The argument had been going for over fifteen minutes when Shouko put down her phone and clapped her hands for attention.
“Look, you guys are overthinking this,” she said. “Magic is really simple. Everything falls into three categories.” To illustrate, she held up a trio of fingers, her pinky tucked into her palm by her thumb. “Hey Miyumi, what’s the second law of motion?”
“Hm?” her classmate said as she looked up from the notes she’d laid out on the table. “Well, in its simplest form it states that the rate of change in momentum of a body is directly proportional-”
“Right, thanks, I just needed you to make a point,” Shouko interrupted, prompting Miyumi to roll her eyes. “See, either Miyumi can explain it at the drop of a hat, which means it’s not magic, or she can’t, which means it is.”
After a long pause, one of them asked, “but what’s the third category?”
Shouko had gone back to futzing with her phone. “Miyumi can explain it but she says it’s magic anyway,” was her reply.
[Iimagine this as the cold open to Part Two of the CompletelyNormal Christmas OVA. Also this ran away with me a little.]
Herphone had buzzed almost non-stop since she exited the train station,sprinting down city blocks and across zebra striped crosswalks. Shehadn’t even stopped to check it; Miyumi could guess already who themessages were from and what they were likely to be saying.
Shewas not a very good runner. Miyumi was sure that her hair was allwindblown and her cheeks were red by the time she came to the cafe.She might have stopped to check her reflection in the glass front ofthe shop, but what if someone saw?
Worsestill, what if no one did? The cafe seemed pretty empty. Shepushed open the door, trying to smooth her hair back into place withher fingers as she wandered between the seats. A few people looked upat her as she passed, but they were all strangers to her. Her stepsgrew heavy as she approached the counter.
Herphone had been silent the last few blocks, and she kept waiting forit to jolt in her pocket, but it remained still. The girl behind thecounter—maybe a couple of years older than Miyumi, probably astudent at the nearby university—smiled at her.
“MayI help you?” she asked.“Um,” Miyumi said. “Did you seea boy come in? About my age, his hair is dyed red, and he wears darkclothes.”She nodded. “Yes, he came in an hourago—”“Great!” Miyumi said, a bit more shrilly than shemeant to, enthusiasm running away with her. “Do you know where he’ssitting?”“… But he left,” she finished.“Oh,”Miyumi said. “How … how long ago?”The girl shrugged. “Idon’t know. Not very long. He seemed unhappy.”“Isee. Thank you.”
Sheleft without buying anything, and although she had expected theDecember cold, an unexpectedchill took her as she stepped back out onto the city streets alone.She thought for a moment about where he might have gone, and then shewas off again, rushing through Tokyo.
Theywere already setting up light displays, she noted vaguely as shepassed. Her first thought was that it might have been nice to go, buther second was that it seemed unlikely. She caught a train and rodeit all the way out to the end of the line, where it exchanged withbullet trains heading out of the city. But Shoji didn’t take thetrain, she knew. He parked, and she hustled up to the garage.
Thewet concrete had a particular scent that mingled with the fumes thatseemed to permeate the air, sickly-sweet, and Miyumi tried not tosniffle as she walked the spiral that led from ground to the toplevel. Shoji’s car was very distinctive—a vintage Americanimport, and not really very practical for the long drives between thecity and Hitachinaka. It was comfortable, though, or perhaps she hadalways found a particular comfort in the passenger seat, Shojidriving one-handed, the other resting on her knee.
Therewas no sign of him. Miyumi sat down on the hood of his car, hunchingher shoulders up against the cold, and fished her phone out of herpocket at last. A handful of her notifications were from the StudyGroup’s mass text, and one from Reika, but the bulk of them werefrom Shoji. It was a foregone conclusion what they said, but sheopened LINE anyway and scrolled through them.
Asever, there were cheery updates letting her know about his arrival inthe city, his campus tours, and so on. Then a snap from the coffeeshop of him reclining on one of the leather couches, pointing up atthe painting overhead so that she’d have a landmark. And then, overthe hour since his arrival, messages that went from curious toworried to resigned.
Thelast one simply read, Whatever.
Miyumiclosed her phone and shoved it back into her pocket. She spent a fewminutes trying to convince herself to stand up and walk away, becausesurely Shoji wouldn’t want to find her waiting anyway, but when shelifted her head and let her feet slip from the chrome bumper, sheheard footsteps. She couldn’t see the person’s face over theroofs of the nearby cars, but the fadedred dye in his hair caught the light in a particular way.
Beforethey had broken up the first time, Shoji wore his hair in its naturalfashion—all dark; a little tousled but not too shaggy. The usualcustom was to cut one’s hair, of course, but his had been too shortto do much with, and she never had done it herself because …Well,because she hadn’t wanted to.When he had showed up to KatsutaHigh with those blood-red streaks in his hair, the message had comethrough loud and clear just the same. She hated the look of it onhim, despite how cute it was, and hoped someday it would all justgrow out.
“Miyumi?”he said, standing in front of her, looking down at her where shestill sat atop his car. “You didn’t answer my texts.”“Iwas stuck with my sister,” she said. “Reika was really insistentthat she take me to the bookstore and show me what’s what, and Icouldn’t leave.”Shoji sighed. “You could have.”“Notwithout making her suspicious,” Miyumi said.“Suspicious ofwhat?” he asked. “I don’t understand what’s supposed to be asecret. Are you embarrassed of me or something? Because we can solvethat really easily, Miyumi.”“No!” she protested, and whenshe sniffled it wasn’t all to do with the cold. “I’m notembarrassed of you. You’re the smartest guy in the whole school,and you’re really cute, and I really like you—”“Sowhat’s the problem?” Shoji asked, his impatience growing.
Miyumiclosed her eyes, pressing them tighter for a moment. “My familydoesn’t know we’re dating again,” she said. “Before … lasttime …”“When we broke up, you mean,” Shoji said,crossing his arms over his chest.Miyumimurmured an affirmative. “It wasn’t because I was bored,” shesaid. “I was really happy with you, actually. The whole time. And Iwas really sad about what I had to do!”“You never hadto break up with me!” Shojiprotested.“Yes I did!” Miyumi shouted back, her voiceechoing over the asphalt. “My parents told me I had to, so I hadto!”Shoji glanced away, brows furrowed above his blue eyes.“Then why are we even dating again?” he asked. “If we evenreally are.”“We are,” Miyumi said quickly.“You’reso flaky about it and you always invite other people on ourdates.”Miyumi huffed out a sigh, breath visible in theDecember cold. “Only because if it just looks like I’m going outwith friends, then it’s fine! That’s what I had to do so I couldkeep seeing you like I wanted. And there’s a really good reason forwhy I’m late all the time or have to cancel so much.”Hewaited. Somewhere further down in the garage, an engine turnedover.“I just … can’t tell you what it is,” she saidlamely after a moment. “But it’s also the reason why I wasconfident enough to even ask you to get back together. Please try tobelieve it’s a good thing.” Maybe then she could believe thatmore often as well.
Momentspassed in silence, and then Miyumi slipped to the ground to stand onher own two feet. “If you want to break up with me, I’llunderstand,” she said.“Miyumi,”he said, and then he sighed. “Can you at least just text me whenyou know you’re going to be late? I’m not asking that much.”Sheshivered, though she tried to hide it. “I’ll do my best,” shepledged.“Are you cold?” he asked, but he didn’t wait foran answer, just unzipped his jacket and pulled her into him for ahug. She slipped her arms around him, between jacket and shirt, andfelt the warmth and steadiness of him as he held her to hischest.“Reika says she’s moving to Hitachinaka,” Miyumitold him.“So she’s going to be around even more?”“Atleast half the week. The other half she’ll be here for class. Ifigured I should tell you now, since …”Shoji held hertighter, kissing at the crown of her hair. She pressed her lips tothe sliver of skin visible above the v-neck of his shirt. “We’lljust have to be really smart,” he said. “It shouldn’t be toohard.”
The Christmas Special takes place in the days leading up to Christmas 2018, following the end of Season 1. It is divided into three parts, although there are overlapping events in each story.
Part one is comedic in tone, focusing on Erika Hatada and Kanako Azaki as the pair must repeatedly hide presents from one another in an increasingly ridiculous escalation of events at Kanako's house as well as the high school gmynasium and the harborfront, all while pet cat Tsukiko manages to wring bribes of food from one or the other.
Part two is considered more angsty, as it involves the strained relationship between Miyumi Aratani and Shoji Okano. It also features the first chronological appearance of Miyumi's half-sister Reika Tsurumi and follows Miyumi's attempts to keep her her Christmas date a secret (although the final shot, showing Reika leaning against a wall around the corner from the pair, demonstrates that she knows of the pair's relationship).
The third and final part chiefly follows Shouko Kogawa and provides supporting roles for the group's mentor figures, Saika Oishi and Shizuka Miyasato. It consists of a ticking-clock scenario in which-
~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks ago
"Hey," said the upside-down face.
Shouko blinked and looked up from her phone. Saika had put her feet up on her desk and tilted her chair back so that she could lean far enough to rest the back of her head atop her arms as she crossed them behind her head and rested her weight against the front of Shouko's desk.
Shouko grinned and set her phone aside, leaning forward on her elbows. Amidst the chatting voices that defined the lunch period, they were but two more conspirators murmuring to one another. "Hey, yourself." As always seemed to be the case when she met Saika's gaze, she felt a bit warmer inside.
"I don't think I got the chance to ask you, are you doing anything for Christmas?" the blonde asked.
Shouko frowned a little. "I don't think so. My mom's probably gonna go to a family thing cause she won't be around for New Year's but...I'm gonna give it a pass," she said with a shrug.
"That means you're free?" Saika questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Yyyyyyeah, I guess so," Shouko said, smiling once more as she grasped the drift of the conversation.
"So, I was feeling kind of a little bad that I had to nix our date the other week," Saika said, idly playing with a few strands of pale hair with her fingertips. "Then I saw there's going to be a big light display downtown. I was wondering if you'd like to go...on Christmas Eve, maybe?" She tilted her head a little bit and smiled.
Shouko felt her face heat. Christmas Eve lights were a thing for couples, not...she'd never been to one, not like that. "I...yy-yeah, I'd, uh, I'd like that," she said, struggling to maintain her aura of chill.
Saika smirked and didn't seem to buy it one bit, but she didn't subject Shouko to more than a brief, flirty tap on the nose with one finger, pulling one arm from beneath her head to do so, a move that made her chair wobble a little. "Great. I'll meet you at the stadium lot at, say, seven, okay? Then we can go for that dinner we missed."
"I'll be there," Shouko promised.
"Saika, be careful," Kanako's gentle voice interrupted from the next row over. "You're going to fall."
"Nope! I'm good," the blonde assured the class president, lifting her legs so that her weight shifted and her chair thudded back down onto all four feet. "Better than good, even," she added.
"Oh! Are you making plans for Christmas?" Kanako asked with a bright smile, clapping her hands together.
"Might be," Saika confirmed with a wink back.
Shouko felt her face heat up again and buried her nose in her phone once more before anyone could notice.
-----------------
One week ago
"Whatcha need?" she asked as her feet crunched in the thin layer of snow covering the grass outside the high school, well away from the crowd of departing students.
"I have an important request to make of you, Shouko," said Shizuka. The dark-haired girl was characteristically grim. "I need your help to face a rising threat."
"Just me? Not everybody?" Shouko blinked, but then shrugged and plowed ahead. "I mean, you got it, but what's up?"
"This foe should not necessitate the whole of our...cadre," Shizuka replied. She pursed her lips briefly before continuing. "There are many aspects to the...detente between the Radiant Court and the Eventide Vanguard. One of these is Barphojee."
"Bless you," Shouko replied.
Shizuka stared at her, eyes cold, mouth unsmiling.
"Just funnin'. What's a Barphojee?"
