BrokenPromise

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Nyxia claims to hate me, but I seem to be on her mind a lot!”

— Suki Oyama

This was not a surprise.

Suki would forgive anyone that thought Roche was leader material. She was the track team captain and Rei’s right hand. Neither of those positions could be filled by someone without some leadership abilities. Though in her time observing Roche, the blood witch had realized that she only really had one quality that made her a leader of any kind, and that was that she ordered people around a lot. That might have worked for the track club, but Suki found it a little disappointing. Moreso that she felt like she had to put her special leadership powers at work here on the beach as well.

Yes, Suki thought. Go on, tell me what I should be doing. Task me with finding a place to set up a parasol and towels, keep Tsubomi busy too. Then run for the sea and swim with Nyxia. Because the only reason why any of us are here is to support your fetishized megalomania. Did you forget what you told me on the mountain? You said this was going to be fun, but perhaps it was only supposed to be fun for you?

Nobody was even in a swimsuit. Roche and Nyxia were transformed, and Tsubomi didn’t look like she had the ambition to change into anything interesting before coming. Suki could have put herself in a swimsuit, but there was no point. Nobody around her could see her, and the ones that could had no interest in doing anything with her. For once, the feeling may have been mutual.

Suki wondered why Unstoppable Doom decided to run into the great blue. She had a hard time believing Nyxia would do it for any other reason than to find a Miseria, but it was the wrong time of day. While it wasn’t impossible to find them in the middle of the day, night was when they liked to come out and play. That was why they usually did midnight hunts back in town. Perhaps the idea was just to get some lonely time, which Suki could respect. Only she was doing that back in the forest when Roche found her.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but she definitely wasn’t going to do what was asked of her. Even “scared of authority” Tsubomi had enough self respect to not become Roche’s tool. At least if Tsubomi was this lax about Roche’s wishes, it meant that this entire thing really was Roche’s idea and didn’t have Rei’s stink on it. Not that any of that really mattered. Roche begged Suki to come, so she was going to do everything in her power to have as much fun as she could.

But what did she feel like doing?

They say to let sleeping dogs lie, but Suki was feeling a bit mischievous. The volleyball game was in play, with the ball being passed from side to side in nice slow movements. Nobody was trying to score a point, they just wanted to bat the ball back and forth. But an unseen skater on crimson blades flew across the beach to the net’s location. When the volleyball was at the top of its arc, Suki dove above the net and gave the ball a solid kick. It screamed through the air on its way to Tsubomi’s head. Oros’s face was frozen in glee, anticipating the satisfying smack the ball would make against her partner’s head.

Symphony on High

@ERode Slap that in there.

Symphony on High

Alrighty then.

In case it wasn’t apparent (it won’t be for some characters), a few espers have gotten their PR improved this post cycle. Ashley, Asher, and Cirilla may all improve their PRs by one grade and enjoy the improved special/larger loadout that comes with it.

Also a reminder to everyone who hasn’t submitted a glamor upgrade yet, remember to get that to me. These operations are tough enough when you’re equipped for them, and being under equipped could spell disaster. Probably. So make sure to do that.

And this is optional, but guys are also free to make bronze backups! Find a friend and start brainstorming.

There won’t be a GM update next week, but don’t be idle. Some of you have a bit of work to do before your characters are in order.

But I’m not just giving you guys time off, I need some time to update the notes in the DoCS. Here’s some stuff that’s coming down the pipe.

Blink/Transplace is getting its (hopefully) final rework, and cast notes are getting definitive cast times.

Blink has always been a weird one. It’s something that feels like it needs to be in the RP, but it’s hard to balance just because of how it functions. I won’t bore you with the details, but what’s made it kind of broken is it has few counters and lots of applications. It doesn’t even really matter what grade you cast it at.

So to fix this we’re doing two things:

#1: We’re giving Blink/Transplace a delay between when the effect activates and when the teleportation actually happens. It’s still a viable movement tool at lower levels, but you'll need to use more mana if time is of the essence or to minimize the chance of getting intercepted.

#2: Cast times are going to become more concrete. I’ve been keeping it kind of nebulous, but as time goes on, it’s becoming more apparent that having definitive time for all cast notes to activate is useful for making judgements. This really shouldn’t change how they function in the RP very much.

Quicken will make melodies cast instantly.

