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The light, shining intensely, was sudden, and washed up over Lily's eyes like a tide of brilliant yellow, causing her to cover her eyes with her forearm. She felt slightly groggy, as if she had just woken up.
Why is it so bright, and hot, and...Huh?
She blinked, and sat up from the yellow and blue towel...Wait, a towel? Despite her confusion, she could immediately tell that she was no longer in Penrose. Then, as she took in her surroundings, she understood; she was on a beautiful tropical island, with a bright sun hotly illuminating the sparkling, clear blue ocean that stretched into the horizon. She sunk her fingers into the sand; it was fine and clean, with no rocks to be seen. Behind her, she could see a jungle, with lush green vegetation. However, this was not any boring tropical paradise one would find in the Caribbean or Hawaii; the sky was different, with shades of blue that seemed to change, like the hues of the northern lights, not to mention the various planets and moons that could be seen with the naked eye. The jungle also seemed slightly unnatural, with blooming flowers as wide as palm leaves, and coconuts as huge as volleyballs.
"Whoahhh, it's so pretty, but...Where am I?" She attempted calling Ixion, but it was no use; she couldn't feel her Patron's presence at all.
She turned to look to her side...and she blushed heavily, her heart beating fast, as she saw someone familiar; it was Alex sleeping on a beach towel...and he was in a pair of swimming trunks.
"Th-this...This is a dream right?" She looked at herself, and blushed even further; her appearance had also changed drastically.
"B-But I'm transformed...I should be a magical girl, so...Why am I in a swimsuit?"
She asked out loud, causing Alex to wake up. In response, she covered herself up with her hands, looking like she might faint at any moment from how embarrassed, yet happy, she was feeling.
"A-Alex...When I suggested a date...this wasn't what I meant. This is, like, advanced dating!" Alex would note that her swimsuit was actually more modest than her dancer outfit as a regular magical girl.
Then, other girls on the beach began waking up on similar towels, and Lily saw that everyone else also had swimsuits. She realized she only recognized one among them; she had seen her rescuing some magical girls after Justine's defeat. But back then, she was dressed modestly in a classy suit; in contrast, her bikini hid little of her mature and voluptuous body, causing Lily to grimace a bit in envy. Nonetheless, she needed information, and so she had to confront the attractive woman.
"Um, excuse me miss, but do you know where we are? And am I dreaming? Wait, don't answer that."
She pinched her arm, and scrunched up her face, before she opened her mouth in realization.
"Oh! I'm Lily Lightning, by the way. We met in the sea outside Penrose, after Justine was stopped. I think I didn't get your name back then."
Veronica was sitting in a beach chair, looking more fabulous than anyone with her awesome bikini, transparent shirt, socks combo. She was sitting in the shade thanks to a parasol behind her chair. Veronica didn’t move much as she listened to Lily prattle on. It was evident that she wasn’t too pleased with the current situation.
”Not another inch!” Betty dove between Lily and Veronica with her hand on her katana. She might have been easier to take seriously if she wasn’t wearing the tiniest frilled swimsuit.
“We have no enemies here Betty, put that thing away before you hurt someone.” Betty lowered her head, but followed her orders. Veronica’s chair seemed to slide closer to Lily. “I am unfortunately no more enlightened than you are. All I can say is that we do not appear to be in any immediate danger. These swimsuits seem to offer the same amount of protection your outfit normally would.” She squinted her eyes. “Most people tend to forget my face. The fact that you remember it is… Disconcerting.” She glanced at the other girls on the island before looking back at Lily. “Regardless, I am the one they call Vermillion Veronica. Ignore any connotations that name might have to you. The magical world is changing, and so is my role in it.”
”Normies got nothin’ on my swimsuit game.”
— Tetrad
It finally happened.
