Magical Girl Phantom Ascension

Ever since the decision to split each Empowering Artifact into a set of seven fragments in accordance with the splitting of the Throne, there have been concerns about the ability to find suitable candidates to wield them. Certainly, while the property of individuals' aura being colored in reflection of their soul has made detecting affinities easy enough, that is a different matter from determining a candidate's worthiness to be entrusted with such power, even if at a lesser scale than previous. In particular, given the abilities of outmost consequence typically associated with Pink, there is worry that an Entrusted one could abuse that power, whether from active malice or merely irresponsibility, and cause more harm than good in the long run.

For six of them, I cannot answer this question with confidence. But in my time speaking with different teams and candidates and assessing them not by their power or potential, but their deepest and most core values, I have developed a certain theory - overly optimistic, perhaps, but heartening if it is true.

I believe that by virtue of the traits that are reflected in an aura as the essence we know as Pink, candidates for that power naturally self-select for suitability. Regardless of outside appearance or surface attitudes, those with the most vivid aura that I have spoken to have almost always shown themselves to possess a certain core trait that makes them perfect for this responsibility.

That is not to say that those of the other colors are lesser, or lack that trait in contrast. Rather, I posit that essence reflection operates much like color in the visible spectrum, which makes it all the more fitting that we use the same terms for specific hues of each. Much like color is made of light of multiple different wavelengths working in tandem, and the wavelengths that are most plentiful appear to us the most; aura reflecting a certain hue of essence does not preclude the presence of traits tied to the other Fundamentals; it simply means that the one reflected is the most plentiful and foundational, and the more intense it is the more plentiful it is. The key difference is that before the split, wielders were chosen for their balance of all traits to keep them in line despite the empowerment, and now we select for those strongest in a specific one to draw out the full potential of their power.

And yes, that change in focus has some of a more... traditional... mindset worried. Some have said the quiet part aloud, that they dislike the potential for Entrusted ones to act outside our direction, whether from lingering attitudes we must work hard to grow past, or from the very real concerns surrounding the cataclysms inflicted upon our colonized worlds. But for the moderates, who are more concerned with the potential for Entrusted ones to inflict harm upon each other or those we wish for them to protect, I wish to offer some hope. Hope, and the affirmation that this approach is the best to take; I firmly believe we will only have lost our way if we let dread cloud our souls, and choose candidates once again to mitigate their strength for fear of what ill they could do, rather than trust in what good could be done instead. I hope that thousands of years from now, we will not have lost sight of that...

As I said, I do believe that the seventh and most momentous of the Fundamentals, Pink, is tied to an aspect of essence that renders those strongest in it most fit for carrying its power. It is an ideal that could be easily mistaken for something lesser, such as the more focused passion of Red, or the compassionate reliability of Orange, or a specific mode of relationship. However, in this context I refer to it in a more meaningful, more all-encompassing, and more unconditional sense.

Love.

-An old, unsigned memo resting buried deep in the Shades' archives, unseen

With your opponent between you and the exit, a cavalcade of half-baked plans rush through your head as you steadily back away. Hide away? No, somehow you know the plants can sense your presence. Run away? She would surely chase after you. Transform and fight her? The knife cannot really hurt you, but you have a sneaking suspicion that she has other options. Make a distraction and knock her out? You are not even sure how to do the first part, let alone the second.

Thankfully, you are granted some reprieve when yet another thump from below catches her attention, making her turn away, and you take this opportunity to slip past to the living room. Without her blocking your exit, and with the reminder of the others still down below, the idea of simply fleeing feels like the only natural course of action. If nothing else, you will have strength in numbers, instead of having to contend with her alone.

Still, you hesitate a moment, feeling like there's something else you should do before leaving. Glancing about, you zero in on the clippers she had used just moments ago, and a nearby fern still laden with strange fruits. Evidence. Before you can overthink it, you snatch up the tool and hastily scissor at the fern, chopping stems and fronds alike and jamming whatever falls off into your skirt pocket in a rush.

The wild defacement does not go unnoticed, as you hear an affronted "HEY!" behind you, and dive backward just in time to avoid a wild slash of her knife. You only get a split-second glimpse to see something long and shimmery jutting outwards from her bare back, but don't stop to get a better look. Throwing the clippers at her to buy time, you scramble the rest of the way to the door, half-opening it, half-phasing through it in your rush to leave.

The door slams the rest of the way open, followed by a disturbingly guttural roar, but you refuse to look back. Transforming as you run, you tear down the hall and use the momentum to swing around the end of the banister, launching yourself nearly headfirst down the stairs like your brother used to, skipping three or four steps at a time. You land in a painful kneeling slide at the bottom, but the rush of panic pushes you to clamber upright regardless, leaning on your naginata to do so.

