"We Don't Go To Asunaro..." pt. 4
You sit back and let Kyouko and Yuma eat. You're not... you're in a rush, but not that much of a rush that you can't let them have a bit of time. In the meantime, you frown, considering your cloud storage solution.
Kyouko compared it to a fart. Even if Yuma hadn't noticed it herself, it's not exactly the most flattering comparison you could have gotten. Vague and hard to place, but pervasive and present. And you imagine most veteran magical girls would be able to pick up on that, and probably react in the same way.
Not exactly the best first impression you could make, if Kyouko didn't just choose her words to annoy you. Which, to be fair, she might have.
Still, you have a bit of time right now, so you pull your utility Grief fog back into spheres for the most part. You leave some hanging in the air, spaced out far enough to act as tripwires against Kyuubey or other teleporters. Or even stealth powers - hard to avoid particles smaller than air molecules. The rest you condense back into spheres, and a bit of focus has the dark, mottled purple scabbing over with nanoscopic scales shading light to blue.
"Sabrina, aren't you eating?" Yuma asks, blinking big, soulful eyes at you.
"Nah, I ate already," you say, smiling at her. Absently, you double-check their Soul Gems, and their Grief Seeds. The latter of which they have none of.
Interestingly, you can also sense the glowing fire of an enchantment hanging on the door. Probably something Kyouko put up to avoid the cleaners coming in and asking awkward questions.
"So..." you say carefully. "Can I cleanse your Soul Gems? How are you girls doing for Grief Seeds?"
Kyouko snorts, stuffing more bacon into her mouth. Something annoyed sparks in her eyes, and she bites off the next mouthful with perhaps more force than necessary.
"Whaddya think?" she snaps.
"Sparse hunting?" you say, and sigh. "OK. I'll cut the speeches this time, because I'm actually on a schedule this morning. Kyouko, Yuma, I know Witches are scarce in Kasamino."
"Gee, thanks," Kyouko mutters. "I'd never have noticed."
"Yeah, well... look. I'm gonna emphasize that I'm not the final word on this, but I'm going to offer to let you hunt in Mitakihara. Maybe around the old industrial district or so," you say. Conveniently, not too far from the Sakura church, either. You hold up your hand. "There are too many Witches in Mitakihara right now."
Kyouko's fork hits the table hard enough to make Yuma jump - it'd be a slam if the fork had been made of anything but plastic. "Fuck you, we don't need charity."
"I'm not doing charity here," you say, unmoved. You meet her angry red gaze calmly. "Listen. Walpurgisnacht is coming. The Queen of Witches. I'm pretty sure that Witches are actually moving to Mitakihara because of that."
It might even be true. You've never confirmed it, but there are so many factors that it remains a viable hypothesis. More importantly, you don't want to bring up the fact that Witches come from magical girls, and Kyouko chasing magical girls from her territory means that there are no new Witches.
"Yeah?" Kyouko snorts. "Well, I'm not taking that bait."
"It's not bait," you say, rolling your eyes. "I mean it. We seriously do have more Witches than we can hunt right now, and they're hurting people."
Kyouko scowls, returning to her breakfast. She stabs at a sausage with more force than is strictly required.
You sigh. Prickly, tsundere redheads.
"Can I cleanse your Soul Gems?" you ask again. This time, Yuma makes a timid noise and offers up her Gem to you, balanced on the cupped palms of her hands. Kyouko's eyes linger on that and soften, and she looks away before producing her own Gem.
You cleanse them both, just to be sure. Neither of them are really swimming in Grief, but neither of them were absolutely clean, either.
"Alright," you say. "I suppose you don't want the hunting, but the offer remains. I'd have a condition for you, mind - I want all the Familiars exterminated, if you hunt in Mitakihara. And as I said, I'd have to confirm it."
"You can say her name," Kyouko snaps.
"Yes, I'd have to confirm it with Mami," you say. "And with Homura, probably. That said, fine. If you don't want to, then again, I'm going to ask if you want a Clear Seed? I've given out a fair few of them for testing, as it is. No ill effects so far."
"It's been what, a few days?" Kyouko snorts. "No thanks."
Madokami save you from stubborn, prideful meguca. She has a point just this once, you suppose, but still. She just has to make it hard for you to help.