It’s underutilized, likely because there’s been no definitive cast time for melodies… Until now! This should make a fair number of melodies much harder to dodge and justify that grade drop associated with it. We’ll keep an eye on it moving forward

Summon Rework

Summon is one of those things that nobody really used until recently, so I haven’t had a lot of data points to use for making adjustments. It’s not an expensive note, but for now we’ll drop the price a bit. While it has potential for some big shenanigans, it does take some time to set up. Beyond that, it’s going to get better defined, and notes you cast with it will allow you to have the summon apply those effects on touch. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Purify/Dispel Rework

Purify/Dispel have been famously difficult to tell which one works in which situation, so it’s going to function as such: Purify removes physical/chaotic ailments inflicted by monsters and physical weapons, and Dispel unbinds magical effects, such as magical buffs, magical debuffs, and magical constructs such as arcane constructs, spells, etc.

With the movement towards removing “all or nothing” mechanics, Purify/Dispel are going to primarily be used to weaken effects rather than outright remove them. This will be applied to other notes down the line, but there’s quite a bit happening this update and I don’t want to over promise and under deliver. *Points at username*

And that’s not all…

Hunts are coming back!

For those that don’t know, in the past I would let players team up their espers and go on small side operations that are made for two people. It’s good for going on a romantic date teaming up with espers that you normally wouldn’t get a chance to. More details will come around next week, but if you are interested in participating in an operation that is smaller in scale when compared to the mainline ones, then keep an eye out for them. They can also tie into the main plot. Dante and the were tiger mafia were introduced in hunts during the old RP, so don’t look at them as mere busy work. I mean you can, but it would be wrong to do so, and Majora would laugh at you.

Symphony on High

Finn wasn’t quite out of the woods yet. He needed to be taken to a lab at HQ and scanned to see if his curse had been lifted. Fritzi had already mentioned that it was possible that Dante wasn’t the one who had cursed him. However, Finn thought it might be a good time to speak with Fritzi, since she had been rather short with him over coms. Even now, she wasn't her usual jovial self.

"When you first questioned me about my curse, I had initially left out a few details. The last time I passed out, I wasn't met with a demon with the intent to torture me, but Amanda. Apparently I had peaked Dante's interest for whatever that means, and she was supposed to have arranged me to meet with them at a later date. For what, I don't know. My original plan was to go along with it to see what their intentions were if they weren't intending to kill me on sight. She had also wanted to show me something but I dropped earlier than expect and- ... Well. Guess I'll never know now. I didn't know she was actually rea- was Dante's daughter. Much less that my theory of Dante being the culprit was correct."

Fritzi was looking at a computer monitor that was throwing up all kinds of data. Numbers, several bar graphs, all monitoring different aspects of Finn’s esper form. Most of it didn’t make any sense to him, save for the giant message that read “SANDCURSE_TRACE NOT FOUND.” Apparently, he was cured.

”Your theory...” Dr. Muller looked away from the screen. ”Well, I’m glad you were able to diagnose yourself. I’m a doctor, and you were even able to beat me to the punch.” She placed a hand on her chest. ”If I’m being fair, I’m not used to my patients lying to me. Least of all ones as young as you. But maybe you’re just unusually dense? You know when I said ‘did you have any strange dreams’, seeing a succubus who introduces herself as an acquaintance of Dante maaaaaaaaaaaay have been worth bringing up beforehand.” She tapped her fingers on the back of her clipboard. ”I don’t think you’re stupid Finn, and that’s a problem, because now you have to explain why you decided to hide that from everyone.”

The boy's gaze remained on the monitor for a moment. "They were well aware I was working with GEMINI. That was why they hadn't given me any specifics at the time." He still looked a little out of it. He looked downward in thought. "Earn their trust. Keep them complacent. See if I can get anything out of whatever their deal was. Rat them out soon as things take a turn. With Oros' attempt to kill me, I figured I might as well be resourceful in case she ever tried again." A tired sigh slipped through Finn's lips.

"Withholding information was what got Dante killed. I won't make the same mistake again."

”That's great Finn, but that doesn't answer my question. Why withold information to begin with?”

