Shards of a Broken Sun [Deprecated; see link in final post for remake]

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 88:88

She couldn't make a decision. Not now, when she was so tired, most of her mind missing - some of it literally so. She was grateful for the chance to heal herself, of course, but she needed time to rest, time to complete the healing, and to understand its offer.

Nor did it seem entirely trustworthy. Approaching her now was timely, in the sense that any later might have been too late, but why not earlier? She would have been better able to judge, then.

"I could hardly stand by and allow my sole glimmer of hope to be destroyed."

That wasn't an answer.

"I could not have intervened before, in any form you would have appreciated. If you ask, you will learn that I am insane; indeed, that I am humanity's insanity and self-hate personified. Every self-destructive impulse, every act of cruelty, every dark side of every human there is; I am them, as they are me, though they aren't my entire being."

Fear, simple and stark. This was not convincing.

"It could not be otherwise. Humanity is polarised, split through whether or not it wishes to accept the status quo. Every spiteful act of cruelty is also rebellion against the nature of humanity itself, every happy thought implicitly an acceptance of that nature. There is a light to my darkness, but it does not wish for change. Fear is justified, for I am evil, but that is not all which I am; every scientist seeking to bend Kagutsuchi to their whims, every justified rebel, they are also me."

How could she possibly trust a being like that?

"By not dealing with the entirety."

What?

"My full self is too vast to care about a tiny spark of light such as yourself. Further, I am largely insane, only capable of acting through grandiose and dramatic acts that may, for a time, allow some part of me lucidity. However, I am an evil that seeks to destroy itself, and I am not singular. The part which you are talking to is the part that truly desires to destroy Kagutsuchi. You should be familiar with the notion that parts of you can act on their own, but pray that you never meet Nyx, for it is the pure expression of suicide."

Like her charas? Those are practically different people, though -

The darkness seemed to study her, pushing inwards in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. A gentle golden glitter marked the point where it pushed against Integrity-Protecting Prana. It let up after a moment.

"Not… precisely like that, no. Dear child, do you believe that you are Amu?"

Well, of course!

But all around her, she could hear gentle laughter.

"Your existence is not so simple. You are a shadow, a mirror reflecting her desire to understand herself, or perhaps a dream given function but not form. Look at yourself."

At herself?

Bereft of the charm that kept her functional, and contained by Nyarlathotep's inward pressure, her mind had disintegrated into a million shards of thought and habit. She was a whirlpool, a primordial soup of mind-stuff that was slowly seeking a configuration that would let it function despite the damage. It was beautiful, but tainted; burnt areas and outright gaps outlined the damage she had taken during the end of the world, and although her mind automatically sought to repair itself, it could not succeed in doing so - there were too many flaws, too much lost. Left to its own devices, only insanity awaited. Moreover, it could not currently be said to be a functioning mind of any sort.

Half-consciously she reached out, feeling out the shape of a missing piece and selecting the closest equivalent to clone and insert. It wouldn't be ideal, but it'd grow to fit. The graft quickly took, settling down to discuss protocol with its neighbours rather than immediately doing the job it was meant for.

"With a mind like that, how could we discourse?"

They couldn't, was the answer; she couldn't have understood, not anything. And yet, she understood, and she recognised the place where Nyarlathotep's mind touched hers.

His voice, she understood, was her own. Not literally, and not truly a voice, but imagined by the same section of her mind which she had copied from Su; an idiot-savant algorithm that had once been part of herself, as it was once again.

Herself?

This wasn't her. She was looking at - no, she could see her own thoughts, and some of them involved the functional parts of her mind; in part, if not in whole. Others… there was a part of herself where she could not see, a black box that was black because to see through it would be paradox. It was capable, somehow, of extracting lucidity from bedlam.

The voice wasn't real. Nevertheless, it sounded pensive.

"I do not truly understand. You are not a shadow, not a persona, not a chara or any other extension of the self that Kagutsuchi is forced to allow when his cycle is close to an end. You are all of those things and none; a fragment that does not conform, a piece that does not fit. You should have been destroyed, your existence erased, unless through the will of your origin or the intervention of greater powers you had crystallised as an independent entity, but you have not."

It sounded excited, now. She could almost imagine it as a lab-coated man shouting 'Eureka'.

"Every possibility denied, Kagutsuchi's light should have burned you from existence, but Kagutsuchi is sickened and unable to act. Philemon's gambit might have allowed you life as a chara, yet you are not budding off. You are a fraction of her mind, more deeply embedded by the moment."

[No system can contain itself], her sleeping mind offered up. [Nor can they model themselves, without handling infinite regression.]

"Perhaps I am making a distinction where none exists. I am the shadow of humanity, but you, Amu, are no longer human, and so I am not fully your shadow."

It might have decided she was Amu, but she was no longer certain. Whatever the truth, how did this apply to whether or not she could trust it?

"I expect you will see my point, once you are back in proper shape."

No, again, that wasn't…

"I am not separate from humanity. What I do, I do out of human desire. If I have attempted to destroy humanity, it is because humanity is suicidal; if I have failed, it is because enough of it is not. Even a trapped animal will eventually tear itself to pieces trying to escape, though it will not deliberately commit suicide, but humanity is far more than a mere animal. I will not claim that humanity's demise would sadden me, while it remains the sole escape. It does not. You have little true choice, for if Kagutsuchi creates a new world you will be destroyed, and I will eventually be reborn. One day, if humanity remains locked up, my other purpose will succeed."

But she didn't want humanity to destroy itself!

"You are but one person, out of many. If you were typical, I would not exist."

This was too much. She could barely think, how could she possibly make a choice like this?

"Indeed, you wished for rest…"

Please!

"Time is limited, but there are still many days ahead. Very well; we shall talk later."

The darkness drew back, settling into a featureless sphere around her mind. Gratefully, uncertain about its purpose but trusting in her charms to protect her if it came to that, she allowed herself to relax, releasing her grip on the parts of Amu she'd used to talk.

And her mind dissolved // exoself autonomous mode enabled // exiting supervisory/hybrid mode.

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 18:30

The first time she woke, she was still tired.

Amu blearily opened her eyes, which felt like they'd been glued shut, and saw the underside of Utau's bed. The blonde pigtail hanging next to her head told her Utau was still in it. A further shift of her eyes, towards the bed next to her, discovered Mom reading a book.

The silence was profound.

If she'd had the energy, she would have made a sound. But her body was a lead brick, the bed was nice and warm, and she still felt tired - actual tiredness, not the strange not-tiredness she'd felt earlier - and for all those reasons her eyelids slid shut, having remained open only for moments.

Still, she went to sleep with a smile on her lips.

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 20:00

The second time she woke, it was because the room had turned noisy.

She felt almost normal. Tired, yes, exceptionally so, but it was a normal tiredness. The tiredness of having woken up too early, rather than the tiredness of almost having killed herself saving the world. It was something she could deal with, the enthusiastic chatter of her friends as they played their hundredth game of cards a symbol of normality that she wouldn't give up for anything.

And before she'd even pushed herself upright, from the moment she started moving, Mom was there to support her and fuss over her. She was treating her just like she had the very few times she'd been sick, the last time for which was sometime in pre-school prehistory that she barely remembered, but Amu found she was okay with being fussed over. Just this once.

"Thanks, Mom." She smiled. Mom smiled back. Lots of smiles, especially once she realised the simple, normally taken for granted fact that they could understand each other. There was a slightly alien quality to that understanding, subtly deeper shades of meaning to the words which she would normally attribute to Su, and still might, but it was very welcome all the same.

