What If I Want To Forget About Magic?!

We had somehow made it back to my house without even so much as a peep. Not alerting my parents’ attention to our presence while we were supposed to still be at the dance was the most important part.

As we landed on my balcony, Shōko asked me, “What, or rather, who are you looking for?”

“A Hollow that Aichi's been hiding away, ah-CHOO!” I answered. “He said something about putting her in a corner so she can think about her life.”

Filing through my room, I looked for any possible hiding place for a Hollow. I could hear a cackling laughter hidden away inside my closet. No… I opened my closet door to reveal a cat Hollow sitting inside a bubble and watching something on a screen, laughing hysterically at… was that Star Soldier?!

“You nyow, this Star Soldier show is absolutely hilarious,” the cat said to us upon discovering her. “Nyo wonder Aichi hates it so much. 100% pure grade A cheese. By the way, don't tell him I said that he gets a lot of his crazy schemes from watching this show. He seems to think he can do so much better than the absolutely insane geniuses who write this show.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked the cat Hollow.

“~nya, I live here,” the cat replied. “At least until Aichi lets me out of this bubble.” After turning off the screen, the cat then asked me. “Let me guess, you liked a boy who then turned out to be evil?”

“How did you know that?” I asked her in response. This cat Hollow seemed to be very knowledgeable about what had been happening where she had been largely clueless before.

“I used to date Aichi's older brother,” the cat Hollow answered. “What was his nyame? Hitori? Itsuki? Hideaki! That was it! Turned out he was trying to mastermind a nyew Endless War, and we haven't spoken to each other since. I can't do bad boys, you nyow what I'm saying, girl?”

Shōko and I exchanged looks for a moment. The cat Hollow was just a little too eager to reveal personal details about her life all of a sudden. Was this what the being put in a corner was supposed to do to her? She looked like she was enjoying what Aichi made sound like a punishment.

“You've been mentioning Aichi,” I replied back. “What did he say to you?”

“Well, he convinced me to give you some of my power,” the cat explained. “He said you could use it on your little boyfriend.”

“He's not my… never mind…” I gave up trying to reason with the cat. “Can I use the power on myself?”

“Ayame!” Shōko shouted. “How could you say that?”

“I have my reasons,” I told her. “Mainly, I just want to wake up from this nightmare.”

Unfortunately for all of us, my dad picked the worst moment possible to barge into my room. He looked about how one would have expected a secret agent to look: tall, brooding, thick sunglasses despite the fact it was almost midnight, dark hair, and a cold, dry voice.

“Oh gods…” was all my dad could say at the sight of me. I couldn't have blamed him even if I wanted to. His face betrayed what he tried to hide with those glasses. His daughter, his only child, was a freak.

•

Angrily focusing on the road, my dad did not even so much as glance at me. Shōko, the cat Hollow (still trapped in the bubble), and I all shared the back row of the family car, a 2005 something-or-other, I never really cared to know for sure. At first, nobody had anything to say about the matter. Nobody wanted to risk further upsetting the already angry forty-two year old man behind the wheel. Until the cat had to open up her mouth…

“Well, this is actually pretty fun,” the cat Hollow said, though I wasn't sure if my dad could understand her or not.

“I can't believe this!” my dad whined. “My little girl! Consorting with witches and magical creatures and turning into a furry! I knew I shouldn't have taken that promotion. It would be fun, the Prime Minister said. Everything would be alright at home, your mother said. Where did I go wrong?!”

“You can't arrest us!” Shōko protested. “We're the good guys!”

“And I'm your daughter!” I shouted.

“Did your mother ever tell you what my job is?” he asked me.

I said nothing.

“Figured… Well, part of my job is to deal with magical creatures and weird criminal cases,” my dad explained. “Your friend over there is a witch. We spotted her flying you home. The cat in the bubble is a Hollow, about as magical as magical creatures come. And you… I'll be lucky if you're still human when this is all over.”

After that, I said nothing more. I reigned myself to whatever fate the Japanese government had in store for me. All of this because I saved a talking puppy from a big truck. Shōko, on the other hand, bless her… Shōko was not giving up without getting some answers. All I did in the meantime was sneeze several more times.

“Where are you taking us?” Shōko asked my dad.

“Somewhere hidden so we can sort this mess out,” he replied.

•

Our destination was a large military complex hidden away in the mountains. My worst fears had come to life; they were going to execute me for sure. My own dad was going to send me to my death! I couldn't believe it! He had the three of us share an anti-magic cell to await whatever news they had for us. A single bunk bed and a sink with a mirror above it was all that was in here.

“Sleep well, kids,” my dad told us. “We need to sort out this magical nonsense. We'll discuss this further in the morning.”

