer she puts on. Maybe in time with proper care she'll fill back in like Taya managed. She's willing to follow your orders at least, though she's very torn about not being on the front lines.

The technician Hiko sent is far more than that. From what your girls have gathered Risa is Hiko's current oldest disciple, though Risa says that a lady never reveals her age, and equally amused tells you that Hiko would say it's actually better not to keep track. Risa seems like some blend of a traditionally skilled shrine maiden and a college student.

She keeps a hotel room, but is willing to flow between your various bases as you wanted for a few hours a day. She's a bit surprised at your plans involving showing her between your various bases. Her cooking skills are far from good, and from what you've heard she doesn't actually care to be good at cooking, but she's perfectly willing to socialize and help a little while Chisato cooks though. Some find her wearing a shrine maiden outfit while doing so amusing. It does seem to be rather heavily enchanted as grease deflects off without ever marring the pristine white haori.

From glimpses of her hotel room, she seems to be continuing to work on some project while here, though your girls' guesses are completely random as to what. Or even if it's magical at all rather than just arts and crafts. There may be a betting pool you don't officially take notice of.

Ten of the green refugees you've taken in over the past couple months reached veteran status this month, the more comfortable environment and training exercises helping them learn what it really means to be a magical girl. Though it's a very different sort of meaning than what they are used to.

On the other hand, you also have ten grief spirals this month. Mostly amongst the girls you've taken in so recently from Tokyo. 15 GCU were spent on dealing with them, and yet one still perished, nothing able to save her, and reaction far too slow to move her to Serena. You feel pretty bad that you never even knew her name personally. The other losses at the end of the month to the Beholder also weigh on you like any other. You're doing the best you can with what life throws at you though.

Your group is now far larger than you ever dreamed it would be when you first started it near three years ago with twenty girls. In your private thoughts, you have to admit you expected to lose half of them in the first few months. You don't think the you of three years ago could have believed that 17 of them would still be alive three years later.

You really need some more formal plan of government as well. Your familial style government simply wasn't meant to handle doubling in size over the course of two months, it's hard for the new members to really understand who to report to and it's resulting in a lot more work.

Your efforts to deflect refugees from Numazu and Kofu to your own organization contribute to your refugee count to consider being just as high as last month not even counting the mid-month recruitment of those still willing to fight for Tokyo.

Another 27 girls to consider if you can even possibly handle with your critically diminished grief cube supplies.
15 Vets (5 clairvoyants, 2 Healer, 2 barrier)
12 Greens (4 healers, 1 barrier, 3 stealth)



Rumors
In addition to the epidemic level of suicides in Tokyo recently there are isolated cases of more bizarre deaths, where people have been found seeming to have died of dehydration with no apparent cause for them not drinking.

In response to mitigate final stage failure, Incubators have begun adding advanced mood enhancers to the Tokyo water supply. They warn you that this will buy you some time, but there are a number of complications with this. While highly advanced compared to primitive human anti-depressants (with a notable lack of side effects, effecting far more of the population, and high efficacy) they are understandable molecules. A high quality water filtration system will remove them, and they are forced to interfere quite significantly in water tests. Additionally, this may serve to slightly increase the effective food supply available to demons.​

From what you've heard, The Enlightened are run by a small circle of girls termed the Intelligentsia with abilities which enhance their decision making in specific useful ways. They then leveraged this into establishing a divine mandate to rule. The religious aspects are somewhat cloying, but they seem to succeed in their operations far more than luck would allow for. They're also known to have recruited intelligence gathering powers like clairvoyance preferentially, you assume to further enhance their advantage.

By comparison from what you've heard from refugees, the Sendai Queendom seems more of an accidental government. The ruler was mostly put in place by being friends with everyone in the area. Growth from that point has been sporadic, with growth towards Tokyo and the fortification of that border in response to the threat there presented. Originally they took in a few escapees from Tokyo, but of late their borders have been closed to demon and meguca alike.

From your small talk with the various Heaven's Chosen this month, you've heard that Hiko would like to take a trip away from Japan at some point, but this is unfortunately impossible. They have some disbelief at the idea of her wanting to take a day off (without being forced to by Risa), much less enough time to leave the country, which is part of why they're talking about it so much.




Resources

• 5 (6) Elite Meguca: Mami (+20% persuasive), Kyouko (can act as if two Elites), Taya (Can fill role of two clairvoyant vets), Seto (Elite teleporter), Miho (Earthbender)
  
• Legendary Serena, +4 vet/elite special +2 vet
  
• 81 Veteran Meguca, 53 Green Meguca, 1 Associate
  • Upkeep: 25 Veteran, 19 Green, 1 Associate
    • Support/Training (16 veterans, 8 greens)
      • 10% meguca training upkeep (8.5 veterans, 5.5 greens)
        
      • 2 vets on dispatch service (+30% grief cubes additive with demon finding, -1% casualties)
      • 5% meguca general organization maintenance (quant team time, hunting log writing and cataloging, scheduling, etc) 4.5 Vet, 2.5 green +1 Vet inefficiency
    • Jobs (9 Vet, 11 Green, 1 Associate)
      • 2 veteran (Hainako, Kumiyo) Translation service
      • 3 veteran + 6 green working courier business (Minimum 3 vets)
      • 1 Akeno Delivery
      • 2 Vets (Akane), 3 Green, 1 Associate Restaurant
      • 1 vet, 2 greens - Restaurant delivery
• Grief Cubes 54 Critical Levels!
  
• Money: $16,660
  • Expenses: $59,610
    • $2,940 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
    • $1500 upkeep on cable/internet
    • $16000 upkeep on apartments
    • $8000 upkeep on house
    • $300 upkeep on Akiya
      
    • $14,700 upkeep on stipend
    • $14,700 upkeep on food
    • $1,470 upkeep on gear (bikes, shields, misc)
  • Income $43,000
    • Translator: +$11,000 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: [2 of 10] Continued intake of traumatized girls, combined with your own loses this month has continued slippage in morale.
  
