Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

Rukia · Jun 29, 2018

You give in, just a little, and bury your face in her chest, pretending you don't feel the quickly growing patch of damp cloth against your face. She shifts over slightly, just holding you and staring over your head, thankfully keeping her hands stationary, you think you might have a breakdown if she showed that she actually cared.

Eventually you stop shuddering, your eyes dry and face sore. She doesn't comment when you turn away and rub your face, but does speak up when you turn towards the door. "Your face is all red and puffy, your sister will see." You stop, rubbing your face as she sighs. "You should wash your face." She steps past you and swings the door open, the shimmer of magic disappearing, frantic voices suddenly audible from down the hall. "Don't worry, she's just fallen asleep."

You nod, sniffing wetly as you try to regain your composure and pretend that never happened. "She did that earlier, but it's only been an hour..." You frown, stepping into the bathroom as Tohru swings it open. She gives you a small smile and stays outside, letting the door swing closed as you approach the sink, deliberately not looking at the mirror. The water is cold and it feels like it's burning your face, but it's a good pain, pain helps you focus.

[That's a good attitude.] Your head jerks upwards as a familiar voice suddenly fills your head, almost hitting the box mounted on the wall. What do you want? [Not much, just giving you a choice.] You wipe away the leftover water on your face, risking a glance to see your face mostly clear again. And what choice is this? [Well, this vacation really wasn't for you, you aren't the sort to relax anyway.] You frown, putting the towel back on the rack as she continues rambling. [But anyway, I was thinking on your thoughts about being spoilt and well, I kind of agree with you.]

Your eyebrow twitches and you restrain yourself from growling. Gaia, can you not do this right fucking now? [Well, I could, but really this just works into my plans better.] You grit your teeth. [I always intended for you to be a leader, but I realised that I haven't been giving you any leaderly training or tasks.] You feel a sense of foreboding as the door behind you silently cracks open, a concerned red eye peering through. [Your training begins now, part one: Making Hard Decisions]

Gaia what- [I will be taking you out of the country and dropping you alone into the middle of the thickest fighting in the war.] Your thoughts grind to a halt. [You have two choices available to you, Choice A: Stay here until Willow dies, and get no support at all. Or B: Leave today, and have the ability to call on a single member of your team once per day.] Your hand slowly drops to your side as you hear the door behind you swing open.

You hear Tohru quietly cross the room as you process, only able to slowly choke out the one thought in your mind. "You bitch." A concerned sound from behind you makes you slowly look to the side, Tohru looking uncomfortable as she looks around the room, searching for something that she can't see. [You have ten seconds to choose, chop chop.]

[] Choice A
[] Choice B

Rukia · Jul 2, 2018

If you think- [Oh well.] You clench you fist when she interrupts you again, unaware of the the tiles beneath your feet sagging as they start smoking. [It was something of a long shot anyway, but this really does prove my point.] You grit your teeth as you feel an odd wave of nausea, taking deep breaths as you focus on keeping your balance. And what the fuck did you think I would say? That I would just fuck off and leave her to die alone? Leave my sister to deal with that without me? [Well, yes.]

Tohru grabs your shoulder roughly and lifts you up, jarring you from your thoughts as you feel something wet on your feet. You barely restrain yourself from shouting at her, ineffectually hitting the arm holding you and hissing lowly to her. "What?!" Her other hand grabs you by the back of the head and shoves it down, forcing you to look at the floor, the molten liquid floor. [But still, it would be bad if I left things like this.] You feel weightless for a moment, the world suddenly coming back into focus with an odd crack. [Better.]

You hang limply in Tohru's grip, wondering why she was holding you and why the floor was melting. Oh, I guess I should fix that? A few seconds is all it takes for the tiles to return to their mostly solid state, warped and unrecognisable compared to the others around them. You smile slightly as it settles, looking up to Tohru with a curious eye. "Why are you holding me?"

She frowns harshly, lifting you closer to her face and sniffing you. For a moment you feel a twinge of something and your hand twitches, but just as quickly the brief urge is gone, making you wonder if it was ever even there. "What has your owner done to you?"

You tilt your head to the side, a kind of hazy thought prodding at your brain. "I'm... not sure?" You finally register her saying 'owner' and frown, a little annoyed. "She doesn't own me anyway." Your frown fades when she sets you down, idly watching a dozen different kinds of emotions shoot across her face. "I feel like I should probably be angry right now." You wait for that twinge, but it never manifests, just a very mild annoyance that quickly fades. "That's weird." Her face contorts as you shrug, not really finding yourself all that bothered about it. [Umm]

"We need to fix this." She steps forwards and grabs you, throwing the both of you out of the open window and quickly transforming under you. "Hold on." Your eyebrow twitches slightly at her manhandling of you, but the feeling is quickly lost as you start moving really fast, so fast that you can't even see what you are passing any more. When she finally stops it's abrupt, a thin shimmer of magic being all that stops you from being flattened like the rest of your surroundings. [Shit]

"What do you need to fix?" She turns back into her human shape as you float down to the ground, feeling just a little awkward as she grabs your chin, turning it from side to side as she sniffs you again. "Could you not? That's a little weird." A deep rumbling sounds from her chest as she lets you go and steps back, the edges of her body wobbling slightly as she grits her teeth and waves at you.

"This, your... thisness." You hum again, watching the complex emotions vying for control over her oddly shifting facial features. "I felt someone do something and you are acting strangely, if I had done that earlier you would have attacked me." You pause for a second to think about it, eventually nodding. [I didn't mean like that you stupid thing.]

"Probably." She makes a frustrated noise, suddenly grabbing you by the front of your shirt and tugging you towards her.

"That is exactly what I mean!" You attempt a smile, but it comes out kind of hesitant as you try to work out what she means. Evidently it doesn't help as she looks down at you, a sort of pity starting to gain prominence on her face. "You... you don't feel annoyed at me pulling you around, you aren't even thinking about pushing me off." You hum as you nod, impressed by her ability to read you. You wince as she suddenly shoves you to the ground, hearing something crack as you bounce off of the hard earth.

"Oww, why did you do that?" She just watches you with that look on her face as you struggle to your feet, actually kind of annoyed at her for shoving you like that. [You better stop that or I- I'll...]

She closes her eyes, not quick enough for you to miss the slight wetness there before she opens them again, clear and glowing brightly. "Do you even realise what she's done?"

"I don't really feel angry at you right now, but I remember that I should." You nod. "I guess she did that." Your answer doesn't look like it's helped her, in fact she just looks angrier. [Fuuuuuuuuuuck]

She rather abruptly grabs you in a suffocating hug, awkwardly reciprocating after an instinctual shove just stops on it's own. "It's alright, we'll fix this ok?" You nod against her head, carefully avoiding hitting her horns.

"Does this need to be fixed?" Her grip tightens on you as you speak. "Isn't it a good thing that I'm not feeling angry now?" You have kind of mixed feelings about it. You think that you should be really angry at Gaia right now, but you just... aren't. [STOP HELPING IT'S NOT HELPFUL] [...] [DON'T IGNORE ME]

"No." She steps back, looking down at you. "No it's not, you can't just not feel negative emotions, that's not right." You shrug, not really feeling particularly strongly about it either way, apart from a kind of gentle nagging annoyance at Gaia. "Fuck, I can't let your sister see you like this, she'd know that something was wrong straight away." She starts biting one of her nails, frowning heavily. "Hey, is it just you and your sister or are you staying with anyone else?"

I probably shouldn't just tell her stuff like this... but I'm sure it'll be fine. "I'm staying with a few other people as well, we're up on... the Akagi mountain, I think it was called." She nods, her face lightening a little.

"Alright, hop on, I need to talk to them." You hum, acquiescing without any real disagreement- Oh.

"Say, I really should be there for my sister and Willow right now."

Tohru grunts deeply at her full size and takes off, your surroundings strangely silent as you zoom over them. "You don't want her to see you like that, trust me, it's bad enough for me and I've only known you for an hour." You nod in agreement, mildly worried about how your sister would react. [STOP IT YOU'LL BREAK HER]

You arrive and point out the house, quietly landing in the garden without much fuss- well, until Daiyu comes running out, looking like she's on the verge of hysterics as she completely ignores your ride and grabs you, looking over you with panicked eyes. "Hey." You are slightly worried at her frantic state and you feel like you should probably console her, that seems like the right thing to do. "I'm fine." She stops her search, looking at you with wide eyes, glancing between you and the now human sized dragon beside you.

"What did you do!" She pulls you away from her, armour forming between you and your new friend as she keeps you pressed against her back.

[] Tohru POV
[] Daiyu POV
[] Cuifen POV
[] Sabina POV

Rukia · Jul 7, 2018

"Nothing." You eye her sword, glancing over at the other two rapidly approaching. Defender. "Ask her owner." The girl looks confused for a moment before you catch the scent of something. She's here. It grows stronger until a... corpse that moves steps out of the house, looking a mixture of irritated and worried as she steps closer, the other women stepping out of her way without even looking at her. Definitely her.

The Defender growls at you, shuffling her friend further back as the corpse steps inbetween the two of you, sparing you a long glance before reaching for her pet. There, not my problem. You cross your arms and lean against a table, watching as the poor girl is fussed over by her owner, completely docile but for the occasional twitch. Not completely neutered then, something must be actively doing this. You take a deep breath, trying to filter out the heavy scent of decay that always follows the girl around, but if anything it's grown even stronger that it was before.

Defender stops glaring at you when the corpse smacks her arm, and you eye the motherly woman that steps up next to you, letting her find the questions she has. "Do you know what's wrong with her? She looks..."

"Like she's missing something?" She nods and you rumble unhappily. "It's because she is, her owner did something, and now she can only feel happy." The Sword, who was quietly watching the going ons, perks up a little at your words, but the other girl speaks first.

