Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

You aren't really most pleased with her right now, perfect view or not. You were hoping to keep Una out of the loop for how badly you had been injured, and she'd just told her. You could kind of understand why she did that, but it still rankled you that she did.

Whatever, she was up and you had things to do. You pass through the rest of the room without work, ignoring a wave Morgan sends you out of the corner of your eye, closing the door behind you. You make quick work towards Karen, gently knocking on the door before she calls for you to enter.

Her room is less cluttered than the last time you were here and her desk is mostly clear. She still has slight bags under her eyes, but they are significantly lessened. She looks like she's doing well, but still not quite as chipper as you remember her on you first meeting. She looks up to you with a smile, already halfway out of her seat to the kettle. Honestly, this woman has an obsession. If you didn't know better, you'd think that Tea was her secret to immortality. Actually... You give her a long look as she returns with two mugs in hand, barely twenty seconds having passed. What does it say that it is a possibility?

Completely oblivious to your suspicions, she sets your mug down on the coffee table between the sofa's. Why is it called a Coffee table? It's not being used to hold Coffee... She interrupts your musing with a question. "What brings you her today?"

You shake off your thoughts and take a sip, thinking, before you speak. "I wanted to talk to you about how I am being deployed." She gives an interested hum, prompting you to continue. "I'm not adverse to how we've been doing it so far, but it's just..." You take a fortifying sip and breath out the hot steam of your drink. "I'm worried one day I'm going to die and my sister will be alone." There, you said it. Nice and prompt.

She nods smoothly, face softening. "Of course, I understand that. Perhaps I might have gotten too... arrogant, in my decisions." She dips her head a little. "I got caught up in the moment, only seeing obstacles that needed to be removed. What was that saying? 'If all you have is a Hammer, then every problem looks like a nail' " She shakes her head. "You had been doing so well that I perhaps underestimated how strong these creatures could be, and that is my mistake. I sent you in without proper intelligence or support, they should have already been waiting for you or have had a Scout on site."

She lowers her mug and sits back. "I understand that this will have shaken your trust in my abilities to lead, and that is a good thing at times. I am not perfect, being reminded of my fallibility is always a harsh lesson that no-one wants." She lets out a long sigh, waiting for your response.

You tap your fingers on your mug, nodding slightly. "You aren't wrong, but you aren't completely right." You grit your teeth slightly, admitting your failures was difficult. "But this was partly my fault. I got caught up in how little my past opponents have been able to do to me. I took unnecessary risks in the field and still carried on after I had been injured by my bad decisions. I should have pulled back and rested for a while, instead of pushing forwards."

You both sit there in silence for a while, before Karen breaks it with a slight chuckle. "Well, just look at the two of us, moping over a single failure." She picks up her mug. "I won't let this happen again, but I am not perfect Cerys, you understand the risks involved here."

You nod reluctantly at her words. "Yes, I do understand." You take another sip of tea, letting the air clear a little. "On this matter, I think that in the future it would be best if Daiyu and I were deployed together." You shift your jaw, trying to make the words come before you shake your head. "I just feel that we are supposed to work together."

Karen lets out an interested hum at your words, leaning forwards. "Is that so..." She stares at you for a while, nodding slightly. "Yes, I can see that."

"What?" She has a strange smile on her face, it looked like it belonged on a child more than an adult, the sheer glee you could see.

She shifts her smile a little as she speaks. "I believe that you are a Magical Girl Duo, that was separated or never met for some reason. Your names and themes seem to fit."

You tilt your head before a question comes to mind. "How do you know my transformation name, I've never told you before now. Actually, there was a Scout on a mission that knew it a couple of days ago?"

She coughs a little suddenly, looking slightly sheepish. "Ah, sorry about that. He has the ability to see the true names of anything, he identified you as Cerys, Magical Girl Ignition Knight." You tilt your head as she hums. "It might also interest you to know that your partners magical girl name is Magical Girl Ebony Knight."

Ahh. "Both Knights? Is that why you think we are paired?"

She nods, looking pleased. "Yes, there was only one other pair of Magical Girls that we know of, and both of their names had shared parts. We had thought that was because they were twins, but you have shown that it just means that they are paired." She shakes herself out of her excitement. "But yes, it would be best to pair the two of you together on missions. Despite the advantage of sending you both to two different places, it would place both of you are more risk."

You let the silence settle in after that, drinking your tea and gazing around, looking at all of the knick-knacks. Some of them look old, while some of them are clearly electronic. Huh. An idea that has been building since yesterday comes to the forefront of your mind. "Karen." She looks up from her cup curiously. "Do you think that you could send them a note or something, just to thank them for saving me like that."

She smiles brightly at your words. "I can certainly do that, don't worry, I'll have them known within a day or so."

You finish your tea, setting it on the table and standing with a nod. "Thank you for your time, I know you are busy."

She waves you off as she starts writing something. "No, no. It's fine."

You leave her there, stepping back into the halls and setting off towards the barracks.


HOW DID I GET HERE?

You were surrounded by women in various states of undress as they went about their daily routines, applying makeup and comparing clothing, generally getting ready for the day. Apparently the reason Karen was looking less stressed is because the Enforcers had finally passed Whales, lessening the numbers needed to cover the line as it advanced massively. Consequently, most of the female Enforcers were changing out of their work clothes into more casual clothing.

The last thing you had seen before being nearly dragged into the room was a giant shit eating grin on Chris face as he directed the women to bring you. Now you had to endure the attentions of dozens of affectionate, scantily clad women and it was was too much. You wiggled free of their grasp, turning to leave the room while keeping your eyes to yourself. Mostly.

