Seika arrived at the hospital after a brisk walk along the street. It was close to the Tokyo Dome, which probably was an advantage when it came to injuries during games and concerts. She looked around frantically, trying to spot someone who looked like he would be an idol’s manager.

  As Seika walked down a corridor a nurse turned her way, clearly identifying her as not belonging here – she raised a hand and opened her mouth, but Seika was already gone around a corner. Multiple men in suits stood ahead, very obviously guarding one of the rooms. Among them was one man who looked utterly defeated: his short hair was a mess, like he ruffled it repeatedly these past minutes, his white shirt showed sweat stains, and while he was trying to keep his manly fa?ade it was clear that he suffered an emotional breakdown, involving tears and everything else.

  Seika stopped as one of the suit-wearing men stepped in her way; he looked large and intimidating, like everything a bodyguard should be – and a little ridiculous, considering that the idols he guarded were officially some of the most powerful magic users on the planet.

  “I’m Hitoishi!” She announced, not towards the man in front of her, but to the desperate-looking man pacing up and down in front of the hospital room.

  “Ah… ah! Let her through, I invited her!” the man snapped out of his spiraling mental state and went into manager mode, ordering the guards around. “Leave us for a moment!” He added. The men nodded and moved towards the lobby.

  He ruffled his hair again, throwing odd glances at Seika before he cleared his throat.

  “So, uhm… who the hell are you to my girls?” he immediately asked as the guards were out of earshot. The indifferent manager fa?ade melted away as he stepped closer, and he looked more like a father terrified for his daughters.

  “A friend. Supposedly I was a mentor to them, too, but thanks to the thing that attacked them today I can’t remember that anymore.”

  “Can’t remember, huh?” He scratched the side of his head in a nervous tick, his wet eyes darting around.

  “There’s a lot of things Sol can’t remember right now. How to breathe, for instance.” His voice cracked a little and he sat down on a bench in the hallway, holding his head in his hands.

  “Her and Luna were on stage one moment, and the next…”

  He nervously wiped sweat off his forehead – and sneakily tried to wipe tears out of the corners of his eyes as well.

  Seika took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose with closed eyes and clearing her throat as she steeled her resolve for what she demanded next.

  “…I want to see Miy- Sol.”

  Kosuke’s head shot her way.

  “I… wouldn’t recommend it. But if you’re close enough to her to know her real name… I have no right to stop you.”

  Seika nodded and moved into the room – where she saw the extent of Lethe’s cruelty.

  ***

  Miyu was hooked up to a ventilator. A tube went from machinery to her mouth, artificially keeping her breathing. A bandage was pulled across her face, with blood soaking through from the bridge of her nose. Multiple spots on her arms were similarly bandaged, blood seeping through from what Seika assumed to be lacerations from thorned vines. She wasn’t conscious – and the EEG monitor that was running next to her bed showed barely any activity save from what kept her heart beating.

  Seika understood; Lethe took everything. Every single memory, starting from infancy which made the woman function as a human being. Whatever the Magical Girl did to offend Lethe made her retaliate to the fullest extent of her memory-stealing abilities, only to leave her as a warning. Seika grabbed Miyu’s hand, giving it a little squeeze. There was no reaction.

  “I’m sorry, Miyu. I should have done this alone from the start…”

  I can at least do this.

  Seika transformed, and Minerva Crimson pointed her cane at the girl’s injuries. The cuts and stab wounds on Miyu’s body closed and vanished – and finally the cut across her nose did as well, though it was deep enough to leave a faint line across her face as a scar. Minerva gently removed the bandages after her work was done, then she sat back down as Seika and held the unconscious idol’s hand. Tears streamed down her face as she sat there in silence for the next hour.

  ***

  “So… what exactly did you call me for?” she asked as she stepped outside of the room, facing Kosuke. He looked up at her - their swollen eyes were matching now.

  “Right.” He rummaged through his suit’s pocket and produced an envelope. Judging by how it bent around a certain area it contained a card of sorts.

  Seika wasted no time opening the envelope. Surely enough the card was the keycard to the Celestial Sisters’ luxury suite, which Seika put into her breast pocket. Then she read the attached letter.

  ***

  ‘Hey Paisen!

  ‘I have a very bad feeling this morning, so I’m writing this letter.

