Chapter 139 - Dawn Of The Final Day
"…and I think that settles it for now."
"Do you really think it'll be that easy?" Minou asks skeptically. You shake your head.
"It's not going to be easy. Communicating with people rarely is." Though outwardly your composure is absolute, internally your focus is split. While you're advising Minou, mostly just letting her talk while offering a few words of commentary or recommendation, the remainder of your attention is pushing your senses out through as much of the Emerald City as possible. While you have no direct way of mapping the Abnormality's lair, picking out the general locations of anything that can think is enough to get you a half-decent mental model. Perhaps more helpfully, it tells you how many of said creatures are around. Just from your survey, it doesn't look great.
But setting aside some of the more interesting discoveries for when you can actually act on them, your conversation with Minou is just about done.
"Just be sure to have Lapin there to mediate and remember that the point isn't to prove you're right, but to reach reconciliation. All the rest is going to be up to you."
Minou's uncertain expression holds, but she doesn't argue. "So will you agree to assist us?" That same imperious tone from before has returned, though the young woman's lapse in emotion has left traces in her voice that still linger. A slight tremble, an errant note, things entirely missable to an ordinary person.
"I can't promise anything just yet." you say, holding up a hand to preemptively silence Minou's indignation. "It does seem within my capabilities, but I've never attempted anything like what you're proposing before. Furthermore, your mother's current condition appears entirely unique. I cannot claim with certainty what I will and won't be able to do until the time of the operation."
"I… suppose that will have to be enough." Minou accepts with a faint sigh.
"Good to hear." you confirm. "So, is there anything else you or your siblings need to tell me, or are we done here?"
Minou considers for a moment before answering. "I believe that will be all. It has been a pleasure meeting you, X. I hope that our collaborations will bear fruit."
With those words, space deforms and another portal unfurls in front of you, showing the rooftop where you and Minou met.
"You could just drop me off by my apartment. It's not like I don't know you know where I live." you comment offhandedly, taking some concealed joy in the way Minou fails to conceal her own embarrassment as the portal's view shifts to the parking lot outside the apartment complex where Mami's house is.
"Close enough." you shrug, and without another word you step forward and out of the Emerald City.
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The moment you're out of the Emerald City, it feels like a fresh breeze has just struck you. Not being able to feel the all-encompassing presence that comes from an incredibly powerful Witch's Barrier and an Abnormality as vicious as the Wizard combined is a blessing. You hadn't realized how accustomed you'd become to the chaotic hum of emotion that fills Mitakihara. Argalia's presence shines like a beacon to your senses off in the distance, perched on the tallest building in the vicinity and singing a silent melody through the City. The children are clustered together not far from him, all safe and accounted for. You could walk, but seeing as you asked Kyoko and Homura to keep watch for you it would probably be best to get there quick so they can be relieved of duty.
The teleportation spell flares into existence around you without a noise, a veil of stardust revolving within the layers of rings and runes at a gentle, calm pace. You absently wonder if you could use the Knight's teleportation to work out how Blue Star's own technique works. It's not a pressing need since the main point of teleporting is just getting from one place to another fast and you can already do that, but the Aleph-class' method is more foolproof and has less visible startup time than the Knight's. It's probably not, but you'll never know until you try it.
Those idle thoughts are interrupted by a sudden pain lancing through your insides. You choke back a cough, feeling the cold bile slowly slide back down your throat. A few traces of sickly fluid make their way to your tongue, immediately releasing the acrid taste of chemicals. The teleportation spell falters as you stumble. Internally, you curse. Why now of all times? Well, at least your episode didn't happen when you were in the Emerald City. That would have been an unmitigated disaster. Quickly, you call up a soldier for support. The automata arrives without sound or ceremony, looping one of your arms over its shoulders and keeping you standing. All the while, you pull the teleportation back together and reorient to aim for somewhere private. You would be a fool not to assume you're still being watched, and you cannot leave yourself vulnerable like this. At least the spell itself should have covered up most of it.
A flash of light and you're leaning against a sheet of cold rock surrounded by heavy snow. The howling wind carries with it a nearly malicious chill that beats ineffectively against your body as you sit and catch your breath. The small outcropping of stone you lean against is the only thing breaking the flat frozen vista visible as far as the eye can see.
Your location was well-chosen, as expected. There's nobody around, so you can take this moment to catch your breath.
It looks like you're going to be late in getting back. The weakness hasn't gone away, and just the thought of standing up now makes you feel as though your limbs are full of tiny needles that shift around whenever you move. You're going to be here for a while.
Well, if you're stuck here, you might as well make something of this time. And since there's one person whose surveillance you know you haven't escaped…
"Hey, Kyubey? I need some information about some Magical Girls."
