Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel

Now, I'm not an expert on mental health, and I assume neither are you. But in your opinion (good lord I almost wrote both 'potion' and 'option' when trying to write 'opinion') what do you think is the best outcome for Niko (and I guess the rest of her family, by extension) in terms of her mental health?
Like you said, I'm not a doctor; but assuming that Niko got C-PTSD (from what I assume is the initial trauma of the gun at way too young an age compounded by her parents trying to get her to 'give up on it' and neglecting the changes to her emotional development, combined with her history as a magical girl), then with therapy... well, copy-pasting symptoms I believe she's shown from the website on this kind of stuff:

Alertness or feeling on edge:
  • panicking when reminded of the trauma
  • being easily upset or angry
  • extreme alertness, also sometimes called 'hypervigilance'
  • disturbed sleep or a lack of sleep
  • other symptoms of anxiety.
Avoiding feelings or memories:
  • feeling like you have to keep busy
  • avoiding anything that reminds you of the trauma
  • feeling emotionally numb or cut off from your feelings
  • feeling physically numb or detached from your body
  • being unable to express affection
  • doing things that could be self-destructive or reckless
Difficult beliefs or feelings:
  • feeling like you can't trust anyone
  • feeling like nobody understands
  • blaming yourself for what happened
  • overwhelming feelings of anger, sadness, guilt or shame.
Difficulties with aspects of mundane life:
  • looking after yourself
  • maintaining friendships or relationships
  • your sex drive
  • coping with change
  • simply enjoying your leisure time.

Of course, these aren't all of the symptoms of C-PTSD; I'll go ahead and say that living with this on a long-term basis has allowed her to, not necessarily overcome, but suppress her flashbacks and instinctive stress responses. Hence, she probably doesn't need desensitization therapy, so that leaves behavioral therapy. I can't really speak to it's efficacy, and she'll need an actually good therapist to help her through this, but it should help with the categories listed save for avoiding feelings or memories. I consider it possible for her to have borderline personality disorder, but if it was that her mood swings would probably reach more emotions than 'shame'. It could be both, honestly, or neither. In essence, she's probably never going to get over distaste for projectile weapons or volatile weapons in general, nor will she get over her avoidant personality, but she should be able to live a functional, connected, and supported life. It could take years, could just take a few months. Definitely not getting fixed before Sidonia hits.
 
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Day 27 Chapter 26
[X] Plan: Reinvolvement



"I'd like to work on improving myself so that, one day, I can be your daughter again, but right now… I don't think I'm able to be Hijiri Kanna again just yet. I don't know if I'll ever be."

It takes everything in your power not to roll your eyes. "Niko~" But you do roll your girlfriend's name, right off your tongue. "Don't talk like that. Talking down about yourself like that isn't going to do you any good."

"I know," Niko replies. "I'm trying not to. It's just… So hard to get out of that habit."

"I know," you say; "And I'm so proud of you for the fact that you're trying." An internal debate rages inside you over how much affection you should show Niko. You are proud of her for how hard you know she's trying to get better, but you also don't want to show her affection in a way that could just encourage her to talk down about herself as an attempt to garner sympathy from you. You don't think Niko would stoop that low, but you don't want to encourage it either way.

To say nothing of the fact that her parents don't know that she's gay. You don't want to be the one to spring that on them if Niko isn't ready to say anything.

"But still," is what you eventually settle on, after deciding to refrain from any overt show of affection. "You shouldn't talk down to yourself like that." You won't try to lecture Niko about this or make her feel guilty, so you'll conclude by saying "It makes me feel bad when I hear you talking that way about yourself; like you don't value yourself. But you should. You made a mistake, but you're so, so much more than the sun of your mistakes, and as long as you're making progress towards improving yourself, that's good enough for me."

Niko's parents both nod their heads, and her mother says "Your friend has a good head on her shoulders, Kanna." You wonder if either of Niko's parents notice the way she's been wincing each time they call her by that name. By the soft smile on her mother's face, you'd guess they don't. Or else they do, but have their own reason for calling her by that name. "I know it's a bit late, but would the two of you like to stay for dinner? I'm sure my husband wouldn't mind whipping something up real quick if you did."

Niko's dad nods his head, and you look to Niko. "Well?" you ask. "They're your parents. I won't make you stay for dinner if you don't want to."

"No, I… I can manage that much," Niko says. "I… Yeah, staying for dinner would be nice."

"Then in that case, we'd love to stay for dinner!" you say, maybe more enthusiastically than either Niko or her parents were expecting. "I'm really interested in getting to know you two better." Maybe they'd be willing to share some embarrassing stories from when Niko was a little girl. O~oh, you're so excited!

"Well, how could we say no to such an enthusiastic response?" Niko's dad laughs to himself, before stepping aside so that Niko's mother can welcome you into their home.

"Again, we're both sorry about the mess," Niko's mom says as you and Niko enter. Niko hesitates, requiring several seconds before she can make an authoritative first step back into her home. The two of you take your shoes off at the door, and you look around as Niko's mom continues. "As I said, my husband and I are in the process of packing our things up before we evacuate. If this keeps up for a very long time, we're actually thinking of moving somewhere safer, away from all the…" A vacant expression appears on the face of Niko's mom, before she says, much less sure of herself than before, "Weirdness, around here. Maybe Tokyo would be a less… Eventful, place to live after all of this; and I'm sure Anthony's job would love to have him working out of their Tokyo office, so if that pans out it'll be good for us."

"What about Yuri and Mika?" Niko asks. "Did you bring this up with them? Wouldn't a sudden move like that impact their schooling?"

"They're young," Niko's dad says. "They'll bounce back; just like… Well, I guess you had a different reason for having a hard time adjusting to a new school after we left California." Niko looks away from her father, who quickly says "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Actually, you did a remarkably good job adapting to the move, for what it's worth."

"What was it like living in the US?" you ask, as much to Niko as to her parents. "You both keep bringing up how you used to live in California; what was that like?"

