Magical Girl Phantom Ascension

Freezing in place, eyes locked with her suddenly alien gaze, the rest of the world fades out of your awareness for a long, phantom-heart-stopping moment. Under her burning eyes, glowing acid green ringed by a dark cyan, you can feel all your secrets exposed. Yet you remain locked up and unmoving, a deer in oncoming headlights. While you had felt ready to crumble under the pressure of expectant gazes during the meeting earlier, this penetrating stare is a very different kind of intense, and though words and defenses and justifications bubble up in your mind, your mouth may as well be cemented shut.

"I could say the same of you!" The long, agonizing silence is broken by Shimizu-san's retort, and the oppressive gaze sweeps away. It's like a crushing weight is lifted, and you do your best to hide the way your shoulders slump in sudden relieved exhaustion, though for better or worse, nobody else present is looking your way now. "You're one to talk about not being what you claim!"

You're glad to see that Shimizu-san seems to have finally stopped trying to attack, even after pulling herself free of Pallavi's grasp; instead she stands defiantly with arms crossed, staring Rina down. Even though something about the woman's stare turning on her makes her sway back for a moment as if pushed, she recovers quickly and refuses to wilt. "You two can lie and hide all you like, but we won't have it. We know what you're up to, and we won't let you get away with this!" Pallavi nods in affirmation.

Rina simply sneers in response. Her eyes blink back to normal, only to shoot the bluenette a condescending smirk almost as withering as what had come before. "Sure you do," she drawls, voice dripping with sarcasm. "And even if you did, I'd love to see you try."

Shimizu-san jolts forward, before being once again grabbed by Pallavi; a second later you realize both you and Midori have your weapons raised again, and Sakamoto-san has darkened into a silhouette. Rina, however, simply rolls her eyes, one arm held out across his chest to stop him, and you sheepishly lower your naginata.

"Nee-san," Takuya mumbles, melting back into color as he tugs at her sleeve. "Let's just-"

She cuts him off with a sudden annoyed sigh, holding a hand to her temple. "Not now. You and I will have to talk about this later, too."

"Not a chance!" Shimizu-san shouts again, wriggling against Pallavi. "Will you let me go already? We can bea-"

"You can lose again," Rina eggs her on.

"Look-" Midori tries to say, only for the ka-chunk of the fire escape door opening again to catch everyone's attention, the argument grinding to a screeching halt.

You turn around, only to see Miho finally poking her head out sheepishly. "Bad time?"

Of course, in that moment of distraction, Rina makes her move.

Turning back, you find her already cycling to a new form, and tense in preparation for the fight to restart. Rather than the bear, however, this time she shifts into a long, serpentine shape with far far too many legs.

The massive centipede-like creature that emerges immediately spits a glob of acid onto the manhole cover you'd seen earlier, melting most of it away with terrifying speed, before she grabs up Takuya in her forelimbs and dives down atop it, smashing the remains apart and slithering away down the hole before anyone can react.

"We should go after them!" Shimizu-san declares, finally breaking free of Pallavi's hold and rushing to the manhole, but by the way her posture slumps and her tone loses all force by the end, you can tell the siblings are already past pursuit. Pallavi meekly hands her back her lance, but after harshly swiping it from her hands, Shimizu-san turns glum and simply dismisses it, the weapon turning into a splash of water that evaporates before it hits the ground.

Midori simply shakes her head in frustration, turning away from the now-empty alley and glaring at the rather confused-looking Miho. "No, we're done here." The frustration in the air is palpable, and you're not entirely sure you can blame her or Shimizu-san.

Backing away from the latter, Pallavi instead approaches you with a small smile. "Thank you for helping me, in there. There was so much going on, I couldn't think, I never would have thought that bear was trying to protect him. Or that it was actually a woman…"

"That wouldn't have worked if it was a real bear," Midori mutters from your other side. "You would still be too close to the cubs and she still would have attacked you."

You shrug sheepishly, unsure how to admit that you didn't know for sure either if that was going to work. "It did work, though." You mumble. Pallavi smiles gratefully again, while Midori just brushes past you silently. "Saw they were siblings the first time I visited."

"That's right, isn't it?" Shimizu-san seems to have recovered some of her bluster, turning toward you with a dangerous look in her eye. "You were here before, but you didn't say anything about another person, let alone that she could shapeshift!" She jabs an accusing finger at you, and you shrink back instinctively.

"I didn't… know about that last part," you manage to force out; if nothing else, her accusing stare feels less intense following right after whatever Rina had been doing. "I thought her brother was the important one to pay attention to."

"Plus," Midori speaks up behind you, "She did say 'they' in our meeting before, you just must not have been paying attention." From the inaudible muttering following that, you can guess she was taken off-guard as well, but you're still thankful for the defense.

"And you! Why were you defending the enemy?" she turns on Pallavi now, frustration boiling over in all directions. "We all heard her, there's someone here lying to us! With how you were acting earlier, how do we know you aren't secretly on their side?"