Finn furrowed his brows in confusion. "...I guess I thought if I told the whole truth and they learned about it, they'd actually kill me." The boy frowned deeply. "I mean Dante- Or Amanda, I guess, I don't know, already knew about my other screw ups somehow. Me leaving Betty behind only for her to get kidnapped, me siding with the Mavericks during the mansion raid, th-they knew about Lydia no less! If they were able to stalk me for that long then..." He curled up into a ball in his seat, hugging his knees to his chest. _{"I don't want to know what they'd do to me."}

Fritzi pinched the bridge of her nose. ”Ever since Betty got abducted, your life has been pretty public. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few dream demons could peer into your thoughts either.” She shook her head before refocusing on Finn. ”The second you give into fear, they have already won. Contrary to what you may think, I do not think the death of a monster bartender is a huge loss. He didn’t have to die, maybe, but he knew what he was doing. Had you met up with them, they may have done something even more depraved with you. No, the issue is that you’re a loose cannon that doesn’t respect authority. You need to have faith in your squad. Unfortunately, I do not think your squad has a lot of faith in you right now.”

Finn remained quiet for a second. She was right, for however they all wanted to think. He nodded along and opened his mouth to speak up again, but what came out turned into a dry chuckle as she brought up the strained relationship between him the other agents. "You really think it'd be that easy? I tried to follow your orders, Dr. Moller, but I might as well have been left for dead no thanks to them." He tensed and untensed himself up, picking at his sleeves to stay calm. "Agent Orion over-relied on the backup you sent just cause she didn't want to kill the patrons and allowed herself get swarmed as a result. Witch Hunter, while I can't argue against her as she focused on keeping the schoolgirls safe, practically ignored me when I called for her to redirect a fireball towards Dante instead and ended up setting herself and the whole place on fire as a result. I was left to fend against a monster I was at a disadvantage against. If I didn't put two-and-two together in time Dante would've still been alive. It's not even the first time I was left alone like that." He took deep breaths as he ranted to Fritzi, his fight against Betty crawling back into the surface of his mind.

"I know. I know I need to be able to work with them. But what's the point if they don't want to work with me?"

What's the point if they'll never respect him?

Fritzi rubbed her chin. ”You know Finn? I think those are all very good points.” She shook her finger in the air. ”But I think you’re forgetting a tiny little detail. Ashley initially wanted everyone to go around back. But someone decided to eschew discussion and took it upon himself to confront Dante directly, despite the fact that his cover had already been burned. This endangered everyone in a mission where the sole objective was to try and free you from a curse. Do you understand what I’m saying? Everyone risked their lives for you, you weren’t a team player, and now you’re pouting because Estelle chose to not incinerate you and Ashley along with Dante? And what even does Ashley’s aversion to killing bar patrons have to do with anything? After you ran out of the diner, she-” Fritzi stopped herself. ”You know what? This isn’t a discussion you should be having with me. I think you should tell your squad what you just told me and see how they respond to it.”

Leaving him to the sharks. So that's how it is.

"Fine." He quietly conceded, and wordlessly stepped out of the room. Everyone in this city really was fickle.

Everyone except...

Finn pulled out his phone to text Betty:

Date might be delayed. I'm so sorry.

Finn’s thumb missed the “send” button when Fritzi bumped into his arm. She lifted up her hand and started counting her fingers. His head snapped up to look at her in confusion. ”Number one, it’s ‘yes ma’am’, not ‘fine.’ Nothing is fine right now. Number two, I was not being serious. Finn, I can put every esper under my command into fighting a monster. I can assess your well-being and give advice, but I can’t change how you’re perceived by your peers. That's something only you can effect.”

Finn's expression softened in response.

"S-Sorry, ma'am. I understand."

@Ponn@ERode

”That’s better.” The door at the end of the corridor opened up, revealing Ashley and Estelle in the briefing room. As soon as Fritzi passed the threshold of the door, her smile returned. ”Well! That was a lot more difficult than it had to be, wasn’t it?” Nobody answered Fritzi, but she didn’t seem bothered by this. ”Anywho, Orion? I have something for you.” She reached her hand out towards Ashley and presented her with a small golden badge. ”I wanted to give this to you with a bit more fanfare, but then I’d have to wait another week. Congratulations! You’re being promoted to lieutenant. You’re officially leading the Pax Septimus squad now. Presently you outrank everyone but Binky and myself. We’re going to have fresh reinforcements coming before long, and I hope you’ll take the time to get to know them.” Fritzi was about to excuse herself. ”The other operation had some complications as well. Cerberus was able to complete her mission, but she’s going to be running a little late returning here. Angel was killed in action, and she’s insisting on finishing her report before returning.” Fritzi sighed. ”Please finish your reports as well, and get some rest.” was all she said before departing, leaving the three espers together.

