The Little Lamb Wants to Play?!

I was shaken out of my bed by a horrendous buzzing sound. I didn't look at the clock to see what time it was, but I knew it was way too early for anyone to be awake.

“Aichi, make it stop!” I cried out.

“Five more minutes, ~woof,” Aichi said sheepishly.

But the noise would not stop. It continued on for what seemed like forever, occasionally accompanied by an obnoxious roar and the sound of cannon fire.

“Aichi, we gotta do something about that monster…”

“Ayame, ~woof, go take care of it, why don't you…”

“I need your magic to transform…”

“Ugh… fine…” Aichi groaned. “Bibbity bobbity boo… You're now a magical girl…”

“Aichi… That's not how that works.”

“Fine! Say the magic words so I can go back to sleep ~woof!”

“Flower Power! Rise Up, pretty pretty please!”

There was no fancy transformation sequence this time. The outfit and my staff just… appeared… No fanfare, no nothing. Aichi must have been too lazy to do the whole thing. Oh well… At least I got the outfit and the magic needed to fight the monster.

And then, I looked at the clock…

“5:30?! Nobody should be awake at this hour!”

“Ayame ~woof, I'm trying to sleep!”

Since Aichi was obviously not wanting to help out, I had no choice but to go out and face the monster alone.

When I got to the downtown district, I saw a giant cannon with arms and legs and eyes that looked extremely angry. The smell of rice pudding was everywhere and mounds of the stuff could be found as far as the eye could see. This was the monster I had to fight… alone… A giant cannon that shot out rice pudding.

Wonderful…

So I set out with my usual opening move, my “Brave Charm!!” The spell summoned… a giant Aichi?! The Brave Charm spell could do that? Was it the real Aichi grown to giant size or was it just a really big replica Aichi?

“Uh… Aichi? Go eat the rice pudding?” I asked him. Without a word, without even so much as a ~woof, the giant Aichi began to clean up the mess left by the cannon monster. This gave me an opening to fight the giant cannon monster head on.

The cannon monster tried to block my path by shooting more rice pudding in my direction. I was able to dodge most of them, except for one that grazed my right side, causing me to spin around while I ran down the road. My kimono was now partially covered in sticky rice pudding. Gross.

“Flower Shower!!” I shouted at the cannon monster as a shower of iris petals shot out of my staff. However, the attack had seemingly no effect on the monster despite scratching up its body pretty badly. It just continued to shoot out rice pudding, now trying to aim right at me. I got its attention, but not in a good way.

In order to avoid getting hit by the rice pudding, I had to resort to the one tactic I really did not want to use… flying… I had to admit, I was much faster in the air than I was on the ground. I just needed to stop thinking about how my feet were not touching the ground. I kept an eye on the giant Aichi as a way to keep myself distracted.

Oh no! I had completely forgotten about the camellia powers! I had acquired those from Tsukiko after I freed her from the clutches of Marie Sendou, the Ice Queen. Now, how was I supposed to actually use those powers?

I had no time to even think about that as I had to quickly dodge even more pudding fire. How was I supposed to defeat this thing?! I tried everything I knew: Flower Showers, Pulse Fields, Spinning Flower Kicks, Vine Strikes, Whirlwinds, even a Boogie Blitz! Nothing worked against this monster. I even tried to summon a second Brave Charm, but I learned that only one could be summoned at a time. As long as the giant Aichi was playing in the mounds of rice pudding, I was unable to summon another Brave Charm.

So I tried to get the giant Aichi to attack the giant cannon.

“Aichi! Get the toy!” I shouted.

The giant Aichi didn't listen. He just kept playing in the mounds of rice pudding. As long as he did that, he would not be doing anything else. That was the worst news imaginable for me.

And then it hit me… a giant ball of rice pudding. I was knocked out instantly. 

•

I woke up to the sound of a lamb going “Baa! Baa! Baa!!” As soon as I opened my eyes, there she was… the lamb Hollow from the other day. She had the fluffiest fur I had ever seen on an animal, white as snow and with lots of little twinkles scattered throughout. I saw her trying to shake me awake, though I couldn't tell how long she had been trying that. I noticed I was back in my normal clothes, which was good for me because I did not need anyone I knew seeing me in my magical outfit.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I quickly got a look at my surroundings and determined I had landed in the mountain forests surrounding Susaki. I must have gotten knocked quite a distance by that rice pudding.

“Mm-baa-a-aa!” the lamb replied. She then pointed me in the direction of where I last saw the cannon monster. But… where was the cannon monster? Last I saw, the monster was making a mess of the city by flooding it with rice pudding. Now, it was just gone?

“What, you defeated that monster?” I asked.

“Meh-ehh,” she answered, seemingly affirming my suspicions. But it didn't make sense to me. How could this small lamb have done what I couldn't, and defeated a giant cannon… by herself, no less!

I asked the little lamb, "What do you think you are, some kind of deus ex baa-kina?"

"Mm-baa!" the little lamb answered, looking quite proud of herself. She apparently understood what I was saying, but I still could not understand what she was saying. She then stood up on her hind legs to reach into her fluff for something. Did all Hollows have some kind of secret magic pouch where they stored stuff?

She pulled a picture of a person out of her magical fluff pocket and handed it to me.

“Shōko?!” I was shocked to see this strange creature hand me a picture of my best friend. “Are you looking for her?”

“Baa!” The tone in the lamb's voice seemed to indicate I was on the right track. This lamb Hollow must have wanted to form a magical contract with Shōko. Did one of the Flower Powers awaken in Shōko? Was she going to become a magic fighter just like me?

“I can take you to her if you want,” I told the lamb Hollow. “It just so happens that I know where she lives.”

“Ah-baa!!” The lamb seemed really happy to hear that.

•

Shōko lived in a very nice house near Susaki Castle, looking more like something you'd see in Southern California than in Southern Japan. A decently sized farm could be seen poking out from behind the house. If I remembered correctly, Shōko's parents were very important in the local agriculture industry. I knew the directions to that house like the back of my own hand.

I didn't want to startle poor Shōko this early on a Saturday morning, so I gently knocked on her door.

“Please let her answer the door,” I said to myself a couple of times.

“Meh-eh?” The lamb seemed confused at my little muttering to myself.

The door opened to reveal Shōko.

“Ayame? What are you doing here?” Shōko asked me. “It's almost time for Star Soldier!”

“That show’s still going?” I asked in response. “I thought it got canceled after… well…”

“Did something happen to one of the lead actors?” Shōko asked back.

“I may have gotten it mixed up with another show, honestly,” I admitted. How silly of me to have assumed that the police had done anything with Marie Sendou after that incident at Studio Otter.

“So what brings you all the way out here on a Saturday morning?” Shōko asked me.

“Oh, right…” I said. “Shōko, can you keep a secret?”

“I already know you're a magical girl,” Shōko said with a smile. “What is it this time?”

“I got someone who would like to meet you,” I answered.

“Mm-baa!” The lamb Hollow said excitedly. She had clearly been waiting to meet Shōko for a while.