>
Scold Shemesh.
> Grab her.
> Introduce yourself.
You look down at Shemesh — currently a blue and purple sphere of swirling gaseous clouds — and, in lieu of being able to actually yell at him, begin angrily gesturing in his direction with all four of your arms. Who is this?! Why did he bring her here?! HOW did he bring her here?! Where did she even come from?!
The girl finally looses the scream that she's clearly been building up for quite a while, loudly enough that you wish you still had physical ears to cover. Meanwhile, Shemesh shrinks in on himself, becoming a gray, lifeless-looking ball that somehow gives off the impression of a kicked puppy. You feel a twinge of sympathy for him at that, but it's not quite enough to overcome your fury at...
whatever it is he was apparently intending to do here. Darn it, you'd been having SUCH a good morning up until now.
You reach out and snag the girl from Shemesh's invisible clutches, your ribbons nearly large enough to swaddle her like a baby. She doesn't seem to appreciate it very much however, immediately beginning to kick and thrash in a presumed bid to escape. You don't know what she thinks she's doing; you're far too tall for that to be even remotely safe for her right now. Though, with your noted lack of actual fingers, she's genuinely making it quite difficult for you to-
With a surprisingly strong yank, the girl abruptly tears free of your grasp. You make a frantic attempt to catch her as she begins to fall — and miss, causing a flash of panic, but thankfully the giant blades of grass that serve as your barrier's floor prove to be enough to break the girl's multi-story drop anyways. She lands on one of them, bounces uncontrollably between a few more, and then tumbles into the foliage, where you immediately lose track of her.
Oh, brilliant...
You lower yourself until you're skimming the top of the grass, and lean over to push a swathe of it aside, but there's no sign of the girl. Great; even though you can actually move this stuff now, the greenery is so thick that you'll never-
A nearby patch of grass suddenly rustles unnaturally. Looking over, you spot another patch right next to it briefly do the same, followed by several more, each one moving further and further away from you.
Ah. Perhaps there are some advantages to your barrier being a huge, overgrown lawn after all.
You follow the girl's obvious trail from overhead, not really gaining any ground on her, but not really minding. Between her obvious panic and how her first instinct was to run away, you're fairly sure she isn't a magical girl, so she'll tire herself out eventually. You suppose you'll have to take that as the silver lining to this little problem.
The rustling of the grass abruptly ceases, and a loud shriek pierces through the foliage — if you didn't know where she was before, you certainly would now. Hopefully she didn't trip and break something; you're not exactly loaded down with medical supplies here...
Floating towards the rough origin of the scream, you shove aside the grass to find the girl now collapsed on her side. Her breathing is loud and fast, her arms having been bound to her sides by a lasso of what looks like multi-layered cellophane, while several feet away stands the presumed creator of said lasso — an Ummashtart, though not one you've seen before. Her upper body is similar to that of the various faceless girls, a feminine, humanoid form assembled from pale white wax paper, but her
lower body is a giant, arachnoid-looking construct made of a clear, stiff material you'd sooner assume to be some sort of plastic than any kind of paper. She turns to face you at your approach, arms crossed over her chest.
...huh, so there
is one based off that one-time experiment after all. Cool! Something to think about later perhaps, when there isn't a girl on the verge of hyperventilating in your barrier.
You lean down and pluck the tied-up girl from the ground, which the arachne familiar doesn't seem particularly thrilled about, but doesn't visibly protest either. After working the cellophane off the girl with quite a bit of difficulty — again, sure would be nice to have fingers — you seat her atop Novella. Before she can start screaming again, you gently place the tip of one of your ribbons against her mouth as you begin making and assembling shatterwords.
「Calm down, I mean you no harm.」you spell out for her once you have enough.
The words seem to calm the girl, if only by a scant degree. She no longer looks like she's contemplating her chances of surviving a second dive into the grass below, at least.
"Wh-what are you?" she stutters. "Where is this? What's going on?!"
Figuring there's little point in lying, you decide to just tell her the truth.
「My name is Ashtaroth. I'm a witch, and you're in my barrier. Why exactly you're in my barrier, I'm not clear on either, beyond that my familiar decided you should be.」
The girl now just looks utterly lost. You suppose without any context, none of that would really mean anything to her.
「I assume you don't know about magical girls?」
"You… you mean the kind from tv shows…?" the girl slowly replies, still trembling.
「No. Which means you don't.」
How do you explain this...
should you even explain this, given it could end up traumatizing this random civilian girl even more than she already has been? Or- no, wait, more pressing question.
「Could you tell me what happened, exactly?」
"…what?"
