Shopping Around

May 22, 2026

“Man, am I glad the rest of this week’s been quiet,” Ruka said to Hana, Riko, and Tenko as the four of them went to a local mall together after school. “I’ve only had one battle ever since the eighteenth, and honestly, I felt bad for the magical beast. It was a poor little dog-like one that bit someone, but it looked so afraid when I had to kill it.”

Riko, unsure of whether or not she was privy to this information as a non-magical huntress, asked the others, “Uh, are you sure I should be listening to all this? I mean, I’m not a magical huntress…”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Hana assured her. “Besides, as a survivor of a magical beast attack, you’re already privy to more info than most people.”

“How much does the public know anyway?”

“They know of these attacks,” Ruka explained. “And they know to call the number of the Agency if they spot what they think is an unusual animal. However, they don’t know the full extent of our work, nor the fact that it’s mostly teenagers and college students running around saving everyone’s asses every single day. A lot of the time, if we walk past them in our outfits post-transformation, they assume we’re cosplayers from a magical girl anime or manga.”

“That said,” Hana further clarified. “The police know more than the public, but only higher-ups know everything about us. That’s how we’re able to get away with having weapons in public and why we’re able to police ourselves, like we had to with Tsuda-san.”

“Oh yeah,” Tenko then remembered. “I heard from gossip that when the Agency went to visit her home to inform her parents after Yoshiro-kun killed her, they found that only her dad was there, and that he was so drunk he barely comprehended that his own daughter was dead.“

“I have a feeling that might explain her behavior,” Ruka added. “When we fought, she told me some things about her personal life that made her androphobic beliefs make more sense.”

Curious, Hana asked her, “Such as what?”

“She didn’t get too specific, but I feel like she’s been mistreated by boys our age and by older men. She also said her dad was a deadbeat who liked to bring home a new girl every week to have sex with.” Ruka thought back to her battle with Mari, also thinking about what she had told her in return, something she had told no one else in the Fox Knights or beyond except for Hana. “It’s not an excuse, but it definitely put her actions in a new light for me.”

“That might explain what the Agency found at her home then. It’s unfortunate, but we did what we had to do to her. She posed a threat to our mission with her behavior, and she had to be stopped by all means necessary.”

Riko asked the trio, “Did she go to school with us?”

“No,” Tenko shook her head. “She went to a different high school in Yokosuka from us. Word on the street is that she was a loner in school with basically no known friends.” She then turned to her left and found a clothing store that piqued her curiosity. “Hey guys, wanna go in there?”

Ruka asked as she pointed at the store, “There?”

Hana shrugged, “Why not? I could use some more clothes.”

…

Inside the store, Ruka was trying on a white sundress with a floral pattern as well as a few new pairs of bras and underwear. “Hmmmm,” she said to herself as she dressed down to the light blue bra and underwear she had on at the moment. “Should I try on the sundress first?”

Tenko then asked from the other side of the curtain, “Ruka-senpai, are you sure you don’t want to try on anything else?”

“I’m fine,” she replied to her. She then slipped into the sundress and pulled back the curtain, asking the other girls, “How do I look?”

“Wow,” Riko said as she admired the sundress. “It looks good on you, Ruka-chan!”

“I think it suits you well,” Hana complimented her. “It’ll be a good fit for the summer.”

Tenko meanwhile blushed, taken aback by Ruka’s beauty in the dress. “Wow… You look… You look…” She thought to herself, “Holy fuck, she looks amazing! I almost screamed that out loud, but I stopped myself at the right moment!”

Ruka asked her, “Tenko? Are you alright?”

“Ah, uh, your outfit looks really cute, Ruka-senpai.”

Smiling, she replied, “Why thank you. I’ve been so busy with all the recent magical beast attacks and that shit with Tsuda-san that I really haven’t had time to do this, especially not with some other girls. Now, let’s try on something else…” After she slipped back through the curtains, Ruka took the sundress off before then putting on a set of white underwear and a bra on over her current undergarments, aiming to try on another set for herself before moving on to proper clothes. She then emerged from the changing room wearing a white outfit with small blue stripes. “How about now?”

“I think it looks great,” Tenko replied, still blushing slightly. “What do you guys, uh, think?”

“I don’t know,” Hana replied with a shrug. “I think the sundress was the better of the two outfits.”