"Fine," you grunt. "Then I'm gonna ask you to hang on to your Grief Seeds after you use them. I come by here every other day or so, and I can refresh your Grief Seeds. Is that fine with you? I mean, waste not, want not. You can keep recycling your Grief Seeds rather than wasting them."
Yuma's eye dart to Kyouko, silently begging. The redhead sighs, raking her hands through her voluminous ponytail. "Fine. Don't give Grief Seeds to Kyuubey, hang on to them, got it. Aren't you going to pay me for training your girl Sayaka?"
"Well, I was intending to make the hunting partial payment," you say, folding your arms and leaning back. "But if you don't want that...?"
"Nope," Kyouko says, popping the syllable.
"Well. She's got school, so I figure the evenings, maybe," you say. "Hold up, mind if I pull her in with telepathy?"
Kyouko waves a dismissive hand at you, returning to her breakfast.
"Hey Sayaka, you got a moment?" you say, reaching out mentally for your blue-haired friend. "Sorry about the time, but I'm talking to Kyouko right now to arrange a schedule for your training."
"Uhh... sure," Sayaka says, sounding a little distracted.
"Cool," you say, and extend the telepathy to include Kyouko. "Right, so now that we're all here, when would be good for everyone?"
"I'm free every day," Kyouko drawls. "Not like I got anythin' to hold me up."
"Uh, I've got class?" Sayaka says.
You purse your lips in consideration - Sayaka sounds busy, which means you should probably rush this along a bit for her sake.
"How about every other evening?" you say. "Monday, Saturday, Friday? Do you have evening plans, Sayaka?"
"Um, going to the hospital," Sayaka says. "How long will we be training?"
"You need to be home for dinner, right?" you say. "Do you have club activities?"
"Nah," Sayaka says.
"So, after you finish school to around dinner time?" you say. "And we'll try Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings for now?"
"Sure," Sayaka mutters distractedly.
Faded red eyes regard you warily for a second before Kyouko responds. "Sure, I'm good with that," she drawls. "After Sabrina here settles payment."
"Right. I'll work it out with her and let you know, Sayaka," you say. "And I'll let you get back to class."
"Mhm," the bleunette agrees, and you end the call.
"Shoulda settled that before y' came here, eh?" Kyouko says.
"Probably," you agree. "I'm good at short term and long term plans. Middle term... well, I tend to forget what I was doing. Like I asked Sayaka for a raincheck on a talk, but I've kind of forgotten what I wanted to talk to her about."
You shrug as Kyouko gives you an unamused look.
"Anyway. Pay. Yes?" you say.
"Yep," Kyouko says, setting down her fork and leaning back in her chair. She grins challengingly as you, fang poking out. "Impress me."
You do a bit of quick mental math, tallying how much money you'd stolen from the Yakuza. The good thing about cash is that it's fairly compact, so you have quite a bit. Not quite infinite, but more than enough. You want to keep a reserve of actual cash for your own expenses, but you're more than willing to pay her in gold, if... well, that's a good point.
"Question," you say, raising a finger. "Do you know how or where to fence gold bullion?"
Kyouko tilts her head to the side. "I might know a guy, yeah," she allows, eyes narrowing. "Why?"
"Six thousand yen and twenty grams of gold per hour," you say. "I'll cover any Grief costs you expend over the time, too. And cleanse Yuma, of course."
"Fuck off," Kyouko says, eyes going wide.
"Eh, it's about the same pay scale that a highly skilled consultant would get," you say. "I think. I'm not hundred percent up to date on payscales. Either way, you qualify, so..."
Kyouko scowls at you. "I get the Grief cleaning anyway," she says with a challenging tilt of her head. "Sweeten the deal."
"Cut me some slack, Kyouko," you say. "Seven thousand plus the gold and the cleansing and don't forget that I'm refreshing your Grief Seeds too. If you want me to have a Grief Seed for you every session, I can't promise that because hello, like I said, busy. I can make the offer for hunting again, though."
Kyouko rolls her eyes. "Too fucking nice," she mutters. "Fine, I'll take the gold and the cash."
