"You don't understand, do you? You don't care. You never did... ha. Fine. If that's how it is... then I wish to destroy you, Incubator, and tear down everything you've ever built. Now grant my wish, and suffer."
I went back and forth on that for a while before deciding, but... yeah, that's her. And it's not really her personality being the result of her wish; pre-meguca Kiyomi's internal monologue would sound pretty much the same as the Kiyomi you've met. She just kinda... overdid it with the intent behind her wish.
On the other hand, she's unquestionably happier and less socially dysfunctional now, so... all's well that ends well?
"It's too lonely, like this. I just want to see the world outside these walls one more time. I don't know if it's possible, but... I wish I could travel the world, and meet all the dear friends whose faces I've never seen."
"I wish my best friend would be safe, that the people who hurt her could never reach her again."
"It hurts. Can you make me better? I... I'll wish for that, if I can."
"You don't understand, do you? You don't care. You never did... ha. Fine. If that's how it is... then I wish to destroy you, Incubator, and tear down everything you've ever built. Now grant my wish, and suffer."
This is actually a very logical wish, even if Kyubey doesn't understand it. QB did something Meguka didn't like, such as being callous and uncaring, so she's defaulting on The Prisoner's Dilemma. Do this enough, and QB will logically be forced into cooperation.
It's too lonely, like this. I just want to see the world outside these walls one more time. I don't know if it's possible, but... I wish I could travel the world, and meet all the dear friends whose faces I've never seen."
"You don't understand, do you? You don't care. You never did... ha. Fine. If that's how it is... then I wish to destroy you, Incubator, and tear down everything you've ever built. Now grant my wish, and suffer."
Yep. She appeared in the non-canon preplanning snippets I posted a while back, which is what Olivebirdy was referencing.
The actual context: Iki Ando was a tragically hospitalized moeblob suffering from a nonspecifically tragic genetic disorder. Her parents died before she turned 12 (her mother in a Witch-induced traffic accident, her father a year and a half later to karoshi) and she wasn't expected to live more than a year or two longer herself at that point. Her only social contact outside hospital staff was through the internet. When Kyubey showed up she'd largely made her peace with dying and, remembering a rather cryptic bit of wisdom a friend once offered, resolved to wish for what she really wanted rather than the seemingly obvious choice of being healed. It of course turned out that becoming meguca neutralized the effects of the genetic disorder anyway, putting Iki firmly in the rarefied category of "girls whose lives were unequivocally improved by becoming meguca".
The latter is correct. She's one of two backup antagonists I may drag in if at some point Yui seems insufficiently challenged. I've mentioned her a couple times, but that's it.
This is actually a very logical wish, even if Kyubey doesn't understand it. QB did something Meguka didn't like, such as being callous and uncaring, so she's defaulting on The Prisoner's Dilemma. Do this enough, and QB will logically be forced into cooperation.
The girl in question had potential comparable to Yui and went through a sequence of bullshit comparable to Madoka's experiences in canon as part of Kyubey trying to ensure her similarly powerful sister witched out instead of dying. Unlike Yui or Madoka, though, this girl is... really not a nice person, and while Kyubey didn't actually intend to offer a contract because of her psychological profile, she figured out that one of his inexplicable rules is being unable to reject a viable wish backed by sufficient potential. So she cornered the bunnycat and made that wish, gaining wish magic that has the explicit purpose of fucking over the bunnycats. Among other things, she can destroy Grief Seeds and prevent witchouts in her immediate vicinity.
(Technically spoilers I guess, but she won't be showing up anytime remotely soon if she shows up at all, and this is all info you'd get from Maiko if and when that happens.)
That sounds inherently abusable. Awesome. What happens if a MG uses enough magic to witchout, fails to witchout by virtue of being in the anti-witchout area, and then continues using magic? Does the anti-witchout aura start generating more corruption?
If she had a bit more potential, could she have gained the ability to un-make a magical girl while wasting the energy released? A lot of MGs probably would want to ditch the suffering that comes with it, and QB would definitely find it annoying, so everyone wins?
What happens if a MG uses enough magic to witchout, fails to witchout by virtue of being in the anti-witchout area, and then continues using magic? Does the anti-witchout aura start generating more corruption?
Most really wouldn't be in any condition to use much magic like that, since it doesn't mitigate the psychological effects of being on the verge of witching. Negative emotions will stop generating corruption at that point, but using magic would oversaturate the gem, I guess? It'd probably just break or something if they go too far.