"She did that on purpose?" You shrug, looking back at the trio, who seem to be arguing about something.

"I doubt it, she's useless as a soldier like this, I doubt that she could muster up the will to squish a fly." The Sword makes a distressed sound and runs past you, elbowing the Defender out of the way and holding Cerys by the cheeks, searching for something in her eyes. You are tempted to comment on it, but seeing the worry on the woman's face, decide to reassure her instead. "I'm sure she'll fix her shortly, no-one would deliberately keep a weapon like this."

A whiff of anger at you spills out, but she doesn't act on it, nodding her head. "I'm sure that Gaia won't leave her like this." Your eye twitches as the name registers and you look at the corpse, a hundred things suddenly making sense. Fuck. You resist the urge to edge away from the planets puppet, regretting helping the girl now. I need to leave. You glance around, but no convenient excuse unveils, and you realise that you are stuck here in Gaia's domain. It's fine, I'll just stay quiet and leave when everything is sorted out, no need to make a big thing of it. She'll forget I was even here. You nod at your lie and embrace it.

You politely keep from listening in on the conversation, not wanting to be involved any more than you already are, but can't help but notice the Sword punch Cerys, looking even more distressed when she doesn't strike back. Nope, not my problem, it'll all work out.

After awkwardly waiting in silence for a few minutes, you see the group start to move inside, the woman next to you moving off without even looking your way. And there it is. You do your best to conceal yourself and dart upwards, not stopping until you pass the clouds. Back home. Entering back into the house through the bathroom window, you close it behind you, stepping back into the living room without fuss. Una looks over as you enter the room alone, but you smile and shake your head. "Gaia had to call her back for a little while, don't worry, I'm sure she won't be gone long." A look of disappointment falls onto her face, but it's better than the alternative.

Whew, alright, crises averted. Just lie low for a few months and let Gaia move on. You sit down next to the forlorn sister, watching her friend quietly breathe as she sleeps across her lap. You bite your lip before you start with false reassurances, just wrapping an arm around her and letting her lean into you. I guess this is the best I can do? You keep the grimace from showing on your face as the little girl wriggles into your warmth before settling down. I'm so useless.

Why is it ignoring me? You sit Cerys down on a chair and step back, peering past her mind and at the accidental leech you'd created. Stop being such a little shit. You resist the urge to prod it for attention, knowing full well what would happen if any part of you touched it. Alright then. Cerys magic is as receptive as ever, bending to your will eagerly. Now fucking stop. Rather than poke it with her magic, you do your best to emulate punching it in the face, grumbling when it absent-mindedly eats the magic and starts cycling it back again. Why are you such a fucking pain?

You sigh, giving Daiyu a little mental bump. "Stop her." She looks up at your words and frowns, catching sight of Sabina looking like she's contemplating stabbing someone, mainly you. Alright then, what exactly are you doing. It's hard to see through the well... lack of anything that surrounds the End avatar, but you can follow the trail that the Beginning avatar leaves. Emotions go in... here. You try to prod that with Cerys magic, but again it's dispersed well before it reaches. I'm an idiot. [Cerys, stop your engine.]

She obeys you without a thought, the odd obedience she's showing you both pleasing and annoying. You know if you could fight like this it probably would be a good idea to leave it be. You try to prod it again, getting marginally closer. But then again, you seem to listen to pretty much anyone and that won't do. You sigh when you hear Cuifen smack Sabina, making a mental note to fix their relationship later. Why is this so much effort?

What if I- no don't do that. You retract the little strand of positive emotion from the avatar, watching with a mixture of fascination and discomfort as it stops stretching towards it. It is destroying those emotions right? If you didn't know better, you would say that it was containing them rather than destroying them. Which would be something of a problem. An avatar of the End filled with angsty teenage emotions. Fix this, need to fix this right now.

[Tell Omega to stop.] She obeys and suddenly stops, her only movement being breathing. Well, that works I guess. Taking a handful of magic, you pry Omega's shell open and mentally whistle at the bundle of emotion it's already collected. Maybe I should look into anger management for her, this really isn't healthy. Wiggling a little deeper, you find the latch and pause, looking down at the comatose girl beneath you. I probably shouldn't just fix this in one go, that might be bad.

Buuuut, it would probably rattle Alpha a little...

You open the latch just a little, resisting the urge to smash it open. Alpha will come later, if I break Cerys I can't replace her. You sit back as your pet project gasps, eyes shooting wide as she wakes up again. Oh, she is going to be so very angry in one... two... threee... eep- You try your best to make your body duck, but it's far too late and you hear its spine break as her hand connects with its neck. Well, I should have expected that. You let the body fall limp, flames quickly creeping over it as you observe. Ok, maybe a bit angrier than I thought.

Writing off that body, you line up a replacement, but hold off on starting it up just yet. I'll leave her to calm down for the next few days, work through some of that built up anger. You sneakily retract your control from her body, making a mental note to praise her for the control she normally has over her temper. Just a couple of minutes of buildup trickling back to her is enough to make her snap? Not bad.

You pant as you look down at the rapidly burning pile of ash on the floor, the familiar smell of burning human filling your nose. "Cerys stop!" You feel a tug on your arm but ignore it, gritting your teeth as you intensify the flame, just barely keeping the heat from leaking out. Fucking bitch. The air rushes out of your lungs as Daiyu grabs you by the stomach and squeezes you, lifting you out of your seat. "Oi-" She squeezes you tighter and your words are lost to a long wheeze, the burning sensation turning on her as you try to wriggle free of her grip. "Let me go!"

She shakes her head and you growl, snapping your head to the side when you see Cuifen pouring water on your fire. "Hey! Stop that!" She ignores you as Daiyu straightens her back, arms locked around you like steel bars as she carriers you outside. "Fucking let me go!" You don't take notice of the flames dancing across the both of you, nor the way she's gritting her teeth, just focusing on trying to wriggle out of her hold. "Fucks-" She reaches the pool and hops forwards, a brief moment of weightlessness followed by wet.

You want to burn the water off, but she's right there, so you just wriggle harder, her arms not giving an inch as she stares at you. You try to shout at her, but just choke on the water, eye suddenly widening as you realise your situation. Suddenly you are above the water again, coughing harshly as she holds you with one arm, the other resting on the side of the pool. When you finally get your breath back, she turns you around so that you are face to face and leans forwards, your foreheads colliding with a wet thud. "Calm?"

Your eyebrow twitches at her as water runs down your face, grabbing her armours shoulders to steady yourself. "Did you really have to drown me?"

"You were on fire." You do your best to ignore the rush of embarrassment at your loss of control, letting the simmering anger swamp it.

"I was angry." Her face doesn't move. "She fucked with my head." The skin around her eyes tightens as she lets her armour disappear.

"I am aware." You try to respond but she pushes her head against yours. "And you have made her very aware." The fire in the kitchen is still quietly smouldering and you sheepishly stop reinforcing it, letting the water it's under put it out.

"Good, maybe she won't do it again." Your partner presses her lips together as she leans back, shifting more of her arm onto the poolside.

"If you think so." She lifts herself out of the water, looking like a drowned cat with her wet clothes. She stares at you for a minute as you wait for her to reach her arm down, quickly getting annoyed as she doesn't. "Dry me?" Oh. You quickly dry her as best you can and she reaches down, lifting you from the water as you dry yourself. "Thank you." You are still a little annoyed at her, so you just grunt and nod, moving back towards the kitchen.

"What are you doing." Sabina looks up from where she's poking the pile of ashes with her sword, looking just as confused as you.

"Did you just kill Gaia?" You snort, slapping her sword away.

"No, she was never a person, remember? It's just a puppet to her." She makes an ahh and you sigh, looking around the kitchen, grunting as you quickly dry the floor from their failed efforts to put out the fire. "I'm going back to my sister, you do whatever, I don't care." You turn away, taking to the skies and moving towards the glowing lights of Akihabara.

"It's alright, she will be fine." Your sister is telling the truth, but it still hurts to see Cerys just leaving you without so much as a glance back. "Calm 'Yu, she will be fine." You nod and look away from her rapidly shrinking form, sighing as you look at the mess in the kitchen. "Sabina." She freezes in the doorway, slowly looking back. "You are helping clean."

You float above the middle of the square, ignoring the delighted sounds of the onlookers as you frown. Which way did we go? You look around, but everything looks the same from up here. Tohru was hot right? You extend your thermal range to it's maximum, gritting your teeth as you ignore the pain at the massive amount of people. You start moving back and forth over the area, trying to feel her uniquely hot aura. She must be here somewhere, we didn't go far.

You bite your lip as you move faster, the sea of heat beneath you blurring together as the pounding in your head gets worse. Must be close. Must be close. You dip a little and feel a flare of heat, locking onto it and diving, shrinking your range as you close.

When you stop on the roof, you take a moment to check if it is her. It is. Sighing in relief, you drop down the side, homing in on the door that belongs to their house. Ok... You take a moment to rub your forehead , then go back to ignoring your headache as you knock, the hottest signature standing to move towards the door.

When it opens, Tohru looks up at you with surprise as you grab her arm, pulling her outside and closing the door behind you. "You ran away, without telling me how to get back here."

She holds her hands up. "I left you with your family, I don't want to get involved with Gaia." You pause, waiting for her to explain. "I'm happy with my life here, getting her involved can only mean bad things for us." You snort.

"Good luck with that." You can't really be angry at her for not wanting to be involved, you can be angry with her for running off without telling you how to get back here, and the throbbing at the back of your head isn't encouraging you to be lenient. "No way in hell she'll leave you alone." She scowls, but you shake your head. "I won't mention you, but if you think she hasn't noticed then you're dreaming." A rumble sounds in her chest as she steps past you, opening the door.

