Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

Consciousness filters in slowly, trickling back in in drips and drabs. You're cocooned in delicious warmth, and there are a pair of arms wrapped possessively around your waist. Mami. Recollection of yesterday is quicker to come, like a thunderbolt striking and bringing with it simple joy.

Your eyes drift open, to be greeted by Mami's peacefully sleeping face, just centimeters away from yours. Her breath mingles with yours, tickling your skin.

You can't help the guilty squirm that's always at the back of your mind, that Mami isn't really fully well and you don't want to take advantage of her for your own selfish reasons, but... you've gone over that already with yourself, around and around and still-

You're here. And this is fine. It's not perfect, but it's wonderful. You smile at Mami, admiring how she manages to look effortlessly radiant, with her hair messy from sleep and illuminated by just the streetlight shining in through the window.

The joy is enough to buoy you out of the bed, except that you have a plan this morning that begins with stealing Mami's alarm clock with a few marbles of Grief you guide in from your bag out in the living room. You float it carefully over to where your arms are wound around Mami, and flick the alarm off before carefully setting it back on the bedside table.

Phase one, complete: Mami is dear to you, and she's amazing in so many ways, but she is not a morning person. She's not waking up until much later.

Phase two, then. You need more Grief, but that's easy enough to solve. You already have Grief migrating down from the roof, along the exterior of the building - and you skid a few Grief marbles along the wall until you find the window, and its latch.

You focus for a few minutes as you mould the Grief thoughtfully. You could make a chibi you, or you could make an army of chibi yous, or you could make a full sized version of yourself. The problem with that, though, is that you aren't absolutely sure the sensation of Witch won't wake Mami. She might be used to it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.

Hmm.

Alright, then. You'll fall back on the same trick you used yesterday: a carefully balanced array of arrays of nanoscale cantilevers sensitive enough to feel the dance of photons. It's not sight; it's not wired into your visual cortex. It's more like someone drawing on your skin with a million tiny little pins, each one a photon twanging a tiny, tiny bar of Grief.

It's not much harder to shrink the arrays a little so you can see in the visual spectrum. Without active Grief, you don't have the carefully designed lensing arrays, but you make do with parallel constructs in the same way a long baseline radio telescope array might work. Besides, this gets you stereoscopic sight, which is useful.

Manipulating kitchen equipment is much easier. Grief forms a perfect actuator, of course. You can lift pans and keep them absolutely steady, for one, and tossing a pancake with mechanical precision shouldn't be too hard. You'll put that to the test in a bit. First, you have to actually make the pancakes.

You set about doing just that - a dozen different things happening at once as you fill the rice cooker, grab some breaded chicken from the fridge, start whisking up some vinaigrette for salad, clean out the strawberries, crack eggs into a mixing bowl for the batter... There's a minor jam at the sink as you try to clean too many dishes at once, the clatter of colliding plates making you wince even from here.

Nothing broken, thankfully.

Breakfast takes twenty minutes to prepare, with a basic lunch on the way. You're certain Mami will want to cook something special to swap with the Asunaro girls, so you've just prepared some fried chicken, rice, and salad - a nice, simple baseline.

And still plenty early for you to have a nice, leisurely breakfast in bed, and for Mami to cook. Perfect. You take a moment to set it all up on a Grief tray, and hover the platform over to the door, just out of sight.

"Mami?" you murmur, smiling and worming one hand free of the covers to pat Mami's cheek. "Mami, time to wake up."

"Mmm?" she mumbles, face scrunching up adorably as she nuzzles against your hand. "Mmmmm."

You giggle, patting her cheek a little more firmly. "Mami, it's time to wake up. Breakfast is ready."

"Mmmmmn," she hums, a gentle smile rising to her face. Her eyes flicker open a few seconds later, sleep-befuddled gold meeting your gaze. "Breakfast?"

"Good morning, Mami," you say, smiling warmly at her.

"Good-" she's interrupted by a huge yawn. "Good morning, Sabrina. You- you prepared breakfast?"

"Yup," you say, beaming.

"You shouldn't have," she says, giving you a soft, fondly exasperated smile as she starts to sit up.

"Nuh-uh," you say, tightening your arm around her waist and stopping her from getting up. "I should have. Stay."

"Mm?" Mami says, twisting to look at her clock. "Oh, it's still early..."

"Yeah, I thought you might want to make something special for lunch," you say with a smile. "But no, stay here."

The puzzled look on her face is chased away by the arrival of your breakfast tray - heaps of pancakes, with fresh fruit and honey and butter and cream, and freshly steeped tea.

"Oh, Sabrina," Mami says, beaming at you. "It looks wonderful. You really shouldn't have."

