Magical Girl Phantom Ascension

"Well that's not good," the verdette says blandly, and for a second you stop to realize you don't even know her name yet.

The next second, the beast roars and you refocus on the situation at hand. "Talk later, monster first."

"Alright, you got a plan?" She asks, but you're already rushing forward, trying to call back that same feeling from before. A ribbon of light streams from the back of your glowing blade, weaving and folding through the air as you run, and you set about wrapping it as tightly around each of the thing's legs as possible. It tries to pull its fist out of the first loop, but only succeeds in getting itself stuck. The second leg, though, proves to be a problem; it immediately lifts free before you can complete the loop, sharply swatting you away.

Once you've stopped seeing double and the ringing in your ears dies down, you find yourself halfway embedded in the street, in a cartoonishly form-fitting crater. You're not sure if you survived because you're already dead or because of any durability that comes with being a Magical Girl, but you're grateful either way.

Your erstwhile partner is standing over you, offering a hand, and you gratefully take it. "Bravo, bravo," she remarks as she pulls you up. "And for your next trick?"

You don't bother responding, focusing on the monster. Its left forearm is stuck in place by the first and only loop, but that'll fade soon, and in the meantime the beast can still move within a limited range. You're hesitant to get too close, but if you can find some way to immobilize it altogether… It's growling and tugging at the glowing cuff, shaking itself like a bear or a dog. Maybe it's time to give it a collar.

You slash at the air in front of you, creating a flat trail, and leap up onto it. Continuing like this, you wind up with a floating staircase leading up to the monster's broad back. The luminous white shell turns out to be rather smooth and slippery, however, and you have to stab your polearm into a gap between plates and hang on as you make your way toward the head. This is made harder by the fact that its three free forearms are reaching up to grab at you, and the thing is shaking underneath you; as long as you keep a hold on the pole and stay in the center you're safe enough, but it also makes actual progression painfully slow.

But you finally make it, standing awkwardly on the back of its neck, and do your best not to look at the pavement a story and a half below. Instead, you cast about for nearby features around your level; a nearby streetlight seems to fit the bill. "Hey, can you make this guy move closer?" You call to your companion below.

She makes vague grumbling noises indecipherable at this distance, but complies, flinging her hoop at the beast's rear; even if it's not got much force, the stinging cut it leaves is enough to jolt the thing forward. Quickly, you pull out the naginata but leave the blade as close to its skin as you can, leaping off and cutting another bright trail in a loop. You fumble a bit in grabbing at the streetlight, but manage to swing around beneath it and back up, slashing upward on the other side to lock the head in.

And then you realize you didn't make any plans on how to land, and a moment later you land. Painfully. This is the second time in five minutes you find yourself blinking back dizziness and hurt, but you don't have time to relax as one of the free arms falls toward you. You roll aside in time and it slams into the ground, one massive knuckle landing mere inches from your head.

The verdette pulls you up and drags you out of range, before fixing you with a glare. "I could have caught you if I knew what you were planning. Talk to me."

You simply shrug, looking over your handiwork. The beast's thick neck is caught in a half-loop on one side and a hasty wall on the other; it's got gaps and it looks awkward, but it seems to work. The beast's mobility is considerably more limited now, as much as it tries to wriggle free. "You said something about turning it back. Do you remember anything that they told you?" You come out sounding a bit more confrontational than you intended, but there's no helping it now.

She stares blankly at you for a moment before her mind catches up, and she grimaces. "Just… something about… elements… purifying… and we use our rings. I remember that part, at least."

You frown, mulling over the options; time is limited until the monster gets free again, and you aren't confident in your ability to figure this out on your own. Time to ask for help. "Do you know how to contact that shadow person, at least?"

"Ah, right!" She says, lifting up her hand to show her green ring. "I just need to use this." She taps and holds her finger against it, and and it only takes a moment of waiting before another door appears beside you.

"Hello?" The stranger asks as they walk out, then visibly flinches upon noticing the looming monster above. "You haven't taken care of it yet!?"

"Actually, that's why we called you," the green girl explains sheepishly, "I… don't remember how to turn it back to normal."

The stranger stares silently (you can just barely imagine a dumbstruck expression in the corner of your vision) before turning to you with what you think is a questioning glance. You shrug and shake your head, and they smack themselves with a limb in chagrin before finally collecting their thoughts. "Alright, I see. Then there's no time to waste, is there? First of all, this is a process that can be done individually or with others, but the more people you have, the stronger it works, so it would be better if you can do it together; mere proximity increases effectiveness by a great deal." You and the other girl exchange awkward glances but comply, stepping closer and waiting for instruction.

"As for what you actually do, you start by readying your ring toward the corrupted individual." You do so, feeling a bit silly to be pointing at the beast. The entrapments you created are beginning to fade already; this needs to be quick. "Where the transformation requires focusing on the ring and power, for this you want to focus on your subject, and on feelings of care and healing. Also unlike transformation, this leaves you vulnerable until the process is complete, thus why it's best to pacify or immobilize your opponent as much as possible beforehand."

