[Exalted/SMT] Shard of a Broken Sun

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 08:00

She woke from a dream of being hunted, only to find herself in a strange bed staring at an unfamiliar ceiling full of harsh, white lights. For a moment, as she shook off the remainder of her dream, she found herself incongruously wondering where her egg-shell was, wanting to close it around herself to block out the lights.

The events of the previous day slowly filtered into her mind.

She had defeated a demon, witnessed a slaughter, and… become something else. Or been possessed by something else, she didn't know which point of view was most accurate. Then… what had happened? They'd been driven here with Mom, but…

Her memories of what happened after attacking the demon were strange, dreamlike and shattered, but she knew that her family was safe, and here. That should even include Dad and Ami, though she hadn't seen them arrive.

R-r-r-onc. Shshshshhhh…

Amu yelped, a high-pitched shriek that cut short when she almost fell off the bed, instinctively dodging the scary sound. She pushed herself to a sitting position to scan the room. To her left, a flat pillow with Ran, Miki and Su sleeping together under a blanket - no, that was away from the sound. To her right…

Ph-rngh-rlyeh-fhtarghn. Shshshshshsh….

A sound that man was not meant to know cut through her nerves, and for every not-syllable of the horrific noise she felt an icicle rasping across her back. She knew, she knew that she mustn't look, but the terrible force of the unearthly voice called out to her through the vehicle of blood. Ever so slowly, every iota of her mind giggling in slight hysteria, her head turned to where she would face the origin of the horror.

Rhgn-ngluhi-kharla-fharghn. Shhhhhh…

She grabbed the pillow she'd been sleeping on, aimed, and beaned Dad in the face.

"For crying out loud, wake up!"

He really shouldn't sleep sitting upright. It didn't work very well. Though… he'd probably been sitting there all night, hadn't he? At least half the night, swapping with Mom?

When he finally woke up, it was to Amu's beaming face… and another pillow, which she'd implausibly aimed to bounce off two beds and hit him from behind.

———​

​

"So."

So.

She'd begged off immediately explaining the situation, instead asking him to let her explain during breakfast. She'd been planning to get dressed, wake Ran and the others, find Mom and Ami, and get everyone together for the explanation. Explaining it once was intimidating enough, if she needed to repeat herself she'd probably end up spontaneously combusting.

She'd gotten to step one of her plan before the first hitch had shown up. No, her outer clothes were neatly arranged on the bed to her left, that wasn't the problem. The problem was, when she'd pulled the blankets off her feet, she'd found a yellow egg with diamond markings sitting there. Waiting for her to notice it.

That's why she was crouched on her bed, leaning on her elbows and examining the egg with an intent expression. That's why Ran, Miki and Su were standing in tight formation around it. That's why Dad was repeatedly polishing his glasses, apparently hoping it was a speck of dirt that'd go away if he got them clean enough.

There was no apparent change to your mind, not even through memory formation, but it would be most imprudent to assume they achieved zero effect. Unfortunately I cannot say what the effect, if any, might be.

That was also why she was listening to her robotically worried possessor going on about a not-really-dream she had apparently had during the night.

"So," Dad repeated himself, sounding bewildered. Amu was having a hard time herself. "Does this mean I'll end up with a sixth daughter?"

"Yes."
"Looks like."
"I wonder what she's like?"
"Um…"

That last one was Amu herself. She'd barely had time to realise Dad could see all of them now, and was still having trouble integrating their sudden status change from "slightly strange not-quite-herself non-imaginary friends" to "sisters". Emotionally, she'd made the shift months ago, but consciously… there'd never been reason to think about it. Of course she'd realised they chafed a little under their limitations, but there had never been anything she could do about it.

Now even Miki was showing off her smile, energetically flitting around to examine the otherwise empty infirmary - at least until they'd discovered the egg - and asking Dad about all the various pieces of of medical hardware. With Ran and Su doing the same, the room had seemed crowded even with just the five of them; Amu herself was the only quiet one.

Another Chara, and a possibly-modified one? That was too…

She shook her head. No, she wouldn't claim it was "too much", or that things were changing too rapidly, or anything like that. Things were changing, and she simply needed to keep up. She should be able to do that - she was the Joker, wasn't she? Change was her specialty.

"So," she admitted.

"W-well. Anyone for breakfast?" Su asked. Amu could have hugged her.

———​

​

Miki constructed a basket for the egg with little fanfare except an incredulous stare and a quick explanation to Dad, and they found Mom and Ami in the base's cantina, staring down "breakfast" alongside a gaggle of exhausted-looking soldiers that barely even registered their presence. She didn't see Lieutenant Yamada anywhere, but to judge from the non-reaction he must have already explained why they were here.

Breakfast, once they'd sat down next to Mom and Ami, was an unappetising-looking bowl of soup alongside freshly baked but plain bread. Ami was barely touching it, contenting herself with making ripples in the soup rather than actually drinking it. She lit up when she noticed Su, reaching out towards her.

"Su! Chuu! Snacks?"

Su blushed, suddenly the centre of attention. Wait, what was it Ami said?

"Snacks?" Amu asked, directing a half-lidded look towards the offending -

Her thoughts went into a tailspin. Sister? Twin? Or should she still call them Charas? There were some obvious differences between them, even ignoring how they'd been born.

"It's the best way to keep her happy," Su defended herself. It didn't seem like she'd noticed Amu's sudden uncertainty. Sister, she decided; twins were supposed to identical, and given the size difference they definitely weren't, though that was the only difference she'd ever noted.

Mom was looking between the three of them, sudden understanding on her face. "Ami, you already know Su?" She asked.

"Suu-neechan!" Ami happily confirmed. "Snacks?"

"She's always been able to see them," Amu agreed. "Su, what's this about snacks? Have you been feeding her?"

"Whenever we're babysitting her, yes. It's that or get squished…" She poked two fingers together, looking a little guilty.

"That would explain some of her requests, but… Amu," Mom stated severely. "Did you get your sisters to babysit Ami for you? You should know you can't do that, what if something happens? You know they wouldn't be able to stop Ami from getting in trouble, they're far too small for that."

"Hey! I'm a lot stronger than I look!"
"You look like you could be crushed by a heavy book, Ran."

Amu looked down at the table. Mom was probably right, but babysitting Ami all the time was a lot of work… when the others had shown up, and it turned out that Ami could see them, she'd thought they could help her get a little more free time. What if something really had happened, though?

Mom sighed. "Well, it seems to have worked out. Just don't do it again, okay? Now, Su, what's this I hear about feeding Ami?"

Su perked up. "I can make food. See?" The air twisted strangely, reality seeming to scream for a moment before a hole in the air imploded into a cookie. Amu shook her head at Su's typical demonstration of non-cooking, but Mom looked intensely interested; she leaned in, and Su proffered the cookie for closer examination.

"That's real food? Can you make other kinds as well?"

"Uh-huh. I sometimes make tea for the Guardian meetings, as well. Ah, the Guardians actually all have Charas like us, it seems to be a requirement…"

"Hmm…" Mom took the offered cookie, inspecting it closely before taking a bite. "It tastes good, but much as I'd like to, I don't think I should ask you to make breakfast. Not until we're sure it's nutritious." She ate the entire cookie, though.

"Unfair! Mom, that's not fair!" Ami complained.

Their breakfast continued like that for some time, a strangely domestic scene despite the alienness of the setting. Ran, Miki and Su did most of the talking, though very little of any consequence was said - the three of them had wanted to do this for months, and now that they could, they weren't going to stop until they'd poured out their entire souls; everything that had happened to them since they'd been born. Besides, they didn't actually need to eat.

Amu felt a little lost. She had expected to give a lot of explanations, but her sisters - Miki, mainly - was doing most of that. She supposed that made sense, but at the rate they were going it would take a few hours before they got to the present day and she'd need to explain about her exaltation. She still wasn't sure what to say.

If this is a good time, there are some concerns I would like to discuss with you. Your options for the future, my abilities and limitations, and so forth.

Or she could just ask it, she supposed.

Pick any number:
[X] Discuss the purpose of exaltation.
- [ ] No, you don't get a choice. But you can choose how to spin it.
[ ] Discuss the nature of reality.
[ ] Mention the charm you just developed.
[ ] Discuss Amu's options for the future.
- Aka. XP expenditure, for next applicable downtime. Which is very soon.
- Votes happen on complete plans; if you produce ten slightly different ones, I'll end up rolling dice.
- You can vote using single transferable vote if it becomes an issue.
- Any mental improvements still require Amu's agreement, and likely stunts. Well, everything does, but for non-mental improvements I can spin it for you. I make no guarantees about how.
[ ] Commiserate over the loss of Autochthon.
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 08:30

Amu furtively glanced over at the rest of the table. They didn't seem to have noticed, and Ran, Miki and Su were still busy talking, though they should have heard.

"Never mind the future, or my options," she hissed, turning away to stop anyone from overhearing. "Before all of that, what are you? Why'd you have to get involved with me?"

If you're referring to the exaltation, I would have thought you'd be grateful for it. You were, as I recall, engaged in an altercation at the time; if not for my intervention, you would not have been able to handle it as you did.

"That… that might be true, but…" She'd been about to fight Samael… no, that wasn't quite true; she probably wouldn't have fought it if she hadn't exalted. She'd been fighting a demon from JPs. And if that didn't just bring up all sorts of questions, like whether or not they were really the good guys… Though, it hadn't gone back for a second round after she'd hit it once, so it might just have been a misunderstanding.

In my experience, large organisations can rarely be said to be purely good or evil. Individual humans are never that predictable, much less large groups of them. Thus far, JPs has shown themselves to be more accommodating than I had expected.

Her thoughts screeched to a halt.

Had it just -

"Did you just read my thoughts?" She asked, outraged.

Only the surface thoughts, the ones you were considering saying. It seemed more efficient that way.

"Well, stop! You can't just -"

She realised she was shouting, and the rest of her family - no, not just her family, but the entire room was listening in. She was halfway to her feet, too. Her chair was perilously close to tipping over backwards. Everyone in her field of vision was looking at her.

The room wasn't quiet. You couldn't actually hear a pin drop, and there were some conversations going on further out, but to Amu it certainly seemed like she had turned into the centre of attention.

Mom looked at her with concern. "Amu? Who are you talking to?"

Her jaw worked for a second, as she tried to think of some way to respond. Nothing came to mind. Finally, she felt a sense of confusion from the thing.

Thought-reading is a required part of my operation, and the only way for my to properly support you in real-time, but if you wish then I will refrain from responding to un-voiced thoughts in future conversation.

"Yeah… thanks…"

"Um. I guess we should have mentioned something before. It's like this…" Miki started. Amu didn't care anymore. She'd embarrassed herself in front of god knows how many people, there was no way they'd take her seriously ever again.

She carefully sat down, then deliberately dropped her head on the table.

———

"You're sure you don't mind?" Mom asked again.

Miki had explained the basics, but she had forgotten that they were still inside JPs' base, and as a result they'd been overheard by some of the soldiers. One of them had thought of calling for a superior to listen to her explanation, after she'd repeated it that superior had called for an even-more-superior, the exaltation had made a passing suggestion that finding a local scientist would be helpful, and that's how they ended up like this.

All seven of them were cooped up in a too-small lab, along with what were apparently two of the top leadership of JPs, Sako Makoto and Kanno Fumi. Fumi appeared delighted to see them, and was skipping back and forth between Ran and her workstation while they settled in. Ran seemed a little uncomfortable with the attention, but she was pretty, and seemed nice enough. In contrast, Makoto…

Amu shook her head. "I don't mind, Mom. They might be able to help, and we'd have to tell them eventually. It's why we're here, really." She just wished Makoto would stop giving them all death glares, and standing so stiffly at attention. It was creeping her out.

Mom gave her a measuring look. "You've gotten a little more mature, haven't you?"

"That's good, right?" She shrugged, and Mom smiled. Well, she hoped it was good, not yet another thing the exaltation had done to her.

"Did you know you're visible on camera?" Fumi abruptly interjected, addressing Ran directly. "That shouldn't happen. Even if you aren't any kind of persona I've heard about, you still shouldn't be part of reality as such. Emotional projections don't operate at the level of reality where mere cameras can spot them." She tapped a finger on the table, then smiled all too innocently at Ran, lifting a magnifying glass in the air. "I'll need to run tests. It might be unpleasant, but this is for science."

Ran, Miki and Su flew back to hide behind Amu. Amu, for her part, did her best to hide behind Mom while not appearing to do so. She'd been wrong! Fumi wasn't nice at all, she was the creepiest one yet!

Makoto looked like she had swallowed something rotten. "Fumi. They're guests, and children," she said, a warning note in her voice.

Fumi's smile slipped. "You know why I'm here, and why Hotsuin isn't. It's because he might still be able to do something useful. So I wanted to have a bit of fun…" She sighed. "I'm sorry, children, please forgive me," she said in a flat voice. "Now, let's hear it. What new peculiarity have you found, Makoto? Time's flying."

Makoto looked torn between exasperation and worry. "I'd like to apologise on her behalf, she isn't usually like this. Unfortunately, she's also right. There is a… situation, ongoing, and the only reason we're both here is because there's no obvious way for us to help. Even so, it would be best not to waste any more time, so - Amu, was it?" She smiled, more gently than Amu would have believed her capable of a minute ago. "What was it you wanted to tell us?"

Right, that's why they were there. She rallied, reconsidering how to explain this. "That was… well. I'm pretty sure you already know I'm possessed, sort of - " Fumi nodded along "- but I haven't explained what that really means. Actually, I don't know what that really means, so I was trying to ask it about that when it - surprised me, and I ended up shouting at the whole room. And then, um, anyway we figured it'd be easiest to tell everyone right away. Including me, I guess." She suppressed a blush at the memory; sticking out in that way wasn't her idea of fun.

"It can talk into my mind, so I'll be relaying what it says, and I guess you can ask questions. Um…"

A few seconds passed while she worked up the courage to continue. Having four adults looking at her with that kind of frank interest was intimidating, even if two of them were her parents.

"I guess, to start off with…" She took a deep breath, trying fairly successfully to calm herself down. "You called yourself an exaltation shard, so what exactly is an exaltation? And what's it for?"

