Mugin hops off your shoulder as you think, landing on the table with the clatter of claws on hardwood. You chuckle, reaching out carefully to stroke its head, which it seems to appreciate - but only for a few minutes, before scrambling off to explore the table.
You shake your head, trying to set aside the idea of buying Homura a baseball bat.
Later.
"Right," you say slowly, and look up to meet Yuki's startlingly green eyes. "Sorry, had to get my thoughts in order. So... as a preface, my ethos is very simple. I'm here to help. I know I've said it before, but it's my guiding principle, heck, it's
why I'm a magical girl. My priorities are to keep people alive, healthy, and happy, and that applies to... my friends, my allies-" you gesture at Yuki for emphasis "-and people in general."
"That's a good thing," Yuki says, brow wrinkling faintly as she stirs sugar into her tea. "And I'm hearing a but?"
"One of my big goals is turning Witches back into people," you say simply, spreading your hands. "It's something of a personal goal, but I've heard some horror stories from Miss Bennouna."
"I've heard horror stories too," Yuki says, tone careful but... thoughtful, as is the expression on her face. It's far too old a look to be worn by someone as young as she looks. "Why did you not tell me before?"
"First of all, because most of my friends don't know the truth about Witches yet. I'm figuring out how to break the news. And honestly? I didn't think of it, at the time," you admit, shrugging. "It's... I'm
told that it's a topic of some historical
problems, but for me, it's just another goal. I'm being careful, taking precautions and taking my time, but..."
You trail off, grimacing.
"You should have been told from the start so that you could go into the pact we had with open eyes, and I'm sorry for that," you say. "That said, I'm not expecting anything of you with regards to de-Witching - this is something I'm working on."
"But I can't help but be entangled in it anyway," Yuki murmurs. She shakes her head. "No, I don't regard this as a deal-breaker, though I wish I'd known about this earlier. It's... Hah. Given what I know of you, I should have guessed, really."
"Hm?" You give her a quizzical look, and in return, she gives you a sharp, cheerful smile.
"Even from our short association, I've noticed that you have a marked tendency to go for the most ambitious of goals," Yuki says, her grin widening. "Am I wrong?"
"Well, no," you say sheepishly, and take a sip of tea more as punctuation than anything. It's pretty good tea, admittedly. "So... you don't mind?"
"That's still up in the air," Yuki says, expression returning to cool, evaluating neutrality. "It behooves us to clear the air, I think."
"Yeah, of course," you agree readily. "I'll start?"
"No, actually, I'd like to, if you don't mind?" Yuki says, raising her eyebrows.
"Uh... Sure?" you say, blinking. You're not sure what
Yuki's getting at, unless she's about to confess to her own attempts at de-Witching.
"You lack context, so let me give you some," Yuki says, leaning forward to steeple her hands in front of her. "We have
personal knowledge of how badly it can go, because we were called in to clean up a fusion Witch of, I believe, five others. Osaka, just three years ago. One of our first jobs, and we barely made it out of there."
You wince. Yeah, that would be more than justifiable cause for concern.
"That said, that job bought us a small measure of fame, and that bit of reputation is in some ways the foundation of who we are today," Yuki says, unlacing her fingers and sitting back. She gives you a long look. "And
that said... we brought down the girl who was responsible for the abomination, too." Yuki hums quietly. "She shattered her Soul Gem rather than be captured."
"That... really sucks," you say lamely. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"We've seen worse, since then," Yuki says, and sighs. "I don't tell you this to intimidate you or to dissuade you. Besides, I suspect that it'd do little to accomplish either. My point is simple: this is a dangerous field to explore. Maybe because those who try almost inevitably do so on the heels of some unfortunate revelation, but even so..."
"I understand that," you say. "And I understand your reservations. I can only reassure you that I have every intention of doing this
safely and ethically - I'm in no way desperate. It's not...
personal for me, as many attempts must be, and I have the luxury of taking my time. And given my powers, I believe I have a better chance than other attempts."
"I agree," Yuki says. "That's why I'm not running for the hills."
"There
are plenty of hills here to run to," you say, trying to lighten the mood if only by a bit.
"Hah. Word of warning... I suspect that Kyuubey tries to meddle in this kind of thing, too," Yuki says with a frown. "I don't trust him."
"Hell no I don't trust it," you say. "It's why I asked to speak in privacy. I can't hide the fact that I'm trying, but I hope I can obscure some of the details."
"Prudent," Yuki approves.
"Mm. Also... As I said, I don't
expect anything of you, but there's two things. First, I'd like to
offer to involve you, if you want," you say. "I'm happy to share any details or address any concerns you might have."
"Involvement... Perhaps not, but I would, I think, like to be informed," Yuki says. "What was the second thing?"
"Clear Seeds are, I think, part of the process," you say. "And I'd like to request that Miss Anri help."
"Explain?" Yuki says.
"Well - first of all, just a reassurance. Even if I do succeed, I won't be recalling Clear Seeds until such a point where I figure out a viable alternative," you say, and sigh. "Ethics are a complicated,
messy subject, but... If I succeed, there will be more than enough souls to save. I'll figure something out."
You sigh. When you say it out loud, that... sits ill with you, but you don't have much choice, do you?
