• Age: That age where kissing any of the other characters isn’t considered gross.
• Emblem: A tattoo located just a few inches under her belly button, right over her intestines.
• Devil Arm: Formerly, Suki’s sweet arm was a set of heart shaped IV bags that she could control with her mind. Now she wears a bleeding hair pin. Her hands, legs, and dress are always soaked in blood, effectively making them magical weapons. She rarely fights with her pin directly, but can form the blood into other things like claws, blades, and tendrils. Effective range is just a bit longer than the length of her arms, while her tendrils can reach a meter or so further. The more wounded she is, the more numerous her attacks become.
• Magic: When Suki was a pure magical girl, her magic was based around love. Now it’s based around lust. Instead of enabling her allies as a nurse, she disables her enemies as a vampire or succubus. Though most just take to calling her a blood witch.
Anything she touches is slowly overcome by a “geas” that makes them charmed by her presence. The geas can be resisted for a time, but if Suki holds on long enough, even the most resilient magical girl will fall to her charms. She also has vitality sapping kisses, and kissing someone on the lips or neck greatly accelerates the geas, provided they have those features. Once she lets go of someone, the geas fades and her charms slowly wear off.
Miseria react strangely to Suki's lust magic. It confuses them rather than charms them, and her kisses can cause a backlash that charges up nearby monsters.
• Background:
Some girls should have never been magical to begin with.
Suki was not born into a stable family. Her father was a detective that was never home. When he was around, her parents used that time to argue with one another. It was no secret that her father wasn’t faithful, but they stayed together. Mr. Oyama didn’t want to split his assets with his wife, and Mrs Oyama couldn’t support herself without his lucrative job. This made Suki an undesirable symbol of their unhappy union. Her mother did the bare minimum she needed to keep Suki alive, and otherwise let her fend for herself. This made Suki a very needy girl.
Her parents failed to provide her with any self worth, so she tried to find validation in others. Her desperate behavior was a red flag to most, except to those that weren’t above using her. She fell in with the wrong crowd and became a delinquent. Her parents would scold her, but at least she was getting their attention. She would dye her hair, get piercings, and get into whatever trouble she could. She smoked her first cigarette when she was 11 and had her first beer when she was 13. But the other delinquents didn’t stick around forever. Most of them wised up and started taking school seriously, leaving Suki alone again. She still liked the negative attention she was getting from her parents, and pressed on alone.
Suki would get a reprieve from her mystery when she was greeted by a mascot. Naturally, she wished to be loved. The mascot already had a few magical girls under its wing, and they treated her with respect. What followed were the best years of her life. She was part of a team and was making a change for good. She saved people, even her friends sometimes. They helped her break her alcohol and nicotine addiction. They played arcade games and had sleepovers in place of causing property damage and petty theft.
But Suki wasn’t going to be a girl forever. She was turning into a woman, and her emotional needs were evolving. It wasn’t enough to be loved by a group of friends. They all had boyfriends (or girlfriends) and Suki didn’t want to be left out. She wanted to feel romantic love. The kind of love Suki had never known. She had seen how cruel the real world could be, and knew she had to pick someone from her group.
Suki set her eyes on Lada. She was a foreign transfer student, and a relatively new addition to their group of magical girls. She was kind, confident, and easy on the eyes. A real foreign beauty. When everyone talked about relationships, Lada was silent. Suki talked to the other magical girls and they were all pretty sure she was still available. Suki set out to have Lada join her on a surprise date. She was going to take Lada to a concert and then return to their hangout to ask about their relationship. She spent months saving her money for those tickets. Her other fellow magical girls were in on it, but she insisted on getting the money for the tickets herself.
Lada was surprised that Suki wanted to go to the concert, but it wasn’t hard to convince her to come along. They had a great time, and it seemed like it was all going well. But when Suki asked Lada about being her girlfriend, Lada laughed. She swiftly apologized, then informed Suki she wasn’t into girls. That was devastating on its own, but what was worse was that this all happened in front of her friends, who were hiding around the hangout. Once Lada left for the night, they all came out to cheer her up. But as kind as their words were, they couldn’t cease their snickering. She was just a joke to them.
They had never really been friends..
The following day she relapsed into her old habits as she let her despair fester. It only took a day for her dark emotions to corrupt her, and Nurse Joy became a blood witch: someone that didn’t need to receive love. She could make people love her. With Suki’s new powers, she immediately conspired to get that kiss Lada had denied her. It didn’t take a lot of stalking to find out where she was and jump her. Suki wasn’t good at stealth though, and the ensuing fight was messy. But in the end, Suki got what she wanted.