If she had a bit more potential, could she have gained the ability to un-make a magical girl while wasting the energy released? A lot of MGs probably would want to ditch the suffering that comes with it, and QB would definitely find it annoying, so everyone wins?
Perhaps, though the bigger obstacle than potential is the intent behind her wish--she wanted to destroy, not fix things. Her magic is focused on the goal "Kyubey loses" rather than "people who aren't Kyubey win", if that makes sense. Preventing witchouts is a feature entirely because she knows that the energy released in the process is Kyubey's big payout from the whole affair and she wants to deny him that.
Huh. So that means she won't witch out either, her soul gem will just burst, right?
Hm, Kyubey hasn't made any more magical hit girls to take care of her I assume, with how much potential she's got she'll overpower most others. She might have teammates who have a similar investment in doing what they can to screw kyubey over and also not witching out.
Huh. So that means she won't witch out either, her soul gem will just burst, right?
Hm, Kyubey hasn't made any more magical hit girls to take care of her I assume, with how much potential she's got she'll overpower most others. She might have teammates who have a similar investment in doing what they can to screw kyubey over and also not witching out.
Well, the IC excuse for her being a backup antagonist is that Kyubey is actively looking for ways to get rid of her and using indirect nudges to aim her at a successful, established Yui would be one option for doing so. The bunnycats have discovered through trial and error that taking anything resembling direct action against her is subtly undermined by her wish and inevitably fails.
The broader context involved school bullying that spiraled out of control, resulting in her getting separated from the group on a class trip and nearly falling to her death. Kinda similar to Kishi from Memento Mori, I suppose?
That's actually why I added the "not local newbies" edit, haha. I realized after the fact that it did indeed sound a lot like Koharu. Hisae's not a bad guess either, but no.
Hmm. I think at this point people have figured out all but one of the wishes I expected to be reasonably guessable. The other two unguessed characters--I'm counting Redsoff's "maybe someone we haven't met" as correct for the last one, BTW---have been mentioned in story, one by name and one by description. So that leaves:
"I won't... can't let them struggle alone. I wish for the strength to stand tall, to support and inspire those who look up to me."
"I'm tired of always feeling trapped, suffocated. I wish I could just be free, to live my life at my own pace in my own way."
"I wish for respect and authority in my own right. I am not my father's pawn."
"You don't understand, do you? You don't care. You never did... ha. Fine. If that's how it is... then I wish to destroy you, Incubator, and tear down everything you've ever built. Now grant my wish, and suffer."
The girl in question had potential comparable to Yui and went through a sequence of bullshit comparable to Madoka's experiences in canon as part of Kyubey trying to ensure her similarly powerful sister witched out instead of dying. Unlike Yui or Madoka, though, this girl is... really not a nice person, and while Kyubey didn't actually intend to offer a contract because of her psychological profile, she figured out that one of his inexplicable rules is being unable to reject a viable wish backed by sufficient potential. So she cornered the bunnycat and made that wish, gaining wish magic that has the explicit purpose of fucking over the bunnycats. Among other things, she can destroy Grief Seeds and prevent witchouts in her immediate vicinity.
So would her motivation to be an antagonist pretty much just be "Kyubey supports Yui holding this territory, so I'm going to try to ruin that"? Or does killing all magical girls fall under the heading of "tear down everything you've built"?
Unless she's actively being an awful/amoral person, I don't really think that Yui would have have an issue with a vendetta against the Incubator. Yui's only been a magical girl for, what, a week or so at this point and she hasn't even gotten the witch-bomb yet, and she's already fairly skeptical about Kyubey, so I doubt she'd be jumping to its defense or anything.
Sounds like someone Homura would either deeply value or more or less kill on sight, depending on if she her response to "Kyubey REALLY wants this girl to contract and witch out" is "well, best save her then" or "murder is the best solution". Sadly the second sounds much more likely.
So would her motivation to be an antagonist pretty much just be "Kyubey supports Yui holding this territory, so I'm going to try to ruin that"? Or does killing all magical girls fall under the heading of "tear down everything you've built"?
Unless she's actively being an awful/amoral person, I don't really think that Yui would have have an issue with a vendetta against the Incubator. Yui's only been a magical girl for, what, a week or so at this point and she hasn't even gotten the witch-bomb yet, and she's already fairly skeptical about Kyubey, so I doubt she'd be jumping to its defense or anything.
