Episode 1

Cia had started off her day to a pretty calm tune. For the most part things didn't seem like they were as bad as they actually were. She had been spending the morning trying to get into contact with other magical girls through email. However this proved to be rather difficult as she had no idea where to start. It wasn't untill she went out for a walk that morning that she saw something soaring through the sky. It was a demon, and a rather ugly one at that. To normal humans it just looked like an airplane in the sky.

Cia took action quickly as she turned Aqua Tooth. She flew up into the sky after the demon. Soon enough the creature opened up a portal and within an instant it was over london. Cia followed through as she took out her magic book. Within a seconds she had several sharks made of water spinning around like they were in a cyclone. The sharks crunched onto the demons wings and shot it down into the channel.

Cia flew down after it as she summoned the water to become a whale shark which landed on the creatures back pinning it down in the water. She then made quick work of the demon as she had water sharks rip it to shreds. However as she did this the demon split into a swarm of smaller versions of it's self. The demons would get away if she didn't have any help.

She couldn't see.

She couldn't see anything. Barely anything to be precise. Coughing roughly, she spat out a some blood as she reclined against the smashed boulders. That last punch the demon threw smashed her clean through several meters of rock and trees. Obviously a normal human would end up in several splatters and blobs of guts and blood, but she wasn't exactly normal now, was she?

No, Hayami Tenryuu was a magical girl.

A real life magical girl, just like in those Japanese anime. Unlike those anime however, her life was not all flowers, collecting cards and maintaining a yuri relationship, hers was one of bloody battles and unsung deeds. The demon she had just defeated was likely to have torn her head clean off, if she hadn't weakened it significantly, so she was counting herself lucky just to have a concussion. Her injuries as well, would heal soon. A magical girl must always be in top form after all, ready for the next fight.

Picking herself up from the rubble, she stretched, keeping a wary eye out on the empty quarry. It was her favourite spot to draw demons to, considering the lack of people and properties to damage. A good thing too, for demons have been coming more frequently to her town nowadays. Perhaps it was because some magical girls in other cities had started to band up in their cities, and the demons came here hearing it was defended by a single magical girl.

She grabbed the sword strapped to her lower back, before noticing a small silhouette up in the sky. A demon bird, flying faster than anything should be. It seemed to have a purpose, as it zoomed around for a while before opening a portal.

She was battered, sore and probably looks like a hobo with her torn and dirty clothes after that last beating, but a demon bird can't possibly be that hard to slay right?

With a powerful jump, she entered the portal, finding herself in London.

Alastor stood on the balcony overlooking the main gambling floor of his casino, the Starlight Millennium. Still rather new, nevertheless business was high - the natural expectation of a facility where one foolishly believed they could earn fortunes with no effort on their part. Below him tacky music played and the chatter of discussion, of debts, of risks, rewards and consequences reached his ears.

"Damnit, I lost!"

"Honey, maybe we should stop -"

"No, just one more! One more time! I know it'll come this time!"

His lips curled into a small smile as another fool spent his fortunes into his casino, expecting greed to cause a miracle despite such odds being near impossible. Another fool, another victim, another satisfaction for the demon. It was not as if he was harming them - they simply harmed themselves, all he did was give them the means to do so. Not even, he simply made the means exist and they flocked to it of their own will. His old friend would disapprove but even he would know that this was something that would happen with or without Alastor.

He was enjoying his time quietly wallowing in the despair of the recently defeated when a sharp sense pierced his mind. His closed eyes immediately flinching, he got off of the railing he had been leaning on and headed to a window.

"I say, Mister Stahl," one of his employees commented as he was joined at the window by one of the security personnel of the casino, "That airplane's getting pretty dangerously low."

"I agree." Alastor lied through his teeth. "Hopefully it will just pass by."

