A bouncy techno beat started up in the club as the music changed, bringing Evil Eye back to the present. She stowed her handkerchief away from whence it came as she addressed her underlings.
"Feast your eyes, children, on the misfortune and debauchery of Hibusa Town. Bring me stories of misery and woe. I need more darkness to create a worthy foe for our esteemed guest Ashbringer." Her voice dripped with venom, and she giggled.
The club was full of all sorts of partygoers, but none with a look that really screamed "magical girl." There was, however, a steady stream of eyeball-monsters exiting the women's restroom. They followed some people outside, taking a particular interest in the ones that seemed drunk and ready to make poor life choices in the near to immediate future. As before, though, there really wasn't an aura of malice around them like there was with miseria. They were merely observers—though, that was eerie in its own way.
Eventually, an odd-looking person did exit the restroom, accompanied by a few more of the floating eyes. She looked very out of place wearing a kimono and walking with a cane, but she could have simply been brushed off as an eccentric person if her eyes didn't glow persistently bright red, in defiance of any other color of lighting she might be bathed in with each passing moment. They were quite uncanny, and unlike the underlings who held no malice in their gaze, the girl's eyes were wide, wild, and downright evil. There wasn't quite a threat of violence, but there
was an all-consuming hunger and greed, as if there was a magnetic pull to them that made it difficult to look away—an event horizon that, once crossed, made eye contact inevitable, and Hizuki had unwittingly crossed it.
The light girl thought she’d be a bit more at ease in the noisy, cramped environment once she sighted the other magical girl here, but the malice radiating from the dark girl gave her pause. Hizuki blinked, and shook her head.
Is that magic? Maybe she’s got something like me. Or used to, anyway. One of the scouting eyes flew over Hizuki's shoulder and approached the girl, landing on her shoulder. She seemed to understand, as if the eye had communicated something to her without the ability to speak. Then, she turned her head and looked directly at Hizuki.
If she says she's not here to fight, then is it another 'heroic ultimatum?' The Gems must not communicate very well, she thought. She tilted her head, as if declaring her territory and daring Hizuki to come closer. Her wide open eyes made it difficult to tell just from looking whether she was afraid or eager for a fight.
Hizuki held up both her hands in the classic “I mean you no harm” gesture, then started on her way toward the stranger. She hoped Evil Eye over there wasn’t actually going to attack immediately when she got close; the Daybreak was here to investigate and assist, and this was a bad spot to fight without casualties.
As she wove past another club-goer, Hizuki couldn’t help but consider how bad of a location this was for her in a fight, too. No room to use her speed or even to really get through one of her gates, and the sheer number of people in close proximity created a deafening roar inside her head that made it hard to think clearly. She tried to focus her power more on Evil Eye, hoping the dark magical girl wouldn’t pick up on it and take it as some kind of attack, but even transformed, she didn’t have enough control to shut the crowd entirely.
When she was finally close enough to speak without shouting (too much,) she called out.
”Maybe we should go outside?” Hizuki hoped she didn’t sound too irritable, or that it didn’t sound like a demand.
”It’ll be easier to talk with less people around.” And it’ll be easier for both of us to run away if we want to, she added silently.
A catlike grin made its way onto the girl's face as she, too, seemed to realize that this was an undesirable place for Hizuki to stage a battle between magical girls.
"You don't like to dance, Miss Hero?" Her feet lifted just slightly off the floor. Her body swayed this way and that as she floated around, navigating the crowd as easily as if she had eyes all around her head. Her eyes were open, but vacant, as if she weren't really looking at Hizuki, just in her general direction - something the latter appreciated, as it made it easier to look away from the twin abyss. Her eyes in the sky, on the other hand, were looking very focused on the dance floor.
Hizuki took the cue to hover into the air herself, soft rays of light pushing her aloft to roughly match Evil Eye’s height. She was unsteady, wobbling in a situation that demanded finer control than her usual soaring required.
”I can dance just fine, I’m just worried about the audience,” she replied.
The partygoers were loud, but unlike her, most of them had come to a place like this to satisfy their desires and stop themselves from thinking about more complex problems that required long-term solutions. The further Hizuki strayed from the wall flowers, the easier it became to hear what the magical girl was thinking about.
The girl's mind was just as full of desire as her eyes. Power, independence... belonging. Her movements on the dance floor were quick, bold and ambitious but ultimately aimless, and it reflected her state of mind. There were people she wanted to protect, but she felt lost and powerless to change their circumstances.
At this rate, we won't get strong enough. I need the Gems and the Detention Club to see Ashbringer as a common enemy, but if anything, if I'm not careful, they'll side with Ashbringer to take down Rei. If that happens... she stopped herself from finishing that thought.
