The Fight

Kaneko stormed through the empty school. The light had long forgotten to canvas the empty hallways and abandoned paths. Nobody was supposed to be here.

Trailing behind her, forcing herself to keep up as she bawled her eyes out was Minny, still clothed in her Pastel Princess costume. She was uncontrollably emotional. Kaneko thought she looked more fragile than usual.

They needed to get out. Neither of them talked. All that could be heard was the sound of Minny’s unrelenting stress and fear and sadness and frustration overtop of both of their forceful steps. If they had stopped, they could have heard the peaceful sounds of the wind flowing through the leaves of the elm trees, like waves on the shore. Only behind that could they hear the faint cry of emergency sirens as they made their way closer and closer to the school.

As they arrived at the front gate, Kaneko’s planned exit, she realized that it had been locked with a padlock.

Upon seeing it, Kaneko violently kicked the gate one time with the side of her foot. She didn’t yell or let out any cry. That kick was it, and then she was moving on. She started walking toward a circle of classrooms in the shadow of one 2 story building that acted as the main office for the school. Of course, there were two more gates on either side of this area, and of course, they were locked tight.

Kaneko let out a long forcefully softened breath before turning to an outdoor garbage can and kicking it over and over and over again. Still, she didn’t let out anything more than grunt. As she kicked it, pieces of the thick plastic body started to break off, mostly falling inside itself. Eventually, Kaneko’s foot got stuck on the broken rim.

Kaneko screamed. Kaneko screamed louder than a waterfall. As she let out all the violent hatred that had consumed her, she swung her foot back and kicked the whole trashcan off of her foot and into the air. It flew at least 25 feet up before crashing back down to the floor and splintering into hundreds of shards of plastic, which themselves flew in every which direction. Several pieces managed to make their way back to Kaneko and Minny, bouncing off their still protected bodies.

Kaneko didn’t stop screaming until Minny came from behind and shouted at her. “Stop! Stop it! I can’t take it! We couldn’t stop them, so just stop!”

Kaneko turned to see her cousin, tears still rolling down her cheeks, exhausted by the night. Minny panted, clutching her wand in her hand as she huddled over it. She didn’t look defensive as much as beleaguered.

“I could have saved her.” Kaneko said.

“No! No, that thing… Whatever happened to it, it's too powerful!”

Kaneko turned further, to face Minny head on. “What do you know about what I could have done! You barely ever help when we’re fighting!”
“I tried to stop her! I ran in, I saw her standing over Sylvia… Sylvia was already unconscious, and I ran in to hit her, but she grabbed Sylvia and dragged her through one of those tents. By the time I caught up with them, they were already on the roof. They jumped the whole way!”

Kaneko injected. “That’s nothing! I can chase her with the tape!”
Minny stopped herself from talking any further.

“What? Say it.”

“No.”

“What do you mean no? I’m not joking around Minny.”

Minny stumbled backward slowly. She was clutching her wand with enough grip to crush something normal. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t? Are you keeping something from me?”

“No! I-” Minny started to cry once again. She tried to persist. “I don’t want it to be true…”

Kaneko scoffed angrily. “What does that mean? My best friend just got abducted and taken to a foreign country and you’re crying? Who do you think you are?”

Minny gasped. She couldn’t stop herself from crying and she didn’t respond.

Neither did Kaneko, who let out another low breath before turning towards one of the staircases that lead up to the second story of the office building. They were outdoors, so they offered the easiest location to jump over the fence.

Minny couldn’t move until Kaneko was already out on the lawn of the school, walking towards home. Kaneko used her tape gun to de-transform.

All of a sudden, Minny ran and jumped over as well, chasing after her cousin and de-transforming herself. “Wait, Kaneko!”

Kaneko kept walking away, down the street. The police cars and ambulances passed them, heading for the crowd of people that were still at the field.

“Kaneko!”

Still, Kaneko didn’t respond.

Minny ran towards her until she could grab onto her shoulder. She flung Kaneko around to face her. Kaneko was still rageful, but Minny pleaded. “Please! I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop her. It was all my fault. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“That’s- That’s not true. It was my fault.” Kaneko looked ready to scream.

“Wh- What do you mean?”

“I should never have trusted you with her. I should have never gone after that stupid scientist. If I had just gone after her instead of leaving her with you, then she would be here.” Kaneko was holding back the floodgates. She was speaking quietly, but not softly. Her anger could barely be contained.

“No. No!” Minny shouted desperately. “It’s my fault. I’m- I’m worthless. I’m not good at anything. I’m not even a real superhero. You do everything. I have one job, and you have to come and save me every single time. I can’t do anything that helps anyone! It’s you! It’s always you! You’re the only reason I can ever do anything! I don’t deserve these powers, but you…”

“Stop.” Kaneko tried to interrupt.

“You could go so much farther than I could ever go. All I ever do is slow you down! You could save the planet…”

Kaneko got louder, “I said stop.”

“I- I can’t even save myself.”
“Minny, stop! I don’t want to hear your self pity! The fact is, I accepted these powers because I didn’t want anyone else to suffer because of me. But look at you now. Look at Naoko. Everything is worse. Everything. And the only way that I make sure it can’t happen again is by making that scientist pay and capturing that thing inhabiting Naoko’s body. Until then, I can’t deal with you or Sylvia or anything. So stop. Stop crying. Stop apologizing. Stop getting in my way. Naoko needs my help right now, so go home.