Alastor knew exactly what that "airplane" was even if none of his employees did. A demon, from the likes of it one who did not gain enough thought nor presence of mind to take a humanoid form - or one who was reckless enough to not do so regardless. What was more problematic than the demon itself, however, were the portals it was leaving left and right - all of them leading to and from who knew where and if it had been through that many places, Alastor could very well soon find himself neck deep in would-be heroic children.

Stepping away from the window, he considered his options. He could, of course, take to the field and defeat the demon before it attracted too much attention. However, judging by the way that it was in flight and with so many portals it was quite possible it was already being pursued. That would simply mean he would get targeted by the magical children who would arrive later...

No, it would be safer if he laid low. Of course, if the children found him and insisted on attempting to exorcise him he would not be adverse to defending himself.

"...Chu?" he called out suddenly, the unexpected situation reminding him that now would be a good time to ensure the safety and security of his... charge? Perhaps that was not exactly the right word, but nevertheless he felt a degree of responsibility over the younger demon. "Chu, where are you!?"

Beginning to walk around the casino in an attempt to find the smaller demon, Alastor reflected on how, in hindsight, it was pretty damn irresponsible of him to let what was essentially a child - a demon, but still a child - out of his sight in the middle of a casino.

Chu looked out from the eyes of a mouse, turning her attention from the bird outside the window to the rest of the casino and, more importantly, Alistor. It took her a second to realize he was calling her, and by then he had already taken off looking for her. She left the body of the mouse, taking her full form and letting the creature go about it's business, and then clambered onto the railing of the balcony.

"'Tor!" She called, trying to get his attention, but the sounds of the machines drowned her out. She puffed out her cheeks, annoyed, and then began to sing. Alistor had told her not to sing in the building, since it ruined the game for him, but she decided he could probably forgive her this once.

Unlike her normal voice, her Song reached every corner of the giant room, weaving under and between the chaotic sounds of the machines. She sang a song of calmness and joy, tinged with imminent discovery, and for several moments the world in that building stopped to listen to her otherworldly voice.

She stayed silent for a while after that, her eyes closed, and as the sounds of the casino returned to fill the void, she simply sat on the banister and relaxed.

---

Naomi was relaxing in a small Seattle cafe when she noticed something wrong. Her vague feeling was soon confirmed by a voice in her head.

"A demon." The voice rang, and she turned around to look at the sky, one hand going to the dragon earring she wore. She quickly spotted the bird flying too quickly to be anything natural, and tracked it silently. As soon as it ripped through it's portal, She quickly abandoned her tea and took off running, taking a back alley to avoid being noticed. She coiled her legs and jumped, touching one wall and leaping again, keeping her momentum all the way to the top. For a normal person, she knew these things would be impossible, but for her it was a simple matter. As she took a running leap off the rooftop, she touched her earring and time seemed to almost stop as her entire body was coated in energy. In a flash, she had transformed and sailed through the portal left by the demon, and after flashing through a few different locations she found herself above a vaguely familiar cityscape.

"Somewhere in Europe, definitely..." She muttered to herself as she fell. She caught sight of a clocktower in the distance, and it clicked into place. "London then. Pretty far way to go."

She looked down at her landing area and noticed two others already there. "It's been a while since we teamed up with anyone. It'll make a nice change."

Positioning her shield below her, she bore down on one of the birds, crashing it into the ground and softening her landing. She bashed another on the head and turned to the other two girls there.

"Do either of you know the story here?"

“You feel that, huh?” A girl whispered with devilish intent behind her words “That’s your immune system shutting down next comes your actual body to decay I hope you drank a lot of vitamin C and milk demon” she continued one her hands gripping its skull playing with it as it screamed in agony, its flesh starting to peel off.

This was quite the rough fight for her counterpart because of her nearly all defensive abilities even then establishing a connection with this creature was a challenge in itself as she has to make contact with a target for at least two seconds and being punched in the face was not a way to do it, something Nelly found out the hard way. Unfortunately, they have two separated minds yet they share the same body so one punch too many and Saryn hijacked control to finish the job Nelly couldn’t. The vampire link was already set at this point she was just holding on to him to be mean, all the strength and health left the poor creature as now belonged to Saryn even when it tried to wrestle its way to freedom she just snapped its legs like they were made of twigs because of how decayed his bones were becoming.

