"And I'm Ruby!" said the other girl. "Ruby Chakraborty! A pleasure to be in your acquaintance, fellow seekers of Hell!"
........
Wait, what?
Standing just behind Kazuko, Thorne, and Karen, a new challenger has approached. With dark clothes, a large pair of round glasses, mismatched eyes that shone almost obnoxiously bright, and a black and pink hairstyle that seemed to be trying to do four different things at once, she stuck out like a sore thumb. Yet she somehow appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and nobody could really be entirely sure when she got there.
"Fellow fighters for the fires of freedom!" she proclaimed, flashing a piece sign over her right red eye. "Your pleas have been heard...I've appeared from the depths of Hell itself to join your battle." Her voice lowered from the high squeak she had just seconds ago. She swiftly shifted position and flashed a peace sign over her left, golden eye. "And with this eye that sees Heaven itself, I shall not rest until the distortions in your reality are quelled in a flash of Angelic Devil Justice!" That one was in a high voice again.
She...certainly was here, now.
A black rabbit with little wings and a scar over its eye appeared behind her as she posed dramatically. It landed on her head between the two buns atop her head, and made some light squeaky noises. At least, it sounded like squeaking noises to the other magical girls. For Ruby and the Seers, the rabbit seemed to be saying, "BURN THE FLESH OF THE INNOCENTS AND FEAST UPON THEIR INNARDS, SACRIFICE THEM ALL FOR THE ULTIMATE POWER, THEY SHALL KNOW SUFFERING."
"It's a pleasure to meetcha!" Ruby proclaimed.
"NOOOOOOOO", despaired the rabbit.
Whether they chose to acknowledge this duo's presence or not, it seemed as if everyone just had to deal with and accept the fact that they were, just here now.
Spoiler : Re: Beelzebun :
Just ftr, Beelzebun can not be heard by other Magical Girls, but can be heard by Ruby and Seers.
I'm so sorry.
Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!
The sound of the rain suddenly overwhelmed Kazuko's mind. It wasn't because it had suddenly gotten particularly louder, rather, her sense of danger was acting up. As Ruby introduced herself and acted like she had always been there, Kazuko thought back to her previous ghost theory. Maybe she really was haunted? ... Or wait, maybe this was some kind of dream. It would explain how she was suddenly meeting up with so many people at once, anyway. In her mind, the fact that she was meeting up with so many people was better proof that this was a dream than the fact that they all had magic. That said something, maybe.
Yeah, there was no doubt about it. Her anxiety was at an all-time high. She hadn't even noticed Ruby... Anywhere. Thorne had caught her off guard and she had seen Karen's arrival as plain as day, but Ruby might as well have popped out from thin air. It barely registered in her mind that Lamorak was staring at Ruby's Seer quite strangely, with one paw over his own mouth as if trying to stop himself from audibly gasping. Kazuko wasn't afraid of the bunny. The bunny seemed nice and harmless.
She felt very cold. She felt every breath suddenly take much more effort than it had previously. As she raced through different possibilities in her mind, she came up with an answer that solved everything. At least to her. Upon a second of scrutiny, it was an idea that wouldn't hold up at all, but she didn't devote any seconds to thinking, so that didn't happen. She looked at Ruby carefully. The heterochromia. The energetic attitude. The way her hair looked. The fact that she had acted like she was always there. The fact that she had said that she had literally come from Hell. All evidence that pointed only to one possible conclusion.
"Y-You're the ghost of the cat from before! I'm sorry that I didn't get my umbrella to you in time! Here, I'll do it now! I-I'd really like to get along, don't haunt any of us! No, wait! If you have to haunt any of us, haunt me! I'll be brave!" Kazuko shouted, running up to Ruby and using her umbrella so that they would both be covered by it. Considering they were all sheltered by the rain, this served no actual practical purpose at the time.
"... Kazuko, I feel as though there has been a slight misunderstanding here. This is a fellow Magical Girl and her Seer. A potential ally, though I do have a few things I would like to clear up." Lamorak patiently corrected, looking extremely out of his depth. Kazuko was being particularly prone to horrible misunderstandings today.
