Karin's Stress Relief; Magical Aka's Prison Visit

*SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP*

“Agh! That stupid clone!” Magical Aka shouted, punching her closed fist over and over into her open palm. Each punch from her right hand left a sharp cut on her left, one that would heal by the time she pulled back for another punch.

It hurt, but the pain was inconsequential to her anger and rage. She knew if she tried to take her frustration out on anything else she was going to destroy it, leaving her with a broken car, road, or building; still angry.

Since she was still near the country club the foot traffic was rather light, and the few passerbys only spared a quick glance in Aka’s direction as they continued with their own business. In some sense she was thankful that people weren’t passing by, less people to see her acting like this, but on the other hand, she wanted people to see her anger, to bear witness to it.

“I should be punching her in the face, not my hand!” Aka screamed to the sky. Another person looked over, before continuing on their way.

Aka’s fist ignited in flames as her anger boiled over. With each strike she could feel her palm taking longer and longer to heal not only the cuts, but the burns her fist would leave upon it.

*CRUNCH*

A sharp pain shot through Aka’s wrist, finally knocking her out of her anger spiral. Aka took a second to pull her palm up to see the damage, the broken skins, the blisters, the shattered wrist; in the blink of an eye, gone. A perfect summation of her efforts.

Aka took a deep breath. There was no point in getting angry at her clone. She was already gone, even if she tried to summon the clone, it wouldn’t have any memories of this encounter and the paycheck she stole from her.

And… as much as Aka hated to admit it, she knew that wasn’t the thing that was eating her up inside. No, it was how powerless she felt in her talks with the judge and prosecutor.

She’d fought people who had threatened to destroy the world dozens of times over, end countless lives, and she’d risen up to stop them each and every time. Yet here she was completely powerless to save a single human life from prison.

But the answer to this paradox was obvious, even to Aka. Aka’s strength was her fists, she could best near any human in combat. Aka provided that strength to Karin, but she didn’t provide the skills necessary to convince someone in an argument of words. And words were all she could use to combat them.

They were operating within the law. They were following the rules. As much as she hated them for what they did, to use her power to threaten or even hurt them would make her just like the monsters who had threatened Earth so long ago.

If it had been Rose, Yellow, or even Báisè, they probably could’ve convinced them with their words alone without issue. They always took to the plate when Aka’s fists weren’t enough to change a villain’s ways. The one’s who weren’t motivated by “might makes right.”

“Hah…”

Another sigh escaped her lips. She opened her left palm again, confirming it was back to normal. Karin knew she had anger problems, it was what powered Aka’s magic, and she always seemed to have too much to handle. It had boiled over when she’d seen that lousy lying little rat at the speeding dating event.

He was a creep, and Aka thought all women would benefit from not having to interact with him, but he didn’t deserve to get his shit kicked in as Karin was about to do so at that time. He hadn’t seeked to inflict violence upon her, she was the one who escalated that conflict, she was the one who brought attention to herself, she was the one who should’ve just told the people running the event about his disgusting behavior.

Aka’s fists balled up tight. Her fingernails digged into the flesh of her palms. Her jaw wired itself shut. Her whole body tensed up, ready to take a beating that never came.

“Agh!” Karin screamed again, this time to an empty street. She lifted up her right foot from the ground in an exaggerated arc to take on a wide stance. She then spread her arms out and wide, dipping her upper body down so that it was horizontal to the ground as her arm and hands moved from that position to join together and form a large circle underneath her.

This was something she’d learned in her Tae Kwon Do school as a kid, where one was supposed to gather up all their negative feelings into a circle. She wasn’t sure if this was legitimate, as the place she learned it from seemed rather sketchy, but it worked wonders for her as a Magical Girl.

The inside of her arms felt a warm heat that grew more intense with each passing second, so that soon it felt like her arms were pressed up against the hood of a car that had been running all day in the summer heat. Her anger coalesced into a sphere within. It burned with the heat of a supernova, but her magic kept it contained within its shape so it didn’t start melting everything around it.

“It’s bigger than usual,” Aka mused to no one but herself.

The form she learned taught her she should push the collected anger out and away from her, but if she did that she was probably going to topple several buildings with her dodgeball of anger. So instead she looked up into the sky, careful to make sure there were no birds, planes, or satellites in its trajectory.