"Cool," you say. You start to get up before sitting back down again, a thought occurring to you. "So actually, I have one more thing to offer - are you interested in an introduction to a magical girl who does hacking? She can do bank and government records."
"Yeah?" Kyouko says, eyes narrowing.
"You're not dumb," you say, meeting her gaze squarely. You continue in telepathy. "Your family's church. Yuma's mother is still her legal guardian, I'm betting. Things need fixing."
"Fine." For once, Kyouko looks away.
"Mmm," you agree. "It opens up doors. Do you want to be put in contact? I'll cover payment for her."
Her lips flatten out, pensive and thoughtful. "I need to think about it."
"Alright," you say, checking your phone for the time. "I need to head off now, but keep it in mind."
And you have something you have to check up on, too. The Sakura Church was scheduled to be demolished by the Nakano corporation. And it just so happens that you recently met one Nakano Mika.
It might be coincidence, of course - Nakano's a common enough surname, but it'd take you just a few minutes to chase up on that by telepathy. The next time you see Kyouko would be this evening for training, and if there's anything, you can let her know.
Kyouko blows out an explosive breath, looking at the pile of scrambled eggs on her plate. She shovels it into her mouth in one go, barely chewing before swallowing and hopping to her feet. Yuma follows suit, looking nervously at her adopted big sister.
The redhead scowls at you. "So... later today, right?"
"Yep," you agree. "I'll work out a meeting spot and let you know."
"You do that," Kyouko drawls.
"Right. See you!" you say, heading over to the window, already collecting Grief to build a flight platform. You wave a goodbye to Yuma, who beams at you as you soar off - up, up, and away.
You take the time to shape your Grief platform as you rise above the glittering city. You might as well eke every bit of efficiency you can out of this, and reduce the sonic boom from your passage. To that end, you shape a pointed nose cone out of the platform, layering the entire structure in the radar-retardant, sky-blue camouflage scales. A few minutes' of focus turns the front transparent, so you can see ahead of you.
You'll need to dismiss that when you actually get to Asunaro, of course, but you wouldn't be making the final transit at speed, anyway.
You exhale, sitting cross legged in your hopefully-supersonic Mobile Oppression Fortress. You glance behind you as you leave the northern edge of Kasamino behind you, suburban sprawl fading into patchwork quilts of farmland, and you push.
The acceleration is brutal, like a giant wound up and slugged you with a giant-sized pillow.
You peel yourself off the back of your flying platform, lying down on the floor so that you can watch the ground roll by. You leave Kasamino and Mitakihara behind, glittering steel skyscrapers fading into grey blurs on the horizon.
Off to Asunaro. You can't help the touch of dread that pools in your stomach. A strange place it is, really, one that trips all your paranoia. But there are so many shiny things, and most important of all, Mami's friend.
Not to say that the other things that might come out of it aren't important. The science, for one. Like de-Witching, the anti-Kyuubey Barrier, fake Incubators...
You can't help your mind drifting back to Kyuubey, either. You consider it for a second, considering how it was able to observe your nanoscale constructions in apparently enough detail to give advice. Possibly it has some remarkably advanced sensor apparatus in its body.
Huh.
It occurs to you that those golden hoops on Kyuubey's ears vanish when the body is destroyed. Which perhaps suggests that those hoops are actually important. Maybe they're the sensor arrays, or some kind of remote antenna or something - but they do seem to conveniently disappear.
There's a thought. You put it aside for now, though. You haven't really planned for anything during the trip, but you can take a few minutes to check in with Nakano Mika.
"Hello, Miss Mika?" you reach out by telepathy.
"Hello! Miss Sabrina, right?" the girl's cheerful voice responds moments later.
You breathe out a sigh of relief - you're glad you didn't interrupt her in the middle of something. You seem to have a bad habit of doing that.
"Yup," you confirm. "Just checking in, is the Clear Seed working out for you? Have you tested it yet? And, uh, I have a more personal question, too."
"Oh, yeah! It works exactly as advertised," Mika responds. "Well, I haven't tested it for hundreds of years yet, but it works so far! And I've put it away nice and safe."
"Ah, good," you say, smiling despite yourself. Irrepressibly cheerful, she is.
"What was your other question?" Mika asks.
"Uh, so if you don't mind my asking - are you related to the Nakano Corporation?" you ask.
