Acclimitization 2.5
Lord Chungus
God of Nutella
- Location
- The Hague (it’s where all the cool people are)
[X] Train with Big Sis Kyoko.
"Want to go train?" you say.
"Sounds good to me," says Kyoko. "But that raises a different question, that being where we should go to train."
Hmm. You hadn't considered that.
"Maybe we can find some abandoned place," says Kyoko, beginning to walk down the street. "But where would one be?"
"Why don't we just ask Homura?" you say. "She lives here, and she's been a magical girl for a while, so she should know some good training spots."
"Yeah, that sounds good," says Kyoko. "You wanna do the honors?"
You shrug, and call out telepathically.
"Hey, Homura, I've got a question," you say. "Do you know if there are any good places to train? Abandoned, hidden, that kind of thing?"
"Yes, actually, I do know of some. There's an abandoned junkyard over on the south side of the city, near where you are. Just head south and it should be past the warehouse."
"Thanks!" you say. "See you later!"
"Try not to get yourself killed," she says.
You start walking in the direction you think is south, but stop when Big Sis Kyoko calls out your name.
"Yuma, where are you going?" she says.
"To the junkyard!" you say.
"What junkyard?" says Kyoko.
"The junkyard Homura told us about!"
"Wait a second… You mean the junkyard she must have told you about over telepathy?"
"Yes!"
"The telepathy that I couldn't hear?"
"Y-Yes?"
Kyoko sighs, shaking her head as she pats your shoulder.
"Do you see the problem with that?"
"Yes…" You hang your head, defeated, and Kyoko lets out a laugh.
"Now, where did you say the place was?"
"South side of the city, just past the warehouse…"
Big Sis Kyoko grabs your hand, dragging you along with her. She's not walking too fast, but she does keep a brisk pace; you may have all day, but acting like you did tends to leave you wandering around in the middle of the night, wondering where the time went.
As you walk, you mentally prepare yourself for the training. You'll be using your magic, most likely, and you can never be too safe.
You wished to help Big Sis Kyoko, and your magic reflects that. Your main ability is your healing magic, but it's not your only ability. Your magic abilities are built to complement Big Sis, to shore up her weaknesses and rely on her strengths. Your weapon is weird, an odd cross between a staff and a mace. It's pure white, with a large orb on the top. The orb's got eyes, oddly enough, and something you think might be a tail coming out the top, but you are no master of orb biology. You can use it to cast your healing, but you can also use it for some strong attacks, infusing it with magic and then smashing whatever's in your way. You can also smash it on the ground and use your magic to stun anything near you, giving Kyoko ample time to tear her way through the immobile opposition.
You're not as skilled with your weapon as Kyoko is, not even close, but any witch too tough to be impaled by Kyoko's spear can usually be beaten down by your mace. To top it all off, your magic is incredibly cheap. If you ended up putting Big Sis in danger because you went through magic faster than she did, that wouldn't be very helpful, and you specifically wished to help her out.
You're rather well-rounded in terms of magic, with healing, crowd control, and even some offensive power, but without Kyoko you would have a hard time finishing off witches; spears are much better than maces when it comes to giving killing blows.
"Earth to Yuma," says Kyoko. "You there?"
You snap to attention, nearly tripping over yourself.
"I'm here, I'm here!" you say. "What's happening?"
"We're here, ya big doof. Good thing I was holding your hand, or you might have wandered off into nowhere. Now, are ya ready to train?"
You nod your head enthusiastically, and the two of you manifest your soul gems at the same time. You race to transform before she does, but when the light fades she's smirking and holding a spear.
"I win again," says Kyoko. "You've got it down to under two seconds though, so you're getting better."
The two of you do this, seeing who can transform the fastest, because Kyoko says it could be important if you fight a magical girl. Whoever transforms first attacks first, so you can't waste any time looking silly.
"So, what are the rules?" you say. "Are we doing the usual?"
"Sure, why not," says Kyoko. "No magic on my part, and you can enhance your weapon. We start five feet apart, and we go on one."
The two of you walk away until you're at the proper distance and drop into battle stances.
The first time you had brought up training, Big Sis had laughed it off as impractical. She said it would waste too much magic that could be used hunting witches, and that you would get better with time anyway. But once she figured out just how cheap your magic was, she had decided that you needed to learn how to fight. "No sciency bullshit," she had said. "You've got to learn to use the tricks you have now before you come up with new ones, and you need to learn how to actually fight before anything else."
Seeing how she routinely beat you with nothing but a spear or two, you were inclined to agree with her.