"It's… Pretty different from living in Japan," Niko's dad says. "For one, the people there are a lot more… Open, with each other. They're more casual, and people speak to each other as equals much more freely than they do in Japan. It… Comes across as disrespectful, at first, but once you get used to it you realise that it's just… An entirely different culture, with a different way of communicating."

"Kanna was just a baby when Anthony and I moved to California for his work, and she picked up a lot of that openness as a child. Anthony and I both knew that we'd have to move back to Japan one day, and we were always so worried about how she'd adapt to living in Japan again after she'd picked up so much of that."

A noticeable silence falls over the Hijiri household, and Niko's parents share awkward glances. Something happened to Niko when she was living in California, and that's what started all of this. You're sure of that, you just aren't sure what happened to her, and it doesn't seem like her parents are going to tell you.

"I think what I miss the most about living in California was the food," Niko's dad says. "Maybe it sounds a little piggish of me, but it was like every day was a new chance to experience something I'd never eaten before."

Niko's mom nods her head, and chimes in, saying "People always assume that Americans eat nothing but greasy fast food, but that's not true at all. Sure, there are some absolutely dreadful places to eat, but you could walk down the main street where we lived, and find restaurants serving cuisine from fifteen different countries. You'd have to go to Tokyo to find that level of culinary variety here in Japan."

"We didn't eat out every day, if that's what you're thinking, but having all those opportunities really gave us a chance to find what we did and didn't like, and work those into our own kitchens in due time," Niko's dad says. "I know we tried to make sure Kanna ate as wide a variety of things as we possibly could." Niko's dad looks over to her; Niko is trying her best to pretend like all of this isn't hurting her; and is failing pretty badly. Then, Niko's dad looks over at you, and he asks "Is Kanna eating right… Wherever she's been staying? She looks a little thin."

"I'm busy doing… Other things," Niko says to her dad. "There have been times when I forget to eat all together, and have to be reminded to eat by one of my friends."

"That's unfortunate to hear," Niko's mom says. "At least your friends are there to help remind you… What sort of other things are you busy with? Is it… You know, more… Like her?"

"Not quite, but it is in the same field, more or less," Niko replies. "I'm usually busy working on… Other things."

Neither of Niko's parents want to address the matter of what their daughter does. Instead, Niko's mom asks "So, tell us a little about these other friends of yours. We've met Kazumi – she's just darling, and your father and I are both so glad you've got a friend like her to… Help you where we couldn't – but what are your other friends like?" There's a slight pause, before Niko's mom quickly adds "Are they all… You know, like you?"

"Are they magical girls?" Niko's parents silently nod their heads. "Yes," Niko says. "Kazumi, as well as all of my other friends, are all magical girls."

"Are you… Are you sure that's a good idea?" Niko's dad asks. "I mean, shouldn't you at least have some… Normal friends your age? What about a boyfriend?"

You try not to give too much away, but the awkward look you and Niko share for a split seconds probably says more than either of you meant for it to.

"Anyway-" Thankfully, Niko's mom is able to get things back on track, saying "Now that that's out of the way, why don't you tell us about your other friends? What are their names? How did you meet? What sort of things do they enjoy doing?"

You give Niko a gentle nudge with your elbow; you'll let her start. "Well, first there's Maki Kaoru,' Niko says. "She's a few years younger than I am; just in her last year of junior high. She's a really big fan of football- Er, that's association football, not American football, in case you were confused. Plays for her school team, wants to go pro, that sort of thing. I've never been to one of her games, but she's always so enthusiastic when it comes to sharing her love of sports with the rest of us."

"She's friends with Misaki Umika… Or, she was." You won't press Niko to tell her parents about what happened there. "She's a bestselling author, if you can believe it. Though… I think she let her fame get to her head, because… Something happened, recently, that I don't want to talk about, and it almost caused our entire group of friends to break up." Niko's eyes dart over to you, and you give her hand a squeeze when it reaches out for yours.

"I'm still here, Niko," you want to say to her.

"That bad, huh?" Niko's dad says. He and Niko's mom share awkward glances, and you can hear them saying "I don't know if I want our daughter being friends with someone like that," even without having to hear the words leave their mouths.

"There's also Saki and Mirai," you say. "They're in university, and they're the oldest ones in our friend group. Saki's studying to be a city planner, and Mirai's the owner of that teddy bear museum… At least, before it blew up." You don't want to dwell on Mirai losing so much of her prized teddy bear collection, and you want to test the waters to see if Niko's parents are okay with who their daughter is, so you add "They're also dating. It's… I guess it's kind of weird, to have two people in our friend circle dating each other, but I'm glad they've managed to find happiness."

"They're… Dating?" You don't like that tone from Niko's dad. "They're… Both girls, right? And they're dating each other?" Niko's dad shares an awkward glance with his wife; and you don't like where this is going.

"Is that a problem?" Niko asks. "Sure, it's… Unorthodox, but Saki and Mirai are good people… Better than I am, at any rate; and they're happy together. What does it matter if they're both girls."

"Kanna, please understand," Niko's mom says. "I know they're your friends, but just think of how their relationship must look to other people. What about their parents? Certainly their parents must want grandchildren-?"

"They could always adopt," Niko says. "Or use a surrogate. Frankly, I'm not even sure if they've told their parents that they're dating yet. They only started getting serious about each other few weeks ago." Under the table, Niko's hand dares to meet yours in secret. You haven't completely lost interest in dinner yet, but you wouldn't mind leaving if Niko feels uncomfortable. "Frankly, that's beside the point. What does it matter if their parents, or other people, look at them strange for dating each other? As long as they're happy-"

"Kanna, the world doesn't work that way," Niko's dad says. "I understand the point you're trying to make, but you don't understand the way the rest of the world will judge them. Yes, it's not our business whether your friends are dating or not, but they have to know the risks involved. Society will never view their relationship the same as a normal one. They won't be allowed to get married, they won't have medical proxy privileges or visitation rights. It might even impact their academic or career opportunities, if the wrong person decides to come down hard on them for being different."

