Perhaps For Love, Or Maybe Justice (A Tokusatsu/Magical Girl Quest)

[Kermie]

Spoiler: Winning Vote:

[X] Take Akemi's perspective for this mission.

Saturday, March 8th, 2080, 10:30 AM
Heaven's Approach - Eiganjo Side

You are Kaneko Akemi, (Akemi Kaneko? Nah, last name before first name just sounds better) and right as you blink, you're teleported. There's no big flash of purple light or any big chant. Just a quick thump that reverberates through the entire room, before after a few seconds, the door opens.

You're in Eiganjo. That was quick.

Suzuki grins, before giving you a fist bump and getting up from his seat. "Alright, looks like AccelTech doesn't skimp out on their transportation. Not bad! I'll be seeing you later."

As the door opens, he's one of the first to get off. You blink, and he's already walking into the crowd— and he's gone. He's likely off to a hotel, but knowing the work culture of executives like him, he might just be going straight to AccelTech. Hm.

Some people walk out of the room, but you stay put on your seat. You look left, you look right, before unzipping your red purse. In a flash, Purrson jumps out and onto your shoulder.

"Thank you for letting me get some fresh air. It's suffocating in there, Akemi." Purrson whispers into your ear.

"Noted. I'll look into poking some air holes." you whisper back, your voice barely going above your breath. With all that done, you stand up and walk out of the teleporter room. Yup, you're definitely in Eiganjo. All the architecture looks like white marble, and— hey, are those multiple gold-framed paintings on the walls?!

Well, it makes sense. This is the one place everyone who enters Eiganjo sees. It unfortunately checks out. As you walk out of the way of somebody's floating suitcase, you see Rei. She's talking with a girl with blonde hair, and it sounds like they're talking about… anime? The girl's talking excitedly.

"Ok, so the Rakazuichi arc is top 25, all time."

Rei speaks back, talking about some anime that her crazy HumaGear otaku boss made her watch. "Yeah, but it doesn't clear Namek or Shibuya Incident."

"Ok, but then you have to admit that Orochi Rising is worse than Namek!"

Rei sputters. "Wha— why would you do this to me?!" Her eyes widen in surprise, but as she puts her hands behind her head you realize that she's mostly just joking. You wave your hand above the crowd, and she spots you easily. Both her and the new girl walk over to you, and Purrson immediately shuts up and gets behind your head.

Rei points at her, before pointing at you. "Aiko, meet Akemi, my best friend. Akemi, meet Aiko, my new friend."

>-st friend… subte…

Hm, what was that? One of Rei's headmates? Oh well, nothing to think too hard about. "Hey there."

She looks you up and down, before nodding. "Nice fit."

She looks pretty good as well, with her plaid skirt and all. "Same. Now if you excuse me and Rei, we're gonna be looking around a few places in Eiganjo…"

You pull Rei by the elbow, but Aiko outs a hand out in front of you. "W— wait! Lemme show you around, you two seem cool. I've got time before my appointment here, and I know all the local spots."

That sets off so many alarm bells in your head that it isn't even funny. How the hell does she know the "local spots"? "…what, are you a local here?"

Her mouth opens and then closes, before she takes a look at Rei. After a second, she turns back to you. "Uh, yeah. My family lives up here, though I've got a room with some of my friends down on the mainland."

An Eiganjo native?! How rich is she? No, what company could she belong to? You distinctly remember that some of the companies up here have some family connections, but who could she be?

Uh…

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Mental Check; DC 75/110]
[17+19=36. Fail!]

Uh, nope. You've got nothing on who she could be. But at the end of the day, that only means one thing. Any person, even an heir, with that much power? Anybody having enough power and privilege only means one thing, really.

You can't trust her.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Akemi gains a temporary -10 malus to all social interactions with Aiko!

"Alright Aiko, we're going to be going…"

You're about to say something else, get away from her in order to… stalk her? Or something like that. Purrson's tail curls comfortingly around the back of your neck, as ready for danger as you are. He doesn't talk, though— you're both still in public after all. What now?

That's when you hear a voice in your head.

…hello? Hello? It's me. Atry. Hey. I'm the voice in Rei's head. The first one, actually. Rei wants you to stop being a creep.

For a second, you consider speaking back. How dare this one voice tell you what to do? But then you see Rei.

And she's giving you a nasty death glare. She isn't shaking her head, but she certainly isn't nodding in agreement. She's glaring at you like her ice cream just melted and you're the one who tossed a Fire Glyph at her. Heck, if the Void came and manifested below her right now, you wouldn't be surprised.

Again, don't get mad at me, because I can't hear what you're monologuing about, I'm just the messenger. She just wants you to uh… "stop assuming the worst of everybody, otherwise she's gonna slap you."

You can't help but internally sigh. This is how it's always gone. You come up with the shady/smart ideas that Rei doesn't. In exchange, Rei pulls you back when you need it most.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Akemi's temporary malus is removed!

"…going wherever you think we should be." you finish, "You seem like you know this place better than whatever any tourist guidebook could show us."