It didn’t take long for her friends to find out what happened. Suki fled to Hibusa Town where she suspected she would never be discovered, and joined the delinquent club after trying to seduce one of their members.
• Sample Post:
It felt like everything that happened in Suki’s life led up to this moment.
Lada’s room was a mess, but that was bound to happen when two magical girls fought in a small space. The bed had been overturned, the closet doors laid on the floor, and Lada’s dressers were reduced to wood and fabric, scattered to the four winds. In the center of the room sat the victor with their prize.
Lada’s sword had cut Suki deep. The wound ran from the center of her chest down to her right hip. It was a grievous wound, and she wouldn’t had survived it if she wasn’t a magical girl. Lada, comparatively, had no wounds to speak of. But Suki didn’t need to wound her prey to win a fight. She was sitting on Lada’s stomach, with a pair of tendrils reaching out of her wound to pin the girl’s arms over her head. Lada could kick her legs, twist her arms, but she wasn’t getting free. Suki’s hands closed around her face.
”That was a nice fight!” Suki’s voice was sickeningly sweet, but her body lacked any kind of malice. She used her thumbs to follow the curvature of Lada’s cheek bones, then the bridge of her nose. She dragged her index finger down the center of her face, riding over her lips. ”Such beautiful contours, just like the wound you gave me!”
”Don’t.” Was all Lada could manage. Her breathing was becoming ragged. The geas was taking its toll on her mind, but she resisted. That wouldn’t last for long.
”Oh Lada! I couldn’t bring myself to hurt something so pretty! But we’re wasting time, and the anticipation is killing us.” Suki giggled. ”I know your first time is a little scary, but it’s my first time too! So just relax and let it happen.”
Suki closed her eyes and closed the breach between their faces. Lada’s eyes went wide, but if she could have escaped she would have done so already. She opened her mouth to make one last plea, but Suki plunged her tongue inside. Her eyes dilated and her back arched, only for Lada’s eyes to flutter shut. Her entire body relaxed as Suki probed every inch of her mouth. The tendrils released her arms, and she wrapped them around Suki.
Suki pulled her head back with a gasp. ”Oh sweetheart, that was magical!” She wiggled on top of Lada’s stomach. ”Your skin makes me want to cry! You glow like a goddess! You taste like a strawberry! Well, maybe a little more subdued than a strawberry, but-” Suki kissed Lada’s cheek. ”See? You shouldn’t have said no! We could have been having all this fun yesterday!”
”I-” Suki wouldn’t stop laying kisses along Lada’s neck and shoulder. ”I’m sorry, I didn’t, know it, would feel like, this.” Her eyes were half closed. ”But, I’m glad, you-”
Suki placed her finger over Lada’s lips. ”I forgive you. The important part is you came around!” Suki leaned in to give Lada one more kiss, only to notice she fell unconscious in her arms. ”What? We didn’t even get to the spicy part yet!”
But their alone time would be interrupted. The other five members of Suki’s magical girl team piled into the room. They already had their weapons drawn and were ready to fight.
Suki shrugged. ”Yea, she decided to take a nap. I think-”
Penny, the leader of the unit, closed the distance with a swift punch. Powerful enough on its own, more so when you considered the cyborg girl’s fist was powered by its own afterburner. Suki careened into the adjacent wall, and Penny caught Lada in her arms.
”She’s secure!”
Suki didn’t even have time to stand back up before the other four girls stood in front of them. She placed her hand on the window sill to stabilize herself. ”Good evening!”
Penny stepped between the other magical girls and looked at Suki. ”You’ve got ten seconds to tell us what you did to her.”
”Well.” Suki struggled to stand upright. ”I kissed her? A lot? But it kind of tuckered her out? I’m a little new to these powers, so I might have gone overboard. I think she’ll be fine with some rest!” The newly arrived wouldn't notice it, but Suki's wound from earlier had completely healed.
”Not what I meant, but I’m glad that’s the case.” Penny raised her fist and leveled it with Suki’s head. ”Answer this next question very carefully. Were you involved with Nurse Joy’s disappearance?”
Suki tapped her chin. ”Only that we’re the same person.”
Penny’s body tensed up as her allies gave each other confused glances. ”You’re her? Prove it!”