"Loosely translated it means 'ice warrior.' It is an asura spirit that came to Japan many years ago from the subcontinent one cold winter. It caused much chaos before it was bound away, but every five years the wards must be renewed to keep it that way," Shizuka explained.
"And lemme guess, this is the lucky year?" Shouko asked.
Shizuka nodded. "Correct. The Radiant Court and the Eventide Vanguard trade off conducting the renewal ceremony, and this year it falls to me."
Shouko scratched at the back of her leg with the opposite foot. "I dunno, Shizuka," she said. "I'm not exactly the spiritual type..."
"Fortunately, I don't need you to be," Shizuka interjected. "I want to have you present because your fire powers will cancel out Barphojee's natural ice aspect and weaken it, should the need for fighting arise."
"Oh! Then yeah, I'm all in," Shouko replied with a grin. "Where we heading?"
"The shrine to which the asura is bound is in Hokota," Shizuka said, naming a smaller city about a half hour to the south. "And the ceremony must take place at sunset, one week from now."
"...hhhhold up," Shouko said, feeling her stomach clench a little bit. "On Christmas Eve?"
"Yes. Will that present a problem?"
"Ummmm." Shouko chewed at her bottom lip. "How long should the ceremony take?"
"The sun will set at approximately six o'clock, after which the rites should not longer than five minutes or so," Shizuka replied.
"Oh. Then no, it shouldn't be trouble at all," Shouko said with a thumbs-up. "I'll just have to shove off as soon as we're done. I've got a date to keep," she explained.
Shizuka responded with one of her faint smiles. "I will write you out directions to the shrine," she promised.
----------
Three days ago
"How hard is it to get one lousy piece of...arrgh," Shouko whined, pressing her hands to her eyes. Delayed again. It was supposed to be here days ago. Then it was supposed to be here yesterday. At this rate Saika was going to get her Christmas gift for Valentine's.
A rapid-fire burst of cursing in English pulled Shouko's attention from her battlestation as the front door slammed. She paused her game and got up, wandering out of her room to look down to the living room on the first floor. "You okay?"
"I should have sold that fucking lemon a year ago," Kyoko Kogawa bitched, punching at her phone. "Sorry. Stupid lemon."
"It's because you don't drive the thing more than once a quarter," Shouko responded, rolling her eyes at her mother's tantrum.
"Ehhhhhh," the woman grumbled, waving a hand dismissively. "Yeah, of course they're booked," she said a minute later, hanging up and tossing the little rectangle onto the island that divided the kitchen from the living space. She limped over to the couch and sat with a huff, sticking out the leg that bore a brace. She'd somehow sprained her ankle stepping off her flight home - some days Shouko had no idea how she and Kyoko were related. Where Kyoko's daughter had been a regional gymnastics champion, the woman herself was a first-order klutz. Kyoko wrote it off as Shouko inheriting her grandmother's genes of gracefulness.
Somewhere in the photo albums there was even a picture of eight-year old Shouko wearing a set of jeans bedazzled with the character for 'grace' in katakana. Her dad's joke.
"Are you going to be free to run an errand for me in a couple days, Shouko?" her mom asked, snapping her back to reality.
"Uh...that depends what it is," Shouko replied, thinking primarily of the long-delayed gift order and the girl for whom it was intended.
"I'm making a dessert for my cousin's party, that one they're having on the twenty-fourth."
"It better not be cake," Shouko said dangerously.
"Will you stop harping about things that happened years ago. No, it's a cold one. I promised I would bring them something for their dinner, but if I can't drive, I can't drive."
"So you're feeding me to the dragons instead, huh?"
Kyoko waved a hand. "You don't have to stay. Just drop the thing off, tell them I'm so sorry I couldn't be there, and then make like a ball and bounce."
"That was so lame. I can't believe you want me to go all the way to Kashima-"
"It's only an hour-"
"-on Christmas Eve-"
"-and I'll pay for your gas."
"Okay fine, but it better be ready by the afternoon, I'm not gonna stand Saika up," she said, tossing up her hands and retreating back to her bedroom.
-----------
Yesterday
"I did not think you guys were gonna pull this out," Shouko said as she stuffed the parcel into her bag.
"Yeah, I'm so sorry about that," the guy at the counter said, looking sheepish. "We're just way backlogged this time of year."
"It's whatever. Merry Christmas," Shouko said, tossing off a wave as she stepped out.
As she was walking up to her bike her phone buzzed and she picked up. "Moshi moshi," she chirped.
"Shouko?" Shoji was whispering so softly Shouko could barely hear him.
"Yeah, it's me."
"Can you do me a life-saving favor?"
"It better not be something for Christmas Eve," Shouko warned.
"No, it's right now."
"Oh. Then what's up?"
"Can you call Miyumi's phone and be a distraction for about twenty seconds?"
"Uh. Okay," she said as she swung a leg over her motorcycle.
"I'm sorry. Her sister is in town and she's...watching me."
"Their family is so weird," Shouko agreed. "But yeah, I can do it."
"Thank you so much," he said, followed by a click as the line went dead.
"A distraction, huh?" Shouko mused, bouncing one foot and then punching Miyumi's contact info.
"Hello?" Miyumi's ever-studied voice was calm.
"MIYUMI! HOLY SHIT WHERE ARE YOU?" Shouko yowled into the phone.
"Wh-what? I'm at home, why?" Miyumi yelped.
"THE METEOR! IT'S COMING DOWN TODAY, DO YOU HAVE KANA'S GEM?"
"What?! What gem? What meteor?! What are you talking about?" Miyumi's voice climbed high into her register - which, for Miyumi, was really high.
"THE METEOR! THE ONE WE HAD TO USE KANAKO'S GEM TO STOP! DO YOU HAVE IT?!"
"I don't have any gem! Shouko what are you talking about? Did I miss something important?"
"Oh, no," Shouko said, reverting back to her normal speaking tone. "I think I just fell asleep playing video games."
"...Kogawa. If this is some kind of prank-"
"Sorry byeeeeee~" she singsonged before hanging up. "One distraction, as ordered," she murmured to herself as she pulled on her helmet and started up her bike.
Later yesterday
She'd just pulled up to the shrine's entrance and shut off the Honda when her phone buzzed again. Once she'd pulled off her helmet and hung it from the handlebar, she reached into her jacket and retrieved the little rectangle. "Yo."
"Shouko, can I beg a quick favor from you?" Kanako asked.
"Uh, depends what it is, I'm kind of overloaded," she said as she started up the steps.
"Just, please call Erika for me, I need a few seconds to get her present out of the house or she's going to find it early!" Kanako said, sounding frazzled.
"Ugh. It's fine, don't panic," Shouko said in a placating tone before she hung up and punched Erika's info. "The fuck am I, the team distraction?" she growled.
"Hello?"
"Erika, what are you up to right now?" she asked.
"Um, I was just coming home, why?"
"Can you look out towards the east for me?"
"Okay..."
"Do you see anything that looks like a UFO?"
"Um...no?"
"Are you sure?"
"...yes?" Erika said after a brief hesitation. "Why, what are you seeing?"
"Come to think of it, nothing. Sorry, have a good day," she said, hanging up without further explanation.
Shizuka was waiting at the top of the steps, by which point Shouko had fished out a cigarette and lit it. The young shrine maiden held out a folded piece of paper which Shouko plucked from her hand. "I will see you tomorrow," Shizuka said evenly.
"I'll be there. Might not be sane by then, but I'll be there," Shouko promised, unfolding the paper and looking at the instructions written there. The shrine was west of the highway, away from the coast. Hop off, go straight, make a couple turns, look for the tree, easy. She folded up the paper again and stuffed it into her backpack before shrugging the bag's strap higher onto her shoulder. "You want me to grab KFC on the way?"
"This is serious," Shizuka said, her voice exasperated.
Shouko sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm just kinda feeling one straw short of paraplegia, you know what I mean?"
Shizuka blinked, eyes widening a touch as the colorful turn of phrase caught her off-guard. Then she smiled. "I do know what you mean," she agreed. "Perhaps once the holiday is over and the weekend comes we will have a moment to catch our collective breath. Until then, I have faith in your word, and your prowess." She bowed, ebon hair swirling about her shoulders.
Shouko felt her face heat a little bit, and she lifted her hand in a thumbs-up, cigarette still clenched between her first two fingers. "I won't let you down, sensei," she said earnestly.
"Don't call me that," Shizuka rejoined.
Shouko was halfway down the steps before she finally puzzled out that Shizuka had not in fact told her not to call her 'Shizuka' and her face went from a little warm to hot enough to melt the snow, and she sprinted the rest of the way back to her bike.
---------------
Chistmas Eve, four hours ago
Saika hummed to herself as she brushed her hair, unable to resist bouncing a bit from side to side in front of her mirror. Her outfit for the evening was laid out on the bed, thick warm socks and a wool vest perfect for wandering through the light displays.
On the dresser in front of her was a little boxed gift, blue wrapping paper with a magenta ribbon.
Three hours ago
Shizuka's katana rattled in its sheath as she set it down beside her and knelt.
The woods were peaceful, although she could still hear traffic in the distance. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly, savoring the taste of the fresh, cold air. In the clearing before her rested a great stone about the size of an adult man, around which were wrapped a pair of corded threads from which hung papers inscribed with wards. From the top of the stone protruded the blade and handle of a katana not unlike her own, one that had been taken from a minor lord slain by the invading asura before its imprisonment.
Lifting her chin, she briefly looked up at the sky. The clouds had thickened, turning a dull grey that threatened a storm.
She closed her eyes once more and breathed.
Two and half hours ago
"Mom, is that thing almost ready? I've really gotta go, like right now," Shouko urged, looking at her phone. She'd dressed in warm clothing, throwing her riding leathers on and donning a set of boots with buckles that locked into place to keep them snugly on her feet.
"Sorry hon, I'm almost done, I didn't realize it would take this long to chill," Kyoko Kogawa replied, working at the confection she'd carved over the past day.
Shouko made a noise of frustration. "Mom, I really need to leave," she said, trying not to do anything as blatant as hop from foot to foot. "I wanted to leave like fifteen minutes ago."
"It's only four-thirty, you'll have plenty of time to make your date," Kyoko replied, voice calm as she closed one eye and peered at her work.
"Yeah, but I've gotta be in Hokota by six, so I've gotta go all the way from here to Kashima and then turn around and meet Shizuka on the way back, and if I don't leave right now I'm gonna have to burn rubber the whole way there!"
"Shizuka? Who's this Shizuka?" Kyoko questioned sharply, pausing in her work - the exact last thing Shouko needed now. "Are you two-timing this Saika girl-"
"Oh my god, mom-"
"-who, by the way, I still haven't met-"
"Shizuka's a friend, I promised I would help her with a thing, and we can sort out who I bring home when, later," she insisted, mortified and waving a frantic hand at her mom's work until Kyoko returned to her carving.
"Well, I'm sorry, but you didn't mention any Shizuka," Kyoko said as she worked. "Maybe call her and tell her you could be a few minutes late."
Shouko felt her stomach fall into a pit, but she nodded and turned to walk away, digging out her phone with a hand she realized was quaking. Despite her trembling fingers, she managed to bring up Shizuka's info and stared at it, heart pounding.
Shizuka told her she had faith in her. Nobody ever told her that. She couldn't let her down. She couldn't. She'd put her phone away and was crossing back into the kitchen a moment later.
"Any luck?" Kyoko asked.
"N-no, she didn't pick up," Shouko answered as she withdrew one of the emergency Snickers and bit off the top third.
A few minutes passed, each one feeling like a lifetime before Kyoko set down her tools and declared, "finished."
"Kay gimme," Shouko said, advancing with hands out before her mom planted a palm on her forehead.
