It had been a few days since the big meeting. People had gone their separate ways in preparation. Back at the Golden Trove, Shion would be going through her things and would find a glass bottle with a golden top nestled among the various items.
Shion was wasting time, waiting for her little group to decide on marching orders when she found it. She cautiously picked it up, not knowing what it was, and took a closer look at it. The brilliant red swirling inside it captivated her, and she found herself staring for a moment. She was really tempted to open it, but her natural distrust won out. When it didn’t explode after a few minutes of watching it, she decided to take it to the others and see if they knew what it was. She had just started to leave the room she kept her things in when she tripped, the bottle falling from her hands and onto the floor with a thud.
Bouncing and rolling around on the floor, the top of the bottle would loose and come free. Like a smoke bomb, the red mist within bellowed out. Instead of filling the room though it all came together to form a young woman with bright red hair. Her legs remained the red smoke trailing back to the bottle. Anyone with any kind of knowledge could connect the dots that this was a Djinn. The clasp around the neck of the bottle unlatched and whipped around dragging the glass object with it until it clamped around Shion’s wrist.
Turning to look at the fallen magical girl, the woman would speak. ”Well who do we have here? Master Shion. Good to see a new face.” She would offer a hand to help Shion up.
As Shion took her hand, there was a look of incredulity and surprise, which was rare for her nowadays. ”What… what just happened? Why is there a genie’s bottle in my stuff?” She looked down at her wrist and the glass now attached to it.
Giving a sly smile, Ruby would answer. ”What, not a fan of surprises? I’m here because fate brought me to you.” She would gently lift Shion’s arm that had the bottle attached. ”And as my new Master you have three wishes that I must fulfill for you.” She would bow low to meet the girl’s eye level.
”Not a fan of fate, more like. But three wishes? Alright, I’ll bite. I assume that you can’t grant wishes that go beyond your power… So I guess I need to know what sort of things are within the realm of possibility, though I’m not going to spend a wish to find out.” Shion tilted her head in thought as she spoke.
”Oh of course not. That would be ridiculous. You’re standard fare, no additional wishes, I can’t make people do things they don’t agree to, I cannot take away another’s magic, you can bring people back if it’s been within 24 hours though.” She would start listing things out. ”If I’m not able to do something that does not expend a wish. It must be fulfilled to count.” Ruby would add for reassurance.
”Hm…” After about twenty seconds, Shion finally thought of an idea. ”Well, we’re getting ready for a huge fight, so maybe wishing away Wonderland would be good? But I sort of doubt you can do that. So the next best thing would be something to help. How specific can a wish get?”
Ruby would nod and sigh reluctantly. ”Yes, unfortunately it wouldn't be that easy. As for how specific, it was be as detailed as you want. May not fly if you're trying to effect too many things together at once. Like trying to squeeze two wishes into one.”
”So if I were to wish for an item, I could specify the details of the item, but not wish for a second one, basically?”
”Only one way to find out.”
Shion nodded. ”Then let’s try it. Just don’t judge me on it. My first wish is for a semi-automatic pistol that has the ability to fire infinite non-magical ammunition without needing to be reloaded. How’s that?”
Without change of expression, Ruby would hold out a hand flat with palm facing upward. A case would appear in her hand. Opening the case, Ruby would present what looked like an ordinary handgun. ”As you wish, Master Shion.” Taking the weapon, it seemed unremarkable. Checking the clip or the chamber the weapon looked to be empty. However, whenever Shion would go about testing it would fire the correct rounds with the equivalent stopping power. ”And you shouldn't worry about judgment from me. I have seen some quite unusual requests. If anything, I enjoy seeing the creative things people come up with.”
