What If I Don't Want to Play Hide and Seek?!

“Mind control!” I shouted. I saw way too many movies with this exact plotline to not notice this.

“How very observant of you, totally not-magical girl,” Meteron told me. “This is The Mesmer, and it allows me to impose my will on non-magical beings.” The emphasis he put on those last two words were a stab right through the heart. Was that why he used his power on Sakamoto and not me?!

I was caught.

“Sakamoto, do you see that button over there?” Meteron asked, pointing out a shiny red button on the other side of the hallway. “Press it.”

Sakamoto did as he was told silently and without even the slightest hint of hesitation. Once the button was pressed, the barrier keeping Meteron locked up was lowered.

“I'd love to stay and chat, totally not-magical girl,” Meteron told me with a playful voice. Ugh! He was toying with me! “However, I have to return to the Coven and prepare for Obon…”

“What are you going to do on Obon?” I asked.

“Same thing we do every night,” Meteron answered. He smiled his typical stupid smug looking grin. Oh, I hated that so much! “Try to take over the world!”

Take over the world?! Was that what all the monsters were for?

Meteron then performed a moonwalk and shouted “Barrier Render!” The spell caused the bricks in the outer wall of the prison to warp and distort and fall out of the wall, forming an opening that allowed him to escape. I immediately ran to the door in an attempt to seek help. Why didn't I summon Aichi and transform to stop Meteron from escaping? This was a prison, so obviously there were cameras everywhere. It was bad enough that Shōko caught me transforming. The last thing I needed was to have anyone else catch me. I still had to act normal.

“Help!” I shouted through the door. “He's trying to escape!”

“Escape?” the officer on the other side of the door asked. “That cell is magic-proof, he should have no means of escape!”

“Apparently, that cell isn't completely magic-proof,” I corrected the officer. “He cast a spell on my coworker and now he's escaping!”

By the time the police decided to do anything, they had opened the door to the cell only to realize they were too late. Meteron was gone.

I immediately ran outside to a place where no one, and especially not Meteron, could find me.

“Come out, come out wherever you are!” Meteron continued to taunt me with that smug voice I hated so much. “What's the matter, magical girl? Don't you want to play a game?”

I had no other choice. I performed my most desperate bunny hop dance and said “Summon Hollow!” To my half-surprise and half-relief, Aichi actually did appear in front of me instantly.

“Hah! I knew you needed my help eventually, ~woof,” Aichi told me with as close as a talking puppy could get to a grin as possible. “Let me guess, Meteron broke out of jail.”

“How did you know that?” I asked him.

“Hollow's Intuition,” Aichi answered back. “Also I'm pretty sure those fireballs are headed right for us.” Aichi was right, a barrage of fireballs were headed right for us. We managed to dodge out of the way just in time. Those poor shrubs we were hiding behind, though? Yeah… those couldn't stand a chance…

“There you are, magical girl!” Meteron said with equal measures of childish glee and smug attitude in his voice. “Now, let's play a little game. You'll hide, and I'll destroy you! Ha-ha-ha-harrr!”

“Run!” I told Aichi, and we bolted away from the scene. Meteron only threw even more fireballs at us, laughing maniacally all the way.

“You can run, magical girl, but you can't hide!” Meteron cackled.

“He used some kind of mind control spell on my coworker,” I explained to Aichi as we darted down the busy downtown streets. “Something called a mesmer or something like that…”

“Ayame! There's no way we can fight that guy, ~woof,” Aichi cried out. “He can use The Mesmer, which is a technique only expert sorcerers can use. We severely underestimated his power.”

“Well, we might have more of a fighting chance if I knew more than four spells!” I shouted. Meteron continued to fly after us, hip thrusting in mid-air and throwing more and more fireballs at us. He was a pretty bad shot, all things considered, as most of his shots either hit the sidewalk or hit cars as we ran past them or hit lampposts. One shot, however, landed right behind us, knocking us into the air. The force of the explosion separated us, sending me flying to the right and Aichi to the left.

“Ayame!” Aichi shouted.

“Flower Power! Rise up, pretty pretty please!” I chanted as I found myself flying higher and higher into the air. Aichi immediately changed his direction and flew in a big circle around me. The transformation was much faster than I expected due to the urgency of the matter. Did anyone see me transform? I didn't care right now. I was sure I would be able to sort things out later.

Aichi continued flying around me as my transformation was completed; I assumed he was using his magic to give me a much more graceful landing.

Okay, maybe I cared a little bit…

A crowd of people, defying all common sense, gathered around us as we stood in the street, filming us for social media. One of those people was my best friend, Shōko, who had a different camera on hand. She wanted to take pictures of me and my upcoming fight.

“You got this, girl!” Shōko cheered me on. “Send that boy flying!”

I raised my non-staff hand into the air in an attempt to mimic Star Soldier. With a couple of twirls, I said, “I'm the cute defender of justice! Magical Intern Ayame!” Completing my pose, I twirled my staff a couple of times, did one more spin, and said, “For the sake of all that is cute and fluffy, stop this evil at once! Please?” That please was accompanied by me cupping my hands together and attempting to do a pleading puppy face.

“So the magical girl finally appears,” Meteron continued his incessantly smug teasing. He chuckled before continuing, “And wouldn't you know it? We got an audience!”

I was waiting for him to make the first move, so I tried baiting him with a taunt of my own: “Age before beauty.”

“Very well, then,” Meteron relented. I had expected him to begin tossing fireballs again, but this time, he began dancing to a different beat. This dance I was only able to describe as freestyle. “Blizzard Bluster!”

An ice attack?! Maybe he was more skilled than I thought… I jumped out of the way, but I underestimated my own ability to jump and fly, so I landed right behind my opponent. He tried to shoot more ice at me, but I grabbed a hold of his arms, forcing him to shoot his magic ice into the air instead. We struggled for a while; I had never gotten into a non-magical fight with anyone before. He was strong, with or without magic, but I had a plan.

It had been a very long time since I had danced with another person, so I had to dig very deep into my memories for this one. I began to mimic the dance moves he had done to the woman he turned into a giant puffball.

“Ayame, what are you doing?!” Aichi screamed. “He could use that magic to turn you into a monster!”

“I got this, Aichi,” I answered. “Watch this! Iris Petal Tornado!’

“What?!” Aichi was shocked to hear what I had just said.

Meteron and I began to float into the air surrounded by iris flowers. Once we had gotten some distance above the ground, I tossed him even higher into the air! Maybe this magic was making me less afraid of heights, or maybe I was being a bit too brash. Either way, I was sure my old dance teacher would have been proud.

I was now dancing in the air! My best impression of her in mind, I was ready to perform my Spinning Flower Kick, and send Meteron flying far away from here!

“Spinning Flower Kick!!”

I shot myself high into the air, spinning the entire way, aiming right for Meteron's stupid smug face. Within a few seconds, it was a direct hit!

“Curses, I've been foiled again!” Meteron cried as he flew far beyond the horizon.

As I returned to the ground, the crowd began to cheer for me. I… I did it… I got the people to cheer for a magical girl! Maybe I could convince them that magic wasn't all bad after all…

I just realized…

I forgot all about Sakamoto!