Magical Girl Phantom Ascension

[SpoopyGhost]

At least part of the decision is an easy one to make. Even with what you saw before, there are too many unknowns for the idea of confrontation to sit right with you, so Shimizu-san and Miho's ideas are easy to dismiss. However, Pallavi and Midori's suggestions give you more pause. The former strikes you as somewhat naive, yet ultimately the most in-line with your reasons for being here in the first place. The latter feels more promising, yet more prone to going wrong, with so many of you trying to be stealthy; you'd do much better on your own like before.

Maybe that's the way to go. Taking a deep breath to brace yourself, you glance between the other four, not meeting any one gaze for too long to keep your summoned courage from collapsing. "I think Pallavi's idea is best," you begin. She nods happily at your support, while Midori's expression momentarily darkens, but you try to ignore both. "However, I also think there's merit to sneaking in back as well. Since I'm not here on my own this time, I can do that while the rest of you talk to Sakamoto-san and try to learn more from him."

You've barely finished before Shimizu-san raises an objection. "Didn't you say you've already snuck in before? I don't see a point in repeating ourselves. We have numbers on our side now, we can be more direct."

You can feel yourself beginning to wilt again, despite your best efforts. "I didn't really get that far," you mumble self-consciously, gaze dropping by instinct to your feet. "I wanted to observe Sakamoto-san first to see if there was anything odd, and then…"

"I like her plan."

Glancing over in surprise, you find the one who saved you from further self-justification to be none other than Miho. "I like her plan." she repeats, hands on her hips as she meets Shimizu-san's glare unflinching. "We know something's up, that was the point of her coming here before, right? Now we can try and find out what. She goes deeper, while we actually talk to the guy and see if we can trip him up. We cover more bases this way, so one way or another we can get something out of this."

Shimizu-san grumbles, but this time it's Midori's turn to interrupt before she can say anything more. "Whatever we're doing," she says, pointing to a watch poking out of her sleeve, "We need to do it fast. Only ten minutes to closing."

Shimizu-san pinches the bridge of her nose, but after a moment reluctantly nods. "Fine. We take Varma-san's idea, and you go around back. Just, try to find out more this time? Let's go."

You don't bother with a response, already moving toward the alleyway, and trying not to think of it too much as fleeing. It occurs to you to wonder if there was a more self-serving reason for your plan putting you on your own again, but just as quickly dismiss the thought. Still, you can't help but feel some relief, hearing the jingling of the bell, and then silence as you make your way into the darkness alone, detransforming as soon as they've all vanished inside.

This alley, in addition to being much narrower than the one from before, is also much shorter. Turning the back corner, you find yourself in a small open area surrounded on all sides; the next store over from the bookshop extends further back, while the one that makes up the opposite wall of the alley seems to have an extra wing that forms the fourth wall around this space. At the very least, it should be easy to narrow down your options here, as you inspect your surroundings to try to find a way in.

In the opposite corner from you is a small gate to another street, but it seems locked, and not really intended for traffic anyway; more for garbage collectors to access the almost obligatory dumpster sitting nearby. There are three doors here as well leading into each of the surrounding establishments, but closer inspection reveals them to be one-way fire escapes, with no means of opening them from the outside. And you're still not confident enough in your phasing to try to waste too much time on that, either. In a fit of desperation, you even consider lifting the manhole cover in the center, and trying to get up into the shop from the sewers.

No, you're not doing that. You still have some dignity.

Instead, your answer comes by looking up, and spotting a small window on the second floor. Not only must it lead to the upstairs area you saw Sakamoto-san's sister depart to before, it has been left wide open to let in the night breeze. It is not exactly large, sure, but neither are you - it should not be too difficult to slip in though, as long as you can reach it to begin with.

That is where the problem lies - you were never exactly the physical type, and even the textured brick wall feels too smooth and daunting when you've never even tried to climb before. Still, you remind yourself, falling will not hurt the same way it would have before, so it has to be worth a try if nothing else. A minute or so later, pressing yourself up against the wall and searching for handholds, you look down to find… you're not even a foot off the ground. And just as you suspected, it all feels too solid right now to simply walk through.

Letting go of that plan, you step back and reconsider. Should you have brought at least someone else to help? Would it be worth going back around to sneak in the front while invisible? Midori was the one to suggest the alleyway, but perhaps you should have gone in with the rest? Then you would still have been visible, however, and vanishing in front of not only the others but also the owner wouldn't exactly go unnoticed. And the reverse of that, transforming here to use your powers to get inside, feels too flashy not to be noticed.

When you finally figure it out, you can't help but feel embarrassed at how long it took. The dumpster in the other corner isn't exactly right below the window, but it's not too far, and the pavement back here isn't nearly as worn from use as in the other alley. Despite your hesitation, it proves surprisingly easy to push it over, the trundling not exactly silent, but not as loud as you feared, as you gently guide it into place.

From there, it's easier to hoist yourself onto its side (grimacing at the small but disgusting layer of baked-in residue and rot you see inside) and slowly stand up, wobbling, on the sheet-metal covering. You know you'll lose your balance the longer you try to maintain it, so despite the lack of sure footing, you kneel down as best you can and launch yourself upward, scrabbling and just barely managing to grasp onto the windowsill.

You almost lose your grip again when a light flicks on from inside, but petrified as you are, you somehow keep from falling. A voice passes by, and with the fast-paced speaking in another language, it doesn't take much to identify them as the sister you glimpsed briefly before. However, you can't understand any of what she's saying, and you're not even entirely sure which language it is, just that it most certainly isn't japanese.

"... j'ai l'intention d'y jeter un coup d'œil, mais je ne m'inquiéterais pas trop. Ce n'est pas une importante ville, mais c'est quand même une grande, et ce n'est pas non plus le genre d'endroit que les gens quittent en masse. Peut-être qu'ils ont déménagé, mais je suis sûr qu'ils sont toujours là, et nous n'avons tout simplement pas… Oui, même avec mon frère et les autres pour nous aider. Si vous veniez visiter un jour, vous pourriez voir-"

The light turns off once more, punctuated by the light slamming of a door, and you relax again. Unfortunately, this means your grasp on the ledge is beginning to slip - more mad scrambling ensues as you rush to haul yourself in. Somehow, miraculously, you make it inside, narrowly averting having to do this all over again. At least your recent practice with slipping into your own house proves invaluable, as you keep from falling to the floor too loudly on the other side.

Standing up and brushing nonexistent dust from your clothes, you find yourself at one end of a short hallway. On your left, the top of a staircase that descends back down to the first floor of the shop; you can see an open door to the main room at the bottom, and hear the indistinct voices of the others, and a somewhat flustered-sounding Sakamoto-san. To your right, a closed door with a light underneath; you can hear more indistinct muttering, along with what sounds like a shower curtain being opened. Meanwhile, at the other end of the hall, two more doors; one is closed, the other is open. The open room also has its lights off, but a thin strip of light coming from the window lets you just barely make out what appears to be an office, with a desk and computer. The closed door is much less helpful, but you almost think you see a strange glow from beneath it…

Where To Investigate?

> The Back Room, Downstairs. (Given that seemed to be where those jars were being taken, you can try to learn more about what those are for, while listening in on the others' "interrogation." It is already sounding more hostile than it should be… Though you may not get the kind of answers you need down there.)
> The Right Open Door, Upstairs. (The office is sure to have important documents or the like, right? If you can snoop around there, you might be able to learn more about what the owners are really up to and their true goals here… If you have time to go through it all, that is.)
> The Left Closed Door, Upstairs. (On the other hand, this one feels promising; if this is their living space, you may just get a better idea of who -or what- these people truly are… Though whatever's on the other side of the door may be just as dangerous as it is enlightening.)

 

[SpoopyGhost]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Or so you tell yourself, swallowing nervousness as you step away from the stairs, and instead look to the doors at the end of the hall. You are here to get answers, and if nothing else, you're confident that going back downstairs now would be wasting this opportunity. With your mind made up, you creep past the bathroom door, listening intently in in case the sister reappears. When you are instead greeted by the sound of water through pipes and the resultant hiss of a shower turning on, you relax ever-so-slightly and scurry the rest of the way down the hall.

One door is already open, so you try that one first. Taking a quick peek into the office, you find nothing but abject darkness, outside of the dim strip of light from the door revealing just a chair and an unlit computer screen. Off to the side, you see a thin rectangle glowing a dull orange around the edges, and deduce it to be a shuttered window looking out over the alleyway you passed through just earlier. You feel for a lightswitch, finger hovering over the pad, but pause in thought.

If that woman was speaking another language, would it extend to keeping all their records like that too? You're sure you would be unable to read any of it; stealing it to translate elsewhere would be noticed, and you don't have the means to easily make a copy either. Glancing back at the darkened screen, you realize there may be other obstacles to contend with as well. Part of you wants to stay and figure this out, but at face value it just seems like a waste of time.