”Let’s see…” Suki looked over her former team. ”Lily’s favorite animal is a wolf, and she still sleeps with stuffed animals. Her boyfriend Alexander got her a plush wolf about a month ago and she wouldn’t shut up about it. Maura likes flowers, but is too shy to tell anyone because she thinks it will ruin her tough girl persona. Samantha wet the bed about a week ago, but she swore me to secrecy. Sorry girl, you understand right? Then there’s-”
”Why?” Penny’s fist was shaking. ”Why did you do this to yourself?”
”I did this?” The corners of Suki’s lips twitched. ”The only reason why I signed up to this outfit was so that I could be around people who loved me. Come on, Penny! You were my friends! I healed you, I helped you out, we did so much stuff together! don’t expect you to get it. Everyone loves you, but me? I can’t get my parents to look at me unless I do something bad. I took Lada to see a concert and the first thing she does is blow me off when we get back. You all laughed at me. A-and I get it, it was sort of funny!” She sniffed, but shed no tears. ”But you’re no different than my parents. You ignore everything I tried to do for you, but the screw ups? The mistakes? the bad behavior? Ohhhh, that’s gotta get corrected right quick! No one’s gunna make you look bad!”
Penny pursed her lips. ”I see.” She closed her eyes. ”Nurse Joy is dead.” When her eyes opened, they were glowing neon blue, and every afterburner on her body fired up. ”The least I can do is avenge her.”
”Oh, uh...” Suki touched the tips of her fingers together. ”Can I have a do over or-”
The speed in which Penny moved could be compared to teleportation. Her metal frame slammed into Suki with enough force to launch her out the window. The shattered glass haloed the blood witch’s form as she was thrown into the darkness. They never found her body, but she was never seen in town again.
• Emblem: A small rainbow colored star tattoo on her left wrist.
• Devil Arm: Originally a simple scalpel, representing the small but effective change she could bring to the world, it has become larger and serrated with her loss of light. Now with a blade the size of a pocketknife's it is no longer an instrument of healing, but rather entirely one of harming.
• Magic: Ironic for a girl who has lost her innate ability to empathize with others, her magic can best be described as "Empathy." Specifically the ESP version, in that she has a grasp on what others are feeling at most times. Despite this being magical in nature, she has picked up some tricks from using it that allow her to notice ticks and subtle changes that broadcast a person's emotional state even without magic. With her magic, stronger emotions are more strongly felt, making surprise attacks against her difficult, but leading to the potential of hiding more dangerous feelings with stronger positive ones, if one were to be skilled enough at manipulating their own emotions.
Much more useful, in her opinion, is the ability to influence the emotions of others. Originally this came from her own, in which she could transfer her own feelings to another person to keep everyone happy and on the same page. With effort, she could enhance them as well, leading to her now infamous "Miracles" water. Now though, she is more of a taker than a giver. Her influence works by stealing the emotions from one entity, storing them, and transferring them to a new target at a later time. Inverse to her original magic of making others feel like she does by pouring out, she now makes them feel like she does by drawing in, leading to apathy and lack of goodwill in her targets in most cases. These stolen emotions fuel her magic further, allowing for her to enter a state similar to adrenaline at the cost of burning through her stores of emotion. This state raises her combat abilities and mental processing speed greatly, but like adrenaline it comes with a drain on her when it stops, though this drain is emotional rather than physical. As such, after rather intense battles with Miseria she will often spend the next day in a state of complete apathy, usually choosing to sleep the day away rather than put effort into anything.
For some reason, Miseria seem only mildly affected by her influence over emotions. Perhaps because they are emotions, rather than a being that produces them...
• Background: Some say that curiosity killed the cat, and fewer still say that satisfaction brought it back. Neither of these held true for young Tsubomi Kana, a girl whose mind is almost as troubled as her past. Yes, some say that curiosity killed the cat, but in fact the cat in question didn't seem to be much of a cat at all...
The strange creature, or perhaps machine, with the body of a housecat and the face of a television lay on its side in a pool of blood that bore the texture of static in the middle of the alleyway. Its head had been broken into pieces and a chunk had been taken out of its right side. Just inside the door that led to the alley were several drunken teenagers, clearly too young to be legally imbibing and without a care for that thought. Further inside were the flashing lights of a party where the youth of the town gathered. There were few rules here, and among them were none that prohibited the use of so-called "party favors." A few drinks of liquid fire, a few drops of illicit compounds, even a few needles were all available. Granted, the only ones that were supposed to be in the party were those old enough to drink, so why should they not be allowed the even finer pleasures of life that altered the mind?