Aiko seems to perk up, before taking Rei by the wrist. Why does that make you— don't look into that. "Oh, of course, follow me!"

She walks out of the room, and with one more glance shared between you, Rei, and Purrson (though he's behind you, so you're just guessing on that one) you follow her out, through the customs gates which you and Rei quickly dodge, and out into…

Whoa.

10:33 AM
Eiganjo - Attraction District

The first thing that you immediately notice is that the air's clearer up here. You can breathe easier. As you and Rei walk out, you see dozens if not hundreds of people, all walking out either into tunnels for a shuttle or into taxis they called up. Aiko turns to face you, before pointing out at the scenery. In the distance, above all the people and the different glass roofs of the station, are three other islands, floating in the air. They're each as big as a third of the average province, if you had to guess, and below them are differently colored rings. Each of them is connected to the others by a huge hard light bridge. You've only seen something like that once over at the Shibuya Crossing, how much did that cost?!

"Alright, so there's four Districts, that's what we call each individual island." Aiko explains. "The one we're on is called the Attraction District, and if we were looking at it from afar, you could tell by the yellow colored ring of glyphs holding us up. Residential is the one with the green ring, Commerce over there is red, and Shopping— that's my personal favorite— is in blue."

Rei looks around, before silently nodding to herself. "Wow, cool. Do you mind if I take some time to go look at the view?"

Aiko double blinks in surprise, but nods. "Uh, sure! There's a viewing pavilion over there to the west."

"Alright, sounds good. Akemi, I'm gonna be taking the cat. Purrson, get over here! Akemi, talk some more with Aiko." The "don't antagonize her" goes unsaid in Rei's sentence.

Purrson doesn't even wave you goodbye, he just leaps from your shoulder to Rei's. Not that you didn't expect it. He needs his time to wander— as much of a god(?) as he might be, you've noticed that he's really much more of a cat than he realizes.

"So, am I correct in assuming that you and Rei are coming up here together?" Aiko asks, turning her attention back to you.

As much as you should be cautious, Rei seems to like her, so maybe you should calm down and just talk to her normally. You know that she likes anime and shopping, which… doesn't really do much for you, now that you think about it. "Uh, yeah! We're just here to look around, we've heard a lot about this place."

Aiko walks closer to one of the walls, getting out of the way of a passing tourist, before responding. "Yeah, the tourism promoters really try their best. We have a few of the biggest malls and two amusement parks, but it really isn't that impressive. All nice for a one day vacation like I assume that you're doing though."

"How do you know that we're only up here for one day? I never told you that, and I think that you and Rei were only talking about some anime."

It's in that moment that she returns the glare that you've been giving her, and it's in that moment that you realize that she hasn't been fully looking at you either. "Well, you don't have suitcases, and AccelTech usually doesn't just do object teleportation. And while there's a chance that you could have just forgotten, you don't seem like that type of person."

Hm. She's not airheaded. Interesting. "And you? I imagine that you have things up here?"

Aiko rolls her eyes, but sighs. When she next looks at you, her stern glare is gone. "My aunt has a house near the west end of Residential. I'll be staying there for the next two nights so that I can check on my sister and a few other things. And how about you? You still haven't clarified you and Rei's relationship."

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Social Check; DC 40/70/100]
[26+20+24(EP)=70. Success!]

For a second, you consider brushing her off again. But then again…

"Akemi. There's nothing wrong with keeping on your feet, but open up your heart once in a while. Both you and Rei need to calm down, keeping yourself so wound up all the time isn't good for you!"

…dammit, Kasumi was right. "She's actually a friend from my childhood. This trip is basically one of the first times we've hung out together in years, really. That's how I know her so well. We actually pretty much share joint custody of Purrson."

"That's— oh, the cat! Hm. You must be awfully good friends then. Lord knows I could never take care of a pet. Well, aside from a hamster or two…"

She trails off as both Rei and Purrson return. Rei brushes a stray hair to the side, before opening her mouth. "Alright, I've seen enough. I'm ready to see whatever you think is most interesting, Aoki."

Aoki claps her hands together and smiles. "Alright! I had this idea that we could go to this one shop alongside the east end of the Shopping District. If the window shopping isn't fun enough, we could watch a movie, the non-first premiere showings are pretty reasonable. But uh, you don't have to walk with me if you don't want to of course!"

A mall? Lots of people there, it's not too unreasonable to assume that you might find someone to follow while shopping. Aoki's local knowledge could be invaluable, and both you and Rei are freshly dressed enough to fit in. But…

You silently try to get Rei's attention, before mouthing out; "AccelTech?"

It takes her a second to realize what you're saying, but she gets what you're trying to put down. If you're doing preliminary espionage, it does make sense to check out the shadiest company in the area. You might even meet Suzuki again— he seems just as smart as Aiko, maybe a bit smarter. As Rei talks with Aiko, you hear another one of her voices in your head.

>we know the location. Either you or Rei could go up there and check out their reception room, ask a few questions… or we get Hatsume and her gang to teleport us.

