Until We Meet Again

The Fool Arc

Two Magical Girls meet on a rooftop, one in a plain white dress, the other some sort of knight. Their discussion is quiet, barely above a whisper at first. But there’s tension in the air between them.

Things aren’t resolved in the moment. Or even in the days after. It takes weeks, months, even years for something to go from the moment to history.

And some things are never resolved.

♥ Magical Girl Rinrin ♥

The day of a tragedy drags slowly, each breath feels like an eternity. But the next few days, the next week, they pass in a blur. After some minor physical therapy, and many nights spent talking with Anya in our matching gowns and hospital beds, playing cards, drawing stupid sketches of each other and the hospital staff (My favourite was the picture she drew of the matron of the ward spitting fire with a dragon’s tail), I was ready to leave the hospital.

I knew I was ready when mom showed up with a bag. It had a change of clothes. The initial shock of the incident wearing off, she was moaning that I’d ruined my school clothes.

“It’s today, right?” I say. She gives a nod, and helps me get dressed. I try and fight her off, cheeks red with embarrassment, but she’s having none of my fuss. As I get dressed in an easy to slip on dress that’s definitely out of style, and she gives my hair an attempt at a brush, I look over at the empty bed of my Magical Girl cohort. She’d been gone since around lunch the previous day, when her mother came to pick her up. I didn’t get to see her leave, being in physiotherapy doing the slow leg kick thing again. Apparently, she’d wanted to stay to say goodbye to me, but her mother had forced her away.

“An… interesting woman.” Mom had commented. Which was the same term she used rarely, and never for people interesting in a good way.

“So, I have your room ready at home. I finally changed those bedsheets, and did you know it only took the littlest bit of effort to clean and I can see the floor?” Mom said as we left the hospital, making sure to thank the doctors and nurses on the way out.
“Yes, mom.” I say numbly.
“And your sister and I have been splitting your chores while you’ve been gone, so be sure to thank her.”
“Yes, mom.”
“And on Monday, if you want, we can go out for lunch. You wanted to see the city, right?” She says. I pause.
“...No.” I say, looking away from her. She looks crushed. I’d been out of the house for the first time in weeks, and things were looking up. I can understand why she’s upset.
“There’s somewhere I need to go.”

♖ Queen-Side Rook ♖

There’s something nervous about a city after a big catastrophe. Everyone’s tense. Everyone’s trying to be as safe and quiet as they can.

That doesn’t leave much work for Magical Girls. At least, not for ones like me.

I land on the rooftop overlooking the city where someone is waiting patiently, a small dining table and a pair of chairs. She’s sipping from a delicate cup of tea that’s as white as she is.

“You knew.” I say, flatly, staring at her.

There’s a long sip in response.

“How much did you know?” I ask again. She gently gestures to the seat in front of her, and I remain standing in defiance.

“The roof was damaged, badly.” I say, looking at Bishop.
“Directly, by the monster. Indirectly, by you punching the monster into it.” I begin, Bishop hums a song and smiles genteely, brushing her hair over her ear.
“I had no idea that the roof was so weak in that spot.” She sips her tea. I growl and slam my hands on the table. She continues to stare at me with that nonplussed expression.

“Funny how it dropped the monster right into the center of a convention hall. Full of terrified, screaming, people. Funny how it was able to fill the last of its fear reservoirs on that.”
“I do not find that funny. It was quite dangerous.”
“People who had, barely a minute prior, been ushered to the evacuation doors on either side. So that they weren’t in the exact area that collapsed.”
“We must remember to write in our reports how capable Hearts and Diamonds handled the evacuation, mustn’t we?”

“Everything turned out exactly as you wanted it, didn’t it? You got me out of the way and filled the heads of those two with your theories about purification. And now everyone’s abuzz about how we pulled this off. And taking your ideas seriously again.”
“It is gratifying to be proven correct.” She stares at me. Her eyes are sharp. She places the bottom half of a card on the table with a light tap. The top is missing, burned away.
“I received this from our dear friend when I visited her in the hospital. You should go too, by the way. She misses you.”
“...How much of this did you plan?” I say. My shoulders slacken as I finally sit in the chair opposite her, looking at the card.