• 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
    [*]Telepathic communication (-2% pair hunting, -1% pack hunting)
    [*]Demon Scanning training (+20% grief cubes)
    [*]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
    [*]Fusion trained
    -4 pairs of Teleporter+Barrier
    -1 pair Telepath + Barrier

• • 141 Bicycles (Mobility Bonus)
  • 41 Bulletproof vest (-2% casualty)
  • 41 Sets of Kevlar Clothing (-4% casualty)
  • 3 Sets of Leather (-2% casualty)
  • 9 sets hardened leather (-3% casualty)
  • Housing (147/181)
    • Apartments (128 capacity)
    • House (50 capacity)
    • Mami's Apartment (HQ of sorts) (Can be traded for $1200 per turn)
    • Akiya (7/6 capacity, special)
• Territory
  • Urban
    • North
      • Demon Status: Average 1.1
      • Sustainable Harvest: 37
    • South
      • Demon Status: Average 0.0
      • Sustainable Harvest: 37
  • Rural
    • Demon Status: Weak -4.9
    • Sustainable Harvest: 8

________________________________________________________________________________________



Well it was only 4 months late or so. Not my longest Hiatus. Those wish magic rolls on potential recruits. Hah.

Anyway that took a lot out of me to finish. I kept thinking it was near done but kept finding more things that needed to be added. Let me know if I missed anything, I kind of expect I have. Plus formatting was a pain in the ass. I've never come up with an ideal formatting for this quest. If people have a suggestion on ways to make it better I wouldn't mind.

Also I really hope @Kinematics and/or @Elder Haman return, because they were the ones that always made the hunting plans. The hunting system gradually grew more and more complex over past 35 turns until finally arriving at this monstrosity is very difficult to understand.

Also congratulations on reaching a low in morale not seen since the start of the quest! Introducing your own number in morale 0 zero girls is great for your average morale, lol. I will advise you though that this would be one of those cases where the cash you so agonizingly negotiated for might be worth it. There are a great many ways to buy some morale boosts, and the money you lose might be worth the morale you gain. It might not, but it's a thought.

 

[inverted_helix]

The Battle for Tokyo (Part 1)
​

Scouting the beholder for moments of weakness is mostly an exercise in frustration. While the sun makes its slow, stumbling way across the sky, your clairvoyant teams are run ragged in cat and mouse games. It's nerve-wracking. You nearly deployed twice to help, stopped only by Risa's sensible request to trust your people. You do. It's just... it seems like every demon in Tokyo is out for blood and entirely willing to risk themselves chasing after errant girls in ways they wouldn't have just two weeks ago. Ultimately you end the operation early with little to show for it and decide you have to take your chances on attacking when you're ready.

Tracking where the beholder is at least is easy enough, though you end up moving in significant force even with the first strike team. The Kyoukos, Taya, yourself, Risa, a couple of barrier elites from Nagoya's contingent, and Nagoya's military leader Uno who pretty much insisted on coming along. She seems very much the sort of leader that leads from the front.

You form up some distance away in hopes of not giving yourselves away early and then approach under Kyouko's stealth field. The Beholder has been moving around quite a bit this month and so you try to set up in its path and let it come to you rather than trying to give chase, a stationary stealth field is easier to maintain then one on the run. As it approaches nerves are a bit tense throughout the group.

Kyouko has steeled herself for this mission, but you know she still questions if risking your lives for people you don't even know is really worth it. Selfless missions rarely turn out well for anyone involved in her experience.

Risa shows the cool confidence of an adult at ease with their situation, though you're not sure how much of that is just good acting. She has her hands on the teleportation interdictor, but her longbow and quiver are also ready for battle. You were surprised to find she carries as actual weapons rather than just summoning them. Though it was also pretty amusing that she was able to carry them around cities as far as you can tell with no magic to ward off people's attention on them, just the right attitude. She has a carved bit of wood packed with grief cubes ready to dispense them attached to her quiver.

The Nagoya girls carry something similar though metallic and plastic and more reminiscent of candy dispensers, if rather plain. They fidget a bit, checking their weapons again and again, and ensuring their soul gems are sparkling clear. This may be their job, but it's hardly easy when previous SOP was to run away from engaging this one.


Then the miasma washes over you. A clawing sensation starts crushing your heart. The light of hope in your heart smothered. Fears and doubts grip you. They aren't yours though. Your soul gem starts softly glowing on your chest, and the feelings ease held at bay but you feel like they're still clawing around.

Taya collapses to one knee, and you rest a hand on her shoulder and try to encourage her telepathically. She's failed so much recently, and there's so many failures in her past for it to bring to mind as well. The lives that she cost, those that died on her conscience, because she was selfish. But she's here now, standing and fighting for the lives of others, and you make that clear to her. You also begin plying her gem with cubes from a fanny pack.

Kyouko is almost as troubled as Taya you can tell, but she faces her past every day. She lives with those feelings, and she's survived. She always survives, even when the cost should be too much to bear. She starts putting draining grief into cubes on her own. Her clone seemingly more buffered than her.

Ono and the pair of Nagoya barrier girls are fairly shaken as well, one of them visibly trembling. Ono begins leading them through war songs as they begin slowly feeding cubes to their gems, you aren't sure how much that helps with stealth, but given what you face sounds are probably not that big a deal anyway, hopefully. Risa's knuckles are white but she at least maintains composure.

You take a glance at the layers of magic around you. The two shields are still shimmering bubbles of hardened magic to at least fend off the first attacks. The stealth field projected by Kyouko and Kyoclone is harder for you to make out, particularly from this side and with two layers of magical shields inside it, but it seems to be holding up for now.

In the moments that you've been taking things in and trying to get your party steady the world has been changing around you. Beyond the layers of magic is a warping environment as buildings bend in towards each other like a wet painting on the side away from the demon, and on the side towards it you see only tunnels and darkness.