"Three, two, one!"
Kyoko blasts forward, spear held to her side as you keep your weapon in front of you. The two of you play an incredibly dangerous game of chicken, waiting to see who flinches first.
You've learned by now that attacking Kyoko when she's expecting it is a waste of time at best, as she's quick enough to dodge your slow swings and eager to capitalize on your defenseless back. Likewise, Kyoko's learned not to attack too wildly, lest you take the opening and land a solid hit. So now the two of you wait, goading the other into attacking.
You don't have much time to goad, seeing as how she's practically flying at you, but magical reflexes make things far more dramatic.
In the end, it's you who blinks first, stepping to the side and bringing your mace back to swing at her midsection. Kyoko slams the wooden part of her spear onto the head of your mace, using the momentum to flip over and poking you in the back of the knee with her spear but as she lands. You fall down onto that knee, partly out of respect for Kyoko using the blunt end and partially because it hurts anyway, and Kyoko spins around to face you.
She rushes, spear pointed at your throat, and you keep your mace rested on the ground. Only two more seconds until you can get up, the amount of time it would take for you to heal the injury if this were an actual fight, but Kyoko's intent on ending the spar before then.
She sticks her spear but-first into the ground, using it to propel herself over you, but you've expected this. You roll forwards as she leaps, keeping your mace on your back to block her swipe and turning around to see that she's too far away to hit you, at least for now.
One second until you can stand.
Kyoko rushes forward, keeping her spear level for a stab, and you smash the bottom of your mace into the ground. The magic you've imbued it with creates a shockwave, just strong enough to make Kyoko stumble, but that's all you need.
You whip your mace forward, pushing magic into the tail at the head of your mace and watching as it smacks Kyoko in the legs, sending her even further off balance.
You use your mace to hoist yourself up, using the momentum to swing it as hard as you can at Kyoko. There's no magic, but a solid hit from this should be enough to put her down for a bit. Kyoko reels back, dodging your swing but ending up falling on her back. You grin, and bring your mace above your head for a devastating downward blow.
Despite your strength, you know Kyoko can take it. You're not sure if it's because of your wish, or just because you don't want to, but you've found that nothing you do can seriously hurt Kyoko.
You bring your mace down, and the clang of metal on metal at the same time you feel cold steel press against your shoulder.
Kyoko's manifested a second spear and pointed it above her, so that you almost impaled yourself on it. Her first spear is grasped in one hand, and currently holding your mace above her head. Both spears are pressed into the ground, giving them good support in a usually awkward position.
"Game over, twerp. Looks like I win, again."
You sigh, and straighten yourself up. You offer her your hand and she accepts your help up, still grinning.
"That makes it what, ten-nil for me?" she says.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up," you say. "I'm a healer, not a fighter!"
"For a not-fighter, you smash things pretty damn hard," says Kyoko "And what was that trick with the tail thingy?"
"Just something I came up with," you say. "Oh, we forgot to check! You still have our grief seeds?"
She nods, pulling two clean grief seeds out of her pocket. One was a spare that you had been able to save, and the other was from the last witch in Kazamino.
"I got em right here," says Kyoko. "How's your gem doing?"
You manifest your soul gem, checking how much corruption it has. You're still pretty clean, maybe a quarter of the way through your magic reserves. The magic used from sparing was maybe almost nothing, so little that you would have to get into large fractions to make a full estimate. You've got nearly an eighth corruption from general wear and tear before you arrived in Mitakihara, with the other eighth coming from the sadness you were feeling last night and during lunch. The "magic reserves" thing is actually quite tricky when you think about it; it would seem that you should only cleanse when near full corruption, but Kyoko's explained that your mind goes to bad places if you get over half, and you might not remember to cleanse.
Kyoko herself is doing a bit better than you, maybe a sixth of the way through her reserves. You curse grief seeds and their complete nonsense, not for the first time. Why would they only work three times before expiring, why?
Two more rounds produce the same result, if somewhat more lopsided now that Kyoko's caught on to your trick with the tail. Restraining your magic usage is weird, but very useful for cutting down on magic-reliance.
"So, what do we do now?" Kyoko says after kicking your butt for the third time in a row. "It's getting kind of dark out, actually. Guess getting here took longer than I thought…"
"Why don't we head back where we came from and figure out what to do while on the way?" you say.
Kyoko shrugs, and leads the way back home.
The two of you spend the walk chatting away, teasing each other about anything and everything. Byt the time you're back in an area you recognize, it's almost five-thirty in the evening.