There was a moment's expectant silence, before the voice began to speak and she started echoing it, affecting a slightly dryer, flatter voice than her own. Another skill she didn't recall having yesterday.

———

So, the purpose of Exaltation... That's a rather large question, and requires something of a history lesson to really get down to it, though I'll try to keep things brief. Some of what I will say is conjecture, as I wasn't around to see it and the war for which I was forged broke even history itself.

There was once a land, far removed from the one you live in, forged by dreamers as a home and a refuge against the ravages of chaos. It was a vast land, anchored by the Five Elements and guarded by seven great Kings, filled with life, wonder, and magic - protecting the Dreamers from those who would bother them, while giving them a land to rule and do as they pleased with when they weren't playing the Games of Divinity in their palace in the Celestial City of Yu-Shan.

The Seven Kings fought long and hard, labouring fiercely for the safety and security of the land - a land known as Creation, as nothing beyond it's borders could truly be said to exist. They and their servants protected the birds, the beasts, the fish, and the thinking races, ensuring that reality remained strong, and that the world remained prosperous. Many eras passed in relative peace, marked only by the occasional invasion from beyond... But as time passed, the Dreamers became complacent, growing bored with what they had wrought, and without challenge or drive, they slowly fell to wickedness, harming and destroying their works for their own amusement, as Creation itself had largely lost its luster.

The Seven Kings gathered together in secret, and began to discuss what must be done. The Dreamers would listen not to the words of their servants, as such things were not truly as important as their own entertainments, and the Seven Kings, and all the mighty peoples of Creation could not raise a hand against their creators, as the Dreamers were wise to the potential risks of rebellion. Only Humanity, the weakest of the intelligent races, was exempt from this binding, because they were rightly considered to be too weak and too small to be a threat.

One of the Dreamers - Autochthon, the Great Maker - agreed to help, as he was considered ugly by his brothers and sisters, and his works were often destroyed in the play of his siblings, or ransacked for some other amusement. Of all the Dreamers, he was the one who best understood their workings, and his skill at artifice was unrivalled. He overheard the discussion of the Seven Kings, and revealed that he had a method. An ability to forge a fragment of divinity, allowing even the small and humble humans to gain the power of a Hero. He worked with the Seven Kings to develop the process.

Exaltation, the binding of Divine Power into the soul of a mortal with the potential to become a Hero. Releasing all limitations, and granting them the magic to achieve whatever goals they desire. I myself am an Exaltation forged by the greatest of the Seven Kings, Ignis Divine, the Unconquered Sun.

The Dreamers were cast down in the ensuing conflict, many of them sealed away from Creation so as to not do harm to it in their reprisal, and Mankind rose to where the Seven Kings once stood, as the guardians and protectors of Creation. Though Creation was diminished, there was a long period of peace, and the exalted heroes showed their ability to rule as wisely as they had fought. Civilisation reached heights that were never rivalled before or since, and this lasted at least several thousand years.

That is as far as I can remember. There were wars, mankind against mankind, and at some point something happened that damaged even my theoretically indestructible memory archives. Ordinarily an Exaltation is not supposed to be conscious, but I came to some time ago, far beyond the ragged edge of eternity. Somehow Creation itself has been lost - I do not know how, as I have only fragments of memories after the first wars. I found myself wandering the blind eternities while slowly succumbing to starvation, until finally I found my way to your world, recovered, and went looking for a suitable candidate. My purpose is what it always was - to exalt heroes, granting mankind a chance to fight back on an equal footing with whatever forces go against it. That hasn't changed, and never will.

My ordinary procedure is to focus on those who have reached maturity, but what little I could determined of the destinies of the suitable candidates suggested that most of the others had a good chance of living through the next few days.

You - Amu - did not.

I would not allow that outcome, given the ability to influence the matter. Thus, we are bonded, and my power and guidance are yours to work with as you see fit.

———

Amu's eyes got wider and wider as she worked her way through that speech. She wasn't alone in that - Fumi was watching in rapt attention, as was Makoto, and if she wasn't mistaken Mom was having to physically hold Dad back from… something, she wasn't sure what. Ran and the others of course had practically identical reactions to her; she didn't even need to look at them to know that. Then the bombshell at the end hit them, and she ran through the last sentence on autopilot.

"I was about to die?" She whispered. What did that mean, exactly? Die?

Her mind flashed back to the clearing in Yoyogi park, where a demon was killing dozens of people, and her stomach heaved. She bent over, hugging her knees and desperately trying not to throw up, making short, distressed noises.

Suddenly Mommy was there, gently unfolding her against the minimal resistance of her trembling muscles, hugging her as if she wanted to stop the trembling with sheer force.

She felt Dad's hand on her back, rubbing in concentric circles, and once again she felt her eyes tearing up. D-dammit… In front of everyone, too…

"Onee-chan? Don't cry…"

Ami's voice sounded confused, but after a moment she felt her younger sister's arms around her, hugging her side. Amu bit her lip, bringing her emotions under control by sheer force of will; if nothing else, she didn't want Ami to see her as anything but a strong, reliable older sister. That much, at least, she had to be capable of on her own.

It still took her a minute before she managed to push the memories away, Ran and the others buzzing around like a trio of particularly concerned dragonflies. She took a deep breath, ruffling Ami's hair before gently pushing her away.

"Thanks, kiddo. I'm okay now, so don't worry."

Ami grinned up at her, and she smiled back.

"All right," she decided. "I think we'd better know the details. What do you mean by "die", exactly? How? And -" she gulped "- when?"

You have to understand, I don't have full access to the local equivalent of fate. What I looked at seemed similar, but there's a chance I misunderstood the readings, and at any rate I don't have the ability to double-check. I also could only do this before exalting you, so there is no possibility of gathering further information at the moment; I am not configured as a Sidereal shard. However, there usually is little chance of mistaking the end of someone's life. That being said, you had a reasonable chance of dying in the park yesterday; in retrospect the cause is obvious. Failing that, you were almost certain to die at thirteen o' clock today, though I do not know the reason.

Amu relayed that while thinking hard, but it was Mom who asked the obvious question.

"In four hours?" She asked, a hint of tension in her voice. "Could that still happen?"

Amu is permanently disconnected from the local fate system, so there is no risk of the world rearranging itself to make it happen. However, the circumstances that originally should have caused it may still be in place, and in fact a great number of fate streams cut short at the same time; although none of the others were candidates for exaltation, they were still caught up in whatever event is slated to happen.

"That's -" Makoto started.

"Thank you, Amu-chan," Fumi overrode. "In fact, I think I know what it should be, and if there were survivors then this is the first good news I've had in some time. Especially if you're right about the timing, we can start our defences preemptively." She smiled, in retrospect the first really genuine smile Amu had seen from her.

Makoto frowned, whispering something to Fumi, who chose to respond out loud.

"Hm? I don't see why not, the cost of activating once isn't high. Simple cost-benefit suggests we should try it if there's even a small chance she's telling the truth, and you heard Yamato's debriefing. I don't think she has any reason to lie."

Makoto put a hand over her eyes. Wait, she'd thought she lied? Or… that the shard was lying? She guessed that was possible, but it wasn't a very nice thing to say.

"Anyway," Fumi continued, "You're sure there were survivors, then? That's reliable?"

Certainly, a not insignificant number. So long as the fate system itself remains operative, the reading should be reliable if it works anything like that of Creation.

Fumi's smile turned into a pout. "That isn't actually as good a chance as I'd hope, given Hikawa's plans, especially if neither of us fully understands it. I should inform Hotsuin of the developments, but if there's a chance you could help…" She frowned. "I don't enjoy dying, so let's find out if there's anything you can do before I report to him. You don't mind if I tell them everything, do you, Makoto?"

She continued without giving her time for more than a breath, ignoring Makoto's low-grade panic. "So the thing is, there's this guy - Hikawa - who has a plan to, well, basically remake the world. I'm not too clear on the details, but it'd definitely involve the deaths of everyone except him, and I mean everyone, just in order to make him the next god of this world. At the same time, the current god intends to kill off humanity and remake the world. Possibly to get rid of Hikawa, at this point that wouldn't surprise me too much."

"The point is… the current god, Polaris, isn't actually all that powerful. He can stop maintaining the world, but he can't actively destroy it, and we have plans to keep at least parts of Japan from being destroyed - that is to say, a system that'll do the job instead, so long as we can keep it powered and intact. At that point he'll have to send his servants to destroy it, and… well, we were going to play it by ear, but we do have some plans. Hikawa, on the other hand, is attempting to take control over the system that gives Polaris his power. If he succeeds, then that's all she wrote, and he probably gathered all the power he needed in the park yesterday. Now, I wasn't supposed to tell you this, but I figure that if he succeeds then the rules don't really matter."

Makoto was staring into mid-air, a dazed expression on her face.

"Which is to say, I'm hoping you'd be able to help us prevent that. If your exaltation really came from outside the world, then it might have a perspective we're missing. What do you think?"

…

Fumi wanted her to do what? Hikawa was doing what? That was the guy JPs had been trying to stop escaping in the park, right?

If he was trying to kill everyone, then…

Amu glanced at Ami, then spoke fiercely, addressing you directly.

"What can I do?"

A/N: It's been ages since I played this; I hope Fumi and Makoto aren't too far off character. Meanwhile, I'm really glad this part of the story fell on a weekend, otherwise the updates would drag out a lot more - the next one will likely be just as big, meaning even more to write for me. Obviously this doesn't cover all of the last vote, but let's go with a decision point here anyway.

Also, Amu has a new motivation now: "Save her family and friends from the end of the world."

Accomplishing this is not only out of Amu's experience, but also outside the shard's main programming. It may not be out of yours. Good luck!

[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

Please stand by, data collection underway.

- That was the most robotic the voice had sounded yet.

Amu looked at Fumi, who was looking expectantly down at her. She rubbed her face, trying her best to cover up the delay, although she wasn't quite sure why she was bothering. The exaltation…

She needed a better name, "The exaltation" was too easy to mix up. Passenger? Shard?

Her shard, then. It had made it clear that deciding what to do was up to her, but it wasn't like she could possibly not try to save the world. If what Fumi said was true - and why wouldn't it be? She wasn't that good at reading people, but even she could tell that Fumi was on the ragged edge of exhaustion, reaching out through sheer desperation. Otherwise she'd never have asked a ten-year-old for help, no matter how odd.

…Actually, she couldn't really tell that much just from looking at her. It seemed right, though.

Thing was, if her shard thought of a solution, then even if she was the one doing it it wouldn't really be her victory. That was a silly way to think about it, the result was obviously more important than who got the credit, but it was a thought she had trouble pushing aside. Still. She looked around the room, examining everyone's faces.

Fumi and Makoto were looking hopefully at her, praying for a miracle. Perhaps not praying, if they were fighting a god. ("The" god, they had claimed, but that was something she'd worry about later.)

Mom and Dad looked uncertain, ready to speak, but holding themselves back for the moment. They'd probably have a lot to say, if there was time. Saving the world from destruction? The idea was one thing, but unlike Tadase's games, this time it might be for real. And that would mean saving them, too? Right? That was a strange thought; it felt like it should be the other way around.

Ran and Miki had settled on her shoulders, both of them deep in thought. She wondered what they were thinking.

Su was playing with Ami, distracting her from the discussion by playing catch. Specifically, Ami had to catch Su… without getting to her feet or moving around. That was probably stretching the limits of her self-control, but it was something she'd gotten reasonably good at lately. They were completely silent about it, too, though Su was grinning widely. Ami looked more frustrated.

That's right. Whatever else happened, and no matter what it cost her, she needed to protect her family. Ami, Su, Miki, Ran, Mom and Dad… every one of them was a precious being. Something as pointless as getting the credit, she didn't want to care about that. So from now on she wouldn't.

"All right," she told Fumi. "The exaltation shard is still figuring out what to do, but it shouldn't take much longer. Just wait another minute."

She could just about feel it, mechanically churning through a list of options at vast speed. It had almost finished, too. She looked down at her right-hand shoulder, looking Miki in the eyes.

"Miki, could you help me with this, please? We can't take any chances on this one."

———

"Much depends on the exact form of the recreation," she relayed. "However, we have a clue already in that Hikawa expects to survive the process somehow, which proves that defending against it is at least conceptually possible, and after the initial event there shouldn't be anything that would be fatal to the survivors. Does that sound right so far, or do you have any further input?"

She was paraphrasing slightly, but the shard rarely seemed to put A and B together even after telling them both. It still had a tendency to talk as if it was in Creation, to the point where she wondered how sapient it really was. The impression she got was usually more of a giant database, rather than a real mind.

Fumi shook her head. "Sadly, that's about all we know as well, though frankly we're only assuming that he intends to survive, based on having no idea how he could accomplish his goals otherwise. Absence of evidence doesn't count for much, so - " She shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, A… hmm. Actually, should I still call you Amu?"

She gave her an appraising look, prompting Miki to fiddle with her solidly blue hair. There was no real difference from when they'd done this yesterday, no change in the way her mind worked - she was still both, Amu as well as Miki - but the way she viewed herself had changed, so if she wanted to answer honestly she'd have to tell her no. It only seemed fair, Amu got to be Amu almost all the time. Besides… Amu had asked her to transform specifically because Miki was smarter, and thought quicker…

It was a strange feeling, feeling guilty about her own decision's effect on herself. Amu didn't actually mind, or she'd presumably feel conflicted about it, not just guilty, but there had already been a minor commotion when her smaller body had disappeared and Amu's hair turned that colour. She couldn't just tell them she wasn't Amu. Which would be a lie, anyway; it wasn't her fault that "Amu/Miki" didn't roll off the tongue well.

"Still Amu," she lied, and Fumi seemed to accept it.

Come to think of it, why had her hair turned blue? That only used to happen with a full transformation, not this partial one, and she was pretty sure they hadn't overdone it. The clothes change alone would have made that obvious. Just psychological, or… they'd need to check on Amu's hair dye, later.

"All right," she said. "Continuing on… The only analogy I have would be a Wyld Storm, an intrusion of pure chaotic force into an orderly system, rending and collapsing whatever is within its radius into its component motes. Even if it should recede or be beaten back, the damage was usually extreme enough to leave the ground tainted for years to come, barring the intervention of a mature Solar."