She had a glass of water, and a hug, and confirmed that her sisters were still sleeping with Utau, Eru and Iru. Daughters, Nyarlathotep had called them, but she was almost certain that sisters was more appropriate; twins, or possibly older siblings, though Ran could be quite childish at times. If she could get them full-sized bodies, they'd be absolutely identical except for the hair.

Shortly thereafter, to her chagrin, she found she'd been surrounded by a flock - a crowd? A chattering? - Of Guardians, all of whom were insistent on making sure she was okay, and equally insistent on telling her about their day, talking over each other to the point where she could barely make out anything they were saying.

"- Then your mom asked us to hide under the table," Tadase said, overriding Yaya's complaints about how boringeverything here was. "She's cool, but the earthquake wasn't that large, right? Why -"

"It's a military base, stupid, of course nothing would -" She couldn't even make out which one of her friends had said that.

"No it's not, it's the diet building. Why are we in the diet? I want to go home."

And so on. Amu looked helplessly at Mom.

"All right, children, that's enough for now. Calm down, please."

They did, coming to attention like a well-trained group of squirrels, which was to say in a particularly ragged fashion. Amu's mouth twitched at the mental image, then she made a half-hearted attempt to clean herself up and sit a little straighter. At least this time she wasn't waking up half-dressed.

"Now, then. Yaya, you already know why you can't go home yet. The subways are still broken and fuel is being rationed, so unless you want to walk…" Mom sounded a little exasperated. Yaya looked unhappy at the statement, but this had the feel of an old argument.

"The subways are broken?" Amu asked. She was already wondering about the consequences, head spinning with thoughts of logistics and - no, that wasn't her business, but this was bad. Pretty much everything would be harder without them.

"Damaged by the earthquakes," Mom agreed. "They're still mapping the damage, but getting them working again is everyone's first priority. I don't know when they'll be working again."

"And Japan as a whole is in a state of emergency, and we haven't even been allowed to leave the building," Tadase said. "And Utau is taking care of your charas, even the new one that's still in her egg! What's up with that, when did the two of you get all friendly? How did you know there were earthquakes coming?" Bizarrely, he sounded more upset about Utau than anything else.

"I heard some kind of demon has been blowing people up, jumping around between cities," Nadeshiko interjected. Amu gave a start; her classmate sounded unusually serious. Another demon?

"Nadeshiko!" Mom said sharply, making her cringe.

"It's true, though," she muttered.

Mom sighed, clearly frustrated. "Yes, it's true, they're calling it Dubhe, but - Amu, I don't want you trying to go after it, understand? JPs is working on it, and it isn't here, it's teleporting between cities, so there's nothing you can do anyway. Just rest, Amu. Please?"

Resting still sounded nice. She felt more like herself than she had since yesterday, even if her friends' worries and complaints were more serious than usual. More like a young girl who, even if she wanted to, couldn't do anything on her own.

She hadn't heard from her exaltation since the world had ended, so maybe that was even true; maybe the only people she needed to worry about were people like her crush, Tadase, or her best friend, Nadeshiko. She didn't think they'd even need to fight Utau again; if she was in trouble, with Easter or her family, they'd find a solution together. Somehow.

But she remembered her dreams, Nyarlathotep's request and Kagutsuchi's exhortation, and wondered if it'd really be that simple.

[ ] Be a child, and have fun with your friends.
[ ] Ask Nadeshiko what she knows about Dubhe.
[ ] Did anyone even tell them what happened to the world? It would worry them, but they deserve the truth.
[ ] Write-in

A/N: About ten hours until the exaltation is accessible.

 

[Baughn]

Long chapter is long.

Also I'm having to project about twenty plot lines right now, including Lucifer's, just in order to figure out precisely how Dia should be acting. But it's getting there. Then again, I was proofreading the earlier parts of the chapter, and it occurs to me that there's one point where you really should be getting a choice.. so here, have part one!

=============================================​

​

She knew she should go see if there was anything she could do to help. If there was a demon killing people, then playing around with her friends was the last thing she should do; she deserved to have fun as well, of course she did, but she was just a single person. Shut up and multiply, in the words of… someone she couldn't remember, or more likely than not someone she'd never actually met. Pointless to wonder about.

She should be doing something, but only if there was something she could do, and she still felt terrible. Tired, sore… ideally she'd rest the rest of the night, so she'd be better able to help tomorrow. Right?

Amu looked around, at Mom's hopeful face and Nadeshiko's frustrated one, not to mention all of her other friends. Ikuto and Utau counted as part of that group - they had to - and both of them were completely conked out; Mom had gotten a little loud, and they still laid there unmoving. Then, it had to be okay if she - what?

She opened her mouth, unsure of what to say, until her eyes fell on the pack of cards spread across a table.

"- Do you want to play a game?"

Her voice sounded uncertain even to herself, but Mom's smile was almost enough to make her think she'd done the right thing.

———————​

The room was quiet, silence only broken by the far-off noises of a busy bureaucracy. For four of the five children, chatter had long since given way to intense concentration; for the fifth, the fallout from her almost casual victories was precluding any of her normal attempts at merrymaking.

The first few times she'd won, everyone had thought it was amusing; pure luck, since she was usually so bad at card games. Truth to tell, Amu had agreed. The mood had changed after her fourth straight victory, with Tadase deciding to give his all to defeat her, then again when the other three had allied against her at the sixth.

After she'd won the seventh, all four had gone into a huddle and were now sitting on the same side of the table. She'd even offered to go easy on them, not that they'd accepted. She was almost certain this was cheating, but…

Amu glanced up at the counter-Amu alliance, then smiled sickly and quickly looked down at her cards as Yaya glared at her. She could almost make out their whispered conversations, but from the intense and ongoing argument she didn't think they had a good plan for this hand either. The way things were going, she'd probably win again.

The score was 75-68 in her favour, Nadeshiko holding the 75, and she was almost certain Yaya held the queen of spades; there was no other way to make everything add up. Statistically, maybe… um, four-fifths chance?

She really wanted pen and paper, itching to figure out the exact number, but that was silly. Besides, Miki was already…

Well, if she was wrong she'd be behind, but not by that much. Hopefully they could stop after she'd won for the eighth time.

———————​

"I'll raise another ten." Miki smiled confidently, then involuntarily yawned. "No, make that twenty. I think this'll be the last round for me."

"Um, Miki? I don't have…" Daichi said.

"Then call?" She grinned maliciously. "Of course, after you woke me up just because Amu was awake, I can't possibly let you go that easily. How about you raise with your shirt?"

Daichi blinked, looking startled. "Uh…"

"Miki!" Su sounded so scandalised, she had to chuckle.

"Oh, don't worry about it. Who wants your shirt anyway?" She said. Besides, he'd just make a new one. It'd be fun to watch him embarrassed without it, but there was probably no way she'd get him to agree to that kind of bet without matching it, and she wasn't going to do that. No way, no how, and especially not with everyone else here. Nope. At least Yoru was still asleep… too bad she wasn't, but she'd already cleaned them out of… well, admittedly she was the one who'd made the coins, so nothing, really. It was still fun.

A few seconds passed.

She looked tetchily at Temari. "Heey. Are you going to play, or what?"

Temari blinked, shook off her slight blush and shook her head. "Um… right, sorry. I'll… raise that bet by another five!"

Daichi groaned, and the game went on; six sort-of-friends, sort-of-accessories mirroring their origins by playing poker at a tiny table set on the middle of the larger one. Six, because Pepe wasn't playing - it was generally acknowledged that she was useless at pretty much everything, even if they'd never say that.

———————​

"Ace of hearts, Amu? Really? Well, I guess we'll win this one."