"Cats can instantly reincarnate into humans and gain magic?!" Kazuko asked, her eyes wide with horror. She turned towards Ruby, as if expecting answers.
Ruby blinked in confusion with a dumb smile on her face at Kazuko's reaction to her presence. She got a smug look in her eyes, and curled up her hands like paws.
"N-Nya."
Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!
Thorne was taken aback by the sudden appearance of another girl-- And while she wouldn't have been out of place in the anime club, the Seer pointed out that she was yet another magical girl!
How many of us are there at this school???
"Chichichi! I like her style!" Chili said, "Hey girl, wanna NEW partner??"
"Shut up Chili," Thorne said, then turned to face the other girls. "Alright, so are the introductions all done? I have somewhere to be, so let's take care of this thing together. It'll be a lot faster if we all team up, right?"
Of course, she'd go fight whether or not they agreed.
Unfortunately for Kuro, the Blobs did not go away. In fact, they did the exact opposite of go away. They moved closer to the table where he, Kyomou, and the underclass girl were supposed to be studying. Despite having no face, they managed to assume a shape and position their emblem in such a way so as to look incredibly smug.
"WHOA-ho-ho-HO! DON'T YOU GO THINKING I DIDN'T SEE THAT, COOPER! Bet you thought you were real SLY for a sec, DIDN'T YA! Thought you could HIDE?! FOOL! THESE EYES SEE EVERYTHING! Oh, that reminds me... hold on JUST a moment." The big blob hovered over a few tables, but the smaller ones stayed behind.
"HEY YOU TWO KIDS! EITHER KEEP READIN' OR START SMOOCHIN' ALREADY! PREFERABLY THE SECOND! C'MON, YOU CAN'T JUST KEEP THE FANS WAITING LIKE THAT! GAH!" The Blobs all suddenly appeared directly in front of Kuro once more. "They're totally going to break up in three days. Now where was I? RIGHT! I saw that little neck-crick when I called you out! You made a contract too, didn't ya? You know what that means?! You're nothing but a DIRTY SLACKER! Had a chance to save the world but NOPE! YOU DECIDED YOU WANNA KNOW HOW TO READ GOOD INSTEAD OF SLINGING SOME COOL MAGIC AROUND! HOW'S IT FEEL?!"
Soon, they started orbiting the head of the underclass girl. "WHAT ABOUT YOU, PRINCESS?! CAN YOU SEE ME, TOO?!" One of the blobs started forming an appendage similar to but not quite a hand and made several wet snapping noises near her ears. "Eh. Guess not. She's got nothing but bricks in her head anyways. You can tell just by LOOKING at her! You could probably play Breakout with her friggin' eyeballs if you wanted to!"
Lastly, they appeared in front of Kyomou. "HEY THERE, HOTSHOT! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU DID LAUNDRY, HUH?! Probably couldn't bother 'cause you were too busy hunched over in your mom's basement doing who-knows-what! Hey, GUESS WHAT! YOU CAN'T SNEAK PAST ME EITHER! I NOTICE THOSE LITTLE PAUSES WHEN I START TALKING! YOU AIN'T SLICK, CHIEF! YOU GOT SOME FESSING UP TO DO!"
Laura had moved to the opposite corner of the Library in an attempt to prevent herself from dying on the inside any further.
Kyomou did not know how to react when The Blobs entered his line of vision. The shock caused by the realization that there were Seer's could look so abhorrent almost outweighed the surprise that a Seer would appear right in front of him whilst there appeared to be activity elsewhere. Beyond that realization, Kyomou could not comprehend the bizarre creatures behaviour and silently wished that this was a delusion caused by him slowly losing his mind. The best course of action was to just ignore it though. If this is a crazy fantasy, he'd embarrass himself. If this was reality, oh god oh why does this thing exist. Using all of his will power, Kyomou returned to tutoring if only to maintain his sanity.