"The 'wrong people' haven't come down on them yet," Niko says. "We… The six of us have been working together with another team of magical girls… Most of them are dating other girls as well… The 'wrong people' haven't come down on them, either. In fact, from what I've seen they've got nothing but love and support from the people around them. So why do you think it's so bad?"

"We never said that," Niko's mom says. "We're just concerned about how society will look at them for their… Preferences, that's all."

"You don't sound like you're just concerned."

"Kanna, what has gotten into you?" Niko's father asks, raising his voice. "What does it matter to you whether we approve of your friends dating or not? You haven't even been home in almost a year; we didn't think you'd care what your mother and I had to think regardless. You certainly didn't care what we'd think when you ran off on us without even saying goodbye."

"Because I-" "Because I'm gay too." Though the words die in Niko's throat, you can still hear them in your mind's ear. "I should go now. Thank you for your offer of dinner, but I think I should be going."

"Kanna, wait-!"

But Niko doesn't wait; "And for the record," she says, as she turns her back on her parents. "My name is Niko. I thought I said that last time."

[ ] Wat do?
 
Well, that could have gone better. I tried to make everything that was voted on flow together into a single line that made dramatic and narrative sense for what it was, but still, that could have gone better.

If people want to continue with this, there's the option right there. If not, just say the word and I'll move on to our long-anticipated rematch, the showdown in the sands between two of history's greatest kings.
 
[X] Plan: Alright, This Went Horribly
-[X] Start things off with an 'okay, what the fuck' to her parents before quickly leaving. Their emotionally unstable and deeply traumatized daughter finally comes home and the first thing they do is roast her life choices? Wow.
-[X] Catch up with Niko if you can.
--[X] Sympathize with her a bit here. You get that her family life probably wasn't as happy as you might've expected it to be. You weren't expecting them to be so... arrogant about their daughter's life choices, and you honestly aren't sure it's going to get better. But at the same time, she's doing the thing again where she runs away from a problem instead of facing it. She cannot keep doing that, dangit. To herself and to others.
--[X] Screw it, you're staying by her side and stopping her from doing any of her normal stuff until Sidonia hits. You've got nothing else to do until then, and if she's going to keep running from her problems, then you are going to be a problem that she cannot run from.

Hoo boy, this was a lot worse than I was expecting. Maybe we shouldn't have brought up America or her childhood. What I am thinking is that she is probably not mentally prepared to go back any time soon, so we should not try to make her do so. That would make things even worse. As much as I want to avoid being stern with her, there's a certain threshold where being gentle just won't cut it anymore. Thing is, it's frustratingly hard to tell the threshold between 'will do nothing' and 'will send her back into depression' with her. That's why I've kind of been wishy-washy with how I've handled her, and I don't know much of what to do from this point. This vote is probably very poorly done, but not much else I can think of.

For the record, I do kinda want to see the rematch, but this takes precedent.
 
Day 27 Chapter 27
[X] Plan: Alright, This Went Horribly



"What does it matter to you whether we approve of your friends dating or not?" Niko's dad asks, raising his voice. "You haven't even been home in almost a year; we didn't think you'd care what your mother and I had to think regardless. You certainly didn't care what we'd think when you ran off on us without even saying goodbye."

"Because I-" "Because I'm gay too." Though the words die in Niko's throat, you can still hear them in your mind's ear. "I should go now. Thank you for your offer of dinner, but I think I should be going."

"Kanna, wait-!"

But Niko doesn't wait; "And for the record," she says, as she turns her back on her parents. "My name is Niko. I thought I said that last time."

Niko storms out, leaving you in the kitchen with her parents. You feel like you've just been shot, and her parents, who are sitting there with looks of confusion all over their faces, aren't looking much better. "Honestly, just what has gotten into her?" Niko's mom asks you, completely oblivious to what she and her husband just put their daughter through. "I hope she's not like that around you and your other friends."

The two of them shake their heads, and with a sigh, Niko's dad actually apologises to you, "We're sorry you had to see that," he says. "She… She doesn't know what she's talking about," as though Niko is the one at fault, and not them.

But you don't see it that way. "What's gotten into her?" you ask. "More like, 'What's gotten into you two'? Do you have any idea how much stress Niko is under? How much she's been hurting inside over everything that's happened to her?" You don't mean to be raising your voice, but at this point you don't really care about being polite to these two anymore. "Your daughter, who you haven't seen in the better part of a year, finally comes home to visit, maybe even to consider coming back permanently, and this is how you treat her? After this, I wouldn't be surprised if Niko never wants to come home again!"

"You're blaming us for this?" Niko's mom snaps at you. "After everything we've been through? Our daughter ran away from home and replaced herself with a… A thing without even saying goodbye, and we don't even find out until almost a year later! Then she runs away too, and as soon as she's returned to us we're given this huge infodump about how magic is real and how our daughter is somehow capable of creating artificial humans that look just like her. Then Kanna's duplicate runs off again, and it's only after that happens that our real daughter comes back, only for her to be a completely different person than we remembered her being! So forgive us if we're having some difficulty processing all of this!"

"After everything you've been through?" Niko's parents are idiots. "What about everything she's been through? Whatever happened to her when you were still living in California traumatised her, and really badly, too! She barely sleeps because she has horrible nightmares, she barely eats because she's too busy doing whatever she can think of to distract herself from her feelings, she's miserable pretty much every moment that she's by herself, and just now, when she was finally starting to feel okay about coming back here and being your daughter again, you had to go and act like that to her."

You feel like you've just slapped Niko's parents in the face, for how badly they're reacting to what you just told them. "She's… That bad, is she?" It's not phrased as a question. Niko's dad hangs his head, cradling it in his hand as he sighs to himself. "Kayako and I… Always knew that Kanna had been… Negatively impact, by the accident, but we didn't… She never told us that anything was wrong; she just… Kept it to herself."

"If that's how she thought you'd react if she said something was wrong, I don't blame her."

