Aoki Kaho's Story

The late September sun edged slowly down over the horizon, coloring Ran-no-Machi with a soft pink and orange glow. The streets were lined with people commuting to and from work as normal day jobs drew to a close and night shifts began, and kids from the local schools milled about in parks and the downtown shops with their friends before going home. The evening breeze was beginning to get a chill to it, and carried the scent of flowers across the city streets. And above their heads, two girls in brightly colored outfits shot through the sky.

"It’s going left!” shouted the magical girl Budou, firing a violet bolt of energy from her wand. It went wide over its target, dissipating into the air. ”No, not that left, the other left!”

”There’s only one left!” Ringo retorted, diving low to avoid another volley from her grape-purple clad companion.

Their quarry was a mish-mash of a creature - it had the head of a goat, teeth of a wolf, arms and claws of an eagle, tail of an eel, and the wings of a dragonfly, yet had proven far more quick and agile than such a combination would imply. It was a Thoughtless, ill-intent refracted into monstrous form by the strange magic of the otherworld known as Layers, and ending its encroachment into the human world was the sworn duty of the Magical Girls chasing after it.

It zigzagged through the sky as it veered downtown, its tail spinning slowly in the air behind it as its hunters tried to keep up, taking potshots at it in an attempt to turn it away from the city center. A number of the people on the sidewalks beneath them looked up as they zipped past, a few fumbling with cell phones to try and snap blurry pictures for social media before they were out of sight.

”This would be so much easier if Momo were here!” Budou yelled in frustration, thrusting out her arm, fingers releasing their grip on her wand and splaying wide as a small mouse with a single horn on its forehead ran down from her shoulder. Budou’s familiar leapt onto her wand before it fell, and both vanished in a burst of purple light, being replaced with a short spear that had grapevines curled along the shaft. ”I’m just gonna rush it!”

”Ah, wait wait wait!”

”GRAPE FLAVOR BURST!!” Budou’s form was swallowed in cascading purple energy, and she rocketed forth with a violet sonic BOOM echoing behind her. In the next instant she tore through the left-side wings of the Thoughtless, cursing her unpracticed aim as it went corkscrewing toward the buildings below.

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The wooden chairs scraped quietly across the floor as Aoki Kaho set them in a neat circle. One of her bar’s side tables sat nearby, set with 2-liters of green tea, plastic cups, and rice crackers. The rest of the furniture had been stacked against the wall; not far from the ring in the center of the small, hole-in-the-wall establishment, but distant enough not to be in the way.

Kaho leaned back against the bar for a moment, judging the setup, then looked over to the clock on the wall. A little after five, about twenty minutes before the group which rented out her bar every Monday night started filing in. She sighed through her nose, then pushed off the counter, a thin black snake crawling up her arm to her shoulder as she moved away toward the front door. Better to fuck off for two hours than stick around for something she didn’t care for.

Stepping out onto the sidewalk in the nightlife district of downtown, she pulled a cigarette out of the inner pocket of her black silk vest, tapping it once against her hand before lighting it and taking a shallow drag. She didn’t like smoking inside if she could help it, and stubbornly denied patrons the opportunity to do the same, but one would be hard pressed to find her outside without a cigarette hanging from her lip.

The bell of the door rang quietly as it slid shut behind her, and she looked over her shoulder once, locking eyes with the giant anime decal of Shinii-tan, the bespoke mascot plastered across the front. Sin Eater wasn’t what one might call a “popular” establishment, but it did well enough for a business who’s only attempt at advertisement was the black-haired cartoon angel sipping sake on the front door. Shinii-tan’s red eyes seemed to tunnel into Kaho, mocking her for being chased out of her own establishment. Kaho clicked her tongue and wandered off.

Normally Kaho would spend the evening doing the accounts and payroll for her… one employee, but she hadn’t bothered to put those off this week, which meant she had nothing to do for the next two hours. Maybe she could go see a movie? There was an American thing she’d been interested in, but going to a theatre alone always felt a bit-

She looked up as a sonic boom exploded over her head. A purple ring stretched out in the sky, and she trailed the shot of purple light from it to… a monster. Falling toward her bar. Ah.

Ebon talons. Hulking forms of muscle flanked by fire breathing hell hounds. Few forces were as powerful and destructive as lightning, and bending it to her whim while it lashed against her tenuous grip was the most empowering feeling. Go here... gather, strike... away from the path of least resistance. Flurry, staccato beat... deflect blow, punish error. Fuck that one monster in particular. There was no being wishy-washy when it came to lightning. Her will had to be the path of least resistance; her body the conduit of destruction.