"Easy on the throttle there, I'm putting it in an ice bath so it doesn't melt on the way," Kyoko admonished. Shouko busied herself with the pressing task of pulling her hair out while her mother carefully put the dessert in its container and sealed it before transferring the container to a larger one and pouring ice around it. "Alright, where's your backpack?" she asked then.
Shouko had it at the ready and pulled the top open, then stopped and hurried to pull out the gold-wrapped box that contained Saika's gift. Together she and her mother stuffed the confectionery into the backpack and Shouko laid a towel over it so that she could put the little box safely atop it. With haste she shrugged into her winter riding jacket; the garment was a little weather beaten these days but still a fur-lined badass with overstuffed shoulder pads, one of which had a rectangular patch sewn into it that consisted of multiple stripes of pink, red, and white.
"Kay bye see you tonight," she said in a rush as she hurried out the front door.
"Love you! DRIVE SAFELY!" Kyoko hollered after her.
About two hours ago
The highway was jammed with people leaving work, but the Honda Fireblade's engine hummed along as Shouko wove through traffic, disobeying every rule about motorcycle safety she'd ever learned, apart from the one that said 'wear a helmet.' At one point she drove for several kilometers along the shoulder, so close to the center barrier that she could have scraped one of her daggers along the steel without even fully extending her arm. A few drivers leaned on their horns, but there was little they could do except stew in their envy.
It felt like it was getting colder. She couldn't see the sun behind the clouds, though it was still bright enough to be considered daytime. A chilly breeze was blowing in from the ocean off her left side as she headed down the coast. She silently begged the weather to hold off. If ice formed on the roads now, she wouldn't need to fight a mythical warrior-spirit to get herself killed, plain old physics would do the job nicely. Didn't need Miyumi Aratani to calculate that one.
As she left Hitachinaka behind her and headed south the traffic began to break up, Shouko tightened her grip on the throttle and upped her speed, the Fireblade's engine roaring approval as she zipped past the remaining cars. This was okay, she told herself. She could squeak this out. An hour or so south to Kashima. Drop off the dessert and get out inside a minute. A little over a half hour back north to Hokota. Fight the bad guy with Shizuka. Then a half hour back to Hitachinaka to meet Saika on time. She could do this. She could do this.
Then she zipped past a Nissan with a black and white paint job. A moment later the red lights atop the roof lit up in her rear-view mirror and a siren started up.
If the cops had been parked and thus had needed time to get moving she would have chanced it, but with them already on the road and in motion they were probably close enough to scope her plate and call her in before she got too far away. With a sinking heart she clicked on her light and veered to the side of the road.
She didn't do anything as dramatic as slam her head into the bars - although she really wanted to - but she did clasp her hands tightly for a moment before reaching up to remove her helmet, and she couldn't stop her leg from bouncing frantically as the police officer exited his vehicle and slowly - too damn slowly! - made his way up to her bike.
"Good afternoon. Are you aware of how fast you were going?" he asked.
"I'm gonna guess, too fast?" she said with a wan smile. He smiled pleasantly and held out a hand, into which Shouko obediently placed her papers.
He gave them the once-over, asking as he did so, "may I ask the reason for your hurry?"
"I have to make a delivery," Shouko answered.
He looked up at her, brow raised. "I thought Santa drove a red sleigh," he replied.
Ha FUCKING ha. "It's a dessert for my mom's cousin's party," she explained, jabbing a thumb at the backpack.
"It's quite nice of you to be hurrying so much to deliver a dessert on behalf of your mother-" he started saying as they continued the steps of the standard you-did-I-didn't dance, but Shouko's patience finally snapped.
"Look, officer, I don't mean to be disrespectful, I really don't," she said with a sigh, "but if you're gonna write me the ticket, please, just write it up. I wanna get this over with."
He cocked an eyebrow and then sauntered back to his car, leaving Shouko to bounce her leg and try her best not to think about a ticking second hand.
Was he writing a novel back there? Come ON!
"Kogawa Shouko," he announced as he returned to her bike. "I see we've had some run-ins before. If you're on a timetable you should leave earlier. Try to keep it within twenty of the speed limit, hm?" he asked as he handed her info back along with a printed piece of paper.
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled as she took it and stuffed everything into her wallet.
"Merry Christmas," he added with a tap of his cap as he started back towards his car. Shouko was back on the road before he'd reached it.
She kept her speed down all the way through the greater Hokota region, more out of necessity from the ongoing traffic than the cop's warning, opening up the throttle once things calmed down. She didn't need to look at a phone by now. The sky was starting to change colors.
She was going to be hella late.
One hour and thirteen minutes ago
Kashima, in Shouko's completely unbiased opinion, wasn't nearly as cool a place to grow up as Hitachinaka. Partly this was due to the fact her mom's cousin lived on the border of the farmlands instead of anywhere even remotely interesting.
The Honda's tires crunched as she pulled to the side of the road and cut the engine, hanging her helmet from the handlebar and swinging her leg from the bike to hasten her way past the cars already parked near the house. Get in, drop the dessert, get out.
Then the front door banged and a three-foot bolt of lightning came running out. "SHOUKOOOOOOOO!" squealed a high-pitched voice.
Shouko grinned. "Well howdy there, Babymetal!" she cried out, scooping up the eight-year-old and giving her a squeeze. "Did y'all hear me comin'?" she asked, slipping into her affected accent without conscious thought.
"I heard your engine!" Ikumi confirmed.
"Sharp ears, Babymetal. Jeez yer gettin' big," Shouko said, playing up the grunt as she set the girl down on her feet.
"I've gown another three inches," the girl bragged, falling into step with Shouko as she made her way towards the house.
"Three! Yer gonna be taller'n me, soon enough!" Shouko said, still grinning through her affectation of shock. Ikumi was the one member of her mom's cousin's family she got on with. "I gotta find you a helmet, maybe that weight'll keep you nice'n short."
Ikumi blew a raspberry at her. "Are you gonna have time to give me a ride?"
"I'm sorry, Babymetal," she said with genuine regret, "but I'm just here droppin' off dessert for yer mom. I got other places I gotta get to tonight. Maybe next time we'll do the ol' spin around the block, huh?"
"Promise?"
"I promise, darlin'," she said as she shoved the front door open.
"Promise what?" an older female voice asked. "Hello Shouko," said her mother's cousin without waiting for a reply, eyeing the biker distastefully. A few other eyes joined her as Shouko's entrance pulled the attention away from the party that had been ongoing.
"Hello y'all. Don't mind me, I'll just be in and out," she said with a wave of the hand that held her backpack's strap, already making her way towards the kitchen.
The woman followed her in, presumably under the auspices of helping her retrieve the dessert from said backpack. "I see you wore that jacket," she said sternly as Shouko set her helmet down and undid the backpack's flaps.
"Warmest one I got," Shouko replied evenly, retrieving Saika's gift and setting it aside before pulling out the towel, the bottom of which turned out to be damp. Kyoko's ice bath had melted a little bit, but the dessert inside was still intact. Studiously ignoring the disapproving gaze of the homemaker, Shouko carefully folded the towel so that the dampest part was on the inside and stuffed it back into the packpack, placing Saika's gift atop it before doing the straps back up. "Alright, there ya go," she said, turning on her heel and striding back out through the living room. "Y'all have a good one!" she said, waving.
"Well, hold on, Shouko, don't you want to stay for a drink at least?" said the lady's husband.
Shouko was about to issue a polite denial when someone else asked "before you go, I met a nice man up in Iwaki a few weeks ago; is Kyoko still looking for someone? I could give you his number to give her."
"For that matter, do you have a boyfriend yet?" asked someone else.
She could have just walked out the door. Could have. Instead she turned about and clapped her hands to catch the attention of all those present. "Okay! Hate to interrupt y'all but I promise I'll make this quick. One, I ain't stayin' for a drink, sorry but this camel's still got a couple'a haybales to offload tonight. Two, my mom's still not lookin'. She loves her job and it's probably gonna stay that way awhile. Three, in case some of y'all still don't know what this is," she said, indicating the flag patch on her jacket, "I'm still mega gay. In fact the last thing I gotta do tonight is go on a gay date with my girlfriend. Y'all can make all the biker jokes y'all want once I'm gone. Four, Ikumi, yer still my girl."
"Woo!" The girl indicated pumped a fist.
"And five, Aggretsuko's the best new show out there go fuckin' watch it." Shouko lifted the first two fingers of her right hand to her mouth and kissed her fingertips before flashing a sideways v-sign so that her fingers framed her eye. "Merry Christmas, y'all!"
With that she was gone, hurrying back to her bike. By now, the sun was well and truly gone, the world dark and cold as she started up her bike and whirled it about to head back towards the highway.
One hour ago
Shizuka breathed in deeply, held it, and let it out. Opening her eyes, she rose from her kneeling position took up her katana, hooking it to her belt once more.
Rather than draw the blade, however, she lifted up her hands, fingers curled, and began to recite the spell of renewal. Almost immediately, she felt something push against her. The air began to thicken, making her breath smoke, as a fierce resistance to her warding began to rise. It made the words difficult to speak, but Shizuka lowered her head slightly and forced herself to continue uttering one syllable after another.
The stone trembled. Seemingly of their own accord, the ropes from which hung the wards slackened and drooped, falling to the ground. The stone rocked back and forth, and abruptly an aura of cold blue light began to emanate from the surface of the rock. Shizuka felt herself be driven back a step, shoes crunching in the dirt but she stood her ground, hands thrust out as she struggled to contain the otherworldly spirit.
An arm made not of flesh but ethereal power the same color as the aura suddenly took form, arching from the stone to grasp the handle of the katana embedded there. Shizuka grit her teeth and rallied all her focus to contain the asura within the stone.
"Shouko," she murmured between lines of the warding, "I hope you're almost here."
------------------
Shouko ran her bike as fast as she dared back up the coast from Kashima towards Hokota, the street lights creating a strobing effect from how quickly she was passing by them.
Hang in there, Shizuka, I'm on my way, she thought, working the throttle up a few more kph.
Fifty minutes ago
Barphojee slowly managed to pull himself from the stony prison, climbing atop the rock and drawing the katana from it with a rasp of steel on stone. The asura's skin was a shade of blue much akin to the halo that surrounded him, his open robe and silken pantaloons of like color. He was multi-armed, a quartet of limbs sprouting from his shoulders. His hair and beard were white as solid ice.
His laughter was deep as the north wind. "Ah! Freedom!" he crowed.
"Savor it, for you will not be enjoying it long," Shizuka said.
"Oh! Who will see to that, little girl? You?" Barphojee laughed, slapping one of his lower hands against his belly before he hopped from the rock to stand before the young shrine maiden, assuming an exaggerated fighting pose with his flank towards her and his stolen sword arcing over his head.
"You would be wise not to underestimate me, asura," she warned, her hand drifting over towards the hilt of her blade, not quite touching it yet. "And I have allies on their way." I hope, she added silently.
"You have allies? Wonderful! I have allies too!" Barphojee said, clapping his lower hands. The asura bent and touched the snow, pinching his fingers in the thin carpet of white, and as he rose the snow rose up with him, as if by the action of touching it he had transformed it into some manner of cloth, pulling up a thirty-yard radius of the snow around them, which he whirled about and threw into the air like a stage magician. As it fell it split into several pieces and crystallized, and by the time it hit the ground the stolen snow had formed into six diminutive figures, their bodies sharp-edged and transparent, fingers tapering into elongated claws, whorls of ice magic forming their eyes.
"Then let us take your estimate, little girl," Barphojee proclaimed, leveling his blade. "Icelings! Get her!"
Shizuka gripped the sheath of her blade with one hand and took hold of the handle with the other, her body going still as the asura's minions began to close in. She began to feed energy into the blade, and as she popped the hilt from the lip of the sheath an eldritch glow became visible.
"Let's dance," she murmured, and as the first of the icelings came into reach she exploded into motion, her sword lashing out in a horizontal cut.
