I had some questions about this situation I had found myself in.
"-And that is why in essence, magical girl powers tend to be unique to the individual." Grasper lectured as she adjusted her glasses. "Mmh, yes, well, that's the commonly accepted theory at least. There are things that I calculate won't actually be clarified until decades, maybe even centuries down the line."
"That far, huh?" I commented as I took in a deep breath. "I can't even begin to imagine what the future would be like."
"Neither can anyone else." The black haired girl's hands felt warm against my skin. She pushed on my muscles and I grunted. "They say it's better to be a dog in times of tranquility then to be a human in times of chaos, but if I'm being honest I wouldn't want to live in those before times. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like if I had to live like a normal human. Though maybe if I did, I would be able to keep myself in blissful ignorance…"
"Hm?" I glanced up towards her. "What was that?"
"Nothing you could worry about," Grasper said as she pulled away from me and began to jot some notes down on a smartpad. "Well, I think that concludes this analysis."
"Oh yeah I've been meaning to ask something." My bones popped as I stood up and began to stretch. The biggest question in my mind regarding all of this could only really be… "Why are you giving me a massage?"
After managing to escape school once more, I thought I would finally be able to relax only for Grasper to drag me down to the lab before I could even get a word in. The next thing I knew, I had found myself lying on cold metal shirtless as she began to massage my exhausted muscles.
"Don't get me wrong, it was nice-" More than nice really, Grasper's fingers were a magic all in their own and I could feel the tension loosening up with every knot she pressed against. "-But I'm not sure how this counts as an analysis? You didn't even hook me up to the machine you used last time."
"There wasn't really a need. I was just testing a hypothesis of mine." The glasses wearing girl explained as she walked over to a chair and plopped herself down on it with a tired sigh. "See ever since that science-, excuse me,
SCIENCE session last time, my head has been filled with a bunch of calculations I can't solve. Most pressing being 'Just what exactly is it that makes your Break Release different then Phoenix's?'"
I blinked. "Didn't you just say that magical girl abilities tend to be unique?"
"But both of you call it a Break Release. And as far as the numbers go, it should in fact be the same ability." Grasper countered as she pressed a few buttons of her device, causing a monitor to flicker to life. Two blacked out silhouettes appeared, with glowing lines throughout their body. It didn't take me long to realize I was looking at a diagram of Phoenix and Tail Red. "In fact, magic flows through the body in an
almost identical way. Keyword there being 'almost'."
She tapped a button and an image of my regular self appeared. "And even untransformed, your own magic seems to share more characteristics with Phoenix's mana flow then Tail Red's, though without the ability to actually utilize it beyond reinforcement."
"When did you have time to make these?" I couldn't help but ask.
Slowly, Dark Grasper turned towards me and looked me dead in the eye. "I haven't gotten much sleep."
"Ah." I was familiar with that look. "Keep going then, though I don't know if I'll understand much of it."
"Right, I'll just simplify it so you can understand. Phoenix, as much as I hate to admit it, was spot on in regards to the main difference. With her help, I've figured out how to calculate the mana flow when you use your Break Releases. And the result just so happens to be..." She coughed before hitting the play button. Slowly, the figures on screen began to mimic the motions of our respective Break Releases, but the lines that showed the magic flows… "Can you see the problem here?"
I squinted hard at the diagrams. When put in front of me this obviously, even I could get it. "It's… splitting?"
"That's an incorrect word choice. It's more accurate to say that your mana flow is
overflowing." The black haired girl declared. "Phoenix's Break Release is structured. It fills up in all the places it needs to go and once that's done, it's either used or she jams up her whole system. When you use Break Release though, it's almost like your magic has a leak in it's system. Mana just floods through your body, which has the side effect of making your magic numbers potentially grow
higher than usual."
Nodding my head slowly, I spoke up. "That's a good thing righ-"
"Heck no!" Grasper shouted. "If your magical girl form wasn't made by magic, you'd probably be killing yourself! As it is, the only reason you can use it with any sense of safety is because eventually, your magic floods the channel necessary to activate Grand Blazer, which kicks in your power limiter! Honestly?! There's a 75.68% chance that this entire set up is a pure
fluke!"
Oh. Oh that was
bad.
"But I still don't see how that has to do with giving me a massage," I said carefully.