  If you’re reading this, then I’m probably dead. Or worse. Or maybe not as bad? It doesn’t matter, it means I screwed up.

  ‘I’m planning on getting Momo evacuated to Madame Bille’s castle with one of the portal rings if things go south, but I can’t make any promises. She was always the more sensitive one of us and I’d hate to see her getting hurt. Lethe can’t enter that castle, so as long as Momo can endure sharing space with creepy puppets and a woman who always changes into different ‘roles’ to talk to her like three or maybe more different people, she’ll be safe.’

  Seika lowered the letter for a moment and looked at Kosuke.

  “She brought Luna to safety.”

  “Oh thank goodness. Where is she? Can I go pick her up?” A little spark of life returned to the manager’s eyes.

  “I fear not. She’s in another world. The kind where all the Magical Girl patrons and monsters come from. But she’s safe. Once all of this is over, I can go and pick her up.”

  Kosuke looked a little confused. “In another world? What have these girls been doing…?”

  “They’ve been trading with the lady of that place.” Seika responded truthfully, and a hint of recognition appeared on the man’s face.

  “The wood…!”

  “That was for her, yes.” Seika kept reading.

  ‘I am taking a few artifacts to the concert with me, just in case. The rest I left at home, so if you’re reading this letter, I’m leaving them in your care.

  ‘I wish I could have done more for you, I really do. I’ve been useless for the last seven years and want to contribute at least a little to your success.

  ‘Momo and I became idols because we thought that with money and fame, we would have access to more options to help you and Miori but look where that got us.

  ‘Anyway, I hope you find someone better to put these artifacts to use.

  You were always an inspiration to us. I am glad we got to reconnect before the end.

  ‘- Miyu’

  Seika wiped a tear from the corner of her eye – she thought she already ran out of them, but she was proven wrong.

  “Stupid girl… you already did more than enough.” She took a deep breath, turning to Kosuke again. “Please look after her until all of this is over.”

  With this she turned away and walked out of the hospital.

  ***

  “You don’t have to tell me,” Kosuke replied quietly to himself, opening the door to Miyu’s room. After a quick glance inside he blinked at the idol’s physically unharmed body and stormed back into the hallway – but the mysterious woman who his idols trusted so much was already gone.

  “Yeah, I still feel utterly out of place here.” Seika muttered to herself as she ascended the stairs dotted with decorative greenery. She looked up at the tower – each level had its own balcony area extending the exact distance outwards, which made the entire thing look like a very modern pagoda. People came and went, some throwing her odd glances which was no surprise to her - she was the only one on these stairs who didn’t look like she had a salary to match the GDP of a micronation.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She decided to get it over with as fast as possible, climbing the stairs a little faster and approaching one of the elevators on the inside.

  Remembering the procedure from the time the pair of gyaru brought her here she presented the card from her breast pocket. The elevator moved and brought her skywards, stopping on one of the topmost floors, and a little later the card unlocked the apartment with a beeping sound. The place still looked as pristine as the time Seika was brought here to discuss her travel to another world. Seika stepped through the living room and had a look around. Some clothes were scattered around the place like the two were living carefree and were the type of girls to walk around in their underwear on hot days. The shelf on the wall was lined with awards, but they were pushed into the back to favor something else. It looked like framed pieces of paper.

  Seika stepped closer and picked up one of the frames, looking at a child’s handwritten letter, from five years ago as the Celestial Sisters celebrated their debut as idols. It included a little drawing of Luna and Sol fighting the Enraged. The letter thanked them for freeing the little girl’s father from the needle that turned him into a monster.

  Idiot girls… you’re plenty inspiring yourselves. You don’t need to rely on me.

  Seika put the letter back before she noticed photos. There were pictures of Minerva or Bellona, never both, with white and black blurred spots next to them. Seika furrowed her brow and stared at the splotches that looked like someone applied rubbing alcohol a bit too hard and destroyed whoever was on there. After a while she realized that these photographs must have been taken together with the Celestial Sisters. Madame Bille mentioned that Lethe used her blood magic to erase Seika or Miori’s memories of the Sisters in an unusually pragmatic move, so this would be the destroyed evidence of their cooperation.

  One of the photos depicted a high school graduation ceremony, and Seika saw herself on it, arms wrapped around more blurry splotches – with the yellow color on top of the blurred spots she guessed that they were the gyaru in all their hair-dyed glory.