Tsubomi was not the youngest at the event, though at fifteen she was still far too young to be there. Nonetheless she was accepted among the others... Of course, it helped that she was the equivalent of a walking drug, though only a scant few there knew her secret. With a few drinks of colored water from a bottle with "Miracles" written on the side in marker, a person could feel ecstasy without having to take a tab of it. This "drug" was highly sought after by the ravers, and they knew that only one person supplied it, and that its use was heavily regulated by that person. Even so, it tended to be a gateway drug to more dangerous things. Unfortunate, as Tsubomi made it with the genuine desire of getting people off of those more dangerous habits. After all, a magical girl was supposed to help people.
Eventually though, curiosity kicked in. What was so great about the drugs that people turned to when they ran out of their "miracles" allowance? She was bored, had sold all of her supply of her product, and was already high off the emotions of the party. Why shouldn't she do what they all did, and reach for even greater heights of pleasure? So she did. She took a hit of the next best thing to her own magical "drug," and one thing led to another. Soon she was over the moon and barely conscious. Stumbling out of the alley door, she came across the dead Mascot. The smell of blood was overwhelming, and- ...Blood? Did Mascots bleed? Whether or not they did was irrelevant, as it turned out, because the smell came from behind her, towards the nearby dumpster. The drunken teens lay mangled and broken behind it, and the sight almost shocked her back down to earth. Almost. And when the Miseria dropped from the roof above her, she almost managed to dodge. Almost.
Before she could react she was set upon and quickly subdued by the monster. Her life would have flashed before her eyes if she could properly experience the fear that she should have felt. Just before the creature was able to finish her off another Magical Girl who had been passing by slew the Miseria, freeing Tsubomi from the jaws of death. That girl walked away from the night disturbed by the bodies that she had seen but ultimately unharmed. Tsubomi was not so lucky. In her addled state, she had lost her reason and her hope of survival. Later, when she finally processed the events of the night, she came to find that she had lost her empathy. Not in a philosophical sense but in a literal one. She found that she could no longer relate to or care about other people. Soon her social standing at school fell to nothing, followed by her grades, and then her home life. She was eventually kicked out of her home, sent by her loving but unable to coexist parents to live with her less loving but more financially stable aunt and uncle. Doing so broke her parents' hearts but they couldn't manage to raise her alongside her siblings when she was like this.
Now, her new family unit was moving to Hibusa Town, and she was on a path to meet those who were more like her than she would have thought. Curiosity had not killed this cat, but it had tried, and it had irrevocably altered it nonetheless. It's just too bad that satisfaction wasn't there to bring it back.
• Sample Post:
Tsubomi only wanted the world to be peaceful and happy. That, and personal contentment. And to live forever. And to- Well, you get the point. She had a lot of wishes, so when she was confronted by a cat wearing a television on its head, asking what she truly desired, she was unsure how to respond. She spent days thinking it over, until she finally decided that she wanted to wish that people could be happy. If more people were happy, more people would care for others, and more people would help others be happy, right? Her wish wasn't granted in the way she expected, but it was technically granted. In exchange for becoming a magical girl, she would be able to hunt Miseria, the source of much unhappiness and general negativity. She was even granted magic that dealt in emotions directly, so if she worked hard enough, she could make many people very happy with her own power. The fact that she used this power to make money wasn't a bad thing, right? She had a skillset, and just like any skillset it was something that could be capitalized on, so why not get a little back for her efforts? Still, she stayed on the up and up, hunting Miseria and using her magic to put people in better mental states along the way. It really is too bad that she started getting envious of the people she helped...
---
Tsubomi walked down the alleyways she knew and hated from her school towards her home. Winter break was about to start, so it was cold, and the hoodie she was wearing was only helping so much, causing her to have ducked into the alley behind the liquor store to help keep the wind at bay. That was where she saw it. A creature of some sort with a television screen for a head jumped out from behind the garbage can and into her view. But Tsumbomi was more entranced than scared. She stopped in her tracks and the feline, for it appeared to be one on closer inspection, turned its static filled screen towards her. It took some time, but the creature(?) managed to convey its question: What do you wish for most? Whatever it is, the feline(?) was willing to grant it. To be honest with herself, Tsubomi didn't know. She asked if she could spend some time mulling over the question, and the cat(?) acquiesced. So she returned home, throwing off her backpack and hoodie after saying hello to her mother and sat in her room, mulling over the cat(?)'s question.