"Oh, yeah. My grandfather owns it," she says. "Why?"
"Hm..." you say. "Is it alright if I don't answer that right away? It's nothing bad, per se, I just need to think about a course of action."
"Oh, pssht, don't worry 'bout upsetting me," Mika says. "You've got to actually work to do that."
"... right," you say, raising an eyebrow at the indifferent landscape rolling past. A split second later, you're deprived even of that simple pleasure as you hit a cloud bank. "Still, by that token, do you mind if I don't say?"
"Oh, sure," Mika says. "But now I'm gonna be curious about it."
She manages to pout at you by telepathy. Somehow.
"I'll get back to you on it," you decide. "Sorry, I really do need to think it over a bit. Thanks for answering, though!"
"No problem. Thanks for the Clear Seed!" she says, and ends the call.
You hum quietly to yourself, thinking it over. OK, so that's a lever you can work in. Maybe you should present the choice to Kyouko, though really, if Kyouko chooses to work with Yuuki, knowing Mika and indirectly hurting her family company sits a little ill with you.
Hm.
Thoughts for later.
You gaze out of the window. Ahead of you lies farmland and villages and towns, and looming ahead are the mountain ranges that form the spine of Japan.
Winter it isn't, and these mountains aren't tall enough to be capped with snow. Rolling slopes covered in pure, verdant green is all you can see from this distance, though that will change as you get close, you're sure. It's a breathtaking sight, regardless.
... you wish Mami were here to see this with you. She'd love it, you're sure.
On the other hand, there's no reason you can't chat with her right now.
"Hey, Mami," you murmur. "Are you busy?"
"Ah!" Mami says, mental voice bright. "No, not too busy. How are you, Sabrina?"
"I'm doing fine!" you say. "I'm heading across to Asunaro right now. I wish you were here with me, the scenery is beautiful."
"I wish I could be there too," Mami says, soft and warm. "But it's good to hear from you."
"Yeah," you agree. "It's always good to talk to you."
Mami makes a pleased noise.
"How's class?" you ask.
"Ah, the reading period is over, and it's English now," she explains. "We're just doing worksheets."
"Oof, I'm glad I don't have to do those," you say with a grin. "Need help?"
You spend a while just chatting with Mami, helping her with her work. It's not cheating if she isn't doing any tests or quizzes, right?
Eventually, though, you're approaching Asunaro. You can't help but fret a little as you reach out by telepathy for Michiru. What could have gone wrong in the meantime?
"Hello, Miss Kazusa?" you say, casting the telepathic call out.
"Hello! Miss Sabrina?" Michiru responds.
"Ah, hello!" you say. "How are you?"
"I'm good! Excited to meet Mami again. I made a parfait! I hope it'll keep..." she says.
"Do you have an ice box for it?" you ask, starting to decelerate as the city resolves from a blur to actual buildings.
"Oh, an ice box!" Michiru says. "That's a great ide- waa!"
"... Miss Kazusa?" you say.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Michiru responds. "Um, here's Umika!"
"... hi," a new voice says. Misaki Umika, then.
"Hi," you say. "... uh. Is Miss Kazusa alright?"
"She's just fine," Umika says, a note of amusement in her voice. "What did you say to her?"
"Apparently she made a parfait to bring to Mitakihara?" you say. "I suggested she should get an ice box for it."
"That would explain why she's emptying the ice out of the freezer," Umika agrees. "I'm Misaki Umika."
"I'm Sabrina," you say. "Uh, no last name. Pleased to meet you!"
"Good to meet you too," Umika agrees. "Are you arriving here soon?"
"Yup. Where should I pick you up?" you say.
"Um... do you have Google Maps?" Umika asks.
"No, unfortunately," you say.
"Hm. How are you arriving? Teleporting, or flying, or... something else?" Umika asks.
"I'm flying in - I'll be flying you back. You, Miss Kazusa, and Miss Maki, right?" you ask.
"Correct," Umika says. "Um... landmark... there is a big radio tower near the southeastern side of the city. Could you meet us at the top of the tower?"
"Works for me!" you say.
Voting opens
[] Present yourself as you actually are: cheerful dweeb who wants to help but can back that attitude up.