Time that you are not sure you have, glancing back the way you came. How long until the sister is done with her shower? Or until the others' distraction efforts end and the brother comes upstairs? The muffled sounds of arguing drifting from below doesn't fill you with confidence.

Instead, you withdraw from the office and turn your attention to the last remaining door. An experimental jimmying of the handle shows it to be unlocked, and shoving down sudden anxiety, you waste no time in pulling it open and sliding in. Closing the door as quickly-yet-silently as you can once you're through, you turn to take in their living space.

At first glance, it seems to be a fairly standard apartment, all things considered. A couch flanked by bookshelves on one wall, a television stand with a stereo system and no television on the other, and a coffee table in the middle littered with fashion magazines and random knick-knacks. A small desk with its own tall stool are pushed up next to the door to the hall, while on the far wall you see a bar counter leading to what seems to be a kitchen space around the corner, and another pair of doors. It's all almost disappointingly normal, at least at first. But as you examine further, several things suddenly stand out to you.

The first thing that strikes you is the atmosphere, smelling cloying and sweet and tangy, like the tastes of citrus and mint mixing on your tongue. The air isn't any more warm or humid than outside, but it just feels heavier somehow, like wading through a muggy summer day without any of the dampness and sweat. It's quieter, too, aside from the rustling of leaves that whispers at the edge of your consciousness. Somehow, you sense an intent to the noise, more than just meaningless sound.

Secondly, nearly every surface is covered in plants. Aside from the kitchen area counters and the coffee table, there are dozens of pots and troughs of dirt of all sizes scattered on the stand, along the bookshelves, on the desk, even several just placed out of the way on the floor. In the corners of the room, particularly large urns host saplings that stretch to the ceiling, wrapped in red string lights. (Though you also notice they look rather sickly and dead compared to the rest, with a scattering of shriveled leaves on otherwise barren branches.) You could almost mistake this place for a greenhouse, if not for the other furnishings.

Finally, the third thing you take notice of is the lighting. You'd seen it under the door before, but it's only now that you realize how eerie it is, the back of your neck prickling as you struggle to process what you're seeing. The lightswitch is off, the ceiling fixtures unlit, yet the room is permeated by a strange glowing, more like the blacklights you remember from a science class last semester than a normal color. Rather than looking faintly purple like those, however, this is both a watery green and vivid magenta, the colors overlapping without blending somehow. You blink in a futile gesture to force away the cognitive dissonance, but the paradox persists.

You have a gut feeling this isn't something you would have been able to detect before becoming a ghost.

Even if it does not come from the ceiling fixtures, though, the light is not sourceless. Instead, you realize it seems to be coming from all of the plants scattered about, and this leads you to examine them all more closely. What you first dismissed as just an excess of flora turns out to be unsettlingly strange.

The tall saplings, the only ones that seem to be perfectly normal if unhealthy, turn out not to be wrapped in lights at all. From the dirt around them grow creeping vines that wind their way up the trunk and branches, wreathing the struggling trees in a latticework of red ivy and draping from its branches. It is the stems of these that seem to be the source of the magenta glow in here, particularly concentrated in small buds growing along their length that you'd previously mistaken for bulbs.

Drifting over to one of the bookshelves, you find a wide assortment of smaller shrubs and weeds, with a respectable amount of actual books wedged in between. (You note the spines, some written in japanese, while others have clearly western characters, but you don't stop to read any of the former, let alone try to parse the latter.) Glancing at each briefly before moving on, you only linger long enough to get the impression that most of them loosely resemble different types of succulents that you don't know much about, just that they shouldn't be quite like this. Small flowering segmented cacti that divide and form into elaborate maze-like structures; a few of what you can only describe as a Venus Flytrap but worse; and one that resembles a tight bundle of Aloe that almost seems to bend space, spiraling infinitely inward to a center you can never see now matter how deeply you get drawn in. You have to make an effort to tear your gaze away from that last one, and resolve not to get trapped again, lest it be for good.

Many of these seem to be the source of the green light, but another plant catches your attention, that like the vines produces more of the magenta glow instead. At first glance it appears to be a fern, but rather than fronds, each blade is lined with long, rigid needles akin to those of a fir or spruce tree. More surprisingly, it's bearing fruit. Halfway along the shafts of some of the leaves, a branching stem hangs down and carries an oddly-shaped spheroid, looking as if someone rolled one of the blades up and bent the needles inward. With some amusement, you think it almost looks like the ten-sided dice from your ill-fated tabletop games, just comprised of a bicycle wheel's spokes with thin glowing membrane stretched between.

A thumping sound reverberates through the floor, reminding you that you can't afford to dawdle. What is even happening downstairs? Biting your lip, you fight the urge to retreat, and make another sweeping glance around the place to see what else you can find.

In the bright yet dim glow, the shadows look deeper and more dangerous, and you find yourself glaring suspiciously at random objects, wondering what secrets they may hold. A stray hairbrush, an unmarked wooden box, a tiny Eiffel Tower miniature, a discarded instant coffee packet, all get stared into submission before you realize you may just be getting silly with this now.

Your gaze finally alights on the other doors, along the back wall. Bedrooms, perhaps? Peeking in the first one, you're greeted with a sight similar to the office - pitch darkness, and the outline of a window that must look out over the main road, were it not also shuttered. Moving on to the second, you find more of the same exotic flora on shelves in here, particularly the needled ferns and another pot of red ivy, though these vines are wrapped around a traditional gardening trellis instead of something else alive. In the unlight cast by these, you see a mostly ordinary bedroom, save for one other oddity.

Rather than a futon laid out on the tatami mat floor like usual, or even a western-style raised bed, the only sleeping arrangement you can see is what appears to be a strange mixture of a hammock and a sleeping bag, hanging from a pair of heavy-looking hooks bolted into the ceiling near one corner. You blink, rub your eyes, look again, but still it hangs there. Somehow, after everything else you've found, this is what befuddles you the most, and you can't help but wander closer in curiosity.

Up close, the resemblance to a sleeping bag is more apparent, with a perfectly ordinary zipper running along the edge. However, unlike the heavily-padded ones you've gone camping in before, this seems much lighter, the bottom side cushioned against the ropes that hold it aloft, but the top cover being a soft, translucent silk-like material that slips through your fingers like water, with holes near the top for breathing. For there is a top end, the ropes set so the whole thing hangs at a shallow diagonal angle. Between that odd arrangement and the beautiful but abstract celled pattern of the silk, the whole thing is starting to remind you of something else. Perhaps a co-

Your rumination is cut off with a startled jolt, as you hear footsteps approaching. Whirling around, you see the door out to the hallway open, and the sister step through. Still dripping from her brief shower, she's wearing a fluffy red bathrobe and slippers, drying off her hair before carelessly tossing the towel onto the couch. You shrink back into the room despite yourself, peering around the edge of the doorframe to watch, wondering if she'll notice your presence.

Thankfully, she has not done so yet, carefree and comfortable as she moves about the living room. Humming some unfamiliar tune, she picks up a pair of clippers from the coffee table and snips a fruit from one of the fern-like plants. Taking that to the kitchenette, she drags a blender out from a remote corner of the countertop, and drops the fruit in, before adding something else from the fridge.

Just as you're about to instinctively cover your ears to block out the impending noise, another thump from below catches her attention. Turning away from the blender, she gazes around warily. "Qu'est-ce que cet idiot prépare?"

Still lurking in the door to the bedroom, you shrink back as her gaze passes over you. She clearly cannot see you, but still an uneasy feeling sits in your gut, especially when her head cocks to the side as if to hear something better, and especially when she suddenly grabs a large chef's knife out of the sink and holds it out threateningly.

You notice the rustling noises from earlier have gotten louder, and the plants are visibly trembling.

Staring around the space with a grim suspicion, she raises the weapon off to your right. "Ce bâtard de Seelie t'a envoyé?" A moment later, she adds in Japanese, "I know you're in here somewhere. Show yourself!" To your surprise and confusion, she shrugs her shoulders, letting her bathrobe slip down to her elbows and bust; were the situation not so tense you might look away, but right now your eyes are too fixated on her knife. She is stepping closer all the while; you have to think fast.

What To Do?
> Conceal! (Retreat into the back of the bedroom here, maybe the closet. Lay low until her guard lowers or she leaves, then make your escape.)
> Confound! (Take advantage of your invisibility to throw her off-balance, then try to knock her out peacefully.)
> Flee! (Forget subtlety; get out to the hallway and down to the shop, even if it means she sees you opening the door to get out.)
> Fight! (Transform and try to subdue her; even if she has something else up her sleeve, you know now how to use your powers.)