"No, no you're absolutely right," Niko's dad says. "Do you know what we've been through this past month? It's been… Awful, just trying to get through each day knowing our daughter was out there… Somewhere, and we didn't know where, or if she was safe, or if she was even still alive… We were so absorbed in how terrible we'd felt over her running away, that we never considered her side of things…"

Niko's mom lays one of her hands onto one of Niko's dad's. "We… We really screwed up, didn't we?" Again, it's not a question. "We were so happy to see her again, but as soon as… All of that stuff we don't understand came up, it was just like… Like we didn't know how we were supposed to act. I mean, what do you even say after learning that your entire world-view is wrong, and that your daughter is a real-life magical girl?"

"You tell her that you love her, and that you'll always be there for her no matter what," you say. "Not whatever you just said to her now."

"We do, it's just…" You want to scream at Niko's parents, because good lord you can totally see where Niko gets it from. "We're still having trouble processing all of… This. It feels like our world's been turned upside-down, and somehow our daughter is at the center of it all. We do still love her, but… We just don't know what to think right now."

"But we didn't mean to upset her, or make her feel like she had to run away."

"Well, you did," you say to Niko's dad. "You handled this… Really poorly. But at least you're acknowledging that you made a mistake and that you feel bad about it. That's always a good first step."

Niko's parents both nod their heads, and Niko's mom speaks to you "You know, we're really glad Kanna has a friend with a level head like you."

"Niko," you say. "She prefers to be called 'Niko' now. I know she's trying to get better, but she's not ready to be Hijiri Kanna yet."

"I still don't understand what you both mean by that," Niko's mom says. "She said the same thing the last time she came here to speak with us. But… How can she not be Hijiri Kanna? That's who she's always been."

"Niko… Is not well, mentally," you say to her mom. "She's deeply hurt by the things she's done, and, while I don't know the full story myself, I do know that she made that replacement so that she could be Hijiri Kanna instead. I think Niko could explain her… Logic, better than I can, but the fact is she doesn't consider herself Hijiri Kanna anymore."

That explanation hurt your head, but it seems like it hurt the heads of Niko's parents more than it hurt yours. "But then… How… How can she not be Hijiri Kanna, but still want to be our daughter?" Niko's dad asks. "Our daughter is Hijiri Kanna; it says so on our family register. So how can she-?"

"If it'll make it easier for you, you can think of 'Niko' as being a nickname that your daughter would prefer to be called by," you say. "My real name is Kazusa Michiru, but all my friends call me 'Kazumi' instead. You can think of your daughter the same way. Sure, maybe it says 'Hijiri Kanna' on your family register, but she'd prefer to be called 'Niko'."

Before Niko's parents can say anything, you excuse yourself from the table, bow, and say "Now, I need to go chase down your daughter. I don't know if we'll want to visit again for… Well, a while, really, but maybe if things improve we can try again in November." As you leave the kitchen, you hear Niko's parents talking to themselves, and that's when you hear it.

"You don't think…?"

"It's so obvious, isn't it? Why else would she have gotten mad at us for talking about her other friends like that?"

"… We really screwed up big time, didn't we?"

"At least… At least the girl she's with has a good head on her shoulders. That's about all we've got the right to ask."


You don't smile to yourself. You're sure Niko, if she thought it was a good idea, would have wanted to tell her parents about you and she being together herself. But at least her parents have realised how stupid they were being, and maybe, just maybe, from the tone of their voices they'll come around to their daughter being gay. But you don't worry about that right now, because you've got to catch up with Niko.

You grab your shoes, but to save time you don't bother to put them on and instead run – ouch – out the door – ouch – barefoot. Ouch. The broken concrete – ouch – that comprises what – ouch – remains of the sidewalk – ouch – digs into the soles of – ouch – your feet as you run, but – ouch – you know that if you – ouch – stopped to put your – ouch – shoes on, you'd – ouch – never catch up to – ouch – "Niko!"

Unlike you, Niko was smart enough to put her shoes on before leaving, so when she stops running and turns to face you, you're sure there's no pain in her feet. There's plenty of pain in her heart, however, and it breaks your to see Niko looking so miserable. You just want to reach out and hug her, kiss her, let her know that everything is going to be okay.

But you don't, because for as much as you want to be affectionate with Niko, there's something else you have to address with her first. "Listen, Niko, I know you must be pretty upset right now," you say. "I don't know if your family life was always so… Like that; I know I wasn't expecting that, and I think it's pretty awful that your parents treated you like that."

That, and despite the fact that they seemed to get the message, past experience with their daughter tells you that change is probably going to be slow-coming for the Hijiri adults.

"But, at the same time, you're doing that thing again where you run away from your problems rather than trying to face them. I know it's bad for you, you know it's bad for you, and we both know that you can't keep doing that."

"What am I supposed to do, then?" Niko sounds defeated. "I… You heard the way my parents were speaking. How was I supposed to tell them that I'm a lesbian if that's how they'd react to someone they'd never even met being gay? They don't even know Saki or Mirai-"

"I know," you say. "It made me pretty mad that they'd talk like that to you, too; and I get what you mean, I really do. How are you supposed to deal with your parents if they'll just act like that if they find out that their daughter is gay? You can't just hide it from them forever, but…" You shake your head. "Sorry, I don't really know what to do about that in particular, either." You steel yourself, and emphasise, "But, just in general, you can't keep running away from your problems. You're never going to get better if you keep running away each time you're confronted by something that's painful."

It takes Niko several seconds, several pained seconds where nothing happens, before she can bring herself to say "You're right," to you. "I… I have a problem, and I can't do this on my own. So, what do you plan on doing about it?" "What do you plan on doing about me?"

You approach Niko, carefully, slowly, so that you don' aggravate your feet any further than you already have. "Well, if you want to keep running away from your problems," you say, "Then I'm going to make myself a problem that you can't run away from."