Right. Aoki's offer is tempting, but Rei has line of sight teleportation. There's only a few people who can do that with Glyphs, and the workers might be going on break soon. And at the same time, you could also check the other Districts. There's a chance for a lead that goes nowhere, but the Void is really easy to spot when you know what you're looking for.

Decisions, decisions. Worst case scenario, you and Rei could split up, both of you have done that before. But if you do, what's your best plan?

Spoiler: !!!

Akemi's Perk is revealed…

[The Schemer]
Trust only those you know you can. And think and plot as much as you possibly can.
[Akemi may gain +10 or -10 modifiers to her Mental/Social checks involving one character, depending on what happens in narrative. This lasts until the end of the Week/Mission, whichever comes first.]

[When Akemi is on a Mission alongside Rei, she may act independently of Rei.]

---

(Pick one action for Akemi and one action for Rei. You don't have to go with Aiko, but doing so will leave her alone and have her not show up for the rest of the mission.)

[ ] [Akemi] Keep walking and talking with Aiko.
[ ] [Akemi] Go look at the AccelTech HQ.
[ ] [Akemi] Wander around Eiganjo, go find something else to do.
[ ] [Akemi] (Write-In?)

[ ] [Rei] Keep walking and talking with Aiko.
[ ] [Rei] Go look at the AccelTech HQ.
[ ] [Rei] Teleport into the AccelTech HQ?
(This option was unlocked via Thieves Guild: Secret Six Samurai.)
[ ] [Rei] Wander around Eiganjo, go find something else to do.
[ ] [Rei] (Write-In?)

---

Author's Note:

I've run out of author's notes. Brain dead. It's the week between Christmas and New Year's and I'm completely out of it, just chilling. Glad I managed to get this out on Friday tho! Next update may take a bit longer, I have a Project Prometheus omake to do.

Happy voting heroes.

 

[Kermie]

Spoiler: Winning Vote

Akemi: [X] Keep walking and talking with Aiko.
Rei: [X] Teleport into the AccelTech HQ.

Saturday, March 8th, 2080, 10:45 AM
Eiganjo - Shopping District

You are Kaneko Akemi. The skies of Japan are as clear as they can be up here. Purrson perches on your shoulder, calm as can be. On your other side, Aiko is walking poised and gracefully, keeping her eyes set on the street. Every tourist walks past you two without a single glance— you're both invisible in the streets. Just the way you like it.

Crossing the hard light bridge over to the next District of Eiganjo isn't too hard. Rather, it's the crowds that surround you, Aiko, and Purrson that are really interesting. A mixture of important seeming people with suits strutting around and relaxed tourists in casual wear all color the skies and buildings of Eiganjo in their own shades. Following Aiko down the streets, all three of you walk into a modern looking mall. Some Glyphs with inspection spells attached scan you for security as you walk in, but you pay that no mind. The mall itself is pretty nice.

"So, this is the "hidden gem" you wanted me and Rei to see? Seems nice." you quietly comment, while still looking around. The mall itself isn't too different than anything in Tokyo proper, warm yellow light illuminating the halls.

There's a skip in Aiko's step now, and a soft smile on her face. "Yup! Welcome to Eiganjo South Plaza. It's not as big as The Block, the outdoor mall in the other end of this place, but the prices here are way better. And the shops here are also pretty nice as well."

She walks past a few more shops, and you and Purrson follow. After passing by a dazzling array of the windows of dozens upon dozens of shops of all different kinds, she stops in her tracks. "Alright, here's what I wanted to show you! Behold my favorite place in Eiganjo— the Heartful Boutique!"

The boutique that she dramatically points out isn't any bigger than any of the other shops. The walls and logo are painted a light violet, and aren't covered in any gaudy gold decorations like some of the mansions you were able to spot earlier in Residential.

You turn your attention to the two outfits displayed in the window and are much more impressed. Both dresses, one red, one blue, look stunning. Both of them are made of smooth fabric, and display just the right amount of cleavage. There's also a good amount of room to move around in, and are those subtle pockets? You could put your wallet in there! Or your phone, since you really don't need physical cash much.

"Oh, those are some really good-looking outfits, and really nice as well." you say, not really feeling like talking about your impression of this boutique.

"I know, right?!" Aiko says, metaphorical sparkles (or are those literal? You wouldn't put it past an Eiganjo native to get contacts like that) in her eyes. "Heartful is a startup that I've been following for about a year. They do their best to use Magic in order to produce dresses and suits based on designs sent in by young men and women all over the world! They've got new designs coming in every month, and they've got tailors for if you need your dress to be extra skinny or more plus-size. I really want to send in a design to them one day."

Heartful Boutique, huh? You've vaguely heard of them. Very clean business practices, with two or three shops in Japan. While it wouldn't be as durable and flexible as what you have, it wouldn't hurt to go with Aiko and look for a more casual dress. But at the same time, you don't need to do so. In fact, this is a great time to ditch her. But…

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Social Check: DC 65]
[64+20=84. Success!]

Fuck it. You've been living in a house with two people (and Purrson, but he's a cat) whose fashion sensibilities boil down to "t-shirt, underwear, pants/shorts, done". You need to talk to someone with taste or you are going to shrivel up and die of cringe before the Void gets you.