"I know that." You follow her into the house, blinking when you look down and notice your shoes. I never put them back on, did I? For some reason, it makes you giggle, and you hold onto the feeling as you step into the room, letting it manifest into a soft smile as your sister looks up.

"Hey, I'm back." She jolts upwards for a moment before looking down at the girl in her lap and stopping, so you cross the distance and sit next to her, noticing the warmth of the chair under you. Tohru? You want to be annoyed at her, but dammit stop being so nice. "Did I miss anything?" Your sister shakes her head, gently brushing Willows hair where she's sprawled across her lap. Cute. Wrapping your arm around her shoulder, you let her lean into you, moving one of your hands to brush some of Willows hair off of her face.

"Should she be sleeping so much?" Your sister looks worried as her friend rests. "I don't want her to miss out on-" She takes a deep breath and you hug her a little tighter. "On what time she has left."

You bite your lip, looking down at the dozing girl, each breath gently blowing her hair about.

[] Gently wake her
-[] Do something (Write In...)
[] Let her sleep

Rukia · Jul 13, 2018

"If she's tired, we should let her sleep." You don't exactly disagree with her, but well... if she wants to sleep, you should let her sleep. Una sighs, sounding exhausted as she nods, trusting your judgement. And we should.. uhh. You blink when you realise that you have absolutely nothing to do right now, no need to train, or some urgent thing to prepare for, nothing. Huh, this feels weird. Having free time after what feels like such a long time, you've kind of forgotten what you used to do in your free time. Play with Una, sleep, mmm... that's it?

So, with several hours to yourself, Willow sleeping and your sister playing the role of her lap pillow, what to do?

With a little bit of gentle coaxing, your sister falls asleep against your side, your carefully controlled warmth lulling her to sleep. Still, you can only watch someone sleep for so long before you start to feel slightly awkward. The rest of the room had slowly trickled out, busy with other things, leaving you on your own, your kids piled across your lap as they sleep.

My life is really weird. You snort. I'm not sure if I should blame Gaia or the whole Magical Girl thing. That depends on whether you were also blaming Gaia for the Magical Girl thing, which sounded like a reasonable thing to do. Dammit Gaia, why are you so shit. A little surge of anger catches you off guard, feeling a little like you want to strangle Gaia again. I wasn't this angry before, was I? Definitely not. Still, breaking her neck like that had been satisfying.

Mmm, at what point does it become reasonable to murder someone for being a bitch? You hum, stroking Una's hair as she murmurs sleepily. I wonder if it's possible to somehow quantify emotions with magic and be able to point at the exact moment where it changes from not acceptable to acceptable. It probably was, maybe you'd ask... Oh, yeah. It was strange how quickly you'd gotten used to Morgan being there, you still caught yourself thinking about asking her something without realising.

I wonder how she's doing? You close your eyes, trying to get comfortable with the weight on your legs. Knowing her, she's probably fine, better than we are. You could ask Gaia, but you still aren't sure if you'd break her next body if you saw it, so refrain, annoyingly aware that she's listening to your thoughts anyway. Ugh, whatever. You sigh. I never got to see her fight before, I wonder how strong she was? It was something that had always bugged you. You got the feeling that she wasn't really strong, but at the same time magic was weird and Karen didn't feel that strong most of the time either.

You know, I don't think I ever asked if she was actually her daughter or not, they hardly look alike. Then again, that was hardly the strangest thing you'd seen before, her being some sort of magic made baby wasn't out of consideration. How would that work? You could make sperm with magic, but would the baby be born properly? Also, would they even be born inside a person, or made some kind of fake body? You scratch your chin, a thought occurring to you. Am I a magic baby? I'm pretty sure I was born normally, and I remember Una being born, but we are both Magical Girls.

Does that mean that Magical Girls are picked in the womb, or they can be made later? You look at your hand, feeling the magic gently shifting underneath your skin. Maybe both? Or either? You shift your magic around your hand. Why are Magical Girls stronger anyway? It doesn't make sense that we just are, we were... are humans most of the time, does the transformation have some kind of multiplication effect or... maybe we stop being human when we transform? It's an odd thought, but it doesn't sound entirely wrong.

Umm, what was it... Ah. If a normal human has one affinity, but Magical Girls always have at least two, doesn't that make us... double human? Or does that make us less human? You feel the... you'll be honest, living things living in your chest... somewhere, not actually in there but they feel like they are. Omega is not human, definitely not, but Omega is also related to my End affinity, which is my human affinity. You look further, hearing the chains rattle. And you, what are you?

The fire doesn't respond, just continuing it's war on the chains holding it. You... my magic comes from you, kind of, but you don't seem to be like Omega. You rattle the chains a little, careful to keep any of the fire from spilling out. If Omega is End, then that makes you Beginning. You narrow your eyes as you try to remember what the word was. Alpha, was the beginning, and Omega was the end. So that makes you Alpha? The fire doesn't react and you sigh, dropping your head back against the sofa. I wish you were alive too, it would make my life so much easier if I could stop chaining you. Constantly having to check on it's binds was second nature by now, but it was still tiring.

Then again. You look at Omega, well, metaphorically look at Omega. Leaving you unchained didn't exactly help me here, now did it? It doesn't respond, though you get the feeling that it could. Ugh, why isn't there some kind of instruction manual for how my magic works, this is fucking annoying, constantly having to guess. You resist the urge to poke Omega, aware of the odd ball of emotions it's still holding. Nope. You shake your head, deciding to jump back a topic. Why are Magical Girls so strong?

Is it because Gaia does something special to strengthen us? Because if so why hasn't she done that to everyone, seeing as the wants us to be strong for... whatever it is she's worried about outside the barrier. Quickly turning your thoughts away from the barrier, you think past it. Outside... didn't Willow say that there were demons of some kind? You think so. How would a barrier like that work, don't demons reside in hell or something? If demons are real, souls probably are too, and where are souls going then? Wait, doesn't that make angels real too? Your head is spinning a little as you try to grasp it all.

Ok, so demons sometimes manage to slip past the barrier, or can be summoned past. All they ever do when they are here is... Umm. All you really have is first hand experience. Act like you would think a demon does? Murder it's way forwards and attack everything it sees. You pause. The demons I fought wasn't actually that strong... if I fought it now, it wouldn't even be a contest. Does that make you really strong, or that demon really weak? I'll go with weak for now, but still, if that kind of strength is their normal units, then I'm not sure what Gaia is worried about. The soldiers had seriously hurt it, so it was vulnerable to guns, and there are a lot of guns in the world.

There must be a lot of them then, and stronger ones with them, maybe they gain strength as they age? You pause. I wonder how old demons can get? I don't think I've ever read a story where they can die from old age, which would make the oldest ones really strong. A flock of birds settle on the roof of the building as Tohru moves across it, your sense having drifted outwards as you wondered. So, the oldest are the strongest, which means that the oldest would rule them. You snort. Not that that's any different to Earth, Karen is at least a hundred, Gaia is the fucking planet and the Counter Force is probably run by a bunch of rich old people.

Seeing that Karen was planning on forcing you to fight the war from the front now, you suddenly realise something about the Counter Force, or well, what you don't know. Which is just about everything. The base we attacked in Spain was a pushover, just a bunch of normal soldiers, but the guys in the fortress were different, they had some fancy armour. Special soldiers? I wonder if that armour is their standard, and the guys in the base were just normal soldiers, maybe their equipment hadn't arrived yet, which is why Gaia had me attack then. That doesn't make much sense either.

You'd seen snippets of the war as you wandered through Japan, news reports on big screens, pretty much none of them had shown that armour. So... special forces of some kind, which means they probably have some kind of special tank. Your lips purse as you remember the vehicle that had almost killed you twice. That thing... I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get stronger against that. I can't dodge it, I can't block it, I can't fly away. I just have to kill it before it can kill me. You frown. That's the worst position to be in, I need to find some kind of counter to it, they probably noticed how well it counters me.

Daiyu can fight it easily enough, but well, you aren't Daiyu, and you won't have her to help this time when Gaia sends you to fight. I either need to make my armour stronger or find some way of avoiding it's attacks. You snort. Considering it's built to fight supersonic jets I'm not going to be out-speeding it any time soon. That leaves it to get tougher or... short range teleportation. Sabina can do it, but you haven't got the slightest inkling how the fuck she does, she's just there and then not. Ugh, maybe I should ask her for her help.

You feel more than a little awkward at the prospect. I really, really understand her problem with her powers messing with her emotions now, but she's still weird. You don't understand her thought process, she seems to jump from mood to mood at random. She would definitely accept if I offered to fight her though. A frown pulls at your face as your sister shifts. She's strong though, I'm not sure how I could beat her without killing her, there is no way she'll let me beat her like that again. Fucking teleportation bullshit.

Releasing a long sigh, you look down at your sister, looking a few minutes away from waking up from her little nap. Gaia is going to make me leave you right after Willow dies. This time, you feel like your anger is completely justified. You are going to be sad, and will be nothing I can do to help you. Your eyes narrow, quickly looking up as you feel Tohru about to enter the house, carrying a small load of sun dried washing from the roof. Her eyes meet yours, still looking awkward as she sets the pile of clothes down.

"Tea?" Your eyebrow twitches and you take a deep breath. She's just looking out for her family, you can't be angry with her, much.

"Yes please." You love tea, but this dragon seemed to be doing her best to drown you in the stuff. Still, she nods back to you, reappearing with a cup a minute later. You take it with your free hand, enjoying the way the near boiling water caresses the roof of your mouth. Mmm, you know, I never would have been able to drink this before, it would have burnt my mouth. You lower the cup slightly, looking at the steam rising from it. Then again, I've seen people drink tea so hot that they breath steam, and it doesn't burn them.

