Subsumption (PMMM Faux-Quest) (Witch MC)

> Offer to take Hitomi to her dance lesson instead.
> Ask if you can speak with her for a little while longer once you get there.
> Hold off.
> Apologize to Shemesh.

「...yes, I'm willing to elaborate,」you spell out for Hitomi, deciding that you can't rightfully deny her that,「but before I do, you should consider if you're certain you truly want to know.」

Hitomi opens her mouth to respond, but you hush her with a ribbon tip again.

「Very little of what I have to share is happy, and it isn't something you'll be able to forget once you know it. I suggest you consider that for a bit before truly deciding.」

You withdraw your ribbon, leaving Hitomi to contemplate the choice you've given her. Even if she does decide she wants to know though... no, you're not going to ask her to make a wish on your behalf. This may be a one-time opportunity, but unintentional or not, you've already both kidnapped her and scared her out of her mind, so asking for that sort of favor has way too much potential to go wrong. You have no idea how introducing her to Kyubey would go, but you imagine he could easily leverage this incident to turn Hitomi against you were he so inclined, and if she's feeling vindictive enough then she might even wish for something specifically to spite or hurt you. You don't think she'd do that, at least based on your impression of her thus far, but it's not worth the risk.

...and you suppose it would just kind of be a scummy thing to do, on top of all that.

While Hitomi is thinking, you float over towards Shemesh, who hasn't moved for the past several minutes. Perhaps you were a bit hard on him? Whatever the results, you're fairly certain your familiar was at least trying to be helpful, by whatever strange metric he measures that by, so you probably owe him an apology of sorts.

You get close enough to gently pat Shemesh on his... top, whereupon he rotates around, seeming to more-or-less look up at you. You then loop your ribbons around him in imitation of a loose hug, trying to mentally convey your contriteness. It's unfortunately difficult to express that through gesture alone, but that's all you really have to work with here.

Thankfully, your familiar seems to get the idea regardless, as the moment you release the "hug", he grows from his barren asteroid look back to a still small, but much brighter yellow and white spheroid somewhat reminiscent of a miniature star. Okay, good, you think he understands that you're not angry anymore. You're not certain he's clear on the "don't kidnap anyone else" bit, but hopefully you managed to get that across earlier?

A flash of what looks like green lightning flickers across Shemesh's surface, and before you can do anything else, he springs away, taking off across the barrier.

...um, okay. You'll take that as an "apology accepted", since he's apparently decided not to stick around any longer, and is off to do... whatever it is familiars do in their spare time, you assume. As long as it doesn't involve him doing something like this again, you're fine with it.

Hearing Hitomi clear her throat, you look back down at her. She looks up at you in turn, her expression firm and determined.

"I am certain. Tell me."

You nod, slowly.「Alright. Mind, there's quite a bit of background you'll need to truly understand all this, so you'll have to forgive me for keeping you in here a bit longer.」

Hitomi nods, and you pause for a moment, before rearranging your runes one more time.

「Actually, would you like me to take you to your dance lesson instead of your house?」you offer.「Think of it as an apology for inconveniencing you like this.」

Hopefully she says yes, because you actually kind of need to stall until you can figure out how to let someone leave your barrier in the first place. Shemesh clearly knows how to get in and out, but your witchstincts aren't giving you anything on that same front for some reason, which may be a problem.

To your relief, Hitomi smiles.

"I would greatly appreciate that, yes." she replies.

Excellent! Now you just need to figure out how to get there, which is...

Hmm. You could probably ask Hitomi to tell you, but she can't see outside the barrier the way you can. Meaning, you'd have to try to communicate where you are to her solely via the written word, and she in turn would have to try to blindly tell you where to steer based on your description. This in a city you have less than a day's worth of familiarity with, at that. Yeah, maybe not the best plan. Perhaps...

「Does your phone have a GPS?」

Assuming it works in here, you figure you can probably follow a line easily enough.

Hitomi shakes her head. "It does, but as a general rule, I leave my phone at home whilst attending my lessons. I rarely bring it out in public at all, in fact."

...you feel like that kind of removes half the purpose of a cell phone, but whatever, it's not up to you to tell this girl how to live her life. If you can't do that though, then...