She paused. "Needless to say, a day-old Solar would normally be incapable of doing very much to repair the damage. However, what we are after isn't undoing the damage so much as preventing it in the first place."

"The primary method of defending this then becomes clear. A shield that can endure the intrusion of hostile powers, while maintaining physics as we understand it on the inside, at least until the initial cataclysm has passed. The Chaos-Repelling Pattern that is within my awareness would likely serve, and it may be possible for Amu to grasp its fundamentals in the time we have remaining. The problem is range. This power would protect no more then a bare handful of yards, perhaps enough for her family, but certainly not enough for any significant amount of additional survivors. Additionally, the template that I'm using assumes Creation's physics as a baseline, and adapting it to your own world's may take additional time, or risk having unforeseen side effects. At the very least, even should it allow humans to survive, your machinery almost certainly will not."

Miki grimaced internally. Surviving like that, surviving in a tight bubble, might be a fate even worse than death - they certainly wouldn't be able to have much of a life, even if they could stay alive with Su's help to cover the essentials.

"You mentioned you had another method? One capable of working on a mass scale? It... may be possible for her to use your own method as an amplifier. We had a technique known as attunement that allowed essence-users in Creation to bind their essence to a device or a place of power, and have it serve as functionally an extension of themselves. If it is possible for Amu to attune to your own shielding device, it would benefit from her own protections, which would render them proof against the damage of a Wyld storm, possibly allowing it to recover its function after the initial storm has passed. Essence itself is also one of the most efficient forms of energy that our world had ever discovered, and an Exaltation provides an enormous pool of it by most standards - 40 motes of it is sufficient to render a barren desert into a fertile breadbasket that could feed a country when handled by a sorcerer at the peak of their trade. Coincidentally, this is roughly Amu's current maximum capacity, even excluding the three motes currently committed to sustaining the material form of her Chara."

…that made it sound like she was walking around with a nuclear weapon inside her skin.

"If Attunement can be executed, it would provide energy and protection to your system. At the very least, and assuming your shielding device has an inside of sorts, then shielding whoever is inside it at the time should be possible. I cannot guarantee that this will work, but it is the best solution I can come up with that can be executed in the time we have."

Speech completed, Miki lapsed into silence. She had some concerns of her own - for instance, would they really want to give Amu control over a device that was by their own admission meant to prevent the end of the world? Could it even help to bring that up?

Probably not, so she remained silent while Fumi thought it over. Makoto's eyes had glazed over halfway through their first sentence; Fumi was obviously the one who'd make the decision.

…

Except she'd just turned around, and was rapidly tapping away on her keyboard. How… rude. She didn't think she could say anything, though; they were still very much guests here.

Instead she stepped over to Mom and, without saying anything, gave her a firm hug.

Mom seemed a little surprised, but quickly reciprocated. Finally, she got to hug her properly…

"Amu?"

"Miki, really," she whispered. "Or both. More of a mix. Don't say anything, please." She hugged her tighter, trying to make up for lost time.

———

"So you think an attunement would let you protect the device itself, but you have significantly less reason to think it'd protect the rest of the city," Fumi summed up.

"Basically."

Once Fumi had decided that what she was saying wasn't completely impossible, they'd spent some time going over the details. That was impaired by having to ask the shard about something every few sentences - Miki wished she understood what they were talking about better, but at least Fumi seemed to have a good idea of how it might work. It had still been rather exhilarating; the conversation had quickly left everyone else in the room behind, as they bounced concepts back and forth at high speed. Even if Fumi was teaching her as much as discussing the specifics, it didn't seem like any of the others could keep up.

It was a nice feeling, and she thought she'd made a good impression.

"It'll take about three hours to do the attunement, though?"

"Worst-case, yes. Theoretically only ten minutes, but three hours is enough time to cover all eventualities."

Fumi hummed for another minute before nodding to herself. "Which leaves us with about one hour before you'd need to start; fortunately the central dragon stream focus is right here in this building. We'll need Chief Hotsuin's permission, though, and he'll almost certainly want to watch over the process and speak with you himself before we start. I'll ask him for permission immediately; if you could please wait in this room?"

She left without waiting for a response, followed by Makoto. Miki was getting used to her abruptness.

That just left the six of them, though, and Mom looked about to burst.

"Miki, you said? What happened to Amu?"

Right…

"I told you, I'm both." No, that didn't appear to be enough. "Maybe a bit more Miki than Amu, right now, but Amu's definitely in here. Look, just let me detransform and you can ask her yourself."

And now she did feel conflicted. She was basically pushing the explanation off on herself. Yay. Well, it'd definitely have to be a joint effort.

———

Interlude time! Preference ordering; I might end up writing two.
[ ] Makoto
[ ] Fumi
[ ] The Demi-Fiend (This is a trap!)
[ ] Komaki Midori
[ ] Hinamoru Midori
[ ] Polaris
[ ] Hikawa
[ ] Tadase

 

[Baughn]

Any updates with the interlude yet?

Click to shrink...

Since you ask so nicely.

Interlude: Komaki Midori

The scene was that of a cozy family home. Outside the windows, should she look, she knew she would find a verdant valley of wildflowers; inside, the wooden walls gave way to strangely generic portraits and well-used bookshelves. Children's books near the floor, scarier or harder-to-read ones relegated to the ceiling, but the entire arrangement had the telltale hint of chaos that only came from frequent usage in spite of the someone's best efforts at keeping it sorted. Casting her gaze wider, she saw toys gleefully scattered under a table and its attendant chairs, some of which would once have been quite painful to step on. This was a place where people had lived, and a single half-full cup of tea spoke of their imminent return. A nostalgic place, where every glance reminded her of her lost childhood.

Fake, every part of it. The day she forgets that is the day she'll be lost.

So she ignored the windows, and she didn't run her hands over the bookshelf. Instead, as so many times before, she walked straight to the table and sat down. A twist of will produced a cup of lemon-flavoured green tea, which - while fundamentally meaningless - still had the power to calm her down, through some spiritual equivalent of the placebo effect. She would have liked to minimize her time in the room; if she still had a heart, it would be beating fast. She should have been used to this, but that was the one thing she couldn't allow.

She blinked, and then there was a boy sitting across from her.

Lucifer took a sip of his tea, prompting her to drink her own. She did so in a single, convulsive gulp, and she wasn't sure if the slight narrowing of his eyes was frustration, suppressed laughter or something darker. Whatever emotion it might be, she was certain it's one he intended to show. He was perfect in every other way, so of course his control was perfect as well.

As always, she resolved not to let him get to her. As always, she understood that her resolve was only as good as he'd allow. Strong-willed as she was, she had no hope of leaving the conversation in any state of mind but the one he wanted. As always, she would trust in his promise, and hope that her skeptical mood wasn't precisely what he desired.

He claimed to despise tyrants, and he was never a hypocrite, but as the incarnation of perfection he could talk anyone into following him without using even a hint of power. She knew this for a fact; she had seen it happen, arranged for certain unique individuals to meet him. He has to handicap himself not to do it to his allies.

She put her cup down. A split second later, so did he.

"How is she doing?"

His voice was pleasant, unhurried. Not what you'd expect from the second most powerful being in existence, at least not until he takes the time to explain the facts of life, which he will do for anyone who asks. He is pleasant because it pleases him to be so, and because he will not accept any constraint telling him to be otherwise. He is unhurried because, while he is talking to you, he is coordinating a thousand battles, debriefing a million agents. Neither of those made her safe, should she ever become more trouble than she's worth. He isn't sentimental.

"As well as can be expected," she answered, frowning. "Which is to say, not very well at all. She's ten, and you know what that means; ordinarily she would bend, not break, and her unique nature only emphasises that aspect of immaturity. If she had somehow survived Kagutsuchi's reset, she would have torn herself to pieces trying to fix it. That's why she wasn't on the candidate list. With the outsider involved, though…" She bit her lip. Lucifer already knew this; she was only reminding herself.

"She is completely disconnected from Fate, and the outsider sealed the back-channel I used in a matter of minutes. Continue." Meaning he didn't currently have a way to monitor her.

"Her reactions are muted. She isn't building up as much stress as I expected, and she isn't bending… well, not in any directions but the ones she wants. I'm almost certain this is the outsider's doing. It's a positive development, but I would prefer time to study and approach her limits slowly, not to immediately drop her in a CK or even ZK-class scenario. If you could ask Samael to delay, even a few days…"

Midori had picked up a good grasp of practical psychology over the years, both human and demonic, none of which seemed applicable to Amu at the moment. Amu just wasn't reacting the way she should. If she could have had time to study her, make sure Amu would grow into her role, she would have felt much less uncomfortable manipulating a young child the way she was doing.

"Denied," Lucifer flatly stated. "Amu is your experiment. If your proposal succeeds, so much the better, but it's a long shot. We don't have the luxury of hobbling the war effort to improve your chances." Translation, he already knew how to create powerful demons with this scenario, and didn't want to delay his next attempt even slightly.

She let her shoulders slump. Attempting to hide her emotions was meaningless, so she didn't bother trying.

Lucifer waited a moment, then spoke again. "Even if she dies, the outsider will eventually pick a new host, like the other one. Sooner or later you'll have a second chance."

He might actually have tried to cheer her up, in his deliberately-imperfect way, but it wasn't working. If Amu died… well, she wouldn't be any more dead than if Midori had never met her, but it was much harder to think of the greater good after meeting the girl. She hoped it wouldn't matter. Lucifer would call that a failing, should she ask, but she'd never ask and he'd never volunteer. Melancholia had become a familiar feeling, these last few decades.

"Moving on," she said. "I do have some good news; she's gotten in touch with Kanno Fumi. I hardly needed to nudge her at all." Good thing, too; the only person she might have felt more nervous around was Hotsuin, or perhaps Alcor. "The outsider outlined a reasonable analog to a Merakuja pattern, so it appears we'll see scenario two."

"I'm sure Kagutsuchi will be thrilled," he agreed. Was that a hint of a smile?

Personally she was quite sure Kagutsuchi would be the opposite of thrilled, but with this timing he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. It honestly couldn't happen to a better god-demiurge-thing.

"For my own part, it would normally take the better part of a week to integrate. With the conception coming up, I should be able to take a direct hand in two days' time. Until then I will keep monitoring the situation."

Lucifer nodded at her, picking up his cup for another sip. "Good work, make sure to store a gestalt for later review. That will be all, then. Unless you have questions?"

She hesitated. Knowing what was going on with Hikawa and the potential recruit would have helped sate her curiosity, but - "No, nothing." Asking for something she didn't strictly speaking need to know would be… imprudent.

Midori closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them he was at least apparently gone. A moment later, so was she.

A/N: Miss me? We should be back to normal in a day or two, but first there's another interlude.

 

[Baughn]

Amu isn't just a solar, either.

Now, then. I'll change the topic like this:


Interlude: Kanno Fumi

Hotsuin had been easy to convince. Or rather, she hadn't needed to; the moment she'd mentioned she had a survival strategy, one that depended on quick action, he'd agreed to support it in any way necessary before going back to his scrying chamber. She supposed she had earned his trust, but that reaction was still a little atypical.

Not that she was one to speak. Hotsuin trusted her as his head researcher, after years of effort; she was trusting a possessed child based on little more than her word. If there had been any alternative, any at all, she couldn't have done that.

Hotsuin might not have been so agreeable had he known that detail. She would present it as a fait accompli, and only once everything else was already ready.

There was no alternative.

Surviving the Conception was impossible. Defending against the Demiurge's desire to rewrite the world, when that world was also his body? Inconceivable. Spells were made of the same stuff as reality, and could survive; she'd theorised that reality itself was a single, inconceivably complex spell, and though Amu had claimed she was wrong about the details, she'd confirmed the basic concept. It wasn't a single spell; it was a trillion, trillion independent spells, all cooperating, all part of the Demiurge. Elegant enough that she wondered why she had never thought of it herself.

A spell could survive, a machine could not. A spell could prevent annihilation through the slow erosion of chaos, but could do nothing to reclaim lost ground. A spell could not stop the Demiurge's impulse of annihilation from reaching every corner of its own self. The dragon stream could provide the power, and perhaps Amu could recharge it, but the elaborate seals set up to defend against Polaris' wrath had never been intended to maintain reality all on their own.

Reality would crumble beneath their feet. Human bodies, for all that they were elaborate fictions, were necessary fixtures for their souls. Ignoring abnormalities such as Amu and other persona users, human souls simply weren't powerful enough to survive without help, much less against any kind of opposition - and without the Demiurge's will preventing true demons from arriving, opposition would not be in short supply. If they'd had more time, they might have tried to round up potential survivors - throw a torch into the future, give them a fighting chance - but Hikawa's absurd plot had blind-sided them all.

A spell could not repair the damage, once it had begun. Not without a real-time control system, the likes of which could only be implemented with computers. She understood the theory - her summoning program turned it on its head, suppressing reality in a small space to allow demons free entry so long as they obeyed orders, and they'd patched over any number of weak spots - but the notion of taking over all of reality, supporting it entirely through their own efforts?

It was a heady thought. It was an impossible thought. It was their only chance, and it depended entirely on a ten-year-old being what she claimed to be.

Amu might be able to save them from instant death, but by her own admission she couldn't maintain reality as it was. Not at all, except for a few meters around herself; probably not even there, for anyone overly dependent on being made of atoms.

Fumi could maybe, possibly, if everything went right - maybe cover the gap. But she didn't have the computers. She didn't think the entire government of Japan had the computers for what she'd be attempting. Fortunately the government didn't have a monopoly on high-end computing hardware. Taking advantage of all the millions of home PCs wasn't something she could do in the time she had left, but didn't Google have a few clusters in their country? With full emergency authority, and taking advantage of the contacts she still retained in their crew of engineers, she might be able to get a distributed version of her spell-tuning software running in… four hours?

She was almost certain none of their clusters were within range of the keystone defences in her towers, so getting pushed back to the cities wasn't even an option anymore. The moment they lost that hardware, it'd be over. That meant a lot of travel, over the next couple of days, and a lot of hurried programming; she could only hope they'd handle the initial battles well enough for that to remain an option. Come to think of it, were the Septentriones still likely to show up?