Shaking your head, you thank the dragon for the cup, fixing a soft smile on your face as Una wakes, sleepily looking up at you. Willow not budging from her deep sleep. The sight of that strains your smile slightly. Why is she sleeping so much? Maybe she'll just... fall asleep, and never wake up? Sabina's words creep into the back of your mind and you have to force yourself not to growl, shaking your head. No, she'll wake up. You bite your lip as you grasp the heat of the sofa beneath her feet, gently lowering the temperature well beyond comfortable levels.

She tries to shift her feet away, but you move it with them, and you see her slowly waking up. Whew, alright. You finish your cup by the time her eyes open, your sister looking like she's still in a sleepy daze. "Sleep well?" The waking girl looks up at you, her feet now a comfortable temperature, but a sort of weight seeming to push down on her as she sits up.

"Not really." She rubs her eyes, letting her hand drop to her lap as she blinks, trying to keep herself awake. "I feel more tired than before." You frown gently, resting a hand against her clammy forehead. She's burning up, a fever of some kind? You lower the temperature around her, doing the best you can to let her cool off.

"Do you feel up to doing anything?" She looks at her glitchy menu, staring at a single point for a while before sighing and dismissing it.

"I want to go back to sleep." She forces herself up, sitting on the edge of the sofa and propping herself up with her elbows on her knees. "But if I do, I don't think I'll ever wake up." Una stands with her, holding her up, even as Willow tries to wave her off. You aren't far behind, trying to not loom over her and fuss, the small girl looking even smaller as she tries not to hunch over, her skin a sickly pale. "Lets go to the beach, I want to see the ocean."

You swallow a lump in your throat as you nod, carefully lifting her into a bridal carry, ignoring her weak protests. "I'll find us a nice spot to watch the water." You move towards the door, leaning away from Willow and whispering to Tohru as you pass. "Can you do weather magic?" She blinks at your tiny whisper, looking at the girl in your arms before nodding. "Then you know." You step past her, slipping into your shoes as you open the door, Una's little hand gripping your shirt as she follows you. "We're going now, thank you for your hospitality." The girls with you call out a distracted goodbye as you take off, Una once again holding onto your leg as you move towards the ocean.

It takes you a while, long enough that your arms start to ache from carrying Willow for so long, but you set down at the beach, the clouds that had been brewing all day miraculously absent. Thank you. "Here looks good." Your feet meet the soft sand on the beach, holding Willow as you let her down, until she can shakily stand on her own. No people either. That, is strange. The sand shifts as you straighten from holding Willow, a soft breeze ruffling your hair as the sun sparkles across the water.

"Hey." You look over, your sister biting her lip as Willow weakly smirks up at you. "I challenge you to a sandcastle war." You blink, tilting your head. "We build a sandcastle, and I bet it'll be better than yours." Una nods from her place next to her. Ah.

"Alright, name your terms." This is a nice and gentle activity, she should be able to do this, even as tired as she is.

"One hour, no sabotage. The best looking one wins." You nod at her terms, your sister stepping back with her as she tentatively smiles. "May the best woman win."

You let them turn away, looking for a better spot, while you decide the sand beneath you will do just fine. Now, how best to let her win without looking like I'm doing that.

[] Write In...

Rukia · Jul 20, 2018

You extend the range of your control as you start roughly shovelling sand into a pile, pausing for a moment to bring out your sword as a makeshift shovel, albeit one you need to carefully watch to make sure it doesn't melt the sand. While your pile grows, you glance over at the other two and as subtly as you can, grip the temperature inside of the sand she's working with, not changing it, just slowing down the rate that the heat is seeping in. There, that should do. Now you need to actually try to win until your castle mysteriously dries out.

Admittedly, you've never built a sand castle before and this was the second time you'd ever been on a beach, your arrival here notwithstanding, so you kinda had to make things up as you went along. Actually, I've never seen a castle in person either. Maybe I should take Una when this is all over?

Despite your musing, you keep a careful hold over the temperature in your grasp, never letting either of them slip away. I could let my sword burn my castle, but there is no way they wouldn't think it was intentional. Passing off the idea with a shrug, you look over at their pile of sand and nod. About the right height. Stepping back, you look at your mound of sand, then back to your sword. I bet I could... Your sister catches your look and pauses, glancing at her partner, who nods with a little smile. Alright then, show me your swordsmanship Una. You never would have thought that you'd be having a contest over who could cut a sandcastle into shape the best, but life was strange.

A cut off the top to level it out, sword angled almost flat to sweep the sand away. Your sisters blade isn't nearly as thick as yours, so it takes her three attempts to have a perfectly flat top, flatter than yours. How sharp is her sword? Making a note to check later, you take your sword in both hands, slowly lowering it a little bit into the castle, then repeating it again on the other side. One set of towers here, the other here. Cuts made, you slide your sword in flat and run it through the sand, carving out what will eventually be the top of the battlements, stopping before you cut your towers off.

Now, how to get this sand off. You scratch your chin, crouching next to it and looking at the tiny cut. Maybe I could Push it, but that would probably just demolish the entire thing. Your sister starts carefully moving the sand off with her hands, Willow helping where she can. You reluctantly give up on anything fancy before pausing. Heeey. You quickly freeze the sand on top, just enough to hold it together and lift as a block, showing it off to your opponents with a smirk.

Your sister puffs her cheeks out, turning back to her scooping as she quietly plots something with Willow. Alright then, outline done. You have a rough square shape with four towers poking up at each corner. Should I hollow the inside out? It would fall over easier if I did. Nodding to yourself, you take your sword and carve another block of sand out of the middle, lifting it and leaving the walls standing freely. Alright, now I start warming it. You start off gently, making sure not to cook the water out too quickly.

Details. You start poking the battlements into existence, using your finger to draw a path for people to stand on. Once that's done, windows come next. You get halfway through before you feel one of the walls suddenly shift, the wt sand holding it together losing cohesion as it dries out. Good. You glance over at the other two, their sand was still practically dripping. I'll definitely fail first.

As if to mock you, a minute later you feel Willow suddenly slump towards her castle, it's only the quick grab by your sister and you freezing their castle that leaves it standing. Thankfully, neither of them noticed your help, Willow shaking her head and going back to carefully detailing the gateway of her castle. That was close. You heat your castle more, the air closer to the inside of an oven than the blazing sun. This should do it. You move to start detailing the gate, completely unsurprised when the wall crumbles around your hand, taking two of the towers with it and half of your castle. Done.

You sigh as you quickly cut off your heat manipulation, dropping back onto your heels as you look at the half destroyed castle. The other two look over, smugness visible on their faces as they silently gloat at you from their still standing castle. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up." You try to force a grumpy look on your face, not that hard considering recent events, but seeing the two of them start quietly giggling to each other forces you to smile. Standing, you kick down the remaining walls and make your way over, inspecting their castle as you approach. "How is yours going then?"

You walk around to the front of their castle, smiling when you see the little smiley face carved into the front door. "Not bad." They nod as you lean down to look at their work. It's really pretty good.

"Better than yours." You grunt as your sister smirks, reaching over to ruffle her hair, ignoring her squawks as you let sand trickle from your hand as you do so. "Old people like you can't do it right!"

You have to muffle the urge to laugh as you play along, dropping to your butt and grabbing her in a sideways hug. "Old am I?" She nods as she struggles in your grip, your fingers creeping towards her feet. "I'll show you how old!" She starts writhing as you run a finger down the bottom of her feet, completely unable to stop her giggles as you 'punish' her.

"Nononoooooccceeerrrreeeiii-" She cuts herself off as you bend her leg back, letting the wind gently blow your hair across it. "I GIVE I GIVE!" You stop your gentle torture for a moment, letting her catch her breath in great heaves. "You aren't that old." Your fingers creep downwards again and she squirms. "No no NOT OLD NOT OLD!" You nod, satisfied with her submission and let go of her, amused as she just flops onto your lap. "Stupid Cerys, that tickles."

"That's the point." She grumbles, but your response is cut off by a gentle giggle at your side.

"You two are cute." You blink at her, noticing that she was sitting off to the side of you the entire time, having to shuffle away to avoid Una's flailing limbs. "Mmm." She yawns, eyes drooping. "Wake me up... later." You roughly jolt your sister off of your lap as you reach over to catch Willow before she can fall over, falling asleep in your arms. Goddamit. You wiggle, your sister sitting up off of your legs as you stand, shifting to carry Willow in your arms. Your sister stands after you, looking worried as you inspect the sleeping girl.

"She looks... fine, just sleepy." She's paler than earlier, but she did look like she'd just fallen asleep. A thought occurs to you. "We should get her out of the sun." The sun was practically blazing down onto you, Tohru's doing you assume, but it was a little too harsh. Willow was so pale right now that the half an hour you'd spent outside already had her skin starting to turn red, she'd probably start burning if you stayed out any longer.

The two of you move off of the beach, taking shelter beneath a shaded bench, lying Willow down with her head resting on your lap.

"Do you think we should go back?" Your sister shuffles closer to you, leaning against your side and looking at the sleeping girls face.

You nod, brushing a few stray strands of hair out of Willows mouth. "She'll feel better after resting in a proper bed." Your sister nods and you restrain the urge to sigh, glancing at the setting sun. Has it really not even been a full day yet? Everything had happened so quickly... Later. You push the thought away, letting your sister rest for a little bit longer before you nudge her. "Fly back." You wait for her to grab you and take off, moving at a much more sedate pace.

Daiyu calls up to you from the doorway when you set down in the garden, an empty plate in hand. "Dinner's ready!" Sabina stops doing... whatever it was she was doing by the pool and stands up, diverting when she notices you.

"She fine?" You do your best to ignore the urge to hit her and nod.