The alien mascot steps out from behind the rocks like it was there all along. Its tiny feet don't break the snow as it marches around to seat itself in front of you.
"Who do you need to know about? Names would be easiest, but I can work off of basic descriptions as well."
For a moment you debate trying to use the emotions you sensed in the Emerald City to fill out the rest of the Adult's roster, but that idea is quickly discarded. The impressions you got are far too vague to pick specific individuals out of a population that could include just about every Magical Girl currently alive in the area. Not to mention Kyubey's own poor understanding of emotion. No, you're better off just getting what you came for.
"I need to know everything you have about Isabeau de Bavière and her children Minou, Lapin, and Corbeau." Your voice is strained as you speak, and you find yourself out of breath by the end of the sentence. How irritating. You knew these episodes would be troublesome, but to barely even be able to speak?
You'll need to ask Angela about a way to ensure this doesn't happen during the impending attack. You can't be kept out of action when the time comes. At least so far, you've never been struck when you weren't in the middle of something.
Oblivious or uncaring to your internal frustration, Kyubey delivers the information you asked for with a bright, chirpy tone.
"Isabeau de Bavière was an anomalous contract. She managed to learn too much about our systems and Wished to control them herself, partially becoming an Incubator in the process. She gained access to our networks and used them to create many subservient Magical Girls. The other three you mentioned, Minou, Lapin, and Corbeau, all Contracted with her. There were many others, the vast majority of her Magical Girls were controlled through a peculiarity of the intent of her Contract."
"A peculiarity?" you repeat, voice still hoarse.
"Isabeau was able to control any Magical Girl who Contracted through her. This ability was never used on the identified three for unknown reasons." Kyubey relays. You grimace, and something deeper inside you squirms angrily. How unpleasant. "Eventually, she became a Witch. This would have resolved the issue without incident, but a Contract was made that attempted to reverse the transformation. It failed, and the Witch was placed in Isabeau's body and given the ability to think logically. The resulting anomalous entity attempted to conquer and then eradicate all of humanity, necessitating indirect intervention through a special Contract. Both the empowered Magical Girl and Isabeau were killed in the resulting conflict, as were Lapin and Corbeau. Minou's Contract was voided by Isabeau's death and she died not long after."
Interesting, but the more useful details are ones you could reason out from your own observations. The nature and origin of Isabeau's current state is helpful, but it's not information you can act on right now. "Do you have some sort of personality file on Isabeau you can give me? Specifically with comparisons before and after the Witch was born."
"Those files do exist, but they wouldn't be very useful in decision-making. Isabeau only became proactive after becoming a Witch, and mostly aimed to strengthen her nation subtly through a few carefully-chosen Contracts. She was very ambitious, but what ends that ambition was aimed towards are unknown. Besides, while observing emotion is easy, understanding it is your specialty. If you'd like, we can just send you a transcript of all recorded actions Isabeau has taken during her life."
"I would like that, actually, though maybe highlight the important bits. I can only read so fast, y'know." you joke. "Say, you're being awfully forthcoming."
"Concealing information from you offers no benefits. Besides, the only reason you would have asked about those Magical Girls was it if was relevant to you somehow. Otherwise, there'd be no reason for you to even known their names. We have a mutual goal of protecting humanity, so helping you do just that when another threat is clearly present is just logical."
"I guess I could see that." you muse more to yourself than anyone else. The words scrape against your throat on the way out, the stinging cold doing nothing to numb the pain. It seems like you might be here a while.
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You return to Mitakihara well past midnight, finally recovered enough to not fear being spotted while vulnerable. There are still no cars outside of the Miki residence, meaning the parents are probably still not home. A shame, you do need to talk with them tomorrow so you don't drag their daughter into an active war zone without them knowing. You're hardly a responsible adult, but you'd like to at least maintain the illusion of such. On the other hand, almost one in the morning is generally considered a poor time for any discussion of value.
Argalia's keeping his distance, but you can feel his presence not far away. It'd be impossible not to, that cool electric rhythm soaking through the world and calling it to resonate with the Enseble's Conductor.
At least he's not interfering any further. You really need to figure out what to do with him.
You open the door as quietly as you can and are greeted by the sight of your children tangled in a cuddle pile in the middle of the room. Mami lies in the center of the huddle, halfway out of her sleeping bag. Sayaka still has one foot hooked on the edge of the couch where she was presumably sleeping before, and is half-tangled with Kyoko who left her own sleeping bag to bury herself in Mami's. Madoka has been draped over the other three, her sleeping bag also discarded. Hitomi is the least entangled, but was seemingly dragged in by Sayaka. Yuma is snoring loudly not too far away; she must have fallen asleep first. Not wanting her to feel left out, you carefully and quietly reposition your youngest daughter by sliding her in at Mami's side. With the modification complete, you step back and admire the scene.