Ooh! Idea!

「In that case, I'm going to try something. Hang on.」

You quickly make your way to your inner barrier, floating inside and letting the entrance portal seal itself behind you.

"What is this...?" Hitomi asks hesitantly, looking around at the surrounding nothingness.

Figuring that actions will speak louder than words here, you ignore her for the moment as you briefly observe the outside your barrier, trying to gather every relevant detail of your current surroundings. Okay… envision the area, impress that on the open space, and… presto!

Hitomi gasps as the ocean of white ripples away, replaced by a near-perfect copy of your current view of the outside world. You're find yourself surprised as well, as the image is unexpectedly detailed, and also moving. The cars driving down the street, the clouds drifting by above, even the people walking by below, all moving in concert with their real-world counterparts, without you putting in any actual effort to make them do so.

「It's just an illusion.」you inform Hitomi, quickly feeling out your magic stores as you do so. You can't feel any real difference, unlike when you tried to do this in your outer barrier, so it seems that worked as advertised. Maybe the reason your illusions cost so much anywhere else is that you were never meant to leave this area in the first place...?

"I see." Hitomi says, after getting over her shock. "Then this is... outside?"

「Yes. I don't know where your lessons are, so you're going to have to navigate.」

"A- alright. Er, from here, go forward until you reach that group of buildings..."

Hitomi begins directing you through the city, which is thankfully made somewhat easier by Mitakihara's numerous distinct landmarks. You were thinking you might try to start explaining the magic system to her on the way, but between "driving" the barrier, updating the illusion in roughly real time — it may move on its own, but its viewpoint does not — and trying to figure out how to get Hitomi out of here, you don't have that much attention to spare. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to particularly mind your lacking conversational skills.

About ten minutes in, as you're silently contemplating the idea of getting Shemesh back in here and seeing if he can escort Hitomi out the same way he brought her in, the girl in question mumbles something.

"This... does not look right..."

You bring the barrier to a halt, simulating the same in your illusion. Whoops, did you misinterpret something and take a wrong turn?

Hitomi turns to you and shakes her head, seeming to know what you're thinking. "No, it is nothing you have done. I am simply... unused to giving directions. Could you back up to the previous street?"

You do so. However, your passenger looks no less confused now then she did a minute ago. When no further directions appear to be forthcoming, you spin Tome around to look at Hitomi directly, and spy the green-haired girl nervously biting her lip.

「Something wrong?」

There's a long pause before Hitomi responds.

"I appear to have steered us off course at some point." she says slowly. "I confess, I have never paid particular attention to the actual route taken to get to the dance studio."

...huh?

「Don't you attend these lessons sort of regularly?」

"Yes, but I am usually chauffeured there." Hitomi explains, sounding rather embarrassed. "To most other places as well, for that matter. As a result, I am... likely somewhat less familiar with the city than many others are."

...in other words, she's a sheltered rich girl, and probably doesn't know Mitakihara much better than you do, despite actually living here.

You're about to just fly the barrier higher until she sees something she recognizes again, but before you can, Hitomi sighs.

"Perhaps I should not be worried about such mundanities as dance class at the moment." she says. "I have already missed a large portion of it by now in any event, so I suppose I might as well simply skip the rest of the lesson."

She turns and bows to you. "I apologize for leading you out here for no reason, Ashtaroth-san. Do you think you could return to my neighborhood after all?"

You shrug, sending a small ripple through your ribbons.

「Sure.」you tell her, beginning to backtrack.

You'd be a bit more annoyed, but it's not like it took that long, and you got to see a little more of the city in the process, so you suppose it's no big deal.

"Thank you." Hitomi says with a small, quickly fading smile. "...and, if you could, I would appreciate that explanation now."

You were actually planning on waiting to do that, if just to give yourself some more extra time, but simply retracing your steps takes a lot less concentration than trying to follow novel directions, so you suppose you might as well start.

Thus, you begin to explain the magic system, in all its awful "glory". Kyubey, soul gems, witches, battles, familiars... essentially, everything relevant about it that you know of, using a few small scale illusions to help illustrate certain parts. Hitomi takes this all in raptly, apparently quite fascinated by the world that you're revealing to her.