  “They kept all of the photos despite them looking like this.”

  Seika felt a sorrow somewhere deep in her heart. It hurt – she didn’t know why, which only made it feel worse. She had no memory of her time with Miyu and Momo, but she could guess at the nature of the relationship they shared. Momo’s clinginess at the izakaya came back to mind.

  “…I wish I could remember. It looks like we were like family in the short time we managed to spend together between memory erasures.”

  “You can catch up and reminisce about all of this once we defeat Lethe. Do you see the chest anywhere?”

  Seika turned away from the picture frames and searched the rooms.

  Cabinets were opened by her hands – most of them didn’t even contain anything; the two idols must have moved in recently. Seika moved on from the living room to the second bedroom. It was unused and styled as a guest room.

  “Odd. I would have thought they used both their bedrooms.”

  Seika blinked and turned around, walking to the master bedroom. “Pardon the intrusion, then.”

  There was one unmade double bed. It had luxurious pillows and blankets, with a cutesy pink tone. To Seika’s surprise there was also a consent pillow placed between the two sides, currently flipped to the pink-colored ‘Yes’ side.

  Are these two…?

  “Is it any of our concern right now?”

  You’re right, sorry…

  A shoe box peeked out from under the bed, so Seika grabbed it and opened it to look inside – maybe this was where the two kept the chest. She closed it again immediately.

  Well, now I definitely know that these two are an item.

  She cleared her throat and gingerly pushed the box back under the bed, looking around and approaching their walk-in closet. The colorful gyaru fashion inside was an almost comedic contrast to the luxurious tower and its interior design. She went through what appeared to be Miyu’s corner of the closet and rifled through various compartments. To her surprise there was dark-colored fashion as well, though it looked like it was never worn, like Miyu wished to change things up but couldn’t shake off her JK gyaru fa?ade.

  Finally, she found the chest and picked it up, carrying it into the living room. She emptied it one by one, laying out the items contained within on the large living room table.

  Before long she was looking at a large collection of artifacts, with sticky notes attached to them, all written in Miyu’s handwriting.

  ‘This ring shoots fireballs.’

  ‘This amulet is a charm of protection.’

  ‘This bracer here makes you a martial artist.’

  ‘These rings turn your fists into stone and give you the strength to punch with them.’

  Rings, bracers, tiaras, amulets, all sorts of different spells were stored in various shapes, to the point Seika wasn’t even sure if Madame Bille received them all from the same place. She crafted her dimensional keys herself, so it was entirely within the realm of possibility that she was able to go wherever she pleased to trade for artifacts and trinkets.

  Seika’s eyes finally fell on a centerpiece, a crown. Her eyes darted over the note attached to it and she sunk back into the soft couch.

  “All of this could come in handy in an emergency. I just need to find someone to arm with this.”

  “How about the Kuma Group? Former or maybe even the current generation.”

  The former ones, if anyone. I’m not going to get children involved in this. For now, though, let’s get these somewhere safe.

  She packed the artifacts together and stowed them back inside the chest – after everything was inside, she pulled Madame Bille’s potion out of her bag and placed it inside the chest as well, pushing deeper to get it all the way to the bottom.

  “There. It should be safe in here.”

  There was a knock at the door. Seika blinked and jumped from the couch, as if she was caught doing something bad. She quickly closed the chest as if that would hide the fate-deciding bottle better.

  She resisted the urge to loudly ask who was out there, put the box down on the table and snuck towards the door to access the intercom’s camera.

  There was a young girl wearing a white witch robe and comically oversized matching hat on top of her red hair. Her silver eyes looked innocently into the camera, patiently waiting for an answer.

  Do I pretend that no one’s in here?

  “I know someone’s in there!” the girl happily announced.

  “So much for that plan, Seika.”

  The girl produced a letter and smiled again.

  “I get the feeling I know her…”

  You do?

  “She looks like a girl who helped me make garum for your 30th birthday. When you gave me full control to surprise you. Remember? Though her hair was a different color… and she was much paler. And wore a school uniform.”

  Seika did remember that day, definitely not because of the garum, but because of them both figuring out that Minerva could take over Seika’s body to secretly prepare a birthday feast and do… other things. She pushed that thought aside for now.

  “Hello? I just want to give the Celestial Sisters this letter.”

  Seika sighed and straightened herself out before she simply opened the door.

