The Baneful Sun's Kind Smile

The first thing that catches your attention after responding to the call resonating with you and entering the portal is how many shapes there are. You had heard physical realms were full of shapes but this is way more than you expected. Everything has a shape and a form and you spend way too long trying to figure out what shapes are important and which belong to the two souls glowing in front of you.

You do note that one of the souls, the one who called you, is youthful and still small in power but with great potential. The other soul feels ancient and intimidating, both with how much power they have and with how fundamentally opposed they feel to you on some level. It was as if you and they were formed from opposite principles. You remember other demons describing angels as feeling like this.

It's then that you notice the argument between the two. The young one is arguing that you're perfectly fine and wonderful and she's going to keep you, while the angel is arguing that the young one should send you back to where you came from and try another summoning. You fix your attention on them and note that you're having an easier time telling which shapes are theirs. The weirdest part is how they're made out of many shapes forming an united shape. The shapes are the same for the young one as the human-shaped demons you knew and the angel looks like the fox-shaped demon you met, but they have a feeling of having components.

You move and bump into one of the nearby shapes. Even while it happens, you maintain your graceful poise. But it does hurt some. As you rub your sore nose (which is its own shape you notice, apparently the same weird thing that had happened to all the shapes here has happened to you), you hear the young one (Jamie your connection with her tells you) express concern. The angel explains that you're just getting used to being in a physical plane, it was the same for them on their first time.

You note to yourself that shapes here have a solidity that back home belonged only to defensive structures and that you should be careful about not walking into them. It's then that you notice the sounds the others're making that go with their meanings. Oh, right, you remember hearing that humans used sounds for communication.

You decide to give it a try yourself then realize you aren't sure what sounds to make. So you just adopt a cute pose that shows off your sheer attractiveness as you suggest to them that they should make peace and let you remain.

That just gets a glare from the angel who says using sounds and meaning, "Maybe that would work if I wasn't a grouchy old angel who's seen many attempts to charm me."

Jamie, on the other hand, makes a sound that you somehow identify as a squee and says, "Pvu! She's so adorable!"

Being referred to as female makes you happy like it always does. You've suspected you didn't get enough of that in whatever life you lived before your awakening in the dream realm. You communicate to them that you like Jamie and intend to give her the help she asked for.

"And how do I know you can be trusted?" Pvu points their tails at you in what you recognize as a menacing gesture.

"Pvu!" Jamie says, but the angel doesn't change their combat-ready stance.

You consider what lie to tell before realizing that a lie likely would make things worse. You like lying, but there's a time and place for it. So you consider your response carefully and decide to go with unmistakable truth. It goes against your nature to swear a truthful oath, to the point where it hurts a little, but in this case it's likely the best option. You squeeze out an oath that you are kind and intend to be kind.

That actually causes Pvu to blink in surprise. "You used a oath to say that?" They eye you warily but do lower their tails.

"See! I told you! She's nice!" Jamie exclaims. She gathers you up in what you realize is one of the hugs you've heard described. It's weirdly nice.

"Hm. I suppose I will allow this on a trial basis," Pvu says, "If she proves herself sufficiently moral, you can keep her. But we need a name." They look directly at you. "Do you have a name?"

You incline that the answer is no. You never got a Name.

Jamie immediately says, "I'll call you Cherry, then! That okay?"

You express your agreement as you accept the Name, allowing it to settle into your being to link and refer to you. You feel a slight shift in your nature. A very small one, but overall you're a little stronger and a little more defined for it.

Pvu settles back into a sitting position. "If you're going to work with Cherry, we have to do something about her habit of using mental communication. Not knowing how to use speech-based communication will make it difficult to talk to non-magical beings."

You did recall hearing something about that, you express.

That causes Pvu to quirk their head. "You seem to have heard many things from the way you said that."

You've asked many questions of those that went to other worlds, you explain. It's interesting how there's so much variety in worlds. And you wonder why worlds turn out like that.

"Interesting. I see. Not many demons have that kind of sense of curiosity. They tend to be more interested in practical matters. Of course, the same could be said of angels." Pvu whisks their tails. "But I digress. Let's get you acclimated to the world."