 

[SpoopyGhost]

Ever since the decision to split each Empowering Artifact into a set of seven fragments in accordance with the splitting of the Throne, there have been concerns about the ability to find suitable candidates to wield them. Certainly, while the property of individuals' aura being colored in reflection of their soul has made detecting affinities easy enough, that is a different matter from determining a candidate's worthiness to be entrusted with such power, even if at a lesser scale than previous. In particular, given the abilities of outmost consequence typically associated with Pink, there is worry that an Entrusted one could abuse that power, whether from active malice or merely irresponsibility, and cause more harm than good in the long run.

For six of them, I cannot answer this question with confidence. But in my time speaking with different teams and candidates and assessing them not by their power or potential, but their deepest and most core values, I have developed a certain theory - overly optimistic, perhaps, but heartening if it is true.

I believe that by virtue of the traits that are reflected in an aura as the essence we know as Pink, candidates for that power naturally self-select for suitability. Regardless of outside appearance or surface attitudes, those with the most vivid aura that I have spoken to have almost always shown themselves to possess a certain core trait that makes them perfect for this responsibility.

That is not to say that those of the other colors are lesser, or lack that trait in contrast. Rather, I posit that essence reflection operates much like color in the visible spectrum, which makes it all the more fitting that we use the same terms for specific hues of each. Much like color is made of light of multiple different wavelengths working in tandem, and the wavelengths that are most plentiful appear to us the most; aura reflecting a certain hue of essence does not preclude the presence of traits tied to the other Fundamentals; it simply means that the one reflected is the most plentiful and foundational, and the more intense it is the more plentiful it is. The key difference is that before the split, wielders were chosen for their balance of all traits to keep them in line despite the empowerment, and now we select for those strongest in a specific one to draw out the full potential of their power.

And yes, that change in focus has some of a more... traditional... mindset worried. Some have said the quiet part aloud, that they dislike the potential for Entrusted ones to act outside our direction, whether from lingering attitudes we must work hard to grow past, or from the very real concerns surrounding the cataclysms inflicted upon our colonized worlds. But for the moderates, who are more concerned with the potential for Entrusted ones to inflict harm upon each other or those we wish for them to protect, I wish to offer some hope. Hope, and the affirmation that this approach is the best to take; I firmly believe we will only have lost our way if we let dread cloud our souls, and choose candidates once again to mitigate their strength for fear of what ill they could do, rather than trust in what good could be done instead. I hope that thousands of years from now, we will not have lost sight of that...

As I said, I do believe that the seventh and most momentous of the Fundamentals, Pink, is tied to an aspect of essence that renders those strongest in it most fit for carrying its power. It is an ideal that could be easily mistaken for something lesser, such as the more focused passion of Red, or the compassionate reliability of Orange, or a specific mode of relationship. However, in this context I refer to it in a more meaningful, more all-encompassing, and more unconditional sense.

Love.

-An old, unsigned memo resting buried deep in the Shades' archives, unseen

 

[SpoopyGhost]

Spoiler: Accompanying Music

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvY4A20MQ38

With your opponent between you and the exit, a cavalcade of half-baked plans rush through your head as you steadily back away. Hide away? No, somehow you know the plants can sense your presence. Run away? She would surely chase after you. Transform and fight her? The knife cannot really hurt you, but you have a sneaking suspicion that she has other options. Make a distraction and knock her out? You are not even sure how to do the first part, let alone the second.

Thankfully, you are granted some reprieve when yet another thump from below catches her attention, making her turn away, and you take this opportunity to slip past to the living room. Without her blocking your exit, and with the reminder of the others still down below, the idea of simply fleeing feels like the only natural course of action. If nothing else, you will have strength in numbers, instead of having to contend with her alone.

Still, you hesitate a moment, feeling like there's something else you should do before leaving. Glancing about, you zero in on the clippers she had used just moments ago, and a nearby fern still laden with strange fruits. Evidence. Before you can overthink it, you snatch up the tool and hastily scissor at the fern, chopping stems and fronds alike and jamming whatever falls off into your skirt pocket in a rush.

The wild defacement does not go unnoticed, as you hear an affronted "HEY!" behind you, and dive backward just in time to avoid a wild slash of her knife. You only get a split-second glimpse to see something long and shimmery jutting outwards from her bare back, but don't stop to get a better look. Throwing the clippers at her to buy time, you scramble the rest of the way to the door, half-opening it, half-phasing through it in your rush to leave.

The door slams the rest of the way open, followed by a disturbingly guttural roar, but you refuse to look back. Transforming as you run, you tear down the hall and use the momentum to swing around the end of the banister, launching yourself nearly headfirst down the stairs like your brother used to, skipping three or four steps at a time. You land in a painful kneeling slide at the bottom, but the rush of panic pushes you to clamber upright regardless, leaning on your naginata to do so.

Your frantic thoughts are already several steps ahead, considering how to regroup with the others in the front room without sabotaging their interrogation, but all plans go out the window a moment later as you stand and turn to the door-

-Only to find the others already in the back room just ahead, staring back at you and frozen in surprise.

You blink, struggling to quickly take in the scene. Everyone is transformed and armed, seemingly having been squaring off… against each other? Sakamoto-san is cowering in a corner near the fire escape door, Pallavi standing protectively over him and clutching some sort of large axe or halberd in front of her. Miho and Shimizu-san are both facing her with their own weapons raised, while Midori stands between both parties as the very picture of frustration, though any prior hostility from any of them has been thoroughly derailed by your arrival.

The moment of shock is interrupted by another sudden loud roar, and the sound of something large barreling down the stairs after you. You only spot a brown blur in the corner of your eyes, as panic seizes you to jump out of its way just in time to hear it smash into the wall opposite.

Whirling around to see what just happened, you find yourself staring in horror at nothing less than a massive brown bear, half-embedded in the wall plaster but seemingly barely dazed from the impact. Claws gouge further holes in the wall as it struggles to pull itself upright, shredding through the weak material until finally gaining purchase on an internal support beam that can carry its weight. With a low growl like a rattling car engine, its heavy jowels part in a grimace that shows off long, sharp yellow teeth, each at least the size of one of your fingers. Now towering over you, it blots out the light from the ceiling fixture behind it, and you feel frozen in place.

"What?" Someone demands exasperatedly, only to be drowned out by the loudest roar yet, and then the scene becomes lost in absolute mayhem.

The back room is not strictly small, but with so many people and a whole entire bear filling the space, it becomes decidedly cramped. The animal rears back a meaty paw to swing at you, and only then do you finally regain your senses enough to dodge aside - only to back into a wall and still take a glancing-yet-heavy blow that pushes you into the plaster. Pain explodes across your front and back alike, and your vision blurs; it feels like a bell is clanging around your ears.

Not for the first time, some detached part of your mind has the wherewithal to grumble about the pointlessness of still feeling pain despite the lack of physical damage.

Even in the time it takes for your head to clear somewhat, you find Shimizu-san has managed to hold the bear at a distance with aggressive jabs from some sort of javelin, though its advance has still pushed the others toward the back wall, opposite you. Still too weak to pull yourself back into the fight, you instead frantically fight past the lingering ache to try to think of something, anything that could help. All that comes to mind, though, is that a wild animal should not be acting this aggressive. Unless…

The thought is interrupted by a harsh clang, and you glance back up to see Shimizu-san's weapon has been batted harshly aside. Wisely, she opts to focus on wresting it back out of the side wall it has been lodged in, instead of staying in the bear's path.

Taking advantage of this opening and her small size, Miho ducks through where Shimizu-san was standing and slides beneath the bear's arm. Thankfully, it seems to have turned its attention to Midori and Pallavi, giving her time to awkwardly clamber back upright from her otherwise impressive action pose; were the situation not so dire, you would have had to stifle a giggle.

"You alright?" She casts a concerned glance your way, but without waiting for an answer, turns back around, setting a foot against the wall and extending a pair of wrist-mounted blades to ready her attack. At the same time, another thud sees Midori, having attempted to use her hoop blade as a shield, now slumping back against the fire escape door, wincing as she holds her midsection again. It's at this point that Miho decides to make her move.

"YYYAAAHHH!" She shouts as she kicks off from the wall and makes a running leap towards its back, and you can already tell how this is going to go. Sure enough, ears perking up at the sound, the bear whirls with surprising speed just as she leaps, and with an overhead paw, spikes her straight into the floor.

For a moment you're terrified that it may step on her, and finally peel yourself out of the wall to stand between them if it comes to that. Your quarry glares over at you, growling in warning, and a connection sparks in your mind.

However the next moment, just as quickly as it took out Miho, she turns back away to focus on Pallavi, advancing on her with slow, purposeful strides, arms raised menacingly. To her credit, the other girl stands her ground over Sakamoto-san, expression fearful yet determined, clutching her long-handled axe before her in trembling hands, even as she's cast in the bear's imposing shadow.