Think its more that as an antagonist she would be removing all the background support QB gives, and because of her wish she's exceptionally capable of identifying QB's projects and how to tear them down. And with her wish you can neither get her off your case, nor beat her while you're still a QB supported project
A pace which sometimes includes supersonic flight.
Anyway, yes. Correct! That was the last of the plausibly guessable wishes.
For the remaining two:
"I wish for respect and authority in my own right. I am not my father's pawn." -- the wish of Kozue Arashi, a Yakuza princess who usurped her father's leadership of the local group and now basically controls the criminal underworld in a large chunk of Chiba prefecture. Her wish magic includes a command aura similar to but more potent than Yui's "borrowed authority" trick, innate telepathy with a range substantially larger than Minami's, a limited degree of weather manipulation that lets her build up heavy storms over the course of hours and call down lightning strikes during a storm, and short-range electricity control. She also rides a motorcycle, uses enhanced meguca eyesight to get away with wearing sunglasses at night, and is not at all above triggering lightning strikes purely for the sake of punctuating a monologue with Dramatic Thunder.
"I won't... can't let them struggle alone. I wish for the strength to stand tall, to support and inspire those who look up to me." -- the wish of Hiyori Yuuki, the former fourth member and leader of Rio's group; she was a year older than the others and, after being saved from a Witch by Fuuka, became meguca in order to keep the cute kohai safe. Her general disposition was... enthusiastic, let's say, and between that and her wish you wouldn't be far off the mark to imagine her as basically "meguca All Might". Fuuka still carries Hiyori's Grief Seed, unused.
So would her motivation to be an antagonist pretty much just be "Kyubey supports Yui holding this territory, so I'm going to try to ruin that"? Or does killing all magical girls fall under the heading of "tear down everything you've built"?
Though to be fair, her anti-witchout aura is a temporary effect that only applies within a very limited radius, smaller even than the meat puppet remote control range. It's for their own good, really. Like a... uh, serial mercy killer? That's a thing, right? She's also willing to spare any magical girl who can cope with knowing the witchbomb and demonstrate the determination to convincingly swear to break her own gem before letting it go dark. That doesn't happen often, but still.
Sounds like someone Homura would either deeply value or more or less kill on sight, depending on if she her response to "Kyubey REALLY wants this girl to contract and witch out" is "well, best save her then" or "murder is the best solution". Sadly the second sounds much more likely.
She'd actually be... deeply conflicted about Madoka, at least the canon version. She has a strict policy of not involving non-meguca (because that's the sort of thing the Incubator would do) but faced with the prospect of an apocalypse-level Gretchen... well, fortunately it's not an issue here, since this is an early-ish loop. She wouldn't touch a non-contracted Madoka and could conceivably work with Homura if they managed to meet without one of them immediately killing the other. They could even bond by commiserating over how Sayaka is basically the worst meguca ever.
Though to be fair, her anti-witchout aura is a temporary effect that only applies within a very limited radius, smaller even than the meat puppet remote control range.
She'd actually be... deeply conflicted about Madoka, at least the canon version. She has a strict policy of not involving non-meguca (because that's the sort of thing the Incubator would do) but faced with the prospect of an apocalypse-level Gretchen... well, fortunately it's not an issue here, since this is an early-ish loop. She wouldn't touch a non-contracted Madoka and could conceivably work with Homura if they managed to meet without one of them immediately killing the other. They could even bond by commiserating over how Sayaka is basically the worst meguca ever.
Ah, if it was a late loop, she might reach the solution Homura did in that one fan-comic: If you loop enough times, might not Madoka become a UNIVERSAL threat that the Incubator doesn't dare recruit for fear of racial annihilation?
Yes, actually! Angel of mercy (criminology) - Wikipedia - and boy is that name appropriate, heh. Usually an Angel is a doctor or caregiver of some kind, but what is the duty of a Magical Girl if not to protect, i.e. provide care for, those weaker than her? Regardless, the serial killer who kills their victims out of a misguided sense of mercy is very much a real thing.
I went back and forth on that for a while before deciding, but... yeah, that's her. And it's not really her personality being the result of her wish; pre-meguca Kiyomi's internal monologue would sound pretty much the same as the Kiyomi you've met. She just kinda... overdid it with the intent behind her wish.