---

The process of getting you acclimated takes longer than expected, not because you're slow in picking everything up but because you keep asking questions, questions that Pvu seems to quickly get tired of. But Jamie happily answers your questions to the best of her ability.

"You sure ask some difficult questions, Cherry!" Jamie says with a laugh. "No one knows why they like what they like. Come on, you'll enjoy this ice cream place!"

The two of you move across the street you were standing on, which is both vaguely familiar and wholly alien to you. You're pretty sure you've seen scenes like this, with the tall buildings and the cars in the street and everything, but you don't remember any of it at all. It's a weird feeling. Also the street is divided into the sidewalks, which you're standing on, and the actual street itself where only cars go most of the time except when people can cross it at certain allowed times and places. But your thought're cut off when Jamie pushes open the ice cream store door.

People inside stare at you and Jamie, who is in her Grace Void persona. From what you've learned, magical girls and their familiars are known but not that common. Ignoring the stares that you've became used to, you examine your options from the ice creams on offer behind the glass shield. You realize you have no frame of reference to pick a flavor with, so you number them in your mind and pull a number from the sea of chaos.

"I'd like the Berry Splash Bomb," you say, pulling out how to say the word the way Pvu taught you to. It's a matter of picking out the Meaning you want to express and then matching that with the right words for said Meaning.

Pvu herself enters from the store door, orders some mint chocolate, and sits at the same table as you and Jamie. It's slightly awkward seating for both you and Pvu, as the table is a little high to you both. "Children's seats for the two of us," Pvu says calmly.

"You were going to explain the Negation you mentioned was the foe we're fighting?" You take a bite (a small one because of Jamie's warning about headaches) of your ice cream. It's so delicious you almost miss Pvu's explanation.

Pvu takes a light lick of their own ice cream. "Negation are... they are extremely misguided. They are a force that believes humanity is better off without emotions because of how painful said emotions can be. They can strip emotions from their victims and weaponize it by turning it into monsters which they control and use to attack anyone that tries to stop them."

You consider what being without emotions would likely do to the people you knew. "It seems like a kind of kindness that causes problems."

Jamie says, "Exactly! They're trying to help people, but the way they're doing it is wrong!"

"Anyways," Pvu continues on, "They can also negate attacks, but that appears to have a limit. They can negate their own presence, teleport, and in some cases fly. Really, capabilities range from person to person."

Interesting. That sounds like a potent power but not if it makes you unkind. You take another absolutely delicious bite. "I understand the gist."

That night, your and Jamie's training begins.

---

Pick an area you improve most in. All areas will improve, but the chosen area will be a specialty.

[ ] Drawing upon Jamie's power of void for your own attacks.
[ ] Combining your power of deception/illusions with Jamie's techniques.
[ ] Hand-to-hand combat with Jamie.
[ ] Supporting/buffing Jamie with your power of kindness.

At first you had been curious about what it would be like training with Jamie. Now you regret your curiosity as you lie sprawled out on the floor in a state of exhaustion. Jamie seems to be doing better and she's petting you gently.

The merciless taskmaster sits to the side, their tails curled around their legs. "You have... I'll say fifteen minutes to recover. You might think you're at the point of breaking, but you aren't. People always have more in them than they think. Now let's recap your training performance.

You appear to have gotten by largely on the strength of your beauty and ability to charm and deceive. As such you have no experience with physical combat. So we'll work on that and on developing your stamina. Your ability at illusions and other forms of deception is highly excellent and you're doing well at assisting Jamie with them. I don't see any need to focus on that any further. Your ability to heal and support is slightly lacking but not too badly. We'll work on that too, but stamina and physical combat will be the priorities in your training plan. Any questions?"

"When will the pain go away?" you ask.

"When you get more used to it. Then it'll come back as I up the training," Pvu answers.

You look up at Jamie. She's what's called a redhead, apparently, though you think her hair looks more orange than red. And she has a lot of freckles. She's told you some things about herself, such as that her parents both work in science which sounds like a really interesting thing to do since it's all about finding out stuff. Also, she's transgender, a word that feels very familiar to you. And many other details, she likes talking. You know her favorite animal (jellyfish), her favorite ice cream (cookie dough), and stuff like that. A lot of it had required explaining and in some case pictures.