‘Saryn shouldn’t we let him go?’ Nelly said, echoing through their shared subconscious mind ‘Like hell I will the jerk sucker punched you and trash talked me’ Saryn shouted back, letting go of her prey only to grab him by the arm breaking more of his weak bones causing it to scream bloody murder.

“Oh shut up you wuss, it's rare anyone even last direct contact, this long you must be a healthy boy” Saryn said aloud being that there was no one around that knew her or Nelly she was free to let her real personality out. Somewhere in the middle of her little rant, she felt the presence of another demon somewhere far away, Saryn then began to drag her mobile health pack to the nearest gate like a child dragging a stuffed bear.

‘Do you know where we're going?’ Nelly asked ‘Who cares, we just have to feel it and we’ll make the jump to the right location’ Saryn replied “Ready for a field trip mister cuddles?” looking back at her captured demon who was still in considerable pain as he died ever so slowly “Kill me now!” she begged tears rolling down its eyes “Aww he's excited” she laughed before making the jump to London

The warp itself was too much for the demon and it died upon arrival which made it very strange to see a girl dragging this rotting corpse around the skin already completely gone the muscle rending and rotting away. It hasn’t had to find other magical girls thanks to Nelly’s want to protect others, magical girls were like giant bonfires of ‘help me please’. Being dead already the demon soon turned into dust and his ashes were scattered away with the winds when they made contact with the others.

‘Ugh, I hate meeting new people’ Saryn though to herself, releasing control over the body, allowing Nelly to take over “Um H-hello” Nelly greeted Naomi with a nervous smile and a warm blush across her cheeks.

"This just keeps getting better and better" Chidori exclaimed in joy. She was having the time of her life shooting her gravity bullets against what can only be called a near endless horde of demons. "Perhaps following the bird wasn't a bad idea afterall" Chidori muttered to herself as she twirled around in her red dress. The Gravitas Nightmare she was called by others a bonafide "magical girl" as her homeland classified her as. She cared little for such titles after all it did little to affect what she did or does best the extermination of demons. Looking down from her vantage point she spied a small gathering of people deciding to drop in she jumped off and landed in the middle of the gathering. "So how's the weather for you people today?" She asked in a faux jovial tone as she tilted her head to the side.

The birds started to dissapate as others came to kill the creatures. Though they weren't entirely gone yet. Cia took a step back as she saw others appear. "Glad to know I wasn't the only one who chased after it." Cia said with a smile as she saw others appear. "It's nice to meet you all I am-" Cia was interrupted by a bird flying at her. Without a second thought a shark made of water seemed to appear out of no where to eat the bird whole and drown it inside of it's body. "Sorry about that, I am called Aqua Tooth, a magical girl from Germany." Cia said trying to get a smile to the others despite the fact she just had a bird eaten in a rather brutal fashion by one of her sharks.

---------------------------

Meanwhile Lady Linda had been watching the battle from a roof of a nearby building. For the most part she was entirely human to everyone even the magical children wouldn't know better if she was a little girl or not. Only the demons with sentience knew who she was. Her immense power was certainly there, but it was on a different wavelength from those magical girls. "Well aren't they fun?" Lady Linda said with a smirk watching over the magical girls from the roof.

Linda was there to learn more about the enemies she would have to eventually face. Of course she also wanted to watch for a specific magical girl. One whom had gotten her attention recently.

Alastor had been walking briskly around the balcony, desperately looking around when he heard the voice. The song. The sound and feeling that seemed to creep around the din of the crowd and the ambiance of the casino. The feeling he could feel, he could notice, altering his mind. Where there was once concern and a feeling of imminent dread there was now promise, joy and imminent discovery - something new was just around the corner.