I'd argue that that is a modification to her personality. Said personality wasn't created whole-cloth but which thoughts you speak/act on and which you don't is a large component of your personality.
Kozue is another of the pre-planned characters from before I even posted the OP, as part of figuring out who the more influential groups in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures are. In hindsight, I obviously misestimated how quickly the quest would move outside Nagamioka, heh.
Incidentally, she's also the previously unnamed character in the costume design sketches:
Yes, actually! Angel of mercy (criminology) - Wikipedia - and boy is that name appropriate, heh. Usually an Angel is a doctor or caregiver of some kind, but what is the duty of a Magical Girl if not to protect, i.e. provide care for, those weaker than her? Regardless, the serial killer who kills their victims out of a misguided sense of mercy is very much a real thing.
I'd argue that that is a modification to her personality. Said personality wasn't created whole-cloth but which thoughts you speak/act on and which you don't is a large component of your personality.
That's also a fair interpretation; the key point is that her wish didn't directly change her inner thoughts or desires.
Kiyomi herself doesn't really care one way or another, anyway. If asked, she'd unequivocally state that even if she's a different person who replaced the old Kiyomi, and her old self had known with absolute certainty that would be the result, she'd still have chosen to make the wish.
This took me five fucking months to write, but now that it's in a state that I'm... not happy, but content with, y'all get to see it now. Hopefully it'll give Echo something nice to look at when he gets back.
This omake is a crossover with x50413's Devourer of Worlds (which is definitely worth checking out if you have even a passing familiarity with either Chrono Trigger or RWBY). As such, it's obviously non-canonical.
OMAKE: DEVOURER OF TOKYO
For millennia you have slumbered, Dreaming in an attempt to understand the death of your Progenitor. Humans named them Lavos, humans exploited their time-warping power for their own ends, humans witnessed their emergence, and in the end, humans were responsible for their demise, along with all of their spawn.
Except you.
Your escape was not through any virtue of yours. Luck had enabled you to go unnoticed until you could escape the planet, making yourself an organic comet with the intent of finding someplace safe to grow, a planet where the lifeforms could not challenge you. You have learned your Progenitor's lesson well: your own energy can and will be used against you, if you make yourself a target.
And so when you arrived, embedded in the planet's crust and hidden by the pressure and darkness of its ocean, you Dreamed, seeking the method by which your Progenitor was killed, determined to avoid the same fate.
In spite of your damaged genetic memory, your Dream bears fruit. You know that if a mortal makes contact with you, your unfiltered power can overwhelm their minds; you know that pieces of your shell, broken off in impact, may have enough of your concentrated power to permit contact; you know that your Progenitor ignored the world around them, even as others harnessed and channeled their power, and paid the ultimate price for their indifference.
The lessons are clear: you cannot afford to ignore the world around you, lest your strength be made a weapon to destroy you. Mortals can accomplish astonishing feats armed with even a little of your power, but can also become unstable and lash out as a result. And they must not know that you bear the strength to devastate their planet, for nothing will unite them against you more quickly.
You awaken, and see to your surprise that the lifeforms that evolved during your slumber are remarkably similar to the humans that slew your Progenitor. You even sense some of them wielding magic, though not in a form you are familiar with, nor in concentrations that suggest a magical kingdom such as Zeal. Other lifeforms, ones unknown to your genetic memory, use magic to alter the souls of the humans, unlocking their own inner magic. The humans seem to use much of it fighting each other; to what end? If they knew of your presence, would they end their own conflicts in order to turn that magic against you? Would it be enough to destroy you?
Another lesson you have learned is that, like your Progenitor, without a mortal perspective, you are simply too large, too long-lived, too fundamentally different to understand the details of mortal actions. A mortal perspective is required, if you are to find the answers to these questions. And so you cast out your senses, seeking a mortal you can contact without overwhelming them. If you are to survive, you must have an Arbiter to show you the extent of the power that may one day be arrayed against you.
Several candidates are found; pieces of your shell are scattered across the planet, and the humans have uncovered many of them. But you discard most of them as possibilities, seeking one who can provide insight on this planet's unique form of magic. In the end, none of the potential candidates have their magic unlocked. But there is one with potential to use it. Possibly with insight on the magic, but likely unable to use it against you. It will suffice for now.
You wait until she comes in contact with your shell, and then you reach out to her magic.