---

@Vertigo

it could sense Ciri’s distress as they fled.Well, that she was distressed with its choice to flee. But it wasn’t a sure thing that Boteg’s attack would have petrified any of the GEMINI espers. They were fortunate that the princess looking esper had aided them, but it suspected that she would not have helped them should they decide to counterattack. GEMINI’s reputation was on the decline, but this wouldn’t have been the first time a freelancer had decided to bail instead of help mavericks out. Moreover, there were a few monsters still in the diner that seemed to know Boteg. It would be a shame to let him turn his friends into gilded statues just because he lost his composure. But it knew better than to talk with Ciri when she was like this. Upon returning to the Bastion, it made itself scarce until she cooled off a bit.

While Ciri was still wounded, she was free to change back into a human once she was inside the bastion. There was a zero percent chance of anyone here leaking her true identity, and it was a lot less painful to move around. That didn’t mean someone wasn’t going to insist on healing her anyway.

”Oh hi, Oni-chan” Ciri hadn’t been with the Mavericks for very long, but she had been with them long enough to know Trixy liked to give people dumb nicknames, and didn’t seem to care if they liked them or not. ”Did you get hurt out there? You know my kisses have special healing powers, so if you let me kiss your boo-boos I can make them go away!” It was probably just a touch based melody. ”Oh! But who are your friends?” She looked at Boteg. ”They look handsome!” She looked to Amanda ”And pretty!” Shortly after changing back, Boteg seemed to have regained his “composure” and was back to being a mostly skittish dragon headed man. He avoided making eye contact with Trixy and patted the back of his neck. Amanda had withdrawn inside herself. Her lips were quivering. Her body didn’t know if it wanted to fly into a rage or cry, but was too weak to do either. ”I see…” Trixy placed her hands on her hips, and her goofy smile disappeared. ”I’ll give you guys some space. But if anyone needs a kiss, I’ll uh, I’ll be over here. Right, over here, in the corner.”

As soon asTrixy stepped off to the side, Billy Black’s hulking form waded out of the shadows. The giant man with gray skin and an outfit that belonged to a dystopian road warrior might strike fear in most, but anyone from Maverick Alternative would think otherwise. He was probably the most charismatic man to ever dawn spiked leather armor.

”I say I say, Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is that a golden dragon standing next to you?” Boteg adjusted his bowtie, but remained silent. ”Damn girl, I say damn, girl! I’ve been waitin’ for him to show up at my doorstep, and who'da thunk you’d be the one to bring him in? It’s official, you’re part of the team now!” The giant’s eyes drifted towards Amanda. ”Oh, who’s this?”

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Unlike the espers of GEMINI or Maverick Alternative, the freelancers were free to do as they wished. They could regroup at the great escape to tak with other freelancers, rush to the bottom of a bottle at their favorite dive, or sleep the rest of the day away. Pax was their oyster!

"Does anyone even read reviews on the internet?"

— Mika Fang

Mika was sitting in the back of a black van. She had covered the important parts of the operation with Fritzi, but was finishing her report so that she could turn it in. There was nothing stopping her from entering Gemini HQ, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. From what Fritzi had mentioned, Finn did a bunch of stuff that put the rest of his squad in jeopardy before deciding to go AWOL. Mika almost asked why she didn’t just get rid of him, but it sounded like she was busy and it wasn’t her place to make such suggestions. It wasn’t like Mika was told the entire story. For all she knew, Ashley had done something to drive Finn away.

But Mika didn’t really have the headspace to worry about that right now. Behind her seat was a viewport into the back of the van, where a body bag containing Angellie’s remains was stored. There was nothing more to do, but the operation kept playing over in her head.

With a groan, she looked back at her laptop. The Freelancers needed to have their performance graded, and she was the only surviving GEMINI agent to do it. Of course upper management would get involved. She just had to write a comment about each one, which Binky would look over before committing it to their Shimr profiles. She began to type. Writing on a computer was one of the skills her mother had insisted on teaching her. While she could type quickly without looking at the keyboard, her mother always found fault with how she structured things. But that was fine. Binky would make any necessary corrections.

Freelancer: Dead Head
Score: 5/5
Evaluation: Did job well, guarded VIP well, rushed enemies head first, not a coward, worked well with his teammates. Might be too cocky but he did well this time. Felt like I was being guarded by the secret service.