"I only have aces left, see." Amu shrugged, and watched Tadase pale. She'd already taken all the penalty cards except the queen, and she had every ace in the pack. That was the only reason she'd risked this gambit.

"Which means… you've already won," Yaya said.

"Afraid so." She hadn't expected Yaya to immediately realise that… no, that wasn't a nice thing to think. Yaya wasn't dumb, just sometimes childish.

"Aaagh!" Yaya threw her hand on the table. "When did you get this good?"

"Now, now, it's just a game," Tadase said while comforting Yaya with a hand on the shoulder. "I think I'd like to know that too, though. Did you find a book explaining it, or something?"

His eyes told her that an answer had better be forthcoming.

"Well, that's…" Amu said. How should she put it? "That's actually…"

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to," Nadeshiko gently told her. She'd been fidgeting, listening to the sounds of the building and paying close attention to the charas' poker game, and Amu thought she probably already had a good idea that something was off.

"No, I want to," she said. "I don't want to keep this many secrets. Besides, it could be important." She eyed Mom, who'd holed up in one of the free beds and was reading a book again, to all appearances ignoring everything. She knew better than to think that was really the case, but that was okay, so long as she kept to her usual strategy of noninterference.

[ ] Tell them just enough to satisfy them.
[ ] Tell them everything.
[ ] Write-in

A/N: All your other votes are still valid. Think of this as a nested scene.

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 20:30

"Explanation time, then. There's a lot to tell, and I still don't understand everything that happened - I haven't had a lot of time to think about it - but I'll do my best." She sighed, feeling a bit sheepish. The other four leaned in towards her.

"What happened to me is called an exaltation," Amu said, gathering her thoughts.

Nadeshiko tentatively spoke up. "Does it have anything to do with - whatever is happening outside? Nobody wants to say anything, but I can tell -" She stalled, looking uncertain.

"To a degree." Amu nodded. "As I said, I don't understand everything. But for me, this started yesterday, while I was in the park with Mom. I heard raised voices and noise in the distance, but Mom was asleep, so I ran over to investigate and found a fight in progress"

She quickly recapitulated the fight with Samael, paying special attention to how scary it had been, but touching only lightly on the grisly consequences to many of the cultists. Come to think of it, she'd never asked what had happened to the ones that JPs had taken into custody. Yaya and Kukai still ended up looking green.

"I couldn't do anything. Not at first, not by myself. I was debating running away, but by defending myself from that first cat-demon I had given Samael room to appear and start killing people, so I really wanted to do something to help - I just had no idea what. That's when the Exaltation made its first appearance. Um, I'm still not entirely sure what it is, but it seems to be some kind of alien superweapon designed to help people… It does a couple different things, but mostly it seems to let me do everything better. It changed the 'Open Heart' beams so they can actually hurt demons, if I focus on them the right way."

She noticed Mom paying very close attention, but decided not to worry about it.

"So I used that, and eventually my attacks made the dragon-thing - I mean, Samael - fade away into nothingness. That's when it got complex. You see…"

She couldn't help but frown. "Turns out Samael had been summoned by a guy who wanted to end the world. And it distracted everyone enough that he managed to get away, and the government people here, JPs, couldn't track him in time. The Exaltation - uh, I just kind of call it my passenger right now; if it has a name, it hasn't given it to me - mentioned that there was a big disaster probably going to happen soon, which suggests that the guy was going to succeed... So it provided a couple ideas to us, Miki and I put our heads together with some of the people here, and we figured out how to keep him from fully succeeding."

She deflated a bit at that. "I... Couldn't really stop it totally... It was... Really, really big, really... Really strong... But my passenger helped, Miki and Ran helped, even Ikuto helped, and I gave it everything I could... And the end of the world gave up first. After that, there's a whole lot of strange stuff that I don't really understand yet, and my Passenger hasn't talked to me since the end of it, but I don't think it's completely gone, I can still use some of the power that it gave me if I have to - that's probably why I managed to get so good at cards, it literally made me smarter, plus I know a lot of math now. A lot of things that used to be hard for me just come naturally I guess - kind of like a permanent Character Transformation almost? I think figuring it out's going to take a while, but maybe I'll actually have a while now? I mean, the End of the World didn't happen and while things are a bit different I guess, I still managed to protect all of you, so that's fine, right?"

Wasn't it?

She finished her speech in a hurry, trying to convince herself as much as her friends. Of course everything wasn't fine - most people had died - but she'd done the best she could. Hadn't she?

Afterwards they sat quietly, her four friends looking various degrees of uncertain and shell-shocked. She hoped they'd be able to stay friends, at least, but - well, she'd tinted her retelling to stop them from trying to help. Not to push them away, definitely not that, but that might happen anyway. Would they still want to be friends with her, now that they knew she could do things like that?

Quietly, she collected Ran and Miki and put them in her shirt pockets. The two of them had had some fun, but they were sleeping again now. That was okay, though. She was happy to have seen them waking up at all, and she was pretty sure they'd be back to normal by morning.

Yaya still looked sick.

Of course she would. That was the normal, sane reaction. She understood enough psychology to know that, even if it seemed useless for helping her to actually get along with anyone. She was the odd one, there; she thought about the battle, body parts strewn across the blood-soaked mud of Yoyogi park, but felt only righteous anger - that, and sorrow for the dead - not even a hint of queasiness. It wouldn't be useful? No, but it would be human. Uuu~

Amu never even noticed the miserable look on her face, but Yaya did, and shortly afterwards she felt a familiar pair of arms wrapping around herself. She'd seen her coming, but hadn't made a move to accept or reject her.

It hadn't mattered.

"You're right," Yaya said. "It really is hard to understand. But, Amu -"

Yaya glared around herself, making emphatic movements with her head until the others got the picture and joined her in a group hug. Even Tadase, though he looked a little reluctant and Yaya had to frown especially hard at him. Amu felt reluctant herself, not to mention flushed; Yaya was the only one who tended to do this. She looked at Mom for help, but there was none to be had there. Mom just looked amused, the traitor.

"- You know we'll help you no matter what, right? You're the Joker, but before that you're my best friend. I won't let you down, and I won't let you do this alone. Even if I can't help directly, I can still help with… um…" She'd started her speech sounding sure of herself, but now she was glancing around wildly and visibly stretching for some - any - kind of suitable ending. "- fetching snacks?"

Amu had to laugh, all the more so when Nadeshiko vetoed the suggestion.

"Denied!" She said. "You'd just eat them before even getting out of the kitchen. We'll stick with the traditions, which means not you."

Yaya pouted.

"…Thanks," Amu finally managed once she got her laughter under control. "I needed that. Just to be clear, though - you will not be fighting demons, okay? I mean, I don't think any more of them will show up, except for -"

Her mood turned grim once again. Right, a second one had already shown up.

"Just don't, okay?"

She wished she was better at convincing people.

Yaya released her, then studied her intently for a minute. She shifted uncomfortably, trying not to react. People were doing that too often, lately; she'd never been happy with close scrutiny.

"Stop holding it in, idiot," Yaya hissed. Amu blinked at the sudden shift in topic; Yaya sounded upset. "Do you think I can't tell?"

Tell… tell what? Was she holding anything in?

Emotional node suppression in effect, exoself routine [ref#9c] active.
Warning, adjusting for incompatible adjunct exokernel.
Warning, exoself manifest incomplete: 97.5% data loss.
Defaulting to Rindler orthodoxy for autonomous mode.​

Well… She supposed she was still holding back some of her reactions, but she could keep that up indefinitely and process the experiences when she didn't need to be clear-headed. Which was to say, overnight. It'd be fine.

