Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

Gaia smiles as you make up your mind, only pausing a moment to glance at the rest of the group, probably more for their benefit than her own, she can read them just fine regardless. [Off you go then, enjoy China.] In a blink you find yourself in an empty field, a heavy rainstorm suddenly drenching you. It takes a great deal of effort to restrain your sigh, reaching out and heating the sky above you, turning the rain to steam before it can reach you as you dry everyone from their brief drenching.

A quick flex of your power assures you that everyone made it along with you just fine as a quiet sense of exasperation settles over everyone. "Did she really-?" Daiyu sighs, cutting herself off as she rubs the bridge of her nose. "Of course she did." An awkward silence falls over the clearing as everyone tries to think of what to do, the quiet only interrupted by the hiss of steam over your heads.

"We should probably get out of the rain." Cuifen, always the voice of reason, prompts you to take action.

"I'll check the surroundings." You can't feel anything inside your range, other than the normal forest animals, but you could be inside a large park of some kind. A quick jump and flight brings you above the clouds, a large city glowing with flames is the first thing you can see, the fires glowing brightly a dozen miles away. I thought the civil war was over already? Not that you'd really paid it much attention, but you hadn't heard anything about it.

A quick dash back to the ground is followed by drying the rest of the suddenly wet group, feeling slightly sheepish at forgetting to extend your range to cover them as you ascend. You clear your throat as they shake it off, adjusting the temperature to a comfortable level as they wait for you to speak. "A single city off that way, though it's currently very much on fire. Everywhere." You hear a slight screech as Daiyu clenches her fists, her sister drifting a step closer at your words. Hmm?

You lift your arm as your sister leans against you, subtly raising the temperature you are giving off and draping your arm around her shoulder as the quietly talk to each other, Sabina standing off to the side a little awkwardly. You don't have to wait too long though, Daiyu shaking her head at her sister before turning back to you. "Gaia sent us to China?" You nod and she grimaces slightly. "The only places that are still fighting are near the northern coast, we must be around there somewhere."

You tilt your head, absently stroking Una's head. "Should we take a closer look?" She shares a quick glance with her sister before shaking her head.

"I vote no."

"I vote yes." Daiyu glares at her sister, who meets her gaze and stares back. "You think we should live in a hole in the forest?"

"I think we should wait for the fighting to stop." Their staring match continues unabated by the confused stares of the rest of the group. "It's the middle of the night."

Cuifen crosses her arms, taking advantage of her slight height advantage to try her best 'I'm your big sister listen to me' look. "That's the best time to investigate, it's not like you're in danger of getting shot." Daiyu opens her mouth, but her sister cuts over her. "Of being hurt by getting shot." The staring intensifies as Sabina slowly moves towards you, looking as lost as you feel. I've never seen them argue like this... Your partner lets out an annoyed huff and says something in Chinese, her sister replying in kind as they enter a quick back and forth, completely ignoring you as they do so.

Sabina finishes her quiet orbit, settling in on the opposite side to Una, slowly leaning in to your radiating heat. You barely pay her any attention, just noting her position with your sense as you try to keep up with the rapid exchange of Chinese in front of you. Why did I never ask Daiyu to teach me? The two of them don't even sound like they are arguing now, more like they are debating the merits of doing one thing over another, the angry flush you can feel in their cheeks slowly fading away as they debate.

Alright then. "Sabina." You give her a moment to look up from her position against your side, a fond sort of amusement tickling you when she just hums and stays still. "While these two are arguing, do you mind cutting down all of these trees?" You tilt your head at the mass of thick trees surrounding you. "I'd rather not keep using my power to keep the rain away like this, we can build a shack while these two argue." She makes an agreeing noise, hand twitching as her sword suddenly appears, the brief flare of magic drawing your eyes as every tree in a dozen metres suddenly falls over.