He stopped and frowned for a moment to regain his bearings. This was quite possibly why he found it so important to take care of Chu - if she had been dragged back into the underworld, if she was raised as a "proper" demon and her ability grew while learning only to corrupt the results would be disastrous - at a charitable estimate. Entire masses of humans could be driven to greed, madness, corruption. Demons could grow, their numbers could explode into legion. The Demon Lord would surely take advantage of this boon to her plans of conquest. That had not been his primary motivation for taking Chu under his wing when he fled in the aftermath of his unsuccessful challenge but when he had discovered just what she could do - and as a young, child demon no less - it had become a major one.

"Chu," he called out, turning to the banister which the song had originated from and his disapproval of her singing in his casino immediately overridden primarily by relief at her being safe and then more slowly by the urgency of the matter at hand. "There you are. Come down from there, something dangerous is happening."

"Silver," Naomi said bluntly, "From America." She looked around the group of them, a ragtag grouping of completely dissimilar people. Magical children rarely got along with each other, but by necessity and a common enemy, often found themselves grouped together for random periods. It was a strange, unspoken rule, perhaps only made possible by keeping their identities secret from one another. Battles between Children were common, but because nobody knew each other, personal retaliation was impossible, and so even the most disparate of pairs grudgingly worked together when attacked.

"Where did the birds come from?" She wondered out loud, diverting her own train of thought.

---

Chu levered herself off the balcony railing, seeming to float softly to the ground. The giant puffy hat that hid her horns away fluttered slightly, then settled around her ears. She was dressed surprisingly fashionably for a young girl, like a rich man's daughter, and people tended to notice her for that, and for being so out of place in a gambling hall. She ran to Alistor, almost colliding with his leg as she grabbed onto his dangling hand.

"'Tor." She said simply, looking up at him from under her hat. Her eyes were calm and questioning, almost expectant as she gazed at him.

A happy tune filled the lonely house, a single occupant moving within. Hannah was doing what she always did when she was alone, while her parents worked, sister stayed in the hospital, and no busy work was to be done: make chocolates creations. The action soothed her mind, as the heavy smell of newly made confections filled the surprisingly tidy kitchen. She pulled her newest batch of culinary creations from the oven, their familiar forms causing an instinctive rumbling within her stomach. Said creations were a batch of toasty chocolate cookies, one of which she tasted with refined gusto, her expression morphing into one of bliss. What a wonderful feeling, the joy of pride within your own work. Suddenly, the shadow of an unknown figure momentarily covered her window, drawing the twelve year old's attention from the explosion of flavor onto her taste buds. Hannah quickly ran out of her home, glimpsing the twisted form of an avian demon as it flew through an unnatural portal within the sky.

With a quick flash of light, the Princess Chocolatier appeared, decked out in her usual magical outfit. A sort of determination settled upon the young girl's face as her body lifted off the ground, defying gravity as she flew through the sky and towards the portal, her newest batch of confections forgotten within her grip. Said portal opened up to an unfamiliar sight, the wondrous city of London. Hannah took a moment to enjoy the sights, the new experience within a beautiful, uncharted territory burned into her mind. Besides a single instance of a flight to America, the German child had never left her home country before. The loud chime of a large clock tower reminded her that she didn't come here for sight seeing, and the magical girl started to search for the demon she had sighted before. After a few seconds of focused observation, she noticed that the problem had already been taken care of by a large group of fellow magicals, who seemed to be congregated around the disappearing corpse of previously mentioned demon.

Speaking of fellow magicals, Hannah had never truly met another of her kind before, her previous "dream" from a long time ago non-withstanding. The only sort of magical beings she had met throughout her four years as a magical girl had been demons, and most of them weren't very friendly nor forthcoming with information. She slowly descended towards the gathering, her shoes making a soft clacking noise as they contacted with the cobblestones. Steaming sweets were suddenly remembered in the approach, and the girl was quite happy that her slip up could be used for something. "Hello, friends!" Hannah greeted with a smile, as she was one who believed all magicals should be considered friends in their shared quest to rid the world of evil. They may not share her way of thinking for now, but she'll bring them around soon enough. Friends made friends by being as friendly as can be, after all. "I'm not really sure if I brought enough for everyone, but I have cookies to share!"