Freelancer: Noble Spark
Score: 4/5
Evaluation: Protected VIP with good foresight, was flopping all over the place, managed to knock down a target by falling on them. Can’t tell if skilled or lucky but seems quick on his feet. Kind of flashy, but did well. Felt protected.

Freelancer: Marrie Knight
Score: 3/5
Evaluation: Combat was intense, didn’t see a lot of her. Took a beating in my place and held back a skilled attacker. Did her job, not someone to hire solo. Might need some coaching, still a good kid.

It felt weird to call someone a kid. Was Marrie younger than her? Didn’t matter. She made a face before writing her last review. Though in hindsight, Himiko brought it on herself.

Freelancer: Sovereign
Score: 2/5
Evaluation: Knows how to use her pistols. Talks too much, VIP had to save her, not even sure if she knows how to use her melodies. Almost a liability.

After looking at what she wrote for a bit, she groaned and hit backspace until everything was gone. Then she typed again.

Freelancer: Sovereign
Score: 3/5
Evaluation: Knows how to use her pistols. Talks too much, VIP had to save her, not even sure if she knows how to use her melodies. Enemy tried to bribe her and she didn’t take it. Loyal to job, needs more experience.

"You owe me."

Mika mailed everything to Binky before falling back into her seat.

Symphony on High

@The World Yes, that works.

Symphony on High

@ERode Keep the mana burn rank up, lose the 50 burn upgrade, and pick between esper note category suppression or monster stat debuff. Regardless of which you choose, jot down that it lasts six seconds.

@The World Try to keep your weapon details and special separate, please. The mana siphon upgrade is an interesting concept, but we'd like it to operate a bit more simply. How about hitting a target with the chain siphons 10 mana and hitting with the blade siphons 20? Then have a 50 mana cap per six seconds/post rotation and additional hits on the same target in this time frame do not activate the effect? Essentially mana earned in a round is based on targets hit rather than number of times a target has been hit.

Symphony on High

Currently evaluating the newly submitted glamors. Will get back to you folks shortly.

Honestly I don't know if this is too strong or not, I still have trouble grasping what is and isn't "Gold Rank" level.

@The World

There's no real set limit for what Gold is, at least one that is easy to quantify. But my present idea is one can be:

A: A stronger and more versatile/less situational version of a silver.

B: Two silvers smashed together.

Symphony on High

@Ponn@ERode@Vertigo

One last shot.

Ashley put everything that she dared into her next attack. It was going to be devastating, and it was going to be nearly unavoidable. Her advanced targeting protocols could maneuver her melody mid flight. It could avoid obstacles, track targets, hell, blast through them if that somehow didn’t work. All to deliver a payload of arcane armaments to their destination. The center of Orion’s wand glowed a hot white, and would leave after images in the eyes of anyone who looked at it. Her targets had no idea what was coming their way, only that it was going to be powerful. Boteg kept his sights straight ahead, doing his best to get as much distance between himself and the diner as possible. it simply remained with Ciri, who looked over their shoulder at the high tech esper. Amanda was still crying. She was still trying to digest the death of her father, or maybe she had given into despair already. It was hard to say.

“Uuh nyuuuuuuuuu!”

MDP rushed outside and fired a beam of candy, teddy bears, and unicorns at the escaping group. They would find themselves surrounded by a rainbow barrier, but would this be strong enough to protect them from what was coming?

Ciri had to nudge Amanda to get her attention. She took one hand off of her father’s remains and offered it to the oni. Maybe they didn’t know what the melody was, but Ciri could approximate when it would go off. That was a skill virtually every esper had. So when the light around Ashley’s wand collapsed, Ciri activated her own melody, just as the technobeam ripped through the air. The green energy passed through Amanda’s form without harming her, and flew on to hit what was behind it.

The back of Boteg’s neck.

While Ashley’s melody had missed its initial target, she was able to will it into hitting Boteg himself. A green explosion soaked everyone nearby in plasma. Ciri was thrown from the dragon’s back, it avoided the blast but jumped after her, Boteg fell out of the sky, and Amanda was there, still a shadow, wondering what was going on.