Eventually she decided that what she wanted most was to make the world a better place. But how could she do that? Would a wish for a better world really be possible? She doubted it. So after days of agonizing over the problem she decided to wish to be able to make people happy. She ventured back to the alleyway through the throngs of students now taking advantage of their break from school and found the television-headed cat once more. She took a deep breath, and gave her answer.
---
Tsubomi needed money. Her father had to take time off work and was out of PTO, so it was, in her mind, up to her as the oldest child to help out the family finances. She knew that there was quite a bit of... unsavory conduct in her town, and being relatively well liked at school had opened doors that wouldn't normally open for someone so young. A friend of a friend's sister's boyfriend's older brother was the chain that she pulled to get to a position where she could meet an honest to goodness drug dealer. And like a good dealer, Tsubomi gave out free samples. Not in her usual form, of course. She wasn't stupid, so once she knew the name and usual hangouts of her target she approached in her magical girl form. Luckily she already looked the part of a druggie, but she was the hunter here. Having approached the young man in a secluded area, she offered him a sample of a new drug she claimed to have developed. In all honesty it was just filtered water with some blue and red food coloring in it, but the lack of significant taste and the bright colors made it perfect. A bit of magic later and she had successfully altered the dealer's mental state enough to convince him that the "drug" worked as advertised. He offered a lot of money for a lot of product but she knew she couldn't do that. No, she had to make sure to regulate the use, not for safety concerns like she claimed, but because it only worked when she knew someone was using it.
She managed to convince the man and went home with an agreement to produce and distribute more in exchange for an up-front payment of more money than she had ever personally held before. She slipped it into her mother's purse unnoticed, and though her mother was an upstanding person who questioned the source of the bills, she also knew that her family needed the money at the moment. So she didn't pry too hard into where it came from, and Tsubomi never came forward to admit to being the one who put it there. She also never admitted to being the reason her siblings stopped fighting as often as they previously had, or why her parents' were so much less worried about the stresses of their day-to-day.
---
Now that Tsubomi has been brought into her extended family, she mostly uses her magic to keep them off her case. This made moving in with them and with them to Hibusa Town much more bearable.
• Other: Tsubomi has only just finished moving to Hibusa Town, and is about to start her first day at Hibusa High. Even though she has been mostly corrupted, she's still in the process of finalizing that corruption, and so there is still a spark of light in her soul.
• Title: Nyxia Torrentia, Neon Tempest of the Ultraviolet Rainbow
• Age: 18
• Emblem: A pendant shaped like a small retro ray gun. It hangs from a necklace kept hidden under her clothes.
• Devil Arm: After transforming, Norika’s innocuous pendant becomes The Omega Obliterator, an enormous technomantic energy cannon.
• Magic: Death Rays! Not only is Nyxia’s weapon a death ray, but she can also shoot them from her hands, her eyes, and even her mouth. In addition, she can pump magic into The Omega Obliterator to supercharge it with extra power (causing it to grow larger and even sprout additional barrels), as well as conjure a pair of hovering, ray gun equipped drones to provide additional firepower or point defense as needed.
• Background: Born into the wealthy and prestigious Tsukishima family alongside her twin brother, Kaito, it soon became clear that Norika was his complete opposite in every respect. Where Kaito was brave and confident, Norika was timid, her self esteem virtually nonexistent. Where he was skilled, she seemed to fail at everything. And where he was healthy and strong, she was sickly and weak, to the point of being almost constantly bedridden for most of her young life. That said, she loved her brother dearly and never cursed his good fortune.
For his part, Kaito was equally caring towards Norika, showing her the affection their parents refused to give to such an “utter disgrace of a child”, and using the gifts they lavished upon him for her benefit, rather than his own. He would play video games with her, read her stories, and even gift her with a VR headset so that she could experience what it felt like to play outside under a sunny sky. Truly, he was the sole bright spot in Norika’s otherwise bleak and hopeless life.
Alas, even this fragile beacon would all-too-quickly be snuffed out…
On their eighteenth birthday, Kaito reluctantly informed Norika that their parents had decided that he would study abroad after graduation, at a prominent foreign university. He would only be able to see her a handful of times each year, but, even so, he promised that their bond would never falter. Even as he spoke these words, he presented his tearful sister with a small toy ray gun, explaining that it would grant her courage and strength, even if he couldn’t be present to provide those things for her himself. It was by far the most cherished gift he had ever given her, and it greatly helped to mend her breaking heart. However, nothing could withstand the soul-destroying horror that came only a week later, when she learned that Kaito had died in a car crash on the way to the airport.