You watch helplessly, the naginata in your hand feeling like little more than dead weight as you mentally race through and discard plans to try to help her, or stop the bear. She's too fast to be bound like the monster from before, and too strong to fight… and you are not even sure if you want to use your blade on her, given what happened to Gushiken-san. Nothing feels good enough, not while Pallavi's still trying to stand against her… Oh. Perhaps that's the answer.

"Get out of her way!" you shout to Pallavi, and she casts you a wild-eyed look of disbelief. "She's not here for you, just get away from her brother!" Despite her clear confusion, after only a moment more of hesitation she takes your direction. Skirting to the side without turning away, she meets the bear's gaze with an uncertain look, only for her to drop to all fours in the spot that had just been vacated. You and Pallavi both let out a sigh of relief.

Taking only a moment to sniff at Sakamoto-san, she wraps one arm protectively around him, dragging him over to the back door. Roughly scooping Midori aside with her other paw, she shoulder-checks the pushbar, shrinking down a bit to pass through.

As soon as the door slams shut again, you immediately turn to the pile of limbs and regret known as Miho, and help haul her up off the floor, while Pallavi does the same with Midori. Thankfully, despite how nasty her impact had looked (and sounded), Miho seems… relatively less hurt than you had thought. The way she wavers in place with a slightly cross-eyed stare is rather worrying, though…

However, your efforts to take further stock are swiftly interrupted by the last of the group. Shimizu-san, having finally freed her weapon from the wall, shoves past you on her way to the door, hefting the long and gleaming silver lance ahead of herself as if about to enter a jousting match. With a kick to reopen the door, she wastes no time in charging outside. The remaining four of you stare at each other for a moment, before Midori rolls her eyes with an irritated huff and limps to the door as well; you and Pallavi share a brief shrug before following suit.

You pass through the door just in time to see Shimizu-san's charge halted, the bear wrapping a meaty fist around the tip of her lance before it can hit, and then hurtling it aside, the girl stumbling and falling to her knees from the sudden redirection.

"Let's stop this from getting any more stupid, alright?" Midori grouses, before stopping to hold herself with another pained hiss. Pallavi quickly takes the hint, rushing over to Shimizu-san and grabbing her from behind right before she can pick up the lance for another try.

"What are you doing?" Shimizu-san demands, but after a moment of struggling falls still. Bending down to pick it up herself, Pallavi drags the bluenette back away from the bear, shooting a glance somewhere between terrified and apologetic as she does.

You can't help but feel relieved as she retreats further in return, depositing Sakamoto-san behind her and turning her gaze between the rest of you, hostile but restrained. Midori steps forward slightly, hands up, and for your part you take up a supporting position behind her, naginata at the ready in case the situation falls apart again.

In the silence that follows, you could have heard a pin drop. Clouds roll slowly overhead, the moon coming out to bathe the enclosure in silvery light. The bear's gaze is fixed firmly on the captive Shimizu-san at first, before gradually shifting to take in the rest of you. Sheepishly, you lower your weapon slightly to match Midori and Pallavi's unthreatening stances.

The tension continues to stretch for several moments longer, before the moon becomes half-hidden again, and the bear's posture finally relaxes. Suddenly, the brown of her coat turns pure black, until she's nothing more than a silhouette against the faint moonlight through the clouds. The shape is joined by other silhouettes, layered over one another like translucent cards, with a different one coming to the fore and regaining colors as the rest fade away. Now, instead of the bear, you find yourself once again looking at Sakamoto-san's sister, clad in the bathrobe from before, but no less imposing for it. Behind her, Sakamoto-san stands up and dusts himself off, looking sheepish. "Thank you, Rina nee-san…"

"Are you unhurt?" She shoots back, gaze never wavering from the group before her.

You notice a bruise on his face, but after a moment's hesitation, he mumbles "Yeah, mostly. The orange one was protecting me." Pallavi lets out a nervous chuckle as the sister's piercing gaze gets turned on her, but after a moment she nods in affirmation.

Rina's posture relaxes some more, and she closes her eyes for a long moment. When they open again they look different, glowing green in the shadow cast by her bangs, with slit pupils and double-layered irises; you stiffen back up in response, but she stays put. Instead, she once more scans the four of you up and down, and slowly her stony glare shifts into a confident smirk.

"Magical girls, hmm? You must be a new team, for that sad showing," she spits out at Shimizu-san. "I don't know what your masters think they're accomplishing, to send you after us, but tell them we won't take this insult lightly." Shifting her attention over to you, she adds, "Besides, I would worry more about who you're supposedly working with now. One of you clearly isn't who - or should I say, what - she claims to be." You feel yourself go cold.

What to say?
> Say Nothing (Better to stay quiet, and let the burden of proof fall on her)
> Admit To Being A Ghost (No. If there is a place or time for that, it sure isn't here or now)
> Defend Yourself (You can't let her claim go uncontested, or at least unobscured)
-> Write-In

 

[SpoopyGhost]

Freezing in place, eyes locked with her suddenly alien gaze, the rest of the world fades out of your awareness for a long, phantom-heart-stopping moment. Under her burning eyes, glowing acid green ringed by a dark cyan, you can feel all your secrets exposed. Yet you remain locked up and unmoving, a deer in oncoming headlights. While you had felt ready to crumble under the pressure of expectant gazes during the meeting earlier, this penetrating stare is a very different kind of intense, and though words and defenses and justifications bubble up in your mind, your mouth may as well be cemented shut.

"I could say the same of you!" The long, agonizing silence is broken by Shimizu-san's retort, and the oppressive gaze sweeps away. It's like a crushing weight is lifted, and you do your best to hide the way your shoulders slump in sudden relieved exhaustion, though for better or worse, nobody else present is looking your way now. "You're one to talk about not being what you claim!"

You're glad to see that Shimizu-san seems to have finally stopped trying to attack, even after pulling herself free of Pallavi's grasp; instead she stands defiantly with arms crossed, staring Rina down. Even though something about the woman's stare turning on her makes her sway back for a moment as if pushed, she recovers quickly and refuses to wilt. "You two can lie and hide all you like, but we won't have it. We know what you're up to, and we won't let you get away with this!" Pallavi nods in affirmation.

Rina simply sneers in response. Her eyes blink back to normal, only to shoot the bluenette a condescending smirk almost as withering as what had come before. "Sure you do," she drawls, voice dripping with sarcasm. "And even if you did, I'd love to see you try."

Shimizu-san jolts forward, before being once again grabbed by Pallavi; a second later you realize both you and Midori have your weapons raised again, and Sakamoto-san has darkened into a silhouette. Rina, however, simply rolls her eyes, one arm held out across his chest to stop him, and you sheepishly lower your naginata.

"Nee-san," Takuya mumbles, melting back into color as he tugs at her sleeve. "Let's just-"

She cuts him off with a sudden annoyed sigh, holding a hand to her temple. "Not now. You and I will have to talk about this later, too."

"Not a chance!" Shimizu-san shouts again, wriggling against Pallavi. "Will you let me go already? We can bea-"

"You can lose again," Rina eggs her on.

"Look-" Midori tries to say, only for the ka-chunk of the fire escape door opening again to catch everyone's attention, the argument grinding to a screeching halt.

You turn around, only to see Miho finally poking her head out sheepishly. "Bad time?"

Of course, in that moment of distraction, Rina makes her move.

Turning back, you find her already cycling to a new form, and tense in preparation for the fight to restart. Rather than the bear, however, this time she shifts into a long, serpentine shape with far far too many legs.

The massive centipede-like creature that emerges immediately spits a glob of acid onto the manhole cover you'd seen earlier, melting most of it away with terrifying speed, before she grabs up Takuya in her forelimbs and dives down atop it, smashing the remains apart and slithering away down the hole before anyone can react.

"We should go after them!" Shimizu-san declares, finally breaking free of Pallavi's hold and rushing to the manhole, but by the way her posture slumps and her tone loses all force by the end, you can tell the siblings are already past pursuit. Pallavi meekly hands her back her lance, but after harshly swiping it from her hands, Shimizu-san turns glum and simply dismisses it, the weapon turning into a splash of water that evaporates before it hits the ground.

Midori simply shakes her head in frustration, turning away from the now-empty alley and glaring at the rather confused-looking Miho. "No, we're done here." The frustration in the air is palpable, and you're not entirely sure you can blame her or Shimizu-san.

Backing away from the latter, Pallavi instead approaches you with a small smile. "Thank you for helping me, in there. There was so much going on, I couldn't think, I never would have thought that bear was trying to protect him. Or that it was actually a woman…"

"That wouldn't have worked if it was a real bear," Midori mutters from your other side. "You would still be too close to the cubs and she still would have attacked you."