The crashing noise barely interrupts the other pair of sisters aside from Daiyu quickly transforming to smash an unruly tree aside before it hits her, returning to her conversation afterwards. You close your eyes and decide to leave the two of them to it, gently prying the limpets connected to you off as you step forwards. "Help me with this." You flash through your transformation and grab a tree, a quick slash leaving you with three pieces, each of which you drive into the ground like an enormous stake.

Nearby, Not Nearby, The Builder

How are they still finding me? You duck back into your world as you see the horde of things turn to look at you, turning and running in a random direction, bursting forwards with the feeling of strength your world gives you. You travel onwards long enough for the currently broken moon to shift enough to be noticeable and drop back into the real world, barely having time to cry in alarm before you feel something tear into your leg. You react, falling to the ground in your world as you writhe, the pain in your leg quickly being eclipsed by the tearing feeling of staying in your world for too long.

You lie on the ground, bending the earth over the jagged tear in the back of your thigh and clamping it shut, moulding the rock over the bleeding wound and sealing it shut with a grunt. Your world creaks at the edges as the tearing grows stronger, you flicker back into the real world for just a second, the leering face of some abomination snapping to you before you disappear again, tears creeping into your eyes. I can't run anymore. The twisted shadows of the things following you creep through your world, their intangible forms passing through your prone body, circling like sharks as they wait for you. Please, someone.

You start coughing as something rips, the pull of your power screaming at you for abusing it like this. Please, just a little longer. You feel your surroundings shift, a heavy rain beginning to fall in your world as something starts moving in the real world. You see a great river forming alongside you, close enough that if you rolled over you'd be swept along. No, not like this! You drag yourself back from the river, panting as the edges of your vision start to fade. NO!

You force the river away from you and it reluctantly obeys, the horrible things chasing you dashing towards it like they had been after you. You can barely think as you drop back into the real world, heaving for breath as you feel your world settle in your absence, the pain quickly fading away as you stare at the sight in front of you.

The river, it was real, a sudden river was running through the forest, your power whispering the truth of it to you. I made this. You cough, dragging yourself upright against the tree behind you as the stone brace on your leg tries to drag you down. What made the river in my world then? A flash of claw rises from the water, the horrible jagged thing that makes your leg start pulsing again quickly falling back under the water. What?! The splashing grows weaker as you look on, the end of the river looping back around to the beginning and dragging the things underwater again. What is this? I didn't- "Ça va?"

You start, dropping back into your world for a moment before the blinding pain forces you back. Gentle hands catch you as you nearly fall, your tired eyes taking in the light blue hair of the short woman holding you up. Blue? Your exhaustion catches up to you all at once and you collapse against her, tears quickly soaking her dress as your weak arms grasp at her. "Éuh..." The splashing behind you falls silent and the girl holding you lets out a sharp hiss, pulling you closer to her as the now familiar sound of claws moving across dirt hits your ears. No more, please...

Burning City, China, The Informant

The man across from you continues sobbing, any desire to raise his weapon long gone as he fails to see past his self, his will breaking before the task ahead of him. You sigh, gently taking the rifle from his hands as you lie him down, watching as he curls himself into a ball and continues sobbing. "Rest now, this is not the end." His sobbing intensifies at your encouraging words and you gently pat his shoulder, stepping past the man staring blankly off into space as you gaze around at the burning city.

Really, you don't mind taking a detour on your journey towards enlightenment, but this was the last place you'd planned on finding yourself. If only you could resist your urge to visit the tea house, the tempting whispers of its legendary products drawing you like a moth to a flame. It's alright, I'm still at the beginning of my path to understanding. A few... failures here and there would be alright, surely? Nodding slowly as you move past your past and into the future, a strange scratching noise drawing your eyes upwards.

"Oh, what sort of being are you?" An odd contrast between mindless hatred and emotions blanker than a stone greets you, a deformed creature curling around the wall it's perched upon. "Have you begun your path to enlightenment?" You feel your gift settle upon it and it immediately jumps at you, the sudden movement shocking you as it slams into you. But the others always- Something twinges in your mind and you roll to the side, claws punching through the concrete where you were as the beast roars, a deep reverberating sound that shatters glass and echoes far into the hills.