"Adorable."
There is one person conspicuously absent from the huddle. Standing stock still off to the side, Homura's disguise has been set aside to reveal her real body once again. Fine purple sand is frozen half-bleeding from the ragged holes dotting her body, staining her white shirt and the black coat left unbuttoned over it. Only the red ribbon tied around her waste is unblemished.
"How long have they been asleep?"
"Fifty-three minutes. Mami asked me to wake her when you arrived." Homura answers.
"It might be best to let her sleep. It's Thursday tomorrow, you all have school." you say softly. It would really be a shame to wake them at this point. They all look so cute, tangled up like that.
"I can compensate for any lost time." Homura assures. Right, time manipulation. There's no reason she can't just speed things up and give the kids a few extra hours of sleep. Come to think of it, you've really been underutilizing Homura's abilities. Ah well, that's correction to be done later.
"If you say so, but I'm making sure you're fully charged afterwards." you accept, and Homura steps silently over to the cuddle pile and slowly extracts Mami from the center. It's honestly pretty impressive, considering she manages it without waking anyone. Only after separating her from the other sleeping children does Homura gently shake Mami awake.
Mami blinks blearily and grumbles in a very uncharacteristic manner as she looks around the dark room. Her gaze first lands on Homura, who casually points in your direction.
"M-!" Mami's initial exclamation is swiftly silenced when she remembers where and when she is. "Mom? You weren't back when I went to sleep. I… I was worried about you."
"Hey, you don't need to do that." you assure. "Nothing's gonna happen to me. It's me who's supposed to be worrying about all of you, got it?"
"I know, it's just- you left and did come back when I expected it and…" Her voice trails off into a weak laugh. "Well, you can see what happened. I made such a fuss over nothing."
"What was it that caused your delay? Was the incident you found resolved?" Homura asks, blunt and pragmatic as usual.
"Yes, everything's in place. I'll fill you in more tomorrow when you wake up. I would've been back earlier, but I got stalled by another episode. It was pretty inconvenient."
Mami's exhaustion is cast away in an instant, replaced by a trickle of panic. "Episode? What does that mean?"
"Just my… condition acting up. It's nothing to worry about. I've still got plenty of time." you say. You'd rather the kids, your kids in particular, not worry about your health. They should be able to rely on you, not expect you to fall apart at any moment.
"Mom! That's definitely worth worrying about!" Mami exclaims, prompting a few half-asleep grumbles from the pile of sleeping children. The noise puts an abrupt end to Mami's shock, replacing it with a trace of embarrassment at having disturbed everyone's sleep. "You need to look out for yourself, too."
"I will, I will," you accept. "But you've gotta do the same, alright? Right now, that means going back to sleep. There'll be time to talk in the morning."
Mami hesitates, but then relents. "Alright. I'll see you in the morning, mom."
She looks back at the pile of bodies and, after a moment of thought, does her best to wriggle back in. Almost immediately, she is trapped when Kyoko rolls over. Mami makes a few halfhearted attempts to escape before accepting her fate and closing her eyes with a smile on her face.
"You gonna join in on that, Homura?" you half-joke, half-genuinely propose. You would make a joke about her getting a chance to cuddle up with Madoka, but sadly there's nobody awake who would react to it.
"Somebody has to keep watch." Homura replies.
"Hey, it's not like I need sleep. And cute as this scene is, I'm pretty sure it's weird to watch people sleep. I'll be in the area, and Argalia's not far off. You can afford to take the night off."
Homura remains silent, staring blankly at the scene before you. You clap one hand on her shoulder and crouch down to stand at eye level with her.
"Just give it some thought, okay? You're still a kid. You should do some childish things every now and then."
And with those words, you vanish from the room and begin the night's watch.
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The Last Day…
[] The kids deserve a totally normal school day
-[] Without you hovering over them
-[] But you're not leaving any of them unattended
[] They deserve a break; get them the day off
-[] Without you hovering over them
-[] But you're not leaving any of them unattended
[] There's no more time to spare, and you have to be ready. Take them to the Library for a full day of training.
[] Write-in
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Der Freischütz's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Porccubus' Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Schadenfreude's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
CENSORED's Sapling - Observation Level EXPUNGED/REDACTED
I really don't know how to write cute/fluffy scenes, but I had to make an effort at least once. It's the little moments of happiness that give weight to a story like this, after all.
If you don't pick training now, there will be other opportunities later in the day. This isn't the last decision you'll be making.
I might throw in a Zero to One Hundred update before the vote count ends if I feel like it. I do want to see that story through to the end, too.
