by N X Hunter
"Pffft, my brother really did do a bullshit job of explaining, didn't he? Wow, did you really think this was optional? That's embarrassing. I feel bad for him. I feel bad for you."
She didn't look like she felt bad for Kitsuna at all, she was practically smirking, as if this was just some hilarious, sitcom style misunderstanding rather than Kitsuna's actual future that they were disagreeing about.
"It has to be optional," Kitsuna said, though her voice was uncertain.
There had to be a choice, didn't there? She'd thought this through, there was no way those women who made up the rules would condemn unknowing young girls to this, maybe that was how it had been before they'd made the rules, but surely not now, or what was the point in them changing everything? It had to be for the good of the women, not even born yet, who were going to be part of the bloodline. Why would any mother even have children if they wouldn't get to choose their own fate? Why would her mother...
"It isn't though," Rayna said.
"But... it can't be that we have no choice..."
"We don't though."
"We have to have freedom, they wouldn't just sentence us to..."
"Seriously, are we doing this? I get that you've just woken up, but if you try saying it any other way, when I've just told you how it is, then I might be liable to punch you in the middle of the face."
Rayna sounded more exasperated than menacing, but her fist was still clenched from her round of 'training'.
"But it can't be that we --"
"Did I fucking stutter? Man, was I this annoying when I first transformed? Look, it's not an option, that's just the way it is, but it's not all bad, either. When you transform, honestly, it feels incredible. We get so much power, beating the things from the Big Emptiness is almost fun. If you're careful and you have good people to work with, they're not even that tough. Sure, it's a workout, and things can get a bit freaky, but it's better than - what was it you were going to study? Market research or some crap?"
"Marketing..."
"See, I don't know what jobs in marketing even involve, but you probably don't get to do insane parkour like it's nothing while cutting up a fifty foot monster that looks like a bread octopus, do you?"
"Bread octopus? What are you even..."
"Bread octopus. Octopus, but like, made of baked goods. Yeah, the things, they kinda mess with your head while you're fighting them so everything looks really weird and surreal - I just went with bread octopus as an example because last night... Ah, you'll get it when you see one."
"See, it seems like you are more the type who hears that and thinks, cool, an adventure, I get to kick ass. Whereas me, I'm more like, yeah, I don't want to fight insanity inducing entities that make me trip balls, and when I die, I definitely don't want it to be because of a fucking... bread octopus."
"Don't get hung up on the bread octopi, we see all different things, it's just some sort of psychological illusion or... Well, we don't actually know, but maybe you won't see bread octopi at all. Maybe you'll see, ooooh, Courtney saw a bunch of black eyeless rabbits once,"
"This is insane. You're all completely insane," Kitsuna said in despair, sitting down on the black leather couch where just yesterday, she'd been happily stroking a cat and had never once used her mind to conjure up an image of a giant sea invertebrate made of baguettes.
Rayna said nothing.
No. No, there's still got to be a way out. I'll find it.
But no matter how badly she wanted to believe that, it was starting to feel as though she was going to have to accept that there was no choice after all. She wasn't free. She wasn't in control of her own path in life. She never had been.
"So, like... what happens now?" she said, finally, looking up at the red haired mahou shoujo with numb horror.
Chapter 4
Kitsuna stood close to Soren as they waited on the roof for the next Volocopter to arrive. Summer was almost gone now, and yet the air was still warm and humid, even atop the student accommodation building. She still felt a chill inside her, and despite the fact she'd traveled by Volocopter hundreds of times before, from rooftops just like this one, this time the height was making her feel dizzy.
"Thank you for coming with me. I feel bad asking you, but I have never been to the campus before and, well, you know..."
"I do know. Look, I meant what I said last night - I'm team support for you guys, and that's not just for my sister, I will do whatever I can to make this whole thing less... whatever the right word for how you're probably feeling now is."