The dragon hadn’t gotten very high, but he came down hard. His body sunk into the asphalt road and folded it up where he slid. By this point, Amanda had rejoined the world of light and was thrown from the Boteg’s back. She landed face first on the concrete, tumbling into a nearby building and breaking through the wall in the process. But a monster would have little issue surviving contact with the ground, but the story was not the same for the precious glass sculpture she was holding. The only thing in Amanda’s arms now was shattered glass, whatever it used to be was lost to time.

With a grunt, she smashed her tiny fist into the ground and marched back outside. It wasn’t enough that they killed her father, they had to kill her too. She was still crying, but she was mad now too. Her face was red, and her hands were balled into trembling fists. But anger wasn’t a superpower regardless of how much you had. Without a way to harness your emotions, without abilities, it was nothing. Anger needed to be tempered to become a weapon. For all the anger she was feeling, she was just a confused kid. Such a tantrum would be laughed at by a true adversary. Her anger could not strike fear in the hearts of her foes. Despite this, she took a step forward, only to hop two steps back when Boteg crawled forward.

The golden dragon had a giant, smoldering spot on the back of its neck. The scales had blackened, and some had even fallen off to expose the pink flesh beneath. But boteg’s eyes did not display fear or pain. The only thing in his eyes was contempt for the one that had tried to kill them with such a cowardly attack. Now this was the sort of anger that could make someone’s skin crawl. Boteg’s present form was massive, but there was more to it than that. His kind had been hunted to near extinction. They are such a rare sight that Boteg believed himself to be the last of his kind. He had a lot of time to carry that realization too. All a human will ever experience happens between the beats of a dragon’s heart. He may run when the option presents itself, but if attacked directly? Then that might be cause to blow off some steam.

Or maybe monsters were inherently chaotic creatures.

Boteg stood upright, not looking unlike a small golden godzilla. He still towered over the structures on either side of him. It was possible that such a monster could be classified as a behemoth. His growl shook the streets, and a red fluid started to drip out of his mouth. It was too glossy to be blood, and had a mirror like quality to it. His eyes started to change color, he squared up his shoulders, but then his head twitched. It was standing at Boteg’s feet, holding a wounded Ciri in one arm while it wordlessly communicated with the dragon. While not all monsters could communicate with humans, most of them were able to communicate with each other. Though Ciri was able to “hear” the words of her friend. It was telling Boteg that they needed to go. That if they fled now, all of them could live, while a fight just invited more suffering on both sides. Maybe the GEMINI espers were vulnerable, but so was Ciri and Amanda. Reinforcements were likely en route, and leaving now was the best way to ensure everyone’s survival.

Though Boteg’s gaze never left the diner.

He pulled back his head and roared at the street. The red, chromatic liquid smashed into the pavement, uplifting everything in front of it. Everything the fluid touched turned to gold, then froze in a tidal wave of gold. Boteg had created a wall of suspended debris that looked like they had been touched by Midas himself. The quatro was quick to leave the scene. Boteg would revert to his “human” form and join everyone else as they descended into the Bastion.

MDP breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes fixed on the golden wall Boteg had made. The Pink Pounder had rushed back outside, but by then everyone had left.

“Ashwy…” MDP turned to look at the GEMINI squad leader. “As much as i wike uwu guys, i cawn't suppowt thiws type of behaviow any wongew. Pwease teww miss mowwew thawt i won't be wowking withyou in the futuwe. I hope she undewstands.” She didn’t wait for a response before departing with the Pink Pounder, who kept an eye on the GEMINI agents as they departed.

Elsewhere, a cyan haired esper observed the spectacle through her binoculars.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

And so, Marrie, ever the scientist, continued to experiment. She had either end of her weapon in her hands when she reached for the strange knobs. Though she wasn’t reaching for them the way someone would normally reach for a doorknob. To someone more perverse, it might even look like she was- Well, there are no such people present, so it shouldn’t be mentioned.

A mechanical button sounded with a click as each knob was pressed. The generator made many other unusual sounds as its mechanisms slid around. The hum of a hydraulic motor, bursts of steam, and a dull thumping could be heard from deep inside the generator. Before long, Marrie could feel a warmth spread through her hands. Her mana was steadily increasing.

"At least someone posted for my section."

— Mika Fang

Mika gave Marrie a glance. She was going to tell her to knock it off, but if she wanted to play with a mysterious device, that was her thing to do. It looked like everyone else was just waiting for Mika to leave, and she wasn’t going to keep them on the clock any longer than she had to. After scooping up Angelie’s remains, she departed from the building. Maybe she could offer to meet up with them later, but what was the point? This was just a chance encounter with some freelancers. Most of them did their job well, and they just wanted to get paid before moving onto the next thing. Jacqueline didn’t want to spend time with her, so why would any of these people?