You've already gone over in your head the reason why you don't want to make it seem like you're rewarding Niko for bad behaviour; but she's making progress by admitting it, right? Well, you do the only thing you can think to do. You lean in on your tip-toes, and plant your lips against Niko's. You hold her while you kiss her, and she holds you; and oh good lord is that some tongue she just slipped you?

You're going to remember that.

You're also glad there's no one on this street to see you.

Oh, what the heck! Let the whole world see you! The whole world needs to know that you love this beautiful, wonderful, traumatised girl!


Reluctantly, you break away from your kiss with Niko; if you didn't need to breathe, you wouldn't bother to. But as soon as you've broken your kiss, Niko scoops you up in her arms, and cradles you, bridal-style. "Well, you're certainly one problem I'd rather not run from," Niko says. Her eyes dart down the length of your legs to your feet – oh good lord this is so embarrassing Niko stop staring at my feet I'm practically naked in this outfit without my shoes! – and then down to your shoes, which you dropped several meters away when you went to kiss Niko, and she says, almost in a tone that's more sarcastic than Niko has any right to sound, "But what about you? If I tried to run, would you be able to follow me like that?"

"Uh…" Niko's question catches you off guard, and you awkwardly squirm in her arms. "Can I put my shoes back on, now?"

Niko kisses you again, and with obvious reluctance on her part she sets you down. You quickly grab for your shoes, and Niko waits patiently while you slip them on and lace them up. You've got your shoes on, and there's something you want to say to Niko, but she's faster. "So, Problem," she says, letting just a bit of a playful tone show through in her voice. "If I run, are you prepared to chase me?"

You're through letting Niko run from her problems. "To the ends of the earth, if I have to."

"Then catch me."



"Mom, dad, I'm gay, and Kazumi is my girlfriend."
 
Today, 6 September, is the two-year anniversary of the original story coming to an end. The 1st was the end of votable material, while the 6th was the end of the epilogue omakes that comprised the final chapters of the story. How time flies.

Anyway, I had originally meant for the update before this to end on a more positive note, but Niko's parents got the better of my fingers as I was typing, and it was only after sitting down and seeing how poorly-received it was that I realised just how badly I'd screwed that one up. But thankfully, the vote that Plague gave me was more than enough to get me back onto the track I had originally been hoping for. Granted, that might just be me taking more liberties with the vote than I should have, but I'd rather try to put things back on the track I had initially wanted. I had also initially wanted to actually show Niko returning home and coming out to her parents, but I thought the single-line implication was a good enough way to end things without dragging the ending out unnecessarily. Maybe if I think of it, after I'm done with the rematch I'll come back and give this a proper, complete ending. Or not, if you think the implication is good enough on its own.

On another note, Niko has in fact princess carried Kazumi twice before, once in the manga proper (and my god, look at how close those two are to kissing in that last panel) and once in a colour image from the manga's fourth volume, which was also used as a promotional image in Manga Time Kirara Magica. Incidentally, the version of the latter image from Kirara Magica is captioned, if the translation I saw is accurate, something along the lines of "Spending the winter with the person you love most" or something to that effect. It's the reason why I think Kazumi/Niko is one of the closest to canon pairings in all of the associated Madoka Magica universe. Saki may love Kazumi, but she doesn't have anywhere near the amount of game that Niko does. God damn these two are so fucking gay for each other. It warms my heart.

In a mostly-unrelated note, the "ouch paragraph" is one of my favourite things to have written for the entire sequel.
 
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Day 27 Chapter 28
[X] Plan: Test Run (part 2)



"Now remember, Caster, this is just supposed to be a practice match. So please, refrain from trying to kill your opponent. That means no Chains of Heaven, and no Ea; do I make myself clear?"

You've been putting this off for long enough. Wakaba Mirai's new Mystic Code should be allowing her to properly supply mana to her servant, but you want to make sure that it's working properly before you tell her to deploy Ramesses into a heavy combat situation. You stand back a ways, along with the majority of your combined team, as Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai speak to their respective servants before the match.

"All right, Rider, today's the day. You're finally going to be allowed to go wild. Just, uh… Just don't kill their Caster, okay? This is just supposed to be a practice match, so don't vaporise him or anything, got it?"

Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai step back, joining you as you watch the scene unfold from a distance. Caster and Ramesses take their places as opposite ends of the arena. What will they open up with? You wonder. Full-front assaults of their strongest weapons, or will they make probing strikes first in order to gauge their opponents' weak spots? No doubt, they already know their enemy's weaknesses and strengths.

You hold your breath, anticipating the match to come. Beside you, Wakaba Mirai sits down, clutching a Grief Seed which she nervously runs her fingers over. She says nothing, but you can see the intensity in her gaze.

"Shall we dispense with the pleasantries, oh King?" Ramesses asks of Caster. He holds his position firmly, standing proud with a hand on his hip, and his other hand clutching at his crook. "Our masters have been waiting for this moment. Let us not keep them wrapped in suspense while we stand around making idle prattle."

"A most agreeable suggestion you have forwarded," Caster replies. Step by slow, steady step, Caster advances, drawing a heavy, ornate axe from within his golden portals. "It would do us no good to mince words now, when we can let our skills do the speaking for us. The time for talk may come later, after we are spent."

When their weapons meet, it's almost impossible to tell who dealt the first blow. Ramesses is fast with his crook, striking at Caster's leg, but Caster blocks, returning with a swing of his axe that occurs at almost the exact same moment in time. After that initial display, their blows become a flurry, and it truly does become impossible to keep up with them. There's a brief flash of red; Caster's axe has landed a glancing blow on Ramesses' cheek, but it leaves no more than a faint scratch, and draws only a few drops of blood. It does nothing to stop their exchange of blows, trading favourably for a blow to Caster's leg that does almost nothing to slow him down.

Those are only probing strikes; they're testing each other before making any serious overtures. You look to Wakaba Mirai; so far, the flurry of activity and the glancing blows don't appear to be taking their toll on her, and the Grief Seed remains loose in her grasp.