"I say we have something western for dinner," says Kyoko. "Maybe pizza. Pizza?"
"Ehh, we had pizza a few days ago," you say.
"And we've had fried egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast how many times in a row?" says Kyoko.
"Twelve," you say.
"Then I think we can handle a bit of pizza."
You shrug. Pizza is pretty good, and you're not too peeved with having it again. It's at that moment that a brilliant idea strikes you, and you hop up and down in excitement.
"We should invite Homura to have supper with us!" you say. "Sayaka and Madoka might be all sad and think-y, but Homura isn't sad at all!"
"Are you sure?" says Kyoko. "We just had lunch with her, and Homura doesn't strike me as much of a social butterfly."
"So she's a caterpillar right now, but we have to be the shell thingy that turns her into a butterfly! We have to metamorphis her until she can be a regular human, with passable social skills!"
"You're thinking a bit far ahead," says Kyoko. "Maybe we should just..." she trails off, staring into the distance.
"Big Sis?" you say. "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing," says Kyoko. "Just sensed a witch, that's all."
A witch?
"How close is it?" you say.
"Not too far," says Kyoko. "Maybe a few blocks north?"
"Should we hunt it?" you say, trying to find the witches presence.
"I dunno. If we want to do a big group-hunt with Sayaka and Homura then we should probably wait until tomorrow, give them some time to rest. What do you say?"
What do you say?
You must admit, the thought of supper is appetizing, especially if you can get Homura to eat with you. And yet, can you really just leave the witch be? It could hurt people while you wait, and you can always find another witch to hunt with Sayaka and Homura.
But then there's your grief seed situation. You don't have any urgent need for them this moment, and you're in fact a bit high on corruption right now, but is that enough to make ignoring it a better option?
And if you do hunt the witch, what do you do with Madoka? Do you invite her with you?
What do you do?
[ ] Go back to the hotel and eat supper with Big Sis Kyoko.
--[ ] Invite Homura.
--[ ] Invite Sayaka and Madoka
--[ ] Plan to hunt the witch tomorrow.
[ ] Hunt the Witch with Big Sis Kyoko.
--[ ] Invite Homura to come with you.
--[ ] Invite Sayaka to come with you.
--[ ] Invite Madoka with you.
[ ]Something else? (Write-In)
"Want to go train?" you say.
"Sounds good to me," says Kyoko. "But that raises a different question, that being where we should go to train."
Hmm. You hadn't considered that.
"Maybe we can find some abandoned place," says Kyoko, beginning to walk down the street. "But where would one be?"
"Why don't we just ask Homura?" you say. "She lives here, and she's been a magical girl for a while, so she should know some good training spots."
"Yeah, that sounds good," says Kyoko. "You wanna do the honors?"
You shrug, and call out telepathically.
"Hey, Homura, I've got a question," you say. "Do you know if there are any good places to train? Abandoned, hidden, that kind of thing?"
"Yes, actually, I do know of some. There's an abandoned junkyard over on the south side of the city, near where you are. Just head south and it should be past the warehouse."
"Thanks!" you say. "See you later!"
"Try not to get yourself killed," she says.
You start walking in the direction you think is south, but stop when Big Sis Kyoko calls out your name.
"Yuma, where are you going?" she says.
"To the junkyard!" you say.
"What junkyard?" says Kyoko.
"The junkyard Homura told us about!"
"Wait a second… You mean the junkyard she must have told you about over telepathy?"
"Yes!"
"The telepathy that I couldn't hear?"
"Y-Yes?"
Kyoko sighs, shaking her head as she pats your shoulder.
"Do you see the problem with that?"
"Yes…" You hang your head, defeated, and Kyoko lets out a laugh.
"Now, where did you say the place was?"
"South side of the city, just past the warehouse…"
Big Sis Kyoko grabs your hand, dragging you along with her. She's not walking too fast, but she does keep a brisk pace; you may have all day, but acting like you did tends to leave you wandering around in the middle of the night, wondering where the time went.
As you walk, you mentally prepare yourself for the training. You'll be using your magic, most likely, and you can never be too safe.
You wished to help Big Sis Kyoko, and your magic reflects that. Your main ability is your healing magic, but it's not your only ability. Your magic abilities are built to complement Big Sis, to shore up her weaknesses and rely on her strengths. Your weapon is weird, an odd cross between a staff and a mace. It's pure white, with a large orb on the top. The orb's got eyes, oddly enough, and something you think might be a tail coming out the top, but you are no master of orb biology. You can use it to cast your healing, but you can also use it for some strong attacks, infusing it with magic and then smashing whatever's in your way. You can also smash it on the ground and use your magic to stun anything near you, giving Kyoko ample time to tear her way through the immobile opposition.
