Force of Magic
By Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney
Chapter 1
Haruko couldn't believe she was doing this. Even as her hand
slammed down on the counter, the feelings of regret that had been
building made her wish she could forget the whole thing. But she
couldn't. Not now.
"These charms are a scam!" she yelped. "I've had *bad* luck
ever since I got one!"
The old crone who presided over the tiny fortune-telling
shop trembled in rage. She'd had a good business going, with her
"True Love Charms." Piyo had, however, told Haruko that this was
just a front for the youma, and the little paper charms served to
drain the life energy from those who carried them. Haruko was
thrown to the ground when the old woman's gnarled knuckles struck
her temple. The pain was a terrible spear, stabbing into her
head, but somehow she managed to get to her feet. With a slight
panic, the throng of schoolgirls that had filled the shop
dissipated.
Before long, the shop contained only Haruko, the old woman,
and another girl, not a day over nine years old. When Haruko made
eye contact with that pigtailed girl, she wished she hadn't. The
glint in her eyes was terrifying -- born of madness, it seemed.
There was malice, mixed with pleasure.
Why? Why had she let herself get mixed up in all of this?
A little bird, a little yellow chick, had asked her for
help, and she'd agreed.
The other girl reached into her backpack and produced a
magic wand. It was red and violet, with the top part shaped into
a heart. She held it aloft, and smiled. "PRETTY WARRIOR POWER
UP!" The cry was almost ear-piercing -- they usually had to be,
for some reason. This girl was surrounded by ribbons of light,
which momentarily obscured her form as they reached a crescendo,
then faded. The girl who stood in her place was not all that
different. The sailor fuku she wore was shorter, colored purple
with red ribbons all over, and it had been accessorized with
knee-high boots, and elbow-length gloves.
Feeling Piyo stir in her backpack, she realized it was her
turn. She carefully put down her backpack, and held the magical
locket, the one that Piyo had given to her, and looked at it
momentarily. It looked to be made of cheat plastic, a round
silver thing with a pink heart on it, despite the power it held.
_Why_ had she agreed to become a magical girl? How many times was
she going to ask herself that? "Sweet Rose Power Activate!" The
words seemed hollow, stupid. But they worked. That empty warmth
of the light enfolded her, changed her.
Most magical girls looked about the same when they
transformed -- apart from the requisite costume change, but those
who were recruited by the magical kingdom of Chrysalia, also grew
older. Where she was a ten-year-old, she now looked to be at
least sixteen. With a sigh, she prepared to deal with the youma.
"Who the hell are you?" demanded Magical Rina. The anger,
the hostility -- it was more frightening than any youma Haruko --
Magical Girl Candy Rose -- had faced so far.
"M-magical Girl Candy Ro-- Rose." she stammered.
Rina's gaze was pure hatred. "I was here first."
"Oh girls..." The old fortune-teller cast off her robe.
Underneath was a very different person. She was a tall, slender
blonde, with red eyes and a red, form-fitting jumpsuit. "You have
no idea how much I hate it when a good plan is ruined."
Candy Rose was sure she heard Piyo mutter something to
himself.
"I am Fortuna." the lady added. "And the only question that
remains is, who do I get to kill first?"
Rina grinned. "That's *my* line."
Fortuna grinned right back, and held up a deck of tarot
cards. She picked one at random, holding it aloft. "In your
futures, I see..." she flipped over the card to reveal the image
of the grim reaper. "DEATH!" She hurled the card; it flew with
far more force that it should've. Candy Rose ducked, feeling it
rush over her head by mere centimeters. When the card flew
outside, it sliced a car nearly in half.
Rina looked at the damage done, and shook her head. "That
wasn't very nice, was it?" she said slowly, as though speaking to
a pet or a disobedient child. "You'll have to be punished." With
a slow, easy motion, she swept her want upwards. As she did, it
produced a thin beam of purple energy, that cut off one of
Fortuna's arms at the elbow. Green blood poured from the wound,
staining the floor.
Haruko fought the impulse to vomit, and tasted the terrible,
pungent taste of bile in her mouth.
