Recovery

The Fool Arc

Fuming in the dark of a dumpster, hiding amongst the trash, the creature looked out at the streets.

She had backup. Of course she had someone else. Magical Girls work in teams, right? 

The creature didn't know much about Magical Girls. Despite its ego, despite its constant raging arguments online, it only knew them in passing. The very idea annoyed it so much that the creature could not stand to consume more than a few minutes of that material.

That was part of those stupid shows. I needed to learn more about them. More. So much more. But where to start?

There would be a place where you could learn about them. There would be many. The creature feared going home, home could be tracked. It could be trapped. It could be an ambush.

No, without the internet, the creature needed another place. Another place where it could find whatever information it needed.

It stepped out onto the streets. First, it would need to find a way to hide the mutations of its body. And for that...

The creature saw a man wearing a long jacket, and began grinning once more.

♥ Magical Girl Rinrin ♥

“Headquarters. This is Recovery. On site now.” The words blare through my haze as I slowly come to consciousness. I find myself with my back to a concrete wall. The reassurance that I’m alive comes with pain coursing through my body.

I look down at myself and see my uniform. It’s dirty from lying on the rooftop, and the rain pouring down from the sky makes it cold. I must've lost consciousness and de-transformed. I think that Nyamu said something like that happens... I look up at the figure talking, she speaks with authority, like she’s used to this type of situation. Rain is pouring down from above, I realize, and has been for some time. The delicate drops are soothing on my skin compared to the rough and tumble of the previous combat.

“Have located the Magical Girl Operator, please advise.” The woman continues, looking down at me. I look up at her warily in response, taking in her form. Her skin is perfectly clear and hair silky smooth, tied back in a loose ponytail. Her skin is a caramel shade that matches her subtle islander accent. There's no doubt she's a magical girl, with her perfect makeup and stunningly beautiful looks.

Her outfit’s the real tipoff, though. No-one outside of some sort of convention dresses like that- armor plating at odd places that seem ineffective, exposed back and stomach, a frilly poofy skirt on one side, sleek armor to her knee on the other, meeting up with a pair of pointed armored boots. The lopsided-armor trend continues up the rest of her outfit, covering one arm- the one holding her magical phone- with shining enchanted steel. The knight motif continues to her hair piece, a cross between a knight’s visor and a hairband sits above her brow. Her fingers are exposed on both hands, vivid green nail polish that matches her lipstick and eye shadow.  I can hear the raindrops plinking and sliding off her armor, the water tapping the metal lightly.

“Get up.” She barks at me. I nod and slowly clamber to my feet, hands sliding on the wet roof beneath me, getting dirty as they press into it, pieces of rooftop detritus lightly embedded. I awkwardly try to brush some of them off my hands and body, but the glare of the knight-looking magical girl causes me to quickly stop and stand still, arms at my sides.

“What the hell were you doing?” she barks out. Her tone is crisp, used to orders. I look down at my uniform, feeling ashamed. She takes some pity on me, releasing my shoulders and pinching the bridge of her nose with a sigh.

“Just transform.” I obey. With shining lights, I begin to transform. My old outfit unravelling, skin glowing, ribbons of light tying around me and colors changing until I'm once again fully composed as a Magical Girl, my outfit glowing faintly with the last remnants of the transformation before it settles down.

“...Magical Girl of Hearts, right?” The knight-woman says, looking my outfit up and down with a slight subtle scowl. I give a nod at my formal title. It's clear that her knight outfit isn't just for show, it seems to have affected her attitude towards introductions.

“Yes. Um, Rinrin.” I extend a hand to shake, and she scowls.

“I’m Queen-Side Rook. Inspector for the Inspection and Incident Bureau. Second Class.” I look nervously at the knight introducing herself as a castle, and notice Nyamu shaking his head nervously, looking ashamed. I open my mouth to speak, but she cuts me off with a tone that brooks no argument.

“Hearts. In the performance of your duty this evening, you demonstrated your power to a group of five civilians.” She glares at me like a gym teacher who catches the lazy kid in class slacking. Nyamu flaps up between us, waving his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Please, wait, nyamu! You have to listen to-” Nyamu begins, but Rook has already summoned her magic circle and begun casting sigils, petrifying him in place. Nyamu falls to the ground with a thunk. I swallow, looking from him to Rook.

“I tried not to-”

“I don't know who you think you are, but we take matters such as this extremely seriously.” She talks over me, causing me to shut up and watch her nervously.

