You tilt your head slightly, contemplating what you'd learned. You're still not really sure what to make of it, though you
do have a vague, if unrelated idea. Hm.
Enchantment... well, what you do with Grief is you impose your will, you impose
order. And that simply doesn't seem to work with magic. What if it's more like
Wishing? Ask and ye shall receive and all. Maybe it's to be guided, and not grabbed by the stranglehold of your will and forced into a rigid structure.
It would kind of make sense, given how there's no perceptible rhyme nor reason to the enchantment laid by Mami. It's worth a shot. You turn your attention back to the rock, pursing your lips and let magic simply
seep into it. You don't control it, you don't try to force it into any structure.
Reinforcement. You try and
push the impression at the magic diffusing from your hands. If you had to use an analogy, it's... a cloud of gas, sort of, moving kind of aimlessly. You try and... prod it towards the rock, but to no real avail - bereft of direction, it acts exactly like said cloud of gass and diffuses.
It doesn't even try to clump together like Grief that leaves your range, it just thins out into the environment.
No luck there, then. Hm. At least the rock isn't shattered into little chunks. With perfect comedic timing, a sharp crack fills the room - Oriko's first rock, splintered into tiny shards. The seer winces, but dusts her hands off and picks up a new one.
You know what, you'll take a quick break and check on Masami and Hiroko. Hopefully they haven't murdered Ono in the, uh, six or seven hours since you'd last seen them.
Hmm. Only six hours. It feels longer.
"
Hello? Masami, Hiroko?" you reach out telepathically, leaning back in the sofa for a moment. Mami spares a moment to look up from the rock you'd enchanted and smile at you, giving you a pat on the shoulder. You smile back at her.
"
You weren't kidding about her attitude," Masami grumbles right back.
... promising.
"
Hello, Sabrina," Hiroko chimes in.
"
Sooooo how many Christmas baskets do I owe you?" you ask cautiously, rolling the river stone around your palm.
"
All the Christmas baskets," Masami grunts. "
Hold on."
"
She's making her do laps," Hiroko confides in you, mental voice conspiratorial.
"
... laps?" you ask.
"
Ah, yes. Running laps?" Hiroko says.
That doesn't actually clarify much. "
Go on?"
"
Well," Hiroko says. "
It's what Masami did for me? It helps to train discipline and, ah, an appreciation for physical stuff."
"
But we're meguca," you say blankly.
"
Meguca?" Hiroko asks.
"
Uh, slang word for magical girls. From English, 'magical girl
', meguca," you explain. "
But anyway, we're magical girls? A bit of running shouldn't do much?"
"
Ah!" Hiroko says, apparently understanding. "
Yes, you're right, we know it shouldn't, but Miss Ono doesn't."
"
Oh," you say. "
Ohhhhh."
"
Exactly," Masami says, rejoining the conversation. And if there's a certain amount of vindictive glee in her voice, well, who are you to comment. "
It's what I did for Hiroko!"
"
... try not to drive her too hard?" you offer. "
I mean, she was sort of upset when I first met her."
"
Ah," Masami says. "
Yes, we know."
"
I suggested that we could keep an eye on her for a day or two," Hiroko says. "
We do
have the time."
"
Uh... huh," you say. "
Well, OK then. Good luck, and see you around?"
"
See you," Hiroko agrees.
"
Yeah, bye-bye," Masami says.
You exhale. That's going well. You think.
You hope.
You return your attention to the rock, humming quietly under your breath. That idea you had wasn't it. Then again, such is science. You create a hypothesis and you test it, and discard it if necessary. "... We do what we must because we can~"
"For the good of all of us~" Your head snaps up. Mami beams at you.
"Except the ones who are dead~" You grin right back at her.
"But there's no sense crying over every mistake-" Her English is really
quite good, only a bit of rounding on some syllables.
"You just keep on trying 'til you run out of cake-"
"And the science gets done and you make a neat gun-"
"For the people who are still alive~" The both of you finish together, grinning at each other.
Oriko and Kirika are both giving you looks of polite incomprehension.
You giggle. And that sets
Mami off, covering her mouth to muffle her giggling. You quirk your eyebrows at her, and she nods, wiping the smirk off her face and returning to work. You, too, return your attention to the rock in your hands, flipping it slowly from side to side.
Out of the corner of your eye, you see Oriko and Kirika exchange a very confused look before returning to their
own tasks.
Hmm. You still think that there might be something to be made of that odd...
sensation you get from magic. You try to mould a little magic, letting a gentle silver glow build up on your fingertips and trying to roll it around.
Controlling Grief comes naturally to you. It's like an extension of your
self, really, hands and arms and legs as needed. You will it, and it is done. And yet magic
isn't like that. Control,
proper control, feels like it's out of your reach, and all you can do is a few rote actions that you instinctively know how to - healing, summoning your hammer, and so on.
Hm.
You watch as Mami sets aside the rock you'd enchanted with pain removal, a distant, thoughtful expression on her face. Instead, she reaches for the antimagic rock, hefting it in her hand. The thoughtful look instantly dissolves into confusion, and she blinks down at the rock.
"Is something wrong, Mami?" you ask.
"... no," she says. "Not... exactly. Miss Kure, this is... antimagic, correct?"
Kirika looks up. "Hm? Yep, it is!" Oriko's head snaps up, too, eyes unfocusing as she frowns in the general direction of the wall.
"I... can't do anything with this," Mami admits, looking sheepish. "It nullifies my magic."
"Oh," Kirika says, giving Oriko a concerned look. "Uh... that makes sense? Um... Oriko?"
"Mm," you agree. "That's annoying. Oriko?"
"
What is, Sabrina?"
You spot the red eyes first, almost glowing against the soft white fur. Kyuubey perches at the window of the living room, lit by the lamps against the encroaching blackness of light outside. At your side, Mami makes a faintly distressed sound, and you wrap an arm around her waist, squeezing lightly.
[] Write-in
=====
Did you forget about it?