"There are multiple ways to verify sources. First you want to distinguish the bias of the author. This can be done numerous ways, but remember that bias does not immediately disqualify them from being a legitimate source. Remember, everyone has a bias, and there is nothing wrong with that. The first and easiest way to distinguish a bias is seeing if they explicitely say it. Do they openly criticize a certain ideology, making it clear that they stand from a position of opposition? You can look into who published the study or article since it can be rather easy to determine bias based on what else they publish. Finally, the most important area of examination is to determine who funded the source. This is critical, because money influencing the results of studies are nothing new. And even if the research and experiments are valid, the conclusions drawn from the studies can be warped to frame whatever supports the funding party's argument. This is how narratives are woven and the masses are manipulated. When searching for sources, it is imperative that you remain skeptical and keep an open mind."
Winner of the “Broken Commandments” Case Competition
If Karen thought that she was stealthy in her approach of Thorne and Kazuko, the arrival of Ruby made Karen’s seem almost obvious. Thorne and Kazuko barely had time to respond to Karen before Ruby began her speech, addressing her “fellow fighters for the fires of freedom.” Karen’s brow furrowed and a bewildered grin took its place on her face. She couldn’t really think of any other appropriate facial expression, so she just kept smiling. It’s what she was good at. Karen decided her best course of action would be to just let Thorne and Kazuko take the initiative here. Kazuko could use the practice, it seemed. Ruby probably heard Karen introduce herself while hiding in her shadow or something, anyway.
Karen was immediately filled with regret for letting Kazuko take point. Kazuko seemed to have decided that Ruby was the reincarnated soul of the cat that had been roaming the courtyard, and was offering her her umbrella in order to atone for not saving the cat from the rain earlier. Ruby appeared to be playing along. These were some really interesting people. Well, Karen wouldn’t be Karen if she didn’t make friends with everybody! Even the weirdos!
“...Please tell me you don’t actually think she’s a cat? Thorne is right anyway, we have some other stuff to take care of.” Karen chuckled awkwardly.
Kazuko paled as Ruby basically confirmed that she really was the ghost of the cat, just as Kazuko had guessed. It all went full circle. She had never been wrong in the first place... So wait, what did this actually mean in terms of what she was supposed to do? ... Was Ruby actually going to haunt her, then? Did she have different plans? Was Kazuko supposed to devote her entire life to making up for her mistakes so that Ruby wouldn't haunt anyone?! She momentarily looked at the bunny, a small smile on her face. Looking at the bunny calmed her. He was friendly.
"Kazuko? Kazuko? I believe that you should listen to your new friend Karen here. Aren't there some slight anomalies with this idea you've gotten into your mind?" Lamorak carefully asked, trying to get Kazuko's attention by poking her arm. Since she was a disaster, Kazuko had completely missed what Karen said and had no idea what Lamorak was talking about.
On the other hand, while Kazuko was still under the mistaken impression that she was right for once in her life, it was also true that they were sort of missing the point. The fog needed to be addressed. ... She felt herself get nervous again. It was possible that she wasn't the oldest among the students there. She was sure that Thorne and Ruby were in a lower grade, though Karen seemed like she was around the same age, or at least slightly older. Theoretically, that meant that she could just try to pass every responsibility off to Karen. ... Realistically, she would feel too pathetic actually doing that, so she decided to take charge.
"Um... Excuse me, Ruby. I, uh... Need to use this umbrella for something. I'll talk with you later about all of this?" Kazuko gave an awkward sort of smile, hoping that she could befriend the cat demon. She looked at the bunny once more, feeling calmer as she did so. Maybe the bunny would be a good influence on Ruby and prevent her from being a vengeful spirit, instead guiding her down a path of kindness and forgiveness. ... Even as she thought about all of this, it dawned on Kazuko that this 'demon cat' idea had some holes in it and was maybe inaccurate, but she was too nervous to really think about it further. It would be up to Lamorak to try to get her back on the same page as everyone else later.
With both of her hands, Kazuko took the umbrella and walked towards the figure in the fog. She could feel her hands shaking. There was cold sweat on her neck, which her scarf was absorbing. With a deep breath, she made her move.
She gently tried to poke the figure with her umbrella.
Looks like they were in it, then. The anxious one, Kazuko, went up to the fog and prodded it with her umbrella-- Which suddenly vanished, sucked into the void. Thorne was taken aback-- Was it erased, turned to nothing? If they touched it, would they die too?