Her memories had been erased, that was the only explanation. Waking up on a beach with no memory of how she had gotten there. The dread she felt was similar to the time her friends had abandoned her while serving the puchuu. Only it was different this time. She hadn’t been set up, she just made a large gamble that didn’t pay off. She let down Veronica, Trixy, and the rest of the cradle by almost allowing their deepest secrets to come out. But no harm was done. She had been inflicted with amnesia to protect the Cradle’s secrets. It was just disappointing that 2 weeks into her new job and she had already managed to screw up again.
But wait.
If she had amnesia, then how could she remember everything save for how she got here? Tetrad breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. So long as she had her memories, there was nothing to worry about. Tetrad probably just had one too many rum and colas before going to bed. Not that it had ever been a problem before. But how often do you wake up in a race-themed swimsuit that you don't remember buying? It seemed like the appearance of all of her accessories changed to fit the look. Pretty snazzy!
”I’m on a beach, and I look pretty damn good. Only one thing to do here.” She looked at everyone around herself. ”Hmmm, Alex seems to be friends with Lily. No point getting involved with that.” Tetrad took a few steps away from Alexander before spinning on her heel and marching back towards him. ”Hey stud, Need help getting up? Heh, interpret that however you want.” She offered him a hand. ”I’m Tetrad. Who might you be?” She knew his name, but decided it was better to let him think she didn’t anyway. ”Also anyone know what's with the reception in this place? I can't get anything with my tablet.”
Helga woke up with a great yawn and stretch of her arms, followed by rubbing her face with the back of her palm.
"Oh man, it's sweltering in here. I guess I should change to a Chinese dress, like Su wants...Wait, whoah."
She noticed something very peculiar, and felt her twin drills.
"Why is there a flower in my hair?" She looked at the yellow decoration, and then down the rest of her body; she wasn't fazed at all.
"Must be part of this swimsuit. Huh." She looked around, and a big smile formed on her face. "Wait, does this mean-" She immediately leaned over to touch Su's shoulder, and slightly rocked her back and forth.
"Hey, Su, wake up!”
”Mmmmmm.” Su had been taking the night shift, and was rather appreciative of her beauty sleep. Typically, being woken up early would annoy her, but a gentle shake from Helga was one of the more pleasant things to wake up to. Su stretched her arms over her head with a yawn. Half way through her yawn, she realized that a few things weren’t right. Namely the temperature, that she wasn’t wearing her pajamas, and that was Helga’s hand on her bare shoulder. ”Uh!” Su forced her eyes open, only to reveal very quickly that the situation was a lot different than what she was picturing. She turned her head to look at Helga. ”Where are we?”
“We're on a beach! Boteg gave us a vacation!" Helga stood up and went to Mika, waking her up too.
"A vacation, Mika, Lupa! A vacation! Woo-hoo!"
"Nhh...Noisy..."
"Yeeh...Keep the *yawn* racket down...will ya?"
The ghost twins mumbled in their sleep, their forms still transparent despite their change in wardrobe.
”The ghost twins too?” That was when Su noticed that everyone was in swimwear. She was pretty sure she was transformed, but when she looked at herself, she was wearing a black bikini with red accents. Her hair ties were missing, but that was alright. She felt she looked more mature without them, and was considering ditching them for a while.
“He did?” Mika sprung to her feet. “He gave us swimsuits too?” Mika looked over her cat-themed bikini before hugging herself. “Hey Lupa! What did Boteg give you? Let me see!”
“Huh?” Lupa was also wearing a black bikini, but it focused on having exotic cuts instead of interesting material variations.
“You mean the Popsicle? It was laying in the sand. I just kind of rinsed it off. Did you want some of it?”
“Yea!”
Su was not quite as relaxed as everyone else who was surrounding her. She couldn’t help but feel something was off about this entire situation. Su had a mental link with boteg, but was unable to contact him. Moreover, she found that she was unable to shift into the overcity from here. Her magic still worked though, as she was able to summon a breeze. ”Interesting.” She approached Helga. ”Yellow looks good on you.The flower’s a nice touch too.” Su really didn’t want to incite panic, especially with everyone enjoying themselves already. But she needed to figure out what was going on. ”I don’t remember buying this swimsuit for myself, Is that one of yours?”