Forty minutes ago
"Bye mom, bye dad, I'm going!" Saika proclaimed, her parents' well-wishes accompanying her as she skipped out the door. She wished the sky would make up its mind - either let them have some snow, or clear the clouds out so they could see the stars. One or the other was nice to have for Christmas, but not neither.
It was a little thing, though, and she was still irrepressible as she practically bounced her way to the bus stop, checking her phone once she'd reached it.
'Leaving now! See you soon! <3<3<3' she texted to Shouko, though no read message popped up. Shouko was probably riding, she reasoned. Probably taking care of everything last-second. She giggled.
Thirty-five minutes ago
The tires squealed as Shouko pulled into the parking lot of a Toyota dealership. She'd busted her ass to get back to Hokota in anything like a semblance of good time, even though by now she was so obnoxiously late it made her arrival to the school day look punctual. She'd gone by memory for the first couple of turns off the highway, but she wasn't clear on where to head from here. Balancing as the bike thrummed beneath her, she reached into her backpack and rooted past her mom's towel for Shizuka's directions.
What she pulled out was a sodden lump of paper beginning to freeze at the edges.
"Oh, no. No no no no no no no no no," she moaned as she tried to unfold it. The paper began to split at one end, and Shouko barely managed to keep it together as she opened it up. The ink had smeared, but it was still legible, sure. Go past...turn left at...uh...
Shouko balled her hands, crumpling the edge of the useless directions.
"SHIZUKA WHERE IS THIS PLAAAAAAACE!" she howled.
Twenty-nine minutes ago
Shizuka twitched her wrist to shake her blade, knocking ice crystals and water from its length. The last of the icelings was dissolving into a puddle at her feet, leaving her shoes and the hem of her long skirt sodden as she leveled her sword at Barphojee.
The asura clapped his lower hands once more, stroking his beard with the upper arm that was not holding his sword. "I must admit, I am impressed. Your measure has surprised me, little girl."
Shizuka narrowed her crimson eyes. "I am charged with the duty of seeing you bound once more, and I will not fail."
"I think that is yet unlikely," Barphojee replied. "Let us put our theories to the proof then, shall we? Your allies have not come, and mine have proven incapable. Shall it be you and I?" The asura cracked his lower knuckles and twirled his stolen sword about.
"So it shall be," Shizuka agreed, readying herself.
With no further warning, Barphojee lifted a hand to his mouth and blew out a cloud of breath. Before Shizuka had time to react the cold air hit her legs, and the water that the icelings had left behind froze solid in an instant. Shizuka yelped, eyes wide as she tried to pull up one foot and couldn't move. The asura bellowed with laughter. "Dutiful little sword maiden! Your charge pins your feet and leaves you motionless! Better to fly free upon the winds with not a care in the world!"
Shizuka hissed. "I will return you to your prison. Even if I cannot move, we are one blade to another, and I will not fail in my duty!"
Barphojee flexed his shoulders and rotated his wrists as if limbering up. As he did so, however, his aura coalesced about his empty hands and sharpened, solidifying itself into a triad of curved swords. "And that, little girl, is where you are wrong," he said, and Shizuka barely had time to energize her blade with darkness before he leapt at her.
Twenty-three minutes ago
If the clouds and the moon and all the stars had fallen from the sky, today would still be less of a disaster than she'd made of things.
Shouko spun circles around Hokota looking desperately for anything that would jump out at her, to no avail. She knew she was close - she'd followed the first few directions, and she was in a lightly forested area which was where the shrine was supposed to be. Shizuka was somewhere in this area, she knew it.
She'd finally broken down and stopped at a convenience store, begging people if they knew about a local shrine with a blade, but there was no luck. A few folks tried to give her directions to the nearby temple, while a few just hurried away from the crazy lady in the motorcycle jacket asking about weird shrines.
"Sorry miss, but I'm afraid there's nothing like that around here. I'd know, I've lived here a long time," said the latest old man.
Shouko turned away, pressing the heels of her hands to her brow. She felt her eyes welling up, and she bit her lip as she struggled not to make a sound.
"Oh, look at that, someone's setting off fireworks for Christmas," the man commented, and Shouko couldn't help but turn her head, if just to distract herself for a moment. From somewhere behind the trees, someone was indeed tossing up lights that spiraled high into the air and then arced down again.
Except those weren't fireworks, she realized. Someone without the talent would be easily misled, but she recognized what it really was. Magic. That could only mean-
"Shizuka," she whispered, and a moment later she was sprinting for her bike, bringing the engine to life with a roar as she kicked it into gear and headed off the road, following what looked like a dirt path.
"Hey! Be careful with those fireworks miss, you might get burned!" the old man called after her.
Twenty minutes ago
Shizuka's hands couldn't stop shaking, her blade trembling furiously.
At first it had seemed as if she might take the asura blade to blade. She had cut the ice around her feet to free herself, and her defensive iajutsu had served her well in the subsequent combat, her blade smashing aside Barphojee's own and slicing through the warrior's icy flesh. But then he had switched to magic, casting spells high into the air so that they crashed down upon her like vicious hailstones. The ground had refrozen beneath her, making footing difficult.
"Have you had your fill of duty, little girl?" Barphojee asked. The asura was smiling, his blades levelled at her from across the clearing.
"You're not back in your stone yet," she replied, taking a breath to set her shoulders, willing her fingers to stop trembling.
"Ah...a shame. As chill as winter's bitter bite itself, you are. I could have used a servant such as you," the asura said.
She turned her head and spat.
A sound reached Shizuka's ear, then. A distant hum, like the buzz of a honeybee, only one that deepened and grew louder, morphing into the roar of a motorcycle. And Shizuka Miyasato grinned. It was not a friendly expression. "You will find no servants here tonight. And no friends of winter."
The Fireblade tore into the clearing before skidding to a stop, and Shouko didn't even take the time to stop the engine before she pulled her helmet off and dropped it to the ground, rushing to Shizuka's side. "Shizuka!"
"Shouko. You are incredibly late," Shizuka rebuked.
"Family stuff," the biker said, bouncing on her booted feet and wiggling her fingers as she eyed the asura.
"Ah, the much-touted ally, I presume," Barphojee said. "Have all the defenders of this land become little girls since last I made war here?"
"Buddy, I've already had to deal with way too much patronizing bullshit for one day," Shouko growled, and with no more introduction than that she charged forward, leaving a surprised Shizuka in her wake.
The asura set his swords to meet Shouko's charge, but in the last instant before they came together she closed her hands on thin air and her twin daggers erupted into life with a crackle of flame. One of them met Barphojee's ice-conjured sword and the asura's weapon shattered on the spot, leaving Shouko an opening to cut him across his midsection. A moment later Shizuka conjured a set of needle-pointed thorns between her fingers and threw out her hand, striking the asura even as Shouko's charge carried her out of the line of fire.
Together, the pair of them rapidly changed the course of the battle, the hot-blooded fury of the Dauntless Heart and the resolute purpose of the Ashen Blade cutting through the malicious chill of the asura, Shouko's daggers shattering another of Barphojee's swords as they fought.
It seemed as if fate had turned against the cruel creature, until finally he leapt back from Shouko's relentless onslaught and, folding his legs mid-air, summoned forth a roiling storm cloud upon which he sat and retreated across the clearing. Thus seated, he brought forth more of his icy spells, pelting the pair with hail, frozen winds that tore at one's clothing and the blinding light of a sun's reflection from snow-covered hills. Shouko snapped her daggers into their bow form, but a single arrow was little in the fact of the developing blizzard.
Shouko threw up an arm to shield her face, and even Shizuka held up her sword in a defensive posture, likewise hiding her face behind one arm. It seemed hope, in the end, had deserted them after all.
Fifteen minutes ago
Saika hopped off the bus right on time. The parking lot for the stadium was filling up with people, and she could see the lights of the display from all the way across the street. Out front was a huge inflatable tree which had been ringed with green lights, with a golden star at the top.
'OK I'm here' she texted Shouko. 'I'll be standing by the tree.'
She frowned then. Shouko still hadn't read her earlier message.
'Be safe out there if you're riding. See you soon. <3' she added.
Fourteen minutes ago
"Shizuka! Hit me!" Shouko suddenly cried out.
"What?" the other girl responded.
"I need you to hit me!" Shouko yelled into the rushing wind. A moment later her head snapped around as Shizuka's fist smashed into her cheek. Even Barphojee paused in his spellcasting, raising a frosty eyebrow at the unexpected sight.
Shouko straightened as the magenta of her eyes began to bleed away, replaced by pools of inky black as she fed into the connection opened to Shizuka's dark energy. "Close enough," she commented, grinning. A moment later a vast set of wings erupted from her back and she left the ground in a blast of sparks, closing on the asura with the speed of a bullet. She brought her hands together and the flame of her daggers became an inferno as they joined into the form of a single blade.
The asura turned the strike aside with his stolen katana and fled upwards, his cloud carrying him into the sky. The dark angel chased him, blades clashing as they whirled about the treetops, fire and ice circling in counterpoint to one another. From the ground, Shizuka watched as they fought, Shouko destroying the last of Barphojee's ice blades. Her crimson eyes narrowed, calculating the movements, until with a snap of one arm she threw out a hand and a chain of darkness exploded forth, flying upwards to coil around the asura's chest and halting his motion in midair.
A moment later Shouko was upon him, her flaming sword battering down his blade and slicing through the asura's arms as he threw up his hands to defend himself. The fury of her blows pushed him downwards in conjuction with the restrictive chain, and as he fell Barphojee heard her roaring "YOU! ARE KEEPING ME! FROM SEEING! MY GIRLFRIEND!"
The pair of them plummeted downwards until the asura's falling body struck the rock of the shrine, and he roared as he dissolved, his aura suffusing the stone once more as Shouko snatched the katana from his hand and drove it back into the rent from which it had been plucked earlier that night.
Shizuka sheathed her own blade and held out her hands once more, struggling to contain the asura's energy, gritting her teeth as she stood against the waves of power rolling off the shrine like a physical force. She made a scooping gesture with the fingers of one hand, and of their own volition the prayer ropes sprang to life, encircling the stone once more and binding themselves tightly around its girth. As they did so a beam of light erupted, arcing high into the sky until it touched the clouds, fading moments later.
Shouko beat her wings and leapt from the rock, dropping to her feet beside Shizuka, breathing hard and dismissing her sword with a wave of one hand. The black-feathered wings dissolved a moment later, feathers vanishing in the swirling winds. "Is that it? Did we get him?"
"He...is contained," Shizuka confirmed between sentences of the warding spell. "I must...reaffirm the bonds of his prison."
"Do you need me for this part?" Shouko asked, her eyes - magenta once more - intent upon Shizuka's own.
"No. You are...free," Shizuka replied.
"Good," Shouko said, digging out her phone, "cause it's-"
Ten minutes ago
"...SIX FIFTY I GOTTA GO!" she screamed, barely seeing Saika's texts as she ran for her helmet.
"You will not get back to Hitachinaka so quickly," Shizuka warned. "It is a half hour from here."
Shouko turned her head, glowering through the visor of her helmet. "Love you, Shizuka, but don't tell me what I can't do, right now of all times," she snarled, before throwing her leg over her thrumming bike. "And Shizuka," she added as she revved the engine.
"Yes?"
"Merry Christmas." With that she peeled out, rear tire throwing a cascade of dirt into the air.
As the sound of the engine faded into the distance, footsteps crunched in the frozen earth behind Shizuka.
"I was beginning to think your friend wouldn't show up," said a voice.
"She is unreliable. But...she is...dependable," Shizuka replied. "Though I was getting concerned as well."
"Please," he said in a dismissive tone. "You were never in any real danger." A moment later he hummed in thought as the first few fat white flakes drifted down from the sky. "Look at that, it's snowing," commented the man with the purple hair.