That was surprising. Shion didn’t think that request would fly, if she were honest. ”Thank you, both for the gun and for not thinking it’s a really weird wish. This should at least come in handy in the future.” She would pause to think again. Had she really ever had any wishes that she wanted granted? Well, yes, but those were either no longer necessary or would be beyond what even a genie could do. Was there anything else that would help keep her and those she cared about alive with the upcoming battle? Since the meeting had stopped Summer’s scrying, she didn’t know if they had found any details that could be useful to the Penrose “army” that she could wish for.
”Well, the simplest thing would be a mana battery of some sort. I guess it’s worth finding out, so my second wish would be for ten mana batteries, each capable of fully recharging the average Magical Girl’s mana.” That would hopefully allow for letting them fight longer and for someone to use their Killing Blow more freely. Sure, it might not be enough for some on the Penrose forces’ team, but it might turn the tide.
”An excellent idea, Master.” Raising her hands up, they would crackle with energy and be surrounded by light. Spreading her arms apart the light would split into ten smaller spheres. They would form into violet crystals and drift down to the floor. ”Your wish has been granted. When used, each will expend all their energy and restore the user's mana.“ Mechanically, each crystal had the capacity to restore up to 15 MAG to one magical girl or boy.
”Wow. Wasn’t sure that one would work, either. Hmm…” A thought occurred. ”Hey, do you have something you would wish for, if you could?”
”To not be in the situation I'm in now. That ship has long since sailed and there isn't really a way out at this stage. Aside from that I don't really have any recommendations. I can't really grant my own wishes.”
Well, that made things easy. ”That’s about what I figured, so I want to try this. My third wish is that you were able to grant three of your own wishes.” She’d pause a moment to let Ruby try to grant it. ”Did it work?”
”Fortunately not.” She would scoff slightly. ”I don’t think that would end well for me in the long run.”
”Well, it was worth trying. Do you think you could get just one? That would be equivalent, wouldn’t it? Or is there a ‘get out of jail free’ sort of wish I could make? I can’t imagine being a djinn, genie, whatever the correct term is, so if I can help with my final wish, I’d like to.”
Ruby would cross her arms and think about it for a while. ”I’m not sure. I am this way because I ‘flew too close to the sun’ in order to give someone the power they needed to help defend Penrose. As far as I am aware I cannot undo or change the fact that I am a Djinn. Prior to this I was essentially Fated to be where I am now. I don't know everything though, so there may be a creative way to help.” She knew that wasn't really helpful, but she really didn't know a way out.
”If I remember right, isn’t a red, or better yet, ruby, coin able to change Fate in exactly the way that would help?”
”Normally, but I am no longer a magical girl that a Red Coin will work on. I am a patron. The rules are different for me.”
”Geez, what kind of thing did you make mad? What’s strong enough to turn someone into a djinn that’s capable of granting wishes?”
”Originally, a Djinn. That just made me a magical girl where I was forced to go around and essentially do his work for him. How I am now though has more to do with a brush with the Nexus. Not something most come out unscathed, if they survive the encounter.”
”So I’m guessing that a white coin won’t resolve your curse or anything like that, either…”
”Exactly. Those things apply to individuals like yourselves.”
”Dang. Alright, mind if I phone a friend? I’ve been told I’m surprisingly stubborn, but I don’t get what’s surprising about it.” Shion reached into her pocket to call someone, when Tay, that damnable Puchuu, came walking from around the corner. When he saw Ruby, he stopped.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” He looked between the Djinn and his so-called ally. “This is ridiculous. Please tell me you haven’t wasted wishes on something moronic.”
Shion pointed her new handgun at him, careful not to put her finger on the trigger. ”If we weren’t inside someone else’s building, you’d be my test subject to find out.” After saying that, she lowered the gun. ”Hey, wait a second. You’re a pain in the ass, and the type to take contracts seriously… You’re definitely not who I wanted to bring in, but maybe you can help. Any ideas on how I can use one wish to get Ruby free from her overbearing position?”
“... You want to pass up a wish from a wish-granting Patron in order to-” One of Tay’s ears smacked him in the face in dismay. “Yeah, sure, okay. Why not waste a once in several lifetimes opportunity both for yourself and for anyone who would be in the same position after you? What have you tried?”