You advance into the darkness.

For all that you know that the exterior of the miasma is only a couple hundred meters, the interior hardly matches. Surely the Beholder has stopped moving or you'd have passed it by. Taya struggles to direct you through the maze of tunnels. Grief cubes from each of your party members' supplies trickling away as they maintain their spells and their sanity as you all advance at the walking pace dictated by your layers of spells.

The war hymns save your party from the utter silence of an environment removed from the world at large. No bugs, or birds, or car noise. None of the countless sounds of everyday life.

It occurs to you now that perhaps there isn't a route to the Beholder in its fully developed miasma. Should you try blasting through the walls in a straight line?

As you stride past stalagmites and stalactites you almost decide to voice your concern.

Then Taya finally speaks, "They're just around the next corner, the Beholder and six others."

The song stops and the stealth field dims the slightest bit at that announcement. Kyouko struggles for a moment to shore it up further.

"Seven on Eight isn't good odds for us." You're sure everyone thinks it, though you're not quite sure who said it.

You take a moment to lock eyes with Uno, Nagoya may have lent you its forces for this operation, but their commander being here was a clear sign that she still wanted to be able to make a call if it was too dangerous. Thoughts passed between your eyes without telepathy required. It was risky, but you had to take your shot.

"We only have to hold a few minutes at most, not win. We collapse the tunnel if we can, pop smoke, staggered retreat."

"We still have to keep it in range so it can't escape."

"With the odds as they are its fastest escape is to kill us all first."

That statement doesn't really seem wrong. Uno starts laying explosives.

Six companions was hardly a worst case scenario, but it was up there.

Worse still was you couldn't be sure of the arrival time of backup. They'd have to find their way through the maze first.

Still you inched around the corner and took a look for yourself. The Beholder floated in the middle of a grand chamber with the sort of vaulted roof that wouldn't look out of place in a cathedral if it weren't so irregular. The mantis seen before and five others you hadn't. A tentacle monster that gave you cultural shudders, a giant spider big enough it probably didn't need to predigest mere humans, a tree of some sort, a human looking one which only your magical senses defined as not being human at all, and a rather small dog that would look adorable if not for the rabid look in its eyes.

You took a breath. You hadn't really expected your stealth to hold so long against such a powerful clairvoyant. Maybe everything would go to plan. Uno is holding a lit match near a simple string fuse and dynamite.

"Go", a simple telepathic message, transmitted in the clear, both to Risa to start the interdiction, and to the girls that would be outside the miasma in stealth to listen for your signal.

The entire group of higher demons turns towards you. There's a moment of calm.

Against all expectation and reason, the Beholder then chooses to turn and float the opposite direction away. The rest of the demons stay facing you.

Someone curses, maybe everyone does.

Uno kicks the dynamite to one side of the chamber, but the fuse goes out almost immediately.

"After it!" You wouldn't give up now. The group advances instead of retreats. The two barrier girls throw bundles of smoke grenades to opposite sides. The smoke fizzles out of them far too slow.

You fire a battery of muskets directly at the Beholder in a pointless attempt to slow it down, they're caught by a barrier before the shots make it even halfway. Risa fires a series of arrows at the tunnel the Beholder is flying towards. A series of tiny detonations mark out above it, but fail to accomplish anything.

A screech fills the air, the outer barrier glows translucently, deflecting an attack you can't even see. Razor tipped limbs slide against the shell of the outer shield, and acid sizzles across it. Then the shields begin to shift and spin. The inner one interlocks and expands out as the outer one shifts inward, both spinning to deflect and knock off the demons trying to pry their way in.

The two Kyoukos are launching spears out through the shifting array of barriers, but the spinning is throwing off their aim as well. With the barriers darkening in various points in response to attacks that aren't even seen, not to mention the slight glow of deflecting an attack all around that hasn't stopped, melee just doesn't seem an option to anyone, hobbling most of your fighters.

In spite of that you manage to keep the Beholder in range, though the meaning of distance becomes increasingly distorted as the fight goes on. Uno is playing defense as well, and space is becoming more pretzel like by the second as she tries to generate more distance between the Class 3s and your group.



Cyclonic Shield Strength = 700/800 (Ironically this round number is brought to you courtesy of 10 dice rolls, not flat numbers, that magically ended up being perfectly round anyway.)


Of course then the Beholder, with eyes literally behind its head decides that running away isn't working. Beams blue, green, and black lance from it to your bunker shield. The first couple deflect and scatter across the outer shield, before finally shattering the barrier. Unlike your girls when a barrier shatters, Shizu is immediately burning cubes and summoning up a new barrier, but as it will take a lot longer to strengthen it again.

"Evasive, roll." The single shield remaining draws in from five meters diameter to three. Then whole group is dragged to one side as the barrier weaves left and you smash into the right side.

Your position changes in an instant, meters gone, as the remaining barrier is used to physically weave the entire group about as one through warps in space. Desperately dodging blows.

A stalagmite explodes in to shrapnel, used for a single instant's cover.

The smoke they tossed at the start is starting to fill the chamber, combined with sliding each way around the shield that has now started rolling, you've no idea where the enemies are. Upside is all your allies are in the bubble with you so you don't need to worry about friendly fire.

You flail ribbons out through the barrier with all the strength you can muster trying to hit targets blind. You may land some hits, but it's hard to tell, and you're spending magic fast as the ribbons start corroding when they leave the barrier.

The girl (Uzuki you think?) projecting the pachinko ball is the only one that can keep her feet effortlessly as you careen around the chamber chaotically. You on the other hand tumble around hitting other girls. The shield keeps glowing a soft fuchsia but the number of bright spots of direct impacts drops.

As you slide along the top of the bubble for a moment you notice Risa has regained her feet, magic glowing about them, and is shooting again. Swords and Spears vanish into the glowing smoke around you as Taya and Kyouko fire off attacks as blind as you are.