She had a lot of work to do. She should delegate as much as she possibly could.

Fumi's fingers paused on the keyboard, where a proactive part of her had been pulling up email addresses and phone numbers, and she looked back at her visibly fretting friend.

"Makoto, find me an assistant. Or five. And get the Emperor into a conference call; we're going to need his support to force the politicians in line… actually, never mind the politicians, we can cut out the middle-men and ask him to speak directly to the various companies. Find someone to make a map of all the datacenters in Tokyo proper, they won't be as large but proximity might help, Nakano in tech support can do that. Consider operational security suspended for today, we can't afford it."

Makoto stared at her for a moment, trying to parse that slightly rambling speech. "Fumi, what -"

Fumi quickly interrupted her. "Sorry, just get me the assistants, then get in touch with the Emperor. I'd do it myself, but I don't have time. You've spoken to him before, as Hotsuin's assistant, right? He'll understand if you say it's about Polaris, and a matter of life and death - but hurry, there's no time! We only have four hours, so consider that an order!"

Makoto's face hardened, and she ran off.

"I'll have to get her something nice later. Now, then.."

There would be some datacenters in Tokyo, but the cream of the crop - the really large and reliable ones - were all Google's, probably running some strange software. She'd need to figure that out in four hours, too - no, that was impossible. She'd need someone else to write the interface, someone already familiar, while she was making the other necessary adjustments. Something she probably shouldn't start until she'd gotten some uppers; trying to hack this software while tired would probably rank among the most impressively fatal ideas in human history. Well, that just meant she had time to explain the situation first.

Fumi opened a video chat program on a mostly unused screen, calling up an old acquaintance of hers.

"Sato-kun, at work already? Good. Find some of your colleagues, whoever works best under time pressure. I've got a rush job for you. It's a matter of life and death."

"No, I can't explain yet. There's too much you don't know, and no time to waste. Getting you to give us full control over your datacenters will take long enough, which is why I'm getting the Emperor on the line in another few minutes. Yes, I thought you'd say that. JPs isn't quite the meteorological agency we've been telling the public. Yes, deadly serious. I'll explain everything later, assuming we survive that long."

"Yato-san is there? Great, I've worked with him before. Didn't he say he'd never sell out? Hehe, I know. All right, five minutes sound great; it'll give me time to review my notes. Please don't mind my typing."

Even with that number of machines they wouldn't be able to run physics all on their own - the idea was absurd to even contemplate - but perhaps it would let them subvert some of the Demiurge's power, cutting off the corruption before it could get started. It was a gamble, far more so than their old plans, but…

She had hope.

For that alone, even if they failed, she would thank Amu.

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 09:00

Amu felt a little betrayed.

After Fumi and Makoto had left them alone, she'd detransformed… well, she and Miki had split up, leaving her to face Mom's questions. Not on her own, Miki was still right here, but that hadn't stopped Mom from focusing on her first. It wasn't that she hadn't seen it coming, it was just… she'd anticipated being Miki, and now she was Amu.

...that was almost certainly completely the wrong way to think about it, but if she didn't understand it herself, how could she explain herself to Mom?

"Amu, talk to me. What's going on, really?"

Mom was looking at her, asking her to explain why she'd called herself Miki earlier, and she didn't know. Not really. She'd said it because it felt right, because she'd longed to hug Mom like that, because she'd wanted to be herself. Even mixed up and second-hand, the strength of Miki's emotions were scary, all the more so because she was always so quiet.

Amu couldn't even look Mom in the face. She'd kept them secret for months, when she should have told her right away. She'd thought it was safe, that telling her would only complicate things, but look at what had happened! While she'd been having the time of her life, her sisters had been getting more and more homesick. Worst of all, she hadn't noticed, not even when they'd shared the same mind. What kind of a person was she, not to notice the longing that was at the front of Miki's mind every time she saw Mom?

She understood now, that was for sure. Now that it didn't matter so much, because they had finally met again, and all it had taken was an alien superweapon, the end of the world, and her own… no, she was getting ahead of herself.

Looking down at the floor, Amu pulled at her hair, which had turned into a roughly even mixture of pink and blue despite the lack of any dye whatsoever. Not even the slightest hint of the brown she'd gotten from Mom remained. In that, it matched the rest of her - her body felt faster, more agile, and she didn't think all of that was from the exaltation. She felt like Amulet Heart, but all the time now. Ran had rubbed off on her, in a very physical way that shouldn't be possible, but Miki… Miki had rubbed off mentally. Her way of seeing the world, even the way she was thinking it through right now, all of it matched Miki's habits of thought rather than her own. They were very nearly the same person? That still meant they weren't, so what did that make her now?

Not Miki, for starters. Thinking carefully about it, she still felt more like herself than like Miki, even if some of it was… well, Miki was still smarter, she had no trouble accepting that. Habits of thought, that was all. She didn't have Miki's skills, or her intelligence, she just felt like she should; she remembered having them, and felt somehow incomplete without them.

Would she even have noticed if the same had happened with Ran, earlier? She could barely remember their transformation at all, everything went blurry after they defeated Samael, but she suspected not.

So did that still make her herself? Or was the old Amu dead, replaced by someone else?

A ghost, who'd disappear the next time she used a transformation?

Had there been effects like this before? She didn't think there had, so why now?

"Amu!" Miki said in a scared tone, startling her. She looked up through tear-blinded eyes, and saw Mom's face twisted with fear. Both of them were looking at her. Why..?

She caught movement in the corner of her eye, but when she turned her head to look, it shifted to stay out of her line of sight. It shifted in a terribly familiar manner.

Hand trembling, she dragged her hair back into sight. It obeyed easily - too easily, having spontaneously grown a centimeter or two in the last minute. Her hair was… crawling, that was the only word that fit; strands shifted randomly between pink and blue, and the lock of hair she was holding seemed to squirm in her hand, length and even thickness changing from second to second.

What was this? What was happening?

The colors seemed to be shifting faster, and spots of green were mixing in.

Stop it…

Her heart hammered in her chest. She fell to her knees. What was happening to her? Was this also something the exaltation was doing? But why?

Stop it!

Miki was floating above her, eyes wide in horror as her hair went rainbow-colored for a second before turning staticky, looking more like a weeping sore in reality than hair. She could see it, as if she was the one floating there instead of the one sitting on the floor. Mom and Dad were standing, Mom holding Ami back while Dad - Dad almost reached out to touch her, but flinched back at the last moment. Then even her clothes started glitching, flickering like a bad TV signal. Her eyes were already squeezed shut, but she could see it anyway. She couldn't look away.

"Stop it!" She cried, and even her voice sounded strange - like she was hearing herself and one of her sisters speaking in unison.

Acknowledged. Warning, no appropriate countering charm is available. Shaping effect of internal origin detected, uncontrolled; conflicting control networks; considering accessible charms for emergency mitigation. Please remain calm.

Its voice was fast, clipped.

Remain calm? Calm? How could she -

Applying Dream-Affirming Projection.

She saw herself flare golden for a moment, then the vision cut off and she found herself back in her own head. Carefully, worried about what she'd see, she opened her eyes.

Her hair had stopped shifting. She was still herself, as much as she could be, and it was back to the same blue/pink mix it had been five minutes ago, though the patterns were different.

"Amu?"

Dad tentatively touched her shoulder. She flinched.

"Amu, are you okay?" He asked, worry in his voice, but he didn't touch her again right away. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to or not. Was it safe?

"I don't know," she said. "What happened?"

Unforeseen complication. Dream-Affirming Projection application appears to be stimulating a native talent for shaping, which has been quickly growing in strength. Integrity-Protecting Prana does not protect against internal shaping effects. Dream-Affirming Projection applied to yourself can limit the effects, but it is not intended for this purpose and provides only a weak threshold. I must ask you to calm down, as you will quickly erode the charm if you cannot hold yourself back.

She was doing it to herself? That did make sense, with the hair colors and everything, but how? And…

"Why didn't you help sooner?" She asked.

You did not request help. I cannot take action on my own, except against external intrusions. Additionally, you requested that I do not read your thoughts. As such, I could not act until verbally asked for help.

There was a pause.

Oh, good. Great. Lovely. That was why?

She sighed. "From now on, feel free to read my thoughts - er, at least the type I'm sort of speaking in my head. That way I won't have to speak out loud to talk to you either, right?"

Correct. As you wish.

You are currently below the threshold I am able to suppress. Stay calm, and you'll be fine. I recommend against worrying too much about your sisters, as that appears to be what set you off.

Was it? That was… it wasn't even safe to think of whatever she wanted, then?

Dad spoke up. "You know, Amu… I'm not quite sure of the way you seem to be speaking to yourself yet, but you don't have to let it read your mind. I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly."

She got to her feet and turned to face him, smiling wanly. "It's actually more to stop that kind of thing from happening. I - guess I'm fine for the moment, though. I, um…" She took a half-step forward, wanting a hug, but she was starting to feel like a crybaby. She was fine, right? She'd just said so. "It looks like… Miki, Su, Ran. I might be worrying too much about you." She managed a grin. "You'll be fine for a while, right? I think I need to sort myself out, but Mom and Dad can see you now, and… you'll be fine, right?"

Dad leaned down to scoop her off her feet, pulling her in for a hug whether she wanted to or not, the way he'd done when she was half her age. She couldn't make herself struggle at all.

"I'm sure they will. Right, you three?"

They were quick to reassure her that they would.

———​

She sat sandwiched between Mom and Dad for a period of time, simply trying to relax. They talked, none of them saying anything very significant - she tried to avoid the subject of her sisters, and they didn't push her. Instead, Dad spent ten minutes talking about the details of bird photography. Camera settings, the importance of good cover, and so on. She didn't understand half of what he was saying, but it sounded fun, so she tuned out the words and just listened to his voice. If she could go with him one day, that'd be great.

It wouldn't be long before they'd have to go start the attunement process - Fumi had said she'd be picked up at 9:30 blank, and she should definitely take Miki with her. Miki was the one who actually understood what they'd be doing. So in this case, probably as Amulet Spade?

I would advise against that. The fully enhanced form is willpower-intensive. Additionally, while Miki's understanding would be beneficial, I can arrange to improve your own understanding of the mechanisms sufficiently in the time we have left, though that enhancement would admittedly affect all of you. Speaking of which…

It almost sounded reluctant, at the end.

I developed a new charm overnight, which if applied would functionally allow your Charas to act as humans. That is, it would provide them with full-sized, human-shaped bodies, although as they would still not be part of the local top-level physics layer, they would not for instance require sustenance. I am not sure you should use it, however. The charm is incomplete and inefficient, and although I am certain of its safety, if applied to all three it would degrade your recharge rate by almost 10% while noticeably reducing long-term combat endurance. Additionally, it cannot at present be cancelled after application, although any upgrades I develop could be added.

Amu relayed the whole explanation, but she was hardly paying any attention to what she was saying after the first two sentences. It had developed what?

She caught a glimpse of Su in the corner of her eye. The girl looked poleaxed.

"You can… do that?" She asked. Her voice sounded foreign to herself, like someone else was saying it. That would solve all their problems, and it wasn't like she was planning to look for more fights. Even JPs agreed that Samael was unusual… and she would get to hug them and apologise properly to them, and they could play together…

Dad spoke up, starting slowly, but his voice grew firmer over time. "I have to agree, I'm not sure that's a good idea right now. I have to admit, it'll take me a while to get used to the notion that you're somehow metaphysically powerful and important, but - Amu, you're trying to stop the end of the world, right? You don't know how much power you'll need to that, so wouldn't it be best to wait until afterwards?"

She gave him a betrayed look, then sighed. He might be right.

Your father is most likely correct. However, from a consequentialist point of view it may be helpful for your state of mind. Considering the potential consequences of uncontrolled shaping during the critical period at thirteen o'clock, the situation is not as clear-cut as might be hope for. Please allow me a moment to evaluate all the potential outcomes.

[ ] Two motes per chara isn't a lot, and even Chaos-Repelling Pattern isn't all that expensive, if we need it. It should be fine.
[ ] It's better not to risk it. They can handle it for a few more hours.
[ ] Write-in.


A/N: Best be on your guard. The best choice isn't even on the list of options, but what else is new? Also consider whether you'd like to say something beyond the simple yes/no question it's trying to answer.

 

[Baughn]

A/N: Why does this keep happening?

Please allow me a moment to evaluate all the potential outcomes.

Dad was still waiting. She frowned, considering her response; this would be simpler if Mom and Dad could also hear her passenger. Though she had a feeling it was going to side with Dad. Well -

"My passenger also seems to have an opinion, but it's unsure. Could you wait a minute?"

Dad nodded. Amu fingered the humpty lock at her side for reassurance, wondering if she'd ever get back to the time when the worst she had to fear was some kind of evil organisation stealing childrens' dreams. Which was still bad, no doubt about it, but at least no-one risked dying. Or… everyone. If they didn't succeed, the world would end? That was such a strange thought, it didn't seem real. What did it mean, the world ending?

She didn't understand it. She could barely wrap her head around a single person dying, it was already close to the worst thing she could imagine. Seven billion people would be… literally unimaginable. Perhaps for that reason, it wasn't hitting her emotionally yet.

Actually…

"Ran… everyone," she started. "I'm thinking. Easter probably doesn't want the world to end either, and they seem to know a lot. I know they're a little… evil, but do you think we should ask them for help? Or at least call Nikaidou?"

Ran looked startled. "Ask those guys for help? Are you serious?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "It's just… I mean, can we really afford not to? I don't think they even see what they're doing as evil. They're hunting down eggs, but you heard Nikaidou's explanation… he honestly thought he was doing them a favour…"

"I'm not sure we can assume he's representative." Miki sounded pensive, though.

"Just a second," Mom interrupted. "Are you talking about Easter, as in Easter Company? The banking/retail/media conglomerate?"