You shrug sheepishly, unsure how to admit that you didn't know for sure either if that was going to work. "It did work, though." You mumble. Pallavi smiles gratefully again, while Midori just brushes past you silently. "Saw they were siblings the first time I visited."

"That's right, isn't it?" Shimizu-san seems to have recovered some of her bluster, turning toward you with a dangerous look in her eye. "You were here before, but you didn't say anything about another person, let alone that she could shapeshift!" She jabs an accusing finger at you, and you shrink back instinctively.

"I didn't… know about that last part," you manage to force out; if nothing else, her accusing stare feels less intense following right after whatever Rina had been doing. "I thought her brother was the important one to pay attention to."

"Plus," Midori speaks up behind you, "She did say 'they' in our meeting before, you just must not have been paying attention." From the inaudible muttering following that, you can guess she was taken off-guard as well, but you're still thankful for the defense.

"And you! Why were you defending the enemy?" she turns on Pallavi now, frustration boiling over in all directions. "We all heard her, there's someone here lying to us! With how you were acting earlier, how do we know you aren't secretly on their side?"

"Why were you attacking him to begin with?" Pallavi shoots back, once again holding her axe up defensively. "I thought we all agreed we were just going to ask some questions and hold his attention, not start a fight! And if I was on their side, why would they tell on me like that? I didn't even want to lie to them, let alone to any of you! I hate lying!"

"Right, because telling our enemies everything they could possibly want or need to know about us is such a good idea instead," Midori says drily. "But yeah, if anyone here is a liar, it sure isn't you. Really should get off your high horse about that, frankly."

"Fine, fine, you're not a liar." Shimizu-san admits, before her expression darkens again. "Either way, he was acting suspicious and confirmed they were up to something, so the time for talking was over! We have to stop whatever they're up to! Except, you fought against me, not him."

Pallavi looks frustrated to the point of tears, and you wonder if you should speak up and stop this from devolving further. You're not sure you can, though, realizing you've backed away against the dumpster as the fight escalates. "Because you were being too forceful! We're still not supposed to just beat them up without knowing what's actually going on!"

Shimizu-san's grimace deepens. "They're the bad guys! That's the whole poi-"

"JUST SHUT UP, both of you!" Midori shouts, stepping between them. "Look, what's done is done, so let's just get back to Nel-san and put this stupid mess behind us, okay? Accusing each other isn't going to get us anywhere." Glancing over at you with a comforting smile, she adds, "Besides, if they are the bad guys, who's to say they're not just lying about us? Trying to turn us on each other instead of them, so why are we taking her at her word? Frankly, I'd probably do the same if I was them."

After a silent, tense standoff, Shimizu-san finally relents with a sigh and backs off, going back to the manhole and lightly kicking at a nearby piece of the cover. Turning away before she can come jabbing at you again, you see Miho is now sitting back against the door, Midori kneeling over her and holding up fingers for her to count. Her nose is bleeding a bit, but at least she seems more alert than before. "So... Anyone want to tell me what I missed?"

She makes to hold a sleeve over her nose, only to nearly swing one of her ornate ruby-studded wrist-blades into her own face. Flinching and detransforming, her dress and blades dissipate into short-lived swirls of flame, which Midori frantically fans away with an offended yelp. "Excuse me?"

"Fine, please could someone tell me what I missed?" Miho says with an exaggerated bat of her eyelashes, and Pallavi giggles. As she walks over to fill Miho in, Midori also releases her transformation, dragging the smaller girl's arm back from her bloodied nose and pulling out her first-aid kit.

"You could have held the door for us to get back in, at least," Shimizu-san mutters, and Miho glares and flips her the bird with her free hand. Turning on you, the bluenette adds, "Please at least tell me you've found something useful… before bringing a bear down on us, anyway."

You simply nod stiffly, resisting the urge to shrink away again. You realize the evidence you had taken, that strange fruit, was stuffed in a pocket before you transformed, and indeed on patting your dress hopefully, find it's no longer on your person. And if you detransformed now to retrieve it, that would be tantamount to confirming what the shapeshifter had said. "I did." You finally say, deciding to spare all detail for the time being.

"Oooh, mysterious..." Miho chuckles, and you feel everyone's gazes directed your way again. With Rina's words still echoing in your mind, you don't trust yourself to speak, unsure if the hidden suspicion attached to those searching looks is real or just in your head. After all, she had been staring right at you when she said that; surely it must be obvious to everyone else, right? Even with that accusation towards Pallavi, you can't help but feel like a blaring neon sign hangs over your head, marking you as other. At least Midori already knows, and for better or worse is unlikely to tell the others.

"So what do we do now?" Pallavi asks.

"I was going to suggest searching the shop some more, but now that we're locked out," Shimizu-san casts another glare Miho's way, which goes ignored this time, "I'm just going back." with a press on her ring, it doesn't take long for Nel's door to pop up against one of the walls, and she marches through.

As soon as she's gone, Pallavi slumps down to her knees, clutching onto her axe like a cane. "Couldn't we have just been calm and honest about this?"

For her part, Miho looks as conflicted as you feel, but opts to let out a sarcastic, "Couldn't I have had some popcorn for this?" Midori lightly swats her across the head, before dragging her to her feet. "Ow ow ow, okay, let up, that got me pretty bad. Thank goodness for the carpet…"

Finally, the feeling of autopilot you'd been on since upstairs fades away, and you realize you should probably do something as well. Glancing between the others, Nel's door, and the open alleyway beside it, you're torn between wanting to help and wanting to just get away.

What To Do?
> Help Pallavi (She looks rather upset right now, and she helped you out earlier, didn't she? Though you're not certain Midori would take well to that.)
> Help Miho (Even with Midori supporting her she seems rather more injured than the rest of you, and even with her attitude she could use someone on her side.)
> Just Return To Nel (Shimizu-san didn't seem to be in a mood to stick around long, so this could be a chance to detransform and hand over the evidence to Nel without getting anyone's attention, once she leaves the office.)
> Detransform And Leave (You're already exhausted, and you can give Nel your account later when there's more time without the others. Besides, you don't want to keep your brother waiting too long.)

 

[SpoopyGhost]

The current update is almost ready; I have written it, my betas have proofread and offered commentary, and I have most of the edits for it completed, barring a slight rewrite of the ending to make the voting options better. However in the meantime, until I can have the opportunity to finish up that last part, (which may not be for another day or two, given other matters conflicting) I wanted to bring up something else I have been discussing with them, that two of them separately suggested I put to a vote of its own.

In rereading older updates, I noticed some early inconsistencies with the direction the story and worldbuilding have since taken, that I have been debating myself on whether to rectify. While I have made some minor tweaks to previous updates already, detailed in this post, the changes I would want to make this time are more significant rewrites of earlier sections - not enough to meaningfully alter the actual course of the story up to this point, but still rewriting noteworthy background elements and changing established information to align with subsequent development, (as well as improve some early weak prose) before those things may become more relevant and difficult to untangle in the future.

The two main subjects of these possible changes are the matter of Kikuko's funeral, and the occasional references, direct or indirect, to Sailor Moon and Madoka Magica.

The former was in the very first update, before I had settled on the story's location being in northern Japan; so without thinking about it, I pictured and described the funeral within a western christian framework. The later decision that her parents are loosely of Shintoist faith does not align with that; while I understand there are similar funeral practices in many regards, there are still some key differences that make it feel out of place to me now. One of my betas also suggested an alternate approach to the matter of the funeral, as well, leaving the original update unchanged but writing the new version of events as an omake that would take precedence in terms of canonicity.

As for the latter, these references are spread intermittently throughout the first two episodes; as of Kichirou's introduction, (and with him, the mentions of Werewolf Hunter and Power Sentai Riders) though, I have shifted to using fictional stand-ins for existing media properties. This inconsistency might not seem like an especially important concern, but due to the magical girl series in question being likely to see further mentions as the plot progresses for other reasons, I have come to feel like it may be better to replace those references with similar mentions of stand-ins as well, so that this does not become a problem later on.

Despite that, though, I have been uncertain of whether or not to enact these changes, as they would entail more significant alterations to older updates than previous tweaks I have made, and so feel like they risk pulling the rug out from beneath all of you as readers, or risk slowing down the already-slow quest as a whole while making these retroactive edits. My betas suggested asking you all how you feel about it and putting it to a vote, and so this felt like an ideal opportunity to do that, before the next proper update comes.

