Libra's Lament, a Magical Girl Quest [Complete]

The other girls look decidedly more cheerful when you say your goodbyes; maybe they needed some friendly faces around, too.

On the other hand, there was a suspicious absence of Sky and Ludger; they probably have not eaten anything yet. That is why you quickly pack up a few sandwiches and a bowl of dog food before heading out; Iron, Mirror, and Truth do the same -without the dog food- before going off to explore the city a little by themselves.

"So we're going to look for Sky?"
""Yup!""
"Sure, I don't mind... hm, what's Winter doing there?"

Ana's words have you turn towards where she is looking, though the urge to just use her eyes is hard to suppress. There you see Winter's Dream, her expression hidden behind the usual dark hood as she carries a big table over the main plaza. In fact, Autumn is walking not that far away from her with a box. What are they up to?

You wonder for a moment longer, then look down at the food you are carrying in-between your two bodies. You are curious about this... and with the decision made, you hand the dog food over to Ana before rushing off to meet the Seasons. "Wh- hey!"

Ana seems to want to give chase for a moment, but then she sighs and turns to you with a frown. There is an accompanying sting of exasperation. "Why is Rico running off?"

Thankfully, the wide smile is only on the face she can not see at the moment. "I'm curious, too. Besides, I wasn't sure you wouldn't eat the sandwiches."

There is a momentary silence while Ana looks down at the dog food in her hands, then back up at you. Only then does she pout. "Stop being a jerk, Pris! I'm not going to eat Sky's dinner... that only happened once..."

It is difficult to suppress the giggles, though the fact you reached the older Magical Girls now does help. "What are you doing?"

Winter only gives you a casual glance before letting Autumn weave around her. "Oh, hey Sun. We're setting up our monthly gaming night. What's up on your end?"

The word 'gaming' has you curious, so you fall into step by her side; you also lead Ana away. "I can catch up with us if it's boring, but Autumn says they are playing games." "Oh, I just got done with dinner and was looking for Sky. Can I play, too?"

Ana huffs lightly, but does not say anything against it; you do sense her curiousity about the matter, though. For a few moments, you can also tell that a lot of things are nearby; they radiate some kind of warmth- but the sensation ends before you can actually take it in properly. Autumn is still giving you a pointed look... but then she turns to Winter with a shrug. "Do you mind her tagging along?"

"Not really. But Spring won't be happy if she stays for too long."
"Yeah, right. So... we don't mind, but only the first game. It's going to be late when we're done with that and staying up longer" "is bad, I know. It's okay, I don't mind... thank you!"

She does not look angry that you interrupted her; Autumn just smirks and ruffles your hair, which you bear with grudgingly. Winter nods to herself before shifting the table a little bit. You just follow them to wherever they are going.

The first goal you reach is the training grounds, though. A very roughed up training grounds at that, with your Corgi playing in the trenches. Sky sits on a bench nearby and is talking to another girl you have not met before.

A low whistle has Ludger look up, then he darts over to where you stand and jumps into your arms with a happy yip; the noise and your giggling make Sky notice you as well. She excuses herself from her conversation and comes over.

You use the time to pet the dog and look at the spacious room the Seasons are gathered in; nobody but them and you is in there. "What are we playing?"

"Poker."
"...what's that?"

Summer snorts while Autumn shrugs at your question; Spring takes a set of cards and some weird chips out of the box before setting things up at the table. You use the time Winter needs to explain the rules to wave at Sky and greet her. "Hey! Sorry I'm late, there were lots of stuff to do."

"Oh, it's quite alright. I had a few girls come up for a few rounds of sparring... and with Ludger, too. This is definitely the strongest canine I've ever seen."

You let him down for now and nod. "Yes, he is. Um... actually, we brought you dinner."

With that, you pull the sandwiches out of your pocket and hand them over; the gesture makes Sky smile and she takes them carefully. "Thank you very much, that is really nice of you."