Alastor was about to answer the questions Chu undoubtedly had when he paused. The presence of the original, bestial demon had been rendered insignificant by the presence of a far more dangerous one. What was the demon lord doing in London? Was this a coincidence? Did Demon Lady Linda plan to make a move - in Alastor's territory of London?

He mused over the possibility. London was not necessarily his "territory" as much as it was just where he happened to reside. He knew that the Demon Lord undoubtedly remembered that he had challenged her - was the choosing of London a coincidence? Was something about to begin? Magical children were being tempted from all over the world to come here, undoubtedly, out of how many portals were being created.

"...Chu, stay close to me." Alastor whispered, placing an arm around her shoulder protectively. "There is a fight going on outside between dangerous people."

There was, of course, the question of whether or not he should close the casino. On one hand, should combat break out and if he was to be dragged in the less witnesses there were, the better. On the other hand, the presence of humans might serve as a perfect cover - Even the Demon Lord would hesitate before using the powers of the supernatural so blatantly... or so he hoped.

Tali patted the gigantic tiger on the nose and then waved as she left him behind. He had agreed to travel with her in order to reduce time, letting her rest while they covered distance. Unfortunately, she had to leave him on this leg of their journey - there were too many people around and suspicion was something they wanted to avoid. She looked ahead - it would only be the rest of the day's journey until she reached the glimmering city in the distance. She had not been here for many years.

Last time she was here this was a jungle to her. She held her mother's hand as they navigated the big city. She had brought home a lot of dresses and new supplies for school. It was a special year so her mother decided to treat her and take a journey to get exactly what she wanted - or, at least, what most little girls wanted. She shook these memories from her head. A face that she could barely remember at times having been away from her for two years. Or was it three by now?

The only reason she was here again was intuition. She learned a lot about this peculiar feeling in her time with the forest spirit. If he had not have taught her the importance of if she would not have felt it so strongly. If he had not pressed the issue and nearly forced her to follow it, she would not have come back here. And yet, here she was. Letting the most primal part of her take her to the most populated city seemed a little insane but she was not one to question intuition.

---

The strange bird in the sky. She would recognise that quick-flying shadow from anywhere. It was what had brought her to her most powerful state and yet her most injured state. She felt her stomach turn over into some version of revenge. She began chasing after it at full speed. She would get it this time.

"You will see something very interesting if you go to London," was what the message had said. Francesca glowered at the note in her hand. She wanted to burn a hole through it but fire wasn't exactly her specialty.

When she got the message her mind went wild with possibilities: Maybe a rare world class gem would be on display she could snatch, or some famous festival she could crash, perhaps the royal family was on a secret trip away from any bodyguards so she could kidnap them. These had all been interesting ideas, possibilities, that had floated through her head but reality was as usual, rather cruel. All that had happened while she was in London was that a bunch of demon birds had appeared and brought along with them several parasites, magical children.

Now obviously such a huge gathering of magical children did could as 'something' interesting but that wouldn't help sate her appetite for wealth and power. Another interesting thing was the fact that she could sense the Demon Lord in the area who must be watching what was going on, scheming and planning whatever little machinations she had planned for them.

Francesca crumpled the paper in her strong hands, she had a sneaking suspicion she had been played, trolled, duped into coming to London today. The image that came to her mind was their loli overlord giggling maniacly as she scribbled out the note which ended up on her doorstep. A mischevious kid was what the demon lord looked like after all, but even if that was true, not like she could do anything about it, yet.

For now she hid up on top of a nearby building, trying her best to keep low and out of sight. Sure she hated magical children but unless she saw some opportunity to grab something for herself, there was no point getting into a fight. She would watch and wait...at least that was plan.

