Fool Bloom (A Magical Woman Quest)

Got around to that solo drawing of Miyako, which also gave me the chance to try out my new pencils:


The smudge did prove a bit hard to erase though

[X] Just tell Yumemi. Either she already knew, or would quickly discern that something's awry anyway.


"Yumemi," Koyomi tried to begin, but then cut herself off with a groan. I know I might as well tell her, but I also know I'm gonna regret doing so, she thought. "Yumemi, there's something you need to know, it's just-"

"Well, whatever it is now, out with it," Yumemi said, hand on her hip.

"It's just that there's no way you'll believe me unless I show you in," Koyomi said. It'd worry me more if you could be convinced that I'm not your Koyomi with mere words, she thought again. "But we'll have to go somewhere private first… hard as that may be to find in Tokyo."

Those urgent words just made Yumemi giggle, which only added to Koyomi's scowl. "A secret? Alright then," Yumemi said smiling at her, "You know I'm always down for a little personal time with you. Let's head back to our apartment, that should be private enough."

"Huh, from your tone, I thought you were about to suggest we head to a love hotel," Koyomi muttered.

That remark got her a freezing glare back from Yumemi. "Just what do you take me for?" she hissed. Koyomi dropped that whole thread there, better for her mind to stay focused on breaking the news anyway.
Well, until Yumemi threw in another tangent. "You have indeed been more worked up than usual today, perhaps we could do with a vacation?" she then asked. "Ah yes, how about Israel? Hmhm, don't say I never think of you."

If the IDF here are anything like they are in my world, absolutely not, Koyomi thought. That did get Koyomi thinking that she hadn't been on vacation in a while, beyond that day trip to Tokyo Summerland. She'd flown down for the Sydney Writers' Festival, but that was for business, not pleasure. She'd been to Poland once to honour her grandmother, not that she'd found out much about any relatives there. And as for Israel, her one and only visit was at a conference for Jewish Hanazakari, before she lost interest in ever going back. And of course, her world's Yumemi had called her 'self-hating' over it. You're a shiksa, how would you know?
"You're worried about money yet you say we should go on vacation?" Koyomi ended up asking.

"Really, do you have to take everything seriously?" Yumemi asked back with a sigh. "Given how negative your fiction is, you could at least afford to smile a little in real life."

'Real life?' Yeah, about that… "What can I say, critics don't give serious writing awards to Bunnies and Flowers or whatever," Koyomi in reaction smirked back. "Besides, I cracked that joke about the love hotel a few seconds back, and you hated me for it."
They walked the rest of the way back in silence after that, but Koyomi wasn't done being lost in thought. I can't believe it; we actually sound like an old married couple. Granted, that's what we are in this… reality, but I never thought I'd have a conversation like this with Yumemi since, since we were clueless teenagers. In my world, she would've threated to sic RUNE agents on me or send me to a Malebolge by now. A wave of giddiness washed over Koyomi for the first time in, well, forever.


That giddiness didn't last long though, as upon re-entering the apartment block, the first thing Koyomi saw was the stairs completely covered in ice. The second thing was a shadowy figure atop those stairs. "Stay back," she immediately told Yumemi, then hissed, "Seems like I may have to show you too soon." Blue Lotus is already here, he's behind this?

"What are you babbling about?" Yumemi said as she pushed right past her, then gasped. "The whole building, it's a wreck! The place could fall apart any second! What- just what happened while we were out?"

"Hold on, you're talking about the ice everywhere?" Koyomi asked, thinking it'd be the first thing Yumemi, or anyone, would mention.

"Ice? Koyomi, are you toying with me, if not seeing things? There's no ice here," Yumemi said, glaring at her.

Are you in on this? No, she can't be, even Yumemi wouldn't work with any Frostfarer that wasn't firmly chained up, Koyomi thought. "Follow me, but stay strictly behind," she told her, as she then dragged Yumemi all the way up the stairs towards that shadowy figure… only for that figure to right down from above onto her.
As a pinned Koyomi struggled to break free from under their feet, she was nearly struck silent as she looked up. "You're… no, there's no way," she gasped as her eyes' met a Frostfarer's, but not Blue Lotus'. No, this abominable Frost Rook was from years back, a beast who'd massacred legions on the very battlefield of Shin Sekigahara.

"I'll say. You're that Daimon woman, aren't you?" Yumemi, for some reason, said to the Frost Rook. "I always knew you were nothing but a parasite upon my Koyomi," she seethed.

Stomaching being 'her' Koyomi and hearing Emi be called a parasite, Koyomi could only wonder how Yumemi in any world could ever mistake a Frost Rook for Emi. Then whoever this stranger was had to admit, in a tone that sounded little like a Frost Rook, "Is my power really that telltale?"