Her grief was so strong, it felt as though she were being suffocated by it, as if it were a palpable force that was literally choking the life out of her. That night, while she was crying in bed, the nebulous force fully revealed itself. It was a nightmarish horror, which seemed to rise up from the floor, a writhing mass of slimy tendrils and segmented limbs with the head of a demonic mosquito. At first Norika was frozen in fear, but then she realized that the monster was frozen as well, and that a strange cat with a tv for a head was now sitting in front of her on the bed. It spoke not a word, but its flickering screen showed exactly what this monster had done the night before, exactly whose head had been impaled upon its spiked proboscis, and upon seeing this, Norika’s fear turned to blazing, glowing, incandescent rage…
In that, the darkest moment of her life, even darker power surged into her, remaking timid, weak Norika into someone altogether more terrifying. In a blast of dark radiance, Norika was reborn, her toy ray gun now a weapon of horrible potency, and she wasted no time in making use of it. Giving voice to a scream of anguished fury, the transformed Norika annihilated her monstrous visitor, the ruinous energies of her death ray violently rending the nightmarish creature asunder.
Although she passed out shortly afterwards, Norika knew that what had occurred the night before had been no mere dream. There may have been no trace of the tv-headed cat or the monster’s myriad goopy remains, but the fact that her toy ray gun had now become a small, slightly glowing pendant was all the proof she needed. She knew what had really happened to her brother, she knew what horrors haunted the night, but most importantly, she knew she now had the power to kill them. To kill ALL of them…
Each subsequent night, she would transform into her psychotic alter-ego and kill as many Miseria as she possibly could. Already enjoying a euphoric high from her nightly slaughters, she soon discovered that each Miseria killed also increased her own power, making her even better at cleansing the streets of them. And then she had a twisted epiphany. If she could become powerful enough, her death rays could do more than tear though Miseria and mundane objects. They could tear trough the very fabric of reality, letting her travel back in time to the night of her brother’s death. They could let her save him! With this deranged video game-inspired goal at the forefront of her mind, Norika, or rather, Nyxia, has made it a personal vow to kill as many Miseria as it takes to achieve it, and pity anyone who dares to stand in her way…
• Sample Post:
In the otherwise silent depths of the night, the sound of muffled sobs filled the opulent bedroom, their source barely visible as a small, shuddering lump underneath the covers, dimly illuminated by the star-shaped nightlight in the corner of the otherwise shadowy chamber. This had been by far the worst day of Norika’s life, and as the night’s darkness threatened to smother her frail body, so too did an even more profound darkness threaten to smother her heart. “K-Kaito… K-Kaito…” she whimpered as she clung to her ray gun with all her meager strength.
It was an incredibly juvenile thing for a young woman of eighteen years to be doing, objectively speaking, yet Norika had always been meek and childish, something not helped by the scrawny, almost emaciated appearance of her illness-ravaged body. Yet, Norika didn’t care. This “toy” was a precious gift from the one person to ever treat her with kindness, and now that he was gone, it was all she had left of him. He had said it would give her strength, and she desperately wanted to believe his words. How often had they practiced using the gun to banish fears and unhappy thoughts. “Pew pew!” she would voice as she pretended to shoot those phantasmal foes, taking courage from the “weapon” her brother had promised would protect her just as well as he had. She tried to do that now, but the words wouldn’t come. Only tears. In the depths of her broken heart, Norika knew the truth. She was utterly, completely powerless and utterly, completely alone.
Yet, as she would soon discover, neither of those things were true…
The sudden flickering of her nightlight was Norika’s first indication that something wasn’t quite right. Peeking out from under her covers, the timid girl gave voice to a frightened gasp as she watched the shadows swirl and coalesce into the menacing form of a nightmarish monstrosity, a chittering, writhing mass of viscus tendrils and segmented, insectoid limbs, all tipped by wickedly curving spines. Eyes wide as she shuddered with indescribable terror, Norika instinctively whipped out her ray gun and pointed it at the monstrous horror’s mosquito-like head. “P-P-Pew, p-p-pew…” she whimpered in a barely-audible voice as she ineffectually squeezed the trigger. Tears continued to stream down her cheeks and her weak heart pounded like a jackhammer, threatening to completely give out at any moment. Yet, even so, she noticed that while her “weapon” might not have managed to harm the monster, the creature had stopped moving forward. In fact, it had completely frozen in place.