"CAWWW!!!" Screached one of the nasty bird things as it landed next to her on the rooftop. Francesca turned to look at it, slowly. It in turn, looked at her with one of its stupid eyes.

"You can't be serious..." They stared at each other and Francesca's eyebrow began to twitch in rage. "Get off my DAMN ROOF!" Grabbing the idiot Avian by the neck she hurled the creature into the sky as far away as possible then dove into door on top of the roof and shut it almost completely behind her. Hopefully the magical children didn't notice and she could hide in there till they passed.

"Just call me Terra Breaker. But I didn't come here to chat with some cherry girls."

That was her only reply to the other girls, as she set off immediately towards one of the ever multiplying birds. If this bird was multiplying, there had to be an end somewhere. If the bird regenerates immediately into other birds, then all they had to do was completely destroy the body, leaving behind no trace. With just one swing of her arm, a bird exploded to pieces as she punched it. Hayami was feeling a bit better from her last fight, but her clothes were still tattered, and her vision was still slightly blurry. Fighting low leveled demons such as these wouldn't exactly be a challenge though, not even to a newly made magical girl.

"Oi, start killing faster. I don't want to babysit you people longer than I have to."

Just as she pulverized one more bird however, one shot out at her, though it seemed more thrown than any sort of attempt to attack on the bird's part.

Thrown...

Obviously someone who had reason to attack a magical girl. Who was also a demon. Obviously.

Crushing that bird effortlessly, she landed near where she thought the bird was thrown, a seemingly empty roof devoid of people. It could be a demon masquerading as a roof however. She wouldn't put it past them, especially with her experience with demonic pastries and utensils in the past. Certainly almost harmless, but frustratingly annoying to exterminate.

"Come on out." Hayami looked around nonchalantly, hand in one of her pockets. "Or I'll hunt you down like the animal you are."

Tali began walking, into the suburbs from the treeline. Thankfully nobody was around to see a girl with a walking stick and a sleeping pack rolled up on her back. She studied the time period and adjusted her clothes accordingly, taking her belongings and moving them into a red backpack before donning a navy-coloured school uniform. It was strange to be back in human time again, she could nearly feel it slink past as she entered it. She wondered if her family was still around now, she wondered how old her baby brother was. She knew she was somewhere outside of London - maybe they had moved here? Did they need her? Maybe her intuition led her back to them to save them somehow. She could only wonder.

Her bare feet touched burning sidewalk and she jumped back, hissing at it. She donned shoes, even if this hindered her senses through the earth. She walked funny in them at first, but soon remembered the feeling of them. She made her way to the city nonetheless, keeping her mind empty. Thoughts would only crowd out her intuition and she would likely lose her way if she paid any mind to them.

Suddenly she felt her stomach drop. Her body felt heavy and gravity seemed to change. She turned and began sprinting in the other direction to escape this danger, dropping to all fours. She panted as she tried to outrun the sinking feeling, but once it touched the tip of her toe, she was sucked in.

Tali came out from the other side of the portal in full feral mode. She was crouched on the ground and growling lowly. Her senses readjusted to find an overwhelming amount of beings around her. Thousands of bodies moved around rapidly as if she were shrunk into an ant hill. She looked around at those immediately near her. It was a group of children near her biological age. They stood around and chatted happily, or at least comfortably.

English. She hadn’t spoken this language or any at all in a long time. She raised up, not lowering her guard one bit. She managed to speak, ’Who you?’ she demanded as she glared with a golden eye.

The school bell rang, the sound echoing through the hallways which soon would be brimming with students. Slowly the classes emptied themselves and voices started to fill up the corridors which had been silent until thus far. Robyn found herself amidst the buzzing, surrounded by a group of classmates. She didn’t particularly stand out; she was just another person amongst the crowd of adolescents. Although, if you would pay close attention, you would think her posture had more confidence to it, her gaze to be more determined in comparison to those around her. With nimble footsteps she walked towards the main hall, her dark hair bouncing lightly as she went. While most of her classmates were on their way to the cafeteria, Robyn preferred to eat her lunch outside.