----------------
Six minutes ago
The Honda CBR1000RR (affectionately known as the Fireblade) had a top speed of 185 American miles per hour - three hundred kph in its home country.
The fastest Shouko had ever dared get her bike up to was 200.
She was already going a hundred, engine roaring, as she ran the red light and turned onto the highway from Hokota to head north towards home. Traffic had lightened, but by now a steady stream of snow had begun to fall. Shouko put her head down and accelerated, ignoring the possibility of a slippery road and once more breaking every rule of motorcycle safety as she pulled to the extreme end of the road, riding the shoulder line as she passed the fast-moving traffic like it was standing still.
The speedometer read 250. Shouko turned the throttle further up.
Her entire body felt like it was wired with electricity, heart pounding in her chest, breath rattling in her ears in the confines of her helmet. Her hands gripped the bars as tightly as they could, shutting out the cold, until her knuckles ached. The bike shook beneath her as she screamed down the highway, every little bump and hole and imperfection in the blacktop passing under her at breakneck speed.
Up ahead were a pair of cargo trucks, one riding the shoulder, leaving no room to pass. With the grace of a surgeon Shouko adjusted her grip on the handlebars, drifting over to the center stripe.
One of the truck drivers swore as the red motorcycle shot between him and the guy in the other lane like they were standing still. "Are you crazy?" he shouted at the taillight even as it vanished into the distance.
Shouko clenched her teeth, turning her throttle up until the control refused to budge any further. The trees at the side of the road were a smear, the cars a brief impression of color and red taillights. At this speed the biker was navigating as much by instinct as by sight, glimpses of the road ahead offering guesses of what lay in wait, swinging her bike from lane to lane to shoulder to center in the most hellaciously illegal driving she'd ever done.
"Not for this not for this not for this not for this," she hissed under her breath.
----------
Up north in Hitachinaka, Saika blinked as something white drifted past her eyes. With a soft squeak of delight she looked up to see the snow beginning to fall. The weather had finally decided! Things were going to be just perfect now.
----------
On the road, Shouko cursed as she had to slow just slightly, swinging around a knot of traffic before she pumped the throttle back up. The bike's engine was howling now, the loudest she'd ever heard it roar. "This is what you were made for," she growled under her breath. She hunched, pressing her body to the chassis and reducing her wind resistance. "You see that light up there?" she asked the bike. "That's Saika. That's our guiding star. Long as we've got her in front of us? We've got hope."
The bike's speed devoured the kilometers between Hokota and Hitachinaka like a wildfire tearing through so much dead forest. At this speed, girl and bike were but a blur, a single crimson streak of light, and as Shouko jammed on the throttle, she exerted every once of willpower she had into urging the Fireblade on faster, faster, urging the tires to keep their grip as she shot through every turn and dodged every car. Unseen by her, flames shot from the exhaust as the fiery soul of the Dauntless Heart seemed to infuse the machine, a halo of flame bursting into life around it, vanishing, roaring back into existence.
--------
On the side of the road, a police officer catching a brief nap during a double shift jolted awake as something screamed past, a brief impression of fire like some kind of meteor had zipped by.
His radar gun was blinking 306 KPH.
"Great Caesar's ghost," he murmured, swallowing. He looked out to the road, but whatever the thing was, it had gone.
--------
Shouko's heart swelled as Hitachinaka grew brighter up ahead.
Then it sank as she saw a different set of lights ahead, flashing yellow. Before she could react she was in the thick of a traffic jam, roaring down the shoulder towards someone that had run afoul of the snowfall. What to do? What to do? Even if she ran the impromptu blockade, she would have to slow down. She clenched her teeth.
And then, a Christmas miracle. One of the vehicles near the crash sight was a tow truck, the kind with the flat back. It must have been called in to help clear away whatever car had wiped out, but they hadn't put anything on it yet.
And its ramp was down.
Shouko squeezed her horn as she closed the gap, briefly lowering her throttle and then ramping up again, hauling back on the handlebars so that the Fireblade's front wheel left the ground. "SORRY!" she screamed at peak volume even though she doubted any of the rescue crew could hear her over the horn and the howl of her engine. Still, one way or another nobody got in her path, and the bike hit the lowered ramp and popped up into the air above the cab.
She arced through the open sky, seemingly suspended in midair like no more than one of the drifting snowflakes.
Then she hit the road with a jolt, and though the bike wobbled, Shouko managed to keep it upright. Thanks to the accident and the traffic jam, now the road was empty but for her - a straight shot back to Hitachinaka. She laughed aloud, crazy on emotion.
--------
In a forest outside Hokota, Shizuka slapped her palms together and bowed her head. The freezing aura of the asura had faded away to nothing, leaving but a rock, a sword, and a set of warding charms that rattled softly in the gentle wind.
"Victory," she murmured.
--------
In a parking lot in Hitachinaka, Saika Oishi waited, worry gnawing at her as she watched her phone, waiting for something, anything that would let her know Shouko was alright. By now she was starting to chew her lip, glancing up at everyone passing by just in case she'd missed Shouko somewhere in the crowd. "I hope you're okay," she murmured softly.
As if in response, a distant roar reached her ears, and she blinked up as she saw a familiar cherry-red motorcycle swing itself onto the road that approached the parking lot. Those watching might have sworn a veritable halo sprung up around the girl as she jumped up and cheered. The bike rapidly closed the distance, smoke rising as if the vehicle's chassis had been superheated somehow, and the rider jumped the curb to come screeching to a halt right in front of Saika.
Shouko pulled her helmet off, sweat glimmering on her face as Saika rushed to her side. "I can't believe it, I was getting so worried, you're right-
Now
-on time-ah!" she yelped as the biker dropped her helmet and reached out to pull her off her feet, dipping her over the bike's chassis as she leaned down to kiss her lips. Saika wrapped her arms around Shouko's body to hold her close for a long moment, eyes closed, feeling the frantic thud of her girlfriend's heart.
"Hey you," Shouko said with a trembling smile when they parted.
"I made it," Shouko said, as if she needed to assert the reality of the moment.
"You did," Saika confirmed, brushing a few stray blue hairs back from her girlfriend's face. "You really did."
"Really, Kogawa? Come on," another voice broke in, one of the security guards waving his arms at the pair. "You still gotta park like everyone else."
"Yeah, yeah," Shouko drawled, letting Saika back onto her feet. "Be right back, darlin'."
"I'm here for you," Saika confirmed.
----------------
The light display was huge. The pair wandered through it, hands clasped, stopping to appreciate this piece or that, like the trees with strings of lights like glowing icicles hanging from them, or the verdant green forest of pine trees, or the hall of rainbows.
It was when they paused beneath a wide replica of a shinto gate that Shouko stopped to feel for something she'd transferred to a jacket pocket. "So, I uh-"
"Oh, here," Saika said, evidently having thought of the same thing at the same time, and she held out the blue-wrapped box with the magenta ribbon. "This is for you."
"Are you sure? Those colors might make it anyone's," Shouko said as she took the box, grinning when Saika stuck out her tongue. After a quick check to make sure no one in security was watching, she retrieved her knife and cut along the edge of the box, putting the blade away and tearing through the rest of the wrapping to get at the gift inside.
"Saika..." had gotten her a set of fingerless gloves, the leather dyed magenta, the knuckles reinforced with a metal plate. As a finishing touch, each knuckle had been further plated with an extra bracing in the shape of a little heart. "These...are awesome," Shouko said, voice quiet with awe. A moment later she'd stripped off her current gloves to replace them with the new pair. They fit perfectly, and the interior of the new set had been padded so that her knuckles would be protected if she ever needed to put those metal plates to use.
Saika clapped her hands, delighted with the reaction, watching as Shouko threw a couple of experimental punches at the air. "I'm glad you like them."
"I love 'em," Shouko confirmed. Then her face colored, and she looked away shyly as she held out a box covered by gold paper, the wrapping a little messy on one side where the ends had been inexpertly taped together.
"I'm gonna guess you did this yourself," Saika said slyly as she used her thumb to open up the wrapping, withdrawing a small burgundy box. She popped the top and looked inside to see a chain of thin golden links, each one a five-pointed star, with a larger one holding an emerald inset as the centerpiece. "Oh, Shouko, it's beautiful," she breathed.
"D'you like it? I thought it would look good on ya, 'cause..." Shouko trailed off, shrugging her shoulder.
"Because?" Saika prompted, arching an eyebrow.
"Cause...yer my guiding star," Shouko said, her face bright red. Saika made a noise and Shouko looked up, blinking to see her girlfriend's eyes large and liquid, her lip trembling. "Oh no, don't cry," she started to say, only for her airflow to be cut off as Saika cried out and squeezed her until her ribs groaned.
"I love it so much, Shouko you're wonderful," she said in a rush as Shouko struggled to hug her back before her spine gave way. Saika's grip thankfully slackened after a few seconds and the pair looked into one another's eyes.
Shouko mumbled, "So...I wanted to ask...if..."
"If?" Saika questioned.
"Um...it's been a couple months since...I mean, I've never really, uh...gone steady with anyone," Shouko fumbled for words, only for a fingertip to tap against her lips.
"Just ask me," Saika said, eyes shining.
"...you wanna be for-real girlfriends with me, Saika?" Shouko asked.
"Yes, Shouko. Yes I do," Saika confirmed. She leaned close to kiss Shouko's lips, afterward leaning her forehead against Shouko's own. "Thank you, for the best Christmas Eve ever," she said softly.
A short extra included on the Completely Normal Season 1 DVD which plays after the credits of the season finale.
~~~~
It was a damp and dreary evening. The sky was overcast, and to the north thunder rolled as a storm headed west. The few people out on the streets muttered complaints about the wet streets and cold, oppressive air, but gave some thanks that at least the worst of the storm had passed them by.
As the street lights came on and the roads began to settle, a quartet of figures ambled south, half-glimpsed by passerby in the halo of one humming overhead light or the next. They walked with heads down, hands in their pockets, feet shuffling, one or another occasionally weaving as if they had come a long way. One of the four girls - the tallest, towering over the other three - stopped once to look back towards the storm, scratching briefly at her cheek with one thumb before returning to the company of the others.
By the time they reached the parking lot where their destination stood, evening had given way to night and the rare person passing them on the street had trickled away to nothing as everyone headed home. Although the storm had now faded into the horizon, a light drizzle kept the world damp and cold. Amidst the raindrops, the glass doors of the restaurant were alight with a bright yellow glow that promised warmth and comfort.
As the quartet made their way towards the place, one of them stopped at the vending machine outside, pulling back the waist of her leather jacket to fumble in her pocket for a few loose coins, dropping them one by one into the waiting slot with a series of clinks. The machine buzzed and she lightly rapped one button with a knuckle, prompting it to disgorge a bottle with a green cap, which she took as she followed her companions into the building.
Inside, the place was quiet, with little more than the hum of the florescent lights and the soft buzz of the various machines that lined the walls. It was not large, and consisted of little more than a window-side bench, a pair of tables currently pushed together and ringed with stools, and a counter along which several chairs rested. Apart from the four newcomers, there were no humans present, as if everyone else had but recently stepped out and forgotten to leave a 'back soon' note.
One member of the quartet stopped to look at the machines, scanning the labels with tired eyes that she rubbed from time to time. Eventually she pointed and glanced to the tallest of the group, who nodded and gently squeezed the shorter girl's shoulder, prompting her to shuffle over towards the unoccupied table and quietly draw out a stool, into which she dropped herself with a quiet squeak of pain. Meanwhile, the taller girl sorted through her wallet and ironed out a few paper bills between her hands, feeding them into a coin machine which rattled and clanked as it spat out the equivalent in coin, which she scooped up and approached the machine her girlfriend had indicated, dropping them in to place an order.