"Why were you attacking him to begin with?" Pallavi shoots back, once again holding her axe up defensively. "I thought we all agreed we were just going to ask some questions and hold his attention, not start a fight! And if I was on their side, why would they tell on me like that? I didn't even want to lie to them, let alone to any of you! I hate lying!"

"Right, because telling our enemies everything they could possibly want or need to know about us is such a good idea instead," Midori says drily. "But yeah, if anyone here is a liar, it sure isn't you. Really should get off your high horse about that, frankly."

"Fine, fine, you're not a liar." Shimizu-san admits, before her expression darkens again. "Either way, he was acting suspicious and confirmed they were up to something, so the time for talking was over! We have to stop whatever they're up to! Except, you fought against me, not him."

Pallavi looks frustrated to the point of tears, and you wonder if you should speak up and stop this from devolving further. You're not sure you can, though, realizing you've backed away against the dumpster as the fight escalates. "Because you were being too forceful! We're still not supposed to just beat them up without knowing what's actually going on!"

Shimizu-san's grimace deepens. "They're the bad guys! That's the whole poi-"

"JUST SHUT UP, both of you!" Midori shouts, stepping between them. "Look, what's done is done, so let's just get back to Nel-san and put this stupid mess behind us, okay? Accusing each other isn't going to get us anywhere." Glancing over at you with a comforting smile, she adds, "Besides, if they are the bad guys, who's to say they're not just lying about us? Trying to turn us on each other instead of them, so why are we taking her at her word? Frankly, I'd probably do the same if I was them."

After a silent, tense standoff, Shimizu-san finally relents with a sigh and backs off, going back to the manhole and lightly kicking at a nearby piece of the cover. Turning away before she can come jabbing at you again, you see Miho is now sitting back against the door, Midori kneeling over her and holding up fingers for her to count. Her nose is bleeding a bit, but at least she seems more alert than before. "So... Anyone want to tell me what I missed?"

She makes to hold a sleeve over her nose, only to nearly swing one of her ornate ruby-studded wrist-blades into her own face. Flinching and detransforming, her dress and blades dissipate into short-lived swirls of flame, which Midori frantically fans away with an offended yelp. "Excuse me?"

"Fine, please could someone tell me what I missed?" Miho says with an exaggerated bat of her eyelashes, and Pallavi giggles. As she walks over to fill Miho in, Midori also releases her transformation, dragging the smaller girl's arm back from her bloodied nose and pulling out her first-aid kit.

"You could have held the door for us to get back in, at least," Shimizu-san mutters, and Miho glares and flips her the bird with her free hand. Turning on you, the bluenette adds, "Please at least tell me you've found something useful… before bringing a bear down on us, anyway."

You simply nod stiffly, resisting the urge to shrink away again. You realize the evidence you had taken, that strange fruit, was stuffed in a pocket before you transformed, and indeed on patting your dress hopefully, find it's no longer on your person. And if you detransformed now to retrieve it, that would be tantamount to confirming what the shapeshifter had said. "I did." You finally say, deciding to spare all detail for the time being.

"Oooh, mysterious..." Miho chuckles, and you feel everyone's gazes directed your way again. With Rina's words still echoing in your mind, you don't trust yourself to speak, unsure if the hidden suspicion attached to those searching looks is real or just in your head. After all, she had been staring right at you when she said that; surely it must be obvious to everyone else, right? Even with that accusation towards Pallavi, you can't help but feel like a blaring neon sign hangs over your head, marking you as other. At least Midori already knows, and for better or worse is unlikely to tell the others.

"So what do we do now?" Pallavi asks.

"I was going to suggest searching the shop some more, but now that we're locked out," Shimizu-san casts another glare Miho's way, which goes ignored this time, "I'm just going back." with a press on her ring, it doesn't take long for Nel's door to pop up against one of the walls, and she marches through.

As soon as she's gone, Pallavi slumps down to her knees, clutching onto her axe like a cane. "Couldn't we have just been calm and honest about this?"

For her part, Miho looks as conflicted as you feel, but opts to let out a sarcastic, "Couldn't I have had some popcorn for this?" Midori lightly swats her across the head, before dragging her to her feet. "Ow ow ow, okay, let up, that got me pretty bad. Thank goodness for the carpet…"

Finally, the feeling of autopilot you'd been on since upstairs fades away, and you realize you should probably do something as well. Glancing between the others, Nel's door, and the open alleyway beside it, you're torn between wanting to help and wanting to just get away.

What To Do?
> Help Pallavi (She looks rather upset right now, and she helped you out earlier, didn't she? Though you're not certain Midori would take well to that.)
> Help Miho (Even with Midori supporting her she seems rather more injured than the rest of you, and even with her attitude she could use someone on her side.)
> Just Return To Nel (Shimizu-san didn't seem to be in a mood to stick around long, so this could be a chance to detransform and hand over the evidence to Nel without getting anyone's attention, once she leaves the office.)
> Detransform And Leave (You're already exhausted, and you can give Nel your account later when there's more time without the others. Besides, you don't want to keep your brother waiting too long.)