[] What do you talk about on the way back?
[] Lunch-time: Any points to hit?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
Now arriving at: Asunaro City.
Kyouko compared it to a fart. Even if Yuma hadn't noticed it herself, it's not exactly the most flattering comparison you could have gotten. Vague and hard to place, but pervasive and present. And you imagine most veteran magical girls would be able to pick up on that, and probably react in the same way.
Not exactly the best first impression you could make, if Kyouko didn't just choose her words to annoy you. Which, to be fair, she might have.
Still, you have a bit of time right now, so you pull your utility Grief fog back into spheres for the most part. You leave some hanging in the air, spaced out far enough to act as tripwires against Kyuubey or other teleporters. Or even stealth powers - hard to avoid particles smaller than air molecules. The rest you condense back into spheres, and a bit of focus has the dark, mottled purple scabbing over with nanoscopic scales shading light to blue.
"Sabrina, aren't you eating?" Yuma asks, blinking big, soulful eyes at you.
"Nah, I ate already," you say, smiling at her. Absently, you double-check their Soul Gems, and their Grief Seeds. The latter of which they have none of.
Interestingly, you can also sense the glowing fire of an enchantment hanging on the door. Probably something Kyouko put up to avoid the cleaners coming in and asking awkward questions.
"So..." you say carefully. "Can I cleanse your Soul Gems? How are you girls doing for Grief Seeds?"
Kyouko snorts, stuffing more bacon into her mouth. Something annoyed sparks in her eyes, and she bites off the next mouthful with perhaps more force than necessary.
"Whaddya think?" she snaps.
"Sparse hunting?" you say, and sigh. "OK. I'll cut the speeches this time, because I'm actually on a schedule this morning. Kyouko, Yuma, I know Witches are scarce in Kasamino."
"Gee, thanks," Kyouko mutters. "I'd never have noticed."
"Yeah, well... look. I'm gonna emphasize that I'm not the final word on this, but I'm going to offer to let you hunt in Mitakihara. Maybe around the old industrial district or so," you say. Conveniently, not too far from the Sakura church, either. You hold up your hand. "There are too many Witches in Mitakihara right now."
Kyouko's fork hits the table hard enough to make Yuma jump - it'd be a slam if the fork had been made of anything but plastic. "Fuck you, we don't need charity."
"I'm not doing charity here," you say, unmoved. You meet her angry red gaze calmly. "Listen. Walpurgisnacht is coming. The Queen of Witches. I'm pretty sure that Witches are actually moving to Mitakihara because of that."
It might even be true. You've never confirmed it, but there are so many factors that it remains a viable hypothesis. More importantly, you don't want to bring up the fact that Witches come from magical girls, and Kyouko chasing magical girls from her territory means that there are no new Witches.
"Yeah?" Kyouko snorts. "Well, I'm not taking that bait."
"It's not bait," you say, rolling your eyes. "I mean it. We seriously do have more Witches than we can hunt right now, and they're hurting people."
Kyouko scowls, returning to her breakfast. She stabs at a sausage with more force than is strictly required.
You sigh. Prickly, tsundere redheads.
"Can I cleanse your Soul Gems?" you ask again. This time, Yuma makes a timid noise and offers up her Gem to you, balanced on the cupped palms of her hands. Kyouko's eyes linger on that and soften, and she looks away before producing her own Gem.
You cleanse them both, just to be sure. Neither of them are really swimming in Grief, but neither of them were absolutely clean, either.
"Alright," you say. "I suppose you don't want the hunting, but the offer remains. I'd have a condition for you, mind - I want all the Familiars exterminated, if you hunt in Mitakihara. And as I said, I'd have to confirm it."
"You can say her name," Kyouko snaps.
"Yes, I'd have to confirm it with Mami," you say. "And with Homura, probably. That said, fine. If you don't want to, then again, I'm going to ask if you want a Clear Seed? I've given out a fair few of them for testing, as it is. No ill effects so far."
"It's been what, a few days?" Kyouko snorts. "No thanks."
Madokami save you from stubborn, prideful meguca. She has a point just this once, you suppose, but still. She just has to make it hard for you to help.