It switches to a rather more horrified fascination when you explain the true nature of soul gems, and where witches actually come from, prompting her to speak up for the first time since you began lecturing her.

"Th- then you were once human?!" she cries out, aghast.

「Up until yesterday afternoon, yes.」

Your admittance of this fact stuns Hitomi speechless for a solid minute. When she finally comes out of it, she seems to be looking at you differently, as if only now realizing the utter bizarreness of your body.

Just as you're about to get into the mystery that is the retention of your personal sapience, you find your barrier floating into the ridiculous mansion-filled neighborhood that is your destination, not having realized you were quite that close. Quickly reinstating the image of the outside world on the void around you, you tap Hitomi on the shoulder.

"Oh... have we arrived?"

「Indeed.」you quickly reply, having become increasingly adept at rapidly rearranging your runes into words throughout the course of your explanation.「Do you see your house?」

"Not ye- ah, there, that one." Hitomi says, pointing to a large, four story mansion with an unexpectedly dark paint job. "My parents should be out for the time being, so... hold on. Is that Sayaka-san?"

You trace your passenger's gaze until you find what she's looking at — standing in front of her house's rather intimidating front door is a girl with short blue hair, wearing what you think is a school uniform, strangely enough given the day. From what you can see with her back turned to you, she appears to be looking around for a doorbell, or something of the like.

「Friend of yours?」

"Yes." Hitomi replies. "Though, it seems strange that she would come here today. She knows I usually have my lessons at this time, and I don't believe Sayaka-san has ever visited me before without bringing Madoka-san along."

You draw closer to the building, slowly descending as you go, while the blue-haired girl looks down and starts fiddling with something in her hands. A cell phone, maybe? Doesn't really matter, but her presence means you're going to have to find somewhere to let Hitomi out where Sayaka won't see her leave. The backyard, you suppose? Although, you're pretty sure your barrier should be able to pass through the mansion without issue, meaning you can probably just-

Sayaka turns her head to the side, and seems to notice something out of the corner of her eye. Her neck abruptly snaps in your direction, and she swivels to face your barrier, revealing that the item in her hands is a crystal blue soul gem.

Oh, hell.

You immediately throw your barrier's course into reverse as the girl on the ground flashes with light, and her clothes instantly replace themselves with a cape, stockings, and a blue and white bustier with a matching skirt.

"Wait, Sayaka-san is a-?!"

Charging forward at superhuman speed, Sayaka makes a determined leap for your barrier that takes her over three stories into the air. Luckily, you're higher up than that, if only just, and she misses you as you pull out of range.

Less luckily, like pirate girl before her, Sayaka remains undeterred. Landing on the road, she immediately springs up onto the roof of one of the nearby mansions, staying there for barely half a second before she's once again leaping towards you like a cerulean missile. Seeing her path, you juke your barrier to the right just enough that she'll miss you this time too. It works, and she begins to go sailing by...

Only for a glowing blue circle made of what looks like lines of sheet music to appear beneath her feet, which she uses to jump a second time in midair and throw herself directly at your barrier.

You feel your barrier briefly tear open, followed by Sayaka disappearing from your exterior view, signifying the girl's successful entrance into your pocket dimension. Slowly, you bring your front two ribbons up to where your face should be, wishing you had eyes to cover.

...you can't help but notice that you're really doing rather poorly on the whole "keeping magical girls out of your barrier" front.



[-] Exit to your outer barrier and meet Sayaka halfway to try and head off any fighting. Meetings work better on neutral ground, right? Well, neutral-ish, but better the grasslands than your illusion void.
[-] Exit to your outer barrier, but stay close enough that you can easily float back into your void if necessary when Sayaka arrives. You would hope that with her friend currently riding on Novella, she'd hesitate to attack you on sight, but you can't just assume that she will.
[-] Stay right where you are. With the portal leading into here closed, it's possible Sayaka might not be able to get to you anyways.
[-] Send Hitomi out alone to try to talk Sayaka down from attacking you. They're friends, and Hitomi seems to understand your situation for the most part now, so that might work, right?
[-] Meet her, eat her. NO.
[-] Write in.