Lightning was one of the most terrifying destructive forces on the planet... equally as terrifying as having that power abandon her like a rebuked child in a time of urgency. So now she lay there with the metallic taste of blood in her mouth, uniform shredded and mustering all her will simply to pull herself slowly along the ground like a worm. Isn't this where she was supposed to get her second wind? Her sparkling flash of renewed magic to smash the monster in the face with the power of friendship?

Something grabbed her ankle roughly and started dragging her. Fear welled up inside her chest and she struggled to escape the iron grip, clawing at the asphalt for any kind of purchase. The searing heat of flames was washing over her back more and more intensely as she was pulled. She didn't dare look, but she knew what it was: a flaming rift into the Layers. Her fingers dug desperately into a crack in the asphalt but her grip was tenuous at best. She felt her body lower slightly as the demon gripping her ankle braced itself to heave.

"Himari!"

She jumped like a startled cat, knocking over a cup full of pens and showering her desk with multi-colored paper clips. Himari's heart thundered in her ears and her face was drenched in sweat. Her eyes flicked down to her keyboard to meet the piercing yellow eyes of her familiar, Quiet. Right. It was a Monday in September. She was a 37 year old accountant, not an 18 year old Luna Senshi. It was 4:48 pm.

"You okay? You were zoned out pretty hard," asked her coworker... we'll call him Steve. Himari had worked with him every weekday for the past several years and had never bothered to learn his name.

"Uh. Yeah," she hesitated, mainly because her hands were trembling like a five point earthquake. "I'm uh... not feeling so great all of a sudden, I think I'm gonna call it a day," she said, more or less shooing him out of her office. When he was gone she let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and locked eyes with Quiet for a long uncomfortable minute.

"I know what you're thinking, and you can clean up your own mess," Quiet huffed, narrowing her eyes at Himari.

"Mehmeh mehmeh memememeh meh," Himari muttered back in an annoyed tone, flicking a handful of paperclips at the cat to get it off her desk. "Whatever, I'll deal with it tomorrow. Let's get a drink," she said as she got to her feet, digging a handful of paperclips out of her blazer pocket and letting them drop haphazardly to the ground. She scooped up her purse and shuffled out the door as Quiet leapt up to her shoulder.

"Kaho has the support group on Mondays," informed the cat.

"Ah fuck," Himari hesitated at the elevator for just a moment before rapidly mashing the button. "If we get there before all the wierdos she might still serve us, and hopefully nobody we recognize shows up." It was a brisk walk to Sin Eater from her office, but she managed to make it there just as Kaho was exiting, presumably before the support group arrived for their session.

"Kaho-Cha..." A sonic boom interrupted her, drawing her eyes up to a streak of purple energy in the sky... and a Thoughtless. Himari skidded to a halt and Quiet dug her claws into Himari's shoulder to keep her perch. Its wing got clipped and now it was falling. Morons... you don't clip a flying opponent unless it was a deathblow, otherwise it might fall on a bystander... Or... was it curving towards her? She blinked, just to confirm... that yes... it was going to land in or on her vicinity. Quiet inhaled an excited breath and began to say something, but Himari spun on her heels and began briskly walking in the opposite direction.

"But!"

"Nope."

Kaho walked quickly back up the street quickly as the slammed down on the roof of the building, scrabbling for purchase against the tiles before slipping down to the street below, bits of tile and cement clattering around it. Kaho grit her teeth in annoyance as the creature thrashed around in the street, hissing and trying to pull itself back into the sky. Her cigarette drooped dangerously low as she chewed the butt of it. What kind of imbecilic novices would drop this damn thing in the middle of downtown?

Wait, did someone say her name?

Speak of the dumbasses, and they shall appear. two magical girls, one purple, the other red, descended onto the street between her and the Thoughtless.

"I told you to wait!" the red one chastised, smacking her companion over the head. Her wand vanished and was replaced with a large, heavy broadaxe, the blade shaped superficially like an apple wedge.

"It's not running away anymore, is it?" the purple one spat back, thrusting the point of her spear in the monster's direction. Neither seemed to really be paying attention to it, instead falling into a back-and-forth of name calling and blame-shifting.

Kaho eyed them down the bridge of her nose, the tip of her cigarette pointing further and further downward as she chewed the end of it. Neither seemed to be older than twelve or thirteen, so some rookie mistakes were to be expected, but to stand in the middle of the street bickering while a Thoughtless stood behind them? Just how brainless were these kids?