Ana puts down the bowl for Ludger in the meantime, who moves in the moment she lets go; he must be really hungry with how he devastates the dry food... or he just wants to cuddle, considering how he jumps up into Ana's arms after finishing.

"And... that's it. Do you understand?"
You leave Sky to her food and the corgi to Ana while nodding at Winter; everyone takes a seat around the table, with Summer putting up a few bowls of snacks. After having dinner just a little bit ago, you are not yet hungry... but you will be here for a while, so it is nice to have this. Spring looks around with a smile. "Should we play one round to get into it and see if Sun actually understood?"

There is general agreement with that and you pout.

"Say, would you be up to some sparring as well, Moon? I know I can't beat either you or Ana without killing you, but we never got the chance before."

You nod in response; Sky is already finished with her food -how can she eat that fast?- and slowly gets up. "Wonderful!"

"...I'm a little worried... you're saying you fought with Ana before?"

Some sheepishness comes back from your friend and Sky chuckles. "Why, yes. We have magic at our disposal and if you get along well enough with someone, there is nothing better than beating the... ahem, crap out of each other once in a while."

It is doubtful whether you agree with her on that one, but you can see what she means. Though... she might not be able to scratch you without her strong spell, but the same is true the other way around. With her being immune to your whole arsenal, it is actually impossible for you to do anything to her.

On the other hand... practice with your swings, spells, and reactions is never a bad thing. You grip your scepter a little harder and offer a smirk. "Alright, bring it... and don't eat the dog, Ana!"

"Hey!"

Sky and you giggle at the indignant shout while Ludger only tilts his head in wonder, watching the whole thing from the sidelines with her. You also whoop over having won the first round against the Seasons.

Summer smiles and gives you a thumbs up, then she raps her knuckle at a stack of chips. "Alright, you have the basics down. Now we're actually getting started."

When Spring begins shuffling again, you do start to wonder about one thing, though. "Um... is the house going to switch at some point? You can't play like that, can you?"

Your question leads to a moment of silence and Spring's cheeks dusting pink, then Summer laughs. Autumn and Winter smile as well, though the latter girl answers your question: "Mi- Spring's pokerface is so bad she can not actually play this game with us. She'd lose each and every time. That's why we just let her be the house."

"Oh... what's a pokerface?"
For some reason, this one only has Summer laugh harder until she drowns it in soda. Autumn takes over the answering this time: "That's how you call keeping your expression neutral no matter what happens. No smiling when things go well, no frowning when you only have bad stuff, things like that. Yours is actually pretty good. You need it so your opponents can't just read out of your face whether they should take a risk or fold."

"Oh. I see."

What you notice most of all is that none of them actually told you to watch your opponents closely. Sneaky.

Less sneaky is how you and Sky are wailing at each other, though. Her crystals ping off of your body without doing anything, but the amount of force you can bring up with your scepter is so small you might as well use your fists to hit her.

"Dream of War!"

You quickly throw yourself to the side to dodge her spell; the two beams come from her hands this time and go just over your hip as you fail the roll and flop onto your belly. The next hail of crystals still does nothing, though.

You wiggle back up as fast as you can, only barely making it past a particularly large crystal falling where you just were. Sky gives you a toothy smile and has more and more of the black stuff flow out of her dress and eyes and mouth and nose and ears what the heck?!

You try not to look and swing for her a few more times, but it is as useless as before. Only then do you notice the glowing around her hands and the fact you are right in front of her. Oh- "Dream of War!"

The beams crash into you in an instant, biting into your shoulders before you can move.

(Dream of War: +20000 Base Damage, +20000 Ray, no dice = 40,000 Total Damage
Primordial Moon: +700 Base Resilience, +5 dice = 705 Total Damage Reduction

39,295 Final End Damage

Primordial Moon Health: 98,781 - 39,295 = 58,486)

You immediately suppress the stinging pain and do your best to ignore the feeling of this eery light crawling under your skin. Once the brightness leaves, you stand. In difference to Sky's ichor, your blood drips to the ground in a morbid crimson after running down your arms.