The one in the motorcycle jacket eased the garment off her shoulders with a wince, moving gingerly as she laid it on the table not far from where her friend had sat, setting her bottle of soda just beside it and wandering down the line of machines. She stopped at one and once more sorted through her pockets for the right amount of yen.
A moth batted at one of the ceiling lights, likely having gotten in seeking the same shelter from the storm as the quartet.
Had there been anyone else present to get an eyeful of the group, they might have called a doctor, or at least the police. The four of them looked as if they had been in a brawl, or perhaps fallen down the side of a mountain, or perhaps had brawled with a mountain. Cuts and scrapes and bruises covered the lot of them. Hair had been mussed as if at some point they'd all gone sprinting down a wind tunnel. Their clothing had been ripped and torn as if by knives, or perhaps not by knives, given the patterns some of the markings had left on various arms and legs. The tallest of them had scabbing forming on her knees, whilst the first to sit was using a napkin proffered by the table's dispenser to try and rub away some of the dirt clinging to her soft features. The one that had worn a leather jacket, who seemed the most rough-edged of the four, looked as if she was going to be sporting a good black eye in the coming days.
As the vending machines hummed with warmth, cooking up the first set of orders, the fourth member of the group, the one who looked the most delicate of all of them, stopped to sort through her wallet, lips pressed together in concern as she used a fingertip to flip the tops of various bills forward, until with a sigh she withdrew one and, after a brief hesitation, approached the one that had taken off her jacket. Catching her eye - the non-blackened one - she lifted the bill and indicated it with a finger from her free hand. The other girl reached for her wallet and withdrew a few crumpled bills of lower denomination, handing them out and nonchalantly waving off the nod of thanks she received.
The tall one was leaning against the vending machine by her elbows, forehead pressed against her arms, having fed money into a trio of slots and set several orders to cook. When the first beep came she didn't move, knowing that the food would need to sit a little bit and cool anyway. When more chimes followed she finally pushed off with a grunt and moved to gather up the food - two bowls of steaming noodles and a pair of bottles with now-heated tea inside. Though she had to juggle a bit, she successfully managed to carry the lot of it over to the chosen table, and was favored with a smile from the curvaceous young lady who was by now no longer quite so dirt-smudged or windblown. She pushed a paper packet with a set of chopsticks over as the tall one sat and made sure she took a napkin as well, quirking a brow in warning that this was to be obeyed.
The one that had worn a leather jacket retrieved a foil-wrapped parcel from her chosen machine and returned to the table to unwrap an American-style hamburger, from which she took a single bite and then set aside, resting her chin atop her folded arms as if ready to fall asleep then and there.
The thin-faced young lady was the last of the four to take her place at the selected table, carrying a bowl of tempura shrimp, a cup of sauce, and a bottle of tea. She laid the change from the yen she'd been given earlier next to the foil wrapper where her friend's burger rested before she delicately sat, broke her chopsticks, and began to eat with a studied precision. She was in contrast to the tallest of the four, who slurped quietly at her noodles and speared the cuts of pork that rested in the bowl. Across the table her partner watched with a soft smile, her cheek leaning into a cupped hand as she idly stirred her own bowl, letting it cool just a bit more.
In time, the one with the jacket laid atop the table unfolded her arms and reached out for her soda, grunting as the cap resisted her for a moment before it finally cracked. Then she yelped as the carbonated beverage surged up and overflowed the top, running down the sides of the bottle as the would-be soda drinker hurried to grab napkins. As she wiped at the table with a growl, the girl with the narrow frame across from her couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh at her friend's predicament. The tallest of the lot snickered a moment later, and across the table her doe-eyed girlfriend giggled, attempting to muffle the sound with the fingers of one hand.
The rough-edged one glowered at her friends as the laughter spread, until despite her attempts to maintain her image, she too snorted at the little absurdity. The laughter seemed to grow and grow in a feedback loop, until all four were whooping with it.
Outside, the storm had finally faded beyond sight or sound, and the clouds had broken to let the stars shine down once more.
~~~~~~~~~
((Jihanki Shokudo is a real place that you can visit if you ever happen to find yourself just north of Tokyo.))
“Noooooo! How can one person be so unlucky?!” the girl cried, pulling uselessly at the handle of the classroom door.
“Kaori, calm down and tell us what happened,” interjected a calm voice. Three more girls had gathered around their panicked compatriot, their presence representing the entire female side of the high school disciplinary committee. Yuko crossed her arms and turned a sharp look on her fellow senior, but for once the glower of admonishment didn’t seem to help Kaori pull herself together.
“Professor Watanabe locked his door after he left,” Kaori wailed, “and I left my tablet in his room and it has all my scheduling on it!”
A collective gasp went through the gathered girls, but Yuko regained her composure after a moment and frowned more deeply. “Kaori, we’ve talked about your leaving your tablet alone before,” she said in her best I’m-not-mad-I’m-just-disappointed voice.
“I know, I know, but I ran out to ask Shinji a question and I was only going to leave it for a few seconds but I forgot the door would swing closed and it locked on meeeee!” Kaori sobbed, giving up on her useless attempts to turn the knob and dropping to her haunches so that her forehead thumped against the pitiless wooden surface.
“It’s okay Kaori,” said Emiko in a gentle tone, “we’ll just go find the custodian and they’ll let you in.”
“Yeah,” echoed Hibiki, “they have all the keys.”
“No we can’t!” Kaori protested. “Mr. Osada said that if he had to unlock another door after hours for me he’d get me written up!”
Another collective gasp stunned the group. A moment later Yuko stomped a foot and loomed over her cohort. “Kaori, how many times have you gotten yourself locked out of classrooms?” she demanded.
“A couple,” admitted the other girl.
Yuko pressed her fingertips to her brow in exasperation. “Well now we can’t go to the custodial staff or they’ll just assume we’re covering for you.”
“We can ask someone to call Professor Watanabe and see if he’ll come back,” Emiko suggested.
“Yeah,” echoed Hibiki, “he doesn’t live too far from the school, it probably wouldn’t be too much to ask.”
“That will reflect badly on us,” Yuko argued, though it was little more than token resistance. She sighed. “But, if there’s no alternative…”
She was interrupted by laughter from down the hall. “And here I thought you had to have discipline to serve on the disciplinary committee,” an all-too-familiar voice said. Yuko’s stomach shot up into her throat; that was the absolute last person she wanted to see them in their current state. Steeling herself, she turned to see Shouko Kogawa leaning against a nearby row of lockers, her motorcycle jacket thrown over her school uniform, a white cylinder hanging from the corner of her mouth as she sneered.
“What are you doing here so late, Kogawa?” Emiko demanded, stepping between Kaori and the troublemaker. “You’re not on any of the school committees.
“Professor Honda gave me detention,” the other girl replied.
“Three hours of it?” Hibiki questioned.
“I served it all at once,” Shouko responded.
“Are you really smoking right here, in front of us?” Yuko snarled.
Shouko raised an eyebrow, her grin frozen on her face, before she slowly lifted a hand to pinch the white cylinder between fore- and middle finger and extracted it from her mouth to reveal a dull red lump of sugar which she licked once before popping it back in her mouth.
Yuko coughed. “Alright, well, you’ve had your fun, now keep moving,” she said, making her voice strident. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Actually I was about to offer you a deal,” the other girl replied, grinning crookedly. “But if you’re not interested…”
“How dare you,” Yuko responded. "This committee doesn’t make deals with the devil.”
“Not even if the devil can save your friend’s bacon?“ Kogawa leaned forward, grinning like a goblin. "I can get you into Professor Watanabe’s room. I’ll even keep quiet about everything. In return for you laying off me for a month or two, huh?” Shouko replied, lifting her chin and laying a hand at her hip. Yuko thought she saw horns on the girl’s brow for a moment.
“Forget about it, Kogawa,” she said firmly.
“Oh well. Guess you’ll have to call the custodians then. Have fuuuun,~” the delinquent singsonged, shrugging and beginning to turn away.
“Waaaaaaiiiiit!” Kaori cried out, sprinting past Yuko to screech to a halt in front of Kogawa, bowing and clapping her hands together in a pitiful display. “Please, please don’t go! I need my tablet!”
“Kaori!” Yuko rejoined. A moment later and her fellow committee member was clutching at her vest, turning wet eyes up at her.
"Please! It’s not such a bad deal, Yuko,” she pleaded. "We can tell people we’re giving her a little slack, and after a month, when she keeps on screwing up-“
"Hey!”
“-we can come down on her then. Please?”
Yuko clenched her fists for a moment, but in the face of the desperate entreaty she broke and sighed. "I won’t overlook anything that’s actually illegal, you understand?“ she said sharply, attempting to rally the shreds of her dignity. Kogawa nodded. "Alright. Fine. It’s a deal, Kowaga.”
“Alright alright alright,” the interloper said, bouncing forward to join the gathering, taking out her sucker and passing it off to Emiko. "Hold this.“ Emiko took the half-melted treat by the very end of the stick, looking a little grossed out. "All of you, turn around,” Kogawa added as she stepped up to the door and began to rummage in a jacket pocket.
“Why? What are you going to do?” Yuko asked.
“Open the door. You just don’t need to see how,” Kogawa responded. Seething, Yuko turned about and listed to the sounds of metal on metal, her teeth gritted.
“Good to know you carry a lockpick on a daily basis, Kogawa,” she growled.
“I prefer to think of it as being prepared for an emergency. Like this one,” Kogawa replied.
“How do you know it’ll work on a classroom door? How many times have you used that before?” she accused.
“Relax. I’ve never done anything illegal,” the delinquent said, mocking Yuko’s tone. A few more moments of her tinkering and there was the distinct sound of a classroom door being opened. "And there you go,“ she said triumphantly. Kaori bolted inside, fast enough that even Kogawa seemed nonplussed at her reaction time, letting out a noise of relief as she clutched her tablet to her chest.
By the time Yuko had turned around, Kogawa’s hand was inside her jacket and the offending device already out of sight. "If I ever see that out-”
“You won’t,” Kogawa assured her, taking back her sucker from Emiko and hanging it from the corner of her mouth once more.
“Thank you Kogawa!” Kaori said, too busy being relieved to back up her committee head.
“It was nothing,” Kogawa said with a wink as she began to walk away.
“Where did you even learn to use such a thing?” Yuko demanded of her before she could reach the hallway intersection.
Kogawa paused and twisted to look back, her grin gone, her face set in a hard expression. "Let’s just say there was a time in my life I had to make a hard choice,“ she said grimly. "A choice you would never understand.” With that she turned once more and walked away.
“Why does she have to be so cool when she says things like that,” Emiko sighed.
“Yeah,” echoed Hibiki, “it’s not fair she gets to sound so tough when she says such things.”
“You stop that,” Yuko said, fighting down the urge to whack their heads together. "She probably did something ridiculously illegal and you shouldn’t be admiring her for it!“
"Yes ma'am,” the pair responded in unison. Yuko folded her arms and began to walk in the opposite direction. The other three fell in behind her, Kaori still making a soft cooing noise as she clutched her tablet. Despite herself, Yuko couldn’t help wondering what situation Kogawa had found herself in and what kind of choice she’d been forced to make. A little shiver went through her shoulders.
———
TWO YEARS EARLIER
“MOOOOOOOOM, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Shouko hollered into the phone.
“I’m sorry, honey, I really thought I took it off the keychain before I left,” Kyoko’s voice responded.
“HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET INTO THE MAILBOX WITHOUT THE KEY? I HAVE THINGS I NEED IN THERE!” the sixteen-year-old wailed.
“Well, I can rush it back to Japan in a day or two-”
“A day or two?! Mom this is why I asked you to make sure you left it to begin with!” the teenager admonished.
“When I get back I’ll make you a duplicate so it doesn’t happen again,” Kyoko promised. "What’s so important that it can’t wait even a day?“
"It…well, it…” Shouko trailed off and sighed, putting her face in her hands.