"Fine," you grunt. "Then I'm gonna ask you to hang on to your Grief Seeds after you use them. I come by here every other day or so, and I can refresh your Grief Seeds. Is that fine with you? I mean, waste not, want not. You can keep recycling your Grief Seeds rather than wasting them."
Yuma's eye dart to Kyouko, silently begging. The redhead sighs, raking her hands through her voluminous ponytail. "Fine. Don't give Grief Seeds to Kyuubey, hang on to them, got it. Aren't you going to pay me for training your girl Sayaka?"
"Well, I was intending to make the hunting partial payment," you say, folding your arms and leaning back. "But if you don't want that...?"
"Nope," Kyouko says, popping the syllable.
"Well. She's got school, so I figure the evenings, maybe," you say. "Hold up, mind if I pull her in with telepathy?"
Kyouko waves a dismissive hand at you, returning to her breakfast.
"Hey Sayaka, you got a moment?" you say, reaching out mentally for your blue-haired friend. "Sorry about the time, but I'm talking to Kyouko right now to arrange a schedule for your training."
"Uhh... sure," Sayaka says, sounding a little distracted.
"Cool," you say, and extend the telepathy to include Kyouko. "Right, so now that we're all here, when would be good for everyone?"
"I'm free every day," Kyouko drawls. "Not like I got anythin' to hold me up."
"Uh, I've got class?" Sayaka says.
You purse your lips in consideration - Sayaka sounds busy, which means you should probably rush this along a bit for her sake.
"How about every other evening?" you say. "Monday, Saturday, Friday? Do you have evening plans, Sayaka?"
"Um, going to the hospital," Sayaka says. "How long will we be training?"
"You need to be home for dinner, right?" you say. "Do you have club activities?"
"Nah," Sayaka says.
"So, after you finish school to around dinner time?" you say. "And we'll try Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings for now?"
"Sure," Sayaka mutters distractedly.
Faded red eyes regard you warily for a second before Kyouko responds. "Sure, I'm good with that," she drawls. "After Sabrina here settles payment."
"Right. I'll work it out with her and let you know, Sayaka," you say. "And I'll let you get back to class."
"Mhm," the bleunette agrees, and you end the call.
"Shoulda settled that before y' came here, eh?" Kyouko says.
"Probably," you agree. "I'm good at short term and long term plans. Middle term... well, I tend to forget what I was doing. Like I asked Sayaka for a raincheck on a talk, but I've kind of forgotten what I wanted to talk to her about."
You shrug as Kyouko gives you an unamused look.
"Anyway. Pay. Yes?" you say.
"Yep," Kyouko says, setting down her fork and leaning back in her chair. She grins challengingly as you, fang poking out. "Impress me."
You do a bit of quick mental math, tallying how much money you'd stolen from the Yakuza. The good thing about cash is that it's fairly compact, so you have quite a bit. Not quite infinite, but more than enough. You want to keep a reserve of actual cash for your own expenses, but you're more than willing to pay her in gold, if... well, that's a good point.
"Question," you say, raising a finger. "Do you know how or where to fence gold bullion?"
Kyouko tilts her head to the side. "I might know a guy, yeah," she allows, eyes narrowing. "Why?"
"Six thousand yen and twenty grams of gold per hour," you say. "I'll cover any Grief costs you expend over the time, too. And cleanse Yuma, of course."
"Fuck off," Kyouko says, eyes going wide.
"Eh, it's about the same pay scale that a highly skilled consultant would get," you say. "I think. I'm not hundred percent up to date on payscales. Either way, you qualify, so..."
Kyouko scowls at you. "I get the Grief cleaning anyway," she says with a challenging tilt of her head. "Sweeten the deal."
"Cut me some slack, Kyouko," you say. "Seven thousand plus the gold and the cleansing and don't forget that I'm refreshing your Grief Seeds too. If you want me to have a Grief Seed for you every session, I can't promise that because hello, like I said, busy. I can make the offer for hunting again, though."
Kyouko rolls her eyes. "Too fucking nice," she mutters. "Fine, I'll take the gold and the cash."
"Cool," you say. You start to get up before sitting back down again, a thought occurring to you. "So actually, I have one more thing to offer - are you interested in an introduction to a magical girl who does hacking? She can do bank and government records."