But the response to Kazuko's meowing made her think differently-- Hadn't they seen a cat here just before?
It must have gone in there, Thorne deduced. So at least it's safe to enter... But getting out is another matter.
"Chichichi. You're so slow, Thorney." Chili chastised, hopping onto the short girl's shoulder, "A REAL magical girl would charge ahead, full speed ahead! Even this blue girl is more of a magical girl than you!"
"Shut up, Chili." Thorne said, trying not to let the irritation on her face show. She wanted to take it slow, but she couldn't help but think that Cutie Gold or Silver would have thrown themselves into danger with no hesitation. But she wasn't Cutie Gold-- This was how she was going to do things.
"None of you have dealt with something like this before, right?" Thorne said, "Alright, here's my plan-- My power is to create vines that can grow as long as I want. I'll tie my vines around you, and if things get rough, you tug twice and I'll pull you back out. Understood?"
Very quickly Kuro was reminded why he didn't usually pay attention to this stuff, it's boring! And these weird gray things weren't making it any easier. If they thought they could break him though, they had another thing coming. Acting like a bored or stoic cool kid no matter what was going on his his head was a specialty of his. Still, it did annoy him that they were basically blabbing about his secret identity, but that didn't matter since no one else hear then. Also did they think someone else could hear them too? Wow, these things were just dumb.
He just nodded along to what his tutor was saying, not sure himself whether he actually retained any of that. All of his energy was being spent on ignoring the blobs, after all.
Seeing the umbrella vanish in a flash, the other girls could likely hear a low giggle behind them.
"Myehehehe...I see, I see..." Ruby pushed her spectacles up with a confident look on her face. "So that is how these hellbeats wish to challenge me, is it?"
Ruby strode forwards past the others, gently pushing Kazuko's shoulder aside to face the fog head-on.
"You wish to make a fool of me, do you, netherdemon?" She was speaking in her deeper voice again. "Ohoho, you underestimate me, fiend! You think your portal to Cocytus makes me fear you? Myaha!" She pointed to the blur with one hand, finger gun style, and flashed a V sign over her red eye with the other. "My Devil's Eye sees through your trickery! You should consider yourself lucky, that I have no desire to seal the Angel's Eye that keeps my Hell Power under wraps, just yet...but I can easily defeat you with a mere .01% of my power, lower beast. I shall burst through all 9 of Dante's Gates and tear you straight through Purgatory to the glory or Paradisio! Now! Behold my ultimate technique!"
After flashing another dramatic pose, Ruby reached behind her back dramatically....only for her black rabbit friend to fill her hands with random rocks and pebbles which he picked up from the floor. "DESTROY THEM ALL," he whispers.
"Ultimate Technique, Zero point Zero Zero Five Percent! Hell Meteor Devil Storm!"
With that, Ruby began chucking the random rocks she held in her hands at the blur, as fast as she could (which was, only moderately so), repeatedly. The rabbit laughed maniacally in encouragement as he handed her more rocks, encouraging her storm of destruction.
Hersh/Fiendy has credit for the amazing GiGi pics and enigma has credit for the adorable Kenshin Mega Man sprite!
Teresa was, as usual for this hour of day, supervising the front desk of the library. A stalwart, silent guardian of knowledge, safeguarding the premises from any who might wish to disturb the archive of its peace and quiet, and bring chaos to its grounds. It was her duty to ensure that every denizen of its streets arrived on time, and that to its appropriate spot would be returned every piece of literature, regardless of what value she felt it had. Of course, that was also the head librarian's job, but after school, the duty passed to her, the volunteer.
She had chosen to busy herself with a large volume, fancily bound, yellowed pages, and no title on the cover. Her classwork and homework were both finished for the day, and after her shift as sentinel was over, she would return home, water the plants, have dinner, do some light studying, have a warm drink and do some more reading, tend to personal hygiene, and then sleep. Of course, she had an alarm set up to notify her of exactly the right time to dismiss everyone and close up, but she hardly needed it at this point. It was hard-wired into her.