My partner, friend, and probably life savior merely sighed and flicked off the screen. "That was an experiment to see if I could influence your body's magical flow with external force. Of course I could screw something up badly if I had tried that while you were transformed but your unique physiology makes for a good substitute."
"I don't have those bullshit 'Eyes of Truth' Phoenix has, so I'm going off of educated guesswork, but I think it worked. Though I'll have to calculate how much of that was the massage and how much of it was me guiding you to unconsciously altering your mana flow." Grasper shrugged before tapping the glasses on her face. "If I didn't have these, this would probably have taken a
lot longer."
"What even are those anyway?" I asked as I grabbed my shirt from off the floor and began to slip it back on. It was tight against my body, so I reminded myself once again to get myself refitted. "You were a bit too uh,
excited to actually tell me."
"Well while you were out of it, I had Infrared take care of the last room on the floor here." She explained. I could
hazily recall something like that happening but my recollection was still a bit fuzzy, since I wasn't too concerned about trying to focus on it. "And wouldn't you know it, inside of a forgotten filing cabinet that hadn't been touched for about two years, three months, six days, 4 hours, and 32 seconds, where
these treasures. A pair of glasses with full on AR tech- You don't know what that is do you."
"Not a clue." I freely admitted.
"The long story short of it is that these things provide me a HUD- Heads Up- They give me a computer interface with reality okay!?" My head nodded slowly and she sighed. "I can't believe that she had these and didn't even tell anyone. Then again, I could say the same about this
entire laboratory."
"Isn't that the point of a secret lab?" I spoke up. "To be, you know, secret?"
"Yes, but the least she could've done is
use these!" Grasper's hands stroke the frames a bit too tenderly for my liking. "Instead she just lets the poor things sit and collect dust! Glasses abuse! I'm stuck in the house of a heretic!"
My body instinctively scooted back. "So! We were talking about my magic?!"
"I'll let your obvious topic change slide for now." The black haired girl let out a low growl before sighing. "Honestly I'm almost stumped with how to go about this. I've even considered asking on ToHO in hopes that anyone has experience in dealing with something like this."
"I actually haven't used that site ever since you started living with me." I should probably go and check on it… some day. "And if you already know how my magic is supposed to flow, couldn't you just guide me into fixing it?"
"There's still a lot of risk with that method. I'd rather turn an 80% chance of failure into a 20%, at the very least." Grasper gave me a tired look. "I trust you Hong, but I also know you. Your skill at manipulating your own magic is negligible at best. The fact you even created a spell on your own almost seems like a fluke, since I refuse to believe you're some kind of idiot savant."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." It didn't really sting though, since I already knew everything she was saying was true. "I can't say I really understand how I pulled it off either though. I was just going along with what I recalled someone telling me."
"Oh?" The black haired girl's eyebrows perked up. "What'd they say?"
"It was just something that happened when she was complaining about how unrealistic the tv show we were watching was." It was a memory I only half-remembered, but it did lead to an epiphany. "Eventually I asked her what magic was and she told me… Magic is energy, and spells are just how you use that energy. So I focused my energy on the attack I wanted to make and that's how Twintail Assault came about."
Grasper's eyes twitched behind the frame. "That is… an extremely basic understanding of what spells are but I guess that's enough for you. Goddammit Twir- Wait it wasn't Twirl who told you that?"
"Hm? Oh no." I shook my head. "Twirl doesn't care about realism, I think her life's dream is to build a giant robot? The person who told me this left a while back since she moved out for college or something. I can't really recall."
"...So there was a second person here?" The girl muttered to herself as she examined the laboratory with new eyes. "Actually considering the way this place is organized… I suppose it makes sense, but I don't really have time to calculate what that entails. I'd like to focus on fixing your Break Release but… Well, it's not exactly like I have a lot of data to go off of."
"There was Drag." I couldn't help but point out. "She knew how to Break Release as well."
"Yeah and I
still can't believe that." Grasper groaned. "No, if it's her, I can believe it, but it makes me feel a bit frustrated as the one who designed her Guildy Gear."
I blinked. "Huh?"
