Confronting Hanako

The Magician Arc

When in trouble, Magical Girls have an odd propensity to never surrender. Not until the bitter end. Many a Magical Girl has triumphed over impossible odds, emerging beaten and bruised but victorious.

That’s what it takes to don the title as anything other than an affectation. The will to succeed for the right reasons. Constellation, Starplus, and Sleepy Angel have that reason, or so they believe, as they stand around in a secluded part of the city.

“So, what do we do?” Sleepy asks, looking between the other two.
“The bad girls have home field advantage.” Starplus responds, bitterly, kicking the ground.
“Then we need to make that advantage work against them.” Constellation replies. A small fairy flitters up to the group. It glows a soft purple, and trails of glitter-like stardust follow as it moves.
“Aerial surveillance complete, tari!” The fairy says, arriving near them. He’s ambitious and eager to please. Constellation nods.
“Can you…” Constellation gestures between them, and the fairy nods back. Tari, the fairy, flits around in a circle between them, glitterdust sparkling from it, until eventually it forms a representation of the whole area, the Shinkawa district as a three-dimensional map.

“We need a way to draw them out of hiding. Something that they’ll sit up and notice. And we need it before they get the drop on us.” Sleepy says, looking at the map.
“That’s impossible.” Constellation looks at the map. Starplus stares, then a small smile begins to form on her face. Despite the beauty inherent to all Magical Girls, there’s something… discernibly sinister about the way it spreads.
“Unless we let them get the drop on us.”

Magical Girls triumph over impossible odds. So what would happen if two groups of Magical Girls were pitted against each other? The battle would be brutal. The bloodshed? Dramatic.

As the three girls of Constellation’s team head into the city, they’re aware of the threat they face, and that they cannot let this evil continue.

♥ Magical Girl Rinrin ♥

I don’t know what I’m doing out here. Not really. I feel better, thanks to Rook’s speech, but I’m still nervous.

When we tried to transform late in the evening, I failed again. After exchanging glances with Nyamu, Rook suggested that I act as an undercover scout and, not wanting to disappoint her, I agreed.

Her words run in my head. She’s right, but how do I go from knowing what’s right to doing it?

I look at Nyamu, currently flying around near my head.

“You’ll transform, mu.” He reassures me, as if reading my mind.
“Transformation is based heavily on your emotional state. If you’re more afraid of transforming than you are of not, it’ll never work.” He’d explained the same thing earlier, when we were talking that morning. I was able to transform to save Anya right at the last second, but once the danger to her had passed, I immediately swapped back. Not only raising the form, but maintaining it, required great mental strength.

Bishop’s plan was to find out where this group had gone to ground, for that we’d need local reinforcements. But we can’t get help from other Magical Girls. It was then that Rook had come up with a plan.

*            *            *

“Youkai, obviously.” Rook had said, and Bishop had nodded her head in agreement. I stared blankly.
“You mean… the children’s tale monsters? Those things?” I’d asked, and the pair of them looked at me.
“Yes. Every city has Youkai. Normally, they’re a minor nuisance. Some of the more dangerous ones require Magical Girl effort to put them down. Before the Emergences started, Youkai were one of the major enemies of Magical Girls.”
“How come I’ve never seen one?” This hadn’t sounded like a sound plan.
“Shinkawa is a new district, remember? It takes a long time for a Youkai to form.” Rook had explained.
“But… wait. They’re our enemies?” I’d been confused, and Bishop nodded.
“Old enemies. Which makes them something like friends.” She’d laughed. I considered what they’d suggested.
“So why would they help us? Why not our enemy?”
“Simple. Youkai are territorial. They don’t like us, but they hate outsiders more.”

I took in this information and thought about it, then sighed.
“Alright… but how do we find one?”
“...I know where one is.” Anya had said, startling us.

*            *            *

And that was how we ended up, a group of teens, on a Youkai hunt in the middle of a summer night.

Specifically, a Hanako hunt. Apparently, rumors had spread at Anya’s school of a Hanako, a type of modern Youkai that takes the form of a schoolgirl and haunts bathrooms.

Youkai were similar to Emergences, but rather than being birthed from a conglomeration of negative thoughts, they were instead born from the belief that there already was one. The situation at an elementary school, with a large number of children rich in imagination and gossip, were fertile grounds for one to spawn. And just because it happened to be a scarier one didn’t mean that we could skip over it.

We reached the school as night fell. Anya and Kiko had transformed into Tama and Rook in order to let me in, and were now acting as guards. Despite my lack of transformation capability right now, they seemed determined to keep bringing me along.

“Hanako are tricky.” Rook said, as we walked through the corridors of the school, following the confident Anya. Above us, Nyamu shone light in small waves, careful to not alert anyone to the intruders. The last thing we needed was the regular police on top of the other ones.

“Some days they’re playful, others they’ll kill you. Don’t let your guard down, don’t look her in the eyes.” Rook warns as we walk up a set of stairs leading to the third floor.

“Third floor girl’s bathroom, third stall.” Anya says, as she walks us into the room. I giggle a little nervously, looking at the small furniture. It’s all scaled for kids of this age, so it looks a bit weird to pass it by, like walking through a doll house.