The monster hissed and rose up its head to strike. Kaho dropped her cigarette to the ground and exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke over the heads of the two magical girls, and when the Thoughtless lashed out at them its head slammed into it as if it were solid. The two kids flinched at the sound of the impact, looking first in Kaho's direction and then at the recoiling Thoughtless.

"Oh."

"Right."

This is stupid, I'm stupid, why am I even doing this? Akihiko ran down the street as fast a pace as he was willing to push himself right now. Having magic powers made you a bit better then the average person of course but he really wasn't sure if he could go as fast as he used to. Years of sticking to a "normal" routine and not attempting to push your abilities past the norm meant that Aki was rusty.

Thank god his cardio wasn't terrible as he followed after his familiar . . . who was leading him through a shortcut that happened to leave a tall chain link fence in his way. Cause of course Kiki would pull something like this now of all times.

This bird is trying to get me killed I swear. He wasn't confident or arrogant enough to think he could jump something like that so easily with being as out of practice as he was, and Kiki was not as stupid a familiar as he would like to claim. Which only meant one thing. She was expecting him to ghost through the fence.

Aki skid to a halt in front of the fence and glanced up, Kiki was perched on the fence and cawed at him a few times to get him to hurry up. He squinted at his Familiar and grumbled. "If this doesn't work and i injure myself I'm plucking some of your damn feathers." He then backed up to give himself a few feet of space from the fence and concentrated. Alright I can do this. Just got to remember my old mantra . . . . . its just a small fence. baby steps. He let out a controlled breath and kept his eyes on the fence. You are empty . . . you are a ghost . . . As untouchable as smoke . . . The fence practically isn't even there for you.

After what felt like a few minutes of hard focus Akihiko's body started to have a faint pink glow to it, followed by his form becoming somewhat see through. Kiki cawed with excitement and took to the air again as Aki dashed forward and passed through the fence. The glow flickered away just as the ends of his coat fluttered through the fence. A breath he didn't even know he had been holding escaped His lips as a sigh of relief. "D-damn, I was scared i was gonna put myself in the hospital with that." He glared up at the bird. He would complain to her later.

It was another minute of running before he turned down a street corner and saw the thoughtless thrashing in the street, desperately trying to get itself off the ground as two novices seemed to be bickering with each other while a couple of adults watched the scene play out. Aki took a moment to catch his breath and stay a bit out of sight. Old habits die hard it seems. He kept an eye on the rookies and quickly looked back at the thoughtless thrashing about, wondering why the kids weren't hurrying up and ending the fight already. Kiki landed on his shoulder, If birds could have a face that translated to wanting to face palm, kiki was making whatever was close to it. "I don't want to sound old, But i feel like back when we we're that new even we knew better then to drop something that big downtown." Aki pinched the bridge of his nose. debating the looming idea of possibly having to transform for the first time in years if things went any further south.

"W-wait!" Quiet exclaimed, clawing to climb back onto Himari's shoulder as she briskly walked away from the scene. "This could be a significant sign!"

"Nope," grunted Himari. "You're not gonna trick me with that 'there's no such thing as coincidence. Stand Users are drawn together' bullshit again," she grumbled, squeaking loudly as the thoughtless thumped against the barrier behind her and quickening her pace.

"But!"

"This is ridiculous: I'm arguing, in public, with an invisible talking cat over whether the cosmos are conspiring to get me involved in the magical world again. This isn't a goddamn anime! If it were, something dumb would happen to force me to stay like my heel breaking or turning a random corner and comically colliding with a future teammate," she argued.

Himari was shuffling towards said corner while checking over her shoulder as she was finishing her sentence before barreling straight into Akihiko. She recoiled, but managed to catch herself and remain on her feet, and was opening her mouth to apologize when she laid eyes on him. They locked eyes for a solid several second before her gaze traveled slowly up to the brightly colored bird.

"Ooh, a romance flag!" Quiet blurted excitedly, which seemed to snap Himari out of the daze.

"No! No! Nope, uh uh, hell no! This isn't happening!!" She flustered, turning on her heels again and walking straight into the street, to the dismay of several drivers. "This is a bad dream, clearly I'm still flashbacking... you can't die for real in a dream, the monsters aren't my problem anymore, and I don't have to fight them anymore," she muttered under the screech of tires, blaring horns and screaming drivers while clutching her head against the impending migraine.