"Drag was… Well, she liked to fight, sure. She's as much of a Guildy as the rest of them. But that didn't mean she liked
violence." The mention of Xu Mei, Drag Guildy, commander of Noble Heart, was enough to make me clench my fist, but I kept on standing. "She probably downplayed her abilities to me so that I'd make a deliberately weaker Guildy Gear. Handicapping herself so to speak."
"Wait doesn't that mean-" A thought struck me and Grasper cut me off with a nod.
"If she had been fitted with a Gear that properly enhanced her abilities,
then you wouldn't have been the one to walk away from that fight." She declared coldly. The air between us was tense, my hair standing on end as we looked into each other's eyes. The mathmagician sighed. "Of course, that's merely guess work on my part, since I wasn't around to witness that final fight."
I was though. And the mention of it unearthed thoughts I long since thought buried. "...I can't say either. I didn't even know Xu Mei was Drag until that day. She hid a lot from me."
"She hid a lot from
everyone." Grasper tiredly pounded her fist on to the chair's armrest. "Drag Guildy was probably the most mysterious Guildy amongst our ranks. She lacked the drive to really push herself, and because of that she was the weakest of the Guildy Commanders. Her units were coined the drop-outs of the ranks. And yet despite that, she was the one closest with the twin generals. She spoke, and both of them listened to what she had to say."
"They're shameless schemers, but I also just happen to be the person closest to them, in a way." I heard her voice in my memories.
"I dunno if I could really stop the two if they put their mind to it, but they're willing to listen."
"So that's who she was talking about…" I muttered.
"And then to top it all off, she goes and sends all of Noble Heart against
you for some reason, even when they're the unit infamous for never actually fighting magical girls." The black haired girl continued. "For a reason that, if I knew, I'd apparently get
executed on the spot!"
"Mmh." I let out, but if I was being honest at this point I wasn't paying attention.
A fact that Grasper seemed to notice as her anger subsided. Her voice wavered a bit as she turned away. "...Sorry, is it a bit too soon for you still?"
"No." I shook my head. "I've gotten over Drag's death. Instead of a burden, it's something that pushes me on forwards now."
"Still, it's a bit of a mood killer. And I don't want to speak ill of the dead, especially since she was my friend too." She spoke softly before leaning back into her chair with a sigh. "Why don't we just call it a night here? I'll hit up Phoenix and get her to tell me more about how she learned Break Release and hopefully I'll be able to get some data from that."
"Really? It's a bit sudden-"
"Your homework isn't done."
"Ack!" I exclaimed as I dashed through the halls of the lab. "Well nice talking to you Grasper but I gotta go!"
"Don't be like Phoenix and try to get me to do everything!"
Hey, I had integrity you know?!
...
Dark Grasper watched as her friend disappeared around the corner. Sighing to herself, she slumped back into her chair and began to replay the conversation in her mind. Combined with the last few days… "Does he really not notice the look in his eyes?"
I couldn't focus.
That's not to say I didn't try. Of course school work had always been a struggle for me, but tonight it felt especially frustrating. The assignment itself wasn't even that difficult, really. Yet for some reason it felt like I couldn't even read the page. Characters danced across the page, my hands refused to mark my answers down, and quite often I found myself coming to realizing minutes had passed where I had just been staring at the sheet.
Needless to say, it was quite frustrating. So with a long sigh I slammed my pencil down on to the desk and pushed my chair back, staring up at the ceiling.
For a while, my thoughts floated through the air weightlessly, until the memory of earlier today came back in my head. Her name left my lips in a heavy breath. "Xu Mei…"
No, Drag Guildy. That was her name.
I had seen both sides of her, and yet I had never managed to connect the dots. The image I had of the two seemed so different during those days, but eventually they turned out to be one in the same. And if Grasper was anything to go by, that hadn't been the only secret she had been hiding.
"Just who were you?" I mumbled, even knowing that I could never find the answer. Yes, I could never find the answer. So then who was the one who
answered me?
"The knight came in on a gentle breeze, and left on a hurricane," someone replied. "Transient, ever changing, and yet she always was the wind."
My eyes widened as I jumped out of my seat. "Who?!"
"That's an accurate description, no?" A light laughter echoed throughout both the room and my head. It was a woman, I realized. One that sounded so familiar, but so strange at the same time. "Or maybe you would beg to disagree. You'd be wrong of course, but I cannot fault you for trying."