271 shield strength

Your pinball keeps bouncing around unpredictably, even the beam attacks slacken with some missing entirely in spite of their speed. Your disorientation is only growing as you practically headbutt Kyouko as Uno slides past you with her hands still shaping magic anyway. You doubt your group has done any damage to any of the youma, but the direct impacts on the barrier have dropped off almost completely. The barrier is still being worn down faster than they can repair it though.

160 shield strength

You start hoping you can stall things out until help arrives, especially as hits slack off. The room spins around as you learn about the true cruelty that is life as a pachinko ball. But then a scythe arm cuts directly into the front edge of the shield and momentum almost cuts the shield apart. The shield immediately starts spinning the opposite way to try and pull away, but before it can a beam scores a direct hit and the shield begins to unravel, even as it begins spinning backwards away from the trap.

86 shield strength

Shizu and Uzuki do their best after that, but it's obvious they simply can't keep the barriers up much longer under this sort of onslaught. You can feel the electric sensation of Serena's aura now though, you've almost held long enough. Then a final beam hits the final shield, and it pops.

The low sounds you heard within the barrier are now jackhammer loud. The screeching itself is agony. At the speed of thought you all start half jumping, half stumbling in opposite directions. Magical girls don't normally get motion sickness, but it seems there are limits, and what a time to discover them.

Shields shattered


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Spoiler: AN

So it's incomplete. It's taking me forever to stop procrastinating and write though. So I figured I'd post what I have as a proper threadmarked miniturn and to hell with it, I can farm likes. This is a smidge over double what the original teaser was. Honestly things so far are shaping up pretty inconclusively. Mostly because Nagoya sent a ridiculously powerful defensive trio that is in fact capable of surviving this utter nonsense (for a while, depending on grief cube supplies). Though they'd do a lot better running the opposite direction.

Honestly considered letting you vote to turn around and run away when you saw the number of opponents, given that it was a bit higher than your plan probably expected. Probably should have, but I wasn't sure what exactly that would have changed in your thinking.

Rolls were a little bizarre to be honest. You flubbed scouting roll so bad I burned an omake for him to not eat your scouts. Then succeeded a very difficult stealth check for Kyouko twins to beat out Beholder's primary Clairvoyance power. Then the Beholder rolled to run away instead of fight (which I had put as a 10% chance because odds were stacked in its favor to kill you first as better means of escaping). Then 10 dice calculating attacks and defenses ends up resulting in a perfectly round number for end of turn shield strength.

Spoiler: Even more Meta AN

Oh and something I'd really like is in addition to comments on content of the writing, I'd like advice on the writing itself, ways I could improve the atmosphere, pace, dialogue. As I've said before writing this quest has made me realize my human emulation software is worse than most chatbots. So I'd like some advice on how to improve, specific examples of ways to improve it would be best. I know that such things can reduce immersion though, so I understand if people don't want to comment.

 

[inverted_helix]

The Battle for Tokyo (Part 2 Complete)​

With no barrier to protect you everyone splits to better dodge rather than hanging together. The smoke is if anything thicker than before and you can hardly see two feet. Your ear drums rupture leaving you deaf as well as near blind. The sound is still vibrating your bones though.

You keep moving, seeking a wall at least to put to your back. You hear the others crying out telepathically, but have no way of knowing where they are. Fear begins to grip you, real this time rather than artificial. Far more difficult to ignore. You can't see or help anyone. You use some grief cubes on automatic, paying it no attention.

The haze glows in random beams and sparks. You summon another musket surround yourself with ribbons. But you can't attack when you might hit a friend. Your skin is beginning to bleed though you don't think you've been hit. Your ribbons take constant magic to keep repairing. Your eyes sting.

You change directions at random and set off a pair of charms tied to your waist, the barrier is a mere directional shield though and barely lasts a second anyway even without a visible enemy attack. The healing charm restores your hearing for a mere moment of pain before it goes out again. The bleeding stops for now, skin restored.

The floor is littered with discarded spears in various states of destruction.

You can't hear the battle that you hope continues.

Your gem darkens.

Then when you begin to think that you're wandering alone, the air all starts rushing to one side. The smoke rapidly clearing. Help has arrived.

Your eyes are stinging badly and your vision still a bit blurred even without the smoke. You turn towards the source of the wind and see a hole cut through the cavern wall, in fact a series of a holes. Girls pour through to reinforce your beleaguered force. The chamber wavers a bit, but mostly holds.

You activate another healing charm and look for the rest of your party. The first one you see by some chance is Risa standing on the ceiling. If not for her hair hanging downwards you might think she was on the ground as she knocks an arrow.

From a quick glance about the chamber you see that everyone you came with is still alive, though Taya is mangled even by the standards of what a magical girl can survive. Uno and her girls managed to regroup already. The real Kyouko is actually more injured than the bow wearing clone, though both are still fighting.

You move to relieve Kyouko in her battle against the Spider without thinking. Firing a barrage of musket fire as you close. Shields once again appear to block your fire, but you bounce off the ground and leave a trail of muskets firing behind you. Ribbons then slingshot you back down before the spikes the spider fires back at you can hit.

Kyouko is still engaged though even as you draw attention, spears flashing out to block invisible attacks as she loses steps from her steady bleeding. Her clone acting more in her defense.

You summon a wall of ribbons and sweep it around her in a flurry, catching something small for a moment before it tears its way through.

Too focused on Kyouko, the other class 3 doesn't approve. A spike the size of Kyouko's spear passes through your side. You seal the hole with ribbons and pull yourself abruptly to the side and into the defensive shield of one of your groups of vets.

Two veteran groups move to support you and Kyouko, and you all shelter under their shields for a moment. The healers they brought work to repair the damage you and Kyouko have taken, while the other vets work to hold off the class 3s. Kyouclone moves to engage the Beholder with the other elites.