The white electric multicopter arrived, and dropped down onto the landing spot close to them. This was where students from the building would commute to the campus every day once the semester started, but that was two weeks away, and so there was nobody else waiting to ride it right now. The door opened automatically as they approached and Soren climbed in before helping Kitsuna inside, giving her hand a supportive squeeze.
"I really appreciate that, you know. I realize I'm a bit of a pain for Rayna to have to deal with, I really do, but surely she was freaked out when she first found out, too?"
The Volocopter sealed, and it rose up almost silently to begin its autopiloted flight to the Calibre Academy grounds, where Rayna had told her to meet her once she'd had a chance to 'set things up'. What had been weirder than that instruction though, was that after giving it, Rayna had beckoned Ivy the cat into a pink cat carrier, and dashed off out of the door with her.
"She was. Although I think I was worse. She actually took to it pretty well. She's always really enjoyed how it felt to transform, and, at first at least, she just treated the fighting like a sport. I guess we were only 13, and so she had that thing, still, you know, when you're a kid and you forget you're not invincible. I was a bit of a mess though - it was the first thing she'd ever done without me, the first time I couldn't be there to protect her. She was going somewhere I couldn't go. I've never really gotten used to that, but still, it just made me determined to be the best support guy any mahou shoujo team ever had. Aiming for that made me feel better, to some degree at least. So, I'm going to make sure I keep you safe, too."
"I'm an only child, so I can't really imagine having a sibling who cared about me that much. It must be nice."
"Well, we can pretend I'm your brother if you want - we do have that bloodline thing after all," he said.
"Oh god no! That'd be so wrong!"
Once again, her mouth had moved faster than her brain. She flushed as red as Rayna's hair.
Why did I say that? He was trying to be kind and I just blurted out what essentially amounts to 'no thanks, because then it'd be weird if we fucked'. Seriously, how can I even be crushing on him at a time like this anyway!
But Soren just gave a broad smile. In fact he looked quite pleased with himself.
"Brothers are overrated anyway, or so Rayna tells me."
The Volocopter landed on the top of another building that Kitsuna had only seen in pictures and through VR. This was the west wing of the Calibre Academy complex, which, as Soren told her, was where most of the people who were closely involved in the mahou shoujo network worked. The east wing was, on the face of it at least, akin to a normal college, but the west functioned more like a research facility, with tech labs and offices. This was where Rayna had wanted her to come, though when she had been preparing to move here and start attending Calibre Academy, she'd only really looked at the stuff related to the east wing. Was there even a real marketing course here? Had she been enrolled for a completely fake course, just so that they could keep an eye on her? If there was a course, was there any point in her attending it now, or would there be some other things she was supposed to do with her college time? A student counselor would really have come in handy here, she decided.
They entered the elevator from the roof, and Soren pushed a button. Kitsuna didn't really notice which, she was trusting him to know how to get to wherever Rayna was sending them. He'd asked her to rely on him, and it felt good to do it.
There wasn't really anyone else offering anyway, but it was reassuring, feeling him next to her, having him worry about her and try to make her feel even just a little stronger.
"Thank you," she said, as he gestured to her to go first into the brightly lit hallway after the elevator doors opened.
His smile suggested that he'd understood that she was thanking him for more than just his politeness.
The hallway was lined with glass doors, with offices behind them, none of which looked like they had anything particularly 'secretive magical society' about them. But the room they were headed for was at the end, and had a solid black door instead.
Of course we're going to the one scary looking one.
"What's going to happen in there? Do you know?"
"Not exactly, but I expect Rayna will have been arranging for a professor named James to be here to meet you. He's alright, don't worry. This room is a lab where we can make mahou shoujo transform under controlled conditions, so - and don't be alarmed about this - it might be that you're going to experience your transformation for the first time. Normally they don't arrange it this fast, so I could be wrong, but the situation is a bit unusual at the moment what with your age and the fact Rayna's team is down to only two at the moment, so, it's possible that's what they're going to want to do."