Your frantic thoughts are already several steps ahead, considering how to regroup with the others in the front room without sabotaging their interrogation, but all plans go out the window a moment later as you stand and turn to the door-

-Only to find the others already in the back room just ahead, staring back at you and frozen in surprise.

You blink, struggling to quickly take in the scene. Everyone is transformed and armed, seemingly having been squaring off… against each other? Sakamoto-san is cowering in a corner near the fire escape door, Pallavi standing protectively over him and clutching some sort of large axe or halberd in front of her. Miho and Shimizu-san are both facing her with their own weapons raised, while Midori stands between both parties as the very picture of frustration, though any prior hostility from any of them has been thoroughly derailed by your arrival.

The moment of shock is interrupted by another sudden loud roar, and the sound of something large barreling down the stairs after you. You only spot a brown blur in the corner of your eyes, as panic seizes you to jump out of its way just in time to hear it smash into the wall opposite.

Whirling around to see what just happened, you find yourself staring in horror at nothing less than a massive brown bear, half-embedded in the wall plaster but seemingly barely dazed from the impact. Claws gouge further holes in the wall as it struggles to pull itself upright, shredding through the weak material until finally gaining purchase on an internal support beam that can carry its weight. With a low growl like a rattling car engine, its heavy jowels part in a grimace that shows off long, sharp yellow teeth, each at least the size of one of your fingers. Now towering over you, it blots out the light from the ceiling fixture behind it, and you feel frozen in place.

"What?" Someone demands exasperatedly, only to be drowned out by the loudest roar yet, and then the scene becomes lost in absolute mayhem.

The back room is not strictly small, but with so many people and a whole entire bear filling the space, it becomes decidedly cramped. The animal rears back a meaty paw to swing at you, and only then do you finally regain your senses enough to dodge aside - only to back into a wall and still take a glancing-yet-heavy blow that pushes you into the plaster. Pain explodes across your front and back alike, and your vision blurs; it feels like a bell is clanging around your ears.

Not for the first time, some detached part of your mind has the wherewithal to grumble about the pointlessness of still feeling pain despite the lack of physical damage.

Even in the time it takes for your head to clear somewhat, you find Shimizu-san has managed to hold the bear at a distance with aggressive jabs from some sort of javelin, though its advance has still pushed the others toward the back wall, opposite you. Still too weak to pull yourself back into the fight, you instead frantically fight past the lingering ache to try to think of something, anything that could help. All that comes to mind, though, is that a wild animal should not be acting this aggressive. Unless…

The thought is interrupted by a harsh clang, and you glance back up to see Shimizu-san's weapon has been batted harshly aside. Wisely, she opts to focus on wresting it back out of the side wall it has been lodged in, instead of staying in the bear's path.

Taking advantage of this opening and her small size, Miho ducks through where Shimizu-san was standing and slides beneath the bear's arm. Thankfully, it seems to have turned its attention to Midori and Pallavi, giving her time to awkwardly clamber back upright from her otherwise impressive action pose; were the situation not so dire, you would have had to stifle a giggle.

"You alright?" She casts a concerned glance your way, but without waiting for an answer, turns back around, setting a foot against the wall and extending a pair of wrist-mounted blades to ready her attack. At the same time, another thud sees Midori, having attempted to use her hoop blade as a shield, now slumping back against the fire escape door, wincing as she holds her midsection again. It's at this point that Miho decides to make her move.

"YYYAAAHHH!" She shouts as she kicks off from the wall and makes a running leap towards its back, and you can already tell how this is going to go. Sure enough, ears perking up at the sound, the bear whirls with surprising speed just as she leaps, and with an overhead paw, spikes her straight into the floor.

For a moment you're terrified that it may step on her, and finally peel yourself out of the wall to stand between them if it comes to that. Your quarry glares over at you, growling in warning, and a connection sparks in your mind.

However the next moment, just as quickly as it took out Miho, she turns back away to focus on Pallavi, advancing on her with slow, purposeful strides, arms raised menacingly. To her credit, the other girl stands her ground over Sakamoto-san, expression fearful yet determined, clutching her long-handled axe before her in trembling hands, even as she's cast in the bear's imposing shadow.

You watch helplessly, the naginata in your hand feeling like little more than dead weight as you mentally race through and discard plans to try to help her, or stop the bear. She's too fast to be bound like the monster from before, and too strong to fight… and you are not even sure if you want to use your blade on her, given what happened to Gushiken-san. Nothing feels good enough, not while Pallavi's still trying to stand against her… Oh. Perhaps that's the answer.