Your hearing comes back and doesn't immediately pop out again. You think to look for Taya, she was more injured yet you'd moved to support Kyouko, stupid, selfish even.

Taya has been collected by one of the other groups of veterans, alive if barely as their healer works to put her together again.

The air is practically buzzing with telepathic communications so dense and wideband you can barely tell your own thoughts from the dozens of frantic, excited, and scared messages bouncing around without direction.

You wait until you're healed enough, then both you and Kyouko dart between shield spells, and get allowed into the one the NM elites are maintaining. Your hearing pops back in as the NM healer patches you immediately on reflex. The sound inside the bubble almost makes you laugh in spite of the situation. "No theatrics, stick to training, be cautious, be defensive, you aren't invincible." They have a record player playing their orders to keep them focused.

The battle is no quick thing, unlike other battles over in seconds as magical girls and demons exchanged blows that neither could survive. In this battle both sides are durable, each of the Youma capable of withstanding tremendous punishment, and your tandem barriers have substantial strength of their own. Especially when the suppressive fire of your girls prevents the youma from fully leveraging their strength.

Each of your fire teams of veterans work to pin the youma away from the main battle, to isolate them and hold their attention. It works for the most part. They stay in formation and keep in their shields, popping charms to shore them up when they can.

The centerpiece of the battle is the Beholder itself. Beams firing each direction as Serena's team pits their power against its own drawing much of its attention while a dozen elites harass its flanks whittling down it's incredible barrier strength.

You direct the 7th veteran squad to attack the sound emitting human-like youma that's hitting the entire battlefield at once.

As the seconds stretch out endlessly you blast away with ranged attacks as you gradually get a sense of the battlefield, picking out the important pieces of information. The Beholder's shield is gradually weakening, even as it adjusts it so that it takes damage to use its regeneration power at the same time. But the shields on your own side are also being worn down quickly.

Serena's presence lets them fight on through just about anything, they won't give up, and it gives them the power to last even this long, but their shields are slowly ground down.

The human type youma is being worn down as well with two squads dedicated to it, but the others seem to be regenerating any damage as fast as the veterans can inflict it. If they hit at all in the case of the stealth type ones.

The Beholder is the one that draws first blood, the armor like shields Rae maintained over each member of Serena's team were likely more draining than the bubble shields the other group maintained. Or perhaps it's simply the raw damage potential the Beholder puts out as it tanks the hits of over twenty elites. Whatever the reason their shields fail, ethereal armor flickering out of existence.

The rest of the group withdraws to shelter under Nagoya's shields in relatively good order, but Hatomi is cut down, slow to adapt in the frenzy of battle. Another death paid for your ideals.

You intensify your assault, the droning of the record player helping you keep your cool as well instead of rushing blindly. The Beholder itself isn't doing well either though as its shields are down more often than not and you begin wearing through its supernatural flesh, probing for weak points.

Nagoya's barriers take up the burden of fending off the Beholders beam attacks, holding for now. The multiple patterns of shields overlaying each other and switching positions as needed. Rae lends her own strength to the barrier work once she begins rebuilding her own, though they struggle more to integrate her in the weaving pattern.

One of the veteran groups loses their barrier in a pop. The spider they were fighting amongst them as they scatter for cover under another barrier. Two more die, the corrosive sound and eight legs finding marks.

You redirect the extra team to grab the spider demon's attention and try to hold it. But after that it's almost like a chain reaction as another squad's shields fail and another vet dies. The squads struggle to regroup, telepathic communication jammed with too many panicked voices and verbal completely impossible with the sonic attack resonating through the chamber.

The entire veteran group begins losing cohesion. Their morale might be unbreakable thanks to Serena, but organization has almost collapsed as members from squads try to join others but stick to original targets and the youma begin changing targets themselves.

The shields around the gathering of elites themselves are also weakening as beam attacks gouge into them.

But the Beholder is losing entire eyestalks now as it loses the strength to keep attacks away from its vulnerable points. Its dark flesh being flayed from its body and its own fire is weakening.

The layered shields around you begin to break down. Two more of the veteran barriers fail.

It's close.

Finally the beholder begins to turn to dust. The environment around you begins breaking down.

The Youma attacks reduce to a pittance of their previous intensity. And the gathered elites begin splitting up into teams to put them down.

Without the Beholder's own aura countering Serena's, and with over 20 elites gathered, the remaining enemies are dispatched without issue.


The price you've paid for the victory hits you hard though. Even if you knew on some level there would be losses, you hadn't wanted to think about it.

Five dead.

You doubled your losses from the previous 3 years in a matter of minutes.

The battlefield is strewn with tiny grief cubes, but the reward seems like ash. Even as you have the vets gather it up and the entire company of magical girls withdraws.



+120 GCU in drops, -20GCU in immediate magic and grief mitigation use.




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Spoiler: Author Notes

Over the course of writing this it got steadily less detailed, but the simple fact is that when it went from 8 magical girls and 7 demons to 70ish magical girls I just kind of had to give up on any major detail and instead write a sort of flow. I eventually decided I'd rather get something out, anything, rather than leave it festering.

Theoretically Taya has the same odds as (an individual) Kyouko, but historically speaking Taya has the worst rolls of any of your characters I think. Taya survived by the skin of her teeth. Risa was the only one rolling at a disadvantage because she had the artifact and thus was a priority target, but her rolls basically said "screw this peasant bullshit, I'm better than you guys".

I rolled dice for every combatant. I mean after reinforcements arrived was 7 full rounds of combat with around 95 rolls a round. What I have learned from that experience is that I need more abstraction to that so probably should have just rolled each squad instead of each girl. Or even just rolled a handful of abstract rolls.

And Serena is the only reason that a handful of vets could hold off a youma at all. Before anyone asks without her you could theoretically have won with the combatants you had arrayed, but basically all vets involved would have been dead and probably two thirds or so of the elites.