Kitsuna's brow wrinkled.
"How many are usually in a team, and what's weird about my age?"
"Teams are usually three or four, but Rayna and Courtney lost a member. Don't look like that - she didn't die or anything. It's just a bit of a sore subject with the other two so, well, I'll tell you later but it's nothing to be alarmed about. So, we don't know for sure exactly how it works, but there seems to be this kind of natural balance in terms of how many active mahou shoujo there are in a region. Our theory is that girls stay dormant until they're needed to replace someone who retires or... well, you know. You stayed dormant longer than most, and were the oldest untransformed girl in this region, so we were able to kinda guess that with Jazz - I mean, Jacinta - gone, you'd probably have your blackout soon. That's why we weren't too surprised when it happened."
"Jacinta... If she left then..."
Can't I just do whatever she did? I'll have to find out more about this whole thing with her.
"She retired young, let's leave it at that. For now. Like I said, I'll tell you later, but it's really just a load of bullshit drama you don't need to worry about. Come on, let's go inside. It's going to be fine."
The room was surprisingly bare, and unlike everywhere else she'd seen through the glass doors in the hallway, it didn't have digital windows. A white, clinical glow from LED tiles on the ceiling bathed the room instead of the daylight from some faraway place. There were a few tables off to the side with various apparatus on them - electrical odds and ends by the looks of things - and beside them, one pink cat carrier with a pair of green eyes staring out from behind the criss-cross metal door, unblinking but not, apparently, distressed. And then there was Rayna, wearing a sleeveless black dress, just as she had been when she'd left the place Kitsuna still felt very odd calling 'home', and a tall man with black hair and piercing ice blue eyes who looked to be about 30.
The professor, I assume. Wow. Is it just me or is everyone in this whole mahou shoujo business far too good looking? I mean, Soren first and now this guy? If only this was normal college and I could just enjoy the scenery!
Soren gave the other man a polite nod, and smiled at his twin, but said nothing. He stayed close to Kitsuna, but she could sense that he didn't really feel like he had a particular role to play in whatever was about to happen here.
Well, I guess I should say something before Rayna gets mad at me or whatever.
"Hi. I'm Kitsuna. I have no idea what I'm doing here."
The professor's eyes crinkled with amusement, and he stepped forward, reaching out to shake her hand. She tried to return his grip with a convincing amount of feigned confidence, and prayed her hand wasn't too sweaty. His eyes met hers and she was sure she saw some kind of approval there.
"Professor James Troika, though please, just call me James. We're really glad to have you here. I know it's all probably very confusing and hard right now, but hopefully when we're done today you'll feel a bit more comfortable with things. Rayna said you're not... enamored with the idea of being a mahou shoujo --"
"She whined all morning about it. 'Why can't I be a marketing bitch instead? I don't wanna fight the bagel krakens!" Rayna said, putting on a mocking tone.
"First of all I do not sound like that. Second of all they were bread octopi this morning - what the fuck?"
"Bread octopi, bagel krakens, they all die the same when they meet my ruby sword!"
The professor looked thoroughly confused.
"Anyway... so, she said you aren't feeling completely sold on the whole thing, and that is completely normal, so it's part of my job to help work with you to start understanding this world. How to keep yourself safe, how to get the most out of your new body and powers, and to just generally ease you into the swing of things. But listen, once the shock wears off, most mahou shoujo begin to really see the value in their work and feel a real sense of pride in helping to protect their region, and humanity as a whole, from the Big Emptiness. It's a noble thing, and while not everyone may know you're out there defending them, those who do know are extremely grateful. You will want for nothing here on campus, I can promise you that."
He sounded like he'd said these words hundreds of times before, which, Kitsuna supposed, he probably had. Sometimes to grown women like her whose idea of their future had just been torn apart by the news that their fate had already been picked out for them, sometimes to terrified girls barely into their teens. But, he didn't look or sound like he lacked sincerity. She thought about his words, almost moved to look at things his way...