How To Handle The Funeral?
> Leave It As Is
> Leave It As Is, But Write An Omake
> Rewrite The First Update
> Rewrite The First Update, Preserve Original As An Omake
> I Do Not Care Either Way
> Other/Write-In

How To Handle The References?
> Leave Them Unchanged
> Replace Them
> I Do Not Care Either Way
> Other/Write-In

 

[SpoopyGhost]

For a long moment of indecision, your instinctive self-consciousness battles against itself. On one side, with the mission done and Shimizu-san already gone, now feels like a good time to leave and avoid any further drama. On the other side, the awkwardness after Shimizu-san's huffy exit hangs heavy in the air, and you are struck by how unfamiliar this whole situation is to you. How long are you usually supposed to stick around before splitting up? How can you disengage without drawing attention back to yourself?

You even glance back up at the window you used to sneak in, tempted for a moment to try to get back inside, just to have a wall between you and the others; only to note with disappointment that it is shut now. Rina-san must have closed it after getting out of the shower, before she came across you snooping.

With that idea foiled, the urge to flee passes, and you are left with a more pertinent dilemma; your restlessness to get back home, running against your natural concern for the others. You're itching to go talk to Kichirou properly while you still have the chance, but some part of you objects to just leaving the others behind so quickly. Pallavi is looking downcast after the argument, absentmindedly twirling some of her hair around a finger as she stares blankly at Nel's door; meanwhile Midori winces again as Miho's shoulder lands against her stomach, the smaller girl looking faintly nauseous and rather dizzy now that she is standing again, needing to be steadied. "Sorry 'bout that." Midori just shrugs in response.

In the end, the here and now wins out, and you find yourself stepping over to help Midori. With a grateful smile from the verdette, you pull Miho off of her, holding her up between you both but allowing her to lean more against you. Despite her obvious unsteadiness, Miho has enough presence of mind to give a thumbs-up.

(Immediately, you realize a potential flaw in this plan, and realize you have no idea if she could accidentally fall through you while you're transformed. Not wishing to take any chances, a running mantra of keep staying solid, keep staying solid takes up the background noise in your mind.)

For her part, Pallavi seems to snap out of her trance, though still subdued, as she notices the new arrangement. "Ah, I could help too!" She offers, but Midori just waves her off.

"No no, we should have this covered. She's not gonna die or anything,-"

"Oh, thank goodness. I was in suspense over here."

"-just need to get her home."

"If you're sure." If there's a little too much vigor in Midori's denial, Pallavi doesn't seem to notice it, and you are anything but keen to point it out yourself. "In that case, though, you should go first." She sidesteps away from the door, allowing your impromptu four-legged race to shuffle awkwardly through and back into Nel's office.

You catch just a glimpse of another door slamming shut and sinking away on the opposite wall, before your attention is taken up by Nel's alarmed yelp. "You're hurt!"

"Heard I'm not gonna die," Miho snarks, though her voice is woozy. "Just a biiiiit… dizzy. Yeah. Like that."

Nel still seems fretful, coming around from behind the desk to check more closely, and you are struck by the surrealism of their cloudy figure giving off the mannerisms of a mother hen. "Shimizu-san told me some of what happened, but failed to mention this. What else was there?"

Midori looks as impatient as you feel. "Can we talk about all that tomorrow? I'm kinda not in great shape either, so the sooner I can put her down the better." Nel backs off, but still hovers.

"Put me down? Well suddenly I don't feel so good about going to the vet anymore. If you bring out the carri… urgh, …carrier, I'm hiding under the bed." Miho adds, unhelpfully.

"I found something, I can show you later," you add, somewhat more helpfully.

"Just something? We could do better than that." At the lack of response, Miho huffs in annoyance. "I'm actually being serious now. The… uh, the owners, took off, right? How did you sneak in before? We can do that again, properly search the place top to bottom, and get all the clues we could want or need that way."

"That's closed off now," you mumble.

For her part, Midori seems to genuinely consider it for a moment, before being reminded of the weight hanging off of her shoulder. "Besides, it won't be you or me, not tonight anyway." Biting her lip, she casts you a hopeful glance over Miho's head, but with your other obligations still weighing in the back of your mind, it proves surprisingly easy to decline with a silent shake of your head.

Miho is not deterred in the slightest, irritation granting clarity to her tone, nearly stalking towards the desk despite her condition, leaving you and Midori to awkwardly stagger along after to keep her supported. "Fine, then. We can smash one of their big stupid front windows or something, do it that way. Masami-san's way too much the goody-two-shoes for this, sure, but you can get uh, Varma-san to do it or something."

"I'm not going to do that!" Pallavi protests, and you realize she has finally come through after you three; the door to the bookshop closes and sinks away as soon as she is inside as well. "Threatening him was bad enough, we don't need to add an actual crime to this!"

"Right, I forgot you're a goody two-shoes, too," Miho snarks. Midori half-lowers, half-drops her into a chair in response, and you eagerly take the chance to let her go for a moment as well. Now that your thoughts are not so focused on remaining tangible, you are surprised to find only the suggestion of an ache in your arm, when before such exertion would have left your noodly muscles sore. "Don't forget the part where they could turn into animals, or monsters, or whatever."

"I'm still not doing that," Pallavi insists, finally releasing her own transformation to reinforce the point. "Even if they are our enemies, it still doesn't feel right to ruin their store."

Nel seems to feel similarly, speaking up again in her support. "As much as I would like more information to work with, we cannot afford to make a scene." They pause for a moment, sounding suddenly nervous as they add "You didn't make a scene, correct?"

"Nobody else saw us, if that's what you're asking," Midori confirms. "Back room of their shop is a bit torn up from the real fight, but the front area's fine…" She has the grace to look sheepish, adding "we didn't transform until we'd already kinda backed him up into a corner. Plus, the area behind is almost all sealed off, and since we went in right before closing, nobody else was around anyway."

"That is good, then. So yes, we cannot afford to do anything that could get innocent witnesses involved. If you broke their window, we would not have much time to gather evidence before law enforcement arrived, especially with you two wounded on top of that. If we missed anything magical that they might then find, it could fall into the wrong hands, and create even more problems for us all. Some things we cannot control, yes, but where the things we can influence are concerned, there's no need to gamble like this. Especially since Yukimura-san did get some evidence already." You nod in agreement, feeling more than a little impatient with the whole discussion.

"What if the owners come back?" Midori asks, fueling your impatience further. "After tonight, they'll be on the lookout for us."

Returning to their desk, Nel seems contemplative. "At the very least, our quarries do not seem to want any attention any more than we do, and have not been causing active harm yet. There are other avenues of investigation we can pursue, besides. So for now, we can simply allow them to return and resume keeping up appearances themselves, until we have gotten to the bottom of their plans."

"Sure, fine, don't need cops crawling all over the place too, I guess." Miho grimaces in frustration, but any further willingness to argue is cut short by another dizzy spell. "If we're not going back, can I go home already?"

"Right!" Nel looks sheepish as they produce another pair of doors, one near Pallavi and one directly beside Miho's seat, and you and Midori quickly help her stand again. "You all must be tired, so we can discuss this further tomorrow."

With a parting nod to Nel and Pallavi each, you dutifully shuffle through the opening after Midori and Miho, grateful to finally be free. Perhaps it was just the water pressure bearing down on you in there, but you feel a weight come off your shoulders, even with Miho still half-leaning on you. (At least, water pressure is what you tell yourself it must have been, as you mentally push aside the fresh arguments and the memory of the earlier stressful briefing alike.)

It isn't until the two of you have successfully manhandled the brunette to another seated position at the edge of her bed, that you are able to back away and survey your new surroundings. On first impression, it is… neat, almost surprisingly so. You've had too much on your mind tonight to give much thought to exactly what sort of living space a girl you'd only just met would keep, but you have evidently come to some conclusions without even realizing until now. If you were to be honest with yourself, based on just the past hour or two with her, the seemingly natural assumption was that she must have risen from some sort of pigsty junkyard of dirty laundry and ramen wrappers like an otaku swamp monster; and so nearly anything else would have been less messy than that.

But not only is it clean, it is all downright orderly, even your own room feeling almost shabby in comparison. Miho's bed is pushed up under a window, opposite to the door, beside a computer desk with a few more monitors than seem strictly necessary, and a neon sign hanging above that bathes the room in a warm red hue. Other than a closet door in a far corner, the remaining wallspace is all taken up by a bevy of floor-to-ceiling shelf units, most loaded with a small library's worth of books. Drifting past, you scan some of the titles idly, and realize they are all divided neatly into nonfiction, novels, and manga. The last shelf, closest to the bed across from the desk, instead plays host to a collection of figurines, some of which you recognize as popular anime characters, and a few more who remind you of your brother's tokusatsu shows, but the majority are unfamiliar to you. The floor is clear of detritus, with the expected dirty laundry tucked away into a basket by the closet door, and a garbage pail under the desk serving a similar purpose. It certainly does not feel clinical, but it still feels almost too clean, somehow.