"Get out of her way!" you shout to Pallavi, and she casts you a wild-eyed look of disbelief. "She's not here for you, just get away from her brother!" Despite her clear confusion, after only a moment more of hesitation she takes your direction. Skirting to the side without turning away, she meets the bear's gaze with an uncertain look, only for her to drop to all fours in the spot that had just been vacated. You and Pallavi both let out a sigh of relief.

Taking only a moment to sniff at Sakamoto-san, she wraps one arm protectively around him, dragging him over to the back door. Roughly scooping Midori aside with her other paw, she shoulder-checks the pushbar, shrinking down a bit to pass through.

As soon as the door slams shut again, you immediately turn to the pile of limbs and regret known as Miho, and help haul her up off the floor, while Pallavi does the same with Midori. Thankfully, despite how nasty her impact had looked (and sounded), Miho seems… relatively less hurt than you had thought. The way she wavers in place with a slightly cross-eyed stare is rather worrying, though…

However, your efforts to take further stock are swiftly interrupted by the last of the group. Shimizu-san, having finally freed her weapon from the wall, shoves past you on her way to the door, hefting the long and gleaming silver lance ahead of herself as if about to enter a jousting match. With a kick to reopen the door, she wastes no time in charging outside. The remaining four of you stare at each other for a moment, before Midori rolls her eyes with an irritated huff and limps to the door as well; you and Pallavi share a brief shrug before following suit.

You pass through the door just in time to see Shimizu-san's charge halted, the bear wrapping a meaty fist around the tip of her lance before it can hit, and then hurtling it aside, the girl stumbling and falling to her knees from the sudden redirection.

"Let's stop this from getting any more stupid, alright?" Midori grouses, before stopping to hold herself with another pained hiss. Pallavi quickly takes the hint, rushing over to Shimizu-san and grabbing her from behind right before she can pick up the lance for another try.

"What are you doing?" Shimizu-san demands, but after a moment of struggling falls still. Bending down to pick it up herself, Pallavi drags the bluenette back away from the bear, shooting a glance somewhere between terrified and apologetic as she does.

You can't help but feel relieved as she retreats further in return, depositing Sakamoto-san behind her and turning her gaze between the rest of you, hostile but restrained. Midori steps forward slightly, hands up, and for your part you take up a supporting position behind her, naginata at the ready in case the situation falls apart again.

In the silence that follows, you could have heard a pin drop. Clouds roll slowly overhead, the moon coming out to bathe the enclosure in silvery light. The bear's gaze is fixed firmly on the captive Shimizu-san at first, before gradually shifting to take in the rest of you. Sheepishly, you lower your weapon slightly to match Midori and Pallavi's unthreatening stances.

The tension continues to stretch for several moments longer, before the moon becomes half-hidden again, and the bear's posture finally relaxes. Suddenly, the brown of her coat turns pure black, until she's nothing more than a silhouette against the faint moonlight through the clouds. The shape is joined by other silhouettes, layered over one another like translucent cards, with a different one coming to the fore and regaining colors as the rest fade away. Now, instead of the bear, you find yourself once again looking at Sakamoto-san's sister, clad in the bathrobe from before, but no less imposing for it. Behind her, Sakamoto-san stands up and dusts himself off, looking sheepish. "Thank you, Rina nee-san…"

"Are you unhurt?" She shoots back, gaze never wavering from the group before her.

You notice a bruise on his face, but after a moment's hesitation, he mumbles "Yeah, mostly. The orange one was protecting me." Pallavi lets out a nervous chuckle as the sister's piercing gaze gets turned on her, but after a moment she nods in affirmation.

Rina's posture relaxes some more, and she closes her eyes for a long moment. When they open again they look different, glowing green in the shadow cast by her bangs, with slit pupils and double-layered irises; you stiffen back up in response, but she stays put. Instead, she once more scans the four of you up and down, and slowly her stony glare shifts into a confident smirk.

"Magical girls, hmm? You must be a new team, for that sad showing," she spits out at Shimizu-san. "I don't know what your masters think they're accomplishing, to send you after us, but tell them we won't take this insult lightly." Shifting her attention over to you, she adds, "Besides, I would worry more about who you're supposedly working with now. One of you clearly isn't who - or should I say, what - she claims to be." You feel yourself go cold.

What to say?
> Say Nothing (Better to stay quiet, and let the burden of proof fall on her)
> Admit To Being A Ghost (No. If there is a place or time for that, it sure isn't here or now)
> Defend Yourself (You can't let her claim go uncontested, or at least unobscured)
-> Write-In