For the next turn unless there's a surprise appearance of the people that enjoyed the super complex plans, I will probably go with the abstracted "clan" (though I think that term severely inaccurate) based system with essentially 8 action slots with 4 most likely locked in on continuing projects.

I'm so glad this arc is pretty much over. I still need to finish up the last bits of the full turn. Just a few bits and bobs.

For instance how are you going to split the winnings? If you split them at all.

 

[inverted_helix]

Turn 36​

Money Actions
Purchase 2 sets of hard leather armor. $600
Done

Existing jobs: 8 vets, 11 greens, 1 associate

Somehow in spite of dire economic forecasts for Japan as a whole your jobs overall went well this month. Mitakihara has picked up more business as a whole with Tokyo flagging.

While your translators don't pull in any extra income, Kumiyo shows no signs of flagging in her dedication to be useful enough to never see combat again. Your courier business on the other hand picks up in business as they pick up some nice longer term contracts, though they're struggling to meet their hour needs. Likewise while your restaurant's dine in service seems to have stagnated with its generally student based appeal, a few offices have started placing routine takeout orders that have notably increased the bottom line of your take out service.

Nagoya quant training: 5 vets

Your quant team in Nagoya gets a lot of questions about your planned operation in Tokyo this month. Though they aren't actually privy to much of the details. In part because the details took a long time for your own side to firm up, though it was better that they didn't know that.

There is some sense of nervous energy though as the elites that Nagoya will send are selected. A resolution of the situation would be very favorable. Schedules are reworked again and again as Nagoya works to actually increase their border patrols while sending as many elites as possible to Mitakihara.

From what they can gather this is as much a political thing as any real need. Though it is a tad frustrating to them as the girls available for their territory seem to fluctuate.

In terms of goals though they still manage to start hammering in proper Serene farming techniques and returns on their field are beginning to rise above standard levels. They've also begun training their replacements for the analysis portions of your hunting methods, which were woefully inadequate before.

Though the girls are invited to a gaming night at one point by one of the middle managers in the NM, it ends up being fairly awkward as they're to a girl so soundly defeated at a Sailor Moon video game that it was just embarrassing to both sides.


Purchase: Abandoned village. Set up contractors to begin renovating 3 homes (amount that can be done at once). $150k, 1 vet, Kyubey assist
-- Assign several untrained greens to clean up the village (and church, if applicable). [10] Clean the streets, weed the gardens, trim the bushes and trees, throw out garbage, all that stuff. Make the entire village presentable, even if the construction workers are only improving a few houses.

Kyuubey arranges your takeover of the abandoned rural village with little fanfare, such places are distressingly common in Japan. You sometimes wonder if these places are a result of lack of proper coverage by magical girls, if an area isn't covered enough the human population would suffer. The humans dying or making a move to a city might result.

Hiring the contractors to begin restoring 3 homes is the far more complicated and expensive task. Many offers and quotes go into finding the right company. As the contractors begin hauling materials to and from the site you have a bunch of the refugee greens begin with the simpler things that can be done to restore someplace nature has begun reclaiming.

The streets themselves have begun crumbling, with weeds and even trees overwhelming them. They're cut down and pulled out of sight, though there's no real need to properly dispose of them. Kyuubey does have to reprimand them several times for improper displays of strength around humans though. While they can haul away trees, that doesn't mean they should. And he instructs you that you should discipline them better about such things lest he need to.

While the reprimand stings, from pictures you know that the girls did do a pretty good job, and probably did exceed the limits of human girls in how quickly they made an overgrown village presentable.

The girls themselves had a mix of reasons: others were doing it, why would it be a problem, they were just trying to do a good job for those that took them in, even if the job seemed to be make work.

Nonetheless, the contractors finished restoring three of the homes in the village to prime condition, even if their memories aren't exactly right.

3 houses in good condition, village is now open and livable. -3 GCU.

Purchase 100 cubes from Nagoya ($400k)
You ended up having to negotiate with a couple different people in the Magocracy to get such a large cube transfer. While they were willing to accept the logic, your political capital right now is quite low, you'll definitely need to deliver.

They sent a full squad to escort that many cubes to you. They might have sent lesser amounts with the trickle that was passing through to test against Serena, but this sort of shipment felt more like an armored car delivery. Their cubes were stored in foam cases packed into suitcases far more neatly and professional looking than your own habit of a closet of egg cartons.


Accept 27 refugees.
Welcome package (bike, phone, shield, misc = $250 * 27 = $6750)
Add 32 apartment capacity ($250 * 32 = $8000) (1.5 vet)
You continue to take in the refugees from Tokyo, and pay out the funds needed to support bringing them properly into your group. Though even some of your own group are starting to question if you can really keep this up. The monetary costs as well as the cube costs, as well as how different the girls themselves are culturally. Even though they're Japanese as well, the difference in lives is significant.


Purchase: Kyouko's church (700k+200k)
You complete the purchase of Kyouko's church this month after several months of waiting since the last inspection. The bank pushes for more money though than five months ago, because while Japan as a whole is in recession the Mitakihara/Kasamino area is in a fantastic boom and they've had more offers in the past few months.

(Assuming you're willing to pay the increased 700k purchase +200k renovation)

Contracting work begins in earnest as a team of electricians descend upon the Church to begin rewiring everything. By the end of the month they've completed the electrical and begun the more difficult process of producing a large scale kitchen where there was only a family sized one.



Training
General Training: Train the new recruits understand our procedures and tactics.
3 Vets and 13 greens

Training of the refugees you took in three months ago completed this month. Their quality in the essential roles of a magical girl matching your minimum standards quite nicely. Though only time will tell how well they integrate with your own group.


Artifact powering: Send a couple girls to train with Hiko to learn how to handle powering her artifacts.
$1,800 (for rail passes)

While you were unable to attend anymore, with far more pressing duties taking away your time the report from Keiko on the matter is quite positive. Things went quite a bit more smoothly with the additional practice and herself and two of the other three were able to finish training.