"Really? That's cool! I'm also really into fashion, though I'm more of a connoisseur than a designer. What type of materials do they use in those dresses? They look so comfy."

Aiko smiles, and before you know it you're both walking into the store, talking about all the designs and her thoughts about the most recent trends. As both you and her sit on one of the benches, you hear Purrson whispering into your ear, just quiet enough for Aiko not to hear. "Agh, fashion talk? That's nice. Wake me up when anything interesting happens."

And with that, he retreats back into your purse. Ok then, be boring like that. You've got opinions to share.

"Do you really think that boring dress is what people up here wear to our galas? You must be joking, it's too gaudy!"

"Oh, I'm only half joking, rich girl, I didn't even know that the average person up here knew what casual style is!"

"Oi, don't take that tone with me! Now granted, some of my less-well adjusted acquaintances might not know what style is if it smacked them over the head. Now, the kind of thing I'd wear to a gala instead of on the street is over here in the back."

---

10:55 AM
Eiganjo - Commerce District - In Front Of AccelTech HQ

Meanwhile, on the other side of the floating islands, the business men and women are already beginning to slowly filter out, grabbing lunch from one of the other islands. Maybe from one of the malls, maybe from one of the street food stands set out for the tourists. But as the current of people slowly becomes a steady flow, one person walks down the street and against that current.

When Rei Maruki walks down the street, it isn't with a clear conviction. Despite her suit being a noticeable blue, she's still fairly quiet, seemingly invisible. When she walks, she's pushed around a bit, and crouches her head down. But eventually, she sits down at a certain bench, and begins to scroll on her phone. As she does, nobody but the most observational workers notice how she keeps looking up from her phone once in a while, looking into the windows of a certain building. One with a logo with a tornado and multiple speed lines.

As she keeps on scrolling, some extra voices provide some running commentary. This time for once, it's somewhat helpful.

"There's some dust up there. Might want to keep yourself in Striker form in order to not get poisoned by paint fumes. We should have a stealth form toggle here on our side…"

">Check those rooms that are being constructed. Those might be new offices for some underpaid people that haven't moved in yet, you'll get a quick climb to the top."

"Wait a few more minutes, then go into the alley and wall climb. If you do it fast enough, the cameras might not pick it up as anything interesting."

5 minutes later…

A few more minutes pass, and as the business people keep on moving out for lunch, Rei gets up, silently walks through the crowds again, and looks up as she gets to the end of that crowd's tail. And as she looks up, she reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a small card.

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Magical Check DC 75/90/120]
[62+28+40(Secret Six Samurai)=130. Critical Success!]

In a single second, as the entire world is looking away, she flicks that card into a suddenly-appearing belt, and pops out of existence and teleports back into her destination. With a quick clap of her hands, Rei Maruki looks around and smiles underneath her mask.

"Alright, we're in, guys!" She whispers to herself and the friends in her head. "Now c'mon, let's make this quick— I wanna spend some time actually walking and talking with Akemi."

---

11:05 AM
Eiganjo Shopping District - Heartful Boutique

You are Kaneko Akemi, and hey! Aiko's… pretty cool. You're sort of entertained just by how she's just blazing through a bunch of outfits that you'd normally give up on just off of a glance of how many digits there are on their price tags. She's giving some genuinely good commentary as well.

"Hm, what do you think about that sweater? It seemed perfectly fine, no need to throw it on the ground."

Aiko hangs up the sweater that just fell down. "Eh, sorry about that. I'm a bit clumsy, you see. Slipped out of my hands. But it's fine. Besides, that sweater's made out of wool— really doesn't go that well with the jeans that you'd normally want to pair with that color."

After some deliberation, you've decided to essentially just window shop while Aiko actually considers paying those frankly absurd prices. Even though neither of you bother to look at each other, the conversation still flows fairly smoothly.

"So, are you interested in being a fashion designer? While I don't know that much about the design process itself, you seem like you'd be a good fit for it."

Aiko grunts in disagreement. "No, but I'm interested in being some sort of creative. I like graphic design, but me and my friends are also experimenting with digital art. I also know some writers, but I'm not doing that. All of them seem to basically torment themselves for a measly two or three thousand words per week at worst."

You can't help but roll your eyes at that. She's not wrong but that's a bit much. "Well, what else do you do with your friends? I doubt that you normally walk around these streets alone." you casually say.

She tilts her head, returning a shirt back to the racks. "Well, first you should still tell me about Rei a bit more. For someone who was supposed to be with you on a big reunion, she's awfully absent."

You bite your lip. Right, right, she's totally willing to call you out on your bullshit. But since you can't just say that you're here to investigate the generic shadiest company in the area, you come up with the fastest lie that's also closest to the truth. "Well, me and Rei have this tradition of going to some less well-known part of a new place and taking a picture. It's this thing we had going, where one of us takes a picture each time and we swap each vacation."

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Social Check: DC 40/75/100]
[62+20+18 (EP)=100. Critical Success!]