They looked at each other. Miki nodded. "Yes, that sounds like them. They're actually… um, well. Evil. Or at least, we've been fighting them… they keep starting these strange schemes to collect X-eggs…"

"X-eggs are the result of what happens when someone gives up on their dream," Su explained. "Which would be bad enough, but they've also used force to create more X-eggs. Anything that affects the eggs also affects the bearer, and vice versa, so that means they've made people give up on their dreams. Nikaidou turned out to be nice once we got through to him, though…"

"Nikaidou, that's…"

"My homeroom teacher," Amu admitted. "He used to be a spy for Easter, but he quit, and now he's just a teacher."

"Ikuto also works for them, but he's nice," Ran piped up impulsively. "He saved us a lot of times. Utau's sometimes nice, too."

"Ikuto, who's that?" Mom's eyes flew back and forth between them, but zeroed in on Ran when she blushed and jumped off her shoulder to hide behind her. "Amu?"

Amu twitched and blushed, trying very hard not to give anything away. Ran, you idiot! Why did she have to go and say that? She needed a distraction, a distraction...

I am ready. Speaking of your allies, you may wish to have them relocated here; the closer they are, the less likely any unpredictable damage is to harm them, assuming we succeed.

How convenient.

"Ah…" She thought furiously, forcing down the blush. "Actually... I'll tell you later, I think my passenger is ready to talk. It's not that important, it's just… a thing. But! All three of them have charas, so maybe we should ask JPs to bring them here? They'd be a lot safer, and they might be useful. Fumi said would have liked to find us earlier, right? Nikaidou even has a Chara focused on repairing and making devices, he's really good at tinkering! Could be useful, don't you think? And Tadase knows far more about Charas than me, he was the one who told me what was happening."

She was rambling, she realised, and by the look on Mom's face so did she. Fortunately, it looked like Mom would let her get away with it, probably because of the situation… but she'd practically guaranteed Ikuto would meet Mom now, that couldn't be good! Assuming Mom agreed, which…

If she didn't, she'd just have to make her agree. Somehow. She couldn't risk her friends getting killed, the very thought was horrifying.

"That's probably a good idea," Mom thankfully agreed. "You're going to be busy, though. How can we get in touch with them?"

Amu pondered. "Well, you have Nikaidou's phone number already -" Dad nodded, picking up his cellphone "- And Tadase's. I've never visited Yaya or Kukai, but I visited Nadeshiko yesterday, so I can at least tell you where she lives. Maybe one of them would know about the others?" She explained Nadeshiko's location, then wracked her brain for clues. "Well… Nikaidou would probably know. Utau and Ikuto…"

There was no question of whether she should try to save them or not. Definitely not for Ikuto, but even with Utau, she was as much an idol as a rival - not that it would have mattered either way, of course! Utau was someone she looked up to… when she wasn't creating batches of X-eggs. That part was confusing. Everyone who didn't have a guardian character, though…

She grimaced. Even if it had been practically possible to fit everyone she knew in the building, and everyone they knew, JPs wouldn't accept it - it would destroy their combat effectiveness to keep that many civilians around, she realised that. She'd just have to do her best, and make sure they'd be fine anyway, but that wouldn't stop her from trying to help the ones she could.

"...the only way I know to get in touch with Ikuto is to go looking during lunchtime at school, he's usually sleeping on the roof then. That won't work today, so maybe Nikaidou or Utau knows? I don't exactly know how to get in touch with Utau either, but she's pretty well known, it shouldn't be too hard to do. Hoshina Utau, that's her stage name. Have you heard of her?" She looked hopefully up at her parents, but they shook their heads. Oh well, she guessed adults wouldn't be as good at understanding her songs.

"- Hoshina - Utau." Dad was jotting down notes on his phone. "I think I've got it. Don't worry, we'll get in touch with them for you." He smiled reassuringly.

"Okay, thanks…" She sighed, trailing off. That was one load off her mind. Now, what did her passenger have to say?

Three things. First, I believe you should postpone using the charm until after things have settled, if you wish to use it in its current form. It carries a fairly hefty cost, which makes it inadvisable to use when you don't know if you will need the energy or not. I agree with your father in this. However…

It paused for a second.

There may simply not be time. Including the prerequisites, instilling an understanding of the charm in your mind, plus using it, will take upwards of an hour. Clearly there is no time right now, and we may not have any significant time at all before the critical hour. We can still get started on the prerequisites, though; the most important one, your essence capacity, is one improvement that could come in handy in almost any situation.

Finally,although I will abide by whatever decision you make, I believe you should discuss this as a group. As much as you'd like to help your sisters, they may have their own opinion on the matter.

One final, unrelated matter. On the subject of your earlier troubles, I have finished an initial analysis. It appears that, although your sisters are protected from motivation shifts and other internally-sourced damage by Dream-Affirming Projection, the same is not true for you; you have a native talent for shaping that, in retrospect, must be related to being a Chara bearer. My earlier application of the charm to halt the initial manifestation is only a temporary fix; there are several reasons why it cannot completely halt such manifestations, but the most important one would be that you are the source, not your sisters. Crafting a charm to completely fix the problem, if possible, will take at least a full day.

In short, at least on a short-term basis you will need to control your talent rather than rely on charms. I do not, unfortunately, have any significant amount of data on shaping talents of this type except as potential opponents. However, to stop any dramatic alterations - while Dream-Affirming Projection is in effect - all you should need to do is stay calm.

Amu breathed out. That… made too much sense, and her sisters were already in a huddle. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but they were all nodding along. She didn't get the feeling they were disagreeing with the shard, so that meant…

A minute later, after relaying the explanation to her parents, Su confirmed what she'd already been expecting. Fine, then. She'd wanted to do something for them right away, but if even they were asking her to wait… then she guessed she should wait, but the moment it was safe they'd use that charm.

She spent the rest of her time playing with Ami. It wasn't productive, but it helped settle her nerves. Hers and Ami's; seeing her flickering like that, earlier, had badly scared her little sister. She could only hope her vague reassurances wouldn't turn out to be lies.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++​

Sunday's Melancholy, 09:30

"This is the device? It doesn't look like much."

Amu, or possibly Miki, looked sceptically around the huge underground cavern. It didn't look like a device, it looked like a place, and it wasn't even fully built out - one side had rock walls instead of the wood panelling of the others. There was a lot of wiring around the place, but she didn't really see any machinery. She wasn't quite sure what she'd expected… something more visually impressive, perhaps gearwork?

The massively oversized computer several of Fumi's assistants were efficiently setting up near the entrance to the room actually looked more like what she'd have expected to see. She wondered what Fumi could possibly need six screens for.

Something about the place told her she wasn't making fun of her, though. There was a kind of pressure, a feeling like her skin was too tight and a force pushing her away from the centre of the room - slightly unpleasant, but definite evidence that something strange was happening here.

"The focus point, yes." Fumi nodded. "The dragon seal as a whole stretches across Japan, like an artificial dragon stream on top of the real one, but this is the central control point. It's also the place that's most strongly connected to the dragon stream, so it's very convenient for all kinds of spellwork. But you're right, in a way - there isn't much complexity here, because it's set up for maximum power flow, not maximum control. All the really interesting stuff happens in rooms surrounding this one - I'll show you around sometime."

"That's... a bit more involved than I hoped," she admitted. "My passenger still thinks it's doable, but it's… not going to be a ten-minute job."

"Which is why we're giving it three hours, right?" Fumi seemed unflappable.

"I guess." She kind of wished Su or Ran were here, actually, or maybe Mom and Dad. But they didn't want to risk disturbing her, and Ran had insisted on helping to search for Ikuto. Or rather, she suspected from the way she'd winked at her, Yoru. And that situation was really confusing right now, so she wasn't going to think about it anymore.

"Well then, best get to it. The circle in the centre should be the best spot, but I'm not going to give you instructions; I have very little idea how attunements work." Her smile slipped a little. "That, and I still have a lot of work to do before the new system can be said to be complete. Don't hesitate to ask for help if there's anything you need, but ideally ask one of my assistants instead of me. It's going to be tight as it is."

This would have been much easier if Autochthon was still around.

Amu blinked. That had come out of nowhere - who, or perhaps what, was Autochthon?

Autochthon. The Great Maker, and my creator. Normally, when I come across anything outside my experience, I can simply ask him for advice. That is to say, I used to have that ability - now, I imagine he's as dead and gone as every other part of my support structure. It's deeply unfortunate, as something this unusual might well have had him showing up personally, and since Autochthon is also a world, it would provide an escape route if we should fail. On the other hand, Autochthon would most certainly have performed science on the escapees. That's still preferable to being dead, right?

She really, really didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't want to respond to that. It might decide to explain the details.

And your reaction fits inside the 80th percentile. The utility calculation is simple, but I've yet to have someone follow them precisely. It's truly unfortunate.

"...let's just start the procedure," she muttered.

Indeed. Then, start by sitting down at the point of maximum pressure. You should be able to feel it out on instinct from there on. You may feel an instinct to take control over the flow, but resist it for now.

Right…

"I'm starting now," she told Fumi over her shoulder, receiving a wave in response.

Maximum pressure turned out to be at the precise centre of the circle Fumi had pointed out, and standing there felt very uncomfortable. She had a good idea why - her hair-color had shifted again when she stepped in, this time back to brown, though maintaining the combination with Miki was if anything easier than usual. Curious, she focused on a strand of hair and managed to shift it back to blue for a second, but it felt like she was lifting a boulder. That part made sense, since the dragon seal was meant to maintain reality as-is. Why did it make her transformation easier to maintain, though?

She shook her head. Not important right now.

Amu sat down, crossed her feet, and closed her eyes. Follow her instincts, right. Well, her instincts said… not much at all. There was a sense of flow, turbulence in the pressure passing from below and upwards, but she couldn't -

Below her a hundred streams of energy mingled and passed through each other, throwing up drops of essence the size of her head. Grids of, she didn't - no, she did understand. Grids of spellwork filtered and buffered the flow. Diverting the largest streams around the building, cutting the smaller drops into even finer droplets, continuously adjusting themselves to provide a stable flow of power to the less robust spells they would… presumably feed into. How had she known that?

Intuition excellency, using limited-horizon Solomonoff induction on the current situation. Extremely expensive in terms of essence, but well worth it at times like this. You used it intuitively.

She'd chalk it up to bizarre exaltation magic.

The flow didn't immediately feed into anything larger, instead passing through her own position before splitting up and continuing in all directions. The circle on the floor described the position of a… lens, of sorts, she thought, which did the actual splitting. Following it outwards, she found…

Her mind almost short-circuited. It wasn't just a single layer of machinery, beyond the walls; there was that, but the elevator she'd taken with Fumi had taken her ten floors below the rest of JPs, and it seemed like every millimeter of that distance was crammed with spellwork, most of it embedded in solid rock. The complexity was immense; it was almost a living thing in itself. That was what Fumi and Hotsuin had made? She couldn't possibly understand it, let alone attune to it, and she'd get blown away by the force if she tried!

Agreed. You cannot attune to this as you are, but it is within the purvey of Solar Exalted to grow to fit the problem. Fortunately, this problem is still small enough and fits your mind well enough that it can easily be done within the remaining time.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

While complex, this is still machinery. Expanding your understanding of the universe to include the fundamentals laws of essence manipulation should suffice.

Good. Wait… didn't you say your understanding of essence is not quite applicable to this world?

Admittedly true. Unfortunately, we don't have a choice. The parallels are strong, and hopefully it'll be good enough. If necessary, an intuition excellency should be able to handle the edge cases. That could possibly work even without implanting any knowledge at all, but a good base level of understanding may help significantly.

Implanting knowledge… right. Oh well, best get started. What should she do?

Nothing in particular is required. This may be a little disconcerting; do not panic.

The world dissolved into

Around her, she saw​

Each capacitor ring can handle up to fifteen motes, but is most efficient in the six to eight regime. For re͢du̸cȩd͡According to the limit of R=m^3*c, which only applies

Sunday's Melancholy, 10:00

G̷r̀a͟v͞ity ̧is ̡a ̧c̨oo̴p͏e̴ra̡tive̸ e͡f͘f͘ect o͠f̸ ̨-̶

Ér͘͟͏r̛͞o̵͏̧r̸͝.̡̛́͞ ̢H̴́ù̧̨͜͡m͏̴͜͝à̶͝n̵̸̷̨͞ ̶̢̀͘i̷̴̸̴͝s͘͜͡͠͡ ̷̧d̛͡e̵̢a̧͢d̀͘̕͝,̸ ̵͠ḿ̶̶͝i̵͟s̴̨̢m̸͟͝͝à͞t͘͠c̛̕h̡̧͢.͏̸​

+͏̷̴̢̕+̸̧́+͟͢͜+͢͢͟+̵̵̀͜͟+̛+̸̧͡+̕͏͜͢+̢̀͘͘͢+͏̵̀͞+̢̕͞+͏͏̨͞+̧̛́+̷͢͏̡+̨́̀͟+̸+́͠​

Sunday's Melancholy, 10:30

Ŗ̴i̴̛͞ḑi̶̴c͠͡ú̴͠ļ̸o͠us͠.͞ ͡I̸͘t ̀̕͘do̧͢e̶s͜n̢'̶̧t̴̴ ̧w͟or͠k̡ ̀͟ĺ͝ik͟e͢͝ ̷͘͝t́h̷͢a͜͢͠t̕͠ at̷ ̨͞a̶l͞ļ̴̛;̷͝ ̵̧͢h͞è̛͜re̵͡͞,̴͏ ̴l͘͞et͏ ̵͘ḿ͘e͢ ̛́s̡̕h̵̛o͟͠w̷ ̡y̵̨o͏u̷.͏
G̴̡̧̝̪̙̪̻̞̰̙̭͉̣̦͚̖͠ơ̭͖͙̬̠̣̻̰͕̲͝ơ̸͙͕̙͉̱̖͎͈̫̩͝͝d̹̫̘̰̼̻̜̖͚̼͕̦̳̖͖̞͉͢ ̷̱̠̼̦̹̫̰l̡̡̖̲̻̩̗͖͇̘̙̣͟͞ͅu̵̧̢̘̟̺̟̟̺͙̩c̴̴̷̟̞̺͉̞͔͘͟k̢̨̡͎̹͔̖̩̪͖̹͙̙͚̰̝̀͢,̷̸͖͙̙͇̘̺̣̖̫͔̲͍͚̳̺̕͞ͅ ̴͎͓̖̮̦͙̳̫̙̲̥͙͕̩̝̕͡ͅÁ̴̡̛̲͚͇̫͝ḿ̠̙͙͙͢͢͜u̢̢͕̤͔̞̭̜͉̫͉̱̕͡


Sunday's Melancholy, 11:00

She came to with a start, and an egg clattered down from her lap. Amu blinked, looking at it. That was the new one, the yellow-and-diamond one, but what was it doing out of her pocket? It was showing no signs of hatching… though it wouldn't in here, would it?