Lupa and Mika ran up to the jojos other strangers on the island. “Watch this Lupa! I’m going to wake them up!” Mika pounced onto Joanna’s stomach. Helga giggled, and decided to also jump; she jumped up a ridiculously tall palm tree, and peered into the horizon. "Looks like we're on one of several smaller islands surrounding a bigger island; it looks like a star!" She stuck her tongue out as she squinted. "Central island might be a bit too far to be jumped from ashore, but it's easy to swim." Then she looked down. "Ooh, what's that?"
"Wh-hah? An island?" Sylvia had already walked away from the group as the rest of the Beacon girls woke up, examining the surrounding perimeter with her hands on her hips.
"I don't have time to spend on a stupid vacation! I have so much work to do. And the Beckoners won't answer me! There's the project wrap-up, the distribution and PR, and-"
"Relax, boss! The world doesn't end even if you're away from it all for a little bit!" Sally hugged the shorter magical girl from behind, pressing her unforgettable assets against the back of her neck.
Her smile then turned to a duck face.
"Well, maybe that wasn't the best choice of words, now that I think about. But I'm sure everything's going to work out. I mean, maybe we're here because I won a magical lottery prize for a vacation or something?"
Sylvia looked unamused, and her hands dropped to her sides, making no effort to remove herself. "There is no such thing like a magical lottery. Besides, you didn't even enter one."
"That is true, huh." Sally looked around with her finger against her lips in a quizzical expression.
"Still, this doesn't look like we're in danger or anything. What do you think, Kimble?"
The catgirl was on all fours while peering over Alicia, looking worried until she woke up.
"M-Mistress, you're alive!" She wagged her tail happily with a cat smile, and glanced back at Sally.
"I like it here! It's warm and sunnyah!"
Sylvia sighed. "Well, it could be worse, I guess," she stated, and picked up Tabitha from the sand; she had fainted as soon as she woke up, with blood trickling from her nose.
Sylvia placed Tabitha on one of the numerous beach chairs lined up. "Well, let's start exploring already, see if we can find anyone else here. And..." She bit her lip.
"If it's safe, I suppose we can hold a small break." It was then that she discovered something. "Wait, something's written on this..."
Rina was the first to wake up out of her group, and just like on other islands, found herself in a tropical climate with the appropriate attire, but no explanation. However, she soon found a mysterious sign. It resembled the kind used at holiday resorts, with colourful lettering and a cartoon dolphin wearing a sombrero.
"Welcome to Isla Paradiso! For more information, visit the help desk at the central island. For every participant who reaches the help desk without getting wet, you get a prize!" There was a similar sign on every other islands as well, and on every island one could not reach the central island by jumping without ending up in the ocean due to the distance between islands; clever use of magical powers would help in solving the simplistic challenge.
Thalia woke up in a shaded jungle, on top of a makeshift bed of palm leaves. There were colourful, exotic flowers growing everywhere, from the bushy ground to the very canopy.
"Hello there. Have you woken up?" There was a young woman kneeling next to her; the mysterious magical girl spoke to the monster girl with a voice she would recognise.
"I am Cindy Ford. I remember you from the time I made my declaration in Penrose. You wished to be my subject, correct?" She offered a giant coconut to her; it was opened, and the smell of fresh coconut juice wafted in the air.
"Here, take it. It's delicious." She then stood up, and peered behind a large tree at the distant clamor going on at the beach. "We should move on; when I was exploring this island, I saw a bigger island surrounded by smaller islands just like this one. According to that sign over there, maybe we can find answers to our current predicament there." She offered her hand.
"Do not worry, for I will protect you and guide you to freedom; that is my duty as leader."