Which, technically true if you leave out the fact that those pictures were usually of places that you'd have someone else blow up/carry out a hit in. Aiko seems to accept what you said pretty easily. "Ok, that's pretty cool. It's nice to have traditions and other things to share with your friends. My current group of friends… we don't really have anything like that, not yet."

You raise an eyebrow at that. "Met them recently? Or was there some sort of break from your old friend group?"

"No, nothing like that! I just met them more recently on the mainland. They're really honest and closer to me than others. I actually think you'd like to meet Tsurugi in particular."

You're a bit curious about that person that Aiko just mentioned, but you ignore to focus on what she said earlier. "Well, what do you all do together? You can't just be high schoolers that just sit there together awkwardly."

"Ah, we're all magical gir—"

Aiko audibly puts a hand over her mouth. Purrson pops his head out of your purse, and if your eyebrows could fly straight off of your head they would. You're not deaf, but you have a feeling that Aiko really wishes you were right now.

"…magical gardeners." Aiko murmurs. "We're uh, part of a club experimenting on how Fire, Water, and Wood Glyph-aligned spells can affect plant growth."

There's some awkward silence in the air, and Aiko slowly turns her head to look at you. Something shines in her nervous eyes, but you can't tell what it is. Purrson lowers his head back into your purse, and you just sigh. Thankfully, no one else around seems to have heard that slip.

You stand up to meet her, and try to keep yourself as nonchalant as possible. "Listen, I'm not gonna ask. If you've got something in your life that's too private or important, keep it to yourself. You've got your things, I've got mine. I'm not your big sister or anything. And besides..."

You take your hand out of your pocket, and summon Voidcutter to your hand. In what takes a split second, you flick it partially unsheathed with your thumb, before making it disappear again. "We've all got our little adventures and tiny secrets. Let's not worry too much about all those for now. This is supposed to be a fun trip after all."

Aiko's mouth drops open, but she regains her composure admirably quickly before turning back to the clothes. "Ok, didn't know she had that kind of aura. Alright, point taken. Now, do you have any opinions on this piece?"

"Well, it would probably go well as the top half to some sort of lighter suit…"

---

11:06 AM
AccelTech HQ - Unbuilt Offices

Rei wastes no time in immediately beginning to search through the dusty offices, which are ones that are still being renovated. The neon lights of her ninja-esque Rider suit dim down into nothing, leaving her as a dark shadow clinging to the walls. The few construction workers eating their sandwiches and scrolling on their palm-sized phones don't even notice her as she jumps from cubicle to cubicle, barely making a sound.

Of course, in contrast to the silent poise of her body, her internal monologue underneath her suit's speakers is… a bit more ungraceful.

The voice called Fuma speaks first. "This place is awfully dusty. Do you really think that you'll find anything of use here?"

Rei just rolls her eyes. "Of course I will. I've been on one or two missions to environments like this, and corporate people doing any new construction always prioritize…"

Her eyes scan the area for a bit, before focusing in on a door at the end of the room. "Fixing up the executives offices first. And thankfully for this operation, that's where we might be able to find something."

With a deft leap, she goes from one end of the room to the other in an instant, before walking up to and entering a freshly furnished office. They didn't install any locks yet, after all. Closing the door behind her, she sits down and quickly jams a flash drive into the computer. As the drive does its work, she whips out her phone from her powers' inventory (how does that work? She needs to experiment with it someday) and taps a contact. Thankfully, the ringer's on silent and the brightness is low, so nobody notices anything as she quickly types in a message.

After a few dozen seconds, someone picks up and sends her a text.

Jun
>Ok, I've gotten a copy of the data. Himari's here on my end, she should be able to decode some of the documents kept in the local system. Sending a copy back to you, give it a second.

Himari's technopathic powers must work wonders, because Rei gets a document sent to her phones (yes, including the burners) in what seems like an instant. Rei takes the drive, walks out of the office, and goes back to crouching in the shadows, practically invisible to all but the most observant. Who the construction workers… aren't. The document is heavily encoded, but it seems like Himari got all of the relevant pages. She's gotta thank her later.

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Mental Check; DC 50/75/120]
[79+30+10(Secret Six Samurai)+1(EP)=120. Incredible Success!]

Rei taps her helmeted head, silently asking for some help. All at once, the three samurai-ninjas begin to offer their advice:

"It's some sort of code thing where they add a few extra kanji in some sentences, skip the last sentence of each paragraph…" -Hatsume

"Try reading it upside down? No, zoom in…" -Kizaru

"Turn down that screen thing's brightness." -Fuma

Underneath her helmet, Rei's eyes slowly widen as she takes in the information.

"Shit, that's bad…" she whispers to herself. "Project V-D 0.1, cybernetic augments? Don't those make people crazy? Something something… new type of Glyphs. That must be the Void, weirdly not too surprising."

Along with the Void is some mention of Umbra, but it's detached. Exceedingly so, the only thing that identifies them is a generic-looking skull logo. Otherwise, they're referred to as "Partner B", which is a frustratingly vague corporate jargon. It's just research sharing on the basics of the Void (powered better by specifically negative memories/Runes?) in exchange for one or two money infusions per month.