A chill crawled down my spine as I desperately searched through to find the source. There was no crackle of static, no sign that someone was speaking to me through a hidden speaker. And yet no matter where I looked, my room was completely empty. The truth of the matter threw my head into further confusion. I was completely, utterly, alone.
"Quite rude of you to simply disregard my presence," spoke the voice from nowhere. "But with a mind like yours, it would be quite rude of me to overestimate your competence."
"Did you seriously come here just to mock me?" I couldn't help but ask as I checked the handle to my room. As always, it was locked. "Or am I just going insane?"
"A little of column A, a little of column B," the invisible girl dismissed. "But since I grow bored of watching you fumble about, I'll enlighten you. Check behind you. Or more accurately,
below you."
Below…?
I glanced down, and that's when I saw it. Attached to my feet was a mass of darkness. A shadow, the result of the absence of light. It stretched across the floor and on to the wall behind me. Something so normal that I'd dismiss it out of hand under normal circumstances. This, however, wasn't normal circumstances. Because something absurd had been stolen from me. Something I thought I'd never lose.
Because the shadow on the wall, the darkness attached to my feet,
wasn't mine.
"Theft is a harsh word. This is more akin to borrowing." The shadow spoke with a soft sigh. It was a girl's, I realized. I couldn't make out many other details than that, save for the twintails that hung from her head with an eerie familiarity that I couldn't place. "Do not be fooled into thinking this was my first choice in projection. I had wanted to appear to you as the reflection in the mirror, but alas, it seems another has taken to that route before me. I, of course, am not one to walk upon roads others have traveled upon, and thus the form your eyes see now. I suppose it's much more fitting for this situation, wouldn't you agree?"
I stepped back, which only served to cause the shadow to grow larger. "Are you
reading my mind?!"
She scoffed, running a hand through her hair. "That would imply there's much to read in the first place."
"Who even are you!?"
"Again with your rudeness," the girl scoffed as she dismissed me with a wave. "And I thought you couldn't get worse after you kept removing the lovely decorations I had placed throughout my room."
Her room? That couldn't be right. I wasn't so dumb as to mistake my room for a complete stranger's and the only one who had been decorating my room recently had been…
No.
No way.
It couldn't be.
I
refused.
"And there's the revelation." Even though her face was a mask of pure black, I could feel the smirk she gave me as she tilted her head. "It took you quite some time, but one of us has to be the polite one here. I've spoken to those you call friends, to those you've called family, and yet I've never spoken to yourself. Thus, I must greet you,
the me who isn't me."
If I was being honest, I could barely believe it at first. Despite the clear difference in actions, and the fuzziness of the memories, I could still recall what I had done while I was using the Chuunibyou affinity. Though it seemed illogical when my mind returned to sanity, it still felt it was something I had done. Of course, each time I had used it the deviations kept changing the trajectory, and it was only a matter of time before it had reached this point.
We weren't parallel lines. Thus, it was inevitable that our paths would intersect.
Even still, I refused to believe it.
That the thing in front of me was-
"Tail Infrared?" I asked hesitantly.
The shadow nodded. "Yes, Magical Girl- Ah, no. I suppose in this state I'm not really a magical girl right now am I? Then allow me to introduce myself properly. I,
Alter Ego Tail Infrared, have come to meet my dreamer."
There was so much about this situation that I couldn't understand. Words refused to escape my lips. Eventually, I said the first sentence I managed to form. "You're the one who keeps trashing my room!"
"Excuse me?" Infrared said. "Am I not allowed to decorate my domain as I please?"
"Your domain? It's
my room!"
"Yes, that is what I said."
"It is the exact
opposite of what you just said!"
"Listen here- Hm, would you prefer Red or
Hong ?" She paused before shaking her head. "A trivial difference. But tell me, will you waste my time on this nonsense or shall we move towards much more meaningful topics?"
She was the one who started this, but I kept that childish remark to myself as I tiredly plopped down on to my bed. Before my eyes, a shadow that was not my own danced across the walls, always doing her best to face me, regardless of where the light shined.
Still, a more meaningful topic huh?
"You said something about Drag earlier." I stated, glancing into the darkness where her eyes should be. "What was that supposed to mean?"