There was a vast sea. The sound of flowing waves hitting the beach sounded over the area. Palm trees fitted the island perfectly content on providing the most tropical of sceneries. On this beach, several children ran happily barefoot in the sand, laughing among themselves as they passed a ball between one another. Two were out floating and resting in the waves, while another was seeking down within the oceans waves for what she might find while one stood on lookout for her, the floating girls coming with unhelpful comments as they did. One girl was simply sitting in the grounded part of the water, staring out into the distance and enjoying herself. One was trying to keep track of the others, while another was sunbathing and resting as if life in general had been exhausting.
And, in the shadows of the tropical trees sat their mistress in a beach chair, resting with her attendant standing to her immediate left, and another girl in a similar chair not too far to her right.
‘Yah!’ Victoria shouted out, lobbing the beach ball towards one of her companions.
‘CHA!’ Jelena jumped into the air, and smashed it down with a metal arm towards the third of their number.
‘Woah!’ Mayra made a noise as she missed the ball with her fist… but then hit it with her tail!
‘Hey! No fair! No using limbs you have, but we don’t!’ Jelena complained, frowning as she caught the returned ball and glared at Mayra.
‘Hahahahahahaha! Sorry~!’ Mayra grinned and stuck out her tongue a bit, smiling at the two of them.
‘… Hm. Hold on. Mayra. Aren’t you…’ Victoria suddenly paused, examining their companion. ‘… A whole lot less dragon and a whole lot more human than usually?’
‘Huh, I am?’ Mayra asked, and looked down at herself.
‘Haha, I guess I am!’ Mayra commented with a smile, inspecting her arms. Most of her dragon-scales had been replaced with human skin, and she was wearing an extremely small black bikini on her tanned skin, though she still had the horns and tail of a dragon.
The two other girls squinted at the unperturbed dragon girl, when Victoria’s eyes drifted over towards Jelena. ‘Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to be limbless?’
Jelena grinned viciously and postured with her body. ‘Feast your eyes! I am Jelena 2.0! No longer having to build my own limbs from metal, I have had a robotic body built for myself! This, combined with this one-piece swimsuit, means I can enjoy the beach like any other of you!’ Jelena boasted.
‘… You’re gonna sink like a rock,’ Victoria blankly commented on the metal body.
‘Yupp, yupp!’ Mayra agreed happily.
‘Hmpf!’ Jelena made an unhappy sound, looking at Victoria. ‘Compared to us, you’re…’
Victoria took a step back, putting her hands behind her back and pushing out her chest a bit, showing off the red bikini she had ended up in. ‘Mmm. Sorry for being normal.’
‘Huff. It’s okay. I’d prefer to be normal, too,’ Jelena commented, when suddenly Mayra stole the beachball and the two others had to blink awake.
‘Enough of that! Let’s play, let’s play!’ Mayra called cheerfully, and the two other girls skipped the issue and ran after, continuing their game.
Meanwhile, a bit away, in the water.
‘I must say…’ Suzette said, lying on her stomach on a floating banana filled with air, her limbs in the water below, staring at Josefin, who was standing with her ankles in the water, staring down with a worried look into the sea. ‘I didn’t expect you to expose so much skin, Jose. You might actually be able to seduce some guys like that. Some guys that doesn’t mind the trip to jail, anyway,’ Suzette said, ending with a smirk.
Josefin stuck out her tongue at Suzette.
‘I’ll have you know I’m way older than I look. I am, on the other hand, not in the slightest surprised by your look! You look like you eat boys for breakfast!’ Josefin playfully accused back, to which Suzette merely held up two peace-signs with her fingers and stuck out her tongue in return.
‘How about you, miss actually-literally-eats-boys-for-breakfast?’ Suzette turned to look over at Ronja… and frowned a bit. Ronja was floating on her back on top of another floating thing… which just happened to be her own giant spider-butt. ‘You can float on that? … Besides that, did you usually have a crotch?’
‘Mmm, I wonder,’ Ronja stated, the monster looking up in the sky under a straw hat. ‘Still, it does allow me to be a bit more sexy than usual. Does this look good? I can’t really confirm with my own eyes, anymore, but…’ Ronja said, sitting up and stroking her legs together a bit, making Suzette jolt back a bit.