You can not actually see what is going on in your body, but the pain is probably strong. A spike of concern comes from Ana and you can see Sky paling a little. Not that it matters much, you simply raise your scepter and start the arduous task of healing yourself. It will take a while.

"Soothing Moonlight!"

It does not do much, but Sky's gobsmacked expression alone is worth keeping up the fight.


You play and fight for a while; the one time Sky hit you with her Dream of War remains the only one and you do decently at the table as well. In the end however, the game ends and you decide to surrender at last; if Sky actually wanted to, she could win... while you are unable to do anything to her. So you drop your scepter and raise your hands. "I surrender."

Both you and Sky are breathing heavily... at least you have the taste of greasy snacks to soothe your mind. It does not help your one dry throat... except that there is a bottle of water flying your way. You grab it out of the air and turn to thank whoever threw it... only to find Nightmare Child. A breeze plays with her dark hair as she wanders closer.

"Nicely done, Sun. Good work."
In the meantime, Summer high-fives you for not being last while Autumn is grumbling over bad luck or something on the other side; she has basically no chips left. Spring just packs up with a smile while Winter sorts through her own meagre reserves, probably counting.

""Thank you.""
The older girls are nice to be around and actually funny to watch and play with. Summer pushes a chocolate bar over to your side with a wink. "Here, have one for the way and don't tell Spring I gave you sweets before bed."

There is the temptation to point out Spring is right next to you and heard every word; the way she rolls her eyes makes you reconsider and just pocket the candy, though. This one you will share later. "Thanks... you're a lot nicer than you appear."

It was mostly an observation, but saying it out loud makes everyone except Summer snort in suppressed laughter. Autumn nudges the other girl with her elbow, but fails to get out any teasing words. Winter shrugs and... winks at you? "We're two Russians, an Australian, and a German. From our nationalities alone, expectations are fulfilled and averted both accidentally and on purpose wherever we go."

Huh...

You never thought of it that way. On the other hand, this should mean there are more hidden sides to all of them. "Except Spring, she just evolved from being everyone's baby sister to being everyone's big sis." "Hey!"

You join the laughter this time and even Spring giggles a little. Having another powerful Magical Girl look at you in this contemplating way does put a damper on your mirth, though; Night has not yet spoken so far. At least she is not transformed, so you do not have to feel small and helpless again. Speaking of, you drop your own transformation and see Sky do the same a moment later. Neither her nor Ana interrupted the quiet pondering, so you also wait until Night is ready to say something.

It takes until you actually said your goodbyes to the Seasons and left until she does, with a faint smile: "We didn't get the chance before. It's nice to meet you properly."

A hand is offered and you shake it firmly, like Bianca showed you. Night's posture is... more relaxed than earlier, too. Perhaps it was just your imagination, though. "Nice to meet you. Ana talks about you a lot."

You do not look aside and to your new sister, but the sudden embarassment coming over tells you all you need to know. Night does not comment and simply overviews the field. "I watched you two for a bit. It seems your roles are similar in combat."

Sky shrugs weakly and all of you take another look around; the ground is torn apart even further, sprinkled with decomposing crystals and specks of red where you bled on the ground. "I guess so..."

Night wants to say more, you can tell from her posture... but then she takes note of the fact there is no sun in the sky anymore. "Ah, it's late. We can talk another time. Nonetheless, you did good. Both of you."

She turns and offers you a nod, eyes never leaving your face. "It was nice meeting you. Have a good night."

"Yes. Good night." "Good night!"
"Good night, Night."

You suddenly have the feeling that someone must have made an awful lot of bad puns out of her name before. It is... just a feeling, though the fact you could think of some from just saying and hearing those words tells you someone else has to have noticed as well.

That aside, you do meet up with your other half, share some candy and wave each other goodnight as well.



The next morning goes by without anything out of the ordinary; you do think about what that dream was, but can only guess that it had to do with Ana eating everything in the world. Not that you tell her, she would probably not like it.