Doing so, she dropped it to her foot, and then kicked it straight into the sky. It still kept its form as it flew higher and higher, eventually reaching escape velocity and exiting Earth’s atmosphere.

With that, Aka breathed a sigh of relief, already feeling lighter on her feet. She thankfully didn’t have to worry about her miniature supernova too long after that, as her anger magic fizzled rather quickly when removed from its source.

There were some perks to being a Magical Girl, and hell, even to her own magic compared to the others she had to admit.

Finally, thinking more clearly, she decided to get a move on, thinking of what she should do next.

***

‘Besides, prison isn’t that bad, it builds character.’

Having cooled her head, Aka remembered the words of the prosecutor, and decided her next course of action.

She had never been to a prison before, well, not a human prison. She had been locked behind bars several times by enemies who had attempted to capture her, but it’s not like she’d been with anyone else.

Carol was probably scared Tyler would be hurt by the other inmates. If Aka just went there to confirm he was safe, or maybe used some force to ensure that he’d stay safe, maybe that’d ease her worries.

She could then accept one of those plea deals and hopefully so Tyler could finish his sentence faster. If he had good behavior, he could possibly be out of there before the school year was over even.

Maybe that’s exactly what she needed.

***

Unfortunately for Aka, she had no idea which prison Tyler was being held in. She felt a bit too embarrassed to try calling Carol and asking her, and waiting for Winona to be free from her pile of paperwork already sounded like a losing battle.

With those options taken away, the only thing she could think to do was ask the judge or prosecutor.

It felt a bit awkward hanging outside of the place she’d essentially been kicked out of, and she ended up having to wait for about 2 hours, but eventually the judge exited the country club.

He was fine enough to tell her which prison he was being held in, and with an embarrassed ‘thank you,’ she decided to head on over there.

***

As she arrived at the building, she couldn’t help but take note of its size. It was bigger than her own high school. Were there really that many criminals just in her city that needed to be locked up? Why couldn’t she seem to find them on her patrols? Maybe she could learn a thing or two from this place.

She entered the front entrance, and was greeted by a rather unassuming lobby. She had imagined something more drab or sterile, but it looked like it could be any old lobby.

At the front desk she saw another clerk. Her experiences with them hadn’t been the best today, but hey, maybe the third time's the charm.

“Hi, I’m Magical Aka. I was curious if I might be able to visit Tyler?”

“Do you have an appointment?” the clerk asked.

“Uh, no, could I set one up now?”

“You can, but it won’t be for today, visitation hours are nearly over.”

“Okay,” responded, silently cursing herself under her breath for taking so long to get here, “is there anything else I should know?”

The clerk typed in some information on her computer.

“Right now Tyler only has 25 cents saved up, so you’ll have to front the cost for our phone call system.”

“Oh, I just wanted to visit him in person,” Aka replied coolly.

“We’ve done away with our in-person visitations. We have the phone system over there if you’d like to speak with him here for some reason, but the cost will still be the same.”

“I kinda wanted to speak to him in person, to see him face-to-face, you know? Isn’t there anything you can do?” Aka asked.

“Ma’am, we can’t make exceptions, you have to run through our systems to see the prisoners. Those deadbeats are lucky to even get the chance to contact the outside world, the least they can do is pay for it.”

Aka couldn’t even respond, her voice caught in a throat filled with tar. Aka didn’t think she’d been rude to the clerk in the slightest, and yet she was so frustrated she’d gone right to demeaning the prisoners held within their care.

Aka had a low opinion of criminals too, but treating them like trash wasn’t going to make them better people. So why do that?

“What seems to be the problem here?” a new voice interrupted, breaking Aka’s train of thought.

“Nothing at all, I was just informing this lady that visitation hours are currently over now, and she’ll have to come visit another time.”

“Oh, I think I can help her with that?”

“What, really?!” Aka nearly yelled as much as she asked, finally recognizing the man who had interrupted their conversation as a prison guard.

“Sure, anything for Magical Aka, you inspired me to want to take this job. You helped keep the peace of this world and punished the bad guys who want to do harm to it. What better way to do that than to manage the forces that spit in the face of the law?”

Aka’s eyes lighted up, happy someone had been inspired by her.

“I’m really happy to hear that! Thanks for your help!”

***

The guard took Aka into the back, whistling as he did so. He must be used to this place. Aka was sure she could handle herself.

As he opened the door, she could instantly sense several inmates getting up to their feet, standing next to their cell doors, hands on the edges of the bar.