Caster's swing goes wide by just a fraction of a centimetre, giving Ramesses enough room to bring his crook around. You see Caster hesitate, and move to block the strike; but he's blocking a strike that doesn't come! Ramesses' crook continues straight on, clipping Caster in the jaw and causing him to step back.

"What was that?" you hear Wakaba MIrai ask Tomoe-san. "Why didn't your Caster block that? It was such an easy shot?"

"Caster meant to block a feint which he saw your servant make against him," Tomoe-san replies. "So when Ramesses' attack continued straight on, it caught him by surprise."

The two return to trading blows as soon as Caster has stepped back into the ring, and this time, it is Caster's blow which sends Ramesses back. Slipping his axe underneath Ramesses' crook as he swings, Caster catches him in the chest with the broad flax of his axe, and Ramesses is sent reeling backwards several pained steps.

Beside you, Wakaba Mirai's grip on the Grief Seed tightens, but as she breathes in deeply, you see her grip relax as her servant rights himself. She keeps that up, no doubt steeling her body for what is about to come.

"It seems we have reached the limit of what we can do, just as we are," Ramesses says to Caster. "Perhaps now that my master is more agreeable to the idea, we can finally unleash our fully fury upon one another?"

Caster smirks, returning his axe to its place inside his golden portal as he crosses his now-freed arms over his chest. "Our contest is hardly one which our full fury can be afforded," he says. "But I agree; it is time for us to 'up our game', as our masters might say."

As it was when their offensive first began, you find yourself hard-pressed to determine which king is the first to launch their attack. Ramesses unleashes bolts of sunlight with the wave of his crook, while Caster's golden portals open up to reveal staves, which set of an impressive light show as golden explosions burst from the earth, causing a wave of stone to overtake the sun-lances. The two are launched in such quick succession that the only reason you're able to guess which one came first is the reactive nature of Caster's choice. Immediately, Caster launches his own offensive, loosing high-pressure jets of water from his staves, forcing Ramesses to intercept them with his sun-lances, cutting them off at the source.

Caster is forced to side-step the sun-lances in order to not be sliced to ribbons; he does so, effortlessly, and returns fire – literally – blasting Ramesses with jets of flame from his staves. Ramesses retaliates with more sun-lances, with slice their way through the flames, only to reveal Caster's trap. Not an elemental attack, but explosive gemstones are launched from Caster's staves next, which explode in Ramesses' face and force him backwards to avoid being swept away in the blast.

Sun and water; sun and fire; sun blocked by pillars of earth; sun and a rainbow of explosions; each time you think your eyes have managed to follow the flow of battle between Caster and Ramesses, an explosion of colour tears your focus away from you, forcing you to reconsider your opinion of the fight. You look to your right; Tomoe-san is calm, watching the fight with a look of determination on her face. Every new explosion as the attacks of Caster and Ramesses meet dyes her golden eyes in a different colour; red in the glow of flames, blue as the jets of water, green and all the colours of the rainbow as gemstones explode like the dazzling glitter of Tohsaka-san's attacks.

Caster didn't just steal that attack from Tohsaka-san, did he?

He's not using his swords; out of a desire not to kill Ramesses, no doubt, but the blasts from Caster's staves are growing ever greater, to be met by the sun-lances of Ramesses II which have only grown in intensity as well. Their blasts meet, scattering and raising explosions all around the battlefield. "Caster's restricting himself to attacks that will allow Ramesses to show off, but not put him in any danger," Tomoe-san whispers to you. "I… Guess I agree with how he's doing it, though I doubt Ramesses would let himself be skewered as easily as Caster thinks he would."

You nod your head, and look over to Wakaba Mirai. Her breathing is steady, calm, measured, but her grip on that Grief Seed is iron, and you see a thin trickle of blood dripping from her closed hand. "How are you doing?" you hear Asami Saki whisper to Wakaba Mirai. "Are you doing okay?"

"Rider's really taking a lot out of me," Wakaba Mirai says. "But, I only know that 'cause I can feel how quickly he drains me. I'm not actually taking on any Grief even though I can feel him burning through me like crazy."

That means the Mystic Code Hitomi and Oriko provided for her is working, you imagine. You tilt your head back slightly, and catch Hitomi's attention. "Is the way she described that accurate?" you ask, knowing that Hitomi is the only other person who could tell you if Wakaba Mirai's Mystic Code is working properly or not.

"I think so," Hitomi replies. "When I tell Saber to go all out, it feels like I'm constantly being drained, but somehow I never run dry. The feeling will take her some getting used to."

You nod your head again, and return your attention to the battle as a golden flash of sun tears through an earthen barrier, forcing Caster to step to the side before he can retaliate with jets of fire and water. Staves are discarded as Caster pulls out his axe again, and he and Ramesses meet in the middle, clashing their weapons together with much more ferocity than before. These aren't probing strikes; these are strikes meant to break the other's weapon, and even from this position you can hear the strain each weapon makes as it slams into its other.

Finally, with one great heave from each combatant, their weapons break. Shards of heavy axe spray into Ramesses' face as they splinter, while two broken halves of his gold-and-blue crook strike Caster in the chest and arm. Both fighters are forced back from the blows, and they take up new positions.

"Your master has done well to support you this far," Caster says, nursing his injured arm as Ramesses wipes the blood from his face. "Even if you were to forfeit our duel now, she would no doubt be impressed by how much longer she can command you for without tiring."

"You insult me, oh King, if you think for even one second that I will give up while my master has the means to fuel me yet. Nay! I shall fight on!" With that proclamation, Ramesses raises his hand, and calls "Barque of Ra, come to me! Mandjet!"

The clouds part as a massive, familiar boat comes down from the heavens. Wakaba Mirai grits her teeth and tightens her grip on her Grief Seed, but still she makes no move to cleanse her Soul Gem, nor to call off her servant's Noble Phantasm. Ramesses mounts his boat, and its bow is lit up by dozens of solar rays as he prepares to fire on Caster. "Surely, you must have something in your unending arsenal which can match this, oh King?"