A moment later, the terrified girl realized that a cat had sat itself down on her bed. A cat with a static-filled tv screen for a head. Even as Norika’s eyes were drawn to that flickering screen, the static faded, only to be replaced by a scene even more nightmarish than the one she currently found herself in. It showed her brother’s limousine being attacked by the very creature now frozen before her bed. It showed her brother being violently pulled out of the mangled wreckage. It showed the creature’s spiked proboscis extending. It showed…
Norika screamed. It was a scream of anguish, a scream of horror, but also, far more than anything else, it was a scream of rage. In that instant, Norika’s heart shattered completely, only to be reforged an instant later by a dark power of unimaginable potency. Glowing, sickly energy surged from deep within her, remaking the fearful and fragile girl into something, into someone, far stronger and far more terrifying… Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, Nyxia Torrentia, Neon Tempest of the Ultraviolet Rainbow emerged from the pitiful remains of Norika Tsukishima to utterly annihilate the wretched thing that had dared to kill her beloved brother. The ruinous beam disgorged by her massively enlarged ray gun utterly rent the hapless monster asunder, splattering its smoldering remains all across the once-immaculate chamber.
Her mouth spread wide in a sadistic grin as she gleefully took note of her accomplishment and reveled in the gleeful euphoria it filled her with, Nyxia tossed her head back and unleashed a deafening peal of psychotic laughter.
“YES!!!” she cried in deranged delight. “DIE YOU MOTHER FUCKING SHIT STAIN!!!” she screamed as she fired at the creature’s remains again and again. “DIE, DIE, DIE!!! HAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!”
Collapsing back onto her bed in utter exhaustion, Nyxia hugged her enormous energy cannon tight to her heaving chest.
“T-Thank you, baby,” she whispered, before giving the weapon an affectionate kiss. “Y-you really did protect mommy, didn’t you…” she murmured, before slipping off into a deep and contented slumber.
It might have been the worst day of her young life, but it was also unquestionably the best night.
• Other: Due to a combination of her poor health and her family’s vast wealth, Norika was home schooled (when she was even healthy enough to attend lessons), and so is not currently a member of Hibusa High’s Detention Club.
• Devil Arm: An ovoid shield taller then Roche herself, ending in sharp points on either side.
• Emblem: A smoothed obsidian tear dangling from a necklace always hanging under her clothes.
• Magic: Counter! In guarding against an attack or sudden impact with the environment, Earthshaker absorbs the energy into herself and stores it along the white markings across her body. This energy can then be released either through her body or her Devil Arm for a reprisal of greater force than the original as she adds her own force to it. It is not an automatic response and requires her to meet the blow with either her limbs or Devil Arm with conscious effort in order to absorb the hit.
• Background: If you put in the time, do good work, and be diligent in all things, then you will inevitably be rewarded.
There is no path can be barred if one holds these to be true. Or at least, that's what the calligraphy hanging proudly from the cramped walls of the Hananami apartment told. The kanji didn't particularly flow with grace and the lettering wasn't to the exacting standards one would find from a proper traditional household, but it held a place of pride in the small home carved out in the city where a single father and his daughter lived. They were far from comfortable but they two had each other, and an unshakable belief fostered in one another that they could prosper together.
A young Ryoba Hananami looked at her father like he was a giant, his rail thin figure and growing bald spot unseen to the wide, wonderstruck eyes of a youth. He was a salaryman by trade, toiling the long, thankless hours of their lot with a firm resolve that years spent in service would be rewarded so he could give his daughter the happiness all parents wished for their children. He worked holidays, left sickdays unused, and never refused a call even at the bleakest hours of the night.
And young Ryoba watched it all with pride in her heart, and when she entered school quickly found a welcome home in the track team of her schools. Always out at the field long after hours, running under the warm kiss of the sun, her enthusiasm and vigor an inspiration to her team mates. She was a straight laced student and her grades were as sharp as her athletic performance, putting in the work with the hope of securing herself a scholarship and spare her father the burden of paying for her college. The nickname 'Roche' had been coined for her then, as she'd developed a habit of saving up for her favorite hazelnut and chocolate confections, smudges of chocolate seen on the corner of her lips after every victorious track meet.
In these happy days she'd become a Magical Girl, protecting the city as a Miko-themed paragon of light who shielded the people with a smile. Every life saved was a good deed put forward, off setting the balance of the onerous night and lifting burdens from those who struggled ceaselessly.
Yet reality was more than welcome to provide them in her stead, and children were ever blind to the cracks of their parents thin veneers of perfection till it was too late. For all his words and brave smiles, the signs were always there. The heavy slouch that seemed to draw half a foot off his height. Heavy bags and sallow cheeks.