Or maybe, you reflect, you just need to admit to having made a rude assumption.

"So what's the verdict, Doc?" Miho's sarcasm breaks through your musings, and you turn back to watch as Midori checks her over a second time.

"Don't call me that." Midori snaps on reflex, before sighing. "Okaasan's a nurse, I picked up some things from her, but I'm no expert. As far as I can tell, you should be fine with some rest. Kind of a miracle it's not more serious, with that hit, but I still wouldn't take any chances if I were you, just stay right here and try to rest. You should set an alarm… maybe a few alarms. If you have more trouble than usual with waking up in the morning, that's a big sign of something more serious, and you should go visit the hospital to get an actual doctor to look at you. Will your parents be able to take you if that happens?"

Miho looks suddenly uncomfortable, glancing away. "Probably not," she mumbles. "They work Saturdays too." She seems like she wants to say more, mouth hanging half-open as if to keep going, but after a moment of hesitation, she simply shrugs. "I can just take the trains, of course, one runs pretty close to here."

"If you're dealing with something more serious, then that would be a bad idea," Midori insists. "Here, look. I'm also going to be going tomorrow, to get this looked at," she pats her midsection, suppressing a wince, before turning to glance at you, "and also look into something else Yukimura-san found."

You're not sure what to say, so simply nod in acknowledgement.

Stepping back from her patient, Midori concludes her point. "So here, we can exchange numbers. If you feel like you're having trouble waking up, call me, and I can have Okaasan take us both there. I can figure out a story, so don't worry about that part. If not, I would still take it easy over the weekend." Miho gives a noncommittal hum in response, before immediately trying to stand back up. "No!"

Miho is quick to wave her off. "It's fine, just gotta let some friends know I may not be on tomorrow." She pauses briefly, looking annoyed at something, before amending with a sarcastic grimace "This is just tomorrow, right? You aren't gonna suddenly be mapping out the next month for me or something?"

"...No? Unless you're in seri-"

"Good." Steadying herself on the back of her computer chair, the raven-haired girl reaches down to retrieve a pair of headphones from the seat, with a pair of odd triangular pyramids made of some grey rubbery plastic affixed to the top of headband. To your slight embarrassment, it's only once she has put them on that you realize they are meant to resemble kitty ears, though the silhouette it creates looks surprisingly natural on her. Miho taps her keyboard, and after a moment's delay all four monitors light up; however, she doesn't get any further than logging in before a green blur half-tackles her back to the bed, pinning her down.

"What did I just say?"

Midori's exasperation is matched by Miho's own indignation, the two glaring daggers at each other, you once again left frozen in mild shock by the sudden shift. With an irritated huff, the smaller girl removes her headphones again, tossing them onto her pillow as she begrudgingly recites her instructions. "Call you if I feel like I'm dying tomorrow. If not, then still don't do stuff."

"Fine, before that." Before the smaller girl can whip out another sarcastic remark, Midori answers for her. "Don't move anymore tonight, even to your chair. Just get some sleep, your head's more likely to heal right, that way. Suck it up now, or it'll be worse later." Getting back up, she keeps a watchful eye as Miho reluctantly complies, rebellious muttering notwithstanding.

As she removes her shoes and sets them on the floor, then shucks her oversized hoodie to reveal a tank-top and ill-concealed bra beneath, she addresses you. "Since I'm on bed arrest or whatever, can you send the message along instead?"

Mainly grateful to have something to distract you from the awkwardness, you comply easily. Scurrying over to the desk, you lean over the seat to get a better look, while the other two pull out their phones to exchange contacts. It takes a moment to adjust to the different setup, overwhelmed by the stationary ball mouse, the rainbow glow of the keyboard, and all four screens displaying completely different things at once; but after some fumbling you at last find the cursor amidst the chaos, helping it all resolve into clarity.

The top-left monitor is filled with the main menu of a video game; Pirates Of The Cyber-Seas, which you were never especially interested in, but remember seeing Kichirou playing intermittently in recent months. Underneath it on the bottom left, some sort of fansite for an anime? Mahou Shoujo Sachiko Sinisteria. You had heard of that one in passing once or twice, you think, but still don't know much about it. The poster dominating the page is cast in gloomy monochrome hues, with a decidedly small-looking girl in an excessively frilly pale-pink dress kneeling in the foreground, shoulders slumped and gazing upward with tears in her eyes, other girls looming ominously behind her. Glancing behind, you see all but one are present as figurines on Miho's shelves. You once again find yourself surprised, not having taken her for the type to like magical girls, even with being one herself now. Moving on, the upper-right screen has an open document filled with dense blocks of kanji, but seeing you looking that way, Miho hurriedly clarifies "Bottom-right, ignore the rest!"

The warning comes a moment too late, as you scan the first few lines and quickly realize what kind of writing this is. Overtaken by a burning blush, you swiftly avert your eyes to the final monitor, simply hoping the lurid contents will erase themselves from your memories somehow, along with the guilt from your accidental snooping.

At last, though, you have found your original objective in a browser window overloaded with tabs; thankfully it is already opened to an online chat program, and you follow Miho's instructions to find a particular group chat. "FYI everyone, got slammed by a bea… er, with schoolwork, so might or might not be on tomorrow. If it doesn't work out, we can raid the Tycoon Typhoon on Sunday." Casting a bemused grin at the last part, you dutifully type out her dictation and hit send.

"There, ya happy now?" She asks Midori, who just pinches the bridge of her nose. "Anyway, put it back to sleep now; I guess I gotta do the same." Fiddling with her phone for a few more moments, she adds. "There, alarms set too. On that note, parents are still at work, but might be back soon if they aren't doing more overtime, so you two should probably get out of here sooner than later."

"Where are we, anyway?" You find yourself asking, hoping you can just walk back to your house from here without having to dodge more of Nel's questioning again.

Those hopes are promptly dashed by her answer. "South side of town, not too far from the Tochaku line." You are on the complete opposite side of the city from where you want to be, in fact, and Midori seems equally displeased with the news.

"Right, okay. Well, there's always Nel-san," she sighs, "But we should go outside before that so I know what place to look for, if you need to be picked up tomorrow."

Miho just throws a lazy thumbs-up, tossing aside her tracksuit pants and snuggling under her covers, as Midori picks up her shoes to take to the entryway. Once you've opened the bedroom door to leave, she flicks a switch to turn off the neon sign over her desk, leaving you all in near-darkness.

"Hey, uhhh, thanks for helping me back," she says quietly, as if admitting to something, "and for making sure I'll be alright."

"It's no problem," Midori responds, before adding, "As long as you actually follow my instructions!"

"You got it… Doc," Miho retorts, her usual irreverent tone back in full force. "I'm too cozy now, either way."

Midori sighs again, but sounding a little less annoyed this time, as she brushes past you and out the door. Before you can follow her, however, you feel something else brush against your leg in the other direction. Peering downward, in the dim glow of a night-light down the hall, it takes you a moment to make out the silhouette of a small cat batting lightly at a fold in your dress. Reaching down to let it sniff at your hand, the distraction comes as a relief, turning all higher thought mute for a blissful moment in favor of the absolutely paramount need to pet a kitty.

Unfortunately, the cat ignores your outstretched hand entirely, and slips away back into the shadows from which it had appeared. Only now does it occur to you that as a ghost, you must no longer have a scent. In any other situation you would not especially care about that, but getting snubbed by felines has a way of making such a thing suddenly matter. Either that, or perhaps it is just hungry and fickle.

Straightening back up, you turn back in Miho's direction. "Should I feed your cat?"

You detect a careless half-wave in the darkness. "Nah, Jijihime's fine for tonight; I fed her after school, before the big meet-up. Wasn't counting on getting hit like this, but didn't know how late pare- I'd be out, on our grand ol' quest."

"Okay." Drat. You had hoped smelling like food might have made her more friendly.

Yet even with that distraction solved, and despite still feeling overwhelmed from the events of the night, a buzzing undercurrent to your thoughts that creeps back in after Jijihime's brief respite; you find yourself hesitating a moment longer. Curiosity lingers alongside the background stress, the desire to see your brother, and take care of Death's errand, balanced by wondering if you should say anything else before leaving.

What To Ask About?
> Shimizu-San ("Why didn't your friend want you to join?")
> Grand Ol' Quest ("What did I miss before the fighting started?")
> Hobbies ("Why do you need so many screens?")
> Figurines ("I didn't think you'd be a fan of Magical Girls.")
> Parents ("How often is your family around?")
> Kitty Kitty Kitty ("Can I adopt Jijihime?")
> Other (Write-In)
> Just Leave (She needs rest, and you still have things to do)

Plan To Get Back Home?
> Take The Train (It may take longer, and further cut into the time you have to talk, but at least you can take a rest, and have some space to consider how to explain all of this to Kichirou)
> Take Nel's Doors (As long as they do stick to saving further plans for tomorrow, you will get more time to talk to Kichirou right away; you can figure out the rest once you are home)

 

[SpoopyGhost]

There has been other stuff getting in the way as well, but the next update has also been held up somewhat because of the tie between leaving Miho and talking to her about the bookshop. Initially I was just going to try to write a compromise between them, but my betas advised putting this to a vote as well, so that is what I am doing. Apologies for the lateness.