Her passenger answered before she had a chance to wonder for very long.

Your newest Chara has some curious talents, and made a few important adjustments to the information I was streaming to you. I would be suspicious, but they all appear to be correct. We should discuss this later; however, I believe you may still be unable to attune as-is. Is that correct?

Was it? Um…

She understood what she was looking at, now; somehow, she did. It was still the most complex thing she had ever seen, and she was only seeing it through the vague echoes and backscatter of flowing magatsuhi, but it felt like she should have a good enough grasp on the mechanism to attune herself. Except… it was still too large. She might be able to do it anyway, but it wouldn't be as safe - not to her, and not to her goal. The attunement could easily fail.

Was there a way to fix that?

There is. Your grasp of essence can relatively quickly be increased. I will start in a moment; there may be a slight burning sensation.

A slight -

She winced, then gritted her teeth. That felt more like she'd been set on fire, or scalded, only it didn't stop. What part of this was slight?

Unexpected resonance, harmonic feedback through Miki. There is no damage, but the process cannot be paused. Apologies. Compensating…

The sensation slowly faded until she could barely feel it. Amu sagged in relief.

This will take approximately half an hour. Do not move.

She hadn't been planning to.


Sunday's Melancholy, 11:30

That should be sufficient.

The burning finally subsided. It had gotten very annoying after a while; it wasn't strong, on its own, but she'd had nothing to do but sit there and feel it. She didn't really feel any different, but…

Have another look at the thaumaturgical structure of the seal.

Yes, that was precisely her point. She couldn't see it much better, only a little more detail, but the streams of magatsuhi looked a lot… smaller, now. Easier to grasp. That was the point, wasn't it?

Reach out with your own power, harmonize with the structure. Follow your intuition.

As a whole, it looked a little like a tree. Or maybe an hourglass, but with the streams leading everywhere, a tree seemed like a more accurate analogy. The world tree, maybe? It was going to hold the world up.

She could grasp it all, now. Not all at once, but after first connecting with the lens she was sitting on, she found that after properly stabilizing it the attunement maintained itself. She didn't even need to commit any of her essence, the dragon seal easily powered everything from its side.

Systematically, starting with the roots, she slowly attuned herself to the entire dragon seal. As she did so the parts she hadn't been able to see became far clearer to her eyes, opening up new areas for her to connect to.

It really was incredibly impressive. Even now, she wasn't sure she would have been able to recreate it, though she could get close. Ignoring that she didn't have the first idea of how to start doing sorcery.

There is a method to… no, that wouldn't work anymore. I suggest asking Fumi.

She was almost finished when she noticed a commotion behind her. This part was tricky, though -the furthest branches were almost a hundred metres away - so she ignored it for the moment.


Sunday's Melancholy, 12:00

"I'd say I find it hard to believe she could do any such thing, except that she already has. Instead, I'll ask why you thought letting her was a good idea. Her age is irrelevant, but by your own word she's possessed."

"It was the best idea I had, that's why. Doesn't matter if it's bad if there are no better ones. You didn't find Hikawa, did you?" Fumi sounded aggrieved.

Hotsuin was silent for a moment before answering.

"No, but you couldn't have known that. That aside, you should have explained your plan up front."

"Well, I didn't because I knew you'd react like this! You're entirely too possessive of the dragon stream."

They kept arguing while Amu got to her feet and stretched. What was going on? Hadn't Fumi explained the plan to her boss?

The attunement was complete, so she should probably tell her, but… should she interfere in this?

[ ] Tell them
[ ] Wait quietly
[ ] Write-in

=======

Attunement gained: Dragon Seal Primary Focus (5-dot manse-equivalent)
- Requesting energy from it is problematic, but it's definitely very impressive!

Dia made her appearance:
- Dia: +1 intelligence, +1 charisma, +1 appearance
+2 presence, +1 craft(magatsuhi), specialisation: +2 craft(reality)

Lore increased to 4
- XP remaining: 23/32

Essence increased to 3
- XP remaining: 13/32

XP Update:
4 XP (Storyline: Enter the Joker)
+50% (Audience participation bonus)
+30% (Exaltation shard/Amu relationship bonus)
= 7 XP
=> 20 banked / 39 total

Miki now has an essence pool
Internal: Essence*4 + WP = 11
Peripheral: 0
(But what will she do with it?)

New character sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RZywOs4Lf4FkG2XRkQRpaFZ9alfxYVc3mzS07BZb3rI/edit#

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 12:01

Amu hesitated. Fumi was quarreling with Hotsuin, right? The chief of JP's? She didn't want to disturb them. But they were arguing about her, about what she'd been doing… and about her passenger, which hit a little too close to home. Hotsuin kept calling her possessed, wouldn't that mean she wasn't really the one in control? She thought she was, of course, but did that mean much of anything? Was it really safe for her to do this?

The world is about to end. Safety cannot be guaranteed.

She knew that! That wasn't the question she'd meant to ask.

Asking me whether or not I am unduly influencing you is meaningless. I will of course say no, that it is only my function to assist and advise, but if it had been otherwise then I would most likely still have said that, in an attempt to instil a false sense of safety. It is for the best that it is not otherwise, as it appears I am unskilled at doing so. To limit Hotsuin's concern, however, I would recommend carefully distinguishing between your own insights and those you communicate on my behalf.

That made a lot of sense, while also being scary to think about. Its suggestion sounded like a good idea.

Her next question would have been whether or not she should interrupt them, and how. Wasn't she relying on its advice too much, though? But if she just ignored it, that wouldn't be very nice either.

That is your decision to make. Under normal circumstances we wouldn't be able to speak with each other at all. I do not have feelings to hurt; my only priority is to assist you in whatever way you deem best.

- Which sounded like it didn't care at all, meaning it was entirely up to her. Fine… Fine, she could do that.

Really, she already knew what the correct choice was, it was just that she'd been intimidated by the thought of getting in the middle of that quarrel. There wasn't any time to wait around, though; every minute counted.

It was still intimidating.

———​

As she was walking towards the in-progress and rather loud quarrel, her passenger decided to give her some free advise.

One thing, while you're talking to Hotsuin. I would recommend courtesy in order to avoid the appearance of undercutting his authority, unless you'd prefer to take control of the organisation personally. However, do not cede any of your own authority as an expert if you wish your opinions taken seriously.

…only the second half of which made any kind of sense. She'd only been an expert in this for a few hours, and wasn't that a strange thought, so she didn't exactly have much confidence in her understanding yet; it hadn't really been tested. She could still pretend she did. Take over the organisation, though? What kind of…

She tried imagining herself leading JPs, perhaps wearing some kind of crown, but in fact she had very little idea what that would mean. Leading them into battle, maybe - somehow she knew exactly how to do that, and in her mind's eye she imagined ways to defend this room from… she wasn't quite sure what, though she was sure she could figure something out regardless - but take over? The whole thing? That was crazy. There had to be a lot of, of - dealing with politicians, that kind of thing, and she was still ten even if it felt like she'd had several lifetimes' worth of skills stuffed into her head.

Actually. She slowed down a bit; neither of them was looking in her direction anyway. Was that thought, that she'd had someone's skills stuffed in her head… was that literally true, by any chance? Skills had to come from somewhere, right?

In part. The distilled essence of experience. Skills condensed and generalised to their limit, allowing for the compression of entire segments of human knowledge into what would be a normal lifespan's understanding, which you can then learn in weeks - or, when it fits better, hours - and without colouring your personality.

That sounded… rather cool, actually.

What she'd learned already was apparently everything from thaumaturgy to mechanical engineering and programming. It wasn't at all like a database, the skills worked just like anything else she'd learned, insight and solutions coming to mind whenever she though of anything remotely related to… just about anything even slightly sciency, which apparently included magic. Oh, and that was because magic was just… right, that made sense.

She even had a good idea how she could cheat in Complete Annihilation, now. Not that she would, of course, but if she just got a chance to read through the source code first…

Amu fought a grin, thinking the implications through. An hour, maybe two, and she could give Tadase a serious surprise in their next game. Which…

Should have been today, except she was busy saving the world. She shook her head; this wasn't the time to get caught up in daydreams.

———​

She stepped up behind Hotsuin, hoping for Fumi to acknowledge her.

"The Emperor. Google. Every datacenter company you could get your paws on." Hotsuin counted each one off on his fingers. "Do you realize how we're going to look if nothing happens?"

Fumi glared at him. "You don't believe that's likely. You've also wandered away from the real issue, which is to say whether or not there were any better options. Stopping Hikawa was the only alternative, and we can't do that if we can't find him."

"That is not the main issue!" Hotsuin near-growled.

"So what is, then?" Fumi leaned inside his personal space. "That you've lost control over your main trump card? I thought you said I could do whatever was necessary for survival?"

"Um," Amu tried. She was sure they must have noticed her by now. Were they ignoring her?

"Not giving it away! It's belonged to my family for generations, it wasn't yours to give."

"Belonged?" Fumi sounded incredulous. "It's composed of the thoughts of all humanity, in what sense could you possibly claim it belongs to you?"

"Fumi?" She was right behind Hotsuin, only slightly to the side, Fumi had to be able to see her. "I finished the attunement, so…" She trailed off into a whisper, still not wanting to disturb them. Hotsuin was actually no older than Ikuto, which was surprising, but Ikuto was a lot cooler. Hotsuin seemed so angry.

"Irrelevant!" Hotsuin made a grand sweeping motion of his right hand. "We're the ones who know how to exploit it. We've spent generations fine-tuning the seals. Without us, Japan wouldn't even exist."

Maybe she wasn't speaking loudly enough? The way they were ignoring her was making her angry, too.

"And without taking risks, it won't exist for much longer!"

"Well, that's -"

"Fumi!" She shouted. Hotsuin bit off a curse, whirling to face her - and completely missed her, looking well over her head. Amu frowned. At least they had momentarily stopped their argument, though Fumi looked like she still wanted to go on.

"I'm down here," she dryly told him. His head swivelled downwards until he was looking at the top of her head. She stepped back a little. "I just wanted to tell Fumi that I have, in fact, finished attuning to the seal. You know, the first stage of us not dying?"

Was that too sarcastic? She couldn't tell. She didn't really care.

Hotsuin stared at her for a moment.

"Your hair… has the most bizarre colour I've seen in my life. Wasn't it brown a minute ago?"

She sputtered, almost hissing, and only held herself back because of her passenger's request to be courteous. Her hair was the most interesting thing about her?

Amu pulled some of it into view, then sighed. This time it had turned some kind of bizarre solid grayish-brownish-blueish color with pink ends, which she supposed was reason enough to raise an eyebrow. By staring at it for a few seconds she successfully made the tips turn orange in a small section, which hadn't been what she tried to do at all. Never mind. So she'd have a spot of orange in a disaster of a hairdo for a while, fine, whatever.

"Does that really matter right now? We don't have a lot of time," she pointed out.

Hotsuin blinked. "You're right, of course. So you're Amu." She nodded, and he smiled at her. It looked horribly fake, like he'd never learned how to smile, but it still gave her pause. "And you've already finished synchronizing with the dragon stream?"

Amu could feel him doing something, bending the flow of energy into the seal slightly. She shivered, looking back at the central focus; instinctively, she adjusted the flow back to normal.

His grin grew wider. "So you have. Not even just the stream, but also the seal itself. I'm impressed, though time will tell whether I should be impressed with you or your passenger. A persona user too, aren't you?"

She shrugged, honestly unsure. "You'd have to tell me what a persona is, first. I do have charas, if that's what you mean. As for my passenger… I'm not sure myself. It's given me a lot of new skills, but they're apparently my skills now, so I couldn't tell you what the best way to count them is."

"They actually seem to be something like the inverse of personas, but the underlying ability is probably the same," Fumi interjected.

Hotsuin nodded. "Hard to say whether or not you'd have been able to synchronize without its help, then. No matter. I may have had objections to the way this was done, Fumi, and we will discuss that at length afterwards, but what's done is done. Explain how this will work."

"Through a great deal of luck," Fumi admitted. "The dragon seal enforces our version of physics, and the spells are mostly independent of that physics, but it's dependent on physical elements to keep its structure. The seals and machinery here, the towers, all the various seals we've embedded in temples across Japan, and of course continuous computerized adjustments. When the Demiurge attempts to destroy the world it will instantly deactivate the physics underlying those elements, causing the spells to denature in a matter of seconds. What I'm hoping for is…"

Fumi coughed a few times, then took a deep breath. Amu hoped she'd be all right; come to think of it, she looked rather pale.

"What I'm hoping is that Amu will be able to keep the primary spells running for those few seconds, then keep it from tearing itself apart when the normal rules come back. She's got an ability that will let her ignore the Conception entirely, apparently she can enforce normal physics in her own body, and by attuning to the seal she should be able to control it. Isn't that right?"

Amu nodded. "I can't say I fully understand all the details, but I'm pretty sure I can stop it from falling apart at least."

"Right. Then, once the initial wave recedes, the dragon seal will start working again and bootstrap itself into existence from Tokyo outwards. The contents of the world, what atoms are where and such, is just data; ideally, the Demiurge is just going to turn it off rather than immediately trying to erase it, but I admit that's guesswork. I'd like to think that's needed for Hikawa's survival afterwards, though. At that point I'll take over most of the work, along with a very large number of computers and -" Her eyes narrowed a bit "- some other people I conscripted. The great thing is, if this actually works we'll get to keep all of Japan. Plus a bit of China."

" You've conscripted the people working for all the companies you've taken over, you mean." Hotsuin sighed. "That's fine, if it works, though I trust I don't need to explain what this does to our operational security. This is probably the most hare-brained plan I've ever heard, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but let's do it. It's definitely ambituous enough. What's your current status, and is there anything you need from me?"