Riko, somewhat displeased with Hana’s view, told Ruka, “Don’t listen to her. I think you look fabulous in that.”

“Two out of three,” Ruka chuckled. “Looks like you got outvoted, Hana. By the way…” She then took a deep breath and asked, “Hana, can you come in here real quick? I want you to look at something."

Confused, Hana replied, “Me?”

“Yeah.”

Hana shrugged and walked into the changing room, asking Ruka, “What’s up?”

“I want to show you some underwear I bought.” Ruka then took off the second outfit to show Hana the white underwear she was considering buying. “Don’t worry, Hana. I got my actual underwear under all of this. I just didn’t want to walk out wearing only this.”

“It’s certainly a very bright white,” Hana noted. “I’m wearing pretty much the same thing. I think white looks good on you, Ruka-chan.”

“Works for me. I gotta buy a new set of underwear and a new bra anyway. I had to toss some away a week ago. I’m finally starting to slow down on bust growth, so I won’t have to buy new shit so often anymore.” She then took the underwear she was trying on off, going down to her regular blue underwear before putting on the original clothes she had been wearing. “Looks like I’ll be buying all three of these. So, who’s next?”

…

After shopping, the four girls were eating at the food court, having gotten burgers together. “I’m glad we went out today,” Tenko said to the group. “I needed this after all the shit we went through recently.”

“Tell me about it,” Ruka replied. “This fucking week has been one thing after another. I’m looking forward to hunting just magical beasts for the time being and not other people.”

“Me too.”

Hana cautioned both of them, “Be careful what you wish for, you two.”

“Speaking of hunting,” Riko then said. “I, um… I was thinking about, uh… I was really interested in being a magical huntress, and, well… I don’t know if I could do it, though.”

Hana turned to her and assured her, “You could still hunt with a prosthetic arm. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No, no, I get that,” Riko assured her. “It’s just that… It’s pretty dangerous, and I know what can happen if you lose a fight with a magical beast, but… Hearing you guys talk about it really makes me wonder what would happen if I found a recruiter and went ahead with it.”

Tenko cautioned her, “Be carefu-“

“I wouldn’t do it,” Ruka then bluntly told her, shocking both Tenko and Hana. “…What?”

A shocked Tenko asked her, “Wait, really? Don’t you like hunting?”

“I do,” Ruka nodded. “But I’ve been through a lot in my time as a magical huntress. Ayano-san, this is a dangerous job, and you could be killed at any moment. You also have a loving family who would hate to see anything else bad happen to you. I… Well, I only really have my uncle, but he has a family of his own. Besides that, I got nothing. You have a lot more to live for than I do.”

Riko asked, “So what are you saying?”

“I’m telling you that just because you hear us talk about it so much doesn’t mean you should do it. In your shoes, I wouldn’t do it.”

“I see…”

A period of awkward silence followed. Everyone was thinking about what Ruka had said, with Hana looking at her and admitting internally, “I can’t say she’s wrong. This isn’t for everyone, and Ayano-san has a lot on her plate already. Plus, I don’t know if she really has it in her to do that.”

Then, unexpectedly, they both heard a familiar voice call out to them. “Hey guys!”

They all turned to find Yoko and Goro walking together in the food court. Ruka asked her, “Yoko? What are you doing here?”

“Just on a date with my boyfriend,” she replied. “What about you guys?”

“We were just shopping for clothes. We got some nice stuff, actually.”

“Cool, cool. I need to go shopping one of these days.” She then turned to Goro and asked him, “Wanna go shopping with me tomorrow?”

“Eh,” Goro shrugged. “I can’t. I got some stuff to do with my family for most of the day. I’ll text you when I’m free, but it probably won’t be until later in the evening, Yoko.”

“Awww,” Yoko replied, dejected by his response and giving him a pout of disapproval. “I was hoping you’d say yes, Goro.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, there will be other days, Yoko. Besides, we’re here now. It’s not like we won’t be seeing each other ever again after today.”

“That’s fair,” Yoko admitted. She then told the other girls, “Well, we gotta go continue our date. I’ll see you guys later. Bye-bye!”

“Goodbye,” Hana waved to her. Once she and Goro were gone, she told the others, “She looks so happy with him, but he doesn’t seem too interested.”

“He must be,” Riko replied with confusion. “Considering they’ve done it, after all.”