You find yourself moving without thinking about it, jumping backwards and running, the sound of those claws tearing through the ground as it chases you. Some instinct prompts you to duck to the side as you exit the alleyway, an orange blur whizzing over your shoulder and slamming into the thing behind you with a satisfying explosion. You turn towards the direction the missile came from only to find the man who fired it choking on blood as another creature spears him to the wall with its claws, his screams quickly silenced as it begins eating him. O-oh.

You swallow heavily, your hands shaking as you hold your staff, quickly stilling them as the rings atop it start making a jingling noise. I-I need to escape. You almost hold your breath as you step back into the alleyway, finding a shadowed corridor to slide back into, ignoring the fleshy sounds behind you. J-Just another step on the path to enlightenment. You nod, quickly stopping yourself when the motion shakes the rings of your staff. Need to go.

Cerys

You move your eyes away from the roof of your makeshift shack as you feel a dozen heat signatures suddenly appear in your range, one of which keeps disappearing and reappearing all over the place. What on earth? You gently nudge your sister over to Sabina and step away, glancing at the sisters still arguing. "Stay with her, I'll be back in a minute, just checking something out." She nods and awkwardly puts her hand on Una's shoulder, your sister reluctantly letting go of you as you step away, quickly ascending into the sky and head towards the... clusterfuck of hot and cold going on in the distance.

Daiyu

You pause in your attempt to convince your sister to just stay away from the city when you see your partner dash off into the sky, staring after her for a few seconds before turning back to your stupid sister who won't understand.

You barely have the chance to open your mouth before you hear an echoing roar from the distance, in the direction Cerys had said the City was. A slight grin pulls at your sister's face as reality strives to prove you wrong, because of course there has to be magic somehow involved in this, and now your sister's insistence that you have to do something is right. "Fine." You don't give her the chance to be smug. "Stay here, you are too slow." You dash off into the sky, armour forming around you as you feel a little smile at the twitch you saw in her eyebrow.

Like I would ever let you back into a city like this after all I did to drag you out of one.


Easing myself back into writing this quest, so I'm cutting the chapter in half here.

Pick one
POV Vote
[] The Builder
[] The Builder, Blue Haired Edition
[] The Informant

Miko Miko

You restrain the urge to twitch with the carefully cultivated ocean of patience, your sister eventually sitting still as you try to instruct her on the specifics of drawing Ofuda. She tries, she really does, but she just doesn't seem to have the same affinity that you do for creation. You gently guide her hand away from the small pile of Ofuda you had laid out for an example, nearly wincing at the fact that she had once again almost drawn over your slips in a way that would probably explode.

"You don't need to try so hard." You shift your dress, folding it as a familiar breeze blows a lock of hair out of your face. Thank you. It chimes at you as you try to indulge your sisters desire to learn. "Almost, this part here is wrong." You direct her eyes to the flick where there should be a curve. Needless to say, the result of the slip activating would probably be explosive. I'm never telling her that I'm actually stockpiling her 'bad' tags for combat use, she would be impossibly smug, and cute.

The Enforcer

The wave of Demons bursts into flames and rapidly melts into ash as you focus your power onto them, a ragged cheer rising from the soldiers you'd just dropped in on. A battered suit of armour approaches you, the helmet sliding back to reveal a young man speckled with dirt and blood. "213th Ma'am, relieved you're here and ready to go!" You spare a glance at the sorry state of the rest of the garrison and then another at the literal field of Demons lurking outside of your range, or inside some barrier that prevents you from manipulating the temperature.

"I'm sure you are." He almost looks excited as your partner slams into the ground next to you, deliberately cracking the ground as she disperses her speed. Show off. "But it's alright now, you can rest." The two of you turn towards the horde, checking your visor for any updates before letting yourself drift towards your partner, heart beating faster as you see some giant creature immune to your power approaches. "We've got this."