‘Yeah… sure. You look… lovely,’ Suzette told her, a bit unnerved by the appearance of her monster companion. Ronja giggled and sat back again, while Suzette sighed out and looked at Josefin, who was still looking into the water.
‘What are you looking for, Jose?’ Suzette asked.
‘Taihei dove into the water some time ago-’ Josefin explained. ‘-and she hasn’t come back. I’m getting worried.’
‘Taihei, huh…’ Suzette whimpered as she sounded out. ‘I don’t even want to imagine how she looks in a swimsuit. Heck, that monster doesn’t normally wear any clothes, anyway…’
‘Don’t speak too soon,’ Ronja said with a smirk. ‘She may have transformed to give her more appeal, just like me.’
‘Eh, I doubt it,’ Suzette said with a shrug. ‘With her luck, she probably somehow managed to become even more horrify-’
Then suddenly there was a splash, as a girl ascended from the water and almost knocked Suzette’s banana over, the girl swimming into the shallower area before standing up in front of Josefin…
‘Taihei! You’re back!’ Josefin said happily.
‘I CALL BULLSHIT!’ Suzette called loudly. ‘THERE’S NO WAY TAIHEI COULD BECOME THIS CUTE!’
The blue-haired girl with fins sticking out here and there on her turned to face Suzette with a slight blush, acknowledging the statement.
‘I agree. I can’t believe it, either,’ Taihei replied.
‘… Eh?’ Suzette frowned, looking over Taihei’s much more humanoid than normal body. ‘Why’s there marks all over your body?’ the empath asked. Indeed, there was a red line around Taihei’s left leg, there were countless marks around her right arm, and her face was just all red.
‘Oh…’ Taihei said, looking down on herself. ‘So, I got my leg tangled in seaweed, which held me in place. While I was held in place, a shoal of clownfishes suddenly got exceedingly violent and started trying to eat me up, doing damage to me in the process. When I finally got loose from them, a stinging jellyfish crashed and got stuck in my face, so I had to get that off before I could get back to the surface. If I hadn’t been an aquatic monster, I would surely have drowned,’ Taihei said, blankly.
‘… I take it back. You’re definitely Taihei,’ Suzette said with an equally blank expression of dealing with what she’d been told.
‘Did you have to take on such a mission!? I was worried! You know what happens when you go off alone!’ Josefin pleaded to her friend. Taihei looked back to her.
‘I’m an aquatic monster-girl. It makes sense that I be the one to explore the bottom of this ocean for clues as to where we’ve ended up,’ Taihei simply stated.
‘I know, but…!’ Josefin pleaded, but eh, what can you do.
Meanwhile, on the beach, feeling like she had just changed to her one-piece swimsuit was Tullia, walking about feeling awkward.
‘Are you okay?’ Freya asked her from diagonally behind, causing Tullia to completely flinch and spin around on the spot, calming down first after identifying who had spoken.
‘Oh, Freya… You scared me,’ Tullia sighed out, and then looked over Freya. ‘… You look different. You have… feet,’ Tullia commented, and the monster-girl spoken to gave the slightest of a smile.
‘I do. Seems like whoever put us here wanted us monsters to be a bit more charming,’ Freya said, leaning on one of her legs that she usually didn’t have.
‘… You look good,’ Tullia commented with a smile.
‘Thanks. You don’t look bad, yourself,’ Freya replied.
‘I look plain. I was afraid of exposing too much skin, but, uh…’ Tullia said, and looked over at the green-haired girl sitting in the water nearby. ‘I guess that wasn’t a worry.’
‘If you’re speaking about me, I’m an immortal spirit with millenium on you who have no shame of my bare form,’ Lea said, leaned back and enjoying the water.
‘Humans do not have a long enough lifespan to realize the tvilialty of such things,’ the sprite magical girl continued, in a tone of superiority.
‘R-right…’ Tullia said, feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed. She was a monster-hunter who wouldn’t even flinch taking down the most enormous of dragons… yet wearing a swimsuit felt like it was among the hardest she had ever done.