“Shouko, is this an emergency emergency, or can it wait a few days?” Kyoko asked suspiciously.
“It can wait,” Shouko said miserably.
“Okay. I’m so sorry, sweetheart, I promise I’ll make it up to you when I get back.”
“Okay,” Shouko said. The moment the call was ended, though, she screeched at the ceiling of the empty house. "WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME? MOM WON’T BE HOME FOR ANOTHER FOUR DAYS! I CAN’T WAIT FOUR DAYS!“ She clutched her head and shook it ferociously, her long blue hair whipping wildly in all directions. Her chair had rolled back a couple feet from the desk thanks to her antics, and so she had to drag it back up as she began pounding at her keyboard with furious fingers.
Two google searches and several youtube videos later, she ran out to the hardware store to make a purchase, bouncing from foot to foot with frantic energy the whole time she waited for the bus. She returned with a bag under one arm and vanished into her house for a few more instructional videos before emerging once more and crossing to the bank of locked boxes used by the set of houses where she lived trying not to look suspicious even as she glanced nervously over her shoulder every few seconds.
Her tongue slipped from the corner of her mouth as she tried to work with trembling fingers, jostling at the lock and trying to go by feel the way she’d been advised. A neighbor passed by and she forced a smile and a few cheery words, playing it off liek she’d mixed up her keys before returning to her efforts. Evening was coming on and the light was fading, and just as she was about to give up and go fling herself into bed and have a cry, she felt the lock give.
Spirits rising, Shouko twisted and pulled the mailbox plate open. Inside the metal container was a key for one of the large-delivery boxes, and Shouko squealed as she grabbed it, doing her best to close the individual box again before crossing to the larger set and popping it open, grabbing up the large box inside and scampering back to her house with her ill-gotten gains.
The skeleton was a foot tall, its frame streaked with blood, its mouth open in a scream, posture hunched so as to bring to bear the twin rocket launchers built into its shoulders. The packaging was left on her bed where she’d torn through it, with only the statue itself placed high on a shelf, a spot where it could overlook the night’s proceedings in the company of several other such pieces. The dark room echoed with the roar of an automatic rifle and the pulse of dubstep as she shot her way through a clutch of demon-possessed zombies.
The improvised lock picks sat on a corner of her desk. When her mom got home she’d have to order something more specialized. Just in case this ever happened again.
Shouko lifted up her head to see her girlfriend smirking back at her from her desk, waggling a stick of pocky from the corner of her mouth. Shouko grinned back and leaned over her desk to meet her.
Just as she was about to take proffered snack between her tongue and teeth, however, there was motion in the doorway and a voice asked, “Saika, I wanted to check if you got-”
Saika turned her head instinctively to react. “Wha-” and as a result the pocky stick got jammed up against Shouko’s lip and broke.
“Oshi-” she started to swear as it began to fall, making a hurried grab.
“No I-” Saika tried to override her, doing the same thing. Their heads crashed together and the pair yelped, leaping back from one another with a matched set of whines.
“That sound wasn’t nearly hollow enough,” Miyumi deadpanned from the door.
“Shuddup Aratani,” Shouko murmured, watching Saika’s face flush a bright red and knowing hers was doing the same.
So you know how oftentimes an anime gets an OVA or a movie that takes place...somewhere in its continuity, but nobody’s quite sure where, it probably messes with continuity but someone had an idea for a standalone story so by god they wedged in in there somehow?
Well, consider this to be Completely Normal RPG getting its own OVA release.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miyumi was the first one taken by the creature.
Later on, Shouko, attempting to lighten the mood, joked that it did so because it was smart. While there might have been a kernel of truth in the statement, when everything came out in the end it also inadvertently hid the thing's true motivation.
------------------------
In truth there had been others attacked beforehand, but they had been left at the site of their assault, all of them bone-weary and exhausted, none able to describe whatever the thing was that had come after them. Whatever it was, it struck at twilight three days in a row. The school put out a warning of a flu going around, reacting to the aftereffects, but when the four of them got together the idea wasn't even dignified with a single repetition.
"A vampire of some kind?" Kanako proposed.
"Whatever it is, it's definitely draining its victims," Miyumi agreed with a stroke of her chin.
"But it's not drinking their blood or anything, just sapping their energy," Erika said from the counter where she was fixing a sandwich. "Are there any beasts that just sort of...make people tired and move on?"
A quick call to Saika was no help. "She says there's too many possibilities," Shouko said, waggling an unlit cigarette between her lips and ignoring a dirty look from Miyumi. "She says to do the usual - just buddy up and never be alone and keep your eyes open."
So they did, and Miyumi was in the company of her boyfriend Shoji when dusk came at the end of the next day, but all told, the advice didn't seem to be much help.
"I barely saw it," Shoji murmured from his bed. He was bruised and cut in a few places, but otherwise unharmed but for the same strange exhaustion that had overtaken the previous victims. "There was a flash of headlights behind us, and then I thought someone was coming off the road to try and hit us. After that I just saw stars." Kanako tried to coax more information out of him, gently asking questions, but that seemed to be the limit of what he could remember. Apart from that, Erika had to step in when he tried to rise from his bed as if to start looking for Miyumi then and there, easily keeping the boy down with a hand to his chest.
"You just focus on getting better," she said firmly. "We'll find Miyumi."
The next morning, Shouko crossed paths with Shizuka when the latter stepped off the bus before class. "You are on time for school today," the red-eyed girl noted quietly.
"You're a riot," Shouko replied, shrugging her motorcycle jacket over her shoulder and falling into step beside Shizuka. "For real though, why would this thing take Miyumi when it just leaves everyone else all tired out?"
Shizuka shot the delinquent a sidelong glower, the kind she often employed on those who ought to know better. "What distinguishes Miymui from the rest of them?" she asked curtly, and then walked on, ignoring Shouko's faltering steps behind her.
---------------
Erika and Kanako never made it home that night, but because it was a friday and Kana lived alone but for her cat Tsukiko, nobody realized what had happened until Shouko (in flagrant violation of Saika's warning not to travel alone) dropped by the house late the next afternoon to ask after the math homework they'd been assigned. The door was unlocked, and she found nobody but a pitifully meowing Tsukiko who pointedly went to sit by her bowl. After offering the cat a reassuring stroke and some food from the bag under the counter, Shouko sent a few queries by text, careful to sound innocuous. When the inseparable pair didn't turn up anywhere, Shouko hurried out, and in the end she was almost fast enough.
Saika's phone buzzed and she picked it up with a chirp of "hi Shouko!"
"Don't talk just listen! It's got Kana and Erika!" Shouko shouted back, sounding out of breath. There was some kind of rhythmic pounding like a series of sledgehammers behind her voice.
"Shouko?!" Saika yelped, immediately disregarding her girlfriend's instruction standing with such haste she knocked her desk chair over.
"It's some kind of a machine! It's got all kinds of random parts! It's got...it's got a core shaped like a diamond made of mirrors! It's got wings and they glow really bright! I don't-"
Where was a sound of screeching metal and a moment later the line disconnected. Saika stared at the little rectangle in disbelief for a moment before mashing redial and begging "pick up...please pick up..." but it was not to be. The normally-bubbly blonde stood wide-eyed in the center of her room, staring past her phone at the far wall, paralyzed for a long moment with indecision. Then, with trembling fingers, she dialed another number.
---------------------
"Hmmm," he mused after she relayed her description. "'A diamond-shaped mirror' has sometimes been mentioned in the description of a creature called the mirrorknight." The Baron of the Radiant Court paused, marshaling his thoughts. "It is a type of golem which repairs and rebuilds itself with whatever materials may be present, but its heart is a single piece of silver polished to a mirror shine. A long time ago there used to be quite a number of them, but they were unstable creations and would eventually go renegade."
"This one seems to be pretty renegade," Saika agreed, her voice shaky. "Why would this one be kidnapping hunters?"
"Individuals have attacked members of the Court before, thought always in isolated incidents. I'll look into the archives, and I will send someone to reinforce you as soon as possible. I want you to be very careful, is that clear?"
"Yessir," Saika replied, and the call ended. Saika looked out her window at the night sky and the lights of other houses across the street and beyond. Then she looked back to her phone and, with a trembling thumb, scrolled through her contacts to a certain name whose number she had never dialed.
She took a deep breath. She'd always tried to...be helpful. Back up her friends. Be there when they needed her - when Shouko needed her. Be the guiding light. She'd never...taken point, so to speak. And certainly not like this. This could get her into a lot of trouble. A lot. But the night was coming on, and it was getting cold, and Miyumi had been gone for over two whole days at this point, and it could be...some time before another member of the Radiant Court could be pulled from their current duty and sent to help. And every passing moment meant all four of them were out there, somewhere, in trouble...
"Hey, by the way, you should add this to your contacts."
"Shouko, she'll me really angry you gave me her number."
"Nah, she said it was okay."
"Did she really?"
"Well, you know, I sort of ran it by her and she kind of grunted the way she does. Look, just save it for a major emergency, okay?"
Her phone's screen started to grey out, and Saika swallowed hard, raised her thumb high, brought it down on the dial icon.
One ring.
Two.
"Hello," answered Shizuka's deadpan voice.
"We need to talk," Saika said.
----------------------
They met at the sports field by the school, a wide-open place not far from the building's lights. The representative of the Eventide Vanguard came armed, of course, her katana belted at her side, and Saika tried to keep her fingers from twitching, fighting the urge to summon her bow, just to have it ready.
It was a long moment before either of them spoke - Shizuka stood with her arms crossed, her red-eyed gaze unwavering, while Saika chewed her lip, searching for the right words. Finally she gave up and just repeated everything that had happened, relaying everything Shouko had had time to tell her over the phone and the resulting information given to her by the Baron.
When she was done, Shizuka lowered her gaze and closed her eyes for a moment. "You could face severe consequences for this, Oishi," she commented dryly. "It could be seen as consorting with the enemy."
Saika spread her arms and shrugged. "I can't...just wait," she said, hearing the plaintive tone in her own voice.
Shizuka uncrossed her arms and rested one hand at her sword's sheath, idly popping the katana's hilt with her thumb and holding it for a moment before clicking it back into place, her lips pursed, her gaze directed past Saika's shoulder rather than on her face. "The Vanguard's knowledge of the mirrorknight states that it's core is designed as a mirror because it was intended to be a reactive force," she suddenly stated. "It absorbs energy for fuel, and when it drinks power from a certain element it alters its own base nature to turn that energy against its foes."
"So when Shouko described its wings as glowing-" Saika realized with growing horror.
"It has likely absorbed magic from both Kanako and Erika, which would give it a strong light aspect," Shizuka confirmed.
"We can't wait for backup," Saika blurted, and as Shizuka raised an eyebrow she balled her fists and stamped a foot. "Either of us. You know I'm right, Miyasato. Every minute they're out there that thing is draining more and more from them. What if it doesn't stop like it did with the other people it attacked. What if it drains everything?"
"You are willing to put everything on the line in the event of that possibility," Shizuka said, her red-eyed gaze once more pinned to Saika's own green pair.
"Aren't you?" Saika rejoined, and Shizuka lowered her eyes, thumb toying with the hilt of her katana again. Saika took a bracing breath and then turned on the ball of one foot, thrusting out a hand towards her opposite number. "Night's fallen," she said, her voice low and firm. "Day and twilight are both behind us. And they'll come again in the morning. But for tonight there are people who need saving. Our friends. And I'm...I'm not asking you to like me, Miyasato. But...just for one night. For our friends."
Shizuka eyed the proffered hand for a long moment. "A two-person band," she mused. Then she reached out and clasped Saika's hand. The pair squeezed.
"So...um, now we just need to find it," Saika realized lamely.
Shizuka favored her with one of her barely-there smirks. "Shouko said it was made of random parts. Where else do machines go to die and be reborn, Oishi?"