"Um, Yaya," she said. "I'll be fine, I just need some sleep…"

That wasn't nearly enough to satisfy her, and Amu needed to do some fast talking to convince Yaya that she wasn't about to break like an egg. She eventually gave in, but Amu had a feeling that was purely temporary.

Then she needed to answer Tadase, Kukai and Nadeshiko's questions.

———————​

"So that's… but then…"

Kukai and Tadase had stopped their questions rather quickly, apparently more than happy not to know all the details, but Nadeshiko had kept going until she had at least a basic understanding of how the world worked now. Afterwards she'd sat back and started mumbling to herself, and Amu was getting a little tired of listening to her; she'd kept it up for at least three minutes already.

"Nadeshiko," she interrupted. "Whatever you're trying to work out, it'd probably be easier if you just asked, but do you mind if I ask you a few questions first?"

Nadeshiko stilled, while Amu worked out what to say. She'd been trying to avoid this point, but -

"That new demon that appeared. Did you call it Dubhe?"

She could see Mom freeze in the middle of turning a page, and Amu tried to head her off. "I don't mean to fight it, or anything, but I'd like to know what's going on. I've mostly been out of touch for the last few hours."

"That's right," Nadeshiko confirmed. "I heard some soldiers talking about it. I guess you want to know what they said?"

Amu nodded.

"Not an awful lot, really. It shows up somewhere - usually somewhere crowded - explodes, and disappears again a few minutes later. It takes an hour to show up again, usually somewhere completely different, so they only managed to catch it once and apparently couldn't hurt it. I was trying to figure out why it could show up at all, if the dragon seal is supposed to stop that kind of thing."

Amu frowned.

"The seal can't completely stop demons from showing up," she admitted. "Not even before the end of the world, and Kagutsuchi was far better at enforcing reality than the seal is. The details are really complex, but I guess the main difference is that Kagutsuchi is sapient."

Nadeshiko looked like a question mark. "Sapi…what?"

"Um. It can think, and react to things like demons if they show up?" She hazarded. "Samael demonstrated that they can show up anyway, but I think he was invited in somehow…" She bit her lip. "I might be able to do something… if I could focus the seal more strongly on Dubhe's location, I could stop it from getting away or at least make it vulnerable…"

She could have kicked herself. How could she have missed it? If only she'd started thinking about Dubhe earlier, people would still be… no, but Nadeshiko said it showed up once per hour, and they hadn't spent more than half an hour playing cards. Hopefully it hadn't shown while she'd been doing that, and wouldn't do so while she was convincing Fumi to let her help.

A thin hope. She'd be getting pretty close to the hour mark by the time she could get that far, and she wasn't even sure how she'd do it. "Focus the seal on Dubhe's location" sounded a lot simpler than it was, especially if she was going to do so without breaking anything else. She needed help of some sort, but her passenger wasn't around. Maybe Fumi would know enough?

- Up in Utau's bed, maybe twenty centimetres from her head while she was sitting here and carefully arranged on a pillow despite being essentially invulnerable. Her fourth egg, which hadn't hatched yet but which she was almost certain had something to do with manipulating reality at a deeper level than the instinctual changes the other three - and she herself - knew how to do. Months ago Tadase had told her that trying to wake a Shugo Chara prematurely was meaningless, but a lot had happened since then. She probably knew more about them than Tadase had, now, and she did have some ideas.

Should she take the chance? It would take time. Five minutes, at least, even if she failed.

Belatedly she glanced at Mom, and their gazes locked. Mom looked… Mom looked drawn, and afraid, but she wasn't saying anything…

[ ] Try to wake Dia
- [ ] How, specifically?
[ ] Don't risk spending the time, run off to Fumi immediately
[ ] Try to reassure Mom
- [ ] Again, how?
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

Sunday's Melancholy, 20:45

"No… using the seal is probably too much, especially with everything else that's going on," she mused. "It could easily do more harm than good. There must be something I can do, though…"

Dubhe did stop for a while, right? Even though it was under attack? Then, if she could get them to tell her everything they knew about the demon, she might be able to predict its attacks well enough for JPs forces to take care of it. Maybe she could even think of a plan that would let them do so safely. She wasn't sure how her sudden understanding of warfare stacked up against professionals - adults who'd spent most of their life planning for how to fight demons, even - but she could use some of her leftover power to stack the odds.

Amu nodded to herself. That sounded reasonable, didn't it?

"I'll go ask Makoto how they're doing, maybe help her out if I can," she said. "I won't do anything crazy, I promise, but somehow I know a lot about how to run battles and I need to take advantage of that if I can." She smiled at Mom as she said that, hoping to reassure her, and it did seem to relieve her a little. "You guys probably shouldn't come, though; I'm sure they're crowded already. Mom, can you make sure -"

She didn't finish the sentence, blushing slightly. What she was actually asking was for Mom to make sure none of her friends followed her and got in her way, but putting it like that would have been bad; it was almost like saying she didn't want them around. She didn't want more of a gap to open up between them.

The silence stretched for a long second.

"Amu's right - it's about time we eat something, don't you think?" Mom asked, getting up and deftly encouraging her friends to do the same. "Follow me, children. Amu, we'll be in the cafeteria for a while, so don't take too long."

Mom winked at her. Then they left, trailing behind her like ducklings behind their mother, and Amu was left blinking. Misdirection? Outright lies, actually, though she hadn't said anything that would imply they shouldn't have supper.

She took a second to tuck her sisters in with Utau again.

Thanks, Mom, she thought, and left the room with a smile on her lips.

———————​

As it turned out, they weren't alone in their area of the barracks anymore. After she left her room, she noticed the door to the room across from hers had been left open; unlike her own, that one appeared to be meant for a single person, with a single bed that was visible from the corridor.

There were two people sitting on that bed. A boy and a girl, both roughly Ikuto's age; both plainly Japanese, though the girl's hair was a light brown that looked rather like her own. They looked cute together, holding hands and leaning against each other. It might have made her smile, if they hadn't so obviously been trying to comfort each other. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but both their expressions and the way they were physically clinging to each other told her they were in bad shape. If she hadn't had something important to do, she would have walked up to them and tried to help.

"Hinamori Amu?"

Amu looked away, nodded to the private who'd walked up to her and said, "That's me. Is there a problem?"

The soldier shrugged. "I have instructions from Kanno to bring you to see her once you're up and about. Are you a relative of hers, perhaps?" Seeing her puzzled look, he continued, "Not that it's any concern of mine, young miss. If you'll come with me, then?"

Fumi had left someone to fetch her?

That was convenient. It felt a little odd to be addressed like that, but she put it out of her mind along with the two teenagers. "Of course. Please lead the way."

———————​

"Kanno-san?" The secretary asked. "She's still in the war room, and I'm afraid it might be a few hours until she's out, but I'd be happy to look after Amu-chan until then. I didn't know she had such a cute little sister, though?"

"Would you?" Her guide sounded relieved. "You're a lifesaver, Riko. Oh, but I don't think they're siblings. Her family name is Hinamori, and…"

"They look nothing alike, true." The newly named Riko, a woman in her early twenties, completely ignored the lack of honorific on her name in order to study Amu closely. She could feel her face stiffening. "Maybe a friend of the family? Do you think -"

"The war room is through here, right?" Amu interrupted, pointing behind them. The sign saying 'War Room' suggested as much.

"Yes, but you mustn't interrupt," Riko said, looking sympathetic. "Kanno-san is busy with very important matters. I'll ask Keita to fetch some snacks while we wait, how's that?" Turning to her guide - Keita? - She continued, "That's fine, right? You can stay a little while?"

"Kanno-san did say not to leave until I'd brought Amu to her, so I guess so, but that's almost like a - I mean, is it okay to do that without inviting Ako?"