“Yeah, but sex doesn’t mean anything,” Ruka pointed out. “This is Yamanaka Goro we’re talking about. He has a higher body count than some adults. I hope it all works out for Yoko, but even now, I still have my worries.”

…

May 23, 2026

Kumiko and Sayaka were having a late breakfast at the former’s apartment, watching TV together for a far more casual date than their past ones. As an anime they liked to watch was about to come on, Kumiko’s father was getting ready to go out for the day. “Alright, I’m all set.”

“Dad,” Kumiko asked him. “Where are you heading off to again?”

“I’m meeting up with some of the guys from work to go golfing,” he replied. “I should be back around seven in the evening, so you guys will be alone for a good nine or so hours. Just make sure the laundry gets done today, and besides that, I don’t really have anything else for you.”

“Have fun,” Kumiko replied as she got up. She then gave her father a hug and told him, “I love you.”

“I love you too, dear,” he replied as he wrapped his arm around her before separating and heading out of the apartment for golf, carrying a bag with clubs in one hand and car keys in another.

With Kumiko’s father gone, Sayaka asked her, “So, uh… Now that we’re alone, do you want to talk about what we did?”

Kumiko sighed and replied, “We might as well, Sayaka.”

“I liked it. It felt really good to get close to you, although…” Sayaka nervously looked around, paranoid that somehow, others would hear them talk about what they had done at the hospital. “I mean… I was nervous at first when I saw… It…”

“You mean…?”

“You know… It…” Sayaka then pointed down at Kumiko’s skirt.

Immediately assuming that Sayaka was turned off by her body, and more specifically her lower regions, Kumiko sighed and said, “Look, I know, it must have been a shock to you. I’m sorry, Sayaka.”

“Sorry? Why are you sorry?”

“Well, uh… I mean… Uh…”

Annoyed at her lack of a response, Sayaka pressed her with, “Kumiko, what’s going on?”

“I just… I don’t… Maybe we didn’t have to go that fast, you know?”

The two of them paused once more, contemplating what to say next. Then, Sayaka pointed out, “I wanted it, too… But… I understand if you have issues with it.”

“Huh? No! I… I liked it, Sayaka.” She then got close to her, with barely a foot of space between their lips. “And since we’re alone, I do… I want to… I want to make out with you.”

Sayaka blushed. “I mean, we haven’t had much of an opportunity to make out since you went to the hospital. There’s no one else here, so… Um…”

Kumiko then closed the gap between the two of them with a kiss. Within less than a second of the two splitting, Sayaka returned the favor, and the two quickly embraced each other in a rather intense makeout session. Their hands rubbed all along each other’s bodies as they sank deeper into the couch they had laid down in, the world around them seeming to melt away. Sayaka in particular let out a few slight moans as Kumiko felt up her thighs, enjoying the sensation she felt as her girlfriend’s fingers gently massaged her.

Kumiko asked her, “Do you like that?”

“Yes… Yes, I do.” Kumiko smiled and slowly reached under Sayaka’s skirt, ready to take things further and return the favor so to speak, to which Sayaka replied, “Do it.”

“Okay.” Kumiko then kissed her again, their makeout session turning into something more with every passing second. “I love you, Sayaka.”

“I love you, Kumiko,” Sayaka got out in between breaths as they continued, not caring about anything else around them. However, after some more kissing, Sayaka was about to reach under Kumiko’s skirt when she suddenly stopped upon Kumiko bolting up a bit. “Ah!” Sayaka quickly backed off, startled by Kumiko’s movements.

Worried that she had done something wrong, Kumiko backed up and asked her, “Sayaka, are you okay?!”

“No, uh…” Sayaka thought to herself, “I stopped myself… Why, though? I’ve touched her before, and I didn’t just use my hands that one time. Why am I hesitating now? Am I really that afraid I’ll bother her?”

“Sayaka?”

“It’s, uh… Nothing.” She then took a deep breath and told her girlfriend, “Why don’t we take a break for a bit and just watch some TV?” She did not want to stop, but thought that perhaps Kumiko wanted to.

Kumiko, for her part, also did not want to stop, but now was fearing that she had turned Sayaka off. “Oh… Okay, yeah, we can do that.” Not wanting to push the matter further, she accepted that that would be the end of their more physical displays of affection for the time being. “What do you want to watch?”