"Even if I were to elaborate, you of all people could never reach the truth. Of that we are both in agreement." Infrared declared. "I was merely putting into words the thoughts you weren't able to form. No matter how ferocious it maybe, the wind will always be the wind. Xu Mei will always be Drag Guildy. You seek to catch the breeze in your hand, but it will always escape your grasp."
For some reason, despite her elaborate phrasing, the intention behind her words were loud and clear.
"The question you really should've been asking is thus:" the self-proclaimed Alter Ego extended her arms wide, causing them to stretch across the walls. She turned her back towards me, but all I could see was her silhouette anyways. "Could she really be called your friend? Could any of those Guildys have been?"
I glared at the shadows hotly. "The hell did you just say?!"
"My my, such anger. Quite different from the flames of your oh so 'righteous' fury, but still burning brightly all the same." Infrared snickered, and I clenched my fists. "But I will still stand my ground. After all, Xu Mei Han, Hu Kang, Shuo Huang, and Huan Xiang,
never even told you their real names. Your time with them was fleeting, and you never even knew the first thing about them. In that ignorance, you unhesitatingly plunged your blade into their hearts and stole their lives away."
"I know that!" I roared, pounding on the bed. There was a loud cracking sound as the frame began to fracture. "Do you think I don't know that?! But even still, even if we only knew each other for a short time, we still had some connection! They were still my friends!"
"You're really going to argue that?" The shadow contested. "You who was always alone? Please, you're simply latching on to whoever bothers to talk to you. Without even knowing the lines between friend and acquaintance, you open your heart up to everyone and it leaves you
vulnerable."
Infrared growled the last word, but I felt her lips curve up in a smirk at the end. "But it does have it's benefits. Once the relationship is gone, you realize who actually mattered to you. Tell me, besides Drag, if you actually cared about the other three then
why did you forget them so easily?"
The words stunned me into silence. I could only give an argument we both knew was weak. "I didn't forget them…"
"Did you now?" She responded. "But once this whole business with Valhalla started, they simply faded into your memories and you continued on with your life as normal. No longer did you mourn them, no longer did you even
think about them. Even your beloved Drag only sticks in your memories due to the Blazer Blade she left you. The Guildys of Noble Heart? The only thing they are to you now are
power ups."
"That's…" I had to say something,
anything. "That's not true…"
"Deny and reject all you like, it only makes the wounds fester." The shadow began to grow larger on the wall, and by now she had begun to tower over me. "I don't regret it, you know? Killing Swan. From my head to my toes, there isn't even a trace of guilt."
She paused before shrugging. "Well, I do regret dealing the finishing blow to that abominable Fox, but only because he
annoyingly had a bit of a point. Really, how vexing, but it's something that's made my blades all the sharper."
"You…" I stared at the wall, feelings of disbelief fluttered in my stomach. Maybe ones of horror and disgust, if this situation wasn't as surreal as it was. "You
don't feel guilty at all?"
"Not in the slightest," Infrared stated flatly. "After all,
it's a magical girl's job to kill monsters."
Those words, the same as the ones Drag told me, were spoken so callously and coldly. But even still, they were enough to reignite the flame in my heart as I stood up to face the
thing. "They
weren't monsters. They were people, with their own thoughts, feelings, and lives. Even in my battles, I never once rejected their identity. I faced their heart head on, and they in turn met mine. Even if in the end, it resulted in death."
What happened was pure violence, plan and simple. But there was a difference. Drag called it a warrior's death and perhaps that may have just been a fancy way of sugarcoating it. But I couldn't deny that all of my fights with Noble Hearts had been duels.
All of them, except
one.
"You cut Swan down without a care." I growled, taking a step forward. "You ignored his words, dismissed him,
rejected his heart. Even if I am a killer, what you did was
murder."
"You're the one in denial here," Infrared replied. "This is reality, not flights of fantasy. Things won't always wrap themselves in a bow all nice and pretty. Being able to dispose of whatever enemy I face, no matter who, is what makes me a magical girl."
Dispose. That was the word she used. Like they were just garbage to be thrown aside. I will freely admit my ignorance. Everything I heard about what proper magical girls do, from Lan's experiences with Hope to what the internet said, all pointed to the fact that I was an anomaly. If that was the case, then maybe Tail Infrared was right. Maybe I was just some naive kid who didn't know the first thing about being a proper magical girl.