"Ever seen your own blood before?" Rina taunted, as her
victim looked on with a mixture of shock and rage. Fortuna's red
eyes seemed to glow with hate, and her teeth were clenched in a
murderous grimace. "You'll see a lot more of it by the time I'm
through with you." A purple glow appeared at the tip of her wand.
Another was blast already forming.
Haruko inhaled and exhaled shakily, scarcely able to believe
what she was hearing. Every magical girl had to fight the youma -
- that was their purpose, after all, but to take so much pleasure
in their suffering... It wasn't as though there wasn't enough
pain in the world to go around -- Haruko had certainly found
enough of late.
When Fortuna's remaining hand rose, it held a ward. It was
not unlike the kind that could be found at the local shrine, but
just looking at it Rose could feel the hatred and evil inside of
it. "We'll see about that, little one." replied the youma-woman.
Suddenly, the ward was consumed in flames. In an instant,
Rina was surrounded by a circle of fireballs, which spun around
before slamming into her tiny body. The explosion shook the
building to its foundations, and Rina fell to the ground,
consciousness fading quickly. Maybe it was a fitting punishment.
Right? _Did_ anyone deserve that kind of pain? Rina's magical
transformation, like most, reduced a lethal attack to a painful
injury. Candy Rose shook her head. It was not her place to
decide, after all. Only to battle the youma.
She turned to face Fortuna, who was reaching for her tarot
deck, stained with green blood, which lay on the floor. "Don't
think I'll let you off easy." she snarled. "Especially since you
work for Chrysalia."
Rose moved one foot back, taking up a more stable stance,
and got her wand ready. This had to end before anyone else got
hurt. Anyone undeserving. She took a deep breath, and shouted out
one of her attack spells.
"Rose Petal Thunder Crash!" Candy Rose's wand shot out a
storm of pink motes of energy, which engulfed and consumed
Fortuna. When the haze finally started to clear, only a bad smell
remained.
Piyo hopped out of his hiding place, and surveyed the shop.
"You did well." he said at last. There was something in his
voice. Something being held back. His gaze fell upon Magical
Rina. "And we'd better help her."
Rose looked at the unconscious magical girl, and frowned.
Thinking of how Rina had acted turned her stomach. She tried not
to imagine the other sorts of things she might've done. Might do.
"Why should we?"
Piyo looked up at her. Although he had the body of a little
yellow chick, he had the mind, and the eyes of someone who'd seen
a lot -- maybe too much. His penetrating gaze was as hard as
stone and clear as glass. "She's hurt. She may not be the nicest
person around, but that's no reason to let her die."
She lowered her head and sighed. "I guess so. Some people
would say she deserves it."
"I want to think you're better than that." he replied.
The journey back to Haruko's house was uneventful. It was
only a few blocks away, and besides, Tokyo had more magical girls
than any other place on the planet. The pint-size defenders of
Love and Justice seemed to be drawn to the city like a magnet,
some said, and none took notice of Magical Girl Candy Rose
carrying Magical Rina -- except for some high school boys who
paused to jeer. She kind of wished someone _would_ take notice,
or at least give thanks now and then; it was hard to be a magical
girl and be brave when the people she saved were indifferent or
even openly hostile, as though they could've beat back the youma
using their briefcases or something.
She carefully sneaked into her room through the side door,
and placed Rina on the futon. Reverting to her real self, ending
the transformation, she started to pace back and forth, from one
end of her little bedroom to the other.
It had been only two weeks, and now she wanted it all to
end. She'd wanted... something. She wasn't sure anymore just what
it was, except that the indifference, the stares, the occasional
injuries -- none of it was what she wanted. There were those who
idolized magical girls, who seemed to worship them. Well,
specific magical girls, anyway. Tangerine Blossom was having a
very successful career as both a Defender of Love and Justice and
a pop idol singer. What could Candy Rose show so far? Three kills
-- four counting the fortune-teller -- and a lot of pain.
"What's wrong?" asked Piyo, as he looked over Magical Rina.
His voice sounded wrong for his body. It belonged to a tall,
proud man, firm in his convictions. Not a little yellow chick.