Pvu by contrast is more silent about themselves, answering far fewer of your questions. They're fox-like with golden fur and large ears. Their eyes have glowing white wheel shapes inside them and they have four golden feathered wings. Their three tails each have a prism hovering at the tip, and they can fire beams of searing lights from those prisms. You'd seen a lot of those light beams during your dodging training session. At least you'd done decently at the dodging part thanks in large part to your natural grace.

You'd learned a few things about angels and the angelic plane from them. Apparently, what demons consider vices, angels consider virtues. And vice versa. The world they live in is a more peaceful one with a heavy degree of cooperation. But from the descriptions of the routines and rules they live by, you didn't think you would want to live there. A light full of glory illuminates their plane--they have no sun.

With those thoughts and other tangents and a bit of dozing off from Jamie's petting, your break time soon ends. Pvu stands up. "Are you ready to resume training?"

"No," you say as you stand up, "But let's do it anyways."

Time for more stances and attacking dummies and trying futilely to hit Pvu. Also, shooting void energy from your link with Jamie and healing and enhancing her until you ache.

---

The place Pvu, Jamie, and you live in is what's called a penthouse. Big glass windows, what Jamie calls swanky furniture, the whole second floor turned into an ever-shifting training area larger on the inside than the outside. Jamie does all the cooking as she's the one who knows how and also who has the best shape to use the stove and oven. But often you order food brought to the penthouse. Pvu is the one who pays for it all. Money took some explaining, but you think you understand it somewhat now.

Hikaru and Divya visit regularly for training but then return to their families. Families are a strange concept to you, but it sounded nice enough to have one from what the two told you. When you asked Jamie about her family, she said she was dead to them and them to her, and she said it in a tone that clearly showed she had a grudge. Maybe families aren't so nice to have.

Hikaru has slightly darker skin than Jamie, black hair, and is far taller. She likes to laugh a lot and seems to enjoy the training. She's something called Japanese-American which means she or her ancestors came from a place called Japan. Apparently you're in a place called the United States which is also called America. The place must be more powerful since it has two names. Maybe that's why Hikaru's parents moved here.

Divya is shorter than Jamie and has way darker skin. She also has black hair and you wonder if that's common. Divya seems more quiet and serious but her eyes burn with passion whenever she talks about protecting people. She's an Indian-American. Apparently India has a lot of people, the only place with more people than it being a place called China.

Every now and then you go out with Jamie or occasionally Pvu to get more used to the city. It's on one of those trips, into a park, that both Jamie and you sense some kind of magic that feels like emptiness. Jamie immediately recognizes it. "Negation!"

She quickly sends off dark wisps of magic that accelerate to alert the other magical girls and Pvu. You run alongside her as she hurries to arrive on the scene. And it's quite a scene. There's a large crowd before some kind of raised platform on which someone is singing. The singing seems to have the crowd in a trance, and you can tell it's pulling the emotions out of them.

The singer has a black star pattern around her eye and has what you later learn is a mohawk, shockingly pink. Also, she's wearing a black t-shirt and hot pink shorts. She sings, "Oh look, the so-called heroes have arrived. Let's give them a warm welcome!"

The emotions that have already been drained gather together, infusing into one of the black boxes with discs from which music is coming. And it turns into a boxy monster with large eyes, stubby legs and arms, and a screaming voice.

The Disruption begins to form around it, creating a pocket realm that extends out to engulf Jamie and you. This realm feels oddly hostile with a mixture of anger, grief, and other negative emotions directed toward the two of you. The air turning a wavy purple doesn't help. The crowd turns into silhouettes, not truly part of this realm. The monster screams musically, causing music notes wielding note-shaped clubs to appear and run toward you, all while the singer that started it all watches in the background.

"Cherry!" Jamie's, or rather Grace Void's, voice is full of determination and eagerness. "Let's show them what we've learned!"

"Yes!" You don't really feel ready, but you can't just leave this be.

What tactics do you use?

[] Enhance Grace Void's defensive capabilities and stall with illusions until the other magical girls arrive.
[] Try and disorient the monsters with illusions to give Grace Void a chance to take them out.
[] Use illusions to close in and kick the notes hard while Grace Void covers you with void attacks.