"Just sleeping, I'm going to put her to bed." Evidently she doesn't have anything to say to that, seeing as she teleports into the kitchen and starts making herself a plate. "Una, could you get plates for us?" You tilt Willow in your arms a little and she nods, moving with a purpose as she barges into the kitchen. Haaaah. You carry the girl upstairs, letting your shoulders drop when you are out of sight. She's been getting weaker fast, will I even be able to wake her up in the morning?

You bite your lip as you undress her, sliding her under the covers and cringing as you catch the smell of her clothes. Bath, you need a bath. Restraining your desire to drag her into the bathroom, you make sure she's sleeping comfortably and leave the room, taking one last glance before you let the door quietly click shut. Una is waiting for you downstairs, two plates held in her hands, one lifted towards you. Taking the offered plate, you sit down at the table, the two empty spaces rather conspicuous, an awkward silence hanging over the table.

Sabina finally interrupts the silence, letting her cutlery clatter onto her plate as she leans forwards, setting her elbows on the table. "I know you don't want to hear this." You turn to her, warning in your eyes. "Glare all you want, I'm asking what's best for her." She sighs, rubbing her face. "Should we just let her sleep?" She holds a hand up before you can interrupt. "I know what you think, but I was talking with Gaia while you were away." You pause, setting your cutlery down for the moment. "She'll be sleepy at first, like now. But after the first day or so, it'll start hurting, getting worse and worse." You frown, but she keeps going. "Then her body will start falling apart, while she's still awake."

She shifts under the tables stares. "She can only sleep for so long before the pain gets bad enough to keep her awake. I know what you said, but is leaving her like this really the best thing to do?" You really, really want to stab her right now, if only she wasn't right. "She said there's a good chance she'll go mad from the pain before she dies." She lets out a long sigh, leaning back in her seat. "It's up to you, but I just wanted you to know that what you are doing now is cruel, the more you let sentiment hold you the worse it's going to get for her." The table is silent after her words, waiting for someone to say something.

"I agree with her." Your head snaps up as Cuifen speaks, complete disbelief on your face. "Conditionally, when the pain gets too bad, but..." She sighs, rubbing her face. "Isn't that just as bad? Letting her suffer until the pain gets too bad?" She shakes her head and sits back. "I think, that perhaps we should ask her." You bite your lip, torn between wanting to strangle her and the knowledge that she's probably in the right here.

"She shouldn't suffer." The anger in your body turn to ice when you hear your sister quietly speak, hugging her knees in her chair. "This isn't fair, but she shouldn't suffer." She looks up at you, the tears you had expected absent, a lost look on her face. "Why is the world so mean?"

Your toes curl as you try to keep your frustration out of her sight, moving to crouch next to her and set a hand on her head, gently leaning it against your chest. "It's because I wasn't strong enough to stop this." You rest your chin on her head, guilt and helplessness and anger tearing at you. Like I deserve.

"Then." She clutches your shirt as she thinks, little shivers running through her tiny body. "You just need to be strong enough to make the world better?" You nod and she falls silent, thinking deeply.

The room gives you your moment, at least until Sabina gently clears her throat. "Well?" You look up at her from your place, your sister pulling her head back and resting it on your shoulder to do the same. "What are we going to do?" The table is silent as minutes pass, indecision clear on their faces. It's down to me, why is it always down to me. You let your head drop, taking a deep breath before sighing. Stop running away. You rest back on your heels, gently pushing your sister until she's sitting against her chair. I already know what needs to be done. You stand, the rest of the room following you with their eyes. I've done it before, I can do it again.

You step away, your sister shuffling out of her seat as you do. "Stay here." Your words are firm, but gentle and she stops, dropping back into her seat. "But-" She tries to object but you cut her off. "Stay." You feel their eyes follow you as you leave the room, climbing the stairs as calmly as you can. Her door swings open in near silence, just the woosh of displaced air as you close it behind you and a quiet click.

I'm a monster. You stop at her side, gently sitting on the bed and brushing her hair out of the face, cold sweat covering her pale skin. She doesn't respond, even when you rest a hand against her cheek. You don't deserve this. You're innocent.

You take a deep, steadying breath and shift closer, so you can reach her face with both hands. If I break her neck, she might not die instantly. You bite your lip, desperately ignoring the part of you screaming at your thoughts. The temple then. You gently lift her head onto your lap, hands shaking as you set her down and turn her head to the side. Ok, just... right there. Blood flows over your tongue as your teeth dig deeper. I can do this I can do this I can do this-

The silence is interrupted by a quiet thump, a cracking noise filling your ears.

You gently tuck her back into bed, smoothing out the ruffled hairs and resting her cheek on the pillow.

Above her head, one of her screens snaps into place, clear as crystal for a single moment.

You softly pad down the stairs, enter the kitchen and sit down, dragging your sister onto your lap as you do so.

No-one says anything, letting you stare into space as you hug your sister tightly.

They quietly shuffle out as you sit there, Daiyu being half-dragged as she looks back at you.

"I'm proud of you, big sis." You look down at her. She's not crying. "Next time, we'll be stronger." She nuzzles her head under yours. "Right?"

You slowly nod and she smiles.

You let her cuddle, your mind stuck on the words you'd seen on Willows screen, her last objective.

Quest Failed.

Quest: Extinguished
Objective: Kill Ignition Knight
Reward: Your life

You stay there all night until a familiar voice makes you look up.

"Well done." Gaia stands next to you, a serious look on her face as she looks down at you. "Are you ready to go?" It takes a moment for your brain to register, remembering her terms. When she dies.

You nod, gently waking Una as you stand. She yawns sleepily, clinging to you as you stand. "I need to go." She blinks, looking between you and Gaia.

"Oh." She lets go of you and steps back, a serious frown that looks completely wrong on her face staring back at you. "Go get stronger, ok?" You nod, gently ruffling her hair

"Stay safe, I love you." She nods back and the two of you leave. A silent helicopter waits for you outside and you climb in, the trip passing in silence as you pass over the ocean.

"You did the right thing." You don't look at her, watching the waves far below. "Not the easy thing." You move a bit further and suddenly you are back home, the fire crackling away next to you. "You can call help, once a day." She steps forwards, giving you an awkward hug. "Good luck."

You blink, transformation exploding out of you as you kneel, a line of bullets flying where you were. You throw a wall of fire in that direction, head snapping around as you try to get your bearings. Open field, craters everywhere, soldiers of both sides fighting around, neither side aiming at me yet. They are surprised. You take the initiative, setting everything inside your range on fire. I have space. You extend your sense to it's maximum range and shoot upwards, cutting out the fire.

Counter Force soldiers to the left, Clocktower to the right. You pause and Gaia speaks. [I don't care what you do, survive.]

[] Go Left
[] Go Right
[] Write In...

Rukia · Jul 26, 2018

The only thing the Counter Force has shown that could hurt you is the four barrelled thing, the Clocktower had a lot of different ways. Eliminate the greatest threat first. You rise into the sky, pulling the sphere of fire with you as you go. Omega, can you hold back from affecting my magic? You gain speed, barely noticing when you immolate soldiers you pass over. Omega? It doesn't respond and you grunt, putting aside your idea for the moment and starting to build your stockpile of spears.

Once you have ten, you stop, pushing the fire out of the way to let you look around. There. You see explosions, the distant tingle of magic being used. Under attack. Your fire rises around you, cutting off your view of the world. You feel bullets start to enter your sphere as you close and turn slightly, using their path to guide yourself into the base proper.

The fire only intensifies, none of it coming close to hitting you as you finally feel buildings in your range. Bunkers. You flare your fires as hot as they go, hardly noticing the gunfire quickly stopping. That is, until you feel little zones of cold that you can't touch. That armour. It doesn't seem like they can see you, but you frown, building up another ten spears. Trying to leave? You fire a pair at the closest one, throwing him through a melting wall with a deafening crash. Not dead. You didn't think that their armour could resist that much heat so quickly, maybe they have some kind of temporary boost?

Shaking your head, you throw four spears at the trapped soldier, nodding when they punch through him without difficulty. One time defence? You send a single spear at another, watching him be ploughed into the wall next to him, dazedly getting up a second later. Don't waste excess spears. You send the first spear's twin to finish him off, quickly building and sending the spears out as you pick off the soldiers wherever you can.

Nothing interrupts your execution, five minutes passing before you finish the last of those who couldn't escape. The base beneath you is completely slagged, only the HQ resisting your fires, just like the last one. Too much effort. There is probably a few important people in there, but you aren't there to kill them, just stop them from killing you.

You turn to leave and feel something breach your flames, the warning giving you enough time to spin to the side and lift your sword in a block.

(Ignition Knight: +565 Base Resilience, +456 Magic Modifier, +204 Flight = 1225 Total Reduction
Burning Rain: +1000 Base Damage, +400 Ordnance = 1400 Total Damage

Ignition Aura: 15% Reduction (1400 - 210 = 1190)

Ignition Knight Health: 2205 - 0 = 2205)

It misses you by a hair, exploding several metres behind you and barely even ruffling you.

You have no clue where that came from, outside your range at least, so you drop your flames so you can see. Your eyes scour the ground and see nothing, flames having melted everything completely flat, so you look to the sky. It's not until you see a flash in the distance that you find them, the shot lighting up a shaded forest, still too far away to make out if it's a tank or something. Still, with the ability to see it coming, you easily dodge the next shot, the explosion barely ruffling you.

Too far for most spells. You don't want to get closer, it'll only make dodging harder. Only one that works from here. You start building magic, waiting for them to take their next shot. Hopefully they have some sort of recharging time.

The next shot is closer, exploding right next to you, though it's still too far to do anything. It's getting more accurate. Well, it's a good thing you were about to obliterate it.