The first of several disturbances would arrive in the form of a bizarre talking squirrel, followed by a wolf, followed by some indescribable cosmic horror monstrosity that was being far, far, far, far, far, far, far louder than anyone was ever meant to be in a library, ever. It was disturbing one of the ongoing tutoring sessions, interrupting the passing on of knowledge, and putting her own pursuit of it on hold. Rather than further delay her studies, she snapped her fingers and pointed, sending her subordinate to handle it, as she'd done with the organizational part of things.
A small horse cantered over to the study table, making a throat clearing sound. "...Excuse me. The young woman at the desk would like to request that you stop this immediately, or risk consequences. I suggest you take her at her word."
I really must be losing my mind. These people think they’re cats, and they’re throwing rocks at this fog thing now? Is this real life? I’m probably hallucinating. Maybe I overdosed on friendship today.
Karen decided that Thorne’s plan seemed to have a little bit more thought behind it, so she started to approach the mass of fog. Xuande accompanied her, all the while warily examining Beelzebun.
“Karen. Remember to be cautious. We don’t know the full nature of what we’ve encountered yet.” Xuande reminded her.
I know, I know.
Karen reached the edge of the fog and gently moved to put her foot in. She simultaneously reached her arm out in order for Thorne to grasp her. “Here, let’s see what this is all about.”
The water came pouring down from the sky, rain drops pattering against the concrete streets surrounded by an eerie afternoon fog. The sounds of the rain were harsher against the steel roof of the school's waiting shed, which were like a constant stream of pebbles striking the top of it. This was a normal and average day. There were only two kinds of weather in the town of Soggan, rainy and going to be rainy.
The girl underneath the waiting shed on the other hand had two kinds of moods, angry and going to be angry.
"Rrgh..." Stupid frickin' rain..., she growled as she hobbled on her crutch toward the seat and sat down. She grabs her handkerchief from her pocket and begins wiping off the water from her crutch.
Going home was all Jane Harp ever looked forward to at the end of the day. She wasn't a part of any after school activities, not that she could join any to begin with. Her leg made any physical activities hard, while her general attitude made social ones almost impossible. Any sports clubs were out of the question, for obvious reasons. Now if there was a paraplegic sports group, there would be fun to be had... for her. Everyone else? They'd hate it. She'd be way too competitive and probably end up giving them more disabilities than when they'd started. 'Yes coach, I accidentally slammed my cane into their crotch. I didn't mean any of it. Not at all.' She could already imagine it, the world record holder for the quickest disqualification, Jane Connie Harp.
There was also an after school support group in school for kids like her, but she barely attended. The kids there were all a bunch of whiny babies and wusses crying over the smallest of things. Oh I'm sorry you can't learn how to write with your other hand, Sarah. What's that, Bobby? The doctor said you can't play football for a month because your foot needs to rest? BOOHOO. What's wrong, little Timmy? Fell down the well and broke your arm and now you have to keep switching between your spoon and fork when you eat? Suck it the hell up! At least you were told you'll recover eventually. Learn to deal with it. Those kinds and their complaints irritated her beyond anything else in the world.
"Friend!"
...Well, almost anything.
Jane's face contorted into a deep scowl as she turned to face the tiny pink shoebill waddled up to her, gazing with its beady, sparkling red eyes. The bird opened its beak and nodded its head as if it were bubbling with happiness and excitement.
"Frieeeend! How is friend? Play with Friend? Play!" Said the shoebill, hopping up and down while flapping its wings. The chain around the bird's neck rattled loudly with each jump.
"Go away." Jane growled, focusing on cleaning her crutch. However she knew that this bird would never go away, no matter how many times you ask it or tell it, and she's totally asked nicely before. With her hands, holding a crutch, menacingly.
"Friend is your friend! Friend never leave! We are friends! Now we go do friend things!" Friend was now tugging on Jane's sleeve with his beak. Jane tried to ignore it, gritting her teeth through each tug.
"Frickin'... Do you have to be so damn loud? You said you'd leave if I agreed to be your friend!" She groaned, trying to keep her voice down so as not to draw attention from the group starting to gather at the gate.
"Yes." The bird tilted his head.
"You're still here." She glared at him, gripping her crutch tightly.