After classes however, Spring tells you to see Strength. That is why you only get some lunch before saying goodbye to the others and making your way to the office you already visited before.

Strength is looking through some kind of report, frowning a little while her eyes wander; her head is tilted somewhat as she reads. You carefully close the door behind you and wait until she is done, which is soon... though you do not like how she sighs. "So. Guess what, there is another fire to put out. Sorry I couldn't get you when your sister called, but you had classes... and she didn't warn me beforehand."

This makes you both sad and intrigued, which you decide to display side by side. "Awww." "What is it?"

The older girl fiddles with the papers in her hand, flipping a page back and forth absentmindedly. "I called back most of the girls in the field, that was last week. There are a few dozen helping me out around the world, plus whoever Yggdrasil had out and about. Thing is, your sister just told me one of the groups from Europe is being followed."

Your thoughts immediately start to spin; who is following those girls? If she says Europe... "The UES?"

"Of course. Who else would it be?"
Strength snorts and puts the papers down. "The bad news is that it's a dozen soldiers and three Magical Girls shadowing our team. The good news is that they are overextending, which is why your sister called."

You blink and there is a concerned notion coming from Ana; she must have sensed your unease. It is not really possible to reassure her right now, so you just poke back a little bit and make sure not to actually send her any images or thoughts. Better to keep this amongst Strength and yourself for now. "Okay? What are you doing about it?"

The older girl grimaces before replying; you can already see she does not like saying it at all: "The objective your sister gave me was to scatter the soldiers and take all three Magical Girls prisoner. Two of them are rigged with bomb implants, but we already have the means to shut those down remotely. The problem is that at least one is a Legend on top of that. I could tell the Seasons to stomp them into the ground and drag them back, but going in with overwhelming force is... yeah, unlikely to make them listen to us."

She takes another long breath. "The pursuers are Magical Girls Supreme Tech, Unyielding Paladin, and Brave Heart."

The last name sparks memories of pain and fear, making you shiver. If Strength noticed, she does not say anything about it. "Your sister recommended you to do it because you have personal experience with Brave Heart. You're also strong enough to make it, but without actually looking dangerous."

You sit quietly even after Strength stopped speaking; she gives you a moment to order your thoughts, then adds something with a weak smile that does not reach her eyes: "I won't order you to do it and you don't need to go immediately. Take your time to think about it. If you haven't made a decision the day after tomorrow, I will take Winter along and do it myself. Otherwise... if you do want to, you can take up to two more girls with you, free of choice... if they want to."

---

For Their Own Good (Operation: Lost Cradle)
Launch Date: June 28th​
Known Allies: Variable
Confirmed Enemies: UES military, Brave Heart, Supreme Tech, Unyielding Paladin


(Available data will be offered once the mission is selected)

---

What do you do today? Pick three:

[] Go on a mission
-[] Lost Cradle
--[] Write-in up to two additional team members from the list
(This option is an automatic Double Down; if it wins, all the other votes are nixed and remaining actions are saved for after the mission)

[] Bug Winter until she plays with you
-[] Double Down

[] Time to have a talk with Nightmare Child
-[] Double Down

[] Go see Flower and explore her garden
-[] Double Down

[] Glory is starting to settle into the dorm, maybe she needs some help?
-[] Double Down

[] Training might be good
-[] Write-in what to train (one action per character per subject)


[] EXP-Plan
-[] Write-in what to buy
-[] Save it


+13xp A Nice Evening
+2xp The Butt of Every Joke (Only Ana)
+4xp An Old Challenger Reemerges (Only Pris)
+1xp Bianca Trusts You (Only Pris)

EXP gained: 18 + 18 + 15 = 51
Total EXP: 991


(Unlocked Level 1 Character Sheet: Magical Girl Winter's Dream)
(Unlocked Level 3 Character Sheet: Magical Girl Black Sky)

(Sky spent EXP; her sheet will be updated the next time you see her)