"With pleasure."

In a blinding flash of gold, Caster has mounted himself upon his massive, uh, ancient fighter jet, thing – seriously, what the heck is that? It's been a year and a half, and you still have no idea what the heck that thing even is or where Caster got it from! He called it a 'Vimana', but how could someone from ancient Sumer have a freaking fighter jet! – and takes off, engaging Ramesses in the sky.

Caster's Vimana rockets high into the sky above Ramesses, and from above looses many luminous blasts from his staves, causing Ramesses to force his boat to take evasive action; and this is where your willing suspension of disbelief takes a vacation. You could believe all the other stuff you've seen so far; the hideous witches, servants with magical and martial powers from beyond time; improbably weapons with untold power; but you draw the line at a dogfight between a Sumerian fighter jet and a flying boat from ancient Egypt! It's just absurd!

Your eyes can barely follow the twin flashes of gold as they soar through the sky high above your heads. You can only tell which flash of goldl represents who by the colour of their attacks; Caster employs a wide variety of blasts, reds, blues, greens, and golds, while the blasts let out by Ramesses' boat are only ever the orange-gold of the blazing sun.

"They cannot be serious," you say to Tomoe-san, as the two of you watch as Caster's golden whatever soars through the thick, smoky cloud left in the wake of several explosions going off all around his craft. "I mean, this is just insane."

Tomoe-san can only shrug her shoulders, and reply to you with an equally incredulous "I assure you, Akemi-san, Caster is enjoying himself."

You can only nod your head, and look to Wakaba Mirai to gauge her comfort level. Now, the strain of commanding her servant is showing on her face, and her eyes are constantly darting back and forth between the battle in the air, and the Grief Seed clenched tightly in her hand. But her breathing remains steady, if laboured, and she holds off from using it.

Beside her, Asami Saki reaches out, placing her hand atop her lover's. "You can tell him to stop if you can't take any more," she says to Wakaba Mirai. "You're keeping Rider going a lot longer than you could before; nobody would complain if you called him off now."

"No," Wakaba Mirai says. "I can keep going… Just a little bit more…"

The sky is awash with lines and explosions of colour as Caster and Ramesses continue their dogfight, lighting up the city skyline like fireworks on a festival night. Your heart aches when you remember the summer festivals you and Madoka attended earlier this year, and your lips yearn at the thought of kisses long faded from memory. It's almost enough to make you forget about the beautiful light show this battle has devolved into.

But not quite. Not quite enough to divert your attention from the massive explosion that rips both combatants out of the sky. Caster is falling, having been thrown from his fighter jet by the explosion, while Ramesses is screaming down in hot pursuit, no longer riding his boat, but rather carrying it! What the heck? Is he going to-!

As the two approach the ground, Ramesses lets out a loud cry, "It is useless to resist, oh King! My master has proven that she has what it takes to support me!" which heralds him as he throws his boat at Caster-! "It is useless, oh King! Useless!"

But no sooner has Caster hit the ground, touching down with an impressive landing that shatters the earth at his feet, than he launches into a retaliatory strike. "Had I the spine of a lesser man, oh King, I just might have taken you up on that! But no-!" Caster spreads his arms wide, and launches into a full-scale assault with all staves blazing. The attack intercepts Ramesses' boat as it flies towards Caster, and the massive explosion as Ramesses commands his boat to retaliate provides more than enough of a cushion for him to safely land opposite to Caster.

Ramesses rises to his feet, and with his own arms spread equally as wide, he proclaims "You have not won yet, oh King! Now, I bid you face my final Noble Phantasm! Ramess-!"

"That's enough, Rider!"

Ramesses brings his declaration to a halt immediately upon hearing his master call out to him. Wakaba Mirai has, it seems, thrown in the towel, and the Grief Seed that was clutched in her hand she now holds tight against her Soul Gem. "That's more than enough," she says. "You don't have to do any more."

Ramesses nods his head. "It is as you wish, master," he says to Wakaba Mirai.

[Homura]About the results of the fight, you feel
-[ ] Good; Wakaba Mirai was able to keep her servant fueled right up until the very end
-[ ] Some concern; Though she was able to keep her servant fueled, Wakaba Mirai was still struggling, especially towards the end
-[ ] Very concerned; Wakaba Mirai was babysitting that Grief Seed the entire fight, and looked pretty bad come the end of the fight

[Homura] Based on the results of the fight, you think
-[ ] You can call this job a success
--[ ] Have as many people as you can go back to what they were doing before today's attacks disrupted them
--[ ] Tell everyone that they're free to go if there's nothing else they can think of that needs to be done
---[ ] Go home and spend the rest of the afternoon with your family
---[ ] Go check on Madoka; you need to make sure she and her family are doing okay after what happened
---[ ] Go check on Sayaka and Kyouko; they're probably shaken up by what they saw, and you need to make sure Sayaka is going to evacuate as well
-[ ] You aren't sure if you can call this a success just yet
--[ ] You should ask Hitomi and Oriko to tweak Wakaba Mirai's Mystic Code, and maybe have her or Ramesses fight a lesser opponent again, just to be safe
--[ ] You should tell Hitomi and Oriko to make major overhauls to Wakaba Mirai's Mystic Code, and have her try again tomorrow when they're finished
-[ ] Other (write-in)

[Kazumi] Do you
-[ ] Try having dinner with Niko's parents again
--[ ] Keep your conversation light; don't try to bring up anything that might set Niko or her parents off again (and you don't want that)
--[ ] Ask Niko's parents what happened in California; you need to know if you're going to have any hope of helping Niko recover from it
-[ ] Just go back to base with Niko and relax
--[ ] What does relaxing entail?
---[ ] Keep Niko company while she works on a project (does she actually need to do this, or is she just using this to run away from her problems?)
---[ ] Think of something you could do together, like a puzzle, a board game, watching a movie or a TV show (do you even have a TV in your new base?), etc
---[ ] Take Niko to talk to Assassin and try to work out an improved treatment plan for her (that doesn't sound very relaxing, does it?)
---[ ] Just go in her room and kiss the stupid girl until it's time to go to bed (are you sure Niko is ready for intimacy so soon after what happened at her parents' house?)
---[ ] Other (write-in)​
 
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Hoo boy, that was a long one. This was tricky, not because the participants aren't trying to kill each other, but because I was trying to write this from the perspective of Homura watching the fight and reacting to it like a sports commentator, rather than just depicting a big fight like this in my usual, semi-bird's-eye view. That's why there's an equal amoutn of focus paid to Homura interacting with Mami and Mirai as the fight happens, and why the fight is written the way that it is, with only as much detail to it as Homura's eyes could reasonably see. Hopefully you all enjoyed these two going off the chain and getting to have their rematch.

