“Human Resources” Shouldn’t Be This Literal: A PMMM/ProjectMoon Quest

Chapter 99 - Crystallization Of Wisdom

"So, what's up with the city?" Kyoko asks tentatively, having noticed your perturbed expression.

"There's a field up around the City. It's magic, but not any kind I've seen before. I'm expecting an alarm at least, and probably some more aggressive countermeasures on top of it. Cross the city limits and we'll trip it." you answer.

"Damn. What're we gonna do, then? We headed back?" Kyoko asks. You shake your head.

"No. We'll be circling the perimeter. Check to see if there's anything of note in the immediate area. Worst case scenario, all we lose is some time." you say. The crystalline walls fade as you turn Lamp away from them. Maybe Mami or Homura, who are far more experienced with sensing magic than you are, would be able to see the Wizard's defenses without such aid, but perhaps not. From the reports you'd read and Angela's own warnings, the Adult Who Tells Lies specializes in manipulative or controlling magic. Hiding its effects seems like it would be a particular skill of such an Abnormality.

Perhaps you should try and learn more about magic. Sensing and recognizing it seems easy enough, but if you put more effort into learning then surely there would also be ways for you to interact with it.

But then again, perhaps not. There's no point in think about it now. You turn and leap to the rooftops, beginning your circle around the Kamihama border.

"So, who's holed up here? You seem pretty wary of them." Kyoko asks as she lands behind you.

"An Abnormality, and a strong one." You answer. There's no reason to hide this information from her, after all. "I assume you have some variant of the Wizard of Oz story?"

"I'm not sure, but it sounds kinda familiar. Sorry if you expected me to know it already; Mami always knew more about fairy tales and that sort of thing than I did."

"It's fine." you assure. "I would've had to explain some things anyways."

"To start off, there was a kingdom. The princess, Ozma, ruled the kingdom for a long time. But, for some reason, she didn't have any friends. Because of this, she was lonely and unhappy despite everything she had."

A thought occurs to you, confirmed by the sudden look of sadness of Kyoko's face. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about the parallels this particular set of Abnormalities might draw. You'll simply have to continue past it.

"One day, another Abnormality approached Ozma and offered her a deal. I never had a reason to memorize these notes until now, so I'm not sure exactly what the deal was, but it had something to do with curing Ozma's loneliness. In the end though, the other Abnormality took Ozma's throne and left them in isolation with a bunch of constructs to act as friends."

You draw Lamp once again for a flicker, scanning the new angle of the Adult's shields and then dismissing it. You doubt that the range of the EGO weapon's sight is something that could be detected or trip an alarm, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

"Wait, do Abnormalities have kingdoms? I thought they were, well, like Witches. Could they actually have a whole society?" Kyoko asks, momentarily brought out of her brooding by a sudden question.

"It's not exactly known." you admit. "Though it hardly matters. Whether these things actually happened, the Abnormalities just believe them to be true, or they're stories that they were structured from, it doesn't change anything. The information is still accurate when pertaining to the Abnormalities referenced."

"Anyways, the other Abnormality, the Adult Who Tells Lies, ruled the kingdom for a while. One day, Ozma met a group of wandering Abnormalities who all had heard that the Adult could give people gifts to solve their problems. There was a lion who wanted courage, a scarecrow who wanted to be smart, a metal woodsman who wished to have a real heart, and a girl that needed to find her home. The Adult granted all their wishes, but with a twist that never actually gave them what really needed. In the end, all the Abnormalities involved ended up a danger to anyone near them."

You can see Kyoko has drawn the same connections you have by the way she tenses even in absence of hostiles. "So it's like Kyubey." The former Magical Girl spits the name like a curse, with a level of loathing usually reserved for Angela talking about your father or you mentioning Adam.

"In a way, they might be worse." you respond grimly. "The Incubator is utilitarian. It doesn't hate us, it just doesn't care about us at all beyond what use we can be in accomplishing the goals of its species. The Adult Who Tells Lies is… a sadist, as far as I've heard. They enjoy twisting and breaking people while blaming their victims for being hurt all the while. Everything they do is just in service of causing as much harm as possible."

"So what's our strategy here? We're taking it out?" Kyoko asks, the edge to her voice complementing the rolling waves of heat as you take another scan. Sadly, you won't be able to allow her this outlet for her emotions.

"We can't confront the Adult directly, not right now. She's an Aleph-Class Abnormality, the same as Nothing There. We're only scouting the defenses and confirming her location." Your voice is firm, but somewhat resigned. You do wish you could simply charge in and banish the Abnormality back to whatever hole your mother dragged it out to of, but the ending to that course of action is rather predictable. "The Adult's strength is far less direct, so we'll have a chance to weaken and work around it if we play things intelligently." you add to try and lessen the gloom.

The mention of Nothing There douses Kyoko's ire, though the momentary chill is pushed aside as quickly as it came. Instead, the Distorted girl's attention is captured by the newcomer interrupting your conversation.

It's a small thing, at least relative to a person. A black worm-like creature with a white face covered in colored spots that vaguely reminds you of a clown's mask, flying through the sky on small wings near where its neck is. Two more join it, each one only differentiated from the others by the placement of crystalline emerald growth over its body. They circle in the sky, maybe thirty feet above you.

It was too much to ask for that this mission go uninterrupted, of course.

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Patrol
[] Retreat for now
[] Preemptive Strike
[] Make Contact
[] Write-in

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Der Freischütz's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Porccubus' Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
CENSORED's Sapling - Observation Level EXPUNGED/REDACTED

Apologies for the delay, I fell asleep while writing again and then couldn't find a good time to write further. It won't happen again. On a different note, we're coming up on Chapter 100. I'll have to do something special.