"Yeah?" Kyouko says, eyes narrowing.
"You're not dumb," you say, meeting her gaze squarely. You continue in telepathy. "Your family's church. Yuma's mother is still her legal guardian, I'm betting. Things need fixing."
"Fine." For once, Kyouko looks away.
"Mmm," you agree. "It opens up doors. Do you want to be put in contact? I'll cover payment for her."
Her lips flatten out, pensive and thoughtful. "I need to think about it."
"Alright," you say, checking your phone for the time. "I need to head off now, but keep it in mind."
And you have something you have to check up on, too. The Sakura Church was scheduled to be demolished by the Nakano corporation. And it just so happens that you recently met one Nakano Mika.
It might be coincidence, of course - Nakano's a common enough surname, but it'd take you just a few minutes to chase up on that by telepathy. The next time you see Kyouko would be this evening for training, and if there's anything, you can let her know.
Kyouko blows out an explosive breath, looking at the pile of scrambled eggs on her plate. She shovels it into her mouth in one go, barely chewing before swallowing and hopping to her feet. Yuma follows suit, looking nervously at her adopted big sister.
The redhead scowls at you. "So... later today, right?"
"Yep," you agree. "I'll work out a meeting spot and let you know."
"You do that," Kyouko drawls.
"Right. See you!" you say, heading over to the window, already collecting Grief to build a flight platform. You wave a goodbye to Yuma, who beams at you as you soar off - up, up, and away.
You take the time to shape your Grief platform as you rise above the glittering city. You might as well eke every bit of efficiency you can out of this, and reduce the sonic boom from your passage. To that end, you shape a pointed nose cone out of the platform, layering the entire structure in the radar-retardant, sky-blue camouflage scales. A few minutes' of focus turns the front transparent, so you can see ahead of you.
You'll need to dismiss that when you actually get to Asunaro, of course, but you wouldn't be making the final transit at speed, anyway.
You exhale, sitting cross legged in your hopefully-supersonic Mobile Oppression Fortress. You glance behind you as you leave the northern edge of Kasamino behind you, suburban sprawl fading into patchwork quilts of farmland, and you push.
The acceleration is brutal, like a giant wound up and slugged you with a giant-sized pillow.
You peel yourself off the back of your flying platform, lying down on the floor so that you can watch the ground roll by. You leave Kasamino and Mitakihara behind, glittering steel skyscrapers fading into grey blurs on the horizon.
Off to Asunaro. You can't help the touch of dread that pools in your stomach. A strange place it is, really, one that trips all your paranoia. But there are so many shiny things, and most important of all, Mami's friend.
Not to say that the other things that might come out of it aren't important. The science, for one. Like de-Witching, the anti-Kyuubey Barrier, fake Incubators...
You can't help your mind drifting back to Kyuubey, either. You consider it for a second, considering how it was able to observe your nanoscale constructions in apparently enough detail to give advice. Possibly it has some remarkably advanced sensor apparatus in its body.
Huh.
It occurs to you that those golden hoops on Kyuubey's ears vanish when the body is destroyed. Which perhaps suggests that those hoops are actually important. Maybe they're the sensor arrays, or some kind of remote antenna or something - but they do seem to conveniently disappear.
There's a thought. You put it aside for now, though. You haven't really planned for anything during the trip, but you can take a few minutes to check in with Nakano Mika.
"Hello, Miss Mika?" you reach out by telepathy.
"Hello! Miss Sabrina, right?" the girl's cheerful voice responds moments later.
You breathe out a sigh of relief - you're glad you didn't interrupt her in the middle of something. You seem to have a bad habit of doing that.
"Yup," you confirm. "Just checking in, is the Clear Seed working out for you? Have you tested it yet? And, uh, I have a more personal question, too."
"Oh, yeah! It works exactly as advertised," Mika responds. "Well, I haven't tested it for hundreds of years yet, but it works so far! And I've put it away nice and safe."
"Ah, good," you say, smiling despite yourself. Irrepressibly cheerful, she is.
"What was your other question?" Mika asks.
"Uh, so if you don't mind my asking - are you related to the Nakano Corporation?" you ask.
"Oh, yeah. My grandfather owns it," she says. "Why?"