He left us alone after that, just the three of us… It was horrible. What started out as the best night of my life had quickly turned into the worst night of my life.

I turned to face the cat Hollow. “If I let you out of this bubble, could you use your erasing magic power on me and Shōko?” I asked her. I didn't even wait for her permission to release her. I just… did…

“Ayame!” Shōko scolded me. “After everything you've achieved since you became magical, you're just going to give up now?”

What Shōko hadn't realized is I had already given up. In just a few hours, my life had completely taken a turn for the worst. My life was about to be over because my dad valued his stupid job over his own daughter. I at least wanted to forget all of this ever happened so that maybe… just maybe… even if the Dark Master took over the world, I could weasel my way out of this and spend the rest of my life as a normal girl.

“This is all Aichi's fault…” I finally told Shōko. Making my way over to the one mirror we had in this cell, I continued, “Aichi made me like this. He made me a freak… I didn't ask to become a magical girl… Ah-CHOO!” Next thing I knew, my hand (paw?) made contact with the wall right next to the mirror, cracking the wall instantly.

“Aya…?”

“I hate him…” I told Shōko, trying once again to fight against the welling up convoluted mess of emotions. “He ruined my life! Ah-CHOO!”

It came as a total surprise to my ears to hear Aichi's voice in response.

“~woof… First of all, rude,” Aichi replied. I turned to see not my reflection in the mirror, but instead that cream-colored puppy I met in Kōchi just under a month ago. “Second of all, I never gave you your powers,” Aichi explained. “Those were always there, just waiting to be awakened. My job was simply to prevent those powers from falling into the wrong hands, ~woof like they did with Tsubaki and now Himawari.”

I couldn't help but stare at the mirror, put my hands (paws?) up to the mirror.

“How are you doing this?” Shōko asked Aichi.

“Yeah,” I added. “This is an anti-magic barrier, ah-CHOO! No magic is supposed to go in or out.”

“Don't you remember the Mesmer?” Aichi asked in response. “Anti-magic is good, ~woof but it's not foolproof.”

“Oh right…” I remember Meteron's use of the Mesmer on Sakamoto and how it led to his escape from prison.

“I can only maintain this connection for a little longer,” Aichi continued. “I need to get this message out quickly. Your dad is not going to hurt you ~woof! He knows deep down that you want to do the right thing. If he really thought you were an evil sorcerer, he wouldn't have hesitated to act accordingly.”

I shouted at the mirror, “Then why did he lock us in this cell? Why didn't you come and help us? Ah-CHOO!”

Aichi replied, “I don't know if you know this, but you and Shōko and Sayori kinda have the biggest targets on your backs in all of Japan now. Ironically, this is the safest place for you. Now, get some rest ~woof. We've got a big day tomorrow.”

His image instantly disappeared from the mirror. I was now unable to speak to him, but it was actually good to see him again… Just in case, I tried to summon him using the “Summon Hollow” spell. It didn't work. Shōko tried the same trick, but it didn't work for her either. Silence fell across the entire cell. I wasn't sure if I could fully trust Aichi, but I was going to have to.

“I may nyow a spell that could return you to human form,” the cat Hollow said to me after a while. “However, there's three things you need to nyow first.”

“What are they?” I asked her.

“First, the spell only works when you're sleeping,” the cat explained. Since it was now after midnight, I figured now would be as good a time as any to finally sleep. I climbed into the lower bunk.

“Okay, now what?” I then asked.

“Second, this spell will take up all of my mana, as it is one of the most powerful spells a Hollow can -”

“Yeah, yeah,” I mocked the cat. “Powerful spells take up more mana and it would take you weeks to recover. Aichi has told me the same thing before. What's that third thing?”

“Okay, four things…”

“Really?!”

“Alright, calm down,” the cat tried to comfort me. “The third thing is I still need to imbue you with a little bit of my forgetting power.” The cat Hollow then pulled an orb of magic out of her ear and shoved it into my ear. Gross. “And the fourth thing…”

“What's that?” I asked as I could feel myself getting sleepy…

“I will perform this spell on one condition,” the cat told me. “Hideaki is mine. Got that?”

I nodded in response.

“Good,” the cat concluded. “Nyaw sleep.”

I was knocked out instantly, before I could even ask how she knew about this spell, but Aichi did not.

•

The next morning, we were jolted awake by the sound of alarms blaring across the entire complex and of shoes clip-clapping up and down hallways. Everyone inside (except us, obviously) was scurrying about trying to figure out where they were supposed to be going. My dad was not running. Instead, he very calmly walked up to our cell and turned off the anti-magic barrier. I didn't even have time to check if the cat Hollow's little transformation spell worked before he spoke.

“Alright, you three,” my dad told us, “we need to talk.”