Your spell crosses the distance quickly, and though you can't see the person shooting at you, you can feel a sudden spike of magic as it collides with the hill.

(Juggernaut Wave: +20,000 Base Damage, +1389 Magic Modifier +2138 Faster Than You = 23,572 Total Damage

Target Is Not There)

The hill crumbles beneath your spell and you see flashes of gunfire, watching the remnants of the hill to see if the attacker is going to resurface. Didn't get them, maybe the fall did. You purse your lips and start flying, ready to dodge any sudden shots. Which is a good thing, seeing as another shot races towards you from the shadow of the trees, a sideways kick from a sword pushing you out of danger.

A few seconds later, you feel a person enter your range, an incredibly hot and massive gun cradled in their hands as they hide in the shadows. Got you now. Fires quickly grow on the trees around her, spreading outwards as fas as you can push them, dropping into the trees and out of her sight. Who's hunting who now. She jumps away from the tree she's resting on, a loud whine audible to you from two hundred metres away is quickly followed by her gun sweeping in a circle, cutting down all of the trees in a twenty metre radius. Not going to help you. You crank up the heat and she starts gasping as the grass burns, smoke filling the air like fog.

She turns and runs, darting forwards in great leaps every so often as you start flying just above the trees, staying right on her, dragging the heat from behind forwards and doing your very best to see if you can set her on fire with air temperature alone.

Suddenly, you feel a big car of some kind enter your area, repelling heat around it and driving in a straight line towards your prey. It's too hot for you to be able to quickly make some kind of ice wall, so you just rush towards your target, feeling her start to slow down, little flames catching on the corners of her clothes.

You almost get her when you feel her start stumbling, but pull off at the last moment, the massive car ploughing through the trees and skidding to a stop next to her. A door pops open and they grab her, dragging her back into the vehicle as two people slide out of the side facing you. How the fuck? The two of them are obviously magical girls, this close you can even tell that the girl quickly panting in the car as it tears away is as well. Three magical girls.

You don't let up on the heat as you stare at the other two, building up magic as they quickly jump towards each other, joining hands before pointing at you and shouting in unison. "Divine Wrath" The sky splits open and you have half a second to feel the hairs on your arms tingle. OMEGA

??? POV

You'd closed both sets of eyes when your spell struck, but even then you were blinded and deafened, just the vague sense of distance between your bodies and their joined hands keeping them together.

When you can finally see again, you can't resist the urge to pump your fist, with both bodies. "HAH! And they doubted me!" You bounce on your feet, watching the dust settle with a grin. She wasn't so tough. Or... You chuckle. I'm just that awesome. Your mirth doesn't fade as the dust settles, waiting until you can see her body, just in case.

Something niggles at you, that new sense you'd been told about letting you feel something in the air. You hum, tightening the grip of the hands joined, ready to recast your spell, just in case.

That sense abruptly turns into pain, like something is trying to claw it's way into your head and explode out of it at the same time. Dual screams sound from your bodies as they stumble back, only kept from falling over by the grip they have on each other.

You force one of your eyes open as the cloud of dust is blown away in a burst of dark red, a wall of magic hitting yo—

You drop to your knees panting, the impact cratering the ground a dozen metres around you as you struggle. It's too much. The sheer amount of magic coursing through you was overwhelming, flaring from your body like a living bonfire. I can't hold this much. Sweat drips from your face as you plant your arms into the ground, barely keeping yourself from collapsing, the world melting and freezing and falling apart at the same time.

[] Hold on to it, force it under control.
[] Let some of it go, just enough to relieve the pressure.

+100xp Atomized Magical Girl Raijin
+50xp You Should Not Have Survived That

Rukia · Jul 30, 2018

I need this. You pant, letting yourself drop to the ground as you try your best to hold onto all of this magic. All of it.

It hurts, like lightning is dancing through your veins. Omega helps, but it just takes the strain off for a moment before it comes again. I can't— Magic rushes from your grasp, the ground around you melting into molten slag, forcing you to give up even more as you split your attention to stop yourself from getting burnt. Fucking STOP.

You grit your teeth, ignoring the pain blooming behind your eyes as you breathe deeply, the raging storm of magic dancing across your body, but not escaping any more. Got you. The magic starts to settle, just a little, but it's still so... energetic. Your own magic obeyed your whims without issue, this magic felt like it was always trying to jump and spark, like lightning. Oh. That explained that.

Grunting, you push yourself to your knees, solidifying the ground under your before the lava sets around your legs. Owww. Note to self, don't do that again, it fucking hurts. You hiss and finish cooling down the area around you, absent-mindedly putting out the raging forest fire you'd started. Alright, there is.. no way I can hide like this. This was just... so much more magic than you'd ever dealt with at once, except that one time with the vault, and worse, it refused to be hidden like your magic usually does. It roiled under the layers, sparking through and breaking your concealment. Well great, I'm basically a giant fucking beacon of magic.

You resist the urge to shout, rolling your shoulders as you try to sense where that car had gone. I never expected them to find other magical girls, certainly not this quickly. Normal mages were dangerous enough, finding out other girls would side against you and Gaia was an issue. Oi, I thought you made Magical Girls.

[There are quite a few that have appeared recently that I haven't made. I guess the world believes enough in them that they can exist without my prodding.] She doesn't exactly sound certain, but it's more of an idea than you had. Mmn. How many are there? [Nearly a dozen, some of them are quite far flung.] She seems to be distracted by something, but you don't pry, you don't really care. What do I do now? You can feel her shrug. [Survive, they're coming.] You blink. They know where I am.

You can't hide, you don't know where their base is, and they are definitely coming for you with everything they can muster. Shit. I need to make a... defence, or something. I can probably outrun the ground troops, but I don't want to take my chances with that fucking anti-air thing. No way they'd send infantry after you, they'd seen you melt them no problem. Tanks, aircraft, maybe missiles? Definitely that fucking AA.

I need a plan.

[] Defence Plan
-[] Write In...

[] Risk it and run.

Magic Modifier: 12,581

Reminder: You have teammate call-ins.

Rukia · Aug 5, 2018

The ground is easy, it barely takes you ten minutes to turn your entire range into a sea of lava, leaving only a small spot for you to stand on. Safety from the ground, check. The air around you ignites as you express your Aura, a dome of fire obscuring you from sight. Safety from sight, check. You sit down and start building spears as quickly as you can, squeezing them tight so they stay within your sphere of fire.

You feel something rush through your sense, not there long enough for you to have a good look. They are here. A missile enters your range. Tsk. It's moving too quickly for you to melt it, so you let it explode against your sphere of fire. Was that even aimed at me? It exploded short by a long way. Another two fly in, doing the same thing. Can they not track me in here? You smile as they stop trying, the air in your range being buffeted by something. Helicopter? Explains the missiles. You lower your shield for a moment, six spears shooting out when you catch sight of them loitering just outside of your range. Dead.

You close the barrier before you can see them get hit, but there is no way they dodged that. Only problem with the Lava, they can see what my range is. You narrow your eyes as you replace your losses, a much bigger missile exploding against your barrier. That's not good, they could just drop a big enough bomb and get me. You drop your barrier and look around, a small fleet of helicopters starting to circle you from their place. Can you fuck off. They jerk out of the way when you send a pair of spears as a probe, their movement janky and unnatural. Of course they are using magic to somehow help them dodge.

You frown as you see the small, comparatively, guns underneath them start spinning. Aiming at you. Fuck no. You raise your sphere again, just in time for them to shoot straight through it, most of the shots going wild, but a few hitting you regardless.

(Stray Shots: +1200 Base Damage = 1200 Damage
Ignition Knight: +565 Base Resilience, +12,326 Magic Modifier = 12,891 Total Reduction

Ignition Knight Health: 2205 - 0 = 2205)

Tsk. You hardly even notice them pinging off of you, but it pokes a hole in your plan. Can't just stay here, they'll eventually just start shelling me to death. You lift a hand and let the sphere fall, ignoring the intensified fire as you build your favourite spell. It's not wide enough to catch more than one or two at a time, there are ten over there. A little bit of Lava is splattered across the platform as a stray shot hits it and you get an idea. If this works...

You lower your aim and crouch, letting the spell loose as close to vertically as you can. Oh shit. It hits the lava like a meteor, cratering it in a massive range and continuing, sucking it forwards as it goes. Holy shit that works. The wave grows larger, the helicopters jerking upwards as it rapidly closes with them. Cmon, cmon. You tut when you see them evade your spell, smiling slighty as the massive wave of Lava hits them dead on. Bingo.

Three of the helicopters are outright knocked out of the sky by the force of it, the rest of them at least managing to fly a little more before something delicate melts and they begin falling. Only two of the ten escaped your attack, and both of them seem to be pulling back now. And the others? The other patches of aircraft are also pulling away and you smile. Wave one done, what's next?

(APDSFS: +6,000 Base Damage, +1,000 Surprise = 7,000 Damage
Ignition Knight: +565 Base Resilience, +7,338 Magic Modifier = 7,903 Total Reduction

Ignition Knight Health: 2205 - 0 = 2205)

Something blips into your range and slams into you, the force hitting you hard enough to throw you half a dozen metres. You land back first in a pool of Lava, slowly blinking as you try to figure out what the fuck just hit you. Ow. Another shot sails past you, sinking into the pool of lava before stopping halfway to the bottom. Was that a tank shell. You haul yourself up, hopping to the side in the half a second you have to react, the shot whizzing past you loud enough to make your ears ring. Totally a tank. You push off the ground to fly, but the memory of that fucking anti air drives you back to the ground. Are they just sitting outside my range and shooting?