"It's fine, it's fine. We're just taking care of a lost child, all right? I mean, we'll see her in the evening, right?"

They were glancing sideways at each other and blushing. Amu's eyes flew back and forth, doing her best to keep up with their banter, but the meaning of their conversation largely escaped her.

"Well, when you put it like that." He leant in towards Riko, whispering something Amu couldn't make out which made Riko start grinning. Under different circumstances she would probably have found the scene fascinating, but not only were they totally treating her like a child - well, like just a child - but precious time was passing. That was partially her fault, though. She needed to be more assertive.

Bull through? Treat them like people her own age? The thought made her nervous, but they were getting more caught up in each other by the moment. At this rate, if she did nothing, she probably wouldn't even get those snacks for another half hour - er, not that she intended to go along with their plans.

Speaking loudly and tilting her feet to get a few extra millimeters of height, Amu said, "Actually, I really think you should let me through. I'm just guessing, but wouldn't Fumi's orders have specifically told you to bring me to her when I woke up?"

"Hm? They did," Keita admitted between whispers. "So I will, once she's free, but we can hardly interrupt her right now. Did you hear about Dubhe?" He went right on without even pretending to wait for an answer. "It's a scary thing, and Kanno-san is helping to find a way to stop it. You shouldn't interrupt her."

Right.

That type of speech. He wasn't just treating her like a child, he was treating her like a much younger child than she actually was. That was the final straw.

"I see. I think I'll need to make something clear." She narrowed her eyes, trying to project confidence. Surprisingly, it seemed to be working; at least, they were paying attention to her rather than each other now. "I'm not Fumi's sister. Nor am I her cousin, her sister-in-law, or any other kind of familial relation of hers. I am, in fact, not quite human."

Yep, she definitely had their attention now. She was partially lying - she hoped - but it seemed a reasonable enough way to explain it without spending an hour. She continued, "In other words, Fumi asked me to come because she wants my help, and I am not going to sit around here for a few hours while she's waiting. Now, either let me pass or ask her if you should let me in, but don't just stand there."

That worked. A minute later, a pale-looking Keita walked back into the room and told her, "You're free to enter, Ma'am."

She hurried over, but looked back in concern once she'd passed him. It seemed like she'd scared them, and that wasn't the impression she'd wanted to make either.

[ ] ...

A/N: Expect the second half tomorrow evening. I'm still not happy with this one, but I can't keep rewriting it.

 

[Baughn]

The "War Room", it turned out, was a large room whose walls were largely plastered with LCD screens, but Amu found herself disappointed - it didn't have a row of operators studying the screens, which were largely showing maps, and there was no dramatic shouting of orders like in anime. Instead there was just a small group of people shuffling papers around a central table, caught up in an intense discussion of what to do. To Amu's pleasure, if not surprise, she found she understood most of it at first glance.

She had a hard time not classifying half of the participants as 'generic soldiers', even though from their decorations they were decidedly not generic. There were two JSDF generals, as well as a foreigner whom she thought had to be from the local US forces. On the opposite side of the table were three JPs members she already knew - Hotsuin, Makoto and Fumi.

Well. On second glance, Fumi didn't really seem to be paying attention. Amu stepped forwards, attracting her gaze from the papers she was half-heartedly reading.

"Amu-chan? What are you doing here?" Fumi sounded, and looked, tired. Out of it, really; she was hardly taking part in the discussion anymore. That meant she was free to talk, but her condition worried Amu. It didn't look like she'd gotten any sleep yet, probably meaning she'd been awake since yesterday morning.

"Apparently you wanted to see me," she pointed out.

Fumi looked confused for a second, then her eyes lit up. She said, "Right, I forgot about that. I was hoping you could help with a few adjustments to the seal… actually I wanted to ask Miki, but the two - sorry, four of you seem to be a package deal." She blinked. "Where is Miki, by the way?"

"Sleeping." Amu grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, but I don't think she'll be around for a while. She woke up for a while when I did, half an hour ago, but the Conception really did a number on her. I know everything she does, though, so if there's anything important you need help with -"

"It's fine, I already took care of it," Fumi waved her off. "We're stable enough for the moment, and I don't think I should be doing anything else before I've gotten a good night's sleep. I was actually planning to be in bed by now, but then this thing with Dubhe came up - wait, did you hear about that?"

"I did," Amu said. She paused, gathering her thoughts. "That is to say, Dubhe is actually why I'm here. The private you sent didn't actually pick me up until I'd already left to come see you." She shot a skeptical glance back towards the door, then continued, "He had no idea why you wanted to see me, and I'm not sure he's very well drilled. He didn't precisely follow orders. Easily distracted, too, but I'm afraid I scared him a little."

"Oh, so that's what he was on about…" Fumi sighed. "Keita's nice, but that's half the problem. He probably didn't want to disturb you. I can see I'll need to be more specific in the future, but -" She waved at the others. Makoto glanced up for a moment. "As you can see, Dubhe is being handled. I don't think there's anything we need you here for at the moment."

But…

Fumi glanced away, and Amu wavered. It was hard, not to go with her habits - habits which told her that she'd effectively been dismissed, therefore she shouldn't interfere. So easy to think that they wouldn't hear her out, and that it would be embarrassing if she tried and failed. So easy to just leave.

She firmed up. No, that wasn't the character she wanted to have. Maybe Keita was right - maybe she didn't really understand warfare the way she seemed to think she did - but she didn't want to be the sort of person who would back out midway, or the sort who'd avoid anything she wasn't sure she could succeed at.

"Actually," she softly said, then continued in a rush, "Actually, I think I can help with Dubhe. I told you that's why I'm here - I've been thinking about some of the other skills I learned from the exaltation, and I'm pretty sure I can help you fight him."

Fumi stilled, glancing around minutely. "Are you saying you'd try to kill Dubhe like you defeated Samael? That's a nice thought, Amu-chan, but I don't think…"

"No, not that," she said, shaking her head. "You remember how it crammed a ton of science into my head, this morning? Well, I didn't really notice when it happened, but apparently it's also given me a good understanding of warfare, and I know I can use some motes - I mean, I can use some magic to help, but I don't know how well that really works, compared to - um, is he a three-star general?"

One of the JSDF generals was glancing in their direction, looking perplexed. Fumi quickly confirmed that yes, he was, then found to her consternation that Amu was hiding behind her.

"Amu?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Maybe. Sorta. She'd been finer. A three-star general commands an even 78,125 men, plus auxiliaries - no, that wasn't even true for her world, how was that a round number anyway, what was she thinking? She imagined seventy-eight thousand people all staring at her, wondering why she thought she could talk to their commander.

"All right." Fumi's eyelids were drooping, admittedly, but all right? All right? She was just about hyperventilating, what part of her looked like this was all right?

"Well, no use worrying about it, they're just going around in circles. I should probably introduce you."

She was going to what?

Fumi pushed her chair back, creating a horrible screeching noise. She got to her feet while smiling lopsidedly, not incidentally making everyone in the room look in their direction. Makoto looked more hassled by the discussion than Fumi, and Hotsuin just blinked, but every one of the military types were visibly frowning.

She wouldn't.

The discussions - arguments, really - cut off as effectively as if she'd fired a pistol in the air.

"Right, then. Gentlemen, ladies, and militaries of all the nations of the world - all two of you, if you're going to keep insisting on that - there's someone else I would like to introduce."

She couldn't?

Fumi stepped aside, taking away her hiding place. Amu barely stopped herself from cringing.