She only saw the unpaid bills waiting at her door because he'd chosen to throw himself from the roof of his workplace rather than his home. From father to a grimly accepted statistic in only an afternoon. Just like that, and the fragile egg of childhood disintegrated around her. The world poured in and she found the deafening silence of solitude eat her in great, sharp toothed gulps.
The day of the funeral was where her light was swallowed to the last, kneeling before a humble, unadorned gravestone in a packed space. Another service was hardly a dozen feet away, and the sky was a cheery blue fringing with fluffy clouds that didn't even offer a token effort to commiserate her suffering. Her emblem, once a pristine opal, dripped color amidst tears silently falling down her sun kissed cheeks, and she found herself stained in the pitch of blackest emotions.
In those first dark days when she found the robes of a holy maiden upholding divine order replaced with the mantel of a shaman, she fed herself on delusions of some malicious conspiracy that tore her family apart, and did things she regrets too much to ever speak of, but ultimately she came to accept a simple, defining truth.
The world is indifferent. It cared no more for her as a shining Light Magical Girl as it did then as a Dark Magical Girl. There was no malice in her father's fate. Just a lack of care.
So the Rock from which the track team was built formed hard edges, a tyrant no longer willing to serve as an example but to take command. The Light Girl who endured for others had been replaced by the Darkness who refused to yield because she wanted to break her enemies. And the Detention Club had found it's Rule Keeper, for Earthshaker wanted nothing more than to make the indifferent world bend to her rules.
Her father was hardly cold in the ground and she had fallen so far...no, to fall implied something was pulling her. She was digging herself down into the fire and the flame, and the weight of everything she had known was pulling at her to stop. She exhaled as a screech of metal and wind pulled at her magical garb, the loose garments and hood leaving her far more exposed then her old robes. Still she found them her only comfort as she stood upon the train station platform, utterly alone in a sea of humanity. A stone cast in the current from which everyone unknowingly poured around as she went unseen and unheard.
Invisibility was good enough to be a super power on its own, but to Magical Girls and the monsters they hunt, it was a given. It made it easy to forget how useful it was for everyday life, but the necessity of her new situation had forced her to experiment. What wonders she could hear, standing in the offices of her father's employer. Listening. Reading over shoulders. Watching what was his world outside their home with hardened eyes, she hoped to find wickedness. The jeers of coworkers gloating over a deadman and his silly ideals, or perhaps someone preening over getting the promotion long due to the man.
Instead she was met with coldness of the grave. She'd never understood the term "Wage Slave" till seeing the bloodshot eyes glued to screens, murmurs barely passed as they worked and worked and worked, yet grew no close to a reprieve of success. Yet Earthshaker's heart still clung to it's resentment, and she turned from those besides her father to the one above.
She blinked to awareness as the train pulled away and she saw a man move to the front, waiting for the next one. She'd grown quite used to his appearance, from his rounded gut and the obvious hair plugs that gave him an air of a man gone out to seed. This had been her father's direct boss. A man who'd passed her father up for advancement in favor of others many times over the years. She could recall hearing nothing but praise for the man from her dad, and just recall those happier days set her fists curling at her side.
It had to be his fault. He was the one who could have opened the door and let her family flourish. The hate in her heart turned it to stone, a flinty thing that cut her as deeply as her foes. Distantly, she knew what she'd planned was abominable. Even to the order of Dark Magical Girls she knew flitted through the city, it was taboo.
Roche's unseen hand hovered between the manager's shoulder blades as she heard the roar of wind and shrieking metal, a moment where she asked herself if this would make anything better. The answer was a clear and resounding negative.
With an unheard grunt she pulled back, hand drifting from her unwitting prey, and alighting upon the man next to him. An utter stranger that then stumbled to the side and cast the target of Roche's enmity right into the tracks while she watched with a cold gleam in her eyes.
And in the coming weeks she learned that the world kept on turning, indifferent to either man's departure. The flame's she'd been digging towards grew cold, the earth hard, and she realized all that was left to her was the cold stone of her nickname. A hole so deep she couldn't see the light that once bathed her, but it didn't matter anymore.
Her taboo went unknown and she settled in among the Dark Magical Girls, a firm presence beside their charismatic leader. The girls around her were right there with her, in the dark and the dirt as they hoarded power like dragon's their gold. A cold world would see them stripped and worn to the bone, so she'd see the world break before her, and made to fit their dreams.