Tokyo, Late Afternoon, Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Incubator hopped down from the windowsill. Another contract, done. Imiko Tada would be generally unremarkable by meguca standards, but when she eventually did transform into a Witch, her little sister, Satsu Tada, would likely be old enough to make a contract in response to Imiko Tada's disappearance, pushing an otherwise low-priority target into being worth prioritizing. Even if it had taken nearly an hour to persuade her that she wasn't experiencing a particularly lucid dream.
A pulse of magic informed the Incubator that another meguca had transformed into a Witch nearby, in the school that Imiko Tada attended. Hmm. She would likely be unable to handle this Witch so soon after contracting. Forming another body, the Incubator led the nearest experienced meguca to the Witch. It wouldn't do to lose their investment so soon-
*THRUM*
Another pulse of energy, but this one unfamiliar to the Incubator's senses. Intriguing; after so many millennia, this planet offered few surprises. This called for investigation. The Incubator thought that perhaps it came from Nagamioka - and yes, local Incubator bodies confirmed that the pulse had been strongest in that city. With such co-location, it would take very little time to track down the anomaly, though it would likely take longer to identify it once located.
The anomaly had been found: an unusual crystal emanating in steady but subtle pulses, previously stored among many other, far more insignificant rocks, and now held in the hands of a human girl. Asami Amano, a known meguca candidate with significant potential, was staring into the crystal and seemingly interrogating it regarding a "fucking weird feeling". A futile endeavor, and a baffling one.
Meanwhile, an Incubator body invisibly watched, seeking similar answers in a more effective manner, searching its long-lived memory for anything that might explain this phenomenon. Already the Incubators had several ideas. With so little data, however, more observation was necessary to discover which one was most accurate, especially with the unusual detail that was Asami Amano having sensed anything unusual about the crystal despite not having contracted. Typically, human senses were insufficient to detect the flows of energy around them; either something about Asami Amano or the crystal itself must be unusual indeed.
Eventually, Asami Amano realized that interrogating the crystal was pointless, and put it into her backpack under the justification that "at least you're warm enough to keep me from freezing on the bus". Radiating heat? The Incubator phased through the backpack and touched the crystal directly. No heat; rather, the crystal's energy was sinking into Asami Amano's body and soul with each pulse, which the Incubator theorized could be mistaken for heat by human senses. A miniscule amount of energy entered Asami Amano with each pulse, but over an extended period, the energy could become a significant reservoir.
Intriguing indeed. They would have to watch Asami Amano closely, though they would need to delay contracting her until they had determined how this energy might interfere with the process. No matter. Momoko Kirasagi had Nagamioka well in hand, and Asami Amano was a destabilizing influence by all accounts. They would likely have waited for some time anyway; there was no reason to rush things.
In her Dream, she fell from a height so great she could see most of Asia and a little bit of Australia. To most people, this would probably be a nightmare. Asami, though? Asami laughed, exhilarated. She had always dreamed of skydiving anyway. Folding her arms to her body, she made herself a diving straight line, aiming to set the world record for Highest High Dive.
A plane dared to get in her way, and she literally dove through it, her body passing through as if the plane didn't exist. The ocean approached, closer, closer-
-and she was there, falling even faster now, the water not slowing her at all. Fish zoomed by and were gone in instants, a giant squid nearly collided with her and got flipped the bird in response, and finally she reached the ocean floor and stopped.
Stillness dominated; no animals passed by, at least not that Asami could see. The weird glowy crystal from the Geology club floated nearby as the only source of light, causing Asami to scowl automatically. The club had been disbanded due to fucking Yamaguchi embezzling all the funds for it (she knew she should've stepped in and had a talk with Yamaguchi before now, but Asami hadn't realized she'd be sloppy enough to have been literally caught in the act or else she'd have done it a lot sooner), and she had wound up having to toss all of their rock samples. Most had been heavy, or sharp, or chalklike and thus messy, and the whole thing was just a pain in the ass overall. The crystal doing… whatever the hell it did when she picked it up had just been the weird icing on a shitty cake.
She'd been warm all the way home, though, so that was something.
She swam for the crystal and grabbed hold of it. If she was at the bottom of the ocean, then she wanted to explore, and she wasn't about to do it without a light to actually see shit with. That done, she kicked off the ocean floor. She vaguely remembered from Science class that the ocean floor had, like, sulfur tubes or something, so obviously those were worth checking out.