As she treaded down the doorsteps, she looked up at the sky; in contrast to the image most people had of the weather in the UK, today the sky was crystal clear aside from maybe one or two contrails. She started to make her way down the path which lead to one of the benches where she usually sat down to have her meal, but slowed down when she noticed an odd glistening. Tilting her head, she tried to peer through the leaves of a big tree next to the school building. As she drew closer she figured the glimmering did not originate from within the tree, but instead was located somewhere behind it and… somewhere above it..? A strange sensation awoke within her when she turned around the trunk and saw the source. A portal..! Although over the past few years Robyn had gotten more or less used to the idea that she could see things that could be considered supernatural – hell, she had even needed to fight against some of those things with the powers that had been granted to her – every time she encountered something new her heart jumped a little. Without giving much more thought to it, she hid behind one of the corners of the academy and transformed into her magical attire. A blue flash leaped up into the tree and with another jump, Robyn disappeared into the portal.

Spinning around in the whirlwind she had created to lift herself up, it her took a moment to regain focus and behold the city of London as it became visible underneath her. Despite, or maybe because the vibrant streets were littered with people, no one seemed to have noticed the arrival of the girl. Robyn felt the wind underneath her lose momentum and knew soon she was going to descend. As she started to fall back to earth a group of individuals caught her eye. Seems I’m late to the party, she remarked inwardly when she realized they were magical children, just like her. Creating one more burst of wind midair she dashed in their direction.

Agile, she landed swiftly, and joined the group. “Why hello,” she announced herself as she bowed slightly, placing one foot behind the other. “Most refer to me as The Tempest, but I’d prefer if you’d call me something more personal such as Abigail,” she said, a faint smile present on her lips. “Don’t worry, that’s not my real name,” she added; although in this situation it did not seem directly necessary to her, Robyn was aware of the convention to keep their real identity a secret.

She glanced around the circle, finding herself a little lost as she had never seen so many magical children together. Her gaze rested on one of the younger girls, her bright eyes looking up at her when she mentioned that she had brought cookies which she’d happily share with all of them. She was taken aback a little by the offer, but her growling stomach reminded her of her earlier plans, so she gladly accepted one. “Thank you!” she said gratefully before biting down.

‘Let’s see we have watersports the video game, rocks…. Excuse me pebbles for brains and diabetes’ Saryn thoughts echoed as she continued to insult the other magical girls as she was never fond of the magical rejects in Japan especially those so called friends Nelly has in Akihabara. ‘Be nice’ Nelly thought back stepping forward ignoring the one called Terra Breaker and accepting a treat from the chocolatier “Thank you” She said kindly taking a cookie and taking a bite out of it ‘OK well the chocolate factory has a gift’ Saryn admitted her voice ringing a lot lower toned than it was previously ‘Anyway give me control you’re too defensive to fight demons’ she yelled ‘no you willingly released your hold to me, it’s my turn’ Nelly explained running forward and using the stolen strength from the now dead demon launched herself high into the air and bounced off one of the birds.

Nelly continued to jump higher and higher any attack made by the birds were deflected quickly until the extra energy was depleted, but it didn’t matter as she made it to the heart of the swarm. Holding in her arms in a praying fashion to use her illumination ability which was essentially a demon purge skill, though it killed them in a very non-violent way quick and painless. She was shining like a small star in the sky, though it wasn’t as bright as it could have been being that it was bright already outside. The flock of demonic birds turned into a massive dust cloud and Nelly began to fall passing up the Terra Breaker in her descent. ‘Yea beat that you tectonic looser’ Saryn shouted ‘Not even remotely funny’ Nelly replied in her own thoughts.