The Fire That Bakes

"Sis, more bread!" Una's voice drifts into the back of the store and you hum, sliding a tray of dough into the oven and gently bringing it up to the perfect temperature, all the while maintaining the same in half a dozen other smaller ovens. It was a bit of a stretch for your power at first, but it was excellent exercise.

The slow process of baking confectioneries just so was more something you had come to cherish these days, using your power for something other than murder. It gives you a sort of peace of mind you'd never have thought you would find.

You gently run your power over the half-dozen people in the eating part of the bakery, the comforting presence of fellow magical girls easing your ingrained paranoia. A small army ready to defend Una and a way to keep her away from the fighting. You take out a tray of pastries, keeping them piping hot as you slide them into the display window out front, a few newbie girls looking over curiously. This was the best idea ever.

A par of soft arms wrap around your stomach, Daiyu setting her chin on your shoulder while she ignores both your blush and the dozens of curious eyes looking your way. Yes, this feels right...

Blue Hair

"Shh, shh it's fine." You do your best to comfort the crying girl that rather suddenly appeared in your arms while jumping backwards. Her iron grip doesn't loosen any when you jolt both of you backwards, calling your partners away from the empty water as you try to circle around the group of monsters, if you can just get around them you can pull them back under- The tree behind you makes a cracking noise and you can barely feel the tips of something sharp pressing against your back before suddenly you aren't there, the world replaced by a forest of stone.

"What?" You see the river suddenly move from over there to right here and you are back, a gasp escaping you as both of you keep falling, plunging into a deep pool of water. Your partners slide quickly to join you in the depths as you take a moment to get a breather, distorted reflections of the monsters backing away from the edge of the water. I thought monsters were stupid, you lied to me Papa! They don't even listen to offers of bananas!

A tugging at your shoulders makes you look down, the girl who'd dropped onto you looking a little bit desperate as she tries to drag both of you to the surface. Oh, yeah. You push off, quickly clearing the surface and wincing a little as she starts coughing and gasping for breath. "Sorry." She glances at you, still looking confused before turning her eyes back to the shore of your little lake before freezing, her sudden stillness has you looking over as your partners start circling you.

Oh dear. There are... a lot more monsters, easily more than triple the number you'd caught in your water. We're safe while we're in the water though. One of the bigger creatures slashes a claw through the water so you splash it with a little wave, pleased to see it back off. Ok, trapped in a lake in a forest -how am I even here I was just on the beach- and surrounded by stupid monsters who won't even barter. The other girl shivers in your grip, and you spare a thought for the temperature of the water you are in. Very cold. Very very cold.

You wrap one arm around the girl, letting her hide her face in your own shoulder as you try to figure out what to do. Your partners continue circling just below the water as some of the bolder monsters start splashing the water, a large splash behind you making you spin around only to see the one in question jumping back before you can drag it under. There are too many, I don't think I can pull them all under at once if they decided to rush.

The longer you wait, the more daring the monsters become, you manage to drag one under, but two more take the chance to jump towards you, falling short and sinking like bricks before they reach half way. Are they even drowning? You can't really tell, but they seem to be moving towards you slowly. The bigger ones start wading in and you drag one under, releasing the half-dead monster you'd grabbed first as they start closing towards you from all sides. Uhh, umm- Rather abruptly every monster suddenly bursts into flames, even the one you were smothering underwater.

You blink, looking at the girl next to you with raised eyebrows. "Why didn't you do that earlier?" She just looks at you confused until something tells you to look up, the floating form of someone covered in armour looking down at the two of you, little licks of fire dancing across her body. "Oh." Your saviour looks down at you, a disbelieving grimace on her face as she suddenly drops next to you, standing on the air above the water. "Thank you?" She blinks, shaking her head and muttering something in English as she reaches down and grabs you by the arm, dragging the pair of you out of the water with a rough tug.