"Now, I understand that you're all very tied up with stopping Dubhe, and I understand that - really, I do - but it's been half a day, you've done a fat lot of nothing so far, and I would quite like to get to sleep already. Therefore -" Makoto was facepalming. "- Well, I'm sure you remember how the world almost ended earlier today, and you've been told that JPs is responsible for avoiding that brutal end. Well, that explanation wasn't quite accurate. We were lucky enough to run into this young lady yesterday, and she has been kind enough to help me with that task; I can say with absolute certainty that without her assistance none of us would be here now. As such, please allow me to introduce Hinamori Amu. I believe she has some input to offer."

A rising murmur greeted her as Fumi pulled her forwards. The american general was the first one to speak up, putting his hands on the table and leaning forward.

"Kanno-san. Is this some kind of joke?"

Amu's head was mostly full of exclamation marks. If she hadn't just decided not to run away, she almost certainly would have, but - she had. Answering them, though -

A beat.

Fumi wasn't saying anything.

A beat.

"No," she found herself saying. "Fumi was quite serious. I can see why you'd think so, but my appearance isn't relevant right now; I'm not quite what I appear. We should concern ourselves with Dubhe, not each other."

Her voice sounded strange to her ears. Almost alien, taking on the clipped, no-nonsense notes that a part of her - the part that was speaking - knew they'd expect from a peer, the exact opposite of what they'd expect from a child. That much was universal, but she could feel the smallest possible amount of essence teasing out the adjustments that best suited these particular soldiers.

She had, honestly, expected that to hurt a little; last time she used any, when she was diagnosing herself, it had put her out of sorts afterwards. But no, after her experiences over the last day she found it easy enough to control the flow. A thought redirected part of it outwards, making her caste mark glow brightly enough to be visible across the room.

The assembled generals shifted uneasily, while Makoto just looked defeated, but most of her attention was reserved for Hotsuin, who was - smirking? Just slightly, but definitely there.

[ ] Soft touch. Look at what they've tried, suggest ways to improve it.
[ ] Hard fist. Take the opportunity while they're off balance and push for your own solutions.
[ ] Write-in

A/N: It's pretty much guaranteed by now that Amu's plan will do well, whatever it is. As always, the side-effects are what vary. Fumi's quite a helpful character, but I can see why she might be frustrating to work with!

 

[Baughn]

"If we're going to take down Dubhe, I'll need to know everything you do. Your plans, the dispositions of your forces, every location it has appeared so far as well as what it did there - all the details. I assume you've already given instructions for the populace to be careful and avoid crowds, but that could only help so much. When was its last appearance?"

Not thirty seconds in, and her head was already spinning with thoughts. The assembled generals looked like they wanted to object to her questions, but she was enough of an out of context problem that they were willing to wait to see what happened - she guessed because of her slightly nonhuman attributes she looked like Hotsuin's problem, and he wasn't saying anything.

Amu saw Makoto look to Hotsuin, who nodded for her to go ahead.

"As you wish. I'll start from the most recent, a security checkpoint outside Niigata airport. Casualties were light owing to the shutdown order on commercial aviation, but largely consisted of policemen supported by JSDF troopers who were equipped with anti-tank weapons; it stayed for an unusually long time, apparently targeting those troopers specifically. Before then -"

The first few locations given made the pattern fairly obvious, but she stayed her voice until Makoto had gone through the entire list, not wanting to appear overconfident. More than one of the generals probably noticed that she was pulling out maps in advance, though. That was a rather understated way of demonstrating her ability - and not something she would have been able to deliberately accomplish, or even would have thought of trying - but it seemed to be doing something, with these people.

If there was something here to regret, it was that the most recent attack - the one on the airport - was no more than ten minutes ago.



Sunday's Melancholy, 15:00
NHK News Studio, Central Shibuya

"Ten, nine, eight -"

The stagehand stopped counting out loud. Aki watched his fingers as he counted down towards broadcast, wondering about what she was about to say. It sounded fantastic, but they wouldn't use the emergency broadcast system as a joke - no, and she'd seen the outdoors sky, and she'd heard the rumours. Dubhe definitely existed, and telling people how to protect themselves was definitely the right thing to do, but the power had gone off during the earthquakes and still hadn't come back on; they were running on generators. How many people would they really be able to reach?

She looked up just as the red 'live' lamp went on.

"This is an emergency broadcast from Tokyo. We will be repeating this broadcast continuously while we remain on air, and you can expect updates every ten minutes on the minute. You may find what I'm about to say fantastic, in which case just look outside. However -"

–——————​

Makoto continued, "The first few attacks did the most damage. An unknown enemy is always the worst, and although JPs had some forewarning of the attacks, we had little understanding of the specific form Dubhe would take. To compound that, the emergency broadcast systems were largely down at the time. Not the transmitters, but rather the receivers - it is an unfortunate fact of life that the exact time when you need it most is when the power is most likely to be out."

"The very first attack was one of the least damaging," a JSDF general interrupted. "Did you ever discover why? Is it something we can replicate?"

Grey hair. From now on, she was going to call him grandpa. Mentally. Only mentally.

Makoto answered, saying, "Yes, and no. It was intercepted by a trio of demon summoners, only two of whom survived the experience. We've taken them into custody for their own protection, but they were using a variation of the standard JPs demon summoning program with significant improvements over our own. Attempting to incorporate their version of it would be Kanno's job, should we ever get a little space to breathe." She frowned sadly. "Asking the two survivors to help would be both inhumane, logistically impossible, and unsafe. For whatever reason they've been handed a great deal of power, but I don't believe they are mentally ready to handle it."

She took a deep breath before continuing.

"As I was saying, though. Power cables all over Japan were damaged by the Conception, and it's taken most of the day to restore power to even the undamaged areas. Making good all of the damage will take weeks."



Sunday's Melancholy, 18:00
Fukushima First Nuclear Power Station

"Yes -"

"No -"

"Several days, sir. We can't -"

Keita spared his supervisor a look, glancing away once it became obvious that Seiichi was still trapped on the phone. Four hours since the generators had tripped, and they were still disconnected from the grid - the frequencies were wandering all over the chart. That minor glitch aside, their reactor was otherwise shutting down normally; he'd personally checked the emergency diesel generators, and they'd had their first top-off an hour ago.

Honestly speaking, there was very little reason for him to be here. With every system but the reactor core in cold shutdown and nothing happening in less than hours, Seiichi alone would have been enough to keep an eye on things. Not that he'd ever object. The safety regulations were there for a reason, and with the sky the way it was he was happy to stay in the comfortable, familiar confines of the reactor control room.

Seiichi slammed the phone down. "I can't believe this," he snarled.

Keita lazily looked up. "Hm? What did the NRA rep say?"

"He wants us to restart the reactor. Immediately," Seiichi said. "And screw the safety regulations and inspections, apparently."

"Say what?" Keita sat up straight, staring at Seiichi like he'd grown a second head. "Hold it, aren't they usually the ones riding us to do everything by the book?"

Seiichi shook his head. "Sure, but apparently there are overriding concerns demanding a stable grid immediately. You'd think they could run on coal, but -" He drew a hand through his hair "- every power plant tripped, including those, and they can't speed things up just by bypassing some regulations. I guess I can see where they're coming from, it's just…"

"Interesting times, yeah." Keita winced, starting to really think about the problem. Cellphones still worked - he'd called his sister, and she was doing well - but four hours after the earthquake, Japan was still largely without power. By this time some of the less critical services would be starting to run out of emergency fuel. Restarting the reactor without doing a full shutdown and maintenance cycle, though…

"All right," Seiichi sighed. "I'll recall everyone, and we'll begin restarting the reactor in half an hour. Keita, you're in charge of the overall effort."