You're not as skilled with your weapon as Kyoko is, not even close, but any witch too tough to be impaled by Kyoko's spear can usually be beaten down by your mace. To top it all off, your magic is incredibly cheap. If you ended up putting Big Sis in danger because you went through magic faster than she did, that wouldn't be very helpful, and you specifically wished to help her out.
You're rather well-rounded in terms of magic, with healing, crowd control, and even some offensive power, but without Kyoko you would have a hard time finishing off witches; spears are much better than maces when it comes to giving killing blows.
"Earth to Yuma," says Kyoko. "You there?"
You snap to attention, nearly tripping over yourself.
"I'm here, I'm here!" you say. "What's happening?"
"We're here, ya big doof. Good thing I was holding your hand, or you might have wandered off into nowhere. Now, are ya ready to train?"
You nod your head enthusiastically, and the two of you manifest your soul gems at the same time. You race to transform before she does, but when the light fades she's smirking and holding a spear.
"I win again," says Kyoko. "You've got it down to under two seconds though, so you're getting better."
The two of you do this, seeing who can transform the fastest, because Kyoko says it could be important if you fight a magical girl. Whoever transforms first attacks first, so you can't waste any time looking silly.
"So, what are the rules?" you say. "Are we doing the usual?"
"Sure, why not," says Kyoko. "No magic on my part, and you can enhance your weapon. We start five feet apart, and we go on one."
The two of you walk away until you're at the proper distance and drop into battle stances.
The first time you had brought up training, Big Sis had laughed it off as impractical. She said it would waste too much magic that could be used hunting witches, and that you would get better with time anyway. But once she figured out just how cheap your magic was, she had decided that you needed to learn how to fight. "No sciency bullshit," she had said. "You've got to learn to use the tricks you have now before you come up with new ones, and you need to learn how to actually fight before anything else."
Seeing how she routinely beat you with nothing but a spear or two, you were inclined to agree with her.
"Three, two, one!"
Kyoko blasts forward, spear held to her side as you keep your weapon in front of you. The two of you play an incredibly dangerous game of chicken, waiting to see who flinches first.
You've learned by now that attacking Kyoko when she's expecting it is a waste of time at best, as she's quick enough to dodge your slow swings and eager to capitalize on your defenseless back. Likewise, Kyoko's learned not to attack too wildly, lest you take the opening and land a solid hit. So now the two of you wait, goading the other into attacking.
You don't have much time to goad, seeing as how she's practically flying at you, but magical reflexes make things far more dramatic.
In the end, it's you who blinks first, stepping to the side and bringing your mace back to swing at her midsection. Kyoko slams the wooden part of her spear onto the head of your mace, using the momentum to flip over and poking you in the back of the knee with her spear but as she lands. You fall down onto that knee, partly out of respect for Kyoko using the blunt end and partially because it hurts anyway, and Kyoko spins around to face you.
She rushes, spear pointed at your throat, and you keep your mace rested on the ground. Only two more seconds until you can get up, the amount of time it would take for you to heal the injury if this were an actual fight, but Kyoko's intent on ending the spar before then.
She sticks her spear but-first into the ground, using it to propel herself over you, but you've expected this. You roll forwards as she leaps, keeping your mace on your back to block her swipe and turning around to see that she's too far away to hit you, at least for now.
One second until you can stand.
Kyoko rushes forward, keeping her spear level for a stab, and you smash the bottom of your mace into the ground. The magic you've imbued it with creates a shockwave, just strong enough to make Kyoko stumble, but that's all you need.
You whip your mace forward, pushing magic into the tail at the head of your mace and watching as it smacks Kyoko in the legs, sending her even further off balance.
You use your mace to hoist yourself up, using the momentum to swing it as hard as you can at Kyoko. There's no magic, but a solid hit from this should be enough to put her down for a bit. Kyoko reels back, dodging your swing but ending up falling on her back. You grin, and bring your mace above your head for a devastating downward blow.
Despite your strength, you know Kyoko can take it. You're not sure if it's because of your wish, or just because you don't want to, but you've found that nothing you do can seriously hurt Kyoko.
You bring your mace down, and the clang of metal on metal at the same time you feel cold steel press against your shoulder.