When you escaped, you let out a sigh of relief and focus Chris with a glare that could strip paint. He is apparently entirely unaffected by the unwavering hatred you had directed at him as you walk to the door, stepping out on your way back towards your room. Ok lets just... Flashes of things you had seen pass through your mind before you shake your head. Never think about this ever again. You turn the corner to your room as a last thought comes to you. I am never telling Morgan.

You walk past Daiyu's door and stop as a thought comes to mind. You lean over and knock. It only takes Daiyu a second to open the door, a smile growing on her face as she sees you. "Sister, you are better! Good good." She waves you in as she talks, you gingerly stepping into her domain.

It's fairly sparely decorated, which makes sense, but you smell food and the bitter scent of black tea. Daiyu calls something to the kitchen in Chinese and gets back a response in the same language. She leads you over, waving you to where her sister is sitting on a chair and peeling potato's, a steaming mug of black tea sitting next to her. She nods to you as she continues peeling. "Hello, is nice to see you."

You nod back, not commenting on her grammar. "it's nice to see you too." An idea comes to mind. "I was just wondering if Daiyu wanted to practice or spar with me?"

Daiyu looks up at you with an enormous smile on her face. "Yes! Spar is good, want to fight by Sisters side." Oh yeah. She's still locked out of missions for another five days, seeing as she's been training while you were away.

Daiyu's sister grimaces slightly but nods slowly. "Yes, but I want to watch." Hey, that was pretty good pronunciation.

You nod back. "I was actually going to ask if you wanted to come watch, I was going to bring my little sister with me if that's fine?" They both nod in sync, looking at each other before smiling at some inside joke. "Right then, I'll go get her to go now, if that can be left?" You tilt your head towards the food she has on the go.

She hums before nodding, reaching over to set the temperatures lower. "Yes, can simmer on low to finish."

You collect your sister in quick order, creeping up behind her and scooping her into your arms, carrying her laughing and giggling form with you as you exit the room. "Want to see me practise some magic?" The way she frantically nods her head, it seems she's been waiting for this.


You all shuffle out of the car, waving to your driver in thanks as you enter the outdoors training range, this time with a specifically concrete and shielded area that you could practice in. Perfect. You had managed to get Daiyu's sisters name on the ride over, eventually just giving in to the awkwardness and asking her flat out. She didn't seem offended and had told you, it was Cuifen. Not exactly normal, but it was foreign, so whatever.

Still, training. You bring her to the centre of the area, your sisters staying outside as one of the staff flicks something, causing a shimmering barrier to appear over your training area. Good, I can practice everything here. You nod to Daiyu stretching before standing before her, beginning your transformation. She twitches, and you see her mouth moving, before you are both transforming.

When you are both done, you significantly faster than her, you both raise your eyebrows before shrugging. You test it out again, but neither of you suddenly start transforming on your own again, so you just decide to leave it as is. You show her all of your spells, though you don't actually create the Plasma Sphere, or extend your Aura's more than a foot from your body. You had warned her it might be weird, but she takes everything in stride, shrugging of anything she might have noticed without issue.

When you are done, she reciprocates, though she only has one spell, a barrier that she can apply to things for protection. Useful, but she couldn't do any of the little things you knew how to, you should probably fix that.

(Cerys: 91 + 10 = 101 Critical Success!)

You tried your best to teach her them and she learned everything extremely easily, it was honestly little scary, though she praised your efforts at teaching more than her methods of learning.

You spend a while thinking about what sort of things she can create or work out, mostly based around her Protection Affinity. You had no idea what to do with a Love affinity of all things, though it was certainly fitting, Daiyu was... very loving. You make sure that she understands the risks involved with experimenting on spells, mostly how dangerous it can be to both you and the people around you. She nods seriously at your words, but you get the feeling that she doesn't understand just how badly experimentation can go wrong. You still had lingering echo's of [Nothing] from time to time that made you twitch.

When you decide to spar, you take your places opposite and ready yourselves. You both summon your weapons, your two-hander appearing in a rush of flame as her sword and shield push their way into existence. When you take a gentle first swing at her, she smashes her shield into it hard enough that you almost loose your grip, abusing your ability to fly quickly to avoid her follow-up attack.

The next few clashes you hit much harder than before, actually going all out when you see your sword slide through her defences and skitter off her skin. It doesn't help, you are faster, but she is better. You do more damage, but she is so tough that even a fell strength strike does nothing more than shift her slightly where she stands.

Eventually, the two of you break off for a break. If she managed to lock you into sword on sword combat, she is much, much better than you. When you mix in things like flying or creating additional swords, it gives you enough leverage that it just brings the fight to a stalemate.

When you go at it for the second time, you feel your frustration rising, the complete and utter lack of ability to do anything to her, even if you can shift out of the way of her strikes is intensely frustrating. You start falling into a rhythm, a silent song and the beating of your heart. Strangely, Daiyu doesn't completely overwhelm you, her strikes meeting yours evenly in a clash of steel. You feel the rhythm as your heart beats faster, the two of you moving together rather than against each other.

A small smile forces it way to your face, as it does hers. It was exhilarating.

Of course, in the end, she manages to knock your sword from your hands, an agreed upon stop to a sparring match.

The two of you separate, her breathing a lot heavier than yours as you make your way back to your respective sisters. The trip back is quick, thankfully, and you slide into the bath to let your body rest. When you climb out, Daiyu comes to fetch you after a short while of childishly ignoring Morgan. Your entire group makes your way over to their room and enjoy their hospitality tonight. You break your silence with Morgan here, since you didn't want to ruin the evening by being petty, but you make a mental note to take her aside at some point and talk to her later.

[] Train with Daiyu
-[] Until she is allowed to go on missions
[] Practice magic
[] Visit London (Exclusive Option)
[] Other?