Aka was rather shocked how quick they were to do so. And she could sense something else, something they all seemed to share: A small hope.

The guard twirled his baton around, then began to drag it along the prison bars as he walked forward. The prisoners along their lane withdrew their hands one by one as the baton came up to the edge of their cell doors, wanting to avoid getting their fingers jammed by it. As he passed by, some of them returned back to their beds as quickly as they had come, some yelled and heckled about being locked in this ‘shithole’, and some just stood there with their heads turned down.

“There’s a lot of people here,” Aka said, her thoughts escaping her mind and out her mouth.

“Yeah, criminals come in all shapes and sizes as I’ve come to learn. They all may commit different types of crimes, but they all are shared in their belief that they’re above the law.”

The guard came to a stop at one man in front of his jail cell, and pointed his baton at the inmate’s chin.

“Take this guy for instance. He committed voter fraud.”

“As in he tried to rig an election?” Aka asked.

“No, I told you people already, I just didn’t know I had to re-register to vote,” the inmate replied.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure that excuse went over great with the judge,” the guard dismissed him.

Aka was concerned that she didn’t know you needed to register to vote. She would have broken the law if she had tried to perform her civic duties of voting, and no one had told her. The only reason she hadn’t was because she was working the day of elections.

As she walked by the next jail cell, a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed her arm with a vice grip.

“Are you her, are you the fairy here to save me!”

“Huh, what?!” Aka yelled.

“The fairy who’ll free me from this prison! It’s you- AHHH!” Aka heard bone crunch as a baton came down on the man’s arm.

“Not this shit again Neil! How many times do we have to tell you’re not some hero! You’re a criminal locked up here for public defecation!”

The guard continued to smack his baton again and again into Neil’s arm, until he finally let go of Aka due to the pain. Neil retreated from the door, gripping his busted arm. She could see cuts, scratches, scabs, and bruises all over his body.

“You didn’t need to go that far,” Aka chided.

“Only way he’ll learn.” The guard paused, then looked to Aka for approval.

“Obviously not if he keeps doing it,” Aka replied, using her magic to send a healing spell over to Neil.

It made contact with him, and a light red glow enveloped his body. His broken arm re-set itself like new, the pain melting away. His previous wounds also healed up slightly, becoming more dull and faded.

“Th-thank you fairy lady,” Neil said, still turned away from the jail door.

The guard looked away while muttering, “You shouldn’t bother, he’s just going to keep hurting himself.”

“Maybe you should do something to prevent that then?”

“We can’t give him special treatment,” he said defensively, “then all the other prisoners will start complaining about how it’s not fair, and that they want it too.”

Aka could feel her anger beginning to rise, but she needed to keep her cool. This man was helping her, sure they quite clearly disagreed on how you should treat people, even your enemies, but she shouldn’t blow this chance to meet Tyler by arguing the night away.

“Okay, let’s just continue onto Tyler’s cell.”

“Sure, we’re almost there.”

Soon they came upon a large metal door, and Aka felt her hopes sinking within her. When the guard stopped in front of her, she felt them crater into her stomach. Finally, he pointed at it, as he motioned for her to come over, and she felt her hopes digging their own grave in the concrete ground beneath her feet.

“Here’s Tyler,” he said, opening the metal slot, allowing her to peer in.

It was completely dark inside, but her eyes adjusted to the view immediately due to her powers. In the corner of the cell she could see Tyler, sitting in the corner, looking up at the light. He reached out one hand to it, before bringing it back to shield his eyes.

Aka turned away, feeling sick.

“God, that kid sure does look like shit. He gets free clothes, a roof over his head, and 3 square meals a day. And he had the audacity to complain about doing chores. We locked him in solitary up after he started being difficult about it.”

Aka’s sickness only worsened, and despite knowing her magic would prevent her, she wanted to hurl. She wanted to feel the bile that had built within her to be released. The absolute disgust at this place that she only experienced for 5 minutes.

It was unbearable to think such an awful place existed, that people were being treated so poorly by people who seemed to delight in their misery. To know the person standing before her was her fan, someone she inspired, made it all the worse.

Was this really something she had taught him and all her fans? How had someone taken this lesson from her days as a Magical Girl?

Aka’s anger boiled up within her; this time, she didn’t stop it. She wanted to tear this place to the ground.