"Should and did," you say, grinning right back as you float the tray over.

Mami beams at you, and then blushes. "Um... I do need to get up," she says, with a meaningful glance at the wall.

You give her a quizzical look before it clicks. "Ah, right. Now that you mention it, I need to go, too... OK, breakfast in bed is postponed for fifteen minutes."

She huffs a laugh, and hops off the bed as you move your breakfast clear and cover it to keep it warm.

When you exit the bathroom, you find Mami in the kitchen, fussing with a pot. She gives you a quick, slightly guilty smile, stirring more.

You laugh, and walk over to hug her from behind. "Cooking for lunch?"

"I wanted to get an early start," she defends half-heartedly, uncertainty flickering across her face. "Is- is that OK? I don't... the breakfast in bed is wonderful, Sabrina, and I don't want to waste it, and I'm looking forward to it, but I just need a little bit more time to cook. I- I'm sorry."

"I get it," you say with a reassuring smile as you tuck your chin on her shoulder. "I get it, Mami, you don't have to justify yourself. What are we cooking?"

"Ribollita," Mami says, biting her lip. "It's- it's alright? Really?"

"Yes, really," you say with a warm smile. "It's OK, Mami. I understand."

"Alright," she whispers, leaning into your embrace.

You hug her close for a few minutes before speaking again. Ribollita... a rich stew of vegetables and meat, thickened with bread. And it's nice and simple, too. "What do we need to do next?"

"Um... just to add the beans and herbs," Mami says, indicating the small bowl of beans, already washed and ready. "Then we need to reduce it for a bit."

"Well, we can eat breakfast in bed while it reduces, right?" you say, tightening your hug around her. "It'll be fine."

"Alright," Mami repeats, relaxing. "Then- I'll add it in?"

"Yeah," you say, releasing Mami to let her work. She gives you a wan smile, which you return warm and pleased as she stirs the pot and adds the next round of ingredients, reducing the heat.

"All done?" you say, smiling at her and wrapping your arm around her waist. "Shall we have breakfast?"

"I'd like that," she murmurs.

"Then let's," you say, tugging her back towards the bedroom, where breakfast is waiting. You beam at Mami as you tug her back onto the bed, and she curls up beside you with a quiet noise. You sit side by side, arranging the pillows to get more comfortable.

... the bed's a little cramped to be eating breakfast side by side on, if you're honest. Regardless, you float the breakfast tray over, beaming at Mami.

"Dig in," you say with a smile, and uncover your breakfast. It's still warm, a gust of lovely sweet fragrance wafting invitingly towards you. "Itadakimasu!"

Mami echoes you, and with your encouraging smile, reaches for the fork to grab some pancakes. She slices off a small piece, drizzling it with butter and honey before popping it into her mouth. You watch as she chews, irrationally anxious. You've made pancakes before, but this has to be perfect.

"It's wonderful," she says, beaming at you.

"Good," you say, a broad smile breaking out on your face as the tension vanishes from your shoulders. You help yourself to more pancakes, and start in on your own breakfast.

Truth be told, you think the pancakes are a little soggy from the wait, but you're not going to say anything about that. You finish breakfast, Mami giving you a bright smile as you stand and head to the kitchen to clean up the dishes and finish the ribollita.

You take a moment to reach out by telepathy as you cook, mental call going out across Mitakihara. "Goooood morning Mitakihara!"

"You're late today," Sayaka says, sounding amused.

"Eh," you say. "Waking you up early was funny once or twice, but I don't want to actually deprive you of sleep when you need it. Good morning!"

"Hmph," Sayaka says. "I'm still angry at you about the whole Oriko thing."

"Good morning, Sabrina! How are you?" Madoka says cheerfully.

"Good morning," Homura murmurs, Hitomi chiming in last. You make some small talk, checking that everyone's doing alright this morning - Sayaka seems uncertain as to whether to be thankful for the few minute's extra sleep, or to tease you over being late. You fill everyone in about your expected lunch guests from Asunaro, to which Madoka frets over not having known in advance.

After that, it's time to pack and be ready to leave for the day. You and Mami take turns to change - you put on a blouse and a pair of pants. You are going to Asunaro, after all, so you have to be appropriately equipped to blow their minds with proper clothes.

You grin brightly at Mami as you step out of the bedroom. She smiles back, radiantly pleased.

"Oh, by the way, Mami, can I get some ribbon from you?" you say as you reach for your bag, slinging it over your shoulder. You'd meant to do some testing yesterday, but you didn't have the time for it.

"Mm? Of course," Mami says, pressing her thumb and middle finger together before pulling them apart to reveal the bright glint of her ribbons. "How much do you need?"