Tiebreaker
> Just Leave (She needs rest, and you still have things to do)
> Grand Ol' Quest ("What did I miss before the fighting started?")
> Compromise (Leave Miho be, and ask Midori for more details on what you missed instead)

I will be closing votes for this in about 48 hours from now. I may still be a bit less frequent here than I would prefer for the next week or two, but I am hoping to at least have the next update done soon after this tie is broken, and dedicate October to making quicker progress through the next few.

 

[SpoopyGhost]

Lingering at the threshold of Miho's room, you're surprised to find you want to talk some more, intrigued despite yourself. If nothing else, it feels like she may have something different to say about what happened earlier that the others may not, given her unusual perspectives so far. Even if you can fairly easily guess what happened while you were upstairs, and the team's quick explanation to Nel all but confirmed it, perhaps there was more to it yet. She also, you have to admit, reminds you just a little bit of Kichirou.

…However, now that you are reminded of him again, you still think your brother should take higher priority. You must admit to being genuinely curious about the entire affair at the bookshop, especially with your own strange findings, but perhaps not right now. Impatience still pulls you to get home as soon as possible, even more so after this detour, and you can almost feel your own thoughts sliding away from thinking too much about this newer mystery, a puzzle tantalizingly in reach yet which you suspect you're still missing too many pieces of. You still have commitments for tonight anyway, so best to focus on those.

…Besides, your new teammate already seems well on her way to sleep, if the soft snoring from the far end of the room is anything to go by, so you finally decide to just leave her be for now.

Softly closing the door as you depart, you glance around to see where Midori went, and find the near-darkness has been lit while you were dithering. You're standing in a very short hallway lined with a few other doors, with a small closet on one end, while the other opens up into a modest living room with a kitchenette on the other side. Whereas moments before, only a pair of simple night-lights cut through the gloom from each end, now a wide cone of light is cast on the living room's floor and ceiling from around the corner, brightly concentrated but just diffuse enough to make the rest visible.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, you quickly find the space is as oddly clinical and clean as Miho's room was. There are enough little touches that you can tell people live here, like a series of memos on the fridge, but nothing more than that. A cat climbing tower in the corner beside a sliding glass door (or what you assume to be one, though it is blocked by long vertical blinds reaching to the floor) seems to dominate the space just as much as the modest couch in the middle, or the massive, dusty flatscreen television it faces. Even less surprising is that Jijihime, dark coat now starkly visible in the light, seems to favor the couch to the tree, lounging upon it with an air of regality. The impression that this is her domain and her humans simply happen to live here, you suppose, may not really be inaccurate.

The source of the illumination turns out to be an open door off to the right, opposite the tall blinds. The carpeted floor ends at a step down to wood flooring, where Midori has just finished dutifully putting Miho's shoes into exact position beside the door. "I think this is an apartment building," she whispers as she straightens back up. "So I'm going to head down and take a look around the area. You can come with me, if you want?"

You're spared from an immediate response as Jijihime gets up from her seat and drops to the floor, heading towards the exit door with the specific gait of a cat trying to look indifferent, and you instinctively keep an eye on her, ready to stop her from getting into trouble.

Midori, meanwhile, fiddles with the doorknob and deadbolt, humming unhappily. "We don't have a key. Hopefully her parents won't notice if the door's unlocked…"

"I can stay in here and lock it behind you," you volunteer, trying not to sound too grateful for the excuse to split off. "Nel can take me back from here, and then you can call on them separately once you're done." You had briefly considered taking the train back to give yourself more time to think, but you're too anxious to get home as soon as possible, and following Midori around while she spends however long getting the lay of the land would only fray your patience further.

She pouts a little, but reluctantly nods. "That… makes sense, I guess. I'll see you later, then. I should get out of here before anyone sees me."

"Have a good night," You simply say, and she flashes an appreciative grin before finally shuffling out into the bright hallway outside. A streak of black in the corner of your vision alerts you, and you swiftly move to block your new kitty acquaintance from escaping after her with an outstretched foot. She mews angrily at you, but thankfully Midori slams the door shut before she can try again.

It's simple enough to lock both of the latches behind her, and you're once again left in darkness. Pressing down on your ring, soon enough another now-familiar door rises up along the wall nearby, leading into the same slightly gloomy office as usual. "Is she alright?" Nel asks the moment you step through, standing up behind their desk.

"I think so," you mumble with a shrug. "Kasai-san needs rest, and may need to go to the hospital tomorrow if she still feels bad? But it's probably fine. I hope. Kazane-san can fill you in better, once she's done."

"That is… concerning. We really must complete the team soon, then." They sit back down, deep in thought as they stare at the box once again. "You are all more vulnerable without the full benefits of an interconnected magical latt-"

You interrupt their rambling with a half-irritated wave, and get the impression of a sheepish wince. "Right, right, you all still have to sleep. We'll figure this out tomorrow." So saying, they summon another door for you, and you waste no time pushing it open to escape any further tangents.

~~~ .oO◯Oo. ~~~​

After all the recent conversation and spying and running about, the somber silence of your room is downright blissful, and despite yourself, you take a moment to just sink down into your futon and go limp. Despite having wanted to just hurry up to this point all night, now that you are here, it is suddenly so very tempting to just blow off your obligations. You can ask your brother to wait another night, and if Death arrives, to tell her the same thing but slightly more rudely. Perhaps you will get another chance to talk tomorrow, and those corrupted spirits won't exactly be going anywhere soon.

Nonetheless, the annoyingly logical part of your mind reminds you that with everything else you've gotten yourself into, having another chance like this may not be something you can count on. It really is just best to do this now, instead of regretting it later. All that aside… If nothing else, you just miss your family. Exhaustion clings to you like cobwebs, dragging your ghostly form down, yet you somehow find the strength to push yourself upright again.

You spare a moment to consider detransforming to hide away that strange fruit in one of your unused desk drawers, but ultimately decide not to. Wherever your clothes have gone, it's probably safer there for the time being, and in all honesty, you don't want to have to try to have this conversation without the benefit of being perceived. With that decided, it's just a matter of teasing open your (normal) door, and creeping across the hall to knock softly on your brother's.

Kichirou opens it way sooner than you expected, and you realize with a pang of guilt that he has most likely been waiting for a while already. "I'm here," you whisper, and his shocked stupor is finally broken by an instinctive eyeroll in response.

"You really are, huh… Come in," he ushers you through, locking the door behind you. "Mom and dad are already asleep, but I have no idea how to explain this to them if they woke up for some reason." You absently nod in agreement as you take a seat in his desk chair, before realizing you still have no idea how to explain everything to him either, or how much you should.

For his part, Kichirou sits down at the edge of his futon, picking up that Werewolf Hunter volume from earlier and riffling the pages without looking at it. Instead he stares at you again, almost disbelievingly, and the close attention makes you squirm in place somewhat. Still, despite clearly being a bit worn out after a long school day, and his shaggy slate hair is messier than usual, you note with some relief that something in his posture feels less… deflated, you guess, than when you watched him at the train platform. He opens his mouth a few times, and you can almost sense the questions swirling, but he doesn't say anything yet, simply watching you as if half-expecting you to vanish again in a puff of smoke.

Glancing about to stall, you find his room as a whole looks much like you last remember; a disorganized array of manga, old half-completed homework, clothes, and anime merchandise and game cases all scattered about with little rhyme or reason. There is a clear path between the door, futon, and desk, but otherwise you have no idea how he finds anything in here. It isn't trashy by any means, but it certainly used to make you recoil a little, whenever you deigned to enter his territory. Now though, after the past few days, and especially after the oddly sterile mirror of it you saw in Miho's abode, it just feels comfortable in a strange way.

"So," he finally gets out, breaking the stretched silence between you two, "maybe this isn't really happening, but if it is… what's going on?" After a moment, he raises an eyebrow. "Also, what's with your dress?"

You sigh. Despite all the stalling, you're still not sure how to start, but you're now committed to this either way. He's sitting up attentively, awaiting your response, and there is no more putting this off; you need to decide what you are going to say, and how.

Where To Start?
> Write-In

 

[ColdGoldLazarus]

It's done! Can be found here:

Magical Girl Parallel Inversion

While Spoopy is still adjusting the updates for here, I hope this will be a decent way to hold everyone over. ^.^