"Oh. Friend did leave! And now friend is back!" He opened his beak wide, smiling.
"You son of a... I meant leave forever! Why can't you understand that?!" She was now whispering loudly with a hushed rage. A few days ago she agreed to be this stupid pink bird's friend because it said it'd leave if she did. Obviously, it didn't. She's lost track of how many times she's had this conversation with him. It was like talking to a child. No, it was exactly that.
"Friend can't leave. Friend is bound by contract! Forever! We are friends."
"Rrgh..." Jane grinded her teeth. She was losing her patience for the millionth time this week. "Then at least don't follow me around everywhere like some sort of creep! That's not what friends do! Friends give each other space!"
"Oooooooh! Is this what friend's friends do?" Friend asked, tilting his head.
Her mouth twitched. "Y-Yeah! I have a bunch of friends! And none of them bother me. Ever. In fact, they're never around, and I'm happy with that!"
"So Friend just needs to disappear and friend will be happy with Friend?"
"Overjoyed. To. Tears." She said, drilling the thought into the bird's head.
"Okay!" Friend said excitedly, wiggling its plump body. "Friend go poof to make friend happy!" In an instant, the bird disappeared in a cloud of sparkly, pink dust.
Jane blinked. Did that actually work? Was the bird gone now? Would she finally be left alone in peace and quiet, with nothing but the rain? Was she finally going to go home without being harassed by a tiny pink spawn of hell? She might actually just start crying with joy. Already, tiny drops of tears were forming at the corner of her eye. She wiped it away with her soft and feathery pink scarf.
"Huh...?" She looked down to the scarf around her neck. This wasn't pink before. And it certainly never had any feathers on it.
Why is friend crying?said a voice in her head.
Jane stopped and gripped the sides of her head. Did she just hear the birds voice... inside her mind?
Yes.
"ARRGGH! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" She yelled, shaking her head violently to no avail. "GET OUT GET OUT GET OUUUUT"
But friend wanted Friend to disappear! Is friend not happy?
"NO I AM NOT GET THE HELL OUT!" She was not.
Friend is sad.
OUT. She thought, violently.
In that moment, the color drained out of Jane's scarf, becoming a deep, shadowy black. The pink color traveled through her scarf for a moment, writhing as if it was a living thing. When the color reached the tip of her scarf, Friend the Pink Shoebill shot out and rolled into a pole, smacking his beak right into it. Jane's mind was once again her own, undisturbed. She gave a frustrated sigh of relief.
Friend rubbed his beak and hopped back up on his two feet. He waddled over to Jane and smiled as if nothing had happened. "Friend! Play?"
A dark shadow hung over Jane's face as she scowled at the bird. However, a thought crossed her mind, changing her expression into a twitching, malicious smile. She stood up from the bench using her good leg, softly chuckling to herself. She gripped her cane tightly and tapped it on the ground. "Fufufu...You want to play? Make friends?" she asked in a menacing tone. Anyone who knew her knew that when she started speaking like this, things were about to go horribly, horribly wrong. Unfortunately, Friend did not understand the concept of vocal tones and was nodding with excitement to those words.
"Alright, then why don't you go make friends with those people over there? You like that, don't you?"
"Ooh, more friends? I like friends!" Friend said, waddling to turn his back to the girl. There was a glint in Jane's eyes as she watched the curious bird turn around to look at the group by the main gate. She firmly planted her good foot into the ground, supporting herself on it. She carefully swung her crutch back, winding herself up as she focused her eyes on the bird.
"THEN LET ME HELP YOU MEET THEM!!!" She swung her crutch as she yelled at the top of her lungs, striking Friend with the tip of her crutch and sending him flying like a golf ball going over the speed limit of a school zone.
"Frieeeeeeendshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!"
Main Gate - The Squad
*THWACK!*
In the midst of all that was happening here, the group hear the sound of something screaming, getting closer and closer from one direction. Suddenly, a small fuzzy ball breaks through the fog and rain, it hits the ground and splashes up water from a puddle. The ball comically bounces and skids on more puddles along the pavement, splashing water everywhere before coming to a screeching halt at the feet of the group, face down in a muddy puddle.