“Magical Girl of Hearts, Rinrin. In the period of one hour, you have breached every single code placed upon Magical Girls for the protection of the innocent and concealment of the magical world. The amount of magic required to cauterize this incident, contain the spread, and replace the memories of everyone present will have a total energy cost beyond what any normal Magical Girl generates in ten years of service.”
“Please, I didn’t-”
“Furthermore.” She cuts through with a glare, and I whimper and lean back.
“Furthermore.” She repeats.
“Your actions have caused the death of a civilian. I don’t care what crime he may have committed, a Magical Girl must never take a life. Under the circumstances, you are to be prosecuted to the fullest extent-”

“Maniacals!” I blurt out, remembering the word Nyamu had said. This causes the knight to finally stop talking.

“Maniacals. Nyamu- that’s my fairy- he said that… I think he meant the thing that attacked me…” I begin explaining rapidly as Rook stares intently.

“Impossible.” She glares, recovering herself and trying to dismiss me. But I'm on a roll now.

“It’s true! Please! It was a tall man, with his skin covered in this weird… goop-stuff. It hardened in places like bone, with this big horn sticking out the side of his head…” I describe everything I can to back up my story. Please believe me. Please.

“He killed the man in the alley. I’m sure of it. I was trying to stop him from hurting anyone else when those people showed up, and I fled up here…” I look at her, and she’s hesitating. Maybe I’ve gotten through to her, maybe she believes me.

As she stares, another Magical Girl appears, gliding down from the sky. She gently alights on the rooftop with the grace of a swan entering water and looks at me with a passive, but not unkind, face. Her hair is long and center-parted in white, reaching down to her ankles. She’s wearing what appears to be an elegant flowing white skirt and long white boots with feathers on the ankles. A small crown appears at a rakish angle atop her head, and her eyes are a very pale blue, almost white. If you were to draw her on plain paper, you wouldn’t need to bring colors.

“The child may be telling the truth, Rook.” She says in the gentle, austere tones of a princess. Her voice is fancy and faintly floral. Rook clucks her tongue in irritation.
“You believe this? There hasn’t been a Maniacal sighting in decades.”
“That only means no-one saw one, not that there were none.” The newcomer says, evenly. She looks up at me; she's a head shorter than me, head and a half than Rook.
“Little one… This Maniacal you saw. Did your fairy see it too?” Her eyes are kind, making me want to-
“Yes! He saw it too, he’ll tell you everything.” I look down at Nyamu. The newcomer crouches down, calling her magic circle and stroking her fingers through it daintily, before she presses her finger to his head, and he moves once more.

“-us, there was a Maniacal!” Nyamu finishes his prior statement in a daze. The newcomer smiles thinly. Nyamu blinks a few times, the new girl gently lifts the fairy from the ground in her hands.

"Please tell us what happened. All of it." Nyamu doesn't need to be asked twice, and launches into recounting the story.
"We were walking down the street patrolling for allies, mu, then there was this sound. We rounded into the alley it came from and saw the corpse. Before we could do anything we were attacked! It wasn't a normal shadow, nor a spectre or ghost. It had to have been a Maniacal!"
“Good child.” She whispers, before gently standing up. She nods slowly, and releases Nyamu, who flies nervously over to my side.

“I am Queen-Side Bishop. Bishop is fine.” She introduces herself, holding her hand out, palm inwards. I take it awkwardly.
“Uh, hi-”
“The Queen-Side Bishop!?” Nyamu says, awe clear in his voice. She gives a gentle smile.
“I do not know of another.” She replies in sweet tones. I can tell from the way Nyamu fidgets that he wants to talk to her more about something, but I don't know what that something is. He's moving like an otaku at a handshake event. Bishop turns to Rook with a small smile.
“I have cleaned the vicinity, tracked down every last one of the witnesses, and implanted something nicer to remember. As far as they know, they had an enjoyable ramen bowl before heading home late.” She gives a soft chuckle.

“Of course, that may have the side effect of them seeking out the diner they found the food, to sadly no avail.” She gives a gently sad face. Rook doesn’t seem to care, privately fuming. Bishop turns to me.
"Now then, where did this Maniacal run to? "
“You can’t seriously believe them! A Maniacal-” Rook growls in disbelief.
“I know this smell. I have smelt it before. And it is not the magic of this child.” Bishop says, her eyes steel to match Rook’s armor.
“Please… please tell me.. What is a Maniacal?” I ask the question on the tip of my tongue. Bishop and Rook exchange glances, before a small smile and a gritting of the teeth respectively.