”I can help you,” Hizuki called out to her. The girl’s desires felt familiar; they echoed thoughts that plagued Haruna, thoughts and lingering regrets.
”I really don’t mean you any harm.” Daybreak would fight, of course, if the situation called for it; she couldn’t let her goals in coming to Hibusa compromise her overall purpose of protecting the weak and the innocent. She floated closer still, bumping into the occasional club-goer with her lack of overhead vision and still-clumsy flight.
At least the crowd and the lights make it easy to ignore signs of us. She glanced up at the floating eyes, then focused on Evil Eye again, making the mistake of locking her gaze with the dark girl’s once more.
The girl smiled as Hizuki took flight and joined her playful dance of cat and mouse.
"I always imagined girls like you must have existed somewhere. Though, it's my first time meeting one. The light girls of Hibusa Town and the City of Light are usually more violent." As she said this, Hizuki could catch sight of a girl with short blonde hair and blood running down her face, smiling, in the corner of her eye—but when Hizuki tried to look at her properly, she was gone, as if she were never there.
"Offering to help a Kurai girl, hm~? You're very bold. Are you saying you can purify me?" As Hizuki met her eyes, the girl's voice seemed to come from multiple different directions.
"It's not a bad idea, if all I cared about was survival. It's probably easier for a light girl to get stronger in this town than a dark one... but, I'm not going back to the light. I prefer the cold hard Truth over a compelling fantasy." All at once, Evil Eye was closer to Hizuki—uncomfortably close.
"What about you? Do you want to see clearly? I doubt a light girl could give me what I want, but if you want to join me on the other side, I could help you with that." She smiled and giggled pleasantly.
Hizuki shook her head fervently, and not just to dispel the unsettling visions.
”I wouldn’t really be much of a hero if I gave into the darkness as soon as I saw it once.” She leaned back, the motion making her start to float away.
”I won’t force you to come back to the light or anything like that, but I won’t be going over to the darkness. I just. . .” She trailed off for a moment, searching for the right words to use.
”Nobody ever worries about the dark girls. You all became magical girls for a reason, and you probably fell to darkness for a reason too, right?” Her voice was earnest, despite the situation.
”That’s all I need to see, Evil Eye.” She silently wished that the dark girl would maybe stop messing with her head, too, but that would probably just encourage her, if she was the sort to do that to begin with.
Evil Eye paused, trading her invincible smile for a more neutral expression as she drifted away from Hizuki again.
"That's true. Everyone just calls us the Depression Club and ignores us... but that's how it is between light and dark. No one needs to worry about the dark girls, anyway. That's what I'm here for." She tilted her head and smiled a bit more softly.
"On second thought, you won't need any help finding your way. People like you who put others first are destined to fall to darkness someday. So, when you feel yourself falling, come find me again. I'll catch you." With that, she began to drift toward the same exit the scouting eyes were using.
Hizuki was entirely unsure what to do with that response. It seemed more genuine than her creepy villain act, at least as far as she could tell, but the content was strange.
Why would selflessness make me fall? Isn’t that the opposite of how it works? Thrown as she was, by the time she came up with an actual response to Evil Eye, the latter was long gone. Hizuki frowned, and flew out the door in the same direction. She considered trying to follow after the other girl, but elected not to after a moment. She still needed time to think about her words. Instead, she looked up at the stars for a few moments, then flew up toward them, resuming another of many sleepless nights.
Haruna blinked. She'd
definitely almost drifted off there. Sitting there in her somehow-already-rumpled uniform, she double-checked that her overstuffed bag - complete with a certain stuffed monkey clipped to one strap - was still in place on the floor next to her. It bulged with books and a sampling of other animal companions gifted to her by Maliss - Black Gate, she reminded herself - for distribution. None of them had found their way to anyone else's possession, yet. Haruna was still the mysterious transfer, the honor student and ex-athlete from another town. She was almost certain rumors would be going around about her inside the day, considering how unapproachable the lanky, sleep-deprived stranger was to the residents of Hibusa's high school.
Her stomach growled, reminding her of why she was here and pulling her back to reality from her musings about the previous night. Figuring out what to say to Evil Eye when they met next wasn't going to fill her belly with delicious cup ramen. She took out her phone, flipped to a more upbeat song, and set that to playing so she could eat in relative peace in her corner of the cafeteria. A part of her she mostly tried to suppress was happy that most people hadn't wanted to approach her; she hadn't been to school since she'd gotten her powers, and even though she ought to have been doing her best to help, it was distracting having so many different desires flitting across her brain.
