Magical Girl Phantom Ascension

In celebration of reaching 50 pages, and at the insistence of my Beta, I'm making a music post; picking out songs I feel are relevant to this quest and discussing why they are. Hopefully it would provide some interesting insight and some decent recommendations.

Unfortunately, my music tastes consist mostly of extremely edgy stuff left over from my goth phase (which I have admittedly not entirely left; please try not to judge me too harshly) and extremely bubbly basic-girl pop music, and a small bit of more downtempo pieces; neither of the first two categories entirely fit the tone, so there's also a few recommendations from the aforementioned Beta. Not all of it is what I personally listen to, but still fits the quest close enough to warrant a place here.

This will be split into three portions. I'm still not skilled with using spoiler drop-downs, so please excuse any awkward formatting.




With that, that should be all for now. I hope you enjoy these.

It takes a few moments to sort out your thoughts, struck by indecision. On one hand, it occurs to you to do some investigating of your own - you remember the shadowed entity you faced last night, that must at one point have been a student of your school. Perhaps there's merit in learning more about when they died, and if whatever it was that killed them is still a threat. Unfortunately, the records are all at the library, and you're… you're reluctant to revisit that place just yet.

On the other hand, it's also very tempting to just stay here. Today hasn't necessarily been as intense as the previous night, not by a long shot, but you've still had a lot of information and developments dumped on you in the past several hours. Even aside from that, you just feel emotionally exhausted. Your circumstances are starting to sink in now, but on some level you're fairly certain the dam is still waiting to break in full. You would love nothing more than to just stay and relax, making small talk with Midori and perhaps doing some sketching… But all the same, you can't quite bring yourself to ask; the way she's looking at you, the softness in her eyes, makes you squirm in discomfort. She would accept right away if you were to make the request, you can feel it, and it makes you feel intimidated and strangely guilty, though you're sure you've done nothing wrong. So no, as much as you're tempted to stay, you don't feel entirely ready for it, either.

So what else? You could go home, but it's still fairly early in the evening, so your family will likely still be up and about, eating supper and taking care of their nightly routines. Maybe you could just spend some time wandering around the city. Your rather… embarrassing performance during the chase with the nurse springs to mind, and it occurs to you that this could be a good opportunity to practice your abilities.

"I think I'm going to go and just spend some time walking around," you offer with a weak, uncertain half-smile. "It's still been a lot to adjust to; I want to clear my head." Midori looks disappointed, but nods all the same, and you once again clamp down on the strange guilty feeling. It's not technically a lie, just omitting a bit. If you said you were going to practice, after all, she might ask to come with, which would then run into the same problem as staying here would. You want to have some time to yourself.


Of course, after you've said your farewells, detransformed, climbed out her window again, and wandered a fair distance, loneliness sets in; you're not sure whether to be amused or frustrated by your own indecision. You didn't used to have much of a problem with your social isolation, but neither were you completely cut off, either; your parents and little brother were often there if you wanted to talk to someone. Now even they're out of reach, leaving you with an airheaded alien bureaucrat and a classmate you're still ambivalent toward as your only company. Well, and Pallavi, though you can't exactly call on her just yet without it being weird. At any rate, your already-crippled social life has only been worsened by your death. The morbidity of the thought is strangely amusing; you crack a disbelieving grin and try to suppress the internal screaming.

Lost in your head, you don't realize how far you've gone until you arrive at the river. Running more-or-less diagonally through the city until ending up in the lake to the southeast, it's fed by several smaller streams and tributaries from the mountains all around. It's the main waterway you're at, though, and it strikes you just how far you've wandered. Here, the banks are fairly steep, leading from the street down to a narrow bike path far below, running directly beside the river. Off to your left is a rusted-brown but still powerful-looking suspension bridge, while further away to your right is a more modern-looking white arch-truss bridge with illumination from beneath. On the opposite shore, the buildings of downtown loom high to overlook both, the light from their many many windows reflected on the flowing water's uneven surface.

You glance about to make sure nobody's around to see you, before realizing that even if they were present, you're currently invisible. Facepalming, you take a stairway down the sharp slope to the bike path, and follow it under the older bridge. Sheltered beneath it and surrounded by support pillars, it seems like an excellent spot to practice for now; aside from some litter and a few rusting drum barrels half-embedded in the dirt since who knows how long ago, it seems surprisingly safe as well. So now, you just need to figure out what you're doing.

You decide to start simple, using the support beams as obstacles to practice walking through. Simple in theory, it proves stubborn in practice, and you waste a solid half-hour just trying to do this. Eventually, you end off just standing, leaning forward against the cold, flaky metal, forehead pressed into it as you glare in impotent frustration. "Please just let this work," you plead, but nothing happens.

"I hear it's said that 'trying the same thing over and over is a sign of insanity'," someone says behind you, and you slowly glance over your shoulder to see Death behind you. Of course. She's down on the bike path, seated atop her pale tan chopper from the first time you met, watching you with clear amusement. You don't even need to look to confirm that the skies are once again blood-red, the brown of the bridge supports turned grey. You're in her dimension once again, and it's still as utterly creepy as the times before.

"Well, dying hasn't exactly helped my mental health, you know," You respond coolly. "I'd love to see you do better."

She laughs, getting off the motorbike and doing some stretches. "Take it easy. Try not to think about your circumstances so much, just live in the moment. You may have better luck like that."

You were pretty good at living in the moment before, almost to a fault. You didn't really worry about the future much, and coasted through school, getting by without much effort while your real focus was on your ideas and artistic projects. In hindsight you probably should have given those matters more concern, given this was your last year…

"It's a bit hard to keep that up now, now that I'm involved in all of this," you mutter, crossing your arms and looking away, feeling surly. "Did you come here just to give me some life advice?"

"Actually, I had another task for you. Another Corrupted Spirit, though this one is fully developed. Just a poltergeist, thankfully."

You sigh, but nod acceptance. "Alright, where can I find it?"

Death chuckles, looking a bit sheepish. "Well, it's not something to be done right this second. It's in Mittsutakaihashi, so not exactly within walking distance. I'm telling you now so you can figure out travel arrangements, but you don't need to go until you're ready; tomorrow may be more suitable."

"I see." Mittsutakaihashi is the name of a tiny town way up in the mountains, a few dozen miles south of the city. As the crow flies, it's not a huge distance, but both roads and train lines wind among the peaks so much that it takes twice as long to reach as it should in theory. So this task would likely take at least three or four hours just in travel time round-trip, let alone the time spent hunting this poltergeist. "Thank you for letting me know."

Death nods, smiling. "Aside from that, I wanted to see how things are going for you. Is there anything you want to talk about, or any other questions you have?" It's still surreal to have the embodiment of Death itself asking these sorts of things. Still, today seems to have had a theme, so more inquiries certainly couldn't hurt.

What do you want to ask?
> Write-in

(Much like before, this vote will not be a competitive one. Just put the usual X before any and all questions you can think of, and they will all be counted. There may be some that can't be answered if Death doesn't know either, but don't let that discourage you.)