Kyoko's manifested a second spear and pointed it above her, so that you almost impaled yourself on it. Her first spear is grasped in one hand, and currently holding your mace above her head. Both spears are pressed into the ground, giving them good support in a usually awkward position.
"Game over, twerp. Looks like I win, again."
You sigh, and straighten yourself up. You offer her your hand and she accepts your help up, still grinning.
"That makes it what, ten-nil for me?" she says.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up," you say. "I'm a healer, not a fighter!"
"For a not-fighter, you smash things pretty damn hard," says Kyoko "And what was that trick with the tail thingy?"
"Just something I came up with," you say. "Oh, we forgot to check! You still have our grief seeds?"
She nods, pulling two clean grief seeds out of her pocket. One was a spare that you had been able to save, and the other was from the last witch in Kazamino.
"I got em right here," says Kyoko. "How's your gem doing?"
You manifest your soul gem, checking how much corruption it has. You're still pretty clean, maybe a quarter of the way through your magic reserves. The magic used from sparing was maybe almost nothing, so little that you would have to get into large fractions to make a full estimate. You've got nearly an eighth corruption from general wear and tear before you arrived in Mitakihara, with the other eighth coming from the sadness you were feeling last night and during lunch. The "magic reserves" thing is actually quite tricky when you think about it; it would seem that you should only cleanse when near full corruption, but Kyoko's explained that your mind goes to bad places if you get over half, and you might not remember to cleanse.
Kyoko herself is doing a bit better than you, maybe a sixth of the way through her reserves. You curse grief seeds and their complete nonsense, not for the first time. Why would they only work three times before expiring, why?
Two more rounds produce the same result, if somewhat more lopsided now that Kyoko's caught on to your trick with the tail. Restraining your magic usage is weird, but very useful for cutting down on magic-reliance.
"So, what do we do now?" Kyoko says after kicking your butt for the third time in a row. "It's getting kind of dark out, actually. Guess getting here took longer than I thought…"
"Why don't we head back where we came from and figure out what to do while on the way?" you say.
Kyoko shrugs, and leads the way back home.
The two of you spend the walk chatting away, teasing each other about anything and everything. Byt the time you're back in an area you recognize, it's almost five-thirty in the evening.
"I say we have something western for dinner," says Kyoko. "Maybe pizza. Pizza?"
"Ehh, we had pizza a few days ago," you say.
"And we've had fried egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast how many times in a row?" says Kyoko.
"Twelve," you say.
"Then I think we can handle a bit of pizza."
You shrug. Pizza is pretty good, and you're not too peeved with having it again. It's at that moment that a brilliant idea strikes you, and you hop up and down in excitement.
"We should invite Homura to have supper with us!" you say. "Sayaka and Madoka might be all sad and think-y, but Homura isn't sad at all!"
"Are you sure?" says Kyoko. "We just had lunch with her, and Homura doesn't strike me as much of a social butterfly."
"So she's a caterpillar right now, but we have to be the shell thingy that turns her into a butterfly! We have to metamorphis her until she can be a regular human, with passable social skills!"
"You're thinking a bit far ahead," says Kyoko. "Maybe we should just..." she trails off, staring into the distance.
"Big Sis?" you say. "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing," says Kyoko. "Just sensed a witch, that's all."
A witch?
"How close is it?" you say.
"Not too far," says Kyoko. "Maybe a few blocks north?"
"Should we hunt it?" you say, trying to find the witches presence.
"I dunno. If we want to do a big group-hunt with Sayaka and Homura then we should probably wait until tomorrow, give them some time to rest. What do you say?"
What do you say?
You must admit, the thought of supper is appetizing, especially if you can get Homura to eat with you. And yet, can you really just leave the witch be? It could hurt people while you wait, and you can always find another witch to hunt with Sayaka and Homura.
But then there's your grief seed situation. You don't have any urgent need for them this moment, and you're in fact a bit high on corruption right now, but is that enough to make ignoring it a better option?
And if you do hunt the witch, what do you do with Madoka? Do you invite her with you?
What do you do?
[ ] Go back to the hotel and eat supper with Big Sis Kyoko.
--[ ] Invite Homura.
--[ ] Invite Sayaka and Madoka
--[ ] Plan to hunt the witch tomorrow.
[ ] Hunt the Witch with Big Sis Kyoko.
--[ ] Invite Homura to come with you.
--[ ] Invite Sayaka to come with you.
--[ ] Invite Madoka with you.
[ ]Something else? (Write-In)
Last edited:
This ought to be corrected!