"To the point, then: Soul Gems turn into Grief Seeds, that much is obvious. There is
some amount of awareness of the Witches in there, or at least enough to wake up in response to my, uh, poking," you say. "Draining them of Grief leaves them in a state where they aren't literally marinating in their own despair, and I
believe that this is the first step. They calm down, when I do - hibernate, maybe, but at least they aren't suffering more. I've been experimenting to figure out what the second step should be, among them, trying to feed them magic."
Yuki states at you for a long moment, then her eyes flick aside, and back.
"Would that it were so simple," she says slowly, and falls silent again. "Ah. Miss Anri's friend. You think that... asking her to help with her..." Yuki pauses. "Her friend's Witch's Grief Seed might more readily accept magic? Because of their relationship?"
"Yup," you say. You're always impressed with how quickly Yuki puts facts together, you have to admit - that intelligence is probably what let her and her group survive. "But that idea is dependent on
your approval and judgment - you're the one securing her."
You pause thoughtfully, taking a sip of tea as you count the Soul Gems you can detect within the building.
"Say, where
is Miss Anri being kept?" you ask curiously. "I can sense the rest of your group -another three of you, all a few floors down, right?- but not Anri?"
"You
can sense them?" Yuki says. She looks faintly impressed
and faintly worried, her eyebrows nearly approaching her hairline.
"Yeah?" you say.
"You are the first, I think, to be
able to sense beyond my folded space," Yuki says. "Not that the list of people who I've brought in here is a large one."
"Ah," you say. "Well... my sense of Soul Gems and Grief is a lot more, ah,
fundamental than most magic, I think. Low-level, to borrow a term from programming? Magic, Souls, all that... I
think I'm tapping into something that's a lot closer to the metaphorical bedrock of magic itself, if that makes sense."
"It does," Yuki says, expression returning to that bright, sharp-edged grin. "Still, that makes things more
interesting for me."
"Sorry?" you say, rubbing your nose sheepishly.
"Oh, no, not at all," Yuki says. She points at you with her teaspoon. "It's just a flaw that I have to be aware of and perhaps overcome. That said - you
can't sense Miss Anri? She might appear rather further away than you might expect? I've put her in a bubble of folded space similar to the one we're in right now."
"Hmm," you say, frowning as you push your senses out further, and then wince, touching a hand to your forehead. "Ow."
"You found her?" Yuki asks. She leans forward, gaze focused and intent - and you know she's gauging your abilities, blatantly so, but you do can't really begrudge her that, can you? You'd do the same in her position.
"Yeah, three-ish floors up? We walked right past her earlier and I didn't even notice her among the background and the obfuscation from the space-warping," you say, shaking your head. "Wow, that's really kind of dizzying. She's far away and right there at the same time."
"Hah!" Yuki takes a long draught from her teacup, seemingly satisfied. "She
is. That's interesting."
"Yeah, it is," you agree. If nothing, it gives you a bit more of an idea of
your possible limitations. You can
sense a lot, but just because you sense it doesn't mean you
notice it.
Yuki smiles in a way that suggests she knows what you're thinking - largely because she's thinking along similar lines.
"Interactions of our powers aside, shall we return to the topic of Miss Anri?" she asks politely.
"Yeah," you agree. "So... again, it's dependent on your judgment. As you'd expect, you'd have to remove her anti-magic manacles temporarily for her to perform the channeling."
"She's been a model prisoner," Yuki says. Mugin hops up to her, giving her a curious look, and with a gesture, a small dish of what looks like sunflower seeds bubbles from the table. "She mostly spends her time reading the books and manga she requested. She eats reasonably, cleanses at a reasonable pace, and hasn't tried anything unusual."
Yuki pauses, and nods firmly. "I think we would be amenable to trying."
"Great," you say with a smile. "Thank you. What else can you tell me about her, since I'll be telling her?"
"Not much, I'm afraid," Yuki says. "She hasn't spoken much - and I can't say that her choice of reading material is particularly illustrative, either. Some shounen, some shoujo. She is, I suppose, about as depressed as you'd expect."
"Hmm," you say. "Right. That does make sense... I'll figure that bit out, then. And... I guess that's the last of the really private things I wanted to talk about? Oh, wait, uh-"
You spare a few minutes to hand over Rionna. And it's frankly a relief to release her into someone else's hands. You don't
like what she did to you, and you don't like the visceral, gut-churning unpleasantness just thinking about her brings, either. Homura still has her body, and you've promised not to leave it indefinitely with her - but you're not leaving her as a Gem indefinitely, either.
"Thank you for informing me about your de-Witching attempts, Miss Vee," Yuki says, with that bit of unpleasantness done. "It would have been an unpleasant surprise to find out in another way, I imagine."
She hops to her feet, and you can feel the folded bubble of space untwisting around you as you collect the saucer of sunflower seeds and use it to lure Mugin onto your arm.
"What now, Miss Vee?" she asks. "Certainly, I can bring you to see Miss Anri right now, or perhaps you'd like to think about it for a bit? If so, I'd be happy to introduce you -reintroduce you, in some cases- to the rest of my team."
[] Straight to Anri
- [] How do you approach her?
[] Speak to Yuki's team
- [] Any particular points?
[X] When conversation allows, ask for information about:
--[X] The Soujus.
--[X] The Murasaki Shrine Maidens.
--[X] Trustworthy magical girls with empathy/therapy powers.
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
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Surprise slightly early update?