Footsteps. Left. Right. Left. Right. Jump. A maddening sprinting pace. Heavy breathing. Her hair fluttering in the wind, as if it was some sort of trail of her movement. She clenched her fists, as she felt fire in her lungs. She was getting short of breath. And the demonic smorgasbord was at its peak, only to recede soon after. A plague who looked like the lovechild of The Birds and a B movie had unfolded in London. The city she had taken residence in.

Nya bit her lip. How come she was going to be the last one to arrive! Foreigner girls would surely laugh at her uselessness! It was then when she noticed the general presence of the other girls. Yes, she was late to the action. Clenching her tiny fists, she inhaled one last time.

"I'm SO SORRY! I'm late!" She said to the assorted members, in case they were very strict types. "Birds...damned...outta nowhere...gotta...breath. Bugger." Nya knelt firmly on her knees in her transformed state. The faint smell of chocolate came into her nostrils, as well as she took a general outlook of the other girl faces.

"Name's...Nya... the Taboo..." She voiced as high as she could after the frantic sprint. "Nice to meet ya! I hope we can all help eachother...say, can I take one?" Nya added, pointing at the confections one girl had brought, funnily enough.

Naomi shook her head, already exasperated at everyone around her. She was starting to consider leaving the rest to the others when a silver haired child ran into the group. For a moment, the battle faded away, and nobody else existed. She was somewhere else, something terrible was happening, and it tore at her heart. She gripped the edge of her shield, her knuckles turning white as she tried to regain control her herself, desperately trying to remain calm as she walked toward the girl. She stood in front of her and looked down for a brief moment, an uncontrollable fear behind her eyes, then turned and planted her shield in the ground, setting herself between the dying battle and the one who reminded her so much of her sister.

"Stay behind me." She said, her voice wavering slightly.

---

"'Tor..." Chu said, about to say "I'm hungry." She decided it could probably wait and instead stared wide eyed at the sky behind the window. She huddled closer to Alistor, trying to comfort herself from the sudden feeling of dread that welled up inside her.

"'Tor... Don't leave..." She pleaded, confused and afraid. "Don't leave me alone..."

"I officially hate all birds now." Francesca thought as at least one of the magical girls noticed that another demon was in the area because of that stupid pest. Through the crack of the door she could see the girl trying to locate her. It appeared that only this one had noticed, which was a relief but if a fight broke out it was doubtful she would be alone for long.

There we two reasons why this would be the case: First, Francesca's power was certainly not suited for stealth as it was mostly about power and destruction, plus moving the Earth tended to be highly suspicious. Second, magical children were like cockroaches, they were hard to kill and even if you managed to squash one they tended to multiply in numbers and right now, it would be like walking on a nest of them. While logic was all nice and good the plain fact was, well she was in a position that probably wouldn't let her escape unnoticed anyway.

Francesca had to wonder if someone had set her up so they could see the magical children in action, a certain loli came to mind.

Francesca cursed when she noticed the girl was more than 2 meters away, too far for her to attack from her hidden position. She considered just going down, through the building but Francesca was greedy, perhaps there was something she could get from the encounter, one never knew with magical girls as sometimes they had powerful magical items to steal. After convincing herself she might get something out of the encounter, Francesca nonchalantly opened the door and stalked out, muscles and all.

"Well aren't you the cocky one?" She grinned, her oni features making her looks strong and intimidating as she casually walked closer, trying to get within 2 meters of her target before stopping. "I suppose you imagine yourself a hunter from taking out small fry." Francesca cracked her knuckles for dramatic effect, her grin turning into a smirk.

Francesca wondered to herself if the magical girl had met a sentient demon before or if all her experience was with low level scumbags. Magical girls always had a wide variety of reactions when they first met a sentient demon, some were instantly frightened, others started to question the ethics of fighting demons when they realized some were 'people', and of course there were those who relished the chance to fight a demon with a mind. In any case it was always interesting to see a magical girl's first reaction, though it was possible this one had met one before, but it wasn't that common.