‘Lea, any word from the outside world?’ Freya asked, bringing the subject back to their situation.
‘None. We are locked in this world. Overcity Shift does not work. I can’t contact Asengav. Frankly, we’re stuck here, for now. So I’m taking this rare moment to relax instead of devoting my entire being to my lord, thank you very much,’ Lea said, her eyes closed.
‘Hm, very well,’ Freya nodded, and then looked over at Tullia… who was looking over with wide eyes at where Victoria, Jelena and Mayra were playing. There was something sad in her look. ‘Tullia. Is something the matter?’ Freya asked.
‘… Before this mission, me and Victoria did everything together,’ Tullia started, looking over at them. ‘Eating. Fighting. Sleeping. I thought we had a good partnership going. Yet, since the start of this mission, she’s been hanging out with Jelena and Mayra way more than with me. I’m starting to wonder. Did we ever have a partnership? Was it just that we had been assigned to work together? Was all I thought we had just in my head?’ … So Tullia couldn’t help but wonder.
There was a multitude of things Freya could answer that with, she picked to sigh and slap Tullia in the back so she stumbled in surprise in the direction of Victoria. When she looked at Freya in surprise, Freya smiled back at her. ‘C’mon, let’s join them.’
‘Y-yes, ma’am!’ Tullia stuttered forward, and the two ended up running over towards the three younger-seeming members of the group, and compliments about how they looked were immediately exchanged and the atmosphere was good…
Good, huh.
Mariette sat silently on a beach-chair in the shadow of a tropical tree, staring at her playing companions while holding onto a black stuffed bunny. She looked down on the swimsuit she had been put in. She’d never have picked to wear something like this herself, yet here she was, wearing it.
She looked to her left, where Eli stood. Eli shivered to somewhat, looking a bit different than usual. She wasn’t a harpy right now, just in the shape of a regular young (slime-)girl in a kid’s swimsuit…
… So, the questions were of course, why are they here, and how did it happen?
‘It seems we’re trapped. I can’t communicate with the outside, and my instruments within here are highly limited,’ said the girl in the beachchair to Mariette’s right.
‘Is it the act of someone who wishes us ill?’ Mariette asked.
‘Not necessarily us, specifically. I’m picking up signals indicating that most of the Magical Girl population of Penrose have been summoned here. Could be that it just took everyone it could find in an area,’ the girl replied.
‘Despite this, whatever it is clearly knew to group us all together, something very few should have been able to know,’ Mariette considered.
‘Indeed, that is strange,’ the girl pondered.
‘I would have understood if it was just me and the rest of the girls, because we were all staying in the mansion… but you,’ Mariette asked, and turned to look at the girl next to her. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked, frowning at the girl.
‘Oh, I don’t know. Maybe…’ the girl said with a smirk, before turning her back somewhat towards Mariette and suggesting with a sultry tone. ‘Maybe I just wanted to show off my swimsuit?’
‘… Hmpf,’ Mariette sat back in her beach chair again. ‘The rest shouldn’t even know you exist.’
‘That’s right. And seeing how my abilities are more or less useless here…’ the girl said as she stood up and stretched for a bit. ‘I guess I’ll go get myself lost in the forest before I become associated with you,’ she told.
‘…’ Mariette simply aimed a stare at the girl as she turned to walk.
‘Don’t worry. My knack for staying out of trouble should still work here. I’ll return if there’s any trouble. Stay safe,’ the blue-haired girl said, and then she wandered off.
… Very concerning that she ended up here, too.
‘Mistress, what do we do?’ Eli asked her. Mariette sighed out, and looked over her forces, who seemed to all be playing right now…
‘I’ll let the forces take a break. With my portal abilities and your Darkness magic, we’re the superior information-gatherers of this group. Eli. Let’s go,’ so Mariette said, confirming she could still open portals to look over the island they had landed on. Eli simply smiled at her, for regardless of the situation, her mistress was always so calm.
‘At once, mistress.’