But no. How is it noble unless I choose to do it? Is it noble to risk your life if you have no choice in the matter? Of course not.
"So, what is going to happen now?" she asked, deciding not to debate what he'd just said.
"Since Rayna's team is shorthanded, and by all accounts last night's storm was a struggle for her and Courtney on their own, we've decided to waste no time and force your transformation here today."
"Force? That seems to be a theme here."
"Yes, I can see why that might have been a bad choice of words, given how you're currently feeling about things. I'm sorry. It's not so much forcing you to transform, as inducing it. You will be able to transform when you choose to after that, and you'll transform automatically when you enter a storm domain, but for this first time we generally find it better to cause it to happen in this controlled environment where we can monitor everything. Trust me when I say that you would eventually transform anyway, when the next storm comes, and so this is really just a safer and less scary way for you to go through it."
Kitsuna swallowed hard. She was about to bite the bullet and agree to go ahead, but Soren stepped forward, his hand up, and spoke.
"Hey, look, she's feeling really uneasy about it all, maybe it'd help if she saw you transform first, sis? So she knows what sort of thing happens?"
"I was going to explain what to expect, Soren, I wasn't just going to chuck the wand at her and see what happened... It's not my first rodeo," the professor said, looking somewhat annoyed.
"Even so, come on Rayna, it's not like you don't love any excuse to show off your transformation outside of a storm," Soren said, cajoling his sister.
Rayna grinned.
"You know me too well! Yeah, I guess I could show off a little ruby pride if it'll help us all move past the damn whiny phase."
It was the second time she’d said the word ‘ruby’.
"Ruby?" Kitsuna asked, wondering if that had something to do with her hair.
"Yeah, we all get like, an element or a gem or some other thing from the earth that's like a symbol of our powers. It's cool, you'll find out what yours is soon. Mine is ruby, and my co
lor is vermilion - you get a color too, but mine is basically the same so... I kinda went with the whole red theme."
"So, did that make your hair change color?" Kitsuna asked. She wondered what the twins' real hair color was, given Soren clearly dyed his white.
"Well, it turns red when I transform, a way better red than I've been able to get on my own with dye, and I just decided I wanted to have my red the rest of the time too."
Kitsuna was beginning to understand that to Rayna, being a mahou shoujo meant being the best version of herself, and she was so in love with her transformed form that she wanted to be like it all the time.
I wonder why she can't just stay transformed all the time then? And will I love my transformation just as much?
Reservations aside, she couldn't help but be just a little excited to know what it felt like, what it looked like, even. And to find out something new about herself. Her gem, her color, whatever it was that she was going to be assigned. It was hard not to feel the anticipation of experiencing something that was both completely new and alien, and a part of herself that had always been there.
"So, are you ready to be impressed?" Rayna asked.
Chapter 5
The professor automatically stood back and gave Rayna some space, which made Kitsuna wonder what she was about to see even more. Was it going to be something weird and gory, like when someone turned into a werewolf in a movie? Was he standing back because there were going to be explosions and fireworks, maybe? What did it truly mean for a mahou shoujo to transform?
Rayna went over to the table that had Ivy's cat carrier on it, and picked something up, before walking back over to the space that had been cleared for her. Kitsuna noticed that Soren, beside her, was watching Rayna with a proud, gentle smile.
"OK, so, first, I have my wand - you'll get yours soon, but we need Ivy for that. As you can see --"
"Wait, that wand thing - what does that have to do with Ivy? We don't have to hurt her or anything do we?" Kitsuna asked, suddenly alarmed. Had Rayna brought her cat here because they needed some kind of animal sacrifice or something? She wouldn't allow that! No way, Ivy was the only one aside from Soren who'd shown her any kindness since she'd been here, and she could never harm a cat anyway. It was unthinkable.