Once they could successfully get the centermost dot lit up after a week or so more practice they moved on to the second stage of the training: doing the same thing while being beaten with pillows. Their trainers told them to be glad that it wasn't Hiko training them; she trained them with rocks. Staying focused while being distracted is difficult, but after a couple weeks of that they could manage it. They wouldn't be up to the task of fighting, but they've reached the minimum acceptable level.

Keiko now suspects that the training board may not actually be not a single circuit at all, but instead each light is its own independent system. But she bemoans the fact that magical girls sense for magic is more similar in quality to smell than sight, though of course it is neither. It would be far more convenient if she could accurately see the flows of magic in an object rather than just get a feel that it's there.


Diplomacy

Spoiler: Nagoya, Heaven's Chosen.

1 Vet, 0.5 Mami We've cleared out a sufficient number of the surrounding youma to start actively drawing the attention of the Beholder, while limiting the ability of the other youma to interfere in the fight. Unfortunately, we also have significant issues in the surrounding territories because of the fleeing refugees.

We intend to complete the strike against the Beholder in the middle of the month. For this to be as effective as possible, we ask that Nagoya provide their full assistance on this, with as many elite strike teams as they can spare, who are willing to take the risk of this fight. We will need a brief test run with them with Serena, so they'll be aware of what's going to happen.

We also recognize that they have border issues, though, so would ask Hiko help shore up any weakened areas in Nagoya's borders, or at least provide a significant border space where there will be no conflict. A truce, for the period of time needed to deal with a significantly larger threat.

While the NM and HC have tense relations, they aren't actually at war with each other by either side's claims. Though the NM do claim that Hiko's girls have sometimes covered shortfalls by poaching from their territory, and Hiko of course denies that expertly, but Japanese make a lifestyle out of lying to each other and you aren't even going to bother trying to pick who is right.

They'll keep a lid on their own squabbles for now though at least. Hopefully.

Perhaps the Magocracy does take that agreement with at least some seriousness though because they manage to funnel dozens of elites through Mitakihara over the weeks leading up to the push for testing against Serena's aura. It had to be almost every elite they have, though Yoko and Hino herself do not make appearances.

Fully 15 elites from Nagoya are prepared to join you in the battle.


Morale

Spoiler: Mentors

Devise a mentorship program, where existing members give about 10% of their time to helping welcome and acclimate the refugee recruits, and are given a pair of disciples each (each disciple likewise has two mentors). The goal is to help them acclimate at a more personal level, and a better mental grasp of our worldview and group culture (which should also help them in their combat training). The mentors likewise gain a personal closeness to help integrate the new girls into the group.
6.5 vets (67 recruits * 10% = 6.7, rounded to nearest 0.5 meguca)

While the reports on the mentorship program are on the surface optimistic, reading beneath the optimism you've tried to instill in all of your original group the division in experiences is just so vast that they struggle to connect with many of the girls that have experienced magical girl life only from the perspective of being hunted.

For someone with only two months of experience to think those with two years' experience soft and naïve is very frustrating.


Misc mentor-based mixers. Swim day. Hiking day. Sports day. Gaming. Movie nights. Not all together, but lots of opportunities for people to mix with each other. 6 vets (2.5 exp vets, 2 non-exp vets, 1.5 greens), $2000

You start scheduling time and providing funds for mentors to try to take out their mentees either just by themselves or with other clusters. Overall it helps, though some of them have a sort of PTSD response to every flicker of demon activity. You're trying to acclimate them though.

For many of them getting out of the city where there's little chance of any demons appearing in range to sense is for the best. Though whether avoiding issues in that way is best in the long term is debatable.


Purchase personally-engraved medals for all current members, and any who died in fighting in Tokyo, as a signifier/reminder. $720, 1 vet.
You make a bulk purchase of some simple medals for everyone. It's not much, and it hardly seems a fitting tribute for their services and sacrifices. You try to keep away from thinking of them as dog tags though. So you opt for a more cheerful design than a simple rounded rectangle. Each has a name engraved and are handed out to everyone. You kind of wish, such a dangerous word, you had the time to pass them out yourself, but these days you're far too busy.


General
Hunting this month proceeded mostly as expected, but demon strength crept upwards slightly more quickly than anticipated in both territories. While there was the occasional detection of intruders, it couldn't really account for the losses, nor a number of cubes that you had collected going missing. While keeping them dispersed over each residence was convenient, it did make them rather more vulnerable than you'd like. Northern Demon strength to 6.5, southern harvest shut down early due to climbing strength to maintain limit. Total cube gain 139.8-25.1 (Lost) = 114.7

(Did 3d100 modifying max 30% loss, which would give average 15% with a strong bell curve instead of even odds.)

Somehow you came through this whole month without any spirals at all, even with how terrifying the lead up to the battle was. Perhaps some ancient goddess looked favorably upon your mission. You make an offering at a shrine just in case.

The battle for the fate of Tokyo was hard fought, yet in the end you prevailed triumphant. The medals you made for the entire group had a sort of weight to them given that victory.

Even if five more of them now rest with your shrine. In addition to the ones that were placed there from the start. You didn't really know any of the girls that died... some names on a piece of medal, on paperwork you'd signed off on. You didn't know them even though you lead them to their deaths.

With as large as your group has gotten though, there's much more difficulty involved in managing it. You've been forced to delegate increasingly, and your control of the group is not nearly so fine as it once was. Nor the girls as a whole so dedicated to the cause. Plus you still need to tackle dividing up Tokyo in a way that avoids war, and saves the human population.

With Tokyo's infestation broken you face new challenges. Ones you may not be prepared for. As you celebrate with your family though, you think you can definitely take whatever challenges lie ahead.