“Let’s see what’s on. I heard there’s a voice actor on a variety show that’s gonna do a live reading of some of his favorite characters.”

“Works for me.”

Sayaka then flipped through channels until reaching the correct one, having caught the show just a few minutes after it had started. As the two lovers got comfortable, they tried to put the awkward ending of their makeout session behind them, but found that it pestered their thoughts. “Am I triggering something within Kumiko? What was the term she used again…? Was it dysphoria? Am I doing something that triggers that in her? Please tell me I’m not!”

Meanwhile, Kumiko thought, “God, I hope I’m not turning Sayaka off by still having a dick. I want to go further with her, but I don’t know if she’d be okay with it. I want to show her how much I love her in a more… Intimate way, and I want to make her feel good, but I don’t want to go too far.”

…

Meanwhile, Ruka was battling a Class Five magical beast inside of a portal to a dark riverside in another world by herself, which had taken the form of a slime that shot out acid. Although said acid was not particularly dangerous and only caused mild skin irritation, its form made it particularly challenging to defeat, since every time Ruka slashed through it, it simply reformed. “Damn it,” she muttered as it reformed despite her slicing it into three pieces. “Why won’t you just die already?!”

There was a solid piece of the beast in the very middle, which seemed to be some kind of heart-like structure, but the slime had managed to prevent Ruka from attacking it so far. Despite once again slicing the beast in two, she just barely missed the solid piece. Frustrated, she tried stabbing the slime twice as she screamed in rage.

Then, a chain suddenly appeared from behind her and wrapped itself around the solid piece in the middle, startling Ruka greatly. “What the fuck?!”

“I got it,” Kana then shouted from the back. With all of her strength, she then pulled the solid piece of the slime out from the middle, causing it to let out a primal scream of pain before the piece was fully ripped out, killing it instantly before it then exploded, covering both her and Ruka in pieces of blue slime. With this, the battle was over, but now, both of them had to deal with the messy aftermath.

“Agh, shit,” Ruka muttered to herself as she tried to wipe the slime off of her, feeling a bit of pain from the irritation it caused on her skin. “It exploded? Really?”

Kana meanwhile was itching herself all over, her skin feeling the full effect. “Ow… Ow…”

“Are you alright, Kana-chan?”

“I feel really itchy, Ruka-oneechan,” she replied. “Way too itchy… Agh… No…”

“This beast threw out acid for attacks,” she explained as she pulled out her phone and began to take pictures of the aftermath. “It’s only supposed to cause mild irritation to the skin, but I guess it’s worse when you get a piece of the body itself on you.” She finished taking pictures and put her phone away, satisfied with her work in documenting the battle. She then began to walk back to the portal that she and Kana had gone through to get to the other world. “You should hurry up and follow me so you don’t get trapped in here. There’s no telling what will happen to you if you do.”

“Right,” Kana replied as she followed Ruka out and back into the normal world. As they emerged onto a sunny street on a late Saturday morning, Kana shielded her eyes from how bright it was. “Agh…”

“Are you hurt, Kana-chan?”

“No,” she replied. “It’s just bright, but… Uh…”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Would it be okay if I showered at your place, Ruka-oneechan?”

Confused, Ruka asked her, “At my place? Is something wrong with your own place?”

“I don’t want my parents to know about this,” she explained to her. “I’m gonna get in trouble if I show up covered in this slime, and if I de-transform now, my clothes will be dirty.”

Ruka, able to tell that Kana was deeply worried, felt pity for her. She put a hand on her shoulder and told her, “Alright then. Come with me. I’m only a few minutes from here anyway.”

…

About half an hour later, Kana emerged from the bathroom in her normal clothes, having taken her magical huntress outfit off, showered, and then de-transformed. “Thank you so much, Ruka-oneechan,” she said as she walked out, seeing that Ruka was still wearing her stained magical huntress outfit. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“No problem, kiddo,” she replied with a chuckle. “Now, let me just get in there and take a shower myself, and we’ll be on our way.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ruka then walked into her bathroom, shutting the door behind her and taking all of her clothes off. She then stepped into the shower and turned the water on, finding it to thankfully still be warm despite Kana’s shower. As she soaped her body up and wiped the slime stains off, she said to herself, “Nothing beats this.” Then, just as she was washing shampoo out of her hair, she heard her phone ring from the sink counter in the bathroom and slid open the glass door of the shower to grab and answer it by putting it on speaker. “Hello?”