"Hm..." you say. "Is it alright if I don't answer that right away? It's nothing bad, per se, I just need to think about a course of action."
"Oh, pssht, don't worry 'bout upsetting me," Mika says. "You've got to actually work to do that."
"... right," you say, raising an eyebrow at the indifferent landscape rolling past. A split second later, you're deprived even of that simple pleasure as you hit a cloud bank. "Still, by that token, do you mind if I don't say?"
"Oh, sure," Mika says. "But now I'm gonna be curious about it."
She manages to pout at you by telepathy. Somehow.
"I'll get back to you on it," you decide. "Sorry, I really do need to think it over a bit. Thanks for answering, though!"
"No problem. Thanks for the Clear Seed!" she says, and ends the call.
You hum quietly to yourself, thinking it over. OK, so that's a lever you can work in. Maybe you should present the choice to Kyouko, though really, if Kyouko chooses to work with Yuuki, knowing Mika and indirectly hurting her family company sits a little ill with you.
Hm.
Thoughts for later.
You gaze out of the window. Ahead of you lies farmland and villages and towns, and looming ahead are the mountain ranges that form the spine of Japan.
Winter it isn't, and these mountains aren't tall enough to be capped with snow. Rolling slopes covered in pure, verdant green is all you can see from this distance, though that will change as you get close, you're sure. It's a breathtaking sight, regardless.
... you wish Mami were here to see this with you. She'd love it, you're sure.
On the other hand, there's no reason you can't chat with her right now.
"Hey, Mami," you murmur. "Are you busy?"
"Ah!" Mami says, mental voice bright. "No, not too busy. How are you, Sabrina?"
"I'm doing fine!" you say. "I'm heading across to Asunaro right now. I wish you were here with me, the scenery is beautiful."
"I wish I could be there too," Mami says, soft and warm. "But it's good to hear from you."
"Yeah," you agree. "It's always good to talk to you."
Mami makes a pleased noise.
"How's class?" you ask.
"Ah, the reading period is over, and it's English now," she explains. "We're just doing worksheets."
"Oof, I'm glad I don't have to do those," you say with a grin. "Need help?"
You spend a while just chatting with Mami, helping her with her work. It's not cheating if she isn't doing any tests or quizzes, right?
Eventually, though, you're approaching Asunaro. You can't help but fret a little as you reach out by telepathy for Michiru. What could have gone wrong in the meantime?
"Hello, Miss Kazusa?" you say, casting the telepathic call out.
"Hello! Miss Sabrina?" Michiru responds.
"Ah, hello!" you say. "How are you?"
"I'm good! Excited to meet Mami again. I made a parfait! I hope it'll keep..." she says.
"Do you have an ice box for it?" you ask, starting to decelerate as the city resolves from a blur to actual buildings.
"Oh, an ice box!" Michiru says. "That's a great ide- waa!"
"... Miss Kazusa?" you say.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Michiru responds. "Um, here's Umika!"
"... hi," a new voice says. Misaki Umika, then.
"Hi," you say. "... uh. Is Miss Kazusa alright?"
"She's just fine," Umika says, a note of amusement in her voice. "What did you say to her?"
"Apparently she made a parfait to bring to Mitakihara?" you say. "I suggested she should get an ice box for it."
"That would explain why she's emptying the ice out of the freezer," Umika agrees. "I'm Misaki Umika."
"I'm Sabrina," you say. "Uh, no last name. Pleased to meet you!"
"Good to meet you too," Umika agrees. "Are you arriving here soon?"
"Yup. Where should I pick you up?" you say.
"Um... do you have Google Maps?" Umika asks.
"No, unfortunately," you say.
"Hm. How are you arriving? Teleporting, or flying, or... something else?" Umika asks.
"I'm flying in - I'll be flying you back. You, Miss Kazusa, and Miss Maki, right?" you ask.
"Correct," Umika says. "Um... landmark... there is a big radio tower near the southeastern side of the city. Could you meet us at the top of the tower?"
"Works for me!" you say.
Voting opens
[] Present yourself as you actually are: cheerful dweeb who wants to help but can back that attitude up.
[] What do you talk about on the way back?
[] Lunch-time: Any points to hit?
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
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Now arriving at: Asunaro City.
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