Rei keeps on scrolling down, before she sees something that makes her stop. As she checks that specific page, she stops, screenshots it, sends it to Jun and Himari two times each, and immediately jumps behind another wall for another hiding spot. Shit. Rei puts a hand to her head, and takes a deep breath to calm herself down. Of course it's more complicated than it seems. There's a meeting between AccelTech executives and Umbra in a week or two, nothing too surprising. What's really surprising is the third party that will also be present there. One detailed on the contract on the next page, complete with some familiar images/logos.

CONTRACT WITH PARTNER C, THE INTERNATIONAL ASSASSIN'S GUILD

1. A floor-wide base to store computers storing up to 100 TB of info and station hackers will be given to Partner C, along with a to be determined sum of yen monthly.
2. In exchange, the patriarch of the Rensoku Corporation/Family, Azami Rensoku, will be silently killed at the annual Eiganjo gala by the end of this month by EXCHANGED MEMBER. If any members of his family such as Aiko Rensoku witness the event they are also acceptable collateral.
3. EXCHANGED MEMBER will also participate in the "Corporate Raider" program as a test subject for Project V.D.
4. The exchanged member will be a up and coming employee from their side named Hanzo Suzuki.

SIGNED, (illegible, Rei couldn't translate this part), CEO of AccelTech Corporation.

Rei takes a deep breath, and prepares to get out of the office as quickly as possible. No, no, no! If the Guild is here in Eiganjo, there's not a single building on the islands that's safe. She has to warn Akemi, right now—

But as she turns the corner, she immediately gets behind the wall again. A man is coming down the hall, with slicked back, spiky hair. It's the man who was talking to Akemi earlier in the teleporter. Her eyes widen, as she remembers one of the pictures attached to the document.

Suzuki Hanzo walks down the hall, talking on his phone, thankfully oblivious to Rei's presence. But what he says chills Rei to the bone even more than she thought she could be.

"Yeah? Yeah boss, I've got my room up here. I'm busy planning that accidental death. I'm willing to get them to haggle for slow-acting poison, but listen boss, I need to tell you something."

He leans in, and Rei's heart seems to stop for a second. "I found the loose end that's been bugging you all these years. Kaneko Akemi, right? If what you told me is correct, she's probably around the girl that got rid of my little s— Himari, right?"

The person on the other end of the line says something, and Hanzo grits his teeth. "I don't want any of your vagueness! Do you think that she's partnered with that little bitch or not?"

Something else gets said, and then Hanzo exhales. "Fine, fine, I'll argue for something more and then I'll hear the info. But you better promise that I'll be able to get more info on those two, alright?"

With that, Hanzo hangs up, and chucks the phone across the room. It clocks a poor part-time construction worker who was walking out of his shift directly in the head, and Hanzo doesn't even bother to look at the bleeding guy as he walks into a room. Specifically, one of the offices next to the one Rei was in. As he does, Rei immediately pulls out her phone, this time not caring for stealth.

"Crapcrapcrap, gotta call her, we've gotta move. Akemi. Akemi? Shit, Akemi, pick up already…"

The phone hangs up, and Rei receives a notification. It's Akemi's location and three letters. SOS.

It takes Rei roughly four seconds to turn around, teleport back out of the offices, detransform, and start running.

---

Author's Note:
Writer's block hit hard with this one. I kinda gave up on researching fashion for this chapter. You could prob tell. The rewrite for the prologue is also progressing really slowly. I want to die inside when I read my summer writing.

That laser security system I hinted at earlier in one of my snippet of the outline posts was avoided when you hit that high threshold to go into the in-progress joint Guild/AccelTech offices. As for the rest, if you had failed one or two rolls on Rei's end, there would have been a chance of alerting Hanzo, which… would have been bad.

Anyways, feel free to speculate about everything else in this chapter. Happy reading, heroes.

 

[Kermie]

11:07 AM
A few minutes before Akemi's call to Rei
Eiganjo Shopping District - Heartful Boutique

You are Kaneko Akemi. You haven't heard anything from Rei, which probably means that she's doing her part of the mission just fine. As for what you're doing on this mission, you're getting an in with a member of the populace you're trying to infiltrate…

And also looking at dresses and making a new friend. Look, the only people that you've been interacting with for the past two weeks were a cat, a hacker who's mostly always at work, and a former assassin like you. You need this.

You're waiting for Aiko, who's inside the dressing room. Purrson sits at your side, just out of sight of any of the employees walking around. He's gently nibbling on a chocolate bar— where did he find that?

"So, what do you think about Aiko now?" he asks, still nibbling on that chocolate. You'd probably ask for a bite as well, but you still have no idea if his level of cleanliness can be compared to an actual cat or not. It's probably better to be safe then sorry.

As for the pointed question, you mull it over in your head. You still hate rich people with a passion, but it's pretty clear that Aiko isn't one of those billion dollar babies who never gets told "no". Actually, she reminds you more of an upper middle class person. Maybe both of her parents are doctors and lawyers and one of them's on temporary assignment up here.