She shook the strange thought out of her head before departing. A van would arrive shortly to extract Mika and pay the freelancers.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Why did we come here again?”

— Suki Oyama

It was the weekend, it was hot, and it was summer.

It was mid day by the time Roache arrived at the beach, and she wasn’t the only one that had this idea. Parasols, beach towels, and bathing suit-clad bodies stretched from one end of the beach to the other. It was the weekend, and most everyone was relaxing in the shade while the children and children at heart played in the shallow waters. A small child was building a sand castle, and another was burying “treasure,” which seemed to be a collection of sea shells. Further out there were a few people trying to surf, but there weren’t any giant waves to catch. They were mostly paddling around.

There was also a pier that reached far out into the vast blue ocean, but there were no boats presently. It did look like a group was about to go diving, so it was reasonable to think that the water was deeper that far out. Beyond the beach on either side were a few massive boulders that stuck out of the water like a dragon’s fangs.

Oros stepped out of the van and stretched. She arched her back, and every bone on her spine cracked. The blood that made up most of her uniform swirled and spread, before her magical girl uniform looked like a summer dress. She still had enough blood left over to make a sun hat, albeit a small one.

Despite the fact that almost everyone on the beach was having a good time, Suki really couldn’t connect to the joy they were feeling. She remembered there was a time she really wanted to be in a place like this with present company, but couldn’t for the life of her remember why. It was almost as if Suki had a dream about the beach, but now that she was here, the dream was fuzzy, and nothing in reality seemed to line up with what little she could remember.

There was some movement in the corner of her eye. She spotted a tuft of pink hair, but it vanished behind a parasol. Suki shrugged, unable to work up the ambition to investigate. Judging by the looks of the other girls, either nobody noticed it, or had her same reaction of not giving a shit about it.

Her eyes continued to scan the beach until she noticed a group of teenagers setting up a volleyball net. Her head froze, but she said nothing.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

”Da cool bannah comes laytah!”

— Some Pleb

Tsubomi was so demotivated to do anything that she didn't even transform. She flung some apathy energy at the net holding girl to pacify her. Once that was done, she recovered the mascot.

-_-*

The creature seemed to lose interest in whatever it was going to show Tsubomi. It only had so much patience for someone so dense, so slow, so detached from the world. It hopped out of her hands and ran off, no longer waiting for the lethargic girl. Of course, that wasn't going to stop Tsubomi from "chasing" it, leaving the net girl by herself.

...

...

...

What just happened?

She could have sword she saw a mascot jumping all over her bike. Being new to the area, the pink haired girl had decided to pretend to have it out for the cat, but that was only because she suspected that other girl was a member of the dreaded detention club.

She had heard a lot about them from other sources. She was a light girl from the city, and like some of them, she had dreamed of purging all darkness from the world. But to live that dream you need to start small. You can't take on the world's darkness if you can't first brighten up your country, and you can't brighten up your country if you can't brighten up your city. Well, the city of light was named as such for a reason. They had chased out the last dark magical girl years ago and now just mopped up0 what few miseria decided to show up. Naturally, they wanted to expand into other territories so that they could continue to spread hope and good will. Many went to other cities and towns to spread the light, and then there was Hibusa Town. Something about an entire club of dark magical girls had a sort of allure to it. The town's low population count and high dark magical girl density made it an unattractive target to many, but others saw it as a challenge. One that many regretted taking on.

But she was not here to mingle with the club.

Regardless of intentions, that did not change what just happened. That girl had done something to her. She would have never surrendered a mascot so easily, unless... yes, they used some sort of magic on her to inhibit her emotions. In her human form, she was not as resistant to such magics. The idea of having her emotions manipulated in such a covert way disgusted her. Anyone who deprived others of their ability to make choices were not nice people. Thinking about the sort of depraved things that could have happened to her in such a state made her skin crawl.

But this injustice would not be forgotten. She knew what Tsubomi looked like, and soon enough, she would know her name, address, friends, and everything else she cared to know. Then she would stalk her, and at Tsubomi's weakest moment she would strike! And then she would know the error of her ways when she looked up and saw her better, The Magnificent Morganite!