“Ruka,” then said Hana’s voice on the other end. “Do you have that Ozawa girl with you?”

“Yeah,” she replied, confused. “She took a shower at my apartment because she and I got stained by a slimy magical beast.”

“Her father is apparently looking for her,” she replied. “And he’s not happy. Her brother managed to find me and told me he’s gonna probably beat her when he finds her.”

Those words immediately caused Ruka to freeze up. “He’s going to what?!”

“Ozawa Kazu didn’t tell me much,” Hana explained. “But from what he did tell me, it sounds like both their mother and their father have a lot of problems. It doesn’t sound good, Ruka.”

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.” Ruka turned the water off and stepped out, grabbing a towel to dry herself off with. “If her father’s gonna beat the shit out of her if he finds her, I just won’t let him find her, then.”

“Be careful,” Hana cautioned her. “Thats a risky move, Ruka. They could get the police involved.”

“I know. Still, I won’t let Kana go back to an environment like that if that’s really what’s going on. If he really is gonna try to do that to her, I’ll make sure that piece of shit doesn’t succeed in touching her.”

Unaware of what was going on in the bathroom, Kana was sitting down on the couch, having turned on Ruka’s TV to watch some anime as the front door of the apartment suddenly opened, startling her. Thankfully, the person on the other end was just Tomoyo, who was not expecting to have a guest at the apartment. Kana saw her and asked, “Uh… Who are you?”

“Oh, uh, hi, um,” stammered Tomoyo, startled by Kana’s presence. “I’m, uh… I’m Yamanaka Tomoyo. Who are you?”

“Ozawa Kana. Ruka-oneechan took me here so I could shower after a battle. Are you friends with her?”

“Well,” Tomoyo explained. “Um… Maybe not so much friends, but… She’s like my guardian. I live here because she protects me.”

“From wha-?”

Then, out of nowhere, a man’s voice was heard shouting from behind Tomoyo, “Outta the fucking way!” This same man then shoved Tomoyo out of his way and marched into the apartment. “Kana, get over here!”

Kana’s eyes widened with fear as Tomoyo fell to the floor, looking up at the man and yelling, "Why did you do that?!”

“Shut up,” he yelled back at her. “Stay out of this!”

Kana got up from the couch and stammered out as she faced the man, “Da-… Da-… Dad, I swear, I only came here to clean off, I-“ This man was, in fact, her father, who was indeed furious at her as he pulled out a cigarette from a small carton.

“Clean off?! From what?! Who the Hell took you here?!” He then lit the cigarette and puffed out smoke. “Do I gotta do what we do when you mess up really badly, Kana?”

“No, no, no, no! No, you don’t! I swear!”

Ruka heard the commotion just as things were beginning to heat up. She told Hana as she quickly finished drying her hair, “Shit, I gotta go. There’s a screaming match in my apartment now.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s him,” Hana sighed.

“That’s what I fear.” Ruka then hung up with Hana and quickly began to get dressed as she heard Kana call out in fear. However, by the time she was finished and flung the door open, it was already too late. When she ran to the front of the apartment, she saw that Kana was gone and Tomoyo had been punched across the face. “Tomoyo! Holy fuck!”

“He… He punched me…” Tomoyo was crying, having been physically assaulted by Kana’s father so he could grab her and take her away from the apartment. “He got me good… Why…?”

Ruka quickly helped Tomoyo to her feet and sat her down on the couch, noticing that her nose was bleeding. “Hang on, Yamanaka-san.” She ran to grab tissue paper and paper towels to help stop the bleeding and wipe the blood away, switching from her more casual tone of voice to one that was far more formal and calming. “You will be okay. I will not let that man hurt you again.”

“He… He was so violent…” Tomoyo wiped away blood and tears with her sleeves. “He dragged that little girl out so fast. I couldn’t even process the fact that I had been punched until… Until…” She then broke down in tears, sobbing as Ruka cleaned the blood off of her face and held pressure on her nose.

“I need you to hold pressure for me,” Ruka told her as she continued to help her. “I need to go find Kana-chan and her father before it’s too late.” She then got up and walked back to the bathroom to grab her phone, calling Hana again and telling her when she answered the phone, “Hana, we need to find Kana-chan’s father. He just came here and punched Yamanaka-san in the face before taking Kana-chan.”