”Apparently, Red and White Coins won’t work on her, and just wishing for her freedom probably won’t work either. She can’t grant her own wishes and she’s in the situation she’s in because of the Nexus. That’s about it.”
“I see. Well, there’s the traditional ones…” He looked over at Ruby. “Please feel free to say if any of these are an obvious ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on viability.”
With that, he cleared his throat (does he even have a throat?) and placed one of his prehensile ears against his head in thought, then began listing off potential wishes. “You could wish that she fulfill whatever potential wish there may be that would result in her freedom. You could wish for knowledge of a way to free her that is within your power and also doesn’t require a further wish to achieve, or for a ritual that would free anyone in a similar position to what she’s in. There’s also the legal loophole approach, where you make a very specifically worded wish that prevents her from being sealed, which would make her a ‘free djinn,’ so to speak, and should give her ample time to figure out her own way to become free. Or, there’s the draining approach, where the wish is for all wishes, starting with the one used to make it happen, that the djinn grants gain their magic from the source that is keeping her sealed, resulting in a paradox that breaks her free, or at the very least a massive drain in the mana needed to be used up. That one might require future wishers, though, so if you’re trying to free her now, in one, you’ll need to be more precise.”
He paused, removing his ear’s “hand” from resting on the side of his head, and looked to Ruby. “Any of those sound plausible for your specific situation?”
Ruby would listen to the list of ideas. Most of them she didn’t imagine would succeed as it would require using her magic on herself. They weren’t entirely all without merit though. ”I haven’t looked into thing much since becoming a Djinn, but I imagine a ritual or obtaining the needed knowledge would be the most likely to yield results. You will have to wish for one to be sure.”
”Then let’s see if it works. I wish I had complete knowledge of a method to free you and others in your position, if there are any, that is within my power to achieve and does not require an additional wish.”
Listening to the wish, Ruby would look a bit surprised. She could feel that the wish was working. Ironically she herself wouldn’t be granted the knowledge. ”Well, you’ll have to let me know how this will work.” Reaching out she would place a hand on Shion’s head. Knowledge not her own would begin to flow into her mind. The steps and resources needed to complete a ritual to remove the Djinn power from Ruby and others like her. However, that power would need another mortal vessel willing to receive it, effectively transferring and transforming the other person into a Djinn.
”Your wish has been granted.”
Shion wasn’t fully certain that her wish would work, and she had been in the process of thinking of wording for another when Ruby touched her. As the information filled her mind, her eyes widened in surprise at the success. The fact that it would need a “sacrifice,” of sorts was expected, but it was still much better than a wasted wish.
“Well, that’s unexpected. I thought a Patron-level djinn would take more than that. But if it was granted, what’s the answer, Shion?”
”There’s a way, but it needs a vessel for the magic to be transferred to.” She focused her attention on Ruby. ”Are you going to have to leave now, or are you relatively ‘free’ for a bit? I think I could pull this off fairly soon, but I don’t know who would be willing to trade places. I can ask around, at least.”
The clasp around Shion's wrist would release and the bottle would roll over to Ruby. ”I don't have to leave immediately, though I can't stay here for more than a few days before I must move on. Likely sooner than that given the circumstances Penrose finds itself in.”
”I’m sure it’ll take longer than that, and it might be best to let others use wishes to prepare too. Any way I could track, or just find you again, once I’ve found a volunteer? She was already mentally going down the list of those she knew who might say “yes” to the idea.
”I have a magical girl under my charge that goes by Angel of Despair. She shouldn't be hard to identify, she usually swears up a storm. You can speak with her to get in contact with me.”
Shion nodded. ”Alright, I’ll get on that, then. Good luck, I’ll try to hurry.”
Nodding in return, Ruby would disappear in a swirl of red smoke.
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