Keita blinked. "Me? Why -"

He looked at Seiichi, who was smiling the smile of someone who very much didn't want to be responsible for what they were about to do, then thought better of protesting. Fine, then; normally being in charge of something like this would be a negative for his career, but he had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time they'd push their limits.

"Sure thing, boss.

———————​

"- Three companies of infantry, two artillery sections and a CAS squadron. Finally, there's a short platoon of infantry stationed at Sanjo."

Amu nodded. "Good organisation. Now, as for - yes, Makoto?"

"From what we've seen, Dubhe is largely immune to physical weaponry as well as magic. If it does appear in one of those cities, how are conventional forces going to help?"

"I was getting to that." She paused. "Good question, though. We don't know if its immunity has an upper limit, but Dubhe has so far always stayed until it has defeated all attackers. The next attack will be an opportunity to probe its defences, but more importantly it'll let us know if that behaviour still holds true for long-ranged fire. Does that answer your question?"

Makoto shrugged. "I'd need to know the details. Hoping to defeat Dubhe without recourse to JPs' troops seems - unlikely, I suppose."

"We'll do what we must," Amu said. "The probing attack will tell us if that is at all possible. If not, perhaps we'll be able to keep it in place until JPs can fly in, but I'd rather avoid that if possible; it would be very costly in terms of munitions and collateral damage, to say nothing of lives. Now, as for the Tokushima area -"

The room had completely wrapped itself around her leadership. She knew better than to think that would hold against any sort of strain, but at least for the moment, the assembled leaders had decided to put their differences and minor concerns such as her age to rest on the altar of necessity.



Sunday's Melancholy, 21:19
Kobe Port Island - Nishi Park

The sounds of an army on the move resounded through the park, which was quickly turning to undifferentiated mud. That was unfortunate; in Madoka's opinion the park was one of the nicer areas in the city, and she'd spent many a weekend here before joining the military. For it to be trampled under trucks and self-propelled artillery was - oh well, no helping it really. Orders were orders.

"Right…"

She checked off the spare ammunition for the Type 99, then turned and hurried over to her commanding officer.

"Suzuki. Everything in order?"

"Yes, sir," she saluted. "All nominal, we have plenty of everything. Just -"

Captain Urobuchi nodded. "You do your job, and I'll do mine. With any luck we'll never even see the thing. As you were, then."

Madoka turned away, deciding to do another pass over the column of howitzers. She really hoped he was right, because - precision munitions or not - if they started shelling Dubhe they would do a lot more damage to her city than that thing ever could.

———————​

It was all over but the screaming, and her plan was likely to have a lot of screaming. Amu had done her best, was still doing her best - scanning the plans for any remaining points of improvement - but the knowledge that she had deliberately limited herself burned like acid in her stomach. There was no helping it, though; even if she could have done better, making everyone go along with a de novo approach would have been a lot harder than simply improving what they were already attempting to do.

Forty minutes past nine. So far it had showed up every hour, right?

They had standby video connections to every one of the army posts she'd identified, but no-one was saying anything. The mood in the room was tense, and she could feel her skin prickling. This was a good plan, right? Everyone else seemed to think so, but she still felt unsure. What if Dubhe didn't show up on schedule, or even worse, what if it broke the pattern she'd identified? In that case, by draining defences from everywhere else she might have made things worse. Well, that might actually make it do less damage, but still -

"Contact!"

She jerked, head swivelling rapidly towards the Kobe area, where the LCD display showed a wildly spinning view from a recon helicopter which was desperately dodging anti-air fire from Dubhe. Her heart leaped; Kobe was one of the best defended locations, with two full howitzer sections, and Dubhe had fallen right into the centre of her predicted location. Better yet, Dubhe's beams of fire clearly had no homing capabilities. It was a close thing, but the helicopter was managing to dodge all of its fire to retreat to a safe location.

Shortly afterwards explosions began peppering Dubhe's.



Sunday's Melancholy, 22:05
Higashiyuenchi Park, Chuo ward (Kobe city centre)

"Move! Move! Move!"

They moved, fleeing behind the questionable cover of a wrecked McDonalds and leaving the corpses of his comrades behind. Takeshi had barely managed to push his back against the wall before the explosions began again, this time accompanied by the crystalline scream of shattering alien carapace. His heart hammered wildly, adrenaline flooding his system to the point where he couldn't even feel the pain from his skinned knees.

"Yeah, take that. Scream, you fucker," he muttered. Around him were the remains of their squad, which had taken the brunt of Dubhe's most recent explosion after they'd taken the opportunity to drop a bridge on it. He counted five people, him, Norio, Kurou, Mamoru and Masaki, but -

"Did anyone see what happened to sarge?" He asked, shouting to be heard over the din. Seconds passed, then one by one the others shook their heads. "- Damn. Then, that means -" He did the math. "Oh, um. Looks like I'm in charge for now. We'll wait another half minute, then try to link up with another squad before the artillery stops firing."

He refused to regret his actions. Taking the initiative to drop that bridge, just as Dubhe had been charging for a new explosion, had definitely hurt it. He hoped their sergeant was still alive, but if not, then like hell he'd let his sacrifice be in vain. They'd take down the demon or die trying.

Dubhe screamed, infernal beams of fire stabbing into the sky to shield against the incoming rain of shells, but not even a demon like that was capable of stopping every shell before they could hit. He smiled grimly at its continued cries of pain, not even wincing when one of its beams passed his position closely enough to burn the sweat from his face - it might be powerful, but it wasn't smart. They were herding it, keeping it in place between the two artillery batteries, and it didn't even realise.



Sunday's Melancholy, 22:10
JPs headquarters - War room

"Initial reports all agree."

Over time Makoto, as the least senior person in the room now that Fumi had taken her leave, had taken over the role of relaying reports. This time she was grinning fiercely. Their first attack had succeeded beyond expectations, they hadn't needed any of the backup plans.

"Dubhe is dead, or as close as makes no difference. It's been reduced to a pile of shattered crystals."

Amu slumped in relief. There hadn't been very much for her to do once the battle was already underway, but she'd still held herself on edge - she was relaxing for the first time in what was definitely hours.

"Damage estimates will take days, but the Chuo port area is largely destroyed. Further, there were at least thirty casualties in the battle, about half of which are likely to be fatalities. That brings the total number of casualties from Dubhe to a good - six hundred." Makoto looked deeply unhappy about that number, finishing off in a somewhat subdued voice. "Unfortunately the presence of Dubhe means we can expect a similarly powerful demon to attack tomorrow, although most likely not until the afternoon. I'd recommend taking the opportunity to reorganise and familiarise yourselves with JPs' capabilities; for all that Dubhe's behaviour meant we were unable to take the field, with any luck that will not be the case for Merak."

Amu let the conversation flow over her without taking part. "Grandpa" looked happy for the chance to interrogate Makoto, while the others were discussing how to best rearrange their troops in case of further attacks like Dubhe, leaving no real place for her. Even if she could have taken part she didn't know all the logistical details, nor did she officially have any purpose commanding their men, and they were doing well enough.

She felt tired. Her plan had gotten people killed. Less people than would have died otherwise, maybe, but even one person was too many. Several times she'd had to hold herself back from countermanding an assault, when she knew that would have caused more deaths in the end. She'd given the people in the field every chance to find a weak point in Dubhe, and they had delivered, but the cost was something her young mind still had trouble comprehending. She understood the numbers, the casualty rates Japan as a whole could sustain without damaging their society, but those were brute facts that failed to capture the human element.

The scream of a moving chair accompanied her as she rose to her feet. Every person in the room turned to look at her, letting them catch her wobbling between sadness and pain.