Learning that this could all be some illusion made Koyomi show Yumemi her secret. Proclaiming "Henshin!", Koyomi sprang out from under this stranger, then just by pointing her sword at them, surrounded them in an avalanche of shadows. As Yumemi's turned grew a ghostly pale, Koyomi muttered to her, "Yeah. And this isn't even half of it."

Being swarmed in darkness however only sent this stranger cackling. "Checkmate, Bad Seed! Darkness is one of our most primal fears, ergo I couldn't be any more in my element!" she howled, then lunged forward with a blood red blade of her own, sending Koyomi and Yumemi crashing down the stairs.

As Koyomi struggled to get back on her feet again, she snarled, "Drop the disguise, O Purified, I know you're playing with me."

"Might as well, now I've already learned what you fear," this stranger said, as Koyomi finally got to see her for who she was. A tan-skinned woman with bleach white hair, her Hanazakari Regalia was like a cross between a mortician's suit and a jester's costume, alternating between sickly purple and dark crimson. Long ribbons flowed down that slithered like snakes. "If you know your horticulture, you would've already figured I'm Rhododendron in Full Bloom," her creepy-crawly voice skittered out.

"Did she say, 'in Full Bloom'? No, I must be dreaming," Yumemi said, a little too fittingly, upon pushing Koyomi off her. "That's what your characters call themselves in Frost Generation. Wait, that explains it," she calmed down for a second, "This must be some crazed fan, that's all. Well, a crazed fan that can cast illusions, I suppose."

Koyomi snarled, how could Yumemi be so in denial? "Yumemi, did you not see me transform too? This is far more than some crazed fan," she hissed. She then pointed her quill-sword right at Rhododendron and demanded to know, "Alright, what are you Purified planning? How did you even create a world like this?"

"Me, a Purified? Already you insult me," Rhododendron said back. "I'm no foaming-from-the-mouth cultist. Kamizono just so generously funds my research that I simply can't refuse her."

"Of course, makes sense a cult leader would want to control people through knowing their fears," Koyomi muttered, knowing fear played at least a part in Rhododendron's Cultivar. "And you, Rhododendron, already sound worse than Freesia. She has the excuse of believing what Kamizono spews, while you sound like know she's full of shit, yet still happily do her dirty work anyway."

Rhododendron flinched at that, but shook it off and said, "Quite the bold proclamation, given we've only just met. And" she then sounded like she swallowed something nasty, "do not compare to that Kurara. I've no patience for little girls, except of course when they're screaming, ahem, so I have negative for grown women who still act like them."

"At least Freesia was actually there at Shin Sekigahara," Koyomi ventured.

That sent Rhododendron twitching again. "Don't flatter yourself and her, you wouldn't have lasted a day in India back then.
As for your assertion that Kamizono and I are the masterminds here, oh if only. I'm as trapped in this world as you are," she said, not that Koyomi was so ready to believe that. "However, I do know the Hanazakari responsible, who in South Asia doesn't know her? I'll make you deal, how about we get back to our own world quicker by teaming up to find her? Oh, Kamizono won't stand for me allying with a Bad Seed, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

It just seemed insane to Koyomi that this Rhododendron would even make such an offer. "First things first, Yumemi has the right to know what this even all is," she said.

"Oh right, the Brigadier's counterpart. Hah, if only I could learn what the real Brigadier fears," Rhododendron said. "I'm sure it'd be more interesting than just the Frost Fair again. Such a boring answer, Bad Seed."

"Wait, Brigadier? Ahem, well Koyomi, let's hear what this all is," Yumemi narrowed her eyes at her.

"…I'm not your Koyomi," were the words Koyomi settled on. "I'm the Arisugawa Koyomi of another world, where the Hanazakari aren't fiction at all. Now you see why I had to show you my powers, words alone would've never convinced you. And no, I've got no idea where your world's Koyomi is. Oh, and Rhododendron here's employed by a cult in that world, one that tried to kill me."

She braced for Yumemi to say something like 'Your words wouldn't convince me? You don't trust I trust you?' but thankfully she said nothing like that. Just an "I see," was all that surfaced from Yumemi, but the look on her face alone told Koyomi those words were but the tip of the iceberg.

Article:

As for Rhododendron's sudden offer of allyship:

[ ] Koyomi accepted. Like it or not, she was their only lead on finding who was really responsible for all this, and she was hardly typical of the Purified. Plus, telling her no could just make her attack them again.
[ ] Koyomi refused. No way was she teaming up with anyone who worked for Kamizono, especially anyone who was fully aware of how awful she was yet didn't care.
[ ] Koyomi asked a few more questions first, before she could accept.
[ ] Koyomi asked a few more questions first, but planned to tell her no anyway.
[ ] Koyomi asked Yumemi what she thought, out of courtesy at least.
[ ] Write-in