--------------------
Kanako's screaming filled the junkyard, but nobody had come running in the last day, and nobody came running now.
She thrashed in her restraints as their captor leaned close and opened its maw which, not already enough of a science-fiction nightmare made as it was of mashing metal parts, was full of discarded sawblades that whirled and struck sparks from one another when the bottom set glanced off the ones on the top. But instead of biting into the hapless girl, the machine seemed to inhale, and from Kanako's body a haze of glimmering light took form only to be drawn away as if by some manner of whirlpool, pulled inexorably into the machine-beast's mouth. It arched, like a predator swallowing a particularly juicy morsel, its wings twitching and glimmering as the hope it drained from its captive suffused its body.
The thing that had taken them was the size of a bear, and walked on a pair of legs made from pistons and car axles, its arms cobbled together from cast-offs from the construction equipment manufacturing plant and spliced into grabbing claws. Its posture was hunched and predatory, its eyes a set of headlights stolen from the hulk of a bus, which explained why Shoji had thought some nutcase was about to run him and Miyumi down.
The wings that jutted from its body were the only thing that didn't seem to have come from the scrapyard - a set of blade-like triple-pointed razor-sharp limbs that extended almost ten feet in either direction and which, for the last day, had been glowing with an ever more intense light as it sucked the energy from its captives.
Kanako struggled to catch her breath as the thing finally seemed to take its fill and stepped away, rumbling, shaking her head and coughing. "I knew this war between hunters and the twilight was going to crazy when I signed up, but I didn't think every other monster out there was going to try and eat us!" she wailed, sobbing a bit though by now her cheeks were try, with only the tracks left by the tears from earlier in the day.
"It...it's going to be okay," Miyumi murmured from her position sat against the wall. The sorceress could barely keep her head up, deep bags under both eyes after fully two days with little more than a few drops of water. The machine-creature had fashioned crude manacles from rebar and steel beams, driving them into the concrete wall against the back of the junkyard to pin the foursome's legs and hands in place. Even Erika's fearsome strength had managed little more than to earn a bit of wiggle room. "We will...figure something..out."
"Keep your eyes open, Miyumi!" Erika cried out. "Don't fall asleep on us! Um...what's forty times twenty-three?"
"Nnn...nine hundred and twenty," Miymui replied after a few moments' hesitation.
"Shouko are you sure you got through?" Erika asked for what had to be the hundredth time.
For the last hour Shouko had been trying to use the toe of her boot to grab purchase on an iron bar that rested by her feet, hoping she would be able to somehow lever open the rebar that held her pinned. "Uh huh," she replied. "I heard her answer. C'mon...c'monnnnnn..." With a soft squeak of triumph she managed to get her toe underneath the end of the bar and worked it up a couple inches, just enough to maneuver her feet to pin the bar between her insteps, drawing it from the ground towards her.
"Shouko, watch-" Kanako started to warn her, but a steel claw shot forwards to grab the bar and yanked it violently away from the would-be escapee. Shouko yelped, having been so utterly focused on her task she hadn't noticed the golem turning back around towards them. It leaned close, opening up its sawblade mouth and hissing steam in warning. Shouko screamed back.
"Get away from her you...you b-jerk!" a voice cried out, and the golem reared, turning with awkward grace to find whatever interloper had called it out.
[...]
The pair stood side-by-side. Shizuka's katana was already drawn and laid across her shoulders, its eldritch glow alight. Beside her, Saika had her bow summoned and a gleaming golden arrow put to the shimmering string.
"Machines are meant to make lives easier and take the weight from the backs of working people," Shizuka growled. "A malfunctioning beast like you has no right to turn such devices to the purpose of inflicting harm upon innocents."
"We won't let you hurt anyone else," Saika echoed. "We might be like night and day ourselves, but even at the bottom of the night people deserve to dream of tomorrow, and when a new day breaks, that's all that'll be left of you - a bad dream!" With that she drew her bow and fired her arrow, her aim dead-on between the mirrorknight's eyes. But when the magical projectile struck the golem, it merely shattered and vanished, and the creature's wings only seemed to glow even brighter than before as it gnashed its sawblade teeth.
"Saika no, it's tuned itself to light energy!" Kanako cried out. "You won't be able to hurt it like that!"
"So if it's full of light energy," Saika mused, glancing to her side even as the mirrorknight shook itself and began to pound towards the pair. "Do you...?"
"Don't mind if I do," the Eventide representative growled and leapt forward, long skirts billowing about her legs as she ran to meet the beast halfway, her katana striking sparks from its claws as they met and she parried, dodged, and struck. The energised blade cut into the morass of scrap that composed the mirrorknight's body, and it flashed in a brief, sudden coruscation of wild magic and drew back, snapping in bestial rage. It lunged and bit, swiping with its claws, and dealt Shizuka a glancing blow with one hand, making her cry out and drop back.
Saika was at her back a moment later, her hand reaching out for Shizuka's shoulder, and in the space of a heartbeat the wound closed as if it had never been. "I can still back you up like this," she assured the other girl, and squeezed, imparting a measure of energy.
Shizuka lifted a hand and, with a sudden burst of inhuman speed, threw out her arm and from the air exploded a set of chains as black as night that lashed out and tangled around the mirrorknight's limbs. Splaying her fingers, the Eventide warrior threw a hail of thorns equally black that sank into the golem's armored hide with no more resistance than pins through a sheet of paper. The renegade creation thrashed and lifted up into the air, letting loose an unearthly howling noise, and the glow of its wings intensified with a suddenness that left Saika with barely enough time to shout "watch out!" before searing beams of light erupted in every direction, carving through the air and leaving scorch marks where they passed.
Shizuka's chains failed and burst, but even so as the mirrorknight dropped back to the ground she was there, rushing forward with another reckless cut of her blade, carving deep into its flank, and again setting off the shudder of pain and the flashing, wild release of energy. Then the thing kicked out and caught her in the midsection, lifting her from her feet and sending her flying through the air. Saika rushed to her side when she came down, healing her once more, but rather than take advantage of the moment, the mirrorknight shuddered, and without warning its belly parted, affording them a glimpse of the diamond-shaped core housed within its torso, a perfect octohedron poised to a mirror shine.
Then the light that had sprayed forth from the golem's wings faded, replaced by a mounting inky blackness, dotted with distant pinpricks of light as if a void had opened into the night sky. Helping Shizuka to her feet, Saika leveled her bow and summoned another arrow, firing at the creature once more and this time achieving the desired result, forcing it back a step as it howled injury. "That's why you took Miyumi first," Saika realized. "Because if you'd tried to fight both her and Kanako at the same time they could have just alternated what energy they hit you with. She summoned another arrow, held it until it blazed with light, and fired, driving the berserk machine back another step.
Then, without warning, it charged, but in a heartbeat Shizuka was in front of her once more, the glow gone from her sword as she ceased to channel its enchantment, blocking steel with steel as the golem's claws screeched against the killing edge with no magical power to draw upon. Together the unlikely pair faced down the cruel machine, Shizuka's protective blade turning aside the whirling sawblades and killing claws as Saika flexed her fingers and summoned up a triad of arrows, firing all three at once into the thing and making it reel, falling to its knees.
"That's right! You’ve got nothing!" Saika cheered, pumping a fist. "You never expected a pair like us to team up, did you? Always striking at one or the other; you've got nothing when we work together!"
"Oishi," Shizuka warned.
The golem had managed to clamber up to one knee, its torso once mroe opening to display the pristine mirror of its core as the darkness faded from its wings, leaving perfectly-polished steel in its wake.
Then it closed a claw, and a long blade of fire erupted into the air.
"......o-oh," Saika whined, belatedly remembering not everyone had powers neatly categorized into light and dark.
The machine lashed out with what power it had managed to steal from Shouko, but with a snap-hiss of energy Shizuka had stepped in to block the blow, driven a foot back from the sheer strength behind it. The machine lashed out again and the pair separated as the blade came down between them.
"What do we do now? I don't know any ice spells!" Saika cried out, firing another pair of arrows that thunked into the golem's armored hide.
"We do things the old-fashioned way," Shizuka said grimly, with a cut of her blade that sliced into the mirrorknight's other flank.
"Get 'em Saika! I believe in you!" Shouko shouted.
"Take him down!" Erika chimed in.
"You can do it," Miyumi husked.
"We're all counting on you!" Kanako added her voice to the chorus.
Saika conjured one arrow after the other, putting them into the hulking brute's torso with determination, but seemed to accomplish little even as Shizuka chipped away at its limbs with her blade. This was going to take all night, and Saika didn't have the energy to keep them healed if they took more injuries. Then, as the golem twisted to try and hit Shizuka, Saika realized that its torso was still open, its core naked. It had to be nearly out of energy, she realized.
"Miyasato! Are you willing to trust me?" she cried out, hurrying once more to Shizuka's side.
"It's a little late for that question," Shizuka growled.
"The core," Saika said, and her opposite nubmer thinned her lips and nodded, setting herself.
The mirrorknight stamped its piston-legs, shook itself in animalistic fashion, and stepped forward, beginning to raise its flaming sword.
Saika shut her eyes as she summoned up every bit of energy she could conjure, her bow trembling in her hand as she fed everything into it, leaving herself utterly unguarded, but summoning up an arrow that seemingly glowed with the intensity of a risen sun. Then, as the mirrorknight's sword reached the highest point of its arc, ready to crash down in a devastating blow, she dropped one foot back, braced, and pulled, firing towards the exposed core.
Shizuka threw her hand out and one of her ink-black chains short forth, latching onto the arrow in mid-flight and trailing behind it as it soared, sinking deep into the polished mirror surface of the golem's core, spidering cracks flowing out in every direction.
The mirrorknight stumbled, frozen in the middle of its deathblow.
Shizuka closed her hand around the conjured chain, and Saika reached out to likewise grasp it, her own fingers closing on the blackened links just above Shizuka's own grip. Ice flooded her all the way up the shoulder as she touched the shadowed conjuring, but she held on tight, teeth bared.
"Twilight marks the end of day," Shizuka murmured.
"But dawn always comes again!" Saika replied, and together they focused, sending a spiraling wave of alternating light and dark energy twisting down the length of the chain that sank into the cracks created by the arrow's strike and exploded forth, shattering the golem's core into hundreds of mirrored shards.
The renegade machine let out a final howl and slowly toppled backwards, the flaming sword fading from its clawed grip as it struck the ground and shattered into its many constituent pieces, the spark of animation that had bound them into a hungering whole dispelled forevermore.
As smoke rose from the hulking remnants, Shizuka straightened to lay her katana across her shoulders once more, eyes closed, and Saika couldn’t resist making a ‘v’ with the first two fingers of her freed hand, fingertips framing one eye.
------------------------
Erika had to carry Miyumi from the junkyard, Kanako patting her head and summoning what healing magics she could still call forth to stabilize her, promising food as soon as they could get home. For her part, Shouko reached for a cigarette, but in deference to Miymui's condition she slid it away again and settled for hugging Saika tightly.
Still, as they exited the place Saika found a spare moment to drag her feet, slowing to walk alongside Shizuka and offering an awkward, but heartfelt smile. "Thanks for trusting me," she said softly.
"Likewise, Oishi," Shizuka replied after a few moments, offering a faint smile in return.
"Maybe sometimes light and darkness don't always have to be in opposition, huh?" she asked softly.
"Perhaps," Shizuka allowed. A moment of silence passed between them, then, "you may keep my phone number in your contacts. In case another night should come in which neither the Court nor the Vanguard need know...quite everything."
Saika nodded. "You can add mine to yours, too. Just in case, like you say."
"Oishi."
"Miyasato."
"Hey, are you coming or what?" Shouko called from up ahead.
"Yes, just wait up!" Saika said, hustling after the others, and after a moment, Shizuka deigned to lengthen her stride as well so that she need not fall behind.