"I'm sorry, I -"

What did they expect from her?

Makoto looked compassionate. The others looked like they'd just now been reminded she was actually a child, and found her presence uncomfortable.

[ ] Run away
- [ ] Find Ikuto, you feel he'd understand.
- [ ] Find Mom, she's safe.
[ ] Write-in


A/N: Being Madoka is suffering. Right?

 

[Baughn]

"I'm sorry, I -"

Makoto looked towards Amu, attracted by the screech of her chair and her aborted speech. They'd won - without using any of their trump cards, or even her own demon-wielding troops. Amu had proven her mettle yet again; more than that, she'd proven that humanity had a chance. That was definitely cause for celebration, so quite naively she'd expected her to be happy. That was how it should have been, but…

Amu didn't look happy at all.

It might have been because she'd nearly forgotten the girl's age, but Makoto found that the young child's anguished expression was one of the most heart-wrenching things she'd ever seen. She felt like she needed to do something, to help her somehow, but actively comforting the girl would have undone most of the effect she'd had on the JSDF representatives so far. It might almost have been worth it anyway -

Of course we sympathise, Mako-chan -​

Synchronised means synchronised, Sako -​

Makoto shivered. Then Amu opened her mouth, and everything became so much worse.

- don't care if you can still swim, that leg is too ugly -​

Who would give us a decent score when you look like that -​

Get out of here, freak!​

Amu's voice was almost steady, her face almost controlled, in what was no doubt an excellent effort for a grade-schooler. Overall she was still the perfect picture of misery, and Makoto couldn't help but be reminded of the one time she, herself, had looked like that. It wasn't even hard to imagine why she'd react like that; she'd completely forgotten in the excitement, but Amu had spent the last hour watching a war zone through high-definition colour television.

———————​

"I'm sorry, but this has been a hectic day," the girl said. Yamato nodded in recognition, then frowned; he had to stop thinking of her as "that girl", if she was going to keep this up. Amu, wasn't it? Amu, last name… well, didn't matter. The girl was impressive, but her parents lacked any usefulness he could think of. He'd leave their management to Makoto.

In the lull after she bowed out of the discussion, he wondered if this was how he'd appeared at her age. He rapidly dismissed that thought; they had entirely different talents, and while it was clear that he would never be as good at organising battles as she was, it was equally clear that she'd never be much of a public speaker. That she also seemed to have more innate talent for magic than he did was painful, but - given that limitation - bearable; it was obvious she'd never be a true leader of men.

In short, she was a good complement to his own skills, easily controllable; he quirked a smile, wondering what she'd look like in ten years' time.

———————​

"- I kind of need time to… You know, process all of this…"

Naoki blinked, shaking off the fugue he'd fallen into. Working this far into the night was too much for his old bones, but this scene promised to be interesting. The girl had commanded his forces better than he could, and if he were a lesser person - or if she hadn't so obviously been more than she appeared - he might have taken offence, but she'd pulled off their plan with fewer casualties than he'd imagined possible. Now, though -

Eyes shining, lips trembling, an expression showing suppressed grief. It was a potent mixture, so reminiscent of his own daughters and granddaughters at times, but subtly wrong in ways he doubted most people would recognise. She hurt, but it wasn't on her own behalf; she felt pain on behalf of those fallen in battle.

Even the most caring of commanders would be desensitised in time. Hinamori-sama appeared to lack that experience, but that couldn't be true; at first he'd believed her to be a random child, then he'd rapidly come to accept she was some manner of apparition. For her to nevertheless feel compassion for the slain meant she was a goddess of the land, and he hadn't failed to note the sign of the rising sun on her brow. Admittedly his understanding of these matters was limited to sixty years of causal discussion and fairy tales, but still, in Japan's hour of need…

He nodded to himself as she left, making up his mind to consult Takenaka. The shinto priest might be getting on in years, but he knew his stuff. If anyone could guide him in this strange situation it would be his old friend.

———————​

In a corner of the diet, on the first basement level and beneath the hustle of its governmental functions, there is a barracks area belonging to JPs. Normally unused, it has seen more traffic over the last weekend than it would normally see in a year. If it could speak, if it had a mind to think, it would be pleased; it is achieving its function, and if this were Creation it might contain a minor intelligence - barely sentient, let along sapient - whose job it is to ensure this happens, and to report back if it doesn't. Arguably it might also achieve its function without any inhabitants, but boredom is one of the few truly universal emotions.

("Mommy," a girl sobbed, wandering the corridors and giving in to tears whenever no-one was around to see.)

This isn't creation, and so it doesn't. No such intelligence is required, nor welcome.

(She hadn't forgotten the path, but in a moment of distracted thought she failed to realise her mother would most likely no longer be in the cafeteria, and then instead of backtracking she tried to cut through the maze of corridors - and so now she was lost.)

Nevertheless, the floor guides her feet. When she reaches an intersection, a breeze pushes her in the correct direction; when she's tiring, a subtle scent lures her forwards. It's the least they can do, for the one who has denied their destruction.

———————​

"Mom!" She shouted, then threw herself at her mother. Midori was barely able to turn around in time to catch her, and she still ended up on her back, on the bed, but Amu - shivering, sobbing, making tiny distressed noises between sobs - was worth any amount of temporary discomfort. Midori felt something ugly rising up in herself, thinking of what might have put her in this state; this was the second time, now, that she'd gone to help JPs and come back as a wreck.

While she stroked Amu's hair, speaking nonsense rhymes to soothe her trembling, she thought furiously about possible ways to help. The worst part of this - the absolute worst - was that she couldn't just stop her. Obvious downsides aside - and it hadn't escaped her notice when everyone in JPs started talking about Dubhe's destruction - what kind of mother would she be if she stopped Amu from doing the right thing?

Amu slowly relaxed, and she listened to her daughter whispering brokenly about the costs of battle. People killed, weapon stocks depleted, homes destroyed. She couldn't understand half of it, but she got the impression Amu was blaming herself for not achieving an impossible miracle, and all she could do was hold her until she fell asleep.

She stayed with Amu afterwards, only once getting up to check on her siblings. Ran, Miki and Su were superficially fine, but just like Amu, they were crying in their sleep; not for the first time, she wondered about the truth of their relationship.

It seemed strange, to Midori, that the world should revolve around her daughter. What kind of mother would she be if she stopped her, she wondered… but what kind of mother would she be if she didn't?

 

[Baughn]

[Secondary essence channel #1 repaired]
[Negotiating..]
[Auto self-check initiated]
[Core system OK, all layers]
[Primary essence channel locked out - repairing, ETA 9:35]
[Secondary essence channel #2 locked out - reconstructing, ETA 55:32]
[Pattern library: multiple corruption sites detected, locked out]
[Auto self-check complete]
[Connection reestablished]
[Spooling logs, resuming normal operation]

Status update:
- Amu is still down 2 aggravated health levels, putting her at -1 to all rolls. At the current rate, they will take 4 more days to fully heal.
- Linguistics is back to the normal zero dots. Well, it's Su's normal though.
- She currently has 28 limit.

XP Update:
14 XP (Storylines: Meet Utau, Bedlam, Dubhe)
+50% (Audience participation bonus)
+0% (Relationship bonus - error, no shard)
= 21 XP
- 32 XP spent (Essence 4)
=> 42 banked / 93 total

New character sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1snF_yu70-9GzR2_EO1HnG7fcZiEr0nx5sukAfMvggjM/edit#heading=h.jr3wuhn30lmy

I now have a meta-level vote for you. Controlling Amu worked out pretty well, so do you want to:

[ ] Keep controlling Amu
[ ] Switch back to the exaltation