It wasn't long until she got sidetracked, though, as she found what looked like an undersea mountain. (Could you have mountains underwater? Eh, screw it, it's a mountain.) Spikes taller than the school jutted out from its surface, almost like a gigantic hedgehog. Or… wait, that was too round to be a proper mountain. It almost looked like… a shell, maybe?
As if responding to her interest, part of the thing shifted, revealing a gigantic red eye staring directly at her, glowing brightly enough to outshine spotlights.
Asami Amano. Vice President of the Nagamioka Middle School Student Council. Underdog. Granddaughter. Fearless. Reckless. Bitch.
"You've been talking to the student council secretary, huh." She stretches, seeming surprisingly unruffled by your appearance. "So you know my name. You gonna tell me yours or…?"
A name has never been required.
"The fuck does that mean?"
Exactly what was said.
"So what, you don't have a name at all?"
Correct.
Her face makes an expression that you are hard-pressed to identify. "Fuck it then, I've gotta call you something, and you've got a spiky shell, so you're Bowser now."
You have no idea what the word "Bowser" means, but if it eases communication with Asami Amano, then you expect no harm will come from it. Very well.
"Cool." She then gives you an appraising stare. "Kind of a weird dream, though. My subconscious is pretty awesome, but it doesn't usually come up with crap like this."
You misunderstand. Your subconscious is not responsible for this Dream.
"Okay, I can recognize a leading statement when I hear one," she says, folding her arms. "So talk. If this isn't my dream, whose is it? Yours?"
Yes.
She waits for some time, then scowls. "You gonna tell me why or what?"
An Arbiter is required. You were the most suitable candidate.
Her scowl deepening, she demands, "And what's an Arbiter exactly?"
The eyes through which I see. The ears through which I hear.
"Uhhh, you've got eyes." She vaguely gestures in your direction. "Or, well, at least one eye. You're telling me you can't see with that thing?"
What is seen is insufficient.
Another appraising look. "Riight. So what are you wanting to see?"
You pause. Is it best to reveal this information? She is the best candidate for Arbiter, but she seems… less than cooperative so far. Still, you cannot see the harm she can deal; she would need far more time with your energy to even hope to wield it against you, and you see no way for her to use her own inherent magic without a catalyst.
Even so, perhaps caution is best. She does not need the details of why you seek information at the moment. Unfamiliar magic exists. You bear the potential to wield it, and thus to reveal its workings.
"Normally I'd be skeptical about the whole magic thing," she frowns, "but it's a dream so whatever. So. On top of all the other things that make me a good candidate for your thing, I can also learn magic. Cool."
You consider correcting her misapprehension that she was the best candidate on merit, but decide against it. She is more cooperative this way.
"Here's a question, though: if you don't understand the magic bullshit I've got, how are you expecting to learn anything about it? Ain't like I know how to shoot lightning out of my fingertips or whatever."
A pertinent, and astute, question. Surprisingly so, given Asami Amano's general demeanour up until now. You will have to remember that she is more intelligent than she presents herself as. Observations suggest that by suffusing some of my own energy through you, a connection can be formed between that energy and your own. Your magic would likely be awakened in the process, permitting further study as you learn to use it.
She takes a moment to digest that. "And what happens if I decide I don't want your energy inside me?"
Some already resides within you. It radiates from the Frozen Flame you bear; simply by possessing it, you have exposed yourself to it.
"What, you couldn't have fucking asked before you did that?!"
No.
"And why the fuck not?!"
My energy is the only medium through which communication with you can occur.
"...so you literally couldn't until I absorbed some energy?" she asks suspiciously. "That's the story you're going with?"
It is no story. Without such a connection, you could not share my Dream in this manner.
She grunts in what you suspect is annoyance. "And I guess you're a little big to be dropping by the apartment to talk in person. But you still haven't answered my question: what if I want out?"
The energy within you is sufficient to learn from your magic even if you were to immediately discard the Frozen Flame and seek out another catalyst to awaken your magic, though at a far more inefficient rate.
"And if I want your weird magic energy out of my body?"
No method is known at this time.
"Fuckin' figures," she growls. "So no matter what I do, I'm stuck with your magic in me?"
Yes.
"And if I break your stupid rock?"
Without your magic unlocked, you lack the resources to damage the Frozen Flame.
"And with my magic?"
The results would be difficult to predict.
"So you don't know either." She eyes you appraisingly. "...what about with your magic?"