"Uhh," you say. "Maybe a few meters?"

"Alright," Mami says, offering the ribbon to you, still held taut between her two fingers. "Pull!"

You grin at her, and do just that - you hook a finger through the middle and start pulling. It unspools as if drawn from some invisible reel, Mami's smile widening as you laugh in delight.

"Alright, that's enough," you say, grinning at Mami. With a twist of her wrist, she detaches the ribbon from her fingers, leaving you with a small pile of golden ribbon pooled around your feet. You start stuffing it into your bag. "Thanks!"

"Of course, Sabrina," she says.

And then you're headed out. You're carrying the stew, poured carefully into a large Tupperware and wrapped carefully with a thermal bag to keep it warm.

"You're sure you can leave it at school?" you ask Mami, indicating the plastic container. "I can carry it with some Grief, no problem."

"It'll be fine," Mami says, beaming at you. "I'll just leave it in my locker."

"Alright," you say, walking closer and bumping your shoulder against hers - you'd hold her hand, but both of yours are currently full with carrying the stew.

You're joined by your friends along the way, making your way to school in a chattering little mob. You don't let Homura drift quietly at the edge of the group, either - you and Mami exchange a sly grin and work in tandem to corral her towards the center of the group where Madoka's walking.

"And here we are," you say finally, nodding at the truancy officer, the same one as always. Does Mitakihara Middle School only have the one? Maybe they work in shifts or something. "Have a good day in school, everyone! Don't forget our guests later, yeah~?"

"'course not!" Sayaka says, grinning and flashing you an energetic thumbs up. "We'll make a good impression, I bet! Though, right - Sabrina, you said you wanted to talk to me at some point, right?"

"Oh, yeah," you say, scowling. "Yeah, I'd nearly forgotten, thanks for the reminder. Uh... I'll catch up with you at some point."

Homura nods, amethyst eyes fixing on yours for a long, long second before she nods and half-turns towards the school gates. You all exchange goodbyes, except for Mami, who hums quietly, waiting for the others to trickle off towards the building.

She approaches you as Sayaka leads the sedate charge on Mitakihara Middle School. There's a warm smile on her face as she takes the container from you, and then she hesitates.

"See you later, Mami," you say. "Lunchtime."

"See you," she echoes, taking a reluctant step back, eyes still fixed on you.

You smile at her. "I promise."

"Alright," she whispers, finally turning to head towards the gates. You wait until she disappears into the building with one last lingering look back at you.

With another polite nod for the truancy officer, you head off. You have science to do, and Mami's ex-student to kidnap. To which end, you set an alarm on your phone for an hour from now - that should leave you a reasonable amount of time for you to drop by Kasamino, and then head to Asunaro and back.

For now, you turn down an alleyway. You'll head over to Warehouse-kun for a science session.

Hm. If you're with Mami now, that means Warehouse-kun is unattached, you suppose. Maybe you'll ship him with Table-chan or something.

... nah, that's silly.

You nearly trip over Kyuubey as you crest the roof from your wall-hopping. Instead you flinch, and stumble over to the side.

"What do you want?" you snap at the little alien perching on the edge of the roof.

The Incubator stares at you with unblinking red eyes. "Sabrina, your chosen method of travel is unsubtle. Recent times have resulted in a disproportionate amount of effort expended in maintaining the secrecy of magic."

"Uh huh," you say, frowning. Euphemistic references towards mind-wipes, of course, which you're not quite happy with. "Why do you bring this up?"

"I would like to introduce you to a puella magi versed in stealth," Kyuubey says, tail flicking slowly as it hops up on an air conditioning vent so that it's nearly eye level with you. "And I'd like you to acquire a stealth enchantment from her. This benefits both of us."

"Sayaka has stealth, too," you point out, staring at Kyuubey. That's... well, it could be trying to backstab you, but this is explicitly an offer for you.

"She needs to go to school," Kyuubey says. "Additionally, she's inexperienced with enchantment, and won't be able to make you a stealth device."

"Uh... huh," you say. "Or I could ask Yuko, over in Sendai."

"She has not experimented with enchantment," Kyuubey answers, pausing for a second. "This is to our mutual benefit."

Voting opens Jul 22, 2017 at 1:00 PM
[] Talk to Kyuubey
- [] About?
- [] Agree with its offer
- [] Disagree
[] Head to Warehouse-kun for Science
- [] Experiment on the ribbon
- [] One more avenue of research
[] Head to Kasamino
- [] Talk to Kyouko about?
- [] What do you offer as payment
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)


And here begins Book 2, chapter 9: "We Don't Go To Ravenholm Asunaro..."