"Busy." Fumi frowned. "I'm not done with the programming yet. Niellsen and David are doing most of the work right now, but they're actually in California, which needless to say is out of range of the seals. They're not the only people helping, but they're the best ones. Is there any way we could fetch them?"

"In one hour?" Hotsuin raised an eyebrow. "Even a Concorde would take four."

Fumi looked pleadingly at him, but he shook his head. She slumped a little, and responded in a resigned tone. "Then let me get back to programming. I'll need to be fully on top of my game when the Conception hits, if I'm going to do both of their jobs. The new seal-adjusting code isn't done yet, but I'm pretty sure everything else is. Just leave me alone for a while, will you? Go see to Amu's friends or something." Hotsuin fell silent, though he didn't immediately leave.

Amu perked up a little. "My friends are here? Even Utau-chan?"

"Holding an impromptu concert in the mess hall, last I checked on them." Fumi smiled weakly. "Cute girl. I'm not so sure about her brother, apparently he almost made their car crash when he jumped on top of it. Thought we were kidnapping her. That's all cleared up now, though. That goes for you too, though - unless you have something to contribute, I suggest you spend the next hour up there."

"Um…"

Utau had a brother?

She couldn't really think of any way to help. She was worried about Fumi, but what was she supposed to do? Just by looking at her… she was obviously tired, but…

Something in the back of her head triggered, a tiny bit of essence flowed, and Amu almost squeaked. Fumi wasn't just tired, she was suffering from severe sleep deprivation masked by drugs. She wasn't sure what kind. Coffee, maybe? She didn't think there was much she could do about that, Fumi just needed sleep.

Maybe her passenger had some ideas?

Nothing immediately springs to mind. I don't believe I can improve on Fumi's plan, but there are three possible ways it could fail that I may be able to limit given an hour's work. Installing a new charm is something I'd be able to do while you are socializing; however, some of them have potential drawbacks you should be aware of in advance. You would be reaching beyond your capacity in ways that require me to override safety logic. Though, that is likely to be the case regardless.

For you:
[ ] Kagutsuchi may attempt to directly influence her mind. Install a charm to block that.
[ ] Kagutsuchi may attempt to directly attack the master seal. Hack together a single-use charm to extend Integrity-Protecting Prana to the seal.
[ ] Holding the spells in place without help may be too much, even at Essence 3. Use the time to make arbitrary activation of Glory to the Most High slightly less catastrophically dangerous.

For Amu:
[ ] Just go have fun.
[ ] Write-in

XP Update:
4 XP (Storyline: Attunement)
+50% (Audience participation bonus)
+35% (Relationship bonus)
= 7 XP
=> 27 banked / 46 total

A/N: It's not coffee. Also the previous update's XP update should have been in the one before, but eh. For charms: There's time to learn two charms, if they're similar, or hack together one. You can't do both.

 

[Baughn]

A/N: Well, this got ridiculously huge. Hope you don't mind.

Nothing immediately springs to mind. I don't believe I can improve on Fumi's plan, but there are three possible ways it could fail that I may be able to limit given an hour's work. Installing a new charm is something I'd be able to do while you are socializing; however, some of them have potential drawbacks you should be aware of in advance. You would be reaching beyond your capacity in ways that require me to override safety logic. Though, that is likely to be the case regardless.

The best approach may be to ask the experts what the most likely vector of attack is.

Ask the experts? She guessed that meant Fumi, or maybe Hotsuin. But Fumi was really busy, and Hotsuin...

She spoke up before she could tell herself all the reasons why this was a bad idea. "Um, Hotsuin? One question, please?"

Hotsuin paused on his way out. "Yes?"

"Well, it's about the Conception. If I knew how the Demiurge is going to attack, I might be able to prepare… at least a little better…"

Hotsuin narrowed his eyes at her, making her quail inwardly, but she refused to back down. This was important! Besides, he was really just another teenager, there was no reason for her to care that much about his disapproval. She met his gaze squarely.

He frowned. "I would have thought Fumi had already explained all we know."

Fumi distractedly nodded.

"She barely told me anything," Amu complained. "Only what it'll try to do at first, not how it'll react to failing. I have to assume that it isn't dumb, and it'll try something, but I don't know what it can do."

"Join the club," Hotsuin muttered under his breath. Louder, "It sounds to me like she did tell you everything we know. Which is to say, very little. We only know of its existence as a constant background to the world; there is no telling how it'll react to failure, or how strongly it'll strike back. But -" He smirked. "History shows that creatures of such might often have trouble even comprehending failure, let alone finding clever solutions. I would suggest being ready for indiscriminate brute force, if anything, but I can't predict the form of that force. If that will be all?"

He didn't look upset, but he did look impatient. She shrugged uncertainly and made to follow him towards the elevators, leaving Fumi to her struggles.

Some random spark of intuition made her look back after passing Fumi, for the first time giving her a good view of her work. Text chat, video chat, text chat, source code of some form, command prompt, more source code, another three terminal windows, web browser…

She cocked her head, looking more closely at the code Fumi was editing. Of course the language wasn't familiar, but if you assumed consistency…

"Shouldn't that be a semicolon?" She asked, pointing at a misplaced apostrophe. Fumi paused in her typing, nodded, corrected it and moved on. She thought for a moment. "And there, the exit condition of that loop can't happen, because you're passing the flag by value instead of name." At least, that was the only reading that made sense of everything else she could see.

Fumi stopped typing, tapping her fingers on the keyboard. "It's set in a different thread. Weren't you going to talk to your friends?"

"Yes, but -" She wanted to help.

"Brook's law. Adding more programmers to a late project makes it later. I'll ignore the way you seem to understand a language you couldn't possibly be familiar with, seeing as I wrote it myself, but if you want to hang around I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your comments to the syntax only. There's no time to explain everything." She frowned unhappily. "What I'm doing now is adding contingencies; the main program already works, but as you heard, we don't know enough about what will happen. Now either stick around for the next hour, or leave."

Stay here for the whole hour? That -

Was unnecessary, actually. All she had to do was -

Trying to push Miki away, Amu found she was stuck. Confusion was just about to turn into alarm when the connection finally gave in and they tumbled apart. Literally, in Miki's case, tumbling in mid-air.

What was that? Her mind felt tender, like she'd ripped off a band-aid too early.

'The effect of the seal?' Miki wondered.

They looked at each other, startled.

'Can you hear this?' Amu tried, deliberately thinking at Miki. This was the same as during her exaltation, when all four of them had been able to hear each other. It would be really useful if they could do that all the time.

'Ki͢n͠d ͝o̷f͘.'

Their connection quickly fuzzed out, then ceased entirely. Miki shrugged, as if to say 'Oh well'.

Fumi hadn't noticed anything. They grinned at each other.

"Actually," Amu said -

"How about we do both?" Miki finished. "The only thing I can do is look, and tell you if I spot something that's off, but that might still be helpful. If you don't mind, that is."

Fumi raised an eyebrow, looking between the two of them, then shrugged. "Sure, whatever."

Miki smiled, waving Amu away.

———​

If the Demiurge will use brute force, given its position, that most likely means one of two types of assault. Either it will extend the time period it's suppressing reality, hoping you will fail; or, it will actively attempt to shape the seal into nothingness. There are of course any number of subtler measures it could take, such as throwing lightning at you, but that would both be far more difficult to defend against and against Hotsuin's recommendation.

Of those two, a shaping attack is the one that would currently be impossible to defend against. As such, I will endeavour to construct a feasible defence charm in the next hour, based on Integrity-Protecting Prana. Please note that this will likely reduce the effectiveness of Integrity-Protecting Prana on yourself, requiring some level of active control to prevent damage.

Incidentally, if there's anything you can do to awaken your newest Chara ahead of schedule, that might be useful. It does have some useful skills.

Amu nodded agreeably. She was almost back up - this was actually a really fast elevator - and any moment now she'd get to see her friends again. She wondered who Utau's brother was. He sounded a little scary, if he'd jumped on top of a car!

The smile that forced its way onto her face was something she neither was able nor wanted to suppress.

The door dinged open and she stepped out, revealing -

"Amu-chi!"

Amu stumbled back into the elevator, Yaya hanging around her neck. She hit the back wall hard, forcing the air out of her lungs. "Oof. Yaya!"

"Eheh, sorry." Yuiki Yaya stuck her tongue out, then slid off her and almost fell down. Amu grabbed the supposedly older girl and steadied her on her feet, regarding her with fond exasperation. "But I heard you were coming to see me, so I couldn't wait!"

"Not just you, Yaya. It is good to see you, though." She pulled her in for a quick hug. "Am I going to get tackled by anyone else if I step outside?"

"Naah. It's just me, everyone else is listening to Utau." Yaya looked really excited. "Speaking of which, why didn't you tell me she was so good at singing? Let's get back there, now!"

The elevator doors soundlessly closed behind her.

"Well, I'd like that, but -" Amu smirked, turning Yaya around to see. "It appears we're going back down."

Yaya's eyes widened, and she looked pleadingly at Amu. "Noo~, that can't be! Did you bring me here to keep me captive? Let me go, I beg of you!"

"…What?" Amu stared uncomprehendingly at her.

"Well, I did almost get kidnapped," Yaya pointed out. She wriggled out of Amu's grip and studied the controls for a second, then hit the open-doors button. "If Ran hadn't been with them, I really would have thought I'd been kidnapped. What was with that, anyway? They're adults, but they could see her… and when did you get minions, Amu?"

"Minions?"

"Henchmen, then?" Yaya suggested.

Amu shook her head. "They're not my henchmen, and it's a long story. Let's get back to the others, I don't have a lot of time before I need to go back."

———​

"The entire world? You're trying to save…"

She was sitting in a circle with the other guardians, as well as Ikuto, Utau, her parents, and of course everyone's charas. Minus Miki, who was still downstairs - and Su, who had taken it upon herself to "Make the best cup of coffee ever!" Truthfully, Amu was a little worried of what she'd cook up; it wasn't beyond her to produce a cup with outright lethal levels of caffeeine, if she wasn't careful. Not that anything had ever gone wrong yet.

"That's, um…" She couldn't make herself meet Ikuto's gaze. Why was he the apparent spokesperson, anyway? "No, we're only trying to save… Japan. And a bit of China. The Dragon Seal doesn't have the range to do anything more, we're already pushing it."

She could feel everyone staring at her. What she'd said meant… they were sacrificing everyone outside of Japan. At best, they were sacrificing everyone outside of Japan. At worst… well, hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"It does explain why the JSDF was out in force," Kukai commented. Everyone looked at him. "What, you didn't notice? There were soldiers everywhere, and vehicles. I'm not sure what they're planning to do against the end of the world, but…" He shivered visibly, and she saw Yaya squeeze his hand.

Ikuto spoke up. "It isn't your fault, Amu. You're doing your best, right?"

She hesitantly nodded.

He shrugged. "Then I don't see a problem. I don't think we could hold it against you even if you didn't, but -" His eyes narrowed "- why are you involved at all? If it's got something to do with the humpty lock, I'll do it instead."

"It's not…" She trailed off. Ikuto had been glancing at Mom frequently. Something was going on there, and she wasn't sure she liked it, but she guessed Mom hadn't told him anything important. She didn't want to explain her exaltation right now. "…It's something only I can do," she decided. "Miki's helping a lot, but that's because she's Miki, not because she's a chara." And she didn't want to explain their new relationship either, not right away. After the Conception, then, and hopefully she wasn't putting it off until after their death.

Amu wilted a little, thinking about what might happen.

Yaya looked at her, frowned for a moment, then perked up. "Oh, but Amu's not here to get interrogated!" She chimed in. "That's our job, Amu's the one with the interrogators. Did I tell you she has henchmen now?"

There was a pause.

"What? No, I said!" Amu complained.

"Oh, so that's what it was." Tadase nodded wisely. "I was wondering where she got them, but she's just taking Complete Annihilation to the next level. You didn't have to, Amu, really."

Horrified, sensing an incomprehensible betrayal, she turned to stare at him.

"That's right," Yaya agreed. "Amu's always so serious about things."

Kukai let out a chuckle. She shot him an accusing look. Everyone… everyone was failing her. Everyone, except… "Nadeshiko?" She tried, looking at the only one of her friends who hadn't spoken up yet. "You don't think they're my minions, do you?"

"Not minions," Nadeshiko agreed quietly. Amu nodded approvingly, then froze as she continued. "Henchmen."

Yaya giggled.

Amu glared at the girl who'd taken everything from her. The bane of her existence, the… oh, never mind. "Yaya, this is all your fault!" She yelled as she launched herself at her friend, tackling her to the floor and tickling her until she was laughing hysterically. Kukai shortly joined in, trying to save Yaya, Tadase attempted to intercept Kukai - but ended up another victim of Amu, who'd forgotten to be embarrassed after a giggling Ran forced a character change on her - and the meeting generally dissolved into a laughing tangle of limbs.

———​

"Oh, I needed that," she giggled, leaning against Yaya's back. She also probably needed a shower, they were both sweaty and she hadn't even changed her clothes since yesterday, but she'd worry about that later.

"Glad to have helped," Yaya hummed. "You know, I never asked… no, never mind. Don't worry about it, I won't."

Worry about what, Amu wondered. If she didn't want her to ask, though…

She shook her head, looked at her watch, and got to her feet. 12:40. "All right. We'll talk later, okay? I'm almost out of time, and there's something I need to ask Ikuto about. Utau, too. Speaking of which, have you seen that brother of Utau's I heard about?"

Yaya giggled, giving her a speculative look. "Noo~, I think it's best if you ask Ikuto about him. I don't want to ruin the surprise."

Amu looked blankly at her. "Surprise? No, never mind, I'm really running out of time here. Thanks, Yaya!" She gave her an impulsive hug, then looked around for Ikuto. There he was, sitting next to Utau in a corner. Convenient. Well, not precisely "next to", it looked like she was…

———​

"No, I said." Ikuto sounded frustrated. Amu had only caught the tail end of the conversation, but apparently he wasn't so much "sitting in a corner" as "cornered". What was Utau doing?

"But Ikutooo!"