"I don't speak French." A tourist? It wasn't that uncommon to have tourists that couldn't speak French, even if the official language is technically English. Regardless of your language woes, she carries the two of you over to the shore and drops you a little roughly, the other girl nearly falling as she lands on her bad leg. "Sorry." You wave it off, helping the girl sit down as you feel the water covering you quickly steam away, the small shivers of the girl in your arm quickly fading. That power is so cool.

"Thank you for helping us." She nods, not paying attention in the slightest to the quietly gurgling piles of flesh laid around the clearing. "Do you know what those were?" She does look over them at that, lips pursing slightly.

"Yes, though I've never seen one in person before now." You look at her, raising your eyebrows and putting on your best 'go on' look. "Demons of some sort." She shrugs, apparently not bothered by that at all. "I don't know the names, if they have any yet."

Well, wasn't that just wonderful. You call your partners to you, leaving them to gently float somewhere above you as you look at the other girl. "My name is Astrid." She nods, eying the whimpering girl leaning against you. "Can you help us?" There is a bit of an awkward pause, then she nods and steps closer, lowering to a knee as she rests a faintly glowing hand on the bleeding girl's leg. She looks up with hazy eyes for a moment before they slowly slip closed, a bit of panic thuds in your chest before the girl helping you nods.

"My name is Cerys, she'll be fine." You let out a sigh, feeling the weight lift off of your shoulders. "It takes more than this to kill one of us. She'd probably have recovered on her own if she wasn't so out of it." And doesn't that give you a dozen burning questions. One of us? "I have no idea why these Demons are here, last I heard this is one of the only places they aren't at." She frowns muttering to herself again. "They either have some way to find you and then get to you, or this is..." There is a long pause before she lets out an exasperated sigh, abruptly standing up rolling her eyes.

"What?" She looks back at you with a blank face, nodding after a few seconds. Oh yeah, English. Still, she seems to have understood.

"It's nothing you need to worry about, you're safe so long as I'm around." Okay magical powers are one thing but did I really just have a Knight in shining armour drop into my lap? The Knight stoops for a moment to pick up the sleeping girl, carrying her in a gentle bridal carry as she turns away from you. "We have a camp set up nearby, it's not much, but we only just got here ourselves." Questions questions questions. She starts walking and you jog for a second to catch her, your fishy partners settling on either side of the two of you as you move.

"And where is here? This doesn't look like any part of the Island I've ever seen." Cerys makes a full body twitch, a wooshing sigh blasting out of her mouth as she rolls her shoulders.

"You are in China, somewhere in the north." You stop, jumping into motion a second later when she keeps walking. What.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat yourself, I think I misheard you." She shakes her head as you exit the woodline, a large box made out of trees taking up most of the clearing ahead.

"I don't know where you came from, but you are now in China." You glance down at the girl Cerys is carrying, the brief vision of the other world coming to the front of your memory. Did she take us here? "You can blame Gaia for that, sorry." Her name is Gaia? She doesn't notice your staring at the sleeping girl -Gaia- guiding you through an opening in the wood shack abomination. It's... nice... I'm sure they tried their best. You wince as the stub of a branch scratches the side of your head when you pass.

A small girl looks up from her position splayed across the lap of a short girl with brown hair, green eyes, who is staring at you rather intently. You slowly raise a hand in a little wave, the kid smiling at you as she jumps out of her seat and runs to Cerys. "Siiiiis, what did we say about bringing back cute girls?" You stop your cursory glance over the odd girl starting at you and look at the pair, eyebrows raising. Your rescuer just snorts, shifting Gaia to hold her with one hand and flick the other girl on the forehead.

"And what did I tell you about saying silly things?" The girl pouts a little, but gets over it quickly as she skips over to you, insistently tugging you towards someone you hadn't noticed sitting in the back, a gentle smile sitting on her distinctly Asian face.