「I'm not entirely sure how my familiar even brought you here. You were there, so it would help if you could clarify.」
"I... a-alright." the girl replies after a moment, now seeming largely more perplexed than panicked. "I have Japanese Dance lessons today... I had just left my house with the intent to head to the studio. But before I could truly go anywhere, the world around me...
changed to look like this place, and that giant orb dropped out of the sky in front of me. I screamed, and tried to run, but it grabbed me from afar somehow, and started flying through the city with me."
The girl looks down, hiding her expression. "I was crying for several minutes, desperately calling for help, but no one seemed to see or hear me... and then I suddenly couldn't see the city at all anymore, and you appeared in the distance. Your... familiar? Brought me over to you, and..."
She goes silent, but you know the rest from there anyways.
You glance back at Shemesh, still floating where you left him, continuing to look remarkably sad for a faceless, expressionless planetoid. Well, given that little recap, at least his little excursion probably wasn't that conspicuous. You were worried someone might have seen him, but you'd forgotten that familiars have their own little mini-barriers to hide in. Still, how did he-
"Excuse me? Ashtaroth... san?"
You turn back to the girl.
"What exactly do you plan on doing with me...?" she asks, the frightened tremor reentering her voice.
Oh, right.
「Look-」
You pause, realizing you still have no idea what this girl's name is.
「-what was your name again?」
"...Hitomi Shizuki." she replies after a moment of uncertainty, adding a practiced-looking curtsy to her introduction seemingly by instinct. "A pleasure to make your..."
She trails off again. Understandable; you're aware that being kidnapped is rarely considered a pleasure.
「Right. Sorry for accidentally abducting you, Shizuki-san. I'll take you home, and you can forget this ever happened.」
Hitomi blinks, then breathes a massive sigh of relief, resting her hand over her heart as the tenseness in her stance visibly recedes.
「Where do you live?」you ask bluntly, unaware of a way to make that question seem any less potentially creepy.
"Oh, um… I live in the upper district."
「…I don't actually know what that means.」you admit.
「I'm kind of new to this city.」
Hitomi fiddles with a bit of her hair. "The… 'rich' area? There are many mansions around…"
Ah, you suppose that would make sense if Shemesh only grabbed her a few minutes ago. That's good; you didn't get too far from there in the interim, so it should be simple enough to backtrack.
「I see. I'll drop you off there then.」you say, beginning to head back in the direction you came.
…
…
…
「You… can't actually see it, but we're on our way.」 you explain, noticing Hitomi's bewilderment at your lack of movement.
"…oh. Okay." she hesitantly replies, seeming to accept that after a brief pause. "Um… if I may, you said something about 'magical girls', and claimed to be a 'witch', correct?"
You repeat the method you used with Top Hat and bob a cluster of your shatterwords up and down to indicate a yes.
"Could you explain precisely what you mean by those terms?" she asks, craning her neck up at you. "I don't think I quite understand..."
You look down at Hitomi, surprised, but considering. You suppose it's only natural she'd be curious — you certainly were, when Kyubey first showed himself to you. However, explaining even just those two terms in any detail is inevitably going to require explaining another, and then another, and another, until you've sent yourself straight down the rabbit hole of explaining the entire magical girl system. You're not sure you really want to get into all that when-
...actually. It occurs to you that you currently have a teenage girl in your barrier, who is not only completely clueless about magic, but is essentially inviting you to tell her more about it. Making this potentially the perfect opportunity to try that thought-to-be-impossible idea of having someone wish you back to humanity. Of course, Hitomi may not have the necessary "potential" for that, but if she doesn't, it's not like you'd lose anything by trying... should you, though? You're only a few minutes away from her house, there's likely not even enough time for this...
(Location)
[-] Continue towards Hitomi's neighborhood. Easy enough to find again, given that you've been heading in a pretty straight line.
[-] Offer to take Hitomi to her dance lesson instead. You don't exactly have GPS in here, but she can probably direct you there, and you'll have more time to talk.
(Explanation)
[-] Ask if you can speak with her for a little while longer once you reach your destination. Given what she just asked, you imagine this may take a while...
[-] Ask if you can come back and explain later after dropping her off. It might be best to give her a little time to process what she's already been through before telling her anything else, lest you utterly overwhelm her.
[-] Refuse to explain, telling her if she knew, she wouldn't want to. Anything else is just tempting fate.
[-] Write in.
(Personal Angle)
[-] Attempt the wish plan. Unless you decide to go around
actively kidnapping random girls off the street, you probably won't get another chance like this.
[-] Flat out explain your position and what you're hoping for from Hitomi. There's something to be said about being plain with your intentions.
[-] Make yourself as sympathetic as possible while explaining, and try to lead Hitomi to the decision herself.
[-] Hold off. This feels a little too manipulative for your liking.
(Amends)
[-] Apologize to Shemesh. You can't just leave him like that...
[-] Don't apologize. Maybe you were a little harsh, but you can't let him think this sort of thing is okay. Or to be repeated.