But if that was the case, then I was fine with that.
"That makes you a magical girl," I took a step into the shadow. It rippled as a loud stomp echoed across the floor. "But it doesn't make you a
hero!"
"Hero?!" Tail Infrared roared, as she grew larger now consuming the entire wall in darkness. "You still believe in that?! It's nothing more than a fantasy!"
"That may be so, but I made a promise. To always strive to be a good person, no matter what!" I declared as I grew closer. Each step made me feel like I was walking through mud, but I kept going. "The person who I am isn't Magical Girl Tail Red! That is only a power that I call upon!
I am Hong Liang! And the path in front of me,
I'll save it no matter what!"
By this point, I could no longer see the silhouette. Instead, the entire room had been covered in a deep darkness, smuttering out any traces of the light. "You say that, but all the roads ahead lead to nothing but death, destruction, and despair!"
Her voice was cracking now. No, it was shedding, revealing it's true colors. Stained black, it shook the entire room with it's rumble. My feet stumbled, but I still made an effort to stand tall. "That's enough! If you really are a part of Tail Red, then I won't let you consume me! No matter what you say, I won't back down, so go!"
For a moment, I stood there in complete darkness, in utter silence before Infrared bothered to respond. "...Fine, a hypocrite like you makes me feel nothing but disgust. I'm glad that you're merely the me who isn't me. But even still, I won't forget my obligations."
"Obligations?" I asked cautiously.
"You're sick. A hopeless infection caused by naught but your own hand," The alter ego explained bluntly. "My presence is but a symptom. Soon the day will come when the festering and rotting will become fatal. If you continue down this path, then when the time arrives, when we finally meet face to face…"
I waited patiently for her words. That was a mistake. The shadows broke free from the wall, a hand lunging forward. Before I could even respond, it pierced through my chest, staining the darkness a rusty red. There was no heat to it, just a cold chill that wrapped around my heart and began to squeeze. I could hear the thumping of it loudly in my ears, even as I struggled to breath.
Infrared's voice had become distorted. No, it had begun to overlap with my own thoughts. Her thoughts. It didn't matter, her words were burned into my brain.
'THEN THE NIGHTMARE WILL CONSUME YOU.'
"Gah!" I exclaimed as I jolted up from my… desk? I quickly touched my chest to see that yes, my heart was just fine, before glancing around my perfectly normal room, lit by the sunlight rays, and sighing with relief. "The heck kinda dream was that…"
I paused as I glanced at my homework assignment. At some point I had dozed off I guessed. Stained with drool and loose pencil marks… Then I noticed it. Written in my own handwriting, but it was a message clearly intended for me.
"Clock's ticking."
I stared, transfixed. Unable to move a muscle. Somewhere far away, yet as close as in my own head, I heard
her laugh in the distance.
My thoughts on what to do were interrupted by the sudden beeping of the Tail Gear on my wrist. With shaky hands, I brought it up to me before answering.
"Hey Hong." Grasper's voice spoke with a tired sigh. Did she stay up all night? Usually I'd be worried, but today I couldn't help but think that she was lucky. "Still haven't made any more progress on the Break Release, but I've got some ideas for training. How do you feel about practicing running on walls?"
"...Yeah," I said hesitantly before sighing and shaking my head. "Yeah sure, that sounds fine. Meet you down there after breakfast?"
"Are you alright?" The black haired girl asked over the line. "You sound…"
"I'm fine." I glanced over at the paper in front of me. "Just a bad dream."
A dream that was darker than what I initially thought.
But in the end, it was just a dream.
Right?
Pick (3) Actions
Active Actions
-[] Hang out with someone (Insert Who)
-[] Advance Laboratory Reclamation (Floor 2 - 0/4 complete. Next Objective: Make Way Into Second Floor)
-[] Continue Fixing The Engine
-[] Do something else?
Passive Actions:
-[] Fuck you, do your homework.
-[] EXERCISE BOI EXERCISE
-[] MAGICAL GIRL TRAINING TIME
+6 EXP Got a massage from a cute girl
+15 EXP
"Can't you read the writing on the wall?"
77 + 21 = 98 EXP