"Hello." She waves a hand at the log she's sitting on, offering you a seat. "You must be rather confused." You nod, watching the energetic little girl bounce around at Cerys side. They must be sisters. "Do you want to ask any questions?" A gentle warmth settles over you as you nod, the heat relaxing your rather tense muscles. You don't have to stay outside. Your partners just continue dancing around in the rain, well, dancing in as much as a fish can dance. Alright, be careful not to catch a cold then.

"Yes, I have... a lot of questions right now, I'm not sure where to start." She hums, but stays silent, giving you the chance to think. "First then..." You glance around the room "What did Cerys mean by one of us?"

Daiyu

I may not have thought this through all the way. You'd found the screeching beast and killed it, and then another, and another. Really at this point you were wondering where they were even coming from. How many of them are there? They'd started avoiding you pretty quickly, skittering away into the still burning ruins and fading into the shadows. The only reason you'd managed to find any was the screams people made when they were found.

This is pointless, I should just go back and get Cerys, she'd be able to find them no problem. And just as you turn to go and do that, something catches your eye, a dozen men lying on the ground. Half expecting to find them dead, you drift a little closer, catching sight of a person doing their best to sneak through the ruins. They stop as a group of soldiers turns the corner and sees them, ducking back behind a wall as they start shooting. You frown as you consider dropping in, jingling noise reaches your ears as the person lets out a little tickle of magic.

A mage? Or another Magical Girl? A wave of light pulses out from them, washing over you faster than you can blink

??? vs Unbending Will

You feel a brief tingling that quickly passes, the mage who cast the spell quickly leaves their cover, moving past the stock still forms of the soldiers. All of them have a slowly growing look of horror on their faces, their weapons dropping from their hands as some of them start screaming. That's enough. You give yourself a quick boost towards the ground and land hard, cracking the sidewalk and nearly knocking the... girl? over. She looks up, her wide brimmed hat moving up and exposing her face as she stares at you. Another Magical Girl then. Everything clicks into place. Gaia. Fucking bitch.

The girl in question looks very confused as she stares at you, glancing over at the quietly sobbing soldiers as if to reassure herself before looking at you. "Hello?" A familiar Chinese dialect flows off of her tongue.

"Are these Demons your doing?" She slowly shakes her head, still looking at you oddly. Does she think I'm under her powers sway? "Was that your power?" She nods, not looking disturbed in the slightest by the grown men sobbing around her. "Why are you here?" She nods again before pausing. Is she even listening to me?

"An acquaintance asked me to go into town to get something for her." You look at the fires burning around you and then back to her. "It wasn't on fire on the way in." You let the silence stretch for a moment. "Honest." She sounds incredibly awkward, like you had somehow stepped well past her comfort zone and were breathing down her neck. Which, to be fair, wasn't that far from the truth. Is she reliant on her power like Sabina is?

"Alright. I think I have an idea why we are here. Why don't you come with me? I can answer a lot of the questions you probably have." She reaches back to scratch her neck with her free hand, the hand on her staff shaking the rings a little. "Will your friend be alright on her own?" She nods, looking between you and the crying men again, a look of awe settling on her face. Oh dear, here we go. "Can you fly?" She shakes her head, still staring at you. "I can carry you." A nod. Good enough. You pick her up a little roughly and fly away.

A few minutes of awkward silence later you set down at the field, taking in the mockery to all buildings sitting in the middle. Your guest doesn't say anything, but if anything, she looks even more impressed. Why is it always the strange ones. You enter the building and she follows after pausing at the entrance. A sentence drifts out from inside as you enter, the English coming from an unfamiliar voice- "What did Cerys mean by one of us?" You pause and look at the stranger, then your eyes glide over the room, finding your girlfriend sitting next to another sleeping girl.

"What have we said about bringing home other girls?" Honestly, this girl. She jumps a little at your voice and Una starts giggling like a madwoman for some reason.

Cerys

[] She was wet.
[] But you did it too!
[] Write In...