Rumors
Secondary hotspots of trouble have begun bursting across central Japan as Nagoya's expeditionary forces are held back. The Enlightened indicate multiple active Class 3s in Toyama, while they struggle to keep Nagano intact.

The Republic of Japan seems to be largely crumbling due to a poorly planned political system. While the original idea of scaling terms to the lesser life expectancy of a magical girl seemed reasonable originally, the changes in government each month have crippled their functionality.

Radiation levels have risen above their original background levels in the former Buenos Aries, but are still within a generally normal range. Likely a pocket of radon gas was exposed by the impact.

While the rash of strange deaths in Tokyo seems to have largely halted (note since people probably won't catch it, this actually refers to the advanced mood stabilizers the Incubators deployed to buy you time), the economic tailspin continues. On the other hand other cities such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya have been picking up some of the lost positions. On a whole Japan's economy is still stumbling, but there are bright spots.

Somehow the tiny Serene organization managed to destroy the center of the Tokyo infestation.

When the Beholder died all organization the remaining dozen or so Youma had broke down. They no longer behave as the ultimate predators in the area, and some have been picked off by the Enlightened, Sendai, and Nagoya teams as they flee Tokyo. But it's unclear how many have hidden away or slipped into new areas.



Resources (Pending Heavy Revision for modified system)

• Preserved final entry of old individual magical girl system:
  Spoiler

  • 5 (6) Elite Meguca: Mami (+20% persuasive), Kyouko (can act as if two Elites), Taya (Can fill role of two clairvoyant vets), Seto (Elite teleporter), Miho (Earthbender)
  • Legendary Serena, +4 vet/elite special +1 vet
  • 104 Veteran Meguca, 53 Green Meguca, 1 Associate
    • Upkeep: 24 Veteran, 19 Green, 1 Associate
      • Support/Training (15 veterans, 8 greens)
        • 10% meguca training upkeep (8.5 veterans, 5.5 greens)
        • 2 vets on dispatch service (+30% grief cubes additive with demon finding, -1% casualties)
        • 5% meguca general organization maintenance (quant team time, hunting log writing and cataloging, scheduling, etc) 4.5 Vet, 2.5 green
      • Jobs (9 Vet, 11 Green, 1 Associate)
        • 2 veteran (Hainako+Kumiyo) Translation service
        • 3 veteran + 6 green working courier business (Minimum 3 vets)
        • 1 Akeno Delivery
        • 2 Vets (Akane), 3 Green, 1 Associate Restaurant
        • 1 vet, 2 greens - Restaurant delivery
• Grief Cubes 132 Low
• Money: -$1,497,120
  • Expenses: $69,170
    • $3,380 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
    • $2,000 upkeep on cable/internet
    • $20,000 upkeep on apartments
    • $8,000 upkeep on house
    • $300 upkeep on Akiya
    • $16,900 upkeep on stipend
    • $16,900 upkeep on food
    • $1,690 upkeep on gear (bikes, shields, misc)
  • Income $44,500
    • Translator: +$11000 per turn
    • Courier Business, Mitakihara: +$10500 per turn
    • Courier Business, Kasamino: +$4500 per turn
    • Restaurant +$9000 per turn
    • Akeno Delivery +$4000 per turn
    • Restaurant Delivery +$5500 per turn
• Morale: [4 of 10] The defeat of the strongest demon of Tokyo has buoyed spirits throughout the organization. While the lives lost hurt some, the effect of victory has granted renewed life to many you've taken in.
• 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
    [*]Telepathic communication (-2% pair hunting, -1% pack hunting)
    [*]Demon Scanning training (+20% grief cubes)
    [*]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
    [*]Fusion trained
    -4 pairs of Teleporter+Barrier
    -1 pair Telepath + Barrier

• • Bicycles (Mobility Bonus)
  • 41 Bulletproof vest (-2% casualty)
  • 41 Sets of Kevlar Clothing (-4% casualty)
  • 3 Sets of Leather (-2% casualty)
  • 11 sets hardened leather (-3% casualty)
  • Housing (169/213)
    • Apartments (160 capacity)
    • House (50 capacity)
    • Mami's Apartment (HQ of sorts) (Can be traded for $1200 per turn)
    • Akiya (7/6 capacity, special)
    • Village (0/18 capacity, special, 3 of 12 houses fixed)
    • Sakura Church (1/3 ready)
• Territory
  • Urban
    • North
      • Demon Status: Average 6.5
      • Sustainable Harvest: 37
    • South
      • Demon Status: Average 9.7
      • Sustainable Harvest: 37
  • Rural
    • Demon Status: Weak -3
    • Sustainable Harvest: 8

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I conjured up enough fluff to fill out the general section, but I really regret that no one wrote it for me this time.

You rolled high enough to have no spirals. Technically you had a 6.76% chance of a single spiral amongst your 169 remaining magical girls but that didn't happen.

In traditional Empire Quest turn format, some of the consequences of this turn won't really materialize until next. Particularly since you killed the Beholder towards the end of the month.

I'm officially torching the old mechanics that grew too complex. I'm moving us down a layer of complexity, expect that new complexity will eventually grow up like weeds, but I can eventually do it again anyway. Assuming we don't die of old age by the time I get another bunch of turns out.

Also under consideration is simplifying the basic upkeep to a per girl $400 at current level of amenities. It would be almost the same as your current level. And then you could more flexibly increase it as time goes on.

Bear in mind that other problems will be arriving soon. Namely in form of increasing costs to dealing with the fact none of you are aging, which didn't come up in survival mode. And that some of you are at the point where going to college is a thing.

Also if anyone wants to co-gm or even takeover, I realized I never explicitly offered. Consider it explicit that if anyone wants to I'd be okay with it. I write this because it's a story I want to see very much. If someone else would write it that would be fine too.

Also missing omakes. Haven't seen any in too long.

Cubes from the battle had expenses of everyone involved extracted then evenly split between you and Nagoya. Giving 37.5 GCU to each of you.