There were a lot of things wrong these days.
Haruko took a deep breath. "Um. What... happens if I don't
want to do this anymore?"
Like everything else, Piyo took it calmly. He slowly turned
his head to face her -- his movements were always slow and
deliberate, not the spastic motions of normal birds. "You're
thinking of quitting." he said simply. "I see."
She watched him for a moment, waiting for some sign of
emotion, some reaction.
Piyo sighed. "I suppose I can't blame you for having doubts.
But even so, I have to ask you why."
Holding the locket in the palm of her hand, she replied,
"It... it just seems so pointless. I go and risk getting hurt,
and after I'm done no one cares. People just seem to take magical
girls for granted, or even get mad about being saved. And there's
always more youma."
He nodded, taking it all in. "This isn't a good time to be a
magical girl. In fact, it's a pretty lousy time. For my part I
blame the people in charge of the magical kingdoms. They've made
too many odd assumptions and bad decisions over the centuries.
The things we've seen since the Resurgence..." Piyo paused. He
seemed to be on the verge of tears.
"The what?"
"The Resurgence." he explained. "It started around the year
1978 or so, when after leaving Earth for so long, the magical and
dark kingdoms returned. There was the Magical War -- the first
time magical girls fought each other -- and it was soon followed
by the first time humans took up arms against the magical. Maybe
things will change for the better. Or maybe not. I won't lie, so
I can't make any promises. We need you, and we need you to be
strong. So I ask, why did you want to become a magical girl?"
She thought about it. Thought hard. It had happened so
quickly, it seemed. Before that day she hadn't really given the
prospect any thought. She was just another elementary school
student. _That_ was it. "I--I wanted to be someone special. I
wanted people to like me."
"Everyone does." he replied. "Nearly. You're just one of
thousands of Japanese schoolgirls, and one of _billions_ of
humans. Even if people tell you you're special, unique, it's hard
to believe."
"But everyone hates or ignores me."
Piyo shook his head. "Not everyone. Remember the girl last
week?"
Thinking back, she remembered her second outing as Magical
Girl Candy Rose. Some kind of fish-monster youma was terrorizing
a sushi bar -- youma tended to get pretty strange sometimes. When
it was over, the waitress had actually taken the time to thank
her and even persuaded the chef to give her some free kappamaki.
But she was the only one. There was, in contrast, the salaryman
who'd tried to bludgeon her with his suitcase in the middle of
the battle before he ran away. "Yeah, but..."
"Look," he said evenly. "I won't -- _can't_ -- force you to
do this. It has to be your choice. I'm asking you to try it out a
little longer, though."
Unable to think of a way to get out of it, she nodded.
"Alright. But what happens if I decide a really don't want this?"
Piyo eyed the locked and frowned. "I'll take back the locket
and the powers, and erase your memories of me and Candy Rose. You
can just go back to being little Haruko-chan, if that's what you
want."
A pair of hands wrapped themselves around Piyo. Magical Rina
was awake. She smiled as she held him in her hands, as though
contemplating the best way to kill him. "Riiight little birdie."
she said derisively. "Just be a wimp and give up. I oughta' break
your neck for talking like that."
Haruko gasped. "Let him go!"
Rina grinned. "Or what?"
Piyo looked up at Rina and frowned. "This."
A corona or electricity surrounded Piyo. Rina received a
terrible electric shock, and convulsed before her spasming
muscles forced her to release her death-grip on him. Standing up,
trembling, she cast a venomous glare at Piyo. "You're just a
companion!" she shrieked. "How can you do that?!"
"Underestimating a foe can be your downfall. I could've
brought my electrical attack up to a lethal magnitude if I
wanted. And then you'd be dead. Remember that."
Rina glared back at Piyo, trying to think of what to say.
Finally, she shook her head, and climbed out the window without
another word.
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Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney blackbird@earthdome.com
Blackbird's Domain http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/6127/
Knight Kevlar of the Immortal Frog Silver Knight of Mihoshi
"Be nice to me; I might just develop
psychokinetic powers and destroy Tokyo!"
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