You only barely catch the last part, doing your best to focus more on positive emotions than the fear that spikes whenever the monster begins to slip free a little more. You steal a glance at the other girl, but she's wearing an expression of intense concentration, and the green stained-glass pattern in her ring begins to pulse interestingly. You refocus.

The beast breaks free, slipping out of the now-cloudy light trails right as green and purple beams erupt from your rings to strike it. The world goes white. For a second you find yourself in a void with the verdette and someone else, but before you can comprehend it the third person grabs your shoulder and you find yourself sucked into another memory.


He was done for the day, a comfortable tiredness in his bones after a long and rewarding evening at the gym. His friend owned the place, and they were close enough that he'd been given the keys and allowed to stay past closing hours, as long as he locked up on his way out. That's what he was just finishing up now, checking to make sure the door was locked and everything looked in-order through the front windows. With that taken care of, he set off down the street, whistling happily.

"Say, sir," someone said behind him, "I think you dropped your keys."

He instantly whirled around in panic, before realizing they were still clinking about in the pocket of his shorts. It was too late; he didn't see anything unusual before his vision suddenly went black, and all he heard was a dull, confused roar.


You regain your awareness to find a rather muscular adult man rushing at you, only to trip on himself and fall flat on the pavement at your feet. The monster's gone, replaced by this shirtless fellow, bearing cuts on his arm and down his spine, and a nasty bruise on his nose.

"And there you go, the fight's over. This one was easy, fortunately, but don't assume they'll all be like that." the stranger says, nodding to themselves in affirmation.

That's over, now what?
> Ask the stranger about something
-> Write-In
> Help the man
> Detransform, let them take care of things

You immediately kneel down over the man, looking over his injuries, and find something caught in your throat. While scaled down now in proportion, the wounds he bears match up uncomfortably with the blows you'd inflicted; the cut on his arm from your distraction, the blow to his face from when the beast was sent toppling forward, and the stab wounds along his back from staying steady during your approach to collar its head. Next time something like this happens, you'll have to be much more careful than you were here.

As for his actual condition, the wounds are bleeding, not too fast but still fast enough to scare you, and he's firmly unconscious. After a moment of thought, you turn to the stranger. "Can we heal him at all? And if so, how?"

"Ah… You can try, but as far as I know," they pause here, pulling out the box of rings from before, and open it up. Three of the seven spaces are empty now. "That's not part of either of your particular specialties. It may still work, but I can't promise anything."

You mull over that a bit, glancing down at the unconscious man, at a phone booth down the road, and at the other girl. She's detransformed, and after some hunting, pulls a roll of gauze out of the pouch pocket of her hoodie. You raise an eyebrow at this, but she simply shrugs. You turn back to the stranger. "Alright, I want to try, at least."

At their instruction, you place your hands over his upper back, and focus on willing his wounds to close. A purple light glows, brightens… and bursts. You frown, pulling your hands back; the gashes are a bit shallower, and maybe a tad narrower, but it's hard to tell for sure… and they're still trickling blood.

"I've got this," the verdette finally says, gently pushing you aside so she can apply the gauze.

"Alright, I've got an idea," you answer, and set off for the payphone. "Do you have a coin on you?"

Catching on to your plan, she flicks you a 10-yen coin. "It won't last you long, so better make it fast."

The payphone at the corner confirms this, with a posted placard telling you it's 57.5 seconds for every ten yen. It'll have to do. Punching in the emergency number, you calmly route through to the hospital, wait for them to pick up on the other end, and instantly break out into raw panic. "I'm on the corner of" you glance out at the street signs through the glass walls of the booth. "Tenth and second avenue! There's a man here, I saw him get beat up by a bunch of thugs! YOU HAVE TO HEL-" Click. Out of time.

"Hopefully that will get someone's attention," you report, shrugging as you trot back over. "Let's bring him over to the sidewalk."

Once she finishes bandaging him up, the verdette transforms back into her magical girl form, and the two of you are somehow able to carry him over, despite his bulky frame. By the time you've got him set up leaning against a building, you can hear a siren wailing somewhere nearby, the sound reflected by the skyscrapers. "We should probably go, then," The stranger suggests, summoning a doorway and gesturing you through.

The other girl goes first, and as you step through after her you spot the lights of an ambulance turn the corner a few blocks away. He's in good hands.

On the other side, you find yourselves on an overlook outside the city, a gorgeous spread of lights, most intense in the city center you'd just come from, with a finer spider's web stretching to (and a little ways up) the surrounding mountains on three sides. You even have an idea of approximately where your neighborhood lies, though unfortunately you can't say with certainty that you could see your house from here.

"Well, now that that's done, thank you girls," the stranger says. "I have to get back to what I was In the middle of, but I can send you wherever you need to go before that."

"I just want to go home," the other girl says. "It's been… a long day." The stranger acquiesces, and she steps through another created doorway into a briefly-glimpsed bedroom.

"And you?" The stranger asks.

Where to go?
> Home, to get some sleep
> The other girl's room, to talk
> Wherever the stranger is going
> Write-In