After this, I don't really know what else we'd want to do. Chronologically, this is all happening before Kazumi and Niko have met with Niko's parents, so there's that to consider as well. Maybe we want to take a second stab at that, maybe we want to break and have time for our own family, maybe we think Mirai's Mystic Code needs to be tweaked and that's something we could have Hitomi and Oriko working on. I don't know.
 
Oh hey, there's the Takehito Koyasu coming out.
Look, I couldn't just have him scream "ROAD ROLLA DA!", okay? But I really wanted to.
And I honestly don't know what to do either.
Maybe either @NMS or @K4lepo will have something they consider worth contributing to the conversation. If not, I guess I'll try to come up with something tomorrow. Maybe broad strokes would be better, or maybe just winding things down for now. I'd like to be done with today on or before the 10th, so that just leaves three or fewer days to be filled with stuff, unless something comes up and I'm struck by a flash of insight. I'll try to make tomorrow more eventful. Hopefully.
 
Oh, he wasn't seriously about to drop the Pyramid on Gil was he?
I would like to point out that Ramesses has only ever made jokes when it has to do with his bread. I say I would like to, because we haven't interacted with him enough to know if that's a hard and fast rule, or just a consequence of us not seeing much of him.
 
As promised... Ish, I've tried to give us something of a bit more substance to end this one off with. Obviously, some of these are going to be more involved that others, but it's on you. I'm not going to tell you, for example, what you should think about the performance we've just seen our two ancient assholes put on, nor am I going to tell you how we should proceed from here or whether we think Mirai is good to go or if her Mystic Code needs work based on what we've seen. And of course there's a whole block for Kazumi as well. So that's that.
 
[X] Plan: The Sweetest of Hearts
-[X] Homura:
--[X] About the results of the fight, you feel some concern; Though she was able to keep her servant fueled, Wakaba Mirai was still struggling, especially towards the end
--[X] Based on the results of the fight, you think you can call this job a success; Tell everyone that they're free to go if there's nothing else they can think of that needs to be done
---[X] Go check on Madoka; you need to make sure she and her family are doing okay after what happened
-[X] Kazumi:
--[X] Just go back to base with Niko and relax
---[X] If she has something time-sensitive involving the fight with Sidonia to work on, then you'll let her; but you are going to stay by her side and force her to take breaks.
---[X] If her next projects aren't relevant to the Sidonia fight, then she is going to sit down with you and have some fun cooking lessons (because that's what you're good at, it might help vary her diet a little bit, and it'll take time which leaves room for some good conversation, so that hits a lot of checks)

Not sure about seeing Madoka instead of Kyouko and Sayaka, but I imagine that Kyouko's got enough experience to deal with what she saw properly and impress on Sayaka the need to evacuate ASAP, and checking on Madoka is probably the more in-character choice for Homura.
 
--[X] Just go back to base with Niko and relax
---[X] If she has something time-sensitive involving the fight with Sidonia to work on, then you'll let her; but you are going to stay by her side and force her to take breaks.
So, off the top of my head, I think the only things that Niko has to do that would actually be helpful to us would be finishing that thing she was working on where our familiars' A/V feed is synched to our devices. Can you recall if she finished that or not?

Oh hey, there's the Takehito Koyasu coming out.
Look, I couldn't just have him scream "ROAD ROLLA DA!", okay? But I really wanted to.
Actually, it turns out I can. Though it's cutting it close, steam rollers had in fact been invented and were in fact in use during Hans' lifetime. So while I can't realistically have Ramesses say anything, I could in fact have Hans say it instead.
 
So, off the top of my head, I think the only things that Niko has to do that would actually be helpful to us would be finishing that thing she was working on where our familiars' A/V feed is synched to our devices. Can you recall if she finished that or not?
I'm not sure she actually did, no. But I'm pretty sure the familiars were complete? Not too sure, just going off of what I remember.
 
I'm not sure she actually did, no. But I'm pretty sure the familiars were complete? Not too sure, just going off of what I remember.
The familiars are all complete, yes. I just can't remember if Niko's program that goes with them is complete or not. However, since I'm working on the Homura half of this vote first, that'll still give me, you, or whoever else wants to volunteer, another day to check through the archives for an answer.

On an unrelated note, we've got four posts left. How can we kill them?
 
Or, I guess, just Niko, since she still needs to program the familiars Bryn and Aífe are making to provide real-time feed to our phones and laptops and stuff.
According to this, she was working on them during yesterday in-game, so she might have that done or not, depending on what you think.

On an unrelated note, we've got four posts left. How can we kill them?
Just not green beans.
 
According to this, she was working on them during yesterday in-game, so she might have that done or not, depending on what you think.
Yesterday in-game. That's good; that's a start. I'll check yesterday either later today or tomorrow and try to see if I can figure out how far Niko might have gotten.
Just not green beans.
All right, how about ice cream? You got a favourite flavour? I like apple-flavoured ice cream, but it's so hard to find where I live.
 
All right, how about ice cream? You got a favourite flavour? I like apple-flavoured ice cream, but it's so hard to find where I live.
Personally, I like coffee-flavored ice cream, or if I'm not looking to give myself a massive rush during the night, then I usually stick with either rocky road or mint & chocolate chips.
 
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