Well now that you think about it, you're friends with a surprising amount of rich people. Jun's got a comfy condo and is a noticeable asset of the underworld, while both Himari and Kirata belong to some big business family if what Rei told you was true. Weird.

Aiko pops out of the dressing room, dressed in a modest pink dress. "Hey, I need your opinion on this. How do I look?"

"Eh, pink isn't a good color for you," you respond, "I think green or blue would look better on you?"

Aiko sighs, dives into the dressing room again, and returns with her normal outfit on after a few seconds. "Blue looks good on everybody though. Same with black. I'd go with yellow, but I wear that way too much."

You really want to ask what that last comment means, but you're going to respect the silent agreement between both of you to not bring up magical girl business. Instead, you just lean against the wall. 'Well, I can't really magically whip up a new color for you to look fabulous in, so this is probably where my fashion advice for you is going to end. Though to be honest…"

"What?" Aiko asks.

"You're definitely more creative than I am, and way more of a fashionista." you reply "Why'd you bring me along as someone to give advice on your fashion binge? You can do that yourself just fine."

Aiko blushes, before shaking her head. "No— it's not like that! I just thought that you'd like looking in a place like this, I just didn't…"

She sucks a breath in between her teeth, and averts her eyes from yours. "...Uh, I didn't remember how expensive the prices were up here. I thought you'd at least be able to get, like, a pair of earrings."

You look over at one of the racks. Yeah, a pair of earrings might work if you sell only one of your kidneys. You turn your attention back to Aiko and shrug. You reach out to shake her hand when—

POW!!!

Something explodes in the distance, outside of the shop you're currently in. Shit. Purrson leaps out of your purse. "Akemi! I think that was the Void—"

You don't even stop to consider any other options. You rush out of the building, with Aiko right behind you. She looks like she's screaming with her eyes and she runs behind you, but she doesn't seem like she's running away,

As you walk outside, there seem to be… goblins? Yeah, goblins with construction worker outfits. Something something Void Glyph on the wall, scared people running away… yeah you've seen enough. More Shades, more targets to kill. Easy enough.

You look towards Aiko, as Purrson jumps onto your shoulder. "Hey. You're a magical girl, right? You seem like you'll be able to help me. I know you can."

Spoiler: Mechanics

[Social Check; DC 40/100]
[59+20+10(A Fellow Connoisseur Of Fashion)+15(Magical, in the way that matters)=100. Success!]

Aiko blinks in surprise, before nodding and pulling her hand out from behind her back. A shiny ring on her middle finger gleams brightly. She begins to speak something, and you can't help but follow along.

"Noble Coronation!"

"Voidlight Consume!"

While Aiko begins to strike a pose as her ring shines, you immediately start wading into the horde of goblins and duck one's swing and decapitate another with Voidcutter as your outfit manifests. As you sense another creeping up behind you, you duck. Just in time for a beam of radiant light to shoot through the crowd and turn it into dust.

You get back up, looking back while blocking some poor goblin's pipe club. Aiko wades through the pooling purple blood, dressed head to toe in a white and amber-yellow dress, decorated with a mixture of frills and jewels. Atop her head is a similar frilly headpiece, though you can't quite figure out if it reminds you of one of those stereotypical maid headpieces or a tiara before she ducks a goblin attempting to tackle her: When she looks at you, you can't help but notice how her eyes seem to shimmer like jewels. "So, you're also a Magical Girl. Good to have confirmation on that."

You turn your attention back to the fight, breaking the clash and letting the goblin's pipe hit the floor, before you decapitate it with one clean slash. Purrson floats through the floor, clawing one of them in the face before floating back to your shoulder. You address Aiko again, though this time without looking at her. "It's a bit complicated, but yeah. Me, Rei, and Purrson over here have our own business with the Void. I assume you do too. That makes our goals the same for now."

You stab the goblin through the guts, with it disappearing into a haze of black mist. With inhuman perfection, you seem to dance more than you run through the horde, letting them collapse onto each other as they fail to tackle you, before you dash to the left towards Aiko.

And as you jump over Aiko to clobber one of them with the butt of your sword, Aiko ducks and dashes below you to cover one of your blind spots. She grabs a goblin's face with one of her hands, and it turns into petrified stone before she shoves it and it shatters on the floor.

You kick off the dissipating Shade, landing with your back to Aiko's. Up close like this, it's honestly like night and day between you two. Is this what magical girls are supposed to look like? Bright, shining and warm? Because if so, then you might have to consider renaming whatever you are. And also, you can sense that while Aiko might not be as drenched in blood as you are… this isn't her first fight. Not even close.

"Hey, rich girl. Don't slow me down."

"I could say the same about you, crazy lady!" She smirks, but there's no smugness behind it. "I'll let you take charge though. Tell me what to do and I'll listen."

You nod, slicing away at another goblin Shade as Aiko blasts another away with a quick kick. You nudge Purrson off of your shoulder, taking your phone out from under your kimono and passing it to him. While you don't trust yourself around most tech, it only has 3 contacts pre-saved on it and nothing else so you're somewhat sure that it won't break. "Alright. Aiko, follow my lead! Purrson, get away from here and contact Rei! Go quick, and don't break that phone or Himari's gonna kill me."