Possessing the energy necessary to destroy the Frozen Flame is beyond your body's capacity.
"But it could happen in theory."
Yes.
She takes a moment to consider that. "Fuck it. I'm keeping your damn rock until I absorb enough energy to break it."
That is an unwise course of action.
She flashes a defiant grin at you. "So? Ain't never stopped me before."
This is not what you had anticipated, and you're beginning to worry. Your Progenitor's Arbiter was insane, but not actively hostile to your Progenitor; there's no provision for a situation like this in your genetic memory. If she turns out to be capable of wielding your power to the extent that would be required to break the Frozen Flame, it's possible that she could wield enough of it to destroy you. Not likely, but possible. Either way, simply breaking the Flame could have unforeseen effects on your ability to interact with the world. Or, if it turns out she's less capable than she claims to be, she could end up destroying herself with your power, and you're far from certain what would happen to you if she did.
Unfortunately, you simply don't know how to talk her out of this, since basic caution is clearly an insufficient motivator. You will have to Dream again, and see if somewhere in your genetic memory is a way to uncouple yourself from an Arbiter, or to push her away from this self-destructive path.
At bare minimum, however, you can ensure that she will not easily remember you outside of Dreams. Without remembering the context of this conversation, her motivation to destroy the Frozen Flame should lessen.
...time is required for consideration. We will converse again. And with that, you end the Dream, allowing Asami Amano to return to her own natural dreams, in the process cutting off what appears to be the beginnings of a rather angry retaliatory rant.
Asami woke up feeling frustrated. Well, more so than normal; her shitty life and the shitty world she lived in were more than enough reason to wake up angry at the world, but today… well, she spent more than a few minutes glaring balefully at the crystal from yesterday, even though there was no possible way the crystal could be responsible for her mood.
That didn't stop her from dumping it into her backpack alongside her schoolbooks before heading to school, though. It was too damn cold to go without this weird space heater rock, even if its red glow did seem more ominous than it did yesterday.
The Incubator watched, as invisible as ever, as Asami Amano took the crystal with her to school, and considered what they had learned. Asami Amano's potential had always been high, but during the night, it had begun to fluctuate, generally higher than before but with traces of the unknown energy that permeated the crystal. Unprecedented and concerning. Only rarely did Incubators encounter something other than themselves that could affect potential that drastically; when they had, twice they had been forced to abandon a planet in order to avoid losing an unacceptable amount of energy to such fluctuations, and another more serious incident had forced the Incubator to kill several hundred of their bodies in order to quarantine a self-propagating psychic attack on the entire Incubator race. While this situation didn't appear to be anywhere near that drastic, it definitely required some lengthy observation, if only to determine the best course of action for Asami Amano. Overall, an unfortunate necessity, as the Incubators had intended to turn her into a magical girl within the next month or so in order to maximize her eventual power output, but under the circumstances, doing so seemed too risky until they knew exactly what this crystal was doing to her potential.
Still, delaying her recruitment wouldn't cause significant difficulties in terms of the overall efficiency in Nagamioka. Asami Amano would be quite useful as a way to remove problematic meguca, but for now, few of those existed in the Nagamioka region, and the Incubator didn't anticipate that changing any time soon. After all, Momoko Kirasagi ran a well-controlled operation that ensured that no meguca in Nagamioka could establish a harmful status quo. Asami Amano shouldn't be needed in any serious capacity as long as nothing untoward happened to Momoko Kirasagi.
And if their calculations were correct, Momoko Kirasagi would endure for quite some time.
I would like to request that any feedback you guys give be gentle. I tend to take criticism much harder than I should, even if it's deserved. That being said, I have no emotional reaction (except maybe embarrassment) to spelling/grammar mistakes being pointed out, so no need to sugarcoat any of that if you see it.
This was really good! I highly enjoyed your characterization of Kyuuby and 'Bowser', the writing flowed well, and I'm eager to see if you continue this.
It was deliberate, but only because I couldn't remember what Kyubey uses in canon and "meguca" flowed best with my interpretation of their thought processes.
This was really good! I highly enjoyed your characterization of Kyuuby and 'Bowser', the writing flowed well, and I'm eager to see if you continue this.
Given the warm reception this has gotten from both Quests, I might just do so if inspiration strikes. Hopefully if it does, it won't take me another five months to get it to work; Asami kinda fought me a lot on this one.
