Unfamiliar ceiling

“You may be the most reckless, dangerous, inconsiderate human being I have ever met in my life, Tokiko.”

I was having a nice, comfortable nap when I was awoken by a familiar nagging voice. I decided to tease her a little.

“What are you, my mother?”

“Two weeks unconscious and that’s all you can come up with? I’m disappointed.”

“Two- what?” I opened my eyes- or, eye, since my cybernetic one was strangely absent- to see Time sat at the end of my bed.

Wait, my bed? Since when the hell can I afford a bed?

I tried to sit up to get a better look at my surroundings, but trying to lift my upper body caused a sharp burst of pain to blitz through my chest, and I laid back down. Craning my neck just enough to look down, I noticed fresh stitches closing up the surgery wound on my chest.

“Honestly, girl. Overclocking when your body was already that damaged? You’re lucky it only fried your heart. If you had pushed yourself any further it may well have exploded.”

“My heart? Overclocking? Wha- argh!” I put my hand to my head. It was throbbing, but with each pulse of pain my memory seemed to come back to me more and more.

Right. The opera house. I had to carry Ryou home with my shattered legs.

“Wait, Ryou-”

“Is fine. In fact, if she hadn’t regained consciousness quickly and dragged you to a nearby cyber-clinic, that fried heart of yours would have had you dead by now. She’s the only reason you’re alive.”

“Damn. Three-to-one. I’m gonna need to even the score.”

Getting saved once was fine. Getting saved three times on the same mission? That’s something my pride couldn’t take.

“I’ll go let her and Higgs know you’re awake. There’s a lot to talk about,” said Time, turning around and walking away with her tail raised.

“Right… thanks, Time.”

“Don’t mention it. And Toki,” she said, turning back as she was about to slip through the door, “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”

And just like that, I was left alone to stare at an unfamiliar ceiling.

I traced the fresh scar on my chest with my finger. Just like the first time. They must have replaced my cybernetic heart with a new one while I was out. If the old was fully burned out after I overclocked, I must have been clinically dead for a while. I got out of this one by the skin of my teeth. I couldn’t hope for luck like that again.

Looking back on the events preceding my blackout, I realised just how reckless I had been. Knowingly walking straight into a trap, going out on dropoff missions while still injured, getting myself caught up with three hostile magical girls in one night… it’s a miracle my carelessness hadn’t gotten me killed.

Wait… carelessness… was there something I was forgetting?

Oh, son of a bitch. I never picked up my dry cleaning.

“How exactly does one manage to live so destitute while having a hundred million yen lying around on the floor like pocket change?” I was so deep in thought I hadn’t noticed Ryou enter the room. She was flanked by a cat on either side, and was standing arms-crossed and looking at me disapprovingly.

“Ryou…” I sat up, slowly this time, and locked eyes with her. “That money… it was to help people in need.”

“Considering you were knocking death’s door with a battering ram, I can safely say that you were, in fact, ‘in need,’” she sighed. I’ve only been awake two minutes, you can’t already be exasperated with me. “Don’t worry about the location, this didn’t cost a penny. I already lived here.”

“So the money…”

“There’s still tens of millions of yen left lying around for whatever vanity project you choose.”

“Rebuilding the slums and elevating people from poverty?”

“If you so insist. Seems an awful waste to me.”

I frowned at her complete and utter lack of altruism. Somehow I’d make a good ronin out of this girl eventually, but I doubted it’d happen any time soon. Still, she did save my life so I guess I could let it go this time.

If anything, I was more focused on the condition she was in.

“You look healthy. ‘Specially for someone who got their shit kicked in. Twice.”

“Well, we magical girls do heal fast. That wound on your chest would have healed by now were you not such a restless sleeper.”

“Ah- right.” Now that she mentioned it, my legs and ribs felt completely fine, even though my bones had been reduced to paste before. It was only my chest that still had any pain. I must have repeatedly re-opened the stitching with my constant tossing and turning.

“As it so happens, I took the liberty of gathering information while you were unconscious. Not that there was much to gather.” She sighed dramatically, though I was honestly just relieved she was disappointed about something other than me.

“What were you looking into? Those magical girls we fought?”

“Yes, though it’d be a stretch to say there was much to look into.”

“It’d also be a stretch to say it was a fight, my lady.”

“Shut up, Higgs.” Damn, this cat was more annoying than mine. “Ryou, go on.”

“Certainly. I recall they referred to themselves as “Z” and “W,” no? Despite searching each and every source of information I had on active magical girls, those names did not appear once. I considered that they may be abbreviations, but I found no promising candidates that they could have been abbreviated from. Nor were there any who matched their physical descriptions.”

“What about the singer? The girl in the green dress?”

“No such luck there either. Frankly, even for a magical girl, the power to crush someone’s whole body from a distance while singing seems so far-fetched I almost worried I had hallucinated it.”

“Unfortunately, I remember it pretty vividly. She was definitely real. Hauntingly so.” I involuntarily shivered as I remembered her presence. Her very existence seemed oppressive. “So… you came up with nothing at all.”

“Not… quite. While eavesdropping on some chatter from Kurogaisha’s private military, I heard whispers of the organisation responsible for the attack. A group called Kageno Kairai.”

“A corporate rival?”

“Perhaps. Though the fear with which they spoke the name alluded to something greater. More dangerous. And no amount of digging I did could unearth the source of the name.”

“So… what’s our next step?”

“Our next step, dear girl? If information cannot be found or bought, there is one remaining choice. It must be stolen.”