“A Maniacal is… the equivalent of a Magical Girl, but for the ones below.” Rook says gruffly, facing me.
“Everything we can do, they try to approximate. We find those who are full of love, light, and kindness to protect others… they find the hateful, the bitter, the loveless. A twisted reflection of what we are.”
“You said… you said that there hasn’t been one in decades… but if they’ve happened before, why isn’t it common knowledge among civilians? Wouldn’t people notice?” I glance down at the alleyway, then look away. Bishop interrupts Rook with a gentle raising of her hand, signalling her takeover of the responses.

“People do. Not every serial killer is caught by their police. Many disappear, or escape from impossible situations, leaving police dumbfounded and their records of events dangerous. There are those among us who work within the police and government by day, keeping the more… disturbing details of the killer’s powers secret.”
“What good does that do!? Surely, if people knew-”
“Knew what? That witches roam the streets, snatching children and the unaware? We tried telling them. Warning them. For centuries. And it led to them murdering each other in ways quite, quite, brutal.” Bishop replies, her eyes seeing something dark that I cannot…

“Fear of a thing you cannot fight is a weapon of those below. Maniacals each feed on a negative emotion, the same way that we Magical Girls are empowered by love and hope." She says gravely. Nyamu looks at the floor sadly.
"Did you not notice? I am sure that the more scared you were, the more the Maniacal’s power seemed to grow.”
“It was feeding on my fear?” A polite nod from Bishop is the response I receive.
“The stronger the person it drives to fear, the stronger it grows in turn.” I shiver and rub my arms in a way that doesn’t fit the warm evening.
“Maniacals cannot be reasoned with. They’ve lost that ability. All they have is anger, hatred and bloodshed. Those Magical Girls who have tried to talk them down…” Bishop looks out to the city.
“...Even in a one-on-one confrontation, knowing what you are up against, a Maniacal can kill a Magical Girl.”

“So what do we do?” I ask, which gets a scowl from Rook and a look of surprise form Bishop, which turns into a warm, genuine smile.
“You really are a Magical Girl, aren’t you, Rinrin? I explain the dangers, the horror, and your first thought is to put yourself on the frontline with us. Tell me, what is your resonance capable of?”

I hesitate, and look down sheepishly.
“I don’t know.” I mumble.
“She hasn’t even awoken.” Rook stares in surprise.
“You must have some gift with magic and sigils, then, to put up such a good fight.” Bishop smiles at me encouragingly.
“...Um, no.” I reply, causing Bishop’s eyes to widen. I feel the urge to defend myself.
“I tried casting! But... I was slow and he sorta hit me…”
“But you still manged to fight?” Rook looks at me sharply.
“Mostly I just… punched him.”
“Punched…”
“I kicked him sometimes too!”
“And kicked.” Rook stares in disbelief, Bishop gives a little giggle.
“Really, if you hadn’t saved me at the end, I don’t know what I would’ve done!” I say, remembering the flashes of light. The pair stare at each other, and then back down at me.

“We only came after you’d already driven the beast off.” That was Rook, a gruff voice. I was starting to get a little used to her. She wasn’t a gym teacher- she was a sports team captain, all gruff to hide that she doesn’t really know much more than I do. It was kinda cute.
"Huh? No! I didn't drive the beast off, like I said, I was-"
“Perhaps you should return to your normal duties and practice your spellwork, let us handle this situation, okay?” Bishop gives me a gentle pat on the head. She had to tip-toe up to do it, but it still felt nice, though somewhat dismissive.

"The rainfall has almost ended. We should leave before it's done." Rook looks at the sky, tilting her visor a little. Bishop sighs.
"They really never give us enough time with these things. They could extend the cleansing waters for at least another hour to finish witness reports, dear oh dear." She sighs like a well-meaning but beleaguered worker, and gives me a small curtsy.
"Well, it has been a pleasure, Magical Girl of Hearts. I shall be invested in your future."

“...Wait-” I try to explain the white lights that scared the Maniacal one last time, but the pair are already in motion. They exchange tradesman-like nods of approval with each other, Rook leaping rooftop to rooftop, Bishop flying into the air with gentle grace.

Left behind on the roof, nothing else to do, I stare after them until Nyamu quietly pulls on my collar.
"Hey. It's getting late."