"I don't have opposable thumbs though?!"

"Use your tail! Figure it out! Aiko, cover my blind spots!"

"Alright, just watch out and don't hit me with that crazy sword!"

With that, you sheathe your sword, and with Aiko right behind you, charge headfirst into the horde of Shades.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Akemi gains +2 to her Social!

---

Author's Note:
This. Fucking. Chapter. If I even started on how many things seemed to be consistently preventing me from getting into the right headspace to write it, we'd be here until the next New Year's. Shoutout to Tyler The Creator, Ado, and a variety of Japanese city pop artists for being on my writing playlist that allowed me to barely tolerate writing this. I kinda want to get a quest with a short, daily update schedule up one day, but that just doesn't really seem to work with this quest.

Next chapter story's done. Gimme a minute to post it.

 

[Kermie]

Jun's House
Sunday, 10:00 AM

You are Rei Maruki. With a deep breath, you get up from the couch. Where were you… ah, right! You, Akemi, and Aiko (side note, you should get her and her family under some protection for that gala. Ah, future Rei's problem.) all fought those goblin Shades, and then both you and Akemi passed out, too many pipes to the head. After that…

Hey, look up!

You rub your eyes open. Jun and Himari are both looking over at you, over their shoulders. They're both typing in on their laptops, without a single care in the world.

"Morning, princess! Took me a while, but I managed to get you all out of there on Jun's recommendation. Apparently, my brother was hanging around up there. I got his contact, and I've been doing my best to explain the situation. He's only threatened murder once! We've got Jun vouching for us and also Kirata and her coworkers, so we should be able to get the Guild off our ass with enough money." Himari explains, typing something down into her laptop. When you look over her shoulder, it looks like she's typing something into her group chat. Looks like she just sent some prank malware to Kirata and her "siblings". Checks out.

>She'll go far. I just know she will.

Jun opens the curtains, letting the sunlight in. It's a beautiful winter morning. "I'm just glad you're safe, Rei. Akemi's not up yet though, but…" Jun trails off, as Akemi walks out of her bedroom, messy bed hair and all. She looks nice when she's not so overdressed.

…do you wanna examine those feelings?

Maybe, when there's time to relax.

[GOOD ENOUGH]

Akemi yawns. "Hey there, Rei. Hey there, Jun, Himari. Any counter-Umbra or anti-Guild things scheduled for today, or…"

Jun shakes his head. "Looks like you guys teleporting into their partner's offices scared them a bit. I haven't heard Umbra's name for the past 24 hours. They're going dark for a good while. Everybody, wanna take a break?"

"Protecting our personal safety never takes a break—" Akemi starts, before you and everybody else, including Purrson, meaningfully look at her, "…but I suppose that we all need some resting time every once in a while."

Himari raises her hand. "I've got some anime recommendations! Heck's Paradise and Bachikagura are getting some new content."

"Don't talk so loudly, I still wanna enjoy my chocolate!" Purrson exclaims, sitting up from his cat bed.

Aye, a creature of good taste.

You smile. "Alright, alright! I think I can schedule my shift today for the graveyard shift, so what're we going to talk about today?"

And as all four of you chat the day away, the world keeps on turning.

---

Over on the other side of Tokyo, three Archmages and one old Kamen Rider raise a glass to another successful week of surviving. A few miles to the south, a psychic brother and sister duo pour a glass of their own. Business in the Sunshine Bar is booming as always.

Up in the clouds, a rich heiress calls up her friends. Even if she only knew a certain swordswoman for one day, it was still another unreplicatable experience to treasure. Down in the sea, one Kamen Rider with a few of his own spirit friends finally finishes his thesis and gets a long-deserved break.

And all the way down in Tokyo, two lost people come to an agreement. They toss their bugged phones off a skyscraper, and if Umbra wants to find them to take them back, they'll have to try to get past their partner to even try.

"Hey there man. You still looking forward to killing that girl?"

"Yeah, but I've got bigger problems. Maybe someday way down the line, but for now I want a comfy life away from Umbra. No more Void crap, I just wanna get some funerals done. Also, I gotta keep you from trying to put all the magical girls outta commission."

"Heh. We'll keep each other in check then, Dokuro."

"Call me Arashi— oh, and same here, Michiko."

Somewhere in the streets, Rei Maruki walks out of her job, a month's worth of danger, insanity, and if she had to be honest? Fun, all coming to an end. Walking beside her is a man in a red coat, and brown hair. Maybe they've seen each other. Maybe they haven't.

But in the end, they've both got loved ones to go back home to. So they walk right on, right past each other.

In the end, the earth keeps on spinning on, heroes, villains, and Void alike.

The End
(…for now?)​

---

Author's Note:
Explanation as to why this story ended so early here.

Thank you all for enjoying Perhaps For Love, Or Maybe Justice. It was truly a fun experience for me and hopefully you.