“I did not plan any of it. How could I?”
“Liar.”
“Do you have reason to doubt me?”
“I talked to the department.” That got her to stop. The cup of tea is paused, hovering outside her mouth.
“And?”
“And they said there’s no record of you asking for reinforcements. According to them, you showed up in the office, spent an hour demanding a better tea selection for the staff break room, and stormed off, enraged.”
“Oh, I believe that did come up, yes.”
“We’re not your toy soldiers. You can’t just wind us up and watch us go!” I slam my fists into the table again, getting a bit reenergized.
“Tell me something, had we not attempted the purification, what would have happened?”
“Those people in the hall wouldn’t have been at risk!”
“I had faith in our new team to save them.”
“You had faith?! Faith!? They were completely untrained! They weren’t prepared for this. They were hospitalized because of your little… your games! They could have died, and-”
“And all the souls have been returned to their bodies, undoing the entire catastrophe of the Fool. Quite the headache for those in charge of the coverup to explain why seventeen naked people suddenly appeared on the streets, but I believe they went with a story about there being a chemical spill and they were being decontaminated.”
“I don’t care about the damn cover story! I want to know that you have some sort of guilt over this!”
“We won. Isn’t that enough?”

I get up, and walk over to the edge of the building. I look over my shoulder, glaring.
“...You act like it was a foregone conclusion.”
“Wasn’t it?”

I take a step, and leap off into the distance. There’s work to be done.

♥ Magical Girl Rinrin ♥

Monday.

Morning.

Sunlight beats down as I walk along the road. It’s a simple path, but I know it well. After all, until recently, I walked it almost every day.

Granted, right now, I hobble it more than walk it. My crutches may help speed me along, but I still won’t be able to walk for a few more days. There’s a pair of girls up ahead, dressed in matching uniforms, although one has tried to discretely stylize hers.

“Ugh, I’m telling you, Tanaka-sensei has it in for me.”
“Didn’t you say that last week about Yamamoto-sensei?”
“This time it’s for real, though!”
“Mm. Oh, do you think that if I give Umetarou-kun a homemade lunch bento, it’d give us time to talk?”
“Give it a rest. He only likes girls in sports.” I call out, moving up and grinning. The two of them look shocked, then smile broadly as I hobble up. It feels like a lifetime since the last time we met.

Another Side

Here it is dark. Not because of the absence of light, but because there is nothing for the light to shine upon.

Here it is cold. Not because of the absence of heat, but because there’s something so cold it makes the world around it freeze.

Here you cannot breathe. Not because the air is thin, but because everything about it is so hostile that your lungs refuse to accept it into your body.

“Fool has failed.”

The voice says. It’s strict, feminine, and commanding. It belongs to one of the three occupants. The only one standing, while the others kneel.

“Yes ma’am.” Says one. She looks like a beautiful woman, dressed in a stage magician’s costume. Fishnets, tail coat, and preposterously low cut button-up shirt. Her black hair accentuates her smokey black eyeliner, and the red silk around her hat, blood red, drapes down and over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am.” Says the other. This one is dressed in rags that cling to her frame all too tightly. The sort of peasant garb worn in ancient times.

The standing figure, in her regal outfit, scowls at the pair. Both ludicrously exposed, too much so for her own tastes.

“That is not all.” I toss down the card in my hand. Half a Fool’s card from the tarot deck. The bottom half missing, the edges singed around where it was cut off. The two other figures recoil in horror as they see it, as if staring at the desecrated corpse of a family member.

“Magician.” The kneeling woman in the fishnets, with the appropriate outfit, manages to bow her head lower.
“Hermit.” The other responds the same, bowing low in reverence and fear.

“Go.”

End Of The Fool Arc
To Be Continued...