  “…what are you doing?!”

  Seika smiled at the young girl. “Hello dear. The Celestial Sisters are out, I’m afraid. But I’m part of their staff.” She held up her employee badge, skillfully hiding the part that identified her as an editor for a publisher with her fingers.

  The girl’s eyes went wide.

  “Oh! I… I see. Can you give this letter to them for me?”

  Seika sighed internally at the earnest plea. She always had a soft spot for children, even those who transformed and attacked her before asking questions, like Fuuka.

  “Alright, I’ll give them your message. And I’ll tell them to send you a reply.”

  Seika winked at the young girl and ruffled her hair a little through her large hat.

  “Thank you, miss! I really can’t wait!” The girl smiled and hopped away, turning a corner and out of sight, probably taking the elevator back towards the lobby.

  Huh, curious. Does she live somewhere in the tower? If not, how did she get up here in the first place?

  “Maybe she’s actually a witch, like the girl she looks like.”

  Do you really think there are that many witches out there?

  “Asks the Magical Girl.”

  Seika rolled her eyes and closed the door to walk back to the chest. She stopped in front of it and furrowed her brow, inspecting the container. It looked like someone moved it by a millimeter.

  She quickly opened it and rifled through the contents, sighing in relief as she found the potion inside.

  I’m getting paranoid…

  She picked up the chest and simply left the apartment, locking it behind herself. She needed to get it to a safe place somewhere – for now her apartment would do the trick.

  As she turned the corner to the elevators, she furrowed her brow. Both elevators were still on this floor – she could have sworn that the young, costumed girl would have taken one of them to leave. And for some reason she caught a whiff of chlorinated water, like she was at a pool – and found a wet ring on the carpet, like water sprayed around a disc just recently.

  I was… so lame.

  Miori clutched her head – currently standing in Snack Starlight, wearing her suit. She absentmindedly handed out the drinks requested from her regulars, but her lack of talkativeness was definitively noticed.

  “Miori, is something the matter?”

  One of the older gentlemen grabbed his whiskey and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

  Miori just let out a bitter laugh in response, burying her face in her hands as she leaned over the counter.

  “I just rejected my senpai’s love confession. And then I tried to have sex with her anyway.”

  All heads in the bar turned her way. People were speechless.

  “Oh. Oh dear.” ‘Mama’ chimed in.

  “Well, you probably have your reasons, but still, if you feel that way about your senpai, why reject her confession in the first place?” The older man in front of her continued the conversation, seemingly unfazed. He probably saw his fair share of lover’s drama in his years on this planet.

  Miori got back up into a standing position and rubbed the back of her neck.

  “Purely hypothetically: If a murderer called you and told you he would kill you if you ever entered an actual, loving relationship with your crush, what would you do?” She let the question hang in the room before she added: “You can’t kill the murderer.”

  The older man seemed a little troubled by her scenario and looked into his glass, deep in thought.

  “I can’t claim to know everything about your situation, Miori. All I can say is that you should search your feelings and determine whether your love for your senpai is worth the risk. Of course, I’m not saying you should let yourself get murdered either. Get all the help you can count on and reassess how you wish things to go.”

  He simply sipped his drink and Miori pinched the bridge of her nose, staring ahead. She already gave up so much for her love of her senpai – she never got a decent education as she went straight into bartending after school to keep in touch with Hitoishi. To give up now would be to devalue all she gave up before, and yet, Miori was still scared. Scared to lose whatever little she had left of her memories with her beloved senpai.

  She turned on the bar’s TV to distract her churning mind, absentmindedly flipping through the channels; most of them were about the Celestial Sisters’ concert, which only carried memories of this evening’s embarrassment, so she kept flipping the channels without paying attention to what was being reported on.

  Finally she landed on something different – apparently a court case was going to be settled tomorrow. A global company’s CEO was accused of frequenting a kidnappers’ den and one of the girls rescued from there by a certain Magical Girl was to testify against him.

  Of course Miori knew what this was about – she herself killed every single man she found in that location. What was originally her tracking Lethe’s activities in Tokyo turned into a small crusade against very real human depravity and violence against women.

  He would definitely flex the power of his incredible wealth to escape judgment and return to do things the way he did them before, tormenting even more girls as he pleased.

  Unlucky, then, for him, that the Magical Girl Bellona Azure was just made aware of his existence.