You grunt as another shot nearly clips you, the fins shattering across your arm. Yes, they are. You wait for the next two shots before stopping your dodging, flinging another wave of lava at the biggest concentration of tanks that you can see. Fuck you. Your spell guts a tank front to end, the lava falling over the rest of them in a smothering embrace. Enjoy that. You turn back to the other side, waiting for your magic to build up again when you feel it again, the long range duel you'd had just a while ago twitching you into flying upwards, the spell exploding underneath you. You're back? Oh for fucks sake.

It's a lot easier to catch sight of her this time, hanging out of a helicopter, barely a dot to your eyesight. Ugh. You ignore the tanks and bite your fear of getting shot down, kicking off of a blade and flying towards her, making sure not to get too high above the trees.

Her ride promptly turns around and starts fleeing, shots from her massive gun not stopping, nor getting any closer to actually hitting you.

You hit your top speed, but they are still pulling away, going decently faster than you. Mhmm. You stop, throwing a wave of magic at them as you sigh, not at all surprised when it jukes to the side, your spell missing completely. Fuck you.

Taking out your frustration on the nearest target, you drop on top of one of the tanks, quickly sending two spears through the top of the turret and blinking as fire bursts out of the holes and over your face. Huh. Hopping off of it, you dash over to the next, repeating the process and ignoring the wall of bullets being thrown at you from the guns on top of the tanks. At least they aren't trying to shoot me with the big guns. You aren't exactly sure why, but you can't complain.

After clearing out the eight tanks on this side, you see the ones on the other side start pulling back, leaning against a charred husk of a tree as the last of your opponents pull away. Well, that was way easier than I thought it would be. Once you get to a certain point of durability, there doesn't seem to be much they can do. Handy.

Still. You walk through the wreckage, putting a few slowly dying survivors out of their misery. Why did they even bother sending this? It's barely even dangerous.

Your thoughts are interrupted when you feel something big enter your range, falling relatively slowly towards the ground. Hmm? You look over, taking a moment to place the shape with your memory. Oh fuck.

The bomb detonates thirty metres away, the shockwave reaching you and slamming your sword in it's role of makeshift shield into you, and then punching you through the tree you were leaning against.

(JDAM: +10,000 Base Damage, -5,000 Missed = 5,000 Damage
Ignition Knight: +565 Base Resilience, +3,602 Magic Modifier = 4,167 Total Reduction

Ignition Knight Health: 2205 - 833 = 1372)

Urgh. You push yourself up with your sword, quickly taking flight as you feel another, and then another and then another enter your range. Jesus fuck. The shockwave slams into you, pushing you higher as the ground beneath you disintegrates under the attack. A quiet rumble prompts you to look up, a pair of sleek jets pulling away after dropping their load on you. That really, really hurt.

Silence fills the forest for a while, your wounds quickly knitting as you take a breather. Is it over?

A spike of magic explodes next to you, a familiar top hat appearing, surrounded by other familiar faces. Oh for fuck sake. "FUCK OFF!" They flinch back at your shout, lining up behind that spell eater, but not leaving, preparing to fight. Oh I can't be asked to deal with you. You turn away, quickly rising into the sky before you catch sight of an definitely unfriendly face SHITSHITSHIT- you dive back below the trees as a wall of lead tears through the sky above you, those fucking anti aircraft things. Shit, there must be three or four of them out there. You hope those are clones, rather than three or four that can also clone.

The fucking Miniboss squad is quickly approaching your tree, and you can feel the AA sitting still somewhere near the edge of your range. Force me to fight huh?

You push off of your cover as they get close, letting your sigh out.

[] Battle Plan
-[] Write In...

[] XP Plan
-[] Write In...

+390xp Destroyed 13 M1A1 Abrams
+160xp Destroyed 8 AH-64 Apache's
+100xp That Would Have Killed You Yesterday

Thermal Control
Level 21 - > Level 23

Plate Armour
Level 13 - > Level 14

Rukia · Aug 12, 2018

"Why do you even bother trying." Gaia, my sister, behind them. You don't bother checking if she noticed, throwing a hand forwards and freezing the fucking teleporter in place, kicking off of the ground towards them as they react. Scourge will release him, Fortress is going to bunker up more and then my sister will get him. You cross the distance quickly, making sure that the Scourge has enough time to free his comrade, cratering the ground as you land.

He glances over to you with panic in his eyes, desperately reaching for something in a bag hanging around his neck. You smirk and swing your sword as hard as you can. Survive this, asshole. His fingers tear through the cloth in a burst of magic, crushing a small crystal just as your sword lands.

(Infinity Edge: +2,317 Base Damage, +144 Magic Modifier, +579 Rush, +695 Speed Gap, x3 Crush = 11,205 Total Damage
Scourge: +100 Base Resilience, +625 Magic Modifier, -543 Juggernaut = 181 Total Reduction

Scourge Health: 10,400 - 11,024 = -624 Health)

You have the briefest moment to see the smug look in his eyes disappear as your blade tears him in half, spinning with the momentum to kick his torso at the Fortress, you see his eyes follow your little impromptu distraction as you feel your sister join you. Got you.

She's already in the middle of casting when she appears, Gaia helpfully lining her up so that she can release the spell as she arrives.

(Paradox: +937 Base Damage, +645 Magic Modifier = 1,582 Total Damage
~~Fortress: +28,304 Base Resilience, +2,075 Magic Modifier = 30,379 Total Reduction~~

Fortress Health: 210 - 1,582 = -1,372)

(Wellspring of Power, Fuelled by Ruin: Eternal Knight Health: 1,500 + 375 = 1,875)

He disappears into the warp before he has the chance to react, an odd slurping sound followed by it closing, leaving crinkles in the air that slowly fade.

(1D2 = 1)

You turn your eyes to the the remaining member of the three, lifting a hand to freeze him in place again when you hear another crystal shattering, the last thing you see are his wide, panicked eyes as he disappears without a word.

Alright then. Dropping your hand with a sigh you rub your shoulder, a longer, much more relaxed sigh sounding when you feel the joint let out a loud crack. Ahh, that's better. Una slowly steps next to you and you reach down to ruffle her hair, picking her up in a quick hug before putting her down. "Thank you for helping." She nods, eye alert as she looks around. Good girl. You pat her head again. Gaia, take her home. She disappears without a word and you let your hand drop against your side, the metal thudding as it bounces off.

Well, that was easy, hopefully they'll stay away. And dead. You pause at the thought, looking back to the remaining corpse. Not this time. You step over, cutting off his head, then cutting that in half, and then cutting his chest into three, before finally setting it on fire and burying it in a small crater. Let's see you come back from that. You step towards the forest again before pausing again, flaring your aura until the grave is a small puddle of lava. There we go.

You set off towards the forest, not bothering to move past a walking pace. I'm sure the next ambush will be here any minute now. Not that you have a clue what is next in line, but you really don't want to be surprised by a massive bomb.

An hour later, you are starting to doubt they are coming, at least more than the lone person you felt approaching your previous battleground as you were leaving. They don't seem to be following you, but you keep catching intermittent flashes of warmth. They are definitely here, but they just seem to be following me. It's annoying, how they seem to be toying with you, straying just close enough to the edge of your sense that you can practically feel the heat leaving their body, but always staying outside of it when you try to move closer.

Ugh.

???

"Wooooow..." The sea of lava hisses and bubbles before you, the tank you are standing on slowly sinking further into the depths. You leech off of the flames a little, just enough to take the edge off. "I had no clue she could do this!" You dip a toe in the molten earth, the heat sending pleasant shivers down your spine. "Mmmh." You shake your head, ignoring the desire to go for a swim. Need to find her. Giving the pool one last longing look, and dipping another toe for a moment, you start moving towards the biggest patch of destroyed trees.

You find another pool of lava, the ground torn up all over the place, a big patch of blood slowly drying under the sun. But no Ignition Knight. Tsk. You look around, lifting a fallen tree to see if she's hiding under there.

Nope.

You settle back on the tank, letting your feet rest in the lava as you think, the scorching heat relaxing after the long run you'd made to get here. "Where could she have gone?" It's like a reaaaally big game of hide and seek. Just. With more murder.

Hide and Murder.

You are never going to tell Anna about your new game of Hide and Murder. She'll be jealous that she's accidentally been calling it Hide and Seek for all this time. Focus. You reluctantly pull your feet out of their perfect resting place, it makes thinking too hard. Ok, she was here, now she's not. You resist the urge to say the obvious aloud, there isn't anyone nearby to annoy with it. She probably just wandered off into the forest. It's what you would do. Sooo, no chance of finding her. You sigh, dropping back to lay against the tank, letting one of your legs skim the top of the lava. So close, but so far.

"Still." You slide down the tank until you are waist deep in the lava, the only thing keeping you from sliding in being your little hands grabbing the hatch. Ahhh. "At least she left me a present." You close your eyes and relax, letting your worries float away on the superheated wind.

Stop. You jump left, the barest hints of a hand entering your range before being pulled back. Fucking. You rise above the trees, flying in the direction of the hand, a foot entering your range briefly. Running. Your speed finally picks up enough for you to feel them and you sigh. Small, almost child small. This better not be another fucking magical girl I swear to god. You've had enough of their shit today. You lift a hand to pulverise the forest they're hiding in when something files back at you and explodes, thin chains shooting out to hold you in place. Get off. They quickly melt before Omega, but your speed is gone and so are they.

You drop to the ground with a sigh, slowly walking off in a random direction. What am I supposed to eat? You get back something like a shrug. [Maybe you shouldn't have burned down the supplies in that base, I'm sure you could have eaten those.] You rub your eyes and come to a conclusion. I either need to raid the Counter Force base, or I need to find a nearby town that hasn't been blown to shit.

Before you can make your mind up, you feel those taunting pokes at your sense again, those little shits testing you. I am done with your teasing.

[] Ignore them, fly up and towards the Counter Force base or town, whichever is closer.