I look at one of the mirrors, and notice that Rook looks very tense. I nudge her in the ribs.
“Scared?” I ask.
“No! I mean, well, this is just out of the ordinary. And Hanako can be tricky.” She says. I smirk, getting the feeling that Rook’s more of a scaredy cat than the knight look lets on.
“Dealt with one before?” I look, and she shakes her head.
“No. I’ve only dealt with Kappa and Kamaitachi.”

Anya walks further in while Rook and I stand at the entrance warily. Rook had told me to run if anything happens. I know she meant well, but it made me feel extra useless.

Anya tapped on the door. Once… Twice… Three times. I felt a little silly, until I remembered that I was literally surrounded by two Magical Girls who battled demon-like monsters every other day.
“Ha-na-ko-san.” She said as she knocked.

Slowly, creaking, as if energy was sucking out of them, came a series of sobs.
“Who’s there?” The voice whispered. I felt a chill run down my spine. It was a croaky and disused voice, and the creaking of it sounded very much like a ghost to me.

“I’m Tama. I want to play.” Anya said.
“I don’t want to play with older girls.” Hanako replies, stubbornly. Anya looks at Rook, who nods nervously. Anya drops her form, and tries again.
“I want to play.” The door creaks open, and a figure steps out.

The girl is wearing a similar uniform to Anya, but it’s wet like she’s been soaked by a hose, and it drips a stream of the same black oil-like substance as the Spectres. I notice that her skin is a mottled grey, and it reminds me of a movie I watched at a too-young age, where they pulled a corpse out of a well. I hadn’t slept for weeks after. Her hair was damp and matted, and her face… her eyes… it was like something had eaten through the top half. Oh… oh god, that face-

A hand slams over my eyes right as Hanako’s head cracks up at an unnatural angle to look straight at me. It’s Rook’s.
“Don’t look at her face!” She repeats her command from before in a hiss. After a few tense heartbeats, Rook lowers her hand and I see that Hanako has gone back to talking to Anya.

“You just want something from me.” Hanako scowls, accusingly. Anya nods her head.
“...Yes. We want to ask questions.” She replies. This blunt honesty catches the Hanako off guard, but she soon lets out a cackling laugh.
“Well then, let’s play a game! If you win, then I’ll answer three questions, but if I win, you stay and play until your life ebbs away.” She grins. This deal sounds nightmarish. I look at Rook, I’m ready to grab Anya and run, but Rook places a hand on my shoulder.

“What game?” Anya asks. Hanako walks another step out of the bathroom, towards the mirror, and then turns on her heel to face Anya’s back.
“We’ll play a riddle game! You answer my three riddles, and if you get them right, you win!” Her tone goes from playful to dark and threatening in an instant.
“If you get one wrong, I win.”

“First riddle! I show you as you are, the face you always see. I have none of my own, and disappear once you’re done with me.” Hanako says the rhyme in a cheerful sing-song voice.
“My reflection.” Rook says, and Hanako smirks mirthlessly.
“Right! Aren’t you clever?” She says, but sounds less than pleased.

“Second! I dance in the wind, but have no legs. I glow in the dark, but never in day. Guiding you home without moving an inch. What am I?” I pause. No, wait, I know this one.
“A lantern.” Hanako raises a finger to point at me, glaring.
“Right. RIGHT.” She says, howling the word. Finally, lifting two fingers up in an almost peace-sign, she readies her final question, rounding on each of us, before settling on Rook.

“Third.” This time, all fun has gone out of her voice.
“I lie to you because you want me to. I pity you for all I put you through. I hate you, but I love you, too. What am I?” Hanako says. Her words have an edge. I pause, staring, and so do the other two. Hanako begins giggling.
“...That’s…” I begin, but can’t think of anything. Lies… pities… something that makes you hate it while you love it? A parent? No… a cheating spouse? They’d lie to keep you safe, they’d feel guilty, and it’s not like they always hate the person even as they hurt them…

“...You’re a Bishop.” Rook whispers, quietly. Hanako snarls as she turns, before resuming her smile.
“Right! Wasn’t that fun?” She says with another mirthless laugh. She turns to leave, and I look at her.
“Well, fair well until next we meet!”
“Wait.” I say, staring at her back as she tries to retreat.
“Our question.” I request. Hanako turns with a scowl, but nods.
“...Fine. Ask.”

“Where will we find the other Magical Girls?”
“Waiting for you. The place that should be fun, but instead the fun runs dry. Run to get there, but don’t run inside.” Hanako giggles.
“Come play again!” Hanako orders, a shiver runs down my spine, but Anya nods politely.
“And next time, I won’t let you win so easily.” Hanako laughs, before closing the door with a creek. The eerie darkness that the room was bathed in fades, and I exchange a look with the others.
“...Don’t we get two more questions?” Anya asks with a head tilt and puzzled expression. I shrug in response, guessing that you can’t trust a Youkai.

“One last riddle.” Rook says, staring off. I try to say something to her, but she turns on her heel and marches out of the building.