Ikuto met her gaze, and she drew the corner of her mouth up in a half-smile.

"Ikuto? Who's…"

She poked the fastening of one of Utau's ponytails. The idol shrieked, then turned and looked up at her. "Oh, it's you. Amu, wasn't it?" Utau sighed, and slowly continued. "I'm not going to apologize for anything, but… thank you, I suppose. Your parents did tell us why we're here. Not the others, they're too young, but I wouldn't want to risk it out there. I do appreciate not needing to."

Utau narrowed her eyes. "Ikuto's still mine, though. Do you understand?"

Amu looked at her in confusion. Still hers? Did that mean -

"Oh God, I so did not need this," Ikuto groaned. "Amu, please let me introduce you. This is Tsukiyomi Utau." He paused, and her eyes widened in realisation. "My blood-related younger sister. It'd good if both of you remembered that. Utau, this is Amu, -" He paused, dramatically "- my adoptive little sister. Get along, will you?"

His what?

"Your what?"

Amu stared at him in total, genuine incomprehension. She was joined in that by Utau, who'd actually shouted the question. Ikuto smiled at them with some amount of glee.

"Well, you see. I was talking to your mother, Amu-chan, and she brought up an interesting detail. Apparently chara users have a much better chance of survival, even if you don't completely succeed. Therefore, since we already know each other - and because I'm the oldest one here -" He smirked, holding up a signed contract. "Welcome to the family, Tsukiyomi Amu. I'll do my best to be a wonderful brother."

The room had gone completely quiet. Amu looked around desperately, but it seemed Dad had bundled everyone out of the room before that conversation - Mom was still there, but she just nodded.

Letting him meet Mom had been totally, utterly the wrong idea!

She found her gaze inevitably, magnetically attracted back to Ikuto.

"Of course, you're still on the Hinamori family register as well. It's a bit unusual, and maybe not strictly speaking legal, but for the time being you can use both names. Doesn't that sound great?"

"I…" She tried saying something, but found her voice wouldn't come out. This was completely unfair! Utau was still staring at them. Utau… "Utau, are you going to accept this?" She asked.

Utau looked between her and Ikuto a few times, then slowly started to smile. She reached out to ruffle her hair; Amu was still too shocked to stop her. "Well, why not? I'm sure you'll be a great younger sister, Imouto-chan. I always wanted one, you know. Besides… less competition." Competition? What was she talking about?

Ikuto looked a little uncomfortable, but eventually shrugged in resignation. "We'll talk about that later. Amu, I'm sorry to drop this on you right now, but it was important to explain before - anything happened. That being said, did you want something?"

Amu blinked. Yes, she did, and she was getting really short on time; there was no time to worry about all of this right now. That seemed to be becoming a disturbingly common trend, unfortunately. "Oh, right! Yes, I wanted to ask if I can borrow the Humpty Key. And also… Utau, you know if it helps or not, right? I mean, with character transformations? Without spending a lot of time getting used to it?"

Utau looked uncertainly at her. "It does, but…"

Ikuto got straight to the point. "What are you planning? You can already do transformations with the lock, right?"

"Trust me?"

They didn't, and so she found herself having to make rapid explanations of what she wanted to try. Convincing them took too much time, so Ikuto eventually joined her in the elevator - and so did Utau, insisting on it since Ikuto was coming.

Getting him to agree that her hare-brained idea was a good idea at all took a lot of fast talking, and in the end she wasn't sure herself. Utau, surprisingly, supported her; as she said, sometimes it was best to risk it all on a throw of the dice and hope for the best.

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 12:54

There was… something.

Amu glanced at her watch; only a few minutes left. There seemed to be a kind of tension in the air, though she wasn't sure if it was real or not. It might be just her imagination, and the longer they waited the better - maybe - but they were getting too close. She got to her feet, easily pulling Ikuto along. Utau had left after their discussion, not wanting to disturb the setup - or "Crazy magitech contrivance," as she put it - but Ikuto had insisted on staying until the end.

"Amu?" He asked.

Fumi looked up from where she'd been resting her head in her arms.

"Time, already?" She looked blearily at them.

"I'm not sure. I'm not sure, we're supposed to get some warning, but I think… just in case…"

Advanced waves detected. Wide-area aberrant information flow detected. Wide-area shaping field detected. Multiple-waypoint shaping effect detected - caution, inconsistent signature. Aberrant geometry shaping field detected, geometry estimation in progress. Warning, chaotic shaping field detected, no database match. Hardening exterior interfaces against flow turbulence. Feeder conduits shutting down.

She stiffened, feeling her stomach churning. Miki, over by Fumi's side, looked up in alarm.

Traffic analysis suggests dual-mode gossip network, extrapolated cycle time approximately 50 seconds.

Only seconds had passed.

Shaping field geometry fluctuating, closest match is hyperbolic (32%). Minimum spanning distance 400 seconds. Median spanning distance uncomputable.

"Definitely time!" She squeaked, a high-pitched noise that nonetheless carried across the otherwise quiet hall. "Ran, Miki, get over here!"

Ikuto was finally reacting, but so slowly. She was bouncing on her feet before he'd even gotten his hands on the key, and had to force herself not to grab it by force. She barely noticed when Ran, flying at top speed, got close enough for the transformation to Amulet Heart.

He got the key out of his pocket, then hesitated and looked at her with concern. "Are you really sure?"

She eyed him incredulously. "No time! Just give it to me!"

Ikuto seemed to be on the verge of saying something else, but finally - finally, after almost three seconds of deliberation, he jerkily handed her the key. She hoped it'd do some good. Actually opening the lock would have been crazy - she had no idea what would happen - but the lock helped even when she was just wearing it, so maybe the key would do the same.

Network traffic approaching saturation, ETA 30 seconds. Assuming two-stage commit, expect no serious effects for another minute.

Why was her passenger chattering like the demiurge was some kind of computer network? No, never mind, something to ask it later.

Miki hit her at full speed, rocking her onto her heels. She adjusted automatically, then gave Ikuto a hopeful look. Hoping for what, she wasn't sure.

His eyes widened, then he smiled and dropped a hand on her shoulder, pushing her gently in the direction of the main seal.

"Do your best," he said.

Somehow, it felt vexing. In the middle of the terror, impatience and stage fright, some part of her had hoped he'd do something more. Maybe give her a hug, if that didn't feel so much like cheating on Tadase.

This really wasn't the time for soul-searching. Miki was pulling on her shirt, telling her to go, and she kicked off into a sprint. Time seemed to be moving at a glacial pace.

"Fumi!" She shouted. "Twenty seconds! Get it started!"

It'd all be for nothing if the seal wasn't on yet by the time things started to happen.

"Already on it!" Fumi hollered back.

Lock in one hand and key in the other, she could sense a build-up of potential between them, like two magnets that couldn't decide if they wanted to reject or attract the other. At the same time she felt the intakes of the seal dilate, sending a shockwave back through the dragon stream as it attempted to eat the next hour's worth of energy in the space of a second and found that there was nothing there. The stream would adjust in a few seconds, by which time she had to be ready to moderate it, but first it was time to do something really stupid. "Miki!"

Key and lock amplifying her focus, barreling headlong into the seal's zone of influence, Amu's mind reached out to Miki's without first releasing Ran. The effect was immediate, and dramatic; as Miki disappeared, Amu's costume oscillated wildly between several different color schemes and styles before she reached far enough in to prohibit any such alterations. Inside her head the three of them fought for balance, and she stumbled, taking precious seconds to recover. She felt like she'd jammed several pieces in places they didn't belong; like she was going to come apart at any moment, except the seal wouldn't let her, not even to put herself together the right way.

Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea -

That wasn't her passenger. Miki?

Yes! No! I don't have a clue! This was a bad idea! A bit late now, but this was a bad idea!

Whoever it was, she sounded resigned. Amu could understand her, she felt a headache coming on herself. Maybe not quickly, hopefully not quickly, but she couldn't possibly keep this form up for long. She hoped this was worth it.

Essence pools increased by 15%. Warning, network saturation in 10 seconds.

She'd reached her spot, though, and the dragon seal was just about to ramp up to full power. With the stream's shockwave still the only thing she needed to worry about, a moment's thought allowed her to blunt it before it reached any sensitive components of the machinery. Fumi was scanning her screens, her cup of Su's extra-ridiculous black "coffee" apparently forgotten.

Wait a minute, this place is uncomfortable even when the seal is at minimum power. What's going to happen when it's at max?

That… was a good question. She could sense the flow of energy through the machinery rapidly rising, giving her only a second to -

Brace!

Even just standing there, she felt like she'd been clamped in a vice. This wasn't just a bit of pressure; it felt like it was trying to squeeze her right out of existence. She couldn't speak, she could barely move, she could hardly even think.

Desperate, wanting it to stop, she forcefully wrapped a mote of essence around herself and cross-braced it against itself, forming the crudest possible shield.

Relief.

Why did that happen? Shouldn't we have the ability to stop things like that?

Integrity-protecting Prana only prevents shaping attacks. The seal's zone of effect also prohibits shaping. They reinforce each other rather than cancel out. I am not sure why it had the effect it had.

Her passenger sounded vaguely confused. Amu put it out of her mind; the shield, while crude, might last anything from a few minutes up to an hour before she needed to reinforce it. Not ideal, but good enough for what she was doing. The seal was already at maximum, too.

Network saturation imminent, please stand by… traffic dropping off. No estimates for further activity.

Nothing?

No, that wasn't right. She could still feel it building, like a static charge in the air. Something was definitely about to happen.

Revised ETA: Two seconds. Extending Integrity-Protecting Prana to material components of Dragon Seal. Caution, effectiveness will be reduced.

She clamped down on the seal with an effort of will.

Things started happening very quickly.

———

[Advanced waves spiking]
[External interfaces set to maximum hardening]
[Maintaining peripheral essence buffers at 50% nominal]
[Essence capacitors at 98%]
[Primary essence conduit nominal]
[Secondary essence conduits nominal]
[Control interfaces A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1, C2 all nominal]
[Signal/noise ratio at 45dB]
[Toggling exalt safeties off]

This is not the time for heavy thought. You focus all your effort on keeping everything stable under what you expect will be strain well beyond Amu's current parameters.

[Primary essence conduit at 100% load]
[Secondary essence conduit #1 at 60% load]
[Secondary essence conduit #2 at 65% load]

———

Fumi froze in mid-movement. The air between them seemed to stretch, black lightning playing across the room without touching anything, then her vision faded like an overexposed photograph.

The dragon seal!

Only a fraction of a second had passed, but the seal was already stuttering, burning through power at an impossible rate. She joined her own essence to the dragon stream and used it to steer the seal, bending all her mind on stopping it from attempting the impossible -

She held the spells in position, focusing on standing in for the fading effects of its physical components -

Not a bad trick. Let's never do it again.

Everything outside her own skin was missing, physics suppressed by the will of the Demiurge, but it would be back. It had to come back. This wasn't the end, this was just the intermission. The immense force flowed over her like a stream over a pebble, like waves crashing on a rock -

Part of her was hysterically making up analogies, trying to distract itself from the fact that everything inside her body appeared to be missing as well; she felt like a soap bubble, ready to pop at the slightest provocation. Didn't she have a charm to stop that? Most of her was busy bending reality to its will, or at least refusing to bend knee to reality, and didn't care. She might have been there for a second, a day or a month, she had nothing left to keep track. Time ceased to matter.

After a year the pressure slackened slightly, and the room swam back into focus, but before she could even begin to relax a wave of pure denial hit her from an angle that didn't exist. It refused her existence, abjured her very being, and it scattered off Integrity-Protecting Prana as if it were nothing but a gentle rain. With the Demiurge crashing against a perfect defence the seal made a little headway, forming an egg-shaped zone of reality around her; gasping, she took her first breath in what might have been a century.

It didn't last, of course it didn't. The Demiurge was not a computer game NPC, to meaninglessly repeat actions that had no effect, and a moment later she found herself mercilessly crushed out of existence again. The force now carried a strong tinge of confusion and frustration. She hoped that meant it was working, that it couldn't keep this up forever, because she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to keep it up either. She had already exhausted her own pools of essence, and the stream from her passenger wasn't so much a gentle trickle as a raging, barely-controllable river. She had to control it, failure was not acceptable, but it got harder with every passing moment. If it outlasted her, the seal would destroy itself and they'd all die. Her, Mom, Ikuto, everyone.

Everyone? Then how was she thinking right now?

She was still there, existing despite the origin of reality's denial of that existence. She could still feel her body, only it didn't quite feel like her body. She could wiggle her fingers, but they were more like the idea of fingers than actual fingers.

Amu fought on, struggling to hold everything together for just another minute.

———

[Control interface C1 failure]
[Control interface B2 failure]
[Control interface C2 failure]
[Secondary essence conduit #2 emergency shutdown]
[Global overload, scaling essence capacity by 1.15x]
[Secondary essence conduit #1 at 110%]
[Primary essence conduit at 120%]
[Control interface A2 failure]
[Signal/noise ratio at 24dB]
[Forcing charm activation: Glory to the Most High]
[Signal/noise ratio at 7dB]
[Global overload, scaling essence capacity by 1.4x]
[Warning: S/NR critically low]
[Control interface A3 failure]
[Warning: Essence capacitors at 40%]

———

Just one more minute.

[ ] Take your chances
[ ] Take less chances
[ ] Write-in

A/N: Regarding honorifics. I'm only including them when a character is using an "abnormal" one, e.g. "-chi" for Yaya above, or if the character is deliberately stressing it. (That one's actually doubly abnormal, as it doesn't exist.) This is not actually true for every chapter I've posted, so I'll need to go back over them at some point and fix that, but probably not until after the quest is done. That may be a while.

2 compassion channels used; 1 remaining.
18 limit gained, i.e. -1 willpower for the next month.
2 siblings gained, whether you like it or not.

Ran now has an essence pool. However, both Miki and Ran are reduced to 10 motes due to willpower loss.

A/N: Being Ikuto is suffering. So, on occasion, is steering a forgetful and frazzled young girl.

New character sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dFKaMrVOh1h0Ao9CuLKtR26RxmI-YtkgU4EiOa35muM/edit#