[] Murderize the pack of probably-not-magical-girls that seem determined to piss you off.

Cerys
+600xp And Stay Dead
+100xp Allied Kills

Una
+1200xp Got The Jerk
+200xp Helping Big Sister

Rukia · Aug 21, 2018

Not dealing with you. You kick off of the ground, climbing just above the treetops before shooting forwards, ignoring the few people you feel enter you range as you overtake them. They quickly turn, heading out of your range, but you feel a lot more relaxed now you know you can catch them by surprise.

Whatever. You fly up, only stopping when you see a town in the distance. There. You drop back down to tree height and accelerate, turning your attention inwards as the ground flies past you. Hey, you alright? You get a vague feeling of exhaustion mixed with frustration. You've been acting odd. [Feeling is tiring] You blink. Yes, it is. Omega goes quiet again, and you turn your attention back to your surroundings, the town slowly approaching over the horizon.

You start feeling vehicles as you approach, moving along a road far off to the left. Can I even hide right now? You try use your normal trick of burying your magic under Gaia but... it kind of feels like trying to pour water into a full glass, it's just flowing over and spilling out. Wonderful, no point in even trying to hide then. Rather than slow down, you keep going, passing from the trees to the buildings. Oh. The people you'd felt weren't civilians, well, most of them are. The rest are soldiers manning defences, Clocktower Soldiers. Oh for fucks sake. You let out an annoyed sigh as you get ready to burn them all, but they... don't shoot? Huh?

They look like they want to, but their guns stubbornly remain pointing down, a nervous air hanging over them. Your confusion is interrupted when you hear someone shout up to you. "Someone will be coming to talk to you shortly, please remain here." You aren't sure what you are more impressed by, the steadiness of his voice or his sheer balls to tell you what to do. [Your feelings are tiring] What? [How do you deal with them?] Uhh. You flounder for a moment before deciding to roll with it. Practice, lots and lots of practice.

Omega makes an affirmative-ish feeling and you are left alone in your head. You don't have long to be confused, as a big armoured car of some kind pulls up at dangerous speeds, pulling to a stop a little bit away from where you're floating as a tall woman steps out. Why is it always women? Every. Single. Time. You ignore the way the soldiers twitch when you suddenly drop, waiting for the woman to approach you as you internally grumble. I'm not that simple am I? Win me over with a pretty face? [You are] I didn't ask you.

The woman doesn't interrupt your ~~whining~~ rumination, but she does jump slightly when you snap your head to her. "What do you want?" She only pauses for a moment, recovering so quickly you aren't sure if you are imagining it.

"We would like to know why you are here." She doesn't sound nervous, but her temperature picks up slightly. Definitely nervous, she knows she's completely at my mercy. The thought helps calm you down a little, knowing that no-one here is actually a danger to you. How to do this... Honesty was almost always the best choice if you wanted to throw someone off balance.

"I'm hungry." Her temperature picks up slightly as your stare bores into her. "Dinner would be good." You don't bother hiding your amusement when the man next to her edges away from her very slightly. Still, she nods after a moment, half turning back to her car questioningly. You nod, sliding into the back seat beside her as she does her best not to fidget.

"Driver, the cafe on 7-2." You relax back into your seat as the car starts moving, drawing back your sense as you go deeper into the town. Lots of people, oww. You don't let the ache behind your eye show as you watch the woman, amused at how flustered she seems to be about the entire situation. Wow am I sending mixed signals right now. This could be interpreted as a date, if it weren't for the fact that I've probably killed more than a thousand people in the same organisation as her.

You let out a quiet hum, smirking as she freezes on the spot. Oh yeah, she's definitely not been briefed on what to do. You close your eyes, feeling her relived slump now she thinks you aren't watching. This looks like my out then. Gaia had thrown you in, intending for you to fight and fight and fight. I never said that I'd keep fighting. A short chuckle makes the woman next to you flinch, but you ignore her as you continue pulling in your sense, until it's just covering the street around you. Fucking Gaia.

You let the woman stew in silence for the rest of the drive, opening your eyes as the car pulls to a stop, an old stone cafe decorated with cheery colours waiting outside your door. "Come on." You shoulder the door open, wincing at the shriek your armour makes as it rubs against it. Tsk. The woman quickly climbs out of her own side, jogging for a moment so she catches up to you. You pick out a table by the wall, a red patterned parasol gently shifting in the breeze as you sit down with a heavy clunk, waiting just long enough for your guest to do the same before speaking. "What's on the menu?"

Strangely, she seems much calmer now, a sort of familiarity to her movements as she flicks the menu open. Huh, maybe she was a waitress at some point? She quickly skims across the pages before looking at you. "Pasta, Baguette Sandwich-" You snort, the woman only pausing for a second before continuing. "-Bacon-" She stops as you hum, having already decided on her first choice.

"Pasta will do." She nods. "Fusilli." She stands up, walking to the counter as if she was a part of the staff. Definitely a waitress of some kind. On the matter of staff, it doesn't pass you by that the place is deserted, nor that the entire street is. I wonder if this is standard procedure, or they made this just for me. Your... date- Pff- you smile at the thought, amused at the way she speeds up very slightly. She quickly passes a piece of paper on to the man behind the counter, taking two mugs and turning back to you, a pleasant aroma hitting your nose. Tea? You take it from her offering hands, making a pleased sound as you take a sip. Not bad, not bad at all.

Putting the mug down, you turn your eyes to the woman again, blinking as you notice a new addition to her heat. Earbud? Probably some kind of radio to help her. Ignoring that, you decide to actually look at her, rather than at her. Short brown-ish hair, a soft face with well defined smile lines, blindingly white teeth, green eyes. I wonder how much that tooth whitening cost. A thought occurs to you. Probably got it while doing her waitressing, get more customers if you are attractive or something. The earbud in her ear warms very slightly as electricity runs through it, only running for a few seconds. I wonder who she's talking to. You take another sip. Probably Karen.

"So quiet." She twitches slightly as you lean forwards, setting your mug down in the middle of the table with a slight clack. "Not one for conversation?" She freezes, looking like she can't decide between answering you and staying silent. Hmm. [Please stay on one emotion] You raise an eyebrow, semi-ignoring the way the woman in front of you twitches harder. [You are like a see-saw] Well stop peeking then, and where did you learn what a see-saw is?

"I'm... not sure what to say." You return your attention to the woman as she speaks, her earbud warming more as it keeps working. "I'm a bit out of my depth." You hum for her benefit, nodding at her.

"That's alright." She relaxes slightly. "Why don't you hand me that earpiece then?" And there goes her calm. "I'd like to talk to them myself." Her hand makes an aborted motion towards her head, the earbud falling silent.

"It's... only set to receive." You hum, lifting your cup for another sip, staring at her over the rim.

"Oh? That's a shame." Stupid me, how would she talk back to her if it was two way? You don't say anything else, the street falling into silence as the sound of distant cars slowly fades. Huh, did they evacuate the entire town? It was a smart move, but at the same time it kind of ticked you off.

The minutes tick by in silence, the woman across from you only keeping her nerve with a timely interruption from her earpiece. They must have some way to see us then, I wonder if it's in the earpiece or they are just watching through camera's? You poke your range outwards in curiosity, smiling when you reach the cafe's kitchen. Mmm, food's nearly done. "Food soon." She nods at you words, apparently she's starting to get used to your presence and the idea that you aren't going to set her on fire. You know, I'm not really sure who I can blame for this whole mess. Karen for being a bitch, Gaia for pressuring her, or me for being such a control freak?

The question occupies you until food comes, served by the short man from the counter and gently set onto your table. "Thank you." You nod at him politely, your guest following your lead as he retreats into the kitchen again. You know, this whole scared of me thing kind of loses it's novelty really quickly. You take a bite and smile. "This is pretty good." She nods as well, and again you aren't sure if it's because she agrees or she just doesn't want to anger you. You resist the urge to sigh, eating the rest of your meal in silence.

"I'm currently debating whether or not I'm going to stay here or leave." She doesn't quite jerk at your sudden statement, but she does twitch. "Either way, I don't feel like fighting and I'm sure that you don't want to die." She looks like she wants to nod but isn't sure if she should. Gaia, I've done what you wanted. [Yes, you have. Though I expected you wouldn't want to stop just yet.] You snort. I'm just... tired. You sigh, the weight of your vacation pressing down on you. I just want to go home, I'm done right? She's silent for a little while, long enough for you to get nervous.

[Yes, you're done.] You smile, finishing the rest of your mug and leaning back. [The Light are doing something that'll do a better job of being the antagonist than you can. I'm still deciding if part of it is out of pity for you.] Don't care. You close your eyes, stretching your arms above your head with a contented sigh. Take me back. [So sure? What a bout your date~] You blink, squinting your eyes open to look at the woman who looks halfway between confused and terrified. Not a date, I was joking.[I'm sure your girlfriend will think the same thing] Bitch. You get a feeling of smugness before she speaks again. [Still, you don't need to be The Enemy any more.]

And? [You could wait for Karen to come, she will if you wait long enough.] And why would I want to do that? [Your next job.] Hm? [What do you think fits you better, Boss or Queen?] You feel a sudden premonition of doom hanging over you. Do I even want to know? [Probably not, but you are still going to!]

You let out a deep sigh, not caring if it disturbs your nervous friend as you vent your annoyance. Will you ever stop? She doesn't respond and you let yourself flop down onto the table, absent-mindedly pushing your empty bowl out of the way as you do. How do you throttle a planet. I need to know.

"U-um?" The woman, who you just now realise that you never got her name, falls silent as you look at her, eyes locking onto her earpiece. Make peace huh?

[] Stay at the table.
[] Go home and figure out what the hell Gaia is playing at.

+100xp Didn't Murderface

Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

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