Somehow, Kaneko looked like a bomb, ready to blow, while sounding more controlled than ever. Minny couldn’t respond. She turned tail and ran all the way home, her tears drying on her cheeks.

Flying into bed, Minny was terrified. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t do anything. She didn’t know where Kaneko was going, or where they were going to see each other next. She didn’t know how she was going to spend the next two days alone, unable to distract herself, even with school. She was even more afraid of what was going to happen at school when she had to go back. Or maybe she would have to stay home until those two bad guys were caught, which was another frightening thought.

Thoughts filled Minny’s mind, tormenting her for what felt like hours until her exhaustion caught up to her and coerced her to sleep.

〰

The weekend passed slowly. Kaneko never returned home, so Minny had to cover for her, saying she was out or sleeping. She didn’t have any responses for her parents as to why she wasn’t going with her. They were trusting. A bit too trusting sometimes.

Sylvia hadn’t woken up since Halloween. She was in a hospital bed somewhere in the area. Minny could have gone to visit her; found some way to learn where they were keeping her, but she didn’t think that would do any good. After all, it was Minny’s fault that Sylvia was hurt in the first place.

Schooling was on break for a few days before they thought that it would be safe enough to reopen. Minny sat in her room, trying to distract herself with a new videogame she had gotten recently. It wasn’t very great, but she couldn’t put it down. She tried to stay on it as long as she could, playing for hours straight in her bedroom, so she wouldn’t think about anything that happened. There were times when she had to stop though, going to the bathroom, eating dinner, taking a shower. She had to try hardest not to cry during these times. She usually couldn’t manage it in the shower.

By the Monday after, it had been 3 days of nothing but eating, sleeping and distracting herself. At an early hour in the morning, she heard something outside her window. She grabbed her wand with her shaking hand before moving toward the back window. Carefully, she peeked through the curtains.

Light had only barely begun to creep over the horizon, but she could still tell what had made the noise. Someone was lying face down in the grass, tape gun clutched in her hand.

“Oh my- Kaneko!”

Minny threw the window open, crawling outside.

“Cat. Cat! I- I need you to help her inside!”

Appearing from a shadow, a black cat emerged. It spoke, “Very well, but remember our agreement.”

In the next instant, Cat, Minny and Kaneko were all inside Minny’s room. Kaneko was safely tucked into her bed, Cat sitting silently next to her.

“Our agreement?” Minny whispered, realizing that her parents were sleeping in the same house.

“I can help you with certain things, but I cannot fight your battles. I am but a figment of Gaia, you are her champion.”

“What?” Minny vaguely remembered him saying that to her when he told her about her powers. “Why are you telling me again? I can’t even- I’m not worthy.”

“The time nears when you will truly be tested. You need your allies. You need her.” The cat looked down at Kaneko.

“But, she doesn’t need me. She told me so herself.”

“Not true. Right now, Kaneko is trapped in a fantasy of her mind’s own creation. A prison impossible to escape on her own.”
“She’s dreaming? Like- Like Sylvia? She’s in a coma?” Minny asked, frantically.

“Yes, put simply.”

“How am I even supposed to help her? I mean, can I?”

Cat looked back up at Minny, straight into her eyes. “I’ve told you why deities need champions and why I can’t be the one to help you. But I’m not all you have. You’ve made more allies on your fated quest.”

Minny was caught off guard. “Allies? Who- Oh. Oh! The superheroes!”

“Indeed. Though the games of Gods may be fraught with rules, none are more powerful than the wills of its players.”

“And… and, that transponder they gave us is just…” Minny turned and looked through a few desk drawers before she found it. “It’s right here! But… How could I possibly drag them into this too.”

The cat frowned imperceptibly. Its mouth hardly changed its shape, but something about the cat’s inherent “frowniness” increased. “They make their own choices, champion.”

“...And wait. What about after? How can we possibly beat that girl… even if those guys decide to help us?” Minny looked down. She was trying not to break her composure.

“Trust, Minny. You will have what you need when you need it.” Cat gave a curt nod to Minny before falling into a shadow and disappearing.

Minny looked down at Kaneko’s unconscious body and then at the wand in her hand. Without realizing it, she had begun to clutch it tightly, as she had on Halloween night. She lets out a breath and puts it on the table before flipping the transponder on.

“Hello? Automaton? Cardinal Conjury? This is Pastel Princess, or… I used to be, I guess. I need your help…”

Minny waited for a response. The other side of the line was silent for at least a minute before she decided to try again.

“Hel-” Minny started.

Suddenly a masculine voice with a New Zealand accent came over the other end, “Pastel Princess! Sorry, I barely heard your call. The receiver is in the cockpit, and we don’t go in there, so it took a second to realize what was happening. Anyways, what did you need?”

Minny took a second to respond. Looking at Kaneko one last time, she started, “I need to get into Sukeban’s dream or something like that. She’s stuck in a coma or something and that’s the only way to free her.” As Minny spoke, she could feel her stomach start to tighten. She was desperate for their help, but it was grueling to ask. “And I think we’re going to need help taking down the main bad guys behind those animals and stuff.”

For a few arduous seconds, nothing was said. Minny’s breath started to shorten as her stomach shrunk and pushed against her lungs. After mere seconds, she was starting to feel out of breath, until Cardinal took the line and finally responded.

“I think I can help. Where do you wanna meet.”